#seems about time xD

[mitamicah]

Will you help me choose what picture to draw from the Backas gig :3?

I have made it a nice little tradition to draw and fully render at least one picture per Käärijä (and Joker Out) gig I've attended but I have so many good from the Backas gig so I've collected my favourite nine for you to choose between 👀

The pictures:

The poll:

*there may be a chance I'd draw more than one but I'll prioritize the one with the most votes (since I also want to work on the Allas drawing and JO Ruissi drawing - I have decided on a picture for both of those btw hence why there's no poll for those gigs - also I didn't have enough pictures of Käärijä at Ruisrock to make a drawing :'D)

[kaddyssammlung]

Vessel just looking good Budapest - November 2024

[feroluce]

I love the fact that the Silvermane Guards are essentially just a very devoted "We Love Gepard Landau" fanclub, and I desperately need for all of them to get into ship wars about it behind their Captain's back. The soldiers are all split into several factions:

Some of them ship him with Sampo 🛡💣 (enemies to lovers/hateship enjoyers; this does not necessarily mean they like Sampo- in fact it's more like most of them want to sic their Captain on him skzjsmdm)

Some of them ship him with Bronya 👑🛡 (knight and princess trope enjoyers and also a sorta-kinda "that is our mom and dad" type of deal; this faction gets riled up and ridiculously hypes Gepard up to Bronya every time she comes down to the frontlines mskdkxmd)

Some of them ship him with the trailblazer 🛡💫 (the smallest and newest faction, but steadily gaining!)

Some of them ship him with Pela ❄🛡 (workplace romance enjoyers; Gepard once charged out into the Fragmentum alone to save Pela from an expedition gone horribly wrong, and when this faction saw Gepard carrying Pela back princess style they threw a whole party)

Some of them ship him with Dunn 🛡🗡 (also workplace romance; Dunn is very flattered by this because yeah wrong Landau, but wow, the troops really think he's good enough to woo the Captain, what an honor)

And some of them ship themselves with the Captain 🛡❤ (yumejoshi enjoyers; this faction throws a massive group effort every Valentine's Day and are also all very supportive of each other)

The final faction is an odd one, because they're defined not by who they ship their beloved Captain Gepard with, but rather by who they don't ship him with. Their name is generally shortened to the A.B.S. Group- Anybody BUT Sampo 🚫💣 DKSZJJSMSOZ

[artsy-dreamer]

Art from the official Neko Atsume Twitter

Can you believe it? This is the year Neko Atsume turns a decade old!

[after-nine-at-the-oasis]

Those of you who haven't watched BigB's Secret Life episode I am begging you to do so.

He lied the entire episode, about everything, for absolutely no reason. It was insane, and hilarious

[frameconfessions]

I don't think the Technocyte Coda "boys" are the original On-Lyne boys. I think the originals are long dead and these things are cloned from leftover DNA like hairbrushes and things like that (like one of Amir's datamined emails mentions in the mall). We know the Orokin like trying to do longevity experiments and cloning experiments later on in the timeline and if Gregory V is Alad V's ancestor, the motivations would certainly line up.

[lieutenantselnia]

A little comparison of Lieutenant Lyste's voice in the English and German dub (+ a little bit of Kallus too); because I find languages interesting and this made me really think about how a voice actor can influence how a character is perceived.

First of all, I've watched Rebels primarily in German so far (though I've seen a good amount of scenes in English as well), partly for nostalgia reasons (I was in my teens, probably around 14 when I first watched the series and my English wasn't that good at the time to just casually watch an entire series, plus I was watching it with my younger sister), but also because I think the voice actors especially for the main and recurring characters are genuinely doing a really good job. Heck, for some characters I might actually prefer their German voice because it is that good! Kallus might actually be a good example for this if he's already here, I think he has such a pleasant roughness in his voice. For Thrawn it's also a pretty close match, he sounds wonderful in both variants but I might prefer his German voice just by a teeny tiny bit.

Who I actually wanted to talk about is Lieutenant Lyste though. I'm mainly familiar with his German voice, and as he's a fictional crush of mine, this is also the voice of his that I've fallen in love with. When I imagine him talking - regardless in which language - the sound is that of his German voice. Personally, I feel like that voice makes him seem a little younger and more naive compared to his English voice. I've always headcanoned him to be fairly young, in his early to mid twenties, and that by the start of the series he had just completed his military training recently (his position as supply master might have been the first one where he had to bear more responsibility). I've always seen him as a guy who's motivated and just trying his best, but at the same time he's lacking experience, plus, if we're being honest, when it comes to his military career he's a pretty average guy. I think he'd learn and improve over the years, but he isn't the "best of his academy year" or "promising young talent with innovative ideas" kind of guy, and he's far from a mastermind like Thrawn. He's literally Just A Guy, and personally, that's actually something I really like about him and that makes him endearing to me.

In contrast, I think his voice in the English dub makes his age a bit more ambiguous (I still wouldn't guess him older than 30, also based on his appearance but I feel he seems less "boyish" than in the German dub). I think it also gives him a bit more of an arrogant tinge and less of the playfulness that at least I hear in his German voice. He still conveys that dutifulness, but he seems a bit more uptight as well. I wouldn't go so far to say that that's bad, and I still like his English voice as well, but I think for me it won't come close to the charm that his German voice has to me.

Towards the end I want to point out though, that the voice, while being an important aspect, is not everything that makes a character. Appearance, behaviour, body language, actions and decisions contribute to that as well. What I found interesting is that most headcanons that I read about Lyste actually still overlap closely with my own as well, even though I heavily assume that not all people who wrote them are familiar with his German voice. I would say that this is a good thing, because his core personality is still conveyed across language barriers, even though the way that different actors voice him may emphasise different aspects of his character more or less.

[cuervosolsticio]

Radio demon is back in town, y'all! Let's show a big big big smile!

[mitamicah]

Why do I feel like these idiots think meeting up in each other's merch is a confession of love x'D? So yeah for day 3 here's Bojere being very obvious and oblivious at the same time :'D xD

[melancholic-rowen]

Love your art! 💕 btw how come your Casey Jr has pink eyes?

THANK YOU ❤️

That's because I have a krang!Casey AU that I've been working on for a little over a year now. I have a really bad memory, and sometimes it was hard to tell when if I was trying to draw cannon Casey or my AU Casey. It made it easier to tell which folder to organize stuff into later down the line. Sometimes it easy to tell the difference like here

At the beginning of the au casey is 13 and short, the difference is night and day. But there was a time where this was supposed to be a cannon compliant-ish AU and it wasn't so easy for me to tell in early drawings of AU!Casey like here

Without the pink eyes I would've absolutely thought that this was a post move outfits ideas for cannon Casey XD. That and I think it's neat! It kinda shows a bit that there's something up with him

[cienie-isengardu]

MK 9 (2011)'s story mode & MK 1 (2023)'s story mode

[imagionary]

Happy 20 years of not speaking to each other

[avirael]

FFxivWrite 2024

Day 14 - Telling

Curiously A‘viloh looked up to the blue sky and tried to imagine what the star constellation Rael talked about looked like here in the Sea of Clouds. A’viloh had asked about their studies and for a while now Rael had tried to explain to him the basics of astrology.

„So what do the stars tell you? Will we soon be able to leave Coerthas and go back home?“, he wondered and turned a tarot card around between his fingers.

Rael shook their head.

„You know, astrology is not exactly fortune telling, A‘vi…“

„That’s a shame…“, A‘viloh sighed and plucked an apple from the bag between them.

„Besides…“, Rael added with a bit of hesitation. ���Eorzea isn’t my home…“

His ears twitched and A‘viloh sat up as if he just remembered a very important detail he had entirely forgotten.

„I am sorry… I’m behaving like an idiot and forgot you probably feel even worse…“

„No.“, Rael said but kept browsing through the astrology book in their lap looking for an illustration they had wanted to show the Miqo’te. „This is not what I was trying to say…“

„I remember you said you were homesick. Is that what’s bothering you lately? I can imagine this place must be horribly different from your home?“, A‘viloh asked and eyed the viera, hoping to see some reaction, something that would make him understand them a little better.

For a moment Rael just silently stared at the book in their lap, but clearly without reading it, then they closed it and instead turned their gaze to A‘viloh. „It indeed is very different and you are right…but that’s not all of it…“

Attentively the Miqo’te looked at Rael and waited for them to continue. It was very apparent that Rael chose their next words carefully.

„You know, I realised you and me are not so different after all. I am not at all better than you. Not wiser, not more unfailing and certainly not braver. Everything that ever made me special was my magic but—“

The screech of a bird echoed through the air and both of them looked up to see one pass by far over their heads. The silhouette was difficult to recognise from this distance but A‘viloh thought the call had hounded like a falcon. The Ishgardians sometimes used falcons and owls to deliver messages over longer distances and judging its direction he assumed that this one could be headed for the Rosehouse.

„What were you trying to say?“

As he looked back to Rael, the Viera’s eyes still followed the bird gracefully sailing through the sky on silent wings.

„Mh?“, they snapped back to attention as A‘viloh spoke again. „Oh… yes! Uhm… Astrology! I was trying to say that it helps greatly to not feel as useless around here! As you know I am mostly trained in magic but you see, even here in Ishgard as strange as it might be, there are still new and interesting things to learn even for me!“

A‘viloh eyed them sceptically. Their voice sounded entirely different now, much more casual than before and somehow he doubted that this was what Rael had been about to say.

But why wouldn’t they be telling the truth?

„You see, all I am trying to tell you, A‘vi, is that maybe you should try learning something new too? If only to keep you busy until Yugiri returns with information. Lord Haurchefant once mentioned one of his friends is developing a new fighting technique at the Skysteel Manufactory, that is so easy to learn he even recruits common people with no experience in fighting at all. Maybe you could visit and see if it interests you?“, Rael explained and smiled friendly at the Miqo’te. But it wasn’t the same smile Rael wore when they truly were happy about something. It was the smile they used on strangers. To reassure them that everything was perfectly fine, even if that occasionally was a lie.

“I don’t know…”, A’viloh answered, more wondering about if there was a way to ask Rael about it without accusing them of lying. But that opportunity seemed gone.

[not-kamenx]

Beyblade X Episode 36: Bladership

Never has an episode made me more calm and relaxed as Packun gets a slap of reality and realizes he can’t continue being a thief forever. I thought him copying Hammer Incendio was just a one time thing— NO, THIS GUY HAS BEEN DOING IT FOR A WHILE 😭

Seeing Multi try to make a relaxed expression while wanting to throw hands with Packun is sure something. She probably has a lot of experience in having to keep a calm face for the audience but man, the urge to just jump over the stadium and yeet Packun to Jupiter is still there

IM SO GLAD THAT PACKUN DIDNT HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO STEAL MORE DATA OR ELSE I WOULDVE SCREAMED. Multi just practically stood there and won the battle too, and that was just really funny to me somehow. Like Packun had this whole plan with Hammer Incendio and having these weird fantasies of one shotting Persona’s team before losing to Multi.

MY MANS THOUGHT HE HAD A CHANCE AGAINST JAXON OF ALL PEOPLE. HE REALLY THOUGHT HE WAS GONNA BEAT MULTI AND CRUSH JAXON??? That’s just laughable, you really thought you could beat him, out of all people??? That’s like him challenging Chrome or Sigrid to a battle and expecting to win

then Miss Myoden and Taisho sending Multi the footage of when Packun stole the data for her to project it. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT THE PEAK OF THE EPISODE. But that made me question something like 😭 can anyone just project something at any time. Is it certain Bladers who have permission??? Did Multi just hack the 4X System to show Packun’s crime??? LIKE???

and then people starting throwing their Packun merch at him. Bro had all these (actual) fans and dolls thrown at him and he somehow didn’t flinch, how does one gain that ability? BUT I SCREAMED WHEN ROBIN TOLD THE AUDIENCE TO STOP

Robin with all due respect! STOP SHOWING KINDNESS TO YOUR BULLIES. TAKUMI SHATTERED YOUR BEY WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT AND YOU WERE LIKE “NUH UH” WHEN HE WENT TO QUIT BLADING. WHEN YOU MET HINA AND HAD ALL THOSE PROBLEMS WITH THOSE BULLIES AND THEY USED DIRTY TRICKS TO WIN YOU JUST SIMPLY DELETED THE FOOTAGE AND WAS LIKE “there :)” AND NOW WITH PACKUN. YOU WERE READY TO THROW HANDS BEFOR SEEING HIS BACKSTORY AND BEING LIKE “wait guys don’t bully him!” PLEASE.

boy he disrespected you AND Multi by stealing her creations and publicly humiliating you and saying the worst things to you and writing off your hard work as something only weak people tell themselves

and you just hold the doll and are like “hey you can start over again” while he slaps it out of your hand and says he hates sympathy from people like you ROBIN GET AWAY FROM THIS GUY YOU DONT NEED TO BE EVERYONES THERAPIST

then Packun is like “guys I wouldn’t do that Multi is lying that’s probably AI” well I didn’t expect the AI argument to come up kudos to him for that point brought up I’ll give him that much BUT STUPID HOW ELSE WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO COPY A BEY THAT PERFECTLY and he tries to stall the All-Stars battle to keep his loss off record

then our Queen Manju is like “we’re not cancelling shit get on with the show” Good. GOOD.

overall opinion of this episode: baby bird stop trying to be nice to everyone some don’t deserve it, Multi you ATE, and Jaxon has like a second shot where he’s just standing I CANT WAIT WHEN HE BATTLES thats if Multi doesn’t win ofc

[flare-dragon]

Ron's Gone Wrong: An Analysis

I recently rewatched (most of) Ron's Gone Wrong and remembered a few reviews I'd read of it, describing how its message seemed muddied and not very clear...which, ultimately, is true.

But, with that said, there's something I realise about it that it almost gets right (literally, all the way up to its second-last climax is so perfect, and even its ascent to its final climax is still consistent with this realisation). The realisation is that there's one thing it describes really well:

Artificial/Algorithmic "Friendship" vs Organic Relationships

It seems almost simple or obvious that this is the message the movie tried to portray, but the way that it ultimately ended tells me that they either missed the point they were making or someone else forced them to have a different ending (sadly, I think it's the former). I cannot call it a bad movie for missing that point (it's still one my most watched recent movies), but it makes me wonder what it could've been had it brought this point home.

So, without waffling on for too much longer, here's a quick analysis on how it goes about this message, and why it's a good message that doesn't inherently contradict the pervasiveness of social media (even if it also didn't do much about that point)

Barney vs Friendship

The beginning of the movie shows us a "revolutionary invention", designed for making friends: The Bubble Bot (B-Bot for short). From the get-go, we're given a presentation of what the modern friend-making dynamic intends to be: Interact with interests and media, share them online, and the algorithm uses that to help connect with others who shares those interests and enjoyment of media. It's an intentional reflection of modern social media, albeit a somewhat simplified version.

It quickly shifts to a large number of kids connecting to their B-Bots for the first time in a short montage, cut at the end with a hand touching a similarly-coloured door. An assumedly unintentional, but well-placed, contrast and summary of the story. Here we meet Barney.

Without rehashing too much of the beginning of the movie, we learn that everyone else at his school (supposedly?) has a B-Bot and he's the only one without it. Similarly, he doesn't have any friends he talks to during school (or outside of it apart from family). He himself states that he "kinda, actually" needs a B-Bot to make friends these days. One could call this a simple set up to the idea of "You won't make real friends using computers" by starting us off with a B-Bot-less Barney...if it weren't for the fact that he gets one the next day.

This is when we really start to see what I mean by "Barney vs Friendship": His attitude towards what his new B-Bot should be is pretty consistent with how everyone else has been using them: "You are meant to be my friend, and know everything about me." It's hammered in later on during the friendship montage, with Barney making a board on "How to be my friend" (underline by me).

Barney's perception of friendship, then, is revealed as "You are my friend. You are on my side. You like the things I like." A very selfish and self-centred perception. This might seem to set up Barney to be a selfish person...but isn't that how the algorithm is supposed to work? Finding people with the same interesting ("the things I like") and rejecting those who don't share it (which we see at the school, two B-Bots rejecting each other, and thus the two kids, Savannah and Ava, simply walk away from each other). It isn't Barney's fault his understanding of friendship is like this. He's been inundated and surrounded by it.

Barney vs Ron

Up to this point (after the school "riot"), we see Ron as trying so hard to be Barney's friend, to the point of taking Savannah's words to heart and going outside to find people to be friends with Barney (since Ron wants to not be pointless and is connected to Barney). It isn't until now that Ron asks the question: "Barney, are you my friend?"

Barney's response is typical and expected: "What do you mean? My dad bought you for me." After all, Ron is just a robot, right? It does make the idea of the message "Artificial Friendship vs Organic Relationship" difficult to apply since Barney literally doesn't see Ron as a person. He's just a self-moving machine designed to be a friend.

But, interestingly enough, that makes Ron a perfect vehicle for the message. A machine that was intended to just follow the algorithm, instead forced to (and willing to) create their own way through life by whatever limited tools it has access to. Even in the moments Barney sees Ron as just a machine, he's also treated him as an important person in his life.

When they meet up again in Barney's shed, it all finally shifts into what it always should've been: A two-way street. They'd already spent so much time bonding, regardless of the way they'd perceived each other before then (Barney seeing Ron as just a friend machine, Ron seeing Barney as the one person he needed to be a friend to), that the change to actually being a friend to each other and allowing each other's individuality to shine but never be the only priority allows them both to be better friends, differences and all.

To contrast, we also follow in pieces the journeys of Savannah, Rich, Noah, and Ava's own experiences with their functioning-as-intended B-Bots. We see Savannah and Ava miss an opportunity to be friends (and Ava's loneliness from very few B-Bot owners showing an interest in science). We see Noah's constant struggle to be at the top of the leaderboard. We see Rich attention-starved and making as much "content" as he can just to get some. Instead of exploring the possibilities of relationships with people who may not share the same interests, they're steadfast focused on what they're used to, never really getting a chance to evolve it into something more joyful (more on that later)

Barney & Ron vs The World

...a dramatic subtitle, but this is when the two of them run off, away from Bubble's attempt to capture Ron to stem the damage they've seen from him. Barney still doesn't have any friends aside from Ron, and Ron doesn't have any friends aside from Barney. Barney refuses to lose his one and only friend, so they run off, separated from the rest of the world, and just...enjoy each other's company.

In the montage and subsequent scenes, we see more bonding from both of them. Ron is still trying to be a good friend, but Barney gives him a chance to say things for himself and to do things for himself, even if Barney doesn't like it. Even when they argue later from the stress of living outdoors in the woods, they stick together and try to keep warm.

There's not a lot to say about these scenes, except that we see a very stark differences from when they'd first met. It's almost as if this is where we get to see how far they've come as friends. We've seen the relationship grow over time, shifting from seeing each other as a particular purpose into treating each other as individuals. A shift that would've been impossible if Ron simply followed the same algorithm the others did.

Would Barney have found friends if Ron functioned as intended? Would Ron have shown the personality he does if he had ever been connected to the Bubble Network? Would there have ever been a discussion on how to actually make friends? It isn't until later that we find a likely answer to all of these: No. Barney would have fallen into the same trap every other B-Bot user did: A constant hunger for validation that only resulted in disconnection and loneliness.

It al comes to a head when they both find themselves in danger from being caught by Bubble (by remote-controlled B-Bots being controlled without user consent or knowledge. Makes one wonder~). Barney does everything he can to hide and protect Ron (which only succeeds due to Andrew's complete disregard to human life), even risk death from asthma. Ron then does everything he can to ensure Barney doesn't die in the woods, even if it meant being taken away and destroyed.

It's a beautiful relationship, given a chance due to them having to discover who each other were over time and in an organic matter. Ron had to learn Barney's interests manually and even began to observe new things about him over time. Barney shifted the way he looked at Ron to seeing him as his own person, and spent the time to learn his own likes and desires.

Barney vs "Ron's Gone Wrong"

I figure it's also important to include where - in my opinion - the movie loses the message and the storytellers mess up. In the last segment of the movie, we have Ron having been connected to the Bubble Network and losing everything that made him unique, each interaction with Barney being a shallow facsimile of what made Barney become best friends with him (right down to Ron's individuality being erased).

I'm sure there was a way to make this work, but it instead has Barney try to rescue Ron's personality (a backup Marc created somehow) and then, after getting it back, Ron sharing his personality with every other B-Bot (due to seeing how the original algorithm just lead to sad kids disconnected from each other) at the cost of his own life (although that's technically ambiguous, especially with the ending).

I'm...not sure what the intent is, but it misses something big. What made Ron special to Barney was not simply that he existed outside of the mould that every other B-Bot was forced to fit into. It was that Barney got to know him and his eccentricities, and Ron got to grow and evolve alongside Barney. They both grew organically alongside each other, and demonstrated the need for a more natural approach to friendship making compared to the rigidity of the algorithmic connections that occurred through the B-Bots (and not questioning this algorithm or given much chance to examine the issues).

By simply sharing Ron's personality to every other B-Bot, it only really achieves one thing right in relation to the message: It forces each person to operate on their B-Bots level and develop their own connection to their now-chaotic buddy (I suppose not focusing on "online vs offline" as far as friendships go was also a good point for it, as it didn't really feel like a strong enough point for the movie and there's better ways to go about such a message.)

Had there been a greater focus on how it was that Barney's friendship had developed - or at least some kind of portrayal that the updated B-Bots weren't just copies of Ron but had actually become wide and varied individuals for their owners(?) to get to know - the ending might've been able to work better. Ron's sacrifice was a tragedy, but it displayed Ron's sheer selflessness and self-developed kindness and generosity.

If there's one scene that at least supports the message of "Artificial/Algorithmic Friendship vs Organic Relationships", it's the moment Barney sees how unhappy his former-now-again friends as they stare at their B-Bots screens and try to make some semblance of happiness, however shallow it is. Having a contrast of their artificially-built connection compared to Barney and Ron's hard-earnt friendship felt like a good way to help demonstrate the point. I just wish it could've lead to a more satisfying ending.

Barney and Friends

This is just a short little bit, but I wanted to at least point out one other good thing that happens in the last segment and ending. Barney may have started out friendless, but his friendship with Ron and Ron's selfless sacrifice (to get him medical attention) allowed Barney to reconnect with his former friends. It was a moment of realisation for Savannah, Ava, Noah, and Rich: After all this time, they let their friendship decay and be lost.

Seeing them, then, be together and hanging out alongside Barney? It showed another element of an organic relationship: Organic connections. Algorithms can give you other connection points, but it may leave you limited to other perspectives too similar to your own. Organic connections, though, force you to figure out if this thing that you never really thought about before is something you like or not, and if this person's appreciation and interest in it is something you like. It's one of those things that can just grow on its own and become something beautiful.

Just to note: I do not believe online friendships are worse than offline relationships, nor more shallow. Rather, it's algorithmic friendships that fall flat. The power of the internet is that it lets you get in touch with so many people you normally wouldn't have the chance to. Leaving it entirely in the hands of an algorithm (and not thinking critically about it) has you miss out on the beauty of the mish-mash nature of the internet. It's why Tumblr's such a fun place to be~ ^^

Conclusion

So yeah. The thing that always disappointed me most about the movie isn't that it didn't stick the landing. It's that it has such a beautiful message and the story it tells is so heart-warming and charming, but the message isn't carried to the end so you wonder if it was ever intended (I believe it was, but it's hard to say).

Seeing the way Barney and Ron's friendship evolves - and the way they each grow as individuals - contrasted with everyone else using B-Bots as they were originally designed/programmed makes for a pretty compelling portrayal of the differences between a friendship formed and informed by entirely through an algorithm, and a relationship that grew from organic interactions that, even when influenced by expectations from and of each other, created something much more different and complex and much more fulfilling for the two of them.

It's a beautiful friendship, and it's still worth watching to the end~

Bonus

It's more a funny coincidence I noticed, but the way that Andrew kicks Marc out when Ron loses his individuality, and then how Andrew was removed and Marc taking charge again when Ron's personality was distributed to every other B-Bot? Almost feels like its own reference to that message (Algorithmic Friendships may be ubiquitous and everywhere, but ultimately Organic Relationships will last the test of time)

A funny comparison honestly~

[fortune-maiden]

Did... did Tsukasa just die?

And that was the 7 Zios special... I have so many questions