#can you tell I'm a character artist that focuses on humans

[awwkie-dot-jar]

Art requests from instagram!!!

[alexanderwales]

My web serial, Worth the Candle, has been adapted into a webcomic. This was thanks to my agent, who I have a great fondness for, since without him I would have to spend time trying to make connections and call people and do a bunch of work that I don't know how to do and am not good at.

I was offered the chance to write the webcomic, but declined, mostly because writing Worth the Candle had taken four years and was pretty draining, and was a story that I feel like I'm done with, minus some editorial stuff, answering fan questions, and the odd bit of promotion. So my level of involvement is that I get the pages as they come in, make some comments on them, and generally just give feedback which they are free to ignore.

So let's talk about some of the adaptational changes! You can read the first three issues on Webtoon here, or the first eight issues if you're willing to pay, and the books start here, but I'll assume that you haven't read either, and there won't be substantial spoilers because I'm talking about stuff from the very beginning. Actually, I guess there will be some spoilers, but later on, and I'll mark them, mostly having to do with some foreshadowing that the webcomic does which I didn't do.

(I licensed the rights to make the webcomic to WebToon and took my money upfront, they didn't ask me to write this post, I have not actually asked the artist/writer why they made these changes, it's just me guessing and commenting, for fun. Edit: My agent has informed me that I'm mistaken, I do get a cut. So apologies for the misinformation, and hooray for me, I guess I signed the contract ages ago and just forgot the details.)

Character Design

Here's how Juniper Smith is described in the books, ch 2:

I won’t belabor my physical description. My friend Greg had once said that I looked like someone had chosen ‘default’ for every option in the character creator, which I’d tried to laugh at but cut kind of deep. I wasn’t handsome, I wasn’t ugly, none of my features were very prominent, my eyes were blue, my hair was brown, average build, average height … After Greg had made his comment at one of our D&D games, my nickname had been ‘default’ for a while, at least until I stopped pretending to find it funny, and even after that my friends would use similar lines to trash talk me, saying that I was “the most generic man alive”, “a white bread with skim milk motherfucker”, or “the human equivalent of vanilla ice cream”. Not that I was any less of an asshole to them.

This is how he looks in the comic:

I would more or less give this full marks.

In terms of other aspects of character design, Juniper is here given a black shirt with a red symbol on it rather than the stock white t-shirt he's wearing in the opening chapters of the first book, probably in the interests of adding in some visual variety. On the page, it's perfectly fine that every person in the first 50k words is wearing basically the same stock outfit. In a visual medium, I do think that you need that pop. I do think it's interesting that Juniper is wearing the same clothes in the classroom as he is on the plane, implying that when he transmigrated his clothes ... came with him? I don't know.

The other major character of the first section is Amaryllis, who is a major character in the entire work. Here's her description in the book:

Standing by a workbench, among various car parts, tools, and cans of unidentified fluids, was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.

I’m not really sure what protocol is here, in terms of prose. I mean, I don’t want to sound like a creep, so maybe I should stay as generic as possible and tell you about her dark red hair pulled back in a braid, the glacial blue of her eyes, how starkly alert she looked as she peered over the parts in front of her, or her grease-smeared clothes. Save for her eyes, I wasn’t really focused on any of that. My mind was consumed by tracing her curves, the shape of her chest in her blood-stained t-shirt, the fullness of her lips and the delicate way she had them parted -- and yeah, it was pretty fucked up that the splatter of blood on her shirt wasn’t worth rating much of a mention. I was consumed with staring at her and thinking how gorgeous she was, until I noticed that she was having a powerful effect on me, at which point different parts of my mind were given over to marveling at the sensation of being so attracted to a girl, and others were still focused on her.

Imagine that someone spent a few years studying your likes and dislikes, running through video of your every private moment, somehow surreptitiously hooking up EKGs to measure your physiological responses without you knowing. Then imagine that they sat down with that data and the best photo manipulation artists in the world and made the absolute perfect picture to cause your heart rate to spike, a jolt to run up your spine, butterflies in your stomach, and a cold sweat on your palms. Then imagine that they did this again, over and over in slight variations, until they had a full 4K 60fps 3D movie to show you. That was what it was like watching her.

And here she is (as she's introduced) in the comic:

Aside from the change in clothes, which in the book are the same white t-shirt and blue jeans that everyone else is wearing, Amaryllis has a scar on her face, of unknown provenance. This was probably added for visual variety, but I do find scars to be very fetching, and in one of the early versions of Worth the Candle she did have one (patterned off a woman with an extremely attractive facial scar I had met, the kind of facial scar that looked like it was applied by a Hollywood makeup artist specifically to give a touch of the exotic and mysterious, except she was a just a Midwestern mom).

And of course Amaryllis was always going to be an adaptational challenge, because the books are told through Juniper's eyes, and she's The Most Beautiful Girl in the World to him, and conventionally attractive to everyone else. Juniper tries to be normal about this. But if you're in the visual medium, you have to show both how Juniper feels and how she actually looks, and attractiveness is just so incredibly personal. My wife and I get in these kinds of discussions a lot, where she'll think someone is good-looking and I'll say "him?" or vice versa.

I think the above panel in particular is a good middle ground, a glamour shot that snaps back to the reality of their first meeting:

(The void gun she's holding there is much different from the one described in the book, not something cobbled together from spare parts and void equipment, but this is another very minor change that I would assume is meant for communicating immediately that this is a lethal weapon, and there's probably not a place for explaining how and from what it was cobbled together, which is also under-explained in the book for reasons of pacing.)

Story

I've read the first nine episodes, and overall, it's hewing very closely. There are a few bits in particular that stand out to me in how they're handled.

Spoilers for later in the series follow, I guess.

These are the opening lines of the webcomic. This is much stronger foreshadowing than I used, and I like it. Part of Juniper's backstory is that he's been deeply depressed and self-destructive, and he's slow to open up about this with other characters or the reader. The "it" that he couldn't go through with is, then, suicide. In the books? This comes very very late. Juniper being depressed after Arthur's death is brought up after the first major arc, halfway through what's now Book 1, and gets more explicit as the books go on, eventually getting to Juniper talking about his attempted suicide with people and grappling with it like ... almost halfway through?

I don't know what the plans for the webcomic are, but my guess is that they're setting up for much, much later on in a way that I didn't. This was always a background element, something that informed Juniper's character, not so much the suicide attempt as the feeling that came after, this understanding that yes, he did want to live, a heady, energizing kind of "I guess I don't have the way out that I thought I did" sort of thing.

So I take it as a good sign that this is the opening line. It points toward them understanding where they're going.

One of the other major adaptational changes is that they signpost Arthur's death with a memorial on his desk:

When I was getting pages, this was one of the first moments where I was like "yes, this is a good change, visual storytelling to replace my walls of text, flows and offers indirect information". I am very happy with the adaptation thus far, and stuff like this is what I love about adaptation in general, the need to grapple with the strengths and weaknesses of the medium.

Content Rating

Worth the Candle gets grim and dark in places. It at least attempts to grapple with serious things. The webcomic is rated Young Adult, and I'm not sure how they're going to handle the later stuff, but I can talk about how they're handling the stuff now, and what I think it means overall.

First, there's a lot less swearing. Worth the Candle in its entirety uses the word "fuck" ~1200 times. Granted, this is over the course of 1.6 million words, so a fuck density of one every 1.3k words, and some of those are in the verb "soulfuck" rather used descriptively, as exclamations, etc. My personal feeling is that this doesn't matter basically at all. I don't think I notice when someone isn't swearing unless they're using corny substitutions or trying to get cute with it.

Second, the violence is toned down in that YA way, where they're still showing much of the same things, just not with the same level of visceral detail. When a Marvel comic has someone thrown into a wall, they're no blood or snapping of bones or mangling of bodies, at least if it's a comic at a certain rating (I have definitely read some edgy 90s comics that do go hard on the violence). I think, overall, that this isn't my preference, which might be obvious from the way that I try to write fight scenes and such. But I'm also sort of inured to this toning down of violence, since it's omnipresent.

Third, there's the sex stuff, and ... well, it hasn't come up in the webcomic yet. I think I laid out my reasoning for why I think sex scenes should be written/included in Why to Write a Sex Scene, but the brief version is that sometimes you're showing how characters relate to each other, what they think of each other, and the sex scene shouldn't always just be something that's skipped over and left to the reader's imagination, because things happen, there are moments of communication, it can and does develop a relationship in the moment rather than after the fact. Plus a little titillation is, in my opinion, usually good.

The great thing about writing webfic is that no one can stop you from just including three solid chapters of hardcore pornography in the middle of your story. I have never done that, but I could is the point, and I would only get complaints from people who have no power over me. That same freedom doesn't exist here, and ... yeah, it makes my heart sink a little bit.

Fourth, there's some of the more mature content stuff, the topics that might not be broached. I don't know how they're handling that, so I reserve judgment, but I think my opinion is probably going to be "well, you do what you have to do", and if my version of the story is superior because there are no brakes, then I can be smugly superior about that.

Conclusion

This is already a fairly long post, and there are a few other things that I could have remarked on, but I think this is all the most interesting stuff.

Alright, just one real quick: Arthur is adaptationally more attractive, though this is also how Juniper sees Arthur and I think by the standards of webcomics, this is actually sort of necessary. Most of the flashback cast is not described until much later on, and by then you kind of know and understand them from the things they've said, if you can keep track of them. Many of the flashbacks are nearly disembodied. But if you're showing Arthur early, then the first impression he's going to make is in his appearance, and that really anchors people.

So overall, I am happy with the adaptation. There are challenges ahead, and I'm thankful that I'm not the one who needs to tackle those challenges.

[stevelieber]

Thoughts on giving critiques to comics artists.

Seeing lots of discussion from students about sour experiences with an unhelpful art teacher, so here's a long, long post about giving critiques.

NB: I have no formal training as a teacher, but I was a student, and I've spent decades giving artists feedback on their work.

When someone brings me a portfolio, I like to establish my limitations & clarify my perspective. My work is firmly rooted in traditional US comics storytelling (i.e., not manga or art-comics.) I can give feedback on other approaches but they should know where I’m coming from.

“We've only got a little time for this, so I'm going to spend that time focusing on things to correct. That doesn't mean you're doing everything wrong, or that there’s nothing good here, but it’ll be more helpful if I identify some problems and show you how to fix them.”

Why? Because for many young artists their entire sense of self worth is wrapped up in being good at what they do. (It was for me!) In school they were probably the best artist in their peer group. But now if they're hoping to turn pro, they’re at the bottom.

Sometimes you know what’s up when you see page 1, but try to keep an open mind. Some build their portfolios by sticking new pages at the back & don’t weed out the old stuff up front, so the work gets better as you go. When it’s like that I ask: “Show me your best 8 pages.”

I ask questions: "What's the goal? Do you want to be hired to work on someone else's project, or to get the story you're showing me here published?"

If 1, I steer towards a portfolio that'll showcase hirable skills. If 2, I look for what tweaks will make that particular story more effective.

"Do you have teachers giving you regular feedback? What are they telling you?" Sometimes a student is getting bad advice. In cases like that, I'll do my best to be extra clear WHY I'm giving them advice that's 180 degrees from what they've been hearing.

“What artists are you looking at? Is there someone you admire or try to emulate?” This often helps me understand choices they're making, and I can sometimes incorporate things those artists do into my suggestions.

I ask myself questions about what I’m seeing. First: Is there a narrative? If not, I make it 100% clear I'm not speaking as any sort of expert. I'm good at critiquing storytelling, but don't have anywhere near as much to offer illustrators or designers.

Can I follow the story? Or am I confused about what's going on? Are the characters and settings drawn consistently? If not, is the artist at least making use of tags (distinctive clothing, hair etc.) to keep the characters recognizable?

Does the artist demonstrate a good command of basic academic drawing? If not, Do I think they need it? Do I focus on "how to draw" or on "what to do when you can't draw?" Is the artist putting the viewer’s eye where it needs to be to tell the story effectively?

(At this point I’m usually doing little doodles to go with my instructions. I scribble out ugly little 5 second diagrams that I hope will clarify what I’m talking about. Or they might make me seem demented. Hard to say!)

Is the artist making choices that are creating more work than necessary? Is there a particular weakness? I once spoke to an artist with a portfolio full of great work when he was drawing animals and monsters, but his humans were amateurish in comparison. I spent that critique talking about drawing people.

A crit can be a grab bag. In addition to big-picture advice, I'll point out tangencies, violations of the 180-degree rule, wonky anatomy, weird perspective, places where the artist neglected to do important research, odd choices in how they spotted black, whatever catches my eye.

I also try to make a point of defining the terms, so that jargon like “tangency,” “180-degree rule,” and “spotting black” don't go over their heads. Find simple, concrete ways to talk about these things, & clarify why it's a problem when they aren't done correctly. Draw diagrams!

Recognize that even a perfectly phrased explanation might not sink in. Some lessons can only be learned when a student is ready, and it might take a year or two of work before they can understand what you were saying. It's good to plant seeds.

Are there other artists who are particularly good at solving the problems the student is trying to solve? I steer them towards that artist's work. And I always recommend life drawing & the use of reference to give work specificity, variety, and authority.

Despite what I said earlier about focusing on what's wrong, I try at the end to find something encouraging to say. And if I’ve really piled on the criticism, I emphasize that I only spent the time and energy to do so because I take their efforts seriously.

If I've done my job right, they'll leave my table with tools to make their work better. And maybe in a few years they'll be looking at some younger artist's work, surprised to discover just how much you can learn when you're asked to teach.

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: possession, bodysnatching and bodysharing

Demons, ghosts, aliens, sentient bacteria, artificial intelligences - isn't there something fascinating about the idea of sharing a body with another being like a giant get-along t-shirt? No? Too bad, because I'm going to tell you about books featuring this trope anyway.

A note: multiple of these books are sequels where the bodysnatching/possession aspect plays little to no part in the first book. In all these cases, I still recommend starting with book one. I also in one case chose not to include a certain sequel that I loved as even mentioning it in this context would be a huge spoiler, so, uh, sorry about that.

For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!

If you want more book recs, check out my masterpost of rec lists!

Brain Plague by Joan Slonczewski*

Chrys, a struggling artist, agrees to become a carrier for a sentient strain of microbes. With their help, Chrys breathes new life into her career and becomes a success. But every microbe society is different - some function as friends and brain enhancers to their carrier, while others become a literal brain plague, a living addiction taking over the life of their carrier. And like every society, the microbe community is in constant flux - including the one inside Chrys's head.

Children of Ruin (Children of Time series) by Adrian Tchaikovsky*

Sequel to Children of Time. Millenia and generation spanning scifi. After the collapse of the Earthen empire, a project to terraform various planets and use them to uplift other species to sentience in left unfinished. However, both species and planets continue evolving on their own, and when what remains of humanity flees the dying Earth millenia later, these planets might be their only hope of survival. But the uplifted species aren't the only intelligent life out there, and are far from the most dangerous as the survivors encounter something capable of terraforming the human body itself.

Leech by Hiron Ennes*

Unbeknownst to humanity, a sentient hive mind has taken over the entire medical profession to ensure the health of their host species. One of their doctors is sent off to an isolated location where they’re cut off from the rest of the hive mind, only to realize they’re faced with a rivaling parasitic entity. Leech hands you only just enough information to get by, and whether its historical fantasy, an alternate timeline, or futuristic post apocalypse is hard to determine. It’s spooky and a bit weird and wildly creative.

A Memory Called Empire (Texicalaan duology) by Arkady Martine

Mahit Dzmare is an ambassador sent to the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire, where she discovers that her predecessor has died. Trying to protect her home, a small independent mining station, from being taken over by the empire, Mahit struggles to find out the truth of her predecessor's death while carrying the voice of his ghost in her head, guiding her as best he can. Features a sapphic relationship but focuses more on world-building than romance.

Ninefox Gambit (Machineries of Empire trilogy) by Yoon Ha Lee*

Military space opera where belief and culture shape the laws of reality, causing all kinds of atrocities as empires do everything in their power to force as many people as possible to conform to their way of life to strengthen their technology and weapons. It’s also very queer, with gay, lesbian and trans major characters, albeit little to no romance. Disgraced Captain Kel Cheris is given a second chance by allying with the undead Commander Shous Jedao, who in life never lost a battle, but also went mad and massacred his own army. Now, Cheris must decide just how far she can trust him, with her forces as well as with her sense of self.

My Heart is Human by Reese Hogan

Nine years ago, all complex technology was made illegal. This complicates life for Joel, young transgender single father, as a bionic just uploaded itself into his brain without consent. Scared of losing his daughter, Joel tries to keep the bionic secret while using it to fix his life, but things quickly get more complicated as the bionic gains more and more control of his body. A bit simplistic in writing style but makes a lot of cool parallels of bodily autonomy to Joel’s experiences as a transman.

Bonus rec: if you like the general concept of struggling for physical control over one’s body with an AI, may I also suggest the (much grittier and gory) movie Upgrade.

The Host by Stehpenie Meyer*

The Host follows Wanderer, an alien part of an invading force on Earth. Humans have been defeated and are being used as host bodies, but Wanderer's host Melanie is being difficult and refuses to fade away. Instead she fills Wanderer's mind with images of Jared, the man she loves and who's still in hiding. With Melanie's feelings bleeding into Wanderer's the two reluctantly ally to find and keep safe the man they both love. While The Host does feature Meyer's trademark romance - of which I'm not the biggest fan - the more interesting and arguably more central relationship is that between Wanderer and her human host.

Needle by Hal Clement

1950s classic. A small island in the pacific ocean and a fourteen-year-old boy have just become the center of an interstellar chase between an alien Hunter and the criminal he’s pursuing. Robert is a regular boy, but he has a very special passenger: an alien symbiont hiding inside his body. The alien became stranded on Earth as he pursued a criminal of his own species, and now they are both trapped on the same island, playing a game of cat and mouse as Robert and the Hunter struggle to find their prey before it finds them.

Malevolent by Harlan Guthrie*

Lovecraftian horror mystery. Private detective Arthur Lester wakes up in his office, his partner dead, memories fuzzy, vision gone, and the voice of a malevolent entity in his mind. Unable to see, Arthur is forced to rely on guidance from the entity as he attempts to solve the mystery of what it is and where it came from. Is this a book? No. But as someone who reads mostly audiobooks, the difference between a book and a fiction podcast is negligible, and also I love this story and its characters and want all of you to do so too.

Goddess of Filth by V. Castro

Novella. What starts as a drunken seance between friends ends with one of them chanting in Nahuatl, the language of their Aztec ancestors. Following that night, the formerly shy Fernanda has changed. While her family calls for priests, claiming her possessed by a demon, Fernanda's friends believe what has taken up residence in her is something decidedly older. A quick read featuring female rage, desire and empowerment, this is a different twist on the typical possession story.

This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman

Space opera in which humanity found a way to faster than light travel and began establishing colonies all over the galaxy, only to belatedly realize the method of FTL caused irreversible mutations and disabilities and leaving their nascent colonies to die. Much later, many of the colonies have survived and thrived, and one has found a new method of FTL travel, allowing an interconnected space society to grow. However, Earth is on the hunt for their method and is prepared to do anything to steal it. Trapped in the middle of all this and forced on the run is young Jamisia, who is little by little coming to realize that not only might she be the very solution Earth is after, she's also not alone in her own mind and body.

Touch by Claire North*

Kepler should have died long ago, beaten to death in an alley. Instead, a switch happened as Kepler leapt into and took control of the body of the killer. Since then, Kepler has lived in body after body, having gained the ability to inhabit anyone with a touch and stay for anything from a few minutes to an entire lifetime. Kepler cares much for the host bodies, and when one of them is brutally assassinated, Kepler must find the killer, avenge the host's death, and stop it from happening again. You want a fucked up main character with fucked up morals who still genuinely cares for people? Then boy do I have the book for you!

The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk

Fantasy romance. Beatrice Clayborn is a sorceress, but if her family gets its way she won't remain so for long. Married women are forbidden from practicing magic, and Beatrice's father is intent on marrying her off to save them from destitution. Beatrice has a different plan: become so powerful a sorceress that she can herself save her father's business and becomes too valuable to marry off. To achieve this, she strikes a bargain with a minor spirit of fortune. In return, the spirit demands to be present in Beatrice's body as she experiences her first kiss... a kiss with a man who might jeopardize all her plans.

Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory

Del Perce's world is almost indistinguishable from ours, the only difference being the presence of possessing entities that can strike with little to no warning. When he was young, Del was possessed by one of these demons, which was eventually exorcised. But now he’s experiencing a resurgence of symptoms, a voice in his head demanding to be freed. To save himself, Del races to find out the truth behind the possessions.

The Thousand Eyes (The Serpent Gates duology) by A.K. Larkwood*

Sequel to The Unspoken Name (please read that first, I promise this duology is very worth it). These books have a lot going on: portals, flying ships, orcs, elves, creepy snake gods, possessions, cults, immortal evil mages who traumatize teens as their hobby, gay and lesbian frenemies, the works. Csorwe, born and raised in a cult and meant as a sacrifice, escapes her intended death with a mage who becomes her mentor. But he has dangerous motives of his own, and Csorwe must decide where her loyalties lie.

A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge

Young adult, historical. All her life, Makepeace's mother has been teaching her how to defend herself from the possession of ghosts, until one day her guard drops and a wild and fierce spirit slips in. When Makepeace's mother dies and she is sent to live with her father's family, this spirit might be her only defence. Because her family is harboring dark secrets, and they have plans for Makepeace... plans which do not care for her well-being. Unlike most other YA I've read in terms of vibes and plot, A Skinful of Shadows is a unique and intriguing read.

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson*

Young adult fantasy. Artemisia prefers the dead to the living, and is training to become a Gray Sister, a nun who helps the souls of the deceased pass on to the afterlife rather than remain as dangerous spirits. To defend her convent, Artemisia accepts the help of a dangerous revenant, a powerful spirit which grants her great power but also could possess her the moment her guard is lowered. As evil threatens her homeland, Artemisia and the revenant must find a way to work together.

A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. Brown

Young adult fantasy. Sequel to A Song of Wraiths and Ruin. To save his family, Malik has made a deal with a dangerous spirit with equally dangerous demands - the death of the princess. Meanwhile, princess Karina is seeking her own power, meaning to resurrect her assassinated sister no matter what the prize. As their paths intertwine, the consequences of their pursuits keep getting higher, both for them, their nation, and the entire world.

Grey Sister (Book of the Ancestor trilogy) by Mark Lawrence

Sequel to Red Sister. Fantasy with sci-fi flavor. Nona is being raised to become a killer at the Convent of Sweet Mercy. But dangerous classes aren’t Nona's only problem: her planet is slowly dying, and her own inner demons whisper in her mind. As the sun grows weaker and ice creeps ever closer, Nona and her allies race to save themselves from extinction.

Fifth Quarter (Quarters series) by Tanya Huff*

Sequel to Sing the Four Quarters. Fifth Quarter is only loosely connected to the first book in the series so you could read it as a standalone, however I still recommend starting with Sing the Four Quarters as it is very good. Bannon and Vree are siblings and highly skilled assassins, but they are put to the test when a failed assassination finds them sharing a body, their intended victim having stolen Bannon's. Now, they must choose between remaining loyal to their Empire, or helping their supposed victim find a new body to steal - and he doesn't want just any body, he wants the royal prince.

The Nein Eyes of Lucien by Madeline Roux*

Recommended with the caveat that you're unlikely to get the full experience unless you have also watched Critical Role Campaign 2 (which is quite the time investment, but very worth it). It follows the antagonist Lucien, first owner of the body we know as Mollymauk Tealeaf, both before Lucien lost his body and after he regains it in the ultimate struggle against Mollymauk's old friends, the Mighty Nein.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

The Scratch Daughters (The Scapegracers trilogy) by H.A. Clarke

Sequel to The Scrapegracers. Sideways Pike used to be able to perform only party tricks, but in finding new friends and starting a coven, the four become powerful witches. But not everyone wants witches around. After having gotten her spectre stolen and losing her ability to perform magic, Sideways is forced to rely on Mr. Scratch, a book demon taking the place of her spectre to keep her alive. Now she must struggle to get her magic back before it’s too late.

Riding the Odds by Lynda K. Scott

Sci-fi romance. Tara Rowan is a spaceship captain with secrets - a past she wants to leave behind, and Zie, an organic symbiote which grants her greater strengths and reflexes. But when sexy Holy Knight Trace Munroe blackmails her in an attempt to rescue a missing princess, Tara's secrets are in danger of being revealed.

What Doesn't Break by Cassandra Khaw

Like The Nine Eyes of Lucien, you're unlikely to get the full experience of What Doesn't Break unless you're also a viewer of Critical Role. It follows the backstory of Laudna, undead sorceress and warlock with the ghostly presence of the necromancer who once murdered her keeping residence in her mind and tugging at her strings.

Every Day (Every Day trilogy) by David Levithan

Every day, A wakes up with a new body and a new life. A has rules on how to deal with this existence - don't get attached, don't get noticed, and don't interfere. But when A finds themself falling in love, all their established rules no longer apply. This one has also been adapted as a movie!

This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us by Edgar Cantero

A. and Z. Kimrean are twin siblings and private eyes - they also share the same body, calling themselves A.Z. When someone starts murdering the sons and heirs of a ruthless crime boss, it falls on A.Z. Kimrean to solve the case and find the killer before all out gang war breaks out.

A Madness of Angels (Matthew Swift series) by Kate Griffin

Two years ago, sorcerer Matthew Swift was killed. Today, he woke back up. And he isn't alone in his body... Now, he seeks vengeance not only against the one who killed him, but also against the one who brought him back.

Honorary mentions AKA these didn't really work for me but maybe you guys will like them: Bone Rider by J. Fally, The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu, What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang, Hunter of Demons by Jordan L. Hawk, Odder Still by D.N. Bryn

[turn-my-hollow-purple]

Assigning my top ten songs from the past month to AOT Characters

fml, I found mold in my dorm room... living on the beach isn't glamorous guys... anyways with finals and shit just enjoy a rare shit post from me until I can actually put out content

Eren: CLOWN $HOW by $WAG NIGHTMARE; I fucking love this song and this artist is so good omg (he's like lil' peep for you enjoyers of that)... it's just kind of chaotic, complex, and rebellious

Mikasa: Fantastic by King Princess; this was the hardest one to assign to someone but I think she'd like the song a lot because of its emotional depth

Armin: Real Man by Beabadoobee; this is just so cute to me, imagining him singing this and thinking about Jean or something idk... just with the yearning and maturity the song talks about

Jean: TWITTERLOSER by AViT; this song was my shit during covid and I guess I'm hyper focusing on it again.... but the song is very leadership laced with insecurity and self hatred and sarcasm idk if that makes sense

Connie: Sticky by Tyler the Creator; dude he's a huge Tyler stan idfc he screams this song

Erwin: TV OFF by Kendrick Lamar; his strategic mind and anti-government mentality fit this song so hard

Levi: Nuts bu Lil Peep; back to the sad rap I guess... this is my current fav song rn and tell me it doesn't fit Levi!! "I can see it in your eyes that you wanna get out"

Hange: Oh Nah Oh Nah by 93FEETOFSMOKE; it's so eccentric and like 'mental issues' coded and very carefree

Annie: Headlock by Imogen Heap; it's quiet, introspective, and mentally isolated just like

Ymir: Humans and Monsters by Lil Darkie; the mix between monster and savior complex are kind of funkily displayed in this song and I think she'd relate to it

[deerabigailhobbs]

Hi!!!!!! It's me, back with more Adamgail-siblings!!!!!!!!!

So, in the version of events where Adam gets Abigail back with him in Saw-city (or wherever saw takes place I don't think it's ever confirmed) for them to try and live somewhat normally, would Hannibal figure out a series of events to follow them?

I don't think persuading Will would be difficult, all he would have to say is 'there's a messed up serial killer killing people, don't you think that's a dangerous place for Abigail to be?' and Will would probably think yeah that's bad and then he and Hannibal would try and convince Jack to let them go and solve the Jigsaw killings.

Jack would probably want to solve the jigsaw killings and this could also help him maybe get more opportunities to find out if Abigail did help Hobbs kill those girls. He'd probably get worried about leaving Bella behind though. Alana would probably go to make sure Jack doesn't try anything related to Abigail even though it isn't her job. (I just like her and want her there). And Beverly, Jimmy, and Brian would go because it's their job.

Do they read up on what happened and learn Abigail's older brother is a victim of Jigsaw beforehand? Or do they get there and be like 'yeah lets go speak to all survivors' and then start freaking out when Adam walks through the door?

And when they get to the station, they're going to get bad vibes from about half of the detectives there, due to the whole 'most of the department is corrupt' thing.

Then because of story purposes, most of them would get put in a trap.

Will is probably there because he's 'reluctant to use his gifts to help others' or something. Jack is there because he's to focused on work and not on other people's feelings. Hannibal ????????? Bumped into Hoffman and didn't say sorry????????? Everyone else is probably fine.

And, uh, yeah! I had more thoughts but I've forgotten them.

Hope you're doing well!

Hello friend! I hope you're doing well too!

First of all, so real of you to want Alana to be there because you like her, I'm the same haha.

The interactions between all the Saw and Hannibal characters would be so cool!! Particularly Hannibal and John's. They're both artists in their own way, Hannibal more classical, while John more industrial (if that makes sense?). Hannibal views most humans below him while John thinks everyone can be redeemed if they value their life enough, would those ideas clash? Would they hate or respect each other's work? I can definitely imagine John putting Hannibal in a trap, purely out of a personal interest because Hannibal isn't like any other man he's come across. Maybe to show him that he's just like everyone else deep down, no matter what he thinks. If you cut hard enough you'll bleed, if you cut deep enough, you die. Hannibal isn't an exception. You can't take a human life for your own personal gain (of course, this is coming from the mind of John Kramer so his ideology is all over the place and hypocritical).

Hannibal would probably find out who Adam was through family records, find out about his test, and assume Abigail has gone to him. He'll tell Will they're going to New Jersey (which is where Saw takes places apparently, but icl Saw-City is so much funnier haha!) and, well, off they go. They'll find Adam at a survivor meeting, where he's adamant that he hasn't seen his sister in years, knowing that she's currently hiding away at his house, that other agents and detectives from out of state have asked about her whereabouts, and Adam has to take caution in getting home, knowing anyone of these people could be following him.

Adam would probably feel bad about keeping Abigail hidden, wondering if he's turning into his father, concealing her from the rest of the world, but he tries not to look too deep into that. And having Abigail insist that he's not, that she's thankful, that she missed him and hugs him like it'll be their last embrace, takes the weight of his shoulders.

Now, if we want to get really angsty, what if Adam were an apprentice? What if he also took part, not in killing people, but finding out their locations... Maybe being friendly with them so he can find out where they live... Doing it not necessarily because he believes in Jigsaw's methods, but because the man he loves does, and he doesn't want to lose that affection so he goes along with it... Seem familiar?

And oh, the absolute guilt that would wreck him. Finally having Abigail back, knowing that where she is now isn't any better. That he's putting her in danger again, surrounded by more crazy people, and suddenly he can't stop seeing his father's face when he looks in the mirror. All he wants is to shield her from pain but it's near impossible, it's like tragedy simply follows her wherever she goes and Adam can't do anything about it. Besides, well, killing her. And he can't do that. He thinks.

Semi related but I think Hoffman and Will would absolutely DESPISE each other, he would put Will in a trap for breathing too loudly lol. I'm not sure why I think this but I do. Suddenly Bedelia is number 2 on Will's hit list lol

[doctorofmagic]

New Thanos series against a new Illuminati formation launching in November.

"This November, Earth will once again tremble before the power of Marvel Comics’ most feared supervillain in an all-new THANOS solo series!

From Chris Cantwell, the writer who brought Marvel’s other big bad to Eisner-nominated heights in DOCTOR DOOM, and Luca Pizzari, the acclaimed artist known for his recent work on X-MEN: BEFORE THE FALL - HERALDS OF APOCALYPSE #1, comes a four-issue limited series that presents a riveting fresh take on the Mad Titan. 

The saga will follow Thanos as he rockets to Earth from the darkest depths of the cosmos to undertake his most ambitious conquest yet. The only ones that can quell his passionate fury is a new Illuminati. Mr. Fantastic, Doctor Strange, and Iron Man have reunited to guide the superhuman world from the shadows, and joining this new incarnation are Emma Frost and Blue Marvel. This cabal composed of Marvel’s greatest minds has wasted no time in sharing a secret that will shatter the heavens and provoke Thanos’ deadly wrath like never before! 

Thanos vs. the Illuminati! The Mad Titan descends upon Earth to retrieve something he has lost. And the Illuminati must band together to stop him, because they’re the ones who hid it from him!

"I’ve had the honor and joy of writing some of Marvel’s greatest villains, so you can imagine how excited I am to not only tackle the Mad Titan himself, but pit him against some of the most powerful brains and fists out there—this latest lineup of the Illuminati," Cantwell said. "But I think folks will find the backdrop of this story quite unexpected, mischievously funny, and heartbreakingly human, for what has drawn Thanos back screaming into the universe is a singular pain and desire for connection that he believes only one essence in existence (and non-existence) can give him… while this being is in turn grappling with some deeper questions about what they are, and what they want to be. Plus, Thanos hot-wires a pickup truck."

"I could tell right from reading the first panel description that this book was gonna be something else," Pizzari shared. "I never even met Chris before and yet it’s like he wrote this book reading my mind; there are a lot of characters I’ve always wanted to try my hand on. Thanos himself is, of course, unbelievably fun to draw, I’m constantly telling myself to make him bigger and bigger!"

[Source]

Homage variant cover by Phil Noto.

--

Now, my opinions? Cantwell is controversial AF. Tony stans know that, and I'm sure they're not happy to see him back at writing the character. I like his Doom run, except for the ending when he goes full genocide (even with the excuse that he wasn't aware of that because of his clouded emotions). As to Stephen... I'll wait and see. Maybe the run will be more focused on Thanos than the other characters. I don't know. I'm happy to see the doctor trio and Hulk, but also... I dread a little bit.

[maristelina]

The question and darkness embedded in Mikoto's (CV: Natsuki Hanae) first trial song "MeMe". ――『MILGRAM -ミルグラム-』 Music Interview｜’MeMe’

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DECO*27, a leading creator among Vocaloid artists, and Takuya Yamanaka, known for his style of exploring human psychology, have launched a collaborative music video project called "MILGRAM - ミルグラム -". The project features a joint original story and production, and the music video - which is crucial to uncovering the prisoners' crimes - has now been released.

At Animate Times, we are currently conducting email interviews with the voice actors participating in the project! In the second half of the 8th interview, we have Natsuki Hanae, the voice actor of Mikoto. This time, we asked about the first trial song "MeMe," which has finally been released, and uncovered hints about the Mikoto hidden in the lyrics and the points to be conscious of when singing.

MEANINGFUL TITLE

════ ✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧ •✦• ✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧ ════

――The first trial song "MeMe" has finally been released. Can you tell us your first impression of the song title?

Mikoto’s Actor: Natsuki Hanae (Hanae hereafter): It's a meaningful title, isn't it? The lyrics are also impressive, as if they're asking oneself questions.

―― Could you share any specific lyrics from the song that resonated with you given that the song carries a powerful message? Were there any particular lines that stood out or left a strong impression on you?

Hanae: DECO*27 and I have worked together before, so I was really excited to work with him again this time. I feel honored to have been able to sing such a wonderful song.

THE DARKNESS FELT FROM MIKOTO IN "MeMe"

════ ✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧ •✦• ✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧ ════

―― Do you have any specific points or aspects that you focused on or paid particular attention to when singing?

Hanae: Since there's a contrast between beautiful and intense parts, I tried to bring out that gap in my performance.

――When you first saw the lyrics or after finishing singing, did your impression of the character Mikoto change? Hanae: The darkness that he has may be deeper than I thought…

――Despite the fact that the outcome of MILGRAM -ミルグラム- is influenced by viewer votes, can you share your enthusiasm for the next song?

Hanae: It all depends on the user vote to determine how Mikoto will change and what kind of outcome he will face. I'm also looking forward to what kind of song will be chosen next.

――Thank you very much.

[s10127470]

X-Men: The Next Mutation (Revised)

I'm sure some of you reading know by now, almost a year ago, as one of my earliest posts on this site, I shared an idea I had for an new cartoon based around the X-Men titled "X-Men: The Next Mutation"

And people really seemed to like it.

But looking back at it, while I don't think its bad by any means, I do feel like I could've gone into more detail on a few things.

So in honor of the recent release of the long-anticipated X-Men '97, I've decided to revised the concept and make it a little more fleshed-out.

So without further ado, let's get started!

A lot of my previous points from my original post still stand, but just to recap....

This series would essentially be a spiritual successor to Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Just like that series, it feature will an all-new take on the X-Men. Though they wouldn’t nearly as drastically changed. Along with that, the series will make the X-Men more powerful than most of their other iterations through Secondary and Tertiary mutations.

In the comics, from what I’ve read, additional Mutations are rather rare, only happening to few mutants.

Essentially this series will be expanding on the concept of Secondary Mutations, as in this universe, they’re far more common among mutants, with about 90% of the population often experiencing them during early adulthood.

Tertiary Mutations, however, are a lot rarer, with only some mutants experiencing them in their lives.

Though on this case on Mutations, they would be categorized and labeled in a similar fashion to the Quirks from My Hero Academia.

The animation for this series would be done by Flying Bark Studios, the same studio that not only did the animation for Rise, but also other shows like Glitch Techs and Monkie Kid.

And I mean….you seriously wouldn’t want a Marvel cartoon with animation like this?!

I can already feel the whiplash people would have after seeing something like this (and X-Men '97) after having spent a decade with Marvel cartoons with stiff and cheap animation.

As for the art-style, in contrast to the more realistic (and obviously MCU adjacent) style that Marvel’s previous cartoons had used during most of the 2010s, X-Men will have a far more stylized and exaggerated.

Originally, I choose ArtFrenzyBoris as the one do the art-style for this show.

But after thinking about it, I feel like fellow Deviantart artist Garth2The2ndPower would be a perfect choice as well.

Her art-style just screams that it would translate well to animation.

The best way I could describe her style is like a perfect fusion between Japanese anime and Western cartoons.

Its look is quite reminiscent of anime, but you can clearly tell hat it was made in the West.

Plus, it looks like it came straight out of an action cartoon from the mid-to-late 2000s/early 2010s.

Another awesome thing about her style is just how incredibly expressive it. I love when animated characters are allowed to actually feel, well, animated.

It just makes them feel more alive in my opinion.

And given the animation studio Garth would be working it, that’s a must.

Anyway, here’s just some of the art she's done….

Similar to Rise of the TMNT, the series will sport a more comedic, light-hearted tone than its previous iterations and be more episodic with some story arcs sprinkled about. I know some people are gonna have a problem with the first detail thanks to one particular show that I’m not gonna mention making people think that anything remotely comedic involving long-existing superheroes is automatically bad. But similar to Rise, despite being more light-hearted and comedy focused, it won’t shy away from dramatic or emotional moments. As for the latter, that won’t be problem since the 90s show and X-Men Evolution did the same thing as well.

Also, might be a bit controversial, but the way mutants are viewed in this universe is a bit more neutral than most iterations. While some of humanity still hates and fears them, others are actually fine and even like them. I’ve always liked it when the X-Men actually had human supporters (or at least humans who actually appreciate what they do), which most adaptations almost never really explore.

The series will also feature various romantic relationships. Some iconic, some rare, some that were set up but never explored, some popular with the fans, and even some that have never really been considered. Also, there will be no relationship drama (or at least drama that isn’t melodramatic or shit). Yes…that does mean you-know-what will be not featured in the series in any kind of way…..and I think we will all be better off for it. 

As for the X-Men themselves, the roster is a little smaller than I initially shared for the first post.

And unlike the first post, I'll actually be diving into their characters apart from their powers.

But before I do that, I do want to bring up this cool detail.

The X-Men in this series (at first), will be wearing team uniforms similar to their teen years.

And this is what they'll look like.....

Done by TheScarletMercenary, I've always felt these outfits were a perfect modernization of the classic X-Men outfits from the 60s.

Also, there will be some variations on these outfits for some of the X-Men.

Anyway, let's go ahead and actually talk about the team themselves, starting off with the leader himself and the first X-Men, Scott Summers, codename: Cyclops.

This Scott is quite similar to his Evolution counterpart, being far more confident, outgoing and optimistic than most of his other iterations. But he does still have that great sense of discipline and responsibility (which could be the result of his father being an Air Force veteran), that made him the perfect person to be the leader of the team.

Scott himself hails from Anchorage, Alaska, is 18-years old, stands at 6’0 and weighs 187 lbs, has fair skin, a slim (almost gangly-like) but fairly lean build, shaggy brown hair in a curtains style and his eyes are usually covered by either his trademark yellow visor with red lenses or his pair of ruby-quartz sunglasses.

As for his backstory, it's largely the same as in the comics, with only two notable differences.

His younger brother Alex (who I'll touch more on a little later), wasn't separated from him and they actually got to grow up together.

His childhood wasn't tampered/monitored by "you-know-who".

As for what he's capable of....

Scott's Primary Mutation is Optic Blast, which grants him the ability to shoot powerful beams of ruby-colored concussive force from his eyes. However (like in every other iteration), he can’t exactly control them due to a childhood injury. So he has to always wear either his visor or sunglasses in order to keep them at bay. But he does have enough control over them to control the trajectory, size and even density of his beams. From being wide enough to demolish a wall, to light enough to bounce off surfaces. He’s also a surprisingly skilled tactician for someone his age, possesses an uncanny sense of spatial awareness and is trained in hand-to-hand combat.

His Secondary Mutation is Energy Channel, which grants him the ability to harness the energy of his optic beams throughout his body. As you would expect, this grants him new abilities. These including being capable of augmenting his speed and strength to superhuman levels, granting himself the power of flight, and shooting his concussive beams from other parts of his body beside his eyes like his hands and feets.

As for his voice actor, Scott will be voiced once again by his recurring VA, the ironically named Scott Porter.

Next we come to the second member of the X-Men, Jean Grey, codename: Psyche.

Jean is what would expect from any version of the character: spunky, outgoing and caring, she’s sort of like the big sister of the team.

Jean herself hails from Trenton, New Jersey, is 18-years old, stands at 5'5 and weighs 130 lbs, has fair skin, an hourglass figure with a bottom heavy build, red hair in a bob-cut, green eyes and red lips.

As for her backstory, it's largely the same as in the comics and other iterations of the character.

Jean's Mutation is Psionic, which grants her various telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Apart from the obvious reading the thoughts of others and moving things with her mind, she can also project psionic energy (which is colored pink) in the form of concussive blasts, use said energy to also create various constructs and use telekinesis to grant herself the power of flight.

The reason I didn't put down her Primary (which was Telepath) and Secondary Mutations (which was Telekine) is because Psionic is essentially a combination of the two.

Yep! Jean is one of the only two members of the X-Men at the start of the series that already has their Secondary Mutation, since just like in the comics, she was an early bloomer.

As for her voice actor, Jean will be voiced once again by her recurring VA, Jennifer Hale.

Now we come to the third member of the X-Men Henry McCoy, codename: The Beast.

This Henry (along with the 90s animated Henry) is a true return to the Beast we know and love.

He's intelligent, well-mannered, and one of the most mature and level-headed members of the X-Men, due to him being one of the oldest members. But he still has the wit, playfulness and wisecracking nature of a teenager.

Henry hails from San Diego, California, is 19-years old, stands at 6'2 and weighs 302 lbs, has fair skin, a broad and muscular build with a posture and figure akin to that of an ape, abnormally large hands and feet, long blue hair that was tied up in a ponytail and blue eyes.

We also have the first X-Men with some difference to their uniform!

Henry's wouldn't wear any gloves or boots and his uniform wouldn't have any sleeves.

As for his backstory: Henry’s Mutation awakened the earliest out of all the X-Men, with him having it since the day he was born. This unfortunately led Henry to have a rather sheltered childhood. But during his teen years, he would start sneaking out and secretly playing as a star quarterback for the football team of the local high school. But once he joined the X-Men, he finally got the chance to experience life outside his home without having to do it in secret.

Henry's Primary Mutation is Primate Atavism, which granted him the pinnacle of human intelligence along with a body akin to that of an ape, with the physicality to go with it. His physical capabilities seem to be an amalgamation of various primates. He has the strength of a gorilla, the speed of a monkey, the dexterity of a chimpanzee, the agility of a gibbon and the flexibility of a orangutan.

His Secondary Mutation is Genetic Atavism, which allows him to switch between different animalistic forms whose capabilities are an amalgamation of the animal family they represent. These forms include a feline form, a canine form, a bovine form, a bear-like form, a boar-like form, a pachyderm-like form, and a rhino-like form. But his primary form and the look he'll be rocking for the entire series once his Secondary Mutation awaken would be a sasquatch-like form.

This form would grant Henry a muscular, sasquatch-like build, blue skin, blue fur all over his body, large clawed hands, large feet, sharp teeth, pointy ears, long messy blue hair and blue eyes.

It would also increase his height from 6'2 to 7'2 and his weight from 302 to 402 lbs.

The form would also keep the abilities of Henry's Primary Mutation, but enhanced to far greater levels.

As for his voice actor, Henry would be voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, who I've always felt would be perfect for a younger version of the character.

No offense to his recurring VA Fred Tatasciore, but I don't think he has quite the range to pull off an convincing voice for young man.

Next we come the fourth member of the X-Men and the second-in-command Ororo Munroe, codename: Storm.

This version is a mismatch between her typical portrayals and her Ultimate iteration. Being one of the oldest members of the team, Ororo is quite mature and surprisingly wise for her age. She also has a street-smart and witty side to her as well. And for someone who spent most of her life on the streets, Ororo has this odd sense of regalness and composure. These traits have made her essentially the second-in-command of the X-Men.

Ororo hails from Cairo, Egypt (but was originally born in Kenya), is 19-years old, stands at 5'11 and weighs 145 lbs, has dark skin, an hourglass figure, white shoulder-length hair in the form of braids, blue eyes, gold lips, a black headband and gold lightning bolt earrings.

As for her backstory, it's largely the same as in the comics, except she never got worshipped as a goddess among a tribal community.

Ororo's Primary Mutation is Meteorological, which grants her the ability to manipulate all forms of weather. From thunderstorms and tornadoes, to blizzards and tsunamis. She can also generate and manipulate electricity, manipulate wind, water and ice/snow, alter the temperature of an entire environment at will and her own body temperature depending on her current environment, use wind currents to fly, has an uncanny sense that allows her to predict weather patterns, and thanks to her time as a thief, is skilled in picking locks and physical combat.

Her Secondary Mutation is Element Phase, which grants her the ability to transform her entire body into either an electrical, wind, water or icy form. This not only makes her nearly invulnerable to damage (as most physical attacks would just phase right through her), but also enhance her physicality in some ways. Her electrical and wind forms would grant her superhuman speed, agility and reflexes, her water form would grant her elasticity, and her ice form would grant her superhuman strength and resilience. She can also create physical constructs out of the elements, even with her own body, the Secondary Mutation grants her much greater control over the weather than before, and she can even turn into an elemental giant by absorbing the elements (like the air and water) around her.

As for her voice actor, she would be voiced by previous recurring VA, Danielle Nicolet.

Now we come to the fifth member of the X-Men Wren Worthington, codename: The Angel.

You may have already noticed that I referred to Angel as Wren Worthington instead of his full name, Warren Worthington III.

Well that's because in this series, Angel is a female rather than a male.

The reason why I choose to do this is because seen a lot of recent fan reimaginings of the X-Men having Angel either being a female or non-binary, and I thought that would an interesting change to do for the character.

Personality-wise: she’s spirited, carefree and often has her head in the clouds (both figuratively and literally).

Wren hails from New York City, is 18-years old, stands at 5'11 and weighs 145 lbs, has fair skin, an hourglass figure with a muscular build, long blonde hair, blue eyes, sky blue lips, black bird earrings and a pair of big white wings on her back.

As for her backstory: Wren was born into a life of wealth and privilege. However, everything change when her Mutation awakened, which brought her into conflict with her father Warwick, the CEO of Worthington Industries and a hater of mutants. He desperately tried to keep the fact that his daughter was a mutant under wraps. This led to Wren having something of a sheltered life during her adolescence. Thankfully, the X-Men came along and Wren was finally able to be free.

Wren's Primary Mutation is Avian Flight, which granted her bird-like wings that allows her to fly. Her body is also naturally adapted for aerial transversal, can fly at superhuman speeds and possesses enhanced lung capacity and eyesight.

Her Secondary Mutation is Healing Light, which grants the ability to manipulate a special kind of light with healing properties. She can also use the light in an offensive manner and thanks to its properties, Wren also has an accelerated healing factor similar to another member of the X-Men.

As for her voice actor, she would be voiced by Grey Griffin, who I felt would be perfect for a female version of Angel....or any character voiced by LOB.

Next we come to the sixth member of the X-Men Kurt Wagner, codename: Nightcrawler.

He's what you would expect from any version of Kurt: kind-hearted, well-mannered, caring, and a devoted Catholic.

Kurt hails from Germany, is 17-years old, stands at 5'7 and weighs 164 lbs, has blue fur-like skin covering his entire body, a slender build, shaggy dark blue hair, full yellow eyes with no visible pupils, pointy elf-like ears, slightly fanged teeth, three fingered/toed hands and feet and a long pointy demon-like tail.

As for his backstory: Kurt always had it rough. Ever since he was born, he was cursed with the appearance of a demon. He was able to make the most of it by becoming the star of a traveling circus, which made people believe his appearance was just part of the act. However, when the public discovered that wasn’t the case….they didn't really take it well to put it lightly. Luckily, the X-Men came in time to save Kurt him from a slow and painful demise.

Kurt's Mutation is Shadow Move, which grants him the ability to teleport anywhere in a limited radius through a cloud of black brimstone. Thanks to his peculiar physiology, he’s also naturally agile and flexible, can become nearly invisible in shadows, has night vision and is a skilled swordsman.

Yep, Kurt is gonna be showing off his swashbuckling skills here! Three-Sword Style BABY!

As for his voice actor, he'll be voiced again by his recurring VA, the previously mentioned LOB, Liam O'Brien.

Now we come to the seventh member of the X-Men Piotr Rasputin, codename: Colossus.

Piotr is want you would expect from any version of the character: a gentle giant with the heart of the artist.

Piotr hails from Russian, is 17-years old, stands at 6'9 (7'4 in steel form) and weighs 260 lbs (495 lbs in steel form), has fair skin, a broad and muscular build, black hair in a flat-top almost buzz-cut like style and blue eyes (full grey when in steel form).

Also, just like Henry, he doesn't have any sleeves on his uniform.

As for his backstory: Piotr used to live a simple life as a farm boy. But after his Mutation was exposed, he and his family found themselves in great danger. But thanks to the X-Men, the Rasputins found a new home here at the Westchester District, where they could remain safe.

Piotr’s Mutation is Organic Steel, which grants him the ability to convert his flesh and skin tissue into a steel-like substance. This steel form grants Piotr incredible strength and resilience, and when matched with his use of hand-to-hand combat, makes him the team’s resident powerhouse.

As for his voice actor, he'll be voiced by his recurring voice actor, Chris Cox.

Next we come to the eighth member of the X-Men Bobby Drake, codename: Iceman.

Bobby is what would expect from any version of the character: playful, fun-loving and a bit of a prankster and show-off.

Bobby hails from Boston, Massachusetts, is 16-years old, stands at 5'4 and weighs 135 lbs, has light skin, a slim build, shaggy brown hair and light blue eyes.

He also has short sleeves and pant-legs on his uniform, wears no gloves or boots and rocks a black durag with a red X-Men symbol at the center (similar to his Ultimate counterpart).

As for his backstory: Bobby lived a fairly normal life with his family. But when his Mutation awakened, fearing that his family would be put in danger because of it, he ran away from home in order to keep them safe. But he eventually found a new home here at the Westchester District.

Bobby’s Mutation is Moisture Freeze, which grants him the ability to convert the moisture around him into ice and snow. Apart from the obvious freezing objects and creating ice and snow, Bobby also possesses a high resistance to low temperatures (so much so that he can coat himself in a flexible armor of ice) and can create various constructs out of ice. These include the likes of shards, shields, pillars, melee weapons and slides (the latter of which he uses to travel quickly across long distances).

As for his voice actor, he would be voiced by Jason Marsden. I've always felt Jason Marsden would make a great Iceman, and he did a good job as the character in X-Men: Destiny. And chances are, he could've become a recurring voice of the character if Marvel hadn't enter their "the X-Men don't matter anymore" phase because they were huffy about the move rights.

Now we come to the ninth (and the last member of the X-Men with a Secondary Mutation) James Howlett, or Logan as he prefers to be called, codename: The Wolverine.

Personality-wise, he's pretty similar to his iterations from Evolution and Wolverine and the X-Men.

Where still keeps his gruff and tough nature, but he's far more responsible, level-headed and laid-back when compared to most of his other iterations.

Logan hails from Canada, stands at 5'2 and weighs 295 lbs, fair skin, a stocky and muscular build, black hair in his trademark devil horn style, a five-o'-clock shadow and blue eyes.

As for his outfit, it's practically the iconic yellow and blue suit. Mask and all!

Backstory-wise: Most of his past is completely shrouded in mystery to the characters and even himself. But they do know that he’s by far the oldest (in spite of his appearance) and most experienced member of the team, having fought in some of the biggest wars of the 20th century. Not too long ago, Logan was once their enemy, constantly trying to take us out. But after finding out that he was being forced to do so in order to save his family, the X-Men decided to help him and out of gratitude, he joined them team.

Logan's Mutation is Healing Beast, Model: Mustelidae. Similar to Jean, it's the combination of Primary and Secondary Mutation. Initially, this granted Logan an accelerated healing factor, which allows him to heal from injuries much faster than the average human, superhuman physicality, enhanced animalistic senses and a pair of razor bone claws that he can eject from his knuckles. But thanks to Weapon X, government genetic research facility project, Logan was made even stronger than before. His healing factor has made so powerful that he’s able to quickly heal from even the most fatal of injuries, his physicality and senses have enhanced to even greater levels and even his claws are now coated in the near-indestructible metal known as Adamantium. A few years later, his Secondary Mutation finally awakened, which granted him the ability to transform into a man/were-wolverine, which enhanced his physicality and animalistic senses to even greater levels. And even more so with the berserker rage the form gave him. Unfortunately, Logan barely has any control over his form, which puts everyone around him in mortal danger, so he rarely ever uses it.

As for his voice actor, you already know who I have in mind.....the one.....the only.....STEVE BLUM!

Now we've made to the tenth and final member of the X-Men Kitty Pryde, codename Shadowcat.

Kitty is what you would expect from any version of the character: an intelligent social butterfly whose also a massive lovable nerd with a passion for computers.

Kitty hails from Chicago, Illinois, is 14-years old, stands at 5'0 and weights 95 lbs, has slightly tanned skin, a slim and slightly petite build, long curly brown hair tied up in a ponytail, hazel eyes, pink lips and multicolored braces.

As for her backstory: Kitty was a near straight-A student and an expert at computers. However, this often made her the target of bullying, which only got worse after her Mutation got exposed in public. But luckily, she found a new school to attend.

Kitty's Mutation is Phase Shift, which grants the ability to make her entire body intangible, along with anything she touches.

As for her voice actor, she would voiced by Jennie Kwan, who you'll known best as Suki from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Chun Lin from Street Fighter 6.

And accompanying her is none other the little dragon himself, Lockheed!

It's actually to think that this series would mark his first major adaptation in anything.

It's weird how despite being the companion of one of the X-Men's most prominent players, they've never had him appear in anything outside of the comics and video games.

It's sort of like the case of Franklin Richards, where despite being the son of the two of the members of the Fantastic Four and a major character in the cast, he's never made an appearance outside of the comics.

Anyway, Lockheed is what you would expect from any animal companion: Playful, mischievous and loyal to the nth degree.

As you expect: He's a purple dragon with full yellow eyes similar to Kurt, and stands at 2'6 and weighs 20 lbs.

Backstory-wise, it's pretty accurate to how it was in the comics.

Being that Lockheed comes from a race of aliens that resemble dragons known as The Flocks, who've been at war with the ravenous alien race The Broods.

Lockheed end up getting stranded on the Broods' homeworld and was being hunted by the aforementioned Broods.

During that time, he would encounter Kitty, who, along with the rest of the X-Men, were brought to Broodworld by force in order to be experimented on.

And it's history ever since.....

As for his voice actor, he would be voiced by everyone's go-to for providing animalistic vocals, Dee Bradley Baker.

Well that's all I have for now.

This is gonna be a multiple-part series.

For this first part, I did want to cover the recurring characters/allies, the villains and even some potential episodes, but I felt that it would make this post a little too long for most people.

So I decided to just dedicate this first part to just introducing the X-Men of this series.

I hoped you all liked this first part and if there's anything you want to know about this version of the X-Men, let me know!

[spiritmander13]

Silly Game Time: Who are some of your favorite alien (non-human *and* extra-terrestrial) characters? And what do you like about them?

They can be from sci-fi or fantasy, from other worlds or dimensions or realms. All that matters is that they're not from Earth and that they're not human in any traditional sense (and, most of all, that you find them interesting).

While I would say things like Silver Spoon, I'm gonna point to my favorite game franchise.

Scratch, Chopper, and Cobra Cadabra from Skylanders. Technically, Cobra could be seen as humanoid because of the arms, but I find the three unique simply because they're three cores from the middle two games that aren't that popular in the community.

"The Luck Of The Claw!"

Scratch is the only one from SWAP Force and as you can see, she's a feathercat. Core Skylander of the Air Element, I like her because of many reasons. One of my favorite things about Skylanders is how unique the designs will get and Scratch sortof goes back to the basic days of Spyro's Adventure, which you're not going to see more in later designs. She also breaks the traditional color coding of the Air element; instead of shades of white and light blue, we're treated to gold, magenta, and green, which is moreso a personal preference than a fun fact.

She's also UNGODLY powerful. There's a bit of a trend where the Cores from SWAP Force are either a complete miss or a direct STAB, and Scratch is a direct stab. Her Ruby Path upgrades her critical hit chance while her Sapphire Path focuses on speed and the final upgrade in that path can even slow enemies. Most importantly, her Soul Gem (found in Fantasm Forest, which is near the tail end of the game) makes her HEAL A BIT WHILE COLLECTING COINS. It's only like 7 HP on max level, but considering they're the thing you collect the most, Scratch is absolutely terrifying.

"Dyno-Mite!"

Chopper is a Core Skylander from the Tech Element from Trap Team and he's a t-rex. A crazy t-rex. A crazy t-rex with a fucking helicopter pack and MISSILES, ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I kin this guy. He's pretty decent for a Core Skylander and I love the personality. Most importantly, his first attack (THE MISSILES) are homing and will spin after firing, which makes it so you can just fly around and spam the first attack button, which makes Chopper a decent pick for certain situations like facing a Tech villain during Nightmare Mode.

Fun Fact: Chopper was originally going to be the Tech Giant, however TfB realized that T-rexes are more horizontal than vertical and it would take up most of the portal, so they created Bouncer to replace him. Another fun fact: he can fly by simply double-tapping the jump button.

"Charmed and Ready!"

Cobra Cadabra is a Core Skylander from the Magic Element from Trap Team. He is a cobra with arms (which you can interpret as humanoid but I digress) and is based around snake charmers. While there's nothing too notable about his personality (other than he is mysterious and actually doesn't have the traditional snake lisp), his attacks and his whole design is wonderful. Props to the concept artist for coming up with a snake who's a snake charmer.

His attacks may not be unique, but they're wonderful to me, and while this community won't give him some love, I will. Most notably, his first attack might just be a simple spammable bullet at first. But there is an upgrade called Keep The Beat! which added an extra challenge for extra damage. As you can tell, because Cobra Cadabra is rooted to music, the challenge was to keep with the beat of the background music. If you perfectly time your first attacks with the beat, you get an extra damage boost. Best of all, with another upgrade in the Concerto Cobra Path, the notes can bounce off walls. Trap Team was pretty much the game to try out different unique mechanics besides the Trap Masters and this was VERY unique and interesting. Also, I managed to max him out in 30 minutes after acquiring him, so there's that.

[spiders-hth-is-an-outlier]

now I'm curious, can you tell us more about writing Flourish out of order? what made you decide to try writing it that way? what was agonizing about it??

I think honestly I decided to do it that way as an experiment, because so many other writers say it works for them, and on paper it does seem like a good strategy for keeping your interest focused over a long project. It's something I'd been interested in experimenting with for a while, and Flourish seemed like the right story for it because of the structure.

If your memory is good or you've read the author's notes recently, you'll know that Flourish began life kind of as a stunt -- a bunch of people on Tumblr were laughing at Rudy Giuliani, as one does, and saying that "landscaper next to the dildo store" should become the new fandom trope to replace "flower shop next to the tattoo parlor." I often get ideas by hearing something stupid and thinking, okay, but if you did want to do that for real, how would you? And I got really hooked on this idea of Quentin running this super nerdy, Ivy League sex shop, and Eliot, who comes from this canonically working-class background, struggling to find some kind of balance between his origin story and his artistic temperament in a way that was more complex than just fucking off and pretending to be someone else.

But that was really all I had, going in! There was absolutely nothing like a plot involved. I knew it would have to take place over a year or more, so I kind of broke it out seasonally and did a bunch of research about gardening in Pennsylvania specifically and the landscaping industry generally (my Kindle Unlimited algorithms were bonkers for a while). I noodled around with the concept of plants and blooming where you're planted. I came up with a huge, detailed backstory for the Waugh family, since I knew it was going to have to be his connection to his family that drew Eliot there at all, and I knew I really liked the idea that Eliot and Ted became garden buddies before Eliot and Quentin were really a thing. I had a general sense that there was going to be a culminating conflict between Julia wanting to leave the business and Q feeling betrayed by that. And at the point where I signed up for the Big Bang, that was more or less all I knew, and I thought, okay, maybe what I do is just put these characters in rooms and let them bounce off each other until I figure out what I really want the story to look like.

And honestly, that part wasn't too disastrous. I wrote a lot of the Eliot stuff first, since I had a stronger sense of his conflict, and I let Quentin's Whole Deal emerge gradually -- which is why I think his arc is a little more messy, but you can get away with messy in Quentin's case, it's Quentin.

I got to the point where I had about 30k of fiction and I was like, okay, I get this story, I can explain it to myself. I wrote an outline. And that's where I fucked up, because what I should have done is backed up to the beginning and wrote like I always do, filling in the gaps chronologically and editing completed scenes where necessary. But I was still into this idea that I was Letting the Story Lead Me or some fucking thing, who knows, and I started just tackling scenes from my outline whenever I thought of something cool to do with them.

And that was a disaster, because what I should have realized about myself is that for me, the pleasure of writing is in the momentum of it. When I write, I do generally have a sense of what the third act will contain, but the fun of it is kind of -- building the deck or laying out the game board. I spend a lot of time setting up People With Problems, and then as I'm actually writing, I'm solving their problems, and the biggest component of that is letting them talk long enough to figure out what they think their problems are, which is rarely what I think their problems are, but to me the most interesting thing about any human being is where they're wrong about themselves. So as I write, I'm always using the things these characters say and think to build the conflict, I'm basically starting out with my story and learning as I go why they're not already doing what I think they should do -- what I will eventually get them to do.

This may all seem a little abstract, but trust me, there's a click that happens when the story shifts gears and I'm no longer setting things up, but now I'm writing to address what's in motion, not to Create Problems On Purpose anymore, but to drive those problems to a head and then solve them. And with Flourish, I never felt that click, I was never able to Win the Story, because big chunks of the first act still weren't in place until very late in the process.

And on a practical level, it meant that certain late things were supposed to be a bigger deal, but I wrote it so slowly and with such frustration that I just didn't have time to set them up as much as I imagined I would -- Quentin's contentious relationship with Marina was supposed to be a thread, and when I wrote the later scenes it was theoretically resonant that Julia says "you both made me carry this as a secret from the people I love, you both let me down." But then the way the story evolved, that just got squeezed out because there wasn't an organic spot for it and I didn't have time to create new scenes for it. So stuff like that, where if I'd been writing Act Three with complete knowledge of what actually had and hadn't happened earlier, I'd have approached it differently. And that was super frustrating and made me feel like I was fucking it up.

In retrospect, I do like Flourish a lot. I think I made the story work, mostly just through brute force. But when I look at it, I can definitely see the seams, where the transitions seem abrupt and random, where certain things still look to me like responses to events that never actually happened in the story. It's fine, it worked out mostly. But I truly never enjoyed writing it in the way I usually enjoy writing, and I absolutely think it's because I didn't have a strong, completed first act pushing me through to an ending that felt like a justified payoff to Page One.

Anyway, thanks for the ask, this was cathartic! And, uh, people should read Flourish, which I think is a pretty decent little novel about taking the hand you're dealt in life and trying to turn it into something you're proud of. It's so AU that I think even if you've never seen a Magicians in your life, it's completely readable.

[when-did-this-become-difficult]

//

the question was what can you do a presentation on

I don't know very much about this! But goodness am I prepared to blather about it! I believe that the old "Golden Age of Television" prestige shows like the Sopranos, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad (the Wire is somewhat separate from this) will continue to have a fixed and revered place in the Canon of Prestige Shows, while up and coming Hulu/FX half hour prestige dramedy shows like Reservation Dogs, The Bear, and Ramy will continue to be considered great and yet not "canonical" in that same way. And it's not just because of hour vs half hour, old vs new, white men vs everybody else; it's also because of the shows relationship to violence, power, and morality.

Reservation Dogs, The Bear, and Ramy all feature characters who are trying to find their way, trying to figure out how to live in the world. Oftentimes it seems like they're just struggling to survive period, but there's this throughline in each show about how to live well, even if those characters are like, failing nonstop at it?

Like, Tony will go to therapy, Carmela will go talk to a priest, but they're never gonna make much progress on the absolute fundamental root problem at the core of their life, which is that their prosperity comes from other people's suffering. Great writing, the story of American history really. Valid story to tell, probably comes from the bottom of David Chase's heart and is what he really thinks, I'm not knocking the Sopranos.

In TV criticism, that extremely cynical and hopeless view of people never fundmentally changing in their evil is like...valued more artistically? I think it goes deeper than the old "dark shit overrated, funny/hopeful shit underrated" because that's true but also, Rez Dogs and The Bear and Ramy all get real dark sometimes. I just. Mm there's something about striving.

I personally prefer the half hour prestige stuff tho so like maybe I'm just over intellectualizing or whatever because I'm mad that this stuff hasn't reached canonical status when I feel it should. That's an option! That's always an option

Just me sitting here thinking a lot about it

.

Bonus absolute ramble, depressing and not very analytical! again im keeping this because my tumblr is my lil journal (my tumblr my house etc)

// Original answer

I wish I had a more fun answer for you.

Honestly not feeling terribly confident in the thoroughness of my knowledge about anything these days. Two of the good old standards (Parade's End first three books and Colombian electoral politics 1990) have begun to fade & I suppose I could do a presentation on jcink sandbox RP but idk if I would really want to.

possibly depressing ass ramble under the cut. CEO gets a yacht and I get an egg sandwich, that's why tumblr gets all my mental bandwidth

The real subject that popped into my head that I haven't consciously been perseverating on lately but which I might have lowkey been thinking about a little bit over decades of my life is simply the perception gap between imagined political enemies vs real ones in US politics particularly over time particularly with the internet particularly on the subject of abortion.

(Disclaimer: abortion rights are human rights, I don't feel like I should have to trot out much more slogans than that, you get the vibe.)

(Other disclaimer: this has nothing to do with E, who has actually a very good view into what's going on with Those Guys, hi E, I'm not roasting you I'm roasting some other fellows.)

Sometimes what's going on with your opponents is simultaneously not at all what you think and exactly what you think and maybe I don't want to give a presentation as much as I want to have an in depth discussion of how and why some quite intelligent and well-informed people end up all turned around and not having an accurate understanding of what's going on with their political opponents by simply selecting a handful of the most palatable (to them) truths and then focusing on those to the expense of all else.

And not only what is happening, but what is the utility of that? What are the drawbacks? I think as just a regular degular person who gets frustrated upon hearing other people Be Loudly Wrong, I find it really annoying. But if we put my feelings aside, is there a reason (other than soothing feelings and strengthening morale) that people develop all these semi inaccurate mental characterizations of their opponents? Is there actual political utility to it? And how much of it is consciously done vs happening because of the environment *gestures at media, social media*

Like I have really, really been inside the guts of "both sides" on this one in an insidery way so I just. #NotAllPartisans but a lot of them do not get it, "it" being each other, like at all.

But then one some bits they're spot on about each other.

Weird!

[remrse]

hey, hey! cal here with what i'd like to call the less boring version of nate archibald — seo jaerim, also known as the golden boy who falls in love way too easily (but is it really love?) because he needs to fill this void in his life. he's also the moneybags skeleton in the gossipgate subplot. he's very much still a work in progress but i'd love to plot with y'all and come up with some fun stuff! i currently only have his dossier up but everything you need to know about him is under the cut. like this post and i'll come sliding into your ims, i'm also available on discord if that's what you prefer!

(trigger warnings: teenage pregnancy, coercion into abortion)

message: saw seo jaerim in seoul. they were volunteering at a children’s charity organisation. i think they’re a/n museum curator now? a lot of people say they’re kinda apathetic but they seemed super generous to me, tbh. they really look like nam joohyuk and remind me of nate archibald though wtf. thought you might want to know because i remember your post about them that said when he was in high school, he had gotten someone pregnant and coerced her into an abortion. still can’t believe that happened 8 years ago.

ask him why he’s a museum curator and he’ll tell you it’s because he has an eye for pretty things. paintings. women. art. that, and he’s the only heir to seoda museum of contemporary art—the louvre of seoul. seo jaerim was born with a silver spoon in one hand and a paint brush in the other. in his world of art, human beings are merely subjects of artworks; characters of his story. does he really love you or are you just pretty enough to look at, like the artworks displayed in his museum? set to inherit his family’s museum business, he has been working as a museum curator since he graduated snu with a degree in fine arts. everything in life is laid out for him, yet there’s a void impossible to fill; a loneliness in the shape of a monster that doesn’t die. does it stem from a long time guilt of destroying his very first creation before the world got to see it, or the constant chase for love and comfort in a world so brutal? some call him a playboy, but others say he’s too tender to be one.

summary:

only child and heir to his family's museum (think of it as the louvre of seoul; only the most prestigious and renown artistes can showcase their work there)

his family is very influential, especially in the arts, every other relative is an artist, curator, collector of some sort

every child born in the seo family would be sent for art classes, it is as important as learning the korean language

his family is very image-focused, often portraying themselves to be polished and sophisticated, people with refined tastes

they also think they are superior to others because they are "cultured" on top of their wealth

there were always only two pathways for him: to be an artist or to take over the family's business (it was always a career in the arts or risk being the black sheep of the family)

he had been painting since he was a child but figured he prefers the power of deciding who was good enough to earn a place in his museum, to have people cowering before him to exhibit their work at his museum

also he kind of just stopped painting after the whole abortion thing, because everything he created then was just a reminder of all the guilt and regret he had (might be the real reason he switched over to art curation)

he graduated from snu with a degree in fine arts

before that, he was from a private boys' high school near gyeonggi girls' high school

that is also how he got acquainted with the og's from the gossipgate video

the video did not affect him very much, or at all (his family paid off media outlets to keep his name out of the gossipgate news so while you could kind of make him out in the video, there is no real confirmation of him being in it)

what had a greater impact on him was gossip girls' post about him getting someone pregnant and coercing her into an abortion (his family were also the ones that had insisted on the abortion) — it's something that still weighs heavily on him till this day (i've left a lot of details undecided in hopes of someone taking on this connection!)

he never had issues with college acceptances because his family name guarantees him a spot in any art program (probably also due to nepotism because he has relatives who are art professors)

he has been volunteering at children's charity organisations but no one knows if it's his way of fixing his reputation or if he's doing it because he feels a sense of guilt towards his unborn child, or what could've been

he is really good with kids though (could be why women love him)

does not mean to be one but could be a little bit of a playboy, only because he has no fucking clue what love looks like so he's on a constant search for it

but is so sweet and gentle you gaslight yourself into thinking he isn't one

honestly really empty on the inside; desperately looking for that something that would light up his world, whatever it is

wanted connections:

gossipgate people! i'm here for rich kids fucking up each other's lives

lots and lots of exes: ex-girlfriends, ex-flings, ex-crushes, ex-almosts, whatever (basically, nate archibald's dating history)

an ex he had just broken up with would be fun too

fresh/new, ongoing love interests

the girl from his gossip girl post 8 years ago; the one he had gotten pregnant and coerced into abortion (i'm open to any interpretation of this — they could be ex-lovers, friends that hooked up, nothing is set in stone!)

someone who volunteers or has volunteered at one of the children's charity organisations he volunteers at

artists who has or wants to have their art displayed at his museum (he will not make it easy for you though)

the person that leaked his abortion secret to gossip girl

unexpected/unlikely friends (an opposites dynamic maybe?)

neighbours (he's currently staying alone in his bachelor's pad but i imagine it to be at some fancy apartment)

some sibling figures? he'd probably appreciate it, being the only child at home

[paradoxiii]

At the moment, my stance on AI generated images/text is that they *could* be a good thing, in an ideal world. But they're pretty much just being used by selfish assholes.

First, I wanna mention that what I'm saying should apply to the AI generated "writing" as well, but for simplicity I'll just be talking about images.

If these generators worked off of art that the artists actively consented to being including, that would be a good start.

But also the idea of using these generators to completely replace artists, instead of tools to help make artists' processes easier, is particularly frustrating. It's incredibly disrespectful.

I think maybe, ideally, there could be one big database that these generators train on. Things in public domain. Things that artists themselves can submit if they wish to have their art included. CONSENT is the word here. There's a difference between someone studying another person's art style to try to mimic it (usually coming from being inspired by that person, fascinated by their art, it comes from love for the art) versus telling a program to make something but make it in a specific person's art style because they either don't want to spend money commissioning them or the artist is not taking commissions (usually coming from a sense of entitlement, and as much as I hate to say it, laziness).

And then, the whole shitty thing of replacing artists with these programs. There's a difference between technology replacing people in jobs that take a hard toll on their bodies, and technology replacing people in jobs that they actually want to be in. Of course, in a society without UBI and focused on making profit over helping people live their best lives, taking away any jobs from living breathing people is going to receive complaints. But taking away jobs from artists, who already don't make as much money as they should because art is viewed as something unnecessary, something that should just be a hobby or side gig, is like kicking someone while they're down.

I saw something about how the Spiderverse team used AI to help streamline the process. They trained it on their own works to do this (so they didn't steal from unconsenting artists) and it was a tool to help the process, not become the whole process. In this case, it's like using an electric mixer to mix ingredients you grew yourself to make baking a cake less strenuous, as opposed to having a robot steal ingredients from the store & baking the whole thing for you.

I would LOVE be to able to train an AI to make backgrounds for me that fit with whatever style I'm using for the characters. I hate drawing backgrounds, I love drawing characters. I often go to websites full of public domain images to find something to use as a background, but even then, I usually heavily edit it or even trace over it so that it blends in better with the character(s).

Using something like that Art Breeder site (which disclaimer: idk what DeepAI is trained on, so for all I know it could be stealing just as much as Midjourney and the like) to make faces for your characters is fun! It's a fun little thing to do, like using a picrew but more complex (at least with a picrew, you know the artist consented to you using the picrew).

On another note though... if you replace all artists with AI, what is left to train them on? Yeah, you have all previously made art, but you don't get any new styles, new ideas. You're just making an inhuman machine recycle old things. While I believe us humans should worry too much about originality (thank you dear creative writing professor who made us read "Steal Like An Artist" by Austin Kleon, as well as just theatre as whole), it's because we are living breathing thinking feeling human beings who are impacted by everything we experience & carry it all with us. An AI program is not that. It just does whatever you explicitly tell it to do. No thoughts or experiences, just input & output.

[no-tresspassing]

On Der Himmel Über Berlin - Wim Wenders 1987

Der Himmel Über Berlin (The Sky Over Berlin), commonly known as Wings Of Desire, was the first film I saw at the BFI. A film classic directed by Wim Wenders that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17th 1987, the film was restored in 4K and was rereleased at the BFI on June 24th 2022. Usually, when writing a review or analysis, I will add a summary of the content; but I would rather you see this for yourself, should you choose to do so. I will, however, tell you that the film follows two angels (Damiel and Cassiel) through the streets and skies of Berlin as they observe its inhabitants and their thoughts. While it is a romance, I think it focuses more on the ability to love than the actual romance between the characters (Damiel and Marion, the trapeze artist). Whilst Der Himmel Über Berlin isn’t a Lynchian level of absurd, and its camerawork doesn’t have the same close-ups as David Lynch’s work, I found that the detail in the sound of this film was equivalent or at least comparable to Lynch’s visuals. Having the ability to hear a person's thoughts brings an entirely different level of intimacy between character and viewer that I am yet to find elsewhere, to the extent that it felt almost intrusive to be watching and listening in on such private matters.

The forbidden love between Damiel and Marion is greater than that of Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet, perhaps because Damiel isn’t grooming a 13-year-old girl into marrying him after only knowing her for a few days. Instead, he becomes enamoured with and practically stalks an unknowing grown woman and decides to change the trajectory of his entire existence just for the possibility of her loving him back. I particularly enjoyed the scene in which Damiel lay on top of Marion while she slept and visited her in her dream while dressed in armour. Keep in mind that all of this takes place in a world where invisible angels exist among people, giving hope to those in distress who cannot physically interact with them, can only see in black and white and can only be seen by children. So maybe it is pretty absurd after all.

All jokes aside, I left the BFI after watching Der Himmel Über Berlin with a greater appreciation for the things in life that are so often and easily overlooked. In one particular scene, Peter Falk speaks to Damiel (despite not being able to see him, claiming he can “feel” Damiel there) about the small things he appreciates in life. “To smoke, to have coffee and if you do it together, it's fantastic…to draw…or when your hands are cold, and you rub them together.” While it confuses any bystanders, as Falk seemingly talks to nobody, I can see why Damiel decided to exchange his immortality for the human experience. After all, he as an entity had existed long before humanity, he watched its entire development, yet he had never lived.

While I was expecting the film's poetic and ethereal ambience, I was not expecting it to be funny. Furthermore, I think the use of this humour amid the whispers and pensive scenes was done very tastefully. You don't see a frustrated Peter Falk trying on copious amounts of hats until he finally finds one that he likes straight after you see a man jump off a high rise. You do, however, see Falk repeating the speech that he made Damiel word for word and shaking hands with thin air, thinking he was talking to an angel. Another thing that I was entirely not expecting was the presence of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds in the film. At first, I was excited to see The Boatman's Call vinyl used in a scene and hear The Carny and From Her To Eternity in the film's original soundtrack. Still, the band made a cameo appearance, performing a gig at which Damiel and Marion speak for the first time. I cannot deny that this made my face lit up with joy. In fact, my favourite part of the film was when we hear Nick thinking to himself, "One more song, then it's over, and I'm not gonna tell you about a girl,” just seconds before leaning forward to his microphone and proceeding to say “I’m gonna tell you about a girl.”

Really what I took away from this film was an appreciation for the beauty of life itself and the human experience as a whole and a deeper understanding of how little we know about the happenings of other people’s lives. While I do have more to say about this film, I fear I would either be repeating myself, or this would just become a list of things that I found funny with no real input on my part. Something that you have to have seen the film to understand, so for now, I think this is sufficient.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More to come...

- Ida

[diznam]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks....

Oh! Thank you for such a great and difficult question!

A looong text awaits heh (and I could certainly write even more!!)

I think I'll limit myself to only one character per fictional universe, and I'll only choose from internationally famous works to make it easier. I will surely forget someone and I will never be able to choose if I think it over for too long... So, without contemplating too much, and in no particular order (except for the first one), i'll go with this:

1. Dustfinger from Inkheart -- This man was probs my first fictional crush ever and my forever nostalgic number one. He's a morally gray character, deeply troubled, kind, selfish, painfully human, but also gorgeously magical. Oh, and fire loves him. Can’t beat it. Even though for children, Cornelia Funke writes and illustrates beautifully. If you haven’t read any books of hers, you should try one!

2. Fred and George Weasley (yes i'm sorry but I will write them as one unit) from Harry Potter -- Need I say more than that they make everyone laugh in times of darkness? As the youngest, and only daughter among numerous siblings, I relate a lot to Ginny, and really love these two - the ultimate big brothers.

3. Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece -- The perfect paradoxical mix of incredibly selfish but with a huge heart. Luffy just lifts everyones spirits, and he's so stupid, ambitious, and wholesome that you can’t not love him. As someone who has a hard time being impulsive and living in the now, I find him so terrific and almost inspiring.

4. Sokka from Avatar the Last Airbender -- Underrated character. I would've never claimed him as my favourite when I was little (especially since i was mad for Katara), but as an adult I’ve come to see just how fuckin awesome he really is. Like, he's funny, kind, relatable, smart, strong, brave and just an all around realistic character. Love. Also, I think I just automatically love all the kind big brothers that remind me of my own ones (♡)

5. Jace Herondale from The Mortal Instruments -- Could have just as well written Will Herondale here, but I’m not going to write two Herondales on the list (especially since they are VERY similar. Will is a book nerd tho, which is like the ultimate perk). Anyways, so, after Dustfinger, my second fictional love was Jace I think. Attractive, strong, sarcastic, troubled, kind, LOVING, and with such character development and ambition. Ya. Just so so good. I think I mostly focused on his hotness as a 13 y.o tho -.-

6. Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Games -- Honestly, I just love him because he shows how truly important and helpful kindness is. Loyalty, kindness and bravery - this man has them all. Plus he's a friggin baker and an artist. Like, come on, how lovely can you get??

7. John Watson from BBC's Sherlock -- Another example of a profoundly realistic character. I thought first about writing Sherlock's name, but I think I might actually love John more. He’s just so complex, but at the same time real simple. And surprisingly funny. Much, I attribute to Martin Freeman's amazing acting skills, but yeah, John's awesome.

8. Katsuki Bakugou from Boku no hero academia -- Honestly, I'm questioning myself putting him on this list, but I think he deserves a spot simply for the fact that his character development is So. Fucking. Good. Almost as good as Zuko's from atla. And he deserves a spot purely because surely the amount of fanfics I've read starring him must be telling me something.

9. Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood -- Ah, okay, so once again an older sibling who is funny, strong, kind, brave, energetic, troubled, and who loves so painstakingly strongly (I'm starting to see a pattern here...). Idk, but I just really like him. And I felt like I had to include someone from Fmab because the show slaps.

10. Victoria Spring from Solitaire (and the Osemanverse in general) -- Honestly, Tori is just such a great character, because in all her melancholy, depression and numbness, you can still find so much to love about her when reading from her perspective. Also, shes an older sibling who adores and takes great care of her little siblings. I've struggled a lot with mental illness, and I can teally relate to both Tori and Charlie's problems. So finding that I can love these two characters so much despite all their issues, makes me realise that maybe I can like myself a little bit more too

THAT WAS TEN! I could easily write more, but I’m gonna stop myself now. Sorry if this was a lot longer than you expected, but I really liked this question.

Thank you for asking it! Hope you got what you wanted. Have a great day/night wherever you are :) <3