#i am trying to diversify my character designs a bit though

[androgynouspenguinexpert]

nobody's bought him flowers before

[atlas-of-galaxies]

Hi omg I adore your art (esp your yttd stuff) just. Everything about it is just so cool I’ve sent it to my freimds a couple times being like “YOO LOOK AT THIS COOL ARTIST” and I was wondering if you could/if you have given advice on how to diversify ur art? Like, I personally struggle wit the fact I can probably draw a total of 4 hairstyles and probably have a real bad case of same face syndrome, and while I’m really trying to practice I keep looking to your stuff as a prime example of good™️ amd was hoping you could give some pointers

Augh it’s late sorry if this makes no sense or is like single-handedly the most annoying ask you’ve ever seen

thank you so much for your kind words!! <3 I'd be happy to share some character design tips I've learned over time.

now before I start, I just want to emphasize that none of this is new or revolutionary by any means, nor am I an expert. I still have plenty of room to grow myself! I'll just be sharing my reasoning for specific character design details as examples of character design theory at large, utilizing my yttd designs as examples because I've had almost two years to get comfortable with my styles for them.

the two biggest things that have helped me in character design are to 1. emphasize the character's personality/identity/hidden agendas through their design and 2. draw fat characters. I cannot stress how important it is to get comfortable with drawing more body types. it is vital to character design diversity, and it sets characters apart in more ways than just color and hairstyle.

it is also the backbone of shape theory, which is an excellent, subtle way to clue the audience into what a character might be like. take my Keiji design for example:

Keiji presents himself as an upstanding, reliable person that others that can depend on - hence, his form is big, tall, and solid, like a sturdy wall. big, blocky shapes make up his body. but his body language is conflicting, with one open, inviting arm and the other hidden behind his neck.

what sets the viewer off about what he's really like is the expression. shady eyes, never anything wider than a smirk on his lips, permanent eyebags - whatever has happened to this guy, it's taken a toll.

I'd also like to take this time to point out hair, since you mentioned it; I'm a big fan of bangs as a form of character expression! Keiji's are shaggy and messy, nearly falling over his eyes to add to the shady look. as for the rest of the shape of the hair, I like to start from the part (easy to spot in my Keiji design - just look for the brown hair!) and go from there in either direction.

don't be afraid to keep it simple! I used to be unable to end short hair in anything other than a mullet because I wasn't sure how to resolve it, but usually, all you need is just a single line to define the back of the neck. and again, shape language is your friend here! just look at the difference between Sara and Joe's hair:

Sara's hair is easily parsed into angles and blocks - it is orderly and uptight, just like the image she projects as a star student. on the other hand, I couldn't even find regular shapes in Joe's!! the messy spontaneity of it speaks a lot to how he is as a person! Keiji's hair is somewhere in-between; it's got that blocky orderliness as a nod to his time as a policeman, but it's just messy enough to suggest something's off.

we'll look at Shin next. he's another character with lots to hide, but he goes about it a very different manner, hence the different build:

Shin is one of my designs where I think shape theory especially shines. without his protective scarf and big coat, the guy is tiny. he looks vulnerable and weak, and he knows it - hence his hunched posture, as if he's curling in on himself to protect his vital organs. it's like how cats hate being pet on their stomachs, you know?

add the scarf and the jacket though - and he actually has a presence now! he's still a bit curled in, but for different reasons: the scarf is heavy on his shoulders, quite literally weighing him down.

focusing on his face though - I give Sara and Shin similar facial features (long noses, heavily angled profiles) to emphasize their nature as foils. it's especially obvious here, I think:

despite being at such odds, they're very similar people - and small details in design choices can help clue the viewer into drawing these similarities, even on a subconscious level.

and I think that's all I've got for now! hope this helped just a little bit! good luck!

[reanimatedcourier]

How to Write Indigenous Characters Without Looking like a Jackass:

Update as of December 26th, 2020: I have added a couple new sections about naming and legal terms, as well as a bit of reading on the Cherokee Princess phenomenon.

Boozhoo (hello) Fallout fandom! I'm a card-carrying Anishinaabe delivering this rough guide about writing Indigenous characters because wow, do I see a lot of shit.

Let's get something out of the way first: Fallout's portrayal of Indigenous people is racist. From a vague definition of "tribal" to the claims of them being "savage" and "uncivilized" mirror real-world stereotypes used to dehumanize us. Fallout New Vegas' narrated intro has Ron Perlman saying Mr. House "rehabilitated" tribals to create New Vegas' Three Families. You know. Rehabilitate. As if we are animals. Top it off with an erasure of Indigenous people in the American Southwest and no real tribe names, and you've got some pretty shitty representation. The absence of Native American as a race option in the GECK isn't too great, given that two Native characters are marked "Caucasian" despite being brown. Butch Deloria is a pretty well-known example of this effect. (Addendum: Indigenous people can have any mix of dominant and recessive traits, as well as present different phenotypes. What bothers me is it doesn't accommodate us or mixed people, which is another post entirely.)

As a precautionary warning: this post and the sources linked will discuss racism and genocide. There will also be discussion of multiple kinds of abuse.

Now, your best approach will be to pick a nation or tribe and research them. However, what follows will be general references.

Terms that may come up in your research include Aboriginal/Native Canadian, American Indian/Native American, Inuit, Métis, and Mestizo. The latter two refer to cultural groups created after the discovery of the so-called New World. (Addendum made September 5th, 2020: Mestizo has negative connotations and originally meant "half breed" so stick with referring to your mixed Latine and Indigenous characters as mixed Indigenous or simply by the name of their people [Maya, Nahua].)

As a note, not every mixed person is Métis or Mestizo. If you are, say, Serbian and Anishinaabe, you would be mixed, but not Métis (the big M is important here, as it refers to a specific culture). Even the most liberal definition caps off at French and British ancestry alongside Indigenous (some say Scottish and English). Mestizo works the same, since it refers to descendants of Spanish conquistadors/settlers and Indigenous people.

Trouble figuring out whose land is where? No problem, check out this map.

Drawing

Don't draw us with red skin. It's offensive and stereotypical.

Tutorial for Native Skintones

Tutorial for Mixed Native Skintones

Why Many Natives Have Long Hair (this would technically fit better under another category, but give your Native men long hair!)

If You're Including Traditional Wear, Research! It's Out There

Languages

Remember, there are a variety of languages spoken by Indigenous people today. No two tribes will speak the same language, though there are some that are close and may have loan words from each other (Cree and Anishinaabemowin come to mind). Make sure your Diné (you may know them as Navajo) character doesn't start dropping Cree words.

Here's a Site With a Map and Voice Clips

Here's an Extensive List of Amerindian Languages

Keep in mind there are some sounds that have no direct English equivalents. But while we're at it, remember a lot of us speak English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese. The languages of the countries that colonized us.

Words in Amerindian languages tend to be longer than English ones and are in the format of prefix + verb + suffix to get concepts across. Gaawiin miskwaasinoon is a complete sentence in Anishinaabemowin, for example (it is not red).

Names

Surprisingly, we don't have names like Passing Dawn or Two-Bears-High-Fiving in real life. A lot of us have, for lack of better phrasing, white people names. We may have family traditions of passing a name down from generation to generation (I am the fourth person in my maternal line to have my middle name), but not everyone is going to do that. If you do opt for a name from a specific tribe, make sure you haven't chosen a last name from another tribe.

Baby name sites aren't reliable, because most of the names on there will be made up by people who aren't Indigenous. That site does list some notable exceptions and debunks misconceptions.

Here's a list of last names from the American census.

Indian Names

You may also hear "spirit names" because that's what they are for. You know the sort of mystical nature-related name getting slapped on an Indigenous character? Let's dive into that for a moment.

The concept of a spirit name seems to have gotten mistranslated at some point in time. It is the name Creator calls you throughout all your time both here and in the spirit world. These names are given (note the word usage) to you in a ceremony performed by an elder. This is not done lightly.

A lot of imitations of this end up sounding strange because they don't follow traditional guidelines. (I realize this has spread out of the original circle, but Fallout fans may recall other characters in Honest Hearts and mods that do this. They have really weird and racist results.)

If you're not Indigenous: don't try this. You will be wrong.

Legal Terms

Now, sometimes the legal term (or terms) for a tribe may not be what they refer to themselves as. A really great example of this would be the Oceti Sakowin and "Sioux". How did that happen, you might be wondering. Smoky Mountain News has an article about this word and others, including the history of these terms.

For the most accurate information, you are best off having your character refer to themselves by the name their nation uses outside of legislation. A band name would be pretty good for this (Oglala Lakota, for example). I personally refer to myself by my band.

Cowboys

And something the Fallout New Vegas fans might be interested in, cowboys! Here's a link to a post with several books about Black and Indigenous cowboys in the Wild West.

Representation: Stereotypes and Critical Thought

Now, you'll need to think critically about why you want to write your Indigenous character a certain way. Here is a comprehensive post about stereotypes versus nuance.

Familiarize yourself with tropes. The Magical Indian is a pretty prominent one, with lots of shaman-type characters in movies and television shows. This post touches on its sister tropes (The Magical Asian and The Magical Negro), but is primarily about the latter.

Say you want to write an Indigenous woman. Awesome! Characters I love to see. Just make sure you're aware of the stereotypes surrounding her and other Women of Color.

Word to the wise: do not make your Indigenous character an alcoholic. "What, so they can't even drink?" You might be asking. That is not what I'm saying. There is a pervasive stereotype about Drunk Indians, painting a reaction to trauma as an inherent genetic failing, as stated in this piece about Indigenous social worker Jessica Elm's research. The same goes for drugs. Ellen Deloria is an example of this stereotype.

Familiarize yourself with and avoid the Noble Savage trope. This was used to dehumanize us and paint us as "childlike" for the sake of a plot device. It unfortunately persists today.

Casinos are one of the few ways for tribes to make money so they can build homes and maintain roads. However, some are planning on diversifying into other business ventures.

There's a stereotype where we all live off government handouts. Buddy, some of these long-term boil water advisories have been in place for over twenty years. The funding allocated to us as a percentage is 0.39%: less than half a percent to fight the coronavirus. They don't give us money.

"But what about people claiming to be descended from a Cherokee princess?" Cherokee don't and never had anything resembling princesses. White southerners made that up prior to the Civil War. As the article mentions, they fancied themselves "defending their lands as the Indians did".

Also, don't make your Indigenous character a cannibal. Cannibalism is a serious taboo in a lot of our cultures, particularly northern ones.

Our lands are not cursed. We don't have a litany of curses to cast on white people in found footage films. Seriously. We have better things to be doing. Why on earth would our ancestors be haunting you when they could be with their families? Very egotistical assumption.

Indigenous Ties and Blood Quantum

Blood quantum is a colonial system that was initially designed to "breed out the Indian" in people. To dilute our bloodlines until we assimilated properly into white society. NPR has an article on it here.

However, this isn't how a vast majority of us define our identities. What makes us Indigenous is our connections (or reconnection) to our families, tribes, bands, clans, and communities.

Blood quantum has also historically been used to exclude Black Natives from tribal enrollment, given that it was first based on appearance. So, if you looked Black and not the image of "Indian" the white census taker had in his brain, you were excluded and so were your descendants.

Here are two tumblrs that talk about Black Indigenous issues and their perspectives. They also talk about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia.

However, if you aren't Indigenous, don't bring up blood quantum. Don't. This is an issue you should not be speaking about.

Cherokee Princess Myth

"Princess" was not a real position in any tribe. The European idea of monarchy did not suddenly manifest somewhere else. The closest probable approximation may have been the daughter of a chief or other politically prominent person. But princess? No.

Here is an article talking about possible origins of this myth. Several things are of note here: women from other tribes may have bee shoved under this label and the idea of a "Cherokee Princess" had been brought up to explain the sudden appearance of a brown-skinned (read: half Black) family member.

For a somewhat more in depth discussion of why, specifically, this myth gets touted around so often, Timeline has this piece.

Religion

Our religions are closed. We are not going to tell you how we worship. Mostly because every little bit we choose to share gets appropriated. Smudging is the most recent example. If you aren't Indigenous, that's smoke cleansing. Smudging is done in a specific way with ceremonies and prayers.

Now, a lot of us were forcibly converted. Every residential school was run by Christians. So plenty of us are Catholic, Baptist, Anglican, Lutheran, etc. Catholicism in Latin America also has influence from the Indigenous religions in that region.

Having your Indigenous character pray or carry rosaries wouldn't be a bad thing, if that religion was important to them. Even if they are atheist, if they lived outside of a reserve or other Indigenous communities, they might have Christian influences due to its domination of the Western world.

Settler Colonialism and the White Savior Trope

Now we've come to our most painful section yet. Fallout unintentionally has an excellent agent of settler-colonialism, in particular the Western Christian European variety, in Caesar's Legion and Joshua Graham.

(Addendum: Honest Hearts is extremely offensive in its portrayal of Indigenous people, and egregiously shows a white man needing to "civilize" tribals and having to teach them basic skills. These skills include cooking, finding safe water, and defending themselves from other tribes.)

Before we dive in, here is a post explaining the concept of cultural Christianity, if you are unfamiliar with it.

We also need to familiarize ourselves with The White Man's Burden. While the poem was written regarding the American-Philippine war, it still captures the attitudes toward Indigenous folks all over the world at the time.

As this article in Teen Vogue points out, white people like to believe they need to save People of Color. You don't need to. People of Color can save themselves.

Now, cultural Christianity isn't alone on this side of the pond. Writer Teju Cole authored a piece on the White Savior Industrial Complex to describe mission trips undertaken by white missionaries to Africa to feed their egos.

Colonialism has always been about the acquisition of wealth. To share a quote from this paper about the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples: "Negatively, [settler colonialism] strives for the dissolution of native societies. Positively, it erects a new colonial society on the expropriated land base—as I put it, settler colonizers come to stay: invasion is a structure not an event. In its positive aspect, elimination is an organizing principal of settler-colonial society rather than a one-off (and superseded) occurrence. The positive outcomes of the logic of elimination can include officially encouraged miscegenation, the breaking-down of native title into alienable individual freeholds, native citizenship, child abduction, religious conversion, resocialization in total institutions such as missions or boarding schools, and a whole range of cognate biocultural assimilations. All these strategies, including frontier homicide, are characteristic of settler colonialism. Some of them are more controversial in genocide studies than others." (Positive, here, is referring to "benefits" for the colonizers. Indigenous people don't consider colonization beneficial.)

An example of a non-benefit, the Church Rock disaster had Diné children playing in radioactive water so the company involved could avoid bad publicity.

Moving on, don't sterilize your Indigenous people. Sterilization, particularly when it is done without consent, has long been used as a tool by the white system to prevent "undesirables" (read, People of Color and disabled people) from having children. Somehow, as of 2018, it wasn't officially considered a crime.

The goal of colonization was to eliminate us entirely. Millions died because of exposure to European diseases. Settlers used to and still do separate our children from us for reasons so small as having a dirty dish in the sink. You read that right, a single dirty dish in your kitchen sink was enough to get your children taken and adopted out to white families. This information was told to me by an Indigenous social work student whose name I will keep anonymous.

It wasn't until recently they made amendments to the Indian Act that wouldn't automatically render Indigenous women non-status if they married someone not Indigenous. It also took much too long for Indigenous families to take priority in child placement over white ones. Canada used to adopt Indigenous out to white American families. The source for that statement is further down, but adoption has been used as a tool to destroy cultures.

I am also begging you to cast aside whatever colonialist systems have told you about us. We are alive. People with a past, not people of the past, which was wonderfully said here by Frank Waln.

Topics to Avoid if You Aren't Indigenous

Child Separation. Just don't. We deserve to remain with our families and our communities. Let us stay together and be happy that way.

Assimilation schools. Do not bring up a tool for cultural genocide that has left lasting trauma in our communities.

W/ndigos. I don't care that they're in Fallout 76. They shouldn't be. Besides, you never get them right anyway.

Sk/nwalkers. Absolutely do not. Diné stories are not your playthings either.

I've already talked about drugs and alcohol. Do your research with compassion and empathy in mind. Indigenous people have a lot of pain and generational trauma. You will need to be extremely careful having your Indigenous characters use drugs and alcohol. If your character can be reduced to their (possible) substance abuse issues, you need to step back and rework it. As mentioned in Jessica Elm's research, remember that it isn't inherent to us.

For our final note: remember that we're complex, autonomous human beings. Don't use our deaths to further the stories of your white characters. Don't reduce us to some childlike thing that needs to be raised and civilized by white characters. We interact with society a little differently than you do, but we interact nonetheless.

Meegwetch (thank you) for reading! Remember to do your research and portray us well, but also back off when you are told by an Indigenous person.

This may be updated in the future, it depends on what information I come across or, if other Indigenous people are so inclined, what is added to this post.

[velveetacrackncheese]

Hey, Rad... Alex... Alexlememe? I know that's the name you used to go by and I know you've kinda disconnected yourself from Viv's fanbase after ZP ended, and I remember your memes and such but I kinda just wanted to get your take on the Hazbin drama since you reblogged the headcanon blog's post on the subject. More or less regarding the issue of her being uncharitable to fans and non-fans alike, plus that one callout post on twitter?

So this is weird. I wasn’t expecting to get asks on the subject since like you said, I’ve generally been disconnected from the fanbase aside from the few reblogs here and there retaining to Hazbin and its more recent developments. But yeah I guess I could give my take on this since I mean.. old fans still follow me. Idk why, but they do!So, really. In regards to that callout post (which is now deleted) I really, really don’t care that much. For one thing, Initially I did because I really hated to see someone be slandered so viciously with inaccurate and uncharitable attacks, but I kinda just stopped because even when I linked the addresses from both Viv, and the Ken dude regarding all the drama mentioned, it was either ignored and resulting in me being called a “pedo sympathizer” or “It wasn’t even an apologyyyyy weh” and like, whatever. I stopped giving a shit.

Terms of the traced animation thing... Lol, ok. I mean homages do exist, and her animation thingy was based on a meme so whatevs.

Anyways,I knew from the very start that the whole “tracing” and “stealing designs” stuff was nonsense since there was an entire like, tumblr drama arc on the issue, and albeit Viv’s post is gone, there’s evidence of legal contracts regarding Jiji and that whole nonsense that was years ago. In regards to her drawing pictures of Blaire White and Shoe… Eh. I mean, yeah, fuck em, but she’s made it clear that she doesn’t support those views anymore, and she wasn’t even really aware of the other things they’d done at that point, and I see no real reason not to believe her because what does lying about that gain her? Yeah her comment on the “blackface” thing if you wanna call it that was dumb as shit, but considering 2016 was a rough year for her in terms of trying to find where she fell in the political sphere, I can relate because I was in the same boat. A lot of sjw cringe comps, shaming feminists, and purposely misgendering transpeople… Not a good time for me either! Course I’ve changed. I went from being a reactionary alt-centrist to an anarchist so. Whether that’s an improvement is up to you.

As for the whole pedo/zoo shit, I really don’t see it. I mean like, look, obviously porn art portraying people fucking feral animals is disgusting right. Not saying it isn’t problematic or anything, but to be fair, she did draw this shit like 8 years ago. I’ve seen worse from even more well-established artists and I don’t see people trying to cancel them? Also, the art was suggestive for one thing and not necessarily 100% porn. I mean it’s still creepy and gross, and I’d understand scolding them if they continued to do so but a lot worse, but I haven’t seen anything like that from Viv past those 2 drawings. As for the pedo shit… The relationship between a 17 year old and a 19 year old is… hardly creepy and reminiscent of pedo shit. So yeah no fuck that. Now with the drawing of Mirage and Kestrel and the tag that said something jokingly like “Mirage and her pedo tendencies” or whatever… Yeah idk, I can’t defend that lmfao. Again, Viv said she disapproves of those drawings and doesn’t care to think about them, but that one piece of artwork definitely had some baggage to it that made me feel uncomfortable after reading the tags.Only issue I took in terms of her addressing that, is that she was very adamant about it being an inside joke… Which if that’s true, you must’ve had some fucked up friends like damn.

I would also like to state that cub art is legitimately disgusting and I am of the belief that it can cause harm depending on the context since I assume the consumption of cub art can reinforce the urge for pedophiles to act on their desires instead of finding healthy coping mechanisms for it through therapy. There have been stories from younger users on the internet that older people have tried to groom them and have the notion of pedos preying on them be normalized by sending them art depicting kids in sexual acts with adults. Of course in isolation cub art isn’t as harmful as the actual act of raping a child, and I would argue that people have their priorities kind of messed up since the illustration being acknowledged should be part of combating pedophiles preying on children. However, people, typically twitter wokescolds tend to focus on the art solely and I don’t know why. There’s a lot of MAPS trying to find their way into LGBT spaces and it’s fucking gross.

Now with Hazbin itself… It’s meh. Initially I watched it with rose-tinted glasses and loved it. After watching it for like… the 3rd, 4th, 5th time? It’s alright. I don’t hate it, but it’s far from perfect. Now ofc I know it’s a pilot but a very lengthy pilot I’ll say. My biggest gripe with the pilot is that the editing is really fucking weird. Like the editing where Angel tells Alastor “I can suck yah dick!” and the scene that followed was really off. It seemed like too many cuts were made in that instance and seemed very cluttered. It also feels that way during Charlie singing “Inside Every Demon is a Rainbow” and how many little animated bits were like almost wiped off the screen by how fast it came by, and ntm there was just so much happening all at once on screen as well. I had to pause at points just to process everything that was happening. The palette is also very, very, verrrry red. There’s so much red going on and like… I get it, it’s in hell. But lemme rest my eyes on something else besides red, please. The palette they use needs to be better diversified, and the same goes for the characters too. Every character seems to have red on them. Whenever Baxter shows up later he’s gonna look really out of place. Some of the jokes were ok, and others seemed non-clever. I didn’t think Angel’s joke about sucking Al’s dick was funny. I did like the joke with Pentious and Angel though. “SON??” Some of it could’ve been written better too.

Regarding the drama with the show itself… Personally I don’t get it. Like, I don’t feel as if Angel is homophobic as a character since his queerness isn’t at the face of the jokes he makes? He just happens to be sex worker which… sex workers are fine? Support sex workers y’all, seriously. There’s also nothing intrinsically wrong with being sexually active either? As long as it’s within reason and you’re being trustworthy.The issue lies in the fact that people viewed the things I just mentioned as negative, and associate it with gay people as said negatively portrayed thing to push the sentiment of “Gay man do sex a lot therefore the gays bad” or that sort of thing. Also there’s a bit where it shows there’s more emotional depth to him and I’m hoping they’ll expand on that later. Honestly though, the criticisms in regards to that have been pretty uncharitable. Same with the criticisms for Vaggie. Apparently Vaggie is racist because… she’s loud and angry? Again, this is a case where people assume those traits are negative, and because it’s assumed to be negative, the negatively portrayed thing pushes the sentiment of “Being a loud fiery woman made, and latina women are that, therefore latina women bad” or some shit.  There are stereotypes that are bad no matter what the context is like sambo-esque caricatures of black people. Then there are tropes that are applied to certain demographics that have the capability to be written well into characters without it being offensive or disrespectful. Vaggie is literally angry because she’s protective of her gf. Like. C’mon.

So, I think that settles what I think about that? It honestly seems like superficial shit to me tbh, and I’m saying this as an sjw-y beta cuck anarchist.

The only REAL gripe I have, is with what the mod from @zpheadcanons posted. Because I know this is probably true as much as it hurts me to say it. Faust def has a history of being pretty petty and bully-like to people she deems undesirable, and Viv harbors it by not criticizing it, and if anyone else within their friend group does it then you’re scolded vehemently and treated like garbage. Her attitude also stretches to harboring an audience full of white knights that I personally don’t approve of.

There’s also this

Faust has hurt distant people I personally know and… yeah. Maybe I’m biased but I can’t vibe with that. Sorry. If you don’t make an effort to criticize abusive behavior within your own friend circles then that makes you just as bad, because then you’re just a bystander to things you could have prevented.

This isn’t to say Viv herself hasn’t dealt with bad faith actors, or people who had the intention to hurt her, or very uncharitable criticism. Particularly from the badwebcomics forums which is honestly 4chan like in how they operate. It’s vicious as hell, and a lot of their criticisms boil down to insults and personal attacks, which serve to be nonconstructive. That’s not to say Viv has been kind to even the more charitable criticism though. I know because when I happened to send an ask to the zoophobia criticism blog (where did it go???) regarding something relatively minor and superficial, she blocked me from her blog. I’m still blocked lmfao. I’m not blocked on twitter though! (not yet anyways). Faust has me blocked there though, and I have no idea why. She’s had me blocked for years even though I haven’t spoken out against her till recently. So, there’s that.

As for her apology itself, I feel like it was fine. I think it could’ve been worded better? The take I disagree with in terms of that is like… If I made a mistake in the past, and I make it clear that I don’t care for what I did, I don’t feel as if me explaining why I felt compelled to do certain things negate me from still not caring for my past actions? That’s just me providing context. That’s a really weird take, but I guess that could be viewed as an excuse idk. Personally I think people are holding the bar super high to a state of irrationality.

*sigh* So yeah there’s that. I miss the old days where honestly I could be ignorant about this, but at the same time I look at my old obsessive posts and I kinda just… cringe. I was such an irrational stan I almost hate myself for it. Fuck XD

Edit: I’d also like to point out that I’m not saying Viv or Faust are totally awful or totally good people, and I know they’re capable of being better. It’s a matter of whether or not they wanna be better.

[enzap]

The Dragon Prince: Episode 1 Review

To immediately address the elephant in the room: Yes, the choppy animation is distracting, the character movements looked stilted, and it almost certainly would have looked better in traditional animation. But since this episode was almost entirely void of action it didn’t affect my experience all that much so that’s the last I’ll be talking about that for this review.

Also, because of the creators’ association with Avatar the Last Airbender, I will be comparing the two. I feel it’s unavoidable. AtLA also is a great example of an animated series done right in nearly every way, so I know I personally end up comparing a lot of shows to it anyway. 

I’ve decided to split up my thoughts into things I thought needed work, things I liked, and overall thoughts. I may change up this style for later reviews as the episode demands.

Stuff that Needs Work

This show leans heavily into typical fantasy tropes, like reeeally heavily. Tropes are not bad things inherently, they’re basically a way to quickly communicate an idea with the audience so you can get to your story and not have to worry about setting up characters and setting for hours on end. That being said, the story and characters that are set up by those tropes should feel original. For an example I turn to Avatar. The four nations and the Empire have strong Tolkein-esque feel to them and the superobjectives of the characters are nothing too special; beat the bad guy, get the girl, the usual. Despite this, the approach to these tropes and the themes of the show really set it apart. The unique cultures inspired by real-life, non-European nations. The bending and how it’s incorporated into daily life in creative ways. Each character’s individual journey. The tropes allow you to easily understand the new ideas that the show is presenting so the writers can get away with doing less explaining and more doing.

As of episode 1, The Dragon Prince does very little to add to or subvert the tropes it’s employing. For example, when establishing the sources of magic in the intro, the show introduces “dark magic.” And of course it’s about as generic as possible. It’s obtained by stealing the life force of magical creatures. It’s colored dark purple because of course it is. It was discovered by a middle-aged scary warlock looking dude. I can’t think of a single original idea that you wouldn’t find in any average Saturday morning fantasy cartoon. 

Speaking of that intro, it was quite literally one giant exposition dump, and not one that seemed... necessary? Almost everything said seemed like information that could have been sprinkled throughout the first couple of episodes rather than throwing it at the audience all at once. Though seamlessly adding exposition into the dialogue and setting takes a lot of careful planning and skill, so there’s a chance it would have resulted in distracting pauses throughout the episodes. Maybe it’s better we got it out of the way first thing instead, but either way it felt like the first scene of a movie adaptation rather than the intro to a series.

That’s enough complaining about the worldbuilding for now, and since that was the focus of the episode I think I’ll move to talking about the positive apsects.

Stuff I Liked

I didn’t think the characters were particularly groundbreaking, but their introductions were done well enough. Callum is extremely transparent (”Art? Finally, something I’m good at!”) but I am a bit curious about how he ended up in the situation he did and how he’s going to develop from here. 

Ezran was already the more compelling of the protagonists to me, even though it seems the show is going to focus more on Callum’s character. The little kid getting into trouble is a bit of a tired cliché, but I want to see him grow into a more worldly young man like Aang from Avatar or Steven from Steven Universe.

I’m not sure how to feel about Rayla yet, but I think the idea of the Moon Shadow Elves is pretty interesting. Even though we haven’t had a real taste of their power yet, the way the show hyped them up leaves a lot of potential for them to impress me next episode. I wish their character designs were a bit more diversified though. if the humans are allowed to have different skin tones and hair colors the same should be true for the elves in my opinion.

The side characters are hit or miss. I got very mixed signals from Lord Viren. He seems like a stereotypical treacherous confidant, but some of his dialogue was also played for jokes so he could go either way. I’ll have to wait and see more of Soren and Claudia. They had my favorite character designs in the episode and some of the most memorable personalities. 

I appreciate that the King and one of the main characters are black, which is always nice to see in a fantasy setting. I hope we see even more diversity as the show progresses in both race and other forms of identity.

Overall Thoughts

I’d like to talk about the humor of the show here because I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it either. I think there is potential to the writing style, but King Harrow’s first line being a joke when he’s otherwise depicted as a stern character felt... awkward. The whole episode felt awkward really. That’s typical of a lot of shows trying to find their stride. Still though, given its pedigree I was hoping for some more interesting worldbuilding, visuals, and characters, but it’s always possible those will come later on.

The show has potential to be good, but at this point I don’t think it’s going to gain the title of “great.” It may be too early to tell, but if the show was going to take more risks I would have expected to see them by now, and I’ve watched way too many shows with high expectations throughout a show only to have them let down in the end.

I’ll be back for another review whenever I get around to watching episode 2!

[brsexdating920]

Dating Apps For Foreigners

Chinese Dating Apps For Foreigners

Dating App For Foreigners In Korea

Foreigners Dating In China

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More expats in China are using dating apps to diversify their social circles and romantic options. Photo: IC

It was 11 pm on a Saturday night, and Jeff, a European expat who has been living in Beijing for five years, was just back from a party where he met a lot of new people, both foreigners and Chinese. Still, though, he felt just a little bit empty, a little bit restless, and so he logged onto Tantan, a Chinese dating app similar to Tinder, that he has been using for the past year. He started swiping through prospective partners' pictures and limited profiles, which include information like age, zodiac sign and occupation. Swiping left means you do not like the person, right means you do. Left, left, and then, 'Oh, this girl is pretty. She's got a nice smile,' he said to himself, and swiped right. It was a match, which meant the girl also liked him. 'Hi, how are you?' he typed. According to Jeff's profile on Tantan, 5,166 girls have liked him over the past year, which translates to 5,166 chances to meet new girls online. In that time, he's achieved 1,196 matches, which meant that he and 1,196 girls liked each other. Chinese dating apps have been seeing growing popularity among expats living in China, in part because many foreigners' social circles are largely limited to other expats, and these apps give them the chance to meet and date locals. Among the most popular apps, both for Chinese and foreign singles, are Tantan, Momo and Skouts. Sun Yang, a public relations director from Momo, told Metropolitan that they have seen more expats using their dating app over the past few years, though they didn't have any statistics detailing their number of foreign users. Another dating app, Tantan, didn't reply to Metropolitan's calls as of press date, but according to Metropolitan's count, it contains around one expat user for every 10 Chinese users in expat-heavy neighborhoods like Guomao and Sanlitun. Milo Gonzales, a Beijing-based relationship counselor from the US, said that dating apps are a quicker and easier way to meet new people for expats. 'It gives people the opportunity to talk and communicate to see if they have the same interests, and if their general viewpoints click before they meet in person to see if they are right for each other,' he said.

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Women from the West and from China generally take different approaches to dating when using dating apps in China. Photo: IC Black singles near me review.

Some believe that relationships that start through dating apps tend to be more shallow since users are more focused on appearances. Photo: IC

The good and bad of cross-cultural dating What Jeff likes about dating apps is how easy it is to find and meet pretty local girls. In real life, many expats work so much that they have only limited time to socialize, and when they do, according to Jeff, they mostly hang out with other expats. 'Dating apps help break that invisible boundary between expats and locals,' he said. That has indeed been the case for the two male expats who talked to Metropolitan, both of whom have noticed they are more popular on Chinese dating apps than they are on apps in their home countries. A case in point is Bruce from the UK, who has only been using Tantan for one month but has already received 236 matches. 'In the UK, when I use Tinder, I usually get 20 to 30 matches tops, because there are fewer girls who swipe right for me than in China.' Another difference, according to Bruce, is that in the UK, it is usually guys who start the conversation and do the work to try and impress and win over the girls. 'In China, I feel the girls are more keen to meet with me and impress me. Chinese girls don't have arrogance is the best way to explain it, I guess.' In his experience, Chinese girls on Tantan usually start conversations by asking where he comes from and what he does in Beijing, before asking for his WeChat, and then if he wants to meet up. 'But I think it's too quick,' Bruce said. So far, he has met two girls through Tantan. Andrew, a Brit in Beijing who's been using Chinese dating apps for five months, says he quickly discovered that while women in the West generally start out chatting about shared interests, Chinese women are more likely to ask about his job and future plans. He recalls one Chinese girl who, after a single date, began planning their wedding and future together in China. 'I understand that in China, some girls are facing pressure to get married before a certain age, which drives them to want to get serious faster in relationships,' said Andrew. Another source of culture shock for expats is unrealistic expectations. Shim Bo-kyung (pseudonym), a 24-year-old student from South Korea, said he often gets the impression that his Chinese dates like to imagine him as being just as rich and handsome as the characters from South Korean TV series. 'Some of my online dates would call me Oppa (Korean for 'older brother,' a term of endearment sometimes used for boyfriends) in a coquettish way just like in South Korean TV series, even though they are older than me, which just freaks me out,' he said. 'Some of them also assume that I am rich, even though I am just a student who works part time,' he said. Shim added that some Chinese girls have even asked if he comes from a wealthy family like in the famous South Korean TV series The Heirs. Flings vs serious relationships Although dating apps have made it easier to meet more people, the relationships formed are often short-lived and shallow, because they were based in the first place on little more than appearances. 'With dating apps, people check out one another's pictures very quickly, and if they think you're attractive, that's it,' Jeff said. 'Most don't even look at the information you've written down.' Gonzales said that, according to his observations, most guys who use dating apps are more interested in casual relationships, because so many apps are geared at hooking up. Other expats have different intentions, and use dating apps more to meet locals, learn the language and deepen their understanding of China. Bruce, for example, wanted to make new friends and maybe find someone who wanted to learn English and could teach him Chinese at the same time. As a result, he met a 19-year-old student who wants to study in the UK, and they've been meeting up to do a language and culture exchange. Erika, a 22-year-old student from South Korea, has similar intentions to Bruce. 'I'm not looking for the love of my life on dating apps. I use them more for the sake of having different experiences and expanding my world view. By meeting more people from different backgrounds and careers, I've learned a lot about interacting with different kinds of people. I've learned how to start and carry a conversation, to alleviate awkward tension and to listen to others' stories,' Erika said. She said the best experiences are when you hit it off with someone, and end up talking endlessly. She recalls one guy she met, who works at an IT company, with whom she had a great conversation about philosophy and life. He also expressed interest in making Korean friends, since his work and social environment is exclusively Chinese. 'I've been surprised to see how eager most people are to interact with foreigners; it's just that they usually have few chances to do so,' Erika said. 'I think Chinese guys are more willing to start conversations with expat girls on apps than they are in real life.'

Chinese Dating Apps For Foreigners

Newspaper headline: Swipe right for love

Dating App For Foreigners In Korea

Foreigners Dating In China

[arkus-rhapsode]

My response to Hiro Mashima’s recent interview

So I was going to let this slide as I do all of his interviews, but man oh man... Hiro Mashima just had to be Hiro Mashima. Now you can find the interview here, but man, this fucking guy.

Q=Interview Question M=Mashima

Q:How did you feel the first day you woke up and didn't have to work on Fairy Tail?

M: I was actually kind of lonely and sad, so I started doodling.

Yeah, your twitter has been kinda full lately...

Q: Fairy Tail is relatively new compared to other “classic” manga and anime series, but it is already considered a classic among fans. How does this make you feel?

M: I am really glad to hear that.

No. No. FT is nowhere near classic. It definitely came out in the golden age of manga (Big 3, Toriko, SNK, etc) and is still apart of its era, but I doubt that people will still care for it as much as they do now in 5 years from now.

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

M: 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.    

How’s about friends going on a journey and having a point to everything? Y’know what a shounen series is in general.

Q: Have you ever considered revisiting Rave Master?

M: 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.

Well great to know the thing that made you famous in the first place isn’t worth remembering how to draw. I mean seriously I know it’s been 11 years, but you have to at least remember something

Q: 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?

M: 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.

Dude... You’re the author, it is your job to know this! This isn’t a game that you can just wing it and if it fails you can try again, this is a published series with a large following. You need to do it justice, that is the job of a mangaka.

Q: You have traditionally used more Western influences in your work. What kind of Western work do you draw inspiration from?

M: About 30 years ago in Japan, there was a huge boom of RPG fantasy games, so those are where I got my inspiration from. For example, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

No surprises there...

Q: In the world of Fairy Tail, are the magic powers something you inherit or can you obtain them if you work hard enough?

M: In the world of Fairy Tail, if anyone wants to learn a new magic, if they train themselves hard enough, they should be able to. There are a lot of characters who are training themselves to learn a different kind of magic. However, in the guild of Fairy Tail, everybody is collaborating and working together, so most of those characters work on their own talents and refine them so they are able to give more help to the others.

SO Magic is something everyone can use? Then what was the whole point of 90% of the population can’t use magic? Did they just not give a shit about having awesome powers?

Q: 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?

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

Then you proceeded to shit all over his character in the final arc. Guess that was the real tragedy.

Q: 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?

M: 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.

Maybe the female characters started out that way, but they sure as shit didn’t stay that way. Lucy became completely pointless in the last arc, Juvia has no personality outside I love Gray, Erza is an unintentional parody of over powered characters, Wendy is a walking Deus Ex Machina, Can needs her dad to solve anything in the end, and Mirajane has zero to any existence in this series.

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

M: 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.

No, you can fit in a character’s back story whenever you fucking like. In fact, seeing something from another character’s point of view is important to understand them. Though after seeing that Acnologia is just upset about a girl, I don’t think we need more.

Q: In terms of design, Fairy Tail is unique when it comes to designs.  A lot of the characters change their outfits throughout the series. How do you go about changing the characters’ clothes?

M: Every time I actually make a costume change, there's usually something that I didn't like about the character design so I refresh them. But sometimes I think maybe the previous character design was better so I kind of go back and forth.

Fair enough, you keep their normal look consistent enough.

Q: What Fairy Tail character will you miss the most?

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

And yet she didn’t make an appearance in the last chapter

Q: In the American comic book industry, it is common for multiple people to work on the same comic. In Japan, one person entirely writes the whole thing. In America, the creators may have died and people are still writing the series. What are your thoughts on this process?

M: One of the great things about American comics is that so many people can work at once to turn it into a movies or different types of comic books or media and that carries over overseas. In terms of manga, it usually one person thinks of the story and everything is centered on that one storyline, so, if there is an opportunity to branch off, that's actually a good thing. In terms of Fairy Tail, a lot of people love the world view of Fairy Tail, so it is actually possible to expand the story into a spin-off taken over by another creator, so it is kind of diversifying the intellectual property.

Yeah surprising how much better it is when it isn’t solely in your

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

M: 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.

Fuck you. No seriously fuck you. Stop being a writer and start being just an artist because that is not the tone of a writer. There are people who would trade their souls just for FT’s popularity or writers who wish they could make this series, and yet you are the one who has it... Go fuck yourself Hiro.

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

M: 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.

Yeah but rave was also an infinitely better story. Also that is the sad truth about popularity,but you should always be sure to do what’s good, not what’s popular.

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

M: Lucy, Erza, and Juvia.

Well now I know what your personal wet dream is...

(There’s more, but I’ve responded to Everything I’v needed to. Hiro Mashima as a person, might not e a bad guy, but Hiro Mashima the author is fucking infuriating)

[icharchivist]

If there's anything annoying about Lenalee, I think it's bc of the framing. Her narrative could be very interesting, but the realisation is poor. Mostly she just gets grossly drooled at by some guy and to make her look like "the perfect prize" Hoshino seems to hesitate to draw her "ugly/dorky" n tries to make her look always appealing n "always right" n have some1 always compliment her how beautiful n strong she is. (1/2)

(2/2) It would be much better if Hoshino “dissected” her view like with the other characters, what are the good and bad sides of it, what happens when she she ebcounters someone who thinks the opposite. Accent that first and foremost she is a character representing a view and not “a pretty girl”.

Hey, 

I don’t even know where to start to answer that to be honest. 

There’s flaws in Lenalee’s writting but I don’t see it that way.

I don’t see where she could be interpreted as “The perfect prize”. Because she was suspected to be the Heart and put in jeopardy about that? Because like. That’s the heart’s plot. That doesn’t make her a prize? It’s tragic.  Any other different interpretation of “perfect prize” is really odd to me, because Lenalee isn’t presented as some kind of love interested, and especially not of prize to be won. 

There had been moments of Men drooling over her, yes, often put in some “funny” framed scenes, which I won’t defend, because it is fucked up - Bak’s stalking isn’t funny, Cross’s comments are gross (but what about Cross isn’t), and that scientist comments were fucked up. I do think that, in the last one on that regard, it is treated much more as creepy than as funny, which i think is maybe an evolution on that regard, but still - it’s there, it’s gross.

As for her looking not ugly/dorky - I mentioned I wanted to re-read the manga further before talking but I can’t even wrap my head around what you mean. Her focus on the stories had mostly been serious, so not exactly going to show “dorky stuff”, and she has some dorky faces in the ClockTown arc, or in some bonus (the first bonus of the Gray Ark for exemple)

And even if Hoshino wants a female character that she herself considers more pretty (which, according to her character design notes in te Gray Ark, is mostly for herself, since she drew Lenalee as a character she’d be the one melting for - and as said in vol 1, she’s based on someone Hoshino loves and admires), i don’t see exactly the issue. The others female characters are diversified enough for Lenalee to stand on her own even if she is more “the ideal” of the author. And I don’t see what’s the issue with that. Tons of manga do that. 

And it’s a bit harder to judge imo knowing the Editors butted in a lot in Lenalee’s writting and limited her character - imposing Lenalee to have long hair for exemple, which gave some struggle to Hoshino because she really badly wanted Lenalee to have short hair, and she got a fair amount of backlash once she managed to force it in the story, both from the fans and from the editors. It ended up that Hoshino had sometimes a harder time writting Lenalee than she first planned. When it comes to blaming why she’s “a pretty girl”, I find it really unfair since Hoshino actually had a lot of pressure from editors and fans alike to “keep her pretty”. 

And even while saying all of that, I don’t even see why it’s that big of a deal.

As for Lenalee’s belief, she…. is legit the first one to spell out that the Order is not a good place. It’s her storyline that gives away that the Order is actually a rotten place. She opposes to the Order’s system, she just supports her brother. People disagreeing with her? We have Lvellie always brutalizing her because of how he’s trying to force her through stuff. Lenalee opposes the system of the Order.  She was the first one to show us the trouble in it, and especially the issues with the innocence. It’s via her storyline and her concern for Suman that we develop the Innocence’s changes and storyline.

As for whenever she’s right or wrong, the thing is that she doesn’t say a lot of things. She’s extremely reckless though, and her actions are framed this way - the way she fought against the Level 3, and when she was desperate to get the boots back, were framed as her being reckless and putting her life in danger. She wasn’t right, and was mostly lucky, and it’s framed as such. Now the reason of her luck is a whole other debate, that I would rather have once I remember more details. (and i am biased af when it comes to it so i can’t talk properly about it anyway). 

Edit: Also as someone mentioned to me since, Lenalee is the only one of the main four who’s aware of her flaws and try to confront them and mention them. The other three refuses to adress those. It’s great for her, as a character!

Lenalee is the least developped out of the main four (but then again, both her and Lavi exited the story at the same time and I personally don’t feel like she was less into focus than him - quite the opposite. It’s just that since they have a different background it’s more noticeable i guess), which is an issue in itself, but i disagree with how you view it. There are elements that are indeed a bit clumsy, but that’s really reducting. 

 I don’t see her like that. And maybe it’s the multiple readings or the fact i overanalyse stuff easily, but I think it’s a major disservice to her character.

I don’t see the focus you’re seeing, therefore I personally think there is a completely other focus on her character, and at this point, I don’t know what else to say. 

I think sometimes people are a bit too harsh on Lenalee and on Hoshino for that matter, so I personally don’t agree and i find it rather reducting.

Anyway, Take care!

[tumblunni]

ANOTHER REPETITIVE POST! I love Spectacularverse Doc Ock like I love breathing oxygen, ok bye

I mean seriously WHAT a good character design and backstory and personality and just seriously rescuing a critically underrated character concept that’s been varying degrees of camp in EVERY OTHER ADAPTATION EVER and seriously this time he looks even more goofy and cute than ever before yet is also the most genuinely intimidating?? and this dude has had plots about being like an uplaoded conciousness separated from his graphically depicted mutant cancer-ridden body and possessing spiderman, and shit like that, and IT ALWAYS COMES OFF AS CAMP AND BADLY WRITTEN and then they can friggin make me terrified of a four foot tall middle aged office worker with a world’s best evil boss mug. And like FOR ONCE he’s actually shown as being remotely smart, geez, its not just He Can Invent Literally Anything The Plot Requires but he never does any form of badass master planner shit even though he should be able to. THE MASTER PLANNER EPISODE WAS THE FUCKIN BEST. They somehow made the sinister six actually sinister! THEY RESCUED THAT CONCEPT TOO!!

but seriously just fuckin LOOK AT HIM

he’s THE MOST ADORABLE he like.. ACTUALLY looks like a normal nerdy mid 30s or 40s science dude who stumbled into evil by accident. he isn’t just some abnormally ripped generic superhero in skintight spandex with just glasses and a generic bowl cut or curly hair doodled on top I actually REALLY like the redesign of his villain outfit, seriously! Its the least actual ‘villain outfit’ villain outfit. He just pulls on a vaguely practical jumpsuit and swaps out his work labcoat for a comfortable cardigan overcoat thing. HE LOOKS LIKE MY GRANDMA! It works a lot better to have the crazy robot limbs be shooting out from some disarmingly normal guy, and seriously why did he ever NEED to be fuckin buff when he has robot limbs?? seriously this version is like a miniscule adorable uncle being dragged along entirely by the limbs yet he somehow managed to be the most physically orientated incarnation of doc ock because WHY WOULD HIS NORMAL ARMS NEED TO BE BUFF, SERIOUSLY IT WILL NEVER STOP BEING DISTRACTING TO ME And like, the reimi movies were one of the earliest successful attempts at making him sympathetic, but man it was Also Distracting how he was again really kinda ripped but also like supermodel handsome?? he looked like some rich heiress to a french duchy or something. and his costume was all Trying Too Hard To Be Badass with the Fashion Trenchcoat (tm) and like seriously i do like how this version is like a colourscheme tribute to that one while also changing stuff to fit with this version of him and just seriously man i love all the doc ocks even if i’m a critical bastard oh and also underrated but good is how many costume changes he makes, and how they succeed at never changing the way he’s meant to be perceived because of it. Some of his most serious scary moments are with him topless aside from the robo harness, and we don’t get a bunch of ~ha ha fat man~ jokes, seriously this is his INTRODUCTION and as much as spidey quips around its still hella intimidating and really tragic sad. And its happening to this random half-naked Old Dadman wearing nothing but a vest and shorts. oh and the episode where he wore a cool tuxedo!! that was!! really good!! why did it even take place in fancytown if not to give us an excuse for Dapper Ock Day. When your defining concept is being basically a flesh suit dragged along by a robot thing slowly taking over your personality, I dont see why anyone needs to follow ANY ‘rules’ or cliches about what that flesh suit looks like. THE INTIMIDATING THING IS NOT THE PEOPLE PART. Yet somehow in this show it IS, I’m more scared by Nice Dadman’s loss of his humanity than I am of getting stabbed in half by his Nice Dadman Robo Hands

MAN I JUST FUCKIN REALLY ADORE THIS DOC OCK

like just LOOK AT HIM he wins the sympathetic plotline thing way more instantly just because this time HIS DESIGN is also made with that in mind right from the beginning him being a super normal relateable huggable shy nerd with a sad office life and a lil bowtie is all deliberately engineered to NOT ONLY make him relateable and sad but ALSO make him more intimidating?? like, its planned ahead of time to give you this established personality for his pre-transformation self that cameos in a few episodes before it actually happens. So the huge change in his personality is shocking and terrifying and you still know there’s some normal guy stuck inside it all, and really this could have happened to anyone, it could have happened to you! and its just like ONE EXTRA CHUNK OF BADASS ON THE BADASS CAKE that like.. his design.. doesnt change?? he doesnt stop being short + round + cute + traditional shyman design even when the shyman personality pretty much evaporates into eternal rage. You’re still getting your ass kicked by Someone’s Embarassing Dad At The Christmas Party. Its a total abandoning of all ideas of who can and can’t be a superhero/villain and seriously i know its such a minor detail but this is why i love how Spectacular diversified everyone’s body build and stuff. Also, having way more distinct silhouettes makes them more memorable, and makes the characters who’re supposed to be defined by being buff actually look it! but seriously imagine being fuckin rolled in an alleyway by The Most Harmless Dad weilding a giant bioweapon and an interlinked criminal empire of other villains under his control because even in his deranged state he keeps his massive intellect that was never recognised back when he was good ITS SO FUCKIN TRAGIC BUT SO FUCKIN COOL

and seriously HIS PLOT his PLOT his personality, his backstory, his very brief yet really well developed foreshadowing before his origin story AAAA its SO GOOD

I think the best part of it in my opinion is like.. he’s sympathetic but he’s NOT redeemable? Well, he might be redeemable but he never gets a redemption plot, he ignores all his damn epiphanies, and like.. Spidey doesnt even know the poor sod’s backstory so he never even tries, and its REALLY FRUSTRATING but also realistic too He was 100% The Nicest most innocent good natured guy and now he is 100% a villain who never even remotely tries to go down that redemption plotline yet the show keeps it hanging over our head forever as a goddamn tragic thing He was just... a really good guy who did nothing?? He didnt deserve anything?? He just got turned into a monster against his own will after tHE WORST DAY IN HIS LIFE and basically broke and decided to abandon all that goodness in one big moment. And man, I say ‘decided’ like it isnt an intriguingly ambiguous theorizeable constant question of how much of his old self is actually left in there and how much is the arms talking. I kinda like to interpret it as like Spidey and the black suit? Its a shame they didnt take the opportunity to use any parallels when it happened. but like ok SERIOUSLY like.. even the sympathetic Ocks of times past weren’t THIS pure

he wasnt JUST a good guy, he was a really shy chronic doormat who’d been ordered around by assholes all his life and had all his accomplishments stolen and just fuckin DIDNT DO ANYTHING WRONG EVER and manifested his super doom powers not through any normal accident even but from his asshole employer trying to murder him and he would have legit died in the most horrible horrible way. the last we get to see of Good!Ock is his ‘oh umm, sir, I think the door lock is broken’ turning into a horrific realization, and then him fuckin... CURLING UP IN A FETAL POSITION CRYING and “this can’t happen, I’ve been good’ THATS LITERALLY THE LINE like HOW MANY OTHER TIMES have people betrayed this man in his life?? he’s so fuckin buried in respectability politics that its no wonder he went COMPLETELY NUTS as soon as he got powers. he’s spent his WHOLE LIFE being good for NO REWARD, being TOO GOOD and having villains take advantage of him again and again, like no fucking wonder he’d give up on the whole concept of virtue being his own reward when LITERALLY IT NEVER WAS like seriously aside from the part about him inventing a magic super arms suit and his boss trying to murder him this is JUST AN ORDINARY STORY OF CORPORATE AMERICA this is the kind of ‘tragic backstory’ thats completely fuckin normalized in our society all his suffering was just cos of money and academic elitism and terrible employers n shit, his grand reason for becoming a villain is just because HIS JOB IS BAD and its not even SUPERNATURALLY bad until the point where it tries to kill him. its a supernatural sci fi corporation whose worst points are its SUPER REALISTIC BEAUROCRATIC BULLSHIT. And seriously this could have even ended the same way in real life, it’d just be more likely the mistreated employee would become homeless and die on the streets, or collapse from overwork, or something... so seriously this fuckin CINNAMON ROLL WHO DID NOTHING WRONG whose intro episode is ENTIRELY JUST DEVOTED TO CONVINCING US HE’S GOOD AND NOT LIKE ANY OTHER OCK EVER, this fuckin SHY DADMAN THE HUGS with his TINY BOWTIE he gets fuckin destroyed and killed offscreen before spiderman ever even meets him, and we get to see it but he doesnt, and then we enter in at already the point of no return where ock’s decided to never trust anyone ever again except The Machine, and NOBODY IN-UNIVERSE even gets to find out that he was once good!

and i love how the show actually explores the underappreciated flaw of spiderman, that sometimes the people he’s quipping against aren’t really The Mook of The Day but a sympathetic human being who might have been able to be talked down instead. Early on in this show he gets a bit carried away in having fun with his hero job, and makes a few mistakes like this. As well as just times that he did know the villain before they turned, and he’s REALLY trying to help them, but he still fails for other reasons and its just like AAAAA maybe if he had a bit more experience he could have figured out what to do but you know he’s not gonna realize that, he’s just gonna blame himself forever. Spiderman is allowed to have Kind of A Douche Move flaws, yet also be sympathetic and good at the same time?? So good! Its more clearly shown with the Electro episode, I think? Just look at how much more serious he gets when he realizes this isnt like Electro, The Guy Who Donned A Super Suit One Day And Decided To Commit Crime, but Literally Max You Just Met The Other Day, Who Escaped From The Hospital And Is Having A Mental Breakdown In A Public Coffee Shop. Seriously Electro here is really underrated! We don’t get as much time with pre-villainy him and he’s a bit snippy and such, but he was still just a normal good person who fell into bad luck, and he still has this scary loss of personality afterwards. He’s possibly even more tragic than Doc Ock cos there isn’t even any deniability ~ooh but maybe he’s controlled by the arms or maybe not~ and he didnt have a really long backstory that convinced him to change his perspective in life after one big bad day. His change comes out of NOWHERE after that one big bad day, and even he seems really scared and confused about it! Its like whatever the fuck is going on with this magic electricity infection has amplified all his emotions to a point where they physically pain him, he’s suddenly really obsessed with minor jealousy things and seems unable to rationally process them like he was seen doing just five minutes ago. He’s even kinda LESS snippy than he was before, he’s like he can’t even string together a complex enough train of thought to manage it. He goes from a pretty world-weary and down-to-earth electrical worker to like.. uncomfortably childlike, and the series uncomfortably making fun of him for it. I found it very relateable as an autistic person, even though it was 99% likely unintentional, and like.. if it was intentional it would be pretty bad representation anyway cos its like some guy being turned autistic by magic science, but yknow Whatever. Still goddamn coffee shop scene was literally Several Days of My Life laid bare on the screen for all to see, poor goddamn relateavle Electro AND LIKE Not to mention the sensory deprivation body horror aspect, like HOLY SHIT imagine how scary it must be to have to wear this full body armour thing and NEVER TOUCH ANYTHING EVER AGAIN because you’re MADE OF DEATH NOW. Seriously his fuckin turning point was after a day of slowly discovering all the different ways he was Completely Fucked, he just wanted a damn cup of coffee and ended up crying in the starbucks, and then spiderman comes in assuming he’s a villain cos well he looks like a weird electro creature and seriously HE JUST WANTED HIS COFFEE. its like an uncomfortably realistic depiction of a panic attack that some poor guy is having after developing a major disability in an accident. Amplified by crazy lightning powers ruining his brain, and some dumb spider kid punching him while he’s trying to figure it all out. I think this is kinda why I really like the subtle hints of a fatherly relationship between doc ock and him? He’s surprisingly patient with him compared to the other sinister six members, and Electro treats him with a huge amount of respect and admiration he isn’t shown giving ANYONE else! like seriously, his brain meltdown made him think all his old friends were conspiring against him at the slightest misinterpreted evidence, so it says a LOT that Ock is able to actually keep this status as a trustable person in Super Paranoia Man’s brain across two whole seasons. And its kinda adorable how he’s like ‘wow, electro just jumped the gun and misunderstood my plan YET AGAIN’ but at most he just chastises the dude and actually explains what he did wrong. And electro actually does change slightly over the series, developing from this mentorly treatment when nothing else ever seemed to work for him. Tho I mean, its never made clear whether Ock really sees him that way or if its just like ‘well this guy is easy to manipulate if you offer him the most minimal kindness’ which is SAD IN ITS OWN RIGHT! thatd be so depressing cos it’d mean ock is becoming like how osborne used to treat his old self. i prefer to hope its just a shred of his old good guy self relating to Electro’s situation.

and MAN the question of whether doc ock is in control, or the arms! ITS HANDLED REALLY WELL!!! the one thing that bugged me about the reimi movie ock is that its always a bad ‘redemption story’ when the guy never even chose to turn evil, he’s just being mind controlled or something. they made it too clear that he was 100% mind controlled by the evil arms and yet tried to blame him 100% for his actions and then he dies in the end. And seriously, why was he even able to regain control of his senses in the end if he couldnt before? it would make so much more sense if he was a guy who actually made a bad choice in life, saw the consequences, and took the decision to change. THIS IS THE BEST PART OF REDEMPTION PLOTS and like.. the interesting part about Spectacular Ock is how he’s just gone 100% full hog into his evil and expresses no interest in taking any offers of redemption plot. He isnt all divided and doubting because of his old goodness, he legit went from 100% good to 100% evil in one scene. ‘I should sacrifice my own health and confidence and life just to be useful to other people’ to ‘EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING FOR ME. NEVER TRUST ANYONE EVER. GIVE ME THE RECOGNITION I WAS DENIED!’ It sounds like it SHOULD be a jarring change but they wrote it so well that it COMPLETELY works! we dont see the entirety of his life beforehand but we see enough to know that this was his absolute despair horizon and he’s emerged on the other side as someone tragically unrecogniseable. And every single thing about this wildly different new evil personality is ABSOLUTELY derived by something that was already evidenced in his old good one. Its dark reflections of personality traits that were one some of his greatest virtues. And its like.. a deliberate decision on his part to become the kind of villain who’s the opposite of the weak things he despised in himself, cos as much as he’s all ‘dont trust anyone’ now he still blames himself for not being good enough, as if he somehow deserved what happened and could have avoided it if he acted differently. Its a very performative kind of ego that’s critically fragile deep down. And also HOLY SHIT I love how well developed that was as a flaw!! They gave us an actual reason for why Ock could be ‘a genius’ yet still make mistakes when necessary to allow our hero an opening to defeat him. They make him WAY more competant than he ever was before, and now his mistakes stem from an established character flaw so its far less obvious deus ex machina. Its not ‘stupid moments’ anymore, even if its still a genius at some things showing a lack of basic common sense at others. Now its because he loses rationality when angered or insulted, due to the circumstances of his depressing backstory. Just act like mr osborne and all ock’s cool composure falls away. Heartlessly weaponize those memories of his abuser, our hero! (SERIOUSLY THIS SHOW DOES MORAL AMBIGUITY SO WELL)

ok ok ok okay WHERE WAS I oh yeah THE ARMS QUESTION cos seriously it is SO GOOD and its one of the biggest reasons i’m sad the show got cancelled before reaching a resolution. i wanted to have the question answered!! or at least give us enough evidence to draw a conclusion one way or another! Ok so like.. its left TANTALIZINGLY vague whether Ock’s vast change in personality was JUST due to snapping after one terrible day, or if the accident with the arms actually affected his brain somehow. like, we know from other continuities that ‘the arms’s AI is fused with my personality’ is a thing that can potentially happen to a doc ock, but did it happen to this one? Honestly its so vague we dont even know if ANYTHING happened to them in the accident really. Could he have actually taken them off at any time? is his story less about ‘oh god im stuck as a cyborg freak forever, i will take it out on humanity’ and just a guy who stole this bioweapon tech when he decided to become a villain, and is using it normally as intended? Cos seriously when you briefly see him in prison like.. how did they remove the arms? And how did they so easily attatch again afterwards? it doesnt seem like they were stabbing into his flesh like in the reimi movie, just however the spinal attatchment was normally intended to function. Also: another underrated moment! Its a great interpretation to have the arms be something he invented himself as a morally neutral laboratory aide, and never intended them to be a weapon at all. they do seem weirdly battle equipped for simple prosthetic limbs, so it feels like maybe osborne modified his original design because He Is Evil Fuckface In Every Possible Way. Then again you could probably say that stuff like the saw functionality might be necessary when you’re working with building complex robotics n stuff. Anyway, it was cute and creepy and creepycute to see good!Ock just casually using the same Death Arms for ordinary lab work way before he gets his origin story. it was kinda endearing how he seemed to not even realise how unintentionally creepy their design was, he was just super proud and affectionate about this cool invention of his. The awkward handshake with the robo arms!! that was cute!! But then like THE MOMENT. Th e DAMN MOMENT. That was SUCH GOOD WRITING but in light of there NEVER BEING AN ANSWER I kinda wanna spitefully call it bad writing, lol They have that One Scene of (apparantly) prologue good guy ock finally coming back for like 15 seconds?? I was so excited and happy and proud of him?? You see him going through prison therapy and.. ITS HIM!! I cant even BELIEVE how much I mourned this poor guy until they really drew attention to it. He changed so much you legit outright MOURN all the good guy potential he had, and how much he didnt deserve what happened. And then the Fiendish Writers bit is what happens next, you see the cyborg arms acting independantly of him and breaking free of their restraints to return to their master. And then YOU SEE HIM NOT WANTING TO GO. You see him SCREAMING. You see him dragged out a fucking window horror style. And then you see him perfectly calm five seconds later. You get post-reattatchment Ock saying ‘haha i was just pretending to be redeemed, I was just hiding my true intentions while I waited for my robo arms to come back’. But like.. like.. why did he keep the act up even when his plan was complete, then?? He would have no reason to act afraid when the arms showed up! He could just reveal his deception with a fancy flourish and ride his train to freedom. Why did he keep screaming even as he was already out the window and around the corner, with nobody there to be fooled? its just SO tantalizingly vague and seriously FUCKING HELL I wish the creators at least gave the answer in interviews or something after the show got cancelled before the final season. Tho personally my headcanon is kinda somewhere in the middle and fitting with the comparisons to the symbiote and such. i think maybe there is indeed something going on with the arms gaining some degree of sentience after the accident, and fusing with their host to influence them into making decisions they might not have. Tho I also think that this hypothetical machine hivemind isn’t really like the symbiote where it has an active sense of self and is shown being sneaky and manipulating its host actively, with a huge amount of awareness. I just feel like this form of sentience is a pure instinct mess of malfunctioning programming that amplifies people’s obsessions in like.. an eternally expanding feedback loop with no limit and no end goal in mind. Its just ‘PROTECT HOST = ??? = PROTECT HOST MORE’ and ‘UPGRADE UPGRADE UPGRADE’. i think if the arms actually were acting independantly of him then they also actually were trying to rescue him, that would kinda explain why the reinstituted dual conciousness thinks of it that way. i mean, if it’s not outright a sign that doc ock is completely dead and thats the arms talking through him and lying. Cos that would be the more boring option, like I said I prefer sympathetic villains who arent brainwashed and actually made bad choices so they can actually be redeemed of them later. So like, I’m seeing this as like ‘what if you got stuck with a good-natured genie who grants your every wish entirely wrong and will NEVER LEAVE’. His arms AI only intends to serve him, it just... Goes Very Wrong. JOIN THE SINGULARITY, MASTER. You should totally upgrade me very much so I can protect you more. I WILL KILL ALL THE PEOPLE WHO MADE FUN OF YOU And then its similar to the symbiote as like a metaphor for drug abuse, when the drug is ‘power’. Or like.. the potential to have success at the cost of other things. Its not inherantly evil and its not like it takes control of you outright, its just like a thing that amplifies your worst vices and at the same time does damage to your health and is Generally A Bad Decision. Its a temptation to do bad stuff you already had the potential to do on your own. I think if either the arms or the symbiote possessed a genuine 100% flawless good person, they would have no effect on them. But like.. not many people like that really exist, and its not like people who have flaws are any less good. So its tragic that we’ve seen these definately good people who’ve fallen apart under the influence of The Magic Superpower Drugs Metaphor, and like.. Doc Ock and Venom are the tragic story of people who couldnt manage to escape from it and develop out of their flaws like spidey did. And I think maybe Doc Ock is somehow even more tragic because he DOESNT HAVE A CHOICE TO LEAVE. this has just shown that like.. his one decision to metaphorically take the one cocaine has already doomed him. Even though he said no to it the second time, the arms still forcibly reattatched to him, and probably will keep doing that until either one of them ends up dead. Like, its so tragic that he actually seemed completely normal when they were removed?? He seemed to have come to his senses and be working past his issues that caused the whole freakout, with that prison therapy. But NOPE! Tho on the other hand it was also REALLY DEPRESSING in its own way that poor Eddie was still irrecoverably broken even after he lost the symbiote, and then actively sought it out to be reinfected no matter how many times it shows it has no damn loyalty to him and just wants to eat his damn soul and fuck off to the next host. Another reason for good comparative metaphors! It could be a really epic battle between him and venom cos the show could actually clarify a lot of stuff about how on earth each respective symbiosis works, and maybe have like a battle of The Good One vs The Bad One even though both are bad? Like, neutral not-entirely-sentient arms thing that just wants to give its inventor the power he needs to get what he wants, inadvertantly exploding his damn brain into evils. Then we have creepy manipulative love-em-and-leave-em alien with an actual voice and personality and stuff. Yet both equally harmful to their hosts! Comparison time: FIGHT!!

god i have like SO many fuckin ideas of where the story could have gone, i wish i knew what the creators had planned if it wasnt cancelld, god i wish we could have had some damn sweet funky cool resolution for Badass Cute Bowtie Dad and his Doom Squiggles Also electro! give electro more sympathy and development! give him a dad! why did u make me care so much about these villains aaa

[smokeybrandreviews]

Captain Controversy

I saw Captain Marvel earlier on today and, before I get into that review, I wanted to address the controversy surrounding this flick. I thought to include a bullet point in the review directly, but, as I pondered what I needed to say, this thing ballooned into a wholesale rant, so it gets its own, designated, post. If you can’t tell by the copious amounts of media I post, I am a Marvel fanboy. Spider-man is my guy and has been for what equates to most of my life. Stan Lee’s self-insert helped me through some incredibly difficult times as a kid and instilled within me a drive to create. I’ll forever be grateful to the Man. Rest in peace, kind sir. I’ve developed a love for a tone of characters over time, some new and some old; Apocalypse, Laura Kinney, Doctor Doom, Valeria Richards when she’s written properly, and Ms. Marvel. The original Ms. Marvel. Carol Danvers has always had a massive potential that went untapped for me. She’s a powerhouse and disgustingly underutilized. Almost all her arcs, in the past, have been horrible but, lately, I would say right after Bendis began his ludicrously grab-bag run at Marvel, she developed into something spectacular. I remember her character being something great during Dark Avengers, The Heroic Age, and The Mighty Avengers during the early 2000s. Or at least I think they were the early 2000s. It was then that I began to understand the depths this character really had, in the hands of a capable creator. She is Marvel’s Wonder Woman; their nuclear option. Carol Danvers has all the potential to be a breakout star, if she’s written properly. She’s never written properly…

The move to make her Captain Marvel, I think, was one that was natural. The redesign of her suit was necessary considering the pivot everyone has made to more PC and SJW diatribes, though, I think the black and gold color scheme suited her much better than what we have now. The issue I have is that, in trying to build a strong female character, they lost who Carol is supposed to be. The way she’s written in Civil War II is a perfect example. That Carol is a goddamn fascist. While she’s no goody-goody like Cap, she’s still not a complete terrorist. There’s no way Carol goes the way she does in that arc. None. Her newest run, The Life of Captain Marvel, does a lot to fix that image but I think her new origin is a little contrived. Cats just don’t know how to write this chick and I had a feeling the MCU was going to have the same issue. That however, is a story for the review itself, not this post. No, this post is about the unwarranted outrage that Brie Larson brings to the character, herself.

When Brie was announced as Cap, I was skeptical. The Carol in my head was more Katee Sackhoff Starbuck than Scott Pilgrim Envy. I had no idea how Larson, who is notoriously skinny, would fill out ANY version of Cap’s outfits from the comics. Her acting prowess was unquestioned though as ma is one of the best in her generation but all the physicality that goes into a Marvel flick really had me paused. Had Feige finally f*cked up? Would Brie Larson be able to sell being the most powerful being in the MCU after Thanos? How would you translate her Binary mode on film? Hell, how would you translate her power to film, period! Those were MY concerns going into this thing. Apparently, everyone else was focused on other sh*t. Sh*t that shouldn’t even f*cking matter. Brie Larson has been outspoken supporter, vocal advocate, and car-carrying feminist, long before she got this role. She is well aware of her position and privilege, using it to try and make change where she can. Like all Millennials she’s a bit overzealous at times but her logic is always sound. It’s not wrong to want more inclusion in your interviews. Different demographics have different voices. It makes sense to diversify that aspect of promotion. Who cares what a white dude has to say about a Wrinkle In Time? It’s not written FOR them. Sure, that perspective is welcome, but I doubt that movie will mean as much to a 30-year-old white dude, than it does for an 8-year-old black girl. Captain Marvel is not a movie made for me. It’s made for all the little girls out there who wanted to be Spider-Man but couldn’t because Peter isn’t a Petra. Because Bruce Banner isn’t Betty Ross. Because Steve Rogers isn’t Sharon Carter. This movie ain’t for me, but I’m still going to go see it. I’ll still probably love it because I love the characters. Because I love Brie Larson. Because I’m not some entitled white boy watching all of this ridiculous privilege I have which I confuse for masculinity, being challenged a tiny little bit. Brie Larson IS Captain Marvel, whether some, soft-ass, nice-guy, white boy, likes it or not. Judge the movie on its merits, not your stupid, sexist, f*cking preconceptions. It’s not wrong to want inclusivity in a major Hollywood franchise. We need much more of that and I, for one, support Brie for doing all she can, with her little clout, to make that happen.

In short, f*ck off fanboy. This one ain’t for you.

[smokeybrand]

Captain Controversy

I saw Captain Marvel earlier on today and, before I get into that review, I wanted to address the controversy surrounding this flick. I thought to include a bullet point in the review directly, but, as I pondered what I needed to say, this thing ballooned into a wholesale rant, so it gets its own, designated, post. If you can’t tell by the copious amounts of media I post, I am a Marvel fanboy. Spider-man is my guy and has been for what equates to most of my life. Stan Lee’s self-insert helped me through some incredibly difficult times as a kid and instilled within me a drive to create. I’ll forever be grateful to the Man. Rest in peace, kind sir. I’ve developed a love for a tone of characters over time, some new and some old; Apocalypse, Laura Kinney, Doctor Doom, Valeria Richards when she’s written properly, and Ms. Marvel. The original Ms. Marvel. Carol Danvers has always had a massive potential that went untapped for me. She’s a powerhouse and disgustingly underutilized. Almost all her arcs, in the past, have been horrible but, lately, I would say right after Bendis began his ludicrously grab-bag run at Marvel, she developed into something spectacular. I remember her character being something great during Dark Avengers, The Heroic Age, and The Mighty Avengers during the early 2000s. Or at least I think they were the early 2000s. It was then that I began to understand the depths this character really had, in the hands of a capable creator. She is Marvel’s Wonder Woman; their nuclear option. Carol Danvers has all the potential to be a breakout star, if she’s written properly. She’s never written properly…

The move to make her Captain Marvel, I think, was one that was natural. The redesign of her suit was necessary considering the pivot everyone has made to more PC and SJW diatribes, though, I think the black and gold color scheme suited her much better than what we have now. The issue I have is that, in trying to build a strong female character, they lost who Carol is supposed to be. The way she’s written in Civil War II is a perfect example. That Carol is a goddamn fascist. While she’s no goody-goody like Cap, she’s still not a complete terrorist. There’s no way Carol goes the way she does in that arc. None. Her newest run, The Life of Captain Marvel, does a lot to fix that image but I think her new origin is a little contrived. Cats just don’t know how to write this chick and I had a feeling the MCU was going to have the same issue. That however, is a story for the review itself, not this post. No, this post is about the unwarranted outrage that Brie Larson brings to the character, herself.

When Brie was announced as Cap, I was skeptical. The Carol in my head was more Katee Sackhoff Starbuck than Scott Pilgrim Envy. I had no idea how Larson, who is notoriously skinny, would fill out ANY version of Cap’s outfits from the comics. Her acting prowess was unquestioned though as ma is one of the best in her generation but all the physicality that goes into a Marvel flick really had me paused. Had Feige finally f*cked up? Would Brie Larson be able to sell being the most powerful being in the MCU after Thanos? How would you translate her Binary mode on film? Hell, how would you translate her power to film, period! Those were MY concerns going into this thing. Apparently, everyone else was focused on other sh*t. Sh*t that shouldn’t even f*cking matter. Brie Larson has been outspoken supporter, vocal advocate, and car-carrying feminist, long before she got this role. She is well aware of her position and privilege, using it to try and make change where she can. Like all Millennials she’s a bit overzealous at times but her logic is always sound. It’s not wrong to want more inclusion in your interviews. Different demographics have different voices. It makes sense to diversify that aspect of promotion. Who cares what a white dude has to say about a Wrinkle In Time? It’s not written FOR them. Sure, that perspective is welcome, but I doubt that movie will mean as much to a 30-year-old white dude, than it does for an 8-year-old black girl. Captain Marvel is not a movie made for me. It’s made for all the little girls out there who wanted to be Spider-Man but couldn’t because Peter isn’t a Petra. Because Bruce Banner isn’t Betty Ross. Because Steve Rogers isn’t Sharon Carter. This movie ain’t for me, but I’m still going to go see it. I’ll still probably love it because I love the characters. Because I love Brie Larson. Because I’m not some entitled white boy watching all of this ridiculous privilege I have which I confuse for masculinity, being challenged a tiny little bit. Brie Larson IS Captain Marvel, whether some, soft-ass, nice-guy, white boy, likes it or not. Judge the movie on its merits, not your stupid, sexist, f*cking preconceptions. It’s not wrong to want inclusivity in a major Hollywood franchise. We need much more of that and I, for one, support Brie for doing all she can, with her little clout, to make that happen.

In short, f*ck off fanboy. This one ain’t for you.

[atenderlyholystudentus-blog]

For those of you who are watching this that have not played last day on Earth, grim soul survival is a copycat game of that game. It is an amazing copycat game And I'm excited about playing  it, but I'm telling you this because if any of these tips seem too advanced for you, I'd recommend checking out some of my last day on Earth videos. I have videos on how to get each resource in the game and other videos that cover pretty much every concept within the game. I will be putting links to some of those videos in the top right corner throughout this video.  

When you're starting the game, the first question you need to ask yourself is whether or not you want to cut down the trees in your home area. Once you cut down those trees, they will never grow back so if you would like to design your base with trees on it, you need to use those trees.   After killing everything in the area (CLUB), I recommend building 1 pickaxe and then putting your character on auto.  When he is done, you should be at least level 3 which will allow you to build a peasant chest. No one can actually raid your base yet because that has not actually been implemented in the game yet so don’t worry about building walls just yet. After building a sack, I recommend using all of your resources on building storage. Place everything in that storage and leave the area.   An attacked caravan event will appear. This event has over 50 slots worth of items so you want to make sure you go completely itemless and naked.  

Anytime I start a game, I like to look for something in the store that's between 5 to $10 as my way of supporting the developers of that game. If you like to do the same, I strongly recommend spending $6 on the on an adventure package. This will let you start out with the equivalent of a military backpack which you can't actually build in this game until you are level 55, but buying one could obviously make the game more stressful because if you make one mistake, you will lose your entire purchase (beginner tip).  

If you buy the backpack, then you can get all of the stuff from the event in two trips, but otherwise it will take 3. If you have to choose between items, these items seem to be the most important to get early on in the game.  

The first thing you want to build with your loot is a Raven’s Cage. If you grabbed the resources I highlighted, you should have enough to build it. The Ravens cage will engage you in a long series of quests. These Quest will give you crafting points which are needed to craft items. If you finish a quest, leave the area and come right back in for your next Quest.  

After this, you're going to be tempted to run to the various events that pop up. I would advise against going to those events just yet. Events give you great items, but they require a lot of energy and they give you almost no experience. I explain this in more detail on my video on the fastest way to level up. If you don't level up, then you can't build these workbenches. These workbenches are the key to advancing in this game. In my opinion, you are still playing at a beginner level until you build a sewing machine which requires you to be at least level 19. On that note, I recommend building two sewing machines before you build your Stables. Horseback riding doesn't exist in the game yet and you will need those chords to build your sewing machines.  

After you build those, your base can properly function like a Hub for everything you do in the game. At this point, you can do events as much as you would like. I recommend checking out my video on how to summon 4 events each day which is actually five or six events in this game, but the concept is the same. In fact, the reset time for this game is also at midnight GMT just like it is in last day on Earth.  

I recommend waiting to go to the surrounding AI bases until you get the quests for it, but when you do, they have some great stuff. You can’t break down walls yet, but they have a lot of food and materials which makes it worth it. This base has the best loot, this one is good and these two are ok. If you stay too long, enemies will appear. If there are spikes on that base, I recommend using them to kill the knights and Templars. These enemies drop Nails which if you play last day on Earth, you might think that that is lame, but it is in fact not lame. Nails in Grim souls are far more expensive than they are in last day on Earth. Each set of nails requires one bronze Ingot to make. Each bronze Ingot requires a copper Ingot and tin ore to be smelted together. Since Iron, Birch, oak etc. don’t exist in the game yet, this means that currently bronze nails are the highest tier resource in the game. I recommend getting as many bronze nails as you can before they fix this.

As many of you know, I recommend doing everything you can in the green zones, but unless you are building a mega base, you will start to need more copper than what you can get by simply farming the green zone at around level 25. Copper is a bit more rare than iron is in last day on Earth, but the concept is the same so if you are wanting to get a lot of copper ore quickly, I recommend watching my video on the efficacious way to get iron.  

In addition of those, I have 34 more random tips for you guys.  

If it is night, the night guests will appear. I love this addition to the game. It makes farming at night really suspenseful. Currently, no weapon in the game can do damage to him so the only way to deal with him is to scare him off. There are 4 ways of doing this. The first, is to equip a torch. The second is to stand on one of these cryptic symbols which will also scare him off. If you are in a zone, you can also survive by leaving the zone and waiting until day time. And if you are at home, you can go into your house. You can also trap him, but I imagine they will fix that soon.  

Lumber Burns 50% longer than wood just like it does in last day on earth, but I wouldn't recommend trying to maximize this at first because your woodworking benches are going to have trouble keeping up until you are around level 20. After that, I do recommend using only lumber so you don’t have to make as many wood runs.

Eating too much will make you sick and need to throw up which decreases your movement speed by 60% and can put you in a bind if you are fighting so don’t pop too many berries in the middle of a fight.  

Also, hawberries can be used to make a healing drink and I believe hollyberries are used in alchemy. So you might want to hold on to them.  

My favorite healing source is fried leak which heals 30 over time. Their healing system is a little different and in my opinion, amazing.

This game has done a great job of creating a wider diversity of attacks and ranges of weapons. They have also done a great job of diversifying the hit points and armor numbers of the enemies you are facing. This means that some weapons are really good against some enemies, but using them on other enemies can be wasteful. For example, the Cart Thill is amazing against the damned, but are quite wasted on Lepers. Though one might argue they are still good against lepers because their range allows you to kill them without taking damage.  

Taking a stutter step in between attacks will allow you to increase how fast you can attack. I’m really glad they left this in there because it gives an advantage to those who are paying attention versus just clicking it on auto.

Sneak attack only does 2x the damage which makes sense because the halberd has 81 attack and as a medieval fantasy game, I imagine they will have even stronger melee weapons in the future.  

Mining limestone through graves is a fraction more efficient been farming ore deposits, but honestly, it is most efficient just to farm whatever is in front of you.  

Level one walls are twice as expensive that Last Day on Earth, but level two walls are 33% less expensive. Level three walls are a bit more expensive then what they used to be for last day on Earth, but are way less expensive than they are now. In my opinion, their scaling system for walls is very smart.  

You can find maps to both dungeons, but the keys to those dungeons do not yet exist. I still recommend looting the areas because they have some great stuff, but the best thing you can do in the game right now is to build up your base and get an armory ready for when the dungeons do become active.

Horseback riding does not exist yet and it seems like the feeding trough is the new equivalent to the Last Day on Earth gas tank which was not introduced for the first 5 months of that game.

Iron, steel and meteoric ingots do not yet exist. Birch and Oak do not exist yet. Sulfur, Saltpeter, Coal, etc. And of course all of these vehicles do not exist. It seems like ranged weapons of any kind do not exist yet. And just in case the devs watch this video, I hope when you do implement ranged weapons, you will make them hard to use with heavy armor. Like it makes their attack rate super slow or something to force players to use weaker armor thus making ranged weapons not always the best choice. I think that is more realistic, but you do you. I am very impressed with the thought you have put into this game.

To my subscribers, I definitely recommend checking out this game. Almost every change they have made to last day on Earth, I have thought, “wow, that was really smart.” I still stand by my theory that the original game will most likely do better, especially because it seems like Last Day on Earth is getting close to releasing multiplayer, but this game is really fun and I can tell that the developers are really smart. Also, they have a storyline that is revealed through RNG and so far I am impressed.  

Well. That’s it guys. Hope that helps. I have attached a playlist of just the Last Day on Earth videos that I think will be most helpful for this game.

Alright guys, I’ll see you next time.

[kingofbluebell]

Top Physical Anime Releases of 2016

I wish I could spend this entire month making "Best of the Year" lists for 2016, but unfortunately, it would be disingenuous to do so. Most of the media I consumed this year was either older or just not strong enough for me to promote. However, there is a year-end list that is entirely made up of content not released in 2016 I consumed that I can put out: A List of my "Ten Favorite Anime Home Video Releases". That’s an overly specific title, but pedantry is something that comes with the territory. I am by no means an expert in the field of disk encoding nor would I say I’m well versed in all the goings on with the way anime is distributed, this is just a list containing the anime I was happy to see got a release or a re-release this year with a few honorable mentions. I’m also limiting this list to North American releases, only because I have even less knowledge of other regions' anime markets. Since this post is rather long, I’ve provided a list of the anime I’m going to cover here making it easier for you to search for a particular title.

Table of Contents

Shirobako (Honorable Mention)

Maria the Virgin Witch (Honorable Mention)

Otaku no Video

Belladonna of Sadness

Gundam Thunderbolt

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Dai-Guard

The Vision of Escaflowne

Dennou Coil

Only Yesterday

Getter Robo Armageddon

Sword of the Stranger

Shirobako: As impressive as this show is I wouldn't call the anemic release it got this year a must buy. A shame as the release and popularity of Shirobako in the West has aided in the significant change happening to the western anime fandom in recent years. The show opened a lot of eyes to the struggles inherent in creating anime, leading to a greater appreciation of the medium as a whole. I've seen it spur on people already present in a community branch out and diversify the type of content and critique that gets produced about the medium. These claims may be a bit unsubstantiated, but I’ve known a lot of people who after watching and enjoying Shirobako got a fire lit under them to really dive in and give back to the community/industry more than they had before. The knowledgeable and passionate members of our community are creating more content than ever that help breaks down the barriers between consumers and creators that appeared to exist for decades. Slowly we’re coming together to support these fans turned scholars and the medium of anime more and I can’t wait to see what 2017 brings to the table in this way. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, my hyperbolic statements about Shriobako and what it may or may not have done for this community aren't reflected in this two-part Sentai Filmworks release (nor could they ever realistically be). With the show available to stream currently on Crunchyroll as well as Sentai’s oft-forgotten The Anime Network and its license nowhere near close to expiring this is a show you don’t need to run out and buy immediately. Frankly, if you’re still fanatical about the show you probably bought a bunch of character goods or the second pressing of the Japanese Blu-rays. I bought this domestic release an impulse buy because Amazon has decent pre-order discount and I had the leftovers of a birthday gift card. For everyone else who wants to buy I suggest you wait until Sentai inevitably releases a complete series set.  

Maria the Virgin Witch: Another impulse buy, this the result of a Rightstuf.com holiday sale daily deal, but one I’m less regretful supporting early. What pushed me over the edge to buy it is because I am almost certain this gem of the Winter 2015 season will continue to be overlooked. It may be in part due to its title or the fact that a lot of anime fans tend to check out during the winter season. Either way, this show about a witch in an alternate history version of a European conflict is far more engaging and endearing than the one that aired in 2016 (though those are the only similarities between Maria and Izetta I swear). I want to talk about this show for the blog this year, so I don’t want to spoil too much. I will say that you can currently stream it through Funimation or Hulu and with Funimation’s partnership with Crunchyroll I’m sure it will enter their catalog as well next year (which would be a good time to release whatever I’ve written about it). Until then this show is destined to reach Funimation’s S.A.V.E. line in the coming years as a lot of good shows, unfortunately, do in this era of overwhelmingly huge anime seasons.

Otaku no Video: Probably the most impressive complete package I bought this year, Animeigo’s remaster of this classic OVA/Live-Action documentary by studio Gainax is pure shelf candy. I had slept on their remastering of Bubblegum Crisis, but I was enthusiastic in backing their second Kickstarter to give this essential commentary on fan culture the high-definition treatment it deserved. This limited edition comes in a solid chipboard box and includes an 180+ artbook on top of the additional audio commentaries, liner notes and three language tracks provided in the standard Blu-ray release. Though OVA itself looks better than it ever has the documentary, being not shot on 35mm film, looks decidedly more dated but less compressed than it did on the older DVD release. Robert Woodhead and everyone involved deserve high praise for the package they put together, and I would suggest any anime collector to grab the standard Blu-ray copy if they are the least bit interested. While I came from the generation of anime fans that grew after this project, I still find the topics it brings up relevant to fan culture today. There are numerous anime now that star “Otaku” now but the reasoning for almost all of those shows to do so is purely self-referential. The main character/characters are “Otaku” because the writer is one, and it gives them carte blanche to so how genre savvy they are to their majority otaku audience. Very few of these shows tackle the issues brought up about fan culture, and instead the "Otaku" character archetype has become so emblematic that it’s almost become a necessary cliche for a lot of writers to fall back on. So when I see shows that set out to address fan culture it makes me elated to watch. Shows like Genshiken, Welcome to the N.H.K. Comic Party and even Lucky Star to an extent come from a more genuine place. Whether this place is a more critical or celebratory doesn’t matter to me as it does to a lot of other fans and Otaku no Video clear cut between the fun-loving OVA and the far more sobering documentary may turn off some viewers. Sure both halves aren’t as seamlessly melded together as in later series but they are two halves of an essential whole, and I urge you to watch both if you haven't to gain the full experience.

Belladonna of Sadness: I adore this film and relish in its beautiful restoration, but I’m at a loss for words with how to sell it to those not already in the know. Conceptually Belladonna of Sadness your straightforward rape revenge story but its presentation is anything but, not only in the realm of anime but animation as a whole. Belladonna is the final of the three Animerama films made by Osamu Tezuka’s Mushi Productions, a project that aimed to create more adult-oriented animation. It’s by far the shortest of the three films and, from what I believe is due in part to Tezuka’s lack of involvement, by far the most serious. Still, it shares the trilogy's real sense of wanting to experiment with animation on top of showcasing more mature storylines. Belladonna tale is shown through ornate watercolor stills, their elegance worthy of presenting in any art gallery. Despite showcasing limited animation for an animated feature the use of these still images through cinematography manages to make its tale no less poignant. However, in movement Belladonna is a surreal journey unlike anything on celluloid. The closest comparison I have are some of the films of Ralph Bakshi but even the most psychedelic of his sequences appear far more grounded than Belladonna’s phallic parade. The use of color and sound in these moments would be electrifying by themselves, but given the stationary nature of the film these energetic and unearthly sequences stand out even more. Despite all my praise, I understand that not everyone is as willing as I am to watch a 1970s, experimental, anime rape-revenge flick that is made up of mostly watercolor paintings let alone run out to purchase it. Luckily Amazon has it for streaming for Prime members so if you’d like to try it before adding it to your collection or just want to watch something daringly different be my guest.  

Gundam Thunderbolt: In a year where Nozomi was putting out a Gundam release every month, fans of the long time mecha franchise, such as myself,  were downright spoiled for choice when it came to collecting the series on home video. If I was a more die-hard fan I could have made a list consisting of almost nothing but Gundam titles, but I decided to have one release represent the franchise this year. I could have chosen traditional favorites such as Zeta Gundam, 0080 War in the Pocket or Char’s Counterattack. The oft-maligned ZZ Gundam or underrated series like Victory Gundam and After War Gundam X, surprising newcomers in Gundam Build Fighters and Gundam Build Fighters Try are also appealing buys. The glorious trainwreck known as Reconguista in G was at points calling my name to defend it here and if I really wanted to send I could have even chosen the excellent adaptation of Gundam: The Origin which came in some lavishly designed art boxes. However, if I had purchased all of these this year, even taking advantage of every sale and discount possible,  I’d have been downright broke. Besides, I have a much better candidate. Gundam Thunderbolt December Sky, the compilation of the previously released four episodes, is probably the biggest piece of fanservice anime I’ve seen so far this decade. From the action choreography to the mechanical design and fluid animation all nestled in a dour military plot where neither side is the clearly in the right: This is the stuff of Gundam fans' dreams. Thunderbolt demands to be viewed in the highest definition possible, its excellent jazz soundtrack and overall sound design pleading for an appropriate surround system and this minimalistic Blu-ray release doesn't disappoint on that front. Where it does, however, is in the included dub. A dub little to most Gundam fans, especially those willing to import a Blu-ray movie, but after coming off one of the best dubs this decade, Gundam Unicorn, this is a real letdown. I’m sure this will still go over well when this eventually airs on Toonami, but I think this could have been casted a lot better. As of this writing, Gundam Thunderbolt isn’t legally streaming anymore, but hopefully when the planned second season comes out, the original will be made available either through streaming or a domestically released Blu-ray. It may be too much to ask most people to shell out for, but this right here is one of the best looking series this decade. Truly a high point for anime and animation in general. Plus one of the leaflets included in this box announces the Japanese release date for the Mobile Fighter G Gundam Blu-rays, which means they can’t be too far out from releasing domestically. I can’t wait to experience that beautifully godawful dub again, this time in high definition.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time: Shinkai’s first non-franchise film initially came to the West with far less fanfare as his name carries now. Sure there were fans of Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! And One Piece Film 6: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island but the cultural cache behind the director's name hadn’t exploded yet. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time changed that and probably lead to Funimation’s decision to pick up the rights and heavily market his next film Summer Wars, a film which increased his level of notoriety to the point where people began calling him “The Next Miyazaki”. While still beloved post Summer Wars, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time had the unfortunate distinction of being one of the last anime Bandai Visual had licensed before they closed up shop. The film’s popularity combined with the small print run the Blu-ray received lead to massive price gouging on the secondhand market even for the more readily available DVD copy. Having already acquired the rights to Summer Wars, Wolf Children, and the then upcoming The Boy and the Beast it seemed clear to everyone that a Funimation relicense of this film wasn’t far off. In the meantime, many in the collecting community decided to purchase the frankly stunning South Korean Blu-ray set, though others including myself waited for a far cheaper domestic copy. I bought the standard release although Funimation released a limited edition version as well that I hear doesn't compare favorably when up against the previously mentioned South Korean release. Either way, this major film from a now well-established director has finally been made available again so it can reach the wider audience he has now. Funimation’s release comes with a number of extras on the disks the most valuable being the two interviews with Hosoda. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time might not be in my upper echelon of anime films, but it’s certainly one I enjoy on occasion, even with my general lack of interest in time travel and I'm glad to have it back in my collection in an affordable higher fidelity.

Dai-Guard: In this modern era of anime where new giant robot shows, outside Gundam, are infrequent it sure was kind of Discotek Media to redistribute this forgotten title in the genre. Imagine if events similar to those in Neon Genesis Evangelion occurred except that N.E.R.V. was not a ludicrously well-funded organization and instead had a budget similar to many of our real-life underfunded government organizations. Yes, the angel-like, amorphous threat known as the Heterodyne have returned after humanity's destructive confrontation with them twelves years prior but the only weapon capable of defeating them, the robot Dai-Guard, has seen better days. Now used as a mascot for the military Dai-Guard is barely able to make it through a battle without falling apart. This somewhat more comedic take on alien lifeforms set to destroy earth is one of the many things that set Dai-Guard apart from the many anime the share its premise. Unlike a lot of those anime, however, Dai-Guard is piloted by three people and their conflicting personalities and interpersonal stories, along with those of the rest of the 21st Century Defense Security Corporation add a lot of the flavor and weight to the series. The ensemble cast is what makes Dai-Guard more than your average giant robot show and anyone who's been a fan of office comedies, both in and outside anime, in the past decade will find a lot to enjoy here. Dai-Guard itself, while not the most memorable robot in anime history, is well designed and its signature weapons lead to some very well done fights. This show's more light-hearted tone acts as a nice reprieve in between watching more heady programming, for example, I decided to give this show a rewatch after watching Casshern Sins, and it worked wonderfully as a palate cleanser. As always Discotek does an excellent job maintaining the quality of the original release as well as shipping it in solid packaging. The original dub from the ADV release is here and is on par with what they usually produced back in those days. Overall Dai-Guard isn’t the flashiest show, but much like its titular robot it manages to hold itself together to deliver a satisfying punch to fans of a currently underserved genre.

The Vision of Escaflowne: There was and still is a lot of drama in the anime collectors community surrounding the re-release of this well-loved anime from Sunrise. Funimation’s successful Kickstarter to redub the series was already showing warning signs before funding ended and their handling of the aftermath left a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouths. Needless to say, I doubt they’ll consider using crowdfunding again. I was unable to back the project and therefore I wasn’t privy to a lot of the discussion that took place about it. From what I managed to glean, unfortunately, it looks like an actual resolution hasn’t been met which is a shame that will continue cloud this release. Escaflowne was a huge deal in the western anime fandom upon its initial release and while it’s time in the limelight isn’t as constant as its contemporary Cowboy Bebop it is by no means a show that has aged poorly. Sunrise did an excellent job remastering this title in the Japanese release a few years ago, and the show has never looked better. I’m a bit biased toward the style of the show, being a huge fan of Nobuteru Yuki’s character designs since Chrono Cross, and when you add giant robots into the mix, you have a show that hits me right in the sweet spot. Top it all off with one of Yoko Kanno’s most celebrated scores, and you have a series poised to remain a staple in the western anime fandom for decades to come. As far as the new dub is concerned, it is certainly more up to the standards of new anime dubbing than the original, included with Bandai’s release. I never had a fondness for the original, so I can’t say I miss it. Nevertheless, I’ll still be sticking to the original Japanese for this show, unlike so many other Sunrise shows from this period. If this new dub is capable of bringing in more modern fans to enjoy this classic, then I am all for it supplanting the old one. I’m a bit disheartened that due to the new dub Funimation decided to split the series initially like they do with a lot of their newer acquisitions of similar length. They could have charged the combined price and kept everything in one box, but I guess that’ll happen when this show gets reprinted for their Anime Classics line. In the end, I’m for more people viewing this stunning show however possible either through purchasing these physical sets or streaming through Funimation and hopefully Crunchyroll sometime this year. Despite all of the mishegas, I’m glad to add this series again to my collection. However, I decided not to purchase Escaflowne: The Movie. The movie itself is an odd duck, being a pseudo-compilation movie that also alters many characters and events not just for the sake of time. I tend to find a lot of these movies rather substandard, the exception being The Adolescence of Utena which I have grown to enjoy over time and will be pleased to repurchase along with the rest of the series on Blu-ray in 2017. As for Escaflowne: The Movie I may pick it up for the sake of completion but only further down the road when it’s discounted.

Den-Noh Coil: 2016 was going to be the year that I began importing a lot of anime as domestic licensers were either slow or unable to distribute the shows I wanted. Many these series were made available by Australian publisher Siren Visual, whom I’ve purchased from before to get my copy of Welcome to Irabu’s Office. Luckily Sentai Filmworks stepped in to begin distributing a handful of Siren's catalog in Region A including this one (now if only they or anyone would license Monster or Kaiba). Den-Noh Coil had been a show that struck a chord with me when I found it online in 2008 and was one of the big things I shared with my college anime club when I was asked to run nights. I held out hope that the show would officially available in English, but that wish and the little fanfare the show received subsided as the years continued.  It’s a shame the series and its talented creator Mitsuo Iso haven’t become household names, and I’m hoping this late release can help restart the conversation about both. What surprised me most about this release from Sentai Filmwork’s Maiden Japan imprint is that they decided to dub it, and I honestly think it isn’t half bad. I rewatched the first handful of episodes dubbed and while North America’s limited anime VA talent limits it (as it does almost every modern dub) I’d hazard to say it tops Maria the Virgin Witch’s for my personal choice for best dub of the year. Unlike Maria’s I find the dubbing of this show far more important as I genuinely think this is a good show for younger children. The kids in this show look and act like kids and while it gets a bit dark in places there is nothing here that I think would frighten kids more than the cavalcade of horrors I saw growing up watching Don Bluth movies. I also see this show as a good candidate to ease your older friends and family into anime as there isn’t anything here I’d consider objectionable or embarrassing. Besides, a lot of the concepts in this show are moving far closer to the realm of possibility than they were a decade ago. Wearable computers, virtual reality and the omnipresence of technology and how it meshes with where we live are far more relevant topics than they ever were in 2007 due to how tangible all these ideas are to us now especially with kids who grew up only knowing smartphones and tablets. I’m glad I got to revisit this show recently, and I’m hoping more people do in the coming years so I can talk about it with someone. It’s only available to stream through The Anime Network for now but hopefully, some other site (Crunchyroll) will be able acquire it as well.

Only Yesterday: It makes sense that this would be the last of the major Studio Ghibli films to see release in North America. A movie about the growing ennui of a late 20-something business woman isn’t something you can easily sell to kids, especially when there isn’t a randomly inserted fantasy sequence such as with the similarly tonal Whisper of the Heart. Still, as I hasten to reach the age of our protagonist Taeko Okajima I’ve only found this film more relatable and it has managed to climb the ranks of my personal “Ghibli Hierarchy”. There was a lot of buzz around this Disney dub starring The Force Awakens' lead Daisy Ridley, but I can’t say I’ve listened to this one yet. I can assure you that the mixed reactions  I've heard and read from a lot of people haven't affected my decision to do so. My reasoning for not listening to it is rather simple: I don't want to watch a film grounded in 1980s Japan with English voices. The dub is there for those who want it, and if it manages to get more people to see this movie, then it was worth making. Only Yesterday is a fantastic film worthy of placement in your collection alone, but the over 40-minute making-of documentary included in its extra features make it a must buy for anyone interested in animation production or Studio Ghibli.  Not only does this cover a lot of the movie's unique production aspects of the film but the culture of Studio Ghibli at the turn of the decade. Being filmed around Only Yesterday’s 1991 release this is relatively early in the studio’s life, so it’s an excellent snapshot of this period. Being one of Takahata's films we see a great deal of him and his worth ethic both in animation directing and with running the studio, something we, unfortunately, don’t get a lot of due to the cult of personality surrounding Hayao Miyazaki. Of course, Miyazaki is prominently featured here, as well, and this being the early 90s he’s relatively less cynical. Being able to own this documentary that I’ve watched for a number of years is great, and I’m thankful the folks at Disney went out of their way to acquire it again for this release. It's a sizable contribution that makes an already great package truly stellar.

Getter Robo: Armageddon: I tend to have horrible luck when it comes to purchasing old media. Most times I buy something that’s long out of print it gets announced for a re-release within the next few weeks. Getter Robo: Armageddon would surely have been another one of those cases had I not checked Facebook to see Discotek Media’s announcement. I used to show this one as well in my college anime club, and a lot of the folks who were Gurren Lagann fans ate it up. For months I had been waiting for this action-packed OVA to be released in high definition, getting jealous of those who attended summer cons grabbing and early print copies. This gritty, high-octane giant robot show is an enjoyable romp from beginning to end. The remaster not only makes the colors pop, but the improved sound makes all the action scenes for me, that and most of the episodes starting with the second opening HEATS doesn’t hurt either. This entire series scratches that itch for hot-blooded fun and looks marvelous doing it. I’m always happy to support a company like Discotek because time and again they release quality products and Getter Robo: Armageddon is no exception. After the anime crash in the late 2000s, I thought a company like Discotek that only licensed older anime would be a flash in the pan. With every box set and movie, I buy from them I'm reminded how wrong I was in my assumption. Their 2017 lineup is already looking stellar and the fact they announce new licenses almost every other month shows how strong they’ve become.

Sword of the Stranger: You might wonder why I’ve taken a photo of the older Bandai release instead of Funimation’s recent reprinting. This is because despite the Funimation release getting a dub I didn’t feel the need to rebuy something I already owned on Blu-Ray. I’ve heard the dub is fair and the extra features are nice, but neither are spectacular enough for me to double dip so early. Nevertheless, I wanted to bring attention to this great action film’s re-release and if you read until this point in the post you know I’ve already spent my fair share on anime this year so cut me some slack. Sword of the Stranger one of the first names brought up when anime fans want to showcase a great action scene. The choreography the folks at Studio Bones nailed down here is outstanding and worthy of any action showcase. Fans of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood should be elated in finally getting access to this movie again as that series owes a lot to the style of action created for this film. Not only that but the film as a whole is a solid feature: a simple samurai story told well. There isn’t anything revolutionary going on here plotwise, and the characters are familiar archetypes though not to a fault. It isn’t trying to deconstruct its themes and characters for critique. Rather it comes off as a slick action movie that effortless falls into the greater chanbara canon. I appreciate this film's simplistic approach. It makes for easy sharing with friends and family who don’t usually watch a lot of anime. Sometimes all I want is a good self-contained action movie and Sword of the Stranger delivers and then some even a decade later. My only reservation about picking this one up now is that somehow Funimation failed to include subtitles for the Chinese dialogue, something included in the Bandai release I own. I'm hoping that with the release being so recent and the mistake pointed out that it will be fixed in newer pressings and that those who picked it up early can get exchanges. Maybe 2017 will be the year Funimation also revamps its attitude toward quality assurance? Here's hoping because I'd hate for a great film like this to be dragged down by an easily fixed mistake.

By now I’ve written more than enough about the anime on home video (re)published in 2016. Not only that but some well-beloved classic titles have already been announced for release (again) next year. Featuring plenty of Gundam, Revolutionary Girl Utena Blu-Rays, Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, Captain Harlock: Arcadia of my Youth and if we're lucky more popular Sunrise shows. 2017 looks to be an even better year for those of us who relish in collecting disks and I'll be there, my bank account willing, ready to enjoy it.

See you next week.

[motillu]

Interview with Jeca Martinez

https://motillu.com/articles/2018/5/18/interview-with-jeca-martinez

“Creativity is intelligence having fun, so always come from a mindset of play when doing your work, and go create your own artventure!”

Jeca Martinez creates charmingly colorful illustration that move. I discovered her work a few years ago while hunting for illustrators who create electronic greeting cards. I was immediately taken by her sophisticated eye for design and clever ability to create transfixing looping animations. I’m so pleased to share this interview with Martinez where she discusses her identity as an illustrator/animator, her role producing eCards at Hallmark, and what the future might bring for illustrators.

You describe yourself as an animator and illustrator. Please tell us a little bit about what makes your work unique.

Martinez: When I do my bio, I always describe myself as “an animator and illustrator for creative companies looking to add a touch of unicorn rainbow happiness to their projects”. My art and animation are very playful, whimsical, colorful, and a bit child-like, and I think this is the unique flair that I have with my work.

Animation and illustration have historically been two very different marketplaces, but advances in digital technology seem to be pushing them together. What makes an illustrator different from an animator? Is the separation meaningful?

Martinez: For me illustrators are those who create imagery in order to convey a particular story, or evoke a certain emotion in viewers, or serve a specific purpose (taking into consideration the mood, story, or context of the project). Meanwhile animators are those who can bring characters, objects, or any kind of imagery to life through motion. I think it boils down to the artist if they just want to focus on either illustration, or animation, or both, because each field has its own skillset that a person would need to work on. However nowadays I feel like it would be helpful for any artist to be able to diversify their skills so that they can play more with their art, or they can provide more for their clients.

I discovered your work a few years ago because of your animated greeting cards. Can you tell us about the experience working with Hallmark? What is the process like creating an animated greeting card?

Martinez: Well initially I was browsing through their website because I love the variety of creative art styles, and how each animated greeting card can tell a story in such a short amount of time. It was like Netflix for me at that time because I was just entertained watching all these different eCards. Then one time while I was playing with my two rabbits (rest in peace) they cuddled together and formed this heart-shape. Immediately I wanted to make an eCard inspired by my rabbits, in a style that is inspired by Hallmark eCards. So I went and did that, and somehow somebody from Hallmark eCards discovered my work, and they’ve been commissioning me to make eCards for them every since! It’s very much like a “when stars align” series of events because it led to where I am today!

The process of creating eCards for Hallmark varies. Sometimes they have an occasion they need an eCard for, and I come up with some ideas, then they pick one, and then I go ahead and create that eCard from scratch: from storyboard, to character and background design, to the animation (Hallmark always handles the background music and final sound mixing). Sometimes they have a concept in mind, or they send me a storyboard/animatic, and I work off of that while still incorporating my voice to the work. I really enjoy working with Hallmark eCards because of the amount of creative freedom and trust they give me as the artist.

What tools do you use to create your animated work? Is there any technology that you are experimenting with or eager to try out?

Martinez: I’ve been an Adobe person through and through! My most commonly used tools are Photoshop, Flash (now Animate), Premiere, and After Effects. I used to use Adobe CS6 but a few months ago I took advantage of their sale and upgraded to CC, and I L-O-V-E all the new features! As for hardware, I use a Macbook Pro, and a Wacom Intuos Pro tablet. I’m looking to experiment a bit more with stop-motion though because I had a lot of fun with my Inktober project, and it would be a refreshing change in how I do my work. [See Martinez’s Inktober project here.]

Do you think motion is important to the future of illustration (and do you have any predictions for what comes next for the illustration field)?

Martinez: I believe so! There’s just something about moving images that immediately captures attention. Even in Instagram, cinemagraphs (which are photographs with one or two elements moving in a very subtle way) are quite popular. And how people use animated stickers on Instagram stories, or in comments on Facebook. I feel like motion can compliment illustrations by adding that extra layer to the storytelling.

As for future predictions, I’d love to see how artists and designers can play with augmented reality and VR in their work. I could be wrong, but from what I see, I think these technologies might not be as accessible to everyone just yet, or like someTHING is not yet clicking and that’s why these technologies aren’t as widely used by everyone despite already being out for a few years.

Thanks to Jeca Martinez for taking the time to talk about motion and illustration. Please check out her portfolio here: jecamartinez.com

[mibitacora]

WEEKLY TOPIC:  Colors

Presenter: Prof. Paz Fox Designer and Academician, Universidad Catolica 

Date: 04.04.2018

Key Concepts and Key Words:

#Historyofcolors #Colorsymbolism #Colormakingprocess #Colorapplication #Coloreffectsindesign 

Key Questions:

How do we use colors? How do we obtain colors? How do colors affect design? How colors are used as a design element? What are the color application techniques?

Focus of the class:

A brief history of colors

How colors are obtained: natural and chemical processes

How colors are used as a symbol

Color application techniques in today’s world

Color application for design projects

References: Good examples for color application

Highlights of the class:

A brief history of colors

Colors in nature have been one of the greatest accompany of the humans. Since the beginning, it is possible to say that humans were interested in using different colors for their survival and as a tool to express themselves. 

At the beginning, the colors that people could use were very limited: white, black and red. They were using carbons and minerals to get the colors and their hands to paint. They even used bone powder mixing it with animal liquid fat to obtain new colors and tones. 

With the invention of the fire, a chemical technique was discovered: burning the plants and flowers. This led humans to engage in chemical experiments to try new colors. 

The natural and chemical processes to make colors required a certain degree of knowledge of plants, minerals, chemical process and measurements. Therefore, color-making people were seen as magicians for having such a wisdom. This wisdom were being transferred from one generation to the other as a secret. 

The use of the colors:

Ancient Egyptians were widely using the colors in  architecture, medicine, fashion (the clothes), cosmetics, mural painting and etc. 

It is possible to categorize the use of colors in mural paintings in two groups:

Naturalist colors (different colors and tones without any limit)

Religious colors (only 6 strong colors)

Not only in mural painting, in cosmetics and in their scripts as well colors were used with various intentions simbolizing distictive features and Egyptians were not the only ones who had a diversified color application. 

Romans also painted their murals with colors and this were discovered when scientist found the traces of chemical and mineral colors on the sculptures and architectural excavated pieces which are seen as white and yellow today.

The colors were used to mark different classes in the Roman Society. The middle class were using limited tones of green where the high class had an access to a variety of colors and tones and blue was especially spared for the them.

The old texts also reveal the color trading between mediterenean and the rest of the world (only the discovered part).

Purple as an Exceptional Color: Purple color was difficult to obtaing, therefore, was only available to emperors and their family. It became a symbol of power, royalty and reign.

With the fall of Roman Empire, much of the knowledge about color making processes was forgotten but the interest in vivid colors continued. Big traders and discoverers kept carrying spices and color powders and beautifully colored fabrics all around the world. Colombus was one of them. When he arrived at undiscovered lands he found that native people had also different colorants obtained from different plants and animals. 

In Europe these new sources of colors were welcomed with great interest. Alchemists found new ways to produce similar colors and distinctive tones. And thanks to industrilization of the textile sector, color making was taken to a different level.

Color Application in Today’s World

Today we have an access to a limitless color palette in both digital and real world yet our use of color is limited by:

Innate preferences

Cultural norms 

The purpose of the use

In design the choice of color depends on the purpose of the product, service or ambiance and the audience who will view the content. The desired feauture of the color in design is its persuasiveness. Yet, it should also be appropriate for the cultural context and it should address to:

new fashion and trends

age/gender 

personal preferences and experiences

Colors can also function as a tool to transmit a message making use of a very human nature. Our humour and psychology change with different colours. It is believed that colours represent and trigger different emotions. Therefore, they have an informative and expressive function. 

What is Correct Color or Perfect Color in Design?

Do perfect color exist in Design? I do not know. But Prof PAz said that there are some criteria that we can consider before finding the correct color for the design projects:

Expressing ideas y emotions

Transmit ideological or personal information  

Relate to the different expressions

Provoke different situations and forms of being

Evoke reactions

Fundamentals of COLOR CHOOSING in DESIGN

Knowledge of colors and color perceptions

Observation of colors and color applications

Making educated and justifiable choices for the design projects

Use of colors as a message transmission tool (discover its potential)

The majority of the chocies made to buy or not to buy a product depends on its color (be aware of it)

Colors create a personal experience and it may mean different things for different people, consider its subjectivity

There is not a specific recipe that can be applied, creativity is the key

Interaction with the color makes design more visible (interaction is a real deal)

The surfaces and materials are as important as the color itself

Color Choosing Methodology

We need a specific methodology to catch the attention of the user or the viewer by creating coherent and conceptual connection related to the message we would like to transmit.

The steps to follow to choose the right color for your design project as follows:

Creation of the color chart

Definition of basic patterns

Finding an image that represent these colors to add color chart

Practice in the class:

We were asked to pick a photograph to create a color palette (chart) for it with the tones existing in the photo. 

I picked this beautiful picturesque view from the deck. The tones were quite diversified. I love working with natural tones. So I picked some colors from the color boxes. That wasthe most difficult part. Even though there were several boxes full of different colors, you would realize that in fact the same tones were repeated so that was why it looked like there were so many colors. It was hard to find exact blue and purplish brown tones which were  in the photo.

So here are the colors I picked. The teacher said that I had more than I needed. I don’t agree at all. The more choices you have the more reflectıve your palette would be. Of course there is a limit but it is not 5 or 8, that’s for sure. I had 11 colors on my palette at the end.

I organized my color chart with the photo I picked. Teacher said that my palette was not breathing hinting that I should take off some of the tones from the palette. I can let it breathe without having to remove any colors. 

Ta-taaaam. Now my palette looks much better than ever... I am proud of my work though it was not one of teacher’s favorites. :D :D :D :D

REFLECTIONS and QUESTIONS for further investigation:

I loved how the teacher said that gettıng to know colors and dıfferent tones depended on the traınıng of the eye. I always thought the same. Some people are classıfyıng the colors ın a very generic way and I am like, don’t you see that this green is different than the other green? Not many people is aware the differences between the tones. I believe that designing a product and choosing a color for it first requires a very well trained eye. Because every color, every tone has a different character and different messages. 

I really appreciate the opportunity to listen to Prof. Paz Cox and being able to have a little practice with her. Unfortunately, I should also add that, I am a little bit dissappointed because she has not mentioned the future of colors or smart colors or color changing materials in intelligent design. I believe that it would have been really eye-opening if we had had a conversation about the future of the colors and color application in design.

Disclaimer: The first image in this post was taken from GoogleImages and may be subject to copyrights.

[deadpixldot-blog]

So Injustice 2 is The Best Fighting Game Ever?

Post by Kevin Colòn

If you haven’t been playing Injustice 2 that’s understandable. There’s a lot of games on the market right now, you may not have the time, maybe work is really stressful right now? The game hasn’t been out for TOO long so you can definitely catch-up, you’re just missing the best fighting game of all time and I can’t let you do this to yourself!

Now I’ll be quite frank, my opinion (if you haven’t been able to tell) is going to be pretty biased with this article. Way back when Injustice: Gods Among Us was first released I practically hot glued myself to my PlayStation 3 console. I learned combo after combo, completed the story mode in a Mountain Dew fueled all-nighter the night of its release, and almost 100% the game’s trophy list before putting the game down a good year or two later. I’ve honestly plugged more hours into Injustice’s first iteration than I have into breathing (or fine dining- brownie points for anyone who understands my joke there).

Though I may be reviewing Injustice 2 with “beer-goggles” I don’t want to take credit away from how amazingly good the game is despite my clearly influenced opinion. I wasn’t paid by Netherrealm to write about how much I love their latest project, I just felt compelled to do so after playing it, which speaks to how good this game really is.

Nowadays there are a lot of games that introduce what I like to call a “What The F***” jump in graphic quality, and Injustice 2 is definitely one of those games. About 2 seconds into the story mode the incredibly detailed facial animations become evident and really show you how much time and effort was put into creating this masterpiece of gaming awesomeness. What really surprises me is how well the facial animations hold up throughout the in game fights and character dialogues. Put the game under a microscope and you’ll have a hard (if not impossible) time finding animation errors whether it be through facial animations or just how the characters move about in general. As far as super-powered, overly-exaggerated, not-at-all possible body movements go, the DC cast animate ridiculously naturally.

Then there is the amount of detail that went into designing their faces all together. It’s a video game, and, they look like… real people. Facial features are way more profound and I’d have to question the intellectual capability of someone who wouldn’t be able to tell two characters apart in this game. Even if they didn’t know who Superman or Black Adam were and they referred to them as “those really strong guys” they’d still be able to choose them in a line-up if one of those “strong guys" stole their wallet.

It’s hard to really drive a point home about the design of the characters given Injustice 2’s new gear system. If you don’t understand (or care in which case HOW DO YOU NOT CARE) the system, essentially every character in the roster has an enormous variety of gear which can be equipped to them to improve their stats or grant them new abilities. It’s an interesting system. With that being said it does come with its pros and cons.

Pro: Some of the gear looks f****** awesome!

Honestly you should just look at some of the gear options that are available for characters like Swamp Thing and Red Hood. Practically anything you unlock for them looks amazing!

Con: Some of the gear looks f****** stupid.

This bullet point on my venn-diagram of opinions may be a bit harsh. What I’m trying to say is, there are some characters who’s gear choices don’t really make them look any better. My prime example would be The Joker, who’s gear basically equates to some hats, face paint, and hair-cuts. Ultimately, boring as all hell.

Pro: Some of the abilities are f****** awesome!

You can unlock "double-batarangs” for Batman, a mini-gun for Green Lantern, and a staff for Robin that adds a whole new move-set to his arsenal. They’re pretty damned cool.

Con: Some of the abilities f****** suck.

You can unlock an ability for Catwoman where she literally summons a cat and it attacks your opponent. There’s even a trophy/achievement that revolves around using this blasphemous move. Atrocitus is in this game, and his Cat (Dex-Starr) is a Red Lantern that can shoot energy beams. Catwoman summons a normal domesticated house cat that scratches you. Not to mention that the majority of the cast, you know, her opponents, are either metahumans or possess some sort of mystical powers. Superman and Supergirl can shoot lasers from their pupils, Black Adam throws lightning around like it’s going out of style, The Flash can travel at the speed of light, and Catwoman brought a cat. Okay I’m getting carried away now I feel it.

Pro: Different abilities help vary gameplay and keep fights from becoming stale overtime.

Now this may not be true if you’re a hardcore fighting game fan, or Catwoman. However for the casual player the option to diversify your moveset at the drop of a hat and instantly change the way you can use your favorite fighter against your unsuspecting friends is the kind of thing dreams are made of.

Con: Using this gear online f****** sucks.

It doesn’t always suck. Some abilities hardly effect gameplay. However here’s the scenario you’ll usually end up in when you jump into Player Matches online in Injustice 2.

When playing online matches in Injustice, unless you choose to play Ranked Matches you’re opponent will have to agree to play in what’s referred to as “Competitive Mode” which will de-activate your gear’s effects and make them purely cosmetic. If they don’t agree then you’ll be pitting your geared up superhero (or supervillian I’m not here to judge) against theirs. With that in mind…

Scenario 01: Your opponent has better gear then you. Their stats are higher, they’re wearing pure gold practically and they came to party. They notice your gear is, shall we say, not up to par. They refuse to turn competitive mode on. Good luck.

Scenario 02. You have better gear than your opponent. They realize this and continuously toggle the option for competitive mode on and off and refuse to choose a stage hoping they’ll influence you to meet them half way and turn off the gear.

The problem? Both of these scenarios involve the same type of player. Lets label them the “Beloved Statistic” or “B.S.” for short. *UPDATE: As of Red Hood’s release  there have been a multitude of players in player matches refusing to turn on competitive mode due to the fact that Red Hood has an ability that opens up a lot of combo potential and they refuse to play without it. At least in Ranked Matches they’ll have no idea what to do without it. _

So essentially the gear is going to elicit some mixed reactions from gamers, but overall I’m happy with it.

There is the inclusion of the Multiverse which presents players with different challenges to complete. It’s a welcome addition to the single-player experience that fighting games have been thankfully trying to enhance in the past couple of years (you can thank Netherrealm for that too by the way)! The challenges update constantly and provide a decent challenge depending on how unfamiliar you are with a certain character. I have found that if you use your best character, nine times out of ten you’ll complete any challenge in no less than 15-20 minutes, and that’s if you’re struggling.

The story mode is FAN-F******-TASTIC! I won’t discuss what happens because I am a man who appreciates not spoiling things for other people, but trust me it’s great. It may be a tad bit predictable but it sure is entertaining. It’s also a great way to get acquainted with a good half of the cast. Emphasis on the word good, because you won’t be using the villains very often, but you will get to punch their faces in so you take what you can get.

There is also an AI Battle Simulator mode which I play as an easy way to unlock gear but aside from that doesn’t offer much in the entertainment department. In this mode you designate three characters on your roster to act as your “defenders”. With their newfound responsibility they will face AI opponents (designated by other online players) who will attack them. If they win you’ll get a Golden Motherbox which has a high chance of containing epic loot. If you lose you’ll receive a Bronze Motherbox which usually will grant you gear that you’ll most likely trade in for gold later on. These rewards will only last for your first 5 matches (attacking and defending separately) every day. So while it’s an easy way to try an obtain gear. You won’t be investing hours into this mode.

“That’s all I have to say about that.” - Forrest Gump

All in all Injustice 2 is the fighting game all/most/some of us have been waiting for, and you are doing your country a disservice if you are not playing the living f*** out of it. I’m not big into giving scores when I review things but whatever score method you like the most, Injustice 2 gets a perfect score.

If you ask me at least.

Which you didn’t.

But you read the whole article and that’s on you.