#Rebecca sugar everybody!

[purplebehittindifferent]

everything stays, but it still changes…

[nicomoon69]

pearl x greg ship name should be preg

[thanksiloveyou]

we toss around the term "cultural reset" a lot but genuinely. steven universe,

[bittersweetyrn]

barbie-core

[gh0stly-mp3]

hi!!! your works are so damn interesting and well written, you are great in this regard!! can i ask, if you don't mind, sae, rin, reo, ness and kaiser with a calm gentleman s/o (headcanons but a scenario is good too)??? because they DESERVE the sweetest person in their life. just an s/o who takes care of them, does all sorts of gallant things like opening doors, pulling out chairs, like "flowers on dates are THE must" and so on??? i hope everything is fine with you, stay like that!!! 🩷

Hiii! Thanks! Especially for saying that my works are well-written, I'm trying to improve my English writing skills and this cheers me up a lot! ♡ - I love this idea btw, gentleman reader is one of my fav tropes :))

Love like you -> bllk hcs

bllk boys x s/o gn!reader

synopsis: how some bllk boys react to you being a gentleman to them and treating them well

tags: blue lock headcanons, fluff, comfort, gentle reader, calm reader, slice of life, kinda established relationship

warnings: manga spoilers, mature language

characters: sae, rin, reo, ness and kaiser + bonus: kurona

a/n: i love doing requests hehe (they're open btw)

masterlist.

Sae Itoshi ~ ♡

Sae would try not to show how much he loves when you take care of him and treat him like he's your prince (beacause he really is). But damn! He adores it! His favorite thing is when you bring him breakfast in bed.

He's used to being treated very cordially, always having people open doors and do everything for him, which he doesn't care much about. But, when you do it (because you love him and not because he's famous), he has conflicting feelings.

At the same time that he loves to feel personally cared for by you, he tries not to show it and keeps up the pose of "you're doing this because I'm a celebrity, not because you love me," but - deep down - his heart is warmed.

Rin Itoshi ~ ♡

Rin thinks you're so perfect, but It would take a long time for him to respond to your affection, but eventually he begins to appreciate your gentle actions and, when he has the courage, approaches you to be by your side.

He gets a little shy when you open doors or pull out chairs for him, but try not to show you. He's too afraid to get close to you and feel safe around you, just so that in the end you abandon him.

The greatest act of chivalry with Rin is to show him your love without wanting anything in return and giving him space in moments of vulnerability. The only vulnerable situation he lets you get close to him is when he's sick, where he lets you hold him.

Reo Mikage ~ ♡

People tend to treat Reo very well when they discover how many things can he buy before even looking the price. So when you showed him gentleness and care, he quickly asked - "how the hell did you know?" - but to his surprised, you didn't know about anything.

He tried to buy you things, thanking your time and consideration for his well being. But then you continued, and worse... You rejected his attemps to pay for your things.

That was a huge surprise, and after this, Reo started to get more and more nervous when you bought flowers for him. You were not serving him, you were not there for a reward, you were not interested in status. Rather, you were loving him for what and who he was.

Michael Kaiser ~ ♡

It's difficult for a prodigy to love anyone, as everybody is, technically, bellow him. Kaiser treats you well, better than he treats everyone else. But you don't let his false ego brush off your determination. Perhaps, one would need more than gentleness to get into his heart, but you know that's too much work for what he really needs. Actually, you were already inside. You just needed to make him understand how much you loved him.

So, you bring him flowers and gifts; you watch, careful, when both of you cross the street; you even brush his hair when he doesn't feel like it. But, unlike all the others, you aren't interested in the champion. You don't bow and let the title he grasps so hardly dominate you.

And he observes in horror the blue color of the roses on the table. And he turns his blushed cheeks away when a car passes by and you put your hands on his chest. And he inches with the warm of your hands on his hair. And he lets you love him, but refuses to step out of his cave.

You know he will, eventually.

Alexis Ness ~ ♡

Ness was confused, surprised and even a bit annoyed with the first time you pulled a chair for him. He was careful not to fall on a prank but when he sit, you simply smiled. He was used to serve you, never him, it was always about you. And suddenly, someone got a glass of water for him. For him. He didn't ask. He didn't even hint on anything. You simply said how hot it was. He must have been thirsty.

Now he gets irritated everytime you make something for him. You were paying attention to his needs, to his attempts on hiding everything so he can make you happy. But sometimes, you catch a glimpse of him staring at you, smiling. (he lovess it, but don't tell him that)

+ bonus

Kurona ~ ♡

He always blush when you open doors or pull out chairs for him, and whenever you do it, he places a shy kiss on your cheek or forehead.

[demilypyro]

Everybody say thank you Rebecca Sugar

[love-takes-work]

Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey on Secret Histories of Nerd Mysteries

Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey gave an interview to Secret Histories of Nerd Mysteries on hosts' Austin Taylor (he/they/she) and Brenda Snell's (she/they) 151st episode. (Ian's last name is correct in the title, but it's incorrectly written as "James-Quartey" in the episode notes.) The subject is the groundbreaking episode "Jailbreak," which just had its 10th anniversary.

The interview itself is bonus content! But then there is a podcast episode with discussion between the two podcast hosts with some additional perspectives from them (mostly Austin) as fans, with short clips from the full interview interspersed.

Highlights from the interview:

We hear a short introduction from Rebecca Sugar (she/they) and Ian Jones-Quartey (he/him) about their roles on Steven Universe (including that they both boarded on the episode "Jailbreak," even though Rebecca was the only one of the two who was credited as a storyboarder, along with Jeff Liu and Joe Johnston of course). Rebecca also wrote the song "Stronger Than You," and they both have writing credits.

Austin asks them to discuss the writing process versus the boarding process, and they go into some detail. It's a storyboard-driven show. First there's an outline; then the storyboarders write and draw the show, and they are responsible for the dialogue too. Premise and outline (Act 1, Act 2, Act 3) are mapped out first. Matt Burnett and Ben Levin played the writing/conceptual roles along with Rebecca and Ian, and they'd get the outline done which would then be handed off to a storyboarder. They essentially chose this process because they wanted to have it all: the traditional boarding process that made such good content, but still have the mile-high view providing an epic storyline. Other creators were always curious about how they'd managed to do both in that sense, and this is how they did it.

They go on to talk about episodes that are "pillars" of the show, how important aspects of the show were worked into big episodes all coming together. Ian talks about "visual set pieces" as a top down element--how "Ocean Gem" had ocean towers into space and "Jailbreak" had a musical fight sequence on a spaceship. They planned those big episodes as potential finales if they didn't get any more episode orders. Rebecca says it was really hard to write the show both as if it could end at any moment AND they were planting enough seeds for the future if they did get more episodes. Ian clarifies that they had a huge story planned that they hoped to get to tell, but they wanted viewers to be satisfied by what they got to give them.

Rebecca pitched "Jailbreak" to the Crew at the time that they were living in this hundred-year-old cabin. They had everybody over to go over the beats of the episode and the Crew members were skeptical that they could get all of that done in 11 minutes. Rebecca describes it as "excitement and terror." Ian praises Jeff and Joe for fitting it in with so much fun and energy. Nothing major was cut story-wise, but Rebecca tells a story they've told before about consolidating some of the content while Ruby is looking for Sapphire, which was disappointing because they had to drop gorgeous drawings by Joe at the board stage. Joe bravely announced he didn't care that they had to lose it. Haha! Ian thinks some fighting Peridot on the ship was consolidated too so it would fit in the song break.

Rebecca discusses how they learned in the first season that they really had to keep big reveals and concepts tied down to their own episodes. They had early ideas of Steven separating from his Gem early in Season 1 and it was just too much too soon. "Lion 2: The Movie" had a bunch of new concepts at once and the reveals were too much for a casual audience to catch everything. Pieces that had to be built for "Jailbreak" to work required individual episodes introducing concepts for how fusion works, where Gems are from, etc.

Austin the host says they'd been watching Steven Universe from the beginning, and they enjoyed the show as a casual viewer but they felt like people really NOTICED this show for the first time when "Jailbreak" aired. They want to know whether the Crew had any idea that the episode was going to be such an artistic and cultural game-changer. Rebecca describes being in a weird fan-cocoon with the content because they had had "Jailbreak" finished for a whole year by the time we saw anything and they were already all the way moved on to Season 3 of the show by then. They didn't know where to put their enthusiasm as a historically very fannish person. Ian describes how Cartoon Network would take completed episodes and leave them on the shelf for a long time before airing them and they weren't able to reveal anything. They believed they would just have a niche audience and did NOT foresee the huge fan response. Rebecca tries to talk about how controversial the content was but Ian interrupts to say it was also so different from everything their peers were making.

Rebecca picks up the discussion of the radical content, referencing how on Adventure Time they'd learned that same-sex content was a no-no so they had to wait until they weren't getting so much scrutiny before trying to build anything of that nature into the main text of the show. They got pushback internally when they turned the episode in, with decision-makers saying they could not have the same-sex relationship, but the song was done, the schedule was set to send it to Korea for full animation, it was really too late. They couldn't have done that earlier in the run, but now because of the stability they'd built, they could get it in under the radar. Rebecca mentions getting the suggestion that Ruby could be a boy, to which they replied that Ruby and Sapphire were Gems and they are in love and there's a song about it. They were then told no mouth-kissing was allowed, which was amusing to Rebecca because the boards for the episode never showed them kissing on the mouth. The planned kiss was always on the eye, and that was how Rebecca wanted it, because Sapphire kissing Ruby's tear seemed so intimate. They finally relented, saying if it was already done it was already done, BUT they weren't allowed to confirm the same-sex relationship or talk about it outside the show. Ian got in trouble for doing it anyway. He tells the story:

A fan asked him a Twitter question about whether Ruby and Sapphire would be considered a same-sex couple in human terms (he doesn't remember clearly what was asked, but I recall it's the question about whether they would be femme-presenting nonbinary lesbians), and he confirmed it while emphasizing that's the human version while they are Gems. Articles were written, the studio found out, he got called into meetings and scolded, and they made him apologize to one of the heads of the studio. He had to cool way off on how he answered questions from fans for a while, but eventually he was able to share the truth again.

Rebecca shares that the only expectation they were led to believe existed would be a negative reaction, especially if studios in more homophobic countries found out this content was in the show. There are places on Earth where being LGBTQ is a crime. The pulling of funding could lead to the end of the show. The studio apparently did not anticipate a positive response anywhere. Rebecca refers to the older LGBTQ fans as a "secondary demographic" that didn't matter to the the network at the time, and that they were entirely focused on the show doing well with 6-to-11-year-old boys. Rebecca wanted those kids to have this show too, along with their loved ones, and it doesn't seem to have occurred to most of the higher-ups that boys in that age group are sometimes themselves a queer orientation. The closest they got to believing it would be relevant to those kids is if they had same-sex parents. The concept of queer youth was years away for them. Rebecca didn't even really realize how many people it might resonate with because the work and its motivation was highly personal, only common in their experience with a few other artists they knew. (And artists are weird and unrelatable, right?)

Austin asks their guests to share some fond memories of making the episode. They go into the process of writing the song and how much pressure Rebecca felt when faced with the concept of writing a song for Estelle to sing. Rebecca consulted with Estelle to get her input on what inspiration would feed into a song that's a love song, a fight song, and a victory song all at once.

Rebecca so deeply wanted to use the skills they had--an animation degree!--to convey a message that could help influence the world in a positive way, and they specifically reference wanting people to be more accepting of a couple like themself and Ian. They wanted to tell young people that this kind of relationship isn't wrong, and with all the battles they fought against bigoted perspectives, they felt it was a vital fight. The clash between Garnet and Jasper is meant to represent taking a stand and advocating for those relationships, and Garnet's response to Jasper's hate was "too bad." This was one of the fondest memories Rebecca had--that they were able to take this deeply personal idea to their Crew, their composers and writers and artists, and have them all support and contribute to a message that they were being told was not expected to be well received. Rebecca and Ian drew the scene together of Garnet reintegrating, and they loved that they could bring the whole Crew into that world to make a difference.

Ian points out that they worked so hard to get this message out there and that was part of the reason he did want to share the truth on Twitter when he replied in a way that got him in trouble. They had gone in this deep and wanted it to pay off. "Jailbreak" used up all of its allotted retakes trying to make it as good as it could be. Ian talks about the song aligning properly and how even the release of the song has its own story. Then they discuss the Stevenbomb format and the messed up airing order, which was upsetting to Rebecca because the details are important (and Garnet's outfit going back to her Season 1 design sticks out like a sore thumb in the out-of-order episodes). Rebecca brings up the "Say Uncle" crossover and how it focuses on Steven learning to summon his shield reliably, which is very important for him to actually be able to do in "The Return," so it's odd to see him struggling with it in a later episode (despite that it was intentionally non-canon).

Ian decides he wants to talk about the Undertale fan parody of "Stronger Than You." He describes how their song didn't get publicized by the network, not even with major releases like this song, so it didn't get posted for months. In the meantime, the Undertale fandom used "Stronger Than You" in a parody, and that became many fans' first exposure to the song. Ian thinks it's funny. The Undertale version still has way more views than the original song.

Austin wants to say one more thing, and it's about the ending gimmick of the episode with an iris out as Connie calls to find out what happened. Austin thinks that's a great way to remind people it's a cartoon, and Rebecca chimes in to say how it was always really important to them to keep the show funny. They also then discuss that the fans outside the network's intended demographic sometimes became possessive of the show to the point that they said it was NOT actually for kids and that THEY were the core audience, but Ian says it's not true that it's not for those kids. It's for them too, and some of the work they did on keeping it funny and accessible to them was just as important. Rebecca points out that some of the people now talking to them about the show WERE those children who were in the intended demographic. Rebecca loved the secondary audience but also enjoyed when whole families could enjoy it together, like they did as a child with their father.

There's some discussion about Cartoon Network's inability to properly advertise the show most of the time (though Rebecca acknowledges they were "being difficult" and they were kind of the wild card), and they really wanted the events to be hyped as much as something like a big Game of Thrones episode because that's the level of importance these revelations have to the core audience. And for clarification, Rebecca loved and respected the S&P department at the network. Those people are often really cool according to Ian, and they'll have very specific requests for changes (like "you can only say 'sucks' twice," while "blows" was more acceptable than "sucks"). They can find any which way something unintentional could be taken as dirty or objectionable.

Highlights from the podcast episode/discussion:

In introduction, we hear that the day of the podcast episode's release--10 years after the groundbreaking Steven Universe episode "Jailbreak" aired--it isn't so headline-inspiring to have queer content in a cartoon, but that was not the case when Ruby and Sapphire's same-sex relationship was featured in this season finale. We hear a short introduction from Rebecca (she/they) and Ian (he/him) about their roles on Steven Universe (including that they both boarded on the episode "Jailbreak," even though Rebecca was the only one of the two who was credited as a storyboarder, along with Jeff Liu and Joe Johnston of course). Host Brenda jokes that they can't believe they actually got the creator of Pug Davis on the show. (They talk a bit about the graphic novel too.)

The hosts describe the content of the episode "Jailbreak," and then they cut to another clip from Rebecca and Ian discussing the characters' kiss. They're Gems and kissing on the lips has no special meaning to them, so the fact that Sapphire kissed Ruby on the eye wasn't less intimate as far as they were concerned. They discuss how a bunch of the episodes were aired out of intended order. They mention the Uncle Grandpa crossover (mentioned to be one of Rebecca Sugar's favorites!) and the host Austin gets their wires crossed a bit here by claiming "Say Uncle" was supposed to air after "Jailbreak" but aired before (it was actually the other way around), and claimed that she had her post-"Jailbreak" outfit on in the episode (she didn't; again, other way around; Garnet is wearing her old outfit and that's why we know it's technically intentionally a Season 1 episode).

The host says "Jailbreak" aired as part of the first Stevenbomb (a special event where they'd show a bunch of episodes in a row, usually over the course of most or all of a week), and points out that Rebecca Sugar had no part in the decision to do Stevenbombs. That was all the network's decision. For some reason the host Austin continues getting their wires crossed by saying "Jailbreak" was the last episode in the first Stevenbomb (it wasn't; "Full Disclosure" was the final day) and claimed that "Say Uncle" was part of the Stevenbomb (it was not), and then they say some episodes from Season 2 got pushed into Season 2's Stevenbomb (they did not; none of the displaced Season 1 episodes were ever used in a Stevenbomb--they were "Open Book," "Shirt Club," and "Story For Steven," plus "Say Uncle," which all aired on their own days outside of promoted events).

Host Brenda admits they have only seen the first five episodes of SU and they joke about "Frybo" being cursed. The hosts discuss the impact of "Jailbreak" on Tumblr (which they say was perceived as a platform already losing popularity because you could no longer post tits on your blog; that timeline is also skewed because "Jailbreak" aired in 2015 and the "no female-presenting nipples" thing happened in 2018). They talk about the revelation that "the rocks are gay!" and how important this was for queer fans. They discuss the nature of fusion and how it's not really the same as being the components.

Another clip from the interview plays where Rebecca says they had to "get out from under the microscope" before they could show some of the queer content, which is why it was so comparatively late in the show when they started to reveal Garnet's relationship. They knew from working on Adventure Time that same-sex relationships were not allowed to be portrayed. Making this relationship part of the identity of a central character the audience already knows and loves helps ensure that they will get to keep the content.

Austin and Brenda talk about the influence of Steven Universe on the generation that grew up with it, how many queer young people learned how to embrace their identity through the example of the show (and learned other important lessons about friendship). They talk about how awesome the song "Stronger Than You" is and how it was such a great anthem for people who needed it. They talk about Estelle's music video for the song being made at Comic Con in 2017 and how it helped a lot of people who were scared during the first Trump administration.

They discuss how the Cartoon Network bigwigs might have reacted poorly to the interpretation that they'd "broken a rule" and portrayed a same-sex relationship, and how they had to take the chance. Austin claims that they got some pushback and finger-wagging, and that Rebecca rejected the idea that Ruby could be a boy, and that they didn't straight-up say they were a couple and hey, friends could be this close too. (This spin isn't typically how Rebecca talks about their approach to dealing with the criticism from above--the plausible deniability "well they could still be seen as friends!" angle doesn't mesh with other statements Rebecca has made, though Rebecca does sometimes emphasize that they are not "women" but "Gems.")

They suggest that the Steven Universe creators sort of out-manipulated Cartoon Network by sliding this in when Garnet was already so central and they've already made popular content and merch of her, so they wouldn't be able to object to it without risking "losing" one of their best shows. (This also feels a little different from the way they usually frame it too; I've never heard them suggest that they essentially played hardball and tricked them into airing queer content. Usually the way Rebecca tells it, they certainly fought against the bigoted feedback they received, but they did not hold a lot of cards in the situation, and every battle was another possibility that they would lose the show. "I'm a big shot, what're you gonna do about it?" isn't a sentiment I've heard from them.)

Austin brings up international queer stories in animation and how shows like Revolutionary Girl Utena and Sailor Moon featured queer characters long before we were able to do it in mainstream animation in the West. They talk about the international audience for Steven Universe and how Russia in particular was not willing to air queer content, and therefore they dubbed Ruby as a boy. (Author's note: This is actually true, but it's more complicated. Ruby's Russian voice actor is a woman, Larisa Brokhman, and though they did imply she's male by occasionally using the equivalent of he/him pronouns for her in earlier episodes, they mostly dealt with this by avoiding any wording that used pronouns for Ruby at all, followed by cutting and refusing to air every episode where she and Sapphire were flirty. After Russia stopped airing the show entirely, the subsequent episodes began to be dubbed with the correct she/her pronouns for Ruby, but they knew it would not be released publicly inside Russia and would only be available in underground copies. By the way, if anyone believes they edited footage of Ruby to put a mustache on her, that did not ever happen.)

The hosts share some frustration over the fact that the HD version of the song "Stronger Than You" did not come out until around two years after the original was released. The episode cuts to a clip of Ian Jones-Quartey discussing how Cartoon Network didn't do a good job promoting the shows on their network and didn't get around to posting "Stronger Than You" on their YouTube channel for promotion until months afterwards, but in the meantime the Undertale fandom gobbled it up and released a fan version people got addicted to. They discuss how funny it was that the Undertale version was a lot of people's first exposure to the song and some of the fans didn't know it came from SU. We hear another clip from Rebecca Sugar saying how the team backed them up on deciding to take this episode forward, to be who they are and not have Rebecca fighting alone for queer content anymore. Rebecca describes it as a personal turning point. Rebecca really wanted to reach queer kids with the microphone they had.

[pumpkinsy0]

songs you’d put in a pony playlist? 🫶

OK SO before anyone says something, this isnt a “songs pony would listen to” kinda playlist, these r just songs that remind me of pony in one way or another!!!

what once was by hers

once in a lifetime by talking heads

wheres your head at by basement jaxx

bigmouth strikes again by the smiths

my time by bo en

duvet by bôa

chamber of reflection by mac demarco

salad days by mac demarco

ulterior motives by christopher david booth

paradise by coldplay

dead weight by jack stauber

everybody wants to rule the world by tears for fears

come along with me by rebecca sugar

hey kids by molina

gloomy sunday by billie holiday

little dark age by mgmt

ancient dreams in a modern land by marina

memories by david guetta

bohemian rhapsody by queen

liar by queen

boby hotline by jack stauber

maybe theres more in my playlist im forgetting but these r ones id def put, i love putting my music taste on blast lmao

[mystery-of-arkham-asylum]

A list of books I have read this year. Will reblog everytime I update as I read more. Doing this a a bit of fun and to hopefully motive myself to read a bit more like I used to.

(I would like to state that I do not share/approve of the views or opinions of a certain author on this list. I just enjoy the books and won't let some poor excuse of a human being ruin them for me.)

First time reading | Reread

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K.Rowling

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets- J.K.Rowling

The Sheep-Pig - Dick King-Smith

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K.Rowling

Cirque Du Freak - Darren Shan

The Vampire's Assistant - Darren Shan

Tunnels of Blood - Darren Shan

The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin - Beatrix Potter

The Tailor of Gloucester - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Benjamin Bunny - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Two Bad Mice - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of The Pie and The Patty-Pan - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher - Beatrix Potter

The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit - Beatrix Potter

The Story of Miss Moppet - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Tom Kitten - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Jemima Puddle Duck - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or the Roly-Poly Pudding - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Ginger and Pickles - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Mr. Tod - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Pigling Bland - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Little Pig Robinson - Beatrix Potter

Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes - Beatrix Potter

Celily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes - Beatrix Potter

Winnie-the-Pooh and some Bees - A.A.Milne

Pooh Goes Visiting & Pooh and Piglet nearly catch a Woozle - A.A.Milne

Owl becomes and author - A.A.Milne

Eeyore has a birthday - A.A.Milne

Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest - A.A.Milne

An Expotition to the North Pole - A.A.Milne

Piglet is entirely surrounded by water - A.A.Milne

Christopher Robin gives a Party - A.A.Milne

Eeyore loses a tail - A.A.Milne

A House is Built at Pooh Corner - A.A.Milne

Tigger comes to the Forest - A.A.Milne

A Search is organdized - A.A.Milne

Tiggers don't climb trees - A.A.Milne

Rabbit has a busy day - A.A.Milne

Pooh invents a new game - A.A.Milne

Tigger is unbounced - A.A.Milne

Piglet does a very grand thing - A.A.Milne

Eeyore finds the Wolery - A.A.Milne

Christopher Robin and Pooh come to an enchanted place - A.A.Milne

Pooh's Poems - A.A.Milne

Christopher Robin returns to the Forest - David Benedictus

The Spelling Bee - David Benedictus

Rabbit organises almost everything - David Benedictus

It Stops raining for ever - David Benedictus

Pooh goes in search of honey - David Benedictus

Owl becomes an author - David Benedictusk

Everybody learns something - David Benedictus

The Game of Cricket - David Benedictus

Tigger Dreams of Africa - David Benedictus

The Harvest Festival - David Benedictus

Yellow Submarine - The Beatles

The Answer - Rebecca Sugar

Guide to the Crystal Gems - Rebecca Sugar

Keep Beach City Weird - Matt Burnett and Ben Levin

Young Zaphod Plays It Safe - Douglas Adams

Vampire Mountain - Darren Shan

Trials of Death - Darren Shan

The Vampire Prince - Darren Shan

Coraline - Neil Gaiman

Cycle of the Werewolf - Stephen King

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

Troll Bridge - Terry Pratchett

Turntables of the Night- Terry Pratchett

The Sea and Little Fishes- Terry Pratchet

Hunters of the Dark - Darren Shan

Escape from Bloodcastle - Jenny Tyler

Curse of the Lost Idol - Gaby Waters

The Incredible Dinosaur Experdition - Karen Dolby

Time Train to Ancient Rome - Gaby Waters

Agent Arthur's Jungle Journey - Martin Oliver

Agent Arthur on the Stormy Seas - Martin Oliver

The Ghost in the Mirror - Karen Dolby

Agent Arthur's Artic Adventure - Martin Oliver

Journey to the Lost Temple - Susannah Leigh

The Pyramid Plot - Justin Somper

The Emerald Conspiracy - Mark Fowler

Mutiny at Crossbones Bay - Mark Burgess

Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach

A Day with Wibur Robinson - William Joyce

Allies of the Night - Darren Shan

Killers of the Dawn - Darren Shan

Animal Farm - George Orwell

The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster

The Necrophiliac - Gabrielle Wittkop

Red Dwarf Log No. 1996 - Paul Alexander

Never Say Boo to a Ghost - John Foster and Korky Paul

The Wild Robot - Peter Brown

Wacky Wednesday - Dr. Seuss

I Wish I had Duck Feet - Dr. Seuss

Ten Apples up on Top - Dr. Seuss

Scrambled Eggs Super! - Dr. Seuss

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish - Dr. Seuss

The Sneetches and Other Stories - Dr. Seuss

Hop on Pop - Dr. Seuss

The Larax - Dr. Seuss

I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! - Dr. Seuss

The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J.K.Rowling

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - J.K.Rowling

Quidditch Through the Ages - J.K.Rowling

The Lake of Souls - Darren Shan

[lu-fic-recommendation-of-the-day]

Hello! I don't know if you still do fics, but I recommend "The Dear Four Chronicles" by Illegible_Handwriting!

I don't know if you're caught up with something irl, busy, or perhaps burnout, but I hope you are doing well! (⁠っ⁠.⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)⁠っ

-👻

Summary:

"Everything stays right where you left it Everything stays But it still changes Ever so slightly, daily and nightly In little ways, when everything stays" Rebecca Sugar, "Everything Stays"

Letters from post-LU heroes to pre-LU children, the struggles those children face, and the enduring love that Links have for others in their Chain.

Tags:

Sky/Sun

Angst

Fluff

Hurt/Comfort

letters fic

Four Needs a Hug

everybody needs a hug

Four-centric

Time-centric

Time Needs a HUg

Letters

Fairies

Angst With a Happy Ending (sort of)

Minor Swearing

Platonic love confessions

Word count: 18,776

Finished: No

__________

Quick note: I'm alive! Just forgot about this blog sorry. Thanks for checking in!

[deadite-central]

Okay so when I was almost done with it something bugged with tumblr and this post didn’t save, which is why it took me so long to get back to it. But since I left off the last Dressrosa post saying I can’t wait to talk about the things that are coming, let’s get to it

Usopp has been lying his way through most of the arc, generally not believing that he’s able to do anything significant to help. It’s a struggle he’s been having within himself from way back in pre timeskip obviously, but I love how he’s the one to finally stand up when Robin has been turned into a toy and the tontattas need help. He’s still terrified, and he still doesn’t quite believe he can do this, but he will try his best, and because of that, all the toys will finally be freed

Before they get their freedom, we get the Toy Soldier’s story on why he’s so adamant about defeating Doflamingo and protecting Rebecca. As it turns out, he’s Kyros, Rebecca’s father, and his story is incredibly tragic, where despite the toy’s face not moving an inch, you can feel the emotions he’s feeling, and the rain falling down his toy face is a wonderful although sad visual for crying when you physically can’t cry

And then finally, the moment everyone was waiting for, the aftermath of Usopp defeating Sugar (in a hilarious manner). From Doflamingo completely losing his cool when he realizes his entire plan has went to hell, to Kyros turning back into a human and decapitating his clone, to finally, one of my favorite moments in this entire arc: God Usopp. Things getting from ridiculous to more ridiculous here is just amazing, and I like how it keeps you on the edge of your seat, especially first time around, to also give you a few funny moments along the way

Proper introduction of the Revolutionary Army members here! Love their place in the story and I think considering the situation in Dressrosa now was better time than ever to have them really come into play for the story. Love their designs and the reasonings each of them you can figure out to have to be Revs, and of course I’m so happy to see more of Sabo. He’s an incredibly cool character to me and I’m so happy Luffy gets to have at least one older brother out there to look out for him

Back to the main plot, the birdcage is a genius idea. Oda often (if not always) introduces some type of timer for our crew that they can’t pass, and I think the birdcage has been the best idea he had so far. Using Doflamingo’s power to create something that not only locks everybody who knows of his true nature in Dressrosa, but also forces a deadline for everybody because otherwise, the birdcage will kill everyone. It’s also a good metaphor for Doflamingo’s character itself, as he doesn’t care about his subjects, he only wants power and destruction, even if that means killing an entire nation

With all the pieces in place , Luffy (and Law who gets carried around) can finally go after Doflamingo. We get one more moment of interaction between Luffy and Rebecca, with him finally revealing his actual name to her, and making it clear to her that things will work out. I love their friendship, as despite the fact it happened in about a day, they both clearly care so much about each other

One last thing I want to talk about before we get to the main battle of the arc, is Usopp awakening his observation haki. It’s funny that he doesn’t even realise it, but it shows how much he has grown and how much stronger despite his fears he’s gotten, which is such a nice touch in an arc filled with great Usopp moments, I love it

And finally, we get to the top floor starting what has been built up since the beginning of this saga. Everybody (except for Trebol fuck that guy) looks so cool here (and also Bellamy rip man) and it just hypes you up so much for the fight to come. The framing here is great and I love the expressions Oda draws for everyone involved. I’m incredibly excited for the upcoming fight

[chaifootsteps]

Look I normally try to stay out of the Viv drama, but it has a habit of finding me. I generally ignore it but the whole ‘comparing my work to fan fic makes you homophobic’ thing is just too batshit to ignore. I can’t fathom being that deluded.

Am I taking this a bit personally? A bit. But that’s because writing is my wheelhouse and it galls me to see someone who claims to be a professional make such a total mockery of said profession.

Not that I would consider her a professional. Having lots of money to throw around does not a professional make.

Let me tell you something I tell everybody who wants to be a writer. Writing isn’t an innate skill, it’s a craft that you need to hone. If people criticize your work, then the sane thing to do is take a step back and reevaluate. Differentiate between good and bad faith criticism and you know…be a fucking adult about it. Do the work to improve instead of throwing a public tantrum any time someone points out something they dislike.

Just…ugh. This whole thing gets more embarrassing by the day.

This. No one likes criticism, but if everyone's saying your story reads like a fanfic, you can either take it to heart and try to make adjustments to your story or ignore it. What you shouldn't do is get on twitter and throw a white-hot hissy fit about how fanfiction is good and awesome and queer so anyone who criticizes Helluva Boss is homophobic.

Can you imagine Alex Hirsch or Rebecca Sugar behaving this way? They aren't, and it's not because they've never encountered takes about their work that pissed them off.

[0perfectimperfections0]

Which uglydolls characters do you think these songs describe:

-Love Like You (feat. Rebecca Sugar)

-Saint bernard (panicking at the wrong disco lincoln)

-little girls (Cameron diaz)

-Brutal (Oliva Rodrigo)

-jealousy jealousy (Oliva Rodrigo)

-good 4 u (Oliva Rodrigo)

-Wrecking ball (Mother Mother)

-Cults (Guided Lily)

Two birds (Regina Spektor)

-Are You Satisfied? (MARINA)

-Notion (The Rare Occasions)

-Alien Blues (Vandabar)

-Oh No! (MARINA)

-I Deserve to Bleed (Sushi Soucy)

-dumb dumb (mazie)

-digital silence (Peter mcpoland)

-everybody likes you (lemon demon)

-Romantic Homicide (d4vd)

-I love you so (the Walters)

-Step on me (the Cardigans)

-YKWIM (Yot club)

Finally getting to this post even though it's been months since I started working on it. I got halfway through these songs before life slapped me in the face, so let's finish it up!

Lord help me, there's someone playing the piano in the Solarium here at college, so there's two polar tunes going through my ears XD

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Love Like You: Nolan - Ha! You thought I was gonna say Lou, right? Well, I thought about it, but the line "And I'm nothing like you, look at you go, I just adore you..." and so on makes me think of Nolan when he was obviously trying his best to get Lou's attention. He was focusing in the class and trying to keep up with the training, heck, he made it to the Gauntlet. Despite Lou calling him ugly, he still tries to make Lou proud of him or change his mind. "If I could begin to do something that does right by you, I would do anything."

Saint Bernard: Sorry, but this song was confusing, and I honestly was thrown off too much by the slightly off-key singing that...bleh, no sorry XD

Little Girls: Kitty - Here me out, it gives off more Kitty vibes. I debated it feeling more like for Lou, but it's giving me "Ugh, no, you imbecile" vibes. The way she sings as well is the way I imagine Kitty singing. She's also kinda stuck with Lydia and Tuesday despite acting like she's absolutely fed up with their two brain cells.

Brutal: Kitty - Way too insecure and earnestly faking being okay to be anyone else. Also, "only have two real friends:" Tuesday and Lydia?

Jealousy Jealousy: Mandy - I think one of the main reasons that she hangs out with the Spy Girls is because she wants to be just like them. I don't think they just spotted her one day. Kitty doesn't strike me as that type of person. I think Mandy earnestly sought them out and has been trying to prove that she's as good as them.

good 4 u: Lou - This definitely screams Lou and how he dealt with Ox after their friendship ended. It also didn't help that Ox was living up the dream in Uglyville despite his nature, whilst Lou was still stuck in a perpetual nightmare.

Wrecking Ball: Wage - I feel like this is definitely Wage. She can be a little fireball (and she is during most of the movie). And most of her decisions are impulses of her anger or other unruly emotions. I feel like she just embraces her unvisceral emotions.

Cults: Lou - The middle verses kind of throw me off, but the main chorus of "Haven't I given enough?" is definitely Lou-coded for self-explanatory reasons.

Alien Blues: I've heard this song before and absolutely can't stand it for the same reasons as "Saint Bernard", sorry XD, but I don't think I can listen to it purposefully.

Oh no!: Moxy - Despite the whole "friends are great" outlook Moxy seems to have during the movie, she's very self-centered. She was fully prepared to go through the Gauntlet and portal without telling any of the other Uglies back in Uglyville. If it hadn't been for Lou's interference, the other Uglies would still be stuck. Moxy definitely has her own future set in stone.

dumb dumb: Wage - She definitely gives off the "I'm surrounded by idiots" energy. I know, you probably expected me to say Lou, but I honestly think that Wage would be the one to secretly believe everyone is on a lower IQ level than her. She did constantly try to tell Moxy that her plan was outrageous. She also gives UglyDog a hard time.

Everybody Likes You: I couldn't find this song

Step on Me: Nolan - I honestly think that Nolan wholly accepts (tolerates) any treatment from other dolls. He'll withstand the insults and bombastic side eyes if it means playing peacekeeper.

YKWIM: Ox - I feel like closer toward the end of his friendship with Lou, he felt as if he was getting in the way of Lou being a functional leader in the Institute.

<><><><>

Yeah, I admitted some because it's been months since this ask came in and a little bit shorter since I had first worked through the songs. The few songs I deleted from my analysis is because I just didn't have the attention span to listen to them or they really confused me because of the lyrics.

But yeah!

[werewolf-cuddles]

with all this complaining and accusing certain people of being insane and forcing diversity down everybody's throats, its really making me assume that we shouldn't have people like Rebecca sugar or dana terrace making shows and writing stuff because "thEY HavE DIversITY ANd aRe PedOS THemSelvEs" like they are like that fake Japanese historian who was working on assassin's Creed shadows and got the Japanese government on them because of them purposely being inaccurate

[love-takes-work]

Highlights from the stream:

Here are the anecdotes shared during the epic draw-fest. Nearly all of them have been shared elsewhere at least once, but the new ones for me were about Greg Universe's orientation and the prototypical name for what Steven and Pearl's Fusion was going to be.

Rebecca Sugar loved Peridot's floating fingers and wanted to do all kinds of fun things with them before they would be gone forever. That's why we see her making arrows with them and biting them nervously in the episode right before she loses them.

When selecting clips for promotional use, they tried to be super careful about not picking anything that would show Peridot's real hands before the reveal had been aired. They didn't want a promo to accidentally ruin that surprise.

While doing the show they had an "eye theory" where the three main Gems would always have a different number of eyes showing. Pearl had both her eyes visible; Amethyst usually had one covered; and Garnet had either no eyes showing or three eyes showing.

With Rebecca and Ian's decision to get married and the characters Ruby and Sapphire being based on them, they figured well, of course now they have to get married too. (Though Rebecca and Ian got to do so AFTER their characters did!)

One of Rebecca's "post-Future theories" is that Steven gets a Gibson Hummingbird guitar.

Cookie Cat was originally based off of Cookie Puss, a very strange Carvell ice cream cake. It had a complicated backstory, which was appropriate for working with their own characters' complicated backstory. The branding and packaging of the Cookie Cat is important within the show.

Jeff Liu composed the Cookie Cat theme on a Game Boy and pitched it.

Rebecca has a "theory" regarding how Steven and Connie's faces kind of "fit together" with Connie's face sticking out at the top and Steven's face sticking out at the bottom.

Rebecca used to do a lot of fan comics, and learned a lot about storytelling while practicing with others' worlds and characters. They love when people make things based on these characters.

The original appearance of Rainbow Quartz was inspired by a music video from the Cars that Rebecca loved when they were younger. The Cars are referenced a lot throughout the show because their videos were a huge inspiration to Rebecca.

Lapis is very much based on a character from one of Rebecca's comics from the art school days.

Everybody on the Crew had different ideas of how Steven's head connected to his body and how his hair worked; Rebecca felt that they learned from everyone's various ideas.

If you've heard that Rebecca was against Finn being in a relationship while working on Adventure Time, that is not true. Rebecca worked on lots of the Flame Princess episodes. Finn and Flame Princess were still together when Rebecca left the show (last episode "Simon and Marcy").

Greg Universe's sexuality was never explicitly stated on the show, but Rebecca thinks of him as sexually fluid. Regarding him as bisexual is also completely valid--and appreciated by Rebecca as a bisexual creator who puts lots of their own personal traits into characters and feels that bisexual characters are pretty rare. Greg's gender on the show is pretty solidly established as male, so Ian says he is probably not gender fluid, but Rebecca is fine with alternate headcanons about that too.

Some of the earliest concept art from "Mr. Greg" was everybody in suits. Getting everyone in a suit was a primary agenda.

Everyone also wanted Connie to have a Space Camp outfit in the earliest concepts for her design in the movie.

Rebecca used to love doing signings while doing the show because it was like a chance to come up for air and go back to work energized by knowing how many people were touched by the show.

Rebecca Sugar wanted Pink Diamond to feel a bit influenced/inspired, design-wise, by the work of Iwao Takamoto. Rebecca loved his work in the Hanna-Barbera Alice in Wonderland and on Sleeping Beauty.

Rebecca drew the rough of the poster's art and Danny Hynes did the colors. Rebecca loves that they got to do this poster because they didn't get to do the final Comic Con with any art depicting Future or beyond (the finale of Future coincided with the emergence of Covid, so everything was closed down), so this is their way of "going rogue" and doing it!

An early prototype of a Steven/Pearl Fusion was called Coral. Rebecca said maybe they could share some drawings of this Fusion sometime. Rebecca shared this factoid with the viewers while drawing Rainbow Quartz 2.0, and mentioned that Ian boarded the scenes including their introduction.

Rebecca would often draw Garnet with a huge smile on her face whenever Garnet was the requested character--even before Garnet had made an expression like that on any aired episode. They had to be careful not to drop any Garnet lore before viewers knew what her center was about. For the short period before "Alone Together" had aired that they were doing conventions, some people were getting mysteriously grinning Garnets and not being familiar with that expression, but once the episodes aired, they understood for sure.

Shelby Rabara, Peridot's voice actor, is a professional dancer, and she choreographed the tap-dancing in "Mr. Greg" as well as provided the foot-taps that you actually hear in the show during the dancing.

Rebecca thinks of art and writing as just two different ways of expressing what you mean--they're not exactly as different from each other as most people think.

Everyone on the Crew was so excited about Steven's neck as an older teen. Mainly because figuring out how Steven's head joins to his body was an issue in original SU.

Unfortunately, while it was also kinda nice to see so many people enjoying Rebecca's drawings and commentary, there was a lot of rudeness and obnoxiousness in the chat. I know, I know, it's expected; I too live on the internet. But I'm disappointed to say the chat was full of people demanding Black Diamond, or repeating their own name and what character they want every 3 seconds (like, literally, pasting it over and over again for a long period of time), or harassing them about "weird Ed Edd and Eddy art," or spamming "REBECCA WHAT WAS IN THE CHEST," or wanting constantly for them to say hi to them personally, or repeatedly asking if Rebecca has read Homestuck. Or even writing snotty things like "maybe you should stop drawing and get up and give us a new season." Holy shit. can u not

(I didn't want to get a live-signed one, but I did get one of these to be sketched later! Mine is supposed to get Lion on it. I love Rebecca and the SU crew for bringing us new art and fun discussions in 2024.)

[enlightenedrobot]

May I ask, for the Betty Boop character free copyright, what versions of hers we can use? like if you don't mind be a little more specific for my dumbass self understands

Only if you don't mind ofc!

Wow, I never made a follow up clarifying the Betty Boop situation. So uh... the situation is complicated.

So like... to play things safe... Betty Boop actually *unambiguously* enters the public domain in 2 years. Which is to say the original version of Betty Boop as depicted in Dizzy Dishes will be free to use.

That said, I'm calling bull. There's dozens of variants of Betty Boop who don't look like the modern incarnation who have fallen into the public domain, and at times, it feels like there's more Betty Boop stuff in the domain than outside of it.

On top of that, the rights to Betty Boop are a complicated mess. From the wikipedia page:

Global Icons, btw, is the same company that also owns the rights to the images of serveral real life celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley... and like... that really sucks.

I'm not a legal expert by any means, but I think this all reads a bit familiar. Disney continues to claim ownership of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, even though that's a lie. The same can be said for DC and any of the Fawcett Comic characters.

What I can tell you is that there's definitely a single recognizable variant of Betty Boop who has fallen into the public domain, with one rather extreme deviation from most other versions of the character.

Betty Boop was a redhead for exactly one cartoon, and nobody talks about that. Poor Cinderella is a solid Betty Boop short, and it's free for anybody to use. And this version of Betty, at least to me, reads as a different incarnation of Betty not commonly used in modern merchandise.

Use her. Call her Cindy or just remove the "Boop" from her name. Put her next to her unambiguously Public Domain friends Bimbo and Koko the Clown. Have her meet Steamboat Willie Mickey and Minnie. Put her into the spiritual successor to Epic Mickey that everybody wants but nobody seems to know how to make.

But allow me to back up for a second.

Right now, as we speak, big AI companies are scraping the art of millions of artists without pay. Original stories aren't being picked up by big networks... everybody wants big IP and indie projects aren't allowed a spotlight. And none of this is going to change anytime soon.

Now more than ever, we are morally obligated to steal art. Not just pirate it. Steal it. Bend it to our whims. Make our own version. Take advantage of parody law and fair use and produce our own frankensteinian creations.

In the future, copyright should belong to the artist, not a corporation. Showrunners who pitch cartoons should own the cartoons they produce; there's no reason Rebecca Sugar and Dana Terrace should be denied royalties for the cartoons they came up with. And in the event of an artists death, the copyright for a character should only by the artists estate for a short amount of time.

I'm sick of Disney. I'm sick of the Marvin Gaye Estate. I'm sick of Global Icons. If they're gonna take advantage of our hard work as artists, then we're morally obligated to take advantage of their IP.