#i tried transitions between the characters but it doesn't really look that good

[ranticore]

Now that you mentioned it in the tags; I really enjoyed how you did the queerness of characters in-text and I saw you mentioned more than once before how they consider/call themselves gay or anything and I was wondering if you'd be willing to elaborate on that (in Ironwall, MVF etc), but more from a writing standpoint than a worldbuilding one. Hope Im making sense lol

i looked up the invention of the word 'homosexuality' and found that it was invented 6 years after stbh is set

ghksjdg i mean there's more to it than that but it meant that my language was constrained, which also means that the characters' language is constrained as well. i have to think about ways i want this to come across to the reader. at the time i was thinking about how the basic concept of "btw this character is not straight/cis" is communicated in some of the stories i'd read, and one that stood out to me was a comic i read in a fully fantasy setting where the writer brought the narrative to a juddering halt to explain exactly how gender & sexuality are handled by the people here. as in the characters essentially turn to the camera and give the main character a lecture. i really didn't like it, the author's hand was too visible behind the panels.

but i took it as a learning exercise as well on what i didn't want to do. i didn't like the neon signs pointing at any instance of non-heteronormativity and i also don't like stories that market themselves based on the characters' gender identities, particularly stories which do not involve a coming-of-age/character learns to discover themselves narrative. it's a book about two trans men but it's not a book about being trans. that's none of the reader's business, that's hidden from you (particularly in islin's case, intentionally). i never wanted to foster a sense of voyeurism towards trans people particularly knowing that most readers, statistically, will not be trans. crucially the characters are stealth to literally everybody but like 3 people. their transition is done.

i never wanted a coming out moment, or an "i'm here i'm queer" moment either - not even because Society in the setting just because i don't like those things. to completely normalise it in the narrative between these characters is the goal - almost to the point of never even pointing it out at all except when it has to be. the vibe i wanted was like... hanging out in not necessarily a gay space, but with gay people, talking about random other stuff. i didn't even like the One coming out scene i had to put in (senca being like "i only fuck women" to bowman so that he would stop hitting on her)

so when writing i had a pretty good idea of what i didn't want. for the setting i had some strict rules to follow as well. characters would not identify as gay or bisexual or even some fantasy equivalent because those were not identities, they were acts. and heterosexuality wasn't an identity either, it wasn't even "the natural way of things", it was the means by which wealth could transfer between generations. if you do not marry, then you are not conforming to your gender. the four unmarriagable men in mvf are all denied entry to normative manhood for many de-gendering factors (disability, unmanly hobbies, vow of chastity, etc) but the culmination of those factors is that they can't marry, which is the whole POINT of being a man. three of them are entirely denied generational wealth - forcing them into poverty (it's not a coincidence that gay people are overrepresented in the criminal organisation)

from a writing standpoint this leaves them in a grey zone. when writing i tried out different language to see if it read nice to me (19th century equivalents to 'boyfriend' etc) and they all rang quite false, because outside of the whole 'can we put a label on something that doesn't officially exist in society' thing, the characters themselves are not the types of people to think that way. Bowman was dating Léa but he was never dating Félix. you can't date another man. the only people who date men are women, and Bowman is not a woman. therefore he is not dating Félix. to give just one example. ultimately for the language used i found that just leaving it as-is worked the best for me.

so after working all that out i wrote tha thing and then wanted to kind of explore - at what point does it become romantic? is there an actual border between romantic and platonic when you've kind of already fallen between the cracks in society into the grey zone where nothing is defined because it doesn't affirm the power of the ruling class. and in these particular friendships, where they've already been all things to one another, they've already done everything together, good or bad, does adding 'romantic love' to that list of things wildly recontextualise it retroactively or does anything change at all? just like the ending reveal of stbh says: who actually is the guy we've been thinking of as 'félix ortega' ? does it recontextualise everything we've just read? no, right? (or does it?)

the usual 'will-they-won't-they' romance plot isn't a factor in the book, we already know they will, they have, they won't, and they refuse to, all at once.

(jean-baptiste thinks of himself as an invert because he is Learned and has read some fascinating journal articles about cutting-edge sexology, and his relation to his sexuality is very very different. it's not something he shares with his closest friends in spaces without scrutiny; his entire life is scrutinised and his social system is predicated on marriage. like i think i said in the book, probably, i don't remember: he and renard are two guys clinging to the same life raft. they hate each other! but if you push the other guy off the life raft, then you're just one guy alone at sea, forever.)

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

Hello! I just found your blog and am very grateful there’s someone out there who’s trying to help people like me with my writing endeavours 🙏

I do have a question about plot I was hoping you might be able to help me with? Essentially, I know what I want my plot to be, but as I’m writing it out, I just can’t seem to make the story flow? Like I can write point 1 and I can write point 2, but u can’t connect them.

I don’t know if this makes sense. I’m sorry if it’s confusing 😅 But I’d appreciate any help, and thanks for reading this. Feel free to discard!! 💕💕

Sorry if this response was a bit late! Thank you for this question!!!

I'm so glad you stumbled upon my blog and that you're finding the content helpful. I promise, It's writers like you who inspire me to keep creating these resources. 💕

I totally understand the struggle with plot flow - it's one of the most common challenges new writers face. You don't need to worry, you're not alone in this! I've been there myself, especially with the projects I'm currently working on. and I'm happy to share some tips that might help you smooth out the tricky transition between your plot points.

First off, it's important to remember that a well-paced, cohesive plot doesn't just happen - it takes work to craft the "perfect" seamless narrative. But the good news is, there are some techniques you can use to bridge those gaps and keep your story moving forward in a natural way.

One thing to consider is your character's motivations and how they drive the plot forward. Ask yourself: What is my character's goal in this scene? What obstacles are they facing? How do those obstacles create tension and push the story onward? Grounding each plot point in your character's inner and outer journey can help you find those logical transitions.

It also might be helpful to take a step back and look at the bigger picture of your story. Try mapping out your major plot points on a timeline or outline. This can reveal areas where you might be missing crucial details or inciting incidents that would naturally lead from one point to the next. I've tried this multiple times and it really helped me.

And PLEASE don't be afraid to experiment! Try writing different versions of those tricky transitions - maybe your character reacts in an unexpected way, or an external event could shake up the status quo. Play around until you find an approach that feels organic and true to your story. Your story doesn't need to be linear, it can truly change however many times you want, especially during revision until you publish (if that's what you choose to do.)

Most importantly, be patient with yourself. Developing a compelling, well-structured plot takes time and practice. The more you write, the more you'll hone your skills and gain an instinct for pacing and flow. Pacing and flow is a really big issue for me. Sometimes it makes me even want to rewrite my entire draft. However, I make sure to know it's my world, my characters, and my story. I can change switch around any time I want.

I hope these suggestions give you a helpful starting point! Let me know if you have any other questions - I'm always happy to brainstorm and offer feedback. Wishing you all the best in your writing! 🙌 - Rin T

[gofancyninjaworld]

Y'know, I'm not entirely comfortable with the way webcomic Garou has ended up

While Garou has kept a low profile since being defeated by Saitama, I think we've seen enough of him to start getting a general impression of what he's up to. I have to say, I'm not entirely happy to see how he is. Garou has become very subdued, working hard, keeping his head down, and avoiding trouble as much as he can. That sounds good on the surface, so what troubles me about it?

dutifully working away

First, he is not a twenty-something manchild who ought to know better being given a slap and told to straighten up. Reigen beating down the 7th Division of Claw and telling them off was entirely merited. Garou is eighteen[1]: he's a boy on the cusp of adulthood, and he's a kind and moral person who is really struggling to see what positive impact he can make. That's why he decided on the expansive and overly simplistic idea of unifying the world against him. For sure, he needed shutting down, but he needed building up too. I think he needed more guidance than just being told to pay for the food he stole.

He needed a bit more than that.

Second, something I know about ONE is that he doesn't have his characters change suddenly. Change, in his books, is realised through day-to-day changes. Even if a character's behaviour changes suddenly, their character hasn't changed: for example, Superalloy's behaviour may seem to have shifted suddenly, but it's grounded in the fact that he was always a fearful and insecure person... and his coping strategy has failed him, and so what we see is him flailing. When I see a dispirited Garou colouring carefully in between the lines and looking to cause no offence, I don't see a suddenly mature man. I see a child afraid to step out of line. And that saddens me.

It's not that I want him back to his hero-hunting days: that too, was an inauthentic expression of who Garou is. Honestly, the heroes have enough problems without yet another person beating them down. But I think he's a bit lost. I think he really needs someone like Bang to reach out to him and help him discover what it is he really wants to do next.

And that's okay, by the by. We all need guidance sometimes. Especially at points of transition.

Cultural Note

[1] While the law has changed recently, at the time ONE wrote these chapters, the age of majority was 20, not 18. ONE is still writing OPM without reference to the recently-changed IRL law. Understanding that is necessary to understand why Garou was released to Bang's care in the manga, and why the Hero Association reached out to his parents first. You also need to understand that to appreciate why Saitama took the alcholic drink away from Tatsumaki when she tried to offer it to Genos in the OAV.

[jzbnee]

you know what..... i just realized that aquababy has blonde curls,, you know who else has blonde curls??? 😱 and you know what..... garth & joseph wilson is not a tag on ao3 😔 can you make garth and joey interact somehow pls 😻🙏 alternatively, more garth porn is always good uwu

omg hahaha you're SOOOO right

i saw the ampersand so i'll give u some concepts & then i'll probably pick one to elaborate on… but also have some kink ideas too <33

platonic hmmm i think that they could bond just by virtue of being on the titans? but for specifics, i imagine joey playing music & garth enjoying that music?

it's tricky bc they both have 'siblings' sort of that have died, but their trauma doesn't really connect there-- joey is the golden child (sometimes) while garth basically never is… could have something where garth resents joey for that but is trying to hide it and joey picks up on it and is being super nice to compensate and they are both sooo friendly to each other but there's this bizarre tension that all their friends notice & neither of them ever say why haha

could also do some stuff that's more modern where they're dealing with Modern Character issues… but i don't know that much about modern garth beyond him being pretty neglected by canon atm

sexual daddy kink/weird feelings about aquaman-- obviously joey doesn't really look like aquaman, but, as you said, he does have blond curly hair soooo… i could see garth calling joey daddy and doing some roleplay like that??

possession stuff -- joey HAS canonically possessed garth for like 2 seconds lol. HOWEVER, i think that, after the whole uhhh garth joining the church of blood via possession plotline in the comics recently, he has some trauma he could happily process in that way

alternatively, non possession bc i am wondering if joey would still be able to possess garth with all the magical powers he has? so it could also be a thing, rape roleplay or otherwise, where joey is getting off on the fact that he can't possess garth?? very sexy imo

anddd then there could also be this weirdboy friendly energy between them that builds and builds out of control and then they have the freakiest sex imaginable (thinking of garth's line about not being judged as pure of heart due to lewd thoughs & joey's cavalcade of naked ladies he paints idk… now i'm distracted by the thought of garth crossdressing for him uvu)

doomed romantic

catching garth on that tula rebound when he was with the titans right after her death & joey was also there hahaha

wrote a snippet that is included below :) with thanks to some folks on mwse for help brainstorming!

Joey locked eyes with Garth, noting the deep, fascinating purple of his irises. They were gorgeous, though Joey admitted that he was more into the developed swimmer's muscles that Garth had.

'Now?' he signed, mouthing the word in case Garth hadn't learned it.

"Now," Garth confirmed.

With a blink, Joey focused on transitioning from his body into Garth's, shivering as he felt Garth's magic pressing against him. As with most powerful magic users, there was the feeling of resistance, even with Garth's conscious lowering of his defenses. Joey pictured it like gently sliding between them, which made it easier.

He settled in Garth's mind, adjusting his mental presence comfortably. Garth fell back, and Joey flexed his fingers, wondering at the strength in them. If he flexed Garth's arm next, staring down at his biceps, well… only Garth would know.

Garth chuckled, brassy and pleasant, even from this side.

Then, Garth shifted his magic, and Joey felt it as he held on tightly. His consciousness was shackled-- not the way it had been when Raven and Vic had trapped him before, but kept close, with just enough give that he could struggle. At that thought, he tried, testing his bonds.

"Oh," Garth said, delight trilling through his mind. He flopped back on the couch they'd chosen to conduct this experiment on, eyes on the ceiling even as his mind was on Joey.

Joey moved Garth's arm, tugging at his shirt-- starting to, at least. Garth cut him off, seizing control again and pressing Joey down with something that felt like being hit by a surging wave. Joey gasped when Garth let up, but the sound didn't make it out of his throat.

"What do you think?" Garth asked aloud, hand curled on his chest.

Testingly, Joey opened Garth's mouth. Licked his lips slowly, tasting salt.

"I like it."

[gamebunny-advance]

Kun3h0 Custom Doll Repaint

So, here's what I've been working on for the past month or so. I've wanted to do a custom doll project for a long time now, and I finally got the opportunity to actually do it. I don't think she's bad for a first doll, but there's a lot I feel I could do better and differently.

Once again, my pictures hardly do her any justice... mostly due to color balancing.

I tried to edit these pics to make them a little more accurate, but it also yellowed out everything else, so... yeah. A photographer/image editor I am not.

That said, aside from the poor quality of the images, I'd say that the pics capture both her good points and her jank.

(More about the process and other thoughts under the cut.)

So, she started with a Cave Club doll as the base (I believe her name was Fernessa).

I unfortunately didn't take any pics of this doll with her clothes on, but I'm sure you can search pics of the original base doll yourself.

Besides being very cheap, I really liked the proportions on this doll for Kun3h0. I like the short torso with the long legs and the huge feet. Even the face is kinda Kun3h0-esque (though, a little more on that later).

I've had the idea to customize a Kun3h0 doll for a while, and I always thought the best base would have been an LOL OMG doll since they also have the big head, small torso, and long legs. But, I was always on the fence about them because their hips are a lot wider than Kun3h0's, and I felt like that would always bother me. But once I found out about Cave Club and also found out they're bascially cheap as dirt for the amount of articulation you get, I knew that this was the best match for Kun3h0.

Sadly, the hands aren't as big, and I did consider resculpting them to be more accurate to Kun3h0, but I lack the materials to make that look good enough to be worth doing, so in the end I just repainted the original hands. So I guess this doll is gonna have the non-standard 5-fingers XP. (I forgot to take pics, but the back of the hands do have the heart detail on them. )

Because I have to tie this back to NSR somehow, I think this doll would be a great base for some NSR characters, or really any other stylized character like this. I could def see a cute Mayday coming out of one of these (but not from me~ If I made a Mayday, then I'd want to make a Zuke to go with her, and I just cannot imagine how to make a Zuke doll without him becoming way too top-heavy).

However, I did resculpt the legs to become her boots, so she stands a little taller than the base Cave Club. While I think doing this works for Kun3h0 since she's a robot, if I want to make some alternate outfits for her, they're gonna have to include these boots, or I'm gonna have to get another doll to make some alternate legs.

Unfortunately, my only material I have for body mods is air-dry paper clay, and it doesn't transition as well into the plastic the same way something like apoxie sculpt probably would have. It's not super noticeable at a distance when they're painted, but under scrutiny, you can see a clear transition. I also forgot to detail her heel, so the shoes are flat even though they shouldn't be~ They do help her to stand on her own though, so I guess it's not the worst thing in the world~

While I was doing the sculpting, I also made the wig.

Finding a yarn that would properly convey Kun3h0's hair color is nigh impossible, given the cartoony shading of them, so I settled for a median between the dark rasperry and hot pink and got this regular raspberry yarn. The unaltered pics make it look a little more purple than it actually is. It really is a warm raspberry color.

(I'd say that this is closer to the actual color, maybe a tad darker.)

Let me tell y'all, brushing out yarn wefts is not fun. I also felt like I wasn't doing it right since I lost a lot of material brushing it out. From the little research I did, this seems to be a common problem, but it doesn't sit right with me for so much of it to get wasted like that~

Another challenge I had is that there (of course) aren't very many resources for getting yarn wefts curly or how to make curly hairstyles using yarn wefts. I know that this is relatively easy to achieve with actual doll hair through boil washing, but that wasn't really a viable option for a yarn wig like this. Since I really wanted the hair to look naturally curly as opposed to looking like it was curled after the fact, I curled the hair before gluing it onto the wig cap, which was a mini-nightmare. I followed a video tutorial about how to make a pigtails wig, I just applied the methods to the curly hair.

I don't know if I just didn't make enough wefts to make the tails poofy enough, or if this method just wasn't suited for curly hair, but I just didn't get the volume I was looking for.

To achieve the fuller look that Kun3h0's puffs have, I glued some scrap yarn fluff in the center of the original puffs and just tried to manage the shape from there. It's not perfect, but I think I've more or less brought her original hair to life. It's hard to see since they get lost in the mess of hair, but I was even able to get those stray curls that she has to look nice~

However, for some reason, the wig really doesn't like to stay on. I dunno if it's the ears pushing it off, or if something else makes it loose, but it really doesn't like to stay on her head. I might try applying heat to the cap to see if I can get it to reshape around her head properly, but I don't have high hopes for that.

Overall, having made the wig and seen it in real life, I've confirmed something that I've kinda felt for a while: Kun3h0 really needs something on her head between her antenna. I feel like her antenna and the top of her head create a sort of "empty box" that is just asking to be filled with something. I recently did a drawing of Kun3h0 where I have her an ahoge, and I think it helps a lot.

It's a little too late to add this to the doll (and I don't even know how I'd go about it), but I think from now on, she's gonna have a curl that sticks up on the top of her head.

Moving on: the face.

I really wish I could get some clearer pictures here, because the eyes really aren't as bad as the pics make them look.

While I am trying to keep her right covered as much as possible, I did still paint both of them with acrylics. I don't have MSC or watercolor pencils like most of the pros do, so I made use of what I had. I'm certainly not getting that "crisp lineart" look that Kun3h0 is basically built on, but I don't think the results are horrible. They're sealed with a gloss varnish, so they don't photograph well, but I do like how the texture is very different from the skin, it almost sells that they're made of glass.

As for the other details, I did do the lining in dark purple, like I usually do for her lineart. I'm on the fence on if this works IRL or not. On the one hand, I feel like the purple lineart is a part of the character design, it helps balance out all the pinks, but when I only use the purple on the doll for the face (and her stomach paneling), I do wonder if it looks strange, and if I would have been better off lining her with dark brown instead.

In fact, I did the original sketch with brown for the paneling.

(Right eye not canon.)

But when I made the actual doll, I wound up doing purple anyway to match the eyelashes, so they wouldn't look as out of place.

Other details I wanted to mention are that the upper eyelashes/eyelid is actually a piece of painted foam that I glued on. I really wanted to achieve that cartoony look of how I usually draw the lashes over her hair, even if it doesn't make logical sense.

I wasn't able to do the same thing for the brows, but I still did something a little "special" with them.

Instead of making myself cry trying to get an accurate color-match with paint, her eyebrows are actually flocked using some of the leftover yarn. I've hardly seen anyone do this for a doll repaint, but I don't think this look would suit most brows anyway~

Overall, I'm only a *little* unsatisfied by the face-up, but my disappointment is mostly in the eye-shape. I didn't want to go against the face mold too much, but that meant that I couldn't really make the eye taller like Kun3h0's actually are. If the eye was any taller, the brows would have been right against the hairline, and that wouldn't be a great look IMO. I feel like 80% of Kun3h0's identity is in her face, so having it be even a little inaccurate does bring her down a little.

Lastly, I think all that's left to talk about is clothes and accessories.

I am personally really in love with the shorts and it's why I chose them to be the preview for this project. I added the beltloops after I took that pic, and I think they turned out so cute, even if you can see the stitching of the belt to the shorts.

I went through quite a few patterns trying to get them right. The Cave Club dolls don't seem to be super popular in customizer circles, so there aren't many if any patterns out there for them. At first I was just eyeballing a shorts pattern from this video and going through some trial and error trying to adapt them to the doll's body.

I made 3 or 4 pairs of shorts this way, but they all ended up too tight. In the end, I wound up using the "wrap-and-tape" method of pattern making, and made the shorts from there. I honestly wasn't too confident in the results, so I very haphazardly made the trial pair with this new pattern, but they fit so great that I wound up using the test shorts for the final product.

The top was not as successful. Unlike the shorts, I didn't start making test tops until I'd already done the wrap and tape. So the pattern making wasn't actually the hardest part: it was putting it together that was a nightmare.

While I was making the top, I would of course have Kun3h0 put it on to test the fit, which stretched out the fabric to a noticeable degree. This was one of the last things I worked on, so I was getting really fed up with working on this for so long, so I told myself that I would probably just hide it with paint later.

That was mistake number 1.

As I should have learned from painting Green's face, the paint hardened the fabric tremendously, giving it almost no stretch. Originally the plan was to use velcro to close the top in the back, but the pattern didn't account for the lack of stretch, so it's actually too small to close edge to edge. So, I had to cut velcro to extend beyond the actual clothes to close it up. So basically, there's a gaping hole in the back of her outfit and is the main reason why I refuse to post back pictures of this doll.

For the time being, I do consider this top to be a "prototype" and I'll probably remake it in the future with some improvements. But, painting the fabric after stitching it together is not the only mistake I made.

Since this top is a prototype, there's a lot of other things that I did in a bad order: I really should have done the hemming and put on the accents before putting the pieces together, but since I wasn't sure if the pattern would fit first, and thought I would have the energy to make a second better top, I didn't bother with it. This included the cuffs of the sleeve.

That was mistake number 2.

The way I made the sleeves is that the arms are really just a large trapazoid with the shoulder shape at the top. The idea was that I would just sew the large side to a piece of shorter elastic band which would serve as the cuffs. I figured this would cause the sleeve to look "ballooned" at the end. And it kinda worked. You can kinda see how it turned out on her right sleeve in the first picture, but actually sewing it together was kinda terrible because the only way I could think of to do this was to sew the cuff and sleeve separately first, then sew them together, and that just seems ass-backwards to me, but I couldn't think of any other way to do it, and it came out with the cuff being mostly obscured anyway. I tried a different method on the left sleeve, so the cuff is more visible, but the sleeve shape is worse.

So if/when I remake this top, I'm still gonna do this in my ass-backwards way, I've just got to figure out how to keep the sleeve from eating the cuff.

Otherwise, I think the top would actually be pretty cute. I was really getting tired of working on it at the end, so a lot of the details are actually hot-glued on instead of being sewn. The faux-zipper pull is a *little* large, but it's something I had that I thought would work, and I actually really like the oversized look. It works for the proportions of the doll and helps bring in the heart motif that's getting a little lost in the sloppiness of my painting~

The last thing I think worth talking about is the mini GAB.

I thought I'd taken a pic of it by itself, but I guess not. Anyway, the only thing I wanted to say about it is that there's a little "clip" on the back made from wire that allows it to hook onto Kun3h0's belt and be held in her hand. I dunno, I just really like the little accessories, and that little feature amuses me~

But that's it for now. I am actually working on two other accessories for her:

The doll came with a pet dinosuar that I'm currently turning into her GAB.

It's just about the right size to be in scale with Kun3h0, and the hair is basically already the same as GAB's. I've already modified the base with clay and cut off the bits I don't need. It's mostly a matter of sanding and painting right now. I have no idea how or if I'm going to get the collar onto it without it looking bad, but I'll give it a try. If all else fails, I'll just make a tiny bow-tie like GAB!classic~

I don't have a pic of this one, but the doll also came with some sort of flower pot thing that I'm turning into her drill using a metal piping tip for the drill head~ I'll post about them in an "accessories DLC" when they're both finished.

But wait... if you've made it this far, and you saw my preview post, then you might notice that there's one accessory missing.

Well, this mask doesn't actually fit Kun3h0...

But it does fit someone else.

[unoisveimved-un-proffesional]

Been actually thinking about "A Minecraft Movie" recently, and like every broke wannabe artist thinking about a million dollar piece of creatively bankrupt waste of space in the cultural consciousness, it's about how I would've made it. Because as cliché as it is, there's still some potential in what they're going for. (That's code for "It'd be better if it was entirely different")

I wouldn't even really scrap the uncanny realistic look, what I'd do is have the half the movie be Minecraft machinima, and the other half be live action actors in a realistic Minecraft set, and it switches between the two whenever the shot/pov changed or the camera passes by a conveniently placed hill to make a super cool transition shot. I wouldn't make it a movie though, I'd make it a series made up of longer episodes with an anthology episode between each of the main episodes, the odd numbered episodes not following the main plot but one of its own by a guest director and writer entirely animated, each one with a unique style, including claymation and Lego Stopmotion! The main plot would still have the set up of real people being transported to the Minecraft world, but the main character would be an avid Minecraft player when they were younger who stopped playing when they got older and hasn't found the time to get back into it, but is the character who's most familiar with the world, still forgetting some things because it's been a while. Steve would be there too, first appearing as the protagonist of a stand alone anthology episode before being shown briefly in one of the main episodes obscured in fog as a reference to the first and most famous Herobrine sighting. Any time Steve appears, if the shot is in Live Action, it immediately switched to machinima with no change in tone. Imagine a dimly lit horrifying scene of one of the characters being attacked by a well animated grotesque giant spider, and Steve rushes in to save them and you see how goofy it looks from that perspective, but the characters are still taking it 100% seriously. All the other machinima/la switches are done in mind with the tone, but Steve has it as just a solid rule independent of that. He could have a voice actor, but you never get to see what he looks like in the live action POV. Steve's standalone episode is of course entirely in machinima. I mean I guess you could just put the special episodes in their own series and have the movie be all the main plot episodes stuck together and shortened, but as you can tell, I don't do good writing short so I would probably have to just be a co-writer or have a team of editors keeping me in check, each one kinda defeating the purpose of this thought experiment right?

The best version of A Minecraft Movie wouldn't be made by me, but if I was to say what the best version of A Minecraft Movie could be, it'd be an artistic hybrid of machinima and LA/CG/PE (Live Action, Computer Generated, Practical Effects) with a cast that represents the demographics of people who may see this movie like it already has, but with the main character being part of the demographic of people who could get the most out of it, avid Minecraft fans who have now grown up. The way the world works or how they got there or what any of the odd happenings really mean would be left up to interpretation because as important as some elements can be for narrative or thematic reasons it doesn't have to have a textbook of lore and logic to explain why. (Did you hear they tried to make the Green and Blue text that appears in the end poem actual characters in one of the spin-off games? That's so stupid) The important part of the story would be the strong emotional core of the narrative and our characters would go through a personal journey in the medium of Minecraft, their trials in the Minecraft world reflecting in some way their trials in reality and they learn not just about Minecraft but themselves through Minecraft. It could feasibly be a story told through any world made up or inspired by something, but it's in Minecraft because Minecraft is special to our main character, in fact every character should have some kind of character based reason that makes it make sense thematically why they're taking this personal journey in Minecraft. Like have an older serious character who's long since buried their childish creativity, or a youngster who hasn't been able to get in touch with their childish creativity! You could with some time, thought, and effort find some reason to have a reasonably sized cast of characters make sense from a narrative point of view to have the Minecraft Experience thrust upon them by forces beyond their comprehension (the writers). That's what I'd want it to be if I wanted it to be good anyway.

And also just fucking pay C418 royalties and let the Minecraft soundtrack be present. Licensed music to a minimum and always diagetic.

[sooz-again]

If there was a Yellowjackets/ATLA crossover who would it star and who would get eaten first?

First off, thank you so much, this is a fantastic question, and I've been pondering over it for ages (aka since last night). So far my cast is...weird, and less based on the dynamics between all the ATLA characters and more their individual personalities. I'm also basing these decisions on who the Yellowjackets were as teens, not adults (because thinking about which ones will abuse various addictive substances is not something I particularly want to think about). And, I'm not going to cast everyone, just those that I think I can place the strongest connections between them.

I'm going to start off with my most controversial casting, which is that I think that the ATLA girl who could best slide into the role of Shauna is Katara.

Hear me out, though. Shauna is the angriest, most ruthless of all the Yellowjackets. She lets her grief over what she went through rule her, and that grief manifests as anger. She is not in control of her emotions; her emotions control her.

I know that this doesn't sound like Katara. Not completely anyway. But when I try to figure out what ATLA character is most ruled by their grief, who does have anger in them, and who lets the anger from their grief lead them to seeking to harm the person who hurt them, that person is Katara. `And I think that, in the right circumstances, she could be not too different from Shauna.

I know the more obvious choice is that Azula play Shauna, what with the parallels of them getting messier and more ruthless towards the end. But I don't know. I think the gradual transition of Shauna going from being softer to being a vicious beast doesn't match Azula. Azula, I think, is a better fit for Misty.

In social situations, to put it bluntly, Misty sucks. She doesn't know how to interact with others in a normal way. She knows what normal looks like, she knows what banter looks like, but she struggles so hard to actually participate authentically in a way that doesn't alienate anyone around her. And when she did finally find someone to connect with, she ruined it by being too honest about things. This reminds me of Azula during The Beach; she knows what normal teens do, she tries to act like a normal teen, and she's awkward as hell the entire time. She finally makes a connection with Chan, and then ruins it by letting her true colors show.

Not to mention, both of them thrive under pressure when they're calling the shots. When the plane crashed, Misty probably saved a hell of a lot of lives with her medical knowledge and ability to command everyone around her. Everyone else was floundering, but not Misty. Misty had prepared herself for a situation like this (without realizing it) and was able to make quick assessments of what was needed and where for everyone who was injured. Azula also demonstrates this, in her ability to adjust plans and see what is going on around her.

So yeah, Azula is more confident than Misty, but I don't think anyone fits Misty's intelligence, social awkwardness, and need to be useful and recognized for that usefulness the same way that Azula does.

I think that maybe Sokka could be Travis. Travis doesn't have the same sense of humor as Sokka, but they both start out with a healthy dose of sexism before drinking their respect women juice. Travis actually has some hunting skills (or at least, shooting skills), and Sokka absolutely has the same (and more). The one thing that really has me unsure of Sokka as Travis is how shell-shocked and withdrawn Travis ends up being the longer they're in the wilderness. I don't know if Sokka would go that route. But then again, if he had to eat Katara in order to survive, maybe that is how he'd respond. Who knows.

Suki seems like a good fit for Nat. Nat is capable, she's got a moral code she isn't willing to compromise on while they're in the wilderness, she is a good leader, she's willing to take risks and do what's right to get them out of the wilderness. She sounds a bit like Suki to me.

The last character that I feel is a pretty match leads to the second part of your question, Orange: who do they eat first?

I think Yue is Jackie.

Jackie was not meant to be in the wild. She had no survival instincts- or skills for that matter. She was pure suburbia. Take her out to where she has to work hard and get dirty and do more than be a charismatic, pretty face, and she flounders.

(and this is where the ATLA fandom flays me alive for having anything critical to say about Yue)

Yue is a princess. She grew up in a sexist society where women were not allowed to learn things deemed to be men's work. With how prosperous the Northern Water Tribe was, I don't think it's a stretch to say that Yue likely learned very few practical skills. She's sweet, and she's pretty, and that's about it to her. I think that, if she found herself lost in the Canadian wilderness, she'd be likely to die pretty early on, much like Jackie. Maybe not freezing to death (I do think that Yue would know a thing or two about not sleeping out in the elements without much to keep warm), but something else. Drinking from an unclean water source, getting an infection from an injury and not fully cleaning it, eating poisonous berries. Something like that.

And since Jackie is the first one cannibalized by the Yellowjackets, why wouldn't the same happen to Yue?

[aro-absol]

Very glad you've jumped on the Koisenu Futari train, that show's the absolute bomb.

Do you have a favourite character and/or episode?

Yes, the show absolutely amazing!!!

Warning: Heavy spoilers ahead!

My favorite is probably Sakuko. I really like her energy and I had to smile every time I saw her being happy. Even if she is very bubbly and sometimes that might be a little too much for Takahashi, she does a pretty good job at respecting Takahashi's boundaries and never tries to convince him to do something he isn't comfortable with. Just seeing her makes me feel comfortable and happy.

I also like Takahashi a lot, of course. However, I can't relate to him that much. He seems to be weirdly indifferent towards Sakuko moving in with him (although that changes over the course of the show). His touch-repulsion couldn't be farther from my own experiences. But while I can't relate to him all that much, he is still a big source of comfort for me. He feels almost like my aspec big brother.

I don't really have a favorite episode but my favorite part of the show is the time between Sakuko moving in with Takahashi and Kazu (is that his name? I'm not sure) moving in with the two to look after injured Takahashi. It captures the slow transition of the relationship going from being purely a partnership of convenience to a partnership made of love and deep affection for each other. One of my favorite scenes is when Sakuko and Takahashi go shopping and Takahashi asks Sakuko to go buy onigiri. He wants her to bring him two plum onigiri and tells her to get two onigiri of her choice for herself. Sakuko also chooses the plum filling. Not because she particularly likes them but because Takahashi likes them. It's her way of showing that he matters to her. Pretty much directly after that, Takahashi lets Sakuko use a discount coupon (that he wasn't gonna use) to buy a coat she really wants. At first, he is afraid to have forced to buy it but after she reassures him that it was her wish to buy it, he is happy he could do it for her.

After that shopping trip, the focus of the show shifts away from the relationship of Sakuko and Takahashi towards a lot of other stuff. The relationship between them is still portrayed and growing but with all the other stuff going on, it was hard for me to keep track of all the little changes. Towards the end of the show, it becomes clear how much the affection and love of Sakuko and Takahashi has grown. Seeing Takahashi being able to open up about his needs and feelings in episode 8 made me happy. (Although it was bittersweet because Takahashi moved out and all.) In the beginning, Takahashi talks a lot about "probation" and "if we become family". At the end, Takahashi is crying because he doesn't want his "family" to end.

Seeing Sakuko's and Takahashi's relationship blossom. This was my favorite part.

Sorry for rambling. Somehow asks tend to do that to me. Besides, please excuse any weird phrasing and wrong grammar as I'm not a native speaker. I just hope I got my point across. And thank you for the ask, I appreciate it.

[theender36]

Recently watched Superman: The Movie (1978) for the first time in well over a decade and it really is a great movie so I got some thoughts that I want to put somewhere before I forget.

The cold open of theater curtains showing a mockup of an old Superman serial featuring Action Comics is a great nod to the character's past. Then the title flying out of the old theater screen is a fantastic visual as well as a good transition to kickstart the credits sequence accompanied by the iconic music

The set design of Krypton is phenomenal; the glowing clothes, the crystalline look, and the streamlined technology feel alien and futuristic in a unique way, although it is a little odd that everything is so white except for Kal-El's baby blanket.

The trial of Zod, Ursa, and Non has the striking combination of visuals that are the trio being held in a spotlight by spinning rings and the stern Kryptonian judges' faces being projected onto the otherwise dark dome surrounding them

Marlon Brando keeps pronouncing it "Kryptin" for some reason. Like when I'm joking about watching "The Batmins"

Genuinely very sad goodbye scene from Kal's parents

Pretty much every wide shot in Kansas is super beautiful

As is the custom, Ma and Pa Kent bring Clark up right. I appreciate the moment where Clark tells Pa about how he gets so mad at bullies that he wants to tear them apart because first off, you can tell from how he says it that he knows it'd be wrong to do that. And second, Pa doesn't yell at him for having those feelings, he tries to help him deal with them.

Clark doesn't just bail on Martha to go find himself, and he makes sure she'll have help on the farm while he's gone

The sequence of the Fortress forming itself has amazing practical effects and editing

Maybe it was because I was watching the Blu Ray version with extra scenes but the abstract montage of crystal Jor-El teaching Clark about the universe and his abilities and giving life lessons ran a little long but it was cool

Clark is very much playing up his meek, clumsy identity but him being Reporter Clark Kent as a person is not totally an act. He makes sure half his paycheck goes to Ma back home because he wants to make sure she's taken care of and he tries to be polite and helpful around the office, which tracks with who he is at his core

I think Lex being a business tycoon/scientist is pretty integral to the character but I don't mind this version's "Napoleon of crime" shtick. I like that Gene Hackman's hair being a wig in-story is hinted at when Otis is poking around the spa and he finds a spare hairpiece

I know everyone knows this already but Christopher Reeves is a perfect casting choice and he does an amazing job at making Clark and Superman superficially different but obviously the same person at heart. Even when he says something a little corny as either one, there's so much sincerity to it

Clark feeling a little guilty about enjoying being a hero is on-brand. I like that Jor-El reflects Johnathan Kent by encouraging him but also giving guidance so he doesn't lose who he is.

The moment of Jor-El saying "I've sent them you. My only son." is veering very close to the common Superman-as-a-Jesus-allegory mistake but it's the only time in the entire movie I remember it doing that, so I can't harp on it too much

Lois is just a force of nature and the only reason Clark can keep up with her as Superman is because she's starstruck

This version of Superman and Lois are down just HORRENDOUS for each other

The flying date scene is great and I think the poorly-aged flying effect is countered by the nighttime background and the chemistry between the characters. That being said, the "can you read my mind" poem is just. What. Why is this

The scene of Lex, Ms. Teschmacher, and Otis attempting to tamper with the nukes and then having to do it again because Otis screwed up is so goofy I forgot they were villains

Great moment when Superman shows he can be intimidating by just staring down Otis.

I like that Superman is saved by Ms Teschmacher because she believes in him which is a surprise to Lex because he only believes in himself

Really great effects in the scenes of the destruction from the San Andreas fault

This shot is underrated

The moments of Superman realizing Lois is dead have so much weight to them and are amazingly shot

I kind of wish they explored the consequences of him "interfering in history" because otherwise it is sort of just a convenient deus ex machina

Everything ends tied up very nicely (except the Zod squad but after two hours, nobody's thinking about that) and sometimes that's all a movie needs

It's astonishing really how much they manage to fit in this movie considering they give a lot of scenes more time than you'd expect

Overall, movie good.

[twistedisciple]

Fódlan Skill Analysis

Sword

Lance

Axe ⇊

Bow

Brawling ➝ Budding Talent

Reason ⇈

Faith ⇈

Authority

Heavy Armor ⇊

Riding

Flying

Griss is, first and foremost, minmaxed to be a magic nuke. His magic growth is the highest in the game (tied with Anna), but unlike Citrinne who has a similar role, he can can take a few hits, especially if those hits happen to be magic (in which case they might actually do nothing to him... that 50% res growth is second only to Hortensia and Pandreo). However, all of his other stats are either average or below, and unlike the others in the Four Hounds who swap between magic and physical weapons, Griss solely uses magic. This seems to imply that he's good at one thing and one thing only: spellcasting.

However, I'd like to look at this in the context of Fódlan's system.

BOONS

Reason: Spells are cast from tomes in Elyos without any sort of visible sigils, unlike Fódlan's spells, yet Engage also does make an effort to include sigils for spells while characters are engaged with Emblem Celica and Emblem Micaiah. While I don't intend to go into the inner workings of Elyos magic in this post and would prefer to leave that to an open discussion with other Elyos muses, the tentative idea that I've been holding onto is that Elyos magic relies on incantation. The tomes themselves seem to only have words on their pages, too. For this reason, I think Griss might have some trouble with the transition to the more mathematics-based Fódlan magic and greatly prefer the use of traditional tomes if he can get his hands on them. However, he can still manage to get by with his immense natural affinity with magic, and the elements almost appear to bend to his will with or without a sigil to focus them.

Wind magic is his preference. Drawing some inspiration from an old HC I wrote about Jugdral magic and incantations, this would partially be because the incantations for Wind spells are shorter. Griss has subpar dexterity and speed, which I interpret to represent character traits like a lack of attention to detail and an overall lax demeanor. He doesn't have the patience to memorize large strings of incantations for one spell, so the shorter and snappier the better. Additionally, he has a below average base build and an abysmal build growth, so heavy books aren't for him either. Despite his bulkier stats, we never actually see him use thunder magic in-game, so I can rationalize this as a desire to be able to get out of the way of an enemy attack if he needs to. To try not to get doubled every time, that is. Holding a heavy thunder tome might get him killed, and contrary to his behavior, dying a pointless death isn't on his wishlist.

Fire magic is his secondary choice. It's a well-rounded, safe pick for more devastating magic than what wind is capable of. He has some experience with thunder magic, but no experience with ice and whatever Sagittae is supposed to be. Dark magic is also out of the question, as that's a fell dragon-only talent.

Griss has been honing his magic from a young age. It was likely necessary for members of the fell church to prove their strength as soon as possible, although I headcanon that magic was something of a last resort for him. He wasn't good at anything else he tried, and really wasn't good at magic at first either solely because of the amount of rote memorization and focus it required. Once he got the hang of it though, he intuited his way through the rest. Magic for him is half feeling, which explains his incredibly strong but imprecise spellcasting.

Faith: While this encompasses both offensive and defensive white magic in Fódlan, this is solely the ability to use a staff in Elyos. Fódlan's version also uses sigils to cast, but its grounding in literal faith makes Griss feel much more at home with it than with Reason magic. Healing magic is second nature to him, and I've written previously about followers of the fell dragon learning first aid as a necessity for their violent lifestyle. Griss prefers this to status effects, although I headcanon that he has an impressive ability to deconstruct and figure out what a staff does simply by looking at its engravings. Paired with his fearlessness, this means he'd be the first to pick up a foreign staff and wave it around until something happened. Although most of the time he grasps its effect within the first or second try.

BANES

Axes: They are simply too heavy for him to get any satisfaction out of using. He can probably swing one once and then struggle to lift it again. Not to mention he'd probably never hit his target. Where's the fun in that? He knows his physical limits.

Heavy Armor: Similar to axes but with the addition that he'd rather dodge a fatal blow and wind up with a nice-looking gash than be completely impervious to damage. He wants to get hit, if his opponent has the skill to hit him. Armor would make for a boring fight.

BUDDING TALENT

Brawling: Excluding the DLC Enchanter class, Gauntlets/Arts are the secondary abilities of magic-only classes in Engage. Griss wouldn't have a hard time changing to the High Priest class, which already uses Tomes and Staves like his default Sage class, and I believe that the reason he wasn't designed as a High Priest despite his religious affiliation is because he isn't leading anyone. He's a pariah even among those of the fell church, and most of his character hinges on being a follower rather than a leader.

Nevertheless, the up-close-and-personal style that comes with using gauntlets would suit him. More ways to turn someone into a bloody pulp, and more ways for him to get busted up too. It's a win-win. Gauntlets are also used more in a boxing/brawling style in Fódlan than the martial arts style of fists in Elyos. Not to mention that they're light enough for him to handle, are easy to hit with (making up for his dexterity), and get two hits on initiation (making up for his speed). Surprisingly, Griss has an average strength growth on par with other physical units like Bunet and Goldmary (compare this to the 5% strength growth of Pandreo and Framme, 2 of the cast's 4 natural Arts users), so he'd actually be able to do some damage with his punches.

All Other Classes

Sword: Similar to gauntlets, swords are generally light enough that Griss could probably take advantage of them without much of a penalty. Daggers would be even better. However, using a sword properly usually relies on stances, and daggers require precision, and Griss would get bored of both.

Lance: Requiring form and also being a bit more unwieldy to handle than a sword wouldn't make the polearm a first choice.

Bow: Its inability to attack at close range makes this an unappealing option.

Authority: He can step up and lead a small group if he has to, but doesn't handle the leadership position well outside of what would essentially be middle management. He'll lead a battalion if he's acting on orders from a higher authority, but long-term planning and organization isn't his thing.

Riding/Flying: He could probably handle a horse or a pegasus if taught to ride, but prefers the freedom of moving on foot. Would probably be a bit too erratic and scare everyone around him, especially if he's in the air. Absolutely 0 sense of personal safety.

[limeade-l3sbian]

sorry yea meant to write twd, as in the walking dead 😭 english isn’t my first language so i often accidentally replace w with v without thinking since we don’t really use w where i’m from lmao

anyways my rant was that rick x michonne was done so dirty. they were both my favorite characters so a romance between the two SHOULD have felt epic for me, but it just fell flat. rick went from being deranged and infatuated with that blonde lady who he knew for all of two seconds with the abusive husband one second and then, with no lead up beyond their friendship and great ability to work together, the next second rick and michonne are having a romantic moment, which correct me if i remember wrong, immediately led to sex and then the next day they were just an item??? and like i know the show ain’t a romance show. i’m prolly dumb for fixating rn. but it annoyed me so bad bc it felt sooo rushed. here we have pivotal characters with loads of interactions, but the show didn’t think it would be a good idea to like build some romance before just jumping us all with it? the way the pacing was done made it seem like rick just settled for michonne bc blonde lady was with her husband and i dunno. i wanted something more epic for michonne 😭 either that or just leave the romance out. like it wasn’t necessary? they could have had a continued great partnership without it being romantic in my eyes.

OH YOU ARE CORRECT ANON, LET'S TALK ABOUT IT.

No, TWD is not a romance show but it does have romantic elements. We get glimpses into their lives. It is, in fact, a facet of the show. Retaining the aspects of what it means to be human while fighting and dealing with grosser and grosser looking walkers.

That whole romance with Jessie was so rushed and such bullshit. I genuinely don't know what they were thinking. There should have been more moments of side glances between Michonne and Rick and if they were deadset on having Jessie (blonde woman) be a sort of character who has the offer of romance to Rick, we should have seen him be conflicted.

Why conflicted? He and Michonne aren't even an item. They've never seen shared words with one another that could be mistaken for a second as romantic. And Jessie is beautiful, so why is hesitating? Why did he think of Michonne the moment Jessie tries to kiss him? He leaves the house but swears to Jessie that its not her fault, he just has to get up early tomorrow morning to meet with Deanna (it's a lie).

The next few days, we see him and Michonne, the de facto sheriffs of Alexandria spending more time together. Maybe Deanna makes a passive comment that can't be determined to be intentional or genuinely inquiring. She says something like, "That Michonne is a tough one. A lot of strength in those eyes. I can see why you two are so drawn to each other." Rick turns to her, a tempered look of incredulity on his face as he says, "We're not..." He pauses, as Deanna raises a natural thin, brow, waiting for him to finish his sentence. Rick holds her gaze, unsure if she was implying something or if, again, she had truly misconstrued a situation that he himself could not define.

He glances down, sniffing a moment before grunting, "It's not like that."

Deanna changes the subject, transitioning with a simple, "At any rate..."

But the conversation stays with Rick. It frames every conversation that he has with Michonne after that moment. Every time Michonne looks at him, he hears his conflicted statement: "It's not like that."

When he sees Jessie again, she apologizes for crossing a line. He nods, but he doesn't say anything.

And then blah blah blah all the plot shit, Michonne and Rick have their time in front of the fire and kiss.

[henrioo]

HEADCANNON — Do you see Killer as an TransMasc dude?

I mean… he may or may not have top surgery scars, which I’ll explain later, but what he actuall was before the pre-timeskip?

He was a man, who definitely was on T-shots not even half a year. Having a binder crushing his chest, moving fast — but hardly breathing, no wonder why his voice was rather deep. He tried to hide the fact that he hardly got any air during the fights or such.

The slimness during the Sabaody Arc, no facial hair, fast movements… that’s the second when my brain automatically shoved the thought of him being a part of the LGBTQ. Just look at this dude two years later:

He grew out his thick hair, took care of it. Jaw and chin covered in his golden goatee, while his body grew at least thrice as wide as two years before. Man… I know for sure that during those years he was high on his Testosterone level.

But the best part comes along with the explanation of the top surgery marks he might hide underneath his t-shirt. I believe that during the long time of waiting until the Kid Pirates come back to screen, Killer and his crew recently has visited the Revolutionary Army on their way to Wano.

And who’s the most queer diva in there? Of course it’s them — Ivankov.

The one who actually said: “Boy, you seem uncomfortable while moving. Do you perhaps need some help with gender dysphoria, hun’?”

Then the change happened, the scars lasted, but the short and painful process of his body turning fully male was worth it. Feeling like himself encouraged him to train more and gain weight, muscles, and all possible benefits.

So… if you ever read it, I really want to know your opinion about this. It’s not common to see a male-blog only, which I appreciate truly.

— Cheers, Musashi.

Okay I love this ask and I love you now and we two gonna be best friends okay?

And yes now I'm a only male blog and I genuinely love talking with more male authors we need to have a strong community

So here all my opinion about this

Like Sanji is a gay coded character for me, Killer is also one, and in the two examples I'm sure Oda didn't do it on purpose but he did a pretty good job

For me Killer has a lot of coded trans signals that make me feel he genuinely would be a perfect trans character, so here what I feel more

First his name, even one piece has some "weird" names, Killer looks more a name that someone would give to himself, not a weird normal name in one piece that someone would be born with

Since we don't know too much about the childhood of the kid pirates, it is hard to be sure, but I think it is obvious that killer chose his own name. If it is for the reason he is trans or not doesn't really matter, everyone can think whatever they want

Also the mask, we know that killer is far from being ugly but he always had the mask after he grew up a little, and I think that was pure insecure about his face. I think in the start before the T and those things people didn't take him seriously because his face wasn't really masculine or scary, and to try fight against that he started using the mask, also because that would help him having a more strong voice, since the mask would muffle his voice

Kid protection, I think is more than perfect their bond, and is obviously that Killer trusts in Kid his own life and soul. And for me this is the perfect way to show that Kid is a true ally to his friends transition, when they meet again in the prison he even asks to killer "where are your mask?" Because he knows his friend would never be without that

Not only that, he genuinely killed everyone that laughed about Killer no matter why they are laughing, that for me is perfect to show how Kid grows up seeing Killer suffering from intolerant people and becomes aggressive in a way to protect him

But I'm not sure about Iva, I don't think the Revolutionary Army would risk being close to Kid because he had one of the worst reputations between the pirates. And even if they would have a change the Kid owes a favor to them I don't think it would be a good choice, because they couldn't know if Kid would be pacific enough or not

And what we know for now is that the Revolutionary Army don't really have bonds with pirates exactly because they are impressive and dangerous

So I think that Killer got such a big man because of... Drugs

Yeah no joking

The crew would definitely get T enough for Killer besides I think they would have this in a constant way, what can explain why he takes two years to be that big

But I also think he used some anabolic steroids, or anything like that but in the one piece universe. I don't think they would be really hard to get and they probably are not safe, but they probably work better than the ones we have in the real world.

So if I could say the reason why killer got big is this one, Kid probably got some suspicious drugs and Killer used and there we are. We already know those dudes don't give a shit about risking their life and they are like "worthy to try"

Also I can see Law helping Killer with some surgery, but then Kid finds out that Law is also a captain and he gets mad because they get help from an enemy, and he is not blaming Killer but blaming Law and Law is just "wtf I literally help you?"

But yeah

Thanks for that, I love having someone to talk about this hahahha

[psilactis]

Ok here's reaction to episode 2 and 3, this will be a spoilery one so it will go under the cut

The Soundtrack keeps being awesome and the characters started feeling more like the ones we know, but like....

Why are they together tho. Sure, they had to leave Shells town together on account of being hunted, but no one but Luffy even wants to be there. By the time they finish fighting Buggy, each one should've gone their own way. Neither Nami nor Zoro has agreed to join Luffy as crew, and Zoro is still acting like a pirate hunter and Nami as a thief. They don't really have any reason to stick together at all!!

Why are so many scenes being filmed in the dark now.... I can't see anything...... The circus was ok but confusing to keep up with, but Kayas mansion is just so grim and dark, why.....

On to things I liked now tho because oh boy.

I love loved love love Buggy. He's so good he's so stupid and emotional and goofy and beautiful. Oda really did make this whole TV show just for Buggy, and it shows. And I thank him for it.

The whole Buggy episode was really good, them really going off with the circus theme and making it all creepy. Kinda sucks we didn't get much of buggy's crew action tho.

Im really enjoying Zoro being an Actual Pirate Hunter, like knowing the pirates and their names and their bounties. Its a really small detail but that I feel like it works to tie the whole universe together really nicely.

I love Kaya in this!! I'm really indifferent to her in the anime/manga, but in the show she is very charismatic. The decision to have her be literally poisoned instead of being just implied poisoned is also very good. This is something that has been going on on the show, instead of just implying they really do say their stuff, and I feel like it does add to the whole thing, like Zoro actually killing people instead of it just being implied.

Im not sure how I feel about the Coby thing. I think taking away the scene of Luffy telling the marine Coby used to be a pirate was a bad decision. That scene helped to develop both their characters, Luffy as someone who will help his friends, even if in a convoluted way, and Coby finally cements his will to become a marine and fight pirates. It also settles their relationship - one of mutual respect and friendship, even if on diverging sides that will clash one day. Giving the role to Garp to know that Coby was a pirate once feels really weak and really puts off the relationship between our boys.

I also don't think the whole Morgan debacle made much sense. Sure, me as a manga reader know that Morgan was corrupt and abused the town, but we don't see much of that in the show, apart from the marines causing mild discomfort at the bar. So why was he crucified? Because he was defeated by three kids? Doesn't make much sense. Doesn't make sense for Garp either....

Usopp looks a m a z i n g. I liked the way his backstory was told, the transition was very cliche but felt really nice to see. I think the jump of him meeting Luffy and immediately taking him to Kaya didn't make any sense tho. In the Manga/anime, they talked for a while, and then Usopp left, and Luffy and Co followed him to Kayas place. Feels kinda odd that Usopp would care so much about her, and then drag virtual strangers to her place like that.

While some adaptation is necessary, it feels like the TV show is kind of relying a lot on the audience having some previous knowledge of the source material, which isn't good.

Before I forget, the CGI is looking great actually. Every city and ship feels real. The fights can be a bit wonky sometimes but not in a bad way, it really does feel more like something of the universe, which is good.

I feel like Luffys backstory should have been told all at once, or in two episodes instead of three. However, the way it was done isn't necessarily bad, just feels a bit dragged out. They tried juxtaposing his past with his actions from the present, which, cinema, I guess, but also feels a bit unnecessary and a bit on the nose. The fight of the red hair pirates vs the mountain bandits was top notch tho!

[spinningbuster98]

Dante and Vergil for the ask!

Dante:

do I like them:

Of course. I mean look at him. Look at the guy!

5 good qualities:

He's a great guitarist

A great actor

A great dancer

He can be really supportive of others when the situation calls for it, as seen with Lady during the end phases of DMC3, or even with Trish in the ending of DMC1. Hell he tries to look after Nero the best he can, even if he's sometimes insensitive about it

He's got a bigger heart than he lets on: in DMC3, even before he fully transitioned from "adrenaline junkie who doesn't care if the world goes to shit so long as he gets to have fun" to "more or less responsable adrenaline junkie who's willing to make tough choices for the good of everyone" he still tried to save Lady from a strike by Vergil when she interfered with their fight.

3 bad qualities:

He's a complete slob, who's always wasting around in his office not really taking care of himself, just stuffing his face with pizza, strawberry sundaes and alcohol

He's got a bad habit of getting into debts that he cannot repay, as Lady would likely confirm, since I believe he owes her a ton of cash in the anime

While he genuinely cares for Nero and wants him to stay out of harm's way it's pretty clear from his comments about him being a deadweight and "needing to sit this one out" that he doesn't fully understand or take seriously his insecurities

favourite episode/etc:

Well technically it's DMC3, for giving us the most dynamic, perhaps human and falliable Dante, though DMC5 is close for striking the best balance between being a goofball and a "I'm getting too old for this shit" 40 yo responsable adult

otp

I know everyone wants him to get into Lady's pants, but honestly aside from their interactions in DMC3 I just don't see enough chemistry and it often feels to me that fans like to pair them together mostly because she's the only available option that doesn't devolve into problematic territory

So I'm going with Dante/Pizza

brotp:

Well he's only got one bro so :P

ot3:

None

notp:

Pretty much everything involving incest, so anything with Vergil, Nero and unfortunately Trish as well

best quote

"Frankly, at first, I didn't give a damn... but because of you I know what's important now. I know what I need to do. That's what MY soul is telling me to do"

head canon

We know that for the longest time he didn't use to have the highest opinion of Sparda, but it's implied that over the years this changed. I like to imagine that, since he never learned much about his father's "adventures" when he was a kid he sometimes tries to research stories and old folk tales about him in order to learn more about him...when he can get his lazy ass off his office chair

Vergil:

do I like them

For all intents and purposes I shouldn't, since I don't have a huge liking for purely edgy characters, even if their edginess can lead to some unintentional hilarity (look: Infinite) but Vergil is helped by having a more or less convincing backstory for his edgy behaviour (a backstory that I would have liked explored DURING DMC3 not AFTER in supplemental materials, not to mention DMC5 not delving as deeply as I would have liked) while still being pretty hilarious in his stone faced edginess. Plus he's genuinely and consistently threatening, and his brand of edginess is more of the "stoic badass who commands respect with a simple stare but who gets punked on by goofy brother" rather than "dude's a pathetic loser who got a dose of raw power and thinks he's hot shit and so just spews out edgy catchphrases thinking he's cool". With the former it's someone who is equally powerful who humiliates him, with the latter he just inadvertedly humiliates himself and I don't think it was the actual intention

5 good qualities

He's very good at keeping himself neat and tidy for someone who's technically more of a hobo than his brother (I mean I don't think Vergil has a house no?)

He's very perceptive as to when somebody might just be trying to trick him (like when he attempted to kill Arkham because he rightly suspected he was trying to double cross him)

Has some fine taste in literature

The fact that his human side was able to see the consequences of his destructive behaviour, and the fact that he was willing to stop his fight with Dante and listen to Nero and try to cut down the Qliphoth before it was too late (though only after some hefty convincing and ass kicking) shows that there might still be some form of hope for him. Maybe not outright "redemption" (kinda hard to make up for killing an entire city's population), but he may one day stop being an evil douche

Truly motivated chad

3 bad qualities:

Well y'know the whole "gotta get more power even if it means destroying the world" mindset

Really shortsighted: yeah he wants to gain more power in response to his childhood trauma....but what then? What will he do after he gets what he wants? Will he ever be satisfied with the kind of power he can gain? I don't think Vergil has ever bothered making long term plans for his future

He should really work towards paying that due child support

favourite episode/etc

Technically DMC5 by virtue of being the only game that tried fleshing him out in any way. I guess there's also that Visions of V manga but I haven't read it fully

otp

Vergil/Plastic Chair

brotp

He's stuck in Hell with Dante of all people and that's comedy that writes itself

ot3

None

notp

Same as above

best quote

"You will not forget this Devil's power!"

headcanon

Dude probably kept going about displaying the "true power of a son of Sparda" while conceiving Nero

[shioritsumi]

Every so often I remember a dating sim story I started working on in like 8-9th grade probably stemmed by me being annoyed there weren't enough choices in games.

So instead you had Prince Rin, the prince of the richest land in the 100 Kingdoms. He's come of age and he needs to choose a suitor...but he didn't the first year. Or the second.

There's a period of a few years following coming of age when the heir is supposed to choose a future spouse. They won't be married immediately, but they need to choose someone during this period. And when Rin came of age at 18, he didn't choose anyone. Or when he turned 19. Or when he turned 20. He's about to turn 21 soon and his family is getting tired of waiting so they've arranged for an event leading up to his birthday where every viable princess of appropriate age is brought to him so he can choose between them. (Ideally, the princesses should not have an age gap between themselves and the prince of 10+ years but certain kingdoms might have taken a chance and broken the rule anyways)

I believe there were....24 options. Pretty much all the options I had at the time were mostly stereotypes based on dating sims I was playing at the time. But I did always have the rule of "no age gaps further than 10 years" except princesses under the age of 14 weren't considered "viable" suitors anyways.

So the age limit for the contest was 14-31 (except one kingdom snuck in their 39 year old princess bc she insisted and only one 14 year old showed up anyways)

The idea was that Rin has to spend time with each girl on a sort of cycle, with one day to himself after a certain amount of days. Then he spends a day with everyone in a group activity. Then rinse and repeat until he's spent time with everyone and he chooses a princess on his birthday.

Except, bonus! His best friend Robert is available every single day and if he wants he can spend his day off with Robert instead. His best friend is the prince of a neighboring kingdom but for some reason he's not being pressured to choose a suitor despite clearly having not chosen one. The answer is....he was originally meant to be the "Gay Option" that a lot of dating sims had for a while. In short, his family is focusing on his younger sister and her future bc after coming of age he tried to simplify things by simply telling his parents he wasn't attracted to women. No one responded well and he's effectively been removed from the line of inheritance. Yay.

As for Rin....canonically? He....likes sleeping, eating, reading books...while sitting down or laying down. He likes picnicking...and then taking a nap. He likes being doted on, bc he doesn't have to do anything. He's not good at sword-fighting, or any kind of hard labor bc it's hard work. He likes sleeping. He really likes sleeping and not doing anything. He's very good at finding new ways to not do anything. (the excuse for being able to unlock cheats) He doesn't have any set preferences for a partner as a character except for disliking partners who force him to do things too much. (Narration will have him complaining more about keeping up with the more athletic princesses.)

Rin is short for something but I never decided what it's short for lol.

Also while it was meant to be a dating sim at first, when I transitioned it to a regular story there was a clearcut endgame girl of Roxanne the princess of the poorest land in the 100 Kingdoms bc....of course. Might take a new look at them all again, see what I can do with this. Try to make something for Choice of Games as a starter, maybe. If anyone's interested, that is.

[beautifulsnake2162020]

Back from the Brink C-drama review (after finishing the last episode)

I loved it - the fact that this series made me care about the characters and has me eating up every moment that Yan Hui and Tian Yao kissed or hug and how they played a role in helping each other in the last battle made me love the writing of the show even more. It's the little moments of sharing your heart out with those you love that rejuvinates hope in hopeless times.

To summarize: If like me you love romance, comedy, tragic moments, and slow burn, the main characters growing from their mistakes, then go watch this series. I love the main couple, Zhou Ye and Neo Hou's chemistry made me finish the entire series in just a few days.

From here on out I will be delving into spoilers

Zhou Ye as Yan Hui and Neo Hou as Tian Yao had really good chemistry as the main couple. I don't know if it's a censorship thing or a directorial choice for them to be the only ones to have on-screen kisses, but it's really saying something when I could still feel their romantic chemistry without the kissing scenes. As a matter of fact, some of my favorite romantic moments with them were scenes with no kissing and is purely based on their chemistry alone. Like when they were trying to retrieve Tian Yao's dragon spine and Yan Hui was joking about braising it. She got worried that Tian Yao wouldn't understand that she's just joking only for Tian Yao to tease back that it would be delicious. Yan Hui was shocked and asked "When did you become mischievous?" or something along those lines and Tian Yao said "I learned it from you."

Zhou Ye and Neo Hou are also good actors and I could feel myself immersed in their performances - especially during the Ghostly Eulogy arc wherein Yan Hui was hurt and scared of Tian Yao. I feel this was when Zhou Ye's acting for me really shined. Episode 20 is still my favorite as I write this review and maybe it's because Zhou Ye managed to give the audience a look at Dark Yan Hui. Which I would argue is still darker than her later performance when Yan Hui became the Lady of the Dark Aura. Maybe it's just me but even when Yan Hui mastered using the Dark Aura energy, there's still an undertone of her being herself. She is using the Dark Aura to help Tian Yao the man she loves while in episode 20 Dark Yan Hui is consumed by the darkness and allowed it to consume her. And this makes her the perfect test for one of the most crucial questions of this story "Save one or save the world?"

Meanwhile Neo Hou's best moments (in terms of acting) is being able to transition from "New born baby dragon" to being back to regular Tian Yao. I know there's also hair and makeup that may have played a role in it too, but during his baby dragon scenes, I was convinced that internally he is a newborn who just so happens to have a grown man's body. And his first scene as his old self when he wakes up, you could tell from his acting alone that he is back. Those must be some fun scenes to shoot.

This chemistry is key and so crucial for showing the difference between the Lord of Dark Aura and Bai Xiaosheng. On paper, it would have been understandable for Yan Hui to move on from Tian Yao after he had stolen the heart protecting scale from her to kill Suying the first time. Bai Xiaosheng was at her side and was supportive of her and tried to win her over. But feelings can't be forced and Yan Hui just doesn't have feelings for him. But unlike the Lord of Dark Aura, Bai Xiaosheng made the choice to not force anything to happen or to lash out to the entire world because Yan Hui didn't return his feelings. Meanwhile, the main antagonist couldn't get over Xue Lin giving her attention to anyone else except him (he even killed an innocent puppy just because she likes it). His inability to accept that things are not under his control or his favor is the root cause of all the tragedies of this story. He made the choice to not be good when he had the chance to do so.

The final battle really shows metaphorically the difference between hopeless delusion and hope. The realization of Yan Hui being able to convert one energy into another is so beautiful. Although to be honest the editing could have been a little bit better because it was a bit too frenzied for me. Yan Hui explaining how she was able to do convert Dark Aura energy into Dragon Fire by making herself the Heart Protective Scale was a clarifier that I needed.

For the supporting cast: They were excellent, even if I didn't really like some of them in the start (Feng Qianshuo and Fox Prince I'm looking at you), but by the end I liked them enough to care about seeing what their lives were after the final battle. Actors for the villains did a good job in making me hate them.

Currently my only gripe is that Lingfei's suffering and death wasn't enough for me. I want her to see Yan Hui and Tian Yao kissing to make her suffer upon the realization that because of her choices she wouldn't have a love like that and her actions only made their relationship stronger.