#and the unused ages for the characters are ultimately that - unused

[the-reblogger-of-headcanons]

Me watching the discourse unfolding by the FE Engage leaks on my hill of absolutely zero fucks

[larrythefloridaman]

I think we are completely on the same page

im imagining like. a Where Are They Now segment about kids who grew up doing bloodsport. in an in-universe documentary on CPUK. and the interviewer asks Juni what shes been doing with her life assuming she's probably still fighting on account of Look At Her. She's been working out pretty consistently since she was 8 years old and Looks The Part.

But shes like 'no- i mean yeah sometimes. but mostly for fun and as like a zen thing.' And the interviewer's like 'oh okay what Are you doing then' and she's like 'i'm working at the zoo while i go to school for my biology degree! I'm studying forensic entomology.' And the interviewers like 'oh wow whats that what does that entail' and juni, with a big ol smile and a thumbs up, says

I Look At Corpse Bugs All Day 👍

Sketchdumps part 6: miscellany

👆 previously discord exclusive- Eric, Terra the Real Dog, and The End

👇 me trying to get more comfortable drawing cobalt's stiff ass and struggling, and thinking about What If The Cpuk Kids Grew Up. or. in nera's case. grew up Somewhat Normal rather than Becoming Cosmic Love, who has to be an adult but is also seemingly kinda. somewhat time displaced due to being the emissary of the void and thus not technically existing fully in the same way other people do-? its complicated and the point is this is What If It Wasnt lmao

[charmwasjess]

Strap in for the Soresu form III Obi-Wan lightsaber post. This is gonna be a sad one, girlies. We’re getting into Obi-Wan’s Fucking Trauma. 

Qui-Gon’s death changed literally everything about Obi-Wan’s life, right down to the lightsaber form. Still a Padawan himself, he had to watch as an extinct monster from his nightmares* utterly took apart the form he’d learned since he was a child, and then, to complete the destruction, slaughtered the teacher who’d taught him the form and raised him. The devastation of Qui-Gon’s actual death had to be the last in a cascading series of horrors that started with the gut-sinking realization that Qui-Gon was losing. And if all of that weren’t enough, Obi-Wan also loses his own lightsaber in the same duel, a psychological blow to his personhood which we don’t have to guess at the significance of. Obi-Wan tells us the cost of it himself in AotC: this weapon is your life. 

The Duel of the Fates on a sheer physical level is a devastating thing to consider. It’s a grueling, full out running battle, the likes of which we don’t see elsewhere in the saga. The beauty (and pounding musical score) of the fight distracts from the sheer brutality of it. Maul is physically attacking them at every turn; he manages to kick Qui-Gon hard enough to knock all 6’3 of him off his feet; he dumps Obi-Wan into a fall that seems to be several stories high. We don’t see Obi-Wan get back up off the floor with Qui-Gon’s body at the end of the duel, and I’d be surprised if he was physically able to even stand again so after the adrenaline faded and the soreness and exhaustion took over. He just been whirled in a lightsaber blender. 

I can’t imagine how hard it was for him to pick up a lightsaber again after the trauma of that battle - much less, a new, unfamiliar one, not the kyber crystal that had been his since he was a child. The new canon’s emphasis on the spiritual relationship between a Jedi and their crystal makes this detail even more excruciating. The Ataru form itself must have felt broken and unusable. How can you put your trust in a form once you watched it be broken so ruthlessly?

And this is where Obi-Wan is so endlessly beautiful as a character. He goes through this horrifying experience of violent unmaking, and instead of avoiding lightsabers as an understandable trauma response, or picking up an overwhelming power and dominance form like V, he remakes himself into a master of Soresu: a form of simple, complete defense. He doesn’t attempt to become a weapon of attack like Maul did to disintegrate Ataru; he makes himself invincible, untouchable, with a perfect defense. Soresu works the pieces that fell apart for the Jedi in the Duel of the Fates to an advantage. It is a form of ultimate endurance, of playing out your opponent and staying up in a fight until the attacker is exhausted or angry. It preserves and it lasts. It is philosophical. It is considered. It lacks the showy flash of Makashi or Ataru and returns to the basics, even working in some of that battlefield meditation that Qui-Gon so believed in. And in that simple economy, it’s gorgeous and effective. 

I have to wonder: is Soresu, on some level, a form of kinetic self-soothing for a person who faced an incredibly traumatic battle at a young age? Does Obi-Wan use it that way?

All of this is perfectly in keeping with the themes of the character. Obi-Wan’s story remains about life, about hope, about survival. The word he uses to describe the Jedi to Luke in the OT is important to me. “Jedi knights were the guardians of peace and justice.” Guardians. And what better lightsaber approach for a person who sees his role as one of protection than a form whose signature move is called “The Circle of Shelter?”

*Maul, of course, is a tragedy in his own right, but that’s a different post. 

[baskeigh-ball]

Ignoring the fact that ibis had the ai paint feature a couple years before this whole ai fiasco, after seeing your post, I decided to try it out to see if it really held up. I already knew what you said made no sense, as even stuff like ai painting requires heavy human input that isn't just someone typing a prompt in a thing and looking through thousands of images and somehow still calling it 'art'. Really, it's just some weird advanced bucket.

The ibis ai paint... really sucks. I'm pretty sure it hasn't even been touched since it was added. No matter what I did, I got random colours and whatever colours I had put there looked like it were from a filter, not to mention how my lineart bled everywhere like it was blurred out.

Ibis isn't problematic for adding that feature as not only was it added ages ago, but it was also just a gimmick only added because a few more popular paid programs added them, like Clip Studio Paint. I highly doubt even the company took it seriously considering how poorly built it is. This is actually the one time I'm glad some feature in an app sucks so much.

Another reason why ibis isn't problematic by the mere feature alone is that, when you look at the artists making content during the time of that update, it was received with humour. It was something fun to try, but ultimately dismissed for actual artwork, as nobody would use it to fully paint their works. Nowadays we see something slapped with the words 'ai' and think that it's instantly bad due to the latest issues with it and big corperations/ certain production companies but it isn't. It's just a lot of people abusing what was previously some fun gimmick, which it can still be, and for certain apps, still is. Nobody throws pitchforks at character ai, after all.

You can tell just by the size of this that I'm procrastinating on something. Ima go and let this rot away in your askbox now lol

You really thought this would fade away in my ask box, mwahahaha /j

I wanna start off by saying thank you for holding me accountable, I will admit that I got buzzworded pretty hard in this situation lmao

This information came as a surprise to me-- I was seeing posts pop up within the past week complaining about the ai feature on ibis, so I assumed it was recent. As it turns out, after reading your ask, I discovered that I got a few wires crossed! Because yes, the auto paint feature I referred to in my post has been around for years now, and was never taken seriously anyways

So that was my bad (and yea ur right it's completely unusable, lmao)

But as it turns out, the feature that people have been complaining about DID come out recently. It was called the AI Example feature, I think the idea was that you make a simple drawing and the AI adds 99% of the detail and color, which I've seen a bunch of other programs do.

...and then it was immediately removed due to some pretty major backlash, which, duh

^ This is the only evidence I can find of the 11.2.0 update that included the AI feature on the actual site; their update history stops at 11.1.0. But there's also the news page about the removal of the update, so it's not like they're trying to pretend it never happened.

So tl;dr, I jumped on the hate train a little too quickly and never did enough research to figure out what the actual update was, and that it's been removed by now anyway (which I couldn't have known until today, ofc, but i did kinda post that thing about ibis today so it's still a pretty major oopsie)

I think I can say with confidence now that I agree, ibis paint isn't problematic to use-- they made a mistake with this update, but they actually listened to their users and removed it LITERALLY the next day. So, thanks for letting me know! I'll also edit my last post to prevent any misinformation, just in case people make the same mistake I did :]

[mk-writes-stuff]

OC Interaction Tag

Rules: describe an OC, then describe how they would interact with the previous people’s OCs

Thanks @somethingclevermahogony , @illarian-rambling, and @willtheweaver for the tags! I’m going to pick one OC for all three of these, and I know I usually go with Seven Stations characters but I’m going to spice things up a bit and pull out one of my favourite Pirates’ Roost characters who I think I’ve spoken about exactly once :). Putting this under a cut because it got very long.

C’s OC: Penetinos is a Korithian Sage and a former priest of the goddess Fokisa. He is afflicted by a neurological disease, the exact nature of which is not entirely known to the people of the Green Sea. Penetinos's sickness and his sagecraft have caused him to age prematurely. His back is bent, his once light brown hair is now grey and silver. In his youth, Penetinos was noted for his handsome and youthful appearance, tall and thin. Now unfortunately, though he is just under 60, it would be quite easy to mistake him for a man in his eighties. He is a reasonably powerful sage, though he has been limited by his sickness and age. In his youth he could summon bolts of lightning, clouds of fire, even fly for very short periods of time. Now, he can do little more than summoning small lights or move small objects.

His attitude can be best described as professorial, stern at times, quiet, though ultimately kind. Penetinos is a gentle person, averse to violence, and easily enthused when it comes to learning new things. From a very young age, Penetinos was tutored in the language and scripts of three languages, those being Korithian, Kishic, and Apunic and in matters of literature and the natural sciences.

He has come to accept his mortality, and will readily discuss the subject of death with just about anyone, though he isn't necessarily happy about it.

Katie’s OC: Sepo Kaiacynthus is an aroace siren man in his late twenties/early thirties with a tall stature, gaunt face, dark eyes, and long hair he usually keeps braided. He is mute and has been ever since the Silver Sovereign, divine empress of the sirens, cut out his tongue as punishment for murdering her daughter, which he did by way of setting the royal palace on fire as retribution for his brother's unjust execution. Occasionally, he walks with a cane due to dizziness from a lingering brain injury he gets at the end of the first book. He is a remarkably cunning, paranoid man, with a brutally pragmatic streak. He also tends to be very grumpy, though he does have good manners and a sense of propriety instilled from being raised in a temple. He enjoys complaining about every little thing, though he'll deny it if you ask. He tends to get very worked up over issues, which, combined with his hair-trigger temper, can result in some stunning acts of violence. This violence is never directed at his friends though. Sepo loves just as deeply as he hates, and if someone manages to worm their way into his heart, he'll protect them to his last breath. Other than that, as a siren, he has Opinions on music, and also enjoys learning about surface magic too. His own vocal magic was rendered unusable when his tongue was cut out, and his relationship with the god that grants that magic is also quite touchy. He's not a big fan of religion in general.

Will’s OC: Cya is a child prodigy. Hers is a family of swans that have dedicated themselves to the arts. Having chosen to focus on dance and music, she quickly rose to become a master performer. Those who first meet Cya will say that she has a haughty and self-assured attitude that borders on arrogance. In reality, it is all just an act, as she suffers from anxiety and imposter syndrome. The pressure to uphold the family legacy and meet everyone’s expectations is immense, and she does her best to hide her insecurities. Suffice to say, this has not proven successful, and with no one to confide in, she can fall into days long states of depression.

My OC: Julian is a human doctor who is about 35 at the start of the story (Pirates’ Roost spans about 20 years, so they’re in their 50s by the end of it). They are tall but slender, with short, dark hair, brown skin, and vivid blue eyes. They are of mixed Sun Empire and Brazen Coalition (pirate) heritage, something the pirates don’t care about and the Sun Empire is infuriated by. Julian is a very calm, placid individual - the one time anyone on the ship they work on heard them raise their voice was a monumental occasion - but they have a will of steel. Julian doesn’t refrain from shouting or being nasty because they don’t feel upset, they do it because they can dress you down within an inch of your life without ever having to snap. They have no tolerance for disrespect and hold the people around them, especially those they work with, to a high standard of professionalism, despite being a pirate, and will not hesitate to explain in no uncertain terms that someone’s actions are unacceptable if they feel they, someone they care about, or the medical tradition they hold in high esteem are being disrespected. They are highly particular about the practice of medicine, and will take issue with anyone trying to do things that offend their medical code. They also pick up a pet dinosaur later in the story.

How Julian and Penetinos would interact: I feel like these two would get along quite well. They’re both quiet, professional people and I think they’d both be eager to share their knowledge and expertise with one another. Julian is very respectful of their elders (their mother drilled that one into them from a young age) and I feel like Penetinos would appreciate that. Julian would likely be a bit jealous of his magic - their inability to do healing magic (or, really, any magic at all) is an insecurity of theirs - but I think they would like him enough and he would be kind enough about it that it wouldn’t become an issue.

How Julian and Sepo would interact: I think these two would grate on each other really fast. Julian would find Sepo’s temper and snarky tendencies to be frustrating, and when they finally got tired of it and gave him a talking-to on how he speaks to them, I don’t think it would go over well. If Sepo got physical about it, Julian would be screwed - they keep a knife on them for self-defense, but they’re not a fighter. I feel like Sepo, for his part, would also find Julian’s calm reaction to everything extremely annoying and would get upset that nothing seems to bother them (things do bother them, they’re just usually pretty good at going “okay now’s not the time to panic” and addressing it later). It would honestly probably be for the best if the two of them just stayed far apart, although Julian would probably draw them together at least a few times inquiring about Sepo’s health (which would also probably not go over too well).

How Julian and Cya would interact: Well, the bird thing would take a bit for them to get over, but I think they’d adapt. I think they’d clash at first since Julian tends to not get along well with arrogant people, and getting talked down to by a bird would not make them happy. I feel like if they gave her a dressing-down, the pressure would cause some of her insecurities to tear up and then Julian would have a lot more patience with her. I think they’d actually be able to help her with some of her stresses, and the two of them would be able to get along.

Thank you all for tagging me! I’d love to hear your thoughts on these interactions :)

@kaylinalexanderbooks @elsie-writes @modernwritercraft want to play?

[reblip-reblog]

Where to find Link:

(+characters dressed like him/referencing his appearance)

‎

Will reblog with images

‎

Standard "Legend of Zelda" Games -

Skyward Sword

The Minish Cap

Four Swords

Ocarina of Time

Majora's Mask

Twilight Princess

Four Swords Adventures

Breath of the Wild

Tears of the Kingdom

A Link to the Past

Oracle of Seasons/Ages

Link's Awakening

A Link Between Worlds

Tri Force Heroes

The Legend of Zelda

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

The Wind Waker

Phantom Hourglass

Spirit Tracks

‎

Outside Standard "Legend of Zelda" Games -

Pre-Minish Cap

Pre-Four Swords

Pre-Breath of the Wild

Hyrule Warriors

Age of Calamity

Cadence of Hyrule

BS The Legend of Zelda

BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets

Link's Crossbow Training

The Legend of Zelda Game Watch

Zelda (Game & Watch)

Link: The Faces of Evil

Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Zelda's Adventure

My Nintendo Picross: Twilight Princess

Other Nintendo Picross Games

Pre-Skyward Sword Manga (Akira Himekawa)

Valiant Comics (George Caragonne)

Other LoZ Mangas/Comics/Books

DIC Legend of Zelda Cartoon

Captain N: The Game Master

Super Smash Brothers series

Mario Kart 8

F1 Race

Uniracers (Unused)

Super Mario Maker

Animal Crossing Series

Soul Calibur II

Donkey Kong Country 2

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

NES Tetris

Tetris DS

NES Remix

Death Road to Canada

Sky: Children of the Light

Monster Hunter

Dynasty Warriors VS/Samurai Warriors Chronicles3

Kirby Series (Sword Ability)

Yoshi's Woolly World

WarioWare Series

nintendogs + cats

AR Games

Miitomo

Miitopia

StreetPass Mii Plaza

Find Mii

Nintendo Land (LoZ: Battle Quest)

Nintendo Badge Arcade

NES Remix 2

Nintendo Cereal System

World of Warcraft

Yoshi's Island 4

Asterix & Obelix XXL 2

Terraria

Transformice

Scribblenauts Unlimited

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Sonic Lost World

Dino Run

Starbound

A Hat in Time

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Jump Rope Challenge

Bayonetta

Phantasy Star

Final Fantasy (sort of)

Google Maps

Ittle Dew

Mable & the Wood

Super Mario Bros. & Friends: When I Grow Up

The Cat Mario Show

My Little Pony

Powerpuff Girls

Nintendo E3 x Robot Chicken

Golden Sun: The Lost Age (Unused; source code)

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (Unused)

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Unused)

‎

((There may be more than one "Link"-type character in a single entry -- Hero's Shade, Fierce Deity, Linkle, Ravio, Animal Crossing player in Hero's Outfit + W. Link, Mario Kart Links + Outfit for Miis, the pre-characters listed above, etc.))

((I am counting characters who can dress up as Link, such as in BS Zelda, Sky: Children of the Light, Animal Crossing, the Badge Arcade rabbit, etc.))

((The same Link can appear in multiple entries.))

‎

Got a lot of information from these sites:

‎Let me know if I missed or skipped over any that I should add to the list!

I might reblog this with images.

[vergess]

TS4 blogging

There's technical in fandom terminology for all of this but I don't know it, sorry for being a cringefailwaifu or what have you.

I am trying to keep a family alive for 10 generations of short lifespans. This is a known style of play, but IDK the word.

Anyway, I'm on Gen 7, it's going so good, I just wanted to note everything down before I forget.

Gen 1 (founding family):

I decided to populate the world with rainbow pastel sims, and began play with a werewolf version of @arionwind, who ultimately bred out with a pink pastel sim. Conveniently, because werewolves can achieve immortal status, this Ari sim is still alive.

Meanwhile, the pink sim turned out to be a witch, a genetic trait allowing the character to use cheat codes "in universe" as magic.

This meant all children would be either genetic witches or genetic werewolves.

Gen 2 (banananananana):

The first child of G1 would ultimately be our throughline. Because of my exceedingly, violently modified game settings, this one came out a trans man autonomously on age up, so that's fun. Although born with human skin, I modified him to have pastel yellow, beginning a trend throughout the subsequent generations of picking a theme color for all of the kids skin, hair and eyes in a generation. All other genetics were left unmodified.

His name was Syrene and he was the first one to be named Serrano as well. A real trendsetter, he determined a lot of things about future generations' play styles.

He also had 7 children, including 2 sets of twins. My man was Never Not Pregnant.

He was so happy about being a parent that he funded the family money tree, which rapidly became the primary source of income in the game. A money tree is a garden object you can buy with reward points for making your sim happy. At higher levels, it pays 22,500 dollars a day.

He personally funded 3 of them.

Cheerful as fuck.

Gen 3 (grape):

Ultimately I elected to follow the youngest of the younger set of twins, Rori. Her twin, Augustin, was the last natural born werewolf in the family line, as he never had children himself. However, he remained Rori's close friend throughout her life.

Rori sired many children in her life as a world travelling magical duelist, and ultimately raised a handful of them while paying double child support to the rest.

Gen 4 (bluet):

The 5th of Rori's children, a retiring homebody who ran off to a rural village when she got pregnant. She spent her life making Unusually Strong Potions due to sims of this generation and later having the Ancient Bloodline trait. She also raised llamas and kitted a lot.

A very chill woman overall, which makes the Dramatics of her child... impressive.

Gen 5 (brown on brown IDK she was born very pretty but not very fruity):

Maricela Serrano, you beautiful bitch.

Maricela died at her adult birthday of Having Too Much Fun, a known cause of death in the game.

She had recently, as in the day before, finished marrying her wife, Sidney Lalonde, of the Newcrest Lalondes (when I first populated the game in gen 1, I put in a homestuck house on an unused map and forgot about it entirely until this point).

Because both were born with the double fertility trait (heavily modded game!) both of them were able to sire and carry children over the course of their engagement, and ultimately they had 6 children together. And oh man, what children they were, raised by the ghost of a dead mom, and an Actual Lunatic Immortal Witch because oops somewhere along the way Sydney drank an immortality potion.

Gen 6 (peachy teens!):

The eldest, Romeo. The twins Viola and Sebastien. The twins Lady and Othello. And the youngest, Ariel.

Of them, Ariel quickly seemed the loveliest and the most worth pursuing genetically, however, Ariel proved the first of a dramatic calamity about to befall the family line.

Although both Maricela and Sidney were witches, Ariel proved to have no magical ability. So I set them up to be a comedy focused NPC and moved on to Othello.

Othello was an over acheiver (which is a type of teenager you can play, with specific goals) who quickly graduated high school and entered college as a teen, a thing I did not know you could do in this game until he did it.

This is of critical importance.

He went to college and on the FIRST. NIGHT. AFTER. CLASS.

He died of studying too much in the library. His brain exploded into computer symbols.

In addition to not knowing teens could go to college I also did not know they could die.

I relented to my next backup, Lady. Lady is a mean, evil, romantic sim and almost immediately dies of being too angry, another known cause of death in the game.

I am rapidly running out of peachy teens!!!!!!

I fall back to Romeo, who is at this point an adult with the goal of becoming world famous, so I make him an actor and off we go.

As part of the bit, I have him sire as many kids as possible. Every time an NPC asks to date him, he knocks them up and breaks up with them immediately. He did this himself the first 2 times, but I make it an enforced rule from then on.

He gets world famous, becomes old, and decides to meet his many children.

Gen 7 (cherry red and spring green):

All of Romeo's children were born without magic, so I picked the prettiest one and had her run away to live at the beach. She became a mermaid because I think they are pretty.

She lived an extremely uninteresting life of being a B list youtuber and raising her only child, a daughter she had via IVF with her best friend from high school.

Super chill, very normal.

Gen 8 (strawberry pink and dark green):

No idea why her child came out human and evil, but that happened. Anyway, while bringing Romeo's gravestone to the family graveyard, Sidney (the immortal Lalonde) was just like, "hey Siobhan, stand still, you're a witch now."

So I guess my vague plans of making her be a vampire are over, since you can only be one kind of magic thing at a time.

But she can still be a supervillain so that's fun!

And that's where we're at.

[raineyteaclouds]

Grievances

I grieve for what I lost today.

the innocence, of which I’ve lost today,

the tears, unuseful, which I have lost today.

I grieve for what I lost today

for I realise they will never know

how it feels like to accidentally offend someone,

everyone in your life, all the time,

fucking up, and finding out;

that is the basis of your life.

they will never know why you offend them

because you praise them, but they also

will never understand what it feels like to only

think

speak

hear

what you are currently fixated on,

songs, games, shows.

they will never understand

the magnitude of your heart breaking

because to them, it’s just fictional.

to me, it’s my whole life.

I grieve for what I lost today

my friendships young and old.

we said things would always stay the same

but I knew it was over long ago.

and these tears I shed for all of them

I know I will never recover, like

the pieces of my heart I gave them

burnt and damaged beyond repair,

all because of a small crack in the glass

letting all the empty airy conversations seep in,

I run along the beaches and the seas in silence

because today I realised

THEY WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE.

to be ostracised and bullied

for being who you are,

in this hypocritical day and age where

everyone is meant to be accepting.

you find no one wants to tolerate

you constantly talking about the same things

over and over and over, nor do they

want to hear your opinions, or take you seriously.

Grieving this day, because today,

I lost the freedom of non-oppression.

Now I shall hide into my shell

because you said we had way too different personalities,

completely change myself to fit in your circle

of which the borders barely touched me.

I will look at them who you befriended.

Them who charm and dazzle,

and tackled difficulty with smiles,

them who made friends so easily

and aced their every exam,

and had wonderful families who

put warm foods on their study desks.

I grieve, for what I have lost today

will ultimately be myself.

I grieve my times spent staring at my phone

laughing at characters

who will never exist in real life,

nor jump out my phone.

Watching the people dance and sing

unabashedly, thinking, this is what life should be,

this is what I can do with others.

I grieve that they will never understand

the things that bring me the most joy

are the things they cannot comprehend

the secret code to a mystery

these geniuses can’t solve.

[multitrackdrifting]

A long write-up on AI Art

I do actually go out of my way to read pro-ai art takes, and hell I will be the first to say that something like the infinite seinfeld twitch channel is funny (of course, when they're not running a backup bot that gets cancelled for making insensitive jokes)

but at the end of the day I will never really budge on my dislike for AI-Art, because ultimately pro-ai art and anti-ai art stances often are talking about two entirely different things. as someone that criticises AI art quite regularly, I am firmly commited to the idea that consqeuences matter the most, whereas most of the people who are pro-ai art treat AI simply as a tool and its people that are abusing it as well as the economic structure that incentivises its use. there is merit to both stances, but the thing i will never advocate for is putting aside the feelings of artists as if it is not a morally relevant factor, and i don't mean their fears, i mean their belief that all of a sudden tonnes and tonnes of people are experts on anti-art gatekeeping and democratizing access to art creation but it's like, nobody is really concerned with those ethically trained self-programmed joints that use public domain works, because those aren't the ones being sold to people - the ones that make pixiv, deviant art and other sites completely fucking unusable unless you opt out of seeing them manually. that flood the tags of an obscure character you like, that condition people to think that your art is worth less because they can parameter punch and produce something that is more "detailed" on a technical level and how that affects how art consumption is treated psychologically

if you can press a button and get anything you want, i have sen people say that this sounds good as shit and why would you hate it - and the answer is pretty fucking simple:

because it ignores what you pay to get it, and i wish pro ai-art people would not just toss that to the side when measuring up the weight of people's feelings about even an infinitismally small percentage of their art being used to train an ai to produce something and they will say some shit like oh, well, would you want to give Mr. MIckey Mouse himself the ability to copyright forms of expression and stop influence from happening, and its like brother, influence is like me growing up being inspired by the power rangers, a machine aggregating datasets to understand a "thing" is borrowing the works of tonnes of people without their consent to produec a new original thing that is "fair use" even though you the individual did not apply any of your own craftsmanship to transform the works that inspired you. references, inspiration and all this other shit, they are all permissible ways of producing art that isn't plagiarism, but we're in a realm where people are unironically arguing that these machines are not committing any wrongdoing because it might be legal for them to do so but i thought we fucking understood at this big old age that laws are not inherently a metric of what is right or what is just?

I don't give a shit about copyright laws, I just want people to stop brazenly shitting on the crafts of artists, and I'm not gatekeeping when I say that, I never said you had a barrier to entry to be one - why is it so easy for people to say "I should be allowed and even encouraged to press the button because I can", it's not really democratizing art because you have a idea materialisation button at your disposal

I'm not fascinated with the debate of "real art" or whatever the fuck, a lot of you are stuck on really really asinine debates to derail the conversation about the practical outcomes of AI art and machine-learning being as dangerous as it is

AI art can be used to wholesale plagiarise someone's art style, you can literally stipulate that it does that for you because of the nature of parameter refinement, and yes even if it breaks TOS there are ways to jailbreak inputs on ChatGPT so I don't even delude myself into thinking it's not possible with Stable Diffusion/Midjourney.

Machine-Learning/AI is also used to develop pornography of famous figures without their consent

Netflix funded an animated short where a human drew the reference base for backgrounds that were then AI-generated, then cleaned up, but credited the fucking artist as AI (+Human) without naming the uhman. A creator who works on Netflix cartoons even chimed in and look at this fucking fucking cooked interaction

AI Art was famously used to produce works trained on the style of Kim Jung Gi not even a day after he had passed away.

And, I feel the need to mention it - Linkin Park's new video, instead of producing a style reminiscent of Production IG's Breaking The Habit MV they input footage, alongside "reference images" drawn over the band members to produce an AI Art MV - the precise details of how those generators work are not super clear to me, but we still got the six fingers and all that.

I'm literally so puzzled as to why people are stuck on the following ideas:

Well we shouldn't do anything about it because that would entail copyright laws strengthening.

People can plagiarise by hand

Vocaloid is ok but AI voice isn't (an especially stupid argument)

AI is just a tool so there's no need to get mad at it

i) We don't need copyright laws to strengthen when you literally see every 2nd mfing artist on twitter saying how they don't consent to their works being used to train AI - there's a lack of regulation between art platforms that offer up your works for training as an opt-out instead of an opt-in. People were mad as fuck with Adobe (who loosely worded their policy) and CSP for this

ii) So because plagiarism exists without the assistance of AI we should shrug then when it happens at the press of a button when someone types in (parameters x, ... z) (your best friend's artstyle) (some fucked up concoction of fetishes) then right? Of fucking course not

iii) People who say vocaloid is a supporting argument for AI/voice synthesising using AI are just plain stupid. Vocaloid is more like an instrument but some people mistakenly believe it's like TTS and just pops off by itself. The tuning and more technical details of producing with it are so fucking demanding that usually the person doing the tuning isn't the only person working on the damn song lmao

iv) AI IS JUST A TOOL, but we all live under capitalism and yes it entices people to do exploitative things because art is a labour market and not merely a medium and people have to do it to live but its exactly because we are explicitly aware of this that we can realistically foresee how smaller artists who do live off commission work, off prints, going to cons and setting up tables to make money and shit are going to be affected. It's already cropping up at cons just as plagiarised art was already a problem, but you know what happens now - it's even easier to sell something you did not even make for money, and do not argue to me that people should be allowed to do that. I've seen how brutal tabling at cons can be even with the extensive exposure, people will literally tell you to your face that your prints aren't worth it or that they're too expensive and walk over to Plagiarism Booth 57 and buy unauthorised prints

Lets not wax on about this topic as some ideological plaything that only has meaningful discussion when we look at it in a vacuum

Shit like this is novel in a vacuum, but it's fucking harmful in the context of our world that you literally cannot separate yourself from

In a world literally built around content consumption and algorithmic training, how would you feel when the novelties of parameter entry completely drown you underneath the torrent of irrelevance because your heartfelt pieces get 1000 likes as opposed to an AI generated picture of Joan of Arc with some gigantic breasts (and before you say this argument is irrelevant, recommendations is literally the forefront of content consumption in the modern internet. On twitter it is topics, on YouTube it is the home page. Even if the two styles of art don't correlate, do the artists drawing pinups and other shit not deserve to have a living or st?). You might think that's funny to say, but image/art sites have already been plagued by AI art - no reason YouTube and Twitter are not steadily going down the same road.

Maybe it's not the most eloquent analogy, but we're literally saying that packet ramen is just as valuable as making it from scratch, art is difficult to define, but I won't accept that AI Art shoudl be welcomed with open arms just as the numerous artists on twitter will

The most toxic rhetoric borne out of this whole "tech fetishism" people have with AI art on tumblr right now is that to make your idea more palatable, you have to belittle hand-made art and resent artists who practice their skill as if they're the same gatekeepers like wacom and shit who make digital art equipment too expensive, or the pc manufacturers that priced lower budget pcs out of viability. There's a number of issues that are worth discussing, but nothing makes my blood boil more than people belittling the actual time and effort people put into becoming artists. That shit is not talent, it is literally a skill that those people trained for YEARS and YEARS and people are unironically arguing that society is better off if they can get it at the press of a button. NO it's not comparable to "if I had to suffer, then you do too", and no it's not like people who paid for college nad other people going for free. stop fucking saying that. That is a false equivalence that is completely tossing out an argument for the wrong reasons. Nobody is saying you have to suffer to be an artist, and I wish this stopped being used as a cudgel in this discussion. We are legit talking about practical consequences for artists both amateur (as in non-industry), and professional and how that might ruin the labour market, cause yes, WE DO HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THAT IN A PRACTICAL SENSE

I'm not saying AI Art cannot make some interesting and valuable results in every single context, just that people have to disregard the feelings of artists to actually conceive of the idea that it's not a fucking good thing when you can flood the algorithm-driven web out with generated images.

I'm not fascinated in arguing that people don't care because they are not real artists, that shit isn't productive, but nothing is more hollow than pretending you care about the virtues of art and art consumtpion then unironically shrugging at the ethical problems that exist with all the most prolific art generators and saying "but it lets me get the image I want". Do you even know how personal an artstyle that people create and the artworks they make in it can be to people? People are allowed to define their boundaries why the fuck do you think you're entitled to their discomfort as a necessary cost of the cool new thing you want to play with?

It was funny when we just did shit like Imposter in Skyrim or something with DALL-E, but now it's just spun out of control. Under the systems we live in, the corruption will invariably ruin a beautiful thing and I'm just so tired of how unserious this conversation is

[mrstsung]

New oc dropped!

New fankid.

(This is more of an au idea than anything. But im loving this idea. It'sa w.i.p still but I'll give the basics)

Ok so this fankid is an au where me n shang have a son. But this baby is a magic baby.

His name is Xian Tsung.

Ok so here's how it happened.

Basically someone. Haven't decided who. Might just leave it anonymous and a non canon related character. But someone decided to get into shang's old magic stuff in his old outworld keep. The place is practically unused and abandoned. Only small amouts of it remains behind. The more important equipment is on his island with him,where he resides permanently. Anyways. Someone decided to try to make their own creation warrior to "get back at shang tsung". But instead of a full grown warrior,accidentally creates a baby. Just a 1yr old baby. How? Well somehow they got a hold of both me n shangs dnd n spliced it. And with a bit of magic,and what was available. Boom. Magic baby. But this person thought "well i can't do anything with a baby" so basically played ding dong ditch and left it on the doorstep of shang's main castle keep on his island. And left.

Now me n shang have to take care of this poor thing.

Shang said he wasnt gonna get attached...you know damn well thats a lie he tells himself.

By all accounts it technically is his child. But he's more mad that someone had the audacity to create a child of him and me. He's mad they did this without his knowledge. And did it so successfully. Also mad he didn't get to make the child himself,by himself. (Cuz shang is totally the dude that would rather "make the baby" with someone he genuinely loves than in a lab.)

But he sees how this child makes me smile. And how much it makes me happy. So he plays along. And he ultimately ends up giving in and genuinely becomes attached.

Again xian when we find him he is essentially just 1yrs old. Basically baby. And he ages just like any baby would. All in all a perfectly magically lab made baby.

Xian has more of my traits of compassion,laid back attitude,and chill vibes.

But has his father's cunning,intellect,is magically adept,and ability to diplomatically disarm.

He is more into elemental magic. And fighting styles that disarm,defend,and or turn the energy back onto his opponent.

His fighting styles can manipulate chi,and redirects the flow. He can block it as well. So he essentially can make you paralyzed with one pinky touch.

All without killing.

Xian isn't above killing but he hates getting his hands dirty.

He tries not to kill if he can't help it.

Unlike me who does it because i have no choice. Also i do it for others health not my own. (Id know what im capable of if i was in mk ok?) So mostly noble reasons.

xian don't do it out of sheer laziness.

Anyways that's all for now. Like i said it's a w.i.p. but that's what i got for now. And its an au idea.

Enjoy sweet baby boy.

[rhapsodybenny]

I just had an idea for a Star Wars short story that I really want to write: typical Light-Side versus Dark-Side story, period and characters don't matter. Desert-Planet™ is desperately struggling for food, and village on said planet has a McGuffin both sides need equally desperately, but is somehow the only thing stopping Desert-Planet™ from being utterly demolished to obtain it. Light-Side favors democracy, tries to send provisions to Desert-Planet™ to move balance of opinion in their favor. Dark-Side can't allow them to gain that footing, embargoes Desert-Planet™ to intercept all incoming provisions, and stockpiles them. Then, they try to force the village to give up the McGuffin, essentially saying "Give us the McGuffin, and you shall thrive and feast on your aging bread! Resist us further, and you shall starve, and we will step over your bodies!"

Light-Side then sends Jedi to surgically dissemble the embargoes, and deliver the food to the planet, conveniently landing right next to the village to discover the truth of the McGuffin. One Perfect-Plan-That-Didn't-Go-So-Well-Because-A-Completely-Unforeseen-Sith-Apprentice-Exists™ later, they've gotten onto the main ship, flawlessly disabled several flanks of troopers, used the force to load up many of the food-crates onto a cargo ship, and are confronted by a Sith-With-Insane-New-Powers™. One Saber-Force-Fight™ later (which involved the Sith force-pushing crates at them), the Jedi batten down the hatches, and launch off in the cargo ship towards the atmosphere the ship wasn't designed to handle, pursued by the Sith in a Swankin'-New-Vehicle™. One solitary surviving food-crate is left all alone on the platform.

One Spaceship-Cutscene™ later, the Jedi arrive on the planet conveniently close to the village, the villagers discover the food in a conveniently quick manner, and the Jedi quick-march to the Temple-of-the-McGuffin™, where they discover two things:

1) The Macguffin is a Thing-Of-Solemn-Significance™, and

2) The Sith is waiting for them directly beneath the McGuffin, where the Sith launches into a monologue akin to "Your lovey-wovey treatment of the villagers sickens me. I reached the McGuffin undeterred. It has given me Ultimate-Dark-Side-Powers™. Now you must Die™."

One Epic-Saber-Force-Fight™ later, the Jedi have achieved a Holy-Miraculous-Victory-Batman!™. The MacGuffin is theirs! But permanently tainted by Sith's blackened soul, and completely unusable by the Light-Side. Sealed away to protect the canon, obligatory celebration parade, roll credits.

Epilogue™: Dark-Side army commander and Overlord-Sith™ are standing amidst the wreckage on the loading platform, where the saber fight was. A single intact crate stands above the bodies, burn marks, and rations. They are having a Conversation™.

Out of curiosity, the army-commander opens the crate, and finds inside an enormous number of circular pastries, containing hardened chunks of a sugary dark-brown substance with a bitter aftertaste. He tries one, out of curiosity. He loves the taste.

"Say, these rations are delicious, my lord. Try one?"

The Overlord-Sith™ hesitantly tries one. He is overwhelmed with deliciousness.

"These pastries... please me. I enjoy their taste. What are they?"

The army-commander looks at the side of the crate. "Their designation is 'cookies,' my lord."

"Their quality of make is evident. Perhaps... they can be of use in our recruitment centers."

"How would that be arranged, sir?"

Overlord-Sith™ turns away, musing to himself.

"Join the dark side... We have cookies."

[catgirl-catboy]

Can I get Aiden facts? Like I'm weirdly attached that boy like Mika do! What did you put my drink Tenko!

Mika got weirdly attached to him too, or perhaps just really upset that she wasn't talented enough medically to save him. Its Mika, so her genuinely losing her cool is notable.

He comes from an entire family of musicians that travel around together. None of them are ultimate level talented, but are still quite well known.

As a result, he never stayed in one place very often as a kid, causing him to be very lonely during childhood. He loves music, but he wants to connect to people outside of it, you know?

He wasn't actually born mute. His entire family got ill when he was a toddler, and it knocked out his vocal cords. He was too young to really miss being able to talk, and just sees it as a fact of life.

A side effect of this is that he, alongside the rest of his family, are complete germaphobes. He constantly is wiping down his hands and carries hand sanitizer around. (I imagine that if he lived until my chapter four fear motive, he'd probably have to touch something incredibly gross and not wash his hands for the rest of the day. Yuck!)

This is relevant in case 2, since we find his germ gel left around, which he wouldn't do. This is theorized to be where he was abducted before getting murdered.

That being said, he really wants people his age to listen to him. He constantly feels like an outsider, due to most fans of his work being way older than him.

He's kind of sad that people think he's only into classical music, since that is generally what he's hired to conduct. He's a fan of all sorts of music! He'd jump at the chance to help out at a rock concert. Or a country gig. Or anything different from what he's expected to do!

He's really worried that he comes across as socially awkward, when that is not the case. He's perfectly polite, to the point of being passive when he really shouldn't.

While he uses TTS in game, his entire family communicates with him in sign language, so he's not very used to the interface. This poses a crapton of problems communicating until Mika casually admits she knows it too.

He's incredibly good at figuring out what made a sound, and where it came from. I imagine that this would be useful in case one somehow, but I haven't worked out how.

For instruments, he's a jack of all trades, master at none. If his family owns it, he knows how to play it, but conducting is where his real talents lie.

He knows how to compose music as well, and frequently conducts his own songs.

While he's about average height (5'5), he's quite skinny and easy to overpower. Mika says this could be why someone chose to go after him in case 2.

He likes birds, and wants to own one some day. He's undecided about the species.

Thematically, Tom the wedding planner made a comment about how he doesn't want to die alone, and the SHSL edgelord is like, "everyone dies alone deal with it." this is relevant because Aiden is the only character in this game that dies with someone who wasn't involved in the murder. Good for him, I guess?

His unused execution (it would never happen, he's not the type, being a Chihiro foil.) is that he has to force a bunch of talentless Monokumas to play extremely complex classical music. (its implied the execution win condition is if they play it perfectly, but who knows. The win conditions are designed to be unwinnable for the character in question.) They are goofing off, and not playing well in the slightest. Aiden tries to get their attention, but they ignore/don't notice him. Every time the piece is played incorrectly, Monokuma's in the audience pelt him with mud. Eventually, the Monokuma band gets fed up with being told what to do, and gang together to kill him.

[mylambandmartyr]

@annoyingcloudtidalwave I think we are engaging with these shows in fundamentally different ways, but I’ll bite.

I was initially talking about a pattern I’ve noticed of people flattening both characters just because they want a cute, fluffy romance. That’s fine, people can do whatever they want, but I’m an annoying media analyst at heart, so I like it when characters are allowed to be meaty and complicated in fanworks and It’s always a little disappointing when people don’t take chances to explore that and instead decide to just completely change their characterization.

With humongous properties like Marvel, there’s a lot of writing cowardice within the original works themselves. They pussyfoot around things for maximum palatability, so their stories have mass-market appeal and aren’t too challenging. I think that’s partially why my brain latched onto Punisher and Daredevil, because the characterization that we’re given has a surprising amount of potential and a lot of it goes unused. What I’m interested in dissecting and reassembling is what I see as unused potential, so I definitely am inserting and exacerbating ideas because I find them fun to play around with.

Back to Karen and Frank.

As far as instability goes, we see that both of them at the very least are drawn to it, consciously or not. It’s a self-destructive impulse, but neither of them have ever really been allowed to have stability; children weaned on poison consider harm a comfort etc, etc...

Textually, Frank thrives in danger, that’s the main reason he joined the military. You’re right that he thinks he will never find peace, and it’s likely he never will. He recognizes that his work is Sisyphean, that’s what makes him an interesting character.

Karen is an investigative journalist with an addictive personality and a thing for volatile men. She doesn’t strike me as someone who likes it when things are calm, and I think it’s part of why she likes Frank. He’s dangerous, unpredictable, but also obviously respects and trusts her, something she’s never really gotten a lot of from other people in her life. It’s interesting to see that juxtaposed with the almost paternalistic way Matt and Foggy seem to see Karen. She entered their lives as a victim and she holds that position throughout Daredevil, it’s why they try to shelter her, lie to her, and exclude her from important conversations she should be involved with. All she wants is someone to tell her the truth, to cut the bullshit, and to treat her like an equal.

Although Frank saves her on multiple occasions and seems to also feel some level of paternalistic protectiveness, (their slight age gap lends itself to this) he sees her as a full person capable of taking care of herself. He sees her as a Complete person, really, someone who not only doesn’t need him, but also needs to be Away from him.

I did phrase the beginning of my ramble in the tags strangely so I’ll elaborate. It’s hard to tell what exactly Frank truly wants in a hypothetical relationship with Karen (Part of that is intentional obfuscation by the writers so they can maintain the “will they?/won’t they?” thing with Karen and Frank/Karen and Matt so they can keep doing fan service stuff,) but it seems like they want different things. Frank doesn’t want a capital R “Relationship”. He loves her, yeah, but he doesn’t want Karen the way she wants him. Karen wants to hold him until he softens, wants to dig her nails into him and keep him. Frank wants someone to punish him, someone who will love and leave and let him keep an empty place in his heart.

To me, Karen and Frank’s relationship is ultimately a tragedy, which makes them more interesting to write about. That said, You don’t have to think about them like that, that’s the best part of media analysis!

Sitting alone with my controversial Frank Castle and Karen Page opinions

[bcbdrums]

I’ve actually seen many people talk about this even before i joined the fandom and recently the creators have confirmed that Shego age was between late twenties to early thirties. Even the show points out to this being the case.

And we have the live action movie which casted an age appropriate Kim and Shego and without the stylistic animation, the age difference becomes very jarring to see.

Is just that if there’s such a big age gap between Kim and Shego and has always been, then why would the writers deliberately hype the ship and play up aspects of it? I don’t know about you, but that sounds super weird.

I remember there was someone who had worked in the show (they had a sample of the last episode graduation) an d they had went on record to say that as far as they were concerned there was no delivered intent to make Kigo a thing and that the writes were seemingly against it.

But again it kinda contradicts what we saw in episode like “stop team go”.

I’m not sure, but all of this is weird.

And yeah I don’t like using words as pedo, but it’s been confirmed that Shego is at least 10 years older than Kim, which makes everything about this and the ship itself super uncomfortable to me

I should redo this and make it more organized, but here's my analysis of a canon-realistic age for Shego. This is the logic my headcanon is based on: Essay: how old is Shego? And yes, I think she starts the series in her late twenties.

I LOVE that the live-action showed a realistic age difference! I think they nailed it, and your description of "jarring" is pretty accurate when one starts to think in shipping terms. But for those of us who have always seen them as the adult and child they are, it's not really any surprise. I wish the live-action had more traction JUST for that reason. (Not to mention...Drakgo were awesome in it!)

@a113cowgirl I'm fairly certain has scans of the original script to Graduation which includes unused material, which definitely pushed Drakgo more as a couple. Now what I've heard unfortunately is that the Drakgo ending was just fanservice and not the writers' intent. What we DO know about the writers' intent, is that Kim/Ron was always endgame. It's been documented many times, and it's extremely clearly built up to in season 3, with So the Drama the always planned ending. It's season 4 that was the weird wild card.

I'll be more clear... During season 4, I don't think the writers were attempting to push the Kigo ship. I think that it was probably just recognized that hot girl on hot girl stuff...sells. The fight at the spa in Mad Dogs and Aliens... Literal mud wrestling with Shego in a bathing suit... That was wholly unnecessary. It's not trying to push the ship, it's trying to use sexuality to sell. To attract viewers. I don't care for that course of action with these characters because it encourages a child/adult ship and that is Wrong.

I feel like Stop Team Go showed a highly exaggerated version of Shego... One that ultimately probably wouldn't last in terms of friendship with Kim, because it wasn't really her and it just...wasn't real. That episode was another...pandering to fandom. A "what if they were friends" thing, clearly. Almost like fanfic onscreen.

In the end, Kim and Ron were always endgame, season four never departed from that, but the writers/animators were happy to pander to fandom a bit since they'd had quite some time to see what was popular. And in the end it's all about drawing in viewers, and thus, money.

So no, still, there was no deliberate attempt by the writers during the series to push Kigo in any way. And label it or don't label it, but Kim being a minor and Shego being a much older adult makes it not okay. If it doesn't sit right with you, it's for a reason... The reason probably being, it's a minor and an adult.

Hope this answers your questions.

[ocd-kenobi]

oh! For a prompt bow about the word “ gilt” ? (Ps- you are awesome)

Thank you dear!! I hope you meant "gilt" as in covered in gold--if you meant "guilt" then please come back with that and I'll write something for that as well! Here's an odd little character study in past tense, which I am horribly unused to using.

The cross that hung in Obi-Wan’s childhood home had been plated with gold. When he was very young, he had been fascinated with it, as its was the shiniest, gaudiest object in the house; though his family owned land, they were not exceptionally wealthy, and this one object seemed to him a symbol of their wealth—not of God. When he’d grown tall enough, he used to stare at his distorted, muted reflection in the gold and wonder what lay beneath.

An unusually principled boy, he had refused to join his father in trade, refused to train to become a soldier in petty land disputes, refused to enter into a marriage agreement, and, ultimately, refused to join the clergy. He had at least considered this last option, as it was an honor to his family that he even had the option and an honor to God that he might be able to live a life in service of Him. But every member of the clergy he met wore gold on his person, and Obi-Wan saw his distorted, muted reflection in it and found no answers about what lay beneath.

When he finally found and joined the Abbey, he walked through the dewy grass until his toes wrinkled, saturated by God’s presence on sacred ground, and he ran his hands over the bare, aging wood of every wall until splinters lived in his skin, lingering reminders of God’s presence he could touch and feel the sting of throughout the day. Christ’s body was carved in wood. The cross was made of wood. His days consisted of a regular schedule of service to mankind, through prayer and through completing requested tasks in the nearby villages. He no longer wondered what lay beneath the gold, or beneath his own face, because he had removed himself from gold, and found a use for his face in prayer.

Anakin came to him with golden hair. It muddied to an earthy brown as he aged out of childhood, as Obi-Wan, through his guidance, brought him closer to God. Sometimes, he worried his guidance was sullying the boy in some inexplicable way, but if he recited his prayers and ruminated on his faith enough, the fears faded. 

Then, only then, once Anakin’s hair was dulled brown as wood, did Obi-Wan take comfort in running his fingers through it, gathering splinters, murmuring prayers.

And then, when, despite his hot temper and disregard for the Abbot’s authority, Anakin joined the Abbey as a novice, most of his hair was suddenly shaved off, and Obi-Wan’s hands had none to sift through.

“Touch my skin instead,” Anakin said.

And Obi-Wan, who had sought out a life in which he could obey commands and complete tasks with the comfort of knowing it was all in service of God, did. 

[sourwormsaresour]

idk if anyone has talked about this but I feel like no one has pointed this out yet. 

So, this fucker right here: 

Do you know why he’s named “chocolate” and how this food is associated with this character? 

Let’s start with how chocolate is made. The cocoa tree that produces cocoa beans and ultimately chocolate is very finicky with the environment it needs to thrive in; you need a very warm, humid climate year-round where it can also be protected from strong weather like harsh sunlight and heavy winds. That’s easily done within the rainforest where the weather is naturally maintained and surrounding trees can protect the cocoa tree from weather or in farms where these trees will be grown with other trees that will provide them with the protection they need. Alternatively, you can create a warm and humid greenhouse instead where the tree can be under constant surveillance to maintain its environment. The greenhouse approach is often seen in research to find ways of growing chocolate in other places around the world and hopefully making the approach affordable and sustainable enough to use over traditional methods. 

Here’s what the lab used to cultivate cocoa trees looks like. It’s called the “International Cocoa Quarantine Centre” and is based in Britain. 

Another factor in growing a cocoa tree is elevation. Ideally, you should be between 30-300 meters (about 100 to 1000 feet) above sea level or at least under 600 meters (about 2000 feet), which is considered low elevation. In general farming, lower elevations will create sweeter fruits that can ripen faster; the downsides of farming at such a level is everything being prone to rot faster, including the plants that bear the fruits themselves (specifically their roots). Farmers in low elevation need to consider factors like lower ventilation and lack of natural drainage, which can cause rotting.  Because of how complicated the conditions for cocoa trees are, it can get costly to grow and maintain them. One way to alleviate the cost of maintaining cocoa trees (besides exploitation of workers and unsustainable farming) is by tree grafting. This technique is commonly used in creating more trees in general and especially common in the chocolate industry. Grafting involves simply taking parts of a tree and attaching it to a tree that is genetically similar and doing so helps grow new cocoa trees, control the quality of the cocoa beans, and reduce cost of production overall. 

Here are some of the things that can happen if you don’t grow your cocoa tree properly. Unfortunately, some of these issues are unavoidable; why they happen and how to prevent them remains unknown and researchers are still trying to find answers that can explain why it happens and how to prevent or resolve them. 

After years of growing and waiting for the tree to mature and produce pods, we finally have cocoa beans to harvest and make chocolate. Creating chocolate itself involves a controlled form of rotting we know too well: fermentation. Disclaimer: some say fermentation is the opposite of rotting because it prevents decay but others say fermentation is defined as a controlled form of decay while rotting is defined as uncontrolled decay. For this post, I’ll stick with the latter definition. Fermentation allows us to get stuff like alcohol, yogurt, and kimchi by breaking down items, essentially making them decay and rot, to create new items by using microorganisms like bacteria and yeast to perform the process. Before cocoa beans turn into chocolate, they need to be fermented for a certain amount of days- no more and no less than necessary. It’s not going to be like wine such that aging the product will make the quality better. Over-fermenting leads to a waste product that’s just completely rotten, moldy, and just unusable in the end. And like any type of fruit, the cocoa pod will ultimately ripen and rot after it falls off the tree if it’s not used over time. Improper fermentation will also cause mold to occur, causing the beans to rot than ferment. Mold can also be caused by moisture coming in contact with the beans. Unlike cheese or meats, the mold on cocoa beans can cause long-term health issues if consumed. What we end up getting after fermenting, roasting, and grinding the beans is a pure cocoa paste or “pure chocolate.” Once the chocolate is made, it cannot get moldy; it can develop a mold-like appearance called bloom but that’s safe to eat and technically not mold. However, if you separate the cocoa powder from the paste, that can mold if it comes in contact with water.

Look at how moldy these cocoa beans can get: 

Pure chocolate has health benefits like providing antioxidants, being a major ingredient in skincare as cocoa butter, and reduce health issues. However, the chocolate we’re all used to eating is some cocoa paste with added ingredients (milk, nuts, fillings, etc.), and these ingredients are the things that end up turning chocolate into unhealthy food. You can eat pure cocoa paste, but it wouldn’t be defined as chocolate and it won’t be as tasty; even bars labeled "70% cacao" have added ingredients to it. One particular ingredient in chocolate that is a great example of how it makes chocolate unhealthy is processed sugar. Sugar itself has addicting properties and is unhealthy for many reasons, yet it’s a huge part of why we love to eat chocolate. It’s also why we have to eat chocolate with added ingredients in small quantities despite the health benefits chocolate has- the benefits and the downsides cancel each other out (i.e. pure chocolate prevents tooth decay but sugar causes tooth decay, chocolate lowers blood pressure yet sugar contributes to health issues that can cause higher blood pressure). The development of chocolate as a sweet candy in today’s world rather than a healthy ingredient also plays into this.

Based on this info, we can see how chocolate shaped Cioccolata as a character and his Stand’s abilities. The mold and rot aspect of Green Day is easily explained with the fermentation process and how the process of chocolate is susceptible to mold up throughout. Green Day’s functionality working only when victims are underneath Cioccolata is because cocoa trees require lower elevations to thrive and how lower elevation increases chances of rot in produce. The constant surveillance and maintenance of cocoa trees in a laboratory setting can reference Cioccolata finding pleasure in recording his victims’ misery, his “research” in torturing their bodies, as well as the intense and detailed work that comes with studying and practicing medicine. The tree grafting in the chocolate industry connects to Green Day’s second ability that allows it to dismember and reassemble Cioccolata with mold. It also connects to Ciccolata’s sadistic nature when it comes to manipulating his victims’ bodies and the brutality of his Stand’s mold being able to break people’s limbs apart (think Sorbet’s 36 frames, Gelato’s possible taxidermy when he was discovered by Formaggio, and how bodies affected are easily snapped apart when mold gets on them). The dichotomy of chocolate as healthy food and junk food also relates to Cioccolata as a character who should have been good (because he’s a doctor) but does more harm instead. The role of sugar in chocolate plays into that as well, but it’s especially related to how sugar cubes are used to control Secco and Cioccolata full name in JORGE JOESTAR is Dolcio Cioccolata (literally “sweet chocolate”). Hell, I can go on about how Secco’s name has a connection to chocolate too. 

I’ve seen how characters in VA are shaped by the food they’re named after, down to their Stand abilities, so it’s nice to see that Cioccolata follows this too. Let me know if you guys have other information that can add to Cioccolata’s characterization. :)

Btw this is based on some Googling I did, which involved reading a few papers that came up on search and a Chocolate tour that I did when I was in Guatemala last month, so please let me know if the information is incorrect or add with your findings to correct it.