#category: craft

[arbitrarygreay]

The Anacostia-Alder-Biddies-Camarilla fight from 2x10

The smiles of anticipation! Anacostia and Alder not only enjoy a challenge, they're glad to be working together, after a season of being at odds.

The biddy played by La Nein Harrison grabs a Camarilla soldier and the rest of the biddies swarm in

Anacostia grapples in close quarters against a combat knife and finishes with a throw, mirroring M's fight with the Camarilla in 2x4

Alder first using a shortened scourge length in close quarters and then retreats to create space to swing it more fully, despite the Camarilla's speakers dampening its powers. It's unclear if the Camarilla soldier closer to the camera was able to cut the scourge with his knife or not.

Alder kicks away one soldier and then binds the arm of the other with her scourge, allowing her to take that soldier's knife, slit his throat with it, and throw it into the other soldier that she just kicked.

[remxedmoon]

What are your thoughts on ISAT's magic system?

AUTISM BLAST

okay long rambly post incoming. for the record like 90% of this is pure unfiltered headcanon. and almost all of this is about colors. sorry if this is hard to follow!!! i need to get this all out of my system.

oh also! a lot of this is based on a really good post by @/chronologically-challenged that shows off the differences between each character’s craft style! go check that out it’s really good

okay!! so!!! colors. this is just my own thing, but i personally like to color code the different types of craft!

don’t worry about those middle tones yet just put a pin in those

there’s still a little bit of color variety within craft types (for flavor), but generally, rock is blue, paper is yellow, and scissors is red. i’m not going to lie to you i only did this because the splatoon testfire had these colors. it’s also why my triplets designs are colored like that!

i think these colors also just fit the descriptions of these crafts? red feels like a more aggressive and active color, which matches how piercing craft is generally more focused on dealing damage, blue tends to be calmer, which matches protective craft being more supportive , that kinda thing. something something children’s hospital. yellow is a bit of a wildcard here lol, it just looks nice with the other two.

putting aside the colors for a mo! don’t worry those’ll come back soon. i’ve also been thinking a lot about how dual craft types work, though this is a little more speculative. i’m entirely basing this on how mira works. basically, one craft type seems to be more ‘dominant’ over the other. while mira is both paper and scissors, she’s still weak to rock, her basic attack is scissors, and her scissors skill (jolly round rondo) does much more damage than her paper skill (artsy silent burst). she behaves more like a scissors type, with an extra affinity for paper. which i think is interesting!!!

in terms of colors, i think this would manifest as mira’s craft being tinted orange, as a mix of both her craft type’s colors! this is partially what those uncategorized colors are for. while her scissors attacks are only slightly tinted, her paper attacks would be a lot closer to orange! and this would apply to other dual crafts as well. a rock/paper type would have more greenish attacks, a rock/scissors type would have more purply ones, etc etc.

i think this color mixing would also apply to single craft types trying to use a craft type that isn’t their own, though it’d prolly become less pronounced the more a person ‘gets used’ to using that craft type, so to speak. in a while rockodile would be pretty solidly purple, while rock bottom is more of an indigo color, and odile’s craft skills probably only slightly tinted as well.

ok!!! that was a lot about colors. i’m really fucking normal about colors. onto craft styles!! this is still kinda about colors tho sorry. also, again, go check out @/chronologically-challenged’s post if you haven’t already, it’ll prolly explain this better than i will

for a tl;dr on that post, each country has a different way of using craft. the forgotten island has lightless craft that tends to manifest as stars and zigzags, vaugarde has big, rounded bursts of grey craft (with smaller circles around it), and ka bue’s craft is more diamond shaped/triangular and tends to be on the lighter side.

this is also the part i’m a little less sure about. i haven’t drawn these out in my normal style!! so a lot of this is subject to change. sorry about that!

anyways. i wanted to preserve the island’s lightless craft while still making it colorful, so i decided to give it a sort of. halo effect? i guess? i wanted it to vaguely resemble the ring of light around a black hole or a solar eclipse, but that is a lot harder to do with the zigzag shape of the craft + my color limitations. and as i’ve recently learned, glow effects look really weird with my pixelly art. so this is all just flat colors 😓

shhh don’t mind the art here i’ve totally posted it before 🩶

vaugarde is pretty simple comparatively!! the craft is a sort of midshade ingame, so i just made the main color the normal craft colors. not much to say here!

and ka bue is in a similar boat! i did kinda draw it in my odile sprite redraw, but i didn’t really look at references so it’s kinda boring looking there. not much to say here either!!

and!! as we can see from the king’s special attack art, craft styles can kinda mix together. king’s style follows the general shape of vaugardian craft, but keeps the shade and stars from the forgotten island! i think it’d be fun to play with that a little more teehee. i imagine these are a lot more variable depending on how engrossed someone is in a culture, hence why odile’s craft doesn’t borrow from vaugarde’s style. unless she does? it’s not like we see other ka buans using craft in game. who knows.

also because i forgot, some extra bonus doodles of that craft color mixing i mentioned earlier! yipee!

and that’s it!!! there’s probably some other stuff that i am. currently forgetting. but this post is absurdly long enough!!! thank you so much for the ask i’m so sorry for autism blasting you about isat and color theory. am i still cool. here’s all of my craft doodles as compensation for reading this giant infodump. i’m so so sorry.

[arbitrarygreay]

So I've now watched all of Eureka and a good portion of Warehouse 13 and Sanctuary. Sanctuary and WH13 are both "collect the things" shows, while WH13 and Eureka both share that "twee 50s small town science" nostalgia. Eureka is probably the show with the most novel premise, as "collect the magical things" is an extremely well-worn path of genre show. It also has the big benefit of Joe Morton and Salli Richardson-Whitfield (and to a lesser extent, Matt Frewer) noticeably raising the acting water levels. This drives the writing in certain relationship drama focus directions. WH13 has both the most confident execution and the best cast chemistry. This makes it the easiest watch from moment to moment, as it can always just fall back on the warmth of the character interactions. (I actually find it less enjoyable when it gets into its serious season arc parts.) Both Eureka and WH13 seem to have stronger studio backing, as they snag quite a few guest stars above their expected "Canada Genre Show" levels. But Sanctuary is the only one of the three that comes close to Prestige TV. Whereas Eureka and WH13's writers collectively only had a couple of genre veterans (meaning that most of the writers hadn't done much genre or TV at all before their shows), Sanctuary's room is anchored by people who were on the Stargate franchise first (for years). They already got the obvious premises out of their system, worked out the kinks of writing genre TV. So Sanctuary is full of real high concept episodes, executed far earlier in their episode count than the other shows. The show's slightly more serious tone also plays a role in the prestige feel of the execution. The staff on this show knows what's been done already, and want to go further and push the envelope of what this kind of genre show can do. Most of Tumblr seems to now have a kneejerk reaction against Moffat-era Dr. Who, but this is a positive comparison I'm making to describe my sense of Sanctuary's ambition and novelty (while still remaining within an episodic genre show purview, unlike the wholly Prestige cases like The Oa, Black Mirror, etc.). An era where you remember the episodes by their genre content or structural setup, rather than by whatever moments are relevant to fandom-brain continuity. In Eureka and WH13, character and relationship comes first, sometimes to the point of feeling like the plotting is just an obligation to get over with. In Sanctuary, the plotting and premise exploration is clearly what comes first.

[fisheito]

rereading the nuca pink doujin and seeing yakumo tear himself apart re: his snake form vs his human form all this agony and self-doubt and silent suffering and fear of rejection like "if i looked less human would u hate me" , "if u saw me in my true form wouldn't that be horrible. terrifying. disgusting" , "if i admitted i want to swallow you whole would you think worse of me"

and i imagine him asking something like this to the crowd of clan members , who are , undeniably,, a group of Kinky Fuckers

they all smile with the serenity and carefully masked excitement of a horny olivine. masterful beautiful reassuring expressions (errr..... masked to different degrees depending on the clan member)

[arbitrarygreay]

Unfortunately, the comment section for MW got wiped from display on the website. You can see top level comments via Wayback, and you can also dig through individual account archives on Intense Debate.

Thankfully, there's an entire Tumblr devoted to providing transcripts!

Reasons You Should Listen to All the Episode Commentaries for Leverage

–John Rogers is always drinking some kind of alcoholic beverage while doing so. He introduces himself at the beginning, pops the can/bottle open, and it begins.

–The writers/directors/producers freaking LOVED just about every part of the show. They are always heaping love onto the actors/the crew/the writers/the locations they filmed.

–Aldis Hodge starts joining in during Season 3 and always introduces himself as either, “DJ Chocolate Skittles,” “Cookie,” or, with a very specific vocal inflection that I don’t know how to describe, “SEXUAL CHOCOLATE!!” He also always has very interesting tidbits about approaching moments he’s improvised (which is almost all the best moments on the show) and about how he views Hardison.

–The creators also always talk about the Portland actors they worked with, because that’s where they filmed just about the whole show, and how talented those actors were. Very rarely did they bring up L.A. actors because they kept finding incredible talent in Portland, such as Detective Bonanno, Peggy, the Irish Mob actors in Boy’s Night Out, almost all of the clients and security guards, etc.

–Speaking of, they also keep talking about how they could imagine entirely other shows surrounding various characters they didn’t have enough time to dedicate to, such Sophie and Tara grifting together or the FBI Agent in the Radio Job having his own story. They wanted to bring back SO MANY different actors and characters who only appeared for brief times during the show.

–They talk about lots of lore that they couldn’t fit into the show. They say that the assassins from the Reunion Job and the Morning After Job are married, that the cop lady (they named her Officer Rose, specifically for fanfic references, because they hadn’t given her a name in the script and greatly regretted that because they loved this actor) that Eliot flirted with/distracted in Boy’s Night Out dated Rizzoli in the past (John Rogers was apparently very bitter that the writers hadn’t committed to Rizzolie and Isles being lesbians, he talks about it in the commentary twice), John Rogers even outright says that he believes that Maggie and Sophie were involved with each other in canon at one point.

–They encourage so much fanfiction ideas, both about the main cast and about minor characters. John says, and I quote, about the Girl’s Night Out scene where Sophie and Tara are searching that hotel bedroom together, “If this scene does not inspire some very raunchy fanfiction, we have failed our audience.”

–They respect their actors and characters. So much. They made a rule during the first two seasons to NOT sexualize Parker’s character unless she was on the grift and in control of the situation. They realized that the way Sophie and Nate were in S1, they hadn’t developed enough as characters be together during that season, so they changed it up because it was what the characters needed. They were very adamant about giving Parker and Hardison the lovely, slowburn romance they deserved, especially with how broken Parker was. So often, the writers said that the actors were so in-tune with their characters that all the directors did was point the camera at the actors and let them do their thing, because often the actors ad-libbed something in-character that ended up in the show., like Eliot and Sophie’s conversation about what’s under Nate’s bed in the Beantown Bailout Job. 

–The big reason Aldis Hodge was casted to be Hardison was because he was the only actor who made about eight pages worth of story exposition sound fun and interesting and enjoyable, and most of Hardison’s dialogue involves exposition. Also, his improv game was STRONG.

–One of my favorite lines in the entire commentary involves John Rogers talking about the Girl’s Night Out Job: “DON’T DISEMPOWER YOUR FEMALE LEADS.”

–They talk about HILARIOUS scenes they wanted to include in the show but couldn’t: Parker’s first introduction to chocolate involving her almost eating through the table, Eliot’s flashback scene in the beginning of S5 involving him coming through Stargate, or Eliot appearing covered in green goo in a flashback in the First-Contact Job.

–There’s also a LOT of really good lessons and ideas about camerawork and set design and costume design and how they write the episodes which I imagine will be very helpful for burgeoning filmmakers.

–Another big rule was to treat every season like it would be the last one, because Dean and John HATED when show pulled that awful cliffhanger trick to get people to come back and watch more, both for Season Finales and from episode to episode. To quote John, “GIVE THE FANS THEIR F***ING ENDING!!”

–Competence Porn. The creators’ favorite term to use, because they know all fans have a competence kink, and Leverage is a show FULL of Competence Porn. They know what the fans want and they deliver.

–Basically, if you’re looking to write Leverage fanfiction and want to enjoy hearing from creators who actually respected and loved the show they created along with the actors and crews who helped make it happen, I highly recommend the Leverage commentary, it’s so enjoyable, they are all so animated the entire time they talk about it, it makes you excited just listening.

[aroaceleovaldez]

big fan of the fandom being pretty solidly 50/50 on either “Nico is actually really bad at MythoMagic” versus “Nico is secretly possibly the world’s best MythoMagic player but he was stuck in a casino for 70 years so once he gets the opportunity to actually enter the professional competitive field it is Over For Everyone”

[ssevenneedles]

isat speedrun bad touch%. new game+ (dialogue skipping allowed) but no other exploits. grind the house, beat the king four times in a row, watch the event, time ends when you equip the memory.

is this anything

[tj-crochets]

Chaos rainbow triangle quilt is done! Definitely shows that I was making it up as I went but my cat won't care 🤣 though I may make her a different one in pink once I finish my next one 🤔

Made with random rainbow fabric from my makerspace and 2 layers of regular batting

I love the chaos rainbow triangles!!!

[arbitrarygreay]

More genre shows should just go "and guns just aren't are thing. for Reasons" The storytelling and the action are just so much more interesting

[scribefindegil]

I mean this in the ace-est possible way but Dimple-in-Reigen's-body is really hot. sorry.

[mamawasatesttube]

hi im once again thinking about kara as linda lang wearing conner kent's glasses. SHE WANTED TO KNOW HIM... SHE ALREADY LOVED HIM.......... he was her cousin and she barely got to know him before he died but he was her family and she barely had any family left even before she lost him and his death hit her so hard and. and. and. WAILS

[arbitrarygreay]

This is making a lot of really good points about the nature of the MPDG's disruption, which is that it is not in a "improve the protagonist's material condition". In fact, the MPDG usually is often risking the protagonist's material condition for her own ends! A Hallmark prince isn't threatening the woman's health (by pulling her into physically dangerous situations), spending their money in an entitled way (pulling them into a situation that requires payment and assuming that the protagonist will foot the bill), and usually if the woman gives up her high paying job, it's a decision she makes on her own, not something initiated by her employers due to the Hallmark gentleman crashing the party.

In a MPDG story, the man is forced to lose everything first, and then only at that low point, does he decide that he prefers it that way after all. In a Hallmark story, the woman loses nothing, often succeeding at her original goals, and then only deciding at that high point, that now she wants something else and graciously giving it up.

There's a recurring theme in hip hop and R&B by women singers that look down on the "scrub" (most notably characterized by lacking their own means of transportation), which bars men from being a direct gender flip of the bohemian MPDG. The MPDG is allowed to use the protagonist as a sugar daddy, but a lower class man is only acceptable if he has more self-sufficiency.

I've long held that one of the interesting things about manic pixie dream girl stories is how after debuting with one authors tend to realize they can cut out the middleman of an everyman protagonist and write about weird women full time, but the Scott Pilgrim cartoon is WILDEST addition to my citations for this so far. They really Garfield Minus Garfielded that man. They hot dead wifed him. They produced the most expensive canon divergence minor character spotlight fanfiction in existence. They eeby deebied him. And it was incredible.

[speedlimit15]

been a while since i visited the antique pattern library site .. i downloaded pdfs of everything i could potentially use for filet crochet (incl some cross stitch and other simple embroidery patterns) but i haven't touched other crafts. i mostly just miss reading the old magazines though

[indolentjellyfish]

North Americans, want a little glass sea slug by Christmas?

Please order by December 11th so it can arrive in time!

(shop link full of so many delightful slugs)

[lavenoon]

Can I ask for a preference for the DCA boys? Sun/Moon/ Eclipse. And if there is a specific AU version you fancy?

Oh, sure!

For the preferences I'm uh. Between Sun/Moon I refuse to choose? I see them as a set, Do Not Separate, and it feels unfair to choose between them. I'm very enthusiastic about healthy sleep, and own unholy amounts of glitter glue and other craft supplies, so it really just works out for a match. I love Eclipse too! Though I see him as separate*, not as intrinsically linked into the set, and given that Sun and Moon are the "originals" they win out over Eclipse**!

*Depends on the interpretation, of course, but if left to my own devices

**This, too, depends on the interpretation, as I've been known to simp for the Police Chief and perhaps a teeny tiny bit the Bounty Hunter in @naffeclipse's Syzygy in Dedication/ Sleuth Jesters

In regards to AU preferences that's already one point then, though uh. I've kind of made half a brand out of being entirely insane over also Naff's Cryptid Sightings Sun/Moon/Eclipse - all three just one being in this one, and big dangerous cryptid soft for one human is simply too much of a weakness.

Them being caretakers is always a plus, because I love the trope of caretaker confronted with being taken care of, does not compute (literally, in their case) and also just. Animatronic existence and the conflict it creates (not necessarily fighting, but the surrounding circumstances in the world, misunderstandings, getting to know each other and growing closer while exploring and appreciating differences as well as similarities, and how these intertwine) is my favorite, though as long as it's human and non human interaction I'm going to be fascinated tbh. As a queer neurodiverse person accepting and cherishing differences, and taking the time to truly understand the other is simply my bread and butter

I suppose I should also say I like my own AU boys too? I mean, obviously, I created them! Though honestly, there are so many versions and interpretations of the boys and I'll eat them all up, I'm really bad at choosing, so I suppose the bottom line of all this is...

[arbitrarygreay]

What stands out to me about this is that most of the choreography is almost plausible without the rigs. People can do windmills, 720 kick flips, no-hands cartwheels, as well as acting taking hits. That lends more weight to the movements, because these stuntpeople do know what the movement looks like without the wires. This is great, since weightlessness is the number one thing that makes action fall flat on the screen.

What the harnesses do is increase the safety and reliability of the movements, as well as exaggerate the impacts just that much more to edge things into the superhuman side.

The types of movement the rigs enable that aren't doable without wirework at all are slides and height on jumps, which are arguably elements that modern audiences are more conditioned to expect as plausible movement by video games than anything else.

Another video game element added by the rigs is in conjunction with the cinematography's constant moments of slo-motion. It's about portraying a sticky friction model of physics. The rate at which people jump and fall is slowed down not just to make action more comprehensible to the audience, but for it to feel more satisfying than real life physics. (See, for example, how Olympic fencing in real time just doesn't look nearly as impressive, even if it might be technically more so.)

Extremely cool.

Wuxia behind the scenes