from-the-land-of-lakes

[niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian]

Bro, brooooo. what the hell……

[mugwot]

an artfight attack that is also a webcomic fanart! two birds, one electric type attack.

inhibit webcomic courtesy of @evegwood

[bacchuschucklefuck]

Can you expand on what you mean by Baron being "too cool" to really fit a horror monster? It's a very interesting concept and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Is it that they're too active/involved/tangible and it detracts from their scariness?

I feel like I should preface this with a wall of disclaimers lmao 1/I am a hardcore, down-to-the-marrow, avid, deeply sincere horror enthusiast, esp. horror creatures. this usually means my mileage is vastly different from the average populace's, and my scaredy bone has been disintegrated by longterm exposure. most things in a piece of horror media won't scare me! so I practically never use that on its own as the scale to talk abt horror experiences, but when something does scare me it's always a special occasion to be treasured. 2/canon d20 is never really meant to be horror horror, and for good reasons: it doesn't fit the company's output, it takes a kind of carelessness in production estimation that is always a huge risk, it's often vulnerable in a way that kinda goes against how TTRPGs usually facilitates vulnerability, and for most people it's just! stressful! d20, even with the "horror-themed" seasons, generally just plays with horror tropes and stays focused in its goal of being a comedy improv tabletop theater show. 3/fantasy high's chosen system is DnD, which as I've mentioned before is before all a combat-based game system, which means the magic circle of play is drawn based on stats that facilitate and prioritize combat. want or not this affects every interaction you have in the game, and given fantasy high's concept from the ground up (everyone's going to school of DnD stuff to get better at DnD) it's doubly relevant. 4/This Is Fine I have no quarrel with this. my meters are internal, I do not ask this show to be anything it doesn't advertise itself to be, and what it is is fucking great! I like it! when I expand on this ask's question it will be like a physicist going insane in a lab. that's the mindset we're going in with.

disclaimers done. my stance on horror as a genre is that it's a utility genre rather than a content genre or a demographic genre; it is the discard of narratives. it's the trash pile. horror, above being scary, is about being ugly and messy, it's the cracks on the ground any story inevitably steps over to stay a genre that isn't horror. the genre's been around long enough to develop a codex and a general language that medias and makers and enthusiasts of the genre can use to talk about and build onto, but if you go into individual pieces there's really no unifying Horror Story. one person's beautiful life can be another's horror story, it's just how it is.

this makes The Monster a deeply intriguing piece of the genre. thing is a monster is in a decent percentage of any story - it's just when the antagonist force steps into something past a certain line traced out in the story's world. monstrousness is in pretty much every western fantasy story, it's in any story with a hero and something to vanquish or win; more than anything it's a proxy of that thing up there. the line in a narrative's world. the monster is the guard of the unknown lands, where heroic, civilized people don't tread.

what does this mean in the context of horror? the genre is about that perceived lawlessness, that "unknown land" so to say. we're in the monster's home. that's the literary context that we often walk into a horror piece with; the monster knows more than you about where you are. it may not understand you, but it holds more information than you, and with that it moves swifter than you, has more covered than you, and is more assured in its existence in this context than you. it's a struggle to catch up to it, it's nigh impossible to get one over it, and you're never sure it'll 100% work, because you just don't have the information necessary to.

with that framing you can kinda see where I'm coming from here: horror's often about the breaking of rules. I always think a monster's most effective when it breaks well-established rules of both existence and visual storytelling. think Possum (2018) or Undertale's Omega Flowey or the Xenomorph Queen - unique change in medium, unique change in graphic, unique change in design language, etc. in that sense I actually really like how canon baron plays out: they don't really function like anything else in the fantasy high universe, the bad kids have not managed to kill them when they've felled literal gods, their domain in fhjy literally introduces new mechanics to encompass their existence! from an experience design standpoint they slap mad shit. BUT! I can't help finding their character, like as a character riz (and the other bad kids, eventually) interact with, to be very... coherent? in design. this is kinda hard for me to articulate in words, it's more often a sense you get once you've looked at enough of these scrumptious fuckers, their general design and the way they show up is just kinda too clean, so to say. always kinda newly made? fresh unboxed. it, once again, makes sense for their lore - they are looking for more about themself from riz - and their function - they're an antagonist in a game experience, they're meant to be interacted with in a way that produces results and meshes with the existing magic circle - but that shininess takes away from the implied history they should have dominion over and the person they're haunting doesn't.

from another angle there is kinda something there about how put-together canon baron is as a concept; the domain they call home is riz's deep-seeded fears, extremely vulnerable things he's drawn borders around to quarantine and refused to walk into. things that from his perspective would irreversibly shatter certain pleasant fictions his world is built on top of. canon baron, While Extremely Cool, I feel is kinda too neat to connect with and signify the apocalyticized mess that'd result from this paradigm shift. the part where they're in riz's briefcase and looking through every mirror is Very Cool And Fucked Up! but ultimately the show draws a line around them as well, by making game-physical, tangible spaces they're in (the mirrors and the haunted mordred manor) and put riz and the bad kids there only when they need to confront stuff. riz is meaningfully narratively away from baron's unknown land for most of fantasy high.

with that and all of my disclaimers in mind my conclusion here is if canon baron wants to be a Horror Monster they'd have to cross way more lines. be a Lot more invasive. hence (holds up my class swap baron like a long cat)

[an-abyss-of-stars]

Idk how, idk where, but I'll create a whole new fic if it means I can put Rhaena in a shimmering water-like sheer dress!!!

JUST LIKEE... SHE'D LOOK SO GOOD IN SOMETHING LIKE THIS, ESPECIALLY THE 1st ONE!! LIKE I'm blinded by the beauty of the first ONEEEE

Like there's certainly modern au potential, and maybe I'll squeeze it in somehow 🤔🤔

BUT ALSO, I have the vaguest idea for a dark au where Aemond has won the Dance, everyone else is dead, but he's specifically spared Rhaena to be his Valyrian Queen (like a real Henry VI situation where he needs to marry Elizabeth of York because he needs legitimatize his own claim as well as sure up his line with the blood/relations to the last dynasty blah blah). BUT OF COURSE, this is less of a chore for him, because he absolutely WANTS to marry her, but he's still the guy who helped kill her entire family, so she absolutely hates him with the hot intensity of a thousand suns 😂😂

I imagine for his faction of fucked up Lords and Knights who rallied for him, he keeps Rhaena safely locked away in a tower or special chambers 🤔🤔

This wedding is being forced upon her, it's her safest option, but she's still marrying a mad man who lusts for her, AND THIS SHEER VELVETY IRIDESCENT DRESS IS THE WEDDING DRESS 😳😳

Please that's all I have for this 🤣🤣

[suffarustuffaru]

I don’t speak Japanese so I’d LOVE to hear more about the differences between the English and Japanese Re:Zero fandoms

yeah sure its very interesting to me now that ive noticed it more lately :o !! though ok disclaimer - i dont speak japanese either hah so if anyone is seeing this and does speak japanese + is familiar with the japanese speaking side of this fandom please add info if youd like!! and of course ill be mainly speaking from the english side of things bc im more familiar with that yes (sorry anon again im not a japanese speaker T^TT so sorry if i tread on info you already know!!). but yeah im speaking from my own experiences given the Topic at hand. ive been in this fandom since... 2019?? which is so wild to me aljsdfljsd.

anyway so - i think the big difference is mainly that the english fandom and many english speaking people that engage with rezero are. to put it bluntly, misconception runs Rampant to a very Interesting degree. to the point where it seems like the english speaking side of the fandom is More. Aggressive. than the japanese fandom. not that the japanese speaking side of the fandom is perfect - also bc what fandom is ever perfect 100% of the time, tbh - but that the louder people in the english rezero fandom are. well its a Very low bar. Very low. and from what little ive seen and heard so far, the japanese fandom tends to understand rezero and its characters better than the english fandom. which ig makes sense bc you know, rezero is japanese media, and also im sure cultural differences come into play here as well (im not familiar enough on this to speak about it in depth but the cultural differences feel Pretty Clear even though i cant 100% put my finger on what they specifically are).

but also bc yeah. its not That hard to beat some of the english fandom when it comes to media comprehension. misreading rezero is unfortunately Extremely common, both in and out of the rezero community. its Everywhere - youtube, myanimelist, ao3, ff.net, reddit, twitter, various rezero discords - and from what ive experienced, rezero tumblr basically kind of feels like finding an oasis after crawling through the desert for days on end lajdslfjs. which is probs bc rezero tumblr is Smaller and also a lot of us seem to be lgbtq+ in some way or be allies, so you dodge a lot of the misogyny and homophobia that happens in other rezero english circles. its why you see a lot of openly queer rezero-related posts on here while its a bit more. barren. in other rezero english places yes. bc its more safe to post queer rezero things on rezero tumblr rather than rezero reddit for Sure.

im not sure how the japanese fandom is with that exactly but theres some interesting differences between whats popular in the english fandom vs the japanese fandom. i mean as an otto fan ive been noticing how hes more popular with the japanese fandom—and on top of that, ottosuba is Way More popular in the japanese fandom too. reinsuba and julisuba seem to usually be the most popular mlm subaru ships in both fandoms but ottosuba is like A Little Up There in the japanese fandom. not sure if its on the same level as a ship like reinsuba but ottosubas Definitely loved as a ship. from what little ive seen it also seems like ships like vichisha are more acknowledged by the japanese fandom? im not entirely sure on like—Complete differences regarding what the japanese fandom finds interesting that may differ from english fandom, so ill really have to look more into the japanese fandoms fanart and fanfic when i can bc im pretty curious too. in general though, it seems like the japanese fandom has a bit more variety…. you can find fanart on So Many characters in rezero (which already has a very Massive cast full of very fleshed out characters) there. not that you cant in the english fandom bc theres a Bit of variety too, but id more so contribute that a little more to the Big Cast and less to having actual variety in fancontent. and of course im not saying that the japanese fandom may be a bit barren in some areas of fancontent—bc inevitably when u have a big cast of characters, side character content is gonna be more sparse compared to the main characters, but to me it does feel like the english fandom lacks variety in comparison. (and also yeah. seems like the japanese fandom acknowledges gay ships more in general tbh.)

whats focused in fancontent makes it easy to tell what may be popular in a fandom in terms of how fans perceive the source material and what fandoms want to do with the source material, if that makes sense. and its very easy to tell that with the english fandom if you just hop on rezero ao3–or even better, rezero reddit given theres a fanfic ideas thread thats usually pinned right at the top of the site. again i havent looked at japanese fanfic for rezero yet (bc i dont know where to look oops ajdndn) but when it comes to the english fandom you can tell that theyre generally more focused on the female cast both in fanart and in fanfic bc. theyre women and many fans on say, reddit or various rezero discords, are cis straight men, so inevitably… well lets just say you can tell when a man makes content for this fandom o.o theres also the. very weird reaction fic trends and trends following popular fics in the fandom, the two biggest being the watching him die again and again react fic and re:forgotten, the former of which includes a harem plot with subaru and the main girls of rezero while the latter is one of those subaru gets tortured by his ooc friends and then he gets revenge on them fics. which i suppose says something about the english fandom too.

of course on ao3 its dominated mainly by english fics (of course not all fics on there for rezero are in english— big shoutout to all the non english fics on rezero ao3 ur doing great <3 — but the majority are in english). and while yeah ur occasionally gonna find stuff like queer content or side character content or rarepair content, its definitely not that big in amount and also comes with the risk of. Hate. if anyones reading this and remembers the lone star stuff. (if u dont know—lone star was a julius x emilia fic where they NTR subaru or some shit and then it got bombed with hate bc of the ship? yeah.) so yeah english fandom is very cis straight oriented, ironically with the nastiest people being the very people that rezero criticizes. though this is also my personal experience, i do know several people personally whove been in this fandom for a while or were here for a while and yeah english fandom isnt very welcoming at times???? and it seems like at the very least the japanese fandom is A Little Less Aggressive than the english fandom is.

otherwise. yeah im very very curious about more of the differences in popular content between the japanese vs english fandom. i mean the english fandom’s main focus on the female cast for. Interesting Reasons other than their actual character depth is… interesting. and the astreas being popular in general vs otto + ottosubas popularity fluctuating is also very interesting to me (but i have several guesses as to Why that is), among other things. yeah id love to know what else the japanese fandom likes about rezero and see more of their content. i also have to wonder if characters like emilia and subaru are hated less by the japanese fandom…. T^T well that and the english fandom and many english speaking people engaging in rezero have this interesting pattern of either hating subaru No Matter What, wanting subaru to Not Be Subaru (ie using him as a self insert almost or attempting to change him into virtually another character), or putting subaru on a pedestal and ignoring his flaws and mistakes and that he Can do wrong. like theres Really not a lot of nuance there. so i wonder if the japanese fandom is. A Little more chill when it comes to character opinions like this too.

[auriidae]

my brother and i went on a 4-hour walk to a different town and back today and recited, like, the entirety of the steven universe movie from memory (complete with songs!)... both of us have only seen it twice but we are both Insane 👍 it was very fun!

[dennisboobs]

god hole is a fundamental dennis scene but not because of the way everyone else uses it

[inkblackorchid]

Ok, first off? The drama in these episodes is exquisite. The occult nonsense. Jack being his usual bullheaded self. The pizzazz and theatrics of the duel. The familiar of an ancient destructive spirit playing a freaking card game. Delicious.

I just wish any of this made sense, like. Worldbuilding-wise. Or even characterisation-wise.

Like, we can agree that the super-old, ten times as powerful extra Earthbound Immortal had about as much setup as Black-Winged Dragon did (which is none), right?

(Also, what the hell is that thing. Was it too much to ask to at least stick with the visual theme of the other Earthbound Immortals??)

And don't get me started on the whole "Jack's solution to needing a strategy that doesn't rely on power is to get one that relies on even more power". Like. Bestie. I love you, but that's not how anything works. And while the concept of burning soul and everything is pretty cool and does go with Jack's character (he's the guy who doesn't know when to quit so having the power of the man who also did not give up despite overwhelming odds is neat), it just doesn't feel like something that goes organically with the rest of the signer lore.

(That said, I adore the narrative parallel of Yusei gaining a new power from the future while Jack gains one from the ancient past, and Yusei's being themed around a clear mind while Jack's is themed around an unwavering, burning soul that does not give up. Narrative symmetry, babeyyyyyy)

So yeah. Bit conflicted on this mini-arc. I love the drama and pizzazz, and think it fits Jack pretty well (and I do appreciate the brief return to magical bs VS sci-fi bs, tbh), there are just a lot of things here that confuse me. On a rewatch perhaps even more than the first time around. Not really feeling strongly enough about it to rant, though, so I guess in the end my reaction this time around goes something like this: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[scalproie]

Domesticated Post-Tekken 2 Era Kazuya is my favorite to think about because this would be so good for him and everyone else but he would have an absolutely miserable time during it

[ossydrawsthingz335]

nailtag!!!!! *crowd goes insane drinks start flying people start screaming*

also designs inspired by nailtagyuri on tumblr plz plzplz follow them they inspired me a lot grabs you by the shoulders and scre

[aromanticasterisms]

read through all of neuvillette's stories on the wiki and. what do you MEAN people were right about him giving furina her vision

[morninkim]

Rise of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - The Phantom Ranger

Her daughter's identity as the Green Ranger exposed to her. Promethea Base shut down and cordoned off following it's near destruction by Rita and the Dark Dragonzord. Grace Oliver puts her skills to the test, repurposing salvaged alien tech to create her own morpher and become the Phantom Ranger!

Though not as advanced as the Power Rangers' suits and much more crude, the Phantom Ranger armor still measures up and proves a match to the new and improved Z-Putties that have begun to appear following Rita's defeat. However, Grace's new powers create more tension between her and her daughter as she once again hides her activities from Tommy.

That, coupled with her need to keep her daughter safe, has the potential to cost her dearly if she isn't careful.

[newtsnaturethings]

Huevember Day 3

WEST VIRIGINIAAAAAAAA

MOUNTAIN MAMAAAAAAA

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

like literally what is c!Punz’s personality anymore. he likes power. okay is that it. he was nice to c!clingy in the past and mourned c!tommy’s death even under egg possession and now he’s making fun of c!tommy being suicidal because… ??? he had zero reason to fake that, was he just lying for the sake of the camera? he’s loyal to c!dream, but c!dream literally just ignores him the second c!tommy says something so why does he give a shit. we are not shown a close relationship, seeing them in the finale makes it seem like c!Punz is chasing the friendship of a man who literally doesn’t give a fuck about him and literally doesn’t at all talk to him even when he’s begging him to the second he has a chance to hang out with c!tommy. why is he willing to die for his ideals? why is he putting himself through agony for power? does he have a single fucking character motivation? he’s literally not a character at this point he’s just a deus ex machina to make it so c!dream can’t die. and that’s a fucking bullshit thing to do with a character.

[lock-my-feelings-in-a-jar]

/slips out of an album sleeve/

i watched the beginning of what that anon sent then left for fear of losing my final brain cell

WELL the other person's reaction to it after that made me laugh, but yeah that part. i have no words

[mechahero]

designing a kid lambda outside of a kid meme. he has his father’s face