#creation commentary

[flowering-darkness]

More Antares facts from earlier today, because I was thinking about her more (still):

You know how I was originally going to design her around the theme of a “joker” because of Ace representing the rest of the deck as the card suits? And then didn’t really go anywhere with that, instead ending up with more of a tech-y/modern vibe? ..Yeah, it turns out I can still tie her in, because both decks and computers share the concept of a wildcard. Which also fits the fact she’s essentially a “rogue” part of the whole system, owing to the fact that she technically shouldn’t exist if Adriana also does (because she is the Adriana of this timeline, except tampered with by Lin).

(This technically means her real/not-codename should also be Adriana, but I think that would just be too confusing to actually use. So I’m just going to keep calling her Antares. It’s like how Eclipse’s name is Caitlyn, but she always gets called Eclipse by everyone.)

On the note of “rogue”, I don’t really want to overlap with Zero too much, so I was thinking that Antares’ Trainer title might be something like Meteor Peacekeeper. It’s meant to be somewhat ironic, and is also a play on her codename - “Antares” means “enemy of Ares”, and Ares is the Greek god of war (as I mentioned before), so the enemy of war could be peace, right?

If I don’t go with that, my current other idea is Meteor Enforcer - I think both convey similar ideas of her being someone Team Meteor sends out solo to do various things. I’m not sure if she changes titles during the story - I know Taka does for example, but I still haven’t properly put her in the story really, so.. this may have to come later.

What I have so far thought of for the story is that she maybe shows up more on Zekrom Route than Reshiram (possibly as your other companion for Tourmaline?), and subsequently Lin Route more than Anna in the postgame. This makes her more of an inversion of my existing self-insert, Adriana. Any exact details are still up in the air, though.

If I were to describe her personality by comparing it to those of my other self-inserts, she very much fills the same niche that Aria (for KH) or Catarina (for FE3H) would. I’ve noticed I tend to end up with a “nice” and a “mean” self-insert, or a “good” and an “evil” self-insert, in a lot of situations where I have more than one for the same game/setting - Linaria vs. Aria, L’nahrii vs. Lorenza, Lamia vs. Alectra, maybe even Telanthera vs. Alise, and so on. In this case, for Reborn, Adriana fits the “Linaria-type” nice role, so Antares can now fit the “Aria-type” mean role.

Sorry for being like this over my own self-insert, but I like it when other people are like this, so I figured that since I currently have the ability to be similar in this case, I would indulge in it. If anyone has any particular questions then please know you can always ask!

[whereserpentswalk]

"Creatives deserve to be paid" and "We desperately need community spaces for creatives that aren't focused on trying to make money or advance careers where we're allowed to make connections and experiment" are two statements that can and should coexist.

[piosplayhouse]

The way scum villain has so many themes about writing/the literary arts and mdzs has so many themes about music and tgcf has so many themes about visual art and how each character that represents each of those respectively has their own struggle with their craft (passion burnout, loss of control over their ip/creation, obsession and dissociation) that gets turned on its head as their stories continue and their art comes to represent satisfaction and connection and devotion and love

[enbyhyena]

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[bobauthorman]

The sequence in "Creation" When the gang at Schnee Mansion are discussing how to use the Staff to save the Penny and the kingdom's people is very good. It's not just one person telling the others what to do. The group is collaborating, comparing notes, making suggestions. We haven't seen anything like this since...Volume 2, when Team RWBY was going over their plans to investigate the White Fang/Torchwick. It really sells one of RWBY themes, that one person in charge cannot solve everything, which has been shown to be the source of many problems.

[queenlucythevaliant]

If I weren't so familiar with "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," I think I would be able to appreciate "The Albatross" off the new album a whole lot more. Like, "peace" is a top three song for me off folklore and I just love the conversation those two songs are having, the storytelling choice to use third person, some of the instrumentation. But she does the least interesting possible thing with the allusion.

It's super clear that Taylor hasn't actually read the Rime and is just going off the general cultural idea of what the albatross is supposed to represent. Given that the allusion is basically the entire premise of the song, this is really disappointing. Especially on an album called "The Tortured Poets Department."

[kamomie]

Hot take:

No egg is the most misunderstood egg.

All the eggs have sides to their personality and trauma that are only seen by their closest family and friends.

I get grey hairs every time I see Leo and Tallulah being described as the most misunderstood eggs.

Let me ask, how many on the island truly know Ramon? Chayanne? Dapper? Pomme? Richarlyson?

Answer: Their parents and ~2-3 of their aunts/uncles. Exactly like Leo and Tallulah.

A note specifically on Leo:

If your proof of Leo being misunderstood is q!aypierre and q!bad saying she would enjoy being away from q!foolish, I have news for you; they weren't being serious. Q!bad knows perfectly well how close Leo and q!foosh are, and seeing people constantly downplaying q!bad's relationship with Leo in specific is honestly sad. Yes, Leo now prefers to be taken care of by q!roier because that's her brother, and he speaks Spanish. But way before he was there? Q!bad was her babysitter. Q!max babysat her twice, I think? But other than that? For months, if Leo needed a babysitter, it was q!bad. He knows her. She knows him. She used to help q!bad troll q!foolish. When q!forever came clean about what he did to Leo, q!bad drew his weapon, getting ready to kill. She used to wake up for him as well. And she still occasionally does. Q!bad sang his most precious lullaby to her, "You are my sunshine," with personalised lyrics:

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey. You’ll never know dear how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away. The other night dear, when that whale hurt you, I was very, very upset. But thankfully dear, you are still here, so i’m not as upset as I was. Oh don't worry Leonarda, your papa Foolish and I will keep you safe. So will Vegetta and everyone else, we won’t let anything happen to you.”

Don't sit there and tell me q!bad doesn't know Leo.

[thecursivelegends]

꒰ 🪸 ꒱ ࣪𓂂 ׅ ❝ They will be like siblings, Vegapunk said. They will get along well, Vegapunk said. ❞ perhaps there was a miscalculation in the system when they were created.

ᯓ .𖥔˚ @melodysian & @mearizus

[strongprincipal]

I've seen like, at least two drawings depicting smiling friends as animals and none of them had Mr Boss so I took matters into my own hands

[girl4music]

Season 1 is such a formative season for XENA. I mean it builds up the entire world and introduces us to the characters. But there's like very little behind-the-scenes footage for that season. No interviews, no audio/video commentaries, no "on the set" featurettes. It's a very bare season and I think it's because they never planned for it to be the cultural phenomenon it became so nothing was ever added to the DVDs until they went back on it later for the 10th anniversary. Lucy and Renee did an audio commentary for the pilot episode 'Sins Of The Past' and there was some cast/crew interviews filmed for it.

It's just really odd though when it comes to watching the exclusive content because every other season is just crammed to the max.

But Season 1 is just like crumbs. They had to go back a decade later just to provide some valuable stuff for the fans to actually chew on.

I think though between all the box sets I have, I have the most comprehensive collection of exclusive made footage/featurettes.

I'm pretty sure I have all of the cast/crew interviews and audio/video commentaries. Including the only audio one for 'Sins Of The Past'. There is a fair few. I won't lie. These box sets are fucking loaded. I'm up to ripping the DVDs for Season 6 now and there's already a lot.

I've got 8 days off to get all off this content ripped to my MacBook.

If there's anything specific you guys want to see, I'll upload on here.

Here's my long ass list:

This is missing Season 6 content 'cause I'm ripping it at the moment.

[flowering-darkness]

..okay I can’t help myself so here are some Antares design notes to follow on from last night:

Her main colour is the teal I’ve used here for two reasons. One is that Antares directly translates to “rival/enemy of Ares”, with Ares being the ancient Greek god of war (to the Romans, Mars); the IRL star is named this because it is also red and appears bright enough that it can be mistaken for the planet Mars, but I thought it would be neat to instead make her colour scheme the opposite of red, so near green (because rivals). However, it’s specifically this teal because it’s the colour of a certain other Team Meteor member - namely, Absolute. (Whose perhaps-more-familiar real name is Lin.)

I tested a number of different eye colours for her, including red (like the IRL star as said above), purple, gold, and the teal seen in the rest of this outfit (but it was perhaps a bit too same-y given how I made the outfit here). I think the grey works well, though - I’m just not 100% set on it.

Her hairstyle might seem a bit odd - her overall look is very sporty and not overly feminine but then her hair is half-up in twin plaits with bun things at the top? Well, that’s because Antares’ hairstyle here is the one I originally tried to use for Adriana. Except the fringe looks different because of her goggles and hairband. =3

(I know my other self-insert Nova also has this same hairband, and it was a pain to work around on her reference model, so I might not actually keep it on Antares’ - but it fits her vibes well, I think. She is kind of similar to Nova personality-wise anyway, if perhaps to a worse extent.)

Regarding her outfit, there are a fair few things to say. I think I started with the scarf and a sleeveless top - I don’t think a single other Team Meteor member has their shoulders out, so this detail is an easy way to make Antares stand out. However, the scarf and the elbow things help make the outfit less outright summery, which I think is good.

I had wanted to try and incorporate the Team Meteor logo - a red M - somewhere in her outfit, but that wasn’t really feasible in the constraints of this creator. Maybe it’s on the back of her top or something. You might be wondering why she isn’t just wearing an actual Team Meteor uniform, but this is because she is me and I can do whatever I want to, I’ve decided =P

I think I will change the shoes, because the ones I picked out on the creator make her look a bit too “normal Trainer”-y and not as “evil team member”-y. Other than that, though, I think the accessory details work well, though I might add some more details to the actual main clothes because they’re Very Plain right now.

Finally, this is actually not at all how I was originally intending her to look/dress. My first plan was to play off of the concept of a “joker”, since.. well, Ace represents the four card suits and thus the rest of the deck. But I couldn’t really envision how to do that in a way that still made Antares feel like me, so I went with more of a contrasting modern/sleek vibe instead of trying to match/complement their style.

..I should really try to make Adriana in this creator at some point, just to have a more direct comparison of the two (because that’s just fun, especially in this specific instance given the lore). Having said that, though, I can also just do it once/if I start trying to put together a reference model for Antares in MMD, given that Adriana has one.

Anyway, though, thank you to everyone who has read all of this. And for generally putting up with whatever this nonsense is. I at least am having fun despite the lingering bafflement.

[inventors-fair]

Prodigious Products: Creation Contest Winners

~

Our winners this week are @curiooftheheart, @izzet-always-r-versus-u, and @nine-effing-hells!

@curiooftheheart — Endless Drafts

I'm sure making this felt like going through endless drafts, but I digress. This is a fun twist on the typical "draw X" spell in a lot of ways, so let's break it down. First, the free cast does a lot to smooth over the main issue with these kinds of spells; namely, that if you want to get value out of them, they require you to sink an entire turn's worth of mana. On the flipside, though, being sorcery speed means you can't spend that mana during an opponent's end phase and actually have to commit, so there's a definite sense of tension there. We've seen effects that count copies in a graveyard before, but always as the sole decider of the value of X and not simply a discount off of the X cost, which is an interesting permutation. You're unlikely to cast multiple of these in the average game, so it'll likely require other methods to land copies in the yard. Plus, the flavor is just very fun. I do wish the flavor text didn't also use the word "drafts," but that's at best a minor gripe.

@izzet-always-r-versus-u — Stellar Cradle

Close on the heels of the first ever enchantment land is this fun little number. While not directly, it does somewhat harken back to the Theros-born association of dual type enchantments with the stars, which I always enjoy. The actual design is very reminiscent of Temple of the False God, though much more extreme and, more importantly, capable of actually doing something before the threshold is reached. Seven lands is a tall order, but it really does kick your mana production into overdrive. But even then, it doesn't feel unfair, as it's all still colorless mana. Fuels a mean X spell, though. The last ability is an excellent way to grease the wheels without making it wholly self-sufficient, too. I'm also just a sucker for this kind of flavor, and you pulled it off wonderfully here. You didn't include any art description, and yet I can vividly picture what kind of art this card would have if it was printed; the mechanics are just that evocative.

@nine-effing-hells — Tales of Strange Sightings

As you admitted yourself, this is a fairly unorthodox interpretation of the prompt but given that was precisely what I was looking for, you won't hear any complaint from me. It definitely fits the bill, though. That's how it always how it goes with these kinds of stories: a strange phenomenon here, a glimpse of something you couldn't quite make out there, and suddenly a creature has sprung whole cloth from the minds of a community. This card is a magnificent use of Duskmourn mechanics, and yet still feels as though it comes from its own world (with maybe a bit of overlap with Innistrad, to be honest). Manifest dread to reference the enigmatic nature of the suppose creature and the Eerie to represent the story spreading amongst people as it's retold are both phenomenal touches. As well, although the idea of a self-recursive Saga is quite spooky, it takes care to both not do anything unreasonable and also not make it all that easy to loop.

~

Don't go anywhere, because runners are coming right up! —@spooky-bard

[sentient-rift]

"We go away for awhile, only to come back to find the Mouse buying everything?!"

[the-nysh]

I had to watch several gifs to fully see it, but when Vash loaded the nuke gate cube into his gun as the 'ammo,' he took all the matter of his left prosthetic arm away (leaving an empty sleeve behind) to form the shape of the Angel demon? Arm onto his right. Fusing together all 3: his left arm, right arm, & revolver into a literal massive Tri-Gun. ;o;

(And he consciously chose and figured out how to do all of this with his Plant powers, right on the spot while asserting his own agency!)

[lostmymarbles]

i didn't really love kenneth branagh's first adaptations of christie's novels (murder on the orient express and death on the nile). they were like fine but i thought they were nothing that the suchet tv series did better for cheaper. BUT haunting in venice was VERY fun.

I loved the concept of a detective who is a pillar of logic and justice slowly unraveling and beginning to question the fabric of reality. a genius combo tbh.

movie had like almost nothing to do with the book halloween party (which is worth reading in its own right). but I kinda love that. like the movie does feel self-indulgent and fanficcy but in the best way. the writer and director just went for vibes that appealed to them specifically as we all should really.

[queenlucythevaliant]

Leading a Bible study on OT prophecy is an exercise in the deft handling of exposition dumps. Writers should have to do this as part of their training