#part 1 of 3 that i have already screencapped

[dearemma]

* SIMAY BARLAS IN AZIZ ( part 2/3 )

PAID CONTENT !   —  by clicking on the source link you will find a page with 150 gifs ( 268 x 191 ), all made from scratch by yours truly, of simay barlas , a turkish actress, in the show aziz. do not claim as your own, or add to free gif hunts. you can edit them for your own use, as long as you credit me somewhere ♥ have fun!

[chirpsythismorning]

When the interviewer asked when we should expect s5 to be coming out, that’s when Shawn mentioned that a little bit of an answer to that might be out there soon.

He actually mentions that this answer could be out by the time the video for this interview comes out, and since this interview was filmed mid-May and it’s now mid-June, I’m assuming we could be getting something soon or within the next couple months, potentially about a release date aka possibly a small teaser with 2025 stamped at the end…

[gwenpendragns]

i was asked by @matthew-macfadyens for a colouring tutorial, so here we go ! i've been making gifs for almost 4 years now and finally feel comfortable and confident in my skills to make a full tutorial on my colouring process. there are so many different ways people colour gifs, and there's no wrong way, this is just how i do it ! i learned to gif by reading so many tutorials and picking and choosing what works for me, so hopefully this can help someone out !

if this tutorial helps you, please considering supporting me ! buy me coffee ♡

TUTORIAL UNDER THE CUT

what you'll need: - photoshop ( i use ps cc 2023 & frame timeline ) - basic ps knowledge ( how to make gifs, how to sharpen gifs, general understanding of adjustment layers, layer masks and blending modes ) - a whole lot of patience

helpful resources:

the beginner's guide to channel mixer by @aubrey-plaza

giffing 101 by @cillianmurphy

gif making for beginners by @hayaosmiyazaki

colouring yellow-tinted shots by @ajusnice

becca's mega colouring tutorial by @nataliescatorccio

@usergif

PART ONE: BASE COLOURING

- step 1: curves - step 2: exposure - step 3: colour balance - step 4: selective colour - step 5: levels - step 6: brightness / contrast - step 7: gradient map

okay so, before we get started, this tutorial is for colouring only. at this point, i've already gotten my screencaps, imported them into photoshop, made the actual gif & sharpened the gif. the above image includes what my typical adjustment layer stack looks like !

STEP ONE: CURVES

a lot of people do the majority of their heavy lifting in curves...i'm not one of those people. i've never gotten the hang of curves and haven't been able to fully taken advantage of everything it can offer. i use curves to mainly brighten up my gif and to start my process.

i use the "auto" button in the curves function - this automatically corrects the curves for your gif ( mainly the brightness / contrast )

you can see that the auto curves has brightened up the gif and evened out the brightness/contrast. i just find this gives a better starting point for the colouring process.

STEP TWO: EXPOSURE

this step is for, you guessed it, brightening the gif more and evening out the contrast and blacks. i don't have any real rules for doing this, the amount i highten the exposure and contrast is different based on the scene and the show, however, i tend to stay around +1 on both exposure and gamma correction.

exposure effects the brightness of the gif and gamma correction effects the blacks and contrast. this step also effects the saturation of the gif, so it's important not to go too crazy. i often end up coming back to this step every now and again to adjust and fiddle with it.

for this gif, i put the exposure at +1.18 and the gamma correction at 0.85

you can see this step serves to add some more brightness and contrast - it also adds some more saturation, that we don't always want, but don't worry, that's what the next steps are for !

STEP THREE: COLOUR BALANCE

i use this step to do a lot of my heavy lifting - i'm a whore for colour balance. this serves to even out the colours and help neutralize the colours for an easier canvas. it's important to understand the basics of colour theory for this, i recommend checking out the channel mixer tutorial i listed above, because a lot of those steps applies to colour balance.

essentially, there's three separate profiles to edit on - highlights, midtones and shadows. in each profile, you have 3 colour sliders. the top one is your cyan to red, middle is magenta to green, and bottom is yellow to blue. the colouring of the scene will decide where to move your sliders.

for example: if your original scene has a cyan tint to it, you'll want to pull your slider to the right, towards the red to help neutralize the cyan. if your scene has a green tint, you'll want to pull it left towards the magenta. as you move the sliders, you'll notice that sometimes it brings out other colours you don't necessarily need, you can adjust the other sliders to help neutralize further.

i always do my main correction in the midtones profile.

since this scene has a heavy yellow tint, my first step was to adjust the bottom slider. i pulled the slider to the right towards blue at +22. you can see this helped get rid of a lot of the yellow, but adding in the blue warmed up the reds and made it more saturated.

to help with this, i pulled the top slider left towards cyan to help neutralize that red.

i pulled the top slider to -28 and you can see this cut out that heavy saturation and redness. it's looking a lot better, but now it's a little too green for my liking. this is where that middle slider comes in!

i pulled the middle slider to -6 towards the magenta to help counteract the green that came in. ( i ended up going back in and adjusting the bottom slider to +10 instead, as it was a little to blue )

you can see this step really did the heavy lifting, helping to neutralize the canvas so that it's easier to work with...but it's not quite perfect yet!

STEP FOUR: SELECTIVE COLOUR

a lot of the same principles around colour theory apply to selective colour! this is where i go to adjust the colours according to what my colour palette is. for this gif, the overall colour is going to be purple, so i'll adjust the individual colours with that in mind.

i only ever adjust my red, yellow, white and black profiles! sometimes i'll do the other colours, but that's only for tweaking the final colour. i normally don't touch them at all.

ps: you'll notice i prefer a cooler toned gif, and almost always go for a more magenta looking red/yellow.

i always start with my yellows:

in the yellow profile, i pull my cyan towards the left to -38 (this helps eliminate the green in the yellows) and my yellow slider to the left to -27 (this cools down the yellows. i top it off by adjusting my magenta slider to -10, to help lower the saturation of the yellows.

you'll notice this step got rid of most of the green undertones - that's because the green was nested inside the yellows, so by taking out a lot of the cyan and yellow, you're left with a warmer yellow as opposed to a cooler yellow.

next i go on to my reds. this step will mainly effect the alys's skin tone, but i'm going to do pretty much the same as above but with much less dramatic of a change. lowering your colours in your red profile too much can lead to a very saturated gif, which is not what i'm going for.

i pulled my cyan slider to -19, magenta to -9 and yellow to -15. you can see this helped add some more cooler tones to the reds.

the next profiles are your white and black profiles. i use white to brighten the lightest parts of the gif. no rhyme or reason here, i just pull the black slider towards the left...usually around -25. for the black profile, i always move the black slider towards the right. anywhere from +3 to +8, depending on the gif. for this gif, i did +8. this darkens the blacks and, in my opinion, helps the gif pop!

you can see this step got rid of the yellow tint, gave the gif a more neutral look and adjusted the reds to better compliment a purple colour scheme !

STEP FIVE: LEVELS

this adjustment has three toggles - i'm not 100% sure what each toggle really does, i just know that by pulling the leftmost toggle to the right, it darkens your gif, and pulling the rightmost toggle to the left brightens your gif.

this step is so hard to explain, but really i just pull the toggles around until it looks good...sorry !

STEP SIX: BRIGHTNESS / CONTRAST

this step is exactly what it says on the tin...it brightens your gif. this step is based on your scene and personal preference, there's no real guide to it.

i always pull my brightness slider to the right ( brighter ) and my contrast slider to the left ( less contrast ).

STEP SEVEN: GRADIENT MAP

this last step is something i learned from @nataliescatorccio ! i add a gradient map to the top of my stack, and choose a lighter colour of what i want my overall gif to be. in this case, i used a very light purple!

i then set the blending mode to "soft light" and lower the opacity to anywhere from 20-30%. for this gif, i did 30%

this step will help make your colour pop once you do your main colouring!

PART TWO: PAINTING & COLOURING

- step 1: layer 1 - step 2: layer 2 - step 3: layer 3 - step 4: final touches

okay, so my actual colouring process is based in 3 layers. for this gif, i'm using a deep purple/mauve colour !

STEP ONE: LAYER ONE

between your brightness/contrast and gradient map layers, add another blank layer. change the blending mode of this layer to "colour" and set the opacity to 40%.

then, using a soft round brush with an opacity of 100% ( size of the brush is your preference, i typically use around 108 ), colour the parts of the gif you want coloured !

you can see this helps us get the canvas to a more uniform purple colour!

STEP TWO: LAYER TWO

for layer two we're going to do the exact same thing. add a layer above your previous, set to "colour" at 40%. we're going to go over the same areas!

you can see this helped get the purple so much more vibrant and closer to what our final colour is going to be!

STEP THREE: LAYER THREE

for our final layer, add another layer above the previous 2, set your blending mode to "multiply" and your opacity to anything from 60%-100%. for this gif, i did 60% !

now, our colouring is pretty much done but you can see that, now that our colour is down, alys's face is still a little too blue/green/yellow for the background purple. the next step, we're going to adjust and add final touches!

STEP FOUR: FINAL TOUCHES

at this point, i went back into my selective colour layer and adjusted my yellows & reds and went back into my colour balance layer to adjust everything overall.

at this point, i'm going to go in and add some adjustments layers above everything - i usually add some brightness/contrast, and a selective colour layer to darken the blacks.

which brings us to our final result:

[timdoubleyou]

i found jay’s black jacket (an ID guide)

This black jacket is worn by Jay about 9 times throughout Marble Hornets, including his final appearance. And after some weeks of on-and-off research, I think I know the exact make and model.

This post will detail exactly how I found it, and serve as a guide for anyone that wants to find the jacket, whether that's for cosplay purposes, or if you're just keen on collecting items related to MH.

Main post under the cut

Intro

The first step to identifying the jacket was to gather as many references as possible.

I went back to the web series and took screenshots from any entries the jacket makes an appearance. (shoutout to mg549′s very comprehensive MH wardrobe guide, without it this would’ve been much more of a pain)

Jay's jacket is, for the most part, very plain. It's a solid color, full-zip jacket, without any particularly eye-catching logos or other details. I had to look for moments where even the slightest distinction appeared clear on camera, at least as distinct as it can be. Even if it was just close-ups to get the shape of a zipper, or how many buttons are on a sleeve, it was the best I got. While I did manage to find a decent amount of these, there was just one crucial detail that would've made finding it near-impossible; the brand is never shown. Thankfully, I had another resource.

In 2018 Troy Sold a Lot of Stuff

In early 2018, Troy officially announced that MH would be continued in a comic series. To fund the first issue, he held a number of auctions for production items used during the web series on Ebay.

These included items such as Jay’s camera, Brian’s hoodie, A Masky mask, and Jay’s black jacket.

Lo and behold, the jacket listing includes a picture with the brand in clear view. It's from Gap.

Ebay does not archive sold listings older than 90 days. However, Worthpoint, a website for valuing and pricing collectibles, does. Using Worthpoint I was able to find all of these items, (and a lot more, which can be found in this doc I submitted to Archive Hornets)

Identification

With the picture from the listing and the series screencaps, I had a complete ID list.

(Top image is from the Ebay listing, with the contrast adjusted a little for easier viewing. The bottom two images are from Entry #79)

The Gap logo (This specific logo dates the jacket being made anywhere between 1986 and 2009, when it first appears).

Front Zipper (Note the shape)

The two front pockets

The two buttons and pointed cuffs on each sleeve (Second one is a little hard to see but it's jusstt peeping out at the side)

The blue piping in the inner lining

The zipper in the right side inner lining

The gray mesh inner lining

With these in mind, I could now go to the next and longest step-

Finding the Jacket

I combed three resell sites; Ebay, Depop, and Poshmark. My main goal wasn't to actually purchase the jacket, (although, I would like to at some point) but to find a jacket listing that had every identifier, and have a more definite baseline for finding others. I needed to be sure what I had was enough to properly ID the jacket. The references I had stitched together were decent enough, but I wanted to see if there was something better out there.

After tons of page scrolling and tab-switching and comparing and contrasting, I finally got lucky.

(first two images are from crashthecloset's listing on poshmark, last six are from shannfo-76 on ebay)

I haven't bought one myself as of posting, but I feel pretty confident this is it. The jackets were already sold, but every marker seemed to be accounted for. It also revealed new ones, like the reflective pattern and pockets on the inner lining, (zipper on the right side pocket, button on the left pocket) and the materials tag.

With that, here's some final notes that may be helpful if you try looking for the jacket yourself:

Online sellers often describe it as a light jacket, a windbreaker, a 2-in-1, or 3-in-1.

"Gap Mens Black Jacket" is the search phrase I used the most since it yielded a (very) broad result pool.

Most of the jackets I found came from Poshmark or Ebay.

The exact size of Jay’s jacket is unclear. My best guesses are either a US Men’s S or M, since Jay was pretty skinny and of average height. I’ve only been able to find maybe 2 jackets that are a size M, one of which is the first pic in the photoset above.

Gap has sold other black jackets that look remarkably similar to Jay’s, and they do pop up on resell sites. One of these was so similar, the only discernible difference was the style of the logo. I highly recommend making sure it matches the exact one Jay had before purchasing. (It's also more than fine to ask/msg me if you have any doubts!) As long as you know what to look for, you shouldn’t have a problem finding at least one.

One detail that confounded me was this sleeve poking out of Jay's jacket. At first I thought he was wearing a long sleeve underneath, making this shot a continuity error since he appeared to Only be wearing the green short sleeve under the jacket.

@hivemite pointed out that this might be a two-in-one jacket, which has multiple layers for different types of weather. While I have not been able to see the sleeve outside of two shots in entry #79 and #80, one listing I found did describe it as a 3-in-1.

that's about it! hope this helps :)

[rootspiral]

Agatha All Along deep dive: episode 8 part 5

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4] ep2 [1][2][3][4] ep3 [1][2][3] ep4 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][+1] ep5 [1][2][3][4][5] ep6 [1][2][3] ep7 [1][2][3][4][5][6] ep8 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7])

We're on to the new moon phase and Green Witch trial. On a side note, I finally found out why the order of the trials didn't make sense to me! Or rather, I found a reddit post explaining it because I'm not that smart on my own: the moon phases form a pentagram! How cool is that?

billy has learned that their green witch is none other than Death, so they wake up in a morgue. like alice said, the Road isn't subtle.

this trial is not for rio though - she was never part of the Road. there's nothing green here, the light is blue and pink and purple, like billy, jen and agatha. and how apt for billy to wake up in a body bag, considering he's a reanimated corpse.

agatha of course complains about what she's wearing

whenever agatha finds herself in a dicey situation she has to crack jokes and posture and look uncaring. billy and jen can express their genuine fear, agatha will swallow it down and beat it back with a stick and choke on it rather than showing an inch of vulnerability

technically they've been under her basement this whole time

I hope someone has compiled a list of all the Wizard of Oz quotes in this show, seriously there's so many

yes you are! this show keeps being so clever. out of death, life.

agatha you made a whole baby from scratch with rio, keep up! if you were any good at metaphors this trial would have been over already

the brooch is always her priority. I find it so interesting that it belonged to her mother too, it symbolizes both evanora and nicky, it's a generational (literally maiden mother crone) curse that she tried and failed to break and reclaim

jen checking if she has any healing water left. she doesn't, it would have been too easy.

this clown is so scared fr

aaand of course she starts tormenting people around her. her behavioral patterns are so predictable once you start noticing

you don't know how many times I facepalm watching and screencapping this show. all thanks to the stuff agatha says or does.

I didn't even try to save alice really gets me. she didn't. she stood by and watched as agatha killed her. she was too engulfed in her own self-preservation and her hatred.

alice's and lilia's examples have made an enormous difference.

agatha has never met a genuine honest emotion without wanting to bury it with sarcasm

they are all so fed up with her!

this is billy doing exactly what he's been doing in every trial: oversimplifying complex issues. alice needs to sing a song to solve her mommy issues! lilia can wear silly costumes and learn to accept her identity! agatha can just chat with nicky via ouija board, that'll solve that whole can of worms! and jen can totally get over the horrible abuse she's been trough if she believes in herself hard enough. the real magic was in you all along, jennifer!

billy's heart is absolutely in the right place, but he's been playing with people feelings and he has a lot to learn still.

jen very rightly points out that that would mean she wasted the last century. it's a matter of nuance, you know? billy still thinks of trauma as something that you can snap out of if you're strong enough, trivializing the actual time and willpower and work and pain it takes. jen did not waste a century, jen needed a century to come to terms with what happened. healing takes time and it's not straightforward. sometimes it's simply impossible.

and also, the implication that jen should just snap out of it and find her own strength completely erases what agatha and the doctor did to her, it places responsibility only on her shoulders. jen is a VICTIM. jen was violated. I'm glad the show negates billy's input and has jen confronting agatha head on.

why DOES agatha admit her guilt now? because she does it on purpose, mark my words, agatha has always ulterior motives. look how dramatic she's being about it! she's been pacing this place like a lion in a cage, trying to find a way out. like I said, she is predictable, she is doing exactly what she just did with billy on the Road: she throws a bomb and hope it'll get them unstuck.

and also, idk if agatha already knew she was the one who bound jen or if she just found out this moment, but I'll tell you what: she feels FUCKING GUILTY. we've been shown time and time again that agatha feels guilt for all the fucked up shit she did. as agnes she was genuinely distraught about wanda's death. hell, she doesn't want to face nicky because she can't justify what she did to him and to his memory.

agatha respects the shit out of jen, even if she'd swallow her tongue before admitting it. you know that guilt is eating her alive.

incredible work from sasheer here. it's rage, it's exasperation, it's disbelief, it's one hundred years of pain.

btw I'm still working on my essay about agatha and internalized misogyny. yes, it has turned into a full blown essay by now. I'm probably going to call it Agatha and the Patriarchy or something of the sort, because, like, look at this shit.

jen is wearing her heart on her sleeve right now, she's vomiting all of her emotions. agatha is deflecting and deflecting and deflecting. this is where we start, this unbalance between them. look at how the scene evolves.

jen initiates the unbinding ritual, and she knows it by heart. how many times has she pictured doing this to the person who bound her?

agatha tries to make it sexual, and look, let's not mince words. I keep saying violation, but there's a clear metaphor for rape here. that agatha would go there is nothing short of despicable.

agatha tries to look away. jen grabs her and makes her look.

agatha squirms. jen grows more and more emotional.

as jen goes through the ritual, agatha grows somber. she cannot escape anywhere, she cannot joke or deflect, jen has literally tied her up and forced her to look her in the eyes, witness her tragedy, face what she did.

on her tarot card agatha holds up her hands, like she's begging - for power, knowledge, love, forgiveness. she's always begging, always searching, always hungry. but everything she tries to hold she crushes. she holds nothing.

sasheer.

this is not jen finding magic inside herself, this is very clearly, very deliberately jen wrestling back her agency from agatha. you hold nothing, you are a pathetic, wretched little woman and I won't allow you to hold power over me any longer, you don't deserve it, you're not worth to take any more space in my existence.

and I love that she just leaves. she never comes back to bail agatha out of the trial, she's not asked to be the bigger person or to forgive and forget. alice forgave agatha, lilia did. jen doesn't, and she has every right not to.

I'm not going to attempt a discourse about race here, I'm white and I don't have the background, language or authority for it. I can only ask you to listen to what black women have to say and read articles and books on the subject (i recommend White Feminism by Koa Becks.) (also, do add to this conversation!) i'm just gonna say that if I could change one thing about the finale or the show in general, I'd give more breath and weight to jen's story - the way things were shaped, jen's trial was only minimally about her, and her big moment in the finale, while undoubtedly nice, is still too little too late compared to what alice and lilia had. at least she's still alive, so I guess there's still hope that the stars will align and we'll get some more consistent and fulfilling writing for her in the future.

I know this is first and foremost a show about agatha and, like the old tumblr wisdom says, if you try to tackle too many issues you'll just turn into glee. Still, jen's story deserved to be handled more carefully.

go to episode 8 part 6

[korraofthereef]

Holy shit. TIMEBOMB FANS STRAP IN FOR THIS.

(lots of you have probably already seen this video before, but here’s a quick reminder)

First let’s start with the pinned comment that breaks down time stamps in the video:

Introduction (Ekko did not just have a SLIGHT crush on Jinx lol) : [0:00]

RIOT geniously hiding stuff about Timebomb till the reveal : [1:32]

The timelapse (lots of uncorrect lines in the audio cause we didn't know they met at that time, so it was just me theorizing, but I guess I wasn't wrong now lol) : [2.35]

Ekko-Jinx background, Timelapse + what we know from LORE, and how RIOT been playing with our sanity : [3:20]

✨ WALL ANALYSIS [starting with the easiest ones to see, most interesting parts are near the end]

Intro : Ekko's Wall painted in a RORSCHACH Art style [patchwork graffiti] - being full of Powder & Jinx, Ekko being in love representations, and references to Arcane : [7:28]

Jinx's heroe number and Ekko having her X and her signature all over him : [10:09]

(!) Please see the threads in description to see it all pointed out (!) The video didn't really say it right but these pictures and explanations will definitely make you see what I mean, and also, what I mean about the hair-clip and the Firelight symbol might be theory but I have explained in my thread all the things I discovered that make me thing the Firelight symbol, seeing how it changed, might have a link with Jinx in the first place when it was invented by Ekko.

RIOT playing with us and hiding the fact Jinx was on the wall : [12:14]

This is NOT hypothesis : [12:58]

The developers pointing out the forms we need to see with the thunder hextech energy : [14:54]

Yes, Ekko was in love, and he represented himself 6 times looking at her with bewildered eyes, heart in his eyes, blushing or spying on her during their teenage days : [15:18]

✨ SUMMARY FOR THE THE PAINTINGS --------

NOTE : sometimes you will see the paintings I’m pointing out even better in the next paintings I will point out. By exemple, the Firebomb and the Ekko blushing drawing described in N°2, are clearer and more easy to see in the screencaps pointing out painting N°3! Just try sticking till the end of the video to see them all! ;)

First observations & How I started my Analyze : [16:11]

N°1 - Arcane Jinx main painting on the left - representing Ekko’s Hope to get her back : [16:41]

N°2 - Powder main painting on the right (double faced Powder-Jinx + Ekko blushing + Jinx Chumper bomb) : [17:44]

N°3 & N°4 (I apologize for the lame quality of this one but it was quite hard to make it stand out!) - Screaming/crying Powder, teenage Powder-Jinx drawn K/DA style boxing + teenage Ekko with his Firelight jacket standing on the other side : 5 scenes painted in one and moving along with the seconds! (SIDE NOTE : the cube design on the painting represents the Arcade place in which Jinx boxes the machine, I forgot to mention it in the video!) : [19:19]

N°5 - Vi abandoning Powder - exact Arcane scene : [21:28]

N°6 - Get Jinxed scene from Arcane and Ekko spying on her : [22:14]

N°6, 7 & 8 - Ekko representations watching with bewildered eyes, blushing, with his Firelight mask AND A HEART around the 2 middle Powder & Jinx paintings : [25:20]

Back on N°7, beautiful painting of teenage-adult Jinx with shimmer eyes on top of the wall : [26:26]

N°9 - Little Powder from Arcane & Ekko blushing next to it : [27:47]

N°10 - Doll Jinx with Arcane's clothes : [28:28]

N°11 - Black & white picture of the same screaming/crying Powder represented on painting N°3 : [28:50]

N°12 (that you can see more clearly later in the screencaps of N°27!!) - Ekko in GILDED skin & Jinx with untie long hair drawn in negative mode : [29:04] (!) in the video I said Firelight jacket but now that I discovered all the Ekko-Jinx matching stuff in the Gilded universe (and them hiding in the crowd side-by-side on the Caitlyn’s Gilded artwork lol), I realized it looked like Gilded Ekko in that painting!

N°13 - Young Ekko with unknown person on his side but seeing how the rest of the wall is Jinx, it is probably Powder : [29:19]

N°14 - Young Powder & Ekko talking, probably the talk they had after Powder was taking in by Silco, seeing how Ekko is represented like a skeleton (dying inside) : [29:37]

N°15 - Jinx blue smoke/cloud tattoos representation (!) this cloud I'm pointing out is actually part of the ''cracking the hextech scene'' I've discovered later on, and is located on her shoulder! I will show the painting of that scene later in the video don't worry ! ;) [30:25]

N°16 - Symbols next to the Get Jinxed painting, that have different meanings in the next scenes I will show when the wall will be upside down (singing, crying + hextech symbols) : [30:32]

N°17 - THREE PAINTINGS IN ONE : Powder's red eye when she looks at Silco at the end of Act 3 + Jinx's face/mouth when she looks at Ekko before she made her bomb explode : [30:45]

N°18 - Representation of baby Powder's trauma on the bridge : [31:54]

N°19 - Lighting the flare scene drawn negative mode again, being represented in every way/side you turn the wall : [32:12]

N°20 - Random elements, like Ekko's young blushing face, giving the shape of a heart when you turn them upside-down : [32:29]

N°21 - Young Powder with Arcane's clothes, but looking more fierce as the Powder we know. Perhaps one Powder from Ekko's memory, or the Powder from the Timelapse : [32:40] (!) You can see this painting more clearly in the screencaps of N°27 (!)

N°22 - Jinx drawning/reborn scene with Silco : [32:56]

N°23 - (sorry I have deleted this one since I couldn't point it out in the video, but here's what it was : the black canvas on each side of the scene, also have Jinx & Powder's representations on them, but you'll have to zoom in and improve lighting + the quality yourself to see them cause it can't be shown in a video ToT/)

N°24 - Powder’s leather bag + teenage Ekko staring + blue & pink hand palm : [33:17]

N°25 - Big Jinx monkey-bomb from Arcane, near the other paintings of that exact same scene : [33:37]

N°26 - Drawn negative mode : ''Devil'' Jinx from the bridge scene : [34:08]

N°27 - Two paintings in 1 - Teenage or adult Ekko & Jinx + Ekko’s Gilded skin again ? : [34:31]

N°28 - Jinx ''cracking the Hextech'' scene : [34:57]

N°29 - Firelights representations, same as the ones Jinx drew in her Diary : [35:40]

N°30 - end [36:05]

MORE INTERPRETATIONS & BETTER QUALITY OF SOME PAINTINGS :

N°12 - Ekko & Jinx with untie long hair drawn in negative mode but also, if you look at it at [34:55], you'll see it way more clearly AND also see that it gives Jinx lighting up the flare scene with Ekko on his overboard flying around her.

N°27 - at [34:37] you'll see the young Powder from N°21 way more clearly!

The Jinx Monckey-bomb. At [30:58] ; [31:55] and [34:13] you might see the Jinx Monckey-bomb more clearly as the pictures are in better quality or more focused on this area !

N°22 [32:06] : I forgot to mention it in the video but in that drawing-reborn scene with Silco, you can actually see fingers/a hand (drawn by the Jinx mouth from N°28) pushing on Jinx’s skull/in her hair which seems to be pulling her under water.

More stuff about the Get Jinxed painting and the Devil Jinx one : on top of the Get Jinxed painting, there is a scary white mask/face that I believe to be representing Silco. When you turn the picture upside down, and try not focusing on that mask, it then gives off the Devil Jinx I showed earlier.

Also, the big yellow/bewildered eye in the middle of Jinx chest in the Get Jinxed painting could be representing the Eye of Zaun, as this a tech-nerd Jinx being represented here, and as Ekko is represented staring/spying on her, it could imply that Ekko has recognized Powder in her in that moment, the Zaunite child with whom he grew up with and whom he loved.

End note : I forgot to mention it in the video but there are also 2–3 Vi representations on the Jinx paintings, one from the scene where she left her on the street and went to calm herself away from her, and another with her head and shoulders down, on the main Jinx painting on the left, that looks like the Vi introducing scene from Episode 4 in the prison.

OKAY INSANE. Next I’m gonna give you some screenshots I took so y’all can get some visuals to the stuff you just read. Also, WATCH THE VIDEO!!! The creator does a lot better at exposing than I do—never mind the fact that this is literally their findings! (I didn’t find any of these, just watched the video and now spreading it to tumblr). I have absolutely no recollection of which N• photo these images belong to so you’ll have to play connect the dots lmao

A lot of the images also already have text on the screen explaining, I’m just gonna paraphrase what the voice in the video (not the text) is saying.

These two photos are telling us how Ekko’s down bad ass based the entire firefly logo off of Jinx and her logo… and for the context in the first image about the emboldened Z, here it is:

PRACTICALLY IDENTICAL.

This is the video creator explaining their level 1 billion brain power on thinking outside the box and how the idea of the painting was to go back to an Ekko origin short that came out YEARS before Arcane did. They’ve been planning this entire time, and when the description pasted far above talking about the different photos it was talking about the images painted on a wall in an Ekko origin (will show screenshots next)

The creator of the yt video found almost FORTY Jinx paintings and references to Arcane (which hadn’t been anywhere near its release date when the origin came out.

These ones on the large wood slab are CRAZY. The artists and develops had loads of fun because in the last photo you can see jinx screaming/crying if you focus on all the colours in the photo.

However, the YouTuber blurred Jinx’s face to hell you focus on the blues and pinks where the developers/artists made kind of like a moving mini scene that moved while the video itself moved. To my understanding you can see Jinx boxing and at some point Ekko shows up, too.

(I’ll repost this so I can add more images 👍)

[cal-kestis]

HOW TO: Do a Motion Blur Transition Using Timeline or Frame Animation

Hi! Someone asked me for a tutorial on the transition effect in the second gif of this set (also featured in this set and the text on this set). So, here it is! This is one of the easiest and least tedious of the gif transition effects in my opinion — and I’m going to go over how to do it both in Timeline and Frame Animation (using the screencap method). Disclaimer: This tutorial assumes you have a basic understanding of gif-making in Photoshop.

PHASE 1: PREP

This phase applies to both the Timeline and Frames method!

1.1 – Prepare your caps. (New to gif-making? Check out my basic tutorial here!) 

The key to this kind of gif is making sure your final gif, with all the transitions, won’t be too long or too big of a file to post (Tumblr’s limit is 10 MB). 

If your gif is going to be big like mine (540x500px), you might want to keep your total frames between 50-60. I decided to try getting away with a whopping 70 frames total... because I like to test fate (spoiler: my final gif ended up being 9.6 MB 🙈). Since my gif is transitioning between two scenes, that means each scene was 35 frames. 

If you aren’t doing screencaps like me, just make sure your clips are equal in length. And if you’re transitioning between more than 2 scenes (like the Mando example I linked at the beginning), you’ll have to use shorter clips/fewer frames per scene. In my Mando gif, each scene was 16 frames and my final gif was 64 frames. 

1.2 – Crop, sharpen, color, etc. as you would. For this, since you’ll probably have 2 more more sets of coloring, just make sure your coloring is only being applied to the appropriate gifs. The way I do that is by aligning my adjustment layers with my gif as you can see in the screenshot in 1.3 below.

1.3 – Arrange your frames or clips. If you’re working in Timeline, drag the clips/layers of your second gif so they’re immediately after the ones of your first gif. I like to keep things separated in Groups: 

Note: I’m keeping my text layers separate because I don’t want the motion blur to affect them. But if you wanted to make your text transition from one word to another, you can either follow the same steps I’m about to show you and apply them to your text layers, or simply merge your text layers with your gif and adjustment layers, so they can all get the motion blur filter applied to them!

If you’re working in Frames, simply paste the frames of your second gif after the frames of your first gif. Again, you can either keep your text separated or part of the motion blur.

METHOD: TIMELINE

T.1 – Divide the Timeline. Using the Scissors Tool, you’ll want to divide each gif so there are 3 small segments at the beginning and end. (3 is my go-to, however, for my Mando gif, I actually only did 2 segments because each section was already so short.)

Now there are two options for this:

OPTION 1: Simplest, 00:01 Seconds Each, Makes Duplicate Frames

You might be wondering, why on earth would I want duplicate frames? You wouldn’t, usually. But this method only causes the duplicates to happen on the blurred frames, so it’s not noticeable at all! However, if you’re like me (read: Type A) — just knowing there are duplicate frames may bother you. If that’s you, go to Option 2.

Each of these segments are the absolute smallest Photoshop will allow, a duration of 00:01. 

Sometimes Timeline won’t let you cut things that short (for me, this typically only happens at the end of a clip). So my work around is to cut the segment so it’s 00:02 seconds long, then drag the clip until it’s as small as it can be. Here’s a gif showing that process:

You can see that after I dragged the clip so it would be 00:01, I also dragged the big clip over so it would still continue as normal. Timeline is neat because, even if you divide a clip, each segment can be dragged back to its full length. 

OPTION 2: 00:02 / 00:01 / 00:02, No Duplicate Frames

Timeline works in a weird way... when you move forward one frame by clicking the right arrow, you don’t always see movement in your gif. And if you don’t line up the clips properly with the movement, it can create duplicate frames. The easy way to fix this is by making the 3 segments 00:02, 00:01, and 00:02 seconds respectively. This goes for the segments at the beginning and end. 

You can see the duration of each segment and an example of how the gif doesn’t move on certain frames in this gif of my workspace:

T.2 – Apply the Motion Blur filter in varying distances or strengths. Now that we have all of our segments, it’s time to apply the blur. Motion Blur is under Filter > Blur > Motion Blur! 

This is the window you’ll see when you click it:

Note the fields where you can change the angle and distance. 

The angle is basically the direction in which you want the blurred effect to stretch. I always do 0 because I want my gifs to blur together horizontally — I just think it looks smooth. You can play around with it if you want to get a different effect!

The distance is what I like to refer to as the strength of the blur. But really, it’s distance because it’s how long the blurred effect is being stretched.

The rule of thumb here is to apply the filter in a gradation. The part at the beginning of one gif should go from strongest (greatest distance) to weakest (least distance). The part at the end of one gif should go from weakest to strongest. 

I keep things easy to remember and do 20, 15, 10 for the beginning and 5, 10, 15 for the end. The reason the numbers aren’t the same is because I don’t want the end of Gif 1 (which is blurred 15px distance) to be the same as the beginning of Gif 2 (which is blurred 20px distance). If they’re the same amount of blur, I don’t think the transition looks as smooth.

Here’s my entire timeline and the strength of blur I used for each of the transitional clips:

T.3 – Export That’s it! Convert from Timeline to Frames, export your gif, and there you go! 

Reminder, if you decided to do Option 1, you’ll have duplicate frames, and therefore more frames than you started out with when you initially imported caps.

METHOD: FRAMES

F.1 – Apply the Motion Blur filter in varying distances or strengths. In Timeline, we created segments. But in Frames, each frame acts as one of those segments — so we don’t need to divide anything. We can just get straight to the filter!

Now, disclaimer: the way I’m working with Frames right now is with the adjustment layers merged with the frames. I typically work in Timeline, so I colored in Timeline and then converted into Frames for this. However you work, just make sure the coloring from one part of your gif doesn’t affect the other part.

Anyway, here’s where to find Motion Blur again:

And here’s what the window will look like:

Now just apply the filter in increasing and decreasing degrees. In case you didn’t read the Timeline section, I’ll paste exactly what I said there:

Note the fields where you can change the angle and distance.

The angle is basically the direction in which you want the blurred effect to stretch. I always do 0 because I want my gifs to blur together horizontally — I just think it looks smooth. You can play around with it if you want to get a different effect!

The distance is what I like to refer to as the strength of the blur. But really, it’s distance because it’s how long the blurred effect is being stretched.

The rule of thumb here is to apply the filter in a gradation. The part at the beginning of one gif should go from strongest (greatest distance) to weakest (least distance). The part at the end of one gif should go from weakest to strongest.

I keep things easy to remember and do 20, 15, 10 for the beginning and 5, 10, 15 for the end. The reason the numbers aren’t the same is because I don’t want the end of Gif 1 (which is blurred 15px distance) to be the same as the beginning of Gif 2 (which is blurred 20px distance). If they’re the same amount of blur, I don’t think the transition looks as smooth.

Here are all my frames and the strength of the blur I used for each of the transitional frames:

Note: I wanted to mention again that I kept my text layers in a separate group and didn’t apply the transition to them:

F.2 – Export Finished! Easy peasy! 

EXPORTING TIP

If you’ve read my other tutorials, you already know this tip — but since I’m part of Discord servers where members are encouraged to share embed links to their creations, I often rearrange the order of my frames before saving them. (This tip is also handy for making sure the best frame of your gif is visible for Tumblr users who turn off auto-playing gifs.) In this case, I made frame 27 my new frame 1 because I didn’t want my embed preview to look like a blurry gif. Everything will still be in the same order, but anywhere your gif is paused, the best frame will be displayed!

Anyway, that’s it! If you have specific questions about this tutorial, my ask box is open. Hope this helps! <3

[sunkissedlouis]

Hi! I don't know if you already have a tutorial but would you mind sharing your gif making process? Thank you!

hiiii anon!

thank you for sending this in :) it's my first time getting a tutorial request hehe i tried to explain each step i do as best as i can.

i'll put the gif making process and tutorial under the cut bc it's image + text heavy

before starting, i'd just like to share what i use in creating gifs:

i'm on mac (i used to do them on windows... the ps steps are the same if you're using one)

i'm currently using photoshop 2022

i use 9xbuddy or video downloadhelper extension on firefox mainly for downloading videos

best quality to download for hq gifs is ideally 1080p and above. (although you can get away with 720p for smaller gif sizes)

i use mplayer-osx extended to get the screencaps/frames for my gifs (if i'm not doing the import option in photoshop)

for this tutorial, i'm using the latam highlights video from louis' ig reels to make today's gif. on to the tutorial / process!

please click the screenshots i've included below and zoom in on the texts on them to see them clearly (apologies for the quality!)

IMPORT YOUR FRAMES. once you've downloaded your video, open photoshop and click FILE > IMPORT > VIDEO FRAMES TO LAYERS

SELECT THE PART YOU WANT TO GIF. the shorter, the better because you want to keep it crisp and keep the file under 10mb when you save it after all the layers. here are the settings i use:

toggle the smaller arrows under the bar to select the parts you want to gif. once you have your frames loaded, it should show you a timeline table at the bottom and their corresponding layers on the right side. (if you can't see the timeline, go to WINDOW > click TIMELINE)

3. DELETE EXTRA LAYERS, CROP PARTS YOU WANT TO FOCUS ON, AND RESIZE.

after cropping the parts of the gifs, resize them according to the tumblr sizing to prevent your gifs from looking blurry once you upload them. you can use this size guide for your reference :) the gif's height can be any size as far as i know. go to IMAGE > IMAGE SIZE > INPUT THE SIZE. for this gif, we'll do 540 x 540

4. CHANGE GIF SPEED and CONVERT TO SMART OBJECT

once you've selected all frames

set the delay to 0.07. this is usually the natural, normal speed for gifs on here. it depends on the number of frames you have but i usually do .07 or .05 (sometimes .08 haha)

with all your timeline frames still selected, then select all the layers on the right side. go to SELECT > ALL LAYERS

then convert them to smart object so we can edit all the layers all at once. go to LAYER > SMART OBJECTS > CONVERT TO SMART OBJECT

5. SHARPEN (one of my fave parts!)

this is the basic one that most users use:

STEP 1: go to FILTER > SHARPEN > SMART SHARPEN

radius usually goes from 0.3-0.4

STEP 2: Repeat STEP 1, but this time change the settings to:

you can stop here but i like my gifs crispier and to have more texture! i use the sharpening settings from this tutorial or these sharpening action packs from user brainwasheds. i highly recommend these! i mix and match the settings when i'm not happy with how they look on my gifs. but for this gif we'll use the sharpening settings from this tutorial.

in addition to the settings from that tutorial, i also added FILTER > OTHER > HIGH PASS at 3.4 radius, then set the opacity to 60-80

then lastly add FILTER > ADD NOISE > NOISE at gaussian setting with 1.5 amount, then set opacity to 20-30

6. BRIGHTENING, COLORING, BALANCING, ADDING TEXTURE

now for the fun part!

STEP 1: BRIGHTEN UP THE GIF this is my go-to way to increase the brightness. go to LAYER > NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER > BRIGHTNESS / CONTRAST then change its blending mode from NORMAL to SCREEN

you now have a very bright, highly saturated gif but we'll fix that lol

STEP 2: ADD CONTRAST BY FIXING THE BLACKS AND WHITES add a new adjustment layer > LEVELS

i usually play around with these. middle and black arrows add shadows and contrast while the white arrows add highlights/brightness to the gifs.

these are my settings! these are not definite bc it varies depending on what you're working on, so adjust them accordingly. next, add another adjustment layer > CURVES

i usually zoom in to locate the darkest / black area using the black dropper. then once that's done, do the same and locate the brightest/white area. this adds further contrast to your gif that wasn't done in the previous step.

STEP 3: COLORING (my fave part!!!) add a new adjustment layer > SELECTIVE COLOR this is the part where i like to neutralize the skin color when it gets too yellow or red, make the colors pop, and sometimes change them too. louis' skin was looking too red heavy, so i wanted to reduce that! i start with balancing out the skin color with REDS & YELLOWS.

these are my settings for this gif! adjust them and observe the changes it makes on the person's skin. if you know color theory, it's helpful to see how it affects the colors on your gifs. putting the arrows more on the left side, adds more 'cool' tones, whilst putting the arrows to the right side, adds more 'warm' tones.

i like to deepen the blacks on my gifs further so, go to selective color's BLACKS and on the black scale, add more to the right! for this one, i added +10

add a new SELECTIVE COLOR adjustment layer. for this one, we'll make the surrounding colors pop more!

for these settings, i made the leaves more vivid while the teal(?) wall, i adjusted them made it more blue.

next, add a new adjustment layer > COLOR BALANCE this is where you can make further adjustments on the overall colors of your gif. you can also change the color tone of your gifs here if you want to make it more 'cool' tone or 'warm' tone looking.

earlier's color theory applies here as well!

6.5. OPTIONAL STEP: ADD TEXTURE/OVERLAYS after the last step, you can save your gif as is but again, i like adding textures to my gifs so we'll add one. i use the textures/overlays that i got from here :)

i like to use film, grainy textures! add the texture you want on top of all the layers.

then change the blending mode to LIGHTEN or SCREEN. adjust the opacity to 20-40%. for this gif i used screen with 40%.

7. EXPORT AND SAVE YOUR GIF time to save your gif! click FILE > EXPORT > SAVE FOR WEB

this is my default setting for my gifs. i also tick the interlaced option sometimes.

here's the finished gif:

there you go anon! :) if you have any more questions, just lmk or you can directly dm me off-anon if you want.

i also get inspo, guides, and other tutorials over at @usergif

[mitzvahmelting]

an overview of the Théâtre des Vampires coven according to show canon (to the best of my knowledge)

section 1: the core acting company

apologies for shitty screenshots i made this on the fly and i could not be fucked to get high quality screencaps

Gustave - Currently part of the core acting company, he was a member of the coven since at least before Lestat's arrival, he's in those early scenes.

Celeste (pictured here with Santiago) - Currently part of the core acting company, was also a member of the coven in those early scenes. She and Gustave were seen together having most of the lines in those scenes representing the grub coven.

Estelle - here seen in both recognizable outfits for her. Currently part of the core acting company, her maker is Celeste.

I'm unclear on when Estelle was turned. I'm... pretty sure she's not in the scenes with the grub vampires, but it's possible that this is her handing out flyers for the first edition of the Theatre des Vampires... what do you think? Same lady? 👇

If that's her, then that might imply that Celeste turned her at some point between the dissolution of the grub coven and the reestablishment of the Theater coven, which would make sense in my opinion since I can't picture Armand actually approving for Celeste to turn someone

The final member of the core acting company is Santiago, but I'm skipping him because he's a main character so you already know him.

section 2: the orchestra

Basilic - part of the orchestra, Basilic was also a member of the grub coven.

He's seen in that flashback ☝ playing an instrument which @bloodripelives identified as potentially a chalumeau. (i spent 3 months calling this guy merde'em by mistake, fuck me)

Here's the rest of the orchestra. From left to right: Merde'em, Basilic, Planche.

Don't ask me what instruments they play, I didn't try that hard but I'm sure you could check if you watched the B-roll hard enough.

Merde'em and Planche were both turned by Basilic at some point - presumably Basilic could have gotten approval from Armand to turn people because they needed an orchestra. I feel like that would be a sufficient reason for Armand to consent, especially if Lestat was co-leading the coven at the time. Also Nicky was probably around but I'm ignoring him because he's dead by now so you don't have to try to spot him in the 1940s coven scenes.

Don't ask me why Merde'em is literally named "shittem," your guess is as good as mine.

Planche has a good relationship with Eglee - we see him squeezing her shoulder to comfort her during the dinner scene at the restaurant. Speaking of, let's talk about her and everyone else.

section 3: everyone else

Eglee - Front of house. Because we see humans handling the ticket counter when Louis and Claudia arrive, that means that Eglee must be the manager of all the ticket counter staff and ushers.

actually on second thought i think the guy who louis and claudia see at the ticket counter with the fake fangs might actually have been Sam? idk, worth a look. Either way, front of house is Eglee's purview.

We see her sexually ride Santiago's motorcycle as well as suck him off in the lair.

During the 2x04 "Lulu Dress" confrontation between Armand and Claudia, Santiago jumps to Claudia's defense and criticizes Armand. At this point in time, Celeste throws her support behind Santiago and also verbally criticizes Armand, which Santiago appreciates.

Seeing Celeste unexpectedly throw her support behind Santiago (and knowing that Celeste and Santiago have had an on-again-off-again thing for years), Eglee gets jealous and shouts "put your tits back in your bloomers, slut!" before attacking Celeste onstage, to Estelle's delighted shock.

then Eglee is later jealous and morose at the restaurant scene

Tuan (left, father) and Quang (right, son).

Tuan does the projections and works alone in the projection booth all show.

Quang is a swing actor, so he's sometimes on stage and presumably serves as an understudy for most of the male roles.

Because Quang "refused the dark gift until he was old enough to be on stage", we know that presumably Armand allowed Tuan and Quang to join the coven while Quang was still mortal. Which is fucking wild, but I won't be getting into that with more depth here.

Also, Tuan and Quang Pham are from Vietnam, which was called "French Indochina" at the time because colonization. We don't know when specifically they were invited into the coven, but that can give you a rough lower bound on the years. here's a map of the french conquest of vietnam by years, from the french indochina wikipedia page.

the upper bound would probably be the 1900s? because they would have to have been brought into the coven 1. before santiago, and 2. long enough before santiago that Quang had time to grow up and be turned before Santiago was turned.

Romaine - stage manager. No idea when he was turned or brought in. From his behavior in the scene with the restaurant, we can see that he's tasked with giving Armand updates and reports about what's going on with the coven. He's a snitch.

He's also the one who interrupts Armand during the gallery scene, after he finished telling Louis about Amadeo. Romaine phones in on the vamp wifi and tells Armand that Claudia is at Madeleine's atelier. (Or possibly Romaine just tells him "there's a body rotting on the green room floor" and Armand tracks down Claudia himself). Either way: Romaine's a snitch.

Samuel "Sam" Barclay - a nod to real life playwright Samuel Beckett. Armand refers to him as the "playwright in residence" so personally i want to headcanon that he's not actually a part of the coven, though I have no evidence to support that.

He's basically a main character so I'm not gonna talk about him much more here, but like. I'm interested to see what they do with him. We don't know when he was turned, we don't know who turned him, we don't know how old he is. We do know that he got away from Louis' rampage and became a friend of the Talamasca. We also do know that he's a DJ in 2022 and wears a helmet when he performs.

Center, here, is Hans Luchenbaum, the costume designer. We don't really know much more about him, except that he's most often referred to as Luchenbaum, and he sounds a little more german than french? idk.

That's all folks! <3 hope that was helpful. if i got anything wrong, which i probably did, go ahead and tell me please. also go read my fics. eventually i'll post the fucking coven fic on there.

[nadas-dirthalen]

I Saw Solas's Origin in an Achievement Icon and It Opened My Eyes on 15 Years of Lore

— PART EIGHT: if you haven't read previous parts, do it now! —

[ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ]

Welcome, friends and travellers! I wanted to get some thoughts recorded before Veilguard's release so I could see if I am right about an absolute BOATLOAD of theories I have.

In short: I saw the achievement list when it was released. I have seen the backstory hints for Solas included in said list. AND MY MIND WAS BLOWN.

You have been warned: THIS COLLECTION OF THEORIES INCLUDES SPOILERS FOR EVERY DRAGON AGE GAME AND ALL PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL UP TO AND INCLUDING OCTOBER 18, 2024.

Come sit down with me. Make a nice cup of tea (and hide it from Solas). We've got a lot of unpacking to do.

(no, this photo isn't the spoiler, I just like it.)

The Story of Solas: Him Solas Evanuris, Da'durgen'lin (1/3)

— The Ballad That Played Right Before Our Eyes —

I meant to write this as soon as I got my day started today (perks of being on the border of a sinus infection right before Veilguard). But I thought of something last night, and I had to do some of the Temple of Solasan and Trespasser all over again to confirm it.

I'm glad I did. I'm horrified at what I found.

Let's begin.

Seriously, as ever, go read the other parts before this one. If you need to only read a few, then read 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 (linked above). All of those matter for context here, you've been forewarned!

This post will exist in three parts. First up, we've got:

The World at the Time of Solas's Manifestation

Da'durgen'lin: Not the First, but Perhaps Mythal's Last

Solasan: The Icy Terror the World Forgot

The Dread Wolf: Inspiring Hope in Friends, and Fear in Enemies

The World at the Time of Solas's Manifestation

I will be as brief as possible here. Remember when I said the other parts were important for context? It's because we're largely skipping the context we've already covered today.

In the briefest of terms:

Titans, unsundered.

Maker's second children, made. Evanuris, jealous. Evanuris, slaying Titans.

Evanuris, already doing all of their lyrium/Titan-atrocities. We'll get to how I know that.

Conditions are perfect for the blight to begin. All Titans, thus far (that we know of), have been wounded consistently. All are ramping up to "fight back." (We'll get to that.)

But the Evanuris are continuing, heedless of what their arrogance will bring.

Enter: Solas Evanuris.

Da'durgen'lin: Not the First, but Perhaps Mythal's Last

More brevity here, but now with added screencaps from when I just played Trespasser this morning (in fact, I just finished the Shattered Library, and am going to go back to Trespasser after this).

We already knew Mythal was mining Titans for people. What I've refreshed my memory on are three things:

We don't know where in the Deep Roads this is (that I know of)

This is not the only place we see lyrium coffins

This is where we see the codex about needing to forget this place: the one I mentioned began the blight yesterday.

Before I go on, I wish to revisit one more codex from this portion of the Deep Roads: Mythal's Lullaby.

Ir sa tel'nal Mythal las ma theneras Ir san'a emma Him solas evanuris Da'durgen'lin Banal malas elgara Bellanaris, bellanaris.

Isatunoll Mythal gives you dreams Lyrium within Becomes Solas evanuris Blight you give to the Titan Forever, forever.

I've discovered new significance in it that I have not been able to fit into these posts as yet: this lullaby is almost perfectly in the Hallelujah cadence. It follows Hallelujah's meter, but the lines are split up as a distraction.

It can be arranged as:

Ir sa tel'nal, Mythal las ma (8) Theneras ir san'a emma (8) Him Solas Evanuris, da'durgen'lin (11) Banal malas elgara (hallelujah, hallelujah) Bellanaris, bellanaris. (hallelujah, hallelujah)

With the use of "you" in the song and the fact that it is called Mythal's lullaby, I am going to posit that she is singing this to Solas. Why?

Cole tells us in Trespasser. "He did not want a body. But she asked him to come. He left a scar when he burned her off his face."

I believe that this is Mythal asking Solas to take physical shape. But... why? Why coax a spirit if he did not want to come into the physical world, outside of his Titan? If she coerced him into a body, only for the horrors of the Blight to follow, why would he look up to her as the lone voice of reason among the Evanuris?

I'm choosing to read Mythal in a good light here. Know that, as I continue to theorize, the worst case scenario is also possible.

Solasan: the Icy Terror the Elvhen Tried to Forget

Last night, after writing part 7, I could not get this codex out of my mind. The moment of the blight's beginning. I am astonished that I have not seen it theorized before (not to say it does not exist, just that it has not been flung far and wide across the fandom—at least not where I can find it).

Let's go back to it.

In the light of the veilfire, the runes seem to shift, coiling and uncoiling like snakes. A thunderous voice shatters the stillness, shouting: "Hail Mythal, adjudicator and savior! She has struck down the pillars of the earth and rendered their demesne unto the People! Praise her name forever!" For a moment, the scent of blood fills the air, and there is a vivid image of green vines growing and enveloping a sphere of fire. The vision grows dark. An aeon seems to pass. Then the runes crackle, as if filled with an angry energy. A new vision appears: elves collapsing caverns, sealing the Deep Roads with stone and magic. Terror, heart-pounding, ice-cold, as the last of the spells is cast. A voice whispers: "What the Evanuris in their greed could unleash would end us all. Let this place be forgotten. Let no one wake its anger. The People must rise before their false gods destroy them all."

I could not help but think again on how Mythal's lullaby directly says, "Blight you give to the Titan." I asked myself, late at night, in despair: could Solas's manifestation TRULY have been the beginning of the blight on Thedas?

Well, we know where to find out, don't we? The Temple of Solasan. I'm not the kind of person to grab 114 shards in a video game (sorry, Bioware), but I did find a mod that let me in over the summer, and I pulled up an old save.

Jogging my memory made me cry.

The top chamber in the temple is where one finds the inscription on Solas. We'll get there, and we'll also get to the outside of the temple, don't worry. For now, I want to focus on the lower level. (Pardon my Inquisition screenshots and their messiness; I told y'all I wasn't going online in any real capacity today, and I meant it. You're getting all homemade footage here.)

There are three rooms down here. One for plants (left), one for fire (right), and one for ice (center).

Huh. Doesn't that sound like...

For a moment, the scent of blood fills the air, and there is a vivid image of green vines growing and enveloping a sphere of fire. The vision grows dark. An aeon seems to pass. Then the runes crackle, as if filled with an angry energy. A new vision appears: elves collapsing caverns, sealing the Deep Roads with stone and magic. Terror, heart-pounding, ice-cold, as the last of the spells is cast.

My heart sank. My stomach twisted into knots. I explored the fire and plant wings again, and found little that I hadn't already explored or looted—only corpses possessed by demons.

But the ice room...

Something flashed within. Something that made my blood run cold (fittingly, I think).

I ventured in. And then I began to cry, for I knew.

Without enemies, not in combat, the floor periodically flashes when you run over certain spots in the room. The whole floor, just for a second, is covered in these.

I'm not one of the fancy fly-cam people, so I spent a lot of time running around until I could hit the Tactical Mode button at the exact right second.

I don't know what this exact sigil means. But I swear that it has blight or bad-bad-not-good-magic implications, and... well, it's red. Red, in a blue room full of ice.

Even with no corpses around this time, no enemies left to fight: I knew, deep in my bones, that this place is what that codex was referring to. Let this place be forgotten.

Let the Titans be forgotten, because of what horrors we have seen.

It makes me read the codices of this temple in a new and horrifying light.

Faintly carved into the stone is a figurebound in chains. Two other figures haveturned their gaze from the central image.The script below the image is ancient,though Solas is able to provide a partialtranslation: Pride in our accomplishments and in our hearts. That same pride became (a word meaning corrupted or altered) within him, he sought to claim (indecipherable), cast from favor and so was bound. Hidden from mortal eyes, death lies within.

"That same pride became (a word meaning corrupted or altered) within him." Now, we have new context on what corrupted or altered might imply.

The same with, "cast from favor and so was bound." The Titan—the Stone—rejected Solas. But why? Was it because of what he was seeking, or because of what Mythal was coercing/asking him to seek? And when he was "bound" — it was by her, right?

But we know what came next. We know that Terror—a Forgotten One, a Titan—fought back, just like Cole says.

"They made bodies from the earth. And the earth was afraid. It fought back. But they made it forget."

The Earth—the Titan—was afraid. It was Terror. It fought back, lighting a room entirely in horrific red circles that gave me a jump-scare (and no doubt doing other terrible blight things). It chased the elves from the Deep Roads, even as they sealed them.

They begged the other elvhen to forget this place. "Hidden from mortal eyes, death lies within."

The blight.

This was terrifying (pun almost intended) for the fleeing elvhen. So much so that they left a parting message by the door to the temple.

An inscription taken at the temple doors in the Forbidden Oasis, followed by a translation. The writing is shaky and uneven, as though the writer labored to complete the task: Emma solas him var din'an. Tel garas solasan. Melana en athim las enaste. Arrogance became our end. Come not to a prideful place. Now let humility grant favor.

Let's re-examine that elven language.

Emma solas him var din'an. Within [Solas or arrogance] becomes our end.

Remember "that same pride became (corrupted or altered) within him?" Does him mean Solas, or does him mean the Forgotten One from whence Solas came?

Regardless, I am beginning to understand the legend, the horror: one last person from one of Mythal's lyrium coffins, and Terror begins to consume Solasan. Elves, fleeing desperately, hands shaking as they carve warnings into the doorway.

The markings are crude and simplistic, but their meaning can be understood: "They did not ask questions and so I was away. I keep my head low and work like the rest. The circle will not hunt this far. At first I regretted the choice, but they all feel the dread at the door. I do not stand out. Only a brother or sister would know these words. If you found your way here as I have, then you are not alone. If you would have allies when this contract ends, then find me." For a moment, the pounding of footsteps can be heard, as if someone is running. Then it fades.

I saw this on my way back to Solasan—I had not seen it before, clearly. I looked, and I wept. I'll admit that.

Because I saw, "the dread at the door," and I knew. The dread locked inside Solasan. The Terror, barred within and forgotten.

And from that Dread? Only one pulled from a lyrium coffin. Mythal's last da'durgen'lin, rushed out of Solasan. I hope that she asked him to take a body to help him escape Terror. I hope that she asked him to take a body to somehow calm Terror, if the Stone truly rejected Solas.

I hope she did not mean for Solas's creation to cause Terror.

Regardless of the motive behind Solas's true and horrific origin, the effect is the same: a parallel to the Inquisitor, Solas's rise to fame and power began when he survived something he should not have.

Dread.

The Dread Wolf: Inspiring Hope in Friends, and Fear in Enemies

If you're like me, you've wondered why these seem to be everywhere. Outside of Dalish camps, sure (even though Fen'Harel is their villain, they still entrust that he'll protect them, uh huh)... but also in the temples and holy places of other Evanuris, not just Mythal. Also out in the middle of the wild.

Now we know. We know because we know the meaning of the Dread Wolf. Wolves, in ancient elvhenan, were warriors, generals, second-in-commands. We can intuit this based on their continued use in Dalish culture with its Arcane Warriors/Knight Enchanters. Solas was one such "wolf" — but he had a quality that no other did.

He had been marked, somehow, by his survival of Dread. I don't know enough today to confirm whether that means Solas is blighted, immune to the blight, or something else entirely, and I only have 1.5 more days until Veilguard launches (and maybe proves all of this wrong). I can only guess at this connection.

Whatever it was, that became his resonance in the culture of Arlathan.

"I was Solas first. Fen'Harel came later... an insult I took as a badge of pride. The Dread Wolf inspired hope in my friends and fear in my enemies... Not unlike "Inquisitor," I suppose."

The insult, presumably, was that he was the one "wolf" for whom it had all gone wrong. Rejected by the Stone; product of a turned Titan fighting back with new blight. But to inspire hope in his friends, and fear in his enemies? We must consider what those friends and enemies would want, and what they would consider hopeful/fear-inducing.

Solas's friends, we know from the agents we see in his rebellion, also want an end to the Blight. His enemies, the other Evanuris, want the blight to cover Thedas.

Therefore: to inspire hope in his friends and fear in his enemies, the Dread Wolf would have to possess some innate anti-blight quality. Therefore, I posit that Solas's title, the Dread Wolf, is meant to refer to how the blight did not kill him when it was unleashed by Terror.

This quality—and the threat that the blight would soon pose to all of Ancient Elvhenan and the entire ancient world—would give way to... well, we all know.

Rebellion.

Stay tuned.

----

Also: I am essentially FULLY OFFLINE to try and avoid game spoilers! As these reviews have just gone live yesterday (10/28), I am not reading my notifications/replies, and am appearing here only to continue posting my theories. I have heard that the embargo has been broken at least once already and I refuse to risk it, so I will respond to messages and notifications once I have played Veilguard for a bit.

(Mutuals, if you need me, you may DM me, as long as you do not mention the reviews in any capacity.)

[taeiris]

“i can’t lose you again”

head its like s5 finale will involve willel to team up alone to end the upside down bc they are the key

so they will have to separate from the rest of team that includes mike and he’s absolutely losing it bc he cant bare the thought of losing two of the ppl he loves the most💋

this is part 1, its not gonna be a comic or anything ill just post little “screencaps” following this scene !

im reallity excited abt this bc i think its very possible, in my head its already canon and i am just a prophet LMAO

prints for this are now available on my inprnt‼️ link is in my pinned post<3

[dearemma]

* SIMAY BARLAS IN AZIZ ( part 1/3 )

PAID CONTENT !   —   by clicking on the source link you will find a page with 150 gifs ( 268 x 191 ), all made from scratch by yours truly, of simay barlas , a turkish actress, in the show aziz. do not claim as your own, or add to free gif hunts. you can edit them for your own use, as long as you credit me somewhere ♥ have fun!

[kathanglangit]

The Third Blade: Hinalung - Handheld Speartip

Five days left to go before the launch of the Gubat Banwa Kickstarter campaign! Gubat Banwa is a TTRPG that allows you to play as warrior Kadungganan in the Sword Isles, a fantasy setting as colorful and intricate as the Southeast Asian cultures from which it draws inspiration.

I've been posting the weapons I've been drawing for the game as kind of a countdown, leading up to the launch on October 10. I was planning to do this for Swordtember, but sometimes you gotta shift the goalpost a little bit. 3/7 blades down, behold the HINALUNG

This multi-purpose blade comes in a few different shapes and sizes, but in general they are symmetrical and double-edged. They don't get much longer than one's forearm, and more often than not have handles wrapped in rattan lashings.

(Blades by Tatang HImanggo and one of his students- a certain Arnold; As shared by Biboy's Sharp Edges) If I'm not mistaken, the term "hinalung" is Ifugao- referring to a certain group of indigenous peoples in the Philippine Cordilleras- though the usage of the blade itself was widespread across the mountains of north Luzon. Nowadays, it isn't just Ifugao smiths making them, and a number of contemporary smiths from across the region seem to lay claim to the blade. In any case, the blade is of the Cordilleras, unconquered by Spain.

(Blades by Ifugao Traditional Blades) One more thing of note is the open scabbard, which seems to be common among blades in that region- not just the hinalung. Some of them boast enough space for more than one blade to be sheathed, and are often sold as novelties. The first example below has a large hinalung in the middle, joined by a pair of pinahig. It can very quickly get out of hand. These X-in-1 sets are usually sold as novelties.

(Blades by Orinn Mongalini/Panday Anitu Mumbaki)

(Photo from Orinn Mongalini)

(Photo from Ifugao Artistic Blade)

Now for the fun part! You may be wondering why the handle is shaped the way it is, with that triangular opening near the base of the blade? Or perhaps you read the title of this post and you already know where this is going?

They double as spearheads! The handle itself is steel folded in to create a hollow socket, allowing the hinalung to be mounted on a wooden shaft, turning it into a spear. Supposedly, this spear-form was used for hunting. You can see the hollow socket more clearly here:

(Blade by HanYan Blades)

(Screencap from a video by AJ Blade Reviews testing the blade as a spear; Blade by Lakay Paul Dulnuan Sr.) As mentioned previously, the Philippine Cordilleras were never conquered by Spain, and as such were able to carry their traditions with a little more ease into the present day. It is very much apparent in the blade culture. Present-day smiths in the Cordilleras still forge hinalung, some of them stating they do it in the traditional way, others admitting to hewing to more modern methods.

(Antique from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology)

(Modern build by Lakay Pabian, photo by Ramon Bathan) Like I said before: Blade culture is alive and still developing. One of the Five Major Mahamandalas of Gubat Banwa pays homage to and gleans inspiration from living cultures like those I mentioned here. If you want to know what the first half of that sentence means, check out the game and its Kickstarter!

The Gubat Banwa Kickstarter launches in 5 days! Check it out here:

I've watched this game be started, written, and developed by like- one guy, who just managed to drum up enough interest and meet enough people willing to help shape the dream, and make it what it is today. It could not have gotten this far without all of them. Still, it remains a very small team of creators from the global south, with very limited resources. We would dearly appreciate any and all help in getting the word out about the game!

[usergayeddie]

Hiii your icons are so pretty, would you have a tutorial on them or tips on how to do it?

hello lovely and thank you so much!! i have been making icons for a long time, but have also just started with this style of icon, so i don't know how much of a help i can be but i'll try my best! i make all my icons in photoshop, but when i first started i used gimp, it works similar and i'd recommend it if you dont want to commit to ps just yet. this ended up getting kinda long because i went step by step on how i make my icons like the ones from this post, with a bunch of tips and tutorials linked, so i put it under a read more. i specifically go deeper into how to change the colours of his hoodie depending on your background/preferences. i hope i could help even a little bit!

1. the base

one of the first steps is deciding what you want the base to look like. you can do just a solid colour, gradients, patterns, etc. you can use the solid colours and gradients that are already a feature in photoshop, but there are also a lot of amazing resources and bases by other talented people either on here or on deviantart. just look up icon textures on deviantart, you'll be able to find a bunch of textures and pre-set gradients you can use as your base. this is a really great pack you can find on deviantart that offers a bunch of bases. if you'd like to make gradients yourself, here's a really good tutorial! i am not really an expert on explaining how to use textures because i've only really just started with headers.

2. the picture/png

onto the star of the show - the person you want to have in your icon. i usually get those from screencaps from whatever show/movie i am making icons of. you can get screencaps of most shows and movies from screencaped.net. i then isolate the person i want to be in my icon so that the background is removed and transparent. you can do that yourself, here is a very good tutorial on how to do that in photoshop, or you can use other platforms like canva or adobe express, that have features to remove the background for you. you usually cannot adjust those, so if they dont cut out things the correct way you have to adjust in photoshop afterwards. when chosing a screencap you should make sure that the person and silhupette are clear and delinated from the background, without any obstruction in the foreground, so that you can cut out the entire figure easily without parts of their body missing. i usually also look for screencaps where the head and the sites aren't cut off, so that i can freely adjust the sizing and move the figure around. i also try my best to get a scene where the lighting is alright so that i don't have to fight for my life colouring it, but sometimes it can't be helped.

this is one of the screencaps i used for my recent eddie icons and it's a good example: his upper body is clearly seperated from the background, nothing is cut off, etc.

this screenshot is an example that i personally wouldnt use because there is a jug in the foreground in front of eddie that would be in the icon as well.

buck looks very cute in his lil hat but the shot is cut off on the right and on top, so i didn't end up using it either. you just kinda go through the screencaps you have (or take your own) and figure out which frames fit for the type of icon you'd like to make.

if you'd like to make screencaps yourself, here is an easy tutorial to follow!

3. basic colouring

when i make icons like these, i usually dont go too crazy with the editing, i mostly just adjust the lighting and colouring the create a well-lit base. here you can see the unedited png (first picture) and then once ive used a basic colouring (second picture).

this is a very good tutorial on basic colouring using curves, hues, etc, as i've done as well. it is for gif-making but those same editing steps can be applied to still pictures as well.

4. colour isolation

the icons i am currently making are in a style that you can see a lot around tumblr - where parts of the person in the icon, usually their clothes and other accessories, are edited to be a certain colour that matches the background, and that colour can be changed to match different bases. you can see that the hoodie eddie is wearing has a different colour to match the different colours of the background.

i desperately tried to find the tutorial that i used to learn how to do this but i can't, so i'll try my best to explain it myself (brace yourself). i have seen people do this by drawing onto the png, but i use a different method. for this you'll need to have some basic knowledge on layer masks.

we're gonna start with our png image that already has the colouring applied to it (1).

now, click on the layer and add a solid color layer (2). you do that by clicking the symbol i've marked on the bottom and then selecting "solid color...".

in the screen that pops up now you can select the colour you would like the accents to have (3). choose the colour you want and then click "OK".

your entire image should be in the colour you chose. now right-click on the solid colour layer in the layers panel on the right and select "create clipping mask" (4). this will apply the solid colour layer only to the cut out of your lil guy. it should looks like this now (5).

now we're going to adjust the blend mode. right now it should be set to "normal" (6). click onto the drop down arrow and select the blend mode "colour"(7).

now we can see eddies features again! now we want to edit it so that the pink is only on the parts that we want to be colourful. for this left-click on the white box in your solid color layer (8) so that it's selected. after that select the brush tool (9) and make sure it's set to black. we use black to take colour away and white to add colour back in.

now go over all the parts that you don't want to be colourful. if you accidently take too much away don't worry, just switch the brush colour to white and go over what you want to add in again. it looks like this (10) for me afterwards.

you can change your colour if you double click on the little pink box of your colour layer and adjust it however you want.

5. adjustments

after i've done everything listed above i usually group the two layers (your cutout and the solid colour layer) together so i can move them as one (11). after that i pull the group over onto my base and adjust it so that fits properly (12).

now that the cutout is on the base layer i usually go in to properly adjust the colours and make sure the colours on the cutout match well with the background. you can do that by changing the colour manually or using the eyedropper tool. and voilá! i know it sounds like a lot right now reading this, but once you've gotten the hang of it, it really isnt that hard.

i hope this was at least somewhat understandable and that i could help a bit! there are a ton of amazing tutorials out there for all parts of editing and photoshop in general that go deep into details in case there is a specific part you want to learn more about. for now i hope this gives you at least a small overview.

[for-a-longlongtime]

On Dieter, Goya's Black Paintings, and Pedro on Talk Art 

Alright y'all, it's Saturday evening, I have nothing better to do (I actually do but I don't feel like it), so welcome to my mini TED Talk about 'how to pay too much fucking attention to the Pedro cinematic universe'. None of this is new, and maybe everybody already knew about this, but I didn't... so here's a nerdy tangent courtesy of googling/wikipedia-ing.

I was reading a Dieter!fic (this one right here by @chaoticgeminate - go read her writing!) earlier today, which refers to the 'Saturn Devouring His Son' painting - that giant mural Dieter is working on in The Bubble:

(his brush isn't even touching the wall tho, ha)

The original 'Saturn' by Goya

The fic mentioned its part of 'The Black Paintings', so I got curious and started googling. I'm no art major or expert, so please allow me to just paraphraze the Wikipedia page. 'Saturn' is part of a group of 14 Goya paintings that are called Pinturas Negras/The Black Paintings. They "portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his fear of insanity and his bleak outlook on humanity" --this was late in Goya's life, and was connected to several illnesses he had experienced (and the fear of relapsing) and political turmoil in Spain at the time (post-Napolean war, changing Spanish government, etc.

Trivia fact 1: Goya actually made these paintings right on the walls of the Quinta del Sordo (so-called Deaf Man's villa) where he was staying -- so I love that Apatow had Dieter also paint right on the walls.

Trivia fact 2: while Goya was living in this villa, he actually became gravely ill (again) - not by a pandemic obviously, but it's hard to not link that loosely to the COVID period. He had never intended for these 'Black Paintings' to become public; "these paintings are as close to being hermetically private as any that have ever been produced in the history of Western art" (the murals were eventually transfered to canvas by other folks once he had moved out of the villa). Switching back to The Bubble -- I love how the tragic influence of Goya's illness(es) and art/things 'made at home away from the world, not intended for an audience' (so obviously, in a bubble) has that connection to the COVID experience and how many folks were suddenly homebound, along with the burden of illness in many ways (lord knows this all did a serious number on our mental health). In the movie, Dieter and the others do not want to go into isolation again, but that solitude is what eventually led him to painting on the walls in his room. This is not a 'grand discovery' of any kind, but I got a kick out of the parellels once I read up on it - and honestly makes me appreciate the movie a bit more, haha.

Not happy about another quarantine period.

Alright, more hyperfocusing after the cut:

Some googling led me to a post from last year by @nicolethered (gifs in this post are hers), and she included screencaps of the walls of Dieter's room (during that drug scene), which I hadn't even noticed while watching the movie. Upon taking a closer look, I noticed they're outtakes from other pieces of Goya's Black Paintings! I thought that was really cool, they sure worked on the details with that set (there's one more that's shown in a different shot but I can't exactly figure out which outtake that is):

First one is a mirror image from Two Old Men Eating Soup and the second one is basically Satan aka 'The Great He-Goat' from the Witches' Sabbath painting. Which IMO makes for fucking hilarious perfection a.k.a. trivia fact 3 -- because we all know about Dieter and his little emotional support goat, LOL. Excellent connection.

*insert sound bit from Hot Ones interview* : "Just let me love you!"

Anywaaay there's more. The Bubble was shot during Feb 22, 2021 to April 16, 2021, right? Pedro has spoken about how his input in shaping Dieter was mostly regarding his outfits (the Crocs, the robe, etc). But then I suddenly remember the Talk Art interview he had done in 2018, and how he namechecks 'The Dog' by Goya - and lo, guess which painting is actually part of the 14 Black Paintings? Yeap - the dog! So I checked the podcast and he was asked, 'if you could be any painting, what painting would you be?' by Russell. Here is the painting, and below it is what he said on Talk Art:

'The Drowning Dog' by Goya

"I think… it's a Goya. Yeah, old school. I think it's called 'Dog Buried in Sand' or something like that. It's so… I remember feeling it was such a visual representation of helplessness, in such a… come on, let's all admit that helplessness is a very recurring feeling for many of us, you know what I mean? When it comes to so many things. I guess… I was in Spain, in Madrid, and I was 20. And I went to the Goya museum. What's interesting about it is that the head of the dog is really quite small and sort of adorable, it looks like a stray mutt, and the painting - if I can remember it correctly - is very rectangular. There's so much above him, like the world just seems so big. It's quite incredible, isn't it? I know it's really sad, and sort of dark, and maybe I really like enjoy perceiving myself like..." (He gets interrupted by Russell, and then continues;) "Yeah, he's certainly not dying, it's sort of - it's a moment", (then interrupts himself with;) "Maybe he's totally dying, there's no way that dog is getting out of that. That dog is SO fucked. Anyway, that's the painting that represents my life". (All three of them burst out into laughing.)

If you're still reading this - I am impressed with your dedication to my silly little post, haha. Anyway, I just thought it was so striking that there basically is a straight line from the painting he mentioned in Talk Art to what Dieter is painting in the Bubble. Makes me wonder if perhaps he - or even Russell/Robert - had any input in that part of Dieter's backstory.

Thank you for attending my TED Talk on artistic analysis of Dieter Bravo during COVID, we now resume your regularly scheduled program for Saturday night. 🤪

(Have I been smoking because a local dispensary actually had 'Mando' bud? I sure as fuck have and I blame that for this post.)

[darling-wendy]

rei and miri's physicality: a chronological analysis (part 1)

Time to go into one of the meta topics that has been buzzing in my head for a while now. It's about how Miri and Rei interact with respect to physical contact, and how I am smitten by the way he's so gentle with her and lets her take liberties with him. This is gonna be long and image-heavy [NB now has descriptions]. I have to split it into two parts because of the image limit.

Episode 2! This is the first time that Miri and Rei have physical contact with each other, and it's Kazuki pawning her off to Rei so he can make breakfast without her running underfoot.

As I went to get these screencaps, I noticed that Rei's hands automatically come up to hold her even though he's clearly kind of sceptical about the arrangement at this point. (Lol at Kazuki backing away as though he's afraid Miri is radioactive).

Episode 3! And here begins a running gag about Miri's favourite way to wake up Rei lmao.

I'm curious as to why Rei was sleeping on the sofa to begin with, when that's where they put Miri until she gets her own room in episode 4, and Miri didn't know Rei slept in the bathroom until later on.

Miri goes looking for Rei after Kazuki turns down her request to sleep with him. She finds Rei sleeping in the bathtub as per usual for him and eagerly clambers into the tub so she can sleep with him. Going by the setup of Misaki's apartment in episode 11, she's probably used to sleeping with her mother.

Despite his resting bitch face and reserved demeanour, Miri is already super comfortable with him. She's plopped on his chest, pawing at his face, and goading him to smile. And Rei is very accommodating of her whims. He later tells her to stop kicking the back of his seat in the car, but doesn't tell her to stop pawing at his face. Around this time in the story, Kazuki complained about her climbing into his lap when he was trying to eat, but Rei just....lets this happen lol.

There's a cut out and it fades back into her asleep in the tub, wrapped in Rei's blanket as he looks down at her from outside it. The implication seems to be that she just tired herself out pawing at Rei and then he relinquished his sleeping spot, probably to go out on the sofa.

Such a significant moment. I had already realised that this was the first time that Rei had addressed Miri by name, but it was only while I was drafting this post that it hit me that this was also the first time he had willingly and consciously initiated physical contact with her. I also think it's significant that he repeats the 'Let's go home, Miri' line after she's jumped into his arms. It's him fully committing to the sentiment.

It's sweet how after he has made his 'I'm her papa' resolve, he doesn't seem to put her down again until they meet back up with Kazuki.

Episode 4!

It's so adorable how Miri loves climbing on Rei and how he just let's her despite him not being a tactile person.

Him keeping Miri on his lap after they both woke up from their nap is so precious.

Tsundere Rei lol. Even though he acted very put upon to be there, he was clearly paying attention and even anticipated the high five coming before Kazuki did.

I think this is the only instance of her hugging both their legs at once and I love it. I love it! It's so dear to me. I love this family 😭

Episode 5!

Rei's expression here is golden. Miri, like most small children, is very adorable. But, also like most small children, she can be very annoying lol.

We get another instance of her preferred method of waking up Rei--jumping on him--band she even shakes him for good measure, but he's simply too tired to react.

This is also a good point to note the difference between him sensing something and waking up before she even flipped the lights in episode 3 and the way he's now so comfortable with her presence here that can even sleep through her deliberately trying to wake him.

I wish I had a gif because screenshots do not do justice to the softness with which Rei picks up and gazes at Miri while she's asleep. He's 1000% having a 'that's my baby girl; I'm her dad' moment.

And just look at his expression after Kyu reveals he knows what the deal is. He's nervous about what Kyu will do, and there's also so much 'don't take her away from me' energy coming off him. I see in him shades of the Rei who will tell Kazuki that he wants to keep taking care of her after her mother is killed.

And that's part one! Part two is here.