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wfagamerants · 1 year ago

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A couple more things, in part because I want to address something. Also doing it via reblog again, because for some reason the editor didn’t want to save additions last time.

A thing I never touched on with the Smash Ultimate example is regular Toad’s spirit fight, which uses Captain Toad Treasure Tracker music:

An interesting thing to do given there are plenty other tracks that could be deemed fitting for Toad himself, including a brand new Super Mario Bros 2 remix, yet they went for Captain Toad music.

I also saw this news article on Nintendo’s official website:

Talks about the Toad vs Toadette Tour in Mario Kart Tour, but has Captain on the thumbnail, while talking about Toad.

Even extends to the Tour itself, since all VS Tours have a spotlight pipe with variants of the featured characters and Toad got:

Captain.

The only one who breaks that pattern is Funky, in place of a DK alt for the Bowser vs Donkey Kong Tour, but that's also because DK didn't have an alt at the time and wouldn't get one until not long before Tour would cease to add new content.

The german Treasure Tracker website also contains another example of Captain just being called Toad:

We also got yet another instance of Treasure Tracker being applied to Toad, via the german Mario Portal:

Especially noteworthy since all entries have the characters’ own games listed first.

RPG also makes sense to list for him, due to Toad being a major NPC and a game mechanic via Toad Assist, to the point I have even seen more than one japanese fan artist draw him as an honorary member of the party...which has no bearing on anything official, but it's cute.

Wonder meanwhile is an interesting one, because Blue and Yellow are the playable Toads (along with Toadette), so Captain is the only thing they can be referring to here. It’s not impossible they may be conflating character and species in this case, but we don’t actually know, especially since the bio, like all versions in all languages, emphasizes the red spots as a defining characteristic of Toad and while acknowledging him being a species, focuses on him as an individual.

This brings me to another point. Between the Mario Portal, Play Nintendo, the Japanese Movie Pamphlet, that promo video I brought up last time, the Switch News Tab article related to it AND the webpage related to it, we now have a minimum of six sources that call Treasure Tracker Toad��s game.

By contrast, 3D World, where supposedly, Blue Toad is THE Toad, is never tied to him in that kind of fashion and the description for this Play Nintendo video even explicably calls him Blue Toad and the video itself also just calls him a blue Toad:

Not even saying this one source is ultra definitive, I am just collecting.

The Mario vs DK remake also heavily flies in the face of the idea that Toad HAD to be blue due to worries he and Mario could get mixed up.

Even more so given Toad and Mario are the only playable characters here. The choice to leave out Red Spot, Blue Vest, Toad in the platformers like 3D World and Wonder, whenever Captain is around, comes off as very deliberate. as in they are just the same Red Toad.

That is a good cue to get to talk a bit. I have had some experiences with people not quite understanding what I am going for, so here is the gist of it in a few points:

For one, I am not at all saying I am ‘’right’’ or ‘’correcting’’ anything. I fully acknowledge that official word in the past has referred to them as separate characters, I am just pointing out official sources that contradict this idea.

Secondly, while I have a preference, none of my points are born from bias. My conclusion comes from the evidence, rather than me twisting the evidence for my conclusion. There really isn’t anything interpretive about the examples I cite and I make it a point to only show what’s being said and shown in official capacity, no speculation.

I also take every source into account and not just japanese ones, because with Mario, western influences do very much have weight. I mean, this is the same franchise where the Koopalings had no individual names in Japan and had to be named in localization, with those names being adapted back into Japan, as I mentioned waaaay earlier.

A very extreme case, but that should tell you something.

Another thing is that I explicably avoid mentioning canon, since there is no officially defined one and Miyamoto himself has gone on record to define Mario as a fluid cartoon canon, where things can change depending on what each game wants to do:

This is also where the movie comes in. A common retort I get is that it’s not canon and the thing is: this was never about canon, it’s about the fact that Nintendo allowed for Toad and Captain to be so blatantly the same character in Mario’s biggest non-gaming outing to date.

Even more so since they know the movie has a influence on how the average joe sees Mario, with Wonder’s animation upgrade being meant to live up to the movie and the Peach Showtime key art being changed to make her resemble movie Peach more:

And that’s not even going into the japanese movie pamphlet, meant to explain how things are in the games, which continues to treat Toad and Captain as the same character and calls Treasure Tracker the first 3D game to star Toad, no effort to distinguish him and Captain present, which implies deeper intent than just the movie doing it’s own thing.

And then there is the supposed personality difference between Toad and Captain, which I never got.

Captain is supposedly too cowardly to be Toad, yet is described as courageous by Nintendo themselves:

And even spends ⅔ of his game adventuring to save Toadette, despite how afraid he often is, which also shows how loyal he is, a trait deeply associated with Toad.

Toad himself can be compared to Luigi, scared, but brave. There is a reason this art exists:

Luigi’s Mansion in general sums Toad up well, especially 3. He is visibly afraid and in a position where he genuinely can’t do much, yet he is the only one of Lugi’s captured friends in 3 besides E. Gadd, who actively helps out after being rescued, leading to a later escort mission with him.

Toad is on several occasions also shown as a leader figure for the Toads, especially in sports games where they cheer him on (Mario Golf World Tour) or serve as part of his special move (Dr. Mario World, Mario Strikers Battle League).

Toad and Captain genuinely aren’t that different, even the treasure hunter aspect has been applied to Toad in LEGO Mario as said before, an ongoing merch line with a gigantic name.

That’s all I wanted to say, to make my stance maybe a bit more clear than it was before. This entire thing is me wanting to point things out that make Nintendo’s exact intent pretty confusing. On their own none of these would mean much to me, but the fact stuff keeps happening is what makes me question things.

I have made it very blatant that I am a fan of Toad.

If you followed me for a while, you also likely have heard me vent about the claim Toad and Captain Toad are different characters, citing multiple contradictions to this claim in the games themselves.

I’m not here to deny official word or push my preferences (though I do have them), rather I want to give my perspective on the whole thing in full and delve a little into how Nintendo handles main members of a Mario species in general.

First, it’s important to recognize that Nintendo is loose with a lot of stuff. Many different people work on these games and you can see different takes on how to present certain species quite frequently.

When we think of Toad, the main way we think of him distinguished from other members of his species is the red spots and blue vest combo. In a large number of games that is indeed the case.

Most spin-offs, Super Mario 3D Land and Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon, only to name some. Those make it simple, red spots and blue vest Toad is THE Toad. Other red Toads have a red vest.

However, not every game makes it so nice and simple. The pre-GameCube games had ALL the basic Toads rock the red spots and blue vest combo. THE Toad was distinguished more by role, being the only Toad in the game or as in Super Mario RPG, being the only Toad to have Toad: in his text box, even in the japanese version I might add, to indicate he is the main one you keep meeting.

The modern games aren’t without occasional screwyness themselves though. Odyssey reverts to the idea of all generic Toads using that look and then you have things like Sunshine or the Baseball games, where there is no red spots & blue vest Toad, but a red vest Toad is identified as THE Toad in things like the manual:

It’s weird, but it should be said the 2000s were still a bit of a transitional era for Mario. It took until 2004 for short sleeves Wario to be consistently used in spin-offs for instance and Peach still had her old dress in Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door. You saw oddities like that around a fair bit.

The only time the Toad thing ever came up again in later years is Puzzles & Dragons SMB Edition and even that one has THE Toad on the cover, despite him having a red vest in the game,

Something that is even stranger given that by then they had stock Red Toad renders around and Nintendo is so overprotective of Mario as an IP, that them letting this slide is notable.

While this kinda stuff muddles things, it doesn’t take away from the fact a THE Toad exists. It’s seemingly more about the iconic visuals, than the detail. That visual of a single red Toad being with the rest of the main cast.

Something that still persists to this very day and will, with the distinctions we prefer to go for (only one blue vest, red spots Toad) even be present in the movie, which Nintendo is directly involved with.

It’s a thing that extends beyond Toad and has been present with other characters representing their species as well. Kamek being the most blatant example of it.

Even prior to Yoshi’s Island, singular important Magikoopas such as a particular Yoshi’s Safari boss, a right-hand man Magikoopa in Super Mario kun’s Super Mario World story or the eeeeeevil Koopa wizard Wizenheimer in the Super Mario World cartoon, had already appeared as important parts of Bowser’s troops.

It’s with Yoshi’s Island that one particular Magikoopa, who was the one who raised Bowser no less, was introduced. While this had no distinct name in Japan, where all Magikoopas are known as Kamek, the localization either consciously or by lucky accident, kept his name as Kamek, giving him a big distinguishing element from his species.

The idea of Kamek the main Magikoopa is one that persists to this day and it makes a lot of sense why. Given his shown connection to Bowser in his debut game, there is no reason to assume the most prominent Magikoopas aren’t this particular one and localization was happy to keep the concept around.

In Japan meanwhile, Kamek the character is not a foreign concept, but many materials do not make a formal distinction between the character and the species. It’s there, just more vague. You can sense that in localizations too, with how there are a couple notable oddities.

Mario Party 9 has a playable Magikoopa who is referred to as such in american localization, is called Kamek in other versions, like the german translation. Whether this is meant to be the character or a generic member of the species is genuinely not clear. Not helping matters is how european translations sometimes call generic Magikoopas like in the first couple Paper Mario games and as recent as Bowser’s Fury, Kameks.

A particularly noteworthy example is Giant Kamek in Super Princess Peach. His status as a boss, the one to guard Luigi no less, makes it easy to take him as Kamek transformed, but then you look at the Glossary:

A Kamek. It’s meant to be a generic member of the species, in a new form.

The truth is that Mario is a very, as I like to call it ‘’function over flavor’’ series. It’s more about the function, such as a main red Toad or a main Magikoopa and not so much the finer details like whether the vest color is correct, even if many games DO take that into account.

Because of this, I think the thing to look for is consistency, whatever fits the consistent image is the most likely answer. We will never know in some cases if the character in question is a generic member of the species or the main one, but that is because Nintendo themselves often don’t put that much stock into it.

On that note, while localizations, despite greater efforts to define things can fumble too, I don’t think that means they don’t ‘’count’’. I generally don’t agree with the idea that only japanese sources have any say with how to interpret Mario stuff, because the series does not have the lore consistency to give that idea weight.

On top of that, we have seen that western influences have affected the franchise at large more than once. The western Super Mario Bros 2 is the most obvious example of this, with how many elements of it have made it far into the franchise. Most notable though are the Koopalings, who didn’t even have names in the japanese version of SMB3 and adapted their localization given names.

This kind of stuff isn’t like say, Monsteropolis in the US Mega Man manual or the US Sonic CD manual clumsily trying to treat Amy as Sally. This stuff is still with the franchise today and as the movie shows, still matters.

THE Toad is a thing in the movie and as is Kamek. Both clearly defined as such and while the New York backstory is not a western invention, it was more emphasized in the west and that’s back too. It’s even Brooklyn again and I’m not even sure if that was ever specified in japanese material or direct confirmation from Miyamoto.

Mario is not a story centric series where only the original text matters. It’s a extremely loose canon, where what the west did, still matters to this very day and is of equal importance.

With all this in mind, let’s talk Captain Toad.

To understand my point on what I mean with contradictions regarding him and Toad being separate characters, we need to look at what Captain was like in the Galaxy games.

In these games, Captain Toad as a name did not exist, with him being only referred to as ‘’the captain of the Toad Brigade’’ and being specifically shown to be a self proclaimed captain at that. Even his inability to jump was invented later on and is contradicted by many level set pieces he shows up in, as well as this:

Even the headlamp, one of his defining visual features, wasn’t treated as anything that special, with BankToad being able to get it at a certain level of deposited Star Bits in Galaxy 2.

He wasn’t really talked about in any official materials and didn’t even get an official render of any sort, but you know who did and is on the cover of Galaxy 2 no less?

Toad. I have seen the argument that this could be an error, but for that to make it all the way to the cover, the first thing someone would see of the game when buying it, would make that a very massive one. Additionally, Toad also has a render for Galaxy 1, even though he wouldn’t have any presence in either game aside from a Save File icon and a cameo in the story book opening of Galaxy 1, if he’s not Captain. The only existing bios for Toad or Captain in these games, even identify them as the same character.

It does line up with what I said about consistency. Sunshine gave us a group of 5 Toads in different colors, with the red vest and red spots one being singled out to be the main Toad. Galaxy introducing a similar group and making the red Toad, in a franchise where a red Toad is one of the main characters, THE Toad, like in Sunshine or the Baseball games, makes sense because there is precedent.

Then many years later came 3D World, the game where Toad and Captain were supposedly clarified to be different characters, co-existing at the same time.

This is also the game where the main playable Toad is a Blue Toad. THE Toad, has never been portrayed that way before or since, to the point where every time Nintendo reuses one of the Blue Toad renders in this game

They are recolored to fit his proper appearance, because this has NEVER been how he has been portrayed. The game really emphasizes the playable Toad being a blue one too, with how the credits scene even shows Captain with a group of Toads, missing a blue one.

This flies heavily in the face of past established consistency, where between Sunshine, the many spin-offs or Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon, THE Toad has always been distinguished as the red one, because that’s the first one, who established himself as THE Toad.

One could point to his blue color palette in NES SMB2 and I have seen arguments that it’s an homage to that. We don’t have official word on this, but I find that very hard to buy, because he was never supposed to look like this. When he WAS depicted that way in art, everyone was portrayed with their in-game colors:

And in every other case, everyone had their proper colors:

3D World doesn’t do either. The idea of a homage rings hollow when Mario, Luigi and Peach are the same as usual and those couple spots needing to be recolored to not confuse him with Mario, also doesn’t really make sense, given how drastically different their body types are.

It goes so far the official Super Mario website even lists red spots specifically as one of Toad’s defining features, which would make him being Blue Toad in 3D World even stranger:

The game also lacks any kind of red spots and blue vest Toad, which 3D Land ensured there was only one of, to identify him as THE Toad. You know who had an icon like that in the reveal trailer though?

Captain Toad. Completely new art no less, that stuck around in the game to be in the reveal trailer, less than half a year away from release.

Also, yah know how you can find Captain Toad in levels and sometimes get a collectible out of it?

Toad did the same thing in 3D Land. Even in terms of gameplay function, the two are extremely similar. Similarities between the two are a running theme from here on out.

Prominent red Toads who throw turnips, give out stars, have Toadette as a partner, act as leaders to other Toads and have been depicted with fairy partners (though in Captain’s case only in concept art).

It is baffling how much they have in common and you can tell that even more by how much the two are linked.

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker has an amiibo bundle, amiibo functionality and a pre-order bonus, centered around a character that, according to some sources, you don’t even play as.

All by Nintendo themselves btw. Same with say, this video title or german eShop description for the game, which refer to the main character as Captain and Toad interchangeably.

This even extends to in-game content:

And an Odyssey developer interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVNYfoFcrZY

Then you got Mario Maker call Toad Captain:

Smash let’s Toad’s spirit evolve into Captain, which is tied to gameplay AND in-line with stuff like Shadow becoming Super Shadow or Alm and Celica becoming their adult selves. The game even makes the distinction that THE Toad exists in the tips, where Peach’s Toad is THE Toad and Daisy’s (who is blue ala’ 3D World btw) is a Toad.

And then you get Mario Kart Tour, the only spin-off Captain Toad is in and the same one where someone like Peachette can be an independent playable character distant from Toadette OR Peach, so yeah. He even shares most of his animations with Toad:

A trait mainly seen with the simpler alts. Pit Stop Toad has more unique animations than Captain has.

VS Tour promos even group him with Toad, right next to him. Same happens with Peachette, who is correctly placed between Toadette and her alts.

Hillariously enough, even LEGO gets in on this, by giving Toad a treasure hunting themed expansion:

As I said, it’s not my intent to ignore official word. Officially, Captain is regarded as a different character, I’m just pointing out how much the games themselves don’t support that and how it requires a lot of justification and ignoring of past patterns to get there and explain away the mountains of counter evidence.

I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss every source that speaks against those claims either, these are just people trying to make sense of the mess Nintendo has left behind and I could just as easily point out that the original confirmation Captain is a separate character, also came with Toads not truly being mushrooms. A claim that contradicts a lot of past descriptions of the species, dialogue mentioning things like spores and Toad showing spore abilities at multiple points.

Not saying this invalidates the entire thing, just pointing out this is a nightmarish mess if you want to maintain consistency.

It’s why Movie Toad is exciting to me.

Giving him the backpack, Captain’s most defining feature these days and thus possibly silently merging them, is to me, the best and least complicated thing they could do.

Time will tell if this will affect anything, but Nintendo allowing for this at all does tell me they are fine with the characters being linked, which I hope translates to good things for him. Toad has a lot to gain from being Captain, while Captain really struggles to be his own thing, because he IS Toad in all but official word.

#Youtube

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tillzzy · 2 years ago

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07.02.23

Logo Experimentations

After doing some basic research on other designers and how they have created their own websites and personal branding, this inspired me to begin creating my own designs. I wanted to start with logo designing as this can be used as a base for my website in terms of colour, typeface and design in general.

I wanted to create a funky and loud logo that stands out but still represents me as a person. I decided to take inspiration from this packaging design I had found through my research from the typeface unit in term one and use the style and motion of the lettering in my own design.

initial drafts and sketches

I began designing my type by just freehand drawing the lettering without a grid just for a basic idea of how I wanted the shapes to interact. I then placed the design I preferred onto a grid background and slightly adjusted the sizing and spacing of the letters. I really like how the y wraps around the upper Z as the Y has a lower descender which interrupts the composition of the logo. I wanted to use the name that I use for my design instagram account as I feel that ‘tillzzy’ is a unique brand name that describes me quite well.

using a grid to finalise layout and sizing of letters

I then used a grid to finalise the shape of the letters and made sure to design in black and white to ensure all areas and mistakes can easily be spotted. Colour can sometimes take away from logo designs at first so it is good to build from a black and white colour scheme. I also have yet to decide the colour scheme I intend to use for my branding.

adding a design elements

as there was a space in between the Zs and the L I wanted to fill this space to create a more busy composition and also use the opportunity to add an additional design aspect that gives more personality. I started with adding a sparkle element however this felt quite basic and didn’t say much about me as a person. I then thought using plants would help add more as I love plants and have done a few projects already around nature and sustainability. I started with a simple flower drawing which was inspired by one of my favourite illustrators - Poppy Crew. I then thought instead of a flower using inspiration from the plants in my room. My favourite plant I have is my swiss cheese plant and sits on my desk as I work so I felt that this was a good option to tell more about my design process and myself in general. I really like this addition to the logo and I think it isn’t too much where it would overwhelm viewers but has enough to catch people’s attention. Once I add colour it will start to bring this to life a bit more.

I think now I should start bringing my illustrations into illustrator to clean up the line work and convert the logo into a vector based design. Also this will allow me to explore and start thinking about colour a bit more for my website. I also think experimenting with already existing typefaces for my logo instead of hand drawing the headings will help as it will create consistency and the opportunity to use the chosen typeface in other aspects of my website. I could hand draw these which could enhance the connotation of my website being illustrative but having consistency could help create a cleaner and more professional finish. I will explore both options when it comes to it

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kukuandkookie · 2 years ago

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Please send help Xi Yang Yang literally has me in a chokehold and I am struggling knowing that out of most donghua, most of which are generally already pretty underrated and niche in the mainstream, this is probably one of the MOST NICHE fandoms I could ever get into because it is a kids’ show. 😭

It has a fandom in China that’s actually super active (I love getting lost in Bilibili’s AMVs and animation memes when I can afford to (as in I usually can’t/shouldn’t because I spend too long on that addicting site)), but obviously I’m not fluent enough to be super active on Chinese websites. 🥲

BUT XI YANG YANG JUST HAS GOTTEN SO ANIME AND BADASS AND HEARTFELT AND IT KILLS ME BECAUSE I’M WATCHING THESE ADORABLE LITTLE CHARACTERS I LIKED AS A CHILD BECOME AMAZING, ACTUALLY DEEP CHARACTERS IN REALLY INTRIGUING STORIES!!! It doesn’t help my addiction that the Xi Yang Yang channel on YouTube literally uploads all the episodes so I can watch them!! For free!!! It’s so accessible and thus super addicting!!!

I just found out from summary videos what happens in the latest season (the one where the goats and wolves go back to the fantasy cat kingdom except this time they discover a dog kingdom) and AHHHHHHHHH. I was literally—and yes, I do mean literally!—screaming because OH MY GOD KGJSKFHSJS THE PLOT. THE THINGS THAT HAPPEN.

God I wish there was a fandom for this. I used to yell about it on Twitter and at my Chinese friend who also liked animation (he was even nice enough to send me Xi Yang Yang merch!!) but my Twitter followers follow me for my Scum Villain (and maybe Erha) content and my friend isn’t active anymore. 😭

Obviously it’s my account so I can just post what I want but what I want to do is yell and upload too many screenshots and yell some more and sub video clips and post those too. I LITERALLY HAVE CLIPS OF XI YANG YANG THAT I SUBBED MYSELF JUST SITTING ON MY PHONE GLSJDKSHSJS.

I can’t emphasize enough how this series has grown and changed so much since I was a kid—now rather than have Tom and Jerry-esque comedy and rather stiff animation, it’s more colourful and fluid and even more meaningful—and it remains super funny. Like yes, sometimes the animation is still a bit off but overall it’s just improved so much!! The action is so shounen it’s just so much fun!

https://youtu.be/yQpdr4h2rbc

youtube

And the characters are all so likeable—like I genuinely think Xi Yang Yang and Hui Tai Lang are examples of iconic character design, and their friends are pretty good too (Xi Yang Yang can get really funky with some of the character designs—for example with the egg villains etc but overall the main characters look so so cute).

I’m so glad they reformed Hui Tai Lang in Mighty Little Defenders!! I’ve watched every season since then and they’re all really really enjoyable. Since we’re not just constantly reusing Hui Tai Lang as a villain and having him chase the sheep around, we get a lot more interesting stories: the entire Rescue Across Time season, with all its time-travelling shenanigans, remains one of my favourites, as does the aforementioned fantasy cat kingdom transmigration season (we even got the goats brainwashed into lovable jerk versions of themselves who also happen to be cats!!). The whole plot surrounding Xi Yang Yang’s parents and Bing Bing Yang is really nice too, and Hui Tai Lang is such a good dad. 😭

Also I guess it doesn’t technically matter if I spoil the latest season and reveal why I was screaming earlier today, but basically I found out they make Hui Tai Lang brainwashed by dark energy into becoming a villain. Xi Yang Yang tries to fight him and they both get affected with the dark energy, but in the end, Hui Tai Lang still sacrifices himself to save his best friend. GOD THEIR BOND IS SO CUTE. ;w;

I know this is like all gibberish to people who haven’t watched Xi Yang Yang and I’m betting 90% of you haven’t (and that even if you have, 95% of you or more haven’t watched the newer seasons (from Mighty Little Defenders onwards)). But basically besides Xi Yang Yang being devastated by Hui Tai Lang’s potential death, Gou Xing Lang, the villain from the cat fantasy kingdom season (Against the Dark Force) soMEHOW MANAGES TO SAVE HIM FROM WITHIN THE DARKNESS???? AND IT HAS ME EVEN MORE EMO BECAUSE HE HAD A SAD, PRETTY TOUCHING BACKSTORY WHERE HE LOST TOUCH WITH HIS CHILDHOOD BEST FRIEND WHO BETRAYED HIM (which they referenced in the Ultimate Battle season) BUT WE ALL THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD!!!

So now I’m wondering if they’ll build on the fact he’s somehow in the dark energy??? Or if they’ll just leave it at that!?

Man I haven’t even watched the season yet because the YouTube channel gets the seasons way later than China does, so I don’t know the details and from what I have seen, I might find some of it a bit odd, but they really do have the capability to make me feel feels, don’t they? Just from a summary video and I was already getting all emo over Xi Yang Yang and Hui Tai Lang’s bond, and how badass they both are when they’re a bit more villainous.

I’m also wheezing because the summary video pointed out how Hui Tai Lang lamented the fact he always gets made into the villain, and it’s kind of true… 😂

They turned him into a robot in the Ultimate Battle season—and ahhhh he looks so badass!!—and now here too he got infected with dark energy. But I’m down for dark Hui Tai Lang and dark Xi Yang Yang… Like I’m really happy they brought back the kitty versions of the goats because the whole premise there is that they’re like the goats but also opposite, so a lot of them are way meaner than the goats. And that’s always such a fun idea!!

Kitty Xi Yang Yang is brash and arrogant and only cares about power/fun while Xi Yang Yang himself is clever but caring—even when he can be a bit vain. Mei Yang Yang is sweet and a bit timid—although I love the badass older version of herself we got in Ultimate Generation—and yet kitty Mei Yang Yang is just a major bitch and I love it. Like think Flutterbitch from the first couple Discord episodes or from the Chrysalis episode lol. Fei Yang Yang is protective and strong and brash while kitty Fei Yang Yang is selfish and obsessed with cleanliness. Nuan Yang Yang is tender and caring yet kitty Nuan Yang Yang is basically a green tea bitch—she pretends to be sweet on the surface to get people to like her and listen to her but obviously inside she’s not that sweet. Instead, kitty Nuan Yang Yang is rather lazy ahaha.

Speaking of lazy though, we finally got to see kitty Lan Yang Yang, which we didn’t see in Against the Dark Force, since he was never brainwashed. Apparently kitty Lan Yang Yang is still cowardly and gluttonous but also kind of…coquettish? 😂

I’m genuinely so curious about what happens in the dog kingdom season ahhhhh!!! But so far I’m watching Ultimate Battle as it’s updated on YouTube, and I’ve enjoyed this season a lot. It reminds me of Sonic actually, and new Xi Yang Yang already kind of reminds me of Sonic (that’s actually part of why I recommend it—it’s like various really good series all combined into one, and I think fans of modern kids’ shows will also probably enjoy Xi Yang Yang!).

Having Xi Yang Yang and Hui Tai Lang chase a villain into the future and meet their friends 15 years after they disappeared is such a cool plot idea! Plus the villain himself is pretty neat—he wants to roboticize everyone to remove the weakness that is emotion—and from spoilers I know, he’s bringing a lot more intriguing things to the table later.

I’m obsessed with how mature Xi Yang Yang’s friends now are—like they still feel like themselves, but you can really tell they’ve grown up! And it feels natural, which is great.

Mei Yang Yang became a journalist to better search for Xi Yang Yang, and we get lore on her this season, which is really awesome. She’s now no longer bothered by dirtiness and she can fend for herself, which is great to watch—I love her weapon too because it’s a sword that can break into pieces to become longer, like a whip.

Fei Yang Yang is now a badass, reliable firefighter, so he no longer carries that childish brashness of his younger self, and he’s really cool in action. For example, the way he figured out Bu Lei’s plot and was later the one who used three cards, overexerting himself yet becoming super powerful and badass in order to defeat Professor T, was just so cool.

Lan Yang Yang is working as a food reviewer basically and while he’s undoubtedly still Lan Yang Yang, enjoying eating and sleeping, he’s well-respected in his community and sometimes he actually feels full because chefs search for him so much lol. He also has a cool weapon—it’s a flying platform with three sort of canons floating above it, and it kind of resembles a fidget spinner!

Nuan Yang Yang achieved her dream of becoming a singer and I like how consistent her love of music—and her being a fan of a singer who’s a duck—is to her character. I am disappointed because they made her slimmer and I feel like her being a bigger goat as a mountain goat was always a fun part of her backstory and why she looks slightly different from the other sheep. Despite that, I get making older characters look very different from their younger selves for the sake of change (eg Anko getting fat in Boruto vs being skinny in Naruto), so while I’d prefer her being her bigger size, I can live with this change.

Some of the roboticization storylines are really badass too—I already mentioned Hui Tai Lang’s, but there’s also Hong Tai Lang’s admittedly hot roboticized look (and I feel like I can call it hot because the Xi Yang Yang team did also release an artwork that showed a human version!!). I also know there’ll be more involving Xiao Hui Hui, as his abandonment issues from Hui Tai Lang’s vanishment were resolved a bit earlier in the season but I suppose they’re bringing some more drama later! Mei Yang Yang’s trauma from Xi Yang Yang’s disappearance also gets explored, and we get to learn some of her lore, which I am very *rubs hands excitedly* about. 👀

And of course I know some spoilers about Professor T that I’m just like ‼️ over. The other robots also had pretty compelling stories—Bu Lei is fun as a green tea bitch/yandere type villain and Hei Zhuan (Hei Zuan?)’s story with his sister was cute. But Otto’s whole storyline literally nearly made me cry. 😭

OH AND I CAN’T WRITE ALL THIS AND NOT TALK ABOUT THE NEWEST XI YANG YANG MOVIE, WHICH IS ABOUT BASKETBALL.

I actually skipped the basketball season since obviously I’m not exactly into the sport, but I’ve determined since I should probably watch it still sometime because I realized later it nonetheless carries that Xi Yang Yang charm, so even if I don’t care too much for the dramatization of basketball (you know the kind; the kind that permeates all sports anime), I can nevertheless enjoy it for depicting my favourite characters. 🥺

I’ve caught a glimpse of some episodes of the basketball season and they are cute!! The one where they compete with the bunnies and actually help save them from famine despite the bunnies trying to cheat to win was really sweet, and later episodes depict that awesome bond between Hui Tai Lang and Xi Yang Yang.

So back to the movie—I brought up the basketball season because obviously the movie does adapt/reference some of it since they’re both about basketball, and I did skip the movie too for a while… But I later watched it and AHHHHHHH GLSBDKSHDKSB OF COURSE I ENJOYED IT. It’s a depiction of characters I love being themselves while on an adventure!! How could I not enjoy it!?

The animation style was really neat; seeing the sheep and wolves in a more detailed anthro style than their usually chibi/cartoony style meant we got some pleasing aesthetics—for example, I enjoyed how their eyes corresponded with their themed colours (like in the series Xi Yang Yang and Hui Tai Lang both have dark bluish-grey eyes, but in the movie Xi Yang Yang’s are very visibly blue and Hui Tai Lang’s are very visibly purple. It’s quite pretty!).

I’ve also embarrassingly enough tweeted about this before, but they did make Hui Tai Lang…unfairly hot in the movie LGBSKFHSJSH. Basically, they gave him consistently half-lidded eyes and with the more violet colour and more realistic proportions (since the characters look more anthro). My younger brother even complained about how such series indulges furries since you could tell they gave Hui Tai Lang those muscles etc on purpose lmao.

Who let this man look like this? Who!?

But yeah Hui Tai Lang and Xi Yang Yang have a conflict within the film—which of course they do; it’s a movie so we need to up the ante—but as sad as it is seeing characters we like have a falling out (and as overdramatic as some of the angst may feel), it’s nevertheless characters I cherish facing conflict. So seeing them come back together after and working hard to get the basketball championship after losing is really lovely, and I really enjoy how Xi Yang Yang lets all its characters shine.

In every season, while there may be one character who gets more focus along with Xi Yang Yang and Hui Tai Lang—for example Against the Dark Force was very much Lan Yang Yang’s season and in some ways, Ultimate Battle allowed Mei Yang Yang to shine—all the characters get arcs focused on them that correlate to the bigger overarching plot. I mean, every season is 60 episodes!! So of course we have lots of time to explore the characters and I really appreciate that.

So even in the film, we do see the other characters shine, even if it’s all tied back to the overarching plot of basketball and even if Xi Yang Yang and Hui Tai Lang take centre stage. I also really enjoyed the ending since it kept me on the toes—the rival team to Xi Yang Yang’s had a character that was going through his own arc, but I was desperately hoping the sheep would win the championship this time since they lost to the wolves in the basketball season. Plus I was crossing my fingers waiting for Hui Tai Lang to get to shine since they set up how he’s not the best player and thus feels like he’s in Xi Yang Yang’s shadow…

And fortunately the film did end up going with the best possible ending (imo)!

Spoilers ahead if you care lol:

Basically, they did let the sheep finally win the championship, which is perfect since obviously this is a sequel to the basketball season, where they started off as the underdogs yet did end up losing, even with all the growth they had. It felt like a perfect progression—especially since even though the rival team (the tigers) did have a character with his own arc and reasons why he really wanted to win, they only had to have his father finally approve of him playing basketball to give him a satisfactory conclusion. As in, he didn’t need to win the way the sheep needed to.

And thankfully, while I was getting worried throughout the final match, they did let Hui Tai Lang shine!! He got to take the winning shot after Xi Yang Yang faked being the winning shot, which is of course the perfect progression to Hui Tai Lang’s arc too. I was so happy when they did that!!

Of course, some of this conclusion is probably obvious in hindsight, but I did have a fear…mostly because the sheep almost did lose until they protested an issue and it initially looked like Xi Yang Yang was going to take the winning shot—which if he had, it would feel less satisfying, as Hui Tai Lang wouldn’t get to join him in the limelight.

I need to have more trust in the Xi Yang Yang team lol. I’ve loved almost everything they’ve done so far, and whenever I doubt them, they manage to pleasantly surprise me! And what I mean by “doubt them” is that sometimes Chinese series will have writing conventions a westerner may find odd, but even when Xi Yang Yang subverts my expectations and indulges in that “odd” Chinese sense of humour etc, I still love it to bits (and listen, I’m not saying Chinese writers are bad. Not at all! I’m just referring to the fact that as a Canadian-born-Chinese, I’ve witnessed people complain about Chinese story details because it’s not what they’re used to).

OH ALSO THE MOVIE’S OST SLAPS. I KEEP LISTENING TO THE SONGS ON LOOP GLSHFKSHDKSH.

https://youtu.be/eEmzxOGXR_A

youtube

https://youtu.be/fK0fpdOh8C0

youtube

But wow okay I rambled WAY too much lmaooooo. I just can’t help it!! When I really love things I love them to absolute pieces, and when a fandom is underrated, I tend to feel the need to actually be active and promote it so I can spread how happy it makes me. Plus I can happily juggle multiple brain rots at once, even if I have one main one that takes centre stage lol. Like right now Scum Villain and Erha are my biggest obsessions—and y’all have seen how much I can ramble about both Scum Villain and Erha lol—but of course I love all my donghua and danmei and manhua and cdramas and Chinese music. ♥️

Along with my other planned blog entries about donghua and danmei and Chinese-themed media (such as me wanting to write some thoughts on Everything Everywhere All at Once), I have every intention of writing about why you should watch Xi Yang Yang on my blog ahaha.

I just. Have so many happy feelings surrounding Xi Yang Yang right now and I want to yell about them specifically, especially since there’s barely a fandom for them in the west. All this rambling is a result of me bottling up my fangirling for weeks NGNSKDHSKSH. Plus I’m a naturally ramble-y person! But I feel even more ramble-y when a series is an underrated gem and makes me endlessly happy, the way Xi Yang Yang is and does. 🥺

#kuku rambles #kuku88 #long post #喜羊羊与灰太狼 #喜羊羊 #pleasant goat and big big wolf #xi yang yang #donghua #chinese animation #Youtube #GOD THIS IS SO LONG AHKFHSKDJS #AND I DOUBT ANYONE WOULD READ IT LOL #IF YOU DO I’M SORRY BECAUSE THIS MUST ALL READ AS GIBBERISH TO YOU #I need to stop getting into tiny inactive fandoms x’D #(I say even as I have absolutely no intention of stopping—#I mean I’ve been obsessively in love with various Chinese media for months now and that’s so underrated; of course I’m not stopping!!)

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dinitride-art · 2 years ago

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Lighting and Mike and Will and El - Full Analysis (pt.31)

whoops, got some text wrong on the last one- but is wasn’t all that important to the lighting side of the analysis- so I’ll fix it when I make 30.1. But for now, I’m going to keep going through the regular lighting analysis and I’ll go back and review it later. This will still include possessiongate as a possibility because it’s just. It’s there and it won’t leave me alone. And a lots happening in the monologue anyways- so even if I’m pointing this out and connecting them to possessiongate- the things that I’m pointing out are generally meant to be seen? Or noticed. So they can mean different things than what I’m saying but I think- for me at least- the most important thing is that we’re noticing what’s going on. We can figure out what it really means later, y’know. (but it might mean that mike’s being possessed and my brains stuck on that so- this analysis is going to talk about it a lot. At least, during the monologue/the last stretch)

But all of that aside- it’s monologue time.

S4:E9 - The Monologue (#2) - The Heart of Vecna

(so, did some more research on Vecna. And apparently in 1980 he’s first introduced into the Grayhawk setting. He also seems to not like light or clerics, so thats fun and funky. Also- this is like the exact same sentence from six different websites so idk the validity but- “ The last known Heart of Vecna was Diraq Malcinex of Ket, who was slain by adventurers in 581 CY.” First of all the heart of vecna is the position in the hierarchy as the high priest of vecna. And also 581. Familiar numbers right there. I want to find like old D&D source books somewhere so i can know the actual lore that was put in there and not just what might be correct from the internet. buT ANYWAYS- so sorry, back to the actual analysis)

So Will starts sliding out of frame- which I find odd. It could be that El’s focusing more on Mike and implying further taht she does in fact see him and Will- or it could be something to do with Vecna. Because in earlier shots surrounding the freezer, Will was weirdly cut out of them. This may have to do with El not seeing Will (and Will possibly having powers- other things to add onto this thought much later in this analysis. Think like, part...37-40. Somewhere in there if everything goes according to plan... but then again this was supposed to be four parts so. Who the hell knows how long it’ll be at this point). OR it could be that Mike isn’t seeing Will/he can’t focus on his light so Vecna is able to take control of him. This could also connect to Will telling Mike that, “[he’s] the heart” and like. Shattering him into thousands of heartbroken little pieces. Anyways, I guess my point here is that there’s a lot of options as to what any of this could mean- and they’re all really interesting.

Also, Mike’s left eye is still scary. And his face is still split. And Will’s face also still looks split and it’s bad out here. Possessiongate is breaking hearts and sacrificing Max. Oof.

When we see El she has little to no light on her face save for the highlights. But the rest of it is mostly in shadow. She’s not having a good time. What Mike is saying to her is not helping at all. It might actively be making things worse. But we do start seeing the rose behind El again- which was previously hidden fully by her head.

Again, left eye and a split expression. Creepy ass shit right there- and we can no longer see Will. All weirdly consistant things that stand out in frame with Mike. There’s also the matter of the oven behind him- and the red- AND that strip of light. Will never really leaves frame, because Will is the light this season. Will is Mike’s light. And if Vecna has Will and Mike then they’re kinda stuck. And Mike’s positioing between the red strip and the light behind him reflects that. He’s bordered by El and Will.

When we ee El, we see Jonathan and Mike’s watches on El’s shoulders- and we see her blue shirt on the table. Her shirt having red roses on it also gives me vibes that this is the exact same situation the El was just in- Vecna has just changed positions.

Watching Mike’s expressions during the monologue is a fucking ride. I’ve been covering half of his face with my thumb and then shifting it to the other side and every time it’s a different expression entirely. If this is Vecna possessing Mike, then Mike is fighting him. Mike giving up hope isn’t in his characterization at all. In season one, it was Will being alive. In season two it was El being alive and Will making it out alive. In season three it was his and Will’s friendship and making sure everyone was safe. If there’s one thing I understand about Mike, it’s that he doesn't give up. Not when somethings important to him.

And what him and Will we’re talking about throughout all of season four was about El, yes, but also about telling the truth and opening up to people. And that’s why El was in so many of their conversations, because Mike knows he’s lying to her. The end of season three, we know Mike realized something. And it’s not a stretch to believe that he realized that he wasn’t in love with El. And friends don’t lie.

This is the opposite of what Will and Mike were talking about. This isn’t a resolution for Mike and El’s fight, because something is wrong with their relationship. It’s based off of the two of them thinking that they were supposed to be together. Mike already said that he loved El in season three, so the problem isn’t saying it.

The problem has never been saying it.

It’s been whether or not he means it. And he keeps asking if El can hear him, but it’s never mattered if she can hear him when he says it. Because it doesn’t matter if he says it. Because somethings go unsaid. “[He] didn’t have to” hear Will tell him that he was being a dick. Will didn’t have to say it.

He just had to mean it.

When we see Will, it’s again from El’s angle/perspective. His eye is less dark, and his face much less split. We don’t have to be told how Will feels in this moment. It’s right there in front of our faces. Show don’t tell, actions speak louder than words: “you didn’t have to say it.” That’s why that line is so important. Not only does it contradict what Mike is doing here, it also tells us that the characters in this story have strong relationships and have the ability to communicate uniquely within those relationships.

Mike’s monologue is not at all unique. It’s about ten different quotes and a thousands cliches mashed together to create the most insincere and impersonal love confession that could ever exist. Mike and Will’s conversations show us that Mike can talk to people in his life that he cares about without doing whatever this shit is in the monologue.

Even when Mike first goes into El’s room the day after Rink O’ Mania he starts out like Mike. Not how Mike talks to Will- because that’s always been different from how he talks to El, but he talks to her (at the start) like he’s talking to El. Not like he’s talking to the girl that everyone told him he likes. And who he should want to marry. And who should be his girlfriend.

But the monologue? Mike doesn’t talk like that. He doesn’t say stupid shit like, “you can move mountains.” He’s a writer, fucking hell- he’s a DM. He knows how to be more creative than that. And if Mike was actually going all in and saying fuck it, guess I’ll just suffer- then wouldn’t he put a little effort into it? There’s no “I was being a self pitying idiot” or holding out his hand to Lucas at just the right time in season one or the energy he had when he was screaming at Hopper- there’s no Mike in this damn monologue.

There isn’t a specific “superhero” or memories or fights or apologies or anything that ties it to Mike or El. Which is why I think Vecna ghostwrote the monologue and then took over when Mike refused to do it.

If we look at Jonathan in this scene, we can see the contrast between the lighting on his face and the lighting on Mike and Will’s faces. Jonathan’s face is being lit normally and shots of him up close really show that Mike and Will aren’t being lit normally. His head is at an angle like Mike’s, but there is minimal shadow on his face. Maybe this is just showing that he’s not the main focus of the scene but it’s just odd that our main focus’ are lit in a way that has specific correlation to established ideas within the work. Vecna’s left eye (and hand- missing) was used as a way for the players to identify him during the Hellfire game. It’s a whole thing with Vecna in D&D, and even if it wasn’t, that’s how we were told to identify him in the first episode.

While this lighting choice could be a coincidence, it’s connections to dialogue makes me think that it could very well be foreshadowing, and subtext. I started this analysis with skepticism about how Will was lit in season four and I’m going to end it with skepticism about how Mike is lit in season four. We’re coming full circle.

We consistently have the shadow over Mike’s left eye, the red stripe behind him, and either the oven or Will and the overhead lights. Mike’s shirt pocket is pointing to Will during the entire duration of this scene, and Mike’s face continues to be split into two different expressions. This makes me think that these are deliberate choices in the making of this scene that have meaning that can be analyzed further.

Small Interlude (mostly reminding myself of things as to not fall into the pit of despair- cheers): The conclusion that I have come to is that Mike is possessed but that is subject to change if something else makes more sense. But that still doesn’t change my thinking that the elements within this scene are deliberate and have meaning. It’s like how I thought El was in love with Mike, but now her character makes more sense to me if she is actually queer and has feelings for Max. This being based on the music box in Nancy’s room being what she picks up in season one and what Nancy notably picks up in season four (and other parallels to robin), the lighting that is established in the scene with the Hawkins crew to have romantic implications, and in her lack of experience within different types of relationships.

I know that this analysis is really long and bounces around a bit, but this is why. Things mean things when they are placed where we can see them. It’s not always as clear as a rainbow means this character is queer- sometimes it’s the visual of Nancy’s room being typically girlish and how that relates to her coming of age story in seasons one and two (and the rest, but mostly centered around the first two seasons). It’s the same thing when analyzing text; if its there it means something. In King Lear Gloucester loses his eyes because he can not see what is in front of him (which is that his son is trying real hard to keep him alive and that no he should not jump off a cliff because that’s a bad idea- amongst other things). There is no point to putting things places if they are not meant to be noticed. It just draws away from what you actually want to be seen.

There is a slight shading to El’s left eye which stands out because of what’s happening with Mike and Will (but if it doesn’t stay there I’m just gonna ignore it). We can also see the vine around her neck in every shot we have of her- it’s important. Her not being able to speak- or breath- is important. Just as the rose behind her is important. This is also where we can start to see more clearly how the stained glass window is getting brighter. Instead of mostly being red behind her, we start to see more definition in the colours.

I’m going this post here because we’ve gone through the second phase of the monologue and I think it’ll be good to have a separation between parts that makes sense. This one is really short- I know- but it’s also got a lot of text.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 25.1 25.2 25.3 26 27 28 29 29.1 30 31

#byler #the lights #possessiongate #okay so im going to post like seven of these #that ive written #and i am sorry if you see all of these in one go #but it must be done

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casualkhajiit · 2 years ago

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Hey! This is an Intro Post!

Yeah I really did just see gerber make an intro post and started writing, I'm even gonna steal the layout he has! I'm so devious

General

Names, I don't have many to go by but I saw people rating theirs on twitter before and I like that format:

Casual 10/10 thats me!

CasualKhajiit 6/10 full name, real formal, I'm more...Casual than that (gettit? like my name)

Khajiit 3/10 I don't even play Skyrim anymore really

Cinna 3/10 my fursona's name, but she's more of a seperate character than 1:1 of me so its a bit weird to refer to me as her

Al 7/10 a nickname, only really for people who know me irl

My pronouns are She/They, I'm pan and taken

DNI if your racist, homophobic, a TERF, a zoophile, a proshipper, or just any of that icky stuff in general! Also I'm literally a communist so like if your some sorta bootlicker then uh, you won't like me! (but this is tumblr not reddit or something so I doubt thats much of an issue)

My blog isn't like, an adult blog, but it can involve topics and stuff not for kids! I'd prefer 18+ but I'm not that strict on it, if you run up to me and be like "I'm 9!" I'll be weirded out tho and probably block you or something

What you can expect to see here

Really, just whatever I reblog (memes and art) and whatever I post (art and random thoughts in the form of text posts). I don't use Tumblr for much other than fandom stuff so expect mostly that. I try to draw more fandom stuff but honestly I fall back on drawing my fursona a lot because I'm used to drawing her, I cannot draw humans very well so it'll probably be furries or cats mostly! I wish I could write well but like, nah, I've tried - I'll leave the writing to my boyfriend lmao

I think my asks are open, I'm not sure on how this website works I'm like an old decrepid man so if they aren't actually on then whoopsie daisies!

Fandomsss

Disco Elysium: Spoilers now ok! Love the lads, and I swear that is the funniest book game in existance

Splatoon: I don't actually play all that much anymore but I am HERE for the music and idols, I don't know a lot of lore but I'm here for the ride

Warrior Cats: Its like one of my oldest fandoms, I don't follow as closely anymore but I'm there for it. Like, all my music taste is from Warrior Cats MAPs, them funky animated cats got taste, y'know?

My own (and my friends) ocs: ok it doesnt technically count as a fandom but they're all that exist in my tiny brain! All the thoughts in my head are abt them! There's like nothing else in there!

Jujitsu Kaisen: No manga spoilers!! I am a little bit obsessed with this show, to the point I made a bargain with my boyfriend (who does not like Anime) to get him to watch it

The Boys: No spoilers I'm only on season 2! This was my end of the bargain mentioned in the fandom above, and now I am kinda obsessed with this too- Frenchie and Kimiko <3

Art as a whole: I just like trying different art forms, from 3D modelling to digital art to painting to sculpting to fursuit making, its very fun 10/10 would reccomend

The grand finale

yep thats me

#introducing myself #pinned intro

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nagito-kissmaeda · 3 years ago

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Yandere Komaeda Headcanons submitted by Chaos under the cut (y) Warnings: Slight nsfw, yandere behavior, stalking, mention of suicide, masturbation (not very explicit.)

Yandere Nagito probably wasn't very Yandere before you came along. The unlucky boy was probably still the funky little creep to his classmates as always but as soon as you step through the doorway of 77-B's classroom then he kind of just thought, "Oh, they're pretty." And continued with his day. He didn't think too much of you.

If you were an ultimate who walked into the classroom, he wouldn't have thought much of it besides the idea that "YoU wErE sPrEaDiNg HoPe 😩"

If you were a reserve course student, on the other hand, he would think he is slightly superior. So, if you talk to him he'll feel like he's better than you but won't say anything except under certain circumstances (ex: You ask him for his opinion of you, his opinion on reserve course, that kind of stuff. At least, he's honest :/) But keep in mind, he only really acts like this when you two first meet.

After getting to form a friendship with you (however that happened, I'll leave that up to you), his crush on you takes shape quickly.

He mostly just did small stuff that made it obvious that he liked you (whether he realized it or not.) If you weren't around he'd be asking everyone in sight if they knew where you were. He'd linger uncomfortably close to you whenever you two were together. The unlucky boy also tended to...✨follow✨ you.

Bestie, run while you still can 🏃‍♀️💨 because after he kidnaps you you're gonna be more like ♿

(I guess that's assuming you can run at all...sorry if I offended someone ._.)

When you two are hanging out, he eventually opens up to you about his illnesses and past. All of what he told you would probably be a lot to process so the only thing you can think of besides, "I'm so sorry that happened to you," is that you just hug him. Now he's shocked. You're both shocked. wOAH! Nagito doesn't move at all during the hug and probably forgot to breathe because c'mon...homie hasn't received any form of physical affection for God knows how long. He's drawing a total blank and the first words that spring to his mind are, "I'm going to marry them."

You cannot tell me this man doesn't want to get married one day. Yes, his luck sucks fat juicy butt but it's just something he craves and can be selfish about. Nagito's opinion on his want for having a spouse goes back and forth, like how the fitness gram pacer test works (I bet some of you don't even know that this is something outside of a meme lol.) He probably got this desire from seeing how bad his parents' relationship was.

Nerdy headcanon stuff you don't have to read: So, it isn't canon that his parents had a bad relationship but I imagine that they did because Nagito mentions that his mom had never complimented him and he gained a massive inheritance after his family's death. Let me explain my logic on those. Nagito's mom probably never complimented him because she didn't like or want him. I also headcanon that his parents were in an arranged marriage which is why they were so rich and why I think they had a bad relationship, because let's be honest, not all arranged couples are comfortable with one another. The arranged marriage also could've been the reason why his family was wealthy, it could have had to do with business and work. So to wrap it all up, Nagito's parents are rich because of an arranged marriage and they don't really like each other and they had a kid that neither of them wanted so now it's a broken family with a fucked up kid. I know that sounds like a stretch but that's why it's a headcanon and not actually canon lol.

After that one hug, that's when he truly sees you as some sort of ethereal Deity that he was sure he was going to wed in the future (Hell, he'd probably settle for right there, right now.) He no longer cared if you were an ultimate or not because now he saw you as something even greater. Of course, he still views himself as scum but even scum has desires that they are willing to do anything for.

After Nagito had come back to his dorm, the realization hit him that if he was going to marry you, he would have to be worthy of your hand in marriage. So, he prepares. By that I mean he starts stalking you a lot.

You two were already friends on social media so you probably didn’t dwell too much on it when you found him accidentally liking old posts. He’d go on your socials and scroll through it looking for every little bit of information he could find on you. Sometimes he'd strike gold and other times he'd dig up dirt. Nagito began talking to you a lot more so he could gain some information on your likes and dislikes. You only assumed that he was more comfortable with talking to you now because he confided his troubles in you but in reality he was planning your future life with him. Once in a while you'd invite to your dorm whether it was for hangouts, study sessions, or just sleepovers (he absolutely LOVED it when you brought those up.) The only opening he had to steal stuff is when you went to the bathroom and when that happened all he'd do every single time is go to the closet, grab another one of the pillow cases that the dorm provides, and switch them out with your current ones. When the pillowcase stops smelling like you then he just sticks it in the school's laundry basket where things like bed sheets, pillow cases, and blankets that belong to the school go.

After weeks after weeks of obtaining bits and pieces of information on you such as food you like and dislike, what your family is like (If you/your oc has one), your favorite movies, music genres, and clothing, etc., He eventually realized that he lacked three more things. Romance, experience, and…"performance."

The one thing he absolutely needed to learn first was "How to kiss." Even though no one sees his search history besides him, it was still very embarrassing to put those words on his computer. He typed those three letters into the google machine and ta-da! A wikihow page and a YouTube video were apparently his best options. He opted for the latter and watched as a lady and her boyfriend demonstrated how to perform different types of kisses. Intimate and sexual. He feels awkward just watching this and he feels like he should practice but...on what? Luckily for him, there is a perfectly good pillow lying on his bed.

...This was definitely weird. His chapped lips were pressed against the plush pillow as he imagined he was french kissing you. This doesn't seem like the greatest method but Nagito doesn't seem to have any other choice.

The pillow in front of me was wrinkled and slightly wet from where I had last kissed it. It felt beyond awkward to kiss a pillow and imagine it was your future partner. I couldn't imagine them walking in on me as my face was buried in a pillow while moaning out muffled noises. It would be far too embarrassing but, I've faced worse. Practice should continue or else my mouth will never come as even a fraction of pleasure to my love. I approach the pillow and lay, stomach down, on my bed again. While this has been an awkward situation, my insides are starting to feel like they're on fire! It's probably just the thought of Y/N floating around in my brain. I take a deep breath before cupping my hands at the corners of the pillow and diving my mouth towards the pillow once more. I start off with a short kiss but continuously start moving my lips against, what I imagine to be, their lips. I move my bottom lip more often than my top. Imagining I'm trapping their lips against mine. Just the thought of trapping them makes me grind my hips against the mattress a little. Even though I'm soft I still let out a little whimper. Does Y/N even like it when their partner makes noise? I wasn't able to find any information on what she likes in bed so...with my luck, I'll just leave it to chance. My kisses get more sloppy and desperate. I begin swiping and swirling my tongue against the pillow thinking about just what it might feel like to make out with them. Their hot, wet mouth pressing up against mine while our tongues rub against one another in an attempt to touch each other. I moan seemingly too loud at that thought and start humping the bed. Everything feels so hot.

Maybe combining kissing practice and "performance" practice would be a good idea.

Once he starts performance practice, his browser is constantly on sex related websites. But more on the education side...he wants to know how to make you feel good and how to make himself last longer. Once in a while, he does go on the hub though so he can pretend it's you and him having sex on the screen. He tries his best to look for ones where it sounds like you or looks like you. He prefers the ones where it sounds like you so that way he could just close his eyes and imagine you and him are together.

Just a random bonus I thought I'd add in: He got a boner during class once and sat there for like ten minutes just waiting for it to go away. So he just ended up palming himself through his pants and struggled to not make any noise. He liked to imagine you were under the desk pressing your face against his clothed crotch and just rubbing your face around that area. Luckily, he came without letting a single noise slip past his lips. Unluckily, Nagito cums a lot. So everyone could see the enormous wet spot on the crotch of his pants when class was dismissed.

He happens to have a weird habit of doing domestic and soft things with a hint of creepy. For example, one of his favorite things to do as of recently is print out a picture that has your face in it, tape it to his pillow, and fall asleep cuddling it. This sounds fine if you two were dating but… you aren't. He'll give it kisses, cuddle with it, fall asleep with it, and, of course, it's what he uses during his performance practice. He also enjoys eating meals with it and watching movies while cuddling it too. He perceives it all as practice for when you two are wed.

I'm going to assume you aren't an oblivious idiot and just say that you probably began to notice how weird he'd get around you. You tried distancing yourself a little bit but enough to still stay friends. He noticed the change in how often you'd hang out with him and his anxiety skyrocketed. Nagito would feel he had only a couple choices left. And that was to kidnap you, get rid of any obstacles that didn't allow him to spend every waking moment with you, or just flat out kill you so that way no one could have you. He already knew he wouldn't be able to even breathe without you so he'd likely kill himself as well in the process.

Author's Note: I'll probably be discontinuing that one Nagito x reader chapter 2 because I wasn't able to finish it before the school year started and I was just dissatisfied with the chapters BUT! I do have plenty of headcanons on yandere Komaeda! Message me if you want some far more nsfw headcanons because I have a lot for this guy. I'm also very open to crackfic oneshots.

#submission #/submitted

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looselucy · 3 years ago

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Honest Harry’s House thoughts GO

Okay, as ever I’m going to be very honest, and like it was with Fine Line, it’s not all positive. SO, if you’re in a new album state of glee and you don’t wanna fuck with negativity right now, you can skim past this one and I will be tagging all album discussion stuff with ‘HH’ so feel free to block that.

I also invite any and all messages about the album if you wanna chat!

Let’s go into my thoughts on Harry’s House then, song by song and then overall opinion.

Music for a Sushi Restaurant – I’m pretty sure this one is going to grow on me. It’s very fun, very pop. I usually really like his opening tracks, and off the bat this one doesn’t feel as strong as MMITH or Golden, but it sets the tone of the album in a really cute way.

Late Night Talking – It sounds soooo much like a Bruno Mars song. Which I consider to be a compliment but I just wasn’t expecting it. It’s funky. It’s fine.

Grapejuice – There are parts of this that absolutely SCREAM Paul McCartney. Scream it. Off the top of my head some examples that feel like this from Paul / The Beatles are Martha My Dear, Young Boy, I Will, Dear Boy. The softness and the quirkiness. Very Paul. You could whack it in the tracklist of Ram (a god tier album) and it wouldn’t feel out of place.

As It Was – I really like this song. I think it was the best choice for a single too, because I don’t know where he’ll go next with singles? That’s a general critique of the album for me personally, none of the others feel like anything beyond an album track.

Daylight – I don’t really have anything interesting to say about this song. I like the heavier bits with the drums and the guitars and wish they had toyed with those sections more. It’s floaty, too floaty for me.

Little Freak – Do you ever have a song where you really like the sound of it, but you dislike the lyrics? That’s how I feel about this song. I think the chorus is nice, but everything in between lyric wise is a no from me. Like a big no. I feel especially like this emoji 🥴 about “tracksuit and a ponytail. You hide the body all that yoga gave you” I was literally sat here like shut the fuck up, man 😂 so this might be a song I like if I can zone out and not concentrate on the words.

Matilda – Both times listening through the album, this is where I found myself being less interested / distracted / bored?? I think this album lulls in the middle, which happens on a lot of albums. It’s the tracks they don’t wanna open or close with, the middle ground songs that just kinda sit there. Happens with albums, TV shows, movies. For me, that happens with this song.

Cinema – Continues with what I was saying for Matilda. These two tracks feel very flat in the centre of this album and will probably be better on a playlist among other things. Also, the end sounds like a beat you could create on Incredibox – which if that isn’t a website you’ve used before, get ready to waste a few hours on it. It’s so much fun!

Daydreaming – Starts to pick things up again with the tempo on this one, but this was also the point of the album where I really started to feel like these songs sounded so similar, so very much within the same vein. It’s certainly a tidy body of work.

Keep Driving – All meshing into one, I don’t even know anymore. I need to listen to these songs on their own because as an album, at this point, it’s kinda losing me. Sorry there’s not much here about the actual song, but… I don’t know what to say.

Satellite – His voice sounds really nice in this song. It’s very sweet. And when he does little songs like this, it reminds me that Harry is good at working with his target audience. There’s still something so boyish and boyband-ish about tracks like this. It feels like a track for people to swoon over, y’know?

Boyfriends – This is probably my favourite track on the album. I enjoy the simplicity of it. The harmonies are lovely. It’s so VERY Simon & Garfunkel. Even the guitar riff sounds similar to the opening + closing one in I Am a Rock. And you guys know me, I fucking love S & G a lot. This song hits a sweet spot for me.

Love Of My Life – I enjoy that this one does feel at least a little different to the rest of the album. It has some shreds of Alex Turner in there with a handful of the lyrics. But it’s also a song that almost felt like it was building up to go somewhere and then never did? I kept wanting it to get bigger and bolder and then it just… ended.

Overall thoughts – the album is a little too floaty for my personal taste. I’ve expressed it on here a million times, but I prefer heavier stuff, darker stuff, shit you can feel in your chest. I love that kinda stuff, with soft injected in between, and this album is entirely soft. One of the things I liked about Fine Line was the variety it had, all the ups and downs. This album feels very one tone to me. I had a similar problem with ‘Imploding the Mirage’ that The Killers released a few years back. Individually the tracks might be great, but listening through it as an album can get boring because every song feels so so similar. It doesn’t strictly mean any of it is bad (Imploding has some of my favourite Killers songs) but as a body of work, it can become tired. I was waiting for a standout song and I didn’t get one.

I think it’s his safest album yet.

#Fine Line chat was so fun last year #so would love to hear your opinions #good and bad #Harry's House #HH

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rena-te · 4 years ago

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I’m gonna throw some random thoughts/predictions about NEO at the wall. Mostly bc I’ve been thinking about this stuff for a while and need to shout into the void about it. (It will get into the Game’s Opening Sequence as well as any information that’s come out so far, just to mention it in case you were avoiding that content.) Join me for a lot of this down below the cut!

First of all, Tsugumi. In A.N.D we see her in a destroyed Shinjuku. Along with the visions of the future she gives Neku there are these messages.

“Everyone’s gone away..... All that’s left in the world is me.” (City being destroyed.)

“I can’t hear a thing...” (Tsugumi is walking the streets alone.)

“Hello? Is anybody there?” (Joshua shooting.)

“Somebody... Anybody... Can anybody hear me?” (Rhyme dying to (purple) shark noise.)

This last one isn’t a vision. It happens after Coco shoots Neku and he vanishes. Which leads me to think, since it is mostly a repeat of the first two future visions, it’s actually happening in this moment. It could be Tsugumi calling out one last time...... Before she’s overtaken by something?

“Too late... It’s all over...” (Same as first two. Tsugumi’s eyes notably turn red more than before.)

How is she giving Neku these visions? (It seems that she’s just calling out to anybody, and for some reason Neku heard her.) To send visions like that I’d think that Tsugumi is either Shinjuku’s Composer or maybe an angel? Or something else we’ve not seen? And they’re all visions of the future. Is Tsugumi speaking into the past as well as projecting those images? (We’re assuming that the reason for Shinjuku Reapers being in Shibuya is bc the UG in Shinjuku has been destroyed. So are the visions congruent with Shinjuku being destroyed or is the city being destroyed in the future, likely sometime between TWEWY and NEO?) The possibility of time travel makes things a million times more complicated.

Or maybe Tsugumi wasn’t quite sending him visions at all, and it was a kind of side effect of being linked to a Composer (since they are somewhat omniscient, and bc some of those visions were not really related to Tsugumi.) She was just trying to communicate with him, but some of that power leaked through their psychic bond and gave Neku a bit of clairvoyance?

If Shinjuku’s UG got destroyed, does that leave the Composer alive? We know that the Composer killing themselves would effectively shut down the UG, but if it happens the other way around? The Composer still exists, but would there be no consequence for losing an integral part of themselves? If the Composer’s connection to the UG is so pivotal, maybe the UG being gone is the reason why Tsugumi seems so...empty? (Is she so vacant that someone else is pulling the strings at this point?) It’s odd for Tsugumi to call out to Neku for help, but target him in NEO. (Given orders to target him.)

Also maybe the UG being destroyed but the Composer still existing explains Joshua’s....odd reaction to her? “How fortunate she managed to escape erasure.” Said when he was just in a position of wanting to kill himself in order to destroy his UG. He doesn’t use that sprite often ya know. It could explain the expression he has and the mumbled speech bubble used. Joshua said that he needed to get rid of His UG bc it could negatively tamper with the other grounds. To discover that could be done without killing himself... (And without him knowing of the apparent side effect of a “vacant Composer” Assuming that theory is true in the first place.)

But why does she have a Mr.Mew doll? Uhhhhh.... There’s also some time shenanigans happening too. And that throws many “what-ifs” into the mix, so I’ll avoid going down that rabbit hole. Basically I have no idea, the possibilities are kinda endless with time travel.

Another thing. This guy is also important. Very important apparently. I had a vague idea about him at first, a guess kinda outta left field, but I mean....I’m liking what bits I’ve scraped together for my guess theory by now. Onto speculating about Mr.Kubo here......

In the game’s opening sequence he walks right past Tsugumi (so connected to her in some way), leans in towards the camera, looks at you and does his little eccentric pose.

The only other characters who sorta look into the camera for the opening sequence are Shiba and Shoka, BUT in Shiba’s case it’s more like the camera is centered on him looking forward, and Shoka is more so interacting with Rindo with the way her scene was done. Here Kubo is just walking alone, stops and his eyes lock with the camera...... so wtf does this mean, you’re probably asking. It’s just a funky game introduction, it’s just this dude being weird. Yes, that is all true.

I know that he’s introduced in the line up as a Shinjuku Reaper, along with everyone else. But... I think this guy is Shinjuku’s Producer. If Tsugumi is Shinjuku’s Composer it makes sense for him to follow Her into Shibuya, he’s basically tasked to watch over Her.

Compared to the other Shinjuku Reapers, his color scheme is more...grey scaled. The girl has a grey suit, but Kubo doesn’t have any colors to his outfit at all. His clothes are plain compared to everyone else in this lineup. His facial expressions are the only...unique thing to his appearance. In the little bit of English dialogue we have of him so far, it seems that he’s giving us some kind of advice? And Fret looks to be put off with his eccentric (I can’t think of a more accurate word for it) demeanor.

So the middle aged man with an eccentric personality, with a tendency to give advice (?), pretending to be involved in the game in ways they are not, clothes styled in only neutral colors, and the funky little watch they’re wearing....along with the light poking at the fourth wall (Mr.H- “You mean those teasers?”) both Kubo and Hanekoma fit that bill.

Tbh Hanekoma is a bit eccentric, we’re just so used to how he is by now. The watch is just a minor thing that’s a fun little similarity in their designs don’t worry about it. Don’t tell me the watch isn’t important it ties everything together. Also after a quick goggle search, one website is telling me that Kubo’s name means “sunken ground” in Japanese and this other website is telling me what the individual kanji means, (I do not know Japanese in any way and am assuming that the internet is right about all this. I feel like it tracks with him being a Producer though.)

And just to cap it off, maybe Shiba was Shinjuku’s Conductor. If he rose through Shibuya’s ranks so quickly he’s gotta know what he’s doing. Did he throw Shinjuku out of balance and get rid of the UG so the Composer would be an empty puppet (like Tsugumi kinda seems to be.) Is that why he’s doing all this? Does he plan to become the Conductor (right hand man of the Composer) and then erase the UG, rendering it’s Composer vacant and take control? Shiba wouldn’t know about the Producer, naturally. Is that what it’s all culminating too? Will Joshua be in danger at some point from this guy? I’m wondering when the Higher Plane would step in, but this might just be Kubo’s job since Shiba was Shinjuku’s Conductor (and Hanekoma’s job, since it’s happening in Shibuya now) unless it gets completely out of control. They don’t seem to interfere much, just letting the assigned angels do the groundwork.

So that’s all my thoughts about stuff. I wouldn’t go into the game heavily expecting much of this though. As fun as theories are I’ll be fine enjoying the game for whatever happens. The world-building in twewy is just extremely fascinating to me and I love it so much. This is just my take on a “‘what if” situation anyways so nothing close to this may happen, hahaha. But speculation is very fun and I love to flex my twewy knowledge (it’s been next to useless for like 10 years. Finally twewy is relevant.

#neotwewy #neo the world ends with you #ntwewy #Neo twewy #twewy #the world ends with you #analysis #Neo predictions #I said there’d be PepeSilvia vibes to this #it feels like it makes sense- but it could also be a complete jumble of nothing #idk very fun to make the post though- relieved to get it outta my head a bit #Kubo #A New Day #tsugumi matsunae #Kubo twewy #Kubo neotwewy #mine #I’m glad I figured out how to do ‘readmore’s on mobile and with how long these posts have gotten I’m sure other ppl are glad too

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crow-in-a-teapot · 4 years ago

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tower of nero spoilers

i have just finished the tower of nero. and before i go searching for other people’s thoughts and art and more of the characters i love so much, i want to write down some of my own thoughts because i know as soon as i delve into that ‘ton spoilers’ hashtag there are going to be complaints and criticisms and so much that i don’t want to hear, or essays that’ll make me upset, or things that’ll change my perception on the book (because on this website people really love to hate the trials of apollo).

i want to start with: i loved it. it didn’t feel earth-shattering or huge and momentous like some of my favourite riordanverse books (house of hades, the blood of olympus, the last olympian and maybe some of the magnus chase books take those pedestals for me) but it was satisfying. and i think it was satisfying because it in no way felt like an ending. whether because eventually rick will write that will-and-nico-go-through-tartarus-and-save-bob novella, or because we (or at least i) will continue writing and imagining and creating for this world i don’t know. he didn’t wrap up the story in a perfect little bow like ‘nineteen years later’, he simply put it on pause. gave us a glimpse of where every character was at at the end.

the only thing that makes me so angry and upset is that i did manage to get some spoilers for moments that i know would have been so good to experience for the first time if i hadn’t been spoiled for them. the moment where rachel mentions penguins in a mansion near her house, nico getting mental health advice from mr d, the fact that will and nico were going to be in the book for so much of the story, but the big thing was literally spoiled for me two days ago, it was the reason i sat down to read it as fast as possible because i was terrified of getting more spoiled and not being able to experience the moments for myself, was that piper had a girlfriend. i know that reading that for the first time would have been so cool and surprising, and the fact that when it came up for a moment in the last couple pages all i felt was disappointment because it was spoiled for me and because it was now tinged with whatever that person was saying about her having a girlfriend.

but i still had some warm fuzzy moments, the two parts where apollo thinks he’s going to die but nico comes up behind him - so good. impeccable.

Leader Guy spat. ‘Now, I kill you.’

He raised his sword... and froze. His face turned pale. His skin began to shrivel. His beard fell out whisker by whisker like dead pine needles. Finally, his skin crumbled away, along with his clothes and flesh, until Leader Guy was nothing but a bleached-white skeleton, holding a sword in his bony hands.

Standing behind him, his hand on the skeleton’s shoulder, was Nico di Angelo.

and

Nero raised his hand, ready to give the kill command, when behind me a mighty BOOM! shook the chamber. Half our enemies were thrown off their feet. Cracks sprouted in the windowsand the marble columns. Ceiling tiles broke, raining dust like split bags of flour.

I turned to see the impenetrable blast doors lying twisted and broken, a strangely emaciated red bull standing in the breach. Behind it stood Nico di Angelo.

gods. poetic brilliance. i can’t believe i’m still a nico di angelo stannie in the year 2021. in five years i have not changed (ever since the tv show announcement last summer i have managed to morph into myself from 2017)

from here i’m not sure where to go next i kind of want to go through everything, except it’ll be more difficult than my tyrant’s tomb reaction because i wasn’t reading on a kindle and thus can’t just do funny little reactions to screenshots of quotes, so i’ll just skim through the book page by page and see what i can comment on (i’m not planning on doing analysis today, no thank you, just enjoying the end of my childhood and trying to squeeze as much out of it as possible)

i have an emotional attachment to mr. snake from the very first chapter, and am very upset that he’ll never get off on his baltimore stop and get to see his wife, lu had no reason to shoot and kill him like that.

that brings me to lu, i liked her, it was interesting to see how rick kind of brought in not only the overarching theme of abuse, but also people who let the abuse happen, i have more i could say on this i’m too lazy to right now, and i promised no analysis - or the fact that Lu had conspired to make the show non-lethal to spare Meg’s feelings rather than - oh, I don’t know - refusing to do Nero’s dirty work in the first place and getting Meg out of that house of horrors.

And are you any better? taunted a small voice in my brain. How many times have you stood up to Zeus?

Okay, small voice. Fair point. Tyrants are not easy to opppose or walk away from, especially when you depend on them for everything.

the parallels to meg and lester heading to percy’s apartment, and then to camp half blood to the hidden oracle was so cool to read, every callback to the hidden oracle just there to remind us readers exactly how far apollo has come and how he’s changed; the entire chapter with sally, paul and estelle just felt sickly sweet, it just didn’t seem real how wholesome and good that family is, like i get why apollo broke down and just sobbed in that shower.

also rick really saying acab again in toa, i thought he was done after that elf cop chapter in magnus chase (the magnus chase series is a masterpiece) but apparently not, with A ‘good cop’ is still a cop... still a part of the mind game.

the grey sisters, i forgot about them completely but this threw me back into was it the sea of monsters when annabeth summoned them? i’m not sure, it could have been the lightning thief either, they really remind me of the disney hercules movie. the whole ganymede paragraph was gold, i love gods being canonically confirmed lgbt in the riordanverse. i also love the whole eye-tossing part -

‘He will crush our eye,’ Anger cried, ‘if we don’t recite our verses!’

‘I will not!’

‘We will all die!’ Wasp said. ‘He is crazy!’

‘I AM NOT!’

‘Fine, you win!’ Tempest howled.

also, the explanation for why dionysus chooses to look the way he does was perfect, because it was something i often wondered about and wasn’t expecting to get an explanation for, and i imagine the whole mythological dionysus to look like.. well like a more feminine apollo i guess, beautiful in a gender non-comforming way.

Other Olympians could never comprehend why Dionysus chose this form when he could look like anything he wanted. In ancient times, he’d been famous for his youthful beauty that defied gender.

...

In retaliation, Dionysus had decided to look and act as ungodly as possible. He was like a child refusing to tuck in his shirt, comb his hair or brush his teeth, just to show his parents how little he cared.

every scene with nico at camp just BREAKS ME, i would throw in screenshots of every damn quote but unfortunately, as said above, cannot and would rather not type every one; we’ll start with, obviously apollo confirming to him that jason is dead.

He didn’t look angry exactly. He looked as if he’d been hit in the gut not just once but so many times over the course of so many years that he was beginning to lose perspective on what it meant to be in pain. He swayed on his feet. He blinked. Then he flinched, jerking his hands away from Meg’s as if he’d just remembered his own touch was poison.

ugh then will talking about how nico’s doing, confirming that he’s suffering with ptsd, mr d giving him advice, helping him sort though what voices in his head are real and which ones aren’t, then the paragraph that just recounts every horrific thing poor nico has been through, how will has to reassure him that he’s okay and ‘with friends’ when he wakes up after shadow travel

will’s kindness to apollo, buying him clothes, and apollo finding seymour the leopard’s head in his bed, put there by mr d aaaa AAAA A A A A A THE ORDINARY, EVERYDAY CAMP HALF BLOOD THINGS..

i could go on for years and years about how much i appreciate rachel having a big role in this book, and the visit to her apartment, everything, her art, the fact that she got what she wanted, she’s going to PARIS to study ART, she isn’t forced to be someone she’s not by her dad, and gets to be a big part of a demigod mission and not stand on the sidelines for once.

i love that her landscapes are still visions, that she still paints the quests demigods go on - the burning maze, jason’s funeral pyre, caligula’s ships; and how nico ~appreciates art~

‘And, hey, di Angelo -’ she pushed him playfully away from the canvas he’d been ogling - ‘don’t brush against the art! I don’t care about the paintings, but if you get any colour on you, you’ll ruin that whole black-and-white aesthetic you’ve got going.’

i. love. rachel.

WILL GLOWS!! THE HEADCANONS FROM LIKE FIVE YEARS AGO THAT YOU’D SEE FLOATING AROUND ABOUT HIM MANIPULATING LIGHT!! CONFIRMED!! CANON!! AMAZING

I AM OBSESSED WITH THE TROGS, I LOVE THEM, THEY ARE GREAT, not gonna lie, i was expecting something more dramatic and spooky with how worried will was and how dionysus was going.. visiting the cavern-runners isn’t ♫ good for your mental health ♫ but the little hat frog gremlins were a good addition. i like them very much and their funky little soup shenanigans. quoting the ghost king himself: trogs good. nice hats. (IM SORRY I KEEP MENTIONING HIM BUT I JUST) also how apollo starts wishing for breadsticks a s ajoke and theY STRAIGHT UP HAVE BREADSTICKS? HUH? WHERE DID THEY GET THE BREADSTICKS FROM??

yeah, i’m also still very much upset by every mention of jason grace, it’s funny how ever since his death in the burning maze i have grown to love him more and more and that’s not fun for me, for that boy to become one of my main comfort character’s and have his death and sacrifice and nobility mentioned every few chapters. i’m pretty sure i cried when he appeared to talk in apollo’s dreams, and this time the tears weren’t from the effort of keeping my eyes open and working for hours straight reading this book (i remember staying up until 2am to finish the sequel to beautiful, broken things, it was very much worth it)

‘All right, Jason. We miss you, though.’

ALSO. THE FACT THAT THIS KID. THIS CHILD. HAD TO THINK ‘BUT IF A HERO ISN’T READY TO LOSE EVERYTHING FOR A GREATER CAUSE, IS THAT PERSON REALLY A HERO?’ A KID ISN’T SUPPOSED TO THINK ABOUT THAT AND BE READY TO SACRIFICE THEMSELVES FOR THE GREATER GOOD,, i,, ugh,, he’s supposed to be finishing school and designing temples not being the perfect hero and soldier,, spain without the s,,

as @couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name said: ‘thinking about how ghost! Jason didn’t seem to understand why Apollo was so upset about his death because he’s been raised to believe a hero’s sacrifice is noble and his life doesn’t matter in the grand scheme and also if he doesn’t understand why the person who watched him get horrifically killed is so torn up over his death he probably doesn’t even realize his other friends are grieving him..’

IM SO UPSET THE ARROW OF DODONA IS DEAD D: IT WAS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS ALL THE FUNNIEST MOMENTS WERE BECAUSE OF THAT ARROW AND IT'S DEATH WAS SO SAD WTH LIKE WE FIND OUT HOW USELESS THE ARROW FELT AND HOW THE GROVE OF DODONA ALL THOUGHT IT WOULD BE CRAP AND WOULD FAIL APOLLO AND THEN ONCE WE FEEL BAD FOR IT, IT DIES??

the entire python battle was pretty grim, there is a part of me that's like because this is the last book series i would have loved say the magnus chase and kane chronicles gang in a giant battle with everyone like the battle of manhattan but even more dramatic, but even so, i did appreciate that python battle and the whole almost-falling-into-the-depths-of-tartarus thing.

him talking to artemis was cool, but JESUS: 'I turned and strode out of my room, trying to recall how the god Apollo walked.' like that HURTS. it was such a huge culture shock for apollo to go throught this huge character arc and be so human and understand the pain of others, to be around gods again who are so.. apathetic. also, zeus. 'Interesting how he put that: I had done him proud. I had been useful in making him look good. My heart did not melt. I did not feel that this was a warm-and-fuzzy reconciliation with my father. Let's be honest: some fathers don't deserve that. Some aren't capable of it.'

OKAY OKAY SO THE END?? CHIRON TALKING TO A CAT (BAST) AND A SEVERED HEAD (MIMIR) ABOUT SHARED PROBLEMS WITHIN THE PANTHEONS!! WILL AND NICO RECEIVING A PROPHECY FROM RACHEL TO GO TO TARTARUS AND SAVE BOB!! THE HUNTERS OF ARTEMIS, INCLUDING THALIA AND REYNA BEING BEST FRIENDS (qpr.. qpr..) HUNTING THE TEUMESSIAN FOX!! PERCY, ANNABETH AND GROVER, THE ORIGINAL TRIO, GOING ON A CHAOTIC ROAD TRIP TOGETHER!! - SO MANY STAND-ALONE SET -UPS PFSJSJSJ

okay quick word on the reunions at the end: funny little elephant visitation program with livia and hannibal. love that for them. calypso and leo's relationship seems rocky and complicated, but that's to be expected, i think even if they do get properly back together again it might not last long, because it does pretty much feel like a teenage relationship where the two aren't very compatible, but we'll see. hazel and frank are so funny with their gold plated necklaces. lavinia - tap-dance icon. almost cried at the mention of jason's temple-extension plan again. percy not being sure about what he wants to do in college is accurate and i like that that's left to be up-for-interpretation (rick does THE MOST for the fanfic writers pfsjsj). i am OBSESSED with aeithales, like i hate deserts so the burning maze setting is not my favourite but GOD that HOUSE, the vibes are off-the-charts. i'd love a house made of living trees that's also a greenhouse filled with dryads. meg gets a unicorn. that is so great.

i kind of wish the book hadn't ended with 'Call on me. I will be there for you.' because every time I imagine the friends theme song and i don't think that's the vibe he was going for, BUT i do love him talking to meg, that was genuinely emotional - 'You'll come back?' she asked. 'Always,' I promised. 'The sun always comes back.' ; i really wish it had ended with that, but i guess apollo does tend to break fourth walls and talk to the readers, like a lot of the protagonists of riordanverse books.

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shesawriter39049 · 4 years ago

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|Breakdowns & Bugatti’s| M|

***** Headcanon’s for my OT7 AU*****

Genre: Rich Kid AU/ Drama/ Suspense/ Smut/ Angst

AU SUMMARY : The story of 8 heirs, who also happen to be the children of some of the most powerful, and well known political figures in The Big Apple! This is a candid look at all of the sex, lies, drama, scandals, couture and boujee affairs that are caught both on, but more importantly off camera!

OR: Gossip girl meet’s HTGAWM? Essentially if GG was on HBO, darker, and had more depth within it’s plot! Which is no shade, I love me some Gossip Girl, but realistically looking back a lot of the “Drama” wasn’t that...deep lol! But we still loved it all the same!

Note: The first chapter is called “The Kim’s of New York” So these headcanon’s are solely the Kim boys & the OC! ALSO, I just tried to find the most discrete gif for the Y/N there is NO ethnicity for ANY of my OC’s! Also, it’s set to be a OT7 intertwined plot but the smut with the OC will prob only be 3/4 members deep!

***The sneak peek for part 1 which is Namjoon X Reader will be linked***

~~~~~~~

Name: Namjoon Kim

Age: 21 Birth place: New York, New York

Current Residence: West Village, New York/ Songpa-Gu, Seoul Korea

Profession: Heir, College student, Entrepreneur, Art lover, Smartass, Heartbreaker (Closet fuck boi)

College: NYU (Incoming Junior)

Degree: Aiming for a Master’s in Journalism & Political communication. Endgame :Political Journalism

Preferred Degree: Opinion, Trade, or Art Journalism, or a Museum Curator (Namjoon actually anonymously runs a pretty popular art based travel blog)Namjoon also dabbles in that Soundcloud life making beats under an undisclosed name...however that’s just a hobby....so he says...

Business Type:....Co-owner/founder of an exclusive, invite only, dating service....do with that information what you will!

(Bonus Question ) Licensed Business?: LMAO….sure

Net Worth : 10 Figures

Dating Status : Closet Fuck Boi! Wait, is that not an option? Okay fine. He’s single...ish…Kinda? Well to be fair it depends on the time of day honestly! Is it a Sunday? Are we going to Brunch at Society Café? Or, is it Friday night and he’s going to the “Press Lounge”? More importantly is it election season and and does his father need him to not look like a hoe!? This is all crucial information, I need meticulousdetails honestly! So for the time being I guess I’ll have to pass on the question!

Aesthetic : Tom Ford X Hugo Boss X Valentino X Dior X Tommy Hilfiger = Couture Business Casual! I.E Namjoon always looks like he’s going to some business meeting with Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos! Even if it’s like...noon on a Saturday and your going on a day trip to Nappa...He’s still in calfskin loafers and a disrespectfully tight button up. Namjoon’s giving like...hot college professor PornHub realness...Yup His whole “Scholar Student” Aesthetic is a whole ass kink and baby boy knows it!

Political Tie: Father, Joshua Kim, New York Senator

Parents : Father : Joshua Kim, (New York Senator, son of Billionaire tech Tycoon Sang Woo Kim) Mother: Christine Kim : Luxury Event planner

Siblings : Only child

Political Party: Democratic

Actual Political Party: Liberal Daily : Matte Black Porsche 911/ Satin Red Ferrari 458/ Bugatti Veyron Matte red

Name: Seokjin Kim (Jin Kim)

Age: 23

Birth place: London, England

Current Residence: Upper Eastside, New York/ Chelsea London

Profession: Existing, Retired Editorial Model, Entrepreneur, Occasional influencer (When he feels like it) IE, the influencer that never really asked for the titile...he’s just rich and living his life! I mean let’s be real who isn't curious to see how the -1% lives?!

College: University of Oxford

Degree: Maybe he has a Master’s in Business...maybe he dropped out!

Preferred Degree: Culinary Arts...or honestly...just chillin...maybe eventually open his own modeling firm or something down the line!

Business Type:....Jin casually runs high stakes poker matches...and that’s all you need to know for right now….

(Bonus Question ) Licensed Business?:...Again...that’s all you need to know right now…

Net Worth : 10 Figures

Dating Status : Single, and not in the mood to entertain….unless you’ll like...walk yourself out after then maybe...Oh also it’s a requirement that you’re aware there’s more luxury brands than Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Show up in anything straight monogram and Jin’s going flaccid on command!

Aesthetic : Chanel X Dior X Cavalli X Dolce X Fendi = On Duty Runway Model! It truly doesn’t matter if he’s going to brunch, the movies, or sitting front row at Galliano! Jin always looks like he should be front row at Galliano! Whilst also effortlessly looking 10x’S pretter than half of the bitches in Manhattan even on his worst day! Androgyny at its finest, well Jin and Judge Parks son are kinda tied in that department!

Political Tie: Father, David Kim, Mayor’s Chief of Staff/ “Ghost” press secretary

Parents : Father : David Kim, (Retired Corporate Attorney, son of Billionaire Oil Tycoon Hyun-Son Kim) Mother: Lisa Kim, Co- owner of Hotel Shailla, daughter of Michael Lee, Millionaire Entrepreneur )

Siblings : Taehyung Kim (20), Hae Jin Kim (29) Deceased...( Allegedly)

Political Party: Democratic

Actual Political Party: Honestly, Jin could give less than a damn

Daily : Matte Pink Aston Martin One, White Bugatti Chiron

Name: Taehyung Kim (Tae Kim)

Age: 20

Birth place: Rome, Italy

Current Residence: Cobble Hill, New York/ Pairs, France (When he’s not in school...or just on the weekends)

Profession: College student, Painter, Podcast Host, unwarranted fashion critique/ Stylist! Tae lowkey thinks his IG feed is the reprise of “Fashion Police” Joan Rivers bless rest her soul..she would’ve loved him!

College: Bernard (Sophomore)

Degree: Fine Arts (Painting/ Sculpture)

Preferred Degree: Exactly...what he’s doing...he enrolled at NYU for business. Lasted all of like...5 months before he dropped out!

Business Type:....Tae run’s a very...controversial late night Podcast appropriately titled “Tae unfiltered”! It wasn’t supposed to be a job, lord knows he doesn't need one...However due to the steady increase in his audience the youngest Kim is on track to ending up on Forbes without his inheritance.

(Bonus Question ) Licensed Business?:...Yup!

Net Worth: 10 Figures

Dating Status : Single, and more than ready to mingle, Tae essentially had the same girlfriend all throughout high school! The pair broke up maybe 7 months ago when she opted to go to college in London. So let’s just say he has a lot of making up to do and he’s very much….open to new experiences…

Aesthetic : Guicci X Gucci X Gucci X Gucci X Gucci = Gucci!? Nah, actually Tae, is fond of anything that doesn't...blend in...so Moschino, GCDS, Vetements, Kenzo, Balmain= If it lowkey looks like it could've been homemade...but it cost like bare minimum 4k! Or he just highkey looks exactly like you’d expect, like a very rich, art student who loves funky. abstract, unethical, clothing! Is he going to Coachella or to the farmers market? We may never know but that’s fine! He’s also young, and well aware that he’s fine as fuck, and that’s a whole ass problem! Tae may not have a ton of experience but he’s far from shy and more than down to learn...

Political Tie: Father, David Kim, Mayor’s Chief of Staff (Ghost press secretary)

Parents : Father : David Kim, (Retired Corporate Attorney, son of Billionaire Oil Tycoon Sang Tae Won Kim) Mother: Lisa Kim, Co- owner of Hotel Shailla, daughter of Michael Lee, Millionaire, Entrepreneur )

Siblings : Seokjin Kim (23), Hae Jin Kim (29) Deceased ( Allegedly)

Political Party: Democratic

Actual Political Party: Liberal AFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Daily : Lime Green Lamborghini Huracan/ Matte Grey Ferrari F60

Name: Yn/Ln

Age: 21

Birth Place: Paris, France

Current Residence: Upper East Side, New York/ Dubai

Profession:...Taking pictures, of both herself and other people, ugh...looking attractive? Does that count? Oh being well dressed...Self taught photographer, Fashion Blogger, Creative Director,Entrepreneur...

College: N/A ...Possible freshman at NYU or Bernard or, FIT for Photography & or Fashion

Degree: N/A... IF, she went it would be for Fine Arts/ Fashion degree for Creative Direction

Preferred Degree: Honestly, none, she lives and breathes fashion and due to her lifestyle Y/n already has the type of connections that up and coming photographers would die for! BUT...said college degree would shut her father up...so it’s a possibility! However, it’s not like he considers photography or being a fashion influencer a real job anyway...sooo she mideswell just not even bother!

Business Type:....Existing? Her main job is essentially...breathing...and occasionally taking pictures of other people! Oh, and herself as well, she get’s paid to post daily content! She runs a website called “MyJobIsToBeWellDressed” Co-owner of an exclusive invite only dating service!

(Bonus Question ) Licensed Business?: Yes and...(lmao)...for the first part, where her blog and all of that is concerned, yes...she’s 1099 the full nine! The other job however...................mmm... next question?

Net Worth: 10 Figures

Dating Status :YOLO

Aesthetic : 90’s Couture meet’s “House of Yes” @ 3 AM ( Back when luxury brands weren’t afraid to have fun and be a little risque) Chanel X Versace X Dolce X Prada X Gucci X Galliano = Well kept sugar baby??? Or every time you see her your literally like “Dude where the fuck are you even going!!??” Baby girl is always overdressed, she showed up to go on a doggy date through central park with Yoongi and Holly in 7 inch Louboutin’s sooo..we love that! Owns literally every vintage 90′s runway archive you can think of...If you’ve gagged over it on Pinterest it’s in Y/n’s closet. She’s smooth as all fuck...that’s for damn sure, radiating the perfect blend of BD and WAP energy....she’s a bad bitch and she knows it! Fuck the entire upper Eastside knows it!

Political Tie: Father, Christopher L/N, New York Senator

Parents: Father : Christopher L/N, (New York Senator, son of Billionaire Automotive Tycoon/ Real Estate Mogul Gregory L/N/ ) Mother: Ashley L/N, (luxury) Interior Designer & Daughter of Hotel Mogul Michael L/N

Siblings: Only child...maybe

Political Party: Democratic

Actual Political Party: Liberal

Daily : Matte Black Bugatti Divo / Satin Purple Lamborghini Murcielago/ Any car that any of her friends are driving because...fuck that, ridding shotty all day!

~~~~~~~~

There they are!!

The sneak peek is linked below...part 1 is Namjoon X Reader

However Jin and Tae are briefly introduced...and they will eventually have induvial chapters as well!

SNEAK PEEK

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bunnywand · 3 years ago

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hopefully it’s not long now til gorillaz 20th anniversary reissue of their first album comes out, and i thought it’d be fun 2 come up w/ my ~dream tracklist~ for the bonus tracks 🤯 here’s what i came up w/ so far.. 🥰

latin simone (english version) - “tomorrow comes today” 2000 single (already on some editions of “g-sides” like the u.s. one, but not on the u.k. edition)

19-2000 (the wiseguys house of wisdom remix) - “19-2000″ single (also already on some editions of “g-sides,” but not on the u.k. edition)

the sounder (full version) - “rock the house” single (there’s an editted version of this on “g-sides” but the full version was only ever released on the european version of the “rock the house” single)

911 - non-album single (a single they did with d12 and terry hall, it’s not available anywhere anymore except for like, youtube and low quality mp3s 😔)

film music - “tomorrow comes today” 2002 ep (this rerelease came out after “g-sides” so this track and the next 2 are the only phase 1 b-sides that don’t appear on it)

film music (mode remix) - “tomorrow comes today” 2002 ep

tomorrow dub - “tomorrow comes today” 2002 ep

lil’ dub chefin’ (radio edit) - “lil’ dub chefin’” single (this and the next one are the only single and b-side from the spacemonkeyz vs gorillaz “laika come home” album - they’re still available now, but for the sake of completion it’d still be nice to have them on a compilation 😅)

spacemonkeyz theme - “lil’ dub chefin’” single

rock the house (instrumental) - unreleased alternate version (not too interesting on it’s own, but combined w/ the next one you could do s/t fun 😧)

starshine (phi life cypher version) - unreleased alternate version (the early version of gorillaz’s first album didn’t have del the funky homosapien on, and had more phi life cypher instead, so if this and the rock the house instrumental were released you could make an interesting lil playlist w/ them, as well as the phi life cypher version of “clint eastwood,” to like, recreate what the early version of the album would have sounded like 🤯)

don quixote’s christmas bonanza - “swallow my eggnog” compilation album (probably one of gorillaz’s most famous unreleased songs (it’s the “happy radio” one 😭) it’s also one of my favs, and it was only ever released on this obscure compilation album, so it’d be nice for it to finally see the light of day again 🥺)

dub dumb - from ps2 game “mtv music generator 2” (another song from a Rly obscure release, it’s p weird but i still like it a lot and it’d be nice for it to finally get a wider release too ☺️)

gorillaz on my mind - “blade ii” soundtrack (i’m not the biggest fan of this one, but it’s p well known even tho it’s never had a ~proper~ release, so i thought i’d include it!!)

gor beaten - unreleased song from gorillaz’s old website (this and the next one are just like, short instrumental demos that you used to be able to find on the phase 1 gorillaz website!! there’s not too much to them, but they’re pretty well known too, so i felt like i should include them as well 😌)

hand clapper - unreleased song from gorillaz’s old website

this isn’t anywhere Near all the ~unreleased~ tracks from phase 1, there’s still Tonnes of like, obscure remixes, and song snippets from the phase 1 website, but i feel like this covers all of the most important, and also the best, ones!! 🥰

my absolute Dream would be if they did a huge boxset w/ all these, all the tracks from the self-titled album + g-sides, and the laika come home album as well, as like, a “complete phase 1″ set.. but idk how likely that is at all.. 😅😭

#i might do more of these posts for like.. phase 2 + 3 in the future #cos they have Tonnes of unreleased tracks like this as well 😅#but we'll see.. 👀#ellie talks gorillaz

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the-necessary-unnecessary · 4 years ago

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What website/software do you use to create your gifs? They're always such good quality.

hello! I’m so sorry for only getting round to answering this now, it’s been sitting in my inbox for months and since you sent it I’ve completely changed the platform I make my gifs on. I’m now using photoshop cc 2018 but the gifs you must have been referring to were made using completely different, free and accessible software/websites. There’s a lot of photoshop tutorials out there but less so for other options so I’ve decided to just go through my previous process in the hopes that someone will find it useful!

To be honest, the differences between my gifs BP (before photoshop) and AP (after photoshop) aren’t that huge as long as the video quality is good. It’s easier to add subtitles, to colour and to play around with the gif size/quality, but there’s no need to give your soul away to adobe to create good gifs there’s obviously always the possibility of downloading ps less legally which i of course would never in a million years do. So, to create gifs as I did BP you will need three different things:

a screen recorder (I use QuickTime Player which is preinstalled on a mac but there are many others out there, and then VLC player if I had already downloaded the video which didn’t happen often as I mostly gif matches so I’d just screen record parts of the match if I couldn’t download it)

a video editor (I used iMovie which again is preinstalled on macs but there are other options out there if you have a poke around - if necessary this step can also be skipped but it’s useful and will improve gif quality)

the lord and saviour ezgif.com (a free website at everyone’s fingertips which provides many of the features you can get with ps)

1A. Screen recording: have the part of the video you want to record on your screen, open up QuickTime Player, right click on the image of the app in your dock, then click on “new screen recording”. You can then click on the arrow pointing down to change your sound settings, I usually have mine like this

click on the circle with smaller red circle (play button) after which these instructions will appear across your screen: “click to record the full screen. Drag to record part of the screen. End recording by clicking the stop button in the bar menu”. So you can chose to record your full screen or just a part of it depending on whether you click or drag. If you drag you are then given the opportunity to adjust the area you want to record and then you press “start recording. Once you have finished recording the part you want to gif, click on the circle with a black square inside (stop button) in the menu bar at the top of your screen. Go to file > save and then save the video in whatever file and under whatever name you want. After this you will have finished step one!

1B. The alternative, if rather than screen recording a video you haven’t downloaded you want to record a certain part of an already downloaded video then you can use software such as VLC (you can also just upload the video directly to iMovie and crop it there but if it’s very long/you don’t want to go through the middle step then you may want to consider this as an option). Go to Finder for the video you’ve downloaded, right click on it then Open with > VLC. Find the part you wish to use for your gif, go to Playback > Record like so.

It will immediately start recording what’s playing, stopping when you click on Record again once the part you want to gif is over. Then step one method two is done!

2. iMovie: as ezgif isn’t the best for colouring, and anything that it does do is pretty slow and arduous, then I used iMovie to shorten, slow down and colour my videos before turning them into gifs. Here I go Create New > Movie > File > Import Media. I find the video(s) I want to use to make gifs, click import and then drag and drop them into the timeline.

Usually I try to make my gifs about 3 second long, so first thing I would do is change the speed from normal to about 70/80% (this is a completely individual choice though!) so these would be my current settings

Then I find the exact bits I want to gif and divide them into individual clips, as I said they’re usually 3 second long but it can vary. This is done by right clicking on the part of the video you want your gif to start and clicking on “Split Clip”, and again at the point you want your gif to end. Repeat for however many gifs you want. Simply delete the parts of the video(s) you don’t want to keep after this is done.

Now I attempt to add some colouring. First I go to “Colour Correction” which is in the same bar “Speed” is - it’s the little artist’s palette. I play around with the different toggles a little bit until I find something which I believe works. This honestly varies so much from gif to gif but usually I up the saturation just a lil bit, leave the temperature as it is and darken the video so that it ends up a bit like this but honestly it fluctuated a lot and it’s all about personal preference.

If I’m feeling funky I’ll also mess about with the “Colour Balance” which is under the first icon on the left which is a half white circle. I use the eye dropper to change the skin tone balance and sometimes the “White Balance” eye dropper which is a simplified version of ‘curves’ in photoshop.

Once you’re happy with how your video looks then save it by going to File > Share > File. Name it and, if possible save it in as high a quality as possible. My settings usually look something like this

click Next > Save and step two is finished!!

3. Actually making the gif using ezgif.com/video-to-gif. Go to “Choose Files” and select the video you want to gif, then click “Upload Video!”. Chose the time frame you want for your gif, the size (the x540 one which says for Tumblr is the one to use if you’re uploading them onto here), the frame rate (the more per second the better the quality but also the bigger the gif size). All of this is also very well explained by ezgif at the bottom of the page so I’d definitely recommend having a read through all that. Then click “Convert To GIF!”.

From here you can either ‘crop’ to make the gif a particular size or use other tools such as ‘effects’, ‘speed’ or ‘optimise’ if you didn’t use iMovie or want to make some further changes. I usually only use the ‘crop’ as iMovie won’t let you change the dimensions of the gif whilst here you can do that. However I mostly stay away from the other tools as I find them a bit clunky and annoying to use. Once you’re happy with the final product click “Save” and hey presto your gif has been downloaded and is ready to be used!!

I hope some/all of this helped and feel free to hmu with any questions you might have if anything isn't explained that well. It took me ages to write this because I'm never sure whether these explanations make sense outside of the realms of my brain :)))

#sleep who? i only know what making gif tutorials at ungodly hours is #genuinely hope this helps people!!#i developed this process bit by bit so thought id finally share :))#gif tutorials #tutorials #colouring tutorials #how to #og #ezgif tutorials #coloring tutorial

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randomvarious · 4 years ago

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Today’s compilation:

Electric Kingdom: Episode One 1999 Nu Skool Breaks / Breakbeat / Electro

Allow me to start this post off with this one extended thought that was rattling around in my head as I was listening to this comp: literally no one knows what they're talking about when it comes to defining the terms breakbeat, breakbeat hardcore, and breaks, and that includes yours truly. You go on different websites that consider themselves to be authorities on the definitions of electronic music genres and they all happen to differ from each other. As it turns out, the consensus is that there really is no consensus and it's something that happens to be really annoying and frustrating.

And websites like Discogs contradict themselves internally, too. Like, they define breakbeat as a specific type of jungle-adjacent rave music that was popular between 1990 and 1993, but then you look at Discogs' top releases for that style and a lot of them don't match the website's own definition of breakbeat at all.

So, I've come up with a way to delineate all of this. And I know I'm just someone on tumblr whose case to be made only ends up adding even more to all of the convolution, but I think I have a logically foolproof method for categorizing all of this stuff. But it takes some pained explaining, so strap in.

Let's start with where most of the confusion is probably derived from in the first place: the musical term, "break," which is also referred to as a "breakbeat" or a "drum break." The break is the foundational element of a song that unites all of these styles of music that I'm about to try and describe to you all. It's a sampled piece of music, usually from a 60s or 70s funk, soul, jazz, or R&B record, that acts as the rhythmic base for the entirety of a track or at least a significant portion of it. In this context, a "break" and a "breakbeat" mean pretty much the same exact thing, but a "drum break" is a more specific type of break, in that it consists of either only drums or mostly drums. Some of the most famous drum breaks are the "Amen" break, the "Funky Drummer" break, and the "Apache" break.

The genres of breakbeat, breakbeat hardcore, and breaks all use a break in their music. But here's how I see these three genres differing from each other:

Breakbeat is the umbrella term for any form of electronic dance music that uses a break as a foundational rhythmic element. But it differs from jungle and drum n bass in that the break in a breakbeat song isn't necessarily the focal point of the production. Jungle and dnb like to tinker around with, combine, and layer drum breaks as their main draw, but breakbeat isn't so much concerned with that.

Within breakbeat then are a bunch of subgenres, the two most prominent of which are breakbeat hardcore and big beat. I would classify breakbeat hardcore as being that early 90s jungle-adjacent rave music that Discogs simply just wants to call breakbeat instead. Big beat, on the other hand, is a form of breakbeat that broke through to the mainstream in the late 90s and early aughts with acts like Fatboy Slim and the Chemical Brothers. It sounds poppier than traditional breakbeat and it uses a lot more rock samples, too.

Another confusing thing here is that The Prodigy are both one of the biggest and greatest breakbeat hardcore and big beat acts of all time. The way you differentiate them though is between their early work, like their Experience album, which is breakbeat hardcore, and their later material, like The Fat of the Land, which is big beat.

And that leaves us with one genre left to define, which is breaks. Discogs defines breaks as all forms of break-driven electronic music that isn’t jungle or drum n bass and also doesn't meet their definition of breakbeat, which again, is that early 90s jungle-adjacent rave stuff. Contrarily, Rate Your Music considers breaks to be a word that's merely interchangeable with breakbeat.

But I see breaks as a whole other thing entirely, which is a style of music that actually falls under the hip hop umbrella. To me, breaks is a style of music that gained popularity between the mid-90s and early aughts that simply cuts and pastes and splices together numerous breaks and samples in order to create one, continuous track. And it doesn't really use much in the way of synthesizers or drum machines; it's just a well-put-together string of old samples. And I don't mean The Avalanches, who use literally thousands of samples in their records; I mean those hip hop-minded breakdance-types of DJs and producers who were trying to find a way to make the cardboard-mat-mentality of the 70s and 80s relevant again. A lot of people already call this kind of music breaks, but they tend not to differentiate it from big beat or breakbeat, and it's really different from both of those things. You can find breaks songs in things like Fatboy Slim's own DJ mixes from the late 90s and early aughts, for example, as he alternates between breaks and big beat tunes, and you can also find them in a fantastic compilation called Revenge of the B-Boy.

*deep breath*

Now, here's where all of what I just carefully laid out gets fucking torpedoed, and it's because of one guy named Rennie Pilgrem. Rennie Pilgrem is a British dude who heralded in a new type of breakbeat in the late 90s. This style fuses drum breaks with elements of electro, it tends to be more technical and minimal, and it's much less loud than other forms of historically popular breakbeat. And what'd Pilgrem decide to call his new subgenre? Fucking nu skool breaks, of course. And because he coined this style of music that he happened to pioneer himself, the name is universally accepted. This motherfucker. I was trying to make this all less complicated and he made it even more complicated. Whatever. Nu skool breaks is breakbeat and it's not related to breaks. There, problem solved.

***

Electric Kingdom: Episode One is a compilation that encapsulates what was then a new frontier of nu skool breaks in 1999 rather well. It's not really my cup of tea, but some tracks on it are pretty cool, and it has a 4.3 rating on Discogs, meaning nu skool breaks heads like it a lot. The opener comes from Rennie Pilgrem himself and it kind of sounds like the intro music from if that street racing video game series, Midnight Club, came out a few years earlier for N64 and PlayStation. I tend to dig the heavier, darker-sounding kind of stuff with the super fuzzy basslines though, like the back-to-back pairing of "Rocweiller" by Sons of Mecha and "Electro Bitch" by Thomas Krome. Not so much a fan of the lighter fare on here.

Highlights:

Rennie Pilgrem & The Thursday Choir - "Some Place Funky (Back To The Future Mix)" Sons Of Mecha [VR Boy & DJ Erb] - "Rocweiller" Thomas Krome - "Electro Bitch"

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ryttu3k · 4 years ago

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Already finished Coteries of New York, so on to Shadows of New York! I’ve seen the first bit in an LP, at least, but the bulk of the story will be new. This will have two playthroughs, one for each ending, since at least it has them XD First up - the ‘good’ ending!

Oh dang I like the music.

Julia is a bit on the edgy/cynical side XD

Yeah, she’s got a shit deal :-\ And what’s worse is that it’s all planned out.

Interesting note - at Lodestar, there were shadowy figures in the background, but you could rationalise it as people on the other side of the windows. On the train, you only see the shadowy features, and it’s otherwise empty, so no obvious figures casting them...

I guess if you choose the ‘don’t shoot’ option, Julia gets drained and it’s an early game over?

God that Embrace scene is intense. I got goosebumps!

Spirits, huh? Oh yeah, Obtenebration became Oblivion and is now connected with necromancy, IIRC?

I’m glad she had a good few nights XD;;

Valerie Duval, she was... the scourge in CoNY hunting down the Red Hook killer?

Nice to meet you, ‘Katherine Wiese’ XD

Cool ponytail, Qadir! I really dig the relationship between him and Julia, it’s fun. ‘sup Aisling, how’s Agathon? A blood hunt, really? Y O U. Okay yeah probably better for Julia’s long-term survival for Arturo to ignore her XD;; Samira’s so pretty. Ooh this guy is Hope’s sire, yeah?

“You wanted to hear about which member of New York City's Camarilla I dislike the most?"

"Yes?"

"Too bad. They're all my dear colleagues, and I deeply respect every single one of them."

"Sure you do. Wouldn't want to blurt out something that could lock you out of Mr Vanderweyden's legal services, would you, you ass-kisser?"

"I do expect to find myself in need of a good defense attorney when my broke, incompetent, and foul-mouthed assistant finally pushes me over the edge."

THEMST.

Benoit hi!! “Got any news about Sophie Langley?” *sharp intake of breath* Benoit backstory, that’s rad. I wonder if it’ll be uncovered in-game? Like we know Arturo is still around, Panhard is still around. Presumably Adelaide Davis is still around. Callihan... well, I know what happens to him. I think Torque ditches the scene before Sophie dies?

Father Leonard seems like a good sort. I wonder what his deal is?

Dakota is adorable. I’m going to do the ‘good’ end first even though I know it’ll make me feel horrible, but dangit, the ‘bad’ end is totally going to be my canon.

...Vin Diesel? XD

DING DONG THE DOUCHE IS DEAD. ...Deader than usual, I mean.

jfc Panhard that is pretentious as hell. Both the party description and the costume, actually XD Qadir’s mask is kind of funky. Oh my god Arturo you are a Toreador is that the best you can come up with?! Nice horns, Aisling.

...Thought, given their clans, Samira/Aisling could be interesting as hell.

Man, Arturo and Panhard must be pissed off XD Unless they’ve already picked their replacement stooge?

And here’s where the plot starts! Hey, isn’t that the priest’s house? Ohh, they’re meant to be meeting with Mia. I guess they’re just reusing assets.

“It’s a list of four names. ‘D’Angelo. Hope. Agathon. Tamika.’“ *SHARP INTAKE OF BREATH* Okay, that could be the list Sophie gave the fledgling. Which one did Callihan get it from?

Oh criminy Dakota don’t tell me you’re into that Q-Anon shit XD;; Ooh okay that makes more sense. Neat.

Ahhh man I was hoping to get a lead and instead Julia has to punish this poor fuck XD;; Yeesh. Okay, Bunny as a Reporter it is, then.

Almost run over by a limo, huh? *chinstroke*

Oooh this is the lead to Hope! Yeah, I’d say she has a connection with a Montgomery XD Wonder if she did end up eating her? Huh, contact used LeakyGutSyndrome... didn’t Hope end up having to retire that one, or was it the other one? Let’s just... Dominate this guy. Sorry dude it’s for your own good.

Agathon’s missing? :( Damn, he’s like one of the only decent Tremere. Oho, a diary! Oh sweetheart :( Oh, Silvia died :( Damn, interesting past, though... and a reference to CoNY again.

Fucking shadows, I literally glanced over my shoulder.

S C H E M E S. And yeah, looks like I’m on my way to the ‘good’ end :-\

Oh shit, Adelaide or.... whatshisname, Kaiser’s dude? Oooh man who to meet first... Kaiser’s dude. Oh. That was a bit anticlimactic XD

On to see Hope at Double Spiral. I think this is one of those choices that leads to one of the endings, so what’s more ruthless and Camarilla... busting in it is.

Nastya isn’t having a good night, is she XD;; Also Hope’s suit is badass.

...huh. Sounds like she’s actually managed to get shit sorted decently XD

Interesting... the coterie members were a list of heroes for hire that multiple people had, including Sophie. Well, that widens the scope a bit! Anonymous information broker, shall I assume that’s Kaiser? OH. No, it’s her sire!

“The story going around is, he left me alone and I hate his guts. Well, at least half of that is true.” Which half, though...

Aww man I wish I had saved some of those websites! I miss SciFiVine...

You know, I’m not 100% sure Carter’s the murderer (my main suspect is Arturo at this point tbh) but damn, the bit about Stern’s show kinda makes me want to slap him anyway XD;;

Queer Catholic blues, huh :-\

“Haven’t you noticed what’s going on in the news? People are going absolutely insane about this virus, cancelling trips and orders and --” Ahh. We’re in that 2020 XD;;

Okay the scene with the kid meeting his girlfriend was cute but then spooky time?? jfc was that the Abyss?!

Ooooh did she just find Tamika solely by accident? Thanks, Abyss XD I love how Julia’s first response is ‘shit, she’s hot’. And she took out a whole SI squad herself? Nice. Calebros mention! Huh, so the SI are maintaining the status quo... they became an issue because the Camarilla tried to sic them on the Anarchs and Sabbat and it backfired, maybe it actually succeeded here?

Ooh, a history with Torque. Neat. Also not sure with the art, but are those tattoos on Tamika’s arm, or fur? I mean, Gangrel beast marks and all.

Sorry Torque I’m just trying to get the ‘good’ end :(

Mention of the fledgling! Officially ‘disappeared’, that leaves it fairly ambiguous at this point.

Oof. The Circulatory System are... not cool. And yeah Julia’s just been called tf out, I do look forward to this scene in the ‘bad’ end XD;;

COVID strikes back. The Big Beat Burger is closed :( Charlie is sweet, at least! I hope his mom is okay.

Well that rat bit was weird. Hi D’Angelo! Oh my god blood doll rats? Drunk blood doll rats?! Still a damn good detective, though, that’s good shit. On to Kaiser and some answers! ...Yeah, okay, he’s a prime suspect too.

Kaiser, you are a deeply unpleasant person :-\

...good to know pepper spray still works. And, uh, probably satisfying to beat him up XD;; And yeah, there’s the last choice for the ‘good’ ending. Sorry dude.

...huh. Okay, I was at least partially right XD;; Oh Qadir, not you too :-\

Well that’s a bit... weird of Dakota, yes.

lmao oh Benoit you absolute mess. Religion as A E S T H E T I C XD I have a theory he’s from Michael’s line and I also quite sincerely believe that Michael would take one look at him and bitchslap him into the next millennium. He’s a Path follower, isn’t he?

Father Leonard is okay. I wonder who the ‘friend’ is?

This is very Agatha Christie, revealing the killer in the midst, except I have the horrible feeling Qadir’s going to go with ‘it was suicide’ and not ‘it was everyone’.

Denouement! Before it ends, Julia’s traits:

Loyal only to myself

Glass half-empty

A little abuse of power never hurt nobody

You can’t be a writer and not lie

The ends justify the means (duh)

Honestly she may have just blackmailed her way into power, set up Carter to take the fall, and sent poor Dakota to final death, but the drama was impeccable XD Good luck not ending up in the Abyss, Julia!

#ry plays sony #vampire the masquerade #vtm shadows of new york

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