#i'm the minority who doesn't like the sequel designs sorry not sorry

[countlessofvoids]

Httyd artists who draw second/third movie Hiccup more like his first movie's design or/and give him a bit of beard stubble; I love you I love you I love you

[venusiansims]

Hi Max! I admire your work and, if it's all right with you, I have a few questions about it. First, as Ink Stains is coming to an end, do you have plans for a second season or some form of continuation? Petra is an intriguing character who I would want to see more of. Second question: what inspired Petra? For some reason, she feels both familiar and distinct. And, my final question: while it may be a little early, do you have any other series planned outside Pale Angels? That's all! 💗

Oh hello! Thank you so much for showing interest in my content, that really warms my heart <3 I rarely get questions on here about my shows so this message really brought me some joy just now lol. Well, you've just unlocked a Pandora's box of boxes so be ready for a LOT of information,,,

- Ink Stains season 2?

Sadly, Ink Stains won't get a second season. It was always intended to be a four part miniseries, and it wouldn't make much sense to expand that already small plot in any way. Even with just four episodes there were moments where I found it difficult to fill the airtime. The majority of the characters (in my opinion) are written so that they are only interesting in limited doses. BUT, although there won't be a second season, that doesn't mean there won't be "some form of continuation"... more on that is answered in the last question. >:)

- What inspired Petra?

I started working the concept for Ink Stains in early 2021, and it underwent many changes before it reached its current form. At the same time that I was rewriting the story, I was reading Marlen Haushofer's Mansarda. The book has nothing to do with the series or Petra, but for some reason it gave me new insights on how to (somewhat) soften her character, as the original plot and Petra's character were both significantly edgier. From there, I'm not even sure what inspired her or guided me to where she is today as a character. And tbh, I feel like her design makes her appear more intriguing than she actually is lmao.

- Future projects?

Nothing is really set in stone, buttt.. Pale Angels will feature a large cast as well as a good amount of episodes. By using the Sims 2 as a tool to tell your story, which can already be a draining af, working with such a vast cast on top of that, can be incredibly exhausting. I’m not gonna go into detail about that much, but basically everything takes longer and requires more planning... which is not always enjoyable. 

Knowing myself, I will eventually start a different project alongside it to distract myself and prevent burnout. This is where Ink Stains comes into play.

With Ink Stains, the size of the cast has always been one of my biggest issues. I ended up including more characters than necessary to tell the story because of my writing skills—or, to put it more accurately, lack thereof. Victor, Petra, and Fren were always supposed to be the only three characters in the story, but other characters were ultimately needed to progress plotlines, offer the main protagonists difficulties to overcome, and generally give them more depth… And I hate that.

Don't get me wrong, I love all the supporting and minor characters in the show, but I do wish I were a better writer and didn't need such gimmicks to tell that particular story. Of course there will always be a need for background characters, but not to this extent. To get to the point already LMAO my next project will be similar to Ink Stains and will only have three characters as its main focus. Although it might not be a sequel, it will be a type of continuation with the same-ish coming of age/indie story and similar vibes.

Damnnnn this is long. I'm sorry if this was boring to read, but I do hope you found my rambling enjoyable, and that I answered you questions. <333

[deuterosapiens]

Okay, better late than never. Hellraiser- Hellworld. Oof. According to a bit of additional research (to be understood as five seconds of Googling), my opinion on this particular Hellraiser sequel is apparently controversial, which makes me a minority, which blah blah blah.

Before I drop the cut here, I will preface this with this image:

So, controversial opinion: with the exception of a few very specific details, which I will mention in a moment, I actually liked this one and consider it one of the more enjoyable sequels. Weird, I know.

Biggest issue number one stems from this being a post-Scream sequel, which was a stand-alone story integrated into the Hellraiser franchise (presumably for licensing reasons: if you don't do something with a property, you lose that property). Our main girl is a Hellraiser fan who doesn't scare easily. In this film, the entire Hellraiser franchise exists as an addictive online game. Which means the entire film flirts around with meta-content that bores me quickly. Main girl Chelsea is extremely uninteresting because the moment she's in an interesting situation, all she does is scream. When the situation is over, she goes all meta about the flaws in the villain's plans to enact a Hellraiser (sorry, Hellworld) themed revenfe plot. She's extremely tedious.

Our second point of extreme irritation comes from THE REVEAL. It's basically an inversion of the ever so classic (and annoying as hell) "it was all a dream" cliche. At an early point in the film, all of our main cast has been drugged, meaning all of their fates are the result of drug-induced hallucinations, which means that all of the really cool deaths we witnessed previously, never actually happened. They're all dead, yeah, but in much less interesting ways than we were shown. You see the problem with that.

And there's a bit of a wrinkle with the whole meta-plot of Hellworld being fiction in the main plot. You see, because Hellworld is fictional, but Hell is real and a main character did accidentally create a working Lament Configuration which, when opened, does exactly what you expect. This is kind of like a worse version of the whole New Nightmare thing where Robert Englund is being terrorized by a demon pretending to be Freddy Kreuger. So, the nail-headed Hell Priest is both fictional and real, simultaneously. Which would be cool, if this movie used this concept for anything interesting. Which... it does not.

So then, why did I actually like this one?

Well, this one is basically a by the books slasher film with a bit of Hellraiser lore sprinkled in for flavor. Which means it plays its kills in a very gratuitous and over-the-top way. Which means some of them are quite fun. Geralt of Rivia's death suffers a bit from that whole "one-dimensional thinking, you would survive this if you stepped to the left or right three centiminches" thing, but I'm a simple man: meat-hooks are a funny an classic way to get the red flowing, and I'm okay with it.

Second, as if I have not stressed this enough, Henry Cavill's in it! This makes many, many things better.

Lance Henriksen is here, too, and he's always fun. His death here plays out in a way that's visually similar to his fate at the hands of the Xenomorph Queen (consider this, my friends, foreshadowing for later posts).

In general, the production does look significantly more polished than, say, Hellseeker. There appears to be actually money here, being spent on some fairly decent practical effects work. Seeing as the plot is about a computer game, I expected early two-thousands digital, which, let's be honest, is visually appealing to no one, so I'm happy to see practical, real-world physical props and effects work.

To be fair, the effects work mostly consists of creature design and killing devices, so going digital would have been fairly pointless. But I like the look of this one nonetheless.

I know I went in intending to hit all eleven but obviously my plans for this franchise have fallen apart. But, all eight Doug Bradley Hellraiser films have been watched and discussed and I'm not sure I even want to touch the others.

Oh, and this movie can rot for having the audacity to mention Leviathan, Lord of the Labyrinth, by name and not use it for anything. This would have been a perfect movie to show me the Cosmic Octahedron!