#it's giving me uncanny valley from some of them honestly

[eurovision-del]

The first semi final of Pesma za Evroviziju is starting soon, but I’ve managed to finalise my ranking of all 28 competing entries this year just in time!

Filarri – Ko je ta žena

Zejna – Najbolja

Keni nije mrtav – Dijamanti

Marko Mandić – Dno

Kavala – Vavilon

Konstrakta – Novo, bolje

Breskvica – Gnezdo orlovo

Filip Baloš – Duga je noć

Zorja – Lik u ogledalu

Hydrogen – Nemoguća misija

Hristina – Bedem

CHAI – Sama

Yanx – Kolo

Džordži – Luna park

Nadia – Sudari

Iva Lorens – Dom

Ivana Vladović – Jaka

Teya Dora – Ramonda

Dušan Kurtić – Zbog tebe živim

Durlanski – Muzika

M.IRA – Percepcija

Kat Dosa – Tajni začin

Martina Vrbos – Da me voliš

Saša B��ša & Virtual Ritual – Elektroljubav

Lena Kovačević – Zovi me Lena

Milan Bujaković – Moje-tvoje

Nemanja Radošević – Jutra bez tebe

Bojana & David – No No No

I never really think of Serbia as having one of the national finals I always look forward to, but looking back over the past few years I’ve been really positive about their selections, and this year is no exception! I had a great time listening to all these songs – I give every song a score out of 10 to help me put my rankings together, and this selection has the highest average score out of every national final this year.

Because of that, choosing a favourite was hard! I was very excited to see both Filip Balos and Konstrakta back, and both delivered, but there was also so much else here that really appealed to me. I love the opening of Vavilon, it’s really beautiful, and I think the overall sound of the song that follows is great too. I also love sound of Dno, the folk beat created by the drums and strings is so catchy and makes me want to move to it, there’s a real fire to it. Another song that gets me going is Najbolja, with how fast paced and energetic is it. I do love those guitars too, that very rapid percussive rhythm they use honestly wouldn’t sound out of place in a metal song, but works super well here too. It’s enough to just outrank Dijamanti, which is my favourite of the rock songs on offer here (not that the others are bad!). Finally, Filarri’s entry this year is such a huge step up from his attempt last year! A lot of songs in this selection are very full on, creating a very intense sound, which to be fair is probably why I’m so excited about the selection in general, but Ko je ta žena is the absolute pinnacle of it, with the way the beat hits. I especially love it in the second verse where it’s punctuated by the strings, every single beat ramps up the tension! I want to turn up this song to full volume and just lose myself in it!

Serbia have so many options – I’d be thrilled with any of my top 9 here, and think they’d all have a lot of potential at Eurovision, but there’s also plenty further down my list that’s promising. Hopefully the I enjoy the live performances as much as I enjoyed the studio tracks!

[vasyandii]

Hello! I just wanted to say that I absolutely adore your IHNMAIMS oc. I'm a OC x canon enthusiast and seeing a character so well written and adapted to the story as Vernon is makes me so excited!! Plus your art is literally amazing. I've been curious since you mentioned how Vernon cuts potions of her meal to give them to AM and how the food improved since AM got his body, what food/meals do Vernon and AM like/dislike/have as favourite? -for AM, at least from what he has tasted- Whether if it's because of the taste, flavour, etc.

Howdy Anon! Thank you so much for the kind words, I've been giddy since I got it a few days ago! I'm glad my OC x Canon content gets your stamp of Approval >:D!! 💞💞

VernonAM 🏺🖥️ Food Preferences

I think Vernon is careful in choosing the food she shares with AM because he will eat literally ANYTHING. She would try to eat things to torture herself with, extremely spicy foods, live insects, raw organs, etc. but then remember that she has to "Feed AM". So she opts out for something normal so his taste buds don't get fucked.

Or as normal as it can get, the food kind of has the uncanny valley effect as well. It looks normal and tastes normal, but she feels there's something a bit off about it (kind of like airplane food). So she often leaves criticism to the Chef™ (AM) or asks to cook instead.

Vernon isn't particularly picky when it comes to food, she'll eat it and clean her plate. She likes her food balanced, vegetables/meat with sauce and all that. If it tastes good, she'll eat it, y'know?

AM is more... difficult. Sure, he'll eat anything, but if it tastes really bad, it'll traumatize him and he'll refuse to eat it for a while.

His food has to not be touching, if it's mixed in all together beforehand he'll eat it. If there's sauce it shouldn't be close enough to where it can contaminate the food AM's eating because he WILL taste it, no matter how small the amount is. His utensils need to be a specific size, and the food HAS to be hot/warm. He needs to be able to see or know every ingredient in it.

It's observed that AM likes fried foods/anything crunchy because of how consistent they are in taste, texture, and flavour. So what ends up happening is Vernon will just include those foods into her meal, just to not eat it and have it on a little plate for him.

Vernon asks him why he can't just make food for himself, his response is "I don't need to eat, I eat when when you eat."

But honestly it's a pretty dumb question now that she's looking back on it. AM has all the knowledge in the world about food, everything ever made, everything he's never tasted. So he's basically asking Her, indirectly, "I don't know where to start or what's good. But you do. I trust you. Feed me."

Now here's some of the meals They've had together (+ AM's comments):

Chicken soup ("Too wet", just ate the broth)

Caesar Salad ("Damp, Crunchy water")

Vanilla ice cream (experienced a brain freeze for the first time, thought his body was malfunctioning)

Spaghetti Bolognese ("No I will not be mixing it, you mix it for me")

Western beef stew (He picked out the potatoes and only ate those. Thought the meat was irritating to eat.)

Baby carrots. ("You know they bleach these, right?")

Asparagus (he likes them. Needs to be warm)

Broccoli (same thing)

Cheese Pizza (Ate it, ate too much. Tummy hurted.)

Tempura (Ate too much, tummy hurted)

Fish and chips (Ate too much, tummy hurted)

Coffee, black (spat it out)

Macaroni and cheese (Ate too much, tummy hurted)

Grilled chicken hearts skewers (He liked it, but kept poking the roof of his mouth with the skewer.)

Half a Hamburger (picked out the vegetables because he didn't like them, still tasted it and gave the rest to Vernon)

Half a cheeseburger (ate it with no fuss.)

Aaand that'll be all for now :) if you made it this far, thank you for reading! If you need any clarifications, feel free to tell me!

[snalsupremacy]

Why this is my favorite panel in hgsn

Hgsn has some incredible art and page composition, but out of the entire manga so far, to me this is the best panel of them all. Hell, this might be my favorite panel of any manga ever. (Note: Due to respecting the scanlator's wishes, I blanked out the dialogue and replaced all necessary dialogue with the official English source)

1- Build-up

Before I get to the panel itself, lets first talk about the pages before: For context, this is in chapter 2. Yoshiki has just found out about "Hikaru", and its trying to adjust to this new reality. As they walk from school to Yoshiki's house, Yoshiki asks him if he killed Hikaru. This is how the previous two pages look like:

Notice how the half shading effect is done in hatch marks. This is the first sign the all-black shading is a stylistic choice used to convey something.

Look at the balance the two pages form when you put them together: half white, half black, half black, half white. They compliment each other, both in color balance and in panel shape.

We have to turn the page to hear Hikaru's answer to Yoshiki's question. This gives the control of the narrative back to the viewer. This creates tension and build-up to it, it is a common tactic famously employed by Junji Ito in his famous "page-turner" moments where the viewer has to turn the page to see the monster. Except in this instance we are not revealing monsters, or are we?

2- The page

I'm not gonna get into too much detail on the page itself, I just want to point out the juxtaposition between the page composition of this page and the previous two. The last two were balanced and had all the panels closed while this one is much more liberal, bringing a feeling of unbalance, like something just shifted. I'd say the black and white balance is still there, with the Hikaru on white and Yoshiki on black panel side by side and all, which actually brings me to my next point:

3- Black and White

Honestly this could be an entire analysis post of itself, where do I even start?! Let's go from the very beginning. This is the very first time we learn of "Hikaru" :

Notice how the panel is colored black. In fact, throughout the story, we see black panels being spoken by "Hikaru", usually right before he does something unnatural:

And here are the only two instances we see of the Brain-snatcher's true form:

• He's literally a black blob, just like the text bubbles! And now combine that with Hikaru's white hair, and the fact his name means to be bright, and what's the brightest color but white, and there is a clear color symbolism going on:

Hikaru=White

"Hikaru"=Black

4-The Panel

And now we're back to the original panel! Taking all the other points in mind, we can analyze the panel itself

First, his expression. My G-d, his expression! His raised eyebrows and his squinted eyes, making his pupils way larger, make the expression seem almost childish and pitiful. But the half black-out face turns this pity look to an ominous one. Not being able to see the face or having your face obstructed is easy path into the uncanny valley, which I think is the case for this scene. Immediately 180 from "aww the poor guy" to "what is he hiding?"

The white panel says "I like you" while the black panel says "I'm crazy for you". HOWEVER, The white bubble is by the black side of his face and the black bubble is by the white side of his face. So which Hikaru is saying that? Is "Hikaru" crazy for Yoshiki, while Hikaru just liked him, or the other way around? Did the original Hikaru ever love Yoshiki, or is that the monster's feelings? Well we don't know! That's the premise of the whole manga! In one panel!

And that's why it's my favorite :)

[infernothechaosgod]

One thing imma be real one thing i don't like about some mouseverse comics is that some characters just straight up look so human, and honestly I think that theres some good missed potential with some of them like the phantom blot la creatura

Before I got into the comics for good I thought the phantom blot was suppoust to be a human and that was one of the reasons why he freaked mickey out so much bc he's just straight up activating his uncanny valley/ is somewhere where he's just straight up not suppoust to be so he doesnt look like anything mickey's seen yet but apparently he's suppoust to be a dog

I think blots design is very good without his mask he looks like one of these rich people way over their head (its bc of the mustache, brows and half closed eyes half of the time im telling you he looks like he has 500$ of spare change in his pocket at all times )

(He'd rob me out of my money on etsy)

But blots design really doesnt look like a dog and I honestly think for him thats a strenght for a couple of reasons I dont wanna fully write out here bc id be getting into character design study for like 4 pager out here but the main point is Blot is the villian and a well masked one on top of that his design being highly diffrent from others is a good thing bc he's already not like others he stands out and he's evil and he's suppoust to be creepy so I think not really looking like a dog despite teachnicly being one has its purpose and even metaphor to it if you wanna go that route (maybe bc he views himself so above everyone and so humanized compared to them that he ends up sticking out, because he is so above them he's no longer one of them and its visible in his design)

But the points above start to fall flat and explode like a comicly large firework when you consider eeeeeh

All these are background/one off characters so I understand why the designs arent exactly thought out on the same level as main characters that would honestly be ridiculous but some of them just don't look like any animals and some straight up look like humans with slightly altered face structure

And that unfortunately also goes for my best girl samantha

ily but you do not look like a dog girl T T

When I was first reading that comic i thought she got the "kitty kat" treatment but turns out its just a thing for one off/side characters

Also there are some alternative designs for already existing characters that look more human in animation that arent used for some reason probably bc the animation and comic departaments being quite diffrent and also having a giant brick ball between eachother or disney just refusing to re-brand or re-design things that are already somehow well known

Comic o'hara design ^^^

Animated o'hara design ^^^

There very slightly diffrent but I can easily tell animated o'hara is a dog while the comic ver had me a bit confused (especialy since I didnt see the ears at first)

Also o'charas first apperance IN COMIC FORM looks alot more charming to me for some reason, the same goes for other police officers

he's so fat here I love it

They look alot cuter that way imo I like their snouts alot more in that form Plus they do the side eye every dog ever gives you at some point you know exactly what im talking about 🫵🫵🫵🫵

I dont know it could just be me being picky but I feel like there would be some ways of making the side characters look more animal but still easy to draw and design, maybe something like character base's for diffrent animal species that can get altered for diffrent one off/side characters...or giving the comic artist more time to do their job crazy idea i know

Idk like i said it could just be me being picky but I just don't like that and think there are some ways to change that

This is just my opinion and rambling though so lemme know what you think maybe im missing something or you preffer them that way Id love to hear others opinion since I know there are ppl out there who put alot more thinking abt the mouseverse than i did and probably ever will

ye

[detectivemaker]

Keep imagining scenes in my head involving  a character with hypnotic eye powers tricking character who wears glasses into looking them in the eye by taking them off and then putting them back on with them using the powers full blast in front of them

I honestly do believe my OC Michael would do this trick

And now that I've recently added billford into the collage of ships i will go down with  i can't help but think of a scene like that with those two

Imagine if you will and hey you where the therapy Dimension does work on Bill and he comes out of it a genuinely  changed triangle,   he sent back to Earth his powers intact( minus lasers and body  horror capabilities)

He and Stanford restart their relationship, but there is a little hitch

Sanford is still the workaholic  he has always been,  and  bill never did like seeing the guy  over work himself

And seeing as he won't listen to  his suggestion of taking a little nap break of his own free will that's only one solution

For its attention is pulled from his very important research by his vision becoming suddenly and unexplanably very blurry, he which is up a six-fingered hand to find that this glasses are completely gone from his face, he only has time to swivel around in his chair and try to get a blurry look to see where they are before his vision  comes back to him when something

Or someone puts his glasses back on,  his mind only has a second to register the circular pool of Rippling black and yellow before his mind goes completely silent under its allowing sway

And then he's out cold,  bill teleports them both back to bed and they  have a long conversation in the mindscape about how  ford needs to take care of himself better (this isn't the first and Bill knows it  won't be the last you have this conversation) 

Another scene that comes to my head takes place during weirdmageddon

But having grown tired at the resilience six or had put up with all the physical torture up to that point,  besides a little mental manipulation is called for

Ford  knew exactly what that horrid triangle was intending to do the moment a hand grabbed him by the chin and forced eyes to eye contact

Bill had transformed into a mockery of the human body, falling squarely in The Uncanny Valley, he smiles his too many teeth grin down at the aged man,  as  the defiant anger on the man's face slowly slipped from him

He whispered sweet nothings into the man's ear, promises of a life together conquering the Galaxy, " we rule together  sixer old pal, just you me and the Gang, doesn't that sound nice"

Cyphers smile only grows larger when Ford gives him an enthusiastic nod

"  just give me that code,  and I'll let you be the personal god king of this planet baby"

The little bit of four that still has his sense screams at the rest of him to wake up from this horrid creatures seduction, he nearly loses himself completely as his mouth opens to do as he is commanded

But luckily one of the Hench maniacs interrupts  just in time,  the slam of the door opening put Stanford back in the driving seat of his own mind, 

bill nearly turns the creature inside out for  daring to interrupt their we time

But  unluckily for Ford it puts Bill back in the mood for some more torture

[mancer-in-the-abbey]

This coding course is kicking my ass, have some general ghoul headcanons, one for each of them

Phantom/Aeon: New Bug, as ever, strikes me as a “fake it till you make it” kind of guy. As such, it kinda makes me feel like he’d be a theater kid if given the chance, and although I think he’d get a kick out of musicals (Phantom of the Opera, ha ha), I think specifically he’d be into improv. Like, there is no chance his comfort show ISN’T Whose Line Is It Anyway. The minute someone introduced him to D&D, it’s over for everyone.

Aurora: I think she has a soft spot for classic opera pieces. It really lets her go all out in a technical sense, use her range to its fullest extent. It’s stereotypical, but her favorite aria is the Queen of the Night. It’s so damn fun to do this quick jumps in scale in such quick succession!

Sunshine: MASSIVE sweet tooth. Like, yes she knows her corporeal form is fragile and she needs to take care of it, and she does to some extent! She keeps very fit! But fuck if she doesn’t just devour a pound cake if she’s given the opportunity. Will absolutely get a hell of a stomach ache after, but in her mind it’s worth it. Hey, at least she takes good care of her teeth to match!

Rain: A fan of Dancing With The Stars! Though he himself is not known to be all that steady on his feet, he loves watching people who aren’t traditionally considered athletic be put into a professional dance setting and either crash and burn or get better over time. He honestly doesn’t care about the celebrity aspect in the least, barely pays attention to the slice-of-life interviews before the dances themselves, but MAN does he love to pick apart someone’s performance and try to guess what the judges will give before the scores are announced.

Cumulus: Wasn’t initially a gamer, she more preferred to watch those who were have fun in the ghoul common room, but she didn’t have much else to do during the pandemic so… yeah, she just CONSUMED everything Rain sent her way. Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Portal and Portal 2x Hades, the entire Resident Evil franchise up to that point, even DOOM Eternal funny enough. She’s kept up with since then, but still has massive fondness for Animal Crossing.

Cirrus: Loves gem stones and precious metals! She has a real crow instinct but is kinda picky about it, like she’ll get fixated on a shiny gold hair clip with rinestones on it but if it feels too cheep in her hands she’ll lose interest entirely. Even still, her jewelry collection is LARGE. One expensive magpie, that woman, but she shares with the other ghouls if they ask so it evens out.

Swiss: It doesn’t fully mesh with go-to interpretation of him but I once read a headcanon that posited Swiss being able to replicate sounds to an uncanny degree and I am bringing it back here because I love it so damn much, kinda plays into being a little bit of every ghoul. I like to think if you startle Swiss he’ll forget to use his normal voice and just goes straight to the sound effects board. Phantom accidentally pops in from nowhere? Sudden air horn blast. Dew tackling him to the ground? The sound of a car going past you. Mountain stepping on his tail? Fire alarm. Someone kicks him in the balls? Microphone feedback. For a while.

Mountain: He likes eating rocks and precious metals. It’s already a thing with some subsets of earth ghoul, but like for Mountain it’s at a higher level. His preferred snack is those semi-precious rocks you get at tourist attractions, he will just chow down on it like popcorn. When that’s not available, however, he uses salt to sate the the itch. Dude keeps a salt lamp in his room that he uses as a salt lick when no one’s looking. This also extends to novelty items MADE of salt. Those Himalayan salt shot glasses? One-use only. Go straight into his mouth.

Aether: One of those tricks Omega showed him during era 3 is how to use your own quintessence on yourself, something generally considered to be very hard to do amongst quint ghouls. Aether has tweaked and expanded on this ability and has learned how to… basically hotbox but with quintosis. Not something he does often cause it’s draining but sometimes it’s nice to unwind on a near molecular level. Among the few he shares this ability with are Dew, Mountain, and Swiss. He’ll teach the new bug when he feels he’s ready for that kind of power…

Dewdrop: is actually a really good cook! Like really good, actually. He got really into watching Food Network when he first came to Earth which evolved into watching older cooking shows. This further evolved into experimenting with his own recipes. He’s also taught Mountain everything he knows about how to handle the kitchen, so they tend to share cooking duty between the two of them. No one’s complained yet!

[shizunitis]

teacher teacher teacher what's your favorite Binghe face from the donghua??? And what's your favorite of Shizun? I know you got to have lots!

(also the donghua fascinates me so much because they make them look like such perfect models and yet they have to give them human facial expressions so it's like not quite an uncanny valley effect but constantly flirting with the uncanny which just fascinates me to watch)

the donghua being so… goofy, at times, as well as flirting with the uncanny (which is the perfect descriptor, thank you so much) is sometimes deeply jarring.

one moment i’m looking at my beautiful perfect shizun, in awe of his grace, and the next he has the weirdest attempt at a smile on his face. however the donghua project is very dear to us starving children and i couldn’t ask for a better adaptation honestly. it’s fitting 🙂‍↕️

i’ve added (some of, i’m on mobile and thus, suffering) my favourite stills under the cut. it’s my first try at editing things properly and. i am. unconfident shall we say

Binghe:

And, oh… Shizun…

i tried. i swear i did

[tamlinrose]

NuWho Characters as The Entities (TMA)

9th Doctor- The Desolation.

He is fresh off the time war, where millions were sacrificed in flame. He is the main cause of death of his entire people and rose like a phoenix from the ashes. DEFINITELY the desolation

Rose- The Eye.

Come on, she becomes an all knowing goddess of Time. How could Bad Wolf NOT be the Eye??

Captain Jack Harkness- The End.

He literally dies over and over and over. Even though he can’t permanently die, I’d say he’s feeding The End some good cosmic horror

The Tenth Doctor- The Lonely.

Pretty self explanatory. He desires companionship so much, but everyone leaves him, whether by choice or force. In the end, he is all alone. And regenerates knowing that for all the connections he made, none could stay. Sad wet boy

Martha- The Hunt.

I debated this one, but I think especially her traveling across the world with the sheer determination to defeat the Master shows her becoming the predator instead of the prey. She also becomes a unit soldier, and her arc is her adopting the soldier mentality the doctor so hates about himself onto herself out of survival.

Donna- The Spiral.

Her whole arc is around not being able to trust herself, her own mind because she’s been told she isn’t clever or worthwhile so many times. Not to mention Fear Her, where everything about the World is Not Right and she’s at the center of the wrongness vortex.

Sarah Jane- The Web.

She’s a journalist, she’s constantly picking at threads, finding out information she shouldn’t have, weaving it to her will. I also think that the doctor dropping her off and ditching her without her consent is playing into the fear of having your life puppeted by forces outside of your control.

11th Doctor- The Stranger.

Idk something about him… his penchant for theatrics, his burning desire to be human but always being just slightly left of human behavior, mannerisms. It’s like he’s mimicking the humanity he wants so bad, but it just gives him the uncanny valley affect that makes him even more alien than ever.

River- also the Web

She is scared of being controlled by forces beyond her. She was brainwashed into wanting to kill the doctor and ultimately it is not her will that pushes her to do so. She lives to be free of influence but she is controlled by the outside forces of the time stream discrepancies that keep her and the doctor apart.

Amy- The Flesh.

Okay this is for silly goofy reasons, but the fact she was LITERALLY a flesh avatar for like a full season really sells it for me. Not to mention a lot of her arc is very centered on body horror (pregnancy without her knowledge, giving birth, not being able to have kids, etc).

Rory: Also an avatar of The End.

He just dies so many times man, him and captain Jack should go to couples therapy or smthn

12: The Dark.

Okay hear me out. It’s the oldest fear entity, which I think really folds in with 12s general air of wisdom and the fact he’s been around a fucking long time. Also, he has that entire episodes where he tries to find out what lives in the dark at the end of the universe, and what lives under the bed that absolutely does not wish to be seen.

Clara: Also The Desolation

She is sooooo self destructive man. Especially after Danny Pink dies, she’s willing to burn it all to the ground. Her eventual demise is because she is impulsive to a fault, and in some ways it could be argued she has a death wish.

Bill: The Vast

She just gives me that childlike wonder for new worlds and the open sky. IK this seems like pretty vague reasoning but I think like Simon Fairchild she just loves the vastness of the universe so much that she eventually goes travelling with star eyed girl to see it all.

13: also The Vast

Citing that youthful wonder again. Honestly I don’t know much about 13 or her companions so if you have Headcanons for Yaz, Ryan, Graham and 13 hmu! Tag them below

The War Doctor: The Extinction

Self explanatory. He’s the doctor who ends it all, his entire species. And that choice defines and haunts him into future incarnations.

The Master: The Slaughter

Senseless chaotic violence for the sake of violence. Sounds pretty on brand.

If you have any contradictions, additional thoughts, or help on 13s era I’d love to hear it in the tags!!!

[h-worksrambles]

I have a real bug bear with this strange assumption I see in a lot of online discussion of Engage. That if you didn’t like Engage’s story you must be some Three Houses newbie who doesn’t know what Fire Emblem is.

My dude, this ain’t my first rodeo. I’ve played a pretty good chunk of the series at this point. I played Blazing Blade and Sacred Stones. I played Awakening and Shadows of Valentia. More recently I finished both Tellius games and Genealogy of the Holy War. I know Fire Emblem writing can and has been far better than whatever the hell they were doing with Engage. Hell, I like Three Houses but I don’t think it’s the best Fire Emblem story by a long shot. I could write a whole other piece on my complicated relationship with that game’s writing.

Playing the other games just better highlights to me how Engage is definitely trying to tell a story that harkens back to those games, but routinely comes up short. It wants to be breezy and colourful like the GBA games, but its aesthetic and character design is far less cohesive than any of those three games. It wants to cleverly marry gameplay with story like the SNES Jugdral games but is too scared to let its player punches last longer than a chapter. It wants to key into Awakening’s simple yet heartfelt nostalgic template but fails to clear even that middling bar due to an inability to set up any of its big emotional moments. It repurposes multiple plot points and story concepts from Fates, but doesn’t really improve on any of its shortcomings in setup and character writing.

Most of all, it’s at war with itself, unable to decide whether to be a campy romp that is pure self indulgent fanservice, or a more heartfelt story with genuine dramatic moments. It opens with a wonderfully cheesy tokusatsu esque transformation sequence and never reaches that level of camp again until near the very end. Meanwhile, there are rare moments of genuinely good character stuff. But they’re the exception to the rule as most of the story’s big emotional moments are utterly lacking in buildup. The writers just had a cool scene in mind and didn’t bother to put the work in to earn any of them. What we get is an uncanny valley that ends up simply being boring. It’s too dry and self serious to embrace its naive camp. And it’s too phoned in and sloppily written to really be earnest. There’s a burgeoning theme of family and self identity that’s begging to be explored more but never goes anywhere. Between Alear’s past and hints of a character arc, the clumsy half integration of the Emblems, and other half formed concepts and characters like Veyle, Lumera and Sombron, Engage is a story with a finger in several pies at once, but never placing more than the tip on any of them.

It’s not ‘just a simple story’. Shadows of Valentia and Sacred Stones are simple stories. Engage is honestly one of the more out there and wild plots in the series. Nor is it ‘not taking itself seriously’. It’s absolutely trying to make you feel something. But it rushes through and fumbles every good idea it has. Engage reminds me more of modern Pokémon than anything. It wants to play at being a big RPG. It wants to make you sit through hours and hours of cutscenes, give you a huge colourful cast of characters, and end on a big anime-esque finale. But its dialogue and cutscenes are flat, the characters never hit their full potential, and the big hype moments are totally unearned and out of left field.

If Engage’s story really was just safe and simple, I wouldn’t even mind. If it had more respect for the player’s time, and trimmed down its cutscene length, acknowledging that it’s not doing anything ambitious and just letting you get to the gameplay quicker, that would be fine. Conversely, if it actually did go all the way with any of its half formed themes and characters, it could be genuinely interesting. Hell, it could even have a been a totally bat shit, campy spectacle thar leaned utterly into the cheese and I’d probably have loved it. But it’s none of those things. It’s just incompetently put together. Sloppy, irritating and painfully dry.

The unending Three Houses Vs Engage discourse just misses the forest for the trees. That not only has Fire Emblem not fixed it’s worst writing habits in over 10 years, they’ve actually gotten worse.

It’s apparently too much to ask for a story that can walk the line between falling apart under the weight of its own ambition, or doing the bare minimum and relying on melodramatic spectacle to hide its own shallowness.

It’s too much to ask for a game that is able to give its main character real depth and flaws to grapple with because that would get in the way of the player’s power fantasy, letting them feel like the world’s most special little chosen one who everyone loves unconditionally.

It’s too much to ask for a 50 hour RPG with over 7 hours of cutscenes to reach even the standard level of acceptable-to-good generic fantasy writing that most of its franchise’s predecessors reached.

Engage’s story isn’t a ‘return to form’ because it’s ‘simple.’ It’s not ‘prioritising gameplay over story’. They were trying to tell a story and failed, nothing more to it. It’s an anniversary game that tries to harken back to the series’ past but only repeats its worst qualities with none of the strengths.

[eating-plastic]

Getting back into self shipping

So in case the few reblogs here and there didn't give it away, yeah I'm back into self shipping after falling out of love with it for some time. Here's an intro to my f/os because I realized I never actually properly introduced them before (whoops!). There are also a few ground rules I have for self ship stuff on my blog afterward, so if you don't care about who I ship myself with, then just scroll past those. Okay? Cool! Let's get a move on then!

Roller Ricky:

Roller Ricky is a minor character from the game Killer Frequency. He is a laid back, fun-loving guy who runs a roller rink in the fictional small town of Gallows Creek. Though he's friendly and sweet, he is not afraid to scare someone off with his rifle if they threaten his life or the lives of those he loves. Also he has trauma! Due to an awful prank that resulted in the death of one of his peers, he developed severe survivor's guilt that spiraled into him developing an alcohol addiction to deal with the grief. Fortunately, he eventually got help and therapy for his alcoholism and trauma. He also has an emotional support dog named Max, who he adores.

Honestly what's there not to love about Ricky? He's like, the definition of the ideal man (at least to me he is 🤭). He's sweet, he's caring, loves his dog, he's willing to defend the lives of those he loves, he's pretty easy on the eyes (not just in his canon appearance, but I've seen many different looks people have come up with for him and all of them are so handsome. Then again, I did fall in love with his voice and personality first). The first ever full length x reader fic I wrote was with him, which was pure unbridled self indulgence. After writing 3 x reader things with him and finding out what self shipping was, I realized that he was my f/o; that I loved him more than any other character I had written for (with the exception of my other f/o).

Our ship name is Heart Shaped Roller Rink.

Maison Talo:

Maison Talo is the antagonist of the game House Hunted. Though what you predominately see of him looks human, he very much is not. Maison is a REALTOR, one of the many species of creatures that live in the Uncanny Valley. His true body is a for sale house that can eat and digest living things, whereas what you see that looks human is actually a lure (like an angler fish). Soooo yeah, he eats people, but he's not necessarily evil per se, more morally gray if anything; it's just how he and his species eat and you need to eat to live after all. He's not heartless either, as he is still very capable of developing emotional relationships with others and even falling in love.

So when compared to Ricky, why on God's green Earth is Maison my other f/o (besides the fact that his lure form is hot as FUCK)? Well, to be completely honest I'm a lil bit of a "poser" as a lot of the love I feel for him is from headcanons I have written for him and less actual canon (to say that I cherry pick canon when it comes to REALTOR anatomy and such, would be a gross understatement lol). So yeah, I'd probably be considered a fake fan, it's the big reason why I've played around with the idea of him being my f/o, but only now am making it official. Whatever 🤷‍♀️.

To me (and once again, these are headcanons) Maison is very romantic. Like classic gentleman romantic. He'd also highly value his partner because I think he hasn't genuinely loved someone in a long time or even at all, so when he realizes he does love someone, he's gonna cherish them greatly. Also be uber protective over them as the Uncanny Valley is like, super fuckin dangerous. He would definitely spoil the shit out of you too (bro's not beating the sugar daddy allegations lol). Plus, you're getting a boyfriend and a free house! I also fell for him the same way I fell for Ricky: I just wrote for him a lot and realized "Hey, I'm actually not normal about this character at all." While Ricky was my first x reader fic, Maison was my first x reader thing period.

I just feel like I have to justify why Maison is my other f/o because yeah he is a lil pretentious about being the "Number 1 REALTOR in the Uncanny Valley" and the fact that he eats people, but hey no one's perfect.

Our ship name is Home Sweet Home.

--------------------

With that outta the way, here are some rules for self ship stuff on my blog:

1.) I am okay with sharing my f/os

2.) Shipping discourse is absolutely NOT allowed on this blog. The whole reason I fell out of love with self shipping was because of the proship vs antiship bullshit. I don't wanna see it, I don't wanna deal with it, which leads into...

3.) Anyone is allowed to interact with my blog and my self ship posts. I also take the time to look at self ship posts to make sure they don't have any form of a DNI on them or in the tags before reblogging them

I want this blog to be a space for positivity always, especially when it comes to self shipping because it is something that has brought me a ton of joy. Be kind, be respectful, and treat yourselves right ❤️

[wynnibee]

💀🐝 It is me, your secret skeleton! 🐝💀

I have two questions:

First of all, good choice with Eclipse! I would like to know which version? Balloon world one, or Ruin one?

Second, oh gosh friend, I neeeeed to know about your AU!! Could you give me more information?

-Do they share the same body? (I assume they are for more trouble hoho)

-How did you thought this? Sun clinging to any light possible, and Moon to hide in any dark corner? Are they in the plex, or elsewhere? How do they deal with their fear? Acting like phobia with a crash down? What happen when they switch?

-Are they alone? Do they have friend(s) helping/supporting/etc them?

I'm VERY interrested in your concept!! And would like to know moreeeeee. Any details you can provide will be eaten ✨

Thank you for your time!

hello hello fellow skelly!! sorry for the late response, i had a lot going on this past week that took me a couple days to recover from!

now onto your questions; since the photophobia answers will be longer, those will be put under the cut:

-I definitely prefer Ruin Eclipse! They're just such a sweetheart and contrast so vastly with both Sun and Moon, I was honestly surprised when we got to see their personality for the first time lol and, as an added bonus, they're so creepy to look at, kinda fitting for the spooky season don't you think? Who doesn't love a big scary robot that's actually just the sweetest thing?

While i have no issue with Balloon World Eclipse (I've done a couple experimental drawings with him that i've never posted, i really like the idea of a virus/glitch making a poor attempt at mimicry of a robot and/or human and hitting that uncanny valley), I just haven't interacted with enough content of him to think more than just "oh he's neat" you know?

Now onto your questions for my AU:

Heads up that this au is still a major work in progress as i've been unable to work on it since i came up with the concept, so there may be holes and/or things that don't make sense, or even something that contradicts with past tidbits i may have shared!

Do they share the same body?

Yes, they do! Most (if not all) of the art for this au has been drawn with them separate for the sillies (and one of my favorite pieces for this au involves Moon getting flashed with Sun's flashlight) but they are indeed in the same body, how fun!

This absolutely cause a lot of trouble for them, because I have an idea about how their switch works; they both operate on a schedule that tells them when Sun will be active and when Moon will be active. This schedule triggers half of the switch, and the more they go off schedule, the more issues this causes. Think of it like an alarm you have to jump through hoops to turn off. For the other half of the switch to trigger, they have to meet the lighting threshold! For Sun to switch over to Moon (and vice versa), Sun has to be in the dark, and Moon has to be in the light. As you can imagine, having a crippling irrational fear of the dark or an extreme sensitivity to light makes this quite the ordeal, as Sun will do anything to avoid going into the dark and Moon absolutely refuses to be in the light.

As an extra bit of ~fun~, because their switch requires two triggers, it's entirely possible for Sun to end up in the dark (the lights go out, but it's not time to switch), and Moon to end up in the light (the lights come on, but again, it's not time to switch over). These occurrences are very rare, and if my butt ever gets around to planning out the fic i wanna write so very badly, i plan to explore that What If.

How did you thought this? Sun clinging to any light possible, and Moon to hide in any dark corner? Are they in the plex, or elsewhere? How do they deal with their fear? Acting like phobia with a crash down? What happen when they switch?

So! I was watching some clips from SB and basically had this idea; if Sun is so afraid of the dark (his fear is moreso Moon coming out, and him losing that control and being unable to protect his charges, buuuuut), what if he had an actual fear of the dark, and what if Moon had a fear of the light? Moon originally had a genuine fear of the light (heliophobia), but i wanted there to be more potential for genuine issues, and settled on giving Moon photophobia, a nasty side effect of being switched over from a theater performer to a security bot and receiving the related upgrades. Sun has a flashlight that he carries with him at all times and he's "prepared" for any sort of issue that could leave him stranded in the dark, though when he actually ends up in the dark all those plans kinda go out the window. Moon just avoids light at all costs, and will even break lights if they're too bright for him. He doesn't take too kindly to being flashed by stray security guards, either.

They are in the plex! The setting is still the same; a massive megastructure in fuck all Utah. The Daycare is still relatively the same, if a little more well managed and clean, since I have the timeline for Photophobia set a bit before the events of SB.

"How do they deal with their fears," you ask. Well, my friend. Poorly. They deal with them poorly lmao

Sun in the dark has vicious panic attacks and it's damn near impossible to bring him down from them until the lights come back on. I'm sure you've heard Moon's screams in Help Wanted 2 when you shine the light on him? Being in the light causes Moon a lot of pain. Like everyone, they both have a limit and not every incident ends badly, sometimes they can both be calmed and the situation avoided, but other times, they both respond to their respective fears like wounded and cornered animals. I ended up answering the "how do they switch" question in one of the above questions, oops lol

There's the extremely rough barebones of Photophobia for you though! If you have any more questions i'd be happy to try and answer them for you ^^

Hopefully I'll have time to work on this au more soon, I'm really looking forward to weaving the story together dskkj

[lokigodofaces]

Question: so we experience the uncanny valley effect (idk if there's a real name but this is what I'm calling it) when we see something that has lots of human features but isn't human, ie CGI and robots, right? Then what about humanoid aliens in the MCU?

Obviously Asgardians don't kick off our uncanny valley effect because they're portrayed by humans and don't have heavy CGI applied to alter their appearance, and what they do alter is small enough that CGI is good enough to make it realistic enough that it doesn't drive us insane (ie Thor missing his eye in Ragnarok). But what about in universe? They're another species, so we can assume that they have slight appearance differences from humans. Not enough to be obvious, but big enough to be noticeable. But not enough to know what the problem is. Uncanny valley.

Which gets me thinking. So I saw a post a while back talking about the evolutionary reasoning for why we have to determine what is human. Honestly, it's a terrifying thing to think about. Basically the post at the end of several people talking determined the cause to be rabies. The early symptoms are subtle. And rabies is like probably one of the worst diseases ever. Werewolves and vampires definitely were myths inspired by rabies. Like if you don't get treatment, you will 100% die. So for the majority of human history, it was pretty important for humans to determine who had it early on in order to avoid them to avoid infection. Humans had to see slight differences in expression or die. Thus the need for the uncanny valley.

But we know from the Thor movies and Agents of SHIELD that Earth has been visited by aliens several times. Some of those aliens are very humanoid (Asgardians). Some, not so much. But we know the Kree have found a way to appear human because one does so in Agents of SHIELD. The Kree were on Earth for a long fricking time, kidnapping humans to turn them into Inhumans. We see how Hive was captured (very alien abductiony) but it is possible they also went in disguise to capture humans. Maybe they tested different races/cultures/groups and whatnot to determine genetic differences, so maybe in some places it would be best to kidnap undercover. And this wasn't happening for a couple years. This took place over such a long time that maybe it enhanced the uncanny valley effect even further in human evolution (okay I know it takes a long time for evolution to happen but the effect has already existed due to rabies, but aliens would give a cause to need more).

Maybe the Norse referred to the Asgardians as gods not just because of their powers, but because they innately knew that they were not human.

Maybe humans can detect Loki's illusions because they innately know something is wrong and suspect something the minute it starts. The minute something else is odd, they know. Asgardians on the other hand think they're normal.

What about Vision? Dude's a robot, does that set anything off?

What about the Hex? Do the inhabitants just somehow know that Wanda doesn't really have kids because they just don't look right?

What about Inhumans? They have a bit of alien DNA. Does something just seem a little odd about them? Same for mutants (not including the obviously not human looking ones like Kurt).

Speaking of mutants, what about Mystique, Skrulls, and other shape shifters? Set anything off?

Probably more I can't think of, but the uncanny valley in the MCU folks.

[truetealtears]

Another thing that I realised about why the how to train your dragon finale doesn’t make sense, and this one really annoys me; is that apparently, Toothless is such a main character specialist little boy ever that when he becomes a simp and goes underground with his flock, all of the dragons in existence everywhere just follow him???

Which I mean, no??? Ignoring the fact that he just automatically becomes the alpha of the underworld (which is total bs in its own right), him deciding to stay there somehow sent a broadcast to all dragons to come join him? Did he @ everyone in the dragon discord or what?

Also for a character so smart how did Hiccup think that sending all of Berk’s dragons away would get rid of all dragons. And since it apparently did, how did he think that would be a good idea? They’re a well established and key part of the ecosystem (nvm his society but that’s different), do you know what happens when you remove, not just a species, but an entire fucking Order of animals from the environment??? I’ll give you a hint: it’s bad, really bad.

There must be other colonies around the world, with other alphas. Like that’s literally the plot of the previous two films; we had the red death as a sort of queen bee, and then the big guy as the ‘king’ but called the alpha cuz the 2nd film was where they coined the term and made it into a whole thing. These colonies are scattered all over the place but somehow the Berk colony (not even the only group of domesticated dragons, as the 3rd film likes to show, but not tell, us. What happened to those societies?) packing up and leaving made them all decide to leave too (again how tf would they even know, pheromones and broadcast calls and what ever else don’t travel across the entire planet).

So even if that did happen, you’re telling me Toothless just walks in with his little prosthetic tail (which will eventually decay, causing his death because he is a disabled dragon that would not survive without it) and new gf (my issues with the light fury are worthy of their own post someday), comes face to face with the other colonies alphas, (aka the equivalents of other red deaths, big dudes, etc) and just wins??? A red death alone would, and nearly did, eat him alive. He survived that fight (chase sequence honestly) due to Hiccup’s brains, allowing them to exploit the previously established (but then never mentioned again) weaknesses of dragons. Not Toothless’ strength and certainly not his brains, because he is a dragon, but then ofc the third film had to make him disturbingly smart.

Like that’s not a dragon anymore that’s a guy in a fursuit. He becomes far too humanised over the course of the series. Take the first film; where he was a surprisingly clever animal, but still an animal, and compare that to the 3rd. Like the jokes in the first are that he’s a big goofy animal trying to imitate Hiccup/ communicate with him in his own dragon way, in the third he’s literally acting and emoting like a human (which he shouldn’t be full stop). There’s a difference between an intelligent animal picking up on some of the behaviours they see constantly (spending all those years with Hiccup) and him straight up acquiring a human brain. That scene w the bird dancing can be funny but why tf is Hiccup gesturing and communicating with him in a way that would only work with a person. Try that shit with the original toothless, or literally any other dragon, and see how that goes.

In fact, put toothless (and the light fury) next to any of the other main dragons in the 3rd film and watch the difference in behaviour. The 2nd film started to push it with him and cloud jumper, but it was still somewhat at a level where it was believable that some dragon species were smarter like that, eg the intelligence of corvids vs other birds. The best example of being well trained and in tune w their human without becoming an almost uncanny valley human/dragon abomination is stormfly (cloud jumper is close but like I said they’re pushing it)

Honestly even at the end of the second film they were starting to main character-ify toothless; that scene could’ve still played out the same without making him glow, it annoyed me then and it just got worse in the third. Night-furies went from a unique but still plausible species (as in still an animal) in the context of this world to almost mythical beings who keep coming up w new bs powers.

The way the conflict was resolved in the first film was plausible and believable for the creatures they just spent the entire run time analysing (fire proof on the outside, not so much inside. Plus all the other stuff the kids were doing. Ik it might have felt a bit cliche and childish like ‘look we’re all using the tactics we told you about earlier!’ But that’s literally why they were taught them, to fight dragons). The second wasn’t totally far off, it explored dragon social dynamics and explained the concept of alphas and how they work (also clearly intending for you to look back and realise the red death was the alpha, they even play basically the same buzzing noise for when they’re under control) but then they made him glow at the end. It would’ve been so easy and plausible to say something like ‘oh most of these guys were part of the red death colony, which they watched toothless kill so they already accept him as their alpha’ but instead he had to have a mc power up moment. The third just went ‘fuck it he’s an anime character now’. Like think about it, basically none of the tactics and things we were told/shown were facts about dragons in the first, come up in the later movies. Like yeah ‘they don’t need to explain all that to us again’ but there’s a difference between that and just completely erasing it from the world building.

Night-furies are the equivalent of like some deep sea species we didn’t know much about back in the day because they were only seen when they came up to the surface on rare occasions, then we got a hold of one and everything checked out when compared to related species but unlike them it’s capable of bioluminescence which is like ‘oh cool, interesting.’ But then a couple years later it turns out if you stress it out it can somehow become a superconductor for some fucking reason. A couple more years later and it seems it’s capable of fucking teleportation. Can you see what I’m getting at here?

Ik the films were always going to end with the dragons leaving. Like in both book and film the first line is: ‘ONCE, there WERE dragons…’ I just hate how it ended up being done. As a Zoologist it has me screaming, crying and throwing up.

‘Oh well of course it’s bad to you, you’re putting a kids movie under professional scrutiny’ NO BECAUSE THEY DID IT SO WELL IN THE FIRST FILM. Watching it told me they knew how to do this right and then the sequels were worse instead of better. I’m not even saying they had to go further in-depth and stuff for the sequels to be good, what I’m saying is I was at least expecting them to keep to the same standard instead of letting it fucking plummet.

Idk man the first film was so good at establishing the dragons as actual animals and exploring them as different species but then it felt like with each consecutive film they fired more and more of whatever zoologists they had on the writers team for the first.

[generouskittentidalwave]

Hamster and Gretel, oh boy..

Now we are gonna move past the unforgivable and horrendous act of this series being greenlit and given a second season immediately over giving us more Murphy's Law which, unless this show proves it's worth, I will not be forgiving anytime soon, but anyway let's talk about the actual show itself.

It's honestly not that bad. The more I watch it the more I find myself enjoying Gretel and Kevin's relationship and of course Kevin is the TRUE protag of the story (no one will convince me otherwise, we all know it's true), his character is PEAK. I genuinely like the songs, hamster is amazing and Fred is a MOOD. I like the concept of an alien species giving someone powers and then also creating villains for them to fight as well. It's actually a pretty cool concept and makes you wonder what is more at play here. I also LOVE the songs, as usual Dan's shows produce hella bangers. I also love the relationships and dynamics between all the characters.

HOWEVER

I like that they made Kevin the center focus but I'm gonna be frank, I DO NOT like Gretel as a character (so far, this is obviously subject to change as the series goes on). First of all Gretel's face makes me hella uncomfortable everytime I take a second to look at her. Her smile doesn't have any emotional weight behind it so it loses all meaning (with her character in general being as bland as white bread with no crusts, but I do respect the accurate ADHD they added to her character) and on top of that her smile is so unnaturally wide and her eyes are so big and she sticks out like a sore thumb amongst her friends and family to the point it feels uncomfortable. I get they wanted to make her overly cute but that's less cute and more reaching into uncanny valley.

Milo's wholesome smile and character was optimistic and cute, so was Isabella's, even their pets. But Gretel? I'm sorry but it looks like she is staring into my ever waking soul and plotting my demise as we speak. I'm a younger sister myself and I understand where they were going with her character, believe me, but OH MY GOD can she GRIND MY GEARS sometimes with her character and choices.

They made such a good realistically optimistic and calm yet still remorseful and caring character when it came to Milo, they treated it all with care and gave his gentle smile towards his shitty situation so much weight but with Gretel they made her optimism intentionally over the top with no other parts of her character aside from her having ADHD and nothing else, along with the fact she normally succeeds in nearly everything she does, and rarely ever see her need or try to fix mistakes she'd made on her own, and all this makes it to the point that she just feels- soulless to me and I don't like it. It rubs me the wrong way. I love the ADHD representation but they could've done a hella a lot better with her character as a whole, especially with her being a character meant to represent and inspire others.

I stand by what I said that people need to stop treating optimistic characters in media as a bad thing and projecting their issues onto them, but it's a different story when you have a character who is completely hollow and only has an over the top amount of optimism to the point it becomes boring and diminishing because that's all they are. I'm sorry but her character, to me, is like the embodiment of a children's song that is so repetitive you wanna replace your ears with cotton balls.

This show has so much potential and I love so SO many things about it, but they still have A LOT of work to do, especially with one of the heroines of the story. Here's to hoping season 2 will, hopefully, be better than the first one and they'll patch some things up at bit.

And no, her being a little sister doesn't justfy her character as in both pnf and mml they main characters were younger siblings and they were not like this, at all.

[partywithoutsmiling]

how did you find your way into the trolls fandom? What lured you in?

I got more interested in the fandom since 2020 actually, when World Tour dropped. Pretty sure that was the time that I actually made this blog, with plans of contributing- buuuut life got in the way rather messily and that made it hard to keep any investment into anything for long.

But I have been naturally aware of Trolls since the first movie dropped in 2016- especially has been aware of it ever since the very cringy teaser for it dropped XD

The first movie... didn't really win me over, not by itself pf. The whole odd cinderella story aside, the trolls themselves just didn't feel hashed out to me? And their design kinda creeped me out a little bit XD (2016 Poppy especially hits some kind of uncanny valley area for me lol)

Aesthetically, it was kinda off putting- the saturation has been too over the top in certain parts, and the lighting was really odd- even in well lit areas, all of it just seemed too dark and as an artsy person, that really bugged me pft. Story wise, it also seemed like your typical clishe 'Cheery and Moody people forced to spend time together, eventually falls in love' so yeah, I was not impressed by Trolls 2016 XD

Then, Trolls World Tour hit the streaming- and I got *very* interested in the sudden expanded lore. I know there is, for some reason, a prevalent hatred by some hardcore Trolls 2016 fans? (I mean, eh, I personally think that the first movie is weakest of them all but ehhh) But anyway- edging away from Trolls just being little dancing and singing oddballs and making them part of a varying species with complicated culture and history- that really spoke to me. I know the ending is really controversial, as it ended kinda too 'and everyone is friends now', but I liked the allegory about erasing cultures, either from outright hostile takeover (Barb) or through well meaning pity (Poppy)

This movie also made me a Broppy shipper XD Because it was *so* refreshing to actually see that no, their love confession in the first one wasn't about romantic love- but it was just admitance to caring and affection in general, platonic, nothing romantic at all. The fact they didn't keep his overly saturated colours after True Colours, and kept him muted in the sequel, also really pleased me, as no, it will take a while for Branch to heal from his ordeal in life and it's not always a smooth ride (As a person dealing with depression, I appreciate that).

Their characters also felt more genuine if that makes sense, more fleshed out. I know people complain about Snack Pack being pushed aside, but, honestly, they don't have much personality in movie one, and I didn't expect them to continue have one in the sequel; I browsed through Beat Goes On maybe once, and I can adapt some of their cartoon personalities, but otherwise, I can't say I care much for canon Snack Pack XD (Kudos to all the fanfic writers who actually made them real living and breathing beings, you are the real heroes of the story pff)

And of course, I do have to mention the whole artstyle and design choice of the movie. More than ever the world of Trolls looks like someone's crafts project and I love it- it's so original, and so different from what we are used to seeing- and not only they made their designs more rounded, softer, making them loose that uncanny valley feeling, the lighting also got exponentionally better. The colours are not as aggressivelly saturated and lean more into pastels, and it definitelly fits them better.

Then of course, Trolls Band Together hit the theatres late 2023 XD I can't say I have been that impressed by the trailers? They seemed very... hmm, clishe? XD But I decided to give it a watch anyway and realized that they are finally owning what they always were meant to be - a silly, clishe, nostalgia filled jukebox musical XD Essentially, instead of trying that hard, they decided to just have fun, and you can see they are having fun making these silly movies now

(Also Velvet's and Veneer's final escape chase scene set to Sweet Dreams is a bloody banger and I haven't been so entertained in ages lol)

To wrap it up, Broppy XD Honestly, their whole relationship growth over the course of the three movies is just fantastic (and in the holiday specials! if you havent watched the one after TWT, I recommend, the feels are real) and I cannot remember if I ever seen an animated movie franchise do a slowburn like this, I really appreciate it, I don't mind that I had to wait years for canon Broppy kiss XD

And honestly, what finished it for me, it's just the lore of the whole world expanding. Being a very creative person, I do like when I have something to bite into and to play with- and with all the sequels now out, I can finally appreciate the story the first movie presented us with- now, finally, it feels like it finally fits in XD

Sorry that was probably too long but pff, you did ask XD

Tldr; Got into the fandom after TWT in 2020 but real life got in the way in contributing; TBT sparked that interest anew and enough that I wanted to finally join for real

I got lured by 90s nostalgia and fun silly craft supplies designs of everything, and also because I am sucker for slowburns and family feels

[aheathen-conceivably]

Well now, since @surely-sims took us on a little trip down uncanny valley with her Plotts, I figured it was time to return the favor by giving you all nightmares/brand new crushes with some AI Darlingtons….

Going below the cut because there are quite a few of them, and also because the uncanny valley is real and view at your own risk 😂

Zelda:

This is the moment that we learn despite all its advances in overtaking the world and being generally scummy, the AI does not yet have the ability to recognize the existence of green eyes. Still 8/10 right down to the lost look in her eyes and the hair color/styles.

Antoine:

I have no words 10/10 and that is all 😮‍💨 (I also firmly believe that the first two are how he would dress IRL and yes you get four pictures because the AI loves his face okay not me it has nothing to do with me).

Josephine:

Sigh. And this is the moment we learned that in addition to green eyes, the AI has a whitewashing problem 🙄. Still, 5/10 because we get to see that bone structure and smirk that is giving major Jo vibes.

Giorgio:

Another showstopper because, well, are we even surprised? 10/10 down to the slightly benevolent if bemused expression.

Florence & Oliver

My founders my baby angels look at them 😭 Their faces don’t quite translate as realistically as I imagine but still, 7/10 for emotional effect.

Rosella & Georgiana:

The AI doesn't get George's face quite right and both of them are stricken by the AI green eyed hatred but those photos of Rosella are from an actual fashion magazine and I cannot be convinced otherwise so 6/10.

Virginia:

These honestly look so real they almost terrify me a little....10/10 all around.

Summer & Isaiah:

Sorry, Isaiah baby boy, Summer gets three to your one because the AI (and I the human) love her face. Also because it really wants to yassify the hell out of him and this is the only one that gets his youthful energy right. Still, nail on the head and 9/10 for the young Darlingtons.

—

And yes, I did AI grown Violette too. Please know she is gorgeous but unlike my dear Surely we’ll have to save the heir reveal for another day 😉