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cerealmonster15 · 11 months ago

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Omg I love these ship ask games 👀 obligatory jamiazurido aand uhhh idisil + I forgot everyone else who exists I'm just opening a spin the wheel thing and mashing some random characters together..... uh hm 🤔 Kalim/Rook and Trey/Silver I Guess Why Not bxbsbsnsjksjsbbsbdv

JFKDSJKFDLS OH BOY!!!!

[SEND ME A SHIP!]

jamiazurido:

:^) You Know I Do teeheehee

What made you ship it? i love multishipping and also combining ships l o l. i already liked jamiazu OBVIOUSLY and i liked azurido, and i think i was thinking a lot about how azul sees riddle as a rival and wants to team up with jamil -> he sees them both as on an equal playing field as him -> theyre both so openly rude to him and hes just like hehehehehe JKFSDJKFLDSJ -> jamil and riddle are octavinelle haters. fish hater club cofounders in my mind. also their backstories made me the saddest until idia's happened.

What are your favorite things about the ship? ^ again i started answering up there kljdsjfklds i just think theyre SILLY and i want them to be academic rival bestie frenemies and also dating... azul likes being bullied considering he surrounds himself with people like the tweels, riddle, jamil, and idia on purpose and it's nonstop psychological warfare kslfjkelje and riddle + jamil are RUDE LITTLE FISH HATERS so i desperately want them in a fish hater alliance. you understand. we've spoken about this At Length but i simply have to rehash it for The Uninformed. i do think they could all challenge each other in a good way. like theyre all kinda,,, bad at socializing [idk jamil is good at faking it but he seems to struggle with true bonds, and azul is a bit Too Schoozey and everyone just rolls their eyes at him skjdlfjds. and riddle. riddle is riddle. i love him but Oh God LOL] so i think it's FUN that theyre a pile of kinda pretentious socially awkward little smart bitchy boys LOL. on each other's playing field 😌

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? tbh the existence of it just feels like an unpopular opinion LOL. like there's a good amount of azul/jamil and azul/riddle but not a lot of riddle/jamil!!! like fair enough, they havent interacted as much... however i am all about the vibes and the POTENTIAL!!! and the few times they HAVE interacted/spoken of each other have mostly been positive. i do know jamil comiserated with trey once about having housewardens that are a handful jkdsljfks BUT ASIDE FROM THAT there seems to be a mutual respect between the two. like in i think riddles gym card story, he is keeping kalim company and doing exercises with him while jamil's busy and tells jamil it's not a problem bc jamil "Deserves a break" lol. and in another story, kalim and riddle are talking at sam's shop and riddle clocks that jamil likely sent kalim on an errand to get him out of the way skljfjsdlk. and they seemed to get along during masquerade event 😌 AND THEYRE BOTH FISH HATERS!!! IT WORKS!!! they could date a fish and be mean about it TOGETHER!!!

god i got so caught up in that i almost forgot you asked me others LOL. im already talking a lot ill put the others under a readmore

idisil:

PLEASE

^^^^i love posting this image every time i get the chance LOL it's so funny to me how blatant he is especially in this translation just kjlfjkslejfe 🧍‍♂️wow, he's seriously handsome 🧍‍♂️

wait i forgot about the questions

What made you ship it? i dont remember KLFDJSKLFJ well actually it mightve been that ^ vignette, silvers ceremony robes. just idia freaking out every time he interacts with silver and commenting about how pretty and princely he is... like sir boy hello.... it was either this or i saw stray fanart on pixiv -> investigated -> read this story. something like that!!! pixiv stumbling around showed me a lot of ships i was unfamiliar with lol

What are your favorite things about the ship? it's kinda funny sjkdfjsdklje like idia is so blatantly gay about his classmates... MANY TIMES talking about how sparkly attractive princely other people are and doing it in this vignette is NO EXCEPTION silver is a COOL LOOKING PRINCE..... but also idia has no idea he's Gamer Besties with silvers DAD KLDSJFKLSDJ IT'S FUNNYYYYY gamer bffs with lilia and having a crush on his cool swordfighting son... i kinda like it with silver being 🤨🤨🤨 with idia's erratic flustered behavior kljfdsf the PINING.... but also i think they could be cute. silver is so blunt and unafraid socially but is also Such A Sweetheart. they could be the Excuse Me He Asked For No Pickles meme!!!! idia could come over to game with lilia and silver could fall asleep on idia's shoulder and it would be comfortable family time WAHHHHH idia you have to marry into the family of weirdo green goths NOW!!!

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? once again the very existence of this ship is pretty unpopular LOL!!! i dont even know what the opinions are of the people that ship them bc i CANT FIND THEM!!! i like them casually [except it probs didnt sound like it just now JKLFJSDKLSFJDL] but i think they are very cute :3

omg random ships YAY let's go!!

kalim/rook:

YEAH!!!!

What made you ship it? tbh it mightve just popped into my mind in that one vignette where idia is trying to get to his dorm but is intercepted by cater, kalim, and rook kfljfjskle. i LOVE that theyre both oozing with positivity and have so much love in their hearts and i think they should combine forces. also we learned they both come from rich families and i think thats very funny LOL

What are your favorite things about the ship? THEY HAVE SO MUCH LOVE!!! IN THEIR HEARTS!!!!!! they want nothing more than to uplift the people around them and see people shine to their fullest extent!!!! theyre both light magic users!!!! rook's more shady and sneaky but at his core he is still very genuine and sweet and i think he and kalim would have a lot of fun. theyre both kinda off the walls in their own ways and i think theyd keep each other entertained/rook could def protect kalim. considering he is rook and cannot die. you know how it is :^)

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? i legit dont think ive ever seen ship art of them before. MAYBE like once or something. you happened to get a random convo that i HAVE thought about before and i DO LIKE ALREADY!!! so yea once again unpopular just by Liking It and also. rook haters dni. rook haters wouldnt UNDERSTAND!!!

trey/silver

FDFDSJKFLJDSJ ok i had not thought of this one before but yknow what??? ill make a case for it. i can get behind it.

What made you ship it? well. because we're trying new things today it seems KLFJDSKLD

What are your favorite things about the ship? theyre both like. casual weirdos. seem "boring normal" to the naked eye but theyre NOT!!!! they are silly 😌 i think theyd be standing around like 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️ and then silver would start talking about that time he befriended a bear and trey would be like WHAT HUH WHAT- and also i think trey joining the green goth weirdo family and sitting down for dinner with them would be Very Funny. like btw your goofy classmate lilia is my War Veteran Father. dinner time at the table with malleus sebek silver and then also Trey Clover. please it would be so funny "wow you grew up with sebek have you ever met his Dentist Dad-" god. sorry. treys dentist thing is endlessly funny to me please silver take him back to the goth woods and teach him the weirdo ways. take silver to queendom of hearts and bake him TREATS!!!

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? im not sure if there are ANY opinions on them sdjfklsdjlkbjkldfjsdl. i support them. boys who think they are normal but are So Strange Actually 🫡

#asks #felix-the-lemon-king #thank you very fun LOL

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oriigirii · 4 years ago

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Streamer MC headcannons with the brothers 💞

"You were quite a known face on social media back in the human realm, playing games, doing unboxings, just vibin in general, fans around the globe looked forward to your streams a lot! However, considering the sudden (unannounced) invitation to the exchange program, you had to leave all of that behind out of the blue. It wasn't as bad at first, but you have to admit you do miss the feeling of being able to do goofy shit online. Luckily for you, with the advance technology of Devildom and some spicy magic, the internet had synced with the human realm, and thats when you decided to finally re-enter the streaming scene. How will the brothers react upon seeing your peculiar past time?"

Head empty, No thoughts aside from the brothers just bothering the MC while they stream so here you go haha

Warnings: None, just crackhead energy and a lotta mispellings

Gender: Neutral!

Hotel: Trivago

* [ ಠ╭╮ಠ ] Lucifer *

{How did he know about your career?}

I honestly don't see him as someone who goes on the internet a lot

(He screams boomer to me, change my mind)

He doesn't have the time either, he's too focused on work!

So him finding out is gonna take a while

But! He did find out the hard way when shrilled screaming was heard from your room when he was passing by with some paper stacks in his arms (courtesy of Diavolo)

This man felt his instincts kick in, he ran as fast as he could, papers forgotten, and he immediately slammed your door open. Splinters scattering around, your door definitely damaged, as his eyes held a glare and his demon form was out, wings spread in a threatening display.

He was ready to beat someone's ass as he had thought someone had hurt you in here.

But all hes met with is you, infront of your chair and PC, and a game over on the screen...

To say he was unamused was an understatement cause you just lost your internet priviliges for giving him a heart attack (He said it was because you were being rowdy and noisy but with what you saw you knew that wasn't the case)

Good luck tryna puppy-eye your way to his heart to let you continue streaming lol.

If by some miracle you managed to wriggle your rights back from his hands, he'd warn you not to be so loud next time.

You already learnt your lesson though~ (Hopefully)

{How does he feel about your streams?}

Not everyone's the same, so if you were the shy soft streamer who does more art streams or something akin to a podcast, you can bet that Lucifer will be putting you on while he works, he kinda knows your streaming schedule at this point and if you were running late, he'd force one of his brothers to take over your dish washing duties or any chores you were stuck with

If you were the loud obnoxious meme type, hed still try to watch out of curiosity, and as much as he appreciates that you were getting comfortable here in Devildom with how you laugh and joke around, he still can't approve of it. Its too loud, its much like his brothers energy and he has enough of that already, so he probably doesn't watch as much.

He has countlessly came to your room to shush you and at this point your fans had made a compilation of each time Lucifer had barged in to tell you off

Look he likes it when you scream, but not when hes in the middle of work okay--

At this point, chat has deemed Lucifer as dad and you as their mom/dad.

If he ever catches wind of this he'd definitely be teasing you in private for centuries to come.

Overall fine with it, as long as don't do something stupid on stream.

* ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ Mammon*

{How did he know about your career?}

I would say he found out by him crashing into your streams midway but that's too predictable, hence why you've Mammon-proofed your bedroom during streaming hours!

Thanks to our wizard daddy, you have managed to cast a simple lock spell on your door and as well as a sound proofing

You love your broke idiot, but you did wanna keep the tone of your stream today a bit more chill, you wanted to have a proper Q&A with your fans to hopefully clear any bad vibes around your 3 month disappearance.

When Mammon has learnt your door was locked he definitely was a bit pissy, he knocked on your door loudly even and was calling out for you to let him in, but to no avail.

Bro he's scared.

He usually was allowed to enter, and you usually answered if you did need to be left alone for a bit, so just leaving him hanging got his mind racing and he had to press up his ear on the wooden door to try and hear if you were okay

When this continues on he finally resorts to getting help, but the only one in the house ws Levi, so he kicks down HIS door.

Levi boutta summon Lotan for interrupting him honestly

But as Mammon exclaim you weren't answering and he worried for your wellbeing, Levi rolls his eyes and scoffs,

"Idiot Mammon, they're streaming don't bother them…"

Streaming? why didn't you tell him???

Rude much.

He did huff and now was forcing his way to use Levi's PC for a moment

Can Levi stop him?

Nah.

He was busy on his console, and if he stood up now hed be breaking his world record so he was at a terrible state so he just resorts to threats of him drowning the Avatar of Greed if he does anything stupid on his PC.

He immediately logs in to your streaming platform and he watches for a bit,

You were more dolled up now just to look decent on stream, and he felt this jealousy rise as you interact with your chat, especially to those saying I love you's and stuff, and you even said it back? the audacity! You were his werent you? Were you replacing him with these nobodies?

He huffs as he realized that those who paid got their message highlighted, and thus, he starts donating. (Mind you this was Levi's account...)

"Mcccccc Open the dooorrr"

"Ill behave i promiseeeee"

"Cmon pleaseeee?"

Chat is c o n f u s i o n

NGL, they thought Mammon was a creepy stalker and red flags were being waved everywhere

but as chat was pondering who the hell he was, you can only sigh and look at the camera with that unamused expression, but ugh! you just KNOW hes doing that kicked puppy expression of his, and maybe it really wont be so bad

So you snap your fingers and say, "Okay MonMon, its open, Im giving you 3 seconds"

Mammon wasnt deemed to be the fastest out of his brothers for nothing

As soon as you got to '2', you were already tackled by the white haired male and chat went wild.

Now that you've shown your life in Devildom, maybe its time to introduce chat to your boyfriend no?

{How does he feel about your streams?}

You get paid to sit infront of a camera, do I have to say anything else?

But really though, as much as he enjoys the thought of getting so much cash from something so simple, he prefers the joy of being able to proudly exclaim that he was your first man!

ohhhh he thrives on the salt of your overly attached stans

but for those who fully support you, he always feels so mushy and shy when they say the ship you guys so hard

The fanarts has him WEAK (he may or may not have saved a few)

You usually do streams alone, but now you've allowed the door to be left open to let Mammon join whenever

Chat pogs when he enters with so much confidence, only for it to crumble when you kiss his cheek on stream.

Overall finds it fun to spend time with you, but just dont play scary games cause Lucifer might hang him upside down on stream.

* ▘▂▝ Leviathan*

{How did he know about your career?}

He is honestly the most attached to his D.D.D and he catches wind of almost anything going down in the internet, so your 'revival' being hyped up was something he definitely saw and he was just s wo o o ned

His Henry 2.0? a famous streamer?

Were you truly a blessing gifted upon him or was he dreaming?

He definitely didn't bring it up at first as he didn't wanna make it a big deal, but you notice hes been more in his head lately, and you have tried asking him what it was but to no avail.

You have to corner this little snake if you want answers and he eventually admits that he knew of your persona online and was incredibly shy to ask you to stream with him

He's a streamer himself afterall but maybe he doesnt stream as much as you do nor does he have as large of a following, so his intrusive thoughts attacked him and made him think that maybe since he wasnt as famous he didnt deserve to be in the same stream as you

Please tell him to join you and gib him kiss U3U

He'll absolutely m e l t

But now, as you make the announcement to your viewers and Levi to his, the internet explodes as a special collab stream was hapening between the expert gamer and avatar of envy of Devildom along with the beloved exchange student and streamer of the human realm

Your usual viewers reach between 10-15k, but as you start stream, that number boosts higher and beyond

Before streaming though, Levi was incredibly nervous, he'd picked the games for you to play that he knew you would enjoy with him, but his mind kept racing about whatthe fans thought, he didnt wanna disappoint them

But you had to remind him that whatever they say will not matter in the end as this was merely for fun, this was YOUR stream and you guys were gonna do what you want and nobody can have a say on it. (Maybe except Lucifer)

You usually talk for him with your bubbly personality, and to calm his nerves, he hs your pinky wraped around his where the camera can't see it.

Regardless, his thoughts subsided as you two delve into your stream that lasted a solid 7 hours, you definitely promised your chat that you and Levi will be doing more streams together from now on.

Once the cameras cut and yall are left alone, Both of you collapse on bed, and despite you being asleep already, Levi was just far too giddy as everything dwells on him.

Having a player 2 by his side now had never felt so intoxicating and he as just so lucky to have you.

{How does he feel about your streams?}

He obviously adores it, although some streams he wouldnt join just so he can play games on his own

He's still an introvert afterall, he needs his alone time

But he prefers that alone time with you, his Henry.

So when youre about to go stream, he kinda becomes a bit pouty, but with a simple promise of kisses (and maybe even more if youd like) he would let you go, but his attention would disappear from his game altogether.

He might just end up watching you instead

May or may not, at some point, just chat you and ask if its too late to join you

You do allow him to join you and play from the comforts of his room as both of you can simply play via internet, you give him the comfort to not turn on his mic or webcam either and you have no idea how he appreciates that.

Will definitely fight someone online when they start claiming you as theirs (-cough- stans) Please make sure it doesnt escalate to him summoning Lotan

Although the comments would often get to him, and as much as he can fight them online, he still does find himself pondering if they were true, so you need to give him a lotta lovin and reminder that he is your player 1 and no one else can ever fill that place.

------

Wow 3 brothers this time, what an improvement, anyways hope yall enjoy! I think its pretty clear who I simp for depending o nthe length of each lol, but do let me know if you guys want a part 2 for the rest of the brothers, or even the undateables!

#Obey me #obey me fanfics #obey me x reader #obey me x mc #obey me Mammon x reader #obey me Lucifer x reader #Obey me Leviathan x reader #obey me headcannons #obey me shall we date

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phoenotopia · 4 years ago

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The Last Phoenotopia Blog Update

(Date 2021 MAR 01)

I debated how to open this blog post, but perhaps the main crux of this blog post is the best place to start. The blog is being retired.

The purpose of this blog was to be a "development" blog for Phoenotopia, and well, Phoenotopia's development is done. I'll still be doing bug fixes and maintenance on the PC and Switch versions, and playstation and xbox ports are underway (by a publisher). But I'm not going to be making any more major changes to the game. At some point, you put the paintbrush down and say it's done. Blemishes and all.

Recent Events

The game launched on Steam last month, and like any launch, it was hectic. Bugs Galore. This is our first commercial PC launch, so it was a real baptism by fire. Unlike Switch's one configuration, the PC has multiple configurations and factors to account for. The game needed to be able to handle multiple control schemes, screen resolutions, refresh rates, and more! I had a 60Hz monitor going into launch and didn't know anything about Hz (I do now). There was a troublesome stutter that some players were sensitive to that my whole team didn't notice since our eyes compensated it away. There were a few times where in fixing something at one party's behest, it introduced problems for another party. A few times, due to disorganization, I unwittingly rolled back a fix that was meant to be applied. For some, the game couldn't play at all (really glad Steam allows refunds).

It was messy. It was tiring. I.AM.BEAT.

I think the worst of it is over... I'll still be around to do the last updates and bug fixes, but I'm ultimately ready for what's next.

SO what is next?

What isn't next... is Phoenotopia 2. As you may have heard down the grapevine, the game couldn't be what you call successful. No one's earned even minimum wage on it.

Maybe there's hope in the game's long tail. A year or two down the line... maybe. I won't hold my breath though. At some point in the past few months, I finished processing (or grieving) and it's time to move on.

The game has at least earned enough for us to continue our modest operations. As long as we don't expand the team, and we don't take another monster six-year dev cycle like what Phoenotopia took, we can continue. We'll have to be smarter and faster. Perhaps the most valuable thing we gained from all this is experience.

The Experience

It is a dev blog. Here are some of the lessons I've accumulated from this game's development.

- Have a good menu design. Menus aren't just that in-between fluff before you get to the good stuff. Menus are KEY. Your menus need to be robust, expandable, and *understandable* (to you, the developer). Because once the game's out, you will invariably be asked to add more options. And if your menu design is bad, every time you have to add a new menu option, it becomes a whole new pain all over again. Support mouse from the get-go, etc.

- Focus on features that people will actually care about. For instance, I've never seen anyone praise the camera's zoom feature. In practice, people try that feature a few times and then never use it again. But that feature was a constant consideration factor for every level. Run through it multiple times to make sure the level didn't break, think about which zoom levels made sense, resize rooms because they worked at one zoom level but not the other, and so on.

- Don't do boxes that you can move around. Other 2D platformers avoid movable boxes because they're a huge headache to program and they really complicate the game space. Enemies need to respond to boxes you throw in their path and either navigate around or attack it. When you're moving the box, you have to worry about constantly changing your collision size and reconciling when the box gets snagged on the environment. The boxes were also a constant source of bugs because people can manipulate them to soft-lock themselves and more.

- More focused script. Phoenotopia's 100,000+ word script was panned more for being bloated than it was praised for being lengthy. Long scripts take a long time to write and make the game more unwieldy, increasing the costs of translation and upkeep. Every update we're addressing some textual error or mistranslation. There are some highly renowned games (e.g. Hyper Light Drifter) that do without a script at all!

- Be flashy! A bat and a lightsaber take the same amount of work to program, but the lightsaber will draw a lot more attention and interest.

- Slopes, surprisingly! Six years ago when I started, Unity was ill-equipped for 2D games. If you used the physics that Unity provided you'd have a really floaty character that wouldn't adhere to the slope when going downhill. There were a hundred different tutorials saying different things (use forces, use move position, use translation, etc). You can get rectangular collisions done in a day, but to do slopes took weeks. Meanwhile, games can actually get by fine without slopes. Most people won't even notice. Did you know the Phoenotopia flash game didn't have slopes? Neither does Hollow Knight or Rogue Legacy. You can save yourself a lot of work by avoiding slopes.

(big entities look weird on slopes. Bad slope!)

I could write enough little knowledge nuggets like this to fill a book! But I'd rather just make the next game.

So… what IS next?

As mentioned previously, it's not Phoenotopia 2. Pirate and I are mostly just tossing some ideas back and forth right now. We'll go silent for a year (or two). Our next game's scope will be more modest in some ways, more ambitious in others. It will definitely be more smartly designed. (There will be a map!)

We'll announce it when it's ready for the public. It might be necessary for us to do a kickstarter. I've tried to avoid kickstarters having been burnt on quite a few myself and also because I worry that mismanaging a kickstarter would earn the ire of backers.

But I did keep this blog regularly updated for six years. So I've gained some confidence in my abilities to at least manage a kickstarter well.

Is it really the last Phoenotopia Blog update though?

Okay, not really. There is some news that I'll need to announce, and this blog is one of the game's main outreach channels. Here are the events that will cause me to update the blog:

Announcing the launch of the xbox/playstation ports when they're ready

If a physical edition of the game happens

If a new language is getting introduced into the game (Korean is a high possibility)

When we're ready to talk about our next game

If (BIG IF) we begin development on a Phoenotopia sequel. I do want to do a sequel one day if we have the means and the demand is there.

Those updates will be more on a "when they happen" basis, rather than me reporting in every couple months.

Fan Art

As always, I'm very happy to see fanart of Phoenotopia. Major thanks again to Pimez for collecting all the artwork from the corners of the internet! Since this is the "last" blogpost, Sir Pimez can finally take a rest from collecting the fanart :P

ÆV made a series of pictures that tell a story. A Pooki is humanely sheared of its wool to create a hat. The Pooki is unharmed. Nice! Gotta love Gail’s expressions.

Amagoo Mazeru makes a stunning landscape shot of a full moon and shooting stars. It’s a sharp and clear vector art. I like the faint glow of the moon and the fire and the subtle gradient in the night sky. Very skillfully done!

Hah hah. I got a chuckle out of this one. I imagine this is how Gail's enemies see her by the end of the game. CaESar made this image based on TerminalMontage's famous youtube videos. Nailed it!

CrownStar drew two pictures of Gail. I'm a big player of JRPGs, so the first shot instantly reminded me of Persona 4's art style. (Hmmm... Phoeonotopia as a JRPG... there’s potential there...) Next, Birdy is shown carried off after her defeat. I really like Birdy's expression here - she just seems mildly uncomfortable.

There's a bit of a story behind the first image. As Firanka shares it, she wasn't able to defeat the Big Eye monster at the end of the flash game, so she believed a tall tale that what awaited after was a 6 armed Kobold boss. Hilarious! The second is a rendition of the lonely Anuri elder. A rare subject. The loneliness is portrayed well here. I feel lonely just looking at it!

Koo_chop draws the clash between Gail and Katash at the top of the towers. I really like this interpretation of the game's art style. It’s faithful to the in-game graphics. And the lighting, from the glow of Gail's bat, to Katash's sword, and the lightning in the background... Amazing!

Lime Hazard shows Gail with a salute pose. Very appropriate for this occasion. I also like how there's a slight tilt in the angle that Gail is portrayed. Those dynamic angles are always hard to get right, and Lime Hazard pulled it off very skillfully. See you next mission!

Lyoung0J with a digital painting of Gail posed sitting on a rock. I like how it almost seems like she was caught in a candid moment - she’s smiling, but also feeling self-conscious. Cute! The art style really pops, and I like how Gail is sporting what I call the old anime style nose.

MyUesrNameIsSh*t with a sketch of Gail performing a skillful slingshot. I like how Gail is depicted with her tongue out in a mischievous manner, the way all mischievous people with slingshots do.

Niitsu Kentaro returns with a 2021 Happy New Year picture. That happened didn't it? A New Year... Gail's pose gave me a chuckle with how she seems to be waving the bat around as casually as one would wave hello. And "Phoenotopiyear"... Well said! One day we'll have our Phoenotopiyear...

Ochan Nu breaks all records with a stunning NINE pictures in one session :O

There's so many goodies here. My favorite would be the one with Gail staring intently at the screen - it's like she's looking directly at you. You almost feel uncomfortable.

Next, there's an Animal Crossing villager dressed as Gail and sporting her pink hair. It even looks like a house Gail would live in. Gail is a connoisseur of the arts and likes Mona Lisa. Yes :)

There are various comics of Gail pointing out Gail's weird food habits. A picture of Fran looking really cool, and even Gail rocking a bathing suit. (bathing suit image linked here in case NSFW). Wow!

Pimez didn't just collect the arts, he creates them as well! This one, which he aptly named 'The Year 175' is a depiction of when the dragons invaded the towers as told by an elderly Daean woman. Great pixeling skills! I got a good chuckle from the ice dragon leaving with its stuff slung over its shoulder.

Quo made a stunning picture of Gail playing the flute surrounded by the 5 musical notes and the Phoenix logo behind her. The theme seems to be "fire" and it works really well. Gail herself looks awesome depicted in her red suit - it's like she's leading a marching band!

Rai Asuha depicts Gail in the late game with her red suit, and night star bat, and holding a lamp. She looks ready for adventure! I really like the white outline here and Gail's poofy shoulders here - the art style feels reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics.

Seri also draws Gail bearing her late game equipment. Unique to Seri's drawing is how all of Gail's equipment is accessible from a pocket on her shirt. I also like how Gail is depicted with her lucky earrings - that accessory is often forgotten.

Treedude depicts Gail with a bat and wearing a funny smirk. She looks like she's ready to hurt someone!

Warotar returns with everyone's favorite Great Drake, Bubbles! It seems so happy to be featured!

I'm really grateful for all the fanart this game has received. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

Closing Notes

Pirate drew a picture to mark the occasion. It shows Gail enjoying a hot chocolate with marshmallows and a pumpkin muffin. A rest well-earned...

Goodbye! Until next time!

#phoenotopia

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rallamajoop · 4 years ago

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The Witcher: The Games vs the Books part 2 – Characters and Accents

So, I've already talked at length about the relationship between the Witcher books and games, but how well they captured individual characters is its whole own subject – and you’d better believe I have enough thoughts on it for a whole extra post.

Andrej Sapkowski's skill for creating vivid and engaging characters really is so much of what brings the books to life, and no matter how much work an adaptation might put into worldbuilding and plot, it's the characters you've really got to nail to get the long-time fans on board. Especially when you’ve done what the games have, framing themselves as a direct continuation of Sapkowski's story. Nothing invites comparison to your source material like basically forcing fans to read the original novels to understand even half the backstory alluded to in-game.

So how did they do? I can only offer my opinion – characterisation is necessarily going to be a lot more subjective than just telling you what plot points the games contradicted outright – but like any fan, I have opinions in plenty.

Of the main cast, I feel Yennefer is the character they've captured the best. They've done just as well with some supporting players – I have no real complaints about Dijkstra or Phillipa, for example, who are favourites of mine in both games and books. For the main players though, Geralt and Regis seem to be the ones who's differences I'm most inclined to forgive, whereas I don't feel like they've done Ciri justice at all. Book!Geralt is much less of a smartarse, for one thing, whereas Book!Ciri is much more of one. But if we're talking about the differences, I’m afraid we really need to start with Dandelion.

Dandelion

For all the genuinely good work the games do with characters, old and new, I don't think I can overstate what a disservice the they've done Dandelion, who I could not stand in TW3, but is now one of my favourite book!verse characters. Alas, Dandelion is a prime example of something the Witcher games really don't do well: camp. Being the archtypical bard, Dandelion is about as flamboyant as any enthusiastically-heterosexual man can be: you should be able to spot this guy by body language alone, he should be flouncing around and he should talk like a spoiled noble auditioning for Shakespeare. Book!Dandelion is over-the-top and ridiculous and just so much fun, and I loved him well before I'd even really gotten into the rest of the books around him.

Here's just a bit of dialogue from one of his first appearances, to give you a sense of how he and Geralt play off each other.

The bard ��seized the fingerboard of his lute and plucked the strings vigorously. ‘How would you prefer it, in verse or in normal speech?’ ‘Normal speech.’ ‘As you please,’ Dandelion said, not putting his lute down. ‘Listen then, noble gentlemen, to what occurred a week ago near the free town of Barefield. ‘Twas thus, that at the crack of dawn, when the rising sun had barely tinged pink the shrouds of mist hanging pendent above the meadows—’ ‘It was supposed to be normal speech,’ Geralt reminded him. ‘Isn’t it? Very well, very well. I understand. Concise, without metaphors. A dragon alighted on the pastures outside Barefield.’

Though TW3's Dandelion certainly looks the part, you have to go hunting through art from the Gwent cards to find much that comes close to really capturing his personality (see left pic below – though even there, a Dandelion who'd voluntarily break his treasured lute is a very hard sell). Though a lot of fanart does better (right-below – credit goes to Tatiana Ortaliz).

But as poorly as the games capture his flamboyance, they're not that much better when it comes to taking him seriously. TW3 left me thinking he was all talk and no substance; the books make abundantly clear that he really is renowned enough to be welcome in courts across the continent. Though he often overestimates what he can talk himself out of, he isn’t stupid either: he's lectured at Oxenfurt, spied for Dijkstra, and then there are the moments where the frivolous playboy mask slips and you realise he's sometimes much better at understanding people and relationships than Geralt will ever be (which is honestly kind of funny considering how many of Dandelion’s relationships end with plates being thrown at him from an upper story). He's not at all above mocking Geralt when he deserves it either (and especially his personal and relationship issues) – Geralt will happily mock him right back.

We never do learn how they became friends (I'm pretty sure the incident listed in the wiki is just the date of their first expedition together, not their first meeting), but Geralt just doesn't form lasting friendships or romances with anyone he can't have an intelligent conversation with. And Dandelion is a damn good friend to Geralt – one who, despite being a helpless, squishy little bard, will keep Geralt's secrets under torture, or will follow him into Nilfgaard in the middle of a war simply because you don't let a friend make a trip like that alone. (Seriously, I don’t ship it nearly as much as some, but hot damn there is some material in here if you do.) In short, it's basically inconceivable that he'd leave an amnesic Geralt wandering around Vizima alone, as he does in the first Witcher game – which is the kind of thing I can mostly forgive as a gameplay conceit, only it doesn’t really get better from there.

He’s also supposed to be blond, something I don’t think is technically specified until fairly late in the novels, but 100% what I’d been picturing since his first description as a man in a colourful bonnet with cornflower-blue eyes (let’s face it: Dandelion’s hair isn’t the only thing about him that screams ‘blond’). It’s a shame no-one from the games to the show to the novels’ cover artists seem to have noticed – but at least there are some fanartists out there who were paying attention (credit for these goes to Asphaloth, Ghostcupdraws, Hvit-ravn (tumblr deleted), 94355 and itsmespicaa).

As for the games? Well, I cannot speak to how Dandelion came across in the original Polish, but I think it speaks worlds about the priorities of the English version that they didn’t even bother to cast someone with a halfway-decent singing voice as their master bard. There are isolated moments of dialogue that come close to sounding like book!Dandelion– mostly in Witcher 2, which comes closer to capturing the spirit of the books than either 1 or 3, or his attempts to convince his captor he's a disguised noble when you rescue him TW3 – but his voice actor is just painfully ill-suited to the role.

Geralt

Geralt fares much better than Dandelion, though he’s still a little hard to square with the Geralt of the books. Book!Geralt spends a lot more time sulking, just to begin with: he sulks because his job is complicated and gets him no respect, and because the world is unjust and unfair – and, most of all, he sulks because Yennefer has dumped him again. He also gets mocked for sulking, and usually deserves it. Book!Geralt is generally a lot more taciturn and a less prone to making smart comments just to have something to say – arguably because in book!Geralt's world, making smart comments often ends at the gallows, or at least with some corrupt official making your life much harder. Book!Geralt's world kind of sucks, and he's just got to put up with it.

As much as he often plays into the expectations of being an uneducated monster hunter, he's also got a more of an intellectual streak than you’d guess. He may prefer to stay out of politics (because damnit, his job is to save people from monsters, not people who are monsters), but he attended school at Nenneke's temple and has even taken classes at Oxenfurt academy, and there's a lot of thoughtful nuance to his opinions – his speech to Ciri about why he can't in good conscience take a stronger stance against the Scoiata'el contains a wealth of historical perspective, just for one example. Even his smart comments tend to be, well, somewhat smarter in the books.

Book!Geralt’s explicitly a lot younger than Yennefer – around 50 is the usual estimate, falling far short of the 100-ish the games suggest (the scandal of having a man fall for – gasp! – an older woman clearly didn’t bother Sapkowski one bit). You don’t see nearly as much "I'm getting too old for this" from book!Geralt, who's really not that old by witcher standards, and is apparently still hunting monsters long into his future. I'm also a little annoyed by the way they play off his hatred of portals like he's a grumpy old man who doesn't like mobile phones, when his distrust originally came from having seen the gruesome deaths that result when portals go wrong. This is not to say Book!Geralt lacks other ordinary human flaws, however – twice in the last two books of the main saga, he gets severely sidetracked after his ego gets the better of him (in the adulation he receives after being knighted, then after arriving in Toussaint), and it's quite some time before he properly gets back on track for that whole rescuing-Ciri thing again. He’s also pretty hopeless when it comes to romance and relationships – breaking things off gracefully is really not in his skillset.

So why does game!Geralt not bother me more? Well, he's the main player character of a game franchise, and one who has to carry the experience largely solo. Some adjustments for genre are pretty much inevitable in that position. He's certainly fared better than Meve, for example, who's been softened far more from her book characterisation for her PC role in Thronebreaker. Then there's the whole amnesia thing – it's easy to believe that sort of experience would change a man – and if he doesn't sulk so much as he used to, maybe he's grown up a bit. Geralt's also in many ways the straight-man of Sapkowski's Witcher universe – there largely as the reliable centre for other, louder personalities to play off. But I expect the real bottom line here is that I do still like game!Geralt enough to forgive him a lot of what he lacks.

The books never do describe Geralt as being very attractive – something book-based fanart often tries to reflect. The point has been made before that the rather-alien-looking Geralt of the first game (left pic above) is probably a lot closer to his book-description. However, the main distinguishing factor you’ll see in book-based fanart is probably the ubiquitous headband, which genuinely is what book!Geralt wears to make his hair behave (the example on the right above comes from Diana Novich).

All that said, if Sapkowski really wants me to believe that nearly so many women are eager to jump into bed with him, I’m going to have to shallowly assume our witnesses are unreliable on this front, and Geralt is at least as attractive as Witcher 3′s take on him. Nothing else makes sense. *g*

Regis

Regis varies mostly in that book!Regis is a lot more smug, sometimes verging on obnoxious – and a lot keener to make fun of Geralt (who generally deserves it). But then, Regis is old and wise and superpowered enough to dance rings around most everyone else – can you blame him? By Blood and Wine, Regis' overconfidence has been recently smacked down hard after his near-death-experience at the hands of Vilgefortz, and that kind of thing could knock some chips off anyone's shoulder. Throw in the fact that with Dettlaff, we have a situation not even Regis could make light of, and the changes to game!Regis make a certain amount of sense.

I do feel it's a bit of a shame that the vocal direction didn't work just a little bit harder to capture some of Regis' smugger side, or emphasise that his long-winded philosophising on human behaviour is supposed to sound a bit pretentious. This is actually something I suspect they were going for a few times in the script, but which didn't come through in the dialogue quite the way it was meant to. Still, again, I'm sure I'm biased by the fact that I like game!Regis far too much to find much fault in what they've done with him. They've done a lovely job capturing his friendship with Geralt too.

Looks-wise, there's a tendency in book-based art to portray Regis with long hair (even some pre-Blood-and-Wine Gwent art did so – see the two pics on the left above, from Gwent and early B&W concepts. The right-most pic is cover art from the books). I couldn't rightly tell you where long-haired-Regis comes from, though – perhaps it's described more explicitly in the original Polish, or perhaps it comes up in passing in some passage I've forgotten, though it may just as well just be a fannish meme.

The books do describe him as looking rather like a tax collector, slim, middle-aged, with an aquiline nose, prone to wearing black, and his hair as 'greying' or 'grey streaked', so presumably somewhat younger-looking than the game would have it. The hammer-horror-esque sideburns are likewise a game-verse addition, though I do like the look they went with – it's distinct from Geralt in a way that making him another long-grey-haired man wouldn't have been, and that's probably the point.

Being the hopeless Regis fan I am, I have quite the folder full of different fanart takes on book!Regis, so have a selection – art here is by gellihana-art, justanor, greysmartwolf, Nastyaskaya, NatalyLanier, beidak, natalliel, ellaine and afternoon63. For what it’s worth, I feel beidak’s (bottom pic, second from the left) comes the closest to what I’d have pictured personally, based on how he’s first described.

Ciri

I find it much harder to rationalise the changes to game!Ciri, who I didn't exactly dislike, but found stuck too close to the role of generic-macguffin-girl-who-just-wants-to-be-normal to be very interesting. Having read the books, not only do I much prefer book!Ciri, I'm not sure I can emphasize enough how much the game did NOT prepare me for utter gauntlet of whump and misery that girl survives in the last four titles. Book!Ciri is a character who works for me mostly because of the same flaws the game mostly strips her free of – TW3 makes some token noise about how you can't tell her what to do, but she’s an utter little royal brat when we first meet book!Ciri, and it’s so much of what brings her to life. She throws herself into her witcher training with the enthusiasm of a kid going completely native, but still revels in getting to be girly for a change when Triss first arrives at Kaer Morhen. She hates Yennefer at first, but soon bonds with her just as strongly as she ever did with Geralt, picking up some of Yennfer’s haughty mannerisms along the way. And then she gets thrown through a portal and lost in the distant wilderness, and the whole world comes down on her head.

The build up to the first time Ciri actually has to kill someone is intense... and things only get worse from there. Steadily. For another couple of novels at a stretch. Seriously, a major caveat that pretty much has to go into any rec for these books (and I will absolutely rec these books) is that Ciri's story gets heavy. So heavy one finds oneself using phrases like, "that time that one guy died of his wounds on top of her while semi-consensually feeling her up was honestly one of the less traumatic incidents in the period."

By the end of the novels, Ciri has nearly died of thirst, been beaten, tied up, dragged around the country as a prisoner, run with bandits and killed innocent people for the fun of it, done fantasy-cocaine and got a tattoo, fought off more than one attempted rape, been drugged, lain for multiple nights next to an impotent elf who completely fails to impregnate her, watched the bodies of her friends and girlfriend being mutilated in front of her, and did I mention where she got that scar? She has survived hell, and it is absolutely a testament to her own strength that she somehow comes through it and puts herself back together at the end. When Geralt finally arrives to rescue her, what matters most isn't that her ordeal is over, but that she finally knows she hasn’t been abandoned by everyone who’d ever loved her after all.

The Ciri of the books is fierce and wild and arrogant, but she's learned her morals from the best, and she holds onto them until she can't, then picks them back up again when she can, and above all she survives. For all that her story turns arguably too much of the last two books into a slog of misery, oh boy does it pay off at the end. And that's probably about as much as I can say about her Big Moment in the last book without spoiling too much, so suffice to say that by the end of the saga, Geralt has pretty much become a supporting character in Ciri's story, not the other way around. (Seriously, you’d be surprised how few chapters of the last two books he’s actually in.)

Finding art which captures the aspects of Ciri’s character and history which are missing from the game has turned out to be pretty hard, though the fanart above from her bandit phase takes a decent crack at it (credit to Loles Romero and NastyaSkaya). I do rather like that one shot of her on horseback beside her girlfriend too, which comes from Denis Gordeev’s illustrations for the novels (below).

How much of this does TW3 get across with her portrayal in the game? Well, she's still pretty headstrong, I guess. And they let you give a 'sorry, I like girls' answer in one bit of dialogue, so they remembered her girlfriend existed. That's nice. But game!Ciri still has a kind of wide-eyed innocence that book!Ciri lost years ago, while book!Ciri is a little force of nature in ways the games hardly even hint at, and that's a really shameful loss.

You'd think, with a character so young, it ought to be easier to imagine she's simply grown up since we saw her last, but so much of what's changed about Ciri feels like a step back rather than forwards. I can shrug off Geralt and Regis' differences and still enjoy their game-verse-selves, but Ciri leaves me genuinely disappointed.

I’d say the official art that comes closest to capturing book!Ciri is that one portrait of her as a very grumpy young child (right above). Some of the early concept art (left above) feels a little more like it has her attitude, though she’s rather too yellow-blonde – not to mention too pretty. I think it also bears pointing out that Ciri isn’t really supposed to be the kind of beauty she is in the game – even before she gets what’s meant to be a seriously ugly and disfiguring scar. (Fanart below by justanor and bobolip)

But of course, the male gamer fanbase can’t be expected to give a fuck about a girl they wouldn’t want to fuck, so game!Ciri must be generically gorgeous. Le sigh.

Triss

I suppose I should at least touch on Triss, too, though she's a very odd case. She's so out of character in the first Witcher game that I am wryly amused that the biggest thing they arguably do get right is that taking advantage of Geralt the moment he showed up with amnesia is... pretty well in-character for her (look, I gotta be honest here, I'm not much of a fan of Triss in any of her incarnations).

The second game does a much better job with her – she actually feels like book!Triss, she has some good dialogue, we're finally dealing with some of her conflicted loyalties to the Lodge and to Geralt – though by the third, her characterisation has been so softened into “the nice one” that none of that potentially meaty conflict is ever resolved, or even really mentioned. Perhaps there's more buried in the Triss-romance path, which I've never bothered with, but the writers seem to have just given up on dealing with anything that might make her look less than wholly sympathetic. Heck, we hardly even get a clear statement about why she and Geralt broke up between Witchers 2 and 3.

Even speaking as such a not-a-fan of Triss, I promise there is more they could've done with the character the books give us. There's her ongoing trauma in from the Battle of Sodden, where she was injured so badly she was memorialised as one the dead: the 14th of the hill. There's her furious impatience with the neutrality of both the witchers and the Lodge: Triss has fought and died for a cause, and is ready to do so again. The second game sort of gets into this, but by and large, the games really aren't up to tackling the moral complexity of having such a theoretically-sympathetic character as Triss, who was still broadly willing to go along with the Lodge's plans to pair Ciri off and get her pregnant as soon as possible – her own wishes be damned. No, instead, Triss has conveniently left the Lodge before the rest of them go spiraling into abject villainy in the second game, clearing all that messy grey stuff out of the conflict.

Of course, the really big unresolved plot point still hanging over book!Triss is how badly she needs to terms with the fact Geralt's just Not That Into Her, and never has been – but since the games want Triss to be a serious romantic option, that's definitely not getting the resolution it could've used.

Book!Triss also pointedly avoids any outfit with a plunging neckline because her chest is covered with the ugly scars she received in the Battle of Sodden, something the games did not have the guts to reproduce. In a more confusing note, the books do consistently describe her hair as 'chestnut', which we'd usually think of as meaning 'brown' – though it turns out the games actually may not have been wrong to make her a redhead, since in Poland 'chestnut hair' apparently mean dark red hair (google some pictures of actual chestnuts, and you'll see why). Still, the firy-red-haired Triss of TW3 who wears nothing but plunging necklines remains a bit of a stretch, however you slice it. Once again, TW2 gets her best (and I must say, gave her the nicest outfit) – though even here she's conspicuously unscarred in all her sex scenes.

(Leftmost pic above is official Witcher 2 art, whereas Triss-with-scars fanart comes to us – once again – from nastyaskaya)

Shani

Shani sort of falls into a similar category as Triss as someone who isn't terribly well-served by any of her appearances, given that both exist in the first game largely to compete for Geralt's attentions. But I can't honestly say I find Shani’s portrayal in the Hearts of Stone expansion to be much better – the degree to which either version exists solely to fall all over Geralt is a bit painful, especially given that their relationship in the books is limited to a single, undramatic hook-up. Book!Shani really only appears in a couple of chapters: we meet her as a medical student friend of Dandelion's, who's been surreptitiously selling pilfered university supplies to fund her degree, then later see her again in the final book, where she proves herself as a battlefield medic during the climactic Battle of Brenna. She's pragmatic to a fault, and I really can't see her as the type who needs Geralt to point out to her that her patient is dead, for example, or who'd subject a guy with Geralt's problems to such an extended feelings-dump as you'll get out of her during the wedding.

Shani is a reasonably logical book-character to bring back, if only because she’s one of those who explicitly survives the ending, but for my money, "serious contender for Geralt's affections" is just not a role she works in.

Anna Henrietta

The duchess of Toussaint, Anna Henrietta, is another case who differs more from her book counterpart than you might think. In the books, the duchess is by far the least competent of the (pleasantly many and) various female leaders and rulers we meet – she comes across as rather young and naive, and every bit as absurd as everyone else in the ridiculous fairy-tale duchy she rules. She is, for example, most displeased to learn that Nilfgaard's war against the north is ongoing (something her courtiers have carefully avoided mentioning in her presence), because she'd long since sent the Emperor a stern note demanding he brought it to an end. She promptly has one of her ministers sent to the tower for misinforming her, and demands the others prepare an even sterner note for the emperor, which will surely do the job.

After Dandelion (inevitably) cheats on her, she has him repeatedly sent to the gallows, only to change her mind and send him a reprieve at the very last minute each time. Picture yourself a much younger and prettier version of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, and you've about got her general vibe.

Blood and Wine sort of waves at this part of her character when she first speaks about Dandelion, and again in suggesting there's a widespread feeling she lacks compassion, and once more as she proves utterly immovable on the subject of her sister. But the generally sensible and insightful woman you deal with for most of the main story is a far cry from her book-verse characterisation. That’s a bit of a shame, because I feel like there's a lot more they could have done to blend the two versions of her. Still, it’s hard to argue the duchess we get suits the story being told around her.

Other characters

Much as I love Yennefer, Dijkstra and Phillipa, I don't really have much more to say about them because I feel the games have done such a good job. The Yennefer of the books gets to show a lot more depth and complexity simply because she has more scenes and more space in which to do so, but when ‘there isn’t more of her’ is your biggest complaint, the game is officially doing pretty well. I could certainly gripe her about how “dresses in black and white” seems to have been taken as “dresses in black with maybe a trace of white trim”, or how Yennefer and Triss seem to be the only sorceresses in the world capable of wearing pants, when Phillipa (just for one) is in sensible men’s clothing the very first time we meet her, but that’s getting into serious nitpicking territory.

(Not that Yen can’t look amazing in outfits with more white – art by Emily Caroll, theclashofqueens, BarbaraRosiak, and cosplay by greatqueenlina)

Vesimir, Lambert and Eskel, Geralt's fellow witchers from the School of the Wolf, fall into a similar category for me – though we spend far less time with them in the books, everything we see of them in the games feels like a fairly logical extension of their book-roles. Vesimir is somewhat over-played as the old fogey, and his death is painfully cliched, but the impact on the characters and Kaer Morhen still hits home – and the games do some especially great work expanding Lambert into a much more complex character. To my mind, the only shame is that more of the book-original characters didn't get the same treatment.

Who have I missed? There's Avallac'h, of course, but I think I've got him pretty well covered by that last post. Zoltan, perhaps inevitably, has had his personality largely flattened into 'generic dwarf', with nothing better to do than hang around Geralt and Dandelion. You wouldn't know Book!Zoltan was apparently incapable of turning away women and children in need, for example – even human women and children with the chronic inability to say thankyou for his help. Or that he eventually admits to Geralt that the luggage he and his friends are carrying comes from a decidedly unsavoury source for such a supposedly charitable, upstanding guy. Yes, even Zoltan gets to be a morally complicated character in the books – who knew?

Speaking of dwarves, pleased as I am that Yarpen Zigren gets remembered in TW2, he's an odd one to talk about, since even in the books, he appears to have had a substantial personality transplant between his two main appearances. Yarpen’s a largely comedic figure in The Bounds of Reason short story, where he cheerfully admits to having considered letting his men knock down a particularly pompous aristocrat and piss all over him to teach him a lesson, but he’s evolved into a studious voice of reason against the scoiata'el by Blood of Elves. TW2 doesn't do a particularly good job of capturing either version, which I suspect probably bothered me more than most people – I liked the later book-incarnation of Yarpen immensely (and not even just because he's one of few ever to really call Triss out on just how much she needs to stop misreading Geralt's friendship as anything more than it is). His chapter in Blood of Elves packs a hell of a punch.

On the subject of accents

I do have to wonder if I'd have warmed up to characters like Triss, Shani and Dandelion (or even Letho) more if they'd only had halfway decent voice actors. It's not just that none are exactly leading the talent at the acting part of the job, it's that their American accents stick out in TW3 like a sore thumb.

Geralt mostly gets away his own US accent by dint of being the very first character we meet, so we've gotten used to the way he talks long before we notice how he stands out – hell, maybe that's just how they talk down in Rivia (hilariously, book!Geralt eventually reveals he's not even from Rivia, but simply picked the place and taught himself the accent so he could feel a bit less like the abandoned foundling he is, which only gives us yet more excuse for why his accent might sound a bit weird). More importantly, Geralt is meant to stand out, to be the outsider wherever he goes, so having him sound like no-one else fits the character.

But neither Triss or Dandelion are "of Rivia", and by the time they show up we've had dozens of hours in a game where literally everyone else sounds British, or Scottish, or Irish, or vaguely-eastern-European in the case of the Nilfgaardians. So why do these weirdos sound like no-one else on the continent?

The short answer seems to be that every character with an American accent in TW3 is someone who had an American accent in at least one of the previous games, which were way looser with their casting and had enough incidental American accents around that they didn't stand out. Clearly, by TW3, consistency with prior games has been prioritised over consistency with literally anything else we’re hearing.

Gaetan is an exception to the rule as the only new character (at least that I caught) with an American accent – presumably because between Geralt, Eskel, Lambert, Berengar, and Letho (and cohorts), some sort of 'witchers have American accents' rule has been pretty well established (another random American-accented witcher shows up in Thronebreaker, just to underline the point). We're going to mostly ignore Jad Karadin here, since his British accent is presumably a recent affectation to go with his new identity, and so makes sense.

This still doesn't really work though, since Letho’s school is all the way down in Nilfgaard (land of the Eastern European accents), while the oldest witcher from Kaer Morhen (Vesimir) is the one guy with a British accent. He sounds nothing like any of his students, despite the fact he's logically the guy they ought to have learned their accents from. So the logic falls in a heap however you slice it, and I'm thrown right out of the game.

With TW3 as your intro to the series, it feels almost as if characters like Triss and Dandelion have been assigned American accents because they're just too important to be saddled with the same pedestrian British accents as everyone else, which did nothing to endear them to me. The only one I eventually warmed up to was Lambert, and then only because he's just such a bitter asshole that he eventually goes full circle and comes out the other side (somewhere around when you've heard his miserable backstory, then gotten drunk together and told him how much you love him, man). Gaetan similarly snuck in under the same clause – American accents clearly work better for me in this series when attached to characters you're supposed to find pretty insufferable on first impressions.

Some final notes

To conclude, it seems only fair to throw in a quick nod to some of the more memorable book-characters who don't appear in the games. Neither Mother Nenneke (Geralt's sort-of-surrogate mother) or Vissena (Geralt's biological mother) ever appear either, alas – Vissena doesn't even merit so much as a Gwent card, which seems quite the wasted opportunity.

Milva, Cahir and Angouleme – the three remaining companions of Geralt’s who died alongside Regis but who were not so easily resurrected – naturally don’t appear. But nor are even really mentioned in all the games, which seems rather less than they deserve after giving their lives to Geralt's cause.

Cahir and Angouleme do at least have pretty badass Gwent cards to their names, though I am properly offended that Milva (who has the dubious honour of being my very favourite book character who doesn't ever appear in the games) is stuck with a card of her freaking death scene – which not only gets the scene wrong (believe me, there was no grimacing and gripping the arrow buried shallowly in her chest for poor Milva), but doesn't even bother to get her hair the right colour, for fuck’s sake. Basically, Milva was a stone cold badass and absolutely deserves better. #justice4milva

One can only guess how I'd have felt about some of these characters had I read the books before playing the games – I am obviously biased towards forgiving changes to characters whom I liked in their game incarnations, regardless of how they compare. Still, I think it does speak wonders that there still all these characters who suddenly made sense only after I'd met them in the books.

Even if only for Dandelion and Ciri, I can only dream of seeing a bit more of the book-original characterisations make it into the collective fannish consciousness. There's nothing wrong with getting into the canon purely based on the show or the games, but having read Sapkowski's novels, it's no longer any mystery how they spawned this massive franchise. That the saga wasn’t even fully available in English until well after Witcher 3 was released – a solid couple of decades late, and long after it had already been translated into Russian, French, German, Spanish and more – is a real shame. For once, it’s us in the anglophone world who’ve been missing out: these books deserve so much more than to be thought of as a footnote to the games or the show.

#Dandelion #Witcher novels #Jaskier #Ciri #Regis #Geralt of Rivia #meta #The Witcher #long post is even longer this time #I blame everyone who gave me such lovely feedback on that last post *g*

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drangues · 4 years ago

Note

I’m really only energetic if you get me super worked up and excited and even then I’m pretty subdued??? Physically speaking, I’m just not that excitable, I guess. So of course I take an hour to fall asleep. And Kenji and Kyouka are so sweet,,, I love them. Bet they call each other Sunflower and Snowdrop. Anyways YES yes I do, your drawings are very nice and they often give me ideas. The way you draw Atsushi especially,,, he be a cutie. (Nyanon, 1/6)

I’m sorry you’re having a hard time, though!!! If it makes you feel better, I’m happy to say that I, and many others, love your art. fhekdijnwijc I’ll take your word for iiittt but I’m still very keysmashy you know??? But anyways I could see that!!! Oda finds his kids and he’s Very Relieved to see them so of course when he’s told (by his kids, because Atsushi is very shy and. Probably wouldn’t wanna insert himself into a reunion? (Nyanon, 2/6)

Or he’d just think he was a bother) that this raggedy little catboy saved them he probably. Immediately scoops him into a hug and thanks him and Atsushi hasn’t had anyone be Nice to him??? So he’s very much a living question mark, and then Oda insists on taking care of him when he discovers he’s an orphan and he’s an Even Bigger question mark? Where’s the pain??? Is Oda gonna hurt him? Why is he getting so much food. (Nyanon, 3/6)

He expresses as much to Oda and suddenly the man is experiencing the emotion of Murder. But, like you said, after his kids almost die (thanks to Mori, and I have full faith that Dazai would figure that out and tell Oda as much), Oda knows he has to Leave, so he decides to snag Atsushi and Dazai while he goes and get justice for his New Kid in the legal way, via judicious use of Ango (I. Maybe or may not ship Oda/Ango. Just a bit). I just want good things for this AU. (Nyanon, 4/6)

As for the ADA being content creators- I don’t know why but it’s sending me tooo, I feel like Atsushi and Kunikida would definitely be writers??? Dazai and Ranpo probably do meta and analytical pieces and also memes, while Kyouka and Fukuzawa both make fan art. I don’t know the idea just feels very nice, I love them all. Moving on to a Dazatsu Concept, though: I’m in a soft mood, so consider Dazatsu gushing to others about each other,, Like? (Nyanon, 5/6)

Dazai is staking out with Kunikida and he won’t shut up about how gorgeous Atsushi’s eyes are. Atsushi is taking Kyouka shopping and can’t stop rambling and how soft Dazai’s hair is. They keep looking at the sunset and talking about how it reminds them of their boyfriend. I love them. (Nyanon, 6/6)

sunflower and snowdrop,,,no,,,im F I N E. atsushi is a whole ass cutie so ofc im gonna try my best to show that in my art, if i cant show his cute ass then i have Failed as an artist

“ragedy catboy” is such a cute description man ill forever use it .and Y E S ODA BEING THE FIRST TO EVER HUG ATSUSHI MAKES ME S O SAD BUT GOD DOES HE DESERVE IT, oda would be SO protective (and honestly,,i lowkey ship oda/ango as well ngl)

i agree with everything but fukuzawa doing fanart is both endearing and sending me, wouldnt it be even funnier if like, kyouka makes those very symbolic paintings that look like they belong in a museum while fukuzawa probably draws kittens having hats as flowers (thats probably how fukuzawa and kyouka bonded, kyouka loved his kittens in flower hats)

oh my goDDDD THEM GUSHING ABOUT EACH OTHER IS THE CUTEST THING EV E R ATSUSHI WOULD BE SO EMBARRASSED IF HE GOT EXPOSED THO BUT WHILE HIDING HIS FACE HE WOULD BE LIKE “it i s soft though” AND THEYRE BOTH BLUSHING MESSES IM JUST- WOW <33

#anon #ask #ask anon #anon ask #bsd #nyanon #nyatsushi anon

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aurorasilverthorne · 4 years ago

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Total Misunderstanding Part #2:

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Disclaimer: Elena of Avalor and all its characters belong to Disney.

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Note: Aléjandro, Llorona, Esperanza, Viento, and lluvia belong to me. If you use them in fanart or fanfiction, please remember to give me credit as their creator. Thank you

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Esteban felt horrible for Llorona. The child didn't understand that Shuriki was just trying to protect her by keeping her away from those who were ill. Any good mother would.

He found Llorona sitting on the rug in the nursery hugging her knees trying to hide the tears slipping unbidden from her eyes.

"Oh, mija...Mamá didn't mean to raise her voice, you know that."

"Mamá doesn't want me around," the girl sniffled wiping her damp cheeks with the back of her tiny hand.

"This is not true. She just doesn't want you getting sick, that's all."

Esteban knelt down and stroked her hair. "Mamá loves you, Ro. She is just really stressed with both your hermano and your hermanita being ill. Plus she still has to carry out her duties as queen."

"She cleared her entire schedule for Aléjandro," Llorona protested. "She doesn't ever do that for me when I'm sick."

"I'm sure she would, but you've always been such a healthy niña," Esteban explained. "You've never really gotten sick before."

"I wish I was ill. Then Mamá would have to spend time with me."

Esteban sighed. "Llorona..."

She looked up at him with large puppy dog eyes. "Will you spend time with me, Papá?"

"I have to work," Esteban told her.

"Well...can I play in your office? I'll be quiet and I won't get in your way, I promise."

Esteban shook his head. "I don't think so, mi hija. Part of my job is to keep you safe, and next to the royal treasury, this is the safest place in the entire palace."

Llorona's face fell. She bowed her head like a child who'd just been scolded for a misdeed she hadn't done. "You don't want me around either..."

Esteban frowned. "No, hija. That's not it at all!"

Llorona ignored him as she turned and walked away. Esteban watched his daughter crawl into bed and shove her head under a pillow.

"Llorona..."

He wanted to stay and comfort her, but there was too much work to do. Shuriki was out of commission, so all her duties fell on Esteban. They'd each find their own ways of making it up to Llorona later.

After Esteban headed to his office, Llorona took a half hour long siesta, but the nap did little to soothe her hurt feelings. Neither of her parents seemed to care that she felt left out. She had no one to talk to. Aléjandro was the poster child for mamá's boys all over the EverRealm and Esperanza was too young to even understand what was going on around her. The palace staff-with the exception of the steward Armando-had no qualms about informing her that she was merely "a spare" and that her parents had not planned on having a second child. Aléjandro's birth was necessary. She was just an unfortunate accident.

Llorona didn't bother to tell her mother or father about what the servants were saying. They'd just ignore her concerns and perhaps even agree with them. She doubted their love. It would have killed her to hear confirmation of her fears straight from their own mouths.

Llorona was so angry, and hurt she shoved all the stuffed animals off her bed, threw a brush and perfume bottle off the vanity Shuriki had given her as a birthday gift and kicked multiple toys that were scattered all over the floor before deciding it was time for her to run away.

Her parents didn't want or need her. They didn't notice Llorona when she was around. Why would they care if she left? She seriously doubted they'd even realize that she was gone let alone miss her.

She opened the door to the nursery and peeked out into the hall. Maids and other staffers were everywhere. She closed the door and went over to the balcony doors.

It was warm and bright in Avalor with a light sea breeze. Llorona climbed up onto the balustrade to peer down at the gardens and city, the dense jungle beyond and what seemed like an endless sea on the horizon.

"What are you doing?"

Llorona yelped in shock and fell backwards onto the balcony floor. When she opened her eyes she found herself looking up into the eyes of a jaquin cub with zigzag patterns in its red fur.

"What are you doing?" the baby jaquin asked repeating its question.

"Who wants to know?" Llorona asked pushing herself up off the floor.

"I'm Cruz," the jaquin cub answered. "What's your name?"

"Llorona."

"Well, what are you doing, Llorona?"

"Running away."

Cruz cocked his head. "Really? Why?"

"Because mi Mamá and Papá don't want or need me. They already have a hijo to be their heir and mi hermanita can be the spare. They have always loved Alé and Esper a lot more than me anyway."

"But where will you go?" Cruz asked, watching as Llorona tied a bunch of bedsheets and blankets together she'd found in the closet.

"I don't know," Llorona admitted, "Anywhere is better than here."

She tied one end of her makeshift rope to the bedpost and threw the other end over the side of the balcony. She and Cruz watched it fall, but the rope didn't reach the ground.

Llorona sighed. "Guess I'll have to find another way down..."

"If you climb down as far as the rope can go, I'll fly you the rest of the way," Cruz offered.

"You will?"

Cruz nodded.

"I appreciate it."

Cruz smiled. "Happy to help."

Llorona climbed back up onto the balastrade then over to the opposite side before gripping the rope. She held it as tight as she could sliding down as far as possible. Cruz lept off the balcony flying down to where she dangled.

"You can let go now."

Llorona just continued to cling to the rope afraid to release the fabric for fear she'd fall. "Are you sure?"

"Yep."

The young princess took a deep breath steadying herself before letting go. A scream lodged itself in her throat as she started plummeting towards the ground only to land with a jolt on Cruz's back.

The jaquin cub gave an excited yip and flew up over the curtain wall of the palace to glide high above Avalor city. The people looked like ants far below as they went about completing their chores. The delectable scent of smoked meats mingled with the sweet aroma of freshly baked pastries drifted upward from the midday market bellow making Llorona's stomach growl.

"Hungry?" Cruz asked.

Llorona nodded.

Cruz dove down landing beside a stall at the heart of the marketplace. They stood there for a moment taking everything in. The bright colors, heat, noises and the crowds of people were a bit overwhelming for Llorona who'd rarely stepped foot outside the palace gates without the presence and protection of her parents and their royal guards. She hid in between the stalls where no one would be able to see her except her furry little companion.

"What's wrong?" Cruz asked. "Are you okay?" He moved closer trying his utmost not to startle her. The cub brushed up against her legs and side and purred softly trying to calm and comfort her.

"It's so loud and bright and there are so many people," she explained huddling closer to the wall.

The young princess had rarely been permitted to accompany either of her parents on their outings into the city. Even when they'd allowed her to go, they'd made her remain inside the royal carriage most of the time. At first, she'd thought they were merely being protective, but now...she wondered if they'd wanted to keep her hidden.

"Out of sight, out of mind, princesa," one of her old chambermaids had once said while tidying up the nursery. "A second child serves little purpose. La reina only needs the one and it's obvious that she doesn't enjoy having you under foot all of the time. Why else would she want to keep you hidden away here in the palace except to ensure that you're out of the way? Maru knows even the chancellor looks ready to rip his hair out whenever you're around. They don't have any time to waste on a spare. Not with an heir to focus on. Might as well get used to waiting in the wings now, princesita."

Cruz sat down beside Llorona and cuddled with her until she felt better. Eventually she agreed to come out of hiding if only because she was still hungry. It was passed lunchtime and she needed to eat elsewise she'd become nauseous and possibly faint. She'd done so in the past because she'd forgotten to eat which had earned her quite a scolding from both her parents who'd warned her never to do it again.

She and Cruz browsed the food stalls for a bit before deciding on the vender selling pupusas filled with ground pork, cheese and beans. They paid for their meal with a handful of silver coins Llorona had taken from the coin box she'd been given by her father as a gift last Navidad before going to sit at a nearby fountain unaware they were being watched by two small-time thieves looking to make a name for themselves.

"I've seen that kid before somewhere," Viento said squinting at Llorona and Cruz from his spot across the market square.

"We both have," lluvia replied.

Viento quirked an eyebrow. "We have?"

lluvia rolled his eyes. "She's the hija of that bruja Shuriki and her puppet chancellor."

Viento tossed his empty plate aside. "We should snatch up the niña and hold her for ransom. If the bruja wants her kid back bad enough, she'll give us the brat's weight in gold."

"Not a bad idea," lluvia murmured stroking his goatee. "We can always dump the kid if the old bruja doesn't pay up."

"So we're gonna do it?" Viento asked.

lluvia nodded. "Lets go get ourselves a princesa."

***

It took time and effort, but Shuriki eventually got both Alé and Esper back to sleep after they had lunch. She paused outside the door to ask Armando to watch the children for her before heading to the nursery.

Shuriki felt terrible for losing her temper with Llorona and wanted to make it up to the child. She'd been putting off her daughter's sorcery lessons for quite some time now. She figured her elder girl would be quicker to forgive with the promise of potions making or a little wand practice. Llorona had a natural talent for magic and she needed to hone those skills or her power might one day get out of control.

She knocked on the door. "Ro, darling, it's mama. I want to speak with you."

No reply. Either Llorona was still angry at her or she'd fallen asleep.

Shuriki opened the door and stepped inside. The room was spacious and airy with floor to ceiling windows and a polished marble floor. Everything was decorated in shades of sapphire and cream. A massive toy chest rested against one wall while a pair of writing desks and shelves full of books took up another. A small girl's bureau and boy's dresser dominated the third wall. Two tiny twin beds and a joint nightstand made up the fourth and final wall.

Two empty beds, Shuriki realized. She yanked the blankets back to be sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. Her heart began to beat fiercely as she scanned the nursery. "Llorona, where are you? Come out here right now, young lady."

Shuriki's eyes darted in every direction trying to locate her daughter. Her mind reeled as it tried to process everything all at once. The scattered toys, tiny shards of glass from a broken perfume bottle, the long string of pristine sheets tied up to the solid wood bedpost creating a trail that led out onto the balcony.

Shuriki ran out onto the balcony and looked over the balastrade where the makeshift rope of sheets swayed to and fro in the breeze. The implications proved too much for the sorceress who screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Esteban!"

Esteban heard her shriek from inside his office half way across the palace. He immediately threw down the paperwork he'd been filing and ran over to the nursery where his queen was already snapping at the guards.

"Find my daughter," she hissed, "or I will execute every last one of you!"

"Scour every inch of the palace," Esteban ordered. "If the princesa isn't here expand your search into the city."

He waited until Captain Sandoval and the other guards were all gone to wrap his arms around Shuriki. "We'll find her, mi corazón. The curtain wall that surrounds the palace is much too high and far too steep for any childnapper to climb."

"What if she's not here?" Shuriki asked her voice heavy and cracking due to the weight of unshed tears.

"She has to be," Esteban insisted. "Llorona's only seven years old. There's no way she could've left the palace unnoticed."

"Someone on the palace staff might've taken her. Have everyone rounded up and locked inside the throne room. Nobody is going anywhere until my baby is found. She better not have been harmed in any way or so help me..."

Shuriki would rain hell down upon anyone who dared to hurt their child. She'd done it many times before and she'd keep on doing it until there were no more threats to their children's safety.

Esteban knew he'd be right there beside her. Ready and more than willing to do anything and commit whatever atrocities necessary to protect their family.

Their daughter had to be somewhere in the palace. No way had the little girl gotten out on her own. It had to have been a staff member or someone else.

Esteban's top lip curled back in a silent snarl. If someone had stolen his daughter, if they'd hurt her, or put her in some kind of danger, he'd rip them to pieces with his bare hands.

#eoa #elenaofavalor #disney #shuriki #elena of avalor #EoA #chancellor esteban #esteban flores #fanfiction #original character

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starshine-selfships · 2 years ago

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🌷🍇!

-pockets-boyfs

Thank you for the ask!!

🌷 - How different is your f/o in your head compared to canon?

I try to keep him close, but with a few exceptions. He's dead in canon, so changing that and keeping him alive post-war definitely changes him a bit I think. Realistically, he wouldn't want to be around humanity ever again; he hated people at the start, and after humans tried to wipe him and the rest of the ants off the face of the earth, I don't think he'd be too keen on enjoying them any time soon. I also gave him my more psychological stuff, specifically ptsd (literally went through a war + saw a bomb detonate) and adhd/autism (bc I personally have found a lot of the ways he thinks, acts, perceives, and interacts with the world to be very reminiscent of neurodivergence!)

I think the biggest change is honestly the fact that I've made him a little happier jshdkfjf he cries enough in canon for 70% of his fanart to also involve him crying, and I just. am writing a story about recovery between the two of us, so I decided that he shouldn't be so miserable lmaoooo

🍇 - How did you get introduced to your f/o?

In the real sense? A very good friend of mine told me I should watch h.xh and when I did, I was absolutely not disappointed. Getting to the chimera ant arc was nervewracking bc I didn't really see people talk about it much, but I was blown away by it + the character growth of the ants! The king and his royal guards really caught my eye, and I narrowed my focus down to pouf bc he was just so off the wall; his entire fighting style is based in mind games and manipulation and it contrasted how collected and dignified he looked at the start by making him just. absolutely wild. He's my absolute favorite character from anything ever and I've done a whole bunch of analyses of him, he is just so fascinating and so much sjhdkdkd

As for storyline wise on this blog, we met out in the local woods! I found him by himself, playing music, and he absolutely Did Not Like Me At first lmao, he did slowly start warming up and we got to talking more and more and found that we meshed pretty well! He was glad to be able to have someone who understood how difficult mental illness can be, as well as finding out exactly what's going on with himself and why he feels or thinks in certain ways ✨️

#thank you!!#tag this later

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the-muse-of-animation · 7 years ago

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The Magic of Animation

Animation is like a dream come true, if magic exists, it’s in animation. As a child you may have been enchanted by the tree growing scene in Totoro or by how lively and comical a object such as the carpet in Aladdin could become. Have you ever wondered how this magic comes to be ? How all the mechanisms are set in motion to deliver the final product on your screen ? You have come to the right place, O Reader, this blog is solely devoted to the magic of animation, may it be to showcase its wonders or to uncover all its tricks.

This post will be a very small and incomplete talk about animation to serve as an introduction to this blog.

Why animation would be magical one may ask ?

Animation is magic because anything can take life on screen. Animation is the part of art that can not only give movements to a drawing but can also give it all the dimensions and complexity of a soul. Even a landscape has a new life when animated. All arts have their own way to convey life to their objects and animation is too often seen as simple entertainment compared to “higher arts” when it should be on the same level as all the other arts. Animation is magic because unlike a live action movie, anything can be done : sumptuous sceneries, impressive fights, surreal landscapes, you name it. This is why live action adaptations are often considered a loss compared to their original material. The magic of animation also lies in the possibilities it offers, which are far more important than for a movie.The world of animation is built by all the styles the animators use. Animation is perhaps where the directors pour their own identities and visions in a more spectacular and intimate manner. This might be because in animation distortion is the key. For example the animated human figure is rarely similar to the real human figure. This distortion is impossible in live action movies. The same thing goes for the laws of physics : for example, in the animated world, a fabric will not fall the same way it would in real life. Hence the animated world has a wide range of aesthetics to play with. When you watch animation you see a specific style and thus you see through the eyes of a creative mind. This is why the same scene animated by different animators will not render the same. The @gemanimate project in the Steven Universe fandom is a very good example of this, here is a comparison with the original material. Style goes hand in hand with technique : the technique influences the style and the style closer to the animator’s vision will be best express with a certain technique. Technique is the one of the reasons why animation is going through a golden age at the moment. Computers and 3D technology allow a whole new area for animators to experiment with more styles and more challenges too. The rising figure of this tendency is Makoto Shinkai : he said himself that without technology he probably wouldn’t have started animating. Nonetheless, traditional animation is not dead and choosing between the two is actually already an artistic choice like the one made by former Disney animators when they started the Hullabaloo project. You wish to see the magic of technique ? Follow me ! Style and technique go hand in hand to create the most magical aspect of animation : an atmosphere. Animation goes even further than live action movies when it comes to creating an ambiance.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Akiyuki Shinbo and Gen Urobuchi

Your Name, Makoto Shinkai

Le Tableau, Jean-François Laguionie

The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Lotte Reiniger When animation appears in a movie, it not only adds novelty but is also very linked to the special role of this particular scene. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, The Tale of the Three Brothers is told through an animated scene : animation manages to render the eerieness of this story as well as the fact that it is not on the same level as the main story line. It is a tale and animation helps emphasize on the difference with the real world.

Like all magic tricks, the magician needs time to master it, to hide all the tricks and to give the impression of an effortless demonstration. You may admire an animator with all your might and may want him to make a new movie every year but behind every animated piece there are a lot of hard workers and hours of work. Even up to these days, animation is not something you can make in a blink of an eye. For example, stop motion is one of the technique to require a huge amount of work to shoot only a few seconds. It took 30 years for Le Roi et l’Oiseau, one of the masterpieces of French animation and also the first French full-length animated film, to achieve its final form. On a side note, the first incomplete release of the movie ended up inspiring a young generation of animators which happened to create the Studio Ghibli afterwards. Even nowadays animation requires time. Take the latest Disney movie Moana, it took around 5 years to make it, from the first scouting in the Pacific Islands to the final release in theaters. All this time is needed because animation goes far more than just characters moving, it’s about giving life, it’s about making the characters deep and complex as any good characters should be. It’s less a question of realism than a question of how touching and believable the story and the characters are. Animation is magic because it has so many different formats and each has their own specificities, may it be a movie, an animated series, an anime... Different formats mean different ways of using animation especially when it comes to animated series. A series of 10-minute long episodes will not tell a story the same way as a series of 20-minute long episodes. Nor would a movie or an anime, the latter having very specific “rules” of its own. Some may think that nowadays animated series have way too simplistic drawing styles. As creator Alex Hirsh pointed out, style is not the only decisive element in animation, scenario and character development are keys to a good series. A story needs to follow a coherent scenario with a coherent ending. Gravity Falls is the best example when it comes to animated series, its ending crowning the series at the paroxysm of its excellence. Moreover, even in these “simplistic drawn” shows, there is a clear distinction and work on the style, Steven Universe is not Gravity Falls, each has its own aesthetics and ambiances.

Steven Universe

Gravity Falls

Over the Garden Wall Animation is magic because it is a important part of another side of art : video games. Video games nowadays can expand and keep innovating partly because of their use of animation. Here again style is a very important aspect : the story travels through it to bring you a very specific ambiance and grab your attention. And there again, the scenario influences the style chosen.

Child of Light

Limbo Animation is magic because it has a very special place compared to the other media when it comes to audience. An immense majority of people still thinks that animation is either for kids or a weird hobby for adults to have. They fail to see that animation is a huge part of education for kids : animation helps develop imagination, it sparkles creativity, and helps them understand themselves better. Rebecca Sugar said that she created Steven Universe because she wanted to help young people in search of themselves and she would have loved to have a show like this when she was young and struggling. Likewise Gravity Falls is an ode to the imagination and creativity of childhood and the transition to adolescence. Hence saying that a show is “for kids” doesn’t mean anything else than an ignorant contempt. As an adult, you can appreciate animation as the art it is and reflect on things differently. The animation industry targets more and more adults with some heavy-themed productions. Psichonautas is a very good example of this. The movie addresses multiple issues such as depression, PTSD, drugs and global warming through a very dark ambiance. Likewise, Night in the Woods explores mental illness, animation and striking imagery conveying Mae’s dissociative disorder.

Night in the Woods Animation is magic because it comes to life with music. As I said, animation is not only movements, backgrounds, styles and everything in between. To bring the characters and the world to life, animation needs voices and music. A Miyazaki movie will not be the same without Joe Hisaishi to paint the sound of his universe. The same thing goes for the voice actors. Their part in the process is as important as any other. The Joker in the Batman Series would not have been the Joker without Mark Hamill and even up to these days, he is the most iconic performer. The voice actors themselves are like chameleons, you are sometimes surprised to discover it was a very familiar actor/actress who was dubbing a specific character. Tara Strong is a very famous voice actress precisely for that reason. Animation is magic because it is linked with everything else. Animation sparkles creativity from the watchers : fanart is the mark of this creativity. Besides, animation is connected with culture too. Animation and video games are also other ways and maybe less conventionnal ways of learning about history, literature etc. The anime Puella Magi Magica Madoka plays on the Faustian myth whereas the Fate series are very good ways to learn who Semiramis or Hassan ibn al-Sabbah were in history. These series often use historical fact in very clever manners to serve the scenarios. Like everything, animation has a bad side, still they are the reason we should appreciate all the more the good stuff. The Muse answers all your questions here, O Reader !

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rpghorrorfan · 7 years ago

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What upcoming games do you think I should follow?

Thank you very much for asking anon! I've actually been wanting to make a post like this for a while now! (o^▽^o) Also, sorry for the late response! This took me a while to write! There are so many lovely dev blogs and projects on tumblr, so here we go (might be a long one!):

Kago to torii ⛩(demo released!)  It’s a Japanese inspired rpg horror game set in the 90′s! It looks really beautiful and spooky, so definitely worth checking out! Also Draxicor is a sweet heart ❤️ And Nuei’s art is absolutely breathtaking! ✨

Cadeau 🎁 (demo soon!)  A very beautiful looking rpg horror game about a girl named Charlotte who wakes up in an unknown place wearing clothes she's not familiar with. 👗 The art and character designs for this project are absolutely gorgeous, and the dev is really sweet and friendly! ✨☺️

Expiatora 💀 (demo soon!)  An rpg horror/mystery game about Felec and Lucas, two reapers who work in the underworld. One day, a crime is committed, Felec gets the blame so he must discover the true culprit. Ximsol the creator has some wonderful art and the game is very beautiful! It's also quite a unique game concept too!

Akademia 📚(demo released!)  An rpg horror game set in Rayfair Academy, which revolves around a group of students trying to discover the secrets of the school. 🔍The characters and their friendships are all adorable, and the spriting and graphics are really nice also! 🌟

Flowers for Kasumi 🌸(demo released!)  An rpg horror game about two friends Isa and Omaka, unraveling the mystery of their recently passed friend, Kasumi. Isa sand Omaka are both absolutely precious characters and the game has some nice puzzles and spoops! 💀 Also Nedras and Eredoh are both lovely! 😊

Nedras is also working on another game, The Doctrine of Perseverance, (demo released!) an rpg horror game about a girl named Melrose who's family passed away in a fire. 🔥 Upon finding the diary of her mother, she starts to discover the secrets of the mansion.... 📖

Traumerei (chapter 0 released!) 🌲  An rpg horror game about a boy named Noel who decides to explore the woods one day and his dreams... Noel is an adorable sheep boy 🐑 and Veynn is super sweet and her art is adorable! ☺️

Yugami 💎  An rpg horror game about a 15 year old girl with a disease that isolated her and forced her to stay inside. The game is absolutely gorgeous looking and looks really promising! And the devs are really friendly!

Konstandin (commercial; demo released!) 🎭 An rpg horror/mystery game inspired by Albanian folklore. It will contain many features and looks very high quality! They are currently on Kickstarter so if you want to support them you can! The devs are very nice as well!

The Story After (demo released!) 📕 An rpg horror game about a girl called Mara who discovers a book called Read Story.  There have been several disappearances around town, could this book have something to do with it? The character artwork, dialogue, puzzles and horror are all pretty good so I'm looking forward to the full game!

Rosary of the Reaper (demo soon!) 🕯 A dark anime fantasy horror rpg about a girl named Kanna Izaki and her journey through the Candleverse.  The artwork for this game is absolutely stunning as is the mapping and music! With adorable characters to boot! It looks like it will be a lot of fun to play through!

Purple game (demo released!) 💊 A psychological horror game about Randall, a guy living on his own in an apartment suffering from depression. He meets a girl named Mya and the two become friends. He meets other characters along the way. The game explores themes of mental illness. The characters for the game are really precious and diverse! And the relationships between them are awesome too! I think the exploration and horror elements and story look really interesting too!

Dollhouse projects (demo soon!) 🎀 Currently working on an rpg horror game about a girl called Marinette, who moves into a new house with her mother, and gets transported to a mysterious doll world. It looks really cute and Marinette is adorable! Also the dev, Mitty is really nice (I've watched her live streams!) ❤ She's also teamed up with the dev of Rosary the Reaper, Architect and they have formed the team Deity Sphere!

ARCADEA 🕹 An upcoming fantasy rpg adventure game about a girl called Maisie exploring the world of Arcadea to find someone precious to her... This game is super cute looking with some beautiful mapping and music! Looks like a lovely adventure!

Land Sea Entropy ✨ A story driven mystery rpg with slight horror. It follows your character who lives in Tidemoor and decides to go kill the beasts in the labyrinth up north. You end up in a world very different from your own...  Toxic shroom swamp (demo released!) 🍄 Dev blog of shroom soup, a surreal psychological game with rpg/horror elements about a girl named Arnika, a depressed girl who gets transported to a mysterious world in her soup. The pink aesthetic, pixels and artwork for the game is fantastic! I like the gameplay also and themes! (Also I love Arnika ok, she must be protected ❤) Arthur and Ber (he's such a cute worm!) are pretty cool too.

Collectors project ✨ An rpg horror game about a girl called Tera who follows a mysterious voice into the woods and comes across a mysterious mansion... Game looks really mysterious and pretty!

Kcm games ✨ An rpg horror development blog. Currently working on Noire Memories.

Fragmented eve ⭐️ An rpg horror in early development about a girl named Esme exploring a world full of witches. She may survive if she wants to discover their true nature. Really lovely artwork and interesting concept!

Secrets keep project and ascend dev  Two recent rpg horror dev blogs early in development. Both seem interesting!

Rozenfalls project  Rpg horror/action game about two siblings, Noah and Nick. Very cute characters! And looks cool!

Worldendparty 🌎 Recent rpg horror in early development about about four students who survive after humanity is gone.

Dreamsyrup dev (Eye Candy early demo released!) 👁🍭 They're currently working on an dark comedy horror game called Eye Candy and various other projects! I think their original graphics are artwork are really cute and their work deserves a lot more attention!

Rukomura games (Mr Kohei demo released!) 🎪 Rukomura has released a few games Corallo and Trampled Flower and is also working on some projects like Mr Kohei's Horror Show, a psychological horror about Mr Kohei, who explores a realm exploring his life made specially for him. The horror and visual aspects of it are really good, and it looks interesting! They also have a WIP project called The a Guardian Siblings (name subject to change) about two twin siblings who live in a forest. One day they have a fight and the younger runs away. The Victorian aesthetic is really nice!

Zmakesgames (Mare demo released!) 🎏 Z is a lovely dev who has released an rpg horror game Immortal, and is currently working on Mare, a psychological horror game about a girl called Naomi who wakes up in a strange town. I'm interested in Naomi and the other characters' backstories! The graphics and subtle horror are good too! The game has a humble and relaxed yet eerie feel to it. They also have a personal and an art blog, with lots of lovely fanart of other devs' games!

Pollinating games Biel is a really lovely dev currently working on a game called Moacir, an rpg horror game about an artisan Moacir and his friend Ubirani. One day he meets Olivia, however she disappears in the process. He must now unravel the secrets of the village and make some important relationship choices. There is a lot of lovely content to look forward to in the game, and it is has really adorable graphics! Biel also has an art and personal blog-they draw some wonderful art of other people's characters so please check those out too!Pollinating games  Biel is a really lovely dev currently working on a game called Moacir, an rpg horror game about an artisan Moacir and his friend Ubirani. One day he meets Olivia, however she disappears in the process. He must now unravel the secrets of the village and make some important relationship choices. There is a lot of lovely content to look forward to in the game, and it is has really adorable graphics! Biel also has an art and personal blog-they draw some wonderful art of other people's characters so please check those out too!

Chokoflan  Chokoflan is an absolute sweetheart of a dev! She is currently working on Verloren, a remake of her game Desolate Village. The current project is about a boy named Chris who wakes in up in a wonderland esque world trying to escape. Choko has really cute art and her games have a similar vibe to them and are very pretty! She made another short game called Demon Tea as well, so check it out!

Rindre 🐇(lux demo released!)  Rindre is a wonderful person in the community! She is really lovely and has worked on many games including her own series which consists of FLUX, lux and quX. She is currently working on lux, a dream like game about a boy named Ben who can lucid dream. He falls in love with a girl in his dreams he's never seen before. She's also released a few games such as Memento Mori, a short horror game about a girl who receives a letter. And pinkuboa, a very helpful and amazing person in the community who reblogs lot of content and resources (check them out!!!) created a spoof game called Rindre's Waifu Quest which is absolutely amazing and you should definitely play it! Rindre has a full list of her games and games she's worked on on her blog so go take a look! 👀

Some other quick mentions: 

@ariastoryproject Recently finished Aria's Story, a fantastic rpg horror game about Aria, a bookworm who explores a mysterious version of the library she loves to visit. Cute artwork, lovely characters and story and some cool puzzles to boot! A beautiful dream like adventure. And the developer, Lydia is super lovely!

@strangebutadorable Working on an rpg horror project An Untitled History.  

@glithchgames Working on Red and the Wolf.  

@jqnn Casual game making blog.  

@corpsepartyreturningnightmare Corpse party fangame in development.  

@uminoaoi Rpg maker dev. Currently working on Dreams of Gluttony.  

@demonbloodedoffical Working on Dollhouse, an rpg horror game.

 @komorebi Rpg maker game about a girl who finds a door in the woods.  

@ridgedev Working on boy is not here, a horror game.

 @hiwariness Currently developing a new game. Created Hansel, an dark puzzle adventure. Cute pixel art! 

@du-buk Currently developing 8:11, an rpg horror project. Also makes lovely art!

 @landofobscurepotatogames Currently working on Pumpkin Splat (demo released) a cute horror game and Family a YN fan game.  

@cosmiclattegames Makes cute pixel games of various genres focusing on graphics and gameplay. Created Paletta, a cute adventure game about a girl finding colours. Currently working on blot, an action rpg horror game.  

@razrrgames Creator of after the bell, a cute spoopy game about ghost girls. Working on an update and some more cute short games.  

@dreamaredev Currently working on Megabite, a horror game about a girl who gets trapped in a diner. Early alpha released. 

@cycleoffates Working on several projects, including Dreamsday Company, a supernatural VN. (And some other visual novels). And Pumpkin Panic, a psuedo cute horror game and a Happy Melancholic Kid, an episodic rpg adventure (both on hiatus.) 

@livingplayground Working on LP: The Witch's Puppets a sequel to the first game. 

@kcaurigrids Working on Faceless, a fantasy horror game. (Demo released)  

@astralshiftpro Currently developing the prequel to Pocket Mirror (an anime rpg horror mystery/fantasy game) Little Goody Two Shoes (commercial). Other projects are planned in the future.  

@sadbunnystudios Creator of rpg horror Karma. Working on a a new game.  

@nomnomnamidev Creator of the Treat series and several other cute games. Working on the next Treat game.  

@voidvg Working on a pixel horror game taking place in a hospital.  

@dreamcatchergame Working on an rpg game about family and friends, as well as nightmares and magic. 

@swampsurgeonrpg WIP horror puzzle game.

These are all such wonderful devs, all with wonderful games and content, so please check them out! I hope you can find something you like and I hope this list is useful! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

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clonerightsagenda · 7 years ago

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#tuesjade #i called what i was doing kid shuffles #just bc kidswap seems to generally be switching their designs and aesthetics around #which is cool but not what i was doing #kid shuffle #kat writes fic #? i guess

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chikkou · 7 years ago

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Imma just need you to answer every one of those OC questions. I thirst for more information.

STOP this is so sweet omg…ive answered some already but ill definitely answer the ones i havent for u!

this is super long by the way so for yalls sake im putting it under a cut lmao

1. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”?

i think id definitely say amara and jeanne fit this description a lot. jeannes favorite color is even bright yellow, like the sun!

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot

i LOVE @elliexer‘s ocs… like all of them. every single one. theyre amazing

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory

ill talk abt dominiques! basically, in my story she becomes queen at age 20 after her own parents (the previous monarchs) died tragically. she married her then-boyfriend, marius, and he became king. in their universe, the king and queen rule jointly, and one can override the others actions, etc etc.

she was really in love with him at first, and she did her best to be a just monarch, but power corrupts and marius, whose family were nobles always aching for more, became more and more evil the longer he ruled the kingdom. it got to the point that he was killing innocents based on his whims, like just because he felt like it. dominique had loved him, but after seeing what he became, she knew what she had to do, and had him assassinated.

on top of that, she had been sick for many years and was dying of her illness, she had no family left, and none of her children were interested in ascending the throne. she had to give her entire familys lineage away to her closest lady-in-waiting (actually annaliese) because of her husbands evil ways. and thats ALL JUST THE BACKSTORY… not even starting with what happened to her in-story lmao

15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?

yes omg i fucken love it… i get worried when i do tho cause i feel like i talk too much lmao

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)?

annaliese definitely, and probably mathilde as well! also dolores because thats literally her job (shes a doctor)

18. Any OC crackships?

i think takako x aurelie would be cute!

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)

all of my ocs mean the world to me, but i gotta give special mention to annaliese and marianne! i first created them when i was figuring out my sexuality, and initially they were just the queen and her lady-in-waiting. around the time that i was starting to embrace my gayness, i made the switch from that to them having been good friends (but still the queen and her lady-in-waiting), and finally i changed it from that to them being joint rulers together and also married and in love. thats definitely the first time i began to accept that gayness was ok and good!

20. Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)?

i like to think that all of my ocs sing! itd take so long to go into the details of it LMAO but i definitely imagine different voices and musical styles for each!

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how?

not to my knowledge :o

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

most of them! i think, of all of my ocs, annaliese has changed the most. initially, she was supposed to be a cruel tyrant that, at the end of her story, was going to be deposed and possibly killed. she was also russian i think LMAO… and she had the throne by birthright

in the current story, annaliese is queen not by birthright, but by choice. in her story, she was initially a servant in the castle of the queen and king (dominique and marius), and worked her way up the ranks to being dominiques closest confidant. after a long time, dominique, who was dying, sent annaliese to kill the king, and, because the princesses were not interested in ruling, she was given the crown as payment.

while annaliese does still have a bit of that “iron-fist ruler” type thing, its not NEARLY as bad as it was, and shes certainly not a cruel tyrant anymore. shes also not russian now, shes french

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?

i think i would meet elyse! shes cool and can do magic

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)

amara for sure. the only real difference between me and her is that she has violet eyes, which i decidedly dont lmao

26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will?

not to my knowledge!

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song?

annaliese was inspired by dont mess with me by temposhark, and i DONT wanna hear ur judgment.

28. Your most dangerous OC?

probably elyse… shes a wild card!

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going?

definitely jeanne, probably elyse30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection?

jeanne, dolores, ophelie, and aurelie!

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)

i think takako would have a really minimalist blog, like, just a black and white transparent theme, and she’d only reblog aesthetic pics

33. Your shyest OC?

i think that would be ophelie… shes VERY quiet and nervous a lot, but shes really nice!

34. Do you have any twin characters?

yes!! i actually had a bunch of twin ocs back in the day, but the only ones i still actually use are mathilde and aurelie! theyre identical twins and are the children of dominique and marius, which makes them the princesses!

35. Any sibling characters?

yes! mathilde and aurelie, of course, and marianne and jeanne!

36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)?

as in, i have an oc in a relationship with someone elses oc? if so, sort of! @agithahime and i used to be really into rvb, and so we made rvb ocs that did everything together lmao. their names are charlotte (hers) and marceline (mine) !

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human

definitely the goddess of night, who is more like the physical embodiment of night. she actually doesnt exist on this plane, but whenever she does arrive on earth, the night follows her wherever she goes. she looks roughly like this (also designed in rinmarus dollmaker!):

38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer?

i think marianne and aurelie would be really elegant dancers!

39. Introduce any character you want

this is mathilde! she is one of the princesses in annalieses story. shes a really sweet girl, and very beautiful, but also very shy. shes also trans! and she decides against taking the throne because, apart from having no interest in ruling, she wants to travel the world and find her calling. shes a very intelligent girl and i love her

(also designed in rinmarus dollmaker btw!)

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!

honestly i just get so happy writing their stories… it feels good knowing their tales are being told!

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!)

not to my knowledge, but id be SO HAPPY if someone drew one of my ocs… id honestly sob my eyes out LMAO

42. Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods?

elyse!! she LOVES greek mythology, but like. to an unhealthy degree almost. aurelie also really enjoys greek myth!

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess

i always give my ocs wavy or curly hair, without fail. the only time i ever give an oc perfectly straight hair is if their hair is short, because then straight hair looks cool LMAO

44. Something you like about your OCs in general

theyre always really creative and intelligent!

45. A character you no longer use?

i have SO MANY characters i dont use lmao… a lot of them were either ocs for a work that im not interested in anymore, or their stories just made no sense. of all my ocs that i dont use, my favorites are definitely the two twins! their names are momo and naruka

in their story, momo was shot and killed, but because they had been switching clothes that day, everyone thought it was naruka who had died and naruka decided to keep the charade up, too scared to tell anyone the truth. its really fucked but anyway! heres a picture i drew of them, but never finished:

46. Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly?

thankfully no lmao… i love my ocs!

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child?

im sure sam has a few times LMAO

48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure

definitely jeanne. she is a ray of sunshine and i love her

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes

ABSOLUTELY JEANNE LMAO… also i think probably aurelie too

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want

of all my ocs, only one thus far is straight (marius) - the rest are all same-gender attracted in some way!

as for gender, thus far 4 of them are trans, but i definitely plan on looking at some characters again and maybe changing that :^) if ur wondering, the trans characters are elyse (agender), mathilde, dolores, and ophelie (trans women) !

#anya's anons #long post #this is SO LONG... it should be under the cut #but if its not coming up as it ive tagged it as long post just in case #thank u so much for sending this ask by the way anon! i love u!#oc tag

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