#avatar faa

[knarme-art]

Varangs

[knarme-stray]

Avatar - Fire And Ash - Thoughts about Wind Traders, Peylak and ships!

We've got these baddies in the teaser, so let's address what we're looking at first!

Allright, so there seems to be floating na'vi "ships" that consist of a gigantic Cnidarian-like floating creature, a manta ray like creature pulling it and then, na'vi-built structures hanging from them.

The Cnidarian / jellyfish / Man o' War -looking part appears to be, by its functionality, like a mixture of a zeppelin or a hot air balloon, and the sails of a ship.

There are these old concepts by James Cameron himself about these floating creatures from over 40 years ago, so it's quite cool to see them brought to life in such a surprising way.

The anatomy of the floating creatures of the teaser seems to consist of structure similiar to a hood/bell of a jellyfish, or the pneumatophore/sail of a Man o' War.

Another floating animal seen in JC's old concept art, the Manta Ray -looking one, seems to be harnessed to pull these ships forwards.

So we're seeing the return of two old creature concepts, joined together as parts of these Na'vi ships!

It also looks like the ships have tentacles hanging from them, probably belonging to the floating sail/balloon creature.

Tentacles like these in jellyfish and Man o' War alike are venomous and for catching and killing prey. This has some interesting implications for these Na'vi ships as well...

Perhaps their primary function is to feed the sail/balloon animal itself, but I wonder if the na'vi have more uses for them?

Do they use them to harvest something?

Do these tentacles hang in water, air, the ground or potentially all of those?

Wind Traders or Ash People?

My initial reaction was to assume the ships would belong to the Ash People, but then I remembered the Wind Traders being another confirmed new na'vi clan to show up in AFAA!

Then it clicked to me... Sails... WIND. You get the idea! So it seems these must be our first glimpse into the Wind Trader culture!

I suppose these ships carry trade goods in them? But they also resemble the British Colonial fleet that was, well, known for especially that colonial part? Wink wink. lol

I wonder if these ships are constructs of nightmare whose ravenous tentacles envenom and kill a huge mass of animal and plant life to be harvested and sold..? Could it be that the Wind Traders also have a villainous edge to them? What if even more so than the Ash Clan?

Are the "scary" aesthethics of Ash People just supposed to trick us from seeing who the real villain is...?! It's exciting to not know at all, and so much fun to guess!

Who is Peylak?

Peylak is one of the confirmed new na'vi characters in A3, played by David Thewlis. We don't know anything else about him yet!

Is he going to be of the Wind Traders or the Ash People...?

This lovely bloke of the Ash people looks like him a little bit, or am I just reaching? Or maybe this one would be painted in more detail if he was anything more than a random background character...

So, still no way to say if Peylak will be a sight to see on those ships, or someone else entirely...

End of rant!

[nightmarenoise]

The problem child corner

[cyren-myadd]

I wonder if there is a much older draft of Avatar 2 where Spider actually was adopted by the Sullies

These are two early concept arts of Jake and Neteyam's songcords, both of which feature the "unofficial adoption of Spider" as an important event. The creative team recently clarified that these are old concepts and shouldn't be considered canon, but the fact that they exist implies there was a time in the past where Spider would've been more like a part of the family rather than the stray he was in the final version. Even the old concept art of Neytiri's songcord features Spider's "adoption," implying a much more positive relationship between them than what they had in the movie.

I wonder what the older vision for Avatar 2 was like, and what other changes it underwent to become the final version we eventually saw on screen. I can imagine that if they were originally going to have Spider be closer to the Sullies, they must've changed it because of the decision to bring back Quaritch and have him undergo character development. The beginnings of Quaritch's future character development and the fact that he survived the final battle of A2 at all only occurred because he developed a relationship with Spider. If Spider was a part of the Sully family and had a healthy parental relationship to compare Quaritch to, I doubt he would've ever bonded with and subsequently saved him. Plus, if Neytiri "unofficially adopted" Spider, she probably wouldn't have threatened to kill him, which would've eliminated one of the most intense scenes in the movie. Ultimately, I understand the narrative reasoning behind making Spider the "stray" of the group and think it was the right choice, but I'm still curious to know what different ideas they had in mind for Spider when they made the old concept art.

Man, I would've loved to be a fly on the wall in the writer's room for those years when they were hashing out the script! I wonder what other things changed over the course of the development, like how did they decide to kill off Neteyam, and how did they decide to make Kiri the way she is. I'd also love to know how they reached the decision to turn the events of "The High Ground" into a comic series and how they decided to split "The Way of Water" and "Fire and Ash" into two separate movies. I remember watching an interview with James Cameron where he discussed how difficult it was to split TWOW and FAA into two movies. If I'm remembering correctly, he said one of the big challenges was some important character moment for Spider that they had to shuffle around to get the narrative to flow. I wonder what that moment is and how they decided to put it in FAA rather than TWOW.

I don't know if any older drafts of the A2 script exist, but if they do I'd love to get my hands on them one day and read through to see all the little changes and different ideas they had.

[welcometomyfeast]

Faa-san's comms about Belial shouldn't be so damn CUTE

I swear he wants to collect more avatars than Belial!

And he let his overgrown crow bring him the spheres from the crane game!

[a-chuffed-floating-panda]

Kavik stared at the six, tall, neatly stacked pieces of paperwork on Yangchen’s desk. He had checked, and it was the paperwork they were supposed to do, already finished. Three months ahead of when they were supposed to be finished.

… No paperwork?

—

Yay to me having no impulse control:)

[icharchivist]

Wonderful news, on top of Belial having that "do you want me to peel the apple for you?" taunt just for Lucilius, Avatar Belial's taunt for Lucilius is just him saying "Faa-san". Nothing else. He says that every time. Usually, there's some variation, but no. Lucilius is his hobby, after all. He must be so excited to have him back

Even better, Lucilius has special voice lines when taunting Belial as well. Avatar Belial he tells "koi", which is apparently a bit rude and commanding way to tell someone "come [here]"

Regular Belial, he tells "hayaku koi", so it's even "hurry up and come here"

Presumably so they can get that performance review over. Still, a lovely touch in my opinion

that's so good to know for AvaBeli omg. The man is truly obsessed.

for Lucilius' taunt line, i saw a video against Regular Belial where he says both "Koi" and "Hayaku Koi", which does indeed means "come" and "hurry up and come here".

I joked with a friend who speak Japanese about it, that "sounds like he's talking to a dog" and he told me "no but literally" so i suspect the idea is here as well in Japanese.

But apparently, Lucilius has like, a very long range of taunt for literally everyone where he insults them. The only person he doesn't insult with his taunts is Belial.

So yeah, he wants to get it over with, but he also doesn't actually want to be mean with him.

who knew!

[eru-iru]

remember that you have to die

[janumun]

Hi Pickle-Scribbles, I hope you are doing well. My God, I enjoyed reading so much the NSFW for Lucifer. 💖I picture him well as the kind of person who is very discreet about his personal life, but extremely passionate in private...

Hey @leeloominai22! Calling me just Pickle (or Faa) is fine, if you like. 🙇🏽‍♀️♥️ I'm doing good, thank you for asking! I hope you are healthy and happy too.

And thank you, I'm glad to know you enjoyed my NSFW writings for our Avatar of Pride. I agree with you too 👀 The man exercises great discipline in all professional matters and likes to (...likes to 😌) be just as orderly on his personal watch too, even if he may not always succeed. 😆

Lucifer rarely has a moment of peace to himself, what with his brothers always on the loose — trouble one way or another. He'd never wish for that disaster to extend to his love life with you as well LOL. I've gone into detail about his affections for his S/O in several posts, (particularly here and here) but this demon wants to be entirely focused on his Love when he's with them, alone: hold his Love and kiss them, express his affections in soft murmurs he presses onto their skin, before he leaves them hot and bothered, destroyed and loved (all with love) to within an inch of their life. Any manner of impeding situation [brothers] that may threaten that tranquility (and storm) in between you, he loathes. 😆 Let him! Run you through! With his Ardour! In peace! Devildom!

[saeraas]

Unlocking Disciple raids: Danchou being put to test by the successors of the primarchs. Learn bits about them despite short cutscene

Me: :)

Unlocking Avatar raid: Danchou is forced into Sandalphon's dream (read: nightmare) where he constantly has to relive Lucifer's death and succession to him to destroy Faa-san's legacy before the dream repeats again. Danchou has to constantly repeat this dream with Sandalphon until the morning

Me: what the fuck :(

[ichorwinged]

General Headcanons for Faa when dealing with certain other people/muses. 

Lucifer:  His perfect creation.  He doesn’t see any wrong in what Lucifer does, or how he acts.  Generally, Lucilius feels closer to him and is usually friendlier with Lucifer compared to other people even if he acts very formal around him.  Of course, this is until he starts to plan his grand finale and there’s a notable difference with Lucilius being more distant and less likely to talk about his thoughts with the other.  

Belial:  Belial is a capable worker with his personality being the only downside but its a necessary evil when considering what his role is.  He’s short and curt with the man but it’s still less barbed and more empty threats compared to what he would do to others if they try and act smart with him.  However, as time goes on Lucilius loses sight of the man and begins to see him as a tool like he does other primals.  

The Four Primarchs: A necessary step in order to further his studies in Evolution. By giving them their roles, it allows Lucifer more time to guide evolution easier without having to worry about the elements getting in the way.  He mostly sees them as tools up until his “death.”  

Sandalphon:  Doesn’t care for him and sees him more as the result of a test given to Lucifer.  Since his only role is a spare, Lucilius doesn’t care for him overall since he doubted Lucifer would ever be killed (haha).  

Primal Beasts in general:  Each have their own specific role that he expects them to carry out like cogs in a machine.  Given that the latter creations have their limitations, they act and do as they should in order to make sure everything runs smoothly and according to Lucilius’ plan.  Such is the case during the rebellion where he collected their cores for the Avatar, seeing most primal beasts as just fuel for something greater than what they could be.  

Miyuki/Noctifer: His first successful and complete creation, made as an outline for the archangels that came after.  While she doesn’t have a specific role like the others, she’s one of the few he allows around him and his lab without an invitation.  He puts her to sleep personally, before the Fallen Angels spark the Primal Beast’s uprising maybe for sentimental reasons.  He allows her to talk freely around him like Lucifer and Belial.  

Singularity: Their “freedom” is only them playing into the hands of the absent god he wants to tear down.  Everything that has happened to them is because of fate guiding them with the girl in blue and the red dragon yet they pretend it’s their choice to do so.  They can play their roles but he won’t.  

Lyria: She’s done her part and continues to do so like a good pawn.  

[knarme-stray]

Are we getting tricked about who the villains are?!?

If the Wind Traders resemble the British Colonial Fleet...

Then guess who the Ash people resemble?

...Don't they look like, by attire, like what many ceremonies of precolonial natural religions in Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe look like? Varang even appears to have scarifications, which is a body modification found in many cultures within the African continent!

Through an eurocentric lense traits like these have often been framed as "scary" by the very European colonizers who committed horrific acts on indigenous people...

What if the Sully Family will ally themselves with the TRUE villain, the Wind Traders, without knowing who they really are? (Given that we see Neytiri flying alongside the ships...)

Perhaps storytelling-wise, Ash people will be the antagonists of this story... But actually just fighting for their own survival while it's the Sully family serving their oppressor?

We do see Quaritch, Lyle and possibly more recoms with Varang. But we don't know yet what the reasons between their alliance are.

Maybe Quaritch in this movie fights an anticolonial battle in behalf of the Ash People, against the Wind Traders that we'll learn in the end of the movie to be colonizers??

...

Or.. Something even more nuanced!

In real life many small nations fighting for their survival against occupation and colonization haven't had any option but to accept help from fascistic colonial empires rivaling each other. This is a sad reality in our world where you often have to get help from one monster, to be protected from another...

What if there is no "good people side vs. bad people side" in Fire And Ash?

Instead, there are two oppressed groups that fight for their survival, and end up needing help from a colonial entity.

The oppressed groups fighting for their own survival would be The Sully Family and The Ash People.

The Colonial entity helping the Sully family would be Wind Traders, who oppress Ash People.

The Colonial entity helping Ash People would be the RDA (humans + recoms), that troubles several na'vi clans including Omaticaya (Sullies) and several reef clans.

Are we going to get hit in the face with the nuance of how vulnerable groups often have no choice with whose help will save their lives?

One of my speculations is that we'll be lead to falsely believe that Ash People are "bad na'vi allied with the RDA", instead of just the outcast clan they're confirmed to be in the comics, who are being colonized and slandered by the Wind Traders and isolated from other na'vi alliances?

Perhaps the RDA alliance was their only shot at gaining allies? Perhaps they are victims of Wind Traders who are outcasts due to a hegemonious status of the Traders who have isolated them from all support?

Please don't "we dun know" @ me, because I shove so many "perhapses" and "maybes" in my sentences to signal HOW MUCH I INDEED DON'T KNOW!

IT'S CALLED "SPECULATION" AND "GUESSING" FOR A REASON! You guess!! When you don't know!! So shut up. Thanks.

Otherwise free feel to tell me your thoughts, as it'd be so much fun to discuss this. :3c <3

Avatar - Fire And Ash - Thoughts about Wind Traders, Peylak and ships!

We've got these baddies in the teaser, so let's address what we're looking at first!

Allright, so there seems to be floating na'vi "ships" that consist of a gigantic Cnidarian-like floating creature, a manta ray like creature pulling it and then, na'vi-built structures hanging from them.

The Cnidarian / jellyfish / Man o' War -looking part appears to be, by its functionality, like a mixture of a zeppelin or a hot air balloon, and the sails of a ship.

There are these old concepts by James Cameron himself about these floating creatures from over 40 years ago, so it's quite cool to see them brought to life in such a surprising way.

The anatomy of the floating creatures of the teaser seems to consist of structure similiar to a hood/bell of a jellyfish, or the pneumatophore/sail of a Man o' War.

Another floating animal seen in JC's old concept art, the Manta Ray -looking one, seems to be harnessed to pull these ships forwards.

So we're seeing the return of two old creature concepts, joined together as parts of these Na'vi ships!

It also looks like the ships have tentacles hanging from them, probably belonging to the floating sail/balloon creature.

Tentacles like these in jellyfish and Man o' War alike are venomous and for catching and killing prey. This has some interesting implications for these Na'vi ships as well...

Perhaps their primary function is to feed the sail/balloon animal itself, but I wonder if the na'vi have more uses for them?

Do they use them to harvest something?

Do these tentacles hang in water, air, the ground or potentially all of those?

Wind Traders or Ash People?

My initial reaction was to assume the ships would belong to the Ash People, but then I remembered the Wind Traders being another confirmed new na'vi clan to show up in AFAA!

Then it clicked to me... Sails... WIND. You get the idea! So it seems these must be our first glimpse into the Wind Trader culture!

I suppose these ships carry trade goods in them? But they also resemble the British Colonial fleet that was, well, known for especially that colonial part? Wink wink. lol

I wonder if these ships are constructs of nightmare whose ravenous tentacles envenom and kill a huge mass of animal and plant life to be harvested and sold..? Could it be that the Wind Traders also have a villainous edge to them? What if even more so than the Ash Clan?

Are the "scary" aesthethics of Ash People just supposed to trick us from seeing who the real villain is...?! It's exciting to not know at all, and so much fun to guess!

Who is Peylak?

Peylak is one of the confirmed new na'vi characters in A3, played by David Thewlis. We don't know anything else about him yet!

Is he going to be of the Wind Traders or the Ash People...?

This lovely bloke of the Ash people looks like him a little bit, or am I just reaching? Or maybe this one would be painted in more detail if he was anything more than a random background character...

So, still no way to say if Peylak will be a sight to see on those ships, or someone else entirely...

End of rant!

[chxldeas-a]

Granblue Fantasy

Send Me Series! [ACCEPTING]

@ardensfides

Favorite character: Seofon. I love my clown of a sord boi so much.

Second favorite character: Chuuni Makoto GRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMNIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRR

Least favorite character: I make “bone go cronch” memes with him, but Lobelia just rubs me the wrong way

The character I’m most like: Gran, probably. Or...maybe Vane :’D

Favorite pairing: Danchou/Anthuria because she’s my wife and I’m an Anthuria stan ajsdflaksj (Sandy/Luci is also 100/10 good ship tho)

Least favorite pairing: Not that I know any, really. Even Faa-san/Belial has its...charm, I guess?

Favorite moment: What. Makes. The. Sky. Blue. Tri. Lo. Gy. (Alternatively, when I finally get more Tyros Zithers and Abyss Spines from the Europa and Avatar raids)

Rating out of 10: 10/10 would play again

[softrobotcritics]

What to expect

*Socialized robot helpers in their own bike lanes.  Well, maybe.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, October 22, 2020

Contact: Abby Abazorius, MIT News Office abbya@mit.edu; 617.253.2709

“What to Expect When You’re Expecting Robots”

Book co-authored by Associate Professor Julie Shah and Laura Major SM ’05 explores a future populated with robot helpers.

https://news.mit.edu/2020/expect-when-expecting-robots-1022

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- As Covid-19 has made it necessary for people to keep their distance from each other, robots are stepping in to fill essential roles, such as sanitizing warehouses and hospitals, ferrying test samples to laboratories, and serving as telemedicine avatars.

There are signs that people may be increasingly receptive to robotic help, preferring, at least hypothetically, to be picked up by a self-driving taxi or have their food delivered via robot, to reduce their risk of catching the virus.

As more intelligent, independent machines make their way into the public sphere, engineers Julie Shah and Laura Major are urging designers to rethink not just how robots fit in with society, but also how society can change to accommodate these new, “working” robots.

Shah is an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and the associate dean of social and ethical responsibilities of computing in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. Major SM ’05 is CTO of Motional, a self-driving car venture supported by automotive companies Hyundai and Aptiv. Together, they have written a new book, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting Robots: The Future of Human-Robot Collaboration,” published this month by Basic Books.

What we can expect, they write, is that robots of the future will no longer work for us, but with us. They will be less like tools, programmed to carry out specific tasks in controlled environments, as factory automatons and domestic Roombas have been, and more like partners, interacting with and working among people in the more complex and chaotic real world. As such, Shah and Major say that robots and humans will have to establish a mutual understanding.

“Part of the book is about designing robotic systems that think more like people, and that can understand the very subtle social signals that we provide to each other, that make our world work,” Shah says. “But equal emphasis in the book is on how we have to structure the way we live our lives, from our crosswalks to our social norms, so that robots can more effectively live in our world.”

Getting to know you

As robots increasingly enter public spaces, they may do so safely if they have a better understanding of human and social behavior.

Consider a package delivery robot on a busy sidewalk: The robot may be programmed to give a standard berth to obstacles in its path, such as traffic cones and lampposts. But what if the robot is coming upon a person wheeling a stroller while balancing a cup of coffee? A human passerby would read the social cues and perhaps step to the side to let the stroller by. Could a robot pick up the same subtle signals to change course accordingly?

Shah believes the answer is yes. As head of the Interactive Robotics Group at MIT, she is developing tools to help robots understand and predict human behavior, such as where people move, what they do, and who they interact with in physical spaces. She’s implemented these tools in robots that can recognize and collaborate with humans in environments such as the factory floor and the hospital ward. She is hoping that robots trained to read social cues can more safely be deployed in more unstructured public spaces.

Major, meanwhile, has been helping to make robots, and specifically self-driving cars, work safely and reliably in the real world, beyond the controlled, gated environments where most driverless cars operate today. About a year ago, she and Shah met for the first time, at a robotics conference.

“We were working in parallel universes, me in industry, and Julie in academia, each trying to galvanize understanding for the need to accommodate machines and robots,” Major recalls.

From that first meeting, the seeds for their new book began quickly to sprout.

A cyborg city

In their book, the engineers describe ways that robots and automated systems can perceive and work with humans — but also ways in which our environment and infrastructure can change to accommodate robots.

A cyborg-friendly city, engineered to manage and direct robots, could avoid scenarios such as the one that played out in San Francisco in 2017. Residents there were seeing an uptick in delivery robots deployed by local technology startups. The robots were causing congestion on city sidewalks and were an unexpected hazard to seniors with disabilities. Lawmakers ultimately enforced strict regulations on the number of delivery robots allowed in the city — a move that improved safety, but potentially at the expense of innovation.

If in the near future there are to be multiple robots sharing a sidewalk with humans at any given time, Shah and Major propose that cities might consider installing dedicated robot lanes, similar to bike lanes, to avoid accidents between robots and humans. The engineers also envision a system to organize robots in public spaces, similar to the way airplanes keep track of each other in flight.

In 1965, the Federal Aviation Agency was created, partly in response to a catastrophic crash between two planes flying through a cloud over the Grand Canyon. Prior to that crash, airplanes were virtually free to fly where they pleased. The FAA began organizing airplanes in the sky through innovations like the traffic collision avoidance system, or TCAS — a system onboard most planes today, that detects other planes outfitted with a universal transponder. TCAS alerts the pilot of nearby planes, and automatically charts a path, independent of ground control, for the plane to take in order to avoid a collision.

Similarly, Shah and Major say that robots in public spaces could be designed with a sort of universal sensor that enables them to see and communicate with each other, regardless of their software platform or manufacturer. This way, they might stay clear of certain areas, avoiding potential accidents and congestion, if they sense robots nearby.

“There could also be transponders for people that broadcast to robots,” Shah says. “For instance, crossing guards could use batons that can signal any robot in the vicinity to pause so that it’s safe for children to cross the street.”

Whether we are ready for them or not, the trend is clear: The robots are coming, to our sidewalks, our grocery stores, and our homes. And as the book’s title suggests, preparing for these new additions to society will take some major changes, in our perception of technology, and in our infrastructure.

“It takes a village to raise a child to be a well-adjusted member of society, capable of realizing his or her full potential,” write Shah and Major. “So, too, a robot.”

###

Written by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office

Book: “What to Expect When You’re Expecting Robots” https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/laura-major/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-robots/9781541699113/

[ruinvus]

“Talk. Make sense.“

⌠❖⌡ Ah, the classic words of Faa-san something he had more than grown used to over the years, the grin still displays upon the Primarch's features as draconic hues remained upon the man who was his creator. "Ha ha ha, sorry Faa-san I tend to get too excited with certain things~" What was it today, reports on Avatar, other angel's, Primal beast whereabouts for cores? 

"What do you want me to talk about~?"

NCIS — Season 2 @ichorwinged

[a-chuffed-floating-panda]

“No, Kavik, I grew up with girls,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I know a thing or two about soft chests.”

--

This has been bothering me for a month now