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artist-issues · 3 months ago

Note

Sounds like Moana 2 felt like the rushed tv movie it was supposed to be.

THIS IS THE MOANA 2 CRITIQUE POST

I'm tired of excusing things with the word "rushed." If you have less time to produce, you should simplify what you're trying to say. That way, all your small amount of time can be spent on carefully building the best way to say it. Moana 2 felt very unfocused. It felt like it was trying to say:

"You Can’t Survive in Isolation" (but like why not? why do they need their neighboring islands? Don’t make up a reason—tell me the reason the movie showed you.)

"There's Always Another Way” (what? As opposed to what? One way? What One Way was Moana demonstrably sticking to before the not-really-villainess sang her song? Wasn’t finding that One Way ((“learning where to go by remembering who you are/where you’ve been”)) the whole point of the first movie? Now we’re throwing that out the window?)

"Together But a Little Different" ("Different" as in 'In-New-Circumstances' not "Different" as in 'We’re-Different-So-It’s-Hard-to-Relate-to-One-Another,’ which would've been the better, more cohesive sense of ‘Different’.)

“Something-Something Stories Are Important” (literally they just substitute the phrase “we’ll die” with “our story will end.” No mention of why that’s bad, or what makes a story a story, no reason why stories are important, or what for, just throwing the word ��story” around vaguely.)

And none of those "themes" I listed just now had a lot of work put into them. That’s it, in a nutshell. But I can flesh-out my argument for those, and present what I think they could’ve easily done differently, if they’d just picked one and worked hard to make it simply good. SPOILERS BELOW.

“You Can’t Survive in Isolation”

We're told in a quick vision that Moana's people will die if they stay in isolation—but there's no showing us that.

In fact, what we've been shown is that they're thriving, they're fine by themselves. They were in the first movie. They are at the beginning of the second.

So we're not convinced that they need what the whole adventure is supposedly about. Compare that to the first movie! Totally doesn't measure up to the storytelling quality!

In the first movie, the whole first act sets up the idea of darkness reaching through the ocean from Tefiti's missing heart, killing everything. That’s especially bad for Moana’s people. We know that because we’re shown how Moana's people are so deeply connected to the ecosystem of their island, and how every part of it is needed for their way of life to continue—then were also shown that Moana has a deep, personal longing to leave the island. There’s a real connection to home and an urgent need to leave it, and that creates really good emotional tension.

So by the time we're shown (not told in one scene, or through snatches of overdone dialogue, but shown) how the darkness will destroy everything if she doesn't go, we really believe it. We have lots of reasons to empathize with and believe in Moana’s reason for going on this mission. We also feel for her having to make the big decision; we’ve been shown that she’s trying to live up to her responsibilities, and leaving the island would seem like a dismissal of those responsibilities, but we can also see how doing nothing and staying actually would be a dismissal. We feel that tension because they showed us several believable reasons to feel it.

But when Moana is singing ��Beyond,” which is supposedly about her conflicting feelings about leaving, and the need to go? I’m just bored. Not emotionally invested. I just saw her going back-and-forth, leaving and coming back, leaving and coming back, one song ago, in “We’re Back.” And everything was fine during that song. Leaving-And-Coming-Back is the dream she’s been living as a voyager. So why is she suddenly convinced it’s a hard decision to…leave-and-plan-to-come-back?

“Because the last voyager died doing this mission she’s about to go on! She might die too!” Okay but all you did was tell me that. You didn’t show me Moana nearly-dying (like she did the first time she tried to cross the reef, or the first time she tried to tackle Te Ka on her own) and then realizing, “gee, oh no, I could die this time,” and then having to make a renewed decision to go anyway. You didn’t put work in, so I don’t believe it.

But the emotion Moana is feeling about leaving is also undercut, like I said, because there doesn’t seem to be a need for her to leave. All they did was tell me that Motunui is in trouble if it stays isolated. But no proof. They were fine isolated from other islands in Moana 1. They have been fine up until now in Moana 2. One random vision of an empty pavilion for three seconds isn’t going to make me forget that and believe that continued isolation will do anything negative to them.

And another thing, what does “uniting with other islands” even mean?” Why would it be such a good thing?

Nobody mentions trade. Nobody mentions learning from one another, or demonstrates learning from one another. Honestly, having Kele teach Moana or Moni or the Kakamora, an actual other-islander, about farming would’ve been a great demonstration of “why we need to meet new people and get out more.”

Having Kele LEARN TO SWIM would have been a SLOW ONE DOWN THE MIDDLE.

But nooo. They just half-bake suggest the idea that the old man doesn’t like leaving his comfort zone, but then never let one of the others have a real conversation with him about why he needs to learn new things from new people. NEVER. It’s just “bouncy vague song, almost-jump-in-the-water-under-coercion BUT NEVER ACTUALLY DO IT, banter and one liners” for the rest of the movie! (And don’t tell me Kele “learning to speak Kakamora” was an example of him “getting out of his comfort zone.” No. Kele never demonstrated a lack of desire to meet and learn new things from strangers. He demonstrated a hatred of fun and the ocean. All the others could also understand the Kakamora literally whenever they needed to, so that wasn’t a special-character-arc for Kele.)

Even though, my point is, they could’ve easily had a character arc for Kele. And that would’ve had something to do with “learn new things from new people, or die stagnant and stuck in your ways,” look, see, a mini-object-lesson in one character’s journey about the theme of the movie. But noooo

They could’ve done the same type of “learn-something-new-or-die” with Moni. Have him be convinced that doing things the “traditional Motunui Wayfinding Way” on this, his first adventure, is the ONLY way to do things. But he’s not good at it, no matter how much head-knowledge he has. And then the Kakamora (or literally any non-Motunui-character) could’ve shown him a newly-developed style for him to learn and grow.

They could’ve done the same type of “learn-something-new-or-die” with Loto. But nope. She just has a really poorly-done, poorly-written, poorly-performed snippet of a song where she mentions how… “perfection is a myth, the journey is just failing, learning, then death, no destination, ever.” But that ridiculous, absolutely absurd worldview is not portrayed as something she’s wrong about or needs to grow out of. It’s portrayed as a good, quirky, revolutionary thing.

But that’s not the same thing as portraying the value I’m describing. Loto just sings about it and invents-and-reinvents canoes. She does not learn how to make canoes from outsiders. She doesn’t learn anything from anybody. She is portrayed as a solitary genius with her own ideas who’s never once shown to be wrong about anything in the whole movie, and everything she tries works. She never messes up or makes a mistake, for all her singing about it. So she never actually “falls on her face, then gets up and learns.” Even though learning from others would be the literal only way for her character to portray the idea of this vague theme they throw out there, “You Can’t Survive in Isolation.”

The point is: there is no reason, in-movie, SHOWN, for the audience to believe that Moana should “re-unite the islands.” There’s no believable demonstration of why that would be a good thing, and no believable demonstration of why not doing it would be a bad thing.

So then why do we care if she risks her life and Maui’s life to re-unite the islands? For a bunch of nameless nobody background characters to show up for a five-second afterparty on Motunui at the end? Ridiculous.

Moving on.

“There’s Always Another Way”

So BUMP ALL THAT, I GUESS.

Matangi, everybody’s Cherished Hope for a New Villain, sings a song and it’s about “get lost, there is no one way, there’s always a different way.”

Fine. Cool. Whatever. The whole point of the first movie was that there’s this symbolic, ancient, WAY of sailing and living your life bravely. And Moana doesn’t know what that One WAY is because her tribe had forgotten it, so she has to learn it. It’s cool, because you navigate by looking at where you’ve been, to see where you’re going. It’s the whole “remember who you are in order to face life’s challenges, not hide from them.” That’s “the Way.” But whatever. Dump that down the toilet, new movie. You know why? Because everybody’s obsessed with “There’s No One Truth,” and “There Is No Right and Wrong,” and “Let’s Experience Things Just to Experience Them, the Journey is the Destination Because We’re not Going Anywhere!” Blah blah blah ridiculous inane sewage slop.

BUT whatever, fine, IF you mean it in a “There’s Lot’s of Ways to Solve Most Problems, Try Try Again,” sense, that’s okay. That’s true for most problems (not all, but most, certainly there are more than one ways to sail.) Sure. that message, if that’s what they mean, is fine. That’s the sense in which Moana takes it, at least, when she dives down to touch the Core Island and break the curse instead of it rising.

But you know what? Yeah. They don’t flesh it out. They don’t take time to show that that’s what’s happening. Moana doesn’t try to teach her new crew how to sail, and they suck at it, but if she lets them do it their own way or whatever, then they work—and she learns there’s “more than one way.” That doesn’t happen.

The Kakamora that joins their team doesn’t solve all his problems with blow darts, or violence, or whatever—and then Moana, or the kindhearted Moni, or the peaceful Kele, tells him, “no, there’s another way, you don’t always have to do things your violent way.” That doesn’t happen.

Loto has one moment where she applies the way she was already living according-to, from the moment we meet her, not a NEW way, to the canoe so that the gang can out-sail magical waterspouts. And it works for like twenty seconds, is played like a great triumph, before they all get smashed into the ocean anyway.

Kele, again, would’ve been a great example of “learn to do things in a different way, or problem-solve by try-trying again.” Because he’s old and they set him up as hating life for no reason and not wanting to do new things. But they didn’t do anything with him.

And guess what else—at the end—when Moana has her own demigod powers, and her own magical-arm-tattoo ripped off from Tears of the Kingdom—guess what her magic power is?

To stick her oar in the water, and light up one current or “path” for the boat to take to a new destination.

A Path. ONE SINGULAR SOLITARY WAY.

Not “a new way.” Not “all possible ways.” Not “multiple ways.” Not even two ways. One. Even though the big lesson she sacrificed her life for, even though the one and only song Matangi got to sing, was about how “there’s always another way.”

WHILE they’re singing a reprise of, “We Know THE Way.”

It’s like being in a conversation with someone who starts a sentence and then forgets what they were saying halfway through, and winds up saying worse than nothing.

“Together, But a Little Different”

Like I said, if you told me that the Main Point of the movie (not one of many vague ideas, but the Main Point) was “Together, But a Little Different,” I immediately would’ve said:

“Oh, so it’s about having to adjust to long-distance relationships. Maybe even death.” Or, maybe, because I saw the trailers, I’d go, “Oh, so it’s about keeping what makes us unique, but uniting when we need to, in spite of our differences. ‘Together, But a Little Different.’”

No. It’s not about any of that. It’s just a phrase the Grandma’s Ghost says whenever she hugs Moana to remind her that she’s still “with her.” She’s still with her; she just glows and can shapeshift into a manta ray now! That has tons of application for real life. 🙄

It’s supposed to be her words of comfort to pass on to Moana, who can then pass it on to the people in her island, so they know that she won’t ��ever really leave them.” But like. Then why should I care that she’s leaving them? Why should that be sad? If there’s no sacrifice in being apart, in leaving for the adventure, then the adventure keeps feeling low-stakes and boring and kind of pointless.

If you tilt your head and squint, it’s also maybe-applying to Moana’s pointless ugly annoying Little Sister character, Simea. Simea is in the movie so that someone can be immature for three seconds about how Moana’s always gone from home. And I do mean exactly three seconds, that’s all the emotional drama we get, and it’s not built up to either. She says, “Never come back? -sniff sniffle- I don’t want you to gooo!” And then runs away and then Moana takes a break from singing the next day to briefly explain to Simea about how she can pass messages through the ocean. Then she’s fine.

But the way this theme is thrown around, you think it would mean, “Moana Has to Go Away Sometimes, But if You Remember Her She Never Leaves You.”

But seriously. Again I say to you, who cares? We know Moana is coming back. We know that. Nobody in the audience seriously believes she’s never coming back when she leaves for this adventure. If we did, maybe we’d care that Simea cares. But we don’t.

Even when Moana “dies,” and it’s the perfect time to be like, “seeee, what we feeeared has happened, she’s dead, she can never go home to Simea!” THERE IS NO FOLLOW-THROUGH. There’s not even a cut to Simea back on Motonui, feeling through the ocean or the Force or whatever movie mumbo-jumbo that her sister is gone. And there is not even a deadline, in the movie, for Moana to accomplish this mission, so it’s not like she could be running late and we could get some scenes of Moana’s family mourning. Simea having to do something, take some big step, that show’s she’s willing to go on even if she can’t be with Moana anymore because she believed Moana about how she’s always with her—something like that.

My point is, Simea has no real point, so she doesn’t add to this “Together, But Different.” idea at all. And we already know that it doesn’t mean, “overcome our differences” from what I said in the first Theme.

But what they could have done? They COULD have gone whole-hog and MADE MOANA A BELIEVABLE DEMIGOD. Instead of a vague joke about tattoos that leaves the question open-ended, a pointless and theme-breaking display of shiny superpowers, and no other change to the status quo—

—they could’ve shown that there are consequences to that action—maybe she’s a Demigod of Navigation, or something like that, and the condition is, she can sail around connecting islands, but she can never stay on one too long. So she’ll never be able to live with Simea and her parents again on Motunui, but it’s the price she has to pay to connect the islands. Then she’d have to show Simea how they can still be “Together, Just a Little Different.”

Or someone could’ve gotten hurt or disabled, giving off the idea that even though everything is “different,” they can still be “together.”

Maui could’ve died and passed his fishhook powers, AND MINI MAUI, on to Moni or Moana. “Together, but different.”

Nothing, nothing at all like that happens. It’s just a pretty phrase that could’ve meant something, but any meaning it actually has hamstrings the whole emotional weight of the story instead of fueling it.

“Something-Something Stories Are Important”

The thing here is. I already said it. You can’t just say words and expect them to be impactful, in a story. You’re supposed to show what they mean and why they’re true, and THAT’S what creates an impact.

So when you’re talking about “stories” in a story, you definitely should not have nothing to say.

And I can feel it. I’ve seen none of the promotional material, I don’t watch the interviews, I haven’t checked BuzzFeed or ScreenRant or the Disney Youtube page in a while, but I can feel it.

I can feel them trying to say, “Something Something, ‘Storytelling’ is a big part of Pacific Islander Culture!” I can imagine the headlines. “[Actor or Disney Exec Name Here] Invites You to Celebrate Your Story with Pacific Islander Heritage Month!” They’re so into “culture as a marketing tool” these days.

But they say it so lazily. Just repeating the word “story” over and over in the movie doesn’t pay tribute to how important “stories” are to Pacific Islanders. Or to anybody.

You know what makes stories impactful? They point at truth, when the darkness and misunderstandings and evil of the world threaten to distract you or hide the truth. That’s what makes stories impactful. I’m sure Pacific Islanders use stories in that way—to pass on what they believe to be true, in a way that can be retold and remembered.

So MAKE THAT THE THEME OF YOUR MOVIE. Instead of just having Moana replace “Nalo wants to kill us” with “Nalo wants to end our story” for Empty Effect—instead of having Grandma say something about “your e

Okay okay.

Nalo is a silly, lazy villain. He is clearly a Thanos rip-off in design and introduction in a literal post-credits scene, and his most-present form, in the movie, is just a big ocean thunderstorm. But the laziest thing about him is that he’s the Conflict that everyone is trying to rise up and overcome, and the whole reason he sunk the Island was “He gets power from humans being divided.”

That’s never explained. It’s never shown at all why he gets power from the vague “humans are divided” thing. He has no scenes. He has no interactions with other characters (till the end-credits scene.) A range of his power, like “here’s what it looks like when the humans are divided—oh, now here’s how much less-powerful he is when they’re together!” is never shown. So. No consequences if the heroes fail, no change to the status-quo, villain-wise, when they win.

If Nalo wanted to end their stories, though, that would be another thing.

Stories are meant to be told. They’re for the benefit of others. So what they should’ve done is made the secret key of Nalo’s power hidden. Unknown. Nobody knows how to beat him. And he’s not sinking some unfindable island in another dimension. He’s just devouring the resources of the weather with his ever-more-powerful storms, (kind of like the darkness leaking through the ocean from the first movie) and nobody can stop him.

But that’s because each island, around Oceania, has clues to how to beat him. Clues in their stories. But they can only sail so far from what they know before his storms kill them. So he’s literally making them weaker by using his power to keep them apart, and making himself stronger by defending his weakness. Now they can’t Wayfind to each other, and learn one another’s cultural advancements or stories or beauties, because Nalo is powerful enough to make storms that rip their boats apart. But if they could learn from one another’s stories about the things their ancestors used against him, they could get rid of him.

That’s what they should’ve done. Shown why Nalo was a threat and how the Main Theme was the key to overcoming that threat.

They did not do that.

They made stories just a hot button word to be thrown around with no impact. In a story.

The point of this post is that Moana 2 had a lot of potentially-good points, and it made none of them, so it was totally unsatisfying. If it had just focused on one, the other little benefits they were trying to fit in could’ve been mentioned more naturally.

The way that Beauty & the Beast is all about ONE theme: “True Love is Self-Sacrificial.” But because of the tools it uses to tell that story—a beast that it would take a lot of self-sacrifice to be stuck with forever—you get little side-themes thrown in, supporting and draping decoratively over the ONE theme: “Beauty is Found Within, So Don’t Be Deceived By Appearances,” etc.

Moana 2 should’ve just picked the Story One, and it could’ve had that theme, and it’s cultural-nod cake, and it’s unifying-effect cake, and EATEN IT TOO.

And we could’ve eaten it. And WE could’ve enjoyed it! But no. Money money money lazy lazy lazy.

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mikeysagereblog · 6 months ago

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⊗ superhero cartoons to watch when little!!! (or big, they're that good imo!!) ⊗

✧.* i've been wanting to make this list for a while now, mainly because i wanna talk about my fav cartoons/open up opportunities for other littles to find something awesome to watch!!! there's gonna be a lot of ranges in age ratings to add some variety for older/younger littles :)

✧.* also, i'd like to put a disclaimer here and say that a lot of these are on streaming services that i own, but other littles may not. i would also like to say that there are ways to get around a paywall if you can't afford certain streaming services!!! you can find full episodes on youtube/other sites for free!!! (just use an adblocker if you're on a site other than youtube if u can!!)

✧.* another disclaimer: any regressor of any age can watch any of these shows!! i just wanted to put the age ratings for those who want to stick to media that's more in their age range!! so, don't feel like you have to limit yourself from watching certain shows just because of how old you regress to!!

✧.* spectacular spider-man (2008-2009, 2 seasons): suitable for 7-8+, but i'd say it'd be okay for littles who regress younger to watch, too!! honestly, my all-time favorite spider-man cartoon!!! not only is it fun to watch while little, you can truly appreciate the show when you're big, too!!! josh keaton's voicework as spider-man is just- ahhhh it's so amazing imo!! the story is really good, the animation/style is just so iconic, and the colors are very easy on the eyes!!! (especially if you're sensitive to bright colors when little/in general) absolute banger of a theme song, too!!!

✧.* x-men: the animated series (1992-1997, 5 seasons): rated for around 7-8+, but i do admit that there can be some scary scenes for especially younger/more sensitive littles. honestly, this show is great!!! i loved all the different story arcs, how colorful the show is, the characters themselves- a lot of cool stuff about this show!!! be warned, there's a sudden drop in quality during season 5... i think they switched animation studios/va's or something because season 5 is NOT the best season of the show, i'll tell you that... 0_0

✧.* x-men '97 (2024-present, 1 season so far): rated for 14+, so this show is more suitable for teen regressors. it's a continuation of x-men:tas, and oh man... this is it. my favorite cartoon of all time!!! the animation is just oh so beautiful!!! the fight scenes are awesome!!! the soundtrack- oh golly the soundtrack!!! the remastered x-men:tas opening is just- wow!!! but, there's definitely reasons why it's rated 14+... not gonna spoil anything, but there's a lot of scenes in the show that can be upsetting for younger littles. trust me, watching some scenes when you're little is just- too much sometimes... (speaking from experience) it's an amazing show, but watch at ur own risk if you're a younger regressor!!!

✧.* batman: the animated series (1992-1995, 4 seasons): i'd say it's for around ages 9-10+, since it can be fairly dark at times. (same goes for a lot of batman related media!!) honestly, this show's pretty good!!! the style of the show is very dark visually, so it's easy on the eyes for those with bright color sensitivities!!! the artstyle itself is also very nice to look at!!! the voicework is amazing as well, especially kevin conroy's (rip) performance as batman himself!!! from what i can remember, the plotpoints were also pretty on-par!! i remember liking the show a lot when i was a kid!! :)

✧.* hulk vs. wolverine (not a show but an animated movie, 2009): this one's rated pg-13, since there's depictions of violence. but, i gotta say- this movie had me hyped up when i watched it as a kid!!! this was part of a straight to video two-movie collection, (the other being "hulk vs. thor") and i gotta say... this movie was awesome!!! the fight scenes were rad as heck, the animation was amazing, even deadpool was in the movie!!! (which, fun fact, was his first appearance in animation!!! other than the 2 second cameo in x-men:tas) very fun movie!!!

✧.* these are just some recommendations!!! i really liked these when i was a kid, and i hope you'll like them too, if you decide to watch them!!!

✧.* (also yay!! finally have a new banner!!! + i updated my blog's theme because nightcrawler is so awesome and he's literally my cg guys!!! he said it himself :3)

#sfw agere #sfw interaction only #sfw littlespace #sfw regression #age regression sfw #age regression #xmen agere #xmen #x men agere #spiderman #spiderman agere #batman #batman agere #wolverine #hulk vs wolverine

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krypticcafe · 2 years ago

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Y/N, staring at König: I bet I could take him

Soap: ... in a fight, right?

Y/N: :)

Soap: In a fight, right?

Alternatively, little ooc but

König: I could take you on

Y/N: ... like in a fight?

König: Ye- yes?

Y/N: Oh. Pity.

König: What.

Take On Me

rating: teen

pairing(s): König x GN!Reader

warning(s): suggestive themes, language, no use of y/n, reader is referred to as a sergeant, fluff at the end, possible grammar errors

a/n: decided to make this a one-shot! I enjoy writing and reading sexual tension, but ironically, I'm always on the fence about writing full smut. oh and please ignore the poor quality of the fight scene, I can't write them for shit :')

synopsis: fight or not, you're pretty sure you could take him on.

The room was filled with the smell of sweat and leather as soldiers took on their training time in the base's surprisingly sizable gym. Several were utilizing the exercise machines, some simply resting on the benches, and others making light conversation.

Currently, you were in the midst of putting your sparring partner in a deadlock, motivated by the small crowd that cheered and winced at the sight. With a face flushed red, your opponent tapped out and a chorus of boisterous laughter, groans, and exclamations rang around you. You threw yourself off of them, helping your partner up and thanking them while also throwing in a compliment on their performance as a show of good sportsmanship. As you stepped off the platform, you were given several pats on the back and comments. While it was definitely an ego boost, you were by no means the best in the base, but people knew that you were on the 141 for a reason, and your combat skills were nothing to laugh about.

Feeling a harsh slap on the back, you turned and gripped their arm, twisting it at an uncomfortable angle since your body was still working on instinct.

"Ow ow ow-! It's me!" Soap yelped, but you further clenched your hand, "I was just going to congratulate you! Christ almighty, you've got a grip-"

"You scotsmen have a real funny way of congratulating people then," you quipped, letting go of his arm, "Honestly Soap, you should know better than smacking a soldier right after they get out of the ring."

He muttered under his breath, holding his sore wrist to his chest in mock offense and sighing, "How about I treat you to a water then? Consider it an apology of sorts."

"Oh you mean the jug on the bench that's just about 4 meters away? Why, I'd be so honored to have you as my escort, Sergent McTavish."

"Awa' n bile yer heid!" He scoffed with amusement, "Can't even let me do something nice without takin' a stab at me, can ya?"

You shook your head, laughing with him while you two went to grab a drink. He at least had the courtesy to pass you a towel to wipe your sweat off. Hanging it around your shoulders, you grabbed a bottle and started chugging. Tilting your head back, you noticed in the corner of your eye another match that was going on. It wasn't surprising, considering how multiple sparring matches would go on simultaneously all the time. But it wasn't the match itself that got your attention, but rather the person that was in it.

You recognized him instantly with how he gained notoriety for his size (no, not in that way, but you'd be lying if you said the thought hasn't crossed your mind for the briefest of moments) amongst the soldiers, even though he was part of KorTac. His presence led you to the conclusion that SpecGru and KorTac were most likely holding another joint operation together again, unsurprising since they're practically sister companies. Not to mention, the two of you had small talk in the past in passing from previous missions together and whenever you bumped into each other on base.

Staring for a while more, you watched as he viciously pummeled his opponent into the ground, barely breaking a sweat. Catching sight of his eyes behind his dark hood, you caught the way they lit up at his victory, as if delighted by the violence in an almost animalistic manner. It made your arms prick with goosebumps, you didn't want to know why. It was a surprise to find him in such a state since every time you've seen him, his eyes were usually darting around like a skittish lamb, contradicting his appearance in every sense. But who were you to question it? After all, your own lieutenant was feared like the grim reaper in the battlefield, but at base with the others, he was just another British geezer at heart.

Soap whistled and stood by you, eyeing the way you were fixed on the match in front of you. "Looks like someone's caught yer eye, aye?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah I guess." You hummed, not taking your eyes off the Austrian as he pinned his opponent down.

Soap raised a brow and smirked. It wasn't hard for him to catch on, but he was surprised to see you so entranced by a person for once. "I see... well, I don't blame you. The guy sticks out like a sore thumb and he's an absolute unit."

You nodded absent-mindedly, a little too focused on the way König flexed while keeping his enemy down. Much to your demise, his shirt was painfully tight-fitting, especially when damp with perspiration and christ, you felt like you had to tear your eyes from staring at his thighs for too long. How can someone be built so... so...

Delicious?

Before you knew it, the fight ended and König was beginning to head your way, most likely to grab water. Without thinking, you turned to the side and muttered under your breath, "I could probably take him."

"Oooo, cocky now, aren't ya?" Soap laughed, missing the message. You, on the other hand, tried to keep your composure, rubbing the towel on your neck.

"Uh, sure... You could put it that way."

The scotsman had a look of confusion and was about to ask you to elaborate until he saw König pull up beside you. "Oi, König! You did a real good job out there-"

Looking at Soap, you saw a mirth in his eyes that you immediately recognized, your eyes widening as you began to mouth silent protests to him and gesturing for him to 'not do whatever the fuck you're thinking of doing'.

"-you think you can handle another round? You two already know each other, right? I was thinkin' you could use a change of pace, and what's better than going against a prized member of the 141?"

You watched as König eyed you up and down cautiously, and you had to resist letting a shiver run down your spine. Why did he have to look at you like that? You knew the bare minimum of the guy, and yet you were acting like a fool in your own head.

After he was done sizing you up, he nodded, his eyes lighting up, "I could take you on."

"Like in a fight?" Once more, your mouth had outrun your brain, probably fried from the way he was practically checking you out.

"Y-Yes?" König stuttered, caught off-guard by your bizarre question. What other connotation could his words have had?

"Oh. Pity." You mumbled with a sigh, tossing your water bottle to the side along with your towel, beginning to walk towards the sparring box.

"Wait what-"

You cut off König's confusion as you hopped over into the box, folding your arms and leaning on the ropes. "So we gonna fight or what, soldier?"

"I- uh," He paused, trying to get his mind into the present. He shook his head and nodded, "Yes, sergent."

There was something about the way he strided over to the ring and only needed to swing his legs over the ropes to get in that made your heart beat twice, or maybe it was the way he looked back at you, the two of you staring each other down like hungry animals preparing for a cage match.

Though your hunger was that of a different kind if you were being honest.

Soap stood outside on the side of the box, playing referee for the match. At his signal, you set yourself at a stance and got a feel for the area, preparing yourself.

As you expected, König struck first. After all, you weren't just staring at him during his match, you were watching as well, which gave you a bit of an unfair advantage, but you figured it'd balance out his size advantage. Moving to the side, you followed up your dodge with a quick jab to his side. You were about to make another, but he had more control over his reflexes than you thought. He blocked it and countered by hitting you square between your shoulder and chest. The two of you were even.

He was a formidable opponent, certainly not at the level of Ghost or Price, but good enough that you'd think he'd ought to be a candidate for the 141. Sure, his technique was sloppy, but if he cleaned it up, then combined with his strength, he could be one hell of a soldier. Soap seemed to take note of his potential, too, giving König tips here and there. You'd almost forgotten this was supposed to be practice for him.

You were starting to grow exhausted as the fight went on, it hadn't been that long, but you two were lasting for quite a while in the ring, and neither side had held back. At several points throughout the fight, one of you would get in a hit or move in a way that had Soap cringing and gritting his teeth, watching at the edge of his seat. Hmph. At least someone was enjoying themselves.

While the fight was a nice way for you to get an eyeful of your opponent, it wasn't that enjoyable when you were panting and sweating your ass off, counting all the non-sexy bruises you'd wake up with later. Wanting to put things to an end, you looked for the right chance, dropping and sliding past his legs before getting up and propelling yourself forward. With a leap, you launched yourself onto König's back, latching onto it and pulling him down with all your weight. Just before he'd come crashing down, you swung yourself around his torso, shifting to his front so you wouldn't get crushed in the fall and further push him down.

He went down like a tree, shaking the platform as he made contact. Soap hollered in awe, whistling at your takedown. "That's our sergeant! Steamin' Jesus, wasn't that a show?"

You were panting hard from the stunt, but you managed to give König a sly grin, leaning down that you were just inches away from his veil, "So whaddya say König? You done, or you want go another round?"

"I- I'm done-" His voice strained, writhing under you since the pressure on his chest was making it hard to breathe properly. In addition, he was trying his best to not stare too much since even he was aware of how this looked, with you settled on his chest, knees on either side of his head and effectively trapping him with your thighs, not to mention your hands held his wrists above his head, locking him in a very compromising position. Your view was just as nice, giving you a good look at his face, or at least what you could see of it. A part of you wanted to say it was only because they were the only thing of him you could see, but you felt your heart flutter when the two of you locked eyes. It never had occurred to you, but his eyes were a sage green with a muddled ring of crystal blue that glimmered under the lights above, and the way he looked at you alone almost made you breathless again.

When were his eyes so damn pretty?

"Good choice." Although you played it off as a friendly threat, in reality, you were relieved he didn't want to go again, far too weary for another round and undoubtedly, you'd lose that one.

Rolling off his back, you stood up and outstretched a hand to him. Even though you couldn't see his full face, you could tell he appreciated the gesture by the friendly crinkle of his eyes and the way he took your hand, yelping when you yanked him up.

"Whoops, too hard? My bad."

König shook his head, "Oh no, not at all, I was just surprised. Ah, and thank you for helping me practice, Sergeant. It helped me realize a few things I need to improve."

"It's no problem at all, König, I'm glad I could help. All that matters is that you got something useful out of that loss and turn it into a gain."

"Price really must be getting to you."

"Shut it MacTavish."

The two of you stepped out of the ring and started to pack your things, further discussing improvements for König and some for yourself. Soap left a little early to "attend business with Ghost" (probably to ramble about the fight), to which you cursed him out with a glare for ditching you so abruptly. Now, it was just you and the Austrian in the gym.

"Well, I'll be going back to my place now, I guess I'll see you sometime soon?"

"Yes, of course. Maybe we could spar again sometime soon?" König asked, much to your surprise.

"Sure, I'd love to," you smiled to yourself a moment, debating your urges and ultimately deciding to shoot your shot because when else were you going to have the confidence to? Insecurity be damned, the post-victory adrenaline was getting to you. "Maybe we can even have some more... private matches?"

"Mhm, I wouldn't mind that. But I think we'd need someone to watch, no? Or unless you want to record and we can study it."

Not what you're implying, but his response definitely could be taken that way, causing your face to warm up again. Maybe if you pushed him in the right direction, he'd realize. "Er- I was kinda thinking we'd do it in my place, maybe? Unless you're more comfortable at yours."

All your attempts were going over his head as he grew more and more confused. "Sergeant, I don't believe the rooms are big enough for a fight-"

You burst out laughing, giggling to yourself at how ridiculous it all was, you dancing around your point and how it was leading him on a wild goose chase without even knowing it. Wiping a tear from your eye, you wheezed, "I- ohmygod- I'm so sorry- it's just, wow-"

You felt bad for laughing, but it was the only way you could make things less awkward for yourself and ease the tension. "I'm so sorry, König it's just- you're not really good at picking up hints, huh? But honestly, I should've been more straightforward with you, so,"

"What I'm trying to say is," Taking in a deep breath, you stood straight and looked him in the eye determinedly, "Would you like to hang out sometime? Just the two of us? Together?"

"König?"

Silence.

At that moment, König had put all the puzzle pieces together, or at least what little of them he had, and realized that you'd been (horribly) flirting with him the entire time. He also realized how hopelessly clueless he sounded. Like a computer needing to reboot, he began to overheat underneath his mask and sputtered, an incoherent jumble of words both German and English spilling from his lips. You giggled and pat him on the shoulder, "I take that as a yes, then?"

He let out a slew of words in German, catching himself immediately afterward, "Yes! I would love that- I mean, like that!"

"Really? Oh thank god, I've actually been meaning to ask that for a while now," you nervously chuckled, grabbing a pen and notepad from your bag and taking his hand in yours, putting a note in his palm, "Hope you don't mind if I just write something down... I think the weekend I'll be available so until then?"

"Mhm," He mumbled, trying not to fixate too much on how your hand was holding his as if you two weren't throwing hands earlier.

"Great! See you then!" You pressed a quick peck on his cheek and scurried away before he could react. You sneaky lil thing.

Stunned, König stood still for a solid minute until finally looking at his palm to see what you wrote.

"Here's my phone and room number! Next time we meet, be prepared because I can and will take you on! On a date, of course."

#x reader #cod x reader #call of duty x reader #call of duty #cod #codmwii #codmw2 #call of duty modern warfare 2 #könig x reader #könig fluff #könig #könig cod #könig call of duty #kortac #kortac x reader #könig codmw2 #könig fanfiction #fanfiction #oneshot

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elainsgirl · 3 months ago

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I tried to get myself to like gwyn and azriel but I just couldnt. Ill look at fanarts and stuff but I just cant SEE it.

I fear they would be boring. People call elain and azriel boring and cliche but be fr... thats literally gwyn and az. you can literally see how their story would develop. it would literally give feysand and nessian.... im tired of seeing the same stuff.

Hey anon 🫶

You’re so right. At one point, earlier on in the fandom, I too tried to get myself to see where gwynriels were coming from and what the appeal about Gwyn and Az were. It’s nothing special. There is nothing unique or interesting about Gwynriel.

I promise this is related to my poimt. Lately, there’s this discourse going on about the decline in individuality and quality of books. After 2020, people have started to notice that recent books are no longer as intricate as books once were. Every book within a genre feels the same. The plots, characters, dynamics, tropes etc - are all mirrors of each other. There isn’t individuality anymore when it comes to books within a set genre. Now, a genre that rlly increased in popularity was romantasy. Over the last few years, which trope has become increasingly more prominent? Enemies to lovers. Which fmc character type is more favoured? The sassy, “I can do it all”, powerful warrior who is the best at everything and is great at wielding a sword type. Almost every single book thats comes out will be advertised as enemies to lovers. The fmcs themselves have all become similar. Another point I would like to add in: when it comes to these sort of books, there will be lots of banter between the couple and the fmc always proving the mmc wrong - sometimes even challenging him. Aside from acotar: many of us are also readers who consume other genres and books/series. I think its fair enough to say, many of us consume all types of “popular” books. I can guarantee that many of us have read enemies to lovers books or even have it as a favourite trope. When you are constantly consuming a specific type of media, as a reader, you will want more of whatever you are consuming, limiting your mind to other possibilities. As an example, if you constantly are reading enemies to lovers books’ -> you won’t really like anything that is not enemies to lovers. Obviously, we all have our favourite genres and tropes we love to consume BUT we should always be open minded to try new things. Ok, slightly of course but back to my point:

Gwynriel fits in the checklist for your standard couple: in a fantasy, “enemies to lovers”, book. . Girlboss FMC that can do it all and shoves it to do the dark, broody MMC.

. “Banter”. The couple “challenging” each other

. MMC’s dark trauma and past that only the FMC can help him to heal

you get my point. People love gwynriel and it is so popular due to its lack of originality. They are such cardboard copies of a typical EtL book + we have literally gotten not much scenes on them -> it is so easy for their stans to self-insert and virtually put on any HC they want onto gwynriel.

Now compare that too elriel? There are not many “soft”, “feminine” fmcs. The recent one I can think of is “Evangeline Fox” from once upon a broken heart. So you already have Elain Archeron that stands out as an fmc from the norm - people aren’t used to her character type therefore view her as weak and boring. Elriel is far from enemies to lovers. They do not banter. They’re not the type of characters to draw attention to themselves or their relationship. Their dynamic is more mature instead of fun and childish. They have more dangerous stakes then anything gwynriel can have. Their story is more unique -> people aren’t used to that as it isn’t often potrayed in books anymore therefore they are disliked and people find them uninteresting.

Gwynriel is popular as it lacks originality. Elriel is hated due to their unique dynamic.

When I see gwynriel fanarts, the concept is lovely but knowing that Gwyn and Az don’t even like each other romantically and Az was ready to beg for another woman, it usually puts me off. I can’t view them as a couple since the books do not potray them as potential LIs.

#I think I made 50% sense #elriel #pro elriel #azriel shadowsinger #azriel acosf #gwyn berdara #elain archeron

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crimson-and-clover-1717 · 2 months ago

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‘I’m here, Ed; I’m here.’

Lighthouses are symbolically significant to Stede’s characterisation, and part of that is as a representation of toxic masculinity and patriarchy. One is highlighted during Stede and Mary’s wedding ceremony standing for the ideals of heteronormative marriage which is often steeped in traditional masculine norms. We see a lighthouse also as the setting for Ned Low’s torture. And of course, Ed fails to heed the warning of the lighthouse, cracking upon Stede’s rocks as he returns to a white patriarchal hegemonic society in which Ed cannot follow.

But Stede’s truer characterisation is not so much the lighthouse structure itself, which keeps him trapped in behaviours to which he is not suited and grows to abhor, but the lamp within. He brings light to Ed’s purgatory in season two, both physically with the lantern, and through love, shining into the darkness of Ed’s subconscious.

With all of this in mind, I’m a little obsessed with the lighthouse in Ed’s Kraken recollection. Is the lighthouse part of a true memory, or is something else going on here? I like to think this scene is not only symbolic in its use of Kraken imagery, but also that of the lighthouse.

The lighthouse is certainly a symbol of toxic masculinity here, forming the backdrop for Ed’s stumbling, drunken father. But I also feel the shining lamp represents Stede. Ed is reconstructing the memory as he speaks; and we learn later it’s a fictional recollection insofar as the suggested realism of a literal Kraken is a psychological protection mechanism. Ed’s recreating a version of events he can just about cope with in the retelling. And as Ed tells the story to Stede and the crew, it could be Stede ends up inadvertently and symbolically in the memory as the lighthouse’s lamp.

GIF by captain-flint

We know a motif throughout the show is the subjectivity of memory and storytelling. It could be that a version of Stede is inserted here by Ed’s mind as a comfort. It’s only recently the pair fused their collective imaginations into the lighthouse fuckery, an ingenious moment of skill and playfulness which Ed later says was more fun than he’s had in ages. What if Ed’s best and worst memories begin to collide as his identity enters a state of flux?

It might also reflect the beginnings of Stede shining a light into the dark crevices of Ed’s mind. Helping Ed to begin to explore the unacknowledged parts of himself. Stede, even at this early stage, is starting to have a psychological impact upon Ed. Later, in the bathtub scene, Stede really does reach those hidden corners. Not through force or interrogation, but by simply bringing his bright self to Ed’s side, ready to listen impartially to whatever Ed wants to bring from the shadows, allowing Ed to speak his truth aloud for the first time without fear of judgement.

But, I have another twist on the lighthouse lamp, and it’s an abstract one. Because I love metaphysical readings of this show, such as Chauncey being a partial manifestation of Stede’s mind, or mirrors, which weren’t there before, appearing suddenly on the Revenge alongside Ed.

In this reading, the lighthouse and its lamp do exist as reality within the show’s metaphysical setting, and are part of a true-ish memory. There is a timeless quality to Ed and Stede’s relationship. They’re children currently, unknown to each and unmet. But they already belong one to the other. The universe knows it. Time knows it. Physics knows it.

In his darkest childhood moment, Ed was never truly alone. The lighthouse lamp is Stede, and the future promise of Stede.

#stede bonnet #ed teach #the lighthouse #lamp #hope #timeless #love as physics #metaphysical #every universe #I’m here ed #they belong to each other #ofmd meta #ofmd

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theresattrpgforthat · 10 months ago

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TTRPGs for people with dyscalculia?

THEME : Dyscalculia Friendly.

Hello friend, I’m going to first point you to the Math-Lite Chaotic Murder Hobos recommendation post I wrote up a year or two ago.

What I understand about dyscalculia is that in can affect the ability to do mental math, but I'm not sure how much it affects number recognition. I have a few games here that ask you to read the faces on a die, but I don't think any of them expect you to do any addition. I hope you find something fun on this list!

Cats of Catthulu, by Joel Sparks.

CATS OF CATTHULHU is the beloved rules-light roleplaying game in which the players take the part of ordinary cats, secretly defending human civilization from the Chaos Cults of the other animals. All the players have to do is act like cats, while the Cat Herder arranges exciting challenges for them—anything from snacky time to daringly interrupting dire rituals.

In Cats of Catthulhu, the way the story will go is always a mystery. You and your friends play to find out what happens. One person, the Cat Herder, arranges the secrets and situations, and sets the scene, but even they don’t know where the night will end. The players take the role of individual, ordinary cats. All you really need to do is act like a cat.

It might be a bit difficult to get your hands on them, but the original dice for Cats of Catthulhu don’t have any numbers on them; instead, they have sad cats and happy cats. Whenever a cat does something, they roll 2 of these dice. Rolling a Happy Cat is a success; rolling a Sad Cat is a failure. The reasoning behind these dice is: cats can’t do math!

If you can’t get your hands on cat dice, you can use any old d6, and regard 1-2 as Sad Cats and 3-6 as Happy Cats. You’ll also want to get some kind of physical token to use as Treats, which are player currency used to allow free re-rolls. Cats of Catthulhu is great for groups who are mostly getting together to just have a fun time, ready to act silly and get into all kinds of shenanigans.

DUSK, by Gila RPGs.

Equipped with the latest suntech, you are tasked with venturing out into the Dusk, and helping bring a new dawn to humanity. The Dusk does not want you there.

Good luck.

In DUSK, you play as Shards, survivors on the planet Obron after the devastating nova-event that saw your world destroyed. Now you wield powerful technology fueled by pieces of your dead sun, in hopes of surviving another day. DUSK uses the LUMEN 2.0 system, and is a diceless RPG focused on resource management rather than luck or chance.

As a diceless game, DUSK feels a lot different from a number of other diceless games, and I think that’s because of the style of game it’s working off of. LUMEN games are more about strategy than they are about narrative, and in DUSK that’s carried forward in the form of Suntech, items that require energy to power and provide specific advantages.

DUSK is still a relatively new game, but the designer is prolific in the amount of quality work he’s released in the past - and so when he says that there’s more to come, you best believe there’s more to come. If you’d still like to roll dice but you like the idea of the setting in this game, you might want to check out NOVA, which also uses the LUMEN system but gives you dice to roll or LUNA, a game about cultists trying to destroy the moon. Both of these games use pools of d6’s and ask you to look for the highest number, so I don’t think there’s that much math involved.

CASE & SOUL, by Briar Sovereign.

CASE&SOUL is a lightweight tabletop game for telling action-packed stories in the mecha genre. CASE&SOUL is designed for one-shots and short to mid length campaigns. Speed through a lightweight downtime; hire freelancers to pad out your Crew’s skills on missions. Customize your playbooks with SOUL moves, and enjoy a cut-down FITD gameplay with just the essentials for fast and flexible sessions.

Forged in the Dark games use a dice pool, rather than abilities with modifiers. You add dice from various places on your worksheet, and try to roll at least one 4 or higher. Rolling a 4 or 5 is usually a mixed success, and rolling a 6 is a complete success. Personally, I’m a big fan of games that use dice pools, as I’m also not a fan of trying to add up all of those numbers, and having to just look for the single highest dice helps speed up action resolution.

At the same time, Forged in the Dark games can have a lot of moving pieces at once, especially if the GM wants to track a large number of factions, or players want to plan multiple-stage missions. CASE & SOUL advertises itself as a slimmed-down version of these kinds of games, but I can’t tell whether or not that is the case when I look at the character sheets. What intrigues me is the CASE and SOUL tracks; I think your CASE is your Mech, and it receives Harm differently than your SOUL, which is an interesting way to measure how much your mech is (or is not) part of you.

Keyforge: Secrets of the Crucible, by Edge Studio.

In the center of the universe hangs the Crucible, a gigantic artificial world created by the enigmatic Architects and home to countless beings and cultures. Here, impossibly advanced technologies mix with arcane powers to make for a setting unlike any other! Uncovering the secrets of this mysterious world will take all your skills—but the potential rewards are boundless…

Explore this world of boundless opportunity in Secrets of the Crucible, a new sourcebook for the Genesys Roleplaying System set in the KeyForge universe!

You’ll need the Genesys Rulebook for this one, because the main reason I’m recommending Secrets of the Crucible is because of the dice system. Genesys dice don’t use numbers; they use symbols that represent success and failure - and they also have symbols that deepen the nuance of each roll. You can roll advantages or disadvantages that calibrate exactly how much you succeed, as well as triumphs or despairs that give you the same kind of highs and lows as a Nat 20 or a Nat 1 in D&D. This means that each roll tells you so much more about what’s going on around you than just whether you open a door or sweet-talk a guard.

As for the setting, Keyforge is originally a card game published by Fantasy Flight games, about a world called the Crucible, full of secrets that various factions are competing to unlock. It reminds me of the worlds of Magic: the Gathering or League of Legends, with various settings that look very distinct from each-other, and represent different styles of play.

SHIVER, by Parable Games.

WHAT IS SHIVER?

SHIVER is a tabletop roleplaying game that lets players bring their favourite scary movies, spooky tv shows, and horror stories to life. Ever wanted to play through the plot of your favourite film on the tabletop? Or wanted to make sequels, prequels and original stories in the worlds of pop culture you love? SHIVER lets you play that!

SHIVER is setting neutral allowing you to play any story, anytime, and as anyone. Want to play a game of teens in survival mode against a zombie horde? Kids on Bikes who dread exploring a haunted house on Halloween night? Or perhaps a medieval monster hunter looking for a werewolf, vampire or mage? SHIVER can deliver stories and characters for anything from cult pulp classic to Cthulhu fuelled eldritch mystery.

The designer of SHIVER set out with the goal of making games easier for his friends, who had similar struggles with games that had too much math involved. Players roll six-sided and eight-sided dice with various symbols on them, looking for the symbol that represents their character's strengths. The more difficult the task is, the more of the required symbol you need. The game itself is recognized as a class-act horror game, good for everything from pulp-action to gothic fiction to slasher horror. If you don't have the special dice, you can substitute with d6's & d8's, or you can use the free Dice Roller designed for this game.

Tournament Arc, by Biscuit Fund Games.

Are you looking to experience the triumphs and defeats of Space Hyper-Basketball? Need to feel the epic highs and dizzying lows of card games in the post-apocalypse? Want to face the trials and tribulations of the cheese-rolling World Circuit?

Tournament Arc is your very own collaborative sports anime experience, made in the diceless Belonging Outside Belonging engine popularized by games like Dream Askew and Wanderhome. In every thrilling episode, you’ll play the part of the Team as they negotiate the complexities of their daily lives, explore a collaboratively created world, and, most importantly, play the Game.

Tournament Arc is both diceless and GM-less, and is designed to tell stories about teambuilding and competitive sports, although the setting appears to be pretty flexible. The Belonging Outside Belonging game system provides each character type with prompts, and sorts those prompts into different categories. Usually there will be some things you can always do that generate tokens as well as narrative obstacles, and then other things that you can only do when you spend tokens - and as a result, also help characters confront those narrative obstacles. If you have players that like having something tactile to keep in their hands as they play, you might like Tournament Arc.

Warehouse Bitches, by Darling Demon Games.

The Time Worm arrived as it was prophesied just as the crown fell upon his head, and all potentials collapsed into a single haunted citadel, which you call Hex City. You are transgender punks and goths from earth, and in this place your powerful hearts make you witches, daemons, beast-people and arcane architects. We bide our time, smoking and drinking, playing video games and eyeing the crumbling walls of our enemy, The Lord of Olympus.

In Warehouse Bitches, you play as one of the titular warehouse-dwelling trans folk in the hellish Hex City. In this GMless Belonging Outside Belonging game with a unique coin-flip mechanic, you'll wield magic, build allies across the city and fight back against the bastards in subtle ways.

I’ve already explained a bit about how Belonging Outside Belonging works, but Warehouse Bitches adds another layer by using coins as tokens. Using coins, your options are different depending on whether or not the coin is on Heads or Tails. The moves on your character sheet are not just differentiated between Strong and Vulnerable, they’re also differentiated between Heads or Tails, and you must have matching sides of the coins showing in order to be able to use those moves. Characters also have Magic moves, which require the player to flip every coin they currently hold, and reassign those coins based on whatever side they land on.

Warehouse Bitches has only 4 playbooks as it stands now, so a group of 4 players is probably the largest group that can play the book as it stands now. The game is GM-less, but looking at the rules, I think it would be possible to have someone pick up the GM role in order to introduce complications and narrate the actions of various other factions in town. Similar to other BoB games, there are zones that have various elements and details that need to be decided as you play, which will also help provide events and interesting features that keep the game fresh and exciting.

#indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #tabletop games #dnd #asks #indie ttrpg #math-light #math-lite

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anim-ttrpgs · 4 months ago

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The skill point allocation system in Eureka is very elegant.

Is the principle of evening out to 0 something that has often been used in ttrpg design? If so, can you name other games that inspired Eureka in that regard? Or did you come up with it for Eureka?

"All skills can be -n to +n with a cumulative total of 0" seems too usefull, too elegant, as to never been utilized before the year 2024.

I came up with it independently and have literally never seen it anywhere else. I have thought the same way about the Eureka! Point mechanic, though similar things have been done before in other RPGs, just never applied to mystery investigation gameplay. Why hasn't anyone done this yet?

I feel like it must have been used somewhere else at some point in the 50 years of TTRPGs that have been made, I've just never seen it. i agree it feels like too good of an idea to not, like, practically be industry standard, but then again, TTRPGs are not a very innovative industry. It's very stagnant. Most TTRPGs that have come out in the past 50 years have just been D&D clones to some degree or another, and most "innovation" I see has just been "what if we unknowingly reinvented the wheel except this time we made it hexagonal instead of octagonal," total Tesla cybertruck style innovation.

The industry is kind of uniquely set up for that. It's one of the most monopoly-dominated industries/artforms in existence, with one game (of greatly varying quality and thoughtful design between editions) completely dominating it for all 50 years of its existence and being allowed to basically fully define what a "TTRPG" is. The biggest alternative to D&D for the past 20 years has been Pathfinder, which is just like D&D but a little better designed, and before that its biggest competitor was World of Darkness, which, if you actually read their rulebooks, are also designed pretty much like D&D except for some text at the beginning which basically says "you can ignore these extremely dungeon-crawl-y rules to focus more on narrative, don't be like those dumb dungeon crawl players," which if you have been following this blog you know is a load of crap.

Call of Cthuhlu, another big veteran contender for the industry that is still going pretty strong, has been the standard for "investigation" gameplay for nearly 50 years, but it's just a Lovecraft hack of RuneQuest, which was designed for, you guessed it, fantasy dungeon crawling. That's why even though CoC adventure modules do tend to play pretty well with Eureka, most of them are still structured as a short line of like 1 or 2 clues to follow to get the PCs into a spooky scary enclosed dungeon-like monster-filled location as quickly as possible, and you have advice like (uncharitable hyperbole) "if the PCs get stuck, make evidence fall from the sky and land at their feet."

Plus, you have big "actual play" podcasts who really really champion the whole "ignore the rules when they get in the way of your pre-planned three-act-structure plot" and the mega-monopolgy with marketing money making it a selling point that if you ignore the rules enough "D&D5e can do anything."

TTRPGs are also a relatively young artform without a ton of mainstream attention until pretty recently (which, as I mentioned, has been eaten up by D&D5e, Pathfinder, and big "actual plays"), and they are a hard one to participate in because playing a single TTRPG requires a ton of time investment compared to most other popular art forms like books, video games, music, and movies.

All this results in many, many people who play and even design TTRPGs literally never having played anything that wasn't WotC-era D&D, barely one or two degrees of separation from WotC-era D&D, or "it's not important if it's WotC-era D&D or not if you just ignore the rules!" Oh and PbtA and BitD players and designers, you're not immune to this! Those are just the "D&D5e can do anything!" of the indie scene and no they really really are not the best framework/engine for every single game ever!

For all the talent, study, effort, and respect for the artform across the A.N.I.M. team, not even we are immune to this. I haven't played nearly as many TTRPGs as I would like to have before calling myself a "learned" TTRPG designer. There might be some obscure game from 2004 I've never heard of that does some of Eureka's stuff already, that if I had read, I could have made Eureka even better by improving upon and learning from the mistakes of others rather than working in uncharted territory.

So, in conclusion, to use the film industry as an analogy, it's like if, during the past 10 years of every fucking mainstream movie being about superheroes, aspiring film makers, who have watched between 0 and 1 movies that weren't about superheroes, are having the "novel" idea of "what if.. a movie wasn't about superheroes!" and then trying to make a movie not about superheroes with no non-superhero experience or study. And Eureka: The Movie is good and innovative because A.N.I.M. Studios watched a measly 10 different non-superhero movies and studied film theory before making it.

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paperstorm · 2 months ago

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I have decided with my bestie to watch all the Disney movies in chronological order and what better pairing than to subject tumblr to my thoughts about them. Obviously we aren't gonna watch every single movie that Disney owns so we'll be somewhat subjective on what counts as an official animated feature film. And will probably skip some of the racist ones and maybe some sequels. But I digress.

Dumbo (1941)

Preface: movie number two with the “sorry for being racist” warning.

Pros:

I do genuinely miss when movies had credits before them. It feels so nostalgic but also respectful of all the people who worked on the movie and we’ve lost that in favor of only caring about the actors.

The scene at the beginning of all the baby animals being delivered by the storks is one of the more delightful things I have ever seen.

The animation is cute in a new way, I don’t know enough about art to put my finger on exactly what’s different but it’s got more of an adorable quality to it, and less of that 1930s creepy quality

A stork voiced by Sterling Holloway!! (beloved voice actor best known for Winnie the Pooh)

Cons

Like 90% of the characters in his movie are MEAN. The ringmaster is mean, the other elephants are mean, the circus attendees are mean, the crows are mean, the clowns are mean. My sensitive heart was not built to withstand a bunch of characters being mean to a crying baby elephant. Genuinely upsetting.

There is a drunken hallucination scene of dancing elephants that goes on for like 8 minutes and has nothing to do with anything.

The crows are as racist as I remembered and then some. The irony of writing a movie about how awful it is to be mean to someone because they’re different (Dumbo with his big ears) but then still having a super racist caricatures within that movie is Joanne Rowling levels of not understanding the point of your own story.

Verdict: Mostly just kind of boring. It’s not terrible but it’s not really good either.

2/10

[older movie reviews under the cut]

Fantasia (1940)

Preface: This is the first of the handful of movies with the “sorry for being racist” content warning before it, however the version streaming on Disney+ has actually removed the offending scene (a truly horrendous depiction of a black centaur).

Pros:

I was not looking forward to this one. I remembered from childhood that it was very weird and boring. And here’s the thing, to a child it would probably still be weird and boring. But the purpose of this feature (which I had not remembered) was to be a giant love letter to MUSIC. It was a bold and creative idea to use animation, a still somewhat new art form, to visually display the way music makes you feel and to reimagine the stories being told in the pieces. And unlike child me, adult me has a degree in classical music and generally nerds out a whole lot over music so unexpectedly this movie was so right up my alley

Visually stunning. The thought of this being a showcase for what animation can do since it was still somewhat new in cinematography, is very cool.

The music is beautiful, and even without my education I think I would have recognized most of these pieces which gives it a familiar feel. The Nutcracker Suite is a personal favourite and it’s beautifully done by the Philadelphia Orchestra.

The animation really does match the music in a pretty magical way – during the dinosaur chapter where the music is 20th century modern (brash and bombastic) the animation is much harsher with dark colours and sharp edges, vs the animation in the segment about Greek myths set to Romantic era Beethoven, which is softer and pastel.

Cons:

It’s too long. Over 2 hours, which is very lengthy considering the concept. In parts my attention drifted. But there is an actual intermission with a title card for it and everything so you can break it up neatly into two, like we did.

The chapter depicting the evolution and then extinction of the dinosaurs is the least entertaining in my opinion and it drags on, despite Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring being a messy neoclassical masterpiece.

Obviously because of what it is, there isn’t a larger story, which makes it just sort of an odd venture.

DINOSAUR SLANDER. This con is mostly a joke but there is a part where the narrator goes on for like 7 minutes about how dumb dinosaurs were which just feels mean.

Verdict: Better than I remembered or expected! If you do not like classical music it might not be for you but your adult self might like this one more than your kid self did.

6.75/10

Pinocchio (1940)

Pros:

I love an aminated movies opening with a book, and someone telling us the story. Also loved that in the opening scene that shows Pinocchio in book form, books of Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan are also in the shot, which Disney hadn’t yet made movies for

Patches on clothing are such an interesting staple of old cartoons, from a bygone era when people used to actually repair their clothes. I don’t know if that counts as a pro of this particular movie but it’s a thought I had

Figaro the cat is such a hater which is so perfectly on brand for cats

More impressive advances in animation – I don’t know how they made the Blue Fairy transparent but it’s very cool

Cons:

Despite the transparent Blue Fairy, in general the animation in this movie doesn’t have the same magic to it that some others do. It feels sort of cheap and uninspired, I can’t explain it but it’s missing something. Snow White was beautiful, the animation in this one is kind of bland

Pets are a thing that exist in this universe - Geppetto has a cat and a fish - but then there's randomly a fox and a cat (both the size of humans) walking around in clothing as if they are people when every other character is human

Stromboli is supposed to be Italian I think but his animation and character feels deeply racist in a way I can’t quite put my finger on. He is referred to at one point as the G slur so I’m not sure if maybe he’s meant to be Roma? He feels like a weird mix of anti-Jewish and anti-Arab stereotypes even though I don’t think he’s supposed to be either. It’s highly uncomfortable

I feel like we’ve all Mandela-effect-ed ourselves about Pinocchio and his growing nose. I remembered it being a big part of the plot but it’s literally one small scene about halfway through and then it never happens again

Pleasure Island is incredibly creepy and the scene where boys are turning into donkeys is super unsettling. Perhaps that should be a pro since it was probably supposed to be unsettling, but it’s a con for me because I did not enjoy it

How is Geppetto alive in inside a whale. I know it’s a cartoon and I know it’s based on an old story but STILL. Also Pinocchio is totally fine just like hanging out at the bottom of the ocean for like 25 minutes (because he’s made of wood and isn’t really alive yet), but then somehow at the end of the scene he drowns to death in a puddle? Make it make sense

The plot is … weird. It’s just weird. It feels like a combination of about 4 different stories – the creation of Pinocchio, falling in with Stromboli and the puppet show, going to Pleasure Island, and rescuing Geppetto from the whale all feel like separate stories that come one after another but don’t really relate to each other that much, and the tone of the movie also changes significantly with each one in a way that is not cohesive

At the end of the movie there’s still a whole island of enslaved, kidnapped donkey children that are just never mentioned again so … dunno what to do with that

Verdict: Weird. Very, very weird, and not in a good way. I did not remember from childhood how genuinely strange this story is.

1/10

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937)

Pros:

The animation is beautiful. I got weirdly emotional thinking about people in 1937 seeing this for the first time, how mind-blowing it must have been. I know almost nothing about animation but I was genuinely impressed with the techniques used for movement, considering how old this is and how new the medium was. Also the movement of people’s hands and faces is so similar to other cartoons of the same era (I’m thinking Betty Boop but also others) which was kind of cool to see

Weirdly nostalgic in a way I wasn’t expecting, there are several songs I had in the back of my mind but had totally forgotten were from Snow White – Whistle While You Work and the song the Prince sings

The evil queen is so fucking cunty I was flabbergasted. I love her. More cunty Disney villains please (also, ICONIC scene where her cape flows as she runs down a spiral staircase. I was obsessed with that as a kid and the fluidity of the animation is incredible for the time)

I loved how melodic it all was, the sound of footsteps down the stairs or the dwarves falling down all to the beat of the musical score made the whole thing flow so nicely. I miss when movies did this

Cons:

Obligatory note that you shouldn’t kiss strangers in comas

The ending is kind of a bummer, I forgot she leaves the dwarves who love her for some guy she met 10 minutes ago. But alas, I guess that’s how the fairy tale went

Adriana Caselotti’s squeaky operatic soprano is iconic, but not particularly pleasant to listen to

Verdict: Delightful. Truly delightful. Obviously not a new or innovative story but it was very nostalgic and I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting.

8/10

#disney #andie's disney review that nobody asked for #this is gonne get so long if we actually do all of them lmao rip #we'll see how long I actually last

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00valentina-writes00 · 28 days ago

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how are you able to write so much?? i feel like i see your works everyday (and im not complaining) btw i love your fics

bestie i am simply possessed. there is no other explanation. words? they appear. coherence? questionable. but the key is to let the brainrot consume you. no thoughts, just vibes, just pure unfiltered delusion. i write like i’m running out of time and also like i have a gun to my head.

In all seriousness though here’s some things that I do on a daily basis that might help me be a fast writer:

word vomit first, edit later – don’t let your inner perfectionist ruin the flow. get the skeleton down, flesh it out later.

set a timer – sprint like ur life depends on it. 10-15 min bursts. no distractions. pure chaos. (I have note books on top of notebooks since middle school of small drabbles that I’ve written, I write SOMETHING every day- no matter the quality)

skip the hard parts – don’t know how to transition? just write [insert cool shit here] and keep going. past you can suffer later.

channel raw delusion – convince yourself you are the best writer alive. manifest that shit.

Dialogue first, details later – if your brain is spitting out conversations, just get them down. You can add actions/descriptions after.

Use brackets like a menace – [describe the room] [make this sexier] [cool metaphor??] – slap those in and keep MOVING.

Write out of order – got a banger ending in mind? write it first. connect the dots later.

Music & ambiance hacks – write a fight scene to heavy metal. write angst in the dark. become one with the mood. (For some reason my hand moves faster depending on what I’m listening to)

Use a fake audience – imagine you’re being watched by 1000 screaming fangirls waiting for your words. let the pressure fuel you.

And the most cliche thing? Practice practice practice - like I’ve said before, I’ve been writing things like this since middle school, and writing is my hobby (one that I love tbh), I’m always typing SOMETHING out. Like how some people who can draw really well in a short amount of time, or people who can read really fuckin fast- it depends on the person. It think writing so much (no matter the quality) has definitely helped with my writing speed-

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gemsofgreece · 3 months ago

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speaking of greek films, do you have any recommendations? maybe even of the romcom variety? i've only seen zorba

And here's me whose ass still hasn't watched Zorba and even more embarrassingly I kinda thought it was a fully American movie adapting the Greek novel with some Greeks contributing, like actress Irene Papas and the music score by Mikis Theodorakis. It turns out you're right though, the film was directed, written and produced by the Greek filmmaker Michael Cacoyannis but then it was distributed by 20th Century Fox so it was a Greece - USA production.

I don't know if you can speak or are learning Greek though because Zorba was a co-production and it was mostly in English but a fully Greek production is in Greek and most don't get subtitled for international audiences. I will give you some personal recs but I can't guarantee you will find subtitles easily or you will have to do some severe digging. I have made the recs in an older answer so I am linking that post:

I will give a more updated rec list too:

Faves of mine:

From the link above the ones I would advice one to not miss are:

Η Κάλπικη Λίρα (The Counterfeit Coin, 1955). It's not only my favourite Greek movie but it's also in the All Time Top 100 Best Movies of International Cinema list of some very legit major institution that I am forgetting now XD It's a social dramedy with top tier comedians and drama actors co-starring and it's basically four different life stories connected through the same counterfeit coin.

Αχ, αυτή η γυναίκα μου! (Oh, that wife of mine!, 1967) It's a situational comedy. It's hilarious but if you don't know Greek, I don't know how well it translates to a different language. Man desperately wanting a promotion gets in a chaotic situation when his playboy boss first gets outraged and then obsessed with his wife, without knowing her true identity.

5 λεπτά ακόμα (5 minutes more, 2006) I still think this movie is very underrated. It's a metaphysical philosophical dark dramedy with a great understated score. You can find it on youtube, obviously without English subtitles and with bad quality but hey at least it's on youtube! A morally neutral man with jealousy issues dies and is given five more minutes in the mortal world, which will determine his afterlife.

Το Τανγκό των Χριστουγέννων (Christmas Tango, 2011). Romantic drama. A soldier gets unintentionally entagled in the unrequited / forbidden romance of his mysterious aloof commander. Now this movie has a queer element. It does not have a queer happy end but it has both straight and queer themes and honestly it's a beautiful movie. You can find it on youtube.

Ρεμπέτικο (Rembetiko, 1983). Drama. The tragic life of a female singer of the then underground Rembetiko music scene, the music genre the Greeks of Asia Minor brought along after the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the population exchange between Turkey and Greece in the first half of the 20th century. Personally, I am not crazy about this movie but this doesn't mean necessarily anything because it gets good reviews in imdb even outside Greece. But I personally recommend it for its INSANE score and songs. These songs have become emblematic in the Greek music scene. The composer, Stavros Xarhakos, makes a cameo in the movie.

I still recommend the other recs in the old list too, especially the comedies. Also, like I have said, you can't go too wrong with Greek comedies of the 50s-60s in general. Since I said that, here's a list of faves and critics' choices of Greek movies from the 50s-70s.

Some other faves not in the old lists:

Το χώμα βάφτηκε κόκκινο (Blood on the Land, 1966). A Greek Western! Who would have thought but it is good! When I say western, I don't mean Cowboys vs Natives of course, but I mean land property disputes, rural, animosity gets out of hand, social class inequality etc etc and it is actually linked to Greek social history of the 20th century. And finally a Greek movie that takes good advantage of the Meteora. The movie was a nominee for best foreign film in the Oscars .

Strella, 2009. This is a strictly 18+ movie. It is a queer movie BUT it is also a very edgy movie, like, it can be perceived as extremely edgy no matter if you are a member of the LGBTQIA+ community or not. It's not the imagery that makes it edgy but the plot at some point takes a serious left turn. So, only watch if you're into weird cinema territory. I have warned you. Personally I am not into weird cinema but I liked this one. Man gets out of prison after years of incarceration for committing a murder. He befriends and soon gets into a relationship with a trans female sex worker. The protagonist, Mina Orfanou, is actually a trans woman and she was really praised for her performance in this.

Ιφιγένεια (Iphigenia, 1977). Directed by Michael Cacoyannis like Zorbas, this is a movie about the myth of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, Agamemnon's daugher, with an all-Greek cast. It is kind of those theater-to-movie films so don't expect Troy level of production. It has very minimal sets. Also, it's the 70s, the bible and sandal era, so the costumes are really anachronistic and inaccurate but other than that it is a good movie. It was nominated for the Oscar for foreign language film. And it's on youtube with English subtitles.

youtube

A few other recs:

Antigone (1961). Even more than Iphigenia, this is almost pure theatre filmed. The acting is theatrical, the staging is theatrical, it's all just theatre really. This is a very loyal adaptation of Euripides' Antigone. The acting is very good.

America America (1963). A movie by Greek American filmmaker Elia Kazan that I haven't watched yet but it is very famous. Biographical historical drama, inspired by Kazan's uncle. The struggles and feats of a Greek of Anatolia, Ottoman Empire (modern day Turkey) trying to secure a passage to America in the late 19th - early 20th century. It is an Academy Awards winner.

Πολίτικη Κουζίνα (A Touch of Spice, 2003). The life of a boy and his relationship to his beloved grandfather, who instilled in him the love for cooking and astronomy, as they part ways when the boy and his parents are deported from Turkey after the ongoing tensions started from the incidents of the Istanbul pogrom in 1955, while the grandfather is able to legally stay behind. I wouldn't put this movie in my faves but it is very aesthetically pleasing and has a wonderful score. It is also an introduction to the special historical bond Greeks have with Constantinople / Istanbul and the tragic story of it all.

Έτερος Εγώ (Heteros Ego / The Other Me, 2016). Crime Mystery. This movie is very popular. I think it's overrated but you can judge for yourself. It is on youtube. I personally liked more the TV series that was its continuation (the first two seasons only, because the third was horrible). It is suitable for 17+ audiences. An eccentric criminology professor is summoned to investigate murder cases where the murderer cites quotes by Pythagoras.

Man of God, 2021. If you are a Christian / religious, watch it. I would like this movie more if the director had not forced all the cast to perform in English in order to make an international screening. It takes away from their performance because it is so unnatural and illogical. But otherwise it is an interesting topic and the actors try their best despite that massive handicap. This is the true story of Saint Nektarios of Aegina island and his unfair defamation by the rest of the clergy.

Η Φόνισσα (The Murderess, 2023). Unfortunately this movie does not hold a candle to the original novel of Alexandros Papadiamantis written in 1903 - quite possibly the first feminist literary work written by a man - but it is your next best alternative unless you can read the book or a translation of it. In this case, totally skip the movie and read the book, which is excellent and my favourite Greek novel. But if you watch the movie, just know it took many liberties for the worse. It has good acting and cinematography though. The story explores the life and mind of Frankoyannou, a hardened peasant woman, as more and more female infants and young girls are found murdered in her village, including her own grand-daughter.

Miss Violence, 2013. This movie is incredibly disturbing and I wish I could forget what I saw. If you like disturbing cinema, obviously 18+, watch it. It sickens you to the core though. An ordinary 11 year old girl commits suicide the day her ordinary family celebrates her birthday. Minute by minute we learn more about the family though and minute by minute we realise this is not a regular family AT ALL.

More weirdness. If you actually do like weird cinema, then you can also explore Yorgos Lanthimos' old Greek movies. These are easier to find since Lanthimos is globally famous now. Dogtooth was his Greek movie that was a nominee in the Oscars. But he has a couple more. (By the way, Miss Violence makes Dogtooth seem like a My Little Pony episode.)

More length. Theo Angelopoulos was an acclaimed Greek director, famous for his slow lengthy movies that explore philosophical and other themes. Several movies of his are acclaimed internationally. His most awarded ones are Ο Θίασος (The Travelling Players, 1975), Ταξίδι στα Κύθηρα (Voyage to Cythera, 1984), Το βλέμμα του Οδυσσέα (Ulysses' Gaze, 1995), Μια Αιωνιότητα και μια Μέρα (Eternity and a Day, 1998), Τοπίο στην Ομίχλη (Landscape in the Mist, 1988).

More Kazantzakis. Since you have watched Zorba the Greek, a film based on the novel Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas by Nikos Kazantzakis, perhaps you will be interested in two more movies based on other novels of his, even if they are not purely Greek or Greek productions. The first one is the very famous The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) starring Willem Dafoe, directed by Martin Scorsese. The problem is that this movie is often very misunderstood as edgy / anti-Christian / atheist whereas Kazantzakis' intent with his book was kinda the exact opposite so he probably rolls nonstop in his grave with some readings I have seen being made of the movie, even here on tumblr. Scorcese obviously focused more on the edgy factor than Kazantzakis did, further encouraging such misinterpretations but you could still be able to understand the meaning of Kazantzakis' book through the movie, now that I told you that Kazantzakis was essentially a secular theological / Christian philosopher. The other one is Ο Χριστός Ξανασταυρώνεται (Christ Recrucified / He Who Must Die, 1957). A French / Italian production, also featuring the Greek actress Melina Mercuri. A Greek village in Anatolia in 1920 (Modern day Turkey) stages a Passion Play for Easter. Staging the play leads to them rebelling against their Turkish rulers in a way that mirrors Jesus's story. There is also a Greek TV series adapting the novel in 1975 - 1976, which is closer to the book and gets better reviews and you can watch it in the streaming platform I recommend below.

ERTFLIX. Ertflix is the state TV's OTT platform and it is entirely for free, while also available internationally. It has both desktop and app formats and you can also add it to several TV boxes, Chromecast, Roku etc For the free service that it is, it has an abundance of series, movies and documentaries so I can never stop praising it...! There you can find numerous Greek movies / series / documentaries to watch, plus even more foreign stuff with Greek subtitles if you're learning Greek and need to practice. Plus it has interviews, the invaulable archives of the state TV and so much more. In Greece it is not necessary but for using the platform abroad you will have to register as a user but it is entirely for free. Ertflix I love you. Below is a screenshot with some Greek movies available now:

Scroll to the Greek cinema option (or to the Greek series). The site is built in both Greek and English.

Where you can find ERTFLIX:

The aforementioned TV series based on Kazantzakis' novel.

Upcoming movies of Greek interest:

Maria. The biopic of Maria Callas, rather her last years, starring Angelina Jolie. Is Jolie a good casting choice for Callas? Well, no. People say she does a good job in it however. I don't know about that and I am going to be sceptical because I love Maria Callas and I don't think she can be easily (at all) imitated. I 'll watch it though. From the trailer I see Jolie did a very legit job with Callas' speaking manner and accent, this is hopeful. Part of the movie was filmed in Greece too.

The Return. Starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, this is a retelling of the last part of the Odyssey, once Odysseus has returned to Ithaca and has to reclaim his rule and home from Penelope's suitors. It is a realistic retelling, not featuring the gods, based on the trailer I saw. I had my reservations for this casting but Fiennes looks good as old Odysseus IMO and Binoche is a brunette French, of course she can pass easily as a Greek. They are also both good and serious actors and I am sure they give their best in the movie. The drawback is that it's like we return to the 70s with these poor and anachronistic costumes and sets. And also aside from the protagonists, who would have thought there was so much diversity in Ithaca / s, a REAL, TINY and REMOTE Greek island. Telemachus looks like the blondest of Swedes and then the Ithacians have apparently descent from Scandinavia to Southeast Asia to central Africa. Amazing. Ithaca, the New York of Bronze Age. At least Fiennes (in this) and Binoche do pass as Greeks... What makes the movie a little promising for me is the amazing physique Fiennes achieved for it: the parts half dead old beggar and parts godly warrior king. He nailed it. The scene with the bow, I know already I will get the chills.

From this alone I know Fiennes is doing a terrific job in this. He is always invested very seriously in his movies.

Anyway, one third of the movie is shot in Greece and ERT (the Greek State TV) is actually a co-producer (a rarity with international movies of Greek mythological interest nowadays), so once it's done from movie theaters, it is going to be available for free on ERTFLIX... apparently globally. I so hope this movie does not disappoint me.

A lot of these can be found in links in greek-movies.com but you didn't hear it from me.

#greece #movies #cinema #movie rec #film rec #greek movies #greek cinema #greek culture #anon #ask #long post #tw long

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dukeofdelirium · 6 months ago

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https://www.tumblr.com/greenfiend/760014880863649792

these people are gonna explode when S5 drops

“who cares about his crush”

1) it isn’t a crush, he’s in love w Mike and

2) hundreds of thousands of ppl care just on tumblr alone

“the story is about monsters”

I mean… yeah, somewhat. But those monsters very clearly represent something. Like homophobia and the AIDS epidemic, which tie in to Will’s character and also into Mike and Will’s relationship. I mean, the allusions to this have been very on the nose every season, especially s2 with how the doctors/scientists treated Will in comparison to how gay men were treated during the AIDS epidemic.

“His scenes are pointless distraction from the larger story”

Will is literally the confirmed main character and focal point of the 5th and final season. He was the entire reason this story even happened at all. He was the one singled out and taken to the upside down. He was the focal point of the entirety of s2. And in s3 and s4, the moment he isn’t the focus, the show declines in quality. The entire time that Will is focused on in these seasons, the writing forces you to feel bad for him and forces you to simultaneously hate anything and anyone that is upsetting him. S3 and s4 weren’t about some gay kid pining hopelessly over an unattainable straight friend. It was written to make you hate Mike and El together. It was written to make you want Mike to be with Will where he actually acts like himself again. It wasn’t about Will being alone and sad, it was about Mike not being with him when you know he should be.

What do these ppl think is gonna happen in s5? Do they actually think that Will is going to confess his undying love for Mike that is unrequited and that Mike will be like “that’s weird of you Will and I don’t feel the same but we can stay besties <3” and then Will is like “no Mike I totally get it, I’m gonna kms now so you an El can go to the local village with 3 waterfalls” and then he just walks into the upside down and dies and it all fades away or something? 😂😂😂😂😂

The upside down, the monsters, all of it is a manifestation of Will’s trauma and emotions. It’s a metaphor for the homophobia and abuse he has experienced as a young gay kid, as well as being closeted as a survival tactic… hello, Will is trapped in a cold, dark and lifeless world where nothing can survive (he can’t breathe, the air is toxic, it’s suffocating) and he is forced to hide there but he is really good at hiding (bc you get really good at hiding who you are in order to live) and his best friend Mike, who is literally a Paladin in D&D (like his knight in shining armor) must rescue him from this scary world (the closet) *wink wink nudge nudge*

It’s literally a gay love story between childhood friends with the cool sci-fi and horror elements tacked on enough to where you won’t notice it until you either care enough to analyze the show OR you watch the final season and it slaps you across the face in a very unsubtle way (byler endgame)

#stranger things #byler #anon #byler is requited #byler is endgame

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sanjoongie · 22 days ago

Text

𝒟𝒶𝓎 𝒩𝒾𝓃𝑒~ 𝒟𝑒𝑔𝓇𝒶𝒹𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃

The Menu

🩶Pairing: Ex! Merman! Park Seonghwa x Human! Reader (f)

🩶Au: modern mermaid au, supernatural

🩶Trope: ex's to lovers

🩶Genre: smut, angst

🩶Rating: 18+, MINORS DO NOT INTERACT

🩶Warnings: degradation (m), mentions of the light system, nipple pinching, masochist! seonghwa, sadist! reader, sub! seonghwa, dom! reader, jerking off, rough handjob, orgasm upon command

🩶Word Count: 1,530

🩶Summary: when your ex shows up, needing money, you do your best to give him the best orgasm of his life so that he can leave and never come back into your life.

🩶Day Eight: Yunho | Masterlist | Day Ten: Mingi 🩵

You walked into your apartment above the seafood restaurant you worked after a long 12 hour shift and threw your purse to the floor. You took off your shoes and your jacket and sighed as you put your keys in the porcelain bowl in your hallway. You padded slowly, planning on collapsing on your couch for a few hours.

Unfortunately, that was not in the cards for you. On your couch was your ex looking extremely worried.

You sighed heavily. “Seonghwa, this is an abuse of the key I gave you.”

Seonghwa stood up, brushing his hair behind his ears. “I know. I’m sorry, but--”

“--but you need some money,” You finished his sentence. There was only one reason he would come. “Seonghwa, you have to find someone else to do this for you.”

Seonghwa’s socked foot dug into the old wooden floors of your apartment. “I didn’t want to come back. I wanted to give you some space. But the others--they just coddle me. They don’t give me what I want.”

You rubbed your face tiredly. Seonghwa was… something out of myth and legend. Somewhere in his ancestry was a mermaid or merman. It explained his… odd predicament. Your ex-boyfriend didn’t come cum; instead he came pearls. It was his only means of money because Seonghwa was never an official citizen. Seonghwa didn’t have a birth certificate or a driver’s license. He mostly lived with support from friends or partners.

You had been one of them, once upon a time, when Seonghwa had also worked at the restaurant. You had become a toxic relationship and had separated for the better. You let Seonghwa keep his key to your place in the situation that he needed a place to crash but it had only been a month since your break-up.

“It’s not been long enough, Seonghwa, my feelings for you…” You swallowed bitter resentment.

“I know I’m asking a lot. I wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t desperate. We can split what I get back for selling the pearls. Just know that… I don’t get good quality ones without you…”

You mistakenly made eye contact with Seonghwa and that was where all resistance was melted away. Seonghwa’s eyes, on the verge of teary, pleaded with you but there was a hint of darkness there; darkness that always seemed to convince you to do the dirty things to him that simply floated his boat.

“We don’t have to split. Just give me twenty percent. That’s enough. You just make sure you have enough to survive so that you don’t have to come back.”

You turned towards your bedroom and when you didn’t hear Seonghwa follow you, you snapped at him. “Come on then! I want to sleep some time tonight rather than dealing with your needy ass all night.”

That tiny bit of degradation was all the Seonghwa needed to understand the scene had begun. He was immediately behind you, hovering for more instructions.

“Are you already dumb with need that you need me to tell you to get on my bed? You are honestly such a needy slut, god Seonghwa.”

Seonghwa whined in the back of his throat but did as he was told. He was about to strip when you held a hand up. “I don’t think so. I’ll decide what you take off.”

His big eyes watched you as you knelt on the bed and slowly made your way to his lanky form. “Look at you, already sporting a chubby in your pants. Does it hurt, Hwa? Does your dumb big cock hurt because you need relief?”

Seonghwa nodded, a pout pulling down the corners of his lips. “Please. Please use me.”

“You’re so pitiful,” You mock sighed. “All you need is a hand wrapped around your cock and you’re a happy slut, aren’t you Hwa?”

Your hand slipped up his thigh, that clenched when you touched him. His whole body was already shaking with need. It was so easy to get him worked up. You moved your hand up but you avoided his clearly twitching cock in his pants. Instead, you slipped your hand under his shirt. He whimpered as you didn’t stimulate him but instead raised his shirt until it was pushed up to his chin.

“Please,” Seonghwa begged.

“You will be given what I decide you deserve, Seonghwa,” You said in a cold tone.

You straddled his thighs, sitting back as you admired the beauty that was Seonghwa’s torso. His flat stomach, the smooth expanse of his chest, the way his hips made your fingers want to dig into them. You growled unconsciously and Seonghwa’s eyes lit up. Your hunger for him was never the problem in your relationship.

You roughly undid his jeans and yanked them down past his hips. His slim length bounced against his pelvis. He already had precum leaking from the tip, the only fluid he would release tonight, to aid in the pearls travelling through his body.

You made direct eye contact with Seonghwa. “You better use the light system or so help me Seonghwa, I will spank your ass if you hold back on speaking your mind. You need to let me know if it’s too much. You can’t just let yourself get washed away in the feeling.”

And that was where your relationship had become strained. Seonghwa couldn't take care of himself. He could be so turned on from the way he enjoyed things rough that he never stopped when it became a red scenario.

Seonghwa nodded and you pinched his nipple in retaliation. “Use your words. Or are you too dumb to do even that?”

Seonghwa let out a noise of pleasure at the pain and immediately began to babble. “Yes, I remember the light system. I will tell you when it’s too much. But it’s going to feel so good, I don’t think I’ll have to!”

You gripped Seonghwa’s face tightly in one hand. “Seonghwa.”

“I’ll be good! I promise!” Seonghwa said, despite his face being squished.

“Good boy,” You praised him.

You wrapped your hands around his length, one on top of the other and began to roughly jerk him off. His hips shot off the bed, immediate pleasure zooming through him. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and his tongue lolled out.

“Such a pretty slut, aren’t you?” You mockingly cooed at Seonghwa. “Looking so fucked out and I’ve only just started?”

“ ‘so good,” Seonghwa slurred. “Make me come fast. Make me want more.”

“Such a needy slut,” You tsked. “Do you think you deserve to come so quickly?”

To prove your point, you release his dick and it bounced against his stomach once again. It throbbed there, leaking still along his stomach. Seonghwa sent you big puppy-dog eyes up at you. “Please. I like it when you’re rough and quick with me. Like I’m not worth your time. That you’ll just make me come and discard me like trash. Please.”

“You’re awfully demanding of someone who came in here begging to be pleasured. Aren’t I the one in charge? Shouldn’t I decide how you come?” You raised an eyebrow at him.

Seonghwa started to hump the air, that’s how desperate he was for further pleasure. “Use me,” he whined.

You grabbed his dick with two hands again and began to rotate your wrists as you moved up and down his length. You rubbed your palm roughly against the head of his cock as you came up, making Seonghwa’s thighs shake.

“I can--” His tongue came out to lick his lips, “--I can come? Right? Please let me come. I can’t--hnnnnnn--please please say yes!”

“Fine, come all over my hands you desperate slut,” You commanded.

With a desperate cry, Seonghwa did exactly that. Pearls shot up into the air and Seonghwa let out a drawn out moan as he came pretty much everywhere. You winced as you heard small taps on your floor, indicating that the pearls were indeed going everywhere. It was going to be annoying to find them all later.

Seonghwa’s bare, sweaty chest heaved with his come-down. His eyes were heavy lidded and his lips slightly parted to adjust for his breathing. “Thank you,” he said with a raspy voice.

You let go of his cock like it was burning you and you leaned back to get off Seonghwa. He sat up immediately, locking his arms behind the small of your back. His eyes travelled over your face. You didn’t know what he was looking for but you knew instinctively that you shouldn’t give it to him.

“Don’t, Seonghwa,” You warned him.

“Star,” Seonghwa said his pet name for you and you put a hand on his chest to push him away.

“I said don’t.”

Seonghwa let you go this time. Even though all he wanted to do was hold you and tell you that you were actually good for him, he knew that you weren’t receptive to it, just after calling him a desperate slut. Perhaps in the soft morning light he could convince you that the distance you put between the two of you was more harmful than you intended.

Perhaps… you’d keep him this time.

🩶Day Eight: Yunho | Masterlist | Day Ten: Mingi 🩵

#pirateeznet #lapydiariesnet #ateez smut #park seonghwa smut #seonghwa smut #fff25 #topaz's work #ღatz #recent

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xannador · 4 months ago

Text

Thank you!

A big thank you to everyone who got a copy of Mostly (h)Armless! I think that for an obscure little fancomic it did really well! About 30 copies have gone where none can ever take them away again. I've also finally received my own version and I am happy about the quality.

I've now unpublished it but turns out you can never entirely take a book off the store once published. You can't edit it to be something else either. (which is what I had hoped to do, I have a bunch of unpublished original comics lying around). So it's just kinda going to sit there for all eternity, unavailable for sale. I sincerely hope it won't give me problems later on.

Anyway, if anyone is curious about one day printing their own comics, here are a few things I have noticed that I will definitely remember for my future printing endeavors:

Most glow and blending effects like Lighten, Color dodge, Hard Light, Linear dodge (add), etc don't look that nice in print despite looking awesome in digital.

Make your line art thick enough.

soft shading looks bad, cell shading looks good. (But it's better to fully fill shapes with a contrasting color rather than doing fancy lighting.)

Consider shading in black rather than color. (optional)

Details and soft lines are usually lost and a waste of time (Mostly in case of a colored book. Black and white may be different)

Keep panels spaced far enough apart.

Draw big panels. Small panels aren't as nice to look at and the eyes are naturally drawn to the larger panels.

Gradients don't look very nice either. Unless they have a light color.

Vintage comic textures and effects actually looks nicer in print than digital (which surprised me).

In dark scenes, rim lights are essential to make the character pop out. M(h)A would've looked like ass if I hadn't added those.

Stay away from the borders of your page, especially the left and right ones. Not just for the text but for the drawings too.

Keep track of which side of your page will be closest to the spine, keep a distance from that side especially. Because your book will be folded and part of the page will be hidden (the thicker your book, the more will be lost).

fancy panel compositions are cooler in digital...

contrast contrast contrast...

Don't be afraid to use pure black a lot.

Don't be afraid to use white a lot.

The 3D shake effect is also not that cool on print. But looks gorgeous on digital.

To myself… keep the font size consistent…

If text is outside a text bubble, it should have a high contrast stroke

Text should always be high contrast in general.

Motion blur is really cool in digital but not so much on print.

Keep black silhouettes black, avoid adding any kind of subtle glow or texture.

Text bubbles can have color but they should be light (again high contrast) watch out for saturated green or blue or red. Test in greyscale. Contrast should be more than 70%.

Line art should not be colored. Keep it black for print.

Hard borders are better than soft borders. On everything.

white panel borders are better than black panel borders.

But white borders with a black stroke are probably the best (cause more contrast).

Again light colors are better than dark colors. To do dark scenes it might be better to just use black and contrast with a lighter color.

Line art perfection is not that interesting, especially in regards to hard surface shapes like robots. (Might be personal taste though. I enjoyed looking at robots with messier line art more than those where I did perfect brush strokes.)

Beware dark blue and purple...

Compositions and colors of both the left and right page should always fit together. I think I did that pretty well here at least.

If possible make your total amount of comic pages devisable by 4. (so 24 pages total, or 28, or 96, you get the idea) not including the cover and back. Or else add a little extra drawing to fill the remaining pages.

I think that's about everything I can see based on my own print. I'm sure that a fair few of the things that I found looking worse in print than digital could be resolved by just being... better at converting your files. There's the whole CMYK color mode thing but in my personal experience that has been such a pain to work with, and each time my prints looked worse attempting to convert the file rather than had I just left it in RBG and let the printer do the guessing work for me.

So if you're like me and you're hopeless at this technical mumbo jumbo printing stuff, I think just avoiding the things I mentioned while drawing should get you well under way to having a nice print. The most important thing to remember is that digital and physical media are two entirely different beasts and if you are interested in getting your comics printed it's easier to adapt your workflow to that from the start rather than going back and altering. A lot of the mistakes I made here are rookie ones and I should have known better. But it's very easy to get lost in the process once you've started. I hope to improve my next print significantly. Once I can make RBG look good, I might try CMYK again.... Maybe. Potentially. No.

Hope these tips can be of service to somebody. They'll be a useful archive for myself in any case. If anyone wants me to elaborate more on a specific point, I'm happy to explain.

#self publishing #print on demand #amazon self publish #printing #comic print

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