#rap themes

[naradivision]

Mod’s notes:

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the late reply and thanks to @kunnaki for asking the rap themes of my characters, here I’ve updated each of them in their profiles (Yuuya | Asahi | Saigo)

Though I do have the idea about this ever since I’ve created my OCs, somehow I has left this topic uncompleted for such a long time because I’m not so confident in translating my own thought into words and my basic knowledge on music is kinda limited 😅

And one more thing, due to some circumstances on my side in December, I think I have to skip the birthday event of Saigo-san for this year. Hopefully, I wish I could celebrate all three of them in 2024!

If I’m lucky enough, see you guys later around Christmas

[chaoswithmusic]

Lin-Manuel Miranda is in my fucking walls.

I could be watching a show about a greedy duck and "oh what is this familiarly awkward high voice?" IT'S LIN FUCKING MANUEL.

I'm watching this super cool cop show and "oh poor Amy her brother sounds slightly pretentious" DAVID SANTIAGO IS LIN-MANUEL FUCKING MIRANDA.

This well beloved book of a lot of people's childhood based off Greek mythology is getting turned into a show "lemme check the cast of the gods in this show, I kinda like Hermes he seems like a fun god-" IT'S LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA BITCH.

[oneshotgremlin]

Up and Down

Thoughts on how beings generally perceive their world one spatial dimension lower than the dimensionality of the space they inhabit:

In the flatlands, the way people perceive the world around them is through lines, and so visual receptors HAVE to be on the edges of their shapes

Otherwise by all accounts the person would be effectively blind

So Mrs.Red and Mr.Blue have this strange yellow boy

Who appears to be born with no eyes

(It’s directly in his center, but without tests and doctors nobody can see it)

And for all intents and purposes, the boy is blind

He has to feel his way around buildings and people (in his hand a black cane that his parents bought to aid him)

And he doesn’t know what his parents look like, and only knows them by their voice as they guide him

They love him all the same, regardless

(Meanwhile, he stares up at the infinite expanse of the night sky. But the thing about infinity is that it makes where you stand so infinitesimally tiny in comparison, and no matter how far you run side to side the stars do not move an inch for you. And if they’re all someone sees, the only logical conclusion that can be drawn is that where they are is unspeakably, claustrophobically small)

(It doesn’t matter if the kids at school bully him and the adults look at him with pity and disdain that he can’t even see, because don’t they know how SMALL they are? Don’t they know how small EVERYTHING is?)

And so, with years and years and nowhere else to go, Bill reaches UP

(And no-one else has tried before, because why would they? There is no up or down to conceive, only forwards and backwards and left and right.)

It takes unimaginable amounts of energy to punch a rift into a dimension. In a time and space unmeasurably far away, a six fingered man and his five fingered twin would learn that lesson well

In the flatlands, it’s less of an interdimensional portal looming ominously in a metal room and more of a calculation

l is for length. w is for width. h is for height

And like a computer told to divide by zero, everything falls apart

Did you know that when energetic particles that erupt from the stars collide with a sufficiently nitrogen rich atmosphere, it produces the color blue?

Did you know the only reason the flatlanders didn’t drift off into the freezing cold yet boiling hot void of space, despite not having a planet with the volume and mass needed to produce a gravitational field, is their dimension’s lack of third dimensionality?

Like insects pinned underneath glass, yet the glass protected their corpses from falling apart?

They scream. He cries. He laughs. They die.

It’s an old saying: “When gravity falls and earth becomes sky beware the beast with just one eye”

And when little Billy looks away from the stars, looks down to finally see his tiny, minuscule home

For the first and last time, he sees a blue triangle with a hat, and a red triangle with a bow.

[elodee]

HERMIT A DAY MAY - DAY 16

Welsknight x Knights of the Zodiac (Saint Seiya)

For Wels I chose the original Saint Seiya anime, also known as Knights of the Zodiac!

I watched this show when I was pretty young, so I actually didn't remember much about the plot of this show when I started this piece. What I did remember is that I really enjoyed it. It felt like both a shonen and a magical girl anime (best of both worlds) and everyone had really, really shiny armor. And I mean, obviously I couldn't pass up the opportunity to reimagine Wels as a late 80s space knight in head-to-toe chrome!

To learn more about Knights of the Zodiac, please journey below the cut. (Gamers Outreach fundraiser - keep it going!)

Saint Seiya, or Knights of the Zodiac as I knew it growing up, is an anime from the late 1980s based off a manga series of the same name.

The story follows a young man named Seiya, who is part of a group of mystical warriors that wear magical armor (called Cloths) which pull power from (and are themed after) the constellations. The warriors fight for the goddess Athena to defend earth from evil.

One unique thing about the show is the characters don't usually have weapons - they are supposed to fight with only their Cloths and the power of the cosmos (it's a whole thing in the premise). However, Wels felt incomplete without the sword, so he gets to be an exception. :)

The anime is bright, campy, and action-packed but takes itself fairly seriously - basically exactly what you would expect from a classic shonen. The plot is divided into arcs but isn't too complex, so while it is best to start from the beginning of the show you can pick it up pretty quickly from anywhere if you're familiar with the genre.

Style references:

The designs for the knights - long fluffy hair is a requirement

The dramatic shine on all the armor is both iconic and very fun to draw once you get the hand of it

Knights of the Zodiac/Saint Seiya title logo. This is actually the logo from the ONA, not the original anime, but I think this font is way more fun so this is the one I used

[ydotome]

"Next Stage -SHINJUKU ver.-" by Matenrō (ep 5)

[glassesfreekjr]

... Why did they build a whole-ass flood bypass out in the Splatlands, anyway? Is it like California rules where it's arid as hell most of the time except for when everyone drowns, or has the flash flooding caused by Big Runs been more of a long-running issue then we initially thought?

The fan splatband Red Flare District is named in reference to the 190-chapter juggernaut "exercises in gratitude (The Barclay Street Flood)" by @redeyedsheepskull over on AO3. Contrary to what Inkopolis news media would have you believe, the Order vs. Chaos Splatfest was only partly the reason for the mass cultural exodus to the Splatlands. Maybe it had something to do with the fallout after a catastrophic spillway failure submerged a low-class Inkopolis neighborhood in millions of tons of polluted floodwater, I dunno.

RFD changed its name (from RLD) partly to capitalize on the event and partly out of genuine albeit ham-handed tribute.

And here, out in the middle of the desert, is yet another failed flood bypass. The ironic hilarity was too good for them to not write a song about. Fast-forward five years and some still consider the end product to be a tad insensitive.

(sample source list can be found on my YouTube)

[qilingxiong]

duel meta

i think a good aspect of the conflict present in the donghai fight is the fact that li xiangyi and di feisheng are each seeing the other as representing incompatible things, and this isn't something that began with the duel but it was part of what doomed them by the end of it.

it has to do with how both of them view their places in the jianghu, in general. li xiangyi by this point has become the symbol of sigumen. he embodies everything it stands for, and by extension of sigumen's prestige, he embodies what those in the jianghu striving for righteousness should look like. he's the legend of both this generation and the next, and when he snaps at shan gudao, li xiangyi literally considers himself the beating heart of sigumen. without him, it can't exist. he has become one with every person he represents while still apart from them, embedded in this fame across the jianghu and all its eyes on him. it's a burden, but while he's placed on the pedestal, li xiangyi still attempts to do good by all who put him on it. so here he stands, trying to shoulder it all.

di feisheng, on the other hand, has always seen his position on an individual level. he's associated with jinyuanmeng and he built it, yes, but that power is not something he's thrown himself into as its leader. he wouldn't say that jinyuanmeng wouldn't exist if he was gone; once di feisheng is reinstated as mengzhu in the present day, the first thing he does is to hand it over to jiao liqiao. his actions throughout the story after that are largely separate from those of jinyuanmeng, and he makes little effort to involve his subordinates except for a few specific people. to di feisheng, his achievements and strength ultimately rest on himself as a swordsman, and his skill compared to other distinguished people at the top of the jianghu. we see that on the night he frees jiao liqiao. he's not here to take over forces or resources, he's just here for one man and the rank he holds.

(i would argue that the power di feisheng did accumulate through jinyuanmeng is for two reasons. one, so that he had enough people behind him to apparently rival li xiangyi, and two, to keep him safe from the di mansion. but that's a different topic.)

so when the war between sigumen and jinyuanmeng breaks out, its final act on the donghai ship is a standoff between two people: one who views himself as representing a collective, and another who considers himself in that moment a swordsman on his own. and this greatly influences how both of them treat that fight.

to li xiangyi, this is a duel contextualized by leadership. because he will take the responsibility for sigumen and his side of the fight, he's focusing all that grief over shan gudao, all that anger and blame on di feisheng alone, as the opposing head of the forces he's been clashing with. since the name of li xiangyi cannot be separated from sigumen (and by now i don't think li xiangyi could define himself as person from image even if he tried), now he attaches di feisheng to jinyuanmeng in his attempt to force him to take accountability. in li xiangyi's eyes, they're really not people in this duel. they're the faces of hundreds more warriors, and every move they make has the lives of those people hanging onto them.

to di feisheng, the fact that they stand alone on that ship means they are alone, cut loose from everyone and everything else in an isolated space. this is a fight in its purest form now. just two men and their blades, relying on their own physical/spiritual strength and nothing else. it's what di feisheng has been waiting for, this chance to challenge li xiangyi where both of them stand on truly equal ground. there is no sigumen or jinyuanmeng dragging them down. they've cut through all the noise of the jianghu that he doesn't care for, and they're just di feisheng and li xiangyi, two highly skilled people who get to see who's stronger in an environment no one else can influence.

(it's worth noting, i think, that di feisheng chose the location of the duel by situating himself and therefore li xiangyi who would find him out at sea, even though the majority of their forces were fighting on land. his men on the ship complained about how horrid a decision it was to be at sea in that weather (it's the first dialogue of the show), but this ensured that any outside/not predetermined interference during their head-to-head would be much more difficult.)

these views or motivations are so terribly at odds with each other. li xiangyi is fighting out of desperate rage and the need for retribution, weighed down more than ever by all the people who look up to him and depend on him to seek justice. di feisheng is fighting for fairly-won status and glory, and in his eyes, for the first time they have been granted the freedom to go against one another where nothing else needs to matter.

it shows in the moves both of them choose to make. namely, that di feisheng fights with more restraint, while li xiangyi fights quite viciously. i'm going to focus a bit more on di feisheng's role here, because i think this contrast on his part is interesting and works to subvert his initial reputation/image, something significant to his character throughout the show (or at least more than it is for li xiangyi).

i would argue that di feisheng is on the defensive for the majority of this fight, as his side has been this entire war. in the duel choreography he's blocking, dodging, or backing up a significant amount more than li xiangyi, who keeps pressing, launching new offenses wherever possible to search for an answer and revenge. there's a clear give and take between them as the fight progresses. and thanks to how this dynamic plays out, and with the background of these characters' motivations, there are three key pauses in the duel that stand out to me. they're all points where di feisheng could have moved on or killed li xiangyi, even as he was the one being attacked, but chose not to.

the first is when li xiangyi is pressed up against the ship wall, di feisheng's sword against li xiangyi's cheek, enough to cut but not enough to lethally wound. they're locked in this position for a good few seconds before either of them react. di feisheng could press forward and cleave his skull, since li xiangyi can't parry him. i couldn't get a good screenshot, but shaoshi is buried in di feisheng's shoulder here. for that di feisheng could also back up and away, given his injury. but he does neither. instead he freezes in place, doing nothing until li xiangyi draws his blade out of di feisheng, and makes the next move.

the second is when there's a lull in the action on the roof of the ship cabin. we get di feisheng's line “一个剑客不该有弱点” ("a swordsman shouldn't have weaknesses") and li xiangyi pausing as the bicha poison begins to take effect. this is another very long break where di feisheng could've taken advantage of li xiangyi being distracted, but he stands still. we learn later that he didn't even know li xiangyi had been poisoned then, so this isn't him dramatically pausing to revel in li xiangyi's pain. his opponent wasn't immersed in the fight, so di feisheng waited until he was. he only moves forward to meet him when li xiangyi chooses to.

these breaks turn the duel into a dance, almost, where di feisheng is letting li xiangyi lead and only moving with him (when they're both in the physical state to). he's fighting with too much respect and leniency to be out for blood the way li xiangyi is, with everyone else on that ship already dead. they're fighting the duel through vastly different lenses and neither of them have realized it yet.

that point of realization is this last pause, di feisheng's blade stabbed into li xiangyi while he stands over him in the rain. the fact that di feisheng isn't actively trying to kill is apparent in two different details here. the first is that di feisheng's blade missed li xiangyi's heart, even though his accuracy as a swordsman is incredible. the second is that, once again, he waits until li xiangyi can move again before attempting to do anything further— except this time he yells that he's won.

this is the moment it genuinely struck for me that their perspectives on this duel are so different. di feisheng dealt li xiangyi a wound that is serious in the moment, but for someone of li xiangyi's strength, he'll be fine in the end. it only takes him out in the short term, and within that time, what di feisheng is waiting for after calling his victory is for li xiangyi to concede the duel. to say it's over, and give over his name as the top swordsman. that's what di feisheng was after.

to him, when it came to li xiangyi, defeating the man and killing him were two different things.

but this isn't where it all stops, because li xiangyi didn't know this (how could he?) and he's fighting for more than ensuring his name remains above anyone else's. di feisheng is fighting cold, but li xiangyi still has so much anger, so much left to do. so much at stake and on his shoulders and 'defeat' and 'giving up' are luxuries he doesn't have.

when the blade in him and the poison taking greater hold pushes li xiangyi into needing a last stand, he refuses to hold anything back. he's an opportunist now, and di feisheng has given him an opening. so out comes wenjing in a surprise attack, there goes di feisheng impaled against the mast, and it all goes to hell. di feisheng can't fight honourably because li xiangyi is coming for his life, and for the first time after a pause like this, he's the one who attacks first.

their last skirmish is because now there's nowhere else for either of them to go. all other motivations have been shattered. either one of them must break, or they must fall together. and the latter is exactly what they do.

perhaps, in a thousand other worlds, the duel went differently. but in this one, li xiangyi fought because he thought they both represented everyone, and di feisheng fought because he believed they represented nothing more than themselves, and neither man could understand that the other didn't share their perspective. signalled though it was throughout the fight, and evenly matched though they were, they were fighting two separate battles on that ship. it wasn't anything they could help, only the result of contrasting lives in the jianghu and what it had shaped them both into. and so there was nothing that could come of that duel except for both of them to lose.

[moonchild-in-blue]

If I had a dollar for every band originated from a multi-instrumentalist / drummer duo of two best friends, lead by a sad pathetic wet cat piano man who writes the most gut-wrenching lyrics, with lore regarding the aformented frontman's darker side, who also uses black body paint and masks (on ocasion), and incorporates so many genres that made it impossible to properly classify it, I'd have two dollars, which is not a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

[the-sprog]

I need to make a Sanders Sides as superheroes drawing

But not like... Roman if he were a superhero. I mean which DC/Marvel hero would they be "variants" of.

I need opinions. Send me options. I'll make polls after I get a few.

Expect Remus. He's Deadpool. That one's easy.

[srapsodia]

woah!! hi!! that's a lot of you in a very short time!! thank you all for liking my drawings enough to stick around! :>

[welowyrm]

HI I DON'T WRITE MY OWN POSTS BUT I AM HERE 2 SHILL U VNs

Play seekL, learn SQL and vc with cute hacker boi

Play Blooming Panic, get shilled into FFXIV??? and find the blossoming fan server love of your fantasies

Found them 2 days ago, got the seekLove end in seekL, blazed immediately thru the other two endings at the speed of light, had the BEST TIME, finished in. Too fast. Now I know there's a programming language based on Arnold Schwarzenegger. The characters are written realistically and I maintain that Incri lurks on 2 many subreddits.

Then meandered to Blooming Panic and hung out in Fake Discord. I love all the routes. The shenanigans are super funny. There's memes. There's onion. (Just one.) There's grandpa! Hung out with Office Dad on my lunch break!

And not only are both games VAed they're FREE.

Anyways I'm shilling go play them (and while you're at it go play hit video game Final Fantasy XIV now up to level 70 FOR FREE and hit expansion Stormblood!!)

[faunandfloraas]

3racha being on maxident is objectively really funny just hi, welcome to our album funny, silly time 😁 Oh and now drop the fuckin drill track

[i-star]

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀،🧛🏿‍♂️ king vamp.

[sanctuarynurse]

Celebrated the smilers birthday today! 11 years of being the world record breaker of the most inversions and 11 years of being in my life.

I appreciate this rollercoaster so much and I'm super thankful to have it on my life 🐝

[akkivee]

i’m so stoked to see they’re still in their new outfits!!!!!!!

[ydotome]

"Next Stage -OSAKA ver.-" by Dotsuitare Hompo (ep 4)