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accio-victuuri · 2 years ago

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CPN : XZS vlog chapter 5.5 Rome & Paris 📺

just some bits and pieces that we picked up from the recent vlog shared by xz and his team. honestly, their work just keeps getting better and better. no one does it like them. some people may hate on him for the ‘vlogs’ but at this point, the production quality is on par with something you can show on tv or a streaming app. xz’s travel show when….

as usual, everything is fake and interpreted with turtle/cpn glasses on. if you don’t like it then feel free to scroll — no one is forcing you. ‼️‼️

Let’s start with the date of posting which 3/29, out of all the days he could have shared this, why now? They usually go for Thursdays but not this one. We think it’s a late 3/28 gift, that day is Wuji recording and also when WYB came home from his Rome trip. What a nice coincidence, cause the vlog posted had Rome in it too. These two are really so particular with dates! I can’t. 🥹🥹🥹🥹

1. One thing that stood out to me was when he was looking at a design book. He was talking about designing typeface and letter, and how there are different formations in writing or presenting them. I don’t think that it was ever CPN that he likes to play with letters/ characters to give a different meaning. or to hide something. think : yibo’s motorcyle suit. this just confirms that.

( i have talked about most ( if not all ) of the design bits and hidden meanings per the photos above and more. it’s too much for me to link each one so just feel free to explore this blog. )

2. The way he was eating the lollipop and his pose is so WANG YIBO. I’m sorry, but that’s the first thing that came to mind. Yibo and his oral fixation is real and we see it on SDC most of the time. 😂 They really mirror each other’s habits now and do certain things that make you go “wait… that’s totally xx behavior and not his..”

people are wondering if they saw the fanart of them eating 🍭 at some point and copied it unconsciously.

3. The element of romance in this vlog makes me wanna scream! honestly. Sure, you can argue that the place ( especially paris ) is romantic or that he is doing fan service to the viewers — like, you’re in a romantic weekend with me in Paris. Yeah. Sure. that’s a plausible explanation. but for a clown like me, the elements seem deliberate.

The lines in Moon River:

I'm crossing you in style some day // Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker // Wherever you're going, I'm going your way // Two drifters, off to see the world // There's such a lot of world to see // We're after the same rainbow's end.

He sang the line ‘ i’m crossing you in style some day ‘ — yeah, ZZ. you will be with WYB one day in Rome and Paris. and the mention of a Rainbow. 🌈 I need someone to make a fan video with this as a BGM please.

Next is JVKE’s golden hour. This one has more 👀 lyrics. The whole “golden” and “see you shine” just screams his love for anything about the sun. the sun and his sunflower ☀️ and the mention of summer.

We were just two lovers // Feet up on the dash, drivin' nowhere fast // Burnin' through the summer // Radio on blast, make the moment last // She got solar power

I also don’t really buy it when people say “he doesn’t understand the lyrics, don’t think to much..” i mean. are you really lowkey insulting him at this point? he may not know like the details, but i’m pretty sure he understands the general meaning. and like, it’s not that hard to understand english words. come on.

The style for the intros were also reminiscent of the movie Roman Holiday. Maybe they looked up a movie and watched it. but anyway, the story of this is also a romantic movie.

Yes we know you’re not single. ☺️☺️☺️☺️

4. He wore a long wooyoungmi coat which I talked about here. So looks like that’s where the paper bag was from? but if he already wore it, why bring the bag like that? it’s not that precious of a cargo to hand carry anyway. i’m still eating the candy.

5. Same place, but years apart. ⏱️

6. How he was trying to ride the scooter makes me soft. I feel like the influence of riding things like this ( and even the hoverboard he owns ) is from WYB. 🥹 He can’t do motorcycles, but he is willing to try everything else. The whole image of him riding it reminds us of the loyiboard character design too!

7. When you see what’s on screen during the 2:28 timestamp, it’s a dog. Lol. thinking of your puppy back home? There are also two other shots where a dog is there, but not as deliberate as this one.

8. It looks familiar 🤔🤔🤔🤔

9. It depends on how you see it, 8 or infinity. I’ve really been up in arms with this CPN and feel like we will see more of it.

10. The message ZZ brings in this vlog is the best thing tho. from the caption of the video on weibo :

The best time is on the road, to listen In the heart, to draw inspiration, to travel far, to find a different self. Feel free to do what you want👣

I love how he is encouraging people, in a way, to get out there. which was always his message to fans, to have time to go outside and build themselves up. Don’t spend too much time online. Also the bit about feel free to do what you want. I really hope he gets to do that more. I hope he gets to make choices that lean more towards the things he wants. 💕

and this bit : ( to native speakers, feel free to chime in too )

“in the long run the straw weighs” = despite the light weight, everything becomes heavy if you bring it for too long.

-END.

#yizhan #bjyx #there is no science here folks im just clowning like i always do

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reflections-in-a-critical-eye · 2 years ago

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BMT! 🧵 here, loving the conversations right now, especially the input from needle (I don't seem to have this emoji on desktop). I thought I would answer/maybe clarify your two anon questions and then send another post in a bit wrt what needle and you were discussing about brands, longevity, conservatism in fashion, because I have a LOT of thoughts on the subject.

Re: What does a brand ambassador actually do? Answer: not all that much. You hit the nail on the head that we'll see him in Dior for most, but not all, of his public engagements, especially red carpets and more formal events. (As an aside, being brand ambassadors means that some members might actually go to the met gala this year, but their styling is going to be so boring. So close to getting what I want and yet so far.) As far as casual wear goes, there are likely contract stipulations but in reality what that means is that Dior has likely given him dozens of pieces, an entire wardrobe's worth, and they will expect him to work them in as a significant proportion of his casual wear. I also expect at least one ad campaign. He will have absolutely no creative input, which is unfortunate but that's not what this means anymore. You mentioned Hepburn and Givenchy and Denevue and YSL. The days of that kind of close-tie artist and muse are over. They MAY design some custom pieces for him to wear to carpets, which will definitely include his/his team's input (and this will come down to how much he personally cares and how much he trusts his team to dress him well). He absolutely has say over what he /specifically/ wears, within reason, but Jimin isn't going to be exchanging emails about plans for the S/S '24 collection, if that makes sense?

For a more practical example, just look at how LV worked with and dressed BTS as a whole throughout 2021/2022. That's how this is going to play out. @/stylish_bts and @/bangtanstyling are good accounts to follow on twitter if anyone wants to get a sense for what the members are wearing and when. These brand contracts are not exclusivity deals.

Re: Hobi at 3 shows and Jimin exclusively at Dior.

Absolutely not. Jimin is in Paris as a guest of Dior, which means that Dior isn't going to be pleased to see him hanging out at the Margiela show (which is unfortunate, I thought it was fun). Wild to me that people don't understand that.

I'd like to dig a little deeper into Hoseok's appearances though, because there's some nuance going on here that I think most people missed. I do think Hoseok has signed his own brand deal, but it hasn't started yet. I'm praying it's not LV, but I think it might be. I also think it's a shorter/more casual contract like Yoongi's is with Valentino for the simple reason that I fully expect the entire hyung line to be enlisted before the year is out.

Hoseok at Dior was VERY surprising to me. I mentioned in an earlier post that I think it was relatively last minute (not so last minute like he got to Paris and was invited after, but I think Jimin's name has been on the books for at least half a year). I also think his presence there was because of a direct request from Jimin/Jimin's management on his behalf. And I'm sure Dior jumped at the chance. One Bangtan member is a multimillion dollar contract, but getting a second one almost for free? And all the engagement that will come with? Easy decision. I think people miss how nervous Jimin can get (see: UN talk) so I'm glad he had that support with him. It was also made very clear throughout that the brand deal was Jimin's and that Hoseok was just putting in an appearance.

The third show that Hoseok went to was Hermes (forgive me fashion gods I do not have the patience to copy-paste accents on my english keyboard). And this spoke sooo many volumes that definitely went over most people's heads. Hermes doesn't do brand ambassadors. It doesn't do celeb endorsements. It doesn't do anything to make its brand approachable or easy to buy from. That's their entire business model. Their status is so far up in the clouds that it's almost unreachable by human hands. They make Chanel look normal. Hoseok being invited was a big deal. And it makes me laugh at solos who are trying to leverage one brand against another against engagement against whatever. The BTS members, all of them, are an advertiser's wet dream. Their engagement numbers are off the charts. But back to Hermes, his appearance was just that, an appearance. Everyone who knows, knows that they're not going to actually sign him. Because that's not what they do.

So we got Hoseok at LV (invited, advertised), Dior (clearly marked as not The Brand Ambassador Just Some Guy Hanging Out), and at Hermes (Who Will Not Sign Him Ever). Makes that fashion week look a little more different from an invitation standpoint, no?

God this is so long I'm sorry.

I did a quick twitter search to see what posts are going around about Hobi at Hermes (I didn't keep up with it) and I don't understand these fans. It only takes a few minutes to do a google search. Not everyone has to know the ins and outs of every fashion house, but damn, it is embarrasing. Talking about being brand ambassador or shareholder? What are they smoking? This reminded me when I took a course at some point on antrepreneurship and business and I made a presentation on Hermes. Yeah, it's in its own category. I don't really agree with their methods to maintain their status and exclusivity, but it works nonetheless.

I agree with you, the hyung line which is going to enlist this year will get a short-term deal most likely, just as we see with Yoongi. I too wish Hobi wouldn't get paired with LV, but they also make it sort of obvious that they're going in that direction. I know they made the announcement for Jackson Wang in the meantime. As to the maknae line, I guess Tae and Jungkook might have a similar deal as Jimin. And it's already closed. W Korea wrote that they started the work for the issue with Jimin back in July, so the Dior deal most likely is in that timeframe as well. And being announced now not only coordinates with FW, but also with Jimin releasing his album and the start of a promotional schedule. It's the entire package. I'm curious what will end up being the favorable time for the other two.

#bmt asks #jimin #jimin dior #hobi paris fashion week #fashion anons

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the-firebird69 · 9 months ago

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It's a winners of the contest several and he says okay we'll have to go to the one that's easiest to manufacture and assemble and I do see that most of the same manufacturing but the one that's easiest to assemble that one and that is made by

Nuada Arrianna and we teamed up men and women there's goes together real easy you have to have the bolts in order to meet the strength and they have only a few and the stitch material does the rest but they're way of assembly it is very fast use his original method and that's it and the way the frame goes together you don't have to have any saddles met the strength requirement and the design was for ease of use and that was met and for being proper and it is proper it is awesome actually and the way he said it is quite unique so we're awarding him the award and we are going to go forwards actually it was he and she have the award and go for us with their design for the motorcycle

Thor Freya

And here's an answer winner for us and no other and Ariana are smiling and is a wonderful day

Olympus

And I need the motorcycle and a lot of people do and this is going to be great others will copy the technique and it's simple and it doesn't take much effort to do it has some saddles on it but not many and that was the idea was to reduce the number of saddles and our son and daughter can't think of how to do that without making inserts and I did that a little and it doesn't come with welded cross members it's kind of ingenious and it uses its own material it's got three saddle areas with two saddles on each and those across members and that's it And sweetheart is attached using saddles and it is already attached with the three and it attaches to you the piece that has the ball bearings in it and no it was made to receive it and on purpose it is a half tube they'll received the tube and then you put a saddle over the whole thing both sides but apparently just another tube over the tube and tube that goes over that one but as a seam that's the first one and true what's the scene there it's in there and attached and you would have to cut it out but you can order a new piece and that would be the swing arm assembly and it must be cheaper and easier and will sell the new piece and you can use a new ball bearings you don't have to cut it out yeah you would have to cut it out of there so it doesn't work that way it goes in and it receives it and there's a bolt that holds it in and that's it it's actually very clever they say and it goes through the tube steel and we can put reinforcing on it when it's not necessary it's a special way to bolt it. So that rounded stuff with the rounded stuff is not necessary oh that would work like madness you would have to use a cutting torch to get it out. There's other aspects of this that have questions and that's one of the answers and it's very simple and it's very nice it works well too you're a couple add-on things but those are not real full saddles but this was an interesting idea attracted a lot of attention that stuff is built like that it was pretty clever Tom Cruise builds things they're compact as well and it might be his motorcycle he designed but he got help with it but he does just like the clan used to and yeah you're idiots are not smart enough to know they're valuable and they're getting hurt pretty bad in the max left and see if they could do it and they're regretting it. And please to accept this reward and I have a plan on how to introduce it and sell it and promote it and get it to work and it's not on mini bikes I have an idea to make a motorcycle idea work and it's the other route it takes less time and it's kind of like the way he did it with the automobile he did introduce it and if he did have to sell it. And he had the Terry cheesman do it and he went to the DOT with the samples and he went into the examples to them they were amazed and wanted to see him glue some metal together right there over theirs and he did and they tested it and it was approved and we have those tests going to go ahead and do it

Nuada Arrianna

You see the wood and it's an introduction for us to say what happened and for them to announce it but I'm glad to accept this award they give and duty it is wonderful and they're happy for me because I do a lot of work that's very difficult it's very difficult and I agree and we're going to start working here right now...

Olympus

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lacontroller1991 · 3 years ago

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Mr. and Mrs. Flag (Rick Flag x Fem!Reader)

Requested by @myownworldsstuff : Rick Flag and Reader where they are married with Mr. and Mrs. Smith vibes

@h-hxgirl @artemis-cr0ck

Author's Note: I think the title is very fitting 😁

Warnings: Mention of child loss, mentions of abortion, language

The smell of homemade spaghetti entered Rick’s nostrils as he walked through the threshold into his shared home with you, his wife. Hearing the door open, you quickly wiped your palms on your apron before rushing to greet him.

“Hey baby, how was work?” You asked as he set down a briefcase before pulling you into his embrace, placing a gentle kiss on your lips.

“Work’s work, I had clients all the way up my ass today, bitching about how their stocks are plummeting,” he replied as you hummed, giving him a smile before pulling away. You knew he wasn’t a stock marketer. You knew he worked with some of the world’s most dangerous criminals. In any case, you were there to gather any intel you managed to scrape up for the CIA. What you didn’t expect was to slowly love him along the way. The CIA had warned you not to do what you did, saying that he was just a mission, but to you he became more than that. He became your best friend. He became your lover.

“Well, dinner is ready. Your favorite,” you whispered against his ear as you tugged against his blazer.

“You know me so well.”

You two ate in silence aside from the occasional slurp of noodles and guzzle of wine.

“So, how was your day?” He asked as you twirled the stem of your wine glass between your thumb and index finger, desperately wanting to tell him about how your day really was. As far as he knew, or so you thought, you were a kindergarten teacher at the local school.

“It was alright, I had 5 kids not wanting to take a nap, and 3 of them being rowdy as always. Even though I teach kids, I still don’t want one,” you mentioned as he let out a small chuckle before silence cascaded over the room. Your eyes locked with his as he cleared his throat.

“Listen, sweetheart, I got something to tell you.”

“No, I do too,” you replied, hands fidgeting underneath the table. Normally, this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but this was Rick you were telling. Someone you actually care for. You both paused for a moment, urging the other to speak; however, that was put on hold as you saw something glisten in the moonlight out of the corner of your eye before noticing that it was quiet. Too quiet, you thought to yourself before a rain of bullets ripped through the window. Falling to the floor, you glanced over to Rick who too, looked over to you.

“I’m a secret agent.”

“I do special ops,” you both said at the same time, his news not new to you, but yours was to him.

“For how long?” He asked loudly, army crawling to a secret stash of guns as you copied his movements, reaching for your own.

“15 years,” you stated, loading some guns and grabbing a couple of knives as he cocked some guns.

“Shit. You’ve been lying to me this whole time?”

“Rick, you have been too, this is not the time and place for this conversation. There’s a secret door in the kitchen that will lead to the sewer, we can make it out of here,” you mentioned as he glared at you with mistrust in his eyes before giving in and nodding. Crawling your way to the secret door, you quickly stood up and shot your gun in the general vicinity of the advancing adversaries before you went down the stairs into the small basement with Rick following you. Turning to open the lid, you were stopped as a body was pressed against you and a gun to your temple. Staring into his hazel eyes, you noticed slight flecks of green and brown that you had come to love.

“How can I trust you?” He seethed as you didn’t try to fight back.

“Rick, if I was here to kill you, I would’ve. I’m an agent, yes, but I wasn’t assigned to kill you. Please, let’s just get to safety before we go into this,” you begged as he nodded, opening the lid to the sewer before jumping in, trying to not gag at the stench. Turning on the flashlight, you and Rick made your way through the tunnels before you found the exit you designated for something like this. Climbing up the ladder, you looked behind you to make sure he was following you, and when you saw he was, you opened the hatch and climbed out into the crisp autumn night. Climbing out after you, he looked at you, feelings confused as to what to do with you.

“You got a safe house?” He asked as you nodded, starting to walk the way of the house before he grabbed your arm and shook his head.

“It might be safer if we went to Belle Reve.”

“Show me the way.”

----------

Stepping out of the shower, you wringed out your hair with a towel as you made your way into the small room with an office attached to it.

“So this is where you sleep on the nights you can’t come home,” you quipped as he shot you a glare, cleaning the water off of his guns.

“Home,” he scoffed, clicking the barrel back into place, “what a joke.” Sighing, you took a seat next to him, flinching as he moved away from you.

“That’s what it is for me,” you tried to reason as he glared at you again, trying to remain stoic and not heartbroken that the love of his life is secretly an undercover agent.

“What am I to you?” His voice hoarse from the yelling and then the silent treatment. Placing a small hand on his shoulder, you were surprised when he didn’t move to remove it.

“My husband.”

“No, what am I to you? A target? A mission? Decoy?”

“Mission,” you muttered meekly as he ran a hand over his face before you continued, “4 years ago, the CIA debriefed me on you. West Point Grad. Special Ops officer. Leader of Task Force X. The latter being what they were concerned with. They wanted me to gather whatever I could on your team and report back to them. And for the first year, I did. I went through all of your records on your computers and then some, but what they didn’t count on was that…,” you hesitated for a moment, twirling your thumbs as he waited for you to continue, “...what I didn’t count on was that I would fall in love with you. Yes, you were my mission, but what I feel for you is real. Hell, those assholes who were shooting at us were probably after me,” you finished as you took a breath, feeling his calculating eyes scope you out, trying to tell if what you were saying was real or not.

“Why would they be shooting at you,” came out his gruff question as you turned your head to focus on him.

“Probably found out the information I supplied was falsified. The first year of information was all correct, but once I realized that I did, in fact, love you and was not clouded by hormones, I stopped providing correct information.”

“Why would you be clouded by hormones?”

“I was pregnant,” you whispered, moving to clutch your stomach where the baby died inside of you.

“What?” Rick asked, scooting closer to you, not sure if he heard you correctly.

“I was pregnant with your kid. The CIA found out and terminated the pregnancy,” admitting the horrors of what the agency did to you brought up memories of the procedure. Your eyes filled with tears as you remembered the intense pain that accompanied the loss of your child.

“Shit, baby,” Rick whispered, finally letting his guard down and believing you as he watched the way your eyes glossed over. I know that look all too well, he thought before pulling you into his arms and running his hand through your hair as you broke down. Tears poured down your face as he gently shushed you, slightly rocking his body with yours.

“I’m sorry, Rick. I really am. I really do love you, you have to believe me,” you begged through sobs as he paused for a second, realizing that he didn’t care about your past and your initial mission and that all he cared about in that moment was his wife in his arms.

“It’s alright baby, I understand. We’ll make this work,” he whispered against the top of your head, rubbing circles into your back. After a while, he had moved you and him up against the bed so that you were lying against his chest as his arms wrapped themselves around you.

“Rick,” you called out from his chest. Moving to look down at you, he brushed a strand of wet hair from your face.

“Yeah baby?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too,” kissing the top of your head, he rubbed your back again as he listened to your breathing become quiet and unnoticeable. Noting that you had fallen asleep, he took the opportunity to shut his eyes and let his mind carry him into a dull slumber.

Author’s Note: AHHH Hope you enjoy!!!

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gunterfan1992 · 4 years ago

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Interview with James Baxter (the Human)

Guess what, everyone? I just had the pleasure of exchanging emails with James Baxter—that’s right the James Baxter! James is something of a legend in the animation world, and he is known for his beautifully expressive animation style that is able to make even the simplest shape look majestic and full of life. In addition to the myriad movies he has worked on, James also contributed special animation to Adventure Time, working on season five’s “James Baxter the Horse” and season eight’s “Horse and Ball”; not only was the character named after him, but he even got to voice his horse doppelgänger!

And so, without further ado, Mr. James Baxter the Human:

GunterFan: I know that you've recounted it before, but would it be possible to get your take on the 'origin story' of the "James Baxter the Horse" episode. How did it all come together?

James Baxter: Well, Pen and I were in contact with each other while I was working at DreamWorks. I had known about him since he had left CalArts and I had already told him how much I liked Adventure Time, and I had told him that if he ever needed me to do anything to give me a call. I guess he heard me because later he asked me to meet him at a tiny sandwich place that was on Flower St. and Sonora in Burbank (it's called Little Ground now, but I can't remember what it used to be back then). There, he pitched me the idea for the character and he gave me a quick sketch of James Baxter the Horse. I said yes, absolutely I would love to animate and voice that for you, that sounds amazing. He also reminded me of one of my animation demo lectures that I had done at CalArts when he was a student there. I usually ask for suggestions from the students of what they would like me to animate for them, so they can see the thought process. At that lecture someone yelled out, "Do a horse balancing on a ball!" (it may have been Pen) I guess as a goof, knowing that might be a little tricky for a quick demo. I remember asking for something a little simpler please. I suppose Pen remembered that moment because that's where the idea came from. As far as the actual episode goes, and what happens in it, that's all Pen and his team.

GF: What was the animation process like? How long did it take you to get everything all together?

JB: I saw the storyboard, and they gave me a printed copy of it, as well as some exposure sheets for the shots that the horse was in. I spent a little time working out some different cycles that I could move between, James balancing in place, James turning in a circle etc. I was trying to do cycles that could be reused over and over in different shots to save on work. it was all animated on paper and all the clean up drawings were done by my wife Kendra. Then all those drawings were shipped overseas to the production studio that was doing the rest of the animation for the show, so that they could do the color and compositing. I guess it took us about a month or six weeks, but I was only working on it evenings and weekends.

GF: How much say did you have with regard to the character design? What about key poses? Were you given creative freedom?

JB: I was given a lot of freedom. I just had that one sketch that Pen had drawn, but he had suggested that I give it a more flowing mane and tail. I remember sending a drawing of mine back to the team at Cartoon Network so that they could do a color model for him. As far as key poses went, I just had the boards to go from, which were clear but not super detailed, so I had a lot of freedom to make up the animation as long as I stayed true to the staging and to the length of the shots. By the time i got the exposure sheets the dialogue tracks had already been written on them, which is common practice, so I could animate to the sound.

GF: I love James Baxter (the Horse)'s voice! What inspired the accent and the whinny? What was the recording process like?

JB: I guess the voice is me just trying to be horsey, and a little posh, and British. He only ever says his name (no trouble remembering the lines!), so it's a little hard to really define an accent, but I'm British so that's where I went. My natural accent hovers somewhere over the mid-Atlantic since I've lived in the US for over thirty years. The whinny is just me trying not to cough as I'm trying to make horsey noises! Voice acting is not my talent, but it was a lot of fun, mostly because it was so surreal just saying my own name in different ways for half an hour! They were very nice and patient with me.

GF: I haven't been able to find a lot of info on "Horse and Ball." What was that like? Was it different the second time?

JB: How did you feel returning to the show? Well, I was very pleased to get another chance to do more James Baxter, but there was more footage of him in the second episode and I had less time to do it. That meant that I only animated a few shots of him in that episode, not all of him as I had done in the first one. I would have loved to have done it all, but there just wasn't time. But it was just as fun to animate, especially falling off the ball and the dance at the end.

GF: What has the reception been like on your end? Do folks ever connect your name to the character without realizing that they're both you?

JB: I’ve never had the "Oh, I never knew that James Baxter was a real person" comment face to face, but I've seen it quite a lot in comment sections on YouTube and other places online. I've got to say, it's very gratifying having this amazing alter-ego of me in AT, especially since he's such a benevolent character. I'm glad Pen didn't decide to make him a jerk! All he does is ride around cheering people up, how amazing is that?! It's certainly become a gateway for a whole lot of people to discover me as an artist, not just a cartoon character.

I hope to incorporate all this information into the second edition of Exploring the Land of Ooo... one day. Either way, thank you James Baxter for not only agreeing to a little interview, but also making the world a better place!

#adventure time #adventuretime #atimers #james baxter #james baxter the horse #james baxter the human #animation #interview

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rens-room · 4 years ago

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kuroko no basket thoughts:

season 1 (2 and 3 under the cut)

pick one name for this show please. and no it can’t be “the basketball which kuroko plays” bc that’s way too long.

it’s comfort show time! (I’m gonna get hate but I enjoy knb more than haikyuu-I’m only explaining that if asked).

these kids are so extra lol.

“ball is life”

I did learn almost everything I know about sports from sports anime and thats kinda helpful.

do you ever go up to someone you just met and make them outrageous promises and also declare yourself their partner? no? just kuroko things.

poor kise gets treated like an attack dog bc he can mimic attacks and he really doesn’t deserve that.

it’s funny bc the whole show is about middle school trauma (and drama) which is...pretty accurate.

also underneath all the absurd powers/abilities the narrative is really sweet and the story itself is about friendship. the super extra abilities and visuals are just to draw you in and add another layer because anime/manga is a visual storytelling medium.

gotta love how kuroko just does risky things and then his tall friends come to back him up.

he promised kagami a partnership for basketball but kagami is really acting as his bodyguard to keep kuroko safe so they can actually play basketball.

does mitobe ever...speak?

midorima and midoriya are green and lucky. (no really, I refer to midoriya as deku to avoid mental confusion between the characters).

is midorima’s way of shooting threes even...possible/practical? (I’m sure this has been answered before but please send me links if it has).

it’s the color coordinated flip phones for me.

you know it’s 2000s- 2010s anime when they start bringing out the colored flip phones.

midorima is that bitch with everyones star chart memorized and you best believe he knows everyones lucky items too.

despite being some of the more basic character designs, I really like takao, izuki, and imayoshi.

hyuga is great. of course his personality is a little warped after having to destroy his figurines.

on that note aida is a sadist which is also great.

tbh all of the miracles are treated like tools by their highschool teams and thats 1 rude, 2 kinda fucked up, and 3 the reason they’re all stuck up assholes with god complexes.

the FUCKING TENSION at the tables when kise, midorima, kagami, and kuroko are at the restaurant together. (also takao leaving midorima there like the chaos agent he is, *chefs kiss*).

the flying food that just so happens to land on midorima’s head for me. (good job takao!)

SAKURAIIIIIIIII my favorite apologetic mushroom!! I love him.

they really called him “mushroom #9” ahhhhh.

honey lemons...no not like that.

so theres the “defeat my evil ex teammates” angle or the “defeat my evil exes” angle and both are correct.

its the ken burns-esque montages for me.

ah I forgot about kaijo’s rebound bitch. he’s loud.

imayoshi is such a snake. I love him.

kaijo got the best deal on a miracle. aomine is Difficult to work with, midorima is crazy, murasakibara doesn’t even like the sport, and akashi is Crazy™. kise is objectively the most normal and easiest to have on a team. plus he (debatably) has the best ability: perfect copy.

season 2

ah yes get ready for himura tatsuya and Cringe english.

also tepei you literally broke the “first years only” rule you helped create.

when murasakibara is on screen: attack on titan theme intensifies.

I think I like the visuals for the first op of season 2 (3rd overall op) the most. (it may be my overall favorite op).

murasakibara YOU CANT JUST RIP OFF SOMEONES EYEBROW!

vanishing drive here we come!

the real question is how himuro played street ball in jeans.

for midorima size does matter lol.

blond hyuga is always funny.

izuki being called cutie by the coaches dad lol.

ah the required hot springs fanservice episode.

being out of highschool now (I’m rewatching knb) the Kirisaki Daiichi High match is more painful. hanamiya is too cruel to ruin people’s lives like that.

the best scene is in episode 38. it involves scissors.

akashi literally owns all of them. he’s not your “former” captian if you still come when called.

akashi you can’t just stab people.

also your bangs look terrible akashi.

forget midorima’s shots, how TF does aomine do this!! are they possible? or would making them irl be more luck than skill?

midorima looks like a carrot in his uniform with the orange and green.

the best part of this is the matches are pretty short all things considered like theres two 6 episode matches and the final is like 9 but most are resolved kn less than five.

as a short person™, murasakibara personally offends me.

phantom shot is so hype.

I love how they name attacks like in shonen. it’s really cute.

why’s my favorite character type either pretty boy: himuro and takao or psychopath: akashi??

it should be illegal to not only break the basket but also single handedly lift up another human.

is kise allowed to talk to kagami and murasakibara during the yosen match? what was he doing so close to the court?

I’ve always thought hyuga, riko, and teppei gave off poly relationship vibes. they all look at each other/interact in the same way.

kagami as a point guard actually made me laugh out loud. it’s so out of character for him and it surprised yosen.

I love the end cards with the characters at the end of every episode.

crunchyroll has given me so many quest protein bar ads. is it because I’m watching sports anime?

himuro’s fakeouts give me death note “I know that you know that I know” vibes.

is the montage music the same as an op? if so which one?

season 3

I SHARE A BIRTHDAY WITH A KNB CHARACTER!

it’s fun that seirin comes full circle and plays kaijo basically last in the winter cup as they were the first team they scrimmaged in the series.

the pacing and balance of the show is one of the best parts. its complete and flows well .

the black wristband is so subtle, yet it’s been there since the beginning, such good foreshadowing. I honestly only noticed because I’m rewatching.

the nostalgia of the opening narration about the generation of miracles. yes it will get tiring like the first one, but I enjoy the throwback/reference.

one of the show’s strong points is the ability to circle back to things. combined with the steady pacing and overall balance between matches, training arcs, and fun excursions, knb is one of the most well rounded and complete feeling anime I have seen.

1 I forgot about haizaki, 2 he looked better with his middle school hairstyle, 3 he and hanamiya would get along like a house on fire.

the transition in the opening narration of the miracles from teiko to their current team’s uniform is so smooth and visually pleasing. especially akashi’s because you can see his eye change color.

the fireworks in the opening are kinda random but they are fun.

so I really loved bungou stray dogs op trash candy and it got me into granrodeo. I also remember liking (and still like) the music in knb. imagine my surprise when I found out granrodeo is responsible for like half the music in knb.

there’s so many grudge matches lol.

season three, the season of backstory and flashbacks.

aomine to haizaki: the only one who can mess with my friends is me.

ah the not so subtle introduction of rakuzan.

akashi has cat eyes. he literally is a cat.

ok but during the shutoku match when akashi ankle breaks two guys at once and then literally dribbles the ball over one of their heads. power move.

takao and midorima’s threes in the rakuzan match remind me of hinata and kageyama’s Freak-Quick attack.

I love mibuchi. so much. and hayama. so rakuzan might be my favorite team after seirin...

akashi is short. and a bit of a psychopath, but mostly short.

the bokushi/oreshi thing is a lot more obvious to see (hear) in a rewatch of the show.

SHAKE MIDORIMA’s FUCKING HAND AKASHI!

midorima doesn’t bow low, kinda like another tall, (standoffish) glasses-wearing character- tsukishima.

“declaration of war” “return the favor” kise is such a dynamic character and I like him for that.

isn’t kise a little too op?

awww I forgot furihata plays in the kaijo game.

kasamatsu is actually really cool.

it’s a shame that every new technique kuroko comes up with is defeated so quickly.

the TEIKO DAYS OP OMG I’M GONNA CRY!! THEY’RE SO SMALL AND CUTE AND INNOCENT AHHHHHHH! (episode 63)

knb is about fixing friendships/repairing relationships and I think that’s really sweet.

the similarities between aomine and kagami meeting kuroko are so good (and painful).

kuroko just really loves and cares about his friends. which is really nice to see.

the height difference between nijimura and akashi at teiko.

kuroko really said: my life was kinda a disaster, and then akashi happened and I picked up a misdirection book, and then it really turned into a disaster.

onigiri oops I mean Ogiwara-kun!

the miracles are sooooooo cute in middle school! they’re tiny and look so young and not traumatized.

underrated part of the teiko flashbacks is seeing whatever ridiculous item midorima is carrying around.

true talent is throwing a box of snacks like a basket ball and successfully hitting a moving target in the face.

me confusing personality types with Japanese blood type stereotypes: theres no way midorima is type B, he should be type A. me after reading what Japanese blood type stereotypes are: ah never mind midorima is selfish and uncooperative.

knb is also about unlearning behaviors/thought patterns to be a better person. and making fucking friends.

watching the miracles fall apart is not easier the second time, if anything it hurts more because you know it’s coming and there’s nothing you can do.

teiko was so toxic! like on every level the ideology of the school caused harm to literal children.

akashi does have a wholeass suit of armor in the dining room wtf.

there’s also of course the competing victory philosophies explored in the show not to mention the sport elements that are outside my immediate range of knowledge.

look at what you did, teiko: you fucked up a perfectly good group of kids, now they have god complexes.

so not only is Tsuchida’s girlfriend really pretty, but she’s also smooth af! way to make your s/o feel good about not being a starter!

the love I feel for mitobe, he’s honestly so great. he’s tall, quiet, and can cook.

of course rakuzan get’s their own op, they’re the final battle.

HAHAHAHA HOW DOES IT FEEL TO GET REPLACED?! (jk I love mayuzumi) but really making a kuroko 2.0 and debuting him during finals is cruel.

is mibuchi’s earth shot like allowed? is it ok to intentionally foul the opponent to get a free throw? or am I just overthinking this?

nebuya you don’t have to add “muscles” to all your move names. in fact please don’t.

YOU CAN’T DUNK YOU’RE ONLY 5′8″!! (not fair!)

hyuga gets stuck in his own head a lot.

only akashi would know how to manipulate the human body into kneeling.

rip mayuzumi. he gets used by everyone. his team, akashi, and kuroko. I would not be able to go back on the court knowing that I’m just a tool.

I honestly forget about the zone every time I watch knb. I could probably live without it. the flashy moves on the court were enough for me.

he’s baaaaacckkkk!!!

I like that while a winner was established, all the teams were still motivated for the future.

was anyone going to tell me nijimura and akashi switched jersey numbers at teiko when akashi took over as captain?? or was I just supposed to piece that together myself?

the extra episode for kuroko’s birthday is so cute!

midorima calling takao because his luck is bad and he saw a black cat is too funny.

it’s ok kuroko! for one day out of the year people remember you!

takao the delivery man: he specializes in special items for cancers and the occasional human named midorima shintaro (or himuro tatsuya lol).

furihata really has the worst luck lol. he opens the door and it’s akashi.

(last game is dead to me)

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sturchling · 4 years ago

Note

Hello its me again, read all,your bio dad Bruce and has this ask. Bio dad bruce, lila salt with her lieing about dating Damian whom is 12 to her 17. Marinette is having none of this goes off on her. The class goes off on Marinette for being mean to Lila. Bruce after learning what has been said sicks his lawyers on Lila

Marinette was absolutely disgusted by Lila’s new lie. Lila had been telling the whole class about her new boyfriend. Who is this new boyfriend? None other than Damian Wayne. Why would this be so problematic? Because Damian is Marinette’s younger, twelve-year-old brother.

--------------------------

Marinette’s biological father is Bruce Wayne. He and her mother had met when she traveled abroad for college. It had been a whirlwind romance, but the couple decided to go their separate ways. Then Sabine found out she was pregnant with Marinette.

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Bruce was still involved in Marinette’s life. Marinette spent a lot of her vacations in Gotham with her father. She had also grown close with all of her adopted siblings. Damian was the newest of her adopted siblings. He was rough around the edges to say the least. But he had started to open up recently, and enjoyed working on his art projects while Marinette worked on her designs.

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So, when Marinette heard Lila say she was dating Damian, Marinette was furious. The Waynes were trying to keep Damian out of the public eye for the time being. Which means no one knows what he looks like or how old he is. Meaning he is a prime target for Lila and her lies. Marinette saw red as Lila kept going on and on about how romantic and attractive Damian is.

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Marinette slammed her hands on the desk and jumped from her seat. “Would you shut up?! You have no idea what you are talking about!” The class is shocked into silence. Lila has a dark look flash across her face. “You have no idea what you are talking about! You are not dating Damian! No one is! He is only twelve! It is disgusting of you to say you are dating a twelve-year-old boy purely to get some attention!”

--------------------------

The class burst into chaos. They all started yelling at her for being so mean. “How could you say that Marinette?!” “What proof do you have!?” “How would you know anything about Damian?!” The class got ugly really quickly. They said horrible things about her, insulting and berating her for several minutes. They also tried to destroy several of her personal items. Marinette gathered her belonging that hadn’t been damaged and raced from the classroom.

--------------------------

Marinette was on a call with her father and siblings that night, and everything from that day came out. Bruce was furious at the conduct of the class and decided it was time to intervene. He had known about Lila since she arrived in Paris. He had wanted to intervene immediately, but Marinette asked him not to. She wanted to try and solve the problem on her own. But it had gone too far now.

--------------------------

The next day, Marinette was sitting in the back of the class when a team of people that she knew to be the Wayne lawyers came in. The head lawyer stepped closer to the class and spoke in a loud commanding voice. “Attention! We are here at the request of Mr. Wayne and his family. Firstly, we have lawsuits against one Lila Rossi. You have been lying about this family, but your recent lies about dating Damian Wayne are atrocious and are to cease immediately. A copy of the lawsuit has also been sent to your mother. As for the rest of you, you are being sued for destruction of property. You destroyed Mr. Wayne’s daughter’s personal belongings and are being sued for damages incurred.”

--------------------------

The class was completely stunned. First their friend had finally been revealed as a liar. But even worse, they were being sued?! When did they even destroy a Wayne’s property? Alya stood, trying to be respectful so as not to get in any more trouble. “Sir? What Wayne’s property did we destroy? I don’t know what you are talking about.” The head lawyer looked at Alya. “Yesterday, you verbally attacked and damaged Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s property. She is Mr. Wayne’s biological daughter. Mr. Wayne does not tolerate anyone harming his family in anyway.” The class was shocked and turned to look at Marinette, shocked that she is related to the Waynes.

--------------------------

The lawyer looked up at Marinette. “Miss Marinette, your father is waiting at the bakery, if you will come with us please.” Marinette got up and left the school to go see her family, leaving the class reeling from the revelations of the day. They couldn’t believe their friend was a Wayne.

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audreydoeskaren · 3 years ago

Note

What do you think of the costumes on Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty?

The plot of the drama is a mess, but the costumes look pretty, btw I'm not an expert:3

Hi, thanks for the request. To be honest I don't watch the dramas I review beginning to end because I don't usually have time for 50+ episodes dramas but the costumes in this one are so good that I actually watched 5 whole episodes, before getting put off by the plot...

Please stick around for this one because it is really good.

Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty 梦回 (2019)

There is no English Wikipedia entry that I can copy and paste from for this drama (no love 😥) but it's basically about a modern working woman who time travels back to the Qing Dynasty and gets involved in court drama and romances. It's directed by Lee Kwok Lap and Chui Wai Hong (Rakuten Viki). I think in episode 4 or 5 they mention that the historical bits take place in the 45th year of Kangxi which is 1706. With a significant portion of the plot taking place in court, many characters should wear Manchu fashion and court dress. All the screenshots are from the Youtube uploads. The credits list Guan Qiwen as the stylist, Gu Fengxian as the costume designer, Lai Zhuping as the hairstylist and Ma Jingjing as the makeup artist. I wanted to credit all of them because as you will see, the entire team did such a great job.

Source here

I think the costumes look great, although they do lean more toward the mid and late 18th century than 1706. Finally for once a Qing period drama landed in the 18th century and not the 19th, this is a watershed moment in the history of Qing drama costuming ok? This is exactly what Story of Yanxi Palace and Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace should’ve looked liked but failed to deliver (they teleported themselves to the 1850s).

The construction of the 便服 bianfu (informal dress) robes here is extremely satisfying: they're collarless, they have the thin black binding around the neck, they have the horse hoof cuffs and they're in plain fabrics. The colors are also quite realistic and achievable in the early 18th century court. I do wish the male characters had less hair though; in the beginning of the Qing, men were practically bald with the exception of a teeny bit of hair at the back (about the size of a coin) which was grown into a pigtail. This is too much hair for me, although it is still a massive improvement compared to older dramas where the dudes barely shaved off any of their hair. The 褂 gua or coat the guy on the right is wearing is also very legit, it has the conventional five buttons and the sleeves that are looser and shorter than the robe sleeves. I’m super impressed!

Source here

Kangxi in a similar informal robe.

Source here

Kangxi in a similar coat.

The look on the right is highly questionable, maybe it was a specific type of uniform. I already trust the costume designer with my life so I’m sure whatever they came up with probably had historical precedent. The robe with a standing collar and the wide binding at the 大襟 dajin or lapel/front closure was something that existed, I’m just not sure if this particular color and pattern would be used.

Source here

Qianlong era portrait featuring a similar robe. If you look at the dajin you can see that binding was used.

Her mother’s entrance look is very intriguing: while all the other characters in this seem to be Manchu, she is wearing Han clothing with a Han hairstyle. From the description given in the show it seems that her family was originally Han but served the Manchu emperors and got elevated into the Banners (the Manchu aristocracy) so it’s not completely out of place for her mom to wear Han clothing I guess. With that said, this hairstyle is pretty interesting. It looks like they were trying to do the 1710s/20s hairstyle that looks like poop and they got it almost right, it’s just that the “poop” part could sit closer to the forehead. Her robe looks very late 17th century which makes sense for her age, though the collar could be taller and have two buttons.

Source here

Painting from the series 雍亲王十二美人图 showing the hairstyle they were referencing.

Source here

Closeup of the painting 乔园之三好图 by 禹之鼎 from the 1680s showing the back of women’s hairstyles. The giant pompadour front has fallen out of fashion in the early 1700s.

In this scene we see again that the Manchu women’s robes featured in this show have slits at the sides, which shouldn’t exist for 衬衣 chenyi. They also layered a robe on top of another, going the 19th century chenyi + 氅衣 changyi route which also wasn’t a thing in the early 18th century.

Here it looks like the mother’s robe is way too long to be a Han robe? Han robes were pretty long around this time but they would still show a bit of the skirt underneath. Her father’s outfit is great though, he has the wine colored robe with horse hoof cuffs and a coat with a ��子 buzi (square badge), which was appropriate for an official. I like that the buzi is also colorful, with waves and cliffs motifs and a single bird, which were the norm in the Qing.

In this scene where the ladies go to court it becomes more obvious that the costume designer completely understood the difference between Han and Manchu women’s fashion at the time. The Han girls are wearing two piece ensembles whereas the Manchu girls wear a single floor length robe. They gave the Han girls white, heavily pleated skirts and hairstyles with swallow tails which were popular in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. I can’t really tell how the Manchu hairstyles are achieved but if they were indeed braided I need to give the hairstylist a trophy.

Source here

Closeup of painting 豪家佚乐图 by 杨晋 from the late 17th/early 18th century showing the white skirt with many pleats and floral embroidery.

Source here

Late 17th/early 18th century portrait of a Manchu lady showing her braided hairstyle and collarless chenyi with roundel motifs.

I just noticed that they did give the Manchu characters three earrings on each ear, a practice known as 一耳三钳 yi’ersanqian, to differentiate them from the Han ones, who wear one earring on each ear; that’s a nice touch. Ok I think the biggest problem with the Han women’s costumes in this show is the collar height and fit. It should be much taller and more fitted to the wearer’s neck. Oh and I love the embroidery on all of their costumes, they’re often in roundel patterns or at least follow the pattern distribution common to the early 18th century. The choice of florals and butterflies is also really cute and true to the era and season (this is probably springtime), in addition to adding contrast to the menswear which usually features plain fabrics or those with brocaded geometric patterns.

This square necked garment is very interesting and does have a historical precedent, they got the construction correct even down to the wide facing at the collar. I don’t particularly agree with the use of fake hair for this lady because I think it’d be more authentic to braid her hair or use a turban to cover it (it’s also a little too big).

Source here

Early Qing portrait of a Manchu lady. You can see her hair is much smaller.

They did recreate the smaller hair with another character, who is Han but probably changed into Manchu garb for riding. I cannot tell you how much I respect their attention to occasion.

Usually I would stop at episode 10 but I really want to see the winter clothes featured in the promotional photos so I skipped ahead. The winter clothes did not disappoint. The black fur collar trim is completely correct and so is the white fur trim for the rest of the coat. They’re also wearing winter hats with fur.

Source here

Winter clothing.

Omg this cloak YASSSSSS!! This might be the most legit early Qing cloak I have ever seen in a period drama. The construction is great because: 1) it doesn’t have a hood like in most period dramas, Chinese cloaks didn’t have attached hoods 2) it’s collarless, which is true to the early Qing 3) it’s pleated around the neck and most Qing cloaks were constructed by pleating or gathering around the neck 4) it buttons at the front with five buttons, which was conventional for Qing outerwear 5) it has no other shenanigans like openings or sleeves 6) it’s in a wool/felt fabric that actually looks appropriate for the season. I think 6 is particularly important and refreshing to me personally because fabric choice is something that’s very often overlooked in Chinese period dramas, like you would see people running around a field of snow in shiny silk adjacent fabrics and you’d just think “aren’t they cold in that?” Woolen fabrics, especially worsted wool which was waterproof, was usually imported from Europe to make rain coats and other outerwear and was quite unique to the Qing Dynasty, so I really appreciate the use of them here.

Source here

An artifact for early Qing cloaks. This one is pretty interesting since it also has a built in coat inside, but we can still see the construction of the outer cloak.

This Han look is very, very legit, and I love that it’s in a winter fabric too. The sleeves are a bit too short though, that’s also a recurring problem.

She’s probably wearing a 抹额 mo’e underneath her winter hat, which was a very popular accessory throughout the Kangxi and Yongzheng eras. Her 吉服 jifu robe looks pretty good too. I’m not sure if she would wear 朝珠 chaozhu (the bead necklace) for jifu though.

I leafed through 38 episodes and finally managed to get a screenshot of an outfit with the suspended kerchief. This is such a cool look that never got representation before this. You can see in many 18th century export paintings that sometimes Manchu women attached a plain white kerchief and other jewelry to the button at the dajin and just left them hanging there. My only quibble is that in the 18th century kerchiefs didn’t have this deliberately created rectangular shape yet, so they more than likely would just be loose and flowy instead of ironed and flat.

Source here

Late 18th century export painting showing the kerchief.

Conclusion

Phew this got really long. I absolutely loved looking at the costumes in this drama, words cannot express how refreshing and well made they are. Because this drama has such bad ratings I was expecting some sloppy costuming but this totally blew my mind. They pulled out some rare garments and looks that no other period drama (that I know of) has done before and executed them almost flawlessly, e.g. the suspended kerchief, the cloak, the square necked jacket, the fur trimmed winter clothing etc.. The differentiation between Manchu and Han womenswear was perfectly handled, in a lot of older dramas you couldn’t tell the ethnicity of the female characters at all where you should be able to. The construction and cut of the clothes are almost entirely period and I commend the costumer for not adding unnecessary details to “spice things up”. The attention to occasion and season is also remarkable, in spring the female characters wear clothing with floral and butterfly motifs and in winter everyone wears warmer, heavyweight fabrics. This is something that usually tends to be lacking in a lot of older guzhuang dramas which paraded their characters around in gaudy colors and fabrics regardless of weather and occasion. There is still the classic Qing court drama problem of the costumes being accurate to a different era; the Manchu clothes look more appropriate to the Qianlong era (mid to late 18th century) whereas the Han ones are more on point. A couple recurring problems also exist, such as the use of the not-yet-invented changyi, standing collars that are too low and sleeves that are too short. However, that does not at all detract from how much I want to give the costuming team a cookie----no, my entire fucking cookie collection. It’s such a shame that the plot was mediocre because the costumes really have the potential to make this show groundbreaking. I rate the costuming in this drama a solid 7/10 and I will be naming this the most historically accurate Qing drama to ever grace this earth until a worthy contender appears. Bravo.

#costume analysis #chinese drama #dreaming back to the qing dynasty #qing dynasty #chinese fashion #historic fashion #18th century #court dress #Manchu clothing #清汉女装

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onebizarrekai · 4 years ago

Text

v3′s art is comically terrible for a professionally distributed game in a series: a compilation

in this not-essay I will list all of the mistakes and problems I have spotted in v3′s art. don’t worry, it’s entirely for fun and I’m doing this on a whim, so please feel free to not take this seriously but also it’s hilarious and embarrassing how ridiculous this is like what happened did they speedrun the whole production or what

see, there are some things you can take as meta like “they made it bad on purpose to allude to the downfall of tv shows that have been on air for much too long” but I have a very strong feeling this is not the case due to the nature of some of these errors

disclaimer, the more I study this art, the more I fear that the artists were underpaid and underslept, so if this is in fact the case, I am so sorry to all of them but also I’m going to make fun of the art anyway

anyway let’s get started!

if you study this image for longer than 5 seconds, you will see that kaede is the only one fully shaded and keebo is literally just his normal sprite pasted into the image. every other character is just an ordinary ref, hence most of them facing the exact same direction with neutral expressions on their faces. it looks like a bad edit, and is probably one of the worst pieces of art in the game. it kind of gets better from here on, but my roasting will not.

with that out of the way, here’s the problem that officially bothers me the most and clarifies my viewpoint of “this is not meta and an actual lack of company communication”

this freaking cg, which seems normal at a glance, but some wiseass was like “oh, kaede is a girl, so obviously she’s going to be shorter than the Male Protagonist™” ah, that’s funny. because if you look at the character bios, kaede is, in fact, one inch taller than shuichi and not like 6 inches shorter as she is shown here.

also shuichi’s shoulder is disproportionate and horrendous and he looks vaguely like a jojo character, but I wasn’t even thinking about that until right now.

thanks guys, 50% of the fandom who has never bothered to check these bios thinks that kaede is like 5′3 (did the developers really put so little thought into her to the point where drawing her correctly in the game didn’t even matter??)

also I would like to point out that, even though this isn’t related to the art itself, yes, a character kaede’s size being only 117 lbs is unfeasible, but this applies to literally every character in danganronpa ever and it’s not new news that it’s unrealistic

update: someone in the tags informed me that in versions of the game that use centimeters, like the japanese version, kaede is actually shorter than shuichi, which just adds another thing to the list of weird decisions the localization team made for no reason. that said, after confirming this, kaede is 167 cm in the original, while shuichi is 171 cm, which are approximately 5′6 and 5′7 respectively, but one inch is still nowhere near as drastic as it is depicted above. (in spite of this, I would rather depict kaede as slightly taller, so I’m probably going to keep doing that.)

the journey continues!

bro if you want kaede to have shoulder length hair then stick to it to begin with

you can pretend this is at an angle all you want but they definitely committed the shorter kaede sin a second time

wait a goddamn second.

DO YOU SEE THIS

no………… it wasn’t kaede who shrank. it was shuichi who got taller

speaking of which, can we talk about how shady the perspective is in this elevator pic? look at shuichi and kokichi in comparison to kaede. kokichi, who is canonically 7 inches (edit: or 5, if you’re loyal to the original) shorter than kaede, looks taller than kaede. he’s growing too. what steroids are these gays taking

running into the room, electric boogaloo: I don’t think tsumugi is supposed to be the same height as kokichi

gonta… gonta you’re lookin a bit like a jojo character there

I love how kaito’s head looks kind of like it was pasted onto his body. why is he the same size as shuichi? shouldn’t he be high school bully size or something? his torso is teensy

ah yes, white angie.

I love this cg but why is shuichi’s right hand so much bigger than his left hand

I also love how this cg looks like they literally took pictures of trees and pasted them into the background, especially on the left. the shadows are so weird, especially closer to the ceiling, it’s difficult for me to believe they didn’t do exactly that.

return of Enlarged shuichi

puberty update: kokichi is now taller than shuichi in spite of shuichi never missing leg day. what crimes will he commit

I have to mention it, guys. this has to be one of the worst danganronpa cgs. kokichi’s facial proportions look atrocious. look at the way his face sticks out like his jaw is in the wrong place. his scarf is a pasted texture. that’s it. this moment was so iconic but the cg just looks so… so… off. like something is terribly wrong, but you can’t put your finger on it.

you know what? let’s get into that ‘pasted texture’ thing.

let’s imagine you’re an artist working on a professional game. you’re assigned to draw cgs of kokichi ouma, who has a checkered scarf from hell. sure, it will be terrible to draw, but you only have to draw it once at a time! plus, perspective is pretty important, right? can you be bothered? nah, actually. let’s just copy paste a checkered pattern into the cg, because I’m sure nobody will notice. it’ll blend right in with the other cgs that someone actually put effort into drawing his scarf in, right?

no. the answer is no and I very much noticed. this genuinely looks terrible and I would understand taking a shortcut like that in fanart or even an indie game but this is a full price pc and console distributed game

(an addition: look at kokichi’s TINY HANDS in that last one)

meanwhile, they straight up forgot to color in kokichi’s scarf in this cg.

dude. I forgot about whatever the hell this cg was. anyway look at keebo please just look at him

lovin kaito’s baby arms

real talk, maybe you could argue that he’s missing muscle because he’s deathly sick, but most of his cgs don’t line up with this, and his arms just look disproportionate to his torso size (granted this is a consistent problem across all danganronpa games and a lot of characters have this weird problem, like hajime, but also kaito is bigger than hajime so I kind of have higher expectations of him) maybe it’s his stupid goatee and the way he reminds me of yasuhiro?? it creates this illusion that he’s older than he is and so I keep expecting him to look more like an adult

oh, also rantaro is missing some of his accessories in that video he made–you know the one–but I don’t wanna go back and screenshot it

also you may have noticed that I’m skipping all of the monokub cgs because I literally do not care about them and I’m not even bothering to check and see if they have artistic mistakes in them

JIMMY NEUTRON???

hey um uh kaito you seem to be missing your neck

hey guys do you like my pregame fanart

so, that done, the sprites are also pretty terrible at times. they’re not as interesting to go through, however, and downloading the full sprite sets for every character and studying every single one of them will drive me insane, so I’ll just sum some of the ones I noticed up. I made things for kaede and shuichi before deciding I wasn’t going to get into it, so here are these.

that said, other mistakes include kokichi missing his purple highlights in all of the sprites encompassing a specific pose, stray pixels all over the place on everyone, and everyone also has heavily inconsistent shading, but literally all I think about is how pregame shuichi is unshaded and two of kaede’s pregame sprites have glaring outfit change mistakes in them

anyway, thank you for taking the time to read my ridiculous ramble. in all seriousness, there’s this looming presence of some lack of communication in the development team, like with all the art and design inconsistencies, pieces and sprites that look rushed, stray pixels, and missing basic proportional stuff. these are the kinds of things that you supposedly have to pretty much have in the bag in order to get jobs in professional businesses, so it’s really weird to me that this game suffers from so many of these problems. it’s like they tried to make the art so much more crisp than the other games, but it fell on its face as they realized it was going to take longer to draw everything and they started to rush. it’s weird, because the coloring itself looks normal–it’s just sloppily drawn, and the proportions are a mess once put into the context of perspective. many of the cgs look like they were drawn by different people, and I’m still not over the fact that half of kokichi’s cgs have his scarf pasted in as a texture.

the moral of the story is that if you’re selling a game at full price that also happens to be in a series that has had 3 very good games in it already the stakes should probably be higher than this. v3 has been out for more than 3 years and it’s still $40 (did it cost more than that before? I sure hope not), and the overarching quality of the game is just not as high as the other games. I’m not saying that the other games don’t have any problems with their art at all, they’re just not as glaringly obvious and every artistic choice in those games feels intentional.

regardless, I had a blast roasting the art at 2am, so maybe you got a kick out of all this chaos.

#god I keep telling myself I'm gonna stop rambling about v3 #v3 spoilers #drv3 spoilers #ndrv3 #random stuff #but making this… it sounded so fun #danganronpa

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goggles-mcgee · 4 years ago

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Hello. I love the prompt " the commission " can we have the full story please ? How will the avengers react of the news about Hawkmoth?

The full story will come later I promise! I unleashed so many things onto myself but I have no regrets XD Though I shall share some headcanons with you guys about the AU in the mean time!

* Pepper has been a fan of MDC since she saw the designs for Penny and Jagged’s wedding attire. Her and Penny are friends and when she asked who made Penny’s dress and Jagged’s suit, Penny was all too happy to tell her and brag about Marinette and show her everything else Mari had designed for her and Jagged and others.

* When Tony officially proposed, Pepper already knew who she wanted to make her dress. She could tell Tony was hesitant to ask MDC since she wasn’t that well known yet, but they both knew he couldn’t say no to her, so it was no surprise when she caught him looking at her website and commission prices. Later she pretended not to notice him calling Penny and asking for MDC’s email. Pepper liked to let him believe he could keep anything from her, it was the thought that counted.

* Peter, Harley, MJ, and Ned are all excited for the wedding. Peter gets to be the flower boy which he is super happy about and Harley is the ring bearer.

* MJ is also a fan of MDC

* The whole “Minion” squad are Jagged Stone fans. Peter’s favorite album may or may not be Rock Giant. 👀

*The Minion Squad are all off school for summer already, Marinette just started summer since it’s the beginning days of July. While the Minion Squad plans to help plan the wedding, invent, prank the Avengers, and just have some good summer fun, Marinette plans to work on her MDC commissions since she knew she would be getting a lot. Penny had given her a heads up. Besides, there wasn’t much friends she could hang out with since Luka had told her that him, his sister, and his mom planned to sail around for the summer. Anarka wantedd to get the kids out of Paris for a while. Chloe and Sabrina would be going on vacation with Chloe’s mom to Milan for two weeks and then to New York for a month so Chloe could see her mother’s business and get a feel of it and see if it is something she would want to take over. Kagami and her mother would also be leaving Paris to visit family in Japan. The only ones she would be able to hang out with would be Alix, Nathaniel, and Marc.

* Then she gets the email from Tony. Freaking. Stark! She nearly faints! Okay. She faints. He actually wants Marinette to design and make his and Pepper Potts wedding attire!!! His email said that he would house her and her team for however long she needed for the consulting period and the beginning work of the outfits. Okay actually it said till the outfits were done but she would discuss that with him and Pepper when she got there because wedding dresses typically took 6-9 months to make. She figured she had time as he did specify they were planning a December wedding of next year, something about it being a Christmas present.

* After she talks it over with her parents, she responds to Tony that she would love to design and make his and Pepper’s wedding attire but before the discuss anything further she would like for them to video chat. Tony agrees later that day, which is more than enough time for Marinette to set up at Jagged and Penny’s house, they officially bought a house in Paris yes, along with her mother and father so they could talk everything over with Mr. Stark. When the camera connects, Tony swears he must be rebooting because he did not think that MDC was a 16 year old girl, but he adapts quickly and understands now why she wanted to discuss the arrangement more.

* Tom and Sabine are even more delighted and on board on sending Marinette to New York when Tony offers to let her stay in Stark Tower/Avengers Tower with the heroes and his Minions. Marinette of course asks if she can bring some friends, they’re not officially her team but she would feel better having them there with her. Of course Tony agrees because he could practically hear Pepper scold him if he said no and they continue to set everything up while Marinette calls up Alix, Marc and Nathaniel and ask if they want to go with her to New York to go to the Avengers Tower. It takes too long in her opinion to convince them that no. she’s not joking, and yes she is serious.

* Once they get their parents permission they plan to leave on Saturday which would be in two days. It’s a little hectic, especially because Marinette didn’t know if she should take the Miracle Box or not but in the end she decides to leave it with her mom and dad, aka the new Turtle and Fox heroes of Paris. They had found out she was Ladybug a little after she had become the Guardian because she had broken down. Everything had become too much for her and Tikki couldn’t stand to see her chosen like that so she told Tom and Sabine that their daughter was Ladybug.

* Marinette was going to take the Horse, Mouse, and of course, Ladybug Miraculous, to New York though. Her mom promised that she would text her or call her as soon as she could if they spotted or heard an akuma, and that they would fight it off until she got there.

* When Marinette and her friends get to New York and meet Tony, he can tell they’ve fought in a fight children shouldn’t have to, but he doesn’t know how to ask about it so he pushes it back till he can think of a way to approach the subject. He immediately takes a liking to Marinette, he can tell she’s smart for her age, and he just likes her energy.

* Then Tony introduces them to his Minions and Peter, Ned, and Harley all have a collective freakout because they are meeting THE MDC. MJ is, of course, happy too but she can at least keep her cool when meeting the designer who made Jagged Stone’s iconic Eiffel Tower sunglasses, the one who designed his Rock Giant album art, and the one who made his Roaring Dragon Jacket! Peter asks Marinette if she can sign his copy of the album and Tony thinks it’s all down hill from there. He can see the kid’s blush from across the room.

* The consultation happens and Pepper is just as surprised as Tony was when she learns MDC is only 16 but she hides it fairly well. Both are pleasantly surprised by Marinette’s professionalism and are pleased with the overall talk about what they want out of the design. Tony even manages to squeeze in another suit for Peter because he knows the kid and he is not letting him wear a rented tux to his wedding.

* Tony and Pepper have dinner with the kids and the Minions and it’s decided that they can stay for the summer, and no Pepper don’t look at Tony like that it’s not because he’s trying to help Peter get a date for the wedding.

* Then Marinette meets the Avengers. Thor loves her, but like who doesn’t Thor love? And who doesn’t love Thor? She is super interested in learning about Asgard, especially its fashion and she even talks Thor into giving her some fabric samples to work with. He just loves her enthusiasm and he appreciates her letting him talk about his home and his people. Marc and Nathaniel get a great picture of the two of them sitting on Thor’s flexed arms. Marc also loves to hear about Thor’s home and people and Nathaniel loves to draw him and those he talks about.

Natasha accidentally sneaks up on Marinette, she never means to do it, it is just how she is, so when this little girl turns around in a flash with a pencil held in her fist as a weapon her eyes narrowed looking for the danger, she is suprised and has to stop her own reflexes from sweeping the girls legs from under her. She respects Marinette’s reflexes and the two spar and Marinette tells her she used to do ballet when Natasha asks her why her turns and spins almost seem like she’s doing a dance and Natasha’s eyes light up. The two bond over ballet

Bucky, Clint, and Steve meet her one morning when they go to the kitchen and find so many goodies to eat and see this tiny little girl singing to herself as she pulls muffins out of the oven. She turns to them and smiles and says good morning before introducing herself so they do as well. When Steve introduces himself her eyes narrow and she hisses out, “YOU.” He’s so confused until she starts tearing into him about him hero suit. Bucky and Clint of course love this moment and will cherish it forever.

She meets Bruce and he’s heard of this little terror from Steve and he’s thinking she’s going to tear into Hulk about wearing only shorts but then she’s shaking his hand and saying it’s an honor to meet you Dr. Banner, apparently she’s read some of his papers. And Bruce can’t help but smile for the rest of the day.

When Wanda meets her she just hugs the little girl for a while because she hadn’t meant to see how her ex friends had treated her back in Paris but she did and this child needed a hug. Marinette had just been asking what material her jacket was made out of so they had touched briefly, then she was being hugged, but she didn’t mind, she figured maybe Wanda was having an off day and needed a hug.

Vision had just looked at Marinette and said, “Miraculous.” nobody knew what he meant but Marinette did and she just put a finger to her lips with her eyes wide with panic. Thankfully he got what she was trying to say and gave her a nod and small smile.

Tony said there was more people for her to meet but she would have the whole summer to do that so she was content.

* Then the first akuma alert went off when they were there in New York. Marinette thought everyone was sleeping when she created the portal and leapt through...she didn’t know how wrong she was.

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1ddiscourseoftheday · 4 years ago

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💙Sat 12 Dec ‘20💙

◟̽◞̽ LIVE FROM LONDON aka “5 TIMES LOUIS NEARLY GAVE US HEART ATTACKS AND THE ONE TIME HE RAISED OUR BODIES BACK TO LIFE” ◟̽◞̽

The hype leading up to the event was beautiful and nerve wracking, with Louis' Walls streams showing the largest gain since release week, new merch dropping (pink! So much pink! It is the color of rock n roll after all...plus it's available in sizes ranging from XS to 3XL fuck yeah, so nice), LTHQ and Veeps whipping everyone into a frenzy with a barrage of tweets, plus Louis tweeted “if you have a speaker round the house plug it in, if you're old enough get yourself a drink. This is going to be special!” (fan: if I do that my mom will kill me! Louis, basically- fuck that, do what you want!), and then he posted the set list which genuinely took my stress levels down like 90% THANK YOU LOUIS, I was able to simply enjoy the cool static-y countdown with its rainbow glitches for a few. But ofc any calm went completely down the toilet the second he walked out with a giant ass H on his chest (the first heart attack) and started singing maybe the best he's ever sung in his life?? My heart was still pounding three minutes later when he sang the softest, most gorgeous version of We Made It, standing in front of a giant rainbow wheel. The arrangements on every song were incredible (the string section? YES!). He did the best version of Through The Dark I've ever heard and that song is already my fucking favorite, That Version of Two Of Us, ACOUSTIC ONLY THE BRAVE, rock Always You, stadium rock Fearless, and we all know about his version of Beautiful War (WOW), listen do I need to list every song? I WILL DON'T TRY ME. But on top of all that-- the NEW SONG!! Copy of a Copy of a Copy is, uh, amazing?? It's just... so GOOD...so.. gestures vaguely at like... all of it. The sound! The lyrics! GORGEOUS, and he really gets into the figurative lyrical territory that he admires so much in others' songs and has said he wants to do more, I love seeing that so much and the results are just... sublime. Truly. Much chatter now about the similarity in sound to Sign of the Times, as if it wasn't terrific enough already. So much to love about it! And I even loved the inclusion of the fan videos on KMM-- they were just on the screens behind Louis, it totally worked with the general cool look of everything and didn't detract at all, and tbh Louis singing directly to the wall of singing louies was actually so lovely and precious. In conclusion, his voice throughout was PHENOMENAL, the band were great, strings included (hire those women Louis take them on the road, please!), the sets and lighting design and direction were awesome, the whole aesthetic was just SO on point, Louis said it best-- “we smashed it”. YEAH. YOU DID.

Other things: you didn’t think I was done with THAT FUCKING H SHIRT did you? It doesn't just have a GIANT H in the middle, above that (like tags!) are five asterisks, *****. YEAH. Look familiar? Yeah to me also damnnn. So, “end it”, “Harry”, or both? Poll time! Hair update: in a combined “you always come thru for your louies” and “you fucking demon troll” moment that's perfectly Louis he DID take his hat off to show us the glorious mane but I'm pretty sure he also trimmed it before the show! And: Hot Oli is already in the rearview I guess; ah we barely knew ye, but a new photog has appeared on the scene: enter Josh Halling (prev worked with Sam Fender) taking show pics today, including a super cool one on Louis' insta. Welcome to the team? Being a better guy than Jordan is a low bar, so just try to clear that one sir? And keep feeding us those great Louis pics! And: WBK Louis likes his backstage vodka redbull (and onstage 'water' bottles), and he confirmed between songs- “the power of vodka for me mate I’m loving it!” (straight? no, gay!). And: was the CK hoodie Louis was wearing in the pre show publicity photo (thanks Hot Oli) Harry's CK hoodie? Or simply a Copy of a…. well you know. And: hey guess what-- I gotta hand it to Veeps, against all odds that stream was flawless! Plus they got rid of the chat which was probably to facilitate that but also I simply appreciated it, good call. The Genius lyrics page for Copy of a Copy of a Copy did crash after the show though so it's cool don't worry; we've still got it. And finally: lots of people are talking now about how cool the show was but do any of them matter except DMAs reposting the pic on insta with hearts?! LOVE that for Louis.

And for the aftershow we got Louis on twitter! He thanked everyone (us, the crew, the band, Charlie, the strings, veeps, “all my personal team”), and answered a Q about doing another one-- “potentially but I doubt it, wanted to make this one special so no plans at the moment to do another.” About Copy he said “it will remain in the set for the tour and live shows but not sure when/if it will be released yet” but also re inclusion on LT2 “Probably but I want to keep all my options open. Very early in the process. Enjoy the moment!”

The rest of the day was pretty slow thank god, just some prerecorded content from Liam (a wizarding world spot) and a tik tok that's just him in the dark, shirtless, reacting to a fan screaming (literally) about how he apparently got relationship advice from Liam via facetime last night. And today's daily alarm, which was actually pretty wild, Liam and Roman reading a whole long rhyming poem about waking up! Very impressive indeed, I especially like when they rhyme “santa” with “banter”, perfectly British! And then also a strange interlude of Roman talking about how to impersonate Keanu Reeves, okay.

#Louis Tomlinson #louis #liam #DNL is the doncaster postcode #Harry with trumpets and Louis with strings is how it should always be what a week we're having!!#RIP the Catfish song but it is one for jumping aorund with a crowd and he made his point anyway #re: coacoac it's not remotely ideal for an account like this but tbh it takes a few days at least for me to #really absorb new music. So I know I'm going to love it I already do but IDK like what I'll THINK beyond that #in what WAY do I love it? I just dont want to say just yet #the H shirt also said 1895 on the bottom PM me and say hi if you just had war flashbacks #am now doubly convinced the five asterisks on the merch were END IT #a knock off rainbow bear on twitter (where else) made waves with an expensive banana dick necklace but it aint louis #probably a knock of necklace for a knock off bear nothing more #cute vogue cover dress though I love that #stuart cameron #aka #hot oli #joshua halling #roman kemp #DMAs #listen I LOVE THIS OKAY #copy of a copy of a copy #12 dec 20 #louis shirts #SBB #did I mention how I would die for that version of fearless? not more than the others but like #I feel like people dont like that song much #but I do SO MUCH #also anyone who isn't noticing me and the intern's title changes (ie everyone literally no one but us cares) is MISSING OUT #they come and go quickly but coming up with various pairs is great fun

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feralphoenix · 4 years ago

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NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH THIS: Leitmotif & Sound Palette In “Sealed Vessel”

whats UP hk fandom i am back with—“more picante takes?” WOW YES HOW DID YOU KNOW!!!

CONTENT WARNING FOR TONIGHTS PROGRAM: today we are discussing the hollow knight boss fight, and all that entails for all the characters involved. relatedly this post does not have anything nice to say about the pale king, so if you’re very protective of his character, you may want to skip it.

FURTHERMORE, i would like to iterate that this essay is working from a place of compassion for ghost, hollow, radiance, AND hornet, because every single one of them is miserable at this point in the game and doesn’t want the events of this boss fight to be happening at all. this post is not an appropriate place to dunk on ANY of them. if you want to do that, please do it elsewhere.

thanks for your understanding.

ALSO, AS USUAL: if youre from a christian cultural upbringing (whether currently practicing, agnostic/secular, or atheist now), understand that some of what i’m discussing here may challenge you. if thinking thru the implications of radiance and the moth tribe’s backstory is distressing for you, PLEASE only approach this essay when youre in a safe mindset & open to listening, and ask the help of a therapist or anti-racism teacher/mentor to help you process your thoughts & feelings. just like keep in mind that youre listening to an ethnoreligiously marginalized person and please be respectful here or wherever else youre discussing this dang essay, ty

NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH THIS: Leitmotif & Sound Palette In “Sealed Vessel”

A while back @grimmradiance made a lovely essay about comparing and contrasting Hollow’s moveset in their Hollow Knight and Pure Vessel boss fights and using what can be gleaned from the differences to speculate about their psychology. (This essay is currently their pinned, but I’ll attach a link in a reblog.) It is extremely good, and it made me want to look at the Hollow Knight boss fight my own self through one of my own areas of expertise, meaning music!

As we are all well aware, Christopher Larkin's soundtrack to Hollow Knight rules ass. There are two specific ways in which it rules ass that are relevant to this essay: Leitmotif, and sound palette.

Quick rundown for folks who aren’t familiar with these terms: A leitmotif is a melody associated with a character or event or mood that's incorporated into songs in different ways based on what's happening in the story. Undertale is an example of a game with an incredibly strong use of leitmotif that’s really only possible because Toby Fox is both the composer and the game creator, so he can synchronize the subtleties of the writing with music and scene scripting too.

The phrase “sound palette” can have a lot of meanings, but in this case I’m using it to refer to specific instruments or groups of instruments that are associated with certain characters. If you’ve watched Steven Universe and seen interviews/production commentary by its composer team Aivi & Surasshu, you’ll hear them talking about part of their approach to scoring episodes being how each main character is represented by certain instruments: Steven with the triangle wave, Pearl with jazz piano, and so on.

Hollow Knight is a small team project rather than a one-person show, so Christopher Larkin can’t go quite AS over-the-top with leitmotif integration as Toby Fox can on simple virtue of Team Cherry having to communicate what they want to him. But Larkin is Hollow Knight's sound designer as well as its composer, so he folds leitmotif and character sound palette together with striking use of stems to create a very immersive and cinematic musical experience that enhances HK’s story and gameplay.

This brings us back to the track Sealed Vessel, which has EXTREMELY tight and cinematic sound design and uses leitmotif and sound palette to not just sock players in the feelings during a charged and dramatic boss fight, but also tell us a lot about what Hollow and Radiance are experiencing emotionally, especially with the gameplay in mind.

So, let’s play the soundtrack version of Sealed Vessel (and some other stuff) and talk about what’s going on in the game during it!

You may want to get out your copy of the OST or visit Christopher Larkin’s Bandcamp page so that you can listen along.

LEITMOTIF & SOUND PALETTE

Before we actually get into analyzing Sealed Vessel, let’s talk about the involved characters’ leitmotifs/sound palettes so we know what we’re listening for.

Both of these things are easiest to identify when characters have a distinct theme song. Ghost does not. However, the main theme of Hollow Knight (see: the title track, Hollow Knight) is used as a leitmotif for the vessels as a whole. Most pieces involved with a vessel character include this leitmotif somewhere. For instance, you can find this leitmotif and variations on it in Broken Vessel’s boss theme. The Vessel leitmotif is led by a cello solo here, so we can identify that the cello is the central part of Broken Vessel’s personal sound palette.

When the Vessel theme is associated with Ghost in specific, it tends to be performed by viola and/or piano, as it is on the title track and in other places like the opening cinematic.

Moving on to Hollow, their specific sound palette is established not in Sealed Vessel but in Pure Vessel, their pantheon boss theme. (Sealed Vessel was composed first, since the Godmaster DLC didn’t drop until over a year after HK’s initial release, meaning Pure Vessel was reverse-engineered/extrapolated from relevant parts of Sealed Vessel. But we’ll get into that later!)

The major instrumental fixtures in Pure Vessel are choir and tubular bells (i.e., those dramatic vertical fellas that sound like church bells or a carillon), with some soft background instrumentation: bass drum, woodwinds (appropriately led by flute in the main melody’s “falling motion” - flute is the centerpiece of TPK’s sound palette), strings, and high/mid brass. Hollow’s overall sound palette has a very Christian choir-esque sound (in the Pure Vessel theme this is very idealized and saintly: soft and slow and tragic) and the beginning of their leitmotif has a very distinctive climbing melody that mirrors their ascent from the Abyss. The Unbearable Vesselness Of Being leitmotif is absent from the Pure Vessel track.

Meanwhile, Radiance’s boss theme is a very fun expression of her character upon which Larkin evidently went ham. Her sound palette is expressed through full orchestra (plus choir and pipe organ) that has a special emphasis on the bass part of the brass section, which does not see much use in the HK soundtrack. Her leitmotif has also got cute and distinctive touches: It’s full of triplets to match her tiara-looking antennae, and also has a repeated “fluttery” pattern of background sixteenth notes as countermelody, often spiraling downwards.

The majority of the piece is loud and bombastic and in a minor key to play up the “resplendent and terrible” wrathful aspect of herself Radi is pushing during this section of gameplay, a very quintessentially moth intimidation tactic: Try to look as scary as possible to keep your enemies from messing with you, since you’re not built for fighting. These blasts of intensity from the brass section match Radiance’s strategy of Overwhelm You With Bullet Hell Spam To Make Up For Lack Of Battle Experience/Poor Aim. But in between said intensity spikes you can hear traces of softer instrumentation and major key, little glimpses of a gentle warmth we can otherwise only infer from her backstory and the implications of Moth Tribe lore.

0:00 - 0:41 - OPENING AMBIANCE

The Sealed Vessel track begins with the ambiance of the Black Egg Temple’s interior: The faint tones of the glowing seals we hear when we pass by them, the only light in a pitch-black world besides the floor lighting up under Ghost’s feet.

Then a slow string tremolo fades in, slowly growing louder. In the track new notes join the tremolo progressively, while in-game a violin joins the anticipatory chord every time you snap one of Hollow’s chains. Which, may I say: A+++++++ sound design!!!!!! Rules ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The tremolo reaches a peak in dynamics - all three characters present are extremely tense - and then cuts off to allow for Hollow’s boss battle opening, i.e. Radiance screaming. Team Cherry kindly demarcates each phase of the battle with a Radi yell.

0:43 - 1:39 - PHASE 1: HOLLOW ON AUTOPILOT

Phase 1 opens immediately with Hollow’s leitmotif in bells, but with brass, piano, and percussion backing them up; grand and tragic. In the background the bass section of the orchestra's strings flutter in a repetitive pattern of 16th notes, i.e. Panicky Radi Noises. The violins harmonize with Hollow's leitmotif as it climbs, but then join the rest of the string section in fluttering 16th notes, transmuting what in Pure Vessel is the flute leading Hollow back down (8th notes) to a slightly louder “a” from the backseat.

In actual gameplay, the only attacks Hollow uses are their basic nail skills. Building on grimmradiance’s analysis of the window their attacks provide to their psychology, and pairing that with the Pure Vessel leitmotif booming over the metaphorical loudspeakers, we can tell that this is Hollow reacting automatically to a threat the way that their father trained them to. Their conscious mind might still be making dialup noises at Ghost’s sudden reappearance jumpscaring them with murky childhood guilt and trauma, but that’s only let muscle memory take over. Slash, parry, charge and thrust. Their time spent at bee bootcamp (which we can assume because Hornet was trained at the Hive and Hollow’s form while nail fighting is identical to hers on their shared moves) has served them well.

Radiance, meanwhile, has frozen completely for this combat phase, and contributes nothing here except the anxiety of the string section.

As the strings continue to go “a” the piano (Ghost) and woodwinds harmonize on something between Hollow’s personal leitmotif and the Vessel leitmotif in the backdrop.

However at around 1:29ish, the key changes, building into an overall color change for the Sealed Vessel piece.

1:39 - 2:15 - PHASE 2: SHE’S AS SCARED OF YOU AS YOU ARE OF HER

In actual gameplay, the part of Sealed Vessel used for phases 1 and 2 of the Hollow Knight fight is the Entirety of 0:43 - 2:15, possibly because there’s no easy transition spot like there is between phase 2 and phase 3. But the changes to Hollow’s moveset are clearly tied to this specific part of the piece.

Phase 2 is where Radiance pushes herself past her freeze response and starts trying to hit Ghost. Hollow gains two attacks here, which we can tell are Radi because they’re often accompanied by her crying (a softer and more abbreviated sound than her full scream): These two attacks are the Infection blob blast and the Light/Void pillar attack that hits for a full 2 masks damage (which appear to be Radi’s take on Hollow’s Pure Vessel-exclusive moves, their grabby tentacles & silver knife pillars respectively).

In the Sealed Vessel track, this part of the piece is almost entirely Radiance’s fluttering. The strings start by following the descending motion of Hollow’s leitmotif but in 16th notes, then ratchet up to start spiraling down again while straying further from Hollow’s leitmotif. This section ends in a back and forth between hard blasts in a one-two-(rest)-one-two-three pattern and gasps of fluttering between, with piano and low brass building behind it. Eventually the nervous fluttering of the strings becomes less frequent between the blasts: Radiance is inexperienced with fighting and very very afraid, but she’s also FUCKING PISSED and prepared to defend herself.

The OST version of the piece punctuates the break between the first half of the piece and the second with Radiance’s scream.

2:16 - 4:04 - PHASE 3: “I’M HELPING! :)” SAID HOLLOW; “HOLY SHIT PLEASE DON’T,” SAID LITERALLY EVERYONE

Phase 3 opens with Hollow stabbing themself repeatedly, a movement pattern they repeat throughout the phase. It is shocking the first time you see it, and never stops being horrible and sad no matter how many times you do this part of the fight.

Here, Hollow’s mind has finally come back online after their own freeze response, and they choose to destroy themself and bequeath the duty of sealing Radiance to Ghost. Even if they can’t be the one to make their father proud, they can still make sure their directive gets carried out.

Radiance knows exactly what they’re up to and why, and she reacts to this by completely losing her head and mashing buttons in a panic. This is something we see out of her at the ends of her boss fights too, where she’s feeling too threatened and afraid to do anything but spam optic blasts. In the Hollow Knight boss fight this manifests in two horrifying-looking but easy-to-avoid new attacks: The Infection blob sprinkler and the ragdoll.

Ghost does not react visibly because we're in gameplay, but their horror and grief at their sibling’s choice is echoed in the BGM. The Sealed Vessel piece goes soft and sad, with Ghost’s associated viola leading the bass strings in the Unbearable Vesselness of Being leitmotif. At 2:51 the violin comes in with Hollow’s leitmotif, and gradually the choir appears in the backdrop. The ensemble’s overall dynamics build in a slow crescendo, and at the very end of this segment the other instruments begin to join in.

This segment of the piece is also used in phase 4, which occurs if you don't have Hornet’s help or miss your cue to Dream Nail Hollow. Phase 3 ends when Hollow reaches 0 HP; in phase 4 they are for all purposes already dead. But Radiance manifests an extra 250 HP out of terrified, unadulterated FUCK YOU FUCK THIS!!! even though all she can do is get Hollow to fall on their face trying to slash and ragdoll them around. The BGM continues to play as Ghost absorbs Radiance from Hollow and Hollow’s body loses its shape and dissolves into liquid Void.

And there’s one other place in gameplay Sealed Vessel (Unbearable Vesselness of Being) is used: The Path of Pain, the completely evil kaizo-level obstacle course which presumably featured in Hollow’s childhood training, and behind which the Pale King has hidden his last and most terrible secret—that he had realized on some level that Hollow was a kid with feelings who loved him and wanted to make him proud, and condemned them to death despite it all by using them to imprison and torture Radiance as he’d always planned.

The OST version of Sealed Vessel includes the music for both normal ending cinematics, so we’ll be looking at them too.

4:05 - 4:35: ENDINGS 1/2: NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH THIS

In the BGM for The Hollow Knight and Sealed Siblings endings, the Vessel leitmotif is played by violin, viola, and choir while the cellos and contrabasses—and then the brass bass section too—play a slower version of Radiance’s downward spiral. But once Ghost is pierced by the Black Egg’s chains and Radiance’s struggle to free herself ends in failure, the soprano and bass sections harmonize. The animation zooms out of the temple and the seal reforms. They are stuck together now until the end of Ghost’s life. Hooray.

The OST version of the track immediately segues into the BGM for Dream No More.

4:36 - 5:45: ENDING 3: THANKS, I HATE IT

Here, Hornet’s associated instrument, the violin, plays one long sustained note with a few notes of Ghost’s piano alongside as she wakes up.

TPK’s goddamn flute comes in at 5:00 with his leitmotif overpowering the backdrop Vessel leitmotif on piano while Hornet surveys the carnage: The temple has been destroyed, Radiance is dead, and what’s left of Ghost’s corpse is smeared across the floor. The Void may have taken umbrage with his horseshit and unceremoniously vored him, but the motherfucker still got what he wanted in the end; the Pale King has ended the Infection by completing his genocide of the moths, using the children he abused and abandoned as his proxies, and wasting two of their lives. Can I get a hearty THIS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in the chat.

Given that Hornet herself is canonically unsure if bringing the fight to Radiance is really a just course of action, one can only imagine how she must feel when she sees the cost of that decision.

Our only real moment of catharsis is in this shit situation comes in at 5:13, where the flute gives way to a solo from Ghost’s associated viola, playing the Vessel leitmotif as the Siblings curl up and sink back into the mountain of their corpses. Goodnight, kiddos. You deserved better, and so did literally everyone involved in this whole stupid boss fight.

This is where the OST version of Sealed Vessel ends. Even without the gameplay and story context it slaps, but now that we’ve taken a look at how this 5:45 piece is wall to wall misery and fear on the part of literally every involved character, hopefully it will have even more impact!

#hollow knight #sealed vessel #the hollow knight #the radiance #hk radiance #ghost hollow knight #hk ghost #hornet hollow knight #hk hornet #essay #hollow knight meta

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lala-ladybug · 4 years ago

Text

Healing Hands: Chapter 1

Hello hello! First fic here, it’s a Maribat AU with a side of Sword Art Online. Or what I remember from having watched the show once about five years ago. We’ve got Marinette and minimal class salt, Young Justice but only the good parts, and primarily Jasonette. Please spread the word (I am a tiny sideblog) and let me know what you think <3

Read here on AO3

Chapter 1: You have no idea how many baddies I’m going to blow up because of you

Friday, at long last. Marinette could not have exhaled a bigger sigh of relief. It was mid-way through the school term, her commissions were ramping up, and Hawkmoth had become frustratingly active. Her duties as class president had only increased as she and her friends neared the end of lycée, not to mention all the studying she was doing for the baccalauréat on top of her regular school work. Commissions were booming now that her popularity as the anonymous designer MDC was soaring worldwide. She wouldn’t give any of it up for the world, but she might enjoy getting more than three or four hours of sleep for once.

There was only part of her life that had gotten easier since that day three years ago when she was entrusted with a pair of spotted earrings and an old god to match. Ladybug started out with one partner, but she now had a whole team to share the responsibilities of keeping their city safe. Ryuko and Viperion became permanent fixtures of the Parisian rooftops, and Bourdonne replaced Queen Bee after the infamous (albeit self-inflicted) unmasking of Chloe Bourgeois. The people of Paris looked to these heroes with pride and trust.

And Marinette Dupain-Cheng, now the Guardian of the Miraculous, looked to her partners with trust as well. She had decided that with her in charge, she could no longer keep secrets from her friends, from her new Order of the Guardians. She discussed it with Chat Noir, and he had smiled and agreed that it was time. And one day, when Ladybug gathered her teammates on a remote rooftop in the dead of night, she said only “I trust you,” before allowing her transformation to fall.

She wasn’t nervous, not really. She knew Kagami and Luka had good hearts, and she had seen firsthand how much Chloe had grown. Those three accepted her civilian self, her true self, without half a thought, and followed their leader in dropping their transformations as well. Chloe got her quips in while Ladybug looked to Chat Noir.

He passed his gaze over the faces of their friends and smirked like he was holding in a laugh. As he said “Claws in,” Marinette could hear the laugh in his voice, an intonation that sounded so very familiar, and oh. Of course.

Adrien Agreste beamed at his friends, both in the mask and out, and said fondly, “I’m so glad it’s you.”

The rest, of course, was history. For the year and a half since then, the five heroes of Paris had kept the city safe from threats magical and mundane alike. Hawkmoth had, of course, gotten craftier and more vicious with his attacks, sometimes choosing to send bursts of weaker akumas over the span of a week, sometimes waiting a month before sending an especially brutal villain their way.

But it was nothing that the Order of the Guardians couldn’t handle. Even though it could get exhausting after a while, which is why the incoming weekend was a welcome reprieve. There was another reason why this particular weekend was so exciting, which was that a new video game, Mindscape, was debuting. It would be released at midnight EST, which was 6:00 in the morning for Paris.

“Today’s the day, girl!” Alya squealed as she flagged Marinette down on their way to the classroom. “We are so lucky that our class won that raffle to get these exclusive passes. I bet I’ll be the first blog to get the scoop on this new tech they’re using!”

Marinette giggled and started to reply, “Super lucky, right? I’m excited too, I heard--”

“You know,” Lila cut her off as she sidled up to Alya. “I’m not saying that I didn’t enter us to get those downloads, but I was a big help with beta testing.”

How she managed to time that comment just as the three girls crossed the threshold of the classroom, and how she managed to know that nearly the whole class would already be there to hear it, Marinette would never understand. She only had to wait a moment before the rest of their friends rushed to the door to thank Lila.

“This opportunity is amazing, we are incredibly grateful!” Max was first in line, ever the technology-enthusiast.

Kim pushed his shorter friend out of the way and vigorously shook Lila’s hand. “You have no idea how many baddies I’m going to blow up because of you.” Lila looked a little overwhelmed as he continued to shake her hand all the while, and she gave him a nervous smile.

He was soon pushed out of the way as Alix muscled her way to the front next. “I definitely owe you for giving me the chance to kick his ass in a brand new way!” She jerked her head to where Kim had landed on the floor, pouting at her.

As the rest of the class who would be joining them in the game’s premiere expressed their thanks, Alya looked on with an affectionate smile. She was so very happy that she now had two kind, selfless best friends. Her smile fell a little as she noticed Marinette stoically edging her way around the crowd and up to her seat, not having said a word to Lila. Alya just wished that her two besties would get along.

Alya put a hand on Lila’s shoulder and smiled her thanks before following Marinette to what was once their shared desk. “You really should thank her, you know,” Alya implored hopefully.

Without turning around to face Alya, Marinette paused and shared an incredulous look with Adrien, who was already seated at his shared desk with Nino. She then shrugged and replied, “Lila never actually said that she got us the passes,” before continuing up the steps to her seat at the back of the class. Alya shook her head and sat down. It was always like this, a cool indifference from Marinette whenever Lila came up. They were both such incredible people, Alya couldn’t understand why they didn’t get along.

As for Marinette, she was semi-content to let Lila be as long as her lies didn’t hurt anybody. Her unrealistic promise to take away all of Marinette’s friends was never fulfilled, and honestly the amount of emotional energy it used to sap from her just wasn’t worth it anymore. Marinette had no idea how Lila was going to get her hands on a copy of the game when Mari was, of course, the one who had won the raffle. She distributed the special access passes herself, and Lila certainly hadn’t gotten one. If this was the way that she wanted to make friends, she would eventually have to face the consequences.

But for now, Lila was basking in her praise. That is, until she glanced at her phone and gave a small gasp of dismay.

“What’s wrong?” Rose asked, concern already etched on her face.

Lila covered her mouth with one hand and started rapidly blinking back tears. “It’s my VIP copy of the game. There was a mixup in the mail and it won’t get here in time for tomorrow morning! I’m so sorry everyone, it looks like you’ll have to do it without me....” She buried her face in her hands and her shoulders trembled with barely restrained sobs.

The class shared a worried look, and Sabrina piped up, “It’s okay Lila, you can borrow my copy.” Lila immediately looked up and surged forward to clasp the hands of her friend.

“Really? But won’t it have the same problem?” Sabrina smiled and shook her head. “Nope, it’s a digital download! I don’t mind, you can always trade it back when your VIP pass arrives later.”

Lila gave her a brilliant smile, any tears long-since dried. “Oh, thank you so much Sabrina! I’ll see what I can do about getting you a VIP pass too once mine gets here.”

At that moment, Chloe walked in, and one look at the scene displayed in front of her had her rolling her eyes at her former best friend. She gracefully swept up the steps to join Marinette at the back of the classroom and whispered to her, “Aren’t they all digital downloads?”

Marinette, who had started unpacking her bag to prepare for class, inclined her head and gave the blonde a meaningful look that indicated yes, they were indeed all digital downloads. Chloe snickered and started preparing her own side of the desk.

After the fiasco of outing herself as Queen Bee, Chloe had lost the minimal support and tolerances she had been allowed before. It gave her time to truly reflect on how she acted and treated other people. She had since been quietly making amends with those she’d wronged, and the person on the top of that list was Marinette Dupain-Cheng. It took time and a lot of effort on Chloe’s part, but she mellowed out and did a lot of growing up. She still spoke her mind, though.

“Huh that’s strange, I got the VIP package too, but mine was a digital pass,” Chloe loudly proclaimed, studying her nails nonchalantly as the rest of the class turned to look up at her.

Lila grit her teeth into a forced smile and replied sweetly, “Well that’s because mine was an original beta testing copy that they had to update for the full game.” She turned her attention to Marinette and a note of false concern crept into her voice. “Oh Marinette, I hope you’ll still have time to come too! I know you’ll be busy this weekend with planning the spring class field trip. It would be such a shame if it didn’t happen because you were too busy playing a video game.”

Marinette suddenly felt very warm under the gazes of the entire class. She stammered out, “Oh-of course we’ll get to go! Don’t worry, I have a meeting with the school board on Monday.” Trust Lila to sniff out the one thing that had slipped below her radar.

Lila’s eyes lit up with an opportunistic gleam. “That’s great! Where will it be?”

“Well, uh, the school board has to review the location, so I don’t want to get your hopes up, but I can tell you that it will be in, um,” her eyes flicked around wildly and landed on the posterboard of different flags from the prior week’s lessons. “America!”

The class burst into excited chatter moments before Madame Bustier arrived and the late bell rang. Marinette released a breath and sagged in her seat. Saved by the bell.

Chloe gave her a sidelong glance and murmured, “America, huh?”

“Shut up,” Marinette shot back.

* * *

Madame Bustier tried to get the class to pay attention, she really did. They struggled through their lessons before lunch, the volume of side conversations between deskmates swelling all the while. The moment the bell for lunch dismissal rang, the students exploded into conversation as they left the classroom.

Marinette waved as Chloe and Adrien walked off to go meet Kagami and Luka at a nearby cafe. She breezed into the patisserie across the street from Francois Dupont and gave her surprised Maman a kiss on the cheek.

“I thought you were going out with your friends for lunch?” Sabine asked, balancing a tray of eclairs on her hip. “I forgot I have to plan our class trip!” Marinette replied cheerfully as she hurried into the kitchen to quickly fix herself a croque-monsieur. She gave her Papa a hug as she finished preparing her meal. He shouted up at her to not make a mess as she retreated into her room to eat at her desk.

She gave a small snort at that. It was nearly impossible for her to make a mess of food when she had over a dozen Kwami there to clean up after her, but he didn’t know that. She greeted said Kwami with a delighted grin and a wave as she set her plate down by her desktop computer.

“Marinette, why are you back so early?” Tikki asked, “is everything okay?” The other Kwami swarmed around her as she woke her computer up and logged in.

The girl waved one hand nonchalantly and opened up a web browser with the other. “Everything’s fine, I just forgot about planning the class trip!” She took a huge bite of the sandwich and started typing furiously. Several Kwami dove after the crumbs that sprayed everywhere.

“Ohhh, I see! Do you have an idea of where to start?” Tikki zoomed around Marinette’s shoulder to hover next to the monitor screen.

Marinette had the same determined gleam in her eye as when she finally found the perfect fabric for a design. She said confidently around a mouth full of ham, “America.”

* * *

By the time the lunch break had finished, Marinette had a preliminary list of cities on the East Coast of the United States. She had researched Gotham first, but it looked far too dangerous and gloomy. Next was New York City, which she determined was too big. Philadelphia was historic, but in a way that would definitely bore her classmates. Boston was too cold despite its excitement. Which left Metropolis as the perfect candidate. It was also protected by the perfect superheroes, Superman and his family, so she was absolutely confident the school board would approve of the city.

Of course, the meeting on Monday would need more specifics than just the city, but she was pleased with her progress so far. Marinette shut down her monitor, grabbed her backpack and plate from lunch, and went downstairs to the kitchen. She quickly scrubbed and dried her plate in the sink before waving to her parents as they bustled around, accommodating the tail end of the mid-day rush.

Marinette walked across the street with a spring in her step and, spotting a tall flash of blue hair, half-jogged up to her group of friends.

“Hey guys, sorry I couldn’t make it to lunch!” She grinned apologetically at Kagami and Luka.

“That’s alright Melody,” Luka gave her a side hug, “Chloe told us you were busy planning your class trip.”

Adrien slung an arm around Kagami’s shoulder and pulled his girlfriend closer to whisper conspiratorially to her, “I hear we’re going to America.” She laughed softly at his antics and at Marinette who stuck her tongue out at him. Kagami then said to Marinette, “That sounds delightful, Marihime. I trust you will still be joining us tomorrow morning?”

Marinette’s eyes lit up with excitement at the prospect of playing the game with her friends all weekend long. “Definitely! I’m going to finish preparing for the school board meeting tonight so that we can play the second it comes out.”

“If you can wake up on time,” Chloe teased.

Marinette crossed her arms defensively and stated with pride, “I already set three alarms, thank you very much!”

Adrien burst out laughing at that. “Leave it to our everyday Ladybug,” he winked. Her face flushed as she pouted. He chuckled again and kissed Kagami on the top of her head. “See you later, mon coeur.”

She and Luka waved to the rest of the group as they left to return to their own schools. The three Francois Dupont students watched them go for a moment before returning inside.

“So, you and Kagami have plans?” Chloe asked.

“Yeah! Our parents gave special permission for a sleepover at my place tonight so we can play the game right when it comes out tomorrow.” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous habit he had never quite abandoned. “But I’m not sure how often we’ll be able to be online with you guys after this weekend. You know how busy our schedules are....”

Marinette elbowed him lightly as they walked. “It’s a blessing you both managed to convince your dad and her mom to let you come to the launch at all! We’ll play together when we can, it’s no big deal.”

Adrien smiled gratefully at her and held the door open for both Marinette and Chloe as they entered the classroom. Alya was already there, and once she spotted her best friend (well, one of them), she skidded down the steps with a huge grin and held an invisible microphone up to Marinette.

“Thank you Nadja, and good afternoon Paris! This is Alya Cesaire, and today I am joined by young fashion designer Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Mlle. Dupain-Cheng, can you give us an exclusive scoop on the trip you’re planning for your class?”

“Good afternoon Mlle. Cesaire,” Marinette giggled, “Unfortunately, the trip has yet to be approved by the school board so no details just yet. But I can tell you with certainty that we will be visiting the resident city of some popular American superheroes.” She winked as she finished in her best interview voice.

Alya gasped and dropped her pretend microphone as she hugged her best friend. “Really!? Oh my gosh girl, you are the best!”

Marinette laughed and hugged her back as Alya jumped and spun them around. Once they pulled apart, she told the brunette, “As soon as the school board gives me the green light, you’ll be the first to know.”

The late bell rang and the girls practically skipped to their respective seats as Madame Bustier called the class to attention. Well, “attention” in the loosest sense of the word. They struggled once more through the majority of their lessons, but Madame Bustier seemed to sense defeat and she let them chatter excitedly for the last twenty minutes before dismissal.

Kim and Alix were boasting about how they were going to stay up all night, while Max encouraged them to maximize the time they would be able to play the next day by getting a full night’s sleep in before the launch time.

Lila bragged about her role in the creation of the game from its conception to even having suggested the highly anticipated date of release. Adrien pointedly ignored Lila in the row behind his and discussed the music they had recorded and mixed for the game with a very enthusiastic Nino.

Sabrina looked on a little sadly until Mylene, Ivan, Rose, and Juleka invited her to join their Disney movie marathon double-date instead. Mylene was too nervous to play the game so Ivan chose to sit out to support her, and video games weren’t really Rose and Juleka’s style. Sabrina’s face softened as she gratefully accepted their invitation.

Nathaniel turned around in his seat to talk to Marinette about the art rendering and the programs they used while Chloe scrolled aimlessly on her phone.

By the time the bell finally rang, the class was beyond excited to go prepare for the launch the next morning.

Marinette, to her credit, swallowed her enthusiasm and sat down to fully plan out their trip to Metropolis. It was grueling work, researching the safest hotel that was still in a central location. It had to be affordable but not shabby, too, because they had a limited budget. She eventually settled on the reputable Wayne Hotel, apparently part of an enormous corporation called Wayne Enterprises, and then began to build an itinerary with different events from there.

She worked nonstop the rest of the night, with the exception of a brief dinner break, and it was nearly 11:00 at night by the time she finished. Marinette sat up from her desk chair and stretched, then double-checked that her alarms were set before finally heading to bed.

#marinette dupain cheng #jasonette #sword art online au #virtual reality #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug fic #maribat #maribat fic #healing hands

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