#it's basically 1 to 1 with the movie and they're so CREATIVE with how they portray the animated scenes on a single stage

[nexus-nebulae]

watching the spirited away stage play over and over just for the background spirits (and the songs)

[seirindono]

two questions.

one, HOW DOES ONE COMIC/STORY BOARD??

IM OBSESSED WITH HOW YOU DO IT ITS SO BEAUTIFUL

two, HOW DO YOU SO IT SO FAST( that’s question is more just me being super impressed oh my goodness)

you’re very good😳

Aw, sweet, a board question *puts on serious glasses*

Ok, bring it on anon.

So, the first thing to ask yourself when starting a comic, as I see it, is what type of board are you dealing with. Webtoon? A4 pages? 4 panels? There are many ways to go about it, and each involves different processes. For example, pages will allow for more superfluous scenes, whereas the webtoon format has to be super succinct because of the reading direction. I personally think that's the main reason I do pages, among other advantages: •narrative density •variety •Tumblr-friendly format

There are quite a few disadvantages too but you have to go through the process of trials and errors to really find out what suits you best!

Then there's the ambition of the sequence you're boarding for. And it goes from 1. how used I am to boarding this kind of sequence/drawing these characters/setting and backgrounds, to 2. is it an emotional sequence? Dialogue-heavy? Or more contemplative?

It changes the way you work and how you should approach your board! For example, in TMS, the very wordy chapters (4 and 5 for ex) generally called for simple and narrow framing. Of course, you don't want to bore the reader so you can spice things up to match the characters mood and reactions once in a while, but you have to bear in mind that the sequence aims to provide dialogue and information = the text bubbles are key and WILL take a lot of place. So let them.

( then again, it's all about pacing and balance. A page full of dialogue and one with too much happening are equally hard to read and boring to do)

Only dialogue, simple squares, no compostion, the focus is on Mel's reaction

On the other hand, parts 7 and 8 are all about action and atmosphere! This makes for wider and more varied shots!

They're fighting, things are going fast so why not use a single line to show many actions! They're still basically squares and rectangles but the pacing is totally different!

Or why not give the action a full page to really show its sheer impact

You can also split things, with a zoom or small time gap, depending on if it's a gag or if you want to put the focus on a reaction. Here, the asymmetry helps reinforce the unstable, jerky aspect of the scene. The situation is getting out of hand, and visually, the pages are affected too.

Now, these are case-by-case examples. And I never work on my pages separately.

For context, this-

-is the "first" board I did for part 8.

The drawings are very small and frankly difficult to make out, but the intention is what matters at this point lol I have the script (very important) next to my canvas, and I scribble the pages one after the ither. This allows me to see if the actions flow well, if the compositions are varied and also whether certain passages are too long or too short in regard to their importance. Which scenes can be merged? Removed? Toned down or if they deserve more bite?

This is a really fun and creative part but, I'll say it again, made a lot easier with a solid scipt. And I'm talking about a text document with clearly defined dialogues (or at least outlines) and actions.

I can't really explain how to write a script, it really depends on your work flow and how confortable you are with writing, but it's too important to just rush through it. No matter how much it changes before, during or after your finish boarding (cuz you gotta break your own rules sometimes and you'll often realize some things don't work as well once you put them on paper/sometimes art block can be resolved by writing the scene and just taking the time to imagine) but it's still your one guideline.

Aaaand, that's about it.

Other than that, I can only highly recommend reading lots of comics, Webtoon, books, watching movies, paintings, illustrations, animatics or listening to music, to inspire you and expand your own "personal library of references". Professional or not, anything your find inspiring and well executed. Boarding is at its core, telling stories. No art skill involved, just pure subjectivity. At the end of the day, it's all about squares, rectangles and bubbles so you gotta work on your creativity. The rest is gut feeling!

Constantly ask yourself how to tell this story, and how you want to tell it. How this sequence should be perceived? What do you need to show to make pages and pages of words appealing and interesting.

Be patient, be bold. Start with easy stuff to get some confidence if you need to. Accept that "boring" pages are smt necessary and that it's up to you to build up tension for a scene to really pop. Try new ideas and be ready to scrap many of them, the result will be worth all the work!

Now, concerning the "fast" part, I'm flattered but I personally think I'm super slow xD You prbly get that impression bc I finish the whole chapter before posting it, but behind the scene, I'm just working at a very regular pace.

Thank youuu anon ♡( ◡‿◡ )

[meshaamem-li]

imagine how much more vibrant and varied our animation industry could have been if large monopolies like Disney would have spent $20m on 10 films instead of $200m on 1 soulless cashgrab.

seriously. Wish had a budget of 200 MILLION dollars, and for what? a sorry excuse of a story that feels like it's been written by AI? if Disney divided the money across multiple creators and let them pour actual passion into their art, we could have so many more animated films of different genres and for different audiences.

the average movies I can find that aren't a large disney production are usually made on like a $30-60m budget, but Song of the Sea was made with a $7.5m budget, wolfwalkers was made on an $11m budget, and the nightmare before Christmas was $24m. Your Name was only $5.5m!!!! so it's not impossible to make good films on lower budgets.

I'm not saying "don't pay your artists" or limit creativity, but there's no reasons to waste 200 fucking million on a movie that has no soul when there are millions of artists and storytellers who are just itching for their story to be told. not every movie has to have groundbreaking hyperrealistic animation, you can actually make really good and unique animation without it being this fucking expensive! (while still paying your fucking animators because they're fucking amazing and deserve a much higher wage than the Industry standard)

it's like.... why they putting all their money on like 1-2 films a year when they can make at least double that amount and they'll still look good??? why are they not giving any room for experimentation with lower budget films and instead relying on soulless cashgrabs that appease the general audience of parents and doesn't treat their young viewers as people with taste? take more risks!!! bring some variety to the medium!!! this 200 million film could have been 4 50 million films!!! you are a multi BILLION dollar corporation, you have the resources to make multiple films at a time, and not all of them need to be the most amazing and visually appealing movie of all time!

yes, movie production is complicated and requires a LOT of people and a LOT of time, and costs a LOT of money, but animation evolved a lot over the years, and we're at a point where indie animators can make a solid short film basically by themselves at home and it would look much better than anything that was made 30 years ago because the tools we have now are much more powerful and accessible.

[zahri-melitor]

Okay a loose Recent Reads roundup:

Birds of Prey: Sirens of Justice: so I was lured (tricked) into reading this as Gail Simone wrote one of the stories, even though it, sigh, contains far too much Harley Quinn due to movie synergy. The Dinah and Helena banter is decent, but otherwise this felt...aggressively fine. The Helena story is very pat in terms of how people tend to write Huntress shorts, though I guess it wasn't 'Helena worries about a student' this time.

The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage: very much in conversation with O'Neil's run, of course, and also clearly reacting to contemporaneous US racial discussions. Shifting Myra to be the Mayor's sister not wife definitely alters her position in the narrative, particularly in terms of her obligations and response to situations. It is incredibly bleak in places, but that simply reflects the run it is based on and is a tribute to.

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen: This is definitely for the Silver Age fan. Matt Fraction manages to string together solving a complex assassination plot over 12 issues by telling the story in short, 2-4 page sections that wildly jump around the timeline and are framed by 'the many ridiculous things that have happened to Jimmy Olsen'. I have absolutely no handle on the canonicity of some of this, particularly the extended Olsen family, and not knowing probably makes this read more easily. Looking at it as a whole, I'm impressed how well Fraction stitched what was effectively episodic 2 page fills into a complete narrative. The energy of the story is relentless. Best read in small doses.

Batman: Pennyworth R.I.P: god this comic could have been so much better than it was. It’s fine and accomplishes exactly what it was intended to do - tell a story of how Alfred influenced and looked out for each of Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian and Barbara - and sets everyone up to be mildly pissed at Bruce. But just for one example, it would have been HUGELY more powerful if they’d been able to use Dick, with his memories just restored, facing the fact he wasn’t there when Alfred needed him and his last interactions were so impersonal and spent pushing Alfred away.

Catwoman 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular: again, underwhelming. Tom King played shipper and wrote his version of how the Helena Wayne story should work; the Dixon story felt 90s appropriate but the art was dire; Brubaker’s felt like a missing scene to his run; Dini’s honestly wasn’t up to the standard I’d hope for from Dini. The art pieces were great though; a lot of good commissions.

Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular: I cannot work out who chose the covers used in the issue, which swing between 'iconic' and 'reminding everyone ASBAR exists was unnecessary, DC'.

Generally: they did manage to round up fairly iconic lineups for most of the stories, with some chopping and changing for a few.

Wolfman got another run at trying to frame the 'Dick quits v Bruce fires him' debate; Dixon and Grayson both submitted literal fills (Dixon's is a scene immediately after Nightwing #19 1996 and before #20; Grayson's is at least just an extra story that fits into #1-12 of her Titans 1999 run on a day all the second stringers didn't come to work). I don't actually have a problem with any of these - they're nice additional material, but mostly more of the same. Seeley & King's suffers from the usual Seeley problem for me where it would be vastly improved by having a different focus; but it does feel straight out of his Grayson run, with everything that implies (down to the St Hadrian's student I wish was not present). All of the Dick stories are basically "we got the team back together" creative line ups.

Jason, in contrast, makes it really obvious that nobody can define a definitive Jason run, and so gets the tiniest story with Winick and Dustin Nguyen. I checked, and Nguyen did draw part of UTRH, but I wouldn't have associated him as a character-defining artist for Jason. The story's cute. Winick sidestepped having to commit to anything about his opinions on post-Flashpoint Jason direction.

Tim got Adam Beechen (which honestly makes me happy, I don't care about anyone else's opinion) and luxuriates in Tim having to play civilian; Tynion gets a Rebirth story that I can't quite work out his timing on (it's supposed to be a prequel, but Dick is already back in costume as Nightwing and talking to Tim, suggesting that several issues of the Rebirth Nightwing take place significantly before 'Tec #934) that is a classic 'Tim tells everyone how he feels about his brothers' story. I realise everyone boring has complained about Tim calling Damian a 'horrible gremlin' but the thing is you see I can only read nicknames like that as full of affection. The back and forth is an important part of their relationship, as shown by Damian snapping 'you're only listening to the insults'.

Steph gets her 71 days as Robin slightly padded out and Amy Wolfram manages to pick up Willingham's tone pretty well; I suspect she liaised with Damion Scott quite a bit on this piece.

Damian has a Super Sons piece from Tomasi, because it's the most lighthearted option available and it sells very well (it's sickly sweet). Which was probably the right call as the other piece is clearly written by Robbie Thompson to accompany his Teen Titans run and for the downward spiral going on there. Which is honestly a bit of a pity for Damian, given everyone else got feature pieces from favourite runs, and he got the 'this slots into your current story' piece.

[hypaalicious]

I just saw a post about an Ao3 writer who took down their fanfic because they were salty that they were not getting enough comments on their work & is now bitterly only emailing updates to those who did comment, and I cannot express more how deranged that kind of behavior is for a creator.

You are not entitled to the type of engagement you like on your work.

If your main motivation for creating is for that engagement, then you're just an attention whore.

Yes, writers love detailed diatribes on how much you love our work, but we can’t hold shit hostage over our fans like that. I know I've said this multiple times over the years on here because every time I saw one of those posts circulate that basically tried to guilt trip people into commenting on fan works for the sake of the creator, it made me roll my eyes so hard they flew into orbit.

"Comments motivate me to continue writing!" Yes, they're a great endorphin boost, but it's not on consumers to compensate for your insecurities.

"It's rude to consume what I create & not leave a comment!" I highly doubt that you took the time to write a Letterbox review on a movie/submit a book review/post a detailed analysis of a music album, etc for every piece of media you've ever liked. Does that mean you don’t appreciate the people who made it?

"I'm not getting paid for it so the least people can do is like & comment!" Unfortunately, even if you were getting paid, you still are not entitled to engagement. The vast majority of consumers partake in their media of choice quietly. Your injured ego is not changing that.

"If you don't comment, then the algorithm will ignore me!" Do you want fake, forced interactions for the sake of maybe a 1% boost in a fickle algorithm or do you want sincere & freely given feedback?

"How else am I supposed to know people want to see more of my work if they don't comment?" This is where you have to divest from needing an undetermined amount of outside validation to do what you allegedly love to do.

If you find yourself having trouble continuing on a creative project, it's fine to take a step back and re-center yourself. But do not lash out at your audience; it's a terrible look & it will not garner you the results that you want. If you let yourself be puppeted by the desires of randos who can & will turn against you the moment you stop being a content vending machine, you will burn out FAST.

[teablogreal]

Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture Episode 1 thoughts

Okay so like, although I wasn't big on Akito the Exiled or the creative choices made with the compilation films, I was actually really looking forwards to this one. Unlike most people, I genuinely don't mind them doing more with Code Geass. Like we have the og anime just there, its out and people can watch it (except they cant because r2 is jailed on crunchyroll auughhhhh). They even made it clear that the new Code Geass stuff from Akito onwards are in their own continuity. Genuinely I don't mind them just expanding more on their already established concepts, though I do have a preference for when they do newer things with them. So like, yeah. Roze of the Recapture is my favorite thing to come from this series in a good while.

So for those who don't know, Roze of the Recapture is a sequel not to the original series, but instead the compilation films that recapped the original series with minor changes to the events that took place in there. It also follows up on the corresponding movie that conveyed what happened afterwards, but basically all you need to know is that after Resurrection, we have a 5 year timeskip. There is a new cast of characters who so far don't tread over where the original cast stood, however they do pay homage and parallel some of the characters from the original series. Honestly, I think this is the only part that has me worried, as I'd love to see them play around more with new concepts. However I feel like after the end of the first episode, those concerns are pretty much quelled.

Okay so I'm not gonna skirt around the spoilers any further beyond this point.

Okay. I want to talk about that fucking twist??? Because like??????????? I did not fucking see that one coming but its such a fucking great way differentiate your protagonist from just being lelouch again while also playing with parallels. We effectively have somebody who's a figure of importance who is thought to be dead, however lives on to take revenge on Britannia as they have wronged this person. Key difference is that our character kinda strays away from this idea. I know a lot of people here are referring to Roze/Sakuya as our first female protag for a code geass anime and I'm sure thats probably what they're going for. However my brain just sees Sakuya being legally declared dead and then proceeding to taking the identity of not an entirely different girl, but rather this whimsical boy twink named Roze. Idk, kinda transmasc swag but also I absolutely love how we've all been played for fools prior to release. Like all the marketing had led us to believe this was going to be a story about two brothers doing shit but WOW did they have everybody fooled (including me). A shame that the trailers for the later movies kinda spoil this twist but I will fight to keep this a secret as much as possible from my friends until I get them to watch this.

Roze as a whole is a lot of fun as a character, big twist aside. I love how he feels a lot more like a trickster compared to Lelouch. Even though Lelouch had a bit of emphasis on him playing with people (the orange incident comes to mind), Roze steps that up with his geass. I'm so glad that its not just Lelouch's geass again. They do something fun with it, like conceptually after thinking about it for a while its actually crueler than Lelouch's geass. Theoretically Roze could force you into doing something without brainwashing you, you could do those things while being entirely conscious. If you say no? Then whatever you're told to do otherwise happens no matter what. I think thats just insane, it really opens the doors for so many things to be done with it in the same way that we saw Lelouch's geass being used to torment Suzaku.

Anyways I think its really funny how people are realizing this one has Ichiro Okouchi coming back to write for it not through the writing returning to its unsubtle "no shits given" attitude from the original series, but by them having yet another chess game that failed to understand the rules of chess. Its a tradition at this point.

[roykleinberg]

a couple unpopular tron opinions!! lmao

Tron '82 > Legacy, but idk if that's an unpopular thought loll

What that makes Legacy's story go from good to great is all of it's various companion pieces— The Flynn Lives ARG, The Next Day, Betrayal, Evolution, Uprising, etc etc. The best thing about the Tron franchise is how it uses so many different mediums (and technology that viewers interact with in different ways!).

The Flynn Lives ARG, to me, is still the most ingenious thing that has happened to this franchise. Is it a little sad that the deeper aspects of Alan and Sam (and sort of Lora and Roy)'s characters get sidelined to something that average movie-goer isn't going to seek out? Yes, extremely. But the ARG is such a treat for fans that I'm genuinely surprised that Tronblr of the 2020s doesn't pay any attention to it. There's so much character and world building, and so many little, little easter eggs— I think the ARG deserves so much more attention!!!!

Evolution does more for the main program characters of Legacy (Clu2, Quorra) character development than Uprising does 😭The existence of Abraxas makes Clu more sinister because we see him purposefully going behind Flynn's back, and as dark as it was, Quorra's personal losses almost felt more heavy in Evo than Uprising since Anon and Quorra work together through the game. But I'm also very biased because I liked Evo's story so much lmao

—— from @quorras :)

tron confessional with moss

alright let's break this down lol

1. 82 v Legacy

admittedly I have gone back and forth on this one a lot over the years. because I generally (obviously) love 82 to bits and it is my favorite part of the whole franchise. but at times I have questioned if Legacy is narratively the Better Movie(tm). and at the end of the day I think it's somewhat hard to compare because they're telling pretty different stories, once you get past the surface level sucked into cyberspace plot. 82 has a warmer fuzzier view of the potential of technology in the right hands compared to Legacy, which in my interpretation leans more into the idea that family -- human love and connection -- supersedes the more "alien" program way of life. 82 wants you to like the programs and see them as people just like us, whereas Legacy has more of a Basics kinda suck and only the more human ISOs are worth anything approach lol. and I think there's validity in both those takes, and I think the times and environments in which they were created has a huge impact on how they view and approach technology. but. yeah. 82 wins for me on its more optimistic hopeful vibe alone.

2. The Tron EU (extended universe not European Union)

100% agreeeeeeeeee. I sometimes catch myself lamenting the fact that it's such a small franchise, but when you add up all the comics and games and the ARG (Flynn Lives ARG light of my life we will get to you in a moment xoxo) and the show there really is a lot! honestly throw ElecTRONica in there too, there was lore there. half the reason I have such a hard time even recommending the movies to people is because I want to be like okay but you also need to watch/read/play all of this please you don't UNDERSTAND

the way Tron has been handled by some many creators and creative teams is honestly just.... really beautiful and special to me in the most unironic sense. it sucks that the mouse has never given the franchise the trust or the resources to grow, and I hate that so many projects are soured by this air of something being ripped away from people who clearly loved it and wanted to do more. but that love is so undeniable in all these bits and pieces of the franchise. there will always be people who love Tron as much as we the fandom do, and I would rather have a hundred of these one-off passion projects like Uprising or Identity than a bunch of soulless blockbuster movies

3. ARG my beloved <3

42 Entertainment I am kissing you on the mouth

I really can't even articulate everything that the ARG is to me, and I wasn't even involved when it was ongoing. when I was just getting into Tron after Legacy got the home release, a good chunk of the ARG sites were still live, and I remember digging into all of it and being amazed and obsessed. I still have the wiki site where everything is archived bookmarked. there's so much good background in there. and Roy! ROY!!!!!!! and the big reveals in The Next Day? OUR little operation, ISOlatedThinker???? I am not and will neve be normal about it, and it's sad to think the current iteration of the fandom doesn't know about or acknowledge it as much

4. Evolution v Uprising

I feel ya. don't get me wrong, I love the Uprising cast, but I was never completely in love with how the show handled the pre-established characters. like I was saying before I didn't like how Uprising made Clu a more detached / distant villain, so having him be a more direct bastard in Evo worked better for me. and Quorra ugh :( she really loses everything over the course of the game, and I think it makes her character in Legacy so much more poignant knowing that she went through all of that but was still so hopeful. Abraxas was such a good, tragic, fucked up antagonist. and Gibson oughhhhhh. again hard to say what would have happened in a second season of Uprising (pour one out), but Evolution is so deliciously bleak in a way the show never completely got to be. Uprising is mostly dark because we know or can infer what's going to happen, because we know where canon ends up. but Evolution has more of an opportunity to show us the dark and horrible things that went on after the coup, and it's a carries a little more weight as a result. rip Anon you will always be famous

[quickdeaths]

mun meme

𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍!

★  NAME:  Bryn

★  PRONOUNS:  she/her.

★  BEST EXPERIENCE: Meeting my girlfriend through RP has to be at the top of the list, and meeting some really great friends too. Just talking about the IC stuff, idk, I'm pretty happy with how things have been going recently?

★  PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION: IMs are okay but discord is best! I am very chatty on discord sometimes, and the search function is really helpful for me when it comes to going back and finding old things. I'm also just on discord basically all day in some capacity, so I rarely miss things for long.

★  MOST ACTIVE MUSE: I can basically write any of my DR OCs at the drop of a hat, although Shinobu is the one who I am currently writing most, and have the easiest time writing because of that. I think for me, though, it's more "do I have energy/creativity to write right now at all" rather than if I have muse for a specific character or not - it's not usually the case that I struggle with a specific character at a time when I'm otherwise writing easily.

★  EXPERIENCE / HOW MANY YEARS: I started off on a forum in maybe 2006 or 2007, did some stuff on livejournal, had a cup of coffee at Gaia Online, and settled on Tumblr in maybe... 2012? 2013? I've done some things on discord (don't love it for RP) and google docs (it's okay) since then, and a handful of other places, but I think I'm just Here Now, like furniture.

★  RP PET PEEVES:  

I have talked about these all so many times so I'll try to keep it brief hahaha.

People who repeatedly drop threads without reaching out to say anything (this is my #1 pet peeve), and people who generally cycle "taking on too many asks/drafts, then dropping all of them, repeat."

People who habitually archive/delete and remake their blogs, especially if they don't make any changes to how they run things, who they interact with, etc. I see it as, like "bringing your bed to your new apartment and being confused as to why you still have bedbugs."

People who post tons of OOCs, as well as things like memes, starter calls, ship calls, etc. while having a massive backlog of drafts and inbox things already.

People who treat OCs/female characters/female OCs dismissively, or as stepping stone interactions.

★   PLOTS OR MEMES: Plots. I honestly don't like memes very much since I feel like they seldom lead to the kind of long-term interactions I like the most, but they're so entrenched on tumblr that I just kinda have to accept them. I would much rather talk to people and plot out loose thread ideas than send in a dialogue prompt from a movie I haven't seen and hope it gets answered and hope that that answer feels like something I can respond to and hope that my reply gets replied to and it's actually a thread. I like doing stuff that develops across multiple threads too, and plotting is much better for that.

★  ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S)?: Not really, I don't think. There are pieces of me in all of my characters, of course, and there are superficial similarities sometimes in terms of like, hobbies or interests, but I think the characters who feel like they got more of me mixed into them are like, D&D characters, or characters from my other blogs.

tagged by: @more-than-a-princess also tagging because tumblr is a functional website and perhaps putting things on a new line is the only fix: @timesunder @shishigirls @saburaito @sunbreathr

tagging: @lunaetis @guidedhearts @amaidol @infintasmal @corrpse also tagging myself since that seems to be the only way to not have it break someone else's tag very cool: @quickdeaths

[let-us-cultivate-our-garden]

have you read (ugh) Harry Potter and if so how do you compare it to TOH ( also let’s burn Rowling at a stake lmao)

I grew up with Harry Potter so it was a pretty big part of my childhood. It was a fun, fantasy series that inspired millions of children worldwide and had a considerable impact on children's literature. Given its popularity and position in the zeitgeist, it was inevitable that people would be inspired by it, analyze it, criticize it, mock it, etc.

Now I haven't read HP in a long time and it's been a hot minute since I've watched the movies but I think I remember enough. It's also difficult (and probably unfair) to compare TOH and HP because one has 7 books in which to expand its lore and characters while the former only had effectively 2 1/2 seasons. But let's try any way. This got long so there will be more after the cut:

The Owl House is a structurally flawed show and it has a glaring blindspot in how its poc characters are treated but at least it doesn't have offensive tropes such as Jewish-coded goblins and elves who are happy to be slaves.

TOH's biggest strength is probably the likability of its characters and how easy it is to project onto them; Eda is the fun and sassy mentor but struggles with a terrible curse that many people read as a metaphor for chronic illness. Luz is your typical kid protagonist who is curious, excitable, and struggled to fit in at school. Amity was the perfectionist bully but secretly has a soft side. These are all good archetypes for your characters and it's easy to see why they're appealing.

On the other hand, I feel like HP's biggest strength is its world building: Hogwarts feels like a place the reader can step into as do Knockturn Alley, Gringotts, Grimauld Place, the Burrow, 2 Privet Drive, etc. The fact that I can still name all of these places shows the culture impact HP had and just how immersive the books were (and of course, how the movies brought them to life).

I think a big part of this is how HP incorporates magic into its universe: Hogwarts has the moving staircases, a ghost haunting the girl's toilet, floating candles in the Great Hall, the magic makes the setting come alive. When Harry said that Hogwarts was his home, many readers felt the same way.

When I think of the Boiling Isles, I think of how small it feels; there's Hexside, the Emperor's Castle, and the titular Owl House but aside from the last one, none of these places really stand out design wise or even emotionally. Hexside is just another fantasy school except with teeth, and the Castle is just a generic evil overlord castle. And the Owl House only stands out because of Hooty, without him, it's just another house.

As for the magic itself?

Well, the magic in TOH is really inconsistent, especially the glyphs. Here's a post that goes in depth on how poorly the glyphs were incorporated into the show. It's also not terribly creative with its magic: Willow is a plant witch but we only ever see her attack with vines and Gus' Illusion magic is explored in one, maybe two episodes. The only new element that is interesting is Abomination magic, which looks cool but it's basically water bending with goo.

For a show set in another world, it doesn't really do much to distinguish itself from Earth outside of the aesthetics; there's social media, movies, a job fair, and people treat covens like college degrees (which has enormous implications for how poorly done the EC is). It doesn't feel like you're in another world and I think a big part of that is the lack of whimsy in the show.

When Harry Potter explored the castle, the reader did as well, and we were just as amazed and impressed as he was. As Harry explored the wizarding world and all of its creatures and inhabitants, that sense of whimsy and awe never faded. I never got that sense of whimsy when Luz was exploring the Boiling Isles, it felt too similar to home.

If the show had spent more time in season 1 establishing its tone and identity instead of making fun of HP or fantasy tropes in general then we wouldn't have this problem. Hexside is especially guilty of this: look! here's our Parody Sorting Hat! check out our broom game that has nonsensical rules! take that Harry Porber!

As it stands, TOH looks good on paper but it botches the execution of its interesting ideas and concepts. I can see why so many people love it though because some of the things the characters go through are Relatable but for me, I've seen all of this done before and better in other media. If it came out years ago, perhaps it would have left a bigger mark on me, but in the end, TOH has very nice designs but it's undercooked.

[luvbef]

15 People, 15 Questions

SORRY @zipegs i don't know how to tumblr help am i doing this right? i loved reading ur answers :,))

1. Are you named after anyone?

prettyyyyy sure i'm named after the queen. rip big liz.

2. When was the last time you cried?

sad tears on friday, happy tears yesterday!! i have a bad habit of crying from laughter

3. Do you have kids?

nooo, i would like to! but only if i'm in a stable relationship/financial position. i also think it would be nice to adopt!! i only want the best for any future kids :,)

4. What sports do you play/have you played?

I HATE SPORTS ARFDYGCUW!!!! i used to like hockey though, although maybe it was more for the vibes and mcdonalds after fixtures...

5. Do you use sarcasm?

yesss!! but i struggle to read it :((

6. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

maybe what they're wearing? i don't really know. i hate perceptions!! maybe how friendly someone is otherwise!

7. What’s your eye color?

hazel!! but more brown than green

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

...can i say sad endings? typically that's what most of the movies i like fall under HAHHA

9. Any talents?

I AM BASICALLY SHAZAM IN HUMAN FORM!!! if i've heard a song before, i can really easily recognise it really quickly (i'm so sorry if you've ever been clubbing with me)!! i can identify all of billie eilish's discography like less than 5 seconds into a song LMAOO. also i like to sing and i also have a knack for photography.

10. Where were you born?

south of england

11. What are your hobbies?

singing/listening to music, art, reading, writing, baking, cooking, travelling. does sleeping count? also getting in my gym era atm!!

12. Do you have any pets?

nope,, i'm a bit skittish around a lot of animals. i can warm up to my friends dogs though!!

13. How tall are you?

5'1" or 5'2" i don't knowww

14. Favorite subject in school?

fine art, classical civilisation, english language and psychology!

15. Dream job?

something creative related. i'm not really too sure what though, ideally something where each day is a little bit different and i'm not in an office, i would go INSANEEE. i don't really know my plans for the future and that scares me a bit.

────── ⋆☆⋆ ──────

tagging my beloveds: @myfriendfaust @dragomircho @aomiinwonderland (pls don't feel like you have to do it though!!)

[crimeronan]

I feel like I would consider myself polyamory agnostic in a way, like I would maybe like for it to happen but I often fear that I don't have the ability to manage even one partnership, let alone multiple relationships, since I am often. So tired. I often find myself idealizing the "late" stage of a relationship when everyone already has settled into what to expect of each other and knows not to take it personally if someone falls asleep mid movie, for example. All this to say, how do you handle your relationship structure as a disabled/chronically ill person? Do you have any advice/thoughts on how it works for you? (I feel like perhaps you have posted about this before and I am just forgetting...)

oh this is a really good question! i'm not sure how relevant my life experience will be to you, particularly given that i started dating all three of my current partners before becoming disabled/crippled. but i am happy to share!

first off -- i 100% get romanticizing the late stage of relationships, sometimes you just need things to be chill and flexible. but i also don't think that this stage necessarily Needs to be reserved for Late Relationships?

like.... the older i get, the more upfront i've decided to be about my needs, especially with new people. granted, a lot of the people i meet these days are either disabled themselves or Get It -- my social circle is mostly queer spoonies in their 20s and 30s + much much older retirees that i hang out with at the local pool.

some people prefer not to be so open so quickly about their limitations, it is hard and scary to be visibly disabled, harder still to ask for help & admit that you might be inconvenient / a burden / take up extra space. this USED to be me until i said. eh. fuck it. after a certain point, wounded pride is just a mental construct

basically, like. when i'm online these days, you'll see me be clear about my limits with strangers - i'll say that if i stop replying to chats or asks, it's not bc i hate you, it's bc i'm tired or forgetful. that i can't guarantee responses to ppl, even people i'm already friendly with. that if my mood is bad or my pain levels are high, i won't engage in much social interaction at All. that my capabilities fluctuate wildly depending on the day and that i cannot be relied upon for consistent scheduling or posting or creative output

i'm similarly open with people irl. it helps that i'm often using mobility aids when i'm talking to people. the mobility aids sorta strip the possibility of pretending not to be disabled. it's kinda the elephant in the room. but it means that i can be like, "as you can see, i am very crippled. i may need flexibility with any plans that we make. due to being very crippled."

if people get upset by this or simply don't have the capacity to deal with it, that is fine! that's not either of our faults, no one's done anything wrong, we're just not in the right circumstances to mesh. i don't get hurt by that personally. i've honestly found that it saves SO much time and hassle and potential drama/heartache to set expectations right away. the only other option is to exhaust myself and end up failing to meet expectations regardless and losing the friendship after burning up a bunch of energy and social bridges. painful and bad!

so like... i can meet a new person, and if they're cool with My Whole Deal, then there's no waiting period before we're familiar enough for flaky behavior. i can be like, "i'm not sure i'll be able to walk tonight, is there a place to sit down at the event?" or "i'm flaring a little, is it okay for us to be kinda flexible about tomorrow's schedule?" or "hey, i'll get back to you as soon as possible i promise, i'm just fogged TO SHIT today [peace sign]" from day 1. it's great

i'm not saying that you Have to do this; i am aware that it breaches like seventeen laws of general social etiquette. i'm just saying that i have met many people who are totally chill about this! as long as you're chill and respectful of the other person as well, you can do whatever you want forever

that was not even relevant to the initial ask, so. AS FOR MY PARTNERS.

i actually don't find that my illness makes it harder to navigate my relationships at all. like i mentioned, i've been with all three partners for Many Many Years now. we know each other Extremely well, we're all extremely turbo autistic, we all have blunt communication down to a science. so saying "i'm not up for doing [x thing] tonight, can we take a rain check?" is super easy.

in fact, my partners can basically intuit a flare from just my physical movements and tone of voice, even before i say a single word. we are VERY familiar with each other.

.....and, alright. after fighting the urge to longpost i've decided to put the rest under a cut. YOU'RE WELCOME 4 THE RETURN OF YOUR DASHBOARDS. "why didnt you put it under a cut so much earlier" read my posts boy

anyway. click readmore to hear me expand upon just how fucking incredible and awesome and kind and generous and loving my People are

there ARE some ways that the illness has made it more difficult for ME to be the kind of partner that i want to be -- for example, i often lack the energy to provide proper emotional support during stressful situations, i have a shorter threshold for pain/irritation than i used to, i can't give 100% of my energy anymore and there have been times when that has resulted in hurt feelings in my partners.

(there have been far more times, though, when nobody's feelings are hurt and it's literally fine.)

in every case where feelings DID get hurt, we've talked stuff out and fixed it within like an hour. bc we all trust each other and know that we don't WANT to hurt each other's feelings. i never ever Ever say things with the intention of wounding my partners, and they know that. they never say things with the intention of wounding me, either, which is why our very blunt "hey, you need to change something you're doing" convos go so well. there's no need to tiptoe, it doesn't hurt me to know what they're thinking or feeling or needing.

sometimes things are just hard and shitty and we're all doing the best we can. this is just part of adulthood i think. especially adulthood in late stage capitalism, etc. the Biggest key to my polycule is that we are all much happier as a family than we would be without each other. the relationships are about as wholesome and healthy and non-toxic and openly communicative as they can get

the Other key aspect when dealing with my illness is that.... being polyamorous has actually been... SOOOOOO MUCH BETTER than being 1) alone, OR 2) in a monogamous relationship EVER WOULD BE?

it is Extremely Stressful for my family to deal with me being this sick. i am aware of that. but i haven't had to bear the brunt of it. not only do they support me, but they also all communicate with and support each other. so no one person is bearing the entire weight of the stress or pain or fear. and i don't have to comfort people over my own symptoms, which most disabled ppl i think would agree is.... exhausting

when i'm too fucked up to speak aloud, let alone support my partners the way i usually do, they ALWAYS have EACH OTHER as a safety net.

this safety net has been beyond vital for me personally, too. round-the-clock care from a single partner is insane and exhausting and leads to unraveling tempers. but when you live with two partners who can help cover your chores and cook and make sure you don't die of your Symptoms (TM)? that's much more doable.

it's HARD, bc literally everyone in the house is disabled to some degree, but it's doable. (it being hard is part of why my QPR is going to move in with us soon. extra hands!)

a few weeks ago, rafi (partner of 7ish years) went on a short vacation to visit family in california. and justice (QPR of 3ish years, best friend of 8ish years) booked an impromptu next-day plane ticket to come stay with me and vi (partner of 11ish years) while rafi was gone. because i was Very Sick. i was flaring horribly the whole time she was here, and she made meals and cleaned and ran errands and picked up medications and returned phone calls and lay in bed with me watching low-stakes tv shows and made sure i didn't stroke out without anyone there to help.

this meant that i basically got to stay in bed the whole time, which was very very Very needed. and vi -- who has a bad back -- wasn't unduly taxed with Literally All of the household upkeep in rafi's absence.

the same principle has applied when i've needed my partners to help cover my share of bills or my household chores or my errands or whatever. since there are three other people involved, the Immediate Support Net is much wider than in a monogamous relationship. especially bc all three of them have their own familial and friend support networks to reach out to!

having more people around is actually awesome for me. i don't feel like i'm expending a lot more energy than i would in a monogamous relationship, but i AM receiving a TON more support and care and love than would be possible in a monogamous relationship.

i guess the conclusion i'd make is: no man is an island, humans are hardwired to build large social support groups, and in a good relationship, you'll receive At Least as much as you give. right now i'm receiving a SHIT TON MORE than i give, and i do often feel pretty bad about it despite knowing it's not my fault.

but these people have chosen to be my family. and if they ever want to stop choosing me then they absolutely can. and if they need more from me or they need something Different from me, then they'll literally just tell me.

(i know they will literally just tell me because all three of them have literally just told me in the past. they're three people i can implicitly trust to say things like "hey, this thing you said made me sad / was unhelpful" and "hey, i'm really stressed out about [x thing], can we make a plan to deal with it?" and "hey, this situation is pretty serious and i know that you don't want to face it but i really need you to. i will take on whatever i can for you and support you the whole time")

so: yes it has been hard to some extent, managing three relationships while also being sick. but it is also a wonderful setup with a million unthought-of advantages & i am much better cared-for and much better AT caring because of it & i fucking Shudder to think how horrific being sick would be without them.

i love my family so much.

[klm-zoflorr]

@decafeined-moth was having some issues working out how to post on AO3, so I thought "hey, why not make a step-by-step post dedicated to this, this way it can help other people too?" So here's the

Guide On How To Post On AO3 For Noobs

First, keep in mind that 1) AO3 is a website with a lot of functionnalities and it's normal that it seems a bit intimidating. Thankfully, you can just plain ignore some of them, and only use them when you've learned what they mean! 2) If you need any more information about what some options mean, you can click on the small blue question mark! They provide information that is imo pretty helpful. Or you can ask me, I'd gladly answer any questions you have! And 3) All of the information that we're gonna fill out now is modifiable later. So if you make a mistake or you realise something doesn't fit, don't stress!

So, for starters, you're gonna need to have your first chapter already written out before creating the work. Well, you can technically write it on the website itself, but the page might reload and you'd then lose everything. So rather use google docs, or the notes on your phone, or emails, or anything of that nature.

You also need an AO3 account to post, i'll try to link another post regarding this particular matter.

First step: Go on the top of the website, and click on "post" -> "new work"

Second step: The tags

"Not rated" and "Choose not to use archive warnings" are basically the default for rating and archive warning, essentially the "i don't know". You should try to tweak them as soon as you understand what they stand for, but it isn't necessary.

"fandoms" is a very important one. You're gonna enter the name of your fandom. It could be Lord Of The Rings, Star Wars, Hermitcraft, RPF (Real People Fiction), and a whole ton of other fandoms. Chances are if it's a book or movie or even youtube series, there already are works for it. If you don't know how your fandom is called, use the search function on AO3 and it'll probably come back with SOMETHING.

Categories: Is there a main romantic relationship between two characters in your work? If yes, then select the kind: Female/Female relationship, Female/Male, Male/Male. Or select "Gen" if it isn't the case, it means General.

Relationships: relationships in your work. They're either 1)Romantic relationships, separated by a slash (Blorbo/Shitto) 2)Platonic relationships, separated by a "and" (Borbo & Shitto). I am unsure of where Queerplatonic relationships stand in regards to this. Do not type in ship names (ex: reylo, destiel,...)

Characters: names of characters that appear in your work. This category auto fills as well. It's usually not considered very polite to put in characters that are only briefly mentionned in a throwaway line in your work, however it's perfectly fine if you intend to mention them more later. It's alright to tag them if they briefly appear, or if they're thought about for a big portion of it. Basically, if you could cut them out and nothing changes, maybe don't tag them.

Additional tags: You can basically enter whatever information you want to inform your reader of that didn't fit in the previous categories there. Ex: Fluff, angst, hurt no comfort, Protective Shitto, carrots, Time-travel, Established blorbo/shitto & any additional comment you want to add, like "i wrote that at 3am". People sometimes add in whether the work has been beta'ed or not with "no beta we die like men" or fandom-specific "we die like [name]" (ex: We die like Kenny, We die like Scar, We die like Ice Pick Joe), but it is by no means necessary

You're gonna have to add a work title and a summary of your fic. Summaries can be a lot of stuff including an extract from your fic, an actual summary, a series of open-ended questions made for the reader to want to find out what it's about,... Be creative with it!

Finally, you can check or uncheck the "notes" boxes to add author notes!

Now we're getting into the complicated/superfluous part. Thankfully you can just ignore most of it! You may learn what it means later, or not, but it does offer some great additional options!

We need to focus on this part tho:

Ignore the "set a different publication date".

If your work is gonna have multiple chapters, you should check the "this work is gonna have multiple chapters". Then you should enter the number of chapters. You don't have to name the first chapter if you don't want to, if you leave it blank it will simply show as "Chapter 1"

You need to choose a work language

You may now finally enter your first chapter/the text of your one-shot!

The website works with html, which means that to make some text italicised or bold you gonna need to enter a special set of characters before and after. You can find some explanations online very easily. Or, it also work in rich text, it switches to it if you click the "rich text" button.

We're finally done! You can then click on "preview" if you want to check the formatting, or "post" it directly!

[mgentamn]

movies i watched yesterday

yesterday i finally watched insidious the red door. im not sure what i expected but i was disappointed. i wasnt very engaged with the movie the way i am with others but from what i did see, i just wasn't impressed. when i was younger i always thought that insidious was 1 of the scariest horror movie franchises ever so i never watched any of them. anyways starting off. the part where the dad was in the mri machine and saw the thing crawling towards him was so stupid. like umm ok. and then the part when the main guy, i dont even remember his name was at the party and saw the guy throwing up everywhere. i mean ok that's kinda creepy i guess especially when he was telling him to close the door but other than that i was just bored. the part that made me the most irritated was the part when the song by tiny tim was playing. i was hoping that that would be left in the first movie. imo tiny tims songs are actually really good. I dont find his voice or songs to be creepy the way i used too when i first heard them. my whole problem with this movie is that they tried too hard to make it scary. like ok jumpscares and creepy music and songs by tiny tim. but at what point do ppl not get bored with that. like all horror movies after 2010 are basically the same. they're all so boring and repetitive and try too hard to be scary that they just end up not being scary at all. jumpscares only go so far. without jumpscares, the red door wouldn't have been memorable or 'scary' at all imo bc the plot itself really wasnt that scary, memorable or intresting. and another thing. i feel like movies that focus on just 1 monster/entity tend to be more interesting bc in this movie, there were like 3/4 different monsters. the main one i guess, the thing in the mri machine and then the demon tht kept throwing up. like atp who or what am i even supposed to be afraid of. it was just all over the place. 3/10 rating from me i hated it

the babadook: ok this movie did creep me out a bit. what scared me is the lighting and the setting of the house and everything like that. the depressing nature of the house especially since the dad had died was done really well. the book itself was weird and i thought the design of the babadook was pretty creepy and creative. he looked creepy especially when he was on the tv. i also got scared when the mom started changing and the way she killed the dog was like. ew. no. and also the way the babadooks voice sounded whenever it said its name was freaky so yeah. other than that i was neutral about it. what i will say though is that i hate parents in horror movies 🤦‍♀️ like the little boy literally pushed the girl down and would talk nonstop about how he had to kill the babadook and like first off if that was my child i would question why they were even thinking about killing things 24/7, and why he was constantly talking about some character in that way. and the mom the whole time was just like '😄' like girl no. i hate the trope of adults being passive abt weird things their kids do just bc 'they're kids.' Like when has that ever played out well

[corsairoriginal]

Understand right off, everything Steph says here is 100% correct. 100%.

However.

I rarely see anyone talking about it, but to not pick up that Garten of Banban is aggressively autistic is to miss a vital part of the experience.

I am hypnotized by Let’s Plays of people outsise of a specific flavor of ASD trying to comprehend Garten of Banban in the same way @patricia-taxxon is compelled by "the Rodfellows Movie" in her video "On the Ethics of Boinking Animal People."

The mere fact that mascot horror seems to turn on something in so many autistic brains is a pretty good indicator. But the MS Paint art? The monotone deliveries of the voice cast? Really embarrassing comedy and dependence on puns? Cameos by characters from other games? The fog of "amateur hour" that permeates every decision?

The part that cinches my armchair diagnosis is the complete lack of awareness of how interactions, bonds, or friendships work. Like, on a basic level. Every single chapter is "a monster chases you, and in a later chapter (sometimes the very next one) the monster apologies and now is friends with the player character."

That's so ridiculous. It happens over and over and over and the player has zero agency in the matter. Because we're just supposed to accept having any of these completely unlikable characters as friends is desirable. They said they're sorry! Come on, guys! Don't you wanna be friends with horribly-sculpted monster people?!?!?! Those are way better than humans!

It's madness. Beautiful, stupid madness.

I regret that the Euphoric Brothers were so richly rewarded for their first effort, because the importance of improving is now not there. They are not game designers, they are not storytellers, and I'm not sure they understand they can't ride their current skill forever.

The only people not laughing at them are other autistic people, children, or autistic children.

I dunno, I think about how bad my first attempts at anything creative were and how much worse off I'd actually be if just.......if I was monetarily rewarded for it.

Not that being rewarded would have been bad. Just artistically bad. Hope for my future bad.

[cowchickenbeefpork]

Okay so rvb is not like hazbin in any way i can assure you that but it is vulgar (albeit funnier about it) and those have "edgy" comedy as a result of being made in 2003.

Red vs blue starts out as a comedy skit made in halo and is honestly? really unique as a show because of it. Since Halo has a lot of limitations on what you can do on-screen the entire show hindges on being entertaining soley through dialouge and that means giving every character an interesting personality so that everyone has a entertaining dyanmic with each other. and so they manage to make silly "daily life" convos entertaining, like arguing if you say monkeying around or monkeying about. and the comedic timing? fucking brilliant im amazed a majority of the cast aren't professional VAs because everything seems so organic

Red Team and Blue team have been told to kill each other, but as soldiers they're too stupid and incompetent to actually do so and instead get into a bunch of shenanigans. The first five seasons are very silly and low-stakes before shit hits the fucking fan in season 6. not to mention the soundtrack and fight scenes being INCREDIBLY creative and well-timed

the show deals with a lot of different themes like how grief can destroy you if you don't learn to move on. Questioning the military complex and the hierarchy set in place by capitalism and how people in power will always throw away human lives in pursit of more power. Humanity and someones lack of, can AI learn to be human? can humans forget their humanity? learning how to see enemies as real people, and that hating someone because you've been told to hinders progress. Sometimes there isn't a good or bad. sometimes you've just hurt others simply for being different from you. and above all that forgiveness of one self and forgiveness of others is the only way forward. a person can't grow surronded by hate.

Does it have flaws? yeah ofc, as a fandom we love to make jokes and complain abt how the show could've done better. But i genuinely don't think there's anything like rvb, its one of a kind.

Also this ended up being ALOT longer than i meant for it to be.......oops. but i guess its a testament of how much love i have for the show. So imo i think its worthwhile if you can handle early 2000's offensiveness and the plot being nonexistent for a while. Also the show SEEMS long (13 seasons) but the episodes are so short that the seasons are basically just 1-2 hours long. like a movie, so uh yeah! and if you have any more questions im always open to talk more abt it ^_^

AAAAAAA ALRIGHTY!!!! i think i can handle that, ill put it on my watchlist it sounds interesting!

[missmeganlee]

Thanks for the tag @myyoungroyalsblog 💜

Where were you born? China

Are you named after anyone? I'm named after my Nana; my mom's mom

What's your eye colour? Brown

What sports do you play/used to play? I played soccer (football) when I was super little. Then in high school I played volleyball for a year and fenced saber for 2 years

Favourite subject in school? Music, French, and English

How tall are you? 5'1.5 lol

Do you use sarcasm a lot? YES so much I'm basically fluent in sarcasm

What's the first thing you notice about people? What they're wearing and how they hold themselves

Scary movies or happy endings? Happy endings 100%

Any special talents? I play the flute and I'm double jointed in my arms and fingers

What are your hobbies? Reading, music, bullet journaling; legos when I have a new set to make

When was the last time you cried? June 25th (4 days ago)

Do you have pets? 2 dogs and 1 cat

Do you have kids? Nope (but I refer to my students as my kids lol)

Dream job? I'm honestly not sure. Something where I can make my own schedule and be creative. I don't think I'm cut out for a desk job

No pressure tags: @zee-has-commitment-issues @allthefakepeople @justfriendsbestthings @piebingo @frogprincesnowglobe