#i think it's definitely a unique one out of all of the ones i have because it's just a World...
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ACE CRIES IN HIS DREAM OHHHH THE DEVELOPMENT FOR ACE MY HEART HURTSSSSSS b4 ace would have deflected yuu going oh it was a joke when i said you can message me if you feel lonely and now b7 ace is actually being more honest going dont say that i'll feel bad MS RAVEN IM ALL OVER THE PLACE
AND NOT MOST OF THE BOYS' DREAMS REVOLVING AROUND THEM AND THEIR FAMILY/DORM MATES BUT ACE'S DREAM HERE IS LITERALLY ABOUT YUU??? U TRYNNA TELL ME SOMETHING??? OUGHHH MY HEART IS IN PAINNNNNN AND THE TANGLED EVENT COMING SOON THEYRE OVERFEEDING MEEEEEEE
[Referencing the JP Feb 2025 schedule; you can read my thoughts on book 7 chapter 12 part 2 here!]
I wasn’t expecting Ace to get a unique crying expression but here we are 😂 Pretty proud of myself for calling that Ace’s dream would address these oddly dismissive comments from back in 7-17:
It’s so Ace of him to be blunt when calling others out but also having trouble being honest about his own feelings. Those lines in 7-17 definitely read as deflecting and being in denial to me. That’s just how Ace chooses to cope with his problems.
You can even see this same mentality carrying through into his new crying expression… See? He’s still trying to smile and laugh, even through his tears.
fbskwbuwnsma I find it really funny how people were theorizing that Malleus would OB over the threat of Yuu going home when he ended up OBing over the thought of losing Lilia… Then it turns out that Ace is the one centering Yuu in his foremost desires 😭 I mean, I know Ace made that long trek back to Sage’s Island back in book 4, but so did Deuce and Deuce didn’t dream of Yuu staying—only Ace did. This is most likely the result of Ace not properly processing his feelings in the waking world (because of his deflection and denial), despite deep down valuing his friendships with Yuu, Deuce, etc.
Come to think of it, it makes sense that Ace’s dream ended up taking place during summer vacation on the Stitch island… because Stitch talked about ohana—family, which means no one gets forgotten or left behind. Ace’s dream is to be able to move forward (ie the summer after the end of their first year)… with all of his friends and NRC family. That includes his Heartslabyul classmates (yes, even his tyrannical dorm leader that he always complains about) and his friends at Ramshackle.
I can see why this would feed the brain rot of Ace yumes www It really slots in with the “I-It’s not like I care about you or anything, idiot! (jk I care so much)” kind of trope. And his dream taking place on a remote island screams “stereotypical beach fanservice episode”. Bro just keeps slotting in sk well with all the classics… Wishing all Ace yumes fun with this update ^^
#twisted wonderland#twst#disney twisted wonderland#disney twst#Ace Trappola#Malleus Draconia#Deuce Spade#Yuu#notes from the writing raven#book 7 spoilers#book 4 spoilers#Lilia Vanrouge#book 7 chapter 12 part 2 spoilers#Reader#self insert#Ace Trappola x Reader#twst x reader#twisted wonderland x reader#Grim#Stitch
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I’m convinced we haven’t seen Helly R since season one.
I have another short post about a little part of this but just gonna combine it all into one here, but I do NOT trust s2 Helly R yet. There’s a lot of reasons and I’m currently rewatching for mannerism differences between Helly v Helena, but Helly R in s2 has felt very stiff and off in a few places (when she asked Mark if he was okay in the breakroom, telling Irving “we’ve got you”) which felt SO uncomfortable compared to s1 Helly R to me. That bothers me almost more than her lying about what she saw when they did the OTC thing and withholding the knowledge that her outie is an Eagan. Also, it’s Helly who very very quickly (and conveniently) notices the cameras are missing and says “wait, what happened to the security camera?” when it’s suggested Milchick was probably listening.
I think it’s totally plausible that if they can wake the innies up on the outside they can let the outies into the severed floor. I think Helly R saw too much and we’ve seen Helena Eagan pretending to be Helly the entire time.
I fully believe that they’re telling the truth when they say there are no cameras or mics on the severed floor anymore. Why would they need them with Helena Eagan herself there listening to everything?
Also, Mark is trying to find Ms. Casey/Gemma with “Helly” helping him. Helena Eagan and Lumon clearly don’t want that to happen, so with Helena in there acting as Helly R, she could point Mark in every direction but the right one and seem like it’s all genuinely an attempt to help. If it ever didn’t and Mark called her out on it, the fact that Helly had feelings for Mark at the end of s1 and was having a hard time helping him find his wife because of that is a good enough excuse to not blow Helena Eagan’s cover.
I’m rewatching to compare the two characters and see if there’s anything uniquely Helena that’s coming across in s2 Helly R or anything that would definitively rule this out as an option, but right now I don’t think we’ve seen Helly R yet this season.
Bonus theory/analysis that I cannot articulate well yet but am including anyway for some reason: s2 Helly is in solid blue every time weve seen her so far. Blue top, blue skirt. Every episode of s2 so far. She started in that in s1e1 and moved away from it, but that’s not happening here yet. Wish I could wrap up my train of thought here in a way that is coherent and concise, but TL;DR, blue (and green) is a Lumon color throughout, especially when severed characters are involved. (Petey reintegrated then died wearing that red and blue striped robe, the blue and red beta fish in the divided tank in Mark’s house, Gemma’s red and green candle Cobel takes from Mark’s basement, etc etc) I’m working on a longer piece of meta about color symbolism in Severance as I rewatch but yeah for now, im just not trusting the head to toe blue every single day for s2 Helly R.
#severance season 2 spoilers#severance s2 spoilers#severance theories#severance meta#severance analysis#severance s2#severance season 2#severance spoilers#severance#helly r#helena eagan#mark scout
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How would you add depth and complexity to the culture of the Purview?
Right now, the KTB gets way more attention both because of the two supplements dedicated to it and because the competing noble houses each with its different gimmick and political alignment make it so easy to come up with drama and intrigue.
Meanwhile the Purview seems, both in and out of fiction, flat and uniform. I'm sure its leadership would want to see it and have it seen that way, but given how much it keeps expanding, and therefore adding new cultures to itself, it would have to have a lot of diversity under the hood, even if it would like to pretend otherwise.
I definitely think the Purview has a harder time of it than the KTB, but that's largely because we have a Field Guide to the KTB, whereas the Field Guide to Harrison Armory never got published because of Miguel's non-compete.
There's also the problem that the KTB has this... glamour to it, in both the modern and traditional senses of the word. I've noticed this in a lot of sci-fi properties - that applying the veneer of nobility and monarchy to something can make people forget or forgive its transgressions more easily.
When Harrison Armory, the nationalist corprostate, does imperialist expansion, we can point at it and immediately say "that's a fascism" (even when it's actually... not? Imperialist expansion is always bad but it's not always necessarily fascistic). But somehow, when the KTB do the same or sometimes worse things, like using nanite terror weapons on Free Sanjak, I've noticed people are quicker to make excuses? Like, oh, yeah that's obviously bad but their society works different the KTB are a big place and like of course they're shitty traditionalists and that's really only the Hagiographs and at least the Karrakin have Republican elements who want change and reform and yeah it's bad but aren't Knightly Chivalrous Mechs Just So Gosh Darned Cool?!
I think the nuance of the KTB is also helped by the fact that they're explicitly depicted as non-monolithic. There are ten named Major Houses with their own distinct cultures, politics and homeworlds, and great pains are taken to ensure us that there's multifarious cultures and religions even on an individual world. HA suffers because to some extent it would be more monolithic - it's a nationalist corprostate with only 400 years of history, compared to the KTB's hybrid elective-monarchy neofeudal federation with 10,000.
HA is distinctly American in the way that the nation has become a brand, and a good citizen has to remain on-brand, so things would be more homogenized. To add to that, omninet and blinkgate technology has existed for the whole of HA's lifespan. The unique and distinct cultures of the KTB worlds came about largely because they spent millennia separated from one another by light years. HA has never had this issue, and likely never will. They have the option - and, more importantly, are motivated - to keep a homogenous culture across all of the Purview.
Lancer is fundamentally a game about examining and fighting against unjust structures of power that oppress people but also being larger-than-life heroes that have fun doing it, and the KTB has an innate leg up by virtue of the fact that it has what I'd call a really strong "initial sell:" YOU'RE A SPACE KNIGHT! SPACE KNIGHTS ARE COOL! (PLEASE DON'T EXAMINE SPACEE FEUDALISM!)
To make Harrison Armory compelling, you'd need a similarly strong initial sell for them. And I think I know just the thing.
FOR HUMANITY! FOR LIBERTY! FOR HARRISON! (Please don't examine space nationalism!)
If I were to write the Harrison Armory Field Guide (Tom and Miguel HMU - just kidding. Unless...?), I'd make it BIG and LOUD and OVER THE TOP and OBVIOUS PROPAGANDA with insertions of the actual truth from a HORUS hacker on the side. I'd put Harrison Armory's positioning as "liberators of the galaxy" front and center - "we dive feet-first into hell to save people from tyrants and slavers. We do the work even the UDoJ/HR won't do. Please do not examine our imperialism or social credit system."
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i dont think its reactionary to point out that usamerican tech companies were developing AI technology as wastefully and un-optimally as possible. The technology represented significantly more poison upon the earth, a middle finger to ongoing climate catastrophe, before most recent developments.
That is not something unique to AI. Like usamerican companies, tech or otherwise, have been poisoning the earth since literally day one. It's not like the fucking AI is making them do that???? And you are kind of proving my point by sending this ask, when anti-ai people realized "ai art has no soul" isn't a winning argument, they pivoted to "well what about the environment" which like yeah, there might be some merit to that, but trying to demonize ai art itself is definitely not going to solve any of these issues. Infact all of anti-ai art bullshit has directly contributed to everyone suddenly going to bat for copyright law, like are you fucking kidding me!! What are we doing here!!!! Stop and think!! Jesus fucking christ people
And for the goddamn record, I don't even like AI art. I'm not super fond of it, but having principles means sometimes defending things you don't actually like because people cannot recognize when they are diving headfirst into reactionary thinking.
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Breaking down "Even the Iron Still Fears the Rot" (almost) shot by shot!
The fan-animatic can be viewed here!
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HEADS UP: This is a fan-made content. I am a fan. I just love Castlevania/animation a lot and I love storyboarding nuances and making people cry over character dynamics. Also apologises for any grammatical/spelling mistakes!
I wasn't planning to do another breakdown of my own work, simply due to imposter syndrome but I genuinely put so much love and care into this animatic! I want to talk about it! Also, people have been really open to hearing about my inspiration and notes, and why I take the directions I do for my work, even if it's fan-made, so here we go!
(Also the reciprocation of my animatics has been so kind and uplifting, and I'm really glad that there's a lot of love for them as much as I love doing them! I learn and grow with every single board I make, it's been really fun! I hope I get to shine this much passion in the future in actual work!)
Since this is also an adaptation of a fan one-shot by Aquila, (which you can read here!) I knew I wanted to evoke what they had written and interject some of my own nuances/personal readings to their story to elevate what they had! In turn, kind of created this monster (positive) of a fan creation haha. There are some changes/rearranging the placement of aspects of the one-shot to strengthen the existing tension going on!
With this out the way, let's begin!
(heads up, for any shots I completely skip over, it is because I'm reaching image limits here)
I wanted to evoke that strong halo light you see in a lot of media. Often than not, this visual is used to depict the character as a divine force of nature and/or when a character is bobbing in and out of death. It can also be a very very terrifying image, as, for example, s02e8, Mizrak is literally all dark with a brightly lit background. It is scary- BUT people will say hot because it's Mizrak but hey, look, all I can say is I fully understand haha. It all depends on your intentionality and what follows before and after to give context to your scene!
Mizrak is dead. Well, undead now. Olrox is the so-called angel giving him life and love and this halo of light gets repeated a few times!
By the end, not only do their literal positions switch, but their roles shift too so I hoped to convey that visually by also giving Mizrak that halo glow for the second last shot. At the start, Olrox consumes Mizrak’s love, and then it ends with Mizrak consuming Olrox’s love. Guh I love blood themes in vamprisim.
This shot honestly took me a bit to do, since I was going a lot cleaner than usual, the expression for Mizrak was super important for me to get right. I wanted him to look like he was about to die- yet still have an unwavering amount of life in him. (Also I hadn't warmed up drawing in this cleaned-up style so it definitely was me messing around). It was important for me for this to feel like a POV shot to contrast the first scene so we can get inside the mind of Olrox!
This too is where I only have sound effects since I can't have voice so I limit my SFX to the only most vital things to elevate things I personally find better elevate the scene with audio. It only happens TWICE. The heartbeat. His wrist is shown and from context clues from not only S01 of Nocturne with Tera's turning, but a whole bunch of other vampire media- the wrist is a place where the dead accept their new life of immortality!
Also, the pulse effect was definitely inspired by the transformation of Sekmet! I'm not sure personally if this went to a further stage I'd want to keep this since I'd personally want something more unique for vampire turning, more specifically for Olrox, HOWEVER, I think it still does a good job conveying the supernatural pull for the time being!
Wow who saw this coming HAHA
Immediately when I saw the line where Olrox said he went to straddle him immediately, my mind went to go and try to parallel this scene again! I don't have much to say about this shot rather than the feet are purposefully cut out for animation convenience's sake HAHA.
Jumpscare for sudden Olrox character layout (even though he's really off model and sketchy here HAHA)
I was again, wanting to depict Olrox BATHED in light and since this animatic is purely in greyscale (with accents of colour), I could really push for dramatic lighting when it called for it! This is also why some of the scenes just do not have backgrounds at all. I wanted to make some of the scenes as "heavenly" as possible and for Mizrak to be embraced by the light because Olrox is giving him a new a life.
If this were to ever be animated (I won't be since it would take too much of my time, but it's still a good thing to note when boarding anything... maybe I'll do cleaned screenshots since those are a breeze, or animate ONE scene from this animatic... we'll see what I have time for. I unfortunately don't have proper time to try and figure out the layout of s02e8 bgs and paint them. I did consider quickly doing a 3d mock-up but no haha), the light in the background can probably be lit with candles since it was already pre-established in s02e8! Also, the windows can reflect light into the room so there's that too since Mizrak was backlit in that episode too!
Fun fact, this entire scene was the first thing I ever thought up and why I started even making it. I thought about how cool of a visual it would be to have Mizrak's eye in the reflection.
I wanted to imbue the fact that Mizrak does not fear Olrox holding a blade, hell, he's not even looking at the blade. He's looking at Olrox. What is described as a relic from a terrifying past, Mizrak is not scared. Mizrak is not scared of Olrox.
This is where the heartbeat occurs AGAIN. This is mostly to signal to the audience what Olrox actually has planned. He's not feeding Mizrak from his wrist but from his actual chest, especially with how gently Olrox runs his hands over it.
I debated a lot on where the initial cut should go. The heart, for sentimentality, under the breast in the same way Christ had been pierced, etc etc- however I landed on just dead set in the middle so it could form a cross that would grow bigger and bigger as the animatic went on. (Fun fact, the blob of blood turns into a little heart as he squeezes his chest)
I wanted to put some weight to the repressed catholic guilt, so I thought a cool visual way to showcase that Mizrak has only known how to love is via worshipping God which has consumed his entire being and self. God has given him faith, a companion in the hardest of times when the world has abandoned him.
Now, once again, his world has abandoned him. The Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God is gone. In the face of death and fearing the devil will be waiting. Olrox has given him love, and he will be a companion in the hardest of times. He will not abandon Mizrak.
This aspect of the cross in the animatic gets expanded upon as time goes on. Both literally as the cross literally turns into a pool of blood more closely to the symbol Mizrak bares, but also it slowly expands upon Mizrak feeding off Olrox's love! I'll add some more of my personal notes when we get there!
Also by far one of my favourite scenes I've drawn. It's still rough but it decidedly made me go a lot cleaner with the rest of the storyboard!
This is supposed to be suddenly jarring because it cuts midway through Olrox in a midshot to a close-up of a hand! We need to see him actively halt Olrox for just a moment, but also to show that even when it's sudden- its not hostile, it's gentle.
This shot does a couple of things!
It showcases how gently Mizrak is reaching out to Olrox
It helps to continually establish Mizrak submission to vampirism. He is constantly placed on the bottom from the composition, or we as an audience, are always looking down at Mizrak! Seeing parts of Olrox here really cements this fact as Olrox towers over him to the point we don't even see him fully!
It helps to lead into the Fallen Angel reference!
This shot makes me sob because it is so gentle. Despite being placed constantly much higher in the composition in the animatic, therefore making him the most powerful in this dynamic- in no way Olrox is intentionally made out to be an intimidating figure. He is comfort. He is a companion. He will not abandon Mizrak. The act of turning Mizrak might be read as selfish. It may be read as cheating the natural cycle of life, it may be everything wrong and doomed as your mind makes it to be, however, it is done out of love. Morals, whether good or bad, no longer matters because Olrox is in love. Love has such a strong chokehold on this series, so I'm shoving as much love into these characters as I can. Both literally make these characters so sickly desiring love that it will be their doom and saving grace, but also me as an artist deeply putting love and thought into this board because care a lot about how to convey these complex emotions! Sure it is quite easy to churn out boards without care, but without putting care into your boards, your characters and stories lack life (in my personal opinion).
Immediately, this animatic shook me and told me to put in a reference to The Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabnel!
Also, how does one portray the soul? EYES. Eyes are the window to the soul. Mizrak’s eyes are also considerably the most important/crucial part of his design. His eyes in both seasons ‘glow in the dark’ due to the highlights in his eyes. Mizrak is considerably really emotive too and that was important to me to emphasize. I wanted to capture his essence, his soul if you will, into this shot.
This is also why this shot is done really prettily if you will.
The reflection of Olrox's eye in Mizrak's is important here! Olrox is here to act to comfort Mizrak. Even when Olrox is not on the screen with us, he is majorly present here. He will not abandon Mizrak. Also, since it is coupled with this line, people can choose to infer what they wish with Olrox! It can symbolize Olrox does have a soul, it can symbolize how Olrox and Mizrak are now intertwined together, it can symbolize Mizrak reciprocating Olrox's love. The list can go on! I give that room for open interpretation (same as the rest of the animatic, the only reason I'm going through, breaking down almost shot by shot is that I deeply care about this sort of thing, and I know other people do too!)
This shot, is deceptively simple but it's here to actually initiate a bunch of scenes I wanted to happen after this!
Firstly, I needed a very nonchalant but easy way for Olrox to let go of Mizrak's hand without needing to overcomplicate. I needed something that gave it just enough importance for the hand kiss BUT not too much where it is the sole focus on the shot.
Secondly, I needed a way for Olrox to lean down to Mizrak and initiate him being way closer to him.
Thirdly, it acts to parallel another shot that happens with Mizrak where instead of going diagonally down, he goes diagonally up!
This is one of the points where I visually slightly deviate from the one-shot! I really REALLY wanted to emphasize Olrox's dialogue here so I chopped up and elongated the scene to make it that much more intense and tender. Which is why we get the next two close up shots!
Look it was very VERY important to me to have Olrox cup Mizrak's face and intentionally cut off his eyes. The important part I wanted to focus on solely was his hand and Mizrak looking up because genuinely, Mizrak's eyes are 'distracting' and it would remove the focus on the gesture! Also I am saving Mizrak's eyes for the next shot haha
After this shot too, you may notice the blood from his neck disappears for the rest of the animatic. This is because, after this, it began to take too much of a visual focus away from the blood on Olrox's chest since it is bright red against greys in the shot. We can chalk it up to Olrox wiping the blood off when he goes to cup him.
"The most beautiful soul a vampire can posses."
It was so important to me that we get a BEAUTIFUL shot of Mizrak. I needed the audience to see his entireeee face close up, unobscured by anything. Olrox is holding a beautiful soul in his hands. He's holding Mizrak. Actually makes me sob.
This shot by the way has been repeated 3 times with slight variations by this point. Yes, this is a very pretty shot so how could I not help but repeat it? HOWEVER, I was trying to make a reference to how Mizrak has said Olrox's name only 3 times in the show with a variation of what was said around it. After that, Olrox calls him my love, basically unlocking a new stage in their relationship.
So here, three times when he looks at Olrox, he's mentally calling out his name. After this, Olrox brings him to a new stage in the relationship.
Also in Catholicism, a lot of things are in 3s. One of the major ones is that three times, Christ fell over carrying the cross. On the third hour of that day, he died and on the third day, he was resurrected from the dead. The three sacraments that welcome someone into the Kingdom of God are Baptism, Communion, and Confirmation as they all build off one another! I could go on both those are the main points AND I feel you might get the gist now!
It was very important to me that when Olrox makes this promise, we HAVE to see his full face. This is why it's a close-up.
It lets for no shadow of a doubt that Olrox means what he says here. He's looking AT Mizrak. He's telling the truth to him.
This is a parallel to a much earlier shot of Olrox! He moves closer to Mizrak by going from top right to bottom left, while Mizrak moves closer to Olrox by going from bottom left to top right! You also both see them exit the screen too!
In this shot, we bring back that halo vibe but also this is a reference to S01E04 and S02E08! The curtain! It is BOTH their first-ever shots to establish a new scene, so I wanted to go “Hey this is establishing a new scene- a new life for Mizrak and Olrox.”
The camera is super purposefully cut just below the eyes. You can see them open then closed, but we will never ever get to see the look he had in his eyes, the single decision in his brain that let him indulge. That’s only for Olrox, and only Olrox will know.
From here on out, A LOT of the shots of Mizrak get segmented/have his face hidden for that reason too (except for one shot, also done intentionally).
When Mizrak actually closes his lips around the blood- it’s on the growling sound in the song. Mizrak has turned into the animal that he’s been calling vampires. In this new life, he is now given the choice to be freed from the man-made shackles of shame and guilt. To be untamed and unrestricted. A wild animal so to speak!
Honestly, I spent a lot of my time here (besides the pretty Olrox frames) because I was super particular about how I wanted to portray Mizrak giving into sucking the blood. The way he accepts vampirism is vital because it sets the tone and mood for how the rest of the board feel since his face gets hidden and you now have to infer from when you saw his face last.
If you have seen my analyses or my work before, you will know how much I enjoy having a frame within a frame. I loveeee my boxes! They're in the box! TOGETHER! THE CENTER TOO! There are no real divisions with the exception of Olrox's head which is important because it's not Mizrak we're focused on at this point in time, it's Olrox~
This is because the one-shot, even in third person, is mostly through Olrox's perspective!
Also, the camera is moving around in this shot, and the following subsequent shots! It hopefully gives off the "hand-held" feel, which often is associated with feeling as if you're right there in the moment with them.
Why pillows?
This is me shaking you to say how the blood-drinking is an allusion for sex if that wasn't already obvious enough. So showing pillows coupled with Olrox groaning really goes "Yes they are technically doing it."
Originally this shot (and the previous shot) was supposed to be way more pulled out, but I was saving it for the very last shot of the animatic so I went to pillows with the tinest hint of their body in the frame to make it seem super scandalous. Like what on earth could they be doing for me to cut them mostly out of the frame? Also also, the pillow was supposed to have an embroidery of a painting from 1790s or earlier BUT, for the life of me, I could not decide what I wanted and I did not want to keep reusing the same references I have had in past work. I didn't want to fuss about it for too long since its more of an easter egg rather than adding to the story. The main point is pillow = fucking HAHA.
Side tangent, you can get away with SO MUCH by having blood drinking be an allusion to sex. Like obviously when you have an age rating you must abide by, you must be creative with how you go about mature topics (my age rating is YouTube hahaha)! Not only is blood drinking in vampirism just inherently queer-coded, but the intimacy of it can convey so much more if it was just a regular ol' sex scene! I actually deeply enjoy conveying nsfw topics into art because you can discuss character dynamics at a much more vulnerable, raw state that literally bares them to just their essence and their current desires/needs. However I am getting off-topic, let's get back to it!
This shot was actually heavily inspired by the statue Adoration by Stephen Sinding!
While there are a lot of differences now simply because Mizrak is at Olrox's chest, I still hope that the vibe of that statue is still imbued. It also gives the sense of not only Olrox adoring Mizrak in this very moment, but Mizrak is too despite not seeing his face. Again quite intentional because it's only for Olrox to see.
Also, a lot of people have been telling me how Olrox is breastfeeding him, and in technicality, they're not wrong, he's feeding blood, from his chest. It is the funniest thing ever LOL
This shot was important to really focus in on his throat and how, much like in the one-shot, Mizrak is literally not taking breaths and is just continually consuming Olrox.
Wet sounds fill the room as his throat bobs with each steady gulp...He doesn’t stop, doesn’t take a moment to gasp for breath.
I also just wanted to make this scene feel very slow in order to contrast with a much more passion-filled desire that consumes Mizrak in this animatic! Also hopefully the descent of blood and the descent of the camera helps to strengthen the idea of Mizrak descending into vampirism!
It felt really cheesy to have this close-up shot of his eye HOWEVER at the time, I thought this was by far the clearest way to convey the immediate switch from gentle devotion to devouring devotion and how suddenly rapid it is. In my brain, the stylization for his eyes open would be textured and pulse in the same way Olrox's wrist did, which is why it's just outlined. I'm once again not 100% set on the pulse look and it probably needs some iterations if I ever came back to it again.
Also, the green hearts in his eyes only come through when he's actively consuming blood from his chest! The heart motif comes back later when Mizrak ends up throwing up the blood!
Here's the cross again, except it is growing bigger. This was very important to me that you see how "gentle" the blood-sucking is at first. A gentle devotion despite the "terrifying" shadow of Mizrak. Also, super an excuse to have kiss marks in my animatic, I love painting them in my art because it can say a lot with placement and how aggressively smudged they are!
Also, I thought it would be SO FUN to have Mizrak's turned self literally have his eyes overlay where Olrox's eyes are. It conveys how Mizrak and Olrox are now switching roles in this animatic! For the first half of this animatic, Olrox has been placed pretty high up in the shot composition, or where the camera looks up to put him in a high place of power! It makes him appear way more etheral and otherworldly, while Mizrak was placed lower in the composition, always looking up at him! Which I'm hoping invokes religious imagery of a God and his worshipper/follower!
When Mizrak's transformation is set, the dynamic switches up. For the rest of the animatic, Mizrak is now placed at a more supernatural/otherwordly position, while Olrox is just there passively, letting Mizrak BE in this position. He does not fight it, he embraces it, embraces how Mizrak reciprocates his love, his desire, and all his messy complications, much like how earlier in the animatic, Mizrak embraces vampirism.
Also if you slow it down enough you can see how I accidentally left my perspective grids in it HAHA, but it goes by fast enough it doesn't really matter! (I guess it's also kind of indicative of my natural style when it comes to digital painting too, I genuinely like having my sketch still peek through into the final painting!)
Wow even more shots to cement the new role switch AND how much much of the passionate need to consume is controlling his urges! Free to consume at his leisure, he is no longer bound by human nature (for now)!
This shot and his leg shot help to really strip Mizrak of his humanity. Faces in a shot really help to connect people to the characters because we see the emote, we see them breathe, we see them live. Especially for a character like Mizrak? He's super expressive face-wise and I'm purposefully not showing you the defining features of Mizrak. Here I am basically going "Mizrak is no longer human."
This is why in horror/thrillers with antagonist characters, we don't see their faces much and are saved for only key moments (usually, again your intentionality matters). It doesn't allow us to connect with the character on a much more human level. Think of Count Orlok from Nosferatu (2024). Purposefully a lot of his character is shrouded in darkness, focusing on his hands and other aspects, never his face, and even then it is really hard to make out because so much of him is obscured. It makes him that much of an imposing intimidating character! Otherworldly and something that we cannot fully understand.
This is a flipped version of Mizrak's close-up eye shot much earlier when he asked if his soul would remain. Again to hark on how Mizrak and Olrox are switching roles in this animatic! Olrox is looking at Mizrak's soul as we speak.
Despite us not seeing Mizrak's face, we as an audience noticing how unhuman Mizrak has suddenly become, Olrox looks quite gently at him and that was important to convey!
Woo! Lot's of horizontal lines here! While the camera is moving towards the left, Mizrak is moving right!
Originally this shot was going to have Mizrak's teeth sinking into Olrox like a very cool Olrox throwing his head back and Mizrak's fang reveal HOWEVER, I want to leave the "carnage" and bloodshed of the feeding out of the frame and only have it show up in very specific moments so I can have those moments actually have their proper impacts. I did not want to show any part of the front of his face at all since it would dampen the effect later on, so I opted for this instead. The legs give a sense of "something is happening but we don't know what, but it's to a point where Mizrak's entire body is moving oh jeez." Won't lie, this looks very sexual and I'm purposefully toying with that line again because blood drinking is an allusion to sex.
Also, I'm continuing the concept of having aspects of Mizrak's face only for Olrox's eyes. What does he look like when he's actively consuming him with such passion? Idk, Olrox you tell me.
This is everything I was building up for when I introduced the small crosses! The physical manifestation of how Mizrak reciprocates.
My thought process here was that Mizrak only knows how to love by fully devoting himself because that's all he's done for God. So he applies it here. He is reciprocating love, but it is FULL ON. It is intense. It is all-consuming.
The face once again is obscured for all the reasons I have mentioned before, but also it REALLY helps to really hard cut to Mizrak choking on the blood after because before it seemed like he was doing just fine. He is literally looking DOWN at Olrox, he takes up A LOT of the screen with just his back and head. He literally gets pulled into full focus while Olrox is blurred in the background. He appears like he is in control of the situation, however it could not be further from the truth.
Also, I was mostly inspired by the insane amount of bible verses talking about blood, so I'll drop some of those here!
John 6:53-56 ESV
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
Ezekiel 16:6 ESV
“And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’
Matthew 26:28 ESV
"For this is my [Christ's] blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
Absolute contrast to most of the other shots, not only because I decided to add way more character acting here, but it's because we actually see his FULL face. It's intentional because Mizrak realizes himself now so we need to see him have this reaction. I wanted to show that he is still a person. He still has a soul. He may not be human, but he does have a mind that can think and a heart that can love. He still retains human qualities.
He's choking on all the blood (a physical manifestation of love) and his body is rejecting it. He's not used to consuming this amount of love and he's not used to being self-indulgent. It's deeply overwhelming.
I wanted to say I LOVED drawing blood it is SO FUN, planning the camera movement, and how Mizrak coughs at specific moments was sooo fun. I wanted this to be MESSY AND INTENSE. I wanted the audience to feel the weight of Mizrak's sudden distraught. I wanted to throw him around and to really hark on this line from the one-shot.
What has he done? What has been done to him? What has he become?
It helps to deeply contrast with how still and gentle the next scene is!
Yes, that is right, Olrox's pupils are DILATED :)
Coupled with the fact that the blood splatters are hearts! They're outlined in cyan! Olrox has a massive heart-shaped blood splatter on his cheek while Mizrak has a few heart-shaped splatters BUT there are gaps in his bloodied mouth that create heart shapes as if Mizrak spewed out those hearts!
Firstly this is because Mizrak literally eats at his chest where the heart is. Secondly, I'm again pushing for Mizrak to consume and throw up his love due to how overwhelming it is. Not only is Olrox's love for him literally beyond his imagination, but Mizrak is trying to love back in with that same amount of passion and utter devotion. A lot is happening for this new-born vampire that is pushing and pulling at him. His emotional state is so overwhelming that it is manifested in physical form.
The green reflections are shown to visually communicate Olrox anchoring Mizrak back, as, throughout the animatic, it is one of the things that ease or calm him down. I could not portray it through voice BUT I can portray it via visual (guys walk with me here, imagine the insane combo of audio and visual, it would be so tasty). The sole reason why I did not have hearts in his eyes here is simply because I reserved the heart motif for when he's actively drinking out of Olrox's chest (so he's literally consuming his love) or when he's spitting out the blood!
Also, the reason why I cut to his eyes rather than pan to them is purely because I wanted the violence of his mouth to be suddenly jarring to the gentleness in his eyes. I didn't want the slow reveal, I wanted the "OMG the blood- aw Mizrak...."
"Lulled into a sense of hazy compliance by Olrox’s voice, the former monk carefully lowers himself and continues though not for long."
This final shot was soooo important to me to include. The “musty inn room” was mentioned much earlier during Mizrak’s transformation but there was a poeticism by having what is considerably the blossoming moment of their complicated relationship be the final shot. With the lyrics also ending with "Take me back to Eden" how could I not? Clearly, both the rooms between s01e4 and s02e8 are parallel to each other. The only difference is that s02e8 has the room be both red AND GREEN, while s01e4 is just earthy/green. Olrox has taken them both back to their earthly paradise. This is their Garden of Eden.
Woo ok and we're done! Also yes I do thumbnails for these, it's half the reason why I'm fast (this entire animatic, cleaned and everything, was done in 3 days good lord. Is that fast? I can't tell) I make the barest of bones chicken scratch of sketches to get a feel of pace/vibe, then I do my roughs/cleans and add/take away shots necessary for the story that needs to be told. I normally would not let this see the light of day because these are AWFUL BUT, this post is also half a documentation of my personal process so I'm going to close my eyes and share this HAHA
If you got this far, thank you for reading me geek out about this! I find a lot of joy in the visual storytelling medium. As much as I do enjoy animating, (wow could you guys tell in the name?) I have a deep love and passion for storyboarding personally and I get sit back, and enjoy crafting the entire picture! I still have a long way to go but I'm having fun and I'm pursuing my passions of storytelling!
I desperately want to make more animatics, dealing with different tones, pace etc, but I genuinely have to go prioritize other things for now that will help me build these skills hahaha. I say this but who knows, seeing my current track record haha, look I can do both. I follow wherever my creativity takes me. I may have missed a few things but I have to wrap this up now!
Thank you again! The final takeaway, go watch Castlevania again and go be inspired by animation <33333
#castlevania nocturne#artists on tumblr#mystery talks#i love storyboarding to death it brings me much joy#hopefully ill learn how to apply this to action scenes#all ppl on yt scare me in a positive way they're so nice#olrox/mizrak#castlevania spoilers#olrox#mizrak
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okay i’ve been wondering about this for a while. i’ve seen a lot of fandom discourse that headcanoning a character who’s commonly accepted as transfem in fandom as a genderweird trans in all directions nb person is transfem erasure. is this true? i haven’t really thought so‚ but i might just be biased as a nb transmasc myself. (common examples include john egbert)
hello there, thanks for stopping by!
i am definitely the wrong person to ask about this, i am very sorry. i do not participate in fandom at all, i don't engage with much fiction and when i do, i don't get into it that much. my brain doesn't really latch on to fiction like it did when i was a kid. i still play games and watch anime here and there but i don't interact with fandoms, so i apologize for that. i find them to be genuinely uncomfortable and unsafe environments to be in due to being intersex and biracial. fandom spaces unfortunately tend to be extremely racist & intersexist. i had friends who were heavily involved in fandom as a teenager and i felt very unsafe due to the sheer amount of fetishiziation of intersex bodies that goes on in fandom spaces.
this is simply an outsider's perspective, but i don't really see fandoms as "representation" that can be "erased" because it's all conjecture and everyone has such wildly different opinions on what a character is or is not. it's not representation if it's not confirmed. if it's just a headcanon it's not representation, as it was not confirmed and thus is conjecture and speculation. i might be wildly off base as an outsider, but i always kinda thought the point of fandom was for everyone to express how they interact with that piece of media uniquely, and spread and share their thoughts and opinions? why are people trying to control how other people interact with a piece of fiction that they did not make...?
that seems antithetical to the idea of fandom. i thought it was supposed to be a fun hobby? again maybe i just *don't* get it as an outsider, but it makes no sense to me to try to control someone else's internal opinion on something that quite literally is not real. like at the end of the day none of these people are real, you can't hurt their feelings you're not 'erasing' anyone here, they're literally not real, and if it's only a headcanon that that person is transfem... then you're not. erasing. a transfem character, it's just conjecture. it doesn't matter what gender or sexuality you see them as because you're free to think and feel those ways in your head. you're allowed to engage in those thought experiments because that person quite literally is not real so it's okay to speculate on their identity. it's not okay to do this to another live person but if they're fictional who... cares?
this may sound really harsh but i need to stress to people that fictional characters are not real human beings, and stressing out over their genders or sexuality does nothing to help you. you can't hurt their feelings. you can't erase a transfem that isn't confirmed to be transfem. a headcanon is just that: a personal opinion. it shouldn't come to the point where it causes distress and fighting. this is a hobby, it is not one's entire life. i would recommend just blocking and not engaging with people who try to police how you interact with leisure behaviors. i don't think there's one true way to be "Right" about these kinds of things because it's literally all conjecture
also sorry, i have no idea who that character is! i don't know very many fictional characters by name so i can't lend any input there, apologies. for the future, if anyone is curious about my feelings on these sorts of things about other characters, i unfortunately cannot help you as there's a near 100% chance i am not familiar with them and can't lend any input
how can an opinion be right or wrong ... ? that just doesn't make sense to me. it's all opinion. it's not worth hurting other people over or yelling at each other. i'm sorry that i can't give you a more informed opinion, but i thought maybe an outsider's perspective could help somewhat. i hope this is somewhat informative or helpful to you at all- i honestly don't think it's right for people to try to control each others' headcanons because that is quite literally thought policing and i am not here for that. anyway, take care of yourself! thanks for stopping by :)
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can we get relationship hcs with abby but with a SOFT/SUB MASC??? the way that never existed is crazy
Abby Relationship Hcs Pt 2
abby anderson x sub masc reader
synopsis: modern relationships headcanons with a (sub) masculine reader in mind!
zom’s note: i wanted to write something like this so thank you for the ask.
word count: abt 750
warnings: nsfw content (own section after sfw! don’t like, don’t read), mentions of strapping, suggestive touching and/or eyeing, and suggestions of abby being mean.
SFW <3
ꕥ Abby loves, and I mean loves sharing clothes with you. Since both of you lean into a more masculine style, you'll often find some of your stuff missing, just to see Abby wearing it later in the day.
ꕥ Carabiners. Abby likes them mainly because they are so practical. She gets hers from some random hardware section in a store, but you are adamant about getting the cooler ones, because sure practical, but also a lesbian statement.
ꕥ Whenever you and Abby go to workout, you swear some guy or girl always tries to hit on y’all, but you use this as an excuse to show off your hot as fuck girlfriend, win win.
ꕥ Whenever you and Abby go out shopping, y’all always end up finding stuff for each other. Immediately looking for the other with a few hangers, saying, “Baby, you’d look hot in this… then I can borrow”, “Abby, oh em gee, try this on”, “Baby, look look!” It just goes back and forth, love bugs literally.
ꕥ Abby is a major pouter, and you just adore it. Sad? Pouting. Mad? Pouting. She wants something? Pouting. You totally tease her about it, even if you do the same thing too.
ꕥ You love getting your nails done in those simple short natural styles with fun designs. Abby definitely pays for you, and sometimes she gets a matching design or your initial with a simple top coat.
ꕥ Abby loves to be the big spoon because she likes caging you in. Arms wrapped around you, and a leg on top of your center. She claims that you are her personal body pillow.
ꕥ Abby loves when you run your hands over a part of her body idly. Just feeling the muscle twitch, or for comfort. Y’all are both all over each other.
ꕥ You two definitely, once dating for awhile, have promise rings. Definitely some sort of matching bands that are unique for the two of you. You both are always showing them off, saying you’re married.
ꕥ Abby loves to listen to you talk and talk, doesn’t care what it’s about, she just stares at you nodding and asking simple questions. Just thinking about how much she adores you.
ꕥ She loses her mind when she sees you in the sweats and a sports bra combo, won’t care if its for lounging or working out. She can’t look away, she swears you’re gonna make her crazy.
NSFW !!
ꕥ Abby has an obsession with using you, doesn’t matter in what ways. She’ll let you strap her, because you definitely know what to do, but she is obviously the one in control. Hands on your hips, controlling how hard or soft you go, and the pace. Either way, you end up more messed up than she does, begging for her to let you take care of her, or use you and stop teasing the both of you for so long.
ꕥ On that, Abby loves when you beg. It feels like an addiction at this point. Seeing you squirm, or a dazed out expression. Just babbling about how much you want her, how much you need her. She can listen forever, sometimes laughing at how pathetic you can get at times.
ꕥ She definitely eyes your waist whenever your shirt rides up, bottoms always sitting low and showing off whatever boxers or boyshorts you’re wearing. It gets her to thinking, and then that thinking leads to her spacing; even when your shirt rides back down. Doesn’t even feel the tiniest bit of shame when you catch her, and you end up getting a little shy under her gaze.
ꕥ Gets you to lay your back against her chest as y’all watch a show or just chilling and scrolling. She can’t control when her hand slips to rub random shapes onto your lower stomach or upper thigh. Those light touches, moving further down slowly but surely to where she wants to touch you most; gentle kisses being pressed to your skin. Abby loves the small reactions she gets when you notice what her intentions are.
ꕥ She always notices when you really try your best to impress her, or show her how good you are. Letting Abby touch you as she pleases, or using you for her own gain if that's what she desires. She’ll dumb you down with sweet talk, with a tinge of meanness just so you can pout about it. You both know that pouty attitude is gonna get fucked out of you later.
#abby anderson#abby anderson x reader#abby the last of us#abby x masc!reader#abby x reader#abby tlou#abby x you#abby anderson smut#lesbian#wlw#tlou
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Hey, guys! Sorry I didn't answer many questions today. I was having a bit of an off day and my motivation went kerplunk on most things.
Aaaaaaaaaaanyhoo, that said, I'll still try to answer as many questions as I can tonight. But FIRST! I just want to show you guys the upcoming chapters (basically the ones in the planning stage or have already been planned). I have a list of them here, and I'll give cheeky little synopses/tidbits/explanations for the chapters below!
Hehe, it's all under the cut if you wanna read.
Heart Drive (currently writing) - Mettaton and Napstablook will make their debuts in this chapter, but they won't be the main focus. They have significant roles in it, but it's actually focused more on Sans and Alphys' friendship and their flaws. I think it's also the first long Sans chapter too, so that's neat.
Snail Races (planned) - Napstablook is a major character, Gerson makes his debut, and lots of chaos and ancient magic lore. It will also introduce an important plot point involving the twins and how their magic works in this AU.
The Snowdin Snowathon Championships! (planned) - This one's just pure shenanigans, really. Papyrus basically enters an annual sports event and Sans ends up being a goofy commentator for it. I've been thinking about sports events that we humans have and thought, "I wonder if monsters have sports events like we do. What would that look like?" Thus, this chapter was born! Haha!
Undyne and Sans (planned) - A short chapter. Undyne and Sans meet in person for the first time and talk about Papyrus. That's about it.
Ketchup To My Level (planned) - A lot of you send in ketchup-themed asks for Sans, and I understand why! He just hasn't drank ketchup yet! Well, this is a chapter literally all about that, except me being me, I've basically expanded it and contextualised it for this AU. Long story short, Sans kinda goes insane, but in a comedic way. Honestly, I'm excited to write this one.
Spaced Out (planned?) - This is a unique, experimental chapter because the narrator for the majority of this one is not the regular narrator, but SANS AND PAPYRUS THEMSELVES. They come up with this crazy story together with aliens and giant robot dogs. No, nothing makes sense. It's Sans and Papyrus, the definition of goofballs, of course they're not gonna make sense!
Mandatory Training (planning) - Undyne and Papyrus' friendship gets a bit more development, there's a demonstration of the twins' musical powers acting up, and we get Sans being a lazybones and Papyrus showing more of his insecure side. That's all I got so far.
Honestly, I'm trying to make the best of the more goofy chapter before things get a bit more serious in chapter 34 onwards. I consider chapter 34 to be the "turning point" of the fic, honestly, despite it being a short chapter. It's just where things get a bit darker. Enjoy these goofy chapters while you can! :D
Anyway, see ya! I'll get to answering your questions again soon!
#ooc#ali anne#update#snowdin adventures#skeletwins#skeletwins au#undertale#undertale au#undertale ask blog
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I just remembered I was going to do an analysis at the end.
It was all a social experiment... I was watching, observing... *evil laugh*
Ok, but seriously, I had a few predictions going in. I figured people were going to choose as many mutations as possible, even though, as I've said, I tend to prefer wild type and a few very specific patterns. Aside from Blue and Dominant White, I don't even like any of the dilutions.
I was kind of worried I wouldn't know what to draw at the end (and my painting is probably totally off especially in the neck area) and I was also worried it would turn out mostly white. It did turn out so diluted it was almost white, but in a pleasing psuedo-dominant white way, in my opinion. We were *this* close to it having the lavender gene, which would have been just painful for me to paint.
I don't like lavender and to paint I need to enjoy it and have sufficient motivation, so thank you for not making me do that. I do think that in some forms lavender can be pretty, but I do have a special loathing for the lavender gene nonetheless. That and painting white on white. I left the background white to make it easier, but unfortunately the white doesn't really stand out very well and for that I am sorry.
For the skin color, it didn't surprise me one bit that you guys went the exotic route. I was entirely expecting that. I voted for the fibro with black earlobes for maximum contrast with the white plumage, even though red with white earlobes is one of my favorite combos.
However, I wasn't expecting pearl eyes, which in many cases are just plain white (and I prefer orangey bay.) But since the birds were fibro I made them yellow since the only example I've seen of a pearl eyed fibro had yellow eyes.
It's definitely a unique and terrifying combination and I really love it.
Overall, I am very happy with how it turned out.
E^Wh/E^Whmo+/mo+B/Bcha/chaml+/ml+Pg/PgMh/MhDb/db+co+/co+s+/s+Bl/bl+I^d/I^dC+/C+choc/chocLav+/Lav+cb+/cb+di+/di+Ig+/Ig+id+/id+W+/W+Fm/Fm
This is my imagined phenotype for this genotype: I could be totally off but I did my best!
The pearl eyes staring out of the fibro skin kind of scared me when I first drew it, not going to lie. It is an interesting juxtaposition of the very intense skin and eye color and the soft and subtle plumage...
What should we call the plumage color? I think khaki mauve necked red ginger barred is kind of a mouthful, don't you?
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Another thing I wanted to mention was THAT scene with Vein when it was basically revealed that Lu Guang caused him to have a heart attack via an ability we didn't even know he had.
And we know who else has a heart related ability: Liu Xiao.
I had my suspicions before but with this I feel it's actually really likely that Liu Xiao is someone from Lu Guang's past. Not just as a random stranger that turned out to have it out for them for some reason but that it goes way deeper.
#we found out that cheng xiaoshi's mom has the same power as him or rather he has the same power as her#and idk how that works because i used to believe everyone has an unique ability special for every person with powers#but here we see a mother and her son have the same#apparently liu xiao is confirmed to have more powers and by the looks of it the same goes for lu guang#which means... actually idk what it means but ik it means something#there was one period of time when i actually believed that it's possible that lu guang and liu xiao were brothers before obviously#remembering that we were already introduced to liu xiao's messed up fam#i really need to rewatch the previous seasons#with all the brainworms rn i think i have no choice#but yeah the point is that there definitely is some history between those two and i feel like they represent two sides of the same coin#i don't know why but that's just how it feels to me right now#link click#bridon arc#link click spoilers
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hmmm hwon
#speaking.txt#trying to sort through how i feel about the whole situation im hoping rambling here will help#subjectively i don't feel much of anything regarding it all. if you know me you know that im generally emotionless so this is#not unique. objectively though i feel upset it got to this point. i think?#looking at the timeline of events without dates cuz i don't have them; rumors about him working at a host club start popping up#they spread. generally on the international side at least no one cares if this is true or not because whatever if he does#people notice that a lot of basic facts about the group in the posts are wrong so who knows if it's even true#gfent just announces they're taking legal action then silence. which i guess makes sense if they are pursuing legal action#america tour ends. more rumors about him having a partner start spreading. blows up. hwon is announced on hiatus for health#reasons. the general assumption is that the health reasons stated were mental health reasons given everything that was going on#silence about his condition for a few months. then one random morning his departure is announced for vague reasons#if it's his choice to leave then that's his choice to make. i hope he can live peacefully from here on out#but if it's related to all the rumors and stuff spreading one would think better artist protections with definitive statements about#everything would help some; no?#if there's one thing gfent is it's vague idk how many times they make clear statements on matters#and i get. that not everything in life is clear cut there's grey areas everywhere. but when it comes to the artist under your label#shouldn't you want to help them better? if the rumors were false be clear about that from the beginning. if you investigate and#they're true and they're harmful be clear about that. if they're true and not an issue be clear about that#i don't get why you'd say nothing the entire time about them which would probably really influence his choice to leave#i don't know him ill never know his reasons for leaving ill never know if gfent actually pursued legal action. and that's fine im a fan and#theyre a business at the end of the day but it's just so weird i guess. i do feel bad for hwon. and i will miss him in the long run i think#i just can't help but feel if everything was handled better it wouldn't have to come to this y'know#or if it did come to this it'd be more justified. or something idk
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Desperately trying to make sense of Alex's motivations in Season Two and you know, I do eventually have to wonder if maybe Alex wasn't actually lying in the majority of those tapes.
Like, we tend to assume that Alex's motivations have been a consistent throughline since the college years, but do we actually know that that's the case? Do we know for sure that Alex was acting in deliberate, calculated ways in 2006; or could it be that he's telling the Truth on those olds tapes when he says he's blacking out and can't remember what's happening to anyone? After all, if we're assuming that Season 2 Alex's motivations are the exact same as his motives in Season 3, then it doesn't make any sense at all that he spend months working with Jay to try to find Amy; Season 3 Alex would have attempted to kill Jay like, on sight just to get things over with as quickly as possible and contain the spread of contamination as best as he could.
But, maybe, if Alex really had been separated from Amy after the events of the 04-04-10 tape, and if he really doesn't know where she is, then maybe that could make things start to make more sense. Maybe he really had been watching Jay's channel, and seeing Jay start going through the same things he went through in college without things devolving into violence and disappearances, and wondered if things maybe could play out differently this time. Maybe he really did send that tape to Jay to ask him for help, maybe he really was just trying to find Amy.
But then, instead of actually being helpful, Jay makes it extremely clear that he's a lot more interested in stalking Alex than he is in finding Amy. Alex asked for help, and instead there's a bunch of masked dudes on Jay's heels that keep attacking him, Jay is breaking into his house, stealing his things, leading the Operator right to him all over again, keeps trying to get other people (namely: Jessica -- if Alex is being honest when he says that his call reassuring her that Amy had been found was an effort to make Sure she stayed away from everything that was happening) involved; and instead of anything getting better, instead of anyone finding Amy, things are just getting worse all over again.
It's not until after the incident at the tunnel that things seem to start rapidly devolving. Rather than a calculated attempt to finally follow through with his need to curb the spread of contamination, this is very clearly an outburst of rage and terror. Alex's "I told you not to follow me" line in conjunction with Jay speculating that Alex didn't know who that guy was, to me, pretty firmly seems to speak to Alex having mistaken that stranger for Jay. From his point of view, Alex knows that Jay and totheark know where he live, have broken in before, he suspects that Jay stole a key to make it easier to get into his house, and he's been followed on the daily for months -- Alex is sitting at the tunnel because he doesn't know where else he can go without being constantly surveilled, hunted, and assaulted. And instead of getting a moment by himself to breathe, Jay followed him out there all over again (it feels like Alex looks directly at the camera in Jay's footage of him from this day; he knew for a fact that Jay was there), and then to make matters worse now 'Jay' won't even keep his distance anymore.
So Alex lashes out. And it's not until afterwards that he looks down and finally recognizes that this wasn't Jay -- it was someone completely innocent. Things have finally reached the low point he was at in college all over again; maybe even worse this time. If Alex doesn't remember attacking anyone in college, but he was at least partially conscious of it this time, then things have reached an entirely new rock bottom, they've reached an absolute point of no return.
He has no idea what happened to Amy, and he's spent months trying to find her with no hint of where she could be; he doesn't know where Jay actually is or what additional trouble he could be causing at this point; he does know that now innocent people are getting caught in the crossfire (in regards to the stranger in the tunnel, and also Jessica now that Jay has her phone number, and the untold number of people Jay got involved when he started posting videos to the Marble Hornets channel); things are spiraling out of control and there's no one left to ask for help. The situation isn't getting better, it's getting worse; things aren't getting easier to handle, they're just getting more out of hand; the negative impact is spreading and who knows how much further it can still go?
So, Alex decides to go scorched earth. He disfigures the body with the rock either to hide evidence or to make sure the guy would actually stay dead and not just get back up to start his own cycle of contamination in a few years. He tries to give Jay one last chance to back off, and Jay instead admits he's been talking to Jessica, acts obstinate and lies about not having Alex's spare key, and then breaks into Alex's house a second time (minimum). If Alex doesn't stop him now, who will? Alex met with Jay planning to kill the others, and then himself, so he could put a stop to this once and for all and keep things from getting any worse than they already were.
Maybe it makes a lot more sense if, rather than being a strangely incomprehensible detour on what should have been a straight path, the events of Season Two were the breaking point that put Alex on that path to begin with.
#N posts stuff#idk!!! I've been thinking a lot lately about the tendency to take Characters at Face Value; when they tell us things we tend to#automatically believe them despite what evidence we might have to the contrary. & like when it comes to deciphering what#went down during the college film project it's mostly totheark that posits that Alex was Definitely Lying and Definitely Acting on Purpose#(even Jay is largely ambivalent - wondering which way it leans and basically saying it could go either way)#but. do we KNOW that they know that? Do we Know that they're Right when they claim that? Or are they just Assuming based off#of their own rage and animosity towards Alex due to what happened? Do we Know for Sure that Alex Was Lying in s1?#i don't know if we do!! And so without Knowing that for sure; how can we speak to Alex's motivations in season one OR season two?#now TO BE CLEAR: I am not saying this in an attempt to claim that Alex is somehow completely innocent of all guilt and that like.#Jay is the 'Real Antagonist' of the series - not at all my intention. this is just More of my usual 'look. Everyone in this series is#all kinds of Morally Grey; no recurring character in this series is free of guilt they ALL have unique fatal flaws & trends towards#antagonism that makes things worse and dooms them all' shtick - a la 'everyone Thinks they're doing the Right Thing but No One Is'#BUT i Am wondering if this Does help to like. clear up some of the ambiguity/uncertainty of Season Two - and even Season One - and#lets the series as a whole read a little bit clearer? idk i know that Jay does Claim to think that Alex was bullshitting him#the whole time & was Actually planning on tying up loose ends the whole time but AGAIN it doesn't make Sense he'd wait so long#idk - Am i making sense? does any of this track? i'm trying to figure it out; i am open to comments on the subject to help#i haven't rewatched season 3 yet today and so maybe there's stuff in there that contradicts this whole theory lmao but i'm taking a break#and just posting this anyway; we'll see what happens lol#marble hornets#mh lb
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Genuine question. What do I do if I like basically every single perfume sample in a set I got
#i bought the commodity fragrances exploration kit because i was so curious about all the scents#and i’m slowly making my way through them. i’m not really bothering with the paper strips; just spraying it directly onto my skin#because i want to see how long each scent is detectable on my skin; how they interact with my body chemistry etc#i mean like i have some clear favourites but there’s really only a couple i don’t care for#(book personal because it doesn’t strike me as unique; i feel like any sandalwood-based essential oil perfume would smell fairly similar#paper personal because it’s so faint as to be barely detectable; juice overall because i have something similar already)#i really like the smell of moss but it doesn’t smell like Me somehow so i don’t think i’d get a bigger bottle#milk personal is the only one of the milk line i’ve tried so far and i liked it but found it a tiny bit faint#i’m going to wear milk expressive all day tomorrow and see how it does#i got a free 7.5ml bottle of gold personal with the black friday sale and i’m So glad because i love the entire gold line so so much#expressive is my favourite but i’m really glad i have almost 10ml of personal in total#paper expressive is so interesting to me. it reminds me of a campfire#book expressive smells like the most wonderful greenhouse i have ever walked into#i haven’t gotten heavily into the bold line yet but i feel like i’m going to have to do complex equations by the end of this to figure out#what i want#right now i’m leaning towards a duo set with gold & paper expressive but that could all change#i’m going to wait til my birthday in february anyway#like i have 18 samples plus the 7.5ml bottle of gold personal which i love.. i’ll be surprised if i use everything by then#*use up everything i mean. i’ll definitely try everything at least once by then#also i want to spend my christmas money on something actually sensible#i have no such plans for my birthday money as yet#personal
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Playing Bomb rush cyberfunk has been a crazy experience so far because i feel like I've been enjoying the game just as much as I'm not doing so
#which is crazy because i went in with the impression that this would be jet set radio but better#and really? the biggest thing is doing for me rn is making me wanna play old-school Jet set radio again#who the fuck looked at Jsr and thought “Hey you know what would make this game even better? 300 different inputs”#which makes it impossible for me to play this solely on the controler (the main way i play games since i suck ass at the keyboard)#because it just doesn't have that many buttons#so at times i gotta be fucking double welding this shit with both the keyboard and the controler and it's awful#because I don't have that good of a motor coordination or whatever the proper term is#on top of that. why did we need a fighting mechanic? that's so fucking unnecessary when Jsr already had a gret way of dealing with that#which was by integrating the grafitti mechanic with the fighting by having it be the way you damage opponents#just adjust that to make it take more hits/graffitis in the fight and boom. you're done. perfectly functional#all it does is take away 3 BUTTONS in a game that already has a shit load of inputs#and ik these same buttons are also used to doing tricks on rails but like. that's such an useless addition#because I'm not actually doing anything like this isn't pulling a move on a fighting game. no skill is needed. I'm just mashing buttons#so you might as well not have both of these machanics and have the buttons be set to do other. more important comands#like the one to manually continue a combo on the ground after getting off of a rail. i gonna hold control on the keyboard and move#my joysticks at the same time whenever i need that and it fucking sucks#so yeah whenever i play it again I'm definitely gonna try mapping my controler to my liking and we'll see how it goes#unrelated to the gameplay i just gotta say. sorry but the songs are so mid#if i knew how to mod things i would replace every single one of them songs from jsf and jsrf. absolutely no doubt about it#like the songs in the jsr games are so unique and distinct from one another. even the ones that have a similar style. which makes them#incredibly memorable like i still remember a good chunk of them from the top of my head and i haven't played that game in months#bomb rush cyberfun songs just feel so samey and forgettable#a similar thing can be said for the environment designs and especially their colors imo#everything within the same area feels incredibly samey and not memorable. and you may think “Carol it's a whole area of course it's gonna#look similar to itself“ and to that i say. yes. cohesion is important but take a look at Kogane and Bento from jsr and you'll see#how despite being the same area and having the a coherent color pallet and overlay applied to it their locations are distinct from eachother#and memorable to the point where i can recall how to traverse thought each area and where they lead to easily#in bomb rush it feels like I'm just looking at the same place everywhere in the map#on a good note! i like the story so so much it's definitely what's gonna cary me through playing the whole game#because jsr really needed more story and fleshed out characters that aren't just different designs you can play as
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hhhhhhhhhhhh saboace royalty au. ace was crown prince but can’t use magic which is necessary to become king, so he renounces his title and becomes infamous for his eccentric tendencies to play up the illusion that he’s truly not meant for the throne and that his younger sibling has full rights to the title of heir.
sabo is born to a family serving in the royal court, has been a genius magician since he was a child, and is the perfect example of a young man fully educated to serve at the king’s side. which is why he’s allowed himself to be tied down into a loveless political engagement with the king’s heir, putting the whims of his family before his own and resigning himself to become the future ruler’s consort/spouse to legitimize his role as an advisory right-hand man.
but then the heir grows rebellious and denounces the engagement with sabo in public and ace swoops in to save the day (and sabo’s reputation), demanding his father give sabo to him instead. he steals sabo away and challenges his sibling’s right to the throne, intent on earning back the title not for himself, but so he can make sabo (who is heavily qualified to rule) the king - and since they’ll be wed, no one will be able to undermine sabo’s position as he will technically be part of the monarchy that governs the kingdom.
#op#i…aaaaaaaaaaaa iykyk but if you dont small tangent story time#i asked friends for magical show recs w unique magic concepts bc i decided to set the#toxic codependent forever-bond in a fantasy au so i can make it be a set of self-inflicted curses#the only free time i have is walking to and from work so ive been scribbling notes on my phone#thinking of what type of magic system to have for this one was becoming a distraction#esp since the focus rly isn’t on magic itself and only on aspects of the bond that show how unhealthy it is#instead of obsessing over it more i decided to have someone decide for me#flash forward one of them brings up using the fantasy yuri anime that came out early this year#then proceeds to give me the rundown of all seven published light novels until i cave and watch the pilot episode#its SO good i actually watched 2 and love anis and euphie and will definitely be reading the LN over winter break#also completely snapped me away from the au bc i am so in love w this now#went in to ep 1 with misconstrusions and fell halfway thru screaming this is so saboace core and i have a halfbaked plot at the ready#thinking smth smth sabo visits the palace to get acquainted w/ fiancee and makes fast friends w/ ace#then they realize they have legit feelings for each other and the whole thing was gonna be a play#on the steals-partner-from-sibling trope that i jus loosely dreamed up bc algard reminded me of sabo and then i couldnt not think of them#but then i finished the ep and went OH it went down like that!!!! thats brutal. and then i changed it#and then i watched ep 2 and changed it further based on glossed-over advanced plot knowledge#bc the solution to algard feeling pressure from a title he never wanted and anis rejecting it in the first place#is obv (in this very yuri-centric fantasy novel) to make euphie queen instead and legitimize it by her marrying anis#and then i hyper projected that onto saboace bc i love them so#yessa after letting me ramble abt this so i could resist the urge to furiously jot down notes: i think val made you worse actually#(shes not wrong also val responding w ‘lmao wlw wins again’ and nothing else had me in stitches#best/worst influence it is 5am and i have done nothing for my studio class yet am having the time of my life)#curse of the average hobbyist writer to always have good ideas when there is no time no breathe life into them#writing
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every time i think about rose’s ending i go a little more insane
#i am just SO conflicted about it#i definitely believe her and tentoo worked it all out and got their happy ending and living their best lives#and i think its rly poetic that in the end it was THE MAN who gave up everything so he could be with the girl#instead of rose having to give up her humanity - the thing the doctor loved so much about her#and tentoo IS the doctor#but like#rose never has to face the same lesson every other companion has to that they have to leave the doctor#and idk if that’s a good or a bad thing#also that fact shes just in a different universe now not of her own fucks with me#like she considered dead in the main universe and that genuinely makes me sad#and she can never see jack or sarah ane ever again#as the first companion of the nuwho era she definitely deserves a unique and special ending#but ig cuz we never specifically get closure in the show about her and tentoo’s relationship ig that’s why i go back and fourth on it#just hope my girl is happy#doctor who#not putting this in the main rose tags no one needs to see my nonsens lol
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