#random rambles at midnight

[sg-the-mag-by]

My brain just lit up like a Homewarming tree with Sally perched on top! Everybody, hopefully, remembers the hidden caterpillar on the Welcome Home Site(I don't remember the exact page but it was a blue caterpillar on a leaf with three eyes, or at least two real eyes) and that takes you to the video of Howdy telling Barnaby and Wally about how some of his siblings were having trouble with their cousin Henry and that he needed to go to their Aunt Molly so she could set him right, for whatever he was doing that was causing distress in the Pillar family. Now, in the Homewarming update we got some more of Howdy's family members, though their names weren't what we were expecting. One of those names was for Howdy's Cousin Skedaddle, who clearly is a surfer dude beatnik type. So I'm sure you all get where I'm going but I'll add a little more to this theory stew I'm brewing. When you go the transcripts for Howdy's Holiday Hullabaloo and you read where Gam Gam Sally Tations enters, right by her name(and I HOPE it is still there) is the name Holly. Now I STRESS it is a name because it is capitalized. AS SOON as I saw this and really as soon as I heard everyone's names be greetings of some sort or statements(like Latter's name) I knew something was up. So if Holly is actually Gam Gam's real first name then who's to say all the other family members we meant don't have different names too? Like the only named cousin showing up, who seems to have a different way of thinking things that Howdy and his Siblings don't really understand, who was sent TO AN AUNT of theirs, yeah. Skedaddle's REAL name is Henry and possibly Aunt Toodaloo is Actually Wooly Aunt Molly. And how that I think about it, Skedaddle LOOKS like he'd be a Henry but would probably go by other names too to fit his lifestyle. Now I want to STRESS this is a theory based on what minimal information we have from hidden bug videos(that may or may not show what is actually happening in Home when the cameras are off and showing the truth as well) that have been fully wiped from the website and how all these names were for a song made by Playfellow and Marlo so of course they'd want to make something goofy like this since Howdy's name is both a shorthand for Howard and a greeting, aka Howdyadoo as his mom and aunt call him. Also shout out to @carnivalcarrion for their Welcome Home Winter-Spring Update stream where they pointed out "Toodaloo" possibly being Wooly Aunt Molly before we heard these names, you may have hit the right note there IF this theory has any merit. If not, well I had fun thinking about it and I hope everyone who reads this long theory enjoyed it too and got your own brains turning at what was going on in the Neighbors world and what was going on in the real world.

[solar-sunnyside-up]

When I say I am not waiting for revolution, I mean Im planting things secretly at bus stops, and shoveling snow out of the way of crosswalks. I mean it in a way where neighbors are stocking community fridges and harvesting in community gardens. Little libraries and strangers giving you shoes bc they couldnt return them. I mean ppl swapping stuff or loaning it out to neighbors theyve just met. I mean it in a way where a friend who can sew asks me to mend something and a week late brings me cookies as thanks. I mean it in the way a friend makes a playlist for you and it truly brighten your day. These tiny acts of defiance against cruelty and profit are their own  revolutions. And they catch like kindling, small going at first you might not even know that flames there. Than suddenly all at once catching, burning in the darkness of the night.

[bajuuuu]

Bored! Wanna help me make a tricorder? :D

Top computer now done:

And it closes!

Some more progress photos:

Black fabric for the back and bottom:

Me suffering trying to figure out how the computer pivots open and then giving up and deciding to just use hinges. No but really I swear this stupid little thing is more convoluted than it looks like! Because it doesn’t just open, it pivots! So the bottom becomes the back and the top becomes the front and I can’t really explain it but gods is it annoying!!:

(Also ignore the mess on the table….)

Computer!!! :D

(I am very proud of this little thingy :D)

Current issue: the round thingy in the second compartment. This thingy:

[kisses4mizu]

tw: mention of suicide & rape

I don’t want to admit this but frankly speaking, if the series ever ends, it’s possible that Mizu would just commit suicide.

long story short, her main goal is to kill the 4 white men, especially the one who raped her real mother. she seems to never plan on straying off her path of revenge and is constantly putting herself at risk just for it. if she so carelessly plays this little game of life or death (like cmon she gets stabbed at ever single fight!), what’s to say she won’t just kill herself after all her work is done? she doesn’t have anything to look forward in life anyways after she kills all those men…

like that narrator said, “she isn’t afraid of death—more that she won’t fulfill her vow before her death.” (I forgot the quote 😭)

can’t believe im pondering abt this at night goddamnit 😓

[mh-midnight-wanderer]

[Imagine a scenario where Jackson and Holt are twins and somehow Holt ends up in the underworld with Heath's dad: Hades]

Hades: Exactly how long do you think you've been down here?

Holt: I dunno. A couple of days?

Hades: Oh Holt Holt Holt..*places his hand on Holt's shoulder*.It may feel like that, but it's actually been 80 years. And I'm afraid that by now Your dear brother Jackson is DEAD!

Holt: …Great, so he’s here then!

Hades: What? No, he’s dead! But he’s not here. He’s…

{Hades points up with his finger}

Holt: *squint* not buying it.

Hades: “wHFKRKRL- not buying it??!”

Holt: Listen, I know my brother. And if he’s not down here, then he’s not dead. Which means he’s coming to save me.

[green-static]

Society doesn’t understand my utter need to see husk covered in blood repeatedly stabbing someone and tearing them apart with his claws to protect angel. You just don’t get it

[yukipri]

Do u ever think about how humans would look if we had cat-like skin. As in, skin as baggy and loose as a cat's?? How we would have skin loose enough to connect our elbows to our torsos, how our tummy skin would be loose and wobbly enough to hang to our knees

How someone could grab the skin at the back of our necks and it would stretch like a good foot, and pulling back all that flesh would noticeably distort our faces

What if "cat boy/girl/person" didn't mean human + cat ears + tail, but baggy cat skin

do u ever think about that

[chibishortdeath]

Alright I’ve thought about, I’m gonna actually start posting some of my criticisms of Netflixvania starting with the first season. I actually have a notepad document on my computer somewhere that’s just various rants about it that I’m gonna take from lol

Rant under a cut cause it’s long, spoilers, and also cause uh tldr I do not like the show 💀

Ok let’s start from the beginning of the show, episode one.

The first episode isn’t terrible, it’s a bit rocky, some red flags here and there for what was to come, but that’s kinda expected of animations like this. It usually takes them a couple episodes to pick up and grow into their own, so I was skeptical, but not gonna knock it entirely when I first saw it.

My biggest criticism of this episode was the complete missed opportunity to introduce certain characters from this section of the series’s story. Imagine if they had shown Isaac and Hector in the background of the castle or something at this point for foreshadowing later, as they would’ve already been studying under Dracula at that time. Imagine if that old woman Lisa helped ended up being one of Lyudmil’s family members, cementing them as friends of her for later. Alas, Netflix just decided not to use most of the already written backstories for most characters. But eh, that’s getting into nitpick territory.

And then the second episode happens… I honestly genuinely hate the concept of the Speakers and it’s because they completely replace a much more interesting (especially for the tone and themes they were going for) group for Sypha to be a part of: The Church. In the game, Sypha is a witch, something that’s currently not very good to be at this time, however the church employs a bunch of male wizard soldiers. This is already a perfect opportunity set up and ready to go for them to make their points of the church being hypocritical, add some intense dramatic irony with maybe the audience getting to know Sypha is a witch before anyone else does and seeing her interact with a bunch of people who would have her dead if they knew, and create a super conflicted situation where these church soldiers all die during their encounter with the cyclops, but yet they scrapped it for uh random group of magic users that kinda exist entirely for a plot that didn’t need a new device to work. And Sypha just being all hood down and no hiding just takes away something interesting about her character, making her kinda bland in the process. Like it’s one thing to have the Girl™️ who owns the braincell trope and another to have a character with some actual immediate conflicts. They totally could’ve played up the “oh no if Trevor knew would he kill me” dynamic, especially with witches being commonly lumped in with ‘monsters’ in a lot of other media and Trevor being ya know a monster hunter. And already just from this one design choice she completely loses her symbolic putting the hood down scene for much later in the story to show that she actually trusts people and feels safe enough to not need to hide anymore because she’s got people on her side now.

Also the lack of Grant is just a crime in itself. Grant could’ve worked perfectly as like the everyman of the group. Hell, with his background of being a former noble turned thief presumably after hard times to straight up losing his entire hometown to flames and leading a revolution about it, Grant literally has like almost every common not magical vampire hunter person experience. He could’ve given the group any of those perspectives and been told the perspectives of the vampire hunting life he hasn’t had, ya know? And he’d help differentiate the personalities and humors of the group in general. I literally can’t think of a negative to having Grant in the group.

So we were robbed of character development for Sypha and the existence of Grant, what’s next—

The Bishop character is someone that could’ve been interesting if he was written with any kind of nuance, but instead he’s extremely on the nose and blatantly laughably evil. Otherwise this guy is pretty forgettable besides how lame it was that they used Blue Fangs to kill him instead of ya know an actually recognizable enemy. Like the Blue Fangs design wouldn’t be bad if it was in literally anything else, but compared to the designs of most Castlevania monsters it’s just really lame. I’d’ve even accepted a Warg or something, idk. Personally I think having Death walk in taking the form of Zead and going through that speech while eventually turning into the skeleton form we know him as woulda gone hard but for some reason Death isn’t a thing until seasons later which sucks.

I also absolutely hate Alucard and the Cyclops being in the catacombs! Hate it! The Cyclops kinda had like a courtyard area for it and made sense being there since it was standing guard on the way to the castle. Literally what it is even doing in the catacombs 💀💀💀. Standing guard for… eepy Alucard? Why??? And the whole sleeping soldier thing or whatever they called him is just so obviously an excuse to have him appear faster and make it seem like it tied into the plot. Alucard absolutely should not have been introduced to the main group this early on because again that robs him of a bunch of opportunities for background and character development. He got maybe the one oh no dad don’t commit mass death that’s bad scene and nothing else when they had plenty of time to show him initially following his fathers orders and eventually growing to stand against him. And again??? Missed opportunity for anything radio drama related??? Like if there’s any opportunity to get any of that story more known it’s in an animation? And besides, it’s less work to just use whatever materials and supplemental materials already existed for the game!

Dracula’s Curse and CoD have:

Two games

Two manuals

Three manga (TokyoPop and Preorder)

A couple game guides

Flashback sequences in a radio drama

Flashback sequences in SotN AKA: the game everyone knows

A ton of references in later games cause IGA is a big Dracula’s Curse fanboy

Pachinkos

That is plenty of material to make an animation based on, especially because most games don’t get half of that, especially not NES games. They were literally handed like the NES game to adapt lottery and decided not to scratch like half the ticket 💀💀💀.

Alucard also being able to levitate kinda negates a lot of things. Like what the hell is the point of having a bat/mist form and a double jump then? If he can just be flying vampire Jesus immediately or whatever people call him idk. And you can’t tell me Alucard wouldn’t be painfully embarrassed if someone ever saw him shirtless come on this is the guy that wears like 5 layers of clothing in every game he’s in to the point that even in the modern era he’s choosing a suit over casual clothes. Every action he makes in this introduction to him is obviously fanservice for the sake of fanservice with very little thought behind it, except I’m not feeling very served right now. And having Trevor kinda lose that fight is a reoccurring problem this show ends up having: putting down other characters just to make certain ones get the cool fanservice moment. Contrary to what the writers of this show may believe, it actually doesn’t make me go “oh wow, Alucard is so cool and much badas”, it just feels weird and uncomfortable that Trevor is getting cheated out of one of his canon achievements because the writers preferred one character’s tits more than him.

So, basically, the show starts out with missed opportunities, concepts and characters getting cut out, watered down versions of characters that did make it in, cheap fanservice, poor explanations for things, etc etc. this all culminates into a resounding m e h + dread for later seasons being worse (boy was I correct on that fear lol).

Here’s some other things for the first season I didn’t know where else to fit:

None of the humor hit for me at all, like not a single joke. The humor was either a no response at best, but definitely a physically wincing from secondhand embarrassment at worst. Related to this, I feel like most of the dialogue reads like either someone who just learned what swear words are and thinks they’re really cool and funny or genuinely forced. At times most of the characters talk with the same delivery, cadence, personality, etc, it’s really obvious they were all written by the same person or group. And that even goes for background and side characters, too. This is a criticism I’ve never seen said: I really don’t like the voice acting in this show. I’m sure it’s no fault of the voice actors at all, but there were times in this where I either could not hear characters properly or could not understand characters properly and I had to watch it with closed captions on. The clearness and volume of the characters voices varies A LOT even just between scenes sometimes. And that combined with all the characters having really similar speech patterns, there were a lot of times where if I looked away from the screen, I genuinely could not tell if it was Alucard or Trevor speaking cause it sounded like it could reasonably have been either of them (and in some cases it literally didn’t even matter that much which character was saying what). It’s an absolute tragedy that the color schemes in this show are not remotely similar to Dracula’s Curse too. I understand why some color combos wouldn’t make it for eyestrain reasons, but the pixel artwork in all the NES titles is beautiful. Same goes for music, like I am never going to forgive this series for using Bloody Tears for a Dracula’s Curse ‘adaptation’ and not Beginning or Aquarius or Dead Beat or Ghost Ship or Clockwork or— ya know? These are two things that the series are really known for so you’d think with some of the fanservice they did they’d be all kinds of ready to use stuff like that for more of it.

Anyway, past season one is when I started watching the series primarily through clips/episodes reposted on YouTube or elsewhere cause I had completely lost any interest in it. I’ll probably go through synopsises online again for season 2 just to try to better remember what happened in that one because I do remember having very little good to say about season 2 as well and I gotta do that research so I can hate things properly :3.

There’s a certain part of this where I just kinda blanked on things to even say, partially because Season one is kinda bland in general, but partially because I started getting sleepy while typing. So if I feel like I missed anything season one specific I’ll just put it in the beginning of the season two post. d(_ _ )

[starswirly]

[ * Timezones are so silly. Like stop going to bed!! It’s dinner time!!! ]

[gaygirldoodles]

did anyone else notice how Chloe Charming's wig would change in the middle of the movie?

I've noticed how in the other Descendants movies one moment they'll have one outfit and the next its different?

but ive noticed it more with this movie

maybe cus im older watching them now

but with Chloe's wig did anyone else notice how in some scenes the curl pattern was a bit different and all the sudden her hair was thicker?

please don't tell me im tripping

[imreallyonthishellsite]

Made this because I my government assigned color was purple and my older sister was pink and to this day we keep unconsciously picking out stuff in these colors

[beginnerwritingandideas]

Rando writing prompt idea

A person whose hired to write bad endings worn down by all these terrible ends they're ( Isekaied maybe ) in a world where all the characters they chose endings for exist within as a weak writer they try their best to change these characters fates for the better acting as an Oracle or other various ways while trying to navigate a world they know nothing about other than their bad endings

Writers are all cockroaches of characters they are somehow not dead yet and a cockroach of a characters are my favorite

I envision them being tossed over the one characters shoulder who believed them while they're running as they try to go through their scripts of bad ends on how to fix things

And the thing is they never sorted the unused ones from the actual used ones because they just wrote in parenthesis what story it was in

What would make It even worse is if a Golden Retriever type who was forced to believe them because it nearly faced the first tragedy that happened (they had a long suffering breaking end in the story according to the writers script)

[yume-fanfare]

i think my favorite kind of criticism towards fairytale library was "it's weird that tori and wataru became friends so fast this happened just after atlantis" hate to break it to you but tori and wataru's process of becoming friends has been enstars' slowest slowburn. their relationship is more developed than most popular ships

[junos-cacophony]

zubin being on social media again means something & i don’t like what it’s implying

[mh-midnight-wanderer]

[At Heath's residence: Deuce, Heath, Gil and Jackson discusses about De Nile upcoming party]

Heath: The De Niles family's annual high-society-shrieking-ball-soiree is here! And even though common monsters aren't let in, that doesn't stop us from camping out for a peek at the fanciness...

Jackson: Okay, can someone please explain why we care about this

Deuce: It's pretty much the best party of all time. Rich food, richer folks. Its gonna be fun

Gil: They say each gift basket has a live cockatrice inside!

*hears someone knocking the door*

Jackson: *sighs* Guys, in case you've already forgotten, Nefera de Nile is the worst. And that's not just jealousy talking. I'd say that to her face.

*Jackson opens the door. And sees Nefera in disguise*

Nefera: I need your help.

Jackson: You're the worst.

*Jackson closes the door*

[eybefioro]

X/Shell is the QPR couple of all time idc. I love them.