#my ideas are also really bland but i weird them. i put them with other ideas that have next to nothing to do with them and rub the flavors

[bitegore]

On my knees begging the writers around me to weird their shit before they write something boring

[heartfullofleeches]

hungry for titus & executioner reader. insane even. i bet my left lung titus was lying nude in the table with his cock hard in all its glory. was it the anticipation of potentially being brutally defiled by his "angel" executioner? or was it the cold air hitting his body? who knows.

do you think his fantasies of being violated by executioner interfere with his work? or is he diligent enough to not let it get in the way? would he let down an entire nation/empire just for his darling? did he fall head over heels before or after employing his darling?

i also love the concept of executioner with HUMONGOUS amounts of bloodlust, it's as equal and if not more than titus' libido. just straight up sadistic executioner — who relishes the screams, the cries, and the whines of their victims — it's music to their ears. and you wanna know what? they're also hysterical & weird. laughing out of immense satisfaction of violating their prey, drooling at the thought of skinning & carving their next victim. and they giggle — so much — when they present their bloody gift to titus. "i got'cha a little gift, master!"

speaking of their master, they are eternally grateful for them — for granting them the liberty to fulfill their selfish desires. it's two birds with one stone to them, harming people in the name of their desires, and harming people in the name of titus. despite their gratification and loyalty to the great tyrant, their view of each other is still not equal. like our cold executioner, they will do anything for their lord, but titus' offer of allowing them to ravage them, it's over the line.

i love them a normal amount your honor

That's a fun idea, but I wanna stick with cold Executioner Reader for the time being. I'm all for sadistic darlings, but I like what Executioner has going on now. An emotional stunted, husk of a person. Killing comes as natural as breathing to them. They can't sleep without the sound of screams to keep them company, they can't eat or accept gifts without their prize feeling earned. They hold more loyalty to their post than their ruler which is why they willfully follow Titus after he slaughtered their previous employer.

Titus develops a bit of a savior complex when it comes to them as he hopes to break this mentality at least to the point where they are accepting of his love. Dresses them in the finest attire, feeds them foods that are probably a shock to their senses compared to the bland filth their former ruler fed them. Tried to give them their own bedroom, but after finding Titus in their bed one night they solely stick to the dungeon floors. Really only uses the autonomy he gave them to reject his advices.

did he fall head over heels before or after employing his darling?

I'd say he fell for them somewhere between their imprisonment and their eventual promotion to Executioner. While other members of their ruler's guard attempted to fight against Titus hostile take over, Executioner Reader sat back and watched as Titus beheaded their master. He found them a little dull, but upon being captured is where they got interesting. If there's one thing the Executioner despises it's being in chains. Took out a fair chuck of Titus' fleet for the crime of attempt to put them in chains.

Titus figured they'd be an excellent pet after realizing they'd follow along obediently on the condition they weren't strapped in iron. He began to fall for them after barring witness to their expertise with a blade and their closed off nature. He thought it'd be fun to break them out of their shell. The executioner's rejection was the first he faced in some time and while he'd normally have anyone who refused his generous offer killed - he saw them as a challenge. Overtime his kind gestures to get them to warm up to them became more genuine as his curiosity got the better of him. Had his Executioner ever truly smiled? Had they known the joy of laughter and other similar feelings? If they hadn't - he wanted to be the only one capable of giving them such wonders. That was a prize of its own. One of the greatest he could possibly obtain. It took him a while to realize and understand his love for them, but his guard caught on quick.

do you think his fantasies of being violated by executioner interfere with his work? or is he diligent enough to not let it get in the way? would he let down an entire nation/empire just for his darling?

This is Titus we're talking about. Bro will drop entire events so he can take care of himself because he got horny over a memory of Executioner Reader bringing him the heart of a traitor. If the matter had dire importance he'll try to hold off on his urges, but he'll be grump about it all the way through and immediately seek Executioner Reader's warmth afterwards. It's less of a matter of would he let down something else for them and more when he'll do it.

[faeriekit]

Health and Hybrids (XV)👽👻💚

[I can't remember the original prompt posters  for the life of me but here's a mashup between a cryptid!Danny, presumed-alien!Danny, dp x dc, and the prompt made the one body horror meat grinder fic.]

PART ONE is here PART TWOis here PART THREE is here PART FOUR is here and PART FIVE is here PART SIX is here and PART SEVEN is here PART EIGHT is here PART NINE is here PART TEN is here PART ELEVEN is here PART TWELVE is here PART THIRTEEN is here PART FOURTEEN is here and this is part fifteen...somehow...

💚 Ao3 Is here for all parts

Where we last left off... Author regrets both use of Roman numerals and Old English but you know what? We ballin'. Also Danny woke up! With only some complications! woohoo! 🎉

Trigger warnings for this story:  body horror | gore | post-dissection fic | dehumanization (probably) |  my nonexistent attempts at following DC canon. On with the show.

💚👻👽👻💚

Danny comes in and out of consciousness in bursts.

Wherever he is, it’s not the Guys in White. He rules that out very, very quickly.

For one. The Guys in White would not hire a lady to sit around and mind him constantly. He has— The same few doctors come in and out of green-tinged vision consistently. Their tags are different de-saturated colors, but he can recognize most of them.

And, somehow, the lady is there. If not at his side immediately, at his side quickly enough.

With his space shuttle.

With a grip toy.

With…oatmeal.

The oatmeal is what really clues Danny in that this can’t be the GIW.

The GIW would never waste human food on him. Never. It creates too much of a logistical mess: a paper trail of payments, feeding people that don’t exist; the need for cleanup of bio-waste that no one wants to deal with; the cleaning and sanitizing of utensils, which could easily contaminate a living person.

And yet. There is oatmeal.

Mushy, unappetizing oatmeal.

The lady feeds it to him when she’s around. She spoons it into his mouth, quietly chatting all the while. She could be telling him how she’s going to cut out his organs to be chopped up and mounted on glass slides for investigation for all that Danny knows, but still, very patiently, she spoonfeeds him little mouthfuls of oatmeal.

She waits for him to swallow every time. If he stops eating, she lets him stop.

It’s kind. It’s gentle.

It’s…it’s the nicest thing Danny’s had in a long time.

It’s so nice that he stops being overtly weird when the doctors come in. He knows it’s a bad idea. He knows he’s shooting himself in the foot probably.

But…but no one is being mean to him. Everyone is being careful. Gentle.

Quiet. Slow. Obvious.

One of the doctors drops a meal tray once and everyone rushes to quiet it, to check that he’s settled, to…comfort? Him?

The oatmeal tastes bad, by the way. It’s also how he finds out part of his tongue is numb.

Or maybe it tastes bad because some of his tongue is numb.

Either way. Ew. It’s bland and it tastes bad and Danny has to finish all of it, even though he has an IV in him that puts food into him.

His IV itches. He’s sad that he can’t move and can’t protect himself. He’s tired and he’s bored of sitting here. He doesn’t know where he is and no one can tell him because he can’t understand them.

There’s no TV.

There are other concerns to be worried about, but Danny would like a television, please. Something with news on it. Something that could ground him in a location, or a place, or…

The air hisses. For a moment, breathing is going to be easier as the air cycles. It hurts, still, to breathe—the GIW hadn’t thought Danny needed to breathe, so they hadn’t put him back together right. He breathes through cobbled-together organs and raw pink seams, but yet. He breathes.

Danny lays there, and he breathes. He clutches his space shuttle toy between his wrist and his thigh, because he can.

There’s a whisper against the door. The heavy mechanisms of the door clank out of place.

Danny’s eyelids flutter as they fail to either open or close. The green in his vision bunches and falls as they try. The lady must be back.

Surely, enough, she is. Her paper gown is a mint blue today. It matches her mask and her gloves, but not her pinkish-grey shoes. She comes through the door, and—

—there’s something behind her.

It’s. They’re. Humanoid? They’re…green?

Danny stares, his head against the pillow, his eyes wide. They’re. They’re floating.

He can’t stop staring. His eyelids don’t even twitch. The lady walks to his bedside, and the…the other one follows him.

“Wel mette,” the lady greets him again, her fingers on the very corner of his mattress and no further. “Eom hebbjan ure freond.”

Danny has no idea what that means. He stares; he stares at the…their… Is that a ghost? Is a ghost just…walking around??

The—the being has—their head isn’t super. Humanoid. It’s more oval and angular, to be honest. But the rest of them is; their outfit is certainly out of the world Danny has grown up in, and is mostly constructed of straps crossing around the larger shapes of their body. And a…cloak…?

Is this a ghost?? It has to be, right? But a ghost of what??

There’s a sensation. Danny doesn’t have control over his body in the way that he’s used to, but this sensation isn’t aimed at his—it doesn’t—it’s not physical. It’s just a touch. A feeling.

Like he thought. A sensation. But still. Its presence is…Danny’s pretty sure it’s a greeting.

He…he doesn’t greet back. He doesn’t know if this is a friend.

…Lots of ghosts pretend to be something they’re not. He doesn’t know who this ghost is. He doesn’t know who this lady is. His head hurts and it’s hard to think and he knows everyone just wants to hurt him even when they pretend not to. Or they don’t even know it yet.

So he turns his head and pretends he’s dead. (Or. Uh. Dead-er.) Dead things don’t have thoughts, duh. You can’t read mine if I don’t have any!

The ghost drifts closer. Danny can’t move—he can’t run, can barely flinch—but he can feel how taut he gets the closer they get, the further they get into his personal bubble.

The greeting comes again. It’s quieter on the second round. Gentler. The ghost is trying not to scare him, is trying not to hurt him. Just careful, gentle contact.

Danny squeezes his eyes closed. It doesn’t work (whoops) because his eyes don’t close right (he forgot about that) and then his head hurts a lot because he’s working a whole lot of muscles who were not prepared to put in so much effort at the drop of a hat.

The greeting turns a little…melancholy. It matches the tone that the lady takes on when Danny’s breathing stutters and his body screams with exhaustion he can’t shake.

He doesn’t want it. He doesn’t want to talk to anyone. He doesn’t want to be poked and prodded and then attacked when the ghost realizes Danny’s not Fun the way the ghosts want him to be—willing to play around when people get hurt or ignore the pain around them. Danny just wants to be left alone.

The greeting is gently let go. From the ghost comes a question—something soft. Something celestial. Danny can’t tell the specifics, but there are moons and stars in the question.

…His fingers flex around the plastic shell of his model shuttle. There’s. He’s. Space?

The green ghost turns to the lady. “Læt uns ga an wealc”, they say, in that English Danny doesn’t know and doesn’t understand.

The lady says something back to them. They say something back to the lady. The lady goes to the wall, where there is a phone, and says something.

Danny tenses. This is it. She’s calling in for backup. More people are coming and it’s going to hurt.

The phone call ends. The lady comes back and Danny tenses—

But there’s nowhere to run and his physical body is too weak to hide properly. She reaches his bedside, reaches out her arms, and Danny flinches away.

He can’t shut his eyes. He can’t stop seeing her outstretched arms because he can’t shut his eyes.

“Mæg eom ahebbe eow?”

Danny doesn’t know what that means!!!

The ghost brushes their fingers up against the steel rail of Danny’s cot. There’s an image—of the lady, clear as day, in a red and blue and gold outfit, bridal-carrying someone from building rubble. There’s a prodding at his core that says you, there, in particular.

He’s dumbfounded. Like, to lift? To lift him?

There’s a sense of agreement, and then the image of a cot with wheels. The wheels are the focus of the message.

…They’re asking Danny permission? To go somewhere?

On one hand, no, Danny doesn’t want to be any further complicit into whatever horrible kidnapping scheme this probably is. This place sucks. He doesn’t want to see more of it. This is the second worst kidnapping he’s ever had and he wants no part in it.

On the other hand, however, this place sucks, and getting out of here, even if only temporarily…

Danny licks his lips. There’s craters in the soft tissue. He tastes orange pixie sticks and the sour tang of battery acid.

If Danny is very, very smart. And very, very careful. And very, very quiet… Well. What are the chances they wheel him past the exit on this excursion?

Sure, they’re pretty low. But there’s hope.

Danny hasn’t had hope in ages.

He nods. He hates that he does—his neck jerks upwards, and then he’s sore and tired everywhere and in his head and neck and shoulders, and he’s not going to be able to move much more than that for literal hours (sorry, oatmeal mush), and he’s said yes.

“Þancie eow!” the lady says, and the ghost translates that for him as thank you and then she lifts Danny up off the bed cot he lives on like he’s still a ghost, and not made of heavy, teenage flesh. Wow is she strong. Danny hopes her job isn’t to hurt him. Otherwise he’s going to be a smear of green on the wall and then what would the point of inspecting his insides be??

Danny gets lifted. Danny gets carried.

(It’s not an amazing experience on his aching body. He thinks some of his bruises start to leak ectoplasm in self defense. Her arms are as stiff as rocks.)

Being lifted is also how Danny finds out there’s something caging his legs. They don’t seem to be caged together—they hang individually—but they keep them taut and aligned so that all the pressure of being lifted is on his hips, and not his legs. Considering that Danny’s received pretty medium care for his troubles…that doesn’t bode well for whatever state his legs are in.

Danny gets gently, gently placed down onto a new cot. The side bars are metal, but thinner than on the bed he woke up on.

The world starts to move.

Oh. They’re moving. Danny’s moving.

It’s kind of startling. The world’s been so static and fuzzy for so long, and now he’s bedridden but moving.

The ghost opens the door, and Danny’s still body and the bed follow with it. The lady has to be pushing, then. They go through it and—

—Danny blearily squints. Ow. Bright.

Bright, LED light follows Danny down steel hallways and past strangers in bright outfits, their colors pale and washed out by Danny’s attempts to squeeze green eyelids together and stop seeing everything.

He wants to stop. This is too much. He bites his lip—jaw aching—and grunts—throat tearing—and—

The ghost that keeps trying to talk to him sends some other emotion, and Danny purposefully ignores them. It’s easy enough to block things you don’t want to feel. The green wall of a body floats out in front of him to open another door, and Danny is pushed inside.

The lights are off in here. The tension in Danny’s forehead gets a little quieter. That’s…nice. It makes the window in the room seem bigger and brighter, and—

Danny jerks. His whole body screams at him as he claws against the cot, trying to get closer, closer—

He hurts something in his back. He can tell. There’s something in his hips that’s strained, or possibly fractured, as he climbs across a horizontal surface. The beings around him make worried, scared noises, and that doesn’t matter right up until the bed moves so Danny can push his face right up against the glass.

Because that’s space out there. The stars are out there. And Danny is so, so close to them.

It’s so…

…Danny doesn’t know how much time he loses to starlight before he falls asleep.

*

“Did you see!” Diana gushes, the windows going by. The cot (and the alien in it) she pushes through the hall, the occasional curious eye turning to them as they go past. “J’onn, did you see, he had glowed! I know we had hoped that he would be receptive, but—“

“Diana,” J’onn murmurs, his voice low. Wonder Woman’s head tilts to find him behind her, and she only slows just enough to not run the cot or its occupant into any unsuspecting superheroes.

The first fear is for the worst scenario. “Did the excursion hurt him?”

The Martian hesitates. “…No,” he says, and nothing more. He drifts forward to the metaphorical prow of their vehicle, and Diana sets her shoulders into generating momentum. J’onn opens doors for them as they pass.

The alien child isn’t awake to consent to be returned to his newly cleaned bed, but Diana feels secure enough returning him to his usual haunt that she proceeds to do so.

Even when physical, he is frighteningly limp in her arms.

She takes care to support his head as she pulls him up to her chest. He is so fragile. When the light comes across his face as he moves, parts of his face are still ominously transparent. Ominously liquid. Ominously green.

Diana should not be able to see the inner airways of his nose, nor the thin, still-healing holes in his skull, or his irises while his eyes try in vain to shut with skin they do not have.

She lays him down. Gently, she tucks him under thin sheets with gloved hands.

J’onn drifts over to her side. His feet haven’t touched the ground—not since he was reminded that visible signs of non-human life might be reassuring to a non-human. “He doesn’t remember us,” he says. Diana hears him.

And then she hears him.

“He what?”

“He has no memory of his time on the base. He has no memory yourself, of our previous communication, of the junior heroes… He has no understanding of the layout of the base, nor of things we had already established: my status as an alien lifeform to Earth and the base’s lunar occupancy. As far as he knows, he woke up here a week and a half ago to strangers having taking up a caretaker’s role, and he doesn’t know why and if we will harm him.”

Diana stills. She…takes a deep breath.

“Alright,” she whispers. And then, louder: “Alright. We can fix this.”

And they will, although it will take time, because even if he doesn’t remember them, Diana knows him—a child with too much fear, who likes to be around others, who occasionally plays around but likes his boundaries respected. A child who put glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling.

“Oh,” Diana realizes at last, reaching a point J’onn had already understood: “Impulse is going to be so disappointed.”

[noellefan101]

Kissing Them-Genshin Girls 2

Characters: Ei, Lumine, Yelan, Lisa, Kujou Sara x gn!reader

Summary: short headcanons of what they would taste like when you kiss them

Warnings: kissing, romantic relationship

Note: i´ll try to post smt at least every other day from now on, so we´ll hopefully meet again. yes, I stole my idea for aether and gave it to lumine too, I was lazy. hope you enjoy this, luv you ;) pt1

Ei

she tastes like the dango milk you bought her, sweet with a little taste of the milk, she loves sweet stuff and you know it. its weird how she didn´t talk to anyone at all, but then you came into her life.

Lumine

she tastes like the sunsettias she ate with you and paimon, sweet and tasty, there´s also something you can´t put a finger on, but ignore it. you don´t want to invade her personal life too much.

Yelan

she tastes like chilies, really spicy, she loves spicy food and somehow eat chilies raw, you truly don´t know how she does it. she may hide things from you but she can´t hide her love for spice.

Lisa

she tastes like her homemade veggie soup, bitter and sweet with a bit of spice, its delicious all the flavors melting into the kiss. you don´t taste any pumpkin though, it makes sense.

Kujou Sara

she tastes like the onigiri she just ate without you knowing, its bland but delicious coming from her mouth. you wonder where she hid it, you want some too.

I hope you liked it, luv ya-Masterlist

You are welcome to reblog and like any of my posts, but you CAN NOT translate, copy or hate on anybody liking my posts

[dreamerwitches]

I have mixed feelings on the witches, I'm gonna go through them all.

Renata and Ren: It just doesn't feel like the minor bits match up. There's too many bits that are just slightly too different. Like the screen shape and the bone colour and style. Am I being nitpicky? It just doesn't feel like the witch and doppel are linked. Or that they wanted to make this design for the witch and didn't really care that it didn't look like her doppel. I suppose I like how the witch is more organised than the doppel cause my gripe with it is that it feels a little like the parts don't mesh well. Like, what is going on with that pink bit it does not work. On its own, the witch is good. Fine, pretty, but a little bland and simple. As a design taking from the doppel, I think it kinda fails. Too much was changed.

Cyan and Hinano: Ehhhhhhhhhh I think they just made her worse?? Like, there's so little changed cause the doppel is so witch-like anyway but the changes they did do make her look worse XT the bright tubes are ugly and I dont understand the moth-ear-thing additions. Also the skirt is worse too lol. I miss the gas mask though I understand if that was added for Hinano but you can keep it on the witch c'mon! It's just like they removed all the best parts...

Don Rocinante and Sasara: Ehhhhhhhh here we go again. It looks stupid. C'mon she looks so stupid. Not in an uncanny, scary way, she looks so dumb. I included the doppel attack where she does get legs and that was silly but not as much as this one. Otherwise so little is changed mehhhhh. I liked the doppel so you kinda ruined her for me, thanksssss

Shalimar and Emiri: This is one I'm on the fence on. Design on its own, I really like. She's spooky and weird and the colours are great. I have to main issues. 1) does a 13 year old need such a sexual feeling witch and 2) does she link to her doppel well. The thing with curvaceous or sexualised witches is ones like Roberta I know are okay cause she was in her 30s when she became a witch. You could say some like Candeloro are sexualised cause she's got the booba and stick thin waist, it's kinda hard to deal with... I'm also finding it hard to judge cause I don't know if it suits Emiri, I don't know her character very well. So we'll just move on. If I drew it I would make her less adult-looking My other thought when looking at her beside her doppel was 'if this doppel came from this witch I would hate the fact it uses so little of the witch'. So switching it around, im a little mad they used so little of the doppel. It's like they had the idea for the body and wanted to use it and were like 'oh yeah! the doppel!' so stuck it on as a tail... Also the flower things on the doppel arent in the witch at all ughh. If she was just a new witch on her own id love her...

Vayu and Shizuku: Wow! One I actually finally like now! I think she looks super beautiful, the additions work! But she's not perfect... Just like Emiri and Shalimar, I don't see the doppel working if the witch came first. Why is her handbag now the head? It feels like the teapot(?) head on the witch came out of nowhere. But it's nowhere near as bad as Shalimar. She might be my favourite. I've always been 50/50 on Vayu and she improves that score.

Aodamo and Natsuki: This one's a bit boring... it just feels like they stuck on some additions and called it a day. I think if she was stood up straight I'd like her more... Love the teeth on the horn thing. Skirt is fine. Legs look awkward. Sad they removed her puffy sleeves, doesn't make sense as why the doppel would add that aspect.

Overall, it is a little annoying how clearly some of these are just super easy asset copies of the doppels with no effort put in... I think that's fine for say, Vayu as I think the doppel incorporation makes sense. She's a four legged beast so Shizuku is now riding her. But ones like Don Rocinante, Cyan and Aodamo seem like 5 minute attempts. I'm disappointed. Happy to see witches though, I'm only critical because I care about witches being good

[ombrathefurry]

how do you generally design characters/choose color pallets?

whenever I try and create a good color pallet they always end up clashing and looking absolutely awful

i've tried using websites but they always end up being very bland, so i'm turning to the expert lol

the only character i've created that I actually. like. is the one that's just a black freaking tiger with rainbow glowing stripes, but that's because monochrome with color pops just always is flawless </3

Expert what expert

I'm by no means any expert, but I'm really happy you think my designs are appealing enough for you to ask me this!!

I ALWAYS try to come up with a character concept or idea for who they are before I start designing. Because of this, you see a lot of my designs turning out to be designed very strategically, with their features actually having proper functions and reasons to be there

This is why I have such a hard time with gifted designs. I don't know how to make them work without a background or concept I can really connect to properly.

For specific character designs, I usually think of and flesh out a basic idea in my head. Depending on how lucky I end up being, I can imagine every detail right off the bat. Other times, I have to put some work into it and experiment a little.

Here's an example of me working out a character design WIP right now

Development of Mr. V

Some characters just pop into my head exactly the way they are, like how Samuel did

Cogsworth too

Some of my characters come from dreams, too, and I just immediately sketch out my interpretation of the idea I'd had

Peter came from a dream about a white rabbit with a weird face killing a nuclear family's father leaving the mother and child alone with no idea what happened (it was disturbing, (there are more disturbing details,) which is why I made peter very unsettling)

Butch came from a dream that had something to do with fake peppino from pizza tower running around the It Steals maze area throwing cleavers at whoever he ran into

Dreams are a GREAT place to come up with character concepts

They give you a very solid ground before you start designing

One of my guidelines for creating characters is that they should be instantly recognizable as their own character. What are their special features? What defines them? What features would I keep if I were to draw them at the bare minimum detail? What parts of the design would make the character unrecognizable without them?

For example, Reena without her yellow.

Queen without her shadows.

You see this rule pop up a lot online, though mostly focusing on the idea of the silhouette of a character standing out from the others.

While I think it's a good option for when it comes to developing designs, I don't like worrying about it too much. I try to create the individual features of the character rather than immediately think about the silhouette.

All things considered, you're also totally allowed to break the rules to achieve something else. For example, Saleem and Minnow have identical silhouettes because I wanted them to give an uncannily similar vibe. Some characters who were derived off of others through dreams I might have had have very similar silhouettes as a nod to their origins, though have very differentiated individual features.

I look to various other artists and designers I like for feature ideas when I'm super stuck (usually when my ideas are more abstract)

for example, scrawl came from a very abstract dream and literally didn't have a face (they were just a bunch of hands and looked a little bit like a black void worm from Rainworld)

I took inspiration from Fooffle's Space AU Warren for his face, Sir Needle's sona's ears for his hair, and gave him this sweater from a random thing I found on Pinterest that I liked

Bennet (and the rest of the caravan gang) came from a dream about various different individuals riding on a wagon - Bennet specifically in the dream was Uncle Ben who runs The Urban Rescue Ranch. I ended up giving him the name Bennet in reference to this, as well as Uncle Ben's broad shoulders, muscular build and curly hair.

Queen's entire existence is inspired off of the protagonist from Bendy and the Dark Revival. As a nod to this, I gave her a partially monochrome color scheme with some accents. Queen's shadow face was inspired off of this specific fanart of Caesar from The Mandela catalogues.

(I can't find the source for the life of me sobs)

Mr. V was inspired off of Itward from Fran Bow, as well as Pastra's sona Clyde the veldigun. I gave him Itward's large hat and formal attire, and Clyde's long limbs and striped patterns. I also gave him deep halloween colors as a nod to both inspiration's aesthetics.

My biggest thing about features is there has to be a REASON why they have these features, but that's just personal preference (and there doesn't have to be a good reason, or even a reason at all every single time)

okay now for the main part of the ask (I've been stalling)

Sorry if this is disappointing, I don't have a process for picking colors that work together

It's a lot of trial and error, and some characters I've even stalled making profile pictures for because I don't know what to color them as.

to me, you can pick any color you want. It's actually very impressive to think about how many colors you could use.

I'll try to explain what I do know about the placement of colors, though. It doesn't matter what colors you use, but in my opinion, the placement of these colors is what really matters in designs.

Depending on how many colors I'm planning on giving the design, I like to split them up into parts. Primary coloration (1,) which takes up most of the design, secondary coloration (2,) which takes up less of the design but still a good amount, (Sometimes I have more, tertiary, quaternary, whatever, that take up about an equivalent ratio of the design as secondary,) and accent colors (3.)

Similar colors can also be grouped together in these sectors. For example, all the purple in this character would be primary, the greys secondary, and the oranges the accents.

For Chakra, his purples would be primary, all the bright colors of the wounds secondary, and his outstanding eyes accents.

Each sector should be different and differentiable from one another!

Divide your character up into sectors for coloration. Decide what colors go where. Sometimes it takes a bit of shuffling to find what works for you. Adding inbetween colors to branch the gaps between your selected colors can help tie things together, too.

To me, instead of WHAT colors you use, it all comes down to how you USE those colors.

Cordis is mainly dark colored, primary, with their secondary rainbow colors and their accented white features. Even with rather bright colors in their palette, they still come off as a dark gloomy character because of the placement/ratio of those colors.

Monarch has very clashing colors, though when separated and balanced out, they appear harmonious and work together.

Anyways that turned further into a rant about character design than anything else

I hope this helped :D

[kipperlillyforpresident]

Finally found someone else who doesn't care for Lucy (or at least not her characterization/blandness) thank god

Honestly didn't know where to put this before but I'll put it here because of that but idea where (completly unlike canon, opposite even) where Lucy was on-board with rage/rage takeover and just as off-the-rocker as kipperlilly and chose to die because it would light more rage in the rest of them. I don't know. I'll take anything other than her current innocent lamb does-nothing-wrong portrayl

But thank you thank you for being the one person I've seen so far who gets that and doesn't care for it

anon speak and live your truth!! it can be hard when youre in a fandom and the Dominant Understanding of something is so far removed from your own thoughts.

as for myself, like... i like what a lot of fanworks have done with lucy! i like the version of lucy that i have in my head!

but in canon? she's so nothing. ive said it before and i'll say it again (i got a shoutout on twitter for saying this, actually, which was very nice and fun to see): lucy is sooo dead wife montage coded.

honestly like. she had a really strong potential. the idea of her being nice but not happy? that's such a succinct characterization! (one that most of the fandom seems to.,... forget about...?) like. she has potential.

but the players made her into this flawless concept, without ever really... thinking about her as a person? idk. it was very icky. i will never stop being mad about "for lucy". and then in the finale she just is soft. where is that not happy but nice energy? she should be so deeply weird and warped. she should be upset that her best friends were taken over by her goddesses sister and killed her, and that some of them were revived and some of them werent, and that everybody seems to be totally fortgiving ankarna!! she should be cold and frosty...!

alas.

your concept is really fun - it definitely contradicts, canon, but here on ratgrumblr/grundlr/grimblr/etc etc, we love violating canon. we do it well and extremely often. and the idea of her choosing herself as a sacrifical lamb is soo fun.

it also ties into my seven birds au but thats for another post-

[beastabyss666]

Ok......So, the new HB episode is out, how unexpected for me. I apologize to my fellow readers for not reviewing the previous episode, but I was so tired and busy, having to deal with a lot of work. The cat must have got my tongue when I saw the dildo scene, I'm sorry. And what can I say......Actually, this episode is the best one in the 2 season at this moment. I mean, at least it wasn't that cringe and plot ruining as the other ones. ‼️TW‼️: Abuse, **cest

The animation looks pretty good in action scenes(and not so good in other, especially when some characters speak). The backgrounds look good, and I somewhat like the fact that the Sloth Ring is pink. Looks so sweet, bubblegum and cotton candy-like. But the floating pieces of ground are very cliche for a fantasy world. Also I think there were too many sound effects, when sometimes it feels like there's a lack of them. In principle, everything is as always. Stolas is a damsel in distress again, Moxxie and Millie are boring, Stella is evil(and extremely stupid for some reason), Blitzo is loud and annoying and spits cuss words every second because the authors think it's funny. Also Loona just...... didn't speak in this ep at all. No words. Don't know if it's good or not. The plotline of her going to doctor and being afraid of shots is pretty boring, tbh. I still have no idea why hellhounds are treated like some pets in this universe when they're competent and sensible beings. Also, I don't know if anyone told that or this is just me, but I absolutely hate the idea of putting fucking westerns in "Hell". I know Vivzie isn't so original and her universe is super bland and uninteresting, but shit, westerns just don't stick in the setting of Hell at all, it's not that vibe and it looks ridiculous. And that's not because I don't like westerns. Striker's song felt absolutely redundant, and Striker himself seems....unnatural? Seems like Vivzie made him that masculine bigot guy who's bigheaded and is obsessed with having a huge cock(because dicks are funny according to the writers). They have finally showed Andrealphus, Stella's brother, and there's nothing interesting about him to say. I'm just glad they didn't make him a stereotypical gay. Knowing Vivzie's "rep" and how feminine he looks, it would be predictable. As I've said before, he looks like a shameless Elsa ripoff, as his blue ice castle(covered with red fucking sky, god, these palette choices burn out my eyes). I've heard some controversial and suspicious stuff considering him and Stella(more precisely, someone says that originally they were going to have **cestuous relationship). Not sure if it's true, and I do hope that Vivzie won't go so far in making Stella an unredeemable villain.

I didn't see anything "weird" or vulgar in their conversation, it felt like puerility. I like to imagine that their relationship is like a niminy-piminy brother always cheering up and complimenting his little sis because he can. I've seen some cartoons with a similar character dynamic and a certain part of their fandoms found indecent connotation in this, and that's their problems in their depravity. And yeah, I know that my thoughts aren't true and they obviously have a manipulative relationship. Andre straight up insulted Stella and manipulated her, btw. If Viv really wanna do them having **cest – fine, another reason to quit watching this show. But something tells me that she won't dare to lose a bunch of fans and be yet again cancelled in social networks.

Summing up, this episode was pretty good by the standards of the season and bad by the standards of..... something qualitative I guess? Viv still hasn't learned how to separate drama from comedy, which makes it difficult, no, impossible to feel Stolas' sad shit. This character is one of my personal winners in the list of the most repulsive and annoying creatures and him always being sex-crazed about Blitzo pisses me off. How the hell are we supposed to take him seriously if all he wants is a dick? The rest of the time he whines about how unhappy he is and pretends to care about his daughter. Season 2 continues to look like terrible Wattpad fanfiction and it discourages from watching this series. It's not even fun to hate or criticize it anymore, it's just...... Ehh.

[pterobat]

I want to talk about some of the tie-in stuff featuring Lance Bishop that I took in recently.

“Broken” by Rachel Caine, in the anthology Bug Hunt.

The idea that a previously-established character has to be special—bothers me a bit, and I can’t say why. I do know that I felt, after years of pushing back against the mechanistic/deterministic view of the Zentradi in Robotech and Macross fandom, it was time to accept that a character might lack something in the way of “free will” and might not be one of a kind—but still be sympathetic

However, Bishop didn’t put that egg on the Sulaco, Your Mom did, and he asked to be euthanized for firmly "human" reasons, not utilitarian ones.

Anyway, “Broken”, states that Bishop having a stronger altruistic drive than the AP norm, which very briefly leads to the possibility of him being scrapped, and then later lets him disobey orders and save some people in his non-actiony way.

It’s still mostly satisfying, except for two things: Bishop has “brothers” named after other chess pieces (except "Queen" because of cowardice), and while that’s cute, it’s at the expense of the Frankenstein-ish story in the novel below, where he shares the name with his "Father".

Secondly there’s the groaner when the last scene of the story leads right into Bishop meeting Apone’s unit after being repaired by Hudson and the Knife Trick getting brought up already.

William Gibson’s Alien 3 (Novel and Comic Version):

To steal from Dostoevsky, all versions of Alien 3 are stupid in their own way. It’s hard to think of where to go from Aliens, though it’s not my job to do so, right?

At least there’s no chance of Gibson’s version being lionized as a course-correction or a bold strike against some imagined saccharine future. Instead we get something that’s readable and likeable enough, but pretty bland. Kind of like Hicks as the main, really—nothing against the dude, but there’s just not much going on with him.

Part of it’s not the fault of Gibson: he had to write out Ripley, but man, you don’t have to give it a gold star just for otherwise trying. I can also see how the Xenomorphs as a Thing-esque virus would occur to writers, but it just doesn’t feel right.a

Also, for what’s supposed to be a riff on the Cold War and MAD, the Union of Progressive Peoples are cartoonishly silly, constantly thinking about “capitalism” while capitalism doesn't think of them, while the narrative makes a point of how run-down and crappy their tech is.

Even Bishop notices that without any spite, while the UPP are harsh towards him out of an understandable vision of worker’s rights, but in a Dolyist sense is only there to make them more unsympathetic and caricatured.

As for Bishop, he’s fun to follow because I like reading about him just being totally chill about everything, still without coming across as heartless. But he doesn’t have much of his sense of weirdness or of that awkward kindliness that makes his character more interesting than the average friendly AP.

Two more things: I was first harsh on the idea that an ovomorph would grow from Bishop’s exposed guts, but I came around when I realized it was an example of a slightly-more grounded Xenomorph evolution/adaptation than the virus, just putting more of the mechanical in bio-mechanical—plus it was the only example of gender fuckery to be found for miles.

Secondly, I liked his quiet little monolgue at the end that humanity ought to destroy Xenomorphs for their own good. It’s the usual trope of having a heroic character fascinated by monsters, who must prove they are still heroic by killing or opposing them.

Aliens: Bishop by T.R. Napper

It’s funny that this book came out last December, like it was waiting for me to start thinking about the character again.

Sadly, the original characters were not so entertaining, which is often but not always the curse of tie-in fiction. It’s another reason why it’s hard for me to be fannish about the larger Alien-a-verse besides not much of it sounding interesting.

It doesn’t help that the story starts out with a USC Marine mission lead by an Apone, with a male corporate stooge on board, and our new MC gets the nickname “Cornbread” within a few pages—come on with this. Otherwise, she’s like Hicks in the sense of readable and serviceable.

To go back to Alien 3 for a second, and franchising in general—they repeat themes and motifs because that makes the selling easy, and you can make a keen case for “The Real Enemy is Man” being a theme of the Alien universe.

Because of that, having Michael Bishop be who/what he said he was makes the most sense if you want not only a thematic through-line but the Frankenstein-ish subtext of the book which is like catnip to me.

Normally resurrection is thematically cheap in fiction, but given that Alien 3 comes off as cheap (lazy) to begin with, and we’re dealing with an AP, and the results are interesting, it doesn’t take much to win me over.

I don’t know how much research the author did, or if it’s just serendipty, but Henriksen said he played Bishop as an abused child, as a being who knew he was disposable but consoled himself by knowing he’d outlive those who could hold that over him. And even though they look the same age, the abusive-father subtext is all over this. Michael is nice enough until he doesn’t get what he wants after being “patient” and “giving”.

And speaking of franchises and theming, something about creator/creation in the Alien series no longer feels out of place in post-Prometheus world, even if the execution in those movies was a letdown.

Transhumanism also comes into the picture, and while it first seemed Michael would steal Bishop’s new body, instead Michael wants to transfer his body digitally and succeeds. It also feels out of place in the larger franchise, but I might check out a sequel.

I also wish the book were more creative about trying to do something with the Xenomorphs. Michael pretends it’s about something different as part of his manipulation, but alas it’s the same old militarization.

It’s kind of funny that Bishop meets the captured Morse who quirkily tells him a few things about how humans don’t value other humans. It helps Bishop get rid of the last vestiges of attachment to his Shitty Dad, and Bishop otherwise returns to the same place he was before, just with a new unit.

I was waiting for some other shoe to drop, but the Apone #2 unit appeared to have no ulterior motivations when it came to finding Bishop. Returning to a quiet status quo does suit him in a way, since Bishop is so chill about everything.

The book also establishes that Bishop asked to be euthanized because of grief. I didn't want a purely utilitarian reason like reaching a damage threshold that cheapie W-Y labelled unsalvageable--that doesn't work narratively/tonally/emotionally--but it was enough to think poor Bishop decided on death because he couldn’t ever reach adequate quality of life.

So a lot of fun here, even what with the brief moments where Bishop is emotionally demonstrative or fights physically and it’s cringe-inducing rather than an extrapolation of the character.

[snoopysfriendwoodstock]

what's ur full ttpd song ranking and why?

omg… this will be long lol

1. who’s afraid of little old me? - taylor has tried “female rage” a couple times now and it always falls flat bc she has to be the victor/mastermind of all of it. mad woman & vigilante shit just kinda suck! FINALLY in this song she sort of admits defeat? i find it really interesting to hear her reflecting on her career & her own view of herself and the public perception of her without her feeling the need to throw a “but i’m okay! and actually i’m winning!” in at the end. also the vocals and theatrics are soooo good i just love it <3

2. the smallest man who ever lived - that ENDING. this takes me back to some very classic taylor songs, especially the dear john bridge or last kiss bridge and as a speak now girl i can’t get enough.

3. the prophecy - both people who love this song and people who hate it reduce it down to “she’s sad she doesn’t have a boyfriend” but imo this song perfectly captures the ACHE of being someone who just always has a little ribbon of loneliness running through them. it’s that dark middle of the night place you can’t let yourself go to. and it’s PERFECT.

4. so high school - i don’t have a lot to say here but this is the song she’s talking abt when she says she’s putting narcotics in them. i love it so much. do that impression you did of your dad again ❤️

5. but daddy i love him - i love her delusional ass! also the “i’m having his baby” line is soooo funny sorry!

6. guilty as sin? - there’s a reason this one’s a fan favorite! it’s just soooo good. there’s nothing wrong with a sexy song.

7. so long, london - “i’m just mad as hell cause i loved this place” is such a taylor line. so simply devastating. i think she got away from just very simply stating her emotions/feelings in her newer albums but this song has soooo many lines that go back to that form of writing that she’s so good at. “stopped trying to make him laugh” is another one that really hits.

8. loml - this hits my favorite genre of taylor swift song that is just so sad it���s almost like oh my god you have to stop… what a valiant roar! what a bland goodbye!

9. the black dog - ik i’m kind of a broken record at this point but “i just don’t understand how you don’t miss me” is SOOOO taylor. very early taylor! and i love the idea of taylor swift having someone’s location on her phone. she is sooo pathetic she’s just like me!

10. the bolter - songs used to be STORIES!

11. the alchemy - i can’t explain it. it just scratches my brain really well. i love how it soundssss

12. fresh out the slammer - i LOVE the chorus on this one. and i love when it slows down at the end and gets kinda weird.

13. clara bow - i LOVE this song. i love how haunting it is i love “you look like taylor swift” i love how pessimistic it is as an album closer. it feels like folklore again w/ hoax as the last song. she said we are NOT in change/long live/begin again/clean/new years day/daylight hours anymore we have LOST hope. in fact it’s super interesting compared to change/long live that are all optimistic about the industry/making a name for herself bc now she’s realized there were other taylor swifts before and there will be other taylor swifts later.

14. how did it end? - another just absolute fucking banger of a sad song. the commentary on fame/the public/her fanbase hits.

15. i hate it here - unfortunately this song is sooooo me it’s not even funny.

16. i can do it with a broken heart - who is this “nobody” that doesn’t know she’s miserable? i love this song it’s so funny. “i cry a lot but i am so productive” is a lyric that was necessary for society

17. my boy only breaks his favorite toys - this song grew on me SO much. it’s so pathetic i love it.

18. florida!!! - this song rocks so hard. i think taylor & florence’s voices compliment each other so much

19. the albatross - i love her voice on this one. she’s here to destroy you!!!

20. the tortured poets department - i love this one i’m sorry. i love the sound i love that it feels like she’s trying something new i love how cringe and desperate it is. also lucy dacus mention!

21. peter - i wish i understood this song the way a lot of people do but it’s simply not my favorite! i do love the way she keeps repeating “you said you were gonna grow up then you were gonna come find me” in the chorus. don’t listen to this & never grow up back to back. it’s not funny.

22. down bad - hated this one at first but it has REALLY grown on me. i love the alien abduction metaphor! “i might just die it would make no difference” is like come on girl get up

23. i look in people’s windows - love this one, don’t listen to it much. but never skip when it’s on. her voice is gorgeous and i loveee the writing on it

24. the manuscript - again, i don’t choose to put this one on much but holy shiiiitttt… now she eats kids cereal? and can only sleep if it’s in her mother’s bed?

25. cassandra - i love the idea of this and it has some great lyrics but i feel like she didn’t quite get it off the ground? i love the bridge. it’s like ALMOST there. cassandra is my favorite mythological figure so maybe i just had really high expectations.

26. imgonnagetyouback - this will for sure rise in the rankings soon bc i’m finally getting it. it’s so fun, just not as good as a lot of the anthology tracks.

27. fortnight - i don’t love this one, but the chorus is really catchy. & post malone’s verse is the best part, that gets stuck in my head all the time.

28. thanK you aIMee - god this song is so funny. “everybody knows my mother is a saintly woman but she used to say she wished that you were dead!” i’m just kinda sick of these kind of songs from her if that makes sense?

29. chloe or sam or sophia or marcus - i’m waiting for this one to click!!! i’m sure it will & there’s parts i REALLY like but i skip it every single time

30. robin - i’m sorry it’s a skip from me. it’s beautiful but i’m never ever wanting to hear it. it’s sweet! but not for me

31. i can fix him (no really i can) - idk the rhythm and tempo of this song doesn’t work for me. it sucks bc her voice is so sexy on this one & i love the pathetic aspect but i always skip. it’s not as bad as my least favorite on other albums tho <3

[alluralater]

opinion on the renee rapp/fletcher/ethel cain/hayley kiyoko genre of music?

i like girls and i would say that i enjoy the largest array of music but ive never been able to find myself able to get behind the hype generated by that specific genre ? like both the lyrics and melodies seem bland

kinda just comes across as conditioning oneself when i hear abt friends going out of their way to insert themselves into social media communities surrounding these artists and occupying their free time with discourse around who u wanna kiss. it seems forced as in why cant we like girls casually without the 50lbs of baggage and would that even be the case w/o the baggage

cultivating a minority group that struggles to exist outside of the internet and within the public sphere, if you will

i wish i could tell u that i was high when i wrote this to dispel some of the terrible reception im expecting but noo these are organic thoughts that have been pressing my mind and i don't rly have anywhere else to put them :')

fight/entertain/accept me on this!

let’s do this <3

i personally don’t really care for renee rapp. like not because she’s not talented and cool but literally just because her songs were overplayed to me and it’s a huge thing for me if someone listens to the same thing over and over and over i build up this weird repulsion to it and end up getting icked out whenever i hear it. so she is cool as fuck but i don’t listen to her stuff. i like fletcher in a way but both of these artists are kinda just the white gay trending artist templates rn, like i don’t personally find them to be intriguing. ethel cain doesn’t really fit in this group i think since she’s like folk (right??) and these other people are pop/indie but her stuff doesn’t really get me either so it’s cool. hayleyyyyy my love. i love her. i think she makes really good music but its been a bit since any bangers. hayley makes the music for the gays that remember what it was like before gay marriage started to become legalized in the us. her music is really sweet and buzzing with baby gay energy even though she’s an experienced gay.

what i tend to notice about people who listen to fletcher and renee rapp like a LOT is that they also pretty much only listen to other white trending artists as well. the lack of melody and variety in lyrics comes down to the fact that all of these artists are in the exact same niche— white x queer x woman x gen z pop/indie. i’ve heard both fletcher and renee rapp have fantastic stage presence and their shows are supposedly amazing so regardless, they’re still dishing out a show worth watching and i like that.

you can build an entire community around one small interest and people will invest their time and energy and care into whatever that interest is. they feel connected to the topic as well as each other, which is a whole huge conversation i could get into about lack of third spaces in the irl world today and by extension the decline in irl music communities but i’m sleepy so we’ll skip that. i think stan culture is oftentimes what that gets around to (did that sentence make sense?? my eyelids are falling)

btw girls can’t be normal about kissing girls because there is excitement in journeying the paths you didnt know you could take. we relive that feeling each time we have opportunity or desire to kiss other sapphics. it’s panic and thrill and nervousness and glowing miraculous enchantment with the idea of being able to enjoy someone freely and wildly and without men, which is a concept many of us have to drag ourselves away from. kissing other girls is like a repeating shout of liberation yk?? plus it’s super hot ;) okay i am falling asleep though so nighty night <3

[lolotheparagon]

🔥 Hottest and ugliest/most bland MC and LI. Also favorite and least favorite otome game artwork.

Hottest MC

This is difficult cos the majority of MCs in Otome games who are adult women are so infantilised and spineless that it feels ewwy to find them attractive. One thing I hate is women being infantilised, cos it’s an actual trigger for me.

Either Seraphina from Peachleaf Valley or Teuta from Bustafellow since they are and act like actual adults, despite the weird artistic elements anime usually gives them. They’re funny, witty, sweet but know when to put their foot down and have a lot more agency than your usual garbage dating sim protagonist.

I would also say Kotone cos she is both a successful cafe owner and landlord but the way the story treats her and how the men are towards her, she honestly deserves a better game (with LIs who aren’t pedos or old enough to be her dad). She’s a wonderful character but I find her more cute than attractive.

I love Lynette though. Her design is so pretty and I love the more flashy 80s glam businesswoman look to her. She would fit right in with Jem and the Holograms. But again, she deserves a better game and a personality upgrade cos FOR FUCKS SAKE WHY IS THE MATCHMAKING GODDESS OF LOVE A CLUELESS INGENUE. SHE’S CUPID SHE SHOULD BE ABLE TO READ MEN LIKE A 4 PAGE PICTURE BOOK

Blandest MC

This is like counting every grain of sand on a beach, cos of the genre we’re in. THERE’S SO FUCKING MANY.

My top 3 would be:

The MC from Amnesia Memories, who I’m gonna call Maria, is the biggest offender. While Cardia and Ichika have some quirks, Maria has FUCKING NOTHING. Half of her thought processes and inner dialogue are taken up by a flying pixie in her head so we never get any idea of what Maria’s personality is like. And because this game uses her amnesia as an excuse to not give her any personality or agency from that matter

Cardia from Code Realise. What a WASTE

And Ichika from Collar x Malice.

Basically any Otomate protagonist can apply here, cos they’re all cut from the same bland UwU ingenue cloth and I’m SICK of Otome fans seeing every new protagonist and going “omg she’s such a sassy girlboss” when all she does is say no to a pervert’s advances. Like, that’s not sass, that’s basic self-defense.

Hottest LI

Mozu, hands down. Love how genuinely supportive and sweet he is. His design isn’t all that special but his personality really shines through. He’s delightfully morbid, which makes sense considering he’s a coroner. He spouts random scientific facts and statements about everything he sees like Sheldon Cooper and even in other routes, he considers Teuta his friend and always treats her with respect. He’s such a good man and I love how even his trauma regarding his sister’s death doesn’t affect his relationship with Teuta. Teuta does feel like a comforting angel in that game but after seeing the roles being reversed in Bustafellows 2, it’s great to see Mozu be the one comforting Teuta with her problems. Also the fact that Mozu is currently seeing a therapist to deal with his trauma so he can be a better boyfriend to Teuta is so 🥹

The only things I didn’t like about him was a moment where he awkwardly kabedons Teuta when he was depressed thinking about the investigation of his sister’s possible death and wanted to flirt with Teuta in the only way he knew how to take his mind of things. That was…weird. It felt like that scene was only there just so Kohaku can draw a kabedon scene. To be fair, Mozu is not well versed in romantic language at all and is very autism-coded so I give him some slack as the scene comes off as someone who clearly didn’t know how to process his emotions properly. Once Teuta explains that’s not cool, he immediately backs off, apologises and promises to ask next time.

Also he slapped Teuta when she was feeling out about a fire in the school and a little girl is trapped in there. I know it was meant to be a “pull yourself together” slap and I’ve seen this trope in a bunch of shows, not just anime. But it’s still weird.

Worst LI

Takeru Sasazuka. I used to love this guy when I first got this game and good Lord I regret it. He’s supposed to be this tsundere who slowly defrosts and becomes nicer to Ichika, but considering how much he insults her and calls her a dog as a “joke”, but it’s okay he hugs her when she’s about to fall into a mental breakdown or cries in a moment of distress, so he really does love her and I’m like fuck off.

He only softens up when the sequel came out where there was only slice of life stories and nothing serious was on the horizon, like a terrorist threat from the last game. He is interesting as a character: he has a hatred of guns since his mother was shot in front of him when he was a kid and only became a cop in order to gain enough power to reinstate a gun safety law since every individual in Shinjuku atm has enough guns that’ll make a Republican blush. Also he has very little family or friends and deep down truly wants to have people in his life, despite his prickly exterior. There is a lot of potential for a defrosting ice king character like him. But being deliberately unlikable is still unlikable.

This really goes to show how 80 of Otomate’s men work better as standard characters, rather than love interests to the MC.

I can’t believe I fancied him when I was younger, although that might be due to Daisuke Namikawa voicing him.

Also Shin and Toma from Amnesia Memories. These two are the childhood friends of Maria and they have a bit of a rivalry cos they both have feelings for her, but depending on either route, Maria’s relationship with them changes (like if you chose Shin, Maria would consider Toma like a friend and vice versa)

However, do they act normal to Maria? HELL FUCKING NAH! I remember choosing Shin when I first played this game cos I thought he was the most normal of the LIs, he had a tragic past with his father being in prison for murder and everyone considers him guilty by association, his only true friends were Maria and Toma and he tersely motivated Maria to become a better singer. But ALL THAT GOODWILL JUST PISSED AWAY cos Not only was he being needlessly secretive towards Maria after her amnesia (cos the game wants to be a mystery and the story constantly trying to red herring you with possibilities that it was him who caused Maria’s amnesia when it really wasn’t), and his design and personality just REEKS of good girls dating the emotionally abusive bad boy trope like it’s the fucking 50s. Also the amount of forceful kissing this guy did was just yuck. 🤮

But that is small potatoes compared to Toma. He is a yandere character taken to a disturbing degree. He starts off friendly and cheerful, then when Maria is stalked by someone, he offers her to stay at his home for a while. I think we all know where this is going. After using Maria’s amnesia to his advantage by lying to her and everyone about their relationship, he quickly stops Maria from seeing her friends, attending uni or her job, drugs her food, takes away her cellphone to cut her off from everyone. And perhaps the most infamously evil thing he’s done is lock the woman up in a “kawaii uguu cage of love” and only lets her out to use the toilet and threatens to rape her if she dared get out of her cage or leave without telling her. And the only punishment he ever gets is Shin punching him once or in Shin’s route, Toma brings himself in to be arrested cos he can’t handle Maria’s rejection. THERES EVEN AN ENDING WHERE MARIA STRAIGHT UP FORGIVES HER. WHAT THE PISS-SHITTING FUCK?!

Toma is a vile, pathetic piece of shit and the fact that he is the most popular character in the game and his serial killer behaviour is memed by Otomate as if it’s a cute quirk is fucking disgusting. I found out online that there is a CAFE based on this game and you can order a dessert that is a direct reference to that infamous cage scene. That is how much attention this character has. And yet most people in the Otome community think he’s crazy but in a lol so crazy kinda way XD but Toma’s behaviour is so callous so frequently and to such a triggering degree, its no laughing matter. I swear, the people who like Toma (even in an ironic sense) are probably Reylo/Catradora stans.

Fave Otome artwork:

Definitely Kohaku Sumeragi’s work on Bustafellows. She makes the typical anime style look so expressive and lively. She’s not afraid to make her characters look silly, albeit to some restrictions cos we need our characters to still look pretty. Also the amount of detail in each character’s outfit without it looking too detailed is brilliant. Although she definitely needs to work on giving the women more prominent noses and stop giving characters like Teuta the baby doll eyes and bulk up Luka a bit. I want my muscular women

Worst Otome artwork

Suoh’s artwork is so fucking shit. Jesus Christ. does she draw all her characters so young, it’s fucking gross! For example, this is the MC, Shino in one of the games Suoh worked on, Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani. Shino’s age isn’t listed but she’s supposed to be a young adult. Also her character designs in general are so

DOES SHE EVEN REMOTELY LOOK LIKE AN ADULT?!

Worst off, there’s no lighting, barely any shading. Her expressions are extremely limited. Her colours are flat and lifeless. They look like literal cardboard cutouts. I don’t like to harp on the artwork too much cos I’m an artist myself but I have no idea why this woman is still getting work if this is her best work to date.

So, yeah. I hope I’ve answered all your questions, Yuisdad!

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

makenzie!! batman adaptation discussion for you: it could be argued that there are small elements of camp in batman begins (jonathan crane & falcone embodying them specifically, but also zsasz a little bit lmao), that are nearly obliterated in the two sequels... like nolan was toying with the idea of letting loose, mayhaps. it's really interesting to me, especially because batman begins is arguably the most boring film of the three. would love to know if you have thoughts on this

(my thoughts are getting away from me but also like how does this compare to the kind of camp in batman 2022?? neither are very similar to the 80s/90s films)

hi Elizabeth!!! I was waiting to answer this because I thought my Batman movie club was going to knock out all three Nolan movies pretty quick and I could give a more informed answer, but alas - we've hit a hiatus after Batman Begins, so that's all I'm going to have to work with and it's going to have to suffice because I don't want to leave this sitting in the inbox any longer.

I think for the most part Nolan's Batman movies are too wildly self conscious to qualify for true camp status, but without having revisited the Dark Knight and Rises yet I think I can agree that Begins has the most flirtation with maybe getting a little silly? I think Zsasz is too minor to make much of a dent in the all-consuming self-seriousness, but Cillian Murphy is really breathlessly committed to the Scarecrow and playing him as a straight-up comic book villain in a way that doesn't get to happen much later in the series. he tells Batman to lighten up while he sets him on fire, which rules and would, I think, probably not be allowed in the later movies. he ends the movie wearing a straightjacket riding a stolen police horse and gets immediately taken out by a lawyer with a taser! he's giving us everything he has to give! he has like four minutes of screen time and all of them are perfect.

I do think it's very interesting that throughout all three movies, Nolan is picking out antagonists who are known for being like. BOMBASTICALLY weird and over the top - Scarecrow! Two-Face! Catwoman! Bane! the fucking Joker!!! an entire secret society of assassins, COME ON - and then kind of fighting against the very nature of these characters to make them fit into the world he's envisioned, with mixed results; Harvey and Selina and Bane in particular all fall pretty flat for me. like, fuck, where's Lady Shiva's movie? not that she's not also on some freak shit, but a vicious martial artist obsessed with proving herself against the best fighters in the world seems way easier to fit into a grounded Bat universe in a way that doesn't feel anticlimactic than, say, a bad CGI Two-Face who almost immediately gets murdered. there were options!

anyway I've gotten way off topic, but I agree that Begins had the most wiggle room to set the tone for the universe by virtue of being the first and it did Try Some Things, especially with the presentation and pomp of the League of Shadows, as well as some of Bruce's Brucier moments when he's playing up his rich dolt image, but ultimately a lot of it got rejected in the latter installations in favor of getting ever grimmer.

comparing it to the 2022 movie is REALLY INTERESTING because they're both very dark and gritty, tonally, and I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out why one of them mostly works for me and the other one mostly doesn't (although I'll preface this by saying that they both have high and low points, especially: re their casting; Murphy's Scarecrow is inspired in a mostly bland movie and Paul Dano's Riddler is miserable in a mostly excellent movie, etc).

for me personally a lot of it comes down to how much trust the respective directors seem to be willing to put in their audiences to buy in and accept Batman as a story for what it is; this is largely what I mean when I say Nolan seems insecure in his story. Batman Begins, in particular, has much of its first hour bogged down by explanations of where every individual piece of Bat costuming and tech comes from, almost like Nolan feels a need to look at the audience and prove that it totally makes sense and could work; it comes across like he was specifically anticipating and writing for people who would call Batman's gadgetry unrealistic plot holes, and preemptively apologizing for what Batman is. the whole trilogy comes across as similarly cringing, like it can't quite shake being embarrassed by where it comes from.

The Batman 2022, to me, is sort of tonally similar, in that it's very grounded in the crime and corruption and grimiest parts of Gotham, but it reminds me much more of stories like the Long Halloween the way it's taking place in a sweaty haze version of the city that feels like a fever dream. everything is so heightened where Nolan's movies are so grounded as to be miserably earthbound; from the opening narration Bruce is already a prowling, larger than life shadow who calls himself a creature of the night and sulks around his miserable gothic mansion in running eye makeup while flinching from the sunlight. Reeves doesn't waste a fucking second explaining what Batman is or why Batman is because you are a 21st century moviegoer, you know what and why Batman is and we have shit to do. he already knows Gordon, the Joker is already in prison, the Batmobile is a muscle car that looks goddamn possessed and no, you don't need to worry about where it came from.

the whole movie is wrapped is this fucking. vaguely horny neon ambiance where you mostly know the rules but also have this sense that anything weird could happen at any moment; it's a space that is operating without powers or anything too outlandish for now but very much feels like it has room for a Poison Ivy or a Scarecrow twisting your mind, for a Clayface making you paranoid as you don't know who to trust. it's a gorgeous world to play in and I think it's going to lend itself much more to adapting the world, much more so than the Nolan movies where the addition of each new iconic character just came with the question of how much would be stripped away and flattened to make them fit in. camp requires that kind of playful artifice, things masquerading as other things, to work, and I think Batman 2022 really nailed that.

[mister-e-muss]

Time for another backlog report, August 2024 edition. As always, thoughts are below:

Mega Man X:

Both this and X2 I beat as part of the Legacy Collection bundle. At first I stuck to the idea that each ‘collection’ counted as a single game, with individual games being more like chapters. That’s why I didn’t write my thoughts on Battle Network 1 when I finished it. I realized however that if I thought that large-scale, I was never going to actually finish it, or any of the individual games.

So what exactly do I say about this game? It’s Chrono Trigger levels of revered. Even Arin ‘I refuse to read more than three words consecutively’ Hanson of Game Grumps fake calls the intro stage genius for how it visually teaches the player about wall jumps.

I can hardly say a bad word about this game, not just because it’s so enshrined in the top tens of SNES games ever, but because I genuinely agree that it’s a great, tight action platformer with some kick-ass music.

Mega Man X2:

Okay, Capcom proved they could innovate the Mega Man formula. Could they follow up?

Turns out yes. While I generally hold the music as overall inferior to X1, I still think that there’s some great tracks in here. (My personal favorite is Flame Stag’s Stage btw.)

As for the story, I think the tension of Zero’s lost parts is both a good way to add more personal stakes and a clever way to justify reviving a character that had died in the last game. Believe me, it happens more than I’d like it to. Also, I took a screenshot of this specific dialogue because it is both a brilliantly dick-ish move and really stupid of Sigma to try and guilt trip X about his supposed failure. . . After he’d already beaten the X-Hunters and recovered Zero’s parts.

The stages themselves are a lot of fun to go through, with the exception of a few of the X-Hunter stages.

Trails of Cold Steel:

When discussing the Trails series, Cold Steel is the arc that everyone points to and says “Trash Anime Harem game.” That is not my issue with this game.

I think where I generally take issue is the scope. I know that’s a weird thing to say about these games considering just how grandiose and meticulous they are about every single detail, but it’s the most general way to put it. The cast is large, the maps are large, the grand tale of political intrigue is large. The strange part is that for all of its largeness, it could have been cut down by a quarter and still be able to do a lot of what it sets out to do.

Having the cast split themselves in half is an effective way of rotating the spotlight so that almost everyone gets a turn, but if they just compressed one or two character ideas they could have ensured that everyone had more room in their niche.

For that matter, the gameplay has also been expanded and shrunk down. The addition of combat links is a fun idea that makes you think about party comp and which characters pair well with others, but in this first outing, they don’t really do much. The fact that the game hides the two extra payoff options until a third and halfway through the game also doesn’t help. Where the series shrinks is in the orbment system. The master quartz return, and they’re just as fascinating as ever, but the quartz themselves have taken a turn for the bland. Rather than have each gem hold an element value, and arts appearing on characters as you build them, arts and passive bonuses have been divided in two. Except not really because high-level quartz give both. What this means from a design perspective is that players don’t have to keep track of seven different values building up a cast of 11 total playable characters. (Again, you could have cut that by half.) What this means from a gameplay perspective however is that orbments are much less interesting to tinker around with, turning what was a miniature puzzle into a simple best-in-slot. For a 60+ hour game to have one of its core systems be stripped like this, it makes the game feel more monotonous than it really is.

Despite all these general complaints, I honestly can’t recommend it enough. The soundtrack is just as good as it’s ever been, the plot does in fact try to strike a balance between zoomed-out political intrigue and zoomed-in character drama, and the combat is still among the best turn-based systems.

I even liked the bonding points for what they were. Having to chose which characters were worth your investment was a bit itchy, but the one-on-one spotlights were nice. That they also increase Link levels is also a very nice gameplay-story-integration that I will never say no to.

[muffinrecord]

Muffin, what do you think are the best and worst transformations?

Ohh that's a great question.

For transformation scenes, I prefer when an actual transformation occurs. I don't really like the ones where the emphasis is on the weapon appearing or just some pretty animation. Also, this goes without saying but I don't like fanservice in it. Lastly, I really like it when the video tells you a little bit about the character. I don't mean like... "this character likes books" or things like that, but stuff you can read into.

I'm just gonna go through the playlist...

Imo, Tart's is pretty bad. It's got some weird frames, it focuses a little too much on the weapon going from a banner to.. whatever, and her expression looks weird as fuck in the last shot.

Holy Alina's is great. It's a transformation but also insight into her state of mind. It's artsy and confusing and feels like a fever dream. I especially like the last couple seconds with the flash of light and dark (although I do wonder if this could possibly trigger a person with epilepsy or migraines? so there is that)

Seira's is bad. It has some REALLY questionable frames in it that expose her bare ass for no reason, and also imo it's kind of hard to tell what's going on in it. A shame because Seira is great.

Yozuru has a great one imo. It's artsy and I like the music. The transformation in the beginning is good but I love the layering and the final shot. It really brings to mind how Yozuru closed off an entire aspect of herself through her wish.

Swimsuit Mami's is good. I'm impressed they made a long-ass video about Mami in a swimsuit and none of it feels like fanservice.

(actually a lot of the videos from this time period are really well done imo).

Vampire Kanagi had a really artsy one.

Yuna has my favorite henshin of all time. It's just so good-- the music, the visuals, the character...

Hm... Let's go through em again.

A lot of the Suzune ones are pretty bad imo. Chisato and Haruka have awful ones from the fanservice alone. Tsubaki actually has a decent one though imo? I really like the detail where the flame forms in the shape of a flower for her.

Haregi Sayaka has one of the prettiest ones.

Moka's makes me laugh. I still remember a reddit comment that described her video as "hallucinating candy and almost getting her ass cut in half with her own axe"

Chika's is sooooo unexpectedly pretty??????

Sudachi's could have been so good if it wasn't for a few really gross frames. It has this unbearable sense of loneliness to me that's really beautiful, but the nakedness ruins it.

Jun's is. blargh.

Uwasa Sana has a beautiful one. That opening shot of her falling is great.

Alexandra is suffering.

Konoha & Hazuki's is fucking stunning.

Nayuta's is??? amazing??? with awesome music.

Hmmm... After Final Oriko, I can't really say I liked any of the henshins, up until Mikoto's maybe. Oh, and Dark Mitama had a good oneish. But you can def feel that the budget is being put into other areas. Some of them are decent (Urara) but rely on still shots for energy, some of them have good ideas but really fall on their face in terms of animation quality (Himena), and then some are just. why. (Swimsuit Madoka).

But I think criminally, some are just kind of forgettable. Rabi's is... idk it should have been better imo.

Granted, a bunch of earlier videos are kind of bland to me as well, but it's kind of a shame that the quality stepped down. However, like with Tsuyu's recent one, I think that even if you don't have a lot of budget, you can still make a decent transformation video. You just need to make good choices.

I think Mikoto has a better transformation than Infinite Iroha does. If you compare the two, Infinite Iroha has more stuff going on and actual animation while Mikoto has a lot of stillness, still frames, and zooms-- however, Mikoto's tells a story and teaches you about the character, and Infinite Iroha's is kind of boring. It also has some really interesting shots, like where she appears in handheld mirror. You can do a lot of reading into it, about who is "the real" Mikoto, if she's made up of many different faucets of herself or if it's something she's crafted, etc, but the point is that it's possible to do that with that video and not for Iroha's one.

Thanks for the ask!

[darcyolsson]

hi I was reading some of your tsc posts and saw you talking about how tlh character writing vs tmi and how cc’s maybe started actively making her chars more palatable because of criticism, I also think that while tda as a series is far from perfect (although it is my second fav after tid personally) it is one where, in books 1-2 at least cc took more risks imo with both the themes and the chars/dynamics being palatable in that way and fan response wasn’t always the best like with Julian being polarizing as a char, I also remember when I was in the fandom as the books were coming out a lot of weird moralizing about ships like people writing essays about how codependent and obsessive blackstairs are and how it was b a d to ship them and then shippers responding that no they’re not when like… a) of course they are that and b) it’s very fun and great that they are, codependency is sexy <3. Similarly weird morality discourse about Keirark/Marktina/Kierarktina at times. I think those things could have potentially influenced decisions for tlh especially your point about retconning what the original James/Grace story was going to be based on the whole vibe of the midnight heir. I also feel that while criticism of tmi definitely influenced some things about tda especially LM that departed from it TLH seemed very much like it wanted to imitate the success of TID and couldn’t fill her shoes, so that puts the writing in an insecure position.  all speculation ofc but just what that made me think about

ohhh thats interesting!! when tda was being released i wasn't really active in online fandom so i had no idea what the fandom response was. honestly, if julian was too much for the average reader, i get why she felt the need to change james from his midnight heir personality lol. blackstairs getting hated for codependency is very funny bc will & jem INVENTED parabatai codependency and everyone loves them for it <3

i think in general, flawed characters are a lot more acceptable now than they were a few years ago. i feel like in the mid/late 2010s, the general idea in YA was definitely that protagonists had to be exemplary people, and whenever a protagonist acted messily that would immediately be seen as bad writing, and i definitely feel like that that affected tlh (and even tda now you mention it!!)

i think you're right about tlh being influenced by tid a lot, or at least going for a similar vibe! obvious reasons aside, i feel like whenever people talk about tid's strong suits the main talking point is the lack of personal conflict between the main 3, because that created a really unique situation where the characters' relationships felt incredibly strong. and i think she maybe tried to keep that same idea of loads of love between the protags going in tlh, except that just left them kind of.... bland? bc in tid there WAS still loads of conflict between characters, just not the main 3, which kept it intersting.

that being said, i genuinely do wonder how an alternate tlh where james and grace kept their tmh personalities would have been received? i feel like this grace is still quite controversial even though i feel like her motives were explained extremely well and she's made as likeable as an anti-heroine could possibly be. i know the tumblr girlies and i would've ate it up but honestly... for an audience as big as hers, maybe it was the right move to make them more palatable? she could've absolutely changed other parts of tlh to make it more interesting, but when it comes to james and grace, well. who knows.

(on the other hand, it absolutely had to be james for tlh to be genuinely compelling. him not being allowed to break the herondale mold is imo the biggest wasted potential of this series </3 rip james who destroyed his carefully crafted family legacy you will forever be missed)