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love-takes-work · 4 years ago

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Steven Universe: End of an Era: Outline & Review

I wrote this review in October but never got around to posting it here

Steven Universe: End of an Era is far more than an art book–it’s also a collection of behind-the-scenes material, stories about the experience of working on the show, planning documents and associated background info, and both older versions of developed concepts AND concepts that never made it into the show. It's a huge fusion of all those elements, and it's definitely an experience!

Some low-quality images are included with my review just to give you an idea of what’s there--it’s not a good substitute for getting your own copy, but here’s a tour!

Like the previous concept art book, Art and Origins, I'll be giving you a description of the structure and overview, while also collecting notable information for fans. Obviously just about everything is "notable" once again, but I'll aim for unique insight or perspective on the main source material, keeping the screaming about everything new to a minimum so you can also enjoy something for yourself if you pick it up. My low-quality photos should prevent people from feeling like I'm reproducing the book in any capacity. Please grab one while you can and have your own experience!

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

OVERVIEW

The book is titled "End of an Era" for a couple reasons--obviously because it is released after the show has wrapped, but also because Gem history recently ended its "Era 2" and began Era 3--an age of prosperity and peace. The author--the person in charge of adapting all of this information into this slick, readable package--is Chris McDonnell, whose work was previously applied on the Art and Origins book.

The foreword is by N.K. Jemisin, a well-known science fiction author who's a huge fan of the show (and wrote a really excellent series that also has a weird geological connection, by the way).

And the cover, like its predecessor, is shiny and decorated with a beach scene featuring minimalistic characters--this time it's the Gems at night in front of the Temple, and on the back cover is a big pink leg ship in a cross-legged pose.

The interior covers are decorated with tons of amazing sketches of Steven and Connie on the front, and a bunch of Gem sketches on the back. Every interior page that most would leave blank is highlighted with some kind of sketch art or character exercise--it's so much to look at, so much to absorb.

The book is dedicated "For Eddie."

Its organization is different from the previous book in that it shares applicable work in chunks associated with groups of episodes rather than pertaining to different aspects of building the show.

FOREWORD

N.K. Jemisin gives us such a great introduction to the book--apparently understanding very well that the audience of this book is full of animation enthusiasts and adult fans more than it is full of kids, and explaining that bewildering journey some adults had from blowing this show off as a silly kid thing to falling in love with it hard and fast.

The important thing, Jemisin says, is being able to trust a storyteller with your heart. And it was clear to her that Rebecca Sugar knew what she was talking about and was saying important things about identity and the radical power that comes with accepting it and demanding respect.

Important also is how we handle heroes and who gets to be one in fantasy. That's part of the reason Steven Universe speaks to so many--because we see ourselves here, and know stories can be about us. Acknowledging the power we all have to MAKE THINGS BETTER with what we fight for is so important--especially if we're going to speaking to the next generation about it.

Highlighting Rose Quartz as a "born leader" who failed and Steven as a relatable scamp who did what she couldn't, Jemisin asserts that we can save the world.

1. END OF AN ERA

We start with an appeal to the audience to think about identity and the formative parts of our childhood--and how different it is if who you are and who you become is restricted, mocked, erased, or Not Allowed. Most people, if not ALL people, can relate to this, but for those of us with a special relationship with Steven Universe because of queer identity, this hits hard.

But it doesn't have to be anything grand to be something we respect--this show's authenticity comes largely from how personal everything is, drawn from real-life experiences and incidental truths from each artist's perspective, leaning hard on childhood and formative experiences.

Rebecca Sugar offers some interview bits to discuss writing philosophy and why "writing female characters" was difficult for a nonbinary person who'd been socialized as a girl and a woman. Rebecca has spoken before about how frustrating it is that marketing for cartoons was SO gendered when she was growing up (and to some extent still is).

The Gems in the story are all "she/her," but on their planet they're defined by their work, not by emotion or relationships (unlike women in our society), so having them be socialized opposite to how she was and be able to claim those emotions through choice and NOT as just an expectation "as women" was revolutionary. Rebecca wants her show to tell all marginalized people that they don't deserve to be in the margins.

Weighing in on other aspects of the show were Ian Jones-Quartey, Joe Johnston, and Miki Brewster. Ian describes feeling like at first doing SU was a thrill ride that meant they'd finally get to do all the cool stuff, but it quickly became a responsibility that he took very seriously--the need to tell a good story now that he'd been given a megaphone.

Promotional art, planning documents, character sketches, and concept art from the lighthearted to the stone serious is included, along with some very cool (sort of famous) timeline charts that track major characters' developments. It's emphasized by Rebecca that the developmental materials ARE NOT CANON (and especially are not MORE canon) compared the final show.

There are concept sketches alongside final art for Aquamarine and Topaz in "Wanted" (with Topaz labeled "Imperial Topaz"), the Zircons in "The Trial," Blue and Yellow Diamond, and the Off Colors (including Pink Lars).

And there's also a spread of "the two sides of Steven's life: Gem Magic and Rock N Roll" featuring Sadie Killer and the Suspects (referred to as "Buck's band")--as well as a cool "Crew Cameos" key and some concepts for short-haired Connie.

And then there's some more "finished" art with stills alongside concepts, including some background art, revision, and really cool "fairytale" art from some of the shadowplay storytelling bits. We get "Lars of the Stars," "Jungle Moon," and "Can't Go Back."

2. THE BEGINNING OF THE END: A SINGLE PALE ROSE

In discussing the huge reveals and Gem mysteries in the show, the pacing is examined, and emphasis is put on the intended "slow burn." One of the most difficult things in the show was to strategize so that every piece that was needed to support another piece in the future was placed properly to seed what it was supposed to.

Some of the ideas they developed were more of a group effort and were fit together collaboratively (like Amethyst's being younger than the other Gems and Jasper being from Earth), while others were intended from the beginning based on Rebecca's vision (the fundamental idea of Pink Diamond's true identity, for instance, as well as Obsidian's design and sword and our Pearl not being Pink's first).

The writing process gets a great deep dive here, including fun tidbits like how the orb in the moon base was inserted by Joe Johnston and they literally had no idea what it was for when they wrote the episode. They repurposed it when they figured out what they needed.

Rebecca credits her detailed timelines for helping keep the order straight, and discusses how other artists are sometimes flabbergasted that a storyboard-driven show can have this much detail and continuity and yet not get wrecked by the free non-scripted boarding process. But Rebecca and the Crew valued that approach and loved the way fresh eyes would handle an idea, making it come back alive, entertaining, vivid.

Several Crew members weigh in on the writing process. Lauren Hecht refers to making lots of incorrect guesses despite being on the inside. Joe Johnston recalled getting briefed on his first day and getting so excited to start working on this massive project.

Miki Brewster remembered being told Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond and being shocked--and also confused about why Ruby and Sapphire would need to be married if they're already basically married. Drew Green talks about being brought in late and getting to watch unaired episodes and a rough of the movie while eating cereal.

Ian Jones-Quartey complains about Pink Diamond's real jester-like form being leaked to the internet through a Hot Topic shirt. Rebecca piggybacks on that and says it was upsetting that the wedding was leaked because of toy fair keychains featuring Ruby and Sapphire in wedding attire. They'd always be worried about leaks, and sometimes Rebecca struggled not to talk about the reality of Pink Diamond before the reveal because she knew it would make so much more sense once the truth was out. And everything associated with Rose makes more sense once you know she's Pink--especially what happened with Bismuth, considering what we know about how Pink Diamond has a habit of treating anyone who no longer serves her interests.

When it comes to visual cues, Rebecca also talks about intentional designs to create a feeling of unity between concepts, like the flower shapes on Pink Diamond's palanquin lining up with the poofs of Steven's hair and the star imagery of the series. Steven Sugar and Mary Nash discuss how the Human Zoo incorporated this imagery, trying to look like Homeworld with a Pink Diamond touch.

Steven Sugar, as a game nerd, liked to throw in video game references from old and modern stuff to feel like he's inserting what he's enjoying and who he is from moment to moment, while Mary Nash, who related to Sadie as a basement-dwelling young person with cult interests, liked to include stuff from MST3K and cult movies. Pearl's hand gestures get a spotlight too--her reflex to cover her mouth when Pink Diamond was being discussed was analyzed here.

A "Top Secret Visual Timeline" from 2016 is included which tells us some Diamond history. It has an earlier version of Pink Pearl's fate and does not include Spinel since the movie hadn't been greenlit. The timeline includes the birth of the Diamonds, the emergence and major story beats for each major character, and some philosophy of the driving force behind each.

We're told that Pink Diamond straightened up, behavior-wise, after she lost her first Pearl, and that Yellow and Blue wanted to give her a planet but White only agreed to it to prove she would fail at managing a colony. Pearl, meanwhile, is so confused to have a Diamond who keeps asking her what she thinks when she doesn't believe she should have opinions.

And when Pink moonlighted as Rose to start conflict, she found herself leading an army to fight Pink's troops--then Yellow's, and eventually Blue's too. Lapis is said to be waiting for the conflict to end on Earth so she can terraform, but she gets trapped instead.

Pearl's love story with Rose is described as "an endless honeymoon" where she's free to love her, while Rose's is more like "I'm now the head of the family and I'm going to give everyone what they never had, so everyone is super special!"

Jasper is described as "adopted" into Yellow's army as the only successful Beta Quartz. And White Diamond knew that Pink Diamond was not dead--she thought she was just running away from home like a brat and would eventually be back.

3. THE HEART OF THE CRYSTAL GEMS

Now we discuss Rose Quartz--the original Pink Diamond. How she was selfish and selfless, never enough and always too much, and how Greg was her first partner who "challenged her" to be an equal. Rebecca describes Rose as being delighted by the idea that both she and Greg reinvented themselves, but when that leads her to want to share her past, Greg isn't interested--he only wants to know who she is now, and doesn't consider the old her to be her.

Rebecca likes Carl Jung's concept of "enantiodromia," which is the idea that extremes lead to their extreme opposite. This is demonstrated in all of the Diamonds. This narrative is interspersed with drawings of Greg and Rose being cute.

But another "heart" of the Crystal Gems is its relationships--particularly, Garnet, the fairy tale romance embodied. More psychological theories are discussed with regard to differentiation in a relationship making the relationship stronger, and how they made sure that happened for Garnet during the appropriate arc. Rebecca has struggled with the idea that she, like Ruby, went straight from a "family" group to a living-with-others situation and never lived by herself. But she also learned that you can in fact develop as a person in the context of a relationship--you don't have to be alone to do it. Ruby learned that too, and chose on her own terms to be with Sapphire.

The wedding made so much sense to Rebecca and the crew that they couldn't imagine a wholesome couple like Ruby and Sapphire not having a wedding episode. They wanted it for years: The wedding concepts always included the tuxedo for Sapphire and the wedding dress for Ruby.

But pushback (often blamed on the conservative standards of the international market) led to negotiations trying to keep Ruby and Sapphire's relationship from being explicit. Rebecca and the Crew were very tired of this double standard, and they were especially irritated by attempts to claim a wedding wouldn't be well received by a core demographic or wouldn't make sense for Steven's character. But other shows had done weddings and Steven had been established to love weddings already.

Rebecca kept adding more elements to the wedding episode to answer all the concerns, but she didn't want to back down from explicit marriage between these characters. They deserved it. And the audience deserved to see this as wholesome, like any other cartoon wedding. Eventually they got their way and were allowed to have the wedding. But the ordered episodes were also coming to a close without promise of more, so Rebecca had to request more episodes to be able to wrap up the storyline!

And of course, there is Steven, the true heart of the team. A very interesting aside discusses Garnet's leadership and how the network pushed the Crewniverse to acknowledge Steven as the leader. This was successfully resisted throughout as well--because Garnet is the leader (unless she's incapacitated, of course). It's fantastic that this concept was preserved because too often a young male chosen one is elevated above people with more experience and knowledge because of that chosen one tradition, so it's really nice to have a show acknowledge that team leadership is more appropriate for an adult.

4. ERA 3

Beginning with a discussion of the Diamonds, this chapter deconstructs the dysfunctional "family" of the Diamonds (who are said to be based on tropes about evil stepmothers and stepsisters), with the thread of dysfunction originating with White Diamond.

Yellow is physical, Blue is emotional, White is judgmental, and Pink is impulsive. Some philosophy on why Pink is naturally manipulative and why she clashes so much with White is offered.

White believes her identity is to be imposed on all because she is the pinnacle of what should be--and therefore, she has the right to make decisions and statements about and on behalf of everyone. But her secret is that she can't do what the others do--act or feel or want. In trying to be everyone, she is no one.

And this becomes very important when she confronts Steven about his identity and turns out to be wrong. The triumph of Steven being totally, fully himself is a beautiful, simple revelation that's described as far more satisfying than the theories about Pink living inside him or Rose returning from his Gem.

Also discussed is Gem architecture. A lot went into this idea, and Steven Sugar weighs in to say he had to think of what it would mean for a world to have buildings but serve no human needs. That's why it's mostly focused on transport and storage. Even the broken planet is meant to indicate a place stripped for its resources, and everything serves a function that is meant to avoid looking like the human equivalents.

And there's another layer, too: a difference between Era 1 and Era 2. Era 2 became more functional to hide Era 1's broken bits, and older Homeworld buildings still have some "ornate and ancient" feel to them. And the fact that props, tools, and even walls and doors could be living was taken from a concept Rebecca thought was horrible from old Busby Berkeley movies, where people were inanimate objects and it was portrayed as lovely. Tom Herpich helped conceptualize these living objects.

Steven dealing with "princess tropes" is discussed here too. The Pebbles (worked on with Pendleton Ward) were sort of his Cinderella's mice, and all the locked-in-a-tower, having supportive tiny friends help you, getting princess clothes made, attending a ball, having to mind your manners stuff was intentionally related to fairy tales.

The point of doing that (besides fun) was to easily invoke the feeling that Steven was being made to be someone he's not, and that he was being treated like THIS is who he really is when it isn't. White Diamond as the "evil stepmother" is discussed with regard to her detailed features and massive scale. They generally didn't put fingernails and eyelashes on characters (especially not to indicate that they were women or girls!), but they decided White would get all of these feminine markers for tradition's sake.

Rebecca also invokes several other references that were included and describes the princess tropes as "chipping away at his integrity" setting him up for the final challenge with White.

There is again tons of concept art: Homeworld architecture, Pebbles, Diamond diagrams, background Jades and Lemon Jade Fusion, Comby, Diamond extraction chambers, and White Diamond.

5. CHANGE YOUR MIND

Now we finally begin to discuss Steven's identity. The "Perfect Steven," discussed in several interviews before this book's release, was an idea back in 2013; the "ultimate Steven," beefed up and shonen-looking, was far from perfect because OUR Steven is perfect, while this alpha hero Steven idea (used in Steven Universe Future) didn't belong being idolized in such a show.

They thought about having Steven fall apart into organic half and Gem half early in the show (during "Giant Woman" after a successful fusion and unfusion, even!), but they didn't try the concept until the last episode. They didn't want the "Pink" Steven to be portrayed as "better" even though he would be more powerful, so they decided he isn't whole without his organic self and he's just as much of a shell as the organic half. They absolutely did not want any ending that required Rose to be inside him or waiting to come back. But the debates were fierce--what DOES it mean to have Rose's Gem?

Ian Jones-Quartey brings in an anecdote about his own family to emphasize some of the immigrant themes that inspired aspects of the show. He had a brother who reinvented himself elsewhere away from family without resolving issues, and all the ramifications of that were explored in the show through Rose Quartz. (He is careful to say he doesn't think his immigrant experience is like being from another planet!) But he did say you can hurt your old family even if they were toxic or didn't know the real you, and you can hurt your new family by hiding your past. The Pizza family of course was also a more direct reference to Ian's Ghanaian family.

In talking about the new Fusions from this episode, Sunstone is largely described by Miki, who also got to board the Sunstone section. Sunstone was described as a cool 1990s character and the evolution just continued into making them a fourth-wall-breaking PSA dispenser. Obsidian is also discussed, with their sword being an early concept. Steven Sugar said they totally knew it would be forged in action. Obsidian being similar to the Temple design is of course another very early detail.

The story of how James Baxter got involved with one of the final scenes (Organic Steven and Pink Steven fusing in front of White Diamond) was shared. His family was fans of the show and Rebecca Sugar took the time to drive to a birthday party for his daughter and give her a drawing. He then owed her a favor, and this was it.

Concept art is again included, this time with sample boards, promo images, a Diamond fight concept, costume design changes for the Gems, new Fusions, the so-called "Mega Diamond" ship conglomerate, some scenes from the White Diamond confrontation, Pink Steven, multiple pages of James Baxter animation, corrupted Gems and their healed selves, and photos from the "Change Your Mind" premiere and some awards. The show has won one design-related Emmy, a Peabody Award, and a GLAAD award.

6. STEVEN UNIVERSE FUTURE

The book doesn't cover the movie because it got its own book, but dives right into Future. Ian Jones-Quartey emphasizes that the movie and Future are separate and different from the original show, which ENDED. After all, after that, Steven has a neck!

Some new names are invoked now: new writers Kate Tsang, Jack Pendarvis, and Taneka Stotts. They were excited to have Steven make HIS OWN mistakes instead of trying to clean up someone else's! Now, instead of doing the usual shonen anime thing and having the final battle be a big physical rumble, Steven has to make peace with himself and take an active role in coping with what all the fighting has done to him and what effect it's had on who he is (and who he wants to be). There is no sudden "I love myself!" answer, either. It's always a process.

Drew Green and Maya Petersen, who came on board as storyboarders officially in Future, also weighed in on writing for a "mature" show, how to deal with Steven being a "moral compass" while being sort of unreliable, and what they learned as Crew that they didn't know as fans. Drew didn't know Garnet never asks questions. Jack didn't realize the show never deviated from Steven's point of view. Taneka was nervous but excited to collaborate. Kate was worried about how established the show was and what to do as a new writer to contribute appropriately.

Maya was on the old Crew but not as a storyboarder, so felt like some of the "old" ideas ended up not being appropriate for the "new" Future in an embarrassing way--and dreaded the idea of dealing with Steven's emotional problems when they were similar to stuff she'd been through. She also was personally behind the idea of Steven wanting to dump his problems by becoming Stevonnie, and got to work with Etienne Guignard on inventing the Pearl creation backstory with Volleyball.

There's some discussion of "depression hobbies," stress, and the show's pacing. And they say Etienne was entertaining at pitches. There's even some discussion of how Greg is taken off a bit of a pedestal because his terrible restrictive life in the suburbs sounded wholesome to Steven and Greg presented it negatively.

And then there is some information about how the Crew felt behind the scenes due to fan reactions and negative press. Ian discusses feeling offended when the Black characters are described as bad examples, as if their cartoonized but realistic-in-context features are automatically caricatures.

Rebecca Sugar felt beaten down by some of these narratives and began to access mental health services, inspiring some of the content of "Mindful Education." A long reflection from Rebecca discusses people's infighting about her show and what she had a responsibility to show or not show in the story. She learned a lot about bullying from Cartoon Network's anti-bullying program and learned that bullies thrive on whatever attention you give them--unless it is made clear to them by a peer group that no one is impressed by their cruel actions. Also, not all negative feedback is bullying. Constructive criticism is different. Self-awareness can help you avoid internalizing what bullies might do or say to you.

Segueing from the discussion of how people are affected by and connect with the show, we then discuss how they chose as a team what should be covered as the show came to a close. They didn't have time to do quite a few stories they wanted time for, like a Rhodonite story, a Lars side story, and Diamond "prehistory" and religion; all of it was put aside for the main arc with Steven.

They thought people would find those stories about Homeworld and Off Color history very interesting, but so much of the show had been about Steven's Gem adventures, so keeping him mostly on Earth seemed appropriate. The acknowledgment of his battle damage, of his trauma, was necessary and real, and helpful in an important way to the core audience.

Oh, and there was some stuff about a cheeseburger tree. Don't ask.

In discussing the "reverse escapism" of the original show (Gem aliens are intrigued by everyday human culture, and realism is necessary), Rebecca says her views have changed on escapism and gets why some people want a soothing feel-better show. She acknowledged also that her own escapist dreams-come-true fulfilled in the show didn't feel like escapism because they were givens to the majority of mainstream culture, but were never guaranteed to marginalized people.

Rebecca ties in her several-times-told story about "Love Like You" and how the middle bit was when she didn't feel she was worth looking up to, and the realizations she had to tie the beginning to the end. Feeling like someone will like you less if they know you more is terrible. So sometimes a show like this can be helpful in telling people that they belong when their fantasies are things like "I want to be loved" and "I want to know I exist."

In Future, Steven has to connect to who he is and love that person--and understand that person enough to finally feel that even if he's not fixing their problems or saving their world right this second, Steven deserves his family's love and support, and they WANT to give it to him.

There's a huge amount of supplemental material in this section so there's no way I could name it all. The charts for Future's timeline are pretty straightforward, though a few episodes like "A Very Special Episode," "Why So Blue," "In Dreams," and "Bismuth Casual" aren't specifically represented and a couple are in a different order ("Prickly Pair" was conceived as happening after "Fragments" and "Homeworld Bound").

Steven feeling like a monster, having intrusive thoughts, having not forgiven the Diamonds, and getting help/moving on--it's all there.

We have keys, color scripts, and boards for the new opening and some various backgrounds and storyboard art from episodes. Model sheets for Shep, Nice Lapis and Mean Lapis, Jasper, Steven Tag Gems, Pink Steven Powers, Monster Steven. New house concepts, Era 3 Homeworld concept art for the Diamond environments, and background art for the Reef.

New Connie and Greg designs. Concepts for Mega Pearl, the Rose Quartzes, Bluebird, and Morganite (who didn't get used). And there are some photos from recording and the conference room. There are even some extras from "Crossover Nexus," the crossover with OK K.O.!--including an unused cut scene that included Ruby and Sapphire fighting. The rest of the book is a bunch of adorable Crewniverse art--extras, blog drawings, promos, and gifts to each other.

NOTABLE

The first timeline chart in the book features a cool sketch of the original Off Colors, which at the time this planning document was drafted included unused Off Colors Flint and Chert.

We knew of their existence already because of an episode of the podcast, but these two unexpectedly appeared as incidental characters in the Steven Universe Future episode "Homeworld Bound," identified only in the credits. Sad to think that instead of banding with the Off Colors, these two were probably shattered for their crime (being Quartzes who don't want to fight) and that's why we see them being repaired in this episode. Later, there's some brainstorming for types of Off Colors and "a Ruby that wants to wear limb enhancers" is mentioned as well.

It looks like there was also originally more juice to the story of tracking down the events of the war culminating in Pink Diamond's assassination.

One of the timelines talks about Steven thinking it makes sense that Pearl can't talk about her involvement because she might have been a double agent, explaining why Rose Quartz always knew what Pink Diamond was doing. It seems like that bit was supposed to be included in Garnet's version of the story she believed in "Your Mother and Mine." Seems like they originally conceived Garnet's story to inspire the Off Colors to become pirates and freedom fighters, though in the show's canon this storytelling happened after Lars had already reinvented himself the way he did.

Sadie was also supposed to be sending letters to Lars via Steven, which is funny since the "Letters to Lars" episode is just a montage Steven letter. And of course it's specified that Steven was supposed to get Pink Diamond flashbacks by going to the Palace on Homeworld.

The second chart in the book makes references to Sadie's reinvention of herself as a parallel to Lars, Greg, and Pink Diamond all doing the same thing, and how positive it is to embrace such a thing--a version of yourself that YOU create.

I love that Yellow Diamond's arm ship arm-wrestling the Cluster was always part of the plan.

There's some more explicit direction to have Connie help Steven understand the Diamonds as "strict parents," and a lot more emphasis on everyone realizing Rose had been inspired by THEM rather than them all following her.

White Diamond is presented here as if she thinks of Pink Diamond as a "daughter" (whom she now understands she has "lost"). There are notes on how the Diamonds have a responsibility to their children and should attend to it before just continuing to make more.

One of the concept art images for the Off Colors features Rhodonite crouching by Padparadscha saying "Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you." It's very interesting because she DOES seem to protect Padparadscha in the show, but doesn't seem confident about it in her final version, even though it does seem like she'd be "programmed" to guard aristocratic Gems because of her Ruby and Pearl makeup. Cool.

A "Crew Cameos" spread was included, which is of great interest to some of us who loved seeing the Crew insert themselves into the show. Not every SU Crew person who's been represented in a crowd was there, but this crowd included Amish Kumar, Kat Morris, Amanda Winterstein, Angie Wang, Lamar Abrams, Emily Walus, Mary Nash, Joe Johnston, Christy Cohen, Danny Cragg, Hilary Florido, Danny Hynes, Matt Burnett, Ben Levin, Elle Michalka.

The official national flower of South Korea, Hibiscus syriacus, is the name of Pink Diamond's flower.

One of Steven Sugar's comments about the silhouette difference between humans and Gems points out that humans have ears. This seems to be pretty good confirmation that they are not supposed to have ears, despite that sometimes we'll see ears drawn on them in some frames.

Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond is characterized in this book as "self-hating" in a really interesting way, saying that because she believed she was not capable of compassion, she practically worshiped those who demonstrated that ability and thought they were so much better than her--which is described as "intoxicating" and resulted in others being drawn to her. How interesting is that!

Timelines reveal that early plans for Pink Diamond's first Pearl originally had her getting destroyed by Pink during a game, and then her destruction was rewritten as a punishment from the Diamonds after Pink Pearl defended Pink Diamond to the other Diamonds. They went back to the idea of her getting hurt by Pink for the final version, though the cracked face and control by White Diamond was not on the agenda until they started writing "Change Your Mind."

10.

The approximate ages of the major characters, based on emergence, are revealed on these timelines. It begins with a cracked-planet-looking graphic depicting four tiny Diamonds emerging at 20,000 years ago. Some suspicious "blacked out" redacting surrounds a long timeline tail that goes back before that, which may mean there are secrets they still don't want to reveal. But the dates go like this:

20,000 years ago: The Diamonds emerge.

11,000 years ago: Pearl is custom-made for Pink Diamond.

8,000 years ago: Sapphire emerges (on Homeworld).

6,000 years ago: Ruby emerges (on a colony).

5,750 years ago: Garnet is formed.

5,600 years ago: Lapis is poofed and put in the mirror.

5,200 years ago: Jasper emerges (on Earth).

5,050 years ago: The Cluster is planted.

5,000 years ago: Amethyst emerges (on Earth).

4,500 years ago: The Crystal Gems found Amethyst.

3,000 years ago: Peridot emerges (on Homeworld).

40 years ago: Pearl found Lapis's mirror at the Galaxy Warp.

And of course we know 14 years ago Steven is born!

11.

Originally the Diamonds were based on a quartet of themes: Love, Fear, Pride, and Sorrow. It got too complicated to keep and it was abandoned, with Pink's identification of "love" being described as "particularly outdated."

12.

Notes on a sketch say that Pearl was inspired to become bold and unashamed because Pink's questions drove her to have opinions, and it's said that Rose "fell in love" with her boldness.

13.

Rebecca tells the story of driving off a ridge and getting stuck in the desert, comparing this to Ruby's tumble during her Wild West adventure and using it as inspiration. She's told this story before but here it is in print. She also included the story about using the flowers from a friend's wedding to put in Ruby's hair.

14.

Rebecca describes having to "fight" notes she was given when it had to do with Ruby and Sapphire's relationship. One she describes as NOT fighting was for a signing card depicting Ruby and Sapphire dancing. It was called "too romantic" and she decided not to worry about it since it wasn't the actual show content.

She was also scolded over her book The Answer because the powers that be expected her to downplay that relationship. She always argued that queer youth deserved these things.

15.

Tom Herpich describes being inspired to name Blue Diamond's comb "Comby" because he was watching the news about Comey getting fired from the FBI. It's also a mineral-related term and I always assumed that reference was intentional, but maybe it's not and this is the only intended significance to Comby's name?

16.

Rainbow Quartz 2.0's design is not discussed, though the other two new Fusions from "Change Your Mind" (Sunstone and Obsidian) were. RQ2 has some sketches included, but no accompanying narrative in the text.

17.

A sheet of corrupted Gems and their healed selves is offered, though it doesn't appear to be final. The obelisk in "Serious Steven" is labeled Albite. The unnamed Worm Monster, Desert Glass, and Watermelon Tourmaline are included. An unnamed birdlike Gem represents the Big Bird monster from "Giant Woman." The crab monster from "Arcade Mania" is labeled Blue Chalcedony. The Tongue Monster is drawn uncorrupted but not named. The Flower Monster from "Back to the Kindergarten" is labeled Grossular Diopside or Titanite. The invisible monster from "Island Adventure" is labeled Moonstone. The Lighthouse Gem is labeled White Topaz. A form for Larimar that was used in "Change Your Mind" but changed in Future is there. The Slinker is listed as Chrysocolla. And the Crab Monster is listed as Aventurine.

On the next page, this is changed to Bixbite (as it was in Steven Universe Future), and we then also have Lace Amethyst, Blue Lace Agate, Crazy Lace Agate (Fusion), Ocean Jasper, the Mother Centipeetle Nephrite (Facet 413 Cabochon 12) and three other Nephrites, Angel Aura Quartz, a hooded Jasper, Zebra Jasper, Biggs Jasper, Watermelon Tourmaline (labeled as Fusion of Gem * Onion--huh?), Snowflake Obsidian, "Little" Larimar, and Orange Spodumene (who was the Worm).

18.

The Rhodonite side story would have been about the love story of a Ruby and a Pearl working for Morganite. Images of Morganite and her servants, unfused, are in the book. We do not get this additional information, but Rebecca said in a panel shortly before the book's release that Rhodonite's story would have been about finding out that she had been Rejuvenated 17 times because her components kept falling in love and needing to be reset.

19.

Referring to the Diamonds on one of the charts, Steven's perspective is "I can't believe I helped these" and then there's a censor bar. Welp.

20.

Some included art by Hilary Florido features Kevin with a souped-up Koala Princess car and another where Kevin is staring at himself in the mirror in front of an altar to himself.

21.

Rebecca's sweater collection is included in the Crew art.

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

#steven universe #steven universe end of an era #su spoilers #long post #su merch #myblog

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the-hunchback-of-notre-dame · 4 years ago

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Screenwriter Tab Murphy Talks “Hunchback,” “Atlantis” and “Brother Bear” During Walt Disney Family Museum Happily Ever After Hours

by Tony Betti | Source (x)

Over the weekend I had the fortunate opportunity to attend the Walt Disney Family Museum’s Happily Ever After Hours Virtual Program featuring screenwriter Tab Murphy.

Tab Murphy has a wide embodiment of work for the screen, but this program primarily focused on his work for what is now known as Walt Disney Animation Studios. He contributed to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Brother Bear.

Right off the bat, Tab said that his first foray into animation was a bit jarring. He wrote the script, and then partnered with Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz who, as he put it, had the script posted on walls all around a room and would then go up to certain sections and draw big Xs through the words and say “this is where we think a song should be.” As they worked together though, Tab said he realized how right they were to do that, and the end result is simply amazing.

Anybody familiar with the original story of The Hunchback of Notre Dame may recall that there are a ton of characters present in the original novel aside from the namesake Hunchback, Quasimodo. He said that was where one of the hardest parts of writing the movie adaptation lied, especially for a Disney animated film, noting that there was a certain “checklist” of sorts for a Disney film that the characters had to hit. So they developed the film around the characters that would best fill the roles of the principal lead (Quasimodo), the Hero (Phoebus), and the Princess (Esmeralda), along with the obvious villain, Claude Frollo. He said that the story was exceptionally dark for a Disney film, but he found the heart in it when you would take away everyone else leaving Quasimodo to do his own thing with the birds or the gargoyles, and the world got bright and colorful. This sentiment is actually echoed in the production design of the film, whenever Frollo is present, the colors are grays and dark shadows, and muted and boring hues, but whenever Quasi is involved in his own thing there are far more colors and brightness.

He also elaborated on his love for writing the character of Esmeralda, saying he felt that she was Disney’s original activist, and she was most definitely not a damsel in distress, standing up for the issues, with Tab citing the line (though he flubbed it a little) “You mistreat this poor boy the same way you mistreat my people. You speak of justice, yet you are cruel to those most in need of your help!”

When asked about the development of Quasimodo, Tab pointed out that more classic adaptations of the story, such as an earlier incarnation from Universal in their horror movie craze, took the character and turned him into a literal monster, some sort of terrifying creature. “This is a human being,” Tab said, adding that his version would not scare you but draw out empathy. But he still had to be realistic. He couldn’t be the hero either, that wouldn’t be true to the source material, but he echoed thoughts and ideas shared by animator James Baxter in a recent program from the museum, that he needed to be gentle and warm to reinforce that this was a human and not a monster.

Interestingly, Tab said that he had not watched the film in its entirety since the world premiere back in 1996 up until about two weeks before the program, forgetting how beautiful the final product turned out. He said he cried his eyes out and believes that story holds up because of that emotion, something that everyone can relate to at some point in their lives, that they’re different and feeling alienated and an outsider who overcomes that. “Everyone who worked on that movie, everyone was on their A-game.”

After Hunchback, Tab was assigned to tackle Tarzan, though he openly admitted he wasn’t as involved in that one as much as people think he was. Shortly after he began, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise (directors of Hunchback) asked him to join their team for a radical new movie that would buck the trends of Disney Animation, Atlantis: The Lost Empire. According to Tab, the pair pitched him the idea while comparing it to Disneyland, saying “You know how you go in to [the park] and go right into Fantasyland, through the castle, see the princesses and fairy tales. Well, we’re going to take a hard left straight to Adventureland.”

Tab was excited, this was going to be something so out of the ordinary and he would be a part of it. He noted that he was especially excited because of the subpods that would shoot out of the Ulysses. At another point in the session, Tab mentioned that he was never worried about budget when writing for Disney animation, noting that the animators were so good they would figure out how to get what he wrote onto the screen successfully, with the Subpods off the main submarine as they battled the Leviathan an excellent example of that. He also elaborated on what he referred to as “movie moments,” those special quotes that you know, when writing them, people will always remember and associate with the movie, with Atlantis having one of his favorites, when Helga is firing the flare gun at Roarke’s balloon and uses his own words, “Nothing personal.”

As many know, the film was not an immediate box office success. It didn’t do poorly, it just didn’t reach the numbers that Disney likes to see. Because of that, Tab thought he had written Disney’s first flop. The film came out in 2001, and he said it wasn’t until last year when he was stuck at home that someone had exposed him to the following that Atlantis: The Lost Empire has acquired over the years. He even started getting letters and messages from fans, some saying that the film had inspired them to be linguists or archeologists as those who were younger when they saw it are now adults exploring their career path.

Tab has an almost Jeff Bridges-like quality to him, almost channeling the Dude from The Big Lebowski, and elaborated on the sentiment of career paths, commenting that when he was in school, he was studying forestry and biology. In one of his best pieces of wisdom from the session, he said that “Part of knowing what you want is knowing what’s not meant for you.” It was his love of movies that continued to grow prompting him to get into the industry as a screenwriter. However, that background in forestry and wildlife would come in handy on his next assignment, Brother Bear.

Tab said goodbye to the kids, and jetted off to Florida for a short-term residence at the Yacht Club resort where he would go to the Animation studio that was part of the Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios) where Brother Bear was in production. Most of the original story, he said, was created from campfire stories that he and director Aaron Blaise would share. Together they wrote the original story which was mostly similar and had Kenai being transformed and subsequently mentored by an older bear named Grizz, voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan. He packed up and left and only after that did they change one prominent piece of the writing. Grizz would now be dropped for a younger bear, Koda, and that one “movie moment” as Tab says, where Kenai has to say the “he did something bad.”

Tab said the story of what happened on Brother Bear is truly the story of animation. It’s living and breathing. Things get dropped, added, changed, tweaked. He felt like a starting pitcher in a baseball game, there to set you up for success and then be moved or changed out to make sure the game is won, but also only one part of the greater team as a whole. When asked about how he would draw out emotion in his writing he said he would only put the words down, and it was the rest of that same team that would succeed in making you feel something, adding that he might have words that touch you emotionally in scene, but the rest of the team knew how to enhance those words and make it something truly special.

#tab murphy #the hunchback of notre dame #atlantis #atlantis the lost empire #brother bear #disney #quasimodo #esmeralda #frollo

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pyreo · 3 years ago

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fallout 4 struggle tweets: I just had the worst time and I’m literally just going to talk about how much it sucked

I’m on my third, ‘yes I’m really gonna finish this time’ playthrough and I never managed to get to the end of the automatron DLC before. I’d always had Ada around and never did the last part.

My first mistake when starting was thinking it’d be a regular length instance. It was about triple the size of a normal F4 ‘building with narrative in it’. God I think it took like 2 hours

They clearly put effort into the level design and I was impressed by the attention to lighting, atmosphere, even the dingy sound effects. It was pretty immersive. I gradually realised there was a backstory to the place, that this lair was actually the place robobrains were invented and it was showing you the horrific lead-in to how the military decided to harvest brains from living convicts to experiment on turning into robots. They didn’t care, they incinerated them for being distressed by their new bodies, etc etc. Like it’s not deep but it was lore I guess. You’re even paced through the scientific crimes committed an age past by being walked through the prison that housed the test subjects, even a bit Bioshock-esque with observation floors and still-living ghouls inside the cells.

There’s terminal entries for the scientists to go ‘oh my god what are they doing to people in the labs’ or ‘ha ha it’s so cool how we’re doing immoral crimes in the labs’, because you know, it’s fallout 4, but like it’s trying

There’s a main lab that’s devoid of enemy robots for once where you can soak in how disgustingly inhumane the history of robobrains was, see all the equipment and automated needles and suspicious stains on the steinman-basement tile.

None of this has anything to do with the Mechanist, the reason you came down there, who is a normal person wearing cosplay and yelling “Begone Evildoer!” at you.

It occurred to me, in the middle of those 2 hours of working through this hole, that it barely felt like Fallout 4 any more. They gave each room a different vibe, different lighting and colour effects, and they put down a more fleshed out backstory than you’d expect considering it wasn’t realted to the quest. The mood in the medical rooms backhands you with how hard they’re trying to play up the torture realism. There are still brains in jars everywhere. There’s a terminal that jokes about a scientist daring his colleagues to make a cocktail out of the brain fluids. It’s phenominally idiotic but in a way where it’s actually trying.

Then you have to step into a big big room and someone in a cardboard robot costume yells at you for being evil and sends waves and waves of customised robots after you.

The whiplash is too gigantic to be believed. This might be the most utterly serious ‘we experimented on living people that we deemed unworthy of human rights’ played straight in one of bethesda’s fallouts. Apart from the cocktail guy it’s depicted as unconscionable. This is where they decided to stage the funney delusional guy wears a comic supervillain costume hehe :o)

Additionally the lore is wildly all over the place. So they decided to fill in the creation of robobrains? The human experimentation thing is utterly basic, the medical rooms have dozens of brains? Just still floating in there? They also have a gigantic tank with 2 ghouls in it for some reason?? And there’s xrays on the wall, one of which is an xray of a deathclaw skull. I suspect re-used assets with nothing implied by any of this, or someone just flicking through existing stuff they could place and going ‘haha yeah’ with no more thought in it than that

I ran out of ammo in the mechanist confrontation. I’m on hardcore mode so I carry a limited amount because it takes up bag space. There are no places to take cover, because you can be shot through the floor gratings. I spent about 40 minutes dying and loading again every 6 seconds. My playstyle that got me to level 70 is a hide-and-snipe type Survivor, meaning I cannot live through heavy fire and no stealth. And after repeatedly saving every time I lived more than those 6 seconds, inching progress along, killing robots as fast as I could, I EVENTUALLY got to the point where the robot supply ran out.

And the confrontation didn’t progress, because it bugged and just didn’t end. According to the wiki this happens if you ‘kill the robots too fast’.

40 minutes that took me.

This is the point where I find out you can actually skip that entire fight if you find certain holotapes along the way - which I had - and I wondered why on earth I’d missed the opportunity to take the less hostile option I had already earned. Turns out it’s because you have to manually backstrack through the entire facility, which nobody would ever do, and that’s where the terminal to use them is. Instead of like, next to the door.

Then you find the Mechanist and she takes off her helmet and HOOLY FUCK SHE’S A WOMAN, ohh my GODDD what a fucking TWIST can you believe she used a voice modulator and was A WOMAN under the helmet a fucking WOMAN??

Fuck you bethesda

Then they recycled their same script from fallout 3 where she goes oh no I’m protecting the wasteland I’m good you’re the bad one. and you can speech check her out of it. All of that and the person you spent hours tracking down goes ‘oh it was a mistake haha’. No meaning to any of it, no point, nothing

Anyway I just killed the mechanist for making me go through that. I don’t care if the facility becomes a settlement I don’t want it I never want to go back there again

#fallout

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thecandlesticksfromlesmis · 4 years ago

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My sister's college's theater group decided to FILM their musical one person at a time and edit it together(!!) and I'm in engineering grad school, and am aware that art school is a v v different experience but this made me think: how are you guys doing this? Are you ok? How do you learn to direct if there can't be two people on screen together? Is it like the Tom Holland thing where he didnt know who was in scenes with him? Are the editing students happy about this? If you dont want to answer I totally get it but I'm asking because engineering not in person kills me so I just. Can't fathom what you're doing. I wish you the best 💙

HEY omg yeah it’s a mess. It’s been a mess since this all started and I think it will continue to be a mess for the rest of this year.

Rest of post under the cut cause I’m just ranting.

So when everything first hit, all filmmaking was stopped completely, which for me as a screenwriter was fine because I am not required to be on set unless I wrote the script (or have been bamboozled into script supervising ugh) anyway. But I know it hurt literally every other discipline, especially cinematographers because they need to touch cameras in order to learn and the school provides all their tech.

Towards the end of last year, the school started back up with productions, making it mandatory for all the films to be shot on our big sound stages (usually we have free rein of all of LA and a little outside it in shoot in) and to include a COVID safety supervisor. Our sound stages were upgraded with new air ventilation systems and the school also rented out other stages to accommodate the huge number of shorts that needed to be shot.

In order to be on set you had to have proof of a negative COVID test and have isolated in your home for two weeks before shooting. On set was a big production of face shields and masks and sanitizer and staying six feet away from each other---except for the actors. The actors could be in scenes together, provided they did all the steps above and agreed to be close to someone in a scene.

No one is happy lmao. It’s pushed back thesis schedule SO MUCH, that lots of people in my class will still be having to shoot and finish thesis after we technically graduate this year. Technically, I’m still responsible for writing a script for a project that was cancelled and removed from the “you need to do this to graduate” list. It’s been rescheduled to shoot in August when I will be rigorously prepping for the huge event where I pitch all my project to industry execs. I don’t wanna do it, but my whole team still wants to so ya know 🤷🏼‍♂️

I have no clue how the fuck the production designers are functioning. I hope they’re still able to go to the school to access the building stations and literally all their materials. Editors have to go into the school to do their work because AVID costs so much money and no one is gonna buy it personally and that’s what they edit on! Directors are being dramatic as usual (lol I love some of them but goooood the shit they’ve put writers through y’all).

Basically, it’s all around absolutely NOT what we signed up for to earn our masters. This school’s big selling point is hands on, collaborative work, and it’s really tough to do that now. Writers have less to deal with, but what I wouldn’t give to be sitting in workshop, giving notes to people in conversation form, rather than trying to have a natural dialogue over zoom. It sucks! And I miss my friends.

There was this beautiful room on campus, that was a “no talking zone” in the library, that I used to work in every day. It was a room full of screenplays--like stacked shelves top to bottom of bound screenplays, some original behind glass doors, some signed by writers. It was really good place for me to focus on what I came here to do. I really really miss it. It made me feel a part of something! I have barely left my house for a year and now all the words I’ve written are trapping in our one bedroom apartment and it’s so stifling. The stories are blending together and GOD I can’t wait to get a break.

I’m burnt out and tired of the one thing I know how to do.

But I’m going to end this on a bright note! Mike and I are getting our second shot soon, we’re working on a film project right now, I’m finishing drafts of stories I’ve been working on for so long. If everything was the way it was before all this, the things I’m accomplishing would feel so small and not impressive. But now I’m realizing just how hard they really are to finish, and I should be less hard on myself in the future!

Anyway, thanks for asking! Hope engineering grad school is going well. I’m sure it’s hard with all this going on too! Wishing you the best 💚

#COVID #grad school #film school #writing #ask #2minutes4yeehawing

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icharchivist · 3 years ago

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cries think I made my ask too long so like half of it got deleted bc I typed it right into the askbox. anyways. I come bearing a3 thoughts! at first i was gonna watch the spring/summer and autumn/winter ones and then give my thoughts on both but. turns out i had too many thoughts lol? which i shouldve expected but i actually kind of... got bored by the first two chapters of this event! so i skipped and went to the stranger. and then went back. (1/?)

and then i got to like "tsuzuru and kazunari are having a fight?" and jumped on that like a starving wolf bc helllll yeah! i rly adored kazunari in sardine search, i think he was great! hes just so nice and has good vibes. he and taichi are kind of similar i feel? but i think their respective ages contribute to a lot of difference in their characters. why does it feel like this askbox limit personally wants me dead. (2/?)

anyways! i rly enjoyed the improv scene devolving to a real fight. admittedly i was kinda surprised that the content of that improv wasnt rly too similar to their actual fight? like normally a3 has the story of the play run parallel to like the actual real character drama so i thought the improv might function as the play in this event... it was still good tho. the scene i mean. (3/?)

also i rly liked tenma ragging on them afterwards. like he was mean but. first i adore tenma. second he just felt like. a different meddling type to muku lol? like the vibes he gave me were always like... im going to be a considerate leader and watch out for the ppl under me! therefore im gonna make sure theyre doing fine! aggressively. i think tenmas also just like a friendly person who likes to take care of others in general? like im not saying hes omi or anything but just like. (4/?)

that time he offers his car ride to juza so they can go to school together like hes surprisingly open compared to his initial prickliness. also ive got thoughts abt the tenma juza SSR conversation thing i read. one day ill make a tenma and juza fic and complete a trifecta haha... but thats something for another day! back to the actual story. the way tsuzuru dives right in after kazunari! that was so nice. like its easy to see how much they care abt each other. (5/?)

to the point where like even while theyre fighting theyre like angry but still like fairly quiet bc i think theyre both at least trying to be considerate of each other. ah the moment kazunari didnt respond to tsuzuru trying to talk to him i KNEW he was sick tho. felt proud of myself for calling that one but also the reason i knew is bc i have used the "character being sick during an argument causing them both to make up with each other" trope myself before so uh. like recognizes like haha. (6/?)

anyways the cg there was fuckin beautiful like kazunari looks so sad in the middle bit but then u see his shy smile? like hes sick but hes also like. happy to be there. idk. lovely. i adore kazu i think hes just deeply sweet to other people. tsuzuru telling him "you make everyone around you feel as bright and cheery as the things you design” is so wonderful too (7/?)

now im thinking. ah tsuzuru probably feels quite drained after a script and such (i know i am when i finish any piece--its like the emotions just rush out of me) so i like to think that like yknow. kazunari dropping by his room or whatever helps him set himself back to normal! but also when tsuzurus like oh u left ur magazines here! i suddenly remembered. wait shit kazunari and tsuzuru arent even roommates. wonder how much they bother masumi lmaooo. anyways overall very good story! (8/?)

some more thoughts: itaru and citron were so cute in this event! just like. citron saying itaru winking makes his heart skip a beat and itaru quoting citrons wrong sayings (which. i am also guilty of today i told my brother "we'll jump that bridge when we cross it" so) also i love how yuki is like "thank god i wasnt partnered with that hack" but like. yuki. u could literally just not talk about him. like its so funny to me yuki is like wow i hate tenma but he wont shut up abt him haha (9/?)

i also was a lil taken aback at hearing itaru go "for the lulz" tbh... like it fits him. but im mad it fits him? anywaysss thats all i had for this one! im gonna watch autumn/winter and go say my thoughts on that soon. sorry the ask was so broken up, idk what happened!

OLA FRIEND! Glad to see your thoughts again omg :3c

tho omg the fact tumblr deleted it all + the ask limit was all so evil D: poor friend.

I'm putting my answer under a read more because. Well. *waves hand* it got long.

The non-play events can be perhaps a little harder to get into because unlike the plays events that you start with a clear idea of at least the main plot (re: "they are preparing a play, i know the leads so i know who it will focus on"), non-plays events take a little longer to first set up what event they're participating in, how to prepare for it, and then bring up the conflict and which characters are going to have something to do with said conflict. So i can understand that they're a little harder to get into when we know the plays awaits.

On top of that, the first few events still were a bit tame because since it was early when the app released, i think they didn't go too heavy at once in case some people were still stuck on earlier chapters (esp since especially Winter is hard to unlock)

ANYWAY glad that it sucked you in on the second read :3c

So glad you were invested in that conflict!

Totally agreeing with you about Kazunari, and very good point about Taichi as well! they aren't the Puppy Pair for nothing :'D (Yuki took one look at both of them together and just Knew. His suffering knows no end (lovingly)). But yeah i think they have a lot in common, they both are the really bright and friendly figure, both also started in overcompensating a bit because both wanted to be popular in some ways.

But we do have, on one hand, Kazunari who wanted that rather late in his life while Taichi always thrived for that, the fact Kazunari made friends easily and it's just that he was scared of getting to the next level, while Taichi always struggled with this quest for popularity. In a way too both of them were at least scared to share a part of them, Kazunari worrying to show his thoughts, and Taichi being a spy and all of that... which impacts them really differently considering the guilt it puts on Taichi. And then you add their age into the mix, especially the fact Kazu is the oldest of his troupe and Taichi the youngest of his, it makes them fairly similar all while being fairly different.

both are so interesting to me and i love them bothhh, so it's always nice to see them have focus.

admittedly i was kinda surprised that the content of that improv wasnt rly too similar to their actual fight? like normally a3 has the story of the play run parallel to like the actual real character drama so i thought the improv might function as the play in this event

i love how you are seeing the patterns a3 tends to do it's so neat!

It's true the fight isn't really similar to their actual fight, though i do love that they had "swapped" their personality for the act and ended up insulting each other for theirr swapped personality. Like, Kazunari insulted part of himself in Tsuzuru's character and Tsuzuru did the same?? and then the fight escalated and the way Kazunari broke character hurts bc it's really that Tsuzuru hit where it hurts. But yeah it still wasn't too relevent to their actual fight, though i think the thing is that their fight was as such mostly because they tend to clash often due to their personalities rather than just this singular reason why, so to have the play go more "it's their personalities the problem" kinda hurt lol. But yeah still agreed that it didn't reflect much on the plot itself

I was rereading the improv bit to answer correctly and man since we're going to talk about Tenma next, i just. Love that when Kazunari, breaking character, his eyes sad, tells Tsuzuru "you have no rights talking to me like that..." it then cuts on Tenma being upset. Bc like. Exactly like you say, he wants to look out for the people under him. and like. Kazunari is his friend. A friend he also snapped at once and insulted for being who he was, so he probably could have relived a bit of his fight with Kazunari seeing those two fights; Except that now Kazunari is one of his closest friend and he doesn't like that.

Also like. It was also because he could still hide under the plot of the improv but it's so rare, and it never happened before that point, that Kazunari stands for himself in a "the way you treat me is unfair"? Like again re: his fight with Tenma, when Tenma snapped at him, while Tenma was unfair with him, Kazunari took the blame, called himself annoying and all yaknow?

The fact Kazunari is starting to accept that he can take more place for himself is something the whole Summer Troupe have been trying to help him work on, but especially Tenma. Tenma is always there trying to push Kazunari to say what he means, to express his feelings, to stop hiding.

And for once, Kazunari does that in front of everyone... and it's because he's breaking because of his fight with Tsuzuru.

I think Tenma probably felt it was even more of a reason to get involved like, this is the thing he's been working on with Kazunari about, and now he's being all hurt about it, not on Tenma's watch!

And i totally agree with your take on Tenma! (and would LOVE to read the Tenma and Juza fic once you get to it :3c). I think, Tenma is really caring and is trying to take a place as a caretaker and all, but unlike Omi, he has absolutely no reference for it.

Omi is the eldest of multiple brothers and everything indicates his parents have always been lovely to him. Add to it how he ended up leader of a delinquent crew he was clearly looking after, Omi has a history of taking care of people, of nurturing them, and he knows what he's doing. Meanwhile Tenma grew up on TV sets, mostly surrounded by adults and not by people his age, mostly getting advice from being ordered around by directors i think. And his parents are distant, hyperfocused on their job, not really nursing with him. So Tenma meanwhile really didn't have a family emotional support and was in situation where he couldn't befriend other kids his age. His only reference was probably Igawa (his agent) and i think for a long time he didn't exactly see it, and Igawa remained mostly professional so there was probably the idea of it not being sincere? That Tenma had to grow out of.

So like, they're both extremely nurturing and caring, but my point is that Omi has experiences in it and is at ease with it, while Tenma has been so alone and in places were he had no support system that even if he wants to support others, he still struggles with how to do it because he has no set exemple. And that's his development in the main story arc, to learn from how Izumi shows she cares in order to care back at them all.

Like i mean the way Tenma yelled at them about their mistakes at first feel like he would have picked it up from some directors on TV set yaknow? Probably hearing them say that with no consequences on others actors, seeing it worked, didn't think "that's an abuse of power and the actors probably all think badly of their director for that" but "wow that works", tried it on his troupesmates and realized this is... not how that works. And it's spending time watching how Izumi encourages them that have him fix his way to approach it.

So yeah i got lost too into it but like. I feel you on Tenma i love him so much and i love his development so to see him get pissed and involved there? was really nice. even if he was aggressive about it. He's still learning.

ANYWAY back to Tsuzuru and Kazunari, totally agree with what you say next. They still care a lot about each other and yeah they're at a point where this consideration they have for each other make their anger more quiet than trying to attack one another (Banri could NEVER-). so yeah totally agree with you!

DLKFJDLKF i LOVE the reasoning on "recognizing that Kazunari was sick". Your writer's powers making you see through... *coughs* unlike Tsuzuru....

AND YEAH ALL YOU SAY ABOUT THE CG.. YEAH. Kinda crying thinking about it again now LDKJFLKDJF It's just. Everything about it is so soft and tender. The things Tsuzuru tells Kazunari are soo so sweet sobs. They're just adorable i love those kids. and also i feel you for Kazu he's just that great huh?

The whole set up about Kazu dropping by his room is so so cute! I love it! Like probably the very first time Tsuzuru braces himself because "oh no i'm not in the mood to stand mister hyperenergy himself" but Kazunari quickly adjust his energy so that Tsuzuru can just recharge without being overwhelmed. Yes it would drive Masumi completely nuts. Which i think is a plus for Tsuzuru like, hey, if Masumi gets annoyed once in a while it's a win. But yeah also i think that Tsuzuru and Kazunari should really have the Artistic Soldiarity of Students in Art school Probably Working Until Very Late To Complete Their Projects. Would love if at the end Tsuzuru gave it back yaknow?

but yeah their story was really nice i'm so glad you liked it! :D

oh god yeah Itaru and Citron were SO cute in it too, i also love the comments Citron makes about Itaru's winks. Just there flirting in front of everyone like those two embarrassing friends huh. (probably with Muku being all starry eyes considering he greatly admires both Itaru and Citron and, well, Romance.). And yeah i love how Itaru ends up so much into Citron's rhythm (and this idiom you said? is glorious actually, 10 points for you)

DLKFJDLKF what a call out toward Yuki. "yes i hate Tenma,no i won't shut up about him, also if YOU say you hate Tenma i'm going to stab you with my needles, have a nice fucking day.". I love their dynamics so much aha

And yeah Itaru is there cursing us the whole time with the fact he's the greatest nerd ever and it fits him perfectly. It makes me laugh so hard.

Thank you so much for having shared your thoughts there! it's always a blast to read through them and i dearly enjoyed it! (+ it makes me relive the event a little and it makes me soft!)

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! So glad you had so many thoughts about all of this, what a blast.

thank you for sharing, and looking forward the Autumn/Winter reactions :3c

Take care!

#ichareply #ichafantalks a3 #sonnets of beauty

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missnewtuti · 3 years ago

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Ok Woso fam, I feel like a lot of uswnt fans should get into softball.

The quick run down:

Softballs back for the first time since 2008. The US lost to Japan in the final gold medal game, and two of those players are on this roster (and this year will probs be a rematch)

Softball is basically faster, more fun to watch baseball. For the Olympics they have a bunch of “pace of play” rules that make sure the games average ~2 hours

A+ uniforms. Some have shorts! Some have pants and belts! Hats, visors, headbands, and braids galore.

Tall Amazon ladys throw ball real good

No fans means you get to hear the teams cheer for their batters and that’s real fun too

The US plays Japan in their final opening round game tonight at 9pm ET / 6pm PT. The gold medal game is 7am ET on Tuesday morning.

Ok, you in? Here’s the full scoop

The History

Softball hasn’t been in the Olympics since 2008, but it’s back this year. It probably won’t be in London in 2024, but it’s likely to be back in LA 2028 (LA has some great softball stadiums and has some of the best college programs).

The US won gold 🥇 in 2004 and were favorites to defend their title, but were upset by Japan 🇯🇵 in the gold medal match, walking away with silver 🥈

The US has two olympians from 2008, Canada has four, and Japan also has two. You can read more about them here.

The Format

6 countries are in this years tournament. They all played each other once, and the top 2 will play for gold. 3 and 4 will play for bronze.

So far, most teams have played 4/5 games. And with US and Japan both undefeated, they’re locked in for the gold medal game.

The Rivalry

So now the script is flipped from 2008. Japan - the host nation - is defending their gold. Japan has a professional softball league too, so a lot of folks play over there.

Two of the Americans from that 2008 team are back (more on them coming up next), looking to get some redemption.

Like c’mon this is one of those times we can root for the USA with some underdog vibes. Well ok maybe not full underdog, but at least we don’t have to do insane mental gymnastics to have a chip on our shoulder for this one.

The Amazons

Cat Osterman and Monica Abbott are both 6’3” pitchers who have been racking up strikeouts, and are looking to come away with gold after being upset in 2008. Osterman actually unretired when softball was announced for the Tokyo games.

They both still have a ton of impressive college records and some of the current team grew up watching them so that’s fun too. Apparently their coach calls them Fire and Ice.

Here’s an article about the fantasy draft new team every week league Osterman was a player/coach in. She always looks like she won’t take any of your shit and I dig that vibe. Apparently some of the team calls her Momma Cat which is adorbs.

I guess softball is less terrible for human bodies than baseball so these two ladies start every game, and so far Abbott has pitched 2 complete games and was the closer in Osterman’s two starts.

Softball is fun

So, first off, softball is a lot of fun to watch. You get all of the good stuff from baseball - hits and running and stealing bases and strike outs - but it doesn’t feel like watching paint dry.

It’s seven innings, and there’s a ton of rules to make sure the game doesn’t drag on. Pitching changes are quick, and they move between innings so quickly they don’t need to cut to commercial.

The pitchers all have their own little pitch dance they do, like I have no idea what’s going on but it looks cool.

Oh also, this is neat. They don’t make you throw the four balls for an intentional walk. You can literally just say nah, I’m not pitching you, just head over to first.

Some pitchers even hit, which is super neat. This post is gonna be mostly US focused, but here’s Sara Groenewegen, a Canadian pitcher who also hits (she’s usually their DP when she’s not pitching).

The Fashion

Ok, so not to be gay (don’t worry, that’s coming up in the next section) but holy shit softball uniforms are great. So much variety but all just really work (baseball should be taking notes).

I’m biased, but the US has some of the best uniforms. They can go full red, white, or blue, or they can mix and match. The USA on the pants is a nice touch, and I’m a sucker for a good belt.

But there’s a ton of variety. Japan wears shorts! And long sleeves. And hats. I couldn’t find any great pics but here’s one.

And the headwear - the glasses, the visors, the hats, the hairstyles. In my very scientific observations, softball seems to have the highest braid to player ratio of any sport. I guess soccer has buns and softball has braids.

Personally, I’m a fan of some good headband game, I’m sure JJ fans feel me. Some ppl wear face masks and others don’t and there seem to be a bunch of different helmet shapes and styles. Most teams seem to go with visors (I’m thinking so they have more real estate for the braid designs) but some teams go with hats.

Go Gays

As Pinoe once said, you can’t win a championship without gays. It’s just science. All three of US softballs gays (at least based on my cursory Instagram search 🕵️‍♀️) were involved in the US’s extra innings walk off win against Australia. (Chiddy hit the walk off, scoring Haylie and Ally).

Haylie McCleney

She’s the US lead off hitter and has an absolutely insane .727 batting average so far. She also recently got engaged, so that’s cute. Every team has that insane iron man - and apparently McCleney is that for the US. The center fielder leads a bunch of the teams trainings and workout stuff.

Ally Carda

First baseman Ally Carda has also been having a good tournament and is (dating? Engaged? Married? Idk it wasn’t in the Instagram caption and I didn’t feel like digging in) to a former US Softball Olympian (2004, 2008).

Amanda Chidester

Finally, we have Amanda Chidester, an outfielder (and sometimes DP). She secured the US spot in the gold medal match with her eighth inning walk off, earning the US a 2-1 victory over Australia.

She also has the arguably funnest Olympics storyline because she actually played a game against her fiancée, who plays shortstop for Mexico. (She had a sweet Instagram post about it).

The chaos

Softball gets rid of a lot of boring stuffy baseball rules. Rosters are smaller and players can re enter the game under certain circumstances so there can be fun shenanigans with pinch runners.

Also if there’s 2 outs and a catcher up on base, someone comes and runs for them so they can go put on their catcher outfit. Softball appreciates an efficient costume change.

In CAN vs JPN, the umpires messed something up and weren’t gonna let a Canadian pitcher re enter the game and the whole Canadian team just walked off the field like we’re not gonna play til you get your shit together.

So, in conclusion, women’s sports are fun to watch and softball is neat. Hopefully they get some hype these Olympics and we see some investment in professional leagues.

#tokyo olympics #usa softball #uswnt #I’m going down a rabbit hole of a new hyperfixation #who wants to come with me?

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xae-in-a-coat · 3 years ago

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Xaje(Z-Age): The Poetic Murderer

Yours truly made a Kingdom Hearts/Organization XIII Sona recently & finally decided to post about him here due to the fact that he somehow managed to develop an everlasting fear of people stealing his hard earned brain-work over night. Anyway, just take these small scrap doodles & angst ridden quotes I created earlier. None of this really counts as attention-worthy in my eyes, believe me, I am well aware of the fact at this point, but it’s solely for the sake of me not losing my mind over the possibility of my ideas being stolen anytime soon(plus, truth be told, I’ve actually grown quite fond of this miniscule scheme we artists call “character design”). Now, where were we? Ah yes, my quotes & in-game dialogue:

“Shadows can’t appear without light nor can stars shine without the darkness. In conclusion, our worlds require both one & the other in order to exist within a state of tranquil harmony. Perhaps we should start encountering that terribly desirable goal by changing your uneducated perspective.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“You blinded light dwellers would never understand, you believe that the world is filled with happiness & success, that even in the darkest of times there’ll always be that last sliver of hope worth holding onto, that all of your feeblest dreams will one day come true. Well you’re wrong. The world is nothing more than darkness in itself, and we’re living proof of that. Us Nobodies were once like you, foolish, ignorant, weak, we clung to those same beliefs that you now spout and look where it’s landed us. An endless, inescapable abyss of nothingness in which we gather & begrudgingly call a home. Welcome to The Castle That Never Was.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“Do I cause you to question the English language itself? Good. Confusion is the mind’s greatest weakness after all. Along with curiosity of course, but I’ll gladly settle for either of the two.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“Allow me to put a quick end to this poorly written story of yours. It’s plot is becoming terselessly bland & ever so flavorless, these pages could endanger the less prepared minds of vain readers, & besides, not even the characters seem to know what they’re doing anymore.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“Thank you, but no. I prefer to eat in private. Being here amongst the presence of all your beautiful faces is causing me to feel deeply self loathsome, or for the less educated, gross.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“Yeah, I study gems. Nothing crazy though, mainly just a load of Google searches & me being pretentious, heh. Anyway, what was that really cool thing you were doing with that giant key just now?”

-𝙹𝚊𝚎

“I’m a poet, just living out my life & writing my own stories I guess. Not like anyone else would bother reading them anyway.”

-𝙹𝚊𝚎

“Hey uh- Is that a pen? Cause I kinda need one right now. Crazy bunch of ideas just flooded my pea sized brain. Wouldn’t wanna forget them right? A mind-full of words now could turn into a completely full fledged story later, who knows.”

-𝙹𝚊𝚎

“Blueberries, literature, & dreams. These are the few things I’ve stayed alive for. Yup, fourteen years of being a hopeless idiot & disappointing everyone I come by.”

-𝙹𝚊𝚎

“But why do we hate darkness even though we’re literally surrounded by it every night!? I thought you Keyblade idiots knew better, I thought you were better! Heh, guess I was wrong… Note to self: Never put your trust in anybody EVER AGAIN! BECAUSE THIS UNIVERSE IS NOTHING MORE THAN A FILTHY BREEDING POT FULL OF EVEN FILTHIER BACKSTABBERS!-”

-𝙹𝚊𝚎

“Unfortunately enough, it seems that I’ve run out of stories to tell… Heh, I should’ve realized this moment was going to come for me sooner or later. A writer’s charm only lasts so long before it fades, just as a pen will eventually run out of ink, or an uncharted idea will eventually be forgotten. Yet again, that bothersome light you use to fight us is no different when compared to those few simpleminded examples. Expiable, inconsistent, just like the hearts you so proudly hold.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“Why must inspiration always come to me at the worst of times?- Ugh, I suppose that new writing prompt of mine will just have to wait for later, you on the other hand, shall be dealt with now.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“Your specialty should be renewed into a weapon of some sort. Coming naturally to you in times of need, refined, retrained, & unlike what it was before. Here, take my trusty Fountain Pen for example: From normal size to weaponized! It’s quite fun actually, not that I have a heart to garner the enjoyment of course, but still, one cannot deny when one has alas discovered the thing they endearingly call ‘a hobby.’”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

“The beings I once called ‘family’ were nothing more than burdensome unaccepting hate speakers, & surely enough, they still are. It was because of them that I ended my miserable self & landed here, fractured, incomplete, but more relieved than I can ever recall being whilst I still garnered a heart from within. Yes yes, it may not be the most apparent thing to you newcomers, but being a Nobody has its perks, especially if you willingly chose to be one.”

-𝚇𝚊𝚓𝚎

Now for an unanimated cutscene of two characters conversing through the unprofessional script put together by yours truly:

Xaje: We’re nothing more than a stain on the pristinely white pages of your world, an unwanted drop of ink that was never meant to exist in the first place, a thing you unaccepting light dwellers would call ‘a mistake.’ Still we roam freely, collecting the negative reputation you’ve forcefully written us to have. Ever spreading, ever growing, never stopping till we’ve met our untimely ends. Perhaps you & I aren’t so different after all, P/N.

Protagonist: Shut it, I’m nothing like you!

Xaje: Hm, don’t be so foolish light dweller, our respective roles as heroes & well… Antiheroes, will always set us apart of course, but in the end we both want what’s best for this dreaded empire, don’t we? deny it not any further P/N, we’re one in the same, you’re simply far too blinded by the light to see truth when it’s clearly there. Well, if I can’t persuade you now, perhaps I’ll try again another time, good day.

Protagonist: Huh?! Hey, come back! QUIT RUNNING AWAY FROM ME YOU COWARD!

Xaje: You see what I mean, foolish, ignorant, weak. Are baseless insults & vile acts of bullying really your only powers? Tsk tsk tsk, how very sad indeed.

Protagonist: SHUT UP!

Xaje: Till we meet again dearest light dweller, be sure to keep that precious little heart of yours safe whilst we’re apart, won’t you? I find that it can be quite fragile at times.

Protagonist: I SAID BE QUIET!- Aaannnd he’s gone… AGAIN!

-𝙵𝚒𝚗

Progress shots:

#kingdom hearts #organization xiii OC #organization xiii #organization 13 #my sona #nobody #oc artwork #my art #fanart #fountain pen #my quotes #writer #flipaclip #main protagonist #antagonist

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grailfinders · 3 years ago

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Fate and Phantasms #170

Today on Fate and Phantasms we take our first steps into the pseudosingularity that must not be named, in search of new and... well, at least they’re new, servants. Today we’re making the Assassin of the Nightless City, a.k.a. Nite Brite, a.k.a. yet another reason why Type Moon should just stop designing child characters.

There’ll be spoilers in her build (obviously), but you can check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: Popular new Amazon service just comes to your house and kills you

Wu Zetian is an Arcane Trickster Rogue to pick up some of the tools of the trade she’ll need to become empress, as well as a Whispers Bard for more social graces. And interrogation techniques, those are important too.

Race and Background

Wu’s a Human, obviously, but she’s a really small human, so we’re going with Custom Lineage anyway since it lets us make her Small and barely changes anything about her abilities. This gives her +2 Dexterity, proficiency with Investigation to rat out dissent, and the Poisoner feat. Now she ignores poison damage resistance, can coat a weapon as a bonus action, and she can make poisons by spending 50 gp to make some weaker poison to apply to a weapon.

Also worth noting: the Dungeon Master’s Guide includes tons of poisons you could already make with the poisoner’s kit, but you’d never know that if you’d only read the player’s handbook. That’s a big reason why so many people think poisonings are underpowered in D&D, they literally didn’t tell any of the players how they work. That being said, the poisoner feat poison is by far the cheapest you can get, so it’ll be a staple.

Seriously, you can make paralyzing poisons, truth serums, knockout poison, time lapse poison, poisons that prevent the damage from being healed for at least a week, so many goddamn poisons. Please check out page 257 in the DMG, it’s a lot.

Also, you’re obviously a Noble, but you’re a scary noble, so you get proficiency with Intimidation and History.

Ability Scores

First up, make your Dexterity as high as possible. Being part of the emperor’s court requires grace and elegance, and being a rugrat certainly doesn’t hurt your ability to slip through small spaces. After that is Charisma, you are the most famous climber of the social ladder in history. You’re also fiendishly clever, so your Intelligence is also pretty solid. Your Constitution isn’t bad, but we’re mostly getting this because you’re definitely worse at the other stuff. Like your Wisdom! You’re nobody’s fool, but you do have a couple quirks that’ll make it hard to pass those saves against being frightened. Finally, dump Strength. The emperor didn’t date you for your sick lats, and becoming a child doesn’t help.

Class Levels

1. Rogue 1: Starting off as a rogue nets you a ton of proficiencies- you get Dexterity and Intelligence saves, as well as four skills. Stealth and Sleight of Hand to get poisons where they need to be, Insight to find out where that is, and Deception to play the survivors like a fiddle. You also get Expertise in Insight and Investigation to double your proficiency bonus in those two skills right out the gate.

You can also use a Sneak Attack to deal extra damage to creatures you have an advantage over. You also get Thieves’ Cant. It’s a language.

2. Rogue 2: Running an empire is a full time job, so use your Cunning Action to fit more into a single turn- now you can dash, disengage, or hide as a bonus action.

3. Rogue 3: Third level rogues get a stronger sneak attack (2d6), and they get all the goodies from their specialty! Arcane Tricksters can cast spells from the wizard spell list (mostly enchantment and illusion) using their Intelligence.

These spells include Mage Hand, which is super useful, because otherwise your Mage Hand Legerdemain would be pretty pointless. Your mage hand comes with all the usual abilities, but you can also: make the hand invisible, stow objects in containers worn/carried by other creatures, retrieve objects from the same places, pick locks at a range, hide your hand’s actions with sleight of hand checks against other creature’s perception, and do all of these as a bonus action.

You also get the cantrips Acid Splash and Poison Spray for even cheaper poisons, Ray of Sickness for roughly the same reason, and Sleep for a less direct kind of poisoning. You can also write Illusory Script to keep your plans a secret from busybodies.

4. Bard 1: Bouncing over to bard will help you understand the mandate of heaven thanks to your proficiency with the Religion skill. You also get more Spells that use your Charisma to cast, and your Bardic Inspiration can give your lackeys a boost as a bonus action, giving one of them a d6 to add to a check, attack, or save when they think they’ll need the help.

You get the cantrips Vicious Mockery and Friends for more social manipulation, as well as Command to start acting for the job you want, rather than the job you have. Bane is yet another poison that’ll dull the senses of a few enemies around you, and you get Unseen Servant and Silent Image to make your first servants. It’s a pain that the servant and their visuals are separate spells right now, but we’ll deal with that later.

Since you’re multiclassing spellcasters, check the player’s handbook to see how many spell slots you get.

5. Rogue 4: Back in rogue, you get your first Ability Score Improvement, so round up your Dexterity and Intelligence. Odd numbers are wasteful, and you have to make the most out of everything you’ve got if you want to become the ruler of China.

You can also Distort Value, doubling or halving an object’s apparent value. Make your presents to the emperor look better and your rivals’ look worse, easy.

6. Rogue 5: Fifth level rogues can make an Uncanny Dodge as a reaction, halving the damage of a single incoming attack. This is very useful if you don’t want to be gallagher’d, so use it often.

Also your sneak attack’s bigger again.

7. Rogue 6: Now that you’ve got your sights on your biggest opponents, it’s time to start taking them out. Use this round of Expertise on Sleight of Hand and Deception to Manipulate, Murder, Misrepresent your way to the top.

8. Rogue 7: Seventh level rogues get a stronger sneak attack, as well as the classic feature Evasion, making your dexterity saves really good. You survive an entire city collapsing into the ocean, that’s got to be a lot of dexterity saves.

You can also cast Phantasmal Force to start making some torturers for real! Er, as real as you can, right now.

9. Bard 2: Second level bards are Jacks of All Trades, adding half your proficiency bonus to any ability check that doesn’t already use it. If you want to entertain somebody that owns everything, you’ve got to be able to do anything. You also get your Song of Rest, making short rests a little more restful while you’re around.

You also get Healing Word for just a bit of healing. You don’t really have a healing factor by the letter of the law, but Imperial Privilege does restore a bit of health for some reason, so you’re good.

10. Bard 3: Third level bards pick a college, and the college of Whispers will help you climb your way to true nobility. Specifically on the backs of anyone foolish enough to get in your way.

Your Psychic Blades spend your inspiration to add psychic damage to a weapon attack once per turn, and your Words of Terror can cause a humanoid to become frightened of another creature for up to an hour once per short rest.If the attempt fails, they won’t know a thing.

On top of that, you get yet another round of Expertise, so brush up on your History and Religion before you ascend to the throne.

You also get second level spells this level. While you specialize in poison in this spirit origin, you’re still a torturer at heart, so grab Heat Metal.

11. Rogue 8: Finally getting back to rogue just in time for another ASI! Use this one to bump up your Charisma for better spell saves and more inspiration.

You also learn how to Enhance your Abilities, giving you advantage on one kind of ability check for the duration.

12. Rogue 9: Ninth level tricksters learn a Magical Ambush, giving your target disadvantage on a spell’s saving throw if you cast it while hidden from them. It’s a shame it doesn’t work on poisons as well, but it’ll make your opening salvo of magic much more effective.

13. Rogue 10: Use this ASI to bump up your Intelligence so your rogue spells match the strength of your bard spells.You also learn True Strike, which will link you to Agartha Rewritten, a tumblr blog that will let you avoid directly reading the real Agartha story. It also gives you advantage on one attack, but honestly you should probably just attack twice.

You can also cast Hold Person now to shove them into a vase for safekeeping. While frozen this way, attacks are made with advantage and automatically crit upon hit, so make sure you dig in with your sneak attacks while they’re stuck.

14. Rogue 11: Eleventh level rogues get Reliable Talent, so now you always roll at least a 10 on skill checks you’re proficient in. That means your insight rolls are always at least a 20, so no secrets can escape your eye.

Your poisons can also induce a frenzy in your foes with a Crown of Madness, letting you control which creatures it attacks each turn.

15. Rogue 12: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for more inspiration and stronger bard spells.

16. Rogue 13: As a Versatile Trickster, you can use your bonus action to distract an enemy with your Mage Hand, getting advantage on attacks against them

You can also expand your crown of madness to a full on freakout thanks to Enemies Abound.

17. Rogue 14: Your Blindsense lets you sniff out any creatures within 10′ of you, regardless of whether you can see them or not.

You can also, finally, make some real torturers thanks to Animate Dead. You can use the spell to make one zombie or skeleton, or to exert control over three of them you’ve already made. Given your spell slots are at a premium... good luck with that.

18. Rogue 15: Fifteenth level rogues have a Slippery Mind, giving you proficiency with Wisdom Saves. You’re pretty unflappable, aside from the cats.

19. Rogue 16: One last ASI, so bump up your Intelligence for stronger spells. Sorry if this sounds like a broken record, but we pretty much took care of your physical stats by level 5.

You can also spread Fear to whole groups of enemies now, forcing a wisdom save on all creatures within a 30′ cone. Any creatures that fail their save are frightened, and have to use their action to move as far away from you as possible. If a creature ends its turn somewhere it can’t see you, it can make another wisdom save to try and end the effect. Good luck though, we just made your intelligence really good.

20. Rogue 17: Your capstone level grants you the final boon of the arcane trickster class, Spell Thief. Once per long rest, you can try to steal a spell that’s affecting you, forcing a saving throw of the caster’s casting ability vs your spell save (DC 8 + Intelligence Modifier + Proficiency). If they fail, you negate the spell’s effect against you, and the original caster can’t cast that spell again for 8 hours. Furthermore, if it’s a leveled spell and you have the spell slots for it, you can cast it yourself for those eight hours. Imperial Privilege never felt so good!

Pros:

You are really good at skills, with jack of all trades making you kind of good at everything and reliable talent making you very good at some things. Basically, if something’s happening out of combat and it isn’t strength based, you can probably help.

Most of those skills you’re really good at let you control social scenes, controlling the ebb and flow of politics with your supercharged skill checks and the occasional word of terror.

Thanks to your Psychic Blades, you can convert all your sneak attack damage into psychic damage, which is way harder to block.

Cons:

That last pro is entirely tied to your few inspiration dice that only come back on long rests, so you’ll have to keep your cards close to your chest. Not that that’s anything new for you.

Thanks to your small size and low strength score, you’re easy to knock around. You should probably stay away from the muscleheads until you’ve knocked a couple rounds of poison into them.

Stealing spells is fun, but you’re limited by your spell slots. Unlike Nero, you can’t use wish.

#fate grand order #fgo #D&D 5e #DND #assassin of nightless city

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spectralscathath · 4 years ago

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do robyn :3c:

Send me a RWBY character and I’ll tell you:

Robyn Hill

My top three ships for the character

Clover/Robyn (Lucky Shot is my OTP), Qrow/Robyn (Jailbyrds is a spite ship and I’ll admit it), Roman/Robyn (Rob the Rich, if only for the name)

My three least favorite ships for the character

Robyn/any of the other Happy Huntresses, Robyn/Winter (I remember that fucking ‘snowbyrd’ discourse you bastards), Robyn/Qrow (when I remove the spite goggles I don’t like this at all.)

My biggest criticism for the character

you got 10 minutes? 20? Maybe 30? Buckle up fuckos. I got some points to make and you’re gonna listen.

1. Robyn Hill is wasted potential

Robyn’s first appearance was one of my favourite scenes of Vol7. No joke! She was witty, interesting, had an excellent banter with Clover, deliberately stood down from a fight she couldn’t win, though she seemed eager for a challenge, showed some cunning, and looked like she was having fun.

And then pretty much all of that got ignored. Robyn was set up as a good, smart leader with a cocky swagger, history with Clover, a deceptively cunning streak, and a calm, level-headed attitude. What Robyn was from then on was Angry Shouty Hothead Picks Fights She Can’t Win. She turned into someone impulsive, short-sighted, bullheaded, and focused only on fighting. 70% of Robyn’s lines are about violence and how she likes violence and how she wants to fight with VIOLENCE. The other 30% are, incidentally, ‘i’m so smart and understanding and kind, I’m gonna force people to undergo a lie detector test via peer pressure and ultimatums but it’s actually tragic that no one wants to be my friend because of my semblance. Poor me.

And that was not what I was expecting. That is not what was foreshadowed. And compared to what the potential could have been, a good allusion rich with depth, a setting that could ahve been interesting if it wasn’t so rushed, how she could have been a player on the board, filled so many possible roles, and instead she was a walking ‘Ironwood bad’ mouthpiece that didn’t actually do anything (and has never done well in a fight, which is RWBY’s staple). What a waste.

2. Robyn Hill actively makes things worse and gets no comeuppance

Robyn Hill makes situations worse. First of all, she steals supplies from Ironwood (and then doesn’t use them???? what the fuck????), which puts Ironwood under stress, which then leads to Ruby being Miss Unhelpful (but that’s a rant for another day). Robyn then gets classified info from Blake and Yang who, may I remind you, never met her. She could have been a spy! But no, Blake just has a gut feeling (because the script said so).

Robyn then calls James out on this, which later leads to ‘how did Robyn know about the global communications tower’, which means the fighting happens in the office, everyone stresses, Salem provides one of the few redeeming scenes in the show post-Ironwatts fight (it all went downhill from there, even more then it already was). Robyn didn’t explicitly cause this but she sure as fuck had a hand in it.

Then you have fucking. Clover’s death. Yes, Robyn, agreeing with the serial killer who just tried to murder you and starting a fight in an enclosed space when you’re a ranged fighter vs your melee combatant ex-boyfriend is absolutely the smart thing to do. And then, for a moment, Qrow and Clover nearly sort things out, and fucking Robyn jumps in again. And then, what did she do? She got knocked out immediately. Yikes. Ladies and gentlemen, our ‘Resident Strong Female Character’. But because she did all this, she pretty much guaranteed first: Tyrian escaped. Secondly: Clover died.

And yeah, Robyn. Just because Qrow didn’t personally shove that blade through Clover’s chest, he still worked with The Serial Killer Who Kills People to help. So yeah, Robyn, that does count as some sort of murder. Or at least, accomplice to murder. You’re also vaguely adjacent to it, so don’t get all ‘but Qrow’s innocent’.

It’s the same problem with team RWBY. They do terrible things, they whine about how hard it is, and all is forgiven cause they’re cute sad girls. There’s no comeuppance. There’s no growth. It’s just the script going ‘this character is right because we said so, so now we’re gonna do our best approximation of if a pretzal and a contortionist had an unholy boneless lovechild and bend the plot so the characters win anyway.’

3. Robyn Hill is a static character

This is gonna sound weird with this lil header but Robyn actually had an arc in vol7! She had an arc that was fairly basic, she went from ‘I don’t trust Ironwood and want to know what’s going on’ to ‘I am actively ruining Ironwood’s goals’ and finally settled on ‘I know what’s going on, Ironwood is worth supporting, and I do trust him.’ It was a simple arc, but it didn’t need to be anything more then that.

Then in the span of about 1 minute all her actual development was reversed and she ran backwards to her original stance of ‘Ironwood bad’. We literally saw her devleopment walk backwards, and there it stayed. She spent all of vol8 as an empty voicebox that occasionally pipped out ‘Qrow’s my friend’ and was devoid of any personality. She didn’t have much beforehand that wasn’t fairly generic, so it’s almost impressive.

The problem is that static characters take a lot of work to avoid being boring characters. A lot of rwby just has these problems in general, character development is either ignored, skipped over, or given to the wrong characters, but in Robyn’s case it’s actively annoying because she had some development, and then she ignored all of that to go back to being ‘ironwood bad’ with a side of ‘Qrow good’ because we needed to be reminded of that after he got an innocent man killed.

4. Robyn Hill is an unnecessary character

Why are you here. What do you do. Robyn was stated to be a character meant to act in opposition to Ironwood, to put him under stress like every other fucking character in this series. This was ‘confirmed’ by Eddy Rivas, which means zero because at some point the mentally deranged Weazel Ball that masquerades as the crwby writing team’s collective braincell will rapidly and suddenly change direction, causing massive retcons and plotholes in their moth-eaten threadbare dishtowel they dare to call ‘lore’, and we will have a different excuse for this waste of a good VA.

Here’s the thing tho: Robyn as ‘opposition for Ironwood’ isn’t fucking special. The fucking air in the Atlas Academy lobby opposes Ironwood. Robyn seems to be there... because Mantle needed a voice? Okay, well, why the fuck did Mantle need to exist? Because... the election plotline needed to exist so Jacque could do something mean? God, everything about Mantle and Robyn and the election plotline is just annoying. It drags and it adds nothing to the plotline and it all should have been culled so instead we could focus on things that are actually important (like maybe: the myth arc? character development? the fucking Schnees in Atlas???) rather then rwby’s fuckboi incel attempt at ‘classism = bad?’. If I, as a professional paid editor who works with actual manuscripts, was given the scripts for rwby vol7, I would have gotten the big red highlighter and done a shitload of crossing out. Then I would have told the writing team “come back with your second draft”, but alas, we got the Atlas Arc.

My favorite thing about the character

I love her design aside from that ugly-ass scarf. Also, her VA, Cristina Vee, is the only redeeming quality of this tire-fire of a character. Godbless and praise.

A headcanon I have about them

She deals with chronic ‘ponytail keeps falling out’ syndrome, just constantly. So many hairbands get used up when she does anything.

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

Everything. Every fucking thing. Especially that stupid fucking lie-detecting semblance.

What I I think of their character allusion and what (if anything) I would change about it

It’s incredibly underutilised. It’s Robin Hood in-name-only. It’s like, the most basic ‘oh the name is Robin and they steal’ and there’s not even any of the most obvious tells. Where’s the bright green? Where’s the hood? Where’s the fucking longbow? Where’s the ‘giving to the poor’ that comes after ‘stealing the rich’? She didn’t actually use any of those things she stole to fix Mantle, she just stole it.

Literally, all the classic elements of Robin Hood are missing, all that’s there is a name and... that’s it. The allusion isn’t there, and even if it was, it’s done in a boring fashion.

Personally, I would add more Robin Hood elements, and I would change one key thing. I would change her allegiance. Instead of ‘Robin Hood on the side of good’, I would take the team WTCH approach, a ‘good allusion turned evil’, and I’d have Robyn working with Salem, or, at least, as an antagonist. Because that could be actually interesting then the boring and unnecessary storyline we had.

#rwby #robyn hill #asks #if you get mad at this just remember Galatians 4:16

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davidcampiti · 3 years ago

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A SCREENPLAY IS NOT A COMIC BOOK SCRIPT

I'm frustrated by writers who hire a comicbook artist then send a screenplay as their script. My first question to them is, "Are you hiring one of our writers to adapt this into a comic book script?" Usually they'll respond, "No that's the script to work from."

But it's not.

Word balloons aren't broken out or numbered, SFX aren't identified, the pacing is wrong, and most panel descriptions are missing, causing the artist and the editor to do twice as much work without a corresponding increase in pay.

Here's a good article from Nick Macari about the differences --

I think you’d be hard pressed to find some work of fiction, some type of writing, that you could NOT turn into a comic. That is to say, you could create a comic from notes on bar napkins, a published novel, heck I bet you could even create a comic using nothing but a movie as the source material.

If you’re making a comic yourself, like literally by yourself, it doesn’t really matter how you do it… only the final product matters. If you have some crazy process that gets you a beautiful finished product, good on ya mate.

But for those writing spec scripts, trying to write for others, or trying to entice others to their project, it pays to create scripts that open doors instead of closing them.

In 2020, there are a million writers writing screenplays and pawning them off as comic scripts.

If you want to be one of those guys… as you were.

But if you actually want to write comics, if you want to be a comic book writer, you should learn how to write an actual comic book script, not how to sell some other script as one.

There are lot of useful technique comics can borrow from screenplays.

For the innocent novice writer, it’s understandable to see some technical execution confusion. But for working and professional writers, knowing what transfers over and what doesn’t separates the riff from the raff.

Before we get into it, let’s put to bed, once and for all, why a straight screenplay script is not a comic script. Here’s why;

Director Production Designer Art Director Costume Designer Cinematographer … Camera Assistant Director of Photography Scenic Artist Set Decorator Storyboard artist … Makeup artist Wardrobe stylist Assistant Director Production Assistant Production Coordinator Production Designer … Script Supervisor Sound Mixer Special Effects Coordinator

oh yeah, and actors.

These are a few of the people involved in a film.

Individual roles dedicated to a specific area of production. In essence, a screenplay can deliver fairly minimal information and it’s someone’s specific job to interpret that information, its context, and otherwise apply their knowledge, experience and skill, to turn that information into some tangible, successful element.

If you think it’s the artist’s job to fill all these roles, you’re crazy… and mean to artists.

Ok, you still here?

Good.

Let’s showcase some specific examples of why a screenplay doesn’t hold up for comics;

THE FRENCH CONNECTION

Drug Dealer I don’t…

Doyle Ever pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?

Drug Dealer What?

Doyle Did you ever pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?

Drug Dealer I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.

Doyle Were you ever in Poughkeepsie?

Drug Dealer No… yeah…

Doyle Did you ever sit on the edge of a bed, take off your socks and stick your fingers between your toes?

Drug Dealer Man, I’m clean.

Doyle You made three sales to your roaches back there. We had to chase you though all this shit and you tell me you’re clean?

Russo Who stuck up the laundromat?

Doyle How about that time you were picking your feet in Pougheepsie?

The drug dealers’ eyes go to Russo in panic, looking for the relief from the pressure of the inquisition.

Russo (in pain) You better give me the guy who got the old Jew or you better give me something or you’re just a memory in this town.

Drug Dealer That’s a lot o’ shit. I didn’t do nothin’.

14 dialogue exchanges, with for all intents and purposes not a single visual description (one minor one toward the end about the dealer’s eyes.). This is likely at least one page of comic with this volume of exchanges and dialogue, and there is literally, nothing cuing the artist as to how this should go down.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION

Mutchie

That’s right, he couldn’t fight legit. One night at the Garden about 1950, ’51—he fought either Jake LaMotta or Gus Lesnevish, I think it was—he took one o’those cream puff punches in the sixth—the laziest left you ever seen—missed him entirely. Down goes Blackjack without even workin’ up a sweat and the whole Garden gets up on its feet and I swear to Christ, everybody starts singin’ “Dance with Me Henry.”

75 words. Way too much for a single panel.

How many ways can you break the dialogue into how many panels?

Is one way to break it up more effective than the others?

Because if it is, and that’s NOT the method you write up, you’re producing a less effective script.

But ultimately, what works in film as a 30 second monologue (doesn’t work in comics), would be far more effective as caption narration over flashback action.

THE EXORCIST

EXTERIOR – IRAQ- NINEVEH- DAY

The old man arrives back at that dig site in a small jeep. As he pulls up two armed guards rush out. When they see who it is the old man gives them a wave and they slowly walk back to there quarters. The old man walks up the rocky mound and sees a huge statue of the demon Pazuzu, which has the head of the small rock he earlier found. He climbs to a higher point to get a closer look. When he reaches the highest point he looks at the statue dead on. He then turns his head as we hear rocks falling and sees a guard standing behind him. He then turns again when he hears two dogs savagely attacking each other. The noise is something of an evil nature. He looks again at the statue and we are then presented with a classic stand off side view of the old man and the statue as the noises rage on. We then fade to the sun slowly setting as the noises lower in volume.

Hey! this has some nice direction, this screenplay stuff is perfect for a comic.

NO.

Let’s break it down;

This passage is 15 beats, give or take. One beat a panel, 3-5 panels per page, we’ve got 3-5 pages of comic in this passage alone.

Hang on we’re not done.

If you fill your page with this type of description (you shouldn’t, but let’s say you did), you could get almost double that amount of beats. So one page of screenplay delivering nearly 6-10 pages of comic content!

Tell me, when was the last time someone delivering a screenplay “comic script,” delivered a 2 page script for a complete issue? Never says I.

BONUS on this example:

Did y’all notice the soundtrack emphasis in this excerpt from the Exorcist script? Of course you can have sound effects in a comic, but no matter how you crack it, comics DO NOT have soundtracks. Relying on film soundtracks in a comic script is a sure fire way to deliver less effective scripts.

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA

JACK Alright, where’s my truck, Wang? I’m outta here. And my money, too.

WANG Forget about your truck, Jack. You don’t wanna go back there. You’ll have to go through the Wing Kong to get it. It’s insured, right?

JACK Of course it is. But that’s not the point.

WANG The smart man comes back for it later…

JACK The smart man calls the cops!

WANG Cops have better things to do than get killed.

We showed the typical lack of visual description a screenplay gives in the first example. [Screenplays tend to focus on the scene setup, then briefly hit key actions of the scene.] Here we have another example of missing visual description, but I point it out for something more specific–LACK OF EMOTIONAL context.

As I point out in the Writer’s Guide, Emotional content is one of the essential elements of each and every comic panel. So not only do we not have visual cues to support the action in the screenplay, but how are the characters delivering these lines!?

JACK Alright, where’s my truck, Wang? I’m outta here. And my money, too.

How many ways can you say this line?

I can say it pissed. Irritated. Fearful. Sarcastically. Comically. Those are just a few that pop in my head… and I’m no actor.

Leaving emotional context open to interpretation undermines narrative control–in a big way.

A good, effective scene, could die a horrible misinterpreted death.

For the record, you can use parentheticals in a screenplay. This can give emotional context, like the one from Jack’s first line I omitted to make the example more effective

JACK (pissed off)

But where parentheticals do contain emotional context, you use them in a script sparingly. Just like you don’t tell the director how to do his job filling your screenplay with camera direction, you don’t try to tell the actors how to do theirs. (Remember, the answer to why Screenplays aren’t Comic Scripts, there’s a lot of people, hopefully professionals, bringing their expertise to the table.)

CASABLANCA

Ilsa Your secret will be safe with me. Ferrari is waiting for our answer.

At the bar Ferrari talks to a waiter.

Ferrari Not more than fifty francs though.

Ilsa and Laszlo walk up to him.

Laszlo We’ve decided, Signor Ferrari. For the president we’ll go on looking for two exit visas. Thank you very much.

Ferrari Well, good luck. But be careful. ( a flick of his eyes in the direction of the bazaar) You know you’re being shadowed.

Laszlo glances in the direction of the bazaar.

Screenplays live in movement. Unless you’ve got a static insert of a letter or photo or something, everything is in motion and there is constant change (even if subtle) from micro-second, to micro-second.

While comics work to capture movement (and there are some tricks), it is ultimately a static medium, locked into showcasing moments frozen in time.

What I explain in the “works in movies not in comics article” is that the constant movement and motion, supported (primarily) by actors, but by the lighting people, the art direction people, director, etc. all gives depth and purpose to every single second of a film.

With all these people doing their job, a screenplay can give super general stage direction, like what we see here in this Casablanca excerpt.

At the bar Ferrari talks to a waiter.

Ilsa and Laszlo walk up to him.

Laszlo glances in the direction of the bazaar.

These trivial actions carry no narrative. They work in film because of performance and motion, which steps in to create narrative.Without performance and motion, a single frame captured from core stage direction translates to ineffective comic panels.

By the way, all the examples I’m giving here, are from solid movies. The big pink elephant in the room when writers deliver “comic screenplay scripts,” is that they assume they know how to write a good screenplay in the first place. Trust me, novice writers rarely do.

There’s a lot of technique and skill in writing a solid screenplay. And if you think a good screenplay causes problems converting to a comic, wait till you try it from a shitty screenplay.

Still thinkin’ screenplay is synonymous with comic script? Well you’re wrong sunshine, but what do I know?

I’m just a non-famous full-time mercenary writer, writing almost exclusively in comics and games for a decade or so. :p

I’ve spent a few hours writing this article, but there are plenty of other examples I haven’t touched on.

I’ll come back and add some more as I think of them in my down time. Maybe eventually when the list is so long it takes you a couple hours to read this article, y’all get it through your noggins that comics are there own medium which demand the attention and respect of a unique format and writing approach. Something the comic book writers reading this, already know. #justsayin

About the Author — Nick Macari is a full-time freelance story consultant, developmental editor and writer, working primarily in the independent gaming and comic markets. His first published comic appeared on shelves via Diamond in the late 90’s. Today you can find his comic work on comixology, amazon and in select stores around the U.S. Visit NickMacari.com for social media contacts and news on his latest releases.

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norcumii · 4 years ago

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The Rex/Obi theory

Since apparently we can pin a post, bringing this back from the old blog even though I really ought to do a better write up and just post it as meta on AO3. As always, ship and let ship, we’re all here to have fun, etc.

First off: background sources. Post Blue Shadow Virus, the Naboo gave Rex a set of guns. They are very shiny, very nice, and named Negotiator and Vigilance. Now, given that Obi-Wan has “The Negotiator” as a title, one has to wonder about “Vigilance.” Since Anakin is known as “The Hero With No Fear,” it’s probably not him.

It has also been pointed out to me (thank you, @morecivilizedage) that Obi-Wan’s flagships were the Vigilance and Negotiator. Which…yeah.

Later on, it seems the shuttle that Cody and Rex take in Rookies is named The Obex.

…I am not a fan of the name smushing habit people have for ships, but that’s…kind of blatant.

Also, I recently found out that Sideshow put out an Obi-Wan figure, based on the 2003 Clone Wars design (the modern Clone Wars, and what’s declared current canon, was the 2008 version). To my admittedly limited knowledge, Rex does not exist in the ‘03 show. If nothing else, he’s not listed as a character on the IMDB page. HOWEVER, part of this figure’s design is a wrist com hologram – of Rex. Not Cody. Not another Jedi. REX. WHO DOESN’T EVEN EXIST IN THAT SHOW, WHICH HAS SCREENSHOTS SHOWN ON THE BOX. They didn’t have to call the hologram Rex, and it’s out of continuity to the presented Obi-Wan, and would calling this hologram “Rex” instead of any other clone really sell more figures?

Gotta admit that’s Interesting.

Now, given I totally pick and choose data from non-show sources (…see the horrific novelizations of The Clone Wars – or better yet, please don’t. Character assassination abounds), we need to look at the actual show.

It starts with the movie. Cody has a minimalist presence in there, whereas Rex interacts with Obi-Wan a lot. There’s several scenes where there’s some lovely close interplay, including a bit where Obi-Wan is ordering Rex to pull back – while gripping Rex on the shoulder.

Take a moment. Consider how often you see on the show Obi-Wan touching anyone. He doesn’t tend to initiate that, and it’s rarely outside of a combat situation. But that man can’t seem to keep his hands off Rex. Watch with that in mind, and please, feel free to tell me I’m missing things.

So back to the Blue Shadow Virus. When Anakin is freaking out to Obi-Wan because his wife and student are liable to be the first to die, he wants to know how Obi-Wan can not be on edge. “I’m just better at hiding it.” Take the parallels – Padme and Ahsoka are Anakin’s family. Now, Obi-Wan is prolly also having a HUGE internal freakout because they are in THE hanger that started Duel of the Fates in Episode I, but if he’s hiding the same sort of emotional breakdown, who is that about?

Parallels are important. Take The Deserter. That is THE shipping episode. Watch how Obi-Wan reacts throughout: he’s grumpy at first, because Grievous is up to the usual shit. Then he coms in to find out what Rex’s status is – and upon hearing Rex has been shot, his immediate reaction is worry, concern – I’d almost say he’s distraught. His orders to Jesse to hustle up and help them take down Grievous is more snarled, harsher, and from that point on Obi-Wan has an edge to him that wasn’t there before. This particular battle has become personal to him, and when Grievous gets away, there is genuine ANGER that a Jedi should not be expressing. What the hells else has Grievous done this episode or the last to merit that sudden change?

As for the literal parallels, Cut is Rex’s counterpart. They are contrasted again and again throughout the episode, and that culminates with Rex bidding Cut and his family farewell – so that Rex can go back to HIS family. So. If Rex is Cut, then the kids are obviously the other troopers under Rex’s command, and who does that leave as Suu’s counterpart?

Who is it that Rex talks to immediately? G’on, guess.

Also, Obi-Wan cannot stop gushing to Cody about Rex. I imagine poor Cody has to put up with this a LOT.

In fact, we can show that he does! The episodes with the Zygerrian slavers – Kidnapped, Slaves of the Republic, and Escape from Kadavo – are just chock full of this. The main crew takes out two BARC speeders. Anakin has Ahsoka riding shotgun in the sidecar, while Obi-Wan has Rex. The intriguing bit is that Cody is left for cleanup and directing the rest of the clones, even though technically Rex is ordinarily in charge of a larger battle group (depending on what bit of canon you’re looking at). There’s that exchange in the slave mines OP mentioned (2 slightly different versions and commentary are linked). There’s also the sequence where Rex gets permission from Obi-Wan to take the shot and be a bad ass on the villain (“I’m no Jedi” indeed). That interplay is subtle, and implies the two work together and closely enough that a glance and a nod are enough to convey what’s going on. Sure, the 501 and 212 work together often, but Obi-Wan has his own second-in-command.

Interestingly, Cody does not show up after the first episode in this arc. Given that they have the voice actor on hand, and the Wolf Pack is called in at the end for the rescue, tossing Cody and some 212 into the mix would have been easy. So that dynamic has implications.

Not factual enough yet? Screenshots of character positioning being more like a romance moment than in a war flick not good enough?

Let’s go to the Citadel arc. There’s more of the circumstantial evidence, where Rex can be interpreted as having Obi-Wan’s back more than one might think is usual.

But then there’s this gifset. As the mixed 212 and 501 soldiers are thawing from carbonite, watch Obi-Wan in the background. He nopes out of Anakin and Ahsoka’s tiff, and goes over to chat with Rex and Cody. When Obi-Wan gets over there, he raises his arm to do the shoulder grip thing (like I mentioned above, in the movie!). It might not be clear from the gifs, but there is not enough time for Obi-Wan to do that twice before he goes to the one arm behind the back kind of “at ease” posture. When he steps away from the troopers to be the Actual Adult in the room to Anakin and Ahsoka, Rex stands a bit straighter, in proper military posture, and dusts off his armor. It might not be a universal gesture of “aw yeah, I’m awesome,” but it sure seems pretty satisfied. Poor Cody meanwhile is watching the move, which helps capture the viewer’s eye (and leaves me wondering if he’s going “what the hell is up with you?” or “do not make me hose you down”).

I would honestly love to know someone else’s interpretation of that with un-shipping goggles on. ‘Cause I admit, I don’t see it.

That, folks, is why I ship it like mad. There’s more circumstantial evidence throughout the show, like how Obi-Wan and Rex interact (like a married couple, or in fact often like Anakin and Padme are presented at their best). There’s Rex being extra fancy and staring at Obi-Wan WAY more than Anakin in The Voyage of Temptation, otherwise known as “Satine and Obi-Wan in a Shuttle and Anakin Being Oblivious.” There’s the simple implication of the chemistry between the characters, though that is obviously open to interpretation.

This is animation. It takes time and effort and money to animate a simple shoulder grip, or a specialized gesture such as buffing one’s nails. Voice acting is an art where you have to convey so much emotion with what can be small adjustments to words. Scripts have to go through so much oversight and tweaking to convey a particular story, within the wide scope, and themes and plot threads have to be carefully considered. This isn’t chance, this isn’t one writer/animator/storyboarder going off into the weeds because they had a Neat Idea.

I really do think it’s canon.

-----------

Random other bits I’ve gathered while re-watching the show:

During the movie, when Rex is told that General Kenobi’s been captured, he just freezes. He goes from digging around off screen for what I suspect is a new ammo cartridge, stills, then yells at the soldier that they have to hold out, now keep. fighting. It’s less rallying the troops as a bit of emotional pushback.

During Voyage of Temptation, when Anakin is sassing Obi-Wan in the elevator about Satine the possible old flame, Rex is right there in the elevator with both of them (along with poor Cody). Rex isn’t on Anakin’s flank, but Obi-Wan’s (little odd, but I don’t recall offhand how they filed in). And Anakin is “sensing some anxiety” from Obi-Wan about Satine. I love how there’s now another reason for that.

In an…‘interesting’ coincidence, it seems that when Rex got shot in The Deserter, that’s the exact same place Obi-Wan gets shot in Deception. Nothing conclusive there, but it’s intriguing.

from The Zillo Beast Strikes Back – The first time we see Rex, Anakin is giving him orders to “Stay with General Kenobi” – there’s the implication that he’s already with the General.

They’re continuing to leave breadcrumbs in Rebels.

#star wars #the clone wars #sass and murder show #meta #Rex/Obi

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bettsfic · 4 years ago

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Hi Betts, hoping for your guidance if you have the time. No pressure really. But my course will be focusing quite a bit on Shakespeare for the rest of this year. Do you have any advice for someone who isn’t really a writer on how to understand Shakespeare better? Have you read much of it? How did you tackle understanding the language? Is it just reading a lot more of it and looking up words? I struggle getting through one play, but is it just pushing through it? Resources you found helpful?

i feel like i’ve been waiting my whole life for this question.

i’m feral for shakespeare. i have a hamlet tattoo. i have an unfortunate number of monologues memorized on the off-chance someone at some point goes “hey does anyone know any good monologues?” and i can be all “TO BE OR FUCKING NOT TO BE, BITCHES” or “ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH DEAR FRIENDS, ONCE FUCKING MORE.” i have an actual literal lecture on how richard ii is a greedy glamazon bitch, and an outline for an article on how lady macbeth can teach us everything we need to know about sympathy in fiction.

like many people, high school made me despise shakespeare. i can’t tell if it was the simple coercion of being forced to read things, period, or that we were made to treat everything so seriously, and expected to understand the use of language as if it were like anything else we were reading.

then when i was 23ish, i got obsessed with doctor who, which led me to david tennant’s filmography, and david tennant happens to have done really a lot of shakespeare. when i geared up to watch his hamlet, however, i thought, i want to read this first, so i can see how different it is from my perception of it.

cue me surreptitiously scrolling through the wikisource version of hamlet while pretending to listen to conference calls at work. i think that helped, making it something i wasn’t allowed to do. it made reading feel like an indulgence.

free of the constraints of “i’m going to have to write a five-paragraph essay about this when i’m done,” i began to read very casually, only trying to understand what was going on and not trying to find any profound meaning in it.

in doing that, i realized i was actually doing it correctly. these are plays, meant to be performed on a stage, to entertain, immerse, and evoke feeling. you’re supposed to be sad at the end of tragedies and happy at the end of comedies. however, reading the plays is a far different experience than watching them, and in many ways more of a challenge.

you can’t read a play, especially a shakespeare play, like a book. prose and poetry both lend themselves to crafting intentional images. the entire thing exists to be and only be read. but plays and scripts are just one piece of a much larger puzzle, involving directors and actors and costume designers and set designers. bringing a play to life is a team effort. when you’re reading, you’re only seeing the skeleton of the story. it’s like reading a guidebook for a vacation destination. you can get the gist of it but only truly know a place by going there.

you can’t read shakespeare as a reader. you have to read as a director. you have to envision each actor, and after every line, decide where they are standing on stage, how they deliver their line, and what happens between each line. shakespeare gives almost no stage direction, so you have a lot of creative license in interpretation.

another thing to remember is that shakespeare is first and foremost a rhetorician. he wanted his words to be memorable and beautiful, to persuade and delight. if he wanted to be understood simply, he would have written simply. but instead, he uses 17 lines where 1 would have sufficed. it’s helpful, after every line, to consciously ask yourself, “what has just been said?” and very often the answer is simple. a yes or a no, i agree or disagree, or even sometimes banal statements.

consider hamlet’s “to be or not to be.” he goes on and on and on, but he’s really just being the “guess i’ll just die” meme. in the comedies, shakespeare often uses this effect as a joke. one character will go on and on, and another character gives a simple and curt and blunt reply, and depending on the delivery, it’s hilarious.

you’re not supposed to love hamlet, or richard ii, or macbeth, or any other character. the tragedies are train wrecks that make you go “i get why you’re doing this but you need to Stop.” the comedies are similar, in that the characters sometimes make you go “you are being so fucking stupid.” it’s the sense of irony, the “i know what’s right in this situation but you don’t” that creates a huge amount of engagement. we’re always bracing ourselves for what comes next.

so here’s how i recommend reading shakespeare:

pick a play, and pick a version or two to watch afterward. here’s a really great list of productions. personally, i’d stick to ones where you’re familiar with the actors, which heightens the engagement.

before you start reading, consciously cast each character, using actors you really like. or, instead of actors, you can cast your favorite characters as if they were in an AU version of your current fandom. reading shakespeare as fanfic is a speedy way of ensuring your emotional investment.

pull up the wikipedia plot summary of the play to have on hand while you read. every few pages or so, line your reading up with the summary to make sure you’ve caught onto what’s been happening.

as you read, direct the actors you’ve chosen. how do they deliver the line? sometimes this takes a few tries. you can’t let your eyes move left to right across the page and just expect to miraculously understand it as if it were prose. you have to puzzle it out.

if you’re really stuck on something, pull up the spark notes version. there’s no shame in that. if you compare with spark notes enough, you begin to get a sense of the language and begin to need it less and less.

when you’re done, order a pizza, pour a glass of wine, and watch your chosen production version. delight in already understanding what’s happening, figure out where you might have been wrong or confused, and revel in the places you were right.

watch another production and see how your version, the last version, and this version all differ.

if you get all the way to this point and you’re not utterly in love, i don’t know what to tell you. i think i watched wyndham theater’s much ado over a hundred times. rsc’s hamlet probably just as much. i have yet to watch or read a single play i didn’t at least appreciate. i’m one of the few people who even enjoys titus andronicus.

shakespeare takes a lot of energy, but it’s worth it. once you get a feel for the strings he pulls and how he pulls them, it’s like opening a door to a whole other world. you see clips of phrases from this play or that, understand subtle references, and see how his influence exists in nearly everything. you can use his characters and plots and dynamics in all your own work. you can reach backward to see his own influences in greek plays, and forward to see his influences throughout all of literature. it’s amazing, not just who he was, but how his plays are still both so beautiful and so human.

i’ve skipped over rhetoric, craft, the sonnets, and a few other things that i really enjoy about shakespeare, but those are probably topics for another time. if you’re looking for somewhere to start, i highly recommend much ado about nothing, particularly the wyndham 2009 production with david tennant and catherine tate which is genuinely one of the funniest things i’ve ever watched. it’s fun to compare it to the 1994 kenneth branaugh film and then rage against whedon’s 2013 travesty.

best of luck in your shakespearean pursuit!

#writing advice #shakes #hammy #much ado #wicked-conspicuous

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wishbonegame · 3 years ago

Note

Is there anything you wish you had done differently development wise? If that's too personal of question, please feel free to ignore it and continue on to answer how are you? I hope you and your crew have all been safe, healthy, and happy!

Oh, certainly, quite a lot! I could write paragraphs and paragraphs about what I'd do differently.

Some of it was inevitable. For example, the first code I wrote for Wishbone was for handling the farm animals. I learned so much about RPG Maker VX Ace while I worked on that--I learned how to do fancy things in one or two lines of script calls instead of using sprawling conditional statements with lots of redundant text. In the early versions, noticing an error in, or wanting to add an additional conditional check to, my farm animal template might involve over an hour of copypasting to update it on every single page of the dozens of animals present on the farm. This was obviously a very bad design for many reasons (and as I realized later, events with many pages and lots of code embedded into the maps slowed down load times considerably.). I think I must have done at least three separate major rewrites on the farm animal code alone. In the current version, it's done very smartly, but it used to be terrible. I wish I'd known what I know now about RPG Maker back when I started--it would have saved literal months of development time. But I also needed to make those mistakes to learn about the engine, so... c'est la vie.

There was a lot of that: having no choice but to redo something because it was unworkably bad, or a new feature required another feature to be tweaked, or my plans evolved. I really wish I'd had a better development roadmap during early development stages... (we have a good roadmap now, though)

Another thing: embarking on a huge project with a group of friends is really really hard and generally not advised for good reasons. People are busy and just because somebody has time for a project now doesn't mean they'll still have the same amount of time in 3 years or 5 years. Even if you pay them they might not have time! People graduate school, change jobs, change life circumstances. People drift and change and disappear from the online entirely sometimes. Given a long enough span of time, these things will happen, even if it's your close group of friends. (And that's not even getting into the potential of drama/friend breakups--that hasn't been an issue for Wishbone, but I know of other creators who have had that happen and it totally messed up their plans.) We're managing on this front, and though I do enjoy working with my friends, I wouldn't want to do a project this big and interconnected again. It's just a lot of stress. Best case scenario... everyone hangs in there, but you have to play boss/project manager for your buddies, which is time-consuming and not very fun. If you suck at being a project manager, or aren't able to pick up the slack when somebody is too busy with their new job to do the thing they thought they could do, your project is not gonna get done.

Another thing: 5 years is an eternity. There are aspects of Wishbone that really do indicate that it was started in 2015ish, and while I've done my best to modernize it where I can, if I was designing a story from scratch today, I would do it very differently. Unfortunately, there's no real way around long development times when you're making a big game. You either get trapped in revision hell, endlessly redoing the same things over and over, or just acknowledge that there are going to be some plot points, mechanics, and artwork that make you groan when you think about them, and tell yourself that the next game you do will be better. Onward and upward is healthiest mentality and is the only way to get shit done when it comes to long projects like games or webcomics.

Finally... I work at an IT contracting company for my day job. My boss once gave me this advice for estimating how long a programming project will take: "Imagine the longest possible amount of time you think it will take. Then multiply that by three. That's the deadline you tell people."

And damn if he wasn't right. The biggest thing I would do differently with Wishbone, by a huge margin, would be to keep it secret for much longer. I wish I had waited until the project was like, 50-60% done before I told anyone outside of the private beta testers about it. I don't feel stressed out by development (...usually) but I am someone who hates disappointing people or failing to deliver on "my word", so I feel physical pain every time I have to announce a delay or something like that.

There's more, too! I could rant for hours. But I need to get back to implementing this Sonny cutscene if I wanna make the public beta in a timely manner, and I do really want to do that. (Remember that physical pain over delays!) So, I hope this answered some of your questions, Anon! Thank you for the well-wishes. I hope you are doing well too, and I am very grateful and touched that folks have been following this project for so long. I just hope the public beta doesn't disappoint!

#anon #ask #not an update #game development #rpg maker vx ace

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allforhader · 4 years ago

Text

As The World Caves In

Barry Berkman x (F) Reader

Warnings: Langauge, Violence, TW: Abuse

“Alright that’s the end of acting class. See you next time” Gene ends the class as Barry instantly gets out of his seat grabbing his backpack and waiting for Y/N to simply walk by him. But at least she’s sweet enough to-

“Great work today Barry!” Y/N smiles happily at Barry before exiting the building.

Barry follows respectfully behind her as Nick and Jermaine walk beside him expecting to get drinks. When Barry suddenly stops outside they both bumped into each other watching Barry watch Y/N embrace a man who he thinks is her boyfriend. It’s most definitely the case when he sees the two kiss.

“Damn. We getting drinks or what?”

“Definitely” Barry replies to Jermaine as he pats his back. “Who’s uh. Designated driver?”

“It’s LA Barry. There’s Uber.” Nick laughs walking ahead of the two.

A few rounds later...

Barry was standing outside of the bar with Nick half-passed out on the curb propped up against Jermaine. They waited for their Uber, but the waiting seemed longer than usual.

“Hey, Barry sit down. It’s gonna be a while” Jermaine states as Barry sat down on the curb beside him. “You kept lookin at your phone when girls were tryin to get your attention”

“Hmmmmm he wants one girl” Nick laughs a bit. “Y/N~”

“Go back to sleep”

“Alrighty” Nick laughs a bit more before relaxing on Jermaine’s shoulder.

“What’s so interesting about her anyway?”

“So many things” Barry sighs holding his head down.

Jermaine looks at his friend confused on why he didn’t elaborate but they were all under the influence. Some more than others *cough* Nick *cough* but that’s the biggest reason why he didn’t elaborate that Y/N is the most beautiful talented girl he ever laid eyes on.

“I know the girl is taken. But you can still do a scene together that can make her realize” As the most sober compared to them all, Jermaine’s idea is only going to go downhill of some sorts. “Pick a scene with a kiss and do it with her. Any dedicated actor would do any scene. Despite their relationships off stage”

That could’ve been phrased better, but way to put that idea in Barry’s fucking head.

After finally getting to their apartment of sorts, Barry instantly laid on his bed and pulled up the messages to Y/N.

Barry: You are a god

Y/N: What?

Barry: A god at finding great scenes to do for class

Y/N: Oh! Thank you 🥰

Barry: I know I’m not very good

Barry: But I’d like to do a scene with you

Y/N: Barry! I’ve been waiting for you to ask!!! Plus you are really good! Better than me 😊 What scene would you like to do??

Shit. Think of a scene. FAST BARRY. FUCK

Barry: Um. Romeo and Juliet, Act 1 Scene 5?

Fucking Shakespeare?!?

Y/N: Give me a sec to look up the scene!

Barry: Ok

After a minute passed. Literally. A minute.

Y/N: I’d love to! Hell if we do a good job, maybe Mr. Cousineau would pick it for the next showcase he’s planning!

Y/N: Want to practice tomorrow? After class? I can print you a copy of the scene

Barry: Sounds good

Y/N: Yay! 😊

Y/N: See you tomorrow!

Barry: See you!

Y/N didn’t come to class the next day, which made Barry think he said something he shouldn’t have. But his texts were surprisingly not drunkly influenced for the most part.

“Okay class. Y/N called me saying she won’t be able to be here for the next few classes since something came up. Barry, pick another scene partner or a monologue before we share to pick for the showcase. NOW. Sally you have a monologue you’d like to run by us” Gene states as Sally got on stage to do her monologue but instead of paying attention Barry took his phone out thinking of messaging Y/N to ask what happened. But a part of him thought space was key.

After class, Sally grabbed Barry’s arm to catch his attention.

“Barry, can you do me a favor?”

“Sure?”

“So I need a ride to Y/N’s place. I have her address and everything.”

“Yeah. Yeah I can drive you” Is he going to know what happened along the way? She wouldn’t be going over there if she didn’t know.

The drive was far. Surprisingly further than all of their other friends. Note, Barry has at least driven everyone in their class somewhere at least twice. Usually because it’s expensive to get your car fixed let alone pay rent in LA. So it’s a coin toss and usually the car doesn’t win. Plus his source of income is...not acknowledge and he’s fine giving people rides. But Y/N lived really far in LA that he found himself heading somewhat close to Anaheim territory. Her neighborhood looked still typical LA agriculture and similar to few neighbors closer to the acting class. But when they were driving Sally did tell Barry that this is where Y/N’s boyfriend lives. So who the fuck knows where Y/N actually lives. To his knowledge.

“So Barry, I told her that you were driving me and that I didn’t tell you anything. But we’re here to pick her up then go back to my place. Are you okay with that drive?”

“Anything for the both of you. But I can’t help but be curious” Barry frowns watching Sally give a hesitant halt in what she was going to say but-

“I’m not comfortable sharing something that isn’t mine. She trusted me by telling me. I’m not going to play a game of telephone Barry”

“Okay...just do I go with you?”

“No I’ll go get her myself, just hang tight okay?”

“Okay” What the fuck did this guy do...

Barry waited in the car seeing Y/N step out with Sally, she looks fine for the most part. The closer she got he couldn’t really pin point anything. Just...the girl known to wear colorful clothing and mainly dresses, came out in sweatpants and a hoodie. Style doesn’t describe a person but it made Barry think about what caused a sudden change that isn’t just “to be comfortable”. Y/N sat in the back and Sally day with her.

“Your place right Sally?”

“Right” Sally says calmly setting Y/N bag by her feet.

After the long drive to Sally’s, Barry stayed in the car watching the two go inside. But before he left, Y/N ran over to the car knocking on Barry’s window. He quickly opens it as Y/N slips in a script she had packed before they came and got her.

“I-It’s a monologue for the showcase. S-Sorry I couldn’t do t-the scene with you. Hope this repays for that”

“You didn’t have to repay anything Y/N” Barry frowns watching Y/N pushes her hair out of her face making the man catch a glimpse of the shiner on her right eye that extends to her cheek as well.

“I wanted to Barry” Y/N states before going back inside.

Barry frowns and once she entered Sally’s place. A switch flipped in his head and he drove back to her boyfriend’s house waiting out there until he came home. Barry watches the light turn on inside the house and as he was about to reach for the gun in his glove box. He hesitated.

You don’t want to be defined that way anymore.

The hitman life will only continue if you do this.

You have the make the change.

Take the leap of faith.

Don’t let the past still define you Barry.

Find. A. Different. Way.

“Shit...” Barry frowns smacking the wheel holding his head down thinking. “He doesn’t deserve her...”

The next day came and Barry watches Sally walk into class alone. Where’s Y/N? Thought she stayed with her. He gets up from his seat sitting behind Sally.

“Hey...where’s Y/N?”

“She went back”

“What?”

“....She’s stupid. But aren’t we all? She went back during the middle of the night. I didn’t hear her leave” Sally frowns as Barry felt the fire start to burn again.

Find a different way

“FUCK” Barry exclaims catching everyone’s attention as he sinks into his seat. “Sorry”

“No! Use that energy. Come up here and show us what you got for the showcase” Gene states as Barry immediately regretted it.

Barry got up from his seat after taking out the monologue reading it’s from The Notebook. He laughs a bit to himself before looking out and seeing Y/N walk in in a turtle neck with a hoodie over it and makeup covering the bruises.

“That’s right. We do that sometimes, remember? We don’t cut each other any slack. If I’m being a jerk or an arrogant sonofabitch, you tell me. If you’re a pain in the a—, which you are ninety-nine percent of the time, I’ve got no problem telling you, or hurting your feelings, which have about a two second rebound rate before you’re off doing the next pain in the a— thing.” Barry frowns looking at Y/N as the rest of the class grew intrigued.

“So, it’s not going to be perfect. We’ll have to work at it every day. But I want you. Not for today, or next week, but forever.” He states stepping down from the stage glancing at the script making his way in Y/N’s direction. “Every day, you and me. Think about your life twenty years or fifty years from now. Where do you want to be? If it’s with that guy, go. I lost you once. I suppose I can do it again. Just don’t take the easy way out. Answer one question for me. Forget about me and your fiancé and your parents for a minute. Forget about what you should do. What about you? What do you want?” Barry ended up in front of Y/N watching her hesitantly reach for him before retracting.

“Jesus CHRIST Barry!” Gene smiles proud of the man as he walks over to the two. “If you can be the closing to the showcase with that same amount of energy. Recruiters will definitely want to represent you!” he smiles watching Y/N retract herself a bit before getting an idea. “If it works best with Y/N on the stage. She can be there. Prove you’d be good with a partner even if it is a monologue.”

“If...that’s okay with you” Barry frowns looking Y/N as she nods agreeing to do so.

“Great! Now let’s go to the next person, better have that off script Barry!”

Barry frowns looking at Y/N as she just stares at him. She watches him reach to reassure but the automatic stepping back indicated she didn’t want to be touched. By any one for that matter.

When the class was over Barry stepped out carrying a weight on his chest wishing he can break a barrier and risk it all. But he didn’t want more people to get hurt and he didn’t want to disappear. Barry made his way toward his car about to get in when he felt a small hand grab his sleeve. He turns around locking eyes with Y/N as he of course stopped for her.

“...can um...s-shit”

“You need me?”

“yeah...”

“Just. Text me, and I’ll do whatever you need me to do” Barry says calmly as he connected the dots to why she’s wearing a turtle neck and her voice was low.

First stop was a pharmacy. Barry walked with her as Y/N grabbed what she needed. Ice pack, bandages, anti bacterial spray, and foundation. He felt very protective of her in the public scene thinking her “boyfriend” can pop up at any minute or really anybody would look at her a certain way and he’d want to kick their ass.

“can..I stay with you...B-Barry?” Y/N asks after she paid. She looks down at her feet for a moment thinking he’d say no when he obviously said it’s okay for her to stay with him.

“Um. I have roommates”

“That’s ok...I j-just...don’t need t...the lecture from S-Sally” Y/N frowns watching Barry hesitantly step closer to her afraid anything he’ll do she’ll feel uncomfortable. She looks up at him seeing the worry in his expression.

“Can you let me....take care of you?” Barry knows she won’t directly tell her what the asshole did. Barry expecting a no wasn’t coming from her. She nods watching Barry take her things to carry for her. “Just need to make...one more stop before we go to my place”

“Ok...”

Y/N found herself staying extremely close to Barry in the grocery store as he grabs what he needs to get. She watches around them having the same feeling Barry has except hers is fear driven.

“Broth?” Y/N asks picking up the carton from the cart.

“I’m not gonna give you straight broth if that’s what you’re thinking” Barry laughs a bit catching a smile from Y/N. “Even though I like straight broth” he states putting in a few seasoning in the cart. “Are you allergic to anything so I know not to get it?”

“No, you’re good” Y/N smiles making Barry feel a bit better but he still worried.

A few hours went by and Y/N found herself sitting on Barry’s bed staring down at her phone seeing texts from him and she immediately felt awful. Y/N started to cry thinking about what she’s gotten herself into because she was blind to it all until it got to this degree. The blame was definitely being put onto herself when no one sees it as her fault. Barry especially didn’t and all he wants to do is see her happy again. That smile of hers brightens his day...he misses it. Barry steps in carrying a bowl of soup he made, being in LA for some time you pick up at least ten minutes to watch cooking videos, and he immediately set the bowl and spoon on his desk before moving everything to the side of the bed and sitting in front of her. He didn’t want to pull her into his arms to comfort her but his presents was enough until Y/N grabbed his face resting her forehead against his. She continued to cry but it slowly burned into sniffling. He leans into it feeling her rub her thumbs against his cheeks taking a minute to take it all in.

He cares about you. He’s there for you right now and he always has been. Take a minute to appreciate what he’s doing. He doesn’t seem to be going anywhere....

He’s dedicated to caring about you.

No more words were said that night between Barry and Y/N. Except when Barry wanted to see what he did because he knew Y/N couldn’t see most of the “damage” so he offered to help. He also carries quite the first aid kit with him since he used to get hurt a lot and Fuches was a terrible doc so he had to learn. Y/N took off her hoodie before hesitantly slipping off her turtle neck. Her arms instantly covered herself but once Barry got a look where everything is, he got up going into his dresser and grabbing one of his t-shirts having her wear it so she doesn’t have to sit in just a bra. He moved himself closure looking at most angles of the bruising as he goes into his first aid knowing she bought ice packs but those were ones that’ll take time in the freezer when he has ones you punch and it’ll take a little moment to get there but it’d be cold enough. He popped two of them, one for her neck and the other for her cheek. Y/N had a few bruises on her arms that weren’t as bad as the ones needing the ice packs, he mainly focused on disinfecting the scratches and putting bandaids on the few that need them. Barry watched her start to shake making his worry get worse as he took her hand carefully into his sitting it out with her.

After putting everything away and Y/N eating what he made for her...she took his bed as Barry laid on the floor. The two were awake the entire night and thinking about their own deals...

I love her

He cares about me

I don’t want to step over the line

Why couldn’t he be like Barry?

I risk my life every day...I don’t want her to get hurt by it if she becomes apart of it.

Barry Berkman...you truly do make me feel lucky to be alive.

When the day of the showcase came, Barry took his roommates advice to wear the part with a white button down tucked into his black slacks with a belt and shoes were just his pair of converse. He didn’t wear a tie but the first few buttons were unbutton and his sleeves were rolled up. Y/N was apart of his monologue, clearly with no lines, and she wore one of Barry’s long sleeves for the soul fact that she’s playing a love interest and on the other hand wants to be comfortable. His part was last and he waited behind stage with Y/N until their time to get on stage came. Barry watched Y/N check her phone every now and then watching her eyes trail from one thing to another as her tense expression said everything.

“Barry! Y/N! You’re up next. Be on deck” Sasha states to the two before going back to helping Nick out of his costume.

Barry looks at Y/N seeing her look up at him smiling a bit to reassure them both.

“You’ll do perfectly Barry”

“Y/N....”

“Hm-“

“ON DECK”

The two flinch to the yell before going to the deck staring at Natalie and Antonio get close to wrapping up. Barry quickly turns to Y/N and before he could say anything Y/N grabbed his collar pulling him down to her level kissing him suddenly. The startling factor being the tears that rolled down her cheeks during it. Barry frowns parting gently resting his hands on her face.

“YOU TWO ARE ON!” Sally pushes the two in when the lights were down.

Y/N stood on her mark staring at Barry’s back where he started before turning to the crowd wiping away the tears that shed but a figure in the crowd stung in her heart. She held her head down for a moment before bringing it up when the lights turned on and Barry turned to her.

“That’s right. We do that sometimes, remember? We don’t cut each other any slack. If I’m being a jerk or an arrogant sonofabitch, you tell me. If you’re a pain in the a—, which you are ninety-nine percent of the time, I’ve got no problem telling you, or hurting your feelings, which have about a two second rebound rate before you’re off doing the next pain in the a— thing.” Barry states stepping forward and as he got closer to her his body retracted when she started crying. “So, it’s not going to be perfect. We’ll have to work at it every day.....But I want you.” He says resting his hand on her cheek watching her ease into it.

“I-....” Y/N choked looking up at Barry seeing he’s meaning what he’s saying. For them. Not the scene.

“Not for today, or next week, but forever. Every day, you and me. Think about your life twenty years or fifty years from now. Where do you want to be? If it’s with that guy, go. I lost you once. I suppose I can do it again. Just don’t take the easy way out. Answer one question for me. Forget about me and your fiancé and your parents for a minute. Forget about what you should do.” Barry states feeling her grab his shirt shaking right in front of him as the crying got heavier. “What about you? What do you want?” he whispers but the mic picked it up for everyone and before the lights went down, he presses his forehead against hers.

When the lights went off Barry pulls a bit away feeling Y/N grip onto his shirt for dear life. He looked out into the crowd watching the asshole stand up and he couldn’t take it.

Think of a different way. Fuck a different way.

When the students merged with the crowd, Barry immediately pushes her abusive boyfriend out into the open. Forcing him outside and before any of them said another word.

“Barry please—“ Y/N quickly caught up with the two staring at Barry look at him and the asshole. “Josh. Leave. Please just leave.”

“The fuck? I came to support you. But you went up with this guy? Are you cheating on me with this fucking asshat?” Josh got up in Barry’s face which wasn’t a good choice.

“I DIDNT ASK YOU TO COME” Y/N yells watching Josh push Barry only to make him retaliate the same way. “Barry please don’t do anything”

“Yeah. Listen to the fucking slu-“ before he could finish, Barry had head butted him in the face watching him stumble.

Y/N knew she could get in the crossfire but didn’t care as she tries to step in when Barry stepped in front of her when Josh grew infuriated immediately punching Barry in the face. But before he could retaliate, Nick and Antonio pulled him back as Sally and Sasha pulled Y/N into their embrace keeping her away from them.

“You gotta leave dude” Jermaine states to Josh as he gives Y/N an annoyed looked before looking back at Barry.

“Are you really fucking worth it? Or just an asshole like the rest of us” Josh states pushing Jermaine away from him before storming off tending to his broken nose.

Barry frowns relaxing so Nick and Antonio can let go of him. He adjusts himself before going back inside where Y/N quickly followed him. She grabs his arm forcing him to look at her when they were alone in a hallway.

“Why? Why did you...you didn’t have to”

“He shouldn’t have come..”

“I know but Barry—“

“That asshole doesn’t deserve you. He never did. You deserve so much better. I—FUCK” Barry frowns looking away to take a minute.

“Barry...”

“What?” He frowns looking at her watching embrace his arm being directly close. She looks up at him with a questionable look.

“You care about me....”

“There’s..so much more Y/N” Barry took his arm back to move his hands to her face locking eyes with the gorgeous woman in front of him. “I love you...I love you and it hurt me seeing what he did to you. All....all I want to do is protect you. Protect that smile of yours...only if you let me...and you did that night, but it started a hatred seeing him come tonight. He shouldn’t have come”

“I know...It was...a surprise to the both of us...” Y/N started to tear up again feeling Barry gently wipe them away with his thumbs. “You love me...? Even if...I’m broken goods?”

“You’re not broken goods Y/N...and if it takes a life time for me to show how worthy you are to me and everybody. Then I’m willing to take that time....because you mean the world to me”

“Oh Barry...” Y/N moves his hands off of her face bringing her arms around his neck hugging the tall man as Barry instantly wrapped his arms around her waist lifting her from the ground slightly. Holding her like his life depends on it digging his face into her shoulder. “You mean the world to me too....”

“I love you...I love you Y/N”

“I love you too Barry....”

#bill hader #bill hader gifs #barry berkman #barry hbo #barry block #bill hader x reader #barry berkman x reader #barry block x reader #tw: abuse

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