#both as storytelling

[basketcasemp3]

downsizing seasons from 22 episodes to 13 to 8. describing miniseries as "8 hour movies". loudly declaring that shows with 20+ episodes per season cannot truly be good. complaining that "it couldve been a movie". complaining about filler episodes. complaining about bottle episodes. complaining about episodes that prioritize character over plot. fr i think y'all just dont like television

[elexuscal]

Danny Phantom, The Show:

geeky kid gets super powers from his parents' weird inventions! now he has to fight a rogue gallery of ghosts... but uh-oh! he still has to keep his grades up, deal with his embarrassing parents, and navigate girl troubles! rap theme song!

Danny Phantom, the Fandom, After 19 Years of Fermentation:

a child dies. but not quite. the inherent tension between life and death. the obsession of the dead for faded remnants of the living. warped green shadows on the walls of a dark laboratory. having to hide your true nature from those who should be your greatest allies. the fear of the monster you could become if you let yourself. being a ghost as a metaphor for the trans experience. a cold breath on the back of your neck in the dead of the night. rap theme song!

[stealingyourbones]

Danny’s clockwork emblem gets damaged and causes him to glitch and slip through time (think Loki tv show Time Slipping or Into the Spider-Verse glitching). Lucky for him it’s not too random, his sporadic time jumps and flickering in and out of reality is centered on this vaguely familiar superhero he remembered Clockwork mentioning and he doesn’t quite know why.

[jelliebeandraws]

Figure 1. (Version 1 / ?)

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style study of @sillysiluriforme / fanart for @laterreurofficial :)

ref image from whale_daisuki here! https://pin.it/1ECCIqbmc

[turtleblogatlast]

AU where Leo is trapped in the Prison Dimension for months instead of minutes and the only way he gets by with his sanity intact is through recording himself talking to his wrist comm.

When they finally manage to get Leo back and make him rest up to heal, Donnie can’t help but listen to the recordings left behind.

He’s not sure what exactly he’s expecting, only that his subconscious is screaming at him that it has to be heartbreaking, that it has to be torturous.

Instead, what Donnie is subject to is a full thousand hours’ worth of Jupiter Jim and Lou Jitsu crossover fanfiction. More than one part in the series. Spanning well over a million words.

(The worst part is that it’s actually good.)

[tvuniverse]

9-1-1 OLIVER STARK as Evan 'Buck' Buckley -> shift in his facial expressions as warning signs

(thank you @911bts for the screenshot 💕)

[luvlian]

came to pick up maggie from her dad

previous | next | beginning

[secretmellowblog]

Everyone talks about the tragedy of animated media getting reboots that replace their excellent art direction with uncanny realism —like the Lion King and its “live action” reboot—- but there’s one series that embodies that tragedy better than anything else. And I need to share it with you all because I can’t be the only one Haunted by it day and night. Please let me tell you the Sad, sad story behind this image:

There was an early 2000s video game trilogy called Sly Cooper, whose main appeal was its super unique art direction, style, and atmosphere. The trilogy had a unique tone focused on a cartoon Phantom Thief who did Moody Atmospheric Heists in a comic-book-inspired world.

The trilogy integrated 2D animation into the game for cutscenes, and the characters-- while low-poly-- were designed to look as much like those flat 2D cartoons with cel-shaded outlines as they could within the limitations of the Ps2.

It took heavy influence from comic books and anime, especially Lupin III. The first game even had alternate anime versions of its 2D cutscenes that you could unlock!

Nearly all the levels took place at night, but the designers talked often about how their goal was to create the illusion of night time through vivid color palettes rather than darkness, taking inspiration from the vivid nighttime cityscapes in Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge.

As a result of their stylized art direction, the visuals-- primarily in the second one, which is the one that focuses the most tightly on Thieving & Moody Atmospheric Heists-- still hold up today.

And then Sly Cooper started appearing in “brand crossover games” and “reboots” and Oh god. Oh no. so that's why no one talks about it anymore.

I am haunted by this. People talk about their favorite cartoon character getting hit with the Uncanny Hyper-Detailed Beam and I instantly think of the sad fate of poor, poor sly cooper, who I am very nostalgic for, and his now-dead franchise that hasn't had a new installment in over a decade.

But to me this really emphasizes how strong art direction is far more important than polygon count, realism, or level of detail. Because there have been similar franchises rebooted in ways that manage to elevate the old 2D-inspired art styles with more modern graphics. Toys for Bob's new takes on Spyro and Crash Bandicoot both had stellar art direction!

But that kind of thoughtful art direction can be difficult to achieve. It's not even the fault of the artists or developers; these things are often beyond their control. But I am glad we're in an era where stylized 3D animation is becoming more popular. I hope more creators continue to realize that there is actually a big demand for media with interesting, unique art styles! also you should play sly 2: band of thieves

[shorthaltsjester]

watching the sdcc panel and i am just very :) about how sweet their answers to “what are some of the micro moments from the game that have stuck with you the most over the years?” are. taliesin saying what the fuck is up with that which was the first like The Party Gets To Know Each Other moments of c3. travis saying asking his wife if he could kiss her in campaign. marisha going way back to the cannonball competition in campaign one. ashley choosing the beauyasha date but also just the silly goat noise matt made. liam adding onto that to compliment matt roleplaying grass so well and then saying his favourite moment was writing a story for laura and reading it to her as caleb for jester. and then matt saying that was his answer, and that his favourite moments of the game are when they find ways to give gifts to each other whether tangible or not. and sam saying his favourite moments have less to do with the story and is more so when he can just. see his friends across the table from him. when marisha perches and when laura and ashley are (badly) drawing dicks and liam saying he loves when sam sneezes and ashley tells him to stop it and just. yeah. they Are an extremely popular online powerhouse, but i’m so happy that they’re also friends building a world together out of gifts to and love for one another.

like i Am so enamoured with the characters and the world of exandria but the moments when you can feel the love that those people have for each other reach out from behind the stained glass of their performances (to steal a metaphor from brennan lee mulligan) are so extremely special and i am endlessly grateful that they decided to share their silly little home game with the world.

[ooooo-mcyt]

Scott Smajor (cc) is such a good story teller actually and the common themes he uses in his storylines captivate me. I think we should talk about how good he is at Themes more often. If I wasn't so tired I'd write essays.

[aalghul]

another thing about boy wonder is that jason is made out to be unhygienic and crass and impulsive and stupid because he is poor. then talia is made out to be the princess who's never lived her own life and mindlessly acted on her father's orders to make herself love a man and have a kid with him only to abuse the kid and also others who she deems below herself. the only way you can win in this comic is if you are a rich white boy apparently because tim drake is the saviour of the poor who don't need to think for themselves because he, ceo of wanye enterprises, is there to be the hero in their place. there is no need to involve those irrational lower classes who don't know what's good for them (which this comic certainly has proven to believe). it's impressive the lengths to which juni ba bases characters off of 2D assumptions based on class and situation rather than actually engaging with the characters as they are when not being reduced to stereotypes.

[ariadne-mouse]

I am making the tentative assumption that at least Peter might be new(er) to TTRPGs because he was asking which dice are which & later Robbie saying to him something to the effect of "welcome to roleplaying" - but it has me thinking that just in general I really love Critical Role bringing in talented people and introducing them to TTRPGs. New players are so much fun to watch, and bring so much to the table, both from their own flair, creative thinking from not being as familiar with the rules/constraints, and just a contagious sense of delight as they really get into it and try things. 10/10 keep bringing on excellent guests

[meanderingstream]

The Gaothmai flesh dreadnoughts are so horrific and I love it. Abomination-type creatures, but which are also troop carriers containing sorcerers and soldiers and other flesh-craft creatures inside them, who can come out to attack you from the orifice in the middle of the tentacles extending from the dreadnought’s otherwise featureless face.

Like just a sublimely terrifying exploration of what horrors can we extrapolate from the existence of flesh-craft sorcerers and their participation in a forever-war fueled arms-race with wizards. Troop carriers made of conjured flesh the size of skyscrapers whose only facial features are the uncountable 50-foot tentacles surrounding an orifice from whence more flesh abominations emerge.

[stellanix]

(genshin impact spoilers incoming)

one aspect of furina's characterization that's pretty understated but that i really really really love is her intelligence and curiosity. usually in genshin, when a character's intelligence is an important trait of theirs, there are aspects of their design, writing, voice acting, etc, that very clearly tell you "hey this character is smart." albedo, for example, wears a labcoat, is always saying big sciency words in a calm, rational tone of voice, and other characters are always talking about how smart he is

but furina? nothing about her on the surface suggests that she's a "smart" character - quite the opposite, in fact. superficially, she's introduced as a bratty, conceited, overconfident person who actually has no idea what she's doing. we eventually learn in the archon quest that that was all an act, but even after she regains her freedom, nothing about her really seems archetypically intelligent, at least at face value

instead, furina's intelligence is always shown rather than told (the only exception being nahida's voiceline about her). she had an intelligence network across teyvat feeding her information, and we saw in the flashback how she directed researchers to study the prophecy and potential ways of stopping it. before things like lyney's trial or directing the two musketeers, she'd stay up all night planning and piecing things together all on her own. she loves learning new things, she has lines in the teapot about how, when she's interested in something, she wants to become the most knowledgeable person in the topic, and also how she'd like to disassemble the teapot itself to learn how it works, and she's quick to learn new skills (like surfing). and, of course, she's well read, and quite possibly teyvat's foremost expert on the performing arts

i like how furina sort of defies the concept of character archetypes. she's initially presented as an archetypical bratty, dramatic, spoiled popular girl, but that was a role she forced herself into because it's what people expected of her. but the real furina, while still retaining some of the flamboyance from her archon persona, doesn't really fit into a clear mold. she's smart without being a super-genius, and she's kind without being a soft-spoken doormat. it makes her feel multifaceted and real, and i really love that!

anyway, this is why it makes me mad whenever i see people calling furina stupid, cuz she's not!

[nextstopwonderland]

“I should have given him my respect a long time ago.”

Stop watching the ppv for 3 minutes and watch this. My god.

[bloomingkyras]

Stalker & Miss understanding

(previous / next)

transcript and explanation under the cut:

Olivia, one of Giselle's, cheer and classmate also Assistant to Evan in School Student Association (SSA), had fall to crush out with Evan,her own President of SSA, and she thought that both Evan and Giselle was "a couple" and she actually know that Giselle had a brother but not knowing that both of them are half blood sibling 😅. So, she keep her feeling to herself.

Olivia: [sigh] hmm..His girlfriend was here too.. How I want to ask him..

Olivia: She's pretty tho, no wonder they got couple of the year award..

Olivia: [sigh]

Olivia: I'll better get out from here before they realized.

Olivia by @simscici 💜