#I'm learning how to get subtitles to work with gifs

[aelswiths]

Aelswith in 3x07

Aethelwold's failings were born from my own. Yet it falls to me to exact judgment on him. No man could have been more forgiving than you. Not even his own father.

[specialagentlokitty]

10th doctor x deaf!reader - the way you talk

Heya! Absolutely love your work! I've been rewatching doctor who ready for davids comeback😍 it's kinda hard because i'm deaf and sometimes the subtitles dont keep up with the timings😫 i was wondering if i could request a 10th doctor with a deaf reader if possible pleaseeee, thanks 💜 - Anon💜

A/N: Italics will be sign language

The TARDIS enabled the doctor to speak and listen to every language there was.

And for somebody like it, it was amazing, incredibly useful, meaning there wasn’t anything that would be lost in translation.

But, he realised there was limitations to this, and that he wouldn’t make him an expert in some areas, especially sign language.

He knew some, enough to get by if needed.

But when he met you, he realised that wouldn’t be enough if he wanted to communicate with you.

You talked through notepads and text messages, but for him it wasn’t enough, he wanted more. He wanted to communicate with you the way you had to.

So, when he had some free time, which surprisingly was quite a lot considering he always seemed so busy, he began to learn.

And when he next went to pick you up, he wore a grin from ear to ear as he waved at you.

You waved back, following him into the TARDIS, and you set your notepad and pen on the console, putting your bag out of the way before coming back over.

The doctor was flicking through the notepad, and you waved your hand at him, gesturing for him to pass it back.

Quickly writing in it, you flipped it over and held it out to him.

‘Where are we going?’

The doctor beamed.

He took it from you and set it down, making you furrow your brows a little bit, and he began to put some coordinates in.

You took the notepad again, asking him where he was taking you, but he wouldn’t reply, so you knew it was a surprise he had planned for you.

Which wasn’t so bad, except usually his surprises ended in some sort of running or rescue situation.

He was bouncing around, and you smiled as you watched him, leaning against the railing as you just watched him bounce from thing to thing, doing whatever it was he needed to do.

You didn’t quite know how the whole TARDIS worked, and he had offered to explain it, but you didn’t want him to sit there for hour writing it all down.

You were happy not knowing.

As long as you were travelling with him you didn’t care.

He bounding over, and with a grin he held out his hand to you.

“Come with me.” He said.

He knew you could lip read, so often he would just speak to you.

Sometimes he would forget and be stood behind you, trying to have a whole conversation with you and getting confused when you wouldn’t talk back.

You smiled, placing your hand in his, letting him lead you to the doors and outside.

It was bright, multiple sun sun the sky. It was warm, it wasn’t hot, it seemed like the perfect temperature.

The sand was a vibrant shade of gold, and in the distance the heatwaves rippled about, creating almost an illusion if there being water over there.

The doctor looked at you, smiling even more when he saw you smiling, and he reached out, tapping your shoulder.

You turned to him and he took a small breath.

I don’t know if I’m doing this right, I’m still learning.

Your eyes shot open at the sight of him signing, carefully watching what he was doing as he carried on.

But I want to make it easier for you to talk.

He looked at you slightly nervous.

How long have you been learning? When did you start?

You carried on signing questions and he quickly took your hands to stop you.

Laughing slightly, the doctor smiled and let go.

Not so fast, I’m still learning.

You grinned sheepishly.

Sorry. Why did you start?

So I could talk to you.

You furrowed your brows a little bit.

Yes we write or text to each other, but I want to talk to you properly. The way you do, I wanted to make it easier on you.

You smiled and rushed to hug him tightly, and he happily hugged you back.

He had a long way to go, but with some practice and you to help guide him, he would be able to have longer conversations with you in no time

[twig-tea]

Spoiler-free Pitch for Oppan (Ossan no pantsu ga nandatte ii janai ka)

Thanks to @isaksbestpillow generously creating subtitles for this show we have access to arguably the best family drama of the year, and what has become one of my favourite series of all time.

The premise is essentially: Makoto, a 'traditional' family man in his 50s who feels alienated from his wife and two kids, decides to learn to 'update' his beliefs with the help of a young gay man who befriends him.

There are so many pitfalls and ways this premise could go wrong, and the show falls into none of them. Daichi, the gay character that befriends Makoto, has a boyfriend, and they both have their own arcs. The friendship is two-way, and they both benefit from the relationship. Makoto's wife, son, and daughter all also have arcs, and we get to understand and love all of these characters. Nobody is in this show exclusively as a foil for Makoto; everyone gets to be their own person. The show is careful to not only show multiple experiences of gay characters, but also to chastise people in the show for making assumptions, as those can be hurtful, even when well-intentioned. And yes, while it isn't the focus of the show, we do get to see some of Daichi and Madoka's romance.

This show is so well-written, each episode is satisfying and builds on the previous one. The journey to improvement is not a straight line but a spiral, and Oppan depicts that so well. The mistakes Makoto makes are believable and realistic. And the way Makoto's relationships improve in every aspect of his life as he works on himself is gradual, realistically depicted, and so, so satisfying to watch. Trust is earned, and we see him slowly earn trust over time as he changes his behaviour. We also see the damage his past behaviour has wrought, and see him reconcile himself to that.

One of the best things this show does is viscerally illustrate how harmful upholding societal stigma and judgment is to those you love, and to yourself. Makoto's toxic masculinity, homophobia, amatonormativity, and judgment of anything he deems as "silly" or "abmnormal" hold his family back from connecting with him, and hold himself back from experiencing joy. Themes include (but are not limited to) sexuality, gender presentation, idol fandom, BL fandom, makeup, fashion, and workplace culture. And it isn't just familial relationships this show cares about; it touches on friendships, romantic, sibling, parental, and coworker relationships.

The lesson at the core of Makoto's journey is that genuine connection with others is how we heal and find joy, and that we can only have that genuine connection if we're able to make space for others to be themselves in our presence through kindness. And it's that core that makes this show so powerful, and made me cry (with happiness, catharsis, and relief) so many times. I genuinely feel like it healed something in me to watch this show.

Even putting all of that aside, this show is funny, and genuinely satisfying as a story arc. There's Carlos, the family dog who always seems to know what's going on and nudges Makoto when he needs it. Makoto's actor, Harada Taizo, makes some incredible faces. There are hilarious cut-aways mid-scene, usually when someone is getting too intense with their fansquee. The family dynamic, especially the sibling behaviour between Moe and Kakeru, is so hilariously familiar. It's not a chore to watch this show; it manages to be kind and healing and also fun.

Anyway. If that's not enough of a pitch for you, I've written about all of the 11 episodes individually, including outlining where and how each made me cry: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 . And I'm not the only one; if you want more company while watching, @bengiyo, @lurkingshan @mikuni14 and @mynamisnotthepoint wrote a bunch about this show too mostly broken out by episode.

And to relive the magic, @avorbl, @theside-b and @my-rose-tinted-glasses created some gorgeous gifs!

Siiri has instructions on her blog, but if you need help watching this show, feel free to DM me or send an ask.

[ikeoji-subs]

Zettai BL Ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL Ni Naritakunai Otoko 2024 - Episode 2 Eng Sub

VS SMELLS and VS AGE GAP RELATIONSHIPS

For downloading instructions and where to find the raw files please check our masterpost

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translation notes:

about Fish Cake Man (7:28)

As we state in the subtitles, this guy’s monologue isn’t something we’re equipped to translate and if we did, it probably wouldn’t make much, if any, sense to English-speaking viewers. We learned from Snow’s Japanese friend that he's a comedian who is famous for doing this particular bit. After we had already finished most of the subtitles, I rewatched seasons 1 and 2 of the show and found that he was also in the other two seasons. In the first season, when Mob is explaining about how he's a side character and intends to keep it that way, he looks at a gardener on his university campus who is pulling weeds, illustrating that the world of BL needs to include some people who are unlikely to ever become main characters. That’s this dude. He appears again in season 2, when Mob is scouring the university for signs of Kikuchi after reading his goodbye letter. In every appearance, he's shown wearing the same sort of nondescript work clothes and cap and seems to work in some kind of maintenance or cleaning capacity at National BL University. –Towel

His name is Nou Misoo (脳みそ夫) which means brain tissue. I believe there's a pun here I'm missing but you can check our his sillyness on youtube, instagram or tiktok. –Snow

about “the gods decided to smite me” (10:24)

The first version of this line said that Mob “received divine punishment” for his Mob Move. That was already a great line! But I thought it had the potential to be a little more specific and evocative in an English-speaking context. At first, I was just trying to think of something a bit more specific to replace “received.” I thought of a few possibilities, including “I was smitten by divine punishment.” But since “smitten” is barely used anymore except to describe someone who's in love, it had the wrong connotation. Then I thought about how another tense of the same verb, “smite,” avoids those connotations and has a kind of King James Bible quality. But if I was going to say “smite,” I’d have to change the sentence from passive voice to active voice (which is generally best anyway) and give the sentence a subject who is doing the smiting.

I thought a unitary, capital-G God would make it sound a little too Biblical, possibly tipping it over into sounding overtly Christian. I knew that some religious traditions practiced in Japan, like Shintoism, included multiple gods. So I tried “the gods decided to smite me.” This seemed to balance out the Old Testament-ish aspect of “smite” a bit. The end result seemed more vivid than the earlier version, and it seemed like something Mob would say.–Towel 

about “select shop” (11:30)

Observant English speakers might notice that when the guy who used the same shampoo as Mob talks about where he got it, he uses a term made up of English loan words. He says he bought it at a “serekuto shoppu" (in English, a "select shop"). While both parts of the word are borrowed from English, the term you get when you put them together isn’t commonly used in the US. I ended up replacing it with “boutique,” which gets across some of the meaning. But I’ll explain in more detail here. 

It turns out that a “select shop” is a kind of smallish shop with carefully curated items that all fit a certain aesthetic. A business like this might be called a “lifestyle boutique” in America, but it’s slightly different from any business model used widely here. The big selling point of a shop like this is the fact that they’ve already vetted and coordinated these products. Their offerings are tailored for a particular niche, so that if you’re into the general idea a select shop is going for, you’re likely to be interested in a lot of what they’re selling. The items for sale will also have been hand-picked by a professional who’s able to find just the right thing in a way that a typical consumer wouldn’t be able to. 

You can imagine what kind of college student would not only shop at this sort of place but declare it proudly. Even if Mob was going to fall in L with a B, this guy would be a bad fit.–Towel

about “a listless ne’er-do-well” (19:04)

The more literal translation of this part goes “a man like this, without ambitions or vitality.” It’s a nice turn of phrase, definitely, but I thought if I could localize it a bit it might evoke more of the right feeling. I thought it would be more typical in English to express this in terms of an adjective plus a noun describing the kind of person he’d appear to be, rather than saying he was without these qualities. From “without ambition” I got “ne’er-do-well” and from “without vitality” I got “listless.”–Towel

Tag list: @absolutebl @bengiyo @c1nto @come-back-serotonin @lurkingshan @my-rose-tinted-glasses @porridgefeast @sorry-bonebag @twig-tea @wen-kexing-apologist

[starberry-cupcake]

Things were happening too much. Gideon "Griddle" Nav, Chapter 30

I'm gonna have to split these up because there's so much going on.

previously, in gideon the ninth:

this happened

currently, having finished chapter 34:

well, I am exhausted and I'm just reading this

"gideon can't catch a break" should be the subtitle of this book

we literally can't finish a world-shattering disaster, we're onto the next one

the skeletons can't clean the blood fast enough

so, palmolive has a plan

palmolive's plans are like my cousin playing d&d, he talks as if the plan is bulletproof but then you hear him and it's some looney tunes shit

they work more frequently than not, which is infuriating but also moves things along

I feel like I'm constantly arguing with this guy in my head

palmolive's plan is to use the mind reading thingy harrow leveled up when they won against the first boss to show her mentally how dulcinea's key was so that they can break in that door

there are 2546 things that could go wrong with this, but he says he's super sure

he's not, in fact, super sure, but it works

camilla, my qp wife, has the poker face of the century

they look at the room and find some stuff, pins in a board, necromancer notes, the fact that the skeletons aren't constructs, you know, the usual

oh and that teacher and the other dudes are all super dead

which, we all kinda knew that

the fact that the old man didn't have a heart attack at this point is prove enough he doesn't have a beating heart to begin with

I'm gonna say, I love learning book lore and understanding how things work in said lore, but this book is making me feel terribly dumb

I don't know if it's a language barrier, the fact that Gideon doesn't understand the stuff herself and she's the narrator or what, but I feel so dumb sometimes reading their explanations

the gist of it, I believe, is that they don't know what's powering them to do what they do...or who

they can't really delve into it because a fire alarm goes off

I haven't blamed dulcinea for things yet but you know how I feel about her, they check on her and she's still alive, so she's still a threat in my book

they fix the alarm but they can't really delve into it because the Second has murdered Teacher (he wasn't alive but he kind of was, you know how it is) and ratted them out to the Emperor

but Teacher says "one of them" can't come back, which makes me think this isn't as simple as they think it is

the second is a goner btw

they were a goner the moment they thought they could take on Camilla The Everything, love of my life

but they can't really delve into it because mayonnaise uncle and duracell bunny nephew tell them the third have opened up abigail's body

they can't really delve into that either because palmolive figures out that abigail had a key inside her body and the third have gone through the door it opened

the third is like when you have a dog that's constantly making noise and then, for 10 straight minutes you don't hear them, so you just know they've done something bad

so gideon, harrowbean, palmolive, my qp wife, mayonnaise uncle and duracell bunny nephew all go to confront the third

yandere simulator twin is bloody and cryptic in the middle of the room

I could go on a tangent and talk about the madwoman archetype in victorian literature and how she's a representation of the 'lucia' archetype (no relation to me), dulcinea of the 'ophelia' and maybe regina george twin could be a closeted 'jane'

I'm not going to, though, you're welcome for that

so regina george twin is crying in a corner (gideon is emotionally doing the same, probably) and chad is dead on the ground

get wrecked, asshole

well, he's not dead-dead, nobody in this book is ever dead-dead, this is the hotel california of space

yandere twin has absorbed chad's ghost like piccolo and kami sama in dragon ball (rip akira toriyama)

she says she's figured it all out and the whole test was so a necro would soul-fuse with a cav, one flesh one blood one end one bed, I forgot how the oath went

I don't think she's figured it out because we're not ending this book yet

palmolive also doesn't think so

very important note: there's writing on the wall (literal and metaphorical) again saying "you lied to us" and it's the same writing that was featured before and we still don't know what that's about

so the eighth goes berserk and mayonnaise uncle wants to fight yandere twin for slurping chad's soul

duracell bunny nephew goes like "I'm not sure about this" and that was the moment I knew he was toast

I have already established I feel dumb reading the explanations but, for what I can understand, what the eighth does is that the necro detaches the soul of the cav and makes him astral project elsewhere for a time but there's always a tether to bring him back, if that is broken or he drifts too far he can't come back but other things could go into his body instead, or something like that

which is what happens

I thought that the recent dead had, because gideon says there were six people in him, and we've got 6 dead (protozoa, the unknown corpse, the 2 teens and the bride and groom), but idk

all this happens after yandere twin fights using chad's moves and some magic body jelly

this is body horror territory, there are tongues coming out of orifices that should not have tongues and goo flying all over the place

the eighth is dead at the end of it, yandere twin and her inner chad are gone and regina george twin is crying because she wanted to be the one absorbed, which I guess makes sense considering she was training with swords

you know, I had my suspicions that maybe she wasn't a necro after all, but harrow distracted me when she said she must have been a good one

so now we're down to: gideon, harrowbean, palmolive, my wife, regina george twin, yandere twin w/inner chad and dulcinea my mortal enemy

and whoever it is that's coming in after the second contacted whatever number there was in the space phone tree

also, protozoa was one of the two bodies that were cooked earlier on, we still don't know who the second is

there's more we don't know than what we do know

see you on the next one, if you're not yet tired of me

[ivystoryweaver]

Could you write something about miguel and deaf female so?

Heyyyy nonnnieeee, I'm sorry I took months to answer this. I hope you're still around to see it! Here are some headcanons about Miguel meeting and then being with someone deaf.

Miguel was, perhaps, overly prepared to meet Jess' newest recruit

He wasn't about to make a fool out of himself, or do anything to offend you, if he could help it.

You're a spider, after all - a deaf, female spider? What could be more badass?

Jess teased him about how hard he tried to impress you

how he was never on the "welcoming committee" for anyone else.

"You've seen her, right? That's why you're doing all this?"

"What, no - I haven't seen her," Miguel refuted, hands landing on his hips

Jess narrowed her eyes playfully. "Liar. Only a beautiful woman could get you down off your literal pedestal." She nodded up toward his towering command center.

"It's a platform," Miguel corrected

"This is Miguel, the bossy one," Jess joked, after introducing you to Miguel, letting him know how you met and a little about your background. "Or maybe the grumpy one."

You smiled sweetly as he attempted, "Hi, my name is M-I-G-U-E-L," in sign language

✧ ---------- ✧ ---------- ✧ ---------- ✧

You've been together now for months

Miguel has been learning sign language - practicing every day, taking classes.

He's come so far and he tries so hard. He makes a point to communicate through sign language and lip reading, rather than resorting to mostly texting you. He wants to talk to you in your main language.

You've had partners roll their eyes when you didn't understand before. Miguel can be condescending to anyone at the Spider Society but not to you. Not like this.

You tease him that he uses up his supply of patience and understanding with you and has none left for work

"No, you're just my favorite person," he refutes, rather seriously

Subtitles on, of course - he got used to that quickly.

Sometimes you have to remind him not to mumble, but he is a giant moody wildcat after all and the boy will grumble

But you love him

The biggest thing he forgets sometimes is to make sure to face you. He still loves to stand on that damn platform with his back to the world (It's a nice view at least)

Miguel is a beautiful man - that, anyone can see. But finding out he has a beautiful soul is almost too good to be true

It's not perfect, of course. He tends to be overprotective. Of everyone. He tries to hold the whole multiverse together

You remind him that you can take care of yourself and he has to remember to let people help him too

Miguel O'Hara Masterlist

Main Masterlist

[creedslove]

STUDYING

Pedro Pascal x f!reader

A/N: I got the inspiration for this piece during my own spanish class this week, I was supposed to be paying attention but I was thinking of him and my upcoming test and got distracted. Also, it's worth to mention that reader studies Spanish in a language school that teaches adults foreign languages just like I do in real life (and I'm 26) which means there's NOTHING to do with highschool or underage reader at all. If this kind of school isn't a thing in your country then it's too bad, lol!

Summary: Pedro helps you study and get your Spanish essay done on time but you get distracted by your personal tutor at home

Warnings: fluff, sweet boyfriend Pedro and a tiny bit of smut towards the end

1.2k words

It was about your third or fourth sigh that caught Pedro's attention. He knew you were having your moment of studying and he always made sure to give you your space, so you could focus, do your tasks, spread all your pens and papers with endless notes across the table and finish everything on time.

However, this time he could tell by the times you ripped pages off your notebook and crumpled it things weren't going so smoothly. He'd borrowed one of your highlighters to highlight his lines in the new script he was engaging into, being comfortable in the living room when he heard you mumbling something about 'fucking that shit'

He frowned curiously as he knew you absolutely adored studying Spanish, you enjoyed it so much you often spent hours making cute and colorful vocabulary summaries you'd learned in class, and you were nerdy to the point of writing essays without the teacher requesting them, just for fun, writing about random topics you enjoyed.

And Pedro was also aware you didn't study Spanish because of him. You'd been studying it for at least a year before you two met, knowing it had to do with the possibility of getting a better position, or a new job, or a nice trip abroad or even understanding movies and series. As he knew, you loved studying languages and that was one of the things he loved about you. And also the fact he could practice it at home with you, enjoying the fact you very often got his internal jokes or pet names you called each other.

In reality, he knew he wasn't the reason why you started learning Spanish, but he knew he was the reason why you kept studying it and made sure to get good results. And he loved it.

One thing you really enjoyed about Pedro was that he never intruded in your business. He knew you were smart enough to learn it by yourself and only if you needed help he would offer some. You avoided asking him for help as much as you could, you just wanted to do things on your own and you also loved his proud face when you were able to carry full conversations on different topics or understand a whole movie without having to rely on subtitles. But that essay was driving you insane.

Your test was coming up and it made you nervous. For the first time, you began feeling the difficulties in the language as the grammar was becoming harder and harder and you didn't know what else you could do to memorize that. Your essay, or composición as your boyfriend would say, was stressing you out, as nothing seemed good enough, you've written better, hell, even Pedro had told you many times how good your writing was and he wouldn't lie to you, that's for sure. But yet, you weren't convinced and when you finished that piece of shit you called a text you were already exhausted.

You began collecting your pens and pencils and organizing them back into the case and cleaning up the table when Pedro walked towards you. He had a sweet smile on his face and gently stroked your cheek, his curious brown eyes scanned the place until they fell onto your work.

"¿Qué pasa mi amor?" He asked in his beautiful, sexy accent and pulled a chair, sitting next to you. "I know you can do everything, but if you want, I can help you" he offered gently, not really thinking you'd agree with it, but when you handed him your text he grabbed his reading glasses, those black ones you loved and that always distracted you. At that point, you didn't give one single shit about tests, grades or evaluations, you would love to climb his lap and ride your handsome boyfriend while he dirty talked in spanish into your ear until exhaustion.

You barely noticed him talking to you, you were too busy looking at him, his tight sweater looking great on him, his messy soft hair, the way he softly bit his lips unconsciously when he focused on reading and those damn glasses.

"Y/N? Princesa? Are you listening to me?" He raised his brow and stared at you, waiting for you to reply. You swallowed hard and looked at him, feeling your cheeks flushing as you were caught fantasizing about your boyfriend.

"Y-yeah, I am, sorry cariño, I was just thinking of the test" you lied and looked at what he was pointing out in the paper. Pedro had taken a red pen and circled some words, you had either misspelled those or just put them in the wrong place, but overall your text was pretty decent. He gently explained you what you got wrong and how you could fix it better, though he could also tell you weren't really caring about that at the moment and knowing his sweet little puta very well, he knew whatever was on your mind had nothing to do with tests or school.

"Are you having wet dreams about your Spanish teacher, Y/N?" He folded his arms and looked at you "because I can just tell your mind is miles away from your studies and by the way you are clenching your thighs together you are probably very wet now" he smirked and loved how red you got. You knew there was no way you could fight that and lying would be just stupid. You bit your lips and chuckled, placing your hand on his thigh "I would have these if they fired that annoying cunt and hired you instead, though I can't complain about my private tutor" you whispered and leaned into his body, kissing his exposed neck gently and before he had any other action, you got up and immediately sat on his lap, facing him and pecking his soft lips gently, feeling his facial hair tickling you. His hands immediately wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer, at the same time you raised your ass lifting your skirt up and feeling the contact of his rough jeans against your thin panties, moving your hips slowly against his, the friction on your core sending shivers down your spine just as Pedro felt his pants tightening at how hard he got.

"I know you want to help me, but we both agree this isn't my best work, so I can even rewrite it later if you want, but now…" you kissed him deeper this time and you felt how Pedro bucked his hips against yours, looking for more touch, more exposure of your skin on his.

"Y/N… you're teasing me" he groaned and only got a smirk as a reply

"Lo que quiero decir és que podríamos hacer otras cosas ahora, papi… ¿Qué te parece?" You whispered against his ear knowing it drove him insane when you spoke with him like that.

Pedro pulled your panties to the side and ran his thumb up and down your hard clit, feeling how wet you were and nodded.

"Sí, pero si no te vayas bien and la prueba, voy a darte un castigo" he whispered back against your lips and slapped your ass hard, making you whimper and feel your cheek burn, as you definitely knew what kind of punishment he'd give you.

______

A/N: this is my first one shot after years of not writing. I hope it wasn't so bad and there might be a second part to it because I still have many Spanish tasks to carry out which means there might be more ideas, hopefully a little bit more smut this time. Also I posted it through the app and it somehow got worse when it comes to editing posts 🤌

Anyway, feedback = life

[merp-blerp]

EVEN MORE Things about Cinderella's Castle I'm excited about already as a big Cinderella fan

Part One, Part Two (This), Part Three

I did this once, guess I'm excited enough to do it again!

The songs sound wonderful! Can't wait to hear what they sound like with the cast and I can't wait to see what Lauren does with the choreo! NPMD blew me away and I can't wait to see how this show will kill me. "Cursed Crazy", "Step On Your Grave", "Ash To Ash", and "Ever After" are my favorite demos so far.

I think it's so cool that "Step On Your Grave" is such an angry song. I know it takes place while Ella's cooking her step-family dinner, but it would be really interesting if a reprise took place after Ella learns she can't go to the ball (that is if the story works the same way as usual). Normally, if Cinderella gets a song during this moment, it's very mournful, like say "In My Own Little Corner (Reprise)" from 1997 Cinderella. And that's great! But giving Ella a song like that, but with a "No Good Deed" from Wicked vibe would be so original and new as far as I'm aware! Cinderella has every right to be sad at her abusive situation, but also every right to be angry! Imagine she wants to follow them to the ball not to have a good night like usual but to kill her step-family on the way or at the ball somehow. Whether a rendition of "Step On Your Grave" is at a moment like this in the show or not, Ella deserves a song like that I think and I'm glad she's got one.

"Step On Your Grave" has a lot of allusions to Ella once being a princess in the making before the step-family or something came along, and Ella mentions her father having a sword, so I wonder if the Ashmores are fallen royalty or had royal tie-ins of some kind. Like maybe Ella was arranged to wed a prince or something.

"Ever After" has some elements of grief and that's so special I think. Cinderella often loses someone or something under her step-family, like her family or her former life, but the grief aspect isn't brought up too much very often in adaptations, the most significant time I can think of it being brought up is in 1997 Cinderella. It'd be nice to include that element in this show. I can't help but wonder if Ella's father's death was accidental in this show. "Ever After" kind of reminds me a bit of "Cool As I Think I Am" from NPMD sound-wise; some smart musical person should mash them up once "Ever After" is released. Ella also might be kinda regicidal in this song too, so... POOR GIRL'S JUST SO CONTEMPLATIVE!

I genuinely doubt "Trappings of Starlight" has much to do with the Starlight Theather from Hatchetfield, but to add to that craziness, the "Uh-oh-oh-oh," reminds me of the vocalizing from "Axe Man" from NT2. And "Should we shun her?" in "Castle On A Hill" reminds me of "Should we kill him?" in "The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals". I don't think it means anything though. It seems pretty clear that The Lands That Are and Hatchetfield aren't going to have much overlap.

"Ash To Ash" seemingly referencing Ella's mom! I get this feeling that Ella's mom was a witch or enchantress of some kind and that's why she was burned. And it sounds like the Fairy Queen and Ella are maybe plotting revenge on someone or a system, maybe? And I wonder what QF means by saying Ella is "Terrible as I". Maybe she means terrible as in great or fearsome, like, say, "Oz the great and terrible" or something. And the lyric, "I shall wrap thee in these cinders, Ell" makes me wonder if her dress will be made with starlight + the cinders on her body—what a wicked idea! I love how far the Langs took the whole cinders and ash thing. With Ella's surname being Ashmore and this being a duet with the Fairy Queen, I'm very curious about the title and if there's a double meaning; are Ella and the Fairy Queen related in some way? This retelling will be so good!

In the subtitles for "Ash To Ash" in the 4/13 livestream, I assumed "Q+C" was supposed to be "Queen (Fairy) + Cinderella", but listening to the song a second time, it sounds like C's lines overlap Ella's very slightly, which would make it hard for one person (Bryce) to sing alone. So C is likely not Ella in that song. Maybe it's Crumb? Some in the chat said it probably just meant chorus, so we'll see eventually.

All the little motifs that exist already! Like "Will it Ever After Happily?" in "Castle On A Hill" and "Ever After". Or the talk of Ella painting in both "Ever After" and "Last For Ever". "Ever After" has so many! AAAHHH!

The Lyrics in "Castle On A Hill" being "A queen and her vanity, a beast and his agony" have me Thinking™. Are the prince's parents Beauty and the Beast? Is the prince a beast? And there's also the Excalibur callback??? Since Nick said there would be no other fairytales involved in this story, it might just be more of a reference than literal, but it's still cool.

The lyrics to "Cursed Crazy" make me wonder if the citizens blame Ella for the Ashmore family's demise for some reason. The idea of Cinderella not even being able to find potential solace in the townsfolk is so sad! There's so much to think about!

Dying to know what "'Cause my love will be fierce, and your love will be missed," in "Trappings Of Starlight" will mean. It's such an intriguing line. As well as who is the character singing the song. We seemingly don't know who they are yet.

Seraphim Fairy Queen is such a cool idea, especially with all the talk of God(s) or a god in "Ash To Ash"! No pressure on the Langs, but it'd be so cool for them to be able to go through with that design concept, even if it's through minimal tactics. I can't wait to see who this Fairy Queen is. Is she the prince's mom??? A Sleeping Beauty-type character we could follow in a future show??? Ella's mom??? Ella's girlfriend??? This will be so cool!

There are more characters that we haven't been introduced to yet! We can still get Ella a girlfriend guys! Genuinely excited to see who they are!

The fact that the trolls eat rodents and other smaller creatures has me a bit worried about Sir Hop and Crumb. Maybe Ella was going to cook them for her step-family, but became friends with them instead, protecting them from getting eaten.

Not to get too Crazy, but what if the characters singing with Ella in "Last For Ever" are her parents, resurrected, or never actually dead or something. Probably not, but what if???

I have a feeling I'll be making more lists as we learn more about the show, so if I have any more thoughts I'll try.

[curio-queries]

Run BTS: 032 | Take Care of Santa

Original Air Date: 23 DEC 2017 Episode Length: 28:42 Total Parts: 1 YouTube English Subtitles: Yes Title Song: Blood Sweat & Tears

Synopsis: Christmas-themed scavenger hunt. The guys have pig ballons tied to them that the Thief (surprise reveal) is trying to cut.

Production: It seems there was more to the game than we actually are told/see. Something with the exchange coupons? Hobestly, i think this was a pivotal ep for the production team. they learned how to build a scenario for this type of content and how the guys actually respond to the scenarios as well as audiences. The edit was a textbook case of how to cut together this type of content. they did an excellent job making the space seem larger than it really is too.

Endearment: Definitely a success on the endearment scale. Most of this is carried by the battle against Hobi.

Winner: JH

Loser: V, JK

Best Cheater: V... such betrayal...JK didn't fall for it though!

Member Moments:

RM: Of course he loses his pigdolf on his own right at the beginning!! I just LOVE RMs face when he finds the ornaments others miss. BOY, you KNOW you've been one to miss the obvious in other eps. Don't even try to pull that. lol

JN: Jin's greatest work holding the camera...cut to chase scene where we can't see him. nice.

YG: Suga taking the empty box and the spare props brings me back to ep where he tried to talk his way into a reward with the flags. i just KNOW he was going to try something again. maybe he did and we just didn't get the footage...

JH: oh, Hobi, you are the least intimidating spy to ever be. But seriously, did no one ever tell you NOT to run with scissors?!

JM: EVERY SCENE this episode, Jimin just pushes my cuteness buttons. i can't handle it. is it the santa hat? the overalls? the pigdolph? i don't know but I'm suffering.

V: Excellent mannequin challege V. and RM is the fall guy as usual.

JK: Poor JK! You protect that lil piggy! i think him losing his at the beginning actually made him hyperfocus on protecting it instead of the game.

Bonus Content:  Just some classic, cute extra moments. Definitely worth a first watch. Not actual bonus content but I noticed the clothes they're wearing in the fake interviews are the same from the next episodes, so I'm assuming the manitos were actually filmed before the scavenger hunt game?

CQ Rank: 4

(CQ Eval Date: 3 DEC 2023)

Check out this post for my Masterlist of all episodes and descriptions of how I'm evaluating these.

Previous Episode: 031

Next Episode: 033

[aurosoulart]

finally got around to recording and subtitling my performance at the Augmented World Expo 😤 it's 6 minutes long, but worth the watch if you wanna understand more about what I do!

this was part of a competition centered around using XR technology (virtual reality, augmented reality, spatial computing - whatever you want to call it) to fight climate change.

we were the only ones competing in the category of Replace - and I gave this performance showing how Figmin XR, a software that can create free-to-download digital objects (aka 'digital twins'), could be used to massively reduce material waste in the future.

AR glasses and haptic feedback technologies are still in their infancy, and they're not YET at the stage where they can be as ubiquitous as smartphones - but as someone lucky enough to work with them every day, let me tell you:

this stuff is powerful. being able to to see, hear, and FEEL digital objects in 3D space changes the wiring of your brain. it's truly indescribable unless you've experienced it yourself, but everything feels real, like it's there with you, especially if it's something you've brought into existence with your own two hands. I share my virtual inventory with my friends - we play with confetti together, paint together, make things together - all in-person, the entire process feeling so natural that we forget all of it is just made out of light.

this is the entirety of what Figmin's mission is about - empowering people to re-learn the joy of playing (which so many of us don't have the time or money for anymore!), while also reducing material waste in the process.

once this new form of 3D computing finally becomes accessible to the public (and it will - it's too magical to be forgotten), we could see a huge cultural shift of innovation similar to what happened with the rise of the internet and personal computers in the first place.

and, like the original PC, it's only going to get better once it does reach people. I'm not going to say that every person out there will use XR for good (we all know how corporate greed goes by now), but that doesn't mean it's inherently bad or scary.

all technology is still just a tool, and we can still use it to connect with one another, to learn, to create... and, hopefully, to change the world for the better.

[japanese-cryptic-beauty]

Japanese... where to start...

It happened all so simply, so naively. I had started watching "Sword Art Online" the anime, and on a hunch, I decided to watch it with English subtitles along the original Japanese audio. (I had not done that in a while.) And at some point, not the first time in my life, I thought: Japanese doesn't sound so hard.

(And that I love the sound.)

Right. I was young and naive. So yesteryear. Literally. But eventually I acted on this naive, misguided notion and bought myself, after short thought, two books - the first installment of "Japanese From Zero" and, for some reason, "Remembering The Kanji". (It was actually recommended by several buyer comments/reviews.)

Quickly, through the book, internet resources, and YouTube videos, I realized Japanese did not have one written language, but three: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. (Technically, it has four: Romaji, its Roman letter transliteration.)

Overwhelmed with this abundance of several exotic writing systems I initially, in fact, tried to avoid all of Japan's native writing systems and learn it from Romaji. Good old Roman letters! But I quickly realized that there was barely any market for Romaji products, and the books attempting to teach basic Japanese with Romaji all seemed to be geared towards businessmen. It had about the appeal of sucking on the end of a tablecloth.

So I decided to start with the first "Japanese From Zero book" which gradually introduced the Hiragana syllabary, a system of 46 basic syllables (and some combinations thereof) that produce all the basic sounds the Japanese language consists of. The reason Japanese can be written in this fashion is that it is actually one of the languages with the least amount of basic sounds to fashion words from. (Which made it sound deceptively simple to my ear...)

Hiragana can be mostly used to render all of these sounds. It is taught to kids as a first entry into writing to start out with, it's generally used to transcribe Japanese phonetically (more further down), and it plays a role in the grammar of the written Japanese language.

So I threw myself into it. I learned to write the 46 Hiragana letters (and read them), and endlessly reproduced them, tested myself with flash cards, etc. But I also had ulterior motives... I hoped that if I learned Hiragana well, I might get away with not having to engage with the more elaborate actual writing system of Japanese. It was an attempt at a horse trade - if I do this, I don't have to do that, right?

And I progressed in the book. But it began to sink in... It's good and absolutely vital to know Hiragana, but knowing Hiragana will not be sufficient. (Well, unless I'm content with reading books made for young children.)

How written Japanese roughly works

Japan early on imported the Chinese writing system, including its letters, the Hanzi - eventually known in Japanese as Kanji ("kanji" in Japanese literally means "Chinese Letter"). There are 10,000s of them, but in actual use the Japanese written language resorts to roughly 2,200 of them (the amount a high schooler would learn), and maybe 3,000 in academic settings.

Each of the letters has its own meaning and by now several ways to sound it. But using Chinese letters clashed with one fact - the Japanese had already their own language and grammar, and the Chinese grammar wouldn't work for them. Japan kept importing Chinese culture, including Buddhist and Confucian texts, but eventually Hiragana and Katakana developed to aid the Japanese speakers. Hiragana supposedly as a simple writing language for noblewomen's diaries which eventually evolved to novels. And Katakana filling the exact same space but developed by Buddhist monks to annotate Chinese Buddhist texts. Both evolved into full 46 syllable languages that you can render Japanese with.

In order to remedy the fact that Japanese grammar clashes with Chinese writing, the Japanese eventually started to combine Hiragana with the Kanji. Kanji would denote the concepts, but Hiragana letters would fill in all the Japanese grammar to build sentences. So most verbs involve one or more Kanji to define their meaning, but Hiragana is used to add verb endings for the various forms the word can take - whether the action is in the present or past, if it's continuous, an imperative, and how polite the speaker is, etc.

食 means the concept of "eat, food." It can also be used as the noun for "eating" or "food."

食べるmeans "to eat." Here two Hiragana letters are added to form the verb. Different verbs can be formed from the same Kanji. They seem to thankfully all end in a "u" sound.

(Never mind that 食 is sounded out completely differently in these two cases. Food can be called "shoku" whereas to eat is pronounced "taberu", the kanji being the "ta" part and "be" and "ru" being the two Hiragana that follow.)

Hiragana fills in all the missing parts that Chinese didn't cover for the Japanese language. Hiragana letters will tell you which word plays what role in the sentence (who am I doing something to? what is being talked about?), they differentiate between different words, adjectives, and adverbs, and sometimes form the connective tissue in compound words.

It comes all together now, right?

By the way... Katakana also has uses for foreign loan words. Because one clearly needed another writing system for that shit. Don't get me started.

Remembering The Kanji: The Next Delusion

So one day (maybe two months after starting at most) I decided that halfassing wasn't going to cut it. I wanted to take the bull by the horns. I decided that if I wanted to learn Japanese, Kanji weren't optional.

I arrived at this somewhat crazy notion by the detour of this book: "A Guide to Japanese Grammar: A Japanese approach to learning Japanese grammar". The author was doing a good job of summing up Japanese grammar, but he kept insisting that the proper way to learn Japanese was using Kanji right from the beginning, eat or die.

The first rule of the Japanese Learning Club is... Never, ever, trust somebody who learned the Japanese language the way the Japanese are taught it. My experience is limited, but sometimes I think people just like to share their own flawed methodology around because they can't think of anything better. (This seems to be a common gripe you find about Japanese classes in general on the internet.)

But I needed a game plan... and I had by random chance bought a book to just do that: "Remembering The Kanji" (RTK or "Heisig method"). It was developed by a man who learned the Japanese kanji in record time before learning Japanese itself. His reasoning was that Westerners notoriously have a hard time learning Japanese, but Chinese and other people that use or used the Chinese Hanzi have a head start. They have a whole library of those "kanji" (or a lo of them) in their head and their meanings. They just have then to grapple the intricacies of the Japanese language itself.

So I changed approach.

The first volume follows the concept that the kanji are built up from basic symbols called "radicals." More complex kanji are formed from more simple kanji and radicals. And they are more easily learned if you actually order them that way instead of a haphazard order.

Or, to put it another way: You don't want to start with kanji involving 48 brush strokes when you can start with those that involve 1 or 3 and build from them. Japanese school kids have a lot of time, repeat endlessly, and spend an amount of time on this with their brains at their most pliable stage. Let's face it - I'm neither blessed nor cursed by these circumstances.

I was convinced by the system and the logic behind it.

The basic methodology breaks down to: Learn a concept. Learn a mnemonic story that helps you remember how to produce the kanji in writing while tying it to the concept. Use flash cards (Anki is the free app well-suited for that) to drill myself into repeatedly learning to write these kanji. The author of the book insists that going from concept to writing them is best initially.

I learned to write 1,000 Kanji from keywords in 6 months.

But once I crossed over the 900 kanji mark, things came to a crawl. When initially I had learned maybe 20 kanji a day, then 10, now it was 5 a day. I was feeling more worn every day.

Yes, there was the satisfaction of recognizing a lot of the Kanji displayed in anime. But just as often as not, I still didn't. (Remember, 2,200 are commonly used.)

I had written whole notepads full of kanji, but I was increasingly having doubts, especially when the stretch from 900 to 1,000 really started to go on and on.

I once had clung to the notion that Japanese could maybe be read into English without even knowing Japanese - something which is partially true. But it was less and less appealing to me. I realized that I was not making good use of my time, because I didn't build vocabulary. Because I still didn't know how Japanese words sound.

So, while I was predominantly watching anime at the time I couldn't parse those sentences into "tokens" because that's hard to do when recognizing only a select few words. I noticed that words I knew I could already spot in the stream of sounds, and if I knew more words, this would happen more often, until I can "tokenize" the Japanese language into separate blocks reliably that my brain can process in turn.

And the "Heisig method" was not helping with that. When does reading kanji into sounds happen? Volume 2. The advice is seriously to learn 2,200 kanji first and then learn readings next. This was absolutely disheartening. I couldn't imagine slogging through another 1,200 kanji before even starting on sounds. This method is fine for monomaniacs, but for me it was seriously wasting time I could also use to build my own inner parser of spoken Japanese.

My goal had been to understand spoken Japanese first and foremost. I felt like I had lost my way and wasn't getting the results I actually wanted.

So I changed plan.

The current plan: WaniKani

The sunken cost fallacy is a wonderful thing. I had learned many things about the Japanese language at this point that, had I known them at the beginning, likely I wouldn't have started to learn it. In fact, it's widely regarded as one of the hardest languages to learn. Silly me.

But I had spent six months getting 1,000 kanji down. I was no longer deterred by the idea I might not be able to distinguish them. And I wanted something to show for it. There's also a certain beauty to all of it. Even if there also isn't.

And yes, I had spent a lot of time, and when you spend a lot of time on anything, you start to identify with it. And that makes you spend more time on it.

Inside the Anki index cards set for the Heisig method you also find references to where these Kanji are used - are they part of a level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test JLPT? It will be noted on the card. And something else was mentioned. A "WaniKani level..."

Turns out, WaniKani is a website based on a similar spaced repetition approach like Anki itself. But WaniKani does a few things that the Heisig method doesn't. It starts with the combination of sounds and kanji right off the bat. And it teaches you vocabulary built from these kanji.

So I started over!

Yep, I started over at the 1,000 mark to try out a different system. Wasn't I just complaining about monomaniacs??

The first 3 of the 60 levels of the WaniKani website are free. I am now 5 months in and approaching level 12 (the 20% mark). I have learned about 400 kanji and 1,100 word of vocabulary in the process.

Wait. Didn't I originally learn 900 kanji in roughly the same time period...? Yes and no.

When using the Heisig/RTK method, I learned to tie concepts to kanji and write them. But I wasn't learning Japanese, really. Now I'm learning how to read these letters into sounds, remember the concepts behind them, learn the multiple sounds behind each (!), and many of the actual compound words formed from them.

Does that make a difference? Oh yes!

自転車 means "bicycle" and is pronounced "jitensha."

With the Heisig method I was able to see the letters in an anime, translate them to "self 自-revolve 転-car 車" and figure out that this might mean "bicycle." But I simply didn't know that these specific letters form that word. And I couldn't sound it out, nor would I have picked it up in a stream of Japanese audio.

So if anybody told me now that RTK is the way to go to really learn Japanese? I would probably cuss them out. Yes, some people can frontload their system like that. It might work for them. But it's a very poor approach for people who like to associate things in their thinking. (Don't get me wrong, it still beats many other approaches to learning Japanese and especially the kanji where people fail to outright make much progress. Or so it is claimed on the interwebs.)

I not only learn the most common sounds first, I learn to use them. I build words, and these words I might spot in turn when listening to Japanese. It gives me an avenue to practice Hiragana as well, even Katakana. So these 400 kanji? They have become building blocks for nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. And these 1,100 vocab words glue them into my mind.

But you can't stop there. Or I can't.

Where to go from there

You know, when I think I have understood how Japanese works, it throws me a curveball. I thought, for example, that unlike Chinese, Japanese is an unpitched language. (In Chinese five distinct pitches are part of the sound and alter meaning.) I was consoling myself that the endless parade of similar sounds in Japanese at least meant I didn't have to tackle pitch.

Turns out I was wrong.

Japanese has two-pitch melodies, but only on occasion it actually has impact on meaning. You will, for the most part, just sound unnatural. Hooray!!

[[EDIT: I want to qualify this statement and do so here.]]

Sunken costs, deliver me from this insanity. No? That's not how you work? Okay. Moving on.

There are many crazy things about Japanese, including the many different sounds associated with letters. But I'm grappling that part.

Grammar is another thing. Thankfully, a fair amount of Japanese grammar actually comes down to comparatively few rules and forms. I mean, technically Japanese only has present and past. (Say whaaaat.) Or so I've come to understand. If I learn it's much more complicated at some point - sure, sunken costs, dig the hole deeper.

Reading means looking up things

But I want to start reading my manga in Japanese. (To get practice with the language itself and reading.) This poses some problems right off the bat. Let's say you need to write down a kanji for looking it up, how do you do it?

The most inconvenient method is drawing it with the mouse into Google Translate. You can do it, but it's time consuming and not fun at all. (Remember? There are 48 brush stroke kanji!)

And here's why I say WaniKani has a lot of merit. If you know one of the words using this kanji, or one of its readings, you can write that in Roman letters (or Hiragana, doesn't matter) into an input field of most apps supporting Japanese writing and it will give you a list of possible kanji.

That's how kanji are written on Japanese phones - they keep writing their own phonetic language in Hiragana and the phone offers you which kanji fit the sounds. (A lot of sounds have many, many kanji associated with them.) But that's why speaking (or at least being able to "sound in") Japanese is so vital. Because the support for writing Kanji is through Romaji or Hiragana - you need to know the sound / phonetic writing of what you're saying and the computer finds you the matching Kanji.

("wakaranai" - "don't understand")

This is why the Heisig/RTK method helps you so little with actually getting stuff done. Imagine painting all these kanji just to look them up. What you need is a connection between actual words, sounds, concepts, and kanji. Then you can efficiently use modern tools to look them up. This links you back into part of the Japanese mainstream and the tools it offers.

If I write "jitensha" into Google Translate, it will offer me "自転車" to select. I can go from sounds back to kanji. That's immensely helpful and direct, even if I only need one of the three kanji involved.

In the end, I guess, learning Japanese will mean pulling from many different sources. But I think now I'm building a base that I can work with in many regards.

So, that was my journey so far. I still have lots to do! But I don't feel lost. Or so I tell myself.

[boysplanetrecaps]

Boys Planet, Episode 3 Recap, Part 1

This review will conclude the signal test and the level reassignment, and cover the team selection. Let's do it!

Let's skip past the previews and teasers and go to 3:10 for more signal song tests.

First up is 3 star Seo Won, who is in NINE.i and auditioned with Attention. He walks in to the judging rooms and LipJ seems unprofessionally glad to see him. He starts his performance and honestly is super charming. He gestures to his name tag when the lyrics say "name" and I mean, sure, literal hand gestures worked for Evan Hanson so why not. He concludes with such a cute ending fairy that LipJ screams out loud. Then he scurries out, muttering, “That was so fun!” I love to see that, because so many of these trainees seem to hate to perform, leaving me wondering why they want to be performers.  The judges decide to promote him to 4 stars, so good for you, Seo Won!  

Next up is my little cousin and noted yeller Kum Jun Hyeon (the subtitles use a different transliteration). He starts with a silent yell (to save his throat) and then does a good performance, with on key, if slightly over-forceful, singing. When he's done, he asks Solji if he's changed and she says yes. The judges say he’s improved and give him 4 stars. He’s happy about it.

Next is blue-haired Park Hanbin from The Real. He does well, even if his singing a bit pitchy for my taste. He returns to the trainees and then kind of obnoxiously tells them, “why waste my breath? Of course I got All Star.” He was just joking around, I'm sure, but I feel like people won’t like that…?  In the midst of his joy, we keep cutting to members of the Korean Kick It team -- sickly baby Han Yu Jin and mop headed Kim Gyu Vin. They look miserable. 

Next is Mun Jung Hyeon, the raspy rapper from The Real. He sounds pretty breathy in his vocals, but they’re on key, and he is charming. The judges upgrade him to 4 star, and I’m really glad. I feel like that whole team deserved to be 4 stars all along.  

Next is Le Ye Dam, who did that amazing audition to Gambler. He’s just good at everything. He keeps his 4 star status, and bounces off the floor like a cricket in his joy. 

Next is sweetheart Keita from Ciipher/Conduct Zero. I think he still needs a bit of vocal training for some of the lower notes, actually, but the higher notes he does well with. 

Kim Gyu Vin is next, and he doesn’t want to be judged by Master Baek, one of the psycho dance teachers. I am deliberately not learning their names because I genuinely dislike them, quite intensely. Seeing Gyu Vin walk into the room -- it’s like I’m seeing an abused kid confront his abuser. I know Korean culture is different and stuff but these trainees are so young and the dance teachers are so cruel, so needlessly cruel. I don’t see any value in behaving this way. I’m not that invested in whether or not this one teenager gets to debut or not, but I am invested in this one human being’s mental health. His voice cracked a few times when he was performing, and he just seemed deflated. The same kid who put 7 star stickers on his nametag when he came in was just ready to give up. I find this very sad. The judges demote him to 3 stars, which seems fair based on his performance, but this is one of those situations in which the observer changes the observed. 

Next is Ji Yun Seo, the leader of the Kick It team. He seems to stumble on the vocals a lot, and apparently his dancing is bad. I blame the choreography, because I think they all look dumb doing this stupid choreo. Anyway, they demote him too, to 3 stars. 

Next is Yoo Seung Eon, also from Kick It. He seems terrified and his voice is raw. He also gets sent to 3 stars. 

Finally, it’s sickly Han Yu Jin, talking again about how sick and feverish he was. His hyungs took care of him, but when he was talking about how sick he was in his confessional, someone should have intervened and sent him to get some medical care. Jesus FUCK. Of course his performance isn’t fabulous and he gets demoted too. So the whole Kick It team gets sent down to 3 stars. I don't know if it's deserved or not, but I do know it's messed up.

After that, the judges say that the signal test is over -- but it’s not totally over. They seem to have realized after the fact that having two different judging panels wasn’t the fairest method. So, as far as I can tell, the judging panel who didn’t watch the original test reviewed the video tape and then they discussed it more to be fair.

The trainees find out that some of them are going to be re-reassigned, and they're so on edge and miserable that the news hardly affects them anymore.

Zhang Hao, the auburn haired Yuehua leader, says in his halting but excellent Korean that he’ll accept it if his 4 stars gets taken away. He’s so humble -- it seems genuine, too. Mun Jung Hyeon, the raspy rapper from The Real who I find quite charming, represents the other end of the spectrum -- please don’t take my 4 star away! Oh Sung Min, aka Jerome in T01, isn’t above hoping he’ll get promoted to 4 stars. 

The judges announce that Park Min Seok (The Real), Jeon Ho Yeong (Love Scenario), Lim Joon Seo (one of the two boys who came in first), and Yoon Jong Woo (the guy who pretended to kiss Ji Woo) have all been demoted to 1 star. Most had been 2 stars; for Yoon Jong Woo, that’s extra rough, since he started the day as a 3 star. 

Kim Min Hyuk from Lullaby interviews, “they started naming us one by one, and then we all got demoted.” That’s confusing because he himself didn’t get demoted; in fact, he’s wearing a 2 star jersey but is listed as a 3-star, so he must have been promoted. Good for him! 

After that, they finally get to poor sexy Jellyfish Park Gunwook -- he got All Star! Good for him. Also, they decide to promote Seok Matthew to All star too! Good for him, too.

14:13 Signal Song Filming

We're at the filming for the Signal Song. It's one of those big pyramid stages, and naturally the All stars are at the top, and the 0 stars are on the ground. One person on the ground among the 0 stars is overalls Ollie from Yuehua, who has dropped from 3 stars to 0 stars. Oh no! Yuehua kids are not great at learning choreo, I guess. The 0 stars want to be on the stage so badly they just want to tap their feet on it, or touch it with their fingers. Aww. Ma Jing Xing, the handsomest one from Reveal, interviews that he really practiced so much. Bak Do Ha (blue house) interviews that they won’t be seen on the ground. And in their cluster of Chinese speakers on the ground, Wang Yan Hong (Hot) and Ollie agree that they’ll have to prove themselves from the bottom. 

Then the center with the Killing Part gets lifted all the way up on the top stage. Who could the center be? We know it’s either Nation’s sweetheart Sung Han Bin or auburn haired Zhang Hao. (Seems that each contingent voted for their own center.) Who could have won between K and G? Of course it was K, so Hanbin will be the center. 

At 17:45, it's time for filming! The boys all clean up well and look like "real idols." LipJ is filming this on her phone, as if it’s not… being filmed. I do kind of love how she cheers on the 0 stars, though.

I still don’t understand the whole thing with the Signal Song. Do people watch it? I don’t. I’m not sure I’ve ever sat all the way through any of the Signal Songs. But it seems important to the trainees. Maybe it’s popular in Korea.

Anyway, more stuff about how to vote -- feel free to skip ahead, to...

20:39 Hanging Out

The boys all seem to be wearing matching pajamas -- some are kind of a light leaf green (I think that’s the Korean trainees) and some are white with little red dots (I think that’s the global trainees). It’s never addressed or even acknowledged, but there they are, in matching pajamas we've never seen before. They look like nice pajamas, though. I wonder if they’re available for purchase at a store near me?

The boys are just hanging out having a fun time, totally and completely unaware of the cameras, just doing what they would always do. 

A few boys are playing a word game, and they keep cheerfully screwing over Lee Yedam (Gambler). 

Meanwhile, Keita is holding Korean lessons with some of the Japanese trainees. How cute is this shit? I love it. 

His students include Takuto, Haru (he’s the blonde one), and I think Kei from Conduct Zero. 

Others hang out singing, and Kim Hwan Hee from Up10tion comes in to sing with them. The captions imply that he’s drunk, but I doubt that he really is -- where would they get alcohol? 

Others enjoy eating. Wow! Kpop trainees. They’re just like the rest of us. 

Others are exercising, and the camera zooms in on their butts as they do squats, and I’m not sure whose butt that is and if it belongs to a minor or not so I’m just not screencapping it. You do you, MNET, but I’ll be over here. 

As the night wears on, Lee Ye Dam waxes philosophical. “You shouldn’t just be good at singing and dancing here,” he says. But we don’t get to hear what else he thinks you need to do. Other trainees are also thinking about how long they’ve been training. Lee Dong Yeol, better known (maybe) as Xiao in Up10tion, says, “I’ve been doing this for seven years. The moment I thought, what if I can’t get on stage, that’s when I thought I should figure out a way.” Aww.

Oh Sung Min, “Jerome” from T01, says, “I thought I was the only one with stories.” Oh, that’s so sad. We don’t really know what he had been talking about, but I know that the T01 trainees went through some really abusive stuff. I know that no one on this earth is owed a life in show business, but the Kpop industry can be really cruel. 

They get ready for sleep, some of them clutching large stuffies (strong approval on that), some wearing masks to bed, (maybe it helps prevent snoring?), and some with their jersey ready to go in the morning. That yellow one-star jersey says Choi Yujin on it; he was a member of NuNu NaNa and was originally assessed as 3 stars. Awww. 

25:30 Team Making and Song Selection

The next day, they’re brought into a room with two middle school chorus risers in it, and the trainees soon realize that their names, and a number, are written on the risers where they’re each meant to stand, on the riser for their group (K versus G). 

For example, Choi Yujin’s name is shown with the number 18.  Ma Jing Xing, the handsomest one from Reveal, is number 10. Na Kamden is 35. But the lowest numbers in the very front don’t have names on them, and some trainees can’t find their names. Whatever could it mean????

But, as Lee Dong Yeol, better known (maybe) as Xiao in Up10tion, notices, some trainees’ names are missing. And mysteriously, they’re the most popular trainees and/or the ones that have already debuted -- like Dong Yeol himself, Kim Ji Woo (Mr. Sexy BL), Oh Sung Min (“Jerome”),  Nation’s sweetheart Sung Han Bin, and Mirotic’s highly ranked Lee Seung Hwan. Whatever shall they do? 

The doors creak open and the boys freak the fuck out. SOMEONE IS WALKING IN? Through the DOOR????!?!?1?!

Oh, Seo Won has put magenta stripes in his hair. Looks cool. 

Anyway, it’s the most handsome man in the world, Hwang Min Hyun, a man so handsome he walks through a soft glowing mist at all times. 

The show wants you to remember him from Wanna One, but I think of him as a member of Nu’est.

The boys have chills from how handsome he is! He notes that he has been through a survival show like they have (Produce 101 Season 2), and Hui remembers appearing on that show as a master -- but now MinHyun is the master, and Hui feels emotional about that. 

That’s a blonde Hui, with HyunA and E’Dawn/Dawn. The three of them used to be in a special group called Triple H -- check out their song Retro Future. You can skip the rest of this paragraph if you already know about this, but E’Dawn was in Pentagon with Hui too, and HyunA was a soloist. Then people found out that E’Dawn and HyunA had been dating for a long time, and there was a dumb pointless scandal and E’Dawn and HyunA were kicked out of Cube agency and Pentagon suffered and E’Dawn and HyunA suffered and there’s no more TripleH, so I hope you’re all happy now, Cube. 

Having Hui as a trainee when he obviously has so much talent and skill as a producer and songwriter and really should be a master or vocal trainer or producer or something, it makes me livid. It’s still stupid and wrong.��

Anyway. 

We find out that a fancam of the Signal Song performance of each trainee was posted on Youtube, and that the numbers the trainees have just now been given represents their rank in terms of their fancam views. Park Han Bin, with the blue hair, is ranked 19, and interviews that he’s disappointed he wasn’t closer to the top, but he looks fairly happy. We also find out that the trainees who don’t know their numbers yet are in the top 9. And here is that top 9 in order:

Hui

Kim Ji Woo

Seong Hanbin

Lee Da Eul

Lee Seung Hwan

Han Yoo Jin

Cha Woong Gi

Oh Seong Min

Lee Dong Yeol

When Lee Da Eul is announced 4th, Kim Min Seoung (from Nu Nu Na Na) interviews, “He’s not necessarily the best one. So I think he made it to the top with his charm.”  It must be kind of galling to have trained for years and worked on your skills, and then get beaten by a kid with almost no skills who just… is cute. 

Hui is asked how he feels about placing first, and he says, “It made me realize that many people support me,” and bows humbly. 

Then we hear about the top 9 for G-group, and there are some surprises! 

Dang Hong Hai 

Anthonny

Keita

Hiroto

Cong

Jay

Zhang Hao

Ricky

Seok Matthew

Zhang Hao is a little disappointed to have been only 7th, and Na Kamden interviews that he is surprised too. Kamden doesn’t seem to be wearing that pearl necklace anymore, at least in his interview. Maybe it’s tucked under his shirt. 

When Dang Hong Hai is announced as number 1, he can barely believe it.  Everyone else is a bit surprised too, including Hui. 

I had to try to figure out why he won, so I watched the fancam. I guess I don’t really get it, but that’s ok. This comment on the Youtube video seems to summarize the appeal: “Although his dance might not be the best, but I watch his fancam literally everyday because his facial expressions and the vibe he give is just WOW amazing…..this song suits him so well and I’m looking forward to his performance in the show! Fighting!!!!” Also, people seem to like his face visuals. Hey, I never know who will be considered good looking in kpop; I remind you that I think the most handsome member of Exo is probably Chen, so I seem to be out of step with other people. So I can’t comment either way. It’s also worth noting that in some pre-show ranking thing I saw, Hong Hai was ranked 3rd, so I guess it’s not crazy that he would have done well at this point. He’s currently ranked 29, so I guess we’ll see what happens. It would be cool to see more Southeast Asians in Kpop!

Jang Yeo Jun, a GBTB performer who recently dropped from 3 to 2 stars and from 51th to 60th in ranking -- he’s the one who ended up completely breaking down on the phone to his mother last episode -- is excited for his first mission. Me too! I think Yeo Jun is a good dancer, for what it’s worth. 

The first mission is a K vrs G group battle. 

No one seems all that happy about it. 

Anthonny is a study in aggravation. 

Even the K-group trainees aren’t thrilled. 

I think they want it to not be about K vrs G any more, and I don’t blame them. They all probably have friends in the other group and they’re probably sick of being segregated.

Hey, look, it’s Toui! He finally got better from being sick, and I guess he moved up to 1 star. Good for him. He’s ranked 93rd, but you never know, I guess. 

Winnie interviews that he’s ready for the challenge, and oh gosh, I hope he changes that hair color soon. It does him no favors.

It’s pretty standard issue kind of challenge. Each of seven songs will be performed twice, once by a K-group team and once by a G-group team. The audience will vote for the one it liked better, and the winning team will get a benefit. 

During the reaction, we can see that Chen Liang, one of the God’s Menu performers, has dropped from 2 stars to 0 stars, and is currently wearing an eye patch. Poor guy.  Han Seo Bin, one of the Freak rappers, is wearing a scarf around his neck, maybe to keep his throat warm. We also see that he has dropped from 4 stars to 3. 

I was initially confused as to the benefit rules, so here is what Minhyun says:

“To the team that won by getting more votes from Star Creators, 100,000 points will be awarded. After combining each team’s scores, the group that got the higher score will be given 10,000 extra benefit points.” So “team” means “team performing a particular song” and “group” means K-group versus G-group. 

I might be proven wrong on this, but it really seems like a foregone conclusion that K-group will win. Here is my reasoning. (1) The K trainees are generally more skilled, as a group. (2) The G trainees will have a harder time learning the lyrics to the songs, even if they already kind of know the tunes. (3) K trainees all share a language and culture, while G trainees will have serious communication issues and cultural differences, leading to more difficult teamwork. 

I’d be irritated about that 10,000 point benefit being primed for the K-group to have, but I know that 10,000 points won’t really do much. It would be enough to change the outcome for someone who would have one or two spots below the cutoff point, but it won’t save anyone in the basement of the rankings. 

The boys know that, so the producers poke them with a cattle prod (I assume) to get them to say things like this:

The look on Ji Yoon Seo’s face here cracks me up.

Also, one team will get to perform on M countdown, which they all are very excited to do. 

The theme for the songs is “million selling groups.” As Minhyun reveals each song, the boys react as if that group has just walked in the room. Here are the songs: 

Seventeen -- Very Nice Exo - Love Me Right BTS - Danger   NCT Dream - Hot Sauce  Wanna One - Burn It Up  Stray Kids - Back Door  Black Pink - Kill This Love

Lee Da Eul (the shy ham) doesn’t remember Danger, so Lee Seung Hwan (Mirotic) sings a little. 

Minhyun says that Burn It Up -- a song he performed as a member of Wanna One -- is really difficult. I suspect that will be important. 

Cai Jin Xin (Reveal) says, in English, “That’s my favorite song!” when Back Door is announced. 

Krystian jumps up and down when Kill This Love is revealed, and Haruto starts doing the choreo. 

Minhyun says that currently, K group has 47 trainees to G-group’s 48, so to… make it fair…??... they’re setting Kill This Love aside as the song that will have a different number of trainees. K group will perform it with 5, and G-group with 6. I guess the idea is that at least you know what you’re getting into if you purposefully choose Kill This Love. 

If you do the math, you’ll see that all the other groups will have 7 members each. The trainees with the highest rankings in the fancam views will get to choose their teammates. 

Jung Min Gyu, the red house, is sort of resigned to the fact that no one will pick him; Han Yu Seop, a Jellyfish trainee with low ranking, says he’s in a tough spot.

 Keita explains what’s going on to Anthonny, using Korean to do so, which is odd since they both speak Japanese, but I guess that since they’re using Korean so much all day every day it’s just easier to stay in that language. 

37:00 The team making starts

Hui gets to pick first. 

Lim Jun Seo, who walked in first that day with Lee Da Eul and who has dropped from 2 stars to 1 star, interviews that he was sort of hoping that maybe Hui would pick him.  Aww. My little cousin and noted yeller Kum Jun Hyeon jokes in his confessional that he didn’t want to get picked right away, but the editors see eye contact. 

Lee Seung Hwan from Mirotic, who has worked his way up to 3 stars, also wants to get picked. I mean, to be fair, they all do. Every single one of them. 

Hui picks Nation’s sweetheart Sung Han Bin first, and who can blame him? That’s who I would have picked first too, I think, and besides, I think they kind of know each other from being at Cube.

Keita mutters to Anthonny, in Korean, “Even the whole Group G can’t compete with those two.” Aww. 

Then Hui picks exactly the person I would have picked second - Lee Ye Dam, who did that fantastic audition with Gambler. I was muttering it at my computer screen and then it happened! He’s so happy, and the other trainees nod as if to say, of course.  Then Lee Jeong Hyeon, who auditioned with The Real and who, despite his 3 star status, is fairly low ranked. Everyone is really surprised at that, including him! But every team needs a good rapper. Then Oh Seong Min (“Jerome”), who is not who I would have picked at all, but ok. 

After that, it’s Han Seo Bin, who auditioned with Freak -- another rapper.  His friend, Park Ji Hoo, who first met Hui when Hui stole the first place seat, and who also auditioned with Freak, tries to be happy for his friend but is heartbroken and jealous. That must feel just awful. 

Hui’s final pick is the mop haired Kim Gyu Vin, from Kick It, and that’s a decent choice. 

Taken together, this is a pretty strong team. I think Hui didn’t want to pick any noted vocalists since he wanted to make sure to have main vocal on lock. 

Dang Hong Hai now gets to choose his team, and he chooses Anthonny first, which Anthonny seems to have expected, but also is glad about. Then Jay, then Wumuti -- who is a strong vocalist. Then, just after Haruto semi-jokingly suggests they need a good dancer, and why not himself?, Hong Hai picks him! 

Haruto is pretty happy about it. 

Hong Hai also picked Thai idol Winnie,  Haru from Maniac, and one more, though I’m not sure who yet.  

Now it’s time for sexy BL Kim Ji Woo to pick a team, and he picks golden maknae/formerly sickly baby Han Yoo Jin first; then he picks one of my faves, the excellent vocalist from The Real, Kim Tae Rae, whose hair is not quite as floppy as it once was, and whose jersey has one more star on it! Well deserved, Tae Rae!  After that, he picks the underappreciated Ji Yoon Seo from Kick It, who seems profoundly grateful. 

Aww, look how happy Red House Jung Min Gyu is for him! 

When Yoon Seo runs up to his new team, you can see that my little cousin and noted screamer Kum Jun Hyeon is already there. More MNET shenanigans. And the last pick is Yoon Jong Woo, who is the guy who pretended to kiss Ji Woong that time, and who has dropped from 3 stars to 1. I think they’re genuinely good friends and that was a friend move, and/or maybe it’s just to continue the BL storyline….? I prefer to think the former. 

At 42:44, it’s time for good egg Keita to pick a team. (Incidentally, give Blind by Ciipher a chance -- I threw it on my playlist and I like it more and more as I listen to it.)  Keita’s first pick is of course Canada’s pride, Seok Matthew. Next is Wang Zi Hao, the krumper; then auburn haired center Zhang Hao -- good call. He calls Min at some point, though we don’t see it happen (Thai Min performed “Glitch Mode” with Anthonny and Haruto)  and then declares that his team is complete. Everyone freaks out -- it means that he’s choosing “Kill This Love” for his team. Nice, Keita! And no one wants to go up against them.

Blue haired Park Han Bin is bummed, because he wanted to do KTL but not if it means going up against this team of all 3 and 4 star trainees. 

Lee Hwan Hee, the vocalist from Up10tion, interviews, “I really wanted to avoid that team. Just that team!” Oh, subtle editing MNET. I wonder if he’s going to have to go up against them or not? 

Lee Da Eul is up next to pick a team, and he chooses: 

Jeon Woo Seok -2 stars, had been 0; ranked 72; Criminal (barefoot)  Jung I Chan - 2 stars all the way; ranked 55th; Mirotic (also, he was on I-Land)  Kim Min Hyuk - 3 stars,  had been 2; ranked 82; Lullaby  Choi Ji Ho - 2 stars all the way; ranked 58; Mmmmh Lee Seung Hwan - 3 stars, had been 2; ranked 16;  Mirotic  Lim Jun Seo - 1 star, had been 2; ranked 21; Replay 

He explains that he wanted to pick those who had been kind to him when he was trying so hard to learn the choreography for the Signal Song, as a way of showing his gratitude to them. I get it, and it’s so sweet, but I’m not sure if creating a team of mostly 2 stars is setting any of them up for a win. Still, they don’t have any 0 stars, and maybe they’ll present a sort of uniform team with a matching vibe that might look nice all together. Also, maybe Da Eul knows that he can shed a little of his popularity onto them, by letting the world know that these are the people who were kind to him? 

Side note: I am so glad to see that Jeon Woo Seok has been raised to 2 stars. I think it was horrible of the judges to put him in 0 stars for his performance of Criminal. It was…. Ok, I’ll say it: it was a crime. 

From here, the show moves into lightening round. We see a brief glimpse of a team featuring Cong; another with Red House Jung Min Gyu, another with Ricky and Krystian; another with Park Hanbin and Bak Do Ha. Dong Keon is the chooser for whatever team he’s on. 

Sexy Jellyfish Park Gunwook is the only 4 star who hasn’t been called yet, and people are surprised. He’s a 4-star, and an all ‘rounder, and relatively popular. I theorize that perhaps he’s a bit, for lack of a better word, “bossy”? That’s a good thing and a bad thing, you know? I’m not criticizing him or anything. I suffer from the same affliction. 

So now there’s some MNET editing shenanigans. Lee Hwan Hee, the excellent vocalist from Up10tion who hasn’t really been showing his excellence and has fallen down to 1-star, gets called up as the next most popular trainee who hasn’t already been chosen. He picks his team, and only AFTER he picks the team do we find out what exactly has been going on. Essentially, what happened is this: While the Global trainees were picking their team, Park Gunwook sussed out that Lee Hwan Hee was the next one to be called to pick a team. Gunwook also knew that so far, no one had stopped at just 5 trainees, which meant that either this team, or the next, would have to do Kill This Love,  going up against a very strong G team. Gunwook made a plan: Hwanhee would pick certain trainees, including Gunwook and two of his teammates from Jellyfish and GBTB, and they would do Kill This Love. It was a way of controlling their fate, at least a little.

He and his fellow Jellyfish pressure Hwanhee into agreeing to the plan, even though Hwanhee didn’t initially want to do that song at all. 

“To be honest, I can’t dance,” Hwanhee says. 

“That’s ok,” Gunwook says. "You can hide behind me." 

So, per the plan, in addition to our sexy Jellyfish, Hwanhee picks: 

Hong Keon Hee: He’s 18, he auditioned with Nunu Nana, and while he’s ranked pretty low (he’s at 87th place) and overtly ignored by MNET editors, he has been a 3 star trainee the whole time. Most likely, Gunwook probably got to know his skills when they were three stars together.  

Han Yoo Seop and Jang Yeo Joon: Both Jellyfish trainees, they both used to be in 3 stars and have fallen to 2 stars.  Gunwook probably knows and trusts their skills, and besides, he didn’t want to leave his teammates behind. Aww. 

The trainees are all hyped up about this face off, and Ji Yoon Seo (who was so happy to be picked earlier) says, “With these members, it’s already over.” I’m genuinely not sure which team he thinks will win.

Minhyun asks Hwanhee how it came to pass that Hwanhee picked 3 Jellyfish trainees, and that’s when we see a flashback showing Gunwook’s machinations. Hey, I approve. Gunwook’s like a general in the midst of war. I think I have to stop calling him Sexy Jellyfish and start calling him General Gunwook. 

And then, those not chosen were the official leftovers teams. 

Jeon Ho Young, who auditioned with Love Scenario, says he was “a bit disappointed.” 

Dong Dong, from team Tiger Inside, says, “I felt abandoned, maybe? I’m embarrassed.”  

I always feel so bad for the leftovers. 

At 48:35, Minhyun announces that the teams have to pick their songs, and then there’s a pointless sequence I’m not going to bother to recap, in which they pick their songs. Highest ranks choose first, I guess to prevent injuries, so the leftover teams will also get the leftover song. After the teams pick their song, they go the room for that song. Whoever gets there first inevitably hides and jumps out to scare whoever gets there second, and everyone overplays their reactions to get camera time. Hilarious, never been done!

Here’s all that’s really of note: 

It is kind of funny that Hui’s team (of first chosen K-trainees) ends up facing off against Hong Hai’s team (of first chosen G-trainees), since both choose Love Me Right. 

We see that the charming Dance Captain of the No Stars, Oujo, has risen up to 2-stars! Yay! 

The K-group of leftovers gets stuck with Burn It Up, which is apparently the most difficult song. It’s known for the part where Kang Daniel shows his abs. So, this happens, when a staff member is interviewing poor Park Gwan Young from Lullaby:

And from 54:50 on, we’re heading into practice territory, so that's enough for this recap.

What I've done is I've created a main post for episodes 3-4 and all the various performances. If you click on that, it'll give a general description of the whole mission. enjoy!

[camelliagwerm]

hey harper!! sorry if this is a little random but i was wondering if you could share what kind of settings you import your gifs from photoshop with (if you use it?). :-) i'm getting into gif making myself but i'm kind of a newbie and since your edits always look rly good, i figured i'd ask. tysm. <3

Sorry this took a little bit to get to - I was really Going Through It yesterday. So I'm really bad at explaining things properly, but I'll try to explain it the best I can. I've pretty much been using the exact same method since 2017 so it might very well be outdated for most people but it works for me. I'm using a cracked version of Adobe 2020.

For the purpose of this, I'm making a gif of a Hawke I might potentially play with if I find myself wanting to play DA2 (usually pretty unlikely - a lot of my attempts at DA2 these days die in the prologue or act 1) and finally see Carver content + do the Merrill romance. I'm going to put this under a cut because it includes screenshots.

After importing the video, first thing I do is work on cropping it down to both the dimension I want and what parts of the footage I want to do (that little middle bit in this case on the TL in this case.)

Then once I've done that, I right-click on the bit I want and chop the duration down to 2 seconds (or occasionally 2.25) and slow down the speed of which that part of the video plays to 60% - my ideal speed but I sometimes will go 55% if it ends weirdly at 60% or has a hard cut to another angle. Do this as many times as needed for however many gifs there are going to be in the set.

Delete the bits of the footage from the timeline that you aren't going to use, trim it down to the dimension you want (in my case, I like it to be 540px in width.)

Now I think this might be where I differ from others, because I think this is where people export it - but I prefer to colour it here rather than do each layer individually. I tend to use the same few actions which have turned into my bread and butter: colour balance, selective colour, brightness/contrast, vibrance and curves. Sometimes exposure if it's needed. Colour balance is the real MVP, especially for games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect where lighting is all over the place or very predominantly one colour (e.g. Orzammar being very Yellow). (Don't ask me how to sharpen - I don't know how to do it and at this point I'm too set in my ways to learn how.) Generally speaking with colouring I prefer to keep it as close to the original as possible but Nicer. Just play around with it and see what you think looks nice.

After that, I go to File -> Export -> Save for Web (Legacy). Make sure the looping option is set to forever. Let it run through a few times to make sure it isn't wonky (also, see all those colours you see on the side? I tend to colour pick from those for gradient text so matches the gifset - I use this HTML text colouriser to generate the gradient.)

If you're happy with it, hit the save and send it to the appropriate folder.

Generally speaking, I try to keep it under 5MB a gif but certain games really dislike that, especially since I tend to prefer 540px ones as it allows me to use bigger font sizes - I can't do small font any more on gifsets - especially on text heavy ones like my Pathfinder gifs; I'm so prone to missing typos.

Speaking of subtitles, actually - I then open the gif into Photoshop so I can access each frame individually and then make sure I have the top layer selected on the sidebar, not on the timeline. Then add a new layer with the font option with the dialogue for the gif. My subtitles now tend to be around the 16-20pt, Calibri + bold and italic with outer stroke in black for the outline to make it more visible (to access Stroke: right click on the subtitle itself -> blending options)

Once I'm done with that (including proofread for typos, making sure it's aligned properly), same thing: File -> Export -> Save for Web (legacy). I'm fairly sure this isn't how others do it, but it worked for me and this is how I taught myself back in 2017.

Also - this is Florence (Flora), I guess.

[brick-a-doodle-do]

Yay, someone to blurb and splurge to

Here!

I'm so insanely proud of the popping part at the end—

First time animating

Well second bc I did a shadow one before this but it wasn't the final, this one is

But this is what it looks like when he leaves the shadow and enters it...when on flat ground

I wanna learn to animate a fight scene between Vara and Irza but idk how and if I did I would need a girl or someone with a girl like voice to voice Vara and someone for Irza bc they argue a lot when fighting, mostly about Vara asking why Irza is a villain

YOO this is so cool i love everything about this!! yess that pop is awesome, very satisfying!

this is your first time animating? jesus you really surprise me--- /pos

so does irza go into a shadow state? how does this ability work?

oh my godd an animated fight scene would be awesome! you could always make it and then try and get someone to voice act? i've got 100+ people in my followers, granted some of them are just vibing in there but i'm sure at least someone would be interested,,, and if not honestly even just a video with subtitles would be cool! :0

[makotoscoffee]

Drag Race France season 1, episode 2, my thoughts🍾

Hi racers, I am BACK to recap and analyze season 1 of DRF and we are on what is actually my FAVORITE episode of the season, I cannot tell you how many times I've re-watched this😭 SHOWTIME!

per usual, the episode starts off after the elimination when the queens return to the werkroom. Still can't believe it's all one huge room like they're technically not returning to anything😭

that was a lie.

A new week has begun! This is the beginning of their silly werkroom entrances I love them so much :')

🚨Paloma quotes Mylène, I think this was the first time she explicitly referenced her🚨

I love the queens hyping Nicky up in his lil leather moment, the vibes are so good😭❤️

Paloma practicing for the finale😌

Nicky tells the queens, first to scream, and then to yell. This is typical of the French. The girls have 20 minutes to get into quick drag for the mini challenge, which is to do a rock performance with DRAG KINGSSS YASSS !!!❤️‍🔥 It won't happen but wouldn't it be so fun if Sergueï went on the show and kept the crown in the family? Either way, I genuinely predict that we'll see our first king/s compete on either DRF2 or DRESP3. QUOTE ME ON THAT!🗣️

Being the superfan of the show that she is, Paloma explains the nature of the mini challenge✨

I liked seeing Soa talk to Bertha while Bertha was running around and stressing out, we got a little glimpse of their dynamic back home🕵🏻

Once again Kam is killing me with her shady confessionals😭💀

This was a fun mini-challenge and it seemed like everyone had a fun time. Especially Paloma who gave it her all (note: Paloma 2022 wig, 80s earrings from a bygone era, one of many web/net dresses, and yellow boa that she wore on The Masked Singer. You can't see them here but I'm dying to know more about the snake print heels she wore👁️👁️)

LGD was cracking me UPPP I love when someone picks a character for a mini challenges and commits to the bit. And she showed that she can be weird and ugly!

subtitle mistake: the title of Call My Agent was directly translated to Ten Percent, however this worked out well because it made "Queen Percent" make sense as the parody title. Later it is translated to Call My Agent, the English title.

are you 5 years old...

As the winner of the mini-challenge, LGD gets to assign everyone's roles. This is her opportunity to sabotage everyone, but since this is RuPaul's Best Friend Race she won't do that.

AS SOON AS LGD MENTIONED VIVIANE SHE GRINNED FROM EAR TO EAR SHJDHJSHSK. Dame points out that the roles are clearly written with the queens in mind. THIS IS WHERE THE RIGGORY BEGINS. They wrote in, literally based the story around, a Latina character, and then Lolita was criticized for playing the role. .........

I was surprised to hear Kam say she's done Edith Piaf before, but I've come to learn that Kam is a lot more than meets the surface and can be very strange. It was also very sporty of her to let La Briochée have the role instead, shout-out to Kam! Marianne James visits the werkroom and I have to say I'm so glad they brought in someone with that level of experience to help with the challenge!! Nicky went home during the acting challenge on her season, after all.

Get yourself someone who looks at you the way Paloma looks at Marianne James❤️(once again with the fingers...)

I normally am not a huge fan of acting challenges shot in the werkroom but this time it worked well because they at least put up a wall and made it look like a different room

TIME TO ACT!

Because we still hadn't seen a lot of the queens and like I said, I hadn't singled out Paloma yet, I was very intrigued when I saw her outfit and over-all curious about the skit.

I thought what LGD was doing with her accent and cadence was SO FUNNY I still can't fathom why they didn't like it!! But I do think they gave her constructive criticism and good direction regardless, and you could tell it was hard for her to do something other than what she'd planned. Then there is the iconic, César and Emmy award-winning performance of Lova Ladiva as Kimberley. That Emmy actually helped Lova achieve EGOT status. Cue one of my favorite Paloma confessionals

NOW WE GET TO SEE PALOMA ACT YAYY ^-^ the way she says reggaeton scratches my brain so nicely and all the jokes in her part were already really funny and she just delivered them so well. I love how she walked in with confidence and I thought she was super professional. I'll talk more about the actual skit when we see the finished product. Kam comes in and does her part - sidenote: I really like how they edited the shooting segment of the episode because it really saved all the funny moments and gave just enough context - shout-out to @sira-ines for noticing Kam borrowed Paloma's wig✨

LOVA IN THE BACK PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE

Bertha got nervous the second she received any notes from Marianne, which is understandable, but also stupid. I was so relieved that Elips did great with her scene, and I'm glad she had fun with the role. It's really important to nail those smaller characters with less screen-time, and she totally did. La Briochée's shoot was barely shown and my impression based solely on that was that she would be safe (and she was!) THEN, LOLITA COMES IN AND NAILS IT IN JUST ONE TAKE. That is RARE. Soa comes in and immediately it is a mess and I'm nervous for her. But at least she was aware of exactly what was happening (she said it in her confessional.) Then they skip to the end of the shoot as to not spoil the dramatic plot twist😌

Would like to point out Paloma and Lolita. Remember this moment.

I am LIVING for delusional Lova!!

While doing their makeup the girls have a heartfelt talk about coming out of the closet. This felt pretty genuine, it wasn't just like "okay now we have to talk about this to teach the audience about what LGBT is" and it was nice hearing everyone's stories, and cool to hear Soa talk about her journey with gender identity! Over-all I feel like we got multiple perspectives of different backgrounds in this talk, even if it wasn't a hardcore, kleenex kind of scene it was still heartfelt.

RUNWAY TIME

Earlier in the episode when Nicky mentioned both The César Awards and The Oscar Awards, they kept César- but this time when she just said César, they subtitled it as Oscar! Interesting to see what makes the cultural context filter and what doesn't. This week's runway is "Say it with flowers" which in English was simply subtitled as "floral" oh well.

Soa: Very cool but compared to the others.... it's a miss for me I fear.

Kam: honestly... she didn't have a single bad runway, in my book. this is stunning- yes it is very literal and floral but it's just too fucking good

La Big Bertha: I mean, she technically did say it with flowers... but overall the look is not up to par. and personally I don't like food on the runway it's overdone

Elips: Stunning, creative, completely outside the box❤️

La Briochée: THIS WAS SO CREATIVE loved it

Lolita Banana: I am going to say something completely unexpected and perhaps controversial to some........ Lolita could and should have won this episode. DON'T GO!!! I LOVE PALOMA SHE ALSO DESERVED IT!!! me and my mom literally discussed this for DAYS we were in the car and she turned off the radio and went "can we talk? because i dont know how to feel about who won last night..." mind you this was before the Paloma obsession kicked in. Stunning reveal, stunning look, stunning story.

Paloma: this made me think. like, i was so intrigued by this. she said it's "100% Paloma" and that made me even more curious as to WHO IS SHE!! also it was so cool to see that niche reference and even cooler that Daphné recognized it. I'm not big on bodysuits but this is obviously way more than that and really elevated and gorgeous. the way the thorns surround her is just magical and such a creative take on the theme.

Lova Ladiva: it hurt to watch, really

La Grande Dame: another less literal interpretation of flowers, at first i didn't like it but honestly it's so stunning. sorry, Soa, but she gets away with it tonight

IT'S TIME TO WATCH THE FUNNIEST ACTING CHALLENGE ON DRAG RACE EVER !!!!! This is the only one that I've re-watched over and over, I could probably recite the whole thing if I spoke French. Paloma and LGD gave the best performances in my opinion. I was surprised LGD was able to carry it like that! her and Paloma were definitely the supporting pillars of the sketch, they made a really strong team together. Within the first three seconds we see her, Paloma is a powerhouse. Her character is well-rounded yet easy to understand, and her line-delivery is just hysterical.

C'est un miracle🚬

The physical gags like the champagne cork hitting Kimberley were actually so funny and the strange slapstick-like acting was simply... art. LGD was so funny! I still can't believe the judges weren't thrilled with her. Idk why but when Paloma sat down w her legs spread I was like "oh god what is she about to do" like idk the character choice immediately made sense and made me soooo excited to see where she was going to take it. "La Vie En Rose 2: Le retour d'Edith" makes me laugh so I hard I cry. me and my brother will literally just randomly quote this sketch at each other all the time. The plot of the sketch is so easy to follow, even when you haven't seen Call My Agent, and it never relied on just screaming/fighting/making fun of lesbians like some sketches (mostly improvised ones) do... also I love how many of Paloma's outfits on the show were things she already had and has worn many times, if you look through old photos you can find all the pieces of this look! Thrifty queen.

Bertha did a better job than I expected!🤭 Good for her, it wasn't an easy character to work with. All the queens with supporting roles had their work cut out for them since they had little time to communicate very quirky characters, so aside from Soa they all did really well!

If you pay attention you'll see that Paloma (and LGD too) stayed in character the ENTIRE time just sitting down. Even the way she was sitting was in character. Her mannerisms and looks and ALL OF IT was perfect and consistent. Also is the way she played Viviane like some sort of typical character in French comedy? This is so niche but there was a sketch Mylène did on Colaricocoshow and one of the characters reminded me so much of her... either way, Paloma is clearly very smart and a good actor.

I don't want anyone to like, kill themselves or something, but Lolita was wearing the nails that Paloma borrowed in episode six😐

Soa's performance was a hot mess, I'm sorry but she was the only one who made me cringe. oddly enough she nailed the 'singing' part?? "I'm gonna give you HEDITH"

Rewatching this is making me laugh so hard I'm going to wake my mom up omfg. "But Kimberley, it's your job! You're my assistant, for crying out loud!" "JE SUIS UNE ACTRICEEE👅👅👅" 😭😭 Lova Ladiva, please never change.

PALOMA JUST KILLS ME IN THIS SCENE SJDKDHKSDHK she gave us so much range and nuance it's insane!!! The bit with the champagne cork coming back was very funny TO ME and also Lova putting her wig back on and blinking while she's supposed to be passed out😭😭😭

Now it's time for the judges to crush and destroy Lova's dream. Honestly I can't watch this it's just so awkward😭 Marianne James went IN on LGD but tbh that's just keeping it real. Judges, especially guest judges, need to keep it real more often. And clearly it worked!

Time for the critiques.

Now I agree with everything they said to Soa, she didn't push herself enough and needed to live up to the standard she set winning the week before. I thought that Daphné had great feedback for Bertha, generally I think she's very attentive and constructive, and I really like her as a judge.

Let me see if I understood this correctly:

- Lolita did her scene in one take

- Lolita had a spectacular runway, made with love, that told a story

- Lolita made all the judges cry happy tears

- Lolita didn't win...

DON'T GO I PROMISE TO DISCUSS THIS FURTHER FROM BOTH SIDES!!! Paloma was immediately praised for her look: AGREE. Paloma was praised for her performance: HARD AGREE. Paloma was applauded for being a good friend and teammate: IM CRYING AND SHAKING AND THROWING UP: AGREE. she 1000% deserved to won, she also had a much bigger role than Lolita and was in nearly the entire sketch. Only LGD had a slightly bigger role, in terms of being around through the whole sketch, but Paloma had by far the most lines. Where Lolita impressed with one take, Paloma impressed with great takes over and over. Still so much to think about, There is a part of me that resents the production for the treatment of Lolita and wishes that she'd have won certain challenges, mainly this one. But at the same time, it's so easy to just give it to Paloma. She's a total pro, she was just as good, why not just give her the win?

i'm literally going to be thinking about this until the day I die.

UNTUCKED

Everyone agrees Paloma is in the top and she said that Lolita is equally as high😐 I wish I was in a coma.

In deliberations, Kiddy said (about Lolita) "Just because there's a Latina role, doesn't mean it's for you" BFFR. BE FUCKING FOR REAL. RECALL EARLIER IN THE EPISODE WHEN THEY READ THE SCRIPT AND THE ROLES WERE DESIGNED FOR EACH OF THEM? GIRL.......... at least attempt to hide the riggory😐 Lolita was truly the other woman in this episode.

If you made it all the way down to the end, thank you for reading and i'll see you next episode to discuss one of the best balls in drag race HERSTORY😍✨ Au revoir✨

Back on stage, I was actually so torn and biting my nails wondering who would win! I wish that they had the budget for a double win so bad😞 Paloma wins and it's hardly a surprise (except the lack of a double win) and everyone starts chanting her name and cheering for her. I get so emotional even thinking about that moment, I can't. You can tell how much they love and appreciate her, and how they know she's needed to feel that love for a lot of her life. Even if it's not explicit, I think they could tell that she has a sometimes fragile soul (she's a Cancer, after all) and they want to let her know that she means a lot to them................................................😐😭😐

I ran out of photos but if you look at Paloma in the back when Lolita is safe, she look so genuinely proud of her and is cheering for her............................. their friendship makes me feel so sick knowing what's about to happen. Even if they are still close and good friends after the show, it hurts.... Lolita, graceful and humble as ever, commends Paloma on her win and is happy for her. It hurts to smile sometimes.

Paloma kissed Bertha's hand when she was safe :'( <3

As soon as Soa said "let's go!" you knew Lova was going home lol. The song did not feel like a set-up, I feel like they both had their own potential to slay it. But Lova lost when she undressed, and Soa won x3 when she did the "sexy" quotation marks. If you pay close attention to Paloma, she made a heart with her hands 🫶🏻 @ Lova when she walked off the stage :') When the music plays, we don't see Lolita hug a single queen. And to me, her body language was quite reserved. Not even Paloma hugged her. And it ends here. There was no close-up of the doorway as they walked off the stage. If you blink, you miss it.

[curio-queries]

Run BTS: 022 | Hangawi Festival

Original Air Date: 03 OCT 2017 Episode Length: 29:48 Total Parts: 1 YouTube English Subtitles: Yes Title Song: Blood Sweat & Tears

Synopsis: Various traditional activities and games for the Chuseok holiday

Production: So, I do think this episode is OVERALL produced well...just not necessarily understandable for the international audience. There are some explanations of how the activities work but it's really not the greatest. And the way it's executed hasn't really sparked the curiosity to learn more and fill the knowledge gaep. I understand them now but that knowledge was hard won.

Endearment: The guys' personalities completely carry the episode for those that don't understand the games and this is SO much more successful than the board games in the previous episode. I think it's because the guys are more confident in the games and the space themselves.

Winner: none

Loser: YG, V

Best Cheater: none

Member Moments:

RM: Namjoon - THE GOD OF DESTRUCTION - insisting to carefully fold that newspaper square back together...

JN: Jin falling into the camera director after spinning!

YG: I've said it before and I'll say it again but Yoongi's playfully competitive personality is just so adorable!

JH: Congrats on beating JK at a creative contest!!

JM: I LOVE seeing Jimin when is comes to crafts and creation. He just gets so precious.

V: Poor Tae, he sure had a roller coaster of emotions with these games.

JK: Of course JK excells in the flippers. He's J-KaaaAAAaayyy!

Bonus Content: I love seeing glimpses of the members being curious with the cameras and production equipment.

CQ Rank: 2.5

(CQ Eval Date: 02 OCT 2023)

Check out this post for my Masterlist of all episodes and descriptions of how I'm evaluating these.

Previous Episode: 021

Next Episode: 023