#in the writing itself and in making it accessible to as much of their audience as possible and in trying to take things further

[bumblebeem]

But he didn’t recognise Elita-1 when he met her....? “Who is that bot, are they crazy?” or something similar is what he says about her when they meet on the train. I don’t have the movie itself or a script to hand so I'm going off of my memory, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t say anything to suggest they’ve met before.

This is what he says (again, according to my memory, so apologies for any mistakes) about the new shift manager: "We have limited access to the waste management area but the new shift manager there does NOT like distractions. No... No, they prefer we stay here, on the task at hand."

If he had left his work area recently enough to have "met" Elita (even from afar/without speaking to her), he surely should have recognised her on the train, right...? Elita also does not recognise B-127. I'm positive she would have remembered him if they had met and spoken before that point, considering how overly talkative he is - and the way she dismisses him when he introduces himself. If she'd been through that with him before, she wouldn't have been shy about letting him (and the audience!) know, I'm sure.

Whether the new shift manager is actually Elita-1 or not is unknown because she's reassigned to "waste management" (i.e. managing waste). It doesn't necessarily mean she is a manager there, and we also see her alongside other workers loading crates. Is that manager behaviour...? Besides, it makes sense any shift manager in that place would "not like distractions" because one slip-up could bring the Quintessons down on them. The workers there are unknowingly loading those trains with energon (not toxic waste). Even if the shift manager isn't privy to that information, they're probably under pressure from somewhere above to run a tight ship because it would be disastrous if the wrong crates were loaded onto those trains.

As for B-127, I think it's more likely he has overheard somebody else outside of his work area refer to a new shift manager (and the fact they don't like distractions/prefer bots to stay on the task at hand). That could have been as recently as Elita's demotion, or days or weeks ago. For all we know, the shift management position could have a high turnover rate on account of what is actually going on down there. The less bots who know about the energon/toxic waste switch-up, the better for Sentinel, surely.

Anyway, we know Bee didn't speak to anybody because he is pretty clear about his situation: "I just haven't had a lot of company since they put me down here in sublevel 50...", and he states, "sometime between a long time and forever" when Orion asks him how long he has been down there.

My guess is the most company he gets is leaving his designated work station (taking advantage of the "limited access" he has to the waste management area beyond his post), hoping he'll be able to speak to somebody else, only to be immediately redirected.

His emphasis on the "does NOT like distractions" is what is most interesting to me though. Because best case scenario, he's heard those exact words from a couple of bots he's eavesdropped on (desperate for company, but not actually able to participate in the conversation...) and is just regurgitating them verbatim for D-16 and Orion to make it sound like he's clued-in and knowledgeable, or worst case scenario he's had a bad experience at the hands of the "new" shift manager (one who predates Elita's arrival, whether as a worker or a replacement manager depending on what you believe), so he knows through personal experience just how much they do not like distractions, and this is his subtle, light-hearted way of communicating that...

Or it could just be a writing inconsistency, I guess! Maybe a scene got cut, and Bee had met Elita-1 down in the waste management area in a prior draft but they removed the necessary scene and kept that line about the "new shift manager" in anyway.

Otherwise, “new shift manager” is maybe just meant to tell us bots down there don’t last very long and the last one had to be replaced for some reason... Knowing more than they should, perhaps...?

Transformers One (mostly Bumblebee) things I can't stop thinking about.

During the film's opening when Orion Pax falls into a room and onto a table full of energon, he bundles a load of it into his arms and is eating as much as he can until he drops it all and has to keep fleeing.

He's starving. The miners are being underfed as well as overworked.

Additionally, we see Bumblebee has three rations on his person when he offers one up to wake Alpha Trion. This might suggest he's keeping these rations for when he'll need them rather than being able to comfortably feed himself. For the miners it's a scarce resource they have to be careful with, and yet the transformers on the higher levels are enjoying it in abundance.

Bumblebee urging D-16 to "stay down" during Sentinel's attack.

This is an interesting line - if it was a nothing line meant to reflect compassion/empathy, he could have urged Sentinel to stop, or implored the 'bots next to him to take notice and do something. There were other ways to demonstrate "Bumblebee is kind and doesn't want his friend to get hurt."

But he doesn't look to authority or anyone else around him for help on D-16's behalf.

He instead instructs D-16 on how to behave to get the abuse to stop.

Which suggests to me this is learned behaviour, and he's giving advice based on previous experience. He's learned that taking the punishment and letting it happen gets the perpetrator to eventually stop, but resisting and fighting against them keeps it going.

That he was reassigned continually right down into sub-level 50 would tell me he's had more than his fair share of annoying a bigger 'bot enough to get himself knocked around once or twice. And very likely, nobody witnessing the abuse helped him, and/or the authority in the room was the one perpetrating the abuse anyway, so of course they weren't going to step in and help.

The only way out for him has always been to just take it :( So he assumes this will be the quickest/least painful way out for D-16, too.

Bumblebee is as much of a nerd as Orion is.

He knows about the High Guard (and is very excited to recite what he knows about them), he recognises the Primes as soon as they come across them in the cave, he watches the broadcast Orion locates inside Steve's head with interest... It's very subtly done, but I think this is the main shared trait between Orion and Bee. I wish we had seen more of Bumblebee trying to talk to Orion about this shared interest, but I get the main relationship they wanted to portray was that between Orion and D-16 (and really enjoyed that regardless!)

Bumblebee knows how to leave sub-level 50, yet he still goes back to his post, and doesn't appear to be using this escape-time to socialise with anyone else on the other floors he can access since he is so very clearly starved of social contact.

I'm not crying, okay, I'm just imagining this poor little guy sitting out of view watching the other cogless 'bots come and go, knowing he could get into more trouble and be even more isolated if he announces his presence and gets himself caught.

Also his "limited access" to the waste management area, and that thing he says about the main one in charge there preferring that he stays on task and really not liking any distractions... Ugh.

Bumblebee is purposely isolated in that room and there's apparently enough of a deterrent to keep him in it that he is forced to make imaginary friends out of trash to talk to instead.

I'm gonna go insane with grief and rage.

[lopez-richter-fangirl]

Do you honestly think tcb will reach their goal?

I have to believe that they will but I am fucking stressed and fucking scared

The thing is there’s literally no reason they SHOULDN’T. Yes it’s a bigger goal than they’ve ever had but shipwrecked raised that amount for headless and starkid raised almost double that for returns with a smaller slate of projects. Even in TCB’s own kickstarters they raised 100k for a single staged barebones workshop reading. Yes 200k is a lot of money, but for how much they’re doing with it?? It’s TINY

Two concert screenings, one of them international. A full month international play run. A brand new musical with performances in LA and eventually internationally. A concert performance of a show we’ve never heard live yet. A brand new pilot reading. And multiple performances of a live comedy game show

I do think the niche-ness of the campaign branding means they have to work harder to reach a wider audience, but for people who are already aware of what they’re doing, I don’t understand why it’s not showing in the numbers

Please, if anyone’s on the fence, tell me why and let me convince you why this is worth it

[copperbadge]

I'm getting depressingly good at identifying the formula for Pop Academic Books About ADHD.

Regardless of their philosophy it pretty much goes like this:

1. Emotionally sensitive essay about the struggle of ADHD and the author's personal experience with it as both a person with ADHD and a healthcare professional.

2. Either during or directly following this, a lightly explicated catalogue of symptoms, illustrated by anecdotes from patient case studies. Optional: frequent, heavy use of metaphor to explain ADHD-driven behavior.

3. Several chapters follow, each dedicated to a symptom; these have a mini-formula of their own. They open with a patient case study, discuss the highly relatable aspects of the specific symptom or behavior, then offer some lightweight examples of a treatment for the symptom, usually accompanied by follow up results from the earlier case studies.

4. Somewhere around halfway-to-two-thirds through the book, the author introduces the more in-depth explication of the treatment system (often their own homebrew) they are advocating. These are generally both personally-driven (as opposed to suggested cultural changes, which makes sense given these books' target audience, more on this later) and composed of an elaborate system of either behavior alteration or mental reframing. Whether this system is actually implementable by the average reader varies wildly.

5. A brief optional section on how to make use of ADHD as a tool (usually referring to ADHD or some of its symptoms as a superpower at least once). Sometimes this section restates the importance of using the systems from part 4 to harness that superpower. Frequently, if present, it feels like an afterthought.

6. Summation and list of further resources, often including other books which follow this formula.

I know I'm being a little sarcastic, but realistically there's nothing inherently wrong about the formula, like in itself it's not a red flag. It's just hilariously recognizable once you've noticed it.

It makes sense that these books advocate for the Reader With ADHD undertaking personal responsibility for their treatment, since these are in the tradition of self-help publishing. They're aimed at people who are already interested in doing their own research on their disability and possible ways to handle it. It's not really fair to ask them to be policy manuals, but I do find it interesting that even books which advocate stuff like volunteering (for whatever reason, usually to do with socialization issues and isolation, often DBT-adjacent) never suggest disability activism either generally or with an ADHD-specific bent.

None of these books suggest that perhaps life with ADHD could be made easier with increased accommodations or ease of medication access, and that it might be in a person's best interest to engage in political advocacy surrounding these and other disability-related issues. Or that activism related to ADHD might help to give someone with ADHD a stronger sense of ownership of their unique neurology. Or that if you have ADHD the idea of activism or even medical self-advocacy is crushingly stressful, and ways that stress might be dealt with.

It does make me want to write one of my own. "The Deviant Chaos Guide To Being A Miscreant With ADHD". Includes chapters on how to get an actual accurate assessment, tips for managing a prescription for a controlled substance, medical and psychiatric self-advocacy for people who are conditioned against confrontation, When To Lie About Being Neurodivergent, policy suggestions for ADHD-related legislation, tips for activism while executively dysfunked, and to close the book a biting satire of the pop media idea of self-care. ("Feeling sad? Make yourself a nice pot of chicken soup from scratch and you'll feel better in no time. Stay tuned after this rambling personal essay for the most mediocre chicken soup recipe you've ever seen!" "Have you considered planning and executing an overly elaborate criminal heist as a way to meet people and stay busy?")

Every case study or personal anecdote in the book will have a different name and demographics attached but will also make it obvious that they are all really just me, in the prose equivalent of a cheap wig, writing about my life. "Kelly, age seven, says she struggles to stay organized using the systems neurotypical children might find easy. I had to design my own accounting spreadsheet in order to make sure I always have enough in checking to cover the mortgage, she told me, fidgeting with the pop socket on her smartphone."

I feel a little bad making fun, because these books are often the best resource people can get (in itself concerning). It's like how despite my dislike of AA, I don't dunk on it in public because I don't want to offer people an excuse not to seek help. It feels like punching down to criticize these books, even though it's a swing at an industry that is mainly, it seems, here to profit from me. But one does get tired of skimming the hype for the real content only to find the real content isn't that useful either.

Les (not his real name) was diagnosed at the age of 236. Charming, well-read, and wealthy, he still spent much of his afterlife feeling deeply inadequate about his perceived shortcomings. "Vampire culture doesn't really acknowledge ADHD as a condition," he says. "My sire wouldn't understand, even though he probably has it as well. You should see the number of coffins containing the soil of his homeland that he's left lying forgotten all over Europe." A late diagnosis validated his feelings of difference, but on its own can't help when he hyperfocuses on seducing mortals who cross his path and forgets to get home before sunrise. "I have stock in sunburn gel companies," he jokes.

[describe-things]

This post is made with speech to text because my hand hurts from typing so much today. Please forgive any typos or speech to text swapping similar sounding words.

If you would like to start writing your own image descriptions, feel free to ask any questions.

The main things to keep in mind is that they should begin with some variation of image description start or ID, and end with some variation of image description and, and ID or something like that. This distinguish the image description from the caption or anything else.

Image descriptions should not be written in italics, bold, all caps, or any colors. If text in the image is in all caps, write it in regular case, and simply note before or after it that it's in all caps.

Image descriptions should describe all images in the post, without skipping any. This includes images that are nothing but text.

Plain text image descriptions in the body of the post are more accessible than alt text alone, because many people who need image descriptions cannot use alt text, and Tumblr is known for its glitches, so the accessibility of the alt text all by itself varies widely over time.

It is more accessible to have the image descriptions indented than not, because this helps to visually separate the image description from the caption. Having brackets or parentheses at the end is also helpful for this. This allows people to easily distinguish between the caption and the image description if they need to.

If you are an artist, writing image descriptions for your art will give you full control over the image description, and will allow you to correctly identify details that others might miss. This gives you the opportunity to show which parts of your art hold meaning to you and are important to notice.

If you are describing real people who are unknown to you, unless it is specified within the post or you are already aware, please do not assign any gendered terms to them, or any " male presenting or female presenting" terms like that. This is completely unnecessary and leads to misgendering. It is best to simply describe visible facts about the people. Hair color, length, clothes and style, pose, expression, the light or darkness of their skin, things like that. Do not assume that someone is white simply because they have light skin.

Do not use image descriptions to lie to the audience in any way and do not use image descriptions to make jokes where the audience reading the image description is the butt of the joke.

As an example, if there is a very clearly fake screenshot, do not say that it is simply a screenshot, or if a photo is very blatantly photoshopped, do not say that it is simply a photo. Say an edited photo, a badly edited photo, a screenshot with editing, something like that to indicate the changes have been made and then what you are going to be describing is not the natural version.

As an example, you would say a crab photoshopped to be driving a car. Rather than a photo of a crab driving a car.

Unless you are transcribing a text within the image, do not use meme speak within image descriptions. Do not refer to dogs as doggos for example, unless it is to specify that the dog in the image is, within the image, labeled as a doggo. Do not describe someone walking downstairs as breasted bubbly downstairs, even if it is an actor humorously walking down the stairs to imitate that sentence. Describe the facts of the movements, and then you can make the comparison for clarity.

If someone adds an image description to your post whether this be an original post or a reblog that you have added an image to, it doesn't matter how many notes to post already has, please copy and paste that image description into the original post or your original reblog. If it is a new post that has only a few notes from friends, after you update the original, you can just ask your friends to delete the reblogs of the inaccessible version and reblog the new one. Most people who are good people and care about disabled people will happily do so.

Keep in mind that image descriptions are accessibility tools. Treat them as such.

Anyone can write image descriptions. You do not need any special qualifications or training. As long as you are willing to take constructive criticism if you make a mistake, an image description written by someone who's new to it and honestly doing their best with good intentions is better than no image description at all.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, so please feel free to add on more tips and advice.

[ataleofcrowns]

man interactive fiction authors get the most insane asks from anons what is it that has these freaks showing up to bother you all, just for putting out work for free??? 🙃

I'm gonna be honest, we're just way too accessible. Unfortunately for authors who are just starting out, there aren't that many ways to build up a readership outside of dropping regular updates.

Interacting regularly with your base of readers and giving them extra content through (anonymous) asks is one of those ways to cultivate an audience, and I feel gross just writing that because in an ideal world that shouldn't factor into it at all. But in the current online landscape, that's just become part of the culture surrounding it.

Especially since IF itself as a genre is very much online, there is this expectation that authors themselves should be familiar with the online landscape and be easily accessible as well. That accessibility comes with both pros and cons, and one of the major cons is that you get randoms in your inbox who decided to leave their manners at the door just because it's the internet and they're anonymous, so they think they can say and demand whatever they want from you without repercussions.

It's a decision that every IF author will have to make for themselves, in terms of how much they interact with their readers and how much access they allow.

While I do keep my anonymous asks on, I do that as someone who has thick skin and knows the risks of doing so. I'm also relatively active in my Discord server, but that's pretty much where the interaction with my readers ends. I'm otherwise a very private person, and this past year especially have taken added distance because I'm more comfortable that way.

But that's also a luxury I have because AToC is pretty well-established as an IF now, so I can afford to let the work speak for itself rather than twist myself up into a pretzel trying to garner more readers. I absolutely don't envy new IF writers, I can't imagine the struggle for them in this climate 🥲

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

would you have any small writing tips to share with others who are attempting to write their own stories?

Sure.

Disclaimer: This is not a full on tutorial on how to write. These are just tiny, tiny little grains of wisdom of things I realized here and there. Do not eat this advice like a full course meal. It isn't one. It's just a dusting of some spices, and I am salt bae-ing them over you, but they are not calorically relevant without a story.

1. Help your readers read your story.

AKA: If you want your readers to build a house, you better take them to a Home Depot and teach them how to use a screwdriver first.

You want your readers to read your story easily? You gotta make your story easy to read. That means learning how to make sentences easier to understand. That means breaking up walls of text into smaller bites. That means - yes - spelling words consistently and using accessible (not Correct, necessarily, but ACCESSIBLE) grammar!

You want your readers to understand your world? You gotta give your readers tools to understand it with. That means explaining new concepts! That means describing stuff a lot! That means using visual language if you don't have actual visuals!

Your readers will not read your mind to know what you MEANT to say. You have to say what you mean. You have to mean what you write. Learn to write clearly. Learn to help your readers.

2. Something that takes you a month to make will take your audience ten minutes to read.

You want to spend an hour drawing one comic panel? Great. You wanna spend an hour writing a single paragraph? Fantastic. You wanna use up a week perfecting a script? Amazing!

Your readers will still glance at that panel for a second before moving on. Your readers will still eat that paragraph in a bite. Your readers will skim that script. If you're lucky.

You cannot control how much your work is appreciated. But you CAN control how much of your time you sacrifice to make it.

Balance the scales.

3. You are not talented.

Neither am I. Nor are any of us.

Listen to me. Listen.

Talent is a beautiful, useful word. But it often lies to us. It suggests that we are born better than others.

This is not often accurate. What talent hides within itself is not pre-ordained inherent skill. It is not something you are birthed being. It is not a statistical difference of physicality.

Talent starts with passion.

Maybe you have passion for stories - so you beg your grandfather to read to you before you can recognize words, and you write a lot in every school assignment, and you pay attention to EVERY story you watch in school plays, and you observe all the characters you see in movies, and you CARE. So. Much. And this moves you to try to write, and then to try again, and then to try harder.

Talent does not exist, because no amount of 'you were made for running' can make you run. No amount of 'you were the son of great authors' can make you write.

But inherent curiosity can push you forward. Inherent curiosity can make you watch, and observe, even before you understand you are observing. Inherent curiosity for your personal interests makes you a fan of writing, of drawing, of world-building. It makes you research how to be a great author before you even know what research is. It auto-tunes you to what you know is good about these things, and it gives you the necessary tools to know what will work and what won't.

So when you think you are talented, understand that this is not something that was done to you in the womb. It was something you raised, and watered like a seed, before you even knew what you were growing.

Don't rely on talent. Understand that you got this far because you CARE about this thing. And don't forget to care. Because that's what has carried you this far, and it is the only thing that can carry you even farther.

also, cringe is dead.

[habunshu]

Hello! Sorry to bother you.

I noticed you are in JTTW fandom and wanted to ask if you know where can I find more info on Sun Wukong's make up and stage performance? I tried to find stuff on my own but quickly realised that I'm just one small weak goblin. I saw some blogs about chinese opera behind the scenes with SW images and couple of videos but that's about it... and since you look like you are way more knowledgeable I came here to beg a favour.

Do you know any videos, documentaries or blogs on this topic?

Thank you for your time ♥♥♥

Hi!

TLDR: Bold text are writings/videos linked to Peking Opera Culture and specifics surrounding Monkey King performances. Post has a mid-length summary of key aspects of his Peking appearances and core thematics. This mainly goes along visual design analysis, as I don’t focus in performance art as much! Read more divide for courtesy

(Also taking a moment to highly praise @/bonesmarinated ‘s Peking opera Wukong pieces!)

The Monkey King/Sun Wukong is a very well covered and well performed character in Peking Opera, I’ll give a short(ish) summary of the key aspect of his design across various performances based on work I can recall from my Undergrad as well as my own experience- and i’ll link any documents/websites/images I have on hand

Wukong’s Lian Pu falls under what is known the Jing role (complex hero) with similar facial decoration also being delegated to the Chou roles in Opera as well.

The dominant school of art in depicting him either on live performers or maskwear, have a fairly universal foundation for his appearance.

The oldest forms of Peking opera stick to Wuseguan (Five Colour Theory) with his Lian Pu sticking to a core 3 of White (Cunning), Red (Bravery), and Black (Loyalty). Even with Modernisation of the Peking Opera and developments in the science behind art and makeup, Lianpu is specific in its purpose of portraying the nature of a character beyond body language and aiding in accessibility for people at the far end of the audience.

The Monkey King’s Lian Pu is reflective of his mischievous and bold nature, combining it with the shape of an Old World Monkey’s furless face shape so that even those “uneducated” in Peking Opera culture can at least see /what/ Wukong is before they see /who/ he is. The White and red placement are linked to yin-yang dynamics relating to the stone he was born from and the energy it cultivated) as well as general themes beyond the tale itself.

Zheng’s “Evolution, Symbolism, and Artistry: A Study on the Colors of Peking Opera Facial Makeup” Discusses this in more detail. ( DOI: 10.23977/artpl.2023.041207) (ISSN 2523-5877)

(General Mask colours in Peking Opera, separate from Lian Pu: The Cultural Connotation and Symbolic Meaning of Chinese Opera Mask Color - Hanbing Tu)

In more modern designs, the key foundation of Wukong’s face doesn’t change much, however some variations do add colour to Wukong’s eyelids- mainly pink or yellow/gold. Both of these relate physically to the ‘whites’ of Old World Monkey’s eyes, with the yellow face paint being representative of “barbarism” or “savagery”. Gold is used on the faces of various immortal creatures from all backgrounds as Silver is.

(Left: Chu Luhao as Monkey King, stedling divine peaches and wine in celestial realm, Kaohsiung ) (Right: Monkey King Wukong in Beijing Opera Journey to the West at Liyuan Theater)

As with Taiwans branch off in culture, This Lian Pu on the left shows the eyebrows as the top of the eyelid makeup, contrast to Chinese style and other Sino-influenced regions. This works in Chu Luhao’s production as it plays towards the character Wukong is before he’s sealed under the mountain and begun the journey- hence more “wide eyed”.

Mentioning Yellow within the Wuseguan, this is why most of his earlier outfits have such a heavy bias towards yellow cloth, barbarism being represented across his whole body (his form, as a monkey over his soul that achieves enlightenment) with costumes later down his hero’s journey adding more black, blue (simplicity).

(Left: Performer playing Monkey in Journey to the West, Chinese Opera performance in Singapore) (Middle: Chu Luhao’s production, Sun Wukong arrives at the Dragon Palace of the East Sea) (Right: CANTON, CHINA – CIRCA JULY 2019: Beijing Opera performance of “Monkey King Making Havoc in Heaven”)

Key Read -> The Artistic Symbolism of the Painted Faces in Chinese Opera: An Introduction, David Ming-Y��eh Liang. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43560653

Book -> Chinese opera: Images and stories, Peter Lovrick, Wang-Ngai Siu

Book -> Drama kings: Players and publics in the re-creation of Peking opera, 1870-1937, Joshua Goldstein. https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=XT_1fZ9Jp18C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=info:49R3XREYwVoJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=3OF1F4SILK&sig=gQyW7bGJzgnxG62Y2TxU01ZPazQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

This analytical paper on Monkey King: Hero is Back showcases modern animated links to Peking Monkey King designs - https://fslmjournals.taylors.edu.my/wp-content/uploads/SEARCH/SEARCH-2024-16-1/SEARCH-2024-P5-16-1.pdf

A blog site I found interesting was an interview with Yao Yudong, the successor to colourful Peking Opera masks, where he discusses creating the mask designs (with a Wukong mask as a recorded example) and a more in-depth written post. He expresses the key two styles of Wukong’s red markings known as “Upside down Gourd” style, and the less complex “Upside down Peach” style attributed to a different art school. In which his mask is directly attributed to items that come into contact with his face.

Jiao Feng, Peking Opera Facial Makeup: The Art of Face Painting: http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/ctenglish/2018/ich/202001/t20200117_800190202.html

Connected is a video of an Opera performer who does his own Lian Pu, which depending on the time period could take up to two hours. Although this design is significantly more contemporary in the use of gold on white sections as markings like black paint. https://x.com/chinadaily/status/1365730927133958144?s=46&t=06bYiE12l6qVJUxPCBuvvQ

In regards to Wukong’s combat performances, he falls into the role of a Wusheng (武生), which is the strand of stage costume used in representation of his staple armour.

(Monkey King in Journey to the West Performance, Beijing Opera)

In this costume, Wukong’s Phoenix feather cap is mirrored by Lingzi (翎子) or Zhilling (雉翎), which likely play back and forth with influencing eachother as time progresses, due to Wukong’s theatrical personality being heightened by the Pheasant tails and their movements as actors play their roles. In his Wusheng roles, he is more likely to be adorned with gold eyelids to highlight his layered immortality and connect to the golden armour he wears. The trait of biting the pheasant tails as a theatrical act of frustration is seen across adaptations, most recently in Black Myth: Wukong’s Chapter 6 Animation.

This animation’s design seems to relay the Lingzi strongly due to the way the studio details the lowest connection points to the crown ornament.

As stated in Bond’s writings “BEIJING OPERA COSTUMES: THE VISUAL COMMUNICATION OF CHARACTER AND CULTURE”, Wukong’s in-game Suozi Set and various adaptations Dragon Palace armours split similarly to the Kao (Armour) on Peking stages, with the falling of the frantic drastically increasing the size of the actor and his silhouette.

Qing-era flags on the costumes of Wusheng were used to express social standing, gender, nature, and ranking. The image above showcasing them has them match the Kao pattern of the clothing, other flags often held zodiac patterns- with the monkey showcasing vain, egotistical, inventive and tricky individuals; and the peach included in a flag hinting towards immortality.

(Ching Dynasty Year of the Monkey Flag used in the Peking Opera) Zaricore Flag Collection: https://www.flagcollection.com/itemdetails.php?CollectionItem_ID=943

Due to the History of Lian Pu, and Wuseguan, despite modernisation of Opera arts vastly widening the colours and complexity of costumes; Wukong sticks to a key 5 colour scheme, with a emphasis on the original trio of red-white-black, and gold being reserved for Wusheng/Wuxiaosheng to showcase immortality and strength. The prevalence of Opera alongside fictional theatre means that the two constantly play off of eachother in mannerisms and influence, both at the time of JTTW’s writing to the 21st century. But as Opera is a physical performance, all aspects of Peking costume design is meant to make the emotional and psychological aspects of characters physical, to a large audience space needing to see facial expressions heightened and clarified by Lian Pu.

Read -> Cultural-based visual expression: emotional analysis of human face via Peking Opera Painted Faces (POPF)

[rocultrakillstuff]

Hello there! I've been looking all over for Ultrakill fics and I love the way you write Gabe. Can I request SFW and NSFW Gabriel x AFAB hcs with reader who is girly and pink? She's bubbly and a bit scatterbrained but she means well and likes Gabriel's presence ever since she found him (maybe secretly tying pink ribbons in his armor when he's not looking twist: he knows)

SFW hcs coming up! I love this dynamic, and there's a touch of plot sprinkled throughout. I haven't included NSFW due to the fact that I ask for ID first to prevent minors from accessing sexually explicit material. If you're happy to provide proof of age, then I'll write a part two for you with the NSFW hcs. But for now, I threw you in an extra five SFW hcs to make up for the loss!

Thank you so much for your kind words too! I'm super happy to know people are enjoying these ♡♡♡

SFW Gabriel x Girly!AFAB!Reader Headcanons (Gabriel x Reader) [Requested]

🐑 ♡ Gabriel headcanons are a staple in my diet by this point, give me more ♡ 🐑

A general selection of headcanons for Gabriel x a Girly!AFAB!Reader.

Teen and Up Audiences, No Warnings, F/M, Other/M, Tag(s): Headcanons, AFAB!Reader, Reader Uses She/Her Pronouns, Insecurity, Blood, Gift Giving, Fluff, Flowers, Pet Names, POV Second Person

Find it on ao3 ♡ WC: 1,589

♡ Buried somewhere beneath the oversized pink cardigan was an angel fumbling her words. All gestures and nervous laughter, you were simultaneously trying to apologise for bumping into him, compliment his armour, and explain that you were lost. That was his first interaction with you, but not the last. With your penchant for looking every which way but forwards as you walk, you would bump into him time and time again. Growing familiarity would lead you to greet him with vibrant enthusiasm each time. Likewise, he finds himself helpless to the whims of fate. When you were lost, he would help you find your way. When you wanted to catch up, he would delight in your company. When you ask him if he wants to accompany you on your walk, he agrees. Who was he to say no? The simple truth is that he appreciates your often fleeting interactions. Conversation flows, and he keeps it no secret that he admires the breadth of outfits you decorate yourself with. Like the pink you wear, you seem to be the embodiment of its symbolism: love itself. Heaven sorely missed that innocence in his eyes.

♡ Who was he to say no? That becomes the sentiment of your budding relationship. Politics, war, and obligation fill most of Gabriel’s time. It is his purpose to engage with those things, and he does so with no complaint. Yet you, with such vigour, would light up Heaven itself with the zeal you express for that around you. No matter how many times you read the same romance novel, you remain engrossed in it from the second you pick it up. He asks to borrow it so he can talk to you about it, and the next thing he knows, he’s your model to style how you please. He is relaxing on pink pillows with you as you paint both of your nails. No matter what you ask him to do, the answer is a resounding yes. Not because he can’t say no, he just relishes being a part of the world as you see it. And he would worry when he realises that the world he is a part of is far detached from yours. Those things he does out of love are contradictory to the experiences you share together. Violence and bloodshed holds no place by your side.

♡ Gabriel is as scatterbrained as you once he begins to worry. Every table is at risk of being knocked over with a hip bump. Corners and doorways become his biggest enemy. The Council aren’t too happy when he shows up late to his summons. The otherwise cheerful angel would become quiet and reserved. Picking up on the sudden change in behaviour was easy, yet you forget to ask him about it the first time. When you see him again, you’ll pull him to the side to ask if he’s okay - apologising for not doing so earlier. There’s so much he would want to say, but he’s at a loss for words until he figures out what he’s experiencing himself. Still, he would reassure you that he enjoys your company. It’s not the answer you deserve, and he knows that like a sword knows death.

♡ There’s nothing to hide anymore when you catch him returning from Hell one day, and everything comes out in a big, bloody mess. You’re holding his hands in the most delicate way as you wash the viscera from them. He’s insisting that he can clean himself up. He says that you can talk when he is presentable. ‘Presentable, presentable, presentable’ - you ask him why he thinks he isn’t presentable the way he is, and he would tell you that you wouldn’t enjoy his company if you saw the things he did. As you begin to wipe down the side of his helmet, you allow it to sink in that you’re there with him. You haven’t left. After that, you let him handle things himself, and he has time to process things alone. For all his pride in his strength, he acknowledges that his ‘worth’ is where he finds himself struggling. He shelters you from the violence, but if he is not a skilled fighter in your eyes, then what is he? Is it enough?

♡ Two things happen. You become the reason why he voices his stress out loud. You also become the person he offers himself to entirely - even the parts that aren’t so pretty. Divided between duty and desire, Gabriel continues to share in your world. The moment he feels the warmth of your arms, he recognises it as the same bliss he’s felt by your side all along. To love love itself with the same ferocity is his driving force. Likewise, the adoration you afford the space around you continues to linger in your eyes when he holds your attention. It’s everything to him. Although, he tells you in confidence that he has no idea what he’s doing. 

♡ Remember the romance novel? That’s Gabriel’s guide on how he is supposed to act until he finds his footing. Sure, some of it is super cliche, but it makes you smile. Books are often your gateway into discussions about your relationship that teach you about one another. The learning curve is nothing more than time spent together enjoying each other’s presence. Every love language is spoken between you in an exploration of comforts and boundaries. His bad pick up lines are just as effective when you use them against him, and there’s no denying that his replication of your favourite written date was sweet. Yet no love stories could compare to the one you were blessed with in your own reality.

♡ Bouquets and various floral arrangements take over your room, rendering it into something akin to a florists in time. Gabriel is the culprit. You buy him flowers once, and he sets about finding you some in return only to realise none suit your particular aesthetic. A few long nights, and he’s hand crafted the perfect collection. It would include laurel leaves, delicate, pink roses, baby’s breath, and a Brindisi lily to accent the display. This isn’t mentioning the fact that he decorates the bouquet with a beaded twine wrap. He’s gone out of his way to learn all their names so he can run you through each one. Symbolism? Gabriel has memorised all that they stand for. The unsuspecting hobby sneaks up on him, and you become the recipient of almost every arrangement he makes, sometimes with your help. It’s relaxing to sit and tend to each flower to the backdrop of chatter or music. Even when picked, flowers don’t die in Heaven, so you’re soon looking for new spaces to put them.

♡ When things are calm, your nights aren’t often alone. Many a time you’ll fall asleep as he reads out loud. The soft down of his wings would envelop you like a blanket, making it hard to stay awake. Even the hushed tone of his voice lulls you to sleep. You never stand a chance. He is careful not to wake you as he takes in your sleeping form. Touch is physical like fighting, something he is accustomed with. Nevertheless, your gentle touch is novel to him, and despite the occasional insecurity, he savours how your hand fits in his. The brush of your side feels like a satin robe. When you kiss his cheek, he is reduced to a stammering mess. Gabriel is holding you as tight to his body as he can when he gets the chance. A feeling of needing more encompasses him regardless of whether you’re in his embrace or not. He is going to wear your jumpers to feel close to you if you let him because there is never ‘enough’.

♡ You’re his light. Gabriel thought about this for some time - what he’d call you, that is. Hope is something he has regardless, and to call you his love doesn’t feel sufficient. As divine as you are, light seems fitting. But that is not the sole reason why he deems it appropriate. He finds you when he looks up past Heaven. Everywhere in the universe there are the same, twinkling lights of the stars above. They are a constant reminder of how much care was placed into the creation of literally everything that anyone will ever interact with. And somehow you are a devoted vessel for the same light be it through nature or nurture. Galaxies can only envy the life that you carry within you. Perhaps that is why you’re always so energetic. No one soul can contain such magnitudes of endless spirit within them and manage to restrain the outpouring of expression that comes with it.

♡ While he hasn’t told you yet, there is something you do that brightens up every interlude in your shared time. Subtlety isn’t your strong suit, so he pretends not to notice you tying pink ribbons to his armour. On occasion, you’ll surprise him and slip one past his attention. Those times are far and few between though. It warms his heart when he feels the slight tug against his body signalling a bow being tied in secret. Then, in the privacy of his own room, he’ll remove it and sew it down the arm of one of his shirts. He’s five ribbons in on either sleeve, and they provide a burst of colour on the white canvas. One day he’ll show it to you. Until then, he’ll continue to collect each and every ribbon you hide on him.

[pluralthey]

is there a good place to start if we want to learn about idletry? im very interested in the story and all the bits and pieces revealed so far but i dont know if youve like, stated the basics both about the characters-in-story and how you’re releasing the comic

hi there. unfortunately, idletry became a passion project very abruptly and many details were added very quickly without regard for how long the project would take. once i did realize how large the project was, i decided that i would not even kid myself on the idea of holding in spoilers for the next 5 years, and those two factors combined make the information available very chaotic and slapdash -- somewhat intentionally.

i don't even have the comics tagged separately for easier access among the idletry content -- although, i could go back and give them a separate tag.

i can summarize the story and say that it's about a funny little talking honey badger/tasmanian devil named jessie gaylord who has for the last 10 years of her life been on heavy psychiatric medication in an attempt to mitigate a pervasive delusion that the world is a fictional story. she also has a notorious aggressive streak. these medications work primarily by leaving her so tired that she sleeps most of the time.

the story begins when her medical team has run out of typical medications to try, and they must order an older, more aggressive type of drug which is not commonly used anymore, and has a lengthier process to manufacturing and approving the drug. during this time, she is not on any medication, and she becomes more urgently fixated on convincing people that the delusion is true.

she ends up attempting to contact the writer, who is referred to as God, and she receives a response. she immediately attempts to write the story herself, and she's granted the ability to do anything within the story so long as she can write it out. (the intricacies and limitations of this power have been elaborated upon in a bunch of fragmentary posts, so i won't try to condense it here)

at the end of the first act, she kills the first writer and becomes the new God of her world. the rest of the story is about what she does after acquiring omnipotence, and it heavily features a character named fate -- or shiloh, as jessie calls her -- with whom she enters an intimate relationship.

she has a happy loving family composed of a father named adam, a mother named evelyn, and an older sister named emily. there is a later minor subplot about a cult following who worships her after she becomes God, and this cult is initially organized by an ant called samanthuel -- or samwich, as jessie calls them. these are usually the other characters i mention and i am too lazy to link them right now

the comic itself is currently being written. the script stands at around 51,000 words at the time of writing this as i work on the second act. after it's written, i will let it simmer for a few months and then write a second draft to start to relieve the story of its bloat. depending on its length at that point, i will either need to write a third draft, or i will start drawing the comic.

chances are, during the second draft, i will start to thumbnail or sketch scenes which receive little to no editing, as i know they will likely remain relatively unchanged even through multiple drafts.

the sketch strips are to tide me and an eager audience over in the meantime, but they've sort of dried up as i focus all of my attention on finishing the first draft and taking care of a puppy that was kind of just forced onto me.

i've made a couple of full-length comics before and they have taken years. it is, unfortunately, just the nature of the process. for idletry, i plan to self-publish the comic. i've never published something in print before, so that is the most daunting part for me.

the plan at the moment is to crowdfund this, but, to be frank with you, i no longer pay rent, and i care very much about having this comic as a printed book. i have no issue with paying the cost of printing out of my own pocket by the time it's done and am even anticipating that outcome ahead of time, despite having a pretty reliable audience by now.

i'm on the fence about releasing a digital book version, as i very much want to retain digital color versions of the pages that are more vibrant, but due to the explicit adult content of the story, i don't want it to be free-access.

tl;dr: it's about a lesbian incel with anger issues who's given omnipotence.

i'm still working on the story because i want it to be good.

i'm planning on printing it as a physical comic book once it's done.

[genericpuff]

You mentioned multiple times that Persephone is a self insert of Rachel, how is that so?

Also, I love Lore Rekindled

So obviously it's not like Rachel herself has outright stated that Persephone is a self-insert, but there's a lot of narrative and visual evidence that points to this being so.

Disclaimer before I continue: a lot of this is speculation, take it with grains of salt, but understand that all of the following evidence is why so many people subscribe to the idea that Rachel is using Persephone as a self-insert power fantasy, myself included. This is going to be a long post.

First, the most obvious - Rachel and Persephone look virtually identical, especially when Persephone's hair is short. In a way that's not even reaching at this point, like there are times when Persephone literally looks like she was traced directly off Rachel's face. It's panels like these where you don't even have to squint or fill in the blanks with your own interpretations, Persephone literally looks like Rachel.

There was also that time she dyed her hair pink and her own audience called out how she looked like Persephone (unironically for the most part, which goes to show how much the implications of Persephone being a self-insert of Rachel has gone over their heads, sigh)

She's also made absurd claims in interviews that Persephone and Hades were her "muses" since all the way back in middle school.

I say these claims are 'absurd' because frankly I just don't think that's true, there's nothing from her early-mid 2000's online presence (which is still accessible via the Wayback Machine) that suggests she was into Greek myth content, most of her stuff from back then was medical fetish and lolita art and not a single piece of Greek work is mentioned on any of her profile bios, favorite book lists, or interests, not even once you get to the 2010's when she started shifting away from blatant medical fetish art and more towards marketable storybook-style art.

(she definitely mentions Lolita though 😒)

I firmly believe she's just making up that whole "Persephone and Hades were my muses" thing the same way she's made up her 'folklorist' label to hide the fact that she has no connection to Greek myth whatsoever and was just creating LO on a whim during the era of Hades x Persephone shipping prompts that were popular on Tumblr at the time. It just so happened to become massively popular so she stuck with it and tried to pretend like she always loved Greek myth as a way to justify her success when really it was just luck and circumstance.

But we can go further back than that.

You see, Rachel also really... really likes Mads Mikkelson. Like, beyond just enjoying his work and entering teenage girl obsessive cringe territory. I wouldn't be calling it out if she was a teenage girl or even a young adult, but she isn't - she's thirty seven years old.

Mads Mikkelson is, of course, her dream cast for Hades, and when you see how she views Mads Mikkelson, the rest practically writes itself.

But we can go even further back than that.

Because, you see, Rachel has old art accounts from long before Lore Olympus. Normally I try to avoid posting a lot of this stuff because it's very much old skeletons that we usually understand to leave buried, but this particular piece is very relevant to this discussion.

'Madame issue' was the screenname of her account where this drawing comes from. You may also notice this is very likely where the name 'used bandaid' came from. This character is meant to be Rachel. It was very common for her to draw herself with short pink hair back then and it seems that's barely changed now.

Just wanna also throw it out there real quick that Rachel's birthday is March 21st. Guess what date Rachel chose to make Persephone's birthday? Oh yeah, the first day of Spring, literally March 20th. Which shouldn't even exist yet as Lore Olympus is based on The Hymn to Demeter which outlines the creation of the season. But I digress.

Now, this may be a little irrelevant and nitpicky, but to circle back around to the point I made earlier about her not having any genuine connection to Greek myth, Rachel seems to have always behaved like this, in a way that tries to 'hide' the fact that she's not 'legit'. There are old FAQ's from her art pages that answer questions she's asking herself in a very arrogant "how dare you ask me this" kind of way. Like, she claims to have imposter syndrome, which I'm not saying is a lie, but if she does, she definitely uses blind arrogance as a way to cover up for it. It reeks of early 2000's 'mean because it's cool to be mean' energy and that seems to be an attitude that she hasn't left behind in the early 2000's where it belongs - she's just channeled it into 'girl boss' Persephone instead.

It's become abundantly clear after going through old LO asks/livejournal/flickr/etc. posts that Rachel herself 1.) romanticizes purity culture (again, like the Greek myth 'self-proclaimed folklorist' thing, she's trying to claim she's 'deconstructing' purity culture when her actual beliefs are the exact opposite), 2.) values naivety and youthfulness vs. experience and wisdom, especially with how she talks about Persephone and 3.) constantly tries to act like a 'boss babe' similarly to Persephone.

There's also the fact that the time skip perfectly aligned Persephone's age to be in the same range as Rachel - she's now 30 to Rachel's 37. The time skip didn't have to be exactly ten years, if it was purely to retcon the age gap problems then she could have made it far longer, but she made it specifically 10 years and I feel like it can't be a coincidence when we consider how close in age Persephone and Rachel now are. Recalling that earlier point that Rachel seems to be obsessed with naivety and youthfulness, she probably didn't like the idea of making Persephone 40 because that would be too "old".

That's not even getting into the actual way that Persephone is written. This is the part where I say there's nothing inherently wrong with writing self-inserts, even famous authors do it, but the issue lies in authors writing them as power fantasies and not actual fleshed out characters. Persephone is not a fleshed out character. She does not have flaws - at least none that are recognized as flaws - and she never loses. She does whatever Rachel wants her to do on a whim even if it contradicts previous actions or information we've been shown. Sometimes she's an inexperienced "uwu" teenage girl, other times she's attempting to be a 'boss babe' (but really it just comes across as her acting like a Karen.)

All that said, it's not uncommon for poorly written self-inserts to lack consistent characterization because the author is too hopped up on writing them to fulfill their fantasies, even if those fantasies don't align with pre-existing information. There's also the fact that Persephone herself never suffers any consequences for her actions, even when she's in the wrong, and terrible things that happen to her are more for the sympathy of the audience and less for actual character development, depth, or underlying meaning. The comic's universe and the characters that reside within it bend around Persephone and her wants and needs, and this is something that happens with poorly-written self-inserts a lot especially when they're being written purely as power fantasies and not actual character studies or reflections. Nothing bad will ever happen to Persephone, she'll never suffer real consequences for her actions, and she'll never make any real sacrifices, because Persephone is Rachel and Rachel can't write Persephone separate from herself.

This kind of goes hand in hand with the whole "she didn't make Persephone 40+ because then she'd be too old" thing, but I'd also like to mention real quick that Rachel has never written a female character who isn't like this. All of her main characters from all of her works are women, which is perfectly fine in isolation, but they're all written as the exact same woman, sharing traits of naivety, inexperience, youthfulness and innocence. None of her female characters are over the age of 21. Making Persephone a "doesn't know she's sexy" 19 year old who's often drawn very childlike was very intentional as it's the exact same kind of character she's been drawing for years now, and the fact that she's 30 now is simply Rachel trying to retcon the problematic age gap that she got called out on; with the added bonus that it makes Persephone even more like Rachel.

No, Rachel has never directly confessed to Persephone being a self-insert, but I don't think someone like Rachel - who already speaks with a veil of disingenuous arrogance - would admit to it anyways. The writing is on the wall: how she's written Persephone and every female protagonist who has preceded her is a deliberate choice based around Rachel's own beliefs and values - that women are only desirable when they're young and thin, that the "ideal man" is someone who's above everyone else in power, wealth, and status and will and should use that power, wealth, and status to get what they want, and that women should be as cute and innocent as they can be until any degree of opposition or questioning comes their way, in which they are justified in exercising outright cruelty and abuse towards those in their way, with no in-between.

And that's all I'm gonna say on that.

[purplehairedwonder]

Chapter 1086: Connecting the Dots

It’s been a few chapters since my last write-up, but I couldn’t resist the lore of this chapter.

First things first: the cover page is absolutely adorable.

I especially love Luffy’s and Chopper’s reflections in the puddle. So cute.

Okay, onto the chapter itself. Reverie comes to an end with most attendees none of the wiser of the malicious goings on right under their noses.

We see various parties getting away from Mariejois by stowing away. This panel hit me particularly hard:

Sabo is visibly broken up about witnessing Cobra’s death, which is at odds with his reaction back in chapter 1083:

Honestly, it’s a relief to see that Sabo was affected by Cobra’s death since he seems so cold talking about the death of someone both the Revs and audiences knew to be a good man. 

Speaking of Sabo, the Gorosei’s discussion about him is quite interesting.

They use the phrase “checkered fate,” which we’ve seen used repeatedly to describe those who carry the D, including

and

It also feels related to the flashback in 1085:

Sabo seems to be influenced by the Will of D. as much as any of the Ds that surround him.

Meanwhile, Imu orders the destruction of Lulusia using a Vegapunk invention called Mother Flame. 

This is interesting because we saw in the MADS cover story how Vegapunk was focused on peaceful inventions. He talks about creating an energy source that will be accessible to everyone--thus eliminating conflicts over natural resources.

Perhaps Mother Flame is the result of that research. 

Many of us theorized that Uranus was used to wipe out Lulusia, but Dragon argues that if the WG had an Ancient Weapon, why wait until now to use it?

What if, like the mecha that is defunct in Egghead, Uranus needed a power source? And Vegapunk’s research into energy allowed them to finally power up the Ancient Weapon?

That would also fit the parallels between Vegapunk and Einstein, as Einstein’s work laid the foundation for the creation of nuclear weapons despite his pacifist tendencies.

So, Imu orders the destruction of Lulusia because it’s nearby, and the other Gorosei are... fine with it. They even try to justify it.

It’s cold and cruel.

We also get names and see the planet theme continuing with Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn from left to right. Interesting that they are also called “Warrior Gods.”

Imu is also focused on retrieving Vivi, who we now know is a D.

What does Imu want with Vivi specifically? Mysteries to chew on!

Meanwhile, MORE SEPAPHIM.

Finally, the Doffyphim! Crocophim looks almost sad, which is interesting.

So, we’ve seen Seraphim for all the original Warlords, right? So, are we getting them for any of the others? Blackbeard? Law? Buggy? Weevil? Honestly, I’ll be very surprised if we don’t see a Law Seraphim since Law’s not allowed to have nice things and the importance of the Ope Ope no Mi is directly referenced in this chapter.

We get a bit more insight into Imu thanks to Iva:

Which ties back to Cobra saying he recognized the name. Now we have a family name: Nerona. My first thought was Nero, who was Emperor of Rome at the time of the Great Fire of Rome, which destroyed a large portion of the city. (Remember, Vegapunk’s potential energy source was called Mother Flame.)

Iva’s line about “the world we know today was created 800 years ago” brings me back to this panel from earlier in the chapter:

Particularly Mars’ comment in the middle about “The world moves at the will of the creator.” This seems to imply that Imu was one of the founders of the World Government--making him a creator of the world as we know it today.

Of course, that leads to the question of how he could be alive for 800 years. Iva’s out there like

connecting all the dots like the rest of us.

It’s long been theorized that there had to be someone in the series who had the Perpetual Youth Surgery performed on them, and Imu seems to be the best candidate. 

There have actually been multiple mentions of the immortality operation recently, as if to remind us that Law’s fruit can do that. Remember what Blackbeard said after defeating Law? 

So yes, the fact that Law got away from this encounter matters because a) he’s a D., and b) his fruit is coming into play again.

So, theory time. I know a lot of people worry about Law using the Perpetual Youth Surgery on Luffy, but I don’t think that will happen; among many reasons, Luffy wouldn’t want it, even if Law offered. 

However, if Imu has had that surgery and is now immortal, there needs to be a way to defeat him. What better way than the current user of the Ope Ope no Mi reversing the operation and making him mortal again?

Okay, this has gone way longer than I planned, so final thing:

So, this is interesting considering what we learned about Shanks from Film Red and its accompanying media. Shanks, we’re led to believe, is a Figarland, so this is likely a relative--father? Grandfather? Uncle? (Also, the hair that looks like a crescent moon? Amazing.)

Moreover, he is the former king of God Valley, which is where Roger’s crew found baby Shanks in a chest and adopted him. That God Valley flashback is going to be mind-blowing, isn’t it?

It’s also noteworthy that Figarland says, “Anyone who protects scum is lower than the scum they protect” while Shanks has a notoriously weak fleet because he protects them.

Finally, RIP Mjosgard. It’s sad that he was able to better himself and ended up executed as a result of those morals.

[todomitoukei]

how much do you think japanese society and expectations have influenced bnha and how did play a role in making the story go from decent to pretty bad?

Hi there!

Considering that the story is written by a Japanese man born and raised and still living in Japan, it is certainly a product of Japanese culture. More importantly, the story itself is about Japanese people who live in Japan.

That being said, we don't live in a vacuum. Through technology especially, access to other cultures is much easier and influence more accurate than it was before.

We know that Star Wars is a huge influence, both because Hori himself said so and also through the numerous references to the franchise in bnha.

Aside from that, we get characters like All Might, Native, or Nagant, which are referencing the US, and other references to non-Japanese culture such as Frankenstein or Carmilla, Christian influences such as the constant mention of 'hell' in regards to the Todoroki family, etc., which shows that Hori is also consciously aware of other cultures and chooses to reference those in his story.

In short, yes, the story in itself is Japanese, but it also has various influences from other cultures.

The thing to keep in mind here, however, is that people for some reason tend to use the "it's a Japanese story! They have a different culture!" often gets thrown around as a last resort argument whenever anyone dares to rightfully criticize the story and writing.

If we look at other stories that have been produced in Japan - by Japanese people for a Japanese audience - it is obvious that most of those stories are well-written.

If you look at stories like Attack on Titan, Angels of Death, No. 6, Death Note, SpyxFamily, and many more, it's obvious that stories can be dark, can have political themes, can focus on injustice, moral questions, mental health, etc. and be well-written.

They can even include characters committing crimes and yet be well-rounded characters that are being given a second chance because guess what - life isn't black and white!

These stories are filled with consistency. They send messages they want to send and treat their characters with respect. Even characters that die are at the very least being given a decent conclusion.

Bnha problem has never been that it's a Japanese story. This is a problematic conclusion and anyone suggesting that the only reason one might dislike certain aspects of it is due to a lack of understanding Japanese culture is just out of arguments.

Yes, we have to be aware that this is a Japanese story so there will be differences in how this story is told by a Japanese person as opposed to if a non-Japanese person were to write it.

But if the reason it was poorly-written was due to the culture it was created in, then Japanese people would all love this ending.

At the end of the day, we can't look inside Hori's head. We can't say whether he wanted to tell the story in a different way, yet felt like he couldn't. People have suggested that his editors or publishers have influenced the development of the story and that is all very possible. However, as mentioned above, Japanese stories that have done what Hori failed to do exist.

My criticism, and most peoples' criticism isn't in regards to the ending not being a happy one for the villains, it's the way the story is contradicting itself, is being inconsistent, retcons several aspects and undoes certain character's development for the sake of other characters.

Japanese or not, the story is simply not a well-written one and in a sea of incredibly well-written, meaningful stories that have been created in that same culture, that aspect is important, but not the reason it failed.

[anistarrose]

Sometimes when I see people talking about extracanonical confirmations of queer rep, I feel like the phrase "Word of God" gets a little overused — specifically, I think it gets used as a synonym for extracanonical confirmations in general, or sometimes, in a way that obscures how even true Word of God can cover several different things.

And like, that's genuinely not a huge deal, it's not a grave or serious issue — but extracanonical reveals are very much a spectrum. And to me, that incomplete spectrum (in an order that's deliberate, but malleable depending on the circumstances), is something like:

Confirmed in the primary source material (i.e., not actually extracanonical, so included only for comparison).

Confirmed in official secondary canon material. (Example: a spinoff, or a companion book that expands the universe of a show). It's official content, but may not be seen by many of the more casual fans.

Confirmed in an adaptation. Official content, but more likely to have a different writing team, may exist in a different canon, and have a very different audience than the original.

Confirmed in (usually unofficial) tertiary canon, which the creators made for fun or as a gift to the fans, but with actual production value and storytelling put into it. (Example: voice actors perform a script, or creators put together a website for an ARG/other lore). Almost universally seen by fewer people than official secondary canon, itself seen by fewer people than primary canon, but still a genuine piece of the storytelling.

Confirmed by a creator in official commentary, which is promoted/packaged alongside the source material. (Example: official commentary tracks on a DVD set, or a Q&A podcast episode in the same feed as the source material podcast.) Not any fan will dig into it, but it's right there for anyone interested enough to look.

Similar to the above, exept the commentary isn't packaged alongside the source material. (Example: the creator of a show has a podcast, but it doesn't air alongside the TV show, because... like, that just doesn't really happen.) Can and will escape the notice of casual fans, and yet, completely entry-level stuff for most hardcore fans.

Confirmed by a creator in some official, widely accessible interview.

And... confirmed by a creator in some random, ephemeral post on social media.

Obviously, these all have wiggle room depending on the format of the media, how self-published or "indie" it is, and how much the distinction between official and unofficial really matters. It's also an incomplete list — limited to either things I've personally seen, or things really similar to what I've personally seen. But I would argue, Cases 5 through 8 are Word of God, but Cases 2 through 4 really aren't.

Why? Because they're not just the creator telling you something out of universe. Cases 2 through 4 have some storytelling and production value around them, albeit to varying degrees. And lot of unofficial tertiary canon (Case 4), whether queer or not, has been a particular love letter to fans, in just my personal experience. That doesn't mean I prefer my queer characters to only come out under those circumstances — but compared to the creator just tweeting it or whatever? It's not even a contest. It's hardly even the same conversation.

And of course, this isn't the only axis for analyzing extracanonical queer confirmation — there's quality of execution, there's whether it's confirming subtext from the primary canon, there's how heavy or weak that subtext was, and there's whether trying to fit it into primary canon would've resulted in censorship (the mantle under which I include cancellation).

I've also glossed over Word of God versus Word of St. Paul, which can contextually make a difference to many people. But I just feel like we can have more nuanced conversations — about where representation has made progress, versus where it still has shortcomings — if we expand our mental picture of extracanonical reveals beyond just Word of God.

Have we made progress from "creator tweets a character is gay just to look progressive," to "character is implied to be gay in the source material, and confirmed in secondary canon (where there's less censorship) as soon as the creator gets a chance?" Is there still a problem with asexual and aromantic characters being extra likely to get extracanonical reveals, even in series that are queer-positive overall, but are we at least working our way up the extracanonical sliding scale?

Those questions are easier to answer when we note that not all extracanonical confirmations are created equal. And just personally, I do feel better about a lot of queer representation when I look at it this way — not because I think we should settle where we're at right now, but because it seems widely understood that we won't settle for random twitter replies anymore. And that's genuinely encouraging.

[beesmygod]

Did I misunderstand your earlier post about the watcher situation? it seemed like you were against shane and ryan and that other guy starting their new streaming service, but that would contradict your most recent post about youtubers feeling entitled to add revenue. If youtubers arent entitled to add revenue because youtube hosts their videos, isn't starting your own platform an acceptable solution?

starting a streaming service is a terrible idea not because of the method of monetization, but because of the way they are choosing to do so. if anything, taking money direct from fans is probably the most ideal way for things to work (albeit not the most lucrative and presets some unique social hazards); i get paid via patreon myself. i think it's core concept was revolutionary: let fans fund the things they like to see directly (or as directly as possible lol).

it's the way in which they are approaching the streaming model. actually first of all, streaming itself is just like a completely insane and bad idea for so many reasons including "video hosting is so fucking expensive". the selection of shows they have is way too limited to justify the change in model. other streaming services are openy struggling to make shit work. dropout's success appears to have been a black swan event and not a business model to emulate. its a pretty delusional idea

removing your backlog from public eye (i think they've backtracked on this one already) and making your work less accessible is a disrespectful way to treat an audience. they have a patreon of over 12k members paying at least 5 bucks a month (even if patreon eats 30% of the money and taxes are another 15% [before write offs], that's a lot of fucking money). im not sure why that wasn't considered as a more viable means of raising funds. it would be significantly less shameful to make a video asking for patreon donations and drawing attention to its existence rather than something that is going to take so much time, effort, and money that it honestly beggars belief lol

i dont think starting your own paywall is the solution when they already have a solution that works: the patreon direct support model while hosting vids for free. making your work harder to access helps no one, ultimately.

[steveyockey]

film critic angelica jade bastién being swarmed by the beyhive (who is of course attempting to put her out of a job) over her negative review of the renaissance tour film which I think is an incredible piece of writing wholly appropriate for the time,

With “Formation” from 2016’s Lemonade, Beyoncé alchemized the aesthetics of Black radicalism. In the video, she is splayed out on a cop car in New Orleans that descends into murky waters. In her Super Bowl performance from that year, she and her dancers were decked in an all-black ensemble with raised fists meant to evoke the style of the Black Panthers without the group’s moral clarity and political conviction. When Beyoncé uses their aesthetic along with the words of Malcolm X, it behooves audiences and critics alike to hold her to a greater standard. Her apoliticism should not slide by. It should be noted that Renaissance is playing in Israel, which has led to “Break My Soul” becoming an anthem of sorts for Israelis waving their flag in screenings. Beyoncé has yet to make a statement about Palestine. But this silence is itself a statement. Perhaps she isn’t apolitical so much as an emblem of Black capitalism and wealth that seeks to maintain its stature. Renaissance: A Film demonstrates that Black joy isn’t inherently radical. In fact, without a sense of materiality, Black joy becomes directionless and easy to co-opt by the varied forces of power that are fueled by anti-Blackness. Beyoncé is an icon who has carefully maintained a sense of accessibility to anyone, anywhere, for any reason. Black musical traditions may have the potential for radicalism, but Beyoncé’s neutrality demonstrates they aren’t inherently that way. More than anything, Renaissance is a testament that Beyoncé is a brand that stands for absolutely nothing beyond its own greatness.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

*SPOILER WARNING FOR SHADOW AND BONE SEASON 2*

Ok I am absolutely buzzing to talk about the drugged grisha at the end of e8, and I know that sounds like a weird place to start - the very end of the show with a woman we’ve never met before who immediately dies - but there is so much going on here that really excites me. Now there’s LOADS of brilliant stuff to unpack in this scene, and I have thoughts about Alina, Nikolai, and the Crows as well, but right now I want to focus on the drugged Fjerdan grisha herself.

First of all, this scene was done FANTASTICALLY. I wrote down in my notes when we saw the newly amplified grisha that I was concerned it would be difficult to portray a clear difference between the power they have and the power that parem gives, but this scene immediately alleviated all of my fears.

In the brief time she’s on screen, the woman sits in the pews at Nikolai’s coronation, takes a dose of jurda parem, and attacks the congregation. We can assume that she’s heartrender based on the type of attack that she uses, and I think that we can also assume this was not her first dose of parem. She doesn’t stand when the rest of the congregation do, and although this could be interpreted as an act of defiance against the new king, she is also shown to be pale and struggling to breathe before she takes the drug. After taking it, we don’t see much of a physical change undertake her, only a massive amplification of power, which I think is reflective of the way that the initial high and power of the first dose can never be replicated. It could also hint that her drug has been mixed with a sedative to make her easier to control, which is what the Fjerdans do to their enslaved grisha. I think it’s safe to assume that the Fjerdans have spies deep in Ravka to be able to complete this action, and there are probably Drüskelle nearby as well to control her. This brings to what I think is most interesting about her character: the exclamation. When she steps up attack she shouts “Strymaktfjerdan!”, which translates to “Fjerdan might”. As a plot device this is to tell the audience that she was sent by Fjerda and that Fjerda have access to jurda parem, but from a character point of view this is an absolute goldmine of information about her. We can assume she grew up in Fjerda, meaning she’s lived most of her life hiding her power and probably has little to no training surrounding it. This should be immediately frightening: with no training she could attack an entire chapel of people, very nearly succeeding in killing them all within moments, and she didn’t even need a clear line of sight since there were plenty of pews behind her where the people were still affected, so what can we expect from trained grisha? But we also know that she’s grown up in a country that despises her, where she will only have survived this long by desperately lying to hide her identity, and could only be sent here by the Fjerdan government if she’d been caught - and yet she still believes in her country and exclaims its might. She is praising a government that has literally enslaved her and led her to her death, as they have done with thousands of other grisha. My personal headcanon here is that she is deeply indoctrinated by the Fjerdan government and has grown up to hate herself because of the world she is surrounded by. When she was eventually caught, she was offered to go to Ravka and serve her country in this way instead of going to trial and death, so she agreed. I imagine that she was only offered this because the experiments with parem meant the Fjerdans knew she would die anyway, and even if the parem itself (or Alina) didn’t finish her off, then she would be killed or tortured on her return in the Ice Court laboratory. My headcanon is that she was offered this proposition by Jarl Brum, and this is how they intend to write him in ready for the Six of Crows spin off show

(Also, if you happen to be familiar with my tumblr then it might not surprise you to know that I’ve (so far) filled 28 pages of my little notebook whilst watching the new season, and I only started making notes in episode 6, so believe me when I say that if you like these posts I have plenty more to come)