#probably appeals to like 99% of anime fans

[helluvaartcritique]

Which HH/HB design do you hate the most, and which one do you like the best?

My least favorite HH design is a tie between Husk (for all the detail that makes it hard to animate) and Alastor (because he shares the same features as 99% of Viv's other characters)

I do really want to like Alastor, as he's a fun character, but he doesn't stand out to me with all the other characters with bow ties, suits, shark like teeth, etc.

As for HB, it's probably no surprise that it's Beelzebub

I don't want to be too hard on her, as I do enjoy her character a lot (plus the concepts are cool) but the execution is not the best.

Now, onto my favorite designs!

My favorite design from HH is Pilot!Charlie!

The pink and the rounder shapes (especially in the hair) add a lot of appeal to her, and I really like it. It definitely helps her stand out from all the triangle based shaped people like Alastor, Angel, etc. It shows her personality as being bubbly and nicer than the residents in Hell. (It's why I'm not the biggest fan of her show design, but that's something for later.)

My favorite HB design probably goes to Bombproof, Striker's horse.

Horses are one of the most difficult things to animate, so I really enjoy how they did it with Bombproof.

Not to mention, the colors are nice and it's relatively animation friendly, (mostly, there are some things that could be changed) plus it's got a neat as hell design.

Thanks for the ask!

[narrators-journal]

Hi! I am a huge fan of your work! (Especially winter is a lovely season for romance and funerals; you really know how to make a guy cry!)

I wish there was more ryomina content out there, so would it be possible to write a pinning Makoto that’s in denial about his feelings for Ryoji (first love sorta vibes?!?!)? (Crushing on the popular guy?!?). He could have internalised homophobia or he could just straight up just be in denial, but I’ll leave that up to you!

Thank you for reading this request and I hope you have a wonderful day!

I’m so happy you enjoy my fanfic! WISRF is my baby rn, and I hope you don’t mind the super slow updates, I’m doing my best with it. In the meantime, I hope this holds you over, because! Oh my god, if you want more Ryomina content?? You came to the right lady!! I love these two with such an aggressive love. For example! When I finished this one, I had to click off of Tumblr so I didn’t post it too early. I ITCHED to post it. I don’t care if this is super polished, it’s not the fanfic. I can be a bit more lenient. I just wanted to have fun and enjoy the change of pace.

So! It’s a bit vague, but I went ahead and implied Minato’s a bit of a yandere for Ryoji as well as in denial.

Winter was probably Minato’s favorite season. The way the sunlight made blankets of snow sparkle like a sea of diamonds, the crispness of the air, the excuse to wear comfier clothes and stay under warm blankets, how peacefully quiet everything was due to the birds and animals either hibernating, hiding from the ice, or south for the season. It was all a blissful reprieve from the torturous heat of summer or the pollen-choked air of the spring months. Not to mention, Ryoji mochizuki had transferred to gekkoukan in those colder months.

Ryoji Mochizuki. Tall, around 5’11, with dark brown hair that was brushed back from his round, cheerful face as if his styling routine included putting his face in front of a high power fan. Paired with gorgeous blue eyes like two pools of the world’s most refreshing water, and it wasn’t a surprise that the charming trasnfer student had become Gekkoukan’s most popular student in the few weeks he’d been there. Which, was a feat, with how beloved Akihiko was. Yet, even with the fighter’s adorable, oblivious charms, when Ryoji had come to school, he’d taken the hearts of the student body like an expert phantom thief.

Or, well, at least, 99% of the student body adored the man. Minato Arisato was no stranger to charming playboys and their faux innocent, lovey-dovey antics, so Ryoji’s sugary magnetism was useless against the deadpan emo. No matter how soft those lovely sapphire eyes got when the brunette looked at him.

Or...that’s what Minato told himself each day when he heard one of his classmates whisper about some new facet of sex appeal the boy had. Irritation was what he claimed as the cause for how much he hated when he saw Ryoji out on a date with a classmate. Jealousy? No. Minato Arisato hated other people, they grated on his nerves without fail, so there was no way in hell he had any warm feelings that would stem something like jealousy. Right?

But, if that’s so, why does the mention of Ryoji going out on dates make you so aggressive? Orpheus asked, the epitome of that little voice in the back of your head that you fought to ignore. Although, does a crush really explain your feelings? What about how possessive you are of him? “Aren’t you cold, Funeral lily?” The words all but ripped the blue-haired teen away from his persona’s musings and brought him back to reality. The reality where Ryoji Mochizuki waited beside him for the train. Close enough for the shaggy-haired teen to smell how the various scents of food that had permeated the white dress shirt and black vest of his work uniform mingled with Ryoji’s peppermint-and-oleander-scented cologne. Which, meant he was too damned close. “I’m fine.” Minato said flatly before he stepped away to put a bit of distance between them. Some distance between himself and the irrational urge to brand the brunette’s cute ass. Yet, Ryoji didn’t seem to get that memo, because in the time it took the persona user to flick through a few of his songs, he became aware of the pretty boy’s body heat once again breath-tak- annoyinglyclose. “Personal space, Mochizuki.” “Are you sure? I didn’t see you grab a jacket after work tonight, and, I mean, it’s winter.” Ryoji pointed out. As if the midnight-haired teen hadn’t even spoken, and had somehow also missed the delicate flakes that drifted down from the darkened sky outside. “Yes I’m sure, and I don’t see youwith a coat either, so get off of my ass about it.” He snapped, yet when he looked back to glare at the teen who had stumbled into the shaggy-haired emo’s part time job, and just so happened to choose to work there as well, Ryoji’s blue eyes met his evil look with nothing but a warm sense of concern. The fact that the most popular boy in school had the absolute gall to look at him like that made Minato’s stomach churn. Though, that may have been caused by the swarm of butterflies he ignoring whenever he saw that addictive, sweet look.

Regardless of whatever confused feelings he harbored though, Ryoji still looked at him with undeniable softness in his gaze. A softness that Minato recognized from their first encounter outside of the very train station that they now stood in. A softness that drew Minato in like a warm hug in the chilled air of the winter night and blurred the prickly, hostile thoughts into simple white noise on that near-empty, slightly smelly boarding platform.

In fact, Minato had plenty of time while they waited for their train to notice just how soft Ryoji himself was. From that round face and dark, fluffy hair that looked feather-soft even before the blue-haired teen reached up to gently touch a stray strand that dared to fall into Ryoji’s sapphire eyes, to the warm body that he’d heard from the many girls was great to hold. And, that spark of jealousy was the dose of ice water that pulled Minato out of the trance he’d fallen into. So, the proximity of Ryoji’s face to his crashed down like a precariously balanced box at a sharp gust of wind and hit Minato right in the impulses. "Ah! Mina! What the hell?!” Ryoji yelped, his hand on his cheek as he stared at the midnight-haired emo who’d let those jealous, vicious urges slip just a bit. “I-I-I…�� Sadly, when he tried to speak, shame choked the persona user worse than the stale, dank air of the dark hour, but he pushed the words out regardless. “I-I told you, personal space, god damn it! Listen!” “Motherfucker, you’rethe one who leaned in! I just met you in the middle!” Ryoji pointed out, but what was Minato to do? Confess to the jealousy he harbored towards all of the girls he heard talk about the brunette?

No. If he tried to explain the intricacies of his ‘jealousy’, he’d be forced to explain why the mere memory of his classmates harmlessly gossiping about Ryoji had driven him to sucker punch the man. He’d have to confront whatever those disgusting, squishy feelings were that Ryoji’s presence always seemed to dig up. And, the violent possessiveness that followed.

So, instead of doing any of that, Minato snarled, “I did not! Get your mind out of whatever pipedreams you have rattling around in that shallow ass head of yours.” And, while the look of hurt in Ryoji’s eyes stung, it stung far less than the humiliation of explaining himself. Especially since the train came along to rescue him from marinating in the kicked-puppy aura the captivating man gave off.

So, he simply ended the conversation with a huff, and put his music back on to drown out any other chance to converse.

Minato hated people. That included Ryoji Mochizuki as well.

[phoenixradiant]

WIP Question Game

My thanks to @aestheic-writer18 for the tag!

In this game, I'll be answering nine general questions for my current WIP, Kelovir.

1. What was the first part of your WIP that you created?

So Kelovir (though it went by a different name back then) was started back in NaNoWriMo 2022. I usually start WIPs by writing a scene or two that helps me build a plot and characters, but because of the time constraints of the challenge, the first thing I did was create a planning document (I wasn't doing any prose writing because the planning doc was in October). The first thing in that document was a main character summary, and the first MC I covered was Narra. Up until a week ago, she was the only thing in that document (sans names, I usually like my names) that was still accurate. I'm beginning giving her a rewrite, and once I'm done, that planning document will be 99% outdated

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the intro song be?

I actually did a thing and wrote one for that exact hypothetical (It's not very good) I have several ideas, but most of those songs were written for other specific pieces of media. Of the ones that aren't, there's three distinct emotions that tend to crop up (so if it were a three season show it could have a different intro every season, like some animes): Anger, Melancholy, and Hope, for which I'd respectively say

Evil Ways or When the Devil Calls from those "Dark Country" albums (don't remember the artists)

2. Good People by PMP or Streets of Gold by Aviators

3. Forward Motion by TFK

Though now that I think of it, Slow Farewell (from the Dark Country albums) might work well as a singular intro.

3. What other pieces of media could share a fan base with your WIP?

Given that I've shared very little of my writing, I don't really know who it appeals to, so instead I'm just going to list half-a-dozen of my influences (in no particular order, probably affected by recency bias) and hope that people who like what I like also like what I do:

Brandon Sanderson (a lot of thematic inspiration and a bit of character [Ik what it looks like, but I hadn't read Stormlight before the main trio and the idea of Brands were both fully formed, I swear])

Fire Emblem (Dauria literally only exists because of Sacae, Cellic takes a lot of inspo from Dimitri, Anesaru takes a bit of inspo from Edelgard [sorry El stans, I promise I don't treat her too harshly])

FMA:B (character inspo mostly, esp. Maiph)

LotR, ofc (thematic inspo, a few literary conventions like characters spontaneously bursting into song lol)

Firefly (dialog inspo)

FFIV (a lot of character inspo)

4. Who are your favorite character/s and why?

It's Cellic. It has been and always will be Cellic. I've harped on about him before, and for the sake of space here, I'll try to keep it concise this time. He takes the part of me that wanted to be a hero as a kid, and he embodies that heroism as he walks through the world I saw as a teenager, and, though he breaks, becomes the kind of person I want to be and befriend as an adult. He bears the Trace of Devotion and (spoilers) the Brand of Justice, and (also spoilers) passes the trial of Beauty, and (also spoilers but very predictable) marries someone who bears the Seal of Healing. He's archetypical in many ways to be sure, but his dependability and classic heroism are part of what makes him my favorite.

5. What has been your biggest struggle while writing your WIP?

The oft-mentioned lack of discipline that leaves me unable to actually progress. Apart from that though, probably the fact that my outline means that who I attempt to write my characters as and who they actually are as they evolve on the page aren't the same, and that can cause some sticking points.

6. How do your characters get around?

Mostly by running or flying. Four named characters have wyverns, another one has wings, three or so can fly w/ magic, and the rest just learn to suck it up and hike it out.

7. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

A lot of dragonkin. There's the aforementioned wyverns, two amphipteres, and one currently-though-not-originally-incorporeal dragon god. All of these are sentient, and all of them but two of the wyverns have dialogue. Aside from the dragonkin: there's several horses, sheep, goats, and boars for domesticated animals, and several more... interesting beasts for wild creatures. Particularly valrak, giant fusions of scorpion, wasp, spider, and beetle that eat everything and spread like fauna kudzu, and whatever demon things the summoners of Clan Anyraz pull from what is essentially the nether. For mythological reasons, wild animals tend to be hostile to people. You'll find the occasional neutral one, but animals have a surprisingly good reason for hating humanity.

8. What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

I'm working on my rewrite of Narra, which you can help give me ideas for here! Once I get that revision done I'm going to resume drafting, specifically I'm going to finish the flashback sequence where Cellic's mother dies.

9. What aspects of your WIP do you think will draw people in?

HOW DARE YOU FORCE ME TO BE POSITIVE ABOUT MYSELF!

Dialogue. I like to think I'm pretty good at it, both the funny parts and the deep parts (which are sometimes the same). My descriptive style is still evolving, but luckily I think it's changing for the better. Also, thematically it talks about things that I think are important, and I'm told that the enthusiasm of the writer often translates to enthusiasm of the reader.

Aaaand that should do it! I've seen this passing around a few times and ik several of the people I'd otherwise tag have done it already, so Imma just leave this as an open tag! If you see this and you want in, that means YOU!

[vizivoir]

today im going to talk about anime

god. i just hate kny. the demon slayer anime. nezuko is ostensibly a main character and yet she often gets less screen time than the villain of the week. at one point protagonist has to do a powerup montage for a YEAR and she just conveniently falls into a coma the instant he has to train, to wake up the instant he is done training & passes his initiation test, for real. literally would change nothing to make her a love interest and not his sibling, which makes me hella uncomfortable, that is not at all how real siblings work and its slightly fetishy lmao. i heard that later on theres literally a demon who’s a Good Guy and still eats people, to power up to fight Bad Demons. and yet . nezuko cannot do that thing. hell all the other MCs can fight because they trained really hard for a long time to fight and yet nezuko? she just happened to become demon, and thats why shes even remotely strong. even when this is referenced it’s not HER willpower, or HER self-control, it’s “wow you and your brother...sure are special. you and your AWESOME KICKASS BROTHER are Special. amazing how your brother’s bond with you stopped you from being completely evil. wow” and i guess she just has to be the uwu pure cinnamon roll ugu who protagonist Must Protecc bc Anime but honestly its a very bad kind of fanservice lmao.

on top of that. on TOP of that . the initiation for these inexperienced demon hunters is to put them for a night where there are a bunch of very powerful demons trapped. they must survive to become a Demon Hunter. however . if demons are a widespread problem.....would it not make far more sense to actually just train everyone to a smaller degree? have fuckin classes for it that anyone can go to? so they at least dont get OHKO’d to weaker demons, preventing those demons from getting stronger ??? as it is ur basically saying “you need to risk death to learn to defend yourself. if you aren’t good enough to join our Elite Corps then we arent even going to let u go home ur just going to straight up die lmao.” like if the goal is to be cool and edgy, mission fuckin accomplished, but in-world this system is probably WHY demons are such a problem considering u arent allowed to know how to fight them unless u join an organization with a 5% initiation survival rate or something, and the more people the demon beats the stronger it gets. like . theres a problem there

[faelapis]

i know some of you guys will probably instinctively wince because you got caught up in gamergate during your youth and only reformed/grew out of it later... but i think many would really benefit from watching the feminist frequency tropes vs women series (yes, it's been review bombed to hell and back by anti-sjw types.)

i was a huge fan of it back in the day, watched all the videos - but unlike current discourse, which is (and i’ve also been guilty of this) hyperfocusing on the perceived flaws of a single intellectual property, it took the broader approach that we ought to be critical of just how common these tropes are.

it really helps you look at media with a bird’s eye view, if you’re new to that kind of analysis. seeing your fave there doesn’t mean they’re “bad,” it means that they’re a part of a broader pattern that maybe shouldn’t be so widespread. you can always make justifications for why a certain trope exists within the context of (your favorite media), but the point is the broader discussion, NOT individual examples.

this is part of why it’s so frustrating how many “response” videos will pause the video at a split frame showing an example to mock - trying to “disprove” problematic aspects by arguing about the very particular examples - rather than understanding it as a critique of the tropes themselves. like. guys. the point isn’t whether mario is problematic. the point is how integral damsel in distress narratives and heteronormativity are in video games right up to present day.

this, i think, is also useful when judging the "base intentions" or "base politics" of a piece of media. a huge part of what initially appealed to my feminist sensibilities about steven universe was how it avoided many of the problematic tropes that plague most animation even today.

outside of representation, it also intentionally challenged the notion of hierarchy itself, by making its "heroes" thoroughly flawed and dressing down the notion of the perfect leader. a lot of media will challenge authority, but then just install a "good" king to replace the "evil" one. SU future is super important here, as it challenges the notion of steven as the "good" diamond/leader to replace the "bad" ones. you can't just replace the leaders, you gotta dismantle that unfair hierarchy. good intentions can lead to bad outcomes when someone thinks of themselves as a hero or savior, and hence "above" others. hence, a degree of empathy for everyone in that system is key. you're not better than them, and they're not better than you.

that's also a big reason why the criticism it eventually got was so frustrating to me. there seemed to be little awareness in the fandom how it was still better and had more progressive sensibilities than 99% of the media out there. it was like they thought steven universe was the first cartoon since the 40s to ever have blind spots, rather than that being the norm.

so, yes, there is also individualistic appeal to understanding the commonality of tropes as they relate to underlying systemic issues. when (non-youtube 🙃) critics call something “progressive” or “refreshing,” it’s usually not because they have lower standards than you or can’t see the problematic nitpicks - it’s because they’re able to put it in the context of what most media is actually like. they haven’t hitched their wagon to hating or loving one piece of media. they can't; they have to look at A LOT of media.

i’m far from the first to say this, but this kind of systemic approach is also applicable to things like the bechdel test. the point was never that passing or not made an individual intellectual property “good” or “bad” - it was how. fucking. common. it was for media to center men and male perspectives. it was pointing out that most movies don’t have several female characters who are able to have dialogue about something other than men. yes, trash like showgirls passes. nobody thinks that makes it good.

~drama about individual pieces of media tends to get more clicks and views, and that is occasionally important! i’m not saying individual pieces of media or its fanbases can never be questioned or, inversely, defended (otherwise, how could i justify spending so much time defending steven universe from that big overblown hypocritical backlash?)... but it also makes me sad.

like. i’m 25. i’m not that old, but in fandom spaces i feel fucking ancient. i feel like i'm from a different time in terms of media consumption and analysis - one where me and my fellow lefties knew that all media was in some way problematic.

maybe it was just more "in your face" then, so it was easier to spot... but whatever the reason, i felt like a huge part of leftist analysis was the acknowledgment that everything, even the media you love, is a product of a broader, unfair system. just like people are shaped by that system, too - and that's "the enemy," not individuals or individual works of art (almost like SU had a point about that). the unfairness in society at large will be reflected in the products that culture creates and consumes. so intentions and caring does, actually, matter.

[canmom]

Animation Night 109: Short Film Night!

Hey friends! It’s the time of week where we watch animation!

Tonight is something of a successor to Animation Night 9: web animators and 48: independent/web animators 2, as well as 99: Love Death and Robots.

For there has indeed been a new chapter of Blur Studio and friends’ animation festival, and I’ve been holding off watching the new entries to enjoy them with you~ There’s also been a new crop of CalArts student films, and I thought it would be fun to dig into those as well, plus show a few more gems of the web. And if that’s not enough of a runtime, I still need to show you Belle after we didn’t have time two weeks ago...

So, Love Death and Robots! Honestly, as much as I have found many entries in this series underwhelming compared to classic package films like Robot Carnival, Memories and Short Peace, and the approach to sexuality and violence frequently unimaginative despite the effort to be shocking, I am glad the series exists. There are very few ways for shortform animation to reach a wide audience, and it is good to see these studios get to make something under their own direction rather than to promote a franchise.

No Robert Valley this time, alas. Hopefully that’s a sign he’s doing some more exciting things elsewhere. We do have some enemies that suggest some fascinating imagery, like Alberto Mielgo’s film Jibaro about a deaf conquistador fighting a siren:

Mielgo directed one of the ‘artier’ entries in the first season, The Witness, in which a man pursues the witness to a murder he committed through a city streets and a sex club, trying very forcefully to explain his innocence. I’m not sure if we knew what to make of it back then; it fell rather awkwardly in the running after Blur Studio’s very goofy and heavy-handed Sonnie’s Edge and the polarising Three Robots, so ‘benefit of the doubt’ was in short supply. Nevertheless, it definitely established that Mielgo has quite the visual library and approach to expression and colour, so I’m looking forward to seeing what he does this time around.

For traditional animation fans, the main attraction this year seems to be Jennifer Yuh Nelson’s film Kill Team Kill, which seems to follow in the footsteps of Studio La Cachette’s film Sucker of Souls in season 1 in seeing (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) a bunch of soldierly types fighting a scary monster. Visually it’s going for a very 80s vibe...

For all that it’s a familiar story, it absolutely is the case that Titmouse have some seriously talented animators, so I’m sure it will have quite a lot of appeal visually. As for Nelson, she’s had quite a career; she’s probably best known for directing the Kung Fu Panda movies at Dreamworks, but the one that jumps out at me is that she was story director for Ralph Bakshi’s bizarre horny sci-fi series Spicy City. Her entry in Season 2 was a dystopian noir film leaning heavily on Blade Runner, about a world of immortals in which a cop shoots anyone found to have kids but has a last-minute change of heart upon finding a nice little family, which was... ok, I can’t really defend that premise on a thematic and metaphorical level, but a fascinating window into some sort of anxiety.

Another promising entry is the cel-shaded CG adaptation of a Swanwick story, The Very Pulse of the Machine, directed by newcomer Emily Dean with Japanese CG studio Polygon Pictures - known for their work with Mamoru Oshii on films like The Sky Crawlers (Animation Night 38) and GitS 2: Innocence (Animation Night 39). As a CG studio, they have a bit of a mixed legacy: I can’t say I love their work on Knights of Sidonia or Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter, but a lot of that might be the pressures of TV animation production so it would be good to see what they can do with more time to work on their animation. The clips of this one definitely look cool, at least!

Also returning is Jerome Chen, who in season 1 directed Sony’s very reserved mil-sf film Lucky 13, which invited you to feel sad about the tragic death of an aeroplane - something which honestly worked a lot better than you’d expect, if only because it was one of the few films that didn’t rely on squick factor to sell its beats. This time around it seems that he’s once again returning to that territory, with a bunch of space marines fighting some kind of eldritch abomination. We’ll see.

Oh and, if you’re one of the side who liked Three Robots last time (and, I’ll admit, I feel like I was too harsh on it), there’s a sequel to that! And, of course, Blur themselves have a lot of entries. In all honesty, I think it will be like the last two seasons: one or two absolutely standout entries and a lot of others that are just so-so, but that’s always the risk you run with original short films, and I’d rather try and fail than not!

For our second block, we’ll be making use of this helpful playlist of every CalArts Character Animation student film this year.

To briefly introduce for those unfamiliar, CalArts in California is one of the most prestigious three international animation schools, alongside Gobelins in France and Sheridan in Canada. All of these schools are ridiculously selective and demanding, but they are also one of the surest routes to a job in the animation industry (typically these days in work like storyboarding and character design). In the past we’ve watched a lot of Gobelins films, but this time let’s take a look at what’s going on in @mogsk​‘s neck of the woods~ <3

Like Gobelins, the students make a short film each year; unlike the Gobelins approach where the students generally divide into small teams, at CalArts the rule seems to be that each student makes their own film, typically around 1-2 minutes long, for which they do all the animation (typically not music or voice acting). So the animation may not be as ridiculously polished, but also that means more possibilities for people to try out novel things.

I haven’t yet watched more than a few of them and won’t have time before tonight, but here are a few I’ve enjoyed so far...

Operago by Rayna Buxton: two girls whose design resembles a medieval tapestry battle a gigantic opera singer. Extremely cool visual style and the action choreography is very well handled; not surprisingly this one has been blowing up on Youtube.

After the Rain by Chelsea Yijia Li; a sweet atmospheric animesque film about a migrant returning to see her friend in China. Strong voice acting and direction; I like the bilingual dialogue.

Mahou Shouject. This one’s cute. An egg (or maybe a boymoder...) sees a magic butterfly and does a magical girl transformation sequence.

The Pretty Duckling - fun little musical one, you can see the twist coming but it’s nicely executed. Also technically another entry for ‘hard vore night’.

Opera by Janelle Feng - this one fully feels like a Gobelins film, and not just because they also made one about performers preparing for a show. Anyway, the dialogue is really strong, and the character animation has a lot of subtlety; those simple eye movements do a lot to expressing the main character’s performance, and it does a great job showing the many different feelings of a group of Chinese opera performers performing for a foreign audience without really knowing on what level their performance is received.

...and with that I’ve reached the video limit for my post, RIP. But do also check out NOHARM_INTRO by Wesley Joseph for some very fun stylised dance animation - not sure if rotoscoped or just closely referenced.

That’s barely scratching the surface, and I’m looking forward to digging into the whole list. Since I would like to continue posting Youtube videos, let’s put this out now and continue in a reblog~

[birbs-in-space]

Ask game ~ 7, 11, 25

7. what animal do you look forward to seeing when you visit an aquarium?

I don't actually know if most aquariums have them but i have been absolutely in love with penguins for most of my life, and while I love to see almost all marine animals, i think penguins will always hold a special place in my heart !!! 🐧

11. anything from your childhood you’ve held on to?

Yes actually!! I'm a bit sentimental and also a hoarder which is usually a bad combination when it comes to saving space but great for answering this question :D

Took this picture months back but front left Skipper plush from the Penguins of Madagascar is I think from like 3rd or 4th grade.. the brown dog plush behind the bright yellow Joltik is MUCH older. I can't even remember not having it and i like to think my memory is pretty good... The penguin all the way back in the right whose head is cut out of frame was actually given to me by a friend some time around when the March of the Penguins documentary came out so...2nd or 3rd grade?

(side note i just realized how well this picture goes to affirm my love for penguins LMAO) (i also have a sketchbook from when I was very young filled with HORRIBLE marker drawings including school house rock fan art, but i don't have pictures on hand. this is probably for the best lol)

25. would you say you have good taste in music?

Tough question 😅 I think it depends... My problem is that I'm actually quite defensive of ska as a genre and I WILL talk your ear off explaining why so like.

In general opinion, it's a mix! People have a tendency to not take ska very seriously and would probably count it against me. However, I also listen to punk and metal, and some of the bands there i think have more respect attached to them, like Protest the Hero's music is Very technically impressive, so something like that might garner me some Taste Points. However i think elitists in any of these three genres would have plenty to hold against me lol

For me, I think my taste in music is a perfect fit for who I am as a person, and I really don't find any shame in listening to what I enjoy, and I do think it's all genuinely good music. I get that it's not all going to be appealing for everyone, but at the same time I do think that sometimes these genres are sometimes preemptively dismissed and people don't give them enough of a chance. However there's also a reason my Obscurify rating is 99% 🥲

I think i might not know what having a good taste in music means LMFAO

[killscreencinema]

Kingdom Hearts (PS2)

When Kingdom Hearts was first announced, I was excited to say the least.  By this point, I was still a diehard Squaresoft fan (let me emphasize - SquareSOFT, before the dark times... before Square Enix...).  I was also a lapsed Disney fan.  I used to be obsessed with all things Disney as a child, and even dreamed of some day being an animator for Disney, before I discovered not only how limited my art ability was, but how torturous an existence being an animator is.  Ah, to be steeped in the warm nostalgic womb of Disney, before life pulled me out and smacked my ass with adulthood.

Anyway, Kingdom Hearts appealed to me because it was the conglomeration of my childhood fandom with my mature fandom, smooshed together in a way that made every bit of sense, like peanut butter and chocolate.  When it released in 2002 (wow, has it really been that long???), it did not disappoint, and I spent countless hours playing and replaying it until I 100% completed it.  Oh man, sorry, I’m having ‘Nam flashbacks to the many fits of rage I had while trying to beat the Ice Titan.  Screw Sephiroth, the Ice Titan was a real bastard, what with his only vulnerability being knocking his projectiles back at him, taking off lil bits of his health at a time, while he relentlessly pounded you with area attacks or magic that freeze you. 

So obviously, I’m very well acquainted with Kingdom Hearts.  After playing the second game, though, I dropped off because the spin-off sequels became overwhelming and stupid.  I knew something was amiss when I booted up Kingdom Hearts II the first time, and didn’t know what the everloving fuck was happening (while the first game’s plot was more or less pretty straight forward).  I’ll dig into Kingdom Hearts II in a later post though.

So when Kingdom Hearts III finally came out, I was ambivalent... but curious.  I started to get that ol’ Kingdom Hearts itch.  I didn’t want to go into the game completely ignorant of the lore, though.  I want to give the game as fair a chance as I could WITHOUT having to play the umpteen games before it.  So I got the HD remix for the PS4 and decided to start from the beginning.

I’m glad that I did, too, because replaying Kingdom Hearts was a nice revisit to simpler times.  I forgot how well structured the game is and how well realized the Disney/Square amalgamation premise was.  The two properties were surprisingly compatible, with Final Fantasy characters seamlessly coexisting alongside the likes of Mickey Mouse, Aladdin, and other iconic Disney characters.  Speaking of Mickey, Kingdom Hearts is nothing if noteworthy of one amazing accomplishment - making Mickey Mouse BADASS!  Who saw that coming? 

The story still holds up - you play as Sora, a kid from the peaceful world of Destiny Isles, who dreams with his friends Riku and Kairi of someday leaving their humdrum existence and going off on an adventure.  Naturally, they get more than  they bargained for when their home is destroyed by an existential threat known as the Heartless, who have been ravaging worlds left and right.  Sora only survives after being mysteriously given a magical weapon called a Keyblade, which is the only thing capable of defeating the Heartless and sealing off worlds from their attacks.  Sora wakes up at a refugee world of sorts called Traverse Town, where survivors of the Heartless attack have gathered, and he teams up with Goofy and Donald Duck, both of whom are on their own quest to find King Mickey in order to hopefully beat back the Heartless threat. 

As the trio of heroes, you travel from world to world, each one based on some Disney property or another, teaming up with the likes of Aladdin, Jack Skellington, or Ariel from The Little Mermaid to vanquish the Heartless.  The gameplay is fast-paced hack n’ slash action, where you can only control Sora, leaving Goofy and Donald to the mercy of a questionable AI (which brings me to my first pro-tip:  do not, except under the most extreme circumstances, give Donald or Goofy items because they will burn through them in a single battle or two).  Like any other RPG, you eventually upgrade keyblades, buy and equip armor or stat boosting accessories.  Kingdom Hearts is a pretty accessible game for even the most RPG illiterate, no doubt because Square suspected the Disneyification would attract younger than normal gamers.  However, the game isn’t “baby’s first RPG” either, as it can get pretty difficult pretty quickly for the uninitiated. 

Speaking of difficulty, since this was my third play through of the game, I wanted to really make it count, so I played on the hardest difficulty setting - Proud Mode.  Phew, let me tell you, it kicked my ass for good long while before I acclimated to it.  Even weaker enemies at the beginning of the game can kill you in 2-3 hits if you’re not careful, and with Sora having not yet learned useful combos or the Cure spell yet, this was an extremely trying way to begin a game I hadn’t played in more than 10 years.  Eventually, as you level up, get better weapons, and spells the playing field evens up a bit more, but you’re going to need patience if you’re going to try this challenge.

I also decided to “platinum” the game since I was playing on PS4, which meant for this play through on “Proud Mode”, I needed to complete all the side quests (including the secrets bosses and all the Coliseum matches), obtaining all the weapons, completing nearly all the Gummi ship missions, never using a continue, and maxing out Sora at level 99.  Then after beating the game, I’d have to play it again, this time on Easy (fuck it, I’ve earned it), and beat it under 15 hours while using only the default weapons and armor.  So yeah, I really made it count this time around, and I’m happy to say I succeeded in getting the platinum trophy.  For those playing at home, that means I beat all the secret bosses, including Sephiroth and the aforementioned Ice Titan, like total bitches on Hard Mode.

I’m a goddamn Kingdom Hearts Master!

And I had a ball doing it, even when things got frustrating or tedious.  The game really holds up and I’m shocked that it be completed in under 15 hours (my speedrun clocked in around 10).  So it’s a surprisingly short game as far as RPGs go, if you just stay on the main quest.  If you’re a Disney fan and/or an RPG gamer, but haven’t play this game because you’re intimidated by the ridiculous lineup of sequels and spin-offs that it spawned, I say give it a try anyway.  It’s one of the best games on the PS2 and probably one of the masterpieces crafted by Square before they dipped in quality.

But all that  is about to change..... ohhhhh yess.... (Cue the first iconic notes of the intro cinematic to Final Fantasy VII)

[kingofthewilderwest]

Things I Fucking LOVE About VLD S8

Katie watching freaking Defender of the Universe and marveling at how Pidge’s voice actor sounds.

Katie Holt looking adorable wearing ponytails.

Mrs. Holt totally momming Katie.

GIRL’S SHOPPING DAY GIRL’S SHOPPING DAY GIRL’S SHOPPING DAY!!! Getting together Nadia, Ina, Allura, Pidge, and Romelle?!!

Pidge and Nadia being such gaming nerds.

Pidge exploiting her fame as Pidge and dressing up as freaking Darrell Stoker / Retro Pidge. Like you have no idea how much I wanted to scream in happy seeing her with the old outfit and hairstyle, this is such a blessing. SUCH a blessing holy crow.

Allura wearing one of her old outfits from the 1980s too! So many DOTU references this season!

Coran is having way too much fun with Lance.

Lance and Keith chilling out together on top of the lion watching the sunset and having a good convo. Look how far these two’s relationship has come. Look at them. It’s so good.

Dinner with Lance’s family is so pure.

The visuals with Allura and the tree are so beautiful.

Cute photograph moment! 

There’s an entire episode dedicated to Honerva’s past, showing her struggling emotions now that she’s remembering everything that’s been, showing her internal conflict and struggle, giving us a clear and deep understanding of her hurt and hate.

Baby Lotor is fucking adorable. Like look at that kid. Look at those big eyes. Oh my gosh he’s adorable. 

Lotor’s past is painful and it’s exactly the sort of crap I expected. Received no affection from his father. Was pushed into a Galra empire that didn’t value mercy. Watched the place he cultivated destroyed. Exactly the sort of thing I was expecting from his past to lead to his current state of mind as we meet him in S3. It shows how he’s someone who wants to revolutionize the empire, but is someone whose mind and ideas have been clearly influenced by his culture and upbringing.

I like how the robeasts have been developed throughout the series. How they clearly evoke the past ideas from DOTU/BKG of turning biological creatures into mechanized weapons. How the first season starts with Voltron doing lots of single episodes one-on-one fighting the robeasts, akin to the 1980s show. How the robeasts grow into an increasingly great problem by S8, and are now piloted by brainwashed Alteans. It’s a legitimately cool progression and makes the robeasts feel like a threat even while not repeating the same episode format over and over.

So many Altean warrior ladies on the forefront of Honerva’s forces.

“The Prisoner’s Dilemma” is a fan-fucking-tastic episode all around. One of my favorites for this season for sure.

It starts with Voltron, the ATLAS, the rebels, and the MFEs working together to take down a base. This is an amazing fight moment. It’s showing how far everyone has come since the start, how much they’ve grown, and it sings. And it’s showing REALLY cool team coordination. This is like. All around epically cool I fucking love it.

Matt Holt and his ponytail <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

I love how this episode focuses on trying to end the Galra Empire’s remaining power but also trying to show mercy to the Galra. I love how it shows a Galra leader who’s had help from Voltron before still being doubtful - and how more acts from Voltron bring him around. It takes time to convince someone who’s been part of the Galra Empire that Voltron is okay to ally with - and it shows how the Voltron Coalition is gaining ground.

There is some serious nice creepy tension in this episode.

KEITH BLASTING THROUGH THE DOOR WITH EPIC BIG GUN!

I love how Lance’s characterization feels like they took him and turned him more into his DOTU self over the course of the series. Honestly, as with all of them! The characters grow into those positions and selves.

“Battle Scars” is probably the episode that got me the most emotional. Olkarion is a planet and culture I loved, too. Watching it fall - watching that beautiful planet actually get destroyed along with many of its citizens - was painful. This is a good way to show Honerva’s power and the high-stakes dangers of her actions.

The idea of Pidge watching the past to learn what happened was a cool narrative effect, and also had good long-term story arc development since she learned how to track the robeasts, too.

Also amazingly good lesson / theme for that episode.

“The Grudge” is another cool episode that’s got the unique twist of the Paladins relying not on their typical weapons, but on having to be resourceful with the minimum. Another good, original premise.

Acxa and Veronica. Acxa and Veronica. Oh my gosh Acxa and Veronica. Acxa and the rest of the MFEs. Acxa and the humans. It’s so great. Acxa saying everything and it’s coming out SUPER edge-lord and everyone’s trying to figure out how to handle it. 

I fucking love Ina Leifsdottir. I love her personality so much. And I’m 99% sure the writers intended her as autistic representation and I think they did a good job with her.

Okay but this season really has a lot of fun with the MFEs. They don’t steal the show and take too much time, but we get a GREAT sense of personality from them. Rizavi and Kincade together is a delightful combo. I love her energy and love of action. I love his nerdy passions. They’re so fun. 

Let’s be real: one thing Voltron does consistently well is that, no matter how much screen time we have with a character, we get a GREAT sense of their personality, and we love them. There are so many different, lovable, often quirky personalities in Voltron. It’s so rich with its character personalities. I love how there’s a broad cast of characters and yet I can still connect to them all.

I appreciate how S8 wrapped up the story of Lotor’s generals. It would have been easy to have them die, just be casualties, and not have them or their narrative go anywhere. Instead, we get a wrap-up. They’ve been through a lot of twists, turns, and confusing life choices. Now they finally find a place. I like that Lotor’s team (who followed a man who was extremely misguided but wanted some good things) ended up being able to find a productive cause in the end. 

SPACE GALRA LESBIANS RETURN!

I honestly love the dynamic of ATLAS + Voltron. The Castle of Lions is really cool and I felt extremely sad and nostalgic when they lost it. But ATLAS + Voltron has a legitimately awesome sci-fi, mission-oriented dynamic. The Castle of Lions felt like there was always a home, whereas ATLAS gives the sense of being in space on a journey and mission. It gives me Vehicle Force Voltron vibes, ESPECIALLY with the inclusion of the MFEs.

Speaking of the 80s show and retro Voltron references, we got Merla!

This season focuses a bloody fuckton on Allura, but it shows a lot of depth and conflicted thoughts with her. It shows her as a woman of power. It shows her as someone tempted with problematic solutions or darker powers. It shows her loving, being loved, finding family, and marching ever-steady onward with her purpose. There’s a lot of complex psychology with how Allura’s handling these latest events and it’s written in a way we can understand exactly why she’s making the choices she does, good and bad.

“One... two... three... ALUMINUM!”

I love how Sam Holt overall gives Slav good respect for his more “superstitious”-esque approaches to things, and also valuing Slav for his powerful mind and abilities.

Lots of things from earlier seasons get remembered - Olkarion, Slav, Matt Holt, Shay, the Balmera, and more - and continue to play out in the final conflicts.

I legitimately love seeing Voltron team up with ATLAS in its transformed form. Shiro and Keith working completely equally. Keith’s become a fully-fledged leader. Shiro’s got hoards of respect and leadership power. Together everyone coordinates and kicks butt.

HOW have I not mentioned the visuals yet in this season? This was the most colorful and visually appealing season in Voltron YET - and we’ve been given season after season of really beautiful images. I love how, even though Voltron is set in SPACE, which is so full of voidness, we get so much color and light and appealing color pallets. Voltron is a visual delight.

“Day Forty-Seven” has got to be one of my favorite episodes of this season, if not a stand-out for the entire series to me. Some people might feel differently about this episode than me, but I honestly find it so unique and fun. It’s legitimately hard to try to write an episode following one camera for twenty minutes, while also telling a coherent story. And yet it DOES. We get a good narrative - while at the same time it feels so REAL. “Day Forty-Seven” gives us the ability to watch the entire ATLAS crew work, and allows us to watch Voltron from an outsider’s perspective as they go on dangerous missions - without the music, fanfare, camera angles, etc. And it’s so amusing getting everything from a dog carrying a camera around to Rizavi being upset that yeast is part of the documentary. And it shows so many characters and character dynamics and a sense of a full crew where everyone knows each other. And Rizavi and Kincade together are such a DELIGHT. And oh my goodness I could gush incoherently about this episode for a long time. It’s so much fun.

Keith and Hunk stuck on a musical ride. Love it. 

The bargaining Pidge and her mom do!!! The Holt family photograph!

Epic arm wrestling competition is epic. And I love how it all started because Shiro felt abashed being called “old.” Poor guy’s still in his 20s! And I love how it turned into all of Team Voltron CELEBRATING THE FUCK out of Shiro winning. Like, these guys have fought countless dangerous foes across the universe. And these dorks get over-the-top excited at Shiro’s accomplishment of winning an arm wrestling competition at a fair.

I laughed so hard at the Warden talking about how he found a purpose in arm wrestling.

The Voltron team joining up with the original Voltron team was pretty cool. I also love how it was animated where we would see the original Team branching off like apparitions out of Voltron, or how we’d see the pilots in the cockpit fading from one to the other.

Allura and Alfor reunion!!! I think this was done right. I am not a fan of stories where a character seems to lose someone, only for that person to magically be brought back. In this case, given the location of where Allura and Alfor unite, we know they’re not going to be able to resume a life of father and daughter. It’s a temporary reunion, and it happens a VERY LONG time after we’ve suffered through all of Allura’s pain in VLD about leaving Alfor behind. It doesn’t compromise the integrity of all the seasons that have come before it about their loss of Alfor and the Alteans, but it also gives us a touching moment of Allura seeing someone she’d never thought she’d see again.

VLD S8 shows that people aren’t cut-and-dry “always evil.” It shows how it’s a complex combination of your environment and your choice. Zarkon isn’t someone who is innately evil pure and simple, nor is Honerva, nor is Lotor. It also makes sure to remind us of the power of choice. Zarkon and Honerva also aren’t JUST victims of the entity - S8 reminds us that they pursued quintessence and poor choices that led to further bad consequences, too. And just because someone might not have been a villain with alternate choices, and just because someone DID become a villain... S8 reminds us that they still took this particular path. It doesn’t erase that Lotor might have wanted to make some positive differences, but turned into a villain. It looks at the complexity of people, how they have both goodness and badness within their potentials. And... it lets it be shown that just because you make a bunch of bad decisions doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to leave those choices and turn around. People aren’t “just evil.”

How have I not yet mentioned I love the uniforms that the Paladins wear when they’re not in their Lions?

THE ATLAS-VOLTRON FUSION. THE ATLAS-VOLTRON FUSION. THE ATLAS-VOLTRON FUSION. THAT IS AWESOME AS FUCK!

The S3 idea of alternate realities gets brought back in QUITE the way as Voltron chases Honerva through many realities.

I appreciate how Honerva spends so much time trying to find the perfect reality... and when she thinks she’s found it, it doesn’t do what she wants. It’s exactly what we would respect she’d reap. You can’t just tear across space and time to find happiness. At the same time, we can also feel her pain. 

Okay but Honera? I love her armor in this season too. Man I just. Love lots of what people wear this season.

I love Allura’s send-off. I love that the stakes got so high in VLD that we had to lose a main character, but not in a way that felt like a painful death. I love that Voltron was willing to give us a concrete ending where there’s no “going back” to the way things were before. I love that they still give us a sense of hope and growth even with the hurt of losing a main character. I love how it takes Allura, who always had such a strong sense of responsibility, and act on that responsibility in the most responsible and selfless choice possible. I love that she got to embrace every Paladin and say how much they mean to her. I love that they cried. I love how this was done. That’s a proper send-off, one filled with heroicism and selflessness and responsibility and power and strength and emotional pain and also a sense of HOPE.

There are some fucking powerful quotes this season.

I love how we got Altean Lance? Like honestly, when I first heard fans theorizing about it, I thought it was wishful fantasy and the typical desire for AU characters. But the way this was incorporated into VLD actually in canon was really cool.

I love seeing Pidge create Chip. DOTU REFERENCE!!!!!

I love how the Galra Empire has been shown fracturing for seasons, and how it’s finally come to a point Keith can naturally talk about needing change - and it’s believable to think that the Galra would now be open to this change happening.

I love seeing the entire team together after everything’s ended.

I love how in S2 characters talked about defeating the Galra Empire would mean that Voltron was no longer needed. I love how the writers stick with that. I love how the Paladins choose to retire from being Paladins, but intentionally go forth to make the universe a brighter place - there’s still so much to do. I love how the lions themselves choose to fly away. 

I love seeing their selfies. I love that they intentionally make sure Allura’s in their Paladin team reunion selfies. I love seeing how the characters age. 

I love how Keith’s hair just keeps growing.

I love that ENORMOUS fucking Vehicle Force Voltron reference with the Holts! Holy crap! I’m actually seeing characters like Cliff and Wolo in the background!!! And given the premise of Vehicle Force Voltron seeking out a new planet after humanity has contacted alien civilizations, it feels entirely fitting that this is how Vehicle Force Voltron gets incorporated into the VLD timeline.

I love how the Holts, such a POWERFULLY BRILLIANT family, are the people who keep exploring technology and build the next round of Legendary Defenders.

I love seeing how Hunk’s passion for cooking isn’t treated as trivial. It’s treated as a means of creating intergalactic peace and happiness. He uses it as a way to treat the Alteans with kindness when they’re prisoners on the ATLAS. He uses it to create a culinary revolution after Honerva’s defeated. Hunk is revolutionizing society and making an enormous positive difference because of his passion. That’s majorly epically awesome like fuck I LOVE it.

I love everyone’s endings, honestly. I love how Lance chooses a quieter ending. He wanted a lot of glory as a fighter pilot at the start of VLD S1. He grows into someone so much more mature. Now he’s someone who understands he’s impacted the universe. He’s willing to talk to Alteans at school and spread positive messages with the people in his life. But he’s also taking quiet time for himself. The homesick boy from the early seasons isn’t feeling that more - he has a concrete embedded home to return to, valuing family ever onward. And it’s all embedded in him surrounding himself in the memory of people like Allura he’s held dear. It’s bittersweet and one that happens when someone you love is gone, but it’s not a sad ending, and it’s one that will turn into a lot of happiness, peace, and meaning. This boy’s got a good ending.

I love that we even see where Krolia and Kolivan end up.

And dude. Keith continuing to work with the Blade of Marmora but turning it to humanitarian relief??? This guy’s amazing. So amazing.

I’m a Sheith shipper but I never expected a canon-concrete Sheith end game, so I’m totally happy seeing Shiro’s ending. They gave this guy the happiness he needed. This is someone who’s been trapped in war for so long. He’s had to work so hard without break because of the necessity of defending the universe. This is someone who can finally leave the battlefield and rest. Anyone who thinks for a second Shiro and Keith are any less close just because it’s not romantic is kidding themselves - their relationship shall be as pure and close and powerful and deep as always. And we get an on-screen gay kiss! An on-screen queer marriage!

This is a good ending in that it wraps up all the conflict... but it gives us a look at the hope of the future for everyone’s lives. 

I’m here to spread positivity and excitement for the good Voltron Season 8 did. A show doesn’t have to be “perfect” (nothing’s perfect) to be awesome, meaningful, and enjoyable. This show has been SUCH a wonderful ride, start to finish, and I can’t be more grateful to have been an audience member for this story. It’s going to last as one of my favorite animated series of all time.

[wot-tidbits]

LightOne in 2019

It is time for my personal post about my WOT 2019 experience which isn’t something special as usual but I love talking about it despite nobody is listening to.

I will remember this year with the following points. 

1.Hello, Asshole, I missed you.

I am a person. I am not just piece of junk to be kicked around in the cultural war of “mah diversity”. I know it is easier to see a person in one light, to check them with one mark and put them in boxes, oh, these favourite boxes of “problematic” opinions.

What was my sin this time? Let me see, did I say how bad is the casting? Nope. Did I say how I want my lovely boys and girls to stay away from the SJWs progressive shit? Nope. Did I was mean towards the chosen actors? Uhmmm…. noooope. Blood and bloody ashes! What then?!? On what basis was the biggest controversy this year in our little fandom on Tumblr?

Just some appeal to one part of fans to acknowledge the actual criticism of other part of fans. Mother’s milk in a cup!

Yep, this seemed enough for people to unfollow/block in rage.

You have to love it when you are put in a box for just one case.

I don’t have problem my fave WOT female character to be Tuon. I don’t have problem with The Stormlight Archives to be my fave with Kholin’s family in charge. I have no problem with my new fave anime of 2019 Cannon Busters’ (check it out) for having a plenty of POC main characters, and so on. No one cares if you have 99 other faves with POC main characters as you don’t agree about one (1) case, then you are racist on the spot.  

2. Instagram is on the horizon!

This year I decided to expand my options and I created a profile on Instagram. I can confirm it’s worth your time! Instagram seems to attract a huge chunk of the fandom and there is the new place to post your art pieces. You can follow me on @lightone_wot. Who knows may be next year I will have Twitter account too!

3. A dream came true.

Since 2013, the moment I read that scene in A Memory of Light, I dreamt someone to be generous enough to draw it. But time passed and no sign of fulfillment of my dream has been seen. So I took the matter in my hands and made a gamble to commission the awesome @meeppodraws who took the project to her heart and made the impossible to amaze me and even did more than what I was expecting for result. She overachieved my expectations and for this I will be forever grateful. Thank you, meeppodraws, you are wonderful and you deserve more recognition for your fantastic skills! <3

 4. Publishing WoT articles

This year I had the luck to publish two WOT articles in my fave (and the best) Bulgarian online magazine for sci-fi and fantasy. One of them was about the upcoming TV series and was published in the summer before the casting announcements. As an anecdote I can tell how my editor noted me that the article put too big light on stuff like gender issues, POC Two Rivers, feminism and so on - with one word he thought the article was too woke than expected. Wow, watch this, I am on the progressive side for once! (For the record I just tried to explain what is trending, I didn’t bash on the subject or similar.) I was the one who prepared the unaware Bulgarian audience for that fateful casting in August and oh, boy, they weren’t happy about it.

5. Facebook admin

The wheel weaves as the wheel wills and this year its will was very weird as I have been promoted as an admin in both Bulgarian WOT groups on Facebook. Weird as I didn’t ask for it and I didn’t expect it at all. But oh, well, probably my constant work pays off sometimes. So far I didn’t get into trouble and I haven’t banned people for nothing (not like some other certain Facebook queen/tyrant). It is weird as I used to be a random guy in the mass but now I am running the Bulgarian community and publish articles in respectful magazines and being on the bloody spotlight. I don’t know if this speaks well or bad for the Bulgarian fandom.

6.WOT-memes and WOT-notes are doing great.

My side pojects are doing great this year. @wot-memes is flourishing on the rising glory of new and fresh WoT memes around the fandom. @wot-notes is also getting recognition as the good fellas who had access to Charleston’s notes were kind enough to reveal more material for you to read.

7.The Fandom archives

And on the top of all through the whole year I have run one very exhausting project – I brought back from the dusty archives almost all posts in my blog from the period of 2014-2016. For every single day. It took me hours and hours in preparing that content but I hope all that hard work paid off as there are so many awesome posts who deserve your love again and again. Next year I intend to continue the project for years 2017-2018 and I hope you will appreciate them again.

8. Reddit recognition. Probably. May be. A little bit.

In the midst of the casting drama and its heated discourse my blog was used on Reddit as a source with giving links and everything. Let that thought sink in your heads. My blog was used as a source. I bet some old folk around would give a chuckle on that irony or drop a tear, who knows. :D

Let the Light keep you safe.

LightOne

[dcmhnallach]

demiboy — ever hear people say APOLLO AMORETTO looks a lot like NICK ROBINSON? I think THEY/HE is about 22, so it doesn’t really work. The GRAPHIC DESIGN major is a JUNIOR that is from LIVINGSTONE, VT. They can be ADROIT, but they can also be INDELICATE. I think APOLLO might be A TIER 2 SHEPHERD. They are living in KIERAN. ( snot goblin. 20. EST. she/they. )

ok so i lied and this is after midnight. sue me. his background is a lil inspired by logan from veronica mars so like, sue me 2x. dnjkfmgh but !! give this a LIKE so i can come MESSAGE U FOR PLOTS !!!

TRIGGER WARNING - DEATH, MURDER, MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, GRIEF

a e s t h e t i c s

fingers across keyboards and piano keys, m&m’s scattered, vintage gaming consoles and tangled wires, worn vans and broken skateboards, banging of drums and splintering drumsticks, deep rhythms beating with your heart, the hum of a hefty computer and the buzz of a monitor, green text against black screens, unruly hair unkempt, flannels filling closets, bloody baseball bats, posters lining up and down walls, loud punk music shaking the walls, glares and whispers, the suffocation that comes with loneliness, pills rattling in their bottles, unmade beds.

general info !!

full name: apollo casimir amoretto

nickname(s): cas, polly, lover boy, 2000 (b/c of his screen names lmaoo)

b.o.d. - january 31st, aquarius boi

label(s): the escapist, the hellion, the insurgent, the netizen, etc. etc.

height: hitting 6′0″

hometown: livingstone, vt !

sexuality: bi bi bi bi bisexual

stats

pinterest

biography !!

cristian amoretto and camilla silvestri had a romance that could be described turbulent at best, and downright explosive at worst

cristian, a native italian actor whose career began before he could walk, and camilla, the daughter of two italian immigrants with big dreams in a small town, met on the set of a coffee shop. their love story began quickly, dating within only a few months of knowing each other and engaged before the year was up

camilla walked down the aisle 6 months pregnant with lil’ baby apollo, who was then born in livingstone, vermont, aka the town that camilla’s family had settled in

was raised primarily by his mother and grandparents! his father was often off shooting movies, leaving camilla to take on the role of stay-at-home mom despite her own dreams of making it big as an actress

apollo grew up as a huge momma’s boy – i mean, god, he just really loved this mother, y’know? his relationship with his father was much rockier because of his … lack of being around.

when his grandparents died around the age of eight, that’s when things got…worse. it felt as if camilla’s parents were the only barrier between camilla and cristian’s budding wrath.

it became more apparent that cristian was not meant for the family life, his anger quick and his fists quicker, stinging words and venomous glares. a control freak who couldn’t handle camilla being independent.

this wasn’t apparent to the neighbors, or much of the town in general, because the amorettos were such a prominent family up in their beach-side mini mansion – it was hard to imagine that their life was anything but exquisite and dreamlike.

this was, of course, up until camilla filed for divorce and a restraining order in the same day, face bruised and nearly unrecognizable. she, obviously, got custody of apollo.

at this point in time, apollo was fourteen and…pretty stoked for them to get away from his father. they holed up southside and life continued as normal. for the time being. gossip swarmed apollo at school surrounding the circumstance which was annoying, to say the least. it led to him becoming withdrawn from the other students, not getting the whole … gossip appeal.

in hindsight, they should’ve moved out of livingstone. death threats in the form of letters and the eerie feeling of eyes constantly being on them came to a halt on apollo’s graduation day: the day that his father also, coincidentally, murdered his mother.

for making me miss out on years of my son’s life, was cristian’s excuse as he was escorted from the bloody crime scene at their apartment and into the police car.

cristian was convicted and sent to prison almost a whole year after it occurred. apollo still has dreams about testifying in court against his father as a witness.

and then apollo became known not as the son of two celebrities, but the son of a murderer. total bummer !

could not tell you why he stayed in livingstone, but he did. almost dropped out of college a good few times ( he isn’t passionate about graphic design, it’s more of him wasting time than anything else ) and spends most of his time raiding on WoW or competitively playing overwatch :/

speaking of college ! apollo was kieran’s roommate and like ... a close friend of his. the death hit him pretty hard b/c of his past.

lives in kieran but lately has been switching between his dorm and his childhood home - it’s technically his dad’s but he hasn’t been to his mom’s apartment in years. the mansion has become run-down and pretty grody, a sore sight that pisses off the neighbors.

he does identify as demiboy but he cares abt his identity like ... so little ... 

personality !!

his main focuses are computers / video games, drums / his band, and like … skating … vaping … gamer things, y’know.

from a young age he’d always been very fascinated by video games, and being the Rich Boi ™ that he was, ended up with a whole lot of them to play, on a whole bunch of consoles.

but like … he’s a PC guy :/ he may have a super rare nintendo 64 or two but nothing can beat his dual-monitor set up with his hand-built computer !

he also got real into hacking, y’know, just small things like watching security cameras in different cities and occasionally changing his grades b/c like … who wouldn’t ? also … cheated in dark souls. fucking loser.

his favorite games to play are multiplayer games so !!

he joined a band in high school because he was angsty and young, and like, turned out to be really good on drums ?? they had like … some real big jimmy eat world / green day / say anything / old school fall out boy vibes. just a whole bunch of ‘fuck the government, fuck the authority, anarchy, rebellion, revolt revolt revolt’ angry rock music that got a buuunch of noise complaints during practice.

his role in the band is essentially the ~nerdy~ one, because he’s a gamer, but like he was also Edgy and Angry and wore all black like Constantly ( he still does who are we kidding )

probably paints his nails black and has a nose ring b/c gamers can be edgy too !!

huuuuuge junk food junkie. like … he will consume Everything and Anything unhealthy. has a huge sweet tooth, he can’t remember the last time he’s drank straight up water.

he’s pretty much a loner, minus his bandmates -- having a reputation like his really ... puts off others. wasn’t the friendliest person in high school either, which doesn’t help. kieran and him were kindred souls.

to be honest, he’s really selfish. thinks about himself first and foremost, considers it to be a method of surviving in a fuck-shit town with fuck-shit people. wouldn’t hesitate to toss people to the side if it were to ever come down to it. he’s not a faithful pal.

he’s ruthless, impulsive, does whatever he pleases because he assumes that everybody’s already got their opinion of him due to his father. hard to stop him when he’s on a rampage.

seething with rage on the inside. :/

uuhhh so he’s got this fucking…pomsky, right? her name is tulip. she was camilla’s before she passed away and like, what was apollo gonna do, huh ? put the dog in a shelter ? hell fucking nah. that’s his dog now. give that dog an emotional support animal certification and boom.

this isn’t like a Personality Trait but idk where to put it so ! apollo’s on antidepressants ( and other medications, but y’know. that’s just how it is ) b/c like … y’know … the whole dad-murdering-mom thing sort of fucked him up a lot ! they make him feel pretty blah and diminished his sex drive so like … hook ups aren’t really an option for him 99% of the time.

besides that he smokes a lot of weed b/c self medication.

he’s … sort of an asshole. like … he can be rude and he doesn’t have much of a filter and i don’t know if there’s any softness left to him ! he just really misses his mom and has a lot of wishes involving changing the past and he reacts badly to things because he’s so defensive and on edge constantly.

no but he’s just like. .. sad gamer boi … a man and his dog … who also carries like five knives on him.

like he’s not socially awkward or necessarily Bad with people .. he’s just bad with people :/ doesn’t try hard enough ! is a little too apathetic ! chaotic to true neutral

wanted connections !!

bandmates !! i’d envision that there’s four or five members including him. two electric guitar, one bass, one drums / keyboard ( that me -_- ) , anybody singing ... maybe a triangle player ! or a cowbell ! i dunno ! endless possibilities.

fans of the band mayb ?? try to seduce him so they can party w/ them after a show n apollo’s just like :/ nah ( or yah ! )

people he clashes with hardcore !! people who are one n the same.

uuhh ... big slut for enemies ! ppl he refuses to get along with or they’ve been on bad terms previously for whatever reason. :-)

alternately, people he’s trying really hard to get along with but it’s not working b/c he’s a shithead.

maybe an actual good, close friend or two !! y’know. so he’s not completely alone. 

people he’s fucked over previously by ditching them / being unreliable / messy / etc.

besides close friends, someone who’s soft towards him or vice versa. because as much as i love angst, i love the uwu too.

ex-flings, ex-fwbs, ex-hookups, etc. etc. ex-gfs/bfs. especially from high school.

people he’s known all his life ! childhood friends, childhood enemies, old rivals, etc.

people who like ... stayed away from him / distanced themselves after his dad’s arrest. :/

okay but like ... imagine, okay , some sort of high school romance where he used to sneak into their room / sneak them out, n then they’d like. go wild out. y’know like, parents Hate him.

ppl who end up on one of his benders / night time adventures / whatever chaotic shit w/ him.

a hook-up gone bad could b fun !

gaming pals. gaming enemies.

skater buds ! vaping buds ! stoner buds ! apollo owns like three juuls.

someone he’s good friends with ( maybe ?? potentially developing Feelings at the same time ) but apollo fucks up their friendship / possible Something because that’s just what he Does.

somebody who thought tht like ... his childhood home was just Abandoned and Empty so they started breaking in to like. get high or fuck or whatever and apollo just walks in one day like ... what are u doing.

someone who caught him dealing juul pods to middle schoolers and was like ... what are u doing. idiot.

idiot reckless buddy pals !! wreck shit together !! burn couches !! chaos !

literally i’ll take anything sdjnfkmgh

[katewillaert]

My Secret Origin (Part 1): How To Fail At Comics

[Above: Art from 20 years ago, when I was in High School.]

What do you want to be when you grow up?

When I was four I said “mad scientist.” It was 1987 and I was a big fan of The Real Ghostbusters and Doc Brown. My mom insisted “mad scientist” wasn’t a profession. And weren’t those characters are inventors? What did I want to invent?

Clearly I hadn’t thought this through.

My mom also informed me that all those cartoons I watch were made by people. Those were drawings, and there are people whose job it was to draw those.

This blew my mind. From that point on I decided I was going to be an animator.

Discovering Art

I don’t remember when I first started drawing. It seems like something I always did growing up. As far as my memory is concerned, I came out of the womb holding a pencil and began drawing before I said my first words.

In reality, I probably started in preschool when I was four, just before I discovered what an animator was. I remember my favorite subject to draw was the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters. I must’ve drawn it something like 10 or 20 times.

My mom kept almost all of my childhood art, so in theory I could figure out when I started drawing from that...except the earliest drawings were ruined when the basement flooded.

After the flooding, my mom was condensing what was left, and I saw something surprising: a box filled with Ecto-1 drawings. I hadn’t drawn it 10 or 20 times, I’d drawn it 100 or 200 times. Repetitively, over and over, without consciously thinking about what I was doing.

It was practice without realizing I was practicing. I guess that’s how my art “leveled up” so quickly?

Later I discovered other details about my early development. There was a time around age 2 where I stopped talking. There were times when I liked to line up toys. My obsession before art was Legos, building complex shapes and stairs.

Today these might be recognized as possible indicators of autism, but this was the ‘80s.

Because I was shy and lacking in social skills, a teacher suggested to my parents that I might benefit from being held back a grade. I had a summer birthday, so holding me back would make me one of the oldest rather than the youngest.

Thankfully my parents didn’t take that advice. I would’ve been miserable. Despite being the youngest in my class, I surpassed everyone in terms of scores. A CAT test says I scored “higher than 99% of all 3rd grade student in the nation in total language.” 91% in reading. 90% in math. My reading comprehension was 98% in the nation, but was brought down by my reading vocabulary which was only 72%.

Yet this new information called into question a things about myself I’d never considered. Maybe certain things suddenly made more sense? In particular, the way I don’t have interests so much as obsessions. Any time I take an interest in a topic, it leads to an obsessive amount of research.

Discovering Comics

I think the first comic I ever saw was a Chick Tract some kid showed me in Sunday School. He was surprised I’d never seen one. It must’ve hadan impact on me, because I attempted to draw a tract-style comic starring C.O.P.S. (“Fighting Crime In A Future Time”).

I didn’t discover REAL comic books until a few years later. In 1991, Terminator 2: Judgement Day marketing was in full force and I thought it looked so cool. But it was Rated R, and I was only seven. My mom spotted a couple issues of a Marvel comic adaptation (drawn by Klaus Janson), and I guess that was the compromise until it was out on video.

I attempted to illustrate a comic imitating Janson’s cram-packed panel-per-page ratio. It was an epic crossover where Michael Keaton Batman encounters a Delorean driven by a T-1000, then the Ninja Turtles show up, and maybe the Ghostbusters? I knew how to introduce characters but not how to finish a story.

At this point I was still imagining becoming an animator, even though I barely knew anything about what it involved beyond some flip books I’d done. But all that changed when I discovered the X-Men.

X-Men and Batman: The Animated Series both debuted on FOX during the fall of 1992. I was a huge fan of the Tim Burton Batman movies and I’d seen every episode of the ‘60s show when it was revived in reruns, but I didn’t know the comics existed? I didn’t even know where to find comics.

My brother and I were both really into this new X-Men thing, and my brother was given a set of X-Men comics for his birthday. I borrowed them of course, and wanted to see how the story continued. My mom showed us a book store in the mall that had comics, and then we discovered the local comic store. That started my monthly addiction.

Now age 10, I decided I no longer wanted to be an animator. Comics were my true calling. And my dream was to break in at age 16.

Learning Comics

Age 11: I went from reading just Uncanny X-Men to buying the entire X-line, thanks to and event called Age Of Apocalypse.

Age 12: I started buying Wizard magazine. The first two issues I bought included life-changing information, like that you get hired by building a portfolio and showing it to editors. There was industry news, and art tutorials by Greg Capullo. I added the magazine to my monthly buy list. An X-Men 30th anniversary special gave me the entire history of the characters, and a run-down of the key artists and writers with examples of their work. It was like a Rosetta Stone before Wikipedia.

Age 13: I started buying most of Marvel’s output thanks to an event called Heroes Reborn. I never got into the Batbooks, I guess because the art didn’t look as cool? Comics contained ads for the Joe Kubert School, which became my backup plan if I didn’t break into comics on my own. I also discovered the internet around this time.

Age 14: My first year of high school. I spent every lunch hour in the library browsing the internet, since we didn’t have a computer at home yet. I discovered several comic art forums where pros and amateurs traded tips. During the summer I attended a week long art session taught at a local college by a professor who grew up on ‘60s Marvel. There I learned I’d been using paper that was much too thin to ink on, and I learned about the importance of Jack Kirby.

Age 15: I started buying Comic Book Artist magazine. I thought it’d be about drawing tips, but instead it was filled with fascinating comics history, which became an obsession of its own.

Age 16: A year of disappointment. I knew I wasn’t at the level I needed to be to get pro work, but wasn’t sure how to get to the next level. Nowadays there are all sorts of resources I could’ve used, but back then there was no Youtube, no social media, and few books about the craft of comics.

I was now certain the Joe Kubert School was the way to go.

Changing Plans

My family took a trip to Dover, NJ to visit the Joe Kubert School campus, and it was pretty disappointing. The town didn’t feel super friendly, and the school wasn’t accredited, which raised issues in regards to getting student aid. Plus the idea of spending so much money on a non-degree.

The guy showing me around tried to sell me by pointing out that comic companies don’t care about whether you went to college, they just want to see the portfolio.

I took this to heart and decided not to go to college. I was pretty crushed at first, because I’d had this dream plan for so long, and now I was plan-less. But eventually a new plan began to form.

It was time to start doing conventions.

A startup called CrossGen had a sample script and were taking submissions at SDCC 2000, so I went there. I still felt like my work wasn’t quite ready for prime time, but i was worth a shot.

And nothing came of it, other than a cool Crossgen rejection letter in a box somewhere. None of the other publishers could be bothered to even send that.

In hindsight, I was trying to enter at maybe the worst possible time in comics history. When I first started reading comics, they were at their peak during a boom period. When the bubble burst, the industry experienced year-over-year plummeting sales with no bottom in sight. No one was hiring.

But I kept at it, hoping for a lucky break. Top Cow was impressed that I did backgrounds (lol), and suggested I send in “background samples,” but I didn’t want to go down that route. But maybe that’s what a lucky break looks like? (On the other hand, many aspiring pencillers who start as inkers or colorists get stuck there.)

The next summer I went to Chicago with a Marvel sample script. I’d just graduated from high school, so I was really hoping. This time I got a critique from an editor who had actual advice to offer, and I learned a few things. But still no one was hiring.

I thought if I just stayed home and worked on art for a year, I’d eventually come up with pages so impressive that they’d HAVE to hire me. And if it didn’t work out after a year, I’d start looking for a college.

But now I was struggling with a new problem. I suddenly hated my art. I’d heard about a few professional artists who didn’t like looking at their own art, but I was certain this was different. After all, they’re actually good.

The year passed and I accomplished nothing. Based on things I’d heard, I was nervous that college might actually price me out of comics entirely. But I didn’t know that for sure, and I was super inexperienced when it came to money, since I’d never lived on my own before.

But I kept hearing how so many people have gone to college and they all turned out okay (this was before social media and before student debt became a crisis). I was clearly having trouble moving forward on my own, and Youtube still didn’t exist, so what choice did I have?

Choosing Schools

There were only a few colleges with comic art programs back then (maybe three total?), but one of them just happened to be over here in Minnesota. Art school appealed to me because all the classes were art-focused, so I wouldn’t have to waste my time with math and other BS.

And as I humble-bragged earlier, I’m good at math. But I hated it. At one point some kids from Math League asked if I’d join the team. “‘MATH LEAGUE?’ You mean you do math for FUN??”

I hated math so much, I took harder, accelerated math courses via a local college, just so I could finish math early and spend my last years of high school wonderfully mathless. If there’d been a similar way to graduate from high school earlier, I would’ve taken it. When I realized we were all graduating regardless of how much work we put in, I stopped caring so much about grades and let an occasional B+ slip in.

When I would see classmates busy studying for their SATs or ACTs, I was so glad I didn’t have to bother with that.

But the joke was on me. Because this art school didn’t just require a portfolio review (which I was more than ready for). It also wanted ACT test results.

I remember wondering if I should study before I take it, since everyone took it so seriously in high school. But I didn’t even know how to study. It’s not a skill I’d learned, because I never needed to. So I decided to wing it.

You’ll hate me, but without studying I scored in the top 96% for English, the top 94% for Reading, the top 96% for Science...but only top 87% for Math, because I hadn’t taken a math class in three years. That brought my total down 90%..

(Later, I had to learn to study in order to pass some horrifically-taught art history classes. That teacher made me hate art history, which is ironic given how much of my own writing is focused on history.)

So I got into the school, only to discover that even structured teaching wasn’t going to solve my new art problem. During my first year I told my mom that I don’t enjoy art anymore, and she thought it might be depression. I mean, that’s plausible, losing interest in your passions?

In hindsight, I now have enough experience with real depression that I can definitively say it wasn’t that. I mean, I was occasionally depressed back then, but hating my art was unrelated. It took me years to figure out the actual problem.

Dunning Kruger

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is named after a study which found that:

1) People who aren’t knowledgeable about a skill tend to think they’re better at it than they are, because they don’t know enough to know what they don’t know.

2) Conversely, people who ARE knowledgeable about a skill tend to think they’re worse at it than they are.

My problem went one level deeper. I’d learned a shit ton about every skill related to comic art, but I hadn’t put in as much time actually practicing. And now practicing was tough, because I was hyper-aware of how bad every line was as I laid it down.

In other words, the exact reverse of when I was four and drew repetitively on auto-pilot. Back then I was oblivious that I was practicing anything at all. Now I had the benefit and detriment of a critical mind.

But this realization came later. At the time I was just miserable and didn’t know what was wrong with me.

Halfway through art school, I realized I’d likely already priced myself out of comics, and I needed a real degree that would function back-up plan. So I switched majors. Instead of a Comics major filling my electives with design classes, I became a Design major filling my electives with comics classes.

In order to change my major, I had to explain it to the head of the school. This was awkward because it partly involved explaining how the comics industry worked, and he didn’t want to believe it. He told me I was being cynical.

I tried doing comic samples one last time after college, for a convention in 2006, but couldn’t even finish a page. Then sometime around 2008, I gave up drawing entirely.

How I got started again is another story.

You can also find me on:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/katewillaert/?hl=en

Twitter -  https://twitter.com/katewillaert

Art Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/katewillaert

History Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/acriticalhit

[sailormoonartblog]

Uh a lot of people have been wanting an hd remaster of the classic show and many people beg to differ it’s aesthetically pleasing in many ways. Does every episode look great? No but its still remembered well to the point its in fashion and blogs. And to be fair part of the reason why Crystal was such a flop was because how ugly that show looked by the time season 3 came out it was too late to save it.

Yeah no. First of all, Crystal was by far not a flop, and I really don’t know where you’re getting your data from. Second, Season III did not need to “save” the show at all, it just needed to follow the path traced by Munehisa Sakai, Yuji Kobayashi and Yukie Sako, but Chiaki Kon and Akira Takahashi instead decided to ruin it, with Kobayashi being the sole saving grace of the season. Third, I’m 99% sure you’ve just watched the web-streaming version of Seasons I & II, ‘cause you wouldn’t be claiming that the show looked bad otherwise: I won’t deny that episode 3, for example, was visually terrible when it first aired worldwide in 2014 (hell, I made endless fun of it), but the definitive version looks radically different and failing to acknowledge it is pure intellectual dishonesty. You’ve also got no excuse considering the fact that the improved version for the DVD release, and not the streaming one, was the one that was exported everywhere outside of Japan, so if you’ve seen the show on TV you should know better than that. On the other hand Season III, which first aired on TV instead of on the net, did not receive any updates for the DVD release, so there’s no improvement in that regard; not counting the fact that any change to the animation they could’ve done would’ve never been able to redeem the utterly horrible character design. On a personal preference level, I’ll agree that, on average, the old anime looks slightly better than Season III on the whole (not that it’s a great compliment, lol) and some of the unfinished episodes of Season I, but it’s light years away from the stunning visuals of the finished version of Season I and especially Season II. Not to count the fact that, among the five character designers who worked on both anime series so far, Yukie Sako was the only one who managed to create an artstyle that was at least a bit reminescent of Naoko Takeuchi’s while giving it her own spin to it.I also don’t buy your claim that a lot of people were waiting for a new edition of the old anime, since A) its fans must obviously own it already, so they’d gain nothing out of a new edition, B) very few people own Blue-Ray players, so this is intended as a niche product from the start, C) the whole show has already been remastered for the DVD boxes from 2011 circa, so I really don’t know what else you could ask for, and D) high-definition can work for visually appealing stuff (as if a normal person could ever notice the difference from a TV screen, by the way), but it will only ruin low-quality products. I’m saying this from personal experience, because in 2013 I went to the cinema to see the Imax remaster of four different Disney Classics I already know very well: the result on Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King (three films featuring absolutely gorgeous animation) was stunning, while with The Little Mermaid (probably the most mediocre production ever of WDAS) its only effect was making its visual faults and difects all that more noticeable. If that’s what you want, go for it, ask for a remaster. But hey, why would you ask for it if you’ve already got it? Never mind.In the end, the story’s lesson is always the same: stans of the old anime will *always* get not only what they want, but also a bunch of unnecessary stuff to pander to them. Fans of the manga, on the other side, will be left waiting years even for such a menial thing as a re-release of previously published artbooks. Artbooks which already exist but, note this, are now out of commerce, not like the DVD boxes of the old anime, which are available everywhere to buy. Next time I’m asked why I’m so annoyed by the arrogance of most stans of the old anime, I’ll gladly redirect them to this obnoxious ask of yours.

[sangriatimes]

Nintendo Switch saves Valentines Day

Can you believe that we are almost half-way done with January? Maybe it’s just me and the countless hours I put into reviewing the latest titles for the Nintendo Switch...which is our focus point that can change the tide if you hit a hard spot this V-Day. Maybe you don’t have enough money for that dinner, movie and gift. Maybe you thought that restaurant you made a reservation at is more expensive than you though. Maybe you just started a new relationship but you still have some awkward silences that seem to kill the mood. Whatever the situation may be a Nintendo Switch can get you to second base and home plate...trust me.

So let’s look at some of the titles for switch that are great to play with that special someone. (Games are listed in no particular order; games are not based on “)sales”; Games are mainly hidden gems)

1. Monopoly | 9.5 out of 10

Hear me out. I was one that grew up playing the original board game with my family and the overall appeal of the game was astounding, but I lost interest when I got older and noticed how long it takes to make everyone go bankrupt. ...but this is something...otherworldly. The first awesome thing you will notice when you pick up this title is the use of the Joy-Con controllers to shake the dice and throw them. Though this is still the same mechanic in spirit as its predecessor but with the newly animated boards populated by Mii’s and watching a living city grow as you play and add properties adds an entirely new respect for Money Bags. Our team lost track of time having so much fun with this one and before we knew it, we had seen 5 hours pass. (No one wants to play Monopoly for that long.) 

2. Uno | 8.5 out of 10

Uno is another one of those games I grew up playing with family. When I purchased the game, I was expecting some sort of controller mechanic similar to Monopoly’s dice...but with cards instead...but I was let down. None the less, going into this, I didn’t even know that there were so many ways to play Uno besides the normal rules. Once again, I was amazed at how much more fun this was than the physical cards themselves. Rules like “Stacking. Where Player 1 can play a “Blue Draw 2″ card and Player 2 can counter play a “Draw 2″ card as well. ...but if Player 3 doesn’t possess a “Draw 2″ card, Player 3 then has to pick all 4 cards from the previous turns” was so exciting to try and there are many other ways to customize rules and play styles. 

3. Super Smash Bros | 9.0 out of 10

I really don’t need to go into detail about this one. My only issue with the Smash series is I would really enjoy a multiplayer adventure mode or campaign. I was quite pleased with the full roster of characters though. Disclaimer: Make sure your partner isn’t a sore loser. We all know about SSB’s steep learning curve for beginners. “Don’t be a butt...”

4. Diablo 3 | 9.0 out of 10

I remember having this title on my old PS4 and being able to enjoy it on my PS Vita while I was in a relationship with someone who liked the game as much as I and we would both take our Vita’s to the restroom with us so we could keep the experience going. This title can definitely be used to understand the mindset your partner has by the way they customize their character and the actions they take in response to events. It’s a top-down action-adventure-role-playing-hack-n-slash (inhale.) It is a port of it’s original released on PS3 & 360...the price tag is still $59.99. That’s a deal breaker in my book.

5. NES Emulator | 7.5 out of 10

I honestly chose this one because of how many gamers I know and how 89% of them are males. This is something for those who don’t game to get their feet wet. The emulator is free on the eShop for a 7-day trial but comes with a subscription cost after. Pretty inexpensive for the titles they have. Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, Metroid, and many more. It even comes with special versions of some of the games which gives the player the experience of playing with Game Genie cheats.

6. 99 Vidas | 7.0 out of 10

Your probably thinking, “ Why is this even listed?” Well, just in case that partner your with doesn’t dig the 8-bit look or the low-res adventures of the NES Emulator and desires a little more action and has a fetish for Streets of Rage and Beat ‘em Up’s. Simply. The available characters are cool enough to get players to find a favorite out of them. ...so...that’s good!

7. Oh Sir...The Hollywood Roast | 8.3 out of 10

After seeing the Samuel Jackson clone named “Bad MotherHugger” who’s personality is totally canon, I had to dig deeper. If you didn’t play the prequel, you don’t need to. I honestly only used the first title to learn how to play. In this installment, you and a co-star face off on a movie set where your scenario is to insult the other the worst. It plays like a fighting game, complete with health bars, special insults, tag team insults and so much more. For the price it is, I was expecting something way less entertaining. Oh, and one point or another you will joke against a Deadpool copy...a less funnier Deadpool but funny enough.

Consider this the American version of The Office.

8. Oh Sir...The Insult Simulator | 7.8 out of 10

Obviously, this is the European version of The Office. I won’t say this is better than the sequel and I can’t say it’s worse either but I will say “I am an American...” What this game does is teach you how to layer your jokes and how lay the foundation for repetition in your topics to create combo’ s. I like to let the opponent bombard me with little weak jokes and build a super mean and super long insult that grants victory for only one joke. I call it, “The Kamehameha Effect!”

9. No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Back

The third installment to the series hits the eShop and retailers in a few days and I am super excited to get my copy. If you aren’t familiar with the series, let me fill you in:

Travis Touchdown is the protagonist of all three games. In NMH1 we find Travis at his lowest moment in life. Jobless, hopeless and drunk, he runs into a mysterious woman who offers him employment with a sketchy syndicate group he knows nothing about. Luckily he had lost all his money by winning a bid at an online auction for a Beam Katana,  his main choice of weaponry. Not long after, you find out you were hired as an assassin in a shady game by her higher-ups. Travis takes the job after being promised some passionate TLC if he can take out all 10 of the already top ranking assassins all over the world. Travis is a pretty simple guy. He likes mecha anime, luchador wrestling, old school video games, porn, sex, and sleeping on the toilet.

In NMH2, Travis finds out that after becoming the #1 ranking assassin in Santa Cruise, he finds out that he actually has hundreds of more assassins in a new ranking system where Travis is the lowest ranking.

This time around, Travis is joined by the father of one the assassins he killed in NMH1, and the co-op option is something that would have been outstanding to have in NMH2 but none the less the developers always deliver great content in their titles and this one will not disappoint. Couples will enjoy the kinky nature of the series for sure. It has been proven many times.

10. Broforce | 9.5 out of 10

Every wanted to play Super Mario Bros on NES but with guns? Ever want to change Mario for, let’s say...any huge action movie star from the 80′s, 90′s, 00′s? Ever wanted it to be a co-op experience with up to 4 players with local and online co-op? As a mercenary for the USA, you are sent to 3rd world contries to liberate them from the evil control of Satan and his hell spawn. Before that, you will have to fight through waves of kamikaze soldiers, war dogs, giant helicoptors, aliens (...from the movie “Aliens”) and much more. Along the way, you will recruit an entire cast of badasses. From Rambo to Robocop, you will find Chuck Norris, Neo, Blade, Bruce Willis, Terminator, Preditor, Machette, Michelle Rodrigez, The Bride (Kill Bill) & so many more including Mortal Kombats Raiden.

Very easy to pick up, very hard to put down.

11. Nidhogg 2 | 8.0 out of 10

2D-Side Scrolling Fighter. You start of with a sword. When you die, you respawn with a dagger. When you die, you respawn with a bow and arrow. Die again and respawn with an ax. Die again and respawn with your fist. This cycle will continue until you our your opponent makes it to the opposing end of the map. Maps are relatively small and consist of about 2 to 3 different frames. Sounds easy on paper right? 

Tons of laughs to be had!

12. Tales Of Vesperia

If your looking for an in-depth RPG you both can play while she sits between your legs and you both focus on the Switch screen laying in front of you: this is for you two. The co-op system usually only functions when you enter battle. Player 1 will always be the one running around the world map but this is still fine if you keep an open-mind and communicate on decisions that impact the story and more. (Keep track of your own money.)

side-note: All Tales games are co-op in this sense, even the Super Nintendo picks.

13. Harvest Moon: Light of Hope

I’ve been a Harvest Moon fan since Super Nintendo and got my first copy on the N64. I know a lot of people see this game and hate the thought of a farming simulator but unlike it’s counterpart with the same name-sake; Harvest Moon is so much more. This can easily tame the craving for an adventure-rpg-dating sim with a very rich story and characters that actually grow on you. I have not had the chance to play this particular version yet, but I saw it was multiplayer and that sold me. If you want to try a good yet cheaper version, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature is by far, one of the best, next to Harvest Moon 64.

So there you have it, our picks of love for your love to love with their love! Honestly...I don’ t celebrate Valentines Day (poly-gang), but I love exposing partners to new things that they can enjoy together.

OUT!

[spiftynifty]

How is success measured with shows like VLD? If you say that DW and Netflix already made money from the show and losing viewers would not affect them, why do they still need to market and promote the show?

Hi anon! Mmm maybe my post wasn’t clear, sorry about that! In my defense we’re in the middle of a heat wave right now so maybe my brain melted a little when I wrote it and it wasn’t as straightforward as I would have liked. But I’ll try to clear that up right now!

The initial ask was from someone who was concerned that with enough dissent from fans, DW/Netflix would cancel the show. But all 78 episodes have been paid for, and my guesstimate based on typical animation pipeline deadlines is that currently the team is in pre-production for season 9 and post-production (retakes and final touches) season 8. Cancelling because a few fans are upset would be like commissioning 10 paintings, paying for all of them upfront, and then telling the artist not to bother with the last two just because one time a friend stayed over at your house and told you they wouldn’t come back because they hated some of the artwork on your wall.Voltron is paid for and seasons 1-10 is a train that is not stopping until episode 78.

That doesn’t mean Netflix/DW couldn’t potentially lose money (they won’t, but that’s not the point).

I really really oversimplified the complexities of Netflix as the client of this show.I made a VERY ROUGH AND VERY SIMPLIFIED graphic of how the relationship between client, studio, and fan tends to go when making a show. This is in NO WAY ACCURATE so please don’t cite as reference for anything, this is just a general idea to help understand why money could be lost along the way.

This is how the client stands to lose money. The pie chart represents investors and how much money they threw into the pot (NOT ACCURATE, we have no way of knowing who contributed how much money). 

Let’s say in total they paid 78 million dollars for 78 eps of Voltron. If Voltron has 1 million viewers, and every time they watch an episode the client receives 1$, by the end of the series the client has made back all their money. But right now we are only 52 eps in, which means that according to this example, the client is 26M$ in the hole. That’s money they’ve sent off to the Creative Team that they will NEVER see back, so deciding not to air the next 4 seasons would immediately leave them in the hole forever. But if they air them they can at least count on getting back that 26M$. 

But investors want to MAKE money, not break even, so they’re going to want to market their show and try to drum up more interest so that if 1 million viewers tuned in for season 1, maybe for season 2 they can get 1.5M, or even 2 million. If they can give the fans a big enough push, ideally it becomes a big snowball that gathers more and more fans along the way. A good way to do this? Switching from one 13-ep season every 6 months to one 7-episode season every 3 months. And also posting the occasional news nugget on social media. It keeps interest high and encourages fans to stay excited and keep buzzing about the not-so-far away season. It’s also possible that Netflix still earns money off of episode rewatches (though if that’s true it’s probably a tiered system where they get more money off the first time you watch an episode vs the 2nd or 5th or 10th time). If interest on social media remains high, people are probably going to be inspired to go back and rewatch episodes of the series again. 

With Tumblr and Twitter feeding the fan frenzy, good or bad the show is getting attention and generally keeping it. I’m no marketing expert but I’d venture that the reason Official Voltron social media efforts have been a little lacklustre in recent past is because fans are keeping interest buoyed FOR THEM. Marketing costs additional money, and it’s a sweet way to cut costs if you can get the fans to market the show for you with art and fic and meta.

Without numbers it’s hard to pinpoint, but I think the client is doing pretty dang well for themselves right now. The fandom is massive; currently the most popular on Tumblr according to Fandometrics. It’s appealing to a wide audience across multiple genders ranging in age from small kids to people in their 30s and probably even 40s. 

I’m sure they broken even on the 78 episodes order long ago and at this point are just aiming to get as much additional money out of Voltron as possible. And what they can’t get from it being on Netflix they can turn to merch for bonus income (though that’s a whole other pie chart). Though with this having been the ONLY selection of merch to choose from until very recently...

....I’m not sure how well they’re doing on that front...

Allll this to say, they COULD lose a little money, they could come out a little lower than their projections by the time the last season drops if people lose interest or if fans get irrationally angry over one line in an interview. But I think people vastly overestimate the number of disgruntled fans because they’re often the loudest in social media spaces. And I think a lot of fans who claim to ragequit the series... end up going back and watching it anyway, just to have fodder to whine about. Whether you’re watching the series because you love the show (which is 99% of us) or you’re watching it to mine for salt, Netflix and other clients are still getting their money. 

[doubleddenden]

I've come to accept the idea of a Kanto reboot. I'm going to buy and play it anyway so when it inevitably releases I'll just be happy with another Pokemon game.

The reason why I've accepted it? Well on top of all the rumors and leaks with credible sources or information, I've also just accepted it as a business strategy. Maybe not my preferred strategy, but unfortunately it's a good one. Nintendo knows it's a system seller, they know older fans will return to buy it, they know current fans will buy it, they know new fans will buy it, ergo it's just a smart move on their part.

Here's some things I think about it:

Not a new gen, but rather sort of the step to it. If they introduce new Pokemon, it'll most likely be mythicals to sell a movie or something.

It's going to have new forms of some kind. It's honestly a bad idea at this point to not add anything new to it and just plop shiny paint on a trashcan.

The graphics will probably resemble higher res upscale graphics you see on pc emulation of Sun and Moon/Ultra. Don't expect unreal engine stuff until gen 8 Or later. This game is the system seller, thus it will be a testing ground for Game Freak to figure out what they can do. Don't believe me? Compare the graphics to Diamond and Pearl to Black and White 2, and X and Y to Ultra SM. This can even be applied to GRBY to Crystal to some extent.

The game is going to get mixed reviews from it's audience no matter what they do. Yes it will sell but if they only appeal to old fans and dont add anything to it, then current and newer fans will shit on it. Likewise, if they add new things like a story or forms, or even newer Pokemon from later gens to the region, the dumb genwunners will throw tantrums.

If we're being real, the games probably will have something for everyone. I think because we'll still he in gen 8 territory the whole Rocket Rainbow and ultra wormhole thing can still pay relevance, even if it reboots the franchise. Plus with Red and Blue in Alola as adults, we could see a new Kanto. The original 151 will obviously be more prevalent but I think it would be kind of dumb to do what FRLG did to restrict some evos until the national dex or just pretend like later gen Pokemon wouldn't arrive there at some point.

On the flip side they did say don't set your expectations too high. It could just be a straight up remake.

IGN will give it a 10/10 and people will start saying the last few games were awful in comparison (it's already happening to Sun and Moon tbh).

It will set market records and probably outsell Ultra SM.

As far as minor features, I'm sure riding Pokemon will make a return since it was so well praised and since the game will most likely use Sun and Moon assets.

This and Pokemon following you will most likely be a thing because the animations are there and the switch can handle it. I personally am the oddball out since I don't much care for it, but 99% of people I know do love it.

Probably going to have some "Delta Episode" involving Mew and or Mewtwo.

Probably going to get to fight Oak.

Probably lots of jokes at old playground legends including the Mew truck.

Honestly, it's probably going to be a bit more hand holdy than people want but not as much as XY or SM.

Something tells me there's going to be something special about the starters this time around. Idk what but probably exclusive Z moves or new forms. Just a gut feeling.

And I have more but overall this is just speculation.