#all have their own individual styles- some more Disney-like than others of course- but they’re required to draw/animate/etc in a certain way

[seilon]

not to be That Guy but as someone who’s been to Art School as an entertainment design major I just gotta say. as much as I think I get the point op’s trying to make and there is a case to be made for today’s environment corporatizing art to such an extent that people aren’t as inclined to create fully original work– generally this is a pretty bad take.

when you go to art school, especially if you take a character design class, illustration class, entertainment design class, etc- you will literally be required to draw in the styles of other people/various franchises. you will have to do countless studies of other people’s styles, and you’ll have to do master studies where the entire point of the assignment is to copy a “master”’s work as closely to the original as possible in order to break down what they would’ve had to do to create that work. the reason for this being: learning to draw, and learning how to develop a unique art style is pointlessly difficult without any guidelines or a repository of styles and techniques from others to go off of. it’s not an efficient way to learn, and it’s not fulfilling on a more personal level to bar yourself from what inspires you to draw.

you can ask so many full-fledged artists how they learned to draw the way they do, how they developed their own style over time, and many, if not most of them will say that they grew up drawing like crazy trying to imitate the style of their favorite disney movie, or favorite animated show, favorite manga, etc. artwork from other artists/franchises motivates you to create, to practice– even if you’re straight up copying something on tracing paper you’re still absorbing information and recognizing patterns and so on by doing so and it will help you build up the skills and confidence to develop something more recognizably your own (though- nothing is ever 100% original, every art style is an amalgamation of other art styles that influenced the artist– but that’s neither here nor there).

on top of everything, unless you intend on going into art as a career and publicizing your work to a sizable audience, there’s no need to even think about developing your own style or standing out amongst a crowd– the point of art as a hobby is enjoyment. you can draw the same character in the same style a million times and there’s no reason not to, so long as you get enjoyment out of it. if you wanna talk about corporatizing artwork, frankly, it’s more in line with what the capitalist monstrosity that is the entertainment industry wants to look at art as solely something that needs to be constantly improved or approved of by an audience to be worth doing. do whatever you want. who cares

learning to draw trees like hayao miyazaki (objectively a fantastic artist to learn from) of studio ghibli is completely unironically a fantastic thing to do. basically any art professor or industry professional would tell you the same thing.

"How to draw ghibli style trees" "How to draw like disney" How to invent something new. How to try something else.

[beyondd-dazedd]

EPISODE👏 REVIEW👏 hsmtmts season 2 episode 10: get ready for some enthusiastic writing and a little too much looking into details

first off seb doing the intro made my heart happy i love him

ok i know everyone has been saying it but there is no way in hell they’re winning the menkies. unless the writers just go with the main character favoritism route, there’s just no way. however for the sake of comedy, watching ashlyn give us everything in the transformation scene and ricky being an absolute disaster is SO funny to me. like shout out to joshua because that scene made me laugh so hard. also a trio i need more of is kourt, red and ej. i just feel like they would be dramatic gossipy bitches and i love that for them.

normally i think ms. jenn’s reactions are over the top but after seeing the shit show that just occurred 2 mins before... i think her reaction is very valid because oh god.

continuing with the theme of friendship dynamics we haven’t seen a lot of but we absolutely need more of, ashlyn and ricky!! that scene was so sweet and wholesome. i’m so so so glad the writers didn’t fall into the trap of making characters take sides after a break up. i just feel like it’s been done a million times before. but seeing ashlyn being so genuine when checking up in ricky made me so happy. the caswells remain being the superior characters (including gina obvs)

ms. jenn and mr. mazzarra are cute don’t get me wrong but they should’ve spent more time developing that relationship instead giving ms. jenn like 3 random love interests and that’s all i’ll say on that.

i love imagining what characters are saying when they’re just ad libbing. like what could ej, gina, ricky and red be talking about before carlos shows up to start the scene?? my guess is they’re all gushing about how amazing ash is and no i don’t take criticisms on that.

alright i’ll say it. the seblos drama is weak at best. they didn’t spend enough time developing it and kind of pushed it to the background so when it was one of the main focuses of the episode it was kind of like ok?? HOWEVER i did love the resolution to it and the deeper look into their individual characters. (i’ll talk more about this later)

carlos calling ms. jenn mother and everyone immediately knowing who he was talking about sent me omfg. but also who the fuck let these high schoolers try to figure out this transformation scene by themselves?? they collectively have 2 brain cells and they just bounce around between the 9 of them depending on the scene. but playful sleepover competition!! also gina nudging ej when he goes a little too ej 1.0 was everything.

i hate lily and i love sassy red. that’s all.

(im going to talk about the boys/girls sleepovers like they’re each one continuous scene respectively because it’s way easier than switching back and forth)

fun new friendship dynamics!! the boys!! sebbie and the girls! iconic. i know that the show is meant to be in a mockumentary style so we only see parts of the characters lives but i would give my left arm to see the boys getting closer and becoming friends. this is also the first scene where i really noticed ricky’s shirt. ricky is queer disney are just cowards. i’m not a big ricky/ ej shipper but the pretty boy had me feeling some type of way. carlos being worried about seb and their relationship and then red being like well this is why. bc he’s got a spy on the inside was peak friendship. but seriously disney?? just say gay. it’s not a bad word. now imma freak out about PORTWELL OMFG I WAS ALREADY FREAKING OUT DURING THIS SCENE SO YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW WELL I WAS DOING LATER ON. but ej just being like im not ready to put myself out there because of nini i don’t wanna get rejected... again. my heart went out to him. you can really see how much he’s grown as a person. but sure ej y’all are “buddies” also him saying the one thing i’m proud of from my time with nini was letting her go and ricky’s reaction to that hurt me to my core.

alright let’s talk about the girls and seb. first off i love that they’re actually working and the boys are doing fuck all LOL. seb actually talking about how he feels?? good for him. i hate that he thinks that carlos is only with him because there’s limited options but at least he’s talking about it. a moment of silence for ash’s scissor bucket (i won’t make a gay joke. i won’t make a gay joke. i won’t-) anyways... i really thought that maybe ash would know about portwell but it’s fucking EVERYONE. like y’all are that perceptive about other peoples relationships but not your own?? that’s why all y’all have relationship drama. gina not wanting to put herself out there because she’s afraid of getting hurt?? ouch. gina thinking ej is just being nice?? ouch but also gina, sis?? what. also nini reacting that way to the chocolates is so out of pocket. like 1) y’all aren’t dating anymore so what’s got you so pressed? 2) gina made it clear that they weren’t actually from ricky 3) nini you know they had some sort of chemistry before you and ricky got back together so this really shouldn’t be that surprising.

anyways the scene with ricky and carlos broke me. the decision for ricky to not show nini the song was so mature. despite wanting to get her back, he KNOWS that that would only drag her back and that’s not fair to her and he knows it. but his awareness of seblos’s relationship and wanting to help carlos work things out with seb was so wholesome and so sweet and is kind of a big moment of character development for him this season. like he was generally very selfish this season (again i’m a ricky apologist til the day i die but he was so selfish) and seeing him take the focus away from his problems to help carlos out was so sweet. also i need more ricky/carlos friendship moments.

kourt talking about howie learning her love language?? bitch you mean espionage?? i mean me too but that’s so fucking funny

ALRIGHT THIS IS THE PARAGRAPH WHERE I SCREAM ABOUT PORTWELL!!! i am so so so so happy right now about this. the fact that ej asked about risotto but for real was so satisfying and was blatantly like him saying i know we faked being in a relationship but what about it not being fake and omfg that’s so amazing. also gina being skeptical and asking if ash put him up to it and him saying not that i know of?? THE PARALLELS?? also gina this whole season has been talking about signs and finding reasons to stay, finding signs to know if someone is right for her and you can literally see the moment she realizes she said the same thing about the duke sweatshirt to jack. SHE KNOWS THIS IS HER SIGN and that’s so special to me. also ej’s nervous laugh after she says yes?? omfg. let’s look at ej’s character. historically he’s confident, cocky and generally puts on this facade of having his shit together but gina makes him nervous (in a good way). he doesn’t feel like he has to pretend to be confident around her. he’s showing her that he’s just as nervous as she is about this and that is just *chefs kiss* honestly not to be an andi mack stan but ej’s little nervous chuckle and ok after she says yes sounds like he’s letting out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding which seriously parallels tj after the tyrus confession. i’m just saying. ALSO GINA’S LITTLE EXCITED WALK BACK TO THE GROUP AHHHHHH

the seblos song?? i have no notes. it was incredible. frankie killed that shit. it was such a good song. so sweet. so wholesome. also ricky and carlos’s hug was so fucking meaningful to both of them and you can tell. ricky was absolutely beaming because he helped the two of them and it feels like a little bit of season 1 ricky shining through.

WHO THE FUCK LET A BUNCH OF HIGH SCHOOLERS RIG A KID IN THE AIR COMPLETELY UNSUPERVISED?? of course ricky fucking fell. that group shares 2 brain cells. obviously some dumb shit was going to happen

[mishasminion360]

Space Age Love Song, Ch. 4

A Mandalorian x O/C Fic

Warnings: Language

Notes: Din and Sara play 20 questions.

You can now keep up with this story on AO3 as well! My username is SwiggitySwagNightmareStag. Happy reading, all!

Ch. 4: Answered

Sara left Din to eat breakfast in privacy. He couldn’t very well stuff his face with the helmet on, and he’d made it clear that he wouldn’t take it off in her presence, so, while he remained in the kitchen, she took her scrambled eggs and bacon into the living room. Alone again, naturally.

After they’d stuffed themselves silly, Sara washed and dried the dishes, and then practically dragged the Mandalorian back into the living room, eager to learn more about the intergalactic anomaly that was Din Djarin. She shoved him (gently, of course) onto the couch before curling up on the other end.

“Okay, here’s how this is going to work. You ask a question, I answer. Then I ask a question and you answer. See? Easy. Care to start us off?”

Din leaned back and folded his armored arms.

“Ladies first.”

“I see that chivalry is a thing on your planet, which I’m assuming is...Mandaloria?”

“Close. It’s called Mandalore. Does that count as your first question?”

“Sure.”

“My turn, then. What planet am I on now?”

“This is Earth, my friend. The only populated planet in the Milky Way Galaxy. As far as we earthlings know, anyway.”

Milky Way Galaxy? That was a solid 2.5 million light-years from his own. He had no idea he’d come so far, and he would be utterly amazed if he discovered that he hadn’t completely burned out his hyperdrive.

“And what galaxy is Mandalore a part of?”

Sara’s second question put an abrupt end to the calculations he was doing in his head. And he was honestly grateful for it.

“The Andromeda Galaxy.”

Sara let out a low whistle and started doing some calculating of her own.

“How the hell did you manage to get all the way here? Aren’t our galaxies, like, a crap ton of light-years apart? How did you get here so fast? How long have you been traveling to get here?”

“That’s more than one question.”

“Shit, sorry.”

“It’s fine. Did you want me to answer all of those now, or...”

“No, no. Rules are rules. You go ahead and ask your next question.”

“Alright. Where’s my ship?”

Sara looked past him to the back door and he attempted to follow her gaze.

“It’s, uh, in my backyard. In a crater. You came in pretty hot there, Din. Your ship’s a little banged up. It was on fire when I first found it, but I managed to put most of it out. There were a lot of flashing lights and alarms going off. I don’t know my way around alien technology, so I can’t tell you with any certainty if it’ll still run. I can say that it appears to be all in one piece. I think. I hope.”

Dank Farrik, Din cursed to himself. One problem after the next. If the Razor Crest Sequent was nothing but a pile of scrap now, this would be the second ship, and the third home, he’d lost.

“How did you end up here, Din?”

Once again she managed to rip him out of his own head. There was something about the way she said his name that had an almost soothing effect on his anxious mind. Something he liked.

“I....that is a long story.”

Sara crossed her arms and leaned back into the couch, getting comfy.

“I’ve got time.”

Din sighed. Where to begin? He didn’t even have all the details fleshed out himself, so how was he supposed to explain the situation to another?

“Mandalore was attacked by...well, I don’t know, to be honest with you. Just some random squadron of thugs. They appeared out of nowhere, demanding the king.”

“The king? Of Mandalore? You and your people have a freaking king?”

“You’re looking at him.”

Sara instantly went rigid. For once she was at a complete loss for words, and completely at a loss for what to do with herself. She’d never been in the presence of eminence and everything she knew about royalty she’d learned from Netflix and Disney films.

“You’re a....should-should I bow?”

“Please, don’t.”

Sara nodded for him to continue. Her face was expectant, excited. She was hanging on his every word as if his story were the edge of a cliff. She clung to his tale for dear life.

“Right, so, they came looking for me and I still don’t have any idea why. Needless to say that my people weren’t just going to surrender me to some unannounced, unknown individuals, so they chose to protect me in case this squadron turned out to be a threat.”

“Which they did, I’m guessing?”

“They were armed, but they were few and inexperienced. They couldn’t take my planet by force alone, but they could still cause some significant damage while trying. I didn’t want to see any of my people hurt because of me. Our clan had already been divided for far too long, our home nearly lost, I just wanted to choose a course of action that would keep the peace.”

Sara cocked her head to the side.

“You ran, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I thought if I could lure them away I could figure out their intentions. Or, at the very least, fly long enough to ditch them in hyperspace and return home.”

“And you never found out what they wanted?”

Din shook his head. This is the part of the story that still remained a mystery to him.

“No. The second they caught up to me they opened fire. I was able to make a few light speed jumps without taking any serious damage. But....well, you know the rest. Here I am.”

“And you don’t know where these creeps are now? Is there any chance that they may have followed you here?”

He had frightened her. He could see it in her eyes. Din had basically just admitted that he may or may not have just led a band of violent ruffians to her home planet.

“If they knew where I’d landed, they’d be here by now. I think I effectively gave them the slip.”

Sara sighed, a little too loudly, in relief. One spaceman was about as much as she could handle at the moment; she didn’t need more showing up on her doorstep. Especially not the dangerous kind. Din, at least, seemed gentle enough.

“They’re still out there searching. I’m sure of it. But I can’t just lay low forever. That’s never been my style. Especially not when I have people to protect. I left Mandalore in good hands for now but, king or not, it’s the only home that I have. I don’t....I wouldn’t know where else to go.”

Without even thinking, Sara leaned across the sofa, closing the little space between them, and grasped both of Din’s gloved hands in her own.

“I promise you, Din Djarin, I will do whatever it takes to get you home safely. Anything within my means.”

For a few silent moments they simply sat hand in hand, and time was irrelevant. It wasn’t until she heard Din swallow audibly that Sara realized that she was probably making him uncomfortable and she reluctantly released her grip.

“May I ask a question?”

“Sure,” Sara croaked. “I’ve asked, like, what, 10 in a row by now? So much for ‘rules are rules’, huh?”

“Why did you help me?” Din asked, his voice the softest she’d heard it yet. “Why do you keep helping me? I have nothing to offer you in return.”

Din seemed to have a lot of trust issues, whether that stemmed from past personal experiences or just the Mandalorian creed, so Sara wanted to supply him with an honest answer. There was the logical honest answer, or the honestly honest answer. In the end she decided that the former would take a shorter amount of time to explain. And it would be far less depressing.

“Well, the easiest answer is that I’m a nurse, Din. And as a nurse I took an oath to help those in need. I intend to fully adhere to the terms of that oath even beyond the sanctity of hospital walls. You needed help, I gave it. Simple as that.”

Din saw it the second the warmth left Sara’s eyes and the hazel orbs grew distant. They shone with something sadly nostalgic, like two unreachable distant stars.

“And, quite frankly, you’re the first person, other than myself, to set foot in my house in a long, long time. I didn’t want my houseguest dying on me.” She disguised her sadness with a chuckle. Just barely.

Din suddenly found himself eager to ask her more questions, practically burning for it. Though they’d only just met, just opened up to each other, he knew that there was something that bonded them. A sensation that he couldn’t quite place, but that he knew all too well. He had to steel himself against this unbidden desire for knowledge; time was of the essence.

“Sara, would you take me to my ship?”

***

“Dank Farrik! Son of a Mudscuffer!!”

“Are those good alien words I’m hearing?”

“No, they’re kriffing not!”

“That one was a bad one, too. Got it.”

She stood just outside the ship’s open doorway, arms crossed and fighting off a childish grin, when she heard his angry, booted feet come thump thump thumping down the ramp. She turned to meet his gaze and, even with his helmet hiding his face from her sight, she could tell that he wasn’t amused in the slightest.

“I like the way you curse, Mando.”

He stared her down for a minute before trudging off. Yep, definitely not amused.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Sara called sprinting after him and snagging him by the arm. How could he move so fast with all that armor weighing him down?

“Can you fix it?”

Din heaved a heavy, frustrated sigh.

“It’ll take time. And parts. Neither of which I have.”

“But you can fix it. See, there’s a silver lining to this situation,” Sara said, punching him playfully in the arm. He didn’t respond, only stared, his helmeted face surveying her blankly.

“Look, you’re welcome to rummage through the old barn for spare parts,” Sara offered, gesturing to the decrepit old structure behind Din. “My gramps was a bit of a tinkerer, so he let a lot of tools and miscellaneous crap pile up in there over the years. My guess is if you need it, it’s in that barn. And whatever I don’t have, the hardware store will.”

Sara flexed her arms, giving him her best Schwarzenegger impression and a one way ticket to the “gun show”.

“I’m not too shabby when it comes to fixing up things myself. I’ve got my grandpa to thank for that, too. We’ll have your ship back in orbit before you can say ‘E.T. phone home’.”

“Why would I say that?”

“It’s...oh, never mind. Anyway, that being said, you’re welcome to stay here as long as you need. It’s no trouble.”

Din started to protest, but Sara shushed him with a finger to his helmet, pressing it to where she assumed his lips were hiding underneath.

“I want to get you home, Din. Home to your family. But I also want to make sure that you’re fully healed and well rested before you go. This is ‘nurse Sara’ talking, and she is not to be trifled with.”

Then the Mandalorian did something unexpected. Something wonderful. Something Sara had begun to assume it impossible for him to do.

He laughed.

And it made her heart beat a little faster.

“Fair enough,” Din said. “And...thank you. Again.”

“You’re welcome,” Sara responded. She said it so softly that she wasn’t even certain that she’d actually said it out loud.

“Can I check out that barn now?”

Sara folded her arms and nodded, suddenly feeling like a mother sending her child into a Toys ‘R’ Us unsupervised.

“Knock yourself out. Better sooner than later, while you still have daylight.”

He turned and left her without another word. But he walked away slowly.

And Sara was left to watch him wander, the sound of his laugh still echoing in her ears. It may have been unfair to assume, but she figured she’d never hear such a sound coming from the stoic Din Djarin. Now that she had, it became the only sound she wanted to hear.

@just-another-dumb-artist @mamacitapascal @grimeylady @rav3n-pascal22 @obsessivelysearching @insomniamamma @cixrxb @mandolydian @lv7867 @calliedjarin @mando-pamine

[fanartfunart]

@sapony01​ commented on one of my Sides Swap posts: Can you explain their function and personality a bit better/explore them? Some are kinda obvious but some kinda confuse me

And, but of course! I’m totally open to it! (I’m mostly making another post for it because otherwise it’ll get absurdly long)

To summarize, the main idea is that they keep their personality and secondary traits they represent (Like Ego, Emotionality, ect), while further representing the Main Trait (like Anxiety, Creativity, ect)

The rest under the cut:

Anxiety

Roman: His key representation of Anxiety would befall closer to overemphasizing bravery and ignoring problems, and of course, insecurities. Thus a focus on Dangers you can Fight, and avoiding things you can’t. A emphasis on the Knight theme as a representation of bravery. He’d use ego and theatricality as a cover- a ‘be weird before people can accuse you of being weird because then it’s on purpose’ type logic.

Patton: The type of Anxiety where you emotionally over extending yourself because you’re scared of social-emotional repercussions. Caring so much that there’s no time and energy to care for yourself. Also a good representation of the Dad-Friend override for Anxiety.

Logan: A representation of over-analyzing the world like an outsider, that emotional distance that, while you’re curious of all the things around you, you can’t help but focus on the bad. Avoidance becomes a key factor and everything is categorized as bad or good off of exaggerated ‘proof’.

Janus: Very self protective to the point that things outside the Comfort Zone are almost always negative and overwhelming. Sarcasm, brittleness, and lying as a way to avoid things outside the Comfort Zone.

Remus: Overthinking creating an Anxious reaction. Basically seeing things in the shadows and over-analyzing interactions. Essentially worries cropping up out of the idea of various terrible things you can think of possibly coming at you from the smallest of hints to it. Also Knight theme because why not.

Creativity 

Logan: A more organized and analytic approach to creative works. Prone to being a literary critic. Draws from media to explain a point. As creativity would likely be the type of writer that hides details and metaphors in everything, focus on foreshadowing and the such.

Janus: Never lets anything be direct, people should be able to make their own conclusions about the meaning of the text. Probably thinks method acting is fun. The kind of actor/writer that easily shrugs on different types of characterizations that it makes other people dizzy seeing him switch between them.

Virgil: Your inner Emo Art Phase personified (everyone has at least one somewhere in there). Would prefer to be either a lesser known creator, or not let Thomas use his real name (thus Ghostwriter), because being Known is Awkward and his work can get too real, being known as a real person could detract from the art. Focus on art as an outlet for expressing negative feelings and stress relief.

Patton: Take your craft-happy relative who always hand-makes gifts and you’ve got Creativity Patton. Just wants to have fun and share the fun. Draws from positive emotional experiences for creativity because he wants to give everyone who sees said art a hug through said art. (Yes, his design is vaugely based off of Disney’s Pinocchio Geppetto aka Pinocchio’s dad.)

Remus: Take Remus as he is, and then take the ‘intrusiveness’ out of him. He basically has all the same horrifying ideas, but he doesn’t use them to make Thomas upset or anything, he’s just making stories.

Logic

Patton: Sorta a relaxed logic, understands not everything can be solved with a clean logical solution and that emotions hold a important space in people’s actions. Is that little logical voice when you’re super mad going ‘you’re mad because this, this, and this, and this is probably an overreaction to what you’re expressing your anger to, but it’s still valid.’ Prone to emotional fallacies though.

Virgil: You know any super cool teacher/professor who teaches you what the book says and then closes the book and says ‘ok now guess what, they’re also wrong, and I’m probably wrong too’?? Virgil as logic. (also why I kinda gave him the ‘tired + university hoodie’ style) Emphasizes learning from various sources and never trusting any of them 100%. Doesn’t trust his own information either, and it makes him stressed.... but like, he’s always stressed anyway so it’s chill. 

Roman: Bounces from topic to topic to learn. Very curious and easily inspired- also easily distracted. The definition of what a liberal arts education should be doing- aka, connecting seemingly unrelated topics. An Encyclopedia of very specific information. But, once he’s got a set of information it’s hard to let go of it, which makes it hard to adjust to being told he’s wrong.

Janus: Emphasis on how information is always being adjusted, and people’s biases are always present in studies and interpretation. Focuses on debunking things. Also kinda makes it hard to 100% be sure of any information presented.

Remus: Enjoys abusing the ‘technicalities’ in things. A little hard to follow in terms of train of thought. Disturbing Facts are still facts.

Morality

Virgil: Emphasis on sympathy and ‘do what you’d hope people would do for you’ moral arguments. Focus on social structure for the ground rules for moral behavior. That guy who’s constantly nice because he wished someone was nice to him, ya know? Hates the idea of being a bad person so much that it causes a lot of guilt and mistrust of the self.

Logan: Thinks of moral behavior as an equation of sorts. People do good things and that causes good things and that allows the social structure to work as it should, so do good things. Draws on philosophy and other social sciences to argue his points. Easy to readjust his thinking with proper reasoning.

Roman: Just wants people to be happy! And to be good! Emphasis on the reactions of others and how that effects your social/emotional well-being. Do good because it feels good kinda guy (he wants to be somebody’s Hero, ya know how it be).

Janus: Understands that morality is such a grey place that most anything can be seen as bad if you argue it enough. Places value on the self as someone deserving of feeling good as well, and bases moral values on what you as an individual wants to do. Also still kinda morally grey in general and probably shouldn’t always be listened to.

Remus: I Follow no Rules but My Own. Full rejection of social pressures. What precisely that means for his resulting moral standing is up to debate.

Deceit

Logan: Woorsst lair because he’ll twist truth and facts into it and it’s hard to pick out what’s the lie. Very blunt about his role as deception and its benefits and drawbacks. Very good about remembering which lies were told when and to who. Not the kind to lie more than seen necessary.

Roman: Focus on lying as acting and getting to where you need to go in life. ‘Fake it til you make it’ is his motto and it also includes mental states. Makes it hard to be honest about feelings. Very much a ‘lying to yourself’ aspect.

Virgil: Lying to avoid perceived negative repercussions. Lying still bothers him- as lying can also cause negative reactions. Focus on lying in reaction to events, less so on lying to the self. Not every lie is especially necessary though, knee-jerk reactions and fear make it very easy to lie. Lies of omission being the most utilized.

Remus: The opposite to Roman’s ‘lying to yourself’. Lying to others just to see their reactions. Uses being ‘blatantly honest’ about taboo subjects to seem honest about other things.

Patton: Lying to spare people’s feelings and being perceived well. Focus on lying or omitting the truth to seem like everything’s awesome.

Intrusive Thots

Patton: Makes emotional reactions overwhelmingly hard to gauge and control, results in terrifying thoughts and feelings with little control or filter. Gets stuck on ideas because of how hard he’s trying to push it away (yea know, like the white bear experiment).

Virgil: Thinks in problem solving, but the problems are of course, the thoughts of his own creation. Incessant about ‘solving’ the perceived problem.... not much else changes.

Logan: The Mad Scientist aesthetic is fun, what can I say? Takes facts and focuses on the scary parts, and then brings them back up on the slightest hint of relevance, and sometimes just Because. Some of it is curiosity taken into a frightening territory and gets overwhelming.

Janus: Emphasis on what happens if terrible things happened. Also likes using the ‘you’re gonna go to hell anyway just dive in with me’ argument. Occasionally pops up in a way that sounds almost nice, then turns horrifying very quickly.

Roman: Take Roman, make his ideas more Remus. He’s already Loud and Proud, just make him scarier, and a little more incessant and probably a little more arrogant for good measure.

[sketchfanda]

Rate the Champions

Based off of and inspired by @gale-of-the-nomads and @nerdasaurus1200 rate the akuma,for @beebeebombam Lady Fairy AU,or in this case,the blind butterfly girl herself and her champions. According to wha I’ve learned from posts in bee’s posts on the tag,many of the champions like Alya as Lady Wifi,Max as the Gamer,and Nate as Illuscreator aren’t all too different from canon in tems of their abilities and design. mostly just my way of giving some attention and notice to this AU,which for a guy like me who’s pretty recent into coming into this fandom,but coming to know enough,it’s a fun and sweet AU especially for the fact it gives poor Nooroo much better than what he’s got in canon.

serously,poor little guy,and this is like the only gif I ever find for him. So let’s begin with the blind butterfly princess herself

Marinette Dupain-Cheng,blind but as in canon,a girl with a big heart and a deep sense of empathy,wielder of the moth/butterfly Miraculous,Paris’ maker of heroes Lady Fairy

Design: A+ it really plays up th butterfly theme and motif,her mask being a blindfold is a very nice touch that serves to highlight and remind of her condition. The shades of purple and indigo work well to give a outfit that is as graceful,elegant and posied as the animal its based on and suits her name,coming off like a figure out of a fairy tale plus such glitter and sparkle

Powers: A,it’s the butterfly/moth brooch,as in canon it grants the wielder the ability to empower others and make them superheroes. Of course in this AU it’s made to be used as intended,unlike Gabriel’s selfish,wreckless evil purposes. Especially as unlike Hawkmoth,lady fairy serves more to focus on her champions’ positive emotions,guide them and motivate them rather than force control and obedience into being her puppets and twist and manipulate them at their lowest points. while it’s stated that the moth miraculous can utilise both positive and negative emotions,I feel focusing on the positive makes for a better contrast to how Hawkmoth always seeks out the negative. Bee of course adds a sweet touch to how the wielder can see through their chosen’s eyes,allowing the blind marinette to see the world she normally wouldn’t be able to due to her blindness,giviing her a growing appreciation and love for her city,her loved ones and the colours of life.

theme (As in their gimmick):A.the name,motif and design of the outfit all work together,making her seem like a figure from a court of nobility from a fairy tale

Effectiveness:A.when all seems grim,always know if you have a strong heart,this sweet soul will give you the means to do what’s right,because she believes in you. as a true butterfly wielder should.

Personal enjoyment: A I’ve seen maybe one or two,if not near half a dozen fanarts based on kwami swap with Mari as the butterfly miraculous wielder. This is my personal favourite of the bunch in terms of concept and design.

next we come to the villain of the story,grand iceking douchebag and shitty parent,the socially reclusive bastard Gabriel Aggreste,aka Le Paon,wilder of the peacock miraculous,which I assume isn’t as damaged as it is canon Design- A,very sinister and classy,but different and unique compared to his hawkmoth outfit,but just as enigmatic. has a somewhat sens of style and class to it,which makes sense given peacocks and their natural flamboyance and Gabriel’s status as a fashion designer

Powers- A.as in canon,the peacock brooch is similar but different to the buttefly in that rather than use someone’s emotions to empower them,it takes a partciular emotion they’re feeling and gives it a shape and form,granting the wielder a soldier they can command and control. making it range and very in terms of its shape and form. And unluckily,one needn’t be willing for gabriel to create a sentimonster,not that he cares,fitting given his self serving goal.

Theme- A,sinister yet classy looking individual,with an ability to enforce his will on others,much like he enforces and exerts control over his own’s son’s life. it’s one thing when hetting akumatised twisted you into being evil,but one can barely imagine the horror of being taken advantage of at your emotional low,watching as your anger,or sadness,etc are given the form of a monster that will tear all of paris apart to fulfill a mad man’s goals

Effectiveness - A. like in canon,gabriel is just hiding away,unseen by all of Paris as he keeps his sense tuned for someone at their emotional low,looking to control them much like how he controls his own son’s life. because what he believes in and thinks are right matter most,and for the ones he loves,or passes for love,all of Paris will suffer long as he gets what he wants

Personal enjoyment of the akuma-Be it the moth or the peacoc,Gabriel is as he will always be,a cold distant selfish man whose misguided sense of love and family will burn the world.

Nathalie Sancoeur,personal assistant to the villain himself,in this Au for the heroes day battle,wielder of the ladybug,which garbriel has in his possession. yes he’s halfway to this goal,which raises the stakes Design- A,similar but different to canon,a more villainouse edge thanks to the black sections,and seems to hide nathalie’s identity

Powers- A,it’s the ladybug miraculous,one can only shudder to think hw it works when not wielded by a non heroic wielder.

Theme- Unlike in canon,this is not a heroic ladybug. I’ts Nathalie doing what she thinks is right,which is helping her boss achieve his goals. not helping that she seems to love him and all

Effectiveness - hard to say as we will only see her once in the finale arc,but the ladybug miraculous on the side of devils? weep for paris

Personal enjoyment-n/a

Sabine Dupain-Cheng,Mari’s wonderful mama,aka Scilla Design- A,an elegant look and design that fits and suits the motfi of her daughter,fitting given what her powers in this form do.

Powers- A. simple but effective,she can boost and enhance others’ powers,in this case able to increase Mari’s Miraculous’ abilities as catalyst did with scarlet moth,enabling her to create multiple champions. from a lady to a queen fairy,now able to lead and command her warriors on the field of battle.

Theme- A,really plays to the sparkly classy fairy tale motif of her daughter

Reason for Akumatization-Aor championisation in this case,as bee establishes Sabine’s always known her daughter has been a hero,and given the situation in heroes’ day,how could she not want to help

Effectiveness as an akuma- A,the results speak for themselves

Personal enjoyment of the akuma-A,compared to Nathalie and Hawkmth,it’s a nice little take in reminding us how like in canon,Mari has a wonderfu bond with her parents.

Luka,Kagami,Rose and Juleka,aka Distorter,Riposte,Princess fragrance and Monster Witch

Design- A+,very more heroic takes or twists on Luka,Kagami and Rose’s canon designs,while Juleka’s is very suiting and fitting for her given her goth vibe and motif,with the eyees of coruse referencing Reflekta. makes sense esp as reflekta was more about standing out and getting attention.Rose’s and Luka’s looks are tweaked just enough to not seem like palette swaps whie Kagami’ is less silver samurai,more superheroic samurai knight

Powers- A,Riposte’s hardly needed changing or tweaking compared to her design.Distorter meanwhile is more about using sound as a weapon which can have some unique applications. Juleka’s abilities obviously needed an overhaul,as there would’ve been no way of making a heroic take on reflekta’s powers. here of course it’s more about a means of combatting a sentimonster that creates its own army,while Rose’s is more about helping out and aiding others,akin to healer type chars in rpgs and games like overwatch and team fortress 2

Theme- A,you got a heroic samurai magical girl,a disney princess with a perfume gun,a musician who can truly make music a weapon,and his perky goth sister witch,what’s not to love

Reason for Championization-can’t rate per se,but given this Au and the nature of th buttrfly,Marinette wouldn’t pick just anyone to be her champions

Effectiveness as a champion- A,chat is lucky to have this backup no doubt

Personal enjoyment of the champions-A,be it simle tweaks and overhaul of the designs,to whole new design and powersets,creative aspects like this are what I love about this AU

Nino,Alix,Sabrina,Ondine,Ivan,Mylene,aka Bubble Boy,Timestealer,vanisher,syren,stone warrior and braverator

Design- A,Nino’s is a very welcome change of pace compared to the sentient popsicle blowup clown doll from canon and play to his own personal music hobby,Alix’s is more heroic take on her canon form that still playsup the futuristic rollerblader,Sabrina and Ondine’s hardly needed much changing,though Ondine does have some tweaks here and there,like an additonal fish feature or accessories. Ivan’s livesup to the name,making for an opposing contrast as Stoneheart,while Mylene obviously needed something different,as Horrificator is likely more sentimonster material design wise.

Powers- A+,bubbler’s design was whack,but the powers as seen were definitely something,vanisher and syren’s hardly needed much adjusting either. Stone warrior of course,basically takes his stoneheart’s powers and applies them more to a heroic means.mylene’s of course is very suiting for her,an inverse to how horrificator gained more pwer and size from others’ fear of her,she takes others’ fear and inverts it into bravery.which as bee mentions,is very handy for heroes’ day. Alix’s powers of coruse,are more about taking someone’s speed to add to her own,rather than taking someones life to able to go back in time.

Theme- A,vanisher needn’t be said,but the rest are either simple but effective tweaks and adjustments on familiar designs,or something more original and memorable in its own right

Reason for Championzation-see above for previous champion pic set.

Effectiveness as champions- same as above

Personal enjoyment of the champions-same as above

Doll Angel,the Lady fairy Au’s equiv to the Collector,combining aspect of the Puppeteer akuma.

Design- A,it plays to the same soft color palette and elegant classy fairy tale design of Mari’s outfit as Lady Fairy,minus the butterfly motif. Which makes sense of course as the goal of this form is throw off any traces or connection to her secret identity. The wand of course adds to the theme,and like with her lady fairy outfit,the masks adds a nice hint of mystery and highlights as a reminder of her blindness in this au. Given this is her equivalent to collector,it does the job.

Powers- A. As bee states,it’s similar but different to puppeteer,as well as her miraculous powers. It has the personal touch of utilizing a set of items that are very personal to Mari,in many ways representing how much she cherishes and values the friends in her life,many of whom have been made her champions,so unlike puppeteer it doesn’t force them into their forms and be controlled by her. But rather uses the dolls themselves,who serve as her sort of,rpg companion team. The detail of being able to see brought her dolls’ eyes serves a nice callback to how as lady fairy she sees through her champions eyes

Theme- A,as mentioned in design,it plays to the fairy tale motif,but like collector  it’s different enough 8n terms of ability and design in throwing off the fact she is the butterfly miraculous wielder.

Reason-A,obviously as well as helping out her favourite cat,the reason for making herself a champion is key to throwing off that feathered bastard off of her scent. After what Gabriel pulled in canon as the collector,what’s good for the goose and all…

Effectiveness - A. Like with the collector,it clearly serves its goal and purpose.

Personal enjoyment of the champion-A+ the sweetest design for the sweetest girl in all of Paris.

[eljackinton]

Final Thoughts on Greedfall

Greedfall popped up on my radar last year when people began mentioning that it had been a while since we had last seen a Bioware style RPG. In recent years story heavy RPGs have tended to come in two varieties: Massive open worlds, or Baldur's Gate style throwbacks.

It wasn't long before people started talking about Greedfall for another reason: It's rather insensitive take on colonialism. In both instances enthusiasm for Greedfall was tempered. It was a worthy effort to try and rival something like Dragon Age, but it had too many problems to succeed.

Still, with no Dragon Age or Mass Effect game currently on the horizon, and nobody else trying to contribute to the genre in that way, I knew I was going to find myself playing Greedfall eventually.

Let me be clear, I absolutely think RPG fans out there should play Greedfall. Problems or not, I have to applaud Spiders for at least attempting to make a game nobody outside Bioware (or even in Bioware these days) is trying to make. I'd absolutely be up for seeing a sequel, and I hope some modest success can put pressure on EA to let Bioware get back to regular releases again, or encourage other studios to try something similar.

With that out of the way, I want to talk about what I liked and what I didn't, but first, we have to talk about...

Greedfall's one big problem.

Greedfall is a story about colonialism that has nothing to say about colonialism. It takes place in a fantasy world where an island is sort of, but not quite, being colonised like the Americas were. The game skirts the line between how much it resembles this. The natives of the island are not Native Americans, but they're not not Native Americans either. The game wants to ask the difficult questions about expansion and coexistence, but then wraps it all up with mealy-mouthed 'can't we all just get along' platitudes.

Greedfall's idea of colonialism is about as complex as Disney's Pocahontas. It's a world where bad things only happen because of bad individuals. It it wasn't for the craven or immoral there would be peace on the island. Colonialism is capable of being benign.  The game constantly pushes this idea at you, and makes it super obvious that when the time comes to nominate who will be the next high king, the candidate who wants to drive the colonists off the island is treated as one of the bad choices (or 'less good' if you're being charitable.)

Despite the name being Greed-fall, greed and the nature of it are barely explored. The colonists are on the island searching for a cure for a plague. The Bridge Alliance is driven by scientistic discovery, Theleme is driven by religious conviction. The faction the player represents, The Congregation of Merchants, is probably the one most motivated by monetary gain, but they, ironically, feature so thinly in the plot that they might as well not be there.

Over the last few years, culture and society has began to look at colonialism with a more critical eye. The fact that Greedfall failed to consider this shows both a profound lack of imagination and ambition. Better writers than I have already discussed whether this makes the game mildly insensitive or outright offensive, but it's undeniable that it's a problem and it's a dead weight at its core.

What I liked

- The gameplay and game feel was all great. Combat felt smooth. Magic and technical abilities never felt redundant and always added a new dimension to the fights. Firearms felt powerful but never overpowered. There was never a point in the game where I felt overwhelmed.

- There was no 'busywork' sidequests dragging the flow of the game down. There is exactly one 'collectathon' side quest and it's short and easy to ignore. You manage to see all of the world simply by following the quests, meaning it's hard to miss anything significant.

- Collecting resources goes seamlessly with travel and you always have an abundance of resources for crafting and alchemy, which is as easy as 'do you have all the components.' No multi-part crafting or blueprints required.

- The writing and the dialogue was all really steller. At critical points in the game I got really drawn in and could feel the weight of the steaks.

- The characters were a joy to hang around with, chat to, and discover their past. The romance was heartfelt. The side quests were all interesting and cool.

- The visuals were beautiful and parts of the game really made me want to go off and explore.

- Great soundtrack.

- I liked how you could only learn so many abilities over the course of the game. This is a character system where you're either going to be a specialist or a jack of all trades. I don't like it when RPGs essentially give you enough skill points to unlock everything because it just robs the player character of their own unique flavour.

What I didn't like

- The pacing was a real mess. We spend far too long in the starting port that it kills all momentum. The whole story lacks direction for most of it, and any semblance of a plot only really begins two thirds of the way through the game, This was a game that really struggled to make me want to find out what happens next. This is particularly weird given how well the actual dialogue is written.

- The world-building is also implemented poorly. There are whole chunks of the world and backstory that are not elaborated upon. The factions all lack depth and dimension. The game fails to utilise the companions as a means to flesh out the factions they come from. It's hard to appreciate a 'new world' when we don't really know anything about the old one.

- The story brings up ideas and does nothing with them. The fact that (spoilers) the player characters is revealed to be the child of a native adds nothing to the story. The reveal that there was a secret former colony on the island adds nothing to the story (spoilers end.)

- There's not enough variety of environments. Every sub-map blurs into another after a while, even the cities from supposedly vastly different nations have identical architecture styles. It's a crazy big mistake that the HQ of every faction is just the same building template with the textures swapped.

- You can't really impress a personality upon the player character. The game really needed some dialogue choices that added 'sarcastic' or 'frustrated' options. While there are choices the player can make, the personality of the plater character is pretty much set in stone.

- There really wasn't enough content to justify the romances. It basically boils down to about three or four conversations. There's no chance to flirt, or have a bit of back and forth. You just complete the companion quest and then 'romance now?' A missed opportunity.

So all in all, Greedfall is not a prefect game. It's got a lot of problems and a big one in particular, but, again, I applaud the effort. I'd like to see a sequel, and I'd like to see more studios taking chances like this.

[multimetaverse]

there is dumb josh drama on Twitter @enbyriley has compiled a whole google doc on things they’re angry at him for. This is of little interest to us, but there are DM screenshots in there that strongly suggest Gary Marsh was in the way of andi mack. docs doot google doot com/document/d/1-qh1c5y7y2TglXQIKcNpTqISWmDZRoW3V472oU1wkRQ

Yeah it’s the most honest we’ve seen anyone from Andi Mack be about the censorship and restrictions they faced and those ultimately came from Gary Marsh. I really don’t care about this rehashed drama, some of it is serious stuff that I hope Josh has properly atoned for but a lot of it is pretty minor and some of these accusations seem very flimsy and don’t have any evidence to back them up. Obviously Josh should never have been so involved with the fandom across so many different platforms and I think to an extent he was failed by the adults in his life, I get that some of these instagram and discord group chats would have been private and hidden but his tumblr and twitter were public and open for everyone to see and someone whether his parents, his team, someone from the show, or someone from Disney should have intervened a long time ago. I think a lot of it has to do with not having the social network that an average kid would have which is part of a broader question of whether we as a society should be putting child actors into an adult world of working that denies them a normal childhood and forces them to grow up too fast.

It was always clear that Gary Marsh was hurting the show; the censorship was right there in front of our eyes and only got worse as the show went on. I am surprised that Josh would so openly admit it and that it didn’t leak until now. A lot of people in the fandom had a misconception that the show was cancelled because of canon Tyrus but in reality the show was cancelled before the writing of 3x10 while permission for canon Tyrus was only given during the writing of 3x21. 3x10 was filmed in August while 3x21 was filmed in December so for Disney the question wasn’t whether to cancel the show because they didn’t want to deal with a gay relationship but whether they were going to let the show end without a canon gay relationship. 

I don’t blame Josh for being frustrated and also not for wanting to work for Disney Channel again; after all it was his characters story line that was being hurt. With the exception of Bex’s aborted Gabriel story line in 2a, Gary pretty much let Terri and the writers do what they wanted: Bex’s teen pregnancy, Andi not knowing her who father was, racism, sexism, bullying, panic attacks, learning disabilities, arrests, a funeral, and financial issues. Terri wants a Jandi, Jamber, and Muffy kiss? Sure no problem. Cyrus kissing Iris twice? Go for it! Hell they had no problem doing a gun safety plot line, we got the word gun said on Disney Channel before the word gay. And there was a reason that Cyrus and TJ could talk about the gun but not about their own feelings. 

That’s not to say that our boy Gary is a virulent homophobe because he wouldn’t have let there be a gay character in the first place or let Cyrus come out but clearly he views two boys having feelings for each other as something far more controversial and risque than literally everything else the show tackled up to and including a gun plot line which Disney was happy to promote. Andi Mack was an important step forward for rep but there is no other rep on Disney Channel right now, not even brief Good Luck Charlie style rep, and again that’s all on Gary. 

Josh blames Gary Marsh for there not being a Tyrus kiss which is obviously correct. A lot of people swallowed Terri’s spin in her post finale Paste magazine interview but of course she was lying about her ability to have a Tyrus kiss approved and wasn’t going to bad mouth Disney in anyway and jeopardize her Lizzie McGuire reboot. We had three conversations between Cyrus and Buffy in 3x13, 3x15, and 3x21 where Cyrus talked about his feelings for TJ in a coded way that doesn’t make any sense in universe since he was able to talk about his crush on Jonah with Buffy in S2 and in 3x11 he used the word gay. Was it a creative choice to have Cyrus never openly discuss his feelings for TJ? Of course not, Terri just couldn’t get it approved and if she couldn’t even get an open discussion of feelings approved then she was never going to get a kiss.

There’s a lot that Terri and the writers can and should be blamed for in regards to the Tyrus story line especially in S3 but if they had foreseen the restrictions they’d face then they wouldn’t have had Cyrus kiss Iris twice, or go on group and individual dates with Iris, or come up with a mashup name for them, or have Cyrus introduce Iris as his girlfriend to Andi and Buffy. The bench scene was the best ending we were going to get for Tyrus with Gary’s restrictions and Terri’s writing but it wasn’t an ending that will age well. 

When I was talking about Seblos and Tyrus in my HSMTMTS 1x05 review I shared a snippet of an interview Gary Marsh did in 2008 regarding Ryan’s character being coded as gay in the HSM movies but not alowed to actually be gay:

Regarding the fact that there are boyfriend-girlfriend relationships in the HSM movies, Marsh interjected, “Yeah, but that’s not about sex,” as though having two boyfriends equals full-tilt boogie. And as to why there can be boyfriend and girlfriends but not two boyfriends, he could only note, “It’s just not something that we’ve ever had the opportunity to portray. It hasn’t been a place we’ve gone.”

Again I don’t think he’s personally homophobic and I don’t think he’d publicly make such a statement today but when the man in charge of Disney Channel equates a same sex relationship with sex then that’s not something he views as appropriate for children or for Disney Channel. It explains why it would be until 2014 until there was lgbtq rep on Disney with the lesbian moms on Good Luck Charlie, why there wouldn’t be an openly gay character until 2017 when Cyrus came out to Buffy, and why there wouldn’t a gay relationship until 2019 when Cyrus and TJ held hands and it explains why there’s no other rep on Disney Channel. It’s deeper issue than just one executive and it’s likely that Gary Marsh’s successor will hold somewhat similar views which means that Tyrus could be the only rep on Disney Channel and the only rep anywhere on Disney with younger kids played by actual kids for a while.

[natsubeatsrock]

Why is My Hero Academia a school series?

Look, I'm not stupid.

The series is called My Hero Academia. Of course, this series would focus on a school-like setting. I'm not arguing that this series should have fundamentally changed into something completely different than what it ended up becoming. That would be ridiculous, especially considering that's part of what makes this series so unique.

What I am asking is why UA is an actual school. As in, why do we have to have finals, sports festivals, cultural festivals, summer breaks, and class trips in this anime?

The crazy thing is that I wouldn't have thought about this normally. I've seen arguments regarding the popularity of this genre. It would make sense that someone would think to combine the format of the DBZ-style battle action series with that of a school setting anime. The fact that this series is so popular, as far as I can tell, is at least partially because it combines both of these elements fairly well.

You'll never guess what actually got me to start thinking about this.

Keijo!!!!!!!!

I wish I was joking.

In that anime, the characters are also a part of a special school that's made specifically for them to learn the sport. The main difference is that the school they're a part of isn't a high school. In fact, they're all doing this after high school. The school feels like an alternative to college and only exists to train students into becoming better Keijo players. Their classes and activities revolve around improving their skills in and knowledge of Keijo.

This deals with something that’s kind of annoying about shows with school settings. I’ve said this before but it’s rare that a show that takes place in a school setting focuses on the schooling. I don’t mean that tests or school subjects are plot points. I mean, we’re not likely to get an arc where Horikoshi actually teaches his audience how to perform the kinds of differential equations Deku got wrong recently.

With that in mind, why is UA High an actual school? Is there a reason My Hero Academia needed to take place in an actual school? What was stopping UA from being a similar type of school for hero work?

As of the time I'm writing this, we've seen two events animated that would be characteristic of a school anime: sports festival and cultural festival. I could count internships, final exams, summer training camps, and work-study, but I figure that something similar to those things could happen if UA wasn't a normal school. Keijo even has its own form of summer training.

What was the point of the cultural festival?

Well, there really isn't one.

Of course, there's a reason to have a cultural festival. It's a break from the work students have done up to that point and serves as a chance for the non-hero classes to shine. I'm not here to say those things aren't important in the lives of high school students. Most of my favorite high school memories were made outside of the classroom. And, considering I have degrees in music, it would be wrong to act like all kids should do in school is learning.

But the only reason this happens is that they're an actual school. Maybe the support class and business classes get some experience and exposure. However, it's not as if there aren't ways for them to get that exposure. With UA's prestige, they could have an event similar to the sports festival to gain more eyes on their students

Speaking of which, what is the point of the sports festival in UA?

The sports festival is described as a great source of competitive entertainment. In a sense, it replaces the Olympics in terms of scale and importance for a lot of people. For the students, it can serve as a networking opportunity for work studies, internships, and future jobs with agencies.

But does this need to take the form of a sports festival?

I don't think it would be impossible to have the same benefits if they were competing with other schools. It would benefit a wider amount of people in a lot more schools. You can also section off groups so that hero studies students compete amongst each other, support studies students have their own event, and so on.

Of course, this isn't a perfect suggestion. There's the matter of having a large enough facility to have this kind of event and how an even larger crowd of students is thinned into a group small enough to have a tournament fight. Not to mention, something like Shinsou's rise to the hero classes was only possible because everyone was competing across classes and disciplines. That might not be the case if it fights are sectioned off.

However, this kind of thing isn't impossible. Fairy Tail has two different types of big competitions: the Grand Magic Games (for wizards and mages) and the Grand Secret Treasure Games (for treasure hunters). Heck, Keijo's anime culminates into a competition between the two elite keijo schools in Japan on either side of the country. Again, that was what got me to think about this in the first place.

Though, there are benefits to the structure of MHA as a school anime.

When I think of MHA as a universe, I think of it as similar to the X-Men universe, but with the emphasis on powers swapped. If you don't know, the X-Men universe focuses on the fact that people with mutations and mutant powers are the oppressed minority. The series is largely centered around the Xavier Institute for Gifted Individuals, which is a school for mutants to better learn their powers. The world of MHA feels like it's a similar world but one where Professor X has long won and mutants have become not only accepted but the norm of society.

In my opinion, this aspect of the world is one of the best things about the series. MHA is built around the idea that quirks are as commonplace as skin tones and hair colors, even if individual quirks affect either one individually. The idea that someone could be a hero is treated the same way that any other potential profession is: you get the training you need to do well at it and do it, killing as few people as possible in the process. 

We already have high schools that focus on stuff like STEM and arts in addition to normal education in our world. That multiple schools focus on being heroes isn't a bad thing. It goes to show how much quirks have affected the lives of the characters in universe.

And high school isn't a bad time to set this type of education. It's mentioned early on in the series that people usually develop their quirks early on in life and are counseled on the use of their quirks. So, by the time a person enters high school, they've presumably had plenty of time to understand their quirk to a reasonable degree. 

High school is an interesting time in life. A lot of what you thought to be true even in middle school about yourself and the world turns out to change or be proven false. If you want to push the boundaries of what your body can do, it makes sense to do it when several other assertions and considerations prove themselves to be either true or false.

To be fair, it is weird to see kids so young in the dangerous situations we see them in. It’s probably the most reasonable justification behind the costume redesigns I mentioned earlier in the week. As much as I would have likely disagreed, I was not ready to take on the world at 16. I was barely able to take on English classes. (Go figure.)

At the same time, it’s exactly because I was a 16-year old private school boy that I get why MHA strikes a chord with so many people. I totally wish that my high school was like UA. I wish that I got to do the stuff that UA planned (read: I want to the stuff 1-A got to do and not worry about the League). Disney World and two trips to Carnegie Hall pail in comparison to just the festival events.

In Conclusion:

MHA wouldn’t be broken if it weren’t based in an actual school. However, the fact that it is set in a school is a cool element of world building.

[shaineybainey]

Lab Rats: Elite Force – What Exactly Went Wrong?

An Opinion Piece from a Viewer’s (and a Writer’s) Perspective 

[written and posted on another site september 2018]

Let me begin this piece by stating one important fact that could or could not affect your acceptance of this piece: besides the finale, I’ve seen none of this show’s episodes. None. I only ever knew what was happening in it through the reports of others who had watched the show and had formed their own opinions about it, most of which were either negative or neutral. Could that have affected my own view of it? Of course. Could those have turned me off from the show more? Sure. But, the fact remains: the project that seemed to be the biggest and most promising in its time only had one season, ran only a few months, and was never renewed. When the show and its cast were first announced, I was admittedly upset. My favorite character was not included. I found it unfair since this spin-off seemed to be a new, exciting arena with a fresh concept. It bothered me a bit to see the five main characters in the promo image posted on Twitter, too. It was a little too...monotonous compared to how the audience had known Lab Rats and Mighty Med to be. But eventually, I’ve learned to accept that Tyrel Jackson Williams, the actor who played Leo, may have wanted to move on to new projects (and he did) and that maybe the creators just thought that the five actors they handpicked could carry the show a lot better. It was all okay. Soon, though, it became apparent that the negative feedback that had surprisingly come from some of the most loyal fans of Lab Rats, Mighty Med, or both were actually a reflection of how the viewers felt in general. When the finale aired on October 2016, the news that it was a series finale rather than just a season finale had already rocked the fandom. Twitter and Tumblr were flooded with complaints against Disney XD for canceling “another great show” in favor of a “trashy one”—which seemed to be an indirect snipe at the network’s then newest program, Mech X-4. Fans took to the actors’ Instagram accounts, asking them when the second season would come or why there wouldn’t be anymore episodes. They were understandably heartbroken over this loss. They tried to save it for months but – it didn’t work. The plea for #RenewLabRatsEliteForce didn’t carry the impact the petitioners wanted it to have, sadly because those left were too few in numbers. Many of the most vocal and most outspoken ones—the viewers whose voice when Lab Rats aired were the most powerful—have unfortunately already left the show long before and could not be counted on anymore for any help. Thus, Lab Rats: Elite Force never came back on air. It may be a wonder to some how that could have happened. Lab Rats, the main ‘universe’ this show played in, still remains as one of Disney XD’s powerhouse shows due to its iconic interracial family, bright and bold sets, and seamless, innovative plots. Meanwhile, the lore and mythology that came with Mighty Med was the most complex and held the most potential. These two combined should have generated a show worth the four-season run that Disney treats their most exciting and popular programs with. So, what exactly went wrong? Below is just a few of the things that I think may have caused the show its demise. The Reasons 1. When the shows combined, they were both stripped of their characters of color (save for one) – which resulted in lack of both visual diversity and diversity in storytelling. When Lab Rats aired in February 2012, there was already a considerable buzz about it. Besides its predecessor, Pair of Kings, Disney haven’t been playing much with the idea of featuring an interracial family. That was why it piqued the interest of many people when trailers of a Black teenage boy finding himself in a new family with his Black mom, White stepdad, and three White stepsiblings aired. It was icing on top of the cake, too, when at the time, it appeared that the main character might actually be of color this time. Mighty Med followed this diversity trend to a degree. The two main characters were both White, but the rest are of other races—two Hispanic and one Asian, to be exact (or Calderan, if we’re speaking of the character rather than the actress). These characters offered different voices, backgrounds, and personalities to their shows. They also served as beacons, lights of hope that maybe, just maybe, Disney is starting to understand that there were also other races and ethnicities they could pick to tell their stories and that they didn’t have to worry about it ‘not working.’ Everything was working, but fast forward a couple of years later, one of Lab Rats’ creators announced that the two shows would merge, and here, they are your new team! To be exact: William Brent, Kelli Berglund, Bradley Steven Perry, Jake Short, and Paris Berelc. Two of the stepsiblings from the Lab Rats fandom, and the three main characters from Mighty Med. Of course, this is not to knock them as actors. They’re all quite good, in my opinion! In fact, Paris Berelc is still unbelievably wonderful in her new Netflix show Alexa and Katie as Alexa Mendoza. Kelli Berglund and Jake Short have new projects they’re currently involved in as well. However, as a viewer, I thought the production could have put together a better combination. Past the shiny and admittedly impressive costumes and cool vibe of the cast, the promotional image and the trailers that subsequently followed lacked the oomph! the other two shows, as separates, had. The characters as a collective weren’t visually interesting anymore because they didn’t reflect the way the viewers saw the world. It was like Disney XD went back to how it was before Pair of Kings aired. It would have been better if they made a few switches. It could have even been somewhat forgivable if there was a recurring minor character of color. Sadly, there wasn’t. Everyone looked the same. 2. There were two Chases, two Brees, and one Adam in the team. Disney has long ago earned the reputation of having repeating archetypes in their programs—and the two shows, even as separates, weren’t safe from this. Still, they were all balanced out. Lab Rats' book smart, shy, sometimes egotistic, but truly kind character Chase Davenport was balanced out by his stepbrother Leo Dooley, who had impeccable street smarts, was rather mischievous, dangerously curious and clumsy, but was also ultimately good at heart. At the same time, Mighty Med’s resident teen doctor Oliver, who was resourceful, introspective, and the voice of reason, was balanced out by his best friend Kaz - his impulsive but loyal partner-in-crime who prevented him from being eaten up by his own seriousness through jokes and lax regard to the rules. When the shows merged, well, things went off-kilter. All of a sudden, the show had two young men (Chase and Oliver) with the leader personality. It was also evident from the sudden changes in the character’s clothing style that Skylar Storm had lost her individuality and her rather funny but genuinely heartwarming curiosity of the world around her. She had adopted Bree Davenport’s style and also, subtly, her treatment of the world and the people closest to her (which, if you haven’t seen the original show, wasn’t stellar at all). Kaz was the only one safe from the character cloning. Kind of. He remained to be the sense of humor in the show, but I can’t help but think when I saw the finale that he essentially served the same purpose Adam Davenport did in Lab Rats’ narrative. This lack of variation in personalities made for a bit of a static storytelling. One fanfiction writer who used to be really into Lab Rats told me a few months into the show that the characters brought out the worst in each other. Gone was the sweet Chase Davenport and was replaced instead by a character who had to constantly assert his dominance over his teammates. Oliver, whose affection towards Skylar had been cute and heartfelt to watch, had become obsessed with her and had turned stalker-ish, reportedly pressuring her into becoming his girlfriend. And the team as a whole had become a bratty bunch, too consumed now by their own importance and their own problems to show warmth and kindness towards one another. Again, this could have easily been prevented by making a couple of switches. The fanfiction writer part of me thought that it would have been better if the team was instead made up of Bree, Leo, Oliver, a new WOC character with a rather stoic personality, and Skylar, who would serve as the team’s leader. That could have offered an interesting dimension to the show: varying voices, potentially initial conflicts that can turn into warm, lasting friendships, and varying strengths and weaknesses that can play well with each other and can definitely move the story forward for a couple of years. Lab Rats: Elite Force was trying to achieve a Teen Titans feel, and those five could have done that. But, reality turned out differently, and there's no undoing what had been done. 3. The Villains in the Mask, Part 3. As much as I love the writers and creators of the Lab Rats universe, I do have a few complaints, one of which is: do the villains always have to be concealed or be wearing a mask? Victor Krane, and now Roman and Riker. All of them were introduced to the show wearing masks! Also, they all had the same reason for doing the villainy they did: revenge. Now, from the outside looking in, that may not be as bad. Revenge is a rather strong motivator, but in comparison to the best ones this show had seen, did it really have to be that again? I’ll give you the best villain Lab Rats had as an example: Marcus Davenport. He was an android bent on destroying Adam, Bree, and Chase—and most specially, Leo—for the sole reasons that (1) that was his order, (2) he hates them, and (3) he hated them because they had their father’s affection and attention, and he didn’t. What made him complex and gave him a nice layer as a character was that despite his manipulative and murderous nature, at the end of the day he just wanted affirmation and affection from his dad. From what had been revealed, the spin-off’s villains had a reason of their own to go after the protagonists. Roman and Riker’s father had been drained of his powers for his own good, but the boys and the rest of their family didn’t see it as such. They saw it as an insult to them, although if I’m not mistaken, the show didn’t really explain why they felt that way. It was just a reason that was just...was. In the finale, they introduced another villain: Roman and Riker’s sister, Reece. Oh, she was manipulative and cunning. She also seemed promising because there was a moment of doubt when she was caught red-handed by one of the good guys. She was torn on whether she should hurt him to make her escape or not (spoiler alert: she chose the former; she blinded him). But, that was as far as it went. As mentioned, the show didn’t come back for a season two—which still haunts the rest of the fandom even after two years of its sudden end. 4. Everything was rushed. Good stories take time. Like flowers, the characters and the plot need time to grow. The writers of Lab Rats understood that when the original show first began. We saw character development and storylines that were quite impressive, mature, and relatable despite the show being marketed for children. There were also plot twists that were actually incredible. It became a memorable show because the writing team took their time. In the spin-off, they didn’t. The best example is the Oliver/Skylar pairing. The two years of slow burn between the two characters quickly changed into a wildfire that was erratic and didn’t make sense. Oliver was strangely out of character, and Skylar only seemed to have agreed to the relationship because she got annoyed. The relationship was awkward because it was handled impatiently. Reece’s introduction was rushed, too. She was maybe shaping up to be the big bad of the next season, but unlike Marcus, whose presence and role were built slowly and surely, she was pushed in. So, maybe she wasn’t going to be the main villain? The ambiguity created by all of these off-paced writing turned off the viewers one by one. At the end of it, I heard more unhappy responses to the show than I did positive. Maybe, somehow, the show-runners knew about that, too. They just didn’t say anything about it. 5. ‘Who’s your audience?’ It’s important to know the answer to that question because if you don’t, it will show. Lab Rats was marketed to children, perhaps in the ages 8-11 demographic. However, it was crafted to also appeal to teenagers and adults who may have been curious about the new project of the That 70’s Show’s former creators. Mighty Med, basing on its writing, appeared to have been meant for ages 6-11. Fans of the show might disagree with me on this, but it’s good to remember that one of its creators also made ANT Farm, which had silly humor oftentimes. (Not a bad thing at all. It’s just revealing of its audience.) Lab Rats: Elite Force seemed to have had problems identifying who it should actually appeal to. Should it be written like Lab Rats had been written? With silly humor here and there but also with jokes that teenagers and adults would appreciate? Or should it be written like Mighty Med, directed to the younger viewers and used laugh tracks more often? Well, the winner remains unclear. The characters’ sudden immaturity suggests they wanted to appeal to the new audience, but their rushed treatment of the Skoliver pairing also showed that they wanted to please longtime viewers somehow. They also gave Bree a new ability, perhaps to keep the interest of the loyal fans, but it didn’t really serve its purpose. It was probably meant to have been a wow factor. Sadly, it was another thing that didn’t work because the people they were trying to direct it to have lost interest—probably because they felt that the writers had ignored them for far too long in favor of newer, younger viewers who didn’t even stick around to watch the show. Concluding Thoughts At one point, I kind of hoped, too, that the spin-off would be green lighted to have a second season. When it finished, the hard feelings I had against it was almost gone, and I was earnestly hoping they would come back. Whatever the real reason(s) may have been for it not being able to, the cast and crew still deserve credit for doing their absolute best to make the show as enjoyable as possible. The finale, in particular, had a few highlights, and the set where the battle scene took place was impressive. The cast also put their best foot forward. The writers, meanwhile, perhaps despite knowing about the impending end, really did craft something special for those who had stuck with them until the final second. Despite its problems and potentials that were not explored, Lab Rats: Elite Force still graduated as a nice show with moments of excitement, dashing costumes, and memorable sets.

[gamesception]

Sception Plays KHUx episode 2: the gotcha game

After hopping through the portal from last time, Sception ends up in snow white land, and to get the obvious out of the way this place really shouldn’t exist yet.  At least not if we’re actually in the distant bast and not in a dream or data world.  But then again, it’s a Kingdom Hearts game, so it’s gotta have Disney worlds, so maybe it’s just handwaved.  Or maybe the Disney worlds are trapped in some timeless cycle or eternal existential void, like a confused tourist trying to find their way out of a casino.

We fight through several stages of just clearing out some heartless and helping our new Dwarf friend. This is still pretty much straight tutorial time, as we’re ushered from one mission to another with basic game mechanic introductions between them.

The game takes little time introducing the main fake currency, earnable in small amounts in game or purchasable in slightly larger amounts for frankly disgusting amounts of real human dollars, but I’ll save my thoughts on the more negative aspects of the system, it’s strongarm psychological tactics, and my own lines in the sand for the end of the post.

The jewels are spent on various things, but mostly on loot boxes of “emblems” - jpegs of characters from the mainline series (which, again, our character in the distant past shouldn’t know about, but in this case I’m inclined to write it off as a non-diagetic game abstraction rather than guessing at possible in universe explanations).  The emblems have stats and special abilities attached to them, that you access by equipping them to up to slots on your keyblade, with stronger emblems taking up more of a limited ‘cost’ stat.  You unlock and augment keyblade slots (but not cost limits) by leveling the keyblade up, which itself requires particular materials.

The emblems in tern can level up by feeding them other emblems in what I understand to be relatively standard gotcha game style.  Notably some emblems exist only to grant extra experience or abilities to or reduce the equipment cost of the emblems you feed them to.

Your character levels up by collecting lux in missions, but that doesn’t directly improve any of your stats.  Instead it restores your AP (pay-to-wait style mobile game “energy” that can be depleted by going on missions - though so far the story missions are free) and gets you ‘avatar coins’ - another fake currency - that you spend on Avatar Boards

At first I thought these boards were just for unlocking variant costumes, and thus I didn’t care about them, since my character’s blue outfit is plenty cute enough already, but they’re actually where your base character stat boosts come from

Each board has a track of various boosts that you buy mostly with the avatar coins from leveling up.  This is where upgrades to HP, AP, and equipment Cost stats are found.  The particular avatar outfit items are obtained via particular nodes on the same board.  Of course, some boards cost jewels to unlock, or require special event tickets rather than regular avatar coins to purchase the nodes.

Others are only available for a limited time, so if you aren’t able to unlock the whole board using only in game resources you’ll have to spend real money before the opportunity is gone forever!

.........

And I guess that’s as good a time as any to start talking about strongarm psychological tactics.

This is the first Gatcha style game I’ve played, and will almost certainly be the last, so I have no idea if the techniques used in this game are excessive in comparison to the rest of its genre, but it’s pretty bad here.

First is the sheer quantity of things to buy.  There’s Actual Emblems obtained via random loot boxes of course, you can’t just get one you want.  Then there’s the emblems you use to level up and evolve other emblems.  Then there’s materials to level up your keyblade.  Then there’s outfit boards for your avatar, which you can’t even ignore if you don’t care about aesthetic stuff because that’s where your core stats are.  Then there’s AP to even play the game at all.

And of course, as you would expect you get a big flood of all of that early on.  The plot missions are cheap, they give you more jewels and emblems and whatnot than you need early on, everything goes super fast up front to get you invested, but I’m sure the breaks slowly start to kick in before too long.

There’s daily login bonuses to keep you coming back every day out of a sense of commitment.

There’s a party system encouraging you to group up for raids or whatever, which I’m sure can be a lot of fun for more socially inclined players than me, but I look at it and mostly just see a mechanic to get individual players to bug each other to keep playing and spending money out of obligation to other players rather than to the game itself, like mmo guilds

And that’s before you get to the actual prices...

Jebus Cripes, that’s ludicrous.  For reference, a standard loot box of 10 jpegs seems to cost 3000 jewels.  $30 friggen dollars.  Ridiculous.  They actually expect people to buy virtual funbucks in hundreds of dollars at a time, and even if you do it doesn’t even get you 5 loot boxes.

Even if I /was/ inclined to spend any money on this game at all, that would put me right off it.  If anyone reading this is considering playing this game, but knows they have trouble with gambling type impulse control issues, I strongly recommend that you stay the hell away from it.

......

Now, don’t get me wrong, so far I’m still having fun so far, but I’m still in that early phase where the game is trying to hook me.  I’m generally pretty resistant to this sort of thing, but just to lay out my lines in the sand:

- No spending money.  At all.  “Oh but people worked hard on the game and” whatever man.  Spend money to get over one hump and the game will just put another in front of you.  And again, those prices are absolute nonsense.

- No grinding/waiting.  The first time I reach a point in the game where I want to progress but can’t because of a timer or needing to grind while the game tries to sell me some form of progress as a purchase, I’m just out.  I’m not here for that.

- No multiplayer.  This is less about a moral stand and more that I just don’t expect to be playing this game for very long before the above hard lines prompt me to quit, and I neither want to leave other players hanging nor do I want them bothering me to continue.  If somebody happens to see this post and specifically invites me to party up knowing that I’m probably not long for this game, that’s fine, but otherwise the first time the game requires me to join a party in order to progress, I’m out.

....

But this kind of business is pretty much part & parcel to the mobile games market these days from my understanding, so it’s not like the game is individually abhorrent.  And I am still having fun so far, so might as well see how long I far I can take it before the game crosses one of my hard lines and I’m forced to jump ship.

Back to the game, we spend several stages helping one (1) dwarf friend find exactly one (1) other dwarf friend, before heading off to the next disney world.  Very little plot progression here, even of snow white land itself.  Presumably we’ll be back again later, many times, each time only barely incrementing the narrative progression.

After all, the game needs to be dragged out for many hundreds of missions if they want to keep players around and potentially spending money for months and years.

[lovetheangelshadow]

N'Pressions: Netflix' Carmen Sandiego

I will admit my past experiences with the Carmen Sandiego franchise is a mix of both enjoyment and frustration. My first encounter with the series was that my grandpa had the original black and white game installed on his Mac II and half the time me and my brother were guessing and constantly losing because who knew you needed the accompanying Almanac to go with it. Also I was like six and my brother four and we didn’t even know what an Almanac was. We did sporadically watch the game show; both the geography and history ones, when our mother let us watch TV and well as the cartoon that came up on the Fox. To memory the only other game we ever owned was the USA specific one that we played to heck out of.

 I was not even aware that there was a reboot in the making until I had gotten an email from Netflix about some shows I might like. I glanced at the trailer on YouTube and admittedly was not exactly enthusiastic about the premise. From what it appeared to be, we were following Carmen specifically and that, while she was still a thief, she stole from other thieves. Sly Cooper. They were essentially premiering a Sly Cooper type show. Why didn’t Sly get his own show?! Okay so the Ratchet and Clank movie tanked, but you have a bit more wiggle room with a show guys! Heck technically there is 2D animation in the Sly series, it would not look out of place. Well despite my disappointment, I decided to give this a fair shake.

The theme song is meh. Honestly it just doesn’t stick with me like the previous three version. And yes, as corny as it was, I still like the Where in Time theme. I get what they’re trying to do though; invoking a jazzy tone like in the James Bond series, Pink Panther, or Catch me if you Can-it just feels very generic to me. Which is an honest shame because the animation for the opener is beautiful. The black and white cut out backgrounds with the trademark red coat gliding through and the title character eluding capture is just a treat. Again it works really well with the mood and tone of the show; a spy-action chase theme traversing the world. Like I said it does feel like they’re trying to invoke that classic thief/spy films. It’s just the theme doesn’t stick with me.

And as for the reboot itself, the show decides to elaborate and remake Carmen Sandiego’s origin. Now I don’t know if people were clamoring for this, but I never really came across any howling dissent like with She-Ra or Powerpuff Girls when this news came out. Most of the reactions I’ve seen were either excitement or hesitation. And let’s face it, any time there is a reboot there is reasonable grounds for reluctance. Now with Carmen there is a bit more of a leeway here. After all, at least to my memory, a set personality or origin for her. You knew she was a thief that wanted you to know it was her, someone who enjoyed the chase, and was very crafty and intelligent. Also mysterious.

So the new concept is that Carmen, or Black Sheep as her former name, was an orphan found by one of the V.I.L.E faculty members, Ms. Blunt and raised on V.I.LE Headquarters island where she had a series of various tutors who taught her geography, history, and world culture. She also learned a few other things by osmosis from other members of the organization and was also a bit of a prankster and precocious. Eventually she is allowed to train in the next school year where only 40 thieves graduate per year (clever pun). And it’s here where we meet some of the her schoolmates who will eventually her antagonists for the season. And if I may put in aside her, this show does this SO much better than She-Ra. The show actually does take the time to make them more or less fleshed out characters so you know the kinds of threats they will eventually be later on in the show. With She-Ra they’re more like set pieces then anything else (save for Catra, but whatever). Anyway the school is run by five faculty members each with their own personality and gimmick to their methods of crime. And watching these guys is very enjoyable. The best comparison I can think of is the Kingdom Hearts series where if you compare the organization of Disney Villains and Origination XIII in terms of interaction and entertainment. The former classmates are more like Organization XIII. Sure they have their own gimmicks and personas, but they don’t stand out as much and their interaction with Carmen is more professional and serious. The only exception may be Tigress-but she’s more of a rival. Also I am convinced two of those guys are gay and it actually feels natural because it’s not their most outstanding feature. With the Faculty, it is a lot more personal. Plus their egos often clash with one another and they’ve got no qualms taunting or flaunting others’ failures and their own successes. There is someone of a sixth member, who is the bookkeeper for V.I.L.E. Fun fact, she is voiced by the original Carmen and the reboot Carmen steals her soon to be trademark hat and coat from her. That is one of the cleverest pass the torches EVER.

Anyway, Carmen is flunked from the course and is forced to take it over. However she stows away on the place heading for heist where she learns the true face of V.I.L.E. She doesn’t have a problem with theft, it’s the fact that the organization is willing to kill to get what it wants. There are other atrocities but I won’t spoil them here. So finding this out, she escapes the island with stolen data with the help of a hacker named Player and vows to destroy V.I.L.E by stealing thigs before they do and or steal back from them.

For the rest of the series, it plays itself out a straightforward heist and chase show. At the same time either Carmen or Player will drop factoids about each place they visit either to each other or to Carmen’s two assistants: Zack and Ivy. They are also perused by Interpol agents Chase Devineaux and Julia Argent. Chase is a by the book officer who is persistent in pursuit and isn’t too interested in history and cultural facts. I would not call him stupid but rather he’s focused on the hunt and will do what he has to in order to keep up the chase. Also he has some of the best comedic lines in the show. Julia is more the bookworm and slow burning patient partner. ACME is also part of the chase as well as a shadow organization dedicated to tracking down and stopping VILE. When I first heard the two agents mention Chief I was super excited to see the return of the Chief and…shrugs. And nothing against Dawnn Lewis but she doesn’t strike me with authority the same way Lynne Thigpen did. Also I am kinda sad that they went the more generic men in black look. Sure the old red and yellow coats were cheesy, but they’ve stuck in my mind more than anything. Plus with VILE’s color schemes being mostly green, black, and grey it would have made for the perfect contrast.

The show goes more for of a cutout style along the vein of shows like 6teen and Chaotix season 1 (yeah remember that show?) with coloring resembling more of a painterly style. Basically similar to the style of the opening but a bit more simplified. For the most part I don’t mind it too much; but it tends to be not always as flexible when it comes to the action sequences. This is more noticeable with it comes to sequences that involve impacts, but they’re too brief to really notice unless you’re actively looking for them. Same thing goes for other things like follow through and squash and stretch. But for a first season especially with this kind of animation, I will give them credit that more the most part its consistent and nine times out of then it doesn’t feel stiff and awkward. If I have a minor nitpick it’s more the character designs themselves. I feel like a lot of these designs I’ve seen in other shows and none of them really stand out to me. Sure the old VILE agent designs from the show and games were kooky and sometimes questionable in design choices, but they still felt a bit more individual.

And now on to Carmen herself. Honestly, she’s fine. Sure they changed her to more of a grey hero but they didn’t toss off what made people like her. She’s fast on her feet, able to use what the situation gives her, and she is a skilled thief even when pitted against members of her own class. The only ones who really give her great trouble that she has yet to really outmatch are when she’s going against facility members head on. Which makes sense as they are more experienced than her. Hell, she almost gets hugged to death in one episode. Admittedly the humor in the show is 50/50. I laughed at a few jokes, but most were minor shrugs. At least there was not anything that made me cringe or face palm.

I honestly enjoyed myself and I felt the show was in the spirit of the original series. While focusing on Carmen and making her a Robin Hood-esque character was an odd choice they didn’t forget what the core of the series was. Globetrotting heists, geographical education, and just good old straight forward action. Also thank you so much for just focusing on being good educational entertainment. For actually being something that a broad spectrum can genuinely enjoy and not feel talked down to or pandered. I am very excited for the next season. So good job guys. I’m Noctina Noir and I’m one Nox of a Nobody.

[twitchesandstitches]

Disney Growth AU

One of my holdovers from my old blog was what I called the Disney Growth AU, and I’m bringing it back! Mostly for the odd snippet or story post here or that, and partly as a component in some of my other AUs, since those mentions might not make a whole lot of sense without this AU’s particulars.

And also since it would fill a bit silly reposting older stories or edits of them without giving everyone the background of this AU, and anything i happen to think of. No sense posting stories and just throwing you into it blind, even if you’re familiar with it. It would just feel strange!

The Disney Growth AU is a combination of all the various disney properties (or at least the ones that fit into the Disney animated canon, with the various cartoons as having a more nebulous connection but are present), centering largely around the Disney heroines and major lady characters of their respective franchises and sub-series, with a focus on magically induced transformations and a particular emphasis on hyper curves (gigantic boobs, hips and butt, with variance for individual body types and personality-appropriate looks, and with more monster-y/human divergent form styles) and giantess.

In that later case, the princesses and other heroines are absolutely massive, with none of the usual limits i typically have in my usual AUs or giantess scenarios for the sake of tiny/giant interaction; they are a mile high at minimum when not deliberately suppressing their powers, and when they’re fully powered up, the giant Disney girls can be as big as entire planets, if not solar systems… and even larger than that, with their proportions scaling up to match.

Of note, this AU is broadly split into two continuities of a kind; one where this AU is its own thing and its relation to other fic ideas isn’t important, and one where it is a sub-set of Crossthicc as an important aspect of the multiverse, and the distinction has to do with which aspect I’m playing up.

Both versions heavily emphasize magic, and the basic premise is the same: the heroines, or princesses (whether they are actually royalty or not, such as in the case of Mulan or Moana; the title is a catch-all for ‘important heroine’ as a consequence of their actions) are living embodiments of raw magic, both conduits for the stuff of the soul and transformation, and generating it in the same way that stars create elements and light. This causes them to transform over time, growing bigger and curvier, and eventually take on more individual, inhuman alterations to reflect their raw power and coolness.

Their villains are, of course, around and up to No Good, and in between slice of life shenanigans, pranks, and attempts to simply live their lives while also being benign giant goddesses, they might thwart the plans of their equally gigantic villainesses and foes, who have transformed to become Big and Thicc too, and seek to impose absolute dominance over all existence.

In the former case where its a standalone AU, the setting is more mundane… as much as they CAN be, in the context. They live on a single version of Earth, with a different history to justify how a Powhatan diplomat, ancient Chinese war icon, Germanic fairy tale, and outright mythical figures can all exist at the same time. Effectively, they have been given a Kingdom Hearts style lighter and softer treatment, with ancient countries still existing in the modern day and altering history in subtle ways for this all to make some kind of internal sense. (For instance, modern America may not exist; instead you have the original countries of the First Nations expanded and industrialized and existing as a broad union similar to modern America,) Something similar applies to outright fictional countries or landmasses, with the world altered so that their likely geographic locations makes some kind of sense. Agrabah, for example, is a bit of a tricky case.

In this case, all the princesses are modern women, but have existed in many incarnations throughout history as great peacekeepers, champions of justice, mighty warriors, and paragons of virtue to teach others. In relatively recent times, their actions ensured a massive burst of magic that permanently brought raw, wild and Good magic back to the world, imbuing them all with it and making them living generators of it, awakening new power and making them into new goddesses, with great stature to match. Apart from now being potentially planet-sized and warping local space via their raw power just to fit into the world - packing mountain mass into a very small area - their lives are still mundane, and much of their time is spent adjusting to their new power and finding things to do with it.

Something similar would apply with the villains, most obviously Maleficent and a cadre of other villainesses following her; while not as powerful as the heroines, they are nonetheless massive and powerful goddesses… just not on the same level as the heroines, but they have the benefit of a massive horde of spooky monsters and less imposing foes that are mighty in their collective dangerous-ness.

Periodically, Marvel characters may make appearances (especially the more cosmic ones, such as Thor); assume this is a meeting of the multiverse kind of deal, with the other Earth perhaps being merged into the Disney one and the superheroes making do, with the new supervillains coming into conflict with the villains. Alternatively; emphasizing the Awesome of the heroine and supporting characters to serve roughly the same purpose as having legit superheroes here. For instance, consider Maui as being a Thor analogue by emphasizing his myth-appropriate raw strength and heroic deeds. Guy pulls up oceans during fishing trips!

(That said, the Marvel Growth AU from my old blog is now its entirely own thing, combined with some ideas I have for a DC one as well, as well as BNHA/My Hero Academia, as a cohesive general superhero setting. The tone of Disney Growth AU is more mundane slice of life that just so happens to take place for giant hero ladies dealing with their newfound powers, and just a hint of epic fantasy.)

Generally speaking, i will probably tag fics and thoughts specifically meant for this AU as JUST ‘disney growth AU’, for the sake of simplicity, without additional specifications.

The other version of this AU is explicitly intended to work with Crossthicc, and relies on the multiverse aspect and incorporates more obvious elements from the different versions of the characters in question. In this version, the princesses are explicitly goddesses; not just powerful heroines made mighty, but actual goddesses, and have been for some time.

They are, in-universe, widely worshiped across the multiverse under many different names and culturally relevant touchstones, but when one person pays homage to a raven-haired personification of Good Governance, and another gives their love to a goddess of orphans and adoption, it is still Snow White they worship. Consequently, they are enormously powerful and have a lot of potential domains under their influence, and mostly dwell upon a vast plane of magic that dwells beyond the material realm. This huge coterminous plane is effectively an elemental plane of magic, perhaps the metaphysical engine that keeps the World Tree of the mortal universes going, supporting that delicate soap bubble that is so easy to pop… and constantly on guard from the dreadful things trying to do just that.

It is possible that even this realm is but a reflection of their true divine power, a somewhat accessible an diminished echo of their full nature, but it's so mighty that they cannot properly exist in the mundane plane without wrecking it, instead manifesting as avatars. Depends on the need of the scenario, honestly.

The MILF fleet of crossthicc comes across these goddesses during their travels, earning their favor and interest, and a few of them send mortal avatars to stay with the fleet and experience the mortal universe, far weaker than their true selves but still shockingly powerful, and members of the God Squad that is a club of benign deities that for whatever reason are endorsing the MILF fleet.

Their home planea is much more mythic in tone, with an explicitly magitech vibe; imagine epic D&D style fantasy in an infinite universe of soaring mountains and mighty landscapes, with magically empowered technology serving the role of more mundane technological advances, and magic being absolutely universal. Take your grandest high fantasy ideas, ramp them up a 100 times, and mash them into the tropes of nobility and honor being actual forces of nature, and you have the basic approach! Here, mighty heroes fight grand monsters… and usually it's the goddesses doing this, the mightiest beings in all the cosmos, and fighting manifestations of entropy and cosmic non-existence. Their villains here are embodiments of forces like that, perhaps linked to the mysterious monsters the mortal plane is plagued with.

In this realm, mighty brave warriors ride on fearsome dragons to confront demon kings, mountains get up and walk to wrestle with one another, and the geography of the plane can shift at a moment’s notice when the currents of magic are strong enough. IT is in fact a source of magic, and does not conform to mundane notions of space-time. The plane is infinite, continuing forever, with ever more wild landscapes dissolving into chaotic potential and randomized impossibility as you get from civilization: mountains made of teeth, seas turning into boiling oil and crystalize laughter… and it gets weirder from there.

The goddess-heroines are so powerful that they stabilize this realm with their mere existence, growing more powerful and drinking deeply of the magic they generate and are empowered by, growing stronger still, and in doing so, they also reinforce the mortal realms, which is given life by this plane in some fashion. But the universes of mortals have been badly wounded, and the same applies to the princess’ realms too, and horrors pour out from them, and they must constantly quell those in hope of helping to bring peace, in some fashion, to all realms.

It is also important to note that given the different scale, they are far larger than in my usual giant lady fare; since space is more of a polite suggestion, this causes few problems, and they aren’t just planet sized. They are often universe-sized, if not even bigger, though they can adjust local space to fit them if they please, and even if they don’t, their presence causes no damage if they don’t wish it; their steps could reduce worlds to powder, but not a single living thing will be bothered by them stepping down.

(It is also possible that this realm is a primordial birthplace of souls, or an afterlife; people who perish come here, and after they work through their remaining problems, they pass on to another afterlife and perhaps later reincarnation. IT is the fate of evil beings to be reduced to food for the princesses, becoming monsters to be slain that reflect their evil hearts… or both. Some few mortal villains retain their willpower and become meances the princesses strive to defeat, and these are the villains of Disney canon that otherwise don’t fit the motif for the villainesses. Something similar might apply for the heroes and prince-types, but in terms of heroic spirits or great priests/followers of the goddesses in life. They came to love their goddesses so much, they remain by their sides forevermore. The goddesses themselves, or their bodies, may also constitute an afterlife as well.)

One more note; while this applies to the more mundane AU too, it's more prevalent here: the princesses here aren’t just based on their Disney interpretation but have elements from their other fictional interpretations too. Those who are public domain fairy tail characters, such as Snow White, have attributes from those stories as well as their many different stories incorporated in some fashion. Those who are historical figures will have attributes from real life applied more freely; for instance, in both AUs, Pocahontas is more like her real life analogue (apart from being the same age she is in the movie), down to that not being her actual name. There may also be liberal Fables (the comic series) invoked here, because i just plain like that series.

However, this AU is still intended to be mostly epic fantasy and high adventure, and should have a more or less light tone; thus, exceptionally dark or grim elements (such as those rooted in what may be the Grimm storyteller’s potential issues with women) will be ignored outright, reinterpreted, or applied in-universe as faulty propaganda.

There may also be a lot of mythological elements brought in. For example, the Seven Dwarves of Snow White are her adoptive fathers, in a sense, and are mostly Norse mythology style dwarves (and possibly svartalfar/dark elves, depending on whim), with their disney names, Doc and Sleepy and such, as pet names Snow had for them. For instance, Brok and Sindri are definitely there; Grumpy and Doc, respectively.

Effectively, in whichever AU, all the Disney cartoons are canon, with the ones more akin to Disney’s fairy tale vibes being more closely tied. More gray areas will be subject to weirdness; for instance, the series of Kim Possible might either be as more or less mundane figures in the magical plane of the goddesses, or as characters from a universe of superheroes who happen to have a connection to an appropriate goddess.

[maugustyniuk]

Go Behind the Scenes of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”

School is back in session at East High, and we've never been so excited to head to class.

Premiering May 14 on Disney+, Season 2 of "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series" brings the gang back together for a production of an Alan Menken classic, Beauty and the Beast. But before the final pedal can drop, chaos, drama, self-discovery and (of course) love ensue.

Whereas Season 1 explored East High's thespians on a group level, Season 2 examines them individually, giving each character the screen time to grow and discover their own identity within the drama department. Among them is Big Red (Larry Saperstein), the goofy side-kick to Ricky (Joshua Bassett) who, at the end of the first season, showed off his remarkable tap dance skills.

Tapping Into Tap Skills on Set

"It's been so cool to bring my tap background into this character that I've been able to watch, grow and develop into someone that I never really expected he was going to," says Saperstein. "Big Red is a very special person and a very special soul. With every season and every episode, I really get to bring more and more of myself into who Big Red is."

Choreographer Zach Woodlee describes Saperstein as possessing an "effortless" quality that few tappers can naturally achieve. "Tap is such an interesting art form," Woodlee says. "And when you see him tap, it feels like you're a part of it. This whole cast is just extremely bonkers talented."

Alongside Saperstein is Julia Lester, who steps into the role of Ashlyn, Big Red's love interest. Though her star moment in Season 1—in which she and Nini (Olivia Rodrigo) brought viewers to tears with their original song "Wondering"—showcased her remarkable voice, Lester had the opportunity to pull out her dancing shoes for Season 2 alongside Saperstein. Their relationship has become easily shippable by fans, and for good reason: They're seriously that cute together.

And for Ashlyn/Big Red stans, a tear-jerking moment awaits you in Season 2, which Saperstein describes as "my favorite thing that I've done on camera ever in my life." Lester adds, "It was really special and kind of monumental for both Larry and I to get to perform in a show of this caliber. And I'll never, never forget the filming of that."

Tap isn't the only style of dance that gets its spotlight this season. Under Woodlee's guidance, all has been ramped up: With four more principal dancers joining the cast this time around—now 10 in total—and plenty of original songs to jam out to, everything from Broadway jazz to Latin-inspired hip hop is incorporated. When binged all the way through, this season's choreography reads less like a theater troupe and more like a stacked lineup on "So You Think You Can Dance."

Partnering in a Pandemic

Filming during the COVID-19 pandemic created its fair share of challenges. Principal characters spent time learning the choreography alone via video tutorials. Inside the rehearsal room, dancers stood 10 feet apart, masked for the protection of themselves and others. If the choreography required any skin-to-skin contact, sanitization was required every 15 minutes. For those whose artistry is fueled by human connection, the setting was a difficult one to navigate at first. But with a system in place and support from across the production team, safety was accomplished.

And for the cast, COVID protocols only emphasized that feeling of true friendship. "There were a few setbacks here and there, but it brought us closer and made us stronger," Lester says. "And I think that this season is ultimately going to be better because of that."

Andrés "Rico" Peñate, a principal dancer on both seasons, adds, "It sounds cliché, but it's made us become a family."

The Power of Representation

Alongside Peñate is Stephani Sosa, a former "So You Think You Can Dance" contestant who returns to East High this season. And to her, the show's deep level of representation and authenticity is what stands out most.

"It's beautiful because it portrays every type of person," Sosa says. "And with me growing up never feeling like I was enough or never feeling like I fit in, this show brought out a side of me that I never thought I would be able to express."

As many can relate to, "HSMTMTS" has helped Sosa to further accept her body, her Latina heritage, and her unique presence as a rock-star dancer. And that's what makes the series so impactful.

On Screen vs. Behind the Scenes

Also getting her star turn this season: Dara Reneé, whose showstopping voice and persona fill the role of Kourtney.

While filming Season 1, Reneé suffered an ankle injury, preventing her from taking part in the choreography in one episode. But this time around, healed and recovered, "I feel like I needed to prove myself," she jokes. "I was like, 'Right now, the fans think I can't dance, so let me pop off real quick."

This season, Kourtney is "allowing herself to be more vulnerable to people. I'm so excited for audiences to relate to some of the moments she has and some of the mess-ups that she has," says Renée

And while Reneé professes to be goofier and clumsier than Kourtney in her personal life, it's her character's power and confidence that resonates so deeply with the young star.

"Kourtney has taught me to be more out of the box and more confident in myself and my choices, and to realize that I deserve happiness and success. And you know, yes, we all have insecurities, but as long as we work on them, it's going to be OK."

"Whether you're in high school or you're an adult, we all need to find ourselves, learn about ourselves and take time for ourselves to discover that we are going to mess up and have flaws, but we will figure it out," Reneé says.

As we wait for the curtain to go up on this new East High production, the entire cast and creative team hope that the series' messages of love, acceptance, friendship and family continue to resonate.

Woodlee adds, "You realize when you step away how much these people mean to you, and I feel like this season as a whole wraps up so nicely because you realize how much of a family the cast is."

from Dance Spirit https://ift.tt/3waE0pC

[rtterm1project]

Don’t Panic Posters

Don’t Panic are well known for their unique posters that come with every pack, each design has its own individual style which gives variation to the packs. The fact that the posters could look like anything, whether it be photography, digital art, graffiti or paintings, adds to the mystery element of the Don’t Panic pack because you really don't know what to expect.

Another reason as to why all the posters look different is because they’re all created by different artists, these could be anybody from the famous Banksy to smaller, less known artists who need an audience. Don’t Panic do not care about names because all that matters is the art itself, and helping an artist flourish along the way is a bonus for supporting the community.

Subterfuge - Smit

This freakish design of Snow White is all about the concept and message behind, Smit explains how “Disney reaches their audience giving an unrealistic view of life and love” and therefore displayed the princess as deceitful for “enticing and manipulating the 7 dwarves” with her beauty and charm.

The style of his piece is illustrative and cartoon-like, it replicates how the original cartoon looks like but obviously altered. At first Smit drew the illustration by hand, making Snow White’s skin to look as if it’s been melted off like acid and therefore revealing the bones and muscles underneath. This and the brain representing the apple are creepy and almost sinister ideas of the Disney character, but it’s this concept that draws so much curiosity and attention. With the drawing, he scanned it into photoshop and digitally coloured it in, making it look much clearer and digital.

Success - Steven Wilson

Steven Wilson’s piece is all about the perception of success, and how some people see success through “expensive material things and cars in particular”. People will sometimes buy these extravagant things to show how much money they earn, because this is what they think makes them a success. I think this message and how its portrayed is super clever as it’s a kind of poster that those of this perspective would love, but others would see as sarcasm or the message it aims to share.

The style of this poster is very 80s in its vibrant colours, typeface and even choice of car, the Porsche 911 which was popular at the time. It’s not clear on how exactly Wilson created this as he experiments will all sorts of techniques, using both analog and digital tools. However it looks to me that the main car illustration was done by either painting or printing it by hand, and the text digitally because of the 3D manner it has.

Forgive Us Our Trespassing - Banksy

The piece ‘Forgive Us Our Trespassing’ is by one of best known artists Banksy, the message in this is about the controversy on whether graffiti is a form of art or vandalism. The word trespassing can symbolise the negative aspect of graffiti in that street artists must trespass on private property, in order to tag or paint a wall or surface because that it their canvas. However this piece replicates Banksy’s conflicted feelings about being a graffiti artist, because he may recognise the concerns of those who see his work as vandalism but knows he ultimately means well. This is seen through the boy with a painted halo asking for forgiveness, but also for understanding by praying.

Because this is Banksy’s artwork we know that this was made with spray paint and stencils, and of course this matches perfectly well with the message behind it. I think using the graffiti technique just ties it all together so cleverly, because simply painting this on any canvas does not compare to the whole risky process of quickly and sneakily creating the artwork on a wall.

Light - Martin Parris

For Martin Parris’ poster design I could not find any context behind the piece, however what I do see is an unknown world of both the past and future. I took the past aspect from the black and white photographs, of people from the 70s having a picnic. And I also see it as futuristic because of the immense moon and colourful flowers, indicating it is close to the moon and has coloured and uncoloured features. Both of these things do not connect with anything existing, therefore resembles a new world created by Parris.

The techniques used to create this piece is a variety of mixed media digital collaging. At first Parris created a handmade collage using coloured and non coloured pictures, cutting them out and sticking them together. I think this contrast is super effective and helps separate/make sections stand out. He then scanned it in so he could digitally combine it with a close up photograph of the moon, this looking realistic with the black background worked really well with the handmade collage as it’s simple but effective.

Open - C215

The message behind C215′s piece is also unclear, however what I take from it is a general feeling of true love and support. I can see how the swing may be a symbol of support as the two swing from the letterbox opening, which therefore also connects to the title ‘Open’.

However I think it’s the style and technique used that makes this poster unique, because even though Banksy also uses stencils and spray paint I think C215′s style is much more detailed and realistic. Rather than painting this onto any wall he decided to interact his art with the world, by creating it on a postbox in Vitry Sur Seine, France. Therefore both the small details and interaction, in terms of the couple swinging from the opening and elements of it maintaining the original red colour, make this piece eye-catching and different.

Utopia - Alex Sturrock

This poster’s design is purely photography, meaning no drawing, digital art, editing etc. However Alex has used camera techniques to create beautiful effects, like this glowing look that affects the whole piece from the woman and water to the background. This style also involves a blurred look which rids any sort of detail, and contributes to the title ‘Utopia’ through its aesthetic.

In general Alex takes photographs of abnormal and out of the ordinary things and concepts, they tend to capture moments that we may not be able to relate to. This make his art super interesting and intriguing, which is why Don’t Panic decided to use this photograph as a poster.

Youth - Vermin

The artist Vermin has an intense history of his life, having worked through serious mental health issues. He puts these experiences and feelings into his paintings which is why his art is so striking and full of emotion, and for this specific poster Vermin wanted people to “see some sort of intenseness” from where he has come. And even though he thinks greatly about beauty, he will always “think heavily about the darker moments in life” and be a paranoid person. I think this can be seen within the painting, however at the end of the day he wants “people to think what they want to think” because it’s about the interpretation.

The material he uses is oil paint on canvas, and for this piece in particular he used a much larger canvas that normal. He also had no time constraints which allowed him to “let the piece take its course” by layering forceful brush strokes.

Dance - Sarah & Mandy

This poster is a digitally designed piece that I find really appealing. The reason why is because I think the way all the fish merge and the colour pallet work really well together, since they mix together but keep individuality through different the bright colours. There’s also a neon like vibrancy to the illustration, created with the contrast of a dark background and vivid colours. These drawings seem to look as if they were originally done by hand, to then later be scanned in for 

There is no meaning that I could find of this piece, however the liveliness of the poster seems conspicuous and important. This makes me feel that the art is alive and has movement in its design, therefore possibly linking the fish to the title ‘Dance’.

That Summer Track - McBess

McBess is another very well known artist, famous for his strange yet striking illustrations and animations. What would otherwise be freaky X-rated cartoon imagery, he has a way to present it as lovely and whimsical. I’m not certain for this specific poster, but in general McBess’ work is usually based on his childhood references rather than recently seen things. And when he was a child his father would show him cartoons like Betty Boom and Merrie Melodies, both of which have a kind of weird/dark mood and music to match.

In his animations you can see these similarities as he is also a musician and tends to create imagery to these songs, however he finds that animation takes up too much time with all the ideas he has. Whereas illustrations can be done fairly quickly compared, and it’s because of these awesome concepts that makes his style even more interesting. The way McBess creates these digital drawings is with a drawing pad that allows his to physically draw straight onto the computer, leaving the art to look perfectly clear and crisp.

Obey Sound & Vision - Shepard Fairey

According to the artist this piece “represents the accessible and infectious nature of music as we all experience it”, Shepard Fairey finds music super inspirational which is evident from the title as it’s actually taken from the David Bowie song “the gift of sound and vision”. He states how he finds music far more connection with an audience than art, because you often think “I can’t get this song out of my head” but rarely think “I can’t get this painting out of my head”.

As you can see music means a lot to Fairey, so much so he takes inspiration for his artwork from a range of musicians like David Bowie, Metallica, Public Enemy etc. To create this he uses mixed media on canvas, illustrating a vinyl like shape that matches with the record store environment feeling. This is noticeable through the rustic/vintage effects, and slightly see-through retro pattern designs, typography etc.

[quynhvynguyen]

Patricia Field on Creating the Look of 'The Devil Wears Prada'

Một bài viết rất hay về các bạn wardrobe stylist. Save ở đây để làm ref cho mình đọc khi cần. Các bạn art/copy làm nghề quảng cáo rất nên đọc bài này. Trong quá trình sản xuất phim/digital clip/print ad/MV or any creative piece, mình sẽ phải work với bên production house - chính xác là với bạn stylist - để chọn áo quần trang phục. Làm trong agency, các bạn phải hiểu rõ brand của mình là gì, character của sản phẩm, character của người đóng (nếu là MV), để cho ra đời các sản phẩm sáng tạo “on point”. Đừng phụ thuộc vào stylist của production house. Đừng phụ thuộc vào client. Bạn phải có tiếng nói riêng của mình, phải có trách nhiệm với những gì mình sản xuất.

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a16439/patricia-field-devil-wears-prada-10-year-anniversary-interview/

Ten years ago today, The Devil Wears Prada premiered in theaters, and fashion has never been the same. From "Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.", to "That's all.", the movie shined a glamorous—if not slightly brutal—light on the glossiest of industries. The woman behind the glamour? Super stylist Patricia Field (also of Sex and the City and Ugly Betty fame). Below, she opens up to HarpersBAZAAR.comabout the legacy of the film and how she created the style of its iconic characters:

Harper's BAZAAR: I can't believe it's been 10 years since The Devil Wears Prada came out. How do you think the fashion industry as a whole has changed since then?

PF: I think the fashion industry, as a result of globalization, has undergone a uniformity. I'm not saying that's good or that's bad but that is my observation.

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Jennifer Garner’s Easy Beach Waves

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HB: How you were able to create individual personalities through the clothing of the main characters: Miranda, Andy and Emily?

PF: There's a formula you start off with and it starts with the script, because in the script it describes the characters and there's dialogue, and you learn about the character, who is fictitious, that we are creating. So that's step one: the script. Step two: character. Step three: Meet the actual human being, the actress or the actor. It's extremely important to have a relationship with the actor. I always feel my job is to support the actor who is creating this character.

The more information you have, the better you're able to have success. Part of that relationship is getting to know one another. You need to develop a respect, a trust for each other so that you're comfortable in this collaboration. So that's the general rule for all filmmaking for me. With Miranda Priestly, who is a chief editor, my idea was to create Miranda Priestly, not any other real chief editor, because it has to be an original for it to be interesting. Even though Devil Wears Prada originated as a book and it was in reference to Anna Wintour, I was not trying to recreate Anna Wintour. By no means. I was putting together a new formula that included very strongly the script and Meryl Streep. After meeting with her and talking with her, having a dialogue back and forth, you start to educate yourself . It's really important. Dressing is personal. I'd like to think that part of my formula, if possible, is finding any parallel lines between the character and the actor. If I can abstract those parallel lines and stay with them it becomes more organic and believable. Meryl had very good ideas that I liked very much, including her white hair, because I felt the white hair was a great palette. I could put anything to it. It was dynamic. That's an example of the kind of collaboration that I'm talking about. Some actors come with many ideas, some actors come with less ideas and say, "You're the expert, dress me, I don't know anything about fashion." Getting back to Meryl Streep, I wanted to create a fashion editor portrayed by Meryl, so it was very important that I understood her body, her ideas, and so on. After this so-called "research," I came up with—based on Meryl Streep—I went into the archives of Donna Karan, because when she started in the '80s and the '90s, her silhouettes were classic, they held up in time, they fit women, they flattered women, they weren't difficult. You can't start putting difficult clothes on a person. They're actors: they have to move, they have to feel real. And Donna said "Yeah, go to my archives." I went to New Jersey where she has a warehouse and I went through racks and racks, and I brought a lot of pieces out from there, and we used a lot of those piece. I was really happy because they weren't recognizable. They allowed Meryl to create her style, and I knew that fit-wise they would be good. They wasn't constricting or an outlandish shape or something like that.

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HB: And Donna is famous for her workwear anyway.

PF: Absolutely. And the fact that I was in the archives, it was not recognizable. It wasn't Donna Karan 2016. It was very important for me be in that zone because I wanted, when people saw Meryl in these outfits, for it to look completely as her original style and not be distracted by the current trend.

HB: It's timeless.

PF: It is and I think timelessness is a very important factor in whatever I do. That's what makes a classic. It's obvious what's timeless and what is not timeless, but you need time to find that answer. I used it a lot for her workwear—she wore other designers, of course—but that was the foundation. It allowed me to create a style around it because it didn't dictate the style. It went with everything, you could wear it so many ways. So that is one of the main factors about Meryl as Miranda Priestly—that she have her own unique style. Style has become very important, the whole idea of style, what your personal style is. It's your identity, and that's what we're creating here.

When it came to Annie Hathaway, of course I went through the same exercise. I met her—I had never met her before—she was a young girl, just graduated out of being a princess for Disney—other than her role in Brokeback Mountain, which I thought she did a really good job in—so she was excited and open to this new stage in her life as an actress. She was optimistic, she was happy. I took on whatever information I received from her, and it was all positive. So the story is, she's a writer and all of a sudden she gets this job as this big deal fashion editor and she has no background in fashion at all. She starts out looking a bit grungy, non fashion-conscious. And along the storyline she develops into a little fashionista. After my meeting with her and understanding her personality, I got the idea that she's a Chanel girl. And when I spoke to Chanel—and here we go again: classic—when I spoke to Chanel they were very happy. They wanted to put their clothes on a young girl. They were very happy to work with me, which was great because there's nothing like cooperation when you're trying to paint a picture and you have all your paints there, and in this case the paint was Chanel. So her transition from the beginning to the end fit her persona. So there's that parallel line that I was talking about—it's believable about her, her whole persona. She's not Versace, for example. The expression comes in the styling and how you handle it. You take the classic and you take it on a little styling trip and then it becomes individual, original, interesting.

20TH CENTURY FOX

Emily Blunt, she's another one, I love her. She's very outspoken, her lines are underscored, she can handle extremes very well. Just based on my meeting her—I would bring her things and how she would react to it—she was my actress who I could be a little bit more expressive. I could take some chances, some liberties, because she could handle it within the way she delivered this character. She delivered it boldly and very expressively, so I linked that up with the wardrobe. And Stanley, I really didn't have a clue about this character. I went to my wardrobe fitting and I walked out understanding this character 100%. That was wonderful. He's fantastic, he can play anything. He and Meryl are the same in that sense. They can do any role and I so respect the two of them for that. They're not typecast in anyway. That is an actor, as opposed to a type that becomes a celebrity.

HB: Did Meryl offer any other input into what her character was wearing, aside from the white hair?

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PF: Yes. Basically the process is, if she needs an outfit for a scene, I'm not gonna bring her one thing or she's gonna tell me this is what she wants. Based on the range of what she expresses and the range of what I bring her, I might bring her 10 different options she can choose. I think collaboration is extremely important in the process. And at the end of the day, I'm not on camera. Meryl is. The actor is. I think it's very important that they're involved. I never think of an actor as a model. A model wears what you tell them to wear, that's their job. An actor is different. It's important to work with the actor because in the end that's who the audience sees and that's the success that you need. Believable, great to look at, but it all has to come together. I notice a lot of people don't understand that aspect, they think it's more like fashion. I love to do fashion. I always put fashion in all of my storytelling because that's what I am, but I'm not selling clothes, I'm telling a story.

HB: Were those montage scenes particularly challenging? Gathering all those clothes and making sense as a whole?

PF: David Frankel, who is the director and writer and someone who I've worked with many times in the past—who I have a close relationship with—he would come into my office and say, "I just wrote a scene. It's a montage. Meryl is coming into the office and each time she comes into the office she throws another coat down and another coat down." And I go, "David, ca-ching ca-ching ca-ching!" Anyway, we did it. Those and the Annie montages in the street, those are some of the most remembered scenes. They were written after the main film script was written. They were add-ons as we were preparing. Also, I took David to Paris with me to couture. I said, "Come on, this is what you're gonna be shooting. You gotta come and see." We went and that really worked out very well. It inspired him.

HB: Did you design anything yourself for the film?

PF: I was asked to design a bag for Annie. It shifts into a clutch and has a circular handle that's part of the shape of the bag and it's got some fringe on it.

HB: Were there any designers that you were adamant about working with? Prada, Chanel…Valentino himself makes a cameo in the film.

PF: That was great, his cameo in the film. I love Valentino. I love his spirit, his love of life, his enjoyment of the whole experience. He's wonderful. I just landed on the designers as I got into the script and the actors. There were no imperatives. I used other designers besides the ones that I mentioned. But the main thing is, it's not about the designer as much as it's about the piece. Concerning Annie Hathaway, because she's in so much wardrobe, she had to have a style and I came up with the Chanel idea and that worked out. She didn't only wear Chanel. Same for Meryl regarding Donna Karan. Meryl wore some Prada, she wore different things. There wasn't just one thing. When Meryl went to work a lot of it was from the Donna Karan archive. It was important to me because in trying to create a style for this character, I didn't want the clothing to be current, on the runway or in the magazines, and be recognizable. I wanted it to be all Miranda Priestly, individual and original. It's like Anna Wintour has her own style, she's the original of it. Carine [Roitfeld], she has a completely different style, it's her style.

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HB: What was your favorite look to put together?

PF: Going back I liked them all, but based on the reaction, I know that when Anne does that Chanel transformation with the mini checked skirt and the thigh-high boots, people loved it. I put a twist on Chanel but the Chanel was there.

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HB: How was designing for The Devil Wears Prada different from Sex in the City, a very fashion-heavy series?

PF: Well it was a different story. It was a different situation. You had different actors. You have to deal with each of them individually and the characters they're playing. It's hard to compare them because they're entirely different. It's really difficult to in any way to compare them. They're much easier to contrast than to find similarity. Again, it depends on the actor. You have somebody like Sarah Jessica Parker, who is a fashionista. She loves fashion. And that's a perk! And she can come with ideas because she's thinking about it. She loves fashion. So the collaboration yields a bonus that way. She loved her role as a supermodel. She loves that. That's like a gift. It's not fashion first, it's storytelling first. And then I throw my fashion and style into it because that's what I know and that's what I do. When you have actors who can support it, it's great. Sarah Jessica could be wearing a pair of five-inch heels and she's running down the street and her feet don't touch the ground. That's a beautiful thing to see. I can't make that happen. That has to come out of the actor. I can only recognize it and utilize it, but if it's not there I can't make it happen. You have to deal with a certain reality and expand it in anyway you can.

JK: Are you surprised by the staying power of the film and how beloved and iconic it is ten years later?

PF: I'm very happily surprised. I never thought that this would become a classic on its own. I never really thought about it going in, "I'm gonna make this the most unforgettable movie." I just go in and do my job and be positive and have fun with it. If I'm not enjoying it, it doesn't happen.

JULIE KOSIN

Senior Culture EditorJulie Kosin is the senior culture editor of ELLE.com, where she oversees all things movies, TV, books, music, and art, from trawling Netflix for a worthy binge to endorsing your next book club pick.

[tiefighters]

Ken Liu  Discusses “The Legends of Luke Skywalker” Book

For a generation in the galaxy far, far away, and for several generations here on Earth, Luke Skywalker is a character of legendary proportion: a Jedi in a time without the Jedi, the hero who saved the galaxy with his friends and his Force abilities. And just as Luke’s disappearance in his galaxy opened up a lot of speculation as to where he went and what he has been doing from the people who knew him, fans around the world also have been wondering what he’s been doing in the years after Return of the Jedi and before his appearance on Ahch-To. Filling in those gaps from a certain point of view is the newly released book The Legends of Luke Skywalker, written by the Nebula, Hugo, & Ken Liu. 

This middle grade novel is published by Disney-Lucasfilm Press as part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi publishing program. StarWars.com caught up with the legendary Ken Liu, and he shared his insight into his book, the character of Luke Skywalker, and the nature of larger-than-life stories.

StarWars.com: The Legends of Luke Skywalker introduces six different tales about Luke Skywalker, passed along from one being to the next, and shared among the crew of a freighter bound for Canto Bight. What is it about Luke Skywalker that makes him more than just a hero, but a figure of legend?

Ken Liu: Just listen to his name! How can you possibly not be a figure of legend when your name is larger-than-life?

Fantasy logic aside, Luke is the perfect mythic figure onto which we in the audience are free to project our hopes and fears. In the films, he walks a fine narrative line between destiny and free choice, and that is the narrow ledge on which all of us struggle as we construct and invent the plot of our own lives. It’s human nature to yearn for our actions both to be born of our own agency and to have meaning in a grand design, and that yearning is the rich soil in which legends and myths flourish.

In our world, as the deeds of famous men and women are distorted, simplified, and exaggerated into bare, impressionistic outlines, we fill them in with vivid colors according to our own understanding of the human condition and our own needs for the right story. The same person may be seen as hero or villain, as martyr or hypocrite, depending on who is doing the seeing and what colors are in their Crayola box.

As it is in our universe, so it is in the galaxy far, far away.

StarWars.com: How does the telling and retelling of a tale change the nature of a story, and how does that play out in your book?

Ken Liu: It’s worth recalling that the Star Wars we’ve come to know and love isn’t a single vision, but a collection of different visions in time and place.

Most fans will remember that Lucas himself said that the theatrical releases of the original trilogy were only [a fraction of his original vision]. He had a chance to create the Special Edition versions of the films later, which could be viewed as a re-telling of the story of the original trilogy.

Lucas certainly had an opinion on which version was definitive, but that isn’t necessarily the final word in fandom. There have been so many think pieces about the changes that I need not add to the heat and noise, but I do think that as Star Wars fans, understanding that stories change with each retelling comes to us as second nature.

I’ll use myself as an example. My initial exposure to the Star Wars saga came not from the films at all, but from the Chinese translation of the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back, which was the first science fiction fantasy novel I ever read. Back then, as a kid in China, I didn’t have access to the films, and so I had to flesh out the descriptions on the page with my own imagination. Thus, later, when I finally got to the see the films (and in a different language than the translation I had read), I had the perhaps uncommon experience of seeing the original as a kind of “re-telling” of a story I already loved in a very different form.

Perhaps this isn’t as unusual as it sounds. Today, many fans new to Star Wars see the original trilogy only after they already know the story in detail and can even quote famous lines from it. So, like any other classic that has become part of the fabric of our culture (e.g., Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet), new fans only get to experience the original as a kind of re-telling.

Bonus digression: check out this collection of Star Wars posters from around the world to see how the story is transformed in each poster’s “re-telling.”

The point isn’t to argue over which version of the story is more “definitive” or “truer” — I find it far more interesting to think about how stories change as they’re re-told and re-understood. In fact, even viewing the exact same film a second time when we’re 48 will give us very different feelings and reflections as compared to our first viewing when we were eight — it’s a re-telling in which the story changes because the listener has changed.

I love thinking about how different versions of the same story help to illuminate the fact that the storyteller is inseparable from the story and also from the audience.

This dynamic plays out multiple times in Legends as the same events are recounted by different narrators and as Luke himself is refracted into a multitude of Lukes. Every storyteller has an agenda, as does every listener. In that narrative instability we discover the grandness and richness of the Star Wars universe itself — a galaxy with only one story is not a galaxy I want to live in.

StarWars.com: The main legends all involve a supposed first-hand encounter with Luke Skywalker from some rather unique narrators: a conspiracy theorist, an Imperial serving at the Battle of Jakku, a construction droid reprogrammed into being a mine overseer, and more. How did you create these characters and inform their points of view?

Ken Liu: One of the things about Star Wars that has impressed me the most is the lived-in feeling of the universe: scuffed armor, scorched hulls, jury-rigged engines. Every object has a history behind it, and every character has a backstory.

I wanted to write a book that honors that aspect of Star Wars. The galaxy is a large place, and it needs to feel that way. I worked hard to construct distinct points of view that were interesting to me and also hinted at the full spectrum of disagreements and opinions. Then I dug deep in research to flesh out their backstories to build solid foundations for how they’d come to hold the views of Luke that they did. It was such a joy to delve deeply into a universe I’ve loved all my life and to bring to life characters I wanted to get to know.

Without giving away spoilers, I do want to caution the reader against assuming that any of the Luke-like figures they encounter in the book is in fact Luke Skywalker. Sometimes we retell legends not just by recounting the stories, but by emulating their heroes.

StarWars.com: What opportunities and challenges are there to creating not just one but a whole series of different stories that fit into the realm of tall tales, campfire stories, or urban legends within Star Wars?

Ken Liu: Writing a series of stories linked together by a framing story poses a special challenge in that I believe in a book like this, the sum must be greater than the parts. I had to make sure that the different levels of narration and the disparate stories work together as a whole to tell a grander myth about Luke that the individual stories cannot. I had to do a great deal of planning, sequencing, and careful adjustment of the individual tales to make this meta-narrative work.

And of course, writing a book like this is just plain fun. Because the narrators are assumed to be unreliable (but are they really?), I can do all sorts of things that would not be possible otherwise. I could question consensus and pose outrageous speculation. It gave me a chance to explore how legends and myths can grow around a kernel of facts in one of the richest narrative universes ever created by the human imagination.

StarWars.com: Who are some of your favorite characters in this book and what makes them stand out for you?

Ken Liu: I love Redy, the conspiracy theorist. She dedicates her considerable intellectual powers to motivated reasoning to defend a story that fits her worldview. While the reader is free to dismiss Redy, I think we all have a bit of Redy in us — it’s just much harder know when the inner Redy is spinning her tales.

I also love Aya-Glon, a girl from a world covered in water. She and a mysterious visitor to her world challenge each other’s deepest held beliefs while also learning from each other. Some of my most cherished friendships have been like that.

StarWars.com: You also recently wrote “The Sith of Datawork” in the New York Times-bestselling From a Certain Point of View anthology. What made you want to explore the bureaucratic side of the Imperial Navy?

Ken Liu: As a law student, I had a particular interest in administrative law, and after that I worked for years as a corporate lawyer, having to deal with the government often. Bureaucracy, as a technology of organization and collective decision-making, is one of the crown jewels of human intellect.

I simply could not resist the chance of portraying the Imperial bureaucracy at work and the exciting stories hidden behind the stacks of datapads being pushed around.

StarWars.com: How does writing Star Wars compare to writing your own fiction? For readers who enjoy your style in The Legends of Luke Skywalker, what other of your works would you recommend?

Ken Liu: With my own fiction, I get to make all the decisions, but I do have to create everything out of my imagination. There are no reference books or experts to consult, and I’m always forging into terra incognita. It is exhilarating to work that way, but can also be very lonely.

With Star Wars, I’m working in a beloved universe that has been built up over the years by many legendary creators, and to be able to stand on their shoulders and participate in this joint storytelling effort is a dream come true. Moreover, I’m celebrating my love for Star Wars with hundreds of millions of fans around the world. It’s also a thrilling experience, but feels a bit like exercising different creative muscles.

If readers enjoy my work in Legends, they may also like my silkpunk epic fantasy series, “The Dandelion Dynasty” (The Grace of Kings and The Wall of Storms), which also plays with the idea of legendary history, fantastical machines, and magical creatures. They may also want to check out my collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, which features short fiction in a variety of genres like hard sci-fi, magic realism, cyberpunk noir, and near-future thriller.

StarWars.com: What do Luke Skywalker and Star Wars mean to you?

Ken Liu: Star Wars may be the closest thing we have to a modern mythology. Its characters, images, vehicles, ideas, and magic have become a language of metaphors that we invoke in discussing everything from politics to baseball. As new stories are told in the Star Wars universe, the mythology grows and expands to better reflect our society and to comment upon our strides into the unknown future.

Just as Luke grows as a hero in his journey, I’ve also grown as a writer and as a human being in the years since I first met him. With this book, I hope that fans of Star Wars of all ages and backgrounds can come to appreciate the many facets of Luke, and I’m especially looking forward to introducing my daughters to this grand saga.

The Legends of Luke Skywalker is available in hardcover and as an ebook from Disney-Lucasfilm Press, with illustrations by J. G. Jones and as an audiobook narrated by January LaVoy from Penguin Random House Audio.