#i can visualize how and it doesnt translate

[cozymochi]

Okay gen question, how are you so good at anatomy? like I know its a mix of years of practice and experience. Mayhaps you can spare some tips on how ppl can improve theirs? Always looking forward to your works btw! Even the scribbles you think aren't decent are always such a nice treat to see <3

It being drilled into my system years ago in a drawing class specifically for that 😭 Then a character design class the next semester that added on top of it. BUT FOR CARTOONSSSSS (I have not accomplished anything in my life to utilize any of this.)

My main point of knowledge reference is this book though (OMG FREE INTERNET ARCHIVE PDF? Yes. Though I personally have a physical copy.) We didn’t really read the walls of text so much as just practiced the proportion stuff in the early pages ad-nauseam and some skeletons (not hyper detailed ones just making sure bones were where they should be). Tho admittedly I’ve been neglecting any studying. (This book came out in 1943 brrgh) DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I HAD TO DRAW THIS DIAGRAM? MORE THAN ANY PERSON SHOULD.

But hey, it works. I still sometimes end up referring back to it if I think I’m sucking (disclaimer: i think this often )

As far as I’ve come to know, how something looks visually doesn’t matter so much long as basic proportions are correct. Cuz even people without trained eyes for this sorta thing can recognize when something is proportionately wrong. Like, I guess on you know where everything is supposed to go, you can kinda do anything from there?? I think. It translated well when we were drawing real people who were not the “ideal” presented, and when moving to more stylized stuff with their own rules in a completely different course. So what if that leg doesnt look exactly like u think a leg looks anatomically— IS THE KNEE IN THE CORRECT SPOT? Yes? Then u did it.

Also that eyes are in the center of the face. Not the nose. JUMPSCARE!!!

Aaaa, this isn’t really an interesting answer. If I ever figured out better streaming outside if private discords I could probably make my points better rather than pulling a “here’s a textbook, figure it out” CUZ ITS LIKE. ITS OVERWHELMING WITHOUT A GUIDE AND 😭😭😭

I don’t know. I don’t think I have ��anatomy” correct, just “proportions.” Cuz I wouldn’t be able to tell you what something is, just where something goes. Which… I think is a little more important and also a distinction I don’t really see anyone making in drawing.

Though, as much as I wanna be helpful in a more effective way, it’s really really really hard for me to articulate how anyone could improve theirs if I don’t know what the alleged problem areas are 😭 I find all this stuff to be case by case. I kind of do better if i can directly point things out and offer info from there instead of blank slate tips. If I ever figure out streaming outside of private discords it would probably be easier (literally doesnt own a functional up to date enough computer)

I guess focus less on “anatomy” and focus more on proportions since that does more of the heavy lifting? Unless ur a med student, then you probably should focus on anatomy

someone could die because you couldnt identify their coccyx

OKAY THATS IT THANKS AND SORRY

[thewildnopeboat]

Since I'm a dumb fuck and don't know how to draw, I legit collage/cobble together what I think shit should look like, then outline that bitch. Like with the Rosa art, which in total, took over a year to finish because I kept trying, but failing due to my lack of skills but love for the craft, (first was simple free hand art, then I said fuck it and did it)

I use this in order to make shitty thumbnails or memes for my discord/dnd sessions.

I am threatening to use this abuse of technology to make even more shitty art.

You will know no peace, only shitty and still drawn art.

[imustbenuts]

nuts reading trigun in japanese 5 - vash is. super good with kids

disclaimer: more triangulation purposes etc etc

so i mentioned before in my part 3 that the japanese language has an inbuilt hierarchy quirk to it. and i kind of noticed this nuance getting somewhat lost in the english translation, either because again i have skill issues with english, or that EN inherently doesnt come with the same quirk.

elaborating a bit more: this hierarchy of position/standing can be determined by age, profession, occupation, and experience. in terms of hard priority, age and profession tends to take precedence over everything else.

this means effectively, vash being over 150 should be top dog and given respect in JP/Asian context (respect your elders! or else!!), but because he 1) looks 24, 2) uses very immature speech with strangers, 3) uses boku, hes effectively keeping his head down and posing as a dumbass schmuck.

ヴァッシュの兄貴　行っちまうのか！？ Big bro Vash, you're leaving?! (兄貴 = aniki = big bro but informal and can be used for no blood relations)

so schmucky that he has no problems handling children. in fact, in the JP version during his departure on the sand steamer, the kids call him Big Bro Vash. twice! so he's earned their adoration in no time flat.

ヴァッシュの兄貴—ッ Big Bro Vash!!

leaving the translation like that ^ wouldnt flow well in english, so rip. also. cute scene.

and yet his meeting with Kaite is chaotically bad to say the least. i mean, he even gets drugged and knocked out. Kaite does not respect the guy who gave him food at all and plans to seemingly feed him 3 meals a day for the entire trip. so how? well.

once Brilliant Dynamites Neon comes in and turns things serious, Vash's starts doing a few interesting things.

skipping forward this and that. after getting almost blown off the sand steamer, vash holds onto kaite and they both cling on for dear life:

もうちょっと登れば通風口があるよ mou chotto noboreba tsuufucou ga aru yo If we can climb a little higher there's a ventilation duct そーか　そーか　今行こうすぐ行こう souka souka ima ikou sugu ikou Okay, okay, let's get going right now!

added romanji and color to highlight how vash is repeating phrases in his line. the そーか　そーか souka souka and 行こう 行こう ikou ikou repeats are there as if to 1) make himself sound immature, and 2) to reassure kaite that things are under control.

only touching on the bottom right panel. another possible reading of that line:

助けて頂いてありがとうございましただろう Situations like these are where you should say "thank you very much for saving my life" instead!

はいそーでした!!!

Now say it!!!

he's chiding kaite and doing the very asian adult thing of teaching the youngin manners in terms of tone. but in a stern funny way no offense taken way bc, as you might have noticed...

vash is deliberately putting himself on the same level as a kid. in tone in standing in speech. hes not being condescending. hes not lording his status as an adult over a child. (something something christ like but in the context of jp... hehe.)

this is ultimately what gets tough nut kaite to trust vash to get down to business to defeat The Neon. even without the words hes visually getting himself to be on the same (eye) level with kaite. i think its so good alsdjfdsa

kaite starts crying after thinking of his dad and regretting what he's done, gets caught in a regret reflection loop, but vash brings him back to reality. like this:

な に を 感 傷に ひ た って る か な こい つ は

another reading of this "What the hell are getting all sentimental for now ya brat?!" line might be "What. Good. Is. It. To. Lose. Your. Grip. On. Yourself. Now. You. Dummy?!"

with this he puts kaite's head back into reality and readjusts both their priority.

so again. vash just. is good with kids. his emotional intelligence is through the fucking roof as proven by all the other moments throughout tristamp and trimax*

idk its warms me bc. the asian confucius hierarchy is so... yuck. im technically of chinese descent so i know how fucked it is. so. vash is really cool with this slightly extra japanese asian hierarchy context.

i think this aspect of vash is something i dont see in english fanworks a lot, and not in the same tone. on the other hand, i do see this a lot in the jp fanworks. so idk exactly what factors or if im looking in the wrong places, but yeah. vash is good with kids. just like wolfwood.

again, studio orange understood the assignment and gave some of that dynamic here to Tonnis.

are they called studio orange bc im meant to squeeze stampede for all its worth or what. stampede is actually incredible to me im in awe.

bonus:

the jp version of the left text says roughly:

"I'm cursed!! I must be! By either the reaper or a god of misfortune and or more!!"

yeah he specifically says Shinigami and Binbougami. i dont think that would translate well in en bc this kinda throws the catholicsm theme into a bit of a tailspin LMAO. (also. the Ore here. note the context.)

[nekumiho]

persona 3 reload came out yesterday so Naturally i was obligated to finally do a finished piece with my silly velvet room attendants submas au. alt versions, lore info, and misc doodles under the cut o__o (attendant related p5 spoilers mentioned). also sorry for the eyestrain.

protags they attend to are Fellow Twins hilda and hilbert who always just get referred to as 'passenger(s)'. velvet room manifestation is the inside of a subway car, no i havent worked out what that symbolizes to hilda and hilbert, dont worry about it. but i think whether its visibly in motion or not wld depend on the protags' mental state, one side of the windows for hilda and one for hilbert. mostly dark empty with no visual movement outside the windows w/ maybe a flickering station light somewhere or a visibly blocked tunnel for when theyre feeling stuck in life, default would be like a well lit platform outside of the window with faceless shadow people walking around, how crowded it is depends on their progress with social links. high speed through the tunnels with their half of the car rocking violently when there's high stress super dire stuff going on, steady movement when theyre making progress with something, etc etc

their brassards HOPEFULLY translate to 'down' (χάμω) and 'up' (πάνω) in greek??? i wanted smth like caroline and justine's hats but also not The Same and uhhh yknow. persona 3 and greek mythology are pretty :handshake:.

i dont wanna steal margaret's eldest sibling clout so i think physically ingo and emmet would be younger than her but only barely. margaret is literally the only attendant i can see being physically over like 35 and i need sbms to be mid thirties at like the bare minimum. theyre highkey disturbed whenever lavenza willingly splits herself back into caroline and justine. weirded out by the other 'twins' in general bc they're not even Real twins. they gatekeep being twins. if anyone asks "so are you guys also just two halves of one person" it will be the most offensive thing you could ever say to them. elizabeth and emmet bully theodore together. ingo doesnt dislike theodore but just kind of forgets he exists because the twins are always being like "my brother, [name] (pauses and remembers theodore), i mean, ONE of my brothers,"

emmet is very :handshake: with elizabeth while ingo is very :handshake: with margaret. they both have their own fave sisters whoops. (sorry lavenza). in any sort of 'dancing game' scenario theyre both awkward as hell. very theodore core in general with emmet having some of the elizabeth vibes of just 'i am just never going to stop making random jerky body movements' ingo is a BIT more stiff. but like in general i think theo's way of life and elizabeth's aria of the soul have pretty good ingo and emmet vibes respectively. if i ever learn model editing beyond texture replacement its so over for my mmds.

i love igor dearly but i think since there are Two of them they can kinda handle stuff on their own while igor helps with Other persona protags in their respective rooms? emmet says shit like "YEAH FUCK IGOR THIS IS OUR LINE!!!!!!!!!!!!" and ingos like "emmet be nice thats still our boss and the only reason he let us be in charge is because hes busy".

ingo handles all persona fusion stuff and emmet does storage/organization/other misc stuff and gives you p3 elizabeth styled quests. they can both be social linked because i say so. emmet is justice arcana and ingo is judgement. emmets quests are the only way or at least the main way to increase your social link with him and if you dont finish one of his Special Request ones you lose your link with him. one of the special requests is to take him and ingo to see a real subway station 100% because theyve never seen one.

of all the other velvet rooms, they like the p4 one the most because the inside of the limo is the closest to the subway car they're familiar with but i think theyd like the p3 one too for the possible rocking motion of the elevator eternally going up

thats all i can think of right now i THINK thats everything??? so heres an original concept sketch,

and also a funny emmet quest moments doodle

oh yeah emmet really fucking loves jack frost because they have similar vibes. ingo, on the other hand, is a big pyro jack fan.

[gwaaaaar]

breaking my silence...

whoever told me the second half of death note was trash... YOURE WRONG YOURE WRONG YOURE WRONGGGGGG 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣 MELLO AND NEAR ARE WORTHY SUCCESSORS TO L YOURE JUST A STAN!!!!

near... sweet jesus baby they didnt deserve you !!! I was so pleasantly surprised to see how distinct he was despite people calling him "white haired L". LIKE hes a lot more cautious than L but isn't above being a sarcastic little shit and actively causing problems... i read a fan translation and he uses a lot of cuss words to refer to certain people he dislikes. I dont know if thats in the official translation as well but i do like the visual of this 7 yo saying "asshole" and "dickhead". I know hes 17-18 and this is average teenage behavior but gah hes so cute and moe and make little "vrooooom" noises when playing with his toys... 🥺 cant help but stan. Hes in his zone unbothered...

AND THE FACT HE CHALLENGES LIGHT IN FRONT OF OTHER PEOPLE SO BLATANTLY... no mind games no time for light to make his next move just fuck it we ball. Also very fond of the scene where he drops hundred dollar bills off the SPK building. He's unpredictable just like Mello is but in a different way and its fascinating i love this guy. Also enjoy the fact that his flavor of justice is that he doesnt really have one hes just doing his job. The verbal beatdown he does at the end about how lights just a crazy serial killer... GET HIS ASS NEAR !!! Hes not pretentious and its just... its just good you know? L wasn't very pretentious but he does call himself justice sometimes and stuff along the like(?) Near drops all pretense... cant help but stan

Also really fond that he actually likes mello its just mello doesnt like him... I know canon never explicitly states their relationship with each other, like if its a brotherly relationship or not (altho isnt there some cain and abel parallels??? Not sure). But i really do see a siblinglike relationship between the two. Canon doesnt really put any angst on their relationship bc near doesnt care lolol, but the two do remind me of certain siblings that have a strained relationship because of the pressure put on one of them (or on both. Again fuck wammys house all my homies hate wammys AND WATARI!!! ME WHEN I GET YOU!!!) I really would love to see the two interact... and maybe just be happy by each other/pl. Because god it really terrible to see how much mello hates near and its not even nears fault :,). AND FUCK THE CHOCOLATE BAR HE EATS AT THE END TO HONOR MELLO???? STOPPPP IM GONNA CRY... near the man that you are... they dont deserve you baby...

And smello... mello mello mello... I've heard more positive things about him compared to near bc hes more "interesting" and i can see why people take that angle BUT. God they still undersell him so much??? I feel like hes one of the few characters to have a goal besides catching Kira (or not getting caught) because of his inferiority complex. I do not mean to undersell any of the other characters when i say this because theyre all very complex! They all have their driving goals and the like. Its just that i argue that Mello's is more persistent and that it is not centered around the conflict but rather himself. Even if he caught Kira perhaps he would still never be happy with himself because Near is always "going to be better" because of the shit he went through in wammys. Theres a whole discussion to be had abt the ethics of wammys house... but ill save that for another post wwww.

Mello is also someone that isnt pretentious about his idea of justice bc hes a fucking criminal. (BTW i love the two opposing sides of the successors... one that tries falling within the law but still doesnt give a shit and the other that doesnt give any shits at all and eventually helps the law.) And its so... I LOVE YOU RUTHLESS CHARACTERS I LOVE YOU CHARACTERS THAT STOP AT NOTHING TO GET WHAT THEY WANT.

And the thing is ... Mello does have his own sense of justice because its not as if he sacrifices innocent bystanders to get what he wants he just does what is necessary. LIKE ofc its fucked up that he kidnapped sayu (and traumatized her...), takada (and the stripping... but at least she got a blanket:,) honestly tho id blame that on the misogyny of the authors) and the director of the police im not about to be a mello apologist (yes i am/j). But a. He probably knew no one was going to get hurt in the first place because hes just that damn confident. b. His remorse for matt and soichiros deaths show that he doesnt intend on sacrificing anyone and when things go astray it saddens him a little. And c. THE FACT HE PROBABLY KNEW HE WAS GONNA DIE AND STILL SACRIFICED HIMSELF TO HELP NEAR... near would "win" but mello prioritized putting kira behind bars and while i cant guess his motive, from my end it does seem like in extension he prioritized doing the right thing, which would be to sacrifice his life and pride to help near get the final piece to catch mikami... wow what a man im so deathly ill

After typing all this, i must say... is L really as complex as years of DN fans have said?? I think im about to get crucified for this opinion, but legitimately is he??? I think he is complex most certainly just... maybe not as much as others have said... i might just be missing details about his past + lore from external media so maybe thats why i have this opinion. But i feel like the successors *are* toe to toe with him despite their split screen time... idk tho :3 this is just my thoughts meow

[rontra]

My hand never seems to actually translate the ideas that are spinning up in my brain. how do you get it all out? any advice? just draw more? do i need to use more references? your art is just so beatiful you are one of my top inspos.

ah first of all thank you very much! i'm honored! 😳

(long post incoming lol)

to answer the question though, i don't think i sufficiently translate what's in my mind and i frequently let myself down! but it's important not to let that Stop you. i think overall it's sort of multifaceted and different for everyone--theres no single answer i can give you that will guaranteed work for you--but for me personally i think it mainly comes down to Derangement, DISCRETION!!, Discipline, & Diet

before i say anything more though it's important also to remember that making visual art (in our case drawings/comics) is training like 2 or 3 separate skills (depending on how you divide them). the HAND represents your current drawing ability & technique; what your drawing hand is physically able to produce when you set pen to paper. the BRAIN is the creative engine that cooks up your ideas and thinks of ways to assemble them. and the EYE represents your ability to recognize what art looks like and how it "should" look. when your brain is thinking of ideas and your hand can't capture them, that is not because you're "bad" at it: it means your eye skill is currently outpacing your hand skill. your ability to discern art, to see things like proportions and anatomy and composition and whatever else is going on, is currently stronger than your ability to draw them yourself. this is not a flaw. this is not a flaw. this is not a flaw!!!! but it does mean your hands' ability to capture what your brain has imagined will let your eyes down until your hands catch up. once they do--by studying, practicing your technique, using references, and gaining confidence--your eye skill will then begin to outpace it again. this cycle, the dance between the two skills, is why you might sometimes feel yourself suddenly "getting good" at art, then just as suddenly plateauing or "getting worse"; you are training different parts of what makes art happen. there is nothing wrong with this. you are improving even when it doesnt feel like it--even when it feels like THE LITERAL OPPOSITE is happening. because you're improving different skills!

(and of course as your eye skill develops you will look back at previous stages of development and go "HOW COULD I NOT SEE HOW BAD THIS LOOKS!"--and yeah. that's the thing; you probably, rather literally, couldn't see it! you only think it looks bad now because you've improved your "eye" skill. you should try to be proud of that feeling, even though it also likely sucks and is embarrassing to you at the same time. there's posts, even recent ones, that i go "i cant believe i thought that looked OK enough to post PUBLICLY" and it is embarrassing for me! but all it means is that i'm better at what i do now...so it doesn't get me down too badly. you gotta shrug that stuff off.)

with that out of the way, my four evil councilmen are as follows:

DERANGEMENT: find something you are not normal about. this can be anything (whether it's a topic that interests you, The Character, a medium, a damn color palette...anything!), as long as it captures your mind and motivates you to create. your brain should be spinning up ideas like crazy and your only choice is to draw them. because once you have Derangement the only thing that feels worse than Making Something Subpar is sitting around Not Making Anything At All. you should be interested in what you draw. you should ideally love it, even if you don't love your own art yet. once you know what motivates you, let that simmer until you have no choice but to draw even if you're scared it'll turn out bad. and hey--there will probably (unless you become some kind of Art God) always be parts you think should've turned out better in some way, however:

DISCRETION!!: realistically nobody NEEDS to know what parts of a piece you're unhappy with. it's valuable to have friends/art partners/mentors/whatever that you can comfortably check in with and go "i dont like [part], what do you think" and get feedback, but that's for YOU. for the audience at large, maybe people will notice, maybe they won't, but as an artist you are constantly growing and you will very likely be constantly looking back at past pieces (even just days or hours old sometimes) and going "what the hell was i thinking? how did i not see [error/s], or why didn't i go for [different idea/finish/color palette/etc]?". getting hung up on this will probably either light a fire under you or demotivate you completely depending on your particular brain soup. for me it can go either way depending on where i'm at in my current hand/eye development phase. but i try not to fixate on it. it's enough to observe it and take notes for next time. every drawing is part of your growth and you have to make wonky art in order to occasionally make something that satisfies your eyes. in the meantime, don't beat yourself up or put yourself down. you are gaining experience and technical know-how, and spotting things you'd like to work on for next time; especially if you're sharing this work and other people are telling you they like what you made, there's no need to undercut this by dwelling on the rough parts so much that you can't enjoy it. the important thing is that you made it.

DISCIPLINE: you made it, it's done, now make something new. do it again from the top! you're right: Drawing A Lot is absolutely the key to Drawing Better. it is also usually an evil curse that reveals How Bad You Drew 3 Months Ago. but you have no choice, if you want to hone your skills and improve the Brain Image -> Art Image translation. you have to do it even when it sucks. do it bored, do it scared, but you have to do it or you'll never get anywhere. when improving yourself, you have to draw a lot to see change, and this is the part that sucks, right? feeling like you're not really getting anywhere or like you'll never capture what's in your mind. you can do studies where you collect references and focus in on ironing out something that's bothering you (such as, like, specific objects, perspectives, clothing details, anatomy pieces, light and shadow, etc etc); this can help crack the malaise for sure... learning how to use references is good, as well as whatever tools are available to you (in your medium/software). How To Do This is sort of a different post, but it does help (and sometimes annoyingly so; there's been rare but very annoying moments in my career where i will be simply looking at a picture and idly make an observation that cracks a style/anatomy problem i've had for Years and im always like COME ON!!! hahaha--but yes looking at references and studying them "like an artist" definitely helps, even when it's not as miraculous as that). overall work smarter and nail down the stuff you're unsure about, then incorporate what you've learned into your art style until it looks a way you like. you will likely have to just grind it out sometimes, and often this grind will not feel particularly fun. but you can Dog Medication Salami Pocket yourself into it if you're drawing something you're sufficiently Deranged about. <- this is what diesel is always doing with those women (LOL)

also, Output. you do have to Be Making Stuff in order to finish stuff. for example for comic projects like adastra or failteacher au, if i can draw ~1 page a day, the update will be complete in no time. but i have to draw that 1 page every day to make it happen, even if i feel off or lack confidence about what i'm making. of course i'm not saying you shouldn't take breaks; you NEED to take breaks, set your goals to your own level, and listen to yourself (and don't get some kind of wrist problem like me please). but the point im trying to make is that if you can make yourself sit down and do it even though you're scared it'll turn out bad, (or, hell, even if this part of your project is Simply Boring), then you can do it anytime. this is important too. but you will probably still sometimes feel stuck if you try to work and grind all the time.

DIET: regularly, but especially when you're stuck in a rut, step away from your craft and enrich your diet. you have to play just as much as you have to work. for example, i am always ALWAYS reading comics. at any given time i probably have 1-4 (sometimes more) tabs open of different comics i am simultaneously reading!!!! i read webcomics, webtoons, manga, DC--any demographic or genre, i take random recs from people and just go read them. whatever medium you're in, you have to take in what other people are doing with it, you have to let them teach and inspire you. you have to branch out and look at genres and styles you usually don't. unwind and look at comics, at illustrations, at design, at animation, at video games. enjoy them as an audience, but look at them like an artist too. when you like something, pause and examine (as both an artist and audience) why you like it. (vice versa: if you don't like something, you can try to figure out why that is!) let other people's ideas and habits flow over you. you have to relax and enrich your mind, to refresh your creativity and motivation. this is crucial. when you come back, you'll feel refreshed and ready to go, and your big brain cauldron of tools + ideas + techniques will be all shiny and bubbling. it's just as important to experience art as it is to make it. i really can't stress that enough!!!!

i talk about comics specifically here because right now obviously i am making a lot of comics (adastra, failteachers). i often feel like i get stuck in boring page layouts and can't think of how to panel something. and honestly sometimes a basic layout that just Gets Through The Scene is simply sufficient (after all, not everything has to be a Groundbreaking New Masterpiece; we would all get fatigued by that!)--or otherwise a "boring layout" is just what i have to put down in order to put down anything at all. but in both cases, reading comics and taking in what people are doing with their layouts makes me feel refreshed and i can return to my own work all rested and bright-eyed. everything we read and watch and take in is added to our "mental library" for the brain to reference when it's time to create something. it is just as enriching and important to experience someone else's art and perspective, and to enjoy a diverse range of impressions. you are always learning and observing, so try to pay attention--it's feeding your brain... :j

(and now, hopefully, your enriched Diet has added fertilizer for your Derangement, and the entire council can take their turn again from the top of the order. HDFHBJFS)

hmm...

well, overall, like i said at the top, there's no One Solution or really Single Piece Of Advice i can offer you. but i hope maybe you got something out of it anyway. everyone's a bit different and everyone's ideal workflow and journey is different too. but don't give up, keep at it, and...GOOD LUCK!!! 🫡🫡🫡

& always remember: in the end, making something YOU like, that looks good to YOU and fulfills YOUR goals, is more important than making something "perfect" (if such a thing even exists). as long as YOU'RE enjoying making your art (yes, even when making the art is hell and sucks!), that's all that matters. 🤝

[m0e-ru]

hi whatever. p4 drama cd adachi supercut. no it's not translated no it doesnt include "You'll understand when you get older", but it's all in the video description anyway. I genuinely like how they depicted adachi here, maybe because of the fact they didnt visualize him at all and im left to think about it on my own and not get bombarded with the very interesting visuals p4 has had to offer throughout the years. but otherwise i really appreciate the characterization here

anyone who wants to see the rest of the drama CDs documented you can look here I suppose

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Hello, your blog is amazing. I know this is not realy your weelhouse but you seem like the best blog to ask. I need some help figuring out hove some traits my humanoids have would influence their anatomy and aperance.

So bot of them are heavily based on real life humans when it comes to apperance because i am boring but i wanted to put some subtle changes to indicate that neither of them are humans and to give an oportunity for them to have wow you are not like us shock moments when they interact.

So the first species? is the one with the most oportunity for fun anatomy changes. Their bones and muscles are not thicker but they are denser. So they can have immpresive feats of strenght and endurance. I know this would mainly be noticabel by touch. I am not troubeled by this. What could be some changes to their skeletal structure that would allow stronger muscles to anchor better to bones or some uniqe muscle structures in nature that allows for more tissue to be packed into smaller spaces. Also am i understanding it right that this would mean they need more food and would be more sensitive to a lack of oxigen? My second idea ties into that i wanted to give them different blood for better suply. I originaly wanted to just make it thicker with higher iron content but i realized that having ticker blood means the heart needs to pump harder to achive the same blood floow. I found my second solution while browsing your blog whic is giving them the blood particel that makes blood blue beside standard hemoglobin. But i know very littel about how that would influence their anatomy, would that make their blood purpel or another color? Would that mean that their skin has a light purpelis, or a greyish tint?

The third one is a freeby. So its well known that human anatomy is kind of a mess, especialy the spine. What changes would you, as an anatomy nerd make to make humans more efficent humans? I had the idea to give them more muscles around their ears, harder and sharper nails and hardier teeth in general and slighly pontier canines (yes that one is for the visual) as a kind of vestigal trait from back their hunter gatherer days but other than that I am stuck. Do you have any anatomical traits that could indicate a healing factor. I know its kind of vague but i don't know how to better word it.

The other guys, who i took to call mages for distintction because i am abundant in creativity, are kind of boring because their main trait that separates them from humans is having magic whic doesnt realy translate into anatomy. They channel it through their senses, voice and movements. I had the idea that they could have different voices that are more sing-song, but i think that would be more cultural norm, could there be some anatomical difference that helps it. My other idea was giving them on average more slender limbs, and more flexibel joints to allow for more gracefull and controlled movements. My other two ideas are that since magic produces heat they could develop thicker, darker fire resistent patches on their skin on parts where they frequetly direct their magic. Other than that i have no idea.

Sorry, this is long and rambly I understand if you don't answer it. I am also sorry for the grammar, english isn't my first language. I would be grateful for the smallest help. Thank you for even reading through this monstrum.

okay, so there is a lot to go over here! let's break it down point by point.

1: increased bone and muscle density. what does this mean? bone density refers to the internal structure of the bones. bones must be porous in the center because that's where the marrow is! it acts as a blood factory, basically. having porous bones allows for blood to flow through, and it also allow us to have more durable bones without making them so heavy. too little bone density makes them fragile, but too much bone density makes them heavy and more likely to snap because of poor shock absorption. so there's an important balance to find for the density.

muscle density jut means more muscle packed into a smaller space, and it is correlated to increased strength. I can't find much on what might be considered "too dense" for muscles, but since it's often determined by a ratio of fat to lean muscle, I think it's important to note that fat is important for the body and having less of it tends to create other problems. Intramuscular fat provides energy directly to the muscles, which is why humans are so good at endurance walking. it's one of the reasons we have such nice round butts! So you also need to keep in mind how to balance the muscle density with the body fat here.

Essentially, what is the purpose of the denser bones and muscle? simply increasing the density does not automatically mean these people will be stronger and have greater endurance. Having very dense muscle might make them good at performing short bursts of strength, like quick sprints, fast hard punches, etc. and having dense bones might make them more sturdy, giving a strong brace to their dense muscles. but they may also be more prone to exhaustion if they don't have intramuscular fat, and if their bones are too dense they might break faster and be less useful for blood production and blood flow.

2: blood color. as for changing the material their blood uses to carry oxygen, I have had trouble finding any sources on how efficiently different colors of blood actually carry oxygen. As far as I'm able to determine, haemocyanin, the blue blood component in molluscs, is better suited for low oxygen? Most sources on this are highly academic and I don't understand a lot of the vocabulary.

So, maybe these are smaller people, living in a low oxygen environment. Perhaps it's a warm climate, allowing survival with less fat, and their dense muscles and bones make them very good at quick bursts of strength and speed with lower endurance compared to the average human. they would be very lean, and I imagine their bones would be shorter and a little thicker to minimize the chance of breaks.

If anyone else here is a better expert on the fine points of what exactly dense bones and muscles as blue blood would mean for a humanoid species, please add your thoughts! As I've said, I'm not an expert on biology haha, I only know what I can find through internet research and a lot of it is academic vocabulary that's a little beyond my knowledge. and a lot of it is also niche topics that are difficult to find studies on, like the efficiency of different blood colors. I will note, however, that red blood seems to correlate most with vertebrates, while the other known blood colors correlate to invertebrates! the blood circulation of these groups can be very different!

the blood color might affect the skin tone a little, but it depends a lot on how translucent or pale their skin is, what pigments are coloring their skin, and what color their blood vessels are. humans have red blood, but some of our veins look blue! it does have a stronger color effect for blush though!

3: what traits would make humans more efficient? depends on what we're making more efficient! the spine is wack because we stand upright. our knees are wack because we walk bipedally. our teeth look like this because we are omnivores. we're very very good at all of those things, especially compared to other creatures. sharper teeth and claw-like nails would certainly make us more efficient as hunters, but only if we were hunting with our bodies as our weapon! humans are very very good at making and using tools. personally, as a human who spends most of her time sitting down (because of my creative work) I would appreciate having the butt pads that allow other primates to sit on tree branches for extended periods of time without going numb. and just in general having a body that didn't feel so stiff and sore from sitting in one position for so long.

4: anatomical traits that indicate healing factors: hard to say! the animals in real life that can regrow their limbs don't really have any special outward indicators of it until it's actually happening! like lizards and amphibians that can drop their tails or lose a leg and just cut off the circulation to the open wound and start growing a fresh limb. you might have some luck studying how all of that works, it's a pretty fascinating process!

5: voice anatomy: your mage people might have different vocal cord structure! perhaps theirs has more flexibility than the average human, and maybe they also have better lung capacity. This would allow a broader vocal range, volume range, and increase vocal endurance somewhat.

6: dark thick skin to resist heat: callouses could certainly develop with frequent magic use, just as they develop for physical activities (like the callouses on my hands from holding a pencil or holding yarn and thread over my finger for crochet). Melanin, the pigment that makes skin darker, is not actually for heat resistance. it inhibits UV radiation somewhat. so I don't think darker patches would really occur as a form of resistance to magical heat, though the skin would likely grow tougher in those areas. They may also develop anatomy that's more efficient for regulating body temperature. Large ears full of veins, for example, or maybe they'd have longer fingers and some form of membrane between their fingers that only exists to release heat.

Overall, I think you've got some pretty cool ideas! You're clearly putting a lot of thought into your worldbuilding! I hope this has been helpful and I wish you luck and to have fun on your creative journey!

[amozon28]

ok watched the tlou podcast and Craig and Neil explained that they changed the reunion mostly because of logistic issues, because

 1.) in live action it doesnt feel the same to have a heartwarming reunion when your literally in a building thats aon fire, its hard to feel that these two characters are safe when theyre actually still in danger, in gameplay a burning building doesnt feel threatening.

2.) David stated that the building was locked, so how would Joel get in? again in gameplay thats something that can be hand waved but would feel like a mistake in live action

and 3.) Craig and Neil talked about how they wanted to kind of lean into Joel getting there too late, how having the scene happen outside and having her surrounded by pure white snow while shes covered in blood, the visual symbolism of her innocence having been lost and thats the first thing Joel sees, that he failed to protect her in this way too.

honestly i still feel that the video game hits harder because they dont have to worry about the ligistics and they could just let the characters have their moment, vs live action it wouldnt work the same way. its unfortunate but thats one of the downsides of translating a story from one medium to other some things have to change. i hope that episode 9 starts with maybe a flash back to the aftermath of this moment or maybe them having a conversation so they can add later what they lost before.

[actualbird]

this is gonna be a long ramble that trails off into different directions

so i was listening to episode 75 of this podcast called Lingthusiasm all about linguistics (highly recommend it, it's a great read and my god they have TRANSCRIPTS which is GODSEND for me who can only listen completely focused if i have an accompanying visual component) and this episode is named "Love and fury at the linguistics of emotions" which is all about words and emotions.

again, i highly recommend this podcast, ive only listened to a few episodes but it's so delightful to anybody interested in languages. this episode particularly piqued my interest because im Obsessed with the Concepts Of Emotional Articulation both as a writer and reader (how to communicate emotions effectively in literature), and as a person (im not great with emotions! i have a very low empathy, recognizing both my own and other people's emotions is very difficult for me!).

anyway, great episode, but when they got to THIS part of the episode, it piqued my interest in a different way (colored text added by me for emphases):

Gretchen: There’s this really fun paper about how kids learn emotion words and develop their emotional expressions, and I think the thing that’s the most fun about this is that it puts into academic words what is probably familiar territory for a lot of people if you’ve met a few kids. Here’s a few quotes from this paper. It says, “By the time language begins, towards the end of the first year, emotional expression is already well-established. Children do not need to learn the names of the emotions in order to tell other people what they are feeling.” Lauren: So, as a translation, just because kids don’t know the word for “sad” doesn’t mean that they can’t be very, very sad at you by screaming in your face. Gretchen: [Laughs] Yeah, I think that’s basically what it’s saying. Lauren: Hm, yeah, that makes sense to me. Gretchen: “But they do need to learn the language to tell other people what their feelings are about. Language does not replace emotional expression, rather children learn language for expressing and articulating the objects and circumstances of their emotional experiences while they continue to express emotion with displays of positive and negative affective tone.” Lauren: Kids can laugh and cry. Gretchen: And throw screaming tantrums on the floor, yeah. Lauren: And throw absolute meltdowns. But they have to learn to talk about these things as well, which is why so many children’s books spend so much time talking about the emotions and the feelings of the characters because it’s a really great space to practice doing that in.

and that piqued my interest because.......as a child i do NOT remember reading any children's books about emotions!! because i am filipino, most of the children's books that were around and were what he had at home alamat, or local legends/myth/folk stories. and many of them were not talking about emotions but about THE CONSEQUENCES OF WRONGDOINGS

SO MANY CONSEQUENCES

EVERYWHERE

here are two examples off the top of my head of stories i read as a child

in alamat ng ampalaya (legend/origin story of the bitter gourd), in a land of vegetables all the vegetables had great colored clothes and flavors and the ampalaya was so jealous of all of them that he stole everyone's clothes and wore them all at once. then the clothes and flavors all mixed, turning his appearance wrinkly and his flavor terrible

alamat ng pinya (legend/origin story of the pineapple), a spoiled daughter who doesnt know how to do any housework has to take care of her ailing mother but doesnt know where any of the things are so her mother says "i wish you had several eyes so you could find things" and then the daughter turned into a strange fruit that would become the pineapple

so like. the only emotion i truly learned as a child was anxiety and fear because yOU BETTER BE GOOD OR ELSE YOU'LL TURN INTO PRODUCE

anyway great podcast

[waywardsalt]

im actually going to tear into totk’s dragon’s tears/ memories rn bc i remember feeling distinctly unsatisfied with them when i got all of them so im just going to write some general bullet points about them, about what i dislike or maybe what i do actually like about them, leaving out both master sword scenes and the mummydorf one because i’m here to talk about the stuff in the past not that

- off the bat (i play this game in english btw so all of this is based on the english text and translation i am aware some stuff is slightly different in other languages) im not really a fan of how the descriptions of all of the tears is just a literal description of what happens?? i think my issue with it is that some of the text is a little bit too in depth, as in it just tells you literally everything about the scene. this might be nitpick-y but i personally dont like it

- what’s up with zelda saying ‘but that must mean...!’ at the end of the scene. is it suggesting that she’s made the realization that rauru and sonia are the first king and queen of hyrule? because they literally tell her that like ten seconds before. i guess it’s suggesting she’s realizing she’s in the past but... idk the texts says ‘she’s left startled by a suspicion that she’s heard those names before’ yeah theyre the first king and queen of hyrule?? they tell her that. they tell her their names and that they are the first leaders of hyrule is she just now connecting the dots that she’s in the past? that’s what the next cutscene implies. but all of the surrounding dialogue and the description don’t suggest that that’s what she’s realizing i feel like this was kind of muddled in the translation

- why did sonia elbow rauru he was just standing weird he didnt say anything this isnt a nitpick im just confused. is it because he’s not being very empathetic towards what zelda’s going through? she elbows him and then she goes and talks to zelda why even elbow rauru. ordinarily you elbow someone like that if you mean for them to go do something why elbow someone if you’re going to do the thing you want anyways

- why doesnt zelda offer to help with the purah pad or anything like that. what happened to her sheikah tech fascination from botw. not even as someone actually familiar with the technology who could give mineru some points as to how it works

- what are sonia and zelda doing behind rauru when he shoots that insane fucking beam at the mulduga swarm they’re clearly doing something with their stones but like... are they amplifying rauru’s power somehow?? what do time powers have to do with the beam of light i dont- what were they doing please the text description only mentions him using his powers so are sonia and zelda just... supporting his powers? idk man

- dragon tear #5 is a whole can of worms with its worse-than-oot reenactment of that one scene from oot. why the focus on sonia and her tear btw. i mean yeah she dies to motivate rauru and zelda but like. why not aim for the new girl who probably doesn’t know how to use it as much and is probably more likely to be separate from the king who can shot insane lasers. im really not a fan of this scene for how strongly the game sides with rauru and zelda being passive and judgemental but ganondorf is literally the best part of it there’s a lot of character in just how he picks up his sword and stands up to leave

- putting memories 6 and 7 together just because of how there was just. no fucking care put into the idea of zelda learning to use her time powers. memory 6 zelda talks about wanting to use her time powers and sonia gives her tips on how she could use it and visualize the use of it and then in memory 7 she can just use it perfectly with great control and timing. why even bother talking about her nothing yet understanding how to use it when the very next scene she just uses it like it’s nothing. how much time has passed we get nothing to show us zelda trying to practice this power just. nope. she’s good she can use it perfectly. also more awkward dialogue sonia saying ‘what a picture zelda paints of him’ as she is. looking directly at zelda. change the line to like, ‘what a picture you paint of him’ she is literally looking right at zelda so why would she say it like that

- generally i feel like memory six should have been before 4 and 5 (4 being where she uses some power to... support??? rauru and it being before memory 5 so that there isnt this weird break in between the memories concerning ganondorf.) memory 6 does not have anything to do with memory 4 or 5 so just put it earlier so there isnt a weird shift in focus between the two big ganondorf scenes

- good god they introduce the idea of sonia and zelda being aware of ganondorf using a fake zelda but theres literally nothing about it having been a problem or them having experience or like. anything. they just TELL you that they know and suggest that it’s been like. a thing for a bit??? also obligatory ganondorf’s face model rigging is fucked comment he’s still the best part

- the pacing of these memories is just weird in general, memories 7 and 8 being separate but the same scene is strange when other memories are long as fuck but cover one event each, plus theres clearly barely any passage of time between memories 7 and 8 it almost feels like they were split up to fill space or just because otherwise it’d be... too long? man idk

- ‘queen sonia needs you!’ girl she is DEAD good fucking luck doing anything to help her

- ganondorf’s horse and its armor both look sick as fuck i really wish you got to see more of it outside the memory it appears in

- everything about the original sages honestly sucks. they aren’t characters they’re just walking macguffins. they have no names and are not relevant or mentioned or make any appearance until they are needed by the story. why does the zora sage talk about getting word about the attacked gerudo village in this scene when like. they’ve all met up and have clearly. been together for a bit. when she gives them the news it’s clearly the first they’ve heard of it... but... why would she wait until this moments to give this info unless for the benefit of the player watching the scene. why does the ZORA sage have this news and not... the gerudo sage?? what’s with the masks. they’re all made of zonaite or whatever sure theyre gifts from rauru but like. i hate that it kind of denotes them being subservient and lower than him and the zonai. honestly i really hate this scene in general mostly because of the uncomfortable showing of how rauru absolutely holds power over them and despite them being leaders as well they are expected to be wholly blindly loyal to him. rauru only gives them these stones when he needs their aid and they swear loyalty too him soon after but you also see that sonia and mineru have stones, too, so they’re clearly withholding these things despite it being kind of reasonable for him to give each race their own secret stone as further proof of their pact? there is so much shit to be said about the imperialistic themes or whatever in this fucking story and i really hate it

- i do kinda like how the next scene shows you that the one rock in the corner of that first hidden room in the forgotten temple is sonia’s grave

- zelda’s phrasing and description of how she and link found ganondorf is weird to me ‘he’s still alive’ ‘he lives on’ girl that was a mummy. he was not moving until you got there. he’s undead at best as far as you know. this is def a nitpick but eh. also the reliance on link is a... bit odd when zelda does not actually know that link is safe until she gets the master sword. its fine but still. also her shell-shocked expression after rauru talks about her being in the past for a reason is a bit... it doesn’t fit her emotion it’s kind of similar to the expression she had when sonia was killed

- the memory about the imprisoning war starts with practically the whole story up until now being repeated back to you by mineru with a decent amount of bias on mineru’s part and while it’s fine because of some of the extra stuff you learn but it does a lot more telling rather than showing when it comes to the actual imprisoning war and... idk the whole thing about their ‘fight’ kind of falls flat when you don’t actually see any fighting you just see that the sages have gotten their asses beat. i think it would have been a little interesting if in the god-awful repetitive sage-awakening scenes they had actually showed you the og sages fighting ganondorf instead of just. slow-mo freeze-frames for whatever. once again ganondorf if the best part of the scene

- the rest of the memories are fine idc

i get the feeling that the japanese-to-english translation was either all-around rough or somehow rushed, because some of the phrases in the game as well as some of the dialogue is really awkward and... could have been better. i don’t know how it works but it feels like a lot of it was very literal, direct translation and no one at noa thought that it ought to be tweaked just a little bit

these memories also do a fuck-ton of telling rather than showing and it really is like they don’t really trust you to connect the dots, and some of it does come off like they either didn’t want to make more memories or ran out of time or something. i felt like the memory of ganondorf just summoning his monsters and riding on his cool horse could have been a bit longer to actually show us the forces of hyrule fighting him and having a hard time with it

a lot of the character animations doesn’t have a whole lot of personality to them, ganondorf is the character who had the most distinct and interesting movements. rauru and sonia had their... singular movement (rauru putting a hand to his chin and sonia taking zelda’s hands) and zelda was kind of just... standing around and reacting to stuff, and neither mineru nor any of the other sages had any really interesting animations asides from mineru’s coughing fit in memory 16 (plus her reclining chair that was a nice touch). very few of their movements really express anything about the characters besides some really baseline values or traits.

the ordering of some memories is kind of odd, the excessive flashbacks in memory 17 are a bit much, the telling rather than showing, the sometimes awkward dialogue, a lot of the scenes are characters just... talking at each other, you don’t actually see very much of hyrule in the past or any characters beyond the main four, and it really did nothing to actually get me to care about these characters at all.

tldr i dont like totk’s dragon tears

[sw33t-oubliette]

Musics... what songs you like... I need... recs..

YAY YAY YAY YAY OKAY THIS MAY BE LONG

Steam Powered Giraffe . they're a robot band with a ton of lore but you dont have to know any of it to enjoy the music !!! if you wanna get into the lore i suggest listening to the albums in release order , but if not just shuffling em is good !! even if you decide to get into the lore later you can still just shuffle for now , the songs dont really spoil anything , theyre mostly connected to the robot's feelings and not events . except Vice Quadrant . if you wanna get into the lore i suggest leaving The Vice Quadrant alone until you listen in album release order . all of the lore is on the website below in the lore and comic tabs ! ^_^

Kabaret Sybarit . theyre a danish dark cabaret band with two narrative universes . the first narrative is in The Poodle and The Grand Finale , huge trigger warning for rape and sexual topics in these two . the second narrative is Akt 1: Rum Nr. 13 , the whole thing is in danish but google translate works fine for the lyrics . Akt 1 was unfortunately only act one of a story that was supposed to be longer , but the band separated and they never finished it . what it is is still really good though ! heres the music video for the first song in The Poodle:

Paul Shapera ! he has a few narratives over all his albums , but the only one ive listened to personally is New Albion . the New Albion trilogy is: The Dolls of New Albion, New Albion Radio Hour, and The New Albion Guide to Analogue Consciousness. there's also The Room Beneath New Albion but its not as long and not necessary to understand the main story . theres also more New Albion past those four but i havent gotten into anything outside the 4 . content warning for incest in act 3 for Dolls of New Albion (its not really explicit ever but the main character of act 3 expresses romantic love for his grandfather) . bandcamp link for the first one in the trilogy !

Will Wood and The Tapeworms ! ive only listened to Everything Is Alot , but its really good ! some songs i really like from it are White Knuckle Jerk (Where Do You Get Off), 6up 5oh Cop-Out (Pro / Con), and Front Street !

Shayfer James !!! i recommend Counterfeit Arcade, it has definitely some of my favorite songs ever in it (like Weight of the World and Diggin Up Hatchets) ! and Room by Room !

Sarah And The Safe Word ! im more of a casual fan of them , but some of my favorite songs by them are Sick on Seventh Street, Formula 666, Old Lace, Bottom of a Bender, and Red Hot & Holy !

The Cog Is Dead ! theyre a steampunk band with some lore but its decently less than Steam Powered Giraffe . most of their songs are one off stories with no connect to a greater plot . you can go whatever order for them but i do suggest listening to the albums and not just shuffling them ! website:

Scene Queen ! i suggest just shuffling her it doesnt really matter how you listen to her music . warning majority of her music is very sexual though

Set It Off ! they have so many different styles of music across their albums , i suggest listening to the albums in full for the full experience but it doesnt really matter , they dont have a narrative . except for Elsewhere . for Elsewhere , i suggest exploring the website if you wanna figure out the lore ! its really cool and visually interesting .

The Mechanisms ! they have a ton of lore , most of which is in their albums . for them you kinda have to listen to the albums in full you cant really shuffle . unless you dont care about the lore then do whatever ! you can listen in whatever order , but i STRONGLY suggest leaving Death To The Mechanisms for last . i started with that and i basically fucked up my whole experience :pensive:

[blindedguilt]

Omg there's gonna be a Leonard visual novel? Ahhh please link this id love to support it!

Also you have an alt account with Leonard art ��👀👀👀

//No idea if that bit at the end is a solid "i know what you are" or a "this you?" bit but just in case, i do!! i will refrain from posting it here (For privacy, though when you find it you should be able to clock it like "THIS IS THE BITCH" immediately anyways lol) if you would like it i can give it to you through DMs (unfortunately tumblr doesnt allow private answering to anon asks :( if i could i would...) but please dont feel pressured at all to come out!!! i enjoy chatting with you, anon *pats*

//But to answer your question, yes!! Technically it's already out though its currently only available in Japanese. I will say I have spoken with the writer though, and I'm very happy to say they've expressed interest in helping me make an English patch :3<! Once I'm done with playing the game for myself (I'm about halfway at the moment, I think? ;0) I'll hopefully start work. I've been playing with a friend and already have a few scenes (roughly, more or less) translated.

//Anyways, I'll put the links to both the trial and full version at the end of the post so they're easier to find vs. just sandwiching between my rambles about the VN!! because BOY is it good, this was made for leonard fans BY leonard fans and its SHOWS AAAAAAAAAA

//More under the cut~ (I'll be rambling about this for a w h i l e)

So the game is called Onaplus, and lemme just post my TL of its official Booth description for you before i try summing it up myself:

Play Time: About 5 hours Routes: 2 Endings: 4~5 Stills: None This is a visual novel game where you can - or can not - enjoy a "Psuedo-Romance" with various versions of Leonard from before he formed his pact, DOD1, DOD2, and LoV. The game is mostly linear; only a few choices on your path outside of the 4~5 different endings. You are the protagonist, a woman who travels through four different "Times" with Seere at your side. You can enjoy the story as it's nature changes between two vastly different routes; choose to spend a sweet and heartfelt time with Leonard, or take part in a good measure of slapstick comedy instead. Includes a number headcanoned details, otakuisms, and out-of-character gags. A game for those who believe no man is beyond forgiveness...

That's pretty much it!! I dunno how much I'll spoil by saying it, but it was NOT KIDDING when it said the main two routes (The more serious N-Route, standing for "Not Shotacon Route" and the gag S-Route, standing for "Shotacon Jerking Off in the Backwoods Route") were different.

I'll keep what I know limited, but I've completely finished the S-Route (much to my dismay, IT WAS SO GOOODDDD I DIDNT WANT IT TO END) and have JUST started the N-Route, so I'm looking forward to what's in store!! I dunno what the "5" stands for though in five endings, unless the N-Route has one I'm unaware of... 👀 but a quick breakdown

Where the N-Route is a very genuine, heartfelt ""Love letter"" to Leonard from his fans being like "We care about you!!! youre such a lovable guy!!!! please take care of yourself!!!!" and essentially plays as an "I can fix him" game, the gag "S-Route" ramps Leonard's "Shotaconness" up to an ABSURD degree to the point one or two scenes were complete "had me completely red in the face, unable to look at the screen"-level wreckage. one scene in particular around the DOD2 mark also made my heart DROP but im not saying what happened or what it is :)))) S-Route Ending A was also extremely difficult to TL because i had to search a few things up and do........ research............ to find suitable english-audience alternatives. it had me GAGGED ngl, but i would never do it again........... i'm turning red just thinking about it now dsjfhkshvwkslahsdfhj (the endings are so good though, and there was ANOTHER thing in Ending A that had me "!!!!!!! yippee!!!!!!" but that's another story.)

I've only finished the endings of the S-Route right now, but some of them were surprisingly (And welcomingly so!) heartfelt for what was 96% a gag route :0!

AND THEN THE PROTAGONISTSSSSSS okay so i was NOT expecting a little "heehee, we made leonard psuedo-dating sim" VN TO HAVE PROTAGONISTS THAT ARE LITERALLY LIKE A HYPERFIXATION FOR ME RIGHT NOW????? trust me when i say these are NOT typical "blank-slate-self-insert" protags their characterisation is so strong and entertaining i was HEARTBROKEN finishing the s-route because it meant saying goodbye to its protagonist more than anything, i literally have made ship fanart of them together i ADORE them so much and i need them in my life...... lately ive thinking about hdcing names for them i love them....

N-MC is so SWEEEEEEEETTT she's a lot more "Expectable" for a "Romantic" visual novel (At least for now... who knows, she might be hiding a dark secret of some kind though im like... more than half sure she's innocent? RIGHT????) and is just a little sweetheart whose dedicated her life to helping others as her parents always wished!!!! she has a ✨tragic anime backstory✨ and for leonard fans is THE embodiment of looking at this sad sack of shit and being like "Oh my god, he's so miserable, i just want him to be happy :((( i can fix him......." her relationship with seere is so SWEETTTT too it makes me melt, she's the one he NEEDS and im just aakshskhsdkvhsdkfh...... though honestly even if its 9/10 unintentional listening to the way she talks about seere sometimes has me like "hmmMMMMMM..... perhaps youre more of a shotacon than s-mc........" ("ara ara, seere-kun~" has become my new tagline for her, i admit..... you seem a bit too taken with him buddy...)

BUT THEN S-MC, I ADORE HERRRRRRRR me and a bud have been playing it together and their design for her has become like the unofficial one i literally use/WILL use no other for my own doodles and that is a FACT. how do i explain her... the game calls her "Caim-like", basically, but that's not enough. you see, S-MC is an over-exploited, sleep-deprived, brash, violent, porn-addicted shotacon (+possible femcel) otaku who's main goal in life is to find a decent person to get married to and whose only reason for living is to keep indulging in her PG (and not PG) fiction. she's more than eager to beat the shit out of anyone at the first opportunity (which she does) and wax poetic about her favourite games (which she does) and UNLIKE """N-MC oneesan""" and their (Unintentional) far-too-friendly comments towards seere S-MC spends makes it her GOAL to ensure nothing happens to the kid despite her annoyance with him, who is far too innocent for his own good dsfkvjhsfdkhvsdfj

The VN is written by the very talented Pixiv fanfic writer Kyon, whose works I would VERY much recommend checking out if you can read Japanese and are a fan of Leonard (They are my GO-TO for Leonard content, just talking with them was such an honour i was like "uUUWAUAaaaAUUGHhhHHhgaaghgH" they do his characterisation so good and they understand the tragedy and facets of what makes him compelling so well and im just UGHHHHHHH THEYRE SO GOOD ANON YOU ARE IN GOOD HANDS WITH THEM WRITING THIS, CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!!!!)

Interestingly enough, they did write a whole fucking novel on Leonard's past and life leading up Ending D and do reference part of that in this VN!! Albeit not heavily, though reading the preview on Pixiv I saw it was like "AYYYYYE" so I would recommend it if you can read it ;0 i hope to buy the full thing soon....

Also, I was actually skeptical of this going into it but Kyon is SO good with their writing they did write a Faerie x Leonard Modern AU smut fic I'm now also hoping to get the full version of well... do you know how good something has to be for me not ONLY to spend money on it, but to go from SKEPTICAL "this isn't my thing and i dunno why i'm even reading it" to "I need to read the rest of this NOW GET HIS ASS" i truly marvel at their talent and im so happy at the chance to work with them im.............

The illustrations were done by the also VERY popular Suiden, who you might recognise if you spend any time on Leonard's Pixiv tag in general!!! I admit, I kind of expected more as far as the quality of their contributions to the VN were concerned, but honestly, the character sprites are so charming in their own little VN way (Leonard's DOD2 sprite i ADORE) and i was so excited to see both recognisable artists i adore in there, I don't really have any major complaints so far outside the fact i sincerely wish there was a 1.3 leonard....... ONAPLUS 2 LETS MAKE IT HAPPEN‼️💥👏👏

Oh, and I also learned a LOT about LoV and its system through this game (and how much injustice they did leonard in the sequel, jesus fuck...) which was apparently all thanks to Haruoka's help advising everyone on the LoV bits (Though whether that stands for just gameplay or actual lore, i have no idea.... yet)!! You may also recognise some of the nice Leonard art they have on their Pixiv if you've dug through the tag as deep as I have lmao

it could happen

... Anyways, that SHOULD be enough rambling from me!! If you have anymore questions, do lemme know because this VN is my LIFE right now all I can ever think about is playing it and I'm literally going to be so sad when it's time to put it up......

If you think you'd like to check it out for yourself, please do check out the trial version!! You can get it free on Kyon's Booth and I think you SHOULD be able to just G-Translate your way through the N-Route with minimal confusion just based off of how clear I remember it, and the S-Route should be roughly understandable as well but uses a LOT more slang and "catechisms" with its spelling than N-Route, so you might have a couple more difficulties translating it if you use a machine.

The full version is a psychical disc copy that sells for 500 JPY (3.24 USD/3.05 EUR, i believe) and you CAN buy it through a proxy site like Buyee like I did!! Ofc that will include packing and shipping costs, so you might actually expect it to come up to around 20 USD as it did for me :,) perhaps the real pain though comes in how long you have to wait for it to actually arrive (just under a month for me)

But if you're a Leonard fan? Speaking as the self-proclaimed head of the church of ona, it is so worth it. ive never been so utterly enamoured and in love with a game, its kinda starting to concern me...

Either way!! It will still be a while till an English patch comes out since I've been very busy with work and unable to play it :(

I recommend you try it for yourself!!!

And please do refrain from posting screenshots of the game if you decide to play it (at request of the creators), you can quote it but if it's on a public platform like Tumblr or Twitter or anywhere outside of DMs, please no screenshots!!

Here's a link to the trial version (Free)

And if you like that enough...

Here's the full version!! (500 JPY)

...If you can, please give this your full support!! I very much don't think you'll be disappointed, especially as a Leonard fan~

As far as the English patch goes, I dunno how much I should share out of respect for the creators at the time other than

i plan to start working on it

But I am DETERMINED to finish this translation, i dunno how it might even be spread (Whether it will just stay a small-scale thing spread through the wings of tumblr dms or also posted on the authors booth) but either way!!!

This will be my first time working on a videogame, and if I'm allowed to say this in confidence, I'm 100% certain this will be my best translation yet. :3 perhaps better than even magnitude negative, im REALLY liking the way this is looking right now, even by the rough drafts.... i really only give my all for leonard i've realised, but that's not an issue for me <3

Anyways, anon, if you ever play it please do send some thoughts about it if you're willing (To either blog~)!!! and any questions, please ask!!! i'm so excited to see more people talking about this, thank you anon!!!!

[monstrousproductions]

hey, I wanna write a thing about fairly chill ghosts (specifically the ghost of a flapper), I think it would be cute as a podcast mini series, any tips?

ooh what an exciting idea! I think my main tips are that you dont need to fret tootoo much about getting expensive equipment right out the gate, the main thing is tothink about the space you're recording in.

And when you're writing, try to think carefully about how what you write translates into sound. Try writing the sound rather than the action, to train yourself into thinking that way.

Also consider whether that sound will actually be comprehensible without visual context!

This is a weird example but in MA when Mab gives the Presenter a painkiller for their headache, she takes them out of a bottle of pills even though blister packs are more common in the UK, because the sound of a pill being popped out of a blister pack doesnt "read" as obviously as a bottle! I'm sure other podcasters who have more SFX in their stuff can make better examples lol

Otherwise, my best tip is that the podcasting world is absolutely ridiculously keen on helping people! There are tons of resources out there that can give you advice on everything from writing and production to social media, and if you ask nicely (like you did here!) then generally speaking people will be happy to help.

Anyone else got other tips they want to add?

[dogtoling]

How will blindness/colorblindness affect the inkfish?? Like, can they still play Turf? Can they still blend in with the surrounding? Can they even change their ink color???

I don't know how colorblindness would work in cephalopods... and as a matter of fact cephalopods SHOULD be colorblind (as in just seeing in black and white) as far as we can tell and we're not sure how they're able to see color. I think the latest consensus is that the shape of their pupils lets them distinguish color, but this is not really helping our thing here, so let's go. (Here's an interesting article on this... I got sidetracked)

When it comes to full blindness, I don't think you could play turf war because it's a sport that very much needs you to see - normal turf war alongside players that DO see, that is. Unless inkfish had some sixth sense to echolocate their surroundings (which... they have a magnetic sense and Echolocator is a special, but that doesnt say much), a sport where you need as much awareness of your enemies and surrounding structures and ink would be really difficult to navigate and put you at a real disadvantage. However an arrangement of Turf Wars specifically for blind inkfish WOULD probably be possible, since everyone would be on a pretty even playing field, and experienced players would learn to navigate the stages and locate enemies without having to see at all. The biggest problem there is that the outcome of the match would be totally random because nobody is seeing how much ink is around and what color it is, but that's not really a problem when it's just the way it is for everybody.

When it comes to colorblindness, again as with the beginning of the post, I have no idea how colorblindness would WORK with cephalopods because unlike with humans, it wouldn't be linked to color deciphering rods missing or not working, but would rather have to do with the overall structure of the eye? Unless color vision is modified in modern inkfish to have more light-sensitive proteins in the eye, so their color vision worked similarly to vertebrates. Either way, colorblindness typically removes some tones, so that several distinct colors in the same general part of the spectrum look identical, or two parts of the spectrum that are typically different look the same. Obviously something like the equivalent of red-green colorblindness would be difficult in turf war because you could be in a situation where both teams' ink looks THE SAME or nearly identical.... but the obvious solution is, just don't use those colors.

Color Lock is even an accommodation in the game itself, locking the colors to set ones that colorblindness won't get in the way of. In-universe, I doubt colorblindness would be much of an issue when it comes to turf war, assuming the colors picked would still take into account if someone in the match needed color lock. Even monochromatic vision would let you do turf wars assuming the colors picked were one bright color and one dark color, it could definitely be done. The only obvious problem I see with turf wars and colorblindness is ending up in the situation where it's difficult to tell the ink colors apart, but again, that's adjustable.

When it comes to changing ink color and blending in, colorblind inkfish could still do that, but with some types of colorblindness you might end up in the situation where the color you're displaying is actually NOT the color of the ink. If it's your own ink, though, I think the body has a way of regulating that whatever color the ink is easily translates over to the chromatophores, subconsciously, zero looking needed. When it comes to complete blindness, the same thing applies, you could still totally change color and change ink color. You just wouldn't know what color it was, visually.

[fiddleheadfinn]

your description post is really lovely! however, as someone who needs descriptions and doesnt use a screenreader, tumblr alt text still isnt accessible enough for alt-only descriptions to be the most accessible option. the alt text box that pops up is eye straining on many themes, even default, and isnt viewable on all devices. there are also several bugs with alt on tumblr, like one where screenreaders stop reading the rest of it after a certain point or even not at all, so personally i still elect to put my description in the body of the post if i can help it since it guarantees access to as many who need it as possible. ultimately any description on there is better than none, but even if u move to alt only, people will likely still copy and paste ur descriptions into a reblog for reasons like these

This is actually a great example of the importance of context when choosing what type of descriptions to use!

I personally have similar issues with reading long text, but on my art blog I choose to use short alt-text instead of body-text descriptions because I am a visual artist and the most important information in most of my works is the visual stuff. I follow folks who post photos of book pages. In those cases, it's important to get a full transcription because the information is either text-based, or a graphical representation of a concept that can be put into words. As you point out, paragraphs of writing in the alt-text are hard on the eyes and not best practice. (But WTF at Tumblr cutting off descriptions and not supporting all devices?)

In the case of visual art, though, the most important information often cannot be translated directly into text. When I draw a picture of a pansy, it's not just a "drawing of a pansy," but the feelings created by the way I chose to draw it. I want the viewer to look & experience the colors, shapes, textures, etc before looking to me for a spoon-fed explanation of what it is or what it means. It's like how art teachers will bring you on a museum field trip and tell you to look at the painting before reading the caption next to it. Sometimes people talk about "prioritizing aesthetics over accessibility," but I think we also need to take seriously that sometimes the imagery is what needs to be spotlighted.

Personally, I balance these competing needs by using alt-text instead of body-text descriptions, but it's not the One Right Answer.