#theres a thousand plot holes

[eddiesjeandiovest]

Tbh if the characters werent so charming and compelling in st i simply wouldnt watch it bc the writing is SO inconsistent and bad and ive read fanfics that are FAR more comprehensive in plot than the fuckin duffer brothers could ever hope to create like bffr yall get millions of dollars from this show but still cant keep a consistent story????? LOL

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

I saw my first AI "fic" today.

The user who posted the AI creation added "goes to show we still need writers" I took that to mean they were uploading it to show how bad the AI creation was. Due to that, I felt more okay opening it for investigatory purposes (I made a post a while ago saying that AI would produce a facimile of creativity and I was curious how correct that would prove to be).

In a word, I was extremely correct. The fic had no-to minimal scene intros or transitions, banal dialogue, characters flat enough to feel ooc, silly to non existent conflicts, and it "tells" everything (no showing, no extended metaphors or insightful similes).

Scarily though, each snippet was coherent. Like sure, the characters were flat and the conflicts (when they exist) one dimensional and the turns of phrase often felt cliche (which is exactly what one would expect to get from an AI, which formulates sentences based off of how often words go next to eachother). But the scenes themselves make sense. If AI wasnt in the title I wouldnt have been able to tell the difference between this and a 15 yo's first fic.

The danger of course is that this is how AI starts out. The more people use them, and input content into them they will get better at producing this facimile of a creative work. AI could probably learn to produce some or all of the common components of storytelling that I've noticed this and other AI products lack.The scarier danger for me is when it becomes good enough to justify publishing houses and studios attempting to replace expensive human writers. (And to a degree clogging up AO3... although I hope enough people in fandom are here for the human connections that that wouldnt be a concern...).

Look, AI will never be keeping human writers out of fandom. Theres no finite number of spots on AO3. But AI could keep human writers out of screenwriting and book writing (which do have finite spots/finite funds for written works) and then... we lose something beautiful and precious.

The beauty of human writers is that they constantly have new things to say because every lived experience is so unique and precious. no two people will write a character's emotions the same way or capture the tension of a plot with the same words. I have read and will keep reading thousands of fanfics about the same canon characters because each person captures their pain and love and failures and triumphs in new and exciting ways. Humans always bring something new to the table. Humans always keep learning. Experimenting. Changing the conversation. An AI will never be able to say anything new. They are actively doing the opposite of human thinking and creating. Theyre not doing research or looking up new words or playing with new turns of phrase. Instead theyre cycling through a fixed set of applicable word choices and chosing the one with the highest percent match for what should come after the previous word.

So three bad things happen if you all start using AI as a fic production shortcut:

The AI improves its deepfakes of creativity. your requests, inputted content, and feedback all help it update the word selection math it is doing in the background. This makes it more likely that canon content stops being created by real people and instead starts being replwced by AI products.

You learn and feel nothing. I mean it. Writing is a joy because every creation is a new research rabbit hole. a new word looked up in the thesaurus. a new way to make your readers sob from the feels. AI robs you of that process. So you think less. You explore characters less. You are deprived the joy of marinating in your blorbos angst and pain and love and joy while you decide exactly how to put that into words. Youre deprived the satisfaction of your own work. (And by being deprived of the process above you also dont learn how to write. because the AI is not writing.)

Your readers lose out. Sure the AI has produced something perfectly spelled and grammared... but nothing new has been said. The grand conversation we are constantly having by writing and reading fic and exclaiming about characters stagnates and then festers. No new stories get told. AI is only producing things that look like what came before. your readers dont get any joy from new thoughts. new ideas. changed minds. changed perspectives... none of that happens. (Again I want to go back to point one. Im not worried about AO3 drowning in AI fics as much as I am worried that canon content will become overrun with it).

[akittyscomet]

This is Skylar! The most broken upset thing i've ever conjured out of my brain hole.

Making this post because of that oc thing.

So, to explain their backstory, They used to be a scientist, fascinated by the concept of creating life. They tried and tried to create a living, breathing, sentient being without the need for sexual intercourse or birthing. Eventually, after a really they succeeded. well, mostly. The being was weird and strange in behavior and looks, obviously not anywhere close to human. Skylar was intrigued by this, unwittingly conducting inhumane tests on the creature, not wrapping their head around the fact that this creature is sentient, and has feelings. Eventually, the creature got so fed up and upset with skylar hurting it, that it escaped its containment one day, while Skylar was away, found a lighter, and burnt down Skylars whole house, with their family inside of it. Skylar came back from the grocery store just in time to hear his family scream out in pain, their flesh burning to a crisp. Skylar got so upset at the creature that they sent it to The Void™(plot point i will Not get into. basically its a purgatory where time passes slower and theres nothing but darkness.), but in their blind rage, they got sent to the void instead. They stayed there for thousands of years, (about one year in real time), not able to do anything, stuck. Eventually they found their way out, a changed person.

Currently they are living in the back room of a bar, not doing the best, 20 years later, still contemplating everything that happened.

[nymph1e]

Sometimes I remember that the sequel trilogy is canon, and Disney's stubbornness will keep it canon, and I want to scream.

Like I'll just randomly remember that starkiller was fucking illum - you know the sacred jedi planet where you get Kyber crystals - and that apparently Luke never took any of his students there for ??? Some ?? Reason???

AND THEN I remember that NOTHING CHANGED. The wanted to succeed so they copied the "good" movies and in doing so showed that nothing good HAPPENED as a result of those movies! Rebel GENERAL Han Solo was a deadbeat dad who went back to smuggling, a new jedi order was never established, the new Republic was destroyed IN THE FIRST MOVIE. They wanted the "resistance" to be underdogs so badly that they fucking ruined the original trilogy!

God! The first order was shown as a small enough splinter group that the new Republic decided to IGNORE them even though they have with them a LITERAL SITH (you know, one of them one-man army types that the Republic DOESNT HAVE A COUNTRR TO because he went and hid in a cave).

So the first order must be TINY right? APPARENTLY NOT. The "resistance" is constantly on the lower foot because *checks notes* they destroyed a single system? What about - I dunno - corellia? Coruscant? One of the other THOUSANDS of planets aligned with the new republic? No? They don't want to help? Because they're scared you say? Thousands of planets vs one, relatively small army with no home base? They're just gone roll over?

UGH! can you see why this frustrated me?????? NOTHING about the fucking sequels makes sense! It's not like the prequels which were bad movies but the plot holds together a a logical fucking timeline! The sequels are stupid! Everything about them is awful.

If you're a sequels fan (first if all: rewatch the original trilogy, then watch literally any of the Disney eu stuff THEN get back to me over whether you're a sequels fan) imagine of they make another set of sequels where rey just literally never left tatooine for no reason (THERES NO REASON FOR HER TO BE THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE BUT WHATEVER) and like while she's been ruminating on tatooine a new empire has formed in the galaxy and finn and chewie on the millennium falcon find a random dude in the desert on desert planet no. 5 who is ~strong with the force~ and there's a fucking rebellion again, and there is STILL no jedi order, and this new guy is like "train me rey skywalker" and rey is like "nah I tried to kill my last apprentice because they reminded me of kyle ron who was 100% evil the whole time I knew him :(((((" and then everyone died but the rebellion won! And now this new guy goes to jakku (where he's never been) and burries anakins lightsaber AGAIN.

Do. You. See. Why. I. Hate. The. Sequels?

Honestly Disney has dug themselves so far into a hole with the sequels that I'm hoping - as is everyone else - that they'll just announce a "TV canon" and actually allow the TV shoes they're doing to diverge from the sequels stupidity. Because of course they literally can't uncanonize the sequels (unless they made a movie where they used the very real timetravel/mulitverse aspect of sw and just undid everything - please? Please disney?)

Anyway, as a star wars fan, my feelings toward the sequels are unrivalled hate and it's 3 am and I am just seething.

[demonstars]

the one good thing about the dsmp is that when lore first started it was spontaneous it was random, there were fifteen thousand plot holes and filling them is what made writing and analyzing fun! only later did it become scripted, yet there was still an element of improv and the lore wasn't forced on any members either whoever wanted to be a part could join in or opt out

LITERLALSLDYDYDFYSYD I MISS GOING CRAZY MAKING CONNECTIONS THAT DIDNT MAKE SENSE SO MUCHCHHH THERES TEARS TO MY EYES.

[arcane-strangeness]

prev gave me permission (a mistake) so ok i'm going to explain the plot of horizon zero dawn to you 👍

evil future corporation makes war machines which sustain themself off biological matter and then they get a virus and start eating EVERYTHING. so humanity is doomed and all that but the same company makes a hail mary known as GAIA which would repopulate earth after everyhting is gone. GAIA is a big ai made up of 12 smaller AIs and there are 13 or so people dedicated to making the small ais and then gaia herself. these people are known as Alphas on the project. at the head of these Alphas is Elisabet Sobeck, in charge of making the base GAIA and integrating ehr sub functions. it's a multi step plan, you see. among these sub functions, the most important ones in this game are APOLLO (contains all of humanity's knowledge up until that point, in charge of re-educating the new humans), and HADES (resets the planet, ie kills everything again, should the plan fail, so gaia can start again). just as everything seems to go according to plan, when the faro plague reaches the bunker the GAIA project is holed up in, one of the seals on the doors malfunctions. it has to be reset from the outside, stranding whoever does it. as the alphas gather round to decide, elisabet doesn't show. a reccording plays, and her digital self announces that she already went and did it. everyone feels the loss, but it hits ted faro the hardest. he lowkey goes crazy and gives himself a clearance level above even elisabets, and purges APOLLO because quote "they don't need to repeat our same mistakes". hes elon musk but 10 thousand times worse. he then goes on to kill all of the other alphas, and jets off to the private bunker he built himself. more on that later.

anyways humanity does eventually prevail nearly a century later, but they're basically on the same level as late cavemen because hey, no APOLLO to educate them. also they've started hunting the terraforming robots gaia built to replant the worlds stuff, which are roughly shaped like animals anyways. but they use fun stuff like bows and spears to hunt everything down and also build their (actually very impressive) settlements. btu things go wrong, HADES has malfunctioned and is trying to purge the world again even though things are going right, well, as right as they can wihtout APOLLO. to counter this, GAIA sacrifices herself, splitting into her core functions to hold off hades somewhat while her final act, making a genetic clone of Elizabet Sobeck to stop HADES once she's old enough. but yet again, theres another hitch

humanity has divided into three tribes. Carja, the most advanced, preforms around a hierarchy and is lowkey kinda messed up, oseram, which is basically a bunch of blacksmiths that settled in the same area, and the Nora, the most savage tribe-like of them all, which opperate around a matriarchal (they like REALLY love their mothers) system and worship the old tech that dots their land. but also if you touch any of it they will outcast you. the cradle facility the clone grows out of is known as All Mother Mountain, which is a sacred ground only the three elder matriarchs can enter. so they find an infant child with bright red hair (a trait that has since died out in the new humans) seemingly without a mother inside the fucking mountain, obviously this must be a trick from the Metal Devil (the faro machines) so they fucking outcast this infant child because No Mother??? and give her to another outcast named Rost to raise her. he names her Aloy, and she's the protagonist of the game.

when she's like 5 she falls into a facility of "the old ones", pulls a weird device off of the skull of a literal corpse and sticks it on her own ear. it's called a focus and lets her scan her surroundings and catalog the machines she encounters while also allowing her to access a ton of information about the world around her.

when she's of age, she enters the Proving in order to have a chance at rejoining the tribe. just as it looks like she's gonna win a fucking cult, the Shadow Carja, murders all of the contestants and her adoptive father before the leader throws her off a cliff to die. but she says fuck that, i lived bitch, and thus begins a journey to stop this cult attempting to overtake the throne of the Carja and also find out just who the hell her mother is. she makes a few friends, a shit ton of enemys, and along the way becomes essentially jesus christ for the Nora. she learns about HADES and GAIA, and also that she's a clone and has a crisis because No Mother???, comes damn close to dying a shit ton of times, learns the shadow carja are helping HADES bring back the faro plague, and puts a stop to all that. aloy is a badass and also a smartass and i love her very much.

so now do you understand why i can't explain all that to my friends and family?

u ever get an interest in smth, like a movie or web series, or even concept, and cant tell anyone because its either fucked up or just hard to explain

[playedwright]

↳“Is this a habit you have, losing your balance?” Dex manages to ask.

Derek winks. “Usually someone is there to catch me.”

And like. Dex can’t even handle this.

or, a nurseydex enchanted au. (ch. 5 of 7 now up!)

[redside-ofthemoon]

Can we just talk about the visual, lyrical, and spectacular masterpiece that is the 1994 musical film “the swan princess”

[introdemodev]

demo update demo update

or, update about the demo.

about the game

total length of the demo is about an hour, maybe an hour and a half if you read and play through everything. 2 hours if you read as slow as possible. it was supposed to be 4 hours but then I thought....."hey. the player won't be able to transfer their save to the full game". that means diya and darcys mini game won't be in the demo anymore. awwwww. you'll still get to play clyde’s minigames though (he has two in the demo).

ive mentioned this before, but there are two endings for this game but there’s many many many ways to get there. aside from choices, theres three paths you can take: you can take the darcy path, diya path, or the ??? path. the third one is not in the demo but will be in the final game.

(ok breaking my no more sharing screenshot rule but after today there will be no more unless I've shared them before lol)

so....if there is a diya and darcy minigame, does that mean there’s a ??? minigame too? yes, and it’s very cute.

art

the art and animation is done!!! for real this time, it's done. woooo!!!! thats...if you don't count sprites. hehe. :^) there are three sprites i want to edit and be done with for good: wren, diya and darcy. I finalized wren’s design a while ago so their old design is still in the game. as for diya and darcy, i just want to make small lil changes. so nothing to redraw, except for wren’s head.

look at them. that’s not wren. where are their horns?????? why is their hair brown??? no.

there's also some other things I want to do too, like change the layout for clydes pop quiz minigame. but thats only if I have time because 1) it’s extra art to make. 2) it’s not that necessary. I really want this demo out before June, or, preferably, before the end of April, and then have the full game release in fall/winter. if God wills it.

not to spoil anything (im spoiling something) but clyde gives you another pop quiz later in the full game, so it’s something i want to add eventually.

writing

after working on this game for a very long time now, ill say that writing took the most amount of my time, and also learning how to write script. the latter has gotten a lot easier esp because renpy is easy to learn and there’s a ton of guides online for it too. 

im proofreading the script a thousand times + making sure i didnt leave any plot holes. like, i’ll think i corrected all grammar errors then i’ll find something like this ten mins ago.

oh and ig this shouldve went under the game section but im writing this as i go. anyways. i also gotta play the game a million times to make sure everything works and is functional. so far, so good, i havent run into any bugs. but, i also havent played through EVERY possible choice yet.

sound and other stuff

okay. so. my original plan was to have id’s soundtrack composed of music in the public domain or free to use. for the demo, i’m still debating on doing this, or, just having the game be silent aside from ambience and sound effects. for the full game, i do plan on commissioning an original soundtrack when i’m nearing completion.

and uhhhhhhhhhh what else what else....idk, i had more to say here but i dont remember lol. i just been playing around with more renpy tutorials, especially for imagemaps and functions and stuff like that.

aaaaand that’s about it! this is just stuff off the top of my head. if i remember anything else ill bring it up later. i wanted to talk more about the actual story and characters but then i risk spoiling everything. there’s only so much you can say about a visual game ya know.

and again, thanks for being patient!! im really excited to get this game out. :D

[musubiki]

If witches and magical creature's love is so strong etc, then what anout Sulluvan and Poi thinking they can win Mochi over, while knowing who she's into?? Are they dumb,, or stupid???

X'DDD

And about Sull,, he lives around 2000 y,, and i don't believe he never fell for someone, it would b rlly lonely.. (tbh it would more lonely to fall for someone who has normal life lenght, considering his.. :'(, and also considering that magical creature's love is also loyal..)

Or is it just a plot hole or smth like that,,?

oh SULLUVAN is an arrogant son of a bitch who thinks "yes she loves him but theres no reason she cant leave him and marry me for my status and power, i can change her mind" and at least its worth a shot. hes gonna live for thousands of years whats ~10 year pursuing a girl? its like 1 month in his time. and poi just doesnt know. he doesnt know about the witches love thing, he likes her and hes gonna try too, he thinks he has a shot!!

and yeah!! sulluvan is ~14,000 NOW, but hes still young so he'll probably live.....i dont know. but youre right his love is the same as mochis!! but i think..,..he has a better handle on his emotions than she does. plus, again, he lives a VERY long time, so in his time, spending a lifetime with someone is equivalent to spending about...a year of human time, which in most cases isnt enough to make him actually fall for them..,,

(that being said.......there was a beta idea where he did fall in love with just...some girl. this was before he was lord of the undertakers and still just a pawn in the ranks essentially, and it was some witches blind daughter, like 5000 years ago or something....,,but i decided to trash it bc its too sad..,...hes not the type to change over time (at least in mochis time) so i want him to stay relatively stagnant in terms of character/growth!!)

[the-faultofdaedalus]

But see you've watched IM2 you didn't just read read a bunch of fics and then decide you know canon and ran with it so I respect your AUs lol

YEAH like,,,,, Most of my aus. a good majority of them. are... "hey what if *insert small fact here* was changed in canon" because i ADORE canon divergent stuff. i think it's so fun to just.... play with chaos theory. nudge something there, watch the rest of it spiral WAY out.

i think the au i have that is the most like, Out There is the ares au? but i do think that the characterization IS largely fairly recognizable, all the names are just... different. theres also lots of jokes w/ me and my friends that at this point remortal tony is borderline an oc and like,,,, yeah fair enough. i feel like i'm doing at least mostly decently keeping him like, as he would be in that situation, though. guess we'll find out tho whoops.

and also like,,,, again, when i do oc stuff, i wanna do oc stuff, yknow? like, i wanna do it with my characters. with my worlds. i dont wanna just... write an au thing that gets low-key ooc i wanna do my OWN thing.

but also. my first exposure to 616 canon WAS just reading a bunch of fics and getting really really confused about "all these weird aus" because i was (and. lbr still am.) a dumbass. like,,,, fic w/ the og-ish 616 team in the mansion like "hey neat!" without realizing. i was reading (616) cw fic like "wow, this is a weird take on that movie! really good though!" and then being confused about why it was written before ca:cw came out. also, i read, like, so much noir fic, and even got into the filtered tag for it, before i realized it WASN'T just a super in-depth collaborative au and instead was, actually, a canon published comic. the two fics that got me into the fandom were a) circles of rust by kerosenesteve, which is a canon-divergent thing that splits off in im1, and space electric by icarus_chained, which is a space au. one that does follow like, the major plotlines mostly, but is still, you know, sci-fi space stuff!

so like. actually i have forgotten where i was going with this but if i want original stuff, i'll fuckin read original stuff. i'll write original stuff. i'll write stuff that has no fandom influence at all (as much as is possible, considering i cut my teeth writing for fandom and that is Still a very large influence on how and why i write) and i've even got a blog for just original fiction stuff that i write (shameless plug, @sorbusscriptor )

but when it's fandom i want? i wanna play what's already there. i wanna read into what already exists. it's not even about the shape of what is there, it's about the void that that shape leaves! its like brownian motion, canon is an iceburg and half the fun is finding out just what's knocking at it underneath the water to get it to be shaped the way it is.

like,,,,, finding a piece of media and filling in the holes, and what isn't said, and what happens inbetween what's happening on-screen, in trying to figure out what's up with the non-pov characters, it's so fun!!!! both when it's something you adore, and when it is a book or movie or show that is. absolute goddamn garbage lmao.

like, i watched Breach with my family a little bit ago (space "horror" movie feat. bruce willis that is shamelessly ripping off like every single other sci-fi movie that exists, that is just,,,, so weird with the plot things it chooses to use, and has so many holes it's practically a net.) and it was just.... so FUN being like "so hey, WHAT the fuck was happening here? why did this happen? why DIDN'T this happen?" because it's such a bad movie. there's an alien parasite some guy brought on the ship and like. it is never explained where tf this thing is from. it's from "the experiments" but like,,,, what does that mean. where did it come from. the guy is asked where tf these things are from and he's like "maybe they exist before time" and bro. WHAT? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN! and like. god its just so bad. everyone is trying to get into an escape pod when like. a) their ship is, uh... either doing a quantum-jump, or going at FTL speed, or, one of the 9 thousand different FTL-mechaincs stolen from various other medias, and im pretty sure the escape pod is not capable of going at that speed, so it sure seems like if that thing ejects Bad Things are gonna happen, and 2, they're like.... 40 fucking days away from the planet they're aiming for WHILE AT warp speed. WHERE DO THEY THINK THEY'RE GONNA GO it's just genuinely. the holes left in this movie are more interesting than the movie itself. and if you look hard enough, every piece of media is like that

[sol1056]

git along little nonnies

Got a whole bunch of you on related themes, so I’m just gonna do this all at once: a bunch of questions about DW, spinoffs, merchandise, business, management, support (and protest) and whatnot. In no particular order.

Ok there are petitions and peaceful boycotts directed at DW but problem is they aren’t addressing the EPs and things they, not DW, did so how are we to sign them, how to handle this when this could at best confuse the situation and not give any results and at worst, make matters even worse about what we want regarding DW addressing things? 

Here’s what companies care about: money. Everything else is gravy.

If you want a corporation to pay attention to your complaints, then you need to figure out their sources of income, and find a way to threaten that. If the social reprobation is high enough, damage to the brand can translate into lost sales, but the tempest required to make that happen must be much, much larger than anything I’ve seen the fandom manage. 

I’ve been saying this all along: voices are far more powerful than signatures. If twenty thousand people wrote or called in, and said what they liked vs what upset them, that would have a far greater impact. Certainly a lot more than a list of names with no emotion beyond a request that may not even be something DW can, or would, fulfill.  

And don’t even get me started on mailing stuff in. Cute, but hardly actionable.  

Do you know what kind of contracts DW sign, as in, are they obligated to air all seasons, can they choose not to air them, do the companies they work with (netflix, wep) have a say or more say than them? Who gets the last word? Is airing all seasons squarely on DW or more? 

As I’m not a corporate lawyer employed by any of the signatories, I can’t tell you what the contract stipulated. What I can tell you is that a contract of the magnitude of the DW-WEP-Netflix agreement probably had a dissertation worth of riders covering the different types of possible defaults or breaches, and the penalties for each. Additionally, the contract also likely covered what constituted ‘satisfactory delivery’ of the product. 

To take it down to a really simple level: you place an order at a restaurant. You expect to get it, eat it, and pay for it. You don’t expect to be told, “hey, we burnt your steak and we’re out of butter for your sweet potatoes, so have some green beans instead,” and then be told you still owe the full amount, anyway. 

Netflix wouldn’t settle for ordering (and paying for) something never delivered, anymore than you would. Sure, any corporation worth their over-inflated stock options would try --- but that’s the point of contracts, to make sure they can’t. 

Netflix paid, DW delivers, end of story.  

 ...do you think ppl in charge didn't think EPs would tell they made changes and also thought they'd manage to bury it? And then they got in trouble and DW is going thru changes for that reason? -waves at DW goings on and silence.

I got lost in all the pronouns, there. Who’s the first ‘they,’ the EPs or DW execs? Is the second ‘they’ referring to the same as the first? So... I’m not really sure what you’re positing, but if the ‘DW is going through changes’ is implying DW’s got a shakeup and/or is promoting its head-of-TV to president and that’s somehow connected to two newbie EPs screwing up?

I’d say the chances are so infinitesimal as to be nearly in the negative. (I should also note, the press release listed successful shows Cohn oversaw, yet oddly did not include VLD.) DW is not a three-person start up; it has stakeholders and a board and a C-suite to satisfy. Cohn got that promotion ‘cause she’s got a track record going back thirty years, most recently growing DW’s TV division from 8 to 800 in five years. 

Most corporations tend to announce their new CEO or President like someone woke up that morning and went, hey, I’ve got a great idea. Truth is, it’s usually in the works for at least a year, sometimes several years, or more. The only thing that has me side-eyeing the announcement is the silence around who’ll fill Cohn’s previous position. 

But that’s again less to do with a single series, and more to do with what it says about DW as a whole, business-wise. 

What meaningful changes could the new president Margie Cohn make that would be different than the last one? Also I'm sorry if your getting a bunch of Voltron/DW questions lately, you just seem to be the most knowledgeable person on this platform.

I’d be willing to bet I’m far from the most knowledgeable person; I’m just someone not bound by an NDA, and curious enough to do a bit of digging and jaded enough to talk about (most) of what I find. 

A president can have immense impact on a company’s direction; that’s kinda why they exist, to set that high-level strategy. That said, Cohn will be bound by all contracts signed by her predecessor. The TV side (barring someone filling the shoes she left) will probably continue as it was. The theatrical side (which she’s taking over) will be where we’ll probably see any major changes. 

And even those aren’t likely to be on films currently in production. Hell, given theatrical animation can take up to five years, I’m not sure that’d show much change, either. Look instead to changes in investors, new deals, and new properties. 

What do you think DW will do about a sequel if there’s really no bible? Theres tons of plot holes & abandoned storylines. VLD will never feel satisfying, and fans already argued with different interpretations based on conflicting content, without a nice satisfying explanation...

I know this is the first of a three-part ask, but I’m skipping the rest because the only answer possible is to your very first question: the bible doesn’t matter. 

Any new series --- even a continuation --- will construct its own bible. Same as we’d do in fandom: they’ll patch together what they can, fill in blanks as they need, and gloss the rest, or retcon it outright. Even if there were a bible, diligently followed, that doesn’t mean the next series is automatically beholden to it. Some franchises would care (ie Star Wars) while others might let a reboot mess with the details (ie Star Trek). 

For every continuation, there’s gradations in between, since otherwise what’s the interest for creative minds, if you’re obligated to follow someone else’s script exactly? So, no. The absence of a story bible doesn’t preclude the next iteration making its own, as it needs, to whatever extent it requires. 

I was wandering around the hot topic online store, and i noticed a shirt that raised a few flags and questions. it's the 'Voltron Location' shirt. it has all the paladins in different places in a star globe chart thing? with what might possibly be planet designations. plus Lance is the only one not inside his blue colored bubble. Keith is in Red and Shiro in Black again. it's interesting at least.

Nearly all the shirts use the same base images, just changed up. It feels a little like someone handed a designer a half-dozen images with a request for forty-something designs --- and now HT is just throwing them all at the wall to see what sticks (or sells). 

HT’s stuff has been pretty consistent, from what I’ve heard: Shiro is Black, Keith is Red, etc. Considering the t-shirts seem to be selling out regularly (along with various other sidelines), I’d say someone is savvy as to the fact that the segment of fandom spending the most money is also the segment that prefers the S1/S2 lineup. 

If that’s what customers want, it’s smart business for DW to provide.

(Yes, that applies on more than one level.)

There are VLD comic books being released by LionForge Comics, are those considered canon? Do LM and JDS have any involvement? They take place before Season 7and8 but I don't wanna support the original EPs.

Every fandom has its own stand on what counts as canon. Sometimes (especially with adaptations) you’ll find fandoms being explicit as to whether they’re book or movie (ie HP and LotR). I expect the same will eventually shake out in VLD’s fandom, too. 

From everything I’ve heard, Hedrick and Iverson were handed the comics and ran with it. I suppose that would argue for seeing the comics as canon, being they were written by people also writing the main series... but from what I can tell, it’s one-way. The show affected the comics, but nothing in the comics ever affected the series.

That said, your purchases have nothing to do with the original EPs. All you’re doing is telling DW you like the VLD-iteration of Voltron.

What are your thoughts on the final vld poster? I feel like it’s missing the end. Allura is randomly staring back into nothing.

It’s a clever idea to do a poster for each season, but it’s not something I’ve ever paid any attention to, really. If it were drawn by the head writer? That might mean the artist had more insight than, say, a storyboarder or animator. But even then... cool picture, still not-canon. I’m only interested in canon.

Do you think that Voltron was rushed purposely by the EP's. [...] Wouldn't this effect the quality of, well, everything? I feel as if they got frustrated with the show at that point and just wanted out.

Dude. There are times I sit here and just stare into space, bewildered yet again not just at the thought of 39 episodes released in one year --- but doing that with 26 as a last-minute cut-and-paste rearrangement. All I can tell you is that what I’ve seen from animation people and aficionados (and friends) is that three full seasons in one calendar year is just bonkers. 

If DW hadn’t wanted the schedule that packed, the EPs aren’t the ones getting the say. That’s a DW-Netflix thing. I really wonder whether DW used VLD as a guinea pig. TH went a year between S1 and S2, and the numbers slumped badly. Perhaps DW wanted to know if more episodes, more often, would keep fan interest high? DW has experienced execs, but they’re all from broadcast; how you arrange and time things in the brave new world of binge-watching is a completely different beast. 

So, it’s possible it was less of a rush job to get the show out, and more from a desire to see what'd happen to release so much, so close together. 

I still think it’s a bonkers schedule, though.

"Relaunch the whole property" sounds like they won't continue expanding the whole vld universe and they'll make a new itineration. Though if they do a spin-off it'd likely be on the vld universe surrounding the new "Legendary Defenders" from the epilogue. And "especially given the response" do you think after the negative response from s8, wouldn't be better for WEP to not keep working with Dreamworks? Or maybe they need to clean their brand from vld fiasco? What can you say about all of this?

I can say you might try re-reading, because boy is that a radical interpretation of the text. Remember, Jeremy was speaking before S8, and all indication is that he was caught off-guard as much as the fans. Re-read in light of Jeremy (at the time) appearing to expect S8 to be a crowd-pleaser.   

...I'm becoming more confident in my belief that DW has something planned for Voltron. I mean they are still heavily promoting the show, LionForge is still publishing Voltron comics, and merchandise is still being made. These don't seem like the actions of a company trying to get people to forget a show. 

You’re not wrong. Up to the last few days of 2018, DW gave every indication they wanted S8 quietly buried. Nothing they’ve done since has fit that pattern --- including the anomaly of failing to announce their 2019 series. Something is going on, that’s for certain. 

Did DW really just throw the VAs to the wolves [for] three days? and there's still no official stance? One panel was enough. They had [the VAs] take the heat for them? But thankfully fans felt sorry for them? Which could also have been the goal, shut the fans up [with] the VAs of the characters who got the worst treatment and who love their characters ... Yes DW this really makes me trust you /sarcasm/

I don’t think that was the original plan. Let’s pretend DW released its 2019 schedule via press release in the first few days of January, and among those was an announcement of a VLD sequel or spinoff, coming late 2019. 

People wouldn’t be fussing over putting the VAs through three panels. They’d be complaining we didn’t get the biggest room for every panel. The majority of the fandom doesn’t trust the EPs, and is wary of DW --- really, the only ones who retain any goodwill, at this point, are the VAs. So who better than to assure a nervous fandom about the goodness of the second iteration than the VAs whose characters were most shafted by the first iteration?

What breaks this is that immediately after S8 dropped, Josh and Kimberly went silent on twitter. AJ slipped into passive-aggressive snarking; Jeremy fell off the radar and usually he’s pretty interactive with his fans. Bex pretty much wiped  VLD from her stream, possibly including deleting older tweets. Neil tried to engage and made a hash of it, bless his heart. 

Josh and Kimberly are consummate professionals who reliably promote the series after every season drop, but their radio silence continued for almost two weeks. This wasn’t the first season that came saddled with controversy; if there was a time to go quiet, it was after S7. Something else was going on. 

I have strong suspicions backed by research, but if I’m right, I’d be stepping on a major legal landmine. In the interest of not getting blown up, I’ll only say that the VAs appearing for those three panels (and their low-key and mostly diplomatic hedging around VLD’s conclusion) was a good sign that all parties involved are willing to work things out.   

[DW was] quick to handle the Season 7 backlash and have stayed mum on what is arguably a much worse reaction to the 8th and final season.

and

I believe the S8 of voltron we got was not the original ending we were supposed to get and highly edited. My question is why? What was the point of changing the original ending? [The] radio silence from DW and the cast is driving me nuts. I wish DW would make a statement.

DW is in an interesting place. Its TV side is barely five years old, but dominated by execs with long-time broadcast experience, predating vibrant interactivity afforded by platforms like twitter, tumblr, or instagram. DW’s background as a theatrical company also seems to incline it away from any ongoing engagement with the audience. It releases a movie and by the time that hits theaters, DW is onto the next thing. 

It’s a strong contrast with production studios like Zagtoon (Miraculous), who penned an open letter to their fandom about production delays. Or little studios like Wonderstorm (The Dragon Prince) whose deft use of twitter and tumblr sets their brand apart. Or Federator (Castlevania), with their witty marketing campaigns and willingness to engage with fans. Even Disney was willing to be open about its errors with Tiana, and to make clear how it was striving to do better --- so there’s no excuse that only small studios do such outreach.

My guess is that DW's core leadership is from the school of business in which admitting a mistake is tantamount to ritual suicide. Don’t blink first, or maybe the rule is never let them see you sweat, but whatever it is, DW is turning into a textbook case of how silence can damage a brand. 

Companies have multiple avenues to reach customers directly, now. Our modern technologies are a two-way street, and good companies leverage that to create not passive fandoms but active communities. It takes work, careful planning, and some level of transparency --- something old-school execs find highly uncomfortable, to be honest --- but in this day and age, those are crucial building-blocks to achieving any kind of audience loyalty.

DW isn’t going to render itself obsolete (at least not overnight), but it's on a track to end up as the studio whose work audiences only watch when there’s nothing better being offered. Unfortunately for DW, there’s a hell of a lot of other studios out there, and they're all offering something better. 

[yeahiwasintheshit]

the game of thrones marathon on hbo was on the 5th season today, and dear god that season was worst than i remember. i tuned in off and on all day, but could hardly watch any of it. from the sparrows, to ariyas training to the gold mask harpies, to stannis at the wall, almost every story was such a slog. like the plot holes in almost each of the storylines were so fuckin huge. as if lady olenna would allow margery and loras to be taken into the pits or wherever the fuck, without getting a whole army down there and just slaughtering all the sparrows. i mean all they had were little leather hacky sack things to hit people with. it was so terribly written. i mean i love the idea that the weapon that cersei unleashed on the kingdom would come back to bite her, but theres just some of that shit that just didnt make any damn sense for the characters. and then just like little stupid shit would annoy me, like when jorah was fighting in front of khaleesi in the fighting pits stadium, i mean i get it that they were trying to have him get hit a few times so it doesnt look so obvs that hes going to be the victor, but some of the choices and choreography was so terrible. like the one guy with the rapier had jorah on his back and was about to plunge it into his face, but they had to get that one last look between jorah and khaleesi, blech! then when the other guy stabs the rapier guy in the back that saves jorah, instead of just stabbing jorah whos already on the ground defenseless, the guy who JUST STABBED A GUY IN THE BACK, decides to let jorah get up... ya know... for a fair fight. just terrible terrible writing. then of course brienne has to be the one to kill stannis and avenge fuckin renly. like of course out of that whole entire fucking battle, and what looked like thousands of people, she just happens to find stannis. blech! these sort of, idk, like, fan servicey shit, that only is there so people can feel good about a characters journey is so not how the first few seasons were written. like the grit and grime and merciless writing for characters that dominated the first few seasons seem to be gone, and im not saying i think it should be all doom and gloom, and it wouldnt have a problem with brienne killing stannis if it was just made more sense. i wouldnt have a problem with jorahs fight if it felt a little more authentic. they also tried too hard to make the bad guys REALLY BAD GUYS! like the whole ariya killing meryn trant story, like of course not only did he have to be a bad guy for ariya to kill him he had to be a pedo who whipped children, like he had to be soooooooo bad to justify having the her kill him so brutally so the audience will feel like ok about it. idk, like i said i think these last few seasons are a little more audience minded with how they tell these stories, and soft pedal a few things when in the first few seasons it was full force/ i just hope this last season is gritty, grimy, gory and has a beautiful poetic ending and not feel like its catering too much to what people want but whats good for the characters.

And don’t get me started on those fucking sand snakes ughhhhhhhh

[iblameashley]

The Wandering Earth

So, thanks to a post on io9, I gave this movie a go. Its a Chinese production and has apparently been a smash-hit in China.

To summarize the plot: The Sun is dying, and expanding in the process. In 100 years, the Earth will be consumed by it and in 300 the entire solar system. To safe-guard Earth, 10,000 massive engines are built to push the Earth out of the solar system to the Alpha Centauri. In the meantime, humans will live in underground cities to keep themselves from dying in the cold.

Although I liked the premise, as ludicrous as it is, there was one glaring plot hole that kept nagging at me: The ISS Platform.

In the movie, the ISSP is meant to travel in front of the Earth to ensure it passes certain milestones along the journey. There are 730 people onboard the ISSP, and it took roughly 30 years to build.

Considering the majority of Earths resources were dedicated to the World Engines (my word for it), its no surprise the ISSP took so long to build. But it certainly must have cost less than building 10, 000 W.E.’s around the globe. I think a better plan would have been to dedicate the majority of resources to building as many of these platforms as possible, and launching them in sequence to Alpha-Centauri.

The ISSP in the movie holds a crew of 730 people. There appear to be enough stasis pods to hold all of them. The Station is also mainly operated by a system called MOSS, who is controlled by the United Earth Government, and bases its decision off their orders and the UEG Charter. 

The ISSP also contains a complete set of Seeds from thousands of Earth plant species, a complete library of all human knowledge and, 30, 000 embryo’s. In the movie, this was a backup plan in case something happened to the Earth on its journey.

Theres also no reason that stations couldn’t have been continually built until the last minute.

Lets assume that the most Stations that could have been built in the time they had was twenty.

20 ISSPs x 730 Humans = 14, 600 30k Embryo’s x 20 = 600, 000

Even though it wouldn’t save everyone on Earth (And even in the movie 3.5 Billion people still ended up dying), you have an amazingly great start to reboot humanity. Even if all the Stations never made it, you’d stand a pretty damn good chance of keeping the human race alive.

Anyways, I would have also enjoyed watching a series of stations going through some BS trying to escape the Solar System.

That being said... I recommend The Wandering Earth. It was a great movie with a great cast and crew.

[booksandtea]

When the Steam Summer Sales were almost starting Tecsie decided to clean up their Steam wishlist a little bit by writing a Steam Wishlist Clean Up post which was inspired by Lia’s Down the TBR Hole book blogger meme.

I really liked this idea and asked Tecsie if I could take part too so here I am. I finished my original list but I’ve picked it back up now that its grown a little.

Sit back, enjoy, and browse some video games with me.

Starting Point: 149

I decided to stay on track and continue the wishlist clean up! It will only be a small one this week as I’m still balancing scheduling posts, length, and what my wrist can manage!

 (Please Note: I am now a HumbleBundle Partner, this post includes affiliate links at no extra cost to you)

  🎮 Reigns: Game of Thrones by Nerial [purchase] I’ve loved a previous Reigns game where you play as the Queen so of course I want to try another of their games thats themed. Also, its not an expensive game either which is a bonus. This is on my priority list for sure.

🎮 The Miskatonic by Rapscallion “Explore the most prestigious occult school in North America, in a hilarious dark comedy set after the Lovecraft canon.” Yes, a thousand times yes. KAL HAVE YOU SEEN THIS, I feel like this is also a game for you! I’m sad though because theres no achievements so its on the keep and not priority list.

  🎮 Dawn by Brave Rabbit Games What on earth was I doing in December when I was adding things to my wishlist? Because this is another free game. I was going to remove it as it’s a platformer and I’m very bad at them but seeing that its free I guess I can give it a quick try and see how I progress!

🎮 Omen Exitio: Plague by Tiny Bull Studios [purchase] “Omen Exitio: Plague is inspired by the gamebooks of the ’80s and ’90s, mixing the alien and horrifying universe created by H.P. Lovecraft with an original plot and characters, all guided by your choices similar to the visual novel / CYOA genres.” I believe this game speaks for itself, similarly to Miskatonic, I will keeping this for sure. In fact this does have acheivements and I love CYOA books so it can land on the priority list!

🎮 Speed Dating for Ghosts by Copychaser Games. I’m not super drawn to this game as the art isn’t my usual go-to choice but the synopsis sounds weird enough that I wanna try it! It also have a lot of very positive reviews so sure I’ll try it.

Stats at the end of this post

Priority: 2 / 5 Keep: 3 / 5 Remove: 0 / 5 Steam Wishlist total: 145

Ooops for only removing 1 game this time round. Hopefully with 3 being free I can check them out soon so we’ll lower it some more.

Only a short one this week, half of the games that were left, cause my arm is feeling achey still when I do a lot of typing. At least y’all love these posts so you wont mind me splitting this into two.

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Steam Wishlist Clean Up (19) When the Steam Summer Sales were almost starting Tecsie decided to clean up their Steam wishlist a little bit by writing a…

[tia-lovell-blog]

Airplanes aren’t great for illness

In the last few months, I’ve been throwing up a lot. I get stomach pains, fatigue, dehydration, and I’ve just been having a generally shitty time. I’ve managed to still go to school, despite collapsing multiple times either on the way or in school. I’ve only stayed home a few times, cause apparently I hate myself. I’ve wanted to go to the ER multiple times, but we don’t have the money and my mom doesn’t want to take me. I have a feeling that she doesn’t really get how serious it is. 

About a year ago we’d planned a trip to Hong Kong, at the time things were a lot different. My parents weren’t splitting up, I wasn’t falling down the deep dark hole of physical illness, and I was at a completely different school. I didn’t have access to a therapist, hadn’t been diagnosed with PTSD and I hadn’t even gotten my hearing diagnosis yet. Its been a wild year, in short. (all of these topics will be talked about in later blog posts in far more detail) 

Originally the trip was for us three, my dad my mom and I. Just so that we’re all on the same page I’m going to let you know that my dad and I are not on good terms, and as long as I live sanely we will never be. The divorce is 100% his fault because he was an abusive piece of shit, hence my PTSD and current health issues probably triggered by stress. 

Anyway, because of the divorce it was just me and my mom. Jesus theres so much to catch up on. This is the worst point in my life to start a blog, my life has like fifty sub plots going on, so beware there will be jumping around in this post and probably future posts. 

Because of my stomach issues I’d seen a G.I., or a gastroenterologist. She was very nice and thorough from what I could tell and I liked her. She gave me some stomach acid meds to help with the heartburn, but I started puking even more than before so I stopped taking it a few days into the trip. The puking continued, but I didn’t start taking the meds again. If they irritated my stomach I shouldn’t take them until I see the doctor again. Right? I’m honestly not too sure. Before the meds I was puking an average of 3 out of 7 days of the week not counting dry heaving and stomach acid. Yeah, not fun. Not entirely sure how I’m still functioning. After the meds it was at least once a day. 

Yesterday I threw up two or three times. I’ve managed to mostly hold it down today, but on the flight I ate a little bit of rice and beef. Terrible terrible idea. I don’t know if it was the turbulence, the altitude, the fact that airplane food sucks ass, or maybe just my own anxiety about being thousands of miles up in the sky, but I felt like someone was stabbing my insides. The food was not going down, and I can still feel it at the back of my throat while I type this. I can’t even hold water down lately and when I do I barely get any of it. I’m constantly dehydrated. I sometimes get dizzy when I’m off my iron (I’m iron deficient), so I’m not sure if its because I stopped taking all my meds that this happened, but today I’ve had multiple instances of the world just tilting really quickly with no warning both before and after the plane. It was worse than its ever been and it honestly really scared me. I ran into a railing, thankfully, since I have a habit of staying by them. I had an ankle injury a few years ago and the habit just always stuck with me. I can’t even keep my thoughts straight right now, which is part of why this post is so jumpy. I’m supposed to binge GOT with my friend Brandon tomorrow. He’s never seen it so I volunteered to rewatch with him since I have no one else to watch with. I think thats it for this blog post. I still feel like shit and thats all I’ve got in me.