#i saw something about a new animation director? maybe that has something to do with the all of it

[shleemies]

Dude what why did they change every single detail of this scene from what they put in the movie???? The framing is more accurate to the manga but that's about it. In what world is gojo wearing a red hoodie and not his uniform in this?

[helpfandom]

Analysis on YANDERE PLATONIC TAS Batman Villains. Pt 1.

THIS IS NOT THE NEW ANIMATED SERIES. Strictly ONLY The Animated Series.

Villains:

MR. FREEZE

RIDDLER

CLAYFACE

POISON IVY

MAD HATTER

CATWOMAN

What I am using as the archtypes: https://www.tumblr.com/helpfandom/724022554446135296/types-of-yandere?source=share YANDERE_AUXILLARY made it!!!!

I find it so curious that people neglect Platonic as a yandere version, {not to say that I am a pioneer, no no no, but rather that people don't write about it as much as romantic.} And so, here is my analysis on various TAS Batman Villains. Of course, this is part one, as there are many TAS villains. I just need to get to them.

Also, side note. Thank you TAS writers for already making Mad Hatter a yandere so now I have less work to do.

Mr Freeze: Now, he is the yandere type of Obsessive, Overprotective, Clingy. He found something else to focus on, and it happened to be you. Reader would be more of the friendly type, more outgoing for Mr. Freeze to have such an obsession with them. He wouldn't stalk you as much, more so just an immediate kidnap the next time he sees you. Most likely catalyst for his yandere swap would be dealing with the loss of his wife. He lost his wife. He won't lose his kid too. Maybe Reader was there to help, or maybe he saw his wife in you. No matter what it was, as soon as there is an obsession, he wants to keep you. You're screwed as soon as it began. He's overprotective, constantly hovering over you. "I've lost too much. I won't lose the last thing of my wife, too!"

Riddler: Hmm... His yandere archetypes for platonic is... Possessive, Delusional, Sadistic, and Self-Indulgent. His egotistical personality, tied with an obsession with a kid who is unafraid to throw hostility back? Not a good pair for Gotham. In his mind, to not be afraid of him, or to throw hostility back at him, must mean that you like him. And with his intelligence, how could you not? His catalyst, well, there isn't really a catalyst per say, more so he was already obsessed with beating Batman and being intelligent, so why wouldn't he be obsessed with someone who can challenge him? He's more of a stalker type, only kidnapping when Batman and Robin get a little too close to you for his comfort. You're just like a little him, well you have to be taught by the best, most intelligent, and that's him. "Well well, my dear child. You seem to have escaped, but I'm sure you know that you won't be out for long..."

Clayface: He is... Clingy, Manipulative, Impulsive, and slightly Sadistic. He would be obsessed likely with a theatre kid, or someone who enjoys the fine arts {So an Art Kid, Band Kid, Choir Kid, etc.} He would see that and miss the days when he could do that, when he could act or enjoy the arts. Because he can transform his shape into anybody, he transforms himself into people close to you, of course he stalks them ahead of time so that he can properly assume their character, but he quickly kills them off so he can assume that role in your life. If it was a friend who had a crush on you, he enjoys watching the life leave their eyes. How dare they try to ruin your potential with their desires? He uses someone in a position of power, too. Likely a teacher, or if you have a director? Boom, suddenly you have the main role, or a solo, or you won the first place in an art competition. Who knows what kind of a catalyst would be there, all I can tell you is that BOOM! You're being kidnapped by someone you trusted deeply. You watch your former mentor's skin droop off of this, this person, who's kidnapping you, revealing a rocky, clay texture. Clayface. "Heya kid, you already slipped up and called your teacher Dad, so I know you can for me too. Here, would looking like them help?"

Poison Ivy: Her yandere archetypes are Overprotective, Clingy, and attempts to be Manipulative. Delusional, but yet Lucid; She has delusions about Reader, but not in the 'ah, yes. Reader loves me too.' She would be a little apprehensive at an uncaring Reader, after all, if you're not for plants, you must be against plants. For an uncaring Reader to work, Reader must be a plant lover. Poison Ivy would see this, and suddenly everything makes sense. She assumes that Reader puts up a fake persona so that Reader can care for plants in their free time, so that no one knows that Reader loves plants. She loves that about Reader, and that's why she gets obsessed. She wants to keep the only other plant lover in Gotham and protect them against the cold, cruel world. She would originally try a sporeling, but she misses the real you so that plan fails and that's why she would kidnap you. "Come here my Rosebud, the world is cruel. Let me be your mother, like Mother Earth."

Mad Hatter: His characteristics are Delusional, Self-Indulgent, Overprotective, and Clingy. Who truly knows why he started to care for you? Perhaps you reminded him of someone a little too much... Nevertheless, not what we are here to focus on. He would not be a stalkerish type, but he would delude himself into believing you love him like a father. He would not be afraid to use his mind control on you. As soon as he manages to get you under his control, you're screwed. You're gone from Gotham forever. He has been shown to be willing to do it before, with Alice. I think he would be willing to do it until he gets you to the safe house which looks a lot like one of the sets for Alice in Wonderland... He would be overprotective, scared that Batman would take away his kid, take away the few things in life he loves. "NO NO NO! Batman simply cannot take away my child too!"

Catwoman: She is Clingy, Manipulative, Impulsive. She has been shown to be someone with a ton of money, {Paying $10,000 dollars for a charity that she loves, a lot of money, period, but also for 1992} So I feel that she would be willing to use that against her kiddo, saying that it's okay for Reader to use her money, and then guilt tripping Reader {who, realistically, wouldn't give a shit, but I digress.} Into staying with her to pay off the debt. Her clingy and Impulsiveness is because of when she was involuntarily transformed into an animal, some things stayed the same, and now that she found her cub? Even Batman can't fight a wild animal for her kid. "Lioncub, why are you worried? Mommy's got enough money for the both of us."

[wisteriagoesvroom]

gax + corporate/law vibes + ‘The powerpoint was steadily taking over their relationship, something that Max was not willing to stand for.’

gax?? gax!!

power (you make some points): a gax ficlet

rated m, ~1.2k words now also readable on ao3

author babble:

bear in mind i wrote this before i knew more about the Gax Lore i.e. karting together, actually being nice to each other blablabla. you could also just retrofit the vibes and hopefully they still work. anyways!

will throw this up on ao3 when i’m not sitting bleary eyed in an airport

————

If there was one thing that Max Verstappen wouldn’t tolerate, it was George Russell having the monopoly on good PowerPoint presentations. Max had won all four years of debate in College, as well as the dubious title of “most radical deployment of Google Slides templates” at his MBA, and he was not about to be usurped by the other guy in his department who actually knew how to use an animate transition.

“You missed an indent there.” Max says, pointing at the monitor. Yellow and red lights wink at them from the outside, as if to say: you’re both in your mid-twenties, quit wasting it on a computer screen at 11pm on a Wednesday, maybe?

Max is not staring, very determined not to look at his teammate’s facial expression. But George is almost certainly rolling his eyes right now.

“Was coming back to that, alright?” George huffs back. Max is very professional most of the time. But something about how wound up George is, how insanely pedantic he is about everything from semicolons to coffee cup placement for the Directors to taking insanely detailed minutes that nobody except Max reads after the meetings – well. What is it that Nietschze once said? We hate in others what we most identify with about ourselves. Or was that from Twitter? Max does not really use Twitter except to look at Bloomberg News updates and cat videos, so he does not know. And anyway Nietzsche never made a six figure salary.

“It would just be easier if you would let me do it.” Max says.

“Fuck right off, mate.”

“Oh, wouldn’t you like me to.”

“Not now.”

“Just share the link to this. I’ll do it.”

“We agreed to take turns on this.”

“Yes, Russell. But sometimes, the rules are meant to be bent.”

George swivels his chair to Max, then. Fully attempts to pin him with his gaze, commencing an awkward stare-off that lasts way too many seconds and makes Max once again realise that George’s eyes remind him of the expensive fish tank he saw at the Partners’ sushi dinner once. Max doesn’t think those same fish were the ones they ended up eating. But he does remember that dinner because it was the one where the Partners had dangled the promise of a huge promotion if they could help carry the company merger across the line successfully. The problem is, there was only one spot.

George’s distracting aquatic orbitals aside, fortunately, Max (i) never backs down, and (ii) has been told that he has the dead-eyed emotional stare of a robot missing an empathy software upgrade sometimes.

And clearly, the powerpoint was steadily taking over their relationship, something that Max was not willing to stand for.

Max leans back in his chair, stance all mock-relaxed. “Do you want to be out of here before midnight, or not?”

“We’re expensing the Ubers either way, so it doesn’t make a difference to me, mate.”

Fine. If George is so hyperfocused on The Tasks that he��s forgotten the fun part of being Questionably Close Coworkers, so be it.

Max deploys the nuclear option.

He sticks his leg out, nudging the toe of his Pradas onto George’s slacks. And strokes his foot halfway up to a sensitive point on George’s thigh. Max may even flutter his lashes a little.

To his credit, George does not react. Merely swings his eyes like a lamp to Max’s face again. His hand does, however, goes still on the mouse.

“What exactly are you doing?”

“I don’t know.” Max feigns. He knows that George hates, more than anything, anyone getting dirt on his precious Ralph Laurens. But at least he has his attention now. “Was hoping we could move onto the more fun part of the typical evening activities. Maybe.”

“We shouldn’t be doing that again anyway.”

“George.”

“What?”

“That is not what you said the last, hm, fourteen times that we have done this, eh?”

“Who’s counting?”

“I thought you were the most careful of rule followers and data analysis, knapperd.”

George is a human being, but Max is almost certain the other man shakes himself like he’s preening right now.

“Well. It’s what the team likes me for, and it’s what I’ll keep doing.”

“Oh yes. Surely we must keep in mind the team. And the shareholders. They are very important.”

“Quite.”

“But should we tell them that you like it so much, George. When I do this.” Max says. Rising up, fully crowding George in, hands gripping the cool handles of the computer chair. Leaning in to nibble the side of George’s neck.

George swallows. Max watches his throat move.

Next, Max mouths the words onto the side of George’s jaw, stubble prickling his mouth. “And this.”

The click of the mouse continues steadily as Max moves his mouth to the shell of George’s ear. “And let’s not forget. This.”

Max tilts George’s face up fully, then. George’s face is flushed, eyes sparkling, all surprise at the sudden change of pace, but eager, too.

When Max seals his lips over George’s, George groans, and his hands shoot up to Max’s waist immediately. It doesn’t feel quite like winning a deal or a pitch does for Max, but the completion comes pretty damn close.

Max sweeps his tongue into George’s mouth. George opens willingly, like he always does. In the back of Max’s logical brain, a warning sign blares that the computer chair may not be able to support the weight of them both – because they spend a lot of time pretending they don’t work out together at the gym but Max knows exactly what George’s deadlift PB is and it’s pretty damn high for a scrawny looking dude.

And despite the keening protest of said chair, the two of them are both lost to it now. Max jams one knee between George’s legs, George nibbles hungrily at Max’s lower lip, Max thrusts his hips all needy, and maybe if Max is nice about it George might suck him off under the table, and–

Outlook chimes again.

“Blasted piece of shit.” George says, breaking away. His hands go still at Max’s waist. “Why we’re using G-Suite and Microsoft Office at the same time I will never know.”

George squeezes his eyes shut, as if making himself stop this is causing him physical pain. Maybe it’s that or the workflow incompatibility when George tries to move his custom Excel-Trello gantts into a third party API.

And Max won’t lie. He kind of likes it when George gets so irritated about these things. When he cares a bit too much. Because what is Max but exactly like that, too.

“Hazards of a merger, I guess. But without that, I would never have met you, no?”

George makes a noise like he knows what Max means. The other man straightens his shirt collar, and Max runs a hand through his hair. He’s been growing it out lately, because George had made a passing comment at the bathroom sink once about it looking good.

Sleeping with the person competing for the same Chief of Staff position is possibly the worst decision he could’ve made, and Max once dyed his hair platinum blonde. But, they’re stuck here together. Hell is a slightly more tolerable place when Satan’s right hand man looks this good. And knows his coffee order without asking.

Besides. Max is not bothered. He knows that the promotion is his. This is just a minor plot inconvenience.

Later, they will expense the uber back to George’s place, where Max will put his mouth on George’s arse, and give him a practical demonstration of the three different ways he’s learned to elicit pleasure from the male prostate.

George will whimper and whine the whole way through it, and after they’re both sated, they’ll both roll over to check their emails, barely concealing their smiles. They will pretend that what’s happening between them could be as clean as their zero-email inboxes. As if their connection is not violently seeping through containment.

All in the name of team bonding. For the firm. Yes.

(Or this is what they tell themselves, to maintain the illusion, anyway.)

[humanrindswrites]

scary movie

pairing: kirk hammett x female reader

summary: kirk's girl is a hardened horror veteran, just like him, but even veterans have their limits.

warnings: fluff, mentions of gore (they’re watching horror movies)

word count: 859 words

a/n: little factoid about me is that i love really gory movies but sexual violence is where my tolerance for extremity ends. also, if you've never seen cannibal holocaust just know that it has real scenes of animals being killed just for the sake of it. it's not a movie for the faint-hearted.

“So, what did you say this movie was called again?” Kirk asked as his girlfriend set up the VCR in the living room.

“Cannibal Holocaust,” she said once the machine was turned on and ready for the tape. “It got banned in England recently and the director got arrested in Italy because they thought he actually killed the actors.”

“Sounds gnarly,” he said as he took the videotape box from her. “Everything gets banned in England these days.”

“That’s true, they’d probably ban a movie because somebody got a paper cut.”

When Kirk first saw her in the video rental store, he thought maybe she was a beginner looking for something tame to watch with friends and could maybe find something that would get her jumping into his arms like a little lamb. Instead, he found out that she was just as much an expert as he was and liked her movies gory and borderline upsetting.

It was pretty much love at first sight for him.

She had her finger on the pulse for all the wild new movies coming from Europe and which ones were getting banned in Europe for being ‘harmful to children’ or some other ridiculous shit that some old people were saying. He was more versed in the classics but finding these scandalous new videos was something that he never really had the time to do anymore.

They made popcorn in the kitchen while the trailers played at the beginning of the tape, making it back just in time for the movie to start. The screen showed a beautiful sweeping shot of the Amazon rainforest set to a lush orchestral score, as if it was a nature documentary or a romance, lulling them into false security of what was to come.

When she’d originally told him that the movie was a nasty one, Kirk thought that she was just exaggerating. He’d seen some gory movies before but they’d never been as grisly and realistic as this. The two of them watched in stunned silence as people were killed, raped, beaten, and animals were slaughtered before their very eyes.

The videotape’s quality added to the horrifying visuals before them, making the carnage so much more disturbing than it likely was; the poor turtle’s exposed innards were spread across the screen as the eerie soundtrack screeched. Kirk had never expected her to jump into his arms during a movie, but he could feel her tense up and her fingers curl into fists against his chest with every brutal blow.

But no matter how extreme the scenes became, neither one of them could take their eyes away from the screen. Blood was spilt, brains were exposed, bodies were hacked to pieces, women were raped, and people were eaten. She’d promised Kirk a gnarly time and that was exactly what they’d gotten.

I wonder who the real cannibals are, the television said before the camera swept up into the New York City skyline and the credits rolled. They were both quiet until the tape stopped and Kirk picked up the remote from next to him to turn it off.

“You feeling okay?” he asked her. She usually had something to say once the movie had finished, but this time she was stunned into silence. “Hey, it’s only a movie.”

“I didn’t think they were going to kill real animals,” she said, her voice quiet. “I knew it was going to be gruesome, but nobody told me they killed the animals.”

“Aside from that, did you like the rest of the movie?” Kirk asked as he ran his hand up and down her arm.

“I don’t know. It’s something I need to think about. But I know I don’t want to watch it again.

“It wasn’t a Frankenstein flick, that’s for sure.”

“Nobody got raped in any version of Frankenstein as far as I remember.”

“Did you not like that part either?”

“No,” she said, a little louder than she’d intended. “I hate seeing girls get raped in movies. It’s why I hated The Last House on the Left.”

“Mm, that one was intense.”

“At least all of that was fake, not like this,” she said as she sat up and went over to take the videotape out of the VCR. “No wonder it got banned.”

“Are you saying you support movie censorship?” Kirk teased and stood up to help her clear away the dishes that had accumulated on the coffee table.

“I’m not saying that,” she said and playfully slapped him on the arm. “I’m just saying that I can see why people had such a strong reaction to it.”

“Maybe next week I’ll pick the movie so that we don’t watch poor turtles die.”

“What’d you have in mind?”

Kirk took her in his arms and thought for a second, humming in her ear and tapping his fingers on her shoulders for comedic effect.

“How about I Spit on Your Grave?”

“Okay, now you’re just teasing me,” she said as she broke out of his arms and took the dishes into the kitchen.

“Hey, you’re the one who always picks the hardcore stuff, I thought you’d like it!”

[anewp0tat0]

yea no I lied, I couldn't leave before doing this cause obviously I'm obsessed. obviously.

here's what I could research about the staff highlighted to be working on Black Butler season 4 in the time and patience that I had right now.

Kenjiro Okada: Director

I did some casual gathering on the good ol Wik. I don't recognize a lot or any of the previous works that he has been a part of, but it is a plenty some, so feel free to take a look for yourself. for a better idea, I took a glance at him through IMBD as well. I gotta be honest, not to cause any concern but just to be blunt, it's not the best look. when briefly checking out the works that he's done, a good some of them only make it up to 6 stars. only a few actually make it up to 8. but of course this could be due to a couple different factors, such as the source materials being not well known, or just not that great to begin with. after all he works mainly with adaptation. this could be his big break idk maybe :>

further on that, here's something I borrowed from Wiki.

honestly, this could be a potential concern as well. we all know that an unfortunate part of the fandom, especially over in japan, is into things the rest of us would rather not see in anime. I don't know why else yana would continue to add fan-service time and time again(I'd rather not think of her personal preferences). so if this person is really interested in pandering to the fanbase, it may lead to some scenes being uncomfortable... as usual. but, I shouldn't focus on the negative, all in all this looks like it will be a good thing! all we want from an anime adaptation is for it to be faithful to the manga, and especially after season 1 and 2, I think this assurance is much needed. besides, this could be an indication that he will be working closely with Yana, and projects that do so have succeeded *points to campania*. I'm optimistic, and I sure hope that we're in good hands.

Hiroyuki Yoshino: Head Writer

so unless I'm looking at a different Hiroyuki Yoshino it looks like this guy is a voice actor and singer first... interesting. as far as I can see it, he hasn't voice acted anyone in Black Butler.

oh no yea completely different guy, my bad! very different. the Real Hiroyuki Yoshino(screenwriter) was the screenwriter for Book of the Atlantic! sorry. we're all good here, perfect in fact.

unless he decides to substitute someone else for the double charles :] I still remember that. I don't remember if they're in this arc and personally I wanna keep it that way.

more info.

Yumi Shimizu: Character design

I'm not really jumping out of my seat to research this one, no offense to the designer, but I don't think we'll be seeing much character design other than Yana's. as for the artistic style of the anime, we already saw the teaser, and I think we're happy(I am really trilled that they released the announcement at the same time as the teaser, the announcement alone would not have had the same huge impact. plus it reduces the fear of cancelation ;] not putting that out there).

more info.

Ryo Kawasaki: Music

this is someone I really wanted to look into cause the music will matter a lot to me.

I found it, here's the soundtrack for the upcoming season 4.

with a background of jazz and band(popularizes to fusion genre apparently), this guy doesn't appear to fit with previous Black Butler soundtrack history. but I think that this is an indication that the mood and music of this season may be different of the rest due to it now being a sports show lol. and I think that's good! if done right I think the tone change will be hilarious, or, if everyone hates it, it's easily distinguishable from the rest.

I think this will be fun. here's more. also he looks awesome. impressive guy. man I'm praying for a killer new opening GOD.

I still wonder who the composer for the more classical score that I saw in the teaser is, if not him. it was nice :>

and finally:

CloverWorks

they're doing Spy X Family, did The Promised Neverland, Shadow House, many more that even I know of, we're good!

their page

a lot of y'all are very savvy at research, so if anyone wants to add on or contradict, go ahead! have a very, lovely day, everyone.

[foggywiz4rd]

Maybe this sounds random, but on Tik Tok I saw a lot of people using AI to make their Arcane lookalike character, and I just wanted to say that if you do so you didn't understand anything this show offers.

The quality of Arcane comes obviously from a really good writing but also from the amazing  character designs, worldbuilding choices, scene composition and obviously animation; those are works that take a lot of fucking time to the amazing artists, animators and directors, and using a technology that actively threatens this working positions is not only disrespectful but also stupid. Actively feeding AI with the unique artstyle of arcane is first of all helping this abomination evolve into becoming even more precise in stealing and copying specifics artworks, and also it's teaching it how to replicate Arcane lookalike art pieces that could be used to mass produce merch or prints putting a profit in the pockets of the wrong people; not only that but since we live in a time where profits are basically the only interest to big companies, who can guarantee us that once the AI products are good enough they will not be used for the actual series and products. I know that right now it doesn't seem like a possibility for this franchise because it has given us a genuine and fantastic work of art, but seeing what is happening in the world of animation (thinking for exaple Disney pushing only corporations slabs such as live action remakes or souless films, Pixar employees given less and less creative liberty, DreamWorks Co founder Katzemberg basically declaring that animators can be replaced by AI, and all the strikes the animators in the USA are doing because of the inadequate salaries and threatens to their positions) it's not an impossible scenario, maybe the fact that the arcane/league animation projects are done by a studio based in France, [were because of EU regulations AI is more limited (kinda, but also not really lol)], can keep it safe for now, but I wouldn't be so sure about it in the future.

This is to say that there are real people in the animation industry wich are suffering the direct consequences of the capitalistic mentality of their executives, and the real threat of AI replacing their labor, you chosing to use this technology is only giving this capitalist machine free fuel.

Also it's insulting to the amazing visual work done in the show, the art of animation is finally taking a different path in big industries than the iperrealism of Disneys 3D backgrounds; let's think about Spiderverse by sony, or the lates Ninja Turtles by nickelodeon, or even better Nimona, finally there has been a path of experimentation with this form of art recognized by the general pubblic, and Arcane is yet another example of this new and diverse path. The characters flow in the scenes, everyone of them has a unique style of combat reflecting their personality, the use of color as symbols but also as enanchment of the scenes, the raw strokes and blurred edges, the use of light to convey the scenes depth, the character designs, the writing, it's a work of art, a humanmade work of art, not one done by some click on a computer and a prompt. This is a tipe of work that an AI should struggle to replicate, it easy for an artificial intelligence to remake a Disney 3D style, because it's clean, boring and all the same therefore it's easy for a company like that to start rely on this technology to feed us with all the more shit ass stories and all the same animations, let's not make it easy for an AI to replicate something like Arcane, let's not feed this machine great material to steal and reuse to take away work from the people who give us this masterpieces in the first place.

Without obviously starting the discourse about how harmful it is for the environment, but this post is already a chapter, so maybe another time.

Section with spoilers:

Last thing is I saw a girl talking about the artstyle choices in the scene where Viktor and Jayce destroy the excore, where the excore products are all kinda fucked up and uncanny like something an AI could make, and then where the two of them fucking explode (rip to them I'll miss those gay boys) everything becomes more flat like a traditional human made drawing. So maybe the glorious evolution of mankind through AI it's a lot like how it's portraid in the show: souless, all the same, lacking personal freedom of choice and creativity, therefore if we put on our thinking caps maybe it's not the best path to go down. I dunno I just wanted to throw it out there because it fits a lot.

Just my thoughts. If there are grammatical errors I'm sorry, but clearly I don't want to use an AI to correct them lol.

[dokidokitsuna]

I f-finally cleared all the palettes in Side Order...( ＿ ＿)ノ*collapses*

If you don't know what you're in for with Eight's Palette, I won't spoil it for you. All I'll say is that its particular mechanic is very evil and very challenging, and getting through it once was quite enough for me, thanks. ^^;;; I look forward to climbing the spire for funzies and grinding for Prlz with the easy weapons from now on. 👍

I'm a little disappointed that the ordeal didn't end up giving any additional relevance to Agent 8's character...I liked seeing the backstory of [spoiler] but I don't see what that has to do with Eight's Palette (i.e. their identity, memory, and soul) in any significant way. ._. It seems the directors' burgeoning habit of throwing fan-favorite character backstories into random places because "we gotta reveal 'em somewhere" persisted in Side Order after all. :/

Anyway, I guess I shouldn't have expected much-- at this point, it's pretty clear that the Agents are more or less blank slates, which fits with their highly-customizable nature. It just irks me that the story very often treats them as if they are actual characters, piling on depth and trivia and yet never allowing them to develop.

It's hard to feel anything about Agent 8 befriending Off the Hook when they have very little discernible personality...the same way I felt nothing when I saw that Agent 3 (original) became the new Captain. At most my reactions to these things are just "that's cute, I guess" and it's starting to bother me...Nintendo games are full of silent, blank-slate protagonists, and yet Splatoon is the only series I know that treats them so weirdly. If you insist on trying to give them continuous storylines, maybe show them doing something in-game besides following orders, staring blankly, and being vaguely nice? Like, it wouldn't take much to properly characterize them; just a couple seconds of expressive animation here and there would be more than enough.

It hurts most with Eight because they have a LOT of depth. There's so much you could do with a character like them, with their origins and past, and established goals...they're supposed to be an amnesiac, for crying out loud! And yet they feel no different from Agent 3 (new), who doesn't have any of those character details. So what's the point, then??

When Side Order was first announced, I assumed that Agent 8 was the protagonist again for a reason, something beyond "they just happened to be the first person Marina chose". If they were replaced with Agent 3 or Agent 4 or a totally new character, it would barely affect the story, and that's...disappointing. I'd still rate the game mode a 10/10, but I definitely expected more.

[artsywriter25]

Let’s talk about Kung Fu Panda 4

Okay, so we finally got some updates on KFP4, the plot, the director and what to expect to see in the film. My reaction to this is….mix.

On one hand, I’m so happy we got something! But on the other hand, I’m just really nervous and I don’t like this deflated feeling. So I’m writing this out to share my thoughts and wanting to hear what the fandom thinks. I’ll try not to make this too long or sound like a rant, I’m going straight to the point and talk about the good and bad about KFP4.

=

So first let’s talk about the director: Mike Mitchell

……Oh boy.

Ok I’m not gonna give the guy any crap, I’m willing enough to give him a chance. Yes I know he directed Trolls, but he also directed Shrek Forever After. I looked back at that movie after The Last Wish and it’s not really that bad. It was actually sweet and serious in some parts. And that’s what I hope this director will do, have the 4th film at least serious in some parts and don’t make it too goofy or jokey where it feels awkward.    

Now on to the story and this is the best way I can summarize this from a few articles I’ve read:

“ Po is getting promoted to be the spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace, but he has to choose someone to take his place as the new Dragon Warrior. He catches a theft fox who he could see potential in their skills but they don’t get along. But Then a Chinese sorcerer known as ‘The Chameleon’, has summon Po’s past villains from the dead. Now Po and his (student?) must journey together and stop this new villain. ”  

So judging by the information that we got, it sounds like many years have passed since the third movie. Po becoming leader actually worries me because it’s probably hinting that Master Shifu may pass away and now Po has to take his responsibilities (This is just a guess so sorry Shifu fans!).  

There is also this fox character they have mention in the articles which they can’t seem to get the name right and they keep flipping their gender. First it was misspelled as Shen, then it was Chen and Zhen so I’m just gonna call them Fox for now on.

I wonder what kind of story arc will they give Fox. What’s their backstory? What kind of lessons they must learn? Does Po see himself in them or are they both different with different views? These are some questions I hope they answer. Giving Po a student to teach was a direction I theorized DreamWorks will go down and I’m glad they did. The trilogy had Po as a student, now taking the role of masterful teacher, it make sense to passed down those experiences to someone. I can really image the funny shenanigans they can get in to, along with the Furious Five. I think it would have been awesome if they each had a student too and they all come together fighting the villains with the skills they were taught. If there’s one thing I’m really worried about is the Five getting pushed aside for this new character or Fox ending up being a perfect character. Have Fox be flawed, have them be a kid we can relate and root for and something that the kids will like too.

Now let’s talk about my most favorite thing of all: THE VILLAINS!!!

OH MY GOD MY FANGIRL IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER! TAI LUNG, SHEN AND KAI ARE COMING BACK!! AND I DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS A GOOD OR BAD THING!!??

I am shock, like I never expected they go down this route. Story wise, I understand why the three shouldn’t come back as they served their purpose as villains, but no, they are bringing them all back. A actual animation studio is listening and giving the fans what they wanted??

DreamWorks must be watching their fandoms, that’s the only explanation I can think of. They must have saw all of our fanarts and fanfics and went like “Oh damn, they really love are villains…you know what, let’s bring them back.”

So how will this affect the story? I honestly don’t know, maybe Fox has to learn all body, mind, and spirit in order to help Po and the Five.

Now what I’m really surprised is they choose a chameleon to be the forth villain. I did some research this morning, and there’s not that many species that look intimidating. But if they could make a peacock threatening, I’m sure they can make a chameleon threatening too. I even looked up about sorcerers in China and I think they meant shamans. Chinese shamans are known to be wizards or spirit mediums, this could mean the Chameleon may have some connection to the spirit realm, which I hope they explored more on. I read some of this under Wikipedia, its very interesting.

=

And that’s all I have to say for Kung Fu Panda 4. I am a little worry for this film but I’m not gonna get worked up about it, I’m gonna stay positive that it will work and I’m sure it will. The only thing that could save this film is the animation. I think KFP is perfect for that hybrid spiderverse animation.  

But what do you guys think and are you still excited for the sequel?? If you wanna discuss anything about this I’m all ears. 

[adamwatchesmovies]

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

The worst thing you can say about Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is that it occasionally spends more time sowing seeds than dealing with its current story. That's not so bad considering its emotional weight, visuals/special effects, performances (let’s remind ourselves again of how much of what we see had to be imagined by the actors when they were shooting) and the conclusion.

Many generations after War for the Planet of the Apes, humans have become feral and apes have formed multiple independent societies. An encounter with a human scavenger (played by Freya Allan) forces a chimpanzee named Noa (Owen Teague) to wander outside his village, where he encounters a group of armed apes headed towards his home. He rushes back, but arrives too late. His father has been killed and everyone else taken captive. As Noa tracks his clan in hopes of rescuing them, “Nova” (they call all the human females Nova) follows him.

Kingdom lasts 145 minutes. Even with that ample running time, it doesn't feel like everything introduced is fully explored by the end. The villain, for instance. Bonobo Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) is the self-proclaimed king of the apes and is forcibly assembling them under his rule. We get a good feel for what sort of ape he is, but not enough for us to hate him… even though I think we're supposed to. This new Caesar wants to open this huge, armored door on the side of a cliff. He’s convinced that inside are weapons and knowledge that will allow apes to forever maintain the hold they've gained on the world. Conveniently, getting this knowledge will allow him to continue ruling. Is he power-hungry? Maybe, but there's something about him that's oddly compelling. He’s weirdly charismatic, but it's also that the rightful owners of that vault - humans - are less entitled to it now. Cities are almost completely overgrown. Skyscrapers have been transformed into unusually tall, rectangular mountains covered in vegetation. You see remnants of our civilization here and there, but can’t imagine how it could come back. You wonder if it even should. Apes and other animals have had to endure mankind’s wild ambitions for generations. If it’s so wrong for Proximus - whether he’s good or evil - to have the contents of that vault, then why were humans allowed to create it?

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes feels like two movies that bleed into each other. The first is Noa's quest. The second is a more philosophical story about how we - as partial outsiders - should feel about the world. While searching for his “people”, Noa gains a greater understanding of what role humans played in the planet’s past. Some of the questions that arise have a big impact on him and Nova, but an even bigger impact on us. 

This 10th Planet of the Apes (all of which I think are worth seeing a minimum of one time) ends on a more optimistic note than most of the chapters in this franchise, but I wouldn’t say that it’s a happy ending. It’s uncertain. I’m also going to call it inconclusive, which is a bit frustrating. Then again, the film is well-made, so you don’t feel like it’s just stringing you along. There’s a bigger story being told here, too big for just one movie. I'm willing to wait to see what it is. Am I being generous because of past experiences? Partially, yes, but the fact is, writer Josh Friedman and director Wes Ball want us to sit back and think. There aren’t a lot of big-budget, special-effects-heavy films that do that anymore and I’d like to see it happen more often. Plus, there’s the technical craft on display. I have no idea how much of this film was done on the computer, and how much was done in-camera. Well, the apes, obviously, but when it comes to the backgrounds/environments, I have no idea.

I also continue to admire this series for the way that it manages to make non-human characters so easy to relate to. Before Kingdom, I saw a trailer for Mufasa and was reminded of the live-action Disney Lion King remake from a few years ago. The animals we saw there were these brick walls spouting human-like dialogue. Despite top-notch computer imagery, the whole thing felt fake. The apes we meet in this film feel real.

When Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes shows off its lush forests growing out of decaying cities, you’re happy to let your eyes wander. When it explores the ape civilizations, you’re eager to see more so you can understand how it all works. It propels you through the locations with a relatable story whose conclusion is not what you’d expect (not entirely) by asking surprisingly thoughtful questions about whose planet this is, and who it belongs to. Combined with the performances and special effects that just keep getting better and better, it may not be the best of the new Apes films, but it doesn't feel like a continuation without a purpose. I foresee myself revisiting Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes in the future, particularly when the next chapter comes around. (Theatrical version on the big screen, May 20, 2024)

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Estimated $100m second weekend for INSIDE OUT 2... Really out here breaking some records, eh? Rare for a movie, and the first time for an animated movie, should the estimates be on the low end. Very possible the actual is like $98-99m, which is still very impressive, and only an approx. 35% drop.

If it gets over $100m over the three-day, it'll sit with all-timers THE FORCE AWAKENS, ENDGAME, INFINITY WAR, BLACK PANTHER, JURASSIC WORLD, and THE AVENGERS...

Really shows that the original INSIDE OUT is beloved after its blockbuster run in 2015, and it shows that audiences quite like this movie and are back for more. Might even make a play for INCREDIBLES 2's $608m domestic total, unadjusted of course. (The actual total in today's ticket prices is around $720m, per The-Numbers.) That would make it the highest-earning animated movie domestically, but right now, Pixar's Supers hold that title. Adjusted, it will always belong to SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS.

But if anybody was gonna beat Pixar, it was gonna be Pixar. I don't see another studio getting a shot at this, maybe except cousin studio Disney Animation and their MOANA 2... Or DreamWorks if SHREK 5 really lands like a meteor in a few years from now.

Worldwide, INSIDE OUT 2 sits at $724m. Again, within two weeks of release. Already circling the original's $857m take. (Before anyone says it, the film saw a small re-release in July 2020 that pushed the take to... $858m. Know that I refer to original release grosses, lol.)

And with this movie doing so well, I see all the Chicken Little-ing... Over the wrong problem.

"We're NEVER getting an original movie from this studio again"

Okay... Let me try to debunk this.

I don't think an animation studio of this size can feasibly ONLY make sequels, because eventually... Wells run dry. Also, the people who yell this often online... Are they aware that ELIO exists and will be released next summer? Are they aware that Domee Shi, director of TURNING RED, has a new movie in the works at Pixar? (It's not ELIO, she is likely just doing story/script on that one.) Are they aware that Pixar has a movie slotted for release in late winter 2026 between ELIO and TOY STORY 5?

I'll tell you something funny... There was a fellow who insisted to me in December 2015 that Pixar was going to be done with original movies after THE GOOD DINOSAUR became the studio's first money-loser. That they'd put COCO on hold, and that would be it... LOL. This person also claimed to be a shareholder... That speaks volumes.

But no, really... You need to keep making untested or original movies in order to have things to make sequels to in the first place. And one of Pixar's recent losses was... A spin-off of TOY STORY featuring a version of one of their most recognizable, practically synonymous-with-their-name characters. Yeah, that epic movie about Lenny the binoculars!

So, please... Never making originals again? That's just a bad business plan and completely not feasible.

When originals/non-sequels don't meet the corporations' expectations (because I refuse to call SOUL, LUCA, TURNING RED and ELEMENTAL "flops" in any way, shape, or form... *Especially* the first three), the studios don't stop making them... They stop making them in a specific way.

Hence, Pete Docter - likely with Bob Iger pointing a gun at his head - saying Pixar won't make "autobiographical" movies anymore. Basically no more TURNING REDs, and more... Well, whatever the early 2026 movie is going to be. (Which is not this "Ducks" thing people keep insisting it is, as far as I know.)

The other studios do that, too. Off the top of my head... DreamWorks had a bunch of these fantasy movie in the works circa 2011. Stuff like THE GRIMM LEGACY, RUMBLEWICK, ALMA, fantastical stories with something of a darker bent to them. They were also considering adapting GIL'S ALL FRIGHT DINER... They had all these really cool movies in the works that would've redefined what a DreamWorks movie could be, post-SHREK. And then after a movie called RISE OF THE GUARDIANS lost money (even though it had good legs and became a cult hit thereafter), all of it never happened. ME AND MY SHADOW, which was in some form of production and was HOTLY anticipated by the animation community, got canceled. They proceeded to finish TURBO and MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN.

Both of which also "flopped"... I remember Jeffrey Katzenberg, when he was still running that place, saying something to the tune of: "Well those failed because we tried to aim at preteens and teenagers." Really? TURBO and PEABODY, which were overpriced to begin with, were aiming for that age group? The plan going forward was "We're going to make movies for kids and their parents." Whatever the hell that meant. Eventually, Comcast bought DreamWorks, a little over a year later. And the flightplan constantly changed after that.

Studios don't give up on movies that aren't sequels, they just re-route them. They find "reasons" for previous movie failures, and usually it's the fault of the filmmakers and the stories they chose to tell. It's never any outside circumstances, which are actually often the case with money-losing movies. The very movies that go on to be big on home video and streaming, and attain cult followings. With today's line of thinking, Walt Disney wouldn't have even gotten past PINOCCHIO's disastrous original release results.

So instead of yelling "we'll never get original movies again", I direct my energy elsewhere... And I say "Well, hopefully the future movies - both original and sequel - don't fall flat because of needless executive interference that attempts to *correct* a perceived problem." That to me is the issue, not the fantasy of Pixar completely stopping making original movies altogether.

[hayffiebird]

Taste of Strawberries, chap. 40 (part two)

Author’s note: TRIGGER WARNING for mentions of eating disorder, suicidal ideations, animal cruelty and sexual assault.

Forgive me for any typos. I am really tired!

Hayffie Post-Mockingjay Multi-chapter, Rated M

Four years have passed since the end of the war when Effie returns in to Haymitch’s life once again. An old friendship is renewed. Will it lead to something more?

Meanwhile Panem has entered a new era. The rebellion’s over, the borders are open but in the shadows, anger and mistrust are smoldering. Something that will affect Haymitch and Effie’s life in a way they never saw coming.

Chapter 40

The writing on the wall (part two)

“When we graduated from the Academy,” Annabel continued her story, “Effie was dead-set on becoming a licensed architect. For years, that’s all she ever talked about. But her father contacted my father. Asked if he could pull a few strings. Recommend his daughter for an escort position. An outline district would be absolutely fine. And then they gave her the good news like a sort of … early birthday present. One she could not return without breaking their hearts.

I had no idea what I wanted. Most of the time I just longed back to our Academy days. Those years remain some of the happiest of my life. Before I met June. It was Effie and I against the world. I even got smitten for the first time. A girl in our year with wild, curly, jet black hair. And the school, while strict, was also my ticket out of Cordelia’s little kingdom, or so I thought.

All the Snow children were homeschooled. Like most of the prominent ultra-rich families. Especially the daughters, destined for marriage rather than higher studies. But my father was adamant. His girls wouldn’t sit and wait until someone proposed. We would get a proper, thorough tuition first and embark on a fine career of some sort. So, first the Academy – then the University, just like he once did.

Pallas and Apollo’s Academy were boarding schools back then. ‘Give them to us young and they are ours forever’ was the motto. So even though I’d still see Cordelia during each Games, I’d only ever leave the school’s stone walls for the occasional holiday. With me tucked away, I thought, some other girl would take my place and I’d fade from Cordelia’s memory.

After graduation I moved back home again. All of us children were expected to stay at the Flickermansion until we were properly married off.

Father was present and he wasn’t. He outsourced everything. Nannies to dress us, chefs to feed us, housekeepers to clean up our mess. I think I joined The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – father’s house band, playing the trumpet because then at least I’d see him and not through a television screen.

He wasn’t a bad father. He loved us deeply. He just didn’t really have time to have five daughters. Especially after mother died. I believe he always tried to do what was best for us. But how can you really know what that is when you hardly ever see each other? Especially in a society that teaches you to push down every bad feeling that arises.

I had been home for just a couple of weeks when father summoned me to his office. Said he had some great news. I was betrothed.

‘Clearly you’ve made a good impression’, he said. ‘Cordelia asked for you herself. Her parents have blessed it. A fall wedding. How would you like that?”

I always knew I’d be married off eventually. To the daughter of a coal mining tycoon or maybe an award-winning up-and-coming director like Cressida. A match viewed as mutually beneficial for both families. But unlike many parents in the Capitol my father, our father, promised the five of us that we’d all have a say in who we got engaged to. He’d never sentence us to a forced marriage.

But in these matters he had no choice. And we both knew it. You didn’t say no to Snow.

‘This is the best thing that could’ve happened, Bee,” he said. ‘We couldn’t have hoped for a better match. The merging of the families … We’ll be related to the most powerful man in Panem.’

What he didn’t say, not in so many words, were the dangers of declining such a generous offer. If I so much as hesitated it would be questions. My wavering could set a ball rolling that we had no means to control.

After that, I was to spend all my Saturdays with Cordelia. At the mansion, closely chaperoned of course. All while the Snows and the Flickermans made arrangements for our three day wedding.”

She wet her lips, a vacant look in her eyes much like Effie when she shared a painful memory.

“I could never quite tell if she really was gay like me or just wanted something soft and submissive to use at her own fancy. Like the animals. Either way, I knew that once we were married she could beat me and enjoy me as she pleased and there was nothing I could do about it. Not without risking my family.

I didn’t know it then but looking back, I was clinically depressed by that point. Save those mandatory Saturdays I isolated myself from everyone, even Effie. Kept to the Flickermansion as much as possible. I’d counted calories on and off for years but it wasn’t until my engagement that the habit really escalated. Triggered an addition of sorts. I could control little else in my life but I could control what I ate. Or didn’t ate.

Weight loss is glorified in the Capitol. Praised no matter how you achieved it. People want to know your secret. Calls you morphling chic. But for me, it was never really about being thinner or looking a certain way. I doubt it ever really is, at the core if you have this disease.

First I thought I had control over it. This ‘weight journey’ of mine in lack of a better word. But once I reached my goal I started negotiate and bargain the finish line, pushed it further and further ahead. Because it was never really about the weight.

It was a system I built up, to protect myself from anxiety. To manage my feelings. It would just be me and anorexia sitting in a room and then it wouldn’t matter that I was alone and unhappy, facing a future I dreaded.

I had a hard time showing up for meals. To eat in front of people in general. I felt like everyone was watching me but if I missed too many dinners my sisters would ask questions.

So it became this destructive cycle of starving myself and then binge-eat as a response which triggered panic attacks so strong I went and drank Evermore drops to make myself vomit, only to tumble into a pit of self-loathing for wasting good food and so I was right back to not eating again.

And then there were still my Saturdays with Cordelia. For someone who apparently ‘asked for me herself’ she couldn’t care less about the wedding plans being made over our heads. We never really talked about it, but she spent more and more time with the animals and during the last weeks of her life she practically lived in the Asphodel Meadow.

It was really just another room, with the same twenty-foot-high walls but it had a force field, mimicking an open green plain, distant mountains and the wide blue sky.

Cordelia owned only one animal bigger than herself. A pony. I called her Boo for short and she was the fairest, mildest, most sweet-muzzled creature you ever saw. A cream colored, freckled Connemara who loved sugar. I always made sure to bring a few cubes in my dress pocket in the hopes that I might slip her some.

The Asphodel Meadow was an equestrian centre laid out with horse jumping obstacles and this is where she lived. Boo. I never got to ride her myself but I braided her mane, groomed her, cleaned her hooves. Minor things that bored Cordelia.

She was a fine rider. Had been on horseback since she was a toddler. She was supposed to always wear a helmet and never ride bareback but she hardly ever followed those rules.

One morning when I got there she was in a foul mood. I never did learn why but she took Boo out before she was saddled and ready. Didn’t care what anyone else had to say. Just grabbed the whip and swung herself onto the horse’s back.

I’d seen her hurt Boo before but never like that. She was livid. The people who worked the stable tried to rein her in but Cordelia ignored their every attempt. Furious, her and Boo soared over the jumping obstacles and either you got out of her way or you got run down.

Then something happened with the force field. To this day I don’t know what it was. If somewhere a fuse had blown or there was a power cut or someone simply turned it off but there was a sharp zapping sound and in an instant the Mind Flight was gone. Nothing left but the real ceiling, the high walls with no doors unlocked but the ones leading you back into the depths of the mansion.

The reaction from Cordelia was instantaneous. She shrieked with fury and slammed the whip down, harder and harder. Yelled at Boo to go faster. Punished her, I think, for everything wrong in her life. Whipped her bloody until I screamed at her to stop.

Finally crazed with pain and terror the horse bolted. The servants could not control her. Neither could Cordelia. She shouted at the mare but the animal was beyond reach. All the girl could do was drop the whip and clutch on to Boo’s mane. Grip her with her knees. She couldn’t even throw herself off at such sped without breaking bones, without being trampled.

Panicked, I watched it play out. Frozen like the first time she kissed me. And then Boo crashed into the vertical poles of a nearby obstacle. Cordelia flew forward and slammed into the ground, head-first.

The room was in an uproar. People running wild. Some for Boo, most of them for the young woman. All I did was stare at one of her boots, twitching with what little life still left in her. She’d broken her neck. By the time the doctor arrived she was already gone.

The next few days were a haze. I was in shock. Numb. Scared too. Scared over what might happen to my family. I know father called for an emergency meeting. A meeting we children had no part of, of course. It wasn’t hard to guess what the topic was. ‘What we will do if miss Cordelia’s death is blamed on Annabel’. As if any words or actions on our part would make the slightest difference if Snow decided to rain his fury down on us.

In the end, Cordelia’s fate was ruled a tragic accident. Capitol News made a glorious tribute about president Snow’s oldest daughter. ‘The free spirit and lover of animals. A fine rider heading toward a brilliant future when taken to young.’

I never forgot Snow’s face at the funeral. Hard-lined. Unsmiling. A white rose in his lapel. Very controlled and yet I couldn’t escape the feeling that on the inside he was dancing. Because a problem of his had been solved in an unexpected yet welcomed way. A bad leaf snipped off of an otherwise glorious rose.

And I lay awake at night wondering if I was much better. Wondered during those bleak, dark, sleepless hours if the real reason I did nothing when Cordelia died was because a part of me wanted her dead, wanted to be rid off her.

What kind of person was I for being more upset about Boo having to be put down than I was a dead girl. A girl probably feeling just as trapped and caged as I was, only more. If I could wave a wand and bring her back to life, would I? Would I really?

Not a week after the funeral, the citizens of the Capitol had already gotten on with their lives.

Not me.

I hadn’t seen Effie in ages. Hardly ever returned her calls. So when we finally did meet up at her place she noticed how much I’d changed physically, unlike my family who saw me every day. And I could pretend in front of my father and my sisters but not Effie. In the end, I told her everything.

About Cordelia. About my anxiety attacks. That I didn’t know how to eat normally anymore and that the only thing I could hope to achieve with my pathetic little existence was help continue Snow’s Games through my father’s name. All the things I never told a living soul. I could see how concerned she got. ‘I think we should talk to your father’, she said but I made her swear not to tell anyone. Not ever!

I already regretted opening up. Effie wanted to meet up again after that but I dodged her suggestions of when and where.

A week of this and my father took me aside again. Only this time, he came to me. For ten dreadful seconds I feared he’d announce another marriage candidate but that wasn’t it at all.

Effie Trinket had come to see him. Told him she was worried. Deeply worried. About me. That I seemed depressed. That I wasn’t eating.

I’ve never felt so betrayed. So deceived. I trusted her with my secrets and my darkness and she fed me to the wolves. The only real friend I thought I had in the Capitol.

So then our house doctor paid us a visit, I got my diagnosis and from that moment on everything changed.

Anorexia is a symptom of a larger problem but people thing the problem lies with the food. If only you start eating again you’ll be healthy and happy. So why aren’t you eating? Just eat!

So I started hiding my behavior – the sick ways in which I ate and it infected every ritual, every habit, surrounding food. Even with eyes on me, I hid parts of my meal in the napkin, smeared the gravy out across my plate, found ways to get my hands on Evermores and burned the bloody tissues in the open fireplace.

With each broken rule the grip on me grew tighter and tighter. My going to the dining hall was now mandatory. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, closely supervised by nurses employed by my father. And their obsessive-compulsive counting of calories only fed the existing problem, like petrol on a fire. I couldn’t use the bathroom without someone standing outside the door. They locked me in at night with guards at the door. Put bars on the windows so I couldn’t escape for a nocturnal run around the garden.

Ten days of this and I snapped. Completely. Called Effie. Screamed at her until my voice gave out. Told her I never wanted to see her again. That I’d never forgive her for doing this to me.

With Effie cut from my life, everything got even more unbearable. A month went by. Two. I was literally a prisoner at my father’s mansion. Like Cordelia. I don’t think my family trusted me outside those walls and they were right. There must have been questions about my empty chair in the house band but I guess father came up with an acceptable excuse. A secret passion project perhaps.

Finally, the hospital had to get involved. I was literally wasting away before my family’s eyes. Way beyond what even the Capitol considered attractive and still losing pound after pound.

This was the last resort. Executed in the biggest of secrecy. Father wanted as little bad publicity about me as possible after what happened with Cordelia. To protect me in his own way. I didn’t put up a fight. Was nothing I could do. Either I checked myself in to their psych ward voluntarily or I’d be committed against my will just the same.

My father never called. Never visited. Neither did my sisters. Looking back I believe they trusted that I was in good hands. That interfering would only hinder my progress. But at the time I felt nothing but utter and complete abandonment. That the outside world had finally forgotten me and wasn’t that what I always wanted?

Days passed. Weeks. Medicines. Therapy. Enteral nutrition pumped into my body. We were eight patients at my ward. Eight pale little ghosts floating around. Nurses and the occasional doctor filled the halls at all time. I didn’t care what they did to me. Didn’t care about anything anymore. Well, not quite. I was waiting. For my first day pass. One day outside those walls. Just an hour would do. So I could slip some garden rocks into my coat pockets and walk straight out into the River Theseus.

So outwardly, I co-operated. Did what they asked. Told them what they wanted to hear. But inside, I’d withdrawn so far into my numb little shell I might as well already be dead. The only thing that got me going during those first few weeks was visualizing the quiet, deep river. Over and over again.

But then, there came a letter. First and only time I ever got one at the ward. And I didn’t have to turn it over to know who sent it. I’d recognize that careful handwriting anywhere. The nurse who first brought it to me, stood with me as I read. Hours after I’d mustered up enough courage to do so.

Sweet Effie. It was as if all of my dark thoughts had somehow lit a beacon. A beacon so large she was able to see the smoke rising into the sky all the way from her apartment.

The nurses got a call through to her for me and an hour later she arrived in the little room for family and friends.

One look at her was all it took. Even after everything I said during that awful phone call months ago, her blue eyes held nothing but love and I completely fell apart. Her arms encircled me and I cried. More than cried. Wailed. Like a child sitting at the bottom of a well with no way to get up.

She helped me to the couch so my knees wouldn’t give out. Tears streamed down my face. I couldn’t even get any words out. Words of forgiveness, most of all. But I didn’t have to. She understood anyway. And she just held me. Caressed my back, my hair with quiet soothing sounds. Like I were a baby in her arms. She stayed with me for as long as she was allowed to. When they came to take me away and I started trembling she squeezed my hands and said, ‘Tomorrow.’

A fresh wave of pain filled Annabel’s eyes, but not for the reason Haymitch imagined.

“I didn’t know it then,” she said, “but she was already pregnant by that point. I was still on the inside when she gave birth to her boy, months later. We’ve never really talked about it since but I wonder sometimes. If I hadn’t ended our friendship when I did, right in the middle of her tender first time as escort in the Games … If I never said the things I did, would she have come to me instead of going to that party.”

“Not your fault,” said Haymitch. “Effie would never blame you. You want a culprit, that’s Kane.” And, with a heat behind it that made the hairs on his arms stand: “Sexual assault. That’s what it was. Doesn’t matter if he didn’t literally force himself onto her, it’s still fucking rape!”

He’d given it a lot of thought ever since Effie first told him and the more he did, the more he felt he wouldn’t mind jamming his knife into the man a couple of times. If they ever saw each other face to face.

Lucky for him he’s rotting in jail.

“I haven’t been there for Effie the way I should,” Annabel said, with a pain behind the words that he knew all too well. “It’s one of my deepest regrets. That I didn’t pay better attention. Listened to the things she wasn’t saying. The way you do. The way she did with me. I wish I’d spent more time with her. Especially after the war and my father’s trial. Instead I fled to District 11 every chance I got, first as a volunteer worker and then living here part-time.”

She drew a deep breath.

“But I am here now. She saved my life. She knew I didn’t want help. Knew I’d hate her for interfering . Knew I had the means to turn the Capitol against her if I wanted to. And she was fine with that. Fine with all of it. Because I would be alive to do it … Takes a pretty remarkable person,” she said, “to make a sacrifice like that.”

Haymitch nodded.

“Yeah,” he murmured. “Yeah.”

“You’ve been through hell,” Annabel said. ”I know that. Worse than any of us can possibly imagine. I just told you all this because I want you to know I understand. What it’s like when the people you love most goes behind your back. Tries to make you do something you don’t want to do. She did the same to me.

But it wasn’t betrayal. It was love. She carried me on her back when I couldn’t go any further. Helped me get the help I needed to help myself.

And now she does the same to you. Carries you on her back. Carries Amy and Ian too. And she's strong, without a doubt. Stronger than most. But she's not made out of titanium. She won’t manage it forever. No one can.

Now, I’m not telling you to check yourself into a rehab facility. Maybe you can’t. And if you can’t you can’t. But if you want to do something for me, then I beg of you from the bottom of my heart: Don’t break her just because you cannot live without her.”

Author's note: Special thank you to my sweet, dear friend Sara for sharing her experiences of eating disorders with me to help with this chapter. She and Annabel are not the same person and they don’t share the same backstory but the things I got right about anorexia is 100 % thanks to Sara!

Also, as you might have noticed I've made a slight change in past chapters concerning Haymitch sleeping with other Capitol women when drunk.

In my defence, I included that headcanon in 2015 so it's been a minute but lately I've thought to myself: "Oh come on! Effie would NEVER let Haymitch do that when he's drunk and isn't thinking straight! Especially after what happened between her and Kane."

So I went and changed it soo that poor/lucky Haymitch only got to sleep with two women he really cared about.

[funkymbtifiction]

hi! i had a few questions because i’m trying to type an actress who’s currently stumping me a bit. on pdb she’s typed as infp 9w1 sx/so 927 but so many artists are typed as infp 4s or 9s on there and i’m not sure i agree with the consensus, but i can’t pinpoint why. so a few things:

in interviews, she states not being too interested in plot when selecting projects, but finding the most pleasure in deeply exploring a character. her process is to become the character, so she can know them inside out, feel what they feel, and embody that on screen. she had said that some characters stay with her forever and that all of them are her, to some degree, either dialed up or dialed down, and has expressed that acting is a safe way to explore different and more unhinged parts of herself - that in real life she second guesses herself a lot more and is more reserved. on her latest film, she said she went out to practice for her role by talking to men to see how she would seduce them, and it was important to her to know how SHE would go about it. she said throws herself into roles so completely that once she finishes a project, it feels like she’ll never work again. i don’t really buy into visual typing beyond extroverts being more animated and MAYBE fe using expressions, smiles, etc to signal and mirror - but in interviews i did notice a general lack of expressiveness (she def seems introverted and doesn’t appear to mirror anyone else or use her face to communicate much, only smiling when she seems to find something personally amusing)

now that all DOES seem like potential fi dom, but she has said a few times that on set, her body has better ideas than her mind and she often improvises based on her body. she also says that she’s not eager to work on a new project soon after finishing one because she thinks it’s important to go out and live life for a while, accumulate experiences and fill up your well of emotions, and that being too eager to jump on a new project would mean she didn’t do enough with the last one. she says that she knows she wants to act, perfect her craft and be good and she doesn’t have much interest in dabbling in things like producing. she co-wrote a previous film she was in and enjoyed it (and used a stream of consciousness process to write as her character) but is certain about acting being her future. she mentioned divine timing and thinking that certain roles come to you when you need them the most. i wonder if this points to se-ni, and if she may be an isfp instead?

in terms of her enneagram, at first i could see 9 in how she merges with her characters, and in the way she acts from her body/gut - but then i saw recently she said in an interview that everything she does in life, all her motivations are to feel safe and that acting presented a unique challenge because it’s not such a secure career. she said she enjoys challenges, and wanted to be an actress despite that, but that was the main thing that gave her pause about her career, the lack of security. she also mentioned that, when picking a project, the top priority (even above character) is director - that she must trust who’s leading the ship, or else nothing worthwhile can be made. she stated that she doesn’t like to be micromanaged, likes to have some say in decisions about the character and what they might do and that the set is not always going to be a positive place, and that’s okay, because some conflict and friction can produce even better results sometimes. could this be 6, maybe with a 9 fix, or at least 6 in her tritype instead of 7? i’m also not sure i see her as sp blind, as she’s mentioned a few times the importance to her of health and caring for her body so i feel like that would sort of rule out sp blind.

thanks!!

Wanting to live life to the fullest and have adventures can also be sp, since sp is the most aware of how "short" life is and possess a desire to enjoy themselves. But yes, you give a strong argument for sp/so 6w7 SFP. Living in the moment, trusting your body, seeing acting as secondary to having experiences (devaluing fantasy for reality) is extremely Se.

People are too quick to label actresses sx if they are "sexy" or "interesting." They forget that sx is about a magnetic/repulsive hook and living a lifestyle that shows an sx tendency to infuse, use up, and then abandon something or someone once the spark dies (sx/so Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times, for example...).

[jcmarchi]

Avowed Preview - Avowed's Creators On Why Romance Was Considered, But Ultimately Not Included And Skyrim Comparisons - Game Informer

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/avowed-preview-avoweds-creators-on-why-romance-was-considered-but-ultimately-not-included-and-skyrim-comparisons-game-informer/

Avowed Preview - Avowed's Creators On Why Romance Was Considered, But Ultimately Not Included And Skyrim Comparisons - Game Informer

Avowed was featured as a major part of Xbox’s Summer presentations. The game appeared in the Xbox Game Showcase, and following the new footage, game director Carrie Patel appeared on the official Xbox podcast to share more gameplay and share more about the game. We caught up with Patel and gameplay director Gabe Paramo to find out even more about Avowed, covering what they think of comparisons to Skyrim, how they feel about Baldur’s Gate 3, why romance was considered for the game but ultimately not included, and why playing The Outer Worlds may gave you the best idea of what to expect from Avowed.

[embedded content]

Can you tell me more about Avowed’s third-person option? That’s likely how I will play the game. Carrie Patel, game director: So, as you yourself have just noted, there are a lot of people who simply prefer it. There are people who prefer it for aesthetic reasons. They’ve built this character, and they want to see them in the world. There are people who prefer it because of accessibility reasons. First-person maybe makes the motion sick, and FOV sliders don’t quite get them comfortable. So yeah, there are a lot of reasons to have it. There are a lot of players who prefer it for some reason or another. But we’re still giving players the same Avowed experience in third-person. Gabe can speak more to that.

Gabe Paramo, gameplay director: So, to be super clear, right? This is a first-person game with a third-person perspective. So, when we talk about feel, there might be some micro-adjustments – in terms of, like, the physics of the capsules, super micro – in order to give a little bit of leeway for the animation frames to kind of make those blend a bit better, but we want it to feel as snappy. And we and it’s going to feel in control exactly like the first-person game. Okay,

Do you expect players to go back and forth between first and third? Or do you expect players to commit one way or the other? GP: I think that’s still kind of TBD. I believe we’ve started with making it more like an accessibility setting. But definitely, if we hear feedback that’s like, “I really want to switch this quicker,” that’s definitely something we could discuss in a community forum.

I understand that Avowed takes place in the Pillars of Eternity universe. But I’m curious what that means more specifically. Does it take place at a certain point in the timeline? Is it a good idea to have some background on the universe beforehand? CP: First and foremost, you don’t have to have played any of the prior Pillars games to play Avowed. We’re glad to have our returning fans, but we expect that for many players Avowed is going to be their first introduction into the world of Eora, and we’re accounting for that. So Avowed takes place a few years after the end of Deadfire, which was our game just before this. There are a couple of characters that returning players are going to recognize. Inquisitor Lödwyn – the scary lady with the cool mask that we saw in the trailer – she was actually a side character in Deadfire. And she plays a much more prominent role in Avowed as you can probably tell.

We have a couple other more minor characters who make some cameos. But in all of those cases, you don’t have to be familiar with those characters. You don’t have to have met them before in order to understand the context and Avowed. Our approach to a lot of details about the world, references to events from other games, references to locations is really just that. Returning players will recognize those things and feel the interconnectivity of the world, but it’s not something that you have to have played. It’s not it’s not at all required reading. As with any big fantasy game, we’re giving the world a lot of context so that players can step into it. We want it to feel fleshed out besides the small slice that we’re giving them. But yeah, part of the fun of setting it in The Living Lands, besides just the color of the setting, is that it is a location that we have not explored in any prior Pillars game. It’s one that we’ve built up some lore about, but it was fresh for us as the dev team, and it will be fresh for players, as well.

How extensive are the choices in the game and the narrative? Are we talking, like, multiple endings? And how many? Or is it more detailed than that? CP: Choice and consequence is something that unfolds for the player over the course of the game. There are choices that you’re going to make that are going to have immediate effects, choices that you’ll make that will have effects that you’ll see maybe hours later, and some that you’ll make that you’ll come to see at the very end of the game, kind of how those play out further on into the future. But along with that, you’ve got choices that are very intimate and impactful for specific characters, and some that really affect the state of entire settlements of the Living Lands and the Living Lands at large.

So, when it comes to choice, we really try to provide breadth and a tapestry for the player. It’s not like you just reach the ending and kind of you’re choosing your ending. It’s really the ending is the result of choices you’ve made along the way. Some of those are very intimate and character-focused, some of those are very broad and sweeping. But yeah, you’ll definitely have moments where the way you made certain choices, or perhaps the way you treated certain characters early in the game will come back to reward or haunt you, or likely a bit of both a few hours later, when you meet those characters – allies and adversaries. And you’ll have a number of choices that it’s kind of… characters will be willing to trust you or will be not willing to trust you based on kind of the cumulative combination of choices that you’ve made up until that moment. So if you’re trying to ally with someone, and you say, like, “Hey, you can trust me. I want to do this thing, let’s work together,” they might call out a handful of things you’ve done up to that point and say, “I don’t think I can trust you,” or, “ what? I think you’re right, so I’ll give you this chance.

So, there will be subtlety in the conclusions. You’re not just making your way toward one of three potential endings. CP: Correct. There are a couple of very, very big choices that players will make at the end. And those are very clearly telegraphed. The ending that they get is the result of what very big choices do they make, but also the numerous and subtle choices that they make along the way.

In the recent Xbox podcast you showed that you can flirt, and you showed the character Yatzli, who is very flirtatious. But there aren’t romance options in the traditional sense, right? You’re not building romantic relationships? You’re not marrying characters or anything like that, correct? CP: Yeah, we decided to forego full romance paths in Avowed. It’s something that we thought very hard about, and we talked about it as a narrative team. I think if you’re going to invest in romance, everyone who’s writing them needs to be absolutely, fully bought in. And the other thing you need to do is make sure that if you’re going to provide that path, that you’re balancing that with an equally meaningful and well-developed, non-romantic path because you never want players to feel that, “Well, the only way I really get to know this character or really get to form a meaningful bond with them, is if I commit to romancing them, which maybe isn’t something I want to do.” So, for all of those reasons, we decided to forego romances, specifically in Avowed. But we still built a lot of content around getting to know your companions. Forging deeper bonds with them and coming to understand their stories.

But you can role-play as a flirtatious person? CP: Yeah, you definitely have options with various characters to flirt sometimes, to be cheeky, to be a little aggressive. It’s not something that… it’s not as if every dialogue has a flirt option. It’s all situational. It’s in this moment, in this context with this character – how might a person want to play off of this individual? And Yatzli, who is very naturally flirtatious? Yeah, sometimes there are times when you want to respond in kind.

GP: It’s not a romance system. But you are building relationships, right? That’s what a lot of these games are all about. You’re building them through the dialogue choices, but you are speaking to these characters in the way that you want to based on either whatever background you chose, or whatever type of playstyle you’re trying to have your character portray.

How does the party work? Do you have a bank of people you meet who decide to join you and hang out in the camps? But then you pick certain people to take out with you on missions? CP: So you have four companions that you’ll meet over the course of the game. They’re all directly tied to the crit path and to the story that the player is encountering. So, as you meet them, they’ll join your party. And yeah, when you’re at the party camp, they’ll be hanging out at party camp with you. And it’s kind of fun to see as you recruit them, and they start to populate camp, and there are, I don’t know how many, tons of banters between them. Some of them are based on things that have happened in the world, quests you’ve done, where on the crit path you are, or even just who’s present – those things will fire off. You can see them get to know one another and just get another window into their personality. It’s just a lot of very fun stuff.

So yeah, they will be present at party camp with you, and then when you leave party camp, which is kind of your rest zone, you choose who ventures out with you. And for almost all of the game, you can choose any two of the companions you have recruited. So, if you’d like to switch it up, and you want to get to know someone you haven’t spent much time with, or see what kinds of banters two other characters have together, you can bring them, if there’s someone that you really, really like, who complements your playstyle really well, you might choose to spend a lot of your time with that companion specifically. There are a few quests and a few areas that because they are very closely tied to those companion stories and their insights and the ways that they’re able to kind of help you move through the world. There are a few spots where one particular companion is required, but the other is going to be up to you. But by and large, you’re choosing who to take with you based on your personal preferences and your mechanical playstyle.

You shared a boss fight you could avoid entirely with dialogue choices. Is the game designed in such a way that you can avoid combat entirely from the opening moments? CP: There is no pacifist route in Avowed so no, this isn’t a game where you’re gonna be able to avoid all combat.

Do you consider Avowed an action game at all? Or is it strictly an RPG? GP: An RPG. Yeah, I mean, what are we doing? Right? You are exploring the world, you’re using traversal mechanics, we have to care about pacing. You’re having conversations with characters. It’s a fantasy action RPG, right? You will engage with combat as you explore the spaces. There’s different ways to approach that like when you do get to the combat portions of things, it is very action-oriented. But the pacing is probably what you would expect from fantasy action RPGs.

Traversal – is there fall damage? Is there flying or gliding from high points? GP: Okay, so your first question is, is there fall damage?

Sorry, I should have let you answer them one by one. GP: In our dev direct, we did show that the player can swim. And no, there is no flying.

CP: But there is something very clever you can do in some spaces, which is if you use your charge ability creatively, you can sometimes use that to zoom over gaps that aren’t too wide. It’s not the same as flying or gliding. It doesn’t get rid of fall damage. But you can creatively use that as one option in your toolbox for traversal in some trickier spots.

GP: And we have a parkour system. The goal of it is to allow the player to move over objects. Some other first-person games or in other action RPGs you maybe might get stuck and have to walk around. We’re trying to say, “Okay, just let the player move over that thing.”

There’s a scene you showed where there are vines, and the player has to use a fire ability to get past them that I saw where there were vines, and then you use the fire ability to burn the vines and get past them. Metroid comes to mind with mechanics like that. Are you unlocking abilities that allow you to get to new parts of the map? GP: I would call it lock and key mechanics. We do have some lock and key mechanics, but they are definitely tied to the story beats and we wanted – because again, we are big on choice and consequence – in general, we want to make sure there are multiple approaches and ways to be able to handle some of those scenarios. We have companion interactions that allow the companion to help you get through some of those things. But also, let’s say that companion’s not with you, we wanted to give the player an opportunity to use like a throwable, that also can do that. Or if there’s a clever, scripted setup that one of our area designers has created, another opportunity to shoot an object that can cause the thing to light on fire. So, we did want to provide multiple mechanisms to allow the player to feel smart and clever.

CP: It’s not a Metroidvania. It’s more that the player has a toolbox of options and depending on what they have and what they like to use, they can use those creatively to bypass certain obstacles and find nooks, loot, and surprises in the game.

Do you embrace comparisons to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? Or do you push against it? CP: I think the best comparison is The Outer Worlds. I think that gives a much clearer idea of the scope of the game and also the design and layout. Like The Outer Worlds, Avowed has a series of open zones that are connected and unlock over the course of the game, rather than one giant map that you can walk through from beginning to end. And yeah, in terms of the kind of the quest structure, the narrative structure, it’s a lot closer to The Outer Worlds, as well.

Is it tonally similar to The Outer Worlds? Is it humorous in a comparable way? CP: Tonally, the best comparison is going to be Deadfire, the second Pillars game where you have a very grounded and serious political story. A very kind of weird and esoteric, metaphysical, and divine story beneath that. A lot of moments of seriousness, but also moments of levity to kind of to kind of break that up, and a lot of those things are very character-based. So yeah, I wouldn’t compare it tonally to The Outer Worlds.

GP: My opinion on that is I don’t love it. Even as I’ve learned in my role, comparing two games, even for the team – let’s forget the player for a second – even for the team it’s hard to say, “Use this like this.” You have to break down the mechanic more because people will grab what mechanics they think you’re talking about. Without it, if you’re not very clear about what it is specifically, you are trying to be inspired by another game. Personally, I don’t love it because a lot of players can take whatever they want from those games and go, “It’s gonna have this and this and this.” I prefer if we just better just explain what it is our game is doing.

It feels like every fantasy RPG now has to deal with Baldur’s Gate 3. Avowed does not look like Baldur’s Gate 3 at all, but they’re both fantasy games. Does Baldur’s Gate 3 inspire confidence that there is clearly an appetite for the genre? Or is it intimidating? CP: I mean, it was a super fun game. We’re all RPG fans at the studio and on the team as well, so we enjoyed playing it. Comparing our build choices talking about, “Are you investing in tadpole powers. Are you rejecting them?” So, first and foremost, we just had a lot of fun with it. But yeah, it’s always great to see aa fantasy RPG do well and to see that, yeah, players are ready to invest in and commit to a big creative world that rewards a lot of investment from them in the story and building their character in exploration, and making choices… all of that feels great to see.

How long should we expect Avowed to be? CP: The best comparison for Avowed in terms of scope is The Outer Worlds. Players can expect a roughly similar experience, just like The Outer Worlds, depending on what kind of difficulty they play on, and how thoroughly they explore and invest inside content, versus just sticking to the main crit path missions.

What does it mean to be a godlike? I don’t know what that is… but I’m curious what it is. CP: In the world of Eora, godlikes are individuals of any of the civilized species, who, before their birth, their soul was touched by one of the gods. You could play as a Godlike in Pillars or Deadfire, so you can get a taste of that if you want to see what that looks and feels like. Godlikes will have some physical manifestation of their patron deity. So, there is usually something about their head, their face, that kind of calls to mind that god’s flavor and portfolio. And they’ll usually have a couple abilities or passives that also reflect that god’s portfolio. Some of them have somewhat closer relationships with those gods and can speak to them, or hear from them in ways that other characters can’t.

But then you also have characters like Pallegina, one of our Pillars and Deadfire companions, whose story kind of revolves around her not really feeling this sense of closeness with Hylia, the god who gave her the really lovely, feathered appearance. One of the mysteries at the heart of Avowed is the player understanding which god touched their soul and what that means for them. So, players will get to choose kind of what that physical manifestation looks like on their character. They can choose something that’s more or less dramatic. They can choose something subtler. And we do have a checkbox option for players who really don’t want to see it to say, “Just hide it for me,” but characters will still react to you, because godlikes in the world of Eora are very rare. And so characters are going to respond to that.

So, mechanically, within the game’s lore, it is a means to give players as much choice as they want to pursue different abilities? CP: There are some abilities that are tied to being a godlike that unlock over the course of the game. So yeah, mechanically, players will get to explore that in gameplay as well. And part of that is also kind of coming to understand who this god is and what they’re all about through the powers that you get that are connected to them.

Is there anything else I didn’t touch on that you guys want to discuss with Avowed?

GP: We’re super excited to have finally shown the Grimoire. It’s the first time we’ve shown it’s an offhand-only weapon that holds the players’ wizard spells and lets them quickly access them to be able to use them. So that’s really cool. People were able to see the Grimoire slam, which is something that Pillars had in the game, but we’ve taken and translated it into what that feels and looks like in a first-person game. And we’re just super happy to just show off that because we know the community has been like, “Hey, where are the stats? Where are the RPG things in this game?” It has been very cool to start to show like, yes, we have attributes, there are six of them. They might be familiar, and then we can kind of see how we translate them into our game and our mechanics. Being able to show off gear stats and that there is upgrading and that there is this gameplay loop of you going out and exploring, maybe facing creatures that are more powerful than you at that moment in time and then needing to go upgrade your weapons and gear and come back and face them again.

CP: I’m also glad we’ve gotten to show off more of the world. One of the appeals of The Living Lands is all of the different biomes and regions and sub-regions that it has. We got to show some of Shatterscarp back in January, and we showed a slice of Emerald Stair on Monday. I’m glad the players are getting to see the very different environments and vibes that they’re going to get to encounter over their journey.

For more on Avowed, head here.

[sharas]

@boag my thoughts on this are too long to go into the replies but this isn’t at all me trying to start an argument, just my thoughts on the direction that cinema and television have gone in the past few years

my opinions on riverdale aside, my question is: WHY remake the archie comics instead of just writing an original show? especially when riverdale has so little in common with the source material aside from the characters. i’d understand if it was an adaptation of the comics… but it’s not. it’s a remake.

what’s the point? why does it have to be the archie comics in particular? and i don’t mean it in a “they ruined my favorite comics” way— i read maybe two archie comics growing up. i mean it as a genuine question: if the remake is so different from the original in its core values and message, why does it have to derive from that particular source media?

i’m more concerned with this overall trend in mass media as of late. the remakes, the franchises, the cashgrabs. you go to the movies, and what are your options? adaptations, spin-offs, the 45th installment in the marvel cinematic universe. how many sherlock adaptations did we get until rian johnson got the idea to just make a new detective? why don’t we get new superheroes anymore? why are they rebooting pretty little liars again? why is 2D animation being pushed out in favor of bland 3D animated remakes?

i’m concerned with the blatant commercialization of entertainment media. how big budget studios don’t take creative risks, how they’ll just draw from their existing vault of ip’s and make another reboot. how original media gets pushed to the wayside until they can justify canceling it. how writers, animators, directors are shafted again and again for doing anything outside of the stale established formula that is guaranteed to make millions because we, the audience, have no options anymore.

when you’re a parent and you want to take your kid to the movies— because that’s what kids want to do, see a movie in theaters— your options are iron man 17 or a soulless live action adaptation of a disney movie that came out 40 years ago. when you’re having a night in and want to watch something on netflix, your options are an original show that got canceled after one season or a low-budget adaptation of a trashy erotica. if you’re a horror fan, you have a remake of a classic movie that did not need a remake or another installment in an increasingly convoluted franchise.

of course, this isn’t to say all movies and shows are like this now. like i mentioned before, rian johnson created a new gentleman detective that is a welcome break from sherlock holmes. glass onion is a standalone movie that does not require context from knives out to be enjoyed. i also saw the new puss in boots movie a few weeks ago and absolutely loved it, and it’s obviously part of a larger franchise that has spanned two decades. but at the same time, i was able to enjoy it despite not having seen the last few shrek movies or even remembering most of the first puss in boots spin-off.

but these movies are few and far in-between. and honestly, we know why this is happening. it’s the same reason hbo shelved most of its original animated shows and the batgirl movie. the same reason disney remakes movies just as their copyright on the original is about to expire. the same reason netflix will make yet another 365 days adaptation while canceling literally any other decent show. at this point, they’re not concerned with making media that is high-quality and will last for generations. they don’t care any more about creating a cultural legacy because they already have one they can cash in on. the goal is to line the pockets of an already wealthy entertainment executive who does not care about the creatives who get fucked over in his quest for more money.

movies and television aren’t the only industries suffering from this. books nowadays are described with tropes instead of actual descriptions (“enemies to lovers! sharing a bed! found family! harry potter meets star trek!” but what about the plot?) we’re also seeing a new strain of books that are written just to get an eventual movie adaptation. video games are becoming more uniform because game developers would rather copy one successful game ad nauseam instead of making something new (why are so many games open world since breath of the wild came out?) this is a culture-wide problem, not an industry problem.

in this kind of cultural climate, independent creators are a beacon of variety and originality. but at the end of the day, they’re limited too; limited by budget constraints, limited by time constraints, limited by the relentless competition of multi-million dollar companies endlessly churning out high-budget, low-risk media.

that’s my gripe with velma. it’s just another in a long line of blatant cashgrabs that insults the audience and the legacy of the franchise. it’s not the first show to use shock value and bad writing to farm negative reactions for its SEO, and it unfortunately will not be the last. but it’s still hours of effort— from animators, voice actors, sound engineers, and writers— wasted on this shitty show, efforts that could have created something amazing if the bottom line wasn’t just to make money.

what’s funny about velma (2023) is that they’ve already tried a dark and edgy scooby doo remake. the first live action movie from 2002 was originally directed towards adults, and was rife with dirty jokes, drug references, and cleavage shots of daphne and velma.

you know why the final product didn’t resemble that at all? bc they realized early on that the edgy grimdark angle fucking sucked. they reworked the movie to be more family-friendly— still with a complex plotline, but without the gratuitous sexual references and adult jokes. they did end up keeping a few references to shaggy smoking marijuana (his love interest being named mary jane, for one) but they were super toned down so that they’d go right over the heads of any kids watching.

it wasn’t necessarily a kids movie. i was five years old when it came out, and i loved it, but it was fun for teens and adults to watch too. and even with the dated cgi for scooby, it still has a lot of rewatch value. ask yourself if you think anyone is going to be rewatching velma in 2043 the way people still watch scooby doo twenty years after it was released.

this weird trend of the past few years of remaking fun and campy media into something edgy and full of shock value (wednesday, riverdale, and that awful winx club series come to mind) is so boring and trite and misguided. if you want to make dark media so bad, write something original instead of borrowing the barest skeletons of existing media and distorting them until they’re unrecognizable. it’s such an insult to the creators to have their stories mutilated by people who have no understanding of or appreciation for the characters or audience.

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

I’ll just admit this silly thing concerning my Transformers and Godzilla/Monsterverse AU’s I had tried developing. More so my Transformers one and what I was thinking concerning my Godzilla/Monsterverse one.

They usually seem to take ques or ideas from a certain cinematic vision of one director that has inspired me. Because my thought process is, “How do I make the best versions of these characters?” and the developing story seems to go like this.

1. Part 1 is a story that is almost an origin where the main character faces their first greatest challenge against Megatron. Here’s more details concerning this developing AU. https://www.tumblr.com/geekgemsspooksandtoons/716632212644216832/old-cybertronian-warfare-synopsiss?source=share https://www.tumblr.com/geekgemsspooksandtoons/716630447526936576/old-transformers-au-writing-stuff-and-ideas?source=share

Transformers being about an Optimus Prime who’s still being new at being the leader of the Autobots facing against Megatron. Taking the element of Rise of the Beasts...before I had even saw the film.

Godzilla being about a young adult Godzilla going from an angry animal who has been tragically affected by the nuclear fallout of the America dropping nuclear bombs. But Godzilla making the choice to fight a monster with a possible similar origin of him, but not having the tragic angle and being less sympathetic than him.

2. Part 2 would be testing the main characters in a story against a character or characters that make them rethink their existence. As their own existence is questioned by humanity and the main character making a choice for the better that they will determine their own destiny as they become the savior of the planet.

For Transformers...here are the details. https://www.tumblr.com/geekgemsspooksandtoons/716633316766498816/scrapped-dinobot-speech?source=share https://www.tumblr.com/geekgemsspooksandtoons/716635123155632128/scrapped-transformers-final-battle?source=share

For Godzilla...the developing idea was well...a mixture of ideas.

The concept of Kong going to war with Godzilla. Which is turns out, their species had a violent history with one another. Despite Kong not being a giant radioactive dinosaur, he kicks Godzilla’s ass due to not how smart he is. But also, how unrelenting he is that it actually makes Godzilla scared how a creature is determined to kill him.

Again, taking my idea of replacing the roles of the Monsterverse versions. Where Kong is the old veteran and Godzilla while being powerful, is rather young.

While the world is trying to figure out how to coexist with these monsters and what to do with them. And Mothra trying to break up the fight between Godzilla and Kong probably. King Ghidorah rises and pretty much threatens everything on the planet. And revealing the history to one of the main characters and maybe others through a mind link that doesn’t kill them. Showcasing Ghidorah’s memories that well...

The Godzillas and Kongs were rival species, they hated each other, started war with one another. But when Ghidorah arrived, he/they saw that both Alpha Titans were giant threats. So, Ghidorah waged a one Titan war against both species. Resulting in Godzillas and Kongs to unite as one. But Ghidorah drove both species to near extinction, specifically when he targeted the mothers and infants, making sure more couldn’t be made.

Yeah, Ghidorah caused massive infanticide. He/they literally killed babies. And Ghidorah was only stopped when Mothra was able to trap him somewhere, keeping him frozen for millions of years. But because of what he had done. Ghidorah basically destroyed the world. And Godzilla’s and Kong’s were driven to near extinction. While other species helped eliminating more of each species down the line such as the Skull Crawlers with the Kongs. But it was Ghidorah who started it...Ghidorah literally destroyed the world or almost destroyed the world once until Mothra had to do something to trap him.

But yeah, it ends with every human military helping Godzilla, Kong and Mothra to fight against Ghidorah as they realized how pointless their wars are compared to this. Originally, Kong wasn’t in this idea at first but...

Yeah...King Ghidorah. Destroyer of worlds, destroyer of entire species, baby killer, and whatever else. Such as being the one that destroyed the natural world of Titans, slowly making it more habitable for human beings. And this idea goes with this post here. https://www.tumblr.com/geekgemsspooksandtoons/719734669689700352/geekgemsspooksandtoons-i-legit-want-a?source=share

-

Back to the point...all of these stories...and where they got their idea...and how they get this way or the similarities...I like to thank one man. And that’s Zack Snyder. He’s the God damn blueprint.

[taillow-suift]

I think it was about time this happened. 25 years of the anime. 25 years of my life. 

Hell, I somehow managed to marry the girl I met and fell in love with through this fandom, specifically the Pokeshipping fandom. So I think I got the most of what I could out of this anime. 

But sometimes you get greedy.

Over time, I do feel that some certain other ship had ended up eclipsing my preferred ship in the anime. It came out of nowhere and through a series of contrived and manufactured moments, earned a large fanbase of mostly male 20-30 somethings. 

Let’s admit it, the anime had made a decision at around the time of XY to cater to them. That audience has been the hegemonic segment of this specific fandom. Despite the attrition that the audience of the anime has went through, those guys stayed loyal. They had been through the crucible and are the filtered result of all the arbitrary decisions, the capricious narratives, the misplaced priorities, and the fulfillment of laborious mandates directed by TPC, that were made by the creative directors. So I don’t blame the executive staff for keeping them happy.

But there’s at some point you can’t just look at the fans you currently have. You have to look at the people that you lost along with them. The lapsed audience, all those kids who watched the anime from the very beginning but ended up lapsing because they either disagreed the direction the anime went in or they grew up and had to reprioritize what was important in life. When the 11-episode special airs, I hope those segment of people don’t get punished with alienation and emotional heartbreak when they watch just so that the anime could please the current preponderant segment of the fandom. 

That wildly unbased speculation that the next main character of the anime is a offspring of Ash is pretty dumb. So dumb that I shouldn’t have to even address it even is possible. I mean, I do have faith that the directors and executive producers of the anime would not to be so undisciplined to pursue something so contrived. But then again, the end of XY was such an tonal whiplash that I felt I needed to at least verbalize my hope that they don’t put the wants of that audience over everyone else, especially since that audience had started liking their certain ship likely at an age when they were almost a decade older than the characters in question. 

(LOL @ the person who wrote the linked article, you were so naive)

The anime is ending, the news has been spread, people who haven’t been paying attention are now paying attention. The anime now has a captive audience that is returning. Please speak to them, those are the people that need a satisfying ending. They especially need a chance to properly say goodbye to something that formulated their childhoods, a chance to love something that they may not anymore but are eager to love again and want a chance to do so. It needs to be a chance to say goodbye, not on a sour note, but a happy note. 

So please, please speak to the kids who were the same age as Ash and Misty when those two were just starting out.

TLDR:

The kids who grew up with Pokemon when the anime itself was no older than a toddler are going to be weirded out if that other ship happens because majority of those grown up kids are prob Pokeshippers. 

That would be a weird message to send if you want to properly have closure for your oldest fans. 

I mean, it probably won’t happen but who the fuck knows, maybe there’s some weird ass executive producer or director out there lurking about in the studio there who saw what happened to Nar*to and went “Yeah, let’s do that, I fucking love painful lacerations on my dick so I’ll probably love this too”

TTLDR: finish with pokeshipping you cowards.