#like... its fun seeing people's designs and what vibes they go for with different characters

[hoodedjelly]

my Jenny, Tuck, Brad, Shelden, and Vega older designs ^__^

i'm watching mlaatr, still not done, i think i got like 10 more eps (and if i'm being transparent i skipped around eps... i just wanted to see vega...). And i'm absolutely loving the show!!!! i love these characters a lot, didn't like Shelden at first i'm going to be honest, #1 Shelden hater for a bit there. but he chilled out in season two and i started to ship breldon with that too so now i just love him so much.

more about my personal headcanons:

Jenny: - I am under the belief that she is transgender. Jenny was made genderless, so her deciding to be a girl was strictly her choice and i believe that makes her trans. (She's also a lesbian) - she did grow a bit, im not gonna explain how idc really i just liked her being a taller lady :-) - she has A LOT of different cute outfits and hair styles, honestly too much to draw. she never transforms back into her base show outfit when crime fighting, she just fights in her cute summer dress she don't care. - her and vega are dating grrgrgrrrr - when vega is in rule she makes it so there is complete free access between earth and cluster prime for citizens in both places. - I say that cause i think when jenny is older she moves in with vega, technically living in cluster prime but visits earth like everyday. And brad/shelby/tucker/wakeman visit cluster prime - Jenny also hangs out with the nicktoons unite gang, but i deffo feel like its just that secondary friend group that you don't talk to with for months. when you talk again its the same goofiness as before - i think danny calls for her help when he needs it (also manny) Tuck: - he is still a little shit but we love him - adhd boy - questioning cis (he/him) - he got into robotics/stem and builds little silly things - with that, he gets help from Shelby - pretty much just a silly teen, he's on the internet a lot and has "cringe" interests - but idk he's having fun and being silly and finding himself (those interests is stuff like sonic and among us) Shelden(Shelby) - honestly kinda nervous about ppl thoughts on my Shelden, idk it makes so much sense in my brain - hits you with the transfem beam (she/they) Pansexual (she just wants anyone type of vibe) - I think when jenny is visiting vega often that leaves Shelby and Brad hanging out alone a lot. which they don't mind honestly, they are actually good friends! - but during that they just get closer and start catching feelings. Shelby eventually lets go of her feelings about jenny and realizes they were a real jerk and weirdo to her. brad helps them through that and eventually her realizing she's trans. blah blah they in love and kiss at some point. - Shelby is also a furry lmaooo her fursona is a cat.

Brad: - bisexual cis man (he/him) - Still his old brad self if i'm being honest. - totally forgot to say i think all 3 of them go off to college together (even though jenny doesn't have to i feel like she would prob want to just for the experience, but tell me if you think differently i'm still unsure) - i really don't know what else to say sorry brad! he's literally just as silly as ever man. he's just also gay - i will say here i feel it takes a lot longer for shelby and brad to start dating then jenny and vega. they got that slow burn kinda shit going on, since a lot of that is shelby being confused about her feelings. and jenny and vega just hit it off right away if im being honest, very high school sweethearts. - (also i think shelby makes brad make a fursona to match hers, so brad got a dog fursona)

Vega: - Lesbian cis (she/her) - That ending of her just ruling cluster prime was just so crazy to me cause like, aint she like 16? - i think she has a lot of stressed nights and fearing she's not doing the right thing for her people, and jenny tries to help as much she can - that is why jenny visits so much, she wants to help her. - very much got those nights were she accidently falls asleep at her desk, jenny finding her and giving her a blanket and a kiss goodnight - it's not like she's unhappy, she is actually very very passionate about her work and wants to NOT be like her mom - and yeah she deffo goes to robo therapy for the stuff with her mom. - i think it's a conflict where vega is scared her mom is gonna come back and jenny has to reassure her that if she does they'll get rid of her for good.

imma be honest a lot of my hcs are pretty half-baked and random things, im sure im going to think of more stuff in the future but that will be in different posts.

[kelocitta]

As a pre-downpour fan, what are the major changes/differences you noticed between the fandom pre- and post- dp?

Really the only thing I would say is a notable 'change' is a shift in how most character-based fanworks is. Base game RW slugcats are pretty straightforward lil animals with small hints of personality, but nothing really strong. It's less a personality and more a vibe. The iterators aren't much different- the ways they interact with you and with each other is something sort of hard to dig into. A lot of people came away with just understanding moon and pebbles as "the nice one" and "the mean one" and the slugcats were very similar. People complain about infantalizing Pebbles now but god I'll take that over the villianization. Funny enough, if I had a nickle for every "Robot that was characterized as a complete asshole before getting a sequel that better explained their actions and issues and suddenly they were infantalized instead" I'd have at least two, which is fun. DP has a lot more direct character, even if you don't think its fitting. The slugcats are more distinct from each other and fit nicely into archetypes if you want them too, but there is still wiggle room for people to change it up without being 'wrong'. The iterators have more in-game content of or about how they interact with the world and each other, they have more personal relationships with certain slugcats, they have actual designs for more than Moon and Pebbles, etc. Its much easier to get a feel for the characters and that means content directly about them is more appealing. Not just shipping (although absolutely shipping, since pre-DP the characters you had actual interactions for were animals, or siblings, or you had like one blurry picture and an offhand reference. People still tried!) but anything about how they would play off each other or behave is just... easier to do. So you have more of that. The less vague things are, the more people actually pick up on it. A lot of vanilla RW asked you to dig into it yourself, which a ton of people simply aren't going to do- even people who LIKE the thing. DP has a very different vibe than vanilla RW, Its well done but if you dig into it you can see the ways it attaches onto the base game rather than seamlessly extends. And I think one of those ways is just that its much more broadly appealing storytelling. Other than that its just a bigger fandom with bigger fandom issues. Not anything unique to RW, just par for the course for fandoms to get bigger and suddenly things feel more disconnected or overwhelming or less friendly or that it feels like theres more drama. And these issues aren't absent from pre-DP RW, there was its fair share of drama in regards to people who were either assholes or predators. It never didn't have that problem because thats an unavoidable problem to have when you have a bunch of people who are strictly united by the fact they like the same thing.

[neotibicen-linnei]

been stressed lately so I'm fixating on The Character (Charon) and why I love him so much, so like. he's kind of a blank slate, right? all we know is that he was brainwashed, he has to obey the contract holder and has (according to Ahzrukhal, who mentions his "annoying sense of morality") some sort of personal values. his in-game dialogue shows that he's grouchy and a little sarcastic, when given the opportunity, though most of his responses are formal and to the point. also he likes guns.

everything else is up to interpretation, and that's what makes him so fun & interesting to me. there are a thousand different versions of the same guy and technically, any one of them could be canon. love characters like that.

now here are my personal takes <:^) keep in mind that this is 99% speculation and headcanons, based more on Vibes and Projection than actual in-game info. also it's a Lot. because I think about this guy a lot. basically a whole-ass fanfic in outline form. ok here we go

starting off with history:

he's a pre war ghoul, & was somewhere between 25-40? when he started turning. starting age doesn't really matter, to me he just seems Old as Fuck and Tired of Everything. like he definitely witnessed the fall of humanity- and its violent aftermath- firsthand.

given the political climate in the decades before the bombs, it's easy to imagine there being some pre-war, top secret super soldier program where he was initially trained and brainwashed. he was likely nabbed as a kid (more info from Ahzrukhal, who said Char "grew up around an interesting group of individuals") and indoctrinated into it, maybe volunteered by his parents? also could've been orphaned/homeless/otherwise an easy target that no one would miss. maybe they weren't federal but privately funded, like by some radical billionaire building an army for the apocalypse. I've got my own version of this in a google doc somewhere, might turn it into fic someday but! the point is, violence and obedience are all he's ever known; though the older he gets, the more he sees through the lies and pushes the boundaries of his contract.

he would've finished training at age 16-18 probably? graduates like him worked for high ranking military personnel, politicians, paranoid ultra rich types, or anyone else with the funds and need for a totally obedient bodyguard. he was loaned out to these people under a pre-specified time limit (i.e. someone could hire him for a set number of months, or for the completion of a project, before he was supposed to be returned). Charon spent the next ~10 years traveling around with different employers, witnessing the pre-war world without ever getting to participate in it. never knowing a life beyond his designated purpose.

while each boss had his attention so long as they held the contract, Charon's true loyalty lay with the organization that raised him. he was barred from forming personal connections with anyone, including employers, beyond what was expected of him professionally. this was a crucial part of his conditioning, ensuring he'd always return 'home' when an employer's time was up. he never once questioned this until long after his trainers were gone.

the bombs fell when he was in his mid to late twenties. he survived thanks to an employer's private bunker, which sheltered them both through the worst of it. they didn't have enough supplies to stay there indefinitely, so a few weeks into the apocalypse, they left to try their luck topside.

in the event of total devastation, Charon was supposed to return to base for reassignment. but with all the chaos and rioting and lack of transportation (even if he found a working vehicle, everything was still on fire and covered in nuclear fallout, including roads) he decided it best to stick with his current employer until conditions were safer. his boss was shortly killed by an attacker- a first in Charon's career, which he definitely wasn't thrilled about. up to this point he probably hadn't failed much, if at all (get ready buddy there's gonna be a whole lot more of that). I agree with the general fan interpretation that failing gives him headaches and anxiety, all the way from mild twinges to incapacitating migraines, depending on how badly he's fucked up.

after walking the whole way home, he found an empty, ruined compound devoid of survivors. anyone important spent doomsday in vaults and bunkers, while those left above-ground died or fled elsewhere. with no one left to report to, Char followed emergency protocol and handed his contract to the next living person he encountered. a cycle that would continue for the rest of his life.

losing the closest thing he'd had to a family, as awful and traumatizing as they were, affected him more deeply than he'd admit. it was less of an emotional blow and more a loss of direction. his entire being was crafted around serving his creators; what was he without them? all he could do was keep finding employers and hope things worked themselves out (or that he'd meet an honorable, contract-abiding end in the line of duty).

though post-bombs survival was definitely part of his training, nothing prepared him for ghoulification. having never formed an identity beyond servitude, Char wasn't exactly vain or attached to his appearance as a human. but let's be real. even the most practical, emotionally detached hardass is gonna be at least a little upset when their nose falls off, and their hair falls out, and their skin starts peeling, and it feels like their organs are shutting down- he probably kept it together, because that's what was expected of him, but by now he was certainly being pushed to his limits. once he got unpleasant enough to look at, his employer at the time was quick to pawn him off on someone else. employers past that point treated him noticeably worse, escalating from haughty and dismissive to downright sadistic (within the bounds of the contract, of course. Charon found what satisfaction he could in killing those who didn't read it closely enough).

once Charon gathered that he wasn't dying, and could still perform his duties like before, life went on. it was only decades later, when he realized that ghouls don't age, that it truly started to bother him. death had been his only hope of freedom from the contract. now even that was out of his reach. his training would never allow him to seek it willingly, and despite all the dangers of the wasteland- and the ineptitude of his many employers- he was finding it pretty difficult to get killed by accident. he kept throwing himself into fights and somehow pulled through every time. not always unscathed, yet alive.

and he just kept getting angrier. more cynical, more bitter, more tired of it all. outwardly blank, nothing more than a gun to be pointed at enemies, but resentment simmered just beneath the surface. his self control started to slip, and he found himself talking back to employers, purposefully twisting the meaning of their orders, indulging in violence as an outlet. for most of his life, he'd been fed propaganda about protecting his superiors and his country (which country is that? undecided, though I like to headcanon his ethnicity as half Russian half Chinese, meaning he was trained by someone on the "communist" side of the war). but there are no more countries, not in any way that matters, and the masters he serves act solely in their own interests- not that this is any different than his pre-war employers, but it takes him a while to wake up to that.

as for how he ended up in the Ninth Circle- it sticks out to me how Ahzrukhal says that Charon "made some choices landed him in my employ". implying Ahz didn't just come across the contract or happen to be present when the previous employer died. I'm thinking that Ahzrukhal tricked him somehow, maybe got him to void the contract by accident? though after 200+ years of living with it and finding all the loopholes, that'd be pretty hard to do. idk it's a fun concept to explore but I have no concrete ideas right now. in any case, I think Char spent quite a while there, longer than he had with most wasteland bosses.

Ahzrukhal had him do more than toss rowdy drunks out of the bar. along with his chems dealings, I could see him dabbling in the slave trade (Ahz tells the LW that he Abhors Slavery, and that chains are earned rather than given. but it wouldn't take much for a guy like him to twist that meaning to his own purposes or just like. straight up lie about it). even if he wasn't directly involved in the business, he wouldn't be above turning in any escaped slaves they came across, sending Charon to deliver them for a bounty. he was a particularly cunning and cruel master, fond of giving out arbitrary punishments for every little mistake. Charon got accustomed to rarely sleeping or eating, to taking micro naps sitting up, finding new and terribly dull ways to entertain himself while standing in the same corner every day. he starting looking forward to side work, no matter how unethical his tasks were, because it was the only time he got to go outside and exist unsupervised. by the time LW shows up, he's just so over it, lowkey wishing to go feral or encounter an enemy he can't beat.

ok now to the present/LW timeline:

you really thought we were done. that 1000+ words of rambling, poorly formatted speculation was enough haha no there's more.

despite his love for combat and bloodshed, he's not sadistic for the sake of it. there are lines, never mind that employers force him to cross them all the time. Char doesn't like to hurt innocents unprovoked. if attacked by someone who clearly doesn't stand a chance- like a desperate wastelander or a child- he prefers to take them down non-lethally. he is pretty sadistic towards those who have it coming (how does he determine who has it coming? depends on his mood). his kills are efficient yet brutal, and he's not above drawing it out if they really tick him off. morals are there but they're grey as hell.

he doesn't like slavers or raiders, but also doesn't go out of his way to save their victims. looks on super mutants with a sort of detached pity, knowing that like him, they don't have any choice in being what they are. he sees killing them as both a necessity and an act of mercy- not that he's all that merciful, but even after all this time and misery, there's some small, painfully human part of him that still finds reasons to care. at least, when he's got the energy for it. sometimes he doesn't know why he bothers. if just trying to do the right thing is the only factor he can control, the only resistance he can show towards his selfish masters. sometimes he gives in to cruelty for the same reasons. he tries not to think about it and finds himself doing so anyway; especially in Underworld, where he's got all the time in the world to dwell on past mistakes. his time there starts to feel like some rightful punishment, as does his ghoulification- of course he'd end up immortal, hideous and confined to one corner like a misbehaving dog. he's earned this fate several times over. even wishing for death feels undeserved.

he's autistic. just because I think it fits and want it to be so. he stims with his hands sometimes, though he's learned to repress it- most bosses don't want a twitchy, distracted bodyguard. as a compromise, he finds ways to keeps his hands busy, like compulsively cleaning his gun, repairing equipment, taking inventory of supplies. when given the freedom, he also enjoys whittling, usually handmade knives or little animal figurines. but like cigarettes, this is a luxury he's rarely allowed under Ahzrukhal's management. but god how cute is it to think of him carving little dogs and molerats or whatever in his free time. once he has a space of his own, he lines them up on a desk. gives them away as gifts to the few people he tolerates. maybe he gets a big collection going and gets defensive when it's pointed out; he's just keeping his motor skills sharp, it is not a hobby it's practical you just don't get it.

it takes him months minimum to start trusting Lone. possibly years. at first, he resents them the same as any other employer. his self-esteem is at its worst, he's closed off to anything that's not strictly related to his duties, and he can't seem to view their kindness as anything but manipulation. so what if they tell him to speak freely, and sleep whenever he wants, or make his own decisions without waiting for their approval? it has to be a trap. he's constantly waiting for the hammer to fall, and his new boss's easygoing nature only serves to make him more nervous. it can't be real. others have tried this, and he fell for it, and it will not happen again.

Lone makes a great effort not to phrase things as orders, but this is sort of unavoidable- all it takes is a careless word shouted mid-combat to set Char into action. Lone tries to have open discussions with him, and teach him about boundaries & such, which is like pulling teeth until he actually starts to take them seriously. when they continue to be consistent, and it's clear they're not playing some fucked up mind game to get his defenses down, Charon starts to relax. it's subtle until it's not, but the simple fact that he starts conversations unprompted, or lets Lone touch him without flinching, is already a massive improvement. it helps that they never punish him for making mistakes. or that they don't force him to do things he's not comfortable with- not like he'd tell them directly, but they've learned to read his reactions, deciphering all the grunts and micro-expressions and acting accordingly. it's definitely messy sometimes (my version of Lone is a chem-addicted, traumatized burnout with his own hangups, so their personalities do clash) but the respect, and eventually love, is always there.

my Lone is an escaped slave, and meets Charon a few years after the canon timeline of FO3. they're a neutral karma mercenary type, intent on taking down every slaver in the Capital Wasteland. with their shared experiences of living under others' control, and Lone's insatiable need to Fuck That Old Man, there does end up being some shippy stuff down the line. however, whether it's platonic or romantic or whatever, there is something so sweet and special to me about Lone & Charon's relationship. finding someone who knows your pain, or at least something similar to it, and does their best to show you that you're in safe hands. even when you don't believe them, and keep pushing them away, they keep trying, and keep being there until you find you've got no choice but to let them in. seeing yourself as less than a person until someone comes along and helps you rediscover your humanity. auuughhhh.

there's also something fun about an evil Lone who makes him Worse. but I mostly want him to be happy :')

if you read this far hey thanks. I could write even more, but this is enough for one post probably. tell me your own Charon headcanons or I'll explode

[freevoidman]

Binged the entire DMC Netflix show (wow holy shit I RARELY do that) and my super quick, spoiler free review is that the show is overall really, REALLY great. Action is spot-on, designs are great, story is pretty strong (episode 6 is easily the strongest of the bunch on a visual and story-telling level holy shit) with some fumbling of new characters. If you've felt the drought of DMC stuff since 5 and VoV ended, the new series will absolutely whet your appetite and leave you satisfied.

Obviously if you're going into this with the expectation of a 1:1 adaptation, you're not going to get it. The show is, effectively, doing its own thing. If that sounds good to you, great! If you wanted a pure adaptation of one of the prior games, you're not getting that here.

If you want some stronger and longer points to go off of, spoilers BELOW the cut, you have all been warned:

Anyone worried about Dante being written "wrong," let me assure you the show does him great. He's fun, he's sarcastic and cocky, you can feel he's in most of his fights for the thrill when there's not greater stakes at play. Out of EVERYONE in this show, Dante has the best characterization outside of the demons, both old and new. Again, however, you might find some of his moments to be written 'against' the Dante from the games. I'm brushing this off as 1) Dante is young in this series (supposedly takes place either in a time around or BEFORE DMC3, meaning he's probably 19-early 20s at the most?) and 2) again, this show is doing its own thing. Not enough that Dante feels completely different--we don't have another Donte from DmC on our hands here--but different enough that people might not like it depending on what KIND of Dante you like, if that makes sense.

Second runner-up here is the White Rabbit. Holy fuck, even for a spoiler section I don't want to give much away, but he steals the show. EASILY the best character in the show--especially amongst the newcomers (we'll get to them in a moment), I'm so glad he was done well, though his character flags the tiniest bit at the end. Overall though, incredible new character and antagonist.

Lady is the most different from her appearances in the games but, honestly? Not by much. Remember, this is 3!Lady we're talking about here, a Lady who hasn't made peace with her father, who still holds the trauma of her mother's death and a deep grudge against demon-kind, and who REALLY doesn't vibe with anyone that isn't a demon and isn't on the "good side" in her mind. I think her character is nailed really well in that regard, though I obviously miss the more 'laid back' Lady from 4 and 5, who we likely won't see for a long while in this show.

I think the most egregious part of Lady's character in this show is that she swears. Like, a lot of swears, combined with some really gross, vivid imagery. Getting close to rivaling Hazbin Hotel, but it's not done for pure comedic edginess like that show. Even I was getting tired of it by the end and I have a HIGH tolerance for it. Really hope in season 2 she doesn't swear as much. I think swearing is fine and definitely warranted at points (Dante swears in this show, but rarely, and only done in a few, key moments and I don't think that 'ruins' his character) but Lady gets really close to an unnecessary excess at times, you could easily cut out a few 'fucks' and the dialogue would be virtually identical with no major character changes.

Worst part of the show, unfortunately, is the new character Vice President Baines (voiced by the late Kevin Conroy, whose performance made me hate Baines less) and the rest of the ideology behind him. Baines feels like a character you're meant to hate, which (if intentional) is done well don't get me wrong, but he's very one note throughout the show and it gets exhausting. He is the Christian religious zealot who believes God has a plan for everything, and he's in an insane position of power to be able to act out "God's" will.

An underlying theme of the show, hastened by its setting in NYC and the greater 'real world' of America, is Christianity and basically what I would call "DMC manifest destiny" which gets very, VERY exhausting to hear repeatedly, always through Baines, and it's never given the full breadth of air to grow past simple dogmatic ideology. The second-to-last scene really made me uncomfortable as I don't think this show has given me enough confidence in its ability to pull of and/or criticize a viewpoint in a way that doesn't feel repetitive and won't feel lackluster.

To be fair: I am not saying this is necessarily bad. In the context of the show (1990s/early 2000s America facing a literal invasion from hell) this works! It would make sense that these characters would exist and have these viewpoints. Episode 1 establishes this and it feels much better executed... right up until we get to the government and VP Baines, where it becomes a very one-dimensional thing that never grows past its grassroots. My main worry is my confidence in the show's ability to tackle the topic and tackle it well, especially when the greater series doesn't touch on these topics (unfortunately, the DmC comparison here does land) and has stayed largely neutral, focusing instead on fictional organizations and plot lines that don't feel too frictional to me.

Season 2 DOES have a promising set-up in this regard. Darkcom (the organization Lady works for) seems to be massively crippled, if not out-right decimated, though this is somewhat unclear. Lady's fate is ultimately unknown, she could still be working for Baines or could be out there on her own. We see the freaking Ouroboros company from DMC2 and I can absolutely see the second season tackling exploitation and the evils of capitalism and giving the villains of DMC2 a proper go. Though, that implements a new worry that we won't see Lady at ALL and instead completely shift to Lucia who, as much as I love her, it would kinda suck to introduce when Lady is right there and still suspended mid-arc.

If a second season is anywhere close in quality to the first, I'll absolutely watch it. I'm hoping that the new characters will be satisfactorily fleshed out and, if nothing else, that the show is fun to watch and not stagnated to a complete halt after that ball tease of a cliffhanger lmao. Ultimately, the show's greater positives--its action, overall writing, overall character execution, and world building--outweigh the negatives and my gripes. I truly hope season 2 expands on the positives and makes the weak points as painless as possible when we brush up against them.

***

EDIT 4/11/2025: I wanted to add to this review that, in addition to the show not giving me the confidence necessary to believe it can pull off its criticisms well, Adi Shankar is not doing that confidence any favors either. I didn't want to touch on him as I felt my opinions on the show could stay separate from him, but unfortunately he's being an absolute weirdo on twitter and I felt I should touch on it here to keep my thoughts in one spot and not have to link two separate posts.

Adi Shankar is, at his best, a complete and utter weirdo to me. His shows have more left-leaning political ideologies--criticisms of the Catholic church in Castlevania, the various themes that even appear in Devil May Cry in regards to the government and dogmatic ideology, the EXCEEDINGLY direct parallels and criticisms towards Bush and Cheney seen with DMC's barely-present POTUS (who we only know as a wimp who cares about his image) and VP Baines (the main government leader who is respected and has all the power to declare war)--but his actual ideologies in real life are far more right wing, as are the people he's willingly associated with and continues to reach out towards. To me, Adi Shankar feels like a grifter. A grifter that rides whatever wave is most popular to gain the best financial and social status. Unfortunately, in 2025, that popular wave is the Trump wave, even if that means he's saddling up to bigots and assholes alike.

All of this to say, Adi's behavior mooching up to Trump and other known right wing assholes (like Asmongold most recently, to the point where a conspiracy nutjob podcaster seen in episode one that I thought was a caricature seems to be inspired by the cockroach fucker and is probably supposed to be seen positively???) makes the show's criticisms of America fall EXCEEDINGLY flat on its face. It is to the point where I can see the whole thing falling apart depending on where we're headed for the (confirmed) second season.

I wanted to come back here to say, regardless of this, I still enjoyed the show. I understand people's legitimate criticisms against it and respect them (and by legitimate here I mean the people who are willing to string together a thought and explain their reasoning outside of simply saying 'it's bad' or 'I don't like it.' Those aren't criticisms those are just opinions to me lol). I also feel like the show is so on-the-nose critical with its themes against christofascism, imperialism, and the greater American philosophy that it's really hard to reconcile those themes with its producer, who is saddling up with the very same people he's criticizing.

Obviously there are more writers on this show than just Adi Shankar and I really hope that Season 2 continues its criticisms and doesn't trip and fall flat on its face. Despite the show's success I do believe that this series was commissioned for two seasons and that's why we got a confirmation so quickly, and I can only hope that it doesn't fumble from its current centrist criticisms and fall down the right-wing spiral of death.

[agentgrange]

I saw this post and couldn't stop thinking about it, so here is the answer I gave after some consideration-- I'll tell you when I find out. Sometimes it really feels like it depends on your Agents, and what they're accustomed to. I have two groups that I play with, one is mostly serious with a handful of gallows humor quips while the other one is absolutely clown-shoes-goof-goof-times. You could lovingly craft a deeply unsettling body-horror scene or run a tried-and-true encounter straight out of an established campaign and your mileage will greatly vary depending on your audience. That's not *necessarily* a bad thing, a handlers job is to guide a narrative in a way that's first and foremost fun for the players. If they want to take it seriously and buy into the horror they will, but if they want a bit of levity then there's nothing wrong with playing to the crowd. But I do really, really empathize with struggling to convey the awesome and terrible might of some cosmic horror with nothing but your words in a group of people that (hopefully) instinctively feel at ease and jovial while fooling around playing games with their buddies. Here's a few practical pieces of advice I can give you.

Try to cultivate an unsettling environment for your players. This one seems obvious but is actually really hard to get down right, especially when people mostly play online these days. But you’d be surprised how much regularly providing good visual aids, a Discord bot playing ambient music, and a good playlist can really set the tone for your session. Don’t just provide visual aids for the money shots of alien greys and deep ones either, running a campaign based on The Conspiracy era gives you ample opportunity to post a ton of weird, liminal 90s photographs to set the vibe for everyone even during otherwise mundane scenes.

Make a point of explaining to your players the difference between what they are experiencing and what their characters are experiencing. Yes, facing off against a 8ft tall fish man with a crossbow is inherently ridiculous as a fictional abstract. Its an entirely different experiencing actually being there, face to face under an incredible amount of stress seeing something that should not exist. In a lot of ways your players aren’t their characters so much as they are mad gods guiding their characters’ fates. THEY can laugh from the safety of this higher dimension we all exist in, that’s part of the fun. Hell their characters might even have a passing thought or two about how absurd the situation might be—but that entire time they’re fighting their lizard-brained instincts just to stop from mentally imploding. Let them laugh, but then tell them how their characters' hands might be shaking, or how any clever quip they wanted to say just comes out as a mumble as their body betrays whatever thoughts their rational mind tries to convey.

Know the rules of comedy. Comedy usually needs a straight-man, so if your players are goofing around don’t be afraid to give them a straight-man NPC to react to their antics in a way that makes it feel like you’re in on the bit but keeps the narrative going. Better yet, try to get ahead of it. Set up designated low-stakes areas in your story that are designed to add a bit of levity. They say comedy comes in threes, so you should structure these segments to let your agents to do some dumb shit about three times before they get all the sillies out and are ready to move on. And the emotional highs during these side quests will just make the crushing lows in the main plot feel that much more horrifying.

Building off that last one I have one more secret, forbidden technique. Buyer beware on this one honestly, but I cannot overstress just how much. Players. Love. Silly. Characters. And as David Lynch has proven, you can have silly characters that are still deeply unsettling. Try adding a few characters in that flip the script on your players and make *them*  want to play the role of the straight-man reacting to what your NPCs are doing every once in a while. If done right, it can kind of trick them into taking things seriously or feel like the eerie out of place comedy is at their character’s expense even if the players are in on it.

I hope some of this was at least partially useful. Good luck out there.

[theamateurreviewer]

Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (1966, Original Effects)

Rating: 8/10

My first foray into Star Trek wasn't TOS, ironically. It was one of The Next Generation films (First Contact to be precise), but I can say that the first season of TOS was so much better than I could have ever imagined that I'm disappointed it took me 26 years of life to see it! Before the characters became flanderized and solidifed, the First Season of TOS still feels ground breaking over fifty years past the first air date.

(Page break: the final warning. These are the spoilers of @theamateurreviewer's review of the first season of TOS. It's goal, to make sure you see only what you want to see, to warn you about what is to follow, and to write on what everyone has written before.)

Strengths

For a show from 1966, the first season feels genuinely ground breaking. As a aficionado of "old people television" (the perks of having older than average parents as a child), I've grown accustomed to shows of this vintage, like Perry Mason, Adam-12, and The Andy Griffith Show. And while all of those shows are fine, and can give me a good chuckle or deep thought from time to time, they still feel like products of their time, for better or worse.

But Star Trek has different vibes. Yeah, the Enterprise is a model on a blue screen, as is the view screen, and the locations are very clearly sound stages or filmed at that one famous rock formation within the 30 mile zone, but 90% of the time, the content of the episode and the campy, completely genuine acting, feels evergreen.

One of my favorite episodes of Season One is "Balance of Terror," where the Enterprise encounters a Romulan Bird of Prey and plays cat and mouse with the Romulan's cloaking device. The tension of the bridge scenes, and the call backs to WWII submarine films like Run Silent, Run Deep, especially in the sound design and staging of the attack, sell me on the grounded nature of the setting and the boni fides of the production.

And of course, no discussion of Star Trek Season One is complete without bringing up "The City on the Edge of Forever," a standout episode originally written by Harlan Ellison, of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream fame. The characters, the melancholic ending, and its commentary on pacifism in the face of fascism made it a instant classic. It's no wonder that it was given the 1968 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, among other awards. Many to this day maintain that this episode is the greatest amongst all episodes of all Star Trek.

Weakness

As with all television shows, there are going to be lesser episodes. "The Squire of Gothos" and "Miri" are two good examples of this. They're both forgettable and fairly safe in their execution, but these are far from bad. To me, they could have used a few more edits, a few more drafts, and then they'd be on par for the show. But even these episodes are fun while being watched.

In summation, there are aspects of TOS that are progressive for our day and age. Women in positions of power that are respected not because they are women, but because they are officers. Men who show their emotions (yes, even you, Spock), and can express them without being looked down upon. Season Two expands on this, with African American doctors, scientists, and flag officers. It's perhaps a sad reflection of our current day that these concepts, fiction merely 60 years ago, still remain a hard fought part of modern culture.

[artobotsrollout]

I've watched Beast Machines with @optimistpax and this might be controversial.

Beast Machines isn't as horrifically bad as the fandom says it is.

This is largely just my opinion.

Is Beast Machines good?

LISTEN I know the designs are scary, the genre swap from beast wars to beast machines is very jarring, some of the writing is wack, and they really did Rhinox dirty. Yes. I agree. I wouldn't say it was an amazing or even great show. Overall I'd say it's okay. Interesting at best. BUT you gotta admit that there was some unique ideas that they tried to showcase.

I started out thinking the same thing everyone did "WTF is this show, why are the designs creepy? the "I am transformed" bit is kinda weird" stuff like that. But we began to look past odd design and story choices and tried to view it as something more independent from Beast Wars and we saw some interesting stuff going on.

I'm well aware of its flaws, you're probably well aware of its flaws, so I'm not going to talk a lot about those. This is mostly talking about some of the good or almost good things it brought to the table.

The Redeemable

@optimistpax pointed out that the designs were almost good in some of their choices. Despite my early dislike of the designs I kinda had to admit that, even though they didn't quite stick the landing, they were kinda brave in going as funky and as distinctly shaped with the designs as they did. I respect the fact that they didn't waffle about being out there and alien. They straight up committed to being as weird and unusual as possible. And the designs have some cool potential if you look past the sort of creepy aspects. Ngl im tempted to try adjusting their designs to try and make them a lil less creepy. But some of the artistic choices were really unique!!

Post-apocalypse survival is a really cool vibe to see in a TF show! It was such a massive tonal difference from Beast Wars which personally?? I felt it kind of worked, at least for me. I can see why it might be a jarring shift for people but it was fun to see the characters encounter an entirely NEW set of problems unlike anything theyve fought before. It was fun to see the same characters fighting in an almost new genre. But I can see how that also might bother viewers who were expecting more Beast Wars.

The idea of the balance between the organic and the mechanic is also kinda cool. At some points it got weird, I'll readily admit, but the idea of balance between tech and nature is an interesting concept. I've always kinda wanted techno organic ideas to be explored more because there's often suggestions in Transformers media that hints at humans and Cybertronians being linked in some way. So to see this kind of explored was a good time. Wish they went in more depth.

Some of the artistic choices were actually surprisingly good. Like there's an episode featuring Rattrap where there's some really great colour, lighting, and composition choices. I can't remember the name of the episode offhand but it was the one where Rattrap promised not to let anyone harm megatron for 24 hours(I think) in exchange for something they needed. And he had to facedown his own teammates.

The episodes usually made sense and there was some really interesting character interactions. I liked seeing Cheetor kinda grow up from how he was in Beast Wars. I loved seeing Airachnid as fully on team Maximal. Her personality was so fun. Rattrap had some interesting character defining moments which I thoroughly enjoyed?? Despite being pretty neutral about Rattrap in general. Nightscream, Botanica, and Strika were very fun additions and I love their designs. Really put of the box thinking.

I didn't fully understand Megatron's motivation. Like I understand what he wanted to do but I'm not 100% sure what sparked it or why he'd want it. I do think him wanting to essentially run a dystopia is a cool concept however. I like the idea of him trying to rid himself of his organic side. It kinda hammers home the techno organic inevitability message that they want to get across.

Honestly I think that people hate Beast Machines largely because it was meant as a follow up from Beast wars and was incredibly different from it. It wasn't the direction that a lot of people wanted and expected the story to go. Which is fair enough. If viewed with some degree of separation tho I'd say the quality of it isn't that different from Beast Wars.

At the end of the day the writing was goofy but fun. The designs were unique and alien but kinda scary and needed a few more passes before going to production. But there's something charming about it that I think a lot of people miss.

If you haven't seen it yet but want to watch the show, my best recommendation is, don't expect it to feel like Beast Wars.

[demonslayedher]

Did my rewatch with a friend, some observations either from me or both of us:

--Gotouge was deep in the "bean" period at this point in the manga, drawing especially Tanjiro's face in lumpy simple shapes on a regular basis. We suspect that in this season so far, Tanjiro's face has spent most of its screen time in silly mode as opposed to normal mode.

--Before we watched, I had her guess what she thought the vibe might be for the ending theme. "I don't know, foreshadowing all their deaths or something?" GIRL, HOW DARE YOU GUESS THAT RIGHT. Also, I'm so glad the full version of "Tokoshie" is already out because it's going to be super difficult but I can't wait to give it a shot at karaoke.

--We chatted afterward about Ufotable's choices. I feel like they've upped their show-offy game in this season (thicker lines, extended scenes, varied BGM and careful sound design, slow and deliberate filler, and lighting, lighting, lighting, lighting!), which might be somewhat to compensate for the slower story pace. It's simply reality that a lot of the hype for KnY has slowed (the Mugen Ressha era levels were unsustainable, of course, that was a phenomenon), and I know many people have gotten tired of it. But frankly, those people are not Ufotable's audience now; we the captives who love spending time with these characters are the target audience, and when things pick up again, those who took a break will come back and binge these seasons. I'm sad to see some hype die away, but I have no worries about the hype train totally dying down.

--And the love and care thrown into this production shows that they have every intention of giving the final arcs the care they'll require <3

--but also AOI!!! I loved the subtle restraint of that filler. It wasn't overdone, and it's so rare to see Tanjiro and Aoi have a moment together, and to see both how Aoi has relaxed in his presence and how she remains formal. That irony and layered way of Tanjiro having no idea how he's helped her, and Aoi talking about herself in wanting to be left alone, but still finding a way to show that she cares about this person Tanjiro is talking about even though she has no idea who it is? Wonderfuuuullllll

--How softly Shinobu speaks to Kanao!!!!! The way Shinobu sits in shadow but Kanao is within reach of the sunlight!!!! (They put Kanao's hair on the same side as usual instead of matching the way the manga did this scene!)

--The glimpse in Tamayo's memories of Yoriichi encountering Muzan, the sound of his earrings tied with the sound of Tanjiro's earrings!!

--The same sort of layering in the ending theme!!

--YUSHIRO SCREAMING DESCENT

--Giyuu's face being cut out of view when he says he's not the Water Pillar

--EVERY BIT OF GIYUU AND TANJIRO INTERACTION, I'm sure Hanae Natsuki had so much fun being thoroughly obnoxious

--EVERY BIT OF GIYUU AND SABITO INTERACTION

--There is no mistaking Murata and I love that

--LITTLE GIYUU'S EEEEEEYYYYYYYYEEEEESSSS

--The height difference between Tanjiro and Giyuu in the Taisho Secrets

--Tanjiro was the one being overbearing and clingy in the episode and now in the Taisho Secrets we've got Giyuu thoroughly in "Kamado Tanjiro is my friend" mode, like "...Come eat more soba with me. Oh. Then. Come eat shake daikon with me. Are you coming? You're coming! Are you done yet? I'm staring at you from the side of the screen. I'm waiting. Come on. Hang out with me."

--I was gonna say the Taisho Secrets were obvious this time, but my friend (who has read the manga and just watched this episode with me) said, "oh, I didn't know that side was from his sister!" So... alright, good call, then, Ufotable.

--Ok but as Tanjiro is first showering Giyuu with kindness (and indeed, sitting so much in Giyuu's personal space), I was thinking about Giyuu's smile in the Taisho Secrets (shake daikon, yay~), and my friend said, "You know what this is making me think of? That panel at the end of the manga when..." --when he's smiling, I thought-- "...he thinks Tanjiro is dead." NO STOP WHY DID YOU DO THAT ME

--Love that little addition of Tanjiro cheerfully pointing out how quiet it's been, and "no! No demons here!" TANJIRO, YOU SHOULD BE VERY, VERY WORRIED ABOUT WHAT THIS MEANS

--"Now want about Tomioka-san" "What's Kocho doing?" UFOTABLE STOP THE DOOMED GIYUSHINO HURTS

--WHAT A CLIP TO END ON AND PLUNGE US INTO THAT ENDING THEME

--rude

[moonyasnow]

Behold:

My Clown Child

Before I get to yapping about Mallory and the design stuff it's FINAL POLL TIME!

(They're all turning into such characters I love it)

So yeah this is gonna be the FINAL poll for the Draconia siblings! So as a special treat ahead of time I'll be sharing some of my inspiration I'd be having in mind when creating the outfits, by way of screenshots from their pinterest boards:

Ok now onto Mallory!

His biggest inspiration is probably Clopin from the Hunchback of Notre Dame (as in, I eye-dropped the purple and orange colors straight from Clopin's outfit)

Seeing Mallory next to all the others is so funny because just look at this design compared to the others. Like yes the standard elements of what I like to include in Briar Valley designs are still there (the lattice pattern, the pearls, the thorns, the 1500s inspiration) but the COLORS

They're the only one of the siblings to include the color yellow/orange in their design!

Briar Valley and its rules and its gloomy atmosphere wasn't for them, but they still love their family, you know? So I did still wanna include the same elements in their design as with the others.

Oh! And that metal thing at the top of their head in their Jester's hat is supposed to resemble the forehead section of their grandma Maleanor's crown! The black spots on it aren't gems though; they're just painted black, so they're completely flat

And the second version, with the hat and their face painted, is just for when they're on stage for their work.

I love how different Mallory is from a lot of their siblings. Like they're someone who really genuinely believes the world is a wonderful place and loves life and wants to experience as much of it as they can

Really the definition of a 'free spirit'.

The dude is a prince of a kingdom with a black green and silver color scheme but dresses like THAT and joined a traveling circus. I think that tells you as much as you need to know about them really.

I haven't really been as good at going in-depth with my thoughts recently so I'm gonna share two songs that I think really represent Mallory well:

ALSO SOME FUN CONTEXT!

I actually imagine that during GloMas, Rollo becomes basically enamoured with Irina; she's magicless (in his mind that makes her more 'pure' and 'good' than anyone else she's surrounded by) and living surrounded by so many asshole mages essentially, and she's just got that vibe to her that probably makes him feel like he needs to protect her

BUT THEN SHE GOES AND MARRIES THE FCKN MAGIC LIZARD--

So then I'm imagining Mallory's troupe traveling and staying in Fleur City a while and a now older Rollo is just hit with a feeling of 'if things had gone the way I wanted this would be my child' Because aside from a few fae/draconic traits, Mallory is the one of the kids who resembles irina the most

I imagine the two have a fun dynamic going on when Mallory is in Fleur city. Like they'll joke with him a lot of and he just obviously thinks it's bothersome and they do clock that but they just keep going because either he gets used to it eventually and maybe even smiles at one of their jokes one day, or he blows up and they can still pat themself on the back for getting some kind of reaction out of him.

So win/win in their eyes! They're very optimistic in that way. And in a way, since they're always looking on the bright side, they never really lose. Because to them, even something unexpected happening is just a fun twist they weren't expecting.

And instead of using their magic for 'proper' things (which Malcolm becomes annoyed at them for because magic has never come naturally to him even though he takes it so seriously so it's just not FAIR to see his older sibling use their natural affinity for it for simple parlor tricks) they use it to make people, especially kids, laugh.

Oh, and they use that teleportation spell their dad also has, and they use it a LOT They love the showmanship aspect of just randomly appearing in a burst of green fireflies It's dramatic in just the way they love

Oh and because of the bells on their shoes their every step is followed by a jingling sound.

Tag list: @another-random-paradise @thehollowwriter @faefum @cactus13-rolloflammesimp @beneathsakurashade

@nyx-of-night @theolivetree123 @babyghoul138 @skibidibabygirl @screamintoad

@gingacat @buttholesparkles @scint1llat3 @jadelover69 @angelwishess

@crimsonrose34 @nerenda @chillygourami @kirans-wonderland

Please let me know if you ever wanna be added or removed! ^^

[t00fumaple]

Some thoughts about OG Beyblade second season

I really just want to talk about it tbh, and share it here. Stuff I liked, stuff I didn’t, would be nice to wrap up the S2 watch through posts ig. Feel free to disagree with me or not, I don’t mind either way.

Spoilers below, obviously lmao

I’m not even going to lie I kind of went into knowing that a lot of people didn’t like it, then when I watched it, I kind of don’t get the hate? Personal preference maybe??? Massive change and the way it paces the story??? Not sure, cause some of the criticisms I’ve seen I kind of just, don’t get. Though that may be because dub changes, or I’m stupid.

This season is definitely the middle child of the OG Beyblade, though I personally enjoyed it despite its problems.

First things first, stuff I liked throughout the season.

I absolutely adore the vibes it had, very early 2000s, and it was a nice change of pace and I will say I like it more than the first season. Though, it seemed like it did try keeping up with the times, especially with the major artstyle change and the switch to 3d for the Beyblades (which I’ll get into later). Which was a bit jarring considering how older the first season felt (idk how to describe it lol)

The sound effects were very nice, I just liked the clicking and clacking of Beyblades, the footsteps, the typing on the keyboards. They were very nice to me, very yummy indeed I wish I could feast on these noises

The animation was really cool too, perhaps a bit better than the first season? But it’s quite hard to tell since long series like this bad animation is way more forgettable, you see it in most episodes unless you have an insane budget. Shoutout to the one animation director who worked on Episode 15 and Episode 28. I’m not sure who it is, and if they worked on another episodes but their style was recognizable and they had very funny camera angles and snappy movements, the characters looked adorable when they were animated like that and I wish we saw it more often.

The plot structure was interesting and took the nice break and concepts in the Europe arc and extended it, it was an interesting change of pace and it was fun to explore different situations in the blading world than just, world tournaments. Also helped expand more about the sacred beasts, I could argue it wasn’t exactly needed but whatever, it’s a nice season concept. Though this decision at times did work against the season.

Finally the characters, I really liked them this season, and it felt the BBA team were really closer as friends, it was very sweet. I wish we got more slice of life scenes in the season, I really enjoyed in the movie where they were playing at the beach or at the festival, and I think it would’ve given the kids a break since there’s a shit ton of things happening in this season. Also the designs were really nice too, Max and Kai look awesome in this season.

Also Hiromi is really great, that’s my girl. I wish they did more with her, since I think she’s kind of there at times, though she helps the team in her own way since oh my god they truly did need a non-blader mediator

So is Zeo!!! Literally one of my favorite characters out of the franchise now, that’s literally my son right there. Though I believe he could be a bit of a better character, but I think he’s fine on his own right now, I love him. Most of my thoughts on him like definitely go into headcanon territory so I won’t share them lol

Now onto my gripes with the season

I HATE THE BEYBLADE BATTLES AHHHHHH

Like I’m pretty sure it’s just me, since I may be going crazy and I find myself sometimes just skipping or paying half attention to what’s happening on the screen for these sort of things. I look at the writing and character side of things not the buy my toy aspect (which may be a terrible habit of mine lol)

But, I just, didn’t feel as charmed as much as the first season battles, which is a damn shame because it felt so significantly changed to me, it was just sad. I’m not exactly sure what the root is, but probably just the fact they switched to 3d models, which is totally fine and I understand the change, I just think they didn’t want to or have the budget to do things like the first season. I just miss the themed stadiums and the unique ways to work against or work with it.

Also I just think, they did focus a lot on the sacred beasts during the battle, which is fine considering the theme of the season and their expansion on that part of the lore, but at times it just felt repetitive, since like every single fucking antagonist just wanted to kidnap this group of 12 year old’s ancient ass pets in their spinning tops.

Speaking of which, there was just a lot going on tbh. Like I think having the scientists was a really interesting move and I think it would’ve worked if, well, The Saint Shields didn’t exist lol.

See, I don’t like them, they were introduced first and they had that weird mystique on what they were after, then like later they just, started existing. I cannot believe Ozma was considered a main character on Anilist when from what I recall, since i honestly couldn’t tell you a single character trait that guy has

I feel having two groups going after the sacred beasts was a bit much, especially since the Saint shields were a bit flimsy on what they were doing. Even if it was explained, it felt a bit weird to me tbh. Like I think they were there to push the mystery of the sacred beasts, since they’re the most connected to them, but I think it could’ve easily been executed better.

Also I want to say, it’s so weird to me about how many people mention how bad Takao is in this season, but like, I don’t get it?

It may be adaptational changes, but I don’t think Takao was as insufferable as I’ve seen a lot of people claim, I think his only problem was taking his anger and stress out on others, which I will say was… a bit weird since it was framed as bad but the plot never sought for him to learn from it iirc, Kind of missed potential tbh. Though in Takao’s defense, if that kind of shit was happening around me 24/7 I’d probably not be the most pleasant person to be around either 💀

Anyway yeah that should be all my thoughts! Feel free to open discussions with me, I like hearing what other people say! Please keep in mind this is my personal opinion so it’s okay to not agree with me!

It’s a fine season! I just think it could be better and I believe a lot of ironing out the plot would be nice, like I personally think the season would’ve worked better if the only antagonists were the scientists and the learning of stuff about the sacred beasts happened through the season instead of just a lot of their backstory getting lore dropped in one episode. But that’s just me.

Yeah that’s my opinion bye, if you have questions about specific stuff feel free to ask me

[glaseadomtn]

im so obsessed with your art all your drawings are beautiful... do you have a pinterest or sum where you have inspo i can follow??

Thank you, I'm touched! I don't think "beautiful" is a word that has ever been used when describing my art, so I am very honored, thank you!

I don't use pinterest or anything like that, so I apologise if this isn't what you're asking of me, but under the cut I've listed some things I enjoy currently and attempt to incorporate into my own stuff, as well as my process of going about it all, if that interests anyone. It's a bit of an infodump, but I feel its the best I can do since I don't have a physical collection of things to share.

The things I post are my outlet of "I love this, have a lot of things to say about this, I'm thinking about it a lot" etc, but with nobody irl to talk to about it, it comes out on drawings (and meme edits) instead lol.

I am first and foremost a furry/creature artist, have been for like forever. I've never drawn people this much in my entire life! Batman stuff has been especially fun since it has decades of extreme popularity there is nearly infinite things discover and get excited about.  likeso, this scarecrow design is from a monopoly board game, found on instagram just from falling down a rabbithole of looking at lame batman merch:

I've always gotten insp from Pokemon cards, When I see art I like on one I sometimes like to try my hand to mimic it. My favorite manga ever is Golden Kamuy, the visual humor and the way movement and expressions are drawn is next level. I'm a big fan of Lego media, especially the games that are made of an existing franchise, The way they retell a story except everything is made silly and not serious at all is definitely is a foundational part of the way I view Batman and other media. More recently, I've discovered and love literally everything about the style of Sam Kieth's comics:

In a similar vein, this one is from a quick color study of paintings by Simon Stålenhag. I adore the way he paints realistic atmosphere and lighting, especially the dark and snowy scenes:

a handful of things I've posted have come from a study-type of pic of a painting or photo I like, that I just threw a character on top of lol. I often use my own photos as well:

my batman "worldbuilding" and characterizations is how I would go about making my own Batman series, which falls more in line with the old comics when everything was tacky and campy and whimsical. I'll always prefer the 60's Batman show or Batman Returns/Batman Forever over the Dark Knight trilogy or Arkham games, and it's impossible for me to even take those dark & gritty versions seriously.

I doodle in my downtime, and when I have a good chunk of art done I post them, which is why y'all keep getting posts of like 20 random pics every week from me lol. I draw fast, and I don't care enough for clean & polished looks as long as the concept gets across. If I spend a lot of time on a pic, its moreso for the fun of using the brush settings and colors than it is my goal of finishing the art. I'll paste in refs and insp to help show what I'm trying to draw, it helps with the overall vibe, so I just search them up as I need them. My favorite thing to do is to paste in a stock image of an item or place instead of trying to draw it, especially if it has a watermark makes it way funnier to me. 

here's something I'm working on at the moment, redesigning Duela Dent:

For the type of character I imagine her being, I find a tv show or movie character that is similar, and see what they wear as a base reference. (A more popular character with many appearances is much easier to work with, since you can pick and choose which bits you like of different versions and mash them together, with not a lot you have to make up yourself.) I also throw in similar characters from other media to help be "like this character!" about it, be it visually or in writing or both. when im messing with character designs, especially their fashion, I'm not too good with colors and patterns and details, so it's more about the shapes or vibe I want to get across. I see what I want in my head but I try to find an actual photo ref to help, like her hair style & color, and the half-skirt-half-shorts she's wearing to emphasize the "2" theme. I imagine her with a rockstar personality to contrast with Harvey being a classy lawyer/mob-boss; giving her rebellious teen attitude is how I'm reimagining her origin of being "the Daughter of [insert villain here]" that she constantly changes, turning it into more of a "fuck you dad! I'll run away get a new dad!" type of thing lol. I still feel really rough at drawing humans, so leaving in my refs and insp on the character pages feels necessary to me.

and I guess that's all I have to say for now! tldr: I don't keep a track of my art insp, because I get inspired by too much of anything and everything! i just draw to entertain myself and express my happiness! and thank you again!

[unlimited-sciuridae]

Dazzledoll Ship Chart!

Wooo okay so I was too tired to do this last night so let's break it down. Because my ass over thought everything buckle up and you will see my vision!

What it felt like doing this at 3am:

let's start with the art I put Mimzy in a dress I designed after her "flapper" dress, a subtle hint about how Vel likes to dress her up. Mimz is posses for a fan photo and Vel is taking a selfie.

Height: Velvette gives angry short person vibes so no she won't tell her height- fuck off. Mimzy is cutesie about it as "fun size". Honestly figuring out the height of shorter characters is difficult. Vox and Alastor are 7 feet tall and both ladies go up to the men's shoulders. Scale is so wonky, I suppose that would make them actually 6 feet? But then Charlie is 6' 6" and Lucifer is shorter than her commonly thought of as 6' :

Here mimzy and Luci are closer to the viewer so all and all mimzy is probably 5'10"ish. They'd be the same height. They aren't short just surrounded by giants. Niffty is short though, like 3 feet? Anyway.

Age: I answer this as age at time of death and not chronological age. I headcanon Vel is a "new adult" she's described as the youngest of the Vees. Mimzy won't say a lady never does. But late 20s maybe 31 at the oldest is my headcanon.

Relationship status: They live for the drama its on again off again and a few times they "broke up" because it was a publicity stunt.

Gender: This is actually a Lil juicy. I'm a fat woman the reason I put Lady is that I'm gifting my gender whoahs to her. She's used to being degendered by assholes who want to "put her in her place" for being too self confident and fat. Don't get it wrong people have the right to get pissy she does underhanded things but she doesn’t like the feeling of having her identity as a lady denied. Lady was the ultimate gendered compliment in her time, you should treat a lady a certain way, be nice to a lady ectra.

Velvette has had similar experiences along the lines of degendering and masculization of woc. Vel grew up when she likely had racists treat her differently than they would a white woman. Her femininity was ignored if she was too loud and opinionated- stereotyped. Different lenses to view womanhood and what it means to deserve your gender.

Sexuality: Vel is a confirmed Lesbian 🎉 and Mimzy is "sapphos sister" which isn't actually a period accurate term persay but I think it describes her pretty well. My headcanon is that shes likely m-spec with a preference for men but isn't afraid to explore her Sapphic side.

Occupation: Pretty straight forward, in the playbill it mentions Mimzy owning a club at a point and I headcanon that's her ideal job now. She can sing as much as she wants. She used to want to be a movie star but she mostly gave up on that because movies in hell are not to her taste.

Both are extroverts, Mimzy less so. She's used to smaller crowds of people on her wheras Vel is handling thousands.

Everyone knows when they are together and when they aren't they do have enough self awareness not to talk mad shit when broken up by playing coy about things.

Vel would kill for the people she cares about and has the power to back it up. Mimzy was always a bit squeamish about murder at least directly with a knife. She would put out a hit on someone or poison them. Her main issue is that she has very little power. It's more in her nature to be a bit selfish but if she loves you she'll die for you or with you. Bonnie and Clyde or Thelma and Louise. She's more of a sentimental romantic in that way imo. Vel will kill you or put out a hit on you or use her magic to make your gaudy scarf choke you to death. She a survivor by nature, she won't die for you but she will make your death everyone elses problem.

Vel takes a while to fall in love and like I mentioned Mimz is sentimental and a romantic falling faster.

Vel is messy in crunch time but will clean up, Mimz works better in choas.

I purposely draw them switching spoon order it depends on whose feeling which role. Mimzy slightly prefers little spoon but not by much.

Mimz can cook a limited amount of food very well. Vel I imagine died in the early 2000s and like I see a lot in British media had more take away and convince food with her mom cooking when she could at home. Vel didn't get to learn her mom's recipes. Now as a powerful Vee she has a chef and will sometimes eat hells version of microwave Ramen when homesick. Both are sentimental about food and flavors. "Coke hasn't been the same since they removed the cocaine" and since Europe in general has stricter food additive laws Vel would probably lament the way a certain chemical tasted good but can't get anymore. Mimz would try to recreate Vels mom's food for Vel.

Vel finds being in love (vs lust) unsettling. She's had her guard up for so long. Mimz actually loves the way love makes her feel wild and out of control.

Because of my 2000s headcanon Vel has had more dates and attempts at relationships. Mimz had her fair share but just not as much. Both eras (and today) have stigmas about dating around but it's easier to find like minded people now.

If I understand this scale right they both like to do stuff like this:

Whenever possible but due to height they don't get to that often. See above: surrounded by giants. If one of them is standing and someone else is sitting its open arm rest season.

Because of their nature of on again off again it's hard to tell but mimz is much more comfortable with a long term relationship with Vel whereas at least for now Vel can feel overwhelmed. The longer they are together they'll sus out their issues. Have a few mean fights about it. They are a messy couple with ups and downs and I love it. I did draw them getting married before but who knows if that'd be where they actually end up in my own headcanons.

Fundamentally they are attention seeking creatives. They are creatives in different areas which allows them not to sabotage each other.

Whats the appeal I take to mean as what they see in each and like it says they match each other's freak. Both are this guy:

If you gotta get people murdered for art so be it.

Howd they meet was so fun to imagine! Someone with a cell phone recorded a song at Mimzys club and it went viral. Which put Mimz on Vels radar.

(Actually it'd be hilarious if Vox is trying to remember where he knows Mimzy from as a running gag in the relationship. Velvette doesn't give a shit that Mimzy knows Alastor but thinks its hilarious that Vox can't remember and is letting his old man show)

A note on font: I wanted fonts to show their styles and then a generic font for other information. Basically implying they wrote some of it and I the creator wrote some of it.

[pwnyta]

I'm gonna throw some salt at you, which I will admit I don't fully know and understand so I could be wrong in some way (I'm man enough to admit that)

But I get a little annoyed with the sheer amount of complaints about Hoyoverse not having darker skinned characters. Because it happens every new batch of characters, and quite frankly it's often a broken record to me

Because like... yeah? Of course they're not going to go darker? Y'all keep supporting them, so why would they have to change anything?

If they just keep disappointing you, then stop playing Genshin, or Honkai, or ZZZ, because they're likely never going to give you what you want. Maybe someday they will, but so far they've only ever shown you that they aren't gonna do that, so why keep supporting them?

Personally, I'm not someone who cares about seeing myself in media (mostly because overweight characters are pretty much always the butt of the joke and only ever care about food/eating //looks at the cow luchadora in disappointment) but I know people DO care about that and I'm sure there are a lot of reasons why people would still support Hoyo (the games are fun, everyone plays them so you don't want to feel left out)

It just seems like it'd be easier to stop supporting a company that has repeatedly let you down

Nah i dont think youre entirely wrong. HYV is gonna let the money speak and pale skinned(even the 'dark' skin characters are pretty pale) characters, especially scantily clad young women are their bread & butter.

Unfortunately I just dont think the VAST amount of people who play the games even WANT darker skinned characters in the game. Which is crazy since they like to bitch about the same-y vibe of the characters designs... which is fair... but bitches dont actually WANT any traits that might make them look different. (for example there are lots of cool and cute black hairstyles but god forbid.) Hell I dont even think most of the people who complain about the lack of diversity even care...

I remember when the cast of Sumeru was dropped and people complained about the lack of darker skinned characters with them but then HYV dropped the Fatui video and everyone just let it go... even though every Fatui is pale skinned.

So... what can ya do...

This is a problem with basically everything btw... I think people care more about people THINKING they care and that theyre super moral than actually doing anything to change whats wrong. its just easier to point out and shrug at when its just some dumb fandom bullshit.

[princess-aeducan]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Gameplay Reveal Thoughts

Okay for one thing, I am so happy to be making this post. Going from people voicing doubts about the game coming out at all to a Fall 2024 release window is so exciting. 10 years and it’s finally almost here.

-The game is absolutely gorgeous. I love the design of Minrathous, I love how gobsmackingly different it is from Ferelden. Dorian’s complaints from Inquisition all make sense now, and it’s fascinating to see a place that is not repressive of magic- the fact that it resembles sci-fi levels of tech but is all powered by magic is sooo fun and interesting to me. I also think it’ll be an interesting contrast to the more classic fantasy style locations we see at the ritual site and throughout the screenshots the developers have posted. It makes the world feel so much bigger, diverse, and more fleshed out.

-Unpopular opinion and I totally respect why others dislike it as it does look quite different, I’m actually looking forward to the combat. It honestly just looks more fun to me, as I tend to favor a more action/real time style anyway. That being said, I do dislike the 3 person party change for banter reasons and do think that’ll make it feel significantly less like classic Dragon Age. I feel like I’ll get used to it pretty fast, but it is a disappointment. Controlling companions isn’t mandatory for me but it was always nice to be able to try out all the classes, so that’s a loss as well, although one I’m less bothered by.

-I like the way the characters look, but do understand it could take a little bit of adjustment. Harding got a massive glow up, she looks gorgeous. So excited she’s a companion, and that we’ll have our first romanceable dwarf! Not a huge fan of the way Solas looks in this style, but I don’t feel particularly upset about it anyway. Not sure what it is. Varric looks great, but like many others, missing his ginger hair. All in all, less drastic changes to returning characters than we’ve seen in previous titles, I will never be over how much they butchered Alistair in Inquisition. I love the designs and vibes of the new companions, Neve is a fashion icon and sooo fits in with what Dorian has set up for us to expect from Tevinter. I can’t wait to meet Davrin in particular, because god I miss Grey Wardens.

-On that point: Factions have me maybe the most excited. I cannot wait to be a Grey Warden again, I’d been holding out hope! I liked that the faction was referenced in the gameplay reveal as well, and hope it’ll change small things throughout the game, at least through dialogue. Also will have to play as an Antivan Crow at some point. A bit sad this won’t include a playable prologue like Origins, but since DA2 and DAI I wasn’t expecting it. Just always something I’ll miss.

-A red flag for me is how little Rook was prompted to make dialogue choices. I hope that because this is simply the prologue and therefore focused on binary plot progression, that this will be different in more dialogue-driven sections, but it’s something to look out for and be wary of. I’m okay with Rook speaking on their own occasionally, but if that continues, I hope it’s at least like Hawke where there’s some variation based on personality.

-Also yes, excited about the return of the purple Hawke icon! The dialogue wheel in Inquisition felt more bland to me than in DA2, so if the wheel is what we’re stuck with, I’d rather it lean more to its DA2 execution.

-On narrative: I cannot BELIEVE the game just jumps into “let’s confront Solas RIGHT NOW!” I was not expecting so much plot from the gameplay reveal. I am very intrigued by what’s coming next with the evanuris, and what it will mean for Solas’ role in the story. I’m kind of obsessed with the fact that it begins with Rook fucking things up worse, I think that will be magnificent to explore for roleplay and the repercussions for Thedas will be massive. I know there were concerns about tone, but this gives me hope that we’ll have the fucked up shit Dragon Age is known for. “Just some guy who makes things worse” is a great start for a protagonist, and reminds me of DA2 in some respects.

-My brainrot is horrendous. I have so many more thoughts all of the time, but tried to just center on the gameplay reveal so I don’t yap forever. But always feel free to send asks, and expect more posts as we get closer and closer!

[tomb-of-flora]

You know what, I've decided I'm not done rambling and oversharing for today.

So in my personal life, I am not quiet about the fact that I really liked High Guardian Spice. I don't even really understand what people didn't like about it (and I don't want to hear it, so fuck off with that). I find the characters really endearing, I LOVE the character designs, I was excited to learn more about the old/new magic divide and what was going on with the world, I really vibe with its sense of humor. In some ways it honestly feels like it was made for me—and I've seen it 3-4 times so I can confirm that those feelings hold up to rewatch. It was a lot of fun and it had a great voice!

I love a lot of the characters, but my particular favorites were Amaryllis and Snapdragon. I love any character who calls people "poors" with her whole chest and just has such a fun time with being an asshole, but I also love how Amaryllis acts with people that she *does* like and getting to see her personality persist while still seeing a kinder side of her. I love that she is terrible, but also like, a person at the same time. Snapdragon is a whole different story, which is kind of what I wanted the bulk of this post to be about before I got on my soap box about this show.

Snapdragon's arc as it was forming has to be one of my favorite depictions of a budding trans girl that I've ever seen. I love the way she flocks to the mean girl because she gets to feel at home there. I love the way she's so torn up by insecurity and the idea of who she is supposed to be that everything she says/does feels so confused and twisted up by those emotions. I love the way she's sweet when she's comfortable and you really get to see those pieces of her when she feels like she can be herself, but it's so often cloaked in every other part of life that's been draped over her against her will.

Most of the perspective characters I have written in the past and will write in the future are trans women (a consequence of wanting to feel seen by media, I suppose) and honestly I just hope they're half as good as Snapdragon. I felt so seen in who I was growing up and all the ways I was aching to just exist. I felt so seen in the pace of her progression and the way it was so confused and felt like it was going to come with so many sidesteps, but from an outside perspective the trajectory is very clear and exciting. Truly one of the most comforting and fulfilling depictions of someone like me that I could ever hope to see, and when I feel doubt about the characters I'm writing and the ideas I have, I just remember how happy that character makes me and it really pushes me to keep going and sharing pieces of myself in the hopes that someone else can see them and appreciate them too.

I really love this show, and so many things about it felt so catered to me and my taste, but that's something that I will genuinely always carry with me with tenderness and gradtitude. High Guardian Spice reminded me how amazing it feels to see yourself in art, and it made me want to share those pieces of myself.

(anyway all this to say, Snapdragon my beloved. Her and Sam from Get in the Car, Loser leave my heart so full)

[ideavian]

Your art and the style you have can only be compared to a resplendent dream. I'd love to know about your history in art, ie, your inspirations, how long you've been creating, and the story behind your fascination with distinctively ornate birds. My guess for the birds is Articuno, but what do I know?

Thank you so much!! That’s so nice of you to say akskkssk the birds are not really based on articuno sadly but articuno is one fine bird. Would love to catch it in Pokémon go one day 😔

I’ve been drawing birds for some … 8 years now? It started out less as birds than as colours in shapes tbh, like this one from probably 2016:

^Brought to you by sketch express and its 3 whole layers on my iPad 2. I think the first such bird drawing I ever did was based on a particularly nice sunset I saw :) I drew a whole series of these elements-based birds but I can’t find them anymore…

After playing around with that for a few months I started taking requests for birds based on anime characters like this one (mid 2017)

^rip Lelouch Codegeass you were a real one. I mostly drew characters from bungou stray dogs and That One Obscure Chinese Anime which. Really didn’t work that well in hindsight considering that the designs were more casual than what this style was suited for. But that’s where I started basing birds on people :3

And then in 2018 I got into a little dress up game called Love Nikki and started using the costumes as inspiration and also ran an art request blog, so I was drawing stuff like this for maybe four years? Also I got involved with an art club associated with the game so I was drawing a lot. Most of my stuff from around this time is on this blog!

(August 2018, June 2019, September 2020, August 2021. These are very representative of my personal growth because if you look at my signature you can tell I changed from a cat person to a crow person)

In the summer of 2022 I started doing commissions and got to see a lot of of people’s OCs! It was a lot of fun honestly and I think some of my best work was from then tbh. I think seeing other people’s character designs in different styles really helped me with learning to work with different elements and compositions and such :3

(August 2022, June 2023. Finally got a proper watermark because if I didn’t use them I’d get cancelled so hard on Chinese social media)

And also I discovered genshin character designs around that time and really vibed with the amount of detail on them :D I know people complain about how complicated they are a lot but my style only really works with complicated designs alsjsk

(April 2023, January 2024. Found out about lighting this year and it’s so exciting)

And that’s my bird drawing journey so far! I’m busy with school right now but I’m definitely looking forward to drawing more consistently after I’m done :D I love birds and fancy clothes and birds in fancy clothes