#how do people continuously draw comics and not end up drawing one decent frame before getting lazy with the rest??

[bigeggeaterjustsaying]

Ignore the goofy Cartman, I don't draw him damn near enough

And this song just kinda feels fitting idunno

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I thought about every episode of The Owl House Season 1 (Part 1/2)

Salutations random people on the internet who probably won't read this. I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

Hey, do you miss Gravity Falls?

...

Yeah, I know, dumb question. Which is why I have good news! Not only is there a new series that is just as good as Gravity Falls, but in some ways, it's even better. That new series would be none other than Disney Channel's latest hit: The Owl House.

The Owl House, slowly but surely, became my new obsession since Eda reacted to decapitation with an unconcerned, "I hate when that happens." I wrote fan-fiction, made fan-art, and even began to separately review new episodes. Unfortunately, I got in a little late in the reviewing game and only managed to analyze the last four episodes of season one. And like an idiot, I promised that I'll review the rest when they came out on Disney+. Seeing that all of the first season has finally come on a legal streaming service (which means WATCH IT RIGHT NOW!), it's time I finally saw through to that promise. However, I'm not going to over-analyze each episode because that would be insane. So instead, we're going to lightning round these suckers. Because it's my Tumblr, and I get to decide what I review and how the hell I review it...hooah.

Which means this is your last chance to avoid spoilers if you haven't seen The Owl House yet. Seriously, it's a great show, and you can catch up right now on Disney+. A week-long trial is more than enough time to watch the series, so DO IT! With that out of the way, let's get started with:

“A Lying Witch and a Warden”: This episode gets a lot of flack for having poor pacing and being too preachy with its message. And to that, I say...you're not wrong. Yeah, I wish I could be that person who can defend this episode against criticism like that, but these are understandable problems that just left this icky feeling in my tum-tum when watching. But that's only when looking at it as a regular old episode when in reality, people need to see it as a first episode. The first episode in any show needs to get viewers interested enough to continue watching by answering these five essential questions: What's the plot of the show? What's the tone? Who are the main characters? What's the world they live in? And what are the rules of the same world? "A Lying Witch and a Warden" does a great job of answering all of these questions. And if you stuck around until the season finale, then that means it did a great job of keeping you interested in sticking around as well. So seeing how it got its job done, albeit, with mixed results, I give this episode a B-.

“Witches Before Wizards”: Don't mind me. Just reveling in the fact that Luz escaped to a fantasy world to avoid Reality Check Camp, only to get a reality check anyway. Because that's what this episode is in a nutshell. Through the "quest" that Luz goes on, she learns two important lessons: One, don't trust strangers who offer you something nice and shiny (bonus points for Eda warning Luz to avoid men with sandals and then have Ategast wear sandals). And two, there is no such thing as having a predetermined destiny. I love the idea that Luz coming to the Isles was just a twist of fate, and everything that happens afterward is pure dumb luck. And that moment when Eda gave a speech about making your own path instead of waiting to become something special? That was the moment when I went from thinking this was going to be a fun show to thinking it's going to be a great show. So consider this episode a solid A in my book.

“I Was a Teenage Abomination”: How is it possible for an episode to get better and worse with time? Because here's the thing: This episode does a great job of showing how perfect Amity's development is. After one single season, it already feels jarring, seeing the way she acts in certain scenes. However, in that same respect, it's the same reason why this episode got worse. I didn't mind that Willow practically got away with cheating and vandalizing the school with her magic because she and Luz were basically trying to show up a two-dimensional bully. But knowing what we know in the future, it does seem unfair that Amity gets punished for their bad behavior and Willow got little consequences for it. Sure, Luz got banned and had to work at gaining Amity's trust, but what about Willow? Although, despite this complaint, I don't really hate this episode. It builds a believable connection between Luz and her friends, and the B-plot King and Eda show off their budding friendship. So while this episode is a C-, it's a somewhat enjoyable C-.

“The Intruder”: Is it weird for anyone else that King gets most of the blame in this episode? Yes, he took the potion, but Luz was the one who kept pushing him. This is why it never sat right with me seeing how everyone, including himself, blames King for this episode's incident. That being said, "The Intruder" is fantastic. Eda, as the Owl Beast, is legitimately threatening, and the way the episode treats Eda's curse like a chronic illness is actually kind of sweet. It teaches kids how this is something that just happens to people, and they're not any weaker because of it, as long as they take the right steps. Which is cool, and it's why this is another solid A episode for me. Sure King getting the blame bothers me, but it pales in comparison to everything else “The Intruder” does right.

“Covention”: If you want my personal opinion (obviously, seeing how you're reading this), "Covention" is the perfect episode to show a friend to get them into watching the The Owl House. Everything there is to love about the show is seen in just these twenty-two minutes. Eda being a chaotic good, Luz being a sweet and understanding character, some incredible/natural world-building, an actually decent B-plot, an epic fight scene, great comedy, and, my personal favorite, the building of Luz and Amity's relationship. In fact, this episode has the most quintessential moment between these two, that Dana Terrace herself took charge of making the animatic for it. A scene that is so perfect that you can do an analysis of these few minutes alone...which is what I did. Click here to read it! "Covention" gets an A+ in my book and might possibly be the best episode of the season. Maybe even the series!

“Hooty’s Moving Hassle”: There's not really a lot I can say about this episode. I don't hate it, but I'm not exactly in love with it. The interactions between Luz and her friends are adorable, and there are a few good jokes that kept me laughing. But the story is kind of bland, and I just find Eda's sudden obsession with Hexes Hold'em kind of odd. Especially since a card game is what nearly defeated the "undefeatable" Owl Lady. If it wasn't for the nice reveal of Willow's and Amity's friendship (which comes into play in a far better episode), I'd say that you could skip this one on future rewatches. Because this is a C grade episode that just doesn't grab me as well as others.

“Lost in Language”: Ah, yes. The episode that made dozens of fans jump aboard the Lumity ship...unless you're like me, and you've been shipping these two since the show's theme song (And I don't know why, either. It's just the second I saw Amity my first thought was, "Oh, honey. You're gonna fall in love with the main character, aren't you?" AND I WAS F**KING RIGHT!). But jokes about shipping aside, "Lost in Language" is a fantastic episode. It has a great lesson about how people are more complex than their first impressions (Or to not judge a book by its cover, if you wanna stay on theme). Edric and Emira seem like a chaotic duo who cause mischief all for good fun. But Luz, as well as the audience, learns that Ed and Em are kinda the worst (they get better in future episodes, but still). Then there's Amity, who hasn't had the best first impressions in the last few episodes. We got glimpses of a good person here and there, but for the most part, that's all they were. Glimpses. Then there's this episode, which gives us more than a small look, but some actual insight into who Amity really is. Better yet, who she wants to be. It's something that I appreciate about The Owl House in that it wastes no time in developing Amity's character. So much so that I can forgive this episode for shoehorning a "Two idiots and a baby" plotline that does nothing but add maybe two minutes of padding. So yeah, it's an A+ for sure.

“Once Upon a Swap”: "Ugh! It's the body swap episode! How cliche and-" SHUT UP! Shut your mouth, and listen: Something being cliche does not always make it bad. Only when the cliche fails to tell an entertaining story does it have the right to work as a complaint. "Once Upon a Swap" may have a cliche premise, but it's still an enjoyable story (or stories) with great laughs and even some ok lessons. I can understand if you hate the episode because its premise is something you've seen a dozen times to the point where your sick of it. My most hated story idea is the "Character A saves Character B, and Character B becomes a life slave." If you have seen this story once, you've seen it a thousand times, and it's the same case with a "body swap" episode. But guess what: The Owl House is a kids' show. Kids'. Show. You can complain all you want about predictability, but kids are the type of viewers who will be new to this experience, despite if it's one that is done to death. Which is why this is solid B of an episode if you ask me.

“Something Ventured, Someone Framed”: Can people please stop shipping Gus with Mattholomule? Because that slimy, greasy, weaselly little son of A BASTARD BITCH WEASEL DOES NOT DESERVE LOVE IN WAY POSSIBLE!

...

But enough about how Mattholomule is the worst character ever, because "Something Ventured, Someone Framed" is a B+ in my opinion. Sure it shows the worst side of Gus and lets Satan's little herpe win in the end, but there is still quality to be had. We get insight into who Gus is as a character, on top of Eda swallowing her pride and cleaning the school so Luz can get into Hexide. Also, Eda's permanent record was the first time this show brought me to tears due to laughing so hard. So while I have to take points off for the inclusion of Mattholomule (I don't make the rules. I just live by them), this is still an episode I wouldn't mind revisiting.

“Escape of the Palisman”: I subscribe to this theory that Luz will one day have Eda's staff as her own. And episodes like this that strengthen the bond between Luz and Owlbert help confirm that theory. Luz's dedication to trying to make things right could just be part of her kind nature, but I like to believe that this is Dana and the crew trying to set up this possible outcome. As for what I think about the episode itself...it's ok. Again, Luz's dedication is nice to see, and King's adventure with Owl Beast Eda is somehow insanely adorable, but there's not really much to say other than that. So it's another B episode for me.

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And that’s the end of part one! Part two has probably already been posted by the time you finish this, so you can go ahead and find that if you’re interested.

[orihara-infobroker]

Seclusion Day Seven

This was the fourth of Mikiya’s daily conference calls and the executives had all given up on formality - some more than others. Izaya had curled up on Shiki’s lap as they sat on the couch, laptop resting on the coffee table. Aozaki appeared to be sitting in his hot tub and Izaya was theorizing on whether or not the laptop would end up in the hot tub with him at some point. Akabayashi looked like he just woke up and finger-combed his hair into place. A half-drunk glass of what Shiki suspected was whiskey sat just in view of the camera. No one knew what Kazamoto looked like since he continued to keep his camera off but Shiki felt it safe to assume the lizard was probably just as casual as the rest of them. And the leader of this conference call? Well, he was currently helping Akane with... something?

“Hey, Akabaka, it’s a bit unprofessional to be drinking at work, don’t you think?” Izaya teased, leaning forward a bit to stare pointedly at the glass. Akabayashi pushed it out of the frame, giving Izaya a one-eyed glare.

“I don’t think sitting on your boss’s lap is particularly professional, Izaya. Neither is taking a bloody bath.” He grumbled, gaze shifting to Aozaki. The larger man shrugged.

“Just imagine we’re having a friendly chat at the onsen,” Aozaki responded with a grin. “Oh wait… you don’t have a hot tub cause you live in a fucking shit apartment.”

Akabayashi just rolled his eye and took a sip of his drink. “Not like these friendly little chats actually serve a purpose.”

“On that, I can agree with you,” Shiki replied. “So why don’t we run the agenda before Mikiya gets back then we can just give him the details and get back to work?”

Izaya leaned back, glancing at his phone. “Well I got Akabayashi’s list and it seems most of the girls are fine to work from home if we can get them the equipment they need. I sourced for various levels, depending on whether they just want to do phone calls or full video. Just a matter of order and delivery. Most of the girls are young so they should be able to set things up without too much trouble on their own.”

“I’ll review the numbers and give Mikiya the options I think are the best match for each girl,” Aka replied with a nod.

“I’d like to discuss the suspension of lease payments,” Kazamoto spoke up. “I know Mikiya won’t like it but I think we need to consider some leniency in the matter. Not for any of our corporate tower holdings, mind you. Just for the smaller businesses, especially the buildings that have restaurants or small retail. We have the overhead to cover it and I think it’s a better choice than evicting those businesses right now.”

Shiki exchanged a glance with Izaya then nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. Evicting them at this point wouldn’t help us anyway. There are no businesses to take their places. Aozaki, how are your men handling their new jobs?”

“They’re just happy to be doing something and the people they’re helping have been really grateful. One of the older ladies has been hand sewing masks since there’s a shortage and she’s making sure all our boys get one since we’ve been taking them over to the medical centers for her. I sent a few guys down to the food bank to help them with making up and delivering boxes. Seems demand is up with so many layoffs.”

Shiki nodded thoughtfully. “Kaz, send me a list of restaurants we have leases with. I have an idea.” 

Izaya glanced at Shiki with curiosity. “Are you-” He began but then Mikiya reappeared, giving everyone a good look at his flannel pyjama pants as he sat back down. 

“Sorry about that. Akane’s gotta do her schoolwork from home now, over the computer or some shit so I gotta cut this short.”

“Mikiya! Language!” Mikiya’s wife could be heard in the background, drawing amused grins from Akabayashi and Izaya.

“It’s no problem, sir,” Shiki replied. “We’ve already discussed the current projects and everything is progressing as planned. We will forward you the reports to review.”

“Ah… very good. I’ll look them over and we can discuss them tomorrow.” 

As the executives logged off, Izaya gave Shiki a considering look. “You’re thinking of trading that free rent for service.”

Shiki gave the very perceptive raven an approving smile. “They need a way to keep employing their people. If we subsidize their rent during this mess, they can continue to pay their staff. If their staff are also cooking meals for those in need, they can write it off as charity and those people will remember. They’ll come back when times are better. Benefits everyone in the long run.”

“But do you think they’ll agree? And more importantly, do you think Mikiya will agree?”

“Yes. I have no doubt the restaurants will agree because it keeps them in business when they might otherwise have to shut down. Mikiya… I’m confident I can sell it to him but if he does prove difficult, I know I can sell it to Dougen.”

Izaya chuckled. “If they gave out yakuza awards, you’d get Cleverest Executive.” He teased then grew serious. “I wouldn’t normally say this…” His gaze shifted back to the laptop. “I’m a bit worried about Akabaka.” 

Shiki studied the raven quietly for a moment before answering. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell him. But yeah, I’m worried too. Invite him over, tell him you need help with something for work, whatever works to get him out of his house. I have a suspicion he’s been drinking himself stupid.”

“Because that’s what you’d be doing if I wasn’t here to keep you entertained?”

Shiki snorted. “Unlikely. Akabayashi’s an extrovert and he really doesn’t have anyone outside the clan as I understand it. This is probably hitting him a lot harder than the rest of us.”

“Make cookies.”

“What?”

“Remember that time I brought your cookies to the office?”

Shiki chuckled. “You’re suggesting we lure him over with the offer of cookies?”

“Well, maybe dinner and cookies? I doubt he’s had a decent meal since this whole thing started.”

“Fine, if you think that’ll work.”

Some hours later Akabayashi arrived bearing files Izaya had requested as an excuse, still looking like he’d just rolled out of bed. Izaya gazed at him critically.

“Have you even showered in the last week?” He asked as he let the redhead into the apartment. Akabayashi narrowed his eyes then pushed the files into Izaya’s hands.

“Of course I have.” He retorted and his words slurred a bit. Izaya arched a brow as he took the files.

“You know drinking alcohol won’t kill the virus, right?”

“I didn’t come here to listen to you criticize me, Orihara,” Akabayashi sneered.

“Sit down, Mizuki,” Shiki ordered. “Dinner is almost ready.” Akabayashi arched a brow at Shiki then discarded shoes and coat in the entry and made his way to the seldom-used kitchen table. Shiki had pulled it away from the wall since the breakfast bar only had two seats. Izaya followed behind, dropping the files on the coffee table beside his laptop before joining Shiki in the kitchen. “Have you been talking to the girls? How are they doing?”

Akabayashi gave Shiki a suspicious look. “They’ve been supporting each other. Most of them have roommates or family to stay with so they aren’t in a bad way.”

“That’s good. What about you?”

“What about me?” Akabayashi replied with irritation as Izaya placed a bowl of salad on the table. The raven sat down across from him, grinning.

“We’re going to watch the Marvel movies in order. Shiki’s never seen any of them.” Izaya informed Akabayashi, shaking his head in disappointment. “You should watch with us.”

Shiki brought over a hot casserole dish of lasagna. “He says this as if everyone watches comic book movies.” 

Akabayashi looked between the two then sighed. “I see what you’re doing.”

“Feeding you dinner and inviting you to watch movies with us?” Izaya replied with an innocent smile. Akabayashi rolled his eyes and reached for the serving spoon, helping himself to a generous portion of lasagna.

“You promised me cookies, Izaya.” He pointed out with a smirk.

“After dinner.” Shiki went to the fridge for beers. 

Akabayashi grinned. “He’s really never seen any of them?” Izaya nodded as he filled his own plate. “There’s what, twenty of them? That’s gonna take a while to get through.”

“Well, if we watch a couple of them every few days, we should be able to get through all of them by the time this quarantine passes.”

“Every few days, hm?” Akabayashi took a bite of the lasagna as Shiki joined them. “You know, I don’t think I’ve seen all of them either.”

Izaya grinned. “You? The hippest of the executives? Unbelievable! You absolutely have to join us now. Your reputation depends on it.”

“Not like I have anything else to do, anyway.”

“And with you around, Shiki can stop using the excuse that there’s no one to eat his baking,” Izaya added, turning his grin on Shiki.

Shiki cracked a smile. “I do have a few dessert recipes I’ve been wanting to try out.”

[kirinda-ondo]

Rant/tell me about Cobalt and why u love him so much??

Ok so this is probably going to get very long, and very, very cheesy, and I hope y’all are ready for this.

Cobalt is a very special character to me and is absolutely my favorite character of all time, from anything in the history of ever. It doesn’t matter what other fandom I’m hyperfixated on or what character I’m saying is my son at the moment, if you bring him up at any time, in any context I will be there.

So you’re probably wondering how I got here.

Once upon a time, it was 2009 and I was a young weeaboo, constantly absorbing everything anime or manga I could. I had just come out from the Astro Boy movie, and I immediately wanted to watch the source material. I’d already seen a bit of it on adult swim when they were running an Astro Boy marathon, but I had to go to bed at 11:30 then so I didn’t get to see much. So this time, I went to youtube and I found all the (dubbed) episodes of the 60s series. (Sadly you can’t find them all there anymore and it’s a crying shame).

I basically marathoned them, but over in the sidebar where the recommendations were, I kept seeing the thumbnail for part 2 or 3 (this was back when youtube only let you post 10 minute videos and you had to watch anime in 3 parts) of the episode “Brother Jetto.” You could plainly see him, and so it was clear this was supposed to be Astro’s brother. I thought it was neat that Astro even had a brother, as I’d only known about Uran before. I wanted to know more, but I promised myself I wouldn’t skip ahead. Though it was very tempting at times, I stuck to my guns and watched all 83 episodes up to that point.

However, it was not actually love at first sight. When I finally got to this episode 84, I wasn’t really impressed. “Wow, he’s kind of annoying, what’s the point?” I had thought like a fool, but I was still willing to accept him as part of the canon, as I figured I’d be seeing a lot more of him now that he had been introduced. After all, that’s what they did with Uran! But then…. that pretty much didn’t happen at all, which I thought was kind of weird. After all, why introduce a new sibling if he’s not going to show up again?

But then I got to the episode “A Deep, Deep Secret” about 6 episodes later, and I found myself a little relieved that he wasn’t completely canned. Upon watching that episode, I’d found that he’d started to grow on me a bit, but he still wasn’t my favorite. However, the trend of him being gone for several episodes only to show up once in a blue moon continued until I’d run out of episodes. I moved on to the 80s series next (and then the 2003 series) having learned that Cobalt had been replaced by Atlas as Astro’s brother. While I enjoyed those series (the 80s one a bit moreso than the 2003 one), I found myself kind of missing Astro’s dingus brother that had barely seemed to get a chance. After marathoning all the series (at the time), I started doing some googling and found out he had a slightly better run in the undubbed Japanese episodes (which was also how I discovered AB-O! Hi fandom!) and I’d learned a lot more about him. But the most important thing I’d learned was that I was in fact very emotionally invested in this character now and I was in deep.

Mind you at this time the undubbed Japanese episodes were nearly impossible to find without purchasing the complete DVD set and a player that could play them (on account of the fact that the set was region locked from western DVD players) so for years I sat wondering more about what those Japanese episodes were like, as the forums only had plot summaries with a handful of screencaps to go off of. Nowadays you can watch all the undubbed (and sadly unsubbed) episodes here but 13 year old me did not have the knowledge to do foreign language googling at the time.

But still, my Cobalt-loving heart wanted more, so I scoured the English speaking internet for whatever I could find, official or fanmade. Official content was virtually nonexistent, and the amount of fanmade content, I could count on one hand. The general fan consensus at the time seemed to be “Who the hell is Cobalt” or “Eh, whatever,” which was a far cry from how it is now. But being horribly deprived back then, I did the only thing I could: I combed through the dub for every episode he was in, coming up with a whopping total of…..four (well technically five but in that one he’s literally only in the last five seconds with no animation or lines), and I watched them religiously. I could pretty much quote Cobalt’s debut episode by heart. (For the record I can no longer do this to the extent I used to, but should the opportunity arise, I can still quote large chunks of it).

As I did this and learned more about him in my desperate googling, I started developing jokes for what would become my first silly comics, for which I am known in this fandom for. The art and writing for these was….. painful, to say the least, so I don’t even like to think about it, but as I’d already had a decently sized following from drawing silly (read: bad) Sonic comics, they caught on decently well, and I’d even managed to drag my friend and son down with me into Cobalt Hell™. Together, we made a group for Cobalt fans on deviantart (which is still up, but I no longer run it, as I deactivated the account that modded it without transferring ownership, so now it’s likely a wild west hellscape that I’m a little scared to look at).

This seemed to help do the trick though, as Cobalt fans were slowly coming out of the woodwork and appreciating this good boy. On and off I’d spread my yelling about Cobalt (and my silly drawings) to different platforms like the Astro Boy forums and tumblr, and even as I got into different things, after awhile, things kinda grew without me. Now I’m not gonna be out here claiming I built this city myself with my own two hands, as a lot of people got dragged into this hell of their own accord, but I do like to think my, umm….passion at least helped generate some interest, and I can’t help but be proud of how far this fandom has come from “Who the hell is Cobalt” to “Look at this good boy, I love him” and literally all the other Cobalt fans I’ve met have been the coolest people (in general, not just because of their good taste).

I think what really changed my life though was when AprilSeven, a mod on the Astro Boy forum and also probably the original Cobalt fan, as she’d seen the 60s version back when it was originally airing, finally got a hold of the undubbed Japanese episodes, and graciously allowed me and a few of the other big-name Cobalt fans get in on that action, and boy howdy, the screenshots and plot summaries really did not do these episodes justice (at least in terms of Cobalt content). My understanding of him as a character expanded like tenfold, and my appreciation of him expanded even more than that.

…Which brings me into a nice segue in which I shift more into just exactly why I like Cobalt so much. Yes, there’s more. I warned y'all, this was gonna be a Pandora’s Box that could not be closed once it was opened.

I honestly just find him a joy to watch. A lot of what made him grow on me was just how funny he is. I’m a sucker for comic relief characters in general, and he has a personality that lends itself to comedy. In the anime version, he’s literally introduced right out the gate as being kind of a dingus. He’s naive, he’s way too trusting of obviously suspicious people, he’s easily confused, he’s easily distracted, he’s a klutz, and he just… regularly destroys the laws of physics and/or the fourth wall just because. Sometimes he also gets weird ideas in his head to do things that could have been done a completely different, easier way and weirdly enough, it actually kind of winds up working? It’s so fun to watch him approach problems because he’s just… so far out there sometimes.

But beyond being absolutely weird and hilarious, he’s just a really sweet kid. He doesn’t like to fight, he wants to make friends with everyone and everything, he will drop literally anything he’s doing, no matter how important it is, to help someone in need, he’s good with babies and small children and puppies (sometimes), he would fight (and sacrifice himself) for his family, and just means well even if he tends to bungle things up and make them worse sometimes. Honestly, and this is gonna sound dumb, but he helped me be a better person. I used to be an absolute asshole when I was younger, but once I’d gotten into Cobalt Hell™, I was like “I wanna be that sweet and good (but with a better sense of stranger danger)” and I made that effort and did that shit.

That being said though, he’s not perfect, and I wouldn’t want him to be. His flaws, though they kind of give him the short end of the stick in life, are a lot of why I find him so endearing. All the naivety and confusion and general lack of coordination I mentioned before aside, he’s honestly just really relatable. He’ll say jokes so bad that Uran wants to punch him, he’ll opt out of the plot because he doesn’t want to get out of bed, he’ll fight with his siblings over silly petty things, he’ll get frustrated if he tries something and it doesn’t go his way, he’ll absolutely partake in his siblings’ mischief (if not start it sometimes), and just so much more. He just feels like a kid you would know (or maybe a kid that you were at one point) and I really appreciate that about him.

Unfortunately, the canon was not kind to Cobalt, and I think a lot of that comes from Osamu Tezuka just… not knowing what to do with him after making him? Like in the manga, he was just kind of created as a really rushed contingency plan because they thought Astro was missing. Sure, he was taken in as part of the family afterward, but not many appearances later, he was killed off in a firey explosion… Until Tezuka decided to change his mind and let him live in the end. His grave’s still there though. He gets to see it. I know it’s a framing device to explain the circumstances of Cobalt’s retconned death but it’s kind of fucked up to let a boy see his own grave..

Even being brought back, Cobalt didn’t get to do very much. He’d get some good scenes with Uran, but a lot of the time, he was sort of just relegated to filling up space in the background, provided he actually survived til the end of the chapter. When he wasn’t getting forgotten by the plot and thusly zapped out of existence, he would wind up sacrificing himself in some way that wouldn’t allow him to continue to take part in the plot anymore (be it parts, energy, etc.) The most painfully egregious example of this is in the chapter “Youth Gas.” Astro and Cobalt are convinced to fight each other to the “death.” They’re not really dead, but Ochanomizu says they are and can’t be repaired. At first, there’s mourning for “two of the world’s greatest robots,” but then we see a funeral service in which only Astro’s body is shown and his parents are only mourning him, completely forgetting Cobalt exists. He’s never seen again for the rest of the chapter. Now I would assume this is just a writing mistake, but it really does make it look like Cobalt’s own parents wouldn’t even bat an eye if he died, so there’s that.

The anime isn’t quite as horrible, and it is kind enough to give Cobalt a more prominent role once he finally shows up (even getting a handful of focus episodes!), but he doesn’t go unscathed either. In this version, he has the misfortune of being created by Dr. Umataro “Father of the Year” Tenma before Astro was made and was scrapped because, to quote dub!Ochan, “his electronic brain wasn’t as perfect as Dr. [Tenma] wanted.” (read: he thought Cobalt was a dumbass). Cobalt is eventually found and brought into the family, but because he still winds up not being relevant to the plot a lot of the time, he is once again zapped out of the existence and looks like a victim of child neglect. As a result, he gets left out of family vacations and holidays, even in favor of Chi-tan, who is usually even higher on the scale of irrelevant Astro Boy characters. Unlike Astro, Cobalt doesn’t have any consistent friends to even remotely justify what he could possibly be doing offscreen by himself, so it just kind of implies a very sad and lonely existence in-universe.

And of course, the final, meta blow that literally every fan of Cobalt is still despairing about to this day: basically being yeeted out of the canon. After the 60s series, he disappeared off the face of the earth until 2015 when some lovely soul decided to bring him back for Peeping Life TV: Season 1?? (The question marks are part of the title). He’d be referenced again a couple years later in Atom: The Beginning, and will be here for the game Eshigami no Kizuna sometime in 2019 as a… moe anime girl. That’s a little weird, but I’m hoping these sorts of weird appearances will mean a trend toward putting him back in the canon (and hopefully being treated better).

It just hurts my heart to see such a good character get treated like this by canon. He deserves way better and it just seems really clear to me that Tezuka didn’t really know what to do with him. I feel like he has a lot of potential as a character, though. Regardless of what origin you pick for him, Cobalt is essentially existing as a worse version of Astro. I feel like you could have some good character development regarding how he would feel about himself in relation to Astro in sort of a parallel to how Astro might feel about himself in relation to Tobio, the person he was based off of. You could go some neat places with these sort of questions about identity and expectations, I think. Or if you want to just do something funny because your character arcs are getting too real now, you can just let Cobalt do some silly shit. He’s a versatile character!

I’ve done all this rambling and now I’m not really sure how to wrap all this up, so umm

Cobalt is a good boy and deserves better, please hire me Tezuka Productions, and thank you for coming to my TED Talk

[remnantoforario]

Some excerpts from an interview Hiro Mashima did with ANN at NYCC this year:

Here’s the full interview on ANN

Both Rave Master and Fairy Tail are fantasy works. Have you ever considered doing something outside of the fantasy genre?

I personally just really love fantasy works in general, so if I do a new series, I would like to try to make it fantasy again. Rave Master was about friends saving the whole world, but Fairy Tail is about closer-knit relationships. So if I do another fantasy story, I would like to try a different approach.

Funny, judging by some people I talked to the characters in Rave were much more “close knit” than the ones in FT. Also FT eventually became about saving the world by the time Oracion Seis rolled around so *shrug*

Have you ever considered revisiting Rave Master?

At the autograph sessions, I have been experiencing a lot of people actually requesting characters from Rave Master, but I realize that I have forgotten how to draw a lot of the characters from that series, so it might be hard to revisit it.

I can understand this honestly. I’m sure he remembers how to draw the mains (Haru, Elie, Plue, Musica, etc.) but some of the minors and supporting characters would be hard to remember without a picture or something.

Many comic book artists have said that they know the last page of the series before they start. Was that the case for Fairy Tail?

I honestly didn't have any idea what the last scene of the story was like in my mind when I started the series. The fact that I didn't know what was going to happen next was actually the best part of working on this series. For example, when there is a cliffhanger where the characters are in a really tight spot, the fans wonder what is going to happen next? Well, that's actually my question and I really have to think about it.

Believe me, the “flying by the seat of my pants” writing showed. Especially in the last arc.

I find Zeref very interesting. He isn't your typical bad guy and he is sort of a tragic figure. Why did you decide to make him like that?

I didn't want a typical bad guy. I kind of combined all of the elements I had been cultivating and inserted it into this character, and he became a really highly complex character.  

Maybe in the beginning. Too bad all that potential was wasted by the time we saw him again post-Tenrou.

Everyone likes the female characters in Fairy Tail. They seem to be both strong and sexy at the same time and self-confident. How did you go about making such balanced female characters?

This is actually kind of what I like in females. This my personal taste so I inserted it into the character. It's kind of my wish.

“Balanced Female Characters”?

Where? I didn’t see that in FT. The closest to balanced was Lucy (and possibly Wendy), but she fell short of that mark a long time ago.

Is there a particular character you wish you had more time to develop?

One of the characters that I think of is Acnologia. In my mind I had a deeper setting for this character. But the story is from the main character's point of view, so I couldn't really do that. I may have some time to explore the story of Acnologia at some point.

Here’s a small list of NOT main character’s who received more development and background than the main villain of the story:

Lyon Vastia

Ultear Milkovich

Irene Belserion

Minerva Orlando

Sting Eucliffe

Rogue Cheney

Zeref

Mavis Vermillion

Nearly the entirety of the Oracion Seis 

Flare Corona

Anna Heartfilia

Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki

August

What I’m trying to say is that is you gave Irene 3 chapters of flashbacks, then you had no excuse not to develop Acnologia, Mashima. Too little too late to want to do it now.

What Fairy Tail character will you miss the most?

There is a character named Brandish. I wish I could draw more of her.

Yes. You missed drawing Brandish so much that you didn’t even have her show up or even be mentioned in the final chapter. 

Ok.

In American spin-offs, they worry a lot about continuity. Did you worry about that over the 11 years you worked on Fairy Tail?

I was thinking about it a little bit, but it wasn't the highest priority. It is more important to me to make the story exciting and really portray the emotions of each character. So if the fans find some flaws in the continuity, I am actually excited to know that people are reading that much into it.

This is probably my biggest peeve about this interview. I get wanting to create complex characters and a good story BUT a good chunk of that hinges on continuity. Character’s development has to be consistent throughout. Without following internal continuity the story devolves into an unorganized mess with no logic (which is ironically what FT became at the end of its run) and the fans stop caring because they feel that nothing previously established matters anymore.

One of the most egregious examples of this is telling us of Fairy Law’s added consequence of killing the user WAY after it was introduced, only to immediately backtrack on that by the final chapter. 

American comics can get away with this in a way because they have many writers handling a single character over a number of years. For example Spider-Man has been around for 50+ years and has had no less that 20 writers working on him in different points in that time frame. Each writer brings something new to the table, some good (Death of Gwen Stacy), and some bad (One More Day). 

Manga is held to a different standard because there is only ONE writer (usually). They (and by extension you, Mashima) are the only one who controls the story. Outside of spin-offs (which mostly aren’t considered canon by a majority of the fandom) and sometimes sequels, (but even those have input from the original creators) no one else will write these characters so there is no excuse for you to not to put continuity as a priority. 

I understand forgetting one or two minor bits, but FT sometimes ignored entire plot points or outright ignored things that were previously established. Some almost right after they were introduced (Alvarez was littered with these). 

The fans should not be focused on pointing out flaws, they should be enjoying the story.

Sometimes in Fairy Tail characters die, but they always come back. Why did you decide to do this?

This has to do with the fact that in Rave Master, a lot of characters actually died and it turned out to be a sad story. When you are working on a manga in a magazine, it is up to the reader's polls and feedback whether you can actually stay in the magazine. To be quite honest, the chapters that have the death of a really important character get a lot of reaction. Knowing this, I really wanted to make sure that people don't die in my series.

So basically you killed people off for shock value just to bring them back. Instead doing all of that, how about you NOT kill people off in the first place?

Since a weekly series has such a fast production pace, were you able to take care of yourself by eating and sleeping?

Of course! I have no problem eating and sleeping.

Sarcasm aside, it is good to know that he has a decent schedule and can remain healthy. Too many mangaka push themselves too hard writing their stories and end up getting sick. Oda immediately comes to mind. 

If you were in the world of Fairy Tail and you could have three people on your team, who would it be?

Lucy, Erza, and Juvia.

On a technical level this is a decent team. On a more petty level OF COURSE he’d be on a team with three of the most sexualized women in the series.

A lot of shounen characters seem to have the same characteristics. Like they are rebellious, but very skilled at what they do. What makes Natsu unique?

His pink hair! And the fact he gets motion sickness.

Nice to see Mashima not even attempt to lie at how generic Natsu is as a protag. Also is motion sickness really all that unique when all the DS in the series have it?

As you move onto your new series, what will you carry with you from Fairy Tail? What mistakes will you avoid or what things will make your life easier with the next series?

One of the things I learned, and feel that I succeeded with in Fairy Tail is developing lots and lots of characters with very unique personalities. I would like to apply that in my next series too.

“developing lots and lots of characters with very unique personalities.”

A comedian this man is.

Do you worry about the elements of Fairy Tail bleeding too much into your new series?

I honestly don't think it is necessarily a bad thing that my new work reminds people of my previous work. In Japan, there is kind of a jinx. After the first big hint, your next series is going to be a flop. I personally am not worried about it. I don't think Fairy Tail was a giant success.  In this way, I feel no pressure to work on a new series.

Nice to know the bar is low.

Is he being humble? or does Mashima himself know Fairy Tail isn’t that great?

You make the call!

An anime adaption will add many more elements to the story. What do you like the most about the anime that is not in your manga?

I think the biggest contribution of the anime is the work of the voice actors. Even on the US side, the voice acting is really similar. It has the same kind of feeling as the Japanese voice acting. I am actually quite happy with the outcome of it.

Are you happy now, sub purists? Even Mashima says the Dub is good. Can we stop the hate now?

Can you describe how much influence your editor has?

One of the main processes is that I usually write the first draft of the chapter and I show it to the editor. The editor will give me feedback about whether it is good or bad. If the editor says it is not good, I was would ask the reason why so I can fix it. This creative process is very important. Sometimes we get in a conflict when the editor says one thing and I disagree and I push forward with what I believe in. If I don't succeed, I feel like I should have listened to him. Or sometimes when I am stuck on an idea he gives me very prompt advice, which really helps me.

Man, if Alvarez was what the editor approved, I can only imagine what he turned away. Either that or he just gave up after awhile. 

[chloe-fmp-gamesdesign]

Evaluation

For my Final Major Project my goal was to create a comic book style story or part of the story I created for an RPG style game. I believe I have succeeded in creating this comic although only 4 pages I believe it tells my story well.

In my proposal, I said that I wanted to achieve a DC like semi-realistic art style I do not think I achieved a DC like art style However I do believe that the art style I did achieve fits the RPG style and although not as realistic as I originally intended I am happy with it as it still looks like a western comic rather than eastern which I was trying to stay away from for this comic.

My target audience for the comic book was originally 17-18+ although little blood and gore is present other than wounds on Clarke’s face I still believe that this is a valid age range for this comic if I had been able to continue it further through the story.

In my research, I talked to Sam Johnson who creates Geek Girl comics he told me that he comes up with the ideas, the plot and script, then he passes it onto an artist, he then edits these pages, then passes them back onto the artist for corrections. This allowed me an idea of the progress however he had at least two people in his team whereas I was working by myself for the whole process so I think this put me at a disadvantage and made it harder for me to hit the deadline.

I looked into games which have comics and one of my inspirations for the game is Dragonage who I found out also have comics. I believe that despite not being the same art style as Dragonage my game has a lot of elements similar to Dragonage for example I believe that the RPG style of their games translates well to comic book form to add to this I named my character by only their last name as Dragonage does in their games to keep the RPG feel in the comic. I also have fantasy like elements which Dragonage also uses such as demons and magic.

I also researched Overwatch; a game which does not have a story mode of any kind and does not implement its story through the game but uses comics and animations to create its story. My aim was to do the same and explain the story of my game through comic rather than through a game demo or trailer. I believe I did so, although short I think that it does well to tell the story I intended it to tell.

I analysed some comics that I owned and like the art style of these were “American Vampire”, “Northlanders” and “Unwritten” Although I looked at all three of these rather realistic looking art styles I believe that my art style for my comic is more similar to that of “American vampire with its used of colour and shading as the other two have fine lines and look quite photo realistic in contrast to American vampire’s bold colours and use of shading which looks more cell shaded as mine does.

I did some brainstorming deciding on various things that I had not decided when giving the general idea of my story such as name, age, gender, members of family, and how much of the story I would be including. Most of these ideas have stayed the same although the amount has been reduced from what I first although I never had a concrete amount however I believe that this amount is sufficient to give the reader the feeling that they want to read more. I also added have named the little boy in the story which I never did in the planning however I settled on Eugene using the same technique I used to find the protagonists last name.

I believe I did more than enough story planning I carried out my storys planning by bullet pointing each event and added pictures to give myself a prompt for creating some sketches later on. However I do believe that I spent a lot longer than was necessary on this part and if I had condensed this I could have met the deadline much easier.

I created a sketchbook full of concept art and sketches for each page. I believe that these sketches were of high quality and were ongoing throughout my project however I created the pages in my sketchbook before moving onto my graphics tablet and I believe that this process helped immensely when it came to creating the pages digitally.

When I came onto creating my digital finalised pages I used my own graphics tablet to avoid some time lost with complications with equipment in college. However, I had tried using photoshop but the drivers on the college computers didn’t seem to be picking up on my pens sensitivity so it was difficult to draw accurately and it made it difficult to draw a head. I kept this document to show the differences however I was very unhappy with how it was turning out.

In the end, to combat this I used Sketchbook Pro using a trial version that I had not yet redeemed as my subscription ran out, I had to then pay for my subscription when the trial had ran out this caused an inconvenience however it was quickly solved and I was able to use this software for my entire project.

During my project, I created screenshots and talked about each frame and how I created them all from start to finish I believe that I created them all to the best of my abilities with as much detail as possible using a variety of colours and brushes to create different textures and techniques I also believe that I told my story well in the form of narration, sound effects and speech and that the facial cues of my characters tell the reader which emotions my characters are displaying.

Throughout the project I also sent screenshots to Kieran Taylor to give me feedback, he managed to notice a few consistency errors and on a few occasions helped me to improved my work such as on the necromancer the arm was not very visible and so this allowed me to make improvements making the arm a lot more visible, improving the shading and allowing me to add an energy orb into the image and for it to work well with the arm rather than float as it seems to do in the sketch version. He also brought it to my attention that in one particular image my character looked as if she was “crying blood from her eyes, rather than being mortally wounded.” This allowed me to create much more realistic looking wounds. I believe this helped a lot as having a second opinion meant that I could improve my artwork and prevent consistency errors.

During my post production feedback I received feedback from both Shannon Hegyaljai and Kieran Taylor both liked my art style, colours shading and storyline however there was 2 bad points from them both; Shannon Hegyaljai:  For a point of improvement, consider making the shading around the neck darker as at the moment it is light, and is somewhat hard to tell where her chin finished and her neck starts. Kieran Taylor: The bottles artwork is slightly blurry/ pixelated; however, the labels have a decent level of detail. If I had, had slightly longer I may have been able to correct this however I feel these are minor problems and overall, I and my peers seem happy with the finished project.

In conclusion, I believe that I did well in creating a high quality final project and am happy with my art and how I delivered my story however I do believe that I could have managed the time better if I had not spent as much time on the story looking back I feel that this was unnecessary and I could have used this time to improve on aspects that my peers had brought to my attention but other than this I believe that my project turned out well.

[kennysamathedeviant]

Let's Be Careful What We Wish For, DCEU Fandom

Okay, so I've gone on this tangent a couple of times before and since it's not having much effect, I'm putting it here and putting it behind me afterwards. This is about the DCEU fandom's opinion of WB and what they do behind the scenes. I've heard enough jokes about them cutting movies, interfering in the creative process, side lining the director's vision, etc, so this is about what we're all forgetting is actually happening. My post has nothing to do with whatever WB has done pre-Man of Steel (2013), I may draw on some instances here and there but only for comparison.

There's a difference between what we think is happening behind closed doors and what's actually happening, i know that a lot of fans believe that WB is partly to blame for the less than desirable critical reception of the DCEU movies and that if they did things like release a BvS Ultimate Cut in theatres, they'd have gotten better reception or something. Is any of this supported by fact? Can this franchise just take that huge, a leap of faith?

First, let's remember that the DCEU has been hated right from the outset, with Man of Steel. And despite its glaring success, there are people who'll swear by any deity to this day, that Man of Steel was a "flop" and with BvS' announcement came a whole new wave of negativity, because this hated universe is taking its next steps towards growth and so followed three non fictional years of negativity. Every news, choice, reveal, casting decision, marketing, etc, was written off and scoffed at with nary an attempt to understand or even entertain the possibility of it being good or positive. For three years, people were conditioned not to expect a highly anticipated movie, but to anticipate a high profile failure. The reviews are still out there, anyone can look them up if they need to remember just how baseless the criticisms of this movie was. But should WB have done different? These articles speaks to the reasons why that didn't happen:

DEB: Online, everyone’s like, “Oh, they’re doing an R-rated in reaction to Deadpool,” and you’re like (laughing), “We didn’t just shoot it last week, and we also didn’t edit it last week.”

ZACK: The why of that is [the DVD version] is a half-hour longer, and some of that additional material is some of the stuff we took out for the rating. I was like, “Cool, I can put it back in for the director’s cut.” There was nothing by design. This was the material I just put back in, and then when [the MPAA] looked at it again, they were like, “Oh, now the movie’s rated R.” And, by the way, it’s not a hard R. There’s no nudity. There’s a little bit of violence. It just tips the scale."

So in actuality, WB did do right by Zack, they stood behind him when haters called for him to be fired post MoS, they supported every decision he made, even when they got ridiculed for it, unlike other studios would, they actually stuck by him all the way. But like I pointed out above, this movie was already being attacked once it was announced, the negativity was relentless and constant, which in turn, dimmed the possibility of success, but regardless, they and Zack soldiered on. Till the MPAA decided their movie was "too dark" and gave it an R rating, completely destroying any possibility of success. I put it this way because I feel people have forgotten just how bad the hate was, and the fact that people actually opposed the possibility of that R rating. This is a movie that just didn't need to succeed, it needed to justify the existence of an entire franchise, and people took it to task from day one. Unlike Man of Steel, which successfully paved the way for a shared universe, BvS' job wasn't simple success, it was survival. It had to survive in a market, not because there was competition, but because there wasn't "allowed" to be one, in a marketplace overrun with bias and repeated flip flops between "needs to be exactly like marvel" and "omg, they're trying to be marvel", it needed to survive it's own predicted death because it's already been called. And therein comes the Theatrical Cut of BvS and here's what Zack says about it:

“We were just like, ‘Okay, look. We’re not making a three-hour movie. I mean, even I didn’t want to make a three-hour movie. I drove the cuts probably harder than anyone. The studio, they were willing to let the movie indulge pretty hard. But I felt like it’s at a manageable two-and-a-half hours. Let’s also not forget the credits are super long, the end credits. So the movie’s closer to two hours and 22 minutes.”

So here is Zack, pointing out that WB actually indulged his movie and time length, but the MPAA and their notoriously fickle standards of rating hampered what everyone wanted. The cuts could never have made it into the movie without that R rating. The Ultimate Cut wasn't WB "listening" to fans and putting it out, it was always on the slate, announced (around 23, Feb) before the TC was released, at no extra cost, which dumps all over the "they did it for extra money" criticisms.

The contents of that cut also make this a point of contention for me because it's frustrating that it became common rhetoric that 30 bonus minutes of the very same things used to write off this movie would somehow, in some bizarre paradoxical way, have ended in a positive reception. So a movie that was called "too long, dark, gloomy, depressing", etc, with chants of "Lois Lane sucks" and "Superman is a depressing murderer" being very common, could somehow be received differently than the way it did, if it was infused with 30 more minutes of same? It doesn't make sense. Because the key word I'm chasing here is merit, if anyone wrote off this movie for any of the above reasons, why is 30mins more of it being considered the antidote? How did "this movie was shot and framed scene by scene like it were comic book panels come to life" become "meh, it was decent, but omg watch the UC, it's a masterpiece" simply because the UC exists? Apparently this fandom doesn't believe in "even more of a masterpiece", only binaries of barely good to great. Even though merit is completely missing in people's opinion of the TC, which actually enquires you to think to get everything but now, all I see is people no longer being told to "pay attention to the damn movie" but to watch the UC, it's "better". Like how do we expect people's opinion to change if we're validating and excusing their laziness? Because what we do whether we realise it or not, is say, "nah, it's good you shat all over BvS, they didn't release a good movie but a bad one" and those who had no intention of liking it, get their validation and continue bashing it. Hell, those who had the guts to admit they rewatched and thought better of BvS right here on tumblr, always happen to have watched the TC of their own volition, because they recognised the "merit", so why the divide in the fandom's opinion? Ever wonder why there's no distinction in BvS hate but there is distinction in BvS love? These people know what they're doing and they're helped along by this binary the fandom believes in. And even if they released a 3 hr R rated movie to a crowd that's been conditioned for three years to highly anticipate failure, where is the possibility of success? Especially considering how the TC was treated with no regard for fairness nor merit?

Another thing is, people overlook the human factor in all this discussion. I've read defense posts that basically say "yeah, the critics are unfair but I can't ignore the huge second week drops which proves it doesn't have good legs." Really? So the week drops can't be ignored but we're going to ignore the relentless slamming from every corner of existence that would logically result in those week drops? We're really going to act like bad reviews are enough to hamper movies anymore? Because those days are over, if bad reviews are so dangerous, Transformers wouldn't be a franchise, it'd have stalled from go but it didn't, because it has the one thing the DCEU/WB doesn't have: permission to be enjoyed. A Transformers movie gets its bad reviews, then you're free to watch it, however, a DCEU movie gets unfair, unrelenting criticism that would make hell freeze over, then anybody that even hints that they dreamt about it neutrally, gets a bullseye on their back. Everywhere you go; online news articles, blogs, vlogs, social media, the random pedestrian on the street, the garbage collector, heck, maybe even the pizza guy, will consistently go out of its way to find out if you know the movie exists, is bad, and you've made the "right choiceTM" to avoid it and join the New World Bashing Order. Oh yeah, and all the feminist sites also hate the DCEU and have told their mass followers it's unfeminist to support it, this is the real reason female attendance slipped slightly for BvS, not because it had Batman. And people who're incredibly good at analysis, consistently refuse to lend those skills to the universe, write it off as "grimdark" and then start looking for nuggets of feminism in a very racist and misogynistic franchise. With all that, everyday, for three years prior to release and after release, to this very moment, how exactly are second week drops a surprise and why do people ignore the human factor? We know if you extolled the virtues of eating crap vocally enough, people'll start doing it and if you say good media is crap long enough, people will start believing it. We live in a world where a bad thing can be acceptable if treated with jokes while a good but relentlessly scrutinised thing will eventually be thought of, as bad. We've had ugly reminders of that, last year.

Ultimately, it all comes down to making pragmatic business decisions. Business must always have a possibility of profit and while going "all in" sounds good, it's a flawed way of thinking. Especially in an unfavorable market, you need to cover your behind at all times to limit the possibility of a loss. With a market averse to seeing WB make a profit (especially with a disastrous 2015, where all original content and ambitious projects failed), reasoned decisions that ensured survival, not just profit, from the DCEU needed to be made. If WB really interfered the way people are making it seem, I know the kind of movie we could have gotten and Zack would have walked off the project afterwards, but he didn't. At no point does he disavow the TC and he repeatedly states he did it the way he wanted but the UC is just all they took out because of the MPAA. If this were not a collaborated decision on all fronts, we'd have gotten a truly lesser movie on par with Fantastic Four '15. Which reminds me, how many people remember the fact that Trank and cast were bashed repeatedly for going in a serious direction with FF (despite a number of cheesy prior movies that were not beloved) until Fox stepped in? How many remember that the time of death was called before it started filming? Or that it was also scrutinised round the clock, which is where the problems behind the scenes started from? People don't, their role in that screw up has been erased, and a potential franchise went under, because they were not allowed to make their own movie. For all we know, XMA's reception is not some isolated incident, it could have all started from FF but due to FF's own quality, that's up for debate. We can't continue to let people fuck around with film makers ambitions, try to destroy a movie's potential, then blame the studios at the end of the day for trying to minimise the damage that's already been done. Luckily, WB has so far, in my opinion, made the intelligent move by making ambitious movies with pragmatic distribution without sacrificing the movie's integrity, rather than making pragmatic movies like Fox did and thanks to that, their movies have succeeded in a negative market in a way that going all out, wouldn't. This post also sheds light on the performance of BvS in China; which has so far, not been very instrumental to the DCEU, which is succeeding in spite of it and not because of. It showed that this movie successfully garnered WB a fanbase who'll be ready to pay for more movies. Considering how beloved it is there now, and how much Wonder Woman and Gal Gadot are loved over there (she won the most popular actress award), WB can afford to be a little less pragmatic with their distribution. Her movie can afford to have a higher run time because there's officially a viable enough DCEU audience for such.

Let's also remember that this is the real world, out here, good people lose all the time, you can make all the right decisions, all the right calls, and at the end, you'll still lose. There won't be a last second plot twist that garners you everyone's favor, people lose and often they're centuries down under, before anyone remembers there's any great thing they did that was overlooked. That is, if ever. Please, let's not forget exactly where we stand on history's side here, we are not guaranteed anything, this is how life works, all this can still come crashing down regardless. The DCEU can still (God, I hope not) crash and burn tomorrow and no one will remember it deserves utmost praise (I really, really, REALLY hope not). Because not everyone wins, shit happens, but we adapt as best we can, even if we'll lose at the end. There's an incredibly persistent narrative that paints WB as a controlling, director's vision interfering studio and it's outright wrong and exaggerated. Getting to the New Year and over the past few days, the anti dceu bias has retained strength and new attacks have commenced, with the Ben Affleck movie starting to get its own fresh hell. If I recall correctly, looking through the Unwitting Instigator of Doom section on Tvtropes.org, there's an entry that BvS' failure has caused WB to put off original content and focus on franchises. Not only is this blatantly untrue, but a failed original work has more chances of making such nonsense happen than BvS' "failure". WB and Zack's decisions are the only reason the DCEU still exists, the only reason some people can still admit we like the DCEU and are not going with the gross grain opinion. If WB was as overly concerned about profits to the exclusion of other human related factors, they could have fired Snyder years ago, and followed the Marvel method. They could have turned their movies into jokes and shallow popcorn, forgettable flicks but they didn't. They need someone with the guts to make the hard calls that other "go with the grain" people couldn't make and they need to keep being pragmatic about how they conduct the DCEU because it's failure is all people are expecting. When you're not doing business in a fair market, pragmatism is all you have, just churning out your product and thinking being impossibly impressive should get you praise from people adamantly trying to screw you over, won't get you shit. You're wide open. Because apparently, fair and unbiased treatment is something you grovel (and strive to achieve an out of reach concept of perfection) for and not something you deserve because you worked hard and put in the effort. And no, i'm not saying no one's entitled to how they individually feel about the issue, but don't be so caught up on what you think is happening that you're willing to ignore evidence to the contrary and start advocating for actions that have no possibility of success. I hope to not wake up one day to a rude reminder that the DCEU can't just haphazardly put out a movie without covering it's ass because people think going all out could have helped them "make more money" from people who've made it explicitly clear that it physically pains them to know it exists.

[writtengiru]

How I Learned to Storyboard in 2 Weeks

Disclaimer: I'm in no way a professional. This is based on my own personal experiences. Storyboarding is used in the context of animation, not live action, even though both may overlap.Step 1: Find Motivation

To learn anything in life, you must have motivation. Simple right?

Nope. It seems so obvious, yet I've seen many people in my life, including myself, fail to do this. Professionals, hobbyists, students, my own teachers, parents...no one is excluded from failing to find real motivation. Why? It's hard. It requires deep self-reflection and brutal honesty. Depending on what you're finding motivation for, may it be a hobby or the purpose of your life, it may take several hours to several years to find meaning behind what you do.

[caption id="attachment_45" align="aligncenter" width="282"]

finding your life purpose is hard[/caption]

There's a reason why people don't stick with diets, get that good grade in Calculus, or achieve any (lofty) goals really. People set goals that they think they want to achieve, but in reality, they don't really want to. They don't actually want to become skinnier--they just want more confidence. They don't want that good grade--they just want to succeed in life. Thus, people eat comfort food and do other things that they deem would help them in life, like spending too much time on a blog.

So how does anyone achieve anything if their goals were never really their goals in the first place? I believe that the most successful people frame their motivations around their goal to begin with (or is it the other way around? Either way, the end results are the same). To continue the analogy, that would mean dieting for your health, something that would last you for life, not something superficial and temporal. That would mean learning Calculus to understand and enjoy the reasoning process of mathematics, not the end result of grades. Finding deeper meaning behind what you do will always make you feel fulfilled in whatever you do and go beyond the protocol.

So the question is, do I really want to learn to storyboard?

I believe in the power of storytelling. Throughout my life, I've been touched by the cinematics at a deep level. Truth be told, I cried during My Little Pony: The Movie that came out this year, and I feel chills whenever I see beautiful art. My parents were always at work, I'm the middle child, and films--especially the animated ones--made my childhood less bleak and more vibrant. Long story short, I've been making comics of my own to copy the magic in my childhood for the past two years. Now, I create to make memes for money have my own voice be heard since I'm not a very vocal person outside the internet. I've worked obsessively to create a style and aesthetic for my comics (I'm a sucker for pretty art), but I feel that they're empty husks if my storytelling isn't very hot.

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A Pixar storyboard for Brave, the movie[/caption]

After these two weeks, I want to be able to make animatics. My dream job is to be an independent webcomist or a storyboard artist of a TV series or feature film. I like having the power to control a story and how it's told rather than simply executing it, and hence why I want to be in preproduction. Right now, I'm in the process of applying to art schools for 2D animation. This took me some years to reconcile with myself that I love art and that I have a passion for cartoons. Through being honest with myself and clearing away other's opinions about my future, I came to this conclusion. I will never give up on art.

Even if I won't make it into an art school or even make it into the industry, I still plan on creating throughout my life no matter what. Storyboarding is unquestionably something I want to learn.

[caption id="attachment_49" align="aligncenter" width="249"]

A comic strip from my webcomic, Toothpaste and People[/caption]

Now, if I weren't this motivated, can I still learn to storyboard? Yes, but it will be a struggle. Can I learn how to make delicious barbeque? Yes, but it will be a struggle because I'm pescatarian.

As Ulrich Boser once said in Learn Better," Meaning is learning."

Step 2: Know What You Know

Alright, I'm ready to become a storyboarding master! Where do I start?

First, I wrote everything that I think I know for storyboarding:

Conversely, I wrote everything that I think I didn't know:

The first approach was inspired by a piece of advice given by Ulrich Boser. In Learn Better, Boser states: "according to experts like Robert Marzano, the benefits of this approach is that it helps people focus on linkages rather than isolated facts. By writing down what we know, we're preparing our minds to make more connections within the body of expertise, creating a more systematized form of thinking--and understanding."

In hindsight, this list was pretty ineffective because I listed things too broadly like "I don't know how to storyboard." It still provided a good starting point for learning how to storyboard, however.

From there, I was able to conclude that my drawing skills are decent enough for me or anyone to know what's happening in shots. I can stop searching up tutorials on anatomy, perspective, backgrounds, and basically all the mechanics of drawing. I can now start on searching up on tutorials about gesturing, expressions, composition, and most importantly, how to storyboard. By doing this, I cut time learning things I already know (sort of) and start learning at a level where I need to be to reach my goal in these two short weeks.

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Some life drawings I did. I think I can draw people well enough that others can identify that they are human, their limbs, and their heads.[/caption]

Here are some of the tutorials I used to learn art when I first started out (there are much more but I don't remember them all right now...):

Color Schemes

Andrew Loomis Books

a lot of deviantART tutorials

Here are the tutorials I used for these two weeks for storyboarding:

Storyboard Secrets

How to Draw for Storyboarding

How to Storyboard an Animation by Howard Wimhurst

The 7 Hidden Patterns of Successful Storyboards

Notice the difference between the two. The former focuses on the fundamentals while the latter focuses on using those fundamentals. Once again, as Ulrich Boser said, writing down what we know would "make more connections within the body of expertise, creating a more systematized form of thinking--and understanding." In my case, it would be using my preexisting knowledge on form and light to apply it and specify it for a shot in storyboarding.

The same would apply to starting artists as well. Do you know how to draw a square? Great, now turn it into a box! Do you know how to draw a box? Great, now turn it into a head! And so on...

Step 3: Eliminate Obstacles

To make this blunt: this is the step where you know you screwed up step 1 (finding motivation).

Don't get me wrong: it's okay to make mistakes. Finding obstacles as you learn is natural and means that you're truly pushing yourself, but to get past them and continue to move forward requires motivation.

[caption id="attachment_52" align="aligncenter" width="593"]

art by my sort-of-art buddy, who's super skilled, The Kao[/caption]

Here are some things that I found I needed to conquer (and how I conquered them...somewhat) before putting my pencil on paper, in no particular order:

Self-doubt

Am I good enough? Will I ever be good enough? Will anyone ever listen to my stories? What if my stories suck? What if people don't like it?

Well, I'll never know if I never try. Besides, creating should be something to be self-fulfilling, not to satisfy others.

[caption id="attachment_53" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Impostor syndrome is common among artists. Don't let it get to you and just fake it till you make it.[/caption]

Time Management

I'm taking 5 AP classes and only get 6 hours of sleep. From the time I get home from school (4:30) to the time I go to sleep (12:00), how much time do I actually spend on homework/ other club activities? The better question would be: how much time do I spend on Twitter and Discord?

Mmmmm yeah, I thought so. Sayanora, internet. I found the best way to not lollygag around is to set timers. Spend one hour on work, another 10 minutes on leisure (or whatever amount you feel is just enough to satisfy you). I usually opt out for the do-all-your-work-in-one-sitting then spend-the-whole-night-on-leisure, which is surprisingly fine for me. That is until I find tiring work, then I switch to the former schedule. It really depends on my mood and what I'm dealing with.

[caption id="attachment_54" align="aligncenter" width="372"]

Studying and doing art at the same time is hard and cuts my sleep (not if I managed my time well though).[/caption]

I wish I figured this out earlier because sometimes I would spend hours on leisure first before really diving into my (usually last minute) homework. At the end of the day, I have no time to learn more about storyboarding (or do my comics...), and I feel like a failure as an artist. I'm getting better though through tagging my emotions.

According to Boser, "people have far more resilience if they identify their feelings...After people tag a certain feeling, they can begin to think that feeling through."

For example, when I'm on social media, I'm usually tired and need to start on homework.

Great, so I'm tired. I should probably get ready for bed or do some homework to wake me up (yes, that is a thing for me).

Then I  proceed to do either of those options. For the former, I wake up super early to do my homework, so all is good. I also use "if-then" plans, another idea by Boser.

I love his example. He states "so instead of thinking, Maybe I'll study later, people should think, If I study now, then I can go out later...clear rules make it simpler for people to manage their emotions because there' less emotion to manage. Instead of feeling or even thinking, people are relying on a type of habit, and that takes less emotional energy...the goal is 'taking the effort out of effortful control.'"

When I first read this, I thought this was so obvious--who wouldn't think this way? Turns out, a lot of people don't...and so do I. This advice was a game changer for me. Call me silly or stupid, but this method snaps me out of my trance, as in my procrastination mode when I don't want to do anything but lay down and do nothing. Time managing is significantly easier to do with this technique.

Pushing Limits

Remember how I said that I'm a sucker for pretty art? In storyboarding, there's less emphasis on art but rather on clarity. I know that I don't need to learn how to anatomically accurately draw EVERYTHING and how clothing flows. I just need to know enough to get my point across; however, I made"Twitter studies" (looking at other people's art on Twitter and trying to copy and incorporate their pretty aspects into my own art)

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I wasted my time on "Twitter Studies."[/caption]

default

...from my insecurity from my own style--or is it because I find comfort in doing things I already know?

I've been too comfortable with creating cute anime girls. The only thing I'm doing is repeating my past actions, things that I'm already decent at, and not contributing to my future pursuit of storyboarding.

To overcome this obstacle, I look at other artists who I think are amazing storytellers like Z-Toon and Leonology to remind myself why I'm learning to storyboard.

I've never had a "Twitter study" since except to brush up my skills of course (I also highly recommend this "Twitter study" method to aspiring beginner artists-- that's basically how I got my art to where it is today. Tracing is good as long as you don't try to pass it off as your own or sell it...more on that perhaps in a future post).

Please keep in mind that it is normal to run into obstacles every so often. Trust me, once you're done with them, they will always come back. In a sense, this is not a step to be done once it's done; learning is a continuous cycle. This step will never be finished, but it is crucial to continue on anyways. Those who continue on will develop their skills more, and that's how you can tell who are the most motivated and who are not.

Step 4: Learn Smarter, not Harder

Now with the motivation, the materials on hand, and the distractions (somewhat) minimized, we can finally start learning!

To ensure that I got the most learning from the short time I had, I always tried to learn something new each time I watched or read a tutorial. Once I felt comfortable with an idea, I would move onto the next. Like I said previously, staying on one topic for too long is not only stagnating but detrimental as well because then you cut off other things you need to learn. Especially if you're stuck on one topic because you have a problem with it, staying with it is just plain stupid.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen artists draw the same thing every day: three-quarters view of the same face each day. And they expect to magically be able to draw bodies? Either that or they whine about how they can't draw some body part.

As a proverb from unknown source states,"insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

[caption id="attachment_46" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Work hard and learn from life, but don't keep drawing the same things![/caption]

My plan was to go through each tutorial from beginning to finish. As a self-taught artist, I do not have the luxury of having a mentor pointing me to the right places, and sadly I found tutorials that were for the more advanced to the more artistically challenged, ones not quite in my skill range. I eventually found one that I understood and had a grasp on  but only after an hour of Googling.

Don't get me wrong: tutorials online are great (and they're free)! It's just the matter of finding a good one. Even though they are good and show examples of good storyboarding, I realized that what I was doing, simply reading the text and looking at the pictures, was passive learning. I believe that in order to learn a skill deeply, one should learn it actively. As you can see, I tried to recreate storyboarding sequences from this tutorial but with my own story in mind. In this way, I wasn't simply copying the source but using the information from the source to create my own scenes.

Most importantly, it's good to cut up study sessions because, yes, I did get tired after 3 hours of drawing. By cutting it up into pieces too, the material becomes less overwhelming and your brain retains the information better. Also, it's short and sweet--you'll actually have fun learning. If you think about it, would you rather have a 5 hour study session with 3 hours of you being tired and not retaining that much information? Or would you have 5 different study sessions 1 hour each and get a kick and a lot of information out of each session?

Step 5: Reflect, Rinse, and Repeat

If you noticed from the drawings above, they're not very clear are they? Yeah, it turned out that I know how to draw people...in 5 minutes, not the quick 30 seconds that storyboards demand. I went back to finally establish a quick figure to do more work for the rest of my storyboards.

Then I would go back to storyboarding, find more faults in my art, and then go back to storyboarding. It's a cycle and one where I am still trying to work a style to storyboard quickly and with more expression.

So yeah, don't be afraid to call yourself out on missing out the essentials you thought you had. According to Boser,"to develop a skill, people need to be fluent in the essentials." Not admitting your mistakes or not touching up on the fundamentals will really impede your learning and development as an artist.

Yes, I know that making and recognizing mistakes is painful, but it's all a  part of growth. "Mistakes make us rethink who we are, they're a threat to our being" as Boser once said; however, "metacognition [is] just as important as raw intelligence." Even if you don't have "talent" (which I believe is nonexistent by the way), you can still learn to be amazing as "talented" artists if you target your mistakes and learn from them.

I've seen instances where artists critique each other and one party would get totally defensive. There are such things as unconstructive criticism, but sometimes there are constructive ones and people should listen to them without being so offended by it (once again, might make another post about this separately in the future). Through allowing oneself to maker errors and recognize them, then one can learn to fix them and become a better artist and person.

Sadly, I did not reach my original goal of creating animatics. I guess you could say that I was learning the fundamentals of storyboarding before I would storyboard. As previously stated, it's essential to be fluent in fundamentals before diving into anything anyways.

Luckily, learning how to storyboard is like how I learned how to draw in the first place (and basically everything I've learned in life thus far). I imagine that once I get to making animatics, this step would include people critiquing my work (as per usual in art and life) and see problem areas where I need to fix. From there, I would continue to make works and get feedback. It's a continual loop of learning. I'm still expanding on my drawing abilities today as well. Hopefully, I can update you guys on my progress during this winter break.

Till next time!

En

[ivegotsomethingtosay]

The Mummy (movie review)

Since Marvel dropped Iron Man back in 2008, every major studio has scrambled to assemble their own “cinematic universe,” a collection of interlocking franchises and films spanning across several genres and demographics, with dozens of instantly recognizable characters from pop culture and beyond. It’s a sure fire way to print money, but so far the only studio to have successfully replicated the formula is Warner Brothers. I’m not talking about the DC Extended Universe (though it has been pretty lucrative), I’m talking about the “MonsterVerse.” Hearing Godzilla’s roar at the tail end of Kong: Skull Island is the closest a movie has come to capturing that euphoric feeling Nick Furry instilled in us in that Iron Man post credit scene since… well, since that Iron Man post credits scene.

It’s a cool idea, is it not? A series of films connected not by the heroes, like Marvel or DC, but by the villains. By the monsters. It’s such a good idea, in fact, that it’s already been done before.

Throughout the Hollywood golden age, Universal Studios had several horror franchises running congruently (Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.), and more often than not, would have the monsters cross over into each other’s movies as a way to draw in more crowds. Sound familiar? Well, unless you’ve been living in the Black Lagoon for the last few months, you’ve probably heard about something called the “Dark Universe.” Turns out Universal’s inevitable cinematic universe plan involves rebooting their original monsters, starting with The Mummy (which, oddly enough, is the most recent of them to have received a reboot).

This film is meant to kick off not just one, but multiple franchises. This film is meant to usher in a new era of tentpole blockbusters for one of the biggest american studios. And who did they hire to take the reins? Alex Kurtzman.

Yes. Universal entrusted their biggest franchise with the cinematic genius behind such enduring classics as The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the robot scrotum scene in Transformers Revenge of the Fallen.

Come. On.

I mean, how else did we think this was going to turn out? It seems the only people who didn’t smell the stink from a mile away where the execs at Universal, who not only dropped $150 million on what might be the worst Hollywood blockbuster of 2017, but are planning to develop an entire cinematic universe around it. The whole situation is so pathetically mismanaged, I’m not sure whether to laugh, cry, or just check out.

The script, co-written by David Koepp and Chris McQuarrie (not his finest moment) actually bears more resemblance to the 1932 Boris Karloff film than the Brendan Frasier re-boot, at least in its conception. Ton Cruise plays a treasure hunter named Nick Morton, who along with archaeologist Jenny Halsey (Annibelle Wallis, more on her later) discovers the tomb of Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), an ancient Egyptian queen-turned-dark-sorceress. As you can probably guess, Ahmanet comes back to life in search of a host for her lover, the Egyptian god Set, with whom she’ll take over the world. She chooses Morton, and it isn’t long before the film morphs from a mediocre fantasy action snooze-fest into a wacky horror love-triangle movie, whereby Ahmanet and Halsey fight for Morton’s soul, the point being that if he chooses Ahmanet he’s an inherently evil person, but if he ends up with Halsey, he must be a good guy after all.

The problem (one of many) is that the movie has no clue how to dramatize this central tension. In fact, Kurtzman fails so spectacularly at telling the story at hand, that I was literally rooting for the actual mummy by the end of the movie.

I know I jokingly said the same thing in my review for Alien: Covenant a few weeks back, but here, I genuinely mean it. Perhaps Sofia Boutella is just too damn good of an actress. I might even compare her to Karloff in her haunting but empathetic mannerisms, her unique ability to hold the audience’s attention despite the monster movie ridiculous going on in the background. Even when she’s destroying buildings, ripping down security guards or sucking out their souls, she’s mesmerizing. Here is someone capable of taking a character as blandly written as Ahmanet and turning her into something genuinely compelling. She might have been able to save the whole enterprise, if Kurtzman played to any of her talents.

But he doesn’t, instead confining her into a thankless, generic bad guy roll while trying to force our emotional sympathies on Wallis’s Halsey character. Guys, I’m really not sure who to blame for this one. Maryl Streep couldn’t bring Koepp and McQuarrie’s catastrophically bland love interest to life (Wikipedia describes her as “feisty, kind, stubborn, and intelligent,”) but Wallis so effective at sucking the life from every singe frame of the movie she’s in, that I’m down to call it a joint effort. Either way, Kurtzman some how expects the audience (and Cruise by extension) to fall in love with this grab bag of cliches, rendering the whole conflict of the movie laughably inept.

When the film isn’t stumbling over every banana peel the script throws in its path, The Mummy is busy trying to set up the rest of the Dark Universe through yet another secret para-military society. S.H.I.E.L.D., Monarch: meet Prodigium, the brain child of none other than Dr. Henry Jekyll (played here by a deliciously over-the-top Russell Crowe), and devoted to studying and eliminating supernatural threats across the globe. It’s a decent (if unoriginal) conceit to connect any future Dark Universe movies, but the film spends an absurd amount of time focusing on something Marvel and the MonsterVerse shoved to the sidelines. What this franchise has yet to realize is that the connective tissue of a cinematic universe shouldn’t feel like connective tissue. You shouldn’t know what Monarch is (and chances are you don’t) just like you shouldn’t really care what’s going on at S.H.I.E.L.D. (at least not in the first movie). But The Mummy places comically large importance on Prodigium, and has neither the intelligence or energy to get us to care about anything they’re doing or what they stand for.

Man, I could keep going. I haven’t even started on the misplaced American Werewolf in London references, but that’s enough for today. Save for one committed performance by Sofia Boutella, The Mummy is an all around disaster. A humiliating, head scratching pipe bomb of a blockbuster that’s so uninterested in being the least bit scary, exciting, or interesting, that it end up, if not intentionally, hysterical. Perhaps the next one of these Dark Universe movies will be good, but if Kurtzman continues to be in charge (as he seems to be; he’s already producing Bride of Frankenstein) we can only pray that Universal puts this franchise back where it belongs: in a tomb.

OVERALL RATING: 3 / 10 SEE IT SKIP IT: Go see Wonder Woman again. Or literally anything else.