#lots of thoughts but no cohesive thoughts

[riddles-n-games]

Hey guys, I've been seeing another rift going on in the fandom regarding TGG and TIG characters, so I've decided to make a statement that can hopefully make things more cohesive.

I understand that not everyone likes the new spin-off and honestly, I'm considering just stopping after GU. Personally, I don't have anything against the characters of TGG but my problem is that they sound too much like our old mains. However, that's not their fault. It's the author's. There's nothing wrong with JLB wanting to expand the TIG universe but it is problematic when you are repeating the same character arcs of the old characters that are also present and interacting with these new mains. The problem that we face is the fact while even in The Naturals there are similar characters, they are divided by different series. However, that is not going on here with TIG and TGG. TGG is a continuation of TIG and our TIG characters are still present. Heck, one of our old mains is a player and a love interest here to one of the new mains. And therein lies the issue. When you have a connected series, it's important to have distinguished characters with different voices, not carbon copies.

What I expected for TGG characters was that she would move from the character tropes we've seen already in the series and come up with new ones. I mean, come on, she's a psychology major, we bring that up so often but what's the point when she keeps going in circles and never brings up anything new? I pointed a lot of this out pre-read because I already correctly guessed where this was going within just a few pages of reveal. Don't get me wrong, if she wanted to, she could do it but it doesn't feel like she has new plans or plots. Be honest with yourselves and don't just praise because she's your favorite author. You can be a reader, a fan, and a respectful critic all at the same time. Don't lower your expectations just because they can't deliver every time.

The trouble is that when you go back to TFG, in the acknowledgments, she herself wrote she wasn't sure there was going to be a third book. And now look, suddenly two books were announced a month or two after she released the last book of the trilogy which introduced our mains and not the most fashionably. I do believe she had ideas but I don't think they were the best fleshed out. You have to realize that just reading TGG, how many of you recognized the obvious plots, the romantic subplots, the character arcs, and even the semi-hidden plots just getting to the halfway point? And how many of you said, hey, wait a minute, we've had this plotline before? You did, didn't you? I want to give Jennifer the benefit of the doubt but I truly think she is in over her head because I don't believe she quite thought that this is how long the series would go.

In fact, I think that she is making more trouble for herself in trying multi POV for this new series when really I think it should have just been Gray taking over. It would have allowed us to see how he's grown especially after the heartache and mental health issues he's had to go through to get here. It felt like the obvious next step, even the summary for TGG made it sound like that. However, the only thing that seems new to me is the hypersexual atmosphere which also makes no sense to me because teens may go through attraction but that doesn't mean they're horny all the time and anyone who's gone through puberty can attest to that. So I ask again, like one reviewer on Goodreads put, were the romantic moments in the room with us? 12 hours is not love or romance, it's lust, that's it. Couldn't summarize it clearer. If she wanted to make it better, it could have been that she made the book stretch over a series of weeks which is why I wonder what the heck will happen to any character development if this book series is done in like 3 days?

As I said, a lot of things feel very repetitive, the plot, word choice, thought processes, quotes and sayings, etc. We are in a loop. She's in a loop. I think that the best thing JLB could have done is leave TIG alone for a few years after TFG, make a new series or whatever works outside this series she wanted to, give herself time to truly see if she has new stories to tell for TIG by writing a spin-off and then come back to give us that content. Because it's really telling how forced things have been in the last two books, even here with GU and I really think this empire is toppling. As they say, quality over quantity and thoughtful than full of thoughts that are just a variation of one another. That's what makes me think more and more she should have left it at TFG.

Thank you for reading and I hope this gives a new perspective that can help you see some things more clearly.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Reblogging because building a culture is an important part of creating new fantasy people species. Including religion.

Here are my thoughts, based on what I have already done with religion and spirituality in my own writing:

To elaborate on what has already been said, the most common questions I think you'll find answered in most religions are "where did it all come from" and "where are we going". Or in simpler terms, creation and death. You look at religion and myth and folklore around the world, you're going to find a whole lot of creation stories and afterlife explanations. You don't need to write big global religions to have people exploring these topics in their own local spiritual belief systems. They're nearly universal questions, things people want to understand but have no mortal proof for.

Many deities in polytheistic religions also serve as explanations for, or embodiments of, major natural phenomena. Storms, seasonal changes, the ocean, etc. Natural disasters of all sorts are given a face, whether it's a deity or powerful spirits. Landmarks like mountains are viewed as sacred locations.

Methods of worship also make a big difference, even if you're writing groups that have similar beliefs. Do they pray? Do they leave offerings on altars or in temples? What sorts of offerings? What kinds of prayers?

Do they believe their deities will actively help them, or do they believe in appeasing their deities to avoid destruction? And what about deities that serve a dual purpose, like a god of harvest that also acts as a god of pregnancy and childbirth? What is the role of religious leaders in this culture?

And not all religions worship deities, of course. Perhaps you can write a culture that practices ancestral veneration instead. What power do they believe their ancestors have? How do they pay their respects to the dead?

Religion also often extends to things like weddings, funerals, and various rites pertaining to age milestones. Birth, adulthood, old age. There are also beliefs around morality. Do they believe in things like sin? What is the process of repentance and forgiveness if they do? Do they ever perform blessings of guidance or healing? Does their religion have special authority figures?

There are so many little details you can explore when writing religion and all the cultural aspects of it. And don't be afraid to add some similarities even in very different religions! In my own worldbuilding, there are three moons and a visible planetary ring, and pretty much every culture within this world has looked up at those things in the night sky and said "yeah, that is the realm of spirits, for sure" regardless of anything else they believe. It adds a little cohesion to the world and shows that despite their differences, even being different species, they're all still People and they have things in common.

Submitted via Google Form:

How can a world have no major religions but a vast number of small ones. Like no religion accounts for more than 1% of the entire population except maybe atheist for maybe 5% of the population? But what does that say about the distribution of culture/countries?

Tex: Major religions are often major because they are state-backed - i.e., they have lots of money at their disposal, so they become economically and thus culturally relevant. Religion answers, approximately, two major questions: 1) Are we alone in X or Y manner? and 2) I’m scared of X thing that I have difficulty understanding, what is Y solution?

For a place like Earth, the planet that we know the most about, there are no planet-wide confirmations about the physical existence of any deity in particular (as in, shows up in a grocery and says hello to you in an entirely unambiguous manner that all onlookers can agree upon). This means that religions on Earth are predicated on the idea that belief - and, thus, willpower - makes the deity real. Or at least “proves” it. Your mileage may vary.

Because of this, the real-world religions that you can observe and study will have many, many commonalities to the two general questions I stated above. The first question usually contains subjects such as sentience, and the emotional frills of that. The second question usually contains subjects such as death and the process of dying.

In order to have many distinct religions, you would need a lot of unanswered questions for various societies to answer, a severe lack of contact and communication between groups of societies, and most importantly a lack of (or lack of need of) money. The more travel there is, the more people of different backgrounds will talk to each other, and the more ideas will be confronted, shared, and discussed. Trade would correspondingly be low, because of the lack of travel.

Utuabzu: There’s a couple things to consider here. Firstly, how are we defining religion? This isn’t a trick question, it’s a genuine issue. The Abrahamic concept of religion doesn’t really carry over well to other spiritual traditions. Most other belief systems are more local and action-focused (orthoprax, concerned with what one does, rather than what one believes), and often lack any mandatory set of beliefs, or standardised mythology. Religions like Chinese Folk Religion, Shintō, Hinduism*, etc. can have wildly varying pantheons and myths depending on where you are and who you ask. So depending on your definition every tiny village could have its own religion, because it has its own version of the cultural mythos and its own pantheon including some distinctive local gods and dropping some more common cultural ones.

Universal (applicable to everyone regardless of origin or location), proselytising (actively attempting to convert people) religions are rare. There’s only actually a few of them. Most notably, Christianity and Islam. They are both also orthodox religions (concerned with believing the correct things), which means they have a standard mythology and theology (or several competing standards that have historically attempted to resolve their differences via murder). A third, very notable difference they have with most belief systems is that they are exclusive, you can’t (or at least you’re not supposed to) combine them with other belief systems. Most non-Abrahamic belief systems are more or less fine with syncretism (combining belief systems), most clearly seen with the way Buddhism** is practiced concurrently with folk religions across Asia.

So, in answer to the actual question, your best bet here is to just not have an equivalent to Christianity or Islam. I suggest reading up on non-Abrahamic and pre-Christian/Muslim religions and religious practices, as that should give you an idea of what such a world might look like. I’d expect it to be colourful and diverse, with cities filled with temples and shrines to an ever-expanding array of deities and hosting various festivals much of the year. Many people would likely layer a philosophy like Daoism or Stoicism over their day-to-day religious practice, and it would be common and expected for people to show respect to or make  offerings to local deities when traveling. Religion would be a thing you do, not what you believe.

*Hinduism is less a religion and more a family of closely related religions and spiritual traditions that all originate on the Indian subcontinent. Which is why the Indian government considers Jains and Buddhists to be Hindu.

**Buddhism can be described as a religion or as a philosophy, depending on who you ask, what the context is, and whether Mercury is in Gatorade. Western definitions don’t really apply cleanly to non-Western contexts.

[agentnatesewell]

[Title] Suri Batra at the end of the first (of many) Agent Nate Sewell routes

[meamiki]

mira !!! :]

[beneathsilverstars]

been thinking about the differences between SASASAP and ISAT lately. because looking just at ISAT and the two hats ending, you'd think loop went through the exact same house as our siffrin, but looking at SASASAP, it's different. it's mixed up. it's obviously a condensed prototype.

but. that doesn't have to mean it's a different universe entirely.

maybe that's just what happens after a thousand loops.

the house warped in act 5. siffrin lost their shit and the house got changed and corrupted, far past its baseline king uncanniness. so it wouldn't be too out-of-the-question for it to be able to warp in more subtle ways as well, due to a more subtle breakdown.

like a jpeg uploaded and downloaded a thousand times, siffrin changed, and the loops changed. over a thousand loops of efficiency, the house got more efficient. rooms combining. items moving. data compressing. and of course, run in a changed house, the script changed as well. it did so slowly, one bit at a time, over a thousand loops of zoned-out half-listening – and by the time siffrin would have noticed each difference, they were already used to it. (and in the moments that they did look at a room that was less familiar than it should be and realize that they had no idea where to find the key, well. that's just classic siffrin, isn't it.)

through sheer repetition, siffrin was corrupted, and the loops and the house along with them. all purpose lost, all signals distorted, until finally they couldn't recognize the meaning in any of it. it was all noise and despair.

so they made a wish. and the loop restarted. not just a reboot, but something more complete.

the data was backed up onto a star – a guide, a warning, a reference – and the loops were factory reset. and for the first time in a thousand loops, siffrin woke up to a clear mind and the crisp sound of birdsong.

[psink]

Rainy season anime artwork translation:

A complicated chuunibyou guy

Kaidou Shun

(Voice Actor/ Shimazaki Nobunga)

Kusuo’s classmate that everyone knows is a chuunibyou. However because he’s shy, serious and pure-hearted by nature, he can’t maintain his chuunibyou persona.

⏴In the work, his chuunibyou sometimes causes problems for Kusuo, but in reality, he’s a good and timid child. He thinks of Kusuo, Nendou and Kuboyasu as important friends. Hopefully he’ll never lose this innocence.

Guy with a complicated love for his younger brother

Saiki Kuusuke

(Voice Actor/ Nojima Kenji)

Saiki Kusuo’s older brother, a genius mad scientist with an IQ of 218. Has a fetish for challenging his younger brother and getting defeated. He messes with Kusuo at any opportunity. 

⏶Contrary to his handsome looks, his real nature is quite disappointing. He’s an extreme masochist (however, this is limited to only Kusuo).

Complicated clingy guy

Akechi Touma

(Voice Actor/ Kaji Yuuki)

A logical and talkative transfer student who came to Kusuo’s class. He talks rapidly like a machine gun without reading the atmosphere of his surroundings. He suspects that Kusuo is a psychic. Although he was once deceived, he persistently continues to investigate Kusuo.

Guy who attracts complicated people

Saiki Kusuo

(Voice Actor/ Kamiya Hiroshi)

A high-school student who can control various psychic powers. In order to keep his abilities secret, he lives maintaining a moderate distance from those around him. His favorite food is sweets, he especially loves coffee jelly. 

⏶Although Kusuo almost never voluntarily expresses his emotions, he shows a blissful smile whilst tasting sweets. Is this cute contrast also a point that attracts people around him!?

⏶⏵In addition to Kaidou, other members of his troublesome group include the strongest idiot Nendou Riki (Voice Actor: Ono Daisuke and the delinquent Kuboyasu Aren (Voice Actor: Hosoya Yoshimasa), whose trouble-causing abilities are immeasurable. Despite that, they're also lovable guys that you can't hate.

(Kusuo’s left shoulder text)

The cheerful, sunny spring has passed and the rainy season has already arrived. Our handsome psychic, Saiki Kusuo, is on his way home whilst avoiding the scattered rain with his telekinesis, but there are people approaching him. His brother, Kuusuke, his classmate, Kusuo and the transfer student Akechi - these three people. Amongst them, Akechi, because of his natural quick thinking and good insight, seems to suspect Kusuo is a psychic!? With the intensity of either a devoted wife or a stalker, he clings to Kusuo and tries to reveal his secret by showering him with machine gun-like talk……Will Kusuo manage to avoid them like the rain and return the clear skies to his heart?

(Kusuo’s right shoulder text)

Just as his older brother, Kuusuke, is coming to pick him up with coffee jelly in one hand, Kaidou, struck by the rain, is showing off his chuunibyou. The transfer student Akechi invites Kusuo under his umbrella, too. Their attention-seeking offensive is even more persistent than the rainy season, how will Kusuo endure it!?

(Big text on white background)

A rain of love from the complicated people pours down intensively on

Kusuo☆

Heart-pounding regretful rain☆

QUESTION

If you were to share an umbrella with someone, who would it be?

Kamiya: Teruhashi-san. Her charm, which causes even the God to be her ally, makes me want to try saying 「offu」 as well.

Shimazaki: Of course, it’d have to be Teruhashi-san!!! Offu!!!

Saiki Kusuo’s Voice Actor

Kamiya Hiroshi-san 

Interview 

The 2nd season of 「Fierce Argument」. 

—If you were to express the growth and changes of Saiki Kusuo in the second season using four-character idioms or similar expressions, what would they be?

Kamiya: 「Fierce Argument (Editor’s note: The sound of swords clashing violently. Also, the state of engaging in heated debate)」 I feel that the degree of this is gradually increasing compared to the 1st season.

–Kamiya-san, please tell us a particular「Kusuo’s charm point」 that you’d like to recommend right now.

Kamiya: I don’t know much about Kusuo, but anyway, Teruhashi-san’s cuteness is a big charm of this work. 

–Please tell us the episode or moment that made you laugh whilst portraying Kusuo.

Kamiya: Kusuo is usually cool and it’s hard to read his emotions, but sometimes during particularly intense situations, he strongly interjects with 「You idiot!」, which is fun for me too.

–Kusuo is always extremely popular regardless of gender, Kamiya-san, if you were in his position, what would you do?

Kamiya: If each of them stays with me with the awareness that we're friends, then I will gratefully accept that.

Kaidou Shun’s Voice Actor

Shimazaki Nobunaga-san

Interview

Right now, I’m at my peak chuunibyou stage in life.

–If you were to express the growth and changes of Saiki Kusuo in the second season from a  chuunibyou perspective, what would that be?

Shimazaki: 「Jet Black Twilight - Ragnarok of Chaos」 Reason: it just sounds cool!

–Shimazaki-san, please tell us a particular 「Kaidou’s charm point」that you’d like to recommend right now.

Shimazaki: I find the contrast between Shun in his full-blown chuunibyou Jet-Black Wings mode and his natural self, who is a bit of a coward but is honest and caring about his friends, to be appealing.

–Shimazaki-sama, if you discovered a completely soaked Kaidou on a rainy day, what would you do?

Shimazaki: I’d protect him!!!

–Please tell us the episode or moment that made you laugh whilst portraying Kaidou.

Shimazaki: In the 2nd season, episode 4 of episode 8x, the loop episode 「Another Time Leap Challenge! I remember saying the same line over and over again like a broken record, it left a very strong impression on me. It was fun!

–Kaidou is still in full-blown chuunibyou mode, but Shimazaki-san, when were you the most chuunibyou-like in your life? 

Shimazaki: Right now. I seriously imagine using magic and saving the world every day.

[clarissasbakery]

grips u by the shoulders. how do you come up with outfits. they r always so simple yet so stylish (example: your various pin designs) and I never know how. I just go to pintrest and pray for the best

THANK YOUU!!

a lot of my inspiration comes from fashion dolls!! mainly monster high/rainbow high/bratz cus i’m a collector 😋 i also take a lot from total drama and celebrity fashions… when i come up with outfits i tend to pick things based on personality, and sometimes it just comes to me.

for example, pin to me seems like someone who went from dressing punk to something a little softer/more refined to show her change in personality. i also take into consideration what the assets look like, and for pin this is more visible in the way i did her BFDIA and BFB looks (resembling her pin asset)… she doesn’t really have any concrete inspiration like some of my other designs, just me going with the flow.

i think pinterest is a good place for inspiration just as long as you know what you’re looking for!!! i get a lot of my more Y2K inspired gijinka outfits from there

and one last thing, a lot of my designs need really simple clothing cus… i can’t do detailed clothing LMAO it’s like a pain in the butt for me and a lot of the time i can’t be bothered to remember what i did

[sponfawn]

MTH SPOILERS AHEAD

After reading the latest update and rereading it and taking a couple days to process all I can say is

Brick softening up and actually being somewhat civil to ppl he doesn't really care about? The eye contact with Blossom silently apologizing to Brick as everyone sings Happy Birthday and Brick trying to silently communicate that it was ok? That tenderness??? Brick wearing the scarf? Brick using the excuse of a card game to look at Blossom? The fact that he joined a card game with other acquaintances at all? The reds joining overcompetitive forces? Making up flimsy excuses to see Blossom after the beach cleanup despite his best efforts at "discipline and focus"? Blossom's casual flirting? The stark contrast between how she was at the Girls' birthday party and her comfort level with close friends like Robin and Mike?

The guys and Buttercup giving Butch a thoughtful group gift symbolic of their friendship and his immediate reaction is shock and soft feelings, followed by literally yeeting his old shoes away? (Also did this feel like foreshadowing to anyone else re: his loyalties to his past vs his current sense of community and belonging?) Floyd trusting Butch so much he didn't even flinch at his warning laser shot? Butch (apparently seriously going by their convo about googling dick piercings) deciding "yeah I'll get my dick pierced, no bribery necessary, if it means she'll laugh and smile like that"?

Boomer giving in to his darker impulses over his jealousy even tho he KNOWS it's totally irrational? Boomer literally gaslighting Mike and being completely clueless as to why he'd be upset about his missing cat? (Was anyone else scared that Boomer was gonna do something much worse to Patches?) It's so interesting to me that Brick and Butch seem to be genuinely softening internally while Boomer "softened" for Bubbles externally but his conscience is literally just Bubbles and that is showing to be fragile.

[heartbeatbookclub]

kind of a weird one but do you have any crying hcs? like the different ways each doki cries

I think Sayori cries pretty often in private, despite how much she tries to stay positive. There are plenty of days where being left by herself, she feels more of a general sense of despair clutching at her chest, in more of a hollow, energy sapping way, that you can't even cry about, but as she says, some days are worse than others. She's probably the type to make a joke about how crying is good for your skin. She tries to keep it in private because she doesn't want anyone to worry about her, but sometimes, she can't help it.

To lighten the mood, I think she's also the type to cry at sad movies.

I think she'd keep very quiet, very out of the way, and do her best to make herself as small as possible when she cries. Lots of little sniffles and hiccuping breaths, maybe a low moan every so often. It's so common for her that to a certain point, she just lets the tears fall without caring where they land, or how she looks.

Monika, predictably, does not like crying. Much less in front of other people. She tries very hard, regardless of circumstance, to bottle her emotions up, hold her tears in, and try to keep a handle over herself at all times. This, predictably, leads to uncontrolled outbursts of emotion when she hits a breaking point. It could be something as silly as breaking a pen, to something as stressful as failing a test. To a certain point, she just needs things to go her way, and when it doesn't, she can't keep it back forever.

If she is going to cry, she tries her absolute hardest to make it as inconspicuous as possible for as long as possible. She'd probably try to scurry off to the bathroom, or somewhere else private, but there are times where she can't do anything but just crumple and sob right where she's standing. She'd really, really prefer to be alone, and others being around her would make the experience even more mortifying than it already is, regardless of their intentions. Tends to be a lot of gasping breaths and sobbing, scarcely able to breathe, let alone speak.

Yuri doesn't cry very often. She gets emotional, yes, and she struggles a lot with a lot of different things. But even more than Monika, the idea of losing control over herself in front of everyone is a concept that leaves her white as a sheet.

Of course, perhaps more ironically, Yuri tends to get overwhelmed by social situations rather easily.

It takes more than you'd think, though--despite the stress of the situation, Yuri is wont to either flee the situation before things get too dicey or just maintain composure through the whole thing enough to feel profoundly awkward and slightly scared, but not overwhelmed to the point of tears. But it's certainly possible, especially when emotions in general are running high, and she's struggling more and more to say what she means.

Yuri tends to wail if she's emotional enough. Not just sob--wail, with rather impressive volume, given her quiet demeanor. She just gets so overwhelmed by everything, and there's this tight feeling in her chest that she can't express in any other way than this natural, embarrassing sound from her throat that she doesn't want anyone to hear. In an attempt to muffle everything--the sound of her voice, the tears streaming down her face, the sounds of everything around her--she tends to bury her face in her arms, or a book, or something.

Natsuki is a bit of an oddball emotionally. She tends to let her anger run high in place of any other emotional response, seemingly as a defense mechanism, but a lot of times this will break down into something else, and if particularly emotional, this will involve tears. She has a tendency to try to avoid a lot of more serious topics by deflecting them to avoid this. She doesn't like to confront that head-on. It's scary.

Ironically, she tends to tear up more than a bit if she gets particularly pissed off, as well, which she finds incredibly embarrassing and tries to hide in the moment.

Once she starts crying, she can't stop. It's a waterfall; a constant cascade ever downwards, spiraling in a pit of self-loathing until she can't get any lower. It's a kind of vulnerability she hates more than anything, because it leaves her feeling weak, and low, and less than.

She really needs a hug. I think, where Monika and Yuri would prefer to be alone, Natsuki really would need someone there to be with her, to comfort her, to tell her that everything is going to be okay.

[skitskatdacat63]

2024 Belgian Grand Prix - George Russell(misc.)

[ifawnleaf]

Yeah, Kipperlily totally lived up to that part of Aguefort where they tell you to murder two of your classmates.

lol. lmao even.

did you read the part where i said her problem was being a villain. or my tags where i specifically mentioned that:

my point is not that kipperlilly was unfairly judged. she's for sure evil! i just think the criticism of her doing things in a "boring way" or not in the spirit of aguefort is pretty inaccurate. the way she did things was just as violent and unhinged as any student. but she did it to betray her party and bring about an apocalypse!! THATS why she's a villain, not because she was a lunatic.

xp farming isn't in the spirit of aguefort but that's not what brennan focused on in that send-off speech. he specifically focused on how batshit crazy and violent these kids are. which i think also describes kipperlilly! minus the heroism part of course. but he didn't talk about how she was selfish or evil or backstabbing. he didn't describe the importance of teamwork or saving the world or experience with adventuring. he highlighted the one part of the aguefort ethos that kipperlilly actually succeeds at.

murph talked about "no practical application" which is completely spot on! she didn't have real world experience so she got bodied.

to me it just felt weird for her final moments to be narrated like that. leveling the one criticism that i personally think least applies to her.

[novantinuum]

gnawing at the bars of my cage

can we please Stop telling SU blind reactors all the fandom drama and SU crit that came out of every episode so we can allow them to just enjoy the show like a normal person at their own leisure and make their Own opinions thank u

[floralovebot]

MADE EDITS i couldn't stop thinking about their outfits and like,, the aspects i liked and thought felt very winx and in line with the individual characters and the aspects i Hated and thought sucked dookie SO i made some edits :)

biggest changes are to musa, aisha, and stella! actually changed the clothes there. flora and tecna i just adjusted the colors (in flora's case to further unwhitewash her and saturate her clothing more and in tecna's case to bring back her pink hair and green and cyan).

explanations on changes below!

I'll start with the simpler edits!

For Tecna, I just wanted to play around with her og colors lol I actually LOVE her new look and I would love to see this be the final design!! It's SO tecna and fits in with the rest of the winx i love it soo much :') I do think they should bring back her pinker hair though! And again, would love to see the green and cyan make an appearance. I feel like neon green is just very classy techy character. And while it is cliche, I do love it akjgd plus I think it looks good on her and makes the other colors stand out more imo! (but maybe this new, pinker look will make people like her more idk :') justice for tecna my beloved :'))

For Flora, I darkened her skin more for obvious reasons. And then I added more saturation to the colors and added back the warmer tones they took out. Imo, the darker, desaturated, and cooler toned look for Flora only works in very specific circumstances. Color theory rainbow!! Bring back the brightness! The color!! The warmth!!

Which brings me to Stella ohmygod,,, please,,,, please stop desaturating her she looks so pale and sick and lifeless STOP please :') Anyway lol, obviously brought back the brighter orange! I also took away the random sleeve. It's cute but it just didn't feel very Stella at the time? The tube top look is Very Classic Stella (very much giving s3 casual but in orange). Tbh, I don't love the dress itself, but I do think it looks better once you add more of Stella's colors. I also tanned her skin more and made her hair more yellow + brighter! Just like with Flora, color theory is important for media!! This Stella design just does Not give sunny, optimistic character. It's giving the gap (aka BORING aljdhg)

Aisha's design stumped me for a bit, I won't lie. I couldn't figure out exactly what I didn't like. But I got it!! One, way too symmetrical imo. Yes, Aisha does have some very symmetrical looks, but like 80% of her looks are very asymmetrical. I also didn't love that it didn't incorporate more of Aisha's powers. It really just went for *vaguely sporty* and didn't try to bring anything else to the table. And some people might say that Aisha's og looks were like that too, but I disagree! They told a story! She's a brave adventurer, a dancer, a princess, etcetc!! This tells me "oh yeah this girl might like to do yoga. cool."

Anyway! So I made Aisha's pants baggier because let's be fucking real for a sec. Changed the design on the pants slightly to make it asymmetrical and incorporated a wave design. Took away that bottom shiny fabric of her shirt. I tried to keep it but it just wasn't looking great with the pants changes tbh. Added small waves to the bottom and made it one shoulder! Also added her classic little circle wave design 1. because it's cute and 2. so Musa wouldn't feel so out of place with a design. Tbh, I still don't love the pants... I think maybe that hem could be higher?

For Musa! I've spoken about this before but I do not like the bodysuit. I liked the concept and the vibe it brings, but it looks So uncomfortable and s1 Musa was alllll about being comfortable. It's why so many people think she hates wearing dresses (even though she doesn't). So I kept the vibe, but changed it to the same mesh that's on her right arm! Which like!! I didn't even see that until I started the edit!! It's so,,, unnoticeable which like,, isn't a bad thing? But also? I think the mesh being on her stomach too makes the design as a whole a little more balanced (and it's a nice callback to her og magic winx!). As for the color changes, really just wanted to go back to her reds and dark blues. I don't Hate the color scheme, but I also don't love it. And I think this feels a lot more like Musa yknow? Also darkened her hair cause fuck that dude

Anyway lol it's not the best edit so don't look too hard :') I just wanted to explore what I liked about the designs and what I didn't. We did get to see a little bit of Bloom's casual, but I want to wait until we get a closer look to speak on it/make edits. Also tbh, I don't really love Flora's outfit but I didn't want to completely redesign her and I concede that this is something she would wear (although it feels more like s4 cowgirl time/s5 casual and not s1 new student time but Fine). For now, I'm gonna pretend the trailer showed us my edit of Stella and not what it really showed. I can't get pale pinterest stella out of my head,,, aggghhhh

[hygieiapides-the-vulgar]

Sargeant Fred Colon in the fifth elephant

Colon is a corrupt, incompetent copper

Honestly if the narrative treated him seriously instead of as comic relief, i would prbly hate him

Just in the fifth elephant:

1 He is in charge of Traffic department, a d is too enthusiastic about clamping cars

2 he bribed a eestaurant owner into giving him free meals by clamping his cart

3 Too enthensuiatic about clamping cars-as in, Nobby deliberay slowed carts as an excuse for Colon to clamp them to collect money

4 Didnt feed rhe imp that runs the traffic camera

5 Dismisses a very important, very big conflict in the dwarf community of Ankh-Morpork, bc they are dwarves, not humans

Also, this scene

===

“Oh. Someone speeding,” said Colon. “So?” He looked again. “That’s one of those sedan chairs the deep-down dwarfs use, isn’t it? Them trolls must’ve been moving!”

“It was just after the Scone was stolen,” said Visit. “Ronald writes the time in the corner, see? A bit odd, I thought. Like a kind of getaway vehicle, sir?”

“What’d a dwarf want to steal a worthless lump of rock for?” said Colon. “Especially them dark dwarfs. They give me the creeps in those stupid clothes they wear.”

====

Note here: the “dark dwarves” are conservative dwarves from out of the city. They command much respect in the dwarf community, but in Ankh-Morpork, a lot of the dwarfs are more liberal and some of them resent the dark dwarves by imposing orders on them.

For all you Christians in the audience, the Stone Scone is almost as important to dwarves as the Bible is to you.

The Stone Scone is an important dwarf cultural artifact, and we now have a good idea of who stole it.

The conservative dark dwarves (probably) stole it, and the police have a picture.

And Colon just dismissed it.

That was a slap in the face to the 3 dwarves

===

Angry silence rang like a dropped girder in a temple. There were three dwarfs in the room.

“You two! You ought to be out on patrol!” barked Sergeant Stronginthearm. “I’ve got business down at Chitterling Street!”

All three dwarfs marched out, somehow contriving even to walk angrily.

“Well, what was that about?” said Fred Colon. “Bit touchy, aren’t they? Mister Vimes says that sort of thing all the time and no one minds.”

“Yes, but that’s because he’s Sam Vimes,” said Nobby.

====

So hearing Colon causually dismiss the “worthless lump of rock” is slap to the face.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VIMES AND COLON

Quite frankly, Vimes gives a damn.

When he hears about a dwarf riot, he picks up the nearest dwarf, demands an answer, listens carefully, then starts looks for whose head he needs to bash until peace is restored.

Excerpts involving Vimes:

There were more dwarfs on the streets as they got nearer, and Vimes recognized the signs. The dwarfs all wore preoccupied looks and were walking in the same direction.

“It’s over,” he said, as they rounded a corner. “You can tell by the sudden increase in suspiciously innocent bystanders.”

Whatever else the emergency had been, it had been a big one. The street was strewn with debris, and a fair amount of dwarfs. Vimes slowed down.

“Third [riot] this week,” he said. “What’s gotten into them?”

“Hard to say, sir,” said Carrot. Vimes shot him a glance. Carrot had been raised by dwarfs. He also, if he could possibly avoid it, never told a lie.

“That isn’t the same as I don’t know, is it,” he said. The captain looked awkward.

===

“Is this one of those private dwarf things, Captain [Carrot]?”

“Yes, sir—”

“Well, this is Ankh-Morpork, Captain, not some mine in the mountains, and it’s my job to keep the peace, and this, Captain, doesn’t look like it. What’re people going to say about rioting in the streets?”

“They’ll say it’s another day in the life of the big city, sir,” said Carrot woodenly.

“Yes, I suppose they would, at that. However—” Vimes picked up a groaning dwarf. “Who did this?” he demanded. “I’m not in the mood for being messed around. Come on, I want a name!”

===

Cherry on top: Colon is racist afainst trolls too

“I’m not a soft touch, me. I’m not going to take insubordination like that! I’ve always said Vimes was a bit too soft on those dwarfs! They gets the same pay as us and they’re only half the size!”

“Yes, yes,” said Nobby, waving his hands placatingly in a desperate attempt to calm things down, “But, Fred, trolls are twice as big as us and they get paid the same, so it—”

“But [trolls have] only got a quarter of the brains, so it’s just the same like I said—”

The noise they heard was long and drawn out and menacing. It was the sound of Lance-Constable Bluejohn’s chair being pushed back.

The floor creaked as he shambled past Colon, removed his helmet from its peg with one enormous hand, and headed for the door.

[unhetalia]

America headcanons (pt. 1):

America needs to eat A LOT in order to maintain his strength, which wasn't the case when he was younger. When he doesn't eat enough, he gets incredibly hypoglycaemic.

Has a high IQ, but is really out of touch with his own and other people's emotions.

Alfred is gay & demisexual.

Alfred can build a car, but can't drive one. He once tried to borrow Arthur's car to learn - it didn't work out, since Arthur was too furious with him for lugging it around to even hear him out.

Alfred is actually amazing at cooking, but barely any of the Europeans - or China - acknowledge it on the basis of him "butchering" their foods, aka changing even the most minor thing. Younger countries like Australia and New Zealand who aren't as strict about authenticity tend to really enjoy his cooking.

He has diagnosed seasonal affective disorder, which plays into him always gaining weight during winter. He has special blankets he only uses for when he's feeling sad, and his home is filled with sun lamps.

[ishikawayukis]

welcome back kang younghyun 💕