#every single frame is a visual treat

[creaman]

Hi there! I apologize for taking up your time, I am just so curious: When you tackle a comic, what does the process behind it look like?

Asking because I found myself scrolling through your blog once again and couldn't help but marvel at all the beautiful effects you use, at how flawlessly the structure guides the viewer's eye across each page, how the graphic weight seems to always be in just the right places…, and wonder how you learned doing this. Everything you put out looks incredibly professional and I aspire to reach your level of skill 😌❤️

Thank you Finz!! You're no bother at all, I'm an open book. This is such high praise for a guy that really doesn't have a set process, I feel like a hack. Ha. Rest assured my style is still developing. Besides the referencing of the linework and composition of official comic books, (practicing by redrawing panels for fun), explaining the process makes me feel like a serial killer but I will do my best.

(WIP Riddler panel, scrapped Scarecrow composition)

My comics usually stem from a single panel or concept — I like to focus on/emphasise particular panels of my pages, the heavy hitters, the main piece that catches your eye. I know I'm not a profoundly technically proficient artist so I prefer visually interesting elements and formatting, i.e. drawing characters outside their frames, negative space, notation, perspectives etc.

(Kung Fu Panda 4 sketch god I hate Kung Fu Panda 4)

I like to establish 'main focus' panels, the bits of the comic that really, well. make people want to chew on it. This is where the technical effort is concentrated, really, and the rest of the comic is generally build around these concepts.

('Restaurant Balthazar' focus panels)

Textures and effects are done on individual panels first, then the entire page as a whole to even out the unity. Generally, blocking in shadows, hatching for visual interest + middle tones, then textures/half-tones, then highlights.

(Script excerpt WIP)

I'm not a writer per se, but having a vague 'script' in your pages helps with pacing and direction. Comics are a versatile story-telling medium. I only really do scripts for comics longer than 2 pages. An optional but recommended strat is to send your script to a friend for a second opinion.

(Script excerpt — 'Restaurant Balthazar', annotated by @vincepti0n I don't know why he drew a face in the middle)

With the script crudely slapped together, I rough out the thumbnails and composition with the text, prioritising coherence and clean integration of previously mentioned 'main focus' panels.

Settling on a composition sucks the hardest. Drawing is fun, thinking makes brain hurty. Variety is good! Close-ups, wide shots, visual metaphors. Every panel is its own artwork.

The text bubbles are usually added in post, yes, but I'm just one guy and I don't have a writer to call me a good boy for doing things correctly. Bite me.

(Early 'Restaurant Balthazar' drafts)

In addition, keeping the text graphics in mind help create a sounder composition wherein even if the panels don't read cleanly left to right + top to bottom, the text can stagger and create the same reading order effect.

Panels and concepts are constantly tweaked, and my comic process is still highly experimental. A lot of industry standard comics aren't illustrated to their full potential due to deadlines and such — I strive for visual epiphany by treating each panel as its own artwork, and every page as a a bit of a mural.

(Old art hurts the soul)

Constantly experimenting allows you the insight of looking at your current art in comparison to your older works. In more recent works, I've been blocking in more shadows wiht lineart with thinner lines and more line weight, and learned to integrate the subject characters with less plain, abstract backgrounds.

TLDR: I have no idea

[lullabyes22-blog]

my supreme, what is your opinion on the first three episodes of arcane season 2?

hhfdgffd

<3

The only supreme is Fortiche - and a huge round of applause to them for the animation in S2. Every frame is like lickable visual cake icing and my eyeballs scream for more.

Also in keeping with food metaphors -

First 3 eps are good soup. Tasty soup. Well-presented soup.

However.

There are clumps in this soup that were absent in S1. The flow is not as seamless. Transitions feel jarring and the dialogue overall feels distinctly more flavorless. First time I watched S1, there were entire lines of dialogue I ended up memorizing, and that dialogue continues to pack a well-deserved punch 3 years later.

This time around, the scripts feel distinctly more... Marvel-esque?

High on quip calorie, low on substantive content.

I highly suspect there was a great deal of executive meddling behind the scenes, given corporate were not expecting Arcane to crunch the numbers it did + the scripts being incomplete. That, and the storyline kept getting passed between different writing departments, with different chefs trying to spice the broth. All of this might account for the relative lack of cohesion and its weird sense of hypercompression

I don't know if it'll improve or get worse. We're only at 3 eps, and the rest of the story's still waiting to be told, so I reserve any real criticism until then.

But overall, yeah.

It's still gourmet soup, but I feel as if the soup's been zapped in a microwave, ykwim?

Beyond that, the series is still a treat. Truly sumptuous soundtrack, and inspiring cinematography. The fight scenes legit made me catch my breath. You can feel the love poured into every frame.

Fuhrer Caitlyn gassing Zaun was not on my Bingo card, tho.

Nor was Jesus Viktor.

I am A-OK with the Arcane eating Heimerdinger. But gimme back Jayce and Ekko, pls. They got character arcs (and ship breakups) to suffer through </3

I also do not think the writers of the show were expecting world affairs to pivot quite the way they have - /gestures vaguely at RL - because leaving aside character motivations in a self-contained fictional setting, the critical literary lens and interpretive optics between Zaun and Piltover overall are gonna lead to some, hehehe, interesting fandom discourse.

On my part, I can't wait to see every single one of these beloved characters spiral to the depths, hit rock bottom, and hopefully climb back out as wiser human beings.

I also expect some of 'em to die.

:')

Overall: 8/10. Very yummy indeed.

[bioodorange]

ticci toby headcanons !!

I haven’t posted in a while!! But I was hit with a small urge to write some headcanons…maybe it’ll get back into posting more! As usual I hope you enjoy and my ask box is always open!! Please send any requests my way as i try and get back into writing!

Starting off visually, I am a pretty big fan of the idea that Toby and X-Virus are brothers

I just think it’s an interesting idea, and a fun explanation as to why Toby appears at the end of his story

However, I don’t see it being likely that they are fully related

Instead, half siblings who share a father

Going along with this I also consider Cody to be hispanic, making Toby half hispanic in turn

It’s probably a bit harder too see with his pale complexion, but you can see it in the dark curls of his hair

Or how his brown eyes are almost black in color

His eyes are probably the most expressive part of him, consider he ate away at most of the muscles in one of his cheeks

I like the idea that Toby’s eyes are very telling of how he feels, especially since they aren’t covered by a mask

It’s especially eerie to his victims who can see the perverse joy he gets from robbing them of their last breathe

Toby is incredibly sadistic, he struggles to see the value in other peoples lives and treats them more akin to animals

If you are alive it is purely for his entertainment in watching you squirm at the sight of him

He is used to people looking at him in disgust and avoiding him like the plague

Reducing a someone to their primal mind, making them more prey than person is a natural high

Although its familiar it wasn’t always so empowering

As a child he was bullied in school, but I imagine more so for his health conditions than his tourettes

Sure he was picked on for both but being a kid with a medical aid in class feels more humiliating

Everyone knows you need help with something

Something that allows you special privileges to get out of class and skip out on gym but they don’t know what

Them trying to figure it out is what makes it so sickening

Every single detail of you being scrutinized

This lead to deep, intense insecurities issues in Toby

Wearing thick layers of clothing to hide his frame

Gloves to cover how he mindlessly chewed away the skin of his crooked fingers

Its not his fault they look that way

It’s easy to snap bones and dislocate joints when you can’t feel what you’re doing is wrong

Things are prone to healing incorrectly when you can’t tell their hurt

Toby’s physical health declined greatly as soon as he fell into Slender’s care

There are no ways to tell when he’s overheating, no proper medical care to fix things he didn’t know were broken

Toby’s body resembles a mangled mess, scars from broken bones and fingers that aren’t quite straight

His skin doesn't feel quite right on his body

It all makes him aversive to touch

Why would someone want to touch him when his body looks the way it shouldn’t

It does all offer some comfort though

Chewing away at the skin around his nails until he reaches flesh is somehow comforting

Popping his fingers out of place and then back in helps make breathing a bit easier

Even though it’s unhealthy he doesn’t know any better

There are so many holes in his memory he can barely string the past together, let alone menial details such as the limits of his body

[theconstantsidekick]

no because, supernatural is absolutely a train wreck. it's a colossal accident that is happening in front of you that you can't look away from. it is homophobic and non-sensical and downright laughable at times but you know what? I love it. I absolute love it.

season 1 was absolutely beautiful. you don't understand, really, you don't. they had a piss poor budget, you can see that in every frame. but does that stop it from being fucking beautiful? no. it is stylised and ambitious and a fucking visual treat.

and this is like the first fucking episode. the shots have so much character! and that's nothing to say of the characters themselves. from the first fucking scene you can clearly distinguish sam and dean's character clear as day. their motivations, their dreams, their hopes, all of it. it's established so well. their dynamic is unmatched. does it also have a lot of garbage? yes for sure. because what in the name of hell was that episode with bugs? what glue were they sniffing when they green lit that one? no seriously... I wanna try some.

but then they recovered, cause they did faith. my god, what an episode. WHAT AN EPISODE. that motherfucking reaper haunts my every waking hour

like yeah, I love me some baby dean and baby sam going on their small scale ghost hunts while learning deep lessons about who they are as people and what they want from life.

also that 'laugh I nearly died' needle drop? where sam sees jess? god tier editing, GOD TIER.

then they came back with season 2. and here is my most controversial opinion that should not be controversial at all, season 2 is the best season of supernatural to ever supernatural.

what is and what should never be, hollywood babylon, heart, nightshifter, and the whole fucking season actually. not a single miss in my humble opinion. and that finale? THAT FINALE. beautiful, magnificent. ground breaking character writing, everything comes full circle while simultaneously opening up new plot lines to explore.

and my god, yellow eyes is an epic villain. he is a very viciously written villain like, he's... my god. it ain't a walk in the park writing villains, believe you me patient readers, villains are harder to write than the protagonists, always. well, at least the compelling ones are.

now season 3 suffered because of the writer's strike, but didn't miss much either. like yeah some of the hits don't hit as hard as the season 2, but hey, mystery spot, time is on my side, ghostfacers, bedtime stories are nothing to laugh about. those episodes are fucking solid, like most of the season. and there is so much raw emotion is sam's need to save dean, it just makes my weak winchester brothers loving heart throb a little too hard. also...

need I say more?

does the show did look little more washed out and boring? yes. but it's cool, cause we're moving on to season 4.

listen, I kinda just wanna leave all my season's critique at this. i mean, yeah this. this is it. this is the long and short of it; castiel. i don't think i need to get anymore into it

so season 5 is just—

i'm kidding. obviously i'm gonna talk about season 4, at length.

listen, being able to introduce angels this late in the game and then have them be a such perfectly hidden players is a masterstroke of genius. it just is. i am a writer guys... apart from the relentless fanfic as well lol. and when i tell you, introducing a new big player which is also (not so) secretly the next big bad and playing it off as smoothly as they did in season 4, is beyond hard. but the biggest home run these fuckers hit is castiel and the best part is they weren't aiming for a one lol. and oh oh, the way they use their very VERY limited budget to show wings with just flashing the fucking light? CINEMA! that's fucking cinema right there man. i work on film sets, i am telling you, this is the smartest filmmaking choice they make on the entire show. it adds so much visual intrigue while being so awfully easy to execute. BRILLIANt.

now i cannot talk about supernatural without talking about the deancas romance of it all, which i understand not everyone can see or wants to, which is fine. to each their own. you consume art the way you want to, i don't care much as long as you can acknowledge that castiel and dean's friendship was just some of the best written television that mankind has ever seen. is that too grand a statement? yes. does that make it any less true? no.

they even brought back the moody lighting.

and then there's the episodes this season, most of which are home runs in their own regard. just like beautiful writing, the character development for cas, for dean, for sam, even the late john winchester is wild. anna is a wonderful addition, so is uriel, and alastair? they don't make villains like him anymore, they just fucking don't. AND THAT GODDAMN PLOT TWIST AT THE END? man! the finale was just... too good. Chuck's introduction is absolutely wonderful, even if they ruin him by the end but that happens a decade later so wtv, who cares? But,,,, Jimmy. Fucking. Novak. That's all. that's the tweet. yeah. i'm gonna end the season 4 fan fair with jimmy.

moving to season 5.

subjectively speaking, this is my fucking favorite. this season is a writer's dream while also being their goddamn nightmare. so many WONDERFUL characters to play with and such a grand plot but you get to see it all on a very small, consumable scale which is just... it's too smart for me to not mention. i won't start naming the plot points and neither will i name my favourite episodes because what even is the point? all of it was fucking perfect. you don't understand how hard it is to develop characters to such an extent that they become so familiar to the audience that they know their next move before you even put it on the screen. and supernatural had that. they tied everything together with so much care and consideration, just... AAAH so good.

a special shoutout goes to endverse!cas, crowley and death this season. you all know it in your bones that those three were just the absolute scene stealers. especially death's introduction... immaculate.

they did lose a few points for not being as aesthetically pleasing as the past few seasons but hey, gabriel was enough to make a smooth recovery.

but this... this is the end of the road for me people. season 5 is where it should have ended. in no way shape or form am i saying that there aren't a few good episodes here and there after this, because there are. i think season 5 was so fucking solid, tied up so many goddamn lose ends and then just put a cute little hell shaped bow on top and i just... yeah. this was and should have been the end of the road. do not get me wrong, i love me some jack kline, charlie bradbury, kevin tran, rowena macleod and eileen lahey but were they worth the bullshit ending i had to sit through? not really.

i absolutely think if there weren't more episodes of supernatural I would never have become a destiel fan, because i started shipping them when dean made cas a mixtape in season TWELVE! but my god, the good times were so scattered amongst the horseshit that even when i found those hidden gems, they were so fucking drenched in the stink that they lost their value.

the worst of it all is that, i cannot explain to you what supernatural means to me in a million words, because it is a part of me, heart and soul. i fucking AM castiel. i am a gay little angel you hear me? i love this show. i do. i'm glad it went on for however long it did but i feel like once in a while i need to write shit like this or read shit like this to remind myself of the show that it used to be. of it's beautiful cinematography, of it's clever little storytelling techniques. of it's wonderful cast. of how epic their song choices used to be.

FUcking RENEGADE? iconic. wanted, dead or alive? cannot hear the song without hearing sam's off tune goat bleating that he called singing along.

i need to remind myself of how afraid i used to be of lucifer. of how much i cried while watching dark side of the moon; when dean and sam burst the crackers, and how i learnt the lyrics to knocking on heaven's door just because of that scene.

sometimes i just have to walk through memory lane and look back at gabriel's death, the good one, the only one. it was so fucking meaningful. i have to think of "we are making it up as we go" to be able to breathe properly because those moments were so fucking beautiful.

fuck the big ones, i even remind myself of the small ones, of dean's handwriting being in all caps, just like him. of sam's fucking huge laptop with that weird blue black sticker in the middle. of castiel's tie, that just was the right shade of blue, and hung all wrong but just naturally enough to add so much more to his character than any fucking dialogue could. every small little detail of supernatural that made it so damn supernatural. i miss it all.

idk. i'm rambling. whatever.

[respectthepetty]

We got beef, Dee Hup!

This is about I Still Feel You Linger in the Air, but it's going to take a minute to hop on that flight.

Because I just finished watching the Hidden Agenda finale, and . . .

Dee Hup House, we have a problem.

I love you. Your shows are gorgeous. You frame them so beautifully. The main pair's chemistry is always amazing. The conflicts are based in reality. The situations feel serious. Director Tee and Cinematographer Jim are excellent visual storytellers, and it shows in every single shot of their work. To be honest, I'm obsessed.

But then there is the pacing.

Every one of your shows has at least three screenwriters: Tan, Somchai, and Jungjing, with even more added sometimes like in Step by Step and Hidden Agenda. Having several screenwriters is the norm, but . . .

The shows include so much story that by time we get to the end, chunks of the narrative are left behind while trivial components get the spotlight. What should be important isn't, and what doesn't feel meaningful turns into the biggest theme.

Oh, and the second pairs always get shafted.

All of your work is adapted from novels that are pretty convoluted, so finding a coherent story that can be squished into twelve episodes must be difficult, which is why I'm worried about I Feel You Linger in the Air.

We already have a lot of meaty plot: social hierarchy, historical oppression, family dynamics, time travel, Thai politics, burning houses, and pig races just to name a few.

So are the ladies going to get the Dee Hup House second pair treatment?

Are we waiting until the end to flesh out some part of the main lead's character that would have helped us understand why he behaved the way he did for most of the series?

Are we getting a lot of plot that won't mean much at the end?

I don't feel like we are, but then again, I never feel like we are until it's over.

Like I wrote, I'm obsessed with your work, Dee Hup. I'm standing outside of your office building with homemade sparkly posters shouting how much I love you, and I'm being relentlessly intense about it.

I don't want to have beef with you. I'm a lover, not a fighter, so quit playing games. Someone walk into that writers' room and tell them to all get on the same page, literally, and give us a solid story until the very end because a wondrous queer story of timeless love and endless commitment regardless of society is right there.

I see it. It's beautiful.

So could you NOT hurt me with I Feel You Linger in the Air? Could you give the ladies the spotlight they deserve? Could you give both main leads equal characterization? Could you make the pig race meaningful?

And could you not wait until the last damn minute to give me a crumb?!

I'm begging you! Let me love you! Don't have me out here looking like Only Friends' Sand, Nick, and Top, just coming back for more punishment like a pendeja. Treat me better. No! Treat this story better.

It deserves it.

[inksandpensblog]

The Box

I'm finally watching the episode! These are my stream-of-consciousness thoughts through my initial viewing. This isn't thought-out refined analysis, these are just the thoughts as I have them the moment they appear in my head.

They're getting better at the 3d running/walking animation.

Green being the one to notice details, like in The Village.

Civilization!

Green only drew one but then he just has three more? Cartoon magic or stickfigure magic? Or just saving time on a meta level.

This looks like a nice little toh that's a white-filled head, they're ALL white-filled heads (all look like freehanded circles though)

For a given value of "white," I guess, but they're all very light colors. And they all have head accessories. Interesting...

Okay it's kinda funny that nobody would talk to them and the truck is right there. Did they think the color quartet were giving handouts or something? None of them stopped to listen long enough XD

Ooh, so these are some kind of simulation chambers? Looks like they've simulated a desktop art program.

Hmm, so Orange's ability to just have whatever he wants manifest into existence with the stroke of a pencil is unique to him; these guys try the same motions and all they get are regular lines. (Also if Orange can do all that outside then why are they doing these experiments in the simulation chamber? Is it just for safety or can they not do it outside? Shady could use his toolbar outside just fine...)

Orange's drawings were alive, almost from the first line it seems. Before they even took their shape. These ones aren't.

I don't like how coldly they're treating my boy :(

you.

and then they don't even interact?? okay, so...Victim is pretty single-mindedly focused on whatever is about to happen with Chosen, and whatever it is doesn't involve Orange so Orange is irrelevant to him rn. Why bind him then? Where's he going? :(

he went in. by himself. I'm...not sure how to feel about that. surprised? it's not like the thing had a door. though looking at that control-display, it does look like there's something within the chamber itself that's also containing Chosen. Or is that just the bounding box? I think it's a bounding box actually. So this is also a simulation chamber. (this is giving me all sorts of questions about how the artboard recognizes the toolbar icons as graphics while the tools still retain their functions as tools and I'm gonna stop before I spiral)

oh, it did have a door

WAITAMINUTE why is Victim's bounding box 2d and Chosen's 3d???

...oh. so...Chosen's fire registers as a separate graphic from him, then. good to know??

wait what the- just altering the visual is enough to affect his ability in producing that power??

why did we just cut to the hunter sharpening their spear? don't like that. not while you're stealing all my boy's natural defenses.

that one lingering second after Chosen's lasers die out but before he turns around to face Victim is haunting. Bro's been trapped and depowered again.

Okay nitpick but Victim's head isn't changing shape every frame and it's driving me up the wall. Did he have some work done between the last installment and this one?

I can't tell if I'm supposed to laugh or not at Chosen just standing there and tanking all of Victim's hits, and honestly I like that I can't tell, the dissonance is fun. But putting that aside...Chosen just let the dude have at him like it was no big deal. He didn't actually fight back until he decided he'd had enough. I suppose he could've just been confused about why this guy was attacking him...but he doesn't even block or dodge. He doesn't defend himself, his hands aren't even up, he's not even really in a fighting stance, and it takes him a bit to even retaliate. Even after the first one, his body language is just "bruh why." Which. Is an interesting attitude to have when he's trapped and depowered and being punched by a stranger.

Chosen finally counters, and it cuts to the control panel outside, looks like they're about to raise some setting. I've gotta take a break for a meeting, here's my thought: Victim never left the art program, in AvA1. In a very literal sense, he spent his whole life in it. It's where he found all the things that enabled him to fight back. In a weird way, it makes sense that this is where he's powerful, that this is where he's comfortable fighting. (and I know my personal headcanons are about to get blown outta the water but I'm really glad that I was on the right track in regard to this idea. though something I hadn't ever imagined was that he'd rely on other people to supply those advantages instead of obtaining them himself)

Meeting over, back to the episode! (I wonder if the title of this episode refers to the white chamber Chosen is in or the actual bounding box. Given that the mere appearance of a bounding box in Wanted was enough for many of us to clue in to Victim's involvement, even before he appeared in-person at the end of the episode, I'm leaning that direction. Amazing that it only happened once in the series before Wanted and it was already enough of a legacy to make him recognizable. I'm now realizing that in AvA2 the first thing Chosen did even before attacking the cursor was destroy the bounding box. Also realizing that the bounding boxes in this chamber aren't visible, unlike in the test-chambers in the previous scenes.)

interesting...each of Vicitm's limbs are separate graphics with their own bounding boxes, which is how they looked in the Bloop animation course that Alan made, but it isn't how he was in AvA1. Though he was recognized as a single graphic just a few scenes ago, so that might not mean anything.

why, stop, dude we get it you're strong now you've proved your point stop beating him up-

oh good Chosen's still got his own strength, he's fighting ba- what- okay what, can't take what you dish out??

Ooh, I don't think we've seen Chosen actually throw fire like that (instead of just blasting and halting blasts) since the early episodes.

okay, nice to know that Victim actually can dodge on his own

...don't like how little time it took Chosen to start feeling exhaustion...

...don't like how much trepidation the lasso is giving me. that feels like one of the crueler things to use against Chosen; not because we've seen it used against him before (only Victim and Orange have used it themselves, and only Victim has had it used against him, and good grief Orange and Chosen still don't know how Victim is connected to Alan-) but just because...I really don't want him bound and leashed again, he's been through enough of that. still, I had predicted that we'd see him using the lasso at some point in AvA6. I'm not happy I was right. (man, back before we knew Victim would make a proper return to the series I used to love the idea of him using it again. it's like the clearest example of him outwitting the animator and taking his tools for his own use.)

NOT THE NECK- they've never gone there, I don't like this-

oh what they actually- I was not expecting that. whips haven't appeared in the series before. oh I really don't like this.

God he's crawling back- why-

I had to pause. either the group outside just did something with the controls that Victim wasn't anticipating, or...Chosen felt threatened enough to turn his powers on himself and encase himself in ice as a defense. fuck. someone get him out of there. no flight, can't fight, man was pushed far enough he literally resorted to freeze. The Chosen One. I don't think that's ever happened before.

Fuck, that's just too much, I can't even bring myself to feel excited about seeing the duplicates again. though it is good to know that my headcanon about him needing to be in an art program in order to duplicate himself ended up being accurate. we'll see if my headcanon about it being one Victim with five bodies (as opposed to being five Victims) holds up. if they even have a way to show any difference.

[sighs, pulls AvA1 up in another tab] yep, they're all there. lasso, hammer, extended thumbtack (though it doesn't look like a thumbtack here, which is interesting), whatever that chain-accordion thing is, and the ninja star. why are you doing this? man literally froze himself immobile to get you to stop torturing him, just leave him be.

...haHAHAHA! Oh that felt good, that made me smile. Hopefully this means Chosen has recuperated a bit.

the animation of Victim on fire was so nice I completely missed Chosen breaking the ice XD going back to catch that made me realize that the other Victim duplicates literally just...stood and watched the one burning...

don't let yourself get backed into a corner-

OH he escaped the hold, nice-

I didn't realize until the lasso came back that he'd gotten rid of it when he broke the ice :( but before that he actually uses his fire-breath again, which is always nice to see. interesting to see it concentrated in a thin stream instead of just roaring out like usual.

oh yikes why- him on fire-

...don't do it, man...

OH HE OWNED THAT, LET'S GO!!! Great thinking, Chosen! (heh, nothing about this situation remotely resembles that time Chosen grabbed the cursor and forced it to click him free, but I was reminded of it nonetheless. something about the tool being turned against the user, but in such a different way than Victim does it.)

OH HE- ...oh...I was gonna say oh he learned, he adapted enough that he predicted them flipping his fire and he used that- but then they just nullified it immediately...

Victim don't snap the rope like that, we don't need any more implications we already know you're planning to put him in a world of hurt, why can't you just leave him alone now, what are you trying to prove

hh, back to Orange I guess...

MATH SPOTTED, MATH SPOTTED-

oh! they're bringing him to the- okay that makes sense, if it only works when he does it then obviously the next step to figuring it out is gonna involve him.

wait was he- could he not move when the bounding box was picked up?? (also neat that he immediately got worried once he realized he's in a bounding box, dunno if that's because of what happened in the last episode or if it's just because...he spends a lot of time in an art program so he'd naturally be familiar with what they can do and what it means to be inside one)

...well, nice that they at least get his attention before picking him up

oh now you're being friendly, sure. yeah Orange ain't having it.

okay, [picks up pencil] [instant notetaking] was funny XD

aaw, it's swimming around him

oh it knows what the eraser means

...wait it wasn't an electric eel in the last episode-

hexagons- and the power flickered

okay Orange stumbling around trying to stay out of its way makes it clear that he isn't controlling this thing once he's finished drawing it, it's acting on its own. it...it really feels distressed.

hah, they're all cowering. losers.

oh, back to this.

...did you have to make it so personal, Victim?

a chair

...okay not sure why that happened, could Chosen not just...lean forward? I rewound to watch it again and realized he's exhausted again after the slow-mo ends (is that from the slow-mo itself or just his exertion from the fight before the slow-mo?) and he...doesn't even struggle when Victim lifts him by hand with a lasso to the neck. is...is he just ragdolling now? is he at the point where that's his best option for minimizing conflict?

...he is. he's ragdolling. fuck. (damn you cc!Alan for introducing ragdolling in a comedic short-)

...no? no what?? no, he doesn't know anything about the animator? (which we know isn't true, but why would he deny that?) or no, he isn't going to answer?

don't tie him up, please...

oh now he starts struggling?

...back to ragdolling. good grief, the way they animate his legs just swinging even though they can still touch the floor...

...heh, I appreciate his spirit, especially at this point, but...Chosen you kinda just put yourself in a worse position.

...oh, what is that? I don't think we've seen anything like that before. It's got the floppy disk that's used as the "save" icon in many applications, but it looks kinda like a headset.

...a VR headset specifically, I guess.

OH WHAT- okay rad animation, but WHAT

...oh fuck, I've always wondered if there was a way to see the data that would be a stick's memory. FUCK what are they gonna use this for

wait they're bring Orange here?! Or are they just passing on their way back to the cell? but why are they going back to the cell, was the eel too much for them??

...wait, what? signal lost, I assume because Chosen dislodged it enough to disconnect, and then...instead of picking up where it left off it jumps all the way back to Showdown?? was...was Showdown just on Chosen's mind? or is this the memory of him recalling it right before flying to alanspc to entreat Orange's aid? ...or...are memories from beyond the sky-barrier not compatible? that doesn't make sense...

what's with everyone's reactions to Second's powers?

...I forgot Orange's cell is in here. whoops.

oh this is how he finds out??

hands first ("I did that??") and then his eyes ("Chosen was right??")

...and of course. I expected they'd lock him down with extra security as soon as they realized, but. poor guy.

(dammit I purposefully refrained from making a "dark mode" joke, you didn't have to go and put it on the damn control screen)

...and even after that (which, judging by Victim's reaction, even he hadn't known about Second's powers), the animator is still Victim's priority.

oh, this isn't just any clip of the cursor's involvement in Showdown, this is specifically while Yellow was rendering the cursor in.

and then they immediately pan to Yellow which means that observation is actually gonna be relevant, FUCK-

OH FUCK THE WANTED POSTERS

("earnings growth," so they actually do have a business element to them)

aaand the security cameras caught them peeking out of the truck, they literally just started printing the posters and they've already located Yellow-

that fight is mesmerizing. we haven't seen one like this before, as far as direction and setting. plus it's really interesting to see how the four respond. I might look deeper into that later. also that was a cool transition.

and Yellow is dragged off. The story has never had one of the quartet singled out in-universe by the plot like this before. they aren't even apprehending the others.

...of all the sticks to have a lighter, I never thought it would be Victim.

to be continued. good grief.

I have to eat before work so I'll think on all this and say more later.

[israaverse]

This is probably a result of diminishing expectations but it's wild how Civil War was the last movie to give Bucky a decent look, because every appearance since then seems intent on making him uglier and hideouser— okay wait I just realized I'm kinda exaggerating his look on the Falcon show wasn't bad I'm just letting my hate for that shows writing & the it's exemplification of nearly all the ways Marvel used the Cap brand to push propaganda cloud my perception of the visuals..... but everything else! jail. (can you tell I just discovered what he looks like in the quote "degenerate villain" squad movie?)

NGL they did Steve bad but at least they killed him off. Seeing how they made a decent Cap2 with blatant cliffhanger-setup for a sequel continuing that storyline just to... not continue it & instead cast Bucky as The Bad Guy of the Group because of multiple directors+writers (explicitly admitted in interviews) hate for Bucky... is still wild. They practically dropped his entire character development arc after only hinting at it in an end credit scene. And it's a large part of why Steve's character circled the drain too before getting killed off because the core part of Steve's character arc was dependent on Bucky's story arc actually being continued instead of randomly dropped for multiple back to back crossover events.

Marvel managing to make one decent movie out of CapAm is more of a curse than anything. It'd have been better if expectations never got lifted off the ground and just kept the characters rah rah 🇺🇲 PatriotMonologueBotd all the way through like in the comics, which aren't very good.... at all. If you thought the propaganda is gonna be bad in the upcoming Cap4 movie, the DNC-style patriotism of the Captain America brand becomes is even worse in the comics, and it gets worse to stomach with IRL events making it seem more and more out of touch. Treating the USA flag (and its representatives) as a literary symbol of moral virtue gets more and more ridiculous with each new run of books (like, did you know that a recent run decided to flashback to WW2 just to include a revisionist-fake-history speech about how the Zlonlsts were a large force fighting against the Nazis, whereas IRL the opposite happened). How a single decent adaptation was managed to be pulled out of the source material is still kinda shocking. But now Marvel seems to have remembered that the CapAm brand is meant for their white writers to pull out atrocious political takes via superheroes. Back to tradition!

the fact that writers n directors hate him baffles me bc Winter Soldier is such a good setup but they just let him FLOAT AROUND? A SET PIECE? AN OBJECT OF THE PLOT????? like you MADE HIM THAT WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

im convinced that the US military propaganda contracts completely neutered his MCU character bc if u think about it for more than 5 seconds you start coming to Conclusions (didnt WS point out that the US govt hired a bunch of nazi scientists, framed him as JFK's assassin, etc etc etc.....) and they made the decision to just nuke him as a result. Oooh he was just a bad guyyy all alooong SHUT UPPPP hes morally grey even an antihero for a bit but hes not EVIL he is literally the poster boy of being manipulated into doing atrocities for the interests of a greater power and they just. dropped it. on its ass. esp with the stupid Sabra and Zionism bullshit its like ohhh i see we are gearing up for a media push for fascist nationalistic narratives for a draft or more wars and the presence of moral grayness isnt conducive to that so its just cut. got it.

like the Falcon show was........ so clearly cut to erase that moral grayness it made me ill. so ill i even sought out WS' presence in the comics and like you said its just not cutting it even slightly. they flattened him which SUCKS but also they made him UGLY WHICH IM WAY MADDER ABOUT. IF I CANT HAVE HIS MORAL COMPLEXITY WHY DID YOU UNSEXIFY HIMMM

IT DOESNT EVEN MAKE FINANCIAL SENSE BC I WAS ONLINE WHEN PEOPLE WERE FROTHING AT THE MOUTH OVER HIM SO WHYYYYYYYYY DO THEY HIT HIM WITH THE MOST ATROCIOUS WIGS TO EVER BE SEEN IN AN MCU MOVIE IM ILLLLLL

FIRING SQUAD, ELECTRIC CHAIR, THE GALLOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MULTIBILLION DOLLAR MOVIE AND THEY ONLY GOT HIM SYNTHETIC IM SO SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOOK AT WHAT THEY TOOK FROM US!!!!!!!!!! SNIPPED LIKE A GODDAMN BARBIE , THE AURA!!!! IM SO MAD

i remember being SO excited when civil war came out bc the kind of political thriller feeling of winter soldier was so enrapturing!!!!! it captured me in a way the other MCU films lacked, so to see him stagnate like he has is just mortifying. especially visually. if they wanted to commit to the whole "hair holds memories"/buzz cut to visually separate himself from what he's done then DO IT!!!! dont linger at the threshold then go back to cash in on his old look but done BADLY. i almost wish he got killed off in civil war or shortly after because hes so clearly become a Plot Device instead of a Character and its so disappointing.

sorry for the super long un-art related post but oh my god this gets me so wound up, Bucky/WS was my first brainrot from back in my forum days (had an RP partner who based their character off him).

[the-masked-reviewer]

Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) Review

potential spoilers ahead...

For starters, I don't think this was a movie that needed to be made. It is not much of a story, if it qualifies at all. the whole thing feels more like an (overly)extended episode of one of the series rather then it's own movie. And was either poorly paced and slow or it was just straight up boring.

Now for an actual explanation. Starting with a community of Goats was a great idea, but I will admit the only reason I think that is because I love goats and am easily bought. Showing Tai Lung attacking the goats with the shots framed to make it difficult to see that he's actually covered in scales instead of fur is an awesome way to introduce the audience to the new villain, even if the execution wasn't great. The lighting and lack of emphasis make it difficult to notice and make out those details. And it isn't explained until later in the movie, after you know who the Chameleon is, when Po finds Tai Lung's footprints that slowly shrink into Not Tai Lung Footprints(TM). Throughout the movie the Chameleon never feels villainous, even as she is doing the Big Bad Thing and in the final fight. It makes it difficult to see the stakes as real and as ultimate as its supposed to. I do really like the consistency of the scales every time she shapeshifts, it looks cool and is a fun way to showcase shapeshifting visually.

Po has no real development in this story. He's supposed to be learning how to teach and not approach every conflict with violence. In the entire movie we see him teach the fox, his sidekick prisoner trainee person, ONE thing, and attempt diplomacy(if you can call a single line that is not entirely non-aggressive that) twice, failing both times. At the end of the movie its treated as though he has become the spiritual leader he begrudgingly set out to become, but in reality nothing changed and there was no lesson for Po, or anyone really including the audience, to learn from the adventure that was had. Jack Black (the god that he is) was great, but this doesn't feel like a movie about Thee "Kung fu Panda". The other movies all have Po going on adventures that teach about believing in yourself, creating a family, self confidence, and more. This movie's lack of clear message and hope feels like a major let down from such a positive children's series.

As for the fox, I didn't like or care about her at all. She was annoying, and I know that's Awkwafina's shtick or whatever, but you can't expect anyone, even young kids, to like or care about the annoying criminal that shows no redeeming qualities until the last ~40 minutes with that quality being questionably redeeming. She meets Po when he catches her stealing and she does nothing but cause problems and be annoying from then to the point where (Surprise!) she double crosses him. She only fights on his side in the end because of the classic reasoning, she didn't know anyone would get hurt. Things are classic for a reason, but here it all feels extremely superficial and cheap.

Shout out to literally every scene with Li and Ping, Po's goose and panda dads respectively. They were, and are, hands down the best scenes in the entire movie. They're the only times I actually had fun watching the movie and it would've been greatly improved if the movie was just a buddy adventure between them and not everything else.

They definitely suffered for the lack of The Furious Five. Even the in universe explanations for where they were were flimsy and bad. Its clear DreamWorks just wanted a quick, cheap, easy money maker and weren't willing to shell out the money for the voice actors.

[hypnoneghoul]

Please, My Prince

WC: 830

Pairing: Rain/Dewdrop

Tags: knives, slight blood (oops), generally sfw but with implied sexual content.

Royalty AU, prince(ss) Rain carries a dagger around, Dew is stupidly in love and somehow ends up with said dagger against his throat. Spoiler alert: he likes it.

Notes: A vision @crimsonclergy and @to-spread-the-ministry put into my head

Read under the cut or on AO3.

Rain was, in general, liked by his subjects and guards, mutually. He was the prince everyone hoped would inherit the throne. He was always kind and caring, helping poor citizens, always standing up for everyone who deserved it, treating everyone with respect. Even if someone pissed him off, Rain always somehow found a way to be nice about it. Perfect prince.

There was an exception to the rule, though, as always.

Dewdrop. Another prince, sent from another realm to get along with Rain.

He did not.

He was the opposite of the water prince who considered him too… everything, obnoxious. 

What Rain didn’t know, though, was that Dewdrop was completely and utterly in love with him. He tried to put himself in Rain’s way to get his attention. Being himself, he gained it, yes, but not the kind he wanted to.

Tonight, Rain was tired. Everything got on his nerves and even though it was still early, he decided on going to bed to not do something he’d regret.

But, of course, something had to ruin his plans of regaining peace of mind. Or someone.

Just as Rain came around the corner, so close to his chambers, he was there. Chatting with a guard, or more like flirting with him. The water prince wanted so much to just turn on his heel and run in the opposite direction, but then he wouldn’t reach his comfortable bed.

So, he grit his teeth and with head held high walked on, praying to anyone who’d listen for Dew to just focus on the fucking guard and-

“Good evening, my prince,” Dewdrop bowed theatrically, the very ends of his long, golden hair touching the tiled floor. “How was your day?”

For the record, Dew knew perfectly well the prince was in a foul mood today. Everyone in the castle knew already. But, Rain just looked so fucking hot, with his obsidian hair brushing against his perfectly wide shoulders, his cerulean eyes so big and beautiful. The black shirt he had on was framing his slender neck and the pulled up sleeves were showing off his gorgeous, veined forearms. The multitude of silver, ornate rings he wore on his long fingers made Dewdrop nearly ask to slap him with them. 

But what brought Dew to his knees every single time?

Rain’s thighs, in leather pants that looked too tight to be comfortable, with one leg additionally adorned with beautifully crafted, custom dagger holster. With the weapon inside, at all times, its captivating carved handle catching everyone’s eyes.

Dew’s the most.

Rain stopped, in spite of his better judgement, and cleared his throat, putting the sweetest smile he could muster on, “My dear guard, do you mind leaving us alone for a bit? You can go chat with your friend behind the corner?”

“Of course, my prince,” the guard mumbled and retreated with a bow. Rain watched him, and just as he got out of the prince’s sight, he jumped at Dewdrop.

The fire prince was honestly really fucking surprised, especially realising that Rain managed to pin him to the wall very effectively and get out his dagger along the way. He always thought the cute prince was wearing it for visual effect, he had no idea Rain was actually capable of defending himself. Or attacking, apparently.

It was fucking hot.

“Can you stop fucking with me?” the water prince growled, sharp end of the dagger put against the hollow of Dewdrop’s throat, his rings resting against his jaw.

“We haven't started yet,” Dew smiled, making Rain even more furious than he already was.

“I’ll fucking kill you.”

“You’re gorgeous,” the fire prince whispered, eyes locked onto Rain’s.

“And you’re an idiot, turns out,” he sneered, twisting the dagger just so it was actually piercing Dewdrop’s skin a bit.

And Dewdrop?

Dewdrop moaned.

Rain was effectively thrown off, eyes wide, staring at the man he had pinned against the wall, “You’re sick.”

“You’re hot,” the water prince doesn’t really know what happened then, it just did. Well, it didn’t happen, he did it. Rain, not Dew.

It, being leaning down with a scoff to kiss that awestruck smile off of Dewdrop’s face.

Rain lowered the dagger in favour of gripping the smaller’s shoulder with his ringed fingers, the other arm pulling him closer by his waist.

“Are you fucking hard?” Rain growled into Dew’s lips as his, hard, indeed, cock pressed against the other’s thigh.

“What am I supposed to say? That I’m not?” the fire prince giggled, far too content than he should be, considering he had a knife put to his throat mere seconds ago.

Rain thought for approximately half a second before pulling away, only to grab Dewdrop by his shirt and drag him into the corner leading to his chambers, “What are you doing?”

“I’m gonna teach you a lesson,” the water prince chuckled, the plan he constructed already making his mood significantly better.

“Oh, please do, my prince.”

[maremote]

the last of us hbo is partly so infuriating because it is so obsessively concerned with how it will be received. every line in the show, every frame, is both composed and delivered self-consciously. bold choices are made to differentiate itself from the source material, but instead of fully committing to these changes the show hurls them at you and then scurries behind a familiar visual or line to shield itself from your potential ire, even if said visual or line no longer makes sense within the new context it’s created. it spends so much time trying to convince you that it’s doing the characters and story you love justice that it completely forgets about the story itself. this is something that echoes in every aspect of the show, from the casting of Joel being Pedro “Universally Loved For Single Dad Characters” Pascal as Joel (Joel’s pragmatic relationship with violence and his selfishness are equally, if not more important, to the story as his Dad Energy; I have no problem with Pascal but his selection illustrates that the quality of Joel the creators are most concerned with is the part that makes him most loveable) to Ellie’s rewriting as a spunky jokester and the flattening of qualities that are, again, equally important as her moments of comedy (sorrow, anxiety, seriousness, the quiet determination both in her own purpose and to not be a burden that she exhibits in particular before she knows she’s stuck with joel, and that she returns to every time her survivor’s guilt/trauma comes back to kick her in the teeth (after Tess, after David, right before the hospital, right before the end of the game.))

the show reads like it was created by someone who played the game one time five years ago and extrapolated the rest of the plot from a few basic sentences. “Hmm, I remember that Tess and Joel cared about each other beyond just simple friends. I guess they were dating. I remember Joel being protective of Ellie and a link between Sarah and Ellie. Let’s throw that in as early as episode 2. I don’t remember how or why that relationship developed but what I liked was when they cared about each other, so let’s just do that as early as possible!” the script of tlou hbo treats any scene dedicated to development rather than climax as not worth adaptation, while, bafflingly, setting up action scenes for itself and then skipping over them completely. tess and joel’s execution of robert is a crucial scene to the development of tess, of joel, of their relationship and of the world of the QZ itself, but climax-wise it offers little, so why bother? we do need to establish these characters, though, so let’s have tess repeat over and over how evil and bad her and joel are. the show acts like exposition and development of anything is a burden for both the creators to construct and the audience to sit through. it’s desperate to have poignant moments of culmination, but lacks the patience or confidence in itself- or both- to actually commit to constructing interesting scenes to carry itself forward to those moments of culmination. there is almost no attempt to work exposition in in new and interesting ways that will communicate new information while also building the story. instead, every exposition drop is positioned like the creators are nudging and winking us, saying, isn’t this a slog? it’s like the creators want us to accept that exposition and development is a chore that we as the audience and they as the creators can universally recognize as a pain in the ass, so we should just sit tight while they roll out information in clunky, uncreative ways so we can get back to the unearned emotional beats of joel looking at his watch or trying to protect ellie.

and then like i said previously, the show bafflingly- or actually, quite predictably- sets up action scenes for itself, then skips over them completely as soon as it realizes that delivering on the action scene would mean composing something compelling and interesting from scratch. marlene tells kim, with utter seriousness, that every firefly in the qz is going to gather that night to take ellie away- an addition from the game- and then when we next see her, all the fireflies are dead, she’s bleeding and kim has lost an ear. in a show that lets us spend a full day with sarah, that spends time on a guard and a child we will likely never see again right after the title credits of the first episode for the sake of building the world, is there any reason that we were not allowed to see the dramatic confrontation that broke down the fireflies and landed marlene in hot water? for game viewers, there’s no need for the confrontation, obviously, because we already know what’s going to happen. we know marlene will be injured and have to trust joel against her will. but for a new watcher would it not be so utterly bizarre to be promised a gathering of rebels , and then have it revealed that they were all killed in a dramatic confrontation- but don’t worry, you don’t need to see the confrontation. we’ll just tell you what happened! why would you want to see an action scene in a horror-action series?

[samusique-concrete]

some thoughts on dark souls 3

i've been playing dark souls 3 for the first time these last couple of days and it's quickly become one of my favorite games visually, ever. which is a weird thing for me to say because i could also name among those games a game like yoshi's island, whose artstyle i love and appreciate, but that is so ingrained in my brain that i don't think about it that often, since i grew up with it (and also to be fair i kinda fell of from new-at-the-time games after the 360/PS3 era, so i haven't had that many experiences with AAA games after that). with ds3 instead every new area has me taking screenshots of many a nook and cranny. it's stunningly gorgeous: every pathway and courtyard and tunnel has been art directed to heck, with lighting and terrain and colour and framing playing such huge parts. i've played basically all there is to play in elden ring already and that game also has its own moments of breathtaking beauty, but ds3's advantage is that it's smaller, tighter, and the designers could treat it almost as a diorama in which every single step the player would take would be one where the environment around them has been handcrafted in great detail, which obviously would have been impossible for a game of elden ring's scale. the game's still big though, but in comparison to what came after it, and frankly also what came before with dark souls 1, it inevitably feels like a condensed version of the fromsoft fantasy soulslike, like a greatest hits even. i also think it's way easier, but in a complimentary way. obviously now i know what i'm doing in a soulslike, as opposed to when i first picked up ds1, but i feel like the devs took this into account when making it. players most likely came to dark souls 3 after having familiarized themselves with 1 and 2, and a bevy of new players probably lept right over to ds3 after the franchise had established itself with its previous entries, so when you play the game with a decent build it feels almost like a rollercoaster or a victory lap, with the emphasis being placed on making sure the player gets to experienced the whole game and have a reasonably good time enjoying themselves while being wowed at every turn. it's almost as if the team had already had their fill of punishing players brutally, so they made this game with a veneer of that but this time helping the player along, as if they recognized that it is the player the one on the driver's seat as opposed to the enemies of the world they're exploring. it's not like the player is a badass terminator-like being that can demolish their adversaries from the start, like in games such as bayonetta or god hand, but more like you're being put on a costume by the devs and they're pushing you along the way in this play that they've put on for you to wave your sword at things. oppositely, the feeling in ds1 was that there was no play but rather a very real and very cruel world and there was no one around to help you or, at least, no guiding hand. this new intention also may or may not have had something to do with ds2 not being as well received as ds1 and the team, with miyazaki now at the helm again, wanting to show the fans 'what's what', so to speak. bonfires are more frequent, upgrade item drops are far more generous, and hollowing is an entirely optional thing now, which, honestly, thank god for that. the embers as a mechaninc are a friendlier alternative to the more obtuse humanity system from before, and you can get a lot of embers really easily. this ends up making ds3 feel like a smoother, more seamless experience for the player in terms of what they want and how they can achieve it. ds1 instead basks in its friction, and has a more robust identity because of it. i'm not saying one is better than the other however. i still think that dark souls 1 is the far more interesting game out of all of the fromsoft soulslikes, and i'll always prefer something interesting over something that's just nice, but man, it is nice to have this other, more laid-back option available for when you just want to cruise and see the sights.

anyway; i'm having fun, i love the game, and here i wil post some screenshots of places that caught my eye. might update later with more as i keep playing.

(this is where i started having my HUD show up on auto so that i could enjoy the scenery more)

[mrs-gauche]

So, on the new cinematic that was published yesterday, without going into a deep analysis here (because people have already done an amazing job at dissecting every piece of visual/symbolism, like the Golden/Black City, what appears to be the origin of the Blight, the recurring symbols in the seven semi-circle spheres/Evanuris imagery in Trespasser etc etc), I just want to write down some of my general thoughts that I had already put in the tags under the video, but there are also a few things I'd like to add. 🙂

Ok, so generally speaking, this cinematic is basically a recap for anyone who hasn’t played Trespasser/ is new to the series / doesn’t remember every single detail from a game that came out almost a decade ago. I always wondered how they were going to (re-)introduce new people to the lore and the big revelations that were sadly concealed in a DLC and after giving it some thought, I’m actually very pleased with the way they’re doing it. 😁

So in regards to Solas, this is everything you need to know before going into the game. (Though I still try to look at this from the perspective of someone who’s only played the DAI base game and therefore only knows the after credits scene with Solas and Flemeth.. So you would still be kinda lost about as to how Varric even knows about all this stuff with the creation of the Veil/what Solas plans to do and all that, so.. I would hope this still gets addressed in some form, especially if fan speculations turn out true and there will be a ten year timeskip since Inquisition, so regardless of Trespasser, in any case, it would be nice to learn what the Inquisition has been up to these past ten years. lol)

So for anyone who is now like "Ugh, another trailer about Solas?? Don't we had enough???", I get it, I really do, but I also need you to understand that this is *not* another trailer, it's an in-game cinematic, probably part of the very beginning of the game and I feel like people tend to forget that the majority of players will NOT be people like us, who have been sitting here analyzing every single frame and syllable of new content under a microscope for the past eight years. 😂

Most people who've played Inquisition maybe once or twice a decade ago will maybe have a vague memory of who Solas or the Dread Wolf are and what his story is. Of course we know all this stuff, but that's the point, it's supposed to be a recap of everything you need to know before going into the game.

Though I can understand why you would be frustrated that they chose to show this as yet another part of marketing that's solely centered around him. (Heck, even I as a fan of his character am honestly surprised how much focus there is 😂) But even though BioWare’s blog post ended with the phrase "close out this year with a little treat", the fact that this was now a general "reintroduction" to the lore, gives me a little hope that they might not wait another couple of months now to show something new, since this is still fresh in people's minds. They're building momentum and I would hope they would use this to kick off the marketing for a wider audience (and the Game Awards are by far the biggest platform to show something).

That being said, let’s talk about the visuals for a second!

Simply put, they’re drop dead gorgeous! As expected from the great Nick Thornborrow, who also did Solas’ frescoes in DAI (and who sadly left BioWare some time ago). The art style and the way it’s presented/animated reminds me a lot of DAO’s intro or those transitional scenes between acts in DA2 or even those little animation bits from the Keep (which were also narrated by Varric!). So it’s definitely true to the DA formula/getting back to the roots even. lol

So even for those of us who knew about all this stuff, it was still amazing to see it visualized and summed up in such a beautful way. And additionally, it contained hints and symbolism that seem to confirm everything I’ve been thinking for the past seven years. lol (Again, not getting into details here, because people have already done a far better job than I could do to explain all that. 😂) I loved how the visuals transitioned seemlessly into the each other with gorgeously smooth animation! I also love how you’re getting almost blinded by the way it’s portraying the destruction of the Veil. lol Like, it get’s all dark and quiet for a second and then BOOM, spotlight ON lmao, I was instantly reminded of Sandal’s prophecy in DA2, when he’s like “The shadows will part and the skies will open wide, when he rises”.

But we also need to talk about the music and the sound design, because GOSH, this was so GOOD!

I would highly recommend listening to this thing with head phones, because WOW, there are so many different little components build into this one minute track, it’s amazing!! I looove how the music starts off with this anticipation and a single violin and then shifts into this more ominous melody supported by these faint “marching to war” drums when the visuals transition from sun to moon/Solas to Fen’Harel, like the music perfectly encapsulates this feeling of ambiguity, like he’s neither a villain or a hero, and it’s up to you what to believe.

Then there’s that beautiful wolf howling in the back right as Varric says “Dread Wolf”, before the music gets more sinister, followed by this big booming “shutting the gate” sound when the Veil is formed and whatever you call that sound of magic as the gods are sealed away and this creepy whispering as the shadows are slowly spreading from the Black City and consuming everything, when it gets all quiet. And then, if you’re wearing head phones, you get knocked off your feet by that enormous explosion sound as the Veil is shattered, like you can practically FEEL the impact of this wold-altering magic in your bones. lol And then the music culminates in this grand dramatic orchestral piece that is SO reminiscent of Inquisition’s main theme??

And as the title is shown and the music breaks up, there’s that simple melody again played by this traditional string instrument (I’m no expert, but it reminds of like, ancient greek?) that was also in the 2020 teaser trailer!

Like, huge props to whoever did the sound design and I can’t wait to find out who does the score! <333

Lastly, can we talk about how Varric’s talking in the PAST tense, when saying “But now, he wanted to tear down that Veil, and destroy the world”??

It almost sounds like whatever Solas wanted to do, something happened, but as always, it didn’t go the way he intended and now we have to deal with the consequences? lol It sounds like that line was cut off too soon there, like Varric was going to add something like "But now he wanted to tear down that Veil and destroy the world.... but he f*cked up spectacularly (again) and now we have to clean up his mess." 😂

So are we maybe already playing in a post-Veil world right from the start? I hope not, because I would have loved to actually SEE how Solas tore down that Veil? 😂 It makes me think that maybe this narration isn't the final version and it will end up being different in the game, like this was edited for marketing purposes/to avoid spoilers? lol

Also, again like in the 2020 teaser trailer, I wonder who Varric is even talking to? Who is "we"? And why are WE "the only ones who can stop him"? What is it about "us" that's able to stop him?

Also, I've seen people saying he's holding a wand in that last visual? 😂

Guys, for seven years I've been trying to mentally (and emotionally) prepare myself that Solas (like all returning characters in any BioWare game) is going to look significantly different in a sequel that’s released a decade from the previous one, and my biggest fear remains that he's gonna look like Voldemort with a nose, so I can't say I'm overly thrilled at the prospect of seeing him walking around with a damn wand. 😂

Though I’m curious if it’s like some other people are saying and it could also be a weapon/blade like the one that was produced by the red lyrium idol in Tevinter Nights/the Blue Wraith comics? 👀

(But to be completely honest, my main takeaway from this whole thing was actually “OMG, they kept the CAPE for Solas’ ancient elven armor design from the early concept art???” lmaoo I was sure they got rid of it after seeing the 2020 teaser trailer. lol I’m sorry, but for those who don’t know me, I’m the biggest sucker for capes and coats in character design 😂 Give me ALL the capes! All of them!! Edna Mode hates me. lol)

Anyway, this is all I’ve got for the moment, I’m super thrilled! Even though I totally get everyone who desperately wants to see something other than Solas lol, if only to finally get a sense of confirmation after such a long time that there’s a game that’s actually.. real and playable, you know. 😂 Though tbh, I think I’ll only be able to fully realize this the moment we get an actual cinematic trailer with in-game footage and stuff. lol Fingers crossed (and clown wig ready) for the Game Awards! 😁

[zavalas-bignaturals-lore]

So, I'm finally ready to talk about Lightfall. I've been really holding off on this, because I didn't want to post my fresh-off-the-campaign hot take, I needed it to simmer and thicken up a bit. I know it's been months since release, but heavy Lightfall spoilers ahead.

Let me talk about what works for me: the vibe is exceptional. A pretty modern take on the 80's action movie, just like Bungie themselves stated they intended. The campaign runs at a breakneck pace, only slowing down for a few moments here and there. Rohan and Nimbus have a perfect master-student trope dynamic. Calus is an entertaining villain, his hypocritical subservience making him an interesting lieutenant to the Witness. Honestly, Calus really got Starscream-ed in this expansion. Strand came out just the right amount of hot, nothing too crazy, except suspend maybe, but at least that hasn't broken pvp in the way Stasis did. And last up, the raid? A visual feast, with better narrative integration than Vow of the Disciple making it a real treat. I know it has taken some flak for being "easy," but honestly not every raid needs to be incredibly mechanically dense and absolutely full of high difficulty enemies. There really is plenty to like in the expansion, but narratively it kinda creates more questions than it answers, and not in a good way.

Let me start with the beginning and end of the campaign. There's tons of speculation about this campaign kinda being filler, and the cutscenes of the Witness definitely feel the most evidential of that. In what feels like a single scene split down the middle, the Witness reaches the Traveler, attempts to cut(?) into it, and has a revelation on where the Veil is. After the campaign, in which the Witness apparently manipulates the Guardian into getting their Ghost close enough to create a link between the Veil and the Traveler, the Witness creates some sort of portal or doorway just above the Travelers surface and kills(?) it, and then the Witness and part of the Black Fleet just kinda go into the portal and leave. The story frames this as a defeat, but that doesn't exactly land emotionally. It feels like this was meant to be an "Empire Strikes Back" moment, but delivered the defeat at the Witness' hands just after we were victorious over Calus. With the benefit of hindsight, I can see the shape of intent here, this possibly being meant as a rug-pull, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. This would have been more impactful if the status quo was actually fundamentally changed. In reality though, what did change as a result of this event? The Traveler is "dead" (again), but we still have the Light. The Witness "won," but is not present in the world (again). The Veil was revealed to exist, but we don't actually know what it really is (yet, admittedly, but that's the crux of its problem). The Light was defined as the realm of the physical and the Darkness defined as the realm of consciousness. At best this is redefinition, but we've known that the Light and Dark were amoral fundamental forces since Beyond Light. Neomuna exists in the narrative now, but its influence is entirely contained to the Lightfall campaign. Really everything is still kinda the same, just with some looming sense of "now we need to find and stop the Witness." Even that is the same motivator that we were left with at the end of Witch Queen. To be totally honest, this is a little less than compelling as a motivator, especially the second time around. I'm not saying that a story needs to fundamentally change aspects of the game, but ultimately Lightfall feels like treading water when it had the opportunity to blow players away with our first contact with the Witness. To reiterate from earlier, at the end of Lightfall, the Witness is just gone again. I'm not entirely sure if Bungie intends for the Witness to be a ghost in the narrative or not. One would think not given that they put a name and face to its existence, but to introduce it and immediately remove it gives the sense that it should be less directly visible. In either case, it feels rather on the fence, preventing it from really giving weight to either side. A lot of the Witness' on screen action serves more as a jumping off point for introducing the Veil above all else. That's all well and good, except...

What the heck even is the Veil? To keep with my usual "Bungie tells a story with their names" rhetoric, it's very easy to point to the Veil as just that, a separation between the Light and the Darkness, the physical and the psychic, etc. We know that the Veil "feels like the Traveler" and that it can be linked through Light energy (the Radial Mast, the Ghost) to the Traveler. We know that Neomuna's Cloud Ark runs off of it in some way, connecting it to the "psychic web" vibe of Strand and the Darkness. Lastly, we know that the Vex attempted to create their own version of the Veil, which would become the Black Heart from Destiny 1. (I should make a note here, Season of the Deep is currently happening and providing additional info on the Veil, but I'm just talking about what was in the main Lightfall campaign.) So what's the deal, did Bungie really just make a McGuffin for the Lightfall campaign and call it a day? In the context of Lightfall alone, yes. The Veil serves no purpose beyond "it makes Strand easy to see" and "the Witness cannot be allowed to use it." Okay, so am I saying that having a McGuffin is a bad thing? Well, maybe. The framing presented by Osiris for our desperate fight to protect the Veil is too simple. "The Witness wants it, so stop Calus from getting it" is thin, even by McGuffin standards. What are we as players really to do with that motivation? Especially once the resolution becomes "well, the Witness succeeded but is now gone and we still have our powers." As a whole, Lightfall lacked impact, at nearly every level.

Okay, I don't want to leave off on that kind of negative note though, I still enjoyed a lot of Lightfall. One of my favorite parts was Calus. Every part of his presentation was incredible. Ever the sycophant, Calus' ostentatious presentation of himself is an effort to impose what he believes he should be on reality, when in truth, he was given that form by a higher power. Calus sought to become the voice in the Darkness, that which remained at the end of the universe, only to find an insurmountable being there instead. Fighting the Guardian at the end of the campaign offers an interestingly poetic end. Finishing his first phase tears off his helmet and switches his weapon to more traditional Cabal gladiatorial fare. For what might have possibly been the first time in his life, Calus fought with his own power. No army, no cosmic power, just himself. The way Caiatl put it, "You gave him a Cabal's end?" underscores this perfectly. What a way to end his story.

[riddlerosehearts]

watched spirit: untamed today. if you're a fan of spirit: stallion of the cimarron and you're not deadset on forcing yourself to watch every single dreamworks movie then please don't waste your time on this one. if you're ever taking care of a 4-6 year old kid who's never seen the original and feels like watching a cute horse girl movie... consider showing them one of the many, many out there that are less generic, pointless and poorly made than this one :(

look, i knew going into this movie that i was probably not going to like it much to begin with because i'd heard so much about how it went against the themes of the original. but i thought maybe it would still have something beautiful and unique to say, and be a decent kids movie if you tried to treat it as its own thing. well it doesn't and it's not.

as a sequel to spirit: stallion of the cimarron, this movie is weird because the original is about the devastating effects that colonization had on both animals and indigenous people and how they all have a right to be free. spirit doesn't even have a name for 98% of the movie until little creek, upon realizing that nobody should ever ride this horse because it's not what he wants, names him "spirit who could not be broken". and then spirit untamed is about a white city girl who tames a horse and makes him her bestie, and who decides to call him spirit before she's ever even interacted with him because she sees him resisting some wranglers and says he has "a lot of spirit". granted, she does (very randomly and suddenly imo) let him leave to be with his herd in the end, but still, it's just... this new movie, and the netflix show that came with it, is trying to take the name and brand of something that is so insanely different from it. it's filled with visual references to the original, in things like the framing of certain shots and some of the backgrounds, but that and the name of the horse are the only things it shares with it. it has none of the uniqueness or heart.

and as its own standalone movie, this movie just does absolutely nothing to make itself stand out. it's an hour and 20 minutes long but it was so agonizingly tedious and predictable that it felt like a 3 hour movie at least. the animation is so choppy and the art so flat that the whole thing feels cheap and unfinished. the horses in the original are all incredibly expressive and have strong personalities despite the fact that outside of matt damon occasionally narrating for spirit, they don't speak. the same doesn't hold true for the horses here. the human characters are also so painfully boring and simplistic that i already don't even remember the villain's name. i feel like a hundred different variations of this same movie already exist: headstrong young girl loves horses, dad hates horses and forbids her from hanging out with them, girl does it anyway, dad comes around in the end. i would rather watch shark tale than this because at least it's an attempt at an original story.

i've also read that this movie is basically a condensed retelling of the first few episodes of the netflix series "spirit riding free", only this was released in theaters and also retcons aspects of the show?? why??? literally who is this movie for??? i mean, idk, i guess a really young kid who's never seen the original movie or any other Horse Girl movie might enjoy it, but i very much think those kids deserve better than this. bleh. i don't think i ever wrote a post about how much i adore how to train your dragon after i recently rewatched the first two movies, so i will try to do that soon to balance out all the complaining i'm doing here 😭

[mostlygibberish]

I liked the part with the goldfish.

Nauseatingly rapid cuts, ugly high contrast colour grading, shots overlaid on other shots with different frame rates and digital shakey cam, tedious slow motion and pointlessly sped up footage, and the screen flashing white non-stop to the point that it literally hurt my eyes to look at it. It didn't matter if it was a high stakes shootout or somebody reading a computer screen, every single scene was edited to the same ridiculous degree.

What little plot Domino had wasn't even remotely interesting, getting more and more convoluted as it went. There were multiple instances of it showing things happen and then later revealing that they didn't, as though this was some clever misdirection instead of meaningless filler. Framing the whole thing as a flashback police interview was not only a tired cliché, but it removed any possible doubt about Domino's fate right from the start.

Being 2005, Domino was constantly portrayed as a badass but the only thing she actually did in the movie was be objectified and talk about how she wasn't like other girls. She resolved a standoff by giving a random guy a lap dance, and half the drama in the movie was about how she was so insanely hot but wouldn't sleep with the guy that had no personality yet felt entitled to her body anyway. When they later hooked up after being literally drugged with mescaline this was treated as a romantic development.

Also being 2005, an Afghani man whose name the other characters were too racist to bother learning sent a bunch of money to freedom fighters and then suicide bombed a tower. Really. There was another completely pointless scene in which a black woman went on Jerry Springer to explain some bizarre race theory she had developed, only to be ridiculed as stupid and promiscuous.

Domino is one of the best examples I've ever seen of something trying way too hard to be cool and consistently failing. I doubt this was even cool in 2005, and that's saying something; The 00's were chock full of lame shit people inexplicably considered cool. By the time the last act rolled around my brain was turning to mush. I could barely work out what was going on, and I don't just mean visually. There was no excuse for this to be two hours long.

A truly obnoxious movie. At least Keira Knightley looks hot with a cigarette and gun, so it wasn't a complete waste of my time.

[unpassive-viewer]

Across the Spider-Verse Review (mild spoilers)

I have finally seen the long-awaited sequel to my most favourite movie. Y’all, I am in love with what Sony is doing for Spider-Man these days. I have literally not been this excited to see a movie since I was 12 years old waiting in line in a themed outfit to see Catching Fire for its opening weekend, and I think this film lived up to that hype. I have some critiques, but overall it was really good. I won’t include any major plot spoilers, but I’ve tagged it as mild spoilers just in case you’re the type of person who doesn’t like to know a single thing going into this movie. 

The good (not in order of importance): 

1. More Gwen character development. She’s in this one in a much larger capacity than the first one, and all of her parts were awesome. 

2. Soundtrack. I started listening it to it before I even went to see the film. It’s good music already, but it is such a different experience to hear it over the movie. The art direction for these films is SEAMLESS, the different elements blend so well. 

3. The visuals. The animation is genuinely so beautiful, I would use literally every frame of this movie as a screensaver, and I would tattoo them on the inside of my eyelids if that didn’t mean I’d have to pick only one. I want to give the animators a big kiss on the mouth because this film is so visually incredible. 

4. The fight scenes. I love animation because you can capture things that cameras just can’t. The pacing of the fighting was so, so good. It’s one of the only movies I’ve seen that keeps the momentum of its fight sequences and really lets you feel the energy of the actions you’re watching. It was unique from movies like the second Captain America, whose fight scenes I also LOVE, because of the way it followed characters with such fast and dynamic movement. Whereas the Winter Soldier had great representation of real fighting styles, Across the Spider-verse was able to make use of a lot of its characters uniquely-inspired movements like Gwen’s dancer style. It could also follow them while they did insanely complex movements - if you’ve seen Gwen’s first fight scene, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. 

5. The new characters are unbelievably cool. All of them. From the design to their personalities to their theme songs, they were really well thought out. In particular Spider-Man 2099 and Spider Byte are so beautifully visually contrasted with the rest of the movie. The characters also felt very honest to their backstories. By that I mean it felt like the animators and storyboard writers really did their research into the people they were trying to emulate, both from a source material standpoint and a cultural standpoint. 

6. Miles’ story in the sequel is still really interesting, despite him being established as a character now, and the additional dimensions this film brings to his character are super cool. 

7. The humour is top notch, and very true to Spidey humour that has carried through all of its iterations. I especially liked the first altercation between Miles and the main villain. It reminded me of Letterkenney and VEEP in that I felt like I needed subtitles to get all of the jokes because they were so rapid-fire and because the characters were talking over one another. It’s a very organic brand of humour that I appreciate. 

8. The inclusion of so many Spider characters was well handled. The MCU movies now essentially make no sense because of how much background knowledge you need just to watch one film. Comparatively this handled having literally hundreds of similarly designed characters really well. 

9. It seemed like altogether (much like the first one) there was a lot of creative license for this film. My biggest critique of Disney movies is that they’re soulless because of how much they’re supposed to appeal to a wide audience to maximize profits, but this movie and its predecessor have actual soul. If I learn that all the animators were treated like trash and they considered this film their personal hell I will be crushed, because it looks like something that is the product of a lot of amazing minds coming together for an incredible project. 

10. A lot of fun nods to the other Spider-Man films and games. Spider-Man PS2 is in there, and I think Yuri Lowenthal even does a voice cameo. I’m a big fan of the “don’t get me started on Dr. Strange and that little nerd on Earth-199999″ line. 

The less good:

1. Way too long. This film did not need a 2+ hour runtime. After about 1h40 I started thinking at the beginning of every scene “this has to be the end now, right?” wrong. This film had a “first book of the Lord of the Rings technically just being exposition” feeling to it. 

2. Too many heart to heart scenes. One of my least favourite things in cinema lately is trying to force feed you character development through dialogue. There could have been like... 10 fewer drawn-out heartfelt conversations and the movie wouldn’t have changed. 

3. The two major conflicts kind of got lost in one another. I enjoyed both but after a point I was confused as to what the real issue was. I know we’ll see the resolution in the second part, but I felt at least from my first viewing that I was watching a second movie after a point. 

4. No comparable “what’s up danger” scene. To be fair, I think that scene from the first movie is my favourite in literally all of cinema. I want to inject it into my veins, I want to breathe it like perfume, I want to wrap it around myself like a blanket. It is beautiful and perfect and amazing and I don’t know if it can be topped, but it was strange to have so many smaller moments that were supposed to be cool that were sort of lost in one another. HOWEVER I have to assume we will get another one in the second part next year. Miles’ character arc is obviously not done, so it makes sense that we will get something like that closer to the climax of the next movie. 

Anyways, I will be seeing it a second time in theatres. I usually don’t see films in the cinema because it’s so expensive, but I will happily give this franchise all of my money. I cannot overstate this - I am genuinely looking at getting a tattoo for this franchise. Sony owns me and I am okay with that.