#and finbar is still taller

[justablah56]

I’ve been thinking,,, about the Team Dads™️ meeting. Finbar and Bileyg would be such good friends. Both of them love their wives more than anything and it makes me so happy

for real !!!! they would totally be dad friends and just happily talk about their families , Bileyg talking about how much he misses his family and finbar talking about him being away from *his* family while he was adventuring ,,, finbar being maybe a bit nervous about actually *having* a kid and bileyg telling him about his daughter's ,, also finbar proudly talking to bileyg about the rest of the per aspera crew would fix me I think .

but also the height difference would be so fucking funny oh my god- little halfling bileyg who is like 3 feet tall , and giant kin firbolg finbar who's like 8 feet tall . it'd be so funny I love them

[coolgoodandfine]

Shhh... secret draft designs. Don't tell Twitter yet. Please give me any feedback, and feel free to read my many design thoughts under the cut. Also feel free to use the designs yourself.

Alright! The things right at the top that i wanted to keep in mind were things in the series that are distinct to mechanites vs things warforged have.

As far as I remember, there are only two notable ones. Mechanites have jaws that cannot move, instead they have face plates that can open up. And while the other isn't stated in canon, warforged have crystals in their eyes, and mechanites are never pictured or described in that way.

I almost broke the first rule on purpose with DX-TR, seeing as he's described as human-like and the negotiator, but as I was going through the series again, he was explicitly stated to have the same stiff jaw.

The only heights (I think) we have were that VR-LA got the haha funny meme number at 6'9", MR-SN was a few inches taller, and C-RA is at least as tall as Finbar (7'2"). From there, I wanted DX-TR to be nearly as tall as VR-LA, so he's around 6'6"/6'7". E-DN is about the same height as him because I feel like with her satyr legs, her being taller made sense. I put K-LB around 6'2" because I was originally going to have a slight joke that this height was after he'd already made mods to himself with heels and his mohawk. I didn't like how the heels came out, so I left it out. AS-TR is the shortest at the bare minimum height for warforged at 5'10". I'll get into that in the section discussing her design.

While it didn't really come up in these designs, since VR-LA has been pictured with yellow eyes, and described with blue, I've headcanoned that mechanites eyes change color based on how much processing they're doing. So the default would be blue, when they're calm and just hanging out. Their eyes switch to yellow when they're concentrating or focused on something specific. Orange is when they're flustered or upset. Red is the dramatic color for when they're really angy. I'd imagine someone like DX-TR can deliberately control it to avoid giving away some tell, but I don't think it's common for mechanites to do it.

The designs are mostly based on the same shapes and pieces that VR-LA has, rather than Vice/He-11, as those feel like they're kind of unusual in that regard. And even if they're not, I'd still chalk it up as a difference in their plane of origin. Onto individual character notes!

C-RA was described as being large, having a sort of knights templar, aesthetic, somewhat like living armor but more organic. Mostly what I referenced was plate armor, so pretty straight-forward. That being said, I feel like her design's a little plain. I wanted to add something to her head to help distinguish her head silhouette more. Plus I feel like her colors are too desaturated, and she just doesn't really have a shape that carries throughout her design. Idk, it's fine, but it just doesn't feel striking.

MR-SN was described as being slender, regal, and with a permanent smile in his eyes. I feel like I had a similar issue with him that I had with C-RA where there doesn't seem to be anything that carries through his design. I feel like I captured the face pretty well at least where he looks kind and kind of like a dad who's just proud of you. He's one I kind of feel like with clothes, his design might work better. I had no clue what color to go for, so it's just a color that I thought would be unique enough to the group.

VR-LA is just based on his season 1 art. The only thing I changed from how I drew him before, was mostly just proportions, like around the joints. I wanted him to be a thin, scrawny nerd, so he's also more narrow than before. My goal was half of C-RA's size, and I think C-RA's about 1 1/2 VR-LA's, so it's close enough.

DX-TR was described as human-like and bald with a flesh tone color. He was honestly really easy. As a joke, I referenced Seth Everman for his face sculpt, and I think it came out well. Mostly I referenced human muscles for his sculpt. I considered giving him tattoos, but didn't really have any ideas for that. He's got two notably unique traits from the rest of the group. He's the only one without shoulder pauldrons, which I kinda want to change, but idk there, and the light in his eyes is round rather than the cross design I treated as baseline. I wanted a less human saturation in skin, and I don't think I achieved that, but I'm not sure it'd look as good. I kinda want him more uncanny valley, but idk what to do there.

E-DN was described as a similar mechanite design as VR-LA, but with satyr legs. I gave her horns and horizontal pupils, mostly just for variety. I gave her a little more of just a round shape compared to VR-LA's more angular shapes. Her design I like over all. I like the colors, and I think the mint accents help her stand out. She's got good shapes and a good silhouette. And everything feels like it came out pretty well with her.

K-LB I'm torn on. I almost feel like he stands out too much. As far as what's described, I had the hardest time figuring out his design. He's described as a standard mechanite that's gold with fine gold filigree that looks like wire mesh, as well as a blue glow from his arms. I was going for somewhere around a punk-ish Rodney Copperbottom from Robots kind of idea. The filigree mesh I just used a nonsense text brush because i didn't have any specific ideas there. I like how the yellows/blues look together. I like the hexagon shape that carries throughout. His silhouette's mostly different enough from everyone else. I don't think he's too saturated. Yet I just don't feel like his design fits him, and I don't know what to do. He's the one I feel like scrapping and redoing the most.

AS-TR was described with long hair, and a slight glow, but didn't have much of a description as far as I remember otherwise. She had two notable design inspirations. Selûne and my cat who coincidentally has the same name (mostly my cat lol). One of Selûne's avatar's is described as long limbed (which is kind of how I just drew the mechanites), with pale hair, dusty skin, and green eyes. The pattern around her eyes is a less exaggerated version of some of her iconography. Her eyes are tinted green with her holy symbol as the shape of the lights. If I were smart, I'd actually have put all seven of the stars that are a part of Selûne's holy symbol (and I might change that later). Aster (my cat) is a tiny little black cat with a grey undercoat and two tiny lil white spots. So from there, I made AS-TR the smallest mechanite, she's two different shades of grey, and she has two little white spots on her chest in a similar size, shape, and location as Aster's. As a result of the name coincidence, and from what we've seen, similar personality, AS-TR is required to be my favorite, lol. Even excluding that though, I do like how her design came out too. Like I said, I might change the design slightly to have the seven stars across her, and I might change the greys to have more contrast because they're too similar, but the whole design came close to what I had in mind.

Over all, I'm pretty satisfied with all of these designs, and while there's things I'm going to change, I think these are all pretty solid.

[worldsbiggestalpaca]

1. October Daunting

2. Adept. Specifically necromancy

3. Meritorious

4. Hell no

5. He had sincere beliefs that were born from being mad with power and he definitely would have turned himself in

6. lol no that is literally the best part of the whole series

7. I mean…. the Vile twist. I personally think it’s the most well done plot twist ever

8. Caelan

9. I mean the easy answer would just be Val’s parents but I think it would work better if we only consider sorcerers for this question because they are the ones who face the most morally challenging predicaments. So, Cassandra Pharos. I don’t really have a reason besides I think she just is

10. Fun to read but it didn’t really spark any emotion. Un-compelling

11. I’m not sure how much or how little one has to appear to qualify for this status. There are characters who are more minor but still important here and there but to be sure I’ll say Frightening Jones

12. MILITSA

13. Anton has a tattoo he got when he was younger and deeply regrets and only Saracen knows about and for a while just kept dropping hints about it to the other Dead Men to make Anton nervous

14. Mean but likable from an outside perspective. I think he’s misunderstood but definitely takes teasing Omen too far

15. I’ve only had Omen for a day and a half but if anything happened to him I would kill everyone in this room and then myself

16. Valkyrie always being out of the loop history wise

17. Phase 1: Caelan. Just. Ugh. Phase 2: No more Finbar

18. Val would be canonically taller than Skulduggery

19. The immaculate set up to the plot twists

20. I think animation would create opportunities to accurately translate page to screen. Like Skulduggery can’t make facial expressions and I think animation would allow for more ways to properly interpret his emotions

21. I mean it’s for a series with 15 main books so…,,

Basic Skulduggery Pleasant themed ask game because op wants silly distractions. This has to have been done before but here it is:

What would your taken name be?

Adept or elemental?

Mevolent's side or Meritorious'?

Should Skulduggery have told Valkyrie he was Lord Vile sooner?

Was Ravel mad with power or did he have sincere political beliefs? Would he have actually given himself up to the authorities like he claimed in lsodm/dotl (I can't remember off the top of my head, but it has to be one of those books)?

Should Skulduggery have given his own soul to power down the accelerator?

What betrayal/turning point/reveal was the most emotionally impactful? Extra points if it doesn't include golden eyes.

Who's the most annoying character?

Who is the most morally upright/decent character? Please explain.

Thought on Scapegrace's arc? And his relationship with Thrasher (Gerald?)?

Best minor character.

Team Caelan, Team Fletcher or Team Militsa?

What's your most niche/specific headcanon for the series?

Thoughts on Never.

Thoughts on Omen.

Favourite in-universe trope/reoccuring theme?

Least favourite part of phase one and/or phase two?

If you could change one thing, what would it be?

If there was a film adaption, what aspect of the book series would you preserve as accurately as possible?

Should there be a live action or an animated adaption?

God this list got long.

[umbrella-aye-aye-aye]

The Umbrella Academy/Jumanji Crossover

i’ve been trying to write this fic forever but it just ain’t happening so instead u get a text post ig

they’re in the past, season 2; five finds a mysterious video game, leaves it elliot’s while gathering his siblings…klaus turns it on bc he was the only one home. the others end up following once they realize

Luther: Jefferson ‘Seaplane’ McDonough. strengths: pilot, margaritas, strength weaknesses: mosquitoes

Diego: Dr. Xander ‘Smoldering’ Bravestone-strengths: fearless, speed, climbing, smoldering intensity, boomerang, knives, holding breath weaknesses: none

Alison: Franklin ‘Mouse’ Finbar- strengths: cranial assault, expert weapons valet, rumor weaknesses: cake, strength, endurance

Klaus: Ming Fleetfoot-strengths: cat burglar, pickpocket, safe cracker, animal/ghost whisperer, [later: subjective immortality] weaknesses: pollen

Five: Ruby Roundhouse- strengths: karate, t’ai chi, jui-jitsu, dance fighting, spatial jumping weaknesses: venom

Ben: horse

Vanya: Professor Shelly Oberon-strengths: cartography, archeology, paleontology, sound weakness: endurance

Klaus only chooses Ming bc he tries to get Ben to play by saying: choose ur character Ben! No? Okay, then ur Ming!

Ben: Why? Because he’s Asian? >:(

K: Alright fine! I’ll be Ming!

—

Klaus can talk to Ben the horse; everyone is skeptical & slightly concerned

-

Klaus: Ben? Luther: stop making jokes, Klaus. Klaus: You should see the size of your—!

-

Luther & Diego struggling w/ new dynamic; Diego seemingly superior over Luther; stand in each other’s shoes as 1 & 2; fight all the time but learn & make up

-

Alison: am I still black? Vanya: yes

-

Did anyone notice cat burglar was in bold for Klaus? i just think that’s Neat

-

Alison & Vanya peeing scene like in Jumanji; ‘Vanya come look at my pen15!’

-

Vanya admitting he enjoyed being perceived as a man & coming out; everyone really supportive—Luther & Diego EXTREMELY and loudly and awkwardly supportive; Alison, causally asking if he wants them to cut his hair when they get back; Klaus: I’m not the only disappointment? Five: we’re all disappointments, Klaus. Except Vanya if that is your name

-

Everyone has three lives; Klaus gives his breath to Luther on his last life; he falls back anyways, new power says: subjective immortality; Diego crying & angry: why is that in bold, Klaus? WHY IS THAT IN BOLD, KLAUS?

-

Did I mention this was a Klaus-immortality-reveal fic? No? Well it is

-

Five dance fighting to ‘Istanbul’ except everyone can hear the music this time bc it’s playing on the radio….everyone very impressed & disturbed. Lots more blood. Lots more killing. (Lots more dancing.)

-

Speaking of Five & disturbed, everyone finds it odd seeing Five in Ruby Roundhouse’s body. For one…..he’s taller.

-

Pls imagine…Vanya & Alison teaching them how to squat to avoid mess/in return teach them to ‘point & shoot’ (yes I’m sorry for this one)

-

Luther & Diego get the jewel & yell Jumanji together; thru the Power of Friendship & Brotherhood

-

Klaus: why isn’t Five’s power margarita? Ben: Why isn’t that one of your weaknesses?

That’s it I guess idk what else to put

[spikey-boiii]

Alright I’m on 3% battery but here we fuckin’ go.

Tagged by @entethedragonduck (Thanks man!!)

Rules: Answer the questions and tag 20 of your followers you would like to get to know better (I can garuntee you it wont be 20 lol)

•Name: Oliver

•Nickname: Oli (More common than my real name, tbh), Grey (My middle name) and Minty Boi (I just really love mint, okay??)

•Zodiac Sign: Libra by the old ones, Virgo by the new ones.

•Height: Idfk. Taller than 5′3 beacuse that’s the height of the friend I always make fun of for being small, but I don’t know outside that.

•Orientation: As in sexual? I’m asexua, panromantic and polyamorous :)

•Ethnicity: Err... Irish/ British / Northern Irish? Look, unless you live here you don’t realise how awkward a question that is :/

•Favorite Fruit: It changes. I go through phases of craving different kinds of fruits, but right now I’m on a pineapple phase.

•Favorite Season: Autumn. It’s pretty, it’s like my perfect temperature, autumn gale-force winds are best winds, my birthday AND halloween. I love autumn.

•Favorite Book Series: Skulduggery Pleasant (I mean like. Duh.)

•Favorite Flower: French Lavenders, just because I pointed one out to my dad once when I was seven years old and he was so impressed I knew its name. So they’re really nostalgic in a good way.

•Favorite Scent: Campfires (I grew up camping.)

•Favorite Color: I used to be a die-hard lover of green, but I’m more of a blue/purple dude right now. Galaxy-esque colours (I just really freaking love space)

• Coffee, Tea, or Cocoa: Tea. Peppermint tea. Green peppermint tea. Green peppermint softmint tea. Man, I want tea now...

• Cat or Dog person: Dog person. I used to have two border collies growing up, but we can’t get any other dogs because my mum runs a cake business from home and it’d drop her hygeine rating. But my heart just absolutely melts when I see dogs. Me and my girlfriend literally spend half our time sitting in parks and waiting for dog walkers to go past so we can pet their dogs. I LOVE DOGS.

•Average sleep hours: Used to be like 3, but since summer started, like 8. I’m still constantly tired though :/

•Favorite Fictional Characters: You can’t ask this question! Uum... Jesper Fahey (Six of Crows), Kaz Brekker (Six of Crows), Saracen Rue (Skulduggery), Finbar Wrong (Skulduggery), Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Genya (The Grisha Trilogy), Kelly (Demon Road) and I’m gonna stop there before I get carried away.

•Number of Blankets you sleep with?: One, which I usually kick off during the night anyways.

•Dream Trip: A road trip across Europe, no plan or anything. Just drive from one country to the next, busking my way for money and seeing where the world takes me. It’s been my dream for years.

•Blog Created: Maybe, like, just over a year ago??? Maybe???

•Number of Followers: 859 (Which is crazy like dude, whoa 0.0 )

I tag @theunconventionalking @marfach @iamnotcreativeokay @laurennnevanss @kulibrisk @the-crystal-queen (Told y’all it wouldn’t be 20 lol)

[cinedave]

REVIEW: Jumanji; Welcome to the Jungle - Game for Laughs

Some people say you can’t make a good film based on a video game. Those people are right.... and those are people are wrong. This generation has seen many failed to “meh” adaptations of big game franchises onto the big screen; like the recent efforts of Warcraft and Assassin’s Creed. Most fail through a combination of taking themselves too seriously despite their natural absurdity or trying to condense 20+ hours of video game story into a 2 hour movie. Then consider films like War Games, Tron or Wreck It Ralph that succeeded. Why? They were films about made up video games allowing for greater creative freedom, removing detrimental game medium comparisons and making the film about more than just its featured game. You can make a good video game movie if you also make the game. That’s one of several reasons why this two decades belated sequel of the wild board game, Jumanji, succeeds. It’s a parody of its own creation and because of that it’s an effective comedy. Cue those drums....

When four high schooler students are thrown together in detention they find an old adventure video game called Jumanji. Playing transports them inside the game’s jungle world as their avatars Bravestone (Dwane Johnson), Shelly (Jack Black), Finbar (Kevin Hart) and Ruby (Karen Gillian). Their only way home is to complete the game. Or will it be game over?

The Breakfast Club in the jungle. That’s exactly what the film is going for with its mix of main characters and shows that said John Hughes special is still a winning formula. The main quartet are typical high school movie archetypes and their game characters are vast contrasts which creates the film’s main source of comedy. The timid geek becomes the big tough adventurer (Johnson), the big football jock is a diminutive weakling (Hart), the shy outcast girl is a badass (Gillian) and the self obsessed popular girl becomes Jack Black. It’s effective comedic source material from start to finish such but more importantly it gives each of 4 actors ways to shine. Jack Black steals many scenes playing it as a high school girl. He even makes the dick jokes brilliant. Or you have moments like Johnson as the big tough guy getting scared by sudden noises. Then there’s standout a scene of Gillian trying to flirt and distract some guards but as the clueless shy girl in the body or Lara Croft. It it’s a lot of really good plays on the typical typecasting and stereotypes of the actors themselves and in places in genuinely feels like the cast were having a blast with this. Although Kevin Hart is basically still Kevin Hart the whole frustrated motor mouth routine actually works well here because we can relate back to his high school jock alter ego.

The above out of character humour in itself would be enough for a decent comedy film but Jumanji stands taller because that’s only its left bulging bicep. It’s right flexing gun is drawing humour from its video game subject matter; playing on common game staples and clichés. Even devout non-gamers will still get where the laughs are coming from. They poke fun at cut scenes, impractical outfits, over exaggerated fight moves, pre-emptive dramatic music (“I hate those drums!”) or unhelpful NPCs repeating the same set answers among other things. By continually switching between gags about and gaming and character switches neither wears out across the film. That keeps Jumanji feeling like a fun and surprisingly immersive adventure. The self aware nature of many game based gags also makes the film seem smarter than most will expect. It’s got a lot of enjoyable video game-esque action sequences that utilise its established over the top, almost cartoon like physics. Plus the simple idea of players having limited lives creates some meaningful peril and stakes while allowing for some fun death sequences.

This game still makes a few miss moves though. In places it’s quite slow paced and feels like its spinning its wheels rather than moving through the story. Granted this is often at the reward of good character banter but at times it feels like Jumanji has a, “don’t laugh and drive policy”. The story has to pull over comedic scenes before continuing. The film does link itself to the 1995 original nicely including some name dropping to Robin William’s (RIP) Alan Parish from being trapped in Jumanji’s jungle. Yet there are inconsistencies concerning the game’s jungle world. This time around it’s shown as more of a Mad Max meets Far Cry setting which doesn’t fit in to Alan parrish emerging from it wearing mostly leaves. The villain character of Bobby Cannavale’s Van Pelt felt rather pointless and forgettable. Like some game villains he existed purely to put a face on minions and enemies of the game but ultimately Jumanji would have been fine without him. Finally the later introduced with 5th player, Nick Jonas’s, is more of a 5th wheel. The starting 4 produce great chemistry and his addition only serves to obstruct that while offering nothing noteworthy himself.

Despite the adversity of being a reboot, Jumanji; Welcome to the Jungle is a very enjoyable adventure comedy with quite a broad appeal. If you and your in laws are going stir crazy together this Christmas, then Jumanji would be ideal film for everybody to escape to. The quality of the cast chemistry and established world building leaves things very open to the possibility of sequels too. Are you ready player one.... two, three and four?