#I might actually be a fantasy dwarf lol

[finrays]

Dwarves in fantasy are noted to have a love of precious metals and gems

Dwarves in fantasy are noted as excellent craftsmen who make things out of… what, now? Precious metals and gems.

Conclusion: dwarves hunting for gold and gems are the equivalent of a knitter popping into a craft store like “Just one more spool of yarn” or a 3-D printing enthusiast logging in to Amazon like “just one more roll of filament”, they’re craftsmen, they dream about cool things to make stuff with, we all fuckin get it.

We’ve all delved too greedily and too deep for the right color for that one project, if we can juuuuuust find it…

(The great dwarven city of Ehtzee might feature in a future D&D campaign)

[tolyasword]

my birthday was so good yesterday! probably the best one i've had in years. 🥰

[sabertoothwalrus]

I'm going to think out loud about the dungeon meshi ages for a sec

I'm going to preface this by saying that this is based on my existing knowledge, and fact checking is difficult because there is A LOT of contentious research out there.

First of all, I think a lot of people come at this from a modern lens, forgetting the context that this is fantasy medieval era. this is fiction. on top of that, this is specifically Ryoko Kui's understanding of medieval era aging. plus fantasy. So before anyone comes at me with a bunch of 'ermmmm actualy's just consider that I don't really care and also it might not matter in this context lol

as far as the "age of maturity" assigned for each race, something I don't see many people talk about is that "teenagers" are a fairly recent concept. For a long time, you were either considered A Kid or Not A Kid. but this doesn't necessarily mean kids were more/less developed then, just our cultural expectations for certain age groups have changed.

Laios says the age of maturity for tallmen is 16. I don't think that means 16 year olds in the dungeon meshi universe are necessarily "more mature" than modern 16 year olds, but moreso that they have more responsibilities. However, things like medicine, smoking, drinking, sun exposure, physical activity, etc all affect age, so it's possible that developmentally they're closer to modern 18 year olds? Izutsumi is 17 (less than two weeks from turning 18, actually), and very much acts like a modern 17 year old.

The age of maturity for half-foots is 14. Chilchuck was 13 when he got married and had his first two children. Even though, at age 29, he's the equivalent of a modern 50 year old, I don't think he was That much more developed at 13 than a tallman. I think if half-foot 14 is equal to tallman 16, then Chilchuck was Pretty Damn Young for a parent LMAO. Even if you're generous and say tallman 16 is a modern 18, he still would've been younger than that.

The long-lived races are interesting. Marcille is obviously a unique case, and not a lot of this applies to her. We do know what Senshi was like as a minor (miner, lol), and he seemed like a modern 15ish, considering he was 36 and dwarf maturity is 40. I think it'd be really interesting to delve into how a culture functions with people being developmentally adolescent for soooooo long. Imagine middle school lasting 20 years. that would fucking suck. I suppose it makes sense why long-lived races are so patronizing.

Moving onto lifespans, I want to emphasize that they're average lifespans. Even in the manga, they say some half-foots live to 100, it's just rare. So it's less that a tallman 60 year old is "older" than a modern 60 year old, it's that it's easier to keep people alive for longer nowadays. Modern medicine is a BIG contributor. Dental health as well, considering how much your health is affected by your diet (and how much the action of chewing alone aids in digestion). Curious to know what the FUCK elven dentistry is like.

It also makes me wonder if half-foots would have a longer average lifespan if they weren't like, used for bait and treated so poorly, but half-foot 29 does seem to be middle-aged for half-foots. so who knows!

In that vein, I don't know if I can see Mithrun quite making it to 400 😬 like, his experience as a dungeon lord took a lot out of him quite literally, and he's doing exceptionally well despite it! I imagine he'd eventually start to develop a lot of heart problems if he doesn't have them already. Perhaps early-onset dementia. His memory seems still quite intact (he corrects Kabru on his story's accuracy) and he doesn't act like, lobotomized. He doesn't seem forgetful or confused, and he has a sense of humor/sarcasm still. It's mostly his task initiation that's been affected.

I almost want to say that mana affinity could affect long-lived races' lifespans, except dwarves have very poor tolerance for mana, so it's probably not that.

okay anyway I didn't really have a point to this post so I'm just gonna end my rambling here

[ponett]

Do you have any advice for people making OCs/sonas? Yours are really well rounded and unique and I'd greatly appreciate the insight of someone who got a passion project off the ground!

So this is a very broad topic, and it varies a lot based on your own creative goals, what kind of characters you're creating, and where you want to use them. Creating an OC to be used in furry pinups is a little different than creating one for a dramatic story. But I'll try to give some general advice on how I do things for the types of characters and stories I tend to work with

Heads up: this will be kinda long lol

The germ of an idea

For me, I'll generally be inspired to create a character starting with a small number of core traits. These could be anything. A color scheme, a body type, a job, a hobby, a personality archetype, an outfit, a visual motif, a functional role in a story I'm working on, a noteworthy facial feature, a weapon, a relationship of some sort to an existing character, a single scene or joke I want to use them for. For furries and fantasy characters, species is usually one of the first things I'll have an idea for, which tends to get the ball rolling fairly easily since we have all sorts of cultural associations with different animals and fantasy creatures.

Any standout character trait like this that you find compelling can serve as that initial spark. The inspiration can come from anywhere, but it's often just a matter of knowing yourself and your own tastes. What do you like? What are the people in your life like? What really speaks to you in a character? What's an existing fictional character that you'd like to rewrite and take in a different direction? What's an aspect of yourself that you would like to see represented more often in fiction? It doesn't have to be something super deep or fleshed out right from the start, though. You can start with something as simple as "I want a black cat character" or "I want a character who dresses like an arcade carpet" or "I want a character who looks scary but is actually nice." Whatever it is, it's something that differentiates the new character from the ones I already have, because otherwise I'd just be using them.

Contrast

From there, you can start brainstorming other traits that might go with those core traits. Some of those may be traits that naturally complement each other. Continuing with the black cat example, maybe you wanna play into the common cultural perception of black cats and say that this character brings bad luck, or is associated with witchcraft. However, I often like to give characters contrasting or even seemingly contradictory traits, which can help elevate a character beyond a stock archetype. Real people tend to be a walking ball of contradictions, after all.

I've talked a lot about how I did this with the main cast of SLARPG. Melody is a fox, traditionally a crafty and untrustworthy predator, but she's extremely introverted and gentle. Allison is a bunny, but instead of being a meek and cuddly little prey animal she's an outgoing fighter who loves a challenge, and she has a muscular build. I think this kind of thing gives characters some fun flavor, and can be really effective for both comedy and drama. For an example from something I didn't write, take Senshi from Dungeon Meshi. He's a dwarf, and he embodies certain stereotypical aspects of dwarves - he's a short, buff man with a big bushy beard, he lives underground, he's stubborn and doesn't like elven magic - but he also goes against some of them. Instead of being an expert on mining and blacksmithing, Senshi is a culinary expert who has a deep appreciation for the natural ecosystem of the dungeon. He's a weirdo among dwarves for not caring about the wellbeing of his axe and for using his super awesome shield primarily as a giant wok. And that's what makes Senshi fun and interesting.

So going back to our example, instead of going with the stereotype, we could make a black cat character who has comically good luck, or who's superstitious and afraid of witchcraft, or who's an extremely rational person who always believes in science over superstition. Or maybe you roll with the bad luck angle, but instead make the black cat be the victim of their own bad luck in some interesting way. Maybe this black cat has terrible luck with love and can't hold down a relationship. Maybe this black cat is an aspiring speedrunner who consistently gets the absolute worst RNG possible in every video game due to their own bad luck. Maybe this black cat has accrued a horrendous gambling debt after a long losing streak and has loan sharks coming after them.

These are all just hypothetical examples, of course. I don't exclusively make characters with ironic contradictions like this. The idea is just to build on those core traits you started with in interesting ways, and that's one of my favorite ways to do so. But honestly, a lot of the time execution is more important than the sheer originality of an idea, and sometimes really putting your all into playing a trope you love straight is the right move.

Specificity

Regardless of what direction I take a character in past that initial seed of an idea, the key ingredient tends to be specificity. To give them specific details beyond the most stock possible version of that core idea you started with.

This is something I internalized from Tim Schafer, via a blog post in the behind-the-scenes backer material for Broken Age. Sadly I'm not sure if that stuff is still available, but I did save this particular post about creating characters since it really helped me, so I'll directly quote a chunk of that post here:

No two characters would approach a problem or react to events in the same way. At least, not if you’ve designed the characters well. If you’ve left them too vague or superficial, if they are merely functional elements in your story instead of individuals, then they might react in the same way. And that’s a problem. So to avoid that, I’m going to talk about one the most important parts of character development: specificity. Making sure your character is a specific individual, not a stereotype. A unique character, different from anyone else in the world. It doesn’t mean that they have to have wacky gimmicks, eyepatches and crazy accents. It just means they have to be specific. For example, let's create a new character. Let's say your story has a scene where your main character gets in trouble in school. So you’re probably going to need a school teacher. Imagine a school teacher for a bit. Do you see her in a little red schoolhouse? Maybe a bun in her hair? An apple on her desk? Thick black glasses? Let’s put a ruler in her hand for good measure. Done! We have our teacher character. She’s ready to be in the scene where our hero goes to school and the teacher sends her to the principal’s office for passing notes. Right? I mean, this character doesn’t have too many lines, so why develop her character any more? The problem is that this teacher is a very shallow stereotype of a teacher. She has no specific attributes that make her memorable. She’s the teacher you would get in a set of free clip art. She might not have many lines, but if all your supporting characters are this way, your story will be more bland than it should be. Even if this teacher is only onscreen for a minute, she should be unique and different from any other teacher in the world. Luckily, it's not actually that hard to make her so. You just have to ask some very basic, specific questions.

Tim goes on to explain how simple exercises like filling out character sheets with basic questions about your character (there are a million of these online) can help push a character beyond a stock archetype, even if it's a minor supporting character. Questions about where they're from, their likes and dislikes, their beliefs, their goals in life, that sort of thing. For minor characters especially, a lot of these details may never actually come up in a story, but just asking even a few of these questions and giving them specific answers helps you see them less like an archetype and more like a real person in your head. Maybe you never bring up your character's backstory or their favorite sport or what kind of music they listen to, but just having a specific answer for questions like that might help color the way you depict that character in subtle ways. It makes it feel like they aren't defined by just that one core trait you started with, and helps make the characters and world feel more alive, like there's stuff going on with them beyond the bounds of the story or the drawing.

It's a careful balancing act, though. It's easy for a character to feel like they're a collection of too many unrelated gimmicks and quirks. Again, like Tim said, these specifics don't have to make for the craziest, most original character ever, there just has to be something there.

Let's go back to SLARPG as an example, where I combined broad character archetypes I liked with more specific personal elements that I felt like I wasn't seeing enough in the fiction I liked. Melody is riffing on the common idea of the reserved healer character in the RPG or MMO party and the shy girl archetype, but she's the main hero instead of a supporting player in another person's story, and she's also a fat bisexual trans woman who draws a lot of little details from my own life. Her interests, her relationships, her opinions on things, her personal hangups and dreams, these all set Melody apart from other fantasy healer characters and define her as Melody Amaranth. Specificity!

But it doesn't always have to be super deep, especially if you just want some characters to draw for fun and aren't planning on writing a story with them. Take my fursona. I've always loved dogs, so I made my fursona a dog. I chose a Samoyed in particular because I think Samoyeds are the cutest, and I hadn't seen hardly any anthro Samoyed OCs at the time. I leaned into the breed's signature fluffiness to help my fursona stand out from other canine OCs. She has simple identifying traits like being fat like me, wearing glasses like mine, and having a hairstyle kinda like mine (when I tied my hair up in a bun, at least). And there you go. Fursona achieved. She's not a wildly high concept character, but she doesn't need to be

Anyway I realize that this is mostly about the writing aspect, so here's a few quick bullet points about designing a character's appearance:

Face and body type variety are good, but personally I would say lack of body type variety is worse than same face syndrome

Knowing some stuff about shape language is good, but you don't have to be completely beholden to the "circles are friendly, squares are sturdy, triangles are scary" shit. I'm generally more interested in using repeated shaping in different parts of a character's design as sort of a shape motif. Melody's body, hair, and tail are all made of round, swooping shapes, for example. (This is more applicable if you're designing cartoonier characters as opposed to realistic humans, obviously.)

Knowing some basics of color theory is also good. I like using complementary and contiguous color schemes on characters and generally try not to use too many distinct colors on one design. Black and white and grey and various browns are good as neutral colors to balance out the colors of the rainbow, and gold can be a nice accent color

A small handful of identifying accessories can be fun, but don't rely on those to make a design stand out. Ideally your character should still be identifiable even when not wearing their default outfit, or even in silhouette

Aaaaaand I'm gonna call it a wrap there! This is a huge topic, so hopefully this helps with at least some of the basics! At the end of the day, though, don't beat yourself up if you can't sit down and force yourself to come up with the most crazy awesome OC ever. Just have fun and be yourself!

[aftertheradar]

so i've been rereading Artemis Fowl (series) again and even tho it was one of my favorite kids series I'm noticing some kinda weird or icky stuff that flew over my head before. Like damn if these books ain't just cyberpunk espionage magitek copaganda. Book 2 is literally about an ethnically motivated class uprising being put down by the police(who are framed as the good guys) because said racial minority/underclass is too violent and stupid to deserve better treatment in the prison system. and also too stupid and violent to have masterminded the plan for revolution themselves and needed one of the smart races to do it for them.

and any time there's a civilian presence in the book, they are depicted as either an antagonistic obstructive bureaucrat or a whiny caricature played for laughs. not totally sure if this is because these books were written while uncritically carrying over this kind of depiction that was historically the norm in its genres (police procedural), or if this is the author's own (conscious or subconscious) idealogical biases seeping in. might be both tbh.

anyway anyway the thing i actually wanted to bring up is that a really bizarre detail that stuck out to me during my re-reads is the way the different fairy races/species are characterized. there's 7(really 8) races/species of fairies who are disntint, and they have different traits and powers. So like there are elves who are good with magic, sprites who can fly, goblins (the aforementioned race that is too stupid and violent to be capable of organized protest) who can shoot fire etc.

Butt (foreshadowing lol) the one that was so weird to me is the characterization of gnomes, the last and arguably least of the fairy races in the artemis fowl series. they seem to make up the majority of the fairy population and a significant portion of background characters. bdon't get much screen time in the books because of not having any main characters who are one. They're sole defining characteristic?

Having enormous asses.

That's it. that's their whole thing. basically every time there's a gnome character depicted, the text goes out if it's way mention how dummy thicc the gnomes are and how their dumptruck rear ends take up too much room and keep blocking things and knocking shit over when they walk.

like there's also already a whole race of fairies (the dwarfs)whose whole thing is to be a never ending font of burglary escape techniques and fart jokes whenever the plot or author demand them. you would think having enormous asses would come in that territory, but no. it goes to the last group that we the audience don't really know or care about as much.

and i just don't really know what to make of that. that in coming up with fantasy races for his books, one of the most present but least prominent in tbe books' single defining and noteworthy character trait is having such fat asses that they block public pedestrian walkways (no really). i wish i knew what exactly the thought process behind (lol) that one was.

anyway hope i explained why it's so weird to me well, goodnight

[rascalentertainments]

Also, for The Wishing Kingdom,

Tell me a few things you like about it so far, it can be anything, references, world building, song rewrites, characters etc,

The same thing goes for Reach for The Stars, Kingdom of Wishes and The Fallen Star! Looking forward to hearing them thoughts mate!

Of course!

For The Wishing Kingdom, I like how its going for a more High fantasy feel like the older Disney classics! I'm not all that well versed in fantasy and magic, so its cool to see more examples of it done in your rewrite! The parallels between how everyone is knowingly depressed in the supposedly perfect Rosas, while everyone is genuinely happy and free in the Hamlet. Showing how the Kingdom isn't really making people happy, is a really nice touch!

I also like the backstory of Anatres what his character arc is going to be when he reaches Earth! WG!Star and Anatres actually have that deep love if Earth in common. (He'd probably start crying hearing what happened to Xanthos, he's a sensitive guy) And of course the idea of Asha having her own magic!

For "Kingdom of Wishes", that's actually the first story I read for a rewrite and just finished it a few weeks ago. Right now, its my favorite version! @annymation did such a great job writing the huge cast of characters, especially the villains, made some clever references and I ADORE ASTER AND ASHA!!! 😭 And I also got the inspiration to make Sabor from Bravo!

For "The Fallen Star", I started back reading that and I can't stop laughing! It's like if you put Wish, Deadpool and Emperor's New Groove together in a blender and that's The Fallen Star .😂 I love the designs of Cielo and Princess Asha, they look so unique, which is why I wanted to draw them. (ASHA KEPT CALLING ME MUTT, LIKE WHY—) @signed-sapphire writes some hilarious dialogue for Asha, with my favorite joke of her calling all the teens by their dwarf names, which is something I thought the canon movie was going to do, so she delivered. And Saph is very sweet, that's why I like talking to them the most about the movie and helping on the song numbers.

And for "Reach for the Stars!" I actually just started getting into it this week! I'm still new to it, so Might not cover everything. I've mostly seen the designs of the characters (which are so cute) and certain updates on the lore. I have to say the magic system in it is really unique! And Suñeo being the one starboy that wants to go home is unique take, and the Royal couples succeeds in pulling a star down in this version! Funny enough, I think that's why WG!Star likes to hang with him the most. (He's been wandering in space for years all alone and meeting Suñeo for the first time made him so happy. He's not alone anymore and he drags Suñeo through different parts of space to show him all the cool stuff he's seen) I get the biggest thing about it is how well the magic system for the stars and Rosas is thought out, its like something out of a manga story! @oh-shtars is really awesome at it!

The angst is also well made, I actually feel bad for, well everyone! 😂 Kind of ironic Star becomes friends with Suñeo, since Star's movie is more comedic/fun based and Suñeo's movie is more angst and drama, lol.

Thanks again, @chillwildwave! That was fun! I can't wait to see your story goes along with other friends versions!

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Estimated $100m second weekend for INSIDE OUT 2... Really out here breaking some records, eh? Rare for a movie, and the first time for an animated movie, should the estimates be on the low end. Very possible the actual is like $98-99m, which is still very impressive, and only an approx. 35% drop.

If it gets over $100m over the three-day, it'll sit with all-timers THE FORCE AWAKENS, ENDGAME, INFINITY WAR, BLACK PANTHER, JURASSIC WORLD, and THE AVENGERS...

Really shows that the original INSIDE OUT is beloved after its blockbuster run in 2015, and it shows that audiences quite like this movie and are back for more. Might even make a play for INCREDIBLES 2's $608m domestic total, unadjusted of course. (The actual total in today's ticket prices is around $720m, per The-Numbers.) That would make it the highest-earning animated movie domestically, but right now, Pixar's Supers hold that title. Adjusted, it will always belong to SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS.

But if anybody was gonna beat Pixar, it was gonna be Pixar. I don't see another studio getting a shot at this, maybe except cousin studio Disney Animation and their MOANA 2... Or DreamWorks if SHREK 5 really lands like a meteor in a few years from now.

Worldwide, INSIDE OUT 2 sits at $724m. Again, within two weeks of release. Already circling the original's $857m take. (Before anyone says it, the film saw a small re-release in July 2020 that pushed the take to... $858m. Know that I refer to original release grosses, lol.)

And with this movie doing so well, I see all the Chicken Little-ing... Over the wrong problem.

"We're NEVER getting an original movie from this studio again"

Okay... Let me try to debunk this.

I don't think an animation studio of this size can feasibly ONLY make sequels, because eventually... Wells run dry. Also, the people who yell this often online... Are they aware that ELIO exists and will be released next summer? Are they aware that Domee Shi, director of TURNING RED, has a new movie in the works at Pixar? (It's not ELIO, she is likely just doing story/script on that one.) Are they aware that Pixar has a movie slotted for release in late winter 2026 between ELIO and TOY STORY 5?

I'll tell you something funny... There was a fellow who insisted to me in December 2015 that Pixar was going to be done with original movies after THE GOOD DINOSAUR became the studio's first money-loser. That they'd put COCO on hold, and that would be it... LOL. This person also claimed to be a shareholder... That speaks volumes.

But no, really... You need to keep making untested or original movies in order to have things to make sequels to in the first place. And one of Pixar's recent losses was... A spin-off of TOY STORY featuring a version of one of their most recognizable, practically synonymous-with-their-name characters. Yeah, that epic movie about Lenny the binoculars!

So, please... Never making originals again? That's just a bad business plan and completely not feasible.

When originals/non-sequels don't meet the corporations' expectations (because I refuse to call SOUL, LUCA, TURNING RED and ELEMENTAL "flops" in any way, shape, or form... *Especially* the first three), the studios don't stop making them... They stop making them in a specific way.

Hence, Pete Docter - likely with Bob Iger pointing a gun at his head - saying Pixar won't make "autobiographical" movies anymore. Basically no more TURNING REDs, and more... Well, whatever the early 2026 movie is going to be. (Which is not this "Ducks" thing people keep insisting it is, as far as I know.)

The other studios do that, too. Off the top of my head... DreamWorks had a bunch of these fantasy movie in the works circa 2011. Stuff like THE GRIMM LEGACY, RUMBLEWICK, ALMA, fantastical stories with something of a darker bent to them. They were also considering adapting GIL'S ALL FRIGHT DINER... They had all these really cool movies in the works that would've redefined what a DreamWorks movie could be, post-SHREK. And then after a movie called RISE OF THE GUARDIANS lost money (even though it had good legs and became a cult hit thereafter), all of it never happened. ME AND MY SHADOW, which was in some form of production and was HOTLY anticipated by the animation community, got canceled. They proceeded to finish TURBO and MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN.

Both of which also "flopped"... I remember Jeffrey Katzenberg, when he was still running that place, saying something to the tune of: "Well those failed because we tried to aim at preteens and teenagers." Really? TURBO and PEABODY, which were overpriced to begin with, were aiming for that age group? The plan going forward was "We're going to make movies for kids and their parents." Whatever the hell that meant. Eventually, Comcast bought DreamWorks, a little over a year later. And the flightplan constantly changed after that.

Studios don't give up on movies that aren't sequels, they just re-route them. They find "reasons" for previous movie failures, and usually it's the fault of the filmmakers and the stories they chose to tell. It's never any outside circumstances, which are actually often the case with money-losing movies. The very movies that go on to be big on home video and streaming, and attain cult followings. With today's line of thinking, Walt Disney wouldn't have even gotten past PINOCCHIO's disastrous original release results.

So instead of yelling "we'll never get original movies again", I direct my energy elsewhere... And I say "Well, hopefully the future movies - both original and sequel - don't fall flat because of needless executive interference that attempts to *correct* a perceived problem." That to me is the issue, not the fantasy of Pixar completely stopping making original movies altogether.

[tophthedaydreamer]

Question? If you *had* to change the old Disney Snow White movie, either to adapt it to audiences now, or to make it closer to the original story, or fit your own headcanons? What would you change?

Asking because I genuinely haven’t thought about the movie until I saw you talking about the new live action version. And now I’m thinking about rewatching the movie and trying my hand at rewriting it.

What are the things you’d definitely keep, vs things that you might add if it got more screen time, or even stuff you’d cut or change. (One of mine is actually seeing the Hunter’s family. Which might be my forgetfulness? But I don’t think we do in the movie)

personally, I love 1937 snow white so much that I wouldn't change a thing hehe. I think it's wonderful the way it is.

But if I were to make my own adaptation (which I'm dead set on doing if I ever get the resources and ability to do so)....

I would do my own spin that focuses more on snow white's bond with the dwarves instead of the romance with the prince. As much as I am a sucker for romance, I do adore platonic relationships as well, especially those that are family-oriented. And snow white and the dwarves are my favorite parts of the 1937 film, so why not expand on that? Thus, the prince would probably be cut from the story, and it would be the dwarves who break the spell (they each give her a farewell kiss on the forehead that collectively breaks the curse). another thing I'd change is the dwarves, to an extent. they are still seven little men, but they lean more on the fantasy side. I'm thinking they'd look like a mix of a dwarf, gnome, and gelfling.

elements I'd keep are snow white's traditional attributes (hair black as ebony, skin white as snow, etc.), the evil queen setting multiple traps for snow white (I recall in the original fairytale that the queen tried to kill s.w. with a cursed corset and hairbrush? I'll have to brush up on my snow white lore), and the true love's kiss that breaks the sleeping spell.

I'd also load it with German fairytale aesthetics! I'd want it to be traditionally animated, in a similar style to these other works:

(pls watch a clip of "the girl from the other side" [third picture] bc the animation is crazy good)

The general tone of my version would be a mix of dark fantasy (Don bluth vibes) and peaceful cottagecore (studio Ghibli). Generally a calm, beautiful, but eerie film that isn't afraid to get "Grimm" (eh?! eeeeehhh???!!).

I hope you don't mind my wall of text lol. I just love snow white :P

[invinciblerodent]

Oh-oh! 25 and 7 for oc asks for your tavs

Also, please tell me how Petyr is pronounced, I keep reading is as Peh-TIER, but I'm starting to suspect it might just be Peter

OC Ask Game!

25) The name you chose for your OC, why did you chose it?

oh to unleash the nerdery

For Arvid's name, I was just thinking that dwarf aesthetics generally have a bit of a... half Art Deco, half Viking feel going on for them? so I just thought that leaning into that Scandinavian angle a little bit would be fun. (I was also really fixated on studying Swedish at the time, but I didn't really want to use a specifically Swedish name, so I went with one my little search said was quite common all over Scandinavia, and one I could obnoxiously overpronounce in my head.) (Like the way I tend to read it to myself is with a very grossly exaggerated Swedish accent, lol.)

His last name, Trygg, I chose kinda in the same vein as how J.R.R. Martin did the bastard children's names in GoT depending on the country: it's just... it just means "safe" in Norwegian. I thought it'd be fun for him to have a name that's... not really a name, but more just an adjective, a placeholder given to him out of necessity by the monastery where he was raised. (Which ended up working out really nicely with him getting "Dekarios" to call his own at the end!)

(A fantasy!Norwegian first name and fantasy!Greek last name sound really silly together ngl, but a part of me really loves how strange it is because it's his. Like yeah, people do sometimes wind up with silly names because of their spouses. It's love.)

Iona, as I was kinda developing her, her first placeholder name was "dove" (because of one line of a Dove Cameron song lol) - and I admit, I did just google what names might have similar meanings, in that dove/freedom/independence/autonomy/rebirth vein of things, and one website said that Iona, in Scottish (I believe?) is supposed to mean "dove".

I don't.... fully believe that was correct because I haven't been able to confirm it elsewhere since, but by the time I looked into it further, I got attached to the name, and it... got stuck.

Her last name/maiden name (which is what she uses now), "Raedir", I tried to make a pompous, quintessential Elf Name (to go with her Long Draconic Bloodline), but at the end of the day, it's... really nonsense. Translated, it'd mean something like "unicorn dust", derived from the words "raer" (unicorn) and "mithardir" ("white dust"/snow?), but that meaning is sort of just there to amuse me, because I was looking at a lot of medieval tapestries with unicorns on them at the time.

(One weirdness about it is that, while I know it's supposed to be pronounced "eye-ona" in English, with my Hungarian brain I kept reading it as "ee-yona" on accident. So I decided that "eye-ona" is the "human" pronunciation, and she deliberately went back to pronouncing it the "elvish" way, as "ee-yona", when she started using her maiden name again.)

(A little benefit- if someone is looking for an "Eye-ona" Birchlight, they're not gonna find her. Nope, there's only an "Ee-yona" Raedir here.)

As for Petyr, you're actually reading it perfectly right, lol! I deliberately wanted it to be a little misleading and obnoxious, like it sometimes is in old fantasy novels from like the 70's and 80's. Like sometimes a character will have a very normal name that's spelled- and consequently pronounced in a ~fantasy~ way?

Honestly, I just looked at my build/concept, and thought.... "He's Peter, but stupid. That's it. That's his name. I hate it, it's perfect." So the "-tyr" is pronounced like the god Tyr's name. I don't... really have an answer why, but I do really like the thought of him having to always explain that no, it's not Peter, it's Peh-TYR, like in Tyr, how is this so bloody hard.

"Wildbrook" came from a similar thought, I kinda just... wanted the most "80's fantasy ranger dude" name I could think of, and just like how it is with his whole existence, the fact that I like it actually does bother me a little bit lol.

+1:

"Raymond Percival Trevelyan" is basically "Knightly Knightson Canonlastname". "Raymond" means "protector/protecting hands", "Percival", I took from Sir Percival, one of the knights in Arthurian legend, and Trevelyan, as in the last name given to the human Inquisitor in DA:I.

Back in the day, I was leaning really into the whole "archetypal hero character" theme. He was just... a young, pious, knightly idealist who went from said piousness and idealism to absolute disillusionment (and a much less formal relationship with religion). Now, it sounds pretty tongue-in-cheek, to have the Big Strong Former Hero Of The Lands brandish such a deeply pompous name.

7) Does your OC have a favorite and least favorite food?

OH this one is fun!

Okay, so one of my favorite pieces of headcanon that carries across franchises is that dwarves' superior poison resistance translates in them to an extreme tolerance of spice. Like most human foods, they just taste completely bland to to dwarves.

So I like to imagine that Arvid, having grown up in a monastery and eating mostly things prepared with it being shared with non-dwarves in mind, is just... kind of resigned to things not having a lot of flavor. He'll say nice things when asked for his opinion of course, but more often than not, he's simply eating just to put the calories in- no real favorite or least favorite to speak of there. It's more about the physical sensation of not being hungry anymore.

Gale is of course horrified when he learns this (what do you mean my cooking is bland to you, I cooked every meal you've eaten in the past year????? have you just not had food you've liked in a year??????), and makes it his personal mission to learn to cook traditional dwarven cuisine.

He, uh. He winds up accidentally poisoning himself more than once. But his husband is very, very endeared (if worried) and appreciative of the gesture.

Iona has no such troubles- having been a housewife for such a long time, she's a decent cook, but she's used to preparing meals she... didn't really like much at all. All sorts of roasts and steaks, various pieces of dead animals, the occasional potato maybe- and she, in true elf fashion, is no fan of meats in general.

So during their travels, the only time she cooks is the first night ever, when it's just her, Shadowheart, and Astarion (they toss together a weird, bland stew from just a couple potatoes and a fistful of sage they scrounged up- they didn't even notice that Astarion just pushed the food around a bit, they were so out of it), but as soon as Gale joins up, she categorically rejects even touching a wooden spoon.

It's only after the game, living with a person who makes zero demands of her in regards to food, that she finds joy in food and cooking. She can finally make whatever she wants, whenever she wants it, and she experiments as much as she can. All she has to forego is garlic. (Which, well, you win some, you lose some.)

She's.... sometimes successful. But whatever it ends up being, whether it's good or bad, she is the only one who has to eat it, and she bloody well delights in it.

Petyr has been mostly self-sufficient for 20+ years at this point. Most of his food is homegrown or wild-caught, and like with everything else, he learned by experimentation.

I like to think that he doesn't really think of himself as a good cook, but he is infuriatingly good at this too, like he is at everything else.

Like he'll agree to whip up something quick for the group a few tendays into their journey, and make fucking...... perfect venison steaks, with a wild rice- and fresh mushroom risotto, and a gorgeous red wine sauce. Gale can't decide whether to be impressed, or livid. Petyr just shrugs like, "I kept myself fed in the forest for 20 years. What'd you think I was doing in that time, grazing?"

He too is, I think, in the "whatever puts meat on your bones is good enough" mindset when it comes to favorites, but for some reason I think he'd love a good, nice cheese. That'd be something he can't really make himself, so it'd be a special treat to get on his monthly little supply-trips.

[trixcuomo]

Whats the most challenging part of writing in a 'modern wow' setting? Where do you draw inspiration from?

That is an excellent question! Long answer to this, so I do apologize...

I've been writing fanfiction for years, but writing for Trixany was a challenge because I wanted to parody (of course lol) modern influencer culture, which can have its toxic side. I actually strongly dislike some aspects of it. I write Trixany as a hungering character, desperate to fill a void by seeking all this attention and fame. That's her biggest flaw; wanting the fame so badly is her blindspot. The void inside her? That is the wound caused by the attack on Quel'thalas.

So! As for the biggest challenge in translating influencer culture into a Warcraft universe? I guess... suspending belief. You can use "comm" or "scrying orb" instead of the word "cellphone" or "television/screen." A lot of us roleplayers say something is of Goblin or Gnomish make if it seems sort of modern, as is already the pattern in Warcraft. That's how we fill in the blanks. That's easy. But how do you get people to go along with there being a celebrity gossip show, based in Dalaran? How do you convince readers that there are rival Warcraft girl bands that vibe like the Pussycat Dolls versus Destiny's Child? Without it seeming so ludicrous, you get thrown out of immersion and can't enjoy it?

I fall in love with these ideas, and then I NEED them, and they have to happen. So I have to streeetch and reach into the furthest extremes of the Warcraft storytelling spectrum. Maybe the wild-ass Goblin aesthetic is on the far end, and something most familiar to fantasy, with Human/Elf/Dwarf interactions, something Tolkien, is on the nearer end. Somewhere on the Goblin end, we have Kaja-Cola and that maybe feels like a modern company that would have a Fanta-esque girl band to promote its soda. Haris Pilton is barely, scarcely lore-abiding. But as an Elf, she probably falls in the middle? And I can draw a line safely from Warcraft Goblins to Haris (if she even really exists), to Trixany.

I find these Warcraft touchpoints and build them out. Haris Corp has become this huge, scary company with Goblin modernity and Elf sophistication beyond what Trixany can even imagine. So anything Trixany does as an influencer now seems normal by comparison, I hope. More believeable.

Usually, whatever makes me laugh really hard or that I become occasionally obsessed with in pop culture is my inspiration. I usually don't tell myself, 'No, that can't happen' when it comes to stories. IRL I may get nervous about trying something new, but when it comes to writing, which I love so badly, that's my moon shot. I will take the moon shot every time and imagine a way to make a cool idea with real potential happen, no matter what. Writing is one of our few spaces where we can set ourselves free and really be ourselves, so of course you have to try!

The Cody Rhodes post happened because I was following that, and I'm a WWE fan. I've been falling down a PubLIZity rabbit hole, so that might inspire something soon, too? If I can see it, I'm gonna try to reach it because that's exciting and you might make someone belly laugh, smile, brighten their day! Writing is so fun for me.

Oh, and I'll say my favorite modern-day Warcraft writing I've done on here was inspired by Lady Gaga's Marry the Night music video. If you read the Dalaran City Clinic post and play the YouTube video in there simultaneously, almost the entire post actually hits right in synch with the narration as a parody. I love Lady Gaga so much, and that music video is incredible. I really wanted to honor that and combine it with my Warcraft fangirl side.

Also, I just love Kael'thas showing up in that post as the nurse. It works so good; it cracks me up. That post just captures Trixany really well and how I translate modern-day pop culture into Warcraft writing. Guess the First Aid trainer in Legion Dalaran was the touch point on that one, lol!!

I usually have asks turned off, but I'm pleased you reached out. I seriously enjoy your writing too Nix, so that was cool of you! Nice ask.

[pickypickypeak]

Imagine being so racist, so mad about a kids movie, you decide to make your own movie where the actual tagline is: this movie is not woke! “Not woke” meaning that everyone is white and straight lol because that’s what they mean by it😂 Well since they care SO MUCH about the original tale and its values (which apparently were. snow white being a white person. literally nothing else matters), I guess they’re gonna hire seven people with dwarfism (white please!!!!!! oh my god they must be white because fantasy dwarfs in germany are historically white!!!!!! otherwise it would be woke!!!!!!!) to play nameless dwarfs, I guess the queen is gonna dance on fiery shoes in the ending and the movie just wraps up, I also guess there will be no kiss because that was only in the disney version while originally snow white just spit out the apple. No love involved. So you know, it would be woke if they made her kiss the prince, who must be white AT ALL COSTS OH MY GOD!!!!! Change his hair yeah you can do that, his clothes? Not a problem but WHITE PLEASE!!!!! We’re not racists but if he was black, that would take away white representation from actual white german princes!!!!!! And brainwash your children into believing that black people exist in fantasy germany!!! If you want a black character just make a new movie with black characters!!! But not too many🙄🙄 every character is black these days omg… so annoying…. We actually care a lot about black people, we’re saying this only because we want to give them the proper representation they deserve!!💪🏿💪🏿 But not in this movie lol!! And don’t worry, your kids are safe, there will not be blink-and-miss lesbians in the background that might permanently traumatize them!!! Walt disney would be proud of us, all he cared about what his characters being white and straight😌😌

Although I must say, the actress’ skin doesn’t look #FFFFFF colored to me… wasn’t she supposed to be white as snow??🤔🤔

Given I haven't seen people talk about this, here is the simple thing you need to know about the "Snow-White live action battle".

Everybody heard and talked of the upcoming live-action remake of Disney's Snow-White. Everybody had a part in the never-ending debate this caused. This seemed to be all rounded up, and we were awaiting for the movie to be released to be finally able to speak about it...

And then, something came up. This to be precise:

A trailer for an upcoming movie called "Snow-White and the Evil Queen". This is set to be released on Bentkey, a new streaming platform part of the DailyWire+ group - basically DailyWire has recently decided to create a whole branch dedicated to the making of kid content. Children-aimed movies, children tv shows and cartoons, all that. And what everybody has been talking about is how this movie was made with one specific design: to oppose and contrast Disney's own Snow-White release.

The people behind this movie, openly dismissing and disdaining the live-action remake project of Disney, decided to create their own movie adaptation of the fairytale, which would be more traditional and closer the folktale, and thus show what an "actual" live-action remake of the Disney cartoon might look like. A lot of people have been chering and celebrating at this "anti-woke" and "anti-Disney" move, and they're all amused and all that...

And if you don't know who or what is behind Daily Wire and Bentkey, you might be tempted to support this movie. Well, please, DO NOT. Because I personally did not even know what DailyWire was - but I went searching for Bentkey, this "brand new streaming platform". And I found the Youtube video posted on the DailyWire channel introducing Bentkey, where the platform's creator explains why they launched this project and... And this is vile and frightening. You can see it down there but if you don't want to give more views to this I'll give you a little breakdown below:

I only watched one minute and a half of this nauseating thing, and it was already enough to make me identify this whole project as just pure evil. Under the pretense of fighting against "woke extremes" and "far-left politics", the creator of Bentkey and its team explain very clearly their homophobic, racist and misogynistic views. The guy literaly opens up by saying that Disney is pushing a "queer agenda" to "brainwash" and "indoctrinate" children into the "LGBT cult". He also criticizes some of the things the Disney company does such as "paying for abortions" as dangerous political extremes ; and to add a cherry on top, he accuses the fact of Disney making shows acknowledging the existence of racism and discrimination in the USA as being "anti-American" and against everything Walt Disney stood for.

So, funnily enough, while we all mocked and insulted and accused Disney of being an homophobic, racist company... Turns out THIS, DailyWire and Bentkey, is the actual "evil Disney" people have been denouncing and criticizing all along. As in... Our fear of a massive corporation making tons of kids' shows and movies while pushing forward homophobic, racist and far-right agendas is now real. These guys do not even hide their intentions, they blatantly say "We will make kids movie so that they will grow up straight and only straight, we will make kids show that will not mention anything about racism or discrimination, and we will certainly not allow any of our employees to have any abortion".

So yes if you see people cheer for this "Snow-White and the Evil Queen" movie, make sure to check if they are aware of Bentkey's socio-political goals and intentions. And if they are... well I don't need to say anymore, do I?

[somnivagrious]

A collection of D&D character portraits for Soviet on Discord

[evangelinesbible]

MORE ASTEROID PERSONA CHARTS TO LOOK AT

Persona charts give more insight into your planets angels and asteroids. The more prominent the better, regardless the chart is very telling if you know your basic astrology 💋

LETS GO!

ARACHNE 407

Where we have a lot of talent/talent we can be boastful about. Can give insight into what we’re really good at

EX - I have 10th Singer conjunct MC and 10th Moon conjunct MC Gemini. So the public May see that I’m fairly confident in my singing abilities and emotions. Arachne is in Gemini 4H opposite the moon in the 10H so how I feel about my abilities may not match what the public sees.

FORTUNE 19

Your luck and abundance in money/wealth.

EX - Beyoncé has Jupiter conjunct Pluto in Libra 9th house. She’s worth billions of dollars and makes an influx of most of her money when she goes on her world tours.

VARUNA (dwarf planet) 20000

HUGE fame, immortal fame, historical fame, global fame. Just fame babe.

EX - Michael Jackson has his sun in the 10th house conjunct Varuna and Venus conjunct talent 11th Gemini. Safe to say that we all know who he is lol

GLO 3267

Where you glow (physical and internal) / what shines about you

EX - Marylin Monroe has Glo conjunct her MC in Pisces and she was of course famous for her looks and people put it above her actual personality which makes sense since Pisces is Neptunian and that rules over fantasy and illusion/hidden things

KILO 84

Can give insight into how you can create history in your career

EX - I have sun and NN conjunct MC in Taurus. I might have destined opportunities that will make history in the career field I pursue. Also I have my cancer moon and Saturn conjunct Varuna in the 11th house so whatever I do in my career might be very well known, long lasting, and/or have an emotional effect on people

You can learn more about Varuna HERE and I learned about Kilo from that same tumblr page and THIS POST

THATS ALL FOR NOW LUV YA 💋

- ⚜️💫⚜️

[piratespencil]

Hewwo i want to ask some dnd questions!! 6, 31, and 32 uwu 🦍

6. Which of your d&d characters has been the least like you?

Oh man... If we’re talking any ttrpg and not just D&D, then it’s definitely my Edge of the Empire character. Voz Azura is a cyborg hired gun who is just a huge murder asshole. Absolutely terrible person. I love playing him but I definitely kept making him Too Nice bc idk how to be mean lol!!!

I do hope we return to our EotE campaign at some point bc it was fun to try and figure out how I wanted to play a character that is just... so different from me.

31. Tell me about your current party!

I’m GM-ing for my current party and I love them so much!! Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one...

First we have Bly (who is literally u @awittylemon​ but I’m gonna describe Bly for the world anyways lolol). Bly started out as a tiefling barbarian named Blithe who got killed and taken over by an intellect devourer in like... session four, and their player (the famous @awittylemon​ herself!) has been playing the actual intellect devourer ever since. They’ve taken over several different bodies by this point and are currently inside of a horse anthro member of the City Watch (named Megan Thee Stallion bc this was supposed to be a random joke npc not Bly’s new body but!! stuff happens!!).

Then there’s Radish (played by @whovian-troll-pirate), who started out as a sentient raccoon cleric (originally a cleric of Waukeen, and then eventually a cleric of the Raven Queen), who then had their body destroyed and their brain turned into an intellect devourer with most of their raccoon memories intact (long story). They’ve also done a lot of body hopping but are currently in the body of a half-giant woman named Rissag who is a cleric of Tempus. (Lots of cleric stuff happening here lol.) Radish started out as such a little sweetie and has had... just the wildest character arc.

Then we have Pendleton! (Played by @orangegoose.) He’s a dwarf hexblade warlock of the Raven Queen who was once a simple potato farmer but who got wrapped up in Warlock Stuff after some vampires took over his town. Now he’s in the big city trying to make money to send his kids to a good school in Neverwinter and he is both Just A Dad but also a guy who really is pretty much willing to do any morally grey thing in order to make money and also to run Lif’s (once known as Trollskull Manor), the bar that the party owns and operates. He’s just a guy trying to do his best. Also he can shapeshift into a shark now.

And finally there’s Skree (played by my brother), who was once a seagull and is now a seagull that can turn into a guy. Just a dude. He has a gun and he’s pretty much feral and he spends a lot of his time eating rats and accidentally injuring his friends with his gun. He refers to himself as Leader Skree and is definitely the handsomest seagull around. (He’s also connected to a lot more of what’s going on than he might let on but that’s SPOILERS...)

32. Most memorable NPC you’ve encountered in a game you played in.

Can I say my own NPC?? I’m gonna say my own NPC. I love Geoff the drow ex-sailor that my party rescued from indentured servitude in fantasy IKEA and hired to work at their bar. He is my best boy.

(Geoff showed up in our game before I ever listened to NeoScum, but as soon as I met Max NeoScum I was like WHAT HOW this is just Geoff. The voice, the vibes, the personality. Geoff is Max and I love them both.)

[theladyregret]

The markings thing is just lazy the way they did it. There are plenty of better ways they could have gone about it and as it currently seems, it takes away far more then it actually adds for sure.

The thing is...I don’t like the canonical implications of separation of races into RL equivalent ethnic groups that so many fantasy worlds like to do, is what I was saying. It needs to change...but WoTC is bad at this I guess, so I choose to change it myself, because it’s inherently part of the problem to do that kind of thing and I believed that long before it became “a thing” people were talking about. The official D&D rules have always just been guidelines to me and I have always tweaked and changed whatever I wanted when I wanted to. When you say “this fantasy race is the equivalent to such and such real life ethnic group” not only does that lead to a lot of the racial controversy we have currently, and why people tend to equate Elf with White and Drow with Black, but it also overly simplifies that race and what they could be allowed to be as a whole. It’s also just lazy world building and honestly I kind of blame Warcraft for this being so common for people to do now cause they were the worst with it.

When I say all races should have the ability to be ethnically variant just like humans that doesn’t necessarily mean their variations would be the exact same for every race I just didn’t feel like going into detail on it because that wasn’t the point. Saying only humans can have these dramatic variations based on world location and other races only get their base line features regardless and that applies to the entire world is?...well...boring. Also unlikely?

And when I talk about including science I mean literally just normal evolution and not magical changes, because while yes, Drow being elves and inherently magical might adapt in different ways, or maybe faster...other Underdark races that are not elves also have the darker skin tone and tendency for red eyes and pale hair. So, to me, this is not an inherently Drow thing. This is an evolved adaptation to exposure to Faezress energy...similar to how melanin is an evolved adaptation to UV Light exposure, but since Faerzress is not UV light...this adaptation doesn’t actually protect against UV light...just like Melanin would not protect against long term exposure to Faerzress radiation. The rest is pretty common weakening of traits meant for the surface in a race that now lives completely underground and has for long enough no one really recalls how they got there accurately which is a very long time in elf, dwarf, or gnome terms. The body no longer has as much use for melanin so...pale hair, less eye pigment, Infrared vision(5e took it away but I think that’s dumb and I think Underdark races should keep it, so for me they do. Everyone else can have darkvision lol), shorter stature. I know they used to also have a sort of internal compass but I think that was also removed but...I mean, makes sense to me. Why not?

So basically I think if Drow existed in a cave system that didn’t have Faerzress, like just any real life cave, they’d actually have extremely pale skin as they’d have adapted away from needing melanin.

Now in terms of the eyes...I doubt they’re completely albinistic because albinism in the eyes does more then just remove color and increase light sensitivity. Drow certainly aren’t all functionally blind but also...how do elf genetics work? Maybe they’re like cats and their genes for skin, hair, and eye color are completely separate things heh WHO KNOWS

I've seen you make commets concerning Drow skin color here and also in the authors notes of your fics. Could you go into it more? I find it a lot more interesting then what a lot of people insist on doing. Also how do you balance it with in game racial lore or do you just dismiss it completely?

God, I love asks like these.

I'm pretty sure I've already gone into it somewhere on my blog but it was in response to an angry ask so likely something people would skip over because...drama. Which is of course totally valid but I'm glad I get to go into it again in response to a nice ask instead.

I'll start with the lore question which honestly isn't very complicated in it's solution. You can choose whatever lore you like for your preference and you really don't have to change anything. All you have to do is sweep it into the nice neat corner of "creationist myth" or "religious propaganda". That is to say that these things are not meant to be historically accurate or factual retellings. Hell, they could just be outright lies depending. Even goodly folk and religions with goodly deities can have these things and followers who take it as fact and it doesn't make them bad people necessarily. Ignorant maybe? Bad...it depends on how they go about it once being faced with the truth.

So when lore says "Drow have dark skin to show everyone else that they are evil and they were banished to the depths of the Underdark as a punishment" that is just something someone decided was true...but really isn't, but people certainly may believe it is. Just as the Drow are taught that they were forced underground by the evil surface races and that Lloth is their sole protector and they are the only goodly people in the world. It's not true...but some of them certainly believe that it is.

The key is to remove the idea of black and white in terms of what is good and what is evil and whether both can exist within every race regardless of stereotyping. No race is inherently one thing or the other regardless of cultural norms or upbringing. Every race is capable of evil and good. Period. Anything that says otherwise is a myth people may have been taught and may believe is true even though it isn't.

As for the skin tone thing. I have always been a big promoter of the fact that magic existing in a world does not mean science does not. So...even if it is a fantasy world with magic...genetics still exist. Evolution and adaptation still exists. Not everything is just magic. I'm also completely against the idea of locking races that aren't human into set ethnicities. Every race should be capable of having varied ethnic features based on where they are native to and I don't mean subraces either. So...if humans in a certain area have certain ethnic features like darker skin and hair, hair texture, certain facial features...that should equally apply to all other races that also come from that area in addition to their racial features. So a gold elf can have dark skin, darker hair, broader or narrower facial features because they come from a warmer region...and still be gold elves. Same for a wood elf, or an orc, or a halfling, or a gnome etc

Applying this to Drow is a bit different only because the Underdark is a fantasy construction but largely they can have the same differing in ethnic features but also...it's always been my belief that their dark skin tone (which tends to be more purple or blue toned rather then orange) is the result of an adaptation to the Faerzress radiation. This also explains why other Underdark races also have this adaptation...even the goodly races. And why do they have white or extremely pale hair in contrast to their skin? Because the adaptation that makes their skin dark is not the same as melanin and is not designed to protect against UV light but a completely different type of energy. As a result their hair doesn't have melanin and likely their skin would be sensitive to sunlight similarly to how people with low or no melanin would despite being so dark. If a Drow has darker colored hair...or red hair, this could either be a left over recessive gene or a gene mutation. Still possible just not common.

This can also explain why red eyes are so common as well because low or no melanin levels can make eyes appear pale blue, pink, red, or pale purple as well as not being able to filter glare from light well (among other things but I'm not going into all of that here). Humans don't typically have red eyes with albinism but you can bend those rules for the fact they're elves and not humans. Just like with the hair color it's also just as possible for some of them to inherit a recessive gene that puts more melanin in their eyes giving them an unexpected color or higher tolerance to light. (this could explain Drizzt's eye color certainly but I actually think that's a whole different thing which I have also talked about before in another post and won't go into here)

So yeah, this is generally how I feel about the whole thing and have for a very long time...and honestly...solves a lot of recent issues people have with it all, I think anyway.

[aliveandfullofjoy]

So I was reading about the first Oscars ceremony, and it had a division between Outstanding Picture and Best Unique & Artistic Film, where Unique & Artistic was apparently meant to be an equal to Outstanding Picture but dedicated more for prestige artistic works. The next year, the two categories became one from then on, and Outstanding Picture was the only top prize. (If any of that is wrong, blame wikipedia.)

If the split had remained, and there was a more commercial-y movie top prize and a prestige art top prize, what are some notable movies that suddenly pick up wins?

okay wait........ this is a brilliant question and i am ashamed to say i’ve never really given it much thought until now.

idk if you’ve seen wings and sunrise but they’re both pretty great and they do represent wildly different kinds of filmmaking. while it’s safe to say Wings is the more commercial film, it has great craftsmanship behind it and it very clearly created the template for accessible, capital-i Important, and well-made best picture winners to come. 

and, full transparency, sunrise is one of my, like, top 15 favorite movies, so i’m hella biased, but that movie is a gorgeous and strange and thrilling piece of work. the title “unique and artistic film” is impossibly vague, but watching sunrise makes it very, very clear that it fits that bill for that category. and while we’ll, of course, never know what might have happened if that category had continued, it’s tempting to think that all the winners in unique and artistic film would be of sunrise’s calibre, but knowing the oscars... that’s clearly a fantasy, lol. while sunrise is a wildly inventive and artistic film, it’s important to remember that it was fully on the academy’s radar -- janet gaynor won best actress in part for her performance in the film, and it also won best cinematography. so while it’s tempting to think the academy would always recognize a truly unique and artistic achievement every year, in all likelihood, they probably wouldn’t stray too far from the movies that were already on their radar. 

so for this thought experiment!!

it’s probably safe to assume every best picture winner has to go in one of the two categories. there are only a handful of winners that stick out as maybe missing out on the big win in this new system, but only a handful. 

so uh. this is way more than you asked but i got hooked. here’s what i think might have happened if the two best picture categories had stuck around. as i was working through the years, it became clear to me that, unfortunately, in a lot of years, the unique and artistic film would likely end up going to the more overtly “prestigious” films, such as the song of bernadette or the life of emile zola, while their far better and more commercially viable rivals (casablanca for bernadette, the awful truth for zola) would win outstanding picture. the actual best picture winners have an asterisk next to them. what’s also interesting to consider is the importance of the best director category: most of the time, a split in picture and director will tell you what’s clearly the runner-up. those years, usually, give you a good sense of how the two awards would shake out.

Outstanding Picture / Unique and Artistic Film

1929: The Broadway Melody*; The Divine Lady 

1930: The Big House; All Quiet on the Western Front* 

1931: Cimarron*; Morocco 

1932: Grand Hotel*; Bad Girl

1933: Little Women; Cavalcade*

1934: It Happened One Night*; One Night of Love 

1935: The Informer; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (** this is one of the few years i think the actual BP winner, Mutiny on the Bounty, would miss out; The Informer was clearly the runner-up for BP with wins in director, actor, and screenplay, while Midsummer was seen as THE artistic triumph of the year, and with its historic write-in cinematography win, there was clearly a lot of passion for it)

1936: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town; The Great Ziegfeld*

1937: The Awful Truth; The Life of Emile Zola*

1938: You Can’t Take It With You*; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Grand Illusion (** this one’s tough... Grand Illusion made history as the first non-english movie nominated for BP, and it clearly had a lot of support, but Snow White was such a monumental moment in Hollywood, and the academy clearly acknowledged that with its honorary award)

1939: Gone with the Wind*; The Wizard of Oz (** this is one of the first years with a clear runaway favorite for best picture, which makes guessing the way the other award would go very difficult! i’m leaning towards Oz purely because of its technical achievements, but i’m not confident about that choice at all.)

1940: Rebecca*; The Grapes of Wrath 

1941: How Green Was My Valley*; Citizen Kane

1942: Yankee Doodle Dandy; Mrs. Miniver*

1943: Casablanca*; The Song of Bernadette

1944: Going My Way*; Wilson

1945: The Bells of St. Mary’s; The Lost Weekend*

1946: The Best Years of Our Lives*; Henry V

1947: Gentleman’s Agreement*; A Double Life 

1948: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; Hamlet*

1949: All the King’s Men*; The Heiress 

1950: All About Eve*; Sunset Boulevard

1951: A Place in the Sun; An American in Paris*

1952: The Greatest Show on Earth*; The Quiet Man 

1953: Roman Holiday; From Here to Eternity*

1954: The Country Girl; On the Waterfront*

1955: Marty*; Picnic

1956: Around the World in 80 Days*; Giant

1957: Peyton Place; The Bridge on the River Kwai

1958: The Defiant Ones; Gigi*

1959: The Diary of Anne Frank; Ben-Hur*

1960: Elmer Gantry; The Apartment*

1961: West Side Story*; Judgment at Nuremberg

1962: To Kill a Mockingbird; Lawrence of Arabia*

1963: Tom Jones*; 8½ 

1964: Mary Poppins; My Fair Lady*

1965: The Sound of Music*; Doctor Zhivago

1966: A Man for All Seasons*; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1967: In the Heat of the Night*; The Graduate

1968: Oliver!*; 2001: A Space Odyssey 

1969: Midnight Cowboy; Z 

1970: Airport; Patton*

1971: The French Connection*; The Last Picture Show

1972: The Godfather; Cabaret

1973: The Sting*; The Exorcist

1974: Chinatown; The Godfather, Part II

1975: Jaws; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest*

1976: Rocky*; Network

1977: Star Wars; Annie Hall*

1978: Coming Home; The Deer Hunter*

1979: Kramer vs. Kramer*; All That Jazz

1980: Ordinary People*; Raging Bull

1981: Chariots of Fire*; Reds

1982: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial; Gandhi*

1983: Terms of Endearment*; Fanny and Alexander

1984: Amadeus*; The Killing Fields

1985: Out of Africa*; Ran

1986: Platoon*; Blue Velvet

1987: Moonstruck; The Last Emperor*

1988: Rain Man*; Who Framed Roger Rabbit

1989: Driving Miss Daisy*; Born on the Fourth of July

1990: Ghost; Dances with Wolves*

1991: The Silence of the Lambs*; JFK

1992: Unforgiven*; Howards End 

1993: Schindler’s List*; The Piano 

1994: Forrest Gump*; Three Colors: Red 

1995: Braveheart*; Toy Story 

1996: Jerry Maguire; The English Patient*

1997: Titanic*; L.A. Confidential

1998: Shakespeare in Love*; Saving Private Ryan

1999: The Cider House Rules; American Beauty*

2000: Traffic; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (** this is another year where i think the actual BP winner, Gladiator, might have missed out. it was a tight three-way race going into oscar night, and if there were two BP awards, i think this consensus might have settled, leaving Gladiator to go home with just actor and some tech awards.)

2001: A Beautiful Mind*; Mulholland Drive

2002: Chicago*; The Pianist

2003: Mystic River; The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King*

2004: Million Dollar Baby*; The Aviator

2005: Crash*; Brokeback Mountain

2006: The Departed*; Babel

2007: No Country for Old Men*; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

2008: The Dark Knight; Slumdog Millionaire*

2009: The Hurt Locker*; Avatar

2010: The King’s Speech*; The Social Network

2011: The Artist*; The Tree of Life

2012: Argo*; Life of Pi

2013: 12 Years a Slave*; Gravity 

2014: Birdman*; Boyhood

2015: Spotlight*; The Revenant

2016: La La Land; Moonlight*

2017: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; The Shape of Water*

2018: Black Panther; Roma (** again, i think Green Book gets bumped out in this scenario, i think Black Panther is precisely the kind of movie that benefits from an award that’s seemingly more ~populist~ while Roma easily snags the unique & artistic prize)

2019: 1917; Parasite*

2020: The Father; Nomadland*

but of course i have no idea at all, and most of these are just my gut reactions lol. what a fun question!