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canmom · 8 months ago

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l'aventure de canmom à annecy - épisode deux: XR

so I'm going to abandon all semblance of chronological order at this point.

just like last year there was an VR room operating on a morning booking system - each thing had two headsets and a signup sheet. I didn't get to try every one but I did get most of them. enough that the volunteers noticed me coming back every day x3

^ some random people immersed in the Wired

this is easily the longest annecy post so far... so please read on for a big old discussion of the unique difficulties faced by VR film as a medium, and how this year's annecy films meet them... or more often don't.

so annecy's vr films section is for essentially linear vr projects (i refuse to write "experiences") that can be watched/played in less than an hour. i don't know if that's a hard rule but that's how long all the ones here were!

let's get the technical stuff out of the way: the Quest 2/3 was by far the headset of choice. some ran natively, some were PCVR with a wire connecting to a computer, and some were 360° videos which played back on the headset with 3dof tracking. some had a degree of interactivity, up to about a 'walking simulator' level. the average runtime was between 20m and an hour.

the preamble: on the limitations of VR

the big question I have with XR movies is basically... how well does it actually use the medium? like, is it doing anything that wouldn't work better as a flatscreen game or a film?

this might seem like a high bar to clear, like why shouldn't it be in VR - but VR is uncomfortable, the headset is expensive etc etc, and that's before even the formal stuff I'm about to get into. so that's 'why not'. and also, this is a new medium, I want to see what unique features it has to offer!

I'm sure I've said this before, but despite on the face of it being more 'inmersive' than traditional flatscreen games or films, VR is actually a pretty restrictive medium! compared to flatscreen games with their many 'buttons', you are very limited in the possible interactions. your main interaction is to 'pick up' and 'hold' objects, but this is close enough to actual physical interaction to highlight how much it isn't. what it actually means is that you position your hand or controller in a trigger and press a grab button or pinch your fingers, at which point the object snaps to your hand and moves weightlessly with it.

you also can't accelerate the pov too much without causing motion sickness, etc etc.

ok, what about film? well, compared to film, the big big thing VR lacks is the frame of the camera. you can't cut, you can't frame a subject, you don't have long shots or closeups, you can't even rely on the player/viewer looking in the direction of an interesting thing.

since movement is also tricky in VR due to the motion sickness problem, you're also limited in your ability to steer the viewer to interesting sights with Valve-style 'vistas' using the level architecture. it's not impossible - Valve themselves have their familiar vistas in HL Alyx - but it's something that depends on the player being able to move through a large space, so it doesn't fit these kinds of movie-like project so well. otherwise you can draw attention to a direction using various means, like visual effects that converge on a spot, or just keeping most of the action in the same area.

what you can also do, closer to camerawork, is move the viewer's point of view, and shrink or enlarge their surroundings. the language of VR 'shots' is still far from defined, but we have a few recurring ones: standing in a normal sized room, the giant's view in a tiny city, the floating perspective looking down on a diorama, the ant's eye view inside something regular sized.

how about theatre, which also has most of these limitations? well, compared to being in person with a real human being, you're limited by the capabilities of realtime animation systems and the rendering tech available on the device. you're looking at the character in a slightly fuzzy low resolution and unless you have AAA money which noone in VR does, you're a bit limited in the 'acting' you can pull off. this may change if the apple vision pro gets popular - apple already have a 'gertie the dinosaur' style demo where a very detailed dinosaur emerges from a portal - but it's definitely out of reach of most teams working on the Quest.

so compared to all these other media, what does XR offer?

compared to film and theatre, there is the game aspect of agency: a story feels different if you are the one doing it. so most VR narrative games have characters interact with the player somehow, though this introduces the problem of how to write the player into a story without feeling like you're railroading them or that they're superfluous to the real story.

it's very easy to undercut this sense of agency by having an amount that's not zero but still too small, e.g. if it just feels like the player is touching a button that lights up then you wonder why they even bothered.

the role that most games put the (vaguely defined) player character in is 'terrifying violence doer'. this is a fairly easy role to write around, and it gives the player a lot of control of the 'how' while letting the writer control the 'what' and 'where' and 'why'. similarly if the player's role is something like 'puzzle solver'. but for a purely narrative presentation, these roles don't exist.

still, this is the idea that a lot of VR rests on: an 'immersive experience' which puts the player into the story.

the other big thing that VR has is the joy of experiencing visual effects in 3D. particles, trails, transforming geometric shapes etc are cool on a flat screen and even cooler in stereo vision where you can move your head around. another benefit is spatial audio by default - something that is gradually coming to games but provided 'for free' by vr consoles.

in the land of games, you also have incredibly precise position and direction input... as long as it's in arm's length of the player. the most successful genres of VR games (so far) use this: a lot of shooting games, and some games that let you interact with physics objects, offer 3D jigsaw puzzles, or simulate sports to provide some real exercise. it can be really good for rhythm games as beat saber demonstrates.

VR is also really for social games like VRChat - similar to MMOs but with the benefits of more complex tracking in lieu of canned animations.

but... none of these fit the form of a predictable 15-50 minute narrative sequence! they're not films! so the VR films category at annecy is a tough problem to crack.

last year, the VR project that most impressed me was one that put you in the seat of a novice spotter in a bomber in the second world war. this was a great fit for a lot of reasons. you are in a vehicle so you have no reason to move from seated; the scenario is full of loud scary sounds that can make full use of spatial audio; your 'character' is well-defined but also doesn't have much reason to speak within the scenario. this had a small amount of interaction (by pointing your head) which you could actually fail, making it a bit closer to a game, and also giving you reason to play close attention to the bombed out cityscape below you. it did a fantastic job of capturing the tension of a dangerous air mission, the pilot character interacting with you was compelling, and overall it really benefited from being in VR.

this year's films

sadly nothing I saw this year comes close to that. but still, some are interesting, so let's go through them!

My favourite this year was probably Flow - completely unrelated to the movie in the main competition, though they share the trait of being completely wordless, conveying their story simply through imagery and music.

Flow's big trick is a very cool visual effect where characters and objects are conveyed the trails left behind by little particles, causing them to appear ghostlike . At first you're just flying through a cityscape, passing various people on the street and in the subway, with the particle trails conveying the breaths of the passengers; gradually a storm brews, the trails becoming the wind that tears at everything.

I believe this was a prerendered film, with only 3dof tracking - i think i saw some compression artefacts at some point. So it's less technically impressive than if they managed to do it realtime but it does make full use of the power this gives to render loads of particles and move rapidly through different scenes. it was also an effect that benefitted from the ability to put you in the middle of it - something that would not work as well on a flat screen.

But it also benefitted a lot from being more film-like. It has an original soundtrack, and progresses without input from the player. There's no awkward 'player' character to write around, no space you stand about in. The film can simply unfold and let you appreciate it. In this case, no interaction is better than bad interaction.

My Inner Ear Quartet from Japan did not do anything particularly novel with the medium, but to my mind it had by far the most compelling story. It tells of a young, introverted boy who habitually digs in the dirt for objects that other people would consider trash. The title refers to a string quartet which he hears when he cries, imagined to be in his inner ear; also there is a pair of tiny shrimp which he saw grow in a net.

The first half is narrated by a man who turns out to be the boy grown up, now a hearing aid salesman. While the boy abandons his box of treasures, as an adult he returns to collecting and documenting abandoned objects as a kind of urban explorer.

The geometry here is stylised in a kind of rough, children's drawing way. I think this could have been pushed further with more complex shaders but it works. For the most part, you're watching as an invisible observer seated on a floating chair. At certain points, the viewpoint is taken inside the boy's ear, or into the tin of treasures, where you can grab the objects and get the boy's brief, poetic description of each one.

I liked this story because it had substance, but left enough up to interpretation to be engaging. By showing the treasures to us with the descriptions we get to understand why they might be significant to the boy. It plays well with the classic anime theme of objects as vessels for emotional significance. I think it would have worked just as well on a flat screen, but I enjoyed my time with it.

Now the rest...

The Age of the Monster had some things going for it, but honestly I think this one shouldn't have been in VR. It's basically a film about how bad we're fucking up the planet, putting us in the house of a man who works in the nuclear industry in the 70s up to a future where the cooling towers lie in ruins. The 'monster' is a giant anthro catfish, seen first as a B-movie monster and dream vision and finally as a real kaiju scale creature in the final future scene.

We're told about the economic circumstances that led to the man getting this job, and his relief at working in nuclear during the oil crisis; we're told about the infamous repressed oil industry report about how climate change is gonna be a thing; we're told about the man's fraught relationship with his radical daughter who is furious about his extractivist ways. Then we get a collapse and humans learn to take the force of nature more seriously, i forget the exact phrasing they used.

The main problem is? These are mostly things you are told, by voiceover. There is some environmental storytelling in the evolution of the house but not enough to convey much without the v/o. the film does not seem to have the confidence in its imagery to show us what it's trying to say.

I feel like the film's vision of the post-collapse future, with flocks of birds flying over a wide river and collapsed overgrown cooling towers, is a huge missed opportunity. Here's an opportunity to apply some true visual imagination of how humans might live in a climate changed future... but nah, giant catfish kaiju just kinda hanging out there.

The environmental message is generally a stance I sympathise with, but the film doesn't make a good case for it on a propaganda level. We see the cooling towers outside the window and eventually the house, flooded, but it does little to make the collapse narrative emotionally compelling - and I question a little the choice to make it nuclear focused in a film about climate change. It's probably based on an actual guy, right? Maybe someone's parent? But... despite putting us in his shoes i don't really feel like i understand him very well.

Does this seem harsh? I know full well how involved vr dev is, and even simple things can take weeks. But i also want someone to make the most of this medium. To make something as compelling as the best short films on the main screens.

Gargoyle Doyle tells another 'skipping though time' story, depicting a gargoyle on an 800 year old church from its construction through to demolition. I would compare this one perhaps to a puppet theatre - it certainly stands out in terms of character animation, with Doyle played by Jason Isaacs as a classic grumpy old British theatre guy, his foyle foil a goofy statue of monk acting as a drainpipe with a penchant for puns.

I didn't get to watch this one in full, since I got to sub in for someone who left early (thanks to the volunteer who took pity on me when it was fully booked lol). So I didn't see the full arc of this. What I saw was... definitely edutainment material, but pretty well done. The player is cast as a visitor to a future museum and nature reserve built on the site of the church. It seems like this was originally shown in a real museum in Venice, with the 'in the museum' sections portrayed in mixed reality; obvs this wouldn't work at Annecy so they have these virtual too.

The narrative as a whole seems a tad self congratulatory and pat, with Doyle learning a valuable lesson about not being a cunt to his only friends as he's resurrected in the museum, and it doesn't do a whole lot with the VR framing, but taking it as an educational puppet show, it works pretty well - the voice performances are good and the jokes, while a little predictable, work for the kid-friendly style it's going for. I'm not sure it really needed to be 40 minutes long, but I can see they wanted to go maximalist for a proof of concept like this. It is kinda limited by the rendering capabilities of the Quest, the lack of shadows in particular, and could definitely benefit from some baked lighting given the relatively static scenes, but I give it a lot of credit for the character animation and VA.

Apparently the jury liked this one too because it won the competition!

Nana Lou has been in development a few years apparently, casting the player in the role of a psychopomp spirit whose role is to ease the passing of a woman dying of a stroke. Visually, this is one of the best looking, with elaborate forest scenes and strong environment design.

What I really like about this one is its use, at times, of a diorama-like presentation where the player looks down on tiny characters in a room. This is a concept I've wanted to try in VR for a while, and it's cool to see someone do it.

I found the kind of spiritual aspect of the story a lot more underwhelming. The player is accompanied by two other spirits who explain everything that's going on and point out the significance of all the imagery. The player is informed they have an important role, but they don't have a name and can't talk back, and the only interaction is to grab floating photos to initiate flashbacks.

I wish this film had had the confidence to trust in its acting and visual storytelling. While Nana Lou's life is a bit too lacking in serious conflict to make the premise work, it would still be far more interesting and compelling with the frame story largely trimmed. You could still cast the player as a psychopomp but you don't need to have a greek chorus telling them what to click on!

The actual story concerns Lou's relationship with her daughter, who became estranged when she quit university to raise her child, instead of staying on as Lou thought she should. This caused them to spend decades estranged. Finding out this story frees up the daughter's spirit as well, and the penultimate scene has her speak to Lou and make up.

There's definitely something to work with there, but the main delivery mechanism is rather ponderous narration triggered by interacting with objects, with the dramatic scenes largely having taken place off screen. Like The Age of the Monster, it suffers a severe telling-not-showing problem.

It's a shame because there are nice touches here. When you are beside Lou's bed in the hospital, your touch leaves a glow effect which is very evocative. The acting is solid, though the script undermines it a bit.

I don't think narration is evil - evidently, Yuri and I used it in our film, it's a very efficient way to convey information - but I do think it requires a lot of thought put into style and rhythm.

Spots of Light... ok. This one tells the story of an Israeli soldier who lost his sight in the Lebanon war, and later regained it temporarily through surgery. Given my general feelings about the Israeli military (presently carrying out a genocide), I was definitely not disposed to like this one. Nevertheless, it was the only one free so I decided to give it a shot.

This is one of those films where you interview someone and then put an animation to it. So this guy tells you what it was like to be blind and then not blind to see his family briefly, and it's illustrated with various images. And (if i remember right) some parts are on tvs showing video (and if you're using vr to embed a flat screen what is even the point??). When he's blind, everything disappears except vague outlines suggested by small points of light.

Ultimately this is a film about blindness, not the war (of course, meaning this is a person who could leave the war behind - though not to make light of the cruelty of conscription). Making a film about the experience of blindness in a purely visual medium is a choice all right, and I don't feel like this film expressed anything unexpected about it - he was sad to lose his sight, glad to see his family, depressed to lose it again but ultimately at peace. Which is conveyed, of course, primarily by narration.

So yeah this one didn't do much for me!

Stay Alive My Son, now. Agh. This one was... this one was a mess.

So this one is about the Cambodian genocide, right. It's based on a memoir by a survivor of the genocide, Pin Yathay, who became separated from his wife and son while fleeing the Khmer Rouge.

The way this is presented is essentially a walking simulator that takes you through a dungeon-like environment full of skeletons. Every so often you encounter 3D films - filmed with some kind of depth camera - showing actors playing out scenes from the life of the family. There is also a frame story where you visit Pin Yathay in his modern day house, where he sees a digital reconstruction of how his son might look as an adult

This one is difficult to review because it was severely marred by technical issues with the spatial audio, which caused the sound to cut out when you turned your head the wrong way or moved it to the wrong place. It would probably be less of a rough experience if the audio worked as intended. Nevertheless, I have plenty of reservations with the way the story is told as well.

It seems the director of the VR experience (fine! I'll write experience, there isn't a better noun for this kind of thing that sits between game and film) met Pin Yathay, there's video of her speaking to him at the end, but he had pretty minimal creative input beyond providing inspiration through his memoir. So this is a Greek/US interpretation of the Cambodian genocide. The narrative it tells is basically: Yathay and his family are living a pretty idyllic life, then the Khmer Rouge happens, seemingly not for any particular reason. Yathay and his family are evacuated and then put to hard labour growing rice; eventually, their son is put to work too, so fearing for his life, they flee into the jungle.

The Cambodian genocide is - obviously! - one of the worst atrocities of the whole bloody 20th century, and the circumstances surrounding it are worth reading about (though pretty unremittingly bleak). But you won't learn much about, say, cold war geopolitical alignment, Prince Sihanouk, the absolutely horrific civil war, the different ideologies in play in the Marxist milieu that influenced Pol Pot, or the spillover from Vietnam and the massive bombing by the Americans here which helped put the Khmer Rouge in power. You definitely won't learn much about the Cambodia that existed before the war. Instead, you're mostly traversing a dungeon that could come from any horror game, shining your torch on the things you're told to in order to unlock another segment of narration from (the actor playing) Yathay. It is, in pretty literal terms, a tour of atrocities.

Unfortunately the '3D film of actors' conceit doesn't really work because... even audio issues aside, the acting is pretty unconvincing. For some reason - perhaps that subtitles are tricky in VR - the dialogue is in accented English rather than Cambodian, and it's pretty quickly evident that they just have one guy in the role of 'Khmer Rouge soldier' and the lines he's given are kinda awkward. The horror game aesthetics of the environments and the amateur actors and costumes all clash pretty badly. The 3D filming is also kind of jank, only really working if you're fairly close to the camera position, so you aren't really free to move too far even if the audio didn't crap out.

The basic feelings it's trying to explore - the horror of living through a genocide, separation from a child, guilt for abandoning him, not knowing if he's alive or dead - is definitely worth depicting, but honestly this would have been far far better expressed as a 10-20 minute film than a slow 55 minute VR walking sim. The more abstract bits toward the end with paper plane imagery and a Buddhist temple (where you have to put a block in a slot to unlock a door) also feel too jank and videogamey to really have much impact, though by that point I had been wrestling with the audio for nearly an hour so I wasn't in the most receptive mood.

But all the execution flaws aside, that leaves the question of what even is the right way to portray a genocide artistically? This approach is very abstract, reducing the events to dislocated symbols - propaganda posters, the tree against which children were dashed - which perhaps might reflect how fragmented memory becomes, but seems to be wasting the potential of VR to establish you in a place. But then, I guess rice fields are harder to render than enclosed dark rooms.

Speaking of rendering, this was PCVR, so your torch casts shadows and it has other features that would be hard on realtime. But the lack of ambient light and general harshness of the materials adds to the 'horror game' feel.

There is something here about how genocides become associated with certain images. For Cambodia, it is primarily phrases like 'killing fields' and the stacked skulls in the genocide memorials such as Choeung Ek - few people know the name of the memorial in the west, but I think everyone who's heard of the genocide has seen the big stack of skulls. I imagine this is what all the skeletons in this experience are supposed to call to mind: they're representatives of the many ways people died. The problem that this kind of environmental storytelling has long ago been made kind of camp by videogames. A photo of a stack of real skeletons still has power to disturb, but less so a low poly 3D skeleton.

Should it have tried for a realism? The idea of trying to realistically simulate the experience of living in Cambodia though the genocide is kind of ghoulish, and I'm glad they didn't take that approach. But the 'tour of images' approach falls flat. I think The Most Precious of Cargoes elsewhere in the festival makes a stronger case for how to approach a topic like a genocide in a consciously constructed way, but it also has the ability to be in dialogue with a lot of other films made about the Holocaust. There is less in English about the Cambodian genocide - the viewer can't even be assumed to know what happened.

Overall, I think it would be possible to make a much stronger film about the genocide in Cambodia. But I'm not sure what that film would look like. I did learn one thing from this story, which is that there is a reality show in Cambodia which shows survivors of the genocide being reunited with their families. Not much is made of this here, it's something of a background detail. What would it be like to grow up in the shadow of an event like that? I wish the film had been willing to portray more of modern Cambodia - and I hope at some point someone in Cambodia will have a film at this festival, in VR or not, which can talk about it all from the first person.

Is there a good way to try to answer the curiosity of people who live safely in rich countries about what it is like to go through an actual genocide... using a Meta Quest 2 VR headset that costs a few hundred quid? I don't really know, but this film could have done with being a bit more reflective, I feel. So it goes.

the others

there were three films I couldn't see - The Imaginary Friend, Oto's Planet and Emperor. If I get some other chance to try them I'll write about them too!

Overall I felt a bit disappointed with the VR this year, but also I kind of want to put my money where my mouth is and try my hand at making this kind of thing. I do have the technical knowledge at least!

If you read all this, thank you.

#l'aventure de canmom à annecy #annecy 2024

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harukadrawsthings · 1 year ago

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EDIT 7/10/2023: Wow, in less than 24 hours I already got the 5 slots filled! Thank you to everyone and my apologies to those who didn't manage to have a slot in time. There's always a next time! As soon as the replies become ready I upload them but there's no deadline. Stay tuned!

---

Original post 6/10/2023:

Hello, everyone, hoping that this start of Autumn is being good for you!

I've been a little busy dealing with mental health and quotidian stuff but over two thirds of the next part of the comic of Soul(mate)s of Light has been already developed. Thank you for your patience once again, expect its upload in the near future once it's ready to show.

In order to maintain the focus on the comic strips creation I'm re-opening the Ask box for a very short time once again. This post will be updated as soon the inbox gets closed.

After validating the questions of 5 different users made that include at least one to AU characters I'll temporarily close the Ask box once more. First come, first served. So if you were saving questions in the meantime, hurry up and ask them now while slots are available!

BEFORE SENDING AN ASK:

Last time in August when I was checking the pending messages and validating the questions that were suitable for replies I’ve observed a few things that I want to bring out some attention, as well reminding about a few factors:

There were users not respecting the “Maximum three character-directed questions per user” rule. Please consider there are other people that send questions and it’s not fair for them to have to wait longer because somebody made more asks.

For a better management of posts, I also want to ask to please make those three questions in a single post whenever it’s possible instead of sending them separately.

If someone sends me more than 3 character-directed questions per wave of replies, I’ll either only respond to the three first questions and suppress the others, or select the best 3 questions of that message.

Please don’t ask the characters questions about crossovers with IRL IPs unrelated with Pokémon. It’s 99% certain I won’t answer them. I reinforce that I reserve the right to not reply to questions that I find them inadequate to my AU standards or for other reasons not listed in the rules.

Although I don’t forbid questions done to characters that aren’t part of the main/secondary cast of the AU story, please consider that questions made to characters outside that circle are subjected to be unanswered if I conclude that replying them doesn’t bring anything relevant either to the readers or to the AU itself.

If the Ask Button isn’t available it’s because I’m not accepting character-directed asks at the moment. Do not use this thread to send character-directed asks. Please wait for a reopening and save your questions for next time! 😊

Author-directed questions are quicker to be replied than character-directed ones (especially if there's no character-directed ask included in the entire message). If I see it helps to speed up the inbox cleanup I can consider giving priority to answer this type of questions.

A reminder about the original rules to also be considered

Be polite, don't use foul language/swearing.

SFW asks, only! NSFW asks will never be replied.

Gore scenarios are very unlikely to be replied or if it involves a trigger subject that requires a real graphical depicting as well.

I reserve the right to not reply to a character ask if I find it inappropriate or for any other reason not mentioned here.

Maximum three character-directed questions per user. If author-directed questions are included alongside with character-directed questions, please don’t surpass 3 character questions and 2 author questions (making it a total of 5 questions per user).

Due to my personal life and the development of a new comic, replies to the asks won’t have a fixated deadline to be developed and published. Please be patient!

If I find the asks to be suitable for replying I might take some time to draw the character answers since it's something I have to do in parallel with ongoing projects like AU comics or illustrations (and there's my personal life to consider as well, of course!).

The more questions in the same ask message I receive, the more time I'll need to draw them as well since I have to submit every answer on the same post!

I give priority to draw answers for the asks I receive first in my inbox. Asks sent after someone has done it first will be in the drawing queue.

While I don't discard the possibility of drawing replies to questions directed to characters that don't have much relevance to the AU I can consider to do them if I conclude it's doable. However, I recommend that the questions are done for characters that are more prominent to the story.

I highly advice that the questions are asked in English, although I understand questions done in Portuguese or Spanish without having to use automatic translators for other languages.

Thank you in advance!

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aotopmha · 2 years ago

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Can Yoshi-P please stop justifying skin colour changes in his games with awkward walls of text?

First it's that "It's fantasy, but also reality."

But now it's "It's fantasy, so we're doing what we want."

The FF16 one is at least understandable considering the subject matters the game deals with, but it's still imperfect because you can do PoC without that baggage.

Saying "we mean no harm" after all of those flimsy excuses with Y'Shtola feels so dumb to me.

I can absolutely understand the 2.0 lighting issues. Fine. That change wasn't that extreme.

And I even defended this because in a bunch of in-game artwork in ShB she's still pretty tan, but I'll believe it when we see a concept art saying she's by design supposed to be tanned, not PoC.

I'll even believe they pay this detailed attention to character design.

It's so annoying because in a new panel for Dawntrail they also say they're paying special attention to PoC representation for this expansion because they've not always done it right in the past.

And there they mentioned it's fantasy, but there is the need to still respect the irl cultures they draw from.

It's a inconsistent mess because whitewashing is still fairly common and "they're just tan" is a pretty common excuse that Japan isn't immune from either, even if it isn't entirely delibrate or conscious. (In Japanese context there is also making characters "more Asian" by removing their tan.)

And then there are some of the disrespectful outfits in Mogstation.

I still get the sense the underlying implication is that the game got more popular and Y'Shtola's tan became "less appealing" from a marketing standpoint, but they just can't say it.

But hey, going by a good faith interpretation, they better be consistent with it.

Everyone should just be tan after Dawntrail.

Then I might believe it.

FFXIV has many good to great PoC characters with complex, complete storylines, but it still falls into some pretty annoying tropes.

Most of them either die (Teledji, Ilberd, Conrad, Ahewann), are written out after their story is basically complete (Hermes, Lahabrea, Ericthonius, Lolorito) or are pushed to minor roles or were minor roles to begin with (Raubahn, Pipin, Gaius, Arenvald, Lyna).

Truth is, Y'Shtola is the only character that truly has gone through this pretty noticably, so this adds credence to her "just being tan", but I think she's also the only main character who could be 100% read as PoC along with any PoC WoL designs because she was "tan" for so long.

Currently, only Arenvald, Raubahn, Pipin, Gaius, Vytra, Cyella and Lyna could potentially become relevant in the future without "bringing them back" and as said, half of these are pretty minor characters or also have pretty complete stories.

Erenville looks to have a more major role in Dawntrail, at least.

And I think Cyella and the entire group on the First might end up getting a secondary plotline restoring the 13th along with Zero after Zeromus is defeated.

(That 6.5 screenshot is super intriguing.)

XIV is probably better about PoC than 90% of popular fantasy, but it still has its flaws and wierd justifications like this really don't help.

#Final Fantasy XIV #Final Fantasy 14 #FFXIV #FF14 #FF #Final Fantasy #Y'Shtola #Y'Shtola Rhul

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hamliet · 2 years ago

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Your post about The Glory is everything I’ve thought but couldn’t articulate properly, thank you! It’s just revenge porn and I’ve seen people praise it because it’s “the one drama that doesn’t make you sympathise with the bad guys etc” which I feel is very shallow? Nobody is born bad. It got me thinking about other dramas who do sympathise - in Signal (2016) an abuse victim went on to kill others because of his horrific childhood and the main character felt sympathy for him, in Voice (2017) a character with a neglectful mother went on to hurt women in his adulthood and the main characters stated that they wished they had gotten him help in his youth so he didn’t turn out this way, in 18 Again one of the side characters was a bully and they later revealed that 1) he has a abusive father 2) he bullied the person because they saw the abusive father hit them and didn’t want it to spread; got a redemption arc as well. I feel like stories like these have a lot more weight to them.

OMG I'm not alone? I'm not alone! Lol. Listen I've kept this to myself and two friends for months but it has been simmering, so when I got that ask I was like--I have some self control, but not enough for this. Time to unleash it all.

Bad guy bad is honestly the most commonly told story in existence. Like, if they wanted to frame it as fun revenge romp, then use fun framing. If you wanted to frame it as a serious psychological drama, then you have to actually study that psychology to portray it accurately. You can't do both.

It's also like--with this specific issue, it's irresponsible and makes the problem worse, not better. People will be motivated to bully people in the name of ending bullying; it's literally what Twitter is all about, after all. You don't reinforce that. Every bully thinks their victim deserves it (they don't, obviously). Kudos for drawing more attention to an issue in a way that will create more bullying victims, not less.

That the director turned out to have been a high school bully was also not surprising at all, because the entire story was so lacking in self awareness that it was exactly how a high school bully would write an anti bullying story. It's actually quite sad though, and I hope he receives nuance and empathy along with taking responsibility in a way that enables him to gain a new perspective on a subject he clearly cares about. Looking in a mirror and discovering things about yourself, discovering empathy, is always much, much more interesting than "put down the baddie."

#ask hamliet #salt #the glory #hamliet does not like the glory

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pgy4611fiu · 10 months ago

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Final work by: Emily Rosario

title: Girlhood Core

My two main inspirations were the photographers Melissa Haugen, and Juuso Westerlund. I came across both of them on Pinterest. I was immediately drawn in by the way that they present movement in the photos. The photos capture a sense of animation and youthfulness that I would also like to present. I also appreciate how their images romanticize the ordinary life of kids as they go about their day.

One of my other sources for inspiration is the 2017 film, The Florida Project. This strong film follows the story of six-year-old Moonee and her fellow playmates. Living in a shoddy motel off the highway right next to Disney World, Moonee lives a rough low income life with her struggling single mother. Despite the harsh reality of her life, Moonee has no trouble living in her childlike world, where her worries are those of getting enough playtime while the sun is out. This reminds me very much of my eight-year old sister who still maintains her bright and lively character even after our family has gone through traumatic events and difficulties. This theme of innocence and childlike naivety to the realities and sufferings that adult are forced to confront.

Project Description:

"Girlhood Core" is meant to evoke nostalgia with my viewers that revolve around childhood memories that we may have forgotten with the passing of time. The main subject is my little sister who was my main source of inspiration. In a time where children are growing up faster than they need to, partly because of the internet and social media, I want to capture these moments where my sister is thriving in her vibrant, and imaginative world and emphasize the special and wholesome nature of what it means to be a kid. My photographs are meant to give a blurry or fuzzy effect, alluding to our hazy memory of childhood. I wanted my photos to be primarily candids, which makes the context less artificial and therefore more easier to relate to. My angles are different in each photo in order to change the perspective of the viewer that helps engage them with the activity that is happening in the photo. I used low angle shots to add drama to the scene. I also purposely obscured my sisters face in some photos to draw attention to the activity she was doing, so that way the viewer can place or see themselves in her position. In each photo, I wanted to keep a dynamic composition so I made sure to move her around the frame and have her in different positions. I also wanted to keep the frame busy, since I wanted to capture the disorderly fun of childhood. Overall, my theme is the enchanting world of childhood that is a sadly fleeting thing.

For this project, I used my Nikon D5100. I would incorporated techniques such as large depth of field, short depth of field, contrast, color balance and overall composition. I also experimented with different exposure times, depending on the time of day I am shooting at. To achieve the film filter effect of my images, I used both the Adobe Photoshop 2024 and the MacBook Air Photos gallery edit feature. On Adobe photoshop, added a layer of the photo filter Sepia, which is a warmish orange. I edited the Noise/Grain to about 50% to create the blur like effect. I also added a Curve Adjustment layer and made a reverse ‘S’ shape. On the Photos gallery, I lowered the contrast and added a vignette. I reduced the saturation to add the vintage look while bumping up the vibrance to retain the sharpness of the colors.

If I could continue this project, I would love to recreate scenes from famous movies that I watched as a kid. For example, The Parent Trap (1998), Cat in the Hat (2003), Bridge to Terabithia (2007), or Matilda (1996). I would also love to include more of my sister's friends or cousins, to have the atmosphere more lively and vibrant.

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bookshelf-full-of-bruises · 1 year ago

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Tea Party

I decided that I wanted to christen my new writing blog with something warm and light. What better subject than a young Rosalind coming into her powers while playing make believe? If you found this place because you follow my main blog, you likely are already familiar with she and her father Robbie. If not, you’re in for a treat! Enjoy some pure tooth-rotting fluff as morning breaks over my new domain 💛

“How wonderful of you to join us, Robert. Please take a seat. We were just about to begin.”

Robert Gardner beams from ear to ear as he is granted entry, stepping through the doorway without missing a beat. He wears a white dress shirt beneath a spring green vest- the latter patterned with playfully sprawling vines- and khaki slacks. A warm brown tailcoat completes the ensemble, and his shoes have been freshly shined. His hair hangs in ornate braids that have been fussed over for the better part of an hour. He is ready.

“Thank you, your Majesty. You are too kind. Please excuse my tardiness- I’m afraid the royal stables are still in a bit of a tizzy from the arrival of Pepermint. I’ve spent all morning attempting to sort out her care schedule. She is with the smith now, and is being fitted for her winter shoes,” he explains, bowing gracefully towards the table set for tea.

Pepermint is the most recent in Rosalind’s collection of plastic ponies, gifted to her a few days ago on her sixth birthday. Oh, how her eyes had sparkled when the tissue paper was pulled away. Like charoite beneath the setting sun. She’s not yet old enough to wear the color contacts to help draw less attention to herself, and he can’t help but be so grateful for that every time she smiles. She has no reason to believe she needs to hide herself, yet. No reason to be afraid.

Against all reason, he hopes that will never change.

From her seat at the table, his little girl giggles, and it is a sound that could melt the thickest ice. She waves him over, hands clad in the white gloves from her dress-up trunk. They’re ruddy from frequent use, and her tiara is a bit crooked, but in all his many years, Robbie cannot remember ever seeing a more beautiful princess.

“That’s alright, daddy. Come sit! We have cookies! And I need my royal ‘visor.”

The table she invites him to is set for four, which gives him a moment’s pause as he moves to take his seat. Sir Milton is present, as always, and so is Dawa. But the fifth place setting that usually appears beside her beloved rabbit’s is surprisingly absent. “Is Puffball not going to be joining us today?”

His daughter sighs so dramatically that he has to force himself not to break character and giggle. She’s scolded him for that before- it’s not realistic if you don’t pretend right, daddy- and so he’s trying to be better about it. “That’s what I needed to talk to you about,” she says, as though it’s obvious.

He nods sagely as he reaches his seat, trying to keep up. “Ah, I see. Well, then, let’s get started, shall we? Milton, my good sir, it’s always good to see you. And Madame Dawa, you are looking quite lovely today. Have you done something different with your hair?” Bowing to each guest in their turn, he pulls his chair out to take his place. He takes great care in ensuring the coat of his tail falls correctly as he stoops to sit, ever the picture of poise. It’s only befitting of the Princess’s royal advisor, after all.

Said sovereign grins impishly as she reaches to pick up her little paper fan. It takes her a second to get it opened, and she has to manually spread it the rest of the way when her initial wrist flick proves insufficient, but she gets it figured out all the same. Raising it to cover her nose and mouth, she pretends to fan herself lightly.

It is then that the magic begins in earnest.

Milton, the Furby frog, is the first to respond. The click-clack of his beak and eyes have always unnerved Robbie a little, but he’s careful not to show it. The little guy one of his Rosebud’s favorites, and has to be treated as such. No matter how creepy he may or may not be. “𝕋𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕜 𝕪𝕠𝕦. ℝ𝕠𝕓𝕖𝕣𝕥. 𝕀𝕥 𝕚𝕤 𝕘𝕠𝕠𝕕. 𝕋𝕠 𝕤𝕖𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦. 𝕋𝕠𝕠.”

She’s getting better at projecting the tone she wants; the croaky rasp of Milton’s voice is almost strong enough he can’t hear his daughter’s sneaky whispers beneath it. Pride flares brightly in his chest. She’s amazing. His daughter is absolutely amazing.

“𝒴𝑜𝓊’𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓈 𝓉𝓊𝓉𝑒 𝒶𝓈 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇, 𝒹𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹,” Dawa speaks up, then. Her button eyes almost seem to glimmer in the glow of the tea lights. “𝐻𝑒𝓇 𝑀𝒶𝒿𝑒𝓈𝓉𝓎 𝑔𝑜𝓉 𝒶 𝓃𝑒𝓌 𝓈𝑒𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝒷𝑜𝓌𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝐻𝑒𝓇 𝒷𝒾𝓇𝓉𝒽𝒹𝒶𝓎! 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒹𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀?” The head of the plush bunny tips a bit to the side, allowing her ears to fall in a way that shows off the floral barrette. The motion is still a bit rigid- the accent, a bit wonky- but for her age, it’s incredible.

“I think it’s absolutely lovely. The Princess was kind, to share her gifts with you.” The creasing of his little girl’s eyes speaks to the smile that blossoms behind the worn paper fan. She wiggles in her chair a little, too happy to sit still as her father reaches to pick up her pretty tea pot and begins to pour.

“𝒮𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈! 𝒮𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝑜 ��𝒽𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝑔𝒾𝒻𝓉𝓈 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓊𝓈. 𝐼𝓉 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒𝓈 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓎.” As Dawa finishes, though, Rosalind clears her throat to draw attention back to herself. She does not set the fan down, keeping it close in hand, but she does stop hiding behind it for the moment.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, but there is business to discuss.” She doesn’t even wait for him to put the tea pot down before she’s going for the sugar cubes: one in Milton’s cup, two in her own, one in his, and one in Dawa’s. Then a splash of milk in all four, just like normal.

“Yes, of course. You wanted to discuss Puffball’s absence, right?” He retrieves his spoon, then, and begins stirring the contents of his teacup. The tea is not hot enough to risk burning anyone, but it is warm enough that the sugar dissolves in fairly short order.

“I did,” she answers after a moment, voice taking on an almost solemn tint. It makes Robbie focus in a little more, caught off guard by the shift in tone. Had something happened to the Popple in the last….26 hours since he’d seen it last?

As if hearing her father’s internal questions, Rosalind continues with her explanation. “She got hurt during our walk this morning. The Healer sent her to the hot springs to get better, but she hasn’t come home yet. I fear for her, Robert. What if she can’t make it home on her own?”

Ohhhhh. So that’s why Jessamine had been running the washer this morning. He had been curious, knowing that he’d finished the last of the laundry last night, but…not enough so to get up and check it out. While his girls have always been early risers, he is…decidedly not. And that’s before taking into effect how little sleep he was able to get last night.

That’s why Jess had decided to take Rose to the park in the first place: to let him get a little more rest before today’s big to-do. He feels a sliver of guilt about not being there, but he also knows both would call him silly for it. They need their bonding time just as much as the next mother and daughter anyway, and everyone needs lazy mornings. Still, he always feels a sliver of regrets for the moments he misses in passing. One day, he won’t have a tea party to attend when he wakes up.

“Ahh, I see. That is troublesome.” Deciding against waiting any longer, he takes a sip from his cup. The warmth washes over him like a sunrise, and he closes his eyes to let the feeling of this second in time sink in. No matter what the future brings, they are together, here and now. And when he opens his eyes to find hers looking back at him, that is worth more than anything he’s ever owned.

“Perhaps when we’re finished here, I can go and escort her home myself?” He’s pretty sure he heard the dryer going not long ago, so with any luck, she should be clean and ready to go. If not, they’ll figure out where to take the story from there. For now, however, the suggestion seems satisfactory.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Rosalind nods sagely. “Go carefully, but bring her home safe.”

“Then it’s decided. I’ll go as soon as we’ve finished up, your Majesty. Now you really should try your tea; it’s magnificent.” He takes another sip in demonstration, then, and casts her a goofy grin when he returns the cup to its saucer. “Just like you.”

She giggles again, and it sets his world alight. “Thank you, daddy.” The play momentarily suspended, his heart melts. What could he ever have done to deserve something as precious as this moment? This life?

He may never know. But the one thing he does know is that he will protect it with every last fiber of his being.

“You’re welcome, my Rosebud.”

#paragons and professers #paragonverse #paragon of storytelling #robbie #rosalind #Robert Gardner #Rosalind Gardner #original characters #original fiction #Raigash writing #not my art #image comes from a Picrew #I figured a happy introduction was in order #father daughter bonding time is never boring in the Gardner household #immortal character #supernatural elements #immortal parent #mortal child

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decaffeinatedartichoke · 2 years ago

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She's Not There: The Watermelon Woman, Black Queer Female Sexuality and Absence

In her book “Black (W)holes and the Geometry of Black Female Sexuality" Evelynne Hammonds discusses black women's sexuality as it is often compared to a void. Cheryl Dunye's film The Watermelon Woman explores and comments on this concept. Hammonds includes this quote in her book

"To name ourselves rather than be named we must first see

ourselves. For some of us this will not be easy. So long

unmirrored, we may have forgotten how we look. Nevertheless, we

can't theorize in a void; we must have evidence." (O'Grady 14)

This quote relate to the plot of The Watermelon Woman as the main character, Cheryl, spends the majority of the film tracking down and compiling the history of the mysterious "Watermelon Woman", a beautiful silent film actress who was cast in stereotypical "Mammy" roles. She is credited in her films only as "The Watermelon Woman". Cheryl becomes obsessed with learning more about this woman whose story has been more or less lost to history. This connects with Hammonds' writing as Cheryl works to expand and educate herself on the history of a queer black woman. Cheryl's mission can be described as a pursuit of the evidence discussed by O'Grady to fill in the void that often surrounds the history of black women and their sexualities. The film being named "The Watermelon Woman" references this void as the character not being credited by her name can be seen as a allegory for the larger absence of black women's subjectivity from history. The end of the film also references this as The Watermelon Woman is revealed to not be real. This is a commentary on how queer black women "must name [them]selves". Dunye works to create a story to fill in the absence of a queer black feminist history that hasn't been silenced and in doing so works to draw attention to the presence of the absence.

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hobbitkiller · 10 days ago

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You misunderstand. Your points aren’t complex. I don’t need them to be simplified. They’re simply rambling and poorly supported. I’m not reading any more for the sake of my own sanity. I did my time teaching; I don’t need to subject myself to that in my free time.

I’m sure you think that your feelings are the objective truth. They aren’t. If they were, you wouldn’t have to dismiss, downplay, or mischaracterize every thing in the show that contradicts your opinion.

When Arcane was first put into production, do you think they said “I want to make a political drama about class. I know! Let’s use League of Legends characters!”? Or do you think they set out to tell the stories of the LoL characters and then fleshed out the class conflict to support that story?

(Also, I’m not sure where you got that I said Ambessa was set up as an antagonist because she “looked menacing.” Ambessa was introduced having just conquered another country and murders a young royal in front of her child then immediately started manipulating everything the moment she got to Piltover.

Did I even bring up character design? I seem to recall calling Ambessa an imperialist warmonger because that’s what she was unambiguously in the text. I didn’t say “a buff lady with scars showed up; she must be a baddie.” My favorite character is Vi. I have a type.)

And yes, actually, one line of dialogue can predict the end of the story. This is very common. Some shows will even have a flashback to it. I imagine there’s probably a watch mojo list or blog article out there with a list. It’s kind of a form of planting and payoff. As I said, it’s similar to Chekov’s gun. The storyteller puts something out in the open where everyone can see it, but doesn’t draw overt attention to it. Some people will note it. Some won’t. But, when it comes back at the end or in a major moment, people will either make the connection or realize it was there the whole time on a rewatch.

Some people like to use a lot of foreshadowing, some like to only use a little bit have it be more overt. That said, though that line of dialogue was the most overt bit of foreshadowing, it was not the only indicator. There was, as I said, Caitlyn and VI’s whole relationship—though the most obvious moment was the oil and water scene that you tried to play off as not being tied to the two cities even though Vi literally spells that out.

There’s also just the simple fact that narratives of this nature tend to go in predictable ways. Sure, some end in either a civil war or with the impassioned pleas of our heroes, but fighting a common enemy is pretty popular. Even Justice League Unlimited went with that ending. So, when you’ve watched that trope play out a bunch of times and then it’s brought up seemingly unnecessarily while also being mirrored in the main romantic relationship in the show—coming to the conclusion that this is where the story is going is not exactly a trip down the turnpike.

You may find it cheap. Doesn’t make it not set up or less predictable. If anything, I’d understand being annoyed by how predictable it was.

Anyway, I hope you’re also taking the time to talk about things you like on here—I’m not huge into checking out profiles, because I like to engage with the discussion first. Not gonna block you, but, unless you say something pretty distasteful, I’m probably not going to respond again. (If I have some self-control.)

And, you know what, maybe someday Amanda or someone will prove me wrong. They’ll say it was just a coincidence or that it became accidental foreshadowing when they decided to change course half way through the story. It happens. Until then, I’m pretty comfortable with my analysis.

“What happened to rebel Vi? Season 2 destroyed her character!”

“What happened to rebel Vi” is that Vander took her to the bridge where her parents died in his revolution and asked her what she was willing to lose. Then she meets Cait who is gentle and kind while still being tough and it makes her rethink how she sees topside. When Jinx tells her she changed too, that’s what she’s talking about.

I’m sorry if you thought Vi was going to be a topside-hating revolutionary in Season 2, but that’s clearly not where her character arc was going. Remember how she forced her way between Ekko and Cait? It seemed very straightforward that was the role her character was taking on.

I feel similar about people who act like the show was betraying its premise because it ended with reconciliation/Zaun and Piltover working together. Again, the fact that two of the most important relationships were between characters from both sides and that they made a point of talking about Zaun and Piltover first coming together against a common enemy was a pretty clear indicator that was the plan.

Now, I get being annoyed that that was what they chose to do. You don’t have to love the creative decisions of media, just like media doesn’t have to compromise its creative direction to satisfy you. But not liking that they went that direction is not the same as the show having bad writing or engaging in character assassination.

Everything Vi did in season 2 was very much in character with how she changed and who she became throughout Season 1. Hell, she used enforcers and Hextech to raid Shimmer facilities before Commander Kiramman ever threw on a beret. So, yes, actually wearing the uniform was a huge and complicated decision that she was definitely not happy about, but it also fell in line with what she had been doing.

There’s meat for another post at some point about the three different Zaun/enforcer partnerships we see in the show: Vander/Greyson, Silco/Marcus, and Cait/Vi; but I’m not going to go into that now.

TLDR: “Rebel Vi” who wants to fight all of topside hasn’t existed since the end of the second episode of the show.

Editing to add that Vi doesn’t see attacking Chem Barons as attacking Zaun; she’s taking down the people who are destroying Zaun.

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azureflight · 3 years ago

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Navier’s Patriotism vs Heinrey’s Ambitions: The Coming War and Its Consequences.

Something that has been on my mind since I finished the first season of The Remarried Empress, was how Heinrey’s planned war with Eastern Empire would pan out. And now, as we are some what decently into the second season, I have some thoughts:

Last season too had moments showing Navier’s dutifulness and connection to her people and land was beyond just being about their empress. Surely, there was an aspect of it that was drilled into her head as part of her training for her future role. Yet Navier displays something other than just following the motions on what she has been taught. She isn’t doing it because she is this pure hearted super good person either. This is not a case of fantasized “model aristocrat” who just loves their subjects. No, what she displays, is something we have seen in a few other characters, mostly in the western empire.

Navier is a patriot. She loves her homeland and her nation, because that’s her homeland and she is part of that nation. She has a nationalist consciousness, a sense of identity, community and belonging beyond noble bloodlines and birthrights. This is very different than showing fealty to a king or lord. Because the loyalty is independent of individual actions one faces in their personal lives. One man does not make or break it. No, Navier loves Eastern Empire, in ways most people in our modern world love their countries.

This here, in my opinion, is the foundation upon which the real main conflict of this story is based on. The conflict that is coming and will be the true challenge and climax of the story. The war between the Eastern Empire and Western Empire.

I say a conflict is coming, not only because we already know Heinrey’s plans to start a war. I say it is coming, because Heinrey, does not seem to be aware of Navier’s loyalty and patriotism towards the Eastern Empire. He seems to think, since Sovieshu has hurt and antagonized Navier, then Navier’s connection and affection to the land must also be over. He is in for a rude awakening. They both are.

If there is one thing I can say about the second season so far, it is that it is too happy. Way too happy...Almost like it is setting up for a major fallout. Heinrey is sweet, cute and loving, Navier is getting sentimental and comfortable, lowering her guard... Once the war plans are revealed, it will come down like a house of cards.

There is no greater source of resentment or conflict like violated expectations. Heinrey is expecting Navier to be fully on board and be fully on his side on every matter. Navier is clueless about Heinrey’s more ambitious and insidious side, seeing only a handsome young man who is very nice to her.

When Navier learns that Heinrey is very enthusiastically preparing to raze her homeland to ensure the ascendance of the Western Empire, she will be less than thrilled by it. And Heinrey, once he realizes that his beloved empress is not in on board for the destruction of the Eastern Empire, is certain to be disappointed.

There are many reasons why this is being built up as a hidden conflict between the two of them. However, the one that draw my attention the most is the ideological dissonance.

Heinrey is very patriotic himself. Several characters in Western Kingdom (Soon to be empire) have shown a national pride and patriotic fervor, including the nameless mob character who unknowingly expressed distrust of Navier over her potential lack of loyalty due to being a foreigner.

Yet we see no such sentiment expressed in Eastern Empire save for Navier and maybe her parents. People in the Eastern Empire seem to be far more invested in the feudal loyalties and class politics than a nationally unifying identity. People are loyal to the crown, to the emperor, or they favor some other noble faction, or they are on the “side” of the commoners and despise nobles and vice a versa. Ironically, this means Navier is detached from the general public notions, the psychosphere of her own nation. She is more like Westerners.

Heinrey, for his part, is suffering from information bias. He knows the people of Eastern Empire do not have the patriotism culture of his own kingdom. They are, dare I say, old fashioned and backwards, in their attitudes and loyalties. So he automatically assumes the same goes for Navier. And since the loyalty and devotion between Navier and Sovieshu completely broke down, she should be fine with waging war against her ungrateful cheating ex’s realm, right?

We already know Navier misjudged the intentions and perspective of the Western Empire. Back during the first season, she assumes they are ambitious rivals, but not enemies. This is probably due to the fact that Navier does not have access to the more sensitive intelligence or any real information about matters of national security. This has been mentioned a few times, regarding the separation of duties and access between her and Sovieshu. And Sovieshu is notorious for his failure to communicate with Navier.

These past two chapters have particularly emphasized how Sovieshu essentially ruined their marriage. He behaved erratically and antagonistically, due to the his lack of sharing. He didn’t share his wants, his fears, his plans, the secrets of their fertility problems, nothing. Instead he went ahead and aggravated her by having half a conversation with her in his head. And then he made this ridiculously convoluted plan, all the while assuming Navier would just go along with it, due to his own misjudgment of her character.

And now... Heinrey is doing the exact same thing! He has these grand dreams about how they’ll rule and what they will do... But does not share any of his real ambitions and desires with Navier. He just assumes she will go along with the war based on her falling out with Sovieshu.

I don’t know how they will resolve this conflict. The story can certainly just handwave it away for the sake of some happy ending, but I don’t see it. So far, for all the cheese and jokes in it, The Remarried Empress has been quite internally consistent and rational in setting up actions and consequences. The rules of the world has not been abandoned, ignored or bent for the sake of plot convenience.

One of them will need to break and relent. Because you cannot have “a little bit of war”. You either have war or you have peace. No “special military operation” here. There can be a compromise position where Navier convinces Heinrey to take over without open war, but that too requires Navier helping Heinrey essentially subjugate her homeland.

Now, it will certainly be interesting to see who choses what, but one option has been the most pressing on my mind: They reach no agreement and Heinrey just goes along with his plan. How would Navier react to that? Would she bite it down and play along while hating it all on the inside. We know she is good at suppressing her own pain. She is the kind to spit blood and claim it was cranberry syrup.

Or would she leave Heinrey too? Where? Back to Sovieshu? With Kaufman? Or just back to her parents’ side. And then we have Kosair, who very easily switched sides and seemingly serving the Western Empire comfortably. I can definitely see him being perfectly okay with the war, seeing it as a way to get revenge on Sovieshu and the rest of the nobility he never got along with. But I cannot see him siding against his sister, or even sit aside if he realizes she is upset.

It is definitely a possibility that the story of Empress Navier ends with another dead on the inside marriage, keeping up public appearances, this time with the added burden of being a willing enemy to her homeland.

Or it could end with Navier going back to Sovieshu and playing mother to Rashta’s child after all that happened. Not because she cares for the man, but for the empire.

Or if she gets pregnant after all, then she maybe find herself divided into impossible pieces, for her children’s inheritance and safety will depend on her loyalty and service to the West.

They have certainly emphasized the issue of heirs and children or the lack thereof, a pattern of secretive, extremely presumptuous (dare I say entitled) male love interests, and among all of it, her patriotism.

Or maybe something happens that takes the decision out of their hands and diffuses the tension for them. We don’t know. I don’t see Heinrey giving up on his ambitions, not easily. If Navier is to convince Heinrey to stop, then she needs to put up one hell of a fight.

Overall, I am quite exited to see that plotline and how it unfolds. I am waiting for the other shoe to drop, and this is on top of the internal challenges they will face in the Western Empire. A trial by fire for the second marriage!

#the remarried empress #remarried empress #Navier #Heinrey #sovieshu

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whetstonefires · 2 years ago

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see see op this is an excellent example of how things like movement and vocal style, not to mention narrative framing, carry as much or more weight than fashion sense in character portrayal, but then get translated into simpler visual language on reproduction.

sephiroth has never worn a shirt ever, but he does not appear to be aware sex exists. when he's flipped his shit he comes across as a (mostly metaphorical) sexual predator and commits some mind-rape, and these behaviors have been sexualized in the fanbase since 1997, but in the bulk of CC he is a sexless entity.

he is objectified by his environment and the narrative at various points, but even when this involves his beauty it's always tied to his potential for violence and status as a monster/weapon.

angeal probably knows what sex is but doesn't present in a way that makes him easy to perceive as a sexual object. he's a private person; he wants to be seen in his function as a SOLDIER first and foremost even though he's less reducible to it than Sephiroth. his heavily muscled bare arms emphasize masculinity and the potential for agency he repeatedly fails to grasp; they may be sexy but they don't really invite sexual attention.

he acts to objectify himself in terms of monstrosity at certain points but generally this has a desexualizing effect, moving him toward the animal without really building up his sensual physicality.

zack knows he's hot shit and might know what sex is, but pretty clearly thinks of it as an aspirational step in a romance.

he is also there for the audience to project onto, so his subject-object tagging is different than the other characters.

genesis on the other hand is acutely aware of his own beauty, and mugs for the camera about it.

he preens. he draws attention to his mouth. he gestures from the wrist. he frequently moves through space as a performance, inviting the eye to appreciate his body, and the camera plays along.

he speaks in a heavily affected, emotive manner that often veers into artificial intimacy.

visually, his coat disrupts his affiliation with SOLDIER in a way Sephiroth's does not, both because of color and because Sephiroth is so closely identified with SOLDIER that anything distinctive to him becomes something SOLDIER-esque.

because the exposed arm muscles of the SOLDIER uniform emphasize masculinity, covering that skin doesn't make Genesis less of a sexual object.

the closest any of these four men get to canonical sex lives is 'Sephiroth being stabbed by and stabbing Cloud' and 'Zack flirting heavily with his girlfriend.'

and yet Genesis is the one who comes across as 'sexual.'

because the visual language of the game, the character's movement style, and the character's speech style all come together to encourage us to experience him as decorative and appealing in a vaguely feminizing, yet forceful and threatening way.

a sexually aggressive feminine entity is a slut. therefore, genesis clearly would dress like a whore, because he is whorish. QED. zero thoughts going on here it's 100% vibes, and some of them are kinda rancid ngl.

'presents himself as a sexual entity' getting blurrily translated into 'would put his body on display in scanty clothes (for sexual reasons)' is mostly just people not really thinking through the chains of association they've internalized, but the 'why are we not giving the other CC mains the same (slut) treatment' brings forward how this is very much tied up in gender shit and norms about what it means to signal sexual availability.

i’m one of those people that wholeheartedly believes genesis is a total whore and wears slutty things all the time BUT IN CANON HE DRESSES LIKE THIS

NOT AN INCH OF SKIN IN SIGHT! LITERALLY NOT EVEN HIS HANDS HES 100% COVERED FROM THE NECK DOWN! but you know who shows more skin, and is literally technically shirtless throughout the ENTIRETY of ffvii? SEPHIROTH!

EVEN ANGEAL AND ZACK, IN THE STANDARD SOLDIER UNIFORMS, SHOW MORE SKIN THAN GENESIS! WHEN WILL WE AS A COLLECTIVE START GIVING THEM THE SLUT TREATMENT TOO?! even tseng at least shows his wrists and has those tiny cutouts in his gloves! i think genesis is literally the character that shows the absolute LEAST amount of skin in this whole series! (dont quote me on that, i could be wrong)

#i could go on but like #this is 100% gender and homophobia and rape culture shit #also i'm always here for sephiroth's inexplicable relationship to shirtlessness #crisis core #op you're not wrong but you are missing the underlying forces at work #the traditionally slippery relationship between #'being appealing to the viewer' and 'being something intended for the viewer's consumption' and 'sexually soliciting the viewer'#is doing SO MUCH work here #and it's really fascinating because the schema has been lifted into a scenario where it's being applied to a male figure #by a majority-female audience #in a relatively sex-positive way #and yet most of the assumptions and projections built up around gendered objectification remain intact #sociologically fantastic #note that 'sexually charged and attractive' + 'aggressive' gets collapsed into 'sexually aggressive' in the sense of pursuing sex #which is NOT ACTUALLY PRESENT in his character in any way #but we feel confident in inferring it #and then building additional inferences onto that

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eisforeidolon · 2 years ago

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"...but for me it's just easy - this is a separate show, so if I don't like it, I don't give a fuck. Like the other hundreds of tv shows I don't like or even think are dumb don't affect me. Would have felt the exact same if Bloodlines or Wayward was picked up. Separate show. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ "

Yeah, exactly!

I do not get the people who are so mad about the prequel's mere existence at all and I think a lot of them just use "the legacy" as an excuse to be outraged about it.

Personally, I will definitely watch the prequel because I'm very curious about it and want to see what they have planned plot and canon-wise, but if I don't like it, I will... just stop watching it? It really is that easy. No need to on 853 angry tirades about it.

Also, even if it really turns out to suck - thousands of shows, movies and books have prequels, sequels and spin-offs that suck. This is really not a unique situation in any way and rarely affects the "mothership". People usually just pretend the offensiv add-on in question does not exist and ignore it (e.g. "The Cursed Child" in the Harry Potter fandom for example. No one likes it, but its existence hasn't affected the main series and the fandom at large in any way)

To be fair, I think a lot of it comes from the fact that SPN is now a legacy fandom and people are still kind of adjusting to that. The show isn't airing anymore, but there are still a lot of us that have strong feelings and attachment to it and want to engage over it. But it's also an old enough fandom that a lot of subjects have already been done to death, so the attraction of something new to talk about is pretty compelling.

But there's not going to be any new episodes. Cons are less frequent than they were before. Particularly right now during the summer hiatus, there isn't even much to say about J2's other projects. So the closest thing to a new development for this fandom to engage in most days? Is speculating about The Winchesters, which I think we can all agree they have released very very few substantial details about. I can see how that easily keeps drawing the attention (and ire) of even people who are decidedly Not Interested when there's nothing much else doing. Which is, of course, exacerbated by those who are determined to dunk on it and Jensen forever specifically because of prequelgate.

Cursed Child I think is a really good example. It messes around with the canon characters in ways fans largely didn't like on top of a bunch of really odd time travel fanfic-y chicanery, and most of HP fandom just said, "Eh, doesn't count," and went about their business. People concentrate on their favorite eras of Doctor Who while ignoring others all the time. I hope maybe once TW is a concrete thing that's airing, it will feel more like a separate entity because all we have now is aimless speculation about the inconsistences with the parent canon.

#askboxery #anonymous #prequel speculation

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sister-dear · 3 years ago

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Sentence Structure and Flow

Someone on discord asked me about how I structure sentences and how I learned to write. I’m going to do my best to answer! Hopefully it’s useful. It got long, so I made it a Tumblr post.

On learning to write:

Sky_squido, the author of “What Hyrule Hadn’t Seen” made this presentation and there were several points in it that I found incredibly helpful.

The two main ideas that I found most beneficial:

It’s about the ~vibes. Every story or scene has some kind of overall theme or emotion. Once you’re far enough into your story to have found what that is, edit your word choice to match. If a word technically works but doesn’t fit the mood, replace it with something else. The actual definition of a word is sometimes less important than the emotion that word conveys.

Verbs are incredibly important. If you’re having trouble with your sentence structure - if your story seems boring or like the prose drags - look at your verbs. I tend to use “is” as a verb far too often (or “was” for those of you who write past tense), so a lot of my editing comes down to reworking some sentences to make the stronger, more interesting words be the action words. So instead of “Legend was walking,” the sentence would be “Legend walked.” Or, even better, “Legend strolled/stalked/slouched along.” We’ve gone from a passive sentence to something that tells us, in engaging fashion, not just what Legend’s doing but how he’s doing it and maybe even a little about how he’s feeling.

Filter Words

Another post I found incredibly helpful: examples of how to cut out ‘filter words.’ It’s great for adding urgency, establishing tone, and introducing strong descriptions into your writing. Basically, this is how to put ‘show, don’t tell,’ into practice at a sentence-structure level. I use this approach a lot when it comes to conveying character emotion.

A couple other points

Variation is your friend.

Repeating things draws attention.

Description slows things down.

1. Variation is your friend.

For most writing, it’s a good idea to vary your sentence structure and length. Dialogue with no tags is rapid. Same with short sentences. Short and choppy reads disjointed and fast. This also applies to paragraph lengths! Longer sentences and paragraphs read slower, and in turn cause your reader to linger; sometimes maybe even linger too much. A combination keeps things interesting.

Too many long sections in a row - be they sentences or paragraphs - causes reader fatigue. Don’t be afraid to break those up. Let your readers take a breather.

If all your sentences start the same way, rework some of them. Lead with the action in one sentence and the subject in the next.

Starting a new paragraph gets a reader’s attention. You can use this for punch.

You should have one topic, or one person speaking, per paragraph.

Important things go at the start of the paragraph. Readers won’t tend to remember as much stuff from the middle or ends. Speed readers might not read those sections at all. The above note about one topic per paragraph? This is why.

2. Repeating things draws attention.

This applies to everything from individual words to overall themes to something like a series of sentences all with the same structure. It can work for you or against you.

A lot of my editing winds up being me reworking sentences to avoid using the same word too closely in succession. I’m not talking basic words here, like ‘he’ and ‘said.’ Those are non-words. If you have enough strong words around them, they disappear. They’re fine. But to use a snippet from a current work in progress:

...(Legend) bares his teeth, river water dripping off his hair and sticking his tunic to his legs. He braces his legs, wet muck squelching over the sides of his boots.

I wound up changing to “sticking his tunic to his thighs” to avoid the repeated word “legs.” I didn’t want to draw attention to his legs themselves, but the state of them. “He braces his feet,” would also work, or I could just cut the sentence down. “He braces,” does the trick just as well, and might be what I go with for the final draft. If the sentence makes sense without the word, then you can let the unneeded word go and your writing will often be stronger for it.

This can be much harder to do with nouns than verbs. Sometimes you just need to call a sword a sword. That’s usually where I start to alternate between a small group of words. “Sword,” “blade,” and “weapon” can all be alternated between to try to avoid using the same word too close together. You might also be able to get around using the problem word at all, as in the example above.

Another note on non-words. Names and pronouns qualify! You can use them over and over again and readers won’t notice. In fact, trying not to use these words can actually draw more attention than just using them!

For example, referring to Hyrule as “the Traveler.” Is it relevant, in the context of what I am writing, that Hyrule travels a lot? Or am I just trying to avoid using his name too much? If the answer is the latter, either don’t bother or change your sentence structure to remove the name entirely. If you have a solid action word, the name will disappear in favor of the action.

Using ‘Traveler’ in this context draws attention away from whatever Hyrule’s doing to what he is. That may not be the best thing to draw attention to. If what you are writing is a story about Hyrule finally getting a safe place of his own to call a home, you could use it for contrast. In which case, save it. Use it once, so it has impact. But if I'm writing about Hyrule teasing Legend, referring to him in that way can disrupt the flow of the story. It draws attention away from Hyrule's personality and his interaction with Legend to his background.

The point is to do it deliberately! It’s okay to use names and pronouns a lot. ‘Traveller’ is a title. Titles stand out.

3. Description slows things down.

Anywhere you want to linger or draw attention is where your descriptions should be going.

The middle of a fast paced action scene where your character is concentrating on the fight might not be the best spot to go into deep detail about the surroundings or what the enemy looks like. Convey those details in bursts that are worked into the action: “Time nearly rolls his ankle on the rocky ground.” Be very sparing. What makes an action scene interesting is how the character feels about what’s happening. You only need enough information on what the surroundings look like for a reader to follow along, and you can probably do most of that setup in a brief paragraph before the actual action starts.

On the other hand, if your character takes a shocking injury in said fight and you really want to dwell on that moment? Or if they’ve got a really cool, flashy move that they unleash in one single exciting burst of fighting prowess? That’s the spot to let your inner poet shine. Slow those spots down and let the reader really enjoy what you’re doing by using your detailed descriptions there.

This applies to all action, not just fighting. Walking through a busy marketplace? Action. A conversation? Can be approached as action. The best spots to use lots of description will be the spots you want to linger on: the first glimpse of a long-lost friend through the crowd, that last hug as they say goodbye.

Description slows things down. Use it accordingly.

Most everything else I can think of is less to do with flow and structure and more to do with other aspects of writing, so I'll stop here.

#writing #resource #reference

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lemon-sugarcoats-nothing · 2 years ago

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I hear you Mocha, and I understand your struggles <3 I know it can be hard sometimes, feeling like your art is and will never be good enough. This feeling is normal, and please please please understand that you're not alone in this! Almost every artist thinks this way from time to time. This isn't to take away from your problems, but for solidarity in knowing that even the artists you look up to most either 1. Feel this way right now or 2. Have felt this way in the past. Myself included.

As for the base usage, thats okay! A lot of artists start out that way, and it doesn't make you any less of an artist. I've seen a lot of improvement with your free-hand art, and I think using bases has helped you with that to an extent. Just remember that it never hurts to branch out from using bases, and you don't have to use them to make something pretty.

I love you Mocha, and I dont mean to lecture or pressure you. I'm here if you ever just want to talk about this and just leave it alone. For that reason, I warn that if you're not looking for any serious advice, disregard the rest of this reply. From here I'm just gonna give tips for expanding your art and getting it where you want to go 💛 Its okay to stop here and come back to it later (or never). Im no authority on any of this, this is just information I gathered through hundreds of hours of hyper-fixation and study through the past....sssiiix years???

If you're looking to change your art style into something different

(whether that be more detailed, more defined, etc.) I heavily recommend you do art studies. Try art styles that maybe you're not familiar with, maybe even not a huge fan of (cough, that would be cubism for me, cough) and see what techniques you might like to incorporate into your own style. With each one ask yourself;

-What do people generally like about this style?

-What makes this style interesting/unique/different?

-What do I personally like about this style?

-What do I NOT like about this style

Try looking at;

-line art (is there any? is it thick? is it thin? Does it have line-weight variations, or is it very same-y?)

-color use (Pastel? Bright colors? Dark colors? Muted? Monochrome?)

-lighting style (Is the shading very detailed and realistic or very simple to get the point across? Is it blended? is the shading hard-edged? Is it a mix of both? is there any shading at all?)

-For character art styles, what Kinds of characters do they draw? (Thin girls with big boobies? Punk/alt fashion and characters? Larger body types? A wide variety of body types? Cartoony, anime, or semi-realistic? etc.)

-What kinds of shape language do they use? (Sharp edges and triangular shapes? Round, soft shapes? Do they use a mix of both?)

-How do they show their subject matter in 3D space? (Do their subjects look like they have weight and form, or are they flat like a sticker? How do they show that?)

-If applicable, look at their youtube speedpaints and watch how they draw; See if you can copy their techniques!

For all of this, there are no rules for what you keep and apply to your own art, and what you discard and choose not to use. I do recommend at least trying out some different styles, and then finding something to practice working into your drawing habits.

For character and fashion design

Again, look at artist's designs that you like! This is also where pinterest will especially be your best friend. Look for references of the type of outfits you want to draw, and see how you can hodgepodge them together into something new!

Some things I like to keep in mind, that i learned from artists like ABDIllustrates;

-It's generally a good idea to keep your pallets limited to just a few main colors, but with every rule in art, theres always room to bend or break them

-Balance your colors through your designs, and focus on where your colors draw your attention when viewing it as a 3rd party. (it might be helpful to take a few hours break from a drawing to do this, or ask a friend) If it draws attention away from where you want it too, then see how you can move colors around or alter them to make it work.

-References are your BEST FRIEND, and dont be afraid to have more than 10 references. The more references you have for a style, the more likely you are to both create something original and something that really feels like a part of that fashion subculture.

-pay attention to how the fabric lays on the people wearing it!

Other than that, all I can really say is just- binge watch ABDIllustrates redesigning his old RWBY characters, his Heartless series, and (if it interests you at all) his Disney D&D designs series. (I also recommend watching his speedpaints if you want to learn from a style that balances cartoon, anime, and semi-realism very well without it getting too complicated)

For line art and sketching

If you also happen to ever feel like your art feels too stiff, these are some little tips that have helped me (whenever i consciously use them ^^;)

-Do not death grip your pen, oh my god do not- This will save you from so many hand cramps and will let you draw longer; Hold your pen comfortably, but try not to put too much pressure on your fingers, or on the pen to your paper/tablet. I know this is a hard habit to break, but instead of trying to hold your pen vertically, try holding it at about a 45 degree angle from your surface and reminding yourself to hold your pen looser.

-Stretch your fingers periodically through the day! This helps ease tension (duh) and can help with the point above with the death grip.

-Take breaks. If your hand starts to hurt, let go of your pen, stretch, and take 5 mins break; If after, your hand STILL hurts, run it under warm water, massage it gently, and do something easy on the hands until your hand feels normal again.

-Try to use long, fluid strokes in sketching. See how long you can sketch before lifting your pen! Go wild dude, and try not to worry about it looking good just yet. do a REALLY rough sketch just to get your idea out there, then a clean up sketch before lineart if you have to. This is especially good if you dont really know what you want to draw or dont know how to draw what you want to. See where your hand takes you!

-For lineart, i have no valid tips for on paper...But digitally! I tend to try not to take to long on a single stroke. I do the strokes fast, and extending past where i want them to go (of course undoing if it doesnt match what i want, and cleaning up any cross over on my lines) Really though, all of it is up to your preferences and how you want your lineart to look. (now or acquired through art studies)

I could keep going, but this is already getting long and anything else I have to say, I'm pretty sure you're already aware of (Figure sketches, gesture drawings, studying realism, etc.) I just hope at least something in this post helps, Mocha.

-Mod Bee 💛🐝

Slight Vent 🍫

I feel like a fake artist. My art's not good unless I use a base, vaguely trace the shapes in an image, or even trace a nice artist's drawing on Pinterest and change it up enough so it's not a blatant rip-off of someone else's hard work. I am not an art tracer, and when I use a base or something as a heavy reference I do credit the original artist. (Save some asks here and there because the reference usually comes from Pinterest and I can't find the original artist for the base because the links back to the source material bug out or I forget to actually look)

All my friends have amazing artwork and styles that are recognizable or likable and the only comment I ever get on my art is "cute". "You're art style's so cute!" "Oh that's cute" cute, cute, CUTE. I want my art to be more than just cute! but I can't draw anything that isn't cute. even if I try to make something scary or different it just ends up being "cute" or inappropriate. This isn't to say I hate the "cute" compliment, but I just hear it and only it so often it feels like that's all my art is ever going to be.

I've tried to own it, but I've seen and still see art styles "cuter" than mine. I also suck at outfit design. hell, it's why Cinna's only in generic dresses, hoodies, and t-shirts. "Design an outfit for a fancy party mocha" I can't because i'm SHIT at fashion design. I can't draw clothes, I can't make anything without a reference, and everyone's better than me. I got straight up rejected from an art school and the art program at my top college. The college i'm going to doesn't require a portfolio and my grades helped me get in. I suck at art and it's frustrating as hell.

..but it's whatever..

🍫

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itsclydebitches · 3 years ago

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I kinda wonder, what could bakugou do (hori write bakugou to do) to make him less popular with the "anti" crowd. Like He was a horrid child no doubt and people who try to put blame on Deku or lessen the terrible shit bakugou did aren't great. But as we don't rly see it, we have to assume bakugous behaviour wasn't stopped, we only ever saw his mum "punishing" him when he was being rude after getting kiddnapped. Nothing will excuse what bakugou did, but he has stopped? He's overall a harsh person but he's not harrassing and bullying people anymore, specifically not deku, he's trying to attone for what he did to deku and has now apologised for it. His behaviour was never viewed as justified or good in the series, he's a scary figure in middle school, we're not meant to like his behaviour, so the series itself hasn't justified his actions.

As someone who relate to both bakugou and deku more than I'd like to admit (never told someone to jump tho, that's fucked lol) so I can 100% understand not liking or even hating bakugou but as someone who's not 15 anymore, looking back I also made a lot of really shitty decisions and like bakugou have tried to make up for it, and like deku I was 'friends' with people who hurt me.

Is there anything he can do for the "antis" to just dislike him rather that be "anti"?

(I'm very sorry if you've talked about this somewhere, you can just tell me to look for it if you have, I'll continue to look for your posts on the subject)

Hey there, anon! I think I’ve spoken about this only tangentially and/or in my main Bakugo meta, which is too big for anyone sane to read. So yeah, let’s chat here!

For me personally—and that’s all I can ever do: speak personally. I think it’s important to keep in mind that there is no single solution to please the “anti” crowd. Each fan will be looking for something slightly different in Bakugo’s character, much of which might contradict what a “stan” is currently enjoying. Given how charged a character he is, I'm not sure it's possible to get the entire fandom to like him—what I’m looking for hinges on having a different reading of the story than you seem to. Meaning, I think the series does justify his behavior. Not in any overt, super obvious way like having all the characters go, “Wow, Bakugo! I sure do love how you threaten people all the time. That’s super cool and heroic!” Things are rarely that straightforward. Rather, it’s in a more subtle, but consistent manner that paints a rather conclusive picture across hundreds of chapters.

Simply put, Bakugo is continually rewarded for his actions. Or, if not outright rewarded, his actions are ignored in a way that implies silent acceptance. Characters may not always like what he does... but they're willing to let it slide because Bakugo's heroism was always treated as a given, not something he had to earn and prove.

With the ever necessary disclaimer that I’m not fully caught up yet, here’s a list of some of the things that stood out to me in the first half of the series:

Bakugo’s bullying made him the most popular kid in school.

Bakugo’s bullying was ignored by/outright supported by the teachers.

Bakugo’s bullying did not hinder him from getting into U.A., one of the most prestigious hero schools around.

Despite acting horribly throughout his time at U.A. too, this behavior was continually ignored by the teachers and other authority figures around him.

Bakugo’s struggle to realize that other people aren’t “trash” doesn’t hurt his achievements in any way. He still gets top scores, still wins the tournament, etc.

Bakugo’s behavior gets him special attention from All Might, the greatest hero and Bakugo’s personal idol.

His behavior doesn’t make others dislike him in any manner that’s taken seriously. Everybody is still willing to not just put up with Bakugo, but—in time—start treating his behavior as a quirk (no pun intended lol) that they’re secretly fond of, rather than something he should legitimately be striving to change. Kirishima is the most overt example of this.

This is compounded by his behavior constantly being framed as humorous. Much like with Mineta’s perverted actions, characters might superficially go, “No, that’s bad!” but the story never demands any significant development because then we’d lose the “joke” of Bakugo screaming in rage at the slightest inconvenience, threatening to murder someone over nothing, constantly belittling everyone around him in a “funny” manner, etc. When fans talk about development of a manga character as archetypal and extreme as Bakugo, most don’t really want to see significant change to his base personality. Because then that would result in someone who doesn’t look like the “real” Bakugo: someone nicer, more even-tempered, more mature, etc. But for those of us who were never drawn to that personality in the first place, the continued acceptance of his rude, egotistical, and violent behavior is discomforting. The easiest comparison I can draw is between this and Bakugo’s mother slapping him. That slap is meant to be another “joke”—we see it constantly in shonen anime, something "humorous" you shouldn’t take too seriously because haha, it's just an overprotective mother—but many fans do take it seriously, using it as the basis for a whole “Bakugo was abused and this explains his behavior” reading. Well, I take the “joke” of Bakugo’s threats and insults seriously, especially in a story that starts with something like telling Izuku to jump off the roof. In the same way that many fans want others to treat Bakugo’s mother as a serious topic that has had a negative influence on his development, I want the series to take Bakugo’s everyday actions seriously as a negative influence on… well, everyone around him. But it doesn’t. His base personality is grudgingly adored.

The above two points are seen most overtly in Izuku, who never wavers in his respect for Bakugo despite how Bakugo treats him. Not just prior to U.A., but during their training too. Izuku, as the protagonist, is the emotional heart of this tale, so when he talks about how inspiring Bakugo is, it encourages the reader to see his behavior as inspiring too. Rather than, as said, something that needs to change. Izuku's continued friendship with Bakugo, his adoration of him, and his acceptance of the way he's treated has severely warped how the entire story sees Bakugo's actions. After all, if #pure Izuku can see the good in Bakugo, why can't everyone else? He must not be that bad after all.

I could get into detailed analyses of all the above—like how Bakugo was the one comforted after attacking Izuku outside the dorms at night and how the messed up relationship he has with Izuku is upheld as something to nurture; how the remedial courses he had to take were made to be rather silly, thereby undermining their supposed importance to his development; how Bakugo’s kidnapping had nothing to do with his flaws, but much of the fandom uses it as a way to dismiss any appropriate consequences because, “Hasn’t he suffered enough?” etc.—but in the interest of keeping this within a readable length, I’ll leave it at that. The point is that Bakugo has always been privileged when it comes to his behavior, resulting in others either outright praising it, ignoring it, or demanding that he change a miniscule bit, which always keeps him far below the standards of both his peers and the expectations of a hero. Everyone in 1-A must learn to be even better than the good people they already are... Bakugo needs to learn that other people aren't dirt at the bottom of his shoes. It's never been a particularly impressive development when pit against the rest of the class. All of which can make something like an apology feel pretty hollow. Yes, he’s apologized and I say with all seriousness that that’s great! But how does that apology stack up against 300+ chapters of content? As Bakugo’s words highlight, he's been a really awful person up "until now": he was consumed by Izuku being “miles ahead of [him],” he “looked down on [him]” because he didn’t have a quirk, he “didn’t want to recognize that,” he “hated that,” “grew distant,” “tried to beat you down,” “opposed you and tried to show my superiority over you,” and ends it all with, “it probably doesn’t mean anything telling you all this” before finally getting to the “I’m sorry.” This is basically a laundry list of how horrible a person Bakugo has been for the entire series, with an acknowledgement that this apology is coming really, really late. This is the moment where I could START to like Bakugo, depending on how he acts form here on out, but that pivotal moment arrived after six years of content and in the final arc of the story. It’s too late. Bakugo needed this kind of self-reflection and positive action 250+ chapters ago so he could (hopefully) grow into a better person across the story, not at the story's end. What we got instead is 322 chapters of him being a really horrible person, but the story going out of its way to excuse or even praise that behavior the majority of the time.

As a quick comparison to end on, I think what Bakugo needed was what Soo Jin got in True Beauty. You don’t need to have seen the drama to follow along. The tl;dr is that she has a lot of the core qualities of Bakugo: an all-consuming drive to win that was created due to abusive parents with high expectations, resulting in her bullying a peer to a pretty horrific extent. The difference between them is how the story frames their actions. When Soo Jin becomes the bully she loses everything. Rather than succeeding academically, her grades plummet, making it clear that this anxiety and self-doubt (things the fandom keeps insisting Bakugo is struggling with, but that rarely ever show up in the text) is actually impacting her day-to-day life. Her best friend drops her because she’s not going to support her choices. The boy she likes rejects her. She’s eventually forced to start over somewhere new - which importantly separates her from the girl she was bullying - and get some distance from her parents, resulting in the growth needed to become a healthier, happier, good person again. So when Soo Jin apologizes to the girl she hurt, it feels earned. The story continually recognized how horrific her actions were and put her into a place where she either had to change, or continue losing at everything else that was important to her. Bakugo? Bakugo doesn’t lose. Oh, he claims he does because he’s comparing himself to Izuku constantly, but that’s just him thinking in extremes. He still wins academically. Still wins many battles. Still wins at having friends. Still wins by maintaining the prestige of being a U.A. student. Still wins by getting All Might’s attention. Still wins by receiving Izuku’s respect and an agreement to maintain this rivalry that Bakugo is so obsessed with. Bakugo comes out well 99% of the time, he just thinks he's "lost" because he can't stand not being the absolute best.

For me, the story needed to have Bakugo face consequences for his behavior, not receive rewards and/or have others ignore it, and that revelation/apology needed to come way, way sooner. For me the issue is not a specific action that Horikoshi can have Bakugo do in the next chapter and them bam, I like him now. The problem is Bakugo’s entire concept, how he’s received by the entire cast, and his run across this entire series. "Entire" is the key word there. Which is why the “But he’s apologized. What more do you antis want?” reactions don’t sit well. What we wanted is a better written redemption arc across those 300+ chapters, not a single scene that’s meant to have us forget all the other problems inherent in the story. At this point it’s a far more complicated situation than, “Bakugo just needs to do X, Y, and Z and then we’re golden.” At the end of the day, Horikoshi failed to make me like him as a person and I’m pretty sure he isn’t going to change Bakugo enough to make him likable to me. Bakugo was never the sort of character I’d be inclined towards without a serious, nuanced redemption arc, but sadly, a core, crucial part of that redemption arc took six years to arrive. At this point there’s no way to change the problems in Bakugo’s writing for that huge chunk of the series and not enough time left in the series, it seems, to do the work we should have seen across the entire run. Honestly, idk if the Bakugo we'll get going forward is someone I can just dislike as opposed to being really uncomfortable with, but my money is on there being too little story left and too much investment in upholding Bakugo's base personality for that to happen. I could absolutely be proven wrong! But I think the problems are structural and needed to be better dealt with from page one, not hastily patched over in the final hour.

#BNHA #My Hero Academia #anti bakugo

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