ohnoitstbskyen

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Hi! So I finally had a chance to sit down and watch your Epic the Musical vid despite being 6 months late on it and I was wondering if you weren't going to do any more of them?

And it's old-ish news at this point, but what's your thoughts on Jorge making a Iliad Musical?

I love your vids so much, they're something nice to watch when I need a break. I used to fall asleep without meaning too while watching your Hollow Knight series.

Honestly, the main reason I stopped was because I realized that SO MUCH of my (already limited) knowledge of Ancient Greece and the classics is outdated or wrong, and I didn't want to spread a bunch of misinformation yapping about it.

I've been trying to triangulate my way to finding a Homer scholar I can have a chat with who can maybe set me straight on some things before I continue, and in that process I have learned that Danish universities are absolutely dogshit at maintaining accurate and fulsome faculty directories.

If any classicists with an academic qualification in Homeric literary criticism wants to talk to me for a video, please email me.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

This is easily the most interesting aspect surrounding the idea of Impel Down, and it's Hannyabal's true belief that he's protecting ordinary citizens that allows him to keep getting up even as Luffy beats the shit out of him

I can be sympathetic to an extent, because Hannyabal is a victim of the World Government's propaganda machine. He is a small cog in a very big wheel and is either unaware of or does not care about the countless others that wheel crushes on a daily basis.

All he knows about Luffy is that he's a pirate, and in fairness, the vast majority of pirates throughout the series are into the whole pillage and murder thing. He has no reason to think of Luffy as the good-natured goofball we know and love. In their careers, Ace and Luffy have killed people. They are thieves, and they don't really exist within any lawful framework. I'm reminded of Ace's fight with Blackbeard, when together they end up wrecking an entire town, ruining who knows how many lives without a second thought, because they're a pair of people with supernatural abilities who happen to have beef with one another.

Is that the sort of thing that should be allowed to go on unpunished? What punitive measures are appropriate for a man like Crocodile, who upturned literally millions of lives in a bid for power, or Shiryu, who kills for the sake of killing?

These are interesting questions, but it all falls apart when you consider that no pirate in the series, from Alvida to Kaido, has institutionalized and perfected the art of pain, suffering, and death on the scale that we see in Impel Down. Hannyabal himself calls the prison a warehouse. That's not the sort of language you use when talking about people, because to the World Government and the people who work within it pirates and other criminals are less than human, the ultimate other who exist only to be punished.

That's a dangerous mindset to take, because it justifies every atrocity in the name of protecting the few who are worthy of protection. If Roger is an inhuman monster then of course his child is just as dangerous, and if his child is dangerous then it's better to target all the pregnant women just in case, and if that fails you might as well try to hunt down the baby, and when that baby who's been hated by the world since the moment he was born grows up to become a pirate it just proves that they were right from the start and you might as well torture and kill him, too.

And if a few innocents get lost in the cracks, well, that's just the price of doing business. At the end of the day it's the law itself that's important, written by those powerful enough to enforce it, and not the ordinary citizens its ostensibly there to protect. Because if criminals don't have rights, then all it takes is someone in power to wave their magic wand to declare any of those citizens to be criminals and all of a sudden they don't have rights, either. It happened on Ohara, it happens in real life, and it's why Hannyabal's idea of justice ultimately rings hollow.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Hey can I ask if you have ever tried designing Pokemon/fakemon before? And if so how was your experience with it?

I've not attempted it, no, never really felt the spark. Maybe that's a project to do someday.

If you wanna see some GOOD-ASS fakemon designs, though, Subjectively is the channel you want

[ohnoitstbskyen]

In your recent Indie World direct, you talked about motion tweening animation. I'm curious what your thoughts are on this scene in Bluey:

https://www.tumblr.com/bogleech/755079334747947008/i-dont-know-a-thing-about-bluey-but-i-know-some

I'm of two minds about it, similar to what Bogleech says. I think it's a nice gesture but it's also weird to see the process of motion tweening animation presented with so much pride and intent to inspire, with how much negative talk surrounds the style.

To be clear, my personal dislike of that style is ENTIRELY a subjective personal dislike, not really rooted in any kind of grounded criticism of the technique.

Besides that, my issue with the game in the direct has a lot more to do with what I feel is a mismatch between style and animation. That game looks designed aesthetically to mimic the look of hand drawn animation, but it's animated with digital puppetry, and I personally can't help but feel a dissonance there.

Bluey, and shows like it, are designed from the first to work with and look good within the digital puppetry animation style, and it shows. They don't have that feeling of dissonance to me.

Also it should be noted that a 2D sidescrolling video game and a children's tv show have very different animation-technical needs, and very different means available to communicate their acting choices moment to moment, so it's not apples to apples there either

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Did you see riots AI video? I imagine you wouldn't want to give any channel attention to slop, understandably so, but this is a new low even for riot.

debating whether I want to do a video about it. might be cathartic to just rip some AI slop to shreds, but it also might just be soul-numbingly depressing and deepen my grief for the people I know who gave years of their best work to that fucking company

[ohnoitstbskyen]

With hazbin sezon 2 and helluva sezon 3 coming soon what do you hope to see there?

One of my favorite moments in helluva s2 was at the end of the Hollywood episode when Loona talked with Octavia, i really really hope for more Loona being an older sister

And for hazbin i really need to see Sera getting repeatedly smacked in the face with the fact that she was wrong

For Hazbin season 2, it'd be nice to see Charlie develop real enmity with someone and have to struggle to contain her impulses for violence and domination vs accepting a lack of control. S1 had the whole bit about Alastor gently manipulating her to take on more of a leadership/ruling role in rallying Hell around her, and in s2 with the Vees becoming The Problem I feel dear Al could push her even harder to throw her power around. "Why Charlie, you could save these poor souls so much better if you only told them what to do. A little order here and there. A decree or two. Maybe an execution to make an example of Vox!" that sort of thing.

I think that's the narratively interesting place to go with her anyway, because it gives her an opportunity to be better than Sera, to discover the lure of control and that she fell for and ultimately reject it and insist that people deserve to be free, rather than be ruled by authority and hierarchy.

Feels like maybe Lilith comes into that too. Lucifer was never much of a king of hell, I think. She was the real power there, especially what with her voice (her influence/order/commands) having the ability to empower sinners and demons. If s1 was daddy issues season, s2 might be mommy issues season?

As for Helluva, I want the girls to get spotlights. Octavia especially, since she was badly underexplored for a character so crucial to the conclusion of S2, but also Loona needs more space to grow (an older sister role to Octavia could serve both their needs), and they damn well BETTER spend more time on Millie with the pregnancy and all.

I want the show to seriously dive into her feelings about it, especially the complicated and ugly ones. Guilt, fear, inadequacy, anger, grief, its an emotionally INTENSE thing, and I want the show to dive into it, whether she keeps the pregnancy or not. Which I think I do trust it to at least attempt. Unless they do a reverse uno card about her just getting an abortion, and the point is that an aborted pregnancy shouldn't be a big fucking character defining deal, but just a mundane form of healthcare. Which I'd also accept, I think, but either way: more Millie god dammit!

Also... Stella. I love what a heinous campy bitch she is, but much like Octavia, she needs more complex exploration. Not for the purpose of "redeeming" her, but to understand how she has affected Octavia and Stolas, and to understand the world of Goetia royalty and what it does to people. Stella at times has felt very much like just The Bitch Wife of a yaoi fanfiction, who must be a monster to provide a villain for the lovers' loving love to contrast and overcome, and who has very little interiority beyond that.

But season 2 raised a class theme of imps as proletariat, and to follow up on that, an examination of the bourgeoisie is necessary as well. Which... I'm not 100% sure if I trust the show to really attempt. It's an interpersonal soap opera first and foremost, I don't know if it wants to try for crunchy structural commentary, really. I feel it will be more a complicating dramatic element of the world-building, than a central, direct theme. But I'd be pleased be be wrong about that.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Me, Catholic, walking into a Protestant church with no depictions of Mary: where’s my mom

[ohnoitstbskyen]

anyways to balance out my silly question, here's a genuine one

would you ever rate people's OC's designs like you do media franchise character designs?

I feel a lot of resistance to making Content™️ out of fans' work, for a couple of reasons. First, a neurotic moral anxiety about taking advantage of people ("profiting from fans' work without compensation? Not a good look!"), second a slightly less neurotic anxiety about disappointing people ("what if someone spends hours making a cool OC for me to review it and I just give them nothing?"), and third...

Well, it almost certainly just wouldn't do numbers. Which is the reason I hate the most, but it's just kind of the truth. General audiences just don't have a reason to click onto a video full of random strangers' OCs that they have no reason to care about, and YouTube for that reason would not push the video. And because it would do poorly on The Numbers, my next and other videos could take a hit as well, as YouTube interprets a poorly performing video as an indicator that a channel is low engagement.

So... yeah.

I offer bespoke and private character design feedback as a crowdfunding reward, but i doubt I'll make videos out of that kind of thing :/

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Any tips for getting around executive dysfunction?

(Definitely not writing this ask instead of writing either of the important essays that are due soon bc trying that feels like beating my head against a wall)

(Btw the Hazbin Hotel video was really good)

If you have ADHD, here's a trick: turn off your Internet, ban yourself from using your phone, take away all the easy comfortable dopamine generators you have, until your choices are Do Task or Do Nothing.

Eventually, your novelty starved brain will choose the more stimulating way.

(This may only work for me, brains are weird, don't give yourself a meltdown)

[ohnoitstbskyen]

🐏

(Prev tags)

"One Piece is the best shonen manga"

(remember: 60 second hot takes are by their nature not nuanced, they are strong opinions presented confidently. Art is not objective.)

SCRIPT

People like to debate this a lot, but One Piece is the best shounen manga of all time, and it's not even close, and I'll tell you why.

It has the battle hype, the powerups, the training arcs, and epic multi-layered confrontations between heroes and shadowy villains. It has the high stakes and the My Friends Are My Power nakama cheese, the victories snatched from the jaws of defeat, the grand adventure to exotic locations, it has all of that.

But none of the others - not Bleach, not Dragon Ball, not Shaman King, not Hunter x Hunter, not My Hero Academia, not Yu Yu Hakusho or Soul Eater or Fairy Tail or Naruto or Boruto or Demon Slayer, or Flame of Recca (if you're really old), have ever left me weeping like a grieving father for a cartoony little sheep's headed boat, which wills itself back to life from critical damage to rescue the Straw Hats in a desperate hour, and whose final dying wish, as the wear and tear has finally become too much, is that it could carry its beloved crew just... one more mile across the sea.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

With the way things are going with censorship laws I've been mulling over what could be the next course of action for creators to monetize their work if this persists (unless Visa/MC cave to public pressure which will be an uphill battle for sure). Piracy is good for preserving media but will hurt creators financially.

I've seen people point to decentralized payment networks and if I'm being honest as much as I don't like crypto and all its warts, I can't really think of any other viable existing options. Unless a new system entirely is created in the future.

Curious to know what you think and if you have any predictions yourself.

The trouble with crypto is that despite its pretenses, it is not and cannot ever be a decentralised form of currency. For one thing, it you're trying to make a living off of art, you need a way to turn crypto into fiat currency, which means whoops now the centralised systems are governing your income again but with extra steps, and way more risk.

For another, whoever develops and maintains the technology, whoever meditates the exchanges, whoever organises the means of trading... these are centralizing forces. All you are doing is shifting the centre somewhere else, while adding a mountain of vulnerable overhead and infrastructure with next to no meaningful security.

So... no, crypto won't save anything, because you can't pay rent in PornCoin and also its value is immediately tanked by five hundred thousand pump and dump schemes and a state actor is using it to launder money.

The reason you can't think of another viable option is because there isn't one. That's the whole problem. Payment processors developed a monopoly on transactions, and began to merge with the capitalist state as an organ of its control and policing of the people, and the only true solution is to break capitalism wholesale.

... which isn't helpful right now. People are losing their livelihoods and having their freedom of thought and expression taken away and "oh just smash capitalism about it" doesn't keep anyone in housing or on health insurance. I don't have any good answers, idk either, except keep raising hell on payment processors and get really good at lying to them about what you are paying for. Maybe we'll have to go back to fucking mail orders and checks for a while, so start learning how that shit all works. I don't know. Do whatever the people affected ask us to do.

But crypto sure as shit is not gonna help.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

What are some of your favorite pokémon card artworks? I think they do a really good job at showing pokemon in everyday settings and scenarios, and I would like to know if you have personal favorites.

I don't know enough cards off the top of my head to have favourites. I generally like the jokingly "bad" cards like that one Slowpoke card where it's deliberately drawn into a child's drawing. The hyper-rendered shiny cards are nice and all, but I think it's good that a franchise like Pokémon engage with art in multiple ways.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Since you don't think Jarvan IV x Shyvana will work, what are your thoughts on Garen x Katarina's longevity?

Excuse you, I think Shyvana x Jarvan can work perfectly fine!

... as a toxic co-dependent angst ship, perpetually stormy and marred by tragedy and resentment, that resolves in explosively feral sex and occasionally eroticized physical combat.

So okay maybe not a ship with a lot of longevity because it'll kill one of them sooner or later, but that's how Garen x Katarina is going to end too. They're just gonna be softer with each other along the way, each being the only source of softness either of them has.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

What do you think about the character design in Date Everything? From what i've seen about your takes on "Well-designed sexy" I think the characters in that game would be a real feast for your analysis.

I've not played it so i have no particular opinions on it, but it's something I've considered looking into. I've seen clips on tiktok but it's usually the same 10 or 12 fan favourite hotties that get the attention there and there's like a hundred characters in that game.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

I just got legitimately jumpscared by your profile pic. Just scrolling through my follow feed and OH HEY IT'S THAT YOUTUBE GUY I LIKE. ON TUMBLR???

[ohnoitstbskyen]

huh. literally the very day before my own real-life birthday, too.

In reality I've had the channel since 2012 and used to dump art timelapses on it, but the oldest still public video on the channel is from 2016 and that seems to be what YouTube is going by. That video is also my first "proper" video essay, so honestly, I don't mind making that the channel's birthday.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Happy (belated) 25th Anniversary FFIX, you're the best one ❤️