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ROMEO + JULIET (1996) + IMDb Trivia
#romeo + juliet#romeo plus juliet#romeo and juliet#baz luhrmann#leonardo dicaprio#john leguizamo#claire danes#harold perrineau#filmedit#dailyflicks#userstream#chewieblog#cinemapix#cinemaspam#monsieurphantom#userlera#vivienvalentino#henricavyll#*#i actually didn't know a lot of those!!! i need to rewatch the movie with baz's commentary š i need this movie injected into my veins
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Kanye West and Bianca Censori's appearance on the red carpet was something out of a nightmare. If you haven't seen the clip, go look it up.
It starts with them posing, then they face each other and start to talk. Their conversation is not audible, but you can see Bianca shaking her head no and readjusting her large fur coat to cover herself. After three or four words are exchanged, she turns away from the camera and starts taking off her coat slowly. Revealing her naked shoulders, then her back, then her buttocks. She turns around to finally show off the dress she's wearing, a tight, see-through piece of nylon (designed by Kanye himself, according to a post he made on his Instagram) that leaves her breasts, genitals and ass exposed. She's essentially naked. During this whole scene, Kanye is just facing the cameras with sunglasses on, neutral expression on his face.
Now, I'm not shocked by nudity. Censori is definitely not the first celebrity to walk the red carpet wearing a very revealing outfit (and she won't be the last). What disgusts me is the scene they built around the outfit.
First, the little conversation they have. You can clearly see Bianca shaking her head no and tightening her coat around her before being made to undress. There's two possibilities here:
A) Either this wasn't rehearsed, so we essentially witnessed Bianca being pressured into undressing herself in front of dozens of cameras or;
B) It was rehearsed (the most likely option, in my opinion). But then why? Why act out this discomfort before the reveal?
Some could argue they were talking about something totally unrelated, but I very much doubt it. It's their big moment on the red carpet, in front of cameras, it's not the time to talk about the groceries.
What I think is happening is that they (but most likely Kanye) voluntarily chose to paint a scene of a woman being forced to undress herself in front of thousands for the amusement of her husband. It's essentially a brag, a show of force for Kanye. He's saying: "Look at my wife and what she'll do for me. Look what I can make her do. "
The last thing I haven't mentioned, and the scariest, is Censori's facial expression through it all. Neutral expression, no smile. Her eyebrows are trimmed downwards in a way where she looks slightly worried. And her stare is totally vacant. I've seen people say she looks drugged, dissociated, downright "stupid."
I think this is the main difference between Bianca's look and others who have worn skimpy outfits in front of the cameras. Whether it be Lady Gaga, Kendall Jenner, or Madonna, they all share something: confidence. A sultry look, a cheeky smirk, hell, at least a smile! Something to show that they feel desirable, that they're in control. That they choose to show us their bodies.
Whereas Bianca looks dead inside as she's posing.
After standing in front of the cameras for a little while, Kanye takes her hand and leads her away.
The whole sequence (no matter how much Bianca has consented to it) feels like a humiliation ritual. Kayne, standing there fully dressed, pressing his wife to expose her body to the entire world before parading her around. A gross display of chauvinist male domination on the body of a woman. Like, I don't know how else to say it, but it looks like he's walking around with his sex doll, still partially in her plastic wrapping.
Why are we seeing this? What is the point? I can't help but relate this to Elon's n*zi salute. It feels like we're witnessing more and more rich and powerful men pushing the boundaries of what is socially acceptable, trying to see how far they can go. How much of their toxic, repressive views they can share before we come for them.
My heart goes out to Bianca, I hope she's safe and happy in her marriage.
#this was a long one#spag talking#also a lot of people have mentioned how much Bianca looks like Kim Kardashian which is true#as if kanye is trying to send some twisted message to his ex wife#āi found another version of you who submits to me and will do everything i wantā#gross all around#bianca censori#kanye west#grammys#grammys 2025#fuck the patriarchy#think piece#feminism#analysis#social commentary
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this idea wont leave my brain please help me !! YIPPEE HADES BATKIDS !!!
without the bg and text under the cut :))
asdhj probably gonna post like,, two at a time because thats ,, a lot,,,, of drawing ,,,,,,, so heres tim and jason! i think i got the hang of it more with jason lol
ALSO ALSO!!!
thank you to those who helped me with the titles for the batkids!! they were all really good :D (all on insta lol)
timothy: the tenured - thomson_at
#yeah jasons hair gave me ... a lot of trouble until i landed on this#i was debating doign a long hairstyle but i dont think it looked too good with the wreath lol#tims clothing actually gave me sooo much trouble#i really wanted to incorperate more of his red robin elements in it and so i really wanted to do the yellow bandoliers#but thats why he has the upper arm wraps#maybe ill redo him later#once i get the hang of jen zee's style more lolol#jason was fun though#askj commentary over#jason todd#red hood#robin#tim drake#dc fanart#dc comics#batfam#batman#ash's doodlings#hades game#hades supergiant#wait more commentary#i used apollo artemis and hermes for tim because i wanted more of that slimmer vibe#and zag i mostly used for jason#yeah im not super happy with tim but for like.. a second attempt im fine with it#btw if this were an actual game#id like to think that the protagonist would be damian#trying to find his father (bruce) and coming across all of his fathers kids and pseudo kids lol
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This wine tastes like pigs blood!
[First]Ā PrevĀ <ā-> Next
#poorly drawn mdzs#mdzs#lan wangji#jin zixun#wei wuxian#su she#(Su She needs to have his carrie moment before he can have his Carrie Moment.#Which means he needs to exist as a punching bag before he can hit 'em with the rebound).#My first draft of this comic had WWX slurping LWJ's wine per actual scene canon#As it really is a great scene of how WWX is willing to absorb the scandal and harm that befalls others.#It had a lot less to do with it being LWJ and more so that WWX just happens to be the kind of person who refuses to turn a blind eye.#It could have been any Lan who was being pressured (inappropriately) to drink (do not pressure anyone to drink irl PLEASE).#Because this is a romance plot it of course *is* LWJ. But don't forget that in this moment they aren't on great terms.#It's not a knight in shining armor moment - it's a 'you were being treated unjustly and I have the power to absolve you from that.'#And as we are very soon about to see - WWX certainly cannot turn away from those who need aid he can provide.#And like Jin Guangyao; that kindness is also his downfall.#By the way - that you all for the amazing community commentary on the last comic. I really loved reading everyone's thoughts!#Suyao shippers...I get it now. You had me at 'wen ning and WWX parallels'. I'll be back with a treat for you soon.#And yes 'everyone' does include the ironically named tumblr user jin zixun.#Who blocked me right before the character makes his pd-mdzs debut.#I hope you are well. You seem like you were having a real bad time yesterday.
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Happy Revenge of the Sithiversary
Had to jump on the trend of redrawing that one scene where anakin looks like the painting of the devil
(references and alt lighting under the cut)


#sw#star wars#my art#artists on tumblr#digital art#anakin art#anakin skywalker#revenge of the sith#hayden christensen#the fallen angel#painting#digital painting#screencap redraw#star wars prequels#star wars fanart#darth vader#im hungry#ummmmm not a lot of commentary#just excited to see ROTS in theaters!!#well ok i guess this has been a painting ive wanted to do for a while and im always such a sucker to see everyones interpretations of this#scene and painting as a reference#was also experimenting with brushes and a more painterly style#idk if i like it as much as actual painting tho#theres just something about how the paints mix irl#okok#reblog to help artists and click for better quality and i will see yea for next months may 4th piece!#its not going to be on may 4th tho
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life series in my style
#art#fanart#trafficblr#life series#grian#goodtimeswithscar#mumbo jumbo#jimmy solidarity#solidaritygaming#joel smallishbeans#scott smajor#impulsesv#skizzleman#tangotek#ethoslab#bdubs#zombiecleo#inthelittlewood#renthedog#ldshadowlady#bigbst4tz2#bigbstatz#geminitay#pearlescentmoon#commentary in my addtional reblog because this is a lot of tags
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THE ORIGINAL MYSTERY TWINS
[Image description: Fanart of Stan and Ford Pines from "Gravity Falls." Alt text is provided and copied below the cut. End ID]
Copied Alt Text
Image one: Three photos from when Stan and Ford as kids, teens, and adults respectively. The photos are digitally drawn and layered over a photograph of a real desk.
Image two: Photo of kid Stan and Ford on Stan's bed. Ford laughs at Stan acting out a story with their flashlight.
Image three: Polaroid captioned "Thumb War!" of teenage Stan and Ford at the beach. They're poised to play thumb war.
Image four: Photo of adult Stan and Ford on their Arctic adventure. Ford has an arm slung around Stan's shoulders. They're laughing and palling around.
End Copied Alt Text
#gravity falls#stanley pines#stanford pines#stan pines#ford pines#digital art#artists on tumblr#doodleswithangie#500#after reading journal 3 lost legends and book of bill back to back to back#and then listening to the dvd commentaries#i just have a lot of feelings about stan and ford#i was also very much inspired by emmy cicierega's mixed media work on the book of bill#(all of the artists did such stand out work i'm still going back to it)
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comm for @ouchpotatoex : tyvm for workin with me !!!
Commission Info (March 20th, 2025)
close-ups below cut
#xmen#xmen comics#cherik#charles xavier#erik lehnsherr#professor x#magneto#onslaught#snap sketches#commission#THE BRAIN BABY#ALWAYS have a lot of fun workin with comms for the bestie and i esp had fun with this one...#i dont have much commentary. lol...#ok ty BYEEEEEE thank you for workin with me again bestie !!!!!!
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Christian Linke may claim that Jayce and Viktor weren't intended to be gay. This doesn't really matter, though, because the first words that came out of my mother's mouth upon seeing them were, "Gay, they're gay for each other, right?"
And that's all that really matters.
#arcane#jayvik#jayce talis#viktor arcane#jayce x viktor#That was what she thought after the balcony scene#also this was after years of asking her to watch the show with me#She has a lot of commentary on this show
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Oh gosh poor guy wasnāt allowed into the human world as a fairy until now, yeah Iād expect seeing humans at his tiny size would freak him out. They arenāt even adults, imagine seeing Cosmo, Wanda, or Peri in their human formsā¦
(Also this is silly but I have to mention that āfairyā autocorrected to āfartā so at first I wrote āOh gosh poor guy wasnāt allowed into the human world as a fart until nowā lol)
Usually when Timmy saw a child, they were the same height as him!! But now they're much, much bigger. Not to worry!!! Timmy is very quick to adapt to his situation!
..Once he's deduced what sort of situation he's in, that is.
Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]
#fairly oddparents#fop#fop a new wish#fop timmy turner#fop hazel wells#fop dev dimmadome#fop timmy#fop hazel#fop dev#timmy turner#hazel wells#dev dimmadome#asks#oddzo#not a lot a commentary i can give for this specific set of panels asbdkashdb#usually id like. block out the comics along with my own comentary to add to the art#but for the timhazdev line i.#i forgor.#i forgor to write down commentary#compeltely winging it#im winging it every time theres an update#itty bitties fop au
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Took some notes from the Wild Life retrospective episode of the Imp & Skizz podcast featuring Grian because I thought the behind the scenes info was really interesting!
(3:15) The wild cards were all kept totally secret from the players (apart from Grian), with the exception of the superpowers and finale (as they required the players to set keybinds)
(3:45) The players were given files containing the required mods each week, which were named things like "creeper rain" to throw them off
(4:12) Wild cards were a combination of data packs and mods
(4:38) Grian told them not to read the folder name to avoid spoilers (which is kind of impossible), so everyone fully believed there would be creeper rain lol. Grian was saying it in jest but everyone took it seriously and were apologetic about having seen it, to which Grian told them not to worry
(6:58) Grian originally contacted a data pack dev called Brace for help with programming the wild cards. Some, like the shrinking/growing could be achieved with minecraft attributes, but the snails were too janky and unusable. Grian still liked the idea though, so he reached out to mod developers Henkelmax and Breadloaf, who designed the pathfinding/behaviour from scratch
(8:49) They had a debugging mode used to test the pathfinding of the snails, shown in the podcast and in Grian's credits
(10:09) Grian wants most of the credit to go to the development team and artists, as he was mostly in charge of ideas & organization!
(10:39) Grian's only regret with the snails was that they were too fast in session 3, leading to unexpectedly many deaths. They were apparently not so difficult to get away from during testing, but perhaps the testers were more used to them than the players were
(11:44) Grian: "We did develop to the lowest common denominator" ie. prioritizing how players would struggle over how worrying about if players would do too well
(12:56) Oli's voice for the snails was iconic. It cost Impulse a life because he intentionally stayed closer to it to hear the voice lol
(13:42) Danny was in charge of the snail models and animations
(14:11) During testing, the snails just sounded like Oli, which made it feel weird. They pitched up his voice so that it'd be less immediately recognizable
(15:18) The snails' jumping attack was meant to be clearly telegraphed: they would stop, wiggle, make a "ooeee" sound before jumping. Many players had their friendly creatures volume turned very low/off (as cows and other mobs are loud), which made this attack much less obvious for them
(16:57) The growing/shrinking had the least testing done for it, as it was the simplest conceptually and to program. This meant that the falling off of blocks due to the shrinking hitboxes wasn't anticipated
(17:55) Before the 1st session, Grian told them that he didn't think anyone would die to the wild card. Pearl's death made Grian pretty nervous, as he didn't want everyone dying too early in the season
(19:29) 6 lives were given, knowing that many of the death to the wild cards were unexpected/unfair. The intent was for ~3 lives to be allocated for wild cards, and ~3 for PvP.
(21:13) The developers were all fans of the Life Series!
(22:43) The shrinking/growing was intentionally pretty simple to ease players/viewers into the concept and build up toward more dramatic wild cards like the snails
(25:38) In the hunger episode, Grian didn't know which foods would be good
(25:58) Grian thinks that "it's unfair that Grian already knows everything" is valid criticism, but that it's important for him to be involved with the ideas. Having someone else do that is like having someone else record his videos: Life Series is his brainchild
(26:35) Well before the season began, while they were still developing the concept, Grian asked the other players for wild card ideas that would meet a few criteria. All of them ended up being unused for one reason or another. Impulse thinks his ideas were very "inside the box" because he was viewing things through what was possible in vanilla Minecraft. His idea was to have a scavenger hunt where the players would search to find a relic. The first person to find it would get a buff. Skizz's idea was for every player to turn into a random passive mob for every given interval of time. They would have to find every other player of the same mob type as them or else the whole group loses a life.
(29:44) The food qualities were weighted by the rarity of the item, so very common blocks like dirt and cobblestone would never give anything good. The other items were randomly selected
(30:23) Regular blocks/items cannot be made edible normally, so they had to circumvent that and custom code a fix for items not stacking correctly
(32:41) While a lot of players do want to win, the main priority is creating entertainment, which prioritizes playing recklessly
(33:20) The food wild card wasn't included in the finale because it would've felt like "too much". There was a higher risk of technical issues since it changed the data values of items, and Grian didn't want someone's last death to be because they ate their sword. In his mind, it was a good and fun wild card, but didn't need to be repeated in the finale. Impulse points out that they all would have collected more rare items by that point, removing the incentive to search for blocks to eat
(33:46) The wild cards in the finale were nerfed from their original sessions. The shrinking/growing had a smaller height range, the snails moved slower, etc.
(36:21) The personalized snail skins were a late addition by Danny, who made 18 skins very quickly
(36:49) Grian did not anticipate the snails becoming as popular with fans as they were. After the session released, they had the idea to release the snail merchandise, which directly funded the rest of the season
(39:20) Grian spent what "felt like every day" testing with the developers. They'd record the sessions on Tuesdays, meet up with the dev team, talk about what need to be done, testing, bugs, etc, edit and upload on Saturday, and would get a few days grace before starting again
(40:01) After the snail session, Grian was worried that the season would be very short due to all the deaths. They were considering toning down the later wild cards but ultimately didn't change them too much
(40:36) The time wild card was carefully balanced. If it had gone even a little faster, many players likely would have died because they wouldn't have time to react to threats like baby zombies or creepers.
(40:57) While sessions normally run for a variable amount of time, session 4 was hardcoded at 2 hours. Grian ended the session ~10 minutes early, just after they hit max speed, because he felt like things were getting dicey
(42:46) When the wild card first activates, it looks a lot like the server had frozen or crashed. Grian told the players before the session started that it would look like the game was broken, but that it isn't broken. Skizz tabbed out anyway and missed the beginning š
(43:30) Having the rain start just as the wild card began was a good visual indicator of time slowing down. This was a suggestion from the dev team (probably Brace)
(44:41) Impulse and Grian "cheesed" the end of the session by going branch mining. Grian wanted players to take advantage of the wild cards (eg. mining quickly, helping to kill someone), and not have them just be an annoyance.
(45:30) Keeping the client and server-side time stay in sync was challenging. The sky's motion was changed to be smoother on client-side. The players were also not as fast as the server (around 2x faster), the server was going faster than that, and the time of day was even faster
(46:56) The sounds were pitched up/down based on the speed to add to the effect
(27:46) In testing, if the players were made 7x faster, it would be basically unplayable, which was why it was capped at 2x speed. This made mobs very dangerous, as they were now faster than players and could catch up to you and kill you easily
(49:01) On several occasions, they had to extend the fuse duration of creepers to make them more fair. In the time session, their speed was only increased by ~10%
(49:39) Usually, Grian was the one to test the wild cards and notice when things like creeper speed would be an issue, since he was the one with experience making videos
(50:50) A challenge with balancing wild cards is accounting for the playstyles of so many players: reckless players like Scar and Skizz, "kind and gentle" players like Bigb who would stay off to the sides, and "the sweat squad" (Scott, Impulse) who play very cautiously
(52:48) Trivia Bot was the only wild card that was not planned in advance. Grian was struggling to come up with a wild card for that episode, and wanted to have a wild card available that could give people lives in case many people died to early wild cards without it feeling cheap.
(53:33) Trivia seemed a little boring on its face, so presentation was essential
(54:34) This one made Grian the most stressed due to all the moving parts involved in making it (coding and pathfinding mostly by Henkelmax, visuals by Hoffen, audio/music, questions)
(55:08) Trivia Bot's design was based on Grumbot and Mettaton from Undertale. Hoffen drew concept art shown in the video
(58:32) They show Trivia Bot's custom animation for becoming a snail and it's really cool
(59:12) The music was the most stressful part of the project. Grian spent 2-3 days looking through Epidemic Sounds for a Trivia Bot theme song and couldn't find anything good. He commissioned Zera @hopepetal for a theme song, which is played in the podcast. However, Grian realized he needed a full audio package, so he commissioned Oli late in development, who created the final soundtrack and many audio variations
(1:01:38) Grian wants to send appreciation for everyone who worked on the project, even if their work ultimately went unused
(1:02:58) Skizz was happy to give back however he could by staying on standby in the final episode as a zombie, as the players were able to "reap all the benefits" of the hard work of the development team
(1:05:21) Grian didn't know any of the trivia questions beforehand, which were done by fans of the series. The goal was for ~50% of the questions to be answered correctly, which was approximately met
(1:07:11) Players couldn't get questions about themselves because it would be too easy. This would encourage players to leave their bot, allowing other players to mess with them
(1:07:57) Grian felt a little left out from the discovery element of the wild cards, and decided to mess with Scar by hiding his bot. He wasn't expecting Scar to die from it, and could tell that he was genuinely a little upset by it. Grian felt bad about it, which led to a genuine in-game alliance between them
(1:12:32) Grian was very close to letting Trivia Bot give lives as rewards, but decided it would feel too cheap
(1:14:38) Mob swap was slightly toned down, with more camels and sniffers spawning
(1:15:07) Evokers didn't drop totems anymore. Instead, there was a minuscule chance a warden or wither would spawn, which would drop a totem if killed. Grian was a little disappointed that the warden got cheesed in the end
(1:17:45) Having the mobs start passive and turn hostile was mostly for the presentation, building anticipation, and so players could predict where mobs would spawn and react accordingly, making things feel less unfair
(1:20:32) There was no superpower made for Skizz (or Mumbo presumably)
(1:20:38) The superpowers were another late addition. There was a large design doc where Grian created all the powers, which were handed over to Henkelmax and completed over 4 days
(1:21:42) Grian avoided superpowers involving strength, that could cause someone to die easily. Most of the powers were social or movement-based, which couldn't be used for offence as easily
(1:22:25) Some powers were randomly assigned, others weren't. Impulse's was random. Cleo's, Bigb's, Lizzie's, Grian's were assigned.
(1:24:25) Grian gave himself the mimic because it could easily backfire (like in Grian's fall damage death), and because it would've been confusing for a player who wasn't aware of the other powers. They likely would've spent the episode just figuring out how everything worked and not actually using the power to its best ability
Lots of discussion about the superpowers and how they interacted in the episode itself, go watch if you're interested :)
(1:33:38) Talk on how the series "standard" rules evolved since 3rd Life. There was no keep inventory, and no restrictions on enchanting levels or potions, which created slow or unbalanced fights
(1:36:23) 3rd Life was designed to be an experimental series, which made Grian eager to improve it. For example, some people just weren't dying in 3L, leading to the boogeyman in LL, and so on
(1:37:17) The goal with the seasons isn't to one-up the previous one, but to create a different experience every time, which keeps things engaging for the creators
(1:38:31) At the end of each session, Grian would ask the group if they had fun and how they felt about the wild cards. According the Skizz, the answer was "a resounding yes"
(1:39:08) Grian had moments throughout the season where he personally felt like things didn't go well for him, and was anxious for the rest of the group's episodes. Things worked out while editing the raw footage, though. His issues were never with the wild cards themselves, but his own actions (traps not working, spending too long branch mining), but would always find funny moments in his footage
(1:43:41) Everyone in the Life Series cast genuinely likes and genuinely respects everybody else in the group. This allows them to make the show and get mad at each other, because they know it's all just in-character
(1:44:50) It'd be hard to top Wild Life in spectacle, and Grian doesn't want to start an arms race with himself. The next season could potentially be closer to 3rd Life, but Grian's not sure yet. For Grian, Wild Life was the most enjoyable
(1:45:20) Grian: "As long as people keep enjoying [the Life Series] then I'd love to keep doing it"
(1:49:35) With the finale, Grian knew how the wild cards played out the previous sessions and was able to adjust them
(1:49:56) Grian's goal was to create safe chaos where everyone knew what was happening and wouldn't die to them, which didn't go entirely to plan. The snails were 60% of their original speed and people still died
(1:51:03) Grian made a precise timeline of when each wild card would start/stop, it wasn't randomized.
(1:54:16) All the superpowers were randomized, with Bdubs' power being removed from circulation because it didn't have much use in a finale setting
(1:56:10) It was important for Grian that in the final moments, the wild cards were removed, so there were no interruptions. The timing worked out well because there were a few people left and it ended within ~10 minutes (this implies that the change wasn't based on # of players alive, as people had speculated based on Gem's death)
(1:58:48) The players all randomly switched to zombie skins throughout the session to mess with people on NameMC. Well-played :)
#og post#wildlife#grian#impulse#impulsesv#skizz#skizzleman#imp & skizz#mc meta#wild life smp#wlsmp#life series#trafficblr#traffic smp#<- dunno which life series tags are most commonly used but i hope i got all the major ones#long post#āi should write down the behind the scenes!ā i thought. āit'll be quick!ā i thought :')#as someone who did had some critiques about the structure of the season#i found it really insightful to hear about the design decisions from a behind the scenes perspective#digging into why it was made the way it was and what exactly about it worked/didn't work honestly helps me to appreciate#it more for what it was!#and it helped to truly understand and appreciate all the work that went into it#i probably included more details than needed but i just thought they were all really fascinating#like trivia bot being designed to have the option to give lives in case the early sessions were too deadly!#i was also surprised that the snail merch wasn't planned ahead of time#and i also tried to keep all the credits grian listed bc i think it's important!#i would recommend watching the full podcast ep! i didn't include a lot of imp & skizz's commentary since i was focusing on the technical &#behind the scenes details but they had lots of great insight
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Revolutionary Girl Utena: Gender in Context
beneath the cut, I discuss the RGU's portrayal of gender in the context of 1990s Japan.
in Ikuhara's interview with Mari Kotani, he stated that in traditional Japanese society, "prince" meant "patriarch." the same is true in Western societies--there was a time when a prince would be an heir to a royal line. by 1997, this meaning had died out of large parts of the world. even the association between princes and traditional masculinity was fading. Saionji, the weakest, most pathetic man in the show, is a parody of historical Japanese masculinity, with his kendo and his blatantly regressive beliefs about women.
in RGU, prince may still mean patriarch, but in a far more subtle fashion. Ikuhara and Kotani discussed the changing expectations for men in the latter half of the 20th century--it became gauche to fight over a woman with one's brawn, so instead, power struggles were played out in the arena of looks and sex appeal. one can see this reflected in the character Akio, whose power as a prince arises from his ability to turn "easy sensual pleasure based on dependency" "into a selling point with which to control people."
Akio has his moments of showboating masculinity, but when preying on Utena, he operates by making himself seem non-threatening and soft.
not only that, but he purports to want to allow students to express their individuality and thus approves of Utena's masculine form of dress. this is a front--by the end of the show, he's telling Utena that girls shouldn't wield swords. thus, through Akio's character, the show argues that traditionalist patriarchy in Japan isn't gone, but instead has only been papered over with false progressivism.
with all that said, there seems to be more to the character. he's taken the family name of his fiance, Kanae, and whatever material power he has in the school is dependent upon her family. in Japanese society, this is considered a humiliating position to be in, something that only a shameless man would do. the show never gives the audience any insight into how Akio feels about this--is he unbothered entirely, or are his actions against the Ohtori family an expression of his repressed anger? does he harm the children under his care to compensate for his humiliation?
this aspect of Akio's character may seem irrelevant in light of the larger, immaterial social forces at work in the show. however, I would argue that it was included for a reason. Akio, despite his status as ultimate patriarch of Ohtori, is in fact a highly emasculated character, to the point where lead writer Enokido even said that he is driven by an infantile mother complex.
to explain why Akio was portrayed this way, we have to discuss Japanese history. the nation suffered a major defeat in WWII and was forced to accept whatever terms the United States laid out for it. for an examination of how the Japanese have never truly processed those events and have plunged into modernity with reckless abandon, I recommend Satoshi Kon's Paranoia Agent. to sum it up briefly, in a very short period, the nation regained its economic footing, and by the 1980s had the largest gross national product in the world. this economic boom may have allowed Japan to maintain a sense of sovereignty, dignity, and power, but it was inherently fragile.
the infamous "bubble economy" lasted from 1986 to 1991. during this time, anything seemed possible; financial struggles appeared to be a thing of the past, and capitalist excess reached new heights. the ghosts of this period can be felt across Japanese media; for instance, think of the final shot of Grave of the Fireflies (1998), where the two dead children look down on Kobe, glowing an eerie green to imply its impermanence. the abandoned theme park from Spirited Away (2001) is explicitly referred to as a leftover from the previous century, when many attractions were built and then tossed aside in a few short years.
the bubble popped in 1992, leaving an entire generation feeling cheated. the bright futures they'd been promised, which had actually materialized for their parents and older siblings, had been lost to them overnight. economic crises are often accompanied by gender panics. to quote from Masculinities in Japan, "The recession brought with itself worsening employment conditions, undermining the system of lifelong employment and menās status of breadwinners in general. The unemployment rate was rising, and although it never reached crisis levels, men could no longer feel safe in their salaryman status. Their situation was further complicated by the rising number of (married) women entering the workforce."
with this in mind, Akio's character can be taken as a representation of masculinity in crisis in 90s Japan. he's forced to rely on women for his position in life and has failed to save his only relative, Anthy. he tries to escape his misery through hedonism, perhaps an allegorical representation of how men tried to maintain their old standard of living after the economic bubble burst.
but of course, Akio is not the main character of RGU--the story is about girls. mangaka Yamada Reiji discussed the series in the context of the 90s, stating the following:


while I opened this essay by discussing the prince, the same points could be made about the princess. despite the increasing irrelevance of royalty, princess is still an important concept. how does it relate to the socioeconomic landscape of the 90s?
in Yamada's view, RGU is full of relics of the 80s; for instance, the figure of the ojou-sama, an entitled young woman who never lifts a finger for herself. during the economic bubble, it was increasingly common for women to be entirely taken care of by the men in their lives. Yamada names Nanami as a clear ojou-sama type character: she weaponizes her femininity, demanding to be rescued, doted on, and served.
however, by 1997, the ojou-sama could no longer expect to get what she wanted. from the 80s to the 90s, the percentage of women in the workforce increased around 15%; it was no longer viable for most women to be "kept" by their families. as the men experienced the humiliation of not being able to provide for their wives and children, women were undergoing a disillusionment of their own.
Yamada blames Disney for creating the ideological structure which led women astray. obviously, the company is known for its films about princes rescuing princesses. in Yamada's recounting, during the 80s, the company was infiltrating Japan through its theme parks as well; across the country, Disneylands were opening up, and people were buying into the escapism the corporation offered. Japan, as America, became a country of eternal children. its people were waiting for a prince to appear and save them.
but fairy tales can't stave off reality forever. Yamada claims that RGU embodies the rage of young women who woke up one day and realized that they had been raised on a lie. this anger pervades the work from beginning to end.
though RGU was created in a particular social context, its lessons can be extrapolated to any time and place. as the first ending tells us:
I hope this essay helped provide more context for the series. thanks for reading!
#rgu#commentary#revolutionary girl utena#this was originally a part of another essay but i revamped it and added a lot more detail
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How is Monty? When I see your art/photos of him it brightens my day
hes improving! we are managing longer and longer stints without the cone but i expect the plucking will remain an issue for quite some time if not the rest of his life. its ok because he is still delightful and i still love him
#croaks#we have just made our way through all the planet of the apes movies he has a lot of insightful commentary#like 'aa' and 'hyoy'
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Technoblade: Before I get any comments from people saying, "Uh Technobladeā āļøš¤ Actually I live in the San Francisco Bay area, and the weather here isn't as perfect as you say! I think you might be blinded by nostalgiaā"
Technoblade: I'd just like to say that I am a perfectly objective source of information, how DARE you question me, get banned.
[ Full Transcript ā ]
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Technoblade: You know, when I first got to college, I had a conversation with a local student where I mentioned I was from California, and they heard that and said, "Oh, you're from California? Have you ever been here during the winter?" and I said "Oh, no no, I haven't" and they just kinda like, stared at me in silence for a few seconds, and then just said: "Good luck!" And then moved on with the conversation like that wasn't the most ominous thing I'd ever heard in my life. What? What do you mean "good luck"?!
Technoblade: One time I went to Texas, sometimes I visited North Carolina during the summer, and I was like, "Why is it so hot here?" but I just figured, "You know what, it can't be this hot everywhere during summer, that'd be ridiculous! Why would anyone subject themselves to these conditions?"
Technoblade: I didn't realize that California was unusual. So you know, I'd listen to likeā Sir Alliser Thorne in Game of Thrones rant about, "Oh, you don't know cold!" tellin' us about how, he had like, been in some blizzardā blizzard, and during like, sub-zero temperatures, and I'm sitting here like, "No, no, I- I'm pretty sure I understand what cold is, one time it dropped to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and I had to turn on my car's seat warmers. I'm pretty sure I understand man's epic struggle against nature."
Technoblade: Before I get any comments from people saying, "Uh Technobladeā actually I live in the San Francisco Bay area, and the weather here isn't as perfect as you say! I think you might be blinded by nostalgiaā" I'd just like to say that I am a perfectly objective source of information, how DARE you question me, get banned.
[ Video: why is the midwest so cold help ]
#Technoblade#I was watching this the other day and gave me a laugh so figured I'd share it#Didn't intend to write the entire transcript but here we are#Lightly edited#I suggest the whole video it's got funny commentary and stories#My favorite Technoblade videos were always ones where he just talked about random things and random stories#which granted was a lot of his videos but I loved those best#I'll be real I'm posting this whole thing solely for that last line because it made me chuckle#''I'd just like to say that I am a perfectly objective source of information''#''how DARE you question me. Get banned''#Good 'ol Technoblade#Definitely worth a watch if you've never seen it#or a rewatch if it's been a while!
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a dialogue
#artists on tumblr#comic#illustration#art#digital art#digital illustration#artwork#drawing#eyestrain#idk better say than sorry#theartofmadeline#not a lot of extra commentary for this one#popped into my head a few weeks ago and had to get it out
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Scott Smajor (cc) is such a good story teller actually and the common themes he uses in his storylines captivate me. I think we should talk about how good he is at Themes more often. If I wasn't so tired I'd write essays.
#scott smajor#his use of *grief* specifically#how it's often framed as *the worst thing* one can experience#how his roleplay(tm) moments in third life + a lot of witchcraft smp explore this idea#that grief = a death of the self as well and is uniquely horrifying in how it robs one of agency and hope#and how heavily it interacts with scott's typical central thematic focus on hope through continuation#his stories often convey hopeful and positive endings- even to tragic events- through presenting a world that keeps moving#where you have a path forward. a will and ability to carry onward. and a non-negotiable continuous consciousness interestingly enough.#notably even when scott's endings include death they don't tend to be true deaths.#there is a confirmed afterlife in both empires season one and third life#and scott literally reverses death in witchcraft smp#the idea of true death and subsequent *loss* is the biggest thing you can clash against scott's main themes of hope+choice+moving forward#so it's very natural that frequently loss#and maybe even more broadly any form of true *endings* as a concept#are framed through such a lens of horror and unique despair within the stories#because the storyteller is juxtaposing it against their central themes as the most hostile and irreconcilable thing with them#maybe i'm hyping up my cc too much by implying the minecraft roleplay is.#a dialogue with- and grappling of- the mere concept of finality and endings#(usually through death because that's typically the most profound and unchangeable form of finality we have any grasp of)#like i'm probably giving āis the minecraft based commentary about the relationship between hope and mortality in the room right now?ā vibes#but like.#you have to understand how many recurring themes he uses#and how interesting they are#i believe in my cc's storytelling capabilities because his themes blow me away.#and even if it's not intentional storytelling (which i think it is because the themes are very well used and frequent enough)#i still find it interesting regardless
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