#i think the simplicity of it yet the complexity of its themes are really good though and its not like i just copy and pasted that song titl

[dallonwrites]

the fun thing about my silly little book series' titles is until heaven is by far my favourite title i've ever had for a novel both sonically and thematically and revelations, revelations is my least favourite. and then lover boy is just there being lover boy

[dolceaspidenera]

Hey everyone, here's the second entry for my playlists of the Touch Starved characters and this time is Ais' turn (gosh I'm obsessed with this man)!

You can find the complete playlist on Spotify at this link

Of all the characters' playlists, this is the most metal-packed one, let's see how many metalheads are hidden in this fandom 🤘🏻😁 As always, feel free to let me know what you think and, if you want, to share your own playlists, I'd really love to geek together about music and Touch Starved!

A couple of thoughts on my song choices

I think Ais is a much more complex character than he appears to be and despite this, he strikes you with a disarming simplicity. His being a black sheep and an outcast creates a sense of affinity that is easy to empathize with, while his disarming honesty about feeling alone gives the final blow in all its rawness. He is a misfit who pretends to be okay with it but deep down yearns for connection, he presents himself as violent and dangerous (which he definitely is) and yet deep down he is also caring, vulnerable and lonely. 

Which musical genre, therefore, is better suited to those who feel a bit like black sheep and marginalized by their community than heavy metal? Heavy metal, despite the many groups that have literally made the history of music, was originally mocked and denigrated, considered transgressive, dangerous music and swamped by criticism and prejudice. At the same time, it was able to gather around those who felt outcasts and enable them to express all the rage and frustration that come with it, while finding a sense of pride and membership. Metal is by its nature a genre without filters, it enters your guts creating raw emotions and I think it is the most suitable to describe Ais, who, in his very design, clearly bears the signs and brand of metalheads (rings, bracelets and leather belts and studded boots) and I am convinced that it is no coincidence.

Songs with an irreverent nature like Bad Reputation and Highway to Hell were obvious choices, Bad Boys Are Here in particular suited Ais' fondness for brawling, as well as being reminiscent of his gang, while Evil Eyes is rather self-explanatory. I then wanted to add a few more "angry" songs that well describe his situation with Ocudeus both musically and with their lyrics; Hive Mind, Domination, Master of Puppets and Perfect Insanity speak for themselves, while The Thing That Should Not Be was simply a must considering that it was written taking inspiration from Lovecraft works. Inside The Fire is perhaps the piece that requires a little more interpretation but it made me think of all the people who have found themselves choosing to drink from the Seaspring in the past.

Also, I added several songs, Flip in particular, which have peculiar sound influences and reminded me of the Ais' and Seaspring's music themes (which are the best pieces of the whole demo in my humble opinion), as well as being spot-on even as lyrics. Nobody's Listening caught my attention for the Japanese flute integrated into the song which refers to all the elements of oriental culture present in Ais' design and it was immediately a perfect match. Smoke and Water could very well have been written for Ais since it fits him perfectly, it's dark, eerie and sexy at the same time.

Finally, to highlight the most vulnerable sides of this multifaceted character (and to take a breather amidst all the angst-filled songs), I chose songs like Lonely Day (which speaks for itself), Demons of Pain and Fear of The Water, which fits very well with a scenario where MC decides to drink from the Seaspring. 

I started with the good purpose of keeping it short ad ended up writing sooo much, I'm sorry. If you read this far, thank you! If you also happen to listen to this playlist and enjoy it, double thank you and congratulations, you have excellent music taste! 🫵🏽🤘🏻

[bingoboingobongo]

throwback to this poem i wrote for school and posted on my spam last year cus my teacher gave me a bad grade for it and im still pissed but also bc i low-key really liked this poem and also just seeing everyone's attempts at analyzing it (none of them were "right" (as in it wasn't what it was meant to convey) but i still encourage you to try and create your own analysis).

anyways now im doing my own analysis on it again bc wth.

my analysis:

ok so the main thing about this poem is that it was part of a collection (that was the assignment). there were two other poems before this, and the theme/motif of the whole collection was failed expectations/failure, etc.

this was my favorite poem out of the whole thing (but not my teacher's cus she was annoying and didn't read my analysis even though she said that was the part she was grading) because not only did it carry the theme of failure within the poem itself, it also did so in a "meta" way.

it actually begins with the first two poems, which were significantly longer and seemingly more complex (although imo they were more shallow than this one). the first two poems serve to establish an expectation for the third poem. the reader is meant to expect it to follow the same quality as the first two. this is further perpetuated by the title: the best poem yet. emphasis on the word yet.

this signals to the reader that this is going to be even better than the first two poems, and so the reader now has very high expectations. but when they actually read it, many readers (including my annoying ass english teacher) are disappointed by it's simplicity. the poem failed their expectations, therefore continuing the theme of failure in a wider, broader scheme.

ofc u have the theme of failure within the poem, with the cat failing to catch the rat, but that's not the main point. the main point is that the poem as a whole is disappointing, and is failing the expectations the past poems set up.

that being said though, it's kinda ironic because in my opinion, this literally is the best poem yet because it has immensely more meaning and depth than the others, but also if it's the best than it defeats the purpose and becomes a failure, but if it's a failure than that's good, etc. etc. kinda a snake eating its own tail thing.

anyways, that was the intended analysis but it was honestly really cool to see how other people interpreted it. obviously since they didn't have the previous poems they couldn't see the broader scheme, but it was really cool to see what parts people latched onto.

for example, multiple people I think latched onto the 'very fat' part and saw the poem as some sort of metaphor for eating disorders or body image issues, which wasn't what it was meant to be but im glad people could find comfort in it.

also pretty much everyone said it was giving natsuki from ddlc vibes which i high-key fw bc she was my favorite character and her poems are awesome.

[gamingstar26]

Yes, you are exactly right about totk!! A lot of my own complaints come from the story (or lack thereof). To be honest, it's a rare LOZ game that has a particularly complex or nuanced story, but in my opinion, the best ones more than make up for it with their characters.

My favorite game that I've played is Skyward Sword, and I desparately want to play Wind Waker, because the both of them have such fun and compelling characters that I don't really mind the simplicity of the narratives (and Wind Waker even hints at nuance the other games won't dive into!)

Tears of the Kingdom tries to use plot driven storytelling, but... expects us to be far more invested than most of us ever really are. There's hints of character driven story in there, but it all just falls flat in the end and feels really superficial, ESPECIALLY when you look at how they treat the women in this game. Zelda is JUST the sacrificial maiden (again) whose only autonomy comes from choosing to give up her autonomy. Mineru is JUST the smart character who magically technobabbles the solutions. Purah is JUST the scientist that tells you where to go. Most indicative of Nintendo's attitude in this, to me, is with Riju. The way they treat her, it's clear they want her to fill the role of the sexy one, but they know that won't go well if they go all out because she was canonically a young child in the last game. Still really gross, Nintendo you're not subtle.

All this to say that TOTK thinks it's more clever than if is, and fails to pull its own weight in any meaninful way.

All of this!!

I’ll add a bit more that I forgot to add:

Yea usually zelda games have simple plots overall (with some expectations of course) but they do make up for it with memorable characters, etc, etc…

My favorite zelda game is Ocarina of Time cause of the lore (also gameplay of course) and the how interesting it is to me and the overall themes it goes into being tragic and relatable, even tho the surface story is simple overall.(the hero of time games being my favs cause of the story driven nature yet also have fun gameplay) Also other games like skyward sword having a good engaging story with good characters (Groose is the best), wind waker being a simple coming of age story, but also having the king and ganondorf both cling on to the past, etc.

Like you said totk thinks it’s clever and fails to deliver on making us invested in a meaningful and exciting narrative, in a way it’s using tropes from previous zelda games like oot, botw, SS and link to the past without even knowing why they worked in the first place. While failing to reuse tho tropes in a more unique way like previous games have done. It’s true there are hints of character driven story it’s just ignored or mentioned in a half assed way.

Also like I said in the post the lack of consequences with the main story at the end, like Link’s arm just being restored even tho furry rauru had said it was beyond saving, and zelda being recalled back to normal, so her “sacrifice” was not worth it at all (master sword is also worse somehow like wtf zelda)

I’ve also noticed the way totk treats the main women it’s very not good, like you said with zelda she’s just sacrificial maiden turned into a dragon, mineru being exposition dump lady cause that’s all she does tbh, also has the worst Sage ability in the whole game, etc.

zelda being the worst one. (Tbh botw/totk zelda is mixed overall she’s overrated) cause she’s dumb as hell didn’t even recognize that Ganondorf and Calamity Ganon could be related, she does nothing until furry rauru and sonia are dead. Also being a terrible princess, she didn’t even do any meaningful things to hyrule’s rebuilding efforts other than build a school and some small memorials and fuck around doing whatever the hell she was doing pre totk. Also she stole links house damn it.

there’s also the way the gerudo are treated in the zelda series as a whole, but that’s a whole other topic others have done better at that. Like with totk and botw (mostly totk) being helpless yet also warriors needing help from hylians to even survive in their own home?! Like how ingame they explain that zelda of all people was the one to help them get to know the desert and how to survive better wtf? And the secret heroine side quest end, how it’s just some random hylian guy to be the hidden 8th. (There goes the 7 sages and the 8th being the hero of time theory)

Also the way the botw events are treated. they just pretend that none of the ancient tech never existed at all and refuse to mention anything about botw, only in small passes. And the side quest with the Hateno school mentioning the original calamity.

The depths having potential to be better but we’re just empty and massive instead, I like the bargainer statues those are cool as an concept. And the sky islands being boring and copy paste the same few islands throughout.

Holy shit this game makes me write entire essays of complaints. I’m sorry if I repeat myself I’m terrible at explaining stuff at times.

Now I’m going to play the zelda games I’ve never finished to cleanse myself of totk.

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 28/01/2024

Me and the rest area of the melee here, singing, "Where'd you go​?​"

Season 7 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume Ruby

Ripped by Kenji Furutani

Y'know, for having followed the channel since way back in 2016, it's kind of funny it took until just last year for me to see the term "rip-hop" be used, in the comments to Me and the rest area of the melee here, singing, "Where'd you go​?​". I've covered plenty of rap mashups here on the blog before, be it kirby will never have drip *spits out cereal*, Top of the Looping Steps, or Noonsummer Madness, and while the directions for all these mashups are obviously different based on the tracks used, the latter in particular - Noonsummer Madness - has really stuck with me since covering it. And I think it is specifically because it uses its two sources to specifically embrace a chill, laid-back vibe, one similar to rips like Sidelined Symphony and Yoshi's Cookie World. If we're to be technical, all rap mashups count as rip-hop, but its these emotional rips in particular that truly begin to define the term for me.

A lot of the appeal with video game music, beyond its sheer quality of composition, arrangement, and so forth, is the emotional, nostalgic ties that you form with it through the act of playing. Listening to music through albums necessitates that you form your own associations with them - either that you know about the artists behind them and what they represent, or that you're able to associate the music with important parts of your life, or simply that the music brings you back to younger times upon relistening years later. A big reason why, growing up, I always found VGM so much more appealing to listen to than what the radio suggested was because those connections were already made from playing the game - I'd associate boss music with the emotions I felt upon fighting said boss, RPG town music with the state of my party and game experience up to that point, menu music associated with just how many hours I'd sunk into the game in question - this last reason in particular is precisely why rips like Neon Wi-Fi click so well for me. Nostalgia's a very powerful tool to bring out emotions in the listener, yet the one it seems to be best at leveraging is that of sheer sentimentality: the smiles and tears we had along the way.

And that, to me, is the purest essence of Rip-Hop, and what rips like Me and the rest area of the melee here, singing, "Where'd you go​?​" truly mean to me. Relistening to video game music I'm already well acquainted with doesn't always strike me as "nostalgic" when I've been hearing it so frequently in videos or just through replaying the games, yet...there's a sort of further emotional impact that gets extracted from them through little more than the power of a good rap song mashed up with it. Where'd You Go by Fort Minor of Linkin Park fame is, like with Noonsummer Madness, not a song I hold much of any memories with - yet the simple addition of its vocals and thumping percussion contrast so beautifully with Melee's All-Star Rest Area theme.

There's a beauty to just how simple the Rest Area theme is, being driven by a sequence of only 20 notes played in bunches of three, yet coated in a heavenly backing of pianos and string. That pairing of simplicity in melody yet beautiful instrumentation sort of embodies why "rip-hop" as a rip category is able to work so beautifully - many times, you don't need to jump through the most complex hoops to bring out the most out of two songs through mashing them up. Althesame, the amount of small tweaks done to both songs to make Me and the rest area of the melee here, singing, "Where'd you go​?​" work so seamlessly are still both noticeable and very much appreciated. I haven't been aware of Kenji Furutani's contributions to the channel until just recently, but with rips like this and more under their belt, its clear to me just how much of an understanding he has of the true potential video game music holds.

[canmom]

all caught up on dungeon meshi... exquisite manga. ryoko kui has an incredible ability to put a huge amount of character and variety into her drawings while still maintaining this really appealing simplicity and clarity, and her style perfectly fits the mood. and moreover the story told with this is really compelling, using the food theme as a window into all these broader themes but maintaining a really charming sense of humour. (sorta feels like an anthony bourdain fan manga at times lol.)

the characters each have their one defining 'thing' to make them stand out in the large cast, but they're fleshed out enough to be compelling in the long haul. it's interesting to see how neatly the story is structured; it's almost always simultaneously doing several things: giving us the details on a new cool monster, advancing the broad mystery, setting up character interaction scenes, revealing parts of the major characters' backstory through a huge variety of devices, and delivering the requestite action and meal sequences. the food theme gets put into some really inventive places. and the demonic corruption and manipulation narrative that becomes increasingly central is incredibly well done, perfectly insidious and convincing.

i'm drawn to compare with made in abyss in a way; both are about descending into an alluring alien environment with its own complex ecosystem and existing as part of that food web, both take a major device of (often noble) desires being turned into something extreme, corrupting and sinister by the effects of this zone, and indeed both have quite a bit of gore, yet tonally there's this huge difference; even at its darkest dungeon meshi has this sort of warm, cheerful feeling with a goofy sense of humour without the growing sense of desperation and horror that characterises MiA's arc. both are very effective at what they do; it's interesting to see how you can approach the same subject matter so distinctly.

the monsters so central to dungeon meshi are so lovingly portrayed - there's really good thought into how these creatures might function in an environment which makes the once per issue meal never get stale. they're all like old school d&d monsters as well, which means a lot come from old bestiaries and grimoires, which is a rich vein of imagery. it's wild, i would never think a fantasy manga with elves and dwarves

we must be nearing the conclusion of this story, and i can't wait to see how it resolves.

[paragonrobits]

so its tempting to make a joke about in a world of complex and interesting character arcs, there’s Ozai in the background clearly wishing he had a mustache so he could twirl it and go NEHEHEHE as he waits for the train to be invented so he can tie women to it and laugh as the train comes becaiuse NEYEHEHEHEHE HE’S SO EEEEVIL, WICKED NEFARIOUS CAD THAT HE IS

but the thing about it is that, this isn’t meant as criticism. This isn’t a prelude to lamented supposed missed opportunities with Ozai or claiming that ATLA is missing something because he lacks nuance. Ozai works perfectly well as he is, and suggesting that every antagonist needs to have dozens of layers of character to fulfill their narrative purpose is missing the point a little bit, I think.

so firstly, the sad  truth of things is that its technically incorrect to suggest Ozai is unrealistic. Because, when you get down to it, a quick look at history or, god forbid, reexamining the last few years of real world history indicates that Ozai is in fact a horribly realistic character. History books, and recent history, are FULL of self-involved bigots who believe their good fortune equates to the world demanding they get everything they want. People who don’t give a damn about anyone but themselves, who would set the world on fire for approximately five minutes of victory time. Even dismissing the possibility of, say, someone who genuinely wants to nuke foriegn countries to feel powerful, just imagine that one bastard boyfriend of your sister’s, for example; someone who beats their loved ones for bringing them presents when THEY hadn’t already bought anything, so he gets pissed that you imply he’s a bad provider and throws an ashtray at your head.

this kind of person would seem to be an almost cartoonishly evil, unrealistic monster. And yet, the world is full of them. Reality is often far worse than what we dream up. Don’t forget that the real Amon Goeth, remembered in Schindler’s List, had to be TONED DOWN in the movie because people couldn’t believe the sheer extent of his crimes as being something actually real; the man was real, he really did unspeakably horrible things, but it was so extreme and outrageous people refused to believe it of a fictional equivalent.

The second point is that Ozai’s simplicity doesn’t hurt his character, or the narrative. It enhances it.

Ozai is a selfish man that only cares about power and the immediate people can offer him. He believes sincerely that the world exists to gratify him, that the Fire Nation deserves conquest and dominance because it has the power to do so. He doesn’t understand anything outside of his own ego, and he doesn’t care to learn. He’s a petty, violent man who embodies the worst excesses of the Fire Nation; battling him is a shorthand for fighting the corrupt ambition of what the Fire Nation itself has become.

So not only is he the complete opposite of our protagonist Aang (sweet and kind, open to the world, living humbly as a monk, striving to live in harmony with the world’s cycles), he’s also a reminder of the worst, perhaps, in humanity itself, and everything Aang is battling. He’s a thoughtless, self-centered bigot and warmonger who thinks nothing of consequences or the greater flow of the world, and thus his entire perspective is a thesis on what the series and its themes oppose.

He doesn’t need to be too complicated a guy. The fact that he IS the way he is, that’s probably part of the point. He doesn’t see beyond himself or his own ambitions, while Aang strives to achieve true harmony. Aang understands that divisions between nations are a false illusion of the world, while Ozai has his whole identity built around the idea that he’s inherently better. The illusion of royal blood finds a head in Ozai.

The world is full of uncomplicated, petty-minded brutes who can’t see further than throwing their weight around, and Ozai is a mix of both that, and being the embodiment of everything that Aang is not, and must strive to defeat. Sometimes that’s the flaws within our own thinking, and sometimes it’s a jerkbag you can smash with a rock.

[maximura]

TXT: AS AVRIL LAVIGNE

Heuning Kai did a cover of Avril Lavigne’s Sk8er Boi. I’ve been waiting to see her material in kpop for a years and still believe that she could write such great material for a girl group. Kai did a good job but god that song is so cringe. So here’s what I’d love to hear them cover:

Yeonjun: The Let Go-B-Side Trinity: Nobody’s Fool | Things I’ll Never Say | Anything But Ordinary. This album was insane and definitely something I appreciate more as an adult. I feel like these three songs have a common theme of standing out, finding your own uniqueness and owning that shit. I can really hear Yeonjun doing Nobody’s Fool. 

Taehyun: Nobody’s Home (Under My Skin). It’s not my favourite song of hers but I think it’s one of her best written, lyrically and musically. He could cover I’m With You but I think that would be too obvious choice for his voice. Nobody’s Home is less expected and demands more from him. My favourite song of Avril’s is Fall To Pieces, so I would die if he ever covered that one. 

Kai:  Stop Standing There (Goodbye Lullaby). I think suits his voice more that Sk8er Boi. His voice is good but it doesn’t have that really have that raw-knock-out-quality to it yet. This isn’t an insult or criticism, it’s just how I hear it. Those kinds of voices sound great on songs like this: where there’s simple melodies but then it builds up to something more complex and uplifting towards the end. That’s the vibe I always get from Kai.

Beomgyu: I’m With You (Let Go). His deep/huskier voice would be really interesting on this song, especially if it’s a stripped down acoustic version with just a piano and cello. This is one of Avril’s more vulnerable songs and Beomgyu’s got that quality to his voice. They’d have to pitch it down a bit though because it’s kinda hard to sing imo. 

Soobin: Complicated (Let Go). Soobin voice isn’t really recognised as main vocals, nor is he main rap. But I think there’s this simplicity to it that would really work on a song like this; where the melody is straight forward and there’s no real vocal gymnastics complicating it (despite its title haha).

Group: What The Hell (Goodbye Lullaby). Because it’d be so fun and I want to see them unleash Chaos again. 

[vvanite]

Art Deco and TAZ Graduation

- Episode 30 "Take your Firbolg to Work Day

I know Travis probably made his choice to have the H.O.G. headquarters be designed with Art Deco for aesthetic purposes and didn't think of its function to the world of Nua BUT his choice is a really great accidental component that adds onto the world building in Nua and to one of the core problems that Graduation addresses involving the systemic nature of Nua. In this essay, I-

(And then I proceed to actually write the essay hidden below. FAIR WARNING: This is extremely long. If you want to learn about Modern Art History and how it ties into Graduation, this is your lucky day.)

This analysis/essay is going to be meta in terms of using evidence from real world events but it is needed to explain the history behind Art Deco and help us relate to the themes of Graduation. I think it’s clear to see how the systems and people in power in Graduation are influenced from the way our governments are now so I don’t think these connections are distant, rather closer together than we think.

Also, before we continue, I want to direct you to this lovely post made by a dear user and friend, Michelle/ fitzroythecreator, LINK HERE

She explains what she believes to be a core theme of graduation that I agree with and have integrated into this essay. Check it out <3

Before I can explain how Art Deco is tied into Graduation's core theme, I need to lay out definitions and context to art movements in the early 20th century. Along the way, I will make connections to the world of Nua and how real-life events in the early 20th century actually can relate to Graduation and its worldbuilding.

Let’s address what is Art Deco. Art Deco started as an art and architecture movement during the early 20th century (1900s). Most people are familiar with its aesthetics of geometric designs and influence of industrialization because of the roaring 20s era and many media influenced by it. Do you wonder why it was popularized in the US? It’s because during the great depression in the US, public buildings, more importantly federal government buildings, were commissioned to have this aesthetic thus it would have more publicity and access to the public. The H.O.G. headquarters could easily be compared to this event because it shares similar attributes of being a public government building.

With this information, it would be really interesting to imagine the timing of Graduation being set around the early 20th century. Art Deco gives us a time period to compare what kind of social events Nua could have faced similar to the real world. The modern period of the 1850s-1950s was a time when people were disinterested and scared of the changes that industrialism made in their daily lives. People were frustrated with the changes made in their lives and sought out ways to cope with the changes through escapism. In Graduation, I would argue that we see this skepticism and wariness in the characters about the changes Nua’s Socioeconomic systems made in their lives and society in general. A good example would be the student NPCs and their insistence that their hero and villain titles are just labels since they have been stripped from their original meanings. They still somewhat criticize the structure while upholding it. As the campaign progresses, we meet various characters who are very critical to Nua’s current orderly system such as Order and Gordie. In fact, despite their roles in society being vastly different, they both share the same opinions that the system is unjust as it hurts people thus there needs to be a push for change. I am not trying to label the time of Graduation to be around the 1900s, rather whatever year Graduation happens is in parallel to the events of the 1900s.

When I first heard Travis say, Art Deco, I was interested but disappointed it wasn’t Art Nouveau. My original thinking was because of Art Nouveau’s elitism of making the architecture more artistic and complex that only educated rich people can understand and less functional for the average citizen. A lot of the art displays during the art movement were held in house museums that were limited to rich eyes. I thought this reasoning made sense in terms of the H.O.G. headquarters being this elite building common people can’t comprehend. However, with continuous thought, it clicked. Art Deco fits so well.

Art Deco was meant to be a direct response to Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts movement. (And many more but for the sake of simplicity, sticking to these two major ones) Both movements share similarities of the desire to make total works of art.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For art Nouveau in architecture, that is more on its aesthetics of stylized curving forms, thus it creates uniqueness with the architecture. For the Arts and Crafts movement in Europe, they focused on the importance of the craftsmanship and quality. The thing about the movement is that it’s heavily influenced by socialist values and the distaste for industrialism. Both art movements were diverse in style and locations globally. Because both took place internationally, there was no determined manifesto or structures for artists to adhere to. Another thing is both movements had lots of ornamentation which takes great skill and time to put into the works. By doing this, it would make the works more unique aspects to its character, however more time consuming and difficult to replicate.

Art Deco takes response to this because critics felt like these movements were outdated for the growing industrialism happening during the early 20th century. Art Deco focuses on sleek geometric design meant to be reproduced easily thanks to industries and have more emphasis on its function rather than aesthetics. It’s meant to be functional to accommodate for the new technologies of the 20th century.

So, let’s recap, in the late 19th century, two movements, focused on the style which had no concrete structures to adhere to and had the goal to make total works of art that is reliant on itself, are then replaced by Art Deco, a movement focused on its aesthetic to be mass produced easily and have a stronger focus on the form of the architecture to serve its functions. Does Art Deco sound similar to a number of Socioeconomic systems placed in Nua?

One of the key ideals of Art Deco is Functionalism. Art Deco is one of the many architectural movements in the early 20th century that decided to focus on function rather than aesthetics. What is functionalism? It is the idea that everything works as an integrated whole and that all the different components of a larger system are designed to work together. It is orderly. Architecture in the early 20th century was designed to suit the needs of the space. For example, each element of an office buildings would be designed and organized to suit that place. This ideal is more emphasized after the Great Depression in America where architects shifted their focus on the Streamline Moderne, where they aimed to make structures practical to the demands of real life and remove the emotional aspects of expressionist art.

Travis’s little choice to pick Art Deco is tied to a core theme of Graduation of dismantling the standards and structures set in Nua. It’s so brilliant yet unintentional. I know Travis hasn’t read up on modern art history. I hope by reading through, you can spot Art Deco’s need for creating limitation to focus on the functions and how it benefits the whole system. It doesn’t allow for the emotional aspects that Art Nouveau and the Art and Crafts movements held. Nua’s system follow the same thing. Everyone has a function in the socioeconomic system that has limitations meant to exploit the work labor and functions of the individual. The system leaves no room for indivduals to have growth to create real change. That’s not a flaw of the system. The system is literally designed to be that way with its many rules and standards. It's impossible to break away from it without being punished by the system itself. You need to function within its rules and have practical skills to contribute to the system. Your independent nature is stripped away. By having Art Deco be a core aesthetic design for the H.O.G. Headquarters, Art Deco ITSELF is just another element in the architecture meant to serve its function of upholding the ideology of order that H.O.G. and the world of Nua has. This orderly system has replaced the wild world that Higglemas in episode 12 remembers.

“I remember... the world when it was wild. Not sophisticated and ordered and... bureaucratic, like it is now.”

[oasis-of-you]

The Stars Dismantled

hi!!!! after months of sitting in my villainess cave and petting a cat in the most evil way possible i bring to you my brand new, shiny wip (and a title that i thought of five minutes ago)!!!! after endless research (aka scrolling through my mutuals’ wip intros for hours @alicewestwater @andiwriteunderthemoon @august-iswriting @estrella-writings​ i’m looking at y’all) i bring to you what my 8-year-old self would have killed to make.

genres: litfic (??), coming of age, kinda romance 

setting: late 1900s kolkata, india 

tone: detached, sometimes comforting, descriptive, warm, fuzzy, soft, dreamy

progress: nothing but extensive dreaming and aesthetic-making (oh and a prologue i’m not proud of)

pov: retrospective first, unreliable third

characters: 

adhira 

she/her

wlw

only child

loneliness is her bestie

imaginative

absentminded but anxious

self-denial

gentle

passionate

likes frogs and little lizards

musician

gaurangi and isaac (her parents):

highkey toxic

hate each other 

kinda emotionally abusive??

rarely present

Zahar (her friend)

he/him

aroace

depressed 

that one emotionally unavailable and traumatized and hardened but good at heart™ character

poet

(louella) sloane (love interest):

she/they

in between zahar and adhira in terms of emotional unavailability

painter

everything fresh and new and exciting

sarcastic

paranoid

themes: growing up, adolescence, “vague melancholy-and-yet-alrightness of childhood” (from @andiwriteunderthemoon), emotional neglect, learning your parents aren’t superheroes, learning you’re alone in this world, coming of age, wlw, loneliness, growing apart from your parents, growing up too fast, disappointment, betrayal, learning that not everything is black and white, learning to have different opinions than parents, emotional abuse

summary: (temporary)

adhira is a girl of too many dreams and emotions all in one. she is too many songs and not enough sleep, too loving. when she’s whisked away from the delusional walls her parents have built around her, she learns what it is to see the world without her parents’ distortion filter. she learns of its great sorrows and joys, its complexities and simplicities, its love and its hatred so seamlessly bonded together, they are one. she learns what it is to really, truly fall in love, to feel that warmth in your heart. but she also learns what it is to see things for herself, including the dark and the twisted. 

aesthetics: frogs, blue kite-filled skies, laying on the flat roof of your house, watching things that will traumatize you your whole life by peeking from a door frame, hearing quiet notes on a piano at midnight, stargazing, oh fuck it the playlist and pinterest board explains it better

pinterest great for learning about my character aesthetics lol

playlist nothing too fancy, not super specific either. if you think song fits the wip, tell me and i’ll probably agree and scream at you in all caps for having great music taste hehe

ask/dm/comment to be added to the taglist!!!

(none of the images are mine)

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Top 5 themes in the Stormlight Archive

(Loving your essays about these ☺️ )

Oh, wonderful, you have to come for me with “Top essays you haven’t written yet?” *poke**poke**poke* :D

More seriously - thank you, that’s very kind!

I’ll give the outlines here, since I don’t think even my wall-of-text-tolerant readers would appreciate me posting several full-length essays in one post. Going to start off with a chronological listing for simplicity’s sake.

1) Perseverance - The Way of Kings

This is the core thread I see running through this book. Kaladin facing obstacles at literally every turn with his committment to protect Bridge Four, and yet continuing to work, and try, and think, and plan. Shallan continuing to push to be Jasnah’s ward, even after multiple refusals, and succeeding - and then, after she strals the Soulcaster and is (justifiably) rejected, still going back to Jasnah, showing that she’s a Radiant, wanting to do something meangful, and succeeding. Dalinar, pushing forward with his attempts to unite the highlords even when he seems to be getting nowhere and can’t be confident even of his own sanity. And if any of them had stopped, if any of them had given up after one too many obstacles, then nothing in the later books could have happened. If Shallan had let Jasnah turn her away, at the beginning or after her betrayal, Urithiru would never have been found.

But perseverance doesn’t mean bull-headedness or being static in what you do and how you do it. Characters change their means while remaining directed at the same goal, or expand their understanding of their goals.

2) Complexity - Words of Radiance

This isn’t quite the word I want, but I can’t find a better one. The Way of Kings is pretty straigntforward in the morality of its characters, with pretty clear good guys and bad guys. Words of Radiance introduces the ideas of more complexity in two respects.

First, people aren’t static. Kaladin in TWOK (as seen by others, if not from his own perspective) was practically a messianic figure, with even a symbolic moment of resurrection, and constantly went to great lengths to save and protect others even in situations where it couldn’t reasonably be expected of him. In Words of Radiance, he struggles a lot more; he’s better off than in TWOK, but he’s suspicious, hostile, abrasive, and vengeful (all with quite good reasons, it must be said!) and ends up breaking his own spen bond - before restoring it with the Third Ideal and defense of a man he has every reason to hate. At the same time, characters like Bluth and Gaz who seemed unequivocally evil from Kaladin’s perspective show a real desire/wish to be better and end up doing genuinely heroic things. This ties into “journey before destination,” of course - you can’t say, “I’ve been good enough, I can stop now”and rest on your laurels, and you can’t (or shouldn’t) say “I’m evil, and there’s no going back.”

Second, the role of perception and perspective. Kaladin perceives Adolin as a spoiled brat and Shallan as a cosseted brightlady; Adolin perceives Kaladin as suspicious and insolent; Shallan percieves Kaladin as dour and aggravating. They all learn to know and appreciate each other better. Almost everyone percieves Amaram as a paragon; he is far from it. The Alethi see the stormform Parshendi as terrifying demons, but through Eshonai’s chapters we can see the story as a deep tragedy of people pushed to the wall and driven - by the Alethi - to destroy themselves in a final attempt to stave off extinction.

3) Redemption - Oathbringer

The theme of redemption of course runs through the entire Stormlight Archive, but it is strongest here, centering of Dalinar’s arc, as well as Szeth’s, Elhokar’s, and the beginning of Venli’s; and, conversely, Amaram’s refusal of redemption and the beginning of Moash’s downward spiral. (Moash fans: no, I am not saying Moash is worse than Dalinar. As discussed in the previous theme, characters are not static, and in Oathbringer Dalinar and Moash are on opposite trajectories in ways that create a strong narrative contrast.)

One thing I’ve recently noticed is that, while one cannot accept redemption without grappling with the fact of having done wrong, and refusing excuses or rationalizations, both Dalinar and Venli are offered the beginning of path to redemption before they have done this: Dalinar, from Cultivation’s mercy, and Venli, from Timbre choosing her (probably, I think, at Eshonai’s dying request) before she had really started to regret her actions or show any Willshaper qualities.

Oathbringer also contains a passage that I think encapsulates the way redemption is understood in the Stormlight Archive, which I discuss at more length here.

My longer essay on redemption in the Stormlight Archive is here.

4) Common Ground - Rhythm of War

Already written.

5) Choice - Rhythm of War

Already written.

If you want me to rank those themes in order of my favourites, I would go with:

Redemption (focus: Oathbringer). I love redemption arcs, and Sanderson writes wonderful ones.

Common Ground (focus: Rhythm of War). Really enjoyed seeing how this one played put in a lot of dimensions, and ended up enjoying a character who I definitely did not expect to like.

Choice (focus: Rhythm of War). Loved everything with Maya, and the way that, in retropsrct, it illuminated a lot of elements in Kaladin’s arc.

Perseverance (focus: The Way of Kings). The way Kaladin keep going in this book through everything that’s thrown at him is truly phenomenal.

Complexity (focus: Words of Radiance). I don’t have anything against the theme itself, but I have notable disagreements with the narrative regarding the question of whether (and at what points) Kaladin is in the wrong, both in the assassination plot and in his interactions with Adolin and Shallan.

[innuendostudios]

Thoughts on The Witness

[no spoilers... this game would be nearly impossible to spoil in text]

Where do I even start?

I guess one thing to know about The Witness is that you can watch the famous 9-minute tracking shot from Nostalghia - where Oleg Yankovsky tries to walk a candle from one end of a drained pool to the other without extinguishing it - in its entirety. (I think it’s the entirety, I left before the clip was over; yeah, Jon, I get it.)

How do we interpret this? I haven’t watched Nostalghia, but I know that scene. Every film major knows that scene. Tony Zhou cited it in discussing lateral tracking shots, how they emphasize environment and create emotional distance from humans in the frame, and how Tarkovsky uses this to make the sequence lonely and arduous. Kyle Kallgren cited it in discussing how YouTube makes critique of certain types of art difficult, and Content ID essentially decides for us what film as a medium is even for.

Jon Blow plays the clip in full with no commentary - or, rather, the game itself is the commentary. There’s a sequence in Indie Game: The Movie where Jon Blow expresses some pain about how his game Braid was received, how he felt no one who played it ever really understood everything he was trying to say with it. That feeling might be ameliorated if he weren’t such a constituionally obtuse motherfucker.

Perhaps the scene is meant to draw parallels between Yankovsky’s dedication to a task that is simple yet difficult and the game’s puzzles, built, as they are, around complexity-through-simplicity. Except, Yankovsky’s Andrei has a personal investment carrying this candle, one Tarkovsky has spent the entire film setting up. I was about five hours into The Witness when I found this clip - more than twice the duration of Nostalghia - and I still didn’t know why I was solving the game’s puzzles or what they were trying to communicate.

Perhaps the scene is meant to draw parallels between the patience it encourages in its audience and the calm, meditative mode all The Witness’ allusions to Buddhism are seemingly on about, to give yourself over to the time investment the game demands of you. Except, Nostalghia asks you to spend nine minutes thinking about one thing; zen Buddhism encourages you to think of nothing; The Witness asks you to spend between fifteen and forty hours thinking about a zillion things. It is not a game about clearing your mind, it’s about filling your mind up. There is little continuity between the thoughtless peace of meditation or Yankovsky’s emotional collapse and the game’s intended “aha” moments.

But the ambiguity, the contextlessness of the scene’s inclusion, means you can’t be sure whether it’s contradictory. If we assume it’s about dedication, and we find a flaw in that worldview, maybe the problem is that we didn’t assume it was about meditation. And vice versa. If it fails to communicate, maybe the problem is us.

The only thing this scene communicates for sure is that Jon Blow wants me to know he watches Tarkovsky.

Jon Blow wants you to trust he knows what he’s doing. That the game is saying something. He also never, ever wants to tell you what it is. (If he could just tell you, he wouldn’t have spent eight years making it into a game, I suppose.) But this operates on completely opposite rules to the puzzles. Puzzles in The Witness are maze-drawing panels with increasing numbers of rules, all conveying their rules nonverbally, through gameplay. You see a symbol you don’t recognize, or a shape you don’t know how to draw, and you try things out, you make assumptions, you fail repeatedly, and then something works, the panel lights up, and you know you got it right. Now you understand what the symbol means.

The theming doesn’t work that way. Whatever theory you have as to what the game’s about, there will be no moment of clarification. Blow has an incredible talent, in fact, for constructing imagery that is hilariously blunt yet still ambiguous. As with Braid, where he crammed a straightforward narrative about memory and regret with allusions to quantum physics and the atomic bomb, The Witness references Einstein, the Buddha, Richard Feynman, romantic poetry, tech culture, game design, and - most of all - itself.

I realize I’m dancing around the subject here, because what the gameplay is (or isn’t) in service of is far easier to talk about than the gameplay itself. The Witness is a big island full of touch screens where you draw lines on grids. That’s it. The island is dense with structures and biomes, impossibly having a desert, a swamp, and three different kinds of forest which appear to be in four different seasons. What it doesn’t have is any reason why you’re there or a justification for solving ~600 line-drawing puzzles other than because Jon Blow wants you to. I was wrong in my video from 2015 to call The Witness narrative-based; the game contains narrative but it is not a narrative game. The island is very pretty, meticulously crafted, and not trying in the slightest to look like a real place. It is Myst minus everything people like about Myst.

Absent a reason for my character - if I’m even playing a “character” - to solve the puzzles, why am I, the player, solving them? The short answer is, “Because they’re there. You knew what you were buying. You solve the puzzles because it’s a puzzle game, do I gotta draw you a diagram?” (No, you need me to draw 600 diagrams.) That is unsatisfactory because the island is clearly more than an elaborate menu system.

Do I solve them because they’re interesting? I mean, they’re not bad, if you’re into Sudoku or, like... cereal boxes. In and of themselves, they’re not my cuppa. People told me about a repeated sense of epiphany the game provoked for them, but that’s not the way I experienced it. Every puzzle is so carefully tutorialized that I never felt I was making an intuitive leap. There is no lateral thinking in The Witness, it is strictly longitudinal. You get a row of puzzle panels, and you take them one by one (you are, in fact, prevented from jumping ahead), each one building on what it taught you. And they get hard, certainly, but each is the logical progression of the one before. And each is a marvel of nonverbal communication, but that’s more Jon being clever than it is me. This is not to judge people who did get a feeling of discovery; one person’s “aha” moment is another’s “yeah, Jon, I get it.”

(Aside: I did get a proper “aha” moment when I came to a panel that could be solved two ways. It controlled a moving platform; draw one line, the platform moves right, draw the other and it moves left. And I thought, “Huh, I guess I get it, but those shapes seem kind of arbitrary.” But then, while it was moving, I realized the platform itself mirrored what I had drawn; the two designs were what shape the platform would take when connected with each endpoint! And I went “oh fuck, oh fuck, that’s clever, that‘s really clever.” My first epiphany. It was the most Myst-like the game got, it was clearly not the kind of experience Jon Blow was interested in recreating much, and it took place 7 hours in.)

Do I solve them because I’m compelled? In the first play sessions, I asked myself several times, “Do I even like this?” The game is often tedious and frustrating and I regularly muttered “fuck off, Jon.” But I kept playing. I got annoyed when people interrupted me. I got a hideous case of Tetris effect. They’re not the kind of puzzles you can spend the day thinking through, like you would with Myst or Riven; they’re too abstract to visualize without them right in front of you. And the world is pretty but it’s not a place I wish I could visit, like I would with, again, Myst or Riven. But I kept going back. I solved puzzles less because I found pleasure in finishing them than I found displeasure in them being unfinished. Jon Blow has given talks on how game design focused on being “addictive” is basically evil - his word, not mine. And yet... it felt more like I was playing his game because I was hooked than because I was enjoying myself.

Do I solve them because I trust Jon Blow? Because I believe this will all amount to something? Jon certainly expects me to trust him. The game blares PROFUNDITY AHEAD constantly. (I remind you it quotes the Buddha.) But, in the years since Braid, I have grown less impressed with Jon Blow’s “art game genius” shtick. One fun bit about playing The Witness so late is finally reading all the discourse, and, well before finishing the game, I had read the thoughts of Andrew Plotkin, and Liz Ryerson, and Andi McClure - all of whom are brilliant - so I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into. What’s surprised me is, having gotten to the first ending - not the secret ending - what the game is up to still isn’t clear. There are enough allusions to heady ideas that you can infer some stuff, but the default ending - while pretty enough - adds nothing and reveals nothing. And getting the True Ending means completing the In the Hall of the Mountain King section, something many will never find and precious few will ever complete. (Debating whether I’m going to even try.) If Jon Blow wants you to trust that he’s going somewhere with this, he makes you wait a long time before finding out if it’s worth it. [EDIT: turns out the secret ending comes after a different set of obscure puzzles than Hall of the Mountain King.]

Which leads me back to my original conclusion: I am solving the puzzles because Jon Blow told me to.

I suspect the arc Jon wants is for me to begin solving puzzles because I want to know what they’re in service of, what point Jon is trying to make, and then spend so long on them that I forget about the destination and just wrap myself up in the work, and, after dozens of hours on the hardest of the hard puzzles, Jon will finally reveal that the point he was making was about the labor I have just done. That he couldn’t tell me what it was for until I’d already done it. That the labor was its own reward. And how much you like The Witness is going to depend on whether or not you feel ripped off.

The overall impression The Witness left me with was less of meditation than discipline. (I have joked that playing The Witness feels like being in a D/s relationship with Jon Blow and not knowing the safe word.) Jon presents a simple concept and then expects you to solve every. single. permutation. of that concept. You do the work to find out what it’s about, and then what it’s about is the work. That game is about itself. The subject of The Witness is solving The Witness. It’s about purity of design, about simplicity, about slowly mastering a set of skills. (That these skills are neither inherently pleasurable to perform nor applicable in any other context seems not to matter; the point is, you learned them.) It’s hard not to read a game fixated on the beauty of its own design as all kinds of smug.

I allowed myself to be spoiled on the True Ending, and it seems, in the eleventh hour, if you draw lines til your fingers bleed, the game makes room for self-critique, questioning whether all this dedication to design actually is, in any way, meaningful or useful to us. Which, just a little bit, smacks of an artist spending two years making a sculpture of himself, chiseled to make him look a perfect Olympian beauty, only to label it “EGOISM.” Ooo. Make you think.

I suspect, in the end, I played it to (partial) completion because I was curious. I didn’t necessarily buy Jon Blow’s hype, but his hype is intriguing. As a portrait of a certain mindset, a monomaniacal obsession with design for design’s sake, the folk-religion of salvation through technology, and the critique of same, it is fascinating. I know people - smart people - who genuinely love this game, and, if the above is any indication, I clearly love talking about it. I have no regrets.

But, word of advice: if you don’t a) love the puzzles, or b) love the discourse, just walk away. Everything will be fine.

[matpisound]

top 5: ho-kago tea time

"K-On!" has solidified itself as one of the keystones of the slice-of-life genre of anime, and with good reason too. A phenomenal coming-of-age story under the guise of cute girls doing cute things, it's one of my all-time favorite shows. That's not all though; the series has some killer music that's both super fun yet tugs on the heartstrings to no end. Today, I'll be ranking my favorite songs by Ho-Kago Tea Time, the band behind all of these amazing songs.

5. "Fuwa Fuwa Time" - Nothing screams classic like this song. This was the first song featured in the anime before Ho-Kago Tea Time had even come up with their name. Musically, it's not complex at all, but that's what makes it so good. The simplicity combined with the fluffy imagery created by the lyrics makes a lovable, memorable, and just an overall fun tune.

4. "Fude Pen - Ball Pen" - There's not much to say about this song except that it's a total vibe. The guitar riff at the beginning starts off strong with that high-pitched lead guitar giving the song some great energy, and the chromatic phrases add a lot of just pure fun to the song. Not to mention the pre-chorus doing a great job of building up to the chorus where all that momentum goes full force with the harmonies in the vocals as well as with the instruments. Overall it's a really great song that keeps your interest peaked throughout the entire thing.

3. "No, Thank You!" - The ending themes are a complete change from the traditional fun vibes of the opening and insert songs. They often take a darker tone while also exploring slightly more serious topics within the lyrics. Yet, the lyrics still present uplifting tones, providing a really nice contrast with the dark, heavy sound. Speaking of the sound, it turns to a more heavy rock sound combined with synthesizers which is something I really love. This song especially takes it to the max, starting with a very stripped down intro, and leading into the intro riff with the snare and the effects with harmonics on the guitar. It stays heavy throughout the song and just doesn't get boring, which is why I really like this song.

2. "U&I" - I feel that this song captures perfectly how the perception of a song changes with the context within which it is listened to. This song is an insert song in episode 20 of the second season, an episode which in and of itself has cemented itself in the legacy of slice-of-life shows. While the song on its own is still pretty good, it is rather simple and not very musically interesting. However, as Ho-Kago Tea Time have continuously demonstrated, simple can be good. It makes it memorable; not to mention this song was written and performed for the first time during the climax of this story arc, at which the emotional tension was highest. It's in A major too, which I've already talked about as screaming emotion in a previous post. All that combined gives us one of the most loved songs that the band has put out.

Honorable mentions

"Gohan wa Okazu" - It's a song about rice, and it's an absolute bop. Captures the importance of simplicity perfectly.

"Go! Go! Maniac" - The chaotic, bopping opening to K-On!'s second season, it's overall a super fun song, and you really can't go wrong with it.

"Tenshi Ni Furetayo!" - A lot more chill than the frenzied chaos of pretty much all of their songs, not only is this song probably the most emotional of them all, it posed a perfect ending to the series as a whole.

1. "Watashi No Koi Wa Hotchkiss" - This is by far the most musically interesting, with super cool harmonies with the guitars, and a funky variation on a pretty standard drum beat that also mirrors the syncopation in the guitars. The melodies are also really pretty and combine that with the fact that it's in the key of F, you have a pretty much perfect song. It's also a lot more laid back than a lot of their other songs, and it's a very nice change of pace.

Well, there you have it. I bet this list will probably spark a good amount of debate, but I stand by it. Anyway, thanks for reading till here, and I'm more than happy to hear what y'all have to say about this so feel free to discuss. This was a bit of a shorter post than usual because there's not much musical analysis to be done here. K-On! employs lyrics and the context in which the songs were written in order to convey more meaning and emotion, the latter of which is an essential part of both listening to and performing music. I think there is a lot more to talk about relating to emotion in music as a whole, but that's probably gonna be a future post. With that, I'll catch you at the double barline!

[animebw]

Silver Spoon: Season 2 Reflection

I’m going to be 100% honest with you; I don’t think I appreciated Silver Spoon as much as I should have during its first season. Oh, I still stand by all the praise and criticism I gave it, and I’m comfortable with how my analysis turned out. But behind the scenes, I think a part of me was trying to find an excuse not to like it as much as I did. And that’s a weird fucking place to be in for eleven episodes straight. The fact of the matter is, this show is far more subdued than the kinds of shows that usually stick with me the most. It’s got no showy animation or over-the-top characters, no bombastic music or chaotic setpieces. It’s just a very plainspoken, down-to-earth series, with realistic characters grappling with realistic problems. And it doesn’t bother trying to gussy itself up in flashy lights to attract less discerning customers; it simply trusts it’s a worthy enough investment that it needs no fanfare to get you invested. As a result, I think I spent the first season seriously underestimating Silver Spoon. It seemed too simple, too mundane, to be worthy of worming its way into my heart like it did. Was I really going to get all gushy over a show this content to not shoot for the stars?

Well, consider this my long-overdue apology. Because if the second season is proof of anything, it’s that Silver Spoon actually is that damn good.

Honestly, looking back, I feel like an idiot for taking this show for granted. Isn’t my favorite anime studio of all time the studio that goes out of their way to dramatize the real? Have I become so enslaved to style that I’ve forgotten the importance of substance as well? Because underneath its seemingly simple exterior, Silver Spoon is anything but. Yes, it’s about the oddities and eccentricities of what it’s like to work on a farm, and all the hardship and triumph that comes with such a life. But it’s also about not knowing what you want to grow up to be, and what it takes to discover your passion. It’s about the importance of following that passion even when life throws roadblocks in your way. It’s about finding a balance between helping others and helping yourself, and how people from different walks of life can bring out the best in each other. It’s about not letting failure define you, seeing each mistake as a chance to do better instead of a condemnation of your capability. It’s about the need for parents to recognize their children’s dreams and not overburden them with priorities they may not wish to fulfill. It’s about finding meaning where you least expect it, with people you’d least expect to find it with. And it’s about learning when to let go of the reins of life and take the tumble, and when it’s worth holding on and fighting to pull yourself back up on the saddle. It’s a densely layered, complex character study of a very unique set of circumstances that is nevertheless universally applicable to the experience of teenagers everywhere. Calling this show simple is an insult to the idea of simplicity itself.

And yet, that’s also kind of the magic of Silver Spoon. It’s so unassuming, so patently nonthreatening in its approach, that makes all this complex storytelling feel as cozy as a summer breeze. Between this and Fullmetal Alchemist, Himoru Arakawa has proven herself a master of making even the most densely packed plots digestible in ways that even the most casual viewer can connect with. She weaves all these themes together into a single cohesive whole, each idea feeding into the next and every message bolstering the strength of the others. And Silver Spoon carries that same effortless accessibility, even without the crazy spectacle of transmutation to fall back upon. It’s jam-packed full of lovable characters, each with unique, relatable goals I can easily empathize with. It’s full of wonderful advice about the nature of finding yourself, and all the different ways “finding yourself” can look. It’s able to go to some pretty dark places and come out all the stronger for it, never letting angst drown out its unflinching belief in the value of humanity. And it’s able to capture all these ideas in a single, lovable package that manages to strike a chord without the slightest bit of showing off.

Of course, it also helps that all this expert craftsmanship is being used to build up one of the most endearingly human protagonists I’ve seen in a long time. I see so much of myself in Hachiken, in his struggle to avoid treating life like a competition, in how much pressure he puts on himself for every little mistake, in how uncertain he is about what direction he wants his life to go, in how self-aware he is about all the flaws he needs to work on. Silver Spoon is Hachiken’s story before anything else, and his character arc over the course of these two seasons is the show’s heart and soul. Slowly and surely, we get to see him grow from a directionless loner, trapped in self-defeating mindsets he doesn’t know how to escape, to a genuinely great guy capable of checking his worst impulses and always striving to be better, both for his sake and the sake of the people he cares about. Hachiken’s the kind of role model I wish I had when I was younger; I wish high-school me was as courageous as him when it came to stepping out of my comfort zone and embracing the endless possibilities of life. And watching all his hard work finally start paying off in the second season, seeing him finally start rising above his mistakes and finding the confidence to be himself? That, folks, was nothing short of sensational. This is the kind of writing that makes me jealous at how good it is, how effortlessly it juggles so many balls and lands its emotional climaxes. But to take a page out of Hachiken’s book, that means I’ve just got to keep striving to be better myself. Even if it takes a few failures here and there, I’m sure I’ve got much farther left to go.

Yes, the awkward direction still robs some of the punchlines of their impact. And yes, it’s deeply saddening we won’t get to see what happens next unless A-1 Pictures suddenly announces a third season. But against everything it has to offer, I can brush those nitpicks aside. Silver Spoon is a truly remarkable show, a testament to the power of simplicity burnished to perfection. Much like the farmers of Ezono itself, it knows that there’s no need to concoct crazy cooking experiments to make mushrooms and beef taste good; the fruits of nature on their own, treated with love and care, are more than enough to make the most delicious feast in the world. And for making me realize just how damn good it actually is, I award the second season a score of:

8/10

God, I’m gonna miss this show. Thank you all for joining me on this ride, folks! If you enjoyed yourself and want more of my ramblings, be sure to ask for an invite to my Discord where we chat about anime all day every day. And I hope you stick around for the show that will take Silver Spoon’s place! I’m still working through all the recommendations my followers sent me to binge-watch over the summer, and the next one on the list is:

Run with the Wind

The Haikyuu team tackling another sports show? Sign me the fuck up. See you next time for the start of a new adventure!

[inlovewithdisaster]

JUDGE PROFILE: ZOEY YING

the only sane judge on this panel! ahem, uh, i mean. out of the three judges attending this contest, zoey ying is the one with the most experience, both as a coordinator and as a judge. she’s been registered as a contest judge ever since she won that grand festival at age 11, and though she had to work a few side jobs along the way, she’s had the time since then to devote her entire heart and soul into coordinating. on top of her status as top coordinator, she’s an olympic-level figure skater who also loves skating for show, and she has trained several of her pokémon to be just as good while skating in their appeals. she has so much invested in the performing arts--she lives and breathes them in every aspect of her life. can you believe this girl is still considering law school?

as a judge, she is level-headed, honest, and above all, professional. she can be fairly blunt with her critiques, and she’s not afraid to let you know if you’ve done a bad job; in the past, she used to be a tad like simon cowell herself. but over the years, she’s gotten better at framing her critique as helpful rather than negative. it’s not impossible for her to develop some serious beef with the way a contestant comports themselves onstage; after all, she’s only human. but her strong sense of obligation always overrides it: she never lets foul emotions get in the way of doing her professional duty. in conclusion? i’m not fucking kidding when i say that zoey is the only judge whose score would be an accurate reflection of your muse’s actual ability. zoey for best girl.

LIKES.

it’s rare for zoey ying to be as flashy as her companions tobias and ursula during a performance, and it’s rare for her to like performances along their lines as well. true to her modest nature, zoey values simplicity and efficiency in a performance; she wants peoples’ and pokémons’ talents to shine through without giving the impression that they’re trying too hard. she appreciates technical complexity, but along more elegant and understated lines; too many bold visuals with no substance will bore her. 

like tobias, she also enjoys more cerebral performances. appeals with symbolism and messages that you really have to think about in order to appreciate. while she’s not as educated as he is and won’t pick up on obscure references to, say, poems by little-known authors or cultural details that aren’t widely available on google, she’s smart enough to make insights about the meaning of a piece, and smart enough to reward you for them. (although if you make references to chinese history and culture, that’s right up her alley!)

she loves appeals where pokémon get to show off talents other than their moves! several of her ‘mons are figure skaters, so of course she’ll love to see that, but if they got any other things to showcase--ribbon-dancing, baton-twirling, instrument-playing--then she’ll give you a heaping dose of points! 

as a chinese woman, she does have very high standards for the aesthetic of your performances. her ancestral country, after all, is the one that produced that unforgettable 2008 olympic opening ceremony, and our nation has also produced such marvels as coaching dozens of deaf dancers to flawlessly execute a dance based on the goddess of a thousand hands. being chinese has sort of spoiled her when it comes to the performing arts, and that is the sort of thought and effort she expects out of the people she observes onstage. again, though, she prefers simple yet powerful visuals. this 2008 olympics performance of 2,008 drummers chanting a line from confucius’ analects? flawless. but if the drums started changing into psychedelic colors while they were doing it? too much.

finally, she loves detail. she has an eye for the intricacy in simplicity, the beauty that comes not from the largeness and boldness of a statement but rather the nuance which makes it so powerful. elegant details that don’t overstate themselves with complexity appeal to her.

DISLIKES.

her fellow judges tobias and ursula are all about trainer participation in appeals. canonically, however, zoey has been shown to dislike performances that have too much trainer involvement in proportion to pokémon involvement. (my memory can be pretty awful sometimes, but this is one of the things that stands out in it.) since this is a showcase, in which the spotlight is more on the trainer and not the pokémon, she’s more lenient. however, if the performance is like 90% trainer and the pokémon are reduced to mere stage hands, she’s going to have an issue.

she also absolutely loathes performances that she finds to be “too loud,” no matter how well they’re done. whether it’s the loudness of the music or the loudness of the color, you can bet she’ll have something to say about it.

unlike tobias, who loves breaking the rules and greatly enjoys a good roast, zoey is very strait-laced and traditional, and will dock points of anything that she finds to be too controversial in its messaging. this includes sexual themes. unlike ursula, who finds her head easily turned by performances that are sexual or romantic in nature, zoey tends to find explicit content quite objectionable. she’s most likely asexual, like the mun, so suggestive content such as jules’ performance in the last ILWD will make her go “?????” at best, or be distasteful and unprofessional to her at worst. 

a special note: as an ace-questioning woman, one of the reasons she thinks she’s ace is because she’s never been invested in romantic content. she will look at a romance-centered performance and think “that’s nice,” just like with every other performance. but if you’re expecting to move her to tears by depicting a heartbreak or the story of star-crossed lovers, you’ll be disappointed. moreover, romantic subtext--especially gay and lesbian subtext--will fly right over her head. (really ironic if you think about it, considering she’s judging a valentine’s contest.)

also due to her straitlaced traditionality, she’s not as much in favor of artistic experimentation as tobias is. while an avant-garde performance will excite him, she’ll probably just find it weird.

also unlike ursula, she doesn’t have much taste for cute and frilly things. her brand of femininity is more reserved, and she finds popping pinks and flouncing lace to be overdone and cliché. 

she just really doesn’t like too much color contrast or color brightness in general. and if the colors are bright and contrasting? good fucking luck.

speaking of contrasting colors--whereas ursula will get bored by a monochrome performance, and whereas ursula likes her colors to pop, zoey is more drawn to muted pastels and greys. she also likes themed palettes instead of the arbitrary explosions of color that characterize many an amateur performance, so color-coordinating your outfit and the shades of your moves will do better in her eyes.

[lil-miss-methodical]

On My Block Season 2 threw down the metaphorical artistic gauntlet & there ain’t a Squad gully enough to pick it up. 

I hope people who've seen season one and now season two realize that what's taken place before their eyes is called elevation. This is how an ongoing show is supposed to handle things. Season one laid down a foundation for its audience and season two did not make the silly mistake of disregarding that foundation but instead pulled that bitch from under the audience’s feet to give us that freefall feeling and then used it to cushion our fall - reminding exactly why we loved it. it had me hyped, made me laugh, made me cry - often all in the same episode. Things that I thought were gonna happen didn’t happen how I thought they were gonna happen and that's how they kept me perched, on edge, interested even through sleep deprivation.

These were the same characters I’d grown to love in season one. Despite the hardship, despite the bullshit they returned to us the characters whom we’d grown to know and love and unveiled them just a bit more. When jamal rolled in money - I felt as though i was rolling in the dough. When Monse was telling Cesar what to do I was nodding along as though she was me, as though her opinions were mine. When Jasmin spoke I listened for a lesson was being given. When Cesar or Ruby cried - we all cried.

The musical scale out did the last and I didn’t even know that was possible. from the very first song they used to open the show and place all of us in our feelings - to the return of the track that left such a huge mark last season. They music not only to alter how we feel moment to moment, but to make authentic the era, style and culture the show is marked upon.

The Breakdown:

This season is broken down into two variables - solo hero's journey & and overarching theme.  The former can be elements as such: 

- Ruby's battle with PTSD

- Monse's battle of solidifying her feet instead of running

- Jamal's fight to be shine, be seen, be respected (and that has as much to do with audience as with Squad)

- Cesar's unsettled feeling of being alone (although he and we really learn how much he has)

- Jasmin staking her claim to her position

With season one ending in a death of a loved on and a wound of his own - we find Ruby healing. At first he's in a state of denial...This is a reality many black and brown people find themselves suck in, not about the mishap no, but about the trauma that comes with it. Like Ruby, we disassociate. We go with a 'it's life, bad shit happens, yet I'm alive and I should see the blessing in that and keep pushing forward' mentality that does not allow us to first dissect that trauma and journey through that pain as we should. The show acknowledges that damage and thus we end up having seemingly unlikely people help Ruby he's not only on a journey but deserves to allow himself to take that path to real recovery. Jason Genao did such a wonderful job - from the simplicity of wanting to unwind with some spontaneous party organizing to the quick emotional windup that taunts when something reminds you of your trauma.

Monse is the character I relate to the most because I see myself in the nature of her traits while also being able to identify with her internal struggle. Being abandoned put puts a complex within an individual that most people cannot understand - def it's that first abandonment is by a parent who we're taught is supposed to love, protect and be there for us. People who are abandoned can either gain traits of being clingy or having issues forming a bond or leaving. Monse of course like most has a duality of this. The bond is important to her and she'll do anything to maintain it but on the other hand she has a sense to leave when stuff it too uncomfortable. We see this several time in this season alone. But the real lesson for Monse is not a reprehend on her fears or traits but reality of being loved and accepted. No matter what you do, where you go, you love us and we love you and we'll be waiting when you get back.

Jamal is that character doesn't get the respect he deserves - that in story and from the audience that watches the show. The show took this in hand this season. As Jamal never ceased to remind the squad of his work on their behalf he steepled his worth asl and the actor that plays him, Brett Gray, yet again flexed his comedic chops for the masses yet again. I think Jamal doesn't understand how iconic he is, how amazing he is for those in story and out. He's coming off of that high of being on the heels of an adventure.

Jasmin also got shine this season. They humanize her without changing her, dimming her light or having her apologize for who she is as women have to do when the world feels they're too boisterous, too loud in tone, look and voice. She loved herself enough to remain true to herself and those who took the time out to see who that was, got to love her. Like all the characters she was opinionated, and even when the whole crew don't realize it she has something to add to the squad - thus what allows her to be the honorary member of the team. Also Jessica Garcia is another comedic genius in the element.

Cesar went from being in the hard place of his brother's gang to being in what seemed like an impossible place of no gang and seemingly no protection. Exiled from the Santos he's literally homeless and isolated from his last remaining relative. He find himself shipping from one one home to the next, exhausted with having to adapt to different family cultures. This was interesting because as they show we are ironically who we are in part do to our family living styles at home. There were a lot of jokes about Cesar's one color tanks and knee high shorts but when he starts surfing from house to house you get to see this 'culture' of how these people lived from an outsiders perspective - the man chilling vibe he received with Monse's dad. The rushed, lively, full feeling of Ruby's home that at first felt crowded to him. The eccentric way Jamal ran his bedroom. Even the weirdness of Chivo and his 'family'. While these aspects of these difference threw him of kilter at first he learned to appreciate and truly love each and everyone for those same difference. He learned the art of gratitude because people tend to treat their homes as their safe places - not just for heir forms but their identities. We can be exact who we are in the face of our homes. As he thought he had nothing, those around him that loved him welcomed him into their safe space - despite the physical danger. This bonded his relationship with these people even more because there's a difference in saying we're family and you showing that I'm your family. And yes it was beautiful to see them credit the two black men of the parenthood for taking this kids life seriously and holding court for him. It was beautiful watching him come to love and appreciate Jamal and understand the wealth that comes with this friendship and making a strong brotherhood (def considering the war of gangs between brown and black men).

Every character must thread their given path to meet in a middle of shorts with everyone else. And noticed I didn't say they must complete the journey - travel it alone. We get the the end satisfied but still with the knowledge that the work is yet to be done. Ruby's PTSD and pain did not magically dissolve. Monse's abandonment issues didn't evaporate into nothingness. Jamal may have sculpt his worthiness yet the anxiety of 'what's next' still snipes at him. Cesar may have learned to appreciate what he does have but lost in the aspect of independence and what that means in the face of those around him that he loves and how to make that not mean being alone. Jasmin may have Ruby and us kneeling at her feet learning the error of our ways but she still got 3 other members to break.

It is these individual journeys that push the narrative forward, that reveals the overarching theme so to speak. Without these journeys there's nothing to carry the overarching theme. This is what I call great writing because it forces the threads to connect but still allows all individual characters to have their own position in the story that equals out.

The Revelation of a Theme:

Everything about this season was about family. When we watched Spooky, Mario, and Jasmin help guide Ruby through his symptoms of PTSD and trauma, what we were witnessing was family at work. When Cesar, Jamal, and Ruby laughed while rolling their eyes in disbelief of Monse's leaving for good speech - thats was love. When they tell her you'll be back and we'll be here...that was the understanding of family. When we see those around Jamal grow to see his worth by working to this appreciation its an aspect of a real family’s effort. The sacrifice, and support that came both for and from Cesar was hella representation of family. Jasmin’s whole storyline is the representation of new family.

This season didn't truffle with pointlessness. They didn't find conflict by creating false hate between the characters. They didn't drag this aspect of 'let's blame Cesar' or have that be an easy tension between him and Ruby. As a matter of fact their bond was deepened. Ruby had no hate in his heart for Cesar, instead he embraced his brother in the street and they cried, for themselves and each other.

This whole season was about being willing to sacrifice, being willing to be selfless for those you love. Everyone allowing Cesar to live with them, Jamal allowing it to be 'our' money, Monse's dad not trying to force her to stay away from her mom despite his feelings where Julia was concerned, them risking it to clean the money, Jamal giving up the gnome. Their rush to burn the money when they thought it would put someone else life in danger.

It was this concept of sacrifice and selflessness that sends Cesar after Latrelle in hopes of freeing his friends when Ruby comes to him distraught.

Cesar on most scopes is not a killer. As he told his brother he's not cut from the cloth of gang life. We see him called pussy for not being about that life. For not being able to end a life over turf wars, money, or Ill-intent words thrown his way. But as everyone had to show what they were willing to do for the concept of family - so too did Cesar. Good or bad - we saw what Cesar would be willing to pull the trigger for.

They all loved eachother, with that love came a protection and a fight to rival any and all that didn't have good intentions. This season was love. It was family, sacrifice, acceptance, respect. Ruby was willing to heal for it, Monse willing to stay for it, Jamal willing to fight for it, Jasmin is willing to be patient for it, Cesar was willing to kill for it. OMB is about this diverse mix of kids who have this bond that they've learned to nurture. It's speak on who they're allowed to be because it and how far they're willing to go to keep it.

In my last review my byline was "On my block, squad means family" and this season has proven that for this crew,  squad still and always will mean Familia.

How do you define family and how do you allow it to define you?

Other post/aspects to be on the look out for:

Mario/Ruby vs Spooky/Cesar Cesar X Monse - The breakdown Monse Family -The genius Jamal/Jasmin Jasmin/Ruby

Don’t forget to follow me for future post and reviews!