#people really used to commit to themes on here and twitter | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

raguonmynieceandnephew · 18 days

Text

I fucking love Shadowlands and I am tired of being silent

This is probably gonna be long. TL;DR at the end.

Look, Shadowlands is the second worst expansion this game has ever shipped, besides WoD. I know this is a WILD opening sentence for a defense argument, but I am a romantic, not fucking delusional. This is a fact. Point blank period. The content drought was absurd, the legendary system was completely fucked, the maw in general, the lore reduced Arthas and Garrosh quite literally to dust, The Jailer as the main villain and FUCKING THORGAST, the overall alt unfriendliness, borrowed power cranked to a million, and I have expressed how much of a fucking joke I think putting Pelagos as the new Arbriter was.

It was bad.

This has been stablished, not just by me, but by the entirety of the wow community.

But even though I agree, all these things made the game worse, I still enjoyed my experience, and I have a positive outlook on the expansion overall, which seems to be the greatest sin a World of Warcraft player can commit: I liked Shadowlands. I dare to say I liked it more than I did Dragonflight, if I think really hard about it.

You simply cannot say you liked Shadowlands in the any circle of the WoW community online, from what I have seen. I remember Kraken Latte put it in first place in a rank she made of all expansions and got shit on for days on twitter, with people failing to see what she saw in the game.

Now, I feel like I have pointlessly yapping till now, so without further ado, here are some of the Shadowlands features i like the most:

1 - THREADS OF FATE

I am a simple man, who likes to do 2 things in wow: Mythic+ and leveling. That is pretty much it. I don't PvP, I rarely raid and I occasionally indulge in RPing as a Tidesage on Moonguard. And let me tell you, this baby right here was lifechanging.

Threads of Fate is by far, the single best feature (before Warbands, lol) in my entire World of Warcraft experience. I loved it. I loved it dearly. I don't think I have ever had so much fun leveling 60-70 through Revendreth and Ardenweald with ToF. I still have the route I took memorized, it was SO good. So many bonus objectives back to back to back, world quests and that goddamn gorgeous blue forest had the FATTEST questing hubs in the game.

I was so excited to play this combined with Chromie Time, like IT WAS ON BETA, until it was ruthlessly taken away from me for no goddamn reason AT ALL. Like, what the actual fuck blizzard. Y'all don't understand how delightful it would have been to level like that in ardenweald in the mid thirty levels, right after clearing Loch Modan (or the Silverspine and Hillsbrad, for horde). I barely touched SL since it got removed.

BRING IT BACK BLIZZARD, I AM BEGGING YOU, JUST DO THIS ONE SOLID FOR ME.

2 - COVENANT CALLINGS

Speaking of features I thoroughly enjoyed that were pried from my hands, we have the best iteration of daily quests this game has ever had. They actually worked as good dailies that gave actual gold, was a good reliable source of reputation and was amazing for anima and cosmetics.

This + the recent nerfs to the Dragonracing WQs make me feel like blizzard doesn't like when players make their gold independently, like, jesus christ not all of us have time to be profession moguls.

3 - THE 4 ZONES

What inspired this post was the fact that SL raids are now on legacy loot (if you didn't know, now you do) and I had to go to Bastion to buy the weapons with the thingy that drops from Nathria and...look at this. Just look at this.

This place is one of the most beautiful things this game has to offer. Like, the entire zone is gorgeous byt seeing this for the first time since DF came out legit moved me bro, LOOK AT IT.

And while the covenants were kind of a shit show gameplay-wise, in EVERY SINGLE OTHER ASPECT, it was a 10/10 feature, argue with your mom. Aesthetics, themes, everything, simply gorgeous. Also, it got bonus points from me bcs i really do not like to use training dummies in current expansions because of the sheer amount of people blasting them at any given time, so each covenant having their own Dummy Room, was a ++++ for me.

4 - THE NECROLORDS OF MALDRAXXUS

The Necrolords were the best covenant, their campaign was the best and their characters were the best. Like, come on now.

Draka? Mother. Vashj? Mother. Emeni? Mother. Sin'dane? Mother Stradama? Grandmother. Like, are you kidding me? I know lore was one of the Weakest points of SL overall, but you are insane if you include anything involving these guys. Even the Korthia campaign was enjoyable when they had the spotlight. And I only listed the female characters lmao, don't forget The Primus, Krexus's meme death, the five houses, Morgraine, Grahmal, Marileth, like C'MON!

5 - THE DUNGEONS

Except for the Theater of Pain, and arguably the De Other Side (I personaly love it), Shadowlands has the best overall roster of dungeons in the entire game.

Sanguine Dephts is, in my opinion the second best dungeon in WoW, period, behind only Freehold, Tazavesh is the best Mega Dungeon they ever made. Mists is a banger, Plaguefall is a banger except for the tentacles, Halls of Atonement, Spires (controversial take, ik), Necrotic Wake is amazing, like, you can say whatever you want about SL, but you cannot talk shit about its dungeon design.

Except ToP.

Fuck ToP.

Now, it's getting late so imma speedrun the rest of the items:

6 - COSMETICS

SL changed the transmog game, and all cosmetics from it (all the mounts and sets from all sources) look phenomenal, and if you disagree you are simply lying to yourself.

7 - ZERETH MORTIS

The zone was good and had tons of stuff to do and collect, plus, the introduction to the Catalysts was a plus.

also, nothing will be funnier than Taelia fucking Fordragon being the talking quest bubble for WQs in THE REALM OF ULTRA DEATH

8 - RAIDS

CN: Vibes? Immaculate. SoD: Horrible systems, cool mechanics SoFO: Cool systems, mid mechanics overall a positive for me

9 - CHARACTERS

Already mentioned a lot of characters from Maldraxxus, here are my other faves: Lady Moonberry, the gay unicorm, Denathrius, Theothar, basically ever steward, The Accuser, Kael'thas, General Draven, Remornia and many more.

There are probably more reasons to list to justify my love for SL despite all the bad it has in it, but I simply do not have the mental fuel to keep going rn, i need sleep.

TL;DR: I like Shadowlands despite it being bad and would appreciate it if ppl didn't throw a fit everytime someone talks about it in any sort of positive light. I then listed Threads of Fate, Callings, the first 4 zones, dungeon design, the fuckton of collectibles, characters and the beginning of the shift in game philosophy as positive and valid reasons to be a SL enjoyer.

20 notes · View notes

notfreetoday · 1 year

Text

MPW Ep 3 Subtitle Corrections

EP 1 || EP 2 Cultural/Language Tidbits: EP 2

Same translation disclaimer applies. Thanks again for indulging my crazy long t/n, please keep geeking out with me in the notes!

We've got a change of director this episode - to Funabiki Shinju (twitter linked here) who was the scriptwriter for Jack Frost. This date is also a drama-only episode and does not appear in the manga. So, we have quite a few ad-libs here! I'll point out these out, as well as any interesting comments by the director and the producer from the Ep 3 twitter space as we go on. (Due to tumblr's image space limitations, some of these scenes will have no pics, just a description)

Ep 3, let's go! (If you read nothing in this post, please just read Yoh's monologue)

Since this is the theme of this episode, and Yoh's favourite word, let's talk a little more about it. I've mentioned it previously, but both "嫌い (kirai)" and "大嫌い (dai kirai)" are often translated as "hate/really hate", when they really function more as the opposite of "(suki)", ie "to like". That said, the amount of emotional weight this word carries depends on the context. It can accurately convey the pain/anger of hating someone, but it can also be used very mildly. For eg, it's often used by kids in the "I hate homework/vegetables/the rain/etc" form, or by teens/young adults in the "I don't want everyone to hate me" form, as opposed to other synonyms. When introducing yourself/getting to know someone, it's not uncommon to be asked "what are your suki/kirai?"

In other words, overuse of this word can actually come off as slightly childish, because kids/young people are usually the ones using this word to reject small things/express themselves. Yoh's constant insistence that he hates Segasaki pretty much sounds like this - which is why Man-san expresses doubt about it, and why when Segasaki repeats this line back to Yoh, Yoh understands that Segasaki is teasing him. (The word "love" is considered too heavy and precious of a concept to be thrown around easily, so "suki" is the default go to even in committed relationships.)

Y: 相変わらずすごいよ、この人の外面モード。 Y: As always, this person's "public mode" is amazing.

"外面 (soto zura)" literally refers to the "outside face", and when used to describe a person means someone who puts up a certain personality/attitude depending on who they're speaking to/the situation.

The reason Yoh's saying this is because Segasaki is speaking to him in a much nicer way than he usually does at home 🤣He's using plain forms yes, but he's also praising him and smiling at him and actually saying a whole, proper sentence as opposed to the one-word sickness he has at home🤣 This is most obvious right before Segasaki leaves, when he warns Yoh to be careful when drawing other people - he says "気をつけてね~ (ki o tsukete ne~)", ending with a ne~ which is sweet and cute and which he almost never does with Yoh at home 🤣🤣

Twitter Space Note (TSN): They decided that since they finally got to shoot an "outdoor scene" for Yoh, they'd try to make him look a little more fashionable with a shirt instead of a hoodie 🤣

Y: いってらっしゃい Y: Itterasshai - this is a standard greeting that you say when someone is leaving the house (or the office, if they're going out on a business errand). Basically, the one leaving says "ittekimasu" and the one staying behind says "itterasshai". They mean "(I'll) go and come back/Go safely and return well" When returning, you say "tadaima" and the one welcoming you back says "okaerinasai" meaning: "(I have) just now (returned)/ (you have) returned safely". Unlike Yoh, Segasaki does none of these standard greetings (which Yoh complained about in Ep 1 whilst chopping onions).

Y: だからね、気持ちが通じ合った*っていう描写が必要だと思うんだよおれは Y: だからこそ、体が盛り上がる**、的な？ M: はーん。中高生処女みたいなこといってろ Original: Y: That's why I think it's necessary to depict the feeling of "mutual understanding" Y: That's how the physical aspect also gets exciting... or something like that? M: Hmm.. talking about it like a high school virgin, huh? Mine: Y: So that's why, I think it's important - showing that (the characters') have this unspoken understanding* of each other's feelings. Y: It's precisely because of that, that you get physically excited** - something like that? M: Mm.... you're saying things a high-school virgin would say **体が盛り上がる - literally, "the body gets excited/heated up/lively etc" - given that they are talking about erotica, he probably means physically aroused here, but this term also works to explain the feeling of excitement or emotion just swelling in your chest for eg *通じ合った - is not just "mutual understanding" - it specifically refers to a situation in which both parties understand each other without having to say a word - like when you look at someone and just get them, or like in sports, you just look at your team mate and you know.

This is an important distinction because in this line, Yoh again emphasizes "I" - at the end of the sentence he ends off with the pronoun "俺 (ore)" marked by the subject particle "は (wa)" - which means that in this sentence Yoh is emphasizing that this is his opinion - that he himself thinks it's important to show that 2 people simply get each other, because that's exactly what translates to that sensation you feel in your body. This is what Yoh wants - he wants to understand Segasaki, and he wants Segasaki to understand him, without them having to actually say anything. Which at the moment, only Segasaki is achieving, ironically.

[ Man-san's dialogue, where she says "a sex scene follows]

TSN: Man-san actually only says “se-“ here, and then mutes herself (because they’re in public). In the script, it was supposed to be the full “sex” word, but they weren't sure whether it would be ok (it's not clear whether they mean ok for the actress to say this or ok for the show in general) so in the end it became "se-". Yes it's an odd place to be concerned about given the whole Ep2 but #Japan

Again, the word here used is “kirai” but translated as “dislike” instead of hate 😉

TSN: Between this scene and the start of the next scene, they praised how Acchan uses his eyes to convey Yoh's dejection and how he expresses Yoh's emotions very sensitively through his gaze (and I agree!)

TSN: The director mentioned that she had thought it would look good if Segasaki to put his hand up like this on the ceiling partition, but the moment Kouhei walked in, he just did it naturally without her having to say anything, and so she was really amazed.

S: じゃ、出かけるぞ (Jya, dekakeru zo) S: Then, we’re going out.

“Let’s go out” would be more of "じゃ、でかけましょう (Jya, dekakemashou)" – by using the ending form “(-ma)shou”, the listener is included in the action of going out as an equal to the speaker, the same way “let’s” is used in English. It is by far the most common way Japanese people make a statement without trying to sound too overbearing. But here, Segasaki once again demonstrates his habit of simply stating what they’re going to do, and speaking for Yoh. The sentence-final particle “zo” at the end of his sentence is an assertive one that doesn’t leave much room for argument.

TSN: Again they talked about how they emphasised to Acchan to do the housework improperly, since Yoh isn't supposed to be good at it. Also, when Yoh thinks, "what's with this, all of a sudden?", the director asked that he move his hands "more" as he folded the clothes, like he was still happy to be asked out.

Y: デート自体ないんだよ Y: I’ve never even been on a date.

Y: 俺、いま一体何してんだろう Y: What am I even doing right now?

Yoh’s not wondering what they’re doing, he’s questioning his own actions, like "why am I even here, doing this, what am I supposed to do" etc, because you know, he's never even been on a date before and he has no clue whether this actually is one.

[The scene with the 2 of them on the bench, and Segasaki asks Yoh what he'd like to eat]

TSN: The script only went up to Yoh answering that he wanted to eat “Chinese food”, and this whole bit afterward just happened naturally when they let the camera run.

Yoh says “たっか(taka)!” which is short for “高い(takai)” aka “expensive!” but his voice is so cute here I’m dying. (It really is bloody expensive, these things are usually anywhere between 180 yen – 300 yen pre-pandemic. Even with the big one they have here, I don’t think anyone would sell this above 500 yen)

TSN: They said they searched for a 1200 yen steamed pork bun but couldn’t find one, and in actuality the store sells them at a really reasonable price, so to please go give it a try 🤣🤣

[The scene of them walking and sharing the chicken cutlet]

TSN: This scene, as well as them walking along they alley way looking at the shops, was mostly ad-libbed (which is probably why we see Acchan smiling so much here hahaha I’m guessing the question about which he liked better was probably an adlib, which surprised Acchan). For the alleyway, they were told that their conversation was not going to be used, so they were quite relaxed (and that explains the audio fade out lol)

[The scene of them drinking Boba/Bubble Tea]

About Gyaru - when Boba/Bubble Tea first came to Japan, it became pretty popular amongst Gyaru, and quickly became associated with Gyaru culture - hence why they both felt it was something only Gyaru drank. It's similar to the idea that only ladies eat sweets/desserts that was briefly mentioned in OFC (which makes Nozue feel awkward about 2 men eating cake in a dessert cafe) - here they mean they both felt too embarrassed to try Boba out before due to the idea that it's a "Gyaru" drink (and I love how Yoh looks at Segasaki then, like he only just realises that even Segasaki might get embarrassed/feel awkward sometimes).

S: 乗るぞ (noru zo)

Again, this is “we’re riding it” instead of “let’s”.

Y: 思ったよりすごく透明で Y: (The cabin) is more transparent than I thought

The floor of the cabin is actually clear, so you can see right down through to the bottom, which is why Yoh is a little freaked out here. Not because he thought glass wasn’t transparent.

TSN: Acchan is also afraid of heights, so the stiffness you see here is real, he really didn’t like it, but they went 4 rounds in total to finish this scene. (Kouhei apparently was fine and enjoyed looking right through the glass, though I can’t remember which interview this was mentioned in, sorry!)

S: ほら S: See?

ほら (hora) is commonly used to draw the listener’s attention to something, so here Segasaki really just means “look (I was right)”

TSN: They apparently redid the scene where Segasaki dismisses the store attendant many times so they could make sure it was done in a way that looked natural and wouldn’t be off-putting.

We’re back to one of Segasaki’s humming sounds – the “hmm…?” here again conveys the “oh, really/is that so?” sort of lazy drawl that can easily be mistaken as Segasaki being bored – which is why Yoh immediately suggests they go do their own thing.

Y: そっちも、好きなところいっていいから Y: You too, it’s okay (if you go) to the places you like so…

Yoh uses “そっち” here to refer to Segasaki - which literally means “your/that side” and is another way in which Yoh avoids addressing Segasaki directly (remember, in Japan we don’t like being direct, and “you” is sometimes too direct).

Fun fact: Depending on which part of Japan you’re in, this can either be seen as a totally normal way of speaking, or it might annoy you a little to be referred to as if you were an object/place, or you might feel like the speaker was treating you a little like an “outsider”. The divide in opinion seems to be somewhere between the northeast regions, and the western regions. Tokyo and the rest of the Kantou region (where the show is based, judging by the lack of an obvious accent) are sort of 50-50.

Y: もしあれ*だったら、あ、あの、こっちはこっちで、好きにやってるし Original: Y: Ah, if you want to. Well… we’re both doing our own things… Mine: Y: If (you feel) that way*, then, ah, umm, I can… do as I like, by myself too...

*that way - this refers to that sort of awkward, uncomfortable feeling you get that is hard to describe when you’ve been put on the spot. So, this makes it clear that Yoh is offering Segasaki an “out” from this uncomfortable, weird position he thinks Segasaki is in.

Similar to his earlier sentence, Yoh refers to himself as “こっち (this side)”, and the phrase he uses pretty much means “I can entertain myself”. This is an example of kizukai – or at least, what Yoh thinks is kizukai - which is a concept where you do your best to think of the other person’s needs and wants, so you can anticipate what help they might need and so you don’t inadvertently inconvenience them. Ok, now get ready for some mental gymnastics:

From Yoh's POV, Segasaki wants to buy clothes, and has brought Yoh along to carry the bags. Therefore, Segasaki’s offer to buy him a shirt, and asking him if he is having fun, is Segasaki’s kizukai – Segasaki is going out of his way to make sure Yoh is taken care of. But! Yoh doesn’t want Segasaki to feel inconvenienced (similar to how in EP 2, Yoh said he doesn’t want Segasaki to dislike him), so he instead almost reflexively rejects Segasaki’s offer, then encourages Segasaki to go enjoy himself, and in response to Segasaki’s “Ha!?”, doubles down and says he’s totally ok by himself - This is Yoh’s kizukai.

Tired yet? This is a normal consideration in daily interactions! You can see why the phrase “yokei na kizukai (excessive/unwanted kizukai)” also exists in Japanese lolol 🤣

S: ああ。せっかくの休日に、大嫌いな俺*と一緒にいてのはたのしくない？ Original: S: Ah. So spending a day with someone you hate on your precious day off isn’t enjoyable? Mine: S: Ah. On your precious day off, being together with me – who you hate* – isn’t fun?

*“大嫌いな俺 (dai kirai na ore)” is literally “the ‘me’ that you hate”, or “me who is hated by you” - emphasis on "me", the person standing right in front of you.

Y: いや、それは…違。。。あ、その。。。 Y: No, that’s…not-…- ah.. um…

“A, so” again.

S: 五時にここ集合*な (goji ni koko shuugou *na) S: We’ll meet here at 5, *yea?

*Ending with “na” is softer than “zo” – this statement is still pretty much an order, as with his other statements that ended with “zo”, but it’s gentler, and softens the fact that he’s walking away from Yoh here.

TSN: Pretty much everyone was just going on and on about “oh, poor thing!” in response to Segasaki getting rejected and chased away, and how even though he’s sad here he’s still sweet and gentle with Yoh. Yes, that’s right, everyone loves Segasaki.

[The scene of Yoh spilling water on his shirt]

TSN: This was apparently pretty difficult to shoot in a way the camera could see the water spilling, but the wardrobe team came to the rescue with hairdryers so they could keep reshooting 🤣🤣

S: じゃ、帰んぞ (Jya, kaen zo) S: Then, we’re going back

“zo” is back! Sorry for being so pedantic about tiny things like this, but I do think it gives us insight into Segasaki's character and how he may be feeling.

This line is the most important correction in this post.

Y: 本当はさ、ずっと、ささいな表情とか、しぐさとか、俺が言うこと聞くとちょっと嬉しそうにするのとか、晴れの予報を告げる優しい声とか、全部バカみたいに俺ばっかり。毎日俺ばっかり心臓大暴れさせてるみたいで　嫌だった Y: むかつくとこ拾い集めて　大嫌いだって思ってないと　その気持ちの不釣り合いに　息ができなくなってしまいそうで嫌だった Y: 嫌いじゃない　嫌いじゃないよ Original: Y: Actually, all these times, your expressions, gestures, the way you look kind of happy when you listen to me, and your gentle voice forecasting good weather. All of them, make my heart beat as if it’s coming out. I don’t like it. Y: I gathered everything that annoyed me, thinking that if I didn’t, the imbalance of my feelings would suffocate me. I don’t like it. Y: I don’t hate you. I really don’t. Mine: Y: In truth, all this while, the little expressions you make, the gestures you do, the way you seem just that little bit happier when I listen to you, and the gentle voice with which you announce the sunny weather… All of that - like an idiot, it's just me who… It feels like it's just me whose heart has been made to pound and race wildly and - I didn't like that. Y: If I didn't gather up all the things that frustrated me and told myself "I hate this" then, the disparity (between us) in those feelings would suffocate me, making me feel like I could hardly breathe and - I didn't like that. Y: I don't hate you. I really don't hate you.

TSN: This was ad-libbed too. It just happened that the metal post was coming up in between them as they walked, and Acchan saw it and planned to go around it, because he felt that emotionally there was a gap forming between Yoh and Segasaki at this point. But right as he was about to do that, Kouhei grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him over, which Acchan was really surprised by, because they both had the same thought to ad-lib something about that post, and they both did it as their characters would do it, but it was the exact opposite action. The director said that when the 2 were walking back towards the start point they were both smiling a little, and then asked the director “how was that?” to which she replied “It’s really great!”, and then Acchan looked a little frustrated (in a sorta arrgh I got it wrong sort of way) whereas Kouhei was all “I was definitely right” (Acchan mentioned he was abit worried about the ad-lib, so I’m guessing they both were discussing as they walked back and finally decided to settle it by asking the director hahaha)

Y: すいません S: なにが Y: その。。。いろいろ S: だからなにが Original: Y: I’m sorry S: For what? Y: Well, for everything S: What do you mean? Mine: Y: I’m sorry S: About what? Y: That… for many things S: And (I said,), about what?

Yoh uses the formal "すいません (suimasen)" here, as opposed to his usual and more casual "gomen" or "gomen nasai", because this line is important to him, and he means it. "Sorry" in Japanese does not always carry the meaning of regret/remorse - it can be used to express gratitude as well. You''ll often here people say "Sorry that you had to (go through the trouble)" after they've accepted a gift, or "Sorry, I've caused you much trouble" as a way of thanking someone for their care. So, Yoh says "sorry" here after accepting Segasaki's gift, which could be seen as a thank you, but he also means he's sorry that he's like this, that he can't be honest/straightforward about his feelings (a theme that is brought up in Ep 4), that Segasaki has to care for him like this etc. "For many things" is a common way to encompass all of these mixed feelings, and yet not say them out directly.

Y: どうせ口じゃ、うまく言えないから Original: No matter what, I don’t dare say it Mine: Since I can't get the words out of my mouth properly anyway

S: よくできました (yoku dekimashita)

This is a formal way of saying “well done”, and if you did well in your work/test in elementary school you’d get a stamp that says just this, or your teacher would draw you a flower. The more elaborate the flower, the better you did. This is the only time thus far that Segasaki has said anything formal to Yoh at all. The sudden shift, and the imagery this phrase evokes – a literal stamp of approval – emphasises not just Segasaki’s approval, but also his role in Yoh’s life (ie, his role as Yoh’s provider, or well, maybe keeper is more accurate. Honestly Dom makes the most sense, but I’m not qualified to talk about that so see @lutawolf posts for more!). We’ll talk more about how both Segasaki and Yoh acknowledge the power dynamic between them in the way the speak in the language analysis post (that will come after this, before Ep 4's).

Y: この人、もしかして本当はめっちゃ俺のこと。。。？ Y: This person… could it be that he actually…really is… …me?

Y: 信じていい？ Y: Is it ok if I believe? sue me, I think believe and trust carry different nuances.

S: よかったな* (yokatta *na) S: シーツ買ったからいっぱいできんじゃん、大好きなセックス S: まあ　残念ながら　相手は大嫌いな俺**ですけど Original: S: Great, S: with more sheets, we can do it more often. Your beloved sex S: Well, unfortunately the other person is someone you hate Mine: S: Isn't this nice* S: Since you bought more sheets, we can do it a lot - the sex that you love so much S: Well, unfortunately, your partner is me - who you hate **so much

*The use of "na" here is slightly different from the one earlier - here it is used more for emphasis, and the downward tone carries a hint of mockery.

Again, Segasaki uses the same "the me who you hate" phrasing as he did earlier, emphasizing to Yoh once again that Segasaki is the one Yoh hates. Except here, he also ends off the sentence with "ですけど (desukedo)", and the whole phrasing of this line too, from the word "unfortunately" onwards, just feels business-like. As before, the shift in style gives the statement more weight- Segasaki is really not letting Yoh get away with this line here, and Yoh feels this acutely. The sharpness of the line makes him turn away abruptly in shock and even some anger.

S: お前が好きにしていいって言うんだから S: 好きにさせてもらうけど　*な (na)？ S: お前　本当バーカ Original: S: You told me to do as I like, S: then I’ll do what I want. Okay? S: You really are… an idiot Mine: S: You said I could do as I wish so, S: I'll gratefully do as I please... *yea? S: You're...really an idiot

*The "na" used here is similar to the one Segasaki used when telling Yoh to meet back at 5, in that it assumes the listener will agree with the speaker. This time it's not so much used to soften an imperative, but rather, to soften the teasing of the preceeding line - "I'll gratefully do as I please".

The phrase used here is "~させてもらう (~sasete morau)". "Sasete" means "to do" something, with the permission of the other person, and "morau" means "to receive (with thanks/gratefulness)" so together this phrase means that you're going to "do something (with the permission of the other person)", and you are thankful to have received that permission. It's usually used for things like asking your boss "May I please go home early with your kind permission" sorta thing, or telling someone that you "ate a meal someone provided for you that you are grateful for".

So here, Segasaki is pretty much saying "I'll do as I please since you so kindly told me I could, didn't you?" which is why he smirks as he says it.

/////

And we're finally done with EP 3!! Finally! Now I can finally talk about their general speech styles and what it means when they choose to switch between them. Thanks for joining me! Also, shout out to @eralkfang for tagging me in their meta post - I'm really glad these posts are helpful that way!!

#my personal weatherman #taikan yohou #体感予報 #MPW subtitle corrections #mytranslations #this was the episode that made me start this series #some of the subs are wrong in crucial places #and that hurts me #sorry it's late #we'll catch up during this 2wk break before Ep 6 #HOW IS THERE A 30 IMAGE LIMIT PER POST

144 notes · View notes

hexhomos · 1 year

Note

hey I’m here from ur Twitter, saw some of your posts about gale/astarion mystra stuff because I haven’t played the game yet and wanted to know about TWs/if it’s handled well/etc. I don’t really mind spoilers if they’re necessary! thank you

Id say as pretty traditional DnD adaptation game there is a lot of bloody battles and i guess... disturbing implications? when it comes to things such as kidnapping/murdering/cannibalizing people and general eldritch assassin blood cult stuff that has to do with the BG series.

If your particular concern are depictions of SA/CSA the game is written in such a way that they all took place quite some time in the past, and those discussions exist mostly in the realm offhand mentions or between-the-lines presence in the dialogues of companions -- as all of the core companions in this game are in some way abused and not quite cognizant of that abuse all of the time, and the player has the option to help them.

MILD EARLY SPOILERS FOR BG3 WARNING

Gale and Astarion are the only companions where that theme of abuse/agency crosses into sexual territory; Astarion explicitly speaks about being tortured in non-sexual ways as part of being a thrall/vamp spawn (basically an eternal servant for a Real Vampire) and his romance route includes multiple discussions of those things & the atrocities he's committed under that household. The game writers do not include sexual abuse in those infodumps- that i know of- but Astarion seduced people to their doom and has a weird relationship with sex as a result. Gale is not aware that he was being groomed at all and actually believes that he's the one who did badly towards his abuser, but the other companions Will question this interpretation of events and as the story goes on if you romance/befriend Gale he is able to look back on his situation and realize the 'love' he was used to was frankly sort of rotten in comparison. idk how deep it goes if you're doing friendship only but i can attest at least in romance mode that happens.

There are other situations in game (particularly at a brothel) where allusions to their abuse are made and they seem very uncomfortable being peer pressured or propositioned to. I think for a game of this size and mainstream appeal it's handled fairly well, mostly kept offscreen, and has thematic relevance to the story as a whole and the storylines of the other companions. Multiple parts of these storylines are also incredibly optional: you have to seek out these characters to learn more about them, and some of the more telling interactions aren't *given* to the player so much as found if you pay attention, if you get what I mean. I think BG3 as a whole is very entertaining and well written but you should go in knowing a measure of gritty dark themes are a central part of this setting, and while not all of it is perfect, it's one of the Best for its genre.

as a postscript: characters in this game can literally break up with you if you cross or don't care for their boundaries.

#bg3 #bg3 spoilers #gale of waterdeep #astarion

45 notes · View notes

kanghyeokk · 1 year

Text

my observations of this MR series:

• the individual CGs are sourced from NiTsundere on weibo! reposting is allowed as long as the source is stated as per their terms of use, i’m including them in this post as a supplemental visual :)

• translations for this MR series are up! please read them before delving into this thread :)

*this is a (belated) cross post from twitter. if you prefer to read it there, here’s the link!

—

i’ll mainly be talking about the second message here! went back and watched the prologue thinking there would be some intersections between the prologue and the MR messages but i’m thinking that there are more similarities to this poster:

starting with vyn: in his message, he muses about the possibility of someone undoing themis’ blindfold and henceforth leading to themis bringing a new judgement upon the people. in the MR’s cg, the blindfold is undone but not off the statue’s eyes, but it is completely undone in the poster. the MR message indicates that “a new judgement would be brought upon the people” when the blindfold is undone by themis herself, but in the first poster vyn is the one who undoes it. so what does this change ., ?. ??

also noteworthy; vyn’s part in the prologue states that themis’s blind justice that went against your heart was all for naught, then asked if you would stand for your values (justice) even if the world was against you (MR message: even if themis wielded justice, evil and injustice still broods amongst the people)

later on in the MR message he also asks about what keeps themis wielding justice: because she wants to stay true to her values, or because she cannot stand to look at people suffering from hardships around her?”

then comes the question; does standing true for her values help the people in overcoming injustice, or is it all for naught because injustice will always exist? which leads back to the first question raised: maybe lady themis’s blind justice was all for naught.

artem’s message talks about him wanting to help themis balance a wobbly scale. you can see the scale in the MR cg and the poster ^^ the difference is that in the poster, artem is indeed helping themis balance the scale (holding the scale itself), but from what i can see in the MR, he’s only supporting themis’s hand that is holding the scale, i.e. he isn’t actually supporting the scale itself

in the MR message, he mentions that in the moment he held themis’s wrist, memories came flooding back to him. notably ones that have to do with the protagonist (you), +1 supporting point that “you” are (my) themis (ost reference hahaha get it 😭)

i remember there being a lot of discussion around luke’s cg, namely about how his gaze has softened and how his hand is no longer bleeding despite still holding the blade of the sword. imo this difference is also depicted in the MR message; the expression in the poster was luke being a loyal knight who has pledged his allegiance to the goddess themis (also note that in the poster themis is holding the handle of the sword, hence being the “master”) but in the MR he has a sorrowful expression almost. he is holding both the handle and the blade of the sword, which matches up with the part in the message where he dreamt of being a knight who lost his allegiance

my personal speculation for the bleeding / not bleeding depiction was that maybe luke staying by themis’s side and pledging allegiance to her caused physical wounds to luke despite making him feel like he is fulfilling his duty, but when he lost his allegiance, he is not physically hurting anymore, however internally he feels very lost.

i can’t really tell if the lilies are more withered in the poster compared to the MR (resolution LOL) but it’s nice to see them add the lilies to his attire , signalling that he has waited so long for the possibility of themis coming back that the white lilies started blooming again.

interestingly, white lilies signal purity, commitment and rebirth. all of these are themes that are present in luke’s relationship with themis.

the only similarity i can notice between marius’s MR cg and the poster is that in his hand is still the same necklace/chain with a snake on it. historically, snakes represent “immortality, a creative life force” etc. which are themes also kind of related to their story as well .. ??

most notably, the MR story talks about a painting marius made in which a man dances with a god, which looks like what is depicted in the cg. themis’s face is also hidden behind marius’s, their intertwined hands (that seem to be holding back from something), and marius looks like he’s whispering something in themis’s ear (an oracle, or a sacrilegious love story?)

all in all, i think this MR series was quite enjoyable! especially for those who stayed for the themis lore, this feels like new official “closure” we’re getting about this. i also love how they tied some of the ideas in their musings / dreams to their relationship in real life… i’m curious to know if they’ll continue developing on this!

#tears of themis #artem wing #vyn richter #marius von hagen #luke pearce #CN server spoilers #tot

78 notes · View notes

unma · 4 months

Note

Thoughts of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley?

idk why it took me so long to answer this, but I remembered that this was sitting in my inbox just now so I might as well. I'm going to assume you came here because you wanted to hear my actual thoughts on the game in good faith and not so you could find someone new to harass.

I like the game and really want to see what happens next. I love how dysfunctional both characters are, and it's fun to see awful people be put in awful situations and do awful things to survive. Especially when they're surrounded by equally awful people (and demons too I guess).

The hate over the game was stupid and was basically just people going "I can accept cannibalism, murder and demon summoning, but I draw the line at incest," which is frankly hilarious and one more reason I simply don't touch twitter anymore. Incidentally, you could probably dig through my posts and find an old one of mine where I opined that the game wasn't going down the incest route after chapter 1... That aged like milk, lol.

All in all, I wish the dev well. Nemlei didn't deserve being harassed off the internet, and I wish I could play the rest of their games. I actually had their itch.io page open at the time, so it was a shame to suddenly see it go blank. Oh well, that's on me for procrastinating so much.

I'd ramble on more about how I love the game's deep exploration of themes, and- actually, scrap that. I'm coming back in 5 minutes and I'll write my thoughts over both of the characters under the cut.

Ashley is pure evil. Is what I would say if I was someone who believed any person could be distilled down to those two words. No, she is very clearly a product of her downright terrible upbringing, and her downright obsessive love for Andrew is shown time and time again to be a product of her emotionally isolated childhood in which Andrew was the only one who ever gave her love. He was the only person who actually treated her like a person. Anyone with that kind of childhood is bound to end up at least a little maladjusted, so Ashley as a person is not unrealistic in the slightest. Her sabotage of Andrew is also rather clearly a method to ensure he will never leave her, even if he reassures her time and time again that he would never do so. Ironically, as her visions show, it may be her own obsessive actions that cause him to finally abandon her, which is just the most delicious flavour of ironic tragedy indeed.

Andrew is a coward. Through and through. I feel for him constantly, but he truly, truly, needs to learn to say no to Ashley. Or, well, he should've learnt to do that before she forced him into their current position. And yet, he's not malicious or actively evil. He's passively evil, in fact, though using the word 'evil' feels like hyperbole. He's consistently trying to never make a choice, and hoping he can simply pass on all responsibility to Ashley. And while I get where he's coming from, given everything they do and go through, he doesn't realize that not making a choice is still a choice, and he still did commit many of those deeds even if at Ashley's behest. At first, I wanted to pretend like he was completely innocent in the games, but it really doesn't take a genius to realize he's completely wrong about how responsibility works.

I'd say more, but it's been a while since I've watched Manly's playthrough of the games. My memory is rather fuzzy now. But feel free to ask more questions if you'd like.

#the void asks back #the coffin of andy and leyley #also some of my most popular posts have been about the game lol #so it should be obvious I love it #tcoaal #long post

10 notes · View notes

keystone8379 · 1 year

Note

keystone you should talk about something in regards to kirby fighters 2 community edition

Oh you're right I haven't done that yet! Regarding Kirby Fighters 2: Community Edition, there is a metric TON of stuff to talk about here. The dev team is some of the closest friends I've ever had. Smash Tactics is a thing because I was able to test the game over and over again with the members of the dev team. We've spent many hours sharing progressively crazier character ideas. We have created some warcrime moves. (or, well, more warcrime moves. KF2 already has plenty of those) I think, however, the best place to start for CE on the KF2 lore account is probably just a development history.

So it's late September, the year is 2020. Kirby Fighters 2 was leaked, got a trailer, and released all within the span of 24 hours. Soon after that, firubii (you might have seen her before) shows her findings from a Twitter datamine, that being evidence of a 3D Kirby game. "Wow! Awesome! I sure hope it's nothing like Battle Royale!" I say at the time. But I digress.

A few months pass and eventually fish gets in touch with Firubii for I believe checking hitboxes and frame data? We get a few things for some of the weirder moves from characters like Ninja, but the fact that a modder was among us got people excited. The prospect of a balance patch mod was an undeniably appealing one and could breathe new life (and a time) into the game. And one that Firubii was interested in.

March 16th, 2021 rolls around and Fish pings everyone saying that they had set up a poll for balance suggested for Firubii to implement. They also got an all star cast of top players and fighting game expects and colgate and me. because I "have lots of opinions." We're all put into a dev chat and poll responses start flowing in.

This poll was crazy. You had Ninja downplaying Mag like crazy. You had Celica Trying His Best. You had nonsense adjustment suggestions like "Not really that effective." But my favourite would have to be probably Qwertz saying to EVERY balance suggestion box "The game needs no balance changes, only quality of life changes."

So we all in the chat start throwing around ideas while not really getting anything done. This will be a running theme. About a month later I was like enough is enough and starting pinging people for proper balance discussions and locking in changes. There's a few notable things we did for v0.1, including making Sword a LOT faster, giving Hammer Palutena's Lightweight, (the s4 custom move) making Bandana Dee's spears stick into the ground for a few seconds, and making Cutter's boomerangs bounce off walls. That last one was our first real criminal change, as Cutter could effortlessly lock down the entire screen. I spent hours labbing counterplay only to find none and grew to despise the character and suggested massive overcorrections for v0.2. Oops.

Overall v0.1 was pretty good! It had some iffy stuff and launched with a Whip desync in game but other than that it was a success I think. It came out during July of 2021, a little under 4 months from the initial announcement. There's a few public tourneys with good turnouts but run via Parsec and Parsec makes me want to commit violent crimes. Progress on 0.2 also goes fairly well. There's some bad ideas in there like making MK not very fun but overall it's not so bad.

Until development just HALTS. To my understanding, I believe it was something personal Firubii was going through but I don't have all the info. Then again, I didn't ask. Like sure, I'd like to have the new CE versions as soon as possible, but ultimately the well being of the people actually making the mod is the top priority, it's why it's so irritating when people are jerks about CE's slow development. Obviously I want the new versions out. But we all have lives outside of this and sometimes other things need doing.

Eventually 0.2 gets out, at the start of Febuary 2022. It's solid but still has some things that irk me. After a few months, we ask for player feedback on overall balance and specific changes and get not many results. Granted, CE doesn't have much players so balance discussion is somewhat meaningless for a game this unexplored. I think 1.0 fixes all of the glaring flaws though.

At some point, once again, development freezes, and this one was rough. No communication from Firubii led to a lot of dooming, especially with how close we got to actually launching 1.0. We DO actually know why she vanished for so long this time, it's because her house caught fire. It didn't burn down don't worry! But this still caught us all SUPER off guard.

Anyway, CE resumed development and went for a little while, but hit a brick wall when trying to add training mode. I'm not an expert on the inner workings of KF2 but I know Firubii talked to Ryn (yes, the goku in strive Ryn) about it a little bit. I actually posted about this to my Threads account but who gives a shit about threads. That's more or less where we are now. It's been a while since the last tester build but what can you do.

There's also a few other things but there wasn't really a good place for them. Colgate thought it was a good idea to make a tierlist video for a game no one could play. It wasn't. I had to spend the days after that video doing damage control. There was a playlist where people could suggest songs to add to CE, but tbh it was more just an excuse to listen to music in VC while we could still do that. We were gonna move off Gamebanana because the site is run by N*zis but this was during the fire arc so didn't happen. AV also thought it'd be a good idea to shittalk CE and ask to join the dev team in the same day. There was also the time we had to rush out a trailer for Savi's Dream Display but I have a few criticisms about that which I'll share with him one day.

I think that's it? If you wanna download the mod I'll link it right here: https://gamebanana.com/mods/303920

#kirby fighters 2 #kf2 #fighting games #fighting game community #community edition #KF2CE #mod #kf2 lore

21 notes · View notes

lizzxrd · 1 year

Text

I've said pretty much this exact thing on Twitter several times already when that site was still usable (as in it functioned and at least didn't give you constant error messages) but goddamn Amalthus is such an amazing villain !!!

(now u guys here have to deal with my repetitive rambles bc I can't fucking regulate my emotions and properly process how much I like Xenoblade so I must scream about it somewhere or else I Will Explode <3)

He's such a great antithesis to Xenoblade's overarching themes/message of the power in friendship, trust, compassion and hope and the perseverance of the human spirit. And on a smaller scale he's also a fantastic antithesis to Rex. They both lost their parents at a young age, they both saw people commit some truly awful things. Rex's believe in a better future - in a literal mystical utopia - and his unfaltering kindness got strengthened; Amalthus succumbed to his despair entirely.

Also I absolutely love how he isn't just like that because he's weak spirited or whatever. His beliefs are a direct result of the Indoline political and religious doctrine. He's more or less a personification of the extreme conclusions to it (and also to some extent Judicium's general beliefs abt the world but unfortunately the info xbc2 and tgct give us about Judicium is just crumbs). I'm probably treading into some speculation/headcanon territory here. Indol's general social structure seems to be far more atomized/individualistic than that of other places in xbc2 probably due to its wealth while Indol is also posing as this beacon of virtue - a nation that must help others because it is better than them. Like, of course he doesn't believe in compassion and kindness. He probably never really experienced those personally and all of his most lasting impressions of the outside world were of people doing horrible things. And of course he doesn't treat Blades as people; that's just how things are. He's thoroughly adopted Indol's views of the world. Even his delusions of grandeur were a direct result of this.

I know that as a character he is a person with his own agency and he failed to ever question these views and I absolutely understand why people in the fandom don't like him; he's not supposed to be a likeable character. But as a narrative tool he's fantastic. He's a personification of a logical extreme to a fascistic theocratic nation which makes him such a good villain in the setting of xbc2 and just generally xbc as a series

I have so many more detailed thoughts abt this tbh but I'm neither eloquent nor smart enough to untangle that mess and express them in a way they make sense outside of my head but, like, you get what I mean. I love Amalthus so much and I also hate him. I want to tear him apart limb by limb but I also think he's fantastic

#lizard rambles #xc2 #xbc2 #xbc #amalthus #Xenoblade Chronicles 2

14 notes · View notes

sshbpodcast · 1 year

Text

Top 3 Star Trek Deep Space Nine characters

By Ames

A Star to Steer Her By is continuing our trend of spotlighting minor and one-off characters from all the series. We did it with The Original Series. We did it with The Next Generation. And after having a lot of nostalgic vibes from this week’s podcast episode, we’re ready to give some glory to our favorite characters from Deep Space Nine!

There are just a TON of great characters throughout a series known for its amazing character work, and we did a pretty good job limiting ourselves to those who we didn’t see that much of since so many folks become familiar faces over the course of the show. So spin the wheel with us as you see all our picks below and listen to our very difficult decisions over on the podcast (discussion starts at 1:03:03). These characters will have you yelling “Dabo!”

[images © CBS/Paramount]

Jake – Honorable fights

Aamin Marritza

Tekeny Ghemor

Grilka

Walk a mile in the shoes of any of Jake’s picks and you’ll be exhausted by the hardships you have to endure just to do the right thing. From a pair of Cardassian men whom we’ve discussed in our Cardassians blogpost, one who is trying to atone for the wrongs committed by an entire people and one who is secretly leading a dissident movement on Cardassia, we move on to one of our favorite Klingon lasses who just wants to bring honor to her house in defiance of some of the more sexist laws on Q’onos. Qapla’!

—

Ames – Voices of a generation

Tosk

Pel

Lisa Cusak

I am Tosk! The three one-off characters that I’m highlighting all make us not only look differently at how we treat people, but also in how we tell our stories. Let’s start with the first species we meet from the Gamma Quadrant who relates the complicated history of his hunted people with simplicity and humility. Next is the first female Ferengi in Star Trek, who starts us on a journey of change on Ferenginar that becomes a theme throughout the series. And finally, here’s a character who is downright fascinating despite the fact we never even see her on screen, but the sound of her voice is all we really need.

—

Caitlin – Found family

Lwaxana Troi

Liam Bilby and Chester

Tekeny Ghemor

Caitlin’s choices for DS9 characters are all complicated parental figures in their own ways, but like good mothers and fathers, they care for their flock and lead by example. We see a repeat from one of Caitlin’s faves from TNG, who has returned to show Odo a new side of herself. We also have a new sorta father figure for O’Brien when he temporarily infiltrates the Orion Syndicate just to have his heart broken a bit, and also Kira’s Cardassian sorta dad who treats her as he would his own daughter… who happens to have her face.

—

Chris – One day more to revolution

Michael Eddington

Aamin Marritza

Leck the Eliminator

“Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men?” Okay, that’s enough Les Misérables quoting for this post. Chris’s picks are all ready to fight for their beliefs, whether they be as leaders within the Maquis, resisting that Federation-Cardassian treaty that boned so many people; as a martyr making a statement about how his people need to be brought to justice for their cruel occupation of Bajor; or just as a normal guy who really loves killing for whatever reason you throw at him!

— We’re going to keep chilling here on the promenade, having a jumja stick, maybe dangling our legs over the second floor landing. There’s more in store for our Deep Space Nine friends next week when we’ll try to thwart our favorite villains of the series. So definitely keep your eyes here for that, keep up with all of our coverage over on SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts, and hop in a roundabout to join us on Facebook and Twitter. There will be no running on the promenade!

#star trek #star trek podcast #podcast #deep space nine #star trek ds9 #ds9 #tosk #lwaxana troi #aamin marritza #pel #tekeny ghemor #grilka #michael eddington #ee'char #sirella #leck the eliminator #liam bilby #lisa cusak #les miserables

11 notes · View notes

spaceorphan18 · 2 years

Note

Thoughts on the upcoming Price of Glee documentary?

Yes - I think it's sensationalist bullshit.

I did watch the trailer on twitter - because it was trending, and I wanted to be aware of what it was going for.

One of the literal tag lines is -- in 2010 ten kids become famous, by 2020 three are dead.

And I... just found myself incredibly angry. Like, so angry.

The "documentary" is exploiting the deaths of three young people to claim that somehow a) there's a curse and b) that it was the cause of the three deaths. It's all sensationalist -- meaning purposefully edited to create the most shock value. And wants to capitalize on tragedy.

Cory's death was tragic - but he had already struggled with drug issues before he was even on the show, and tying his death to his fame feels like it's stretching truth to fit the narrative the doc is going for.

Naya's death had zero to do with the show - it happened five years after the show was long done. And it was an extremely tragic accident. There's nothing going on here - and, again, to fit it into the theme feels hollow and reductive.

Here's what I'll say about Mark - who is just in a different category all together. I get the feeling that the doc really wanted to talk about how terrible Mark was and how his fame and misgivings drove him to suicide. And - I'm not going to sit here and say he was a good guy -- he wasn't. He did terrible things, and should be held accountable for that. However, I hate the fact that his family has to endure the exploitation of it all. (I have no idea if his family is involved - but if I was a family member, I'd be furious that my family is being used for cheap entertainment.)

I also really, really hate (in general) backhanded narratives that frame bad people committing suicide as a good thing. It's reductive on a level that just makes me incredibly angry.

And overall, yes, three young people dying who are connected to a teen show does seem disproportionally high. But you know what? It's coincidental. It really, really is. There is no freaking curse. Just a lot of tragedy.

I didn't recognize any of the people who were giving interviews - however one of them I believe is Naya's dad (who has been apparently exploiting his daughter's death for a while now) and I've heard that others are people who have vendettas against Glee (though - I can't say who or why because I literally do not know.)

The trailer only focused on the deaths - so I assume this is all they'll be focusing on. And yes - it plays as if it some huge crime drama when... c'mon, it wasn't.

Also - I'm sure it's going to clearly ignore all the wonderful things Glee brought to the world, and how it had a profoundly positive impact on people, especially the LGBT+ community.

(Also - anyone else feel like it's suspicious that the trailer dropped the night Kevin and Jenna held Snixxmas?)

If you want honest insight into Glee - I recommend Kevin and Jenna's podcast. They're open about its ups and downs, but they're also celebratory of the good things as they also critical of the bad. And they are able to frame it as such as real people living a real thing -- and not sensational garbage trying to shock people into believing that Glee (and fame) was so terrible it killed people.

#you guys have no idea how angry that trailer made me

22 notes · View notes

daredevilexchange · 2 years

Text

Want to be featured here? Head to this page and fill in the form!

See what this is about here, or if you’re using the app here.

What’s your fannish ID? I go by TheSwordWizard on twitter and tumblr, and WizardKicks_ on instagram, as well as when I do conventions and tabling events. I picked the sword wizard based off a variation from the swamp wizard, a background character that shows up for like one page in an old and short never-completed webcomic. I've also always really liked old-timey wizards and I also think swords are sick. End of.

What types of fanworks do you create? I do fanart! I struggle with mediums that require long term commitment over being able to power through with the motivation of starting a new project, so while I've started some writing projects and do non-fan related zines and independent publishing projects (I dream about getting an MFA but I'm to addicted to that full-time paycheck). In my fanart I tend to focus on composition and intense mood, which is usually what I'm inspired from.

What are your favourite types of fanworks, when you’re not creating? I LOVE FANFIC. I love fanart of course but I LOVE reading people's interpretations of my favorite characters. I'm a dirty multi-shipper and while I'm addicted to the insanity of Fratt and Mattelektra (And Frattelektra - YOWZA lmao), I've read probably every Mattfoggy, Mattkaren, Mattclaire, Mattetc, Daredevil-themed-femslash fic on AO3. I want to see what grinds people's gears about different character interactions! How different people and different interactions, to being in just a different place at a different time completely changes contexts and brings out something totally different between characters! It's a nice juxtaposition to why I'm addicted to making fanart - never being able to translate into stable form the sort of platonic, collective ideal of a character - so I want to tease out a specific, tiny vignette of a single aspect of a character… I majored in basically Thinking About Art Concepts so I could go on literally all day I just love transformative work so much… If you've written a couple Fratt fics you might already be recognizing my writing style from the comments I leave even with a different username… I GET REALLY EXCITED!!!!!!

What do you like in particular about this fandom? AUGH there are so many reasons! My first instinct is because Matt's mental illness is legendary. He's such a funny character you know instantly why everyone who knows him is obsessed with him but also wants to murder him, just a little bit. I'm a pretentious artist so I'm enamored with his perception of the world, and how unique and intense it is and how much TRUTH he has to hear so much and yet how subjective and susceptible to his own messed up headspace his reality is. I was obsessed with NBC's Hannibal (Fratt is MCU's Hannigram you can't tell me I'm wrong) for so long there are so many places where a lot of what I appreciated about that show can tie into Daredevil (both the show and some of the comic runs). I can never get into a lot of comics because the power creep gets nuts, but it's perfectly likely for Matt to basically deal with the same shit every week in new flavors, especially when you can count all the ways through the LAW things can get hairy. Which brings me to another factor, how there's a little bit of a higher bar in terms of research that's required (imo) with having to deal with the law and having plots grounded in reality. I just really love the DD comics where Things Have Consequences. Also I'm older so I want to read fics with more… mature characters. Undergrad fic? Hell yeah let's go! LAW SCHOOL FIC?????? YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pretty much all Mattfoggy starts in undergrad at the soonest so I always win. And then Fratt is like tom and jerry to me I love them. Hit each other with hammers. Make those rituals even more intricate. Can you find love even as two crabs in a bucket? Also Elektra is a Vr1ska to me so I'm obsessed with her, she slays. Sorry I think it's funny when Matt dates people who kind of want to make him worse.

Do you like participating in fan events? Right now I've mostly been doing conventions! I haven't done too many big ones yet (I'm nervous about COVID) but I've been ramping up from local ones. I've also got a lot of side projects from these so I haven't done as many exchanges as I would have liked recently - I used to do them a bit more. I made myself a promise that I was going to at least do the next Fratt bang 👀

What about your creating process? I tend to have two different methods of making fanart - one that starts with me wanting to make something, but I'm not sure yet, so it takes a bit of back and forth and trying to nail something down that I'm happy with. The other one is when I'm struck by a very specific mental picture and that inspiration keeps bugging me until I'm able to carve it out how I want it to look. These tend to be my cooler/better concept pieces imo. I'm pretty much always listening to music, and sometimes if something I'm working on is directly inspired by a song or specific vibe I'll loop a single song until I'm done LOL. I have so many little worlds in my head and different versions of characters that I often get too overwhelmed to put down on paper so I tend to stick to my vignettes.

Do you interact a lot with other fans? Noooo I want to though :(. I'm shy on tumblr - I've been here for so long but never talk to people here, it always feels awkward! I also use twitter a lot (shame shame shame) and I find that form way more natural for starting casual conversation so I talk to people a lot there. IF ANYONE HAS ANY GOOD DAREDEVIL DISCORD GROUPS PLEASE LET ME JOIN. DOUBLY SO IF IT HAS MORE ADULTS (no hate to teenagers I love y'all but the last younger discord I was in betrayed me for stranger things).

Is there any particular piece you'd like to showcase for this post?

This is one of my more recent pieces… I worked up the focus to do some painting styled stuff again (I used to do traditional watercolor/oil painting before it became too cumbersome… digital art I love you) and in a similar style as to a Blade piece I did and was really happy with. I think it turned out well and was proud I got through it :). I do really like the minimalist color palette/compositional pieces I do, it gives me a lot more mental space to experiment and try new things, but I do try to keep up my portraiture!

Do you have other fandoms you'd like to talk about? I talked about Hannibal before (I actually recently started making more fun DD pieces because I remembered that I could make Marvel fanart in the same way I used to make Hannibal art and NO ONE COULD STOP ME!!!!!) but I also spent a long, long time in HS (the webcomic that I know a lot of people have muted so I shan't say), and I think I took a lot of that in my philosophy toward experiencing different versions of characters and taking liberty with character designs, making really thematic work, etc. I promise I was a really good fan. It honestly prepared me a lot for reading comics!

Is there anything else you want to tell us about yourself? As you can tell, if given an opportunity, I love talking about Concepts (I was in a worldbuilding server for a comic fan AU once and it was so fun). And Matt :D. I want to lock my powerful jaws around his calf and death roll him like a crocodile. And like crowdfund him therapy or something.

Where can your fanworks be found? https://theswordwizard.tumblr.com/tagged/my%20art https://twitter.com/theswordwizard (I have some art moments and you can always search my mentions of "matt" and "daredevil" but Read My Posts Boy)

Thank you, @theswordwizard !

banner by @context-is-for-kingpins !

#matt murdock #daredevil #marvel #frank castle #foggy nelson #elektra natchios #content creator spotlight

13 notes · View notes

forlorngarden · 2 years

Note

☕️ im here for YOUR unpopular music opinions bab xx right my wrongs xx

im genuinely a bit terrified because many of my music tastes and opinions are deemed lame and basic but lame girl is my alias and profession so i will commit to it.

before we start let me assessment the level of my lameness - i have a twenty one pilots and a taylor swift tattoo. see? this is what we are working with

whatever

- lyrics are much more important to me than music i do love beautiful melodies and production of course but if the lyrics slap i will probably not give a fuck about anything else

- the best way to listen to music is by going through albums from start to finish. shuffle is evil and my sworn enemy

- phoebe bridgers is in fact one of our greatest songwriters right now. yes, along with mitski. im sorry ridi. they explore different themes and i feel like our connection to said themes is what makes us love one or the other more. and well. it's phoebe for me. i feel like punisher changed the course of my existence that winter night in my small god awful apartment where I listened to it while for the first time while cutting my hair with paper scissors.

- same with taylor. there's much to say about her as a political figure (of sorts), as a businesswoman, as an artist too, and not all of it will be pretty. but she's a strong, strong writer who is constantly overlooked by many outside of her (very annoying and over the top, yes) fanbase (that i have beef with but. that's another story).

one of the most consistent criticisms of her as a songwriter though is that there's too much of her, so much she feels inescapable. and that is a classic case of being woman'd (term courtesy of rayne fisher-quann - we as a society and as consumers are compelled to want to take any woman that gets too successful down a notch. she has always been annoying. there's too much of her. overrated. and so on. rayne's essay was rather eye opening and i can't recommend it enough). but that is a co-product of misogyny, people of marginalized groups (fairly) recognising her privileges and being (fairly) upset by the lack of opportunities for equally talented artists, her enormous fanbase and the pit of despair that is modern stan culture.

- on the topic of stan culture. oh brothers what makes people so mean? for the life of me i can not figure out what good it does you to write "flop" under popcrave tweets. do people feel righteous? cathartic? edgy? is this for the sake of ruling up some and getting throwaway validation from the others? can not wrap my head around this.

- in the same vein. we have GOT to stop demanding content from any kind of artists, musicians included. i think everyone here agrees but i needed to say that because i can not bear seeing this attitude on twitter anymore

- oh those were some thinkpieces babes. well i wasn't an academic for 6 years for nothing

- flash round! melodrama best album ever made; jack antonoff the lows are low but the highs are really fucking high have you heard choreomania and hard feelings/loveless; bo burnham amazing lyricist im not even fucking sorry about this one though i got bullied on tiktok for it; we deserve an emo renaissance. i think that's it for today that was really something

#heyyyyy #hope you still like me hope my lame vibe and defensive libra demeanor compels you #sorry grils unfortunately im a lover and not a hater until absolutely cornered #ridi dearest

3 notes · View notes

jimkleban · 2 years

Text

10 Goals for 2023

9 years of foolishly posting my annual personal goals. A look back at 2022 is here: https://at.tumblr.com/jimkleban/my-2022-in-review/muu9t9hu9fkh

Themes for 2023

The world is changing quickly with polarization, evolving norms, war in Europe, inflation, tech layoffs, and a looming recession. These are also very exciting times especially with what has been made possible by advances in generative AI. This year finds me happy to pour my heart into my work and looking forward to explore more of the world.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” -Ferris Bueller

10 Goals for 2023

1) Crush it as Head of AI at Supernormal

A new year finds me in a new role running AI at a startup called Supernormal. Supernormal is an AI-powered meeting assistant that automatically gives you detailed notes after your meeting. The generative AI space is on fire for now, and for a product like this it's a race to win. I'm excited for this role as a career step. It's a good fit for my background and skills, the team is great, and I'm finding in really fun to work at a startup. My goal for 2023 is to hire an AI team and deliver a great product.

2) Follow the muse with Infeather.

We are born to create. What we make are expressions of ourselves and sometimes in creating there is a sense of something calling us forward. A muse, if you allow it to be. Over the last year I've been building an AI-powered reader called Infeather. By crawling twitter and other sources it finds high quality articles for people to read on followed topics. My dream is for this project is to grow it further into something people can use day-to-day. The recommendations can expand beyond linked articles to include videos, forum threads, and posts. The goal this year is to keep going, following the muse, and make the reader better and grow the number of users.

3) Live abroad with the family.

In 2019, Elizabeth and I took the girls (7 and 4) on a year of travel where we stayed in Bali and Australia. We want to do something like this again before our kids grow up. I'm not sure if the timing for traveling again is right this year given our work, health, and family commitments, but ideally we'd set up somewhere in a new country sometime this year. We would find schools for the girls, work remotely, and spend our free time exploring.

4) Respark the romance with Elizabeth.

My wife Elizabeth and I have known each other for more than twenty years, and we have been married for over thirteen. It's not always easy to find good, quality time for one another given our full time jobs and parenting duties. And yet, it's the relationships that matter most in life. My goal this year is to do ten amazing things together with my partner.

5) Develop the art of long term friendships.

One of the key predictors of long term happiness through life apparently is the presence of long term relationships. It can be hard to prioritize friendship when you a busy life with family and work takes up time and energy. Yet, it pays off in the end. I think there is a real art in making friends, and maybe it's mostly a matter of making oneself available. I want this year to be one for friendships, new and old.

6) Build 3 new AI apps as experiments.

I'm intrigued by what is possible with AI and it's never been easier to wire ideas up quickly. This year I have the goal to write three new (mini) apps. The ones I have in mind at the start of the year are a spoken language practice chat bot (using Whisper) for my attempt at learning French, a personal health assistant that helps build positive habits, and an oracle/therapy bot that helps you reflect about what is happening in your life.

7) Get a couple of home improvement projects done.

Out of all of the things that I like to do, spending on home improvement is not one of them. As such, the house is in a bit of disrepair and there are a couple of things we want to make better. The goal is to land at least two of these house projects (even if it's just scheduling and coordinating contractor work) before we go abroad. This could be new upstairs bathroom fixture, a shed in backyard, and repairing the deck. I think these things can be fun and rewarding.

8) Get into the mountains.

The best part of the Pacific Northwest is probably the nearby mountain ranges with the Cascades and the Olympics. These are wonderful places to explore and spending time in the mountains is also a great way to stay in shape, get tough. I try to have a physical goal each year, and this year I'll be working on adding strength exercises to my routine, but I think an even better goal will be to spend more substantial times in the mountains - getting out on a day trip at least twice a month.

9) Give up added sugar and fast food.

Health matters more as you grow older and I don't think you can keep bouncing back from treating your body poorly. This includes the diet. I've been blessed with a fast metabolism and I'm physically active, so I haven't had a reason to avoid eating poor food. I've done well in the past with giving up alcohol, but at times the cravings have just transferred to donuts and cheeseburgers. I feel much better when I don't eat these things. The goal this year is to give up added sugar, save for the occasional shared desert, and stop ordering fast food.

10) Break the phone addiction.

The iPhone was released in 2007 and changed the world. Like television, we both benefit and suffer from the adoption of the omnipresent computer in our pocket. The device and its apps are designed to be addictive, fueling profit, in ways television never was able to be. On the other hand, we also gain from having these tools. We own our phones and how we use them, not the opposite way around. The goal for 2023 is to change how I use mobile phone, through a mixture of behaviors, settings, and apps so I can demonstrably claim my phone serves me.

Closing

2023 has energy, legs to it. I feel happy, empowered. A lot is going to change quickly, so buckle up and take the ride. Here’s to what comes.

2 notes · View notes

tharizdun-03 · 2 years

Text

Bleach Review

I am moving some of my Twitter threads over to Tumblr as well. This is one of them.

First of all, Bleach is cool, alright. It's got that drip. It has a bit of an edgier style to it, the designs are beautiful and stylish, and Kubo is generally just very skilled with the pen (character art is detailed, and the battles are easy to read and striking).

This will be done in a very stream of consciousness, flowing, just getting it all down in one go kind of manner, so excuse me if this isn't very structured or coherent.

And that's really, I feel, what a battle shonen series should be at its core. It should be fun to read. And then, you know, even if the story isn't anything super innovative, I'm entertained to the degree that I wouldn't be with a non-battle shonen series of the same quality.I wanted to tackle Bleach here, in a kind of, arc to arc manner.

Which I might still get to, just writing what's coming to mind after all lol, but either way, I wanted to start with just the overall writing, and I feel like I need to bring up Ichigo to highlight.

Let me just start off by saying that I like Ichigo plenty. On just a surface level, I find him to be very refreshing and endearing. The latter compliment fits a lot of the main cast tbh, but especially Ichigo.

It makes the slice-of-life moments we get with them, really enjoyable tbh, more so than I expected them to be based on other shonen I've read, that shall remain nameless for my own sake. Yeah, lovely kid that I really enjoy following along with.

That said, more could've been done, and this applies to the series as a whole. It has a lot of cool concepts, and a lot of storytelling potential, that Kubo often just glosses over, and from my speculation alone, partly because he's just not a good enough writer, and based on interviews, he just has his priorities mixed up sometimes. Let's go back to Ichigo, to illustrate this point. When I was reading Bleach, earlier in the story, I got the impression that Ichigo ties his self-worth to his strength, his ability to protect, which would root back to his childhood trauma, his inability to save his own mother. And that's his main character flaw, getting over that self-destructive mindset. That's great, interesting stuff that Kubo could do there, a lot of potential.

Except, you know, I eventually realized, that's not the case. I was looking too deep into it, cause Kubo gets into any of that. Ichigo's just depressed after losing, cause that's what shonen protagonists are like.

Kubo doesn't explicitly tie this to his trauma, he doesn't make any real connection between it, it's just explored as it normally would've been. Kubo has the elements to do something more here, but he doesn't commit.

Another example of this would be, Aizen. Who I do think is very effective in a presence/personality kind of aspect, but not so much characterization-wise. There have been, small hints, about him in relation to the theme of bonds.

Viewing everything from a hierarchical point of view, wanting to be at the top, of being unable to make personal relationships with other people, and resenting them for the mere thought of emotional investment in others, as he refuses to lower himself to such weakness.

But, this. This is all very barebones, I even have trouble finding panels that explore most of this, cause a lot of it is speculation and headcanon characterization, so to speak, from the breadcrumbs that Kubo has given us.

It's why Ichigo's final remark about Aizen may be having subconsciously lost on purpose because he envied normal bonds comes off as so weak. Because Kubo almost never really focuses on it, we don't get introspection, and we don't get an arc exploring any of it.

And right at the end, he mentioned something about Reio, the soul king, but we got like one sentence about that, and nothing more.

So, when I talk about their characterization like that, it just comes off to me as looking too deep into it, reaching, because the writing is just not that deep.

Which is fine, because Bleach doesn't have to be super deep. It's still a very effective battle shounen overall. Kubo just isn't as interested in the big picture, as I am.

Another example would be Kubo playing around with what hollows and their masks represent metaphorically. He does this a lot in the first arc, which allows him to touch on some heavier topics in a pretty effective manner.

Hollows wear their masks to shield themselves from the outside world. From the fear of having the living people recognizing what they've become, of knowing the evil they've committed. Fear of having connections with other people, hurting them, and being hurt.

It's also why the Arrancars have started to remove their masks, cause they're starting to lose that fear under Aizen's rule, who they don't serve because he's the strongest, but because he's fearless.

But then, that metaphorical aspect just kind of stops there. This is a bit of a shame, cause the Visored people are introduced, for example, people who can choose when to put on their hollow masks. Would've been interesting to explore what Kubo thinks of that metaphorically.

This, simplicity, this not going as far as he could've, carries over into most deeper aspects of the story. There should be a lot more moral ambiguity behind Kisuke's actions (putting the Hogyouku in Rukia for example). But because our moral compass is Ichigo, a 15 year old boy who doesn't really care about that kind of stuff, we never really dig into it. There was also the quincy/soul reaper conflict, where there should've been more moral ambiguity. I mean, the whole deal between them was that they disagreed on how to take care of hollows, and the quincies were exterminated because of that. This was an issue that Bleach glossed over even back in the first arc when we meet Uryu, cause it tried to like grossly have his grandad (a Quincy) explain how the soul reapers were justified in their genocide. So, the series just kind of ends up presenting the soul reapers as the good guys and the qunicies as the not good guys, when there are deeper, more complicated aspects to dig into here. But, Bleach doesn't dig into that. I've been told that the novels explore this? Which is great. I will get to them, but, Kubo apparently didn't want to get into that, or dig too much into Yhwach's characterization/motive, cause it'd distract from Ichigo, who he wanted to focus on, which is stupid.

That's kind of that, about that. Uhm, shortly, trying to wrap this up now. Yeah, I've touched upon the first arc already, which I think is pretty effective overall, altho it's the arc I think the least about (could change when it's had time to sit with me).

The Soul Society arc is pretty damn good. Lots of flair, lot of personality. I mean, there's not a lot of interesting praise to dig into here, I feel, but I think it's pretty fucking solid.

There's some, there's a pretty annoying power creep, and some off-hand one-time abilities that get them out of trouble (consistent issue with the series), but other than that, you know, I'm cool with it. The Aizen twist (spoilers lol), is very well done.

The Arrancar arc is long. There are some dropped plot lines (like Orihime planning to destroy the Hogyouku, or Tatsuki having any sort of significant role), and it definitely does recycle some ideas, and some character archetypes from the previous arc that are less interesting here, but honestly, I think I overall liked the Espadas more here than the captains in the Soul Society arc, as antagonists. The Espadas were more visually distinct, and I felt that the better ones (Grimjoww and Ulquiorra) had more interesting characterization and dynamics. Already talked about Aizen, but I think he works super well as a force of nature kind of antagonist, so cool with him.

Now, the Fullbring arc, is by far the best arc. I love getting some more slice-of-life goodness, it has a pretty fantastic twist and goes deeper with its character exploration than any other arc.

Chad and Orihime both get moments to shine. Ginjo is great, super unpredictable, and works as lovely contrast. Tsukishima's ability is some of the most creative shit ever and his relationship to Ginjo (and the rest of the Fullbringers) actually got me emotional.

You know, it's the Phantom Troupe type beat, lost souls finding a family with each other. That just hits.

And Ichigo, is at his best. Ichigo has always been about wanting to protect his loved ones, so giving that up to defeat Aizen was a huge deal. That was him giving up his shonen protagonist goal, basically. For over a year, he's powerless, and then Ginjo gives him a way to get them back. He trains and trains, to be able to protect his friends again. And as he does this, his family and friends turn on him.

The only ally he has left is Ginjo, who betrays him at his lowest moment and takes his power, what he needed the most. And it just breaks him, he cries. For the first time, I think even, at least as an adult.

It's just an incredibly strong character moment and gives Ginjo and Tsukishima, who have gone to such lengths to create this personally designed hell to fuck him up, so much oomph. AND RUKIA AAHHH. It's great, best arc.

The Thousand-Year Blood War arc is messy. It has a lot of sudden abilities (several having been retconned), many fights (several that go on for too long which would've hell weekly), and besides Ichigo's backstory and his resolution with his swords, the series never gets into the moral ambiguity or characterization it should've. Yhwach is quite bland, for example. But, you know, it's still a mostly decent battle shonen arc, I'm quite tolerant to asspulls and stuff like that.

It's a light 7 for me, so it's not a really good arc, but I did enjoy it for the most part. So, you know, didn't ruin the series for me or anything. Just not great, but tolerable fun. The last two chapters are pretty bad tho. I don't have an issue with the ships, just, rushed, deus ex machina, unanswered questions, and just pretty uninteresting.

But yeah, I feel like I wanna stop here. I had fun with Bleach. The inevitable Naruto comparison will be brought up, so let me just get it out of the way. I like Naruto as a whole more. It's a solid score higher. I had more fundamental issues with Naruto, so Bleach was more consistently enjoyable, but as a whole, Naruto still did deeper and more interesting things imo. So, there's that. But yeah, pretty fun series. I enjoyed Bleach. I'll be watching the filler movies sometime, and ofc the upcoming anime (which if it doesn't adapt the novels, I'll have to read them then). Yup, that's it. Naruto during 2021. Bleach during 2022. So, I guess One Piece for 2023?

Score:

Original Twitter Thread: https://twitter.com/Tharizdun03/status/1549030461128802304

#bleach #twitter thread

0 notes