#so I took a full 180 from my original design and ended up going for more of a comic book look taking from the power rangers crossover art Tumblr posts

[hitwiththetmnt]

It’s here! Here’s my comic cover for @kathaynesart ‘s Replica Anniversary DTIYS!

(Flat color and no color versions below)

[regardingseas]

Ttile: Echoed Vexations (Part One, part two linked)

Fandom: Hermitcraft

Rating: Teen and up audiences (violence warning)

AO3: here! (Full story at once)

•••

Plot Summary:

It's all too easy to turn a blind eye to the past-- to believe that because someone has been shielded from harm's way, they should no longer fear the wrath of their opponent's creed. They're safe now, after all, so why would they..?

Yes, Scar and Cub are certainly "safe", but they're still haunted by memories of the Vex and their deals all the same.

OR

An average afternoon during the HCB Base Swap is cut short when Mumbo accidentally digs up a remnant from Scar's Vex partnership days, and unfortunately for the town's mayor, the other Hermit is far from aware just how triggering the topic can truly be. Things only dissolve from there, and in the end, Grian lends a helping hand to console a friend.

•••

Additional Content Warnings:

Depictions of trauma disorders, panic attacks, flashbacks, paranoid thoughts/delusions, manipulation, gaslighting, threats, injury, and violence. Mentions of religious themes, unintentional self-harm, and non-permanent character death.

Do be careful, but otherwise, enjoy!

•••

The sun was still high in the sky even as Scar finished decorating the monument's support chains, sweltering rays beaming down and adding to the oppressive humidity of the jungle around him. With his usual jacket set aside to fight the heat, he wiped away the beads of sweat that had gathered on his forehead and grabbed a stray bucket from the sidelines. He'd nearly finished the waterfall aspect of the design-- crystal blue streams cascading over the edges of four white spanners, all joining together in the octagonal pool at the base's foundation. It was looking quite spectacular, if he were to say so himself, with the vine-coiled braces and additional water currents tying the otherwise juxtaposing themes together nicely.

Scar scooped up a fresh pail of water, filling it to the brim and hauling it towards the last pillar. He glanced down at the container as he carried it, catching a glimpse of his reflection from the liquid inside. His face shone red with effort, misplaced strands of hair having clung themselves to his tan skin.

Though unsurprised, he still couldn't help but laugh at the rippling image. "It's just my luck I'd swap with another jungle dwelling Hermit. I swear, I can never escape this climate for long. First the island last year, then all this."

With a shake of his head he returned his gaze upwards, continuing to muse aloud to the landscape before him, "You tropics are wonderful and all, but it sure would've been a nice change of pace to set up camp in somewhere like the mountains. Or pull total 180 and have landed in the tundras!"

Concepts for each design raced through his head, each idea fighting the others for dominance and tacking details onto itself, trying to land its place on the metaphorical pedestal of his imagination. A cottage with medieval influences? No, that would be far too typical, amp both of those components up. An entire village with a steampunk driven aesthetic, built into the mountainscape itself; no doubt with custom terraforming to integrate the buildings into the natural environment. That was more like it.

Scar could envision working windmills and waterwheels accompanying purposefully makeshift farmlands, historic blimps having reclaimed skies where they'd soar high overhead. Below them, eye-catching pops of colour, shining through as floating lanterns that hover above connective rope bridges.

As for the arctic concept? Something more grand would be ideal. In his fantasy, he'd created an absolute oxymoron of the words cabin and mansion jumbled together, and he adored it that way. A bottom floor made of bricked stone, the top made of logs and large windows to oversee the view. Accompanying them in the same manner would be a balcony, propped on columns that hugged the building and curved around its corners. The top deck would be open for clear days, and the space below it safe on harsher ones. Sloped roofs would be adorned with chimneys, and the interior warmed by cozy flames that were kept organized with inviting lofts. The living area could be split leveled, sinking down to create its own margin where guests could comfortably gather by the fireplace and--

There was a tug at his ankle, and next thing he knew, a bemused Scar went crashing to the ground, having been too caught up to notice the trailing plants blocking his footway. His hands shot out to catch himself, palms scraping against the concrete floor in a way similar to the childhood stunt of crashing and burning on the pavement. A stinging snapped up his arms, and the water bucket dropped from his grasp, clattering down with a metallic rumble before spilling its contents across the floor.

Scar pushed himself upright with a hiss of air through his teeth, shaking off his grazed palms and wiping them on his jeans. Pulling his foot free from the greenery and gathering himself up was no problem, what was a problem, however, was the troubling sight now before him.

The water had spilled all over one of Mumbo's redstone contraptions, causing the device to short circuit and emit a sort of maroon-grey smoke. The wires fashioned from the compacted dust had been all but washed away, any remaining pieces hanging on by threads and failing miserably whenever a signal attempted to fire; more so sizzling rather than surging alight with energy.

"Oh, crud!" he shouted, racing towards the machine and yanking on the shut-off switch to divert any further input from the broken setup.

It powered down, but Scar was still left swatting the coloured smoke from his face, coughing as the scent of burnt metallics filled his nostrils. When had he gotten so absorbed in possible building opportunities that he'd managed to miss the foliage in front of him? Why had he even been wondering so deeply about it, anyway? This event was about improving one another's bases by adding their own personal touches, not starting a new project entirely.

Scar sighed, he wasn't sure why his mind had begun drifting so far. He'd like to blame it on the wild imagination of a builder, but he had a feeling there was a little more to it. Sometimes, when the world wasn't too much to handle, it was too easy to let fall away. Maybe he spent too much time daydreaming-- he was sure there was a word for that, when trances became so all encompassing, so engrossing.

"But I don't have time to think about that right now," he reminded himself, "I really need to fix this. It doesn't look like most of this redstone is salvageable, I'll have to get new supplies to repair it. Maybe some of the circuits are okay..?"

Scar nudged a repeater with his shoe, the device making an unnatural sloshing noise in his attempt to change the feed-in. He scrunched up his nose, "Okay, nope, gonna need to replace that, too."

Running a hand through his hair in defeat, he glanced towards Mumbo's storage system before shaking his head. It wouldn't be right to use the other man's supplies without asking, let alone waste them on a mistake made due to Scar's own carelessness. He'd have to make his way back to his original base and gather the materials from there once more. When he dropped by initially, he figured he'd gotten everything he needed, but apparently hadn't accounted for dissociation-induced redstone mishaps.

"I guess we're making a trip back," Scar announced to no one, finally picking up the empty bucket to set it safely aside. He made his way over to his tent, temporarily discarding any excess materials and bidding adieu to Jellie before grabbing his elytra and setting off.

Taking to the skies, Scar squinted against the wind as it roared in his ears. His hair parted itself from where it had stuck, short locks brushed back by the flowing breeze. With arms extended for balance, and maybe a dash of amusement, he lit his rockets and propelled himself into the distance.

-----

It wasn't long before he encroached on his base again, allowing his faux wings to glide him downward where he kicked out his legs to come to a soft landing. Scar stopped before the massive drill site just on the outskirts of the forest, heading towards the agglomeration of crates and boxes he had haphazardly stowed aside. He was certain there had to be the necessary hardware in one of the many containers, though which that may be was lost on him. At least, thanks to Mumbo and his new storage system, the chest monster he'd created would soon be a thing of the past.

"I wonder how that's going for him..." Scar pondered, striding over to a random shulker and beginning his sure-to-be protracted search.

"Scar?" a familiar voice interrupted, making him peer ahead to see the moustached man himself rounding the corner. "Hello there! I see you've made yourself rather at home at my base," Mumbo teased.

He couldn't help but chuckle, "That I have. I just needed to stop by and pick up some redstone and iron. With all the ore this place has quarried up, I was sure there's bound to be more of that here than back at Larry."

Mumbo faked surprise with a hearty grin, "Getting into mechanics, are we? Have the inner workings of the temple really had that much influence on you after only a few days?"

"Now I wouldn't say that," Scar shook his head and closed the lid of the grey shulker, seeing no point in hiding the truth. "I took a tumble holding a bucket of water and it kinda spilled on one of the contraptions. I'm sorry for the trouble-- but don't worry! I came here to fix it right up. I just didn't wanna waste your materials fixing my silly error."

The suited man waved his hand dismissively, "Nonsense, it's no trouble. Have you seen the improvements you've made to that place? I mean, of course you've seen them, you built them, but rhetorically speaking--" Mumbo cleared his throat, "Just don't fret over it, I trust that you'll have it fixed right up in no time."

Scar smiled, "Thanks, dude. Now I just have to find where on Earth I put those ore…"

Mumbo gave another laugh, "You know, you can feel free to use some of my things if need be. I have no idea how you expect to find anything in this mess. I'm only trying to do a basic look through so I know where to begin when it comes to the item sorter, but even that doesn't seem to do much good. I swear, it's like trying to play a very intense game of memory, with thousands of nonsensical cards all scattered about."

Scar snickered sheepishly at the comparison, "Yeah, no kidding. But being able to use some resources without flying all the way over here would be great. Thanks again, Mumbo. I don't know if there's anything you'll need here while working, but hey, consider it free range. We're doing these things for each other in the long run, anyway."

"I'd say, 'unless we don't switch back our deeds', but in all honesty? I'm beginning to miss the ol' living monument already."

The two exchange a chuckle before returning to their previous tasks, both going back to digging through the pile of chests in preparation for their projects.

It took longer than Scar wanted to admit to finally find the crate stocked with valuables-- sighing in relief at the sight and immediately beginning to pile the items into his inventory. There were pre-smelted metals from an iron farm, so he didn't have to bother with the ore, and the redstone he'd gathered was already in dust from, meaning all he'd have to do was craft the items after returning.

"I wonder if it would've been easier to stop by the shopping district and buy these directly, instead of making them by hand..." he said, "Oh well, saves on diamonds, and these had to be used some time, I guess."

"Talking to yourself over there?" Mumbo asked.

"Just thinking aloud is all."

"I see," the moustached man nodded, pushing himself up from where he'd been examining the supplies. "I found something neat from last year! Do you wanna see?"

"Sure!" Scar agreed, setting aside his intent of flying back in favour of seeing what it was Mumbo had to show him.

He smiled and stepped over to Scar, holding out a faded piece of paper for them both to see, "I found it stuck to the bottom of a shulker box! Can you believe we used to be competition so recently?" He joked.

Scar could only stare at the advert before him, a steele blue page embellished with a vault-like ring in the center. It meant nothing to the untrained eye, but to him, all of the company's horrors were sealed underneath. ConCorp read bold text in half-connected lettering, the logo finalizing its signature with a black bow tie adorning the bottom.

"Hardly," managed Scar, having just remembered he'd been asked a question, "But it wasn't that recent."

"It was practically yesterday if we're talking business," Mumbo snickered, "but we aren't. I'm not very good at business."

"Me neither, I prefer mayorship," he said in an attempt to change the subject.

Mumbo, however, didn't seem to notice, only turning to stare at Scar with eyes wide. "Are you kidding me? You were quite literally the richest Hermit of all last year! You're wonderful at business. Sahara was amazing, and I don't for a second doubt it was the most ambitious project of our group to date, but she had plenty of bugs, being the machine powered industry that she was. ConCorp, however? That was an utter monopoly! The thing lasted two bloody seasons!"

Scar chuckled awkwardly, "I know, I know, Cub and I worked very hard. But it wasn't all us, we couldn't have done it alone."

"Give yourself more credit," Mumbo insisted, "I'm more than convinced you could have gotten your business up and running even without the help of your Vex friends. Weren't they less prominent in your company last year, anyway? You did change your guy's name from ConVex to ConCorp, after all. I think that would imply less input on their part."

"Not really," he explained, though the tension building in his body was becoming harder to conceal. He had to keep his arms rigid so that they wouldn't shake, forcing in deep breaths to avoid the shaky ones that threatened to take their place. "We just thought it would be better for business, rebranding to something more gentlemanly and all."

Mumbo nodded, "Ah, that makes sense. Though I still don't understand how you managed to work with them to begin with. I likely wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes. I mean business partners with the Vex? Friends, even? How'd you do it? Not to mention why? With all due respect, what makes one seek that out?"

Scar blinked hard at the influx of questions, "Oh, it's- it's really complicated, you might not understand. Cub started it, though. I joined the team not long after, but I wasn't there when he first struck the deal with Them."

"Huh, some deal," Mumbo remarked thoughtfully, and Scar nodded.

He had no idea.

"So what made you leave that behind?" Mumbo continued.

"What?" he asked, finding his thoughts hazy. They were static nothingness, but somehow also crashing into his skull. He found himself having to dig his way through them, while at the same time trying to bury them once he passed. The last thing Scar wanted was to do was hark back to the Vex, to beckon forth Their memory with his own.

The other man simply chuckled, oblivious to Scar's inner turmoil. "ConCorp, the Vex. Did you two just get bored? Having done the same thing for too long?"

"In a sense, you could definitely say we were tired of it. It just- well, it wasn't what we wanted to do anymore. We wanted to move on to new things."

"That's fair enough. Do you blokes still get along? Or did they take the corporation's end like a sour breakup?"

This time, Scar couldn't contain his wince. "We're still friends!" he insisted, "Of course the Vex are my friends."

Mumbo finally quirked a brow, "Are you sure about that? You don't have to worry about hiding some burnt corporal bridges from me, I'm not here to judge."

"Oh yeah, I'm positive," he nodded eagerly, "I'm just- I'm gonna go work on fixing that contraption I damaged, best to get it fixed before we have to switch back."

"Buddy, are you sure everything's alright? I'm sorry if I upset you or anything."

"Nah, I'm just peachy!" Scar announced with far too much false enthusiasm, internally cringing at his failed masking abilities. Not allowing any more time for his ruse to be cracked, he uttered a quick goodbye before adjusting the straps on his elytra and dashing off, leaping into the air and back towards the ruins.

"Scar, wait!" Mumbo tried, but he was already gone.

------

The returning flight was far from the peaceful journey he'd made to the excitation site. His artificial wings beat frantically, struggling to keep up as he charged forward with excessive firepower. He paid no mind to the safety protocol regarding the rocket's cool-down period, simply heralding through the air as fast as his elytra would carry him. Scar arrived back to the monument in a trip overall much faster than when he'd left, but it seemed to drag on for an eternity. The entire excursion consisted of a battle with his own mind-- a war in which he knew he was bound to lose, but he had to hold down the fort until he was on solid ground.

Scar was lucky not to crash into the debris upon landing, frantically stumbling to the dirt and having to grasp onto a piece of wreckage to maintain his balance. His legs nearly buckled under his weight, form trembling in spite of the deep breaths he gave it his all to draw in.

He grasped hard to the rubble, trying to anchor his brain into focus. He couldn't let his thoughts spiral, he couldn't think about Them. He knew grounding techniques, and he tried to rush his way through them.

Five things you can see.

He could see the golden heart, plants, stone, the golden heart again-- the thing was too anatomically correct, he'd seen horrors too similar to it before. And the sound, it was too damn loud, too hard to ignore. Its unsteady rhythm hammering in his ears alongside his own faltering pulse.

Forget visuals, four different noises?

Scar squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to listen, focusing hard on the world around him. Still, he could only hear the heart. He could only hear it pounding, its once melodic notes like nails on a chalkboard. He could remember far too many times when he was left alone with nothing but his heartbeat and his pleas.

Tactile. Texture. What can you feel? Three things you can feel.

Internally, he screamed at his dulling senses to return. God, he didn't want to think about Them, it wasn't worth the risk. They'd been inside his head before, and the mere idea of having his thoughts broadcasted again made his stomach churn. Scar tried harder and harder to suppress the images bubbling to the surface, festering like maggots in an old wound. The more he tried to push them down, however, the fiercer they'd rise back up, and he choked down a sob in attempt to list the sensations he could currently identify.

He could feel the stone-- but he already said the stone, didn't he? He could also feel the sun. It was hot against his back. So hot. He was overheating.

The notes should have been a success, but the drops of sweat felt too akin to tricking blood. The sting of his hands felt too much like the friction burn of a rope. It felt too much like he was back with the Vex again, and as he finally sunk to the soil, he could no longer swim against the onslaught of memories crashing over him like a tidal wave.

They could still hear him, They could still hear him, They could still hear him, They could still get him--

------

The day he and Cub first found the courage to try and cut ties with the Vex had been a hellish one, and the two men weren't even successful in their attempt. Hence, of course, it being the first.

Still, it had taken ages for Scar to persuade Cub that it was even worth trying, the other man having believed it was impossible to sneak anything past the Vex on their own. Scar was persistent, however, and eventually convinced his friend they had a shot if they played their cards right, if they made the right proposal without their intentions being discovered.

They'd constructed their plans in secret for weeks; discussing them only inside of untold locations with hushed whispers, or in the form of coded scrawls they'd burn immediately after reading. They couldn't be too careful, that's what they'd tell themselves whenever they worried their precautionary measures may be over the top. Even so, when a so-called conference was put on the schedule --such events were far from any type of cordial meeting, despite having been assigned the title of one-- the men were hardly prepared for it.

Their conference room consisted of a needlessly grandiose suite, with floors of marble and walls carved from deep umber wood. The polished lumber was adorned with expensive paintings in aureate frames; antique laden shelves taking up the spaces they did not. Aesthetically pleasing decorative tactics were discarded in favour of showing off their riches in a possessive cluster, with the only average items being the table and its chairs sat in the dead center of the area. A chandelier of gemstone and gold swung from above, dangling by the same chains fated to one day bind their vassals.

"Concordats, greetings!" A Vex declared as the men were led through the doorway, hovering in the air at the opposing end of the surface.

"Greetings," parroted Cub minimally, Scar giving a plain nod beside him. Fewer words meant less chance at letting their guard down.

"We've been needing to speak with you," a different Vex chimed.

"Speak with you about the business," yet another visitant confirmed.

"We actually need to discuss similar matters with you all," Scar noted, voice and expression a façade of tranquility.

"You do?" the first asked, wide smile replaced with inquiry.

"Yes," managed Cub, "we want to make you an offer, one you can't refuse."

"I do like the sound of that!" the second snickered.

"We'll hear your offer," the Vex grinned, "we only have one question first!"

"Of course, what is it?" asked Scar, in mental awe of how well their exchange was going.

"Do you recognize these?" it asked, gesturing towards the white table where a blue light flashed, fading away to reveal a small pile of ash.

Cub and Scar glanced to one another in evident confusion, the latter of the two speaking once again, "Forgive me, but we're not sure what you're talking about."

"Oh, silly me!" the Vex giggled, another flash of luminesce encompassing the soot and leaving a stack of papers in its place. As if caught in a controlled gust, they blew from the surface and organized themselves midair; levitating in a cloud of magic.

All of their once burnt notes were lined up before them, cyphers needed to crack their messages included.

Still beaming with innocence, it continued, "How about now? Look familiar?"

The blood drained from their faces, and Scar could have sworn his heart was going to burst from his chest with how hard it was drumming. He wanted to wake up, because this had to be a nightmare.

"No, we have no idea what those are," he tried.

LAIR!

Overlapping voices screamed in his head, all sounding in haunting unison. Scar hastily clapped his hands over his ears, but it did nothing to silence the uproar emanating from within.

You try to break our contract then lie to our faces?

Foolish concordats.

Terrible secret keepers, terrible subjects.

Cub seized hold of Scar's arm and made a break for the door with the brunet in tow, reaching the exit and tugging desperately on the handles. They refused to turn under his grasp, and his eyes darted back towards the Vex; floating creatures growing ever closer to their imaginary bubble providing them with the illusion of safety.

More of Them were phasing in through walls, forms non-corporeal and having no need for the sealed entryway.

Apologize.

They all ordered, Scar flinching at the simultaneous projection. He lowered his hands and turned towards Them, watching Their unmoving grins with wide eyes.

Kneel before your gods and divulge your prayers, we may just show you mercy.

"I'm sorry-" Scar whimpered, but Cub was having none of it.

"No!" the man barked, "Screw this! This isn't worth it! None of this is worth it! He's right! The business, the money, the power, it-- it means nothing! Not when you treat us like this!"

They watched him step forward, his furious yells echoing through the expanse of the room, "We're done! And we mean it! You're going to get us go or else!"

An orchestra of shrill cackles filled the air.

Oooh, it's angry.

They're fighting back!

Teach them a lesson.

"You won't dare make another-" Cub's retaliation was cut short with a cry, the bearded man dropping to the ground in a swift crash.

"Cub!" Scar called, but his attempt to step towards his friend was met only with a searing pain through his legs and the subsequent buckling of his knees. He fell to the marble, limbs heavy as if they'd been weighted. It took considerable force to balance on his arms, appendages left shaking as he peered back up towards the Vex.

He regretted it instantly.

•••

(Part two)

[ihaspoorgrammer]

Legend of Korra: Alternate Season 2

In honor of LoK coming to Netflix, I’ve decided to vomit all my feelings towards that show the best way I can - creative writing - In a “What I think Should’ve Happened” essay for your reading pleasure. For those who don’t have the time, I’ll just come out and say it -- Legend of Korra was created with one season in mind, and that’s how it should've stayed.

All the concepts and ideas they introduced in the first season (and The Last Airbender) were more-or-less abandoned by the sequel so they could flounder and come to a deflating end.

So, I wrote this as a way to actually make use of them in a meaningful way that the creators so casually disregarded:

A few months after the battle with Amon, the Equalists have splintered into different cells throughout Republic City. Amon being revealed as a Waterbender weakened them, but that doesn’t take away from the larger points they championed about Bender/Non-Bender inequality. As a consequence, the United Forces soldiers are still a presence in the city, and Chief Biefong has made use of them as additional keepers of the peace, working with the Metalbending police to help rebuild and establish order, and has benefited greatly from the leadership of General Iroh and Commander Bumi.Korra is still airbending training with Tenzin as well as learning about the Avatar State, and she seems to have done a complete 180 in terms of her training; now dedicating herself to it full time to it. Tenzin is naturally happy about this development, but cautions her that the training will have to come naturally and it’s not something she can force, and is wary of how deeply her fight with Amon affected her.   The Fire Ferrets are preparing for their first match since last season against the Polar Leopards, Mako and Bolin steel their nerves while their new waterbender - Tahno - tells them to "relax" and "prepare to be amazed." After putting up a spirited fight, the Fire Ferrets and their opponents are tied. After ganging up on Tahno - who is at a disadvantage, being more accustomed to cheating - is saved by Mako. With seconds left, Tahno subtly bends the water on the opposing team’s side, and creates an ice-patch, causing an opponent to slip. Tahno takes advantage of this, and wins the match with a “Korra Special.” Only Mako notices the cheat.  After the match, Mako approaches Tahno about the cheating, but lets it slide. At Bolin’s suggestion, the two brothers go out to celebrate and invite Tahno along, but he opts out for "training” (after this, we see that Tahno has a picture of Korra in his locker, hinting that he only joined the Ferrets to make it up to her for restoring his bending).Asami has taken full control of Future Industries and personally oversees the production of new satomobiles and has saved Future Industries from bankruptcy with new airplanes designs. However, the company can't shake the black-eye her father gave it and her name, so business contacts have become scarce and shareholders have started pulling out. Worse, the board of directors have begun flexing their muscles to try and squeeze her out. She needs to come up with something good and fast.Mako, Bolin, and Tahno are in the middle of free-for-all sparring, when Tahno accidentally makes ice and headshots Bolin (which makes his vision comically go double). Mako scolds Tahno about it, causing Tahno to storm off.   Later that night on Air Temple Island, Mako brings Korra a meat dinner (Tenzin has put her on a vegetarian diet), but she declines. They begin to discuss Tahno’s participation in the team, which Mako believes was a bad idea, but Korra reminds him that Tahno has cut back on cheating, worked hard, and overall been a good addition (or stand-in for Korra). They share a nice couple-moment and laugh. We see Asami in the distance looking at them longingly, showing that she is still hurt over Mako leaving her for Korra. She starts to walk back to her room when she hears a strange noise in the distance. The source is Commander Bumi throwing his boomerang back and forth. After talking for a bit (and Bumi revealing that the boomerang once belonged to his uncle, Sokka), Bumi allows Asami to give it a throw. After a successful first try, she accidentally throws it through Tenzin's window. Bumi tells her "I didn't see anything if you didn't see anything." As he hops in the bushes to hide and Asami runs away. Laughing.  Meanwhile, a group of once-small time Triad gangs (they were "little people" before Amon "de-bended" the major families), are attacked by members of the Triple Threat. After a small battle, the Triple Threats win, and take with them a powerful bloodbender (or they start interrogating someone), leaving behind a message: “Lightning strikes twice.” ------

After that, Season 2 is in full swing. The Triads are the major Big Bad of this season because the purpose of the show was to be the opposite of Airbender, narratively speaking. So, that means keeping Korra and the cast firmly in Republic City and no more globe trotting.

This puts a bigger emphasis on the characters and their interpersonal relationships (which was the big draw of the show to begin with), rather than having to build up and explain the geo-politics of a new setting.

If they did stay for at least one more season, it probably would have emphasized a larger untapped well; the city was designed to be a 1920’s New York-style “melting-pot”, a place where all cultures come together and mix (Mako and Bolin are a product of a Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom union, and Tahno seems to be the a product of a Fire Nation and Water Tribe union). So, essentially, it’s the architectural equivalent of the Avatar. Just as the Avatar is the synergy of the four nations, Republic City does the exact same thing, just on a larger scale. One more season would better emphasize this fact, and show that despite what people think, it is possible for the four nations to co-exist as long as it’s based on mutual respect and sharing of differences, not domination of differences. This imaginary second season could also be used to address multiculturalism in any number of ways. 

Maybe the new Big Bad could’ve been a terrorist group dedicated to keeping the nations separate and "pure," and see the City as an affront to the Avatar’s “true responsibility.” And maybe Korra can see that, despite its flaws, the city and what it represents is worth saving. It also would have emphasised the “super-hero” aspect of the show; Korra being a Superman-figure who constantly has to protect her Metropolis from ever-constant calamities.  Another aspect that could’ve been added, was that the people of Republic City could’ve helped the Krew. You see, the citizens of Rep. City are constantly infantilized to the point of helplessness until Korra and co. show up to help. The opposite approach would have emphasised the multicultural aspect of the city, and how when push comes to shove, they are all one big family.Maybe even having a scene like from the original Spider-Man movie where the citizens actually help the Krew out, saying “you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!”

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

From my perspective, there’s no better way to kick this off than introducing this monkey-wrench into the Krew’s system -- the return of Lightning Bolt Zolt, Mako and Bolin’s adoptive father.

See, in the backstory that the show never did anything with, after their parents died, Mako and Bolin became part of the Triads. Though Mako stresses to Korra that he only "ran numbers" for them during his time there. . . So either Mako is a mathematical prodigy, or he's lying. Because I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say he probably received no formal education on the streets that would enable him to work for the Triads in that capacity. So that begs the question: why would he lie? What did he do during his time working for the Triads, that would make him leave and never speak of it again? It’s because he was specially trained by Zolt personally. Learning Lightningbending in the process.

Now, Zolt will use this connection to manipulate Mako for his own purposes, which involves getting his bending back, which will of course drive a wedge between him and Korra.

Zolt may be a bastard, but he was arguably more of a father to him than Mako’s actual father, and that kind of emotional connection is hard to ignore. In fact, it’s such a shock to his system that his Lightningbending stops working.

Which brings him in contact with General Iroh.

When we first meet Mako, he’s determined, blunt, stubborn, and reserved. Understandably so, seeing as how his parents were murdered in front of him Batman-style and was forced to basically raise his little brother on his own, on the streets. As a consequence, one of his most defining characteristics is his inability to relax. He’s constantly trying to fix everything, constantly trying to help everybody, and constantly trying to remain in control. So, Avatar-style development demands that he gradually realize that he can’t control everything and learn to relax, allowing Bolin to become his own person, and learning to go with the flow. Which is something they actually didn’t do in the fourth season. He was largely extraneous to the story and they actually took every opportunity they had to show how useless he was.

Meanwhile, Bolin starts being approached by Lin Biefong, who believes the young man has the potential to be part of the Metalbending police force, despite his claims that he can’t Metalbend. However, Lin eventually realizes why he never could; he’s never had to apply himself. You need to have an unrelenting drive to force the minerals within to move, and that’s not something Bolin has ever needed. In Season 4 of the actual show, I almost applauded it for having Bolin sign up for the army because I thought that’s exactly what he needed -- a place to apply himself. Mako being such a mother-hen accidentally stunted Bolin’s emotional growth, never allowing him to mature and become independent. Which could lead into a very Sokka-like confession:

B: “Do you want to know something really terrible; I don’t miss them. Mako was the one that really knew them. I remember bits of things, but … They’re just … People I didn’t get to know. Mako’s the one that’s always been there for me.”

So here, Lin takes it upon herself to be his teacher and actually show his true potential. They grow closer as a result, and she and Bolin start developing a mother-son relationship. When we first meet Bolin, he’s immature, a show-off, something of a womanizer, a shameless flirt, and a goof-off. The unifying detail with the Bending Brothers is that Mako was sort of holding them both back; Mako’s over-protectiveness never allowed him to choose what was best for himself, and stunted Bolin’s emotional growth into becoming a more independent adult. What they could’ve done - if they wanted to save time - was to have their character arcs work off of each other -- while Mako becomes more relaxed and free-spirited, Bolin becomes more responsible and goal-oriented.

The only other place that the phrase “wasted potential” belongs besides in association with Tahno we’ll get to in a minute, but for now let’s focus on him. The creators once said that they “care about all the characters … except Tahno,” which should show the lack of imagination that was rather systemic in the thinking process there (and what liars they are).

From the start, Tahno is clearly deeply affected by Amon stripping him of his bending, even if Korra gave it back to him. And while he still resorts to cheating now and then, it’s not entirely because he’s a natural cheater … it’s because his bending hasn’t completely come back, and neither has Korra’s for that matter.

They’re both so traumatized by Amon’s Bloodbending that they’re experiencing “hiccups” in their powers.

Korra has tried to deal with it by doubling-down on her Airbender training to “find inner peace,” while Tahno is just trying to ignore it.

Eventually, their arcs cross paths, and they bond of their attempts at healing, having to come to terms with the fact that the “body heals only after the mind heals.” Which further draws a wedge between her and Mako.

Now, there is still a love-triangle here, but it’s in service to why Mako and Korra were brought together in the first place: they aren't supposed to be like Katara and Aang, where it was love-at-first-sight. They’re supposed to be the more realistic couple that have problems and have to make compromises because they love each other.

Love isn’t something that just happens, you have to work hard at it and make the other person happy without looking for the advantage. Relationships - both platonic and romantic - need to be built on mutual trust and understanding, and with understanding means taking a person for both their good and bad qualities.

Infatuation is the kind of love that is more shallow and doesn’t last.

Under direct orders from Fire Lord Zuko himself, General Iroh has started staying at Air Temple Island to watch over the Avatar, which leads him to becoming an unofficial therapist to the people staying there, namely Korra, Tahno, and Mako.Iroh is unique among the cast because he’s inherited Uncle Iroh’s position of someone who already has everything figured out themselves.

He grew up with loving parents and loving grandparents, and we learn that he had the honor of being one of the first firebenders taught by the Sun Warriors, who Zuko spent most of his life helping reconstruct (where he gained the nickname, “The Young Dragon”).

This new living situation makes him a part of the Krew later on, and brings him closer contact with Asami, who he develops a rapport with. And finally, we come to Asami, who is still dealing with losing her father and potentially losing everything else.

You don’t have the founder of a company be linked to a terrorist organisation and expect that company to survive, no matter what financial magic you can conjure. Which is something Asami is learning all too well.But in this madness, she meets two people -- Commander Bumi and General Iroh (who’s under an official Fire Lord order to watch over the Avatar).

She soon becomes Bumi’s ward, eventually, Bumi will act as a surrogate father for Asami, and she will help him organize, and win, a blimp race. From then on, she starts exclusively referring to him with the honorific, "commander."

They become so close that he starts teaching her everything Sokka taught him. You see, because Aang spent more time with Tenzin and Katara more time with Kya, that meant that Bumi ended up bonding with his non-bending uncle, (who later in life became master Piandao’s best student).

That’s why Bumi carries around Sokka's boomerang; Sokka was probably more of a father to him than Aang was.

So Sokka, never having children of his own after Suki tragically died, taught Bumi everything he knew, including how to recreate Space Earth Metal.And, after they grow closer, he decides to trust Asami with this sacred technique. … 

Which she immediately tries to patent and market in order to save Future Industries. However, when she learns how deeply she hurt Bumi by doing this, she finally cuts her losses and sells the company. After that, she decides to pursue a different career, perhaps by joining the United Forces. 

And, while all of this is happening, Tenzin is informed by the White Lotus that global bending birth rates are going down with the modernization and mechanization of the world. Signifying that people's disconnection with nature and spirituality is robbing them of their bending.

Just like what happened to the Fire Nation.

And if this rate continues, in a few generations, bending might completely disappear.

------

Avatar: The Last Airbender was aimed primarily at children and early teens, because those are big transitional times in young people's lives. But late-teens and early 20's are also big transitional phases in young people's lives. Perhaps even more so, because those are the times where you have to learn how to be an adult. A very alien concept.

So, Legend of Korra seemed primed to tackle the challenges of this time, but for one reason or another, they never did.

Despite having a golden opportunity to say some meaningful things about interracial families and multiculturalism, they instead, did nothing.

This is a quote from a Tumblr post who I sadly can’t track down, but it speaks volumes to what AtLA represented to people:

“You need ALL these things to survive and grow, to hold up your community and push yourself forward. You need to unlearn myths and lies, reform them to fit new realities. You need to respect the past but mold it for the future. In short, you have to “draw wisdom from many different places” while keeping true to who you are and where you come from. IDK if the creators of AtLA thought about these things when crafting this story; I think when a story is well told, with authenticity and love, it has the potential to illuminate many perspectives and strike empathy in many different people. Diasporic consciousness is incredibly valuable because it teaches us a different way of being, a way of interconnectedness and mutual love. The Gaang symbolizes this perfectly: it took all of them with all their different skills, to end the War and restore peace and balance. A diasporic consciousness has the same power: to model a newer, more just, more empathetic way of life.”

Tying into this, I think all the Avatars were wrong in their assertion that the four nations needed to be separated. Think about it. Every single nation failed, in their own way, because they were isolated: the Fire Nation became too proud of its own accomplishments, and became a fascist regime. The Air Nomads' loose and "free" nature allowed the Fire Nation to easily wipe them out. The "go with the flow" attitude of the Southern Water Tribe - similar to the Air Nomads - made them easy targets for the Fire Nation; while the Northern Water Tribe "froze over," becoming rigid in their doctrine and tradition, and could never stand against the Fire Nation alone; and the Earth Kingdom fell too far into its "virtue" of endurance, and became a military dictatorship with a puppet king, cutting off any ties to the outside world. 

“It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If we take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements, and the other nations, will help you become whole.”

While the "separate, but equal" stance towards the Four Nations may have been a good idea in the past, in recent years, it's proven to be a recipe for disaster. Most, if not all, of these failings could've been avoided if there had been more open dialogue between the Nations. There is a saving grace in the form of the Order of the White Lotus, but seeing how they all kindly fucked off until the shit really started to hit the fan, I can hardly see how they were a solution to the problem. Now, I really don’t know what else to say. I wrote this entire thing as an exercise to show how Legend of Korra failed in its duties to be an equal to its predecessor, because I was a fan.

Not just of AtLA, but of Lok as well. I watched it, I invested in it, and I was disappointed by it.

Others may have had all their hopes answered by the ending, but I was left with a pit in my stomach over how far the mighty had fallen.

And I don’t look forward to the show being adapted into live action because I don’t think I can take seeing all the lapses in creativity and common sense all over again.

[ijoinedtoomanyfandomsilosttrack]

i have decided to live blog my reactions to the new netflix winx saga bc i heard it's apparently bad?? currently all i know abt it was they replaced techna and flora and also theres white-washing and fatphobia?? idk anyway i'm starting with ep 1

thoughts:

its definitely not 'colorful magical girls' like the original cartoon was

"feckin' sheep"

OH ITS DEFINITELY NOT COLORFUL MAGICAL GIRLS WHAT THE HELL THAT WAS A FULL ON SHEEP (?) CORPSE YOOOO I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT???? MAN IM NOT SCARED OF GORE BUT THAT CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD

big scary beast pog?

yeah,,, theres gore in there. rip farmer/shepherd dude

okay i have to give them credit for that pretty dope intro. its not the winx club theme but hey i kinda like it

ooooh this music is dope. time to add it to my spotify playlist

hmmm im assuming redhead girl is bloom?

girl with the plants is definitely flora (or whoever she is now)

blonde is deffo stella or smthin

girl with the headphones is musa i think

who's the dude?? i dont remember the names of the dudes in the original winx

Are they still using Bloom's backstory as like the princess (?) of a kingdom??

wAIT DO THEY STILL HAVE THEIR PETS?? LIKE BLOOM'S BUNNY??

"Wow. You are so lost. I'm impressed by your confidence in the face of complete ignorance. Issue is, you're overcommitted. I mean, you're essentially running." Did I somehow miss some backstory?? What is up with this dude what is going on??

man i dont like the blond dude?? what is going on?? i am confused??

i don't remember bloom's whole backstory but i think the show's still using it??

dude did a full 180

"Sorry, I'd be happy to--" "Mansplain it?" i would've loved this line more if bloom was a bit more petty than smiley

NEVERMIND SHE IS A LITTLE BIT PETTY HDJWKKEJG (edit: nope she's tryna flirt)

oh they have british accents but bloom is american

"Oh how very american of you." HSJDJKFKG

MAGIC RING WITH A PRETTY DESIGN POG

HAJDJFKKEKWJE OKAY SO FAR I REALLY LIKE STELLA???

transformation magic has been lost as they evolved?? thats definitely not foreshadowing for the winx's abilities /s

Hhhhh bloom probably committed arson /hj

Yeah she definitely committed arson (albeit accidentally)

can we get more characters in here? like ik bloom's the protag but please i need more characters

oop all the girls are dorm mates

"Lady of the Flies, don't be sexist" IK THIS WAS A JOKE BUT WHAT THE

OHHHHHHH AISHA POG!! Yeah yeah i remember her, her name back in the cartoon seemed to alternate(?) from Aisha and Layla!! She had the bubble powers!!

BLOOM'S A RAVENCLAW/SLYTHERIN POG

ah yes the classic magic is linked to emotion trope i love that!!

Oh flora's name is terra now okay. Not quite a fan of the name change, but hey

OH HER COUSIN'S NAME IS FLORA JGJFKKGKH

she's so chatty bc of nerves and yeah,, i can relate

headphone girl's eyes turned pinkish purple what?? she used magic??

Terra is me when talking to people

man headphone girl wasn't even talking to me and I got hit with that rsd

Okay i got the confirmation that headphone girl's name is musa alrighty

specialists?? what are those??

i dont like how this riv guy acts

i dont like how all of the guys act so far

yeah no i dislike most of the men who have had lines in the past 12 minutes

OHHHH BLOND DUDE'S NAME IS SKY

wait isn't he supposed to have long hair??

The teacher man is kinda scary

Oh so specialties are like soldiers or smthn

burned ones?? oh??

riv literally left the barrier to smoke?? bruh

the burned ones sounds so scary but man are the hollows from miss peregrines home for peculiar children are scarier

RIP riv this mf is gonna die

eeeeehh gross gore

mmmmm heres the fatphobia

beatrix doesn't give me good vibes

mmmmmm mom of the year award goes to bloom's mom. like ik ik youre worried but you didnt have to call your child a weird loner??? that shit hurts man (am i speaking from personal experience? mayhaps)

oh yay another sky and bloom interaction /s

i am begging this show to make one of the winx gay pleaseee

or bi

please just don't make all of them cishet

(who am i kidding,, they're all gonna end up in cishet relationships)

Are sky and stella exes??

bloom really found out that there aren't any people outside the barrier and dipped from the party even though it might be dangerous. mood

ooh pretty firefly thingies

yeah bloom deffo committed arson

arson pog

she's gonna straight up cause a forest fire

UH OH SHE CANT CONTROL IT

WATER FAIRY AISHA POG

Mmmm i dont like blooms parents

OH CHANGELING BLOOMS A CHANGELING

MMMMM MS DOWLING SUS VOTE HER OUT

I DONT LIKE RIV FUCK THAT GUY

FUCK OUTTA HERE WITH YOUR FATPHOBIA BITCH

yeah get his ass terra gET HIS ASS

Man alfea got that sweet cell signal

stella doesn't want bloom in alfea alrighty

musA IS A MIND FAIRY?? I THOUGHT SHE WAS A MUSIC ONE??

bruh stella i take whatever nice thing i said about you

man i miss my girl techna

give me my tech fairy back

"y'know you don't have to be okay." bitCH YOU CALLED HER A WEIRD LONER AND TOOK HER DOOR

mmmmm okay bloom's mom im giving you one more chance do not fuck it up

weird creepy building ew

oh its where she slept in

oop she gonna get jumped by burned ones

OOP SHE LOST THE RING

yeah fuck this im skipping i hate scenes like these

FUCK THE BURNED ONE TOOK THE RING

yeah sky and stella were exes

yeah no stella you gotta live the consequences of ur actions

Beatrix and riv are a duo that i do not need

terra is tryna reach out aw

oooh musa's an empath

oh okay ms. dowling isnt as sus anymore okay

who the hell is this rosalind character??

lmao watch her be bloom's bio mom

hooded character???? who are you???

OH GOD SHE'S A TRIX (?) like the one with the lightning powers

WAIT BEATRIX

FUCK

me: i've connected the dots

also me: you didn't connect them

FUCK SHES FREEIN THE BURNED ONE DAMNIT

FUCK I CALLED IT

final conclusion: so far i hate like half of all the characters in this show. the literal only people i trust is ms. dowling, terra, aisha, and the kid that riv picked on. everyone else i mildly dislike (stella) or can go fuck themselves (riv)

[voidendron]

Varrich’s turn! :D

his tattoos are a pain but worth it. I also made them more complex instead of less like I’d originally planned so oops-

info below the cut

--Do not copy, edit, or repost my works. Reblogs are appreciated!--

Full Name: Varrich Tophrik

Pronunciation: VEHR-rick toff-RICK

Title: Major

Species: Mirialan

Gender: Cis man (he/him)

Class: Republic Trooper / Havoc Squad Commander

Sexuality: Aro/ace

Ever since he was a teenager, he’s fought for causes he believed in. Born on Balmorra, he joined the resistance against the Empire when he was just fifteen, having lied about his age and getting away with it since his larger stature made it believable. Good with a variety of weapons and combat skills, and wanting to drive the Empire off not only his world, but any others it had forcefully taken over, he left Balmorra at eighteen to join the Academy and train as a Republic soldier so he could offer his skills.

Steadfast, cunning, a loyal soldier, and willing to do some pretty dark things to achieve victory, he was recruited to Havoc Squad after graduating from the Academy top of his class. As a new recruit, he didn’t question his orders and respected his superiors. When it came time for him to lead the squad instead, he readily stepped up to do his duty and track down his former squad mates and put together a new one. As leader, he was patient and always willing to hear out the rest of the squad’s suggestions, but would become stern and give out strict orders when he needed to.

Varrich has a hard time trusting others, and the betrayal of the previous Havoc really didn’t help with that. In the end, he only ended up trusting the squad he’d put together, and even then he was always careful to maintain a professional relationship with them. It took a long time before he felt like he could even relax around them, let alone show any vulnerability. 

He has a twin sister, and as kids the two of them were really close. Melina, however, was Force-sensitive, and he knew that she’d eventually want to go to the Jedi--and she did, shortly after Varrich went to fight in the resistance. They didn’t hear from each other again until Corellia many years later, and were better about staying in contact after that. When they met planetside, it was the first time his squad had ever seen him hug someone or give grin wide enough he bared teeth.

Extras:

-Has tattoos spanning his face, arms, chest, and back, and each one marks an achievement throughout his life. He could tell a story for each and every one

-Design note: The visor on his helmet is slightly brighter than the orange on the rest of his armor

-armed to the teeth with weapons, including a few missiles that can eject from a pack on his back and hone in on his target

-design note: hair can be drawn white, black, or a combination as the natural color grows back in (shown above)

-design note: when drawing his tattoos, start with the one across his nose and use his eyes as reference points. then use that band, his eyes, mouth, and eyebrows as reference for the placement of the rest

-has a twin sister (she was born first) named Melina. while Varrich lacked Force-sensitivity, she had it, and went to the Jedi

-forgot to put it on the ref, but he’s 5′11″ (~180 cm)

-he initially didn’t want to leave Balmorra. after the Republic had abandoned the planet to the Empire once, a big part of him felt bitter toward it. the other part of him looked at the bigger picture and knew he could better help his home if he joined the Republic. when he had to travel back there to recruit Vik, he did everything in his power to help the resistance’s efforts to drive the Empire off for good, staying there for longer than Garza probably would have liked

-along with my main Agent and Bounty Hunter, Varrich is one of my truly “Neutral” characters in my playstyle for him. he may be considered one of the “good guys,” but he won’t hesitate to blast someone on the spot or lie or even to torture, but he’ll also go out of his way to help civilians and won’t blindly follow his orders if they seem needlessly cruel or he can find a better way to handle something

-their parents didn’t let Lina go with the Jedi when she was little. they wanted her to make the choice for herself when she was old enough, so she and Varrich grew up together until he left for the resistance/her for the Jedi

-he’ll....probably need a whole different ref for his KOTFE stuff. poor guy might not be the Outlander for my writing (my main Bounty Hunter got that honor, much to her annoyance), but he still ends up going through hell

[popculturebuffet]

Reviewcaps: Mega Man: Fully Charged (BOOM!) #1

After 5 long years the Blue Bomber returns to comics and to the Fully Charged Universe! Things get a lot more grim as Aki grapples with a new robot army under actual robots, his buried past, and the fact Mega Mini is still around for some reason. Cracked skulls and dead cells under the cut. 

So i’m a huge mega man fan. I haven’t really talked about video games here because this is my first video game adaptation, but yeah, I love em and Capcom’s vast and awesome franchise of robots and humanoids in blue, and in one case red, is one of my faviorites. From children blowing up tons of robots from a balding man who dosen’t get the hint already, to the pacifist soldier forced to fight in a war against robot whales, buffalo, mammoths, and other bizzare robot animals, to his best friend who has amnesia for some reason fighting more robot animals because capcom ran out, to his human sucessors wearing him like a hat, to some guy who turns out to be a war machine I haven’t played yet because I haven’t gotten the chance to and is the only part of the franchise I haven’t, to another universe where he’s the ai versoin of a dead child whose now a teenager mentally, to that ai’s sucessor a shy child whose dad was kidnapped by a space monster and fuses reguarly with a much cooler space monster. What i’m saying Is I deeply love this franchise, this franchise is complicated iwth all the branches, and it’s also full of lovely nonsense. 

So naturally with that many versions and a decades long history Mega Man’s had a healthy life in one of my other faviorite meddieums: Comics. Over in his home country of Japan Mega Man’s had tons of Manga: The biggest and one of the few to make it here is Mega Man Megamix, a bunch of stories that, after the first two adapted the first two games in their own rough way, took place after each of the various games, and is pretty damn good. Others off the top of my head include a Mega Man x adaptation where X dates a mermaid, a weird mega man zero adaptation, and a longrunning adaptation of Mega Man Battle Network, all ones I need to read. 

Even Brazil had a Mega Man Manga... which I need to cover too.. less because it’s actually good or notable, and more because it’s BATSHIT INSANE, and you can read about it here. But the cliffs notes: Roll is an adult woman who goes around naked half hte time and is the most importnat character, X is master roshi with all the restraint and panty snatching that implies, and ther’es a character that one writer tried to have kill everyone and take over the comic.. yes really. I go most of this .l from that page but it’s documented on various wikis that this did actually happen. Just.. why. All of it.  Meanwhile in the US.. we didn’t get that many. No nintendo power adaptations despite being a huge franchise, no horrible malibu comics like street fighter got. There was one attempt by Dreamwave comics in the early 2000′s a series that only lasted 5 issues, and had mega man trying to go to school and some intresting if loose takes ont he franchise.. but the company bottomed out due to horirble mismanagment soon after and mega man sat ont he shelf for a while until the early 2010′s. At a time when Capcom had given up on the franchise, which has thankfully changed dramatically with the release of 11 and the various mega collections, they still gave the liscence to Archie comics, who, wanting some more of that sweet money they were getting off of sonic, gladly took the lisence and gave it to  Sonic Scribe and easily the best one the comic had during it’s long run, Ian Flynn, who set about adapting mega man from day 1, while incorperating nods and call forwards to the various other versions of the blue bomber, and adding his own nice touches. What i’ve read is really damn good and it’s a shame it got cut off right before the adaptation for mega man 4. I’m only being so brief as .. I intend to cover it like i’ve been saying. I love the character, Flynn’s comic was one of the best versions of him bar none, and I could use more comics content on here too. It’s a win win, smiles all around.  But yeah sadly Archie lost intrest in doing non-Archie stuff, with the Archie Horror Line proving a sucess and a reboot on the horizon. While I do LOVE Archie Comics, this edotiral decision still leaves a bad taste in my mouth and left fans without any mega man till 11 came out and any comics till this year, when the rights apparently lapsed and Boom! Studios, home of such great comics as the mighty morphing power rangers ongoing and JOhn Allison’s wonderful Giant Days, swept it up. Hopefully Boom! will reprint the archie comics eventually, but until then they decided to do a softish reboot of another version of the franchise, another one that like Archie had been given a raw deal.. but unlike Archie had issues: Mega Man; Fully Charged

While most of you probably know this as a refrsher Mega Man: Fully Charged was a cartoon from a few years back, a CGI adatpation of the games in an attempt to get in on that market by Ben 10 and Generator Rex maestro’s Man of Action. Like the Dreamwave comics it followed Mega Man, now Aki LIght as he went to school, did school stuff, and also fought rouge robots after school with secret powers he unlocked before the pilot and were never elaborated on in show.  The show kept Dr. Light, Mega Man’s creator and dad, and his dog Rush who while at first looking nothing like the games was later upgraded to resemble his game counterpart more from what i’ve heard and what’s present in this comic. Replacing Mega’s sister Roll, as his real name was Rock because the Mega Man staff loved musical puns, was Suna.. whos basically the same character but human and with an entirely diffrent design.  The show also, for whatever fucking reason, added... Mega Mini.. a tiny robot with a brooklyn accent who lived inside Aki, Mega Man’s regular name in this series which i’m fine with as while I do lik ehim going by Rock, I get that’s not really a name. Mini also manages his powers, makes stupid jokes and makes me pray for death but death won’t come. As you can tell I hate the little bugger from the handful of episodes i’ve watched. Rounding out our main heroes is Aki’s best friend Bert Wily, whose likely related to the canon wily and is your standard dorky best friend, but his roll as an inventor does come in handy since Mega hasn’t told his dad he’s a superhero, though it’s revealed in the end that he knows.. I did do my homework, even if i’ve only seen a handful of the series. More on that in a minute.  Opposing Mega Man were various robots from the games, adapted with varying degrees of design, from the good. 

To the okay if a bit weird. 

To the how the fuck is this airman. This is airman

Really good basic design. This is what fully charged calls airman, 

Why.. why not just make him Wind Man. He looks more like Wind Man.. why did ... I can bitch about this later when I cover the series, which, yes AGAIN I intend to. BUt seriously he has an awesome looking fan for a face. How do you screw that up. 

Behind the robot masters was Sgt. Night. See in a nice twist, and one of the things I like about the series, the world of Fully Charaged already had the kind of robot on human war that would plauge the main mega man timeline for centuries in the backstory, with LIght and Night being vetrans. Night being a racisit moron, wanted to keep robots apart and set up a false flag operation do do so as Commander Night. He however.. wasn’t a compelling vilian and apparnetly dosen’t really get better, not having any depth to his operations or actoins and his basic plan turns out to be, thank you research, to wipe all robots minds to be subservient.. he’s just.. bland compared to wily who while not complex in his motives, he just wants to take over the world, still has style and in some cases,real thought to his plans. Sure the vast majority are “blame it on someone else” but in a LOT of those cases, there’s still thorught and effort put into who he’s blaming to take doubt away from him. IN universe at least.  Helping night, is Namagem... yes Mega Man..spelled backwards and this series protoman, but hte character suprisingly DOES sound intresting... he just has one of the worst names in human history. Like my god, in god we trust why not just use proto man. the Character is basically proto man, with the interesting backstory of night kidnapping him, and apparently the series gets loads better once he arrives, so i’m not going to be too hard on the name, as the writers were likely stuck with it.    But as i’ve made apparent.. I haven’t watched much of the series. I do want to watch it all and i’m aware the second half is much better, but when trying to binge watch it at a friends house I only got about halfway through season 1, and then just forgot to keep going. And the series does have good pieces: a compelling background of a brutal war, mysteries to unlock, and a steady supply of new villians via the games long history and the series own original, and honestly intresting sounding and looking, robot masters... but it stapled all this to a “cocky hero fights vilians” every week setup we’ve seen a million times and didn’t grab me, but the intresting worldbuildnig and original bits do have me wanting to give it another try so look forward to that.  And with all the intresting bits i was truly invested to see a comic make more out of this part of the franchise,a nd was utterly excited, as it could be what the series could’ve been with less hampering by the various parties involved, as fully charged felt like it had a lot of executive madates slapped on. So free of those and free to be whatever it wants with Joe Kelly advising, what has fully charged become? let’s take a look. 

We Open 6 months after the series with the comic helpfully catching us via news broadcast.. and the art being moody with washed out colors the tone having done a 180. Seriously it is kind of weird for this unvierse to go from early generator rex, a dark backstory with a bizzarely cheery tone to full on Blade Runner or to put it in mega man terms, The Megas. Seriously the breif bit of silicon city we see , the constant rain as a mysteroius figure whose revealed at the end of the next page to be Namagem.. I expect that a pretty hologram in a raincoat is going to pop up next to him any moment... what I can pick which blade runner I want to refrence. Shoo. 

Anyways a broadcast debate between a human reporter and her robot coanchor , ron roburgundy as I will call him, fills us in on exposition, while Mega Man himself narrators like this is a noir.. again i’m half expecting harrison ford to show up. Aki muses about how the city, HIS CITY, almost fell.. oh god is frank miller writing this? Are we going to get a middle schooler talking about how much he wants to make love to a city because no one wants that.  Anyways, we get expostion, both for anyone who hadn’t watched the series to give us the cliff notes, and to also catch up returning fans on what they missed. I like it, despite not having watched fully charged to the end, or known exactly what happened until research, this fills it in nicely: At the end of season 1, as I explained earlier Night was arrested, and is thankfully not a part of it nor is his foghorn leghorn attempt at a southren accent. However the remaning Robot Masters are still rioting and a new army of them has started a legit revolution, vandalizing the good guild, which still has that name for some reason despite the tone shift, who are about as compitent as the name implies. Here’s file footage of them fighting Pharoah Man. 

Anyways Dr. Light is going to negotiate peace and as I mentoned earlier nams is watching with a glare on his face. And yeah I .. I can’t keep calling him Namagem. That name is just bad and whoever came up with it is one of the biggest morons in marketing history as is whoever decided to force the poor creative team to use it. However while he is Protoman in ways.. it just dosen’t fit. The two were made together in this unvierse, maybe we’ll see as this comic fills in the blanks, and furthermore he’s a bit of protoman and bass.. and since protobass sounds stupid, and blues dosen’t work without the theme naming.. i’m going with Breakman, protoman’s disgusie from 3. With the heavy scaring, broken past and general state of him it just.. fits and HOPEFULLY the comic will give him a full on rename. If it does i’ll go with that but for now I just want to keep from slamming my head into a keyboard every time I have to type out NAMAGEM... excuse me. 

hgfjnhnghbjnh

That’s better. Okay so moving on from my new headache, we cut to the desert where the good guild, which is somehow even worse than Breakman’s actual name, are escorting light to a bunker in the desert, where the robots outside tell light to leave the good guild inside. Just as well he’d be better protected with a paper mache sword anda  note telling them to go away. 

Naturally, not long inside the robot masters leader forces light to bow and handcuffs him, before revealing himself. 

Skull Man. Who looks really badass in this thought, the skulls themed scrap throne, his regal posture and his speeches about how he feels that the only way things will be right, and settled is not by the fragile peace silicon city has but by humans beneath his rather sizable boots. And honestly.. he was a good choice for the main robot antagonist: Skull Man’s always had a cool look to him and most versions of him have been pretty cool, and the Megas gave him one hell of a theme song. If you haven’t heard of htem the Megas are an indie rock band that do reworkings of the various songs from mega man games, at the time of this recording a full album for 2, two full albums for 3, an ep for 1, and scattered other songs since the second 3 album, with plans to do their next full album on mega man x. Each of the stage themes for the robot masters is from the prosepctive of one of them and are really damn good and I’d recommend thema nd skullman’s.. really fits him here. take a listen. 

But yeah Skull Man feels like a good choice for a menacing revolutionary, as well as a former combat robot as he himself was apparently in the hard wars. He honestly reminds me a lot of more than meets the eye megatron in flashbacks.. just good stuff. But being in the wars, he’s naturally not too fond of repetant vetran light and plans to kill him as an example. Light however.. isn’t an idiot.. a good man who seeks to do his best, who came in good faith.. but just in case he put some sort of device under his skin and presses it, signaling his son to come save his ass. And thus he does come ...

And one of skullman’s minons mistakes him for a bomb.. which light clarifies i’ts a BLUE BOMBER. To skullman’s credit his response is to just order them to go full throttle showing no panic as Mega Man makes his entrance. 

Light thanks him by.. asking what took him so long.. when his son, whose a middle schooler mind you, had to fight through a bunch of armed assholes to get in here most likely. Mini shows up to my annoyance.. though credit where it’s do his zinger of what took so long “some birds, a plane, some guy in a cape” is actually.. really funny. I question why they kept him at ALL, but hey, at least he’s less grating and isn’t around long.. more on that in a minute. 

A really well drawn action scene insues.. while the expressions vary for this comic, I will give the fight scnee, I will give the artist credit for having fluid motion and nice pops of color, most things are kind of blendy into the background other than major character but the color pops where it should.. not exactly my style but it works okay. In a nice change of his character though, Aki offers to spare the various robots there of a fight and possible death, as while he already attacked them it was in self defense.  And while it is a 180 from the show.. it’s not only a welcome change as it’s closer to the games canon and a more intersting personality.. it also still works. Aki went through a LOT at the end of season 1: while he did win, he found out he had a brother, his dad knew who he was but was never honest with him about it and also likely knows where his power came from but hasn’t told him, and has had to deal with 6 months worth of rioting where he’s unsure what side he’s on, machine like he is or man like his family. He’s trying to find the right ballance; be the hero his city needs.. but be the man he needs to be, one who will spare his enemies and won’t fight unless he needs to, for the good fo everyone, His friends, his family, everyone in the city who deserves to sleep soundly. And he’s also starting to wonder, via narration of course, if he’s a hero.. or even a kid.. or a weapon> Which again while a bit of a shift from the series again makes sense: he’s a middle school aged boy who started this jsut fighting random assholes and some idiot racist who was transparently evil and had selfish goals.. now he’s fighting against a revolution who MIGHT have a point. While Silcion city seemd fine and equal.. there wer eplenty of idiot swilling to listen to night. As the real world has proven over the last few months, just because things have gotten better, dosen’t mean that things are 100% or that prejudice is just gone. He’s a 12 year old asked to take a stand in a messy conflict that lead to war in the past with his father offering no answers and growing colder. While I thought his angst was  bit overblown on first reading the more I think about it the more it fits. 

Anyways Mega makes short work of the skull squad after they refuse to back down, but while Mega Man’s ready to ghost.. Skull Man’s not done and drills into mega man’s head... and reveals something. Flashbacks. 

But yeah, Skull Man’s either implanted or restored some memory of Aki fighting in the hard wars.. right alongside dr. light.. with a drill because science. DR. Light then gets REALLY badass, breaking out of the robot restraining him’s grip before fucking UPERCUTTING Skull Man.. jesus christ, Dr.Light clearly traded his empathy for miraclo pills holy balls.  Rush helps him escape and take Aki with him but skull man’s confident, he lost the battle but won Mega’s mind.  On the way home Mega Man tells dr.light what he saw and isn’t sure if it’s the past the future or something else but Dr.Light assures him..

Even though his eyes give away he’s clearly hiding something. Also I haven’t mentioned it yet but Dr.Light looks like santa in this sisue, red shirt, blue pants, big white beard. Just.. why though. Just put him in a suit or something. Also Mini crawls out of Mega’s head and passes out due to the memory restoration.. a nice way to write him out while still giving it weight since while the audience is presumibly cheering his long overdue demise, he is aki’s friend.. why I have no idea but he is.  Back at the lighthouse, the light’s home and home base, which is admitely a really good alternate name for light labs and a better one in my opinon. Light brushes off Suna, telling her to go to bed and avoiding telling her anything. Yeahhh.. while it could be the pressure of the situation I really dont’ like dr.light’s characterization before. Fully Charged, outside of the whole secret identity thing which at least was expalined as Aki not knowing if his dad would let him continue as mega man if he knew, though it extended clearly past the point he was clearly supporting mega man’s actions so I dunno. But he was a compationste scientest, deeply ashamed of his past in the war and wanting to make peace, he was done really well and peformed well by gary chalk. Here? He’s a dick who clearly did something terrible in the past and treats his kids like crap. It’s okay to be suspcious of him given the flashback but he’s given us no reason to like him or want to hear his side eventually, and hopefully that changes. 

Suna talks to Aki who tells her what happened and both side give out good arguments; Suna points out she reallyc an’t trust what some creepy asshole put in his head, as Skull Man could just want to brainwash him.. but Aki counters easily and quietly: How’s he supposed to know what’s real if his dad won’t tell him anything? He took months to tell Aki he knew about his alter ego, and even before his id came out avoided talking about the hard war, which hasn’t changed. He vows to find out though, and Suna naturally is helpful, pointing out there’s more people to ask and since she actually pays attention in school she knwos just who.. Dr. Wily. Yup he’s finally here. dun dun dun. We then close as Breakman watches and tells his brother he can’t stop what’s started. And we’re out.  Mega Final Thoughts: This was a decent issue, doing a fair job of bringing in new readers, and the art was decent and matched the tone.. which If elt was a bit too bleak at times. Better than say a Zack Snyder film at least, but still a bit too close to that form of edgelord for my case. That said it opens up some intresting mysteries and has me at least willing to give it another shot next month and was a solid opener, which while not having the best charcterzation for dr light, vastly improved Aki and Suna’s while giving us a far more intersting villian in Skull Man. If this holds, we’ll see. But until then I plan to cover more mega man comics, as well as my continued weekly coverage of amphibia. Until I see you again, stay safe, wear a mask and later days

[amphtaminedreams]

A/W 2020 Fashion Month: Before Vogue Went Blank (Part 2)

Hi to anyone reading,

I was going to start this post by jumping straight into Dion Lee and part 2 in general but there's been a lot going on the past couple of days-although this blog is primarily fashion, it wouldn’t feel right to start talking about designers without acknowledging all the shit that’s been going down.

^Photo Credit to @spiltcoco on Twitter

Yesterday, police footage came out of US police murdering yet another black man in broad daylight-George Floyd. He joins Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, and Alton Sterling, plus hundreds more named and god knows how many more unnamed African American citizens in the ever-growing list of victims of police brutality.

The majority of these are just people going about their daily lives, a majority of them doing absolutely nothing wrong; even those we know to have committed crimes have been unarmed and non-violent offenders. That being said, their offences are beside the point when we’ve seen the white perpetrators of mass shootings be calmly cuffed and escorted into the backs of police cars as if they were the ones selling cigarettes without permits. American police, given the amount of them that are armed, regularly become judge, jury and executioner trained for 8 weeks by an institution that originated from slave patrols. I cannot imagine how terrifying it is just to walk around as a PoC in America. I cannot imagine the collective trauma that has been suffered because of recent events on top of the intergenerational trauma that most likely exists because of centuries of oppression. I cannot imagine what it’s like to live in a country that was built to suppress you and was by law allowed to do so until very recently, those original structures still in place. I cannot imagine what it’s like to be made to feel like this is your fault. I mean, Boris Johnson is a useless, cold-hearted twat and I won’t defend him or this country for a minute (we have much blood on our own hands, and racial profiling is just as much a thing here as it is in America-I read earlier that you’re 28 times more likely to be stopped and searched in London as a non-white person compared to a white person), but I still can’t imagine him publicly advocating for the mass murder of groups he knows to be primarily made up of black people via Twitter. This whole situation is so unimaginably fucked up; anyone who still sees America as one of the world’s most developed nations needs to take a long, hard look at what is going on and reconsider that opinion.

Whilst we can’t fix everything, we can all speak up and make our voices heard, and it is our duty to do so. It’s not good enough to just “not be racist”, you have to be ANTI-racism, even if that means constantly reflecting on your own privilege and challenging your assumptions. Neutrality is complicity. Signing a petition isn’t going to change the world, but it’s a start:

https://www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd?recruiter=false&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_abi&recruited_by_id=7ba70000-a127-11ea-87fb-d1ff0bf6ea96

As I publish this, there’s less than 50,000 signatures needed to hit the target of 6,000,000 so if you happen to see it, get signing! There are lots of other petitions online but Change.org seems to be the only major one you can sign in the UK as the other are US based and require a zip code. I never thought I’d close a paragraph by quoting Macklemore but the line “no freedom 'til we're equal, damn right I support it” is at the forefront of my mind right now. Again, neutrality is complicity. We’re never going to achieve a fair society by sitting on our asses and hoping things will improve. Let’s all do the best we can.

Sorry if that intro wasn’t what you came here for, but I just think it’s so important to talk about. I know I’ve said in the past that fashion is supposed to be an escape from everyday life but there are some times when real life needs our attention and this is one of them. Feel free to unfollow if you disagree.

Anyway, onto the fashion. If this is the first post you’re reading, welcome! There’s a part 1! But I don’t wanna be pushy so start here if you wish!

If you read part 1, welcome back! 

I ended that post by practically falling at the feet of Dilara Findikoglu, and I so wanted to start this post by regaining a sense of dignity and go straight into what-the-fuck-ing at Dior, but I know breaking chronological order would really piss off those “OmG I’m SoOo OCD, tHis BuzZfeEd aRtiCle WiTh DiFfereNt SiZed TiLes ToLd Me!” which is basically me minus claiming liking things to be organised means I have OCD-no, just dermatillomania and the denial that a compulsive skin picking disorder has anything to do with OCD because the neuroses club that is my brain doesn’t have any space left. SO, I have to continue where I left off and star the post with Dion Lee, whose collections I am a big fan of.

I could ramble a bit more but I did enough of that at the beginning of part 1 and am sure I’ll do more than enough in this post anyway, so here it is, Dion Lee:

Considering we ended with the maximalism of Dilara Findikoglu, sliding back over towards the other far end of the scale with a designer that tends to pitch their tent on the borders of the minimalism camp feels correct. Dion Lee, fortunately, seems the perfect collection to open with. There aren’t many other brands who do edge in such an understated and masterful way. If you want to be ready for combat and look like you’d fit right in at Vogue at the same time, look no further. This season’s collection is full of perfectly placed cut outs and immaculate tailoring and subtle street fighter-esque details as ever, and that’s why it pains me to say it:

Not that this is enough in the way of critique to restore my dignity by any means, it’s not a patch on last season.

I don’t think there was a single bad look in that show, and at times it felt like I was weeding through them here. When the looks were good, they were GOOD but a lot I found to be disappointing. Plus I have no idea why you’d put tie-dye in an A/W collection. I appreciate that it’s an Australian brand and that our winter is their summer, but they’re presenting to the rest of the world at fashion week and anyone in Paris, Milan, London and New York is going to be freezing their tits off and looking like a twat in an orange tie-dye sundress. There wasn’t much of a dip in quality for the menswear compared to last season, but honestly womenswear left a lot to be desired. That’s what happens when your expectations are high.

I used to think that if you assume the worst, it’s impossible to feel let down. And then I saw Dior’s A/W 2020 collection. Did a full 180 on that statement.

I suppose it’s a step up from haute couture, but then at least the styling in that was simple, and it just didn’t look like anybody had tried at all; here it’s clear Maria Grazia chucked everything she could at this collection, every headscarf, every gingham print, every shallow feminist undertone, and it was still a fucking mess. At first you think some of the individual pieces are cute but have just been ruined by the styling, and then you begin to look, and realise that even those individual pieces could’ve easily been bought in a New Look Boxing Day sale.

THIS IS CHRISTIAN DIOR, SUPPOSEDLY ONE OF THE MOST LUXURIOUS BRANDS OUT THERE. WHAT IS GOING ON!? 

I don’t know, I included as many looks that I didn't mind as I could, but it’s like there always has to be a crappy, unnecessary detail in there. Everything is so literal. Of course the collection based around the divine feminine has the models dressed like basic ass Greek goddesses, so of course the collection based around the modern woman and equality has women walking the runway in ties and ill-fitting shoes too. Maria Grazia, here is a box:

Think outside of it. 

Next is, thankfully, Elie Saab:

No, not exactly a trailblazer of a collection, but executed with poise and elegance as always. I mean, the styling is spot on. It looks like each part of the outfit was made for another, to contribute to a whole clearly envisioned look, similar to what we saw in the Alberta Ferretti show. Elie Saab is known for its haute couture shows where all the tiny details, the sequins and the silk and the embroidery come together to make something beautiful, and this is just that on a larger scale, with less “wow”s and more quiet admiration, more wishing you were the one wearing that outfit. If you’re gonna play safe, do it this well. The night dresses are stunning of course, but not even my favourite bit of the show. It’s the casual looks, the pussy bows and the ruffles and the neck scarfs and the private girls school monochrome colour palette with the occasional pop of red or purple, a toned down version of what we saw at haute couture, any of which deserve to be worn whilst eating macarons in front of the Eiffel Tower before trip to Musee D’Orsay. It’s Poppy Moore’s school uniform grown up and made fit for a fashion magazine editor:

Somehow managing to cram an Emma Roberts early 2010s fashion moment into every post is my talent, who knew. Wild Child was really a gem.

Erdem was a mixed bag:

With a lot of the outfits, I can’t tell if I actually like the garments that much or if I just like the look as a whole. I mean, without sounding too gluten-free Callie from the Valley, I like the VIBE, but there was a lot of outfits I almost included before I had to ask myself “LAUREN, do you ACTUALLY like this or do you just like the walking-into-your-sugar-daddy’s-will-reading-to-claim-his-fortune DRAMA of it all!?” 

It happened a couple of times, where once I took off my black and white, theatrical violin accompanied entrance filtered sunglasses, I realised that the actual print was ugly. A collection so cohesively ornamental and kitschy is going to lean too far into that at times, and they were a few overly-fussy moments where it seemed less nudge nudge wink wink and more like Erdem Moralıoğlu fell into his grandma’s wardrobe, stole some fabric, and called it a day. I don’t want to sound like I’m not a fan of the collection because overall it’s gorgeous, I just thought it was a bit much at times.

Continuing with the theme of clever seasonal continuity that weaved its way throughout this year’s A/W offerings, Ermanno Scervino kept the core of his summer collection and made it just that little bit darker, added some weight to everything, and this is one of the rare occasions where I like the winter incarnation a lot more. I’m not huge about either but there’s a lot of things I’d love to wear here, the coats especially.

Up next is a reliable favourite of mine: 

Etro.

Was it REALLY necessary for you to include ALL those coats I hear you ask?

Alaska Thunderfuck as Gia Gunn voice: Absolutelyyyy.

When it comes to bohemian fashion, Etro is unbeaten. Everything is always exquisitely coordinated and styled. Like I usually fucking hate aztec print but I love the way it’s done here. I’ve never known a brand to make belts seem like such an integral, tasteful part of the outfit in a field where they so often seem like a last minute addition for the sake of accessorising; it pains me to say it, but Elie Saab, I’m looking at you. It’s your only fault. 

Yes for bringing back embroidered jeans! Yes for all those high necks! Yes for the tapestry print! Yes for the Afghan waistcoats! Etro will keep fedoras cool forever and I love them for that; I don’t know if she ever actually wore any of their stuff but I just know Stevie Nicks was in her prime would’ve ate this shit UP and she is my style icon for the ages. Plus, I might be way off base here but a lot of the collection seems to be inspired by traditional Romani style and it’s a beautiful direction to take things, a treasure trove of layers upon layers and rich textures and opulent prints.

I can’t wait til the phase of my phase of my life where I can swan around in maxi dresses and ponchos. I just hope those maxi dresses and ponchos are Etro.

Onto another brand which hasn’t had a bad show since I started my reviews: Fendi. This season, they took their late 60s/early 70s wild child aesthetic and gave a millionaire’s high maintenance wife spin on it, and what’s not to like about that? 

I mean, Fendi is a brand which is always going to excel in its F/W presentations-the rich, bohemian prints (pro-tip: if you can’t already tell, me mentioning the word bohemian in a review pretty much guarantees I like the collection), the furs, and the warm colour palette all perfectly translate into clothes suited for walks through a city going through a post-summer burnout, where it rains red and orange leaves. You can tell Silvia Fendi is in her element when she’s got texture to play with, something that comes across in the gorgeous coats Fendi consistently puts out, and this season continues that trend. Plus, there’s a lot of adorable details here-shoes that show off the decorative socks underneath, the cube shaped bags and those furry ear muffs which I hope bring about a high street muff renaissance because they’re the equivalent of slipper socks for my ears and THEY’RE ACTUALLY REALLY PRACTICAL. The only thing I’m not in love with is the mirrored glasses, and I can’t help but think how replacing them with a pair of grandad style aviators would be the icing on the cake for the collection. Maybe I just need to see Miss Robyn Rihanna Fenty wearing them and then I’ll get on board. Usually works.

Ah, GCDS. I got so excited for it after last season but this time round, it was a bit of a disappointment. There were a few outfits that semi-matched up to how cutting-edge I saw their last collection, however a lot of the pieces looked pretty low quality. I get that streetwear is in the name, but it’s supposed to be a high fashion take on that, and a lot of the looks were quite pedestrian. Stand outs are the top 2 rows and the leather motocross style jumpsuit on the far right, third row down, but the quality of these pieces wasn’t consistent across the board and I feel like I ended up having to convince myself I liked some of the others just so I had enough photos to justify including the brand. It really sucks when I look back on how ahead of the game last season’s collection was-we’re talking outfits that wouldn’t be out of place on Instagram’s Tokyofashion page and as far as I’m concerned that’s the fashion holy grail. Some of these looks, especially the menswear, could be from a Boohoo TV ad and that makes me sad.

Meanwhile, Giambattista Valli put out a collection that looked like a virtual postcard of Parisian fashion; if a St-Germain-des-Prés streetwear themed Instagram doesn’t exist already, someone should capitalise on that, stat, because if my typical vision of French feminine fashion is correct it would be full of outfits like this. I feel like this is what a fashion novice EXPECTS Chanel to look like. Trust me-these days the reality is much more disappointing.

There’s many things I'm happy to see here besides the tulle and florals and prettiness I expect of the brand. Obviously the berets and the bows and the elbow length gloves are the kind of off-duty ballerina style touches I’ve become accustomed to but there are also some nice surprises here: the military style white jacket, the unexpected snake motif on clothing that’s otherwise overly delicate, and to my delight the return of the boater hat. IDGAF, this is the summer where I’m buying myself one off Ebay and making this happen for me whether they become a “thing” or not. I shouldn’t squander having this little of a double chin; the opportunity may never present itself again. 

I haven’t watched Killing Eve in a longggg time since there’s only so much of two women attempting to kill each other and then miraculously avoiding death you can watch but I’d love to see Vilanelle prancing round a city in this kinda shit slitting some necks again. I hope that doesn’t make me sound like too much of a sadist; only in a purely fictional world is this something I want to see, I assure you.

Givenchy was really, really great this season too, imo. Definitely a step up from the last RTW anyway. Aside from the drama of the exaggerated floppy brim hats and the quirky tassle detail dresses a la Schiaparelli, a lot of these outfits kinda remind me of something a Miranda Priestly/Cruella De Vil type would wear, and you know me; I’m all for that kind of intimidating, about-to-either-slap-you-or-fire-your-ass bad bitch energy. The gathered leather gloves with the androgynous subtly checkered power suits feels CORRECT and if Giambattista Valli is the bottom in this relationship, Givenchy is the top. Am I allowed to reinforce sapphic relationship stereotypes as a bi girl? Probably not. I’m sorry. Won’t do it again. Just this once. And you know I’m right really xoxo

And OMFG Gucci. Another impeccable collection for me, honestly. Once again, it’s probably my favourite of the season. How it is that Alessandro Michelle gets it SO right for me despite his vision being so bold and different every time? He has this specific brand of strange, conceptual beauty which blends past and present trends in a way so supreme it should be considered art. It’s not a term to throw around loosely but the man is a genius, and tbh I’m still not over the human head props from the 2018 F/W winter show.

In my Haute Couture week review, I talked about the Viktor and Rolf collection (which I loved, don’t get me wrong!) and said that pretty meets grunge is my fave thing ever-this is that, but much even more substantial and intelligent. The Wes Anderson-esque pieces or that late 60s/early 70s hipster aesthetic that I loved in last season’s show hasn’t been done away with either-be it the level of detail or the colour scheme, it all somehow fits together. Never did I think I’d see dresses fit for porcelain dolls through the lens of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen seamlessly slotted in between outfits that could’ve been put together from the clothing rack of Dazed and Confused’s costume department. I want it all-opulent fur-trimmed coats, crucifix jewellery and pilgrim hats I’m sure both Edgar Allan Poe and modern goths would approve of, and the tiered skirts that wouldn’t be out of place in a Westworld saloon. The models were delightfully sad and almost creepy looking and I wouldn’t change that for the world. To say 10/10 doesn’t do it justice, so I’m gonna have to open a reviewer’s can of worms and say 100/100.

Gucci is a tough act to follow, and I’m sorry it has to fall onto the shoulders of Halpern. In the nicest possible way (as if there is any nice way of saying it), I don’t think I any expected anything but a downgrade, so if anything, my standards will be lower so...Michael Halpern, you can thank me I guess? 

That was really mean, I’m sorry. It’s not a bad collection, and I definitely like it more than last season’s. It’s a slightly garish colour palette at times but an exciting one in spite of that, which when paired with the animal print dotted throughout makes this collection the perfect fit for a tropical beach party or at the very least, a semi-decent night at the Caribbean themed bar in your local town centre. The sequins and silk, a Halpern trademark, are as tastefully done as ever, and seeing them on the models, I can’t deny these are some power fits-the kind of clothes you are bound to look and feel confident in; if you wanted to play queen of the urban jungle for a night, this is what you need to be wearing.

Ah, Hermes.

Generally not one to stoke a fire inside me. In all fairness, the tailoring here is really, really nice and French biker chic, and the pieces are perfectly crafted-it’s not that I don’t like the outfits because I think that if I saw one of them individually in a natural, messier setting I’d probably be impressed. These are classy, elegant winter looks and what more could you want when you’re looking for outfit inspiration for this season? It’s just that it’s always a little too neat and uniform for me, and on the runway I like my fashion to be risky. This could almost be the sophisticated mother to a Tommy Hilfiger collection and whilst that’s something I would probably wear if I wanted to look put together, it’s not what you get excited to see at fashion week. Primary colours all together aren’t where it’s at for me either, the infamous colour scheme of the cheap plastic playhouses you’d find in the garden of every working/middle class British household back in the day. Yes, I had one. So did the after school club I was forced to attend whilst my mum was at work. Apparently the negative connotations are still too much for me (a boy I went to the after school club with did once fall off the back of one and crack his head open so maybe it’s justified).

Isabel Marant was pretty much exactly what you’d expect from Isabel Marant; if the Etro bohemian woman is one who rolls out of bed and chucks on the first thing she sees, the Isabel Marant bohemian woman is the one who claims she’s done the same thing but who actually planned it all out the night before. She designs for the gluten-free, bikram yoga Kourtney Kardashian style “hippy” who claims to be a free-spirit but would definitely not do acid with you. I was gonna say it was a collection for the Gwyneth Paltrows of the world but then I remembered Gwyneth proudly released a candle she claimed smelled like her vagina and changed my mind-she’d definitely do acid with you. 

It’s definitely a cohesive transition from the summer collection; both have that seemingly laid-back, clean-cut vibe, and cater to the rich, impeccably groomed scented candle loving woman everywhere. Obviously the pieces are a tad more suited to an alpine lodge in Switzerland than a beach in Malibu this time round, but that same mild colour palette, pretty, naturalistic patterns, and generally relaxed fit persists. It’s cute enough.

J.W Anderson is a bit of an enigma.

Despite the experimental silhouettes and the kooky details that you think would very “look at me!”, the collections still seem to have a chilled, easy-going feel to them. They toy about with the strange but remain entirely sophisticated whilst doing so-I think it’s because aside from the little quirks that make the garments J.W Anderson, they’re otherwise fairly reserved and simple; even the quirks themselves mostly tend to be exaggerated, more conceptual takes on more typical stylistic motifs anyway. Anderson has a knack for producing statement pieces that don’t look like they’re trying too hard to be statement pieces, a talent he expertly deploys at Loewe as well. Whilst Maison Margiela collections are like the fashion equivalent of that Jughead “I’m weird, I’m a weirdo” speech, J.W Anderson’s refusal to conform is quiet and modest. I like it. It’s not generally my personal style but I can admire the thought behind the work, and there are still some things I’d love to try. I have a few standouts-the shoes with the hoop detailing dancing from the ankle straps, the dress on the bottom right with what appears to be art nouveau typography on, the trench coat with the cape detailing and the gossamer dress to its right are all stunning, especially that dress. If I ever want to dress as the bubble Glinda the Good Witch descends in when she meets Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, I know where to go, though I don’t suppose there’s going to be an occasion that calls for that any time soon. Can I just have the dress anyway?

Kim Shui is another new designer I found through blessed Twitter screencaps-thanks guys for doing my research for me. Much appreciated.

But anyways! Like Charlotte Knowles, it’s clear she’s still establishing her aesthetic as a designer, and thus far I love it. The whimsical, throwback prints on urban silhouettes that range from the androgynous suits of city dwelling cool girls to the amped-up sex appeal of nightclub dresses is gorgeous, especially twinned with dainty headscarfs and opera gloves-all in all I think this a very cool and wearable collection and I’m looking forward to the next collection she puts out.

Next up is Lacoste, and IDK why I always include their collections to be honest, considering they’re not really known for “high fashion”. I guess it’s because my dad has collected Lacoste shirts since I was little so I kinda have a soft spot for it and feel obligated to include it every time presentation season comes around. Yes, the outfits are unbearably preppy and the colours are garish but I feel like that’s kind of the appeal? So what if some of the tracksuits look like they could’ve been pulled out of a bad mafia movie? I see the argyle jumpers, with a bit of wear and tear, as a charity shop gem my sister would come across (she has the #Y2K Depop girl knack for finding old designer pieces in the shittiest charity shops without the audacity to try and sell them at a 70% markup) that I would then steal from her wardrobe to wear myself, contrasted with a ripped mini skirt, chains and and docs. I see the POTENTIAL of a look that is very fuck you to the rich middle age tory styling we see here. It’s punk, okay?

Lanvin was STUNNING this time around. Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching Mad Men recently and it reminds me of the fashion on that-which I hope somebody won an award for at the time BTW, it is SO fucking good-but I just adore every look here. I can’t even remember if I reviewed Lanvin’s SS20 show, and so clearly if I did it wasn’t that memorable (no shade intended), however this collection is a different story. Every single one of these outfits is iconic movie moment worthy, a 60s Cher Horowitz plaid two piece equivalent that would get screencapped and replicated ad-nauseam, all the best looks of Betty Draper and Peggy Olsen and Joan Holloway and Megan Calvet brought together and refined for the modern day woman. I might even consider sacrificing my anti-royalist principles if it meant I could transport myself back in time and switch bodies with Grace Kelly so I could make this collection my princess-off-duty wardrobe and drive around Monaco in that Bella Hadid look, roof down, all the drama of the fur trim and the gloves and hair whipping about in the wind (but in this unrealistic vision I can actually see what I’m doing and I’m not choking on random strands and swearing at Mother Nature as if she is a real entity with a personal vendetta against me).

Loewe! More J.W Anderson! I’m gonna try not to repeat myself by arsekissing too much all over again and get the good points out of the way quickly! So rapid fire: elegant! Delicious colour palette! Interesting shapes! I think I’m seeing a Victorian/Edwardian influence there! Correct me if I’m wrong! I like it! The coats are strong! Remind me of the suffragettes! But lets pretend in this case these Loewe style coat wearing suffragettes are not raging classists!

AH. Apart from that, it was a bit too austere for me. I definitely preferred Anderson’s eponymous collection; there were a fair few recurring details in this show that I couldn’t get behind that I didn’t include, in particular this bib-like black panel that just kept popping up on everything. Sorry J.W Anderson. But a 50% success rate is still good! And at the end of the day, having 2 collections on Vogue Runway at once is more prestigious than the accumulative total of every accomplishment I’ll probably ever have achieved in my life by the time I’m on my deathbed so what do I know anyway? Sigh:( At least I’ll always have the honour of having the largest head by circumference of my class in year 4, right *sweats nervously*!?!?! 

Louis Vuitton was definitely a downgrade on last season for me. There were for sure elements I liked-the Vera Wang-esuqe mixing of the tulle bustle skirts with the rougher, more masculine biker inspired vests and jackets was a cool choice, reminiscent of Gucci’s mixing of the lace dresses with harnesses. I enjoyed the baroque jackets and subtle nods to steampunk style too. Though we’ve already seen it a lot this season, the wet look coat with fur trim I can’t help falling in love with, and I’m immune to the potential ugliness of the muted blue monotone look purely on the basis I can picture Ripley from Alien in it. So like I said-it’s not as if I hated it. I guess when it comes down to it, the collection wasn’t bad so much as I just had higher hopes. I will say though, the staging was INCREDIBLE. As a history nerd, I never thought I’d see the day when a Henry the 8th lookalike actor was part of the backdrop of a Paris fashion week show-and I always thought there was no interesting career path for me in the subject!

And another big name I don’t tend to be so partial to, Maison Margiela. IDK, I did like last season but I wasn’t a fan of haute couture and it took me a while to warm to this. Call it deconstructed, experimental, whatever, but you know when you can’t decide what to wear and you’re in a rush so you kinda just throw all the shit you decided against into a pile? Well, my initial thought was that this season Margiela is kinda that, on the runway.

I will say, once I let go of my need to see a clear shape, a lot of the individual pieces were stunning (NOT the puffed up tabis though, I still can’t even get behind the regular ones). I guess I just wish they’d go for less is more with the styling because as it currently stands, it makes it hard to actually take the clothes in. 

Ultimately, one thing you can always say about Margiela, like their clothes or not, is that it has a monopoly on being effortlessly bold.

Marc Jacobs I really liked again, though I will say it doesn’t stand out quite like the S/S collection did. That was absolutely STUNNING-I can’t remember specifically where I ranked it in my top ten but I know it was at least in the top 5. This, on the other hand, is...pretty. It’s very pretty, and very put together, so I’m not saying at all that I don’t rate it. I suppose it’s just a lot simpler than I expected it to be-I don’t have a problem with simplicity, at all, especially if it’s what a brand is known for but I feel like part of the appeal with Marc Jacobs is that it’s pretty kooky. I mean, not Thom Browne or Margiela kooky, but commercial kooky at least. I feel like the kookiness is lacking here? And that’s where this feeling is coming from? And also, the fact that Lanvin tackled the same era and did it a lot better? So there’s that, too. Plus, I adore Miley Cyrus but...why? Random celebrities waking the runway just doesn’t do it for me-it always comes across as a publicity grab, as if the designer isn’t confident enough in their collection’s ability to get people talking on its own, and I suppose in this case that says it all really.

Margaret Howell was...well, Margaret Howell. She’s known for her basics, and they’re always pretty non-offensive “regulation hottie” in the words of the icon that is Damian from Mean Girls. It’s been, what, four years? More? Since I last watched that film but I’m pretty sure watching it about twenty times between the ages of 9 and 15 tattooed it on my brain. I include her because even though they don’t get my pulse racing, I like these pieces; considering the fact that expecting straight white men to ever have style on the level of barbiedrugz (his instagram is my favourite thing ever) or Rickey Thompson is ludicrous, Margaret Howell’s menswear looks are probably are the best, realistic goal for any future partner. Because I like my men dressed like Paddington bear/a depressed Brown University English lit lecturer, okay? Or in other words, Will Graham from Hannibal.

Marine Serre had a few good moments-the looks that I liked were the ones that stayed within her lane of blending the weird with the visually appealing. There were a lot of cool things going on, and I like the utility vibe (the boot with the pouch detailing and the mask are perfect examples of this done well), but outside the fits I picked out a lot of it went over my head tbh.

Marques Almeida is a show I was looking forward to-it has such a youthful, experimental quality to its collections (it’s no surprise the designers said they were influenced by the HBO show Euphoria this year!), similar to Central Saint Martins, and you can tell the designers (Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida) are based in London too; we are talking about the birthplace of the punk fashion movement, and as a designer it’s probably almost a rite of passage that you incorporate elements of that into your work. Marques Almeida does that with a flair and consistency you can count on. Their clothes don’t have the wildest silhouettes or anything like that but the fun they have playing around with print and colour and the ease and confidence with which they settle on those combinations always comes through-the black and white coat with the yellow furs trim is one of my favourite pieces from the entirety of this season’s offerings.

I wasn’t so fond of Max Mara’s SS20 collection and I'm not gonna lie, this isn’t THAT much of a step up for me personally. It’s just one of those brands I feel obligated to include because it’s talked about quite a bit but I’m not totally sure if it’s for me. Too monotone, but I’ll give it another season! And I mean, there is a slight improvement here-this collection is a lot more laid back than the stiff, austere feel of the last, and there are some very well fitted and structured pieces. A lot of the looks kinda remind me of a 2020, fashion take on The Breakfast Club’s “Basket Case”, which is kinda cool, and just from looking at the clothes, the high price tag is palpable. Also, scruffy hair club unite! Though obviously it’s intentional here! That’ll be my excuse for the next time I turn up at work looking like I’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards-Max Mara made me do it.

Ending on those words of wisdom, I’m gonna bring this post to a close, because I can’t fit any more photos in! I’m desperately hoping that I can fit this all into 3 parts like I did with my last RTW review but even if I do have to make 4 posts, I still include my top 10 shows as I did before. I hope to get that post up within the next couple of weeks! After that, I’ve shot a Lana Del Rey inspired by each of her different albums and “era”s though given last week’s events I’m on the fence about whether to post it or not, especially given her silence over the last couple of days. I’m really proud of what I’ve put together and I’ll always love her art and music (I have 2 bloody tattoos, for fuck’s sake!), so I’m trying to think how I can reconcile that with those awfully worded posts and just the general lack of awareness of bigger issues that she’s displayed the last week. JFC, being a Lana stan has always been so chilled up until now. All the very valid and important takes aside, that “Lana pls delete that post and apologise, we can’t fight the barbz all your stans are depressed” tweet is the only good thing to come out of this shitshow. He got a point. Breathing feels like effort lately:( IDK, if you’re also a Lana stan and you have any opinions on the matter, feel free to DM me, because I’m feeling pretty conflicted rn.

Most importantly though, are the issues I opened this post by talking about, and I thought I’d finish by including the thread of petitions I saw on Twitter. Like I said, a lot of them aren’t available to sign in the UK but to anyone who read up until this point (thank you!) idk where you’re reading from so maybe some of them will apply to you:

https://twitter.com/yericvIt/status/1265801832930045953

Also, while we’re at it, because every tory voting twat seems to treat our country as if it’s some beacon of hope where racism is non-existent and love to tell PoC to stop moaning about their experiences, here’s a thread of black British men and women who have lost their lives to police violence:

https://twitter.com/illh0eminati/status/1266441604170223617

Thank you for reading until the end. I hope that you enjoyed the fashion part of the post but also that if you did read this far, you read the other bits too if you didn’t know what was going on already. It seems like everyone does but you forget that Twitter’s a bit of an echo chamber and that outside of it, there’s a lot of ignorance, whether intentional or not. I know Tumblr has a similar audience to Twitter so I imagine there’s loads on here about everything going on too, but ya know. I wanted to talk about it just incase. 

Stay safe, keep fighting the good fight, and again, thank you for reading!<3

Lauren x

[lostsummerdayz]

Lost Summer Deep Dive - Christie Monteiro Part 1

An In-Depth Look At A Capoeirista Forgotten By Lore

by Nay Holland

When one thinks of capoeira, it is impossible to mention the impact video games had in bringing the art into the public eye. Sure, there have been movies, books, and capoeira schools for as long as the art existed, but video games were arguably the form of media which made the art popular. The same could be said for its representation in video games.

While you had capoeiristas like Richard Meyer and Bob Wilson in the Fatal Fury series, it wouldn’t be until years later that a rich Brazilian capoeirista known as Eddy Gordo would set the bar. No, he wouldn’t just set the bar, he would be the bar himself.

In arcades during the year of 1997 and home consoles the following year, many a player felt rage from a single man. A man whose flips, spins, handstands, and kicks, would bring awe to those who played him, and frustration to those who fought against it. He was both famous for moves never seen before in a 3D fighter, and infamous for being the definition of “cheap.”

Regardless how you felt about him, there was no denying that Eddy was different from the rest of the cast. In a game where homages to Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Tiger Mask were evident, there was nothing who was comparable to Eddy at the time. His unique, yet slightly exaggerated, homage to capoeira brought new fans into the art. Capoeira became a popular buzz word for fighting enthusiasts almost overnight.

But was Eddy always considered to be the face of capoeira?

After Tekken Tag Tournament, Eddy was noticeably absent from the main roster. In place of him was a young Brazilian woman by the name of Christie Monteiro. A fresh face for a game that represented a new era in Tekken, her moves were very similar to Eddy’s.

In fact, apart from her normal throws, her movelist were identical to Eddy’s in every way. Eddy being a palette swap for her in Tekken 4 and Tekken 5 brought the “Christie is Eddy” angle to its head. At the time, although Eddy was included in these two games, Bandai Namco was trying to push Christie as the new face.

At the very least, they were trying to push a woman as the capoeira representative from the very beginning.

In a 1998 CVG interview, following the release of Tekken 3, the development team discussed how the concept of Eddy came about. When asked how the team went about designing its roster of characters, the team replied with the following.

“A good example is Eddy, since he wasn't planned to be the character you see at first. The development team wanted to include a character who used Capoeira, so the idea was passed on to the artist team. Mr Kimoto requested the artist to make a female character for Capoeira. However the artist said it was too difficult to design a female character who used Capoeria, so there came Eddy.” 

It wouldn’t be until Dark Resurrection that Eddy had his own slot on the roster for the first time since Tekken Tag Tournament.

With the separation of the two characters at last, Christie’s push would be put on the backburner in lieu of Eddy’s importance to the story. Christie’s relevance came to a screeching halt in Tekken 7 as Eddy was one of the final main roster characters revealed without a Brazilian woman in sight.

NO!!!

Anyways, Christie wouldn’t make another official appearance until the mobile Tekken game, but considering the mobile Tekken game is literally a dump of old characters that didn’t make the cut in Tekken 7, that’s hardly a victory.

I started writing this back in early 2018, and since then, we’ve gotten Marduk back from the graveyard!

However, I’ve long since stopped holding out for hope. If she shows up, she shows up. If she doesn’t, well. It still won’t dilute the amount of love I have for this girl. Hopefully by the end of this I can shed some light on what makes Christie amazing to me.

So, what happened? How did the one who was pushed to be the babyface of capoeira after Eddy’s origin ended up becoming the queen of the indies known as mobile Tekken? What is it about Christie that makes me admire her as a character? Well, let’s start with her design.

Appearance

So, imagine the year 2001. You’re in the arcades and you see Tekken 4 for the first time. The attract video plays and you’re in wow at the graphics. Especially considering this is the first Tekken on a new engine in the arcade at least. Then suddenly you see this mami twirling and making sensual poses, flashing the biggest grin.

It was at this point you dumped quarters in the machine. Don’t lie. This totally didn’t happen to me at an arcade while I was in the Poconos. Nope.

I remember the rumors at the time. Everyone thought the designers took inspiration from Tyra Banks and Harada himself de-confirmed this.

Wearing a low-cut green floral blouse that cuts above her midriff, black leather hotpants with frills at the end, black fingerless gloves, and Spartan-style sandals, Christie’s primary outfit was made to turn heads and accentuate her features. As with most outfits and hair designs in this game, Christie’s design was also made to show off the new graphics engine for Tekken. Christie’s long brunette hair, coupled with her loose-fitting clothing, flows with the wind with every kick and acrobatic motion. Her design was made for comfort in mind as well as ease of movement.

Christie’s competitor’s outfit is a brassiere-style top with silk training pants and green fingerless gloves. Wrapped around her waist is a capoeira belt, much like Eddy’s competitor’s outfit. Whether this is an actual representation of her rank, or just a design choice, is up in the air. I’d like to say it’s the latter, though I believe a purple belt is a high ranking in capoeira.

Comparing Christie and Eddy’s competitor’s outfit, they aren’t too different from each other. In fact, side by side they appear like partners rather than a radical difference.

Following her debut, her primary outfit changes from a green to a light purple top and black to white colored hotpants. The top of her competitive gear is more confined and stylish while retaining the same effect as it did before. As the series progressed, her butterfly motif became more prevalent in her clothing.

With such a dynamic taste in style, one would think that her personality is just as bubbly, and you’d be correct to think so.

Personality

Pointing at her opponent with finger guns and firing off in their direction, Christie enters her ginga stance with a declaration…

“Here we go!”

Oozing with confidence no matter who she is fighting against, Christie never backs down from an opportunity to show off her studies in Capoeira arts.

Christie makes it clear to her competitors that if they take her lightly, they will pay for it in a loss.

Perhaps one of my favorite exchanges with another character is when she fights Bruce in Tekken 5. Bruce exclaims that the “competition has gotten easier on the eyes,” in which Christie taunts him in return. When Bruce questions if her capoeira can stand up to [his Muay Thai], she replies with a sultry tone of confidence.

Ultimately, Christie would win the bout and she toys with him, saying that his lack of rhythm will be the reason why he will never defeat her.

It’s exchanges like this, as well as her other intro pose where she blows her opponent a kiss and declares them to “go easy on her,” that she uses her looks to her advantage. It’s almost as a form of intimidation, being caught off guard by swift kicks coming at you at every direction while she emerges the victor, leaving the battle almost unscathed.

There is a depth to this. When things get serious, Christie has a sense of justice within the confines of her own capability. This is commonly brought up whenever Eddy runs off headfirst into danger.

In the same game, when she runs into Eddy, she doesn’t back down from fighting Eddy to save her grandfather’s life. Win or lose, she will fight her hardest for those who she loves, even if it means fighting the one person, she loves the most.

She’s also highly emotional as an individual as evident when she shows her disappointment at the end of her winning the 4th Iron Fist Tournament. This changes to a complete 180 as she sees the one person who she has been looking for all tournament, immediately returning to her bubbly cheerful self. A dark version of this trait shows when she is overburdened with emotion to the point of tears upon discovering that her grandfather passed away.

This combination of a flirtatious happy-go-lucky capoeirista who revels in her fights and a woman who is bound to protect those who she holds dear comes into full force in Tekken 6. Although in the overall canon she takes a backseat, controlling her in Scenario mode reveals hidden layers about her character.

One of the hypothetical scenarios that is brought up is when Christie and Eddy do cross paths in Scenario mode. If the former approaches Eddy, he will exclaim that she shouldn’t be here in high concern. If the latter approaches Christie, she will appear angry that he has, once again, decided to be inconsiderate in being brash for considering working with “Public Enemy #1.”

Both Eddy and Christie wish to protect each other, yet they do so by ironically placing themselves into harms way. While on a larger scale, they are two small fish in the giant ocean that is the Mishima bloodline story. If one zooms in on the microscope, you see two troubled young adults who wish to live in peace. One is bound by vengeance while the other is bound by duty.

Story

While Tekken 4 is the first time we see and hear of Christie, that game is not the first time we hear of her story. In Tekken 3’s prologue, Eddy was incarcerated after being framed for the murder of his father. During his sentence, he learns the art of capoeira from an elderly master. Up until his release, Eddy perfected the art of capoeira and entered the third King of Iron Fist tournament to exact

That elderly man was none other than…

Well…

The old man never had an official name. The Tekken wiki has his name as

DENSETSU NO KAPOEIRA MASUTAA

or the “Legendary Capoeira Master.”

For a while, the urban legend regarding his name was “Ho Chi Myong,” but unlike the Tara Banks inspiration, this wasn’t ever confirmed by Bandai Namco. I don’t think it ever will.

The one thing that was confirmed, however, was that the

DENSETSU NO KAPOEI---I’m sorry.

The elderly capoeira master was Christie’s grandfather. How did Christie herself know capoeira? Through Eddy, as a form of mutual respect for her grandfather teaching him the art. Suddenly Christie and Eddy having identical moves isn’t farfetched.

However, I always wondered why Christie’s grandfather never taught her capoeira himself? The obvious answer would be because he, too, was imprisoned. Still, you’d consider that maybe he would have taught her when she was a child or began to teach her. Who knows?

At the end of the King of Iron Fist Tournament 3, Eddy finds out that it was Kazuya Mishima who orchestrated the events which led to his father’s murder and his own imprisonment. Since then, he has sought out to find Kazuya and settle the score on his own terms.

Enter Tekken 4, where a concerned Christie realizes Eddy has gone missing. In her response, she spends the 4th Iron Fist Tournament looking for Eddy, sensing trouble brewing on the horizon.

Honestly this was Eddy’s fault to begin with. Had Eddy not told Christie that he was going to avenge his father’s death, she wouldn’t have bothered to put herself in harm’s way. However, Christie’s story had to start somewhere yeah?

In the end, Eddy doesn’t find Kazuya, but, if we take Christie’s ending in Tekken 4 as canon, we can deduce some details.

Christie wins the iron fist tournament, incredibly bemused, as she failed at her original goal in locating Eddy. However, seeing a familiar face in the crowd, she runs over to Eddy in a full embrace. Eddy appears in this ending with a cast on his arm, so it is assumed that his progress in finding his father’s murderer ended prematurely. Even so, despite his lack of success, he still shows up to his girl’s victory match in support. What a romantic.

Several months later, tragedy strikes. Christie’s grandfather is inflicted with an illness and the race to find enough money to pay for the operation begins. In the end, no matter who wins the tournament, they use their prize money to pay for the operation which turns out to be a success. Christie, Eddy, and her grandfather are all seen at a park practicing capoeira and everyone lives happily ever after, right!?

Unfortunately, not.

Several years later and the climate is different. Jin Kazama wages war against the world and it turns out that neither Christie nor Eddy was able to win the tournament after all.

Running out of time and resources, Jin makes a deal with Eddy. If Eddy works for him and helps exact Jin’s vengeance against Kazuya, then Jin will help pay for the operation. Considering this as an opportunity to become in direct contact with Kazuya, the murderer of his father, it’s a win win for Eddy.

He didn’t want to be a part of this war, but for the safety of the one person who was a father figure for him and the chance to kill the one who has caused him years of torment, he will take up a gun for Jin.

So, where does this leave Christie? Back to where we once were in Tekken 4, on the lookout for Eddy and her grandfather.

Do you see where I’m getting at now? “As the series progressed, Christie’s role became diluted?”

The sad part is that Christie is not the only character to suffer through this “character dilution.” The4thSnake’s video on Asuka Kazama goes over the same points that I could ever make, so please give that video a watch when you can. In Tekken 6, if it wasn’t Mishima related, it was on the backburner.

Once again, both parties are unsuccessful. Christie never finds a cure for her grandfather’s illness and he succumbs. Eddy is deceived by Jin, refusing to hold his end of the bargain, and is unable to save his master’s life. While visiting his grandfather’s grave, Christie discovers Eddy.

Instead of a warming reunion, Christie, in a fit of rage and sadness, slaps him while demanding where he was. In response, Eddy stands there, motionless, as he throws his Mishima Zaibatsu pin to the ground.

This is where Christie’s story ends. Officially.

What began as a bright young capoeira student ended a grieving shell of a person, thanks to the dishonesty of Mishimas and Eddy for pulling a Knuckles and believing Eggman---Jin Kazama.

If we look at the Tag 2 endings and assume, they take place after 6, Eddy takes a page out of King’s book and opens up a capoeira school for orphaned children. After some time passes, he embarks on a trip to become the world greatest stuntman the Mishima Zaibatsu has ever seen!

No of course not he’s going to confront his father and master’s murderers of course! What else would Eddy POSSIBLY do at this point!?

In Christie’s ending, as a continuation, she catches wind of this and chases Eddy, but, as history tends to repeat itself, she’s too late. Eddy is already on the train.

Some. Things. Never. Change.

At least she was spared a grim fate, unlike our friend here.

Conclusion

So. Where do we go from here? From the beginning, we know that Eddy is an integral part of Christie’s story. However, there are signs in her design that shows she can hold her own, both in a fight and in her sense of justice.

I recommend anyone to play through Scenario mode with all of the available roster and not just Lars, but in Scenario mode, Christie has a sense of justice that almost felt refreshing. It wasn’t just simply “where’s Eddy,” but it was also “I have to stop the messed up things from going on in the world”

Earlier I posted a photo where she confronts Eddy for working with the Mishimas and she has no qualms in defeating him to knock sense into him. I also mentioned the confrontation between Bruce and Christie, which is just about non-canon as far as Tekken 6 is confirmed. They treat their encounter as if it was the first time they’ve ever met. Bummer.

But there are signs of life for this character and when it shows, it’s refreshing to see. Christie is not the only character who suffers from this, but she is the one who is marred by the reputation of “always being in Eddy’s shadow.”

When discussion is brought up on why she shouldn’t be in the game? “Eddy is already in there.”

When the game throws her into a repeat storyline for the third straight game in the series? “Eddy is already there.”

Why is Christie out and about? “Her grandfather, but Eddy is there as well.”

Part of the reason why I considered myself a Christie main is because Christie is an underdog in the Tekken universe as well as within the competitive scene.

The irony here is that Christie was meant to replace Eddy, but the inverse happened.

One day, Christie can exist without having to worry about being in Eddy’s shadow. A fan can dream. Until then, I’ll always consider her my favorite fighting game character so there’s no replacing that at least.

There will be a Part 2 to this as there’s one key game that she’s a part of where she does regain some of that luster I wish she had in the main series. A game that is largely underrated but a game where Christie has had her moment in the sun.

Stay tuned for Part 2 soon! If you weren’t sick of me talking about Christie and made it this far, congrats! Stick around for the follow-up!

[someonestole15]

Liquid creature

Secure, contain, protect… if possible.

With the rest of the camp searched, I could turn my focus into the main target, the large white tent that had been set up near back of the area. The details on what the gas was were still in the dark, but I had gained some knowledge on it. Corrosive, not deadly at first, but can lead to extreme paranoia, enough to make people go insane. Some mutations had been observed, as with the creature I had seen, but most simply ended up crazy or dead within minutes. I’m somewhat glad I don’t have actual lungs, but the corrosive element will cause issues if my suit breaks.

The tent was partly steel and white tarp along it to keep it secure from the elements. The design had been perfected from the original plans they had made for colonizing Mars, but after they discovered the tunnels and caverns below the red sand, these tents were decommissioned for hazmat duty, but here we are. The silent humming of the ventilation units and the darkness around combined with the limited flashlight range made me feel slightly tense. I had seen one creature in the dark, who knows how many more there might be inside, waiting for someone to walk past before attacking.

The doors leading further into the tent were wide open, the locks on them heavily damaged and the decontamination arc inside had been torn away. No signs of explosives, but more than 20 large scratch marks all along the walls and doors. The stalking feeling returned to me.

“Watching me, are you?” No response, but I could hear something rustle away behind me.

I closed the door behind me, at least if it was open when I came back I would know something had gone through. I checked the Vector again, the paranoia was getting to me, and I wasn’t about to run in with my weapon unloaded.

>Keep calm protocol re-engaged. Purging files…

That’s better, I need to keep my head in here, and the loss of sanity wouldn’t help at all. Locked and loaded, I stepped into the hallway that allowed me to head left and right. The signs on the wall were covered in dust, so no help with that, but seeing as there were only 2 directions, I chose one.

Left.

Most of the corridor remained empty, until I rounded the first corner. A large glass canister of a green liquid had fallen over, covering the floor and some walls with it. A scan revealed that it was noncorrosive, but shared many aspects with the gas outside.

The liquid variant isn’t corrosive, but the gas it… I wonder if it has a solid form… With the knowledge that it wouldn’t burn through my boots, I stepped through the liquid and cleaned off the traces of it once I had gotten clear. After taking a few more steps, my sensors picked up a trail behind me. I turned around, weapon drawn and flashlight at full beam.

A humanoid creature with green skin, about 180 centimeters tall stood there, staring at me. The creature’s breathing was raspy and its hands were tipped with large claws. I felt my adrenaline pump spool up as the creature seemingly took in its surroundings. It let out a horrifying screech before turning into goo similar to the liquid inside the containers. The goo rushed towards me as I retreated back away from it with rapid pace. If that thing can convert itself into goo, I don’t think my bullets would work against it. That leaves one option, run.

The creature in its goo form was quick on flat terrain, but even the smallest obstacle was enough to slow it down. A simple ventilation grate got me enough time to get out of its sight into a laboratory room that had its lights off. I sealed the door and kept my breathing steady, waiting for the radar blip to disappear. After around 10 minutes it did, and the area fell silent again.

I gathered my thoughts and started forming a plan.

The creature that chased me seemed almost like it wanted to hug me, but with those claws, it would have ripped through my suit, causing me to get exposed to the gasses still around the area. Even with all this ventilation, there was too much of it to clear it out without getting rid of the source.

The questions still remain:

-How does one stop that creature?

-Where is the source and how can it be contained again?

-Am I ready for this?

The lab I was in seemed to focus on finding out what properties of the gel, papers strewn around the room were heavily burned and mostly unreadable, but there was one detail that still caught my eye.

“The chemical bond will break in extreme cold. Sent a sample to the right wing for further tests…”

I think it is time to locate some more liquid nitrogen…

[phatjosh180]

180 WEEK: My Top 10 Favorite Race Medals

The past couple months as I’ve been preparing for this race — and everything that comes with it — I’ve been going through all of my race medals. I’ve not been going through them to reminisce, but to also organize a bit better. I have all of my medals stored by year in seven shoeboxes.

I want (well, need) to display them more prominently — and I am working on all of that. I’ve bought some wall mounts along with a race medal lamp holder. Yes, it’s a lamp I can hang my race medals on. It’s pretty cool.

For the past several years I’ve been sharing my year’s favorite race medals at the end of each year. And, I thought since we’re here at the end of the road of my 180 races — I should do the same, but for ALLLLLLLLL of my 180 races.

I don’t have a set criteria for the medals. They’re just my favorite for different reasons. Generally speaking I love medals that are large, detailed and have a good heft to them. But, there are also race medals that have some personal meaning to me — that might lack on the size, details and/or heft.

But, that doesn’t mean they’re not cherished equally. I guess this is what it’s going to feel like once I have kids?

I digress.

Anyways, here are my top ten favorite race medals from my 180 races. I’ve included a little blurb to each to explain why they’re one of my favorites.

Enjoy!

MEDAL #10

Mt. Nebo Half, 2017 pic.twitter.com/ymz2VFocvD

— Josher (@josherwalla) July 16, 2018

The Mt. Nebo Half is one of my favorite half marathons. It’s a fast fun downhill race that I PR’d at in 2013. Nebo will always have a special place in my heart. It’s just a great race.

I practically love this medal for the design — it’s just — rad. I love the colors and black gold. It makes the orange POP.  Plus, the design on point and I love the edges that bring the mountain inside the leaf. A very, very, very awesome race medal. Consequently, the same year’s race shirt is one of my favorites to wear.

MEDAL #9

Ogden Marathon, 2014. pic.twitter.com/8fdMy46NAM

— Josher (@josherwalla) July 16, 2018

The detail on this medal is awesome. I love the Ogden arch design along with the mountains on this medal — it’s clean with simplicity of color. Not only that it’s a good size with a great heft to it. It doesn’t leave you feeling disappointed — you definitely feel like you EARNED the medal.

This medal is special to me as well, because this was the marathon I surprised my friend Becca at — after training for it with her thinking I wasn’t running it. You’ll read more about that later this week.

MEDAL #8

Ragnar Relay: Wasatch Back, 2013. pic.twitter.com/hVsRt04uXR

— Josher (@josherwalla) July 16, 2018

This was my first Ragnar — it was also my first and last time being the team captain. But, that’s a story for another day. But, I absolutely love this race medal. Not only does it have a spinny thing in the middle (my favorite feature), but it’s HUGE and HEAVY!

The design is fun and clean while the colors on point with the orange and silver. It’s just a great medal all around. This is one medal I love to show off whenever I give presentations about my journey and races.

RAGNAAAAAAAAR!!!

MEDAL #7

Joshua Tree Half Marathon, 2017. pic.twitter.com/QwP9KaVRAJ

— Josher (@josherwalla) July 16, 2018

It took me nearly six years of running to finally run a Vacation Races event. Something I’m a little bummed about, because I’ve always loved their race medal designs. They put great effort into them and they come out great. And, from a design aspect — they’re clean and on brand.

This was my first Vacation Races event — and I picked it mainly because it’s my name. And, I was able to run the Snow Canyon Half Marathon in the morning of the same — so I was able to run my name — Joshua Snow Hansen. Pretty cool, huh?

This was a tough race — and day — I was sick throughout the day (I threw up 12 times throughout the day) but I managed to finish both races — and earn this beauty! I can’t wait to run more Vacation Races!

MEDAL #6

Disneyland Half Marathon, 2012. pic.twitter.com/6ZWAfXjST1

— Josher (@josherwalla) July 16, 2018

It’s kind of fitting that I am sharing this post on Disneyland’s birthday. As many might know — I am somewhat of a Disneynerd. I love Disney, Disneyland, Walt Disney — pretty much anything Disney. So being able to combine my love for Disney and running was natural for me.

I did the Disneyland Half Marathon in both 2011 and 2012 — and honestly there’s not much of a difference in the design. Probably none to be honest with you. So this could technically be a tie?

Either way, I love the design and size of this race medal. The design is clean with the all gold cast — and the size is pretty hefty. Disney didn’t skimp on the medals — which they shouldn’t because when you’re paying nearly $200 for a race without getting a park ticket for the day — they should go all out.

I’m sometimes a conflicted jaded Disneyland fan.

MEDAL #5

Pony Express Trail 50, 2016. pic.twitter.com/ekWOAxCk5I

— Josher (@josherwalla) July 16, 2018

This is definitely the smallest race medal on this list. Don’t let the picture fool — it’s rather small. When I first got it — I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed. I was kinda hoping I got a honking 50lbs. race medal put around my neck for the accomplishment. But, I’m okay with it now.

What it lacks in size, it makes up in meaning. There’s so much meaning in this medal. Just the fact I was able to complete the 50 miles is meaning enough — but, the miles training for before the race, my journey, etc. all weighed into that finish line. The really made the size of this medal feel like that 50lbs. race medal.

I can’t wait to earn another one these medals and cherish it just as much — regardless of the size.

MEDAL #4

The Bakers Dozen Half Marathon, 2015. pic.twitter.com/7roXsYxcMq

— Josher (@josherwalla) July 16, 2018

You could serve cupcakes to a family of eight on this race medal! Seriously, no joke! This is the largest medal I own size wise. It’s HUGE!  And, the whimsical, colorful and fun design just fits with the race and Race Director Cory Reese TOO WELL!

I feel like I need a redo on this race, because I ran it sick and wasn’t able to fully enjoy the race as one should. The race consists of four laps of a loop in Hurricane with an aid station of cookies, donuts and sugar galore — that you can (and are encouraged to) gorge on.

I just wasn’t feeling well — and ended up eating no more than 5 mini donuts.

Weak sauce!

But, hey, I still earned the medal!

MEDAL #3

Runtastic Events Trilogy Medal, 2017. pic.twitter.com/feCLSzP8VX

— Josher (@josherwalla) July 16, 2018

Seriously, this is an AWESOME medal. This is the Runtastic Events Trilogy Medal — a medal you get for running three of their half marathons or marathon during one calendar year. This has a double meaning for me — well maybe more, actually.

This medal has some serious size, heft and design. It’s absolutely HUGE and HEAVY! But, it’s special to me because it’s for the year that I worked with Runtastic Events. I quit to focus on PrepperCon in August of that year so I was also able to earn the medal by running the Mt. Nebo Half and both Haunted Half races.

I love this medal as well because it’s the same year that I visited Greece — so that tie into the meaning of earning it and working for the company — just puts it in a special place in my heart.

But, seriously — IT’S HUGE! (TWSS)

MEDAL #2

Revel Big Cottonwood Marathon, 2014. pic.twitter.com/EGMNPJuvsE

— Josher (@josherwalla) July 16, 2018

This medal has some serious heft to it! Not only that, but the design is clean and classy — an absolute favorite of mine. Not only is the design one of my favorites, but the memory attached to it bumps it up a few notches on the list.

This was Jill’s first marathon that I ran alongside her. I’ll have more about this memory and moment later this week. But, I will always love and cherish that moment.

And, Revel has always had awesome race medals.

MEDAL #1

The Haunted Half, 2016. pic.twitter.com/4sU6NPXnmz

— Josher (@josherwalla) July 16, 2018

Full disclosure — I am little biased on this medal. I had a hand in the design with this race medal when I worked for Runtastic Events. But, I seriously love it. Not only for the color design, but I love the black gold that makes all those colors pop and it’s a nice sized medal.

I’m not a huge fan of gore and scar when it comes to Halloween. So going the route of Día de Muertos I thought was perfect. You get the Halloween vibe without the blood and gore. It was really a winner.

But, it’s hard to not pick up this medal and not stare at it. This will be pretty hard to top in my book. I absolutely love it.

A post shared by The Runcast (@theruncast) on Apr 17, 2018 at 6:18am PDT

180 WEEK: My Top 10 Favorite Race Medals was originally published on PhatJosh | My Life Running.

[kelanfilms]

Stop Signs: The Joys of the Edit

Due to the everchanging weather onset, continuity for our film was looking to be a big task to maintain. As AD I was onset to note these changes/mistakes and write messages to my editor self, but there was a couple of times I was dealing with other things and in post have realised somethings happened, for example: Georgie’s hair flowing wildly in the wind, shoes and feet appearing, clouds changing and necklaces jumping in/out of jumpers, and the bench... we don’t talk about the bench. So my first day was spent noting down cuts that would be used only where necessary and sorting out my workflow.

After each day on set I’d been transcoding and logging the files ready for edit but unfortunately by day3 I was exhausted so left it for the train-ride home. Unfortunately this is when Avid decided to stop working for my laptop. The second Avid opened my laptop became so slow it barely worked, and the program wouldn’t allow the day3 footage to transcode. With editing at home I didn’t have room for error with Avid, so decided to do what I really didn’t want to, and turn to Adobe Premier Pro. Thankfully this program was working quickly and for now, working well with the files. I am concerned about issues presenting themselves in the exporting process so have booked a tutorial with Kieran to discuss the workflow and exporting issues that may need amended to ensure there’s no error. Because we are working quickly our crew has left a lot of room for issues and resolvement in the post-production process (there’s always something), so I’m not feeling too stressed.

Due to the wind on Day 2 of shooting a lot of the camera and sound slates aren’t matching. When shooting in the wind we could barely hear each-other so it’s no wonder the slate numbers got lost. As well, on the day the wind was so high that the clapper board would become another instrument getting blown away, and nobody had hands free to hold it, especially during the boot shot. [I think in future as a team we check the wind as well as rain, and during recces, don’t choose wide open spaces as the primary location, we should have a backup that’s as sheltered as we can from the weather]. So in post I’ve had to sync where I can for these outdoor shots, but as they don’t contain dialogue I think Anne-Marie could foley/SFX these sections easily enough. To ensure we both know what’s going on and that she’s prepared for any issues I’ve had with sound during the edit (Sound’s my least favourite thing to deal with unless I’m completing it myself, I can understand my mess of an audio track, other people... not so much, so I’m having to ensure that Anne Marie can understand what I’ve done and what’s where and any issues that may arise). 

The Edit Process:

The First Cut: 15th April

As always with my first cuts I set to work on initially blocking out the story on the timeline, going through each cut and finding the moments of the performances that told the story for me. Unfortunately with Hollie’s full script in there the film was 7.5mins (1.5mins over the limit), so I requested her to cut pieces of dialogue she was willing to part with. After a discussion we decided to make it more of a rant from Georgie, and take away the bits of Brodie’s dialogue that she was ignoring anyway. The first cut as always is a bit untidy so it needs work but it’s good to get into the flow. One thing I’m struggling with so far is the continuity in the shots, due to the weather cuts are interrupted by moving hair, wind, water getting rough then still, and due to our location quite a few trains and dogs interrupting. So it’s a case of trying to build a good edit around the perfect bits of dialogue and performance to create emotional moments. My aim with the edit is to prepare a new cut and build on it every day, and send uploads to the director and sound designer so that issues are resolved before a picture-lock attempt. By feeling the changes with each draft I feel my faith growing in my abilities and also connect and think about the film more, so it’s a process that really works for me too.

Link for first cut: https://youtu.be/PeZvG8euYWc

2nd Cut: April 17th

The 2nd draft was completed 2 days later, and will be tidied into draft 3 for rough cut tutorials. I’ve included a temporary phone ringtone to get the atmosphere of the phone there so that I can attempt to include the tension I saw in the script, however these shots aren’t as jumpy as I’d imagined so that may have to be rethought. Lines have also been cut, but I’ve been careful where to do it. Georgie is now on less of a rant with Brodie and it’s now a flowing conversation, so I’m intrigued as to what Hollie will think of this. For me, I feel like I get the story more when Brodie’s not interjecting, everything we understand is coming from our protagonist now. We are also now back into the 6min mark which is a good sign, as the original draft went over by 1.5mins, and I’m really feeling the story coming through the edit a lot more.

Below: Draft 2 Timeline (17th April): 

Link for 2nd cut: https://youtu.be/Odk2UCY1LSE

3rd Cut: 19th April

Following notes from my producer (which I heavily agreed with), we decided to cut the car sequence down (3 shots for 50secs was always too long), and adjust the shoes being taken off. Klaudia wasn’t a fan of the necklace sequence, but I think after tidying it has potential. The closeup is a nice shot too and gives a bit more dimension to the complexity of Georgie’s turmoil. She says she doesn’t care for her mum, but that moment is a nice sense of connection whether she likes it or not. So in draft 3 I went to work doing this, this cut is now 5mins 30secs which gives room to bring back more of the dialogue especially for Brodie now. It’s just a case of finding his key moments, as he was a younger actor sometimes you can see him thinking his lines so the performance is lost or the lines come out a little one note, so it’s just a job of finding his key moments (and there are a few lovely moments from Robbie so it’d be great to bring these back). I’ve also noticed the 180 line is being crossed in the edit far too much so I’m going to need to use the wides and Georgie’s CU to amend this. I think this problem has arisen as the film was not shot with the 180 line in mind onset, when I asked where we were working from/where the line was I was told “I don’t know” by a crew member so I think maybe that’s why a lot of our shots contradict themselves in this sense. So the next draft will really focus on solving/hiding the 180 problem to make the space more understandable to the viewer. I think because we see the full scene in the master shot when Georgie walks over it isn’t confusing to a viewer, but does make the edit look a bit lazier. 

Below: The draft 3 timeline. (Blue audio is camera, audio tracks need to be tidied).

Link for 3rd cut: https://youtu.be/gu5Tb3z7a14

The 4th Cut: 20th April

I’m feeling confident in how this edits now coming together. I’ve sorted a tutorial with Andrew for tomorrow and am preparing 2 more drafts for then, so that following his comments we can picture-lock tomorrow evening, giving Anne-Marie enough time to get her sound done. (And for me to colour-grade).

Below: The Draft 4 Timeline (the tracks that are displaying “out of sync” were a few frames out when they synced so they are correct).

Link for Draft 4 Cut: https://youtu.be/kISNk4BKCMA

The 5th Cut: 21st April “Potential Picture-Lock Day”

With the 5th cut I’m feeling more confident we’re there with locking picture. Small tweaks and issues have been resolved and I’m hoping to fine cut and lock it today to send to Anne-Marie for sound. Currently I believe I’m colour-grading so with the programs I have it will be done on Premier, so I’ve been touching up the colour in drafts as I go to get them all similar. Then if Hollie wishes for specific LUTS/Looks then I’ll apply this week, and hopefully be done with the project this weekend to give me time to finish assignments for other modules.

This cut is definitely the strongest, I’m feeling more of a tempo and having the temporary phone in there is giving me a feel for the story. I’ve highlighted points of Robbie’s performances more, and given a little more reaction time but unfortunately due to wind the actors couldn’t hear each other (so that emotive reaction is often absent in all our shots from day2).

All in all though, feeling strong for our tutorial with Andrew today (that feeling may change after that...)

Below: The Draft 5 Timeline, undergoing colour correction for one of the brighter shots.

Link for the Draft 5 Cut: https://youtu.be/3wCQtG6lU5Q

Picture Lock! Draft 6 & 7

Following comments from the lecturers and team we have moved to do a quick redraft before picture lock. The first redraft focused on the lecturer’s comments and ensuring the film didn’t sit on the line of action.

Draft 6: https://youtu.be/v5ZaEA6e0Qo

After this redraft I decided we needed to get rid of the Georgie close-up because it was too jarring being on the line. The pacing was amended too but due to shot choices and continuity (wind going through folks hair, and movement, was spoiling cuts), so I created Draft 7 - the picture lock.

Picture lock (draft 7): https://youtu.be/54AvA3lFxMg

I am happy with the picture lock but wish I’d had more time. In order to upload the AAF and MXF files to our sound designer that took 2 days off of our schedule due to my internet, so even an extra week on this would’ve allowed me to perfect it. Apart from that I am happy with the film and it’s definitely an improvement on some of my other edits. We’re still awaiting the recordings for the start and end to close up the story for the viewer, and reduce the narrative questions, so I’m intrigued to see what that’s like. I’ve mentioned to the director that these voicemail recordings have to hit the mark, as I’m worried they’ll be too vague and won’t answer the questions needing answered (are they going to the funeral? is it a funeral? legit what is happening in this world?). But we shall see, for now though, that’s my primary role as editor done.

[suzanneshannon]

Programming Sass to Create Accessible Color Combinations

We’re all looking for low-hanging fruit to make our sites and apps more accessible. One of the easier things we can do is make sure the colors we use are easy on the eyes. High color contrast is something that benefits everyone. It not only reduces eye strain in general, but is crucial for folks who deal with reduced vision.

So let’s not only use better color combinations in our designs but find a way to make it easier for us to implement high contrasts. There’s one specific strategy we use over at Oomph that lets a Sass function do all the heavy lifting for us. I’ll walk you through how we put that together.

Want to jump right to the code because you already understand everything there is to know about color accessibility? Here you go.

What we mean by “accessible color combinations”

Color contrast is also one of those things we may think we have handled. But there’s more to high color contrasts than eyeballing a design. There are different levels of acceptable criteria that the WCAG has defined as being accessible. It’s actually humbling to crack open the WebAIM Contrast Checker and run a site’s color combinations through it.

My team adheres to WCAG’s Level AA guidelines by default. This means that: 

Text that is 24px and larger, or 19px and larger if bold, should have a Color Contrast Ratio (CCR) of 3.0:1.

Text that is smaller than 24px should have a CCR of 4.5:1.

If a site needs to adhere to the enhanced guidelines for Level AAA, the requirements are a little higher:

Text that is 24px and larger, or 19px and larger if bold, should have a CCR of 4.5:1.

Text that is smaller than 24px should have a CCR of 7:1.

Ratios? Huh? Yeah, there’s some math involved here. But the good news is that we don’t need to do it ourselves or even have the same thorough understanding about how they’re calculated the way Stacie Arellano recently shared (which is a must read if you’re into the science of color accessibility).

That’s where Sass comes in. We can leverage it to run difficult mathematical computations that would otherwise fly over many of our heads. But first, I think it’s worth dealing with accessible colors at the design level.

Accessible color palettes start with the designs

That’s correct. The core of the work of creating an accessible color palette starts with the designs. Ideally, any web design ought to consult a tool to verify that any color combinations in use pass the established guidelines — and then tweak the colors that don’t. When our design team does this, they use a tool that we developed internally. It works on a list of colors, testing them over a dark and a light color, as well as providing a way to test other combinations. 

ColorCube provides an overview of an entire color palette, showing how each color performs when paired with white, black, and even each other. It even displays results for WCAG Levels AA and AAA next to each result. The tool was designed to throw a lot of information at the user all at once when evaluating a list of colors.

This is the first thing our team does. I’d venture to guess that many brand colors aren’t chosen with accessibility at the forefront. I often find that those colors need to change when they get translated to a web design. Through education, conversation, and visual samples, we get the client to sign off on the new color palette. I’ll admit: that part can be harder than the actual work of implementing accessible colors combinations.

The Color Contrast Audit: A typical design delivery when working with an existing brand’s color palette. Here, we suggest to stop using the brand color Emerald with white, but use an “Alt” version that is slightly darker instead. 

The problem that I wanted to solve with automation are the edge cases. You can’t fault a designer for missing some instance where two colors combine in an unintended way — it just happens. And those edge cases will come up, whether it is during the build or even a year later when new colors are added to the system.

Developing for accessibility while keeping true to the intent of a color system

The trick when changing colors to meet accessibility requirements is not changing them so much that they don’t look like the same color anymore. A brand that loves its emerald green color is going to want to maintain the intent of that color — it’s “emerald-ness.” To make it pass for accessibility when it is used as text over a white background, we might have to darken the green and increase its saturation. But we still want the color to “read” the same as the original color.

To achieve this, we use the Hue Saturation Lightness (HSL) color model. HSL gives us the ability to keep the hue as it is but adjust the saturation (i.e. increase or decrease color) and lightness (i.e. add more black or more white). The hue is what makes a green that green, or a blue that blue. It is the “soul” of the color, to get a little mystical about it. 

Hue is represented as a color wheel with a value between 0° and 360° — yellow at 60°, green at 120°, cyan at 180°, etc. Saturation is a percentage ranging from 0% (no saturation) to 100% (full saturation). Lightness is also a value that goes from 0% to 100%, where no lightness is at 0%, no black and no white is at 50%, and 100% is all lightness, or very light.

A quick visual of what tweaking a color looks like in our tool:

With HSL, changing the low-contrast green to a higher contrast meant changing the saturation from 63 to 95 and the lightness from 45 to 26 on the left. That's when the color gets a green check mark in the middle when used with white. The new green still feels like it is in the same family, though, because the Hue remained at 136, which is like the color’s “soul.”

To learn more, play around with the fun HSL visualizer mothereffinghsl.com. But for a more in-depth description of color blindness, WCAG color contrast levels, and the HSL color space, we wrote an in-depth blog post about it.

The use case I want to solve

Designers can adjust colors with the tools that we just reviewed, but so far, no Sass that I have found could do it with mathematical magic. There had to be a way. 

These are some similar approaches I have seen in the wild:

An idea by Josh Bader uses CSS variables and colors split into their RGB values to calculate whether white or black is the best accessible color to use in a given situation.

Another idea by Facundo Corradini does something similar with HSL values and a very cool “switch function” in CSS.

I didn't like these approaches. I didn’t want to fallback to white or black. I wanted colors to be maintained but adjusted to be accessible. Additionally, changing colors to their RGB or HSL components and storing them with CSS variables seemed messy and unsustainable for a large codebase.

I wanted to use a preprocessor like Sass to do this: given two colors, automagically adjust one of them so the pair receives a passing WCAG grade. The rules state a few other things to consider as well — size of the text and whether or not the font is bold. The solution had to take this into account. 

In code terms, I wanted to do this:

// Transform this non-passing color pair: .example {   background-color: #444;   color: #0094c2; // a 2.79 contrast ratio when AA requires 4.5   font-size: 1.25rem;   font-weight: normal; } 
 // To this passing color pair: .example {   background-color: #444;   color: #00c0fc; // a 4.61 contrast ratio   font-size: 1.25rem;   font-weight: normal; }

A solution that does this would be able to catch and handle those edge cases we mentioned earlier. Maybe the designer accounted for a brand blue to be used over a light blue, but not a light gray. Maybe the red used in error messages needs to be tweaked for this one form that has a one-off background color. Maybe we want to implement a dark mode feature to the UI without having to retest all the colors again. These are the use cases I had in mind going into this. 

With formulas can come automation

The W3C has provided the community with formulas that help analyze two colors used together. The formula multiplies the RGB channels of both colors by magic numbers (a visual weight based on how humans perceive these color channels) and then divides them to come up with a ratio from 0.0 (no contrast) to 21.0 (all the contrast, only possible with white and black). While imperfect, this is the formula we use right now:

If L1 is the relative luminance of a first color  And L2 is the relative luminance of a second color, then - Color Contrast Ratio = (L1 + 0.05) / (L2 + 0.05) Where - L = 0.2126 * R + 0.7152 * G + 0.0722 * B And - if R sRGB <= 0.03928 then R = R sRGB /12.92 else R = ((R sRGB +0.055)/1.055) ^ 2.4 - if G sRGB <= 0.03928 then G = G sRGB /12.92 else G = ((G sRGB +0.055)/1.055) ^ 2.4 - if B sRGB <= 0.03928 then B = B sRGB /12.92 else B = ((B sRGB +0.055)/1.055) ^ 2.4 And - R sRGB = R 8bit /255 - G sRGB = G 8bit /255 - B sRGB = B 8bit /255

While the formula looks complex, it’s just math right? Well, not so fast. There is a part at the end of a few lines where the value is multiplied by a decimal power — raised to the power of 2.4. Notice that? Turns out that it’s complex math which most programming languages can accomplish — think Javascript’s math.pow() function — but Sass is not powerful enough to do it. 

There’s got to be another way…

Of course there is. It just took some time to find it. 🙂

My first version used a complex series of math calculations that did the work of decimal powers within the limited confines of what Sass can accomplish. Lots of Googling found folks much smarter than me supplying the functions. Unfortunately, calculating only a handful of color contrast combinations increased Sass build times exponentially. So, that means Sass can do it, but that does not mean it should. In production, build times for a large codebase could increase to several minutes. That’s not acceptable. 

After more Googling, I came across a post from someone who was trying to do a similar thing. They also ran into the lack of exponent support in Sass. They wanted to explore “the possibility of using Newtonian approximation for the fractional parts of the exponent.” I totally understand the impulse (not). Instead, they decided to use a “lookup table.” It’s a genius solution. Rather than doing the math from scratch every time, a lookup table provides all the possible answers pre-calculated. The Sass function retrieves the answer from the list and it’s done.

In their words:

The only part [of the Sass that] involves exponentiation is the per-channel color space conversions done as part of the luminance calculation. [T]here are only 256 possible values for each channel. This means that we can easily create a lookup table.

Now we’re cooking. I had found a more performant direction. 

Usage example

Using the function should be easy and flexible. Given a set of two colors, adjust the first color so it passes the correct contrast value for the given WCAG level when used with the second color. Optional parameters will also take the font size or boldness into account.

// @function a11y-color( //   $color-to-adjust, //   $color-that-will-stay-the-same, //   $wcag-level: 'AA', //   $font-size: 16, //   $bold: false // ); 
 // Sass sample usage declaring only what is required .example {   background-color: #444;   color: a11y-color(#0094c2, #444); // a 2.79 contrast ratio when AA requires 4.5 for small text that is not bold } 
 // Compiled CSS results: .example {   background-color: #444;   color: #00c0fc; // which is a 4.61 contrast ratio }

I used a function instead of a mixin because I preferred the output of a single value independent from a CSS rule. With a function, the author can determine which color should change. 

An example with more parameters in place looks like this:

// Sass .example-2 {   background-color: a11y-color(#0094c2, #f0f0f0, 'AAA', 1.25rem, true); // a 3.06 contrast ratio when AAA requires 4.5 for text 19px or larger that is also bold   color: #f0f0f0; font-size: 1.25rem;   font-weight: bold; } 
 // Compiled CSS results: .example-2 {   background-color: #087597; // a 4.6 contrast ratio   color: #f0f0f0; font-size: 1.25rem;   font-weight: bold; }

A deeper dive into the heart of the Sass function

To explain the approach, let’s walk through what the final function is doing, line by line. There are lots of helper functions along the way, but the comments and logic in the core function explain the approach:

// Expected: // $fg as a color that will change // $bg as a color that will be static and not change // Optional: // $level, default 'AA'. 'AAA' also accepted // $size, default 16. PX expected, EM and REM allowed // $bold, boolean, default false. Whether or not the font is currently bold // @function a11y-color($fg, $bg, $level: 'AA', $size: 16, $bold: false) {   // Helper: make sure the font size value is acceptable   $font-size: validate-font-size($size);   // Helper: With the level, font size, and bold boolean, return the proper target ratio. 3.0, 4.5, or 7.0 results expected   $ratio: get-ratio($level, $font-size, $bold);   // Calculate the first contrast ratio of the given pair   $original-contrast: color-contrast($fg, $bg);      @if $original-contrast >= $ratio {     // If we pass the ratio already, return the original color     @return $fg;   } @else {     // Doesn't pass. Time to get to work     // Should the color be lightened or darkened?     // Helper: Single color input, 'light' or 'dark' as output     $fg-lod: light-or-dark($fg);     $bg-lod: light-or-dark($bg); 
     // Set a "step" value to lighten or darken a color     // Note: Higher percentage steps means faster compile time, but we might overstep the required threshold too far with something higher than 5%     $step: 2%;          // Run through some cases where we want to darken, or use a negative step value     @if $fg-lod == 'light' and $bg-lod == 'light' {       // Both are light colors, darken the fg (make the step value negative)       $step: - $step;     } @else if $fg-lod == 'dark' and $bg-lod == 'light' {       // bg is light, fg is dark but does not pass, darken more       $step: - $step;     }     // Keeping the rest of the logic here, but our default values do not change, so this logic is not needed     //@else if $fg-lod == 'light' and $bg-lod == 'dark' {     //  // bg is dark, fg is light but does not pass, lighten further     //  $step: $step;     //} @else if $fg-lod == 'dark' and $bg-lod == 'dark' {     //  // Both are dark, so lighten the fg     //  $step: $step;     //}          // The magic happens here     // Loop through with a @while statement until the color combination passes our required ratio. Scale the color by our step value until the expression is false     // This might loop 100 times or more depending on the colors     @while color-contrast($fg, $bg) < $ratio {       // Moving the lightness is most effective, but also moving the saturation by a little bit is nice and helps maintain the "power" of the color       $fg: scale-color($fg, $lightness: $step, $saturation: $step/2);     }     @return $fg;   } }

The final Sass file

Here’s the entire set of functions! Open this in CodePen to edit the color variables at the top of the file and see the adjustments that the Sass makes:

CodePen Embed Fallback

All helper functions are there as well as the 256-line lookup table. Lots of comments should help folks understand what is going on. 

When an edge case has been encountered, a version in SassMeister with debug output was helpful while I was developing it to see what might be happening. (I changed the main function to a mixin so I can debug the output.) Feel free to poke around at this as well.

Play with this gist on SassMeister.

And finally, the functions have been stripped out of CodePen and put into a GitHub repo. Drop issues into the queue if you run into problems. 

Cool code! But can I use this in production?

Maybe. 

I’d like to say yes, but I’ve been iterating on this thorny problem for a while now. I feel confident in this code but would love more input. Use it on a small project and kick the tires. Let me know how the build time performs. Let me know if you come across edge cases where passing color values are not being supplied. Submit issues to the GutHub repo. Suggest improvements based on other code you’ve seen in the wild. 

I’d love to say that I have Automated All the A11y Things, but I also know it needs to be road-tested before it can be called Production Ready™. I’m excited to introduce it to the world. Thanks for reading and I hope to hear how you are using it real soon.

The post Programming Sass to Create Accessible Color Combinations appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Programming Sass to Create Accessible Color Combinations published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

[bethygauw]

Enstars Magazine vol.1: Interview with Development Staff - The Birth of Enstars

Released in August 2016. (!!! It’s way too outdated, I’m sorry...)

You may also find similar questions discussed in this interview elsewhere, so it may feel repetitive. But I’m not very good at summarising, and you may find other interesting info and perspectives in this as well. It’s one year old though, but I will still continue with the World Navi part of the mook series as much as I can.

Click here for interview with Akira-sensei from the same magazine. And here for translations of the mook series I found on Twitter.

This is an interview with: M.T, Chief Planner and Contents Director. Person in-charge of overall supervision for elements such as contents direction, world setting, scenario, outfit designs among others, and M.H, Art Director for illustrations and person in-charge of Live2D creation.

Until Ensemble Stars! was made

Q: What prompted the development project?

M.H.: It started during the development of Ensemble Girls!, where I was talking with the company’s female illustrators about how we wanted to make an otome game one day.

M.T.: That was three years ago. Our company has a lot of male-oriented titles, so there were people saying, “We want to make a game that we (females) can enjoy.” The staff normally talk to each other about what games they play and what kinds of anime they watch, so this topic came up from one of those idle talks.

M.H.: And the project made real progress starting around two years ago. The development process took a year.

Q: Where did you start from?

M.T.: When one hears “Ensemble Stars!”, the words they may come up with are “youth, idols, and high school students”. That component was already settled in the project plan presented by the female illustrators. We wanted to see a game that has both youthful life typical of that of high school students and the sparkles of idols. That became the basis of the game, so from the beginning we’ve had the concept solidified already.

Q: So it’s a project that stemmed from a wish to make an otome game, but in the end there are no romance elements in the game. Why is that?

M.T.: Dividing in general, there are those who like otome games, those who are interested in otome games but never played one, and those who are not very good at otome games*. If we restricted it to an otome game, the player demographic would also narrow. And if it’s an otome game, it’s inevitable to have a lot of interactions between the protagonist and the male characters. So to create a bigger perspective… we wanted to make it so that we can observe various characters having their conversations from a close distance. We wanted to make a game where you can play as an individual in the academy and have fun and agonize with everyone together, and experience youth. That’s how the game came to be like this.

(*) I’m not sure about my choice. The Japanese uses 苦手, and depending on context it can also mean “not fond of” or “can’t handle”.

 Q: Certainly, if it’s a romancing game the player would have to choose someone.

M.T.: Yes. In Ensemble Stars!, the player is not restricted to someone. We want the players to have a good time with any character. Even with boys who are not originally their type – when the player reads the story and sees them talk with their favorite boy, maybe they can discover a new, positive aspect regarding those types.

Q: Please tell us how you ended up deciding to have this game become part of the Ensemble series.

M.T.: We received good reviews from Ensemble Girls! players regarding the game’s illustrations, so maybe if we make those characters into boys they will look attractive? That kind of topic came up within the company. We also wanted to make a game that has both outstanding illustration and story, so we asked Akira-san who is writing for Ensemble Girls!. We thought there is no other person who can write every character who is full of unique traits so distinctively, and moreover, write unique script. We believed that even with a female-oriented project, Akira-san would be able to make an interesting story that stars characters with strong individuality. That is why we asked Akira-san first.

Q: When you asked Akira-san to write the script, what reaction did you get?

M.T.: Our main means of communication was through emails. We informed Akira-san of the project plan, and as a reply we received a non-hesitant consent, “I’ll do it.”

Q: How did the game’s overall world setting came to? This includes Yumenosaki Academy, among others.

M.T.: The visuals are produced in-house. Dreamfes and the academy’s hierarchy and all the implementation around idols are by Akira-san. Setting-wise, I think Akira-san contributed more.

Q: Which character was born first?

M.H.: Subaru and Hokuto.

M.T.: We had one of them look like a protagonist and the other look like from the other extreme. After deciding the profile’s roughs, we started from deciding the overall art style.

M.H.: At first, the head count was lower and they had a touch of shonen manga elements. Their eyes were bigger, and if I have to choose I’d say they had a cute feel to them.

Q: What would be the thing you pay attention to the most when creating illustrations catered towards a female audience?

M.T.: In the case of male-oriented projects, the points I get to “show off” would be the energetic feel, cuteness, and a flash of exposed skin. But for female audience, if you ask me whether the skin is the most important element, I’d say it’s not. I think the first thing that will be seen is the face, so the details in hairstyle, hair color, and gaze would be what I’m most particular about.

Q: There are over 30 characters in the game. Wasn’t it hard to come up with so many?

M.T.: When Ensemble Girls! was released, I got to experience making 60 characters, so I didn’t think it was as difficult as that. If I think about giving various traits and quirks to all characters without exception, 30 surprisingly could be done in an instant. I first came up with the character’s profile and then the visual, but us the staff exchanged opinions as we created them.

Q: Are there any characters who were born easily, and others not so?

M.T.: Creating the characters wasn’t such a difficult task, but deciding the art style was tough. Take the characters we mentioned before, Subaru and Hokuto, as examples. Their head counts and facial features are in the middle of the spectrum, and we made Rei look the most mature amongst the students. His eyes are smaller. Rei would be the character with maximum maturity, but it was difficult to decide the limit, since it can change the balance significantly at later stages. We went through quite a bit of trial and error, and the illustrators told me they also found Rei’s wavy hair to be difficult to deal with.

Q: So the character with childish looks at the maximum would be Tori?

M.T.: I suppose, yes. He’s like a little devil, has that pink hair and adorable looks. The lead illustrator who first drew the character is also someone who originally draws male-oriented illustrations, so Tori was their specialty, relatively speaking.

Q: At what point did Akira-san start contributing to the setting and characters?

M.T.: It was after we had the visuals for the 30 characters and their profiles ready. From that point on, we asked Akira-san to come up with what kind of story.

M.H.: Tsukasa and Midori weren’t around yet.

M.T.: At that time there were 30 people including the teachers, but if we’re going to label it as “There are 30 idols” it wouldn’t be right to count the teachers, we thought. That’s when we added Tsukasa and Midori.

Q: Were you surprised by any character after you read Akira-san’s script?

M.T.: We had Akira-san write the main story and character’s individual sub story concurrently. So the first time we got to know what kind of characters they were was by reading the sub stories, but…

M.H.: We can’t not mention Arashi, can we? (laugh)

M.T.: Indeed (laugh). Within the company we knew Arashi by “the good-looking model”, but Akira-san made Arashi look like an onee character*, so it took a 180 degree turn.

(*) Before, I think I translated this as “big sister character” without clarifying the connotations: often associated with gay men or queer who use feminine speech, have feminine gestures etc. The word itself stems from “big sister”.

M.H.: Also, Chiaki was more passionate than I expected.

M.T.: He was just a “refreshing and enthusiastic upperclassman”, but in Akira-san’s words he became a character who would be like, “flare up that passion even more!” and towards any character, he would close up the distance.

Q: So that’s how the character gap in each character was born.

M.H.: No one could have done it except Akira-san.

M.T.: We received feedback from the players that the characters were quite different from what they imagined pre-release.

M.H.: That’s true. There’s a lot of that kind of comments.

M.T.: Those who like female-oriented content tend to predict personalities according to appearance. It’s an idea that someone comes up with because he’s a guy, and I’m glad we asked Akira-san after all.

The game’s charming points and behind-the-scenes of the game-making processes

Q: Among the many game apps that are female-oriented, what do you think is the charming point of Ensemble Stars!?

M.T.: First thing would be the uniqueness of the characters. We were particular about their appearance. We made it so that its character design can be easily accepted not only by female audience but also by male audience. That’s why I hope it’s received well by a wide range of demographics. Then, Akira-san looked at each of the character’s visual and gave a unique personality to each and every one of them. I think there’s not a lot of titles that can let you taste both of these elements at the same time. Other than that, it’s the Live2D. Especially during the development stages, the Live2D element was not there and it wasn’t the main feature. Even up to this moment, I don’t think there’s a lot of games that have movements of the body and hands as big as Ensemble Stars!.

Q: There’s a lot of male players too, isn’t there?

M.T.: We don’t get their feedback directly, but our connections and colleagues from other companies told us, “He’s a guy but he’s really into it.” My impression is that Ra*bits is quite popular. It seems that cute characters would look cute from a guy’s perspective as well, which makes me happy.

M.H.: Actually, manly characters like Adonis and Kuro are popular among those around me. It seems like they like either the cute type or the manly type.

Q: Each month, there are two new time-limited events and two new scouting events. Could you tell us regarding the making process?

M.T.: At first we decide which characters are going to appear, and what kind of timing this event is going to be held in. Of course, we also consider the frequency of the characters’ appearance, but the relationships between the characters are also important, so we discuss which combination would be best as we choose them. In another case, when we want to tell a particular story, we choose the members based on the content of the story. After that, we establish themes to match the period or the seasons. Then we ask Akira-san or Yuki Yoshino-san to write the script, work out the details of the outfit designs… that kind of work flow.

Q: Sometimes unexpected characters appear.

M.T.: Fundamentally, we often have the whole unit appear. But leaving to that factor alone can lead to bias, and they’re students after all so we also want to show their relationships among classmates and clubmates. I think it’s nice to see a glimpse of how a senior or a junior interact with each other, that kind of vertical relationships. So you will see that kind of combination sometimes.

Q: What about the process of making the illustrations?

M.H.: After the theme is set, we will have the illustrator in-charge to make the outfits based on the document material. After that, we create the event CGs.

Q: There are also new stages and music in the time-limited events.

M.T.: Yes. At the time of release, the BGM was of quite low priority, but we thought we had to bring out the mood according to the season. The players will play the Produce courses for a long time after all, so we thought it would be good to have some variation. That’s how we added the feature somewhere along the way.* We place an order for the BGM creation after the event concept is decided.

(*) If I remember correctly, it started in Duel. So the first three events didn’t have their own event BGM.

Q: How far ahead are you in terms of event planning?

M.T.: Around two to three months.

Q: For apps, you can see the players’ responses in real time. Isn’t it tough to create new events despite that?

M.T.: In general I have a lot of things I’m particular about, so because of that I think I’m giving myself a hard time. A piece of outfit gives me trouble each time – how should I present it? What is the most fitting composition that gives the best view of a character? To also increase the player’s affinity to the stories and event CGs, the staff exchange opinions with each other as we create them.

M.H.: That’s right. We really value the characters’ expressions on the event CGs. We create them while reconciling our ideas with the illustrators, and with scenes that are easy to understand we all have the same image. But there are times where, with scenes that have complex nuances, it’s hard for us to reach an agreement. We think together about the scenario before and after the CGs while drawing their expressions, for example, “This is what this boy is thinking, but just now someone told him that. This makes me sad.”

Q: How many people are involved in the making of Ensemble Stars! right now?

M.T.: Right now it’s just under 30 people.

M.H.: There are 13 illustrators, by the way.

M.T.: For the illustrations, it’s like everyone is involved. Not just the card illustrations, we also make the Live2D and SD versions of the outfits, so often everything proceeds concurrently. We divide up tasks to one extent, but it’s difficult to divide everything, so various people are involved.

Q: A lot of projects outsource illustrators, but at Happy Elements the art is drawn in-house.

M.T.: Yes. We outsource part of the background illustrations, but the characters are all drawn in-house. We want to have a uniformed way to view things and create impression. For example, to decide on the balance of locks of hair, we decide which part should be drawn thicker or shorter. We share our opinions about every detail, and we draw as we grasp the points we agreed on.

The game’s world setting and idols

Q: Regarding Yumenosaki Academy, did you model it off a location? Or do you have an image of a location?

M.T.: We don’t have a pinpoint location to be able to say something like, “It’s this place in Japan.” As for the image of a location, it’s somewhere with a shopping district, the sea and a mountain, and a school. A place like that in Kansai region, where our company is, would be somewhere like Kobe. But during the actual design processes we don’t have anything like, “This is this place.” We also don’t have a definite setting on the climate.

Q: The four seasons in the world of Ensemble Stars! are quite pronounced.

M.H.: I suppose. It’s probably because I’m also from Hokkaido. Deciding how much snow would fall in winter was hard (laugh). We make it so that the game follows the season changes in the real world, so I hope the players can spend time with the characters in the same setting.

Q: I think each player would have their own image of the transfer student, the protagonist. What was your thinking process during the character making?

M.T.: In Produce courses, the player is able to make choices to interact with the idols. We pay attention to the differences in the use of words towards seniors, juniors, and her peers. We took her image from the story written by Akira-san. It’s rare for the transfer student to take action, so to give a comparison, I think she’s like a transparent existence. To the players, she may be whom they project themselves as, or she may be a proper standalone character. There are many ways the players can see her. As for us, we’d like to direct the players to the idols first and foremost. Which is why we headed towards this path, where we didn’t give the protagonist individuality. The transfer student is an existence that naturally supports everyone.

Q: How was each unit born? Did you decide on their music genre at that point already?

M.T.: We finalized their design aspects like appearance and outfits, but we didn’t have any precise image on what kind of melody they would sing and perform. We started to think about it during the making of the unit song CDs. For example fine has a theme of “a ruler”, so we thought of something orchestrated. Another is UNDEAD with rock songs. Well, it’s also because Koga keeps mentioning “rock” (laugh). In case of UNDEAD, every time we make the event CG we discuss whether or not we have Koga carry a guitar, and we also give quite a lot of attention to the composition to make it look “rock”.

Q: I think the leaders of the units in Yumenosaki Academy hold a special position. What is your opinion on this?

M.T.: Let’s see. For idols in the real world, someone may be assigned as a leader but they would still hold the same position as other members. When something happens, the leader would put things in order, and they are often the ones who’ll take the initiative to do the talking, but that’s about it. In Yumenosaki Academy, the leaders find jobs, cooperate with other units, and they become the point of contact for any event. So in that sense, the leaders are well-known. They’re still students, so I think that’s why they would take the initiatives themselves to take action.

Q: Also, often the unit leaders are the club captains as well.

M.T.: They catch attention as idols, and they’re also popular, so I thought they’d be appointed as club captains without any problem. One thing though, the tea club is something made by Eichi, so while he’s the club captain, he’s also like the chairman. Either way, he’s a big shot (laugh).

Q: Will the idols make a debut after they graduate?

M.T.: No, actually they’ve debuted already, so their idol activities have become part of their job. It’s just that they’re still students, so I suppose they’re active as both students and idols. After they graduate… we don’t have anything in particular set yet, but boys who want to prioritize their studies may attend college while still being idols, or they may dive into the entertainment world as idols right away. There may also be some units where the current third-years graduate and the unit may dissolve temporarily, then they gather again. Trickstar members are all in the same year, so a possible scenario for them is to work with the same members. There may also be others who will choose a path other than being an idol because something happens before they graduate. The leader of each unit seems to be the one who suggests the direction in which the unit will head to, but whether the other members would just nod to that depends on each of them. The Repayment Festival is the finale of the year, so I think you will be able to see what happens then.

Taking a look back and future prospects

Q: It has been more than a year since the game’s release. How do you feel right now?

M.T.: Before release, I couldn’t imagine how it will be received, at all. Fortunately, it’s been played by a lot of people and has been garnering attention from all sorts of directions, so I am extremely grateful. From then, we have had opportunities for mixed media adaptations, and since the project can develop and move forward further, we intend to make things more exciting.

M.H.: The players really value each and every character, and Ensemble Stars! gets its support from there. I feel nothing but gratitude. We’d like to do our best so that we can answer everyone’s expectations from now on too. Regarding illustrations and each of its expressions and gestures, we hope we can show it to you and have all of us together feel what those characters are thinking at that particular time and all those things.

M.T.: That’s right. There will be new unit song CDs coming out this year too, so I hope you can look forward to its release from now on as well. The game itself too – I think there will be chances where you’ll be able to see scenes that show a new side to a character, or interactions that are different from usual, or how a character actually feels at a particular scene. I hope you’ll look forward to it. Thank you.

[ryadel]

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard - In-Depth Review

No matter if you're a seasoned System Administrator, a IT expert or a PC enthusiast, you've most likely already stumbled upon a EaseUS product at least once: we're talking about one of the most important software companies / software providers of storage management and data recovery solutions, with millions of active users (private and business) in over 180 countries and areas.

Introduction

Founded in 2004, EaseUS is constantly releasing software tools for tasks such as Backup & Recovery, Data Recovery and Partition Management: each package usually comes out with a free with limitation (or trial) edition and professional/enterprise versions with additional features: thanks to this sale strategy, which is pretty common for these kind of software companies, they can address the need of every potential customer - from the home users to SMBs, enterprises, technicians and the likes. In this article we'll perform a test-drive + in-depth review of one of their flagship products - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard: that's basically a software tool that allows users to undelete files and folders deleted by mistake (or by malicious software/attackers) from various storage media, including Hard Disk Drives, USB pendrives, memory cards, iOS devices, music players, and so on.

Installation

Installing the software is very easy, you just have to choose between picking up the free trial or directly go for the professional edition: EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard - Free Edition EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard - Professional Edition EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard - Technician Edition (aka Data Recovery Wizard Unlimited) As you can see, they made a dedicated website for each edition: i'll perform the comparison between them later on, for now I'll just pick the free edition and go ahead with the test-drive. The installation process is pretty much straight-forward, you'll just have to hit Next a number of times: it won't ask you for sponsored softwares and/or adware, which is indeed a good policy that I appreciate a lot from EaseUS products.

Dashboard

Once installed and launched, the tool will welcome you with the following dashboard, which will be the starting place of all our recovery sessions:

Here's the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Dashboard - and yes, I do actually have quite a lot of HDD/SSD there. As we can see, the software does a good job in locating all our locally available storage media: we just have to double-click one of them - arguably the one which contained the file(s) we want to recover - and we will access the File Explorer panel.

File Explorer

As we can see from the screenshot below, this basically is a file manager interface specifically designed to help us to identify and recovery our missing/lost/deleted files:

As soon as the window opens, a quick scan will be performed over the storage media surface: the results will be shown in real-time. As expected, all the deleted files are shown nested in their folders and are kept in the same hierarchy as it originally existed. This choice makes it quite easy to focus only on the relevant files (those who are looking for), giving us the chance to easily skip all the others.

File Filter

On the top menu, a filter option can also be used to filter out specific file types, non-recent files and so on:

If you need additional options you can also activate the Advanced Filters by clicking on the bottom item: this will open a modal windows that allows you to further customize your scan with various options (modification time, file size, initial letters, and so on).

Deep Scan

While you navigate the File Explorer through the folder tree looking for the files, a further, more effective scan (deep scan) will be performed in background thorough the whole drive. The deep scan is much more "intense" of the quick scan and will definitely take much longer to finish, depending on the size of the drive. On my 500GB SSD Drive (Samsung 970 Pro) the deep scan took roughly 5 minutes to complete - which is quite fast, considering what it does. The deep scan uses sector by sector scan thanks to a RAW searching technology specifically developed by EaseUS. For additional info about the deep scan features, we strongly suggest to read this technical overview from the official EaseUS website. The results of the scan will be shown on separate panes, on the left part of the File Explorer window.

Preview before Recovery

A neat feature which I liked is that all the "found" files can be previewed before being recovered with a right-click:

I personally found it very practical, expecially when recovering few specific files with non-identifying names (images/photos, PDF files, and so on) between a large amount of siblings which I didn't want to recover.

Compare Editions

Unlike most demos and trial versions, the Data Recovery Wizard - Free Edition actually lets you to access all the most important features - and even recover the files! The only functional limitation is the maximum size of the files that you'll be able to recover, which - for the free edition - is capped at 2GB: however, you'll still be able to see all files even when you'll hit such limitation, therefore you'll be able to choose between purchasing the professional edition or not depending on what the tool will find. Needless to say, both the professional and technician editions feature an unlimited size of recoverable files. Technician Edition and Help-Desk feature As for the technician edition, it has the same set of features of the professional one, but it comes with an additional feature that could be rather useful for most resellers, service providers and IT services companies:  the license does include a top-tier "technical service" offered by EaseUS and directly aimed to end-customers in order to help them recover data at critical times. In other words, you'll buy the tool and the customer service for your clients, directly handled by EaseUS.

Supported Devices

Here's a list of devices that will be auto-detected by the software if connected to the PC: PC (desktop & laptops) Hard Drives External Disks SSD USB Drives Micro Cards Camcorders Digital Cameras Music Players Video Players RAIDs CF/SD Cards Pen Drives Other Storage Devices

System and Hardware requirements

File System FAT(FAT12,FAT16,FAT32) exFAT NTFS NTFS5 ext2/ext3 HFS+ ReFS Operating System Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP Windows Server 2016/2012/2008/2003 CPU at least with x86 Disk Space 32MB minimum space for EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard installation RAM at least 128MB

Conclusion

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is definitely a valid tool to recover undeleted files and worked well under all our test scenarios, being able to recover deleted data from an existing partition, from a deleted partition, from a corrupted partition, and even deleted data from a partition that had been deleted and then overwritten with another. We really liked some neat features such as the "preview before recovery" and the advanced filters, which - together with the easeness of use and the fact that the free edition actually works - gives the software quite an edge over the competitors.

  Read the full article

[visitnanjing-org]

Nanjing, China Travel Guide

We are in Nanjing, China. Nanjing is the former capital of China, ruling several dynasties until 1949. Just 90 minutes from Shanghai by bullet train, it is a fascinating city to add to your China itinerary So this is a walking street here in Nanjing, where you get all of the boats to go. The boat cruises along the canal. It's hard to believe that this is a Monday night. It feels more like a Friday or a holiday. But, no, this is just a typical day here in Nanjing. Time to get on the boat with a thousand other people. Confucius Temple dates back to 1034, but it was rebuilt in 1984, after being destroyed during the 1937 Japanese occupation. Located on the Qinhuai River, there's a maze of walking streets and shops leading to the star attraction, the river cruise, well we're on our river tour here in Nanjing. We recommend bringing your guide on board with you. We had no idea what the commentary was saying, and instead, we simply spent our time enjoying the neon lights and reenactments of famous Chinese folklore. Niushoushan Mountain is a new cultural park that opened in 2015, designed to establish a new heritage world of Buddhism culture. There is a shuttle bus that takes you to two stops, the temple first, where there's a bamboo forest, and then the palace. The temple is lovely, but don't spend too much time there, as the palace is incredible. The Niushoushan Cultural Park is quite the spectacle. It's a complex of temples and Buddhas built inside a mountain, and it's pretty extravagant. So the temple that we're in now is 60 meters underground, so that's 180 feet. And this is all an old mining area, so that's what they did is they built all the temples within the mountain, all of the caverns that they mined. Amazing. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this. Now that was definitely worth coming down 60 meters for. Make sure to give yourself ample time to explore. There's plenty to see, and they even have a vegan restaurant for lunch. On a clear day the views are incredible. Well we're heading up to the tomb of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, and I might not be saying that right, so forgive me, but he was the founder of the first Ming dynasty in 1381. How cool is that? You know, China is just full of amazing history. Purple Mountain is another way to spend a day in Nanjing. It houses the Xiaoling Mausoleum from the Ming dynasty, and the father of China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen's mausoleum. The Xiaoling Mausoleum is a beautiful complex of gardens, ponds, and bridges, housing the rulers from the Ming dynasty. The 1800 meter Sacred Way is lined with sculptures of elephants, lions, and camels, guarding the tombs. It's a very impressive entrance. Visiting Dr. Sun Yat-sen's memorial is a very different experience from the peacefulness of the Ming tombs. He was the father of the Republic of China, and he led the rebellion that put an end to the monarchy system that ruled for 2,000 years. People flock to Nanjing to pay their respects. So we're going to see the tomb of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and he is like the George Washington of China, so this is a pretty special place to visit. While this place is more popular than the Ming tombs, it's just filled with people. It's quite an exciting place to be. Obviously, it's very important, being the father of China. He started the revolution. He helped people decide that their mind and body are important, to take care of themselves. And, obviously, it's a very special and sacred place. Look at all the people. So we're here at the memorial of the Nanjing Massacre that happened in 1937. It's a very touching and moving memorial to the 300,000 people who died during the Japanese occupation of Nanjing in 1937. Around me are pictures of all of the victims who died during the occupation. It was a real slaughter. It was women and children and families. And this was during an eight year war that happened, so it was a very bloody, terrible time. At the time of the occupation, Nanjing was still the capital of China, making it a strategic point for invasion. The Japanese army committed atrocities on civilians, families, and even children. The memorial is a massive complex. Displays depict the event, the war crimes tribunal, and there are indoor and outdoor exhibits. A poignant memorial exhibits the skeletal remains of bodies that were uncovered between the 1985 and 1998 excavations. So we're going to learn the art of burning incense today. Who knew that it was an art form? I didn't know that. There's an actual way to do it, and we're going to show you how. I bet you it involves a lighter. Incense plays a large role in Chinese tradition, and at The Porcelain Tower we learned how to make an incense stencil to create an atmosphere of peace and relaxation. Followed by a tea ceremony, we managed to learn of two very important Chinese ceremonies at one time. So that was an interesting ceremony. I was expecting to burn solid, a stick of incense, but what it is, is we made our own little lotus leaf of incense by dropping the incense into a little... I can't think of the word. Stencil. Yeah, by dropping it into a little stencil. So I think we did okay. The Porcelain Tower was considered one of the seven medieval wonders of the world. But like many historic buildings in Nanjing, it was destroyed. In 2015, the new tower was rebuilt, and today, visitors can visit the museum and witness excavations that took place in 2008. It is believed that the remains of Buddha were found on these grounds. Going to the top of the tower also offers great views of the city of Nanjing. Nanjing has the longest city wall in the world, and it is known as the other Great Wall of China. At 600-years-old, it is also the most well preserved. The wall was made by the best brickmakers in the land, and each brick has the inscription of origin, which bears the responsibility for the quality of the bricks. When visiting Nanjing, it is not to be missed. So we're here at Taichung City wall, and we're going to learn calligraphy, Chinese calligraphy. And it really is an art form, let me tell you. Anybody can come here and do this, and it's all in the way you hold the brush. Yeah? No, I messed that one up. Well, I totally did it wrong. Normally you're supposed to it this way, but I did it along here. So our teacher, she said, "Lying in bed is so happy." So I came out with something anyway. Well, this is my masterpiece work of art. I'm telling you, it's going on display in my place, and I'm going to make everybody look at it and admire it. I love you. I love you, too. Make sure to subscribe to our videos and ring the bell. You'll get updates each week from another destination around the world.

https://youtu.be/31qBxZ7wzNQ

[ramrodd]

After France and Veterans Day, are there any intelligent and/or highly educated people who support Donald Trump?

You may be a hard-wired crypto-Nazi if you love Atlas Shrugged like Paul Ryan or Paul Rand and/or you remain a dedicated Trumpster as a military lifer after Veterans Day

COMMENTARY:

A dialogue with Louis E. Walker, an example of the sort of lifer who scared me out of the Army, around the issue: “Yeah, your boy did a hell of job in France. That’s what I have been trying to explain to the Army community at the Tradoc level the nature of the crypto-Nazi elements in the GOP Deep State.  Most of the white male small buisness owners like Trump throughout America resent paying a nickel for the common defense. If a white male Indiana businessman can trace an unbroken heritage of avoiding military service since Lincoln, the chances are he and most of his business associates feel the same way. They basically feel that ANY military service is basically an extended summer camp that you grow out of by the time you complete business school and get a real job.

Now, I’ve started a fight with Louis E. Walker with the expectation of getting thrown of Quora for violating their standards for debate base on the sissy-world IT values of people who acquire their leadership skills from Atlas Shrugged, TED Talks and the Harvard Business School guru of the Dilbert Performance Model Robert MacNamara used to run Vietnam.  This is a technique of process theology intervention as a Organization Development model employed by Frank “Be All You Can Be” Burns. He and I are the only two process theology gurus in the world and he’s dead, This is called a “Kami Kazi” intervention. In order to get people’s attention in dysfuntional culture, you blow yourself up doing something so totally disruptive of the existing paradigm that they vote you off the island. I mean, this is what Jesus did and the difference between him and the expectations of the 2nd Temple Hebrew in Jereusalem AND the difference between Him and Mohammad, the difference between the Cross and the Sword. That’s the purpose of this dialogue to anyone who wants to break free of the Oliver Stone version of Vietnam and go where no man has gone before.

Including, if not especially, Oliver Stone.

If you review my Linkedin Profile, you will that I have had a career of getting fired from job to job. It’s why I got into venture capital. You can really get rich employing process theology without having to lie, cheat or steal and, if I could have put my dad through JumpStart Training/Army Family Building when he was demobbed in July 1946, he might have become successful in business and not been forced to re-up with the Army Chief of Staff to feed his family and put me through college. But this technology didn’t become available until Frank “Be All You Can Be” Burns created a career path for himself that allowed him to do total immersion research in, basically, Black’s Beach Coed Naked Beach Volly Ball human potential culture and bring it, appropriately, into the Army cultue of 5th wave High Performance, and create the Army of One. If you are in the high-cycle deployment of the modern military community, especially the Army community, Army Family Team Building began in the Long Bihn Jail in when Frank Burns was the warden and began to apply exactly the same social engineering of community organizers like Barack Obama and Alexandrea Ocasio-Cortez and social entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Geore Meaney to improve the quality of the prisoner’s experience of the prison community and to refocus the individual energies on marketable skills as a strategy for reducing the violence. And that’s exactly what Gordon Sullivan realized the Army needed to fix itself after Vietnam and he authorized Task Force Delta to be the in-house human potential laboratory.

I was doing exactly the same thing as a process theology guru in finance and small business consulting. The biggest success I can point to in terms of Kami Kazi interventions was with getting Jim Kimsey motivated to become something more than being the court jester of the Capital Hill saloon owners like AOL.

I don’t offer solutions. I provide a process for do-it-yourself solutions for fun and profit and/or to meet the needs of the service. Just like Frank “Be All You Can Be” Burns. “The Tools of Transformation” in the publications on #transformingamericafirst Tumblr archives describes how that particular Kamikazi intervention occurred. I got thrown off AOL 6 times before I got bored with the IT guys running AOL who blew up the AOL-TimeWarner gig: I tried to warn Kimsey, but his ego was a lot like Louis E. Walker, a standard issue lifer, OD in color, air cooled, self-propelled military Peter Principle version of Dilbert in command.

So, if I get thrown off of Quora on the date of this post, it’s because I lost a knife fight with a master military bureaucrat in a class in unarmed self-defense. I’ve done what I can to make it impossible for Quora not to enforce their own policies and cheerfully hold me down while Louis E. Walker cuts out my heart with all the surgical skills of his shake-and-bake medical officer hands of the Chicken Corps Rambo. He likes to post a slander of somesort, knowing it will hit my email and I will respond, knowing that he covered his tracks by deleting his insult and then complaining to the IT hacks in Quora about PC violations that offend him.

I’m like Br’er Rabbit, Louis E. Walker: getting thrown off of Quora is my wtay of saying “Fuck you, shit for brains, and the shake and bake jug dance you represent. You are acting just exactly the way Newt Gingrich, the Che Guevara of the GOP Deep State, wants you to act for the maximum ROI of the Koch brother’s Dark Money.

Just remember, Army community, Louis E. Walker is endorsing Trump’s typical small businessman attitude towards the military as perfectly captured by Trump’s  no-shows in France and at Arlington.  The guy that laid the wreath at Arlington for Trump is Robert  Wilkie, head of the Veterans Administration, whose job it is, like John Kasich in the 80s, to cut the $180 biilion in needless fat in the VA budget, just like Whitaker with Mueller’s budget.

It isn’t an accident that “soldiering on” is an insult in the performance model of the Frederick Winslow Taylor’s “Scientific Management” at the core of the Harvard Business Model and the purpose of Dilbert. as the HR prototype for the Quora IT PC Police.

ORIGINAL RESPONSE

From 1975 until July 1978, I was involved in a US-Soviet aerospace IPO made possible by Nixon-Brezhnev “Detente” and Nixon’s design for airline deregulation. It provided a replacement for the DC-3 in service to small - medium, short-haul markets. and small communities associated with Earl Butz Agribusiness model based upon the family farm and farm communities like Rushville Indiana and light industrial communities like Columbus IN, Mike Pence’s hometown. In 1975, I was not as aware of Nixon’s domestic program as I can now describe it, but I was working the system as hard as I could to become filthy rich in a Elon Musk kind of way.

One day, Fred Smith of FedEx walked into our offices at Dulles IAD and said he wanted to buy our aircraft to replace his Falcon 30 jets that were too small for his markets and our aircraft allowed him to double his capacity while remaing in a FAA/CAB operational status of general aviation. The DC-3 is the moment commercial aviation advanced from basically pony express to man on the moon. It is at the apex of the economies of scale for general aviation and at the entry level of what has become the sperm whales of the US Air Transport System, a strategic fushion of Free Enterprise and socialistic structures. One of the reasons Marxism failed is because it can’t do the economic magic Free Enterprise does, routinely.

Anyway, Fred put a letter of intent for 30 aircraft, the US YaK-40 based on the YaK-40 mission design and aeronautics and packing it with American labor and parts and get it out, cheap, to Commuter Airlines feeding people like US Air and Southwest Airlines. It was a little bit of smoke and mirrors, but the order sat on the threshold for a practical venture capital public offering in any equity market.

We were looking for $300 million in $3 million dollars at a time. Part of the culture of the Army Command and General Staff College are professional commentary by previous graduates, such as George Patton, who told the Parable of Rock Soup to illustrate to staff officers trying to put a project together how to do it. It’s a very Will Rogers kind of tale, back when homeless veterans were called Hobos. A hobo goes to a farmer’s kitchen door and asks if he could draw some water so he could make some “Rock Soup”. “Rock Soup? what’s that” and the short version is that the hobo ends up with a can full of water, rock and some meat and vegetables, maybe some bacon grease, that the farmer’s wife added for flavoring.

My dad told me that story and we were putting this thing together from different boxes of jigsaw puzzles, erector sets and moonshine. FedEx needed to explain the novelty of FedEx to the FAA so they could build it into the regulations that they shared with the CAB as a federal mechanism for creating commerical air service from Kitty Hawk to the Boeing 787. And the Space Shuttle. SpaceX. All this neat stuff is a direct result of strategic planning beginning just about as long as it took Billy Mitchell to get court-martialed for demonstrating the efficacy of aircraft like the DC-3 as an instrument of national security and the common defense. Me and my Boss/Partner were the K Street who explained to the FAA Forecast Branch that FedEx’s systemic novelty was that it is organized around ZIP Codes instead of railroad right of ways, which were the original Air Mail Route System, coast to coast. As near as I can tell, FedEx, UPS and Southwest are the only American commercial air service based on ZIP Codes: all the rest are using the same performance technology Robert McNamara used to fight Vietnam. I gave the FAA the language it needed to accommodate FedEx’s transition from Falcon 30 jets to 747’s.

In the final analysis, Vietnam came down to a contest between Marxism and the Harvard Business model and Marxism won. So, when anyone from Harvard tells me how clever Trump is, such as Scott Adams, I turn aside, to put it politely. Quora Moderation has just scolded me for putting it on the record my opinion of bake and shake medical and JAG officers with Rambo pretensions who are wont to ‘mansplain’ how the grownups understand the world as revealed by Spanky.

At the time we were looking for $300 million, Trump was beginning to nose around the same markets to bankroll Trump Tower. There wasn’t much liquidity in equity markets for a number of reasons, the defining factor being the end of the spending for Vietnam and the inflation that LBJ’s methods of financing the war created. Some people will remember Ford’s WIN program (Whip Inflation Now) and the Stagflation Carter inherited from LBJ and Nixon’s semi-stalled Affirmative Action domestic program which set a process in motion to transform the Military Industrial Complex to an Aerospace-Entrepreneurial Matrix that DIDN’T anticipate the Internet or electronic trading. (Ross Perot talked Donald T. Reagan into installing electronic trading on the NYSE that began to come on line in 1979, but the pros on the floor didn’t have any idea what a revolution electronic trading was until it hit them in the face in 1982.)

But in 1977, FedEx went public with an $80 million IPO and sucked all the liquidity out of the markets, everywhere and Trump and I were looking for the same spare change.

I left the project in 1978 over conceptual differences and did this and that, including hypnotizing Jim Kimsey one night in one of his saloons in an effort to recruit him as the venture capitalist for the X=Avia project (ICX Aviation-AviaExport) to do for us what he ended up doing for Steve Case. Then I went to work for a minority-owned consulting firm providing resources to clients of the Community Services Administration, SBA, HUD and HHS. Carter’s domestic chief, Stuart Eizenstat, had adopted Nixon’s Affirmative Action design pretty much whole cloth and was really able to get it going because a difference between Republicans and Democrats in the 1960s was that the white male Republicans were like Rush Limbaugh and wanted to get on the corporate career track and join his daddy’s country club while white male Democrats were engaged in the civil rights movement and the anti-war movements were community organizers like Obama and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and social entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos.

And, in 1980, the Nixon-Moynihan-Carter Affirmative Action process transforming the Military Industrial Complex into the Aerospace-Entrepreneurial Matrix was getting real traction. And, as part of this, Eizenstat arranged for the federal, state and municiple guarantees that Equitable needed to finance Trump Tower as an element of the gentrification mandate of the Nixon-Moynihan design, that is, to get money into existing communities across the full continuum of housing to avoid the displacement of the Urban Renewal projects of the LBJ’s Great Society. Southwest DC is an example: they bulldozed everything east of the harbor, and displaced several generations of black culture. Nixon’s gentrification model was to make the capital available in communities like that to renew themselves in a preservation kind of way. Here, in DC, the Latino Economic Development Community is a legacy of the social entrepreneur side of that equation at the grass roots level.

I reviewed the entire CSA portfolio in 1980 and, when Reagan won, I took it to the head of his transition team, Charles Z. Wick, and made the pitch that I had a method for keeping the GOP in the majority in the Senate forever. I didn’t get into the details of how Eizenstat’s intent was to employ Trump Tower as the anchor for urban renewal in the community surrounding the building— pretty much how it’s played out. I looked at a similar project in the Bronx a couple of blocks from where the Clinton Foundation is and told them they needed to create a similar anchor. (They wanted to create a mini-neighborhood Disneyland and I understood the aspiration but the needed a commercial property like Trump Tower to support that aspiration.) People were really just feeling their way into the concept behind the Coalition for Non-Profit Housing and Economic Development here, in DC, yet another legacy of the success of Nixon-Moynihan-Carter Affirmative Action.

An operating assumption of Nixon-Moynihan-Carter Affirmative Action is the process theology of the Democratic Socialism embedded in the US Constitution and the operational paradign of the Free Enterprise economics of American constitutional capitalism as it reflects the economics of Jesus and Adam Smith.

Anyway, I didn’t get into these details with Charles Z. Wick, but what I wanted was to be the job in the Schedule C political slots in Reagan’s administration of Administrator of the Community Services Administration. He liked the sound of the idea, so he asked me about my resume and, as I was running through it all, he broke out in a rant like Rush Limpdick riffing on Title IX and told me I was on a crypto-Nazi black list because I was a Vietnam loser and had done business with the Soviets. I had run right into the leading edge of what has become the GOP Deep State and here I am, explaining how “highly educated and intelligent” “Trump supporters” is a contradiction in terms, 37 years later.

The Trump Tower is a monument to Nixon-Moynihan-Carter Affirmative Action and it was extremely important to the morale of New York City at the time. America was as run-down in 1968 as it is now and Nixon promised to renew the America of the Silent Majority in his campaign.

Trump Tower is that promise being fulfulled.

Reagan had everything he needed in 1981 to complete the transition to an Aerospace-Entrepreneurial Matrix without the internet or electronic trading and to establish a permanent moon colony by 2001, just like the movie, but the agenda of the Powell Manifesto became the dominant paradigm and the crypto-Nazi Deep State apparatchiks like Grover Norquist, John Kashich, David Stockman and Matt Whitaker that came to town with Reagan began to dismantle the Democratic Socialism of Eisenhower’s 1956 Presidential Platform and replacing it with the Tory Socialism of the 19th Century Oligarch capitalism and class warfare of Reaganomics and the Fascist sophistry of zero-sum, gold-based, laissez-faire Free Market supply-side economics of present Venezuela, Soviet Marxism and the Harvard Business model.

People who believe they are intelligent, especially Harvard MBA graduates who identify with Tucker Carlson, and are Trump backers need to understand that the political tactics of obstruction and subversion introduced by Newt Gingricn and implemented by McConnell and Ryan have a material cost.

If the Democrats had kept the majority in either or both chambers of Congress throughout Obama’s administration and/or Hillary had been elected and kept what she inherited from Obama, the GDP would have hit 8% sometime between 2015 and this midterm. This bull market is not a leading indicator. It’s based entirely on deficit spending but without any particular existential anchor. It’s just money making a brief transit of the markets from the treasury to the Koch brother’s trust funds, as a proxy for the GOP Deep State.

What you got is Trump voters who consider themselves intelligent because, like Brett Kavanaugh, they got an expensive education and work really hard like good little boys and girls, when the reality is they are just greedy and making too much money to really think things through.

Now, I always reluctantly admired Trump for his success with Trump Tower. I use him as an example of The Entrepreneur in the American sense of the word as an element of the process theology of Organization Development: The Entrepreneur

Structures of Affirmative Action: The Community as a Capitalist Tool

If these people who believe they are really intelligent, especially because they have expensive educations made possible by hard work and the status of a third generation legacy, divided their time between trying to sabotage progressive capitalism and actually employing capitalism to fix the problems they deny exist, someone like Trump would have been out of syndication ten years ago.

Instead, his ratings are better than Jim Acosta.

In the final analysis, the question: Are there any intelligent and/or highly educated people who support Donald Trump?, is a contradiction in terms.

EDIT: Additional commentary in response to a REPLY by Jb Coram.

Honestly, I hope it continues for you.

There is something that you can understand in that regard; Bob Dole’s 1986 Tax Reform vacated several strata of wealth that caused the collapse of the junk bond markets and the crises in the Savings and Loans industry that led to the Resolution Trust Corporation, which was the largest transfer of wealth from the America middle class to the upper US economic strata in history. That set off the recession that came back to haunt GHW Bush in 1992 and contributed directly to his defeat at re-election.

Trump Towaers was essentially financed by the Nixon-Moynihan-Carter Affirmative Action processes that had been set into motion by Nixon to transform the Military Industrial Complex to an Aerospace Entrepreneurial Matrix. The Carter people arranged for the guarantees for The Equitable to finance Trump as part of the larger gentrification agenda Nixon had inherited from LBJ and improved upon. Trump Tower worked exactly as desired for urban renewal and was very important to the morale of NYC in turning itself around from bankruptcy in the 1980’s and was reflected by the City’s response to 911.

Trump’s personal business model, such as it was, depended upon the structures of Affirmative Action, moving forward, and Dole’s Tax Reforms was the first step by the crypto-Nazis who came to town with Reagan to dismantle Affirmative Action and replace it with the Tory Socialism and class warfare of Reaganomics and the 19th Century Oligarch economics of the Harvard Business model and Supply Side economcs.

RE: FORBES: Alexander. 7 March 2018

The hole in Trump’s net worth is a direct result of this deconstruction and, in a broader context. why Atlantic City never got any traction and Trump’s casinos went bankrupt: all the capital the banks and investors put into the urban renewal of Atlantic City was sucked out of the same holes created by Dole’s Tax Reforms and redistributed to the 1% that benefited from the Resolution Trust Corporation.

The current bull market and business activity you are enjoying are based almost entirely on deficit spending and the economic froth in the markets that these cash flows create. I. personally, believe it is illusionary.

The fact is that the 2017 Trump Tax Reforms are based on exactly the same assumptions as Dole’s 1986 Tax Reforms and the “de-regulation” he like to brag about has essentially removed all the structures Bush and Obama created to prevent the complete economic collapse that the mortgage frauds created in 2008.

The fact is that I am hoping that the bottom doesn’t fall out of the economy the way it did for Trump’s net worth in 1990 after a similarly strong upward curve in 89.

The fact is that I think that Trump avoided featuring the economy in his midterm message because the smart money doesn’t know what’s happening and he didn’t want to draw attention to some very dubious indicators.

The politicians that complained about his lack of focus on the economy, the Ryan-McConnell crowd that obstructed Obama from continuing to resurrect the economy literally don’t know shit about economics. I mean, Ayn Rand is Paul Ryan’s intellectual mentor and Eddie Lampert is doing to Sears what Reaganomics has been doing to the middle class since 1986. Tory Socialism works fine for the top 1% of the economic pyramid, but you, buddy, maybe not so much.

The 4.1% GDP growth Trump brags about includes a huge wave of new inflation that the current metrics have been designed to conceal since 1981 and, more to the point, if the Democrats had kept either or both chambers of Congress in 2010 and Clinton had been re-elected and just not touched anything, I think the GDP would have begun expanding at closer to 8% sometime after 2014 and definitely in before the mid-terms in Clinton’s first term.

So, my prayers and thoughts are with you and your continuing success. I hope I’m wrong but Trump is all smoke and mirrors and much of the mechanisms for this exist in the off-shore economic shadow the Paradise Papers illuminate partially.

In the mean time, you have the satisfaction of pissing people like me off by your politics. I hope it sustains your satisfaction.