#obviously other people will get other things out of these stories

[jamiepaige]

Constant Companions Closeup #3: ROT FOR CLOUT

(also on bandcamp and spotify!)

WHAT'S going on guys, welcome back to another Constant Companions Closeup, the show where we take a DEEP DIVE into what makes these tunes tick! Last episode, we went aaaaaall the way there on Not Quite There, and today, we're making that liggity-line go up up up up up with ROT FOR CLOUT featuring VISUALEYES!! Before we get started, remember to SMASH that like button, SLAM subscribe, and FUCK the bell icon. This week's community challenge: leave your credit card info in the comments! Bet you won't!

(*cough*)

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I check my notifications way too fucking much. It's a habit I'm trying to curb, and to my credit, I am doing better lately, but being chemically predisposed to dopamine deficiencies has done a number on my ability to go five minutes without checking the funny glowing numbers on my phone. Naturally, I also very much seek more validation than I should from the opinions of strangers yadayadayada yeah that's what the song is about but none of that actually has to do with why I started writing this song in the first place.

Have you ever taken a flight with American Airlines?

This was after waking up at 4 in the morning to fly out of Houston thinking I'd be napping on a couch in Ohio by 2 pm at the latest.

I want to make one thing clear here, and that's that I made this bed for myself. Tucked the sheets in and all. You see, on the rare occasions I fly, I normally take Southwest. Southwest does not overbook flights like a lot of other airlines do, so it's a practice I am mostly unfamiliar with. So, when I received a notification on my phone promising genuinely ridiculous amounts of flight credit money in exchange for taking a slightly later flight, I thought - well, shit! That sounds nice!

This is how they trick you. I didn't really realize I'd been tricked until I was on my second flight of the day, sitting in a middle seat at the very back of the plane, heading from Dallas, a city I don't live in, to Washington, DC, a city I was not trying to get to, staring down the barrel of another flight I was destined to get on that had been delayed like two fucking hours.

I became the Joker. All I could do to remain sane was write a song about it. This is how ROT FOR CLOUT came to be.

I guess the moral of the story is this: Don't go to Ohio. And to answer your question,

Yes I am

Not really

No

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This is a complete sidenote but I want to mention it here: I'm genuinely overjoyed at the amount of people excitedly talking about my songwriting or the intention behind my lyrics. For a long time, it really felt like lyricism was the last thing people cared about from me, while it was always the thing I wanted to take pride in the most... So genuinely, thank you everyone for caring!! Every single fire emoji people have put next to a line I've written has extended my lifespan by multiple years

There's a brief little moment where the song's chords leave the key, doing a really stereotypically jazzy 2-5 movement, and it's one of my favorite parts of the entire song. I'm not really a music theory buff or anything, and I'm certainly not formally trained, but I've always been very passionate about more complicated harmony in otherwise poppy and accessible contexts - bo en's album pale machine really rewrote my brain when I first heard it.

On that note, there are microtones in the vocal melody - During the chorus, some of the rapidly repeated words move up in quarter tones! Possibly the simplest way I could've included microtonality, but I'm genuinely afraid if I learn more than what I already know about it I'll be lost to the darkness.

Obviously, the work of Sasuke Haraguchi was a massive influence on this song, particularly the song Igaku. I think basically everyone on the entire planet has picked up on that at this point, but I do also wanna point out some other songs that were on my mind at the time! (two for three on these posts mentioning louis cole now)

I'd also like to take a moment to spotlight the vocal samples on this! They previously appeared on エビチャーハン!, and they've honestly become some of my favorite samples to throw in things. They're also just a fucking goldmine sincerely

Finally, HUGE thanks to Visualeyes for the delightful synth solo on this!! I had put out a call on Twitter looking for instrumentalists, genuinely originally envisioning a super jazzy piano solo, but their synth playing genuinely brought the whole song together perfectly!

That's about it for this song - though again, if there are any more questions people have, I'd be happy to answer them in the replies to this post or elsewhere!! (*ahem*) THAT'S gonna do it for today's video, folks! Feel free to leave a like, comment, hit the subscribe button for more and click the bell so you don't miss any new videos. Tomorrow? I Wish That I Could Fall. it hurts.

[dogtoling]

General life- and blog update , since I assume at least a few people might have been wondering where I've been and what i've been up to recently. I obviously haven't been posting or drawing much this year in general. This will probably be an important post if you care about stuff on this blog, and I already rambled on Sheezy, but that site isn't very populated yet and it's also very good at hiding journals so let's just ramble again...

The summary of this post if you hate reading: I'm heavily considering just stepping away from Splatoon. That decision obviously would affect this blog (mostly, my OCs, which is kinda most of the blog at this point). I don't think the blog itself will go anywhere, and I'll probably use it for something in the future... alternatively i'll cherry pick stuff from here into an archive for people who like the worldbuilding.

Longer post under cut:

So what have I been up to this year? The answer is quite simple: NOTHING. Like, actually absolutely nothing. Aside from Art Fight, this has probably been one of my worst art output years of all time, which is really frustrating. That's between my horrendous mental health and depression chasms this year and a complete lack of both focus and inspiration (which can also get chalked down to the depression to a degree, yeah). So the very real reason to why there hasn't been much activity on this blog this year is because I just haven't Done Anything in general.

Now because I know there will be a few people who think "that's fine! you shouldn't judge yourself based on productivity!" you're right! I also agree. However the issue for me specifically is that most (if not all) the time I spend NOT drawing or creating, I spend sitting around wishing I could start drawing or creating, because that is like the 1 thing that keeps me sane on this freaking earth. Unfortunately coming up with OC scenarios in my head doesn't really result in output I can feel fulfilled by in any form as much as I wish it did, lol.

Now; The Issue. It doesn't take a genius to see that if you spend 9 months trying to finish like a dozen OC pages that you COULD do in a week or 2 if you wanted to, then there's probably more than just the problem of executive dysfunction (even though that's at least 60% of it for sure). Obviously my other major problem is that I live by imaginary rules and structures that make sense, but aren't actually useful at ALL in reality and are more than a hindrance if anything (the mental to do-list in my head that says i can't do X until I've done Y doesn't do very much if task Y takes 10 months and I also don't want to do it, and it also has no structured ending).

How does this tie into stepping away from Splatoon, you may ask. Well, the issue is that I have foreseeably fallen out of love with the series. Which isn't exactly news lol. Currently, I'm not even sure i will get the next game, if and when the time comes. Yes, the loss of interest is also expected, given that Splatoon 3 has ended and every fandom has this kind of downtime and lukewarm in-between-titles period. But the truth is that modern Splatoon (almost 10 years old!!!!) is tangibly different from the way the series was back when I fell in love with it. That was Splatoon 1, and while the series has improved in a lot of aspects and is thriving, it's grown in a direction that I just don't really like. Splatoon 3 had the most freaking horrendous, immersion breaking story mode they could've done, then they followed it up with a DLC story that was pretty cool but also compounded a lot of my fears about the series' future and played into every single thing i do not want Splatoon stories to be - fully character focused, random fucking villain, mundane event that's unrealistically world-threatening just because a kids video game needs a scary climax even though it's immersion breaking AGAIN, the whole thing taking place in cyberspace and thus offering basically no worldbuilding even though there is SO MUCH WORLD. I COULD GO ON.

The gist of it is that nowadays, rather than playing Splatoon and being inspired and excited at what comes next, I mostly find myself dreading what dumbass plot they will do next to throw a wrench in the otherwise good stuff. And when that's like THE main approach I have to what's supposed to be my favorite series, it is HARROWING. I can't even really blame the game for this; the story is NOT its selling point, the developers probably do their best to get the bits to us that they really want to tell, and at the end of the day the game is unfortunately a product. Worldbuilding for Splatoon is fun to a point. It's less fun when in order to actually write or create something coherent, instead of filling in the blanks, the blanks are 90% of the freaking thing. At that point you're just better off making something of your own instead of being anchored onto an IP that gives more problems than answers and occasionally shoots you with like a machine gun. Working in the realm of Splatoon is frustrating because more often than not, the questions I have ARE NOT MINE TO ANSWER, and the likelihood that the specific-ass questions I need answers to will ever be actually addressed is really low.

Tying this back to my OCs. Obviously I love my OCs more than I love myself which admittedly isn't that high of a bar but you get the point. The problem is that I spend a lot of time mulling over worldbuilding that, again, frankly isn't mine to do. Because if I want it to be Splatoon, then it should be mostly accurate to how Splatoon is! But the problem with that is that there's really not THAT MUCH worldbuilding in the series that you can work with, and most of the core game mechanics are just abstract enough that it's actually horrendous to try and come up with workarounds and ways for things to make sense that don't require just constructing a full knockoff version mirror dimension of the game and saying fuck everything that's in place here because Inkopolis Plaza literally has no roads in or out of there and I have no fucking idea how that's allowed when your only option is to jump the fence (or, nowadays, take the train which also isnt connected to a street as far as I remember). Between the face value issue and the lack of REALLY IMPORTANT worldbuilding, like - I will always come back to this - THE INK TANK'S FUNCTION 10 YEARS DOWN THE LINE - there's a goddamn ocean of plot holes and things that end up being obstacles to creativity rather than inspiration. I feel like I'm pretty solidly at the point (and have been for a while) where hanging onto Splatoon is really only contributing to creativity block and frustration with lack of freedom and the ability to actually do things.

So I guess those are my reasonings that I've put together just sitting here for the time being. The TL;DR is that I wish I could just do stuff without Splatoon's canon getting in the way, which is a really stupid problem to have if you're making Splatoon OCs. I feel this frustration extremely strongly every time I have to work with actual bigger aspects of the world; we still don't have an Inkopolis map, we don't know what the world around Inkopolis looks like, we don't know what the wilderness is like aside from Just Normal Forest and Desert and very few snippets as to what modern wildlife MIGHT be, I still don't know how the fuck the Inklings teleport to the goddamn arctic ocean to play a turf war at Shipshape Cargo co. These are all actually really important things if you're trying to establish a setting in any kind of storytelling that's outside of immediate city bounds (and even there, you need to know the layout of the city and its important areas). Also a fucking mutant bear and a baby salmon and a squid not wearing suitable gear went to space and fought on a rocket in space. These are some things that would give me peace of mind to not have to deal with in my own writing, probably.

So where do we go from here? Unsure. I haven't really made a decision on this front yet, though right now I'm leaning more towards actually going ahead with trying to do my own thing. That will result in obvious design and setting changes for my OCs whenever I get around to it. This blog probably won't go anywhere (again, unless I impulse delete it during a mood swing like i've almost done on like three separate occasions this year), but it will probably get less use, and I will probably end up making a new blog to post about whatever I end up doing once I get to a point where it feels like it makes sense. There's a chance that I will delete this blog and put all the interesting stuff on an archive blog for the people who are here just for the worldbuilding. My actual true passion for a long time now hasn't even been Splatoon anymore, it's just been cephalopods. I'm kind of done having Splatoon get in the way of the cephalopods, as thankful as I am that it introduced me to them...

If you read this to the end heres a treat for you = 🍪

[justin-chapmanswers]

hi Justin! just want to say I ADORE ii and it's one of my favourite shows out there; actually inspired me to start my own!

which is a lame segue into my question- do you have any advice for someone wanting to make their own show?

That's so exciting!! Art makes art!

Oh golly uhhhh. There's so so much to say in so many different departments. So. I'll keep it broad and of course anyone can ask more specific questions haha.

My go-to advice tends to be for creators to start as small as possible early on. Even if you aspire to create projects that are huge-in-scale down the line. So much about becoming a great artist involves moving through the stages of your art (whatever type it may be!) from start-to-finish, every step of the process, over and over and over again. So say in show creation, idk if you plan to be hands-on in every department or if you have a lot of help, but that could mean breaking down stories and outlining, writing, recording, constructing audio scenes and boarding, character and prop and background design, animating, music assembly, mixing, finalizing and editing, etc, over and over again. Obviously not every step may be involved in your project depending on what your goal is, but whatever it is that you do, do it sooooooooo many times.

While there's nothing inherently wrong with jumping in and making your first project something say, movie-length, or something immensely complex in scope, I do find it can, for many (not all) be limiting when it comes to learning a lot of fundamental building-blocks in craft. As well, I see a lot of people get lost in an overwhelming project, trying to focus on quality>quantity right out of the gate. But spending the majority of your time just on adding some extra polish as opposed to running through the whole process again and again can only do so much for you. Obviously, a mentality of quality>quantity is great once you have a strong baseline understanding of production. But again, I think it's a huge plus to work on shorts and teeny-projects to start.

Since the above is pretty dry, I'll add an additional fun one. I've found that a lot of newer artists will toss away the concepts that make them joyous in hopes that they can instead create something that fits an objective perception of "professional." Nothing wrong with that, but I strongly advise artists of all levels of experience to toss everything they've love about the world and other media into their work. Their favorite genres and tropes, the stupid inside jokes that make them light up with their friends that they can invite the audience in-on, adaptations of stories that have made them cry. Create the things YOU love to experience. It's fine to let go of what you think the audience wants. Cause that's not easily guessable. But what YOU enjoy is something certain to you. It's sorta like how they say, it's better to go to the gym and do an suboptimal-but-fun workout that keeps you coming every day than a perfect workout that leads you to quitting. Share your joy with the world, and someone will resonate!

Be silly, be cringe, have fun!

[felassan]

Paste Magazine: 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s Creative Director Talks Restoring the Lore'

Rest of post under cut due to length and possible spoilers.

"“I was the one cinematic person who always snuck their way into all the writing meetings because I love storytelling,” [John] Epler tells Paste. “I love narrative, and they wanted me to be Narrative Director on the franchise.” When the Creative Director position opened up later on, Epler was primed for the role thanks to his experience across multiple aspects of game design.  ‘They wanted someone who had a good relationship with the people on the team, who could work across disciplines, and who knew the story,” Epler explains. “You know, knew the franchise and its storytelling. Because I think for Dragon Age in particular, narrative is such a core part of the franchise’s identity. They wanted someone who could operate in that space, but also knew how to work with gameplay, work with design, work with art, and that was something that, with both QA and cinematics, I had learned to do. I think just a history of being always willing to do whatever was necessary and also having good relationships with most people on the team helped me out.” As creative director on Veilguard, Epler worked with a team that fluctuated in size from a dozen to several dozen depending on which phase of development it was in. And given Epler’s history with cinematic design, that team worked closely with narrative to craft the kind of epic story Dragon Age and Bioware are known for. “Storytelling is huge, probably the biggest part of Dragon Age: The Veilguard,” Epler reminds us."

---

"Paste: When you’re bringing back a series after a decade, how do you decide what threads to pick back up on, which characters to use, which lore to focus on, etc.? John Epler: It is going to sound very cliche, but it is true: It honestly comes as we build it. We knew a couple of core parts of the story. From the end of Trespasser, for good or for ill, we pretty much determined where we were going and what we were going to be doing. It was about the chase, the search for Solas. Solas had been very clear in his ambitions to end the world at the end of Trespasser. And, you know, at the end of the very final scene of Trespasser, we stabbed a knife, a dagger, into the map on Tevinter. So we kind of knew we wanted to go to Tevinter. We knew we wanted to chase Solas. Now that said, as the story started being constructed, and we discovered, okay, where else do we want to go, what characters make the most sense in this story, that kind of determines what lore threads we want to start pulling on. So without getting too much into spoilers, obviously, Scout Harding has a story that’s very focused on the dwarves and their history; Shery Chee started writing Harden’s ark, and realized, okay, this is actually something we’re going to want to dive into more deeply. Belarra’s story is very focused on the ancient elves, not just the gods, but who they were. So that became a lore thread we wanted to pull on.  As far as returning characters for us, it really does come down to who has the most to say about what’s going on in the world. Who is the most likely to be involved in this particular story. And I think, most importantly, this is something that we always talk about, is who has more to say in their story, whose story isn’t over. Because one of the things that I don’t necessarily want to do, I don’t want to bring back a character just so they show up and then disappear. That doesn’t necessarily do that character justice, but it also contributes to what you do see in some franchises, which is a sense of small world syndrome, where there’s literally 30 or 40 important people in this whole world, and they all somehow know each other.  But again, you know, you see Morrigan in the in the previews, and as we’re writing the stories like, well, of course, Morrigan, who is the daughter of Flemeth, who was at least an aspect of the goddess Mythal, one of the ancient elven gods, she probably has something to say or something to do in a story about the last two elven gods escaping. So, yeah, it comes down to who has something interesting to say, who has something more to say in their story, and who do we feel makes the most sense for where we’re going and what we’re doing."

"Paste: Sticking to the long gap between the last two games, what are the challenges in trying to make a satisfying continuation of that story without making it impenetrable for new players who maybe weren’t old enough to have really played Dragon Age in the past? John Epler: Well, I think it was funny because, on the one hand, yeah, the challenge is, you’re trying to tell another chapter of a story that’s been dormant for at this point nearly a decade. But it’s funny because I do think that actually ends up working to our benefit. For the second question, we cannot assume anything about what players remember. Because even people who were playing Origins, were playing Inquisition, all the DLC, they may not have done so for quite some time. And obviously some players are going to like—I mean, I see it all on social media, people doing their final Inquisition playthrough before Veilguard, which is great, but you have to assume that people don’t remember everything that happened. You have to re-onboard them back to the world, back to the lore, and you’re also bringing in new players. I think honestly, for Veilguard, one of the things that’s worked the most to our benefit is that this is a continuation of that story, but the context changes so dramatically within the first hour. You know you’re going after Solas, you know the first mission. We’ve always said we wanted it to feel like the last mission of a different game. But then you get to him, the ritual crumbles, the gods come out. And now, even if you’ve been following this story up to this point, for everyone, it’s just a sharp left turn. Solas is no longer the central antagonist of this at this moment, it’s now these two new figures, which means Rook, you know, you as a player character, but also the player themselves… You need to bring them back into this story, because nobody, including the people who’ve been playing forever, know what’s going on at this point. So it’s actually a really great way to do the first couple of hours, because you can’t assume everyone is coming into it with the same level of grounding in the story itself. Some people are gonna have more lore. And one of the things we do try to do is, anytime we introduce a proper lore term, I use Venatori as an example, we always try to pair it with a more commonly understood phrase. So “Venatori” and “cultists” always go together in the first few hours of the game. “Evanuris” and “elven gods” always go together in the first few hours of the game, but done in a way that doesn’t feel like the game is like, “Hey, don’t worry, we’re going to tell you everything.” It feels natural the way the people in the world talk about it. So you encounter Strike and Irelin, two of the Veil Jumpers, early on, and they use the terms interchangeably in a way that allows players who don’t know as much about the world to get what all these things mean. Like I said, it’s just the context of the stories. The story shifts so dramatically in those first couple hours that everyone is catching up, even the characters, even, you know, Harding is still trying to figure out what the heck is going on."

"Paste: Speaking of what’s going on, in Veilguard we have a new character as the protagonist, Rook. What’s happening with the Inquisitor and the protagonists from the first two games? What are they doing in this world now, assuming they survived their games? John Epler: One of our storytelling philosophies is, for us, especially when it comes to importing, is unless we explicitly say so, assume that those characters are still around. So what we do, because this is the story of Solas and the Inquisitor has a very direct tie to Solas, the Inquisitor does show up in Veilguard. I’m not going to tune into spoilers, or what the role is, but it would have been very strange for us to tell the story of Solas without having the Inquisitor involved, because, again, they were part of that story. As to the previous two protagonists, they’re still around; that said, their personal arcs, their stories that they were part of in their games, aren’t as directly tied into this story, either narratively or geographically. We’re now in the north of Thedas. So the Hero of Ferelden, who you know, if your hero survived, one of the things we talked about is they were looking for a cure to the Calling. They’re not going to necessarily be involved in this because they weren’t tied to the elven gods, and the blight is still present elsewhere. And Hawke, depending on what you did in Inquisition, may be deep in the Fade, or they may have gone to work with the Wardens and also engage with the Hero of Ferelden at some point. So we’re not going to say much about them because they’re not directly related to the story, but we want players to understand the fact that we’re not saying anything about them because they’re still alive. They’re still doing something."

"Paste: A lot has changed in the world of games and game design in the last decade. How has the creative process of creating a Dragon Age like Veilguard changed over that time? How was making Veilguard different than Inquisition? John Epler: I’d say the biggest change for me has been leaning much more heavily into pre-production on everything. So one of the things that we’d done on Inquisition, I was a cinematic designer on it, we didn’t really have the sense of storyboarding, of previsualization the way we do now. But with Veilguard, one of the things we did very early on is we built the entire story in Twine so we could play through and see the interaction points, see the word branch, and get the sense of how it was flowing, how it was coming together. Beyond that, very heavy use of previsualization, whether storyboards or actual white box, in-engine—or, I say “in-engine,” but, you know, in Maya—models, moving together, figuring out how these shots work. But I mean, ultimately, a lot of the same processes are in use now that we did then. Writing does peer reviews, they still do the same peer reviews. Take your work, you put it in front of the group, and you basically say tear it apart. Let me know what works, what doesn’t work. But I do think the other thing that’s been a great change since Inquisition is there’s a lot more sense of… if you’re building a level, you’re not just bringing in the level designers and level artists, you’re bringing in the gameplay people, you’re bringing in writing, you’re bringing in, you know, all these different groups to kind of build the feel, build the shape. Not to say Inquisition wasn’t collaborative, but I will say, as someone who worked on it, I felt much more like each pod was kind of an entity onto itself, you know, doing this thing, but not really touching the other parts of the game. In Veilguard, we very much wanted people to understand how their work fit into the whole that we were building. So there was a lot more sense of collaboration. And then, you know, more practically, COVID happened while we were making this game and brought work-from-home, remote work in general. I’m doing this interview from my basement right now, but in general, people are working more distributedly, so there becomes a much higher premium on communication. And like, we use Slack pretty extensively, and the sense of like, talking to people as much as you need to, as much as you can communicate broadly, and information sharing, I think, has become a much bigger part of it."

"Paste: So having the different departments less siloed, like it used to be, how has that impacted the day-to-day experience for a Bioware employee. Are they working more or less hours now that things are more collaborative? John Epler: I think it depends on who you are. And, I mean, I’d say generally less but again, it depends. I will say for myself, I have difficulty because of work-from-home. And this is a personal thing. I don’t always have the best separation between work and life because sometimes it’ll be like, nine o’clock at night and you’ll be like, oh, you know what? I just had this really great idea, I’m going to hop on and do something about it. That used to mean driving back to the office. So I will say now I’m not in the office, which is great. For me, one of the greatest things about this has been, I have a personal rule of I don’t ever do work between the time my kids come home and when they go to bed, which means I get to be fully involved as a parent. But then, like I said, 9:30 comes along [and the kids are in bed], and, you know, I think because I’m creative director, it’s a little bit different. I gotta jump in and be like, oh, I want to do this. So I think, you know, it depends on the person. But I think what it’s done is, in general, allowed a lot more freedom in defining your hours. And we do have some people who are not morning people, so maybe they don’t get up and jump on as early, but then I’ll see them later at night, and they’re doing the work that they would have done. And I think that freedom for me has been, and I think I can speak for a lot of people, has been probably the best part of how things have changed."

"Paste: So something else that’s changed in games over the last decade, I guess it really became standard right before Inquisition came out, and it’s something that’s been a constant problem for many people who are creatives in many different mediums. But some of the fans and fan accounts online and how they react to games and designers and games media, starting with what they call GamerGate. What are your thoughts on that type of fan interaction and how has it impacted the Veilguard team? John Epler: Anytime you get fan feedback, the question I always ask is, what is it that they’re actually saying? And, you know, sometimes it is literally what’s coming out, what they’re typing. But a lot of times, from whatever group it’s from, there’s a sense that they’re speaking to something deeper, something that’s, you know… I think ultimately, for me, it comes down to understanding and being confident in your vision which means you take the fan feedback, you can look at it, you can decide what you do or don’t do with it. But one of the most—I don’t want to say challenging, but one of, I think, the easiest traps to fall into is a feeling that you need to be, “oh God, they don’t like this, and they don’t like this, change this, change this.” And I think there’s a sense of, if you have a vision that you’re comfortable with, are confident in, you continue to stick with that vision, you can make make adjustments, make tweaks based on what people get excited or don’t get excited about. But I think the other side of it is, when you’re releasing news, you’re doing press events, you’re talking about the game, you’re only giving people a small slice and a decision that may, for them, like, “I cannot believe that, why would they do this,” makes a lot more sense when you know the context of the decision as a whole. And I’ll say it for myself, one of the bigger examples of this was when the Yakuza series went from action to JRPG, turn based RPG, and I’m like, “Oh, this is so weird. I don’t know. I don’t know how I feel about this. You know, this feels like a very strange shift.” When I played the game, like, “oh yeah, holy smokes, this makes so much sense.” They made it make sense narratively. They made it make sense from the gameplay perspective. So I always try to remind myself, like we know the game as a whole. We know all the pieces and how they fit together. When you get that feedback again, you can look at it. Some feedback is obviously better than others. Some feedback is more, you know, is more interesting, and more does more for us than others. But again, it comes down to know the game you’re building, be confident in the game you’re building, and don’t try to design by committee, because ultimately, everyone has a different thing that they want out of the game, and a lot of people, even themselves, will have two very contradictory things that they want out of a game. So you have to be careful not to overreact and water down what you’re building into something that I would describe as, you know, mushy. You don’t ever want to be in the mushy middle. You want to make a strong statement with your game and how your vision evolves, and stick with that."

"Paste: Where do you hope to see Dragon Age go from here? John Epler: Honestly, I love telling stories in this world, and I think one of the fun things about the ending of this game and some of the seeds that it sows for the future is the sense that everything you thought you knew, maybe you weren’t as right as you thought you were. And that stuff like using the unreliable narrator. It’s fun to be able to take that and apply it to things that you as a player experienced, and then see that there’s an additional layer. Context that you didn’t have at the time that now throws into questions some of what’s going on. So again, I’m trying to be as vague as possible to avoid spoilers. But I do like the idea of—because one of the things, the other side of it is Thedas is one continent in this world. There’s still a whole other world out there. And I think, you know, for myself, I kind of want to know what’s out there. I kind of want to know what’s going on in a world where, over the last 15 years, Thedas has almost ended the world three times by themselves. If you’re from a different continent, how are you feeling about that? I’m gonna guess, probably not great. So I think there’s a lot of fun stories to tell there. We haven’t said much about the rest of this world. So there’s just this giant blank canvas for us to start playing in, which I think is, for me, the most exciting thing about moving forward with this franchise."

[source]

[arcane-ish]

I'm low key intrigued by this shot in the trailer:

That's the Vander statue, right? I almost didn't recognize it, by how stern and general like it looks. In s1, the Vander statue always felt kind of warm and protective and affectionate. It's obviously a place of solace for Silco and it's full of doodles by Ekko's people and little things the Zaunites left on it.

Here, he looks like a british admiral on his fleet ship or something.

I probably expect way too much but I'd love the idea of Sevika being the one who knows the truth about the original revolution attempt and who is maybe aware of the difference between the narrative and the reality and decides to intentionally keep mum about it to preserve the revolution. I could picture her keeping quiet about how dangerous it was because she just wants the revolution to happen, or even throw Silco under the bus and conceal Vander's flaws because she sees people want to rally behind his positive image, or she could do the opposite, amp up stories about Vander and the revolution and conceal that he wanted to call it off.

I can't help but think that the statue looking so different to Sevika might symbolize how she saw him. That from her perspective he was a lot meaner or colder. Or that the way she looks up represents the mixed feelings she has towards him. To that he looms large that the big shoes that have to be filled just like Cait talked about filling Cassandra's shoes.

I wonder if this shot symbolizes (again with looking up) Vi being unsure whether she should join the revolution. Since we know that Vi will at some point be saving enforcers again, I suspect an original revolution attempt will fail in some way.

I could picture it like this, Sevika lies about how much Vander was in favor of the revolution. Vi is torn when she sees the melding of Jinx and Vander, because if Vander is on it, it must be good right? And then she finds out what really happened and she's no longer keen on the revolution.

(that said, I think it should be distinguished between whether Zaun defends on its own turf or attacks topside. We know somebody is attacking Singed at some point (only to get eaten by Warwick I presume), though that could easily be chem barons wanting access to shimmer, we also have shots that suggest more bridge level confrontations, but we don't know if these are current shots or from the past, we have Ekko and firelights flying in on Piltover but that doesn't necessarily feel hostile)

There we'll probably have this whole aspect of the Pilties will probably find out that the medicine (Noxians) is worse than the disease (Zaunites) and we have this whole other secret, Cait likely has to figure out at some point that Ambessa organized the Memorial Attack.

(I could picture Vi finding out and if she thinks the revolution is going bad rush to Cait to call off the attack on Zaun till she figures out the Noxian involvement. Or reverse, I could picture Cait finding out and rushing to Vi and asking her to help against the Noxians)

Sidenote: I don't really have super high hopes for getting young!Silco and Vander flashbacks, but in my perfect world the whole "the tale about the revolution is different from what it was actually like" thing would have Sevika giving this rousing speech about how the ones before them were these heroic and disciplined revolutionaries intercut with flashbacks of Vander and Silco getting drunk and goofing off at the Last Drop.

[butmemostly]

autistic kevin price headcanons because i have seen the light:

went by completely undetected because his symptoms presented in “acceptable” ways or were just not recognized by his parents/guardians as neurodivergent

needs routine and does not handle sudden changes to his routines well. if something unexpected happens he’ll freak (internally)

on that note, internalizes everythinggggg. not in the “turn it off” way – in the way that he will feel things but just will not express it outwardly if he can help it.

related, he is very much in a state of constant masking. he does not know how to unmask. he also does not know why he feels so stressed/anxious all the time (surely unrelated /s)

NEEDS his alone time to relax or he’ll lose it (but being the oldest of several siblings definitely trained him in Not having that)

gets overstimulated easily

type of guy who definitely studied and memorized social cues and norms to remember what’s acceptable and what’s not (unaware most people don’t need to do this)

generally very good at studying, memorizing, and parroting information. we see an example of this in AAP when he recites the entirety of the origins of mormonism, when later we find out he didn’t even fully understand or believe in all the mormon stories he studied.

part of the masking - hides all of his special interests/fixations and/or tries to downplay his interest to seem Normal. like “oh yeah i like that thing too!” <- trying so hard not to infodump

he is SO worried about how he’s perceived, and part of why he’s uncomfortable around arnold is because arnold is everything kevin doesn’t want to be seen as. he’s also envious of arnold; the way he’s able to causally be himself and be silly and goofy, make mistakes and then make amends, while kevin has kept all of that tucked away, out of sight.

was generally neutral about religion as a kid until his parents pulled the “well if you’re a good mormon then you’ll be rewarded and be able to go back to orlando :)” and then he Locked In.

orlando is obviously a fixation of his, despite how idealized it is as a concept in his head. definitely read about its history as a city and such via absorbing entire wikipedia pages, but he's most interested in the theme parks and tourist aspects, since that's what he was around when he visited. read everything he could about the development and history of the tourist industry and its major players. he's most interested in & familiar with disney world, since that's what left the biggest impact on him as a kid.

he flip-flops between being physically affectionate vs. touch-averse (based on mood & level of overstimulation). i think he’s naturally kind of touch-averse but has gotten used to dealing with it via lots of friendly people handshakes and pats on the back, siblings touching him constantly, older relatives and close acquaintances wanting hugs every time they see him, etc etc. i think mostly he doesn’t like being touched when it’s unexpected/he’s not mentally prepared for it to happen, or he's already on-edge. (for example, while sometimes put off by arnold randomly hugging him, he usually just lets it happen or doesn’t react. but in act 2 when he’s agitated and upset, he tells arnold not to touch him.)

on the other hand, sometimes he likes contact and comfort. it’s on his own terms when he initiates it <3 having something physical to grab/hold onto when upset or under duress is comforting and grounding. he likes the pressure of being hugged. when it’s people he’s very close to (like arnold post-play or (Sometimes) his parents), he’s fine and open to hugs and physical contact :) he’s just so used to it being obligatory and disingenuous (or purposefully to annoy him like with his siblings).

i think he also has just noticed that most people tend to respond positively when there is friendly contact involved (hand on the shoulder/arm, etc) and utilizes that. despite his social cues/norms studying, he sometimes doesn't know when to Not utilize this technique (like with an authority figure or someone you're not close to who might find it rude or offputting).

mostly subtle or socially-accepted stims, part of the "constantly masking and needing to seem normal and perfect" thing. tapping and fidgeting with things, bouncing leg, etc., keeping excess movement mostly to his hands. but he still has some things he does unconsciously, like shaking his hands/arms, repeatedly shifting his weight, and various tactile stims like thumping his chest or leg.

the wigglerrrrr. "disguises" stims by doing a little dance. hes a musical guy he likes performing so this is normal for him this is just one of his little quirks (<- copium. i mean it's true but he's still stimming and will do a little jig when he feels like he Needs to move his body around)

also hums a lot (more of a self-soothing thing).

can usually pick up on jokes/tone but sometimes takes things too literally

lowish empathy and has a hard time relating to others. definitely contributes to the "everything is about me?" mentality

while he’s well-liked in mormon spaces, has a harder time in public school and with people outside his church. like aside from having the Mormon Demeanor™ he just comes across as like. Weird. not in a way people can put their finger on, though, because for the most part he’s “normal.” he’s self-absorbed, yeah, but nice and doesn’t cause trouble. i think he’s stubborn and has a very hard time when things don’t “go his way,” or rather, how he expected them to. he’s very particular about things. he asks a lot of questions in class about small details and wants lots of clear directions on assignments. he comes across as “fake” to some people because of his masking and crazy politeness.

he wears the same exact clothes every day like a cartoon character. since they don’t have a uniform they’re his “school clothes” that he only wears at school. something like, idk, blue jeans and a white shirt. something simple and comfortable. one year during a spirit week event or halloween, everyone in his theater class dressed up as him in the same outfit. kevin didn’t even realize at first.

he’s the straightman among his friends because he’s easy to throw jokes at that takes him a moment to process, or takes too literally, or because they want to see Good Boy Kevin’s reaction to something less appropriate. he usually takes it in stride, though, and is a bit of a jokester himself

completely oblivious when other people have feelings for him. he’s so focused on other shit that it’s not on his radar at all. girls have confessed to him and he’s like oh. Huh? (this is definitely also leaning into my aspec headcanons for him so i’ll leave it be for now…)

[kinardsevan]

FYI, I'm crowdfunding a retirement plan for Tim and a place for you on the 911 writers team. I'm sure you can help them sort out the rest of the plots too!

I don’t know if this is genuine or sarcastic, so I’m just going to say this:

I don’t claim to know anything about media literacy. What I do understand is intricate plot and telling a compelling story. I also understand that from the end of 806, I said almost immediately “I feel manipulated”. This has deep personal connotations for me, but the point remains, and because of those personal relations, I get an actual “ick” about feeling manipulated. Now again, I have zero clarity one way or the other as to whether the manipulation is based out of them actually fucking this storyline up or if it’s because of the way they’re trying to pitch it to us as an “exit” and “ending”. Either way, that hasn’t left me.

All I know at the end of the day is that if these people don’t understand how to recover from this decision, they don’t belong in writing television. There’s also the point that I’ve made this week, that this is not the first time TM & Co have done something like this. They’ve done it with Madney. They’ve done it with Tarlos. We’ve even seen it to some degree with Bathena. What set us all off was the interviews, which we’ve all stated from day one were …odd. The thing that stays with me though, is the fact that not once has any one of these interviews stated “Tommy Kinard is gone for good”. I’ve read dozens of exit interviews (said this too earlier this week), and the only people CALLING it an exit interview, are the interviewers. Lou said the arc was over. By the very definition of what needs to be shared and said between BuckTommy for the reconciliation, he’s right. They’ve spanned the first arc of their relationship. Further, another thing that sticks out in my mind is his statement towards how he wouldn’t turn down playing Tommy again because, to his knowledge, there’s nothing else similar to their relationship happening on television. Which is SO important for representation. I also keep thinking about his tweet “keep the hope alive”. Obviously that can be read as he just wants more work… or it can be read as, there’s more coming, don’t give up on them yet.

Above all else, it’s the crowd reaction. We know the “other team” thinks this is all to tee them up into their pairing, and here’s my response to that:

One, it’s not. Because we know that’s now what TPTB want. But two, if it is, I hope they’re prepared for the mass exodus that takes place when all the people who DON’T want that pairing stop watching. And of course, those who do but don’t get the version of it that they want because RG and OS don’t want to play it the way the fandom thinks it should.

I’m not above saying that if they made them canon, I don’t think I’d stick around. It doesn’t serve the story, it spits in the face of what RG has been trying to communicate for years about himself and Hispanic men in general, and especially on the heels of this, it would feel dirty.

Anyway, I rambled on on this far longer than I meant to. Oops!

[buckleyy]

i’ve always been a buddie truther but at this point, only thing that makes sense narratively is for buck to be with someone he already knows and has a connection with. this isn’t to say that people can’t fall in love when they meet with that intention, like dating, in real life obviously. but buck has already been with characters that are put in the show for the purpose of being his love interest like a thousand times, and it’s never worked out for him. it would be sooo unfulfilling for the story if they introduced another character as a love interest and were like omg finally! this is the one. that just wouldn’t work, unless there was a lot of build up of their relationship, and build up of the character outside their relationship. they’ve tried to do that with taylor (taylor x lucy when?? tim i know you can hear me) but it still felt like bucks love interest was getting a backstory instead of taylor herself does that make sense?

now instead of giving buck a love interest, they could have him accept being single, but that would honestly be such a let down. pleaaase don’t get me wrong i LOVE when characters are single and living their best life, but that doesn’t make sense for buck. he wants to be in love soooo bad and have a family he’s basically a disney princess at this point. he asked tommy to move in with him for gods sake like this boy is desperate bless his heart

it’s unlikely to me that they’ll introduce a new consistent character at this point in the show (bring back ravi!!). so it would make the most sense to build up an existing relationship buck has. don’t hit me, but i wouldn’t be entirely opposed to them bringing taylor back as a consistent character, letting her do her thing, and then rebuilding the relationship from there. however, i don’t see that happening. it would make the most sense for buck to be with a character who is already established on the show, whose own personal and romantic life have them in the same spot as buck, who has great chemistry with buck…. who’s newly single and reconsidering what he wants out of life…. who once had a panic attack when someone thought his girlfriend was his sons mom despite literally writing buck into his will without a second thought…who has hundreds of other clues pointing to him being gay… who is recently unmustached…

[bowandbrush]

oh gosh (ok long post)

That isn’t even all of them. First of all your enthusiasm for some random sketches is unbelievable. I’m going to cryyy

Ok ANYWAY

I don’t have any story ideas for this. Like, I’m not even settled on these designs, they keep changing. I don’t even know what splinter or April would look like. Again, I did this for fun. Sorry these are very sloppy lol

Leo is a diamondback terrapin, and Donnie is a freshwater terrapin. They are drastically more colorful than the regular green turtles, but…I dunno. This is more for the hardcore tmnt fans who love giving turtles markings and whatnot. Leo looks a little too…young and childish to be a leader? But at the same time, I really wanted to pass the “irregular teeth” baton to him. I thought maybe nobody would be leader now, and just be starting out their whole “ninja vigilante” thing.

I want to be new with each character as much as possible- and for Donnie, I decided he’s the “almost never talks” type. Just big, observant autistic eyes. (Think ferb from phone as and ferb.) don’t worry, he’s still a evil scientist like every other Donatello out there.

Raph is a map turtle, and Mikey a bog turtle.

I’m not too happy with Mikey’s design, being to similar with rise, but I still wanted shape language and color that matched him (which rottmnt did very well.) Mikey is again a living incarnation of ADHD, I just can’t take that away from him. Always wearing around headphones to keep him busy.

Raph is short again, and now looks like a weird 2012/rise hybrid. But again, those shows are good for a reason. I didn’t even mean to make him so similar. Also adhd type, but he’s prone to getting impatient and angry over insults. Troubled soul, he doesn’t actually want to lash out when he’s overstimulated. (Definitely not a self insert, nope haha)

every turtle is an artist of some kind- Donnie obviously rocks machines. He also does all that hacking jazz, scamming scammers, and programming. Leo is an AVID writer. I’m talking an entire library of TV show fanfiction that’s quite popular. Even original stories. (I actually got this from rise Leo, which people tend to ignore his fascination for “betrayals”. Also he wrote gram-gram a mini book.) Raph is the artist again, digital and traditional art. He could totally makes sprites for games to collaborate with Donnie’s coding skills. Mikey is into making music too, mixing preexisting music and playing instruments.

Their gear outfits wouldn’t be worn as often as casual hoodies, trenchcoats, and human clothes. I don’t think ppl in NY would even care and probably think they’re furries 💀

…I think that’s it. Oh and sketches.

thank you for coming to my Ted talk

I know that tmnt peaked at rise,,, but what if I made my own version. For fun. I have ugly sketches available for those who are interested

[charcubed]

Listen to me… When (not if. WHEN) they eventually have Tristan start pulling away from Max/Avery and trying to be with Vivian because he’s insecure or self-conscious or hurt or the 3 of them have worries about fully committing to each other… I need everyone to remember several things.

-This is blatantly a show about a throuple, which has also already had threesome sex on screen. If I see bullshit words like “queerbaiting” or “polybaiting” once we get a little bit of proper angst I will not be responsible for my actions.

-Avery was jealous when Tristan was eyeballing Vivian.

-Tristan was talking to Vivian at the Halloween party and got distracted by Max’s costume.

-Tristan held hands with Avery and Max in the infirmary, not Vivian. He also walked down a fake wedding aisle with the two of them.

-Vivian isn’t Tristan’s love interest. Avery and Max are. Stories need drama and conflict and Vivian is set up as a side character to provide that.

I expect Gay Week to feed us well! I also expect something in the last ep before the midseason finale will give us some emotional angst as a “cliffhanger” of sorts. And in case Vivian comes into play... I’m just putting this out there here and now because I’ve seen people say some things about being ~worried~ about her.

Hot take but there’s nothing to be worried about!!!!! They’ve very obviously already told and shown us that the throuple is the point of this and as the audience we’re being made to root for them on purpose!!!!! Embrace the agonizing angst that’s sure to come!!!!!!

[gendrie]

arya/gendry and ned/catelyn are not frequently considered alongside each other, but i think theres a surprising amount that they have in common as pairings. all four characters have explicit connections to one another within the story too.

obviously, arya has a relationship with both of her parents. that makes the fact that gendry has interacted with both of them all the more compelling to me. arya has a deep appreciation for her parent's marriage. she is the only stark child we see deeply value the love between ned and catelyn. it wasn't the most flashy, but it was a very successful and loving partnership between two people. especially by westeros standards.

GENDRY AND NED

Ned nodded. He decided that he liked Tobho Mott, master armorer. "If the day ever comes when Gendry would rather wield a sword than forge one, send him to me. He has the look of a warrior." (Eddard, AGOT)

when gendry met ned he was his typical outspoken, rude self, but this didnt bother ned in the slightest. by the end of the scene ned is trying to recruit gendry into his household. he promises on robert's deathbed to look out for his friends children thinking of gendry and the others. he did not get a chance to guard the bastards but arya looked out for gendry while they were together.

arya and gendry have a couple conversations about ned too. gendry isnt overly impressed but it shows a familiarity between the two. he knows her family history.

GENDRY AND CATELYN/LADY STONEHEART

"M'lady means for you to answer for your crimes." "M'lady." The wine was making her head spin. It was hard to think. "Stoneheart. Is that who you mean?" Lord Randyll had spoken of her, back at Maidenpool. "Lady Stoneheart." "Some call her that. Some call her other things. The Silent Sister. Mother Merciless. The Hangwoman." (Brienne, AFFC)

arya really wanted gendry to come home with her. she says she will tell her mother how he helped her, but gendry brushes this gesture off. he did not want to serve her family, but thats exactly what ends up happening. gendry was there when they found catelyn's body in the river and beric gave her his last life. now, he serves lady stoneheart and seems to have no issues doing so. he appears to be loyal to what remains of catelyn stark.

RIVERRUN

And one day fifteen years ago, this second father had become a brother as well, as he and Ned stood together in the sept at Riverrun to wed two sisters, the daughters of Lord Hoster Tully. (AGOT) You could have made swords at Riverrun for my brother, she thought, but what she said was, "If you want to be some stupid outlaw knight and get hanged, why should I care? I'll be at Riverrun, ransomed, with my brother." (ASOS)

ned and catelyn were married at riverrun; her childhood home and the same castle arya was trying to reach with gendry. i wouldn't rule the two of them actually getting there at some point as i think its likely the bwb will try to take riverrun in twow.

BROTHEL SCENES

“A brothel,” [Ned] said as he seized Littlefinger by the shoulder and spun him around. “You’ve brought me all this way to take me to a brothel.” “Your wife is inside,” Littlefinger said. It was the final insult. “Brandon was too kind to you,” Ned said as he slammed the small man back against a wall and shoved his dagger up under the little pointed chin beard. (AGOT) “I bet this is a brothel,” [Arya] whispered to Gendry. “You don’t even know what a brothel is.” “I do so,” she insisted. “It’s like an inn, with girls.” He was turning red again. “What are you doing here, then?” he demanded. “A brothel’s no fit place for no bloody highborn lady, everybody knows that.” […] Gendry put a heavy hand on the old man’s shoulder, and squeezed. “Leave her be.” (ASOS)

not your average scene setting for an asoiaf pairing, but both end up in brothels together. ned has one of his most aggressive outbursts when littlefinger suggests catelyn is a whore and gendry steps in to defend arya when she is mistaken for one too

MY LADY/M'LADY

Inside, Catelyn was waiting. She cried out when she saw him, ran to him, and embraced him fiercely. "My lady," Ned whispered in wonderment. (AGOT) "If you start calling me m'lady, even Hot Pie is going to notice. And you better keep on pissing the same way too." "As m'lady commands." (ACOK)

self explanatory but catelyn is ned's lady. gendry calls arya m'lady both in deference and anger.

AN OUTSIDER

He slid Ice back into its sheath. "You did not come here to tell me crib tales. I know how little you like this place. What is it, my lady?" Catelyn took her husband's hand. (AGOT)

"No," the old man said. "Northmen, they were. Savages who worship trees. They wanted the Kingslayer, they said." Arya heard him, and chewed her lip. She could feel Gendry looking at her. It made her angry and ashamed. (ASOS)

gendry is a southerner like catelyn so neither is fully comfortable with the faith of the old gods. its a cross cultural barrier both relationships share.

WEIRWOODS

Catelyn found her husband beneath the weirwood, seated on a moss-covered stone. The greatsword Ice was across his lap, and he was cleaning the blade in those waters black as night. A thousand years of humus lay thick upon the godswood floor, swallowing the sound of her feet, but the red eyes of the weirwood seemed to follow her as she came. "Ned," she called softly. He lifted his head to look at her. "Catelyn," he said. (AGOT) The next day they rode to a place called High Heart, a hill so lofty that from atop it Arya felt as though she could see half the world. Around its brow stood a ring of huge pale stumps, all that remained of a circle of once-mighty weirwoods. Arya and Gendry walked around the hill to count them. There were thirty-one, some so wide that she could have used them for a bed. (ASOS)

arya/gendry and catelyn/ned have scenes among the weirwoods or whats left of them. gendry becomes a knight of the hollow hill too.

HIS FURY

"They say your friend Robert has fathered a dozen bastards himself." "And none of them has ever been seen at court!" Ned blazed. "The Lannister woman has seen to that. How can you be so damnably cruel, Catelyn? He is only a boy. He—" His fury was on him. "That's right," he said angrily. "I'm too bloody lowborn to be kin to m'lady high." Arya was taken aback by the fury in his voice. "That's not the way I meant it." "Yes it is."

they fight! i really do think they strike a similar cord too. arya and catelyn feel comfortable arguing with them and ned and gendry do get angry but thats a normal aspect of all relationships

IN THE BUFF

So when they had finished, Ned rolled off and climbed from her bed, as he had a thousand times before. He crossed the room, pulled back the heavy tapestries, and threw open the high narrow windows one by one, letting the night air into the chamber. The wind swirled around him as he stood facing the dark, naked and empty-handed. Catelyn pulled the furs to her chin and watched him. (AGOT) For a moment she did not think he understood, but then he slid out from under the blankets. Naked, he padded across the room, shrugged into a loose roughspun tunic, and climbed down from the loft after her. (ACOK)

no comment

BEAUTIFUL

[...] Catelyn replied, watching the sword as he stroked it. She could see the rippling deep within the steel, where the metal had been folded back on itself a hundred times in the forging. Catelyn had no love for swords, but she could not deny that Ice had its own beauty. (AGOT) Then he'd go off to polish his helm. It was a beautiful helm, rounded and curved, with a slit visor and two great metal bull's horns. Arya would watch him polish the metal with an oilcloth, shining it so bright you could see the flames of the cookfire reflected in the steel. Yet he never actually put it on his head. (ACOK)

arya staring at gendry here is a solid indicator that she's developing feelings for him and the catelyn/ned scene supports that.

HONORS????

"Robert came all this way to see you, to bring you these great honors, you cannot throw them back in his face." "Honors?" Ned laughed bitterly. "In his eyes, yes," she said. "And in yours?" "And in mine," she blazed, angry now. Why couldn't he see? (AGOT) "Winterfell," she said at once. "I'd tell Mother how you helped me, and you could stay—" "Would m'lady permit? Could I shoe your horses for you, and make swords for your lordly brothers?" Sometimes he made her so angry. "You stop that!" (ACOK)

more arguing but in a distinctly old married couple sort of way. catelyn and arya are actually taking similar stances here, but ned and gendry rudely brush them off.

im not saying these were intentional on grrms part (at last not all of them) but i do think its highlights the romantic subtext between arya/gendry and that the similarities to ned/catelyn could certainly suggest some longevity to their relationship.

[icantpickausernamesorry]

IF SOMEONE FUCKING HATES ON CRYSTAL FOR KISSING CHARLES I WILL SCREAM

SHE SAW SOMEONE SHE LIKED AND CHARLES SAW SOMEONE HE THOUGHT HE LIKED THEY ARE *16* MOTHERFUCKER.

okay. calmer reaction.

charles saw crystal as someone his age (technically) who he could have a deep and meaningful conversation with, not realising that he could and can do those things with edwin. he also saw edwin's qualities in crystal (like he LITERALLY SAYS) so he feels a romantic attraction to her. he has been led to believe from his upbringing that he is already flawed, so being in love with a boy (who is also his best friend of 30+ years) is still strange and scary to him, obviously. so- kiss.

crystal got free from her demon ex boyfriend who possessed her and made her eat trash and she saw 2 people who rescued her from that. one she saw as antisocial and annoying (not realising his true qualities, as charles did). the other she saw as kind and social. given her wierd ass psychological situation, she looked at this and saw someone she could love and who would love her back. so- kiss.

charles has an obvious attraction to edwin and he realises it a little at the end of the s1, but he's still battling out a lot of unknown and strange emotions all at once, with his repressed trauma coming back and edwin's confession along with crystal's powers being wierd to him and her. so- he doesn't do anything.

if you blame crystal for being a 16 year old girl, you can shut up. I agree that she should have figured herself out more before *dating a ghost* but the hate is unjustified for even that. she is a multifaceted woman charactar and the internet is famous for not being able to handle that (example- Gwen fucking Stacy from spiderverse. yall are sk stupid for hating her like that smh).

I am payneland forever but I don't hate crystal because this is just "I HATE HER BECAUSE SHE CAME BETWEEN MY FAVORITE SHIP" when that's the fuckung point. dbda is a show about growth and development and realising yourself, amdist the demon and pedophilic cat king. she had to do this for charles ro realise. I'm extremely sad that crystal will get her heart broken and I wished it wouldn't happen, but I recognize the story. you should to.

tl;dr- stop making crystals charactar just some girl who came between 2 guys. she us more than that. treat her with respect, you swabs of used q tips.

[animentality]

Tbh I think it's still legit if you read and like Blue Lock for being so gay (at least subtextually), despite being misogynistic Kaneshiro seems to have sympathy for queer people to a certain degree. Besides the gay sidekick, As The Gods Will also has some other queer side characters (a lesbian, a trans girl, a few more hinted gay boys and a non-binary villain according to my memory) even though not all of them are well-written, the good ones are good. Specifically my most favorite is the gay sidekick Ushimitsu, he's actually a pretty well-rounded character with very strong role as a co-lead in ATGW 2, I never feel like he was disrespected in the story (rather I think he's obviously Kaneshiro's favorite), sure he's got an open ending that can be seen as tragic but it's actually in line of the whole theme of the story and I respect Kaneshiro to commit to writing it rather than just give a copout happy ending and it also proves his gay feelings as real & deep despite heartbreaking.

Now I wish Kaneshiro can have that same energy in writing Bachira as he's in a similar position to Ushimitsu in ATGW but somehow poor bee boy got pushed aside in bllk after U20 arc (probably in favor of more popular Isagi ship with Rin or Kaiser 🙃), I hope he makes good on the promise that Bachira will be a key character later in the series and this time since nobody will die in Bllk I hope Bachisagi will get a deserved happy ending.

well that's the thing, anon.

I feel bad for liking blue lock because it has such a misogynistic creator but it's hard not to cling to something so obviously queer friendly.

like honestly.

there's definitely Japanese media that's queer neutral or queer friendly but blue lock actually feels like it's always on the verge of just being properly queer.

it's not fanservice like free or yuri on ice. it legitimately feels as close to canon as it can get without changing genres. and I think the creator having queer characters in the past gives him some street cred.

i know what homophobia in a manga looks like. it's that awful rapist character from one punch man. this hyper masculine but also hyper feminine muscly man who sexually assaults other men.

it's tokyo ghoul having its only queer characters being pedophiles, rapists, and sex addicts/victims who get sexually assaulted until they're "corrected."

it's having no subtext at all and only ever using gay men as a one off joke and gay women as a fetish.

at least blue lock does seem to respect its characters enough that it takes their hinted at sexualities seriously.

it really doesn't go for the obvious "ewwwwww we're both guys" jokes. it's kept very ambiguous. it's subtle (except when it's not, lol).

the only character who really fits the usual offensive gay anime representation tropes is Shidou, but even him I wouldn't count as bad rep (as the closest to canonically gay character, aside from Bachira).

Shidou might be super flamboyant but he also gets to have the coolest fucking moments in the series. he's not just some pervert, he's a badass. he doesn't just flounder around like some useless weird loser who only exists to be the butt of a joke.

he loves to fight and play soccer and feel alive. he has the coolest aura in the series and everyone is constantly in awe of the ridiculous things he can do.

he's a proper villain, who's out of pocket and insane, but who's also intensely lovable and silly. and honestly portrayed pretty sympathetically. for all his faults, he can be very kind.

there's a lot of depth to him, and honestly, I think Blue Lock is pretty good at not doing anything to suggest oh hahaha homosexuality exists. isn't that funny

plus I think Bachira is canonically gay. we know he's canonically in love with Isagi.

kunigami and aiku are actually confirmed bisexual too.

Shidou and Sae were also highly suspect during u20, to the point where even homophobes cant deny they have something weird going on.

so to me... that's a lot of queer characters who are taken seriously and actually have characters outside of being a joke or a gag. they feel like real people. they have distinct personalities.

the bar is in hell, but it's more than most manga/anime manage.

so I have to give Kaneshiro credit. he's doing as much as he can, without overstepping the boundary I'm sure kodansha has set for him.

it's just a shame he's a sexist. also, I hope Kaneshiro grows a pair.

just have bachisagi get married in the last chapter you pussy.

let Shidou officiate!!!

[shit-talk-turner]

Do you think Alex’s relationship issues came from his break up with Alexa?

It’s the common assumption but we’d love to hear if there’s a differing viewpoint//

I've got some time to kill at the moment so I'll chime in. I think like most people our 'relationship issues' can stem from the perception we have of ourselves and what we think we deserve as far as treatment from others.

I think even in the early years of AM just going by Alex's lyrics there is an indication he had feelings of insecurity.. like every other teenager does! Off the top of my head I'm thinking 'Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts' even if you just consider the backstory of the song which is about a girl Alex was dating in High School, she was actually with Matt first if I remember correctly and she eventually leaves Alex for an older guy and they end up getting engaged. Alex expresses in the song he tried to save face and act like it didn't hurt him but his feelings were different within. The girl spoke to the media and said kind words about Alex sharing that she thought he was a gentleman and that she later regretted leaving him for the other guy. Obviously none of us can say with absolute certainty that this could've been a catalyst for his feelings of low self esteem but it perhaps may have contributed to it. There are many lyrics in the songs of the first album and demos that suggest a level of self consciousness when it comes to girls and dare I say bitterness about it too...I'm thinking of 'Still Take You Home'.

The next publicly known relationship was with Johanna and again she also made some comments to the press on the nature of her relationship with Alex (good and bad) her most memorable comments were the ones in regards to her not being happy that Alex couldn't afford to take her out on fancy dates and having to eat at McDonalds. This could further lead to the belief one might have of themselves of 'not being enough'. I think it's something of note that he co wrote 'Fluorescent Adolescent' with her, I've always enjoyed the story of how they wrote it whilst on a holiday together playing word games. 

After the relationship with Johanna if I recall correctly Alex shared with NME? that he had not yet experienced heartbreak and that he had it to come. A quote more interesting and insightful than that was the one where he says he always felt that his girlfriends looked happier before/after being with him. If that doesn't scream low self worth/esteem I don't know what does. 

Cue the relationship with Alexa. Many people suggest it was this relationship that 'messed' him up and whilst I'd agree that he was seemingly significantly emotionally impacted by this relationship and it appears might've been the 'heartbreak' he anticipated was coming, I would disagree that she is entirely the cause of his 'relationship issues' if we were to call it that. Once again, there are many lyrics that Alex has wrote throughout the duration of his relationship with Alexa that 'appear' to be about her and/or that she may have inspired and in a few of these lyrics you could possibly interpret once again feelings of not being good enough, unrequited feelings about the relationship and feeling isolated/lonely in the relationship - questioning their 'place'. From what I've observed I came to the conclusion that Alex was the one who was more head over heels in love, I totally accept I could be wrong in my thinking of that and also that my further thinking that the destruction of his relationship with Alexa may have also further 'confirmed' the negative thoughts and feelings he already had about himself. The AM era made it clear, Alexa wasn't easy for him to emotionally move on from and it has been long speculated and some 'receipts' provided that there was an on and off hook up situation going on for a bit after the initial break up. Clearly, things did not work out enough between the two for them to reunite for good. 

The release of the song ' The Bourne Identity' with TLSP was a raw, heartfelt and rare insight into how Alex perceives himself. Infact, it is a song I feel could've come from my own soul and with that I don't think it would be a stretch to question how someone who feels that way about themselves might struggle to achieve healthy and fulfilling relationships. I think this song reveals that he has self sabotaging thoughts and actions maybe his serial dating could be an example of this. There is a quote I'm gonna end this with from 2013: “Sometimes the fear of losing the people I love, is such a strong feeling that it’s inevitable to find it my lyrics.” I think this MAY also provide insight into his attachment style and how he may relate and express love to the people he cares for in his life. 

What do you all think?!

Thank you for this thoughtful post!

[crazy-pages]

This is part of the problem though. The desire to cultivate apolitical spaces without engaging with politics makes a space vulnerable to alt-right colonization. Because yes you can and should have places which aren't for political discussion. Decompression, casual conversation, community building spaces which aren't conflict oriented, these are good things! The trick is that you can't keep them apolitical unless you're willing to engage with politics sometimes.

It's kind of like the "paradox" of tolerance. It's important to have universally welcoming spaces, but you can't actually have universally welcoming spaces. If you welcome in people who intend to harm others in the group, the people they harm will stop feeling welcome. So to preserve the tolerant nature of the group, you must eject bad actors who aren't willing to play nice.

Because one way fandom spaces get colonized by the alt-right is when moderators and the community are unwilling to engage with this reality. Because what is political is different to different people. Is it apolitical for a guy to mention his irl boyfriend? If Star Wars suddenly has a black man and a white woman as its protagonsits, is it political to discuss the implications of that? To say you appreciate seeing yourself represented on screen? And one thing the alt-right will do when colonizing a space is militantly insist that anything remotely progressive is political, while their bigoted jokes are "just jokes" and their prejudiced motivated complaints are "just complaints". And there is no way to handle this without a coherent community political stance.

Here's a personal example from SpaceBattles, a a fanfiction and discussion forum that is ostensibly apolitical but has become infamously infiltrated by covert and not so covert neonazis (one of the site admins has the username of a Nazi general, Guderian, so really not so covert). I was reading a fanfiction there where a character is attacked by a neonazi gangster (canon story thing) for homophobic reasons, possibly based on the prompting of a prominently homophobic Christian character (also true to canon) in the story. Discussion was going back and forth over whether or not the Christian character might be responsible. Someone said no, a Christian's faith would never let them suggest violence. And I responded with a few quick missionary counterexamples and also, you know, the Christian supremacy of many neonazi groups. Not even saying he was definitely responsible, just that no, obviously Christians can be violent about homophobia.

You want to guess which one of us got an infraction for breaking the no politics rule?

Blatantly lying and misrepresenting Christianity to downplay its history of homophobic politics, didn't count as political. But factually reporting reality, on the exact same topic, relevant to the story, was deemed political.

And this creates a gradient that pushes out progressives and encourages the alt-right, because downplaying harms is always easier to pass off as apolitical than standing up for oneself. Queer people and people of color don't want to stick around somewhere where people can drop in on their stories and casually start up "apolitical" debates about if the neonazi gang in one of the bigger fandom stories is really so bad, and complain about why someone's story really needed a queer main character, and the mods say "oh that's apolitical". But then pushing back is political ... because that's what starts fights. Just letting yourself get sniped at and quietly harassed doesn't cause obvious conflict, so it's apolitical. Fighting back does, so it's what gets the moderator attention.

And no this isn't because the site owner is secretly a neonazi, despite the one admin. The site owner is actually a friend of a friend and she genuinely believes in cleaning up the site ... but refuses to set a hard stance on what's political that takes a side, and isn't cleaning house among the mods based off anything less than overt mouth-frothing bigotry. Because that would be "political". The belief in having a neutral space is there, but the understanding of the work required to maintain such a space is not.

Meanwhile Spacebattles' sister site, Sufficientvelocity, has the same fandoms, same root membership. But it actually has a coherent political stance on this stuff. It has zero tolerance for alt-right bullshit and quiet harassment and has an established moderator consensus on politics related stuff like basic facts of reality. And the result is that the space gets to be apolitical. Users can exist and chat and have discussions that are predominantly apolitical, and moderators hand out infractions and say "shoo, to [designated space for these conversations] with you!" over bringing up politics to start shit, without it becoming an overtly alt right site. But it only works because the moderators and the community are willing to recognize that fully apolitical spaces are a fantasy. One can only construct something minimally political, and if and only if one recognizes that politics exists and some ideologies are simply incompatible with mutual tolerance.

The video below is actually all about this. But what this all boils down to is that yes, spaces to just chill and watch sports should be some degree of apolitical. But they became alt-right colonized precisely because people believed you could have that just as a default, rather than something you have to do political work to maintain.

https://www.tumblr.com/woman-respecter/766978675093700608/its-so-weird-most-of-the-internet-is-acting-like?source=share

i find this comforting honestly. especally going on here on fandom blogs and people arguing about antis and proshippers like there's no change in the world. it's been easy to doom about dystopian 1984 or handmaid's tale in my mind but you need to consider that you're still going to have good things in life, most likely, in order to find the motivation to fight for the things that matter. i bring up 1984 and handmaid's tale specifically because the point of those two particular dystopian books is about how extreme authoritarianism is also about crushing the human spirit, grinding you down into nothing but nihilism and boredom. so it's good to see that a lot of life goes on, and fight to preserve that it stays that way. and like, look. you don't know that the people posting about shipping or tv shows or cooking or whatever aren't freaking out about politics elsewhere. i think one of the issues we've had is the loss of the compartmentalized internet - like, it used to be possible for young men to talk about games and sports somewhere without it coming with a side dish of right-wing radicalization. politics was something you had to seek out. and i believe we should go back to that. it's not the ONLY thing at fault and obviously those men still took initiative in sliding down those rabbit holes, but it's one thing that really stands out to me as the difference between the internet millennials came of age with and the one that gen z has

yeah you know what ur right. it is kind of heartening to watch my mutuals fight about the firefighter show, despite everything

[upsidedownknight]

Your opinion is your own of course but respectfully I have to say I disagree with your friend about the Heartstopper show having nothing to say about mental illness. It’s absolutely touched on more in the show than it was in the early comics. Charlie’s eating disorder is implied, and his low self-esteem is explored and we see it impact his life more than in the first two volumes of the comics that the first season covers. There is one added scene in particular in episode 8 with Charlie and Tori that is far closer to Solitaire’s serious themes than anything in the first two comic volumes.

Mental health as a topic hasn’t been explored explicitly yet, but the groundwork has been set for them to fully delve into it in season 2. The story just hasn’t gotten there yet. And I think it makes sense that it was kept on the backburner in season 1, because they weren’t sure if they would get a season 2 or 3. I think they didn’t want to fully open up Charlie’s eating disorder, OCD, and self-harm storyline if they were unsure they could get to the point where he starts getting some help (though it’s definitely there and more than we got in the comics by that point in the story). Since being renewed, both Alice and Charlie’s actor have talked a lot about how a major focus of season 2 will be the mental health themes. Alice has even said that they wish they had not glossed over some of the harder parts in Charlie’s story in the comics, that they felt a bit trapped by the format, and feel the show is an opportunity to explore those parts more deeply.

So I guess my advice would be maybe check in around the time season 2 comes out and see what people are saying? I think it’s just too soon to tell where the show will be going with it. But it’s definitely not absent from the show in season 1 even. The groundwork has been laid. And as someone who struggles with a lot of the same issues as Charlie, his characterization and story in season 1 made me cry because it hit me so personally.

thank you for this detailed response to my ranty post! I really appreciate you taking the time to tell me more abt the show. obviously, I haven't watched it-- in fact, I tried my best to stay away from news about it bc it squicked me out-- so I'm glad to hear that Alice has spoken some about the fact that heartstopper (comic) glossed over the harder parts of Charlie's story. that same ''glossing over'' was why I stopped being able to read heartstopper (in 2021 sometime?)

I would really love it if season 2 does touch more on Charlie's mental illnesses! and I'm happy they have laid the groundwork for it-- from my distant perspective, the show really looked like a fluff piece, which (obviously) broke my heart. I read solitaire as a self-harming, anxious and compulsion-ridden teen and saw myself in so many parts of both Tori's and Charlie's stories. Without saying that I'm glad you've struggled, it's reassuring to know that you could relate to the show's characters (as it means that I might too, if I could get over my hesitations).

I totally get that heartstopper (show) had to make concessions for time and planning reasons: I have a whole separate rant stored in my heart about the fact that so few TV show get to plan for a multi-series story arc like they used to. in any case, you've convinced me: I'll unblock the tag when I hear s2 is out, and see if little ol' teen me will get the heartwrenching moments that I once loved Solitaire for!