#make characters learn the same lessons but from a different angle

[mifithemuffin]

aus where the core message stays true to canon but it's written in a very funky font you are so dear to me

[crossdressingdeath]

I actually really like that it's Will who chases Amphithemis away, and Nico who gets upset because he thinks they could've helped him. As one of Camp Half-Blood's best medics in one war and head medic in a second, Will would be familiar with the concept of triage and accepting that there are some people you can't save; Nico is quick to defend his loved ones and never hesitates to kill if it comes down to it, but he doesn't have the same experience with acting as a medic during a war and having to come to terms with the fact that you can't heal everyone. It actually makes a lot of sense that it would be Will who says "No, there's nothing we can do about this, we have to focus on Bob because we can save him and we can't waste time when we don't know how much we have" and Nico who tries to insist on helping Amphithemis despite having zero idea of how to do that, because that fits with how the two of them view the concept of helping people in a situation with no enemy to fight directly.

I also really love it because so much of the fanon for these two is that Nico is always the ruthless one and Will is always the sweet sunshine "gotta save everyone" one, and that... doesn't actually fit them at all. I mean, Will served as a medic in two wars that both had casualties; it tears him apart that he can't save everyone (Will thinking that every person he's failed to save is a death he caused breaks my heart), but he would've had to learn very fast that if you waste time on people you can't save that could easily mean dooming people you can. Nico can be ruthless, the lesson the wars taught him was that he had to be prepared to kill his enemies if he wanted to save his friends, but Will learned that he couldn't save all his friends and there would be times when he'd have to choose to let go of one he couldn't save in order to save another he could. I feel like in some ways these two are probably two of the most pragmatic and ruthless characters in the series, because both of them learned in different ways that sometimes you have to kill people or let them die, which is a lesson that for the most part none of the others ever really have to take on; even with Luke it's ultimately his choice, not Percy and Annabeth's, and otherwise the cast mostly just kill monsters and the occasional resurrected human who they tend to view as basically like monsters since they should be dead anyway. In the case of Amphithemis it falls under the "sometimes you have to let people die to focus on the ones you can save" lesson that Will learned rather than the "sometimes you have to kill people to protect your loved ones" lesson that Nico learned, so it makes a lot of sense that it's Will who chases Amphithemis off so they can continue their quest and Nico who gets upset because they could've stayed with him and tried to help, just like how it makes sense that it's Nico who ultimately makes the choice to let Octavian yeet himself and Will who's against it (and much like Will feeling intense guilt every time he fails to save someone even when he knows there was nothing he could do, Nico is still dwelling on his choice with Octavian over a year later despite knowing it had to be done). Nico's a fighter and Will's a healer; that doesn't mean Nico can never be idealistic in his desire to save people or that Will can never decide that a death is necessary, it just means they're coming at the question of when people should be helped, killed, or left on their own from different angles. The way Nico and Will complement each other was really fantastically done in a lot of ways.

[tookishcombeferre]

Cedric for ask game- 1, 12, 14, 25

1. Why do you like this character? Okay. So, ever since I watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, I have been a sucker for a well written redemption arc. However, if I were to get into specifics, I think there's a lot to explore in this character from a literary perspective. He's complicated. Very complicated. His motivations make a lot of sense even if he goes about things in ways that aren't objectively moral. Which, honestly? That is stuff you don't see in children's TV much since Gargoyles or other things from the 90s and early 2000s. He has the backstory and personality of a Shakespearean tragic hero. He reminds me of like if you shoved Macbeth and Hamlet in a blender in the best way possible, and then, somehow, came out with Macduff? IDK how that works, but that's what happened. Secondly, I find him relatable to my literal life. Zuko hit me when I was just a little younger than Zuko's age. I saw Sofia the First, for the first time in earnest, as I approach 30. I am, exactly, the right age to relate to Cedric's personal issues. So, I like him because a lot of the stuff he deals with is the stuff I'm processing in my own life. Aging parents. Trying to repair a difficult relationship with my own dad as we both grow older. Realizing I might not be able to fix everything that's missing there, and trying to walk the line between indifference and cynicism. Check. Trying to form a solid relationship with a/my child and teach them things. (Granted my squish is biological, but still. Check.) Trying to look past my own personal failings to create a better world for my kid and future generations. Check. Trying to look past what people say/ have said about me and others like me to see the intrinsic good in myself despite my nuanced set of identities. Check. Realizing that my kid just existing in my life is what gives me hope to see myself as great. And, maybe, just maybe, that's a lesson I can teach my kid without them having to go through all the crap I've gone through to learn it: we are great because, unmasked, in our fullness, together with others, we are greater than in isolation. So, I like him because it's easy to walk his journey and see some elements of my own life and where I'm at personally. And, you know what? The show does a nice job presenting this struggle. I feel less alone in my own crap when I watch it. I've got a buddy to walk in my adult problems with while my kiddo gets a princess to learn how to be a good person alongside. I LOVE that. It's truly something we both get something out of, which, is, like, SO supremely rare. As a parent, I just cannot express how much I care about that. Bluey might be the only other program I can think of that does "both" as well as Sofia does. Like, I don't know if there are any other fans in this fandom who are parents. But, man ... Cedric hits because *all* of the life stuff he's dealing with is stuff that, like, is so real. Especially the stuff with his parents. Oof. I don't know if any of y'all have had parents age. But, it's a different beast y'all. It makes you think about things, it makes you want to retreat, and it makes you want to fix things - all at the same time. Sorry if that's a lot. But, when we talk about Cedric being an adult, this is what we mean. So, I just kind of fell in love with Cedric's character because in so many ways his story just kept slapping for me from every angle.

[ssalballoon]

i wanna get better at art but dont know how to start ^^' whats a good way to get into studying anatomy and improving as an artist? tysm 💗 love your art soso much

more art converts 😼 yay!!

i think these asks were sent by different people but they're pretty related + a lot of my advice is the same! so i'll answer these together under the cut (it's so long oh gosh)

ok first of all i'm very flattered that people are asking me for art advice but i'm really not the most equipped person to ask TTOTT I've never been deliberately studious with my art so I feel bad offering advice when I've mostly gotten by with just drawing fanart and ocs a lot... my rate of improvement has therefore been slow, but I've still had an enjoyable learning experience so perhaps from that angle my input may help! i'll mainly refer you to external resources that have helped me

For anatomy + drawing humans:

1) I know I'm not diligent enough to sit down and study muscles, so instead I make it more enjoyable by drawing my favorite characters in a pose that targets the muscles I want to practice! (i default to drawing ppl naked because of this lol) This isn't the most efficient, but it serves as good motivation to get practice in. (honestly a lot of my general art advice has the undercurrent of becoming so obsessed with characters to drive your motivation to draw even when artblocked/ struggling with doubts!)

2) I want to refer you to Sinix's Anatomy playlist! Although Sinix focuses more on digital painting, he gives simplified anatomy breakdowns that include how muscles change shape under different movements/poses, which is crucial for natural human posing. the static anatomy diagrams from Google don't really help for that

3) What's just as important as anatomy is gestures! (especially important if you're used to drawing non-human objects I think!) Making figures look like they have flow to them will sell the "naturalness"(?) to your anatomy. If you have in person life drawing sessions accessible near you I'd recommend trying those out, or if you prefer trying it digitally there's this website!

This helps you not only get a sense of human proportions, but also natural posing! I'd limit the time taken to draw the poses from like 10 seconds to 1 minute(?) for quick gestures, and maybe 1 minute to 5mins(for now!! typically they go much longer) to study human proportions. I'd say don't spend a lot of time on them, repetition is more important!

4) I've also picked up on useful anatomy tidbits from artists online! Looking at how practiced/ professional artists stylize a body helps me focus on what the essential details are to convey a particular form (looking up "human muscles" and being hit with anatomy diagrams full of all the smallest details can be overwhelming! what do you even focus on?! so these educated simplifications really help me) Like Emilio Dekure's work! Look how simplified these figures are, and yet contain all the essential information to convey the sense of accurate form (even though it's highly exaggerated!)

(shamefully admits I've never studied from actual anatomy books so I can't recommend anything in that sense TTOTT)

For general improvement:

1) I highly recommend Sinix's Design Theory playlist and Paintover Pals! (+ his channel in general) You don't have to put them immediately into practice, but I think these are good fundamental lessons to just listen to and have them in the back of your mind to revisit another day. Plus these videos are just fun and very approachable! Design theory fundamentals are essential to creating appeal and directing a viewer's attention, and critiquing others' work/ seeing his suggestions are a good way to practice noticing areas of improvement+ solutions yourself!

2) If you prefer a more formal teaching resource, the Drawabox YouTube course covers all the basic fundamentals of drawing in short lessons. But honestly if I were starting out, this would be a little intimidating for me (and even now it still is! I haven't done all of them) But even if you don't watch them, the titles should give you an idea of the basic concepts that are valuable to pick up. I think it would be nice to keep in mind and revisit once in a while as you learn!

(One lesson I do encourage you to watch is the line control one! A confident continuous line conveys motion and flow much better compared to discontinuous frayed lines which I think is good to practice early by drawing from the wrist and shoulder)

3) As a universal piece of advice: Please please please use references! Use a reference for literally everything, observing is how we learn! You'll find that a lot of things you thought you knew what they looked like are inaccurate by memory alone. Also, trace! This is solely for your practice, tracing then freehanding has helped me grasp proportions when I was struggling! (of course don't post these online if you traced from art)

I've found that being able to compile references into easy to access boards has been very helpful in encouraging me to use references more. For PC, I think they use PureRef (free/pay what you want), and for iPad I use VizRef. VizRef is a one time purchase (which was definitely worth the $3.99 USD price imo)

4) On that note, try building up the habit to observe from media + real life and make purposeful comments about what you see! Like hey, when I bend my knee, the muscles/fat in my thighs and calves bulge outwards, I should draw that next time. Purposeful observation carries over to your overall visual library, and it's a little thing that adds up over time

5) For motivation, get into media you really enjoy, or make your own characters! The way I started art more seriously was by drawing fanart + OCs from anime that I liked ^^ For OCs it really encourages you to draw more because you're the primary creator of their art! Also you gotta see a lot of good art to make good art! Watching visually appealing media (like animation with appealing stylization/simplification) can passively help you learn just by observation.

ok wow I could go on but this is already a lot of information TTOTT my main aim for this reply is basically: don't let anything discourage you from learning to draw!! drawing is so fun and brings me a lot of joy ^^ practicing often will of course help you improve, and the way to incentivize that is by having fun with it! i hope this could help!💞

[kaithonks]

So I’ve had some Thoughts about Juni Ba’s The Boy Wonder

There are a few points I feel the need to point out before I dig into this, as I feel that I might end up sounding, for lack of a better term, fangirlie. I do genuinely love The Boy Wonder, and part of that comes from it being a comic about the Robins. So, that does give me a bit of a bias. Especially as lately, there hasn’t been a ton of good (in my opinion) Jason Todd comics, who is my personal favorite. And Juni Ba has a really good take on the character. But, outside of that, he genuinely has a good take on all the Robins and even on Talia. But again, because of my love for these all these character I’m gonna keep away from talking too much about the story and character development to focus on the art. Because Juni Ba’s writing is great, but what makes the story is how he uses his art to tell the story in a rather fun way. 

The Boy Wonder is made of 5 issues, each having a different focus. Dick, Jason, Tim, Talia, and then Ra’s Al Ghul. The story still centers around Damian, but through comparing these characters to Damian. There is also a different feel between each comic, and this is done through different paneling. Dick’s issue has a lot of dynamic angled panels. There is also a moment of comparison with the young Dick, showing him being Dick and Robin in the same panel. Starting a theme of paralleling. Two pages later, you also get a young Dick catching his mom and then a current Dick catching Barbara. The paralleling between past and present will come back in the Ra’s issue, but it's particular to the start of Damian’s growth. It’s also the start of the story’s style being set to show Damian’s feelings, like how after Damian cuts the man’s head off, there is a panel with Damian’s demon mask growing.

Jason’s issue is mostly made of 3 long panels per page, building out the scenery and honestly showing Jason as a part of the world.  He sticks out with the Red Hood, but he’s casually greeting others and still moves through like he belongs. The paralleling isn’t as strong in Jason’s issue, but the stylistic feeling is particularly strong. It’s used less to show difference here, but rather more similarities. Like with Jason and Damian both having horns. And while this is a little off my point, this issue has some of the best page turn moments, particularly at the end with the opened red door. Which, while it feels like a moment for Jason, it also feels like Damian’s. While Dick was a point for Damian to compare himself and grow, Jason was a point of empathy and connection.

Jason’s issue was defined with longer panels, Tim’s is smaller to show the little details. A lot of it used to show the waste of the wealthy, but it’s also used for the Wayne Enterprises gadgets. So, while not like the direct paralleling in Dick’s issues, it shows Tim’s use of wealth to help rather than the for greed and is another lesson for Damian.

Talia’s issue has the biggest shift with the style with the paneling being quite different. Starting with the tan and clean panels of her backstory, shifting to thick dark lines boarding each pane. Then the green boards of the cave before settling for the more typical for a few pages. While it’s easy to say this is a choice for building the climax of the story, it does more, and visually helps to set apart Damian’s two lives.  That of the one with his mother and the League of Assassin, versus the one of his life with his father and his brothers.

The first notable thing is that Ra’s issue doesn't’ really start with Merle and Joe’s story, rather it ends with it being a good closing for the story as a whole. But the key moment is Bruce facing of Ra’s and the panel taking up 2 pages. With them being connected but broken up by the page itself. It’s really a unification for Damian, and it’s the next page where we see what he’s learned from Ra’s to stop him, unifying Ra’s and Bruce’s ideals within Damian himself. Bringing back the paralleling between past and present, in Dick’s issues, but doing it more with the style of Talia’s issue.

The Boy Wonder was one of those wonderful moments where I remember that this story wouldn't work in another medium other than a comic. While the writing is good, what makes it great is Ba’s style and knowledge of paneling to tell the story. Particularly, a story of unification, and balancing the present and past for a better future.

[lucidwindz]

Httyd 3 ramblings

Recently rewatched the 3 movies as is my tradition apparently and will probably be rewatching the entirety of the tv series as well (for like the 4th time as of now), and I'd wondered why I didn't much engage with the fandom on tumblr before till I browsed through the httyd 3 tags lmao. People really don't like that movie, and though I can understand and agree with some criticisms (the woobification of toothless, the design of the light fury, some questionnable side characters decisions), I feel a lot of the ire comes from a reluctance to part with the story rather than engaging with it...

Perhaps I'm just nihilistic, but to me, httyd has always been about nature and animal rights as well, and the ending acknowledging that humans don't always do good things just...made sense I guess.

Confined to a small island like Berk, Hiccup's philosophy of coexistence is applicable and realizable, that almost fantastical and hopeful angle works very well. The initial curiosity, the care, the wonder of connecting with nature, it fits the story perfectly despite its other darker undertones.

Then, all the tv series and httyd2 take us into a wider world, where there are people hunting dragons for profit, and others dominating them for wars, it is not longer a story about that initial discovery and love, it is clearly taking a more different path, which is why to me it is confusing when so many people say httyd 3 is a betrayal of the message of the franchise.

Across the entire series, Hiccup deals with the reluctance of people on Berk itself, then deals with outside forces who are ignorant of what Berk has learned, then deals with outside forces who know what they're doing but still do bad things (which you could also make a case aren't fully bad; a dragon hunter would be a hero to any small village that doesn't know how to deal with them). We get seasons upon seasons of escalation, of a big bad that becomes harder and harder to convert to his side. All of it leads to httyd 2, Hiccup still has the overwhelming optimism and belief that he can change minds, hell even Viggo did in the end, this makes sense. Hiccup is so utterly kind and accepting, but that's just not viable with some people.

He has to challenge his own belief of the malleability of the world.

In httyd2, the lesson Hiccup learns is to be a good chief, to care for his people, and the same for Toothless. But Toothless' role doesn't yet get addressed in that movie; it gets addressed in the third. What does his being the alpha mean? He has to take care of the other dragons too; they both have duties and responsibilities, to their people and each other. So in httyd3, Hiccup knows Grimmel is of the type to be unchangeable, and beyond just Grimmel, there are war lords eyeing Berk's dragons for entirely different reasons, for conquering, for destruction. Berk itself has been put on the map as a prime target, and Hiccup owes to his people a safe space to live. Their moving off the map makes sense, and with the end of the movie practically wiping any opponent who knows of their new location, it is safe. But it won't stay that way. And after entire seasons and movies where bad people just endlessly spawn and take the place of the last, he makes the decision to let go, just like Toothless does. Not because he forsook his ideals, not because he doesn't care about Toothless, but because real love means being able to let go. They both love each other enough to know where the other belongs; guiding their people. A lot of people say 'then all of this was for nothing' and I can only say if the value of something hinges on its eternity nothing is going to be worth anything. Hiccup and Toothless are who they are because of each other, and Berk will forever be a bastion of love for dragons. That *is* something.

Human greed doesn't end. The ending of httyd feels appropriate because to this day, I cannot say we deserve to have dragons. Realistically, how could they continue fighting? I can't imagine it because I know anything in that vein will feel more like an empty dream. What httyd3 offers is the hope that one day we'll be worthy, not an empty platitude that things will work out just because we love, but if we are willing to work for it, then it'll mean something. I don't think httyd 3 betrays the message of the franchise at all, I think it's just willing to assume the full breadth of the responsibility that comes with protecting and loving nature.

---

All that being said, I have my own gripes with the ending still LMAO, for exemple I'd really have loved a more consistent continuity with the shows, and romance plots are just not my thing so the whole light fury business is so eh to me. Astrid and Hiccup earned their ending but I've got a lil beef with the light fury smh

Fun fact too, I once got insane enough to think I'd make a comic or write a sequel to the httyd franchise, where a reincarnation of hiccup would come to Berk after an accident, losing his leg. He'd move from the city to this very isolated and rustic island from where his parents are from, and he'd encounter tales and myths of dragons that even the locals don't all fully believe in, but still worship and adore. Then, dragons would start appearing again due to the ocean pollution destroying the Hidden World's ecosystem and forcing them out. I did not have much of a plan but I envisioned a rather dark tone due to our modern world. I'd imagine a mass hunting using modern weaponry, people opening up dragon trades or sticking them in zoos idk. It wasn't a positive idea but it is the most realistic way it'd go down. I don't have a good opinion on humanity tbh. I did research man it was crazy, I rewatched everything and I do mean everything, while actively taking notes for the worldbuilding, so any fact about dragons or cultures went straight into a google doc. Maybe I should work on it again, I miss httyd man

[fantasyinvader]

I think something that clicked for me is the whole teacher angle, as well as how the game handles giving out information. The game asks you to guide your students, and in turn is trying (in spite of the translation) to guide the player as well. That the game itself is a lesson in how to be moral, but rather than spell that out it instead wants the player to figure this out for themselves. We know from the devs interviews they deliberately designed the game and story so that the player would not find out everything in a single playthrough,

The game wants players to piece everything together by working together. Hell, in essence even understanding Houses requires the player to rely on others in defiance of Edelgard's philosophy rather than playing the game over and over again. The game doesn't want to tell us it's moral, it wants us to figure it out by thinking.

Let's look at it with the fact that the devs said they only expected players to finish 1-2 routes of the game. They expected most players to pick the Black Eagles house, either because Edelgard initially was supposed to come off like the obvious hero or because she's a cute girl. However, they said that siding with her is about having different beliefs than the rest of the game and ultimately lead to oppression because, surprise, she's the one playing the part of the villain. How does this work then?

Well, for starters her own route makes it clear that she's a very manipulative person, keeping her allies in the dark while telling them lies to make herself look good. Silver Snow backs this up in Japan, with her actually saying she was attempting to sway the player to her side. This would also explain the inconsistencies between her character arc in Safflower and the route's endings, she effectively faked character growth for PR purposes and even her supports are about her managing to bring people around to supporting her and her ideals. However, what she does in the endings is more in line with the ideals she spouts in Azure Moon during the parley. Those ideals, however, were informed by her understanding of Fodlan's history as well as her experiences with the experiments, which is contradicted by Verdant Wind giving the players and alternate account as well as outright saying Edelgard was manipulated into going to war. This is backed up by Flower, as we learn Edelgard's version of history was passed down to her from her father after Hubert had already revealed that he was an Agarthan puppet and directly contradicted Edelgard's claims about who was behind the experiments and how she should have told you this, which brings us back to her being manipulative and trying to sway the player to her side. On top of that, it shows she misunderstands Fodlan much like Claude, but Claude was able to see that his views were based on first impressions and how wrong it was to hate people without getting to know them.

Rather than saying all that, the game expects us to figure this all out ourselves. That we are supposed to fight Edelgard as the game was written around Silver Snow and it's story. It's why it frames the choices that lead to joining Edelgard, to have different beliefs that the rest of the game, as “changing the story.” Silver Snow is the natural progression of events, on the same level as Moon and Wind. It's the moral path in light of the reveal of what Edelgard has been up to.

You are a freaking teacher. You're meant to guide your students, help them become fine upstanding adults, not let them guide you.

I mean, it still leads to a frustrating game. The reveal happens and then the game pretty much puts Edelgard's real mask back on. Characters will explain things that directly contradict her, or even have legit reasons why joining her would go against their character or backstories. People learn revelations but seemingly forget about them. All because the game wants us to figure it all out ourselves. That it doesn't want to tell us what to think, but rather tell us how to think as pretentious as that sounds. And hell, that's probably the reason why the translators got things so wrong because the game was telling them X but when we were supposed to pick up Y which contradicts it and use it to figure out Z. Convoluted to say the least.

[laoih]

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)

Another version of Bumi & why I like him

Let me preface this with the disclaimer that I'm fully aware that Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender has its flaws. But for me personally, the things it does well are fare more interesting, and so I would like to explain why I like how they changed Bumi as a character within the story of the live action adaptation. I'm bad at keeping it short, so this turned out a rather long post – my apologies. Also: potential trigger warning for mentions of suicidal ideation.

The starting point: Bumi in the cartoon

Cartoon-Bumi in the original series is a character who is very much rooted in the original medium. He lends himself well to comedy, and his challenges for Aang teach Aang and the young audience about opening onself to new possibilities, to think outside the box, to approach obstacles from new perspectives. It's good advice, and Aang takes it to heart and implements it at times later on. The reunion between Aang and Bumi is also sweet, and all in all it's an enjoyable episode.

Aang's position from the live action angle

Now, if the same plot is moved to the live action series (LA), the tone of this storyline is automatically changed as well because we are now looking at it through the lense of the LA. The cartoon is aimed at a young audience and has a big focus on comedy, so we can easily ignore some aspects of the situation that now come more into focus in the adaptation:

Aang just recently has learned that all of his people, the Air Nomads, have been wiped out and he is the last airbender.

Aang also has leaned that as the Avatar it is his duty to restore balance to the world and to defeat the Firelord.

A 100 years old man is challenging a traumatized kid to solve some tasks while his friends are being threatend by death-by-growing-crystal.

As I said – in the cartoon it's fine to think of riding Koi fish as the first order of business, and it's fine to threaten the kids with death because nobody dies anyway. It's fine for the cartoon not to dwell on these things. But the live action series explicilty wants to pay attention to some of these aspects, propbably especially because the cartoon could only address them in very small doses. I'm not saying that the live action always does it well, but the intention is there and it's different to the cartoon.

Aang's trauma and Bumi's response

In the live action, Aang cannot easily put his loss or his responsibilities aside. He is mourning Gyatso and the Airbenders in basically every episode, he is shocked by what he sees of the war in Omashu, and the need to go to the Northern Water Tribe is much more urgent because of Kyoshi's warning.

Would or should Bumi as Aang's friend as he is in the cartoon really pretend he does not know Aang in the LA, and would or should he trick him into believing his friends are in danger of dying? Even if he thinks Aang needs to learn a lesson, is that the right time and the right way to do it? Coming from the perspective of the LA, to me it seems needlessly cruel to threaten Katara and Sokka with death and Aang with the possibility that his friends might die, all while Aang is still dealing with the loss of his people and the fact that he somehow has to save the Northern Water Tribe. I think Bumi would no seem like a nice person or a good friend even if he was copied 1:1 from the cartoon. To me, in this new context it wouldn't make much sense to treat Aang in such a way, just because he thinks that Aang needs to learn a lesson or because it's fun to mess with people.

Fitting Bumi in the new context

Bumi in the cartoon is the episode's obstacle that Aang needs to overcome. If Bumi is to stay an obstacle in the live action, he now needs to have a different reason or motivation to become such an obstacle. A cartoon Bumi who is neither bitter nor angry but rather wants to help and is happy to see Aang can no longer realistically be that obstacle. Rather, I would expect that a wise old man of a 100 years would be more open and supportive right from the start when he meets his young 12 year old friend who just learned that his whole family has been massacred.

So how and why would Bumi still be an obstacle? The writer's answer to that was: because he is no longer wise and friendly, but lethargic and bitter. Why is he bitter? Because he has lived through 100 years of war and had to make horrible choices that still haunt him, and each year the hope for the war and for the suffering to end became smaller and smaller. The Avatar may have been the representation of that hope when the war started – but 100 years later he has become the representation of all the times that Bumi was hopeful but eventually disappointed.

His opposition to Aang in the episode includes three main aspects:

I. Bitterness towards Aang and the Avatar: Bumi blames the Avatar for being absent because the Avatar should have been there to help and wasn't. This isn't a rational reaction though, it's born out of the loss and the bitterness in Bumi's life. It's also personal for him, because Aang was Bumi's friend, and as the Avatar could have helped but didn't. On top of that Bumi resents Aang's disbelief when it comes to Bumi's capacity to care – they are separated by 100 years of lived experience that Aang completely missed and Bumi had to endure. Of course in this case Bumi also ignores the loss that Aang recently (from his perception) has suffered.

→ With this the writers set up a character who is emotionally no longer able to support Aang or take Aang's own situation and problems into consideration. He is mentallypositioned to be an obstacle to Aang, to be inconsiderate, ruthless and actually dangerous.

II. A lesson to learn: Bumi intends to teach Aang a lesson to make him understand why he is the way he is now. He cannot speedrun the last 100 years for Aang, but can give him and example of what his own experience has been in the past and what forced him to stop caring: he shows him what it's been like in the past when you are forced to make impossible choices, and what – in Bumi's mind – awaits Aang in the future.

→ This provides a motivation for Bumi to fight against Aang in all seriousness. Bumi is not playing games, because this has been the harsh reality for him. It rises the dramaturgical stakes of the fight.

III. Losing the will to live: Bumi is tired after 100 years, and that becomes very apparent in the fight. It is a part of a larger theme in the LA that explores what war does to people. In Bumi's case it has made him numb because he wouldn't have been able to deal with the horrors of war otherwise all this time. That is why he does not move a hand when he is about to be crushed – it seems to be a relief, and if it can teach Aang the intended lesson: all the better.

→ With Aang already knowing who Bumi is, this rises the emotional stake of the fight. Aang no longer is fighting an unknown weird old man, he is fighting someone who he believes to be a friend, and even worse: his friend appears to be suicidal. Having to fight and protect Bumi at the same time puts Aang under a huge amount of pressure both emotionally and when it comes to his bending skills.

The resolution: fighting hopelessness with connection

Granted, the ending is not as well executed as it could be. But for me it still carries the intended idea – or at least the idea as I understood it:

War can isolate people. Bumi has been fighting a war, and surely has lost people close to him, or cannot see them because battle grounds have a habit of interrupting travel. We also know there have been spies in the city as well as rebells who are unhappy with Bumi's rule, so it's difficult to even trust the people who are supposed to fight on Bumi's side.

Aang is the counter to all of that: he was able travel to the city because he can fly and cross borders and distances more easily. He is also saved from the predicament that Bumi has put him in because his friends have independently found a way to reach them, and luckily in time.

When he pulls out the gift that Bumi had given him all these years ago, it's very symbolic: the sky bison whistle allows Aang to call upon his friend Appa. And Appa has already saved Aang in the first episode, and will do so again in the episode following Aang's and Bumi's fight.

It's a reminder that for people who have lost the will to live the best hope is the connection with other people. It may seem trivial to those who don't have to struggle in that way, but a reminder of a connection, of friendship, of support or even just shared struggle can be incredible powerful. That's why I believe it is believable for Bumi to give it one more try. After all, the return of the Avatar as a potential powerful ally is also a good motivation to fight back once more.

[sonic-love-island-official]

Knuckles (Bio/Character design ramble)

Here he comes, rougher than the rest of them: Knuckles !!

More info under the cut, as per x

Knuckles is a 26 year old from Angel Island. Guardian of the Master Emerald, Knuckles lives relatively isolated from the mainland, rarely leaving the island for anything. He joins the show as a challenge for himself to branch out, live a little and find a potential long-term partner.

To put it simply, Knuckles arrives with a lot to navigate. He's never experienced such a complicated social situation in his life before and he's tasked with learning how to act around the other Islanders, which leads him to be very unfaithful to himself and his personality. Even though he's working out social dilemmas and how to present himself, Knuckles is still a very genuine guy and does nothing if he doesn't mean it. Both laid-back and short-tempered, he finds himself in a bit of trouble on more than one occasion, providing lessons for him going forward.

Trying different faces on, testing the waters and making mistakes, Knuckles needs to learn the value of being his true self and nothing else.

External design choices !! (visual appearance - incl. formation of base sim, references taken, makeup choices, fashion style... etc.)

I only wish I could remember any of the steps I made to create Knuckles' sim. But... By the looks of it, I think I might be able to guess where my head was at with some of the decisions around his design ?? Again, he doesn't look near to what I imagine him to look like, but at the end of the day, as long as they resemble enough of the character we're trying to portray, that's enough for me.

Firstly, I know for sure his SA2 model was used for inspiration and that was a deliberate, memorable choice. Because look at him !! SA2 Knuckles was so distinct to me, not only in how he acted but his features in this game are peak (also why tf is this his only portrayal where he has more melanin ?? huh ??). Needless to say, SA2 Knuckles is a personal favourite of mine in every way, shape and form, and that's basically why I picked that model to base Sim Knuckles off.

Hence why he has a warmer, darker skin tone than what's seen in other Knuckles models. I did my best to match it up as close as possible, and while not exact, it's pretty darn close that I'm no longer so fussy about it.

Knuckles striking red colour went straight to his hair, as per the majority of the sim versions. But, unlike the rest, Knuckles red hair is (allegedly /j) natural. The SLI world has a trend of people dying their hair all kinds of funky colours, but Knuckles isn't one of them, so his hair, brows and body hair are all this shade of red that he inherited from his ancestors (this, among a few other features pull relevance in-plot later). Regrettably, we didn't have anything close to his dreadlocks in-game (one of my FAVOURITE parts of Knuckles' design), so we had to settle for this shoulder-length, half-up-half-down hairstyle. Of course, we try to make up for it by drawing him with them wherever possible, because his dreads are NOT going to be lost on us no matter how limited we are in this game. Another hair related detail that became more of a recent development, is Knuckles having facial hair (not present on his sim, because naturally the game does not have anything close) — you know, just a bit of chin fluff. No reason, just vibes :)

Knuckles doesn't have the same round eyes as what Sonic or Amy have, but isn't so harshly angled like Shadow's, so it was about finding that happy medium with Knux. And you know what ? His eyes are purple, pretty and I can't complain, he's such a cutie <3

I can't say much about his facial structure. I'm going to assume I had a vision, but I don't remember what in the world it was.

Naturally, Knuckles being Knuckles, is definitely more buff than the likes of Sonic or Tails. Bro works out — he's dedicated to that stuff — so that just had to be translated over to his sim. Ain't no more to say about that :)

Another thing absent from his sim version (limitations again, grr) is the idea that Knuckles has cultural tattoos, most prominently the crescent moon on his chest. In some screenshots (not seen here), Knuckles has a tattoo representative of M.E. as well.

As for his fashion style ? Hoo boy. Despite making the occasional, heinous fashion crime, Knuckles is actually pretty styling ! Knuckles suits all sorts of things and his style has a uniqueness none of the other Islanders have. More often than not though, Knuckles is seen in colourful/patterned tees, sweater singlets, cargo pants, baggy jeans and sneakers, along with a chain necklace (and maybe a bracelet and/or ring). Knuckles claims he isn't fashionable, but I beg to differ. He's probably one of the best dressed boys in the villa by far.

Internal design choices !! (personality, characteristics, psychology)

Here's where things get messy. Stated before in previous posts, characterisation isn't strict. All the characters are a blend of a multitude of portrayals across Sonic media and Knuckles is no different. But where each character is a cohesive blend, Knuckles very evidently has two, polar opposite ways of expressing himself, which I've haphazardly labelled:

'Funny-funny, I'm trying to fit in, please like me' Knuckles (that my sister primarily writes for)

And,

'Serious' Knuckles (that I tend to write for)

Like I've said in countless posts before, and in this one, Knuckles is trying to figure out who to be around people. The sillier side of Knuckles is heavily derived from his Sonic Boom characterisation, but is used in a self-aware sense. A lot of fans don't like this caricature version of Knuckles (me included, but I kind of regard Boom! Knuckles as a separate entity at this point and I personally enjoy his character better that way. Also, Boom is really its own continuity anyway, and I enjoyed the show as it was intended. It's another each to their own, I guess), but we've utilised this version of him with intention. AU Knuckles uses this comedic, faux stupidity to make himself interesting to others. This side of him carves a presence in the Villa, and he finds more people are willing to engage with someone entertaining. So the persona sticks.

'Serious' Knuckles is the more true (?) Knuckles. He's the game canon Knuckles, beloved for his steely disposition and golden heart. This is the Knuckles that is both a hothead and cool as a cucumber. He's the one loyal to his duties, to his friends. The one that cares for people, animals, land. He's the guy that could pack a punch if he wanted. Knuckles knows far more than he wants to let on. He's very in tune with people's energy and emotions and a lot of this knowledge makes him quite intelligent, though no one seems to notice.

Despite both these parts of him, Knuckles plays true to his feelings, whatever they may be, and whichever tracks it leads him down. He's not a fake guy at all !! He's just convinced himself what he's doing is the best course of action, even when it may not be.

Overall, Knuckles is a fun character to play around with ! He seems fairly shallow on the surface, but then, digging deeper, there's far more intricacies to his character. Knuckles provides a lot of things to work with in terms of his personality, background, knowledge and actions. I love how his character also explores different things to the other Islanders, due to those aspects.

Fun facts / trivia :

Knuckles loves to sing ! There's many moments throughout the series where he has sung songs alone or with other contestants. Knuckles is trying to make this series a musical (but I won't let him ! /j)

He likes to express his culture and does so wherever and whenever he can. It's very important to him <3

[jonsimsmissingbraincell]

the characterization in the penumbra podcast is absolutely incredible, in both juno steel and second citadel. with the static characters, them being static is an integral part of their characterization. and the characters that do change are consistent. each of them change and learn in ways that are consistent and integral to that character specifically. we see multiple characters learn the same lessons in different ways and change in different ways in response and it's amazing because it's so incredibly real. each character stays consistent in who they are as they change.

i'm going to elaborate on specific static characters under the cut because i am especially fascinated in how them being static was used in their characterization. there aren't really any spoilers, but it makes the post a little long.

for sasha wire, every time she shows up, we explore her more and we get a deeper dive into who she is fundamentally. each time we see her, the magnifying glass gets a little closer and we learn new things about her. but when you go back to the beginning, those things are still there, just smaller. through each of her experiences, it becomes solidified more and more.

ramses is also similar, in a faster scale episode-wise and a wider scale timeline-wise. every moment we see him, he has the same values and beliefs, but we see those in so many different ways and from so many angles. we even see the things that could have caused him to change but instead only set him harder in his ways. each new piece of him that we see, it's a new angle of the same beliefs and the things that he twisted and misinterpreted to get him there.

queen mira is kinda similar to ramses, i think. we don't get as close a look into her head as we do sasha-- the season 2 finale is about as close as we get-- but we see her experience things that could have changed her but just firmed her current stance. they might choose to add some growth for her at some point, but there aren't any seeds for that currently and she would be a successful character either way.

talfryn, i think, is static in the other direction. in the good vs bad, yes, but also in his experiences. because for ramses and mira, the things they go through should have made them reevaluate things. but the things tal experiences aren't opportunities for reevaluation because they truly align with where he already is. for ramses and mira, they experience things that show them another perspective and that they choose to interpret in a way that aligns with how they already think instead of allowing it to broaden their viewpoint. tal is in a good place when the story starts and each of his experiences that we see are affirmations of that. i think he also serves as a sort of guiding point for some of the other characters, with little nudges here and there. he doesn't serve as a catalyst for any of them, but he sees the people around him growing and keeps them in check, in a way, without trying to push them.

[elkenbulwark]

hc(ish) // character vs game dynamics

The barbarian class in dnd is?? I always feel so confused by it since I have it as Birvor's main class. Mainly because as soon as you load in and the default character is barbarian wearing nomadic looking barbarian furs (like up the Skyrim wilds feel) it gives off the impression that barbarian as a class is actually more like a way of life? Like if you pick it, then your character has to be this wild character living out in the wildness- either in some tribe or maybe they're just a hermit, or a widower that's no longer dealing with society and just kind of lives off the land like a wild animal. (Granted, we have Karlach as a differing sort of barbarian, though her sub class is berserker so it's not quite the same as the 'wild heart' standard variant of the barbarian.)

As far as Birvor goes, I felt compelled to add this in to his backstory in the form of him being born into a nomadic tribe of humans that fit that standard 'barbarian' feel to them, but ever since I got the idea for the character, I always thought of him wearing the fighter-class gear since that's what sort of armor and weapons he'd have been brought up in house Cragdew learning to use. He'd also have a much more polished fighter look (since elves and their fancy equipment) than what the barbarian class offers (at least starting out). So I was very inclined to just have the 'fighter' class for him, with the overall issue being that he needs to rage. Barbarian rages I'm sure have all sorts of different ways to explain what they are and why they happen, and in Birvor's case- he did not have that ability until he was 'seen' by Gruumsh after the orcs that attacked him and the others spilled elf blood. That's of course me going off my own personal spin of rages can happen to orcs/half-orcs in that way regardless of their class.

In which case, having him as a fighter class and still being able to rage thanks to the intervention of Gruumsh makes most sense to me RP wise. Of course in game, I can't do that so- he has his barbarian class on. And another issue would be that his rage with the elk heart angle allows him to stampede/knock things over, which I consider a very canon manner for Birvor's typical fighting style. All in all, I find it a bit strange to refer to him as a 'barbarian' class since even though he was born into a tribe, he was raised within the 'noble' confines of a background, and would have learned the fighting tactics of a fighter class. The only exception to this being that because of his over exerting strength, him using certain 'swordplay' moves would look more barbarous, and he has absolutely bent cheap swords before with how he uses them to basically beat the hell into something.

Bard being attached to him as multi-class is also something odd to me since I can't just refer to him as 'the bard' in passing role-play even though he has the sub class. This is because he's not the standard bard class in that he can't write or compose his own music/tales, he just knows the ones from his education/upbringing because he might have low int/wis, but higher cha and the ability to parrot stuff back as opposed to learn it himself. So yes, he can play 'the power' like any other bard, but it's less of a place of he could hear someone playing it and follow along, but more of a - he's learned it before and had to do it over and over again to make sure he gets the music lesson correct or get whapped over the knuckles with a flute and told to try again. If anything, the most canon part of the bard class for him is not the music, but the fact that he can carry an extra 'weapon' (aka use the lute/whatever instrument he finds as an extra thing to SWING at someone if he drops his main weapon), and of course cutting words/vicious mockery which he would be petty enough to use while badly strumming a lute to make his intended target more annoyed (like a bull fighter waving a red tarp essentially) and eager to target him over his teammates.

[poemarsviner]

Directed Study [Chemigrams]

Instead of watching a show we instead learnt about Chemigrams. They're a type of artwork created using an old photography method. I made three outcomes of varying qualities.

I started with some photographic paper and some hand cream, as well as some paintbrushes.

I then started to paint. I didn't have any characters in mind I wanted to draw, so I made it look very abstract. I didn't take a finished result photo of it white, but I think it looks alright.

Here I had painted it, although my phone didn't like me moving so it looks like it's running away from me. I used red, green, orange, yellow and blue to paint and I think it is a good result.

I used the same hand cream a second time, once again trying to make it abstract. I tried to make inconsistant patterns but still keep my 'paint' strong so it showed up well later on.

Here is the finished result. I think this one is the most promising out of both my outcomes. I like how it has many different angles invilved and brush strokes so it can look like many different things at once, like mountains or a human figure.

I did try to 'paint' with hand gel to experiment, but alas this experiment failed. It barely showed up on the paper, and once I had dried it, it was basically empty.

But not every experiment succeeds, so it's good to learn.

This was an enjoyable lesson as it was quite hands on and I found it really satisfying how the paper turned black and showed the finished result.

[mi5014tomberry]

Baymax Modelling - Class Exercise

I was set the task of modelling Baymax from Big Hero 6 as both a reintroduction to Maya and as a means to practise character modelling which until now I had not attempted.

The video above shows the final product from this modelling exercise, despite the long hours that it took to get it finished in a day, I learned a lot throughout the process in which I have gained a much better understanding of how to approach modelling in Maya for rounded characters. Before this I had only modelled furniture and architecture and this was a refreshing change.

By the end of the session in class I managed to block out the general shape of the body and refrained from smoothing and adding more polygons until it was necessary. It took a few attempts to get to this stage because I didn't yet know that when creating a rounded character you need to begin by rounding off a simple cube and build from that basic shape. I pressed on without realising this until after blocking out the shape from the side and the front at which point my character was looking very blocky and square which took longer to sort out than if I had started with this rounded cube.

When making the arms I tried out a couple different things before I found Gary's tutorial which helped me with the organisation of polygons before extrusion. Initially I planned on extruding the shoulder shape however, just like before, it was best to extrude a rounded four quadrant shape first to block out the initial shapes.

As Gary's tutorial video doesn't walk you through the legs and hands of the model I had to improvise with what I'd learnt so far to finish off the rest. The video and the lesson got me to the stage above.

I attempted to use the same rounding process for the hands until I managed to get something which somewhat matched the image planes. I did find some difficulty at this point because although the two images provided to import into Maya are very similar, there are a few differences in positioning especially with the head shape and the hands. These minor discrepancies made things harder to figure out and in some places on my final model it is in between these two poses, especially in the length and angle of the fingers.

I realised at this stage that to save time, I could simply duplicate the model, delete everything other than the hand, mirror this model and reattach it using the Merge Vertices tool. I did the same thing for the legs and although this process wasn't perfect, the slight inaccuracies were negligible and it was a huge time saver. I used the video above to find a quick means of mirroring the hand so that the thumbs and fingers would be arranged properly.

Here are the screenshots of the final model, its turned out pretty well, if I was doing it again now I would spend more time on the hands now that I know that mirroring difficult parts is the way to go. I think the topology of the model, in the video at the top, was really good for the most part as I now know that you want evenly spaced squares across the entire model without any triangles present. The main area I would have to change the topology would be the arms as I did not cut it into enough segments to make it nice and square but other than that I think it worked well.

I did also make an attempt at painting the eyes onto the model by following this tutorial and although I could draw on the belly, every time I painted the head, it would paint entire segments of the head so I could either colour it entirely black or nothing at all. I'll have to figure this out at some point as I tried to delete the history of the shape and fiddled around for twenty minutes trying out different things but I had to leave it blank.

As a side note, here are some of the hotkeys that I memorised during this process:

'1' and '3' to switch between standard view and rounded view

'Shift' + Hold 'Right Click' to pull up the modelling menu -> Go down to 'Circularise Components' to instantly round a selected area

Go to that same menu and click on 'Mirror' to reflect a selected area

This could be wrong as I couldn't get the paint tool to work on all parts of the model -> rendering -> 3D paint tool icon -> select your model -> double click on the paint brush tool to bring up settings -> scroll down to file textures -> assign/edit textures -> turn the size up to 2048 -> press assign/edit textures and then you should be able to paint

[sleepythetanukipastry]

So, uh, warning in advance: This most definitely does contain violence. Mentions of broken bones, and killing someone (not in HUGE detail, but some), etc, do appear. This has been a passion project of mine for almost 3+ years now. I’ve been itching to get it out into the world and share it with others.

Context: Tiberius is our antagonist here, and Kai is our protagonist. Tiberius is a newly introduced character here, but this particular scene is about midway through a conflict between him and Kai. Kai and Tiberius are technically the same person, just from alternate universes. The Darkness that Kai mentions here was the previous BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy), and Kai killed it in order to save the rest of his alternate selves. Kai and Tiberius are not the original version of themselves, however. That would be Zachary Pines, of whom is dead by this point. Kai is samurai from a Japan who managed to keep the samurai tradition alive well into the modern era. He has knowledge of ancient fighting styles and techniques that allow him to incorporate certain elements into his blade work. Tiberius has the ability to mimic whatever material he is currently touching. I would go into more depth about these characters, but then there’d be no need for you to read my work, now would there? Instead I’ll save that if this goes successfully and people actually see this.

Hopefully @writeblrsupport sees this and I get to share this! Thank you so much!

Like I said, there is mention and description of violence and death, so if any of that is triggering or disturbing to you, I suggest you stop here.

I was battered and bruised, beaten to no end. Yet I persevered, with my astutachin katana in my left hand. Two of the fingers on my right hand had been broken, making it hard for my right hand to stably grip the tsuka. My attempts to mix different stances and breathing styles had been unsuccessful so far. Tiberius smiled thinly.

“Struggling there? It’s only understandable, I’ve surpassed even the original Zachary at this point. There’s nothing you can do, that I can’t do better. Not only that, your rudimentary control of the elements is actually kind of pathetic, I don’t see the point in using it. This situation is perfect to demonstrate how useless it is, you’re struggling to overcome me.” Tiberius ranted. His ego was so inflated, all he could do was praise himself and gloat about his own success. As arrogant as he was, nothing irked me as much as his derogatory statement about Zachary. He had died to buy us all time and safety from the Darkness, and clearly Tiberius had no idea how kind and precious it was for all of us. I gripped my tsuka angrily, using all my discipline to keep my mouth shut. He watched my expression with amusement.

“Oh you don’t approve? Well, I don’t think you’re in a position to judge me right now.” He said, as he gestured to my broken fingers. That’s when I snapped. I felt the chilling sensation along my spine, the prelude to the blazing heat that always followed, and I welcomed it with open arms. Just like the first time, heat flooded my arms and enveloped my katana. Tiberius gave me a wide, grim smile.

“Yes! YES! There it is! There’s the Kai I’m looking for, c’mon BRING IT!” He shouted, sounding like a lunatic. I rushed forward, keeping my blade raised and angled to the side. Gripping his steel bearing in his left hand, he raised his right hand to crush my katana as his arm became steel. But I had learned my lesson from the Darkness already. Given my rough knowledge of Sun stance, my fire was currently burning at around 1,500 degrees fahrenheit. The highest temperature of intense heat steel could handle before melting without question was 2,800 degrees fahrenheit. That was almost two times my current output, which was already incredibly intensive on my body. I only had to intensify my heat for as long as it took to run through his arm though, so I mentally probed inside myself, searching for the source of the heat. Clearly it was originating from somewhere near my spine, but where? Finally, I found it, my heart was pumping out heat like a fountain pumps water. I envisioned my heart like a furnace, and pictured shoveling trainloads of coal into it. My mental depiction somehow worked and I felt the overwhelming wave of heat trying to wash over me. Unsure what would happen if I left it unchecked, I quickly directed it outside of my body, wreathing my arms and katana in flames. My mental process sounds long, but in reality, Tiberius’ arm and my blade hadn’t even touched yet. Tiberius barely noticed the change in heat, and plowed onwards, clenching his fist victoriously. I could feel his fingers wrap around my blade, but I pushed forward, feeling my katana slice through his arm like a warm knife through butter. Now he noticed something was wrong, and his expression changed to one of horror as I cut the bottom half of his right arm off.

“FUUUU-” He didn’t get to finish his curse as the flames engulfed his body and he scrambled away from me. Tiberius tried to roll and put out the fire on his molten steel body, but the heat was too intense. Desperate, he plunged himself into a small puddle of water, and released his steel ball bearing. He momentarily melted into the puddle as water, then reformed as himself, covered in burns. He patted around in panic, he had dropped his bearing and now had no idea as to where it had ended up. Something hit my foot as I walked towards him slowly. The small bearing skittered away, making ripples in its wake. We locked eyes, knowing we were going to fight over that bearing. I wasted no time in switching up my breathing, pressing my tongue against the roof of my mouth and breathing out through my clenched teeth. Instead of focusing on the muscles in my legs, I drew the static energy in the air and directed it into my blade. Tiberius lunged for the bearing just as I flipped my katana downwards and impaled his hand. I leapt backwards and released the energy in my katana just as my feet left the puddle. A spherical web of electricity burst outwards, electrocuting Tiberius. He screamed out in pain, pinned in place by my blade. As the electrical energy dissipated, I lunged forward, grasping the tsuka and yanking upwards. I kicked away the red-hot bearing, sizzling as it evaporated the water around it. I aimed my katana at his throat, no words were needed, my intention was clear. Stop struggling, or I cut your throat. His eyes focused on my blade, dilating as they struggled to focus. He stared at it for a long moment, as if it was something he hadn’t entirely noticed until now. He reached out and pulled it closer to his neck, daring me. Then he stared at his hand, and smiled. I understood too late, trying to pull back, but he had already wrapped his hand around my blade completely, using it for its metal. I lunged backwards, but the damage was already done. Every astutachin blade’s color was unique, transmuting into different colors depending on the owner of the blade. Tiberius’ visible skin had become astutachin, and I watched as a wave of pitch black pigmentation washed over him. As black as the abyss, just like his heart.

“I must thank you, this metal is fantastic! Do you know where I might be able to find some, mayhaps?” Tiberius asked in a mocking tone. In that moment, I didn’t let myself think, because I knew if I did, my own righteous fury would cloud my judgment, rather than act as a honed blade for my own use. I felt the fountain of heat within me swell up at my emotion, and I let it loose. My katana became wreathed in flames once more, but I was determined to end Tiberius right here, then and there. I imagined the truckloads of coal from before, but exponentially more this time. The sweltering heat made the air surrounding me hazy like a desert mirage. Tiberius simply assumed a brawler’s stance with a haughty grin. I drew my breath in slowly, bringing my blade close to my cheek, holding it horizontally. In a flash, I thrust my blade forward, aiming for a singular point, his heart. His eyes widened with surprise and he barely smacked my katana away with the flat of his palm. Unrelenting, I threw my katana upwards, giving it plenty of height and time before it reached me again. I changed my breathing again as I maneuvered behind and around Tiberius, locking him in a choke hold. Now was my chance. I focused on channeling every lick of fire pouring out from my heart to my hands as Tiberius struggled against my grip. My senses were at their peak right now, so I was more than aware of the whistling of my katana as it plummeted towards me. Simply the heat from just me wasn’t enough to melt through him, damaging though it was. I released Tiberius and planted a foot on his back to kick him away. I retracted my foot and kicked outwards just in time to nudge the tip of my blade outwards, rotating the tsuka in my direction. I quickly caught the tsuka and adjusted my grip just as Tiberius finally regained his balance and turned around with fury in his eyes. I held my katana low, pointed at the ground. With a moment’s rest, I lunged forward, bringing my katana up in a long stroke upwards. I pressed onwards, slicing downwards with my blade in the same stroke, then up again. I was like a waterfall, pounding away at his defenses. Shallow slices in his forearms and chest deepened as I continued to batter his defensive stance. Suddenly, he dropped his forearms and clapped his hands flat around my blade, stopping it in its tracks. I leaned forward, putting all my weight against his hands. In response, he leaned backwards, trying to distribute the force evenly. I clenched my right hand into a fist as much as I could and put it against the higher end of my katana, pressing downwards. The extra weight made him stagger a bit, but he grit his teeth and held his ground. Knowing my katana would be destroyed by the end of this, I let the fire flare up once more, consuming us both. Tiberius clenched his mouth shut, cutting a scream of pain short as he fought to push me backwards. Both my katana and his skin began to glow, first glowing a bright red, then a blazingly brilliant white. He tried to let go, but a look of horror dawned on him as he realized that his hands had fused to the blade, leaving him unable to let go of the metal and escape. I maneuvered the blade upwards, aiming for his heart once more. Tiberius struggled to divert my katana but his hands were helpless and only served to guide my blade. I plunged my katana downwards into his chest. He let loose a scream of agony as the blade sizzled and sunk deeper into his heart. His hands had melted into nothing, leaving his arms dripping molten metal. I gave the tsuka one final twist, and severed his aorta. With that, his body finally went limp, and the life left his eyes.

[mdhwrites]

Magical Diary Wolf Hall: Spend a Year In Magical School But No More

Magical Diary: Wolf Hall is a visual novel that has a very simple pitch: You are an exchange student from... somewhere, living in America for one year in order to be a normal teenager and experience the new culture before your duties at home force you to say goodbye. You’ll take classes to determine what magic you know, test your capabilities in the dungeon, have fun with your hall mates and potentially find love in this land.

It does this exceptionally well though. The magical school has its Hogwarts flair with different halls, hence the name Wolf Hall as the game before this (which you don’t need to play as I didn’t) is called Horse Hall, but it has its own twists as the halls are more about personalities. This allows you to better match up with your roommate and have a partner in crime for the years ahead of you. In theory, it means leaving here you have at least one friend.

And that is kind of the angle taken with a lot of the lessons in the game. Besides just reveling in magic in general and rituals and customs, it’s all meant to make sure these young wizards both master their powers and learn how to use them responsibly. There’s many different angles with this, explored with different characters, etc. like that but magically that’d be my pitch.

And I do want to make something clear: I mentioned dungeon diving with the magic and that wasn’t me over exaggerating. Every month you do need to put your spells to the test and your skills are earned through light RPG mechanics where every week you have five slots with which to spend your time. At certain thresholds, you gain new spells which is charmingly simple and nostalgic for me as a kid who grew up with games where you had to help a young girl get by in life and try to make something of herself.

Admittedly, I shouldn’t be surprised as this is the same team who did Long Live the Queen which is a BRUTAL visual novel and evokes those old games even harder.

The real show stealer here though is the characters. I did three paths personally, two main and one side, and both of the main girls I did were delightful in their own ways with their own twists, turns and fun, flip sides to their personalities that I won’t spoil. What I will say is that the first girl I went after, Barbara, was so fascinating to me that I really want to use a character like her in my own writing someday. But in general, if you want characters who are still genuinely their archtype but with maybe a bit more depth and a bit more complexity than you may expect, just enough to make them feel a bit more human, this game delivers in spades.

I also think it handles its romance INCREDIBLY well. Though I also get that some people might find the bittersweet nature of the premise to be a bit of a turn off. You are going to leave and this is freshman year. That is an immutable fact and the conversations I saw about this dilemma were compelling and painful and sweet. After all, sometimes as kids you have to say goodbye because life simply tears you apart and though that maybe doesn’t mean goodbye forever, how optimistic each person is about that will vary.

One moment I want to highlight without too many specifics is that Barbara at one point did something that was deeply worrying as it seemed she was upset out of nowhere. I couldn’t talk to her until the next day when she explained that it was a test of sorts. When I explained that I almost failed the test because I was concerned about her, she paused and actually had to admit that maybe not talking to your friend was a bad idea and that the confusion was in fact her fault. It was a moment of push and pull in a relationship, the difficulty of wanting to check boundaries but also not knowing how, that I ADORED.

Not to say the writing is always amazing.The side path I did was REAL rough and a little offensive about bi stereotypes in my mind as they’re the only blatantly bi character I saw in the game. It also is absolutely a game set in America made by people who aren’t American so they don’t catch language that is... Awkward to put it mildly like when in the second week of the game, Seniors are ‘claiming’ freshman as their ‘property’ as part of a week long hazing ritual.

And no, this game never gets anywhere close to passing the PG-13 line so it’s not a kink thing.

There are other small oddities here and there, such as the fact that the freshman are 16 which makes the senior, two of whom you can pursue and are you main options if you want to date dudes, 20 because this is a four year school. They also bring up pregnancy on potentially more than two occasions and are NOWHERE near as adverse to the topic concerning teenagers as any staff member of an American school absolutely would be. It never gets to the point of fetishizing anything really, even the hazing is kept really tame, but it tows the line on more than one occasion.

If you can get past that though, you’ll find a charming game with a wonderful cast, some fun magic, genuinely compelling twists and romances that I don’t think I’ll immediately be forgetting. Not when they were as beautiful as a wolf’s howl.

[dailycass-cain]

So on January 26th yesterday,  I looked into how the comics had Cass combat her disability in Dyslexia being not able to read and relate words vocally. 

What worked, what didn't, and which era handled the progression better.

At the very core of her very first appearance in Batman #567 by Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott, Barbara Gordon is trying to help Cassandra overcome her disability.  And it is her first words spoken that give her father David Cain pause.

Batgirl Vol. 1 #2 gives us the first look into how Cass really doesn't fully care about learning in either study instead focusing on her new vigilante life. That is until running into Robinson and learning WHY words and writing truly matter.

#5 has her run across a metahuman who has mental abilities and because of those rewires her brain to have the capacity to understand.

It's a cheap copout for sure.  But it gives Cass a voice in her mind along with the capacity to speak better.  Bad news? It screws up her abilities and how her mind was originally wired.

This leads into #6-9 basically being how Cass can get her ability to read body language and learn with the added bonus of her mind continuing to be the way it is.  Enter Lady Shiva who gives her this, but at a price aka the crux of what will lead into Batgirl #25.

Batgirl Vol. 1 #20 written by Chuck Dixon (art still by Scott). Where Cass comes to a drop man who's murdered before he can deliver a ransom. Her lack of being able to read leads her to seek out--

-- one Stephanie Brown aka Spoiler.  I think at this point the reason Cass went to Steph was that she was afraid Babs would lecture her on neglecting her reading lessons (which she would later on).

Tim Drake, she had just fully befriended (#18), but he was close to Babs. So Cass probably figured he accidentally let slip this and she'd be in trouble. Steph wouldn't she was on the outside from the Bat Family (at this time).

The issue does promise of Cass in attaining another reading teacher (which pays off in the most weirdest place, Convergence: Batgirl #1), but this plot point goes nowhere here. Cass/Steph's friendship would intensify for the next ten issues (#21, 26-28).

For the most part, we don't really get to see fully Cass try and fight her Dyslexia again until the Dylan Horrocks' run with #51 where we learn HOW Cass is expanding her word vocabulary via TV but neglecting on reading.

This bit reads its crux with the infamous #54 (i.e. the one that causes Cass/Babs to fracture away from one another).

In the issue, Cass has to deal with a killer robot that's taking out any place that has a copy of a book that has the codeword to shut it down. We learn during the fight, Cass has been neglecting her studies in reading.  Again with the infamous page:

Now Horrocks did this because he was ordered to write Babs off this title (Birds of Prey, the comic Babs was primarily in would be eventually moving away from Gotham). It was the first of that would make the writer leave the comic (and DC Comics altogether).

Regardless again the way the case rattled Cass enough to think about it all and work back into trying to read.

If there was instant positive of writer Andersen Gabrych when he began his run. He made sure this was a reoccurring plot point THROUGHOUT his run starting with #58.

By giving Cass her own diary it enables her better way to try and combat her disability. Along with in the very same issue, Cass trying to actively read a book for the first time on page.

The diary motif would be a hallmark of Gabrych's entire run with the book. So I'm not gonna post every entry. But I think that's why I really loved those first few issues because he covered ALL corners with the character. 

 You saw it all.

Never once did Gabrych use behind the issues trick. This was a struggle for Cass. I think it better helped resonate the character with readers by doing so. It also went down an angle that was different than Puckett and felt like the better next step from what was built on prior.

Course Cass would still have her bad habits of being an avid TV watcher. So the balance of her trying and struggling was a nice touch.

This came to an ironic fully circle with #67 with Babs returning (for one issue) in the comic and the pair hashing out their differences and mending. But it also reveals a further reason why Babs really wants Cass to learn to read. Again, this is probably the best reason.

She knows Cass wants to be Bruce's heir and be Batman. She knows the only way to fully be that is to get fully conquer her disability. And for the second time in her ongoing we get a look in how Cass's brain was wired from her learning from her father and the metahuman.

And we get the clearest answer how Cass's brain truly operates and why the usual methods in overcoming her disability in reading.

That's the final gift Gabrych gave us. 

A hope.

 A small faint hope that maybe Cass could learn with whatever writer would take on the character next. The only thing is even he couldn't anticipate what was to come...

Batgirl was canceled with #73 and well the next time we saw Cass and how this disability was handled came in Robin #148.

Alright, before I go into this portion. Newly minted Robin writer (this was his first issue) Adam Beechen came into comics had zero idea of the character of Cassandra Cain, other than what he was told and found.

The DC Editors on Robin did not help him or assist him. They gave him an edict... and he did that edict without question. The result....

Was this INFAMOUS page from Robin #149. Cassandra Cain the character who had the disability of Dyslexia somehow was able to learn another entire language.

That's not even going with the OTHER problem Robin OYL gave us with Cass (but that's an entirely ANOTHER issue). Regardless after the story arc, Beechen (and DC) realized just how badly he screwed up.

Course, the entirety on HOW Cass was suddenly able to learn an entire language with how her brain understood information. Yeah, this was a plot thread nobody truly wanted to answer when the retcons began dropping after Cass's "EVIL" phase to fix it.

In fact, it was Beechen himself who addressed the issue in Batgirl Vol. 2 #1 amongst the CHUNKS of well exposition and history that was the mess DC made of the character from 2006-2007.

So all those issues Babs mentioned in #67? Cass and Alfred fixed them and for the entire MISSING YEAR Cass made great strides to overcome her disability. THAT'S how she was able to understand the Navajo language.

Look I get what Beechen was doing and I also get we were NEVER gonna get the missing stories to showcase that. But to see an entire character's journey in overcoming her disability fixed overnight?

Even with Beechen giving us a classmate in Sal (who's last name we NEVER learn, and is forgettable male love interest #3 for Cass) who gives us the promise of something we never get from the Vol. 1 ongoing. Because DC was gonna DC.

That's basically it for the original run for Cass. That it was a nice harrowing journey that had its bumps but the character was making great strides to be better. Then well the road bumps began to occur and yeah...

I'll give it to Beechen that he tried at the very least to fix the holes he himself caused. But... in the format given it's just crushing how this was fully handled in the end.

Sadly we got nothing more as DC really did a meh job for about five years? We did get this little nugget in Convergence: Batgirl #1 though (somehow connecting that line from waaaaaay back in Batgirl Vol. 1 #20)...

Which is shocking of all places for Cass trying to overcome her disability, Convergence: Batgirl #1 was not the place one ever would think to find that, but we had that surprisingly.

So when Cass was "reintroduced" into the DCU with Batman & Robin Eternal. A reset was in order and writers were allowed back to square one in how to deal with Cass handling her Dyslexia disability.

I will say this for James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder on how they handle putting a metahuman with mental abilities they just slot that character in #11 by introducing the Sculptor who basically fills the same void the meta in Batgirl Vol. 1 #5 did.

Much like the original metahuman, once this link is established Sculptor nopes her way out of the story and is never heard from again.

Which kind of surprises me, because it's something I figured Tynion would maybe address during his Detective Comics run (that had Cass in it) given how much in #11 and 12 establish the character and her origins. 

But nope. Nothing further.

So yeah, after this we got James Tynion IV's Detective Comics run that had Cass in it starting from #934-981.

Not surprisingly, Tynion really handled the whole disability issue well than those in the past with the constraints he had. Even more so Juggling multiple characters in this book and going down a better avenue than his predecessors.

And that all begins with #953 with Clayface (Basil Karlo) trying to comfort Cass after learning her mom is Lady Shiva.

By doing this. Tynion lays the seeds on how he'll deal with the issue on Cass combating her disability while also cementing the hallmark of this run, Clayface's rehabilitation and friendship with Cass.

#958 we see Basil teaching Cass Shakespeare by playing audio and having her learn to read and increase her vocabulary via that.

It's probably the best thing Tynion did character-wise with Cass by briefly showing us this but fully giving us a more plausible method than prior on how to deal with her disability.

The fact that this hits throughout this arc (as Cass quotes Shakespeare at a good moment) and is carried over until the very end of his run when Cass meets Barbara in #981.

This version of Cass is actively trying to combat her Dyslexia more than her prior versions, and this Cass is actively doing a better job. Even though we don’t get much Babs teaching Cass (though they do work together in the next arc after this that sets up Batman & the Outsiders). But that run doesn’t dig into Cass’s progress instead going into other routes to touch on with the character. 

Unlike what was carried over from Batgirl Vol. 1 to 2 (and between that) Cass has a more concrete subplot here. Where we can SEE and are TOLD of her progress.

That leads us into the current Batgirls ongoing. In #1. where this is a little bit lampshaded. As Cass uses a reading bag to combat criminals to retain stuff she/Steph had that was stolen.

A further bit of subplot is continued throughout and in #4 with Cass now ACTIVELY being a bookworm and reading works of Edgar Allen Poe.

Like it astonishes me that this element of the character has remained actually consistent from point A to B. But it's a nice contrast of things that creators at DC worked on better here than prior.

And no issue highlights that fight of Cass actively wanting to combat her dyslexia then "Sounds" from DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration #1 by Mariko Tamaki and Marcus To.

It's why Tamaki just fully GETS the character of Cass not in every corner of the character.  Why many want the writer to handle the character again.

But Tamaki isn't the only one who did a good job in showcasing Cass fighting her disability and the one that does the best job is Shadow of the Batgirl graphic novel. Where writer Sarah Kuhn and artist Nicole Goux go both literally fighting her disability.

And her actively learning to read and increasing her vocabulary by hiding in the library was absolute perfection.

But it also is a nice avenue (and nod to the past) by focusing on a library since that's the location where Barbara Gordon teaches (and again a nice nod to that character's history too).

Quite literally...

That's another layer to why I adore that graphic novel. Just the layer of dimension to BOTH characters while it gives that nod to Babs, the story is clearly more Cass. 

 Again, Kuhn modernizes everything to perfection.

So there you have the history of Cass and her disability.  And my final gift on this day (which has now passed) to celebrate the character of Cassandra Cain.