#Double Bottom vs. Double Top Differences

[profiteadeveloper]

Mastering the DOUBLE BOTTOM FOREX TRADING for Maximum Gain 2023

[patscorner]

could u write kate martin x reader where they’re huge basketball rivals who end up falling in love?? maybe it starts out as like a secret relationship and then the media finds out and goes crazy abt it!!

also i love love love ur writing sm

Absolutely! Love you!

Rivals

Summary: The Gophers and Iowa have a generational rivalry with each other, tensions dating back years. What happens when one of Iowa's top players injures you?

wc: 3,248

Contains: slightly suggestive, mentions of blood, insta posts at the bottom, not proofread well, hella long

______________________________

The Minnesota Gophers vs. the Iowa Hawkeyes was one of the oldest rivalries in women’s college basketball history. Whether it’s overly aggressive plays, double technicals every couple minutes, and shoves being exchanged. It’s tradition at this point to have one or two chippy moments at one of these games.

So it’s no surprise when tonight is no different. It’s tied, 83-83 in the third quarter with two minutes and thirty-six seconds left. The air is so filled with tension, it was like a heavy cloud of negativity loomed over both teams. Patience was thin on both benches, and everyone, even the people watching from home could feel it.

You’d been guarding Kate all night, and to say it was a challenge would be an understatement. She was agile and quick on her feet, and in some cases, she just managed to slip through your defensive skills. But, you were able to keep up with her, following and predicting her moves closely. She got a couple shots on you, but you didn’t let that stir your determination.

You were on your A game offensively tonight, too. Whether it was weaving through players with ease, calling good screens, or taking risky threes, you were doing it all.

It was paying off, too. Until the beginning of the fourth quarter. The game had just resumed, you guarding Kate once more. She’d been more physical, which you weren’t expecting, but you adapted, quickly matching her energy.

You had gotten the offensive rebound, running back to the Iowa basket, Kate hot on your tail. You get into position to make a layup, but Kate is right there to block your shot. She smacks the ball, but her momentum sends her body into yours, sending you flying to the ground.

You crash into the base of the basketball hoop, back hitting the floor first, followed by your head smacking into the stanchion. You squeal loudly, but the crowd's deafening cheers drowned out any noises you could’ve made. You’d made the layup, but that was the least of your concerns.

You’re grabbing your head, rolling over on your side, trying to find a position that relieves some of the pounding that has started in your head. Kate immediately goes to check on you, but that doesn’t last long when your teammates push her out of the way to get to you. One of your teammates starts yelling at Kate, who yells back, and the referee's whistle pierces through the air, signaling technicals for both players.

You’re still curled up under the basketball hoop, holding the back of your head, when you feel a warm liquid. You pull your hand away, and your eyes widen as you stare at your crimson cover palm.

Everyone who knows you, knows you hate blood. The red liquid sends a wave of nausea to your already banged up head, and you close your eyes to avoid the tears falling, and to relieve some of the tension that the lights were causing. The crowd silences as the camera shows you looking at your hand in horror.

Your breathing picks up as you continue to look at your hand. Tears fall from your eyes as you start to hyperventilate, unaware that eventually the lack of oxygen would cause you to lose consciousness.

You're only out for about 30 seconds, but that was more than enough time for you to be surrounded. You wake up to the athletic training staff, your teammates, and the coaching staff around you. You're running on autopilot, so the first thing you try to do is sit up, which doesn’t end too well for you. You attempt to lift your head off the ground, but a sharp pain shoots down your back, causing you to gasp loudly.

“Shh-stay still, honey.” one staff member assures you. You groan in response, feeling multiple hands on you at once. You don’t say anything as you try to roll over on your stomach and attempt to relieve the pain in your back. You have a pounding headache and have no idea what’s going on or what happened.

“You gotta stop moving. The ambulance is on the way.” You freeze at these words.

Ambulance?

You have no idea what happened but all you know is that you have a basketball game to play. "W-we gotta play.” You croak out, looking at your teammates, tears brimming your eyes. You watch through blurry eyes as they shake their heads.

“No, kid, I think you're done for the night."

"No, no, n-no we gotta play- we're so close." You whimper out shakily. A couple of your teammates turn their heads, your statement making an already emotional moment even more heart-wrecking.

You feel someone grab your hand and rub it soothingly, attempting to distract you from the increasing pain in your spine. The Iowa bench was kneeling out of respect, because rivals or not, they weren't fucking monsters.

You sigh, accepting that you were done for the night and probably a while after. “What happened?” You whispered to no one in particular. You felt someone adjust the towels that you didn’t realize were under your head. The once white towels were colored now, and you felt sympathy for whoever had to clean them after.

“You fell kid, but you’re gonna be okay.” one of your teammates says. You hum in response.

All you could do is pray that she was right.

The crowd gave you a standing ovation as you were put on the stretcher and wheeled into the back of the ambulance. Despite their attempts to keep you awake, the loss of blood made it hard for you to keep your eyes open.

On the way to the hospital, they check your memory, which is pretty good, all except the moments leading up to the incident. All you remember is the girl that ran into you. When they get you to the hospital, they run their tests and find out that you had a pretty bad concussion, along with a crack in your spine. It’s safe to say you were done for the season.

Eventually, you were released, immediately starting physical therapy and, put in crutches and given a body wrap. You finally check your phone, and you see thousands of overwhelming messages from friends, family, and teammates. You respond to a couple of them, informing them that you were okay before going to instagram. Normally, you’d stay off of social media, but you needed something to distract yourself.

You’ve got hundreds of notifications on there, too, but one stands out the most.

A message from @katemartin

Just wanted to sincerely apologize for knocking you down the other night, I hope you know it wasn’t intentional. I don’t know if you’ll even read this, but you’re in my thoughts and prayers. Opponents or not, you’re a good player, and it’s devastating to see you injured. Get well soon.

Your heart swells at the message, as tears start to brim your eyes. You don’t know what to say, because this has never happened to you before. Usually, when someone gets injured, they get a pat on the back, and that’s it. But she went out of her way to message you.

You heart her message before typing a message back to her.

Thank you for the prayers, I know it wasn’t intentional, I watched the playback. I appreciate the message.

After you click send, you decide to leave it and begin scrolling through your feed. Nothing interesting comes up until you see Kate doing a post-game press conference. She’s asked her thoughts on the collision between you two.

“It was a basketball play. I had no intention of slamming into her like that. She’s an amazing player, like I seriously look up to her. The way she carries herself and the way she plays, that’s an example I think a lot of people should learn from.” she takes a deep, shaky breath, clearly trying to keep her composure. It breaks your heart to see her this shaken up about you.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself for being a part of the reason she’s not playing. Everyone deserves to do the things they love, and it’s not fair that I took that from her. Our teams may be hella competitive rivals, but despite that, this is a sisterhood. We aren't friends, but never would I ever wanna hurt her like that. It was an accident.” Kate’s voice cracks at the end, and her teammate rubs her back as she looks down.

“It was an honor to play with her, and I wish her the best.” she finishes, before the clip ends.

You’re in tears by the end of it, and you just want to give her a giant hug, tell her that you forgive her, and that you’ll be back on the court in no time. But instead, you stick with responding to her message she had just sent you.

How are you doing?

It’s been 4 months since your injury, and you’ve been talking to Kate non-stop. You and her had been texting back and forth, calling, and falling asleep on facetime. A lot of the time was talking about nothing in particular, with a couple updates as to where you are in your recovery.

You couldn’t help but feel your heart tighten when you talk to her. It’s like a breath of fresh air. Even though you were barely around her, you felt like you were missing something whenever you two weren’t having a conversation. You knew you were falling and falling hard. Little did you know, Kate was falling just the same.

Kate couldn't sleep well to begin with, but now she definitely couldn't sleep without talking to you. She couldn't go a minute without thinking about what you were doing, what you were wearing, what you were thinking. It got so bad that her teammates were practically begging her to ask this mystery girl out. Her daydreams were distracting her from her practices, the way she played in games, and her schoolwork.

Finally, (after Caitlin went on a ten minute rant about how painfully in love she was), Kate found the confidence to ask you out on a phone call. She was nervous and stuttering over her words, her face painted a beautiful pink.

"Maybe we could hang out sometime, like by ourselves. Like we could go to like the movies-or maybe out to eat somewhere. Or-or not, y'know we could hang out with other people, like our teammates, like not together because I don't think they like each other very much, but we could like not tell them, or we could tell them b-"

You cut off her rambling with a laugh, finding her anxiousness adorable. "Kate 'Money' Martin are you asking me out?" You ask, raising your eyebrows teasingly.

You watch as her face reddens even more, her teeth capturing her bottom as she playfully rolls her eyes at your mocking tone. "Y'know what, never mind. I take it back." She smiles at you.

"Oh, no, no, you got me locked in now." You say smiling softly back at her.

"Is that a yes…?" Kate asked in a joking manner, but you could sense a serious undertone to it.

You bite your lip lightly, staring at the blonde on your phone screen.

"Whatcha got in mind?"

Kate made the six hour drive to Minnesota that Saturday after booking a hotel room not far from campus. As much as you would've liked her to stay with you, you knew your dorm mates wouldn't approve of having her in your shared space. They knew you were talking to someone, but you were very cautious about when you talked to Kate, often doing it fairly late into the night when they were asleep or not home. You thought you were doing a good job, as they never brought up anything about it.

Either way, to not draw attention, you both decided it'd be best if you went super late at night, knowing that the second the public finds out Kate was in Minnesota, rumors would fly, and the media would go crazy. So, you came up with a shifty excuse to be out of the house at three a.m. on a random Saturday morning. You had no idea what Kate had set up, you just knew that you were meeting her at a random park near campus.

Turns out Kate had the date very planned out, from how long it would take to get from point A to point B, to where'd you'd be sitting. She took you to the beach, and even though it was dark, the sounds of the water crashing onto shore was enough for you.

Then she paid, against your will, for sushi. You went into the restaurant and you both sat in the car and ate your meal. Conversations flow smoothly all night, without a single moment of uncomfortable silence. The evening was filled with laughter and lighthearted banter, the both of you losing track of time until the sun started to bleed into the night sky.

You both were tired, tangled in the bed of Kate's truck, basking in each other's company. You were so comfortable, and you never wanted this moment to end. Kate was different from anybody else you'd ever met before. Even though this was the first time you'd even hung out with her, you wanted nothing more than to hold her forever. And to make her yours.

"What're you thinkin' about?" She asked, breaking the silence and pulling you from your thoughts. You're laying on her chest, her arms wrapped securely around your waist, holding you close.

You look up at her and find her gaze already in you. "The sun's coming up." You whispered, licking your lips. Her eyes trail down to them before finding their way back to your eyes. The way she looks at you almost makes you fold right then and there.

"Hmm." Kate responded as her eyes made their way back down to your lips and stayed there. After a moment, you brought your hand up to her cheek to direct her eyes back to yours. You smile as her face turns a bright shade of red.

"You're so pretty." She whispers as she seemingly examines your face. Now it's your turn to blush.

It almost makes you angry, the urge to kiss her lips. You want nothing more than to pour all your words into one kiss.

Fuck it.

You push your lips to hers, passionately expressing your feelings for her wordlessly. It takes her a second to process what's going on, but as soon as she does, she's melting under your touch. She's like putty in the palm of your hand at this point.

You adjust your body, lifting yourself so that the both of you are facing each other. You wrap your arm around her waist, pulling her closer and deepening the kiss. Your moment catches Kate off guard, causing her to moan lightly. You smile before pulling away.

Pants fill the air as you both attempt to catch your breath, letting the tension linger in the air. "Holy shit." Kate lets out a breathy laugh.

You chuckle with her, rubbing her waist absent-mindedly.

She rolls over back on her back, staring at the sky, you mimic her actions, sighing deeply. You can sense that the end of your date is near as the sun rises.

"I have to go." Kate whispers. You nod, reaching down and intertwining your fingers. You were right.

Over the next five months, you and Kate took turns seeing each other in the same way, at night, mostly ending up with you two touching each other (in more than one way). It was starting to get exhausting to hide it from your teammates, so eventually, Kate let it slip, and they weren't surprised. They already had their suspicions since the injury.

You weren't too pleased when she told you she'd revealed your secrets, but you were relieved that they didn't hate you. It gave you enough confidence to comfortably tell your team, who, like the Iowa team, wasn't surprised or upset at the idea of you and Kate being together.

It lifted a huge weight off your guys' chest, feeling better about leaving at two or three in the morning. The longer your relationship went on, the more comfortable you both got.

This was both good and bad, as you fell more in love with each other every day. But it also came with the desire to see each other more, which led to you both growing impatient and making sloppy mistakes. It started with you accidentally posting a picture of you holding Kate's hand on your public story instead of your close friends, like you had intended. Even though you couldn't see her face, you knew some people would be able to figure who it was, plus, at that point, it was an early relationship, and neither of you were ready for that kind of attention. Luckily, you deleted it before anyone could see it, but it was too close of a call for your liking.

Another slip-up happened a month later, where you posted a picture in Kate's hoodie, but you were able to pretend that you both happened to have the same hoodie.

The last straw, though, was Kate being recognized by a fan while pumping gas. You ducked down in the trunk as you watched the fan approach her and ask for an autograph and picture, which she agreed to.

The fan had a short conversation with her, which you later found out they had asked about why Kate was in Minnesota. The best Kate could come up with was that she was 'visiting a friend', which you teased her about her lack of an answer.

The fan posted about Kate being in Minnesota and why, and it shocked the internet. Some fans had done a deep dive and found dots that connected you to Kate, such as the hoodie picture. At this point, you both were tired of hiding, tired of not being able to go out during the daylight or support each other during games.

So you both decided it was time to let the people know.

Yourusername

liked by katemartin and 294,210 others

yourusername: Find your person. They make life worth living

user| oh??

user| mystery woman?

user| I knew it

-> user| I feel like we all know who this is at this point

katemartin

liked by yourusername and 968,148 others

katemartin: You're my end and my beginning, even when I lose, I'm winning

user| no wait a minute

user| pov: the dots are connecting

user| my fav enemies to lovers story

caitlinclark22| took you long enough 🙄

-> yourusername| something you'd like to share with the class Martin??

-> katemartin| @caitlinclark22 I hate you.

->katemartin| @yourusername … no…

-> caitlinclark22| @katemartin you should be thanking me 🤗(pay up)

-> user| Caitlin in the comments has me cackling

user| Caitlin instigated is something I didn't know I needed

-> caitlinclark22| I did not instigate… just gave a gentle shove

-> katemartin| @caitlinclark22 I will gently shove you off a cliff 😍😄

->caitlinclark22| awww ur so cute😗

______________________________

taglist: @wintersstan @bueckerslover @lilia22hicks @fake-intelligences @girlokwhatever @breeloveschris

[comicaurora]

Hi! I finally got the chance to read Aurora a bit ago. It's a wonderful story--all I was expecting and better! I was particularly amazed and delighted by the artwork and visual mechanics used to tell the story, so I wrote a post to yell about how cool it is and break some of it down. (No criticism, just praise.) I'm mostly a hobbyist, so I'm hoping I've done it justice.

That said: zero pressure to read it or respond to this ask. Normally I wouldn't send it since I tagged, but I know Tumblr's notifs are a mess and things get lost very easily. I've been in both the "one (1) word of praise will feed me for a year" and the "oh gods don't talk about my writing/art because anything that seems Off will break my brain" modes before, and I absolutely don't want to push or make you uncomfortable!

If you are comfortable, however, I wanted to ask about your use of what I'm assuming are Screen and blending modes in sound effect words. (I'm only guessing that's the technique, though, so I could be totally wrong about how it's done! I'm mostly experienced in image manipulation in Photoshop.) Making them semi-transparent over the actions is genius :) What inspired you to do that, and are there specific techniques you use to make it work?

Same questions go for using specific colors to distinguish different characters' words and actions. I really noticed it in the cave sequence with Falst and Dainix, since their colors are so vivid in the dark (ex. Falst's little swats and Dainix's swooping kick at 1.20.9). It lends excellent clarity to busy scenes.

Thanks! Have a lovely day, enjoy your break, and happy holidays <3

You're correct about the technique! "Screen" is the blend mode I use most often for sound effects. I stumbled on it mostly through trial and error - I love how sound effects add depth to a comic panel, but it's very easy for them to obscure the art in a way I find counterproductive, so "Screen" lets me put the sound effect directly over the origin of the sound while still letting it be visible through the word. Early chapters didn't have it as much-

Most of the sound effects in early chapters are just solid colors with reduced opacity if I'm feeling fancy. But I started figuring it out around chapter 8 and 9, because Falst is kind of a sound-effect-heavy guy, especially in his fight scenes.

In order to make sure they don't impede the visibility of the action, I'll often soft-erase the top or bottom half of the SFX to reduce its opacity while still leaving it readable.

I'll usually double that up with an outline on the SFX so it's still readable. This is an especially important consideration if the SFX goes over an area of the background that's very bright or glowing.

Color-coding the speed lines and SFX to the character or force causing them isn't a hard and fast rule, but I like using it (in part because it's a habit from the OSP illustrations, where every character has a single pop of color in their lineart) mostly because it sort of codes every sound to make it clear where it's emanating from, or the general feeling of the sound. Since I normally do character-colors for SFX, something like this stands out more jarringly-

Which it's supposed to, but a big lightning strike doesn't register as anything too worrying because it's just Tess up to her usual shenanigans.

It's also very useful for magic effects, because each form of magic has its own associated palette.

And when I had a very complicated fight scene in a dark environment, I used the texture pattern I'd already made for the monster to color its SFX, so when I Screened them onto the panels they didn't obscure too much while still communicating "this is something else."

Changing the weight, lined-vs-not-lined, and opacity of the SFX words also helps to communicate that not every sound has the same feeling. A strong motion is solid and aggressive, but a crackling, unstable sound is more ephemeral and staticky.

It's definitely been a process of learning as I go - looking back at the earlier chapters I can actually see when I first tried various tricks I now use regularly, like doubling and distorting an SFX to produce the effect of a camera-shaking impact. I haven't really seen any other comics that do it like I do, probably because most other comics follow a more traditional production pipeline where text bubbles and sound effects get locked into the composition early, before the inking stage, because traditional physical comics don't have digital-art layers to play with. Adding sound effects to a page is almost the last thing I do before exporting them, and that only works because digital art and layers allow for a ton of flexibility.

[wyfy-meltdown]

I FINALLY DID IT!!! SHE IS DONE!!! Meet my first Madoka Magica OC: Komoe Mimura!!!

Below the cut is more info about her ♡✧⁠*⁠。

Bio / Base Information

Name: Komoe Mimura

Wish: "I wish I could grant wishes!"

Age: 16

Height: 5'2

Weapon: Magic Wand

Power: Grant Wishes*

Soul Gem: Purple, Rabbit Head Shaped

Witch Name: Velveteen

*Her ability to grant wishes is limited to things that can be created or destroyed.

Ex: she can grant the wish "I wish I had lots of money" but she cannot grant the wish "I wish I was rich" (one implies gaining something while the other implies altering the current reality).

Ex2: she can grant the wish "I wish [Name] would break up with his girlfriend" and/or "I wish [Name]'s girlfriend died" but she cannot grant the wish "I wish [Name] broke up with his girlfriend" and/or "I wish [Name]'s girlfriend didn't exist". (1&2 implies events that can occur in the future, 3 is past tense [meaning it would have already had to happen, thus altering the reality], and 4 would alter reality).

Personality

Design Breakdown

She has a very optimistic outlook and determined personality. She tries her best to get to know everyone, and her soft voice contradicts her upbeat personality. She absolutely loves magical girls to a stalkerish extent: she's willingly gone into witches labyrinths with hopes of meeting magical girls, and has a diary where she keeps all her information on the "magical girl secret world". She's very girly, and loves feminine things: dresses, long hair, and cuteness are all things she adores. Her favorite pastimes are watching tv, sketching, and hanging out with friends. Often times she can come off as pushy or intimidating (especially to girls she scouts to be magical girls) but she genuinely means no harm, and doesn't ever realise she's acting poorly. She takes great pride in being a magical girl, and her current goal is to thank the magical girl that saved her.

Trivia

I'm not sure if I fully like the design (mainly the waistcoat thing, and I should've given her gloves) but I'm happy I managed to actually draw her. This was a very self-indulgent design (not a sona though) and so I included ungodly amounts of ruffles and pastel pink!

Underneath her skirt is layers and layers of ruffles to the point her legs are not visible, and she has a double sleeve situation (also with ruffles underneath). The teacup & saucer hat is... rough, but I loved the concept and wanted to include it! Her rabbit ears are attached to a headband which has a ribbon on it. Her soul gem is located on her monocle chain; the alternate locations were the rabbit ear headband, one of the hairtie ribbons, and an anklet. I went with heterochromia because I could not decide whether I liked the pink or purple more (I also debated on mint, but I wanted to keep the colour palette analogous), I also struggled with very light purple vs very light pink for the hair; and went with very light pink (but I'm not sure how I feel about it). Those hair flicks near the top of her head aren't real rabbit ears, but are meant to resemble floppy rabbit ears. I wanted her overall design to invoke the feeling of "magical girl" strongly, and I hope I succeeded in that!

Her magic wand shots a magic beam(?) thing from the top (between the ears) and functions like a whip; the hand-guard is based off a rapier's, and the bottom has a sphere that looks like a rabbit tail. Her soul gem features a rabbit head on top, and a clock face (sorta) as the bottom symbol. ALSO! I promise her purple eye is the same colour as the soul gem, the glass shading from the monocle makes the eye look lighter!

Her original wish was "I wish to be a magical girl!" but Inkyuu (the resident incubator) told her to pick a different wish since she'd become a magical girl regardless

She was aware of magical girls before being approached by Inkyuu due to being saved from a witch by a magical girl; she has gained an obsession with magical girls as a result

She uses her power of granting wishes to scout potential magical girls for Inkyuu

Her white rabbit theming is because she leads girls down the rabbit hole of becoming magical girls (the day I stop using metaphors and symbolism for everything is the day I die)

[Adding onto above] She has no particular love of rabbits or Alice in Wonderland, but thinks her theming is cute and so plays into it

She'd either be a mentor figure or an antagonist or possibly both

She either knows the secret of witches or if she found out about the secret of witches she'd probably be supportive of incubators (maybe even intentionally becoming a witch[?])

She hasn't been a magical girl for very long, but is very enthusiastic about it so she's fought many witches

She's very close with Inkyuu and carries him(?) around with her

[omnipotent-omnicube]

saw a post mentioning the cameras that show up in some of link click and felt compelled to ramble abt symbolism

here's what i'm talking abt btw

i'm gonna be completely honest and say that first off i thought it was just a stylistic choice to include an older type of camera. however i had only initially seen it in the wallpaper and wasn't really aware that it had shown up multiple times so that's why i kinda thought of this

so the camera that shows up a type called a twin-lens reflex camera, or a TLR for short. it's named for it's double lenses ("twin-lens") and the fact that it has a mirror inside ("reflex"). it was used for quite a while, but they dropped in popularity with the development of single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras, (and later digital single-lens reflex cameras, or DSLR)

this is what a real-life TLR camera looks like:

the way they work is quite simple -- there's two lenses of the same focal length (which determines how much the image is magnified).

the top lens is in front of a mirror at a 45 degree angle, and the viewfinder is on top of the camera. you look down through the viewfinder, and you see what is visible through the top lens

the bottom lens is in front of the shutter, so when the shutter button is pressed, the shutter releases and the film behind is exposed to whatever light shines through the bottom lens, thus capturing your image

here's a diagram:

now TLRs come with their disadvantages -- pretty much any kind of camera does. one significant disadvantage, which isn't present with an SLR camera, has to do with the parallax, or the displacement or the image due to different lines of sight. have you ever crossed your eyes and seen double? that's an example of parallax

when you take a photo with a TLR, the image that you see vs. the image on film is different because there are two different viewpoints: the top lens, which is what you see, and the bottom lens, which is what the film captures. this often ends up making the photo slightly lower than where you thought it would be. in a more extreme circumstance, there could be something only visible through the bottom lens -- like, say, a fly lands on it. you wouldn't be able to see the fly through the top lens if it's sitting on the bottom lens

now, back to symbolism. there are three things that this can symbolize or imply: 1), how we are being kept from the truth and 2), a different timeline, and 3), the varying perspectives between cxs, lg (and possibly li tianxi, by extension)

point 1. like i said, with a TLR you can't truly see the final image whilst photographing. as the series goes on we continue to realize just how much is being hidden from us. what we are seeing is real (within the link click universe); we're not being fooled by the narrative. this narrative does in fact exist, but it's not the true narrative -- the true narrative is what is seen through the bottom lens, what is captured on the film

point 2. the two lenses represent two universes or two timelines. both what is seen through the top and the bottom lens are true viewpoints; the only difference is one actually dictates what is set in stone -- from a timeline perspective, the definitiveness of the film could represent the key nodes. after all, whatever light is captured in the film cannot be taken back, and whatever key nodes is passed cannot be reversed. by extension, while there is a difference between the two views (and the two timelines), they cannot differ too much. after all, the lenses are still very close to each other. the lenses are bound close together by their structure; the timelines are bound close together by their key nodes

point 3. this is more related to parallax. because of the two lenses, there is parallax, a displacement. one lens is one person's view, while the other lens is the other's view. the story uses parallax as a metaphor -- the easiest way for me to explain it is how in season 2 episode 6, when reviewing the case with liu lan and li fan's deaths, captain xiao remarks that it was a domestic violence case where liu lan killed li fan (and was later killed herself), while cheng xiaoshi, after living through the event as li tianxi, reveals that the truth that liu lan was being abused and attacked li fan out of defense. that represents a type of outsider/insider metaphorical parallax. in a broader sense, currently, we have seen the majority of the series through cheng xiaoshi's POV, with only a few moments of lu guang's actual POV. every time we come close to seeing his POV, it's yet again obscured. we know a lot about cheng xiaoshi -- we know the extent of his ability (or, at least what he knows abt the extent), we know what he experiences in the photos, we know his past. we hardly know anything about lu guang. because of that, the story itself is experiencing a displacement of views -- we only see it from cheng xiaoshi's view, and therefore cannot fully determine what the story is about. because of cheng xiaoshi's unawareness of the full story, we're reaching a blind spot with his view. the only way to overcome this is by seeing lu guang's view -- then, we can view the full story, and eventually, the truth

anyways sorry for rambling. i had to be a nerd about photography for a little bit

[melchinafan]

Massive kudos to the South of Midnight team for the attention to detail in environmental storytelling and character design! I know there's still a ton of stuff I can't even begin to guess at, but I've been able to glean a good amount just from the trailers, and it's all got me itching for more.

Some things I've been able to spot, just from these two screenshots:

I'd already kinda gotten the impression from Hazel's tattoo choker necklace and Lisa Frank-esque dolphin-rainbow tank top...but after seeing Lacey's half of a "best friends" heart necklace and jean jacket? I'd be shocked if this doesn't take place in or around the 90s. (Which is a solid choice, since it's a good way to limit having to worry about the question of cell phones.) Plus, if you take a look at their fridge, you can see magnets of the primary mythical creatures we'll run across! I listed most of them in the alt text if you can't tell what they are, but if I had to guess at the mystery cut-off one in the second screenshot...I'd say it's the Altamaha-ha from the announcement trailer. (Which I think is also maybe the purple-pink aquatic creature you can see for a split second near the end of the story trailer.) And...well, it's not visible in these screenshots, but in this scene Hazel also accidentally knocks a handmade mug off the counter. That mug has a bottle tree design on it, as featured in the game's logo and as important in-game magical elements!

Also fun is some of the detailing for Shakin' Bones:

His guitar has a Prospero license plate near the bottom (also seen on a half-sunk taxi that Catfish swims past in the gameplay trailer), which says CROS RDS (or "crossroads"). Below his arm you can see his name "Bones" carved into the face of the guitar, flanked by a couple Fleur-de-lis, and in a couple spots there's decorative blue paint (haint blue, I'd bet). Plus some short bits of bone (femur, at a guess), for both the bottom strap button and the tuning knobs. There's also a broken, rusted sawblade for a pickguard...which curiously has an elegant leafy design carved onto it. There's a similar leafy design carved along the top side of the guitar, too. Bones himself has a lot of different flora growing on him...at least two different kinds of leafy plants (small round leaves on his shoes, larger pointy leaves on his arms and neck), and some small brown mushrooms. And while I don't know enough about plants to recognize what those three might be, I'm pretty sure the flowers on his neck and side are swamp lilies. (The flower on his side is visible near the start of the announcement trailer, when you see him from behind. I'm also pretty sure I spotted some swamp lilies growing around Rhubarb's house in the story trailer, in their standard cluster form vs. Bones' unique singular flowers. Fun fact: for folks who play Secret World and remember a particular painting of some import in the Franklin Mansion, you may be amused to note that one of that flower's colloquial names is "seven sisters.")

There's also...well...these are a bit more spoiler-y, so I'll put them under a cut and try to keep it vague. But there's visual clues hinting at some secrets a few folks seem to have...

Less overtly secret, but still some story spoilers:

The most obvious thing at first glance in the first screenshot is the presence of Huggin' Molly's red yarn inside the broken wall. At second glance, and double-checking the start of the trailer to confirm the yellow paint and window style matches, this appears to be Hazel's house. But looking more carefully, one might notice that the exposed inner boards of the wall seem to have a little faded blue paint...suggesting that the house was protected with a hidden layer of haint blue (possibly in addition to the indoor wall paint that also appears to be blue), which wards off nasty critters. And with that ward literally broken, and Huggin' Molly being known in her real-world mythology to go after folks late at night, well... (Bonus fun fact: Secret Worlders may also be amused that the time on the clock in the first screenshot of this post is 10:10, as with Kingsmouth's clocks. Probably specifically 10:10 pm, not a storm-dark morning.)

And finally, a particular someone who seems to have deeper secrets:

(I linked the story trailer earlier, but the second screenshot is from the half-hour-long documentary.) The subtitles tell us this man is Laurent, and I'm curious about how significant his ear and nose piercings might be, given that he otherwise seems to be giving off airs of "responsible adult" (which typically does not permit such things). I have no idea who he is, exactly...yet his clothing choice and sense of decor are reminiscent of another design, which has shown up in the trailers and some promo/concept art that's been shared by the devs... But I'll let you dig up that connection on your own, if you're inclined to hunt down a bigger story spoiler.

[nervousstarlightobserver]

Seraphim Eye Practice + Headcanons

(I made these well before the official episode came out so these are older designs)

These are the eyes that I have finished and I’m proud to share with the world. I have given the seraphim names and some head canons to go with them. I also aged up all of the seraphim outside of S-Snake because I love how baby she is.

S-Hawk is actually one of two. I don’t know how I got it into my head, but I liked the idea of Mihawk having twin seraphim. They came about like regular twins, but if they were tube babies.

They are both called S-Hawk and they were separated when they were very young. Both are overprotective of each other because of being separated. The one you see at the very top is Crowley and the one at the very bottom is Montoya. Inigo Montoya and Crowly. Both of the twins eyes were replaced with robotic ones. They can even change color! Blue for Docile, Yellow for Alert, and Red/Pink for Danger. There is also Green, but none of the Punks know why they turn green since they rarely flash green. 👀

Crowley has the cloned devil fruit; but Montoya, on the other hand, ate an actual devil fruit. I call it the Fuse-Fuse fruit! It is a paramecia type that can fuse two or more things together. Both organic and inorganic materials can be fused. He typically fuses with S-Gecko. Montoya and S-Gecko were placed together while Crowly was placed with S-Crocodile and S-Catapiller. Crowley doesn’t use a sword, instead he uses a guitar that doubles as both a gun and a battle ax. It is the turducken of weapons. I kept their eyes similar to their original design (manga) since that’s what I stared with. Not much to talk about. But both of their wings are like that of a crow and not a hawk. The Punks don’t have a lot of knowledge on bird wings apparently 🤷 Crowley has tons of piercings I just didn’t add/you can’t see any of them. He is very much punk rock vs. Montoya who is very elegant vintage.

I’ve been calling S-Crocodile Dharma. Dharma Al Dini. I had a different name that started with a D for Dharma but I forgot to write it down so I had to change it. After watching a play through of Venba, I got the idea of Crocodile being able to speak Tamil and eating Indian food and that’s how Dharma came to be. Dharma knows how to speak Tamil and how to cook. I also gave him an Italian last name because of the whole mafia theme Crocodile’s got going on.

I had an outline of S-Crocodile way before it was revealed and what I have written down is so far off from the original that when I look at the seraphim I’m like, “Why are you so different?” And then I remember that when I first met these characters we only knew S-Hawk, Snake, Shark, and Bear and we didn’t even know if they were conscious. Dharma is very soft spoken and is very muted compared to Crocodile. Crocodile exudes confidence and superiority. Dharma is a very gentle presence and, while confident, lacks the same authority and charisma his prime does. (I’m calling the OGs Primes so I don’t have to constantly write out their names).

I made his eyes a star bursts with light coming out of them. Kinda like a start shooting light. I changed his eyes to be more of a warm honey color than Crocodile’s harsh gold (before Toei decided to change Crocodile’s eye color for no reason). I really wanted to show the difference in their personality in an obvious way. I also gave him makeup around his eyes because I thought his face looked to bare and it became a theme for nearly all the seraphim. I made Dharma’s wings that of a sparrow’s due to that one cover story, also his wings are closer to his hips than his shoulders. His aesthetic is a casual glam. He look effortless and like an average guy, but also extremely expensive.

S-Snake is a very curious child. She is very sweet, adventurous, self-assured, and bossy. She is trusting to a fault that her older brothers are over protective of her. I have named her Yumi. Yumi Stone. She and the others discovered that her devil fruit doesn’t require that they actually look at her, in fact, you don’t even need to see her for her devil fruit to work. The only qualification is that there is love. She can petrify the other seraphim because they love her and each other. She has used her powers on couples and parents to try and test how far her powers can go. Her powers also have some healing properties to it. She is interning under S-Gecko to become a doctor (This is due to trauma which I will get to maybe never).

Okay, to start off, I love how cute I made her!!!! Look at her, look at my baby! She is the definition of adorable. Her eyes were the most fun and, shockingly, the easiest to come up with because I had the idea of making each of the seraphim have unique eyes (by the time I hit S-Flamingo I had officially run out of ideas and just said fuck it close enough). I made her eyes a light purple because I thought it would break up all the warm colored eyes I was doing. I added the rings and the mini-stars because I loved the idea of her having like a sorta planetary eye. I nearly did the rings for Dharma and S-Gecko, but I scrapped the idea because it was not working. I gave her some small eye liner because all of the others had some form of make up. I didn’t want it to be to extreme and wanted to keep it simple for her and it ended up in her eyes looking more owlish and it’s just—mwuah!❤️ Not on purpose but I fell in love with it. That small little thing has also made me head canon that her wings are like an owls. Her eyes are easily my favorite over all. Yumi doesn’t have any specific aesthetics, she just wears whatever she thinks is cute or what her brothers pick out for her. She can really be any of the boys aesthetics when she wants to be. Like one day she can have a biker jacket on and the next she’s wearing a gardener outfit.

Next Batch! And I won’t be starting with S-Caterpillar, I’m saving him for last 😉

S-Gecko’s name is Frankenstein. At this point you can already tell the second theme that I picked out for the seraphim is that they are all of their names are based off of different fictional characters because I like to think that they choose their names from their favorite characters!

Frankenstein was also the first one to be created. We literally do not know how long he was a warlord for, but we do know that he lost a shit ton of blood to Kaido way back when! I like to believe that Gecko Moria was the entire reason the seraphim program exists because waaaaayy too many people forget that in his prime he was an actual candidate for becoming an emperor/the pirate king.

Frankenstein (just Frank or Stein depending on whose talking to him) is very similar, yet extremely different from his prime. • Similarities include : both work with the dead, are tacticians, and are very heavy sleepers. Stein is a workaholic and the other seraphim rarely, if ever, see him since he mainly stays in his room. He is very abrasive and is regularly seen wearing a scowl, but he also has a wicked sense of humor that you don’t get to hear often and is even funnier because you don’t expect it. He is an actual certified doctor which is important to know because he is the other seraphim’s primary doctor, but his day job is to work as a mortician. Despite his job as a mortician, he’s very delicate with the bodies. He has never attempted to raise the dead like his prime. He has never held any shame or disgust towards a body. He will do small things that seem illogical to some, but he was always superstitious type. He will sing lullabies to dead and gently push hair out of their faces. He will recount his day like he was talking to an old friend or a patient. Stein is a religious person in a loose sense. He won’t pray to any god and swears like a sailor but he won’t go out of his way to actively piss off a spirit. Stein is Montya’s best friend. In my head their relationship changed from two people that knew each other in passing to closer than anything. Montya developed some pretty serious separation anxiety after he was separated from Crowly. Once he was placed with Stein he just clung onto him and never let go. Stein, despite being very much a loner and not really a people person, let him cling to him. When Montya’s eyes were replaced with robotic ones and were malfunctioning, he used his devil fruit to create a sort of cooling agent to stop them from overheating. They had small little moments like these that built up over the years in captivity that made them inseparable…literally. After Montya ate his devil fruit he was forced to go under a series of experiments to test the limits of his devil fruit. One where they used Stein as a “motivator”. After one world government agent took it too far, in a panic, Montya fused himself and Stein together. It took several weeks to get them to unfuse forcing the WG to drop the experiment altogether. The two of them still fuse from time to time just to feel close. Frankenstein is the only person Montya has ever fused with. Not even Crowley.

Stein’s pupils are actually two different colors! They are two, three way triangles. I originally tried making his eyes like an atoms but I scrapped that idea. His wings are similar to an albatross. He also looks like Moria at his prime. Also I do realize that I gave him eyebrows even though he doesn’t have any, but they looked too good to discard. His aesthetic is yeehaw goth (Mihawk better watch out cause he’s side eyeing your territory). It is polarizing to see him and Montoya together because of how different their personalities are but still are best friends, yet him and Crowly absolutely hate each other with a burning passion and only really tolerate each other when Montoya is around. The second he turns around they are already throwing down and throttling each other into the stratosphere.

S-Flamingo. Better known as Donquixote Sancho. He is the very antithesis of Doflamingo. Not in a “they look exactly the same but we are totally different” but in a “Everything I do, I do to spite you” kinda way. Sancho is a priest and is respectful to literally everyone but the people in power. He lives modestly and refuses to live outside of the bare necessities. He refuses to use Doflamingo’s devil fruit and doesn’t even see it as his own power. He uses a god damn sword that is made out of seastone all the way through just because he doesn’t want to use Doflamingo’s devil fruit. Sancho loathes Doflamingo with such a passion that he takes everything he knows about him and flips it on its head just so he can avoid being reminded that he’s technically his son (brother. Him-Something?). Doflamingo has short hair? He grows his out. Doflamingo has an atrocious, outrageous sense of style? Wears nice, plain clothing. You can see where this is going. The only reason I gave him sunglasses was because I didn’t think he looked like Doffy enough without them. Each of the seraphim are supposed to be recognizable despite not even having the same color palette as their primes so just ignore the sunglasses (now that I’m looking at the photo again I realize that I forgot to give him makeup). His wings are similar to a swans.

Now is the little bastard’s turn. S-Caterpillar.

Or better known by the others as Godbrand Puck.

Now let’s get one this straight about Godbrand. He is almost exactly like Buggy. In fact the world government would consider him their first perfect, and only, total success. He emulates Buggy to a T. He is loud, eccentric, and all around flashy. Normally the world government would consider this to be a flaw that they can just beat out of him if it wasn’t for one very special factor. He is physically incapable of feeling pain. He isn’t just called Godbrand for shits and giggles. He has been branded with both the Slave brand and the Word Government’s symbol multiple times. Not once did he scream out in pain. In fact he stared giggling the first time it happened. He even fell asleep during one of these “sessions”.

Puck is the only one without green blood because when Vegapunk was first experimenting he decided to lace the artificial devil fruit with the DNA to make the seraphim automatically born with the devil fruit. This lead to the interesting discovery that due to the nature of Buggy’s devil fruit and the inherent nature of devil fruits permanently changing a users body, Puck’s pain receptors were completely severed. They tested this theory on several other Buggy clones that ended up in total failures because of the Chop-Chop fruits nature to split apart. Some of them were missing limbs or organs, others simply didn’t form correctly like an arm coming out of the head or the eyes were placed on the neck, sometimes there were an extra set of something like a row teeth or more than one head. Because Vegapunk tampered with re-adding the devil fruit into Buggy’s DNA none of his clones came out right leaving only Puck. The Golden Child. A Miracle. The Best out of a series of total and utter failures left with an extremely desirable trait in the World Government’s eyes. A solider who could continue on without being held back by something as trivial as pain. Of course until you realize that “desirable trait” leaves him with the inability to seek treatment. Biting his own fingers off. Swallowing his teeth and chewing on his own tongue till it’s bloodied. Ripping out stitches and IVs. Walking on a infected leg that has completely rotted bellow the knee. After that Vegapunk vowed to never clone another the same way he did Puck. Both too risky and high rate of failure. Even if the clone does survive, their could be some unforeseen complications down the line. With him being unable to feel pain, he feels no fear. Remember when I said he was almost exactly like Buggy? What is Buggy’s most notable traits? He is a complete and utter coward terrified of pain and will do almost anything to avoid it. But Puck? With him unable to feel pain, he feels no reason to fear anything. Why feel fear a fate worse than death when that “fate worse than death” is just feeling pain? That little chip the WG and Vegapunks invented to make them unable to feel anything or disobey orders? That is merely a controlled shock that will make them feel excruciating pain. So with that in mind, can you see where this is going? That little desirable trait that they oh so loved in the beginning has bitten them in the ass because this insufferable little shit doesn’t follow orders unless he wants to. Oh sure he won’t be able to “properly” move for a while but can just use his devil fruit to still make it work. What “fate worse than death” can they make him feel? He can’t even experience something so universal to the human experience that he believes himself to be above it all. He’s better than humanity. He is better than the other seraphim because they are all held down by the temporary emotion known as pain. They are below him because they are held back by something so…unnecessary.

Puck is everything the Buggy pretends to be. Puck is confident, powerful, and better than everyone else. He’s basically God. At least in his own eyes. Puck is a raging narcissist, like clinical textbox definition of a narcissist. He like Buggy, but everything is cranked up to an eleven. If crazy was a kind of clock, Buggy would be a single full rotation. Luffy would be like twenty full rotations and then clockwise and then back again on the perfect level of fun crazy and absolute Eldrich abomination. PUCK would be the exact opposite of Luffy landing on the worst amount of self import delusional asshole. He thinks himself a God with the power to back it up. His blood is that of the seraphim, a species that was once considered godlike, and Buggy, an emperor of the sea. He is the nepotism of blood. He is every last one of Buggy’s WORST possible traits. He is a narcissist, psychopathic, asshole. None of the other seraphim like him or understand him. And he doesn’t like or understand them. Worst of all, he is just as much of charismatic genius as his prime.

This brat has the critically thinking skills as Crocodile mixed with Buggy’s chemical expertise and Shank’s level of haki control. On my first post, you can see Puck with four wings. Because Buggy’s devil fruit already allows him to fly, he uses his wings as living armory. He can separate his feathers to create either daggers or swords depending on the situation. He uses his armament haki to make his feathers as strong as steel. Or he can uses his feathers for recon missions (think Hawks from MHA). He can also use his devil fruit for a variety of other situations. He uses it for espionage and undercover missions. He can cut his hair or limbs to appear taller or shorter. He removes his wings, nose, his own dick and Adam’s apple (if the situation calls for it) to go better under cover. He’s also knowledgeable enough about surgery to perform top and bottom surgery to easily switch between male and female when going under cover. He has entire rooms fill of wigs, makeup, clothing, dyes, jewelry, and other accessories specially for him. All his years undercover has made him an excellent actor. He knows what to say to get them to do what he wants. He knows how to persuade someone. No matter how much the others hate him, they have to admit, he is damn good at what he does.

For his design to most important thing to me was clown. I wanted to nail that performer look without making it too much or too bland. Buggy’s makeup is iconic. I’m like 90% sure Buggy has an egg. So I wanted to nail that Star of the Show look without butting into his territory. Of course I gave him Star first to not alone tie in the whole celestial feel, but it was thematic. I originally wanted to add in a moon since he already has a Star and a Sun but it just wouldn’t turn out how I wanted so first thing I asked myself was, “What is some of the most iconic clown makeup?” Then I remembered. TEARS! You can see a small blue tear on his left eye for 1.)Buggy is a bit of a crybaby and 2.)I didn’t want it to distract from the star too much. For the heart and the spade on the top of his forehead, it ties into playing cards. The heart and the spade are from a childhood drawing of mine where I made a monster using the four suits. Diamond and Club for the eyes. Heart on the forehead. And Spade as the nose. I took that idea and simplified it down to make the forehead not look as big. His eyes are easily my second favorite because we have a lot of warm colored eyes so that made him standout a lot more. His eyes are also the only ones that aren’t totally connected. All of the other seraphim’s eyes are very soft in some kind of way, Frankenstein being somewhat of an exception. All of their eyes are rounded in some kind of way. Dharma has a lot of curves to his eyes. The pointed edges of the twins, Yumi, and Sancho has been rounded off. Hell, even Frankenstein’s eyes have rounded lines in them to make appearance softer. Pucks eyes are completely sharp, there are no soft or rounded edges. Even the smaller stars are very straight and stiff. There is no softness in his eyes. There is nothing soft about Puck. His eyes are radioactive green. They are toxic. They are dangerous. They are tempting. He is the prettiest poison you’ve ever seen. His makeup, his nose, his hair and clothing are all attempts to make him appear softer than he really is. And of course, if you’ve seen my drawing of him, his wings are based off of duck wings. 1.) It’s a pun because Duck>Puck. Pretty self explanatory. And 2.) To make him appear weaker than he really is. You don’t look at a duck and think, “Total Murder Monster Hellbent on Making the World Kneel to Him”

Sorry for the long post. This is the longest I’ve ever written on this website so far and I had a lot I wanted to say before we got any new chapters or episodes that totally debunks any of my theories or lore. Maybe I’ll add on to this post by making the seraphim and their primes interacting with each other for the first time. And I hope you enjoyed! You can ask me questions if you want.

[cao-the-dreamer]

Possible base sets for a Rook origin with children from Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2, based on these posts by @notebooks-and-laptops and @fangsandfeels (couldn’t find a kossith/vashoth child though).

So right here we got

Dwarf: Zerlinda’s baby, abandoned in the Deep Roads (top)

Human: boy with an accent from Lothering (bottom left)

Elf: Lia from Kirkwall, found during the quest “Magistrate’s orders” (bottom right)

More about their possible origins under the cut

Dwarf

Mourn Watch: found by a skeleton at the bottom of the Necropolis, raised by the mages and trained as a bodyguard, strange affinity with the Fade despite being a dwarf.

Extra interactions: Lace making remarks about Rook’s similarities with Dagna, sharing feelings about not belonging with underground dwarves/not being considered a “real” dwarf.

Kal-Sharok: found at the entrance of the Deep Roads, raised by the Shaperate (possible reference to Valta and her disappearance), which adds extra knowledge about dwarf culture.

Extra interactions: confronting Lace as a surface dwarf, with Rook either exacerbating the conflict or bridging the gap between surface and underground, depending on the player’s choice.

Grey Wardens: found at one of the Wardens’ outposts, tainted by the Blight and forced to partake in the Joining as a desperate attempt by the Wardens to save their very young life (morally questionable actions by the Grey Wardens my beloved).

Extra interactions: Lace for the same reasons as Mourn Watch, Davrin for discussions about Grey Wardens and how to build an identity when you have no past and no future either, sharing thoughts about impending death with Emmrich.

Human

Antivan Crows: snatched from the streets by the Crows, later rescued by Zevran alongside other fledglings. Part of a bunch of traumatized kids raised by Zevran, becoming his “gang” when they grew up.

Extra interactions: confronting Lucanis about the crimes committed by the Antivan Crows, challenging the view of them as Antivan “heroes”.

Grey Wardens: was inspired by the Hero of Ferelden and joined the order once reaching adulthood after a life in the streets. Adds extra knowledge about the Blight and its consequences. Sent to the Anderfels as a diplomatic envoy and crossed paths with Varric.

Extra interactions: discussing with Davrin about different views/functioning within the Grey Wardens, questioning Neve because of different views on magic and religion (Ferelden vs Tevinter).

Mourn Watch: developed magic powers, found by Cassandra during the time of Inquisition who sent him to Nevarra so he could be trained by the Mortalitasi. Possible connection to the Divine depending on the previous game’s choices; Cassandra and her disgusted noises making a cameo in either cases.

Extra interactions: Neve for the same reason as above, questioning Bellara about Dalish magic (versus human view on magic).

Elf

Lords of Fortune: taken under Isabela’s wing at the end of DA2 as member of her crew, learned a life of piracy alongside apostates and escaped slaves, was sent to get news of Varric.

Extra interactions: questioning Bellara and Davrin on Dalish culture, with parallels made between Dalish and city elf, possible arguments with Bellara on selling elven artifacts.

Shadow Dragons: captured by slavers in Kirkwall and sent to Tevinter, rescued by the Shadow Dragons and joined their organization in return.

Extra interactions: challenging Neve about elves and slavery in Tevinter, discussing with Bellara and Davrin for the same reasons as above.

Veil Jumpers: fled Kirkwall with Merrill at the end of DA2 and crossed paths with the Veil Jumpers, joined to reconnect with their lost heritage/past, learned more about Dalish history.

Extra interactions: discussion of double cultures with Taash (and how they don’t need to “choose” between two cultures).

[drift-compatible-poll]

Preliminary Round: Kamen Rider

Igarashi Ikki/Revi and Vice(top left) vs Banjou Ryuuga and Kiryuu Sento(top right) vs Hojo Emu and Parad(bottom left) vs Hidari Shoutarou and Phillip(bottom right)

Propaganda for Revi and Vice: "The series starts with them being at odds with each other, but with Vice being Ikki's inner demon they have to work together, and the series is about them doing just that and learning from each other. Most of the "checkpoints" in their relationship are marked by them getting new armor that only works if they're in synch with each other. One of them has them working together in one suit , while their final form is based on magnets and all of their stronger attacks are them using opposite magnetic poles to propel/attract the other"

Propaganda for Ryuuga and Sento: "the whole show is built on the ideal that through love and leave people can thrive in a world full of darkness where hope is removed. Banjou and sento have to go through countless trials and tribulations but at the end of the day they form a long last connection and trust each other and end up doing everything they can to save the other. Their bond ended up saying the world and created a new world (version of earth) without the darkness. They both weren’t supposed to exist in this new world but they did and found each other. They aren’t supposed to be compatibile as the show uses motifs of machinery and life forms to create different toku suit transformations ie rabbit and tank. However at they end they are able to combine their motifs (rabbit and dragon bottles) to create rabbitdragon form which consists of both of them and their minds together."

Propaganda for Emu and Parad: "their connection to each other was a large part of ex-aid's story, as Parad was created from Emu. They share a mental and physical connection with one another, so the Drifting Mind Meld would be as easy as breathing to them."

Propaganda for Shoutarou and Phillip: "It's literally the gimmick for their series! :D They can transform into Double *only* by working together! They are a two-in-one Rider! >:3 Shoutaro controls the left side of the body, while Philip controls the right side, but they're so in synch that they both control the body as one most of the time, without disconnect. The driver was made for Philip to work with someone, and Shoutaro ended up using it for an emergency, but they were compatible with each other from the start. Also one of the arcs of the show is Philip's mother trying to have him form Double with another person that she thinks would create a more powerful Double, but Philip refuses and says that Shoutaro's "weaknesses" (aka being kind and wanting to help everyone) is part of what makes Double so strong (this arc leads them to unlock their super form too, which is the two of them actually fused together, instead of using one body and having the other share his consciousness with it)"

[1moremilgram-enjoyer]

Of Celtic Crosses and Wheels of Fortune

Hey there! So as I'm sure most of us are aware by now, in Double, Mikoto's diamond earrings have now changed into earrings which look suspiciously like the tarot card of the Wheel of Fortune, and the symbol also appears repeatedly throughout the MV.

This actually could confirm something I had been suspecting since MeMe regarding how we're meant to read the celtic cross spreads which appear there, and has some interesting symbolism attached to it.

CW Murder, workplace abuse

So it's pretty widely known that there are three different celtic cross spreads which appear throughout MeMe. Here they are:

(The first one actually flashes on screen twice, but there's no noticeable difference between the two appearances so they're assumed to be the same spread)

The third one is filled out by the cards which appear afterwards.

So, how does one read these spreads? ... No seriously, how are we supposed to read them? I don't engage in divination, I don't know what I'm doing. Let's hit up the internet to see how we're supposed to go about this!

Ah, I see. The problem with tarot cross spreads is that the order the querent sets up the cards and the meaning they each have is arbitrary. In fact, as you can see, there's even cultural differences between how Japanese people read it vs how westerners read it. But, is there any way to know how Mikoto reads them? I believe so.

So let's start by what's always the same. The first card always goes in the center of The Wheel (yes that's the name of the thing), the second on top of it, and the last four go bottom to top in The Wand (or The Pillar or some other name). The question comes from the other four cards in The Wheel.

Why is this important? Well, because the order of drawing changes the meaning. If you draw them in a circular fashion (case 2 in the above diagrams), the cards have meaning based on draw order. If you draw them in any other way, they have meaning based on position. This means to know how we're supposed to read them, we need to know how Mikoto draws them.

Thankfully, there is a way I think we can tell. Check out the ending of MeMe:

The second card goes on top of the first, as established. Then, the next four appear with a part of the card off frame. Even though card 3 is off center, only the bottom is cut off. Card 4 has the right cut off, then card 5 has right, then card 6 has top. Thus, the draw order is likely bottom, right, left, top. This... doesn't match any of the websites I checked, but that doesn't matter. All that matters is that it's not a circle, so the meaning is related to position.

For our purposes this post, we're interested in the middle three. The left card is the past, the middle (first card) is present, the right is future... in western readings. Look back at the Japanese examples I gave:

未来 is future.

過去 is past.

As you can see, because Japanese people have different reading rules, sometimes they read the spread Past->Present->Future, but sometimes they read it Future<-Present<-Past. The way you tell which is which is that the Past card is always drawn before the Future. Which, yeah, makes sense. Looking back at Mikoto, he draws the card on the right before the card on the left, meaning we're probably supposed to read it Future<-Present<-Past.

Alright got it? Good. Now, we have to check which spread belongs to each alter.

The third spread is easiest. Based on the lighting, the punch at the end, the red mannequin in The Fool card which carries a skull, etc, John appears to be the one reading it. There are more reasons to believe this, but they require a deeper reading of the spread than I'm willing to enter here. So trust me bro.

Then, the second spread has the reversed King of Cups in the first card of The Wand.

That card of the spread represents... different things depending on the source, but generally it's the attitude the querent takes about the problem they face, the power they have over the situation, or even advice; basically, it's how the querent approaches their problems. The reversed King of Cups can mean a lot of different things, including emotional repression or violence. However, since John has this card in this position as well, we can assume this querent approaches problems the same way John does. We can thereby assume this spread belongs to the left-handed alter who also killed someone, who I'll call Midokoto. Yes I still believe Trikoto (probably should make a post compiling evidence in Double, which there's a decent bit of), since the host is probably right-handed. By process of elimination, the first spread must be the host's, who I'll just call Mikoto. Again, there's other reasons to believe this, but I don't want to go too deep into the spreads.

Alright, back to the Wheel of Fortune. I'll start with the second spread, which has it reversed in the Concious ("as above") position. This position represents what the querent wants, the thing they are actively and conciously working towards. The reversed Wheel of Fortune can represent several things, including misfortune, unhealthy cycles, etc, but in this position, I believe the most applicable reading could be resistance to change. In other words, this alter is actively working towards keeping their life as it is.

[MeMe] Maybe it's ok to try to keep on living Split in half, make that heart beat

I've talked about it before, but I believe this is what Midokoto is working towards. Although that post is slightly outdated (I now no longer believe pronouns in lyrics are a good way to determine which alter is on screen), I still believe this is Midokoto speaking. He's the only alter who doesn't want change, which I think may also be implied by Double. You know those image flashes which appear all throughout Double? The only one we can be sure is probably attached to Midokoto is this (plus a few other images):

After all, this alter holds the bloodied bat with the left hand. You can also see the "crown of thorns" associated with John (long story) isn't over his head, and the antlers connected to Mikoto (long story) are nowhere to be seen, but I'm not sure that makes sense to anyone but me. I really should make a "Trikoto in Double" post huh.

(Note: The English lyrics on screen simply repeat "I was having such a hard time, I was trying so hard", which applies to all alters and doesn't use a pronoun in Japanese)

The thing you'll notice are the diamonds there, which look a lot like the earrings Mikoto was wearing prior to Double. This is, as far as I can tell, the only time these things show up in one of these image flashes. Additionally, this is one of, if not the only image flash which doesn't include the Wheel of Fortune. And the Wheel of Forutne by itself a symbol of change, and of cycles. Thus, this is the alter who doesn't want change, and who is least involved in the cyces of their lives; Midokoto.

Is this good or confirmation bias? Good question! Moving on.

Because you see, the most interesting thing to me isn't the second spread, but the other two. Because the Wheel of Fortune reversed is the Future of the first spread, but its upright version is the Past of the third.

This already tells us some stuff, doesn't it? Mikoto's future in that spread is John's Past in a way, which makes sense. The outcome of the first spread is The Devil, a card which is representative of the querent's darkest desires, which-

[Neoplasm] (Translation) John: I might be the person Boku wishes he was. The person who stubbornly stands his ground, who doesn’t cry himself to sleep from stress, who gives people their payback.

Oh, hey John! Yeah, between that line and the Devil card coming out of the mirror in that one scene of MeMe, it's fair to say John is represented by the Devil card in some way. In other words, both the outcome card and the Future card point at the appearance of John as a result of the toxic cycles in Mikoto's life. Mainly overworking, apparently.

What's interesting about these cycles is that the opposite is also true. John's Future is the Five of Swords, the same card in the Past of the two other spreads.

This card in this position basically means (among other things) conflict, in particular defeat or walking away from a conflict. I believe this represent's Mikoto's actions after John/Midokoto kill someone. After some stress is alleaviated, Mikoto begins fronting most of the time, and he doesn't want to engage in conflict. He tries to make everyone happy, which ends up stressing him and once again starting the unhealthy cycles of abuse in his life, the "reversed Wheel of Fortune", which once again leads to John breaking the cycle by killing a threat. Does that make sense?

That's why the Wheel of Fortune card is upright in John's Past. Because it's the Past, it's possible to interpret it as the destruction of an unhealthy cycle. In other words, John appears to break an unhealthy cycle... or, he appears when an unhealthy cycle is broken.

This is where we acknowledge the card in MeMe is different from the one in real life.

For one, all the missing animals and mythological creatures, but I won't get into it. The presence of multiple wheels can be seen as a representation of various cycles, and they're bike wheels for likely no other reason beyond stylization purposes.

However, what's interesting is that there's already blood on the wheel. Naturally because this cycle involves murder, but if so, does it make sense for it to be in John's Past if he's the only killer? You could certainly read this as "someone had already died by the time John split from the system", which fits the theory John only split from the trauma of a murder and not just stress. But that may just be confirmation bias, so take it with a grain of salt.

Regardless of that, this whole explanation serves to answer why the Wheel of Fortune is so important to Double. It's showing this cycle more directly. The unhealthy cycles from overworking and hiding feelings end up in murder. The symbol is connected to both Mikoto and John since they make up the cycle (mostly) and wish to break it, but not to Midokoto, maybe. It's weird.

Anyways, regardless of whether or not you agree with my insane ramblings, I hope you enjoyed the analysis! Take care!

[alienssstufff]

i luv ur dr art recently @_@ if you don't mind me askin who are ur fav dr characters design wise (not personality/story?)

LOVE when people ask me stuff like this yes - i'd gladly <3

Only included DR, SDR2, NDRV3 - we'd be here forever if it was the entire franchise. Also only accounting for their ingame default outfits

The placements on each tier is deliberate, the closer the character is to the top of that tier, the higher they are. I judge them by: >Prominence of the Talent, its practicality >Relevance to the character's identity/personality >Colour and aesthetics :]

[ramblings undercut]

[S-TIERS]

Like Gundham for example is an S-Tier design as it ticks all above boxes whilst still in a school uniform. The Four Dark Devas are important to the design, they go with him everywhere and the 5 of them are a UNIT which shows his strong connection with animals. I love the bandages and the eye-scar as it has a double meaning that indicates yes he works with animals (they can be rowdy), but as a character Gundham builds onto this detail using these scars to create this dark angsty facade. Aesthetic-wise by his hair he has a unique character silhouette, and I like how his purple is made the focal point by the blacks and whites of his uniform... both reinforcing the villain-facade and highlighting the importance of the Four Dark Devas.

Similar reasonings for the other Top 2 of Souda and Miu this time toppled with the strong yellows and pinks in their design. It's eye-catching and easily conveys what their talent is. (I really wish they kept Miu's promo-art backpack into her regular sprites, imagine her emoting with 4 arms isn't that awesome >:] )

Honorable mention to Impostor (Twogami) as well. While the regular Togami design is... mid. I really appreciate how contrasting Impostor's colours and accessories are down to the necktie and poses! Like yes they are impersonating Togami, but their values and personality as a person are not the same. The deception of Togami's dark clothing vs honest white suit of the Impostor's. Impostor fucking CLEARS regular togami any day on all accounts I will die on that hill.

[GOOD CHARACTER DESIGN]

A lot of the talent indications on this tier are more subtle in compare to S-tier but they get the job done and they do it in a pleasing way (I like the colour palettes on Chiaki, Mikan and Ibuki for example). Like I loveeee Sonia's uniform especially for it's simplicity. And yet the design still alludes to the Princess talent by elegance in the bow, the brooch, her crowned braid and how the shape of her skirt resembles that of a puffy princess gown. I also think the reds in the design like Snow White are a cute touch!

To me, Sonia should be the standard in what a Danganronpa design SHOULD be in accordance to detail.

[BAD CHARACTER DESIGN]

[ie the Green and Blue tiers] Reasoning why I put them here mainly because of wasted potential, either too basic (in a sense it doesn't tell much about that character) or not practical in any way for their talent... I HATE Ryoma's stripe leggings ik he went to prison but the execution of the concept looks awful.

And I hate Akane's and Sakura's outfits particularly cuz you KNOW why they made those skirts so short and I hate that. We could have gotten awesome gymnast of martial artist outfits but no......

I added Kiibo in that bottom tier because structurally even as a robot he is a visual nightmare if you're an artist trying to draw him. Especially when most of his suit is different shades of black and complicated chest cavity. And I despise the way that it looks like these robo-plates are attached on top of what looks like fabric long sleeves and pants as if the designer was too scared to fully commit to him being a robot. He is NOT 3D-optimised and he is NOT animator-friendly I'd throw up if I ever had to deal with him.

[feekins]

here are my thoughts and things and whatever translation weirdness I find as I re-read ch 3 of Trigun Maximum vol 6!

(NOTE: I'm reading the Dark Horse [physical] and the Overhaul [online] translations side-by-side)

(Dark Horse on left, Overhaul on right)

another example of how nuanced the Overhaul's translation is =u=

so these translation discrepancies alter my perspective of this bit. Dark Horse's unspecified "you" (which I always interpreted as something more general, so similar in meaning to "all of you") VS the Overhaul's "you, Crimsonnail"...and the differences between the "All the obstacles" speech bubbles has me all 🤨...and again, the nuance in the Overhaul's translation gives emphasis in places and hsrhfjxh idk, words hard. OVERHAUL GOOD.

also, I love the little bit of visual/narrative trickery with Legato mentioning (in the next panel) how the Eye of Michael's sending these guys, "Double Fang" and "Trip of Death"...

...and then showing us these two - and bc they aren't named yet, the impulse (at least for me) is to assume they are, in fact, these "Double Fang" and "Trip of Death" fellas!

the Overhaul's specific usage of "disciples" clearly connects this old man's group to "the church of plant worshippers" Legato mentions a few pages later - so they're not, like...just a bunch of rando Knives stans? which is what I get from Dark Horse's translation.

...I just noticed the middle panel. see those spikey dealies some of these dudes have on them? they've got my anthropologist brain working. I wonder if spikes like that are...idk, visual call-backs to Knives' knife-y abilities...perhaps regarded as religious symbolism the same way Christians might regard a crown of thorns... 🤔

also, to me, Dark Horse's translation implies that Knives deliberately ignores this group of devotees - which definitely sounds in-character for him. the Overhaul's usage of "yet" could be taken to mean the same thing - OR perhaps Knives isn't aware of all the different groups (denominations?) of the church of plant worshippers and he doesn't care. that also tracks.

(Dark Horse on top, Overhaul on bottom)

nuanced Overhaul translation yaaaaay 🎉

oh, and right after this panel, Legato says in Dark Horse's translation "Rumor has it...these two are the best in the bunch" and, in the Overhaul's translation "The two on their way here...are said to be the best in the world." at this point, those two fellas on the motorcycle are still unnamed, and so it's still reasonable to assume Legato's talking about them...UNTIL...

...yeah, idk why Dark Horse leaves out their names here. even more baffling, though...

...is how Dark Horse fking omits Ogre starting to say "Double Fang" and alters the shape of the speech bubble on the next page.

I just rly like these panels of Elendira reapplying her lipstick 💕

...yeah, Dark Horse's translation here has always confused tf out of me. Overhaul to the rescue!!!

[sean-parnell]

How Manufacturers Can Leverage Content Marketing to Grow

Cold calls, print advertising, tradeshow participation, and knocking on doors once worked well manufacturers can no longer rely on them to generate leads that fuel sustainable, double-digit growth despite having an effective sales team that may still have some skills in these areas.

Inbound lead generation in commercial and industrial markets requires compelling brand storytelling and thought leadership that educates prospects along the buyer’s journey, who don’t want to talk with salespeople before they’re good and ready as they fear being “sold to” by people that don’t have their best interest in mind.

Problems Solved vs. Products & Services, Features & Benefits

Powerfully resonating with prospects requires brand storytelling that converts website visitors into prospects then into customers.

Your brand story begins with having a deep understanding of the problems faced by your prospects, what they need to overcome them, and the value to them in doing so before promoting all of your products and services and their features and benefits. Prospects are searching for who can solve their problems and may have a limited understanding of what will solve their problems, so claiming your solutions are “the best” and that you’re an “industry leader” may mean nothing until they have an understanding of how your products will help them.

The hero of your prospects’ story is themselves, so you need to educate them on how you can solve their problems, and how your people, process, products, and services – not just products – do so. This is what will resonate powerfully with them. In this way, you serve as a guide for achieving success and avoiding failure. Your products and services with their features and benefits are how you solve these problems..

Thus, your “brand story” needs to be told throughout all of your marketing: on your home and about pages, blogs, guides, case studies, marketing collateral, presentations, proposals, press releases, third-party website profiles, direct mail, email campaigns, your tagline, and anywhere else you promote your company.

A brand story for each product and service you sell can also be developed as each of them solves different problems in different ways for different markets. This “sub-brand storytelling” is also effective for different vertical and geographic markets as each has different requirements.

Extracting & Promoting Thought Leadership

When they have a problem that they want to solve – because the pain of not changing exceeds the pain of the change – prospects self-educate themselves by researching the internet before speaking with any vendors, so it’s important to provide educational content that will help them understand how you can solve their problems:

TOFU: Top of Funnel: this content builds awareness by providing an overview of the problems you solve and how your products solve them

MOFU: Middle Funnel: this content goes one level deeper and helps them consider between different options that can solve their problem

BOFU: Bottom Funnel: this content gets very specific and helps prospects make their final decisions

OOFU: Out of Funnel: this content is created in a misguided attempt to maximize keyword rankings and website traffic as part of a flawed search engine optimization strategy (SEO) but fails to generate leads though can be quite costly

Tip: it’s important to have a good balance of all types of content (except OOFU).

It’s especially important for manufacturers to understand that, in addition to learning about how you solve their problems with your products and services, your prospects want to know how your solutions and business practices compare with both direct and indirect competitors. They also want to understand how their investment can be cost-justified so they can sell the idea of buying from you to internal decision makers that may not be in communication with you. Product comparisons are very useful because this is what prospects try to compile themselves, especially if they include areas where your competitors have an advantage over yours. Case studies that include return on investment (ROI) estimates are also highly useful for prospects.

Lead-Generating Content Begins with Keyword Research

Understanding and prioritizing what your prospects are searching for is a critical first step for lead generation, which begins with conducting keyword research on all the different terms your prospects may use.

Onsite SEO then fully leverages the content you’ve already developed when you work the highest priority keyword phrases into your page titles, meta descriptions, H1 headers, and throughout the content of each page – just remember it has to read well and should only be performed by someone that thoroughly understands your business and what prospects value.

Brainstorming content ideas that incorporate these keyword phrases and educates prospects along the buyer’s journey is the next step, following by prioritizing these content ideas into an editorial calendar. The best content comes from getting a professional copywriter to interview your company’s thought leaders and then writing up what is learned in the form of foundational website content, blogs and guides.

Best Practice: Google Search Console reports the keywords people searched for to find you.

Creating Lead Magnets

When your prospects discover that you are providing education and thought leadership for how you can solve their problems, many will be willing to provide their contact information to download this gated content – especially long-form, MOFU and BOFU content including guides, whitepapers, ebooks, and webinars. It’s also important that your contact forms ask prospects where they found out about you so you can attribute each download to the marketing or other activities that generated them. It’s not recommend to gate promotional material that prospects expect to be freely available, including blogs, brochures, data sheets, infographics, case studies, and similar materials.

Promoting MOFU and BOFU also generate even more website traffic and leads, including in Google Ads, LinkedIn Campaigns, Microsoft Ads and other pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, your social media profiles (especially LinkedIn and Twitter), on third-party article publishing sites (e.g. Medium), and throughout your public relations activities.

The Manufacturing Content Creation & Lead Generation Process

Here are the steps for creating content that has been proven to generate leads and product sales from many commercial and industrial manufacturers:

Conduct keyword research and optimize all of your current content for search

Develop brand storytelling and implement it throughout your home and about pages, marketing collateral, presentations, and all other marketing materials

Write blogs and publish them on a consistent schedule, educating prospects on a wide variety of topics that help them understand how your products and services will solve their problems

Syndicate unique versions of this content on high ranking, third-party websites

Launch Google ads and email campaigns to bring more prospects in

Create microsites to promote how you solve specific problems in your top vertical markets

Launch ecommerce to supplement sales through your channel partners for people that want to speak with and buy directly from you – just don’t undercut them, so selling only at list price is recommended

Evaluate new market opportunities where your current competitors are irrelevant with Blue Ocean Strategy

This approach routinely generates sustainable, double-digit sales growth with an ROI of over 300% within 12-18 months when executed by an experienced industrial marketing agency – and your company will no longer be a well-kept secret in your markets.

The Case for a Marketing Audit

While it may be appealing to hire a full-time content marketer, SEO specialist, or to outsource to a manufacturing marketing agency that may wow you with shiny objects, conducting deep dive marketing due diligence with an experience marketing consulting resource understands your industry is typically a better way to start.

An effective marketing audit will identify what it will take for you to generate sustainable, double-digit growth by leveraging brand storytelling, content marketing, SEO, content syndication, email campaigns, marketing automation, social media, advertising, PR, and more.

Most marketing audits focus only on promotional marketing communications, so you may want to find an industrial marketing agency that can auditing the other three Ps of your marketing: products and services, pricing and placement (selling through channels and go-to-market strategy).

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #55: 2004

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Usher with Lil Jon and Ludacris, Usher, Alicia Keys, Maroon 5, OutKast, Hoobastank, Mario Winans, OutKast, Ciara, Terror Squad. End description]

More information about this blog here

*Sorry 2004 by Ruben Studdard plays softly in the background*

Now we're really starting to see the hold the South will have on the sound of rap and hip-hop in the 2000's. Just about every region that isn't the East Coast (and let's be real: New York specifically) had to fight to get their style of rap to be taken seriously. And when the East vs. West debate was reaching it's peak in the 90's, the South was treated like the third party option. I've linked to an article about André 3000's famous speech at the 1995 Source Awards, a moment that is marked by many as a turning point in southern hip-top.

Now in the 2000's, the impact of southern rap can no longer be questioned. This is partially due to the rising popularity of crunk, which has really taken off this decade. With Yeah! and Goodies, crunk was able to find a wider audience by fusing the genre with R&B (Crunk&B). This was also the year Billboard started publishing its ringtone charts, which was set to be published in late 2004. The ringtone era turned out to be bolstered greatly by this shift in the sound of popular music, as a majority of the songs making this chart would be rap.

But crunk was far from the only style of rap coming out of the south. Especially with the presence of iconic southern hip-hop act, OutKast. With the release of their double album, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, André 3000 and Big Boi were not only able to experiment with different sounds and genres, but this album (these albums?) also introduced them to an even larger audience.

[fangdoesstuff]

The HTTYD hyperfixation from my childhood is back with force

anyways ngl? the live action looks good in so many aspects so far! But other things do look bad. My opinions will be shot out into the infinite space of the internet!! (long af post after the break)

Good stuff:

The actors seem to be taking it very seriously and I think they fit the roles well. Especially in the new trailer, in the scene with Hiccup arguing with Stoic about Toothless, bro. There is so much more anger in Hiccups voice like HELL YEAH!!

Some of the dragon designs look great RAHH!! So far Stormfly/the deadlynadders look good, and tbh Toothless (although very similar to the original movie) looks so cute!

Ehhhh Stuff:

Hookfang… he looks so… boring? yeah. Misses the charm of the original and I think he doesn’t have a very good silhouette, they need to exaggerate some features.

The Red Death seeeeems to have that same issue? We haven’t seen much of her yet, but from what was shown they got rid of her sort of red and greyish blue contrast and really squished her face a bit. As well removed some of her spikes? I hope maybe she’ll look better in the full scenes of the movie but we will have to see.

Both of these issues come down to the fact they are making the dragons look too “classic”? Like too similar to a baseline European dragon representation. Not to say it’s a bad thing, for example the Monstrous Nightmares original design does have those aspects! It leans more on a wyvern esque look but still has a unique design that takes its own risks, especially with the wings. Unfortunately those aspects are largely lost in the live action version.

I’ve realized this is becoming a really long post so NOW LETS REALLY GET INTO IT ACTUALLY BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT!

First of all Hookfang!! I really like talking about Hookfang…

Here’s the original design. Notice how the eyes are sitting ON TOP of the head rather than on the side, and facing FORWARDS. Insert smart thing about predators and their eyes vs prey eyes here. Also, the general fire motif through out the design. The spikes and wing tips look like the shape of flames. Also something I really like about the design is the wings having round spikes ??? idk how to say it but YEAH. The double horns and long claws are also important to point out, but contribute less to the silhouette as a whole.

Now here’s the live action design.

The very first difference that I saw of course was the eyes. They are on the side of the head, not on top. Now this can be counted up to it trying to be more realistic with its designs, buuuttt still they could have made the eyes forward facing more, like a wolf or something. The horns are the same, looks great. They gave him? her? Tbh I can never remember Hookfangs gender LOL more of a crocodile jaw, but I personally think an alligator jaw would have fit much better, more rounded on the bottom. And the spikes and wings are just boring!! They are 100% the “classic” or “basic” dragon problem we’re having. Also, in the original design lots of the spikes are HOOK esque! Altogether I think it could be better. :(

Now the Red Death!

Now, there are couple of KEY elements of her design that I think make her have a good silhouette. First of all, that HUGE jaw. It brings our focus to it because of its size and the long sharp teeth. Her mouth and jaw are where her most powerful attacks come from, including the bite that takes Hiccups leg. As well, she’s got the front horn that juts out of her face. Another aspect is her crest, the weird coral like silhouette to it. You can clearly see it in the side shot, as well as the jaw. And of course her stocky and powerful build, this lady is built like a semi truck. Also want to point out the clubbed tail, adding to her “brute force of nature” vibe. Cannot forget to also mention her colours, a deep red and dark grey blue and black that adds great contrast.

Now live action!

We unfortunately don’t have much to look at for her yet, buuuut what we have brings me some questions. First, it does seem like they’ve kept her jaw, although it is hard to tell in the scenes shown how big it is? or rather, where the jaw ends and neck starts. Her teeth seem to be much shorter. From the scenes in the trailer she does look to still have her stocky build, not sure about the tail club though. Also, seems like the wing size has been greatly increased, and imo this isn’t good. Her smaller wings in the original keep the focus on her larger body, AS WELL as the fact she sits and waits for other dragons to bring food to HER, rather than going out and hunting herself. Her crest seems to still be there, but is much less prominent, which again isn’t good as it messes with her silhouette and recognizability. Okay. What is going on with her eyes, especially when she is front facing? they look SO high up on her face but also they stick out on a large brow?? What?? Tbh, in every scene they showed her face it looks a bit different. Of course we don’t have a clear shot of her yet so we have to wait and see.

Can I hear Hideous Zippleback?

…. YEAHHHH

So the original Hideous Zippleback has some really interesting features that make its appearance. Firstly its body is very wide, as to accommodate for its two heads. It’s lower to the ground, with smaller wings. Its heads are its main vocal point that brings the design together. It has an aggressive underbite, a horn on the front of its face and those very thin cone like horns on the back of its head. Its eyes are off to the sides of the face but with oriented forwards. Also, it has two whip like tails to balance out the doubling of the heads. Another very important piece of the design are the colours and their saturation. The Zippleback has this bright green hue with that bright yellow underbelly, while also having splotchy patterning in dark green and almost red (like its spikes). This gives it an almost toxic look, that connects well with its gas and fire breath power.

Now here’s what we’ve seen in the live action:

So far, we haven’t actually had a good look at them. They are in the intro sequence with all the dragons flying but that’s it. I can see they’ve kept the wide flat body, which is good. Wings look a bit strange, like they’re connected on only one spot rather than having the wing membrane connect all along the side of the body. Heads seem to look okay? They aren’t very round, I believe the designers are afraid of round designs :( they also seem to be missing the underbite. The necks seem to be shorter and thicker, but I can’t really tell from the angles we’ve seen so far. Colours (as with the other dragons) are dulled, and can’t tell if there’s any patterning or not. Overall it doesn’t seem bad, but we will have to see.

Now the Gronkle (there isn't much for them yet)

We can break these bad boys down into the most simple of shapes, round wonderful and rotund. They're made of four circles, stumpy legs, and small wings. Gronkles have probably one of the most aggressive underbites, with two large teeth protruding from their jaws. They have a rough bumpy texture, basically they are just flying boulders (complimentary). Usually natural colours but some Gronkles we've seen have brighter more unnatural undertones. Key points of their design are the small and fast beating wings, like that of a bee, and the large faces.

Now we don't have much for the live action yet, but here's some I found in the same sequence as the Zippleback:

We can see that they keep round body shape (thankfully since they apparently hate round shapes) and it seeeems like the faces are okay? Maybe a little more proportional, it seems like they have more of a neck than the original design, and the underbite may be less pronounced. The wings seem about the same, maybe slightly bigger. Unfortunately because we haven't seen them fully I can't speak on the colours or anything else specifically.

DEADLY NADDER BABYYYY!!!!!!

We LOVE the Deadly Nadder. Stormfly <3 <3

SO. Nadders have many similarities to the Red Death, mostly in the head area. Large protruding nose horn, a spiky crest, large jaw. Nadders are much more based off of wyverns in a bird sense, unlike the Monstrous Nightmare which is more reptilian. Nadders have eyes on the side of their head rather than the front. Their wings are connected in one place along the shoulders rather than having the membrane connect all the way down. They have very tall legs, that are more stumpy at the bottom where the claws are. Of course they also have the very long tail, covered in spikes that can be shot out at will. Most Nadders we've seen have more bright colours, with splotchy patterning. The crest and the noise spike define the head of the Nadders, with the large legs protruding down from behind the wings and the long tail being the other vocal points.

LETS SEE THE LIVE ACTION!!!

ahhhHHHH She is BEAUTIFUL!

I really thing they nailed the Nadder design for the live action imo. The signature crest is just as large as the original, the nose horn is much bigger though. I don't mind it, I don't think it was necessary to increase the size but it still stays consistent with the original ig. The legs are perfect, tail is long and thin as it should be, and the colours are PERFECT. I believe the fact that Stormfly's design is so well done is because she is Astrid's dragon, and of course Astrid is a main character. BUT we will get back to that later.

Now it's time for our main boy,

Toothless!!! (aka Nightfury)

The titular bitchular, fellas! Lets get into it.

As most already know, Toothless's mannerisms and body style is based off of a cat (and some other animals too, but mostly a cat) He has a flat oval shaped face, with little ear things like an axolotle protruding from the back of his head. His eyes are front facing, but still set in on his head. He has a long sleek body, that tapers out thinning all the way down the tail. His entire body is leathery black, with sections of more prominent scales mostly his legs and face/ears. The bat like wings, and smaller dorsal wings along the tail, into that big tail fan and the end. His legs are cylinders with larger ovals at the bottom, with super small claws. As well, along the back of the legs, he has small little spikes that match his larger spine spikes. Now I would LOVE to look deeper into his design rn, but i'm losing steam so WE'RE MOVING ON! (Maybe i'll make another post abt just Toothless idk)

Now the live action! (if you can even tell LMAO)

As shown, the nailed it. I wasn't expecting them not to of course, Toothless is the face of the franchise, but still. On the contrary, there are some minor changes! He is generally more angular, especially noticeable on his face. His eyes seem a little closer to his nose from the side, making the width between his nose gap a bit smaller. His colour has of course stayed the same. He is far more scaly in this version, moving away from the leathery skin on his body and leaving it just for the wings. The taper of his body to his tail is way less prominent, making him more boxy. Overall, these are really just minor changes that make him more in the live action movies style. I think he looks great, would've wished they kept him more round and agile looking, but he still looks like our boy.

Now that's it for now! But, I do have some things I want to point out before ending this post off. First of all, I think (unfortunately) that much more care was taken for Astrid, Hiccup, Stormfly, and Toothless because of their MAIN main character status. I really don't want to think of it that way, but it this wild world of entertainment we live in they care much more about preserving a leading couple than what they consider as "side characters" ;-;.

Next, I can see throughout this analysis, that they were afraid of round shapes in these character designs. Now, this is definitely an aspect of translation from fully stylized animation to a live action, but I still think they went too far with it. They are afraid of the stylization of the dragons! It just an unfortunate aspect of the live action, it loses the exaggeration in exchange for "mass appeal" or something.

Anyways I'm full of opinions on httyd rn so I WILL be posting more. Also, ALL OF THIS IS JUST MY OPINION! I'm no expert character designer, I'm just a dragon girlie that wants them to be more funky.

[ijosijen]

Formality Distinctions & Orthography Gore

I've mentioned that High Gavellian loves its formality registers. The language is a reified mash of traditionalist/formal sentiment, after all. Its madness will filter into the Low Gavellians (esp. the more central ones), but High Gavellian is a conlang both literally and in the same way that Standard Italian is.

...that Standard Italian would be if it started with Ecclesiastical Latin instead of Tuscan. But I digress.

The main point is that there's tons of formality and honorific floating around. My endgoal is to create a pseudo-keigo system. I'm not going out of my way to design it from the top-down, though. For that sweet sweet Naturalism™, I've been designing a bunch of smaller formality distinctions in various chunks of the grammar and lexicon.

The emergent differences in messaging when one chooses to use more or less formal constructions (as well as with what parts of the phrase one chooses to use them) has led to this really nice organic gradient of formality. Register, not mode.

And ofc a big part of formal speech is use of Formal, Traditional Vocubulary™. Which is to say that there are a metric ton of doublets in the lexicon, depending on how exactly a given word entered it. A learned borrowing? Probably mad formal. The more sound shifts it's been through, the less formal it generally is. Loaned/calqued in from the Low Gavellians? probably less formal. etc etc.

The Gavellian language group trending towards more compounds over time means that this isn't much of an English situation, where longer = more formal. Sound reductions generally produce the inverse, really!

e.g, the adjective lo "far" is older and thus more formal than its synonym sin vu. The latter exists because 〈o〉 represents schwa in High Gavellian, often elided entirely at that. A word that was pretty much [l] in fast speech loses out to the much better fortified [sɲˤvu].

But it's still more formal, rendered so by the weight of history.

Back to the doublets, see:

informal ven tovu [vɛ̃ˤtvu] vs. formal ven vu [vɛ̃ˤvu] "below, (the) bottom"

informal nilaes [nilæs~nilεs] vs. formal nilasé [nilaze] "decay," with the latter also forming a proper Nilasé for use in philosophical/poetic/giant magical curse contexts.

informal rei [ve] vs. formal órei [əve]. The cleaving in this one's fun. While both can mean "path, valley," the former can also be used for "trail" and metaphorical "way," while the latter is also "street/road" etc.

then we get into doublets that have board semantic overlap but aren't even technically synonyms.

I've already done a dictionary entry on informal ochne [ɣn] vs. formal auôchne [oɣ.n]. The former is a simpler "truth, fact, validity," whereas the latter is "realization/manifestation, crux of the matter." Still, it has some semantic overlap with the informal version, just to an extreme: it can aslo mean "an ultimate/final truth"

my newest doublet is the informal relya [vəja] vs. formal réliâa [velja]. they're both verbs with similar enough meanings, but historical nonsense means that they're on the opposite ends of the agency spectrum.

relya's space hovers somewhere between "to command/fate/doom/force," while its "formal" equivalent has a smaller space and inverted agency: "to be commanded, to accept, to be fated."

The big shadow behind the Gavellian family is the breakdown of a highly-ergative system. trying to level the solutions that a bunch of daughter languages used has given High Gavellian a whole host of odd unaccusatives and unintuitive agency distinctions in transitive verbs.

finally: check out the titular orthography gore on that réliâa. well, it's just some doubled letters and diacritics. but it looks ugly to me in a way that hits very nicely. High Gavellian's historical spelling is expertly (desperately) tuned to the language's "common" phonotactic patterns. Sure, it can handle stretch cases, but it's not going to be pretty.

the spoken language has far less restrictive norms, which is where all the orthogore comes from - some scribe tries to write down a word that's entered spoken use and is forced to resort to lrevahrínonei [leva'i:nne].