#featuring my creature George design

[rat-creates]

Creatures

[theotherpacman]

"Beauty, they called her... mocking. The hair beneath the visor was a squirrel's nest of dirty straw, and her face... Brienne's eyes were large and very blue, a young girl's eyes, trusting and guileless, but the rest... her features were broad and coarse, her teeth prominent and crooked, her mouth too wide, her lips so plump they seemed swollen. A thousand freckles speckled her cheeks and brow, and her nose had been broken more than once. Pity filled Catelyn's heart. Is there any creature on earth as unfortunate as an ugly woman?

And yet, when Renly cut away her torn cloak and fastened a rainbow in its place, Brienne of Tarth did not look unfortunate. Her smile lit up her face, and her voice was strong and proud as she said, 'My life for yours, Your Grace. From this day on, I am your shield, I swear it by the old gods and the new.'"

-- A Clash of Kings, George R. R. Martin

Brienne the Blue of King Renly Baratheon's Rainbow Guard, daughter of Lord Selwyn Tarth, the Evenstar

I finally drew my girl Brienne!!!! in the book her armor is all scratched up and shit but I wanted to draw some nice beautiful armor for my girl. hopefully I succeeded in that. character design is heavily informed by that of @swordmaid who does my favorite Brienne <3 (if ur reading this I also love ur Jaime)

[kxlitz]

★ Dating 2023!Bill Kaulitz ★ (Fluff overload)

AN: Oh boy, I never thought I’d actually post some of my hcs, let’s see how this goes. I’m typing this half-asleep on my phone so I apologize for any grammatical or technical mistake, please let me know if anything!!

Let’s start with setting something straight, Bill does not fall for someone easily nor does he like to sleep around, as he’s said himself. If he’s actually decided on dating you it is a synonym for “I can see an entire future with you and I have probably thought of marriage plans”

No matter how you guys met; whether it was through mutual friends, by chance or were childhood friends, it would take you weeks, months or even years of forming a strong bond before even considering the first date.

Bill has said many times that he believes in love at first sight and probably still does, but fame and people have definitely left him with some major trust issues.

Won’t give you a house key or ask you to move in till he’s completely certain that you’re fully trust-worhy, but he loves having you over with him.

Now that you guys are together, he is the sweetest person on earth, will worship you like you’re a divine creature that landed on earth. He would worship the ground you walk on if he could.

Never-ending honeymoon stage kind of relationship not going to lie-

Will take you out to theme parks, rent out movie theatres, take you on hikes and long walks on a deserted beach.

Don’t be surprised if you ever wake up to a screaming Bill, all hyped because he decided that you’re spending your weekend at Disney.

He is so cheesy but it’s so sweet to see. He’s at a point in his life that he just wants to love and be loved. Kisses on the cheek, opening doors for you, pushing your chair at restaurants. He’s a gentleman.

Till it applies to his fashion. You ARE doomed to help him out of his outfit when he decides to be a bit more daring. Just like he does with Georg and Tom he will do it with you. “y/n you know the drill. When my assistant is not around you’re my assistant now help me out of these shoes”

Speaking of shoes, he is almost 2 meters (and sometimes more) when he wears his platforms and he absolutely loves towering over you. Bill loves to see you reach for a kiss. He will also walk behind you and ruffle your hair to annoy you.

This man is so whipped. He can gush about you for hours on end in interviews, his socials or his podcast.

He would also expose you a lot on Kaulitz Hills because that’s what he does.

He loves physical touch. When you’re walking in downtown LA he will always have an arm wrapped around your shoulders or waist, holding your hand or linking your pinkies.

He has the sneakiest of hands, it’s even worse than Tom. Bill always finds a way to have hand under your shirt or skirt if you happen to wear them. He can’t help it, he loves to feel your skin on his hands.

Back Hugs !!!

You will become his muse. He loves to dress you up however he pleases, you just look so good in everything! Bill will spend so much cash on designer sets to match with you. Only the best for his beloved.

He mostly calls you by your name in public but behind closed doors he would address you by the sweetest names like “My love, Darling/liebling, Pumpkin”

You guys are always out to eat

And at coffee shops

You’re each other’s personal photographers. Plus he absolutely adores to show you off on his instagram

I can see him as the type to start a vlogging channel just to show off how in love and happy he is with you.

Prepare yourself mentally to be woken up early to walk the dogs and drink sour green juice. Bill used to be a tremendous sleeper when he was young but those days are way behind.

When you wake up together, it is the best. He tends to wake up first and will stay in bed just admiring how beautiful you are. Tracing your features with his fingers. He wants to memorize every inch of your skin.

If you take too long though, he will get up and go prepare breakfast. Yes it includes celery juice.

You guys are always hanging with Tom & Heidi! You get into the craziest adventures

Heidi would love you so much, so would her kids. You and Bill are the cool relatives.

[gatabella]

Jean Harlow by George Hoyningen-Huene, 1933

“She is the most effective woman I have ever seen, the most sensational and carnal creature in female form. She is what Jean Nash and Peggy Hopkins Joyce should have looked like. She is Sex, projected on a poster with a capital S—arresting, startling. But to analyze her—it is as if a sculptor said, ‘I am going to make a woman with the most beautiful body ever dreamed of by man.’ And so he shaped and formed with infinite feeling for design, sensuality and perfection. It was a labor of love, and he achieved the most divinely female symmetry ever seen. But he became so absorbed in the glorious body—he forgot the face! It is a strange puzzle of features, thrown hastily in a heap. There is sharp discord in juxtaposition. The features have no rhyme or reason or relation to each other. The final result, with the thin, soaring, striped eyebrows, is definitely Oriental. But, I repeat, she is the most effective woman I have ever seen. She has the most wonderful good nature. She was in the midst of filming a picture and had to dart in and out between scenes, rushing back and forth between my camera and the set, when I photographed her. It must have been trying, but you would never have known it.”

-photographer George Hoyningen-Huene on Jean Harlow, Photoplay, Aug. 1934

[thehollowprince]

The Actor Who Played Jar Jar Binks Is Proud of His ‘Star Wars’ Legacy

Ahmed Best recalls the painful backlash to the “Phantom Menace” character that was considered a racial stereotype at the time but is now embraced by fans.

Ahmed Best is a futurist, an educator, a martial artist, a writer-director, and the actor behind Jar Jar Binks, the most hated character in the “Star Wars” universe.

Long-eared Jar Jar is a bipedal amphibianlike creature with an ungainly walk and a winning attitude. The groundbreaking, computer-generated goofball debuted in the first installment of George Lucas’s prequel trilogy, “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace,” and instantly set off widespread criticism from both fans and the press.

“It took almost a mortal toll on me. It was too much,” Best recently recalled. “It was the first time in my life where I couldn’t see the future. I didn’t see any hope. Here I was at 26 years old, living my dream, and my dream was over.”

Now 50, Best is the picture of panache who could easily be mistaken for an off-duty rock star. He arrived at our interview, riding a motorcycle and wearing a blue denim jacket, black jeans, and stylish shades.

In the presence of Best’s self-assured demeanor, it’s even more shocking to learn that back in 1999, the vitriol fans flung at Jar Jar and, in turn, at him, ravaged his mental health. But he revisited these memories a few weeks before the movie’s return to theaters on Friday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its release.

Two constellations, “Star Wars” and “Star Trek,” nurtured Best’s curiosity for both science and the arts as a child in the South Bronx. The 1977 “Star Wars” (Episode IV) was the first movie he ever saw in a cinema. Back then, being part of the intergalactic saga seemed unfathomable.

Twenty years later, Best was performing in “Stomp,” the theater show where performers communicate through rhythm and acrobatics, when Robin Gurland, the casting director on “Phantom Menace,” attended a performance in San Francisco. She had spent months conducting an exhaustive search for the actor who could embody Jar Jar’s physicality. That evening, she found him.

“There was just something so electrifying about his performance; it was natural and innovative,” Gurland said by phone. “I couldn’t take my eyes off of Ahmed.”

“What if you were from this other planet, totally different from anything we know? How would you move?” Gurland recalled asking Best during his audition at Skywalker Ranch. “He got it immediately and was able to just create this being out of thin air.”

Doug Chiang, the design director on “Phantom Menace,” remembered Lucas describing Jar Jar as a combination of the silent comedy stars Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Lucas ruled out a puppet for the alien creature, Chiang said, but still needed Jar Jar to appear grounded in reality to hold up against live actors onscreen.

“Even though this was a synthetic character, created out of ones and zeros, George wanted it to have a lot of expression,” Chiang said via video call. “The actor component was absolutely critical.”

Commonplace now, motion capture, the process of recording a person or object’s movement to serve as the basis for a digital entity, was mostly uncharted territory. Jar Jar became the first main character in a feature film created this way, though initially, the filmmakers didn’t know if it would work.

When Best landed the part as well as the separate assignment to voice the character — providing a playful take he often used with his younger cousins — he thought “it was surreal,” he recalled, adding with a laugh, “I was like, ‘Why me?’ I wanted it, of course, and I’m glad George believed in me, a 23-year-old kid from the streets of New York.”

In Chiang’s view, “Ahmed’s role in this was very understated, and it’s heartbreaking that he didn’t receive the attention and accolade because Jar Jar was a breakthrough character.”

Best spent the better part of two years working with Lucas and Industrial Light & Magic; his acting provided the physical element for the foundational software Lucasfilm created for performance capture. “I’m not Jar Jar. We are Jar Jar,” Best said, crediting the numerous artists involved at different stages of the character’s development.

But during filming, Best had doubts about the role. He credits co-star Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi, with helping him embrace Jar Jar’s inherent silliness. Best was on set with the rest of the cast, performing while wearing a suit and headpiece that resembled Jar Jar’s final look

“In one of the first scenes we shot, I was having a hard time with the line ‘Weesa going home!’ because it didn’t feel right to me,” Best recalled. “And then Ewan said, ‘But how does it feel to Jar Jar?’ That’s when I thought, ‘I’m going to take my ego out of this.’”

When he saw the final rendering of Jar Jar onscreen, he was taken aback. “I was up there, and I wasn’t up there at the exact same time,” Best said. “Jar Jar moved like me, and that was just a very odd feeling.”

Unfortunately, Jar Jar was a pioneering character in more ways than one. Critics said the character was a collection of racial stereotypes, “a Rastafarian Stepin Fetchit,” as The Wall Street Journal described him. One complaint was Jar Jar’s accent, which some perceived as derived from Jamaican patois.

“Everybody talks about Jar Jar’s accent,” said Best, who is of West Indian descent. “I read exactly what George wrote. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t an accent.”

“Back in the day, Chewbacca was seen as the Black character,” he continued. “And then Yoda was ridiculed for being an Asian stereotype. Then, the Neimoidians were ridiculed for being an Asian stereotype. ‘Star Wars’ has had a history of being a lightning rod. That’s because it’s so successful.”

No matter the context, the onslaught of negative reactions in the nascent online forums of the late ’90s, as well as in traditional media, drove him to consider suicide, he said.

Looking back now, Best said Jar Jar “was probably also the first cyber-bullied pop culture character ever.” In his view there were other factors that contributed to the barrage, including racism among fans, something another “Star Wars” performer, Kelly Marie Tran, called out in 2018 when she endured online harassment. (He said he related to “Kelly Marie for sure. She’s a phenomenal actor” and the way she was treated was “completely unwarranted.”)

“There are a lot of people who want to see Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Darth Vader for the rest of their lives, and they don’t realize that ‘Star Wars’ is changing,” Best said. He noted that the “Star Wars” franchise had yet to have a movie centered on a Black protagonist and added with a laugh, “I’m available.”

But worse than the ceaseless public scrutiny was learning that his role had been dramatically reduced for the two sequels, “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith.”

“As an artist, you want the respect from your peers, and I felt as if I was being scaled back because I didn’t do a good job,” he said. “It really hurt. Everybody was running away from me, including the people that I gave two years of my life to.”

Finding acting work post-“Star Wars” proved nearly impossible. The first hurdle was proving he had been in the movies: “When I’d tell people what I did as Jar Jar, they would be like, ‘That’s just animation. I don’t see your face, so how do I know it was you?’” Best recalled. “And I’d say, ‘No, it was me. I’m an actor; it’s called motion capture.”

He admitted that even all these years later he remained hesitant to talk with journalists about that time. “It’s such a cultural phenomenon, and there are few Black voices in ‘Star Wars,’ so I feel that I’m partially obliged to keep my voice out there,” he said.

Since those dark days, Best has diversified his ambitions. He’s an adjunct lecturer at the University of Southern California’s School of Dramatic Arts, where he teaches filmmaking for actors. At Stanford University’s d.school, he has taught a class revolving around Afrofuturism, a subject that informs his belief that an optimistic future is possible through the combination of narrative art and technology.

“Jar Jar represents the possibility that whatever you got in your head, creatively, we can invent a future where this thing exists,” he said. “Just because no one has done it before, doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”

Throughout the years, Jar Jar hasn’t entirely left Best’s life. The actor has voiced the character in video games and in animated shows like “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.”

“It’s big, and it tends to overtake your life,” Best said. “The thoughts I’ve had were, ‘Who am I outside of this?’ Because as an artist, you don’t want to be locked into one thing.”

More recently, he’s rejoined the “Star Wars” universe in his own body, as the warrior teacher Kelleran Beq on the children’s show “Jedi Temple Challenge” and in an episode of “The Mandalorian.”

“This is going to sound really corny, please forgive me, but it felt like coming home,” Best said.

Despite the baggage, Best never stopped loving Jar Jar. When he meets fans — on the rare occasions that he agrees to appear at conventions — Best has noticed it’s usually young children, people with disabilities and those who have been ostracized who identify most with Jar Jar. “He’s misunderstood, but Jar Jar’s heart is so pure,” he said.

At the time of the backlash, Lucas assured Best that Jar Jar’s target audience — who were kids and for whom the character would become a fond childhood memory — would eventually come to his defense. “He was right,” Best said. “It’s a different story now.”

Witness the reception for Best in 2019 at “Star Wars” Celebration, an event dedicated to the franchise, when fans welcomed him with thunderous applause. “It really warmed my heart to see him get that,” Chiang recalled.

Heart comes up a lot when Best’s name is mentioned.

Dave Filoni, the chief creative officer of Lucasfilm and a writer on “The Mandalorian,” described him as “a unique talent, and no one can replicate what he brings through his performance as Jar Jar. There is comedy, but also a lot of heart.”

And Best takes solace in the role he’s played behind the scenes as well. He noted that the software developed through his work as Jar Jar became central to the creation of future C.G.I. characters.

“I’m in there,” Best said. “You can’t have Gollum without Jar Jar. You can’t have the Na’vi in ‘Avatar’ without Jar Jar. You can’t have Thanos or the Hulk without Jar Jar. I was the signal for the rest of this art form, and I’m proud of Jar Jar for that, and I’m proud to be a part of that. I’m in there!”

[eddie-redmayne-italian-blog]

‘Cabaret’ Review: What Good Is Screaming Alone in Your Room?

Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin star in a buzzy Broadway revival that rips the skin off the 1966 musical.

Eddie Redmayne, center, as the Emcee in Rebecca Frecknall’s revival of “Cabaret” at the August Wilson Theater in Manhattan.Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Time

By Jesse Green April 21, 2024

Just east of its marquee, the August Wilson Theater abuts an alley you probably didn’t notice when last you were there, perhaps to see “Funny Girl,” its previous tenant. Why would you? Where the trash goes is not usually part of the Broadway experience.

But it is for the latest revival of “Cabaret,” which opened at the Wilson on Sunday. Audience members are herded into that alley, past the garbage, down some halls, up some stairs and through a fringed curtain to a dimly lit lounge. (There’s a separate entrance for those with mobility issues.) Along the way, greeters offer free shots of cherry schnapps that taste, I’m reliably told, like cough syrup cut with paint thinner.

Too often I thought the same of the show itself.

But the show comes later. First, starting 75 minutes beforehand, you can experience the ambience of the various bars that constitute the so-called Kit Kat Club, branded in honor of the fictional Berlin cabaret where much of the musical takes place. Also meant to get you in the mood for a story set mostly in 1930, on the edge of economic and spiritual disaster, are some moody George Grosz-like paintings commissioned from Jonathan Lyndon Chase. (One is called “Dancing, Holiday Before Doom.”) The $9 thimbleful of potato chips is presumably a nod to the period’s hyperinflation.

This all seemed like throat clearing to me, as did the complete reconfiguration of the auditorium itself, which is now arranged like a large supper club or a small stadium. (The scenic, costume and theater design are the jaw-dropping work of Tom Scutt.) The only relevant purpose I can see for this conceptual doodling, however well carried out, is to give the fifth Broadway incarnation of the 1966 show a distinctive profile. It certainly does that.

The problem for me is that “Cabaret” has a distinctive profile already. The extreme one offered here frequently defaces it.

Let me quickly add that Rebecca Frecknall’s production, first seen in London, has many fine and entertaining moments. Some feature its West End star Eddie Redmayne, as the macabre emcee of the Kit Kat Club (and quite likely your nightmares). Some come from its new New York cast, including Gayle Rankin (as the decadent would-be chanteuse Sally Bowles) and Bebe Neuwirth and Steven Skybell (dignified and wrenching as an older couple). Others arise from Frecknall’s staging itself, which is spectacular when in additive mode, illuminating the classic score by John Kander and Fred Ebb, and the amazingly sturdy book by Joe Masteroff.

In this production, Gayle Rankin’s Sally Bowles is meant to be taken medicinally and poisonously, projecting instead of concealing her character’s turmoil, our critic writes.Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

But too often a misguided attempt to resuscitate the show breaks its ribs.

The conception of Sally is especially alarming. As written — and as introduced in the play and stories the musical is based on — she is a creature of blithe insouciance if not talent, an English good-time gal flitting from brute to brute in Berlin while hoping to become a star. Her first number, “Don’t Tell Mama,” is a lively Charleston with winking lyrics (“You can tell my brother, that ain’t grim/Cause if he squeals on me I’ll squeal on him”) that make the Kit Kat Club audience, and the Broadway one too, complicit in her naughtiness.

Instead, Frecknall gives us a Sally made up to look like she’s recently been assaulted or released from an asylum, who dances like a wounded bird, stretches each syllable to the breaking point and shrieks the song instead of singing it. (Goodbye, Charleston; hello, dirge.) If Rankin doesn’t sound good in the number, nor later in “Mein Herr,” interpolated from the 1972 film, she’s not trying to. Like the cough syrup-paint thinner concoction, she’s meant to be taken medicinally and poisonously in this production, projecting instead of concealing Sally’s turmoil.

That’s inside-out. The point of Sally, and of “Cabaret” more generally, is to dramatize the danger of disengagement from reality, not to fetishize it.

The guts-first problem also distorts Redmayne’s Emcee, but at least that character was always intended as allegorical. He is the host to anything, the amoral shape-shifter, becoming whatever he must to get by. Here, he begins as a kind of marionette in a leather skirt and tiny party hat, hiccupping his way through “Willkommen.” Later he effectively incarnates himself as a creepy clown, an undead skeleton, Sally’s twin and a glossy Nazi.

Having seen Frecknall’s riveting production of “Sanctuary City,” a play about undocumented immigrants by Martyna Majok, I’m not surprised that her “Cabaret” finds a surer footing in the “book” scenes. These are the ones that take place in the real Berlin, not the metaphorical one of the Kit Kat Club. She is extraordinarily good when she starts with the naturalistic surface of behavior, letting the mise en scène and the lighting (excellent, by Isabella Byrd) suggest the rest.

And naturalism is what you find at the boardinghouse run by Fräulein Schneider (Neuwirth), a woman who has learned to keep her nose down to keep safe. Her tenants include a Jewish fruiterer, Herr Schultz (Skybell); a prostitute, Fräulein Kost (Natascia Diaz); and Clifford Bradshaw (Ato Blankson-Wood), an American writer come to Berlin in search of inspiration. Soon Sally shows up to provide it, having talked her way into Cliff’s life and bed despite being little more than a stranger. Also, despite Cliff’s romantic ambivalence; over the years, the character has had his sexuality revamped more times than a clownfish.

The Schneider-Shultz romance is sweet and sad; neither character is called upon to shriek. And Rankin excels in Sally’s scenes with Cliff, her wry, frank and hopeful personality back in place. The songs that emerge from the boardinghouse dramas are not ransacked as psychiatric case studies but are rather given room to let comment proceed naturally from real entertainment. Rankin’s “Maybe This Time,” with no slathered-on histrionics, is riveting. It turns out she can properly sing.

The interface between the naturalism and the expressionism does make for some weird moments: Herr Schultz, courtly in a topcoat, must hug Sally goodbye in her bra. But letting the styles mix also brings out the production’s most haunting imagery. The intrusion of the Nazi threat into the story is especially well handled: first a gorgeously sung and thus chilling version of “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” then the swastika and then — well, I don’t want to give away how Frecknall stages the scene in which Schultz’s fruit shop is vandalized.

That so many of these moments arise from faithful attention to the original material should be no surprise. “Cabaret” hasn’t lasted this long for nothing. Created at the tail end of Broadway’s Golden Age, it benefited from the tradition of meticulous craftsmanship that preceded it while anticipating the era of conceptual stagings that followed.

All this is baked into the book, and especially the score, which I trust I admire not merely because I worked on a Kander and Ebb show 40 years ago. That the lyrics rhyme perfectly is a given with Ebb; more important, they are always the right words to rhyme. (Listen, in the title song, for the widely spaced triplet of “room,” “broom” and, uh-oh, “tomb.”) And Kander’s music, remixing period jazz, Kurt Weill and Broadway exuberance, never oversteps the milieu or outpaces the characters even as it pushes them toward their full and sometimes manic expression.

When this new “Cabaret” follows that template, it achieves more than the buzz of chic architecture and louche dancing. (The choreography is by Julia Cheng.) Seducing us and then repelling us — in that order — it dramatizes why we flock to such things in the first place, whether at the Kit Kat Club or the August Wilson Theater. We hope, at our risk, to forget that, outside, “life is disappointing,” as the Emcee tells us. We want to unsee the trash.

Cabaret At the August Wilson Theater, Manhattan; kitkat.club. Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes, with an optional preshow.

Jesse Green is the chief theater critic for The Times. He writes reviews of Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway, regional and sometimes international productions. More about Jesse Green

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/theater/cabaret-review-eddie-redmayne.html

[cartograffiti]

The books I read for the StoryGraph's Genre Challenge 2024

For a nonfiction book about food and/or drink...I read Tasting History by Max Miller. A straightforward choice, recipes and history by a YouTuber I have enjoyed.

For a historical novel set before 1900...I read The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett. Set beginning in 1547!

For a biography or memoir about/by a musician...I read Behind the Seams by Dolly Parton with Holly George-Warren and Rebecca Seaver. A memoir all about clothes people have made for Dolly over her career, also featuring hair and wig styling and make-up artists.

For manga...I read Witch Hat Atelier Vol. 1 by Shirahama Kamome (translated by Stephen Kohler). Another easy fit!

For a thriller or crime novel in translation...I read Malice by Higashino Keigo (translated by Alexander O. Smith). From Japanese, one of the Detective Kaga novels.

For a nonfiction book about psychology...I read On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz. An inexact fit; this book is also about nature, design and social habits.

For a science fiction or dystopian book by a woman or nonbinary author...I read A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. A robot and a monk in the far future, on an alien moon.

For a middle grade book with queer representation...I read Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce. I have a feeling I wouldn't have counted this as middle grade if I hadn't just read those of the Emelan books that aim closer to that age group. The other Circle Reforged books reinforce that trio being YA, but that wasn't part of my initial takeaway from BM, so I'll stick to it!

For a short story collection by a Black author...I read Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor. The stories in this collection interlink, and I saw more than one take that they shouldn't therefore count as short stories, which I was happy to find is, in this case, silly. Chapters are a different creature.

For a debut literary or contemporary fiction novel...I read Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Sutanto's first book, this is a genre-straddler, but it's most neatly in contemporary.

I liked or loved all of these! The Dunnett, Shirahama, and Chambers books have sequels I have been devouring as well, and Malice impressed me so much I look forward to trying more Higashino.

On Looking is the book I'm least likely to recommend, with a caveat--I think some of the writing, as it transcribes conversations, only worked for me because I listened to the audiobook. It did work!

The memoir prompt pushed me the most out of my usual reading habits. I was also delighted to have a push back into reading manga, which I hadn't dipped into for several years. And the prompt I had the most fun looking for an eligible book was the crime novel in translation! This was a pleasant, easy challenge, but still specific enough to be inspiring.

[scooby-review]

The New Scooby Doo Movies S1 E13-16

13. The Haunted Horseman of Hagglethorn Hall

Undoubtedly this is my favourite episode of this iteration. 

The episode follows the gang having to help Davy Jones of the Monkees solve a mystery of a Scottish castle. It’s fairly simple, but it shines through its characterisation and its use of the guest star. 

I love the way Davy interacts with the gang, he’s not necessarily the focus throughout, rather, the mystery takes precedence, and wow does this feel like an actual mystery! It harkens back to Where are You in a way I personally love. Davy is found by having the gang follow a trail of his singing, and later, he sings a song that scores a chase sequence. It’s so perfect, the bubblegum pop sound allows this episode to feel like it came from season two of Where are You, and I feel like it elevates this great chase scene a lot. 

The location is another classic feeling one, it’s a castle, haunted by a ghost and a moat monster. Again, it takes the best of what both this era and Where are You had to offer and blends them, this is an episode that makes use of the special guest while feeling like an interesting mystery and having an interesting villain. 

To linger on these for a moment, the Haunted Horseman is a fun design, the archetype of a knight and horse matches the location perfectly, and of course, this also ties back into the ghostly aspect of this villain. The monster truly haunts the halls of this episode - he will appear, then fade, crafting this unpredictability and impermanence to him which adds to the creepiness of the character. 

Meanwhile, the Moat Monster also is a very fun creature for the series. Sometimes feeling like just a toad, other times truly leaning into the more anthropomorphic elements, the monster is just fun to watch bounce around, he’s a large toad, feeling reminiscent of 50s creature features to me, such a creature certainly would be alarming, especially if he got up and ran. There’s a simplicity here that reminds me of the Shark Men, sure he’s kind of just a shark, but he’s also enough man to keep the design interesting and not as bare bones as one might initially think. 

Also, I found this to be a pretty funny episode! For example, come the end of the story they simply don’t arrest the villains? Hell the gang don’t even report them, instead, they are forced to work, unpaid, at the castle to make amends. 

They break off into a fun set of trios too, and all in all, I had a great time. I won’t lie, I still felt the length of the episode, but ultimately, I was having fun for the majority of it, and this is truly the most perfect episode this iteration of the franchise has to offer, at least in my eyes. 

14. The Phantom of the Country Music Hall

To me, this is maybe one of the most forgettable episodes from this season. It’s not awful, hell, I loved the opening half of this episode! However, nothing about it leaves much of an impression on me. 

Jerry Reed is a fine guest star to me, he adds more than he takes away, but he also left very little of a mark on me. He was a country singer and an actor, and I do appreciate when they use musicians and include music within the episode; Jerry sings "Pretty Mary Sunlight" which first appeared in “Don’t Fool with a Phantom”, sung there by George Robertson Jr. It’s simply a good device to incorporate the guest deeper into the episode's membrane, rather than simply having them appear and go along with the mystery. 

Actually, one of the best aspects of this episode is that the mystery revolves around the guest star's disappearance, a close friend of the gang. It's a breath of fresh air amidst the rest of the series, I appreciate them doing something different with the formula! By doing this they also skate the line of having meaningful commentary on the music industry, which feels more incidental than anything, but I found it funny regardless. Especially in the context of the series' previous love for bubblegum pop, music churned out, sometimes without the bands being aware of such. For example, The Monkees second album released without their knowing, they found out while on tour, it was forced to release early to capitalise on the band's popularity, fearing it would soon decline. 

I have very little to discuss in the way of the villains. The pair take on the mantle of a set of mannequins - a Viking and Davy Crockett. They work alongside the setting well, although, there’s something simply lifeless feeling about the pair. Both are simply what they say they are, a Viking and Davy Crockett, an American soldier and politician whose stories had been adapted by Disney in the early 50s. He is, or at least was, hailed as a hero, a figure to be praised, although in my brief research I imagine this is contested now given his history with slavery. It’s always so weird whenever Scooby-Doo uses villains like these in their episodes, historical figures steeped in controversy and horrific actions. Their specifics on it being Davy are curious too, especially when contrasted with the viking. I appreciate how they differ, yet, having a specific character and caricature feels somewhat off. Regardless, they’re fairly dull, their designs radiate with an air of being fine, meanwhile also lacking any personality. 

As I mentioned in the opening, this episode feels so forgettable. Despite enjoying the first half, then finding the second half completely dull, I feel like there are two main reasons I forgot I even watched this one! The villain’s are boring and the guest hardly appears. The latter works well in the context of the episode, but there’s nothing left to elevate this forty minutes, the gang walk around, and that’s kind of it. 

15. The Caped Crusader Caper

Watching this episode transported me back to being a child, I used to have a small boxy TV in my bedroom, it sat atop my Chester drawers. Growing up I had an old VHS player in my room - we had a DVD player downstairs by this point - and so all my brother's old VHS tapes, and my own too, became a frequent nightly rotation. One such I would watch a lot was the Scooby-Doo Meets Batman VHS tape, containing the pair of episodes from this series. Despite watching this so often, if someone had asked me before I sat back down to watch this the plot of it, I would have struggled to tell you. Rewatching it unveils why, given that it suffers from the same problems as the episodes that have come prior, the long and dreary pacing, uninteresting mysteries that make these forty minute episodes into a drag. 

Despite this, I did enjoy the rush of nostalgia, patchy old memories flooded back to me, specifically the rotating house and the troll. Regardless of my thoughts on the rest of the episode, there is something special waiting for me within this animation, the sound, the story, it’s like candy floss, a short burst of joy that quickly fades, leaving an odd taste in your mouth, but nothing real. 

Something I came to like about this episode is the way it almost entirely parts ways with the mystery formula, it breaks away from the confines of the Scooby structure and it is able to tell a more interesting story as a result. It’s far from perfect, likely some of the weaker writing both franchises have seen, however, it’s something, it’s experimenting and I appreciate that a whole lot more than half hearted attempts at shoe horning lifeless mysteries alongside a guest star that’s the real focal point. The issue usually is that the gang are somewhat frail characters, characters I adore, but at this point in the shows run, Fred and Daphne especially find themselves feeling rough around the edges, they have their roles, their purposes, but they’re constantly overshadowed by the far more interestingly characterised rest of the gang. As such, it’s difficult for these characters to exist outside of the mysteries they’re built for, it then makes it more difficult to bounce them off a celebrity guest. 

For so long I have deemed Daphne and Fred as being bland characters, which I think is somewhat unfair. Fred is the driver and leader, meanwhile Daphne is a clutz, but also always a detective. I think it’s something that is often ignored - hell I ignored it - but even when Daphne is captured or falls into a trap, she never gives up, she constantly attempts to continue with the mystery. She’s a stark juxtaposition to Shaggy and Scooby in this sense. Yet, over time, she will become more of this one note “danger prone” character. 

Regardless, I would argue that through all the flanderization, changes in characterisation and reinvention this set of characters go through during this franchise, across every single iteration of the series, this is the most bland they feel, the least alive the characters have ever and will ever feel. There’s worse versions of them, but I would take that over this iteration where often it feels like the characters are never given enough room to do anything interesting, or sometimes, too much time to do nothing interesting. 

However, one of my favourite dynamics is when the gang is placed opposite Batman and Robin, they’re definitely some of the most interesting guests in the series. There's a reason that to this day we see crossovers with this set of characters, and it’s because they have very fun chemistry, there’s so much joy in watching them interact! 

Joker and Penguin are once again the villains of this episode, likely a cost cutting measure, however, they’re fun to see again! Although Batman does reintroduce them to the gang despite their previous meeting, of course, this is done so the episodes can air in any order without viewers being left confused as to how Shaggy and the Joker are enemies, but it returns to the series constant selective continuity which is funny. Personally, I like to read this as Batman just constantly overexplains things. 

The duo do dress up in disguises here! There’s the Dryad and Troll. Dryad’s are nature spirits in Greek Mythology, a topic that I am always excited to discuss. This depiction of the spirits is a very literal image of a forest spirit, a tree that is alive, the concept of the Dryad already is very flexible which allows for very creative ways to spin these creatures, often depicted as feminine spirits. Drawing from the swampy and bushy face of the Dryad, the creature feels evocative of other monsters we’ve seen such as the Yeti, their face shape is almost identical and they command a similar animalistic presence, although the small arms of this Dryad gives a far less menacing presence to the villain. 

The Troll meanwhile is another fairly derivative design, this is a troll, short with ginger hair and green tinted skin. Everything about this pair’s designs work perfectly, from the proportions to the way they compliment each other with a fairy tale theme. 

Also, this episode is featured in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases! 

There’s a reason I haven’t discussed much about the actual content of the episode - there’s not loads. Again, this episode is above the others to me because of nostalgia, but also because it’s at the very least trying something different, and after watching every episode prior, I am very glad about this. 

16. The Lochness Mess

I adore Uncle Nathaniel. I have so little else to discuss about this episode, it’s very similar to the previous Globetrotters episode in that there’s a lot of basketball playing that I find boring, but if there’s one thing I don’t find boring, it’s Uncle Nathaniel. Shaggy’s uncle’s design takes Shaggy’s face, and makes him grey haired. Perfect. It’s not a lazy design either, his hair is different, as is his beard and costume, it’s instead a very funny design, it’s so great to see them be able to craft such a funny character both in design and characterisation after how bland so many other side characters have felt this season. Nathaniel is the stand out of this episode, every second he spends on screen is a delight! I believed wholeheartedly that he and Shaggy were from the same family beyond simple design motifs. 

Everything else is kind of whatever. 

If Nathaniel isn’t in the scene, it’s likely not doing much for me - we get a little drop of lore here, we see young Scooby and Shaggy! Weirdly, a lot of the lore for the series stays pretty consistent for a while. For the first few series, there’s a few lines that allude to the passing of time, that these series follow on from one another, which I really enjoy. 

The sea serpent is the most interesting of the villains, she’s a riff on the Loch Ness Monster, given a very dragon like appearance although her hands are webbed which instantly turns her into a more interesting design. I also adore the deep shade of forest green paired with the lilac they use for her design, again, this works perfectly for the swampy waters that she would be in, and all in all, this creates such a great and cohesive design. 

There’s also three confederate ghosts, because of course there is! I don’t know what to say, they’ll use this archetype again in Zombie Island and it’s always very gross, don’t get me wrong I love that movie so much, but it’s just not a great type of villain. It returns back to my prior point about Davy Crocket, it just makes bad characters for a Scooby Doo episode. 

In my notes I only actually wrote about Nathaniel and also that I like watching Scooby swim. This episode leaves very little impact beyond these factors which are amazing, perfect even. It’s just a shame that everything else does nothing. 

This rounds out season one! To discuss my thoughts very briefly, I really disliked this season, and this iteration of the show as a whole. I will say that I like it better than season two, which is something I guess! There’s a few stand out episodes in here, but as a whole, I am glad to be done with this season! 

Episode Ranking:

The Haunted Horseman of Hagglethorn Hall

The Caped Crusader Caper

The Loch Ness Mess

The Phantom of the Country Hall

Villain Ranking:

Haunted Horseman

Moat Monster

Dryad

Troll

Loch Ness Monster

Possessed Viking Mannequin

Possessed Davy Crockett Mannequin

Next Review: The New Scooby Doo Movies S2 E1-4

Previous Review: The New Scooby Doo Movies S1 E9-12

[nopizzaaftermidnight]

 For our last celebratory TENPAM anniversary post, I thought I'd do some character history. As you've seen, Lily's been around the longest, and I got Savvy worked out in math class the year before I started NPAM. Besides Lily's sporadically appearing parents, the first character I came up with for the strip was actually the Grub Guy.

A greasy looking fellow who has the monopoly on all pop-up shops, typically selling Grub but also seen slinging coffee, sweets, squid, stuff, and milkshakes, among other things. Over the years, we've learned that his name is Mike, he has a twin (or perhaps any number of identical siblings all with one-syllable M names), and his mom is the manager of the local grocery store. She looks just like him but with a bit more hair. Though the Grub Guy doesn't show up in the comic too often, I still think his totally blank face and superhuman franchise abilities are hilarious. The Grub guy debuted on July 13, 2013.

Just after Mike the Grub guy, Champ arrives on the scene! Everyone in his family is named after plants (his given name is Basil). When I was designing him, I was trying to go for a breezy, casual beach style. I accidentally completely designed (the yet-unnamed) Tyler, but it wasn't the right look for Champ. I pivoted at the last moment, adding the trademark hat and worn out jeans. You can see it on the far right above. Funnily enough, year later when I went back to figure out Champ's real hair, it looks a lot like those swoopy ones I started out with on the left! Champ debuted on July 23, 2013

Another side character, Bike Shorts Guy, showed up a month later! I think he's really funny in a very bizarre and inexplicable way. His main traits are his good posture and his hobby of hunting wild pastries. He has never been seen on a bike. I don't think he's been featured recently, but he always makes me laugh. Bike Shorts Guy debuted on August 31, 2013

Tyler came next. That early Champ design stayed in my mind, and so our sensitive artist showed up on the scene. He and Savvy became unlikely friends. Imagine, he could've been named Hamlet.

Tyler debuted on September 10, 2013

In eighth and ninth grade I went to school online. Eventually, every school subject had a main representative character, a sport/hobby, and a sidekick. (That's what happens when you spend two years at home and it's just you and your gel pens and workbooks). Zo was my science girl, with a bonus human, Nelly the assistant. Their pet friend was a plain cat named Kitty. Looks familiar…

(The lines under their eyes are safety goggles. My mom thought they were mustaches.)

Though I risked following the formula of every ensemble-cast comic, NPAM got its own fluffy friend, the precocious cat Herriman! He's named for George Herriman, creator of the historically iconic Krazy Kat comic. I fooled around with markings, whiskers, and noses, but ultimately made him very plain, just like Kitty. Herriman debuted January 6, 2014

I tossed out an anti-joke right around the time I was graduating high school. It was intentionally unfunny. I figured it was just a silly one-off sort of thing. I was... very wrong. Early on, I returned to the Slug every Saturday because they were an easy way to whip out that last comic as I drew them in sets of six week to week. To this day, the Slug is definitely my most popular character. The Slug debuted May 29, 2014

I had plenty of characters, so I didn't feel moved to make another until over a year later. I developed Sera Sophia and Dart at the same time, knowing they'd be best buddies, but Sera Sophia snuck into the comic a bit earlier. I wanted her to have that sort of earthy hippy fairy look. (It's pretty common around where I grew up.) Though this was way before I decided to literally make her part fairy! Sera Sophia debuted on July 6, 2015

I posit that Dart was always around the NPAM world, living his merboy life happily unobserved by the NPAM audience. Savvy, who knows all the living creatures on land and sea, has known him for ages. But she's very discreet, and never told any of the humans about him. Dart and Sera Sophia hit it off instantly, as Sera Sophia is very accepting of unusual (magical) phenomena. Dart debuted July 27, 2015

And that's our main cast! Savvy retired in 2020, and other characters have come and gone (anyone remember Kai, the Japanese fish?). This concludes our TENPAM celebration. I'd like to thank all of YOU, readers, for your continued support and kind words. I'm glad that this silly ol' comic can brighten your days. Ever onward we go!

[recordsofelysia]

The Dullahan; surface lore and concept

Fuck it this blog is getting concept art now.

It might be a little bit until she appears again, (only a little bit) but I decided to sketch out my concept for The Dullahan (aha ignore all my lacking of fundamentals of perspective and proportions this is just about the design concepts shhh)

Design concept

When I first described her, I did say something like a ringmaster attire, which was an idea based on the iconic spine-whip, and the chaotic and sometimes nonsensical nature of the Fey lends itself to circus imagery.

In sketching her I decided to elaborate on not only the ringmaster elements, but also classic military uniform (the shoulder tassels, and military style boots), she is after all a personal “knight” to Ivanushka, and the military theming also eludes to the sort of person she might have been, or is supposed to represent.

Also, this isn’t really a thematic thing, it’s just over the top and I didn’t know how to design the mid-section, so yeah that is meant to be her exposed rib cage and lower spine underneath the waistcoat and cravat. Probably should be a hip bone in there somewhere, but I’ve not practised human anatomy that extensively.

Lore

So I’m not going to spill every bean on The Dullahan, since there are still aspects of her that are out there for the party to discover, but I wanted to cover the basic lore of ‘Dullahans’ as a force in the world, which the party has been able to touch on briefly.

So, contrary to folklore, The Dullahan is not an individual, but more of a title bestowed on individuals who are in service to the Unseelie courts of the Feywild.

These individuals are imprisoned, bound and forced to enact the wishes of their masters, being physically incapable of disobeying or harming them. How exactly one becomes a Dullahan is not knowledge known to mortals, or many Fey in fact. It is, however, purposefully inflicted upon an individual like a curse, one does not become a Dullahan by accident.

Perhaps the most notable trait of a Dullahan is that they are undying. They can be destroyed, they can be weakened, but their souls will always remain tethered, and will return to their masters and reform their bodies. (When it comes to creature type, the Dullahan is considered a Fey, but for certain purposes I would also class them as Undead, even though dual creature types aren’t necessarily a thing in 5e, which I think is dumb also but that’s a different tangent).

To their masters, a Dullahan acts as many things, chiefly messengers, bodyguards, and hitmen, which their abilities are perfectly suited for.

As for the Dullahan who is in service to Ivanushka, like I said there is plenty more to discover and be seen with her, but I think there’s one lil detail that definitely won’t come up that I want to share:

Another feature of the parallel planes, that I actually forgot to mention damn, is that often locations and individuals can end up mirroring, or bearing similarities to, those found in the material plane (insert that George Lucas quote about rhymes), and when I was planning the concept for the Dullahan, she was meant to echo/parallel the Silver Maiden, of the material plane.

Again, not a plot-relevant detail at all, and one that definitely wouldn’t be uncovered naturally, but just a neat thing to keep in mind as we go through and explore more things.

So yeah, I might post more concept art that I cook up, which I’ll probably reserve for when I have a really clear concept in my mind that I can’t quite explain as effectively, and hey maybe I’ll accidentally get good at drawing on the way.

[fmpmelissa]

Week 01: Wednesday – Production and Research 

Hello! As of today, two days have officially passed since I began working on our group project, Mutagen. My task within the group is to create a spider monster, and I am currently in the blocking phase of the process. So far, there have been no issues. I have kept everything separate in case any changes are needed and have created a separate save file as a backup. 

The blocking is still fairly rough and will likely need to be reviewed again tomorrow, which might set me back from my Gantt chart. However, with a full day ahead, I should be able to touch up the blocking and still begin the sculpting phase on schedule. 

Research

Subject 1) While exploring online, I came across an artefact on ArtStation by George Zacky (2024). His work was a blocking concept that piqued my interest due to his unique approach. In particular, he blocked out not only the shape but also the muscle structure of the model, preparing it for sculpting.

Delving deeper into this approach, I found a video by PixelicaCG (2024) that provided a tutorial on the subject. It’s generally similar to normal blocking but with the added step of defining muscle structure, which simplifies the sculpting process by reducing the need to build and cut away layers.

Reviewing my own model, I realized I could definitely apply this technique to the body and mouth, building more layers and adding more definitions. I could also potentially add more layering around the joints and include more defined bones, referencing human anatomy, such as the human lower leg bones, the fibula and the tibia.

Subject 2) While researching ArtStation for potential inspiration, I came across a piece by AAkhtarC (2024), featuring a monster model. Two aspects particularly caught my attention.

First, the gums wrapping around the teeth. This detail aligns with correct anatomy, which I had overlooked in my own model. Adding this feature would enhance the realism of my model, making the creature more believable and, consequently, more disturbing.

Second, the design included webbing and veins that adhered to the model. AAkhtarC (2024) likely used a transparent texture placed on top of a plane, wrapping around the model using Blender’s "shrinkwrap" feature. This technique could allow me to add extra details to my model, such as webbing around the legs or saliva around the gums, giving it a more feral appearance.

References

AAkhtarC (2024) Scary Plant Creature 3d model. ArtStation. Available at https://www.artstation.com/artwork/49YWx8 (Accessed: 05/06/2024). 

George Zaky (2024) Stylized Creature Anatomy Blockout V2. ArtStation. Available at https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0404D8 (Accessed: 05/06/2024). 

PixelicaCG (2024) How to Create a Male Blockout Easily in Blender. [video], YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjJ0vdlcMmE (Accessed: 05/06/2024). 

Gantt Chart

Light Red highlights marks the day

This is in place to keep me on track what has been or needs to be done this day of the week.

[pitruli]

Minecraft headcanon worldbuilding with player species !

A bit ago already, I wanted to have consistency in my headcanon designs of mcyt, so i started making categories of players depending on how their skins look to headcanon them as part of the same “species”

Since then i quite developed the thing and have… quite a bunch of species haha

Either a player is assigned to a species because of how the character looks, or for some lore reasons (canon, fanon, or for my au DatD)

And I finally sketched and detailed every species, so here I go !

(also assigned every (or most, might have missed some) members of hermitcraft and dsmp so they’ll serve as exemple o7

edit: Now with Empires peeps !

---

player ability: what differs a player from a mob. Consists in being able to manipulate material around them, like a kind of telekinesis power (grab chunks of material and move them easily). Also included protective black out, allowing them to escape and regenerate from what would be a mortal hit to a mob, granting them a conditional immortality.

(a * means that the drawing doesn't represent the whole species, which have many variantes possible)

Humanoids:

Angels:

Quite a special species; mythical winged players, linked to a certain deity or legend. The only species possessing wings and the ability to fly, can look like any type of bird, bat or flying bug.

Known players: Pearl (moth), Phil (crow), Scott (owl)

Elves:

Humanoid players with horns and tail, one, if not the most, common species of player

(artist note: Elves weren’t supposed to have horns. But i just drew one of them like this without thinking, and a friend encouraged me to keep every elf like this. Cause yeah actually, i don’t have to follow common standards :D)

Known players: Cub, False, Impulse, Scar, Wels, Sapnap, Punz, Purpled, Nikky, Connor, Joel, Joey, Katherine

Imps:

Usually nocturnal species, with features akin to cats and owls (mostly the eyes, with good night vision). Their behavior can get pretty wild at night, making some of them avoid the darkness or the moon by sleeping more than most players.

Known players: Bdubs, Keralis, George

Gremlins:

Usually smaller than most humanoids, with visually missing facial features. Their mouth is invisible most of the time, appearing and revealing their fangs and split toung only when laughing or singing, which makes them one of the scariest species.

known players: Grian, Wilbur, Quackity, Shubble

Deads*:

Glitchy players who survived a perma kill, although with consequences. This species includes every player based on or looking like skeletons, zombies and other undead creatures.

Edit: In their past life, all Deads were humans, as surviving a perma death is their particularity

Known players: Cleo (drowned), Jack (husk/burn victim)

“Humans”:

The closest species to us, though the name is misleading. You should be scared of them, player ability is a pretty big business if applied in real life

this species does not exist because i didn’t have idea yet for theses players, no no no,,,,

Edit: Humans' particularity is, in fact, their ability to survive perma kill, turning into Dead players

known players: Etho, Hypno, Iskall, Joe, Tfc, Xb, Zedaph, Ponk, Karl, Fwhip, Sausage, Pixl

Mob derived:

The notion of species is a bit more blurry for this one, it is more of a porte-manteau term which includes several variations. There’s two more common types of mob-derived players:

Hybrids*:

Humanoid players with mobs/animals features, though the features of humans and animals are quite well mixed together making them look like a creature of their own.

known players: Gemini (reindeer), Beef (bull), Tommy (chicken), Tubbo (bee), Puffy (sheep), Hbomb (cat), Jimmy (cod)

Anthros*:

Players looking way more like their mobs counterparts than humanoid players. Usually smaller, still keeping physical abilities an animal can possess (strengh, agility, etc)

known players: Ren (dog-wolf), Fundy (fox), Techno (hoglin), Ant (cat), Lyzzie (axolotl)

Both of these “species” can be derived from any animals, existing in minecraft or not. This also includes striders and piglins. If one player is based on a flying animal, their wings would be too small or too weak to lift them. Only angels are able to fly on their own.

Others, more precises, species of mob derived player exist;

Enderians:

Slightly smaller variant of endermen and closer to humanoids in proportion. The horns and eyes can be of any shade of purple. For some enderians, the player ability can make them possess off colored horns and/or eyes, although rare

Known players: Ranboo (gold horns)

Creepers:

This species is a special case on its own, as these players are litteral creeper mobs born with player ability, with minimal physical change (bigger than wild creepers). Although their form can be a disadvantage for some aspects of the game, this often makes them the most ingenious players.

known players: Doc, Sam

Slimes*:

Type of invertebrate player, looking more or less like humanoid players, depending on their will to ressemble another player or not. Can technically be of any color.

known players: Jevin (wild blue), Charlie (humanoid green)

Llagers:

Species of players derived from villagers, pillagers and other mobs of the same family. One of the strongest species, but often underestimated. As natural villager mobs possess some aspect of player abilities, being a full player emlified their strenght.

(following personal headcanons of villagers, these mobs and players are almost looking like land shark people, we can thank Foolish for this)

Known players: Foolish (dwarf/totem based)

Cryptids:

Group of species with more unusual features compared to the rest

Spectres*:

Humanoid players with some pretty wild anormal features, transforming their body while still somewhat looking like a human to some degree (mostly affecting the eyes, more or less keeping a classic form) can be seen as external corruption or glitches

known players: Stress (demon/fairy), Tango (nether spectre), BBH (full demon), Eret (white eyes), Hannah (half thorns/plant based)

Blobs*:

Glitchy players looking like nothing else, neither like mobs nor like other players. They have peculiar body shape, quite simple but disproportionate, either with uniform colors or abstacts/graphic patterns

Known players: Dream, EX (clonning accident)

Inorganics*:

Special players who have been constructed, mechanical objects, plants or rocks containing the essence of a player.

Known players: Mumbo (robot), Skeppy (gemstone)

Shapeshifters:

Players unstable enough to change shape as they wish. Need to be contained from time to time to rest and keep their form.

Known players: Xisuma (animals only)

___

If you read everything, thank you so much ^^ I'll glady answer any ask about the species or if you want to know which player (or yourself) belongs to which species !

[kiki-kit]

I want to know about your OCs. They seem cool. (I know what it’s like to have OCs and want people to ask about them)(Sadly I don’t get a lot of asks about them :( )

Sooo… what are each of their familiars? Are they basically real creatures but with wings? Or are they original designs?

If they are based after real animals, what are each of them based after?

Do they all have wings?

Why does your one guy have purple eyes? Is it because of his powers? He’s the one you said has the ummm… I can’t remember the name… the purple shadowy power?

I think that’s George?

Anyway I love your OCs

thanks!

so essentially, the one word id use to describe a creature would be "amalgamate". my general rule of thumb when designing them is really that they aren't supposed to look like any one specific animal, but that they have various attributes of a variety of different animals and fantasy-esque elements.

Percy, Violet and Cherry, specifically, look the way they do because theyre some of the first creature designs i made and i havent strayed too far from what they originally looked like.

other than them for the most part i try to make each one look varied, though sometimes i do design with a specific trait or idea in mind, like tony's familiar chestnut. i wanted her to have "platypus features" because tony was originally a pnf fan kid but i couldnt make her look like just a platypus. and then i remembered those weird lunchable commercials? the ones that had a jackalope and a platypus in them and so i ended up with a jackapus lmao

yeah, they all have wings! no real specific reason why i just like wings and the idea of flying!

George has purple eyes because he's a pure umbra wielder! each of the wielders have a specific eye color associated with their magic (in total theres 10 different colors, and ive already shown off 6 of them!) but ill get to explaining/showing that more when i get to my comic! at some point!

[letterboxd]

In Focus: The Mummy

Dominic Corry responds on behalf of Letterboxd to an impassioned plea to bump up the average rating of the 1999 version of The Mummy—and asks: where is the next great action adventure coming from?

We recently received the following email regarding the Stephen Sommers blockbuster The Mummy:

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to you on behalf of the nation, if not the entire globe, who frankly deserve better than this after months of suffering with the Covid pandemic.

I was recently made aware that the rating of The Mummy on your platform only stands at 3.3 stars out of five. … This, as I’m sure you’re aware, is simply unacceptable. The Mummy is, as a statement of fact, the greatest film ever made. It is simply fallacious that anyone should claim otherwise, or that the rating should fail to reflect this. This oversight cannot be allowed to stand.

I have my suspicions that this rating has been falsely allocated due to people with personal axes to grind against The Mummy, most likely other directors who are simply jealous that their own artistic oeuvres will never attain the zenith of perfection, nor indeed come close to approaching the quality or the cultural influence of The Mummy. There is, quite frankly, no other explanation. The Mummy is, objectively speaking, a five-star film (… I would argue that it in fact transcends the rating sytem used by us mere mortals). It would only be proper, as a matter of urgency, to remove all fake ratings (i.e. any ratings [below] five stars) and allow The Mummy’s rating to stand, as it should, at five stars, or perhaps to replace the rating altogether with a simple banner which reads “the greatest film of all time, objectively speaking”. I look forward to this grievous error being remedied.

Best, Anwen

Which of course: no, we would never do that. But the vigor Anwen expresses in her letter impressed us (we checked: she’s real, though is mostly a Letterboxd lurker due to a busy day-job in television production, “so finding time to watch anything that isn’t The Mummy is, frankly, impossible… not that there’s ever any need to watch anything else, of course.”).

So Letterboxd put me, Stephen Sommers fan, on the job of paying homage to the last great old-school action-adventure blockbuster, a film that straddles the end of one cinematic era and the beginning of the next one. And also to ask: where’s the next great action adventure coming from?

Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah in ‘The Mummy’ (1999).

When you delve into the Letterboxd reviews of The Mummy, it quickly becomes clear how widely beloved the film is, 3.3 average notwithstanding. Of more concern to the less youthful among us is how quaintly it is perceived, as if it harkens back to the dawn of cinema or something. “God, I miss good old-fashioned adventure movies,” bemoans Holly-Beth. “I have so many fond memories of watching this on TV with my family countless times growing up,” recalls Jess. “A childhood classic,” notes Simon.

As alarming as it is to see such wistful nostalgia for what was a cutting-edge, special-effects-laden contemporary popcorn hit, it has been twenty-one years since the film was released, so anyone currently in their early 30s would’ve encountered the film at just the right age for it to imprint deeply in their hearts. This has helped make it a Raiders of the Lost Ark for a specific Letterboxd demographic.

Sommers took plenty of inspiration from the Indiana Jones series for his take on The Mummy (the original 1932 film, also with a 3.3 average, is famously sedate), but for ten-year-olds in 1999, it may have been their only exposure to such pulpy derring-do. And when you consider that popcorn cinema would soon be taken over by interconnected on-screen universes populated by spandex-clad superheroes, the idea that The Mummy is an old-fashioned movie is easier to comprehend.

However, for all its throwbackiness, beholding The Mummy from the perspective of 2020 reveals it to have more to say about the future of cinema than the past. 1999 was a big year for movies, often considered one of the all-time best, but the legacy of The Mummy ties it most directly to two of that year’s other biggest hits: Star Wars: Episode One—The Phantom Menace and The Matrix. These three blockbusters represented a turning point for the biggest technological advancement to hit the cinematic art-form since the introduction of sound: computer-generated imagery, aka CGI. The technique had been widely used from 1989’s The Abyss onwards, and took significant leaps forward with movies such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Starship Troopers (1997), but the three 1999 films mentioned above signified a move into the era when blockbusters began to be defined by their CGI.

A year before The Mummy, Sommers had creatively utilised CGI in his criminally underrated sci-fi action thriller Deep Rising (another film that deserves a higher average Letterboxd rating, just sayin’), and he took this approach to the next level with The Mummy. While some of the CGI in The Mummy doesn’t hold up as well as the technopunk visuals presented in The Matrix, The Mummy showed how effective the technique could be in an historical setting—the expansiveness of ancient Egypt depicted in the movie is magnificent, and the iconic rendering of Imhotep’s face in the sand storm proved to be an enduringly creepy image. Not to mention those scuttling scarab beetles.

George Lucas wanted to test the boundaries of the technique with his insanely anticipated new Star Wars film after dipping his toe in the digital water with the special editions of the original trilogy. Beyond set expansions and environments, a bunch of big creatures and cool spaceships, his biggest gambit was Jar Jar Binks, a major character rendered entirely through CGI. And we all know how that turned out.

A CGI-enhanced Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep.

Sommers arguably presented a much more effective CGI character in the slowly regenerating resurrected Imhotep. Jar Jar’s design was “bigger” than the actor playing him on set, Ahmed Best. Which is to say, Jar Jar took up more space on screen than Best. But with the zombie-ish Imhotep, Sommers (ably assisted by Industrial Light & Magic, who also worked on the Star Wars films) used CGI to create negative space, an effect impossible to achieve with practical make-up—large parts of the character were missing. It was an indelible visual concept that has been recreated many times since, but Sommers pioneered its usage here, and it contributed greatly to the popcorn horror threat posed by the character.

Sommers, generally an unfairly overlooked master of fun popcorn spectacle (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is good, guys), deserves more credit for how he creatively utilized CGI to elevate the storytelling in The Mummy. But CGI isn’t the main reason the film works—it’s a spry, light-on-its-feet adventure that presents an iconic horror property in an entertaining and adventurous new light. And it happens to feature a ridiculously attractive cast all captured just as their pulchritudinous powers were peaking.

Meme-worthy: “My sexual orientation is the cast of ‘The Mummy’ (1999).”

A rising star at the time, Brendan Fraser was mostly known for comedic performances, and although he’d proven himself very capable with his shirt off in George of the Jungle (1997), he wasn’t necessarily at the top of anyone’s list for action-hero roles. But he is superlatively charming as dashing American adventurer Rick O’Connell. His fizzy chemistry with Weisz, playing the brilliant-but-clumsy Egyptologist Evie Carnahan, makes the film a legitimate romantic caper. The role proved to be a breakout for Weisz, then perhaps best known for playing opposite Keanu Reeves in the trouble-plagued action flop Chain Reaction, or for her supporting role in the Liv Tyler vehicle Stealing Beauty.

“90s Brendan Fraser is what Chris Pratt wishes he was,” argues Holly-Beth. “Please come back to us, Brendaddy. We need you.” begs Joshhh. “I’d like to thank Rachel Weisz for playing an integral role in my sexual awakening,” offers Sree.

Then there’s Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bey, a member of the Medjai, a sect dedicated to preventing Imhotep’s tomb from being discovered, and Patricia Velásquez as Anck-su-namun, Imhotep’s cursed lover. Both stupidly good-looking. Heck, Imhotep himself (South African Arnold Vosloo, coming across as Billy Zane’s more rugged brother), is one of the hottest horror villains in the history of cinema.

“Remember when studio movies were sexy?” laments Colin McLaughlin. We do Colin, we do.

Sommers directed a somewhat bloated sequel, The Mummy Returns, in 2001, which featured the cinematic debut of one Dwayne Johnson. His character got a spin-off movie the following year (The Scorpion King), which generated a bunch of DTV sequels of its own, and is now the subject of a Johnson-produced reboot. Brendan Fraser came back for a third film in 2008, the Rob Cohen-directed The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Weisz declined to participate, and was replaced by Maria Bello.

Despite all the follow-ups, and the enduring love for the first Sommers film, there has been a sadly significant dearth of movies along these lines in the two decades since it was released. The less said about 2017 reboot The Mummy (which was supposed to kick-off a new Universal Monster shared cinematic universe, and took a contemporary, action-heavy approach to the property), the better.

The Rock in ‘The Mummy Returns’ (2001).

For a long time, adventure films were Hollywood’s bread and butter, but they’re surprisingly thin on the ground these days. So it makes a certain amount of sense that nostalgia for the 1999 The Mummy continues to grow. You could argue that many of the superhero films that dominate multiplexes count as adventure movies, but nobody really sees them that way—they are their own genre.

There are, however, a couple of films on the horizon that could help bring back old-school cinematic adventure. One is the long-planned—and finally actually shot—adaptation of the Uncharted video-game franchise, starring Tom Holland. The games borrow a lot from the Indiana Jones films, and it’ll be interesting to see how much that manifests in the adaptation.

Then there’s Letterboxd favorite David Lowery’s forever-upcoming medieval adventure drama The Green Knight, starring Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander (who herself recently rebooted another video-game icon, Lara Croft). Plus they are still threatening to make another Indiana Jones movie, even if it no longer looks like Steven Spielberg will direct it.

While these are all exciting projects—and notwithstanding the current crisis in the multiplexes—it can’t help but feel like we may never again get a movie quite like The Mummy, with its unlikely combination of eye-popping CGI, old-fashioned adventure tropes and a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble of overflowing hotness. Long may love for it reign on Letterboxd—let’s see if we can’t get that average rating up, the old fashioned way. For Anwen.

Related content

How I Letterboxd with The Mummy fan Eve (“The first film I went out and bought memorabilia for… it was a Mummy action figure that included canopic jars”)

The Mummy (Universal) Collection

Every film featuring the Mummy (not mummies in general)

Follow Dom on Letterboxd

[dreamsmp-au-ideas]

Guess it’s good brother dream brain rot time now that we’ve pretty much canonized phoenix Tommy in it. I must now do my proper due diligence. Adding in my two cents and furthering the spread of my brand, phoenix Tommy.

When Tommy is a little tiny thing Phil does everything in his power to try and keep it quiet that Tommy isn’t a regular avian hybrid, but a phoenix. Things like phoenixes, dragons, or other mythical avians are extremely rare mutations that happen seemingly without any reason but will often reoccur within the same bloodline more often than not. 

Phil is something mythical. Maybe a dragon, maybe a griffin, maybe even something a little less well known like the zhenniao, yatagarasu, or alicanto. Either way he’s something mythical, it runs in his blood. It ends up running in Tommy’s too. Phil is one of the few mythological avians who doesn’t hide his features because people are usually far too fearful of both him an Technoblade to do anything. Unfortunately, what people weren’t scared of was the idea of trying to kidnap a child.

There were attempts to steal away Wilbur when he was little. Before he started presenting and turned out to be just your regular avian. There were fewer attempts when it came to Tommy. There was unfortunately one attempt that ended up being successful, he was stolen from the cradle and subsequently lost in a skirmish when Techno and Phil caught up to the man who took Tommy. 

Dream found baby Tommy floating along in the river, figured the kid was probably abandoned since he’d heard of orphaned children being floated down rivers and never seen again, and subsequently took Tommy in. 

Everything was fine and okay for a couple years and Tommy was quickly accepted into the family. Unfortunately when Tommy turned five his traits started to come in and he nearly burned down the house. The family didn’t want to abandon Tommy but realizing he was a mythical avian was a problem to say the least. So Dream, having recently become an active admin, gathered up his things and left with Tommy. He didn’t blame his family for their worries but he wasn’t going to abandon his little brother either. Not when he’d found Tommy. Not when he’d been the one to practically raise Tommy. 

Dream and Tommy were very distrustful of strangers still for obvious reasons and Tommy was pretty much stuck wearing the mask in order to protect himself, but Dream did what he could. Dream didn’t originally wear a mask actually, he decided they should match as a way to make Tommy feel bad for always having to wear the mask when he didn’t want to. He found private places that were safe where Tommy could practice flying and stretch his wings since Dream was super concerned early on about them atrophying and never being able to properly carry Tommy. Sure, it was too dangerous for Tommy to actively go flying often, but Dream didn’t want to accidentally ruin Tommy’s chances of ever being able to fly. The most important facet of their relationship is that he wanted to protect Tommy but never cage him.

When Dream first took control of the Dream SMP it was originally so he could make it a safe space for himself and Tommy, only allowing his few friends who knew about Tommy and what he was to join, like Sapnap and George who have a super good relationship with both Dream and Tommy in this au. Dream is still super jumpy and protective of Tommy and Tommy trusts people a lot less, but Tommy also acts as something of an ambassador in Dream’s interpersonal relationships, keeping Dream from becoming too jumpy and letting them decay. Similarly Dream taught Tommy to be a lot more cautious of strangers and this Tommy is a heck of a lot stronger having grown up with a pvp legend like Dream. 

When other people started joining it was still a controlled enough environment that while cautious, Dream let Tommy “play” for lack of a better word. Three canon lives is a rule everywhere that everyone has to abide by, regardless of what admin you’re living under. The admin doesn’t get to decide what’s canon either, it’s something seemingly up to chance. Or maybe the gods. No one knows what makes being pushed off a cliff by your mortal enemy so different from falling off one by your own stupidity, but some people theorize it’s the intention of the action.

Obviously this isn’t a rule that applies to Tommy. They both know it, him and Dream. And here’s the thing. Some legends say that there are no draw backs to a phoenix dying. Others say that too many deaths too quickly will slowly harm the phoenix. Both of these are false. A phoenix needs deaths. Canon deaths. The same way that kids needs to be tossed in the air and spun around to help develop their brains as really little kids, a phoenix needs to die repeatedly for their brains and bodies to properly mature fully and in a healthy manner. It’s an actual necessity for them to die, in fact, too few canon deaths run the risk of a phoenix getting sick and dying permanently. 

So when new people join the Dream SMP, Dream doesn’t hesitate letting Tommy side against him. It’s an unspoken rule between them. Good brother Dream goes pretty similar to canon up until Pogtopia actually. Dream doesn’t hesitate to take those two canon lives and Tommy intentionally misses during their duel. He ends up with way more canon deaths than just two, and he keeps secret what they are from the rest of the SMP, saying the two times Dream killed him were the canon two. Each time he dies his magic gets a little stronger, his feathers taking on an even glossier coat. He still gets pissed at Eret after the betrayal because everyone else doesn’t have unlimited canon lives, but Dream shushes and reassures him that if anyone does die permanently then he’ll help Tommy bring them back.

Phoenixes are creatures tied to the frayed and broken bridge that crosses life and death. Just like they can’t die and have dominance over flames, another power of the phoenixes is that they’re uniquely skilled when it comes to necromancy. Real necromancy. Not the human equivalent that brings back soulless husks with a tendency for destruction and malevolence. A phoenix is the only creature that can bring a soul back from the dead in tact. Tommy knows this by merit of instinct, and did it only once before for the sake of Dream. Regular people know this by merit of books like the one Schlatt tries to trade Dream.

So Dream and Tommy mostly put on an act while the war is happening but then act all buddy buddy and like actual brothers off the battle fields which confuses everyone (besides the already aware George and Sapnap) and mildly upsets Wilbur, but everyone just kinda gets used to it.

Until Pogtopia. Because we need some kind of conflict I’m giving Schlatt a very special role. Schlatt was a hybrid who got captured by poachers as a child and sold into the hybrid slave trade. He was one of the lucky few who turned the tables and managed to earn his freedom, ultimately turning towards being a poacher himself. Schlatt comes to L'manberg and becomes president with the intention of selling every hybrid in the country, in the Dream SMP as a whole, to his traders. The reason he chose the Dream SMP specifically? Well, wouldn’t you know it, he’s heard rumors that apparently there’s a phoenix hiding around somewhere. Not to mention the Dream SMP is absolutely loaded with hybrids because of Dream’s rather public policy about hybrid tolerance (he isn’t a hybrid, but he knows the affect being a hybrid has had on Sapnap and he still fears for Tommy so he tries to make somewhere that maybe one day Tommy can be open about what he is.)

Schlatt can’t immediately tell it’s Tommy who’s the phoenix because Tommy himself is an even rarer variation of phoenix called a soul flame phoenix, which is why his eyes and wings are a soul fire blue. Schlatt came in expecting crimson and our boy is out here with wings that look like the place where the sky meets the sea. Schlatt even dismisses Tommy initially and starts investigating some of the people who look human or avians with orange and yellow feathers. This is also why Phil can’t immediately recognize Tommy when he joins the SMP. While he can hide them with magic, Tommy usually has his wings on display since the Dream SMP is designed to be a safe space for hybrids. This Dream doesn’t have a ban on flying (he thought about it, maybe setting aside specific areas where winged hybrids could exercise, but it was quickly scrapped via Tommy repeatedly throwing himself off cliffs and then remembering he wasn’t supposed to be flying, immediately letting himself drop and die. Some of those ‘accidents’ were even canon and Dream just gave up on the rule.)

For this AU, I imagine that Dream would be a bit more in tune with people and empathetic so he’d probably call in Techno and Phil for help when he sees Wilbur starting to take a dive. Both out of worry for his own younger brother who’s sticking by Wilbur and consideration for the fact Wilbur himself took something of an older brother role. Sure he was a little jealous, but he understand well enough that everyone who meets Tommy either falls into one of two categories. They hate the kid and want him dead or they want to be his older sibling who’d burn down the world if he asked them to. George and Sapnap can both attest to the fact there are only two types of people in this world when it comes to Tommy and people usually start as the first before slowly becoming the second. 

So Techno and Phil show up early which is really good because Schlatt finally reveals his true intentions and neither Techno nor Phil are very chill with them. I dunno how the reveal will go between them and Tommy yet. I don’t even know for Good Brother Dream if we’re having Techno be a family friend or older brother so hard to say.

Anyway, I think that’d probably be where the main plot kinda starts to kick off so I’ll stop there for now. If I go for too much longer I’ll just end up wanting to write it…

[markgatissbirthdayproject]

Happy Saturday! Sorry there was no post yesterday, but it was my birthday and I wasn’t home for most of the day. Sadly there were no photos like this- 

But there was this- from Ian’s instagram on the 5 year anniversary of the above pictures :)

The auction will run until FRIDAY! Get your bids in!

1-5: 5 Mystrade/pre-Mystrade fics at 1000-2000 words each.  No angst, nothing explicit, no crossovers (since I may not know the other fandom) and no convoluted plotting from @eventhorizon451​

Just an FYI that if there is already a bid for £20 for example, the next bid must be over that amount in order to be in contention!

Item 1 HIGH BID £20  (on this item there have been two bids, the next one needs to be over £20 for it to be valid)

Item 2 HIGH BID £20

Item 3 HIGH BID £20

Item 4 HIGH BID £20

Item 5 HIGH BID £20

6. Ebony and @romany-walker will be donating a piece of fanfic. HIGH BID £25

7. Ebony and @romany-walker will be donating a Madness of George III program. HIGH BID £10

8-9. No MCD, no graphic violence, no incest, no non con or underage sex, no omegaverse. Willing to write an explicit fic if that’s desired. Best at writing hurt/comfort, sick fics, domestic fluff, light domestic angst. Willing to discuss AUs from @lavenderandvanilla​

Item 8 HIGH BID £20

Item 9 HIGH BID £20

10-11 two versions of the 2022 Mystrade 4X6 inch calendar magnet (pics attached) from @eys93​

Item 10 HIGH BID £12

Item 11 HIGH BID £20

12-13. Mystrade grab bags. Each will have an assortment of at least 10 items including note cards, magnets and stickers all featuring Mystrade, MG or RG! From @eys93​

Item 12 HIGH BID £20

Item 13 HIGH BID £15

14. I’ll donate a 1000 word Mystrade fanfiction for the auction! from @lilynevin​ on Tumblr, brooklyn09 on AO3 HIGH BID £20

15. I would love to offer up a commission for offer of a graphic design work. - art based off of pre-existing images, no actual drawing. from @annecumberbatch​ HIGH BID £20

16. Sherlock keychain from @antheas-blackberry​

17. 2-3000 word fic from @copgirl1964​ (I’ll donate a story of about 2500 words length. What I don’t write is graphic violence or torture. I’m not really good with the characters of Irena Adler and Jim Moriarty. I usually write Mystrade but I can leave out the relationship if someone wants a different story. When it comes to cross-overs, the person interested should get in touch first.) HIGH BID £20

18-23 Item lots from @nixxie-pic​

18: Sherlocked Convention tea towel from 2015. “Mrs Hudson leave Baker Street, England would fall”

19: BBC Sherlock 2016 un-used calendar.

20: 2 x magazine, radio times Christmas 2015 with Sherlock on the front & ‘Crime Scene’ magazine issue 1 2015 W/ Sherlock on the front & blarb inside’.

21: DVD & collectors magazine of Benedict in ‘Van Gogh - painted with words’

22: 2 x colouring books. 1 x BBC Sherlock & 1 x Harry Potter Creatures - both with a couple of pictures in each coloured in.

23: Doctor Strange Wallet, 007 Spectre Ballpoint pen & Harry Potter card wallet.

24. 5 stickers all featuring Mark. Variety of artists/creators from @lavenderandvanilla​

25. A set of 5 notecards (4x6) by Camillo 1978 from Redbubble featuring BBC Sherlock characters Sherlock Holmes,Mycroft Holmes, Greg Lestrade, and Jim Moriarty. from @lavenderandvanilla HIGH BID £10