#but now I'm posting it even though I wanted to do more screenshots/gifs

[iveneverdoneanythingwrong]

Porsche would make a great Head of the Minor Family

So I was starting my 579042th KinnPorsche rewatch and had gotten to one specific scene in Episode 1 when it hit me: Porsche is really the only character in the show suitable to run the Minor Family (Vegas fans, don't @ me, I will explain).

Let's take stock of the lay of the land and the major players:

(Warning: image and gif heavy)

The Major Family

The Major Family can mostly be summed up in one word: Corporate. The survival and profitability of The Family is the overarching goal of this organization and as such, each person not literally in the Family cannot really be irreplaceable and no one can afford to think they are. Individuality is not encouraged in service to the Major Family. All the bodyguards wear the same western style uniform (though most will have a small spin on it). They live in a cult-like atmosphere (another meta entirely) and are always at work even when not on duty. Their ability to interact with the outside world is controlled by the family, their hobbies, their food, their associations, their ability to express themselves, their very being is controlled by the family; absolutely no distractions. They are in an hierarchy so rigidly enforced that Chan only has to raise his voice to regain control when things get a tiny bit rowdy with the introduction of Porsche.

The Minor Family

The Minor Family is basically a gang. They're not regimented. They wear their own clothes. They have women in skin tight dresses hanging around. They have open access to the outside world. They drink alcohol while in the compound, they slouch and relax and play games. They might be able to work well together, but in no way could they accomplish any kind of long term plan or cooperate with the Major Family (who give them legal cover) without a strong hand.

Which is provided by Gun, who presents himself as one of them - the clothes, the dinning table in the court yard, the shared meals, the relaxed atmosphere when not actually on duty. But though he plays at some kind of equality, his people know that he views them as expendable. They live in a cognitive dissonance where their everyday experiences say they are Family and appreciated, but know that this is only a façade. We only see it once, but even just approaching Gun with the very welcome news of his hated brother's death is immediately met with the smiling physical abuse that he hands out at even imaginary signs of disrespect.

The Heirs

Gun has taught this form of management to Vegas, who plays up to Porsche about caring for his bodyguards and then forcibly uses them as literal meat shields during the coup. We see absolutely no relationships between Vegas and his guards at all. Vegas would have to unlearn all he's been taught by his father, completely remap his relationship with his employees, and work together closely and amicably with the Major Family, who he has be taught his entire life to see as the enemy. All of these things would take years in therapy to accomplish.

Contrasted with Kinn who perpetuates the cult due to his father's manipulations but breaks it regularly once Porsche's arrival reminds him of his own personality and management style. Not only does he know that Pete has a grandmother, he even has her number in his phone. He goes to Pete for advice for how to talk to Porsche, and doesn't seem uncomfortable at the idea that he would need help from an employee. He indulges Arm bugging his suit on Porsche's behest. He protects his own bodyguards in the coup. (Is Kinn an idiot? Quite probably, yes.)

Porsche

Porsche from a young age was basically forced to be head of his own family. Sure, he had an "uncle" there, but he did basically nothing. Porsche has been responsible not only for the goals of the family but also for the means of attaining those goals.

He wasn't regimented, like Korn, and he also wasn't abusive, like Gun. In fact, he was very lax in his family, with only one overarching boundary that we can confirm: loyalty. It doesn't seem matter how much you fuck up, so long as you remain loyal to him and his. You don't have to actually contribute much of anything to earn his affection, his protection, or a place at his table. You just have to not fuck him over.

And that's why Porsche would make a fantastic Minor Family head. Thee himself admits he wasn't any use to Porsche growing up. He "invested" all the money in "crypto", which Porsche sees as just a mistake. It put the family at risk, it made it much harder for Porsche to achieve his goals, but it wasn't done maliciously so Porsche is content to let it go and still let Thee try to be useful in other ways.

Until Porsche discovers that Thee has been lying to them. Thee has betrayed Porsche and Chay. He has not had their best interest in mind and just been making mistakes. He's been actively, knowingly, making things worse. And the scene that showed it all was this one, where Porsche goes from this:

to this:

Even as a civilian, Porsche demonstrates the mindset necessary to run a Family, and not just any Family but specifically the Minor Family. Unlike Gun, Porsche is easy going. He is relaxed. He will also absolutely cut his uncle off with nothing at the first betrayal.

He's is absolutely the type to eat with his employees as close to equal as social positions allow and actually mean it. The gaslighting atmosphere of the Minor Family under Gun would be truth under Porsche. He would treat them as Family so long as they maintained their loyalty. Within weeks of being introduced, Porsche managed to turn at least some Main Family bodyguards (the closest and most trusted!) into his assets. Pete volunteered for a very dangerous assignment to protect Porsche.

Arm assisted Porsche not only in spying on his boss, but also in coming up with codes and protocol for Porsche's benefit in case Kinn does something Porsche doesn't want. Pol and Arm eavesdrop on a meeting not only with Kinn but with Korn and relay the contents of that meeting to other bodyguards we haven't met because they were so invested in Porsche's love story.

Since Porsche has been kidnapped into the mafia, he been trained and had his moral boundaries violated expanded in relation to violence. He already had the ability to bring out loyalty in people just by being himself and now he has an innate understanding of the fine line between I'm Not Mad, Just Disappointed and violence as boundary-setting, which I think would make for even more cultish fanaticism from his men than Korn's studied manipulations.

Thankfully he has a loyalty to Kinn that could never happen with Vegas, making them an absolute power couple of the Thai underworld.

[solalunar-eclipse]

Okay. Okay, I don’t normally do this, but I’ve been wanting to do some sort of analysis post recently and the Sonadow shipper inside me grabbed me by the throat and pointed in Netflix's direction, soooooo...let’s have a look at some clips of Sonic and Shadow interacting in Sonic Prime, shall we? (Putting this under a readmore because of all the images.)

The first clip comes from this post. (I don't know how to add that particular gif to my post, or else I'd put it here too, but oh well. I'm analyzing the first one, to be specific.)

So, we begin with Shadow walking away, saying “We’re going after Nine”.

Sonic then reaches out to stop him (with his right hand, despite the fact that he has to reach all the way across his own body to do so, possibly suggesting that Prime!Sonic is right-handed?). This seems to be just before Shadow’s noticed, because he’s still moving forward, looking resolved now that he’s decided what to do.

Shadow sees Sonic’s hand, and looks at it with an expression that seems…mildly irritated, but not outright angry. It’s about halfway between his “resting grumpy face” and his “actually angry face”, in my opinion.

He looks over at Sonic himself with a slightly angrier face (mainly made evident by the fact that the point in the middle of his brow is actually touching his muzzle instead of resting above it).

Then he looks back at Sonic’s hand again (in a pose that I swear is slightly different from the last one even if it doesn’t look that way). The only real difference is that he’s just looking down a little more. The effect of these last three images in actual motion, though, is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glance at the hand, up to Sonic, and then back to the hand. It's sort of a "huh-what-huh?!" motion, I think. To me, this gives off extremely strong “what the heck is even happening right now?!” energy.

For completion’s sake, I’m going to finish out the rest of the gif with these last three pictures. Shadow pulls away from Sonic at this point (which, fair, Sonic did grab him out of nowhere and he’s not normally very touchy-feely although this may be disproved in the next gif), and it may or may not have felt like a small punch to the gut for me to see Sonic’s hand outstretched like that, but anyway.

Shadow shifts into one of his patented I’m Trying To Be Cool And Aloof Despite Being An Adorable Three Foot Tall Hedgehog poses, complete with an eyeroll. He doesn’t actually seem that upset about Sonic touching him, however, I think it’s probably more the context of the situation. Shadow keeps insisting that Nine is a threat that needs to be stopped, and Sonic keeps preventing him from doing that, so his frustrated reaction seems to have much more to do with why Sonic touched him than the fact that he did so at all.

And, least but certainly not least, a cute contemplative (and still slightly grumpy) expression from Shadow. (He’s just adorable!! Aaaaaaa—)

Now then! Let’s move onto a really, really big one…

…The Hug™.

The post that I got this clip from actually has some really good points that I’m going to discuss further, so please go read that first! It won’t take long, and also everything the OP says there is absolutely true.

Ready? Here we go! (Please excuse the slightly crunchy pictures...the only way I was able to get this level of detailed analysis was by recording the gif, scrubbing through the frames, and taking screenshots of specific moments, which naturally led to some artifacting.)

So, what's just happened prior to this frame was Rebel Rouge saying happily, "Sonic, you're okay!". Sonic, like the goof he is, does not acknowledge this in any way, fully focused on introducing his boyfriend to his other Shatterspace pals. Instead, he's just looking over at Shadow. Notably, Shadow is instead looking up at Rebel. I'd like to think this is because Rebel has the most put-together and leader-like behavior out of the Rouge counterparts, so he could be waiting for her to continue speaking and give instructions or commentary on the situation, like she does with Team Dark in the games. That's just my take, though, he could just as well be generally on edge—he is in the middle of a battlefield, after all.

Smear frame!! This is included for the expressions as well as for completeness…but mostly for the expressions. Look at how big Sonic's eyes are. Look at how excited he is. He's so hyped to introduce his best rival to everyone. Shadow, meanwhile, looks like he just bluescreened out of pure shock. Sonic's yanking him over so fast he's all blurry, but we can see that his expression is basically 0—0 right now. He has been Touched and he is being Moved and he has not had time to process Why.

(Notably, however, he doesn't break the hold, despite the fact that he definitely could...)

Now, they’ve both settled into place (although ‘settled’ may be the wrong word for Shadow, haha). Sonic is doing what I can only describe as beaming—just look at him! He has a big smile on his face, and he looks almost proud to be introducing Shadow. It really shows how much Sonic values and respects him. (*sobs*) Shadow, meanwhile, has shifted from “what is happening” to “oh Chaos I am being held I am being hugged?? What??? Physical contact? Why????”. He just looks so stunned by the hug, it’s too adorable! More specifically, in addition to the obvious fact that his irises and pupils have shrunk and that he has very stiff posture, if you look very closely at the gif as well as at the following pictures, his ears are also standing up a little straighter and his quills have pushed back slightly, possibly prickling at the sudden contact? Interesting…

Here, we can see Shadow’s ears relax now that he’s processed what’s going on, and his quills have more of a visible curve to them instead of sticking out so much. He’s also glaring off to one side in a position that could either be interpreted as frustration at his current situation (though not so much that he’s willing to push away!!) or as embarrassment. Personally, I think it’s a little of both. Sonic, meanwhile, is still smiling like the sweetheart he is.

Now, we’re getting into the frames leading up to Sonic leaning into Shadow (aka one of the most precious moments of the show). Honestly, I don’t have too much to say about this one, except that Sonic is moving in a way that he would normally while talking right now (shifting around, because this boy has loads of energy) so I have a feeling Shadow probably doesn’t expect the cuddles that are coming his way, ehehe.

The Smush begins!! Shadow looks like he’s quickly resigned himself to his fate, but also decently irritated that he’s essentially getting side-snuggled in front of everyone. This could’ve been another part where he shoved Sonic off himself (goodness knows he did it before in Avoid the Void), and yet he doesn’t, leading to the best part of this whole moment!

Sonic, you smug hedgie. Shadow’s already letting you hug him, don’t push it with that smirk! Shadow does have his eyes closed here, suggesting to me that he is at least a little bit annoyed by now. Again, though, I think this has more to do with the fact that he’s essentially in front of an entire crowd, none of whom recognize or know him. I’ve seen someone else point out that Shadow gets more closed off in Prime when he’s around people aside from Sonic, so honestly, the fact that he’s putting up with this at all sure is…something. (Shipping goggles on: it could be because he appreciates Sonic’s affection enough that he’s willing to cope with the embarrassment if it means the cute annoying hedgehog next to him will hold him a little longer :] )

Okay, so this is really difficult to see, but look at Shadow’s wrist protectors in this image as well as the last one. See how there’s less of them visible in this picture here? That’s because, as the person who posted this gif noted, Sonic moves his hand up and down Shadow’s arm twice after cuddling up to him like this. It actually moves Shadow’s entire arm and shoulder up and down with the movement, making it look a little bit like a friendly rub or shake. Sort of like “hey, look at my grumpy friend, isn’t he great?”. Meanwhile, Sonic’s still looking smug, but I’m now wondering if it’s a bit of a knowing look as well? I mean, this is the one friend of his who’s truly known him for more than a few days. I’m wondering if there’s a bit of “‘ey, Shadow, c’mon, don’t be so shy! You’re my pal!” vibes here, partially because he knows it’ll annoy Shadow and partly because he just knows how Shadow is but wants to drag him into his circle of friends regardless. (Look at how much Sonic cares about Shadow, trying to make sure he’s included! So cute!!)

THE PAT. Two of Sonic’s fingers are lifted up here, which he then uses to give Shadow a light tap on the arm. THE AFFECTION. THE OBVIOUS CARE AND FRIENDLINESS IN THIS ONE SIMPLE ACTION. SONIC CARES ABOUT SHADOW SO OBVIOUSLY IT HURTS ME TO WATCH. MY HEART. No matter how many times Shadow puts up walls, Sonic smashes them down. After all, Shadow doesn’t get to be the only one who does things like keeping Sonic safe or helping him stay grounded! Sonic’s not going to pretend those things just didn’t happen—Shadow cares about him in his own awkward, emotionally constipated way, and Sonic is reciprocating. You can’t stop him, Shadow!

I’m skipping the smear frame here, just because Sonic and Shadow basically pop up and right into this position. Sonic’s two fingers come out of the tap/pat and straight into the peace sign, and now he’s smiling even more than he was at the start of this whole thing. His eyes are all big and shiny too—he’s clearly very happy to have introduced Shadow, and perhaps also quite happy that he’s getting this moment of prolonged physical contact with Shadow. Now, while Shadow’s shoulder is still kind of smushed upwards, which could indicate stress in another circumstance, it seems to me here that this is mainly because Sonic’s hand is pulling it upwards slightly. (Although, I’m afraid it does appear to be the case that Sonic and Shadow are approximately the same height in Prime—remember, Shadow’s ears aren’t as perky right now as Sonic’s, and the ears are really the only height difference between them here.) Shadow’s expression, however, is honestly quite neutral. Despite his previous discomfort (part of which, I just realized, could be because Sonic essentially was pushing him off balance. Shadow was tilted pretty far to his left, which could be a little awkward of a position to be in, especially for an extended period of time), he doesn’t look bothered at all, instead just quietly existing in this situation. Most of the irritability in his expression comes from his angular eyes and his aforementioned “resting grumpy face”, honestly.

(I couldn’t find any gif that includes this next part—probably because the camera cuts away from Sonic and Shadow here for a moment to show the general confusion of the Shatterverse folks—but when it cuts back, Shadow is still standing there with Sonic’s arm around him. Heck, he looks willing to continue standing there for however long Sonic stays next to him, only pulling away when Nine comes back and makes noise, reminding everyone that we’re in the middle of a battle for everyone’s survival here. And when he does pull away, Sonic is dragged with him, which is probably mostly for laughs, but does also imply that a) he was holding onto Shadow pretty tightly and b) he wasn’t expecting to have to let go even AFTER Nine made himself known.)

This post is long enough already (and I drafted it when I could've been going to sleep, because the force of Sonadow infected me), so I won't be doing the "Shadow saves Sonic" scene just yet (unless a lot of people want to see that). For now, though, thanks for bearing with me throughout my descent into madness over these two. And if you want me to take a look at other gifs, feel free to send them my way or put them in a reblog and I'll see if I can make the time to analyze them!

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

Y'all I'm - I'm so tired y'all

I get this often. It's understandable. I've said a lot in the past of how I believe no canonical age that can be proven - the same way there's hundreds of characters who's sexuality or nationality can't be proven.

But the problem is people saying things likes this and feeling no need whatsoever to back themselves up.

Hobie Has No Age, Stop Giving No Evidence.

[a SHORT RANT about the lack of evidence and sourcing within fandom - and the Hobie age discussion]

I genuinely believe you can headcanon him at any reasonable age (as in not 42 or 12 or something).

The problem with this is saying something like this as if it's definitive fact then making no attempt to back up your argument isn't helpful, okay, or appropriate.

In any context.

And it happens everywhere in fandom. All the time.

By saying things like this, or even stating objective facts about the world without backing yourself up with evidence, means you expect others to take you at face value with no additional questioning.

Which you should never encourage others to do. Which no one should ever do.

Once again, I believe you can headcanon Hobie at any age. I genuinely do not care.

I think he's 19-20.

I have evidence for why I think this.

Does this evidence mean I am 100% correct on his age and that I have the right to tell people otherwise?

No. Because it hasn't been confirmed.

But if you're going to tell me my stance is wrong, you have to be ready to engage with every single one of my evidence points so I can understand why it's wrong. You will have to present you own evidence, and defend it.

So often people will say an assertion objectively like this - and then immediately expect the other person to defend themselves.

Even though they haven't even defended their argument to begin with.

You don't walk up to someone and ask their name before you say yours.

You don't walk up to someone and demand their argument/rebuttal or submission to your opinion, without even stating the entirety of the opinion first.

This is something that is so common in this specific conversation - but it goes WAY outside if the realm of the ATSV fandom or even fandom in general.

If you state fact, an opinion, a rebuttal, a criticism, what have you - please back yourself up.

And I mean with screenshots and dialogue and gifs if you gotta.

In all subjects. All topics of all degrees.

I don't think Hobie has a canonical age.

I do think Hobie is around 19-20, in my interpretation. I have evidence that makes be confident and sound in my decision to write him as such.

And I think everyone holds the individual right to make such an interpretation for themselves.

But if you wish to engage someone else on how they interpret Hobie - engage them fully. Back yourself up.

Do not expect them to reply apologizing to you - because let's be honest. I feel like that's what y'all want and expect.

That when you say a one line statement like it's objective fact with no follow up, the expectation is for the other person to be like

'Sorry, I didn't know! I'll edit/take the post down now :) thanks for telling me'

Because really, what other answer can you give? Just saying 'Hobie is a minor' and nothing more leaves only two options: accept what they're saying as fact or defend yourself on why you think he isn't.

Y'all genuinely do not expect to be questioned.

ABSOLUTELY NOT - You better speak into the mic!!

Come with screenshots and script lines. And if you can't - Then it isn't true. And it isn't definite.

I will almost never accept something on face value without getting at least some form evidence from a reputable source. And I say almost because we all fuck up, but ideally I' m striving for never.

I've already stated in the past why I think this conversation is absolutely fruitless.

But if you want to engage in it regardless - or engage in any fandom discourse - Engage with it fully.

If you're going to engage me, engage with me fully. I'm completely open to talking about it and looking over any evidence you have.

But saying things like

- Well I know young people who look like him-

- I know young people who act like him-

- People are making him look older-

- He most likely has a fake ID-

None of that is evidence.

All of that is pure speculation. And there is a stark difference between justification and evidence.

If your justification isn't coming from the source material - the script, movie, or writers - it isn't evidence or proof.

You can use that justification to root your own interpretation - but once you make the assertion that he definitively is or isn't (which can't be proven) - at the very least, the burden is on you to provide evidence that is sufficient.

Doing stuff like this is so unhelpful.

Multiple times have I seen people ask how old Hobie is and someone will reply '17🥰' and the other person will be like 'okay thanks!!'

And I'm like '????????'

So that's it huh ... yous just... not gonna ask no follow up questions? we done here?

And the chain reaction just continues.

Not I, Not I! I'd rather die - for in these streets, you niggas lie.

Hobie has no canonical age or sexuality or heritage. He doesn't have a canonical middle name either.

Yet, people desperately try to make a definitive assertion on only one of those things - for the benefit of nothing but their own shipping -

And then they don't provide evidence.

Always ask for evidence.

In person too. I will speak from experience people get offended when you ask them "Where'd you hear that," or "Can I have a source, please? Text me a link." or "What's your proof?"

They take it as a question of authority or a lack of trust.

And maybe it is. Doesn't matter and I don't care. Questioning authority and not going off blind trust is good, I thought that's what we were told to do.

I find this so ironic to talk about right now - because just yesterday @layz-chipz (they're great check them out) was talking about potentially making a video essay about the Hobie age discourse, the futility of it and the fragility of the arguments.

And I can say it's a video that's sorely needed (no pressure though!) and a conversation that has unnecessarily dominated the community and conversation for way too goddamn long.

It needs to be - in the words of Hobie Brown - SQUASHED.

and to reiterate and make it clear - My issue it's not with people who think he's underage or a minor. Or people who do so without evidence.

My issue it's people asserting something, and then not supporting it directly after said assertion.

Hobie wouldn't like that. Hobie would want you to cite your sources. Or mind your business. Oh and-

IMO Hobie as of right now has no canonical age.

And if you read this far I love you

Anyway here's a really high res photo of Hobie and a meme i have no other place to use 😭😭

[totesnothere04]

Deviant With a Big Defect Pt.3

The Bad Batch x Reader, Obi-Wan x Reader

Disclaimer: I own none of the fanart, screenshots, or gifs used with my stories.

Warnings: Descriptions of injury and war.

I meant to mention this in the last post but the artists water tag is Galactic Problems. If anyone knows if they're here on Tumblr lmk so I can properly give them credit for their art, because it is just 🤌🏻.

Part 2 Part 4

Geonosis

   You were following 99 as he was headed to the mess to clean up a spill.

   "But 99 your back. You need help around here." You argued with him, but he just shook his head.

   "No (Y/n). I am exactly where I should be, and you are exactly where you should be." He said simply as he grabbed his mop bucket and a wet floor sign. You sighed as you continued to follow him into the mess. Your arm was grabbed, and you spun on whoever had a hold of you.

   "Sorry 99, I've been looking for (Y/n), and I need her to come with me." Cody told 99 who nodded.

   "Take her before she tries to stay here to help me." 99 said as he walked away to the spill. Cody pulled you behind him as he jogged through the halls. Alarms started to blare, and troops started to clutter the hallways.

   "Cody, what's going on?" You ask him.

   "We're being deployed to Geonosis." Cody says.

   "Alright, so why were you looking for me?" You ask him.

   "Because you're my Captain until Unit 99 is fully ready to deploy." Cody said.

   "To be a Captain, I would've had to of taken the Captains test. I've never taken that test, Commander." You told him, and he looked even more confused.

   "I could've sworn Mistress Nala Se said you took the test and passed with flying colors." Cody said, and you were even more confused than he was. He pushed a button on his com, and Nala Se answered.

   "Yes, Commander?" She asked.

   "(Y/n) says she's never taken the Captains test." Cody said.

   "She has. She did not know that's what the test was, though." She told him.

   "And she passed without studying for it?" Cody asked, surprised.

   "Yes. She even received the second highest grade, right behind CT-7567. Is that all Commander?" Nala Se asked.

   "Yes, ma'am." He said and disconnected the com. "So, as I was saying, until Unit 99 is ready to deploy, you're under my command." Cody said with finality.

   "As your Captain? But Hunter is a sergeant and my commanding officer." You argue back, and he shakes his head as he continues to lead you through the halls.

   "Incorrect. He is your sergeant, but you are his commanding officer." Cody corrected, and you groaned.

   "How am I going to explain this to him?" You ask Cody.

   "Well, you just say it, but for now, we have to be focused. Do you have all your gear?" Cody asked.

   "Yes, I've kept all my gear on me while I'm out and about since yesterday." You confirm to him.

   "Good, because we're here." Cody says, and the door opens. You follow Cody through the hangar to the Venator that's docked outside. "This is the cruiser Negotiator. You'll be stationed on it with me." Cody says, and you nod.

   "Yes, sir." You say. He leads you to the hangar on board the Venator where there are several troopers already waiting. Cody launches into the briefing, and you listen to what he's saying. You feel the ship jolt, and you gain a sudden wave of anxiety being away from Tech. 'At least he's safe'. You think to yourself. Once the briefing was over, you stuck close to Cody since he was showing you the important areas you needed to know... Which you already did, but you weren't going to steal his thunder. You made sure that both of your cortosis vibroblades were still in fact in their sheaths. He ended the tour on the bridge and led you to the window. You watched in awe as the stars passed by in a blur.

   "When we get to Geonosis, I want you to respond with the ground forces directly to where the Generals will be located. Assist them in any way that you can." Cody told you.

   "Yes, sir. Understood." You said, and he rolled his eyes.

   "Oh, come on. Having me as your commanding officer can't be that bad, can it?" Cody asked.

   "No, it's not. I just know it irritates you when I say that." You told him, and he sighed.

   "Alright. Go on ahead and go back to the hangar so you can be ready to go as soon as we get there." Cody said, and you took off back the way you came. You towered over the rest of the clones in the hangar, and it caught the attention of a few of them. You were just ignoring all the chattering around you. A clone finally approached you and stood staring at you until you turned to look at him.

   "Can I help you?" You ask him.

   "A-aren't you a p-part of U-unit 99?" He asked and you froze.

   "Yes, I am. Is that an issue?" You asked as you looked down at him.

   "N-n-no m-ma'am. I j-just thought they w-weren't ready f-for d-deployment y-yet." He said.

   "The rest of my batch isn't ready, but I was... Apparently. Anything else you need?" You asked him.

   "N-no. I was j-just c-curious." He says. "W-what's y-your n-name?" He asks.

   "(Y/n). What's yours?" You ask him.

   "My s-squad c-calls m-me S-stutter." He says, but he doesn't seem happy with the name.

   "Do you even like that name?" You ask and he shakes his head. "How about... James?" You ask and he thinks about it for a moment then nods.

   "Y-yeah. I l-l-like th-at." He says and you smile at him. The alarm for the hangar doors started to blare and you put your helmet on.

   "Well, James it was nice to meet you. It seems that it's time for the music to start." You say and he nods then heads off to his fighter. 'So he's a pilot.' You think to yourself as you climb into your gunship. After waiting for a few moments all the troopers were on board with you, and the doors slid shut. The ride there was tense and you could feel eyes on you, but no one said anything. You were after all their superior. The doors opened and troopers started dropping down lines onto the battlefield. The moment your boots hit the ground you were shooting droids left and right. Soon enough a familiar Jedi appeared at your side.

   "I had a feeling I would see you here today." He commented and you scoffed.

   "No, you didn't." You countered back and continued to shoot more droids.

   "You're right. I thought I was going to die." He said and you laughed. "If you see an old man with a maroon-ish cape let me know. He's important to this cause." Obi-Wan told you and you nodded.

   "Yes, sir!" You said then spotted the old man. "You mean him?" You asked over the sound of gunfire.

   "Yes, that's him! His name is Count Dooku." Obi-Wan informed you.

   "Count Dooky? I feel like someone in royalty would have a better name!" You shout back to Obi-Wan.

   "No Doo-Koo!" He sounded it out for you.

   "Oh, my bad. I'm going to pursue and tag his transport with a tracking beacon. I'll follow him for as long as his armed guard will allow me." You tell Obi-Wan.

   "No wait!" Obi-Wan shouted but it was too late as you traded one of your blasters for one of your vibroblades. You sliced and shot your way through the crowd and made it just in time to see 'Dooku' climb onto a speeder bike. His four guards took four of the others, but there was one more left.

   "Hmm, lucky." You say to yourself as you take aim at his speeder and shoot a tracking beacon on it. You race to the last speeder and climb onto it. You take off after your target and take out two of his guards. This led to a chase that you weren't going to lose, but according to them, you weren't going to win either. One of them landed a lucky shot to one of the thrusters for your speeder and it crashed. You jumped off of it and waited for them to confirm the kill. You tossed a thermal detonator onto it and waited. They came back around and got off of their speeders to check around the crash. As soon as they walked up to the site the detonator blew and both droids were out for the count. You smirked and went over to their speeders and commandeered one. You checked the tracking device and it had come to a stop about 2 klicks north. You headed in that direction but groaned when you realized it was the side of a cliff. You could see the landing platform from below so you pulled out your grapple and started your ascent. When you got onto the landing pad you heard weapons clashing together and peaked around the corner. A young Jedi was protecting Obi-Wan as he fought Dooku. He was doing great until Dooku cut off his arm and used his powers to push him back to be with Obi-Wan. The younger Jedi looked like he passed out from the pain of losing his arm, but Obi-Wan was wide awake. Dooku started to push forward toward them, and you shook your head.

   "This is so dumb of me." You muttered before you pulled out both of your vibroblades and intercepted a killing blow to the boy. Your arms were crossed in an X to use both of your blades to block the hit.

   ~Flashback~

   "When out on the battlefield you might come across an adversary with one of these. It will be red, or a color that represents them." Your instructor said as he pulled out what he called a lightsaber. He activated it and the black hue the blade gave off was eery. "Don't worry though, because your vibroblades can stop a lightsaber. But that doesn't mean the fight is over there. These adversaries have powers, but your gauntlets have helpful tools to deal with those powers. Over the next few months, I will be teaching you to fight against these wizards." He said and you nodded.

   "Yes, sir." You said and got into position.

          ~Flashback Over~

   "Oh. This is a surprise. A clone I'm assuming?" Dooku asks and you nod. "Then this should be easy." You kick him back and he seems stunned for a moment then raises his hand. You respond by activating the shield on your left gauntlet. Right on time as well since he shot FRIGGIN LIGHTNING out of his fingers. "Maybe not." He says and advances. You deactivate the shield and ready yourself for the oncoming fight. The next few minutes are a flurry of movement and flashes as his lightsaber makes contact with your blades. You trap his lightsaber between the blades of your knives. He outsmarts your next move by striking first and connecting his elbow with the underside of your jaw. You stumble back and try to bring your left arm up to stop him from slicing you. That didn't work as he cuts off your left arm from the elbow down, but he didn't stop there. The tip of his saber had dug through your armor, and he continued to follow through with his swing. Cutting up your torso then through the right side of your helmet. The white-hot pain that stung through your body caused you to drop to your knees.

   "No!" You heard Obi-Wan shout, but you couldn't make any noise. You looked up at Dooku who seemed pleased with his work.

   "You were more of a challenge than two Jedi. Be proud of yourself for the little time you have left alive." Dooku brought his lightsaber up and swung down, but you raised your right hand which still held your other blade. You blocked the hit successfully and started to stand up. He looked at you surprised and you exhaled harshly. As much as it hurt you brought your foot up and it made contact with his stomach. It was once again his turn to stumble backward, and you spun and then flung your blade at his head. He barely dodged it and turned to watch it whiz by his face. The distraction was enough as you activated the lasso on your right gauntlet and whipped it around his midsection. You activated the electricity, and it electrocuted him. He yelled in pain for a moment then brought his lightsaber down on it. It snapped and he glared at you with hatred.

   "Fine." Is all he said before he raised his hand and you panicked as you realized what was about to happen. Before you could utter a word he was shooting lightning directly at you. You still didn't allow him the satisfaction of hearing you yell as you fell to the ground. You finally lay still on the ground as your energy was spent, and your body was in excruciating pain. Your eyelids became heavy and you passed out.

          ~Back on Kamino~

   Tech hadn't calmed down since they were told that you had been sent to Geonosis. He was pacing the room back and forth as he continued to worry. Hunter went up to him and stopped his pacing by slapping his hands onto his shoulders.

   "She's strong Tech. She'll make it back." Hunter said and Tech sighed.

   "This is the longest amount of time that we've been apart since she got reintegrated. I don't like being away from her for this long." Tech finally admitted.

   "Yeah. I don't like it either." Wrecker said as he hugged his pillow. Crosshair was observing his brothers and couldn't help but feel the same anxiety they were. You were the last to come in, but the first to go out. Something wasn't adding up to Crosshair, but he couldn't quite pinpoint it.

          ~Back On Geonosis~

   As soon as the transport Cody was on landed he was off of it and into the hangar. Commander Skywalker was barely conscious and General Kenobi was staring at the other side of the hangar. Cody followed his gaze and caught sight of the familiar black and red armor. He immediately ran over, but you were on your side and your back was to him. He knelt behind you and rolled you onto your back, but he wasn't ready to see what he was about to see. A gash from right below your ribs on your left side to the top of your helmet on your right was all he could see. Then your left arm flopped to the ground next to him and he nearly gagged when he realized it was only a stump. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to look at who it was. General Kenobi was looking at the two of you sadly.

   "She fought very well, and she was very brave." Kenobi said and Cody turned back to you. The soft sound of short footsteps and a walking cane were heard.

   "Still alive, she is. A medic, she needs." General Yoda said and Cody automatically com'd a medic to be ready for your arrival. He stands back up and pulls you into his arms. He gets back onto the transport he was previously on with Generals Yoda and Kenobi right behind him.

   "What happened?" He asked General Kenobi.

   "Count Dooku was about to kill Anakin. She just appeared out of thin air and blocked his strike. They fought and she did very well, but she lost in the end." Kenobi said then he looked to Skywalker who was passed out. Cody pulled off his helmet and rubbed his face. You took a sharp inhale of breath as you came back to consciousness. You tried to bring your hand up to remove your helmet, but you didn't have enough energy. Cody helped you remove it and set it to the side.

   "Cody?" You asked weakly and he nodded.

   "I'm here." He said as he took your good hand into his.

   "The sith was smart... He disarmed me." You joked as you weakly brought your left stub up to show him. He scoffed out a half laugh half irritated sigh. Your eyes roll into the back of your head and you pass out again.

   "Her brothers are going to kill me." Cody says. "They're very protective of her." Idle chat erupts between the Jedi and some of the clones as well. The moment the doors opened and they were back in the hangar for the Negotiator a team of medics took you with them.

          2,782 Words

[petrichoraline]

For the honest answer ask game: what's the history of your blog? (this really just includes how/when you began blogging on tumblr, content, your interactions and your special moments on here etc; whatever you wish to prioritize for the ask in context).

honest hour question answered 3 days later <3 truly hope the wait was worth it love hahah

as someone who's gone through my archive already, you know i started out as a bts fan account in 2015. (my previous blog is not gonna be discussed for the simple reason that it's barely relevant to this one)

i believe i used to tag and organise my reblogs? there was a time where i cared enough and i loved srolling through my own blog, i stopped enjoying that when i became more involved w/ fandom on here and things weren't aesthetics based anymore. i don't like going through it that much now. i used to play around with themes, search for them, tweak colours and fonts for hours. after i returned years later there was an issue with the editor so now i can't change my theme at all and it sucks cause i just want to edit a few things.

so it started of as a bts fanblog, then i started rb-ing other kpop stuff, maybe afterwards i started sharing gifsets from movies and series i liked? as for fandom, i had a good amount of mutuals - accidentally became one with a girl from my country, we went out once and it was very nice <3 procrastinated and lost track fo tag games back then too lmaoo i felt a lot of dissatisfaction over it so i try to do everything now with my current fandom :)

back then is when i started reading fanfiction - i believe my first imagine was a taegi one where v was an artist and yoongi a photographer lol i stumbled upon it on the dash randomly and i got introduced to ao3 a bit after

iirc for the following years after i'd stopped stanning bts, i used to come back either relatively often or once in a blue moon - in the beginning i was just enjoying wtv my dash was offering me or seeking out specific stuff, then i started using it as a tracklist of what shows i've watched haha, no tags, just rb after finishing a show.

i started engaging with fandom around the release of episode 5 of kinnporsche, i read a bunch of posts on here, then tms2 came around and i got even more into reading people's takes..at some point i started talking to people i guess hahah i don't even know when i started trying to put out content, so to say, i just know i was doing screenshot posts short before i found myself pushed to attempt gifs and that was after big dragon had just finished airing.

then i started my giffing journey. had support from @gillianthecat whom i loved giffing paulnice for. honestly that and the discussions we had were such an important part of me having fun with this site and keeping it up. and @joyladagang, my self-proclaimed #1 hype woman, made me feel super welcome. then i got even more moots, at some point i started reaching out or actively reciprocating others attempts at getting closer (though i had been active in discussions before that, i just mean i got a bit braver and started acting more familiar with everyone (esp w/ ppl i got closer to through @joyladagang like @cankersoregirl, @feralmuskyscentedhoepran, @loserlesbianongsa etc.)

i'm grateful to a lot of people on here, truly. it's not supposed to be a shoutout post so i won't be tagging any more people (esp since i would have to tag everyone who follows me plus a bunch of people i follow which..it's a bit much) but i'm genuinely thankful for each person that enjoys my rants, gifs, theories or wtv the things i post classify as, whether they found a post by accident or follow the blog. and i'm grateful to the creators i follow, and i'm happy to talk to so many sweet, smart and funny individuals on various topics daily.

so this is where my blog is at right now - trying to do a bit of everything and talking a bit with everyone. my issue, tbh, is i'm trying a bit too hard to satisfy everyone which sounds ridiculous but i am a bit of a people pleaser at times so it checks out lol

[recurring-polynya]

hi recurring-polynya: in a recent post of yours that had to do with orihime inoue's choconomiyaki, you incorporated a gif of orihime's finished creation.

i really would like to know how you create gifs from bleach's episodes.

Here is my process for making gifs:

You will need the thing you want to make your gif out of as a video file (generally mp4) saved locally.

Trim the video down to just the part you want

Convert it to a gif

There are many ways to do these steps, but I've detailed the way *I* do it in excruciating detail under the cut, along with some tips.

Get the video file Ha ha ha, obviously you want to only do this with videos that you have the rights to use and definitely not anything you might find from some link on r/Piracy! I'm going to demonstrate using a free-to-use video I downloaded from Pexels, a great source for free stock footage, specifically this video of some koi swimming.

Trimming the video

Windows comes with two different utilities that work great for this. I'm sure MacOS and Linux have their own versions, I'm just not that familiar with them.

Option 1: Photos Yes, Photos. It actually used to be even better for video editing, but Microsoft has been nerfing it, which is a shame. This will not likely be your default video-viewing program, so right click and then hit "Open With" and then "Photos."

The "Trim" button is the leftmost button on the toolbar along the top of the app (or you can hit ctrl-E).

This will take you into a different screen where you can adjust the sliders to set the start and stop of your video to what you want your gif to be. Then hit that turquoise "Save as copy" button on the upper right. If you hit the down arrow, you can do "Save" instead, but that will overwrite your original file, which you most likely do not want.

Once you've saved it, Photos will automatically open up your new, cropped file. Now, if your video is long (like an episode of a tv show or movie), it may be hard to get good granularity on your start and stop. You can do a rough trim first, and then repeat the process on your new, shorter file. If you're having trouble getting down to the exact frames you want, don't sweat it, you can take care of that in step 3. Alternatively, you can use ClipChamp instead, which I will describe in just a moment.

Before we go, though, I want to point out that Photos has another really cool feature that you would think most video editing programs would have, but many don't, and that is "Save a frame."

(You need to be back in the regular movie viewer screen, so back out of the Trim window if you're still there)

Pause the video at the frame you want. Hit the "..." button on the bottom toolbar, and the option will be there. (If you're not paused, it will be grayed out).

Trimming Option 2: Clipchamp

Clipchamp is a more powerful video editing tool that also comes with Windows. For some dumb reason, you have to be signed into your Microsoft account to use it, and it takes a long time to open especially if your file is big, so if I'm trying to do something real quick, I'll just do it in Photos. On the other hand, if I'm trying to get multiple gifs out of a single video, or I'm trying to do something fancy, it's usually the better tool.

You can right click on your file and choose "Edit with Clipchamp". If you've already got the file open in Photos, you can hit the little purple clapboard icon just the left of the "..." icon in the screenshot above, and that will also open the file in Clipchamp. There's a second icon along the top toolbar, too, because Windows just really really wants you to use Clipchamp.

Here's what our video looks like in Clipchamp:

You can drag that white bar around, or use the video controls to play the video or jump forward or back, and then choose the little scissors icon to "cut" it. Then select the part you don't want (in this case, I am setting the start of my gif, so I am going to delete everything to the left), and select the little garbage can icon (or the delete key) to delete it. It will leave a gray space-if you hover over it, a little trash can icon will appear, and you can click it to delete the gap.

Again, if you're cutting a gif out of a big file, you probably want to do a rough cut first to give you a smaller chunk of video to work with. Then do a finer trim to get it down to just the frames you want. It can be hard to click on tiny, slivery gaps to delete them, so you can also right click in any of the gray area after the end of the video and select "Delete all visual gaps". Also, over on the right, there are little magnifying glass icons you can use to zoom in and out if you need.

Repeat the process to set the end of your video.

Next, go up and hit that purple button at the top right that says "Export." I always pick "Export in 1080p" even if my videos are not 1080p. (Note: If you haven't already deleted your gaps, it will ask you now if you want to delete them, so I guess you can just do it there if you prefer.)

You may notice that "GIF" was an export option. However, the gif it outputs will be small and grainy looking, so I don't recommend using it.

Exporting will take you to this screen where it tries to convince me to post this beautiful koi gif I am making to various social media, including LinkedIn. Clipchamp, thank you, I will not.

It will automatically save your export to your Downloads folder with an auto-generated filename. You can hit that little "Save to your computer" button (it's above and a little to the right of the bright blue "Connect to OneDrive" box") and save it where you want, with a meaningful name.

Clipchamp has loads of other features--you can use it cut together multiple videos, you can add captions, you can do stuff with the sound. This is not a tutorial on Clipchamp, but I've been able to figure out a lot just messing around with it.

Converting to a gif

For this second part, I use a fantastic website called Ezgif. There's a ton of stuff here, but we are specifically going to use their Video-to-Gif utility.

Hit that "Browse" button and select your file.

Then hit the blue "Upload video!" button. If your file is big, it may take a few minutes to upload. Once it has, it will give you a preview, and some options. I usually leave the options as they are, and hit that blue "Convert to Gif!" button at the bottom.

Note: You could, in theory, skip step 1 and do your trimming right in Ezgif. However, it does have filesize limits. Also, it would take a long time (and bandwidth) to upload a big file--it just makes more sense to me to trim it locally first.

Again, depending on how long your gif is, it may take a few seconds, but then it will give you a preview of your gif (it will be animated, but this is just a screenshot)

If you're happy with it, you can simply right click and save the gif as is.

Optional, but possibly very helpful:

Right below the preview, it will always recommend you optimize the gif, and I almost always do. Even just picking "Lossy Gif" and setting the compression to 30 will usually reduce the file size by 20-40%. If I have a long or slow gif, I will sometimes also play around with the "remove every Nth frame" option. This is kind of arbitrary, but I aim for less than 3MiB if I'm planning to post it to Tumblr.

It might be hard to see, but I've got some little black letterboxes on the left and right sides of my gif. You can use the "Crop" option to get rid of those.

I often adjust the speed of my gif, especially if removing some frames made it too fast.

If you select the "Frames" option, opens a page that shows every frame of the gif and how long it plays. Back when you were trimming the video, if you ended up with some extra frames, you can turn those off there. Also, sometimes, my gifs end too abruptly, like if the scene cut to something else I don't want in my gif. In this case, you can set the delay on the last frame to be longer, and it may end up looking smoother.

Anyway, Ezgif is easy to explore and figure out on your own and doesn't add any watermarks to your final product. It is one of my very favorite sites on the internet.

Here's my final product:

Hope this was helpful and good luck!

[jtl07]

jt (finally) watches warrior nun - s1 e5 & e6

All right, I'm just going to combine my thoughts for episodes 5 and 6, and again, going to focus on Beatrice because I have some frustrations with these two episodes as a whole (for some thoughts, see my e5 rewrite; still working on the e6 rewrite) - I can see what they’re trying to do and I appreciate it but ... that's a different post.

Anyway. Let’s talk about Beatrice! The thing that sticks with me in these two episodes are just how angry she’s become - yes, it’s wrapped up in this cool exterior and that seemingly angelic smile but she is just itching to fight - and she does a bit, here.

(Side note: Beatrice is kinda like Ava in that regard, actually - how quick they are to throw down. The difference is that Beatrice a) knows what she’s doing when she fights and b) has been conditioned, trained to think analytically, strategically. Not to say that Ava can’t or doesn’t learn - Bea just has more experience)

The key scene in episode 5 is that brilliant conversation with Duretti. But I think part of what makes that scene brilliant is how it contrasts with her scene with Vincent previous to this. With Vincent, Beatrice allows herself to be uncertain, to question, trusts Vincent to give her an honest answer. (Again, brilliant writing in terms of setting up Vincent’s betrayal - it’s only when you look closely that you see how he’s playing everyone) In fact, one thing that I couldn't help but notice: she fidgets with her hands during the conversation. For someone usually so outwardly confident, she allows herself to just be a young woman seeking advice with Vincent.

Then we have Beatrice with Duretti. From the jump, Beatrice is distant - she even tries to dismiss herself at the start, after loading the shield into the transport. But she unfortunately isn't able to escape. She stays distant as Duretti tries to build rapport - "You've read my dossier" as if implying 'anyone can do that, I know what you're doing.' She even puts literal arm's distance between them:

Contrast this with her scene with Vincent, where she allows herself to bend - it's not a lot, but it's there:

And then Duretti does his spiel. I just want to give KTY all of the props for putting so many layers into how she stays so chilly in the face of his compliments, not to mention her delivery. The simple, “Turmoil, sir?” is just so great:

(I wish I knew how to make gifs lol, but this captures her suspicious face good enough)

Also one thing I didn't notice before about her "to God" line is how much of a threat it is:

And all these layers is what makes me love this whole conversation. The first time I watched this properly, my thought was, "oh snap, this is not a smart play" - because Beatrice has essentially shown her hand here. Even though it’s coated in the language of a believer, both she and Duretti know what she's really saying.

But after watching it again (because I kept missing the timing for my screenshots lol), I realized that this is Beatrice also playing Duretti for information - or rather confirmation. Remember that right before this scene, she was questioning Vincent about the whole change of direction under Duretti. And here, she's getting him to tell her what he wants of her, what his intentions are.

And she gets what she wants - she gets him to be "forthright" with her, and it riles her way up. It reminded me a lot of episode 4 where she calls out Lilith in the middle of the mission. My thoughts there were that her anger is being fueled by fear - and I think that’s the same in this scene with Duretti. Loyalty seems to be the trigger - which makes sense given her background. She found her purpose in the OCS, has given her life to the OCS. And now this man presumes to take control of it? And have her swear fealty to him? No wonder Beatrice is so riled up: he’s threatening what she sees is her way of life - her very existence.

And so in the face of that, she essentially goes over his head, jumps the chain of command so to speak, puts her loyalty in God. It’s both a thinly veiled “f you” to Duretti and a genuine expression of Beatrice’s faith, but also I think it’s a look again into how Beatrice sees herself. That all she has is her service, that her allegiance, and her salvation, lies in Him. I think that’s brilliant in the face of what she ends up going through, especially in s2, how she learns to serve herself, to find salvation in life (and Ava).

Now regarding episode 6, I know Beatrice is only present at the end of the episode to pick up Mary but it’s a curious thing - because while Mary tells Ava that she’s safe here, that the OCS doesn’t know she’s there, when Mary gets picked up, Mary doesn’t try to get Ava to hide or anything. Which makes me wonder: Did Mary do that because she knew Beatrice wouldn’t say anything? I don’t believe that she would do something like that without thinking of Ava’s safety.

We also don’t get any conversation on camera of Mary telling Beatrice to keep Ava’s location a secret - from the way their exchange goes, it gives the impression that there wasn’t much talk during that ride back to Cat’s Cradle. There’s an intensity to Beatrice in this scene that's palapable (which is hella impressive on KTY’s part given that she had only seconds on screen) - I mean, her face when she’s looking at, I’m assuming, Ava in the side mirror:

It’s hard to know what she’s thinking here, and when she speaks to Mary too. The terseness of her words, the shortness of it - “She coming?” isn’t even a proper sentence, now that I think about it. While she trusts Mary, there’s an anger there, but it makes me wonder, is it directed at Ava? At herself? At the whole situation? I also wonder if Beatrice even knows about Lilith at this point - and if she does, is that also a layer in this delivery?

It’s intriguing and sets up very well the fact that the relationship between Beatrice and Ava is very much hard won, that there's many things they have to build together yknow?

Anyway, lmk what y'all think, otherwise, very much looking forward to episode 7!

[fainthedcherry]

HAPPY TURTLE TUESDAYYY TMNT FANDOMMM!!!! I have a treat for y'all artists who love to make TMNT OCs!!! If you love the 2012 era, you're gonna love this one too!!!

A FREE TO USE TMNT DARK HORIZONS FLASH GAME CHARACTER SELECT TEMPLATE, MADE FROM THE ACTUAL GAME SPRITES!!! (Scroll below for the Google Drive of the files, credits first to the artist though sorry! :D)

(ft also the fancy animation particles for when you get to this menu, for those who wanna add it too! (( the GIF is the raw version, without the effect settings/scripts added in Flash tho.)))

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND!! I DID NOT CREATE THESE ASSETS, NOR HAVE I DRAWN THEM

(I am an artist posting this, who has replicated the game's art as a fan, so I want to disclose clearly, that these are NOT MY WORKS HERE.)

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give all the credit to the SENIOR ART DIRECTOR working on this Flash game, Damian Aliberti and his team of artists from Quadramma (I could not find sources online that confirm who are said artists unfortunately, so I can only credit the art-director for now)!!!

He even made a page about this project, for his portfolio! Check it out, it's AWESOME!! (CLICK MEE / TAP MEEE)

^I didn't know they planned to bring this to mobile, so you can predict that I'm happy, that this game is still seemingly loved by the Italian studio that made it seemingly. x) (I can only assume they're Italian, due to the file-names, don't quote me on this though, barely any info exists on this Flash game as you can predict LOL)

GOOD NOW THAT YOU HOPEFULLY READ WHO MADE THE PRETTY ART: CLICK ME OR TAP ME FOR THE GOOGLE DRIVEE (drive provides the GIF, a PSD, SAI2, PNG and MDP file!! [the joys of owning several art programs, making this much more accessible to people :v])

btw, also like..Maybe not use this for commercial/profit purposes though, that'd be profiting off resources you didn't make, and that are copyrighted. I don't think that's legal. :"v

NO CREDIT REQUIRED. COMPLETELY F2U. I did not after all make the assets, nor will claim so. :V as I mentioned, I extracted these from the actual game, which is why these are all so crisp and nice looking, instead of me using a snipping tool like 2 yrs ago for my fun challenge of recreating the game's artstyle LOL

I do NOT claim these assets or the art I've extracted as my own, this is all purely from the game, and very obviously, these are I guess, owned by Nickelodeon, so I ask you ofc do not...Do some legally questionable things w/ this stuff sdfklsd, pls behave fans, I'd rather not get reported for something I didn't do for providing this to the internet. xD

--

Whilst credit would be nice, and linking back to this would be even nicer for other fans who might just like me,, wanna replicate this cool game's aesthetic sdfskldglk, it's optional, completely LOL. It did only take like 2 hrs to piece this stuff together, to look like a real screenshot thank god. xD

FEEL FREE TO SHOW ME IF YOU ALSO DRAW IN THE GAME'S STYLE OR WANNA BANTER ABOUT TMNT OCS OROROR YKNOW USED THE THING AND WANT ME TO SEE ITTTT I GLADLY STARE AT TMNT POSTS NO MATTER WHAT ERAAAAA~

I JUST WANT PEOPLE TO APPRECIATE THIS GAME'S ARTSTYLE NGL. THAT'S ALL I WANT. And if more ppl also would wanna draw in it it'd make me so happy. I am like...The most acoustic TMNT fan out there man, I have the weirdest wishes in mind xD

Hope anyone wants this orrr like needs it orr dreamt of doing this too orrrr just never thought about doing it, but now that a free template is out there, someone might also wanna do it!! I love whenever like- fandom templates and stuff is made. I plan to maybe make this a Toyhou.se code too, since I do have the raw files of the games and could try to see if I can replicate the animations and stuff and make it non-premium and premium!

(Maybe I should make fandom codes more often in general tho at the topic of that, did it before for Terraria and helped out w/ a Monster High code, to give it a mobile compatible version LMAO)

If anyone or me figures out the artists behind the sprites, I'd gladly show them too, bc GORGEOUS GAME MAN!!!! THEY DESERVE ANY PRAISE THEY GET FOR THE ART AND THE GAME ITSELF ANSAHSHAJS, here I go again I swear, I'm done yapping now. I should participate in internet olympics when it comes to writing essays in every post I ever made. xD

[egg-emperor]

Reposters, read this to understand me

What's crazy about the reposters that disrespect my wishes to give me an ounce of credit, practically run their accounts on my stuff, and continue to do so maliciously even after I ask them (before one specific person gets mad, this has happened multiple times) -

is that my videos on my YouTube channel like my cutscene compilations and stuff are free to use. I don't watermark my videos like that and never plan to. You're allowed to use the footage for your own stuff as much as you want (credit is appreciated but not required, as I've said to those who asked first to use it in their videos)

And you can screenshot it to high heaven, make edits out of it, whatever you want. So long as you don't just straight up reupload the entire video for the same purpose I already uploaded it of course. I recorded the footage and played through the games again to get it when theatre mode isn't available,

but it's an effort I don't mind being used transformatively after I've uploaded it, I'm happy to know it's useful. That's the point of my channel being a collection and archive. I never liked people slapping watermarks just on top of recorded cutscenes when there's not even personal gameplay in it because they didn't animate them themself (unlike how gif making and edits and such is a lot more personalized and wouldn't exist at all without that creative effort)

Even though a lot of effort goes into the compiling and editing, if you want to take screenshots and clips from my YouTube videos for any reason, you can. It's an archive and that's the point. The end product is identical to the official product, compiling aside, therefore I don't feel protective ownership, unless someone reuploaded my entire video as a copy with no changes or other purpose

But my blog isn't an archive. It's a personalized expression of my passion that my YouTube account isn't (aside from the long ass gushing descriptions on there lol), my gifs, screenshots, upscales, edits, compilations, collages, etc are not for people to just steal and practically run their account on with no credit. It makes me feel used and taken for granted

But here's the thing, I actually don't mind the odd screenshot or gif being used by people every now and then- especially if they don't know it's mine. Official Sega accs have used my gifs. Popular meme accounts have used them. I've just recently seen an artist you all love that hates my guts and blocked me use my Lost World Eggman CG "if you insist" gif on Twitter and I bet she didn't know it was me that made it.

(It was this one, just before I added this watermark)

And does it make me angry? No

I can always tell when people use images and gifs that have been on my blog from the frames and duration of the gif to the exact dimensions of a crop in an image. Then some people even take edits where I've made the arrangement myself from erasing backgrounds, upscaling, and compiling or have even drawn on it and so it's not even subtle and literally did not exist before I made it

But I know it's not always malicious and sometimes it might just be useful and a one off- or it's at least being used transformatively, for the sake of evidence or analysis of their own, or has interesting commentary, or something like that. I don't mind this. But if you're practically just remaking my exact posts or reposting my images without any transformative efforts and commentary at all, it becomes a problem

Especially when you run an account where it's practically just all my stuff back to back, with no commentary, or commentary where you're repeating things I've said or trying to talk like me because that's creepily happened before on Instagram while they were reposting my stuff. I know that if you do that then you're just visiting my blog and grabbing every image I post. I don't want to run your account for you

A lot of effort goes into what I make. people act like it doesn't matter if it isn't art but it does to me. I put a lot of effort into recording my own footage and compiling it, then turning them into gifs, making edits, taking screenshots etc. I have constant chronic pain and fatigue too to the point I've had fainting attacks when it becomes too overwhelming. And still I give what I make my all for my blog

It feels like a slap in the face when people download and repost knowingly and spitefully when I politely ask them to stop. I put my heart and soul into what I create and it hurts to see it taken for granted, especially when I don't get an ounce of credit and they get more traction and praise for the things I myself created. You think making it yourself is too much effort compared to stealing? Well try having chronic pain and fatigue and still making it yourself

If you're wondering what makes taking stuff from my blog different to my videos, it's because the final product of the stuff on my blog is more personalized and very different to the official product. The gifs, edits, upscales, compiling, and transformative efforts in my work is vastly different to me just recording cutscenes and slapping my watermark on the whole video

And that's the reason why I don't want the stuff on my blog to be taken and mass reposted, compared to my videos where you can screenshot and clip as much as you want because that's why they're there. Choosing to steal everything I personalized like that on my blog when you could literally just go to my videos and screenshot them as much as you want bothers me

Because then it seems like total laziness to me. Because they already take a lot of work to record and compile, yet I'll allow you to screenshot and clip them without watermarks and credit, but you'd rather just take them from my blog because you can't even be bothered to take screenshots or make gifs- when I do all of the above myself- and with chronic pain and fatigue making it extra effort

I deeply regret that I didn't watermark the contents of my blog from the start but I'm going out of my way to change that since people don't respect when I ask them not to repost

And to those who have just happened to use my images or gifs unintentionally a couple of times or you just had them on hand, I don't mind because I know you didn't do it maliciously. They're also free to save for personal use off the internet, I just don't want everything I ever make being reposted like some people do on purpose so they can practically run their whole account on me

But here malicious reposters, if you need content so bad, screenshot/gif/make edits/whatever you want out of these videos yourself. Because at least then you actually did part of it yourself and have something to be proud of instead of using my blog to run your account-

even when even at that it's using some of my efforts in my game recording and video editing/compiling :P

[hopesallwegotleft]

Yo, what do you use to make your Gifs? Seems like everyone else has gifs that look amazing. Even on my highest "quality" setting. They still post looking like a bunch pixels that wants to know if it looks like it knows what a Jpeg is.

Hey! I'm not sure about the exact result just from the description lol but gifs can turn blurry or lower quality because of various reasons. On Tumblr, it might be caused by the dimensions of the gif. For one gif on a row, the max size used to be 500 pixels, now it's 540. (This post has a quick overview.) If it exceeds that width, the gif will appear more blurry. Tumblr also compresses gifs if the file sizes are between 5-10 MB, though I have no idea how/if that effects the quality tbh.

The size of the video/screenshots you work with is also important. Since I have a copy of HoA, I record my own gameplay of it with 2304 x 1440 dimensions. An 8 min video with those dimensions has a file size of like 1 GB, and 1 screenshot has a file size of 1-2 MB, but it helps being able to gif only a small part of a scene and with image quality in general. Tbh I'd love to freely share either video or screenshots with other folks for editing purposes, in a way where people can just nab them if they wanna, but the file sizes make it difficult.

Probably unnecessary to add, but anyway: within the game, you can also set various image quality options to a higher or lower quality, so if your computer can handle it I recommend putting those settings as HQ as they can go.

Another important factor is not to oversharpen or undersharpen the images. If I crop out a lot of the canvas I usually sharpen it once, and if I keep almost the full image in the gif I sometimes sharpen it twice (in steps, eg first reduce the image size from 1400 x 1400 to 950 x 950, sharpen, then reduce the image to 540 x 540 and sharpen again). But that really depends on how the final result looks. More advanced folks use more detailed ways of sharpening (such as Smart Sharpen... or Unsharp Mask... in Photoshop) but personally, I stick to regular sharpening since it looks nice enough too and it's 1 click, as opposed to sliding the bars around to find the exact result I want.

I don't think doing 1 of these points wrong will lead to a horrible quality, but combining all of the bad points may lead to very blurry or pixelated gifs.

For recording I use what Windows has (by hitting Windows + Alt + R), for screenshots I use VLC media player, and for editing PS.

And for anyone looking to get into editing or giffing without PS: Photopea is an online website that emulates a lot of PS functions. The gif and text functions are sadly still a bit limited compared to PS, but it's free, doesn't even require an account, and it does incredible work imo <3

Lemme know if anything's unclear or if you have any other questions. (Same goes for other folks, I love seeing people's HoA edits, and if I can help anyone looking to start with that process I'm happy to)

[aceofwhump]

A thought just occurred to me. I was looking through the Tumblr trending page today and saw "bisexual" was trending. I scrolled through and saw an interesting infographic on what % of LGBT adults identify as, like 58% bi, 1.3% ace or something, whatever.

I identify as asexual. Way back when, I thought I might be bi because I didn't know what asexual was and, as Jaiden Animations says: zero = zero. I guess I like both, but also neither at the same time?

Anyways, I kept scrolling down on "bisexual" and I start to see like sexy bunny drawings and half naked girls and blah blah. "Sex sells" is completely lost on me. The appeal of boobie pictures or muscular dudes is completely over my head, always has been. I think you, Ace, probably get what I'm talking about here. So, I keep scrolling past thinking "who cares about this shit, literally who would want to look at this? .... Well I guess according to that infographic, like 98.7% of people probably understand this sexy lady crap more than I do". Then I think "whatever, I'm going to go back and look at some whump. There are some LOTR gifs that Ace posted recently that come to mind as well as some super whumpy fanart in my likes. Good shit.

All of this to say: Is how I like to look at, read, watch whump kind of like how people like to look at sexy bunny art? Is "sex sells" kind of like how I watched all of Graceland because you posted a gif of Mike handcuffed on the bed going through withdrawal? I completely understand "whumperflies" I caught the whumperflies from a single gif enough to watch that entire show, which I had never even heard of until seeing that gif. I got completely sucked into the Sonic fandom because of a collection of screenshots of Sonic carrying Tails. It happened to me with Teen Wolf, Outlander, others? (Now that I think about it your blog got me to watch a bunch of shows I don't think I normally would, so thanks!)

Is this somewhat what allo folks experience? Is whumperflies akin to sexual attraction in a way? I do wonder and I never thought about it this way until today.... I'm curious of your thoughts on this, Ace?

I also know that a large chunk of the whump community also identifies under the asexual umbrella so if anyone else has opinion?

Hi nonny!

Lol yeah I too do not understand the sex sells thing in society. I look at commercials like that one Rally's burger one where it's just a half naked woman sitting on a car eating a burger and I'm like "how does this shit work on anyone? Why would this make anyone want to eat a burger??" It genuinely makes no sense to me. But this is actually a theory I've seen once before on here! That our interest in whump/whumperflies is our version of "sexual attraction" which is definitely very interesting. I can see the connection very easily and there definitely are a lot of similarities in the feelings. I do wonder if how we feel whumperflies is how allos feel when they experience sexual attraction but who knows lol. Personally in my brain the two things are separate and I like to keep them separate. I don't like thinking of my whumperflies or my interest in whump as a sort of replacement for sexual attraction. Just feels super weird to me to think of it that way. I don't feel sexual attraction so I don't know what that feels like but I do have a sex drive and feel arousal and it's never happened with anything related to whump and it feels physically different to me than my whumperflies so it's all been kept separate for me. Just my own feelings though!

The sex sells/whump gifs thing is SO INTERESTING! I never thought about that but yeah you're right! For us it's definitely "whump sells" and not "sex sells" lol. Nothing gets me to watch a show faster than a good whumpy gifset lol. Sex? Sexy poses? Absolutely nothing for me. Actually it's much more a turn off than anything. Whump? Hot damn sign me up. I'll watch the whole damn thing for whump. Sidenote I love that you watched all of Graceland because of my mass posting lol.

It's fascinating and a very interesting theory for sure! Totally okay if others feel differently. Like you said there are a lot of aspec whumpers so I think there's definitely something to the theory. I don't know though! Very interesting idea!

[mycatismyfriend]

A few things about Brandon Rogers. I love him so much, and he is one of the most talented film makers of this generation and is a blessing and I still hope I get to meet him one day. (OFF TOPIC, I AM SEEING TREVOR WALLACE END OF OCTOBER I AM FUCKING FREAKING OUTTTT)

The second part of this post acknowledges that 2022 I had a nervous breakdown and that in turn created some (dumb) friction with parts of Brandon Rodgers fandom at the time. People also in some sort of fucked up, childish revenge plot, sent me horrible screenshots of people who I thought were my friends, saying shit about my actions back then against me. I can't forget it, even though I want to, but I don't blame them for it, only the people petty enough to send them.

Anyway, more light hearted, and regardless of what happened, I am A LOT better today, but that stuff still sits with me and makes it difficult for me to gif or create new stuff. I have TRIED, but I struggle, and I end up going to other things that comfort me in place.

I still love the Brandon Rogers fandom, and the bad stuff is over for me, but I still need time. I have rewatched BRYCE a few times now and processed it in my own way, but haven't felt comfortable fully expressing myself of it because of that.

I need a bit more time, and I hope I can become more involved back into the fandom. But I need to do it at my pace. This horrific part of my life really fucked me up so much that 1 and a half years later, I am stll dealing with it.

Anyway, if you want, you can send me requests and shit for more Brandon stuff! It might help :) But yeah, to all my Brandon Rogers followers, that's basically it, and I love you all, and I'm still here! 🥰

[empireofstarsandsmoke]

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Review

So I finished Jedi Survivor... and I would describe it as underwhelming. I would rate the game a 6/10. I finished the story and used the dual-wield and double-bladed lightsaber stances with my cyan-colored lightsaber (from the last game) and played on the normal/ Jedi knight difficulty. I spent 40 hours doing the main story, exploring, and doing some side content. I didn't get a lot of screenshots, but I will post some gifs so keep on the lookout for that.

Overall, I'm glad I didn't buy the game (my sister bought it for me, I will be selling it back to get some money back). I still love the first one, but I would wait for a sale for Jedi Survivor. Worth 60-40 in my opinion though it does have a lot of content. I expected a really good game since the 1st one was so good and I saw a lot of good reviews and hype for this game. Besides the lightsaber stances, there wasn't anything that I loved about the game. No scene that stood out to me. :/ (kinda bummed out that it was a letdown for me).

Idk what game to play next but yeah (Maybe Baldur's Gate 3 or Dragons Dogma 2?? 😉👀). Below are my thoughts and stats on Jedi Survivor *spoilers included*.

Thank you for reading and for your support. Spoilers below!!!

So like I said above I was very underwhelmed with the game and the story. I heard a lot of good reviews and podcasts I listened to raved about how good the game was (minus the bugs and issues at launch). I expected to enjoy my time with Jedi Survivor. I am not a Star Wars fan but I played Jedi Fallen Order and fell in love with the characters, and the story in Jedi Fallen Order was so good (in my opinion someone who knew little to nothing about Star Wars). There was some stuff done right and some that were meh (not bad but not great). Stuff that I didn't like were the open-world aspect of Koboh and Jedah. I got annoyed that a lot of areas I wanted to explore early in the game were blocked off due to not having all the traversal skills. I did go back to some areas to explore them once I got the traversal ability needed but it got annoying fast. I thought this was very strange for me because I love open-world games and being free to explore the game's world at my own pace and get lost in it. But for this game, I preferred the more linear story sections with the side paths with hidden content (chest and mini-side bosses).

Moving on to the topic of side content. I thought a lot of the side content was boring. The character customization was meh. I was not impressed with the hairstyles and beard options available. I stuck with the survivor hairstyle and beard stubble for 99% of the game. For the other 1% I had Cal in his scrapper Jedi fallen order hair style. The outfits sucked in my opinion. They were not cool and just generic I guess? Again mostly had Cal in his survivor outfit just changed the outfit color and the scrapper look. Once I got the ponchos I stayed the ponchos lol. The lightsaber customization was cool. I liked changing my lightsaber look every so often. Okay now on to side content. Again pretty meh. The seeds were all the same except for different color variations, I do not see the point of doing the chambers (even though I did them all), and side bosses were not challenging. (Also I guess you can't customize the mantis which sucks. I even got the pit droid but I could not find how to customize the mantis). The most challenging boss/ side boss in the whole game was the Spawn of Oggdo Boggdo (f*ck Oggdo Boggdo and his spawn). I found some of the legendary bosses, but they did not pose a challenge for me so I didn't go out of my way to find them all. I liked the holo-tactics mini-game, that was fun. Also, I don't think the perks that were added. Once I equipped my first one I kept it for most of the game and only switched it out before the Dagan fight which I don't think did much.

Okay and now story. The story was again meh. I went on my phone for a lot of the cut scenes. The quest to find Tanalorr was clearly not exciting for me. The most exciting part was Bode's betrayal (obviously) however I was not that surprised because I never really trusted him. Cere's death and Cordova being alive and then later dying were also pretty surprising events. And the story bosses Rayvis, Dagan, and Bode were not that difficult. Bode was the hardest (took me two tries to kill him). Darth Vader when playing as Cere was kind of challenging but it took me 5 tries so... yeah (Oggdo Boggdo took me an hour, idk how many deaths). When looking back to Fallen Order the Ninth Sister, Malicos, and the Second Sister took me so many tries it was exciting when I finally beat them. I would have liked more BD-1 and Cal talk like in the Fallen Order. I also did not like the romance between Cal and Merrin (why can't we have two people just be friends and bond over trauma (low key thought Merrin was lesbian)). In the end, I was ready for the game to be over when usually I try to drag out the ending cause I love the characters, story, setting...

Cause I don't want to end on a bad note. The stuff that I did like about the game was the stances. They were fun to try and I liked that you could pick your 2 favorites. I also liked that the lightsaber colors had different sounds and the lightsaber customization was cool. 

But yeah those are my thoughts on Jedi Survivor. Thank you for reading. Hope you have a good day and a great gaming session. 😊🎮

[dashawfrostart]

This Week In "Time & Again" #12: It's Alive... Alive! Honest! And A Little Sour, And A Bit Sweet!

Guten Fhtagn! It's been... a while again.

(this is just a colourful teaser for you now, because it feels silly to make a post that starts with a wall of text - even though I personally love walls of text. Keep reading and you'll find out why those weird empty rectangles are here! And as I often do: there's an animated GIF in the end of the post!) Lately, life has sucked me into a giant cycle of great and lush eventfulness. Kinda as if I hopped into a funnel and then swirled around a bit. I might even say it was fun (haha, fun funnel 😁 What, not funny?.. Lame?.. Aah, well then). So, below goes a straightforward chronological report on what happened to "Time & Again" during this long looooong period of my blogging hiatus.

2 weeks ago I've actually spent only a few days working on "Time & Again" - much less than anticipated. As I always say, life usually takes away so much time from art!.. 🤣 However, it's always a choice. Because I'm not drawing 24/7; never did, and perhaps never will - because otherwise I'll never go birding, among other things. And birding is love. Birding makes Frosty happy. I wanna see more nuthatches and northern flickers around me, preferably every day, when possible. Too much to ask? Yes! But life is always about setting priorities straight and meticulously balancing the things you love and want to do. Because something always goes first, and something other goes second (third, fourth, etc.). So that is what I'm trying my best to do here.

But that was only half of the problem. The other half of the problem was about my futile endeavour to relight the creative spark that was seemingly extinguished over the course of the previous 2 weeks - perhaps due to the reasons mentioned above in this post. I'm always very hesitant to take breaks as I work on my projects, because it breaks immersion - and getting back into the mood again might pose a serious challenge. That is exactly how some of my novels/stories failed to see the light of day in the past. Now, since the work on Chapter 5 is nearing to its end - yes, it's almost done!!! - it's just very disappointing to slow down and having to look for the spilt marbles on the floor (however, Lothar, personally, will definitely benefit from at least TRYING to find his own marbles 🤦‍♀️ dear goodness, that man is indomitable). The work still went well, but without excitement I previously had. And I perpetually have serious problems trying to figure out a personal cure for the "lack of spark" issue: not even once in my entire life have I found a resolution that works wonders like a panacea for me in situations like that.

That said, with all of the distractions and not-exactly-creative events with myself in the epicentre, I managed to keep my word and created a Krita forum thread featuring majority of WIP screenshots from Chapter 5, which you can view following that link. Now, my only objective in this regard is to keep updating it 😁 (what I'm kinda failing at recently)

While not being exactly productive with "Time & Again" - that is only up until this week (read ahead) - in the meantime I have reconsidered a couple things that are related to the artistic part of my existence. One of the decisions was to take down the links to my DeviantArt account sometime after this post goes life. The reasoning behind that decision is as simple as an egg: because I don't post anything on DeviantArt anymore. And I keep forgetting to do it anyway. And I keep forgetting simply because it doesn't really matter. In the recent years I perceived DeviantArt to be nothing but a sort of a personal sketch/art dump simply for the sake of gaining more exposure [not really - read an UPD note ahead]. Let's be honest here: DeviantArt is not a good place anymore. It used to be awesome in 2008-2010 or around - for me anyway. But nowadays... Not so much. I don't think I want to delete it yet, for I still want to pop up, perhaps, once or twice a year and dump all the new artworks in there for the future archival purposes - and in case if somebody might be still interested. But for now, I view my DA account as an almost completely dormant collection of trash masterpieces of yore. So I will stop promoting it for the reason of it being obsolete like the morning dew beneath your feet in its current state. (holy effing smokies, that song was very difficult to find to provide a link to! 😱) [UPD 2024/03/12]: my aim with this was originally a bit off - which I realized only now. Aside from it being a random artworks dump, my decision to keep my DeviantArt account alive was precisely for linking back to it: meaning, I was thinking about uploading artworks on there in order to specifically use them in my posts and on the websites. So, yes, it is a relatively dormant collection, but also a convenient stash of art things to utilize elsewhere (thank you, id Software, for teaching me this word! 🤣). I'll see if that really works out in the future tho.

There's also something else that I don't to reveal just yet, and I'll keep it a secret for now 😉 I must try something before I jump to conclusions.

HOWEVER!.. This last week has changed the tides considerably, in my favour. Again, having only a very hypothetical and a rather unclear clue on why that happened - what, I must admit, mesmerizes and puzzles me to a great extent - that long-longed-for spark I thought I had lost along the way somehow magically returned back to me after I spent a few hours (and 2 days in total) of writing an arch-important "Notes & Commentary" section for the reissue of all the previous "Time & Again" chapters that is nigh (here, I teased ya. Now live with it 😎🤣). I really like "Time & Again". Even while it's still incomplete. Even if Lothar is just a stubborn a**. Even if a certain other character has quite funky fetishes. Even if Jeanny is perhaps dealing with her own little pinky demons. I really like "Time & Again", and I really enjoy its style, so revisiting the whole thing for the sake of writing additional materials for it quite possibly worked in a positive way on my spark. I love you, my spark. Let's keep it this way for as long as we can from now on. So now the work goes quite well, and I feel very good about it. There's still something troublesome that needs to be dealt with... but that'd be a painful tale for yet another post.

And, of course, I experimented with some Krita stuff again - for it seems, Chapter 5 really marks a period of great technical discoveries for me.

For example, finally, after all these years 😅🤣, I learnt and made a very good use of the toggle "All Layers" and "Current Layer" settings of Contiguous Selection Tool (that'd be your Magic Wand tool, ya Photoshoppers around - including my past self). That helped me to speed up flood fill of the certain areas. Speaking of flood fill and all, I experimented more with the "smart fill" as well. In the previous post, I was dreaming about an advanced AI algorithm to automatically recognize and colour the characters according to a user-prepared colour pallete. I might be exaggerating a bit, but flood-filling flat colours on every page felt almost stupefying - and, in short, not fun. I've read a little about the potentials to automate the process in Krita and have discovered a few neat tricks that I might use to speed up the process of colouring of the next Chapter. But right now - that's a story for another day in the future. And at last, let's talk about the backgrounds. I find it that the backgrounds that are just, let's say, "placeholders" and don't contain the surroundings of the characters are sometimes challenging. And in Chapter 5, there's gonna be plenty of those - because oh boy do I love long conversations! (strong self-awareness and self-mockery go here) And most of these conversations don't even require detailed environments for the backgrounds! Because people are just friggin' talking! And their surroundings don't matter on those particular panels. I've looked through quite a few graphic novels and comics at the local book store to get extra inspirations - but very often I see that the artists simply fill the panel with a solid colour. Completely flat. I must admit, I'm deeply hesitant to do the same, because I like at least a little texture on storywise-insignificant solid colours. It gives... depth.

So this is what I've been doing so far (and yes, you guessed it now! the picture in the very beginning of this post is very relevant here!):

While the "flat solid colour" on the background just seems... too flat, I decided to utilize a gentle gradient as a base, and then to apply additional brush strokes on a separate layer with special blending mode in order to create the effect of imperfection and ever so slightly visible texture to it. After a few sessions of trial and error, and thinking about how it feels and if it matches the mood of the chapter, I ended up using a couple of watercolour and splatter brushes together, in black, and the layer blending mode that I figured worked best for me was Soft Light (SVG). As illustrated by the following GIF:

And LAST (but as usual: not the least, but I won't cover "the least" in this current post for now, for the post is already a fatso - typical, innit?!), I've learnt how to use Filter Layers for the quick colour correction on the go. And this might be extremely useful in a long run for the future chapters of "Time & Again". I might cover this in one of my next posts.

That should be enough for now. So let's summarize: I most certainly did NOT disappear because "Time & Again" ceased to exist, or because I've been abducted by aliens, or because I got carried away giving belly rubs to pinky demons, or anything alike. I disappeared BECAUSE I was working hard on my story, even though at times it didn't go as smooth as I wanted to 😉.

Well, folks, let's wrap it up for today, and see you next time in another blog post! Take care! You will see Lothar in action again soon enuff! 👋

[fff777]

watched dream sketch #7 in london, paris, and berlin

Renjun doing a ballet spin and Haechan stretching. Renhyuck ballet AU.

Whatever Jaemren are doing.

Dream practices are always just cuddlefests

Look at this brat, Chenle acts tough and talks big but he's the biggest princess ever

Just a million things going on while Renjun takes cam control

Jaemin, in Korean: How do you say "get it together" in English Mark, in English: I love you

Jisung hyping up DJ Renjun even though he is not DJ-ing right now

Whatever's going on here

I'd seen a gif of this before watching this video and y'all must know I lost my shit. Jaemrenists we are so back.

Renjun just permanently at 180 degrees while practising

Oh wow they performed at Wembley. I only know that name because of soccer lol.

Mark explaining how "guys" refers to men but is also now used as a catchall term for everyone.

They're always just chatting amongst each other in huddles in the breaks between practice <3

Mark's already got his pretty hair done

Yeah okay Nohyuck

Renjun: I'm feelin it are you feelin it Chenle: No

I want to highlight the fact that I am only 3 minutes into this half hour video. There is always so much going on with these dudes.

Saturday Drip rehearsal (y)

Haechan is a sun but suns are also stars

Nomin

Game time! They all look so pretty

It's cool that Hrvy met them backstage :P Hrvy remembers all the details hehe.

Hrvy @ Jisung: You got a lot taller and your voice got a lot deeper ToT I know dude ToT I wasn't even there for it but he's all growed up.

Jisung prepared a little something in English :3 That's my son <3

I wonder why Chenle spoke in Korean (since he's pretty good at English ^^;;)

Kyuu pose strikes again

Deja vu's been growing on me. It's a pretty hype song eh.

My little guys. Also I'm so mean but every time Renjun wears that outfit I think of McLovin.

Low angle Chenji

Jeno flip!!!!!!

Jaemin: Don't skip a meal He's so malewife coded and yet not

Kissu

Picking up and playing with the toys that the fans throw on to the stage

樂樂又在撒嬌啦

Aigo with 350% energy by Haechan

Group huddle. Also Jisung looming over Renjun.

Renjun continues to be horizontal

Their rehearsal space in Paris is pretty small ^^;;

Chenle just promoting Starbs' iced vanilla latte for free and with his homemade slogan.

Mark sliding to the food and Chenle finding him adorable

My little guys again

Princess x Princess (I originally had so many screenshots for this part but I had to delete on account of the Tumblr pictures per post limit hmph)

Headlock of love

Whatever they were doing

They were all just having an insane dance party while Mark watched

Chenle and Renjun having a high pitched siren voice competition

Haechan believing in the power of Ratatouille inside his beanie

Getting hyped while practising Trigger the fever. It does hit different doesn't it.

Jaemin practising French :3 He likes Paris a lot :3

I took sooo many screenshots during this video but Tumblr only allows 30 so I keep having to delete some ToT

Anyway here's more Jaemren

And Markmin

Oh wow the standing spaces are REALLY close to the stage

Aw Haechan picked up a Crayon Shin-chan plush :3 And Chenle picked up a Daegal pillow X3

Lil cuties

Wait omg who gave Renjun and Jisung PSG jerseys??

Now onto Berlin

Mark taking a video of German pigeons

Did Haechan back his ass up into the huddle to get spanked

Jaemin's sweater said "GO HOME SOCIETY" which I assume is some form of introvert social club

Creation of Jeno?

They're such energetic performers. Watching them in concert must be so much fun~

Jeno helping Mark fix the back of his shirt?

Quite a few of them prepared something in German :3

Haechan tummy

Nomin again

Chenle wearing sunglasses during boom

Oh man this video was soooo much fun. I would have included so many more screenshots but alas, Tumblr said no. (I know I could technically reblog this post to add more photos but I am queueing this so I'll forgo the hassle and just cut down on number of photos).

[rings-of-power-realm]

Hi! First off I wanna say I love the gifs you make and the blog you've curated is immaculate. Also, I love the idea for the fanproject you're organizing (I think I know what I'm going to do as my entry, but it's gonna take a little time to complete). I actually wanted to get some advice on how to make my own screencaps, because I've been wanting to make some to post analyses of the costumes in the show which I think would be much more effective with visuals. However, I suck at computers, and every time I try to take a screencap, all I get is a black screen (probably effective Amazon programming to keep people from just recording and re-uploading the whole thing for free). I've tried using OBS studio because it's the main screencap software I'm familiar with, but it's still not working and I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing wrong lol. Any tips you could give me would be greatly appreciated! (But if not that's cool too). I love all the stuff you make!

Thanks,

-lotrnonsense

Hello my lovely! Thank you so much for your sweet message it really made me smile! I'm so glad you enjoy my blog and like the gifs I make :) that means a lot and I love playing around with ps! Also I'm thrilled that you wanna take part in the project! There's no end date right now so take the time you need to complete it. I really look forward to seeing what you make!

Yup Amazon won't allow screenshots to be taken sadly so even though I watch rop on amazon, for making the gifs I normally download the eps from a site (this one has been fine for me and the eps are in 1080p) It might take a while to download them all as they put a limit on free downloads but its worth it! I got the eps here (don't tell amazon lol)

I also use VLC media player (a free download) to take screenshots and make edits from. I hope this helps! I think thats a really cool idea to analyse the gorgeous costumes in the show, they're so detailed and I love seeing things I may have missed!