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beepboop358 · 3 years ago

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A Prom in S4 Theory & Music Coding Predictions

Some leaked set pics indicate that there MAY BE a junior/senior prom at Hawkins High, which they are calling the "Lover's Ball". It's unclear if this prom will be included on screen, or if it will just be mentioned as an event coming up at Hawkins High because this flyer could just extra set decor. Regardless if the prom happens on screen or not, there will probably be some tension about 'who's asking who' to the prom that we will see in s4. Given that this picture was just leaked a few weeks ago, it probably falls closer to the end of the season sequentially.

Having a big school dance in s4 is suspiciously close to how they had the Snowball scene in s2. This would certainly follow the even/odd season patterns, (and actually add to the list of the patterns), which kind of makes me think we will see this prom on screen, or at the very least it will be mentioned in the course of the season.

The Duffer Brothers love Steven King and reference his work and especially 'IT' a lot in the show, but they haven't done anything with Carrie yet so maybe we will get a Carrie moment this season at the prom...

Carrie was on the video store fridays movie inspiration board for ST4.

At the "Lover's Ball", there will be definitely be some music coding relating to Byler. Since music coding is kind of a key thing in the show, I've been rifling through 80's songs to try and find some that may fit with s4's themes/character storylines (and I may do a seperate post about that later), but for this post I'm just gonna focus on what they might use at the prom for relating to Byler.

Since the season is most likely going to take place in 1986, I only selected songs that had a compatible release year so it would be historically accurate. (these songs would also be great for a byler playlist!)

Some strong contenders for the songs that might play at the prom to reference Mike and Will's relationship could be:

"True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper (1986)

This song is honestly too good of an option for them not to use. I'm reallllyyy crossing my fingers for this one.

It's hard to take courage In a world full of people You can lose sight of it all And the darkness inside you Can make you feel so small

"And I see your true colors Shining through I see your true colors And that's why I love you So don't be afraid (don't be afraid) To let them show your true colors True colors are beautiful (you're beautiful, oh) Like a rainbow Oh oh oh oh oh like a rainbow"

If this world makes you crazy And you've taken all you can bear You call me up Because you know I'll be there

"Heaven" by Bryan Adams (1984)

This first verse is literally just the story of Byler... 😭 The rest of the song applies but that verse verse is just sooooo accurate. (I'm crossing my fingers for this one too)

"Oh thinkin' about all our younger years There was only you and me We were young and wild and free Now nothing can take you away from me We've been down that road before But that's over now You keep me comin' back for more

Baby you're all that I want When you're lyin' here in my arms I'm findin' it hard to believe We're in heaven And love is all that I need And I found it there in your heart Isn't too hard to see We're in heaven

Oh once in your life you find someone Who will turn your world around Bring you up when you're feelin' down Yeah nothin' can change what you mean to me Oh there's lots that I could say But just hold me now 'Cause our love will light the way"

"Take My Breath Away" by Berlin (1986)

This song is on Will's Spotify playlist, and I thought it could also be used at the prom since it's a romantic song. I see it as an 'entrance to the prom' moment song, almost like a 'first look' - like the Mike and El moment at the snowball when she first walks in, but with Mike and Will this time. I think the lyrics clearly hint to this kind of 'first look' moment as well.

"Watchin' every motion in my foolish lover's game On this endless ocean, finally lovers know no shame Turning and returning to some secret place inside Watchin' in slow motion as you turn around and say...take my breath away"

Watchin' every motion in this foolish lover's game Haunted by the notion, somewhere there's a love in flames Turning and returning to some secret place inside Watchin' in slow motion as you turn my way and say...take my breath away"

"In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins (1981)

This song was originally meant to be included in the snowball scene from s2, but it ultimately was not used and "Every Breath You Take" was used for this scene instead. Since it was intended to be a part of the s2 dance, that's why I think it may be used at the prom this season. (you can read the scripts on 8flix)

——— I forgot to include this explanation originally BUT, I think this song might be used to show some anger/resentment between the two, and to show a decent amount of tension, depending on their development this season. Like maybe Mike is kind of leading Will on in private by continuing to initiate intimate scenes between them, but in public Mike is still trying to put on his “straight boy act” and kind of being a jackass about it, and this song could be used to show the tension between them that has caused.

"And I've been waiting for this moment, for all my life, (Oh lord)

Well, I was there and I saw what you did I saw it with my own two eyes So you can wipe off that grin, I know where you've been It's all been a pack of lies.

Well I remember, I remember don't worry How could I ever forget It's the first time, the last time we ever met But I know the reason why you keep this silence up

No you don't fool me The hurt doesn't show, but the pain still grows It's no stranger to you and me"

"In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel (1986)

Some of the lyrics in this song just SCREAMS byler, just look at the 1st, 2nd and 4th paragraphs. I would be suprised if they didn't use this song in either s4/s5.

Love, I get so lost sometimes Days pass and this emptiness fills my heart When I want to run away I drive off in my car But whichever way I go I come back to the place you are

All my instincts, they return The grand facade, so soon will burn Without a noise, without my pride I reach out from the inside

In your eyes The light, the heat (in your eyes) I am complete (in your eyes) I see the doorway (in your eyes) To a thousand churches (in your eyes) The resolution (in your eyes) Of all the fruitless searches (in your eyes)

Love, I don't like to see so much pain So much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away I get so tired working so hard for our survival I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive

"Heroes" by David Bowie (1975)

David Bowie was bisexual. A cover of his song “Heroes” is used in the show twice already, sung by Peter Gabriel. The song plays when they pull Will's fake body out of the water in season one and Mike cries in his Mom's arms, with some very queer-coded lyrics in the background, and after Hopper's letter in s3 (which is very Byler-centric)

"I will be king. And you, you will be queen 'Cause we're lovers, and that is a fact. Yes, we're lovers, and that is that. Though nothing will keep us together. We could steal time just for one day We can be heroes forever and ever. What d'you say? I, I wish I could swim, like dolphins, like dolphins could swim I, I can remember (I remember) Standing by the wall (By the wall) And the guns shot above our heads (Over our heads) And we kissed as though nothing could fall (Nothing could fall) And the shame was on the other side. Oh, we can beat them forever and ever. Then we could be heroes just for one day We're nothing, and nothing will help us Maybe we're lying, then you better not stay But we could be safer just for one day"

I just thought the above songs might be some highly likely possibilities given that they fit the year of the s4 and also make references to not only love, but the idea of hiding, pain, shame, longing, etc., and can make some (partially stretching here) references to other things in the show such as:

RAINBOWS and TRUE COLORS, SHINING THROUGH (rainbows imagery is always associated with Mike & Will in the show and a is symbol of lgbtq+ pride, True Colors shining through = who you really are on the inside finally coming out)

IF THIS WORLD MAKES YOU CRAZY ("crazy together", "only love makes you that crazy" and references the "world" motif in the show)

YOUNGER YEARS, ONLY YOU AND ME, YOUNG, WILD AND FREE (references "not wanting things to change" and wanting "to make things go how they were" part in Hopper's letter, and the "But we're not kids anymore" comment during the Byler fight)

ENDLESS OCEAN and SWIM, LIKE DOLPHINS (references water's significance in the show)

FLAMES (Will in front of the burning car in s4 teaser?)

LIES and LYING (Mike lying to El about how he feels)

INSTINCTS RETURNING, FACADES BURNING, WITHOUT MY PRIDE, I REACH OUT FROM THE INSIDE (Mike's feelings for Will are his instincts, the facade is the act he put on in s3 to seem straight, burning could reference Will & fire, and I think the last 2 lines of that 2nd verse reference vulnerability- perhaps in an apology/confession)

I GET SO LOST (confusion about his sexuality, feeling lost without the other) and SO MUCH WASTED TIME (known each other since kindergarten but were unaware the other felt the same way/was dealing with same things, they could have been even closer)

KINGS and QUEENS (the d&d game mike wrote where he has king Tristan give him a medal in s1)

STEALING TIME (references "turning back the clock, to make things go how they were" part in Hopper's letter and the time theme in s4 and time is central to the s4 plot)

AND WE KISS - AND THE SHAME (references the shame they both feel about being gay since it was so stigmatized in the 80's)

Byler @ Prom Possibilities:

If Mike and Will did dance together at the prom, they will probably get bullied because they live in a small conservative town. They will probably either run out, upset, or Eleven will step in to protect them which could lead to the Carrie moment.

Or Mike and Will will not dance together in the actual dance room, but instead sneak off to somewhere else in the school and have a private Byler dance moment where they can't be teased and it's just them together.

OR Mike and Will are still acting weird at this point in the season because neither of them is communicating what needs to be said out of fear, or one of them has confessed or done something to indicate how they feel, but the other hasn’t so everything is weird between them. There would be lots of tension from this and we would get lots of longing looks and adoring moments between the two of them from the sidelines. (I think this one is the most likely)

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inkwell-intermission · 6 years ago

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What's your headcanon for Charms?

CHARMS

excessive elaboration below! warning: it’s... a LOT.

Alright, so now that I’ve established that, I can go into what (in my headcanons) each charm is. I’ve taken to the idea that the symbol of the charm itself is relevant to what kind of relationship the charm depicts.

I’m going to throw out the idea of the heart being specifically matespritship and the diamond being moirallegiance right off the bat- leprechauns aren’t related to trolls whatsoever, so there’s no implication there’d be carry-overs.

SO: WHAT DOES EACH CHARM SYMBOLIZE!

(all charms are open to some interpretation among individuals.)

HEARTS: A relationship of equal exchange- all parties involved within a heart charm are mutually invested in one another. It’s kind of a bigger deal among the charms, because officially entering a heart charm is a declaration of how serious they are about charming with each other.

Traditions: Ballroom dancing, poetry, and card games. Less pranks are involved- steering particularly clear of ones involving deception.

MOONS: Dependence and trust are important in this charm. There’s often some serious attachment, and devotion involved with this charm. There is a parallel between Moons and Stars when it comes to the level of dedication implied by this charm.

Traditions: Foxtrot, jitterbug, swing, waltz, and dances involving placing one’s safety in another’s hands- those are treated as incredibly important to the Moons charm. Go fish, roulette, Uno, Yahtzee.

STARS: Reverence and admiration. The depth to this charm can range from short term infatuation to deeply felt, healthy adoration of another. When idealized, Stars takes on an almost worshiping undertone, whether emotional, physical, or anything else the charmer can think of. Moons and Stars when it comes to the level of dedication implied by this charm. Stars has a particular focus on the charmers and their place in the world, and waxing philosophical.

Traditions: Cha-cha, foxtrot, waltz, philosophical brain teasers. Dancing is often either vibrant and passionate or slower and savored as an act of intimacy. Poetry is somewhat encouraged and often free verse. Solitaire, pig, y

CLOVERS: It’s lucky! Clovers bring out the best in one another, as a good luck charm might. Clovers often click easily and can read each other’s moods and body language. There’s a little less explicit communication involved in this charm, but if the charmers are intending to be Clovers, there should be little issue with this usually- although Clovers is often considered a more fickle charm and is easily broken and formed. Often taken too casually, whenever charmers decide they’re lucky to one another over only one or two occasions.

Traditions: Blackjack, 52 pickup, betting on dice in general, tongue twisters. Salsa, samba, swing, free-styling.

DIAMONDS: Sharp- Diamonds is usually a very intense charm to have, depending on the charmers in question- but it’s just like they symbol- not easily broken, but not meant to be a source of comfort. Diamonds is a charm of relief, in it’s own way. It’s emotionally colder than other charms. There are quickly defined and respected boundaries, but within those boundaries Diamonds charmers go absolutely hog wild. It could be considered close to kismesisstude. It’s a charm where someone goes to release pent up energy, feelings, and anything else they can think of.

Traditions: Within boundaries, more physical pranks involving things like mild injury and property damage. War, Bullshit, Roulette, liar’s dice, poker, and in unhealthy cases, Russian Roulette, which can also be involved in pranks. Cheating at cards and any other games is most common here. Tango and samba.

HORSESHOES: Camaraderie and comfort in one another’s company is important for Horseshoes. There’s hardly any competition in this charm- it’s very casual. It’s a charm that’s often taken up by more than two charmers, and a charm used for the typical more casual relationship if one wants to put a charm to it. There’s little room for jealousy in Horseshoes. Like the game, getting too intense about Horseshoes can spoil it. Often flaunted by loose-footed leprechauns more than other charms.

Traditions: Poker, blackjack, crazy eights, liar’s dice, pig, war, Yahtzee. Limerick competitions, subversive riddles, often cliche practical jokes. Waltz, salsa, free-styling.

BALLOONS: Care- The balloon charm is reminiscent of delicacy. Any kind of harshness that may be put into a relationship is dulled down. It’s a charm of recuperation- this could be considered vaguely similar to moirallegiance in how Balloons will act particularly considerate towards one another’s sensitivities, boundaries, and emotional state. One of the easiest charms to break- like a balloon, it’s rather easy to pop if someone’s careless.

Traditions: Slow dancing- or whatever is most preferred by all parties involved. Pranks aren’t meant to seriously startle or harm- more like surprise, or humor. It’s heavily tied to the Balloons’ sensitivities. Philosophical brain teasers, and Go Fish or other low stakes card games.

RAINBOWS: Spontaneity and livelihood- Rainbows is charm of enjoyment and pleasant experiences. Rainbows often know each other on a meaningful level, or are good enough at reading each other to predict their moods and offer distraction and satiety through games, conversation, dancing, and the like. It’s a charm to forget about reality in- though some charmers could get too lost, and end up delusional- which can break a Rainbow pretty quick. Rainbows are also often very transparent with one another, as the charm is not a place of judgement.

Traditions: Jive, swing, and energetic dances. Slapjack, craps, pig, liar’s dice, Old Maid, Crazy Eights, tongue twisters and limericks. Often involve persistent, fun and harmless pranks, usually well meant depending on the charmers.

POT O’ GOLD: Respect is important in this charm. It’s a relationship based on benefits, what kind of reciprocal gains all parties get from being in this charm. Impressions are important- It may not be the most emotionally vulnerable charm, but it certainly relies on perception as being very important- you want to impress your Gold- the facade is part of the fun. Gold charmers show off for each other, although often in subtle indirect ways. There’s definitely passive aggressive energy in Gold.

Traditions: Foxtrot, mambo, technically advanced dances. Poker, poker dice, liar’s dice, longer and more complex riddles. A borderline competitive back-and-forth of eloquently written riddles or poetry.

OTHER NOTES:

Charmer: one of the individuals involved in a charm, or a potential charm partner (sometimes used for established partner and charm “crush” interchangeably)

Someone’s charmer is referred to as “my charmer” or charm-mate, or “my Moons” or whatever charm they’re involved with.

Vacillating a charm doesn’t really exist- it’s referred to as breaking a charm.

Charmbreak is a vague synonym to heartbreak.

Charms can have more than two people involved, like with human relationships or quadrants.

Specific combinations of charms, mostly troves, have certain titles- having both Stars and Moons with the same charmer could be called a Space Binary, and so on- not all of these have been ironed out, obviously.

Yes, dancing is a sexy thing. So is music, albeit less so- but it is something you dance to. Singing is considered a very intimate action as well, especially singing and dancing at the same time.

I have been working on this post for two hours! I hope this wasn’t too much, but these sure are my charm headcanons!

#hs intermission #the felt #shippy stuff #charm stuff #heacanons #leprechaun romance #headcanons #this took me over two hours please appreciate it #i put a lot of thought into these #ive been thinking about this stuff for ages #mothmun mumbles #i have speakened...#anon #ask

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echodrops · 6 years ago

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The issue for both writers and creators is they actually have to be vague or misleading when talking about their content to not spoil it. If we take A:TLA as an example. If they were to come out with "Aang and Katara are end game" they would be severely backhanded by Nickelodeon and risk punishments from the big name company. I hate shipping wars even while working in the industry but it's hard for us to shut them down without risking our lively hood. So we have to mislead to keep our jobs.

(Anon, I’m really sorry that this is getting dumped on you, but this is an issue I’ve been thinking about for a while, so I kinda went off, oopsss…)

I’m actually fully aware of non-disclosure agreements and the policy behind limiting information that is released to fans, so while I definitely appreciate the sentiment and understand that things are really difficult for the studios and “little guys” on any production team, I absolutely draw the line at buying the idea that fans need to be deliberately misled in order to protect show writers and staff.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to interact with fans and field shipping questions, and the fact that so many shows, book series, and other forms of media exist out there without experiencing the major problems that have affected shows like A:TLA and Voltron is proof that some productions manage fan and media relations very well and others definitely don’t. Aggressive shipping wars and fan behavior bad enough to attract mainstream media attention aren’t the standard experience of most production teams, so when they occur, it is almost always at least in part because of poor management of public relations on the creators’ end.

You won’t see me defending “fans” who cross the line and actually harass or send death threats to each other or any member of a production team, obviously not, but in today’s media environment, it’s a huge trend to make producers and writers out to be victims of their fandoms, whose questions and requests are treated like invasions of privacy and/or infringements on the writers’ creative freedom that must be actively and constantly defended against, a careful balancing act where the staff must constantly avoid ever giving away too much while the rabid fandom accosts them with an unstoppable hoard of demands…

But this is an illusion deliberately fabricated by some production teams to manipulate fan interest.

Media teams act like purposefully misleading audiences is a necessity because fans ask such invasive questions, oh what can we do, they won’t leave us alone about endgame ships! But this is smokescreen that ignores one basic truth: at the end of the day, creators and production teams (should, if well-managed at least) get to choose which questions get answered and which don’t.

Answering questions on social media or in a professional interview? Screen them in advance. Don’t answer questions that require dishonest answers.

Voice actors or writers going out to a convention? Give them strict rules for what they can and can’t hint at. Hell, even answering completely unscreened questions at cons? “I’m sorry, I can’t answer that without spoiling the story” is always a viable response.

A basic “We don’t answer questions about shipping” policy is, in fact, something that production teams also absolutely have the power to choose!

Even as you yourself note, crew members typically have professional social media accounts and can control when and how those accounts get used–they can choose not to respond to fan questions at any time.

Ergo, the choice to offer misleading answers to fans, particularly about relationships, is just that: a deliberate choice.

What’s really going on here is this: Most production teams can’t completely ignore fan questions and still keep fans hyped about their shows. Most creators and teams want and need to interact with and drops hints for their fans to stir up interest, keep people excited during show downtime, or just in general get people talking and speculating about their works. The more strung-along the fans are, the more tension, anticipation, and speculation teams’ provoke, the more active a show’s fandom becomes–and therefore the more a show profits. A quiet, inactive fandom does not attract additional viewership by word-of-mouth, does not move merchandise, and does not prevent loss of viewership over extended waits between seasons.

In short, creators and production teams actively profit from “stirring the pot,” from causing some tension and provoking anticipation/excitement in their fans. By dropping hints and teasers of what’s to come, by answering fan questions that expand on the series’ world or characters, the creators give fans more to talk about–and therefore can anticipate more talking about their show in general.

“Buzz” is money in the bank.

And production teams have discovered that nothing provokes buzz among online fans as quickly and productively as shipping. Targeting relationship-hungry fans (typically female fans, by the way) and stringing them along with hints, teasers, and red herrings about endgame ships is absolutely a profit-producing venture for show writers and teams nowadays. Getting ship-happy fans all excited about potential romances in your show, so much that they’re out there writing online manifestos, creating fanworks for your shows’ characters, talking to all their friends about it? #DOLLARSIGNSSSSS. Creators, both manipulatively and non-maliciously, actively capitalize on networks of online fans, especially fanwork creators like fanfic authors and artists (both of whom often focus on relationship-related material) to generate additional interest in their shows and therefore produce greater revenue in the long-term.

It’s basic logic: tease your fans -> generate more buzz about your show -> attract more attention -> profit.

(I don’t mean to say that creators are only ever thinking about making money, obviously–of course they naturally want to interact with fans because doing so is intrinsically rewarding and fun. Naturally creators are excited and want to interact with their fans! But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t ALSO a very specific, very obvious way to increase the popularity of one’s work.)

So sure, it’s all well and good to say “We can’t tell you the truth because we can’t spoil the show!” but let’s not act like that’s the only reason writers and show staff drop vague and misleading answers on their fans.

Teased fans, anticipatory fans, hopeful fans, hyped-up fans, obsessed fans… These are the “whales” of viewership, the ones who flood your show’s convention panels, buy your show’s merchandise, haunt the media for even the tiniest tidbits of new info on your work… These are the kinds of people who sit down and force everyone they know to watch your show too. They’re exactly the kind of fans you want to court and keep the attention of. And production teams know that they can keep and inflame the attention of these fans, in large part, by hinting at exactly the things those particular fans want to hear–whether or not they ever intend to fulfill on the things they’re hinting at.

By carefully sprinkling out hints–even and often intentionally misleading hints!–creators increase the tension and interest among fans to deliberately capitalize on their energy, investment, and willingness to continually, obsessively talk about the show.

Say it with me guys:

Shipping wars are money-makers.

It’s not just a matter of keeping secrets to protect the little guys. It’s a matter of keeping secrets and misleading fans intentionally to produce more revenue.

Creators don’t have a vested interest in being honest and open with their fans because they actively benefit from secret-keeping and misinformation.

And you know what?

I actually think that’s fine. I can’t even imagine a world in which every writing team came forward and said “Here are spoilers for everything and every relationship in our story, so you guys don’t have to fight over them!” Obviously the entire concept of spoilers exists for a reason–most people don’t WANT to know every twist, turn, and relationship in a story in advance. We LIKE being teased, we like hunting for hints, and we even like being strung-along as we get to experience the anticipation of satisfying plot twists still to come.

No one is asking for a full plot synopsis in advance.

But there IS a right and wrong way to drop hints for fans, and some obviously right and wrong choices to make, especially when creators become aware that their fandoms are becoming aggressive and hostile. Creators absolutely have the power to make bad situations in their fandoms much, much worse, and a blanket “It’s not our fault; we had to be misleading!” is nothing more than a way of passing the buck and pretending like production teams don’t have a major hand in setting the tone for their fandoms overall.

Of course fans are accountable for any of their own bad behavior, but poor public and media relations absolutely have the power to poison fandoms and incite aggression. When you deliberately yell “Fire!” in a theatre, you can’t claim you’re not responsible for the chaos that follows. When you bring up politics at a family dinner, you can’t act like the argument that follows wasn’t your fault.

The intentionally “vague and misleading” things creators say have profound impacts on their fandoms, and therefore creators and production teams have a responsibility to interact with their fans in a professional and mindful manner.

Of course you want to tease and trick a little! But it’s remarkably easy to do so in a non-damaging manner:

Instead of:

“Character A might end up with Character B OR Character C!” (obviously inflammatory)

It would be perfectly reasonable to answer with:

“Character A is going to have a romantic arc by the end, but let’s just enjoy that story line as it comes!” (teases and excites fans without fueling conflict between fan groups)

Instead of:

Character A and Character B are totally compatible! (obvious ship tease)

Say:

We planned for all our characters to be compatible with each other to build interesting dynamics between everyone. (redirects attention toward your story’s overall goal without lowering any shippers’ hopes)

Instead of:

Oh I can’t tell you too much, but I can tell you Character A and Character B are going to have a lot of ~mEaNiNgFuL~ interactions in the future! (obvious bait)

Say:

We’re really excited about where our characters are going in the future, especially [insert company approved spoiler-ish tidbit here]! (gives fans something new and exciting to talk about without leaving them feeling like they’ve been tricked)

Get explicitly asked about a ship by a fan and for some reason absolutely have to give an answer? Saying “We can’t spoil any romances that might or might not happen, but we wrote the story the way we thought was best, so hopefully you’ll enjoy where it goes!” gives shippers hope without making anyone feel like they were promised something that was never going to happen.

And good lord, have you discovered there’s a serious dispute brewing between groups of your fans? Uh… Have you tried not giving answers that deliberately favor one ship in one interview and then conflicting answers that favor the other ship in another interview, leaving your fans confused about your stance? Have you tried uhhh… redirecting fans to your plot or world-building and getting them hyped about things you’re actually planning to include in the show instead of relationships you never intended to make good on? Have you tried uhhh… maybe just NOT dumping fans from the frying pan into the fire by commenting further on ships you already know are causing tension?

There are plenty of ways for production teams to be vague and avoid spoilers without disproportionately raising fan expectations and contributing to conflicts between fan groups. The copious companies who manage popular shows without their fandoms dissolving into public death threats and toxicity so notorious that people who don’t even watch the show know about it are perfect proof. Some creators and production teams are just really, really fucking bad at PR, and that’s a problem! That’s a problem that contributes to serious and sometimes even literally dangerous issues among fans. If you’re in the industry, as you claim, that’s something you should and need to be aware of and take responsibility for.

Like, I’m not in even in PR, but it doesn’t take a degree in communications to figure out that there’s a very obvious line between the type of teasing that’s going to contribute to a productive, positive fan environment and the type of baiting and misleading that’s going to foster divisions and frustrations among your fans.

Of course it’s not always the creators’ or team’s fault when a ship war starts! These things can’t always be predicted and we’re all just human. People slip up and blunder when interacting with others all the time. Mistakes happen. But when the creators actively contribute to a ship war, fan the flames, encourage both sides, and either deliberately or carelessly hype up fan expectations they know they have no intention of fulfilling (as was the case with both A:TLA and Voltron), they’re increasing and encouraging the hostile environment in their fandoms–sometimes very intentionally to reap profits off obsessed fans.

So like, I get it? No one is asking for creators to be less vague or drop all red herrings. No one wants the entire story spoiled in advance.

But as a viewer, I do expect creators and production teams to demonstrate professionalism in their responses to both other media and directly to fans. I expect them to respect their viewers and to tease their fans in a genuine, responsible way that doesn’t promote conflict or make implied promises that will never be kept simply to turn a profit off of hopeful fans.

Most importantly, I expect creators and production teams to be aware of the impacts their words and answers have on fans, and to be accountable for those words and answers. If creators choose to interact with fans, they need to do so in a way that isn’t actively harmful. That should be pretty freaking obvious to everyone involved.

Will PR blunders and social media mistakes happen? Of course, always.

But is kicking a hornets’ nest–say, teasing that ship you know is never going to happen, when you’ve heard through the grapevine your fans are already divided about it–ever really a mistake?

No sell, buddy.

tl;dr: Expecting professionals to handle PR… you know… professionally isn’t outrageous.

#fandom meta #fans and creators #public relations #showrunners #animation industry #fan questions #toxic fandom #fan expectations #Voltron #avatar the last airbender #this isn't rocket science #and it should be obvious I'm not talking about the little guys on production teams here #those people are rarely if ever directly expected to answer fan questions #the three groups likely to answer questions are the writers #executive producers #and voice actors #and of those three #only the voice actors can really be said to be blameless if they accidentally answer questions about the plot or relationships #if your EPs or writers are deliberately misleading fans #in a way that isn't positively contributing to the fandom as a whole #THAT'S A FUCKING PROBLEM BRO #it's not your fandom's fault if the writers or EPs lack PR training #and if members of the production team are contributing to fan conflicts #uh maybe they SHOULD face repercussions for that #just saying #anon had no idea what hornets' nest THEY were kicking #but this issue has been bugging me for a while #because I'm super sick of creators nowadays acting like they had no hand in contributing to the toxicity of their fandoms #when there's a clear fucking pattern of similarities between toxic fandoms #and goddawful PR is numero uno

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ftzone · 6 years ago

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SCHEDULE 04, 12.11.18 - 03.12.18

every week idols and trainees are busy preparing for something: debuts, comebacks, concerts, performances, televised appearances, and more! read under the cut for what your muse is doing this week. please note: threads & solos for this week’s schedule are due 03/12/18 by 09:59 AM in order to be eligible for points (+5 sp, +5 popularity, +5 karma)! in order to obtain points, a thread must reach 3/3 (3 replies per person); for every 3 replies after the initial 3, one may add +5 sp, +5 popularity and +5 karma.

DINGBAT ARTISTS

Siren — the members have their days absolutely packed, fitting as many activities as possible into a short period of time. Siren’s two week faux-vacation is coming to an end but they need more content, something a little juicier to catch the attention of non-fans as well as fans. busking like their trainee days? a proper dinner party where they get wine-drunk? and how about a game of truth or dare, where they reveal all their secrets – that is, all their harmless secrets, their managers remind.

MYSTERY — nerves are at an all time high, this week bringing MYSTERY’s comeback trailer to the public. it’s different than anything they’ve ever done before and fans are in a frenzy, theories being thrown everywhere. the members can feel the buzz of their group growing, it’s a surreal experience, and it’s hard to stay focused on preparations when they just want to refresh comments.

MELODY — finally done with promotions, MELODY may have thought they would be getting a week off to refresh, but dbg is determined to keep them in the limelight. they somehow landed a spot on running man, appearing alongside other special guests for a fun-filled episode.

trainee group, neXus — it’s a week full of vocal lessons! everything neXus’s future members are doing revolves around singing. even karaoke becomes work. but it’s worth it in the hopes of getting good scores on their evaluations at the end of the week.

JACKRABBIT ARTISTS

STRINGS — as the time gets closer towards the group’s japanese debut showcase set for the end of november, last minute modifications are being made to each song. members are back to stricter diet schedules, intense japanese lessons and daily song run-throughs. the group as a whole is expected to lay low the next few weeks until their trip to japan.

libra — while joonyoung is trying to ramp up hype for the boys in japan, the girls continue to make themselves stand out on the homefront. grab your workout shoes because the ladies of libra will be singing “chase me!” this week on their first ever appearance on sbs’ running man!

KILLJOY ARTISTS

LURE — SOLO 2 will debut this week and perform on music shows as soon as the music video for “Fantasy” is released! the rest of the girls will begin the slow, tired preparation for not only a full-group comeback (that has been said to happen in february 2019) but also their 10 year anniversary fan event/concert! all of the girls, besides SOLO 2, are able to take a break from any and all activities this week before the preparations for the comeback and fan event happening early next year.

Corpse Party — Corpse Party will be filming their music video for “Sorry” this week as their comeback in december is slowly, but quickly approaching. company officials have stated that the boys will comeback around mid-december, just in time to not be able to win any awards for the song during the year-end shows. at least their extended play “dangerous” is still eligible!

V!BE — this is the first week of V!BE’s world tour “V!BRANT TOUR: FEEL THE V!BE WORLDWIDE”; the girls will be performing in los angeles, são paulo, and paris this week. members of V!BE will be leaving seoul midday monday to fly to LA for their tuesday concert, fly to são paulo on wednesday for their thursday concert, fly to paris on friday for their saturday concert. they will be staying in paris until monday! the setlist for each concert includes every title song, b-sides from their new album “perfect velvet”, and individual solo stages.

trainee group: BLISS — this is it! the final week before episodes of “SEEKING: SERENITY” begin airing! to prep for the show, the girls are rushed to hair and makeup for last-minute promotional pictures that will be used on the official website. the girls are also instructed to pack their suitcases with all of their necessities before the show, as they will be moving to a new dorm for filming!

trainee group: 5YNC — instead of the typical training schedule, the boys will be taking the same classes as BLISS did two weeks ago: how to manage yourself on live broadcasts (or on broadcast in general). this is to gear up for any special appearances the boys might have on “SEEKING: SERENITY.”

MOBIUS ARTISTS

ORION — the boys are given a free week this week -- enjoy the short-lived vacation while it lasts, who knows when you’ll get another!

NEO — and so begins the thick and thin of “take me higher” preparations for NEO:BLACK. the boys can expect to see teasers and promotions for their comeback up and around the internet very soon! in the meantime, they should focus on keeping their skills sharp and beautiful - as expected of vocal princes NEO:BLACK. amidst the preparations, the boys will also be doing a tour of popular radio shows to get their names out there for anyone who lives under a rock.

SOLAR — tensions are high with the promise of promotions coming up for gleam - this week the girls can look forward to a concept shoot for “a girl like me” following a brief meeting with the ceo to remind the girls of the expectations they’re upholding, especially since they’ll be promoting at the same time as their brother group NEO:BLACK. at least they’ve got the luxury of coming back first? don’t expect to get much sleep on set - a camera crew will be filming some behind the scenes extras. avoid any public missteps, in the meantime. exciting news for the eclipse girls! their time is finally coming, with their subunit debut set for mid-december, the thick of awards show season, it’s up to them to bring the anticipation up from a solid 5 to a hearty 10, if they want to compete with the masses of fans fighting for recognition for their faves! there’s something sweet and crazy about the kind of love mobius fans give.

VERVE ARTISTS

SiLVER — the teasers for SiLVER’s latest comeback “you’re pitiful” will be dropped later this week in advance of the song and mini-album’s release. to help drum up hype for their comeback, not that much help is really needed, SiLVER will be going over to kbs cool fm’s kiss the radio! magic(g)al — hopefully the girls are ready to dust the cobwebs off of their variety show skills, because this week, along with the regular music show recordings, magic(g)al are being sent off to film an episode of “knowing bros”!

STATIC — things are slow for the STATIC members this week. think of it as the calm before the storm that’s sure to hit them in the form of preparations for their december comeback, which, as has been decided by the powers that be, will be “shine”. but, in the interim, the boys are being provided some much needed downtime before they’re thrown in the deep end.

trainee group: STRAWBERRiE — STRAWBERRiE’s pre-debut single was met to mixed reviews, with most people thinking the song was funnier than anything else. at least they’ve caught some of the public’s attention, right? however, there isn’t any time to dwell on it. this week, STRAWBERRiE are taking the teaser photos for their debut “knock knock”!

SUBPLOTS *for every episode of a subplot there will be either a writing prompt or a creative mission, regardless if your muse is only on a few! for doing subplot missions, one can receive the same amount of points as doing a normal schedule.

Hyena on the Keyboard ( 3 / 8 ) — creative mission: create a playlist of songs that have inspired your muse or songs with a sound and/or vibe they would like to emulate! this playlist must contain at least 10 songs and have a 200 word explanation as to why these songs were chosen.

note: songs will be released the second episode your muse appears! this show airs every saturday in-verse

#ft. schedule

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aurimeanswind · 6 years ago

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Back to Business—Sunday Chats 8-19-18

Okay. So Sunday Chats. How do I do this again? Oh yeah. Writing and whatnot.

Let’s get Started.

The Business Update

So as I’m sure you can tell, if you tuned into Irrational Passions Podcast two nights ago, follow IP on Twitter, or just see the silly shit I do on social media, I’ve been really busy. Sunday Chats has taken that hit, and as I don’t write everyday anymore nor am I writing every Sunday, it’s likely there is no reality I can do these on a weekly basis like I used to. Still, I’d like to work in at least once a month, which is what I have been doing. I know that’s not the pace I was setting back in the heyday of writing everyday, but I’d say I’m generally less stressed and the writing I produce is generally better than it was towards the end of me writing every day. Meaning maybe I made the right choice by decided to put a nice end cap to that journey? Maybe not.

I’ve been far more in a managing role since then, and the thing I do the most now is the thing I love to do the most, host and guest host on podcasts! My podcast output has been up about 300% the last couple months I feel, and that makes me super happy. It’s what I love to do. And with a ton of new shows coming to IP, I’m happy to be a part of them.

So let’s get the update out there. Here are some things we are doing/launching with Irrational Passions that I’m excited about, and I think you should be too!

Irrational Passions Podcast is now on Spotify! So is Input: A Video Games News Show, so if you’re a podcast listener on Spotify, I’ve got great news for you! Get Acquainted should be up there soon too!

Input has officially changed its format to focus on one news story per episode on a more intimate basis. There is still room for more traditionally formatted episodes, but episodes may be coming out faster and more frequently per week, with more focus on single stories and topics. I’m really excited about this change. Give it a listen!

Irrational Passions Presents is a new audio feed coming to podcast services around the globe, that will be home to Article Reads, one off interviews, and maybe other cool little stuff. I’m excited for the possibility it brings, and am stoked to have that out there!

Irrational Passions Video Game Book Club is a new monthly show coming TOMORROW. It launches Monday August 20th with the first part of Batman Arkham Asylum. Each game we will be splitting into three checkpoints, and discussing with varying groups of Irrational Passions members. Scott White has been spearheading and editing this show, and he has done a phenomenal job with it. Shoutout to Scott!

Podcast Ultimate, our Super Smash Bros Ultimate Podcast hosted by Mike Burgess, CONTINUES next week, with episode two all about the recent Smash Direct. We talked for about two and a half hours and it was a blast. Give that a listen on YouTube, which is still currently the only space it is and will be available. Working on possible other options in the near future.

PAX West 2018 is coming up, and much like PAX East 2018, we are coming in FULL FORCE.

I’ll be there, alongside Scott White, Logan Wilkinson and Mike Burgess.

We’ll be rooming with the fine folks from OKBeast.com, and we’ll be doing a crossover podcast with them LIVE on Twitch and YouTube on Friday, August 31st, at 9pm Pacific Daylight Time.

I’ll also be representing Irrational Passions at the Kinda Funny Interwebsite Peer Schneider Cup Tournament or whatever its called in the Hydra Theatre on Saturday September 1st at 7pm PDT. Come see me! Support me! Or just say hi! I am absolutely going to lose, but I’m going to try my best!

So a lot of this is the culmination of things we’ve been working on for a while. The Book Club especially we’ve been working on since February. Everyone is hard at work and CRUSHING it, in addition to the reviews, podcasts, and opinion pieces we will continue to put out. Jurge called this the “IP Direct” on Twitter because this is our Nintendo-direct level of announcements. We’ve been working hard and will continue to do so going forward, and while that may mean we can’t sit and chat EVERY Sunday, I still plan on making time for all of you once a month at least.

A big part of that, as some folks may have seen, is I’ll be soliciting questions for Sunday Chats on Saturdays now. So it’s the same deal outside of that, look for my tweet that has the hashtag #SundayChats in it, just look for it on Saturdays now. It gives me time to get things done and organized a bit easier and faster, and cuts less into my day off now, which will hopefully streamline the process.

That all being said, I’m going to skip game talk this time and go right into...

Questions!

Let’s get to it.

Whoa boy a lot to unpack here. I’ll go one at a time now.

Selfie Saturday has officially become Selfie Sundays. Sorry for the lack of warning all, but selfies aren’t going away anytime soon.

Am I concerned? No. Not after this last direct. You’ll hear me talk about it on this next Podcast Ultimate but for me the new Smash Bros would not be “ultimate” if there wasn’t a story mode in it. And there appears to be one, going off this recent teaser in the direct. I know it’s dumb, but as someone who predominantly plays Smash by himself, it’s honestly super important to me to have that. I think that’ll be new and I think that’ll be really exciting too!

I think as a game they will likely hope to update and support for a while to come, coming out two years into the Switch’s life and I think the Switch will be around for a while to come, that they are just teeing this up to have tons of stuff either in expansions and DLC later, and have as much in the base as it can. Smash fans I think want all the stuff from the previous games, and I think there are plenty of quality of life things that make this new as well. Like, the Wii U game was so good, but missed those QoL improvements that really stopped it from being great. Plus, it was on a platform that no one had. Now everyone has a Switch, and anyone can stop and say “let’s play Smash” and have folk break out the Switch to play Smash at any event or whatever. That’s a big deal. It’s kind of what they wanted the 3DS game to be, but even that version of the game was neutered compared to it’s same-release Wii U counterpart. Now it’s the best of both worlds, it’s a loving culmination of Smash itself and everything that’s made Smash great up until this point, and I’m crazy stoked for it.

So the Filip stuff is tricky. I haven’t really talked about it too much publicly, but the more comes out about it the more upset I get. To be perfectly honest? Yeah. I’m really pissed about it. But me getting angry helps literally no one. I took English and Journalism class super seriously, going through what little college I did. And I’m sure someone like Greg Miller would say the same being someone who went through actual journalistic training, for more than me, plagiarism is super fucked. And Filip built a career on it.

It makes me lose faith in the system of getting hired at a place like IGN. It helps reinforce those things you hear about folk that are hired out that they are just picking from a very specific pool that meet a specific vision for that place. And that hurts me. Because I would like to think and hope the quality of my work and my worth ETHIC above all and anything else, having done all I have done on a weekly basis for almost a decade would be enough. But clearly it isn’t.

But I’d rather not harp on too much about it. I do believe in good karma, and what goes around comes around, and so I will continue to push my positivity out into the world, and hope it does something good for me.

No, I cannot ride a bike. I know it’s crazy, and I know Jacob Bryant has trouble believing it.

The day I decided was the last day I’d try and learn how to ride a bike was the summer when I was maybe six or seven. At the house I grew up in there was this hill near the opening of our drive way. I took the training wheels of my Bike and went to the top of the hill. I said “this is the day. Make or break,” and I got my legs up on the Bike. I was either going to ride down that hill and keep riding, or fail and fall over and give up on riding a Bike for the rest of my life.

I pulled my legs up and....

Well, I immediately fell to the right and scraped up my knee and leg. I didn't even make it down the hill a little bit. I started quietly crying to myself, because I was like, six, took my Bike, put it in the garage, and went inside to play video games.

That was the last time I ever rode a bike.

Listen, so many folks have been coming to me saying how Video Game Book Club took inspiration from their show or whatever JON. One, it wasn’t even my idea. I did have the idea to split each game into three checkpoints.

But my MAIN INSPIRATION for the show was actually Rebel FM’s book club. The only one I heard them do was Dead Space 2, a phenomenal game. I know a lot of video game book clubs exist though, and for example Mike’s big inspiration for his ideas in the club was the GameInformer Book Club. Basically, no one is original.

I have a ton of stuff on Audible that I need to finish listening to. I do not read at all, because I’m awful, so I just listen to books. A couple I really adored and finished earlier this year were the King Killer Chronicles books. The first two in the trilogy are out, and hopefully the third will come out sometime ever in my life. They’re by Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind and A Wise Man’s Fear. Super good. Amazing world building and a huge focus on currency, which I really liked.

I really want to finish Ready Player One, I got about two thirds into it and really liked it. I also grabbed Altered Carbon, the Dark Tower 1, and You’re Never Weird on the Internet, Felicia Day’s autobiography. Those are the ones on my shelf right now.

I’ve been following some of the Tweets. I love it. I’m also going through them again with the Three Best Friends Podcast folks in a Limited Run series they’re doing, featuring: me! All about Kingdom Hearts. The first two episodes should be out now, and they’re crazy fun.

Of those three, I think Birth By Sleep is the clear winner, and it’s really because it is the only “complete game” out of the three. What I mean is there isn’t kind of, revisiting or rehashing in it. 358/2 and Chain of Memories both rely so heavily on the Kingdom Hearts 1 worlds, especially Chain of Memories, while introducing their own stories that are both very good I think, Chain of Memories being the far, far, far better one for me personally, but the repetition in both still hurts it so much.

Birth By Sleep has the issue of revisiting its OWN bullshit like seven times in that game as you play through all three stories, and that sucks, but at least it isn’t something you’ve seen in a Kingdom Hearts game before. While I think the systems in BBS are rough around the edges, later to be better realized in a KH3D or even Kingdom Hearts 3 itself, the character work in that game makes it special. Terra/Ven/Aqua is a story you are AS invested in, if not more so, than the original Sora/Riku/Kairi story. And so it is this very intimate story for fans of the series I think.

That and playing it is just the best. Especially on PS4 where I recently played it. It just feels better with twin stick controls. It’s crazy grind-y if you’re trying to do everything, sure, but all the games are in their own way in that regard.

It’s funny how mechanically KH3D is the best of the handheld attempts at side stories, but it muddles the story the most. It’s a double edged sword, where they kept going until they got it right, and in a way they did irreparable damage to the story along the way because of it.

I really don’t know. I know it’s dumb and little but I’d really love to hit 1000 subscribers on YouTube. Super inspired by the work the OKBeast folks have done with their channel, and basically Mike Burgess has single-handedly turned our YouTube output up a notch. But not just him, he has got Jurge doing video reviews too, and with Scott White’s video talents finally being shown in Book Club, they’re got me inspired to get more work up there again too. It helps especially knowing it’s not just me.

But the big long team goal is outside fo 2018, which is to go to E3 as a team in 2019. That’s the big goal.

Downloading it to my Xbox One now. Hit me up. We’ll play.

That’s the end. That’s it. That’s all she wrote. And by she I mean me, in this case. I’m excited about the future of IP, I’m excited about the stuff we are doing, that I am doing, and while it’s a ton of work and a lot of stress, it’s the stuff I live for. It’s very rewarding hugely in part to the team that is doing it and how we are working together. Stick with us, and I promise we won’t let you down. Please god hopefully, at least.

Do me a favor until then.

keep it real.

#video games #gaming #kingdom hearts #questions #Alex o'neill #sunday chats #sundaychats

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windrocklibrary · 7 years ago

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Galemont Talks About: Things That I Recall From E3 Conference (now that they’re over)

These are a collection of things that I mainly remembered the most in regards of the 2018 E3 Conference and my thoughts on it. They’re all a combination of things that I both like and not really like. Either way, all of these are my own opinions and spins on it.

Disclaimer Note #1: Yes, I like video games. No, I don’t/can’t play them or rather to an extent that I can play MAJORITY or ALL of them. Why? Because I’m poor -- so I might as well revel around other people’s emotions and mine (makes me sound like a vampire or something).

Disclaimer Note #2: I won’t include the sideshows or extras (e.g. Nintendo Treehouse). I am going to state things based on the things that are presented at the conferences.

ELECTRONIC ARTS (EA)

Frankly not the most memorable for me. They mentioned not much from EA other than sports games like Fifa, NFL, and NBA (ones I remembered at least), Battlefield V, Command & Conquer Rivals, and Anthem to name a few.

I kind of like how the folks at EA are somewhat self-aware on what they’re doing when talking about Battlefield V, stating that they want to depict their own image of WWII; though that’ll probably start a conversation for some folks I can imagine. It’s a bit of a downer for me considering that people are applauding at the information that there won’t be any lootboxes. Whether or not this will be true is beyond me.

Anthem looks interesting, to say the least. Though it’s such a shame that they didn’t mention, let alone, showed much. So with that being said I can’t say anything and even be very excited about it. We’ll see how it’ll go.

MICROSOFT STUDIOS

Lot’s of games. They showed off first party games like Halo: Infinite, Gears 5, and Forza Horizon 4. Ori and the Will of the Wisp was pretty neat and made me somewhat interested in trying out the Ori series.

The reveal of Devil May Cry 5 and Jump Force was very wild! The rumors that I often hear regarding DMC5 since last years Game Awards were very enticing, it was very cool to see it actually be true on E3.

Seeing Jump Force was surreal, especially when you’re watching Naruto, Goku, Luffy, and Frieza beating up each other in a hyper-realistic depiction of New York City’s Time Square; the shot of Ryuk and Light from Death Note is pretty wild too--would love to see what other Shounen Jump characters to be revealed there.

The trailer for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice looks very slick, kind of expecting it to be shown here especially after the teaser during the Game Awards.

The Amazing Adventures of Captain Spirit looks charming; a story that sets in the same universe of Life is Strange makes it interesting in my book. The game’s also free.

I’m super glad that Studio MDHR is making an expansion for Cuphead! It has always been a dream of mine to for Cuphead to have an expansion of some sort and I’m actually really excited that it’s real! They even made Ms. Chalice a playable character so that’s cool!

The game Cyberpunk 2077 was almost thought to be a myth until now. It’s essentially one of those games where you heard it and you’ll never know when the game will actually be released or revealed again; so seeing it back up again is pretty cool especially with their own flares for an introduction. Hopefully, it won’t go off into dark again.

BETHESDA

What’s the deal with that big dude during the Rage 2 presentation? He was like silent for a straight 15 seconds or something, some said that maybe his prompter bugged out? Who knows. Most of the presentations there were a little awkward, though it’s probably because most of them aren’t exactly used to standing in front of a big crowd or something.

Speaking of awkward, the Andrew W.K. live performance was whacked. He didn’t sound good there if I have to be honest, I don’t think most of the audience were jazzed about it too.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood was interesting, DOOM: Eternal caught me by surprise. Most of the other games shown there were interesting but didn’t really move me a lot.

Frankly speaking though despite the often awkwardness, there were some funny moments as well. Todd Howard’s presentation was a fun one to me; he was very self-aware of the jokes that went all over about him. I’m glad that Fallout 76 was expanded more in this conference because it was showed on Microsoft’s; it’s going to be an online multiplayer experience but apparently, it’s pretty divisive among folks, I personally think it’s neat--the nukes, however, is probably going to be a little sketchy in my opinion.

They also announced Elder Scrolls VI. Well, I say announced, it’s basically a tease; then it’s over.

DEVOLVER DIGITAL

Same thing they did last year: a satirical shitshow that makes fun of the conferences. It’s pretty fun, but admittedly I kind of got bored with it and I just want to see games more than them losing their minds. I say that because most of the jokes they do are basically beating on the same old topics that have been talked by folks for so long. Their conference is basically a self-contained story-arc, this one being the continuation of the previous one and I’m sure they’ll probably continue it next year.

They did show some games. 3 I believe. A battle royale shooter (I think?) called SCUM, a frenetic and comical platform shooter called My Friend Pedro (the one I’m most interested), and something called Meta Wolf Chaos XD which is a remaster of the cult favorite FromSoftware game of the same name. I’ll probably need to look it up on that more, looks fun.

SQUARE ENIX

Not really intrigued with it to be perfectly honest. Some of the things that they showed there have already been shown during the Microsoft conference (Kingdom Hearts 3, Just Cause 4, and Shadow of The Tomb Raider). While they did somewhat expand on it a bit, it kind of lost the impact that I think it could’ve had.

They announced an expansion of sort for Final Fantasy XIV Online along with a crossover with Monster Hunter World, showed Dragon Quest XI, and a new title called Babylon’s Fall by Platinum Games that is basically a teaser. Speaking of teasers, they also teased another new title called The Quiet Man; which admittedly has the strangest trailer.

Somewhat disappointed that they didn’t show anything about Final Fantasy VII Remake. It’s been so long since they announced it and showed a gameplay footage of it. Hopefully, they’re doing alright because the longer it goes on like this, it might become stale.

UBISOFT

The things that they showed there feels rather unsurprising because I kind of expected the things that they would do at the conference.

Kind of happy that they showed their new Just Dance game as their first thing, that way they cut the fluff and make the rest of the show focus on larger titles. There’s also a dude who tripped himself into a television.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 showed a new cinematic trailer, featuring Jade--but evil or something. The presenters said they want to show a gameplay footage but they showed very little. Joseph Gordon Levitt popped in and talked about putting people’s creative work into Beyond Good and Evil 2 (at least, that’s what I recalled)--didn’t really go into details on the incentives though.

For Honor got a new update featuring Chinese warriors into the mix, and they’re making the game available for free to grab for a limited time until June-18-2018.

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 was showed again but explained a little more there, it looked interesting despite feeling like another generic rpg shooter. It looked interesting, they mention how they’ll do season updates throughout the year for free and I thought that’s cool. I do hope they’ll do well on this one.

Starlink: Battle for Atlas was showed a bit more again there and good golly they made a surprise with Star Fox crashing the scene, especially making Fox McCloud being playable with his Arwing. Pretty slick. Yves Guillemot even made a surprise by giving Shigeru Miyamoto a gift and I thought that was adorable.

The DLC for Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle that features Donkey Kong was shown there, looks neat but didn’t show much, it was explained in further details during the Nintendo Treehouse though.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey was announced there and it’s surprising to me considering that Origins was out since last year. It looks pretty I’ll say that much. You can also play between two characters in the game: Alexios and Kassandra. It also looks like they’re making the game very action rpg-esque, kind of like Origins.

PC GAMING SHOW

This flipping conference went on for WAY too long. 2 hours for crying out loud! I also fell asleep halfway through or something because many of the things they showed there weren’t fascinating to me.

Satisfactory won the award for the punniest game title.

Lot’s of SEGA games are coming to PC, ones that caught my attention being Shenmue I & II and Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza 0.

Untitled Publisher, a publisher that’s new to me announced 3 new indie games--2 of which I found the most interesting: Bravery Network Online and Overwhelm.

The game Maneater is basically a game about you being a shark and I have an iffy feeling it’ll shed a bad light on sharks for the public (I hope not).

Took so long for them to show Ooblets, a game that I’m very excited for, showed a new trailer though it showed some things. Wished there was more though.

SONY

The conference kicks out with The Last of Us: Part 2. Ellie is pissed as hell and I have no idea why and I’m scared. She also kissed a girl so that’s something. It kind of caught me off guard because I didn’t follow the previous game and its DLCs, so the whole information of Ellie being a lesbian is pretty new.

Resident Evil 2 Remake is revealed and it looks slick. The fact that Capcom released and announced games lately that actually looked cool as heck is wild. Hope it goes well for them in this one as well as DMC5!

This year’s E3 Conference showed off not one, but THREE samurai games; two of which were shown off in Sony’s conference: Ghost of Tsushima and Nioh 2. Not complaining, they all look slick.

Kingdom Hearts 3 also appeared in this year’s E3 Conference not once, but THREE times as well at different conferences. I should’ve mentioned before that every trailer did show something different, with the one in Sony having the most difference. It looks like Kingdom Hearts 3 is going to have Ratatouille and Pirates of the Carribean joining in.

I remember wanting to see more of Death Stranding and know what the heck the game’s about, and they showed some gameplay footage during the presentation. Still have no clue what it’s going to be about though.

There’s a weird looking game called Control, something to do about a girl with a gun who has telekinesis. Looks minimalistic and clean; it might be good too.

Spiderman features a handful of villains beating up on Spidey in the end. It’s a gameplay footage and oddly I don’t feel that intrigued by the trailer for some reason.

NINTENDO

Surprisingly not a lot of big games were announced on Nintendo Direct. I’ll say it here and now that the majority of the Nintendo Direct is mainly for the new Super Smash Bros. Aptly named as Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Needless to say, a lot of people were happy and so was I; though I’m surprised and mildly sad they didn’t show anything about Metroid Prime 4.

The first thing they showed was a mech game called Daemon X Machina. I first thought it was Armored Core, but the surprising part is I somewhat half-correct. The game was actually made by the same people who made Armored Core! Pretty funny to me considering that the design of the mechs in Daemon X Machina and Armored Core looked very similar. The trailer was wicked sick too so I’m sold.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 got a new DLC called Torna: The Golden Country that is available this September, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses is also announced to come out next year. So I’m sure the fans of those series would be very excited.

Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee got a small spotlight there, but it’s mostly on the accessory Pokeball Plus. Turns out, every Pokeball Plus comes with a Mew for free inside; which to me is basically a way to make people want to buy the accessory then (that’s marketing ploy right there). This is interesting to me because it reminds me of the message in the last Let’s Go trailer that mentioned: “you’ll meet a special Pokemon”. This could either mean Mew or something else. So we’ll see.

Fortnite is on Switch, not a surprising thing to me and I think it’s good for the game and the devs who made it. I personally think Epic Games deserve the success with their game in my opinion.

Overcooked 2 is coming soon and now features online co-op which is great! Killer Queen Black looks interesting and my personal favorite Hollow Knight is finally out the day the Direct was on! If you’re into metroidvanias I highly recommend Hollow Knight very easily--the game is generally worth having as well in my opinion.

Super Mario Party was also revealed and I’m genuinely happy; it would feel weird for a Nintendo console to not have a Mario Party game. It also has a Goombah as a playable character there too!

The Direct also bust out a montage of games; the ones that caught my attention were Dragon Ball FighterZ, The World Ends With You, Splatoon 2 Octo-Expansion, Wastelands 2 Directors Cut, Megaman 11, Paladins: Champions of the Realm, Arena of Valor, and Ninjala.

Now for the big one. Super Smash Bros Ultimate. The announcement was great and crazy long, and you can definitely tell that Masahiro Sakurai and the devs were busy when they made this game. It’s essentially a port of the Wii U, but it’s brand new and it adds so many things it might as well be a new game. The game’s biggest feature is the fact that they’re having ALL of the characters throughout the history of Smash Bros. ever; being someone who got introduced to the series since Brawl, seeing Snake and many other old characters was super cool.

They also showed off new characters as well. Princess Daisy is finally in Smash and that was very exciting to me; she’s treated as something called Echo Fighters, which is a fancy term of a character that is a clone but with some variations (other Echo Fighters being Lucina and Dark Pit). They showcased Inkling and what they can do, and in the end, they announced Ridley from Metroid.

END

And thus concludes the many things I found interesting in 2018 E3 Conference. I think this year’s E3 Conference has been rather modest as so many of the games are mainly coming out next year--and these are the ones that are meteoric as well. As to who won E3, well that’s beyond me, especially considering all the factors on what makes someone win E3. If you’re talking about the number of games revealed, I’d say Microsoft. If regarding the games released in 2018, I’d say Nintendo. Either way, I just want to see great games that are fun for people to play with. If the anyone can have a good time and be genuinely happy with a game; then that’s a win in my book.

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defdaily · 5 years ago

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[TRANSLATION] 10ASIA+Star Magazine August 2014 issue x GOT7

It’s a minor thing but the first question is something I’ve been curious about. When you introduce the team, you say “Come and get it, GOT7”. How was this decided? Yugyeom We wondered together, ‘What should we do? What do we do?’ before coming up with it. Jr. There were a lot of ideas and this one just happened to be the one we chose. Youngjae What was it at the very beginning? BamBam 'Get ready, GOT7’. But then it was similar to YG WIN Team B’s so we changed ours. Yugyeom We were asking the foreigner hyungs (Mark, Jackson) what stuff meant and they happened to say 'Come and get it’. Jr. It was kind of like, I don’t know, let’s just use this one. (Laughs)

What charms do you want people to come and get from GOT7? Youngjae The seven of us each have our own personal charms… Jr. (Looking at Youngjae) And what is your charm? Youngjae My charm is… my awkwardness? (Laughs)

We haven’t been talking for very long but it seems that the members aren’t much different than they are in broadcasts. Right now you are all starring in SBS MTV 'I GOT7’, are your real personalities 100% in sync with your personalities on the show? Jr. It’s the same. Although it’s a bit embarrassing to say it myself, (Laughs) our team’s biggest charm is our honesty. There may be people who feel from time to time that we don’t have manners, but that’s not what we’re aiming for. We want to show the real us without any filters, so we’d like people to not view us badly.

Because it feels like a good time to bring it up, the 'A’ teasers… Youngjae Oh my god. BamBam Please don’t watch stuff like that… (Laughs)

Each member had their own teaser. Because the videos were with a virtual girlfriend, the members say that they’re 'crigeworthy’. Still, is there another member’s version that you thought was better than your own? Yugyeom All the members probably thought that their own was better than JB hyung’s. Jr. I think mine was better than Mark’s. Jackson That version was the simplest. Jr. But Mark hyung’s “A, let’s go” was still cool. The worst part of Mark hyung’s version was JB. Mark (Laughs)

Mark’s and Jackson’s seemed like the least cringeworthy. Jackson Me? Thank you. Youngjae BamBam’s wasn’t bad either. BamBam Mine? But I didn’t even finish tying the shoelaces but the actress just left. (All (Laughs)) To be honest no one does that. If your shoelaces come untied I’d probably say “Tie them yourself”. But it was still fun. Even though filming took a while.

Were you allowed to each pick your own concept? Youngjae: No, no, no. BamBam If we could pick we definitely would not have picked something like that. (Laughs) Jr. I think we were each given something that would suit us the best. So we could act convincingly like boyfriends.

Like it was evident from the teasers that GOT7 would be coming back with different colors, 'A’ and 'Girls Girls Girls’ have different atmospheres. What did you first thing when you heard the song? Jr. The song was really good from the beginning. The current version has been rearranged a lot. The original version was pop. (Mark: American! American style!) In addition, the song was very bright but JYP PD’s thick voice was recorded on it so we didn’t know how we were going to save the song. I personally thing that we were brighter and cuter so the song was saved. (Mark: (Laughs)) Our PD was sticky but we were cute! Sorry, PD-nim, (Laughs).

What you just compared, it’s going to be published just like that! Mark Ahah what do we do. (Laughs)

'A’ doesn’t showcase as much martial arts tricking as the debut song did. It must have been physically easier. Jr. In this album we focused more on our acting on stage. In 'A’ we have to make cute expressions… Like the 'So cute’ part. There wasn’t a lot of martial arts tricking, but we still worked hard on our expressions. Mark I wanted to rest a little this time (Laughs)

Just recently the 'A’ stage changed so that it starts at a table. Is there a reason for this? Yugyeom Our PD told us “In our company, artists change something in the choreography every two weeks”. Jr. Let’s say that we perform a song for a month. Rather than performing the same thing over and over again, our PD must have thought that changing the choreography would hold the interest of the viewers. I heard that our new choreography was positively received.

You’re right. The table scene from the music video was eye catching so personally I liked it more. BamBam It’s less tiring so I like it. Jr. If the new choreography had been for our first album it would’ve been hard but we kept working together and that improved our communication with each other. Mark And we had already done it once in the music video.

Because the music video came up, Youngjae especially looked good in it. Partly because he had more parts and was in the center, but mostly because he’s gotten more talented. BamBam If you watch the music video Youngjae hyung is the only one in it. (Opens eyes wide) With his eyes like this! Youngjae No~ It’s not true~~ BamBam (Making fun of him) It’s not even our song. It’s Youngjae hyung’s song. (Laughs) Youngjae Don’t say that~ don’t say that~ don’t say it like that~~~ (Mark laughing in the background)

Right around the time of debut when your dorm was revealed through a live broadcast, Youngjae said at the end “Right now people call me the 'rookie-like Youngjae’ but I’ll show a cooler appearance in the next album”. It seems like you did what you said you would. Youngae Haha, I remember that. I was so nervous because it was a live broadcast. I worked hard up until now. But I think I’m going to have to work harder. After the first broadcast of 'A’ I read the reactions and people said I looked too awkward and I opened my eyes too wide. (Laughs) So I changed little details and after the next broadcast, people said 'Oh, he looks less awkward today’ and I was glad. Also I thought to myself how I should make hearts more creatively, in different directions.

You’re even concentrating on which directions to make hearts! Then is there a part that another member has that he definitely doesn’t want the audience to miss? Jr. For me, because it’s not a solo stage, I want people to look at us as a whole. (BamBam: He’s right.) Although it’s important to look at each person for his charm, I think it’s more important that it’s a seven person stage. Of course during a solo stage it’s good to focus on one person but right now I’d like everyone to look at how we interact on stage.

Now that we’ve been talking for a while, Jr. is good at calmly speaking. He seems like the spokesperson of the team. Jr. There are some days that the words come naturally to me, today seems like one of those days. (Laughs)

In the album, Jackson wrote the rap for 'U Got Me’ and JB wrote the lyrics to 'Bad Things’. Are there more members who are interested in helping create the album? Jackson All (the members) have interest. We’re all working on it. Youngjae I have a song that I’m almost done with. It’s kind of an R&B ballad, the subject is, what should I say, 'the woman that comes to mind on a rainy day’? (Jackson: Ahhhh!) The title is… No I can’t say it (Laughs) I’ve walked around often on rainy days, so I thought about the sound of rain on those days while writing the song. (Q: It wasn’t written for a specific person?) My imagination is the best, haha. Music is very inspiring for me. Not necessarily that content of the song, but the background sound. BamBam (Youngjae hyung) always writes songs on rainy days. Youngjae I really like rainy days. Oh, there’s something else, I made a track that I haven’t yet written the melody to. I was never taught how to compose, but I get help from composer hyungs along the way. In the future I really want to produce an album.

What about the other members? Yugyeom Jackson hyung’s songs are complete hip hop. Jackson GOT7 is JYP’s hip hop group so I’m composing hip hop tracks. Yugyeom (Youngjae hyung, Jackson hyung) Both are very good. Their styles are different. Jackson My style is 'the man who comes to mind on a snowy day’. All (Laughs) Youngjae The man! Jackson Playing is playing. Hip hop is hip hop! These days when I compose, the rappers Mark, BamBam, and I do it together. Mark I’m trying, but I’m not very good. BamBam We’re trying hard to compose, but we’ve gotten busier so we stopped for a while. Even though we don’t get it to do it often, Jackson hyung makes the beat and the two of us write lyrics. It’s hard, Korean lyrics.

How about writing them in English first? Youngjae I’ll translate them for you! Jackson If we write them in English, Jr. or JB changes it to Korean. BamBam Then… I’ll write it in Thai! All (Laughs)

JB said 'For GOT7 to win a rookie award this year, we’ll have to release another album’. What’ something you want to accomplish with the next album? Jr. We’d like to release another album this year, but because the company has policies, we don’t know how it’s going to work out. For now, we’d like to release another one. Jackson Hip hop, hip hop, strong hip hop! Mark Something cool! Jr. We each have our own musical tastes.

What are your personal musical styles? Jackson I’m always hip hop. All hip hop. BamBam I think new school hip hop is good. There’s also pop hip hop. I like that. (Jackson: Not something cute. The cute should stop here. Haha.) There should be something cute only for a couple places, hehe. Yugyeom I like hip hop and R&B. Youngjae I like R&B ballads. I like sad songs. The overall atmosphere is hip hop but if we wrote our own songs… This is what I want but I’d like each of the members to write a song in their own style and include it in an album. Jr. There’s a lot of things that come to mind. In terms of a singer, Paul Williams. I like it if it’s not too bright, but simple, a beat with not a lot of sauce that has our voices honestly recorded on it. I’d like for us to practice a little more and come out with a song that has our voices on it under a simplistic beat, a song that has feeling. Or something like Justin Timberlake’s 2006 album, 'FutureSex/LoveSounds’ that is still good after a couple years. It’s been 8 years since that album was released but I still like that album more than anything in the world. (Q: Do you still listen to it these days?) I like that artist the best so I always listen to it. I think it would be nice to plan and produce an album like that. Mark I like hip hop, but hip hop that’s slightly R&B, slower, with feeling. I like Drake. JB I like PBR&B, R&B with a little bit of an electronic sound. I’d like to make a song like that our title song. If that was our title song the other songs could be medium tempo R&B or folk. I also like R&B Soul and artists like James Morrison and Damien Rice so I’d like to make songs similar to theirs.

Even though your musical tastes differ, there still seems to be a connection between the members. It may be helped by the fact that the members all share a dorm and gain strength from each other. Either way, on TV it was shown that Yugyeom and BamBam’s room is bigger than the others. BamBam We picked our room last. After everyone chose, only the big room was left. It was nice. There are beds only in our room! Jr. The youngest need to sleep comfortably. The hyungs can sleep even if it’s uncomfortable. Jackson (Looking at Jr.) You’re the most comfortable! Jr. That’s not true. When I’m trying to sleep (Yugyeom and BamBam) always go back and forth through my room to use the bathroom so I can’t sleep. (Q: Ah, so inside Yugyeom and BamBam’s room there’s Jr’s room! Is the bathroom in that direction?) The bathroom in my room has a big bathtub. BamBam Hyung… we definitely told you. If you used the room by yourself then we would use that bathroom and go through your room a lot. And you said it was okay… Jr. They look really sorry when they come in. “Hyung… can I use the bathroom?” BamBam Once I went in very quietly. But then suddenly hyung grabbed my leg. Hahaha. I was really surprised.

Hahaha, so it wasn’t so the youngest could be comfortable that they were given the big room? Jr. We talked amongst ourselves and decided to give the youngest two the big room. Jackson, BamBam N~~o~ Jr, Youngjae We really thought of it that way! Mark (Playful baby voice) If the youngest two have the comfortable room and we’re comfortable in the car… hahaha. Jr. We wanted to give something to the youngest two! Mark No that’s not it hahaha. JB Truthfully the hyungs can’t beat the younger members. They’re too strong. (Laughs)

Mark and Jackson, Jaebum and Youngjae, Yugyeom and BamBam share a room and Jr. rooms by himself. How were the roommates decided? All We just chose who we wanted to room with. Jr. Oh, there was this. At first the members said that they wanted to room with me, but then when we got to our dorm the members that said they wanted to room with me asked other members to room together. Originally Jackson and I were supposed to room together but when we got to the dorm we forgot. Jackson Jr. and I were going to room together, but then something happened and I asked JB if he wanted to room with me. But then we got to the dorm and I ended up rooming with Mark. All (Laughs) Jr. We don’t have any rules, it’s all in the moment! (Laughs)

Are you satisfied with your current roommate? All Yes! JB But Youngjae’s and my room doesn’t have air conditioner. Jr. I don’t have air conditioning either… JB But if you open the door to Jr’s room then the the air conditioning from the maknae room comes in. Our room doesn’t have any. Even if we turn it on in the living room, it doesn’t reach our room. (Youngjae: It’s too far.) So these days we don’t room together. Youngae We look for cooler places… Yugyeom He’s like a lost lamb! (Laughs) Yesterday Jaebum hyung slept in the living room and Youngjae hyung slept in our manager hyung’s room. Youngjae Every once in a while I sleep with Jaebum hyung. Yugyeom When he’s lonely. All (Laughs) JB The two of us share a mat but it’s not too crowded. If the air conditioner just worked our room would be cooler but it doesn’t… We need to put a vent in the wall but there are structural limits so we can’t. So the two of us are living separately right now. But in the winter our room is the warmest. You don’t even need blankets at night.

So that’s Youngjae and JB’s room. (Laughs) It seems like Mark is someone who is actually playful. He doesn’t talk much, but when he does it’s extraordinary. On yesterday’s 'I GOT7’ broadcast his yells of “It’s mine!” while catching fish left a lasting impression. Jr. He’s very possessive. (Laughs) Mark Hm… (Smiles)

Is Mark the only one who hasn’t received a punishment? All He’s been punished! Jr. He got it on the last episode of 'I GOT7’. We all did everything so Mark would get punished… Hahaha BamBam Are you tired of me being punished with the laundry clips? I get punished again on the next episode… ehehe.

Does the laundry clip punishment really hurt as much as it looks? Mark It hurt less than I thought it would! BamBam Hyung, the clips weren’t where it really hurts. Mark They were on my lips. Jackson We were scared that hyung would get angry so we were careful. Youngjae For it to really hurt they need to all be on the lips. JB Now that I think about it I’ve never gotten the laundry clip punishment. Youngjae (Mimes pulling the elastic on the hat) You got this. Mark 2nd episode, 2nd episode! JB So I only got that, I didn’t get the laundry clips. But I didn’t even realize that until now. The elastic hat hurt so much… Wow… All Hahahahaha Jr. When we do the laundry clip punishment, no one has any compassion for the one who’s being punished. Yugyeom (Gestures toward Mark) He’s quiet until there’s a punishment, then he’s the most excited. Because he’s so playful. (Laughs)

Has there been a time where you were mad at each other because of the punishment? Jackson (Glares pointedly at Mark) Of course not. Mark (Laughs)

Oh and another question for Mark! Have you seen the Mark version fancam of 'I Like You’ from the first showcase? The triple combo of shoulder shaking, finger heart, and smile was great. Mark I did see it. The original choreography is (Points forward with finger), but there were fans so I suddenly decided to make a heart. Jr. It’s the feel!

Are you usually like that? Talented on stage, I mean. Mark I try to sprinkle talent… (JB That’s something you share.) showcase talent. Ehehe.

If Mark is a surprising gag, anyone can tell that Jackson is playful. It’s so much that there are compilations of his comical appearances in broadcasts, where is he getting all of this entertainment skills? Jr. Jackson is just funny. So very funny. Jackson I don’t try to maintain my image during broadcasts. I’m trying to that a little these days, but we have a cute concept so I just act naturally… Yugyeom He’s opposite. (Laughs) When we have a cute concept he pretends to be cool. Jackson Because I’m not that good looking, I don’t think it’s really necessary for me to try to maintain my image.

Jackson isn’t handsome? Yugyeom He is! Jr. He has high standards.

But when he’s serious, he’s very serious. The fact that he considers '852’ (Hong Kong country code) to be precious is impressive. Jackson It is precious. Yugyeom I think he’s cool. He has a lot of pride in his country. Then I need to be '031’ (Yugyeom with the Kyunggi-do area code and whose family currently resides in Namyangju)? Jackson No, '82’ (South Korea country code)! Jr. I’m '055’ (Jr. with the Kyungnam area code and from Jinhae)! Youngjae I’m '061’ (Youngjae with the Jeonnam area code and from Mokpo)! (Q: Then we’ll have to go into Hong Kong area codes?) Oh, then we’re all '82’! All (Laughs)

Jackson’s pride in Hong Kong is unlike any other. Jackson I’m very proud. I’m proud. Because it’s my home country… I like it. (Right as he finishes speaking his necklace falls off) Jr. This is right here is gag helped by nature! All (Laughs)

BamBam is from a different country too. Even though he’s from Thailand his Korean seems as good as a native speaker’s. BamBam (In a cute voice) I’m not that good.

Even the aegyo is overwhelming. On GOT7’s official twitter you replied “I’m already in jail” to “I’m filing a complaint about Bam oppa. Because he stole my heart” and “I like you” to “Rice cake vs. bread which one do you like”. BamBam Ahahahahaha. Yugyeom BamBam is the king of fan service! BamBam I also said that I was already in the fan’s house, waiting under the sofa, hehehe. Yugyeom That’s why he has the nickname BamTalker (BamBam + Stalker). BamBam I also get called BamStalker. Ehehe. In my teaser, there’s a scene where I tie shoelaces. When fans say ‘BamBam oppa tie my shoelaces please’ because of that, I reply ‘Turn around, I’m right behind you’. (Laughs) If they say ‘BamBam oppa buy me food’ then I say ‘Open your door, I’m right outside your house’. It’s usually scary to hear something like that but the fans like it so I just naturally say it. Jr. It’s a relief that BamBam is on our team. Because the rest of us tend to avoid stuff like that…

Who’s the hyung who treats BamBam the best? BamBam Ah, can I say this secretly? (Takes the recording device and says in a very small voice) Jack.Son.Hyung. Ehehe.

Along with BamBam, Yugyeom is part of the 1997 maknae line. In person, he feels like a 18 year old high school student, but he has the nickname 'Kim Yugyeom Oppa’. Yugyeom Sometimes I look older (Laughs). There aren’t a lot of opportunities for me to be called oppa so I like it when fans call me oppa. It doesn’t matter if the fan is older than me. Noona fans always ask me, “Can I call you oppa? Is it okay?” And I reply “Yes it’s okay, of course!” It makes me feel better.

When you first debuted, you introduced yourself as “Pure crystal Yugyeom”. Has the size of that crystal stayed the same or has it shrunk? Yugyeom I can’t introduce myself like that anymore. I think the crystal shrunk. (Youngjae: Did it crack?) I think it’s gotten smaller by about half, so I changed my introduction to “The youngest who doesn’t seem like the youngest”. (Laughs)

Hahaha, Youngjae who’s 19 this year, in the past you said that you wanted to attend a music therapy school. What do you think now? Youngjae I have a book pertaining to that subject, but I haven’t had time to look at it properly. Right now I think I need to like music more and practice music more so I want to try to attend the school Jinyoung hyung is attending now, Howon University. I still lack so much so I feel like I need to work harder and learn more. I’m definitely going to university.

You’ll definitely get in! Youngjae (Clenches fist) Hwaiting! (Laughs)

Like Youngjae said, Jr. is currently attending Howon University. Jr. I’m studying theater. Right now it’s okay because I’m on break, but I’m debating whether or not to take a gap year. There are a lot of promotions planned during the next semester… There’s so much I want to learn at school that I think I’m going to have to discuss it with the company.

Is there something you especially like in the curriculum? Jr. At school? I liked the one-on-one lessons. I started off not knowing anything so learning was really fun. And even though I couldn’t participate often, I watched the other students prepare for theater festivals and… Wow… For theater you need to learn the lighting, sound cues, the stage, acting, movement, everything. Theater is something that brings together all of this so the community feel of the production was interesting. It would be hard not to become close while preparing for a show, I was jealous. Theater is about interactions between those on stage so you can’t do it by yourself. While seeing that, I thought to myself that if I ever had the chance, I wanted to give theater a try.

There’s another university student in the group. JB studies film production at Konkuk University. On Mnet’s '4 Things Show’ a short film 'Dream’ was broadcasted. Jr. Jaebum hyung’s feet were quite cute in that. (Laughs) JB That film was similar to a 3 minute university film so there wasn’t anything special about it. I was a bit embarrassed. The visual was satisfactory but the subject matter among other things… It was started in the morning and finished very quickly.

Still, many people didn’t know of JB’s directing capabilites as a student so it still seemed to be meaningful. If JB made a film with GOT7 as the subject, what kind of film could be produced? Jackson Comedy, comedy! JB I think black comedy would match well. Or, a comedy like 'Marrying the Mafia’ with the seven of us as a family. Yugyeom (With a bright smile) Comedy and violence! (Laughs)

There was something JB said on '4 Things Show’ that left a lasting impression. “I feel like the future of GOT7 depends on how I act.” JB If I act rudely then I feel like that’s how people will view the entire team. I’m not saying that I’m a pillar for the team out of conceit. It’s because it’s my responsibility to lead the team. If I throw away that responsibility and play around or don’t focus, then the members might think that because the leader is doing that, it’s okay for them to do the same. (Q: Because of that, is there pressure being the leader?) Every once in a while if we make a mistake then I can feel embarrassed but I never feel pressured. Because we’re people, it’s normal to make mistakes.

Starting this August, you will be participating with the artists in your company in '2014 JYP Nation - ONE MIC’, and your Japan solo concert tour will start on October 7th. Last April, you performed your showcase in Japan, how was it? Jr. The stage and audience were close together so we could see the individual faces of the fans. There are only good memories of it. Yugyeom Compared to Korea, the scale was bigger so I was nervous. I was more nervous for the showcase than when we opened for 2PM in their Japan concert. But after the concert started and we performed more, it was fun.

Scan by Winter Boy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) | Translated by got7-trans © TAKE OUT WITH FULL CREDITS

#got7 #GOT7 JB #GOT7 JAEBEOM #GOT7 INTERVIEW #GOT7 TRANS #JB INTERVIEW #JB TRANS #JAEBEOM INTERVIEW TRANS #DEFDAILYinterview

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lanadelreyfiles-blog · 8 years ago

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California Dreaming ‘Not all my romantic relationships were bad, but some of them challenged me in a way that I didn't want to be challenged, and I am happy I don't have to do that now.’ Lana Del Rey. Does Lana Del Rey really live right inside the middle of the 'H' of the Hollywood sign and spend most of her nights perched high above the chaos that swirls within the city of angels below, as the teaser for her new album, Lust For Life, suggests? Or does she rent a house in LA's Santa Monica or Silver Lake or someplace else she's not about to divulge, in case, having taken a cryptic February tweet of hers literally, a posse of her 6.3 million well-meaning Twitter followers showup on her doorstep with the ‘magic ingredients’ to cast spells on President Trump? Does she really only dip her toes into ‘the muck and the mires of the city every now and then’, as she says in the album's trailer? Or does she ‘go out quite a lot actually’, as she tells me when we meet, and spend her nights having fun with a tight crew of mainly musician mates, dancing at house parties, going to gigs and occasionally wrestling the microphone from her male friends to sing Hotel California in karaoke bars? In this post-truth world, it feels pedantic to care too much either way.

The 'real' Lana Del Rey is a 31-year-old woman called Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, born in Lake Placid, New York. She's close to her younger sister - Chuck, a photographer - but less so to her parents, Patricia and Robert, and her little brother, Charlie. They're a family of individual she tells me: ‘It was natural that we all went down our own separate paths, and we've all stayed there.’ We are sitting next to each other on a sofa in the Los Angeles recording studio where she has been creating her most musically accomplished work yet - the aforementioned album, Lust For Life, is destined to be the sound of this summer. Lana is fully present, smart, funny, engaging and refreshingly able to laugh at herself. She wears jeans and a vintage shirt, and she talks softly but with a compelling certainty. I like her all the more for the fact that no amount of everydayness negates the magic she exudes as a performer. To her fans, Lana exists in flickering Super 8; the Manic Pixie Dream Girl who comes with no baggage or bad days, but is here only for you in a Valencia-filtered fantasy. She's an idea of a woman who didn't grow up anywhere, but emerged fully formed from the elevator at the Chateau Marmont Hotel. She's a montage of Americana, finished with a flick of black eyeliner. Both the reality and the fantasy of Lana Del Rey make up a fully formed, albeit exceptional, human being. But, as Lana tells me, inhabiting these two worlds hasn't always been easy: ‘I know that if I had more of a persona then [when she released her breakthrough hit, Video Games, on the internet in 2011] I have less of one now. I think it comes down to getting a little older. Maybe I needed a stronger look or something to lean on [back then]. But it wouldn't really be hard for me today to play a mega-show in jeans without rehearsing and still feel like I was coming from the right place.’ I suggest that the scrutiny Lana was put under by the media for having a melancholic persona was unfair. Everyone, to some degree, presents a different side of themselves at work, right? Plus, she's hardly the first artist to change her name or cultivate a distinctive stage look. Yet, countless conspiracy theories called into question her appearance, talent, and family background around the time her second album, Born To Die, was released in 2012 but Lana is remarkably understanding. ‘Looking back now, I get a little more of what they're saying. When I was in the mix of a lot of reviews and critiques, I was kind of like, “What? I do my hair and my make-up just like everyone else for my pictures and my show, and yes my songs are melancholic, but so are whoever else's.” So to see a couple of other female artists not get criticised made me think, “What is it about me?”’ In hindsight, she says, she understands what the criticism and intrigue over her authenticity as an artist was about: ‘I think it comes down to energy, I really do. It wasn't overtly saying “I'm unhappy” or “I'm struggling” in my music, but I think maybe people did catch that and they were saying, "If you're going to put music like that out there, you better fessup to it.” But I don't think I really knew how felt. Then when things got a little bigger with the music I was still figuring out what was important to me.’ I get the sense that she's done a lot off figuring out in the past few years, like many of us now in our early thirties probably have done too. The difference with Lana, of course, is that all her experimentation, mistakes and regrets were fodder for public consumption. I mention that sinking feeling I get when I stumble across an old diary or a Facebook post that feels like it was from a totally different place to where I am now. I ask if she can relate. ‘That applies to me,’ she says. 'I have cringy moments. Certain things I have said and songs I have done, but mostly the ones that were leaked... I mean, they're not my finest.’ She's talking about her computer being hacked in 2010, when hundreds of unfinished songs were released online, without her permission. It was a horrible invasion of her privacy, and it leads on to a discussion about vulnerability though interestingly, it's not a word she says she has ever applied to herself. I ask her what performing on stage takes from her emotionally and what she gains from it, her amphitheatre shows usually hold up to 24,000 people at capacity. She fixes me with a not-at-all vulnerable look and says, ‘Well, it depends on the day. If I'm having a good day, it still takes a lot, but so much of it is physical. I try to take strength and sing from my core, so I have to actually feel good and get a lot of sleep. Of course, it also helps if my personal life is even; when you're on stage for an hour and 40 minutes, you think while you're singing. I don't like my in-between thoughts to be restless, or worrisome, so I can focus on the crowd.’ After a show, she feels reflective and needs time to process it. ‘It's not like you do it and it didn't happen; it's a real experience. I know rock bands who say they fucking love it - that they would [perform] every night and wouldn't do anything else. I don't know if it's as emotional an experience for them [as it is for me]’ Back to that need to feel good and have an 'even' personal life, Lana has lived in both New York and London, but says Los Angeles is starting to feel like home, and that's a big part of what's making her happy right now: ‘I'm growing my roots and meeting a lot of other friends, so I feel a little more settled.’ In her downtime, she loves swimming in the ocean: ‘I have a friend called Ron who likes to swim with me. So every now and then, we find an empty beach, jump in and swim the length of the coast, from one side of the cove to the other.’ Hey friends are her family, says Lana and that's why she can't accept anything less than total honesty and trust from them: ‘The fact that l know that now everything a lot clearer. What's interesting is how unsafe we [could] feel among each other [if we weren't] able to express how we really feel. It's hard knowing that if you tell someone exactly how you feel, like if you're happy or unhappy, that could be the end of the relationship because they don't feel the same way.’ We speak about the crews you pick up through your life and agree that, in your thirties, you are much better at surrounding yourself with people who make you feel good. ‘When you're in your twenties, you let this cast of characters [into your life], especially if you're in the arts,' she says. ‘It didn't matter what they stood for or what they thought was important. But as the years went on, there were things that I saw in people that I didn't like.’ Lana is enjoying being part of a music scene in LA where her friends include photographer Emma Tillman (also the wife of singer-songwriter Father John Misty), Zach Dawes, who has played bass with the British super-group The Last Shadow Puppets, and musicians Jonathan Wilson and Cam Avery. They play music together, which is not something she's done with friends before. The first time she had dinner with the wholegang, she thought: 'Wow, this is great.’ She tells me: ‘Feeling part of something is definitely a nice feeling.’ The downside to rolling with a crew of fellow musicians is that karaoke becomes a competitive sport: ‘If I am with the guys, they're always on the microphone and sometimes it's hard to grab it from them. Everyone pretends that it doesn't matter, but you can tell there are moments in the choruses when people are really singing.’ We laugh and I feel pleased that I'm meeting Lana at a time in her life when, as she puts it: ‘All the tough things that I have been through - that I've drawn upon [in my work] - don't exist for me any more. Not all my romantic relationships were bad, but some of them challenged me in a way that I didn't want to be challenged, and I am happy I don't have to do that now.’ I don't mean to rain on her parade, but I ask whether she feels that when she admits she's happy that something bad might be just around the corner? ‘Yes, sometimes. I have a little bit of that feel that it's a human thing to be superstitious. Sometimes I say to my friends, “I don't want to jinx it.” Or if l'm on the phone I'm like, “I'm so excited about this”, and then waiting for that phone call the next day... but there's no such thing as jinxing it. Just let go.’ The key to happiness, she says, is to ask yourself what will make you happy: ‘I try not to do anything that won't [make me happy], even if it's a show in a place that doesn't suit me. It's so simple; I always used to ask myself that, but never listened [to the answer] because I knew I was probably going to do it anyway. If someone really needed me to do something, I would probably be like, “OK!"’ I wonder if we put too much emphasis on being happy and that in itself causes stress and anxiety, but Lana passionately disagrees: ‘No! I think happiness is the ultimate life goal. I think it's the only thing that's important. There are no mechanisms in place for routes to happiness, that's the whole fucking problem. I think people are unhappy in school - the education structure has been the same for a long time and kids are still not satisfied all over the world with their educational experience. And you don't have enough conversations when you're young about what makes for a satisfying mutual relationship. Those collective life experiences - your youth, your academic education and your education about business, marriage or relationship goals - they all lead up to happiness. I think the emphasis is on the wrong things, and it has been for a long time.’ Lana tells me she's more socially engaged than ever; her fifth and latest album is a mix of personal introspection and outward-looking anthems, such as God Bless America, in which she sings: ‘God bless America and all the beautiful women in it.’ She says that, with this record, she was striving for a feeling that we're all in this together: ‘I think it would be weird to be making a record during the past 18 months and not comment on how [the political landscape] was making me or the people I know feel, which is not good. It would be really difficult if my views didn't line up with a lot of what people were saying.’ We discuss being constantly bombarded with news and other people's views in our hyper-connected world, and I ask how she reconciles her personal wellbeing with the collective feeling that we are all going to hell in a handcart. ‘I think it's a balance, I really do. You are so fortunate if you have good health and high energy because it takes a lot to be a responsible human. Responsible to yourself, responsible to others, and to know when not to get too deep into the wormhole of news, but still be politically in-the-know and not be disconnected. In my life, it's like walking on a tightrope. I read the news, but I won't read it before bed; I won't read it when I get up and won't read it between my recording sessions. I have windows of time where I check in and catch up with everyone, but I keep my sacred things sacred.’ And as for her paean to America's women? "I wrote God Bless America before the Women's Marches sprung up, but I could tell they were going to happen. As soon as the election was over, I knew that was going happen. People were way more vocal and more active on social media and in real life, so I realised a lot of women were saying out loud that they needed support and they were nervous about some of the bills that might get passed that would directly affect them. So yes, it's a direct response in anticipation of what I thought would happen, and what did happen.’ Predicting the Women's Marches must have taken a seriously smart, social instinct, or some kind of sorcery straight from one of her otherworldly Lust For Life trailers. Whatever you think, you can't deny that the pulse of the zeitgeist beats throughout Lana's new album, from her pop collaboration with The Weeknd on the title track to the moody duet with John Lennon's son, Sean,and my personal favourite, Yosemite, a beautiful song about the way relationships change over time. After she plays me this track in the very room in which it was recorded, I can't help but ask what Lana is like as a girlfriend. ‘I'm amazing. I'm the best,’ she jokes, before clarifying, ‘I actually am the best girlfriend because I only get into a relationship if I'm really excited about it. I'm unconditionally understanding, very loving and like to be with that person for a lot of the time.’ After hearing Yosemite's refrain that she's no longer ‘a candle in the wind’, which to mean she's found a steadier light in her life, I wonder whether what she looks for in a relationship has also changed? ‘For me, the dream is to have a little bit of the edge, the sexiness, the magnetism, the camaraderie, be on the same page and all that stuff, but without the fallout that comes from a person who is really selfish and puts only their needs first, which is like a lot of frontmen if we're talking about musicians!’ (Lana has previously dated Barrie-James O'Neill, the Scottish lead singer of alt-rock band Kassidy.) ‘I'm going to write a book one day called, “The curse of the frontman and why you should always date the bassist."’ Lana smiles, takes a sip of her iced coffee, and says: ‘I guess have a little bit of a fantasy that really great relationships, friendships, and romances can stand the test of time. Even though each person in the relationship or the group changes, they don't change in ways that would make the relationship come to an end. The chorus [of Yosemite] is about doing things for fun, for free, and doing them for the right reasons. It's about having artistic integrity; not doing things because you think they would be big, but because the message is something that's important. And then, it's about just being with someone because you really can't see not having them in your life,not because it would be 'beneficial' to you to be in their company. It's that concept of just being in a relationship for 100% the right reasons. Being a good person, basically.’ Lana Del Rey is mercurial - just when you think you've got her she slips through your fingers like quicksilver - but in that hot second, I think I see her clearly: an artist who is rising from the ambiguity of youth and emerging into a woman with an authentic vision for her life and her art. Yes, that might one day fade like the barely there ‘Chateau Marmont' tattoo on her left wrist, but right now her power is in sharp, unfiltered focus. Lana Del Rey's fifth studio album, Lust For Life, is out soon.

#Lana Del Rey #Lotte Jeffs #ELLE #ELLE UK #Magazine #Interview #Editorial #2017 #May 2017 #Lust For Life

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bunnyadvocate · 8 years ago

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Visual Novel Protagonists: What are they made of?

The protagonists we choose to play are important. They’re our eyes and ears in a VN. They’re the ones we most understand, we see their most private inner-thoughts and dreams, we cheer on their successes and decry those who get in their way. With the first-person format of most VNs, we’re encouraged to see ourselves as them. So if you want to understand VNs, you need to understand protagonists. This post is a continuation of my analysis on VN trends and focuses on the types of protagonists we like to embody.

Tag, you're it

How can we analyse something as subjective as character traits? Geekdom has the answer: categories, lots and lots of categories. VNDB allows users to indulge their categorisation fetish by assigning “tags” which denote the type of content a VN has. There are currently over 2200 different tags on VNDB covering such elements as the genre, character traits, technical attributes, and the type of sexual content a VN has. The accuracy of the data is ensured by the crowd-sourced nature of the data, with everyone able to vote to confirm or deny the inclusion of a tag on a VN. Those tags with more votes against than for are removed from that VN.

The tag summary for Umineko no Naku Koro ni.

Using this vast source of data we can see which tags are most common in the medium and look for connections between them: are some tags more likely to appear together, or do some tags tend to only appear in higher rated VNs? We analysed the tag data for every VN on VNDB that has at least 5 user ratings which totalled 7690 VNs. 6340 were of Japanese origin (JVNs) and 1072 were developed in the West (EVNs).

This data will have gaps. While popular VNs are well tagged (Fate/Stay night has over 100 tags), less well known VNs aren’t fully categorised (such as the wonderful Where the Sun Always Shines which has only 11 tags), so we’ll underestimate the popularity of many traits. However this is a bias that’ll apply fairly equally to all tags, so while we should be cautious about saying X% of VNs have some trait, we can confidently say that some traits are more popular than others.

Most common protagonists

To get an overview of the kinds of protagonists most commonly found in VNs, we ranked the 280 tags that had the word “protagonist” in them. We split the results between Japanese VNs and EVNs to show the differences in the two markets.

The (X%) is how many VNs have that tag. A longer list is available here. A definition of what each tag means can be found on VNDB here.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the most popular JVNs that the list is dominated by male protagonists of school age, fighting and saving the world through sheer willpower. Nor is the presence of sexual traits being so high up on the list unexpected as only 22% of JVNs are tagged as having no sexual content; but more surprising is the presence of such violent sexual content. While we shouldn’t take this out of proportion, only 3.8% of JVNs were tagged with rapist protagonists, but it was still the 11th most common protagonist trait.

As for EVNs, we see more diversity in the characters they choose to portray. No single personality type dominates as it does for JVNs. Even “strong female protagonists” (as in character, not physical strength) were ranked higher (at 23rd) than the most common personality type tag (”fighting protagonist” is 24th). Female protagonists are almost as common as male ones, and dark-skinned protagonists also appear fairly frequently (dark-skinned protagonists were ranked 171st with 0.14% for JVNs). Diversity isn’t good just for its own sake, diverse characters mean diverse settings, and diverse settings mean diverse stories, and diverse stories are good for those of us who enjoy a range of different experiences.

Western fan preferences

Just looking at the VNs being released doesn’t necessarily give you a good picture of the VN scene as a whole. A dozen porn-focused VNs with a handful of fans each don’t better portray the medium than a story-focused VN with thousands of fans just because there are more of them. We tried to create a more accurate picture of what traits Western fans prefer to read by looking at the number of user ratings each VN got on VNDB. So a tag that appears in a VN with 50 ratings counts for 10 times more than a tag in a VN with just 5.

To further highlight what fans preferred over what was common, we ranked the results by the difference in how many user ratings a tag was getting vs how common it was in VNs overall.

The percentage is the difference between how common a tag is in user ratings vs how common that tag is in all VNs.

For both JVNs and EVNs, protagonists with a clear identity (and face) were far preferred over bland self-inserts, perhaps because more engaging stories tend to require a protagonist with eyes /s. Voice acting for protagonists also seems popular, although that may be a side-effect of a VN having a higher budget (with higher budget VNs tending to be more widely read).

It also seems there’s a stark divide between those reading translated VNs and EVNs, with Western JVN fans flocking towards the already over-represented male protagonists. An overwhelming 82% of JVN user ratings go to VNs with male protagonists. While otome VNs do moderately well in Japan, very few get translated. Given how popular female protagonists do in the EVN scene, this would seem to be a missed opportunity.

At the other end of the scale, nameable protagonists may be common, but they aren’t popular with fans. On the Japanese side, this may reflect the additional technical difficulty in translating a VN with such a feature. If a VN doesn’t get translated, it doesn’t tend to be widely read in the West. However this feature also also appears near the bottom of the EVN list too, suggesting the feature itself is unpopular.

Highest rated protagonists

As well as determining what’s popular, we can also gauge what fans think makes for a better protagonist from the ratings they give the VNs with those protagonists. Using a little bit of maths (details here), we got the average rating for those protagonist tags that appeared in at least 50 VNs.

The full list of protagonist ratings is available here.

These ratings are somewhat skewed by a few popular highly-rated VNs, the homemaker protag’s inclusion on this list is due to Fate/Stay night, but there still seems a clear preference towards smart protagonists who get shit done. On the reverse side, many of the most low-rated traits are those most common in porn-focused VNs.

Battle of the sexes

We’ll drill down into more detailed tag specifics in my next post, but as a teaser of what’s to come, we looked at the differences between VNs with male and female protagonists. We split VNs into those who had male or female protagonists and measured which tags became more common than before. Therefore we could see which tags were most closely linked to that gender. For example, the Student Heroine tag jumped from 23.7% of VNs to 32% when we restricted it to male protagonists only. As many VNs focus on heterosexual romances, its not a surprise that VNs with a male lead are much more likely to have female love interests.

The percentage in grey is how many male/female protagonist VNs have that tag, and the green is how much higher it is than the average for all VNs.

The male list is overflowing with sexual traits, unsurprising given that sexual content is far more common in VNs with male protagonists. Those sexual acts that are primarily gratifying to the male partner are especially popular. Boob-jobs, blow-jobs, and virgin sex are all acts that generally appeal more to the male partner and so it’s logical that it tends to pop up more in VNs where the reader takes the male’s perspective.

As for female protagonists, any otome fan can tell you how there’s a dearth of otomes with sexual content. Combine that factor with female protagonists being much more common in EVNs (who also shy away from sexual content), and you have the chaste list on the female protagonist side.

The increase in the proportion of female protagonists with faces and voice acting is harder to explain. This may be a reflection of how rare such content is in porn-oriented VNs, which mostly have male protagonists and eschew showing the male form (perhaps due to their otaku fans fear of turning gay /s). With such porn VNs holding down the average, restricting the results to the chaste female protagonists results in a big increase in its frequency.

Despite VNs being portrayed as escapist literature with generic self-insert protagonists, our analysis seems to suggest the reverse. Fans far prefer protagonists with strong identities, and EVNs are leading the way in exploring stories with more diverse characters. The videogame industry could learn something from our little medium.

Next week we’ll analyse the individual protagonist tags in more detail. What do women and death have in common? Find out next time.

I hope you enjoyed our little analysis. I had a lot of fun collecting the data, but refining it down into a reasonable length post was tricky. I love talking about this, so if you have any comments or queries then please get in contact via the Ask me Anything, my twitter, or reddit.

A big thank you goes out to /u/8cccc9 for his help on the analysis, and Part-Time Storier for her help on proofreading.

#oelvn #evn #visual novel #visual novels #visual novel development #visual novel trends

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ruleandruinrpg · 8 years ago

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CONGRATULATIONS, SIDNEY!

You have been accepted for the role of RITA JAKOV. Admin Bree: The competition for Rita was tough, and our attention-loving tailor would smile to know it. But not as much as I smiled while reading your application, Sidney—really, it only got better with every word you wrote. It was your para samples that really sold me above all else, though, the way you portrayed her insecurities, vanity, and constant pursuit of perfection, ever-elusive. It was so intriguing to look inside her pretty little head and see what goes through it every time she looks in the mirror, and where it all began. This application was beautiful, so genuine I felt as though my Rita might jump off the page. Congratulations! You have 24 HOURS to send in your account. Also, remember to look at the CHECKLIST. Welcome to Ravka!

OUT OF CHARACTER ALIAS: Sidney! PREFERRED PRONOUNS: She/her. AGE: Twenty. TIMEZONE & ACTIVITY LEVEL: I’m in EST for the summer! I’ll have a lot of free time this summer since I’m home. I do have a part time job this season, but it is just that: part time! So it really shouldn’t interfere and I’ll certainly be able to check in daily and I’m usually always around to plot. As for when the fall semester starts, I go full time and work part time, but I’m usually pretty good at keeping up with things. I can usually respond to threads within 1-2 days and am usually always lurking lol. On a numerical scale, I’d say 7-9/10 in the summer and 6-8/10 during school semesters!

IN CHARACTER DESIRED CHARACTER: Rita Jakov. Rita - Short form of Margherita. In many languages, it translates literally to pearl, but most notably black pearl in Persian. Antonia - A name of Roman origin given to the women of the Antonius family. Literally translated, it means priceless, praiseworthy and beautiful. Jakov - A family name of many different origins, but most commonly referred to the Hebrew origins supplanter, or “to trip up or overthrow.”

WHAT DREW YOU TO THIS CHARACTER? To be perfectly honest, Rita stole my heart from the moment I read her teaser. But I will admit, I was hesitant back then because there were so many lovely teasers being released and once bios dropped, I was swept away by so many different characters! But I’ve come to the conclusion that I was wrong to be apprehensive! She’s everything I could have wanted in a Grisha character. And there’s already so much development in her past that I’m really excited where the current events in the plot will take her! What stood out for me most was this quote: “—the type of woman who was loved by all who knew her but understood by none.” I’m not sure if I see a little of myself within Rita or if I’m simply one of the many who love her, but I want to explore her nonetheless. She’s soft and kind and gentle underneath it all—which is deeply rooted in her home life and the way she was raised—but her time at the Little Palace and around fellow Grisha has really shaped and molded the tough exterior she now sports.

A walking puzzle, doe-eyed and hopeful, she entered the Small Science late to the game, picked from the bunch last and she’d been treated as such. But it didn’t take her long to find her footing, to live greedily, to choose beauty above all else. And I think that’s what I find so interesting about her! Most characters who want to paint the world in watercolors, who want to remove all of the Earth’s blemishes, have a selfless ambition. They have a mission and it is to make the world a better place for everyone, but that simply is not Rita. She’s been spoiled rotten by her own abilities and so have those who dare to cover up their indiscretions with the flick of her wrist or the tug of her finger. And though some may call her obsessive, or shallow, or downright empty and see those qualities as a sign of weakness, I see it all as unprecedented and true strength. Even after years of trying desperately to offset and ultimately fix such savagery, with her delicate hands capable of contorting even the ugliest of beasts into magnificent beings (in other words, putting a mere bandaid onto a gunshot wound), the world has revealed itself for what it really is, ugly and wrought with pain. But if her time at the Little Palace has taught her anything, it is that the beauty she so wishes could cure disease and heal the wounded can corrupt just as wholly as darkness can.

There’s something so appealing to me about her. She’s a gentle soul with an affinity for the finer things in life, from what she reads to what she wears, and most importantly, how she looks. But waging a war against all things odious and vile and egregious, and claiming her cause as righteous one has left her disappointed, hollow, rotten. Perhaps it is time for her to embrace these monsters and this darkness; time for her to find the beauty in the pain and the elegance in destruction.

WHAT FUTURE PLOT IDEAS DID YOU HAVE IN MIND? ONE: Nothing gold can stay. It has taken Rita years to understand that beauty is temporary. It is a quick fix, a vain indulgence to cover up what truly lies beneath: rot. She was not raised to believe this; in fact, she was raised to be that quick fix, that vain indulgence. She was meant to be admired, but never really touched for all things lovely and charming seem to be the most vulnerable; they seem to bruise as easily as does a peach. And so she remained unattainable, just out of reach. Not out of fear, but necessity. Beauty is temporary, this she’s learned. But to those around her, it is demanded. I really love this quote from her bio: “monsters so love to be made to look as though they’re anything but.” It really resonates with me and gives me lots of thoughts on Rita as a person. I don’t want to change her; I love her the way she is: magnificent and dangerous with beauty literally resting at her fingertips, ready to be put to use, but she’s grown so much and not all for the better. In a way, I think she attributes a lot of the cruelty and pain she’s come to witness as her fault because what she offers does not last. It is almost as if she herself has become a drug, one she is not only addicted to (of which she will most likely never recover), but especially to those she’s tweaked and toned and tailored. And it is that very reason that I believe she’ll struggle with continuing on as this so-called magic wand of Ravka. They demand she erase their deformities away, but monstrousness always has a way of creeping back in even bigger and badder than before. So I’d love to explore the inner turmoil she will inevitably have. Simply put, all she’s ever wanted was to beautify all the ugliness she’s seen, only to discover beauty, something she can control, offer, and give willingly, can corrupt even the purest of things. And perhaps, it is time she take a good look in the mirror. Does she still see the same little girl who turned a village into a kingdom? Can she even recognize the face staring back at her? And more importantly, I want to find out what it means if the answers are no.

TWO: Superficial, at best. Shallow, vapid, vain—she has been called it all, and much, much worse. Hatred follows around the conventionally beautiful like a lion stalks a gazelle, strategically and thirsty for blood. Rita has always prided herself on her looks, that much is clear. Even before she left her home to join the Second Army, she saw beauty wherever she went. Whether it was pure imagination or wishful thinking, it did not stop her from charming elegance out of everyone and everything around her. Don’t you want to be beautiful? A young Rita would ask and the adults would laugh, tossing their heads back in admiration for the wildly imaginative Jakov girl, with long golden hair and perfectly sun-kissed cheeks. I would love to explore what lies underneath. There are so many layers to a girl like her, each one more complex than the rest, but she’s changed herself so much over the years, claiming each adjustment—each nip here, each tuck there—was done in the name is seeking absolute perfection. And she found it for a time. She became so achingly attractive, so superbly beautiful people almost feared her. They gazed at her from afar with a look one can only describe as wonder. And maybe that’s why she turned her efforts outward instead of in, choosing to perfect those around her as best she could. She’ll claim it was selfless, but a part of me wonders if she only did that so she’d be surrounded by beauty as well. But what are her true motivations? Does she even have any? Or are all her desires, her wants, her needs really that hollow? Some say beauty is skin deep and what matters is on the inside, but Rita has tweaked and remade and even created her skin more times than she can count, over and over, and each time is somehow more beautiful than the last. But what if that’s all she is? What if that is all she’s good for? As her bio states, she’s never fought in a real fight, never wielded a real weapon. I want to see her amount to more than just outer appearances. I want to know what’s underneath it all because, if one day, she is called to fight and she isn’t prepared, her treasured beauty will be the first thing to suffer. So I’d love to explore her maybe getting more physically strong, and learning a little about beauty as a strength within.

THREE: A lonely person. I hate to be that person who keeps going back and quoting the bio, but I can’t resist! “She became so beautiful it hurt.” This sentence alone, if it were all I had to describe Rita, I think it does it perfectly. If you throw away all the cliches—most notably: beauty is pain—and you focus on the meaning behind it, I think you’ll find Rita Jakov. I see her as a strike of lightning, wondrous and loud and capable of decimation. People look to her and gape; they stare; they lust after her; they long to have her, to own her, to be her. But for all the effort she puts into making other people happier with themselves, she cannot find happiness within. It is a lonely road, this one she’s walking down. It may be beautiful and pristine and lathered in honey and sweet-little-nothings from passersby, but at the end of the day, she is still alone. The moments she relishes, the ones she wishes would last an eternity are inevitably fleeting. So I would love to explore her desire for friendship, love, etc., wherever it may be found. And furthermore, I think her desire to find love, to be loved could be preyed upon, if you think about it. Rita has never been desperate; everything has come easily to her simply because of the advantages the conventionally attractive receive, but I believe she is the perfect candidate for some hardcore manipulation. She could easily get swept away in the affection from a person, believing it to be true. Deep down, I think she hopes for all the glances and stares to mean that people truly love her, but there’s such a monumental difference between love and adoration. The latter has kept her fed for so long now; for years she took praise and pocketed it. She held it close and revisited it any time the decay began to creep in. Perhaps it kept her sane, perhaps it is what drove her mad. But either way, it is all she can see now—in everywhere she looks, in everyone she sees. I would love to see and explore her lack of ability to relate to those around her. It is almost as if she has been wearing goggles since the day she was born. And for a while, all they showed her was the magnificence and grandeur she was capable of. But her vision has changed. Or more importantly, the world has demanded she see its truth. Her goggles have been forcibly cracked and putrefaction has settled in; and it is ravenous, this decay. It isolates her; makes her second guess herself; steals her confidence like a thief in the night. People: they have always been what she has loved most, but now they seem to only cause her pain and heartache. But I believe that longing companionship will remain. In fact, I think it is what will keep her grounded in these new uncharted waters of despair. As of right now, she seems to be trapped in a cage of destruction, alone and incapable of connecting with anyone, provided with only one weapon to defend herself: beauty. And so many others demand she use it constantly, and with reckless abandon. And they will take until nothing of her is left.

WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO HAVE YOUR CHARACTER DIE?: Yes. It would probably depend on muse mostly, if I’ve lost it or something. And if it would help further along the plot!

IN DEPTH IN CHARACTER PARA SAMPLE(S): She watches her closely, taking note of her every move: the way her hand sits perfectly still as her fingers do all the magic; the way her mouth points downward, slightly agape whenever she touches up her eyes; the way each and every little thing she does makes her more perfect than the moment before. Rita has always thought her mother was beautiful, with hair as silky smooth as honey and perfect, unblemished olive skin. She has always been a sight for sore eyes, turning head wherever she goes—men, women, it made no difference. All eyes were on her.

“You’re beautiful, Mama,” a tiny little Rita gushes atop her mother’s lap, elbows resting atop the counter, eyes trained onto her face through the mirror. Her hands gently cupped at her tiny chin and she watched her mother, absolutely mesmerized.

“Thank you, baby,” she smiles, eyes never leaving her own reflection. She has a tiny jar resting between the index finger and the thumb of her left hand, and she dabs her middle finger into the maroon concoction. It stains her fingertip and Rita’s brows furrow with confusion.

“What’s that?” Disbelief is apparent in her tone, but it only elicits a light-hearted chuckle from her mother and a small shake of her head.

“Shadow. For the eyes,” she raises her arm and sweeps the tip of her finger gently along one of her eyelids, then does the same to the other. The color is now smeared along her skin and she pauses for a moment, only to wipe away the remaining color from her fingers. And then she returns to her lids, spreading the shadow smoothly, evenly until all that remains is a soft glow of red. Her green eyes pop against the contrast of the colors and Rita gasps.

“How did you do that?!” She whips her head around and gazes up with absolute wonder at her mother and her appearance, jealous of her beauty and wishing she could take it from her. Turning back, she faces the mirror and leans in, observing her own face and takes note of at least three shortcomings—something no nine year old girl should ever do.

“Here,” her mother interrupts her thoughts, gesturing for her to hop up onto the table. Rita does as is suggested and her mother leans to her left and rummages through her trunk. It’s filled with at least thirty jars of all different small shapes and sizes, each one a different color and texture, but all are complementary to her mother’s skin tone, of course.

“Let’s try…” she trails off as she searches, clinking and clanking within the box until she clicks her tongue and looks back to Rita, “this one.” It’s magenta, but more purple than pink and it’s reminiscent of Rita’s favorite dress in the way it shines when it hits the light.

Slowly and carefully, her mother executes the same routine she had done on herself, dipping her finger into the now uncorked jar and then sweeping it gently along Rita’s eyelids. She wipes away the remaining shade, but quickly returns to spread it out evenly. Rita sits as patiently as any child can when far too excited and her mother has to scold her at least three times before she finally does sit still.

They follow the same routine. First, her mother applies on herself, then chooses the perfect color for Rita. It is never a match, never the same colors. “Each woman has a different palette,” her mother grasps her wrist lightly and holds her arm up side-by-side to her own. “Your skin is much lighter than mine,” this time her tone hurts; it’s edgy and clipped and filled with a hint of jealousy. But Rita quickly excuses it away. Perhaps all women are jealous of one another, she thinks. Just as I was jealous of her moments earlier.

But it is a very dangerous thought, a dangerous way to excuse the bad behavior of a parent. No mother is ever supposed to resent their child, let alone scold their daughter for having fairer skin or being prettier. But Yekaterina Jakov was no ordinary mother, and she will do anything to make sure her daughter is no ordinary girl.

“Now, Rita, you mustn’t let anyone see you without your face.”

“Without my face?” The girl stares up at her mother, wide-eyed and quizzical. “But I always have my face.”

“No, Rita. This is your face,” her mother holds up her arm, encompassing the girl’s face entirely with her hand as she speaks. “This is what you show people. Nothing less than perfection.”

Rita turns back to look into the mirror, her eyes scanning every perfect corner of the visage staring back at her. She takes note in the purple on her eyelids, at the rose petal pink lacquered onto her plump lips, at the dark charcoal black outlining her azure hues. She didn’t look like herself; she was nearly unrecognizable, but at least she was beautiful.

—————

She sits in front of a mirror, her mirror, the one she uses every single day. And today is a day like any other. She rises early despite her protests, bathes and begins her morning routine, though it seems more like a ritual—like she’s praying to a deity. The god of beauty, but Rita is painfully unaware of the sacrifice Aphrodite demands: nothing too extravagant, only your soul. And so it starts with a tug here, a lift of her brow to give her more of a perfect arch, and it ends with a face she barely recognizes. But it’s one they will demand to see. They’ll gawk and stare and whisper as she walks past, secrets of lust or promises of hatred, it makes no difference. At least they will be discussing her. They’ll be envious of her beauty, of her grace and everything in between.

Tentatively, she reaches into the familiar wooden chest. It was her mother’s; a gift for her eighteenth birthday. She’d spent a fortune to send it to Rita, even left it filled with supplies, and now it was her most prized possession—aside from its contents, of course. But the sentiment behind the gift was left unanswered. Her letter had been left unanswered as well. It wasn’t that Rita couldn’t find the words; she knew exactly what she wanted to say to her mother if she had the chance. She wanted to yell and cry and scream. She wanted to blame her mother for it all, to rest the weight of the world’s transgressions atop her shoulders so Rita would no longer have to bear it alone. But the solution lies at the surface, not within. Simply, Rita did not want to waste her time. There would be no use in writing a nasty letter to the woman who left her ill prepared to face life; her efforts could be put to far better use. Her time was precious, highly sought after and she needn’t waste it on those she no longer cares about. As far as she’s concerned, both her parents have died.

Slowly, she twists the cap off of her new favorite shade: a subtle pink sherbet. But as she places the finishing touches atop her lids, a tiny thought pops into her head. This would look better if my eyes were green today. And it takes no more than that mere suggestion. She sets down the tiny jar, twists the cap back on and then focuses her fingertips attention toward her blue hues. But in time, and with a few blinks, the ocean calmly morphs into a beautiful pasture—subtle and serene and most importantly, green. That’s better, she thinks, a smile forming along her rosy lips. But there’s a tiny wrinkle in her nose whenever her reflection squints back at her. Quickly and with wild determination, she brushes away the small crease in her skin with the pad of her finger, a look in her eye as if she’s an artist laying magnificent waste to a fresh blank canvas. A few swipes of her paintbrush and the wrinkle vanishes completely.

It’s an uphill battle, this war against imperfection, but it is one she’s spent what feels like a lifetime waging—and winning. But it is dangerous, this ability she possesses. The ability to erase, to change, to intensify. Beauty lies in wait atop her fingertips, never truly admitting the immense power that comes along with such a form of defense. And those around her, those who wish to erase, wish to change, wish to intensify; they submit willingly, and Rita obliges them with absolute delight.

But what of herself? Who defends her against this beast she has created, this monster that lies within? No one ever warned her that the most dangerous enemy is yourself. It doesn’t show in the way she looks, the way she dresses, or even the way she carries herself. All they see is beauty, is perfection, is transcendence—so that is all she sees, too. She sits in front of this mirror, day-in and day-out. She adjusts, she tweaks, she changes completely. Each morning she rises, each day she is reborn anew. What remains? Nothing, she thinks. I am no one.

She sucks in a sharp breath and closes the box in front of her, locking it tightly and setting it into the drawer on her left. But she isn’t finished. She realizes this when her eyes land back on her reflection. Her hair, it glistens in the morning light; it shines as the trees whip in the wind, blocking the sun every now and then. But it doesn’t look perfect. Not with these brand new green eyes. Brown looks best with green, she thinks. Maybe a light chestnut. Slowly she reached into the top drawer to her right and retrieved a small brush made of bone. With the other she pulled out a familiar tiny jar filled with crushed cinnamon. Bringing the jar up and over the crown of her head, she tapped the side of it lightly, letting the light brown flakes descend atop her blonde hair. She follows this by running the brush through her curls, and the color bleeds from the flakes. It blends and molds into her natural hair color, changing right before her eyes until every last strand has been made anew.

Perfect, she thinks, but takes note of her brows once more, too light and mismatched to the color of her hair. A frustrated sigh escapes her slightly parted lips. And therein lies Rita’s biggest and longest lasting problem. Her work is never finished, and there always seems to be room for improvement. Perfection—which her mother always told her is of the utmost most importance—does not last. There will always be far more ugly than there is beauty.

CHARACTER HEADCANONS: 1. Rita is a Libra. Born September 27th on the precipice of fall. Strengths of Libras: cooperative, tactful, kind, giving and highly sociable. Weaknesses of Libras: Prone to self-pity, detest confrontations and/or fights, can carry a grudge and harbor unmentioned hatred quite easily. Being born under the air sign of Libra, it has bestowed upon Rita a great love of people, especially those who pique her interest. She loves when things go smoothly and appreciates the gentler things in life such as peace and harmony. She whole-heartedly detests violence and consequently injustice. Seeing those around her suffer has always brought her great pain and perhaps this is where her love of beautification and tailoring stems from.

2. Rita’s personality falls under that of the ENFP type, which makes her The Campaigner. “You can change the world with just an idea.” While this applies to many different people who fall under this same personality type, for Rita, it happens to be true. Her idea: douse the world in elegance and decadence. And for a while, she did just that. ENFPs are sociable creatures; they strive being the life of the party and the center of attention. Rita loves to be both. She must grab the attention of an entire room when she enters. And each person within that room must take an interest in her. Otherwise she has not succeeded. ENFPs struggle to connect with those around them, despite their craving for social interaction. This stems from their inability to see the world as anything but complex, like the hardest puzzle known to man, and Rita is determined to put it together—piece by disgusting piece. Rita also struggles with their emotions and compassion; deep down the two conflict immensely. But most importantly, ENFPs like Rita, spend so much time looking for a deeper meaning to life, to their existence, that they forget to enjoy what is happening around them. Though in Rita’s case, perhaps she’s spent too much time noticing, and therefore learned too much and lost a touch of her innocence—of her beauty—along the way.

3. Rita’s character alignment falls under that of neutral good. People that fall under such an alignment are people pleasers; they enjoy helping out those around them, from king’s to peasants, but remain indebted to none. Rita is exactly that. She has always believed, like most like-minded neutral good characters, that law & order are important just as chaos & order are too. And she believes one cannot exist without the other, but rather enjoys in indulging in any of them. Whether it be following the rules, or bending them to her whims; succumbing to an irresistible desire or denying one’s urges for the greater good, Rita has done it all. And she will again. What she does value however, is freedom above all else. She is a bird, meant to fly and to soar and to roam the earth passionately. But being the true neutral that she is, she always seeks to find a balance. To work hard and play hard.

4. A girl’s first true love is her father. Papa’s little angel, he would whisper softly. Even today, if Rita closes her eyes, relaxes her thoughts and takes a deep breath, she can almost feel his lips as they graze along her temple. She can feel his strong arms hook under her arms and lift her high above his head. If she concentrates hard enough, she can remember him. The way he smelled, like a gentle rain on a warm, sunny day. The way he felt, like a protector with arms made of steel. The way he loved, with his whole heart. But Rita can never remember his face; she can never see it when she closes her eyes. He is more of a blur rather than a memory, not a complete picture, but a perfect trope of a loving and caring father, if there ever truly was one. He died when she was very young, around four or so. And I attribute most of her issues, even if she claims to be and seemingly looks perfect. They say a father’s love is like no other, especially when it comes to men loving their daughter’s. A girl needs her father; she needs one man in her life that she can trust. If not, pretty little angels with hair as bright and as yellow as the sun do not turn riper with age. They turn rotten.

5. I am what you made me. Some say a girl’s best friend is her mother, and if Rita were asked, she would probably say just that. She’d claim she learned everything from her: how to dress, how to act, how to be. Her mother was her teacher, her guide post, and it was her responsibility to shape Rita into a fine young woman. And instead, she created a monster. A beast instilled with the belief that beauty is paramount and should be held in higher regard than anything else. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that she had to raise her all by herself, but something tells me Yekaterina Jakov couldn’t and wouldn’t have done any better. She sees Rita as the perfect girl; mysterious and beautiful: everything it took her far too long to figure out how to be. But everyone knew just how easily Yekaterina collected pretty things, hung them on a shelf and only admired them from afar. And after her father died, this left Rita with no other way to receive adoration or praise or love. One could single-handedly blame Rita for her vanity, her shallow heart, but they’d be remiss to overlook how big a hand her mother played in the woman she became. What sort of woman—what sort of person can you become when your mother treats you as if you are just another collectible? It has been years since she’s even seen her mother, not since she moved to the Little Palace, but still, she’s developed a strong hatred for her the more ugliness she sees, and distantly, if she spends too much time lingering on the fleeting thought of her mother, she wishes Yekaterina had better prepared her for the world instead of handling her with gloves meant to only hold delicate things; it didn’t prepare her for reality.

6. Likes: Rita loves the smell of fresh flowers, the taste of a sweet wine and the warmth of the afternoon sunlight on her face. She has an obsession with lace and silk, specifically the way the latter feels against her skin. Her favorite color is purple, especially when paired with greens and yellows.

7. Dislikes: Rita detests waking up early, favoring as much beauty sleep as she can get. She hates the way it sounds when people chew with their mouth open, even more so if they begin to speak. Getting dirty, sweating and the stench that follows are just a few of her least favorite things, as well as any sort of physical training or activities. Not to say she’s lazy, but over exertion is not something she enjoys. And lastly, she cannot stand cheap fabric or bad fashion sense.

8. Romance & sexuality: I know it has been explicitly stated that Rita is pansexual, and while I love that despite her vanity and obsession with how things look, she can look beyond a person’s looks and decidedly find someone attractive based on pure personality, I still think Rita’s sexuality and her experience regarding sex is something that should be explored. Has she ever had sex? I don’t think she has. She may have had encounters of sexual nature, but they have never reached their full potential, so to speak. Perhaps it is difficult for her to give herself wholly to someone the way one must while having sex, or maybe she’s saving herself, waiting for the right person to come along. And in reference to my last plot point, I think it’d be interesting if her first time was given to someone under the ruse of love. Yet another piece of her stolen and tarnished and given back mangled: her heart. And furthermore, Rita’s heart is severely entangled with her sexual desire, and quite possibly cannot engage in one without the other.

EXTRAS: I didn’t have all the time in the world, but I’m just gonna put a few quotes and things here that remind me of Rita! I would have made a mockblog, but again, not enough time. :/

Quotes that inspired me for Rita: “Her eyes were pearls, which gave her great beauty, but meant she was blind. Her world was the colour of pearls: pale white and pink, and softly glowing.” - Neil Gaiman (x)

“Beauty is transformed over time and not without destruction.” - Terry Tempest Williams

“How soft and gentle her name sounds when I whisper it. It lingers on the tongue, insidious and slow, almost like poison, which is apt indeed. It passes from the tongue to the parched lips, and from the lips back to the heart.” - Daphne du Maurier (x)

“It’s hard to show people everything, you know? You never know what they’ll do with it once they have it.” - Nick Burd (x)

“They won’t tell you fairy tales of how girls can be dangerous and still win. They will only tell you stories where girls are sweet and kind and reject all sin. I guess to them it’s a terrifying thought, a red riding hood who knew exactly what she was doing when she invited the wild in.” - Nikita Gill (x)

“I burn, I freeze; I am never warm. I am rigid; I forgot softness because it did not serve me.” - Catherine M. Valente (x)

Gifs and such that inspired me for Rita: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

ANYTHING ELSE? Thank y’all for even reading ANOTHER app from me tbh! Love + appreciate y’all so much and I’m just so happy I got to dive into Rita as well. Oh, also! My fave book is Catcher in the Rye.

#raraccepted #accepted: rita

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ask-jungshook · 8 years ago

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BEGIN!AU Masterlist & FAQ

Disclaimer: This post is a work in progress so a lot of changes will be made in the future! (I’ll link it in my header for easy access)

Links

Prologue Series

Part 1: Descent | | Part 2: Static | | Part 3: Rebirth

Reflection Series

Snowdrop : J-Hope | Lilac : Yoongi | tbd

Other (Misc pieces)

BEGIN!AU tag

General

Q: What is BEGIN!AU?

A: It’s an AU that I created that is loosely based off of my interpretations the MVs (aka I have no clue what’s going on, so it’s kinda vague on purpose right now) Hopefully I will be expanding the world within it as time goes on though! As of now, it’s going to focus mainly on Jungkook and all the excerpts posted are written from his POV. I’m still working on fleshing out everything, so please bear with me.

I’m hoping that there will be several parts? But as of now, I currently have the Prologue Series and the what will be the Reflection Series (this is a work in progress– idk if I’m gonna keep that name, so it’s a placeholder for now lol) Both are based off of Jungkook’s memories. The Prologue is more or less a teaser to the actual storyline, whereas the Reflection Series will just be short snippets of his thoughts of each of the members (So there will be 6 parts total – I was originally going to release each portion on the member’s birthdays, but some are too clumped so I might be releasing them in random blocks of time lol J-Hope and Suga’s should be released on time of their bday though!)

Q: Can I ask questions to Begin!JK?

A: Depending on the nature of the asks, I will be either answering them within this AU or just do a non-AU. (It honestly depends on the question) But if you’re an askblog and want to do an AU crossover, I AM SO DOWN FOR A COLLAB. (it can be in this AU or a different one too!) I’m also working on several solo pieces that will pertain to this AU, but that’s like for the way future!

Q: Can I drew fanart for this AU?

A: JDGHSKGJHLG Sure! Just keep in mind that I haven’t determined what is ‘canon’ and what isn’t in this AU yet when it comes to fic writing, so idk how much you guys have to work with since everything is like ‘what is going on right now’ lol If anything you can say it was inspiration from my AU and that it’s your own interpretation of it since it’s not really based off it??? Idkman lol bc tbh I don’t even know what’s going on with my AU LOL However once my AU is more developed which won’t be for awhile, all I ask is that you credit me somewhere if it specifically relates to my AU & its plot! :) Also feel free to tag me if you post on tumblr! I would love to see the finished pieces! :’D

Also, kinda related but not really: please note that I do not allow for any of my works to be reposted, altered, or edited on any social media outside of this tumblr account as stated in my general FAQ. (I got an ask regarding this, but I’ll post my reply later bc it’s long and it’s kinda a topic I’ve been struggling a lot with as an artist)

Theme & Interpretation

My interpretation of the AU, as mentioned before is loosely based off the MVs taken with artistic freedom. (Well less about the plot of the MVs, and more about the overall meaning of them) The main theme of this AU relates to the ‘loss of innocence’ or simply ‘growing up’ in layman’s terms . (This is especially alluded to in the most recent MV of “Spring Day’ where they made a reference to Omelas) Healing and mending wounds is also a underlying theme as well.

I want to to explore the areas of self discovery, self forgiveness, and self understanding. The Jungkook in this AU based off the prologue, is still struggling to accept the present and unwilling to leave the past behind. He’s struggling in the sense that he can’t let go of the past and those memories haunt him. While he does realize that the world is not kind, nor is it fair, he has a hard time accepting it, which is why he constantly wishes for things to return back to the way they were – back to happier days.

The whole entire prologue series is basically him battling against his conscience, contemplating on the ‘what ifs’ of moments in his past when he knows that there’s nothing he can do to change them. However at the last panel of the prologue series, you might notice that I drew him smiling compared to the panel right before where he’s just looking at the viewer– this was done for a reason.

I released the last part of the series right before the You Never Walk Alone album dropped, so I was honestly hoping that the image I had in mind would link it some way to the new songs AND GOD BLESS IT DID. There is a line in the supplemental story that said ‘But we can smile if we’re together’ and I was like YES GOOD JOB PAST DISSU U MADE A CORRECT DECISION OF WHERE UR TAKING UR AU BEFORE THE SONG CAME OUT LMFAO but that line of the song basically echos the sentiment that I was trying to portray in that last panel. So yes, the prologue series can be very angsty, but at the same time I wanted it to end with a message of hope at the end. There’s are a bunch of random easter eggs from when I was putting the whole series together, so if you have a question behind any of the panels or lines, feel free to ask! :D

Prologue Fun Facts

- The quotes following each part are all excerpts taken from Demian. I tried making them somewhat relate to the different parts, but one of the reasons I chose them was because they stood out to me– they also tie to common theme of growing up and accepting yourself.

- Almost all the scenes from P2 & P3 are in reference to the MVs, namely Run, I NEED U, Prologue, & Young Forever (props if you can recognize which MVs are from which panels lol)

- Some phrases in the lines used are a nod to some song titles as well! :)

Reflection Fun Facts

- Keep an eye out for flowers meanings!

#BEGIN!AU #MASTERLIST #PROLOGUE SERIES #REFLECTION SERIES #FAQ #// LOL TOMORROW IS THE DAY JHOPE'S THING WILL HOPEFULLY DROP GOODBYE THAT'S ALL YOU'RE GETTING FROM ME #// THE TITLE OF THE PIECE LOL AND A RANDOM FUN FACT #//( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)#// more will be added to this post later lol so uh idk if anyone wants to reblog this but just as an fyi LOL

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thomasroach · 6 years ago

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Baldur’s Gate 3 Interview with Larian and Wizards of the Coast

The post Baldur’s Gate 3 Interview with Larian and Wizards of the Coast appeared first on Fextralife.

Catching up with Larian Studios Founder Sven Vincke and Mike Mearls of Wizards of the Coast and Creative Director of Dungeons & Dragons, we had a few burning questions in mind in the wake of the news that Larian Studios are working on Baldur’s Gate 3. The studio is well known for its Divinity Original Sin series, and we wanted to find out exactly how this whole thing fell into motion. It was Sven Vincke who originally approached Mike Mearls with the interest of developing BG3, but as we found out in this interview, a lot went into this collaboration.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Interview with Larian and Wizards of the Coast

We knew fans would be eager to know how previous games would impact Baldur’s Gate 3, whether it would continue the story or use different time frames like their Divinity games. Vincke explained that there have been “several instalments of Baldur’s Gate involving the Forgotten Realm’s lore so you have Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, as well as the tabletop campaigns”, with the newest one called called Descent into Avernus releasing on September 17th. Baldur’s Gate 3 will take place after these events “[meaning] you are going to see plenty of references to things that happened in city in the past” as well as seeing settings from BG1 was based on the Forgotten Realms, along with references to events that happened in the new campaign Descent into Avernus.

Vincke assures that this will be a new story for fans to enjoy, with “several characters from the campaign” so you will see some familiar faces if you’re fan of the series. We had a number of questions pertaining how their experience with Divinity would influence their development with Baldur’s Gate 3 as well further details features, multiplayer and more.

FL: What rule set will you be using?

Vincke: Based on the 5th Edition because we ported all the rules to the computer game and looked at what worked and what didn’t work. There are somethings that don’t work for video games. But there is also the aspect if you’re playing tabletop, the game master and imaginations is a large part of it. There are things that are just not described in the rule set that you could do and we obviously have to make it work inside of the video game, that is something that we have to add on top of it.

FL: Are you planning to add anything that you had done with Divinity to that, or will it be straight Dungeons and Dragons?

Vincke: No, if you are in combat you say “I take the table and I throw it at him” right so that is something that we have to describe in the video game also, that’s an interaction with the environment, things like that you will see we have gone quite far.

Mearls: We don’t have specific rules for all those interactions, its up to the game master to extend those rules.

FL: How linear are you planning on making it?

Vincke: It is similar to the original Baldur’s Gate, and especially in Baldur’s Gate 2 it has a really cool mechanic that I really liked and I referenced a lot throughout Divinity Original Sin to the team where it had earn I think it was 20,000 gold to be able to take a ship, that was the type of freedom that was present there which we offered in DOS and you will see in BG3.

FL: Can you create a save based on the actions based on your actions in the previous games Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2?

Vincke: No, as they are closed chapters.

Will BG3 have multiplayer?

Vincke: From DOS1 to DOS2 you saw a lot of change how we handled multiplayer. So from DOS2 to BG3 you will see an evolution on how we handle it. The party is a very big focus this time, the slogan of the game is “gather your party”. BG2 was very party focused, they had a lot of mechanics for that time, how they handled the party. So expect innovation in that direction. Yes it will have co-operative multiplayer.

We did asked more specifics on the mechanics of parties and how many would in a party but Vincke was not willing to share exact details at this stage.

FL: What engine are you using, is it the same as DOS2?

Vincke: It’s the next generation of our own engine, Dragon Commander was 1.0, DOS1 was 2.0, DOS2 was 3.0 and Definitive Edition was 3.5. Now we are heading to 4.0, a completely new shift, we’ve upgraded the engine, there’s a lot tech that has been developed for quite some time.

FL: In regards to the artstyle of the game is it going to be similar to Divinity or are you guys going in a different direction?

Vincke: You’ve seen the teaser trailer? That sets the tone.

FL: In terms of camera angles, are you going to use the top down isometric view or go with the approach that you had with the definite edition of DOS1?

Vincke:[Laughs]You’ll see.

FL: How long can we expect the game to be in terms of gameplay?

Vincke: I expect players to spends 100 hours, if they go through everything. We’re making it a more a length to what we had in DOS2, its hard to tell until everything is done but I would say approximately 100 hours.

FL: Are you going to keep the traditional D&D classes, will you maintain this or expand upon it?

Vincke: Yes. If you know D&D 5th Edition and start Baldur’s Gate 3, you will know what to do.

FL: Will you be able to take sub-classes like in other D&D games?

Vincke: Yes you will.

FL: Will you have any famous D&D players appear as Easter eggs in the game?

Vincke: No comment.

FL: This is a hugely anticipated sequel, how much pressure is that and how do you deal with that?

Vincke: Well there is obviously a lot of expectations, people have been waiting for this game for a very long time. We try not to think of the pressure, we focus on making a good of a game as we can, our team is very very talented. We have Dungeons & Dragons we have Wizard of the Coast helping us, the collaboration is very close, we also have the funding to do this also without the publisher pressure as we are doing it ourselves. We have all the ingredients to make a really good RPG, we could still fuck it up, but there’s a really big drive and passion within the team to make it really good, more so than what we saw with DOS2. For a lot of the members of our team, their first RPG was Baldur’s Gate. There are a lot of tabletop sessions going on continuously in the offices and the different studios, so there is a lot of drive in this.

This is what we’re trying to do with BG3, the video game is the game master we’re trying to give you as much possibility of doing things just like you would be able to in a tabletop, that’s literally the drive behind what we do.

FL: In Divinity Original Sin you added a Dungeon Master mode, are you going to add something similar to that?

Vincke: No comment.

FL: Are you going to have modding tools?

Vincke: No comment.

FL: What platforms will it be released on?

Vincke: PC and Stadia.

So far PC and Stadia are the only platforms announced for Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian were unable to comment on whether it will be open to further platform in future.

FL: What is your publishing time frame?

Vincke: We have a time frame we’re looking at, we know people have been waiting on this game for sometime, they will probably will wait a bit longer. We need to get it right, we won’t release it if it’s not right. This is a game we want to play ourselves also, so it’s something we’ve been waiting for ourselves for a long time. We are going to try really deliver on it, we’ll see how much time it takes. We announce now because we to want to talk with the community, really understand what they are looking for, match it against our vision of what we’re doing, then together evolve.

FL: Are you going to do an early access?

Vincke: What we are not doing is a Kickstarter. We will announce when the time is right.

FL: How do you guys know that Larian was the right studio?

Mearls: I was involved in the business side of things, once the deal was signed. It was funny because when I first was told “oh we’re working with Larian” I was running many DD campaigns, there was one DD campaign I was running, I asked people at the table if they were to make Baldur’s Gate 3 who would you want to make it? They all answered Larian. So that told me we were on the right track. I remember when we first started working together, started collaborating, it was just a natural thing. On a creative level I think we have very similar attitudes towards roleplaying games whether they be tabletop or digital computer RPG, and I think we also have a similar sense in idea of developing the community. Roleplaying gamers, it’s funny, we each tell our own story but I think like the role of telling our own stories together, that there just a natural sense of community. That’s what happens when you bring people together in a tabletop, or even in a video game, the idea of sharing what you’ve done or playing co-op. So I think its kind of reflected in how we work together, it feels like almost this adventuring party getting together and plotting out the next great D&D story.

One of our first meetings we just laid down a map of the Sword’s Coast in Baldur’s Gate, “what if we went here? What if we went to this location?” It just felt like a natural design jam, it just felt like the D&D team, it didn’t feel like outsiders coming in, it just felt natural. There’s stuff mechanically where we were thinking of making a change to one of classes of the tabletop game, so I sent email over to your side [Larian], Vicke said “oh we have something very similar, we’re already thinking of implementing”. Theres even some part we were working on in terms of the lore, that’s going to be coming back from the game to the sort of core of D&D, that might influence future tabletop stories. It feels very collaborative, if this wasn’t part of my career it would be something I would be dying to know about, it feels like a very natural partnership.

Divinity Original Sin has been spiritual successor of Baldur’s Gate, it has the same agency, you can do so many things in different ways. From talking with both Larian studios and Wizards of the Coast, this seems to be a match made in heaven. Baldur’s Gate 3 appears to be in very good hands, not only taking inspiration from the previous titles, but adding their own uniqueness with their story as they plan together the next great adventure.

If you enjoyed this interview be sure to check out the Baldur’s Gate 3 wiki which will keep you up-to-date with all the latest information as it unfolds.

The post Baldur’s Gate 3 Interview with Larian and Wizards of the Coast appeared first on Fextralife.

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deadcactuswalking · 6 years ago

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‘ZEZE’, The Perfect Trap-Rap Trainwreck. [REVIEW]

2018 has been a pretty odd year for popular music. I mean, it’s been pretty impressive too, tons of records are being broken right now, in fact, the song we’re going to talk about today has broken one of those records (although easily one of the least important ones). I’ll talk more about 2018 as a year overall when I make my best and worst lists (which, no, this song won’t be on either despite who made it), but let’s just focus on this one song, and how perfect it is – despite being freakin’ awful, generic and borderline unlistenable. Let me elaborate.

SONG REVIEW: “ZEZE” – Kodak Black, Travis Scott & Offset – Produced by D.A. Doman

What record did this break, do you ask? Well, with the advent of SoundCloud rap, mumble-rap and emo-rap becoming the new wave, some stranger music has crept onto the charts, whether it be because of its sound or background and/or origin story. Memes have gotten music popular for ages but a 90s Latin reggaeton/house track by the “Chacarron Macarron” guy which translates to “Give me your little thing” becoming a top 40 hit is relatively unheard of – this is especially weird because the remix with Pitbull was released way after the song blew up and then fizzled out. I know Pitbull was always on his way out and he’s basically now a living meme anyway but it’s still a shock to see stars I knew so well fade away like this – oh, yeah, and how does celebrity status and star-power matter even more than it ever has been and none at all at the same time? We’re about to get a Mia Khalifa diss track released in February by two teenagers after a fake tweet was posted by some Instagram page on the charts simply because of the power of some girl in cosplay lip-synching to the second (and more meme-able) verse on TikTok.

Hit or miss - I guess they never miss, huh? – Smoke Hijabi, iLOVEFRiDAY’s “Mia Khalifa Diss”

Yet we still can’t get rid of that pesky Drake rascal, hell, he nearly hit #1 again, this time entirely uncredited!

I did half a Xan, 13 hours ‘til I land / Had me out like a light, ayy, yeah – Drake, Travis Scott’s “SICKO MODE”

Last year we had the shortest song to reach the top 5 since the early 1960s, with “Gucci Gang” by Lil Pump, peaking at #3 despite a puny runtime of a mere 2 minutes and 4 seconds. Today, we’re talking about a song that peaked just one slot higher, and became the highest-charting song EVER on the Hot 100 that starts with the letter “z”. Yes, it’s an odd, unimportant and pointless milestone but it’s something nonetheless. Oh, but that’s far from the most interesting part of this song. Let’s talk about the production first, mostly because any time I can stall before talking about Kodak Black should be savoured greatly. It was produced by D.A. Doman, most known nowadays for that “Taste” song by Tyga, in fact, Tyga even remixed “ZEZE” because the beats were so similar, and there’s only one beat Tyga ever does all that well on – and it’s tropical synth-lead trap. The bass on “Taste” was mixed well, though. I feel like there’s too little here and it could do with some pumping up, although it does give the steel pans a very airy feel, to be fair, and those little tiny details like that funky synth that just kind of appears briefly as a speck in Kodak’s refrain are just really top-notch, and that catchy and clean vocal sample playing throughout the song pushes this beat into truly great territory. Hell, the beat was so good that it made the song a meme months before its release, where people added a caption to Kodak and Travis dancing very... interestingly to the song. There was also a teaser where it was just 40 seconds of the beat building up with people saying “f**k ‘em up, Kodak” in the background, and someone was dancing there too. I don’t know, all I know is that this beat is fantastic and... everyone’s gonna mess this up, aren’t they?

Well, Travis doesn’t, really, he’s just odd. After like 5 seconds of the beat without any percussion or bass, just the steel pans and basically no build-up excluding Doman’s producer tag, the catchy “D.A got that dope!” phrase, it goes straight into the beat, bass and all, as well as Travis’ vocals which have like twenty layers each of some gross autotune and reverb effects. Seriously, it’s slathered to hell and back with vocal manipulation and it’s really unpleasant, especially when it’s drowned in all these ad-libs. Let’s focus on the lyrics of Travis’ hook, though, because they’re really cute. It plays out as, to say it bluntly, “Baby’s First Rap Chorus”. All the clichés are there, but in their purest form.

Ice water, turned Atlantic (freeze!) / Nightcrawlin’ in the Phantom (skrrt, skrrt) / Told them hoes that don’t you panic

His wrist is froze because of his diamonds. He has a black luxury car, he’s lazily referencing his other, much better songs, and he has to add in those essential “skrrt, skrrt” ad-libs. Oh, well, at least there are attempts at being unique here, with the last line, especially since we can assume they’re in water here, so Travis desperately reassures the countless amount of women he is having sex with, “Don’t worry, it’s a Phantom! We’re not going to drown to our deaths!” And then he goes, “screw it”, and starts actually adjusting the Phantom so they have more space, thus his “hoes” do not die, depriving him of pleasure and satisfaction.

Dropped the roof, more expansion / Drive a coupe you can stand in (IT’S LIT!)

You know what, that’s a good idea, but, yeah, I’m kidding, it’s not that deep – it’s just that he’s driving fast. Of course it isn’t anything all too conceptual.

Took an island (yeah), flood the mansion (big water!)

Sorry, what was that last part?

(Big water!)

Big water? I mean, I know the line is about how he took a lot of producers and rappers to his ASTROWORLD sessions on a Hawaiian island or something, but is “big water” seriously something people say? It just seems so dumb and kind of childish. In fact, while we’re on the subject...

B****es undercover (in the sheets!) / I’m an a** and tiddy lover (big a**) / Guess we all made for each other

Rappers never really brag about taking time to appreciate the woman’s body whilst “in the sheets” but you know what, sure, I’ll take that, but the second line just potentially demonstrates the naivety of this chorus, like, it’s just pure rap cliché but in such a way that makes it seem like Travis is a robot that has been analysing rap lyrics and programming a very blunt and obvious bar that exemplifies that. Oh, and the last part is just a dumb filler rhyme, although it’s kind of funny to think about how it must be up to destiny that Travis’ girl has a big butt and he likes big butts.

Now that all the dawgs free (yeah, yeah) / And we out in these streets (alright) / Can you do it, can you pop it for me?

The robot theory is developed even further when we notice these two statements are entirely unrelated. My friends are free from prison, but we’re still in the streets, therefore, pop that kitty for me, girl. This is how the chorus ends too, it’s so anti-climactic, although I do want to point out that Offset more than makes up for Travis’ strange twisting of lyrical cliché, as his verse is pretty fantastic. The flow is great throughout, with some nice switches that keep the surprisingly long verse still feeling fresh and short by the end.

She an addict (addict)

Please don’t rhyme it with—

Addict for the lifestyle and the Patek (Patek), big daddy

Son of a—

Anyways, there are plenty of relatively memorable lines here that end up being pretty quotable, such as... UK football references?

In the middle of the field like David Beckham (field, bow-bow!!)

Oh, and they kind of explain what “ZEZE” means – it means “zombie”, a slang term for, of course, lean... because it’s 2018.

Pop pills, do what you feel, I’m on that zombie (hey, hoo!) / I’m more like Gaddafi, I’m not no Gandhi (Gaddafi, hey)

Oh, um, some of these lines come off as kind of rapey though, which is not the greatest tone to go for when you have a song with Kodak Black, to say the least.

I go in her mouth, she can’t tell me nothin’ (ugh, ugh, ugh)

Oh, and I guess it’s finally time to talk about the alleged rapist elephant in the room.

On my Kodak, woo, Black, ooh, know that – Childish Gambino, “This is America”

I’m not going to bring up his allegations anymore because frankly they’re completely irrelevant to his performance here, and all he actually adds to this review is proof for my conclusion: this song has so much good qualities, but they paint them in the grossest green colour possible. Each one of these guys just ruin the gifts they’re provided with. In fact, the beat changes for Kodak so he doesn’t sound as offbeat as usual, and, of course, it doesn’t work at all, he still sounds pretty terrible as always, but still, D.A. Doman switches up the beat slightly (which was near perfect as it was) to accommodate for the talentless and directionless ramblings of Mr. Kodak Black.

Pull up in a Demon, on God (on God) / Looking like I still do fraud (fraud) / Flyin’ private jet with the rod (rod) / This that Z-s**t, this that Z-s**t (this that Z-s**t)

Kodak is so unlikeable here. He sounds like he was on a news interview, with a noticeable Southern drawl, that went viral enough in 2011 to get an autotuned Songify This remix. Honestly, it sounds that painful of a vocal, and without the Gregory Brothers’ pretty great production and knack for melody, this is just a strain on both Kodak’s voice and my ear-drums.

I got the fire on me in BET Awards

I’m less surprised that you have a gun rather just that you’re allowed in the BET Awards.

In a Hellcat cos I’m a hell-raiser

Man, this song is robotically programmed, I swear! There’s no attempt at portraying any unique lyrical characteristics, personality or even a single attempt at interesting wordplay, rather we get a catchier version of Kodak’s typical topics, just in an even more boring flow this time, and delivered like he’s on pain medication... which is probably what they’re going for here. What a waste of a fantastic, beautifully-produced instrumental, one of the most diverse and unique trap-rappers out there in the form of Travis Scott, who is relegated to his awfully-written hook duty, and what a waste of that amazing Offset verse. Seriously, Offset, kick Kodak off, switch him for another awful human being, Tyga, and save this song (including Travis’ admittedly fun, albeit silly, hook) for your upcoming solo album. I can’t let Kodak Black own this song, it’s too good for him in concept. What a perfect trainwreck. Everything is given to them completely prepared and in good condition, and then they just trash it. This song is when you get something valuable or useful for a damn good price and your dog eats it within five minutes of you opening it.

Hit that Z-walk, Dickies with my Reeboks

Oh, come on, Kodak, I know I don’t like your song but you didn’t have to give me Vietnam flashbacks of Lil Dicky. That’s just not cool. See ya on Thursday, everyone. Peace.

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