#but yeah from like. a character design perspective. it's really fascinating!

[tototalks]

🎵 Pretty woman, walking down the street, pretty woman, the kind I’d like to meet, pretty woman. 🎵

Let’s go!! Time for 💎 Pet 💎

- ‘Ancel was a virgin the first twelve times he has sex. The thirteenth time, it lacked all plausibility’ - What a way to start a story and give insight into the world Ancel lives in.

- You would be SHOCKED how much us redheads get the “does the carpet match the drapes” question from total strangers. Ancel is really living the authentic ginger experience. 😂

- In the times of ancient Greeks and Romans, redheaded slaves were more expensive because they were rarer. In that way, Ancel was designed perfectly to align with his character. Love that choice by Pacat! ♥️

- Ancel has a goal and I respect it, and he’s never once tried to hide it. It’s pretty clear that his love of expensive things comes from having very little at the start of life.

- It’s interesting to gain the perspective of a character detached from the thought of sex being emotionally significant. A first night was everything to Erasmus, and sex is hugely tied in with intimacy and emotional connection for Laurent. Jord and Aimeric fell in love while having sex. Whereas sex, to Ancel, is a means to an end. It’s literally his job.

- Love the implication that pets have their own hierarchy and contracts are fiercely competitive. They have their own little community.

- Ancel uses everything he has to his advantage to incredible effect. He’s pretty, witty, and talented. Whenever he walks into a room it’s like that scene from ‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People’ where Megan Fox walks through the middle of the pool. Lol

- Now this may be the deeply ingrained European stereotypes I grew up with, but in the same way Laurent is French and Damen is Greek, Berenger is 100% German.

- You always get the sense that even though Ancel is bold and daring, he’s still tiptoeing and walking on eggshells. He completely reinvents himself for every new master he has.

- Haha Isagoras! - very on the nose and I love it

- It makes perfect sense that Ancel can’t read and cares little for long epics and poems. I’d be willing to bet though, that he has an amazing memory because of this. Uneducated does not equal unintelligent.

- Love that Ancel’s there all wide eyed like “yes! Please teach me to ride!” while internally he’s like “ew ew ew”. Don’t blame him. Horses are terrifying.

- I like that Berenger does find out Ancel is faking his interests and tells him that he doesn’t have to pretend. From there, Ancel is clearly more himself and more comfortable.

- In addition, although he’s a creature of habit, Berenger is actually really sweet 🥺🥺

- “Luxury suits you” “hell yeah it does.”

- I am so fascinated by Ancel and Erasmus existing in the same social sphere, and Ancel wondering why Erasmus doesn’t use the fact he’s beautiful for power, and dammit I’m going to have to write that fic, aren’t I? 😭

- Ancel and Berenger are mismatched but that’s what works so well about them with Berenger negotiating and Ancel naturally drawing attention to himself. They make up for one another’s differences.

- Ancel giving Berenger fashion advice, and Berenger ignoring it every time in favour of ✨another brown jacket✨

- I’m also liking the implication that Ancel enjoys being a pet and gaining attention for power because he knows what it’s like to be powerless. I personally like to think that he saw Nicaise’s situation and somewhat understood to a certain degree. I can imagine he would’ve been quite young when he started too.

- Fun fact! Ancel’s fire performance is actually reminiscent of a real dance! It’s a Polynesian art called Siva Afi and was traditionally a war dance, except instead of burning cloth on the ends of the baton, there are burning knives. Very cool! 🔥

- Ancel 🤝 Kris Jenner - all publicity is good publicity and I will make billionaires out of a scandal and watch people be jealous.

- The kiss being the first implication that Berenger actually does desire Ancel. Ooh boy, you ain’t hiding that much longer.

- The kiss is also the catalyst for Berenger ending the contract, and I can imagine that Ancel is so confused as to what he did wrong, not realising the circumstances behind the decision. 😞

- It’s absolutely wild looking back on the garden scene from a different perspective and realising that absolutely no one wanted that mess to happen.

- “You’re old.�� - once again, ouch.

- Ancel being annoyed at seeing the lords go and ‘coddle’ Erasmus serves to highlight the wildly different appeals Ancel and Erasmus have as pets. Bold and daring vs. Sweet and modest. They would be unstoppable as friends. Shit, I’m really going to have to write that fic now, or read one that hopefully some talented person out there has written already 🙏

- Love that Ancel doesn’t rat Berenger out to the Regent - the Regent doesn’t even want him, and I’m sure Ancel is faintly remembering Nicaise mentioning that he’s “too old” 🤢

- And then the big reveal that Berenger was trying to protect Ancel as he supported Laurent’s bid for the throne; and Ancel realising that Berenger does, in fact, like him. Callback to “isn’t everyone looking for someone to be loyal to?” Sensational.

- I also, for my personal brain rot reasons, need Laurent and Ancel to strike up a bargain by which Ancel listens to all the pet gossip and rats out to Laurent which of the masters are disobeying the new laws of underaged pets or are undermining the new monarchy and union. All in return for a little coin of course 😉

- Ancel and Berenger: what a great little mismatched but perfectly matched pair! Really enjoyed this rendition of pretty woman! 😂

[emblemxeno]

If we're being honest, I got a lot of issues with Ingrid because I feel like she has the wrong character development

Her support with Dedue is realizing that she shouldn't apply her negative view of Duscur onto every Duscurian indiscriminately

That kind of thing works for Oboro because Nohrians really did kill her parents

But, Duscurians didn't actually cause the death of Lambert or Glenn, so her development should've been to learn that all those years of hatred were misdirected, and she hated them for no reason

It also didn't help that Dimitri states multiple times that Duscur didn't commit the crime, and Ingrid is still ignorant about it

I have this unhinged hatred of the Faerghus Four as a concept because every time, it's like they're consciously refusing to acknowledge the importance of Dedue in Dimitri's life in the present "Oh, these are Dimitri's childhood friends. Of course, they're close." Yeah, sure.... They're totally closer to Dimitri than Dedue is in the present.... *Internal screaming*

Combining these because my answer to both is similar!

In my opinion, it showcases how 3H's writing philosophy is ultimately shoddy in its foundation. The backstories, supports, and character-to-character dialogue itself is great in theory, but execution it clashed with what both FE usually tries to do and what 3H desperately wants to do.

FE typically has characters join chapter to chapter, with important ones having plot moments, while side characters fall to the background once their designated chapter is up. But this isn't at the cost of character interaction, pre-established relationships, and the micro-to-macro worldbuilding precisely because they're not overly important. You can have canon romances, friendships, familial relationships, etc. because that's all supplemental side material.

3H was written in a way in which the characters were all connected to its grandiose world, to the point where Fodlan itself can be almost considered a character. Multilayered backstories that infer key points in the narrative, each character no matter how trivial having opinions on how the world works, shifting dynamics, etc.

The problem though is that these two philosophies clash already at base, but also run into the problem of FE's gameplay integrated story elements.

None of the Faerghus Four can meaningfully comment on their relationship with Dimitri during a story cutscene because they can die. Ingrid can't meaningfully change her perspective on Dedue or Duscur beyond her supports because she can die. Therefore, all you get are (admittedly pretty good) supports, the monastery dialogue, and other tidbits intentionally disconnected from one another so as not to be important enough to write around potential death. The comments they do get in cutscenes were intentionally written in a way to be surface level and easily replaced. Look at the FEdatamine site for example, where conclusions are reached by Byleth, the lord, the unkillable retainer, and other important story figures, with numerous possible instances of "if X character is alive they comment this, but if X character is dead this line is skipped."

That is proof of how sloppy 3H's writing is in foundation when you think about it long enough. The game that has such an intricate world, thorough details, and fascinating story beats, is actually extremely bad at delivering a story, especially an FE story. Being the judgmental and petty cunt that I am, 3H gets a pass most of the time a) most don't care or bother to care about actual stuff like this and b) the game has the aesthetics of being a down to earth, gritty, serious narrative. The foundational issues don't matter when you have Edelgard yapping about "THE CREST SYSTEM", dark character circumstances, and intriguing mysteries to solve in part 1.

People want the appearance of sophistication, especially after Awakening and Fates bent a lot of rules to fuck around with their respective stories. It's why Engage, despite not having nearly as many basic issues at conveying its plot and is actually extremely good at being a Fire Emblem story (e.g. more character being able to actually die, pre-established relationships, chapter to chapter joining, not nearly as much centering on Alear as the ultimate decider on a character's fate compared to Byleth), is panned because... why? Its bright aesthetic? Its good dragon vs evil dragon plot? Its softer or humorous moments?

Hell, even its call backs to past FE games is called cheap, soulless, or a gateway to gacha (one video I saw even described it as something like "when art becomes obligation" or some such nonsense), despite it LITERALLY being the prime anniversary title. The main character is the Fire Emblem, and the writers-through Lumera-wish a happy birthday to Fire Emblem!!! What about that is lacking heart and soul?

But yeah, again, I preface that I'm a judgmental asshole who proudly proclaims that the audience (at least the western one) has for years been too obsessed with yearning for darker serious aesthetics of FE's past (despite said past being wackier than they remember), that when a new game has them in overflowing spades, the many fundamental video game writing issues do not matter as much anymore.

Aesop for the day: Serious tones and aesthetics are not automatically better than lighter, heartfelt, or funny ones. You still have to write well for a story to be good.

EDIT: Funny enough this is also why Three Hopes is a more comfy environment for the Fodlan cast's in terms of tangible development, because the things the writers want to do with that game's story complements its gameplay. Because KT is better at making Warriors plots than FE plots.

[knockknockitsnickels]

For Equality (#Women), here's a Princess tierlist (already did a voices one). I was hesitant to make one bc all of the princesses are different facets of my beautiful wife whom I adore, but I also love to yap so let's do it. Full disclosure I like all of them a lot for different reasons so these rankings are based almost entirely on vibes. For the sake of brevity I'm gonna be counting unique chapter 3s alongside their respective chapter 2s and counting the shared chapter 3s separately. I know that makes no sense but c'mon there's like 22 of these ladies

EDIT: I completely missed Razor!!! 😭 I'm sorry babygirl. Updated to add her.

Spectre/Princess and the Dragon: Spectre my beloved. My most anticipated route after playing the demo, and she met all of my expectations. The themes of forgiveness in her route are wonderful, I love how reluctant she is to hurt you, even when you deliberately antagonize her. Princess and the Dragon was also great - getting to see from her perspective feels so fitting I'm surprised it wasn't in the original game, and the moment of quiet you get just chatting with her was a delight.

Nightmare/Moment of Clarity: One of the most tragic characters in the game. I adore the way Shifty's description of her completely recontextualizes the route, taking Nightmare from a quirked up lil villain to just a sad person trying to find a connection after being rejected. Another wrinkle is that no matter what route you take - whether you get Wraith, M.O.C, or set Nightmare free - there's not really a way to give her the connection she wants. I got M.O.C for the first time via choosing to stay with Nightmare, not wanting to release her after she admitted to wanting to destroy the world, but recognizing she just wanted a friend. After the vision she shows us, I felt bad for what I chose - I wanted to apologize to her, but there were no options left.

Prisoner/Cage: First princess I ever got, hence subject to first-princess bias. I've already talked a lot about how much I love her in another post so I won't repeat myself, but she truly is the 3rd best Princess in the game.

Fury: My babygirl It's really hard to write about why I love this girl so much. I've talked about it a bit before, but there's a special kind of horror in how you destroy Fury's original sense of identity (whether you got there via Adversary or Tower), and how upset she is by what she becomes. I think she also ties in really well with the overarching themes of the game. Her insistence that you are not your body and her desperation for you to understand her (in one route destroying herself in the process) remind me a lot of what Shifty has to say in the final fight.

Adversary/Eye of the Needle: My lovely wife whom I adore, my bestest friend. Adversary is such a fun and underrated character, her respect and genuine care for the player is so good AND she's hot. Eye of the Needle is also extremely underrated, her dialogue during the Shifting Mound fight - especially the variation when you free her - honestly gets me a lil emotional.

Wraith: A star, she's done nothing wrong, she is a girlboss and she is slaying. I've already written a bit about how tragic her route is & how I think she's one of the best shared chapter 3s in how she changes depending on the context, so instead i will say: banger design.

Witch/Thorn: Yeah im basic. Thorn was something I was hoping for basically as soon as I realized I couldn't get through the game without hurting the Princess, and it really met my expectations. Witch is a fascinating character - she's so desperate for revenge she'll end up destroying herself in the process, yet despite reveling in how awful she believes the two of you are, her chapter 3s show there's a part of her which wants to reconcile with you.

Damsel/Happily Ever After: Damsel on her own I found to be a pretty funny route - Smitten's dialogue, her happily agreeing to end the world, & Narrator suffering throughout the whole route makes it a lot of fun. Honestly even the more unsettling moments like the deconstructed Damsel are kind of funny - like OK I think it's fascinating thematically (we're trying to help her by asking what she wants but in questioning the only desire she knows we strip her personhood away), but also her turning into an anime doodle is hilarious I'm sorry. Despite that, there is this underlying, deeply uncomfortable horror to the whole route which comes to the surface in HEA and Burned Grey (we'll get to her). HEA is genuinely the most tense I've ever felt playing this game lmao. I think she adds a lot to Damsel - she gives her another dimension of personhood, and whether you choose to pursue it or not, I think the route feels incomplete without it.

Razor: Hilarious, showstopping, spectacular. Her route is a lot more lighthearted than the others, which helps her stand out and can be a nice break on some of the rougher playthroughs. It's hilarious that she was originally going to be a bit more sinister - I'm glad BTG made the best decision anyone has ever made and changed her to her current version. There's also some interesting stuff going on with her thematically, esp in how she parallels Stranger she stole Stranger's ch 3 that's why she's the only route with 4 chapters and how she kind of flips the script on the player and so the slain becomes the slayer. Also, I just love the concept behind her design - her exploding into the perfect woman a knife monster is something I will never forget. She probably has some of the same problems with linearity as some of the routes I talk about later (you're always going to see almost the exact same 4 chapters, after all) but there's enough variation in dialogue and outcome to make me always happy visiting my dear friend Razor.

Stranger: I love her but she's probably one of the routes I replay the least, just because it always plays out the same. Either way, I love the lil peak behind the curtain her chapter gives us, and I love getting to reunite with her & having a real conversation for the first time if you get her as the heart princess.

Tower/Apotheosis: God forbid women do anything. Pristine cut really did wonders for her - honestly in hindsight I think part of the response to her might have had to do with how brief both of her Ch 3s could be. Getting a chance to see (both via Apotheosis & Fury) how much she clings to to her divinity adds a lot to her character.

Wild: Wild really hits different after all of the tension in Beast & Witch. I'm not sure how intentional this was, but I like how both of the no-knife princesses (Beast & Witch) have ch 3s where there's an option to reconcile. I'm guessing the devs knew players would probably eventually be forced to backstab the princess & wanted to give them a chance to make things right? Either way, I love she. The dissonance between the peaceful atmosphere of this route & her desperation to stay together makes this one of the most anxiety-inducing routes in the game.

Drowned Grey: Extremely cool design, extremely cool environment, I love the whole "widow/bride" thing the two greys have going on, unfortunately her route is extremely short & linear. I think part of my trouble with the greys is I don't entirely understand how anyone would get them naturally lol. You stabbed the prisoner? Jail for you. Jail for 100 years.

Burned Grey: My thoughts on her are basically identical to my thoughts on the Drowned Grey but she's lower because I think Drowned Grey looks cooler. Sorry bestie.

Beast/Den: She's one of the most horrifying princesses to me, which is probably part of why I try to avoid getting her route, lol. The themes of dehumanization & the way she's reduced to a base instinct of wanting to consume you just so she can be "whole" again freaks me out. Also the part where she rips you in half & is like "lol oops" is so funny. Legend.

[skippygiraffee]

Hi, I'm the Raileon anon from a while back. Thank you for answering my ask! I loved reading your thoughts, and I hope you don't mind if I ask you for some more. You mentioned Leon and Raihan were both fascinating characters to you separately as well, and I wanted to ask why you felt Raihan was fascinating? I have my own reasons ofc, but I'd be delighted to hear yours as well.

I absolutely never mind, thank you for the ask!! (even if it takes me a while to answer things sldjfksjf). genuinely I love talking about these characters, all the SWSH characters (and SuMo) really, and talking about Raihan is top tier for me. under the cut because it's both long and I have included images from the manga as little Raihan treats :3

in regards to Raihan, what a character, yeah? when I got this ask I immediately went into chat with @beammeupbroadway and we had the following exchange (she's the Furby icon, I'm the first message):

and to elaborate a little, we're all introduced to Raihan in the framing of him being Leon's rival, and we're not really reintroduced to him until midway through the game. so for a while we're left with this impression that Raihan is the hotheaded rival to Leon, setting them up with the same sort of framing as like Hop vs Bede (which is more a rivalry than with the player I argue) or even Red vs Blue (certainly with the Charizard and the color imagery at play with both Raihan and Leon's designs). Raihan is, at his core, a peek at what someone looks like when they grow up in the shadow of someone else.

it's stated in game he has different interests, hobbies, a career, but he's still Leon's rival Raihan. where his job as a Gym Leader and his work with the Hammerlocke Vault serve the narrative purpose of bringing the player closer to Leon and closer to solving the mystery of the Darkest Day, rather than things that allow us a better view of Raihan. not to discredit those moments, because they absolutely do allow us as to see more of Raihan, but I guess I want to argue that the game just uses them as a jumping off point to get to Leon. even Raihan's accomplishments as a Gym Leader and battler are framed within the context of him being so good he could be Champion of another region, but he can't beat Leon. from a world building and audience perspective I think it's interesting to see, but man, picturing that as how he's painted in Galar, in universe? where all of these insanely amazing accomplishments are pushed aside to market himself as Leon's rival I think genuinely ruined his self image, his self esteem, and the way he views anything he does. Raihan's social media presence got started because of Leon, even if he sometimes takes random pictures of sand storms, and the only thing removed from Leon is his love of fashion and history, but we don't even get to see a lot of that as the audience/player of the game because it's not relevant to the story in most cases, and definitely isn't relevant to Leon. this was definitely a little rambly, but at least right here I just think that like Raihan being literally overshadowed by Leon makes him fascinating to rotate around like a rotisserie chicken, because you take one whiff of that guy and you can tell he was spiced up with self loathing and angst strong enough to turn the average character into a straight up villain

ties to Leon aside, the little things about Raihan I adore ARE those little hobbies he has. fashion, history, social media all are super interesting, and ignoring the Gym Trainer battle with WEATHER EFFECTS INSIDE THE TAPESTRY VAULT aside it's clear he is a trusted expert on the matter. Sonia goes to him, even if it's a way to get the player closer to Leon Raihan is the one who grants access to the vault, and anyone who loves tapestries is immediately boosted in my books

his characterization in the manga is really cool, and I adore manga Raihan a lot. it's actually when I really fell in love with his character because he's given a lot of really neat moments, where he's kind of this key player in having everything come together. also he was a trouble maker when he was younger!!! which I think is a logical reaction to being pitted against the literal undefeated Champion for so long. but, allow me to picture that below:

I also love him spraying himself in the face with a potion after being poisoned by Eternatus in the manga. like yeah he's confused, but literally no other character is brought up, only Raihan which is funny to me

also him and Piers are just buddies!! which is neat, especially since in the post game of the base SWSH titles they're shown not to really have interacted that much

he's also super polite to Melony (my beloved Mummy Melony scene), and he's overall pretty fleshed out, with being both serious and goofy, while having this odd tension with Leon when it comes to serious moments

like it shows a lot of complicated things brewing under the surface for him, even in the manga, and I love how it keeps his characterization in tact, while expanding on it in a way that feels natural

I think in short, there's an argument to be made that Raihan could have been left as this one dimensional rival to Leon whose only purpose to push the player along their journey. a road block as a Gym Leader, a helper as the keeper of the vault, but nothing more. and yet he's a pretty fleshed out character, who has other stuff going for him. he could be so many things, and yet he's Raihan, the dragon guy who loves fashion, is a bit silly, but also takes things as serious as they need to be taken. who had a bit of a rebellious streak when he was younger, to the point Rose knows about it in depth. where, in game, he can flip from smiling like :3 to hunching over in the stadium yelling out moves. he's cool, like undeniably, but also not, and I love that skdjfklsfd. I think Raihan is a testament to the subtle ways the Pokemon writers can dish out characterization without explicitly writing things in, and I love him for it

[yakool-foolio]

see maybe this is just me, but As A Character Designer Myself i think the rain code designs are some of komatzuzaki's best work yet. they're weird and campy and yet they work so well. i do think the characters' personalities shine through on first and second glances. I don't even usually like neon colors but I think the combo of bright neons with understated neutrals is so fascinating and memorable. no one else does it like this. a lot of the small details on the designs are actually packed with symbolic meaning (esp. yakou's - I'd love to see you unpack all that) and the overabundance of logos is evocative of the corpo-cyber-future setting. the rain code designs feel much more cohesive in terms of that setting than the DR designs do - which makes sense bc DR is more about disparate people being united by their circumstances - dialed to 11 in v3 where the designs are at their wackiest. but this ain't about her this is about rain code.

I love that characters you wouldn't expect (zange, fubuki, priest...) have weird facial piercings and tattoos. I love that the animal ears are never explained. I love desuhiko's tboy swag and yeah, the golden yellow and the dirty blonde and the neon yellow accents don't look great together - and I think the clashing colors work wonders to establish his personality. this kid dressed himself and thought it would make him look cool. you idiot. aphex's hat is stupid. zilch's ears are stupid. vivia's bandages-instead-of-clothes are stupid - and yet reading into that choice is very insightful. (he puts on a lazy air but if he was really lazy he'd just put on an oversized emo band tee instead of wrapping himself up like a mummy every day. he actually does care about how he comes across to people.)

there's a few videos about fashion YouTubers judging the DR fits, and at one point they brought in Yuma and shinigami and they hated yuma's outfit so much because it's dorky and they wouldn't wear it. but like!!! that's the whole point is that it's dorky!!!! his little trainee shorts. his stupid fkin bowl cut making him look like a little boy whose mom still cuts his hair. (which of course turns out to be a meaningful deception. his haircut influences how the audience and other characters see him to great effect.) and yet he has the coolest fkin shoes ever and when he puts his hat and cape on he's got such an iconic silhouette. teru teru bozu lookin ass /pos.

anyway yeah. i wasnt a fan of komatzuzaki's designs in the beginning but over the years ive come around. I'm a firm designer that a character design doesn't necessarily have to look good to be a good character design. I like it when they aren't afraid to make the characters look cringe - I love cringe. I eat it up. thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

Even more perspectives! I think your take of 'bad-looking designs can be good actually' is a great way to look at Rain Code's characters. To put it simply, it's unique! 'Nobody does it like Komatsuzaki'-kind of campiness. Honestly, Rain Code's designs remind me a lot of Danganronpa 2's designs in terms of color. That cast is full of much brighter colors compared to the lesser saturation of DR1 n V3's cast colors. And it makes sense cause it's a brighter game overall in terms of setting and upping the ridiculousness of the killing game in every way! Rain Code sorta follows that with its own designs by crankin' up the neons to really ride the idea home that this game is wacky right from the get-go and it's a Resident Evil game in disguise! And y'know what Resident Evil loves to indulge in? Campiness! Rain Code wears its inspirations on its sleeve, and that's totally chill.

As a sidenote to your sidenote regarding Yakou's clothing details, I have actually written a bit about how he might perceive them, but I haven't yet written about what they could truly mean in terms of how they relate to him narratively. The meaning of the phoenix patterns are painfully obvious though heh. And I also greatly appreciate the recognition that Vivia really does care about his appearance despite his 'laziness'. His hedonistic lifestyle includes his own attire, wearing whatever he pleases no matter the effort! Like I've preached before, Vivia has the energy, he just prefers to use it only when necessary.

Thank you for the TED talk *golf claps*

[thecoolerliauditore]

I've only skimmed a lot of the posts so sorry if this point has been made but I wonder how peoples' perception of Masculinity vs Femininity as a spectrum affects their perception of characters and designs. Do some people view Masculinity and Feminity as complete opposites, with androgyny as the middle ground? Can you be masculine and feminine simultaneously, while not really being androgynous? Does the 'threshold' of androgyny change depending on how the cc/character is depicted in 'canon'? to be clear I don't necessarily think any of these viewpoints are 100% correct or whatever but I think it's interesting how people will have different perspectives, because most people's view of gender are skewed different and what might read as a fem design could read masculine to another or just entirely androgynous. sorry for the ramble this stuff fascinates me deeply

No yeah it is fascinating!! It's a. very complicated topic since of course the concepts of "masculinity" and "femininity" are very frivolous and amorphous, hence why I kept feeling the need to clarify how it gets. Weird with anime-inspired styles what with the culture shock and whatnot.

This song was really popular in fandoms awhile back and I think it's like. a great example of how one culture's completely neutral (or even masculine!) traits can be seen as feminine (or in this case, "gay") when viewed by another. It's also just really funny and I'm kinda sad no on has done a life series animatic to it yet.

masculinity and femininity as a scale with androgynous in the middle is also something I'm glad you bring up, because the concepts of masculinity and femininity are so arbitrary and as such there are so many ways to deviate from the norm -- some more socially acceptable than others! Thinking about, for example, the young MAGA hat'd women you see on sites like twitter with the most racist takes of all time and who are very proud of their ability to keep up with the boys in terms of 'murican masculinity (chugging beers, changing tires, so on and so forth) but at the same time cake their faces with makeup, support that Hashtag tradwife lifestyle and Would Not Ever Consider wearing clothes from the mens section because that is the Bad type of gender non-conformity for commies and lesbians or whatever.

Compare that to like. sorry incoming irl lore. the way I've had people in both more liberal and less woke areas get nervous when they try to address me, with the only big difference being that more younger, liberal people will typically either ask for my pronouns or they/them me by default.

I'm lucky enough that most people here are polite but as someone who has presented both masc/fem the way people treat me is so distinctly different based on my perceived gender as well as my level of androgyny it was kind of shocking to me. Eitherway there's a distinct attitude it's like. Rude to not be able to tell whether someone's a man or woman I've noticed and nowadays I have a lot of fun stressing people out. Sadism in me or whatever.

ANYWAY this was about minecraft youtubers. Analysing how people gender their designs, unconsciously or not, is fascinating because of how interpretative these designs are. There's also probably something you could say about how gaming youtuber is a very male-dominated space and how female gaming youtubers tend to overperform femininity, but in very different ways dependent on their intended audience (compare say. Lizzie and Pokimane for example.)

I think it's also worth noting that like. masculinity and femininity in behaviour is very different from physical presentation. which is how you get images like this

in addition to, again, these concepts already being abstract.

and of course, all said with me biting my tongue on the queer side of things still, because that's a whole other sub-sector of stereotypes and in-group signalling and history that runs convergent with mainstream views on gender.

I think it might be an interesting exercise to put your own designs up against others and consider what points they differ and what that might mean for how the other artist interprets the character vs how you do it. And then if you can look up what the artist actually has to say about the character and see just how right/wrong you were and how your own biases come into play. Two different people can have very similar views on a character, for example, but communicate that through opposite design tropes because they have different associations with said tropes. Not just for gender things btw and I've found peoples more nuanced opinions are harder to read than you'd think! I don't think anyone would look at my Bdubs design and guess that I thought he was fairly feminine in personality, for example.

I love doing that and challenging my own pre-conceptions of what i think peoples takes are judging by their designs (as well as what I think certain traits indicate in personality!). It's amazing for example how many pearl designs I've seen as too feminine and rolled my eyes at turn out to be drawn by artists who very much consider her to be tomboyish.

[stvlti]

the last of the (false) prophets | a Dune fanmix

I've made the general Dune Part II mixtape and I've made the ironic FeydPaul mixtape, it's time for a Paul-centric playlist. This one is also made in the context of Part II because that film has bewitched me mind, body and soul 😔

► TRACKS

01. Eat the Acid - Kesha /// 02. Brutus - Emma Blackery /// 03. DNA - Kendrick Lamar /// 04. THE REV3NGE - Joey Bada$$ /// 05. Burning - Yeah Yeah Yeahs /// 06. Darwinism - Halsey /// 07. Found Heaven - Conan Gray /// 08. Only in My Dreams - The Marías /// 09. Routines in the Night - Twenty One Pilots /// 10. Jesus Lived In A Motel Room - HYUKOH /// 11. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I–V) - Pink Floyd /// 12. Writer In The Dark - Lorde /// to be continued...

Tracklist updated on 18 Nov 2024.

► META

I think the song choices are pretty self explanatory, so I'm not gonna write a big long song-by-song breakdown this time. I do have some notes on the choice of cover artwork and the pov of this playlist though.

If it isn't apparent by now, Paul isn't my fave character in Dune canon – Feyd-Rautha is. So why am I making a playlist dedicated to a character I don't even love?

In my years of consuming and creating art for my fandoms, I don't think I've ever come across a morally grey character that's half as complex and intriguing as Paul. Sure, I'm familiar with corruption arcs and self-styled messianic figures (Light Yagami from Death Note comes to mind). I've written for and continue to love characters who underwent cataclysmic deaths and resurrections, and came back wrong (see: Jason Todd from DC/Batman). And sure, Paul's character arc can similarly be boiled down to these familiar story beats of resurrection and corruption, but he's no angel at the start of his journey. He's aware of the trajectory of his story in ways these other characters aren't by virtue of being a seer of prescient visions. To walk clear-sightedly into his own ruination is such a fascinating thing to me.

Those familiar with the Major Arcana suit of the tarot cards will know the significance of The Fool: he is at the start of his journey, appearing to walk leftwards off a cliff with an optimistic smile because he's as yet unburdened by higher knowledge of lurking dangers. Like The Fool, I have Paul facing leftwards on this cover (flipped horizontally from the original Dune 2021 IMAX poster), because he too is embarking on a transformative journey when he enters the Arrakis deserts. The difference is, of course, that he becomes aware of his terrible destiny as a messianic figurehead for a holy war as soon as he sets off for this journey. And so it isn't with carefree optimism but the knowledge of his ruin hanging heavily on his shoulders that he takes his first steps into the desert.

The other major difference between the playlist cover and the Fool's tarot card design is how much smaller Paul's figure is in the composition of the whole image. The desert background easily dwarves his figure, which is something I've always loved about the IMAX poster. Despite all his visions of futures where he ascends to the mantle of a messianic leader, he is still just, at this moment in the canon timeline, a child. Small, and all alone in his journey. Not even his mother Lady Jessica would come to understand the weight of the transformation he will undergo.

Many of the songs on this playlist were ones that didn't make the cut for my general Dune playlist. But as I went along I realised it's grown into a love letter for Paul's character from the perspective of a sympathetic reader. "Found Heaven" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" only make sense as monologues addressed to Paul.

Your heart is breaking as you leave that door

You never meant to start this holy war

But you're trapped, pack your bags

Don't look back

Don't be scared, little child

You're no demon

Rewatching Dune Part I really brought it home for me just how much of a child Paul still is when he enters the Fremen's deserts. He is frightened out of his mind by the knowledge that he will come to be the figurehead for whom millions will wage a holy war to the devastation of entire planets and deaths of billions, and it's a burden for him to bear alone. Did anyone ever stop to tell him not to fear?

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun ...

Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky ...

You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,

Blown on the steel breeze ...

Come on you raver, you seer of visions,

Come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

If I'm not mistaken, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" was written for Pink Floyd's own Syd Barrett, a genius lyricist whose declining mental health forced him to quit the scene too soon. Obvious parallels to Paul's madness aside, I like the metaphor this adds to Paul as not only a prophet but a painter / artist – which he is to an extent. He is an architect shaping the world into a future only he sees. The tragedy is of course that visionary artists often go where their lovers can't follow.

Now she's gonna play and sing and lock you in her heart

Bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark

I am my mother's child, I'll love you 'til my breathing stops

I'll love you 'til you call the cops on me

But in our darkest hours, I stumbled on a secret power

I'll find a way to be without you, babe

[amazing-spider-man-book-club]

The Amazing Spider-Man #2 (1963)

Published: May 1963

Containing: "Duel to The Death with The Vulture!", "The Uncanny Threat of The Terrible Tinkerer!"

Introducing: The Vulture (unnamed), Professor Cobbwell, The Terrible Tinkerer (unnamed)

Synopsis: Peter solves his and his aunt's financial issues by realizing he can take photos of crime sprees committed by The Vulture, but gets too close to the action and is forced into battle as Spider-Man. Peter suspects something is strange about an anonymous tech repair man and investigates only to stumble upon an alien conspiracy.

Read alongside us here:

@frankendykes-monster : Hoo boy, between now and up to #15 or so, it's going to be a nonstop parade of introductions of major Spider-Man villains. Ditko's design sensibilities were already assured with Spider-Man's costume alone, but we're now seeing about eight victory laps. The Vulture in some ways feels like a throwback to 1940's super villains with very simple motivations (gotta rob banks you know) and powers (flight!). But the green feathers and simple design of it literally just being a bird suit with only his head and hands exposed is glorious.

Peter takes a breather this issue as we now develop the ever-so-popular "Peter sells pictures of Spider-Man", or, just pictures of The Vulture in this issue. Jameson is such an unscrupulous hack that he's ready to buy photos after a single conversation with Peter, and at non-contract rate of "don't ask me how I take these photos and don't credit me." It's been long enough since our last post that I'm actually blanking if the Daily Bugle was brought up in #1, but Jameson is the publisher of NOW Magazine. Won't last long. Only three issues of Spider-Man in and we're developing some running tropes: Peter is a science student, Peter is mocked by Flash Thompson, Peter tells Aunt May don't worry about money, Peter is still learning the ropes on how to be Spider-Man, etc.

I'm delighted that Peter has his own little lair for his Spider-Man stuff in his bed room. One thing that's never addressed with the character is that he has a utility belt *underneath* his form fitting costume, and his wrist gauntlets have the web-shooting nozzle that peeks out from right behind his gloves. Ditko gives us some nice diagrams of how it all works so the audience is never out of the loop. What's fascinating about Peter's ongoing character arc is that we still aren't at a superhero "proper" stage. None of Spider-Man's actions are motivated by altruism, he's still just in the red enough to be concerned about the rent more than anything.

Slowly but surely the world gets accustomed to superheroes. Stuff like crowd shots of people reacting to one of The Vulture's robberies makes a comic like Marvels feel inevitable. Both The Vulture and Spider-Man have to account for how the other would react before they even meet each other. This is still an era of comics where "world-building" meant "introduce more characters" so the plausibility of people's actions makes it all the better.

Ditko is really flexing his artistic skills by this point. The splash page for "Duel" is jaw dropping in terms of its weight and perspective and The Vulture is so fully realized in close-up. This is our first issue with a Marvel Comics logo proper in the upper left corner on the cover, here just a profile of Spider-Man, a concept designed by Ditko to give more brand unity to the comics line. Spider-Man is still red-and-blue on covers but these early issues' internal coloring has settled on faint purple? As his secondary color? It won't last long, but it's a bit blah.

Another solid issue overall and...wait...oh yeah the second story. Hm, this one is strange. While #1 gave us two stories that threaded closely together, this is definitely the b-story, the backup. Spider-Man having to stop an alien invasion feels like something that Ditko would shoot down after it was proposed by Lee but this made it all the way to print in the way it did. The Terrible Tinkerer feels like the hardest villain introduced in this run to get a read on, mostly because the "less is more" approach concerning his motivations, origins, appearance, etc. are all left out. He won't be returning for well over 100 issues a decade from now, so this would be a good opportunity to say "well they can't all be winners" if the character hadn't made it into Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) in a minor role.

@duel1971 : More pieces of the mythos fall into place here – we’ve got the introduction of an iconic villain and Peter adopting his gimmick of taking photos as Spider-Man and selling them to J. Jonah Jameson. This story is mostly fun action without too much that I wanna dig into, but I do love that we get Jameson yelling “Get me pictures of the Vulture!” as the first version of his catchphrase.

Feels worth noting that Peter continues to shine as a scientist and inventor in this early story, creating a device that disables the Vulture’s wings.

“The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer”: God, I love this one. Instead of a new costumed supervillain we’re treated to a short alien invasion story featuring a mysterious old man called the Tinkerer. It’s such an atypical Spider-Man story in the grand scheme of things, but at the time of its writing, there was no such thing as a typical Spider-Man story. Putting aside the fact that Peter has and will continue to mostly fight gaudy criminals, this story meshes well with his character. The focus on Peter’s scientific ability opens up the door for a tale of weird science and aliens. The actual science fiction element of it isn’t given much development given its brevity, but it’s a great little story and glimpse of what could have been.

[messenger-of-stupidity]

hiii ummm as someone who hasn’t listened to any of vega’s stuff (and is a little scared to) i just wanted to ask what you like about him. ok thanks bye :3

Hi!!

ALSO OH MY GOD!!! I WILL GLADLY TELL YOU!

(also tagging @clover-46 so she can be like "oh yeah this all makes sense. im a vega simp now.)

Don't be scared to listen to his playlist if you don't mind the gaslighting and such. He's not mean to Warden, but is actually kind of sweet to them. But if you dont like second guessing if youre being manipulated or not, then yeah... don't listen to his playlist. He's very sneaky.

-- TO MY LIST NOW --

I typically just go for villain/anti-heroes. Red flags are, unfortunately, what I find attractive. (in fiction and reality :') ) NOT ALL THE TIME THOUGH I SWEAR I HAVE COMMON SENSE

His annunciation. The way he speaks just scratches a very nice part of my brain. And if someone has a nice voice, it tends to capture my heart. It's more than just vocal fry, deepness, ect. It's the way he speaks.

He's multifaceted. At first we think he's evil because we see him from Freelancer's perspective. But when Carpe Deus comes around, it shows him in a different reality. He didn't just do what he did to Ivan because he wanted some yummy snacks. There was a genuine reason behind it.

I love the way he interacts with people. It's kind of patronizing but so subtle that you notice it, but you dont notice the extent of it.

He's poetic. He has such an extensive vocabulary, and he doesn't swear often. There's something to say about someone who is able to absolutely verbally obliterate someone, all without really swearing.

He's a sadism demon. (iykyk)

Vega doesn't actually touch Warden all that much. (from my understanding he just touches them when they need help) And irl I literally hate it when people touch me. So having a character that canonically doesn't have a lot of clear show of touching the listener took me out of the way I simp over fictional character and made it more how I simp over irl people. There's two sides.

His pet name for Warden (besides warden). Being called "Darling" makes me all flustered. Sam's is a bit different because he leaves off the "g", which leads back to the annunciation. There are a few words that sound better when you leave off letters, but for me Darling isn't one of them. (That doesn't mean I don't enjoy Sam's "Darlin", but just not as much as I enjoy Vega's "Darling")

I mentioned this before in a separate post, but Imp!Vega is very soft with Pet (that pet name omg im melting). I'm of the opinion that every canon character has the same qualities as their Imp! counterparts, so Canon Vega has the same possibilities to be soft with Warden. Soft Vega hits different.

Vega has a demon listener. None of the other's have that, and Erik's Demons and Daemons system is so fascinating to me, that I jump on any chance to be a part of that. Also I love designing demons, so having a reason to make a demon OC that I can show off to people and they wont just be like "okay?" is very nice. It doesn't really have anything to do with Vega, but it's one of the reasons I like him.

His one liners. He thinks of them on the spot (yes ik its from a script, but from an immersion level) and that kind fo wit is hella attractive.

How sneaky he is. That takes a level of thought and intelligence to hide it. And I fall very easily if someone is smart. Especially if they don't say it outright, but these little things they do express it.

Going back to my attraction to red flags, the power imbalance between Warden and him. And I'm talking legitimately about magic power. He said he's much older than Warden and therefore is more powerful. Feeling small and insignificant in that kind of way lessens my anxiety so much.

He offers excuses. Not for his behavior (well he does that too, but that's not what I'm talking about.) but rather excuses to his love to safeguard them. He did that with Pet in case he lost against the imperium. He does it with Warden in case they get caught going with Vega. He doesn't want their lives to be messed up. it's a small way to show he cares, but grand displays overwhelm me.

He's very fun to write. I'll write for nearly every character if I love the world/fandom. But he's so complicated to write and fun. I get to put this psych degree I'm working towards (we'll see if I change my major this year or next year. Idek) into my writing and it's fun. It helps renew my passion for psychology since it's getting burned out for the past several months. (I've been into it since I was in middle school) I have so many pages in my docs and notebooks where it's just a full analysis on him. (Going back to he's an interesting character.

Also I'm just a total degenerate.

[crudetautology]

Some thoughts apart from just everyone should listen to this episode of the podcast because it's just that good (And if you haven't got the time just read this quote posted by wreathedwith from it or listen to this compilation by eccentricthornback.):

- As someone who really, really liked both the book and the film (and reading about both, ie adaptation choices, interviews etc) listening to this finally inspired me to try watching the tv show again. - Ben's analysis of the way the school system in England works for a certain class of people was both incredibly fascinating (just his inside view of it, the perspective he brought to it) and also genuinely heartbreaking. The feeling of abandonment that's by design to breed a certain sensibility in boys is really horrific and I'm glad both him and Joel Morris (the host) really drove this point home. - And the idea that the games that these spies are playing is really just an extension of the games and group divisions in school (both at public school, but also apparently at university) was so interesting. - Once they mentioned the way the other characters ask "How's Ann?" to Smiley I couldn't stop noticing it and the way the actors lean into that line. So good. - What did make me laugh though was the bit where they (well pretty much just Justin) discuss the characters that unlike Smiley and the sterile spy-world do have some sensuality or that have sex or are sexual (Ricki, Connie & Ann mostly) and I just sat there going. Is- are they not going to mention Haydon and Prideaux and their whole deal or what? Especially given the Captain. But I imagine they didn't have the time. Still, Haydon, at least, definitely fits into the same category as Ricki, Connie and Ann when it comes to characters who are presented in a certain way in the episodes I've watched of the show so far. Can't really remember if anyone ever registered as a sexual being to me in the book though, to be honest. - Also the show has so far convinced me that there is no version of this movie, book or show where I don't find Jim Prideaux to be the most interesting of the lot. - Prideaux's relationship with Bill Roach, which on it's own is really interesting and a bit sad (he's just so lonely), is added with an other dimension of sadness after this, for me, I think. Ben reads a bit from Roach's perspective in the book and again it's- yeah, heartbreaking is the only word for it really. - That quote from a non-fiction book about the teacher who in the sixties couldn't even phantom the idea that the Beatles could have written their own songs and thought they simply must have hired someone from Cambridge or whatever to do it, says it all really about the prevailing mindset of those type of people. Everything said about class and class distinctions and the idea that there is a certain type of people in Britain that inherently are entitled and best suited to rule and how that utterly idiotic idea is exposed in this story (and in the real life case) and the mindset of "if we can't trust the correct type of people to behave in a certain way then the whole system falls down" (which it should!) is also great and interesting and makes me a bit sad that the movie doesn't hit that quite as hard as maybe the book and show does. - The show's Karla flashback (with surprise Patrick Stewart!) was so close to the same scene in the book that even I, who haven't read the book in some time, still thought "Wow, this is so like the book!" - The way that they kept weaving into the conversation the real double agent Kim Philby (which made me want to read up on the Cambridge Five even more than I did the first time I read the book) was really interesting as well. Again I refer to that quote that wreathedwith posted that is stellar. In conclusion a great, insightful, heartbreaking and fascinating podcast episode that has unfortunately gotten me back on my Tinker, Tailor, Bullshit-train again. Damn you Willbond! And also, also that quote that Ben is quoting from Connie Sachs sums up the view of the episode in such a neat way.

[banavalope]

Really apropos of nothing - from your perspective, anyway - but I do wish it were. Easier? Less open for exploitation? For artists to be able to explore the concept of shared / collaborative universes more often in the pursuit of creating original art.

(more discussion of topic under cut in the event no one cares lol)

I'll note first that I'm having a different conversation here than the ad nauseam one about an artist's right to own and profit off their intellectual property. We do not disagree on this point, I am staunchly in favor, always, of independent artists staking claim on what is theirs and protecting themselves with ownership and copyright. What I'm against is corporate abuse of this protection, because literally what do they need it for, they are billionaires. Eat my ass, my life has only been made worse learning that Disney tried to fucking copyright the names Thor and Loki. So, let's digress.

I'm coming at this from a background of having grown up on adoptables RPG forums circa Gaiaonline, it was a large portion of my internet community life; the concept of an adoptables RPG is tangentially related to shared universes. They have similar DNA: a collection of people all flocking to a concept and, through communal effort, build the canon together. It's non-commital, it's more than just you and some friends creating a story, it's a little like an open RPG except you get to keep whatever you made up if you decide you're jumping ship from Gaia to Deviantart because let's say you got into a weird internet fight once with a 22 year old over a PNG you paid fake money for, and have decided you really just don't need that kind of drama in your life now that you've turned 17.

Where they differ is in the most important aspect of one being open source by permission, and the other by design.

Collaborative works like Orion's Arm, or SCP for a more mainstream example, are fascinating examples of what I mean. The dedication to building open source fictional backdrops anyone can use for anything, for profit or not, that nobody can solely own. Of course, I feel like these examples exist so perfectly because the sci-fi genre has itself always been this way. D&D is also this way. Those are nice points of inspirational reference, but they're only two genres. Very specific genres, at that.

Because you have to sometimes consider, there exist people who want to write, or want to create, who are likely very good at these things, but struggle to come up with an """""original""""" idea within their topic of interest. Maybe their interest is so niche it's impossible to separate it from the original point of inspiration (see: every time someone calls out typing quirks as homestuck derivative) Alternatively are the people good at coming up with a multitude of ideas based on one topic, but no good at stringing them together into some kind of cohesive idea, or maybe just lack the motivation to do it. Not everything has to be a thing, sometimes you just want to share an idea in a way that matters without it being your magnum opus. Yeah, you could post them into the screaming void of the social media abyss, though it's hardly a satisfying compromise.

Imagine the work that could be created if there were genres upon genres of open source worldbuilding projects, and the safety of knowing the idea you're riffing off of hurts no one to use, as being riffed off of is its intended purpose for existing. Nobody owns it! We all agreed to that at the start! Go nuts! Sell it, if you want to!

"You're just describing fandom AU", yes, dear reader, astute observation. Shared universes are, to me, the natural evolution of a fandom. Instead of only joking about how, after a point, an AU is just an original story, or a certain amount of headcanons creates a whole new character, you take that joke to its logical conclusion. Maybe it goes under recognized as the next step up because we're all so focused on making fun of people for it, but to say so risks sounding spicy.

Anyway, I love collaborative storytelling, I love shared universes and open source material, so much so that I want to bake it into my own art projects. I want there to be more free art created and curated by independent artists, ensuring struggling independent artists who can't afford to be free are able to make their living. I want art to be more accessible beyond just access to products. I have exhausted the SCP wiki, and hunger.

[antagonistchan]

talking about a show i don't actually watch (yet) as if i understand it, like an asshole (because i felt the urge to ramble about something i've been subtly noticing all year)

man, even as a semi-outsider, the wild disparity in quality between seasons of Precure is fascinating

to clarify, by "semi-outsider", i mean that in 2013 i tried to get into Precure by starting with the original season, Futari Wa, and got like twenty episodes in before i got intimidated by how much was left. a couple years later, i decided i still wanted to get into Precure, but it'd make so much more sense to jump on at the beginning of a new season and then explore the backlog from there at my own pace. i procrastinated on this for ages, but then Hirogaru Sky came out and was such a massive deal that i decided this was where i'd jump on. i still procrastinated and didn't end up starting until September. i got five episodes in, and then fell off because i got busy, but i did really enjoy those five episodes (tbh, that fifth episode was by far the best of them). i also wanted to try watching Otona Precure as it came out, but again, that was right when i got super busy. however, even though i've only seen around twenty episodes of Futari Wa and five episodes of Hirogaru Sky, i've kept up with Precure for over a decade. like i don't necessarily know much of the story or anything, but i know most of the shows' themes and can recognize most of the Cures themselves and even put a name to them. like i can see that one dark-skinned blonde girl and go "Oh yeah, that's Elena Amamiya AKA Cure Soleil from Star Twinkle. Dunno anything about her aside from the fact that she's cute, but I can immediately recognize her"

anyways, the like, 2020 seasons of Precure seemed to be on a decent track from my outside perspective. i liked the character designs and themes, and i was regularly exposed to the ongoing season even if i wasn't watching. i regularly saw the ongoing season around. in the late 2010s, it often took me a couple years to really get consistently exposed to the newer characters enough to recognize them, but in 2020-2022, i always consistently knew who the current Cures were even though i wasn't even watching the show. that seems like a good sign. not an amazing sign or anything, but a good sign.

and then 2023 happened, and Precure did two of the most interesting things it's ever done.

in the main 2023 season, Precure pulled all the twists they reasonably could with the formula of their cast. 1: the blue girl is the main character, even though she's still very much the blue girl in personality. 2: the first proper male Cure (technically the second, but the first was a minor side character; Cure Wing is a real boy Cure). 3: the first proper adult Cure (technically the third i think, but the first two both had potentially disqualifying factors (like one of them was technically only like five years old chronologically speaking or something); Ageha's barely an adult at 18, but there's no asterisks to her, she's just a normal college student). and on top of the huge departures from the expected formula they were taking, it also just seemed like really damn good season!

and THEN, they announced a second show for the year, a show that was even more exciting in concept- Otona Precure, a sequel series to the 2008 Precure show, AIMED AT ADULTS (presumably, specifically adults who grew up with that particular show, because tbh any long-running children's franchise can benefit from doing adult-oriented spinoffs so that the media can grow alongside its audience), starring the 2008 show's cast all grown up and dealing with adult problems now!!! 2023 was such a fucking banger year for exciting and compelling ideas from this franchise!

...

...

...

anyways 2024 is almost over and i've seen so fucking little of the 2024 show, Wonderful Precure. i haven't seen nothing- i do intentionally keep tabs on this fandom that i intend to join someday- but like, all i've seen is fanart. almost entirely lewd fanart, too- any given Precure season gets a lot of that, sure, but it also tends to get plenty of notable wholesome fanart too. i've seen some tame fanart, but nothing that stands out at all. i've seen no comics, no clips, no discussion- it really feels like nobody cares about the 2024 season in the slightest. sure, 2023 was an above-average year for this fandom, but i still saw plenty of activity in 2020-2022 as well! but in 2024, the only interesting stuff i've seen about Precure is about past seasons. and tbh, just from gleaning info from A: the fanart and B: official sources, i'm really not too terribly surprised. even just looking at this show and hearing about its theme, i struggle to be compelled.

like, fuck, for all i know this is actually an extremely good season and everyone's just sleeping on it, maybe because of how hookless it is. but, from my semi-outsider perspective, it really seems like Wonderful was a bit of a dud season. and the fact that this weak (or at the very least underpromoted) season directly followed possibly the most interesting year for Precure ever just makes the change so fucking visibly stark.

[mcalhenwrites]

🍦

🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate I'll do this for fandom, since I typically still like even my most detestable OCs in some way or another. :') Uh, let's see... hahaha I don't like Muzet from Tales of Xillia (especially her role in 2) very much. It's not hate, but I don't like her. (And she's not so background that we barely see any of her to have anything to say either way beyond, "What a horrible person!") That said: 1. She has a lovely design! Really like the colors used for her design and everything. 2. She does have some humorous moments, like when she's joking about tethering. 3. From a story perspective, I do like her role as someone carrying out her own mission. Yes, this means her attacking innocent people, but it's fascinating. I actually wish they'd shown more of the attack on Nia Khera and such. But yeah, I can appreciate her role as an antagonist for the party and Milla in particular.

[passionesolja]

Talking About The 1997 JJBA Rip Off Comic “DIESEL”

So DIESEL is an rip off comic book made 1997 that had one issue released. It’s such a clone of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure that it even calls Stand users “Stand users”.

I find this comic book to be fascinating because it really shows off how JoJo’s premise only succeeded like it did because of Hirohiko Araki’s personal touch, talents, and style.

To speak on Diesel, there’s just something dull and boring about it. The characters and Stands are too mundane and they really don’t have that swag that draws you to them.

I’ll be real it’s just boring to read. Something about it feels messing.

There is something boring about seeing a lumberjack looking Jotaro Kujoh type characters who’s “Stand” is just a blue hawk.

It just don’t inspire me to want to see more.

Seeing this shit really puts into perspective how important the style of Hirohiko Araki is to JoJo’s success.

I wouldn’t say I read jojo just for the style (I like the story) but Araki art and style is a cornerstone to jojo.

As you can see from Diesel, if you remove the personality and style of Araki out of jojo, you’re left with something that’s plain and uninteresting.

DIESEL was made by people who just read superhero comics, read jojo and thought that they could translate that over.

Turns out, you can’t. Because the style, influence and artistic make up of jojo is opposite of what’s common in American comic books

Let’s contrast DIESEL with Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s art

I think that you really can see the difference the art and influence plays.

A concept like jojo doesn’t really work when you give it an generic superhero aesthetic. None of the characters draw you in.

However, when you have a bunch of protagonist who all look straight out of a high fashion magazine, it makes you say “damn I wanna read this”.

Let me compare and contrast a panel

I’m no art expert, but I know what scene of someone getting they ass beat by a fighting ghost has more visual impact.

With the Stand battles in DIESEL, everything is too cluttered and far back. It doesn’t have any punch to it.

It’s terribly flat and you don’t get a sense for the physical strength of this Stand just by looking at the panel.

I don’t feel the impact of the dude getting punched by the blue hulk. Even though on a physical level, the Stand seen in DIESEL is bigger than Golden Experience

Meanwhile, JoJo doesn’t have this problem. There’s a real energy and visual weight to Stand combat.

This is because—imo—everything is so close to the action and you’re not distracted by wide shot scenes with busy backgrounds.

You also get to the multiple punches being shown to connect in the panel so you really get a feel for the amount of damage that’s going on.

The visualization of valid fire punches and kicks, along with the kanji’s that represented while they do this, are paramount to these panels in jojo.

It works better than one big no impact punch that doesn’t show the reader in a visual way the full extent of the damage that the Stand is doing.

Yeah, Araki didn’t invent drawing punches and kicks in this style. But it works exceptionally well in comparison to most superhero comics where you see one big still image of a punch and a dude flying to the ground.

In JoJo, you’re focus isn’t on so much stuff that you forget that someone is getting 7 Page Muda’d to death by Giorno Giovanna. There’s a weight to shit like this. So it’s visceral

However, in DIESEL, the Stands are gloried superheroes and the panels give you too much shit to focus on. The physical damage isn’t visceral so it just feels lifeless

Conclusion

So yeah, this is my small little talk about how DIESEL really showcases the insane ability that Hirohiko Araki has as a character designer, writer, and artist.

The shit he does is something only he can do.

DIESEL shows us that someone can rip off whole stand battle arcs and stand types from jojo but unless hirohiko is doing it, then it’ll just be boring and lifeless.

I wanna talk a this more in the future but this is a good intro of sorts lol

[beardisable]

Hope u don't mind me adding on from a cosplayer perspective0(I'M SORRY THIS GOT SO LONG AHSGDHAGS FUCK)

I only joined in 2021 and then wasn't much in the Fandom besides my local scene(first time there was a Scene for a Fandom I was in where I lived???) so I didn't see a lot of the fanart and fanart development youre talking about. But it's fucking awesome and also fascinating from a cosplay perspective.

I'm sure earlier cosplayers can talk more on this but when I joined there was already a lot of ppl doing more intricate designs than what the base Minecraft skins are like. Which was so fucking cool to me!! I had experimented before with adding on details that weren't Canon to my cosplays but I'd never considered doing it to the extent i saw on Iike 2020- tiktok, but being in dsmp and seeing all the varied fanart really encouraged me to start making more intricate designs apart from "copy character model exactly" and I think that's so important to me and to Fandom in general. It breeds so much creativity which is fukxing wonderful :D

Like 50% of my close friend group have cosplayed q or diff versions of Wilbur for instance and everyone has different ideas and different parts emphasized and I think that's so fucking cool. It also leaves a lot of room for beginners to experiment with stuff and not be dissapointed when smth doesn't turn out completely like Canon bc like. The Canon is a block figure lmaoo go fucking ham yo

Plus it makes room for people to like ask about the specific additions to have for your cosplay which leads to sharing interesting headcanons and fanart/content you like which leads to talking more which leads to friendship :DDDD at least in my experience

Also kind of a funny story related to cosplaying and cons that relates to designs: local cons we all frequented obvs have certain rules for cosplay competitions and costumes, which is fine. But defile(means that your costume and craftsmanship is the most important part of your preformance to be judged on) is judged on the Basis of "how well can you exactly recreate the Canon costume/a specifc design" bc it shows well crafts knowledge and attention to detail and skill to translate image to physical.

Which is fine and all but it lead to a situation where dsmp/mcyt cosplayers, especially ones who had intricate beautiful but no canon designs Couldn't really do defile, and when asked about it were told it would have to be the Literal Block Characters for max accuracy if they wanted to go into defile category 💀

I'm pretty sure it's solved now on the basis of like, for defile you have to have an image of the design, either from another artist or yourself as a reference and it's considered like a fan design or original design. But yeah like that's such a specific and wild situation we had in the cosplay community and it was pretty funny bc there were SO MANY dsmp cosplayers on stage(and on the floor obvs) esp right out of lockdowns, that it was impossible to Not take their wishes into account. Like it was literally a joke by the announcer in 2021 that this cons performances were almost genshin-dsmp back to back which was so interesting to see lmao.

As an additional thought: with dsmp having so many diverse designs people can mix and create, there's a lot less of like "it's not super close to Canon :(" or "oh my cosplay didn't turn out as well as x persons :(" (well theres obvs still a lot of the last one, esp since now there's like an expectation you'd try to be original and creative when not everyone does that/takes inspiration) BUT pretty much eliminating that first one is imo very cool 😎

i need to make a post about the differences in dsmp fanart between 2020 and now . someone remind me

[homestuckexamination]

Okay sorry for the Vrissy asks lol, but your point about the True Signs being related to narrative thematics and the predestination aspect of Homestuck is still REALLY good analysis! Homestuck is really fate oriented, that things happen because they were meant to happen and when you try to change how they happen, fate accounts for that as well. It ties into the way Homestuck cannot be properly analysed *without* looking at it from a fourth wall observer view. The characters, on some level, some more than others, know they’re characters in a story, and that DIRECTLY impacts their behaviour and characterisation. Homestuck’s biggest unique aspect is that it is a story that fundamentally changes *everything* if you view it from an in-universe perspective vs an out-of-universe perspective, because the story is viewing *itself* from both perspectives simultaneously! This is also why it’s easy to misinterpet things in Homestuck, of course, because the characters aren’t even honest with the audience when no other characters are around. The audience is themselves a character that the other characters put up a front for. (Homestuck Meta is absolutely fascinating, gosh.)

No it's alright, I'm enjoying these too! X3 But yeah! The Meta Narrative of Homestuck shapes SO much of it- It's like the recent ask about Jade's powers and how much of them is Bec, and the thing is that, while we can pin-point some of her powers as 'Bec's', like the outright teleportation, when some ask what is Witch Power and what is Bec Power, the answer is... Well- Bec is intrinsically tied to Jade's arc and their fusion is part of her being a Witch of Space. Even if it's a power that stems from an external source, it's all Witch of Space in the end, it's all Jade Stuff, because that's the design of it all. It's thematic! It's fitting!

I really enjoy that just, meta layer to things. And remember not ONLY is the audience a character, the audience also has a literal self-insert character in-story, just like the Author does, and even the idea of the 'Author' and who's in 'control' of the narrative is juggled around even in Homestuck Proper. It's always so much fun. X3