#it is not high fantasy its like low fantasy lol...like theres magic

[dateamonster]

also the fact that the distinguishing features betwix the elves and fairies (besides from wings) is the fact that all the fairies are like. White and skinny to midsize old guy and the elves are like. That’s a person you’d see on the street

yeah they really used character design for evil in this one because like in isolation i think theres soo much to love about strange magics designs. i know the vaguely uncanny valley nature of the models is going to be a dealbreaker for a lot of people but ! their little clothes made out of plants and scraps of fabric and lost buttons and insect parts! sunnys ladybug hat! the way everyones hair is so Shaped in a way that suggests a stiffer fibrous texture! all the little details that make inherently unnatural fantastical creatures feel completely at home in a natural environment!

and tbh part of me still loves the definitely uncanny almost skeletally skinny base model for the fairies. that and theyre big eyes really do give them a very eerie insectoid look that i wish theyd had the guts to lean into more lol. and the contrast between the fairies who are characterized by these long thin bodies and sweeping elegant movements vs the elves who are all round and blunt and blocky shapes with this sorta low center of gravity that places them more firmly on the ground vs the wild diversity of shapes and sizes when it comes to the goblins like very clearly identifies who everyone is in this world and how they kinda relate to each other, and i maintain that a lot of the uncomfortableness that comes with how this world is laid out couldve been alleviated by just. making some of the fucking fairies brown.

like its not as if its especially unique for this brand of kids fantasy movie to have a visible class divide thats never examined, or use conventional beauty standards as a visual cue for importance if not morality. the main reason imo it feels so glaring here is specifically because all the fairies we see are very white and even aside from one of the only elves we really spend any time with being black a lot of the elves features in general read as more racialized.

and i dont think this was necessarily intentional. high fantasy in general has a consistent and historical problem with favoring whiteness, thinness, and eurocentricism. if anything, i think this is just what happens when you make something built on those existing sorta tropes and dynamics without putting any thought into what they represent.

[cirillafionaelenriannon]

hi i have a burning hatred for the witchery netflix while everyone around me adores it to the core and it makes me go INSANE so seeing your opinions on it and knowing that there's someone out there who thinks like me makes me feel very validated and happy. have a nice day and take care may we be able to ignore the amount of hype and talk about s2

i'm so sorry this took me so long to get to, i've been really busy 😵

i'm really glad to have curated a space for people who also love books and also felt very let down by the netflix adaptation !!! i also know a few people who like it and its really frustrating because the novels meant/mean so much to me and it's aggravating to see so much praise for it when the writing is absolutely horrendous lol !!!

as for the second part of your message: this is something i've seen a LOT of people mention and rightfully so. i am also so sick and tired of the amount that media is centered around america and in this case twisted into an americanized tv show. i know a lot of polish and slavic people who were fans of the witcher felt very upset over the complete lack of respect toward many aspects of polish culture such as setting, clothing, MUSIC!!!! etc. and has instead gone in the direction of slapping on the most ridiculous costume design ive ever seen (there is NO consistency????) as well as the music being so....and the setting so dim (when the novels at certain points always felt so bright and lively to me)

i definitely think the creators are going for a GOT theme like they can deny it alllll they want. its the truth.

also a little off topic but i think i read somewhere once that sapkowski wrote aspects of the novels based off of parts of polish history, that being its fight for independence & the wars it went through. i always felt that netflixs creative decisions for ciri felt so Against what sapkowski was trying to represent, which was the horrors of war for children, and specifically for ciri, the horror of being hunted down in a war. but im not sure if this is true or not so 👍

if you'd like to come off anon to share more go ahead! or if u make ur own posts dm them to me !!!!! i know my friend maj has said a few things on the lack of slavic rep in the show but <3

[musubiki]

Mochi & Lime Lore/Overworld dump post

➞

- Mochi and lime live in an earth alternate, so like, humans, but not EARTH earth. still working on the name of the continent/region/world they're in, but its gonna be like a botw expansive map with a bunch of different climates and stuff all spread out

- it's probably also a modern-style monarchy. so their gonna have modern technology and stuff but its an excuse to maybe include a royal family (think hmc style ish??). but i don't think the story will delve into politics at all. let's just assume that the gov and economy is ok in this story LOL

- magic and fantasy creatures exist EVERYWHERE, but they hide from most humans and as a result mostly live in forests and such

- the power of magic came as a gift from the stars. the stars are like. i guess what people worship i guess?? so the stars are like the ‘gods’ here (i didnt wanna get into religion too much in this story either, but some plot-relevance will most likely involve some religion-like aspects like priests and whatever)

- technology was developed only because the power of magic essentially disapeared to humans. if witches were always integrated into society, tech probably wouldn’t be a thing

- witches are female only. at the origins of magic, it used to run in both sexes, but the only male with magic ability became insanely powerful and evil and the magic in males died with him. (big backstory, we dont have time to unpack that)

- there's an extensive history (same backstory) of witches not being accepted/feared in society despite being mostly human, so they live WITH humans, but don't expose themselves. 

- (the most valuable spell is the memory replacement spell, which works kind of like that app where you can erase whole people from photos. ie, it takes parts of the rest of your day or similar days to fill in the deleted memory with similar memories, so instead of seeing mochi battling it out with some masked dude, you think you just went to school and came home)

- witches in society caused a bunch of social problems. they had events similar to the salem witch trials and whole plagues started when a witch was discovered. (that crow-lookin plague mask WILL show up in this story i dont care. that shit looked cool and evil and i want it to show up)

- there are some witch ‘haven’ villages: small secluded villages that hide a witch or two within its walls, and don't get many visitors. these villages usually don't have much technology, as they rely on magic. (one of these places is the ocean village where Mochis grandmother lives, and another is where Mochis secret hideout is in the northern mountains)

- there are a bunch of urban legends of witches, bedtime stories, holiday tales, etc. but no one really believes they exist anymore. they just seem like cryptids or superstitions.

- the magical community power scale pretty much looks like this:

...with the cat at the top, followed by the crow/snake, then the spider/toad, and the rest of the witches are more of less equal in power, and then below that are the mages. the psuedo-magic is placed in its own box because it comes nowhere near true magic

- because of this power balance, all the ‘normal’ witches and mages are extremely jealous of the top five (sometimes theres even jealousy within the five)

- ‘mages’ are a broad term of magic users, which can range from humans, to fairies and mermaids. i think the familiars may fall into this catigory too, as they can use a small degree of protective magic.

- mages can be a lot of things, fire mages, water mages, ink mages, paper mages, etc. theres a LOT of them, mostly descending from ancestors who were given power by witches a long time ago, or maybe the offspring of a human and a spirit. long story short its a REALLY broad term.

- every witch, at some point during their magical maturity has to chose a successor. its usually their daughter, but not in every case. once their successor turns 15, together they conduct a ritual to begin the power transfer. (i havent decided if the ritual is when they get their familiar, or if theyre supposed to have them since birth?? probably the former)

- during the power transfer, the magical ability is slowly ‘drained’ from the old witch into the new witch over a period of time, usually about a year or so, and the old witch teaches and trains the new witch how to use magic and potions.

- however this is also the most dangerous time, because as the power slowly transfers, the old and new witches respective power levels are slowly decreasing and increasing respectively, and at the equilibrium (50/50 transfered) the strongest witches power roughly equates to the power of a normal witch 

- (which is especially a dangerous time, compared to say, at a 70/30 balance the old witch is still strong enough to defend the title)

- and due to the jealousy problem within the magic-user circle, this is the ideal time to steal the power of a witch. in Mochi’s case, the cat is highly sought after by other witches and mages, and because of this, cat witches are trained early on to be VERY good fighters, and usually have a few. like. ‘bodygaurds’ so to speak (ie. Lime)

- in rare cases, the power of psuedo-magic is enough to kill a witch at equilibrium as well

- if you kill a witch, all her magical affect on the world (potions, spells, cursed objects) disapears, and the power will either pass to the victor (if she dies by the hand of another witch/mage) or will return to the old witch (if she dies by accident)

- if a witch dies by accident, and she has no remaining female family, the familiar will wander the world in search of a new and worthy witch

- because of the female-only thing as well as the jealousy issue, witches try to only have one daughter, as to not deal with sibling jealousy. especially if they have a son first, and then a daughter, the boy usually sometimes ends up with resentment that they can’t have the same power

- a lot of witch-siblings end up joining the coattails

- for humor and story purposes, im making it so for some idiot reason no one else can figure out where Mochi lives and/or are too dumb to do the obvious plan of attacking her in her sleep or something. so they usually get attacked on the go.

- also maybe everyone understands that high school sucks enough as it is, so they also rarely attack during school hours

- every familiar is a different being, and they stay with their witch throughout their whole lives. they always retain the ability to talk, even after the witch no longer has the main power. after a witch dies, their familiar loses their voice, and either dies with them, or leaves to wander the earth forever

- after a witch loses her power to her successor, she can only do low-level magic and make potions (small levetation spells, foliage growth spells, etc. nothing big)

- there are also a lot of powerful spirits (they roughly fall into the mage catigory) that wander the earth and protect certain sacred places. a subcatogiry of spirits are the cosmic serpants, chinese dragon-looking things that rest in shrines and travel the skies during the night, bringing the elements with them (theres a cosmic wind serpant that protects the forest next to Oscars house, and its always pretty windy there)

- locals pray to the spirits for good weather, healthy crops, etc which the serpants are happy to give them with offerings

- theyre kind spirits, but also very firm and protective of their lands. if they sense any ill-willed trasspassers they WILL destroy them. they only reveal themselves when they want to, but most have mad respect for the witches. 

- mochi gives oscar a medalion with a witches seal so the spirits know not to fucking merk him on his ghost-hunting adventures

- another type of spirit are the forest gaurdians (like the little things in this picture) which care for the forests and animals there. they like oscar because he brings them little snackies like funyuns. 

- spirits are naturally attracted to magical energy, so when mochis around the spirit activity hikes up (que ominous wind gusts during spooky story telling at oscars house) 

- the 5 top witches are pretty well known throughout the magic/creature communities. even if Mochi hasn’t met them yet formally, her name travels fairly quickly that by the time she visits somewhere and introduces herself, they know shes the cat witch

- also, in the top 5, each witch kind of has their own little attributes that makes them, by nature, most suitable for their position. for Mochi, as the cat, she has the biggest heart (cares the most for people, has the most friends). the crow is has the most intellect, the spider is the most creative/detail oriented, etc.

- different regional areas grow rare ingredients, which most of them i will 100% make up since i dont know a lot about actual earth plants, so mochi and lime will travel to all different parts of the world for foraging. everyone kind of teases them about how ‘oooh youre just gonna live in this little city your whole life?? boring!! get out there!!’ and they just kinda look at each other 

[tumblunni]

Why is gyan amakano so cute. It should be illegal. I hate how he has such a huggable design and then his character is totally wasted on being half super evil jerkman half Every Fat Stereotype Simultaneously. Like seriously how did this even HAPPEN

Artist: ok so ive drawn this round softman in a cute lil fancy tuxedo who always carries lollipops in his back pocket

Writers: ah yes, the perfect Irredeemable Murder Cannibal Man

Or like..

Writers: we need an Irredeemable Murder Cannibal Man

Artist: dont worry bro i got ya *draws a big circle with a happy face*

Or of course theres the alternative universe where nobody involved in this project ever noticed that this character design looks fuckin precious, but i dont want to live in that world

And then he's only in!! Two episodes!! And theyre so weird and not great!! Its like they kept changing their mind whether he was meant to be funny or scary. Goes from "ha ha a fat man enjoys cookies" to "he literally wants to make cannibal cookies out of humans" to "but ha ha look he's cosplaying as the genie from aladdin, lets go back to laughs now".

And also they made him be a huge jerk to Are Bacchino and that pisses me off!! Its already a bit shitty that they made a character whose entire "joke" is that he has ocd/germaphobia and its meant to be funny? Somehow? That he has this mental illness? And is frequently exposed to stuff that terrifies him?? Funny how???? But then theres a really rather disturbing montage of Gyan punishing his sidekick by straight up triggering his phobia and YIKES MAN sorry thats even more evil than the cannibalism! Also why was it drawn all overly detailed and Saw-esque?? Why did we need so much art effort put into showing dirty feet and a guy being forced to stick his hand in a shit filled toilet. Was this someone's goddamn fetish or something???

So yeah. Upset.

U P S E T T I. R E G R E T T I.

I'm so mad they wasted a cool character deisgn and cool concept on such a shitty execution. Like even the plot could have been cool? They could have got a lot more episodes out of the idea of these two runnibg thru fairytale books and cosplaying as different classic villains. And if theyd just made a damn decision and gone with either funny cute or scary bad then it could have worked! Personally i am voting for funnycute obv course. But also thatd work best with this plot, it would have been better if it was just a low stakes goofy adventure with something like "oh this dude wants to find the legendary magic wish thingie to wish for a lifetime supply of chocolate and our heroes wanna wish for something actually important so thats why they fight". Could have even added some drama cos like he doesnt know the thing is actually dangerous and then what if he ends up possessed by it and you still get a fight with him thats pretty high stakes without having this weird inconsistant personality thing. Could be quite a dramatic twist to suddenly have comedy villain man as a genuine threat! Ans could be a way to resolve it all with friendship cos you could have Are Bacchino teaming up with the heroes to save his boss and then Gyan is like "whoa i guess you guys were 100% right all along" when he gets saved from his own bigass mistake and all. And then THE GAMES COULD ACTUALLY MAKE HIM PLAYABLE PERHAPS, JUST SAYIN

Also PLEASE rewrite like every single thing about the relationship between the two of them. Please take whoever said "yeah gyan should outright torture his one and only friend with a messed up Saw movie ocd-triggering machine" and throw them out the window. Consider this: what if..they were actually...friend. Like i feel they'd have enough comedy potential already just from being a "rival mafia" thats literally two people who are ludocrously incompetant at everything they do and only ever succeed at (literally) stealing candy from babies. Play up that side of things more! No need to throw random super evil shit at the funnymen to make them seem more intimidating, theyre at their best when theyre not intimidating at all. And you could still have the same gag of the fairytale world forms always being Gyan as some sort of classic villain and Are as a talking carpet or whatever, like just say thats how the magic works instead of Gyan doing it on purpose to be a jerk. And you could even still have Are being the funny underdog just from sheer bad luck instead of being purpisely mistreated by every single character in the entire cast. Or have it that Gyan is just a bit of a bumbling idiot boss who doesnt notice his mistakes and Are is like the hypercompetant sidekick who always ends up taking the consequences of those mistakes because he's like an overportective bodyguard. Which could also be a way to establish some cute friendship moments! Like i dunno someone's about to throw a pie at Gyan and Are does an overdramatic diving save and a whole fake death scene from the sheer horror of getting banana cream frosting on his suit. "Boss...go on without me..." *cough choke* And Gyan is like *equally overdramatic tears* "He made the ultimate sacrifice! I will avenge him!!" *charges forward to fight the heroes and just gets easily beat up like usual* And then its like *even more continually dramatic narration* "and the boss was beaten and bruised, but he carried me for miles through wind and storm" *over footage of like ridiculously impossible heroic adventures thay clearly didnt happen* And then it just cuts to the two of them sitting at like...ye olde fantasy laundromat. Are sobbing like "oh boss i'll never forget this" and Gyan is just like *thought bubble* "i wish i got to eat that pie tho"

I dunno maybe im naive but i just think shows are generally more fun when characters actually like each other and have motivations beyond self interest. Obvipusly not EVERY character has to be like that, but nobody is ever kind at all in the damn anime whether theyre villain or hero. And also specifically these sorts of minor role villains can benefit a lot from being fleshed out this way to become way more memorable! Like gin and kin became way better in Psychic Specters when they got the added trait of loving and cherishing their little brother. (To the point of it being a literal battle power that made their horribly hard boss fight even worse, lol!)

Also just...plz dont make a man so cute if hes meant to be big badness. Like seriously Are looks scarier than him and Are is like the least scary man to ever have those scary ass eyes! Smol depressed man with ocd and tol round lollipops friendo. I WANT TO LOVE THEM

Im gonna just cross my arms and sit here stubbornly hoping for The Anime/Game Effect to kick in. Like 99% of all characters in the anime are jerks and even when anime originals end up cameoing in the games they tend to become generally nicer and more well developed as people. So fingers crossed for a yw4 appearance thats full cute and 0% cannibalism!!!

Seriously fuckin.. CANNIBALISM

Why does the anime do that so much as a "funny" "joke"? The episode where Jerry murders a sentient dessert yokai in graphic gory detail still haunts me. "Ha ha its funny because technically theres no blood so we can show her gasping for breath with a hole in her lungs as a man eats her corpse" Did they put the entire budget into that one death animation??? Oh no cos they saved at least a little of it for the Herbiboy Gets Murdered By A Lawnmower episode T_T

Anime why u be this way.