#sub-par to my own standard but nice to know that its enough

[funkwitz]

Wait how and when did this get so much traction??

An actual art piece of mine with such numbers here on Tumblr dot com?? Forever grateful

Mother Aniseya \ commission

[daydreaming-away-reality]

Misunderstandings

Tom Marvolo Riddle x Reader | ☁️ + ☔ + 🌠 + ✨ | 2.8k | Slytherin!Reader

“Hey (Y/N)!”

You turned, spotting your siblings in the Slytherin Common Room, lounging on the couches. Maintaining your poker face, you approached them, loosening your sliver and green tie on your way.

“How’s our baby sister doing?” Alphard greeted with a fond smile.

You pouted. “I’m not the baby anymore, Alphard.”

He chuckled. “You’ll always be the baby to me. At least, until Cygnus grows up.”

As you huffed, you made eye contact with your oldest sister Walburga. The moment your eyes met, sparks fizzled about before you both turned away simultaneously. Alphard looked at the two of you and awkwardly chuckled. 

“Why am I here?” you asked, crossing your arms. ��I promised Tom I would help him with Charms.”

“We just wanted to check up on you,” Alphard explained.

“Not we, just Alphard,” Walburga tossed in as she rolled her eyes. “I couldn’t care less about you and your little play date with the half-blood.”

Your eyes narrowed at her words. How dare she.

“Well, at least I’m not being set into a marriage,” you retorted. “I hear mother and father are looking into our younger cousin, Orion.”

Seeing Walburga cringe at your words brought a sense of victory to you. Moving towards, Alphard, you pat his shoulder.

“If you ever want to talk, let me know when she isn’t around,” you said before strutting off. “Good luck with classes, Alphard.”

Walking into the dormitories, you sighed and tossed your tie on your bed. Putting up with Wallburga was draining, luckily for you, she was in her last year. Currently in your fifth year, you knew there would be a glorious two years after it where you didn’t have to tolerate her anymore.

Changing your clothes in something more casual and cute, you grabbed your charms textbook and wand before heading out. Meeting Tom right outside the doors leading to the Dungeon, you playfully tapped the boy’s right shoulder before appearing on his left.

“(Y/N),” he greeted, not falling for your prank.

You pouted for a second but smiled it off. “Ready to work on being charming?”

The chestnut haired male chuckled. “I’m pretty charming as it is, (Y/N).”

“Clearly not enough,” you countered. Grabbing his wrist with your free hand, you pulled him after you. “Come on, I hear the lake is pretty peaceful around now. It’ll be the perfect place for us to practice.”

The Slytherin Prefect watched you from behind, a soft smile on his lips. While the authority should have been in his position, he didn’t mind letting you take lead sometimes. It reminded him that were certain things in life he didn’t have control over - his feelings for you being one of them.

“Hey (Y/N),” a male voice called out.

Tom instantly frowned, recognizing the smooth voice of Malfoy.

You turned, offering a polite smile to the younger boy. “Abraxas, hello.”

“Are you free this weekend?” the blonde Slytherin asked, ignoring how you still held onto Tom’s wrist. “If you are, we should go visit Hogsmeade together.”

You shook your head. “Sorry, I actually have plans already. Perhaps another time?”

Abraxas took your declination with hope, nodding before tossing you a wink and leaving. 

Seeing this exchange made Tom realize how popular you were as well. Most of the fifth year boys were infatuated with you. While most were in Slytherin, the brown haired male had noticed other houses eyeing you too.

His brown eyes turned back to you, watching you from behind as you continued pulling him after you. Even after all this time, you didn’t let go of him. Tom’s heart pounded as he thought that you didn’t want to let go of him. That definitely brought a smile to his face.

“I’m going to hold you responsible for my Charms grade, Black,” he called out to you.

You laughed, tossing a wink back at your best friend. “Oh, you’ll pass with flying colours with my help, Riddle. Don’t worry about a thing!”

“It’s so cold out,” you complained to Alphard. “I love Honeydukes as much as you do, brother, but let’s go again when its warmer.”

Alphard chuckled. “Yeah, yeah. I think we’ve stocked up on enough sweets for the next few months anyways.”

You smirked, giving him a knowing look when you eyed his large bag.

“You think?”

“You can never be to certain about things, (Y/N),” he countered.

Your (E/C) eyes glanced at the time and you gave your brother a tug to quicken his pace.

“What’s the rush?” Alphard asked, tightening his grip on his bag. “Late for something?”

“I promised to meet up with Tom in a bit,” you explained, walking at a brisk speed. “He said he has a surprise for me.”

“Ahh, perhaps someone here has a date,” your brother said suggestively. When you opened your mouth to protest, he simply held his hand up. “Don’t even try to argue otherwise, (Y/N), I’ve known you since you were born - I can tell when you like and don’t like someone.”

His steps stopped as the two of you entered the Common Room, eyes scanning the place.

“Speaking of people you don’t like, where’s Walburga? She went to drink with some friends, right?”

You frowned. “I would be the last person to know.”

Alphard affectionately ruffled your hair. “Drag her back here if you happen to see her, okay? Walburga is a terrible drunk, she’ll end up doing something she’ll regret if we left her alone.”

You waved him off with a nod before heading into your room. Dropping off your cloak, you made the effort to dress up nicely. While Tom wasn’t the type to ask anyone out, you knew he valued his time with you - just like you did. If you had to be honest, quality time with Tom was more than satisfying as it was.

Giddy with anticipation, you looked at yourself in the mirror. Giving a nod of approval, you headed back out. Fifth floor corridor was where Tom wanted to meet up with you since it was somewhere quiet.

As you skillfully managed to get around via stairways, the fifth floor appeared rather quickly. As you walked towards the corridor, you couldn’t help but furrow your brows at the strange footfalls that echoed from it.

As you were about to turn the corner, you hear Tom’s voice but couldn’t pick up the words. Worriedly, you peeked around the corner only to spot the most unexpected scene before you.

Your best friend had a girl pressed up against the wall, lips locked. There was no way they spotted you yet, seeing they were caught up doing... that.

When he pulled back, you could finally make out who the girl was. 

Walburga.

She eyed Tom as she tried to recover her breath, cheeks flushed. For someone who didn’t care for half-bloods and was engaged - she had a lot of nerve being here. 

Never had you ever hated your sister more in your life.

Spinning on your heel, you left, tears blurring your vision. The feeling of betrayal flooded you. Was this what Tom had been planning on surprising you with? After knowing him for five years, you thought he had better standards - you had better standards.

Was it possible to have your heartbroken before a relationship could be started? Because you were certain it was possible at this moment. 

Sitting down in the stairwell, you clenched your hands into fists. The image of Walburga and Tom being together seemed to burn in your memories, leaving a permanent imprint.

It hurt.

If it had been any other girl, you could have at least tried to understand the situation, but of all people it had been Walburga. 

Sure you both didn’t like each other, but did she really have to push it that far? 

But Tom?

Your best friend... No. He didn’t deserve that title anymore.

Pulling on a brave face, you wiped the tears in your eyes. You wouldn’t cry for someone who’d betray your trust. They weren’t worth it.

But your heart still hurt.

Standing up, you made your way back to the Slytherin Common Room. With plans of avoiding Tom, you stayed in your room until dinner rolled around. 

Just as you were about to leave, a certain blonde was on his way in.

“(Y/N),” Abraxas greeted with a smile. “What a pleasant surprise.”

“Abraxas, yeah,” you returned.

“Are you still busy tomorrow?” he asked coolly. “My offer still stands.”

Thoughts flickered through your mind. Abraxas was a nice guy, perhaps he could help you get over your best friend.

“I’m free tomorrow,” you said. “Meet me at the Entrance Hall at 10 tomorrow?”

Abraxas’s expression brightened as he nodded enthusiastically.

“It’s a date then, (Y/N).”

It’s a date then, (Y/N). 

You felt your heart quiver at those words. Tom had said that before, he meant study date, but he had used those exact words. It was going to be a while before you were going to be able to get over it.

Get over Tom. 

Perhaps Abraxas would be able to help you.

“It’s a date,” you echoed quietly.

“How could you?”

Walburga flinched at your hissing, rubbing her head. Her hair hung messily around her face as she nursed the pounding headache. Her dark eyes pierced into you, looking at you as if you were a bug.

You returned the stare with you own death glare. 

“I have no idea what you’re going on about,” she complained. “Could you lower you voice? My head is ringing.”

The confrontation between the two of you attracted the eyes of the other Slytherins. Moments like this were common occurrence among the Common Room, from backstabbing, cheating to obscure rumors - you’ve seen it all.

“I saw you yesterday,” you snarled. “How dare you?!”

“How dare I?” she echoed. She sat up, thinking about your words. Slowly, a smirk appeared on her face. “Oh, you’re talking about with Riddle? You saw that? My memories are foggy, but for a half-blood, he’s okay. Sub par though.”

Anger boiled in your veins as you took a step forward. “What. Did. You. Say?”

“I said - “

You cut her off, raising your wand, but someone else intervened.

“Petrificus Totalus!”

You could recognize your older brother’s voice anywhere.

He strolled up to the scene, lowering his wand as he analyzed your frozen stiff sister. Alphard narrowed his eyes at Walburga, shaking his head in disappointment.

“I promised I’d look out for our baby sister, (Y/N),” he explained, crossing his arms. The friendliness he usually embodied turned into something darker, showing his true colours. “Even if you were the one to provoke her.”

He turned back to look at you, noticing your figure trembling slightly. He stroked your (H/C) hair, giving you a reassuring look. When he noticed the eyes still on the situation, he sent a terrifying glare that caused everyone to look away, understanding his silent message.

Look away and never mention this to anyone.

“You okay?” he asked.

You shook your head, unable to find the words to describe your emotions right now.

He sighed. “I’ll make sure to scold Walburga, just because she’s the oldest doesn’t give her the right to do anything like that. Do you want me to deal with Riddle too?”

You shook your head again. “It’s fine, Alphard. He’s not worth it.”

Tom emerged from the Chamber of Secrets, looking around to make sure no one noticed his suspicious behavior. Fixing his robes, he noticed the darkening sky and decided to get back to pretending that he was the ideal prefect.

While he kept a watchful eye on the hallways, he spotted a girl with (H/C) hair, thinking it was you temporarily. It had been a few weeks since he had last seen you and he couldn’t why. Ever since you missed meeting him in the fifth floor corridor, it was like you became one of the many Hogwarts ghosts. 

He never saw you, the rare moments in classes, but it appeared that no matter how many times he left you notes asking you to meet up, you never responded.

Tom didn’t get it - you two were in the same house, how were you avoiding him so well?

When he approached Alphard, the boy merely scoffed and walked away.

Picking up on rumors of you and Abraxas Malfoy getting close made him anxious. Did you replace him? It wasn’t like you to simply start ignoring anyone like this.

Speaking of you and Malfoy...

He spotted you, holding hands with the blonde as the two of you walked down the hall together. Tom couldn’t believe it. Did that really happen while he was distracted and unable to reach you?

“(Y/N)!” he shouted.

You froze, hand slipping from Abraxas’s. Looking up, your eyes met with the brown eyes that seemed to see right through you.

As he approached, Abraxas looked at the Prefect then back at you. He wasn’t blind, he noticed the tension between the two of you. He knew about your heartbroken crush on that guy. Giving you a gentle nudge forward, his eyes conveyed everything you needed to know.

“I’ll be around if you ever need someone to fall back to,” he whispered.

You slowly nodded. “Thank you.”

Left alone, you stood before the Slytherin Prefect.

“Where have you been lately, Black?” Tom asked, still in his role of being the role model for younger students. “I haven’t seen you around much.”

“Out on a date with Malfoy,” you responded. You crossed your arms. “Are you done? I need to get going.”

The chestnut haired teen grabbed your arm when you tried to leave.

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

“So what if I have?”

Brown eyes darting around, he pulled you aside from prying eyes.

“What did I do?” he demanded. 

You huffed. “You really don’t know, Riddle? Your surprise was terrible. I can’t believe you like Walburga - she’s going to be engaged when summer comes.”

Tom blinked. What?

“The only member of the Black family I’m in love with is you,” he said. “I’m not interested in Walburga.”

“You kissed her,” you accused, pointing your finger at him accusingly. “I saw you.”

Memories flickered across the boy’s mind as he realized what you had seen. Walburga had been drunk, somehow wandered her way up to him and forced him into kissing her. He had been trying to pull away, but the girl was stronger than he expected. Tom frowned. Your sister had ruined his opportunity to tell you about his impressive Charms grade thanks to you and confess to you.

“She kissed me, while she was drunk too,” Tom protested. “I would never intentionally kiss her - besides, you took my first. It was an accident, but I really like the way you, I’ve been falling for you since our kiss.”

You flushed at his recalled memory. Tom was right, he had been your first kiss to, and you cherished that awkward moment too.

“While I’m still trying to be honest with you, I just want to let you know, I’m not happy with your position with Malfoy.” Tom confessed. “I want to be the one holding your hand and being right by your side. I want you as mine. I probably lost the privilege to call you my best friend or even friend, but please give me another chance - to become your lover too.”

You bit your lip. After all that you had gone through, you weren’t sure you could just let yourself run back into Tom’s arms that easily. It still hurt. Yes, your feelings still existed for this brown haired charmer, but this wasn’t enough.

"Give me some more time,” you murmured, brushing aside your (H/C) hair and looking straight at Tom. “I... need some more time to think about this. I love you too, Tom, but after all that’s happened between us, I can’t just accept you so easily.”

“Okay,” Tom agreed. While your words were laced with uncertainty, Tom could hear the hope of being with you as an underlying tone. “I’ll wait.”

“Please, no more misunderstandings,” you pleaded.

He nodded. “I promise to be honest with you so you can’t have any misunderstandings.”

There was a slight raise to his lip.

“You look beautiful in the twilight, (Y/N).”

You rolled your (E/C) eyes, walking off. Tom trailed after you, a grin on his face. Once you were going to start letting him back into your life, he was going to make sure to never to lose you.

With his promise of being honest in mind, Tom realized he would have to introduce you his companion living under the castle grounds soon. He had plenty of time figuring out how to break the news to you.

No more misunderstandings though.

[scribemallow]

kirburbia ch. 21 - story time

kirby leads an army. meta knight and dedede capture a prisoner of war.

read here on ao3 or full text below!

It doesn’t take long for Kirby to attract a lot of attention in daycare. A combination of his vivid storytelling, natural charisma and endless kindness draws half of the other students towards him, almost inseperable by the second break of the day. And, as the caretakers notice, he seems to pick up language much faster than the other students. Sure, his vocabulary was fairly limited when he came in, but he’s able to pick up what other people say and repeat it in an instant, even when the words seem much too complex for someone his age. So it doesn’t take very long for the staff to peg him as unusual, either. Having finally calmed down the naptime riot that Kirby had instigated- he was happy to sleep, but the others couldn’t get enough of him- the youngest of them, a tall and lanky woman in a navy dress, gestured for Kirby to follow her away from the main recreation room. Gesturing for him to hush, in order to prevent the others from waking up, she spoke softly.

“Sorry to take you out of naptime, Kirby.”

Kirby blinked twice and thought about his response. “’S okay.” His understanding bought a smile to her face, knowing that the potential stress of him fussing had been relieved.

“Did you tell everyone else to cause trouble? They seem to like you a lot.” she murmured, enunciating the last part of the sentence. Kirby shook his head firmly, lifting himself up by his heels to try and reach her face better.

“No… I was just telling them a story! They wanted, uh.. They wanted to hear the end.” Despite tripping over his words a few times, Kirby spoke with a reserved confidence and dignity that impressed adults immediately.

“What was the story about?”

“Oh! It’s about… Um, the king who took all the food. I had to go and fight him so I could get it back. Then we became friends, and it was okay, but I missed that part.”

“It’s a nice story. What made you think of it?” she asked. Kirby paused again, this time for a few more seconds, imitating the hand-on-chin motion he had seen adults do while they were thinking.

“Well, miss, it really is true!” The insistence in his voice nearly made her laugh. “Um, we made good friends. And then we went on an adv-adver-adventure!”

“Awww, I like that ending. Do you have any other stories?” Kirby nodded enthusiastically, counting on his fingers.

“Um, well, one time I had to fight a big robot with my friend Meba Night. He had a big ship and I had a big robot suit! We saw a lot of scary things.”

“Meta Knight is the one who’s taking care of you, right?” Again, Kirby nods.

“He’s really cool. He helps me a lot.” Assuming that the bit with the robots and the ship was untrue, even still… It seems that they’re a good unit when they’re together.

“Well, I think Meta Knight would really like it if you went for a nap.” Kirby shook his head with insistence.

“He says I nap too much.”

“…He’d be happy if he knew that you listened to adults.”

“Okay, Miss Hardy! I’ll see you when I wake up, okay?” He gave a final wave before hopping back over to the main room, which the older woman returned even though Kirby had already turned around.

That kid’s gonna be a great storyteller one day, I can feel it. How does he even come up with all of these strange stories?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It takes a great while of grunting and struggling, but Dedede and Meta Knight eventually manage to stuff the large ginger feline they’d captured into an animal crate. Still faced with its defiant meowing, but free from the frustration of trying to stop it escaping, Dedede patted Meta Knight’s shoulder with vigour as he panted.

“Tell you what, I’m not fuckin’ doing that shit again. Any more lost cats can find their own damn way home.” Meta Knight smiles, watching the captured cat paw fruitlessly at the entrance of its personal prison cell. “Thankfully I have the buff- ah, buff muscles to control the beast successfully. And you helped as well.” Surprising Meta Knight, he hadn’t mentioned the trap he’d set at all.

“I sure did.” Kneeling down, Meta Knight was able to get a better look into the pet carrier where they’d imprisoned the soft animal. He was now lying on his side, licking his paw in a defeated fashion. “We should get him back home as soon as we can. Hopefully he won’t bust out again, huh?

“Agreed. It doesn’t look like he’s been suffering or anything, though. Bastard still has a gut and everything.”

“Probably because you’ve been feeding him so many burgers.” Meta Knight sighed, lifting himself up again.

“Guilty as charged. You still got that picture with the address on it?” Dedede asked. Meta Knight nodded, reaching for the phone in his pocket and first noticing the time.

“We can maybe get the cat back before we have to pick Kirby up. If we leave pretty soon, that is. Since we’re not very far from the address at all.”

“Sounds like a good idea. And before you ask, I’m driving, because at least I can be trusted with a car. You thought Burger King was an enemy of America.”

“Well, the burgers there are bad.”

“Oh, you’re one to talk! Y’ always get the one with the bacon on it, then take it off and complain it tastes of bacon. Just ask for it without the bacon!”

“I want to get my money’s worth if I’m going to spend money at some sub-par burgery.” Dedede rolled his eyes at the statement.

“I’m sorry the burgers aren’t as good as mine everywhere. Perfection is a difficult standard.” Again, Meta Knight finds it hard to argue that Dedede isn’t pretty good at putting one together. “Also, it’s literally just two pieces of bacon.”

“Kirby wants them.”

“Awwww. That’s actually really cute.”

When Meta Knight’s cheeks light up once more, he’s mortified by the lack of a convenient cat to hide it.

[albacorehero-blog]

Mr. Pickles: A.I.F

MR. PICKLES: 2

LOCATION: DUBLIN, CA

WWW.MRPICKLES.COM

First review! OKAY. I have been to this shop before... We are re-visiting shops to give a fresh review for the crew. A lot of these initial reviews are kind of like backlogging past experiences simply to get caught up. We MUST knock out some of these bigger, franchise players on our search. For you non bay area foodies, Mr. Pickles is a California small sandwich shop franchise, based primarily in the San Francisco bay area. I was extremely HOPEFUL of this shop, being a Bay Area champion, but I found it to be like a NEGLECTED Subway on its last leg. 

Like most Mr. Pickles, this particular shop was located in an older, suffering, strip mall. The franchise get’s decent reviews, but we have to assume that much of this is based on the other meat based sandwiches (MBS) - as crew of the albacore, we do not CARE. We are seeking only one thing: TUNA.  

It is important to note, we will ALWAYS order from the menu as-is. We want to experience THEIR suggested sandwich or recipe. So, as much as possible, we will not add in our personal likes for condiments, toppings, etc. In most cases, if given the option, we will always defer to the standard lettuce, tomato, onion (LTO). Otherwise, off-menu only. 

Lets start the analysis!

BREAD: 4

This is an incredibly important part of the sandwich - and possibly the redeeming factor for Mr. Pickles! Many shops will give you an option, so to  try and establish a base criteria to judge from - we will always defer to french (bread or roll), dutch crunch, or the standard white bread option. In this case, I went with dutch crunch. 

The bread was the best part of this meal! Soft, fluffy, FIRM, and with a nice crunch on top. Offering dutch crunch alone, is a nice touch that some shops just do not offer - this bread tasted fresh, with a great texture and nice fluff. It did not taste generic like Subway breads often do. Not the best Dutch Crunch I have had, but I damn well respect you for providing what you did. 

TUNA QUALITY: 2

The tuna itself should be solid or chunk white albacore, IMO. Sometimes, the tuna is “light tuna”, which is cheaper, and usually a mix of tuna, skipjack, big-eye, yellowfin, and bunch of other small-tuna variety. WHAT. There is a taste and texture difference - do not play games with me! 

THIS WAS LIGHT TUNA!!! 

“YOU ARE NOT HARD-CORE, UNLESS YOU ARE ALBA-CORE!”

MIX: 2

Okay, now we are getting into the depths of the deep! Nothing special here, but right away there was some major NO NO’s. First, way too much pepper - are you trying to mask something, Mr. Pickle? The tuna salad itself was laced with way too much pepper. Not to mention, the salad was RUNNY. C’mon folks, you know this scenario - when the tuna salad sits for way to long, and the mayo becomes watery, YUCK. No one likes a tuna salad that sits in a watery mayo base, AMIRIGHT! Now for the toppings (again, went standard LTO here). The shredded lettuce, onion, and tomato were clearly once frozen - it has that... DE-THAWED taste to it, much like Subway. However, the Cheese slice was nice and thick (cheddar), and the avocado was a nice touch. 

BONUS: You get a FREE cookie with your sandwich - My daughter, will write upon this in her CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE blog (yep, you heard that right) soon enough. This is was a nice touch. 

AMBIANCE: 1

Mr. Pickle. I REALLY wanted to love you. A Bay Area native, who dreamed of one day, not just becoming a pickle to be discarded - but pulling yourself up from your own pickle-boot straps to create a local sandwich chain... Love it. But, the sandwich was losing me, and the ambiance was not great. The shop operates like a TOGOS (another Cali sandwich chain) - where you have “stations” of sandwich makers to help people in line, yet you cannot see any ingredients, you are at the mercy of being called to the bench (so to speak)...there is a lot of sandwich making trust-talk that occurs as the artist nervously looks down and scrambles around with their hands (as the customer, you cannot see this! You just see someone with their head down, fiddling around with their hands. Then, you are sent to the cashier with no sandwich, nervously hoping they got everything right as you yelled your specifics over the high counter to someone who truly could not care. It kinda feels like pleading your case to a judge or something? I DUNNO! The result at both shops is always a bit disorganized and chaotic, especially when busy. Call me crazy, but I am just not a fan of this kind of ordering process - more on this later when we review TOGOS. 

HERE WAS MY SANDWICH ARTIST:

The tables were aligned parallel, with only about a half-foot distance from the ordering line. Which means, you get to eat with the line of people hovering right above you - thats right. Ass in face style. Since you are seated - and the line is standing, it is just a fact of science - and not the best way to dine - GROSS.

It feels and looks like a Subway - but without the mega franchise bucks to make it comfortable. There is no real character to the place.

The cashier had to fulfill a catering order at NOON, that took up so much damn time, people in line were leaving - and pissed! Otherwise, everyone was nice enough, and the staff seemed genuine. 

ORIGINALITY: 3

MR. PICKLE: You get some PROPS for the FREE COOKIE! 

OVERALL:

Great bread choice. Free cookie - everything else was sub-par. Do not fret, Mr. Pickle - we WILL return and know that you will step up your tuna fish game by focusing on the tuna salad, the mix, and fixing the horrendous ambiance. 

SCORE: 2.0 

[asiandramastoke]

Drama Rating: 8/10

This drama depicts the life of high school students who struggles with the school system, their peers and even from their parents.

After finishing all 12 episodes, I now understand how they could wrap everything up in such a short span of time. I liked the fact that they didn’t put in fillers and add 4 more episodes to make the drama longer, hence it would have dragged on.

The story line was quite simple – a girl who loved dancing and is trying to live her life in a school with high standards but meets a lot of trials along the way. The plot is not really my cup of tea, but knowing that Jung Eun Ji is the main actress, I decided to watch it despite the bland summary. When I watched the pilot episode, it still wasn’t enough to make me excited about the following episodes so I’ve put the drama on my least of priority to watch, however after the 3rd and 4th episodes, the drama started to pick up its pace and finally became interesting for me. Then when the love triangle was finally revealed through the later part of the drama, I was wrenched into a second lead syndrome again. Arrrgh! *slaps face to go back to reality* I knew that I was setting myself up to a complete heart break again… or so I thought. The drama’s ending was really constructed well and it left no room for any loop holes to think about. Even the love triangle was resolved in a simple yet satisfying way. It was heartfelt with a breath of fresh air compared to those high school themed melodramas I’ve been watching lately.

What makes this drama endearing for me is how the story did not focus on the dancing and cheering side going to the ultimate goal of participating in the Cheering Squad for specs purposes but instead, they focused on the characters themselves. The story revolved on the conflicts with family, school, friends and even romantic aspect in life. A plus factor that made this drama appealing was how they dealt into the issue of teenage suicide. It may be rampant in Asian countries these days as most of the culture is about persevering and keeping problems to themselves until they actually break and decide to end their lives. This drama shows the importance of having support systems like family, friends or even teachers being around to help suicidal kids deal with their inner turmoil.

My favorite character would be Kang Yeon Doo, despite being aggravated by Kwon Soo Ah, I can’t really fathom how much she could still be nice and forgiving. Although it’s not realistic anymore in this day and age, it made me trace myself back to my own goodness. It made me wonder how far I would go to tolerate such bitchiness from anyone. If it was me, I might have walked out that door or would have probably cared less whatever happens to my nemesis. But that’s part of the spark of this whole drama… Yeon Doo keeps everyone together including the boys she’s very much close with. Another character I love is Seo Ha Joon, acted by Ji Soo. I love watching him interact with the main lead and how they had that great chemistry together. This is my first time seeing him in a drama and he totally gives me that whole Woo Bin aura while he was with Park Shin Hye in “Heirs”. Ji Soo had that same feels around him and I think this guy may have a great potential as an actor. I really wish he can chose his roles wisely in the near future. I would like to insert Kim Yeol portrayed by Lee Won Gun, he may be cute and kissable but man, his chemistry with Eun Ji is sub par to Ji Soo’s.

Oh let’s not forget the other side characters that I am much in favor of:

Teacher Yang Tae Beom played by Kim Ji Suk, it amazes me how much a teacher roles suits him well. It’s nice to watch him again in the same role after seeing him in School 2015. Then there’s the coach acted by Lee Mi Do, notably she looked like Sandra Oh. I loved Sandra Oh in Grey’s Anatomy, so seeing her look alike here in this drama brings nostalgia, but Mi Do is great in her acting. I loved her strong character and the way she prances around to cover for the students and fights her way so as not to be bullied by other teachers. Then lastly, there’s Yeon Doo’s mom played by Kim Yeo Jin, I personally think this woman is lovely. I’ve seen her in several dramas and enjoy looking at her. I think her beauty is one that will not easily fade as she ages.

Music wise, it wasn’t something that was able to stick with me but I enjoyed listening to it while the characters were in their own moments. Overall I would recommend this series to people who are in the mood to watch a high school drama about friendship, first love and a feel good after taste full of drama goodness.

PHOTOS ARE NOT MINE. CREDITS TO THE OWNER.

Sassy Go Go (Korean Drama 2015) Drama Rating: 8/10 This drama depicts the life of high school students who struggles with the school system, their peers and even from their parents.

[ciathyzareposts]

King’s Quest VI: Final Rating

It’s time to rate the best King’s Quest game, based on most opinions I’ve read. Will I agree? Spoiler alert: Yes, I will. Before I start I’ll quickly mention that I attempted to play the Amiga version for comparison purposes but couldn’t get it working. I did find a comprehensive list of the differences online and seeing as the Amiga version largely just skipped some puzzles I’m happy to give up without trying too hard to get it working. I did end up playing the game using both the original and CD enhanced graphics, with my final perfect ending playthrough happening with the old/lower quality character portraits.

So let’s get to it. On with the PISSED rating…

Puzzles and Solvability

The puzzles in King’s Quest VI are pretty good and have sensible solutions.

I just gave a milk bottle I took from a bottlebrush bush to a baby’s tear to make the other baby’s tears cry harder so I can collect their tears and use them to cast a spell that requires salt water – like I said, perfectly sensible solutions!

My biggest gripe about King’s Quest V’s puzzles was that by and large they can’t be reasoned through. There’s a little of that randomness here but there were many puzzles I was actively looking to solutions for – this was a big part of my motivation for putting the Predictions section at the end of my post – I had thoughts as to what puzzles I’d need to solve and how, and wanted to know if I was right.

An example would be the ‘Sense Gnome’ puzzle. It’s a simple puzzle in five stages that became easy to predict after the first one or two. Knowing that I’ll need to trick them with something to see, hear, smell, taste and touch quickly gets my brain working on the five items I’ll need. It’s actually a very easy puzzle if you already have the items needed or even if you just know where they are (the nightingale toy being the example of this) so even if you didn’t have the required item, when you found, for example, the stinky flower, you’d know it would be used for this puzzle. Nice work, game!

I also wish to commend the multiple endings. I did three endings, but only two of them were distinctly different – the best ending was just the downstairs ending without me missing the jester. While not nearly as diverse as Fate of Atlantis’ three paths, and one of the paths was clearly the ‘complete’ path, with the other one (serving girl disguise) mostly just skipping a significant section of the game. Even so, the extra puzzles in the upstairs area of the castle during the sub-optimal ending was something I liked.

I did have issues with the easy way to dead-end myself from getting the best ending without realising I’d done so, and also with the obscure clues to the treasure room’s passphrase. And if that was the only way to win the game it would have negatively impacted this score by a noticeable amount. As it was only an option I’m willing to accept (though not prefer) the obscurity.

The game could have gone from good to excellent here if the Cliffs of Logic lived up to their name. I was expecting to solve multiple puzzles using logic and clues here and really taxing my brain, and was disappointed when it turned out to be just be a rather long in-game copy protection system. I was hoping for a puzzle sequence a la Le Serpent Rouge from Gabriel Knight 3 (which may be better in my memory than it actually is – it’s been a while since I played.)

There is no way to solve any of these puzzles with logic – a missed opportunity indeed

When I consider my trilogy of hated puzzles in games, let’s see how this game goes:

Mazes – There was only the labyrinth as far as mazes go in this game. I got through most of it without having to map it – though I did have to come back and make a map in order to find the skull required for the best ending, despite finding other skulls in easier to reach areas that Alexander refused to take. The labyrinth had a useful story reason for being there and wasn’t difficult or too long, which makes it, in my mind, an acceptable maze.

Dead-ends – There were quite a few dead-ends. A few of them were easily worked out as I went into the castle without the toy nightingale but found out quickly that a nightingale would be useful. If I hadn’t found the peppermint while attempting the alternate ending, I’d have been stuck near the end with no way of knowing how to defeat or avoid the genie. The game could have given me the option to leave and re-enter the castle through some kind of secret door or something to avoid these dead-ends and all others I can think of could also have been avoided by providing options to re-enter areas or not leave them at all until a required item is taken.

Complicated or pointless mini-games – I can’t think of any mini-games at all in this game, so no problems there.

So there weren’t any bad or tedious puzzles – the negative of this category only being the numerous dead-ends. There also weren’t any puzzles that gave me an eureka moment after thinking about them for a while. All puzzles were quite simple and straightforward as long as I had or knew of the necessary inventory item – I again mention the missed opportunity for the Cliffs of Logic to increase this score. In all though, a decent but unspectacular effort improved by the variety of alternate endings.

Final score: 6

Interface and Inventory

The interface and inventory are your standard Sierra interface – as usual with King’s Quest there’s no special flavour icons such as taste or smell. It does its job well enough. I could ‘LOOK’ at an item in my inventory for a more detailed description of it, which was sometimes useful.

There was at least one time I had to use the inventory items from the inventory screen rather than on an item in the environment – I had to ‘USE’ Cassima’s ribbon in order to discover it contained a strand of pure maiden hair.

Apart from the standard interface there’s also the simple alphabetic keyboard that appears twice, allowing me to type in an answer. It was nice not to have the answer available automatically to force me to have worked it out myself. I’m still not impressed with the Ali Zebu passphrase though.

Like King’s Quest V, there’s no tooltips or ‘What is?’ ability, so the only way to see if something’s part of the background or an actionable icon is to attempt to interact with various parts of the scenery. This is why I didn’t find the peppermint bush until my third or fourth visit to the area and why I didn’t have it with me when I first entered the castle in my serving girl disguise. I can easily see someone missing that cave completely because the graphics look like the cave could easily just be part of the background.

Without tooltips, or making the hole big enough that it looks like Alexander can actually can fit inside it, it’s easy to miss the cave next to the nightshade bush.

Final score: 7

Story and Setting

In another step up from the last King’s Quest game, the story is more interesting. It’s still somewhat of a cliche – a princess locked up in a castle waiting for her handsome prince to save her from a political marriage to an evil man, but the details are much more interesting. The side stories are also more interesting, though on the surface they’re also cliches.

The way each island outside of the first had its own story and puzzles was predictable in a good way. It gave me a sense of how much progress I’d made and a real sense of achievement whenever I ‘solved’ an island’s main puzzle.

The setting was again standard fantasy/mythological stuff. Each island had a surprisingly small number of actual screens – four or so – with the significant exception of the labyrinth which is mostly repeated rooms, the castle and the Isle of the Crown with its three interiors itself. The limited area is a lot more noticeable when thinking about it now rather than while playing, so the game did a decent job of suggesting it had more than it did.

The entire visitable area of the Isle of the Beast – it had four screens, and four puzzles to solve!

Final score: 6

Sound and Graphics

This is one area where there’s not a noticeable improvement over King’s Quest V – the sound and graphics seem to be about on par. If anything it’s slightly less impressive than King’s Quest V.

I can still hum some of the music from King’s Quest V and remember associated puzzles. Just a week or so after finishing playing King’s Quest VI, I can’t remember any of the music apart from the ‘Girl in the Tower’ song that the game refused to play for me when it was supposed to. The music is in the game, and when I hear it again I remember it, and there were specific tunes associated with many screens so it’s not an issue of lack of effort – it clearly just didn’t click with me. But seeing as that’s just my subjective opinion I don’t plan to punish the game for me not liking/noticing the music too much. It does its job so I’m fine with it. 

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Here’s a small sample of some of the sounds and music in the game

I went back to some of my saved games so I could check out and compare some on the environmental sounds of both games and found there seems to be more in the older game. The nightingale tweets and a few other screens have things going on but there’s not enough to really improve on or add to the world.

The graphics were good. About on par with King’s Quest V. I particularly liked the climbing from rock-to-rock animation on the Cliffs of Logic the first time I saw it for some reason. I was more impressed with the closeups of King’s Quest V over this game though.

I think the King’s Quest V closeup graphics look better, but YMMV

Final score: 8

Environment and Atmosphere

I like a world that makes sense. The small size of the islands confirms the fact that each island only exists to give me different puzzles rather than having any coherent atmosphere to it. I can’t think of a simple way to make it better, as just making me walk through an extra few screens on the way to each puzzle screen would have made the environment slightly more convincing but only at the expense of making the game more tedious.

Of all the lands, the Land of the Dead was interesting if only for being different to the other sections. The Lord of the Dead, though easily defeated, was somewhat imposing, though the atmosphere of the area was decreased by the comical skeleton xylophone dance, which seemed completely out of place and way too silly for a ‘serious’ section of the game.

Having skeletons doing the can-can as they slide in from the left is definitely funny, but detracts from a potentially foreboding atmosphere.

The impending disaster (for Alexander’s love life) of Cassima and Alhazred’s wedding certainly added to the game, as the rushed atmosphere of having to find Cassima and do it quickly worked – the wedding proclamation that appeared in the town square after a time somewhat convinced me that things were moving forward and I had to hurry (though not really, because I knew I was playing a game and things were only progressing after solving particular puzzles.)

Final score: 5

Dialogue and Acting

The dialogue was solid. I can’t think of any particularly interesting or funny dialogue in the game though I’m sure there was some.

Like usual in Sierra games, there are no dialogue choices. All talking scenes are simple conversations without any input from me. I enjoy dialogue puzzles and multiple dialogue options so I can make a character my own, but particularly well-written dialogue can make up for it – this game has okay dialogue so doesn’t particularly make up for the lack of dialogue options/puzzles.

The acting was okay. The voices we hear most are Alexander’s and the narrator’s. 

The narrator reads all the text boxes, telling us that we’ve picked stuff up and what’s happening when we ‘look’ at stuff for example. He does a good job, sometimes making a corny little joke that could have been extremely groan-worthy only slightly groan-worthy. 

Alexander’s actor, despite being an actor with some pedigree, didn’t bring much to the character. It’s possible that Alexander is just a rather bland character and nobody could make his dialogue terribly interesting. Either way, I don’t feel the performance added a lot to the game. 

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Not exactly the game’s best example of dialogue and acting.

The other actors were okay enough, apart from Saladin who did a good job of sounding commanding and competent, though I’d argue his actual competence is a bit less than his impressive voice suggests.

Final score: 5

Final Rating

So all these scores give us a Final Rating of 6+7+6+8+5+5/.6, which equals… … …

A very good score. It would have hit the top 10 not too long ago, but for now it has to sit as the 14th best game we’ve seen. It’s easily the highest rated King’s Quest game, with the previous high being King’s Quest V’s 56.

Tornado, ShaddamIVth and kind of but not really Joe Pranevich guessed correctly! So they’ll all get some CAPs. The average score guess was 65.6 and ranged from 58 to 75

And now it’s time for me to think about how much fun I had with the game. I give the game an Overall Fun Factor of 7 out of 10 – I enjoyed it a little bit more than the PISSED rating gives it, so the PISSEDOFF rating would be  6+7+6+8+5+5+7+7+7/.9… … … 64!

CAP Distribution

I’ve given a ridiculous amount of awards away this time – but by the time I realised I really should have calmed down and consolidated some of the awards I was too tired and thought – what the hell. The CAPs don’t come out of my pocket anyway. Enjoy!

105 CAPs to TBD

Blogger Award -100 CAPs – For playing through the game for everyone’s enjoyment 

I speak British Award – 5 CAPs – for knowing what a rubbish tip is and putting unnecessary ‘U’s in normal words like humor and color.

75 CAPs to Laukku

Oracle Award – 6 CAPs – for suggesting I should be told about the two routes into the castle and coding it in case it could be too much of a spoiler. Good call on both parts!

40 Minutes of Intro Award – 5 CAPs – for pointing out a video that has all different intro versions of the game

Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – for informing us that some new Myst games had made it to GOG.com

My Kingdom For a Tic Tac Award – 7 CAPs – for helping Charles find a mint when he was stuck in the game.

Colour Me Impressed Award – 4 CAPs – for mentioning that Saladin’s colours were only reversed in the upgraded Windows portraits.

The Whole Hole Award – 5 CAPs – for helping us work out that there’s lots of things a hole-in-the-wall can be, though none of them are a weird insect thingy

The Sixth Sense Award – 4 CAPs – for pointing out that there should have been perhaps 33 Gnomes guarding the Isle of Wonder.

Don’t Copy That Floppy Award – 5 CAPs – for being part of an interesting discussion about what games had the best copy protection

Excuse Me, Monsieur Trottier Award – 4 CAPs – for bringing up the international expert in testing reading comprehension

Transformed by a French Kiss Award – 4 CAPs – for knowing why Beast speaks with a French accent.

He Chose Poorly Award – 5 CAPs – for noting when I’d chosen one of the two paths towards the ending

Check the Map Award – 4 CAPs – for noticing that the map in the manual may give a clue that the pit you’re supposed to fall into is different to the others (though not a terribly useful clue)

Talk to the Clown Award – 7 CAPs – for being the first to point out that I couldn’t get the best ending because I didn’t befriend the jester.

Any Color As Long As It’s Black Award – 4 CAPs – for telling us more about the Black Cloak Society

Evil Minds Think Alike Award – 3 CAPs – for noting a similarity between the villains of King’s Quest VI and Quest for Glory III

No Girl In My Tower Award – 3 CAPs – for letting us know about a feature request section on GOG that might get CD images into their releases so future players can hear Girl In the Tower over the end credits as intended

70 CAPs to MisterKerr

Don’t Spend It All At Once Award – 5 CAPs – for spending all of his birthday money on a single adventure game.

IIRC Award – 4 CAPs – for recalling correctly about the different versions of the game

Red Shift Award – 5 CAPs – for making me see that most of the Isle of the Crown residents have red faces with the enhanced graphics, and therefore noticing that for the rest of the game

My Kingdom For a Tic Tac Award – 7 CAPs – for helping Charles find a mint when he was stuck in the game.

The Whole Hole Award – 5 CAPs – for helping us work out that there’s lots of things a hole-in-the-wall can be, though none of them are a weird insect thingy

Nostalgia Award – 3 CAPs – for enjoying being reminded of how someone who hasn’t played the game before sees things a veteran doesn’t

Ogh Award – 3 CAPs – for having some fun with TBD’s refusal to let the game get away with spelling thru incorrectly.

Wonderland Award – 5 CAPSs – for reminding us that a lot of the Isle of Wonder seems reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s world.

Avatar of Legend Award – 4 CAPs – for prompting TBD’s nostalgic feelings for the Ultima series.

Don’t Copy That Floppy Award – 5 CAPs – for being part of an interesting discussion about what games had the best copy protection

Back To Monte Carlo Award – 5 CAPs – for an excellent and hilarious reference to a previous game’s character

A Bird In The Hand Award – 7 CAPs – for mentioning that if we give the nightingale gifts in the right order, we get cutscenes – this information was used to get the good ending.

Puzzling Songs Award – 4 CAPs – for giving us information about potentially using music to help solve puzzles

Any Color As Long As It’s Black Award – 4 CAPs – for telling us more about the Black Cloak Society

Player and Doodler Award – 2 CAPs and a free plug – for pointing us to his youtube channel’s playthrough of King’s Quest VI

60 CAPs to Joe Pranevich

Not Quite Psychic Prediction Award – 1 CAPs – for correctly predicting the PISSED score King’s Quest VI would get, but under the wrong (or only partly right) circumstances.

If You Only Purchase One King’s Quest Game, Make It This One – 4 CAPs – for correctly choosing the best King’s Quest game for his one and only King’s Quest purchase

Fowl or Fair Award – 5 CAPs – for being confused about whether TBD’s title was a paltry attempt at humour or perhaps a spelling error

Classic Blogger Award – 50 CAPs – for playing through the Missed Classic For Good Reason earlier game version of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for everyone’s enjoyment

58 CAPs to Michael

I’m Reaching Out, Please Tell Me What To Do Award – 5 CAPs – For mentioning and linking to my new favourite 90s song, Girl in the Tower

Word Crime Award – 1 CAP – For also linking to a Weird Al song, while referencing a game character I wouldn’t meet for two more posts

Oracle Award – 6 CAPs – for suggesting I read Laukku’s coded suggestion, but only the first part. Good call on both parts!

Ogh Award – 3 CAPs – for having some fun with TBD’s refusal to let the game get away with spelling thru incorrectly.

Avatar of Legend Award – 3 CAPs – for prompting TBD’s nostalgic feelings for the Ultima series.

Don’t Copy That Floppy Award – 5 CAPs – for being part of an interesting discussion about what games had the best copy protection

He Chose Poorly Award – 5 CAPs – for noting when I’d chosen one of the two paths towards the ending

Nobody Calls Me Chicken Award – 4 CAPs – for remembering Alexander’s interactions with poultry at an appropriate moment.

Play It Again Sam Award – 4 CAPs – for correctly suggesting TBD might want to get the best ending after finishing the game sub-optimally

You Only Die Once Award – 4 CAPs – for noticing a potential plot hole of dying after passing the Land of the Dead’s concierge

All Dogs Go To Heaven Award – 5 CAPs – for wondering if house pets go to the human afterlife – and where Manannan’s spirit would end up if he’s spent significant time as both – deep thoughts!

Permutation Award – 3 CAPs – for a nice list of the different ways the ending can change

Questbuster Award – 5 CAPs for the first minute, 1 CAP for every subsequent minute – for spending money on BBSs and newsletters before internet walkthroughs were commonplace.

Reading For Extra Credit Award – 5 CAPs – for discovering that Bob Chappell was a game reviewer and hint guide writer as well as the Hitch Hiker’s guide game writer.

30 CAPs to Charles

True Companion Award – 20 CAPs – for playing along with King’s Quest VI.

Solidarity Award – 5 CAPs – for letting me know that I’m not the only one who missed the obviously glinting ring on the first screen of the game

Wonderland Award – 5 CAPSs – for reminding us that a lot of the Isle of Wonder seems reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s world.

20 CAPs to ShaddamIVth

Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs – for correctly predicting the PISSED score King’s Quest VI would get. 

Aloe Blacc Award – 5 CAPs – for asking the question that’s in everybody’s heart

Ancient Greek Scholar Award – 5 CAPs – for knowing more about ancient Greek burial practices than anyone living today will ever need.

20 CAPS to Tornado

Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs – for correctly predicting the PISSED score King’s Quest VI would get.

Solidarity Award – 5 CAPs – for letting me know that I’m not the only one who missed the obviously glinting ring on the first screen of the game

Invisible Spoiler Award – 5 CAPs – for putting in a spoiler so subtle that even the person who wrote the spoiler didn’t notice it until re-reading it three or more times.

18 CAPs to Andy Panthro

Pirate Friend Award – 5 CAPs – for pointing out that Alexander might have befriended a pirate from his past.

Roses Are Red Award – 4 CAPs – for mentioning a King’s Quest VI video so TBD can justify watching youtube instead of getting the final rating done in a timely manner.

Evil Dead Award – 4 CAPs – for noticing that Abdul Alhazred wrote the Necrinomicon as well as some extremely incriminating letters to Shadrack.

Don’t Copy That Floppy Award – 5 CAPs – for being part of an interesting discussion about what games had the best copy protection

14 CAPs to Lisa H

Clown Talk Award – 5 CAPs – for trying to help TBD work out how far back he had to backtrack to get the best ending

Softie Award – 4 CAPs – for being moved by a puzzle that was, perhaps unfairly, barely given a mention in the writeup.

Head Counting Award – 5 CAPs – for knowing how many heads (and arms) the President of the Galaxy has.

14 CAP to Ilmari

Economics 101 Award – 5 CAPs – for giving us a layman’s description of the hyperinflative effects of an infinite chest of gold on a pre-industrial society!

Senseless Award – 4 CAPs – for starting a discussion on what the Sense Gnome puzzle seems similar to.

Aloe Blacc Award – 5 CAPs – for asking the question that’s in everybody’s heart

10 CAPs to Niklas

Falaises De Logique Award – 5 CAPs – For telling us that he would have beaten the game if it weren’t for those meddling French and their unreadable manuals.

Beauty… Beauty Never Changes Award – 5 CAPs – for remembering the old TV show about Beauty and the Beast that has nothing to do with the story referenced in this game

10 CAPs to Rowan Lipkovitz

Well, That Was Quick Award – 5 CAPs – For turning a simple typo into a new definition of the term ‘quickie’.

I Know Something of These Early Sixties Sitcoms Award – 5 CAPs – for knowing that mice like cheese

9 CAPs to MrValdez

Yarrrr Award – 5 CAPs – for not knowing if his uncle is a pirate.

Coming Soon to The Adventure Gamer Award – 4 CAPs – for noticing a Hitch Hiker’s Guide reference a few days before our Missed Classic of the first Hitch Hiker’s game.

5 CAPs to Voltgloss

That Was No Boating Accident Award – 5 CAPs – For noticing a weird similarity between the beaches in King’s Quest II and VI

5 CAPs to Reiko

Not All That Glitters Is a Ring Award – 5 CAPs – for noticing that Tornado had accidentally put a spoiler in a comment that nobody else noticed at all.

5 CAPs to Corey Cole

That’s Not How Our Office Worked Award – 5 CAPs – for reminding us that Sierra was not just one big group of people but split into multiple teams.

5 CAPs to Gui

My First Love Award – 5 CAPs – for telling us about King’s Quest VI being the first adventure game you finished

5 CAPs to Brad Snibson

Don’t Copy That Floppy Award – 5 CAPs – for being part of an interesting discussion about what games had the best copy protection

4 CAPs to toddvdw

Lucky We Didn’t Step On It Award – 4 CAPs – for showing us an old Indian parable that nicely shows why Sense Gnomes should never be used as guards

Original URL: https://advgamer.blogspot.com/2018/09/kings-quest-vi-final-rating.html source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/kings-quest-vi-final-rating/

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Places to Shoot in Bangkok Part 1: Baiyoke Schmaiyoke

I thought it might be good to go into some detail of specific shooting locations in and around Bangkok, starting here with August’s entry to the blog.  Just in case it causes confusion for any regular readers, these will be posted here as separate monthly blog entries AND also added to the bottom of the seemingly ever popular ‘Ultimate Guide’ (click the tab header at the top of this page).

I thought that a good way to start this little series might be by addressing the elephant in the room, the Baiyoke Tower. It’s actually the Baiyoke Tower II as the original is a slightly smaller building nearby but for all intents and purposes, when you say ‘Baiyoke Tower’ or ‘Duk Baiyok’(in appalling phonetically spelled out English/Thai), people in Bangkok think of this:

It was up until very recently, clearly the tallest building in Bangkok, and by quite some margin. It still towers way above all of the other buildings anywhere in the immediate area. It was also for a long time the holder of one of those Guinness Book of World Records titles, but only on a sort of technicality. It was sort of true to say that it used to be the world’s tallest hotel but this statement needs a disclaimer; the tallest hotel building that is only 100% a dedicated hotel. There are certainly always hotel rooms around the world located within other, taller buildings but these buildings may not be dedicated hotels in their own right. On those grounds, the Baiyoke II was able to hold this claim to fame for quite a while. In fact, if you believe the blurb on site, it apparently still holds the records but this is patently false. There are now several dedicated 100% hotel buildings that are taller and newer in the Middle-East but of course this would be a huge hit to the selling point of the Baiyoke tower.  Even now you will see the old (now false) claims emblazoned all over the place when you visit, not unsurprisingly nobody seems in any great rush to update the posters and ‘fess up to the truth that they are currently hovering around 7th place at best!

The Baiyoke Tower is accessed via Pratunam, a generally busy (and sometimes a tad shady) market area mostly famous for wholesale cheap clothing including all the usual knock-off suspects. It’s not directly on the skytrain but any motorcycle, tuk-tuk or taxi driver will take you straight there in a flash. You’ll see lots of central Asians and Africans milling around the area as well as all kinds of Thais looking to sell you visits to erotic massage parlours and illegal drugs.

The main reason I am starting this series with mention of this place is actually because it is potentially something of an anti-climax from a photographic point of view and I have had so many people writing in to ask me about it that I decided to just do a post about it for general future reference instead.

I first shot from there back in the mid 90’s with a cheap (but very faithful) old entry level Nikon film SLR, a tripod that would snap if you sneezed anywhere near it and a budget Tamron zoom lens (I know my blog has more than its fair share of elitist and expensive camera kit snobbery but in the past I have also spent many a year using cheaper, humble kit quite happily!). The conclusions that I drew way back then are still basically my view of this location now, it’s nice to go once (and there are some chances to strike gold) but for shooting it’s not always that great. Here’s why:

Firstly, at the very top, it’s too far above the horizon line of the city for the nice shots that you imagined you might get. It’s not impossible, there’s some nice stuff out there on the net that you can find from people, but it’s not nearly as good as you think it’s gonna be. Secondly, the open viewing platform at the very top has a lot of wire fencing in the way obscuring a lot of your view. This is made worse by the fact that this deck is also basically quite a crude metal platform which rotates you around as you stand still (sometimes this breaks down, depends on the day). The rotation is certainly not that finely engineered, not at all smooth and this is a real pain when you consider that you might well need to be using a tripod on top of it. There will also be lots of people up there moving around that you will have to work around in terms of framing your shots and if it’s really busy this can be a nightmare. Added to this bundle of photographic ‘no-go’ joy is the fact that the winds at such an altitude are also really liable to be strong and mess up camera stability. As if that wasn’t enough, you really need an unusually clear Bangkok weather day for it to work at all, and that isn’t always guaranteed, not to mention the bright smog pollution effect sometimes  raining on your parade. One thing that can work up there (if you have all your ducks in a row) is if you can get a camera locked pointing down at a nice angle and then then shoot off a long series of frames for digital editing into a 180 (or even full 360) panorama with some kind of stitching tool. I have done this myself with reasonable success a long time ago. Long exposure, blur effects and other high altitude arty shots are also a possibility.

Okay, so is there anything else we can salvage from this train wreck?  Any other possibilities?

Well, maybe. Before you ascend to the outside, uppermost rotating platform, you will have had to climb up a couple of sets of stairs from the highest of the indoor observation floors.  This allows you all the Bangkok vista that you could ever wish for but from a solid, fixed footing with no problems of wind, weather or movement.  However, as with everything else in life there is a trade-off: It comes in the form of the very thick safety glass windows that you will see the world through up there. There are possibilities to shoot through the glass without too much of a glare debacle but it’s not always easy to do if you want decent image IQ. Sure, there will be masses of people quite happy with how these shots look on their smartphones up there but for dedicated photographers looking for high quality images, this just won’t be good enough. There are coin operated telescopes all around up here at the best spots so anybody using one of those nearby in light-coloured clothing will probably end up reflected into your shot. You might do well with some kind of lens hood that you can actually press up to the window, literally touching it on the glass as you set a camera up for a shot on a tripod and countdown the shutter using a timer-enhanced, minimal movement exposure.

Other options might be to come to the Baiyoke Tower (on the indoor floors again maybe?) before sunset and shoot from there without all the horrible direct overhead light, it’s much more likely to offer some beautiful shots (IF you get the weather right, some of the best sunsets can be towards the end of the year as the rains give way to the cooler season with ethereal colours abound). This can be a real ‘two for one’ kind of deal as if you don’t get lucky with the second half of the photographic golden hour as the sun goes down, you are then in for a treat with what is perhaps the only side of the Baiyoke Tower experience that I think is actually worth going there for as a photographer….NIGHT EXPOSURES!

Looking down at a smorgasbord of Bangkok lights and cityscape with all its traffic at night is actually pretty awesome by anybody’s standards. This is a time when you can get some real joy. There is still the problem of (night) reflections from the glass there though but by using a hood and tripod and shooting when there is nobody near you, a patient shooter can get some really good results. In the digital age, when everybody and his dog can shoot long exposures and simply chimp off a screen to see if they like what they got or not (not hating, but it’s a lot easier nowadays!), there are a lot more people up there shooting than there used to be. Back in the film days, long night time exposures required at least a modicum of decent photographic technique and knowledge combined with a bit of maths and some luck. There hardly used to be anybody up there at night with a camera. After a lot of searching I found this very modest effort of mine that I shot with the aforementioned (very) low budget Nikon film SLR and cheapo zoom and tripod 22 years ago. I don’t seem to have the original negs anymore so this already mediocre shot is not helped in its presentation here on this site by beinga scan of the actual printed photograph (circa mid 90’s). Although it's not anything to be that proud of, it was hard to earn and a lesser seen kind of shot back in its day! It gives you an idea and at least shows that people have been doing this for a while. Would still be fun to get up there at night nowadays with a film camera and some high ISO film to see what could be done, I'm sure.

Of course, as with everything else in the perpetual building site that is modern Bangkok, even this part of the city has now changed beyond recognition, this is actually looking down onto the old ‘World Trade Centre’ (now known as ‘Central World’).

I don’t know the exact costs off hand nowadays to go up the Baiyoke Tower as the price might vary from year to year and various seasons. It’s not too much, a few hundred baht at the most. There’s also a large buffet restaurant up there close to the top but although it was once a reasonably okay affair, I ate there again two or three years ago and it had definitely slipped down from ‘quite passable’ to ‘blatantly sub-par’ even by Bangkok two/ three star standards (oooh what a snob).

You generally need to take two lifts, the first one will get you up to a large and very noisy reception kind of floor where you then have to decide if you want to pay 'the full monty' to go up to the upper floors or not and the tickets are issued there. You are then fed into a line that leads to the other lifts that go up about another eighty floors or so. It’s quite the fast run up and you can sometimes even feel your ears pop as you go. For cheapskates, be aware that at certain times of the day (very late afternoon to be more specific), one really can get some very solid cityscape sunset opportunities just from the lower reception floor alone as it is already quite high up and has some huge windows and vistas on offer. That’s assuming you can get any peace or quiet from the tourist groups, in fact whilst I am on that subject…

Please be warned that, as with lots of touristy spots in Bangkok in recent years, this place has the tendency to be overrun by busloads of mainland Chinese tourists who might have a different idea about how to behave in public than a Westerner might. The tour leader (often a Chinese speaking Thai but sometimes a Chinese national working illegally as foreigners are prohibited from tour guide work in Thailand) will often simply either not be willing, ready or able to reign them in either and it can be quitea shock. Lots of shouting very loudly just for the purposes of a ‘normal’ conversation, pushing, shoving (even some spitting on the floor indoors when I last went) and general lack of respect for basic decorum in a public place can really put a downer on things. I wish I could put a more positive spin on that but it is difficult, I am trying not to judge but that was honestly my impression of the situation, maybe it's better at other times and I just got unlucky.... sorry if anybody disagrees or is offended.

The whole feel of the Baiyoke Tower is as with much of the Bangkok constructions of that era (80’s and very early 90’s), it’s generally a bit of a run down, old ‘former glory’ vibe that looks like they might have to close it soon, but yet it still somehow keeps crawling along year after year just fine. I know about the theory of too big to fail but what about too tall to fail? To be fair, I’ve never actually stayed in it as a hotel. I doubt it would be that impressive though.

So...I'm sorry if the first installment of places to shoot reads more like a place to not shoot (I really must split my infinitives more often, to hell with grammatical convention) but it’s just somewhere that I thought really warranted dealing with before I look elsewhere. Consider this case closed.

CCP

[collaborativeprojectjwba3a]

Reflective Journal

Week 1

This week saw the beginning of character creation. I decided to start off with making the stuffed Bear as it should be much easier to create than either of the humanoid characters or the monster. I worked on developing its appearance by comparing stuffed bears from different eras and of different styles and determining which would work best in terms of animation. I wanted something that could suitably deform and be posed in ways that wouldn’t look unusual or impossible for the model. I settled on something that looks quite similar to the design from the original artwork as a lot of older designs featured more rigid skeletons and some more recent ones have heavily exaggerated body features (massive heads - little body) that wouldn’t look right in motion.

Week 2

I went straight into modelling the Bear this week. Working with Maya I have learned there is quite a sharp learning curve and I don’t want to have all my character designs finalised only to find they’re impractical to create and require further work in order to function. In conjunction with modelling the Bear I have been watching and reading various guides/tutorials on modelling for animation. Modelling characters is relatively new to me, in the past I’ve either used pre-existing character rigs or utilised MakeHuman to speed up the modelling process, often to ill effect.

Week 3

A continuation of modelling this week. At this stage I feel confident in taking my time with this. In my experience with Maya I am well versed with the compounding effect of doing something wrong/poorly and ignoring it only for its negative impact to be felt much worse later on. The Bear is simplistic by design and shouldn’t cause too many issues (it’s the humanoid characters that pose the greatest hurdle). However getting a good understanding of this now should only serve to benefit me later. Research into good modelling techniques continues and I’ve acquired more books on Anatomy for Art, Topology, Faces for Animation, Rigging and Sculpting, there is a mix of information that is both a bit simple for where I am at in my understanding of Maya as well stuff that is a bit beyond my current level, but I am finding it useful.

Week 4

Now satisfied with my Bear model I moved onto texturing. Texturing I have the least experience with (which showed greatly in my last project) but I am making an effort to get a better understanding of UV Mapping, the tools associated with it and the techniques that go into creating it. However I think I made a mistake in doing this before Rigging. Applying textures to my model has allowed me to see flaws in its geometry that I had not seen previously and address them, which subsequently meant retexturing it. Once I start rigging having the freedom to alter the model to ensure the best possible deformity means foregoing the textures. Now I’m going to have to retexture once I’ve rigged or avoid changing the model. Obviously the former is better in the long run and at least I’ve learnt for future endeavours.

Week 5

I’ve decided on the textures I want for the Bear, now it’s a matter of whether or not the rig will require me to change it, but so far so good. The rig for the bear is simple as complex movement isn’t necessary. Since the Bear is stuffed and doesn’t technically have joints I’m not bothering with IK Handles. When the Bear is limp the arms and legs should hang which means the elbows and knees should be able to bend the other way. It makes posing more time consuming but not impossible. As the Bear will mostly be inanimate for the duration of the film it’s more important that it looks good then. Rigging has been an on going process for me as it is something I have a lot of experience doing I’m just not particuarly good at it. That said I do enjoy it. The more technical, problem solving aspect is a nice break from drawing and modelling, which do have a level of technicality to them just not to the same degree as rigging. As per usual I’ve been doing research into rigs, watching tutorials and deferring to the few books I have on it to inform my process. Since the Bear Rig is simple by design I haven’t had too much trouble with it, once I weight paint it will show any real issues but for now the standard deformation is good if unrefined. I was also able to get the Blendshapes done this week. They’re very simple with all the expression in the eyes, rather than subdividing all of the emotions into smaller movements I just did it eye for eye. The Bear doesn’t need to express complex emotions so it’s limited to the most basic ones. The props for the Bear were also completed this week. They were very quick to model and texture, as far as rigging does it’s just a matter of posing them correctly which shouldn’t be too difficult.

Week 6

With the Bear more or less finished I moved onto designing the Father character. I have a lot of books on character drawing and anatomy which I purchased during previous years and a couple this year and has informed a lot of my drawing work over the past three years. The Fathers original design was based on some anatomy work I’ve done in the past drawing simple male body forms. I started with a more muscle figure and refined it into something a bit lankier as it was a better fit for the temperament of the character. The face was designed loosely off my own face as it was the easiest to reference, I tried to cartoonise it for a more stylised look than what I typically do. Hopefully this should all make rigging and facial animation far better and less uncanny valley.

Week 7

Modelling began this week and I picked up my research into topology for animation. Previous research had been geared towards more simplistic characters as well as covering some more basic stuff, I’ve now started delving into more complex stuff in an effort to get better results. So far I’m really happy with the work I’ve produced and am moving towards finalising the Mesh so I can begin rigging, blendshapes and finally texturing.

Week 8

With the geometry now complete I can look forward to making the rig. I am pleased with how it turned out particularly the head. There are some flaws and my process was a bit sloppy but that’s something that will improve over time. For now though it turned out better than I had expected and am hoping the rigging process doesn’t prove problematic or force me to make too many changes to the mesh.

Week 9

I created the Blendshapes for the Father this week. I’m holding off on rigging until I feel a bit more confident with my understanding of how I intend to do it. The Blendshapes are numerous and should cover enough micro-expressions to get every emotion I need to convey, I even accounted for some I know I don’t need incase the story elements change. Some of them look good, others I’m not so sure on. This has been on ongoing problem with Blendshapes and I but I’ve always put it down to the model itself being the issues.

Week 10

Holding off on the rigging, I began on creating the Daughter. In a similar vein as before I used an anatomical adult female as reference for the initial drawing which was refined and then scaled using a child as reference for the scaled down proportions. I then scaled up the head size and eyes while scaling the mouth and nose down to make her seem younger and more innocent. I’m a bit uncertain with how the face looks but that might just be my attempts at drawing a head I’m envision as 3D and trying to accurately represent it as 2D.

Week 11

I modelled the Daughter this week and am ecstatic with how it turned out. I was able to do it much quicker than previously by just streamlining the process now I’m more adept at it. A lot of the mistakes I made previously were avoided and the end result shows it. As always improvements can be made but I’m definitely more confident with this kind of work now.

Week 12

I’ve gone straight into creating the Blendshapes as the head is unlikely to change. I made even more this time around as her expressions are more vital than the fathers and it’s important I have enough versatility to get it all right when needed. Reaching a point of confidence I’ve rigged her too. Much like the Bear her Rig is on the simpler side as she does not move much. I’ve mostly just been testing the Key poses I know I need to ensure everything looks good.

Week 13

Having more or less finished work on the daughter and feeling all the more confident in my ability for it I returned to the Father character to get his rig done. It became apparent straight away that his geometry was sub-par. I remember being happy with it at the time but now having worked on the Daughter I’m not so sure. It may have been that I was working on him for so long that I became blind to the problems and that spending time away from it working on something else allowed me to see it through fresh eyes. Or it was the shear superiority of the Daughters mesh that made my improvement all the more obvious to me. Either way there is a clear disparity between them and I felt compelled to try and fix it. The advice given at the start of my first year was that if it goes wrong digital work is disposable, throw it away and start again. I debated this extensively as starting over would almost certainly net me a better mesh which would benefit me going forward. However at this point I’m closing in towards the end and I’m consciences of Submission. The Render Service that is being tested would mean I don’t have to worry about leaving enough time to Render so I could spend more time doing other things, which could be remodelling. With all that considered, I elected to spend the week working on the mesh, particularly the head, to try and improve it to a comparable level of the daughter. While improvements were made it’s still not quite up to par, but I can’t spend more time on it and need to just move on.

Week 14

This week I alternated between Weight Painting the existing meshes and developing the Set. The Weight Painting has been pretty straight forward but monotonous, I watched a few tutorials on it that covered some complex stuff and found it to be a bit beyond what I needed. I just need good deformation without any glaring issues which is easier said than done. Now more than before I’m noticing where the geometry is lacking in terms of vertices I can utilise. It’s important that I get to the point where I can start animating so I’m not going to worry with overcomplicating things and just work with what I’ve got.      The Set has been straightforward enough. I’ve made a standard room and given it enough furniture to convey what it is meant to be. It could use more details to make it a bit more natural and look less like a set but other than that it’s good for what it is.

Week 15

Continuation of Weight Painting has seen some issues arise but after some troubleshooting and swearing I’ve been able to resolve nearly all of them, some required more work than others and I may of had to repaint an entire model but it’s all good now. The set has been duplicated and altered for each camera angle so it doesn’t get in the way of any shots. I’ve tested the scaling and it’s all good so now it’s just a matter of getting the blocking all done so I can move on with Animation.

Week 16

I was able to block out the entire animation this week. I had some issues in doing so, most notably the entire animation was Splined, meaning all movements have ease-in, ease-out and transition fluidly from one position to the next. This isn’t even remotely ideal as it means there is a lot of unwanted movement that has to be removed as it will get exemplified when I add in more key frames. It shouldn’t have done this to begin with as it was set to Linear Tangents but right now I don’t have time to sort it out so I’m just going to work with it. I’ve also noticed issues with weight painting in some niche cases so I keep going back and forth between the scene and the referenced files fixing out of place weighting. With the Deadline looming nearer and mistakes popping up left and right it’s more about fixing what I can and just working through everything else so that I can stay on schedule. To that end certain issues with characters won’t be resolved and as such a lot of the camera work has been changed to show the Father as little as possible. If he’s in frame it’s either at a distance or the edge of it as an over-the-shoulder shot. Also at this point its very clear I won’t have time to make the monster so I’m cutting the animation short. It should still tell a complete story just not exactly the one I wanted.

Week 17

I went through and cleaned up a lot of the animation work, issues with clipping should be resolved and most of the easing should be gone. I still need to work on pacing and timing of certain motions, it’s still a bit robotic and some moments are needlessly quick. I also had to go through and fix some more weight painting issues with the characters, some of it’s not going to get better but I can at least make it less obvious. The book needed more blendshapes as it was a bit too noticeable when it was messing up, ideally it would be rigged but there isn’t the time for that now. 

Week 18

I am very much a perfectionist when it comes to most things. I like everything to be exactly how I envision it and am wholly disappointed when it’s not. Something I’ve been learning over the years is to accept that not everything can be as I want it to be and to not be so disappointed when it inevitably isn’t perfect. I am far better at that now than I have ever been. There are lots of flaws with this project and things that aren’t how I wanted them to be but I’m not upset by that. A lot of what I have done is far better than I could do last year or even 6 months ago and it will invariably be even better 6 months from now. There is a week left till submission and not much will change from here. The work has been submitted to Render though there are issues with it rendering in Arnold which is beyond my control at this point so I will just have to take it as it is. All I can do now is get everything else ready for Submission and potentially work on this afterwards to try and get a bit closer to my desired outcome.

Week 19

This week has mostly consisted of compiling everything while I waited to see the results of my Render Submission. It’s probably one of my least stressful submission weeks of the three years as I’m not having to Animate + Render + Compile everything all while none of it’s finished and I hate it all. Most things have been done just not arranged in a neat and tidy way suitable for submission.

That being said the results of my Render Submission weren’t promising. There was an issue with the Render Service rendering in Arnold that was resulting in all of the frames being covered in Watermarks and even covered in Watermarks it still hadn’t finished rendering. Having spoken with the technician, we attempted to better optimise my scenes for faster renders without losing too much quality. We didn’t make much progress. Instead we systematically went through each material/texture and changed it to VRay as the Render Service had no issue with VRay renders and it could be better optimised. Once that was complete it was submitted to Render again. There is a noticeable difference in quality between my Test Arnold Renders and the VRay render. Some of the materials couldn’t be accurately transferred across and as such look different. The biggest problem however came with “Scene Six” which either encountered errors during the rendering process, or was unfinished when I came to collect it. Furthermore it appears there was an issue with the visibility of some of the layers that meant multiple objects were rendered on top of one another resulting in some horrendous clipping. My intent was to fix the scene and Render it again but a reoccurring issue I’ve been having is that whenever I open the Scene it has to relocate the Reference files, when I try to redirect it to the right file it instantly closes the File Directory window and moves to the Next reference doing the exact same thing. Meaning I can’t open the file as it deletes all my Characters and Props from the scene and I can’t stop it from doing it. I have a lot of work still to do for other projects so it’s difficult to justify using up a whole day going in to Uni to render around 200 Frames. Since much else of the Animation is unfinished I don’t take mush issue with submitting as is. My plan has always been to continue working on it post-submission in order to get it ready for the Degree show.