#probably gonna fix some of the lineart in a month or two when i get the motivation

[cattrek]

life could be so gay

[ukulelewrites]

Beauty & the Beast

A/N: so remember when i mentioned rereading the Lunar Chronicles and got inspired to write fairy tale aus for wanna one. well, here’s the first installment of  the “Happily Ever After” series!

Pairing: Wanna One’s Daehwi x Reader

Genre: fairy tale!au, fluff, slight violence

Warnings: slight violence

Everyone in the city knew of Lee Daehwi, probably the prettiest boy to have ever graced the Earth

Just a sweet boy who works in his family’s flower shop

Always has a different flower tucked in his lil shirt pocket depending on the mood

One time he had the flower tucked behind his ear and everyone just cooed bc wow what a cutie

On the other hand, there was you, probably the most infamous underground fighter in the city

You pretty much spent your days at the gym, punching away at the worn bag

Sometimes people will catch you at the rundown auto shop, grease streaked across your cheeks and sweat staining the neck of your white tank

The best part is the tattoo that’s on your right bicep of a wolf entirely done in lineart

Half the city gets scared when they catch a glimpse of it, but it’s aite, as long as they don’t bug you too much

Cut back to Daehwi watering the daffodils on display in the window as he hums to himself (probably a blackpink song lol)

Anyways it’s getting close to closing time, so Daehwi does one last check around the shop before he hears the front doorbell chime

And ta-dah, he finds himself face to face with Daniel

“Uh, hyung what are you doing here?”

“Can I borrow a couple hundred?”

“Flowers? Well-”

“Dollars, Daehwi, dollars”

Turns out Daniel owed you hella money bc you fixed his motorbike for him, and if he doesn’t cough up the sum you’re kicking his ass

Daniel prefers his ass not kicked btw, and Daehwi was the only one out of his friends with a stable job lmao

“I don’t have a couple hundred dollars to lend out, but let me talk to this person”

“Daehwi,,,,,,they’ll actually break you”

“Nothing a little diplomacy doesn’t fix, c’mon, show me where this repair shop is”

Daehwi finds himself standing in the side of town his parents specifically told him not to venture into

Your co-workers stood out in front of the shop, leaning against the walls, smoking cigarettes while conversing in hushed whispers (they were both expecting fathers and exchanging tips to each other)

Daniel was practically shaking in his shoes while Daehwi strode right into the shop

“Is Y/N here?”

“Alpha? They’re in the ring tonight”

“The ring?”

“Go right from the shop and cut into the alleyway. There are stairs that will take you straight to it.”

Yeah, Daniel was scared shitless at this point, and Daehwi was intimidated too, but hey, someone’s gotta talk this whole cash owing thing out

So the two boys go down to the ring and they find themselves standing behind a crowd of people surrounding the ring, shouting and cheering, waving dollar bills in the air as they placed bets

Daehwi starts looking around

“Hey Daniel, what does Y/N look like?”

“Scary, just really scary”

“,,,,,,,,like, any other descriptions?”

“Uh, they have a wolf tattoo on their arm”

Daehwi continues dragging Daniel through the crowd trying to find this infamous Y/N until suddenly the entire crowd still

He looked up at the center of the room and finally noticed the boxing ring that stood in the middle of the room

“What’s going on?”

“The fight’s about to start”

And that was when you stepped up into the ring, your face stony and cold

A shiver ran through Daehwi’s spine when he saw how apathetic you were

The crowd cheered for you, their screaming becoming louder when you took your hoodie off to reveal your tattoo

The fight starts and quickly in you got a punch in, quickly bouncing back and ducking under your opponent’s swing

You swipe your leg under their feet to trip them, and once they fell, you pounced

Daehwi watches in horror and turns to Daniel

“You owe that monster money?????”

“Y/N? Yeah, you understand why I needed to borrow some cash?”

Your swings became even more rapid, but your face remained apathetic

When you were sure they weren’t coming back up, you got off of them, and faced the crowd and raised your bloodied fist in victory

Quickly the crowd cheered, at least, the ones that betted your victory

You left your unconscious opponent in the ring and left for the locker room

Daehwi saw this chance and quickly shook his head, trying to lessen his fear

“Let’s go, Daniel, before we lose them”

The two of them wove through the crowd and followed you into the locker room

“You’re not allowed in here” you said apathetically, not even sparing the two boys a glance

Daehwi took in a deep breath before speaking

“My friend here owes you money, but he can’t pay you back right away, is it possible he-”

“If he can’t pay me back, he shouldn’t have brought the bike in”

“Yeah but-”

“He still needs to pay me back”

“Well-”

“Labor it is”

It was Daniel’s time to speak up 

W-wait a minute, I already have a job, I can’t just-”

You finally turned to glance at the two boys

“Not my problem, you still owe me $300″

Daehwi glanced at Daniel worriedly and then chimed in

“What if, what if I worked off his debt?”

You looked over at him

“You’re not the one who owes me $300″

“Well, yeah, but I only work at my family’s flower shop, and that’s not even a job, so I can work for you for however long until Daniel’s debt is paid”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because he’s my friend”

And tbh you couldn’t argue with the guy since he already made up his mind, so you just shrugged

That’s how Daehwi ended being your little runner

He pretty much was in charge of running out and buying stuff you needed, like equipment for the bike you were working on or antiseptic for the cut on your cheek, normal stuff

Like, for a whole month you barely acknowledged his existence, only giving him a nod or a hum or a request, nothing more, nothing less

Well, that’s gonna change soon

Bc one night when he was out buying you some food since you were working late in the shop, some asshat you beat up last week in the ring decided to hassle him a bit

“Hey, you’re Alpha’s pet aren’t you?”

“I’m their assistant”

Daehwi quicken his pace a bit, but the guy grabbed him by the collar and pushed him against the wall

“Alpha’s not gonna like it much if his pet’s a little damaged,” the guy taunted, pulling his fist back

Daehwi quickly shut his eyes and after a couple seconds, he realized the fist never came

He opened his eyes to find you standing behind the dude holding his fist and,,,,,,,,,,Daehwi’s hella lucky he’s not that guy right now bc wow, you look like you want to kill him

Which you didn’t do, you just beat the living shit out of him and left the guy propped up against the wall

Daehwi trailed after you, the bag of food, now cold, in his hand

And tbh his heart kinda fluttered a bit knowing you beat up that guy for him, but it’s probably just because he’s your runner, nothing important

lmao jokes on you daehwi

And his unspoken question kinda just hangs in the air

Why?

“Did you get my food?”

Daehwi blinked at your back for a second before handing you the bag

You looked in and smiled, like genuinely smiled and wow Daehwi felt his heart skip agAIN

Bc who knew the scariest underground fighter in all of the city had the cutest smile on earth?

“Sweet, they gave me an extra fortune cookie”

And tbh after that night, things got a little bit more comfortable between the two of you

Like, the whole reason as to why you never really interacted much with Daehwi was bc he was so pretty you couldn’t say anything substantial without being flustered 

Every time he asked you about your day, you could practically feel your cheeks reddening

Or the one time he smiled at you and gave you a thumbs up after another victory, you swore you felt your heart race

But, you’re awkward, and you knew your reputation in the city, no way Daehwi would see you as anything other than an underground fighter, a monster

Yet, the walls you placed around yourself started to crumble a bit around the edges

Especially one day when you decided

“I’m teaching you how to fight”

Daehwi’s eyes widened like saucers

“Why?”

“Bc the next time some punk decides to mess with you, I might not be there”

Wow, another heart fluttering moment for Daehwi

You take him down to the little gym nearby, giving a little nod to the other people there at the odd hour of the night

Daehwi just trails after you and ends up finding himself standing in front of a punching bag

“Throw your best punch”

Daehwi looks at you incredulously before pulling his fist back and swinging at the bag,,,,,only for you to let out a little chuckle at how weak it was

His cheeks flushed, half from embarrassment and the other half from hOW CUTE THAT CHUCKLE WAS

 You take his hand into yours (the two of you are blushing so hard jfc)

“Here, fold your hand like this,”

You then guide his fist back

“And swing like this”

Daehwi could practically hear his heart pounding in his ear

Once his hand made contact with the punching bag, you realized exactly how close in proximity the two of you were

You quickly pulled away and cleared your throat

“Yeah, just practice, I’ll show you which places to aim for once your punch gets better”

And it became a little routine, after you finish work in the shop and you didn’t have a match, you take Daehwi to the gym and afterwards you buy him ice cream

His smile every time you present him with the vanilla cone just makes your cheeks heat up, and eventually one night Daehwi just

“Hey, Y/N, I like you”

You almost spat out your ice cream

“W-wh- are you sure?”

“Mhm”

“But, why? I beat up people for a living. I scare the living shit out of half the city, and you only hang out with me to pay off your friend’s debt, which by the way, is paid off.”

You awkwardly sat there next there next to Daehwi, letting your ice cream dip onto the pavement

“Because you’re cute.”

Yeah, you dropped your cone at this point

“Even though you seem scary at first, you’re actually really cute. Your laugh and smile make my insides warm. You’re really patient when teaching me. You’re also very protective of me, and you buy me ice cream often. Plus,”

“Plus?”

“I want to know more about you, because you’re so much more than a scary underground fighter. You’re so much more than Alpha; you’re Y/N”

And like wow bc who knew he’d see you that way????

You were so used to being looked at with fear and disdain that at this moment the way he was looking at you, his eyes wide and looking at you with such open warmth

And he kind of just takes your hand into his and pulls out a napkin and wipes at the sticky mess your ice cream cone left

“I like you too” you whisper, and the smile that Daehwi sends you is just blinding

After that night the two of you embarked on a very awkward relationship

Daehwi no longer had to run errands for you, but he still finds himself stopping by the shop to bring you snacks

And one time you decided to take him out on an actual date, granted it was just a walk around the park at night but it was a date

But during the date when Daehwi grabbed your hand you just flushed

Like your face was as red as a strawberry 

It got even redder when Daehwi coo’d over your cuteness

And eventually one day, Daehwi dragged you out of the gym and took you to his family’s flower shop

“Here, I want to give you this”

You take the flower from Daehwi’s hand and admired its beauty

“What is it?”

“An amaryllis”

“What does it mean?”

“Worth beyond beauty, like you”

“W-what do you mean?”

Yeah, you were a blushy mess aGAIN

“Even though people say you’re scary and all that, you’re more than what you look like. You’re strong, and kind, and loyal, and that’s why I like you.”

Daehwi was shOOKTH when you marched up to him and planted a kiss

But it was cute bc it was a soft kiss, something innocent, the two of you fumbling, trying to figure out what to do with your hands

And when you pulled away, you kissed the tip of his nose

“I like you too”

And the two of you dating is just the cutest

Like hot cocoa dates are a must bc despite your scary appearance, you had the biggest sweet tooth and Daehwi loves giggling whenever you get a little whipped cream mustache

He still goes to the gym to practice his punch and for your anniversary he shows you his improvement and pretty much basked in your praise

Also, you still fight, but this time Daehwi comes with this huGE POSTER GLITTER AND EVERYTHING CHEERING AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS

And whenever you fight, he gives you a little good luck forehead kiss, so your win streak is onto like 7 and counting

You also get a kiss and an ice cream cone after every victory so you wIN ALL THE TIME

Plus, whenever you get a busted lip or a bruised eye, Daehwi just runs around the locker room trying to collect together an ice pack and some antiseptic and he’s a mess

But it’s cute and you smile when he runs some cream over your lip bc it’s busted and he blushes af when you kiss his fingertips

Y’all just the softest okay? 

Who knew the beauty and the beast would be so cute?

I did that’s who

[marvelandponder]

I’M SCREAMING

We’re 3 months away from this glitter-bomb and they gave us some stuff to scream about. I think I’ll do just that. I took my sweet time putting this together, I know, but there’s a fair bit to unpack and a lot to be excited about so, let’s go through it all!

Animation

Okay, so first things first: people are calling this a 2D movie and that’s not really that accurate.

It certainly has some 2D elements, like the backgrounds, but the style of animation only makes the characters look 2D, when in fact they’re 3D models.

You can tell in how they move. If I were to give you a still screen shot, you might guess that it was from a 2D animation, but in motion, you can tell what it actually is: cel-shading.

I had a hunch that’s what it was so I asked a storyboarder who worked on the MLP movie (and the show) if I was right and she said: 

The program they’re using is ToonBoom, which does rigs with 2D toon shaders, among other things!

You know, I don’t often call things, but I fucking called it. Let me have this. Just to give you a quick definition from Wikipedia:

“Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades.”

3-dimensional figure with cel shading, has the effect of making it  look 2D. Typically seen with thick outlines on the outside and little to no outlines on the inside:

(Team Fortress 2 itself isn’t normally cel shaded, but that’s a great example a fan made of what cel shading usually looked like when I was growing up)

Cel shading without outlines, as seen in Wind Waker. 

Like I said, just seeing this still image, it looks 2D, but watching it move, you can tell there’s a 3rd dimension to the character with the features and lineart mapped out onto the models to make it look 2D

Which by the way, is really unique for a major release! I don’t know about anyone else, but I was excited that MLP: The Movie seemed to be 2-D since there hasn’t been a domestic 2-D animated movie since Winnie the Pooh in 2011. 6 damn years! While I maybe would’ve ideally liked a completely 2-D animated movie, the backgrounds and the cel shading works in really neat ways, and it will definitely make the movie stand out 

The purely 3-D objects seem unfinished at the moment (but that’s not out of the ordinary, CGI seems to be one of the last processes). It needs texture or shading or something, and I can tell because most of the ship looks too soft (too much like a model) to be metal. I really think this will be fixed for the final product, but that’s probably the most jarring part of the style at the moment

Not all of the 3-D looks unfinished, but the best looking parts are still the painterly, 2-D stuff (look at those towers; they’re really stylized, but you can tell they’re 3D in a more 2D environment)

THAT DIGITALLY PAINTED VERSION OF CANTERLOT THOUGH:

The light effects are definitely 3-D in the fireworks and rainboom

Oh, and speaking lighting, so much of it looks so pretty! There are one or two times when the colours are slightly off, but the majority of the time it looks freaking gorgeous

You can kinda see by looking at Rarity that the shading is juuust slightly off here (kinda like they were for the teaser trailer), but then you look in the background and see this BEAUTIFUL background and Twilight all upset and worried about this invasion, and it feels like such a nitpick to worry about what will probably still be cleaned up before it hits theaters

We also get some really great expressions, so they’re not really limited by the 3D models underneath (if I’m right about that)

Also, just as one last little note here, the style is detailed enough to see little things about the characters we didn’t know up until now, like the fact that the spines on the side of Spike’s head are translucent, or that the colours of RD’s mane aren’t 100% perfectly separated

Overall with the animation, I’m so impressed not only by how gorgeous it is,but by how willing they were to take a risk and incorporate a 3D element in the form of  (I think) cel-shading. This only really matches the creative spirit of the MLP team, though. Whether or not you agree on how well they always execute everything, they always try to step up their game with every new season and push themselves to be and do better.

And while I will say that if some of the more 3D parts (yeah, I’m talking about the zeppelin/airships mostly) aren’t fixed for the final release, I would have a bone to pick with them, but I have faith that we’ll be seeing a much smoother integration of that 3D on the big screen.

Story and Character Details

I really appreciate that they didn’t outright spoil anything too big. It’s definitely a well-cut trailer! We basically only know about the same information we did before, with just a hint or two as to things like who the true villain is.

Just based on the focus given to these characters in the trailer (and what I know of the Storm King’s characterization in the first Movie Prequel comic that was just released), seems like he’s not as big of a threat as the commander of his fleet, Tempest. 

It’s a kind of villain we haven’t seen on the show or even in EQG, and not only that, but 

She’s got a fantastic voice actress behind her, so she can pull off the deliciously evil vibe well without, say, reminding us too much of Chrysalis or other powerful animated villains from Disney classics

Plus her design with the broken horn and her magic sparking up out of it is instantly intriguing to me: for such a powerful presence, it’s awesome to see her weakness (and most likely shady past) is always on display---especially for a commander character, that’s just really cool

Grubber seems to be pretty standard so far, nothing he’s done has really impressed me quite yet, but I’m hoping his best stuff is saved for the movie itself

The sky pirates (or skyrates) look like a lot of fun, and in context I can see how well the bipedal birb pirate blends with the universe (the bipedal designs were the ones I had the most trouble with)

On top of that, we have sea ponies at last! And they’re far more adorable than I ever could’ve hoped

The original sea pony designs from G1 looked a lot more like sea horses, with curling tails and fins on either side, but I think the meraid-ish look is both more marketable for Hasbro and more appealing to look at (the original sea ponies always seemed like a joke in the fandom to me, I admittedly never understood why people would actually want it in G4)

And a-ha! Good queens do exist! Poor Celestia and Luna. Always a princess, never a queen.

Oh, and Seaquestria? It’s freakin’ beautiful. I LOVE the rich blues and purples here. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the 360 image of the underwater palace complete with an excellent piece of background music, treat yourself.

The Mane 6′s sea pony designs are pretty dang adorable. I don’t have anything interesting to say, I just like the cute water horses, okay?

Minor Details and Incidentals

I’ll start out by saying Twilight’s narration in the trailer is pretty standard, but still heartwarming (mostly because I already know and love these characters though). It sort of reminds me of the bits of narration from the How to Train Your Dragon movies, although those had a bit more character to them. 

The what could possible go wrong? line, though. It just makes me laugh thinking of all the flashbacks we could have to the series. 

I guess she’s talking about that festival specifically that she’s organizing, and in that way it’s a show of character development (in a similar way to the character development on display in A Flurry of Emotions, where Twilight is told she’s late and doesn't have a panic attack or worry about what could go wrong... too much), but it’s still hilarious to contrast the idea that nothing could go wrong in Equestria to... literally all of the show. 

AJ and RD protecting their friends even before the others have gotten over the shock of whatever they’re seeing tho

Starlight and Trixie get a bit of screen-time together and it’s adorable. Starlight might be stuck in Canterlot for the duration of the adventure, but I’m glad to see her included. Characters like Discord who might be too hard to explain to new audiences are understandable losses, but even if Starlight’s cameo is brief, it’s good to see her role acknowledged

In terms of music, Sia’s looking adorable so far, and Lukas Graham’s as of yet unreleased Off to See the World sounds pretty catchy (it’s the song at the end of the trailer), so they’ve got talent behind the vocals!

Jumping back to little details, it’s neat how sea pony magic has a very distinct look from unicorn/alicorn magic. Also, the bubbles are really cute

And, okay, I just wanted to take a minute to appreciate how serious this ponk is. Can we all just stop and take a look, because in this scene Twilight’s saying how she’s the one Tempest is after, and she should probably face this alone, which seems to be our Princess of Friendship’s big dilemma in this movie, and Pinkie’s clearly trying to tell her she’s crazy

Gotta love that they didn’t just go for hyperactive comic relief Pinkie Pie; they don’t seem to be boiling down these characters to just one trait (which is partially why I loved the moment where RD and AJ defend the girls; RD’s ego will no doubt be on display throughout the movie, but you’ll also see she’s ready to lay down her life for her friends)

And hey, lookie here! Canterlot got a make-over... and a contractor. There’s more pink than there typically is and it doesn’t necessarily match what we’ve seen of it in the show. Especially places like the throne room:

And you know, I’m a little torn on this detail? It’s beautiful, and I’m digging the starry night mosiac they’ve got going on back there, but it would’ve been nice to see the throne room we know and love rendered in this new style, you know? I’m gonna miss the deep magentas and the stain glass windows of the Mane 6′s accomplishments. I know that’s mostly the fangirl in me, but I like seeing continuity nods back to the show (like hey look: Cadence gets a cameo!)

Unless Canterlot gets destroyed and subsequently rebuilt in the season 7 finale, in which case I’ll shut my mouth

Speaking of which, I still have to wonder exactly when this will take place in the series, or if it exists slightly to the left of canon like the Equestria Girls movies (which, I mean, I consider canon, but still). I know there’s ties into the comics, but I wonder if/when the show will acknowledge the events of the movie... I guess only time will tell

And for now, I think that about wraps it up! All in all, I’m beyond excited to see this thing, as anyone could’ve guessed. 

It should also be noted that a lot of kids movie trailers focus on the fun, comedic portions of the movie, so while I do think it’s mostly going to feel like this, I’m also looking forward to the more character-driven feelsy parts. As we well know, you can never get the full scope of a movie from just the trailer, but it’s usually especially true for kids movies.

Even just from what we have seen, it looks like we’re in for a ride. Can’t wait to get on.

Hey, if you’d like more MLP stuff, you can click right here to see my editorials or here for episode reviews. And if those links don’t look pretty enough, have the last three things I’ve done right here:

Parental Glideance Review, Celestia/Daybreaker Editorial, and LGBT+ Editorial

Year of the Pony