#god brains SUCK

[baekuras]

today on not sure who to blame for my fuckass reaction my brain or my lack of skillz

i am actively TRYING to git gud at 3D modeling human characters but apparently today is a 'fail everything' day-not like i could make them look good to begin with I dont like all premade meshes since i DO wanna edit some details and w/ all the neat topology on there and all ready its hard to A destroy that basically, B: have ANYTHING less poly in the exact way i want, C: having to retopologize it if i DO kill it so the only other way is to at least make the head yourself

anyhow anyone got any tips on stop making fucking alien heads and also stop being so annoyed at not being good immediately when all you do is try for 5minutes and then give up bc your brain just gets so pissed off it translates into your arms into restless energy akin to when a cat gets overstimulated and just bites smth bc thats me right now

[egophiliac]

heeey guess what, I'm obsessed with this idiot flamingo now

[soath]

“essek wants the gods dead” “oooh, this is going to change essek’s mind about the gods” i’m sorry but that boy is a cultural luxonite. he has no strong opinions on the gods other than ‘well, they sure empirically exist’. he might have some issues with his home faith (understatement) but he was still raised in an ancient battlefield literally scarred by the horrors of the calamity where the prime deities are a bunch of affectionately tolerated minority cults. his entire society thinks they transcended the need for Gods with Shapes and my man is not immune to the luxon-centric chauvinism of his upbringing.

sure, given another few years under ludinus’ thumb he could have probably been swayed to team deicide, but that’s not where’s he’s at. where he’s at is hanging out in rexxentrum, getting made fun of by caleb for referring to the dawnfather as ‘an influential, if over anthropomorphized solar deity’. you can take the elf out of rosohna but you can’t take rosohna out of the elf. the gods? well, fjord and caduceus are very fond of theirs (tone of someone describing their friends’ baffling but periodically lifesaving hobby). he technically works for one now through the cobalt soul and he can respect her ethos. after that he runs out of things to say about them.

now the luxon, on the other hand… he’s watching this entire directors cut triple-feature like a hawk. trying to divine the secrets of the universe from a reality show and it might just work.

[mintypsii]

early bird activities

[ikeameatballspoisonedme]

Argo Tuulik and Dora Klindzic has received legal threats from Longdue (one of the ex-Disco studio announced back in October), specifically one of the investor Riaz Moola, and ZA/UM for working in Summer Eternal.

Argo alleged that he hasn't worked or signed any paper for Longdue. The company said otherwise.

If you want my personal opinion if no contract was signed then Argo should've been free to do whatever he wants after leaving. Longdue's statement didn't specify about Argo's contract either so I believe that is the case. This just seems so petty to me. Riaz Moola is a Forbes 30 under 30 alumni so I don't really have much confidence in his credibility!

[raylazuko]

Two all 2 people who follow my tumblr

GUYS THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT

If you’re of voting age in the US and not registered, PLEASE REGISTER NOW!

I’m endorsing Kamala Harris for president.

The fact that’s it’s even close makes me sick to my stomach.

You can disagree with Harris or Biden or their administration on a lot of things, but not seeing that she is clearly the better option is scary.

Queer people’s lives depend on this.

If you care about us, PLEASE VOTE

If you are mad at Harris for not stopping the genoc1de, remember that Trump will absolutely not stop it either and that he’s a moron who no one respects. I’d rather have a g3nocide overseas and have queer people (and poor people, women, poc) in the US protected than have a g3nocide overseas and not have them protected.

And if you say “well Roe v Wade overturned and other conservative laws happened under Biden” Remember this was the CONSERVATIVE supreme court that did this. And another Trump term will make the court even worse for decades. The implications of this are huge.

People are on the fence, it’s simple. If you care about your queer, disabled, poc, poor, female loved ones VOTE HARRIS. If you’re centrist and won’t vote because you don’t care you’re a pushover and a coward. If you’re farther left and think she isn’t left enough, yes you have a point but this is all we have, PLEASE use your brain and stop being chronically online and self impressed.

I don’t care if I lose followers for this at this point, I’m just out here doing everything I can, not to panic and want to hide who I am. A lot of people don’t have the options to move to another state let alone country and we just want to live.

I’m lucky to live in a very safe state but I’m still terrified.

Please care about us. Please vote.

[danikoshi-doodles]

How do you do, fellow faculty?

[the-august-axolotl]

Ok I entirely blame @dreemurr-skelememer and their AMAZING Star sans mlp designs for this, so have a very quick, very messy Error concept

I have never drawn a horse of any kind before have mercy

Definitely need to clean it up, and yunno, make him not bald. Also I wanna tweak his body type to make him more broad/stocky. Any ideas are VERY VERY WELCOME!!!!

[jq37]

FH Junior Year Post-Season Thoughts

With another season of Fantasy High in the books and my recaps all finished, I wanted to do an overview of my thoughts on the season as a whole. Even though I feel generally positive about my experience with the season, there are a few things I think maybe could have been done differently narratively or mechanically. This isn't to criticize the way the season went down or to backseat DM/Play. More my combined ten years of college for textual analysis and storytelling bleeding through, haha. 

I first want to start with the things I thought worked really well.

Fantasy High has "High" right in its title but, in past seasons (and especially Sophomore Year), not as much time as you'd think was spent actually at school and even if it was spent at school, there wasn't much time spent in class or engaging with the realities of being a student. This season really dug into the academic consequences of skipping your classes all the time and the realities of needing to do a ton of extra stuff to try for a scholarship and I think that was a refreshing thing to highlight for a change. Being more scared at flunking out than the dragon that's trying to eat you feels very emotionally resonant. Real "High School Is Killing Me" vibes for anyone who's a fan of NPMD. 

Even though Fantasy High is a show that has some deep emotional beats and strong character arcs, it's first and foremost a comedy show. From the jump, everyone was generating bit after bit that had me cracking up as usual. "Little girly dog collar" is one of the funniest combinations of words I can think of. I think it was Siobhan who said that this was the goofy season and, having seen it, I'd have to agree with her. It never failed to make me laugh and it was always a highlight of my week.  The cast just has great table chemistry that I love to watch no matter what they're doing. 

Watching some of these high level combat encounters is as close as I'll get to understanding people watching sports. Even though combat is generally my least fave part of D&D, I think the cast really killed it this season with how cleverly they played and Brennan came up with some really great combat encounters. Special shout outs to Baron's Game and The Last Stand for their unique mechanics.  

This is going to be one that's on the other list as well because my feelings are mixed, but I genuinely do like the downtime mechanic and how it forces hard choices. I think it's an interesting way to connect a mechanic to the story and cultivate stressful atmosphere for the season.

I have problems with the execution but I love the Rat Grinders in concept. I think as early as season 1 I was hoping that we'd meet a party that was like the Bizarro Bad Kids and the idea of a party that's farming XP instead of going on crazy adventures is a strong concept. Likewise, I think a character that's jealous because of your "cool" (read: tragic) backstory is also a fun trait for an unhinged antagonist in this kind of setting.

This is me absolutely showing my bias but I adored the Abernant Sisters content this season. I dunno if Siobhan specifically asked Brennan to not put her on a bus with the other beloved NPCs or what but I'm so glad she stuck around and we got the development we did. It was almost entirely ancillary to the plot but there was this clear pattern of Aelwyn getting softer and sweeter towards Adaine over the course of the season, from the guarded, "Enjoy the nemesis ward," to, full I love you's and, "I'd take them to get you." It was way more focus than I expected considering that Aelwyn completed the bulk of her arc last season and a lot of the time, a redemption arc basically ends after the big gesture (in this case, Aelwyn taking a magic blast for Adaine in Sophomore Year). So the fact that we got to see all of these sweet moments of them reestablishing their relationship outside of do or die moments was such a pleasant surprise. Again, I fully admit I am extremely biased, but this was my top wishlist item and the season overdelivered so there's a baseline happy I'm always gonna be with Junior Year. 

OK, so moving on to things I things I think could have been tweaked.

Even though I liked the downtime system and the pressures it created, it also squeezed out the chance for more casual PC to NPC interactions that would usually be more common because they were semi-locked behind the relationship track and there wasn't an obvious benefit to roll for Relationships (as opposed to something like Academics which was crucial for not flunking out). Making the mechanical benefit more clear would have helped that (even if it meant Brennan didn't get his reveal--which he ended up just telling them anyway so might as well do it early). The other thing is that the consequence of a rage token was so bad that of course they spent all season avoiding getting one. Things might have gone differently if the consequences had been a bit more obscured, like in Neverafter. And it could have been a nice parallel to the Rat Grinders to take this unknown resource that makes things easier for you but is also having this negative effect. Then it could be like dang we did the same thing they did unknowingly. 

I mentioned this in my recap but I'll talk about it again. It is a little confusing to me that we did the Ankarna subplot right after we did the very similar Cassandra subplot. It took up so much time this season which I don't think is an issue in and of itself, it's just that we literally just went through some extremely similar beats last season. Why double up on this same storyline when there's so much new ground to cover? Or if we're going to raise a god, why not make it a different kind of god? One theory I had early on was that the Rat Grinders were trying to raise their own god to one-up the Bad Kids but instead of raising a chill, misunderstood Cass type, they accidentally raised a god who was erased for a good reason and got in over their heads. 

It's fun for there to be connections between seasons but sometimes it's like, OK that's a *lot* of coincidences. Like the god who your rivals is trying to raise *happens* to be the wife of your cleric's god and also *happens* to be the god of the fiend trapped in your friend's mom's chest and that fiend *happens* to be the relative on your bard's dad's side which is *also* the reason she is randomly cursed? That's a LOT of red string connecting plot points. As unhinged as Kipperlilly is about coveting Riz's backstory if I saw that go down I'd be like you have *got* to be kidding me.  

The mystery elements didn't feel like they clicked as well as they did in other seasons. I think that's partially because Porter's plan was so convoluted (seriously, I made another post about how haphazard his plan was) and had all these moving parts and we didn't get clear answers for a lot of mechanical things like how the rage crystals actually work and when they were implanted and stuff. You had stuff like Devil's Honey which I think is super cool as a thing that exists in the world but ended up being an element that just led the players down the wrong path and had a relatively small payoff (that Porter was using it to lie to Ankarna). I think it's plausible that a forgotten god would be willing to listen to anyone saying the right things without introducing this element. (As opposed to, for instance, Ambrosia which has a very clear connection to what's going on and is a solid clue that someone is flirting with aspirations of godhood.) 

The Porter reveal came so late in the season that even though it was a fun/challenging fight, there wasn't a lot of emotional weight behind killing him. It was basically just dunking on a teacher Fig has always hated who was also mean to Gorgug so screw him. Which, valid of course. But the Bad Kids were never going to react as strongly to Porter as they were to the Rat Grinders so putting Porter in the prime villain spot isn't necessarily what I would have done if I wanted the fight to be more than just a brawl--especially since we've done "School admin with student minions" already in S1. I don't mind the full circle callback but it would have been nice to pick something else for the sake of variety. We haven't had a child mastermind yet and I think Kipperlilly could have been a great candidate for that. My friend suggested that it would have been fun if Kipperlilly was trying to become a god instead of just being Porter's underling and I agree. "I'm not anyone's chosen one so I'll choose myself," is still within her established jealousy and Type A tendencies. If we want to keep Porter involved since that was Brennan's gift to Emily, maybe have it be that instead of Kipperlilly working for him, he's working for her. Like Artemis Fowl vibes! And the Rat Grinders can be varying levels of on board--from true believe to redeemable. I don't think Brennan planned for the Bad Kids to ever redeem her so might as well go full megalomaniacal mastermind with her and make her The Villain if she's not gonna be nuanced anyway. If My Little Pony can do it and send a literal child to Tartarus for pony treason (or whatever Cozy Glow did), Fantasy High can too. 

Continuing from the above, if we have the Porter fight in place of the Grix fight (a la Daybreak) and don't use Ankarna, that gives way more time for the Bad Kids to investigate the Rat Grinders throughout the season and it would mean that they would have their personalities developed a lot more. With the limited downtime, they Bad Kids didn't have a lot of time to spend on these kids who were just hating on them for no good reason (valid). But if you cleared their plate of the god hunt stuff, they'd have more time for this. And if they weren't all rage zombies to varying degrees, it would be easier to see them as characters. Besides Kipperlilly (and, funnily enough, Mary Ann) we don't really have a good read on what these kids are actually like. The little time we spent with them all season was kind of a wash if them breaking out of rage means their personalities got laundered too. Anyway, regardless of how their loyalties ended up shaking out, it would have been fun for them to be more than the minions that they were in canon. As funny as it is for them to just kinda be XP farming losers, they did have the potential to be more interesting in their own right if they weren't just Porter's minions. And again, we've done adults forcing or coercing children into being minions in Freshman and Sophomore Year already. Lemme see some self-created child maniacs! (Or, peer pressured child maniacs. That's cool too. The Lucy/Kipperlilly dynamic is way more interesting to me if it's like girl, I would take a bullet for you but I CANNOT walk this path with you any further in response to *I* will be a god and you can be *MY* champion.)

Anyway, those are my thoughts! Like I said, I have my points that I think could have been tightened, but overall an enjoyable season and I will be glued to my screen if they decide to close out with Senior Year! 

[egophiliac]

We ARE going to bring up Captain Amelia. You have good taste! GOOD TASTE I SAY! *aka I just rewatched Treasure Planet and got hit with, "Oh yeahhhhh... that explains a lot!"*

honestly, the Meg/Jasmine/Amelia trifecta tells you 90% about me as a person. (the rest is covered by Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Uranus and, uhhh, I'll stop baring my soul to the world now)

and speaking of Amelia, this is tangential, but like -- there's one Twst comic I have been kicking at for a while where I needed an RSA sports/flight teacher and, uh, well

someday I will wrangle this stupid comic into coherency and she'll get to make an appearance (in the background of a single panel, half-obscured by a tall hat) (but I will know she's there and that's the important thing)

[devotedlystrangewizard]

really the evil dark urge/pre-canon dark urge is just about the shit we do for parental approval turned up to the max. doing everything for bhaal. praying to him in the stormshore tabernacle(?) leading to

that is his love! he literally kills you to show he loves you! that entire letter for forgiveness being several paragraphs of "i promise i will perform my duties and not allow this to distract me". the fact that the dark urge was literally crafted by his hand, personally, to be the embodiment of murder. the fact that he will destroy you if you resist. the fact that you will lose yourself if you fail.

[crimeronan]

latest chapter of the amity fic was WOOF. threatening murder is very Hotte. but something that really caught my attention/was interesting to see from Amity's perspective WAS Luz's mental illness/damage. like, as someone with ocd, psychosis was always very scary for me growing up because i was *so* aware of how close i might get to Crazy TM, the kind of crazy my parents could no longer conveniently ignore or brush off as a childish phase. now (yay mad liberation!) it's less scary to me but still something i'm aware of. Luz being someone who sometimes checks out, even to Amity's eye, who seems to flip moods really quickly at times, who has All These Rituals that she's very painfully worked to make seem Normal...bebita i SEE YOU. also, again, as someone raised evangelical: WOOF it must be hard when everyone believes in a divine birthright to explain that uh, no, the seeing ghosts or feeling compelled or lowkey hearing god talk to you is NOT actually real, you think, and you'd really really appreciate if someone could help you figure out how to manage.

Waugh. yeah. Yeah....

luz through everyone else's POVs is always fascinating because the ensemble cast really runs the entire gamut of Opinions People Can Have About Being Crazy. but amity's POV in particular is interesting because she might be the only POV cast member who is genuinely just observing without trying to quantify, interfere, or help. amity has no ambitions of "fixing" luz and doesn't even know where she'd start. she's just acknowledging the elephant in the room. meeting luz where she's at.

amity is so ready to do away with pretenses. she is Tired of playing pretend. to have luz trust her means everything, even though amity isn't sure what to do with what she knows.

[godisarepublican]

[zabala0z]

Welcome back to “new fan listens to S3 and OH MY GOD THEY NAME DROPPED THE ENTITIES” and I’m your host, Zabala0z!!! I just listened to MAG 111 if you could tell so be prepared for a long post.

MAG 107: Third Degree

Very The Desolation-core. I mean the officer literally asked “what do you love most” and the guys dad was dead a week later so duh. Sucks that Jon literally has to read out a statement or else he’ll like get sick. Bro has to read a scary story unless he wants to die 💀

ALSO JULIA MONTAUK??? TREVOR HERBERT?? Isn’t that bitch dead???? Bro had lung cancer last we heard about him wth 😭 the weirdest duo ever by the way

MAG 108: Monologue

Not much on this but Peter god damn Lukas, get out. He’s very cheerful in a way that reminds me of Michael Crew, y’know. I don’t know how old he is but he’s a sea captain so like 35-40? “Thought we had a chat. Alone” oh haha, you bastard. Anyways the statement dealing with loneliness and Peter Lukas appearing I guess was something Elias did, I mean Peter said it himself. Peter didn’t seem to like Elias a lot which makes me think, why is the Lukas family even patrons of the institute and why is Peter and Elias suddenly having these meetings?

Not much on MAG 109. Still wondering why Trevor is not dead but whatever. Bulbs breaking is a common theme with like Julia’s thing.

MAG 110 has a heavy spider theme (eughhh). Also loving the Basira, Martin, and Melanie trio.

Now finally the major one; MAG 111: Family Business

Oh my god. First off, hearing Gerard speak is giving me so much closure. Literally his first mention was in MAG 4 😭 his mom sucks. Duh. But let’s get to the main part. The entities. Jesus Christ.

There’s 14???? Jon says that’s a small amount for them being manifestations of peoples fears but that’s too much for me. But I’m so happy we get all the names for them. Because of course they are manifestations of peoples fears, that’s what gives them power. Fear has always existed as long as living things existed. I think it’s so interesting they brought in animals into it as well because maybe they aren’t as complex but they feel fear as well. And there’s billions of animals.

Gerard makes me sad. Like every mention of him, he’s like helping people or at least doing something good. I wish his life was better cause god does he deserve it.

The Lukas’s I guess are apart of The Lonely. I thought they were apart of The Vast but maybe there’s just some overlap. I think it’s interested they serve The Lonely and are patrons of the institute which serve The Eye cause if you think about, those are two different things. The Lonely deals with being alone and there being no one around. The Eye deals with there being someone, something, that’s watching constantly. I gotta know how they became patrons or I will explode damn it.

Then there’s the rituals, what the hell is the Watchers Crown 😭😭 give Jon a break. I’m gonna theorize that Jon is gonna have to deal with that and is somehow going to be the key to it because he can never have a normal life. Gertrude is interesting because yeah she’s ruthless as hell but she also stopped the world ending like a ton so I guess give and take.

I think that’s like most of my thoughts I can write on here. Which is like 1/5 of it. But god I’m so happy we have names, these are so cool. Or not cool. I might make like a post, ranking on which would be my biggest ops 💀

[thesorrowoflizards]

SORRY this is so fucking funny. van is like oh, my crush likes another guy. that really fucking sucks because i kinda thought she liked me? god. and then she invites him over and tackles him onto her couch.