#JUST because the framed art is of video game characters is not material.

[isan0rt]

Last month one of my neighbors who appeared to be selling their house left a beautiful hardwood table in pieces on the curb as trash that had just. Had the MOST UGLY WHITE PAINT slapped on it in the most slapdash, hideous fashion you've ever seen in your life, which I assume is why they put a 35 year old cherry table on the fucking curb.

Anyway I rescued it and I need everybody to see my refinishing process photos because I am shameless and also extremely proud of this table (I've never refinished furniture before).

Look at my table!!!

[alexhwriting]

Ludonarrative Harmony and Engaged Narrative Drive: The Success of Unpacking and Inside.

III. Narrative

Rick Altman’s concept of narrative drive comes from part of his overall conception of narrative from his 2008 book, A Theory of Narrative. His theory suggests that narrative is made up of three basic parts narrative material, activity, and drive:

                        Narrative material encompasses the minimal textual characteristics necessary to                           produce narrative. Narrational activity involves the presence of a narrating                                    instance capable of presenting and organizing the narrative material. Narrative                              drive designates a reading practice required for narrative material and narrational                                   activity to surface in the interpretive process.[1]

Narrative drive accounts for the interpretive process that happens when the narrative material encounters a reader. As Altman puts it, “We may appropriately term this tendency to read texts as narratives ‘narrative drive.’ Narrative drive can derive from many sources: personal interests, professional mandates, or social expectations. While it may be conditioned by textual characteristics, it can never be wholly dependent on elements that are internal to the text.”[2] In other words, there is no narrative that exists without an interpretive element, which the audience provides based on their own experiences and cultural positioning.

The narrative drive is a particularly useful tool in the discussion of environmental storytelling and video games because environmental storytelling is reliant upon the reader due to the limited use of other, expected tools of narrative communication. We might, for instance, expect a narrative to be communicated through the use of text or dialogue or the use of a narrator’s voice or exposition in a video game. However, the use of environmental elements to communicate narrative requires less explicit language and more interpretation of visuals. It is the player’s ability to make a story through the interpretation of the visual elements that is described by the term narrative drive. This becomes very potent in the area of video games, where the elements that engage the narrative drive are not just passively viewed but can be interacted with and moved around or laid out specifically for the player’s benefit.

            Similarly useful is Altman’s concept of narrational activity, which is comprised of two subcategories, following and framing. Following is characterized by the presence of a character that the narrative follows, and the framing is characterized by the delimitation of the text that contains the narrative.[3] Framing is the definition of the beginning, middle, and end of a given narrative, but it also encompasses other things that give context to a given story, such as chapters, books, covers, additional details provided in the paratextual materials. In the realm of video game studies, this can include cut scenes, [4] box art, and other paratextual materials that are experienced before the player even begins the game itself. The music that plays as the game is started, which provides a sense of atmosphere, is also part of the framing.

Because of the additional contextual sense that narrative framing provides, it is necessary for us to consider it in the pursuit of environmental storytelling, since the framing sets the tone for the player to understand the visual elements within the game world and make sense of them as a cohesive whole that can be interpreted without a narrative. As Altman states of narrative more generally, “Without framing, texts are all middle; by the very act of framing, texts gain a beginning and end.”[5] This is especially interesting in the case of video games that are not only mostly middle but may also have middles that progress nonlinearly compared to media like books or films that do not differ by audience member. Because of their interactivity, video games may unravel in a different sequence or even end differently depending on the player, yet the number of in-game variations is always finite, bound by the possibilities in the game’s code.

It may be better to think of games having multiple variations of middle, while acknowledging that every middle is part of the same framing. For example, let us consider the game Until Dawn (Supermassive Games, 2015), which takes the form of a choose your own adventure where the player makes choices that affect the outcome of the game itself, as well as how many of the cast of characters survive the night in a cabin in the woods. No matter how hard the player tries, they can never add a new character to the roster that is already decided, nor can they follow a path that the game does not already account for. The details that make up the middle of the game may vary between players and playthroughs, though they are always at the mercy of what the game is programmed to be.

            Finally, narrative material is comprised of action and character, both of which form the foundation of narrative momentum in a traditional sense. Of an absence of action, Altman writes, “we may have portraiture, catalogue, or nature morte, but not narrative,” placing action as a kind of ligature linking together the “separate substantives” that populate a narrative.[6] Characters[7] are described as a necessity for the “following” section of narrative activity, as a character being followed places the reader within the world of the story, and according to Altman, “The development of characters thus participates in the creation of a ‘diegesis,’ a posited level independent of the textual vehicle.”[8]

The diegesis created by the existence of a character can look very different, however, depending on the game in question. For example, in Unpacking, the diegesis is established by the character through whom the game world is perceived, though this character is never fully given form or name, present only in their – or our, given the first person point of view – commentary on the rooms that the player unpacks throughout the game in the form of captions in a photo album.  In this way the world and its rules get established, though there is no human visible throughout the game as it is being played, giving the impression of empty environments.

In “Game Design as Narrative Architecture,” Jenkins proposes the idea of spatiality be applied to the narrative understanding of video games. Of spatial stories Jenkins says,

Games fit within a much older tradition of spatial stories, which have often taken the form of hero's odysseys, quest myths, or travel narratives. . .[and] in turn, may more fully realize the spatiality of these stories, giving a much more immersive and compelling representation of their narrative worlds.[9]

For example, the path that the player finds themselves following in the linear exploration of the Kingdom of Lothric in the game Dark Souls III (FromSoftware, 2016) is a retelling of a familiar story of a knight’s quest to save their kingdom from ruin and taking a pilgrimage to achieve this end.[10] Another less esoteric reference would be the similarities of Super Mario 64, where Mario must go on a quest to save Princess Peach from King Bowser, to chivalric tales of knights travelling to save their romantic interests. However, tying this back to Altman, these games are taking a familiar narrative and framing them very differently by making them into explorable space that the player gets to engage with. Jenkins does not believe, though, that games fully reproduce literary stories, instead suggesting that they evoke an atmosphere that is not dissimilar to an amusement park ride.[11] Inside proves a good example for Jenkins, as the game is made up entirely of side-scrolling progress and puzzle solving, giving the story around the player as they progress rather than to the player by affecting or addressing them directly.

            Marie-Laurie Ryan also takes up the mantle of spatiality when it comes to narrative. Speaking on the spatial nature of storytelling, Ryan differentiates between space and place, distinguishing the former as generally timeless, allowing for freedom and movement, while the latter is shaped by context, history, and recognition.[12] To relate this to storytelling,[13] she says, “one could in fact say that locations acquire their status of being places though the stories that single them out from their surrounding space. . .[it is] because of their ability to evoke the places we love that we select the stories we read.”[14] In this quote, Ryan echoes the interpretive stance of Altman, suggesting that it is the person who experiences the space that determines if that space is distinguished as a place. Intertwining story and place in this way goes hand in hand with the project of environmental storytelling, as Ryan’s approach expects the audience to determine the significance of any given spatial place through their own context and personal history.

            To give an example of this intertwining and the audience’s individual interpretation of the spatial story, let us consider Fallout: New Vegas (Obsidian, 2010). The majority of the game takes place in the Mojave Desert in the far future after a nuclear apocalypse takes place, leaving the area radioactive and barren of most plant or animal life. Throughout the game, the player must navigate this environment as well as interact with multiple different factions that all wish to have some say in the running of the wasteland. Where we see the intertwining of space and story is in the area of New Vegas itself, where the fortified and scrounged together new city exists on the ruins of the older Vegas, allowing the presence of casinos, gambling, and a hub of activity to have no further need of justification beyond the invocation of its place. This ties also into how personal histories can affect someone’s understanding of a given narrative space, as Fallout: New Vegas relies heavily on western settler imagery along with overtones of “what if the 1950’s had seen a nuclear apocalypse,” on top of it being set in – very altered – real world locations. Aesthetic elements, like the settler and americana-gone-bad, seen in this game through the use of lots of cowboy hats and the post-nuclear ruins of 1950’s towns in Nevada, USA, are understood by each player differently. While these may be nostalgia for some players as they hear the crooning music of the 1950s coming through a crackly in-game radio, other players who are less familiar or have a negative association with those aesthetics may find themselves less driven to engage with those elements of the game or may side with different factions who want to change the future development of the wasteland. In this way, the player brings their own understanding of the places and the symbols that the narrative invokes which changes how they view the story as well as how they interact with the gameplay.

[1] Altman, 10.

[2] Altman, 19.

[3] Altman 15-18.

[4] A cut scene is a – typically brief – video that is used to ‘cut’ between parts of a game. Typically, this is used to give some additional exposition to what is going on, move the story along, or simply to hide the mechanical loading that the game is doing in the background to set up the next part of game for the player.

[5] Altman, 18.

[6] Altman, 11.

[7] Further exploration of the presence of character regarding environmental storytelling will be discussed in the Positive Examples section, as Unpacking does not possess a focus character on the screen (at least visibly, though their presence haunts the gaming experience) while Inside is centered around the exploration of a world with a character that the player controls.

[8] Altman, 14.

[9] Jenkins, 5.

[10] I explore further in another unpublished essay, “Pilgrimage and the Lands of Lothric: The Medieval Narrative in Dark Souls III.”

[11] Jenkins, 6.

[12] Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality 2. 86.

[13] At this point, the concept of Narrative is going to be used somewhat interchangeably with Storytelling. This is because narrative is broad, and storytelling encompasses narrative but focuses it into telling a story.

[14] Ryan, 86.

[demongirlgarlicbread]

So tell me about your favourite OC

Alright. Favorite. Now that is a tricky one. We've made a Lot over the years it's more quantity than quality because ideas run faster than water through the bolton strid. But I *can* tell you about one that actually got a fic that went a ways before ADHD teamed up with writer's block and broke its knees.

So meet Adelaide Edmunds, a Victorian/Edwardian lady who grew up in a delightfully awful home situation. The kind of stifling control you can only really get with a wealthy household in the country, a widowed mother and minimal servants. House being like. Half left to gather dust. You know how it is.

And here's the thing! Said mother was a widow by her own hand. Poison! Wonderful thing, that. Very good at offing husbands who are awful people but have tremendously large inheritances. Such tragedy.

Adelaide was taught this attitude. One must prepare their daughter for the world ahead, of course. It's only right to twist and mold a little girl into something that can survive the cutthroat world of high society. Now, for all that she ensured little Adelaide got the best education she could, the mother did not care to study alongside her. And sadly, had never read of King Mithridates. And when one is an abusive old hag of a woman, as Adelaide would put it, who teaches poisons and politics, that can be a fatal mistake.

So we're off to a great start. Adelaide murdered her mother for her inheritance, doesn't actually feel much of anything about it all and mostly did it(consciously that is) for control over her inheritance.

And so the poor girl, her life so tainted by loss, publicly and dramatically went into mourning to avoid the subject of finding a husband. It would have been gauche to address the subject so soon, after all. Rather instead, she kept to her hobbies of botany and chemistry, and kept up correspondence with the very few friends(connections, as her mother had put it) she had been allowed to make.

And one of them of course was a beautiful young woman, whip-smart and interesting and with just enough sharpness to draw her eye. Even while publicly playing up the period of mourning, shooing away inquiring family and all their lovely young men, sons of friends that they were sure she would be happy to meet, she got to courting the woman who perhaps in another time could have been her wife.

And there would surely be enough material in those years, of a secretive sapphic romance in the country, between a woman steeped in murder and a woman steeped in history. Murders of course continuing, because between her household staff, the people of the local village, and those few members of society who called upon them regularly there were no small amount of threats to her beloved to obsess over. And to hone her arts upon.

And things continued in this way, secrets growing, the occasional "sudden dismissal" with accusations of theft. So unlucky that she would continue to have to suffer such disloyal servants. Until one fateful day many years down the line, Adelaide caught her beloved in bed with a maid. Her worries had come true, and in a fit of passion she murdered them as well.

And here comes the funny part. Because we are never, ever, ever without a funny little joke or perhaps a jape. This whole backstory. Bits of character development. Putting together the character of a somewhat fantastic but theoretically plausible young woman. Was to develop a wholly unique and fresh take on the genre of planetary annihilation inserts. Shocking. Horrible. Awful. I know. So after killing her beloved in a fit of passion and then killing herself immediately after, this woman with exactly zero conception of robots or computers as we know them or von Neumann swarms or video games let alone the meta-understanding of what a PA commander is. Gets dropped into exactly that. A woman who died in 1905 whose frame of reference for space travel is Jules Verne. Writing her exploring and trying to conceptualize the experience of piloting a commander without the words to even begin to describe it was a great deal of fun.

The fic was incredibly character focused as well, in purposeful defiance to the genre's trope of being nothing but explosion porn. She met up with another 'insert' as part of her entry into the interstellar war tearing apart PA's galaxy. There's a whole lot of lore and background there that was mostly secondary to the fact that she had actually begun to make a friend. The dynamic was incredibly fun to write. A guy from the 2020s, a habitual Astolfo cosplayer, openly queer himself and the opposite of stuck-up, prudish, refined and restrained Adelaide.

And that was the core of her character, really. A process of slowly unwinding, and finding herself as a person, and the dynamic with Richard using the backdrop of a tropey space adventure as a means to bring these two radically different yet incredibly similar people together. Forging this impossible, unlikely friendship. Had planned to use it as a foundation for a tragedy, as the two ended up being pitted against each other.. but that never came to pass.

I suppose this was less OC talk and More "go on about an unfinished fic and its protagonist" talk but I hope you're satisfied! Idea might be worth coming back to, eventually. If we can find the energy.

[armadillomania]

Talking Shop re: The Guardian's Choice

[read the work on AO3 (Explicit, Concord/Guardian Plum) - this discussion post necessarily contains SPOILERS]

Below the cut I discuss my thought process while drafting, writing, and drawing The Guardian's Choice.

I was so excited when I played Garden Story and had the idea to write and draw erotica of the characters, then found no extant NSFW fan content for the game. It was like the feeling of finding something hidden or forgotten: "Really? I have this all to myself?"

I am methodical about everything, including horny shit, so I spent a long time [months] organizing my ideas, putting them to paper, and editing. The art was almost easier by comparison because, while I can at least hold myself to some kind of publication standard in text, I didn't really have any style guide knowledge for drawing a plum and a grape making tender love. There wasn't as much pressure to polish it. [Plus, the art is definitely the potatoes to the text's meat. The icing, not the cake.]

The most difficult aspect of the written work was definitely the anatomy - I opted not to graft humanlike genitals onto the characters' bodies because I was more interested in the mechanics and sensations I could draw upon if the characters were "just" a couple of pieces of fruit [with arms and legs]. I was especially captivated by the idea that Plum's body, them being older than Concord, would be softer and wrinkled, the way a real fruit over-ripens.

The idea that skin contact between the two characters was heightened, and therefore erotic, came from the source material - there's very little touching between characters, so contact was canonically rare and therefore interesting - and from consideration of reality: fruit is just flesh around a seed, so there's no reason to note any specific area as erogenous unless it stands out [the stem and leaves; Plum's cleft, which didn't come into play in this work but which I'm eager to explore later...] or is paid particular attention to [Plum licking around Concord's legs]. This latter choice I concede was made with thought to the human-shaped readers' probable proclivities. I could have had Plum licking Concord's armpits, but I wanted Baby's First Foray Into Garden Story Smut to be fairly vanilla, both for ease of projection-of-self-onto-fiction and because it fit the scene; Plum is being careful with Concord here, holding back - even if they claim they aren't per Concord's stated request.

[Perhaps I will involve armpits in the future as a sensory exploration? I am sure that any joint on the characters' bodies, due to the friction of movement, would have a stronger fruity smell than the relatively un-rubbed areas (belly, back, top of head, and such).]

This is definitely an objectum-adjacent work. Though I'm not sure the term fully applies, my considerations of the sensory in this work were inspired by objectum sensibilities more than anything else, and I would be flattered if any objectum readers found the work meaningful. [I don't know if I am objectum or not. I'm usually hesitant to label myself as anything. It's not about me, really.]

As far as technical considerations, it was an obvious choice to write the work in second person from Concord's POV. This just made sense considering the source's medium. Many video games are framed in something like second person POV wherein the player is not actually the one being addressed; they are simply playing as that character. Thus the familiar reader of The Guardian's Choice is placed in a position relative to the fanwork which is similar to their position relative to the original work, in which they are playing as Concord and being addressed by the work as such. I was also pleased with the way the POV allows the reader to be equally as close to the sensations as to Concord's emotions, which drive most of the plot.

Once the POV was settled, the choice of present tense happened naturally... I think present tense is the sort of standard choice for Reader-POVs, even when the reader is not themself and is instead an intrepid grape. I also think tense matters very little to the second person POV... the POV is the star of the show. [Contrast first person POV, which feels, at least to me, very different in present vs. past tense.] There's a case to be made that present tense in particular lends a vivid quality to the sensory descriptions but I am not sure I can make that case with any conviction, as I have enjoyed sensory descriptions in a variety of tenses and POVs, and have not developed any strong preference thereof.

I don't have too much to say about the art - I did many, MANY sketches of Concord/Plum, and the two included in the work were the only two which matched the actions happening in the finished text product. I hope to include more art in future projects. My planned strategy is to leave more items as sketches - lining takes an unforgivably long time due to my aforementioned methodicalness. Positioning the bodies and limbs of two oblong shapes was surprisingly easy, but crafting the curvy shapes of those bodies was unexpectedly challenging. I guess I should have expected that - much has been said of drawing a perfect circle. I may experiment with lineless art, or skip colors and go grayscale, or both. I don't even know what the audience is for these! They look a bit like those object show characters, I guess?

[I do have sketch versions of every drawing I've done of Concord and Plum, and those sketches have alt. versions with humanlike genitals. I might end up posting those sketches on AO3 and Cohost. I like them. They're silly.]

With ALL OF THAT having been said, The Guardian's Choice was really just me dipping my claws in the water. Now that I'm more acclimated, I'm eager to move forward. Thank you for reading.

<( ((((( )^.>

[translationandbetrayals]

Corridor Digital Animes that are not animes Pt.2

In a past post I talked about Corridor’s anime-like sketches a shorts but I purposely avoided talking about their series: ANIME ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS (1 & 2), where they use AI filters to take their live action performance and transform those into what looks like a  2D animation, and released those videos under the motto “Did We Just Change Animation Forever? ” .

  First of all, I have to address the elephant in the room; The use of AI.

As someone very interested on the tech space but also surrounded by a lot of artists Im very interested on the advances in AI technology, but I'm also conscious about the ethical use and im trying to form a more studied opinion than just saying “AI is cool I dont care about anything” nor “AI is bad, everything made with AI is bad”. 

  To begin with something, the first Corridor video was trained (trained as in: the filter applied over the frames of the video was made by an AI trained to replicate the mentioned artstyle) in the style of the movie Vampire Hunter D and people got very mad, and I my opinion that was the only thing that was a bit shady, but we have to understand the first video was essentially a proof of concept and they fixed it by commissioning character art for the second video with an artist that was willing to hand their art for the training process. At the moment I don't remember what platform was used to do the training, I know some where trained with copyrighted material but right now there are programs that only use owned material or can be trained with your own data so you can have copyright free generated images.

  The other thing I have to say about AI is that people gets mad very fast with the concept of AI and how “its stolen art and lazy” and I have to ask where is the art in a multimedia piece? Its just the art style or there is more? Im going to make a very bold comparison now, but we all know Marcel Duchamp and the fact he brought a urinal to an art exposition, the “art” in that instance wasn’t the urinal itself, the art piece was the action; the absurdism; the boldness; the critic to the status quo and every analysis of that situation is the art piece, not the material piece itself. In the other hand this youtube video we are talking about ain’t a masterpiece, but it has an interesting original story, voice acting, all the character actions were interpreted by real actors so it has a lot of art and true effort in it, if they didn’t used an AI generated art style and keep the live action format of their old anime videos, no one would have complain and people would loved it, but as VFX artists they wanted to see how far they can go visual effects and made something really interesting.

  I also have to make the comparison to Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series (Or Yugioh Abridged, or YGOTAS), that's a pretty beloved series where some guy just take the original Yu-Gi-Oh anime and makes its own collage, dubs everything and tells a new story loosely based on the original series. Isn’t that stealing the art and the concepts of the characters to create something new and profit from that too? Why YGOTAS wasn’t (or is) equally controversial? Someone could say that's because Yugioh Abridged is a parody, but Corridor’s video is a parody of its genre too, just less explicit.

  Anyways I kinda forgot my original point, but the ANIME ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS videos are cool, as with the ones before Corridor nailed the anime language, they did not change animation forever, but I'm pretty sure that title is just the youtube game. AI criticism is valid, but have a little more critical thinking and don't criticize things just because part of them are made with AI.

 ANIME ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVT3WUa-48Y

ANIME ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWZOEFvczzA

Did We Just Change Animation Forever?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9LX9HSQkWo

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series: https://ygotas.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page

- Oscar Garrido

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Mortal Kombat (Anderson, 1995)

I wouldn’t call this a childhood favourite by any means, but it was certainly one I saw a bunch of times as a kid and not since, so that fact that was on Tubi and threatening to leave in a few days was good enough reason to give it a rewatch after all these years. One scene that I more or less remembered was the one where Johnny Cage punches Goro in the… you know… and the chase and fight that ensues. And the reason I remembered this was not just the scene itself but that, seeing it as a child on a CRT television of not extravagant size and likely at the mercy of poor reception, I’d imagined at the time that I’d actually seen Goro’s … you know… flailing about during the chase scene. And that after seeing the movie, when I drew a little doodle of Goro, I sketched out his… you know… And I don’t remember if I drew this doodle at school or at home, but let me tell ya, whoever saw it was NOT happy! Anyway, that’s my little trip down memory lane.

As for the movie, I suspect a lot of this comes from the source material, which I’m only vaguely familiar with (I’ve played some of the games at arcades and family friends’ houses, but never owned any myself), but the tournament plot and trio of heroes with an Asian lead seem greatly indebted to Enter the Dragon. There’s some logic behind this calculation, as Enter the Dragon was tasked with selling the concept of martial arts cinema to American audiences, so it would make some sense to use its template when trying to sell the concept of video game movies, which had only been around for a few years prior. I will say that I appreciated that, unlike some of the movies that followed where Hong Kong stars tried to cross over, the movie actually lets Robin Shou be charismatic and funny. I suspect because he wasn’t a big star and didn’t have any major baggage, there was no need to try to package him into anything specific. I also appreciate that the other heroes, Linden Ashby (the aforementioned puncher of Goro in the… you know…) and Bridgette Wilson actually hold their own in the action sequences, which was not true of at least one of the heroes in Enter the Dragon (John Saxon, I love ya, but c’mon), and that Ashby gets to be a doofus in exactly the right measure to allow for self deprecation and humour but not undermine the movie with self awareness. There is a baseline of respect you ought to pay the material here and I think this movie pulls it off. And you round out the cast with Christopher Lambert, who kinda nails the subtly exotic qualities of his character, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who plays the role with a good deal of menace. Also, for some reason I got real excited when I recognized Peter Jason, despite the fact that the movies I remembered him most clearly from, Trick or Treats and Texas Lightning, are not good. Sometimes “hey, it’s that guy” provides a certain frisson.

I will say that while I liked looking at the outdoor scenes, because there are temples and vines and greenery and sand and sun and what have you, I did not like looking at the indoor scenes, which are lit in strong, kind of dark colours calibrated to a level I found unpleasant on the eyes. For some reason, there’s a lot of maroon in this movie, which did not make for a pleasurable viewing experience. That being said, despite the wonky CGI, this is shot on film and there are actual sets so maybe I shouldn’t complain so much. I will also note that unlike pretty much every other Paul W. S. Anderson movie I’ve seen, the action scenes here actually work as action and not inert, self contained exercises in framing and movement. Sure, you can feel that some of the scenes feel like Shou is moving at half speed so the American stuntmen can keep up (or at least it does if you’ve seen Tiger Cage II… what a movie *chef’s kiss*). But unlike Anderson’s other movies, where ridiculously overpowered heroes engage in totally arbitrary back and forths before the confrontation is resolved in the lamest possible way, the action scenes here evoke a sense of actual struggle for the heroes and as a result, some semblance of progression. The movie on the whole plays like slick, energetic hackwork (take a shot every time a variation of the awesome techno theme comes on the soundtrack), but Anderson, like Zack Snyder, seemingly turned out his most enjoyable movie before he really developed a distinct style.

[pa-panda-heroes]

Hello!💖 I love your writing!💖 Idk if your BNHA requests are open, but if they are, I was wondering if I could request something?

I was wondering if you could do Hawks,Dabi and Tomura (separately) hcs with a fem reader who's a artist?💖 She likes drawing him a lot, and she sometimes asks him to pose for her.

Only if you want to though!💖

Technically they aren’t, but I’m a little lot starved for inspiration and content rn so :’>

Hawks, Dabi, and Tomura with an artist s/o!

Hawks:

Okay. Listen. Hawks is model material and he’s very well aware of it. If the constant proposal of modeling jobs wasn’t a clue enough, it wouldn’t matter. He’s quite confident in his appearance and he’s always ready to show off, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t indifferent to modeling, because he is.

But modeling for you as your muse, a reference, light study, or literally anything? He’s absolutely elated!! Before you can even prepare your medium, lighting, etc., he’s already barraging you with questions.

“Should I move my arm this way?” / “How do you want my wings positioned?” / “Ooh, what do I wear?” / “How’s my hair?!” / “Wait, do I face this way, or that way?” Etc. Hawks bby give her a minute!

Low key sometimes pouts when he models for you because he can’t watch from over your shoulder like he enjoys so much. He just loves watching the graceful way your wrist moves when you draw a curved line, how quickly your hand moves when you do light shading, and just the overall process.

That doesn’t stop him from peeking while he’s in front of you, though. “Keigo, I need you to hold still. Please look sideways at the wall and hold your focus there.” - cue a childish whine from him, “but then I can’t see youuuu!”

You’re probably going to need a lot of patience in that regard and others. It’s hard for him to sit still for so long, for example. As a hero he is and has been trained to be ready to jump and run and always stay busy, and with that training came a constant need for stimulation and something to do.

Massive bragger. It’s not because he’s a total show off (even though he actually is lol), he’s just so proud. Being an artist takes a lot of talent, skill, time, and effort. Keigo may not be even close to an artist himself, but he respects art and, obviously, you to the moon and back.

Expect him to frame everything he gets his grubby little hands on! It doesn’t matter if it’s a piece you’ve drawn of him or not. He’s framing it and hanging it! Most of the time he does it in secret to surprise you, but often he likes to have your (artistic!) input as to where it should go.

Dabi:

Definitely takes you weeks (at least) to convince him to be your subject. Aside from his scars being a sore spot anyway, being your subject would entail, in his eyes, you staring at him way too close for his very easily-broken comfort.

Dabi is not one to like being stared at under any circumstances, really, so he’s hesitant to say the least. Once you finally convince him, he’s quiet. Almost awkward. Maybe pouty. Definitely tense. He doesn’t know what to do with himself.

But once he sees the end product, how proud you are of it, and how much time and effort you put into it, he softens a little. “Aw, look at you, doll, makin’ me all handsome.” ...emphasis on “a little.” Dabi isn’t great with compliments to say the least, so any he gives out aren’t direct compliments!

May not as vigorously and outwardly appreciate your craft like Hawks, but that doesn’t mean the respect and appreciation isn’t there! It’s just... silent and hidden a wee bit. Dabi is a very silent admirer when it comes to this.

Although, if you decide to hang a piece on the wall, he’s right next to you trying to help you decide where to put it. If you ask him why the interest, he’ll scratch his neck and mutter something about your being too indecisive and avert your attention. Because he’s an ass like that, oops.

Secretly loves to watch you while you’re in your element - but only if you’re unaware. Be it watching over your shoulder as you plan out a painting, or peering at you from the corner of his eye next you while you do a simple sketch, he enjoys (much more than he’d admit) watching your face contort in focus and determination like it does. It’s cute, to him. Besides, he can tease you later for it!

Probably won’t outwardly brag about your skill, but he’s certainly not going to hide it either. And if it somehow relates to your quirk? Well, he still may not brag about it, but he definitely won’t let anyone forget about it, either!

Eventually warms up to being your subject much better and is, in all honesty, a natural. It’s like he forgets he’s posing and is instead in the act. It’s also funny to see his facial expressions contort when you take your sweet time, but don’t tell Dabi that!

Tomura:

Tomura’s a bit standoffish about being drawn - not necessarily by you, just in general. I can see his skin and scars being a factor behind that, aside from Tomura just not liking having pictures of himself (drawn or photographed).

The biggest reason, though, is the “intimacy,” for the lack of a better word. The silence, your focused and practiced gaze, the beating in his chest from the feeling of being stripped bare for scrutinization (despite being clothed), it all has him... feeling things, intimacy. It’s something he’s not used to.

Won’t frame anything you’ve drawn of him, but has no problem (and is secretly a wee bit happy) framing something else you’ve done if you want to do that. Tomura is actually fairly supportive of your craft!

If you ever need something to practice, he’s more than willing to toss a couple video game characters your way. Need practice with armour? He’s got just the character! Maybe you’re messing around with non-humanoid figures? He knows of plenty!

Likes to watch you in action, but it’s hard for him to keep interest. It’s because the “draw, erase probably, draw, erase” ordeal is monotonous for him. It’s not as engaging as something he’d be interested in - of course, don’t take that personally. How does the saying go? “Different strokes for different folks?”

Probably won’t brag, per se, but he will talk about your talents with ease, usually, and subtly, bringing up the subject when something else is topic of conversation.

And because it’s something he thinks you’d like, he may or may not “volunteer” you to draw something for someome. It’s more like, for example, someone is complaining about getting a sketch out so they can get a new villain setup but don’t have the skills. “Hey, y/n can do that. She’s pretty good at that sort of thing.” - like this.

Just don’t mistake his indifference to being drawn as something personal or offensive and you’re good to go! It’ll be hard for him to warm up to it, but he will eventually feel more comfortable as your muse over a (long) period of time.

[shezzaspeare]

Pilot/Episode 1: Patching Things Up With Pastiche & Fanfiction

Hi, hello, and the wait is finally over! My name is Blessie, and welcome to the first episode webisode log installation I've decided to call these things an episode for now because why not also let me know what do you actually call these things episode of The Science of Fanfiction, where we take a closer look into our beloved works of fanon because we've all got plenty of time to spare till Season 5. Before I continue, I would like to thank everyone who's liked and reblogged the last few posts before this one. It means a lot for a small and growing Tumblr user like me, and your support is something I cherish more than my modules. You guys rock!

Anyways, like with most things, we have to talk about the boring and bland stuff before we proceed with the fun stuff. For today, we are going to settle the difference between a couple of things: first being the confusion between pastiche and fanfiction; then the distinctions between tropes, clichés, and stereotypes, which we'll tackle the next time. It's important for us to establish their true meanings in order for us to really understand what fanfiction truly is, even if it's merely just a work done for the fandom. I know – it's boring, it's something that shouldn't be expounded that much, but I believe that all forms of writing (unless it's plagiarised) is a work of art — and fanfiction is not something we always talk about. I hope that by the end of this, you'll learn about what they really are as much as I did. Let's begin to talk about the—

[Image ID: A flashback of John (left) and Sherlock (right) finding an elephant (not in the screen) in a room in The Sign of Three. End ID]

. . . I did say that this GIF will always have to make an appearance here, didn't I?

So, just as with Sherlock Holmes, all other works of fiction have their own pastiches and fanfiction, and many more original works out there have taken inspiration from them to create their own books. Although they've gained popular attention, this will not be possible if they did not have taken inspiration from the materials their writers had at the time.

[Image ID: Various actors as Dracula. Jeremy Brett in 'Dracula' (1978) (upper left), Adam Sandler in a voice role for 'Hotel Transylvania' (2012) (upper right), Gary Oldman in 'Dracula' (1992) (lower left), and Bela Lugosi in 'Dracula' (1933) (lower right). End ID]

For instance, Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' (the second most adapted literary character, next to the consulting detective himself) has been portrayed on the screen over 200 times — from Gary Oldman to Adam Sandler — and has spawned off numerous books and pastiches of its own such as Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot'. Its cultural impact served as a basis of how we see vampires today, since some characteristics of the Count were made by Stoker himself. Stoker's creation is the brainchild of his predecessors and inspirations.

[Image ID: Vlad the Impaler (left) and a book cover of 'Carmilla' by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (right). End ID]

Other than the ongoing hysteria over dead back then and the existing vampire folklore, Stoker also took his inspirations from the published books on vampires he had at hand. He is said to have taken inspiration from Vlad the Impaler, a Romanian national hero known allegedly for having impalement as his favourite method of torture. He is also said to have been inspired by the J. Sheridan Le Fanu's 'Carmilla', a Gothic lesbian vampire novella that predates Dracula by 26 years. I could go on, but hey, we're going back to Sherlock Holmes now before I deviate any further. However, if you want to know about Dracula's literary origins, I suggest you watch Ted-ED's videos about the subject matter such as this one or this one.

Very much like Stoker, ACD didn't just conceive Holmes on his own. He took his own inspirations from what he had available at the time.

[Image ID: Dr Joseph Bell (left) and Edgar Allan Poe (right). End ID]

As we all know, ACD's biggest inspiration for Sherlock Holmes was one of his teachers at the Edinburgh University, Joseph Bell. He was famous for his powers of deduction, and he was also interested in forensic science — both characteristics which Holmes is greatly known for. He also drew inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe's sleuth, C. Auguste Dupin ('The Purloined Letter' & 'Murders in Rue Morgue'). As ACD himself has said at the 1909 Poe Centennial Dinner: "Where was the detective story until Poe breathed life into it?" Some other writers he took after are Wilkie Collins, Émile Gaboriau, and Oscar Wilde.

Now, what does this say about us Sherlockians/Holmesians (depending if you're the coloniser or the one that was colonised)? Basically, ACD laid the groundwork for us with Sherlock Holmes: his humble abode 221B that he shares with his flatmate Dr. John Watson, his adventures, memoirs, return, casebook, last vow, and all that. Now that we have this material at hand, we can now make our own versions, takes, or even original stories featuring the characters of the Canon. Our inspiration comes from ACD's Sherlock Holmes, and we now get the chance to make our very own stories/conspiracy theories about them.

As I have mentioned earlier, Sherlock Holmes is the most adapted literary character in history. He has been adapted in over 200 films, more than 750 radio adaptations, a ballet, 2 musicals; and he's become a mouse, a woman, a dog, even a bloody cucumber. On top of all that are numerous pastiches and fanfics, and finally, we have arrived at the main topic of our post!

Fanfiction and pastiche are often confused together since they have three common elements: they take after the original work, they usually use the characters in that original work, and more often than not do are they set in that same time frame/period or not long after that. The common misconception is that pastiche are printed fanfiction, which is only partly true. While pastiche is definitely fanfiction in some ways and vice versa, there are fanfictions out there that aren't necessarily classified as pastiche that have been published.

Let's get on with our definition of terms to clear up the confusion a little more. Pastiche, according to Literary Terms, is:

. . . a creative work that imitates another author or genre. It’s a way of paying respect, or honor, to great works of the past. Pastiche differs from parody in that pastiche isn’t making fun of the works it imitates – however, the tone of pastiche is often humorous.

A good example of a pastiche is Sophie Hannah's 'The Monogram Murders', which is her take from Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot.

[Image ID: A book cover of 'The Monogram Murders' by Sophie Hannah. End ID.]

Although this was a commission from Christie's estate, it's still considered as a pastiche as:

It's takes after Christie's writing style;

It is set in the early years of Poirot's career (1929), which is still within the time frame that the author wrote him in;

It features Poirot and;

It pays respect to Christie in a sense that it stays true to her (Christie) characters and way of storytelling.

Meanwhile, our good and slightly unreliable friend Wikipedia defines fanfiction as:

. . . is fictional writing written by fans, commonly of an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settings, or other intellectual property from the original creator(s) as a basis for their writing. [It] ranges from a couple of sentences to an entire novel, and fans can both keep the creator's characters and settings and/or add their own. [ . . . ] [It] can be based on any fictional (and sometimes non-fictional) subject. Common bases for fanfiction include novels, movies, bands, and video games.

To avoid any copyright infringement issues if I ever use a popular fanfic in the fandom, we'll use my (unfinished and unpopular) Sherlock Wattpad fic, 'Play Pretend'. You can read it here.

[Image ID: The second self-made book cover of Blessie/shezzaspeare's 'Play Pretend'. End ID]

Why is it considered a fanfiction and not a pastiche?

It takes after an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes (BBC Sherlock) which is a TV show, not the ACD canon itself;

The author (in this case myself) uses her own writing style and does not take after the original story's style;

Although it is set well in modern-day London and after Season 4, it also features scenes decades before the actual fanfic is set and outside of London;

I added a considerable number of characters, i.e. siblings to canon characters;

I had my own take some of the canon characters' personality especially after the events of Sherrinford;

It is written by a fan – myself. It is a work of fan labour and;

It is only a work of fanon, and isn't likely going to be considered by the show as its writing style is different from the actual show.

To put it simply, you can have more freedom in a fanfiction as it does not necessarily restrict you to follow or take after the original stories. Alternate universes (AUs) such as Unilock and Teenlock are perfect examples of this thing.

So can a pastiche be classified as fanfiction? Yes.

Can a fanfiction be classified as pastiche? Not all the time.

What's the difference? While yes, they share the basics, pastiche is technically leans more onto the original work's fundamental elements whereas fanfiction is a broader range of works inspired by the original work but doesn't necessarily follow all or any of its fundamental elements.

In order for us to understand it more, I'll give another example.

[Image ID: The 'Enola Holmes' title card (upper left) and Henry Cavill as its Sherlock holmes (upper right). Underneath it is a a scene from the opening titles of BBC Sherlock (lower left) and Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes in A Scandal In Belgravia. (lower right) End ID]

Most of you are familiar with these 21st-century adaptations of Holmes: the 2020 adaptation of Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes books and BBC Sherlock, which needs no further explanation – but for those who don't know, it's basically Holmes and the gang if they were alive today. I specifically chose these two as they are the ones that I believe would get my points across best. Though both are considered as wonderful pastiches with a well-rounded cast and awesome visuals, if we break them down bit by bit, we'll see which one is more of a pastiche and which one is more of a fanfic. (Yes, I know they're both screen adaptations. However, as Enola Holmes was based on the books and BBC Sherlock's fanfiction has the show's scenes written out in most fanfics, hear me out.)

They share these characteristics of a pastiche:

They feature characters from the Canon (Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes, and Lestrade);

They have additional characters added by the writers (Including but not limited to Molly Hooper, Eurus Holmes, and Philip Anderson for BBC Sherlock while Enola Holmes has Lord Tewkesbury, Eudoria Holmes, and Enola herself) and;

They pay respect to the original Canon as their stories are based on the cases (BBC Sherlock) or simply what was going on around them (Enola Holmes).

They also share these characteristics of a fanfic:

They are made by enthusiasts of Sherlock Holmes (Moffat has called himself and Mark Gatiss 'Sherlock Holmes geeks', while Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes books are not just one or two but six);

They follow a common trope (we'll discuss these tropes in the following episodes) that goes on in the fandom (Sherlock's Sister & Modern AU)

They are based on a fictional subject (Sherlock Holmes);

They used characters and story elements that are copyrighted by the author/author's estate (fun fact: prior to the production of Enola Holmes, the Conan Doyle Estate filed a lawsuit against Springer & Netflix over Sherlock's emotions since he was more 'sympathetic' than he was portrayed in the Canon – this was later dismissed by both parties) and;

Their writing styles don't necessarily follow ACD's.

Despite these similarities, there are very obvious differences between the two that separates them from being a pastiche and a fanfiction.

Enola Holmes embodies pastiche more as it doesn't stray far away from the original elements of the Canon. It's still set in Victorian England. While Springer added characters of her own and definitely twisted the Canon to suit her series, she didn't necessarily place them out of the social construct that was going on around the characters. It follows ACD's writing style more as Enola Holmes' setting still remains within the Canon's original setting.

Meanwhile, we can safely say that BBC Sherlock is a work of fanfiction. While it did give us The Abominable Bride, the main series focused on Holmes and Watson in 21st-century England, which is drastically different from Victorian England. There are phones, black cabs, and cellphones — things which ACD Sherlock Holmes doesn't have. It also diverted from the Canon in the characters themselves, which is mostly seen in the names: Henry Baskerville became Henry Knight, Charles Augustus Milverton became Charles Augustus Magnussen, the H in Dr Watson's name stood for Hamish and Sherlock's full name is actually William Sherlock Scott Holmes. They also changed the personalities of some Canon characters: Mary was actually an ex-assassin, Mrs Hudson was an exotic dancer who drove a kick-ass sports car, Irene Adler is a dominatrix, to name a few. Moffat and Gatiss created a world of their own featuring the characters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which is really what most of us fanfic writers do with Mofftiss' rendition of Holmes.

In conclusion: while pastiche and fanfiction could have been the same thing, they're actually not. There's more to them that just printed fanfiction or pastiche e-books, and we all should take some time to see and observe them in a closer perspective.

And that's it for our first episode! I hope you enjoyed it. It was a lot fun for me to write this, especially now that I'm only starting. I would also like to note that while intensive research has been done on this series, some parts of this comes from my own observation and opinion, which may vary from yours. I am very much open to criticism, as long as it is said in a polite and civil manner. I'm still young, and to be educated as I go is something that could really help me with this series.

Like and reblog this you like it. It helps out a lot. Be sure to follow me as well and the tags underneath if you want to see more of TSoF.

See you soon!

Blessie presents – The Science of Fanfiction: A Study In Sherlock (2021) • Next

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SOURCES • Pinterest, Google Images, Wikipedia, Literary Terms, Conan Doyle Estate, Definitions, The Sherlock Holmes Book, and Google

[fireandsilkenthread]

Okay, so.

Mass Effect TV Series news.

Before I get heated about it, I will say this:

I am a huge comic book nerd who loves the MCU. I am a Tolkien fan who loves both film trilogies. I’ve read the Witcher books, played the games, and watched the show, and adore it all.

I’ve always been really really good at taking in someone else’s interpretation of my favorite things, even if there are things I personally would have done differently, or interpretations I disagree with, and appreciating it for what it is: their interpretation. (That’s the good part about fanfic and fan art, right? We can bring our own interpretations to the table as well!) I’m not a person who will say that something is ‘dead to me’ if an adaptation isn’t exactly what I’m looking for.

With that said, you know the thing that all of the aforementioned universes and their adaptations have in common?

It’s clear the people who adapted them love the shit out of the characters, stories, and worlds.

Disagree with Peter Jackson’s vision of Middle Earth all you want, he and everyone else involved were SO INVESTED in bringing it to life.

Call the MCU mainstream garbage if you must, but there’s so much love for Stan Lee’s vision of those characters built into the films and it shows, even if some moments bothered us.

Even if you weren’t super into The Witcher TV series, there’s no denying that Henry Cavill put his whole nerdy heart into bringing Geralt to life in a way that he thought did the character the most justice.

So when I say I want Peter Jackson/Henry Cavill levels of love for Mass Effect, this is what I mean:

I don’t want or expect my exact interpretation, or my exact Shepard (and if they’re smart, they’ll leave Shepard out of it), but I do expect the love. I expect whoever is involved in this to sit and play the trilogy 20 times with every possible dialogue choice, romance option, outcome and character death. I want whoever is involved to agonize over saving Kaidan or Ash, to challenge themselves to have empathy for Saren, to cry their eyes out when Mordin cures the genophage, and reload the game over and over until they chose the correct squad members for the suicide mission. I want them to stand up and say FUCK YES in their living rooms when they finally stab Kai Leng for Thane. I want them to be sobbing messes when Anderson tells Shepard he’s proud of them. I want them to feel the thousands of little moments, that are so special to so many people, with their whole hearts.

I want actors and writers who remember fan’s names and stories at cons, who promote fan art, who will sit on livestreams and talk about these characters for literal hours every November 7th because ME has become a community of people on both sides of the screen who just fucking love this universe for all of the reasons.

I want acknowledgement that they aren’t making something “better” or “more artistically significant than a video game” because what we have is already a masterpiece (warts and all). I want something that’s not just recreating the game frame for frame in live action, but an expansion of the universe, that encourages people who’ve never played a game in their life to go out and buy it and fall in love with it too. I want it to be a big old, juicy, compelling piece of fan art dedicated to the original source material, because that’s what it deserves.

So, Amazon, if all of that happens…

We’ll talk.

[minettestan]

Do you have a tag for games you recommend? I'm always looking for new games and my experience with point and click or 90s computer games is sorely lacking.

💕My favorite question💕 I took one of my old posts and updated it, so here!

💕 Personal Favorite

💀 Scary Content

👧 Female Protagonist

✨ Important to the genre’s history

📚 Tricky for new players, look up controls or a walkthrough to get started

❕  Difficult

👿 Potential insensitive content

The Colonel’s Bequest (1989) $5.99 💕✨👧💀❕📚

“It is the year 1925, and the roaring '20s are well underway. As Laura Bow, young college student, you've been invited to visit the Colonel's isolated estate. Watch as the Colonel announces his intention to bequeath his millions to all present!”

The classic Sierra murder mystery game, developed by the mother of the genre Roberta Williams. Laura Bow is a sorely overlooked female protagonist. The game works by navigating Laura and typing in commands, kinda of tricky at first. Tons of game overs are a hallmark of a Sierra adventure game so save often! If you play the GOG.com version you get the benefit of autosaves. This game runs a timer, the events of the night will unfold with or without you so stay on your toes and keep moving! The game can be found for free here, but imo the $5.99 is worth it for the easy of access.

The Dagger of Amon-Ra (1992) $5.99 👧✨❕📚👿💀

“Laura Bow, intrepid heroine of The Colonel's Bequest, is back! This time she's trapped in a huge, imposing museum in the dead of night, surrounded by socialites, miscreants, thieves...and a cold, relentless murderer.“

Roberta Williams is back! Iconic game, iconic heroine. It’s still a Sierra game so like TCB there are tons of (iconic) game overs, so save often. Solving puzzles in this one gives me a great serotonin rush. Unfortunately, this game has some racism issues, particularly with the characters Lo Fat and Ramses. While an important game in the genre take it with a huge grain of salt and maybe turn of the (kind of awful) voice acting and enable text-only mode and you’ll avoid some awful accents.

Sam & Max: Hit the Road (1993) $5.99 💕✨

“Sam (a canine shamus) and Max (a hyperkinetic rabbity thing) are hot on the trail of a runaway carnival bigfoot across America’s quirky underbelly in this deranged animated adventure!“

Sam & Max are truly my favorite characters in all of fiction. I have the box art to this game as my phone case. I have Sam & Max action figures, a plush Max on my bed, a print edition of Sam & Max Freeland Police Special #1 framed on my wall. From comics, to games, to cartoons I love these guys. Sam & Max: Hit the Road is a classic of the Lucasarts adventure games. That being said, it’s the least user-friendly of the Sam & Max adventure games and the slowest. I still love it to bits and it’s important to the genre’s history imo.  

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (1993) $5.99 💕💀👿

“The adventure of Gabriel Knight starts with gathering materials for his new book, and ends up becoming a fight for his very soul. He must now face countless dangers in New Orleans, Africa and Germany, each bringing him ever closer to unraveling the mystery behind suspicious voodoo murders. Haunted by nightmares, he won't give up until he reveals the truth. “

Another Sierra game directed by a woman, Jane Jenson. Gabriel Knight, voiced by Tim Curry, is one of my favorite adventure game protagonists of all time. This game is scary and gory so enter at your own risk! I love the gameplay in this one, I love the narrator, I love the puzzles. But it seems Sierra games have some problems with the representation of minorities. The game is set in New Orleans and focuses on a voodoo cult. Which means consequently the game's major antagonists are all black. Unlike the Dagger of Amon Ra, Sins of the Fathers actually employed black actors to play black characters. There’s a lot to be said about the ways in which white media demonizes voodoo and those who practice it. If you play this one, remain critical. And for the love of god, don’t play the 20th anniversary version.

Day of the Tentacle: Remastered (1993/2016) $14.99 ✨👧❕

“Originally released by LucasArts in 1993 as a sequel to Ron Gilbert’s ground breaking Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle is a mind-bending, time travel, cartoon puzzle adventure game in which three unlikely friends work together to prevent an evil mutated purple tentacle from taking over the world!“

Another classic LucasArts game! This was the first game co-headed by Tim Schaffer who would go on to make the outstanding Grim Fandango! This one is exceedingly wacky and the remastered version has made it more user-friendly than ever.

Toonstruck (1996) $9.99 💕

“Drew Blanc is a cartoon animator and the original creator of the Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun Show.. Drew's boss, Sam Schmaltz, sets him the task of designing more bunnies to co-star in the Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun Show by the next morning. However, the depressed animator soon nods off, suffering from acute artist's block. He wakes early the next morning to inexplicably find his television switched on, announcing the Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun Show. Suddenly, Drew is mysteriously drawn into the television screen and transported to an idyllic two-dimensional cartoon world populated by his own creations, among many other cartoon characters.“

If you’re a fan of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? you’ll love this. Christopher Lloyd is Drew Blanc (ha) trying to save a cartoon world through inventory item puzzles. Truly wacky, zany, and ani-mainy. I played Toontown as a kid so I’m predisposed to like this one. This is also the only game with Full Motion Video I’m putting on the list because FMV games can be an acquired taste.

Grim Fandango (1996/2015) $14.99 💕✨

“Something's rotten in the land of the dead, and you're being played for a sucker. Meet Manny Calavera, travel agent at the Department of Death. He sells luxury packages to souls on their four-year journey to eternal rest. But there's trouble in paradise. Help Manny untangle himself from a conspiracy that threatens his very salvation.“

Yesssssssss! I LOVE Grim Fandango! The iconic game directed by Tim Schaffer has received the best remaster I’ve seen a point n’ click receive. I cannot recommend Grim Fandango enough! Stick with it through the forest section, trust me.

The Last Express (1997) $5.99 ❕ 📚

“Paris, 1914. The world is on the brink of war and this train could push it over the edge. You are Robert Cath, a young American urgently summoned by your old friend Tyler Whitney to join him aboard the Paris-Constantinople express, departing from the Gare de l'Est on July 24th. Arriving late, you discover something has gone terribly wrong. Now you must untangle a complex web of political intrigue, suspense, romance, and betrayal. Every move you make could bring you closer to the truth or your own demise. Bon voyage! “

Ooooh I love a murder on a train! This game features rotoscope animation, which I love. Like The Colonel’s Bequest this game runs in real time, meaning the events of the game will unfold with or without you, depending on where you are at what time you’ll receive different information or see/miss different events. Very replayable with several different outcomes.

Sam & Max Save the World (Remastered) $19.99 💕

“ Sam is a six-foot canine detective with a love of justice. Max is a hyperkinetic rabbity-thing with a taste for mayhem. Together, they're the Freelance Police. And they're about to save the world.”

Sam & Max Save the World, originally released in episodes from 2006-2008 has been remastered and looks AMAZING! After LucasArts was shut down their game devs formed Tell Tale Games and produced three seasons of Sam & Max sequel games, all of which are great. But TellTale was shut down (and screwed over their employees) in 2018. Since then some of their devs have formed Skunkape Games and are currently remastering all of Tell Tale’s Sam & Max series (I’m thrilled). They’ve also adjusted some aspects of the game to make the game more inclusive and less **offensive. So imo it’s worth it to wait for the release of the other seasons to experience Sam & Max in pristine condition. Save the World is the only season out now, but you can get the non-remastered versions of Beyond Time and Space, and In The Devil’s Playhouse, here and here.

 **I should note the “offensive” material in the original is not as egregious as say, The Dagger of Amon-Ra, but it’s just a nice change to see especially in a game I hold dear.

Emerald City Confidential (2009) $9.99 👧

“Explore the underbelly of Oz as Emerald City's most cunning detective! As Petra, you'll be lured deep into mysteries involving new foes and familiar faces; Scarecrow, Lion, and Toto included! This is Oz as you've never seen it before! Solve the mystery and unravel a conspiracy of magic and intrigue! Follow a case through five chapters full of puzzles, witnesses, suspects, and allies in this twist on a timeless classic! “

We’re moving out of the 1990s now. Emerald City Confidential is the Wizard of Oz meets film noir. I played this as 13 year old and have revisited it as an adult and I still eat it up. Wadjet Eye makes consistently good adventure games so check this one out!

The Blackwell Series (2006) $14.99 💕👧

“Meet Rosangela Blackwell, an embittered writer who just found out that she is a medium and that it’s her mission, whether she likes it or not, to assist tormented spirits and investigate other supernatural goings-on. She is assisted by the sardonic Joey Mallone, a ghost from the 1930s.”

Another Wadjet Eye game! I’ve seen these games recommended amoungst the Clue Crew before and I’ll just throw my own endorsement on the pile. Yeah I’m in love with Joey Mallone. What about it?

The Charnel House Trilogy (2015) $5.99 👧💀

“Witness The Charnel House Trilogy, the chronicle of one fateful night aboard a train bound for Augur Peak. Three thrilling, horrifying adventure games in one, from the depths of the Sepulchre.”

Plays like Blackwell, has a Blackwell reference at the beginning, okay you got me. This is a good, if kinda short, game. It’s very creepy, involves murder and has some gore/violence so watch out! I’m still waiting on the sequel Owl Cave!

Thimbleweed Park (2017) $19.99 👧

“A haunted hotel, an abandoned circus, a burnt-out pillow factory, a dead body pixelating under the bridge, toilets that run on vacuum tubes... you’ve never visited a place like this before.“

Made by Ron Gilbert and  Gary Winnick the creators of the classic games Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island Thimbleweed Park is a love letter to the classics of the point and click adventure genre. Features 5 different playable characters, ala Maniac Mansion, who and how many you play is up to you! This one also has stand alone DLCs!

Unavowed (2018) $14.99 👧

“ A demon possessed you one year ago. Since that day, you unwillingly tore a trail of bloodshed through New York City. Your salvation comes in the form of the Unavowed – an ancient society dedicated to stopping evil.”

Okay I haven’t actually played this one, but I want to. Its a Wadjet Eye so you know it’s good. From the reviews I’ve seen this is the Blackwell Series meets Dragon Age. A point and click that incorporates RPG elements, I love that.

I also have a love of the more, strange, and unusual adventure games that I can't necessarily recommend with good conscience. So if you want bizarre 90s and early 2000s games of dubious quality hit me up.

[rubyjcat]

[Behind-the-Scenes] HELIOS Rising Heroes: Animation Showcase

“HELIOS Rising Heroes: Animation Showcase” is an English voice fan project I worked on all by myself (barring voice actors) that took five months to make.

The original plan was to make just one video, but it ended up being eighteen of them!

Link to YouTube playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0UbdFyWSx0n_ewcd-t0iAB0adGe5lghH

In this write-up, I’ll be discussing details about the response to the project, recording all the footage, video editing, voice acting + audio processing, script translations + rewriting, which fonts were used, and even the emulator used. I’ve organized it into sections to make it easier to find certain things. Also, this is directed to English-speaking readers since I’m not gonna bother translating the entire thing to Japanese.

THE DREAM

I wanted to make this fandub ever since the game was released (in Aug 2020). I just knew that English voices would be extremely fitting to the world of HELIOS with a setting inspired by America and characters, places, and terms mostly in English. I was disappointed to hear that the studio behind the game, Cacalia Studio of Happy Elements K.K., had no interest to localize their games outside of Asia, which meant the chances of an English dub, let alone a global release were close to zero.

I was able to understand how to play the game thanks to the fan translators, some of which came from other Cacalia Studio games, and got inspired to continue learning Japanese (there was a previous attempt to translate Japanese lyrics years back).

What I thought was just the silly dream of one overseas player’s became something much more!

THE TIMELINE (BRIEF OVERVIEW)

I played the game for about two months prior to working on the project. Before starting the project, I had to sort out graphical and technical issues on my end first as I was unable to play the game smoothly until November.

November 2020

Finding all the in-game battle lines

Writing transliterations (romaji) of lines by ear

Learning and translating lines to Japanese

Started recording footage

December 2020

Further translation revisions

Held a casting call

Script rewriting and finalizing

January 2021

Completed casting

Started video editing (learning process)

Started audio processing

Recorded more footage

February 2021

Recorded more footage

Japanese script revisions

Finished working with VAs

Finished audio processing

Continued video editing

Published Preview video

March 2021

Recorded the last of the footage

Japanese subtitle revisions

Finished Showcase video

Finished Individual battle clips

Gave recommendations to VAs

The exact start and end dates were Nov 1st, 2020 to March 31st, 2021. Pretty neat.

RESPONSE TO THE PROJECT

I was absolutely shocked with the response to the preview video, which at the time of writing has just hit 10K views and almost 600 likes on Twitter and YouTube combined. Not bad for an unpaid hobby fandub (a joke only I find funny...) of an otherwise “niche” Japanese-only mobile game.

As of Apr 4th, 2021 - Thank you so much. This is more than I could’ve asked for.

The preview video blew up way more than anticipated, setting up for a bit of disappointment when the Showcase video was released.

The amount of views I expected for this project within its prime were a couple hundred views, so I’m content that the Showcase video reached that amount (it had ~500 by the end of March).

The expectations for the battle clips were an average of 100 views and a handful of likes - and each one got roughly that amount (or more) - so I’m also content with that, especially for something that’s just “bonus material”.

I tried my best to promote this project on Twitter with three main tweets. My one regret with promoting the project was making the second tweet after publishing the Showcase because the Japanese I wrote there was pretty terrible (as I was all worn out from editing and was in a haste to tweet about it). I tried to make up for it in a follow-up reply the next day, but it was too late. I was satisfied with how my third and final tweet and thread of battle clips turned out, but it sadly didn’t garner much attention. A reason for this was probably due to bad timing. I knew that the timing of the last tweet was awful as HeliosR did something special for April Fools’ day, plus the Easter event was being hyped around the same time, but I really wanted to finish up the project within March (my timezone, at least. It was already April 1st in Japan).

It was important to also make the videos accessible to the Japanese audience as they were a large portion of the viewers. This proved to be a challenge as my knowledge of Japanese is limited - at least for me, it’s easier to translate grammar-correct Japanese than it is to write my own sentences.

I ultimately decided against posting any of the videos on NicoNico because I wasn’t sure about Japan’s laws regarding copyrighted material. I knew it was already risky enough posting on social media and didn’t want to take any additional risks.

ABOUT THE FOOTAGE (1) – HEROES & ATTACK ORDER

HeliosR uses a gacha system, so to be able to even make something like this, you’d first need access to all 16 ★4 OG Heroes in the game.

I had them spread across five different accounts, four of which were reroll accounts. Asakou from the Cacalia RPG server gave me two of those accounts, and I rerolled myself for Keith and Ren during their Birthday Orders (one free 10-pull per account). Every account is also given a free ★4 selector ticket which I made good use of.

3,000 rubies (in-game currency) were sacrificed to pity the ★4 OG Dino when he was released in December just for the sake of the fandub!

Besides covering all of the Heroes, I also needed to play through each account to unlock certain story chapters, event stages, and evolve the Heroes for their shiny evolved CG art. Some of the Expert event stages (that had the Nighttime backgrounds) proved difficult to clear with a new account.

When using skills, the order of the Heroes were edited such that everyone was able to have the majority of their lines used at least once. All Heroes had two “receiving support” lines, two or three “supporting” lines, and two or three “skills against the enemy” lines. Some of the extra lines didn’t make it into the Showcase, so they were used for the individual clips instead.

I should’ve used Gray instead of Marion for the account that had Billy because you can see Marion’s sprite in Billy’s image. xD

In the Showcase, you may notice that the "Union Attacks" consist of all the ★4 CG images. These were spliced together; I never had all four Heroes of the same sector on the same account. For example, I would have Gray, Asch, and Jay on one account and Billy on another account, recorded their ★4 Bursts separately using the same background (from unlocking the Expert stages on both accounts), and then edited all the footage together.

Jay’s Burst was later re-recorded with a different attacking order so that he wouldn’t link to Billy.

It was also important to keep the same order of Bursts as well as use all four Bursts in the same turn. The ★4 Burst order was usually determined by who didn’t link skill with one another (with the exception of East sector as I was still figuring things out) because I didn’t want the link skill activation getting in the way of the animations.

As a little bonus, I also showed off the exclusive damaging skills of the Chapter 6 and 7 ★4 frames that I was lucky enough to pull from the gacha: Marion’s "Invitation To The Dance“ (roses), Faith’s “Synthetic Vibes” (beats), and Dino’s “Crow Mark Dead End” (claw marks).

ABOUT THE FOOTAGE (2) - BACKGROUNDS

Since I didn’t want to use the same battle music and backgrounds for all of the videos, I decided to use some of the themes from the limited-time events which went as far back as Nov 2020.

Each background has three variants (Daytime, Afternoon, Nighttime) and so I carefully picked them based on the colours. I ended up using mostly Expert stages - or Nighttime backgrounds, since Daytime versions were only used for Normal difficulty stages (which are too easy to clear).

The backgrounds used for the Showcase, all from limited-time events.

I decided to mix up some of the Heroes from other sectors in the individual clips for fun, basing it off of their relationships with each other. Using South sector’s background for Gast’s clip was a purposeful choice because I already used the North sector’s background for the other three North sector Heroes. I made sure to include Akira and Will of the South sector in Gast’s clip so it didn’t feel too random!

The only default background I didn’t use was Chapter 2’s because I already made use of the Casino theme for OG West sector’s individual clips. (...Plus I didn’t really like that background :p)

Here’s a list of all the backgrounds I used:

Escape the Prison (Nov 2020) - used for Showcase [EAST]

Mission of CASINO (Nov 2020) - used for Junior, Faith, & Keith clips

HAPPY NEW YEAR SHOW! (Jan 2021) - used for Showcase [SOUTH]

Help! Cooking Hero! (Jan 2021) - used for Will and Oscar clips

A Sweet Spell Garnished With Chocolate (Feb 2021) - used for Showcase [WEST]

Grandiose Chinoiserie (Mar 2021) - used for Showcase [NORTH]

The Hero Is A Detective!? (Mar 2021) - used for Billy and Jay clips

Default backgrounds: Chapters 1, 3, 4 (shared with 7), 5 (shared with 6) - used for all other clips

The Christmas event was the only event that went unused during the Nov 2020 - Mar 2021 period.

I didn’t record the East sector event (Christmas) in Dec 2020 because I was actually too busy with the casting call! I also didn’t think I would make use of it after already recording the Prison event intended for East sector. The project ended up taking so long that it actually benefited from having a wider selection of events over the months, which also showcased the beauty of the game.

ABOUT THE WORK & VIDEO EDITING

Hardware:

A decent computer.

A pair of no-name earbuds I found while cleaning out some junk.

Software:

All FREE!

*There’s a catch

NoxPlayer* emulator (debloated, read more about in its own section) and Open Broadcast Studio were used to record game footage and sounds.

Davinci Resolve was the main tool I used to edit the videos. A very demanding program that I only recommend using if you have a mid to high end computer.

MediBang was used to edit some of the art like the logos, but I ended up using Resolve for the majority of the graphics, including the thumbnails.

Audacity and Cakewalk were used to edit audio.

Many aspects for this project took longer than I had hoped because there was a learning process with using Resolve for the first time. I’m also a bit of a perfectionist, re-exporting videos tons of times just to fix small mistakes. Lastly, the time it took to make all the fancy effects was longer than I’d estimated. As the project dragged on, there was pressure to not delay the release of the videos any longer than I had to. A lot of this was self-imposed though.

There were days where I just did something else other than work on the project, which helped re-fuel my motivation when I decided to pick it up again.

Pretty much everything in the videos were taken from the game itself. The only graphics that were taken from the official website instead were the Substance symbols (the pictures with HERO at the bottom).

Additional overlay graphics were custom-made. It took two whole days to make the 3-second long sector intros and another two days to create and animate the arrow graphics for the credits. These were made using Resolve’s fusion and colour features. Much of the edit was inspired by the official HeliosR designs.

Left: Official in-game graphics // Right: My fanmade video (sector intros)

Sector intros were inspired by the four Heroes version of Union Attacks in-game.

Left: Official HeliosR video // Right: My fanmade video

The Preview video took after the ★4 Burst mini-previews as part of HeliosR’s promotional campaign, uploaded before the game was released.

Left: Official HeliosR video // Right: My fanmade video

The credits at the end of the Showcase were inspired by a different video, this time being the Half-Anniversary video.

The Showcase - which had a duration of 29:07 - was 11.5GB large in size. It took almost three hours to render (which I re-rendered to fix things) and two DAYS to upload to YouTube because I experienced multiple uploading interruptions. It’s a good thing you can re-upload the same video to continue where you left off without having to restart the entire process.

The individual hero clips didn’t take as long to make (but they took a while anyway as I re-uploaded some of them to fix minor mistakes). The recommendations for the VAs that were given alongside the publishing of each clip also spanned over another five days as I wanted to personalize and think about each one carefully.

A pretty frustrating part of the project was the prevalent lag when recording footage, which may have been due to the emulator and/or some technical things on my end. The Prison event used for the Showcase was the very first one I recorded when I wasn’t as aware about the lag, and so it suffered a bit as a result. The Union Attacks were the worst offender. I re-recorded the same battle scenes several times each just in case, then went through the footage frame-by-frame in Resolve and chose the ones with the least amount of lag. If all of the recorded footage suffered lag at different parts, I would even compare and splice together parts of them that didn’t lag. There was also audio lag (a known issue of NoxPlayer) so I had to move all of the audio forward by 1/3 of a second.

By the end of the project I had over 200 videos of game footage with a total size of over 24GB and a total duration exceeding 9 hours, not even counting all the ones that went unused.

The Heroes weren’t the only ones who evolved. MS Paint not recommended for thumbnails.

Overall, (despite the few mistakes here and there that nobody other than me would notice) I was happy with how everything turned out, down to the gorgeous thumbnails! I am an artist, after all~ :^)

I also have much more respect for video editors. They should be called VIDEO ANIMATORS!

ABOUT THE VOICES & AUDIO PROCESSING

When making a dub, it doesn’t mean we want to replace or best the original language, we just want to give it a new interpretation. In fact, the characters’ voice descriptions and direction provided in the scripts were heavily inspired by the seiyuu (Japanese VAs) and how they performed their lines.

Honestly, this was THE dream cast!! Some of the VAs had comparably similar voices to the Japanese ones which was an amazing coincidence. The ones that may not have sounded as similar had unique interpretations that I felt still suited their characters well. I also chose actors based on their performance, and everyone delivered!

Voice actors were not expected to imitate the Japanese voices and lines. They were provided direction and reference videos to help time their lines, but were otherwise given liberty when it came to their own interpretations.

You shouldn’t hear any jarring differences between the voice actors’ microphones and setups. That’s because I took the time to process the audio. Faith’s audio was submitted to me post-processed so it was used as a guideline for what the audio quality should sound like. Some of the others had comparable quality to Faith’s, so I only added compression to balance their volumes. Most of them benefited from equalization of various levels - this took some experimenting back and forth with the frequency spectrum. Lastly, a couple more benefited from clip fixing, noise gate, de-essing and/or click removal. It was very important for VAs to have at least decent room treatment; while small differences between mic frequencies can always be altered, echoes are difficult if not impossible to remove completely.

I feel that audio engineering is highly underrated and more important than ever as voice actors continue to record from home studios.

And in case it wasn’t already clear, this was purely voluntary work. No VAs or myself were paid to contribute anything for the project. Though, the experience alone was worth more than any amount of money.

ABOUT THE SCRIPT & TRANSLATIONS

HELIOS Rising Heroes「エリオスR」English Translation - Battle Lines

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ImWrAfvS_hgp6qr5qt30vCP63uHEk2o79uqY0h-3wL4/edit?usp=sharing

This spreadsheet consists of the literal translations for all the battle lines I could find in the game (it still isn’t done -yet-, plan to finish it when I get the chance). These are only fanmade and are not guaranteed to be accurate, especially as I wasn’t able to find another translator to help or proofread it.

After translating the lines, I made many additional revisions from the literal meanings such as changing the intention of the line slightly to flow better, having extra words added in to provide more context, or changing them completely. Thus, the lines used in the video are NOT literal TLs!

Another thing of note that may not seem apparent, but is what I feel an important aspect of character writing, is to remain completely unbiased towards all the characters. Personal favourites aside, I ensured that every Hero had their own spotlight as well as lines written in a way that remained faithful to their personality, no matter how unlikeable they were (looking at you, Asch Albright).

Even after giving voice actors their scripts, I made another revision in February after the release of the aforementioned Half-Anniversary video with the transcriptions for the ★4 Bursts, which is when I discovered a couple of mistakes with my transcriptions. This resulted in me having to edit out a part of one of the voice actors’ lines (Billy’s “String Show” line in his ★4 Burst) because of a translation mistake! I’m really glad I was able to double-check the correct lines before releasing the Preview video, or it would’ve looked pretty silly to Japanese viewers.

The last set of revisions were just minor edits to the subtitles (such as using kanji instead of kana) while I was working on subtitling all the videos.

Notable changes included:

WILL SPROUT

During attacking combo

Original line:

tanonda zo... ike! / “Counting on you... Reach!”

Rewritten line:

“I’ll become stronger... For everyone!”

The rewritten line is a condensed version of one of Will’s ★4 Evolved CG lines (“For everyone... I’ll become more and more stronger!”). He had “Reach!” in both his attacking combo and regular Burst, so I gave him an extra unique line.

★4 Burst

Original line:

warui kedo... kore de oshimai da! / “Sorry, but... it ends with this!”

Rewritten line:

“I’m sorry, but... it’s over for you! HAAAH!”

There were a couple of oversights I made with the script, and this was one of them that didn’t fit the animation properly. Props to Ryan for coming up with the extra shout at the end! So yeah, we kinda winged this line.

OSCAR BALE

When using skills against the enemy, during attacking combo, and in the ★4 Burst (repeat line)

Original line:

osoi! / “Slow!”

Rewritten lines:

“Too slow!” / “You’re slow!” / “Over here!”

Rewritten simply because I wanted to minimize repeated lines and change things up.

GAST ADLER

When supporting an ally, and during attacking combo

Original lines:

tetsudau ze / “I’ll help (you).”

itchouagari / “All done.”

Rewritten lines:

“I’ve got your six.”

“Target eliminated.”

I wanted to add in a few military terms to reflect Gast’s background.

FAITH BEAMS

★4 CG line (for the credits)

Original line (literal TL):

“It’s not terrible or evil, right? Surely this isn’t punishing... I guess?”

Rewritten line (with “mistake”):

“I’m not doing anything horrible or evil, alright? This is just business as usual... I suppose?”

Faith’s CG line had a mistake when I first translated and handed it off to his actor. I accidentally wrote “oshigoto” (work/business) instead of “oshioki” (punishment). The original has him pretty much saying the same thing twice anyway, so I would say the intention was still retained.

KEITH MAX

When supporting an ally

Original line:

gambare yo~ / “Do your best~.” or “Hang in there~.”

Rewritten line:

“Stay alive, would ya~?”

I know Keith’s meant to say “serious” things in a sarcastic or snarky way, but I just had to add in this fun line!

DINO ALBANI

Using skills against the enemy

Original lines:

haa! / “Haah!”

hei! / “Hey!”

Rewritten lines:

“I can do this!”

“Leave it to me!”

The Japanese lines for Dino’s offensive skills were rather basic, with the third and unchanged line “Here goes!” being a repeat line Dino also says when attacking. I wanted to give him some more lines - as standard as they are - to show his personality a bit more, along with having an additional fun West sector interaction. The changes fit the animations better too. (I actually had his VA say the "Haah!" line, but ended up using a different take of “Here goes!” in place of it.)

ABOUT THE FONTS

Fonts were taken from various sources and were either FREE for personal use or had an open font license. I didn’t have access to the commercial fonts (such as Futura) used in-game, so these were the following fonts I made use of:

Techna Sans looked similar enough to Futura when capitalized, and still looked decent in lowercase.

Jost* is a font that was derived from Futura. Some of its uppercase letters are sharper than Futura's, but it worked pretty well for the text in the credits.

Gau Font Over Drive was used for the ANIMATION SHOWCASE text.

Gen Jyuu Gothic LP was used for the majority of the Japanese text and its English letters were also used for the battle clip subtitles on Twitter.

Meiryo UI (default font) was used for the Preview videos’ subtitles.

Noto Serif JP (default Google font) was used for the serif Japanese text in the credits.

ABOUT NOXPLAYER ANDROID EMULATOR

ETA: AS OF VERSION 1.1.18 (04/23/21), EMULATORS NO LONGER WORK WITH HELIOSR (AS WELL AS OTHER CACALIA STUDIO GAMES). THE BELOW INFORMATION IS OUTDATED.

If, for whatever reason you’re interested in using NoxPlayer, you should take caution when installing it onto your machine. I don’t advocate for or recommend installing Nox. I had to resort to emulation so that I could record the footage and sounds directly from my computer using OBS. The reason why I used Nox specifically is because Cacalia Studio doesn’t like emulators, blocking most of them from running their games. I found further instructions on how to run the game in Nox from the Cacalia RPG Discord (via Twitter @HeliosR_en).

First, not all Nox versions are safe. It should only be installed from the official website, Bignox. More recent versions (I believe from 6.3.0.6 and up) may contain malware such as Segurazo and Chromium packaged with the installer which can be annoying to remove. The version of Nox I used was 6.3.0.0 (you can install older versions, then just don’t update it), which has Android 7 and doesn’t contain packaged malware (AFAIK).

Second, NoxPlayer may be “free” to use, but it comes with bloatware and profits off of its users’ data by collecting and sending it to many different servers. The below guide is what I used to debloat Nox and minimize communication to these servers. Scroll down the comments for additional domains to add to the hosts file.

Debloating & Optimizing Nox:

https://gist.github.com/Log1x/12d330ef7685d6fbc611d1d57efb5c29

This is another good guide that makes use of command prompt to remove additional bloatware from the emulator.

How to Remove Bloatware on Nox and LDPlayer Emulator:

https://codefaq.org/emulator/how-to-remove-bloatware-on-nox-and-ldplayer-emulator/

ENDING NOTES (TL;DR)

Images of the first and last video for the HeliosR project. We’ve come full circle!

One very tired and average person decided to translate, script, cast, direct, and edit an ambitious project all by herself using only FREE tools, and ended up taking too long to finish it. But at least she finished it, right?

Translators = RESPECT

Voice actors = RESPECT

Video editors = RESPECT

Audio engineers = R E S P E C T (their work is especially behind-the-scenes)

Hell, I even like Asch now.

During my time working on this, there was one question I always had in mind: “What would the fans want?”

I hope this follow-up has given you a bit of insight into the makings of the HeliosR project. Thank you for reading!

~RubyJCat

[letterboxd]

Touching the Void.

Searching for cinema that soothes? Ella Kemp suggests it could be as simple as looking for a film poster with a white background.

How many weeks has it been? When did any of us last go blindly into a cinema and take a chance on something new? Film-watching in the time of Covid-19 has changed. The immediate and never-ending news of the world is frightening. Is it still, and more than ever, okay for me to sink into movies to alleviate my mood, just for a bit? How is that even possible when the world has come to a standstill?

We are forced to adapt, and it has taken some time for my attention span and emotional capacity to adjust. But I think I might have found a solution, and I have the meticulous list-makers of Letterboxd to thank. It was Izzy’s list of comfort movies that first lit the fuse. Specifically, the second, third and fourth row; films including Billy Elliot, Clueless, School of Rock.

Fifteen stark posters, speaking one truth: We are vulnerable and nervous. What we need is a film poster with a white background to assure us the movie exists entirely to serve and soothe us.

Part of Izzy’s ‘comfort movies’ list.

List-making on Letterboxd has never been more prolific. Pandemic movies, overdue filmography catch-ups, comfort movies galore. Everyone categorizes and logs their watches differently, but Izzy’s pattern speaks to me with an epiphanic answer. I’ve always admired successful color-coding, but now I see its crucial function.

As I scroll for distraction, for something guaranteed to be good (because I cannot and will not be subject to any uncertainty I can avoid), I see the rainbow. The pale blues of Studio Ghibli, Wong Kar-wai’s passionate reds, the pastels of Netflix Original breezy romances. Like some kind of cinematic ikebana, countless Letterboxd members have mastered the art of arranging film posters. There are standouts: the staggering oeuvre that is Gordon’s chromatic roundup of favorite posters; the comprehensive color-graded history of women directors via their best posters, courtesy of Vanessa; and the penchant for beige in the year 2015, as spotted by Letterboxd co-founder Matthew Buchanan.

A selection of Gordon’s favorite movie posters.

But when I see these 300 examples, color-coded by typography and accents by Sera Ash, I recognize that white movie posters are the ones most likely, in this very strange time, to take care of me. I see it in three distinct filmmaking periods: Disney animations from the 1940s and 50s, the video marketing for cult comedies of the 1980s and 90s, and the alternative marketing materials of my favorite films of the 2010s. Each poster is straightforward and inoffensive. It captures the story, but never dares to impress or intimidate beyond basic description.

A 1975 re-release poster for ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ (1937).

In 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs announced the birth of Walt Disney’s feature-length empire. While its original theatrical poster is also mostly white, it is represented on Letterboxd by a 1975 re-release poster depicting a peek through the keyhole: a curved triangle framing Snow White, the dwarves, and the two sides of the jealous queen, against a vivid green forest. In the bottom corner, a castle. To the left, the title—her name in red cursive, theirs in black. These simple images come together to present an elementary summary of the ingredients within. The white frame showcases the seminal animation craft without suggesting the viewer diverts their eye anywhere else.

This technique was common across other animated titles, collected in lists like dantebk’s Disney animated classics. Pinocchio toys with the hyperreal relationships between characters alive and wooden, human and animal—but does so on a plain canvas, so that the magic remains within reach. Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, Peter Pan—each follows suit. Whether with the mustard yellow of a circus tent, the faint sketches of grass tufts, the gold dust of an enchanted fairy godmother or the ink blue of a midnight starry sky, these colors (indicative of each defining scene-setter or mood-maker) only pepper a blank background, and so make their significance ever greater with the most sporadic touches.

A selection from dantebk’s list of Disney animated classics.

Live-action knockouts from these decades��films like The Shop Around The Corner and The Red Shoes—embrace painted recreations of their protagonists (Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart as festive lovers in the former, Moira Shearer as a tortured ballerina in the latter) and use the color red as a signifier of romance, against a plain white page, to set the mood. Slashes and splashes of red have been used to create a vibe in genre cinema for many decades—a trend deftly chronicled in this list by Rocks.

As far as we know, the underpinnings of digital photography began in the 1950s, and the first published color digital photograph dates back to 1972, when Michael Francis Tompsett shot a photo of his wife Margaret for the cover of Electronics magazine. Consumers got their hands on the gear in the late 1990s, but movie studios really started to make the most of sharp digital photography and stark white backgrounds for their striking posters from the late 1980s onwards. Because, never mind the multiplex, the video store is where you wanted your comfort fare to stand out in the 1980s and 90s.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) and Say Anything… (1989) form a handsome, trend-setting 1980s pair. While the theatrical poster for Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything… deigned to include John Cusack’s co-star, Ione Skye, by the time of the film’s video release, the focus is clearly on pre-High Fidelity Cusack, as proud underachiever Lloyd Dobler, smouldering lopsidedly under the weight of a boombox. It’s the singular image of the film to this day.

Meanwhile, Matthew Broderick as Ferris-slacking-Bueller is making the most of his title activity, arms behind his head, a proud smirk on his face. Nothing else matters except that these charismatic young stars are stepping up to leading-man status. The white background accentuates the star power of these new boys in town, embracing the limelight in one fell swoop.

Star power is everything: beautiful people doing simple things against empty backdrops, because what could be more important than the regularity of symmetrical bone structure, of familiar charm? The trend boomed in the 1990s and 2000s, in films widely embraced by casual moviegoers. The sort who list “watching Netflix” as a Sunday activity on dating profiles and use the Christmas holidays to rewatch comedies they have memorized over dozens of half-attentive viewings (absolutely zero judgement here!).

The vast majority of these films have white posters. Who is your soothing cup of charm: Tom Hanks on a bench, nothing more nothing less, from 1994’s Forrest Gump? Or Heath Ledger, effortlessly cool, leaning on the brown corduroy armchair Julia Stiles sits in for the 10 Things I Hate About You poster from 1999? (The 90s harnessed the increased appeal of having two lookers just sitting and posing against a plain background, as demonstrated in this chilling list by Ashley.)

Ashley’s list of couples posing in front of a white background.

Will Ferrell had been earning his stripes as an actor for years, but he changed the movie comedy game as Buddy the Elf in 2003. There’s plenty of visual humour in Elf, but Ferrell’s coat-stand posture bedecked in festive green velvet and those tights is… enough. A white background lets the ridicule slide, just.

How many Disney series really deserve a whole movie—and one that stands the test of time? Lizzie McGuire, resting on her tiptoes with a swinging suitcase in hand, sells The Lizzie McGuire Movie like no idyllic views of Rome ever could. It’s reaching out to an audience loyal to the character, one who will follow her to the ends of the Earth, or at least to another continent. Hilary Duff could be doing almost anything on this poster and it would achieve the same effect—so long as the white background remains plain enough to keep eagle-eyed fans on the main event at all times.

It’s surprising that the star-making system only let Meryl Streep appear in a tiny box, one of four character tiles, on the poster for The Devil Wears Prada in 2006. But the design here taps into 1940s animated sensibilities, giving prominence to a devilish red Macguffin larger than the humans. It still achieves the same function—a glossy, glamorous design with the accessible sell of a quotable, star-fuelled comedy.

Red may be the color of romance and the devil; it’s also the color of comedy. Exhibit A: the 2007 gross-out comedy Superbad, whose star power—marking the emergence of Jonah Hill and Michael Cera—is used to an opposite and impressive effect on its poster. The awkwardness of these teen boys—lanky, unkempt, insecure—is what cinches the comedy. The simplicity of the poster design, with their uncomfortable posture against, well, nothing at all, further anchors their incapability of facing the world in any confident way, shape or form.

There are countless more examples, like Marley & Me, Bridesmaids, 27 Dresses (notice how the red type is replaced by pink when the film’s plot veers toward the altar). But to understand the curious and timeless appeal of the white movie poster, what happened to it in the 2010s cements its adaptable strength.

As the art of graphic design has continued to bloom, the aesthetic argument for the colorless color-block movie poster has shifted to embrace a film’s context. Consider Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs, the enjoyable 2015 drama that provided Michael Fassbender one of the most under-celebrated roles of his career, playing the late Apple co-founder. The poster turns the canvas into a blank screen: the title is typed, the text insertion point poised, waiting for the next key press. As Jobs, Fassbender occupies the bottom right corner, in profile, thinking.

This starkness makes sense: what’s next, Steve? It offers a rare example of a poster from the past decade that fully leans into the monochrome aesthetic entirely on purpose—to serve the restrained and unequivocal need for white. (And it’s interesting to compare with the marketing narrative for an earlier film about another tech leader: observe how Jesse Eisenberg’s Mark Zuckerberg eyeballs us from The Social Network’s dark-mode poster.)

Comfort movies don’t own the white poster, of course. Jordan Peele’s Get Out toys, both in its marketing and its delivery, with the binaries of black and white. It’s deployed on-screen with sophisticated horror, and this extends to its two most graphic poster variants.

While one poster sees Daniel Kaluuya’s character, Chris, sat on a chair split vertically between black and white, the all-white poster allows only a center-frame letterbox to reveal Chris’s enormous eyes, accompanied by an all-caps type treatment. The vast expanse of white only makes the image more menacing, framing the claustrophobia so effectively. The landscape crop is a device that defines stern dramas as much as arthouse comedies, as documented by Haji Abdul Karim in their expansive list.

Haji Abdul Karim’s list of white-with-landscape-image posters.

But back in the ‘comfort’ realm, we’re seeing more and more that the marketing wants to have it both ways—the negative with the positive; the art house audience and the multiplex crowd. As genres blend, demographics collapse and audiences become more fluid, a film’s advertising needs to speak more languages.

Two ultra-comfort films from last year demonstrate this idea well. The poster for Judy sees a backlit Renée Zellweger finding her light, receiving her applause. Black is the key color, right down to the classic little black dress; the eye is drawn to the title, spelled out in red sequins. It’s showbiz, it’s drama. Though the film itself fudges a few of the more uncomfortable facts of the star’s story, it’s still honest about her addictions.

In the white-background version, which was more widely distributed, Zellweger, in a floral dress, turns away from the light. The name still sparkles, but in softened gold. There’s no less glamor, the stakes in the film are just as high, but she’s perhaps more accessible like this. The focus, as it was in the 90s, 80s, 40s, returns to the main event.

Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, too, played with dark and light. The indie queen released her previous film, Lady Bird, via design-conscious distributor A24, and Gerwig’s singular aesthetics promised that her Little Women remake would be worlds away from all the others. But when the first images for the film were released, the marketing campaign was questioned by die-hard Gerwig fans.

Both of the group posters are curiously stripped back, freezing Louisa May Alcott’s beloved March sisters in a moment. In the darker image, they gaze out a window, secure in their festive domestic bubble, but set on what’s beyond. There’s more to life, and the film, than this room. It feels more lush, painterly, certainly more dramatic.

Whereas the white poster, at first, seemed like a mistake. It took one of the first images teased from the film and just... dropped it onto a poster. The March sisters look as if solidified by clay, entirely undynamic and at odds with the fluidity and warm soul Gerwig had made herself known for in her filmmaking.

And yet, nothing matters more than these characters. Beth, Jo, Meg and Amy are holding each other, happy, each in their own favourite color, and there is nothing more to fight over. The white-poster alternative lets the 2010s viewer stay attached to the most important part of the film.

The lessons here? A white poster is a vital sign that you’re safe here. You’ve made the correct choice. Attention spans are dwindling, options are expanding, focus is difficult. The promise of a white frame tells me what matters, what is good, where I should place my time and my value. For now.

[spnfanficpond]

October 2019 Pond LiveChat Recap

We had a great time chatting with @evansrogerskitten tonight! Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your wisdom!

Today, we got together and talked about writing smut! We discussed the legalities around sharing smut on the internet, vocabulary choices, created a spreadsheet of terms we can all share and use, and encouraged each other to not be afraid to just write. A rundown of the chat, as well as general Pond news, is below the cut. Due to the nature of the chat, there may be some parts of this recap that might be considered NSFW. 

To start us off, @mrswhozeewhatsiswrites shared some research into the legalities of posting erotica on the internet as it relates to minors. (We are not legal experts. This information was obtained through Google searches. If anyone can provide links to sources that contradict these, we will add them to this post to ensure the most correct information is provided here.)

Michelle: To try and keep it short and sweet, from everything I read, if a minor reads smut online, it's not the writer's, poster's, or web site's responsibility to keep it from them. It is the parent's, or the school's/library's responsibility. (Basically, whoever is providing the internet connection to the minor is responsible for filtering out content that might be harmful to that minor, not the parties creating or disseminating that content online.) Schools and libraries and other institutions that get government funds are usually required to have some sort of filter in place to prevent minors from accessing porn and erotica. 

What makes this so difficult to research is that written erotica is not mentioned very often in obscenity laws. Most laws focus on images or videos, not the written word. 

No matter what it is, though, to be prosecuted under obscenity laws, the material must first be ruled to be obscene. Legally, there is a difference between obscenity and erotica. Obscenity is generally illegal, and erotica is protected speech. There are many different sets of rules and guidelines that have been used to determine if something is considered obscene or not. The most widely used current set of guidelines is the Miller test. From my research, most (if not all) erotic fan fiction would not be considered obscene because of its ‘literary, artistic, political, or scientific value’.

Some interesting links in relation to this subject that go into detail:

Wikipedia - US Obscenity Law - About halfway down, there is a section on non image-based obscenity cases in the US. The first part of this section, which deals with the written word, is very enlightening about the differences between obscenity and erotica. Further down is a section about criticism of the laws which shows some of the gaps in the law where free speech lives. Continuing on, the section about censorship in schools and libraries explains the part CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) plays in protecting minors from material that could be considered harmful to them.

Online Art Rights - Sexual Content - This site details the many attempts at limiting indecent material on the internet through the years. (Scroll down and click on the plus signs in the black bars to expand each section.) In each case cited, the court ruled that to ban all objectionable material would interfere with free speech because it would reduce all content to a level appropriate for children. They also concluded that since less restrictive means exist, such as user-controlled filters and the like, those tools can be used without reducing all discourse on the internet. The section on Child Pornography at the bottom might be of interest to anyone who writes Weecest smut, though.

The only possible exception that I think would affect the SPN fandom would be those who write Weecest smut. Child pornography seems to be the exception to every rule that protects free speech. Where every other depiction of a sex act might have a ‘but’ that makes it erotica (and therefore legal) instead of obscenity, child pornography in any medium is considered obscenity. Anything that even just looks like child porn is considered child porn, even if no children were a part of the making of it. This includes cartoons and CGI and adults made up to look like kids. If it’s advertised as children in a sexual situation, it’s child porn. So, I imagine it could extend to written erotica IF someone were to decide to push it.

Now, that’s a huge if. Someone would have to read it, object to it, and insist on prosecution for it. I think if that were going to happen, given 15 years of SPN fan fiction, it would have happened by now. But I would still keep my Weecest smut-free, or implied, or at least over the age of consent (which varies, so 18 is just easiest to use). 

Also, AO3 complies with the laws regarding filtering for minors. If you do not have an account, you are required to click through a step that tells you that you are about to view something explicit. That's really all that sites and such are required to do. Hence, Tumblr making you click through and view on dash blogs they mark as explicit.

@emilyshurley I think there might also be a sorta solution just to play it safe. I saw that people who make mods for games like Sims 4 and stuff have a page for terms of download. What that is is that if you click their masterlist it will take you to a post where they list their conditions and have the words "I agree" and link the actual masterlist to that. Now this might take a little effort but we could add something similar before our masterlists.

This is all legal stuff, not site-specific rules. Each site can implement their own decency rules and enforce them how they see fit. For example, Tumblr, as a company, can decide to delete your blog. (They’ve stopped doing this since The Purge, now just marking each blog explicit and making you click on a couple things to get to those blogs they deem explicit.) Should they choose to do this, it does not mean that you’re in trouble with the law.

Now, onto the fun stuff!

Q: What is the first thing you think of when someone asks you for advice about writing smut?

Ash: Word choice- don't make the reader cringe. It's easy to fall into that because smut can be graceful and tasteful if it's done right. And that starts with thinking through word choice and how the scene is flowing. It's not easy to write smut! I think a lot of non-writer readers do not realize that.

Note: During the chat, we created a Google Sheets spreadsheet, with two sheets in it, with lists of words to use to refer to different things when you’re writing smut. The first sheet is Good Words, and the second sheet is Bad Words. Everyone can enter words they like and don’t like on both sheets, and we’ll crowd-source this problem! Check it out and add your favorites!

Michelle: A smut scene takes ten times as long for me to write as anything else. Just keeping track of limbs is difficult! And clothing....sometimes, I just make them dry hump so I don't have to deal with removing all the clothing! Other times, it's just, "Somehow, you suddenly found yourself naked." Like, there's a million great ways to get characters naked, but if I'm tired, angels snap.

@fictionalabyss (Mel): I've read stuff where a position makes no sense and it ruins the whole thing for me. Michelle: I actually bought a couple of those posable dolls from IKEA. (IKEA - GESTALTA, Artist’s figure)  @babypieandwhiskey (Cam): I’ll have to use my daughter’s old Barbie dolls! I can keep track of both limbs and clothing!

Q: Ash, what are a few of the words that turn you off when you're reading smut?

Ash: It's usually words that sound so "romance novel"-ish to me. So "turgid member" is a good example. Please no one ever write that. Mel: Sometimes, keeping it simple is the safest and best bet. Ash: Absolutely, Mel! Sometimes we don't need all the extra words if we're showing the heat that's already there between them. 

[What followed was a long discussion of various terms you definitely should not use in serious smut. They’ve all been added to the spreadsheet linked above, so fee free to check it out.]

Michelle: EVERYONE has those words that squick them, and it's damn near impossible to write a smut scene that doesn't include a word that will squick someone out there. So, don't stress about what words you do or don't use, cuz there's always gonna be someone out there who doesn't like something. Just make sure YOU think what you're writing is hot. If you don't get warm under the collar from it, no one else will, either. Ash: I highly recommend everyone is reading their fics out loud to see how it all flows. You'll catch errors and weird words there too.

Q: Ash, how do you get in the frame of mind to write something you personally have never experienced? For example, certain kinks.

Ash: Whiskey? LOL No, I do a lot of research- google, porn, erotica. Trying something out in person helps too! But we're writing fiction. You can make a kink work for your scenario too.I mean, I've written a reader squirting after 5 minutes to move things along but we all know it takes longer usually. And that's the fun! I've never actually been with 2 dudes but I f-ing love writing it. @atc74 (Angelina): I've always said I don't need to kill someone to write a murder scene. Ash: Smut is all about having an open mind. It lets us and the readers be someone else. 

Question submitted earlier by @erins-culinary-service: I've wanted to try writing smut but never known exactly how to start and what words to use to describe everything. I've had sex so I know the sensations, positions, etc I'm just not sure how to write it all down any advice?

Ash: So sometimes I can't just start from "they kissed..." I start wherever I can see it best. So is it oral sex, or already doing it, I just jump in. And then I come back and fill it in. And I just write, no stopping once I get going. So the "cock into her hole" can be fixed later on my next edit. I just gotta get the idea out and then go back and make it hot. My smut is never hot in my first draft.  Michelle: I think that's what stops a lot of writers, is thinking they have to publish their first draft. Editing is totally a thing. Just get the ideas on paper, and then make them hot later. Ash: Oh yeah, I go through at least 3 drafts per fic. Plus my beta version. Yeah, no one is ever going to see your drafts so don't worry about starting somewhere, anywhere.  Michelle: And remember, practice practice practice - As with any writing, the more you write it, the easier it becomes. I wrote Third Wheel as a way to challenge myself with writing smut. Do a kink bingo or alphabet challenge. Just remember, you’re gonna write crap at the start, but crap makes good compost. Ash: Taking some time between edits is important too. It'll help you see different ways, AND you'll start having breakthroughs during the time away. Bingos are a great challenge that will help a writer grow.  Cam: Writing smut is like sex, you're first time is going to be awkward and things won't be perfect, but with practice it gets better. Mel: I have a series that shows even the millionth time having sex isn't perfect and can be all laughs 🤣. But yeah.

Question submitted earlier by @focusonspn: i wanted to know about ways and words to describe orgasms and how to approach the moment after it without being awkward or forced. some people say those are the easiest things to write, but somehow i always have a hard moment trying to write them.

Ash: Hmmmm, as for the moments after- that's understandable, it is hard because its a transition. I think it's doesn't have to be an extended part of it- unless they're about to have a talk or aftercare needs a scene, it can be as simple as "we drifted off to sleep." Michelle: As always, my advice is to read smut that other people write that you like, and take note of what they do. Mel: Someone can get up and get dressed and leave. They can play in the fluids. They can lay there catching their breaths for a moment. It can be simple. Sometimes it doesn't need a flourish and that flourish can make it seem forced. Michelle: I think it depends on what type of smut fic you're writing. Is it fluffy smut where they're all in LOVE and kissy and stuff? Or is it Soulless Sam and Demon Dean just getting down and dirty and claiming you for themselves? Or, Soulless Sam or Demon Dean just getting their rocks off and they don't give a shit? @emilyshurley (Emily): Also this might be my f*cked up brain but I think if someone is not comfortable with a lot of fluffy buildup to smut trying soulless!Sam or Demon!Dean could be a great start. You also have a little room to do a little out of character.  Michelle: We are blessed with a world that includes all types of characters and all types of situations, from curses (sex pollen, love potions, etc) to supernatural beings, to inspire and give us chances to write all kinds of smut. There are no limits to what you can do in Supernatural, so there are no limits to what we can write.  Ash: Yeah we can really make most kinks work in some way in the SPN worlds.  Emily: Also again with going out of character I read a captain America fic where it could have been a little out of character how he jumped straight to sex (someone commented that) but sex pollen made it work. So basically these tropes/kinks can also be good devices for writing NSFW fics to if you struggle to get the characters write in the beginning.

Other links mentioned:

Emily: I saw this advice list on Tumblr, so thought I should share it: List of Smut Writing Guides

Ash: This one, too: @smut-101′s Smut Tips Masterlist 

And last, but definitely not least...

Ash: Always, always, always write for you. Readers come and go but you have to be satisfied and proud of what you've written. And everyone should get so much credit for trying to write smut. It's difficult but its does get easier and more fun with practice!

General Pond Updates and Reminders

What we’ve got cooking up next: Not much, at the moment, since everyone is busy, so we’re just trying to keep up with the day-to-day at the moment! Our to do list is still long, though, and will not be neglected forever!

Reminders:

Angel Fish Award nominations are accepted all month long! No need to wait to tell us how much you liked a fellow Fish’s work!  IF YOU HAVE SENT IN A NOMINATION, BUT HAVE NOT RECEIVED A PRIVATE MESSAGE CONFIRMING WE RECEIVED IT, WE DIDN’T GET IT. Be sure to use Submit instead of Ask!

Don’t forget to submit your stories to be posted to the blog! When your stories are on the blog, then they are easier to nominate for Angel Fish Awards!

Say hi to September’s New Members!

Check the Pond CALENDAR to see when Big Fish will be in the Skype chat room/discord general channel and other Pond and SPN events are happening! Know of something that’s not on the calendar, send us an ask or submission with the deets info details!  The calendar offers a lot of features, such as showing you when things are in your own timezone! Since we’re an international group, that’s a definite plus!!

We don’t have a topic or speaker set up for November’s event, yet, so if there’s something you want to talk about, or someone you want to talk to, LET US KNOW!

[temaporal]

Olivia Wilde Directs a Different Kind of Sex Scene in her film ‘Booksmart’ | The Off Camera Show

I think that this conversation demonstrates the potential for diversity in TV and film production roles, especially directing, to revolutionize the medium--not only because diverse creators will tell different stories in new ways, but because they will challenge accepted conventions around how things get made.

The Off Camera Show is full of great conversations like this, and it’s one of many YouTube channels that I follow on the topic of TV and film. (They also have full episodes available on Netflix.) Rather than share those channels here piecemeal, I’ll just create a list to be updated periodically.

Industry

Be Kind Rewind - Hollywood history with an emphasis on the Best Actress Oscars category from year to year.

The Off Camera Show - I tend to think of this channel as “Inside the Actors Therapy” because they so often get into these deep and emotionally honest conversations. They interview more than just actors, but acknowledging that would cost me the joke.

Criticism/Story Analysis

Jenny Nicholson - Nicholson puts together such incisive and compelling analyses, I’ll watch even if I’m indifferent to the franchise in question. Her interpretations and script doctoring are often far more interesting to me than the source material.

Lindsay Ellis - Pop culture criticism spanning “Disney, Transformers, and Musicals,” all with a sardonic sense of humor. Ellis has also partnered with PBS to produce the “It’s Lit!” series.

Pop Culture Detective - Socially conscious analysis of themes and tropes, from the creator of the fantastic Buffy vs. Edward video!

PushingUpRoses - Fun ‘80s and ‘90s retrospectives featuring Goosebumps, Murder She Wrote, and old video games.

The Take fka ScreenPrism - Awesome TV and film analysis. I’m particularly fond of their series of Mad Men character studies.

Production/Technical Analysis

Every Frame a Painting - This channel ended its creation of new content in December 2017, but the backlog is worth watching.

Lessons from the Screenplay - Video essays breaking down techniques in screenwriting, using individual films as case studies.

Nerdwriter1 - This channel zeroes in on stories from a smattering of fields ranging from film to literature to music to art history.

Now You See It - Video essays can run very long on YouTube, so it’s refreshing to find a channel that offers bite-sized analysis. Now You See It deconstructs storytelling in segments under 20 minutes, and often under 10.

Polyphonic - This channel focuses on music, not TV or film, but dissects it in a similar way. In the end, it was too interesting for me to leave out.

Screenplayed - Final cuts of movie scenes juxtaposed against their original scripts. It’s a simple concept but reveals a lot about how the writing at the core of a story translates to an audiovisual medium.

Vanity Fair - Vanity Fair produces a number of video series centered on pop culture, but I wanted to highlight Reverse Film School. Each video examines a particular role on a filmmaking team, revealing what craftsmanship and expertise goes into every aspect of a production.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Smokey brand Movie Reviews: I’m In Lesbians With You

It occurs to me that i don’t have a proper review of Scott Pilgrim on here. I really should work through the current backlog of films that i still need to watch; Uncut Gems, The Lighthouse, Parasite, Ready or Not, but i f*cking love Scott and his shenanigans so... Scott Pilgrim it is! Considering how much i love this film and the fact that I’m just going to be gushing about it for however long this review is, let’s just get this out of the way immediately: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is an excellent movie and you should go watch it right now!

The Outstanding

Yo, before anything, can i just express how much i adore this f*cking soundtrack? My taste in music is varies wildly but, at it’s core, my heart beats for the Indie and the New Wave and the Post Punk. For this soundtrack to be packed with so much excellent, underground, indie fair? Oh, my goodness! It’s musical sex to me. Shout out to Nigel Godrich. Motherf*cker did the best of jobs on this one!

Even more than that, the way all of this music is integrated in each scene s absolutely brilliant. There’s not one note out of place or out of line. It’s rare that happens, so deftly that i actually recognize it. Usually, it’s all background noise to accentuate whatever scene but i legit took in everything.

While on the subject of music, i want to take a minute to acknowledge the sound design as a whole. Scott Pilgrim is based on a graphic novel, which i also love, so there is a rather kinetic energy that needs to be conveyed. It’s chock full of all the spastic nonsense us Millennials grew up with like Mario token sound effects and obscure cartoon references. Integrating certain sound effects like the random game noises here or there is absolute brilliance. It lends an air of authenticity to this adaption.

While i can gush about all of the audible genius for years, i would be remiss if i didn’t speak on the goddamn eye candy of this film. Holy sh*t is thing gorgeous! And not just the Evil Ex set pieces, even though those are absolute chaotic bad-assery, this entire film is a work of art. It really is. You can frame almost every shot in this thing, it’s that gorgeous.

Speaking of gorgeous, these costumes are amazing. A lot of them are ripped right out of the comic but they’re like, real clothes. Nothing feels cartoony or comic book-ish, it all feels organic to the tone of film and characters therein. Like, i wear the same kind of sh*t Scott wears. It’s all graphic tees and jeans with me, much to the chagrin of my darling missus.

The writing in this flick is absolutely brilliant. Like, seriously, nothing feels out of place, the dialogue feels organic, and the plot is a pretty decent condensing of the graphic novels original six volumes. I have interactions like these with my friends. I legitimately talk like this. Of course, there is a little polish on some of these line but, overall, it’s pretty on point.

All of this standout awesome can be traced back to the vision of it’s director, Edgar Wright. No one believed in this little experiment so he had carte blanche to create whatever he wanted and he did just that. You can tell there was a real love for this material and while not everything from the books made it into the movie, he did an excellent job of capturing the major beats and important aspects with his absolute mad style of movie making.

The cast in this thing is weirdly perfect. All of them. Every one of them. Seriously, it’s like a who’s who of young Hollywood from way back when, almost all of whom have grown into proper A-list talent and i love it! Alison Pill, Anna Kendrick, Jason Schwartzmen, Ellen Wong, Brandon Routh, and Mae Whitman are all excellent in their respective roles. There are, of course, standouts but before i get to them, i just what to acknowledge how great the casting is, overall, in this movie. You can feel the comradery onset and it’s reflected in the fact that there are no weak performances, at all, in this flick. F*ck, dude, there’s even a Thomas Jane and Clifton Collins cameo in this thing that feels absolutely at home!

This film would be nothing without the right person in the lead. Scott Pilgrim is a neuritic, self-centered, anxiety ridden, asshole of person but still lovable in a very dry and sarcastic kind of way. There are very few that can capture that energy so when i found out Michael Cera as cast in the lead, i knew this movie was in good hands. Every movie i have ever seen him in, Cera carries that energy expertly. He is he living embodiment of Scott Pilgrim. Like, this is MCU levels of casting, for real.

The second role you had to nail to make this work was definitely Ramona Flowers. You had a little more leeway with this one but i think they still nailed it with Mary Elizabeth Winstead. I’ve been a fan of hers since way back when she was in Sky High (I actually love that movie SO much) and even further back with The Ring Two, but that’s more a deep cut than anything. Anyway, Mary is perfect as Ramona and one of the best things about this movie.

So the performances of the Evil Exes are spectacular, Particularly Schwartzman’s. His Gideon Graves was just so smarmy and condescending and disingenuous you couldn’t help but hate his guts. Dude was awesome, no doubt, but he was outshined by what Chris Evan was able to create with Lucas Lee. That’s right, Captain America himself was in Scott Pilgrim as the first Evil Ex and he f*cking killed it! I’ve loved Evans for years. Not Another Teen Movie is actual one of my favorites and he was easily the best thing about those first two Fantastic Four films but you can see him shine in this role, even if it was only a few minutes.

It’s no secret i love Brie Larson. I’ve raved about her performances in the past but it was this movie that made me take notice. Her interpretation of Envy Adams was pitch perfect. It’s melodramatic and over-the-top but at the same time, incredibly vulnerable. Natalie has one hell of an arc in the book and it’s a little short-changed in the movie, but Larson makes gold with what she has to work with. Plus, she actually performs the cover to Metric’s Black Sheep. Those are her vocals and i find that to be absolutely dope.

Of course, you can’t talk about Scott Pilgrim without talking about his gay roommate, Wallace Wells. Dude is one of the best characters in the book and is an absolute scene stealer n this film, thanks to the deft hand of Kieran Culkin. It’s hard for me to praise gay character in cinema because cats always right them as caricature but Culkin’s Wells feels real and grounded, none of that Hollywood gay bullsh*t. Dude is a person that just happens to be gay and i love that.

And last but not least, Aubrey Plaza. There’s a little picture of Julie Powers that is the spitting image of Plaza. Like, her casting is as perfect as Scott’s casting. Seriously, she is what Michael Cera is to Pilgrim. It’s rare a cast in a film is so goddamn perfect. Even the MCU has had some missed but literally every one in this film is absolutely prefect and Plaza might be best of all.

Also, all of the LGBT representation. While the movie didn’t capture all of the many, many, sexual presentations, they didn’t shy away from some of the most prominent. Pilgrim’s roommate Wallace Wells, is extra gay and he has a myriad of boyfriends throughout both the book and film. Nothing too graphic, but there are scenes with them in bed and one pretty heavy make-out sessions early in the film. Hell, they even included Ramona’s one female Ex, Roxy Richter, in one of the best Evil Ex fights of the entire movie. Bravo film, bravo.

The Verdict

I said this in the beginning and just in case the previous gushing didn’t give you a clue, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a f*cking great film, man. It stands on it’s own as a wonderful coming of age story but it’s so much more than that. It’s a love story to music. It’s one of the best comic adaptions i have ever seen. It’s an ode to the Millennial coming-of-age journey. It’s a nostalgia bomb for kids my age, who did sh*t like play video games all day then spend all night in coffee shops that had live music and f*cking waffles. It’s an amazing representation, and unique presentation, of those early twenties when you aren’t sure of yourself or your direction or anything and you just want to drift through life for as long as possible. It’s heartbreak and new love and learning about who you are, deep down, not some shallow representation or facade. I love Scott Pilgrim because it tells a great story. It tells MY story. And it does it with a banging ass soundtrack, too.

[jupitermelichios]

Batman & Robin is the only good live-action Batman movie since 1966. No really.

(To be clear, when I say good in this case, I mean the only good adaptation, not the only well-made made film. Joel Schumacher has never made a competent film in his life, and while I’m fairly sure Christopher Nolan doesn’t have a soul, he is definitely a skilled technical film-maker).

So a quick run-down of live-action Batman movies to date:

1. 1989′s ‘Batman’ desperately wants to be something other than a superhero movie. This will be a running theme in what follows. The decision to focus on the romance to the exclusion of almost every other relationship was a really bad choice that I can only put down to a strong desire to be making a Bond Film instead. Also that version of the Joker is just... really bad, honestly. Mark Hamill’s joker is creepy, Heath Ledger’s Joker was manic, even Leto’s Joker had a kind of dream-like quality to him (which owes more to the camera work than the acting, but I’ll take it). Nicholson’s Joker is just sort of... there. The only compelling thing about him is the score, which is working so hard to try and make us care. (Seriously, try watching any of his scenes with the music off. What little tension there was vanishes instantly).

2. 1992′s Batman Returns. Why is Batman in this movie? Could Burton not get funding for the sexy mental patient fights freak-show survivor movie he actually wanted to be making? So little would change about this movie if you took Batman out of it, but I guess if we did that we’d have to give Selina Kyle a personality beyond ‘outdated and uncomfortable even for the 90s attitudes towards female sexuality’. (Get it, if a woman is sexually available she must be crazy!) I do fully admit this is a fun movie, and I dig the aesthetic it’s going for, it’s just a bad Batman movie.

3. 1995′s Batman Forever. I think we can all agree - fuck this movie. Joel Schumacher is not a good film-maker on his good days, and this is not one of his good days. The script is weak, Val Kilmer won’t stop pouting, Tommy Lee Jones is trying but he’s the only one who is and he’s not trying very hard. The decision to add a Robin was good, the decision to make that Robin in his mid 20s and easily the second worst thing about the movie was absolutely not. Everything Jim Carey does in this movie is terrible. (Everything Jim Carey does in most movies of this era is terrible, because you should only ever hire Carey if you want the film to be about him and absolutely no one else. He does not share the frame well.) Also this movie fucked over Billy D Williams, who had accepted a bit part in Batman Returns on the understanding that he would play Two-Face in the next movie.

4. 1997′s Batman & Robin. The film so bad Clooney would reportedly refund you the cost of the cinema ticket out of his own pocket if you told him you’d seen it. The only good one. Okay, technically this movie is bad. Joel Schumacher had not got any more competent since 1995. However, a combination of performers alternately chewing the scenery and trying not to corpse and a surreal neon asthetic that no one asked for but which would go on to be ripped off by so many video games, make this one of the very few actually fun Batman movies. But we’ve already established fun =/= good adaptation, so why’s it a good Batman movie? Because it gives a damn about its source material, and that source material is not Batman comics of the 80s and 90s (which is good because they were still letting Frank Miller write for them back then) but the 1966 TV Show/movie. The bad jokes, the sudden inclusion of Batgirl, the leotards, the kooky asthetic and ‘everyone’s at least slightly drunk’ tone, the super-styalised version of the Batsuit (like them or not, Bat-nipples are as memorable as 1966′s Bat-eyebrows), all of these can be traced right back to ‘66. This movie is a neon love-letter to Adam West, and it is the only love-letter in the entire Bat-movie canon, which is why it’s the only good one.

5. 2005′s Batman Begins is what you get when you combine a director who doesn’t like Batman with a writer who doesn’t like Batman and a producer who doesn’t care about Batman. It’s a technically competent (if poorly cast) film, that Ayn Rand would almost certainly have enjoyed immensely, and that desperately doesn’t want to be a Batman movie. This is a Serious Movie you guys, not like Batman Returns and Batman & Robin, this movie is above petty concerns like fun or asthetics. The target audience for this movie a) people who don’t like Batman or superheroes in general and b) the kind of Batman fans who claim Stephanie Brown was never Robin because she’s a girl. The sort of fans who purchased All-Star Batman & Robin and TDKR II. The only redeeming feature of this film is Cillian Murphy.

6. 2008′s The Dark Knight. You probably remember this movie being fun, and you’re not wrong exactly, but what you’re actually remembering is Heath Ledger. Ledger is fun in this movie, and he’s so god-damned fun he comes really close to redeeming the entire film. With a different film-maker he probably would have done, but this is Nolan, so instead of being a fun stupid romp, this another Serious Movie. The camp is undercut but the seriousness, the seriousness is undercut by the camp, the script makes no sense whatsoever, and the result is so confused that, like Suicide Squad, viewers find they’ve forgotten a lot of what they actually saw and just remembered the points of interest. Every time I rewatch this film I’m surprised by half of what happens in it, because my brain has blocked out everything that it’s Heath Ledger or Michael Cain, and I’m definitely not alone in that. Also it’s a Nolan movie, so it desperately doesn’t want to be a superhero movie. Superhero movies don’t win Oscars and Oscar nominations are the only way Nolan can feel joy anymore. (Obviously that’s a joke. Christopher Nolan has never felt joy.)

7. 2012′s The Dark Knight Rises is actually my favourite of the Nolan films, despite being technically the worst. The plot is so nonsensical and confused that it actually forgets to be a Serious Movie for whole minutes at a time and becomes something approaching a Batman movie. A lot of that is Anne Hathaway, who is doing the best job of elavating a terrible script through great acting that I have even seen. The fact that you like or care about her character is down entirely and exclusively to Hathaway’s charm and charisma. Apart from that it’s another Nolan ‘Batman is stupid that’s why I made three movies about him’ movie. Also the fight choreography in this is really bad. Like, form an orderly queue inside the shot so we can all atttack Batman one at a time but the audience can see us waiting our turn Bad. The only person doing a good job with the fighting is Hathaway’s stunt-double, who is doing it all in one of the most impractical outfits ever put on screen.

8. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Some people liked this film, and that’s fine. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with liking a bad film - hell I almost exclusively like bat films. Batfleck was pretty good casting, and Henry Caville looks a lot like Superman. Snyder is for the most part a very good technical film-maker, who has a lot of fun with the camera. Amy Adams is woefully miscast, but it’s not like she’s not a great actor. It’s just... I’m sorry guys, I know that saying a bad film is bad is now seen as a personal attack on the people who liked it, but it’s just a bad movie! The editing is terrible, the script is dire, laughably bad in places, and worst of all, it hates Superheroes. It hates Superheroes so much the only DC canon it could think to adapt was Frank Miller’s extended fuck you to comic-book fans. The picked as the source material for a movie with Superman’s name on it, a comic by a writer who openly hates Superman! Also there’s plot contrivances, there’s plot holes, and then there’s people thinking Superman shot someone. With a gun. When he has lazer eyes. David Ayer has never written a good script in his life, and if he worked in any other industry he’d have stopped getting work two decades ago, but this is probably the worst thing he’s written.

So yeah, Batman & Robin is the only good Batman movie, because it’s the only one that is about Batman. It is totally shameless, high camp that knows it’s high camp, knows Superheroes are inherently stupid and that that’s not the same as worthless or uninteresting, knows Batman is only as interesting as his supporting cast, and revels in it. (And the most frustrating thing is, given a better script this is exactly the kind of movie Snyder would probably have made. More gold and abs and less neon, but kooky over-the-top fun that doesn’t think a film has to be art to be worthwhile. Fucker Ayer and the people who hired him for denying us that.)