#It seems to me that the idea is so banal that it’s even funny

[applejorka]

New AU?/Новая АВ?

Hello everyone! After listening to one song, the idea of an AU based on BATIM is spinning in my head and won’t let go. Like exactly in the cartoon universe, without this “Creepy and Horrible Studio” Woo-ooo-oo~..Haha…BUT I’m still just getting my hands on drawing these "Bros" and your opinion is important to me..So give it to me know if you are interested. In the near future, my headcanon designs for the original cartoons(Bendy, Boris, Alice) will appear on my Blog, and then if I see a response (most likely even without it), I will try to start working on this miracle.. (the sketch (it is below) as always, like it better than the result, what an injustice TwT)

Всем огромный привет! После прослушивания одной песни у меня в башке крутиться и не отпускает идея АУ по БАТИМ. Типа именно по вселенной мультяшек, без этой "Жуткой и ужасной студии" У-у-у-у~..Хаха…НО я всё ещё только набиваю руку в рисовании этих бро и мне важно ваше мнение..Так чтоо Дайте мне знать если вам интересно. В ближайшее время в моём Блоге появяться мои хедканонные дизайнны на оригинальных мультяшек, а после если я увижу отклик(скорее всего даже без него) я попробую начать работу над этим чудом-юдом..(скетч(он ниже) мне как всегда нравиться больше итога, что за несправедливость TwT)

[fudanshidoublevision]

It's pretty funny how the three love interests have something in common 。。。。besides their obvious interest (Haley) and obsession (Double Vision and Ray) towards the MC of the game.

The three of them smoke, which might be something banal for some but I like to hold into small details like these and make up stuff.

Haley takes smoke breaks, Ray smokes when he is in your apartment and Double isn't shown smoking in the game but he does on his birthday illustration. ᶘ ⊙ᴥ⊙ᶅ

Not sure if that was on purpose or just a coincidence but either way, it makes sense to me.

Ray, especially, the fact that he smokes.

Considering that he spent most of his pre-teen and teenage years until he was 18 years old living with Steel Sheriff and remember, Steel Sheriff is a shitty person and a BAD influence, so it makes sense that maaaybe that bad habit was influenced by that horrendous man and Ray took a hold into it.

Ray strikes me as the type of guy who's addicted to nicotine and honestly? I don't blame him at all, that man went through so much shit since he came out of his mother's womb so if he EVEN chain smokes, it wouldn't faze me at all.

Not sure if Ray smokes only at night but someone dear to me does and well, the only time of the day Ray is completely free of any duty is at night, as far as i've seen? Also, smoking at night sounds...right to me, he takes notice of you and opens the window so he isn't stinking up your place...which is surprising, the only smokers I know always smoke in secluded places and I can smell it all the way into my bedroom. ʕʘ̅͜ʘ̅ʔ

I'm aware that nicotine has some benefits but we are talking about Ray, who is freaking Binary Star, HIS ABILITY???? EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. /j This man does not GAF about the side effects or the benefits of smoking. Out of the three I believe that Ray is free from any illnesses or any type of side effects, heh.

Now, Haley, they are shapeshifter...? Correct me if I'm wrong, im an amateur on the Haley department. Crazy idea but imagine if they smoke on their cat form, holy fucking shit. Their brain, gastrointestinal system or even their heart is not safe though...but I believe that they can easily shift into any animal with the strongest lungs ever and live another day without being worried about any complications? Huh, this sounds batshit crazy so I think I'll stop writing this part.

Like Ray, Haley seems to smoke as a sedative, what if they smoke herbal cigarettes? Also, I believe that they can easily quit if they want to (heh, now that I'm reading this part i forgot that this is something most addicts say, LOL.) , which I beg to differ when it comes to Ray or Double, I don't judge them, just an observation I guess.

At last, my favorite character and current obsession, Double Vision.

Cigarette smoking, yeah but what about vaping? He looks like the type of guy that would vape or maybe is it too tame for him? Maybe he wants something stronger. Wait, does anyone really need a reason to smoke? ಠಿ_ಠ

People say that vaping is less hazardous than smoking but to me? It's the same thing, most e-cigarretes contain nicotine but yeah, you are inhaling smoke from burning tobacco when you smoke a cigarette. I don't know anything about vaping. It's pretty popular in my country though, never tried it but my friend told me that vaping feels and tastes different from smoking, so I believe their judgement.

Forgive my yapping, like I was saying! He isn't safe from the lung cancer, at all. Yeah, this man can do sick tricks with the smoke, for sure... I'm not going to name any because I might be wrong but you name it and maaaaaaaybe he would be capable of doing it, if you can do something for him back, of course. Oh, I'm 100% sure this freakazoid throws the smoke in your face on purpose, I find that hot actually...if only my nostrils and eyes could say the same about that. If he does that, I'll be coughing like I have asthma until I die.

Hmm, I can't think of when he started smoking...maybe on his teenage years? After all, I think it was at that time that he started to get along with shady people and ugly business. The power of influence and their ambience might be a big factor of this habit on these guys. Heavy on Ray.

That's everything I could think of. For now.

If you are a real person, don't smoke, I guess?. Do whatever you want BUT DON'T BE TELLING ANYONE THAT TUMBLR USER fudanshidoublevision encouraged you to do it.

If you are fictional character, yassss smoke all you want beautiful inexistent individual, you don't exist after all!

GODDAMN!!!!!! I MIGHT START SMOKING RIGHT NOW IF I CAN LOOK THIS HOT 😍😍😍 GIVE ME THAT CIGARETTE 🔥🔥🔥

[shiiro-arts]

Hiii!! First of all I love your art, I've seen your profile on Twitter countless times, I love it, and I have no appropriate words to express how good you are.

I wanted to ask you something for your 'Blind!LucyAu', because an idea came to mind. I hope you'll appreciate it, even if it's a bit banal😭😭.

Anyawy! I was thinking that when Aquarius finds out about Lucy, he will lash out at Natsu and reproach him for not knowing how to protect her, but obviously always in that funny way that only Aquarius can do when she gets angry. And of course, in the background, Lucy giggling.I know, it's a bit banal, but it seemed like a nice idea to me, I hope you'll give it some thought🥹🥹.

And I'll say it again, I love your art, I will never get tired of looking at your drawings

you really have me here smiling and blushing like an idiot, I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH, THANK YOU, I'LL GIVE MY LIFE FOR YOU

now

Would you believe me if I told you that's exactly what I'm drawing for the Aquarius reaction? I was a little surprised while reading this because I thought: That's literally what I'm drawing, BUT I'm going to keep it really angsty instead of the typical comical Aquarius reaction because I feel like Lucy losing her sight is too serious to make it a "joke".

I still love it when you all give me your ideas about what you think happened or will happen in my AU, and I will always be grateful to you❤️❤️❤️

[magmagicstyle]

Hey! Can you help me win a writing contest? Pretty Please 🥺❤️

Hi! I would appreciate it a lot if you liked my work and shared it to help me win hahaha

You only have to enter the link and leave a like (if you want to comment or share it so other people leave likes, it would help me a lot)

Disclaimer: This doesn't mean that what Voldemort did was right. I'm just trying to portray how he could pretend to justify it if he had a heart. (Please don't send me hate, I'm just trying to win a contest... ❤️)

TRANSLATION:

VOLDEMORT: “For the Common Good” - The Effects of Child Abuse

The night was gloomy and the fog felt too heavy, almost suffocating, but Voldemort, amid the darkness, did not blink. He stood alone, having had his followers leave after what everyone would consider a triumphant return. There, standing in the middle of the graveyard, surrounded by silent gravestones that had seen better days, his mind was racing a thousand miles an hour. He was breathing, aware of every breath his lungs took, of every part of his regenerated body that seemed to adapt to his new physical form. The scent of damp earth and raw magic hung in the air, but his mind was far away.

“They don't understand.”

The thought came suddenly, heavy as a stone crashing against a glass house. No one understood him, not the people who remained indifferent, not the people who were against him, not his own followers. He, along with a few others who had also been silenced in the past, had seen what others did not want to accept: the fragility of the peace that the magical world had.

Wizards, though powerful, were always outnumbered by Muggles, especially in recent years. And Muggles, with their ignorance, their fear and their horrible ability to create weapons of destruction and devastation that were beyond the imagination of innocent wizards, were capable of any monstrosity in the name of the common good… The common good… It was funny how the people who had hurt him the most were the ones who used that excuse for their actions. The horror, the pain… Wizards lived in a bubble to the point where they didn't understand what Muggles could do. Only Voldemort and a few others could understand, and that was because they had lived it.

Ever since he was a small boy, he had felt the contempt of the Muggles in every look he received at the orphanage where he had been abandoned. Having a keen mind and always hungry for knowledge, he had read about the persecutions, the burnings, the lynchings, the horrible tortures that Muggles had provoked in favor of their ideals and following banal excuses such as religion and politics. From a very young age he had seen in the eyes of Muggles that spark of hatred that caused fires greater than any spell.

“Wizards are superior.”

It was a fact as plain as the blood that coursed through the veins of every living thing. It was not an arrogant phrase or an idea to justify discriminating against other people like Muggle politicians had used so many times in the past. No. Wizards were superior by the fact that at an evolutionary level they had abilities that could lead them to be considered superior in comparison to Muggles. After all, wizards, unlike Muggles, had the ability to cast spells that prevented them from relying on tools that Muggles had created to compensate for their shortcomings. But despite the logic behind this thinking, the world refused to acknowledge this, saying that thinking about the superiority of wizards was just a form of discrimination against Muggles. It was horrible how deep this feeling had gone. For, because of this, nowadays, even among wizards, there were those who bowed to Muggles, who sought to mingle among them, ashamed of their origins. Were they so deluded that they could not see the danger this posed?

Voldemort closed his eyes for a second, taking a deep breath to calm his anger and despair. In the back of his mind, he knew that one of his motivations was the fear of what might happen if Muggles decided to turn their weapons against wizards. They were brutally crafted tools of destruction that promised only extermination of entire races. If from the time they were children, they expressed hatred against other people and were not punished for their cruelty, what could be expected from adults? If Voldemort did nothing, if he did not take action, it was possible that all wizards, at some point, would suffer what he suffered in his childhood.

“If they can't respect me, they had better fear me…”

For fear, though most did not understand it this way, was a weapon that promised protection against the enemy. If your enemy was afraid of you, if they feared the consequences that your anger might bring, then, they would think twice before trying to do something that might anger you. That was why, if Muggles truly learned what wizards could do, they would not dare rise up against them, now or in the future. If they knew that a single wizard could wipe out their armies, their governments, their countries, their lives… perhaps, then… they would learn to stay in a place where they would not pose a danger to wizarding existence.

Although Dumbledore was desperate to convey this message to the other wizards, Voldemort was not really seeking power just for the sake of having power. He was seeking control… Control to ensure that no one else would feel the contempt and pain he had felt since he was a small boy. Control, to prevent any wizard from ever again ducking his head in front of a Muggle due to fear of the consequences.

“It's not cruelty, it's survival and being able to live peacefully…”

The thought was a way of trying to convince himself of his actions. Of course, that he couldn't deny that a part of him, deep down, was seeking justice and a little revenge. He was seeking to vindicate the wounds they had caused in his past, and also, with this, to make sure that no one could forget him, that no one could ever leave him again.

Taking a deep breath, feeling the air filling his new lungs, he opened his eyes and looked at the grave in front of him. The angel of death staring directly at him, his father's name right in front of his bare feet, almost like a taunt from beyond. The life he had regained was only a means to an end…to a greater good…a common good, as Dumbledore would say. The world was going to understand, or would learn to understand what he had learned during his years watching the cruelty of Muggles. Wizards had to see a way to show others that they were superior and that they were no longer going to bow down to the cruelty of mere Muggles. It didn't matter if they called him a monster, if they were afraid of him.

He would do what was necessary because only he had the vision and the strength to protect wizards from true monsters.

[the-technorats]

percy series ep 3 thoughts

so you can't rate shows on letterbox'd so i'm going to log my pjo thoughts here: (spoilers for ep3) (watched 27 dec 2023)

oracle scene was funny. for all the show onlys, it seems as though grover is the one kind of being built up as the character who's going to betray percy (at least in the beginning of this ep), which is an interesting choice.

on the action sequences (part 1): i do think the action sequences are pretty lackluster. when i rewatched the percy jackson lightning thief movie, the action and violence and reactions seemed very proportionate - like, the appearance of a horrifying monster actually had impact, whereas i feel like in the show, the pacing and choreography make it seem pretty banal.

the fight with the fury on the bus was uninteresting and didn't seem like much of a fight at all. annabeth's supposed to be quick and athletic and a really skilled knife fighter (skilled enough that she can even use a knife as her primary weapon instead of a sword) but there so far hasn't really been any proof of that. i'm willing to be a lot more generous though because the actors are very young and the target audience is clearly much younger than i am as well, and it's obvious that for those reasons they're trying to avoid violence/body horror/gore. however, the fight scene with clarisse in ep 2 was incredibly well-shot and choreographed, and it had action and movements that felt real and impactful, so i don't know why they don't try to achieve the same things with the other fight/action sequences.

on medusa: i was so interested by the way they were going to decide to portray medusa's story, especially because of sally's comment in ep 1 to percy about perseus being a hero because 'he killed monsters' like medusa: "who said she was a monster?"

i loved em's line: "the gift the gods gave me is that I cannot be bullied anymore," which initially insinuated to me that this adaptation of medusa is the one who was sexually assaulted by poseidon in athena's temple, so athena made it so no man could pull that with her ever again, but then they went with the "athena decided I embarrassed her and needed to be punished" story which i kind of feel like isn't totally consistent with the "gift" narrative? i mean they can be mutually exclusive in that what may have been originally a punishment from a god can be taken as a gift since she has to live with and make the best of it, but when medusa called herself "a survivor" and talked about "bullies" (a term that makes sense in the context given that it's a kid's/middle grade show) i will admit i was hoping it would go a different direction. alternately though if she were a SA survivor i don't know if killing her would have been the right move in the end lmao and ik they had to kill her for the plot.

i do think there was a more overarching message of the importance of understanding the unheard/unrepresented sides of stories as well as the lesson for annabeth that the gods aren't infallible and morally just but are petty and vindictive and cruel and humanlike. so i think the story was dealt with pretty well, all things considered.

on medusa and the action sequences (part 2): again, i think medusa's death scene was pretty anticlimactic. (this is not because i see them as adaptations of equal quality or even on the same playing field at all, but again,) to compare it to the pjo:tlt movie - the movie's medusa fight scene had a lot more impact; the tension and fear and stakes felt a lot more heightened and real while still being quite comedic/entertaining.

cool idea, in the show, using the hat to turn medusa invisible, but again, i wasn't ever actually convinced that the characters felt scared, under pressure, winded/tired after fighting, or even emotionally scarred by the intensity of the moment/having to decapitate someone. while all of the other scenes portray high emotions very impactfully and earnestly (i.e. sadness, wistfulness, loneliness, hurt/comfort), i have yet to be convinced that any of the demigods have been even a little bit frightened of any of the monsters, from the first fury attack at the met, and this unfortunately makes the stakes seem much lower.

while i understand the focus of the show is on character building (mainly through the dialogue), i don't see why the fight/action scenes can't be just as visually compelling and impactful. the emotional tension between the characters and the depiction of each character's internal conflicts, while powerful, can only do so much if the plot itself isn't supporting those developments, and I feel like the addition of the action sequences in the books serves to elevate the storyline to match the emotional stakes. they can tell the story as much as they want thru voice-over and dialogue, but the characters' physical actions represent just as much about the characters and their choices and motivations as their direct interactions with each other. i think maybe some of this stems from not wanting the story to be misinterpreted or to in any way resemble the movies, but you have to trust your audience. you can't just say everything explicitly, and if you do have to, then i don't think a tv show is the right medium in which to tell the story, which is typically my main issue with book-to-movie/tv adaptations.

anyway, while this seems like a lot of criticism, it's really only that one overarching problem that stands out to me. i obviously love the source material and (anyway would argue that i have to love it in order to want to think about it this much) the show itself, and the actors, and this has absolutely EVERYTHING to do with the fact that it's extremely extremely obvious how thought-out, how deliberate every single minute detail is. if there's one thing at all that matters to me, it's creators who care about their work, and this is a perfect example of ones who do.

on tv show percabeth: BRO "I CHOSE HER 'CAUSE I COULDN'T IMAGINE WE'D EVER BE FRIENDS" ???? FUCKING INSANE THING TO PUT IN THE SCRIPT LIKE?? they were NEVER this explicitly antagonistic toward each other in the books holy FUCK i mean. this drastically changes the trajectory and future impact of the slow-burn. the books were strangers to friends to lovers - maybe strangers to annoyances to friends to lovers if we're being generous, but the show is really going for that enemies to lovers arc huh. the fan edits are gonna go so fucking crazy once we start getting toward the final 2 books. and for them to only have one itty-bitty kiss midway thru botl with no emotional catharsis or resolution until the tail end of tlo? we're all gonna be absolutely frothing at the mouth for it when it finally finally finally comes around.

excited for next week!! i've been dying for the st. louis arch scene.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Broadcast News (1987)

It never dawned on me that you might feel anxious during a romantic comedy until I watched Broadcast News. This film has strong opinions about what reporting should be, along with rich characters, big laughs, wonderful dialogue and a love triangle that keeps you wondering. It’s over 2 hours long but when it ends you’ll find yourself wishing for a director’s cut, or a sequel - anything to get even a little bit more.

At a news station in Washington, D.C., handsome and charismatic - but not particularly bright - Tom Grunick (William Hurt) is hired as a new anchorman. He’s the opposite of Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), a talented writer-reporter who melts when placed in front of the camera. Aaron's best friend is Jane Craig (Holly Hunter), the station's intense and passionate news producer. She consistently manages to get things done just in the nick of time - but just barely. There’s always been a sort of unspoken agreement between Jane and Aaron but Tom's arrival - and her attraction to him - threatens to disrupt it.

In so many films, the characters have a job but their careers are little more than a way to move us from one gag to another or a backdrop. Writer, director, and producer James L. Brooks cares about broadcast news as much as he does the people in this film. He cares so much that Broadcast News can even be a little off-putting to audiences. While Aaron might admire Tom for his telegenic qualities and willingness to coach him, they're rivals. Not because both are attracted to Jane; because in Aaron’s eyes, Tom embodies everything wrong with “today’s news”. Tom is likable but as far as Aaron’s concerned, the news is about the news. The facts are all that matter, not the person(s) delivering them or how emotional the stories might be. He’s particularly critical of a story that Tom presents on date rape - to Aaron, it's soft news that's manipulative and beneath the station's attention. This is where the film started to lose me and might you as well. It’s a tearjerker of a story, and it’s well told… but it’s no report on the Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua. You can see Aaron's point but he seems so harsh about it that you just stop liking him altogether. I'd also argue that someone you might bump into on the street - no matter how “banal” their story might be - is much more likely to impact your existence than people living in a faraway country you will never visit, no matter what the political repercussions might be. Or maybe I'm just a dumb-dumb. There’s A LOT to unpack in that moment alone, that's for sure.

Broadcast News is filled with great dialogue. Tom may not be as sharp as his fellow reporters but he isn’t comedically stupid. There aren’t any scenes where he blunders lines like a doofus. We see that he isn’t the brightest bulb in the drawer because he can't answer the tough questions. We don’t need to be told that Aaron is smart or that Jane is talented. We see it, we hear it. They feel real, which makes you interested in them. Their emotions are amplified by the romance that thread together all of the insights into this professional world.

You might not like Aaron very much because he’s kind of a jerk with an inflated ego but to be fair, he’s extremely talented and it’s hard not to feel your heart break a bit when you see him disappointed - a testament to Albert Brooks' skill as a performer. Holly Hunter has excellent chemistry with both her co-stars. Even on her own, she’s great and often funny in the most unexpected ways. Her first emotional breakdown is so offputting you’re not sure how you should feel. By the time we get to the third, you can’t help but laugh. Do these happen every day?! As for William Hurt, he's charismatic but there's a part of him that's slightly... not quite sinister, not quite slimy, but off-putting. You want to see more. When these people open up their hearts, you have no idea who Jane is going to end up with because you’re not sure who you like best - the mark of a great love triangle.

Although I can’t say that I immediately fell in love with Broadcast News, it intrigues me. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about these people and these situations. I don’t think one viewing is enough, and I mean that in a good way. (May 20, 2022)

[deltaengineering]

Spring Anime 2023: It builds character

Yuri is my Job!

I really wanted to like this one. As a noted Marimite enjoyer, as much as I like the stilted, abstract and operatic vibe of Class S, I also always felt that it's also a prime avenue for metafiction that takes a closer look at how bizarre that setting really is when looked at from outside. So this show about a bunch of girls that have to act out Class S gayfabe in a themed cafe seemed to have limitless potential.

There's only two problems with Watayuri: The first one is that it's not that show. It does not really engage with its setting much and is mostly interested in just being straightforward heightened yuri drama. This seems to be a case of the Re:Zeros or Mob Psychos: The writer is intimately familiar with the tropes, but isn't really interested in actually engaging with them beyond surface level, so they just wrote essentially Another One Of Those with a few jokes.

So that's a disappointment, but since this genre is so rare in anime I'd still have gladly taken it if it was good. But... it's not. Not only is it not Metamite, it's not even a bad Marimite; It's more like a bad Citrus. Drama like this requires really good characters, and all the characters in Watayuri are gimmicky and shallow: Hime's base characteristic is that she puts up a fake personality, which is treated with all the nuance an isekai writer exhibits when they make their main character OP via giving them a cheat skill, and she has just forgotten than Yano used to be her best friend. All other drama derives from this bad idea, so none of it really works. I could go through the entire cast but this review is already too long, so suffice it to say, if they seem interesting that only lasts as long as it takes for their drama to arrive.

It's really a shame, because even with these simplistic, unlikeable characters you could have made an entertaining, (early) Kaguya-ish comedy — which is why the few instances where they do exactly that save the show from being worthless. But still, having to admit the best episode in the entire thing is the one where the new uniforms make Yano's breasts look too big really points out the problem here. 5/10

Skip and Loafer

Skip and Loafer does raise a profound question: Can a show be so much of a 6/10 that it becomes a 5/10? I'm honestly surprised how little I enjoyed this show, because there's nothing really obviously wrong with it: it's lighthearted, cute, amusing, relatable, etc., and I've enjoyed many a banal Kiraralike in the past. But in the end, I think the reason is that there really isn't anything substantive to Skip and Loafer. It's bland and inoffensive to a fault and devoid of anything even remotely edgy. It's not funny enough to work as a comedy, it's not a romance because it really doesn't commit to that, and we'll get to the "drama".

The only really driving factor (and the show's biggest asset, as it were) is Mitsumi's tryhard but good-natured personality, and that can only get the show so far, especially since all the character development she gets is to become more normal and boring. As an aside that doesn't really fit anywhere else: I also really dislike hearing the clipped, stilted way Kurosawa delivers her lines in this show, which is weird because she's usually a very good actress. Shima is just boring from the start and has no chemistry with Mitsumi, and when he imports some contrived crazy ex drama into the show at the end it's eyerollingly stupid, but hey, that's as close to "something happening" as the show ever gets. Not that it matters with how inconsequential it is. The supporting cast is generally mildly amusing, but they're just sort of there and don't offer anything meaningful besides their presence.

Sure, none of those issues are close to dealbreakers, but what's lacking is a deal in the first place. I can understand why someone would like the show and I would not recommend against it, but it's just way too shallow. Even for me. 5/10

Jigokuraku

If you want to know what's bad about Jigokuraku, here it is: Glacial pacing, an intense amount of jargonbabble, flashbacks in the middle of fights everywhere, running commentary by bystanders on everything that happens, random powerups galore, and no ending.

However, I would assume that nobody saw the first episode and went away thinking "oh boy, sure hope this isn't an extra edgy shounen fighting manga". It most definitely is what it is, but with expectations duly adjusted, Jigokuraku is... fine, actually. It's got cool visuals, good production values, a fantastic OP (if nothing else, the show's a good excuse to listen to that song once a week), and most importantly really good characters for a show like this. None of them are particularly deep, but when they're just there to:

Be mammals,

Fight ALL the time,

Have the purpose to flip out and kill people,

I'm already content if they're more interesting than the ISO standard Shounen Jump (i.e., Dragonball Z) cast. It's just fun seeing Sagiri fret over whether she's really good enough at beheading people, or Gabimaru doing everything for a wife that may or may not exist, or Yuzuriha getting out her... well, let's stop this here. This show is cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet. 6/10

Otaku Edomae Elf

I was pretty skeptical of this one at the beginning, because self-serving otaku jokes tend to get very old and also because the author uses RPG Elves as a shortcut to "immortal ancient being", which isn't a sign of high ambitions, especially nowadays. And while the elf part doesn't really matter one way or the other, the majority of the show is indeed Elda being a nerd and doing nerd things. It's not a large majority though, and the rest of the show provides an interesting thematic framework to hang the jokes on. The real core of the show is the odd couple relationship between Koito and Elda, with the former desperately wanting to be an adult while the latter has been around for practically forever while still being completely immature. It's very cute and sweet, and it's even better in the occasional moments where it becomes bittersweet because both of them are well aware of the only way this can end up. Skip and Loafer take note: you don't have to have much, but you have to have something.

It of course helps that Edomae Elf (the name that I prefer, for obvious reasons) is well made; It's very expressive and has good comedic timing, which are the key factors for a sitcom like this. I'll also note the OP; it goes unreasonably hard and is possibly even better than Jigokuraku's. And even if otaku jokes are a low-hanging fruit, the show usually does a good job with them. The exactly one (1) legally obligated history lesson per half-episode feels a bit too forced though. And that's pretty much it with this anime, it's not the most ambitious but it's very charming and moderately thoughtful, even if its structure is holding it back somewhat. 7/10

Heavenly Delusion

Very rarely do we get a TV anime where the main artistic impulse just seems to be "we don't give a fuck what you think, lol", but here it is: Heavenly Delusion is mostly just wild. Sure, postapocalyptic roadmovies aren't exactly a new idea, but I usually like them, so that's a good start, and this one in particular comes with an interesting setting and a bunch of great characters. But what really elevates Heavenly Delusion is its command of tone, or in particular, its ability to run circles around tone issues. This show can snap from comedy to drama to mystery to action to horror unpredictably and quickly, and it's a marvel that any of this works at all, but on top of that it has a fondness for exceedingly touchy subjects and each episode could probably come with its own unique set of trigger warnings. It really reminds me of a Fire Force without the shounen bullshit, and that's high praise.

Clearly the writer has a lot of skill, but the anime direction and production takes it to the next level. Heavenly Delusion has great direction and movie-level production values throughout, and then does flexes like getting a bunch of KyoAni guys in to make a mawkish KyoAni episode that's better than anything KoyAni has made in years, and later getting a bunch of TRIGGER guys in to make a wacky TRIGGER episode that's better than anything TRIGGER has done in years. Ya love to see it.

But given all the hairy stuff this show attempts, it can't have a 100% success rate, right? And no, it does not always succeed. It's not even a surprise that it happens, it's rather a surprise it only happens so late, at the ending – where it hurts the most. For starters, it doesn't really have an ending. That's to be expected from an ongoing and long manga, but it's still a bummer. But more critically, said abrupt stoppage happens right after one of the grimmest arcs in the show. This is sadly the one point where the tone falls apart; they didn't want to end on a down note, but it just doesn't work to go from ultra rape o'clock to "our fun adventure continues, bye :D" in one and a half scenes. The show has dealt with heavy material before and it has proven it can pull off the swerve off, but in that instance it just runs out of air time before it can actually do it. So while it's unreasonable to expect the show to be several times as long as it is, it would at least have sorely needed one more episode to uncompress its ending. I guess that if you consistently play with fire, you get burnt eventually, but at least there were pretty lights. A second season would be much appreciated. 8/10

The Witch from Mercury

Back when G-Witch started its break, I said that "all they have to do was not mess with a good thing". Obviously, they messed with a good thing and Sulemio cuteness was replaced with them both suffering alone for the majority of the second half. So now what? The plot in this second half is best described as "messy". Notably, it's lacking in throughline: First it's all about opaque machinations and corporate backstabbing, then lol jk that doesn't matter and everyone pulls a Death Star out of their ass, and then that gets resolved with the Power of Love™ and vague Newtype mysticism. Gundams gonna Gundam, I suppose. Towards the end it also obviously runs out of time, and everything needs to happen very quickly, yet it still keeps on piling on subplots for various reasons — be it corporate franchise mandates like "we made a Schwarzette toy, now deal with it somehow", some thing that was set up ages ago that now has to pay off somehow no matter what (like Notrette's whole deal) or just the pure mechanics of shuffling pieces into place for something that never needed to be this complicated in the first place.

However, despite this large-scale jank G-Witch still ends up a very good show purely based on its writing detail. It doesn't really matter all that much that scenes barely fit together and are jammed against each other without connective tissue when the scenes themselves almost always deliver on their own terms. In particular, G-Witch consistently has great character moments no matter how weird the route to get to them is. That dumb Lauda subplot that's only there to sell HG Schwarzettes? Its true payoff is the best Felsi moment in the show when she just walks in and aborts the misbegotten plot tumor. Was it really worth it making a whole "Guel stumbles into Iron-Blooded Orphans" episode when the show desperately needed more time to wrap up its main plot? Maybe not, but Guel getting told by random ass mercenaries that he needs to man the fuck up before him doing exactly that is just an extremely satisfying moment no matter what.

And while the epilogue is a bit flat on the plot side, it has to be said that while cheesy as hell it takes the time to send every character off properly and gives everyone a happy ending (Sulemio paying off in the end isn't much of a surprise since I don't think that Ookouichi wants to spend the rest of his life in the witness protection program). That is pretty much the show in a nutshell, ultimately it's less well constructed than it sh/c-ould have been and it's held back by being a Gundam show after all, but it's always entertaining, and that is what matters the most. 8/10

Insomniacs After School

While I don't know why I dislike Skip and Loafer, I am also not quite sure why I love this show so much. The concept takes some suspension of dislike right away, because I am extremely skeptical of "sadboi stumbles into magical girlfriend that's prefect but only compatible with him in this one specific random way". But boy, once it gets rolling it nails the whole "first love, also big seishun energy" in a rare form that we haven't seen since Tsuki ga Kirei. It's all in the characters once again, and Ganta in particular is exceptionally well constructed. He seems whiny and self-centered at first, but as it turns out, yeah, he's supposed to be like that (his first big character development milestone is him realizing that other people have problems too and that his woe-is-me attitude isn't helpful), plus he has a very understandable reason. He still has that attitude, but now we know he can't help it. It's the rare case of "relatable" and "backstory drama" done right - the drama is there, but it's in the past, can be established in a tiny amount of time and doesn't suck the enjoyment out of the present. And then you can drag it up and swiftly deal with it when the story calls for it — The point is not to have maximum drama onscreen, but to motivate the characters. Magari has this going too (even if I think she still ends up being a bit too "perfect" for my taste, to be honest), and even Yui, someone we know almost nothing about, ends up feeling unique and well rounded, so I think it's fair to say that Skip and Loafer's lacking characters are just a skill issue. Add to that a more one-note but enjoyable supporting cast, and you have a banger of feelgood, wholesome and yes, monumentally cheesy puppy love about a bunch of cute dorks that you can't help but grin about. The production values don't always quite hold up, but who cares when it knows what it wants to be and goes all in when it needs to, and yes, it does have as satisfying and ending as you can expect from one of these. Grand fromage avec compétence is probably not the palate cleanser for everyone, but it's my blog so skill with it. 9/10

[noir-ikigai]

Sigma

A simple reminder that the joke about Sigma being 3 years old will soon chew itself up so much that it will lose its relevance and everyone will understand that a joke told twice is not funny. It's not doubly funny if the joke is said in all seriousness - where are you from?

I think...I think about Sigma in the realities of life more and more.

The first thought was, of course, a comparison with a child, but because of the basic ability to know the world around. And yet it is erroneous to attribute Sigma to this status simply because:

``Sigma is far from being a "three-year-old child" that has just been born.

``It is not only children who experience the world, it is the human factor that sits at the core of our being.

Sigma is an adult that was created according to the plot and plan of someone (?), and he probably either stayed on earth, but his whole past life was erased thanks to the “book”, because he only remembers the last three years, or he was already created an adult with a certain age and a set of necessary characteristics, as if he is a "character" and not a living soul...But I even moved away from the topic.

I want to tug a bit on the headcanon Sigma, as I can't predict Sigma's exact behavior in real life.

I want to romanticize how he gets into ADA, where they begin to envelop him with increased effect with care to replenish his strength and realize that he really deserves to live, that he is not a doll, not a puppet, that he has the right to choose what he should do, what he and only he considers right and necessary. I want to scream into my pillow about it.

I imagine him not as a small, helpless boy who looks around frightenedly all around him simply from the fact that he lost his track and cannot return home. I imagine him as an adult young man who just seemed to have landed on a new planet, where everything defies his logic. He just can't quite understand why people eat colored "clouds" called "cotton candy", or why people shed tears when they're happy, or why he gets completely ecstatic and frightened when he sees a strange, fluffy ball of anger that pompously hisses at the guy, twitches his vibrissae from irritation, moves on four legs and makes an unearthly sound “me-e-eow”.

— It's a kitten, Sigma. Is he really cute?

— Kitty? Is this creature cute in your opinion?! He scolds me.

— He was afraid of you.

— I was afraid of him...

I just think that a child, namely a child at 2-3 years old, would navigate a known area very well, he would understand where to go, in which direction, and Sigma simply does not have this landmark, he does not have a motion vector for the desired roads, and also has no idea, “where to go?”, “why go?”, “why did he get lost?”, “is it necessary?”, “what is there?” etc. Sigma is just like the birth of a new star in the place of the old one - he just appeared without a clue about what his past and future are, as he only realizes his life over the past three years (perhaps that is why it is said that he has amnesia, as a hint of that the option that, nevertheless, in the past Sigma had a life on earth, perhaps he was completely different in character, had some kind of job, acquaintances, and then they rewrote to the ground and endowed with other features the personality of the croupier (?)) Because he probably does not understand people, does not understand himself. Sigma, in terms of physical and psychological parameters, is completely different from a stupid child, but "stupid" in terms of "only born and empty, like a vessel without information." He is an adult who has a number of “that, that, that”, can do "so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so", knows “this, this, this”. Naturally, he will not have a banal vision of the world like ordinary people, since he is deprived of this, this is not included on the page, it is not written.

But I like that Sigma's thinking is still plastic, he can be influenced by other people, so I really want Dazai to be next to this young man for as long as possible. Thanks to him, Sigma will hear the echoes of his thoughts about who he is. Sigma will definitely find the meaning of his existence - Osamu will become a guide, but he will only lend a hand for greater certainty of Sigma's actions, and created by the "book", in turn, will do everything on his own, like a real person, and not a doll whose hands were led from above.

[clonerightsagenda]

Finished Lockwood & Co!

Jonathan Stroud does it again. It was lighter fare than Bartimaeus, but still a lot of fun, and I think it's funny that a series jampacked with corpses, lovingly described, actually had the happier ending of the two. It's clear that Stroud has ideas he likes coming back to (the journey to another world inimicable to human life, snarky trapped spirits, possession, graverobbing, adults thinking sworn rivalries with literal children is fine and normal, etc.)

Some initial thoughts so far:

Will Lucy keep her talents as she gets older? Marissa did but she's obviously a weird case, but Gale did too. Does it have to do with Other Side exposure? Or Gale just happened to be one of the rare people who do, which is mentioned a few times, in which case maybe Lucy will be as well since it's mentioned how rare and strong her talent is. Or she can retire with honor in a few years and will have to find a different job.

I'm wondering if Ezekiel was really a ghost.... the name and its appearance struck me as rather Biblical, and it seemed to know a lot of interesting secrets about messing with the natural order of life and death. (The bolded text and the relationship with Marissa reminded me of both the spirit of the ring and Ammet and Khaba from The Ring of Solomon.) Of course it WAS still tied to a Source so maybe it was just another dead human, perhaps one that fed off other ghosts like Marissa did which made it so strange and powerful. Meanwhile the skull is particularly powerful due to a bad attitude alone. The kind of ghost I would be.

Also wondering how plasm was working in the last book... touching ectoplasm kills, but Marissa was able to possess her descendant's body and touch Ezekiel. Side effects of the plasm drinking, maybe? Or maybe ghosts don't have to kill you with a touch, it's just we've only met asshole ghosts so far? Or it's a Type three Thing. This is a pressing question bc it seems like Lockwood & Co may have a spectral colleague (thrilled about this) and 'I accidentally bumped into my coworker and now I need an adrenaline shot before I puff up and die' is not a great workplace environment even if that's how I feel about encounters with my boss. Also why isn't adrenaline a standard part of agents' kits? Maybe it's expensive, or their rough and tumble jobs would break the vials and needles.

Holly is a lesbian! Good for her and shame she had a crush on a girl who was so unnecessarily mean to her. Sounds like she has a gf now though. Lucy is assembling a very bizarre and mutually hostile polycule over the course of her adventure. A four way dinner date would leave no survivors.

So Marissa flooded the country with ghosts and sacrificed hundreds or thousands of lives for a beauty treatment. A bit more banal than I'd expected but 'lust for immortality' is a very common villain motivation. Especially in kids' books. They put her body in the silver/lead coffin so she shouldn't be able to come back but she could still be out there on the other side....... eating ghosts...

Lmao at the repeated references to Kipp's advanced age of 22 .

These are my immediate pre-work thoughts. I would say I would ponder it more at work but if the week continues as it has been, I will not have time.

[firsttraintovictoriaville]

Top 5 Books of 2024

I forgot to do it last year but here is my top 5! I had 11 books that I gave out five stars to because this year was the year of the 4 star and 4 1/2 star reads. As always, re-reads are not included in this.

1.Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke- Everyone is tired of me talking about this book, I know, I know. If you asked me about books at all this year both here and IRL, I mentioned this book to you. It's sci-fi but closer to magical realism; scifi-realism? I have no idea if that's a proper sub-genre but it should be. It's not the near future, it's the modern day and you're dealing with incredulous act of a man's soul being sucked into his workplace's Slack server out of nowhere. It's funny, there's a romance that was a surprise but done so well, it's all the hysterics and banality of modern office culture in a snappy writing style.

2. My Year Of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh- This book isn't a hidden gem by any means but I tried to hold out in regards to the hype for so long. It got to the point that when I started reading I found myself annoyed that I was loving this book so much. Then it turned to me being annoyed that I had other things to do that took me away from the book. I read the book in one day, a work day no less, reading paragraphs here and there between emails. There is so much that this book can symbolize- the fall of the slacker culture of the 90's, American society being irrevocably changed by 9/11, the rise and (not a complete) fall of the WASP- yet it doesn't force that symbolism in its text. The reader does it as we read, the book strives to be what it is, a beautiful woman falling into depression and deciding that the only way to rest and relax is by sleep.

3. Weyward by Emilia Hart - I got this book as a blind date with a book my public library system did for Valentine's Day and it was another one day read. This book was undoubtedly chosen due to me being an Alice Hoffman fangirl and Alice Hoffman's Practicial Magic series' influence is able to be found in the pages of Weyward but this is not meant to deride or proclaim that Weyward is nothing more than an Alice Hoffman novel for the Gentile set. Weyward has its own magic with a triple timeline that never gets confusing and main characters are more passive than Hoffman's. The passivity is not a negative, if in the Practicial Magic series nature is used by the Owens for their own purposes, in Weyward nature is using the Ayres for its own purpose.

4. Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory, translated by Keith Baines - what does one say about Arthur? What can one say that hasn't been said already? Arthurian legend in the Anglophonic world and even outside of it is consumed by us before we are even aware of King Arthur or Round Tables. And Sir Thomas Malory compiled the perfect collection of Arthurian legends. It's the perfect starting point IMHO (the H in this stands for humble not honest) and Baines's translation is easy to follow along with and reads like a treat.

5. Alice In Kyoto Forest by Mai Mochizuki, illustrated by Haruki Niwa. Translated by David Bove- While Volume 1 of this two volume series is the one with a 5, the second volume got a very strong 4 1/2. I never cared much for Alice in Wonderland retellings despite the fact that everyone else seems to but Alice in Kyoto Forest isn't so much a retelling as it is a reimagining. The worldbuilding is beautiful and I wish the light novel had been translated to English because as lovely as the manga is and it is lovely, the artwork and pacing are done in a way that I had no idea it was based on a book until the end when I went hunting for anything Alice in Kyoto Forest related I could get my hands on. It's a charming cozy world with a story that can get surprisingly dark in a fairy tale sort of way.

[nielsbrabants]

many consumers groping products (excerpt from my novella SLUTMANIA)

I slept bad again. The fear creeps up at night. The sky is and has been grey and will be so for at least six more months. Not even earplugs succeed in completely shutting off my consciousness from the sounds of raging traffic and 140 BPM hardstyle, which emanate from the street four stories down, every night, all night.

The all prevailing same-ness of each homeoffice day attempts to lull me into a state of near automation as the walls of this room seem to close in(to me).

Seeking refuge I Googled for a place of contemplation, meditation, prayer, basically just silence. The church closest to my house is almost four kilometers away.

‘Stalin thoroughly desacralized the East,’ I think.

After work I walk to some buddhist centre to ask if I can meditate here. The German hippie boomers, in their office which consists of binders and organizing cabinets, reminding me more of the burgeramt bureaucrats than temple keepers, say ‘nein.’

Sometimes, such a today, I just go and wander through a mall. People leave you alone (cause you are doing your duty). At least it keeps me away from the feed and the algorithm and the retina screen. It’s nostalgic to wander through the old simulation.

My iPhone died since it’s battery is useless after the latest update and I have been dragging it along through the coldness of autumn. Through the mall-speakers a girl is rapping about how she likes to get fucked raw and that all of us ****** can’t fuck with her.

‘If a bitch walking funny you know daddy did it,’ she proclaims. I can’t believe gayculture went this mainstream. ‘Sex drugs & munny,’ I think. It is astonishing how capitalism has usurped my sexual identity, for as far as that even really is a thing.

Observing the many consumers groping products, satisfying an idea of the self as a rational actor shaping their own world through choice, a deep sense of disgust overtakes my heart. Everyone in this city (culture, world) is such a cliché and it makes me so fucking tired. All trying to be their own little person, a self actualized individual, with their bangs, buzzcuts, Dr. Martens, avocado socks, birkenstocks, reusable coffee cups, toad bags, antifa tattoos, clenching on to their bubble tea or iced latte, identiarian activism to justify their place in the world as if anyone gives the slightest fuck… it’s all so terribly banal, every conversation so fucking redundant.

Does complete silence exist? Sometimes I wonder.

[parismystere]

seeing adrien be so small and helpless in front of his father, not even thinking about running or transforming to escape, just having a full-on brain freeze, is wrecking me. because adrien might be extraordinarily brave, but he's always been terrified of his father.

what is his crime here? being born? being chat noir and doing his best to save paris and its citizens? being a good, warm-hearted person?

and, honestly, i know that ml has many problems, but i love how they depict abuse and the sheer banality of it. nobody deserves to be treated badly. but the funny thing is that adrien does everything right and he still can't earn unconditional love, or approval, or to be seen as a human being with his own desires, ideas and feelings.

the irony of 'wishmaker' was that adrien succeeded at his childhood dream - he turned into exactly what his parents wanted. and he's still not loved. he's still caught up in their games. he still has to keep himself in check. because it seemed like 'perfect golden child' was the destination, but reaching it only revealed a never-ending road of contempt and hostility. ah, the crime of being exactly what people desire you to be.

he's so small. fuck.

[bored-storyteller]

Hiiiiiii, I really love your writing, especially the Uta stories and headcanons! 🖤 Can I please request from the promt word memory with Uta from Tokyo ghoul please? 😊🖤

Thank you for your request! Ah, I'm so glad that Uta is the first of this little experiment. Hope you like it!

Tokyo Ghoul, Uta x Human!Reader

Word: "Memory"

Uta has never had a close relationship with memory. He is someone who lives in the past maybe, but not in memories, on the contrary, if he can he thinks about them as little as possible: too painful, and if they are happy they are painful anyway because they have passed. He has never adapted to changes.

Or at least, so he always thought.

Yet now his eyes fall on a photograph, a photo of you two. It is, indeed, one of the very few photos exhibited in the house and to be honest he had completely forgotten about its existence, even though it’s in the bedroom.

A photo, which banal memory, you too admitted that it was not one of your brightest ideas, especially since he did not particularly like photographs. But he remembers how much you cared at the time, for many reasons.

First of all, fear.

Who knows why, he wondered, you were so terrified by the idea that he would forget you. Then he had looked inside himself, and understood.

You listed all the reasons why you could have disappeared: a trip, an accident, an illness, a robbery in the shop you used to go to (which shop?), attacked by a ghoul… you didn't mention his name.

"By me?" Uta asked you.

You looked at him in silence, and then you smiled: "maybe."

He hadn't added anything else on the subject, but continued: "There are Doves too, they could catch you ... or ..."The ghoul looked at the photo that was shining on your phone screen at that moment: his head was

folded over yours, his cheek against your temple as he tried to figure out what you were doing. He wasn't looking at the camera, but he was looking at you.

"Or I can get caught, who knows." He told you.

Your face was frowning: "You won't get caught."

It was bad of him, but he found it almost funny as it seemed that you had absolutely not considered the possibility of you surviving him: "I hope not, but who can say? I could be captured, killed, eaten by another ghoul… why not? I did it myself, you know? "

The confusion was so clear in your eyes: "You what?" You asked, but he didn't answer, he rather pointed to the photograph.

"Will you remember me?" His question in his mind almost sounded like a challenge, so your firm voice confused him.

"Of course."

You answered right away without hesitation, and he silently looked you in the eye, and then looked at the black screen. You turned it back on to make the two of you reappear.

Memory was a herald of pain for him: he imagined looking at your smile in that image and not being able to see it elsewhere, no longer having you next to him. That smile would have been a pain he would have gladly forgotten.

And you would have remembered him instead.

"Wouldn't that hurt you?" His was a genuine curiosity.

"More than you can believe." You answered him. He had seen a watery layer appear in your eyes and he knew you were imagining too. It was instinctive for him to lean a little more towards you.

"But… I can't give up on you. Not even in that case "

For a moment Uta couldn't get rations. Your words almost seemed to have a real weight that caused a physical reaction in his stomach, filling it with a hot tingle.

He knew what you were saying. Your love for him wouldn't go away with him.

You would have loved him in your memory, tenderly and painfully

Remember me like this, while I look at you.

It is a thought, he doesn’t know if of him for you or if he imagines it on your lips, but in any case that thought is not part of the memory, it exists now and is alive. His lungs expand and he needs to breathe.

As in response your head moves across his chest, sliding lower as you curl up against him.

"We should change it." He tells you, he knows you're awake even if you pretend not, your moan is a confirmation.

"What?" Yow ask after a moment's hesitation.

"That photo." It's not a photo that people would usually exhibit at home, in fact, but you are certainly not conventional.

He feels your weight on him disappear as you lift yourself up a little to see what he's referring to: "Oh." You murmur on a note of surprise. Apparently you didn't even remember.

"Then worry about calling a photographer if my skills are not to your liking," you joke, as you drop again on his chest.

A photographer. Of course. Now it is possible.

"We could do it, but it should be worth, for example for a wedding."

Silence in the night. Then your head rises again: you are looking at him, even if he is not looking at you.

He feels like laughing but he doesn't have to; he knows that now you won't sleep until the wee hours of the morning thinking about it, but in the end it's your fault that you filled his memory of him with beautiful precious dreams.

[nightcrawlerzincorporated]

I like to think I know my Sunny lore; but I've seen people say that the roller rink ep creates so many plotholes. You're my local most-knowledgeable-seeming tumblr blog so I'm burdening you with this cause a google search does nothing for me:

What are some of the plotholes?

only thing I can think of is Dee being sweet because its confirmed she was also a bitch in high school. I feel like most of the other things can co-exist! Am I missing something?

I'm so glad you see me as knowledgeable about Sunny lore <3 I rewatched Roller Rink before answering this and this is my reading:

Dee's characterization is definitely the part of the episode that people tend to dislike the most. As you said, it feels off that she's consistently described throughout the show has having been awful since high school (making Cricket eat dog poop, acting superior and snippy towards her only female friend, Ingrid, setting her college roommate on fire, just off the top of my head) but then in Roller Rink she's all sunshine and positive energy. I understand it's meant to be meta commentary on how Dee was originally characterized as "the nice one", but even in season 1 she's only marginally kinder and more self-aware than the guys. Exaggeration can be a great tool in comedy, but the exaggeration of Dee's kindness is so over the top in Roller Rink the commentary gets lost. It feels like it's commenting on a version of Dee that never really existed. If they wanted to comment on the sexism that led to the one woman main character initially being written to be nicer than the men, they should have actually had the guys act sexist towards her, imo. Maybe when Mac makes his "Dee's nuts" joke, instead of having Dee respond "I don't like crude humor" and walk away, they could have had her laugh, then had Mac make fun of her for being "unladylike" for laughing, so she shuts down and lies about not liking crude jokes before walking away. I can so easily imagine a version of this episode where Dee is trying so hard to be "the nice one", be the stereotypical girly-girl (maybe as a persona to keep all the new friends she's finally managed to make), but in the end she can't do it and explodes, revealing her true colors as just as much of an asshole as the rest of the gang. Like why does she become mean after hitting her head as if her personality flaws are all caused by a physical brain condition instead of just revealing that it was always a part of her, just a part she used to try and ignore. They could have even still had her smack her head, only instead of turning mean right away, maybe Charlie lets slip that she hurt herself because he loosened her skates and she goes off on him, too angry to keep the persona. The way it's portrayed as the guys being super nice to her before she hits her head also feels so off--as if the sexist way they treat her is her own fault and if she was just nicer to them they'd be nicer to her. Yuck! I understand it's Mac, Dennis, and Charlie telling the story and that they would want to portray themselves as kind, but they could have at least put in a line from Dee when it cuts back to the present about how they were never that nice to her so it isn't so muddled. They could have done the same basic idea while actually making sense with the lore, been more aligned with what actually happened meta-textually, and shown how constantly saying women are inherently kinder and more moral than men is sexist in of itself and forces women into shallow boxes of banality instead of seeing them as human. But it feels like all that the actual episode is saying is, "Isn't it funny that we initially created this character to be nice and now she's mean lol things sure are different now!" It's so toothless and messy. Sorry for the rant, I ended up having a lot of thoughts about Dee while rewatching!

To get back to plotholes, the other big thing I've seen people talk about is the way Dennis acts around Frank. But to me that part makes more sense. Yes, Frank treated Dennis and Dee cruelly in their childhood and was severely neglectful, but that's the exact reason why I think young-Dennis would try so hard to impress him and be kind to him. Dennis wants desperately to have a good relationship with his father, and he sees Frank letting him come work for him as his chance to win his father's love and approval, so he's overcompensating. I think a lot of people take his line, "I'm starting to think my dad's a bad man" very literally and say "How could he have just realized how bad Frank is after a lifetime of mistreatment?" But it's pretty common for abused kids to justify the way their parents treat them as normal, and it makes sense to me that a (probably extremely triggering) event like Frank having sex right in front of Dennis would push Dennis into accepting the harsh truths he's been trying to ignore about how shitty Frank actually is. Him finally allowing himself to accept that Frank is a shitty dad and a bad person because of an extreme event isn't the same as retconning Frank's past abuse and painting it all as this one incident, as I've seen some people argue. I mean, even Mac, who is all about family, is almost immediately like, "Well, you never have to see him again if you don't want to" when Dennis vaguely says something bad happened, which to me makes it seems like the way Frank treats him is something they've talked about before. And the way Dennis instantly agrees that no-contact is a good idea also makes it seem more like a "straw that broke the camel's back" situation than the show trying to say this is the only bad thing Frank has done to Dennis. And I really like the way it ties together Dennis agreeing to buy the bar with him deciding to go no-contact with Frank. He wanted the bar in the first place to be able to gain independence from Frank and move on from his childhood, only to have Frank show up one day in 2006 and buy the bar out from under him anyway. Oof! I do wish they would have involved Dee in some way, since it's implied in season 2 they were both no-contact with Frank by 2006, but I also think Dee is overall more willing to accept how abusive their parents were than Dennis is, so it makes sense she wouldn't need a big final reason like he does.

I don't think people typically have any issues with the Mac and Charlie bits, plothole wise, at least that I've seen. Watching through I didn't notice anything about them that stuck out to me.

I hope that answered your question! If there's anything I missed that people consider a plothole in the episode, let me know! I love discussing sunny episodes in-depth any chance I get and I love hearing other people's thoughts!

[onewomancitadel]

🤡

Because this is the only ask responding to the meme my very first reaction was... is this ask meant to be making fun of me... what does this arcane clown symbol mean... and then I remembered lol

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

Sadly I think I am the funniest person in the world so there are a few. It also helps that both Jaune and Cinder are two (at times) rather sarcastic and observational characters. There is a lot of intentional humour in The Distance Which Fools the Skimming Eye - sometimes from the absurdity of the emotional scenarios. I'm a bit shy to show lots of direct lines though lol.

One I was thinking about recently was when Cinder finally cracks in Chapter 2 and despite the seriousness of their previous interactions there's a degree of perhaps - banality to her refrain which is sort of funny, which is sort of like two normal people having a normal conversation, which makes it funny to me:

That's the type of thing I find funny, is when you've got serious stakes and a sort of mildly absurd brooding dramatic character (Byronic heroine!) and then a level sweet to the sour. I also get a lot of humour out of the idea of, say, Salem grilling Cinder about her supposed secret boyfriend. Anything that can be described or recontextualised in a mundane fashion is amusing to me when it's a fantastical scenario (I also think it's a great way of figuring out if you know what you're doing).

But on a more serious level, what I really enjoy is that idea that it's the environment/circumstance that is keeping these two people apart who probably would seriously get on really well. So the humour is often a way to realise that, or at least the dryness, or something chafing there that is playful and desperate to get out - so in many ways I think humour serves a very, very functional purpose in a story like this written exactly to my tastes. When you can share a laugh with someone or have a bit of awareness that transcends whatever is pressing on you or have this very, very clear realisation that - oh we actually get on quite well, I wonder what that life would've looked like - it's sort of saddening and bright and fun. It might seem like it's only there to set-up their respective character awareness of other people/other peoples' romantic feelings, but when Jaune and Cinder are gossiping about Emerald and Mercury in Chapter 5, it's also like - fuck you two would so fucking cute in any other circumstance, wouldn't you. What about this life. What about this one.

So the funny asides - she smells like wet dog - are certainly there to amuse ME and only ME because everything is about ME (sarcasm but sort of true for fanfic), it's also working on a humanistic level, particularly relevant for an enemies-to-lovers pairing, and particularly relevant for relieving tension or stress, and I think also particularly relevant because Jaune's much more than comic relief - and I think you can demonstrate that when you've got them being funny together in a non-slapstick way.

Now, for a non-Skimming Eye example - all the aforementioned is still true - I think my favourite would have to be this, and I have to provide the entire passage for context:

which, not to toot mine own horn, is still some of my favourite dialogue I've written altogether. It's from The One Known by Many Names aka Somehow Even More Self-Indulgent Than That Other Fucking Novel-length Fic. (Also if anybody clicks through please keep in mind it's rated Explicit).

It's funny. It makes me laugh. Cinder is allowed to be little a condescending to the heroes but not too cruel, as a treat. Again, you've got that humanistic element here too, and breaking the tension a bit - and also an absurd situation, which makes it funny - and also that element that Cinder can still be Cinder even if she's going through a redemption arc (this motivates a lot of my characterisation for her chiefly in Skimming Eye) and Jaune can still be Jaune (or you can bring out even more of his character in relief) and they can both be interesting and themselves in a romance between them and in new situations.

So I really like humour for a lot of different reasons - I mean, I love my fair share of puns and wordplay and things turning out exactly how you wanted, just not the way you expected, and there is ironic humour there! That's the type of stuff I love forever and ever and ever. The humanistic element is one of the most underestimated points, though. Humour isn't just there for the Whedonesque quips and to spoil emotional moments - it is emotion, it is human, but you don't need to be self-conscious/self-aware, feeling the need to undercut your story with it - it IS character, it IS story, it IS theme, and most of all, if you can't describe a chapter like, 'She steals her stepmother's carkeys to impress her sort of boyfriend with an expensive car and go hooning' then is it even fun? Lololol. That's just me because I'm silly, not everyone needs to do that of course.

Thank you for playing along, I actually ended up really enjoying responding to this. <3 <3 <3 I'd still love to play the ask game if anyone feels like it... 🥺

[the-art-of-animated-gifs]

Interview with my friend A.L. Crego

I have not met A.L. Crego.  I have not spoken with him on the phone, in fact I do not even know what he looks like.  But I can confidently call him my friend.  Three years ago when I started this blog he immediately disagreed with me in the comments about things I was writing and I loved it.  As a person putting ideas out there, you treasure things like that....because you know someone cares.  We have had many back and forth discussions over the years....if we had lived in Paris in 1911 we would be having arguments at La Rotonde (not to compare either of us to Picasso).

A.L. Crego is a motion artist who does a wide variety of things.  He has now become a very visible and active figure in the NFT Movement.  He recently completed a large and very successful project in which he animated the work of a number of well know street artists on the building themselves, something he has done for years.  His Tumblr page is a good place to start to see his work, which is largely surrealist in nature -- another Spanish artist following in the footsteps of other great Spanish surrealist artists.

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How long have you been creating gif art?

In a conscious and intentional way since 2014. Previously I haven't pay too much attention on one hand for its common use that was mostly ads and funny little videos, and on the other hand because it was a 'standard' format we accepted as something part of the web so I never stopped to analyze its potential. The key point for me was about 2010-2011 when the concept of 'Cinemagraph' was brought to life just giving it a name. It's format is .gif but its characteristics are different so I saw there the midpoint between photography and video, which gave born another format of art.

Art mutates when a new format appears. I was using and studying this format since then but it wasn't until 2014 that I decided to publish some of them.

What is your background?

In general terms, bachelor, 2 years of stone sculpting and two attempts of photography and audiovisual mediums. I say attempts because I gave up both of them as I was feeling that I was looking for something else more than studying all the previous history, style and isms, which is nice to understand where everything comes from and to be aware what are the key points on the history to use as reference, as a map. But in some way I felt limited as I was using digital tools since I had my first computer with 14 years, and I was being taught things I learnt by then. Even more in this times we are living where we are 21 century people, been taught by teachers from the 20 with 19 century methods.

A constant line that feeds my background is literature and music overall and later Street Art, next to more temporal interests as everything related with mythology, alchemy, history, psychology, neurology, biology, human condition in general... I don't have studies buy I'm a studying guy!

I always like to highlight that all these years that internet got strong and social networks appeared, I decided voluntary to be out of them. First reason was to keep my privacy safe in a growing world where it seemed that some "curtain" felt and everybody accepted that intimacy was now 'ex-timacy' and correct to show their private life, (this shocked me). Another reason was about the psychological effect that social networks were having on people I had around and everywhere in general. I started to notice patterns and "waves" about series, aesthetics, styles, and I was seeing clearly that if I go there, I will become permeable to all this "Amniotic Culture" I was trying to avoid.

This fact of being far (but study them closely) helped me a lot about researching and developing my own ideas and style, for the mere fact that I was using all this time and attention Social Networks require, on drinking from another sources. The B-side of this is that I was 'out of the radar' of mass people as this social networks are designed to live inside them. My idea of internet and spreading ideas is not in this way.

Where do you live and work?

In the north west of Spain, Galicia. Now due to Covid I travel less but before it, I was working and traveling many places as I only need a camera and a computer. This allows me move to work anywhere.

Do you think that animated gifs are a new art form?

I think so, despite the fact that the format existed since 1987. But as every new format of art it takes its time to be considered as art. The first photographs were not considered art until many years later. Same happened with film, same with CGI. Is nice to have in mind that gif format is the last strictly digital format of the three main ones on the web: picture, video and gif. Photography has about 200 years of history, video about 130, CGI about 60. Finally gif has 33, and used as art itself no more than 10-15. In the same way anybody takes a picture of anything does not convert it into art, is the same with gifs. One thing is the format, another is the 'art'. Everybody can take a picture, record a video or do a gif. The difference is on the how, the why, and from my point of view overall, the what.

Do you think that there is a difference between pure .gif files and the .mp4 files that people post on Instagram?

The first, big and obvious difference is the format. Is not the same a painting as a picture of a painting. Here happens the same. For example, if you treat a gif with Cinemagraph technique, you are converting in picture some parts of the image, so they still remain and with the texture and totally stillness of a picture. If you convert this gif into a mp4 this still parts, despite not having motion, will convert into a video texture (noise, subtle motion in pixels, etc) so the main characteristic, among the perfect loop, is lost. Another point is that you must play a video, a gif is always running. Waterfalls are always running and this characteristic is something that is inside our human nature, we react nice to "bucle" motions as waterfalls, fire, etc. We find pleasure on this. Of course if it's a video the perfect loop is lost and the visual mantra disappear. And another key point here is the soundtrack. In a video you can use sound to enhance or give another meaning to the piece that you can't with gifs. For me this is another characteristic that give meaning to gif. For me gif is silence, the sound is generated by the motion, the melody are the details and the beat the perfect loop. You can "hear" almost every gif.

The difference between a gif and a video is the same that between a waterfall and a hose (if this works).

What do you think are the characteristics of good gif art?

For me first and overall the perfect loop. Not using it is not using the only format that has this characteristics. Of course there can be gif art that is not perfect loop, but from my point of view and in my work is a must. It's a new way not only of creating but also of thinking. Imagine an still scene is easy, imagine an A-B point action is easy. For me the challenge is about thinking an idea that is perfect looped where all the elements interact and eventually come back to its initial point. Succeed doing this is where the perfect loop appears and you are not able to find where is the start point of the action. Like a visual mantra, that it's repetition leads you inside the piece. Gif art is nice to use the power of the hypnotic movements. Another point to have in mind for me is the flow of it, the frame rate I mean. Depending on the idea and the kind of animation this should vary; is not the same fps to achieve something with flow than if you want to achieve a more 'retro' old style. Another thing is about dithering and color palette. This second one is essential to understand as it affects the final file. When we work with photo and video we are using millions of colors but when rendered as gifs all the gradients, lights and even colors will change if there is a previous understood of this point.

As summary: If motion doesn't add, change of enhance the meaning of the piece, is expendable.

I'd would like to add that I'm not really supporter of this kind of gifs generated automatically that just move a still image itself. I understand that this 'technique' is used as a tool for certain motion (I use it) but not to move a whole image. I feel the same as if somebody hold a painting in front of me and moves it randomly. If the work was born still, it must remain still. A good example of 'inner motion', this means that the motion is implicit on the image despite not being in motion, are the photographs of Cartier Bresson for example. Giving motion to this pictures for example, will kill it because it will break the concept of 'perfect instant' .

'Instant' differs etymologically from 'moment' in the motion. So, still image (painting, photo, sculpture, etc) is an instant, videos are stories with a-b point, and gifs are moments, the mid point.

How would you describe your gif art?

I usually condense it as "Visual Mantras", as the technique and the aesthetic vary depending on the idea , but in all of them the perfect loop and the intention of hypnotizing is always present.

In another terms about aesthetics and themes I think ‘Industrial Nature’ can fit nice. I use a lot of industrial elements but I like to mix their mechanics with the biological natural ones.

How long have you been creating and selling NFTs?

I am selling NFTs since mid 2019, but it wasn't until October 2020 that I focused more on it and dug into the ecosystem to find new paths to focus my work.

Do you think that NFTs are a positive for gif artists?

For me, and the main reason I jumped into cryptoart and NFT, is that now I can certify my digital work as original. Even more to gif works as they were always understood as something banal and minor for the context of its born. Gif art was born prostituted, used mostly for ads and to claim our attention on the internet, next to the highest glamour of painting and traditional art, and 3d, photography and video these last decades. Even worst if we realize that gif format was the only visual format born by and for the internet.

NFTs are totally positive for gif artists because despite being a digital/online native format it never had its own ecosystem to live in. I feel that I was creating creatures for an ecosystem I was waiting to drop them there. Now with the blockchain, NFTs and cryptoart, I found the place where they can live, being watched by everybody and have the certify that is my work. Until some months ago my work was "free" on the web and I had no control over it at all. This was a huge problem I was suffering since my first month into gif art as people use it indiscriminately with no credit at all. It's ok, and I always defend that my work is to be seen, to be shared, but I was looking for the way to be able to have this link with my work without losing the option of being available for everybody. NFT totally changes this.

What do you think will happen in the future as NFTs get even more popular?

In general terms I think it will happen the same as when print got more popular. People will use it more, a lot of crazy and useless things will appear, tons more of different uses and useful purposes, (not only on art). This opens a new door a lot of people was waiting so the future is unpredictable but we can feel where things are going. NFT arrived to stay and the concept of decentralization is something that was always present on the internet since first days but born inside a centralized system. NFTs are being a way for people to understand the 'peer to peer' philosophy and this makes people think in different codes, so we can expect a lot of new horizons, in art, music, design...

What do you think of the environmental impact of NFTs?

This question can goes really deep but in general terms I think that is something that is being oversized due to the hype and the boiling point we are, and it's understandable because is not false that it has an environmental impact, as everything does. But on the other hand I have two main areas in mind. The first and the obvious from my point of view is that when something is new and developing is less efficient, in the way that it requires more effort to achieve the result. But at the same time, the more this technology is used the more is developed and all this issues are part of it. The first car was not electric.

The second point that usually reverberates in my mind and that it seems that 'hard critics' omit is that they are not having in mind that this NFTs we mint, give us a profit that can be used offline to do another things that can be useful to solve this problem, for example, investing part of this money on living on our own in a minimal and clean way (not working for huge multinational that their environmental impact is tons times more than NFTs and then being part of an ONG to feel clean) and on using part of this money on looking and researching new ways to mint and to keep this digital ecosystem more efficient and clean. Every development needs time.

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