#but they shot themselves in the foot with the execution

[glittershvck]

having now finished the dlc and having processed it a bit, i can get on board with miquella in his desperation, resorting to ascend to godhood. even if he was disillusioned with it, anything to help heal the world, something he’s struggled and failed to do so often. and then he loses himself in the process, as a result of both his desperation and nascency to truly think of the long term consequences. i get more of a daenerys vibe (“if i look back, i am lost”) than i do griffith, though you can certainly contrast him with griffith.

the only thing that doesn’t fit for the me, the more i think about it….just what is the point of radahn as the consort? why need a consort at all? to have even his death animation be to embrace radahn, and have his final voice lines relate to radahn kinda..strips him of his complexity? maybe? i can’t totally blame people reducing him to just being “literally griffith who was obsessed with radahn and wanted to mind control the world”, because with those moments, the most crucial moments where you actually meet miquella, that’s his most defining, that’s what your initial thought is.

i don’t know, i loved the dlc overall, i just think when it came to miquella, they undercooked it a bit for such a fascinating character, and he deserved more than having his only actual appearances be made all about radahn. he at least deserved the slave knight gael treatment, his arc’s conclusion was much more satisfying than miq’s.

it’s wistful thinking, but i hope he returns for any future content to do with elden ring. again, it’s wistful thinking, but hey, stranger things have happened in the world of fromsoftware games.

[msvorderofoperations]

...I'm pretty sure the reason that this happens is executives notice that if they have a time limited license agreement, they can get it for a tiny bit cheaper. BUT JESUS FUCKING CHRIST THIS IS SO FUCKING STUPID.

I know this stuff pretty well, because it's an integral part of doing photography as a business. But music is much more forgiving in terms of cost, since it's only a small part of a greater whole. As opposed to say licensing a photo for an ad campaign, which is the entirety of it.

I guess the idea is to make something OK in the immediate, and then when less people are paying attention have it revert to something cheaper and hope that nobody notices. Even keeping that in mind though, the administrative hassle of licensing further works and having to re-edit and master audio CANNOT be worth the lower upfront cost.

This has also been a consistent problem in games where once the music license is up, it just gets pulled from storefronts. Like, okay you save a little up front but you then MAKE IT SO PEOPLE CANNOT BUY YOUR PRODUCT. I am in no way exaggerating when I say that emphasis on short term profit destroys everything, including the ability to make a profit. Capitalism is bad for capitalism.

you know how you can go and watch a movie you watched a bunch as a kid and the version of a song in it is different? like they actually changed it since you were a kid? that isn't normal. we didn't do that until like, the last ten years. it's fucked up.

[descendant-of-truth]

I do think they kind of shot themselves in the foot when it comes to the events of Sonic Forces, not because they were bad ideas or even because they were poorly-executed, but because of how it necessitates a change in character dynamics that Sega isn't willing to let happen.

Sonic canon is now existing in a time where Eggman's succeeded in taking over most of the world before, along with imprisoning Sonic for, and I need to emphasize this every time I mention it, six months straight. If Sonic's going to be jokey and casual with Eggman after that, then we need to be able to tell that it's something of a front that he's putting up, or else the character continuity makes no sense.

Recall how, in Adventure 2, Sonic would mock Eggman a bit when he thought he had the upper hand with the fake Chaos Emerald, but not because he wasn't taking him seriously as a villain. He knew that the situation was tense, he was talking big just because that's his personality.

Also recall how he completely dropped the humor whenever things got really bad. Well, he's seen things get pretty much as bad as possible in Forces, all because of Eggman, and I just can't buy the casual nature of their interactions in Frontiers because of it. No matter how casually Sonic acts around him, it's gotta be clear that he doesn't feel comfortable with him. And as entertaining as their dialogue in Frontiers is due to that vibe, it's out of character at this point in the timeline.

Yes, Sonic was the same way with him during Forces. But Frontiers was fully willing to let Tails have more serious, grounded feelings about what happened in Forces, so why not Sonic?

And seriously, what's with this trend of letting literally everyone but Sonic experience residual effects of Forces? Tails shows lasting guilt/anxiety regarding Infinite's first attack in both the games and the comics. And in those comics, the Restoration is all about rebuilding the world after the war, pretty clearly being shaped by their experiences. Meanwhile, Sonic mentions his imprisonment exactly once, and it gets brushed aside immediately.

I understand that Sonic wouldn't want to talk about it, but at a certain point, he doesn't really need to. A shift in how seriously he takes Eggman as a threat, showing his distrust whenever possible, would easily be enough to get the point across. Maybe make a point about him being a little antsy in tight spaces or something (which is the same way Forces communicated the effects being captured had on him, by the way).

And honestly, Eggman should feel a little different, too. He's now someone who's come so close to complete world domination and still lost, I feel like we should be seeing... I dunno, something. A different edge to his hatred for Sonic after such a monumental failure, maybe. Anything to show that Forces mattered at all to the major players involved.

Like, I don't think I'm asking for much here. If we can shake up the status quo of the series by allowing Eggman to be an Actual Dad with a Child, we can allow Sonic and friends to treat him as a legitimate threat who can't be trusted. But nooo, Eggman has to be silly enough to continue the Brand Image, which means that Sonic doesn't even get to have retroactive character development like Tails did

[brynn-lear]

"𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐩" 𝐈𝐧 𝐀 𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞

Relationship: Diluc Ragnvindr/Gender Neutral!Reader Synopsis: Diluc doesn't seem to like the ex-pirate who visits Angel's Share all that much, but he'll change his mind soon enough. (600 words)

Everyone working for the Dawn Winery didn't know what to make of you for the longest time.

You were becoming a new regular in Angel's Share, though you never bought alcoholic drinks for yourself. Instead, you'd go out of your way to pay Charles extra with specific instructions. You'd buy yourself a glass of wolfhook juice, pay for the next customer's shot— without batting an eye on the price tag, mind you— and then request to keep the glass bottle left behind. The staff would find you chatting up whoever was lucky enough to have their 1L pain reliever paid in full. There had been rumors that you once worked for Beidou from The Crux, so there's no wonder where you received the fortune.

There's also this tiny fact that you enjoy staring at the owner a lot.

If you want to be more charitable for troubled folks, there are better ways to go than paying for their drinks. Therapy is a better start; at least, that's what the Master believed. Despite profiting off your dubious goodwill, he wasn't fond of the execution. Diluc was under the impression that you find a twisted sense of pleasure in watching others poison themselves slowly. A hypocritical line of thought coming from the owner himself, so he has yet to voice them out loud. On the other hand, Venti doesn't think you're any cause for concern. The archon even implied you were an artisan— an attribute that confused Diluc even more.

"Is Master Diluc here?" Venti chirped, one foot inside the tavern while the other hovered outside in case he caught everyone in a sour mood (which isn't a rare occurrence on his end).

Diluc pinched the bridge of his nose. It was far too early for him to open the tavern, so he was the only one occupying the ground floor. He didn't look at Venti, instead his eyes were on last month's payment logs.

"What do you want, bard?"

Venti's face lit up as he marched forward. "I knew you would be too busy this festive season, so I bought you something from (Y/n)'s stall at the recent art fair!"

"(Y/n) sold something?" Finally, the jaded businessman met his gaze. He doesn't attend those. They were more or less Kaeya's scene than his.

"Not just sold— they literally sold out pretty quickly, actually!" Venti grinned, chuckling to himself. "Here's yours, open it!"

…

...

"A... vineyard in a bottle…?"

"Yep! I heard (Y/n)'s hobby was to make ships in a bottle, but this time, they're very inspired by something— or someone— else." Venti nodded, giving him a quick and playful wink. "I guess you two have much more in common than you thought, huh?"

"Instead of emptying bottles, you were both born to fill them."

Diluc chuckled softly.

He gently took the ship on the box, inspecting it. Diluc must admit, he doesn't quite understand the meaning of every detail, but the colors of the miniature people alone reminded him of regulars and other Dawn Winery staff. The people held baskets of grapes, some positioned themselves for a picnic, and he swore he saw a version of Stanley drinking with Venti by the vines.

Diluc made a strangled and surprised noise when he saw a particular red-haired man hidden from plain sight, pouring what was quite possibly grape juice for the (h/c) haired person facing him.

"I suppose so." Diluc nodded, fondly gazing at the ship. "I suppose so."

Ah, so that's what those stares were for.

You were collecting bottles to make these.

Maybe you weren't so bad after all.

[fantastic-nonsense]

honestly as much as I bitch about TLJ specifically, I lowkey think the sequel trilogy was doomed no matter who tried to make them because they were made in Hollywood's peak "absolutely nothing we ever make can be sincere!" era, which is antithetical to how George Lucas approached making Star Wars.

One of the most interesting things about Star Wars has always been how absolutely sincere it was about its themes and message and everything that happens in the movies. Even if it's ridiculous, even if it's objectively silly, nothing is ever really treated as such within the movies themselves. A naive farmboy genuinely does have the skill to take down a planet killing weapon. A slave boy from a backwater planet really does have a key part to play in the fall of the Jedi. A group of three foot high killer teddy bears are treated as serious opponents to Imperial forces. Jar-Jar Binks gets to be a Senator with an instrumental, if small, part to play in the story of the prequels. Everything has its place and every part of the story is treated with equal sincerity.

But nearly everything made in the 2010s always had to be funny or meta or self-aware or subversive or self-depreciating about its message and the genre it occupied. There was always a twist. There was always a "I'm more clever than my audience" or "I know this is dumb, but watch it anyway" vibe being brought to the table. Everything always had to take at least one cheap shot at people who wanted to take a piece of media seriously and sincerely treat it as a story whose creators had something to say.

And meanwhile George Lucas was always just like "I have a story, and I want to tell that story. I don't care if people like it or don't like it. My themes are my themes, my message is my message, and you can just die mad about it if you think it's too naive or sincere."

Any world that is fundamentally built on sincerity and genuine belief in a core set of messages cannot maintain integrity when people who do not wholeheartedly believe in the sincerity of that world's message are put in charge of it. The lack of belief will always shine through. The lack of understanding will pervade every inch of the new entry. The sheepish embarassment of "I know this is dumb guys, but watch it anyway because I'm going to do something ~different~!" will always be the audience's takeaway over anything else the creative team tries to say. Because instead of just making a good movie that both logically follows the other ones and actually adds further depth to the existing themes, they're embarassed to even be trying.

Even apart from the utter lack of planning and the mess of executive meddling that went into the sequels...is it any wonder we got the end result we did when no one involved in the creative process actually genuinely, wholeheartedly believed in George Lucas's message and the story they were telling?

[cipheramnesia]

Part 4: A Midnight Summer Dream

a story by @rox-and-prose and @cipheramnesia

Luna was a pale sliver of paint in the stars, a slip of the brush in the forever of the sky.

"That's it," Michele Loren said. "This is where we head our separate ways for the moment."

Laika took her hand of the control vines for Genghis Khan as she stared wordlessly. The earth civ moon, original version, a system unto itself. She had devoured all she could find about Luna, the multifacet god, in hopes to understand the call she felt in the days after leaving home. She'd put the hope of seeing Luna with her own eyes at the bottom of a box and buried the idea. Her muzzle hung slightly agape as she searched for something momentous to say, to share with GK how much it meant to be in the here and now.

She noticed Sy was watching her, and the dryad smiled and glanced away when he saw her seeing him. She blushed and her face felt hot, and she forgot her train of thought.

"I never imagined I'd rob the moon," she said.

"You're only robbing a very, very small part of it," Cat Nguyen corrected.

The crew of the Paperclip were sharing the bridge of Genghis Kahn, with varying expressions of perplexity on their faces watching the werewolf executing the peculiar movements and footwork involved in manipulating the various switches and nerves and pedals essential to a Pilot. Even Doc seemed entranced, silent through all the system jumps, or structure solutions, or whatever GK liked to call them. All except Dandridge who returned to the Paperclip immediately in a sullen huff, vowing never to set foot on GK ever again. Laika was going to need to find out what exactly GK had done to piss him off so bad.

Now they were gathering up helmets and and gloves for their envirosuits, looking around for just the right way to excuse themselves from the room which Laika had seen enough of before she was eight to recognize. "Okay," Loren said. "Well, you know. This should go fine, just stick with the plan, keep it simple, you know."

"I can do better than that," Doc (Laika still hadn't figured out if the woman was Blake Sloane, or Sloane Blake, or something else), pushing her bracelets along with the sleeve of her purple, double breasted, knitted suit jacket. "I can stick the plan to me." There was a mess of writing which Laika deeply hoped was meant to look smeared and half erased on Doc's forearm.

"That's, that's a great- Good job Sloane."

"Doctor Blake, why can't you ever get my name right?!"

"I'm sorry. Doctor Blake. Fantastic work as always." Loren turned to Laika. "Look, I don't know how to uh. You know how much work this has been for me. Well, just be careful. Make sure next time I see you, you have the godseye or Doc, or both. Or don't let me see you again?"

"Is that a threat," Sy asked.

"Think of it as friendly advice," Loren said.

"And also as a threat," Nguyen added, despite Loren's sharp look. "What?" she shot back at his frown.

"Do I have do go with these guys?" Sy looked at Laika who said "no" at the same time as Loren and Nguyen said "yes."

"We'll keep our end," Nguyen said, "along with your friend. You keep yourself along with Doc."

"Who you wouldn't be sorry to see killed, I gather."

"We'd prefer she come out of this mostly intact," Loren sounded almost apologetic.

"Okay, okay, fine. Let's not draw this out, I get it."

Loren breathed a small sigh of relief and Nguyen just smiled. "We'll get going then," he said.

"Take care of yourself," Laika gave Sy a shoulder pat as he walked by, then impulsively pulled him into a hug.

"I'll be good," he said into fur. "You have the hard job."

"Pulling off the heist?"

"Being alone with, uh, the Doc."

Loren and Nguyen waited at the entryway to the bridge. Laika set down Sy from the hug and stood her full height. "Oh," she said. "Before you go? GK, please threaten them."

Its voice coming from nowhere as usual, GK said, "Thank you Laika, for this commendable request. Captain Michele Loren of the Paperclip, please prepare for receiving a threatening missive."

"What?"

"Captain Michele Loren, Pilot Cat Nguyen, and the remaining crew of the ship Paperclip not present aboard myself, I am placing you under the advisement that should even the smallest fraction of an injury occur to Pilot Laika Blackwood, or Sy Drangea, electrical engineer, I will track you to the end of earth civilization space, and to parts unknown. You will never know safety or peace for as long as you remain alive. I will find your dreams, and take them from you. There will be no power up to and including the total heat death of this universe which will stop me from extracting your lives in payment. If you die, I will find yours souls. I will tear apart the essence of your beings. I will disperse the electrons of your bodies into every star of this universe. I will burn your souls to ash. Nothing will remain. Please ensure Sy returns safely to me upon our next meeting."

Loren stared, open mouthed.

"Uh," said Nguyen, "You're... really good at that."

"Thank you," said GK. "Your praise is insignificant to me. Please have a safe trip."

[marzipanandminutiae]

Rating the Femme en Noir Crimson Peak collection when I should be going to bed (it's not ALL critical, actually!)

no judgment at all to people who like the collection. nothing can achieve higher than a 7/10 because it's all synthetic. let's get into it

Edith Victorian Gown in Ivory

...yeah! that's basically Edith's nightgown copied exactly, so it's a 7/10 from me

2. Lady Lucille Victorian Dress With Capelet In Teal

What. um. What does this have to do with anything Lucille wears? It's blue velvet and it's a dress; there the similarities end. Why is there a ruffly capelet? That's something Edith wears, not Lucille. Why are there leg-o-mutton sleeves? Why is there no trim whatsoever? (that last is to become a running theme.) 3/10.

3. Allerdale Moth Wallpaper Babydoll Dress in Olive

There's a longer version, and were it a natural fabric, I'd be tempted to buy it and alter it into a blouse and over-skirt or something. This one is honestly pretty cute, though I forget what part of the house this wallpaper appears in. 7/10.

4. Edith Victorian Knit Cardigan in Olive

I get that they want to modernize these things for their target audience, but the original being SO much more fitted and sumptuous-looking just makes this one look sad. It's like Wish.com Edith. 5/10 for at least keeping the little velvet pumpkins.

5. Ghost Shoulder Bag

If this were leather, I would buy it. Not a huge fan of Margaret being the ghost on the front, though- I feel like Enola or Eleanor would be more photogenic. Poor Margaret. 6/10 though they're lucky I don't take points off for calling it "vegan leather" in the description. Be honest- it's plastic.

6. Belladonna Maxi Dress in Crimson Red

This is just an existing product of theirs But In Red. Pretty, but 4/10 for lack of effort.

7. Lady Mourning Victorian Gown in Black

It's the nightgown in black with a sash. Try harder. 3/10 and I'm skipping any color repeats labeled as different dresses from here on out.

8. Mourning Victorian Bonnet in Black

You know what? Yeah. Sure! That's a cute bonnet. Good job. 7/10.

9. Lace Mourning Scarf Veil in Black.

You can get a yard of nylon chantilly lace for less than $28, pretty as this looks. 5/10.

10. Victorian Cycling Pullover Sweater in Black

I mean. I guess. What does this have to do with Crimson Peak, exactly? Why is "Lucille" wearing puffed sleeves when, again, her clothing being tight has so much character logic behind it? It's a mystery. 5/10.

11. Victorian Velvet Bustle Skirt in Black

This didn't photograph well, but it appears to have some cool pleat details. I don't like 19th-century skirts getting shortened, but that's more a matter of personal preference than reaction to movie inspiration or lack thereof. 6/10.

12. Taffeta Edwardian Blouse in Marigold

This comes in multiple colors, but I picked the marigold because it illustrates that Wish.com effect once again.

The OG bodice from the movie that they're clearly trying to evoke. It has DETAIL! it has TRIM! It has LUSH FABRIC! And obviously you can't do that with a mass-produced piece, but ye gods, why would you set yourself up for failure by trying? If they hadn't gone for the look of a specific movie costume, their blouse wouldn't look disappointing by comparison. 5/10

13. Wicker Tilt Hat With Black Veil

Once again I feel they shot themselves in the foot here. It's cute! But it suffers by trying to be something that was better in the movie.

Not great by comparison; it's TOO close without going all the way. 6/10 because it is cute, though.

[skipped a bunch more veils and some lace mitts, which were cute but have nothing to do with How Well Or Poorly The CPeak Inspiration Was Executed In My Opinion]

14. Victorian Hands Belt in Silver

THIS IS NOT THE CRIMSON PEAK HAND BELT. THIS IS NOT EVEN TRYING TO BE THE CRIMSON PEAK HAND BELT. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS?

IT IS THIS 1970S BELT- WHICH, LIKE THE ONE IN THE MOVIE, IS NOT BASED ON ANY VICTORIAN ORIGINAL THAT I'M AWARE OF -THAT HAS BEEN COPIED 50000 TIMES. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND WAIT FOR CUTTLE AND BONE TO HAVE ANOTHER PREORDER OF ACTUAL CPEAK HAND BELTS. 0/10.

Conclusion: Not all bad, but I feel like I actually would have gone in a more modern direction with the resources and limitations of this collection. You're never going to be as good as the movie costumes at their own game, not with mass-manufactured pieces. So why set yourself up for failure? Bringing the characters, themes, and motifs to a yet-unexplored time and place (with some Victwardian touches, of course!) seems like it would have been a better way to go about this, IMO.

Also stop being allergic to trim when you're taking inspiration from a movie with oodles of passementerie and beadwork and lace all over everything.

5/10 overall.

[devsgames]

On AI-Driven Conversations In Games

The AI gang really shot themselves in the foot by leaning so hard into capitalist exploitation angle, because now whenever they present a use of the tech that is actually moderately interesting the baseline reaction people have to it is just going to be hate because it's associated to AI in any way shape or form.

I mean, obviously I understand why people react this way, because most of the practical applications of AI are just a veil for replacing of labour and increasing profit margins for the executive levels. But I feel like nowadays you'll also just see a lot of people hating an idea because it's implicitly tied to AI in any way, despite the core conceit of the idea actually being fairly interesting. (Remember when Spiderverse used Machine Learning to generate some of it's incredibly labour-intensive frame-by-frame effects and then a bunch of people got mad because it used Machine Learning for that?)

People have been pointing to the use case of "what if you could talk to an NPC in a game and have their reponses generated via AI", and laughing at it like it's the dumbest suggestion ever, but honestly in my opinion I think that's the exact kind of system AI was practically designed for! To me that feels like an excellent application of the tech that is now just marred by the mention of AI in the first place.

Anyway, to ruminate on the concept a bit: I see that use of AI enabling a dev to fill out a world with more NPCs who help it feel more populated, as well as potentially give them incredibly varied responses that are more relevant to the NPCs immediate context of the game. I imagine instead of replacing full-on player choice dialog it would instead replace the throwaway barks of awkward and out of place open-world NPCs who look at you and say "I have nothing to say to you" and giving them something to directly say about your adventure or the context around them instead.

Instead of having the intern narrative designers be forced to write little barks and blurbs like "I have nothing to say" (which I understand narrative folks usually view as grunt work and hate writing in he first place), they'd be writing little prompts for that system instead. End result is when you talk to random farmer NPC #344 outside of town they say "Crop's doing well this year, here's hoping a dragon doesn't attack us" instead of "I've got nothing to say". I think on paper that's a genuinely good and interesting way to improve an antiquated open-world problem like that. Should it be helpful? Probably not. Would it be interesting? No. Would it be a little more flavourful than what we currently have going on? I think so!

It's not an AI shill fever dream, I can see exactly how it would work and I'd bet money that there's a studio doing something like it in R&D right now. I imagine it'd also probably be pretty adaptable between projects too, so the similar system could be applied to different areas of the world.

Should it be trusted to give the player directions or do any sort of leading that a narrative designer should do? Almost certainly not because it would be inconsistent and have too big a possibility window, and AI is nothing if not horrible at performing essential tasks that might block progress.

Should it be done with the tech as it is now? Hell no, unless you want to wait five seconds for every reply to be generated and for it to be tied to some server bank that's guzzling all of Arizona's water. Also it would probably need an internet conncetion to work, which is asking a lot for an open world game.

Should it be done by these studios who are more interested in using it to replace labour and make the end result cheaper to make so they can keep more profits off he top? No, and that's the real reason why the applications of this tech sucks - because spoiler alert they'd all love to save money.

Obviously this concept isn't doable right now, but I wouldn't be surprised if it ships in a game in some form within 5-10 years tops.

Again I get why at this point in capitalism there's almost no applications of machine learning that are easy to trust, nor should we ever believe studios are doing it for any reason outside of trying to make development cheaper. I just think when it comes to tech it's worthwhile to keep execution in mind separate from intent; Tech isn't implicitly evil, it's the system it's built under that is. :)

[zaynjmsource]

Zayn Malik’s arrival at Paris Fashion Week was not without incident. At about 8:30pm on Friday evening, a slow-moving car ran over his toes. Malik was exiting Kenzo’s autumn/winter 2024 show at the Bibliothèque Nationale, where a small army of Directioners had mobilised, precipitating a minor roadblock. That would have been enough to send anyone – particularly those of an introverted disposition – back into relative isolation. But there he was: on Saturday’s front rows, seemingly content with being perceived in public for the first time in five years. “My foot is fine!! Thanks to my incredibly well-made shoes,” Malik later explained on Instagram, captioning a photo of his tyre-marked Kenzo sneakers. It is the most deft use of the Paid Partnership tag I have ever seen.

Paris Fashion Week (which is perhaps the most accurate barometer of who and what is considered to be culturally relevant), fulfils a secondary purpose: to launch and relaunch the careers of its attendees. It is a place to see and be seen, and perhaps even, make a cameo in a brand’s TikTok video. It tracks, then, that Malik should choose the white heat of the men’s shows to re-emerge from a period of seclusion. Just as his new film – in which he voices a pair of animated bumblebees – debuts at the Sundance Film Festival, and less than a week after he released a single in Urdu with the Pakistani pop trio Aur. “It’s a busy time so you have to take care of yourself,” the musician, who has sometimes chafed against the demands of fame, says, sitting in a luxe suite at the Bulgari Hotel. “So I brought my mum with me. It’s always nice to have things that remind you of home when you’re away.” A moment, please, for product placement: “And, of course, I’m always drinking Mixoloshe,” he adds. “It keeps me young!”

Malik’s comeback reached its apotheosis when he arrived at Valentino’s Le Ciel autumn/winter 2024 show in a suit bearing the words, “We’re So Old, We Have Become Young Again”, which is a phrase that first appeared in Hanya Yanagihara’s 736-page invocation of human suffering A Little Life, but could just as feasibly have been plucked from One Direction’s teenybopper songbook. (Specific enough to inspire yearning, broad enough for anyone to insert themselves into.) “Funnily enough, the first fashion show I ever attended was Valentino nine years ago,” Malik says. “But I think, over the years, my knowledge of fashion has expanded. I have a lot more appreciation for it. Pierpaolo is incredible and Valentino never misses in my opinion.” At some point between our conversation and his arrival at the brand’s Monnaie de Paris step and repeat, Malik’s quiff was razed into a handsome short back and sides – a bit like when a bride gets a haircut midway through her wedding day.

And judging from Malik’s hastily-taken photos from the front row – squint and you might be able to distinguish a series of crystalline worker jackets from Pierpaolo Piccioli’s laser-cut Acanthus leaf coats – it was a collection that stirred due levels of anticipation. “There were so many great looks, but at the top of my wishlist were the long, cut-out coats,” Malik says. “Valentino always has class, it executes that edginess and luxury combination the best. When I was younger, I used to save up all my wages from the pizza shop I worked at so that I could afford to buy a new pair of trainers or a tracksuit. I was only able to get one piece every couple of weeks and it probably would have taken me a lifetime to buy a Valentino outfit! So I feel blessed and lucky that I get to wear the brand.” But there might have been another explanation for Malik’s spontaneous, erm, runway shots. “I was excited to see Lamar Johnson, who I was sitting next to. I didn’t want to bother him, but I’m a fan of his work! He’s such a great actor.”

All of this is to say: Zayn Malik is back. The sensitive and brooding boy band-survivor restored and ready to reclaim his title as a global heartthrob. Among the photos he shared with Vogue – which continue to point towards a certain camera shyness despite his fame – one image in particular paints a timeless portrait. In it, Malik is sitting in the backseat of a chauffeur-driven car as a blur of bystanders scrape their iPhones against the windows. He looks a little apprehensive. And so, I wonder how Malik manages to step outside of all this toe-crushing furore, now 14 years in the game. “The museums in Paris are full of beautiful art and talented artists,” he says, with all the earnestness that first saw him two-step into the hearts of millions of Directioners around the world. “I would highly recommend going to a few and viewing different works of art. It’s very inspiring!”

[shinyzango]

So, about that "A Steampunk Carol" graphic novel...

I totally did not forget to make the post about it like I promised I am so sorry.

For those who are not familiar with it, long story short a while ago I came across a Kickstarter project for what seemed to be a steampunk adaptation of the Nutcracker story and was bummed that I missed out on it and wasn't able to support and secure a copy for myself, but a fella made me aware that it did actually get published in Italy a few years ago, and that it was sold on Amazon. And after discovering that there was literally only one copy left, I bought it on a whim to both read it and to hopefully attract more attention to it for reasons I'll discuss in just a bit.

I'm just going to say that I'm very back at writing reviews so apologies if this doesn't say anything at the end or if you didn't get the answers to your questions dkfjgn

Alright, now for the book itself.

First things first, the story. I won't go into details right now as I do not want to spoil folks in case this does get released in english to a wider public, but I can add a Spoilers section in the future where I explain in detail what happens if I get asked about it.

The story, like I said, is an adaptation of the Nutcracker And The Mouse King, but it is quite different in many elements, and spices things up quite a bit, especially after the introduction.

Sadly it feels quite rushed in its execution imo, I assume it's because they had to fit everything in a single volume. Which is a shame because there are many concepts and ideas that are very fascinating and interesting, both for the plot and for the characters themselves.

Speaking of the characters, they are quite unique and interesting.

The main kid, Caitlin, who is the Clara/Marie of the story, can be a little sassy, but she still feels grounded and has a good balance between putting down her foot and being nervous about the situation. I don't mind her character.

The Nutcracker, who is only called Schiaccia (just a shortened "Schiaccianoci" which is nutcracker in italian. I assume he's called Cracker in english if they kept that logic), feels solid. He's a loyal soldier, skilled but does show hints of insecurities. A good lad.

The mice are great as well, I'm really intrigued by the lore they cooked up for them, and the Mouse King is actually not bad, and I like what they did with his character.

There's also another supporting character, a tin soldier who goes by Sergeant Idle. He is basically a companion to the Nutcracker. He is basically a plot tool, helping with the backstory and moving the story forward, but not in a bad way. He's very enjoyable.

I would have loved to see them all explored further, but like I said it all feels rushed probably because it had to stick all in a single volume. I don't know if the authors ever considered this to become a series or if it's just a one-shot story, but I would honestly love to see this evolve into a series, if only because I love the characters and I would love to know more about the lore they cooked up for it more in detail, letting all the elements have the time to shine.

Moving on to the graphic...

I love Lorenza's art style. It looks very sketchy, with a clean roughness to it if that makes sense. And I really like all the designs of the characters.

(Apologies for the glares, I tried my hardest to limit them as much as possible. also ngl I'm giggling a little seeing how Schiaccia looks similar to my Hans skdfkjhn)

All in all, I really like this adaptation. It's unique and enjoyable, if only a little rushed.

Like I mentioned before, this was Kickstarted a while ago to get properly published in english. It was successfully funded and as far as I know, they're currently in the process of printing copies if not even shipping them for the backers. I still don't know if the folks at Last Ember Press are planning in making it available to purchase outsite the Kickstart, but I really hope so because I do think this deserves to be available to everyone.

[lloydfrontera]

do you know how fucking mad i am at the fact that the webcomic gave us lloyd giving javier his own mana in an attempt to save his life and javier overcoming literal dimensional differences in order to be able to accept it into his body effectively foreshadowing how far he's willing to go just to be able to protect lloyd,,,, but they did it all with a fucking 'haha lloyd is ugly' joke. do you.

this could've been one of the best scenes in the entire thing. it could've been such a pivotal point for their character development. it could've been one of the most earnest moments in the story. but it's made into a joke because they just need to draw the ugliest faces possible to make a cheap joke that has been made a hundred times already. i'm not being funny i'm genuinely mad at the wasted potential lmao

the tone of the scene was changed from the webnovel so much it's almost unrecognizable. and not in a good way. like. why would you cheapen the emotional core of your own story like this. do you trust your own plot and characters so little to keep your readers engaged with the story that you feel the need to make everything in a joke. is that it. was the original story not funny enough to keep your attention so you think no one will care if you turn what's meant to be an earnest and heartwarming scene into a joke you've made hundreds of time before.

i'm not. mad. about the changes themselves (mostly). like i said this particular scene had so much potential to compliment the original story and foreshadow the ending that i'm actually upset that the tone and art made it so i can't in good faith say i like it.

they just. shot themselves in the foot by trying to make the scene funny. all the tension and emotional built up is wasted when the webcomic makes fun of itself. it cannot take itself seriously so i can't either.

like. it was going so well. i loved the built up with the scene where they talk about javier's parents and you see that they're still emotionally guarded with each other, they don't quite feel close enough to the other to call themselves friends even when we know that they care deeply for each other. i liked that they changed it so lloyd had the opportunity to save javier the way he wasn't able to in the novel. i even liked the development with lloyd's mana being so different from javier's that he struggles with accepting it, cause it was a chance to call forward to a very important event in the future.

the scene where they're reaching for each other as they realize that yes, they're friends and god help them they will save their friend no matter what?? gorgeous i loved it so much, it wasn't 'We'll be together forever, just like we've always been. Casually. As natural as breathing air.' yeah but it was perfectly okay on it's own too.

and then they do this.

like. what.

all that emotional built up, all that tension, all of it,,, for this?? this????

what's the point of making your audience feel emotionally engaged with the story if you're just gonna make the art equivalent of a fart noise. a well executed yet still completely out of place fart noise lmao

it doesn't feel funny, it just makes me feel like i wasted my time being emotionally invested in something that isn't interested in delivering. it's like watching someone setting up dominoes to topple them in a gorgeous pattern only for them to put on clown shoes and start kicking them all over the place without rhyme or reason. like yeah they're in their right but then what was the point of all that work in the first place.

and yeah maybe it's my fault for expecting something earnest and heartfelt from a webcomic that has shown multiples times that it's not interested on that but like. is it really too much to expect for an adaptation to, well, adapt the original source in a way that doesn't feel like it's making fun of it??

[thebrickinbrick]

Foot to Foot, Part One

When there were no longer any of the leaders left alive, except Enjolras and Marius at the two extremities of the barricade, the centre, which had so long sustained Courfeyrac, Joly, Bossuet, Feuilly and Combeferre, gave way.

The cannon, though it had not effected a practicable breach, had made a rather large hollow in the middle of the redoubt; there, the summit of the wall had disappeared before the balls, and had crumbled away; and the rubbish which had fallen, now inside, now outside, had, as it accumulated, formed two piles in the nature of slopes on the two sides of the barrier, one on the inside, the other on the outside. The exterior slope presented an inclined plane to the attack.

A final assault was there attempted, and this assault succeeded. The mass bristling with bayonets and hurled forward at a run, came up with irresistible force, and the serried front of battle of the attacking column made its appearance through the smoke on the crest of the battlements. This time, it was decisive. The group of insurgents who were defending the centre retreated in confusion.

Then the gloomy love of life awoke once more in some of them. Many, finding themselves under the muzzles of this forest of guns, did not wish to die. This is a moment when the instinct of self-preservation emits howls, when the beast reappears in men.

They were hemmed in by the lofty, six-story house which formed the background of their redoubt. This house might prove their salvation. The building was barricaded, and walled, as it were, from top to bottom. Before the troops of the line had reached the interior of the redoubt, there was time for a door to open and shut, the space of a flash of lightning was sufficient for that, and the door of that house, suddenly opened a crack and closed again instantly, was life for these despairing men. Behind this house, there were streets, possible flight, space. They set to knocking at that door with the butts of their guns, and with kicks, shouting, calling, entreating, wringing their hands. No one opened. From the little window on the third floor, the head of the dead man gazed down upon them.

But Enjolras and Marius, and the seven or eight rallied about them, sprang forward and protected them. Enjolras had shouted to the soldiers: “Don’t advance!” and as an officer had not obeyed, Enjolras had killed the officer.

He was now in the little inner court of the redoubt, with his back planted against the Corinthe building, a sword in one hand, a rifle in the other, holding open the door of the wine-shop which he barred against assailants. He shouted to the desperate men:—“There is but one door open; this one.”—And shielding them with his body, and facing an entire battalion alone, he made them pass in behind him. All precipitated themselves thither.

Enjolras, executing with his rifle, which he now used like a cane, what single-stick players call a “covered rose” round his head, levelled the bayonets around and in front of him, and was the last to enter; and then ensued a horrible moment, when the soldiers tried to make their way in, and the insurgents strove to bar them out. The door was slammed with such violence, that, as it fell back into its frame, it showed the five fingers of a soldier who had been clinging to it, cut off and glued to the post.

Marius remained outside. A shot had just broken his collar bone, he felt that he was fainting and falling. At that moment, with eyes already shut, he felt the shock of a vigorous hand seizing him, and the swoon in which his senses vanished, hardly allowed him time for the thought, mingled with a last memory of Cosette:—“I am taken prisoner. I shall be shot.”

[jabberkay]

The Hanging Tree (scrapped …)

. · . · . · . · . · . · . · . · .

Heavily inspired by the short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Pierce

I know it’s a scrap but I’m posting it anyways to see if anyone really cares about this 😭 I have no motivation to continue it.

. · . · . · . · . · . · . · . · .

Sejanus Plinth × Reader (kinda) | One Shot

Warnings: fear, mentions of death, detailed descriptions of bruises and wounds, blood, gun violence, public execution, death, injury, ooc and probably bad writing (sorry), lacking dialogue (also sorry)

(please tell me if I miss anything)

. · . · . · . · . · . · . · . · .

Sejanus stood on the creaky wooden trapdoor, hearing the crowd clamor with shock and horror as they saw a young girl be brought up beside him. He was not the focus, but rather her. One of their own.

Many of them thought this a promiscuous act. The tears that rolled down both of their faces made the crowd believe they'd not committed any of what they were being accused of. They were children, scared children. They thought that the peacekeepers were heartless, cruel people. That this was thoughtless and dangerous.

The crowd seemed to roar with despondency and disbelief, some murmuring to one another and others sobbing.

His gaze roved over the distraught faces, as they had not bothered to cover his eyes or the rest of his face. He noticed the crying women and the confused, afflicted children that clung to them.

His hands were tightly bound behind his back, a loose somewhat relaxed noose wrapped upon his neck, its rough edges stabbing into the skin there.

The melodic chirping of mockingjays sounded overhead, picking up the distressed voices and turning it into a song. Their depressing cadence washed over the crowd like requiem.

Rope gripped his neck tightly, already beginning to leave a mark. The peacekeepers read off the charges, his charges, which fell on deaf ears.

In the sea of faces, he saw y/n. He'd met them at the Hob, and they'd been kind to him despite his more privileged origins. They were beauty—a sobbing, miserable beauty. He noticed their rolling tears and the sobs that wracked through their bodies like tremors in the earth.

It was then that Sejanus began to plan something, anything, to save them. To save the Covey, to save himself.

About two and a half meters in front of him was the edge of the stage, and just a foot away from his platform were two peacekeepers, whom he recognized from their training. Neither of them looked comfortable with the situation.

Sejanus supposed he could somehow free

He looked out of the corner of his eye to the smaller girl, but she was blocked by the large trunk of the tree.

Then, abruptly, a head peacekeeper began counting down to pull the lever that opened the trapdoors.

"Six, five, four." The last seconds were agonizing, but not near as bad as when he dropped from the platform.

His head began to throb wildly, and his hands instinctively tried to free themselves from the confines behind his back to lessen the pressure against his throat.

Sejanus' mind began to dull, his vision becoming blurry and his eyes watering. He was sure it was over, over for everything, everyone. Everything had begun to slow down.

It was then, by some miraculous force, that the branch attached to the noose snapped and his body collapsed into the stage. He felt strangely congested, and his head felt heavy, like the weight of his thoughts had caused him to fall.

He wasn't suffocating any longer, but his ears picked up on the all too familiar orders of the head peacekeeper as he ordered the rest into position.

Sejanus got to his feet unsteadily, the men had moved their fund to a ready positions but looked at him pitifully, hesitating on their shots.

He stumbled off the stage and into the crowd just when they had begun to fire. He could hear the bullets whizzing and cries of the audience who had been caught in the crossfire.

His sole focus was y/n, Sejanus didn’t think he could live without y/n.

A bullet was lodged into his back of his knee, pain shot up his legs and seemed to linger at every nerve ending on his body.

Despite the pain, he pushed through, never stopping until he made it y/n’s distraught face. He took their hand, “c’mon, quickly.”

His plan was to get to the woods, to get deep enough in that they could run away and never be found. To catch a train and be with his Ma and Pa.

They didn’t fight him. Y/n took Sejanus’ hand and supported some of his wait as they slipped through the crowd.

They heard him groan in pain as another shot landed in his abdomen just before they ducked behind a building. They both heard the shouting, the bullets flying and people screaming.

Sejanus groaned and whimpered in pain, nearly collapsing there, but y/n couldn’t let him, not until they were safe.

They dragged him through the seam and into the outskirts of the District. Once they were deep enough in the woods, they set him against a tree and attempted to treat his wounds.

“Shh,” they whispered, attempting to quiet him down in case anyone was looking for them. “I’ve got you, Sejanus.”

His gaze was soft and tired, the pain wrapped around his whole body, constricting him like a snake. “Sorry,” a wince left his barely parted lips as they ripped off a sleeve and tied it around his leg before inspecting the wound that had landed in his mid-back.

He didn’t try to stop them from treating the bullet wounds, knowing he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to do so.

Unfortunately this is where it ends :((

[the-owl-tree]

can we also talk about how the other species (dragons, yaks, griffons, etc.) and their cultures in mlp were portrayed. "these violent foreign savages are unfamiliar with the concepts of Kindness and Decency so they need the help of us Ponies to change their ways and show them all how to be nice to each other!" Forever icks me how the only "good dragons" (spike, having been raised by ponies; ember, being the first dragon in the dragonlands to be susceptible to the "pony way" friendship and love; smolder, having attended the pony school for pony customs to take back to her culture to change dragon customs) are the ones to push the ponies' entire agenda onto the "less enlightened" (the Other dragons, the """bad violent mean""" ones)

the School of Friendship did not erase pony racism, it just reinforced the idea that ponies are the superior race. coupled with the fact that the racist bigoted chancellor, who wrongfully imprisoned minority children against their will, was redeemed???? it's giving very 🤔🤔🤔 to me

I'll say that I really like that MLP changed with the times, that the ending finale is all the creatures gathered together with themes of diversity and unity that reflected the changing times. I think this aspect of it makes it really unique and I love the concept and thought behind it. I like that "every creature" became the standard, it felt like a really good way to show kids how language can change to be more inclusive.

But eeeeehhh, gotta agree that the execution was flawed. The other species were either obnoxious, thieves, deceitful, cowardly, ignorant towards love, or just said to be inherently greedy. I think the show tried to change that up but it kind of reinforced a lot of the stereotypes it created rather than address them. It having a school of all things were ponies need to teach the other ignorant creatures how to be friendly was a mixed bag idea and one they didn't execute very well. I wish they'd trashed the school idea and focused more on having other creatures enter pony society.

Not the most important aspect of this, but I think a school is very limiting in terms of these plotlines. I think they shot themselves in the foot by not doing more outside of it, like maybe having Rarity try to bring in non-pony models for her boutique, or Gabby being a new student in Cheerilee's class. The school plotlines felt almost...condescending at times?

[mariacallous]

While Ukraine’s surprise combined-arms incursion into the Russian oblast of Kursk gets all the headlines, Kyiv continues to carry out a parallel, deep-strike operation to target Russian vulnerabilities, with continued attacks on oil refineries and fuel depots behind the front lines.

A massive tank farm in Proletarsk, a city in Russia’s Rostov region, has been burning uncontrollably for four days after Ukrainian drones slammed into 70-odd tanks full of diesel and gasoline; by some estimates, the fire could be incinerating as much as $200 million worth of Russian fuel. Overnight on Tuesday, Ukraine launched one of its biggest attacks yet on Moscow, and although most of those drones and missiles were shot down, Ukraine did seem to start another conflagration at an oft-hit refinery in Novoshakhtinsk, also in Rostov.

So far this year, Ukraine says that it has successfully attacked more than 30 Russian oil installations, some deep inside Russia. The latest estimates are that about 17 percent of Russia’s (admittedly ample) oil-refining capacity has been damaged to some extent by the strikes. But more broadly, Russia continues to export huge volumes of oil and even a fair bit of natural gas, ensuring that oil revenues continue to fuel its war machine despite the odd million spent here and there to repair damaged crackers and condensers.

Ukraine’s pinprick assaults on Russia’s oil infrastructure, often answered with counter-battery Russian missiles aimed at vulnerable Ukrainian power plants, are part of the latest tit-for-tat energy battle in the longer-term, less violent energy war that the two countries have waged for years, especially over natural gas supplies and prices. 

In some ways, the energy fight is an adjunct to the fight on the battlefield. Ukraine’s ability to damage (even for short periods of time) Russian refineries and fuel depots is meant, in part, to undermine logistics for the Russian army, which continues to occupy large swaths of southern and eastern Ukraine. Blowing up expensive installations deep inside Russia is also a psychological boon for Ukraine, which has been largely on the back foot since early 2022. Russia’s systematic destruction of the Ukrainian electric power grid, meanwhile, is meant to undermine civilian morale and resilience ahead of winter.

The White House had initially warned Kyiv not to strike Russian oil installations, fearing Russian reprisals as well as an inconvenient spike in oil and gasoline prices ahead of the U.S. election, but Ukraine has plowed ahead regardless (just as it did with the Kursk incursion). 

The big question is: Do all the eye-grabbing explosions at refineries and fuel depots make much of a difference to Russia’s surprisingly resilient oil-based economy?

“The drones can cause economic damage an order of magnitude or higher than the cost of the drones themselves, and so yes, there is some economic damage and net benefit, cost-wise. But the damage done is brief and relatively easy to repair,” said Sergey Vakulenko, an energy expert at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “Will it make drastic impacts on Russian oil revenues? Probably not. The drones cannot do what the sanctions were unable to achieve.” 

In some cases, Vakulenko said, the oil installations that Ukraine is targeting, chosen because they are within easy range of drones, may not be the critical marks that Kyiv imagines. Many of the older refineries in western Russia were built to take advantage of export customs loopholes that made it more beneficial to export barely refined oil products, even very low-quality ones, than to export regular crude. These aren’t the crown jewels, but the cracked zircons.

“The benefits of hitting those refineries may not be what the Ukrainians thought,” said Vakulenko, who was previously an oil executive at Russian and international companies. 

Like the Kursk operation, high-profile blows by Ukraine threaten to distort the view of what otherwise remains an unequal battle. If the war has come to the energy patch, it is because Russia—from nearly the beginning of the conflict—has targeted Ukrainian power installations as a deliberate part of its campaign to destroy civilian infrastructure. During the first year of the full-scale invasion, Russia targeted easy-to-hit structures, such as power transformers, that could disrupt electricity across Ukraine, especially in big cities. But that damage was relatively easy to repair, and Ukraine made it through the first winter in fairly good shape. 

At the beginning of this year, once Ukraine had homemade drones and missiles that could strike deep into Russia, thus neatly skirting both U.S. targeting prohibitions and leaky Russian air defenses, Kyiv began systematically hitting oil installations. 

In response, Moscow intensified its campaign against Ukraine’s power grid, this time using heavy missiles to go after harder-to-destroy and much-harder-to-repair power plants themselves. More than half of Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity has been blown up or seriously damaged, a huge problem heading into winter given the reliance of Ukraine’s urban heating system (and water supplies) on the power plants.

But that campaign peaked just before summer; since then, there has been a respite in the Russian vendetta against power plants. The aftershocks are still felt, though. This week, in addition to a small-scale Russian attack on power facilities just across the border in Sumy, Ukraine announced a return to rolling blackouts for many parts of the country—mostly due to increased peak power demand during the hot summer months, but clearly exacerbated by the loss of so much generation capacity, which is still a huge concern for Ukrainian officials and Western experts.

“We have not seen wide-scale attacks for six weeks or so. Russia may just be collecting missiles to attack later in the year, in October or so. As of now, there is no sign that weaponization of energy is weakening,” said Andrian Prokip, an energy expert at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute in Kyiv.

Yet the fight over refineries and power plants is just part of an even broader energy war that has aspects both of the absurd and of the absurdly normal. 

Last week, after months of feverish speculation, conspiracy theories, and finger-pointing, reporting (and a German arrest warrant) emerged that seemed to put blame for the high-profile 2023 destruction of Russia’s no-longer-operational Nord Stream gas pipeline on a band of Ukrainian freelancers. 

Meanwhile, Russian natural gas continues to transit in pipes through war-torn Ukraine, headed for customers farther west in Austria, Slovakia, and Italy. Not even Ukraine’s cross-border grab of Sudzha, the pumping station for the last trans-Ukraine pipeline, has interrupted the (limited) flows of gas moving from one belligerent state through another. 

And then there are the nuclear power plants. Since early in the war, Russia has occupied the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, in the south-central part of Ukraine. Since then, the International Atomic Energy Agency has periodically warned of concerns over the safety and security of the plant, which is now in shutdown but still potentially dangerous. Two weeks ago, a mysterious fire broke out at one of the cooling towers; a few days later, a drone explosion threatened the power supply to the facility. For years now, Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of nuclear blackmail and brinkmanship over the plant. 

Once Ukraine leapt across the Russian border, Russian media immediately warned that Ukrainian forces were seeking to capture the Kursk nuclear power plant for an apparent atomic hostage swap; most recently, Russian defenders began digging trenches around the reactors.

“The Russians have used and will continue to use the precarious state of nuclear safety at Zaporizhzhia for their own rhetorical and blackmail purposes. I suspect they may try to do the same in relation to the Kursk NPP,” said Darya Dolzikova, a research fellow of the Royal United Services Institute. 

“I see no indication that Ukraine is looking to attack the nuclear plant and the Ukrainian government has refuted any suggestions to that end,” she added. “So any Russian statements or actions to the contrary I take to be fear-mongering by Moscow.”

[jourke-rourke]

more of team raza x absolutely terrible gun safety

hey four. are you certain you want to shoot the guy currently holding a giant metal object over your friend's head.

are you certain that shooting him in the back, sending him reeling towards her, is the best way to remove the danger.

bro. I get that you want to have your cool execution-style shot but shooting downwards is an absolutely terrible idea when you have not one but Two (no pun intended) friends on the ground behind him.

also you're gonna spatter them with his blood which is just rude

similarly horrible choice by Two here! Comrade, he is holding a gun practically in your friend's mouth with his finger coiled on the trigger.

do you Really want to shoot him with the electric blast that is makes all his muscles spasm and freeze up?

you could at least wait until his gun is pointed towards you since you are significantly more bulletproof anyways

to be fair Three doesn't actually take that last shot

but to be unfair it's only because he runs out of ammunition. otherwise he 100% would have shot at the guy standing directly between him and five.

who was barely a foot away from her and actively dodging.

idiot

five actually gets a pass for this one because she's seemingly never fired a gun before and is terrified so she's allowed to be a little stupid. as a treat.

that said, for someone who has never fired a gun she is way to confident in her own aim to shoot not once but repeatedly while Two is standing right there

she does not get a pass for this one.

you have no idea how big of a blast that stunner is gonna make

plus the way he was standing made it very likely that he would have fallen backwards, knocking your already-injured friends to the ground. when they are tied up and cannot catch themselves.

what were you thinking.

he wasn't even armed you could've waited for him to come closer

the LEAST excusable in my opinion

not only are you dumb for shooting the Giant Fuckoff Energy Beam within inches of your friend, just trusting that he'll jump out of the way in time

but she is holding a giant metal kill-you stick!

five! swords make for TERRIBLE projectiles!

especially when your friend is right next to it!

plus it was just unnecessary. she was already distracted and facing you, you didn't have to actually fire

however despite five being the one endangering four's life here this one is honestly on him. he's the one who trained her with weapons and clearly did not instill Any common sense 'think before you shoot' type of deal.

if anything this moment should've been a wake-up call for him to go 'oh right. we (the adults) know how to shoot safely and intelligently, but often disregard that because we are the galaxy's deadliest of deadshots and our instincts about what shots we can make are usually right. five is a teenager who has been using guns for less than a week. perhaps i should not be teaching her to copy us.'