#finally drawing something not object show related for a change
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Please tell me some of y’all have watched SML at some point in your childhood
#first time posting art on this blog in ages-#finally drawing something not object show related for a change#SML was definately not for kids but it raised me anyway#truly the most youtube channel of all time#but it was LIT BACK IN MY DAY#Having a blast of nostalgia rewatching all their old videos#sml#super mario logan#supermariologan#digital art#fanart#sml fanart#sml junior#sml cody#sml joseph#my art
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Screaming. Running. Roling on the ground i'm absolutely all in for that shapes and pines AU my god. Can't stop thinking bout it and i have lil questins. Can Tad control and change his form however he likes like Bill? I mean change color depending on emotion, be bigger that life or give himself milion teeth?
What abilities does he have in general? Are they the same as Bills or is there something unique to him?
Also what is his exact relation to Bill because i did see that he took care of him in some capacity but also he was a tenager? So are they maybe like cousins or not related at all?
Btw i now love the way Tad's eye looks like now. I know it's the same as the original desing but because of the lil sketches with Billy his pupil will forever remind me of being streched into the side raaahhhhhhhdjsksbsbsja.
You can take these as payment if you'd like. At least i can finally get some use from those object shows drawing skills.
Bill and Tad are also NOT related! They had a family like bond, Tad was his babysitter for a loooong time! They have a complicated relationship now. Also yes, if Tad ignored his past injuries, he could, maybe, turn really big and I might draw that form….teehee
By the way, the art you made us so fucking amazing and I love that keychain idea sm
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((@leticiachaos on twitter))
Time for Q!Tallulah headcannons!!
Fair warning: this post has mentions of depression, abandonment issues, trust issues, poor living conditions; all of the mentions of Wilbur are ONLY mentions to his character not the real person.
• Due to her abandonment and trust issues, Tallulah created a tough and cold exterior not opening herself to anything new, but, if you manage to break the shell, she's sweet, caring, loyal, nice, creative, the loveliest egg possible
• She likes Richas, but has jealousy, after all he came AFTER her and still has most of the island around him and ADOPTING HIM??? While SHE had to ground herself to an empty promise of a returning loving father and feeling alone most of the time "without" a "real" family to comfort her.
• Due to her time in the attic Tallulah developed anemia due to not having for a long time the necessary nutrients and surviving off of dirt.
• She hates the smell of moss, dirt and related things despite loving botany due to her time in the attic
Black: depression, extreme anger, sorrow or loneliness, it's her way of expressing she's REALLY not feeling okay
• When she finally accepted Wilbur would never come back or be the father she wished and dreamt of, she cut her hair that was long since "hair holds memories", painted her hair black since Missa is Philza's partner and is more of a father to her than Wilbur could ever be and she was tired of holding herself to a small memory instead of accepting change and happiness
• Can't really vent not because her family wouldn't listen, but because of her trust issues and before having to be the "cute innocent girl who's there for everyone" she didn't have the space to vent and put her emotions first
• She was tired of her original red beanie matching Wilbur, it was too dirty and old, deciding to pick a purple one who matched her and a few mushroom hats to express her emotions
• Each color of mushroom represent an emotion (in canon I think she only had black and purple, but I expanded it considering there's a lot more patterns and colors of mushrooms, especially in a sort of magic island)
purple: neutral, calm, it's the regular she wears all the time
Pink: love, happiness, she's feeling creative or excited over something, possibly wanting or doing stims
Blue: shows more of "little" sadness, not strong enough to be depression or despair, but just enough to show it, also can mean fear.
Red: anger, hate.
• Due to her autism, she carries a pair of headphones ALL the time as well as stim toys, comfort objects or plushies, a sketchbook she writes and draws what she's feeling to better communicate it.
• She can play maracas, flute, piano, guitar (acoustic), kalimba.
• Big fan of musicals and history, in late nights she likes to listen to Philza's stories of the old times and Chay loves his battle stories, so they share this cozy moment
• In the beginning she could only see ghosts, but with time she could see the deities. She can see and feel their emotions but can't talk with them much, she mainly can see Mumza and Rose, Rose in the sanctuary where her power is centered and stronger, Mumza all around her dad (Phil >:) ) and every time she's with the crows.
• Knows flower language to write better letters to everyone, adding a deeper meaning, sometimes saying secret stuff through the flowers and as an extra giving pretty flowers
• Tallulah sometimes paints her nails with Phil and Chayanne, every week with a different design
• When Missa is home back from his journeys, Tallulah sees how exhausted her dad is, so she speaks in spanish (their native languages) and makes him some food or brings fruit
• Before she officially forgot Wilbur whenever she would come with other residents and her siblings, Tallulah sometimes felt weak, abandoned, left behind, after all, ALL the others had their parents, had close connections, she hated it but couldn't help but feel jealous, in these situations Phil and Chayanne always reassured her the best they could that they would never leave her and that she wouldn't go back to the attic.
• Makes bracelets for her close family, always wearing one with PxTxC on her left hand (Philza, Chayanne and Tallulah), in the right one she has a TxCxR (Tallulah, Richas, Chayanne) or it could be TxCxP (Tallulah, Chayanne, Pomme) after all she doesn't hate Richas, she hates that he's immature and acts "entitled" and dramatic over his issues, but still tries her best to be a good sister to him, also loves pomme a lot!! Considering Pomme her bestie
Reminder: Tallulah is just a child in rp, children don't know how to control their emotions and in situations of abandonment, neglect and lack of a trusting bond with a caretaker, children can struggle even more with emotions, care, jealousy, trust, self-esteem etc, so don't call Tallulah "selfish" or "spoiled" she has every right to be that way after what she's been through
• Due to her depression,sometimes Tallulah can't take care of herself, spending days or weeks in bed or just not feeling like going out, or when she does she doesn't show much interest, in these cases Phil and Chayanne always cooked some nice food and drinks, went to the nests, and chatted and comforted her
• She became a great fighter after the events of pre-purgatory and purgatory, she NEEDED a tough exterior since she was without Chayanne, and that time worsened her depression severely
#qsmp headcanons#qsmp tallulah#qsmp chayanne#qsmp philza#silly#headcannons#tallulah the egg#death family#Spotify
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NARRATIVE STORYTELLING + COMPOSITION
First thing I always think of before doing ANY drawing is: what’s the story I want to tell? What’s the mood/emotion it should give off?
For The Visionary, I wanted to capture that feeling of seeing your hard work and creations finally come to life. It’s that satisfaction as artists, engineers, and creators we feel after seeing our hard work finally bear the fruits of our labor. It’s an exhilarating feeling and we feel a sense of pride.
I can pick out some key words from those descriptions: pride, excitement, satisfaction. Now, how do I depict that in the illustration + what compositional tools can reinforce that feeling and therefore story?
I also knew I wanted to draw my character, Kala. To reinforce the feeling, I wanted to think of his action and, in general, what he would be thinking in the illustration. I did a few thumbnails like below and figured to have him writing in his book and depicting boats in the background, almost like he’s drawing them at the moment and they’re appearing in the background.
Action: writing in his journal, almost as if making the background come to life -> gives a sense of pride and excitement.
This forms the basis of my composition. Everything from here on out (every decision in the illustration) relates back to this.
When thinking of your own illustrations and what you want your characters to do, try this simple template (do this for each of your characters in the scene):
<character> <action> -> gives <mood/emotion> e.g. The rogue flees from the castle guards -> gives a sense of urgency. A witch backs away from her cauldron -> gives a sense of fear.
Kala’s placement is important as well. I purposely made him stand on one of the fourths of the canvas at the far left to make him feel almost like one of the boats (one of his creations). You know those scenes in pirate movies (or even just Navia Genshin Impact) where the character stands next to all their soldiers or a series of cannons? Yeah, I wanted to do something similar here.
After thumbnailing, I’ll start refining the drawing and getting the structure right before doing anything else. Often, I’ll take reference photos like this and put them together in Photoshop. This helps not only get more accurate drawings but you can even put yourself in the shoes of your character. Imagine how they’re feeling in your illustration and act it out. Your pose—and therefore, your character’s pose—might change depending on how you do it which can help with your drawing.
The boats get lighter in value as they recede to the background. I fix this later on in the composition, but since Kala is the focus, I had to make sure that he had the greatest amount of contrast. So I put a hint of light near his face so that his silhouette would pop well against the darker boat behind him. I later enforce this contrast through differences in color saturation which I will show soon.
I felt the boats weren’t grand enough + the mast shapes were too busy, and therefore didn’t support the story as strongly as I wanted to. And to further add contrast + give Kala more focus, I made the boats a bit larger, drawing them more from a low angle to further emphasize their grandiosity and the pride Kala feels in his work. It’s great when something works both compositionally well and enforces the story:
General lines of action of objects for flow. The boats specifically are all angled differently, converging towards Kala, to draw the eye towards him more + not feel static. It creates a sweeping motion to draw the eye towards him, along with the placement of papers and the shape of his coat further adding to the flow.
In general, you can strategically place objects in your drawing to follow certain lines of flow that go back to your focus. This helps guide your viewer around your piece while also giving a sense of motion and energy.
Every artistic decision you make should reinforce the story in some way. Even the tiniest things like the line art style. This idea came after looking through the Across the Spiderverse concept art book, specifically reading about the art style choices of Nueva York. Constructional lines and architectural diagrams are seen throughout the city and I wanted to bring a bit of that into this piece.
It further enforces the idea that Kala is creating the background behind him while also making the boats recede into the background due to atmospheric perspective. Depth of field is determined by how refined the boat’s sketch is, so the boat furthest away is still in pure constructional lines while the one closest to him is fully rendered. I thought that was a big brain idea and I’m glad I went with it >:)
To add a bit of texture, I added a grid pattern off in the distance to help with the feeling of the background being drawn in. I also added sketches of engineering diagrams into Kala’s blue coat for a bit of visual interest. These further add to the fact my character is an engineer and is almost drawing the background himself. Plus, it just looks cool.
Quick breakdown of some visual choices + how they show the story:
large value range: the values go from very dark to very light -> deeper contrast gives sense of drama and overall intensity to the image -> reinforces feelings of epicness
strong warm vs. cool color contrast: shows the sunrise lighting, gives the character more focus (red is a very intense color) -> gives of sense of pride
sketch-y depth of field: objects further away have a more sketch-y, drawn look -> helps with atmospheric perspective and shows that the character is an engineer. contrast with more refined foreground and character.
character pose: Kala is standing tall while also writing in his journal with a very satisfied look ->
flowing papers in the foreground: intentionally placed to aid in the overall flow of the piece -> also enforces the idea that the character in question is very experienced + shows his hard work to get to where he is now
These are all my personal choices for the illustration based on my own experiences and intentions. But every choice, from the character pose, the value range, or whatnot was intentionally done to support the story I wanted to tell in the piece. You or another artist may have different choices given the same prompt, and that’s cool! It’s these kinds of intentional choices based on one’s own experience and emotions that make art awesome and inherently human.
Let me know if you like posts like this and I’ll do more, breaking down the process and my thinking in some of my other pieces!
#nis talks art#tutorial#art tutorial#art walkthrough#my art#1k+ words of nis rambling on about art#idk if i even made sense but I did my best to describe some of my decision processes in regards to composition#composition#steamworks family#art
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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Gold Saucer date spoilers below
Something I noticed after watching the following part of the scene.
After Cloud asks Tifa about her talking to Aerith, she replies with "Not yet". Then, the camera changes position instead of staying in the same place which I thought was kind of weird. Watching Japanese version of the scene made me think there's more to Cloud's question than meets the eye!
Of course I do think there were multiple reasons why he asked, e.g.:
they're finally alone so he can ask Tifa without anyone interferring and he probably remembers Tifa wanted to keep this between them, as she asked in Nibelheim)
he wanted to break the silence and since he's not the best conversionalist he chose a this topic
But I believe he might have also used the topic to investigate Tifa's feelings. It seems like he wanted to say something since when they got onto the gondola and now he can try to steer the subject towards their bond/relationship.
In English version he says:
Notice how the camera changes position so that when Cloud starts talking about feelings, it shows Tifa in the foreground.
[It can mean lots of different things e.g. us not seeing Tifa's face might be a visual metaphor of "she doesn't want to tell him the real reason for not speaking with Aerith because it'd hurt him and his mental state would get worse". So this camera angle might be a way of telling the audience that there are still some issues between Cloud and Tifa which need to be resolved but it's not the right time to do it now as they can't be 100% honest with each other - Tifa can't share her memories which contradict with those of Cloud's and he can't access his true memories because of what's happening to him due to Sephiroth's control (among other things). But I digress.]
Now, let's take a look at Japanese version.
He says "I wonder if [she] still likes [him]." but since pronouns are not necessary in Japanese language, unless given context, we don't know who's the subject and object of the sentence. If this sentence was taken out of the context and asked out of the blue, you could interpret it as "I wonder if you still like me".
Only after a short moment he adds another sentence to explain what he meant by liking. To translate it literally he says: "Aerith, about Zack". So he provides information about sentence subject (Aerith) and sentence object (Zack).
I know that it's how Japanese people talk and they sometimes add more context after the sentence is formed as if they remembered what they wanted to say. I know there's nothing special about Cloud's way of speaking, but camera work here draws your attention to it, as if it wanted you to think about Cloud's intention behind his words. It also seems like he's expecting some kind of reply and what Tifa replies with doesn't seem to go according to his plan. He looks confused and you could tell there might be plenty other reasons behind it (and I do believe there are like e.g. Cloud who doesn't understand what other reason, beside it being a touchy subject, Tifa might have to not talk with Aerith), but the flow of conversation tells me Cloud wanted to be "subtle" by starting a topic related to love/feelings and it backfired.
I'm not saying he didn't want to know if Tifa told Aerith about his memories related to Zack. Of course he did. But we need to also look at the romantic undertones of the gondola date, especially since Cloud acted as if he wanted to say something to Tifa, which is a nice twist to Tifa's GS date from the original game, where she was the one who tried to confess.
I may be wrong but it's interesting how camera and spoken lines relate to each other and create an opening for various interpretations. It's definitely worth taking a closer look at this scene as it presents Cloud and Tifa's dynamic in different shades and forms.
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miraculous: ladybug & chat noir, the movie | a(n in-depth) review
prefacing this to say that i recognize a lot of feelings about this movie are related to a frustration with experiencing the tv series for five seasons since 2015. i, however, went into this as a brand new fan, having finally tried the series just since april of this year. so those feelings of frustration aren't going to be present in this review and it's coming more from a (somewhat) objective place, considering the film as its own entity. (spoilers abound.)
marinette:
so i'm a marinette dupain-cheng shooter, i'll fight for this girl forever because of how targeted the hate is for her (and leading female characters in general). but i have to say, even though the movie did a good job not having her be the completely messy pre-teenager she is in the show (especially around her crush), i found that the character change was a little strange.
i think, despite how flustered she gets, marinette in the show is a very strong character. she's a child who spent three years being relentlessly bullied by a politician's daughter (chloe) that people she was generally (she has no good friends but she has an amicable relationship with her peers because they all grew up together) friendly with stayed away from her, for the fear of becoming that girl's next target. she tries her best to stay out of this girl's way because of this bullying, and her defense is to keep quiet and not draw attention to herself so she can get through the school day without being harassed. this harassment leads to marinette having intense anxiety and a lack of confidence in herself, despite having strong opinions and being an otherwise passionate person. meeting her new friend alya, who is very self assured, inspires marinette to not allow her bully to walk over her anymore, and when she gets her first win as ladybug she finds the strength to finally stand up for herself. though she remains a target of that bully, this newfound strength helps her not allow that experience to reign over her life and this gives her bully less power.
in the movie, marinette (there was one trailer that implied she was "the new girl" but the movie itself does not really give us this impression—her scared meekness would make more sense to me if she actually were a new girl in school but more on this later) still grew up in paris with those same peers, but has so much crippling anxiety she has no baseline relationship with anyone. instead of it being mere general awkwardness, the film decides to make her especially clumsy to the point of insane catastrophes constantly happening around her (i guess for her entire life?), and this chaos makes the entire school laugh at her and spread rumors about her, so she has no friends at all. (would make a lot of sense if she's the new girl unless the point is the entire school has been making fun of the wasian girl since maternelle that she's still infamous in lycée for it and spent her entire life without a friend until alya filmed chloe harassing her and saved her, which is... concerning. or wait, is it because they've just entered lycée so they're all technically "new" even though she's lived in paris her whole life because they're starting grade 10 together? but what are the chances that no one she knew from collége are in this school with her now? so she enters lycée, is so clumsy and catastrophes happen around her that she develops a reputation for herself and people like chloe know her by name because she's become that infamous that quickly? but in the song 'reaching out,' marinette sings that she always dreamed of calling paris home, which seems to suggest that maybe she's new in paris. but their bakery seems too established to be new... i don't know. tbh this is information we shouldn't have to guess, and this lack of clarity is something i struggled with for this film.)
as an introverted person, marinette's anxiety and fear of leaving her comfort zone resonate with me, but i feel like while this is explained in the show as a result of years of bullying, it's portrayed here in the extreme. i understand that she's afraid at school because of all the rumors and the disasters that follow her, but even on the streets when she was singing to herself, random people would wave to her and she'd (sing) to herself, "i can't show my face!" even though nothing embarrassing or disastrous had even happened. she's just deathly afraid of people. i don't think this in and of itself is an issue, but it definitely needed more explanation or build up. is marinette this terrified and timid because something (worse than what happened in the series?) happened to her here? is it because she's (new to paris? again, they don't really say but it would fit better if it were true) wasian and she feels out of place in largely white paris? is it more about her biracial identity rather than clumsiness? who knows. so i feel just more background and character development would elevate the movie. arguably, she could just be an anxious and introverted person, but the portrayal of these characteristics just seemed a lot more surface level than they are in the show. i guess this is an example of a limitation a creator has with a film—they can accomplish so much more with years of subtle hints in a series and lay the foundation for certain backgrounds and traits, but in a movie they have to figure out what to tell us, what to show us, and how to develop it in under two hours. sadly, i feel with marinette, as a result of this time crunch, some of the film's portrayals ended up being weak.
(there's this scene all over twitter celebrating marinette standing up to chloe after her newfound confidence as ladybug—i am actually very confused why this was pointed out as a difference from the series. once marinette realized through alya and her first success as ladybug that she didn't need to be afraid of chloe anymore, she stopped. she constantly argues with her, doesn't put up with her bullshit, and even is sometimes mean to her (i'm not going to judge her for it—that girl bullied her badly for three years straight sooo...). i like the scene in the movie too, but my point was that it's consistent with the show and not an actual change.)
people love to attack marinette for some instances where the character in the show was used for absurd comic relief, and i appreciate that the movie doesn't do this with her much. i do think the female characters in miraculous, series and film, would all be better written if written by women, but i digress.
i like that while film marinette tries to reject the earrings just like series marinette, she fails because the magic that has chosen her won’t just let her throw the earrings away or give it to someone else. though she doesn’t randomly decide to give the earrings to alya here, she does try to throw them out a window and they kept coming back to her because she was the chosen one. this was a nice change. i never thought it should be that easy for her to just re-gift them to any random person when they chose her specifically for a reason.
adrien:
adrien agreste in the series is outgoing, full of energy, lonely but eager to make friends, kind of optimistic. his mother has only been missing for six months at the start of the show, while he's in the public eye, working almost full time as a teen model and the face of his father's massively successful high fashion brand. his circumstances, his public image, the fact that not much time has passed and he's still a 13 year old child all lead him to resist being too affected by his grief (he's obviously still affected but it's not a crippling part of his life, and though he experiences loneliness and has moments of being withdrawn and sad, he retains a relatively optimistic and outgoing nature that influences his outlook on life and his interactions with his peers. he's socially inept through lack of interaction with kids his own age and homeschooling, but he's willing to learn and this, as well as his pure heart, are what define this character.
adrien in the movie is different, but in a way that is realistic and understandable given the changes the film made to his background. he's more quiet, withdrawn, lonely but chooses to stay that way and intentionally pushes people away as a coping mechanism for grief. though in both universes his father's role in his life decreases once his mother vanishes, and he essentially loses both parents rather than one, in the show, being a model and the face of his father's brand allows him to continue having a place in his dad's life even though his father treats him like dirt. in the movie, the time period in which his mother has been missing in his life seems to be much longer, and there has been no indication that adrien has anything to do with his father's work. with his grief affecting him for a greater length of time, his age being older, and his dad being an absentee parent for several years rather than a few months, it's no wonder that the adrien we meet in the movie chooses to pull away from people, allows the sad feelings to dominate, and just overall lacks the energy and optimism show adrien possesses. (i'm also not sure if it's even his first day of school or if he was homeschooled his whole life—chloe claimed she wanted to show him around, but nino interacts with him like they've been friends for more than just a day and he's known him for at least a little while).
honestly, i really like the changes here, despite being tv adrien agreste's #1 fan. this insight into his feelings about his parents, his resignation about his constantly deteriorating relationship with his father, his fixation on the piano which was an interest he shared with his mom, how palpable his feelings of nostalgia and longing are for his mother... the way he was a child when she disappeared and now he's a teenager still thinking about her, always missing her... it was such a natural portrayal of love and grief and though you can see which circumstances prevent show adrien from turning out this way, movie adrien is such an understandable and empathetic character. you really feel for him the whole movie. i think his (possible) lack of fame adds to this too (he doesn't seem to be a model in this, he has no schedules and isn't driven around everywhere, there are loads of photos of him at home but they could just be photos parents put up of their only son). at the end of the day he's a teenager with a father who neglects him constantly for his business and his own grief that he feels very alone, and these feelings keep him from wanting to get close to anyone else, either because he's sad or just afraid of further abandonment. i found the character so incredibly relatable and it was interesting seeing a more vulnerable side to this character, a vulnerability show adrien only occasionally demonstrates, a vulnerability more hinted at in the show through chat noir (but this is an essay for another day).
most importantly, show and movie adrien are both total dorks. the essence of this character is portrayed well in the movie, i really didn't mind the changes because in the end he was still recognizable as my sad sunshine adrien agreste, and i hope people look past the surface differences to recognize and appreciate him for who he is.
plagg plays a bigger role in adrien’s life in the series than in the movie. i love their relationship so i missed that here, but i also feel like maybe they didn’t need him to be looking out for adrien and essentially taking care of him (gorilla does this in the series too, and he wasn’t needed in the movie as adrien has the freedom to largely come and go as he wants and use public transport, something series adrien could never do) because of how much less restrictive his life is in this iteration.
ladynoir:
the film introduces ladybug and chat noir as "two rival heroes." plagg and tikki themselves are called rivals. eventually ladybug redubs them as "partners" after she and chat noir find a rhythm and master fu also tells them they're stronger together, so i am puzzled why they even tried introducing them that way. in the show, ladynoir aren't rivals at al—they've always been a team. and in this movie, despite those initial comments, it's no different. there's banter and flirtation for sure, but the most "rival" these two get are when they first meet and are goading each other into an argument over which hero is better and who is the sidekick (before they've done anything lmao) and that one fun volkswagon ad when they race each other. i love the flirty competitive sparring, the way they tease each other, when they're just messing around and being playful in the 'stronger together' sequence. you really watch these two become best friends, and like the series, chat noir falls in love with ladybug like a thunderbolt (a coup de foudre!) while for her, you see her affection for him grow the longer they work together and get to know each other. i don't think this is as much of a departure from the series as stan twitter would have you believe, but it does spend more time on their dynamic in one setting than any episode ever does (ladynoir is developed over time in the series, little by little, and their cute flirty dynamic is very reminiscent of how they're portrayed in the first two seasons before the guardianship and other miraculous holders complicated their relationship. at their core they've always had great chemistry and a strong connection). i like both developments tbh, but that one scene of them training together and having fun for a significant amount of time was so lovely to see. don't get me wrong—there are some great moments these two share outside of battle in the series too, but it's been a while since we've seen this dynamic there with everything else going on that it felt so nice to return to this, and in such a huge way too.
the one thing i miss is chat noir calling ladybug "milady." it's such a cute thing he does in the series, and though i enjoyed that "insane!" / "watermelon!" banter, i do miss this being what he calls her all the time. (there is a song called 'my lady' that chat noir sings to himself after he falls in love with ladybug, and in the very last line of the song he calls her this, but otherwise it's just not a thing in the movie.) it really doesn't matter, but i still mourned its absence.
adrienette/adrinette:
the first time i watched this film, i did not like the first adrien/marinette meet-cute at all. to be honest, i wasn't being fair. the first miraculous scene in the series that had me completely enchanted was that umbrella scene in origins, and it is the foundation for this ship and why i love them so much. every bit of the original scene is perfection, with the careful finger brush, the soft smiles, the way their eyes meet and marinette hears a thunder clap (an actual coup de foudre) in the distance as the instrumental 'in the rain' plays in the background... that scene was so spectacularly constructed, it was always obvious nothing this movie did was ever going to match that.
and that's okay.
watching the film a second time, i found that while the umbrella scene still is incomparable, there are things i did like about marinette and adrien's first meeting. the way marinette asks for "a little luck" and she follows the light through the bookshelves to see adrien, who approaches her himself because he thinks she might be in need of help, asking her if she's okay or seeing the distressed look upon her face and wondering if she's crying. it's different from origins, but in some ways it's the same—marinette was distressed, adrien approached her first, she's thrown by his kindness and flustered by his beauty. they have some kind of moment and in the end, he offers her an awkward but gentle smile.
but in origins, they already had history. she didn't care and barely realized he was famous or even connected to her dream of becoming a fashion designer. his looks don't register to her until she's already fallen in love with him. and it's his initiative to correct the misunderstanding between them and show her kindness despite her being harsh and unfair to him that makes her take a second glance, and once she does, she falls in love fast. though i do see the essence of that moment—the being drawn to adrien's kindness aspect—in the movie's library scene, it's less impactful. she doesn't know adrien, so there is barely a conversation between them, and other than his concern over her and his offer of a helping hand when she falls, i don't really see what he does that makes her fall strongly in love with him. if it's still his kindness, it just feels weaker. one could argue that her instant attraction to him is because of his cuteness, and this is what flusters her, and his kindness (less impact than the series, but in this new universe, barely anyone in this school has ever shown marinette kindness rather than gossiping and laughing about her clumsiness so maybe to her this is a real moment of kindness) is only secondary. it's not all that clear. either way, marinette is fascinated by him to keep looking at him before she even falls and he offers to help her up, so the meeting feels a lot more shallow (he had noticed her distress and asked if she was crying before, but i don't know... is just asking about her enough kindness to get that reaction from her? it makes sense after he helps her up but the fascination before.. maybe i'm just longing for the impact of the umbrella scene and this was actually fine...?). the scene ends with adrien's confused, soft smile when he says "she's so weird" to himself (they barely interacted, so i don't know if i'd call it a "fond smile" but it's not the malicious thing some people on social media have been making it out to be. in this iteration adrien tries not to interact with many people, so it's a big deal he was kind enough to still reach out to her. this meeting probably stuck out to him as something unordinary and the comment felt more like he was curious about her more than anything else. it ends up being important to marinette because her clumsiness makes people usually mock her, but he didn't do that, so her instinct then is to try to talk to him (and ask him out, probably?). not the big momentous falling in love scene from the series, but it is still a nice moment for these characters as they're established in this universe.
i think one of the reasons this ship feels weak to me in the film is that outside of this moment, adrien and marinette's friendship development is reduced to a musical montage.
if the movie had used this moment to develop their relationship further, i probably would have actually liked the romance here. while ladynoir had scenes of interactions and ladybug and chat noir getting to know each other and becoming comfortable with each other and literally becoming bffs who trust each other as only two people in the world who share a singular unique experience can, all the development adrien and marinette have is shown through one musical montage in the middle of the movie. (they do have a small interaction at the fair, but this is around the time adrien is first coming out of his shell so it’s very brief.) in the montage, you see many shots of adrien and marinette hanging out with alya and nino in picnics and at the movies, and he looks more at ease with each outing. and you also see adrien opening up to marinette specifically about his mom, sharing photos of her, and finally working through his grief rather than withdrawing from everyone. but because this is a five second scene in the midst of a musical montage illustrating the passage of time, we never get the words exchanged, the scene is glossed over and the impact is only felt by fans of the series who know what this means to him. (fun fact: the film has adrien trusting marinette enough to feel so close to her he talks about his mom with her before he talks to ladybug about her and how in his grief he pushed people away before he met her. though ladybug was the catalyst to him opening up to people, i do find it meaningful that he opened up to marinette first. but this is still a crumb and you have to be looking to make those connections in order to see them. the film should have shown adrien falling in love to some extent outside of the mask as well, he’s supposed to have some kind of inner conflict and it’s hard to believe that he does here with all the missing pieces.) i’m not sure if casual viewers would even notice it in the midst of all the other scenes happening as the theme song plays in the background. had we seen more of stuff like this, gotten some kind of explanation that over time adrien had started to feel for marinette too and this montage is proof of it (it shows that they’re friends and he trusts her now to some extent, but it’s so fast it barely registers. you can’t deduce he’s in love with marinette here, whereas in the scenes with chat noir you see ladybug actively struggle with her feelings, develop affectionate feelings for chat noir, and feel bad for rejecting him because of that, not just because it sucks to have to turn someone down), then that would have been fine. but that’s not what happens. after this montage we barely see adrien and marinette together at all until she tries asking him to he ball and he says he’s sorry but there’s someone else. though his rejection was soft, and you do see him look upset he had to reject her, there was no doubt he was going to reject her here. the core conflict—that they’re in love with two people, one they fall in love with like thunder and another that slowly builds in their heart—is so badly illustrated in this movie. you can see the intention is there if you’re looking for it, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
though i appreciate that marinette didn't struggle to find her words around adrien in this film, and appeared more realistically flustered and anxious rather than the over the top thing they do in the series, i still feel like the adrinette in the series is overall written and developed better as a ship. in the tv series, you see this initial conflict —chat noir falls fast for ladybug, who turns him down because marinette fell just as fast in love with adrien agreste—turn into marinette forming a friendship with chat noir, whom she then starts to get close to outside and in the mask, as adrien starts to fall in love with marinette. the series is now at a point where adrien and marinette are actually in love, despite never actually falling out of love with their superhero counterparts, so that if it finally leads to a reveal (which it hasn’t yet), it would be incredibly moving.
my issue is, without this adrinette relationship development, the reveal feels less impactful. if you’re frustrated the series hasn’t given you this moment yet, you feel satisfaction seeing it in the conclusion of this film solely because of the progression of the series. without it, looking at the moments in this film alone, it feels halfhearted. though marinette is ladybug, it’s an idealized version of herself she’s created to take on the challenge of being a hero. these characteristics are still hers, but it feels like someone falling in love with a celebrity. though this isn’t wholly true—chat gets to know ladybug’s vulnerabilities too as they get closer—it’s still not fully her the way marinette, as a normal person who now has the confidence being ladybug provides her echoing in her daily life too, is. so her struggling with her feelings, turning chat noir down reluctantly before adrien rejects her, but still reaching out to him once discovering they’re the same person—you just see that she falls in love with all sides of him. but it’s less clear for adrien. you can analyze that montage and make a deduction, but it’s not as explicit. instead, it just feels like he rejects who she actually is for her heroic persona, and that makes the reveal feel one-sided (unless you carry over your feelings of frustration from the series never giving us this moment).
it sucks that adrinette was underdeveloped because as far as scenes go, the reveal is actually quite beautiful. adrien has tears in his eyes when she introduces herself as ladybug and he realizes she liked him all along, but if we knew why those tears of relief and happiness appeared upon realizing the girl of his dreams was marinette, it would mean more. [he’s also at this ball wearing the bow tie marinette made for him that she threw into the trash after he rejected her, and i’d love to believe that this isn’t a continuity error, but it probably is. it’s hard to imagine adrien felt so torn up about rejecting marinette (after ladybug already rejected him??! like it really felt like he’d like to go to this ball that he never asked ladybug to go to alone rather than with marinette, which is…not great ) that he went by the trash, saw his name on a box and opened it up, realizing she made him a gift, and then chose to wear it. he literally doesn’t think about marinette once in this film after he rejects her so this feels like a reach… unless it was intentional, in which case they should have written so much more to make this (and this ship) clear.]
gabriel agreste:
i can't remember if origins explained how long gabriel agreste had the butterfly miraculous and if he used it right away upon acquiring it, but what i liked in the film was that it was clearly explained that he had had that artifact for a while, done research on its capabilities, considered the risks and rewards, and then after a long time of deliberation finally made the active choice to do what he knew was wrong just because he loved his wife so much he would never be able to live without her. ("if chaos is the way, i will burn the world and lose myself to do so!") each time he misuses the miraculous to hurt people, it takes a toll on his physical and mental health, making him look haggard and act more crazy and reckless (this happens in the series as well—season 1 gabriel isn't season 5 gabriel but he becomes more villainous over time).
one thing that confuses me though is that gabriel got a sense of the chaos and terror committed with the butterfly miraculous upon just touching the item, but the series and later on in the film, it's explicitly stated that this miraculous isn't inherently evil. in the show there are many reasons why ladybug and chat noir historically were called to fight, but in the movie it seems to be implied that it's this one miraculous alone that summons them through creating chaos in the world. but it's also allegedly 'good'—this contradiction is confusing (and my friend who had no knowledge of mlb was so lost watching this movie). i don't think the show does much for romanticizing this decision the way the film does, and it certainly doesn't make us believe that gabriel agreste felt forced to make this decision and had doubts he overlooked because he was that desperate. i mean, his desperation comes across in the series in other ways but not in a sad lonely man who is struggling to live without his wife way. the film humanizes this stupid, terrible man in a way the series fails to do so (which makes sense given some of the atrocities he goes onto commit that film gabriel doesn't come close to doing). this softer portrayal works for the movie as many of the things i dislike about m. agreste are never portrayed, leaving him a bit more of a sympathetic villain even as he terrorizes all of paris. he still sucks though, just on a lesser scale.
when gabriel tells the story about how much adrien's mother meant to him, and how difficult it was for him to face the sadness in adrien's eyes upon losing a parent (tbh he's so dumb. his son finds it hard to cope with one parent leaving him so his solution is to make him lose the second parent too just because it was hard to deal with his son's grief on top of his own...dumbass), he says it was only after she was gone that he learned about the miraculous. does this mean that in this universe adrien actually wasn't conceived using the peacock miraculous and the coma emilie is in at the end is caused by something else? gabriel and adrien both speak about his mom like she's dead. and at the end it's revealed that like in the series, emilie is still alive but in a magical coma. did he just mean that they already knew about the peacock miraculous and what he learned about was the butterfly miraculous and then the wish the ladybug and black cat miraculous combined make? i'm lost. (maybe it's just really huge a continuity error?
i saw a lot of people wonder why adrien in the show doesn't argue with his father or blow up at him the way adrien does in the film. aside from the fact that gabriel agreste in the movie is a lot less criminal than the abusive doucheface he is in the series, it doesn't look like adrien is being controlled by his father if he's a sentibeing here too and the worst thing gabriel has done is be an absentee parent (bad, but it's not the locking your kid up, forcing him to work since he was a child, controlling his every second of every day, having your employees follow him around and spy on him for you, trying to control who he interacts with on a daily basis, forbidding him from hanging out with friends, trying to akumatize him or exploit him in other ways, being emotionally abusive, etc etc). adrien in the series being younger, experiencing his father being an ass only since his mother disappeared six months ago and taking nearly a year to realize his treatment isn't normal and he physically can't resist his dad's orders even if he wanted to... they're in such different predicaments. older adrien with less manipulation and abuse would have an easier time yelling at his father. tv adrien also eventually argues with his dad in season 5, but it takes a lot to build up to that and then the series quickly destroys all this character development because of a hole they wrote themselves into, but that's an essay for another time... i don't think these can be fairly compared. (that said, i clapped hard when adrien told his father he lost his dad a long time ago. his father made a decision not to act like a parent once he lost his wife and it's been a long while since then, he's essentially raising himself at this point.)
it's this change in adrien and gabriel's relationship that allows the end of the final battle to make sense in the movie in a way they wouldn't make sense in the show. tv gabriel agreste doesn't care to hurt his son—you see this constantly explored in different timelines. there is a reason why there's so much fanfiction guessing gabriel would exploit adrien if he learned he was chat noir, or actively try to trade him for his wife. movie gabriel, however, stops right away the second he realizes that the teenager he was ready to hurt was actually his son. hell, even earlier, he called adrien to leave the fair before sending akumas there because he didn't want him to get caught in the crossfire. tv gabriel would never. (i guess show gabriel also does this mid-series sometimes but it's so inconsistent...granted show gabriel doesn't know what his son is even doing most days unless he's leaving the city—the one very aware of his schedule is nathalie sooo maybe it's an issue of knowledge. either way, by season 5, gabriel tries to deliberately put his son into harm's way and even akumatize him sooooo....) so that heart to heart they have that helps gabriel deal with his grief and talks him down from being a supervillain any longer is a beautiful moment (the scene itself has the prettiest animation of those two embracing as purified butterflies surround them), but one that the series would not be able to replicate (that character is really not redeemable there even though they kind of tried).
chloe:
to be honest i don't really care for her in any iteration of this, but i did find it interesting that while she said she offered to show him around (as she does in the show too), we never see adrien with chloe in this movie ever. he doesn't talk about her, he doesn't acknowledge her. i always see their friendship as one created by circumstance—when you're kids and your parents' friends only have the one child you're left to interact with so you become "friends" but that friendship isn't anything deep despite it being one of your first. not going to analyze their relationship in the show because while it's not the best friendship some people in fandom fictionalize, it does have some complexity, but in the movie, i'd honestly argue they barely know each other. chloe mentions adrien on multiple occasions. but he doesn't once talk or think about her. he's already friends with nino (is he new in this? chloe said she wants to show him around, but he's already hanging out in a library when we first see him and he already is friends with nino enough for nino to try to invite him out—is it that he's new but this time it's not his first day we're seeing? i don't know, it's unclear), and they make plans to hang out. you see a montage of him hanging out with nino, alya and marinette later, but nothing on chloe. if she wasn't so extremely anxious, i'd wonder why marinette believes chloe at all when she suddenly claims to be the girl adrien likes. i saw some people say chloe in the film is more redeemable than chloe in the series, and while this is true (because of things chloe does to aid a supervillain in seasons 4 and 5 that can't really be undone) i don't see much of a difference in her relationship with marinette. she's not a "rival" (rival suggests a largely harmless competitiveness—marinette isn't competing with her. she's trying to stay out of her way so chloe doesn't hurt her). the degree of bullying is possibly different (we don't really know. movie chloe threatens to strangle marinette with her own hair, so while she's probably not the sole reason marinette has no friends this time, she's still pretty much an actual bully, though a little more aware of being shamed via the internet for her crimes, though not so much at school in front of people... probably because irl people she can control but on the internet, as a politician's daughter as well as a famous hotel heiress, she is bound to face backlash for herself and her family...?) but it's still not great enough to be claiming this character deserves serious spotlight or a redemption arc (honestly she's hardly in the movie). like the series, i get the impression that there is some racism at work here too, but it's not as strong as it is in the show (marinette being this white girl's main target for no reason, her talking to her like she's inhuman, the way the entire school is so quick to dismiss her whenever she's targeted by lila or chloe without ever investigating anything because a white girl cried wolf, and then chloe's actual comments to marinette's uncle, the way she stresses the 'cheng' part of her surname when she's addressing her, etc. etc. the film doesn't do any of this).
there's a scene where chloe is ordering sabrina to locate marinette so she can harass her, and sabrina finds marinette but chooses to lie and pretend she couldn't find her. though sabrina in the series slowly evolves and learns to listen to her own conscience, i like that outside of chloe's line of sight, she knows what's wrong or right. though this is true of series sabrina too, she doesn't act on this sense of morality. i like the change that she does in the film, at least away from chloe. it's the bare minimum but at least it's something.
the music:
it took me a whileeee to care about the music here, but i still find a lot of the music just largely forgettable. (honestly i was hoping for disney classic level music in this animated film, so i guess i have no one to blame but myself there. it doesn't help that i'm obsessed with the actual instrumental music in the series—'in the rain' is one of the most beautiful songs i've ever heard. also i was hoping for ce mur qui nous sépare, but i guess that was a hopeless dream. i was hoping, if they were excluding it, the song wouldn't apply in the movie because there were less "walls between [them]" than in the series, since it was ending in a reveal, but the film doesn't actually go that route... more on that later.) despite the fact that the music wasn't my favorite part, and i really think the movie would improve if there had been a better balance between story development and music (the film really suffers from too much unneeded music in favor of less story development), i did really enjoy some of the songs and the usage of series throwback musical motifs was excellent. also really enjoyed the usage of 'careless whisper' in this movie lmfaoooooo, comedic excellence.
(unpopular opinion: i really didn't mind that lou sings for christina. it doesn't fit well at all, but i heard about it long before i watched the movie and was just expecting it. it's not the best because their voices are so different, but it didn't really take me out like i thought it would, and i got used to it really fast.)
in the first song marinette sings about believing in herself. the visuals are gorgeous. the film brought to life her sketchbook, evolving the mundane to the most elegant of clothes. honestly would love to see and hear more about marinette's passion for design and her dream of becoming a designer. the film barely touched upon it (the show could go into this more too! they do sometimes but i want moreee), but it would be nice to hear where marinette's inspirations come from, why this dream is so meaningful to her. what i found interesting was, in the show marinette exclaims that gabriel agreste is her favorite fashion designer. but movie marinette doesn't mention him ever. does she know about him? is he less influential to her here? she walks by his showroom on her way to school but that's the extent we see of anything in this vein. curious.
though i don't think the 'you are ladybug' song was a necessity (adrien didn't get a song about becoming chat noir, but i guess he didn't need the extra encouragement, since he was ready to go instantly), i did actually enjoy it. lyrically it isn't strong, but it's a fun back and forth between marinette and tikki, and the way the song pays homage to the miraculous ladybug theme song is beautiful (the entire "i have one job / i'm good at it / i've been doing it for so many years" follows the tune to "another day / i'm back at school / i look at him, he's so cool" in the series theme song, and i especially loved "but why me? / i'm nothing special, bug / wait and see / what you're capable of" sung to the melody of "oh oh oh / he's got me spinning 'round / oh oh oh / my feet are off the ground." just TOO GOOD). the rap where tikki channels lin manuel miranda made me die of laughter, but also i really can't get over her going, "we'll come THISCLOSE to dying and then we'll do it all again!" as a selling point to convince this teenager to put her life on the line for all of paris. the other part of this song i really loved was the polyphony at the end when marinette and tikki sang their own melodies at the same time—not just because it sounded nice but because i died over tikki saying, "i'm about to kick your butt if you don't start to listen" lmao.
my entire theater laughed at hawk moth’s song (the song was okay, but the concept of hawk moth singing took me out lmao). it did have the feel of a classic villain song in movies like anastasia or the lion king, but it wasn’t as memorable. i do think it expressed gabriel agreste’s mental state really well though.
reiterating that i really don’t think marinette needed 3.5 different songs about the same theme, but the best song lyrically/musically/vocally is definitely ‘courage in me,’ hands down.
maybe it’s because i adore the fuck out of the music drew ryan scott sings as ’christopher wilde’ in the disney channel movie starstruck, but i love the song chat noir sings after being lovestruck by ladybug after their first meeting (sung by the same man). the visuals of him literally singing with his head in the clouds were excellent, the character song fit him so well, and i think the melody had such a dreamscape feel of falling in love. i actually really like the lyrics in this song too (“it’s been a while since i smiled and meant it” adrichat my bb ;A; ) and my favorite part is “then she appears like a dream in a dream!” i think this song also does what music is meant to do in a musical—add to the story so that part of it can be told in song. so we get adrien basically saying he’s been withdrawing from people for sooo long, and this encounter with ladybug in which he almost died is the first time he’s felt something in a long time. this musical interlude leads to him hanging out with his friend nino at the fair (he said ‘whatever’ when nino first asked him to go, but the difference in his expression and the fact that he seems more smiley and enthusiastic in this encounter, and even hopeful enough to ask his dad to actually come to the fair and hang out with him already demonstrates a change in his demeanor), actually having a conversation with marinette, and then a montage of him no longer choosing to deal with his grief alone and finally reaching out to others, so you can see how that moment with ladybug (and all the other moments of them getting to know each other afterward while fighting or training) really did impact his life.
the miraculous title musical montage around the middle of the movie was too excellent and showed the passage of time really well, both as ladybug and chat noir, and as adrien and marinette. this was a great way to develop parts of the story (it also depicted marinette’s character evolution, making her more self confident in her daily life and no longer being an anxious messy creator of catastrophes). it was also nice to just hear a familiar song. (chat noir smiling goofily to himself after seeing ladybug smile at “and when i see her smile, that’s when she becomes miraculous” is my fave—it's just so well done, i love.)
‘stronger together’ is one of those songs that i love the first half of but find the second half too messy. the sequence is gorgeous, the scene is one of my favorites in terms of relationship development and animation in the entire movie. and i am weirdly in love with the part of the song where it pauses before he sings “take my hand!” and the music picks up. it’s so playful and flirty and the essence of how ladynoir are depicted in this movie, and i love that. the vocals are lovely. there’s a musical motif throwing back to one of my favorite instrumentals in the tv series—'the last dance' which serves as the background of so many touching ladybug and chat noir moments in the show—at the end of the song where she ponders the mixed feelings inside her heart before ultimately rejecting chat noir (“what is this feeling now? i cannot fall for him…” / “we could be great, i know / i’m falling for you.”). as a song, this back and forth dialogue feels so random tacked on here but it is a musical so i guess that fits, i just found the whole thing kind of messy. but i love that they did this dialogue to the melody of ‘the last dance’ because it’s such a gorgeous melody and a sentimental throwback. honestly even if i only like half the song, the scene itself is a film highlight and i fucking cry over the cheesy cute “you save the world every day with your mask, but the girl behind it saved my heart” he says to her that causes her to gasp (same).
film additions that are just better:
the animation, obviously. (THE HAIR TEXTURE! THE SCENERY! THEIR EYES? I CRY I CRY.)
i am fond of the fact that their miraculous lights up (flickers? glows? there's light of some kind) when the city is in need of ladybug or chat noir to save the day, and just kind of guides adrien and marinette to where they need to go. this is a big difference from the series where they have to physically encounter the danger themselves (and they do! because in the show, most of the people akumatized are people they know, random adults in their lives or the kids in their class). and at least one of them has to be present to call the other one to appear. this is not necessary in the universe of the movie. it's also more realistic because hawk moth isn't specifically targeting the kids in his son's class, but is akumatizing people at random all over the city.
i also really loved the fact that tikki and plagg use magic to choose their own chosen holders, rather than master fu doing a random test in the middle of nowhere and hoping to attract people of pure heart out on the street. it helps add to the lore that they're actually chosen, and that they're fated and compatible, and i love that a lot. (there is a scene where he, while trying to chase tikki, ends up in the middle of the street in front of oncoming traffic, and marinette risks her life to save him. but this wasn't used as a means for him to choose her for the ladybug role, but rather as a means for identifying that she was destined to be ladybug and tikki had chosen her. i will add that while i love the concept, the scene itself made me laugh because he sounded crazy interacting with her, no wonder she ended up being scared and running away from him.) the fact that adrien spots a black cat that leads him to the black cat ring and marinette spots a ladybug that guides her to the ladybug earrings... *chef's kiss* i'll confess, i wasn't a fan of every single person they choose throughout history being called ladybug and chat noir (in the series, they choose their own names. ladybug is self explanatory but the fact that adrien's mom used to read him a bedtime story about a hero named chat noir and this resonated with him so much he chose to name himself that immediately upon discovering he has powers means so much to me), but this really wasn't a significant change and i only care because i love adrichat so much.
it was a cool detail in the scene where marinette meets tikki that she awakens like the genie in aladdin (she even calls herself a genie in this one rather than a god. it doesn't matter, but i prefer kwamis being called gods. tikki then goes on to talk about how she can't grant wishes, when we know the black cat and ladybug miraculous can grant a wish in exchange for an equal price which is the entire plot of the movie, but this terminology preference is unimportant). the way she noted all the societal changes and how much time has spent since she's been needed to reawaken was very fun.
in the tv series, gabriel agreste akumatizes himself when he thinks ladybug and chat noir might guess his identity as hawk moth, hoping that if he appeared as a victim they'd be off his trail. while this serves its purpose in the show, i thought it was really cool that film gabriel agreste decided his dark heart would be stronger than the people he's been akumatizing, and instead of continuing to sit back and use innocent civilians for his means, he chooses to akumatize those negative feelings he always carries with him and turn into the ultimate villain himself. and he succeeds, becoming a villain that is so strong, he gets the earrings himself and nearly gets the ring. though i liked that he did this, something about this battle still felt really anticlimactic. it's probably a pacing issue because i really did love that final scene between gabriel and adrien, but everything happened so fast it didn't feel as epic as it seemed they were going for. additionally, i know that the point was ladybug and chat noir are only unbeatable if they work together and they were not at all united this final battle because their feelings got in the way, i was still really troubled that the only reason they won against hawk moth is because he backed off. had chat noir's mask never gotten torn, he would not have stopped...
(i also have to ask, since his identity gets revealed on a large scale and the newscasters even announce that it was him the whole time, does he actually get consequences? like he did back off, but he was still terrorizing the whole city for months... if he's exposed, shouldn't there be ramifications? i can't tell if he went to prison. the movie did not say.)
where the series shines more:
to someone who has never seen the series (i watched this initially with a friend who knew absolutely nothing about mlb), the powers are confusing. in the series, origins explains really well what cataclysm and lucky charm do, how they can only use them once before given five minutes before detransforming and needing to re-transform to use the power again. the series makes use of this, creating tension with the five minute rule (which is explained to only apply to them while they're children, so once they "mature" the time limit will disappear and they'd be able to use their powers over and over without fear of exposing their identities). while the movie does not need to stress over the time limitation (as the film aged up the characters from 13 to 15/16, so i guess they've already hit 'maturity'), it spends no time on explaining what a cataclysm is (a power chat noir doesn't even use until the final battle, and NO EXPLANATION IS GIVEN. WE'RE JUST SUPPOSED TO KNOW HE ALWAYS HAD THIS ABILITY HE NEVER NEEDED TO USE UNTIL HAWK MOTH WAS READY TO KILL HIM) and there are no lucky charms.
actually, the entire battle format makes little sense. in the show, ladybug and chat noir have to figure out what object hawk moth akumatized to turn civilians into his supernatural army, break the akumatized object, free the butterfly, and then purify it. in the movie, all they're really told is that they're meant to fight these beings, and after they win, ladybug can purify the butterfly. there isn't an explanation for when the butterfly leaves the akuma—no objects are being broken; they're literally just fighting until the monster can exist no more. this is strange to me because these fights have no rules. it's just, literally physically defeating a creature until the magic can no longer hold it.
i don't know how i feel about this, but i liked how the series does it. because it's an emphasis on physical strength, the movie lacking lucky charms makes sense, but what i always liked about that was 1) it called back on ladybug being the embodiment of good luck that her power would be chance, and 2) it was specifically marinette's time to shine. her strength in the series is her creativity, her creative approach to problem solving and use of her clever mind is what sets her apart and makes her the best ladybug in the series no matter who else has worn the ladybug miraculous. without this, i felt like a big essence of the character was missing. (the film does call upon her intelligence and creative mind in some scenes, like in the first battle where she uses her yoyo somewhat strategically to stumble her way through traffic and save chat noir, but it wasn't enough for me. i guess it was supposed to be implied that she planned the gargoyle to get hit by the train and the collision released the akuma, but the film is so unclear about this. it looked more like a happy accident rather than marinette using her brain to save the day.)
in the show, ladybug also has the ability to undo akuma damage when she throws her lucky charm into the air and shouts "miraculous ladybug" at the end of each battle. since lucky charms are absent in this iteration, it makes sense this isn't a thing either. (i guess it could also be tedious to show this in the movie after every single attack whereas once an episode is fine, but they could have just shown it once and implied it always happened. instead, what they implied was that after every battle, the damage to the city was actual damage and the city had to deal with the infrastructure hawk moth damaged until after the final battle, when ladybug gave master fu the butterfly miraculous. upon reclamation of that miraculous, fu told her that she, as the holder of the miraculous of creation, could (now, i guess?) use her power to rebuild the city. instead of it being a lucky charm thrown into the air with an incantation that creates a swarm of butterflies spreading over the city for an immediate cure, it's marinette directing her power slowly to every corner of the city and actually creating to undo the damage. this made for a very pretty scene that i really liked, but imagine how awful paris would look if in the series, none of that damage was ever fixed and it would have taken til the end of season 5, ten months after hawk moth started terrorizing the city, for anything to get restored (actually this wouldn't even happe if the show universe worked the same way because they don't reclaim that miraculous at the end of season 5).
so one of my main issues with this film is that a lot of the major themes and didactic messages are just constantly shoved in your face rather than learned by the characters. i think the series—because it has the time—does this better than the film because it allows characters to fail and learn things on their own, rather than having the message delivered in big "life lesson" quotes to the characters all the time that it doesn't at all feel natural. (so the film constantly tells rather than shows.) for example, on her way out of the bakery, marinette randomly asks her mom, "how do you make your dreams come true?" this conversation comes out of nowhere (they were talking about her embarrassment from her dad's antics and her lack of friends right before), and it's followed up with a lesson in believing in herself. it might have made sense had her mom encouraged her to embrace who she is and related that to her reaching out of her comfort zone to consider befriending some of her peers, but that doesn't happen. (it does lead to a song about believing in herself and how if she did so she'd reach her true potential, which is nice, but feels so disjointed from the conversation that happened before it, it was a bit jarring.) when marinette meets master fu on the street, he randomly says to her "who saves a life saves the world" and scares her. but then moments after, she ends up somewhere a ladybug leads her to the same words written on stone. we really didn't need master fu saying this to her when she was going to encounter the message anyway (especially as it comes into play significantly at the end of the movie in the final battle when fu reiterates the quote).
i cringed so hard in that scene after their first fight where master fu appeared out of nowhere just to say “before you discover who i am, you must first discover who you are.” like... okay?
similarly, this is how i felt about the "stronger together" theme. i love that this message is important to the plot—chat noir and ladybug literally are stronger together. but this is constantly being stated rather than the movie trusting the audience to realize it on their own. in the show, ladybug and chat noir work best as partners. their teamwork and trust in each other makes the entire show. here, they work best together also, and their powers even amplify during the moments of teamwork rather than when either of them try to take on a fight alone. i thought this was an interesting change (i love both), but i really like the two of them discovering this on their own through trial and error rather than having master fu mention it to them once and they just spend the entire movie constantly thinking about it.
the one “life lesson” that i thought was more naturally expressed was when chat noir, before being a cute goofball and teasing her, realized ladybug was a little hesitant to accept the mission, and he said, “i understand you’re afraid, but failure is not your enemy—your fears are.” though his delivery was lighthearted, the message stayed with her and she even parrots it back to him later. this is how a film expressing such “life lessons” should do it—through natural progression rather than a bunch of fortune cookie quotes thrown at you over and over again. (though the scene is different, it was reminiscent of the scene in origins when ladybug panics because of how they messed up their first fight, and chat noir reassures and encourages her, inspiring her to continue being a hero despite her being afraid of making more mistakes. this is another example of the film having corresponding but distinctive scenes that i still really enjoyed even though they were different from the series.)
actually, that scene towards the end of the film when tikki reminds marinette that she's ladybug even outside of the mask was really well done too (as well as its reference to the earlier "you save the world every day with your mask, but the girl behind it saved my heart" scene). i loved seeing marinette muster up all the strength she has to try to free chat noir from hawk moth's grip. that one shot of her tackling him out of the way of hawk moth's attack as herself untransformed is so beautifully animated.
overall:
honestly, ignoring all those tweets arguing the movie is better than the series (they're incomparable—there are things the film does better, but overall the development of the series spread out over a hundred episodes is way better than a movie limited under two hours with way too much music), i found that the movie was fun if it wasn't taken seriously. as much as we all hate astruc i don't think it can replace the series even with the things it did better, but i don't think it was meant to (despite what tons of great marketing tweets by fans have claimed). it's just another way to enjoy these characters that mean a lot to us, another iteration of a story we cherish. i do hope the writing improves and the lessons come more naturally in the sequel, but even if it's just a continuation of this i'll eat it up every time (especially now that the movie approaches territory the series has never come close to: marinette and adrien know their feelings for each other and their identities, a fanfiction reader's dream! and maybe they can retcon the adrienette and explore whatever was meant to be conveyed via that montage so that the relationship works on both sides of the mask). i hope anyone familiar with miraculous (and those even curious about it) go and enjoy this film on netflix because it's still a fun ride, and i'm really glad i had the opportunity to experience it at the cinema and laugh and cry all the way through.
#miraculous ladybug#adrien agreste#marinette dupain cheng#miraculous movie#miraculous awakening#ml movie spoilers#miraculous the movie#miraculous ladybug the movie#ml awakening#mlb movie#miraculous le film#awakening spoilers#mlb movie spoilers#ml awakening spoilers#chat noir#miraculous spoilers#mlb spoilers#ladybug and chat noir#miraculous#review#the gist is: it does some things better than the show and some things worse but overall i had fun anyway and i'm excited for the sequels
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Also Mingus. Of course
SEND ME A CHARACTER!!
MINGUS!!!!!!!! OF COURSE. under the cut lol
Sexuality Headcanon: bi :] it's ourple just like her. i don't think she especially cares for romance or ponders her sexuality much, but in less of an "arospec" way and more of a "forming human connection with her is a losing battle" way. i usually love arospec hcs and do see aro mingus somewhat often but it's just not something i really see myself.
Gender Headcanon: generally cis woman but i feel like if she learned what being nonbinary was she would try and release and trademark her own neopronouns and make people pay to use them. i do also see her being interpreted as transfem sometimes and i think that's a really interesting reading but not one that i actively subscribe to.
A ship I have with said character: ghghnmnnormingus. it's been really fuckin funny watching the tides change in the fandom on this ship - for a while i'd pondered it but never said anything, and then there was the time period where it was considered a weird cursed minority and i got vagueposted about it, and THEN mich came and singlehandedly pilled the masses and now its just, like, a ship. funny how that goes. but all of that talk aside, i just think they have so much potential in, like, every stage of their dynamic. the timeframe where norm's consumed by his completely one-sided obsession (/neg) with her is SO fun to think about, as is the idea post-canon of them forging a more normal relationship and possibly more. they're two of dialtown's most intricately-written characters imo, and it really shows in how layered all of their interactions are :'] there is so much baggage between them and simultaneously so little (with the point of "norm cares way more about her opinion of him than she even thinks about him") and it just makes the final confrontation of ch3 pay off so damn well. listen to nemeses by jonathan coulton it's THE normingus song to me. ⬇ SOOO ch3 norm @ mingus to me
A BROTP I have with said character: god her dynamics with all the mingling are so funny, i could listen to that group of people babble on literally forever. i wanna hear them talk about non-green related issues i want to hear what this room sounds like when its time to argue about, idk, taxes
A NOTP I have with said character: dialtown does not have that many options for edgelord proshittery but i have seen efforts at the one(1) they have. Unfortunately .
A random headcanon: always has some kind of headwear on, whether it be her trademark little hat or other ones she has made for her, or headbands or headscarves or whatnot. it's mostly cuz her head looks really off to me without the hat so i work in substitutes when im drawing or imagining her in more casual settings
General Opinion over said character: the height of dialtown's writing, her and everything to do with her. dialtown is already a good game but it goes from good to great when mingus takes center stage, imo. she's so interesting and also funny to watch - i think "seems silly but actually has deeper stuff going on"-type stories are best when the silly and the serious are tightly interwoven and you can't really distance them from eachother, and mingus is a great show of that as an inherently super tragic but also super funny character. there's not a word of dialogue she speaks where you don't get the impression of how pathetic and overcompensating she is, and that works both for humor and for sadness really well. i also like, in general, when typically "sympathetic" character flaws are played to be difficult or dangerous - in mingus' case her insecurity and desperation to follow in her grandfather's footsteps, and her compassion in wanting to be one of the only people left who still really care about him, it's objectively very noble- but less so when it becomes everyone else's problem rather than just hers. she has this in common with her grandfather 👍
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So I’ve always thought it was interesting that 2x06 opens and ends with Harrow giving Callum a present, of sorts. The first one we see corresponds to his drawing with Harrow giving Callum his sketchbook. The second one is more of a secret but still very clearly something being passed on / down to him and closes off the letter as well.
Showing that the sketchbook was a gift from Harrow that Callum uses / carries with him all the time is a great way to recontextualize some of their early bond in S1 as well as set up just how emotional Callum is in 2x07 when he 1) knows Harrow is also gone at this point and 2) still angrily throws it on the ground because he’s so worried about Rayla. It also makes his slight hesitance here make a ton of sense as it’s precious to him not just from an artist-sketchbook standpoint, but also a father-son standpoint, yet he turns it over to Rayla anyway.
But wait, there’s more!
We know that TDP likes to repeat episode structures / plot beats not only to reinforce the Cycle and all that (Rayla’s self loathing secrecy duology, the dragon quartet), but also to show character change and growth. Hence why S4 doubles down on this and creates all sorts of parallels throughout the season with all the previous seasons, particularly S1.
Case in point: 1x04 opens with Callum and his sketchbook (his first gift from Harrow) and closes with Rayla (unknowingly) delivering Harrow’s last gift to him. 2x06 is structured the same way, beginning with the sketchbook and ending with the cube. Callum’s dark magic plot line opens and closes the same way, too, with the sketchbook (drawings of Rayla and Claudia respectively) inspiring him to do dark magic, only for the cube to be a symbol of both temptation (2x08) and that he’s found his new path (2x09 to a lesser degree). Finally, 3x08 inverts this system by putting the cube first and sketchbook second. The cube helps Callum realize the moon opal could be used for a memory spell and then he draws Rayla’s parents in his sketchbook in order to help comfort / convince her of what he’s seen.
Now, part of this is surely because Callum only has 3-4 important objects assigned to him (his scarf, primal stone, sketchbook, and rune cube) across the course of the series. Rayla has 1-3 (her blades, binding, and then moon opal necklace) and Ezran noticeably has none until his crown in S3, which remains consistent. Of course the objects that Callum has on him and using all his smart brain power / resources is 1) something he’s always been good and 2) something he has to be good at just from a story standpoint because why give a character something if it’s not going to be useful or leave an impact?
However, the fact that these two objects typically work in tandem with each other (Callum’s sketchbook never has any impact on the brief time he has the primal stone beyond his initial sketch of it for example) and that the ordering is consistent is interesting, to say the least, even down to Rayla’s involvement / as an initiating incident.
We don’t see much of his pattern into S4 as Callum doesn’t use his sketchbook more than twice in S4 and is the first season in which he doesn’t draw in it at all, either. However, the last time we see him use his sketchbook and the last time we see him with the cube are both in 4x07, following in the same sketchbook-cube order we typically see, and both related to Rayla (the wind spell so she / the group won’t be too hot to sleep, her advice causing him to try to let go of the cube).
This also reinforces the consistent Harrow-Rayla parallels running throughout the series, but that could be a meta on its own. For now I just think this is neat and will as always take my little consistent coincidences to heart in hopes it pans out for one of my theories. It’s happened before, after all!
#1x04#2x06#the royal family of katolis#paying the price#arc 1#analysis series#parallels#analysis#mini meta#cube hostage exchange theory#MY ETERNAL BELOVED#multi#arc 2#tdp#the dragon prince#sketchbook cube pattern
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MY THOUGHTS ON THE DESIGNS
For starters, I am quite bad with curves or playing with wavy letters and so for both my designs I tried to come up with something without changing too much of the letters. For the first design, I wanted to do something somewhat related to architecture technology. My idea for this design was to draw some kind of stairway or steps. I knew having 2 straight edges like the center of the letter “Z” next to each other could make an image that looked like a flat surface, like when drawing a prism. I then needed to incorporate the letter into a way to make a riser for the step and so at first, I tried to simply put a 90° rotated “Z” which to me felt way too simple and lost the steps effect. To solve the losing of the effect, I mirrored the rotated letter “Z” as I didn’t want to use another letter such as “N” and this solved my issue as now it looked like the cross section of 2x4 like in my architecture drawings missing one line as normally it’d be a rectangle with an X as the diagonal lines from their corners would cross. Finally, to get to the end product, I simply copy pasted a lot and made sure they aligned with snaps on and so they did and I got a nice stairway.
For the second design, I wanted something more creative and far away from architecture. I wanted to make a sort of star shape and so I believed using a letter such as “A” or “V” would be the best option. To make the star shape u pressed 4 “A”s together with their pointy end touching at the bar in the middle, one vertical, one horizontal and the 2 others mirrored. This gave me a ninja star like shape although it felt very incomplete. In my struggle to find out how to complete it, I copy pasted the same pattern on the entire page. The pattern spread past the borders of the document which I then masked. I drew a rectangle over the 20x20 surface and then selected all layers, went to the drop-down menu titled “object”, went to “clipping mask” and then “make” this clipped all the letters outside of my design surface.
Then came the issue of colour and what I wanted to do with the pattern in general. I noticed the stars across the sheet made different shapes when next to each other, a sort of square with pointy tips in the corners and a hexagon, so I got the idea of a checkerboard pattern due to the repetition of square, stars and the weird shape I just mentioned in the drawing. The problem now was that I have trouble seeing colours properly. Although undiagnosed, I’m sure I inherited some form of colour blindness from my father. And so, I picked what I believed was a dark colour of blue and then a lighter version of it. I then coloured the pointy squares with the paint bucket tool making one row of dark and the next light which gave me a checkerboard pattern with them. Then came the inside of the letter “A” I chose a lighter, more vibrant shade of blue as to make the square within the star stand out to make a second “checkerboard”. I then coloured the hexagone a lighter more teal colour making a third checkerboard with the triangles formed by the “A”s I then did the same with what I thought was purple but to change it up I made the hexagon the darker colour. I then made the blue pattern the top left & bottom right with the pink/purple pattern top right & bottom left giving me my final checkerboard. I then obviously showed it to friends and family to make sure the colours worked together and was pleasantly surprised when they said it was okay.
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Strange Tales #142
Cover Date: March 1966 On-Sale Date: December 9, 1965
This story straddles the line between an arc related story and a divergence. It's not directly related to the Dormammu/Mordo vs. Doc story, but it involves arc characters we've seen before. And it really illustrates the fact that Doc needs to take security much more seriously. Also, he probably should have grabbed a nap at the Ancient One's pad before he headed back home.
As has become custom for this arc, we pick up from the end of the previous installment. Doc is tired, but still somewhat astute. He remembers he fought Mordo here and can't feel any trace of it. Like when someone on Bones washes down a crime scene with bleach and Temperance can't find any blood traces. Sadly, Doc has no Booth to whine to. "This ain't right," thinks Doc and out comes the All-Purpose Amulet. Everything he scans is an inanimate object so no issues with consent, yet. Doc finds the bomb, heroically grabs it from the lit brazier, jumps through the Vishanti window and throws it into the sky. Whew!
As a surgeon, Doc's specialty is biology, not physics and he doesn't anticipate the blowback from the explosion and it knocks him unconscious. Uh, oh! Doc's about to become a big slice of road pizza! Or is he? Nah, three mystery figures rescue him. Doc is saved! Or is he?
Doc is alive, but trapped. His captors have come up with bonds that I'm surprised haven't made is as fashionable in the BDSM scene. Doc's head is bound in a kinky mask (for the 60s) and his hands in these block-like things. Additionally, he's held in a spell that generates a cool aura. It looks very atomic.
The Freddy Krueger hatted captor assumes leadership of this rag-tag band of Baron Mordo minions. The leader assigns the others homework. The leader will check out the amulet, Kaecilius will attempt to do something with the cape and the Demon needs to do a non-consensual probe of Doc's marvelous brain.
Doc is pretty much helpless. He attempts to contact the cavalry. This being his mentor and good buddy, the Ancient One. The Ancient One has chosen, at that very moment, to try and find where Dormie stashed Clea. We finally get to see him go ghost, but it means when Doc calls, no one is home and he forgot to turn on the answering machine. To be fair, answering machines were pretty rare in those days. So Doc's calls just ring and ring. What now?
As Doc's life seems to be an ongoing string of lucky coincidences, the Demon shows up to perform his anal mental probe. The Demon begins this process. Even helpless, Doc is supremely arrogant and his thought narrate how his mind is infinitely more powerful than the Demon's. To illustrate this, Ditko draws a bunch of little thought snakes that crawl up the Demon's proble.
Doc takes over the Demon's mind and gives orders to release him. As he does this, we change scenes to the leader who turns out to be an attractive sorceress, wearing a lovely gown with enormous sleeves, gigantic earrings and a marvelous belt. The dress is s sort of red in the original printing. The Masterworks restoration colors it a delightful plum that I much prefer. We will eventually learn her name is Adria.
Adria is spouting to no one in particular about her plans about taking over things after she masters the amulet. Her mental contact with the Demon glitches and she realizes something is wrong. She creates a barrier around the Demon and Doc can't control him anymore. As he's still bound physically, he's forced to pop his ghost out of his body just a little to lead his physical self around. Adria orders everyone to find and recapture Doc. She uses a creepy pair of eyes kind of like Xandu did. This is very convenient for Adria as she can now go back to her world conquering research on the amulet. Bully for her!
Doc is making his way through the secret hideout and having a great deal of success punching out his captors.
Doc manages to escape. Despite still being bound, he jumps from roof to roof. In what is probably the least likely thing to happen, and I'm saying this about a series where characters regularly blast each other with magic rays, Doc misses a roof and manages to grab and pull himself up with his hands still bound.
Doc is free, sort of. But things still look rather grim for our favorite magician. What will happen next?
Wow! What a ride! We've got magic, and action, and lots of arrogance to go around. We know Doc could whip any of these individually, but combined and with the element of surprise, the terrible trio get the best of Doc. Stripped of his traditional tools, the cloak and amulet, Doc must really use his wits to defeat him. Doc is up to the task and he escapes overwhelming odds. Things aren't done yet. Doc still needs to completely free himself and defeat his enemies. The fun will continue.
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What Coordinated Specialists Could Present
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instagram work by Samantha Zamora
(Before you continue; when you see the pictures I posted on Instagram, you’ll notice that they all contain text, it’s my personal choice and I think it’ll help the imagery, you do not need to do this. Thank you.) (EDIT: I just realized how small and hidden the text is, my advice would be right clicking one of my images and clicking "Open link in new tab" to see the text)
Image 1- “Need A Drink” [alcohol pouring into glass cup]- I wanted to capture something in motion, like what we learned about Shutter Speed and Depth of Field. I chose the alcohol in a cup and the phrase “Need A Drink” because it’s something we all can relate to; after a long day of physical/mental labor, one feels hungry or thirsty, so they find whatever to satisfy themselves.
Image 2- “Beauty in Façade" [rhinestones scattered everywhere]- I wanted to fill up the composition with objects that grab one’s attention, like when you’re walking outside, and you find something shiny on the ground. I chose “Beauty in Façade" because of the obsession with diamonds and jewelry. Yeah, they’re beautiful and shiny, but they don’t hold much value (the rhinestones in this case).
Image 3- “Paint Me Pretty” [ceramic dog with paintbrush]- For this photo, I wanted to use something I made to help support my idea; the idea is about the beauty of creation and how everything one creates (A statue, painting, drawing, etc.) is an extension of oneself and shows one's thought process .
Image 4- “Permanence of The Temporary” [polaroid camera with photo]- So when we want to capture a moment, the first thing we do is pull out our cameras to make this moment last forever. A moment is just that: a moment, something that is temporary, a photo of that moment is forever.
Image 5- “Prolongation of the Picturesque” [painting being cleaned with a tissue]- This photo is about maintaining the beauty of an object. In this case, I am removing the dust of the framed painting so it will not sully the artwork (Yeah, the painting is not being damaged, but the frame of the painting can change the artwork’s appearance if it becomes dirty).
Image 6- “On the Go” [backpack]- This photo refers to going out somewhere and taking a backpack or purse with you, one of the first few items you gather before going out.
Image 7- “I choose you” [small boxes of ink]- This photo can represent how there are multiple ways to doing something, but we limit ourselves to one or two options. So, once you’ve thought your situation over after a while, you finally decide to settle with the choice you’re going with.
Image 8- “At My Convenience” [portable fan]- Another photo I wanted to capture with Shutter Speed. This photo is about things that are made to be used in one spot and cannot be moved, but finding the exact same object, but in portable form. This can be something like a laptop or tablet where we can take them anywhere.
Image 9- “Documentation of Conceptualization” [pencil and paper]- The main idea of this photo would be writing down ideas and thoughts as a way of planning, documenting, or expressing yourself on paper. This is beneficial because it helps you clear your mind and clarifies underlying emotions.
I think what I could have done differently would be someone else helping me take the photos while I perform the action of holding the objects with both my hands and experimenting more with the angles of my photos.
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-Old and trusted
This is for putting on the straps around massive recycled cardboard crates. It was originally used for a flat metal strip that was put around the bale and tightened by pulling backwards and forwards to tighten it. When the strap is tight, the handles open sideways and a metal clip is inserted and closed onto the metal strapping, holding it firmly in place. This is now done in exactly the same way but using a nylon strap which is fused with heat to seal it.
It caught my eye how the new machine has changed only slightly but they still used the same technique they have always use. Showing me that it does not always have to be something innovative to make it work and does not necessarily have to change if it works perfectly.
youtube
This is the modern version of it and how it is used, It is still used with the same technique but the metal strips are now nylon. The main part that interests me is how the technique has maintained the same but the machine has slightly changed. As I mentioned before, if something works there is no need for it to be changed.
Once I had realized what that object did I suddenly remembered that there is a baler where I work, I didn't realize it was the same thing until I found that behind it are the nylon straps that pull all the squashed cardboard into a cube. This baler squashes all the cardboard that is put inside of it and also wraps it up.
And these 3 objects all do the same to obtain this final look.
These are how bailing cardboard boxes end up looking like. And below are how bailing can also be used to keep smaller things strapped together and properly kept.
-Bearly a door handle
This is a peculiar door handle that I came across when I travelled back to Spain and visited a friend at his home. It is a door handle in the shape of a bears head that has very detailed factions. The set back eyes give it a haunt look, but with a comforting feel.
The door handle made me see how people tend to open the door because of the places it is worn and polished. I saw how they opened the door and all grabbing the ears and putting the palm of their hands on the nose, making these parts shiny.
I realized that a door handle doesn't have to be just a circle shape or something you push down. Seeing this has made me look more into door handles and they way they look and how they are being used in different ways. -Getting a Hand opening the door.
Coming across this door stop me in my tracks, the simple but effective idea is ingenious and practical. It also felt welcoming and fun. The metal was cold to touch but the detail was incredible. Experiencing the fun you can have with an everyday object that does not take itself very seriously will bring a smile to the users face.
I realize we should try this approach on many more everyday items instead of sticking to the normal and copying what was done before.
-Art with dots
Coming across this artist, that interested me because of how simple his work looks but also at the same time so deeply detailed and how he plays with lights in the dark. Even though this painting is done just with simple lines anyone can tell it is Paris. These lines resemble the light and the shadow at night in Paris.
I felt myself drawn into the picture, it was like it was alive, I could almost feel the hustle and bustle of a busy Paris nightlife.
The use of the bright colours in contrast with the dark greys gives the painting its life like appeal, this makes it possible to really feel a painting without it having to be finely detailed. -Takashi Murakami
A Japanese artist of the 20th century called Takashi Murakami is a very interesting artist who can make really complex drawings out of one simple design, I relate this kind of art to Lego as I mentioned earlier because of the fact both situations start with one block/image that builds up into a complete work of art that can appear complex to those who don't look further the what they initially see. This also reminds me of LEGO bricks that are a simple little piece of plastic but if you put them all together you can create amazing structure that would be very complex. But are they actually complex? I think that they can be considered simple because they are made out of many of the same thing. Not to me confused with a building because it is much more than just bricks. -Deco Art
Having studied leather as a material has made me focus on leather when I see it, having seen this art deco chair showed me what I had learnt from it. As leather is such a formal material it makes it look much more professional. The leather is complemented with two side arms wich are made out of chromed metal and creates the perfect balance between futuristic and tradition.
The aerodynamic look expresses the change in attitudes from the Victorian times to the exciting 1920s art deco revolution.
-Jacques Émile Ruhlmann
The 1920s deco-furniture was a prime example of sleek and functional designs that covered a complete range of items over the decade, such as chairs,display cabinets and tables. A prime example of what Art Deco means would be the designs of the designer Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann that created magnificent and beautiful chairs and tables that resembled incredible curves in furniture and how remarkably perfect and refined his furniture were. I particularly like a writing table he made because of how he made the support of it a semicircle. This particular one is veneered in macassar ebony with the working surface covered in a calf leather which gives it that professionalism that the simple things need.
-Brutal chairs
Adding some chairs for some reason makes me think it is more comfortable than without it.
-Slick chair
-Slick chair
There isn't really anything fascinating about this chair/sofa but I like how it is made and how it is simply a block with a curve in it. The dark colour gives it some formality and slick. -Awkward cutlery
I'm starting to realize how simplicity really draws my attention and how unique I think it is. Seeing this cutlery does make me doubt if it would work or not but even though it is simple you can easily tell what they are and what they are used for.
-From studying to eating
This is an innovative idea, changing everyday objects into useful and reusable everyday items.
The simplicity of this idea appeals to my past experiences of working with plastics, from changing one object into something functional. It has also made me look at everyday objects and wonder if they could be used or adapted slightly for another use.
-Simple sink made luxurious
The marble looks really nice in this bathroom and is really big, I like that you wash your hands in like a puddle. This makes it a weird way of cleaning them but because of how it looks it makes it look formal/posh. Some things can be a simple structure with and easy way of using but because of the material it completely changes how we view it. Certain materials make simple structures look more complex.
-Re-Sizing
I came across these hangers when I went to IKEA, I thought they were such a fun way to change the regular hangers we see everyday. These little changes can make an impact in the way places are decorated. What I find most interesting about this is how resizing things can give them a different use and change its original one.
Having different type or chair for a different hanger in a different room can help with the decoration and ambience of it. -Bending the light
Although this is nothing new and can be found in any household, the multitude of lights hanging together just seemed to spark up my imagination. Even though the picture does not do it justice it shows that simple things above your head don't have to only be functional but can also be beautiful as well. This made me think that making lights more elegant and better looking will also encourage people to look up as in this modern society everyone looks down and do not experience the beauty that is often above them.
This has shown me how the smallest of details can really make a difference.
-Is this jewelry?
This is a company that does very brutalism orientated jewelry in my perspective. Lots of their jewelry is ordinary but there are some things that stand out like this bracelet. The first time I looked at it I thought it was metal but when I looked it up I realized it was leather. The materials it is made out of are leather and sterling silver for the adjustment system. This bracelet is the kind of thing I think about when I hear brutalism. Making this out of materials that aren't usually used for that type of thing.
It interests me how people make things like jewelry out of materials that I would never have thought about to make it.
-How times have changed
Watches live on our wrists, in our pockets and we think very little of them in general. But they are works of art inside and out. They have been put into space and deep in the ocean. It shows it items can be functional tough and beautiful as well.
Watches are actually a very complicated device in the inside but on the outside they make them look like something very simple and easy that are just 2 stick pointing and two numbers.
-Don't get mad
This is a product called the Wastebasket. It is made out of Eco-friendly plastic and rubber. The colour and shape immediately caught my eye and had to look more into it. The idea of this project was to try and calm down anger or create a product that can feel fun and joy in the act of throwing when angry. The designer looked for a humorous design so it could allow joy and fun to reduce anger.
What interested me the most was the backstory to this product, because the first time I saw this I just thought it was a table which was a bin. Once I had read into it I was even more interested and I eventually found out that it was designed by joom design located in Seoul, Korea.
This made me realize that just because something looks like it has an obvious use to it, it does not mean it is for that use.
-Keywings
This idea really intrigued me because of the simplicity of it and how effective it is at the same time. Something that is so basic and helps so much. When I came across this at a key shop, immediately I thought how good this idea was. I have struggled sometimes opening a locked door because of the size of the key, so this product is something that would help me.
The fact that it is just a key attatchement and not necessarily part of the key makes it so much better by being able to remove it and add it when pleased. Having been in that situation really makes me interested about the object.
Having seen how efficient this product really is makes me realize how small details and difficulties can be solved in a simple way to make some ones life so much easier.
-Fusion
While I was making my waste not project I realized how beautiful the combination of all the colours of the bottle caps wore. How all of the caps melt together and formed a sheet. Once I put light through it it created this really call pattern that also made this cool colour on the walls. That made me think about using the knowledge I got from this project to make more things from recycled plastics, expanding, experimenting and bring new life to these throw away items that no one gives a second look.
-Simple is perfect
Simplicity shows elegance and understanding with a few lines and curves. No one would be in any doubt of what this sign means and what its intended use is for. Most people wouldn't even notice this small detail but for those who use it makes a difference. The fact that it is cut from metal gives it some permanency rather than just a sticker on a sign. Putting a little extra effort and detail into the most normal everyday objects can make things stand out in an artistic and open minded way.
-LEGO
I have always played with LEGO as a kid and I still really like them, but I feel that simplicity really does have a space in it. These are just blocks that are different shapes and sizes and such simple things, but as you put them together you create incredible structures that can be very complex.
A LEGO structure is simply something made out of lots of simple little blocks. it isn't as real life structure that is more that just brick, when it comes to LEGO it is only the blocks that create the structure.
In conclusion, a set of simple things doesn't make something complex.
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The recording studio – feat. Yoongi
Idol!Yoongi x fem!reader
Summary: You bring Yoongi lunch while he’s working on music. But you have an agenda.
Themes/warnings: smut, nipple play, fingering, protected sex, established relationship
Wordcount: ca. 1.2k
Disclaimer: 18+, DO NOT INTERACT IF YOU ARE UNDER 18
I do not own BTS. They merely inspire me. None of this is related to their persons in real life.
You’ve barely seen Yoongi the past few weeks since he’s been so busy working on music. Time to change that. You’ve made him a nice lunch, packed it up and are now entering Hybe building.
You’ve been together for so long that you have your own key card that lets you into the building, into the elevator and, best of all, Yoongi’s studio.
It’s the weekend and you’re off work today. You step into the elevator with one of Hybe’s producers. The employees seem to never sleep.
“Visiting Yoongi”, the guy asks, nodding at the lunch bag you hold.
“Jup. He’s gotta eat. He keeps forgetting to pack lunch.”
“Lucky guy.”
You smile at the producer. The elevator pings open. You bow your head before exiting. The walk to Yoongi’s studio is short. You knock four times. No objection from inside so you use your keycard. There’s the humming sound that says it’s unlocked.
You push the door open. Yoongi sits at his desk, headphones on. He hasn’t even noticed you yet. Gently, you close the door and walk over to him. You put the lunch bag down on the table and look down at him.
His eyes are closed. He’s totally immersed in the music.
“Yoongi”, you try. No reaction. So you repeat it louder, squeezing his upper arm. He blinks his eyes open.
“Honey.”
Yoongi presses pause on the song, pulls off the headphones and gets up.
“I brought you lunch.” You point at the bag.
Yoongi pulls you into a hug and gives you a peck on the lips. He has that soft, fuzzy expression in his eyes that means he’ll give you a few kisses, say some sweet nothings and then send you on your way.
Not today!
“You look beautiful.”
He runs his large hand over your blouse and down your side over your skirt. Your heart flutters. Something low in your belly screams to take the opportunity.
You run your hand through his long hair and pull him close again. It’s as if he can read your mind because there’s no way this is a peck. Your tongues meet. You press your body into his, melting fully into the embrace.
After a few seconds, Yoongi draws back. He lets go of you and walks to the door.
“Thanks for coming, honey.”
You frown. Are you being dismissed this quickly?
Yoongi locks the door.
“I’ve been having a hard time focusing on work. I kept thinking of you.”
“You did?” You smile coyly.
“Yeah. More specifically-“
Yoongi grabs you around the waist and sits down on his chair with you on his lap.
“More specifically about bending you over whatever surface is available and having my way with you.”
Your heart skips a beat.
“I picked this skirt specifically for such a purpose”, you whisper next to his ear.
You rub your core against his crotch. Finally.
Yoongi’s hands tug on the hem of your blouse until it comes free. He slides his hands up your stomach and to your boobs. He cups them, squeezing a little. A sigh escapes him. You’ve always secretly thought they are kind of like stress balls for him.
You move one of your hands to your back and unhook the bra. Yoongi instantly pulls it away and slides his hands under.
“I love your boobs.”
“Mh, I know, babe.”
You lean into his touch. The friction has done its part. He’s hard under you. Makes rubbing against him feel all the nicer.
“If you help me takes this off, I’ll show you how much I like them.”
Your lower stomach clenches at that. Rapping has made Yoongi skilled with his tongue. In all areas imaginable.
Quickly, you unbutton your blouse and toss it to the side. Your bra follows suit. Yoongi’s eyes are on your perky nipples. He licks his lips. You arch your back, so your boobs are closer to him. A smile tugs on the corner of his mouth.
One of his hands comes up from your hips. He takes your nipple between thumb and index finger and gives it a twist. You clench your hand into his t-shirt. He does it again and again. Your head drops back, and you let out a whine.
Instantly, you clap a hand over your mouth.
“The studio is soundproof, honey. You should know that by now.”
You smile. Thank goodness. It makes your life a whole lot easier.
Your core clenches as Yoongi keeps up the ministrations on your nipple. You have your eyes closed so you don’t see him move in to take your nipple into his mouth. The soft warmth feels heavenly. Especially once he starts working his tongue on your nipple.
You claw at Yoongi’s shirt, your legs shaking. Your moans and whines flow freely. The waves of the orgasm wash over you. Yoongi withdraws once you let out a final sigh. Your nipple is red and sensitive, and you feel very nice. You smile at Yoongi sleepily.
He gets up, making you stand with him. Your brain is still a bit foggy. Once he turns you around and gently pushes your upper body forward until your elbows are propped up on the table, you understand, though.
Yoongi rolls up the swirly skirt around your waist and pulls down your underwear. You can hear a drawer open and close. This has been such a regular occurrence that Yoongi has a box of condoms here at all times. You smile into your arm. You hope he doesn’t have to open that drawer in front of other people.
Yoongi runs his long fingers over your folds and finds your clit. You buck your hips into his hand. You lose any sense of time as he continues drawing circles on your clit. Your next orgasm builds. Just as you’re about to come apart, Yoongi pushes into you.
Your moaning fills the room. The orgasm has you breathing heavily, clenching around him.
“Mh, honey”, Yoongi breathes.
You take over taking care of your clit. Yoongi’s hands move to your hips. He holds you in place as he pushes into you, deep and slow. He fills you up just right and, in this position, he hits your sweet spot perfectly. Lewd noises fill the room. Yoongi’s occasional throaty moan makes your toes curl.
The snap of his hips becomes harsher.
“Babe”, you whimper.
“What? Harder still?”
The man knows you too well. His deep, hard thrusts have you clawing at the table. Paired with you drawing circles on your clit it drives you towards orgasm three.
“It feels so… so good.”
“I’m close, honey.” He’s breathing hard. “One more?”
“I’m-I’m-“ You can’t get the words out before the third orgasm of the day steamrolls you. You slump forward on the table. A few more thrusts and Yoongi comes apart too. He leans over you, propped up on his elbows. His long hair tickles your cheek.
“Thanks for coming over today. I really needed you close.”
© musicloverxoxo7, 2022
Please do not copy or repost my work. Doing so will make you legally liable for stealing intellectual property.
#bts smut#bts fanfic#bts imagines#bts x reader#yoongi#yoongi smut#yoongi x reader#suga x reader#suga smut#established relationship#idol x reader#female y/n#yoongi x female reader
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Neptune in the houses.
Neptune in the first house:
1)Charisma even with the wrong facial features,which blooms especially brightly in the photo.This is the position of the planet had Marilyn Monroe.
2)Falling in love with an unattainable object – a movie actor,a singer,an inaccessible beauty,for example,the one in the mirror:)
3)They have a certain taste that they design on clothing and the interior of the house.I often meet such people with blue or green eyes.
4)They are very friendly and compassionate.They can be the people to talk to and cry to.
5)With bad aspects,a person may have mental illness.
Neptune in the second house:
1)They are prone to reckless spending,they can spend their entire salary on a certain thing that they literally "fell in love"with.
2)With a strong position of the planet and the absence of negative aspects,the native can really achieve success and earn good money in art,chemistry and medicine.
3)Big money can come to them in an unusual or unexpected way.And also mysteriously disappear...
4)When Neptune is affected,people can feel a lot of guilt,even where they were not at fault.
5)I really recommend keeping a money-book.This way your money will be under your guidance.There is no other way to work out this position of the planet.
Neptune in the third house:
1)It is most convenient for such people to learn through pictures and examples from life.They may not count well in their minds,for example.(But you still need to look at Mercury)
2)They can be good writers,bloggers,or singers.
3)Because of problems in the parent family,such a person often lives with one of the relatives.
4)When the planet is hit,a person can be absent-minded,do poorly in school,be very shy and have bad relationships with siblings.
5)With a strong Neptune,a person can be a good teacher(he feels other people when talking)
Neptune in the fourth house:
1)A person has problems with one of the parents who may have liked alcohol or illegal substances.Or he died early.Often,such people may still have a parent who is ill with something,who needed a lot of care.
2)Their parents may have been of different nationalities.Their house often had guests.
3)With bad aspects,a person could run away from home or leave it at an early age.
4)They relax through privacy.During this time,you can draw,meditate,or watch a movie.
5)This position of Neptune is good for social workers who are able to realize their talents for the common good,preferably within a large organization that will give them a lot of clients,colleagues and suitable motivation for their work.
Neptune in the fifth house:
1)Low self-esteem or,conversely,skillful psychological manipulation of others.
2)If the position of the planet is not worked out,a person can turn his head from the beloved.He can idealize his image,add too much romance.
3)By nature,human is a very gentle,kind and merciful person.He has charisma and sex appeal.
4)They could be very troubled children.
5)Pregnant women with this situation should be VERY careful to monitor their health.
Neptune in the sixth house:
1)They may have unusual allergies or just a large number.
2)Their health can directly depend on the cleanliness of the house and their food.
3)They should not rely on others.Not everyone works honestly and correctly.Also PLEASE respect yourself and don't help everyone.
4)The best solution for a native is to work from home or to reach the level of a manager yourself,when you don't have to spend time on routine duties.And in order to build a successful business relationship,it is important to give up the use of alcohol and psychotropic drugs,because such a person gets used to them instantly.
5)With a weak Mars in the natal chart,there is idleness and a desire to frequently change the place of residence.
Neptune in the seventh house:
1)With a harmonious Neptune in the 7th house,the native radiates the energy of love and subconsciously waits for acceptance and sympathy when getting married,moving to a new job and entering a University.
2)When the planet is affected,idealistic expectations turn into broken dreams:it is difficult to join the team,do not accept it as it is,you have to sacrifice your interests.
3)Their partner may suffer from some kind of mental disorder and the person will help to cure it.
4)Such people need to learn to read their feelings and be able to make final decisions.
5)When choosing a job,a person should carefully study the personality of the manager,so as not to experience emotional abuse.
Neptune in the eighth house:
1)You have a very active imagination and a powerful imagination.You may have an interest in the supernatural,psychic phenomena,or the occult.You may have strange fantasies,vague fears of ghosts and death,so it is best not to engage in such things until you are firmly on your feet in the material world.
2)Prone to seeing strange dreams and nightmares.Often suffers from insomnia,may end up in a dream or under anesthesia.
3)Must keep track of the family's finances,their partner may have spent too much money.
4)Their relatives have occult abilities(maybe a human too).
5)Neptune is the most passive planet and sexually it leads to deep and Platonic love.Sex and bodily pleasures are not in the first place for him,the main thing is emotions and tenderness.
Neptune in the ninth house:
1)The karmic task is not to allow yourself to become a "stranger among your own",forgetting about the roots and national traditions,maintaining a balance between the desire for reform and respect for history.
2)He is actively interested in educational programs and social reforms.He likes to study and shows the ability to learn foreign languages,and strives to help people deprived of their freedom.
3)The defeat of the planet creates a danger of ignoring professional training and determines difficulties in communicating with relatives of a partner.
4)Very often such people are very demanding in love.
5)The advice is to deal with your thoughts and ideas.You can't combine incompatible things.Spend more time meditating and being alone to make important decisions.
Neptune in the tenth house:
1)Their work must be creative for career growth.
2)The weak position of the planet provokes intrigues and intrigues of colleagues and strained relations with the boss,and in a strong position,the sharpened intuition of the native will help to get away with it.
3)If their work is normal,they can modify it.For example,such a teacher can teach in an unusual way,and simply differ from others.
4)In a good position a person can give good advice.
5)Your father was a unique person, different from other people, or unpredictable in dealing with you. Perhaps his views were unstable or he was too headstrong, but in any case, he created his own unique life. You may have been separated from it, either literally or figuratively. By interacting with it, you have learned the need to stand firmly on your own two feet, not depend on anyone, and this imprint has formed one of the basic attitudes to life that you will follow as an adult.
Neptune in the eleventh house:
1)In love,an incorrigible romantic.
2)When Neptune is stricken,it has unreliable friends.They should choose their environment carefully even at work.
3)Even the owner of Neptune in the 11th house often has low self-esteem,is shy to show their talents,hides in the shadow of others.Having a fine mental organization,it is vital for him to learn to punch his way with his elbows,so as not to be trampled by the crowd.
4)You can read people's feelings,but you can't distinguish between friend and foe.Paradox.
5)You are the friendliest of all houses!
Neptune in the twelfth house:
1)Such people often hide their feelings and attachments.
2)Like the sixth house you need to value yourself and your time and not help everyone.
3)There are a lot of talents not only in creativity,but also in other areas of life.
4)They literally feel the money,intuition saves them from bad deals.
5)They like not to respond to messages for a long time,not because of resentment,but simply because they are resting or sleeping ahaha.
#astrology#astrologynotes#astrology observations#neptune#astrology community#zodiacsign#aries#taurus#gemini#cancer#leo#virgo#libra#scorpio#saggitarius#capricorn#aquarius#pisces#zodiac#horoscope#natal chart
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Just My Type Pt. 1
Pairing: Tomura Shigaraki x Reader
Word Count: 3.7k
Warnings: slight dubcon, stalking behavior, voyeurism, male masturbation, sorta subby shiggy if you squint, reader is pretty gender neutral, no pronouns used, 18+ MINORS DNI
Summary: You’re a part time transporter for the LoV and Shigaraki just can’t seem to get you out of his head. So much so that he follows you home and jerks it to you changing in front of your window.
Note: first time writing for shig and this sat in my drafts forever, I’m thinking of a part two If there is any interest.
Part 2
AO3 Mirror
He didn’t understand you.
Though, to be fair, he didn’t really understand anyone—he never needed to.
As long as the League did what he told them to do when he told them to do it, that was always enough. Ultimately, people were nothing more than overly complicated pits of questionable motivations, each arbitrarily categorized as good or evil and judged accordingly. Whether or not he understood those motivations was immaterial.
It was enough to have them simply obey.
And he’d never bothered with wondering why they followed him.
But that wasn’t exactly true anymore, because Tomura Shigaraki did wonder now—wondered often, and somewhat obsessively, about you.
He was doing it now, even. Eyes creeping their way across the dingy floorboards to where you stood by the bar’s entrance. You looked very out of place there, and your voice was almost too loud as it broke the almost constant silence.
It wasn’t that you stood out, though—really it wasn’t. To anyone else, you probably didn’t at all. In fact, the only reason he became even tangentially aware of you at all was because you came to him for payments. You were just a transporter, showing up every now and then to drop off or pick up a new order and rushing out again.
‘Reliable’ is the word Kurogiri used. That’s why he recommended you, and he was right.
You did your job quietly, without error.
All this was just to say that from the outside you were frustratingly unremarkable—a blip, a smudge on the page of his life’s work in the making.
And yet.
And yet you were so impossible to ignore, standing out immediately every time you walked in a room.
You were nothing special, nothing he hadn’t seen before. Though, now that he thought about it—neck tingling the second he felt your eyes on him—maybe it wasn’t so much that your presence itself was incongruent. No, objectively speaking, you did fit in perfectly amongst the shitty furniture and refuse. But it was specifically the way you carried yourself around him which seemed so blatantly unusual.
“Everything’s unpacked and accounted for,” you called to him, sauntering over to his seat along the bar.
You had a particular walk—It was something he noticed early on. Like you always knew exactly where you were going.
“Good,” he nodded and tossed an envelope of cash your way.
He never knew what to say to you, so he tried to say as little as possible. Though there were plenty of things he wanted to say. Questions and phrases occurred to him nightly, clamoring at the seal of his lips to escape, to be spoken into reality.
“Same time next week?” you asked, obvious to the rampage of thoughts in his head.
You always looked him in the eye when you spoke, no one ever did that.
“Yeah.”
The upward quirking of your lips when you spoke made his palms sweat, “See you then. Pleasure doing business with you, as always.”
Your hand was the last thing to disappear from around the door frame and into the street. As your figure faded away into the crowd, the air seemed to grow heavier. The soft clinking of glasses as Kurogiri tidied up, the oppressive scent of bodies and liquor and smoke all wafted back in.
Now he’d wait another week to say all of two words to you and pretend it wasn’t the only thing he’d truly looked forward to in years.
***
So no, Tomura Shigaraki didn’t understand you, but he was beginning to wish that he did.
Which was concerning in it’s own right. He was not accustomed to whatever the pit that developed in his stomach when you came around was called and for good reason. Things like that got in the way of progress. He knew that much at least. And he tried, so very hard to disregard it, but you kept coming back every week and he—
He couldn’t.
It was just because you were attractive. That was what he tried to tell himself. It was because you were attractive and you wore those tight uniforms sometimes and Dabi was...Dabi, so he always pointed it out. It was because you were attractive and he was only human, as much as the rest of the world tried to deny it. That was the only reason you ever crossed his mind. He could accept that. It was a physical response, nothing he could help.
You were nice to look at, and he appreciated your willingness to do your job and keep your mouth shut otherwise.
In the beginning, it was easy to convince himself of this.
Easy to live with just the stolen glimpses of you rushing in and out the door. But as those short few seconds grew and your employment with the League became increasingly stable, just the sight of you weaving through the tables or negotiating with Kurogiri at the bar wasn’t nearly enough to keep him satisfied.
Then you started staying for drinks some nights, maybe every other week or so, which certainly didn’t help the situation.
The others liked you enough. Despite the effect you seemed to have on him, to everyone else you were unassuming in a way Tomura was beginning to think must be purposeful. Shallow, yet personable enough to be appealing to just about anyone. He was sure the rest of the team would never notice it, but he had such a hard time doing anything other than drinking in every word that fell from your lips that it was hard not to see the way you casually dodged every question thrown your way.
In any case, it made you easy to get along with, and so when you did decide to hang back after runs, the bar was always a bit lighter and filled with the scent of drugstore shampoo instead of blood and grime. Tomura himself never actively participated in ‘team bonding activities,’ but he remained in the periphery.
Listening. Looking.
At you.
Tonight was one of those nights, and it was following the same formulaic structure as usual. Kurogiri made everyone a drink, Toga laughed too loud at a terrible joke, and after a few shots Dabi made a thinly veiled pass at you.
Tomura was starting to think that he did it specifically to get to him, and it was annoyingly effective. His chest grew tight as he watched a scarred and stapled hand slide it’s way into your lap. Tomura’s own nails dug painfully into the scabs of his neck while Dabi’s bit at the flesh of your thigh.
But the surge of anger, of jealousy, didn’t mean anything. Not really.
Dabi always pissed him off, so he tried to blame the visceral reaction on the fact that the burnt piece of beef jerky masquerading as human was a bit of a bastard. And since everything Dabi did pissed him off, it also made sense that this did too.
This had absolutely nothing to do with you particularly he thought to himself, even as the burning in his throat lessened when you pulled away and stood to get another drink.
It made a frustrating amount of sense for you to fuck Dabi, though. He was outspoken in a way Tomura could never match, with a more traditionally dominant manner that attracted partners like moths to his flame.
He thought maybe you would at first.
Fuck Dabi, that is. You struck him initially as one of those quiet types who saw softness where there was none and clung to it. Gravitated towards broken people in a desperate attempt to fix them, as if that could bring some meaning to your useless existence. Of course, he’d probably made an equally poor first impression as well.
Regardless, he was fairly certain you never did fuck Dabi.
Mostly because he would have assuredly rubbed it in Tomura’s face and because sometimes—like right now—he’d push past the churning in his gut to look up as Dabi not-so-casually propositioned you into his bed. And when he did, he caught the way you hid a secret grin behind your hand, ducking your head down with the most incredulous look plastered on your face for just a second. Like you knew that charred asshole didn’t have a fucking clue.
Though he really couldn’t be sure if that was anything more than a trick of the light.
“Care to join?”
Your voice ran through him like a thousand volt shock as he looked up from the table to see you standing just behind him.
“What?” he asked incredulously.
He didn’t seen you coming, too busy glaring at your empty seat to notice the signature sound of your footsteps drawing near.
“Do you want to come drink with us?” you said again and nodded towards the empty glass in his hand.
This wasn’t part of the routine. You hadn’t ever approached him before outside of the necessary work related conversations. Predictably, Tomura fumbled just a bit.
Yes. “No, I’m done here.”
The way you kept moving your head to keep eye contact with him was nearing oppressive. He just barely caught the slight frown as you backed away for him to brush past you towards the stairs.
“Suit yourself,” you shouted after him.
He didn’t bother answering, just slammed his bedroom door and sat at the edge of the mattress with his head in his hands and his dick raging hard in his pants.
***
Even from two floors away Tomura heard you getting ready to leave. He could easily picture it, and was currently despite his attempts to think of quite literally anything else. The way you’d slide your empty glass across the bar top and just fade like a shadow into the night air.
He could hear the rest of the League beginning the crawl up to their respective rooms one by one. And it was the persistent thought of you sliding back into your coat that convinced Tomura to finally let his mind slip.
All the failed attempts at concocting business strategy, budgets or what he would need you to deliver next fell away, leaving only thoughts of the way your lips fit around the rim of a glass. How the moisture beaded just on the plushest part and your tongue flicked out to wipe it away.
Then his hand was slipping too, teasing under the waistband of his pants and stroking his still aching cock.
He’d never had his dick sucked but he imagined—in the dark of his room, listening to you offer your goodbyes through the floorboards—that you’d be good at it. Thought you might nip at his thighs and take his whole length into the wet heat of your mouth in one go. You’d roll your pretty tongue over the head of his cock until he couldn’t take the teasing doses of pleasure. He’d buck his hips up, milking himself with your throat and you’d happily let him.
Tomura pumped his length, fucking his hand in earnest now. Curiously he made a small ���o’ with his thumb and index finger, trying to replicate what the seal of your lips might feel like. He closed his eyes and attempted to conjure a good accompanying image: you, on your knees, head bobbing on his cock. And, god that was so good. He even muttered the words under his breath, but it wasn’t quite enough.
The image quickly shifted as he chased his climax. Maybe you’d want to press your fingers past the tight ring of his ass too till he was a shaking mess, cumming all over your face and chest. He did it himself sometimes, rocking back on his hand when he was really desperate to achieve a knee-weakening high.
That almost did it, his hand sloppy with drool and precum all while you were just downstairs.
These moments were the most delicious. When he stopped trying to deny himself of the fantasy—what was always buried in the back of his head when you came around.
That you might touch him. That you might tell him how good he feels. That you might like it.
But then the loud click of the door swinging shut on the main floor rang through the halls. And at the thought of you, gone once again, all the images were soured. Instead, the pressing reality wormed it’s way back in. Reminding him that he would only wake up in the morning—as he had so often done—crusted in cum and sweat and wondering if you were the type to stay the night or if you’d disappear from his bed just the way you did from the bar every time the others got a bit too close.
And the more he allowed that thought to creep it’s way into his head, ripping away his climax, another compulsion grew. He could feel himself cresting a hill as you slipped right through his fingers—taking a nosedive straight into a disaster that smiled up at him with your pretty, pretty lips.
***
It was just good business practice.
That’s what Tomura repeated in his head, hoping from streetlight to streetlight just a block or so behind you. But nothing he did was ever strictly good, and the only thing even slightly business related about following you home tonight was that you happened to sort of work for him.
Damn, you moved fast.
Tomura guessed that shouldn’t come as a shock considering your job depended on it, but it was a struggle not to lose sight of you. He ducked into doorways or alleys when you stopped to cross the street. Your form flitted quickly between the patches of neon-lit sidewalk, passing 24-hour convenience stores and clubs whose thick bass beats reverberated in the cool night air.
He hung back when you finally began ascending the stairs of what seemed to be an apartment complex at the far side of a dead end. It looked shitty, but in a sort of charming way—vines growing haphazardly up the iron railings and paint chipping so the walls looked like an oil canvas from far away. Tomura watched you take the stairs two at a time until you disappeared into the depths of the building.
In the stillness that followed, he began to question the point of all this.
The decision to follow you was not well thought out.
After whipping the mess of spit and cum from his hands, Tomura had snuck out into the hall. Really, he’d only meant to listen, maybe catch an extra glimpse of you before the night ended. But then, through the halfhearted bantering and inane pissing contests, he caught you drifting towards the door. And as he watched you slip, really watched and felt the distance growing between you, something struck him.
Maybe it was the way that sliver of light pollution from the doorway illuminated the dips and hollows of your profile. Or the sparkle of your coat buttons amongst the smoke from Dabi’s cigarettes. But more likely, it was the way you paused—one foot already in the street—and glanced at him for just a split second. Immediately catching his face hidden between the railings as though you could sense his gaze on you. Like you felt the same shiver down your spine.
When your eyes roamed over him, they left tremors in their wake.
It was pathetic. It was sad and disgusting—a part of him knew that—but just that one simple look, that small acknowledgement of his existence had him raging hard in his pants once again.
Tomura moved without thinking, moved by the shameful compulsion to grab any scrap of attention you’d throw his way and cling to it.
And now he was here, standing outside your apartment like the creep he knew he was, to do what exactly? What had he hoped to accomplish? He just...he wanted, needed to feel it again. So long he’d subsisted on incredibly complex daydreams and nightly fictional scenarios in which you kissed him and didn’t spit in revulsion at the feel of your lips on his.
And when you looked at him, half caked in shadow and lit up with haze, he was overcome with a desperate, mortifying need to know for sure that all those dreams weren’t unfounded.
Tomura Shigaraki wanted you so badly it hurt, like his ribs were cracking under the pressure of it.
You gave him a crumb with that glance, but he was never known for his patience. No, he was greedy and selfish and he needed more.
And for once, the powers that be seemed to have taken his side. Just a few minutes after you were swallowed up into the mass of concrete, a light flicked on in one of the upper windows. Through the drawn back curtains, Tomura was absolutely blessed by the sight of you—hands tugging the top from your shoulders and baring swathes of your naked skin for him to wonder at.
If just a look could get him hard, then this might just kill him on the spot.
You really shouldn’t be changing in the open like that. Anyone could be watching.
But with a show this good, well it would be insulting not to take full advantage wouldn’t it? Of course. You’d want him to. How could he waste such a perfect opportunity to jerk himself off to the thought of fucking your perfect chest while he could actually see it. And oh, oh god your nipples were definitely hard and just begging to be sucked on. He could almost taste you in his mouth, feel how silky the buds would be against his tongue.
Fuck.
You were going to ruin him.
Looking around, the street seemed to be deserted, no other buildings lit either. It wasn’t so much that he cared if anyone saw, but letting his guard down so out in the open was never very appealing. Though the visage of you, stripped and illuminated for him alone, was enough to over power any amount of trepidation.
Tomura’s hand dipped back into his jeans, wrapping around his cock and stroking as best he could in the confined space. Precum streamed from the tip as he teased it with his thumb while you started to shimmy out of your pants. He whimpered at the glimpse of your ass on full display.
His mind raced.
You were both exactly and nothing at all what he expected. Which was more to say that the you that existed in his head was an amalgamation of all his favorite porn vids mashed into one, but this—this was nothing like he’d ever seen hastily sifting through tabs on his PC.
There were marks and dips and curves and angles that he hadn’t thought of before. Hadn’t ever really seen without the separation of clothing and it was delicious and not nearly enough. God, his cock throbbed, gushing at the thought of your thighs around his waist, or head, or hiked over his shoulders. He could give you what you needed, he had no evidence of this but he just knew it.
You stretched, and he could nearly hear the joints popping. Out in the open, exposed and so close to being caught, all of Tomura’s sense were heightened.
God what he’d give to see your face, watching, knowing how hard he was for you. He could picture it now: the twinge of shock, the barely disguised pang of want. Maybe you’d be disgusted with him, but really this was all your fault. This is what you did to him.
The wrongness of it all only made that much more enticing.
Tomura set a steady pace, pumping his hand along the length of his cock, so hard and dripping with every swipe of his thumb over the tip. You were shifting in and out of his view now, rummaging around what he assumed was your bedroom. It was physically painful every time you disappeared, a whine bubbling up in the back of his throat at the loss.
His length pulsed against his palm and his toes curled inside his sneakers.
Small, ragged gasps leaked through the cracks in his lips and condensed in the air. In the dim streetlight, the little clouds of condensation shifted and sparkled like sweat on taut skin. He envisioned drool dripping down onto your back as he pounded into you. His free hand dug into the meat of his thigh, pretending as though it was your flesh he was leaving fingerprint bruises on instead.
Trying to convince himself this was anything other than what it was.
Tomura’s hand moved faster, knuckles scraping the zipper of his jeans and spilling slow, thin streams of crimson onto his aching dick. It stung and stoked the coiling low in his gut. Fuck, his teeth ground down biting into phantom flesh. What he wouldn’t give to mouth at that perfect curve in your neck, run his tongue up the pulsing vein and hear whatever lovely noises spilled from your lips.
He was so close to spilling over, but he just a bit more. He’d come this far already, why not dive just a little deeper off the edge?
It wasn’t entirely conscious, the quick steps he took across the street and up the stairs you’d taken. Tomura’s body was functioning on base instincts, carrying him mindlessly closer to the object of his desire. It wasn’t hard to find the right room. It wasn’t a large building, only a few units, and he swore he could smell the familiar scent of your soap wafting out from under the door.
God he really was a pathetic fucking dog, sniffing you out while his dick was aching to rut into his own hand.
But as he stood outside, debating whether to dust the whole wall separating your sweet, naked form from him or to pick the lock and slip inside, the knob turned on it’s own. Before he could even think of rushing back to the street, you were standing before him, eyes alight in a way he’d never seen before—wide and blazing and hungry.
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