#perspective is hard lol.. and so are backgrounds
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thevoidmeows · 4 months ago
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“Goodness, Victor, it is just lemon clover,” Henry replied, teasingly cross, laughing softly as Victor put the flower in his hair with that perpetual, comically severe expression.
i was inspired by this scene in @lemonavocado's lovely new fic,, go check it out :]
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yume-fanfare · 4 months ago
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little piece from last year that i forgot about but still quite like <3 pencil on paper and digital color
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silvermeww · 3 months ago
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12. An unpopular character you like? (and why more people should like them)
asdfghjk THANKS FOR THE ASK I'M GIVING YOU SO MUCH <33 RN
Ooh, hmm, this'll be fun. there are so many examples in pokeani and honestly some are a little eh, but then I remembered how almost every comment I see about 'worse' characters seem to include Max and I just don't get it?? How can anyone hate him??
(fun fact, when I was first watching him - in dub mind you - I also really didn't like him much. but I was coming off from the end of the OG, which was pretty sad considering who we lost, and tbh especially in 4kids early seasons dub EVERYONE was pretty unlikeable. I think I hated almost everyone back in the early gens at some point lol; I can be real vindicative but I think watching the whole thing taught me to take my time before judging stuff :v)
But yeah!! I really don't get the hate. Oh, so he said that Ash sucked for getting 8th place in the Silver Conference - can we all remember that a) legit kid and b) he's seeing this guy lose to an evolved starter from his own region of the SAME type as Ash's. It's like watching a Venasaur lose to Meganium if you're from Kanto; you'll be feeling pretty patriotic and stuff too ngl, especially if you don't have any battle experience yet.
But he acts so smart - Yes, and?? I don't see anyone talk about how Gary was coming up in the first season spouting random facts only to lose in the prelims and get a lower place than Ash. Again, I wish that people remember that Max is the kid of a Gym Leader, who reads and watches Leagues to make up for not being able to watc the Gym Battles taking place under the same roof, who dreams of becoming as strong if not stronger than his father. He's going to have high expectations. He's going to think that knowledge is everything. He's going to show off as much as he can, to make up for the fact that he's the only one in the group who isn't a Trainer. And I love how he learns that you have to actually interact with Pokemon to learn what it's all about, that you can't replace experience, that you can still experience things now even if you are too young to start. There isn't a limit to going out and interacting with the world. He doesn't have to wait. He's allowed to make mistakes and own up and not know stuff and grow, now and in the future. In a way, he's learning the same things as May, and I think that's wonderful.
And while I wish that he could've gotten a Pokemon while on the journey (one that he could keep à la XY with Bonnie), I'm fine with what he had in Advanced. He got to see Gym Battles. He got to travel two (2) regions. He got to see different aspects of being a Trainer, as a Coordinator and as a Breeder/Doctor. He got the recognition of his father in the end and was able to get into the Gym business. He got to play and learn with so many Pokemon and just act his age for once, instead of having to grow up to make up the percieved difference (wrongly percieved, might I add). Dang it, he brefriended two Mythical Pokemon (Jirachi and that other Deoxys). I dunno, he's doing pretty well for himself. Sure he's snappish and remarks on a bunch of stuff, but AG is full of that (ugh Ash was on another level, especially in Hoenn) (we don't talk about flat Brock) and S1 Kanto was way worse.
Anyways everyone go out and appreciate this goober. He did not bond with this Ralts for nothing and I swear I did not cry in this ep just for everyone to hate him. His character growth was awesome and if we ever get a Chronicles 2.0 I need to see his journey (the kids that go with Ash legit get such powerful Pokemon I fear for the competition lol).
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#seriously tysm!! you have freed me from sadness the stomach ache and boredom fr!!!#yeah i never got the max hate. like what did he actually do to anyone??#he wasn't harsh to pokemon like paul. he only got ash in like that first ep they meet and then he's cool with him#in fact he REALLY looks up to ash. so much. big bro energy fr even if he thinks that ash could do better lol#he's a little tsundere ngl. he loves his family and friends but he can't let them know#otherwise they'll treat him lesser or smth. or won't take him seriously#aka he's trying to beat the little kid allegations. which is why he bonds so well with misty when they meet#he WANTS to be the cool one. the better one. the one everyone looks up to#but he learns that it's a heavy role. he sees it when may sacrifices that ride to the last contest (i think??) in that donphan island ep#to make sure that he's okay#he sees it when he had to take ralts when everyone else was busy and the stress got to him#idk i actually never thought this hard about him before but i know deep down that he's so much more than what others give credit for#once more so many thanks!! i'm really fired up now heh#pkmn#deep stuff#silv.ex#ps he also acts smart bc he's taking over the gym business that may was never interested in#so of course he's going to correct her every chance he gets. he doesn't understand different perspectives back then#he didn't know that there were other paths and different learning styles and all that#smth smth meeting birch and his play-based research finding tracey and his watcher/artist background etc etc#yeah he got no pokemon but he got a ton of experience fr
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dravendraws · 8 months ago
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The Archives
I really challenged myself with this background, perspective is so hard even with a LOT of references lol
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bad268 · 4 months ago
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heyy could you write a kimi x reader story where the reader is american? sorta inspired by olivia rodrigo’s so american possibly? tyyy love your writing
So American (Andrea Kimi Antonelli X American! Reader)
Fandom: RPF/F2/F3
Requested: Clearly (thank you lovey! I'm sorry this is short, olivia rodrigo is not my main type of music, so this was the first time I heard it lol)
Warnings: Aged up Kimi
POV: Second Person (You/your)
W.C. 840
Summary: So American by Olivia Rodrigo
As always, my requests are OPEN
MASTERLIST // HITLIST
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~~(^Pinterest)
God, you were gonna marry him if he kept this shit up. He was just perfect, and you were sure you were in love. 
Kimi was written by a female, you could tell. The way he was just all around perfect, you couldn’t get over it. He was the perfect person to be with, the perfect gentleman, and the best companion. You would happily follow him anywhere he went.
Late-night drives were the best. Where you two would fly down the nearly empty roads, your feet up on the dashboard, you two felt free. Granted, late-night drives did not happen as much as you wanted them to since his schedule was so hectic, and they were only really used to help you two go to sleep. You would happily sit in the passenger seat, wearing one of Kimi’s shirts and sweatpants as you picked the best music to pick the vibes.
“You’re so American,” Kimi chuckled one night when you played Party in the U.S.A.
“This is what makes you think I’m American?” You chuckled back, moving to change the song.
“No, leave it,” Kimi stopped you, moving his hand from the shifter to push your phone down and hold your hand. “I like that you’re so American. It’s cute.”
“Ah, you think I’m cute?” You joked, making your voice an octave higher.
“Of course I do,” He chuckled again, bringing your intertwined hands up to his lips to place a kiss on your knuckles. “You’re the cutest.”
God, it wasn’t fair! How could this vroom vroom guy make you feel this much? If he kept this shit up, you might be in lo-
That drive made you realize you didn’t just love Kimi, but you were in love with him. He was everything to you and that interaction helped put that into perspective for you. You were infatuated with him. You would talk about him any chance you could to anyone who would listen. You could not stop thinking or talking about him. His style and his interests became yours. You used to be such a homebody, fully content with sleeping the day away, but man,  it’s hard to sleep when he’s with you.
It was one of those off weekends during the summer break. Mercedes gave their drivers the first week completely off. No media, no training, no nothing. Just a free break to rest, recuperate, relax and recharge. Kimi decided to spend it in America with you. He had only been to America for the Miami Grand Prix, but he wanted to visit your hometown and stay for a while. His family was fine with it since it’s easier to stop by Italy when most of the races are in Europe. America is a little farther away.
And you two did exactly what he wanted. You took him around your neighborhood, showed him around all of your favorite spots, and had fun not abiding by the harsh racing schedule for a week. It was nice to just stop and be teens for a week. It wasn’t until the night before he had to head back to Brackley for media and training that you realized you didn't want to let him go again.
You both laid in bed, a movie long forgotten in the background. Kimi was asleep, but you were wide awake. You were busy memorizing every feature of his face, counting his freckles, twirling his curls. You watched his breaths steady as he fell Anything, everything, and nothing all at the same time. You didn’t want him to go back yet.
“Are you going to keep staring at me or will you eventually go to sleep?” Kimi’s groggy voice broke you out of your trance. You were so lost in your thoughts, you didn't realize he woke up. You stared at him in shock, and when his word registered, your eyes became watery. Of course, being the ever-attentive boyfriend he is, Kimi noticed immediately, making a move to sit up and turn on the lamp. He pulled you into his arms and held you against his chest, “Hey, amore (love), what’s going on? You can talk to me.”
“I don’t want you to go back yet,” You whimpered as you hid your face in his chest. “I’m sorry if it’s a little too much or a little too soon, and I don't wanna assume this stuff, but do you love me? I think I’m in love with you, and I’m not ready to say goodbye to you yet.”
“Hey, slow down,” Kimi comforted, pulling you back a little to rest his forehead against yours to look you in the eyes. He whispered, “Ti amo mille (I love you so much).”
“God, I wanna marry you,” You sighed with a light laugh. “Is it too soon to say that?”
“No,” He laughed with you, pulling you into a brief kiss. “I can always take you with me. I wouldn’t mind having il mio Americano (my American) with me for a while. I’d love it actually.”
~~~~~
© BAD268 2024. DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION.
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nimadjart · 14 days ago
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Happy halloweeen. :)
This is the commentary track(?) to my digitober. It's just rambling, so don't expect anything too interesting.
This first picture came out on a whim, I originally didn't intend to do anything for this october. I had just arrived home from helping my mom out with something, and was in a good mood. I think this picture, as sketchy as it looks, reflects that feeling. I'm content with it - and it's halloween themed! All the better.
For the second, I tried to follow the "official inktober" list (something I'd drop quickly in the following days). I'm disastrous at making backgrounds, so I gave it a shot for practice sake. I think it's not a bad result, it almost kinda tells something of a story.
"Boots", hah. It's not terrible, but it's also missing a lot of polish. I think the idea behind it works well for a cute/sexy picture of Angewomon. Maybe some day I'll revisit it? I should put more practice into drawing the human form in the meanwhile lol.
I really dislike the fourth one. I think Lianpunmon deserves better art, so I'll definitely do it again some day. My skills are so undeveloped, it's very obvious seeing this poor hatching.
Speaking of hatching, I bit more than I can chew with this one. The composition isn't interesting enough either, and just like with Lianpunmon there's no story here. At least Angewomon seemed to be interacting with the viewer lol.
The sixth is something I liked better. It's kinda shody, but there's something of an urban fantasy thing going on.
The Vamdemon one I can see the faults: I need better line control, the shapes aren't locked in as well as they should be. Yet, I'm partial to it…
Rapidmon deserves better lol. I still really dig the idea behind this drawing, I just wish I'd have given myself the patience and time needed to render a kickass explosion.
SkullGreymon, I have little to comment. It has zero story, but it's carried by the vibes. It's the first (and arguably last lmao) time I think I was cooking with the halftones.
The tenth is arguably the peak of the entire month. It has some story, a neat composition, and acceptable execution. Strangely enough it was one of the quickest to make: I had an idea, and it came out in a few minutes (compared to some other drawings where I was fighting for my life), and it ultimately was one of the most interacted with drawings in my entire blog. Funny how that goes.
I like a lot the Piemon one, as bland as it is. It's like a design piece, more than a drawing. It helps that the perspective deformation hides my poor linework haha.
I went too hard on the Mephismon X one, to the detriment of the piece. Instead of adding texture, it just looks dirty. Damn.
The thirteenth one was my poor attempt at making a background. Originally, Bakemon was gonna have this devious, whimsical look, but as I finished drawing the stairs I thought "I'd be kinda tired after climbing a few floors", so I changed Bakemon's expression to reflect that. Just a little trivia.
The Jesmon is what I'd argue was my peak. Shapes are locked (as best as my skill lets them), values worked well, it told a story. It's my favourite of the month.
Fiftenth was made, mostly, trying to catch some Adventure buff to the ammount of interactions I'd get. I mean, I had fun drawing the characters, but the reality is that I had petty reasons. I don't dislike it though.
I know exactly what I wanted to do with the sixteenth, and I didn't achieve it. Looking back, I think I should've done it in BW, rather than grayscale, to make it pop more. Fix the composition too. It's too plain. Shame, I really like Lilithmon X's design.
Seventeenth was also one where I just phoned it in. I think the values are all over the place; though I do like the harsh light. Impmon is a lot of fun to draw, all things considered.
Greymon was fun, lots of fun to draw. But this was another piece where I went too crazy trying to use halftones, I ended up making something that lacked impact or presence. I do like, in a self deprecating way, how the background seems okay until you look at it directly and see that it's kinda bad lol.
I made Nefertimon's torso too long! I only realized when I was doing the finishing touches lol. Yet I like the whole thing a lot, I think the texture and lightning kinda sells it as a photo (the white border was an attempt at selling that further). Saw someone refer to it as "the last thing I see before I die", and that comment might stay with me forever lol.
The twentieth is another I had a clear picture in my head as to what I was actually hoping to make, but failed to. Instead of landing some sort of finish, it's on a weird gray (lol) area. Making clouds is hard y'all.
Twenty one is one where I managed to stick the landing to what I had in mind. I think the composition needed a few more minutes of baking, but overall I'm content with the result. Death-X-DORUgoramon is a complex design, so any degree of succesful translation is a win in my book.
I think I needed to draw some more background Kuramon for the twenty second. Y'know, to really sell the swarm thing. It's kinda too clean.
Before twenty three, I had never given myself the time to draw a tree shilouette. It was fun to turn off my brainfor a bit and just draw line, after line, after line, after line. I did the tree first, and then I tried to figure out how to make Shurimon. Originally, I wanted him to be hunched over more dramatically, almost as if he was climbing down the tree, but I was incapable of drawing it in a satisfactory manner. So this is what I got.
Twenty four is so bad! I think Monitamon came out fine, but the background elements are so poorly done! I'm so embarrassed! lol
Kabuterimon was really fun, very dramatic looking. I think it has some serious readability issues with the hands, but I don't dislike the idea I had at all.
Hackmon's drawing was done almost like a sibling piece to the fourteenth, Jesmon's. Like, Huckmon is somehow watching his exhausted future, yet he stands stoic. On it's own, I think it's plain. Like, it has some charm, but it's lacking in impact compared to the fourteenth. But maybe that's for the best of the story?
The Wizarmon sticker came through me realizing I wasn't practicing my lineart! So I did a sticker instead. This was actually version two, but number one was so bad I had to redo it. Despite it being a humble sticker chibi, it's overall the day I spent the most time drawing.
Twenty eight came from me realizing I hadn't done any Alphamon! So I did what I thought would look badass. As much as I like Alphamon, though, his shapes are difficult for me to grasp so it came out shoddy and weak lol.
Twenty nine, Ragna Lordmon vs Ragnamon, was hurt by me recording it. While an exciting thing to do, I felt like I wasn't allowed to do anything but move forward quickly, or to change things (I'd have moved both Ragnamon and the main Ragna Lordmon body closer to the center) that would've made the composition flow better. It's not an abject failure, and the video is fun to watch, but still…
Dorumon is a simple piece that I was a bit surprised to make. My birthday is not information I tell people, but I was just compelled to share a bit of myself. I dunno, it feels weird. I'm weird. It came out cute at least.
And at the last! Noble Pumpmon again. I'd love to tell you that I applied everything I learned throughout the month and it's my best piece and stuff, but that isn't the reality. It's a better show for a similar amount of effort compared to the October 1st drawing, but it's not some crazy good display of betterment. A bit, yes, but less than I had hoped.
If you made it this far into this silly wall of text I wrote, I thank you. I thank everyone who interacted with my drawings, it pleases me a lot to see that someone gave it a like, or a share, or a comment. I learned about myself, and my limits, through this experience. It was tiring, but setting myself the goal of "make a drawing a day" was, paradoxically, liberating. Like, now I had a reason to draw! (despite me having some comission work to do lmfao). It was nice. This was one of the most entertaining octobers in recent years. Thanks again to everyone who participated in some fashion.
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archetypal-archivist · 1 year ago
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Lmaooo the poor people in charge of the QSMP plot must have an interesting time in the background as their job is to promote conflict so the players have something to react to. And you know what they get for their efforts? 
Cellbit blasting through their insanely hard ARG in two weeks, Foolish and Aypierre skipping huge chunks of their puzzles through clever use of game mechanics, and everyone being so friendly and communication-oriented that any chance of internal conflict driving the plot is slim to nil because they keep talking about their problems and solving things maturely and with good faith. Interpersonal disputes get resolved in like, a few days! Tops!
 Even the egg event has had a wrench thrown into it because people fell so in love with the eggs that they are just part of the server now. Pomme has two lives and that’s just a thing. They can’t kill her, lol, everyone is working too hard and with too much cohesiveness to allow anything to happen. Code monster sweeps in and it’s boom, just an immediate 1 v 7.
I love the Q-mmunication smp with all my heart but man, from an admin perspective, they must be constantly screaming.
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lullabyalikpoptarot · 24 days ago
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BTS' Partner They Need
Alright, let's take a look at what type of partner they will need. This group may need help from the boyfriend reading I got from them, so let's see what messages come through.
Alright, these messages seem all over the place. Let's take a look at the cards.
Jin (Knight of Coins/White Raven Spirit/Peace) I would say he needs someone patient and calm. A person who is goal oriented. A person who stays the course, a dependable person. Jin's energy may be a bit all over the place and it may be hard for him to stay focused on a task, so he may need someone who can help him with that. I don't see him being good with someone who pushes too hard. He needs someone who takes their time and is patient for him to commit, maybe someone slow to commit as well. He would need someone who has faith in things. Someone who believes in the unseen and unknown, not sure why he needs this. Maybe because he struggles to do this himself. To allow him to be more optimistic about life. He would need someone with a calm aura, a very peaceful person. I would say someone angelic with a beautiful warm aura. They could be spiritual as well. He might need someone who can calmly get him to commit to them.
Suga (3 of Swords/Otter Spirit/Prosperity) This boy has been hurt and broken hearted a lot. I think he will need someone who understands his hurt and allows him to communicate that hurt. There needs to be open communication there. He may also need someone who has been hurt themselves, so they can relate. I don't think he can have a partner that hasn't gone through sh** themselves. He would need a companion he can depend on. Who will not make him feel alone. He would need someone very comforting. Who can hug and nurture him after a long day. He would need someone with an abundant mindset. Maybe someone rich and successful in their own right, or someone confident in their talents and gifts. Just someone prosperous. Who takes an opportunity out of anything. Through their struggles they find the opportunity in it all. He would also need someone goal oriented and maybe someone who likes to make money. It could be rich financially or spiritually.
RM (3 of Wands/Porcupine Spirit/Happiness) He may need someone from a different background them him. Maybe someone he can travel with. Someone who can get him out of his environment or comfort zone. He would need someone with a vision. Someone who wants to go places. Someone in it for the long haul. He will need someone who understands he may travel a lot. He will need someone who can get him out of his old ways of thinking. To give him a fresh perspective in life. I swear this is telling him to date someone from a different background. Maybe because Korean people don't fit his style. He kind of needs to expand. It is like he needs to move somewhere else and meet this person. This is a weird message. Like dude needs to date a foreigner. That is where he may find the happiness, he needs or desires. I feel like he will vibe with a foreigner more. It is like the Korean dating style doesn't work for him, this is weird but going with it. I keep getting he needs to expand beyond what he knows or his environment. Wild message lol
J-Hope (Justice/Badger Spirit/Home) He would need someone who stands for peace and justice for all. He would need someone more logical and rational. Someone who is levelheaded and fair. He would need someone bold and strong. Someone who has no fear. They kind of go on their own path. They follow the rules of fairness but have their own original flair to them. They shine on their own, like himself, they may need that sunshine energy. I say someone highly emotional is not for him. He would need someone nurturing and stable as well. Someone he can be comfortable around. Someone he can build a nice comfortable home and environment with. I can see this person getting a lot of attention. It is like they aren't afraid to be themselves. He may need someone who is a homebody as well. I see either his partner he needs having Gemini, Libra, Aries and some Cancer in their chart. I can also see them having a great way of dressing or having a unique way of styling themselves. Not sure why that would pop up in his needs, but okay.
Jimin (8 of Wands/Horse Spirit/Healing) He would need someone exciting, fast moving, and adventurous type of person. A person who can handle a lot that comes at them. He would need a carefree spirit who has a lot going for themselves. He would need someone who can allow him to have fun and free him from his thoughts. Someone who doesn't take life seriously. Someone who can allow him to break free from his limitations. I am just getting someone who is carefree and adventurous. Who will take him to a lot of places and have fun with him, so he can forget his worries. He would need someone very energetic and extroverted. All of this can help him on his healing process to help him escape his thoughts and just allow him to be free when they are together. He limits himself a lot, or restrains himself, so he needs someone who can help him break free of that. Not much else here.
V (Wheel of Fortune/Koala Spirit/Travel) I feel like this is telling me a lot of things at once. He would need someone who is always moving towards a positive direction. Someone who rarely looks back, or let's setbacks get the best of them. Someone always on the move. Someone who is always evolving for the better. He doesn't need anyone with stagnant energy, who stays stuck in cycles. They are always moving in the right direction. He would need someone patient, calm, more on the spiritual side. Someone who doesn't rush things. They kind of understand destiny and that things will happen when it happens. He wouldn't need someone with an aggressive, competitive approach to life. They continue making steps forward gradually. But as long as they keep moving. He would need someone to travel with, or understand he travels a lot, but he may need someone to go the distance for him. He may also need someone foreign as well. I can see him needing someone who can travel with him though. Also, someone who takes their time with things. He doesn't need someone who rushes about things, which is why he may need someone foreign with a slower pace mindset. Side message, but I can see him traveling to meet someone, it can't be now, since he is in the Military, but maybe afterwards. Weird, side message.
Jungkook (Knight of Wands/Moth Spirit/Justice) Well, he would need someone passionate, spontaneous, carefree, someone who doesn't have many cares in the world. Someone who goes after what they want. Maybe someone who pursues him relentlessly lol Someone who doesn't give up on something they desire or passionate about. I can see this person pushing him to do things. He would need someone who can be vulnerable and just let go of things. It is like someone with aggressive energy but can also be soft and vulnerable. He would need someone with balance. Someone who seeks fairness and balance in a relationship, maybe to help him be this way as well, because his boyfriend reading showed he isn't that way. This person may need to have a balance of different traits. He may need someone who sees both sides of things and understands his view of things, maybe this can help him see their side of things as well. He may need someone who is open to his flaws and does their best to help him through that. This person needs to help him let go of this relentless energy he has and to allow him to let go of his insecurities, his need to be right, and to help him learn to moderate his emotions or his intense nature. I don't know, he is a lot to be honest. This was kind of hard for me to wrap my head around. Honestly, good luck to who dates him. He needs work.
Well, this was interesting. I knew I would get some interesting messages. It kind of felt all over the place to be honest lol
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ourflagmeansgayrights · 5 months ago
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ok so like i get where ppl are coming from with the “the crew loves izzy” takes but also like. ok. i think that take involves a certain amount of reading very deeply into the text to a degree that is almost reading against the text at some points. it’s like when ppl pour all this energy into an underdeveloped and unportant side character—none of those layers ppl add to the character are strictly contradicted by the text, but it clearly wasn’t what the writer intended for anyone to really focus on. and yeah, death of the author, just bc the writers didn’t intend for ppl to think abt something that hard or care about it that much doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to do whatever the fuck we want. but bc i love analyzing the shit out of this show i do want to talk about WHY i think the textual support for this headcanon isn’t rlly there.
first of all. when archie is like “why are we trying so hard to save this guy, he’s kinda a dick” and jim’s like “yeah but he’s our dick.” rather than elaborate on what makes izzy special to them they’re like “it used to be that the crew all had each other’s backs no matter what and things were better back then” while reminiscing fondly about 1. olu and 2. that shot from season 1 where the whole crew is hanging out except for izzy who’s sulking in the background hating everyone. if this was supposed to be an “izzy’s a dick but we love him anyway” moment i would expect jim to talk about. yknow. izzy. instead to me ot comes across more like an “izzy’s a dick but crew is crew, we stick up for each other even if we don’t particularly like each other bc it’s us against the world” which isn’t as impactful from an izzy stanning perspective but i think makes for, like, an interesting allegory abt the queer community. we all gotta defend the rights of ppl in our community even if those specific ppl are dicks and we don’t get along with them.
second of all. after they save izzy’s life and get caught by ed they all leave the room and then a few minutes later a gun goes off. maybe someone saw ed leave the room before the shot was fired, but either way they think either ed just killed izzy or izzy just killed himself. and then they DO NOTHING ABOUT THIS. nobody checks on the body. they put all this effort into saving izzy’s life and then when their efforts are foiled they do not seem that bummed out about it. the next scene with any crew member in it is frenchie talking to ed on deck, and ed is like “go take the day off” and frenchie is like “oh nice!” and he’s like, confused and a little concerned about ed suddenly steering the ship rlly erratically, but he also seems pretty excited about getting some time off (after so many raids in a row i would be too lol). and THEN!!! in the next scene where we get the whole crew, they’re crowded in the hallway that leads out to the deck and the conversation they have isn’t “oh my god i can’t believe ed killed izzy after we cut off izzy’s leg” it’s “maybe ed’s better now? maybe killing izzy was all it took? he seems pretty cheerful for the first time in ages, maybe ed’s okay?” like literally they think ed just killed izzy and they are more worried about ed’s emotional state than they are grieving a beloved shipmate
then in 2.04 the crew B plot is so blatantly “the crew struggles to trust each other again but after seeing izzy be incredibly sad and pathetic they remember that a good crew has each other’s backs no matter what and so they extend izzy some unearned kindness and make him a new leg” that i’m amazed that other interpretations even exist. like literally they’re all drawn away from screaming at each other with weapons drawn by izzy making some dramatic announcement and then falling and then drunkenly crawling away and refusing their help rambling “youre born alone you die alone” over and over again or whatever melodramatic bullshit he said. like he’s muttering abt being miserable and alone and there’s a WHOLE ROOM OF PEOPLE!!! standing RIGHT THERE!!!! like “oh hey man do you need help standing up? no? no ur just gonna crawl away? um. ok.” and then they all go “well at least we’re not as fucked up as that guy. maybe we should do something nice for him?” like they are literally almost explicitly motivated by pity, not fondness. which yeah, it’s probably fucked up the way they use izzy’s new disability to sort of emphasize how pathetic he’s being, but i think the intention there is not that izzy’s pathetic bc he’s disabled, he’s pathetic bc he’s refusing to accept help. like the crew doesn’t go “yikes 😬 at least we don’t have his issues” abt izzy falling down when his makeshift prosthetic breaks, they go “yikes 😬” when he bats away their hands and goes on a weird mumbling tirade. definitely not the most sensitive way to depict izzy in this mental state, but that’s a different post probably. for the sake of THIS post tho: the takeaway i got from this scene is that the crew is remembering how to be there for each other again. it’s easier for them to let go of their paranoia and stop being so defensive and distrustful when izzy is there as an example of what happens when you’re TOO defensive and distrustful. “the crew makes a leg for izzy bc they care about him on a personal level” did not seem to be the focus of that story arc. to me.
in 2.05 we get our first ever instance of a character expressing appreciation for something izzy said or did or some trait he expressed (except for stede that time in 1.06 when izzy backed stede up on wanting to do a fuckery, which he only did specifically bc he wanted stede to fucking die and ed was taking too long), and it’s lucius saying he loves the shark izzy whittled. but during the entire episode leading up to that scene izzy is either in syede’s storyline where he’s not engaging with the crew or he’s getting snarked at by lucius, and not in a fun teasing way. like during that whole bit where izzy steals his cigarettes and calls him “twatty” lucius just looks so fucking annoyed and then uncomfortable. and then at the end of the episode izzy is sort of offering him advice and lucius is just sarcastically like “that sounds healthy.” and within this storyline, the point of these scenes isn’t rlly abt the developing and deepening relationship btwn izzy and lucius, it’s abt lucius individually coping w his trauma. izzy in this episode kinda exists in a weird place in the narrative, where he plays a supporting role in two different characters’ (lucius’s and stede’s) storylines without getting a central arc for himself. and both of those two storylines are only really about lucius and stede respectively, izzy is just there as this a static character who imparts wise advice. which is a very weird role for him to take, imo, but on top of that it doesn’t rlly contribute any sense of like, actual bonding btwn izzy and the other two.
and in 2.06 they just enjoy the show izzy puts on. they like listening to him sing. it’s all very cute! but also. i would not say that it shows the crew really cares about izzy?? i was in pit orchestra in high school and all the lead theater kids were always fucking assholes but they were also rlly good singers and it was fun to listen to them. i would mouth along to the words being sung by bitches who seemed to be trying to be sharpay evans irl for some bizarre fucking reason. like, cartoonishly mean girls. so like, the crew listening and dancing to izzy’s song doesn’t rlly sell “the crew loves izzy” to me. if anything, i would say that actually a stronger indicator of the crew loving izzy would be wee john sharing his makeup, and it’s a shame that we don’t get to see this happen. i mean that genuinely, i think that would’ve been a great moment to rlly strengthen izzy’s arc and it just. doesn’t exist on screen. and this isn’t like the finale where we know for a fact that they had to force a 40-minute episode into 30 minutes, Calypso’s Birthday has a runtime WELL under 30 minutes. it would’ve been SO easy to add another like 45 seconds of izzy and wee john getting ready together, but the only moment they show us is izzy walking in and discovering drag for the first time. it feels like the focus of this scene is less about a moment of connection between two characters and more about izzy individually having a gender breakthrough—and that carries on with the rest of the performance, too. bc it’s a performance, it’s everyone looking at izzy, it’s izzy a half step away from the crew as he puts on a show. the narrative framing of all this puts the focus entirely on izzy as a solo act, not on izzy as part of the crew. they like his performance, but we aren’t rlly shown evidence of the crew liking him as a person.
and that’s kinda it for izzy and the crew! up until he’s actively dying in ed’s arms and they’re all in the background silently weeping, at least (and btw, speaking from experience but uhhhh it’s pretty normal to cry when u watch someone die even if u have literally no connection to the person dying). even when they’re helping him back to the ship, ed is the one who notices he’s injured, nobody notices until he’s already giving izzy support. and i fully believe roach flips off izzy’s grave marker with fondness, but that’s also like. the only little personal moment any of them aside from ed has during the funeral. they do all laugh at his pinocchio joke earlier in the ep but idk if that one line can carry the entire weight of “the crew loves izzy” on its own. apparently there’s some shots during the zheng v stede fight where izzy can be seen in the background close to jim and archie??? but like, you can’t tell me a background shot of izzy standing near some crew members is strong textual support for the crew loving him. and i don’t think i need to argue abt any scenes in s1 bc literally every single crew member who was on that boat, ivan and fang included, was about to fucking drown him in the fucking ocean.
there is one single scene that gives actual strong evidence that anyone other than ed likes or cares about izzy. it’s the part at the end of impossible birds when fang is crying after ed shot izzy. so maybe fang specifically loves izzy, even tho izzy used to pull fang’s beard a lot and fang didn’t like it bc it hurt. idk.
here’s the thing tho. in 2.01 the writers use dialogue very effectively to tell us about the kraken era. the crew doesn’t say much, but what the do say tells us a lot: we know that archie thinks the kraken era is all normal pirating stuff, jim felt like the wedding raid (which seems like their only raid on a civilian ship and not a military one) was a step too far, frenchie is Not Okay but he’s doing a fantastic job repressing everything, izzy looks tired but the specific thing echoing in his head right before he starts crying in front of the crew is ed telling him “if you can’t do the job, someone else will.”
and we know fang, who’s known ed for decades, has never seen ed like this. and the specific thing he mentions as something he’s never seen from ed before is not batting an eye when ivan died. meaning that even before meeting stede, fang would’ve expected ed to have some sort of reaction to ivan dying.
and the thing about ivan is that we know next to nothing about him. he has very little dialogue in season one. we don’t even know how long he’s been working with ed—long enough to have at least heard about fang having to put his dog down bc “the love of a pet makes a man weak” when fang joined ed’s ship years ago, even if ivan wasn’t actually there yet at the time—but we do know that watching ed tell ghost stories was apparently the most open and available he’d ever seen ed get. so it doesn’t sound like ivan and ed were especially close. ivan was almost certainly less close to ed than izzy was.
if fang expected to see ed have some sort of reaction to the death of an ordinary crew member (who mightve been working for ed for decades, might’ve been working for him for months, we really can’t say) who wasn’t even that close to ed, seeing ed casually and unflinchingly inflict a life-threatening gunshot to his first mate must’ve been fucking earth-shattering. and interpretation is also supported by what fang actually says while he’s crying at the end of 2.01—it’s not “i can’t stop crying, izzy’s hurt” or “i can’t stop crying, izzy’s going to die.” its “i can’t stop crying, ed shot izzy.” more than the imminent demise of a crew member, fang is shaking and sobbing and traumatized because he can’t believe ed would do that.
and if that feels like a reach, just remember what happens after the leg is cut off, after the crew most likely believes ed shot izzy again, this time 100% fatally: the whole crew is crowded in the hallway, and fang asks “do we think he’s… better?”
fang is not sad about izzy. or if he is, it’s dwarfed by how much more sad fang is about ed.
in conclusion: have fun with ur headcanons i am not the boss of you but also there is less canonical textual evidence of the crew loving izzy than some of y’all seem to think k byeeeee
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your-name-is-jim · 1 year ago
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TOS fans, you may want to read this comic series!
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Sooo I recently read this series of comics called Star Trek: Year Five, published in 2019-2021 by IDW Publishing; I heard it was good, but I didn't expect it to be that good!
If you haven't read it, I suggest to check it out! (it's also not hard to find it if you get what I mean)
The art overall is great and, more importantly, the characters act like themselves and there are several references to their canon backgrounds, past and future experiences! What I absolutely loved was also seeing a lot of "old faces" from TOS show, as well as mentions of events from the series and the movies.
As the title suggests, the story takes place during the last year of Kirk's five-year mission on the Enterprise. I'd like to tell you more, but I enjoyed the surprise of a lot of things I didn't expect, so first of all I'll post a few pics without major spoilers from the first 11 issues (there are 25, so you still have a lot to discover!):
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I especially love how Bones and Sulu are drawn, they really look like them! Scotty and Uhura too, but that depends on the artist. Speaking of them, if you like a little Scotty/Uhura, this series has something good about it!
The joke about Kirk thinking there's something strange with the way the Klingons look now cracked me up. LOL
Also, I'm not sure Chapel would call McCoy "Bones", but she is very right in that panel. :)
The last panel is classical James T. Kirk's ass appreciation lol
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Sulu has a love story with an alien who doesn't understand human genders and uses they/them pronouns. As someone who headcanons TOS Sulu as attracted to any gender, that was great to see :D
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I'm also posting this "end-of-the-episode" panel because it's just perfection. TOS in a nutshell. Aww, look at Kirk and Spock just looking at each other! <3
I must say, you may be a little disappointed if you expect to see many moments with Kirk and Spock together, BUT the scenes they have together are really good! I won't say anything more, just read until the end and you'll see! :D
By the way, this series has a Valentine's Day extra, which is the only part where Kirk has a love interest (a female original character). Yeah, you heard me: in the main story, Kirk doesn't have new romances with anyone; Sulu is the one who gets all the action! ;)
The Valentine's Day issue is not linked to anything else and I don't think Kirk's female love interest is mentioned outside that story, so you can easily skip it if it's not for you. However, even if I can't say I'm especially happy with that story, I personally found something interesting there, for example this:
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I think I saw this out of context once, but I didn't know where it was from, so sorry I'm just going to lose my mind thinking about ladies or GENTLEMEN in Kirk's life and Kirk not correcting her about his sexual preferences. Anyway, I might make a separate post someday about this special from a Kirk/Spock shipper's perspective, because I do have a lot of thoughts about it :)
So, if you haven't read Star Trek: Year Five, I hope I convinced you to check it out! I hadn't been lucky with other Star Trek comics before, so I had almost lost hope to find something good… and then here it was! Something that made me feel like it was really written with a lot of love for The Original Series! I really needed it!
If you decide to give it a try, I'd love to see your thoughts and see your favorite parts! I hope you enjoyed this little review. :)
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nqueso-emergency · 2 months ago
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I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Somebody commented “cognitive dissonance” on one of your posts and that is such an apt description.
As background, I am a new watcher of the show (just finished watching season 7 days ago). I literally pressed “follow” to the Bucktommy and Buddie tags within a seconds because I wanted to stay “open” and fresh as a daisy thinking it was going to be a fun time reblogging gifs and reading theories & stories. Then I started seeing things and witnessing behavior that is making my opinion become as hard as cement because I have been bombarded by toxicity from the Buddie side.
“The Tevan people caused this! They harassed the cast! Everything was fine until they arrived!” (Summation) —-> So they are accusing fans of causing issues because they are literally supporting a CANON COUPLE? For bombarding love down on a couple the show runners would like see support for? Make it make sense. Bucktommy has been around for months but all the other issues have been there for YEARS.
What I have seen on various social medias in the short months:
Bucktommy positivity week
A call out to love bomb the comments sections on IG posts to stifle negativity
Lou being called ugly so many times it would be impossible to count
“Bucktommy bones”
Wishing death on Tommy
Freak out over a “Daddy” joke - FYI, if that got your hackles risen, don’t come to San Francisco or you would not survive
Tommy being called a predator
Bucktommy & Lou fans being harassed on twitter for posting anything when all I wanted to see was 911 fun things
The things I saw with my own eyes made my stomach burn and my heart hurt. Of course I drifted to the Bucktommy side and stayed there. Because you know what I see on a regular basis, a bunch of people in love with love. And people who see themselves as Queer person actually being portrayed on TV and are trying to just enjoy it.
My 2 cents 😊
Welcome to the fandom! I hate you had to experience all that shit. Especially as a new person to 9-1-1.
I really like hearing new people's perspectives because it's telling just how fucking toxic the bestie boos are.
My entrance into the actual fandom was nothing but hateful. I had lurked for years and after finishing season 7 I thought I'd interact on reddit because... it's reddit lol who's going to be crazy THERE.
Spoiler alert. A vast majority.
That's why my blog exists because these buddie fans have gotten away with way too much and someone should air it out.
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monstermonger · 3 months ago
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Hi, I’ve been trying to practice my inking skills and love how you’ve captured the scenery and characters with such lovely shading.
Have you ever posted any of your pencil sketches that you do before inking? I struggle so hard going from pencil to pen with my drawings.
First of all, I apologize how long this took to answer :"D It took particularly long because my inking process involves me sketching->inking->erasing in increments... And I kept forgetting to take photos before I erased :"""")
Anyway I finally remembered for a piece I'm working on atm!!
Sketch (bad quality photo sorry):
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It's quite rough. I like to focus exclusively on fundamental big shapes and getting the perspective figured out in the sketch.
My inking process involves me taking one of these "shapes" at a time and texturing/shading to my heart's content.
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[I was using Caspar David Friedrich's: Wanderer above a Sea of Clouds as reference btw. Using references can help a lot with both fundamental shapes + the texturing]
But yeah, to elaborate on what I said earlier and what might help you for if you feel overwhelmed- this is a complicated piece, with a detailed foreground and background. So to prevent myself from being too overwhelmed, I:
made a "detailed" sketch of the foreground + very lightly made shapes for the background (you can barely see it in my crappy photo lol).
I inked the foreground and erased it.
I moved on to make the "detailed" sketch of the background.
Lastly, inked the background.
So yeah, it's a lot of breaking things down.
I've had a lot of practice with inks and art in general, so i can do a lot of inking with less clean sketch. But it all depends on your comfort. Hope that helps a bit C:
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fagboyfriend · 8 months ago
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i rlly like ur composition, i wanna know about your process :D
thank uuu !! yeah so like. composing a scene for me generally begins with a vague idea that i want to get down as quickly as possible- and for me that usually starts with finding a setting. I knew that i wanted to draw a) a group of roomates gossiping in a crowded kitchen and i wanted there to be b) one figure in the extreme foreground and c) lots of plants. i do use some tools to figure out perspective, mainly the csp perspective ruler. Usually i start by finding a picture i like similar to the vibe im going for- but instead of referencing anything else- im purely interested in perspective. sorry to anyone who is shocked i dont generate all of my perspective purely by myself- i can draw in perspective fairly well but i struggle to make straight lines and this is easier to make grids with than the line tool lol ^_^ i try to use it kinda more like spellcheck on typos than like something to fully rely on. this is the video i learned this trick from:
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i saw the left photo and realllly loved how the cabinets alligned with the wall- so i used my ruler tool to draw out my inital plotted points from the image- basically the linear movements i was most interested in and then i turned off the image layer and worked with those lines and the ruler tool to move on. eventually i had this:
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which was enough for me to put my characters in for the inital round. if you notice- i made a looot of further adjustments as i go on. this sketch is not a final layout, its so my characters have somewhere to be! i cannot draw someone standing on a floor if theres no floor, nor leaning on a table that doesnt exist. i can’t draw my characters without a background, but i also cant finish my background without accounting for how my characters can comfortably exist in it!!
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this was the like.. very basic start. i knew the positions of two characters- but i needed to change a lot not only to fit them better but to allow for the other two figures i had planned.
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okay.. a little better. i widened the kitchen, closed the fridge door.. added a chair and fit in all the figures.. but this is waaay too dramatic. only two figures are actually interacting- and they are at wildly different energy levels!
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this is where things started to make a little more sense characterwiss, so i was ready to refine backgrounds and figures and unite the two.
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inital base sketch. much better layout.
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okay- this is where im getting my footing but things seem.. really really off. You can see me working on my framing here- theres some good linear movement from left to right here- but not vertically. It’s hard to notice the figure in the far back, so i need to redirect the viewers eye to move upwards as well!
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this is where i decided to zoom out, add an interesting vertical element to the left of the image and make it clearer whats happening in the foreground. i had to account for some stuff by adjusting the cropping, but i paid attention to that as well.
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annnd- thats what a clean sketch looks for me! i have all the elements of my scene accounted for, and things are clean enough to read.
the next step for me would be transfer! essentially- I print the image of my sketch out, resizing and taping pages together so my sketch matches the size of the paper i want to paint on, and then i use a lightboard to transfer my sketch with pencil onto my paper. Then i refine the sketch a few times on paper before stretching my watercolor paper (essentially just prepping for painting) and inking with a brush and colored ink before going in with watercolor, gouache and ink, then usually finishing with marker, colored pencil, pastel and ink. it’s a lengthy process but a lot of fun lol. but sketches for me can be like.. 15 layers of different roughs until im happy with just the sketch. there were more images but im on mobile and theres a 10 image limit 😭😭 im a bit masochistic but i believe that if i dont have a good sketch i dont have a good painting!!
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neo-the-indigo · 5 months ago
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ANALYSIS/SPECULATION/OPINION TIME! (again)
So I've been thinking about Despair Time (again), specifically Teruko's animosity for David. It got me thinking, since I haven't seen many people mention this.
Why exactly, does Teruko hate David?
(Spoilers for literally the whole fangan. This is gonna be kinda long, so hang in there.)
Quick disclaimer: Some of the stuff in this post is based purely on what I have observed, so let me know if I miss something somewhere. Thanks :)
There are 2 other reasons why I think Teruko hates David, so I will list those reasons before I mention the main reason.
David's "entire personality" (Teruko's words, not mine) is "fake".
I mean, Teruko says this almost verbatum in the 2nd trial, based on her first interaction with David.
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To me, this is a weird (but valid) reason to hate somebody.
(I'm not putting the pictures for Teruko's first interaction with David because we've all seen that lol)
2. David throws Teruko under the bus in the first trial.
The whole cast does, really, but David starts it. This is a more valid reason to hate David, in my opinion. David is the first person to be suspicious of Teruko's testimony (because he's a Xander simp, obviously).
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This comment sparked the whole idea that Teruko was the killer, and once David said this, the rest of the cast (except for Eden) jumped on the bandwagon.
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And after everyone but Eden sided with David, he was the first to accuse Teruko of murder. I'm aware that they had been discussing this before the trial began, but David is the first person to outright say this.
Though both of these reasons are valid, I don't think either of these are the main reason.
So, what's the main reason then?
Teruko hates David because she doesn't understand why he puts on the "nice guy" facade.
Teruko, from what I've seen, has a hard time understanding why David does what he does. I also believe that Teruko is nearly incapable of understanding why David's "entire personality" is fake, and doesn't really see how he (seems to be, based on what I've observed) conditioned to do so.
Here are some possible reasons why she might have some trouble understanding David's perspective.
Teruko's background/lack of talent.
As we all know, the Ultimate Lucky Student talent isn't a real talent, rather this talent exists because of winning a special lottery (according to canon Danganronpa, but for this I'm assuming that it works the same in DRDT universe.)
Unlike Teruko, the rest of the cast are real Ultimates, meaning that a LOT of people are watching them closely, expecting nothing short of the best. This especially applies to people like David and J, who are (in J's case, was) in the public spotlight constantly. Because David has millions of fans, he feels he has to put on a fake persona to appease them, when in reality, that's not his real personality. It's possible that David, like J, has been in the spotlight since he was young, and was conditioned to hide who he really is to appease other people.
Teruko, on the other hand, is a nobody, and doesn't have to deal with any kind of social expectation/pressure. No pressure from parents (since she's an orphan), and because she was constantly on the run, there was most likely no time to make room to please people when there were more pressing things to worry about like food and shelter. This is part of the reason why I think she's so blunt.
2. Teruko lives under a rock. (I love her, but she does.)
Now now, I mean this in an endearing way. Teruko seems like the type of person who couldn't name a celebrity if she tried, because like I said previously, she had bigger fish to fry. What tells me this is her reaction to J's secret reveal in Chapter 2, as well as what Levi and Arturo said to her during that time.
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Out of the entire cast, Teruko was the only one who didn't know who J was (as a celebrity).
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Based on both Levi and Arturo's comments, I can assume that not knowing who Mariabella Rosales is is pretty similar to not knowing who Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson or Beyonce are. So yeah, Teruko is 100% clueless about celebrities. Her own reaction says this too.
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Yes Teruko, being a child celebrity is a big deal, and so is being revealed as the daughter of the most recognizable name in the nation.
Now, what does this have to do with Teruko understanding David?
Thing is, David is a celebrity just like J is, obviously. Biggest difference between them is that he is always in the public spotlight, while J successfully avoided the press. Like I've said previously, David puts on a fake persona because of his millions of fans that he needs to appease.
My point is, Teruko knows absolutely nothing about what celebrities have to deal with every day, so she doesn't think of their heavy influence on society and the constant pressure that they face. To her, being a celebrity isn't a big deal. This is great when it comes to treating celebrities like people, but not so much when understanding different perspectives.
Based on both of these reasons above, if David were to tell Teruko what he goes through as a celebrity, based on her background and limited knowledge of what celebrities go through, I'm not sure that she would understand. There would be a lot of questions in that area.
I don't think Teruko is dumb, but just not knowledgeable in that area. I honestly really hope Teruko and David's dynamic improves and that they can understand each other more (this is unlikely, but a girl can only hope.) Their dynamic is the most interesting to me, and I wanna see how it develops over time.
Tell me what y'all think. I totally did not spend 3 days on this (lol).
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beesmygod · 7 months ago
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like most artists, i dread drawing backgrounds. but at the very least i need to make sure the spaces i create "make sense". i have a lot of the locations locked down in my brain (i think!) but translating them to paper is hard.
there's more shit in their home than what i drew. please pretend everything is in proportion (lol tiny cabinet) and in perspective i just wanted to do a loosey goosey sketch and stop getting so bogged down in the details for silly things like this. their apartment is heavily influenced by/stolen from sam and max's office. purcell is way better at filling a space than i ever could be.
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next i want to do valdo's fucked up h.h. holmes house lol. and alice's apartment. i dont want to think about victoria's house. i dont know. i mean i do but i really dont want to draw it.
you can read "a ghost story" here
or support the patreon
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chibishortdeath · 4 months ago
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Alright I’ve thought about, I’m gonna actually start posting some of my criticisms of Netflixvania starting with the first season. I actually have a notepad document on my computer somewhere that’s just various rants about it that I’m gonna take from lol
Rant under a cut cause it’s long, spoilers, and also cause uh tldr I do not like the show 💀
Ok let’s start from the beginning of the show, episode one.
The first episode isn’t terrible, it’s a bit rocky, some red flags here and there for what was to come, but that’s kinda expected of animations like this. It usually takes them a couple episodes to pick up and grow into their own, so I was skeptical, but not gonna knock it entirely when I first saw it.
My biggest criticism of this episode was the complete missed opportunity to introduce certain characters from this section of the series’s story. Imagine if they had shown Isaac and Hector in the background of the castle or something at this point for foreshadowing later, as they would’ve already been studying under Dracula at that time. Imagine if that old woman Lisa helped ended up being one of Lyudmil’s family members, cementing them as friends of her for later. Alas, Netflix just decided not to use most of the already written backstories for most characters. But eh, that’s getting into nitpick territory.
And then the second episode happens… I honestly genuinely hate the concept of the Speakers and it’s because they completely replace a much more interesting (especially for the tone and themes they were going for) group for Sypha to be a part of: The Church. In the game, Sypha is a witch, something that’s currently not very good to be at this time, however the church employs a bunch of male wizard soldiers. This is already a perfect opportunity set up and ready to go for them to make their points of the church being hypocritical, add some intense dramatic irony with maybe the audience getting to know Sypha is a witch before anyone else does and seeing her interact with a bunch of people who would have her dead if they knew, and create a super conflicted situation where these church soldiers all die during their encounter with the cyclops, but yet they scrapped it for uh random group of magic users that kinda exist entirely for a plot that didn’t need a new device to work. And Sypha just being all hood down and no hiding just takes away something interesting about her character, making her kinda bland in the process. Like it’s one thing to have the Girl™️ who owns the braincell trope and another to have a character with some actual immediate conflicts. They totally could’ve played up the “oh no if Trevor knew would he kill me” dynamic, especially with witches being commonly lumped in with ‘monsters’ in a lot of other media and Trevor being ya know a monster hunter. And already just from this one design choice she completely loses her symbolic putting the hood down scene for much later in the story to show that she actually trusts people and feels safe enough to not need to hide anymore because she’s got people on her side now.
Also the lack of Grant is just a crime in itself. Grant could’ve worked perfectly as like the everyman of the group. Hell, with his background of being a former noble turned thief presumably after hard times to straight up losing his entire hometown to flames and leading a revolution about it, Grant literally has like almost every common not magical vampire hunter person experience. He could’ve given the group any of those perspectives and been told the perspectives of the vampire hunting life he hasn’t had, ya know? And he’d help differentiate the personalities and humors of the group in general. I literally can’t think of a negative to having Grant in the group.
So we were robbed of character development for Sypha and the existence of Grant, what’s next—
The Bishop character is someone that could’ve been interesting if he was written with any kind of nuance, but instead he’s extremely on the nose and blatantly laughably evil. Otherwise this guy is pretty forgettable besides how lame it was that they used Blue Fangs to kill him instead of ya know an actually recognizable enemy. Like the Blue Fangs design wouldn’t be bad if it was in literally anything else, but compared to the designs of most Castlevania monsters it’s just really lame. I’d’ve even accepted a Warg or something, idk. Personally I think having Death walk in taking the form of Zead and going through that speech while eventually turning into the skeleton form we know him as woulda gone hard but for some reason Death isn’t a thing until seasons later which sucks.
I also absolutely hate Alucard and the Cyclops being in the catacombs! Hate it! The Cyclops kinda had like a courtyard area for it and made sense being there since it was standing guard on the way to the castle. Literally what it is even doing in the catacombs 💀💀💀. Standing guard for… eepy Alucard? Why??? And the whole sleeping soldier thing or whatever they called him is just so obviously an excuse to have him appear faster and make it seem like it tied into the plot. Alucard absolutely should not have been introduced to the main group this early on because again that robs him of a bunch of opportunities for background and character development. He got maybe the one oh no dad don’t commit mass death that’s bad scene and nothing else when they had plenty of time to show him initially following his fathers orders and eventually growing to stand against him. And again??? Missed opportunity for anything radio drama related??? Like if there’s any opportunity to get any of that story more known it’s in an animation? And besides, it’s less work to just use whatever materials and supplemental materials already existed for the game!
Dracula’s Curse and CoD have:
Two games
Two manuals
Three manga (TokyoPop and Preorder)
A couple game guides
Flashback sequences in a radio drama
Flashback sequences in SotN AKA: the game everyone knows
A ton of references in later games cause IGA is a big Dracula’s Curse fanboy
Pachinkos
That is plenty of material to make an animation based on, especially because most games don’t get half of that, especially not NES games. They were literally handed like the NES game to adapt lottery and decided not to scratch like half the ticket 💀💀💀.
Alucard also being able to levitate kinda negates a lot of things. Like what the hell is the point of having a bat/mist form and a double jump then? If he can just be flying vampire Jesus immediately or whatever people call him idk. And you can’t tell me Alucard wouldn’t be painfully embarrassed if someone ever saw him shirtless come on this is the guy that wears like 5 layers of clothing in every game he’s in to the point that even in the modern era he’s choosing a suit over casual clothes. Every action he makes in this introduction to him is obviously fanservice for the sake of fanservice with very little thought behind it, except I’m not feeling very served right now. And having Trevor kinda lose that fight is a reoccurring problem this show ends up having: putting down other characters just to make certain ones get the cool fanservice moment. Contrary to what the writers of this show may believe, it actually doesn’t make me go “oh wow, Alucard is so cool and much badas”, it just feels weird and uncomfortable that Trevor is getting cheated out of one of his canon achievements because the writers preferred one character’s tits more than him.
So, basically, the show starts out with missed opportunities, concepts and characters getting cut out, watered down versions of characters that did make it in, cheap fanservice, poor explanations for things, etc etc. this all culminates into a resounding m e h + dread for later seasons being worse (boy was I correct on that fear lol).
Here’s some other things for the first season I didn’t know where else to fit:
None of the humor hit for me at all, like not a single joke. The humor was either a no response at best, but definitely a physically wincing from secondhand embarrassment at worst. Related to this, I feel like most of the dialogue reads like either someone who just learned what swear words are and thinks they’re really cool and funny or genuinely forced. At times most of the characters talk with the same delivery, cadence, personality, etc, it’s really obvious they were all written by the same person or group. And that even goes for background and side characters, too. This is a criticism I’ve never seen said: I really don’t like the voice acting in this show. I’m sure it’s no fault of the voice actors at all, but there were times in this where I either could not hear characters properly or could not understand characters properly and I had to watch it with closed captions on. The clearness and volume of the characters voices varies A LOT even just between scenes sometimes. And that combined with all the characters having really similar speech patterns, there were a lot of times where if I looked away from the screen, I genuinely could not tell if it was Alucard or Trevor speaking cause it sounded like it could reasonably have been either of them (and in some cases it literally didn’t even matter that much which character was saying what). It’s an absolute tragedy that the color schemes in this show are not remotely similar to Dracula’s Curse too. I understand why some color combos wouldn’t make it for eyestrain reasons, but the pixel artwork in all the NES titles is beautiful. Same goes for music, like I am never going to forgive this series for using Bloody Tears for a Dracula’s Curse ‘adaptation’ and not Beginning or Aquarius or Dead Beat or Ghost Ship or Clockwork or— ya know? These are two things that the series are really known for so you’d think with some of the fanservice they did they’d be all kinds of ready to use stuff like that for more of it.
Anyway, past season one is when I started watching the series primarily through clips/episodes reposted on YouTube or elsewhere cause I had completely lost any interest in it. I’ll probably go through synopsises online again for season 2 just to try to better remember what happened in that one because I do remember having very little good to say about season 2 as well and I gotta do that research so I can hate things properly :3.
There’s a certain part of this where I just kinda blanked on things to even say, partially because Season one is kinda bland in general, but partially because I started getting sleepy while typing. So if I feel like I missed anything season one specific I’ll just put it in the beginning of the season two post. d(_ _ )
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