#this is a neat thing to analyze

[kitxi-official]

I have too many thoughts on the new digital circus episode. So here they are because I need to get them out

One thing that really stood out to me from this episode was the cinematography and writing. Somehow the episode felt super uncanny and I couldn't understand why... until it came to me.

It wasn't a big adventure.

It's literally just them, in a fast food joint, working. Somehow, the other wacky, fantastical adventures made the one semi-realistic feel... wrong. I kept expecting some kind of build up into something bigger, but outside of gangle's descent and release, it was tame.

In regards to filmmaking, some ideas have to be dramatized to become interesting to the audience. For example, a healthy relationship won't be as interesting to viewers as a dramatic one that has to be built upon. So for me, this episode being so... simple, was such a fascinating writing choice. Normally this kind of writing choice in media is bad, it can lead to an uninterested audience. But in this episode, it really showed how disconnected the circus is from reality. Caine's adventures are built as stories; they have a quest, a build up, a peak, and then a return. The lack of campaign, quest, objective, was really put into perspective for me, "Oh right, I forget that this is what reality would be like." Not only is the main cast disconnected from reality, the audience is too

[wttcsms]

horribly short summary of what im trying to accomplish here, but if you were to read a fic featuring character, a soldier honorably discharged and is officially off the battlefield and yet he can’t seem to shake off the war from clinging to his body, and he’s basically a bit of a mess and feels incapable of returning to ordinary life and there’s you, the sweetest thing in the whole world, and he keeps trying to tell you he’s no good and you’re there to help him with everything (and it kills him a bit, to see you wasting your time to help him, and it kills him because he feels like he shouldn’t be the type of person who needs help) and !! just slowburn and falling in love and just read the tags for the vibe ok, who would it be for

[spock-adoodledoo]

permanent starter call for apothecary side character enjoyers specifically tianyu likers

[egophiliac]

hiii i have a question about your cheka !! did you use the professional or essential version of spine for it (im assuming you're using spine??) :0000 was debating on making some self indulgent sprites myself and i didnt know which version to buy

I use Professional! I don't use it as a professional anymore, but it works just as well for small silly things like fan-chibis. :D personally, I think the Professional features are absolutely essential (despite the cheaper version being called Essentials. it's a lie.) especially if you want to do a Twst-style chibi --I've stared at those little dudes for a looooong time trying to figure out how they work, and they're definitely using meshes, if not also constraints.

meshes are the big dealbreaker for me, since they let you weight the image to bones, and get actual deformation and bendiness:

(ignore the feather floating away, I didn't wanna fix it for the example :')

and of course, constraints are the other big thing! IK is the most obvious one:

but there's also ones that allow relative manipulation of other bones, paths, and all kinds of other fun stuff! I learned about keyable path spacing a while back and it absolutely blew my mind that you can just...DO that. god.

uhhhh yeah, sorry, I'm a Spine stan! I think Professional >>>> Essentials, although the price difference is, unfortunately, pretty steep (if it helps, I believe you can upgrade at any time for the difference in price, and for individuals it's a one-time purchase with perpetual free updates). it has a little bit of a learning curve, but once I got used to the UI I found it really intuitive, and there's plenty of documentation and tutorials!

tl;dr it's pretty expensive if you aren't using it professionally -- and you could definitely get good results using Essentials if you're clever about rigging -- but Professional is far and away the superior version.

[benbamboozled]

In case anyone was wondering, the A Death in the Family Deluxe Edition has a few (unfinished) pages from the version of the story where Jason Todd lived.

Of course, Jason was placed into a Convenient Coma so that way Jim Starlin wouldn’t have to be afflicted by his existence anymore.

I have NO IDEA what the timeline here is supposed to be. The last two pages seem to be intended to be pages 13&16 in the issue (judging from the numbers in the top right corner), but the second page mentions Bruce getting Jason checked into the hospital and contacting the authorities…and it seems kind of late in the book for Bruce to be getting that taken care of?

Maybe it’s after the whole “Joker tries to kill the UN” fiasco and Bruce is getting Jason transferred to a hospital in Gotham? That would explain how Dick (or Alfred, since the third page wanted to change the second person to Alfred) could have “rushed over” once they heard what happened.

(Especially since Dick was, you know…in space when ADITF was going down.)

ANYWAY, ignoring all of the timeline and logistics questions, I really like the interaction between Dick and Bruce (and I disagree with whoever thought Dick should be switched with Alfred).

It serves as an interesting counterpoint to the confrontation between Dick and Bruce in NTT #55—

(It’s also an interesting counterpoint to Starlin and Wolfman’s characterization preferences and plot priorities. Whereas Starlin was very much into “Stoic thoughtful logical lone badass Bruce Wayne,” Wolfman’s priorities were very much “*grasps Dick Grayson* I WILL GIVE YOU SO MUCH EMOTIONAL TRAUMA.”)

[timeloop-angel]

Ok so. I'm memorizing literary devices to better my media analysis and if i got this right the difference between allegory and allusion is that allegory is integrated as a larger, constant part of the overall narrative while allusion is more contained version, generally restricted to certain parts and/or as a piece for the allegory.......right?

Its like motif vs themes. Right? The allusion is the brick used to build the wall called allegory like how themes do that with motif

[gobstoppr]

and btw im in my hater arc rn. as time goes on the more i find a lot of 'fandom' stuff insufferable (i like art n stuff. just the way that fandom refits every media to fit a single mold and set of boring archetypes is exhausting.)

i just get really easily annoyed lately. and have been unfollowing people on a whim a lot. its not personal i promise

[star--anon]

How do you tell when you talk about traditionally romantic things in a platonic context way too much?

Are there any ways to tell that I talk too much about platonic relationships?

Because I just got kicked out of a server for “fetishizing friendships and aromantics” and I’m wondering if maybe that could be a sign?

[icewindandboringhorror]

finally settling once and for all... with the evidence laid out plainly.. which of these brother boys is more stinkys ,,,

[heartbeetz]

I can't even really explain what it is about Anton's voice that I like so much. But I like it. It's good.

[salmoncakepls]

..

[cy-fi-theansweris42]

Since I'm trying to remember my old thoughts and headcanons for Psychonauts, I'm about to reblog a bunch of old posts

So... sorry in advance for the sudden spam of reblogs, lol.

[erabundus]

I AIN'T NO COWARD TO USE ANON. First of all, the way you capture all the differences between the puppet's stages of life? Chef's kiss. Kabukimono's innocence and wonder, Balladeer's creepiness and grandiosity, Ren's exhaustion and just wanting to carve a spot for himself. All of it is So Tasty to read be it in replies or hc posts. I love to bits how Ren and Aether pull and push each other around every time they interact. And you!!! You're always so nice and easy to interact w/, a delight to see on the dash and your posts always brighten the day a little more w/ all the shenanigans. So v glad we started writing together. ^^

SEND    YOUR    OPINION    ON    ANON

[kocch]

“and you’re MY superhero” 

i find interesting how when el was showing mike how he never even wrote he loves her, it’s all from mike, from mike, from mike, mike goes and says “that’s ridiculous. you know what i think of you…” and then goes on to say how incredible el is and that she’s a superhero. but even now when being confronted mike still can’t address how he feels about el. it would be so simple to say it right then and there, but mike doesn’t. he talks about caring for her, about what he thinks of her, never about loving her and how he feels about her.

mike also keeps externalising things if that makes sense? in the sense that he never speaks of what’s going on with him, it’s all pointing towards el. you are this, and this, and you can’t let them ruin this and us. el isn’t talking about what happened at rink-oh-mania. she’s telling mike how her lack of words has made her feel in their relationship, and mike redirects that responsibility to others instead.

they both shut down each other in this scene and can’t reach a common ground to really listen and understand each other. el does it when she dismisses mike’s experience with bullying saying he doesn’t understand and mike does it when he says what el is saying is ridiculous and that others are to blame for it. and then, none of this is worked out later in the season

anyhow, the point of this post was to point out the word choice in mike’s dialogue. how they went with think instead of feel

[txttletale]

hey what DO you watch on youtube? seems like you'd have some neat recommendations :3

i really loathe the like super-highly edited sound effect post-mrbeast slop most of youtube is now so i mostly like stuff that's like... calm and sedate. stuff i've been watching lately in no particular order:

northernlion vods and clips. he's an OG. i especially like his react court series, i must have watched all of them like five times.

speaking of OGs i've been watching zero puncutation (now fully ramblomatic) for like ten years and if anything it's only gotten better. best game review content on the internet. been really enjoying his more recent, slightly longer and more thoughtful 'extra punctuation/semi-ramblomatic' series too.

any austin's skyrim unemployment rate videos. instant classics to me, it's just a guy going around in skyrim trying to figure out the unemployment rate in every town. it's a very dry kind of humour, he plays it admirably straight, and it's weirdly calming.

kitten arcader's foot the bill videos. in a kind of similar vein, he watches the saw movies and then produces an itemized bill for everything jigsaw needed to buy to make his traps. it's kind of like... if cinemasins was fundamentally curious instead of fundamentally incurious, it scratches a similar sort of nitpicky detail-oriented quantifying itch but without inimical to the concept of art.

shuffle up and play. it's a magic the gathering play series that has enough editing that the gamestate is actually legible but not enough editing (or at least, not enough obtrusive in-your-face editing) that its annoying. i also like that they reguilarly play non-edh formats like cube and pauper.

spice8rack. i'm pretty picky about video essays but spice8rack has very obviously actually read books and has interesting things to say about the topics it discusses (mostly magic: the gathering). sometimes it has a kind of grating Theater Kid Energy but the fact that it actually meaningfully structures essays and analysis to earn the silly long runtimes is a rare delight from a video essayist.

jenny nicholson is a long-time favourite and another permanent fixture in my rotation. she's just extremely, remarkably funny which makes her the only 'basically just summarizing a thing' youtuber i think is worth the time of day.

i watch some sketch comedy, mainly wizards with guns and aunty donna, who both consistently put out really funny stuff that's kind of ITYSL-adjacent in its barefaced absurdism and contenmpt for concepts like "stopping a joke at the logical punchline". i also really like alasdair beckett-king and binging the old clickhole backlog for short-form comedy on youtube.

wolfeyvgc is right on the edge of the level of editing i find tolerable but as a long-time fan of multiple esports he Has It, he's absolutelyt fantastic at t elling the narrative of a tournament, explaining plays clearly, and generally making competitive pokemon esports thrilling and interesting ti someone (me) who#s never played it and doesn't care about pkoemon that much

i religously watch every elliespectacular/dathings YTP, the absolute best in the game right now, top tier snetence mixing and really good at actually setting up and paying off jokes in a way it feels like a lot of ytp doesn't. verytallbart is also pretty good.

trapperdapper is a channel i recently binged, it's a really fucking funny parody of minecraft challenge content that veers slowly from obvious angles of parody into pure absurdism with tons of blink-and-you'll miss it subtle visual gags.

too much future is a great youtube series where the two guys from just king things/homestuck made this world play through every fallout game and analyze them in that context. extremely funny and also just top-tier very sharp analysis. really good

another one of the rare good video essayists is jan misali. they're really funny and will go into topics that kind of seem narrow or strange to begin with in such depth and make them so interesting that it's consistently astonishing.

oh and finally sarah z makes pretty good videos. 'the narcissist scare' is an absolutely brilliant deconstruction of one of the most annoying pop-psych phenomena of the last couple years. and remarkably well script supervised i think did anyone else watch it and think 'wow the script supervisor on this must have been, a mind geniuse'

ok i think that's all i've been watching lately. hope you like whcihever of these recs you check out :)

[fancyfade]

Difference between Bruce and Dick as Batman.

So I know that there's a lot of temptation to compare Bruce as Batman to Dick or Damian, and Dick as Batman to Damian, often with a "oh well obviously Bruce was meaner/Dick was nicer", but I do think they have a neat contrast that fandom often overlooks (as well as some parallels).

Robin: Year One #3

Batmatn #408

Batman and Robin #6

Dick and Bruce both will deal with whatever current threat exists, before fully helping wounded Robin, getting a verbal "I'm fine" confirmation. They clearly do care about Robin. But they also have an obligation to protect people Bruce tries to physically stop joker. Jason's not fighting Dick, but he is trying to talk him down and talk him into getting help, like he did in Battle for the Cowl. The characters also generally avoid a wounded Robin -- it's just easier to see for Bruce, because Leslie calls Bruce out on it "you're leaving (to go deal with this?)" whereas no one questions Dick leaving Damian once he's got medical care and doing his own mission to revive zombie bruce. I imagine this is partially from guilt (we do see Bruce blaming himself for Dick's close call, and Dick framing Damian as his responsibility in Battle for the Cowl) and also possible due to the whole 'batman has a job, robin's physically OK now so time to help protect people' thing.

A strong difference is after the character's get injured and treated. Bruce becomes overprotective, and continues being emotionally distant, which understandably upsets Dick. He is so overprotective he benches Dick each time he is wounded seriously, and that creates friction between them.

Robin: Year One

Batman #408

Contrast this to Dick's general lack of protectiveness. Nothing changes when Damian gets wounded as Robin. Which works well (emotionally) for Damian and it works for the conventions of the genre.

Dick is generally not portrayed as very emotionally overprotective when Damian is injured, and when Damian is captured, he often expresses more verbal concern for the people who captured Damian than Damian himself.

Batman and Robin #9 - Damian, with a new metal spine, got thrown off a building by the zombie batman dick accidentally revived.

Batman and Robin #13

Detective comics annual #11

I should note: I think it would be uncharitable to assume that Dick expressing more verbal concern that Damian will hurt the supervillains who have him kidnapped means Dick doesn't care about Damian. We see in Batman and Robin some of Dick being worried when Damian is shot, and we see Dick telling Azrael they need to find a quicker way to get to Damian when Azrael is talking about how to find the guys who took him. And also, you know. I just don't think Dick would care more about the supervillains that Damian. But Damian is regarded as a tough kid, he'll be fine no matter what, and he represents a threat to other people (interestingly, something I've seen fans accuse... Bruce of doing to damian? Even though Bruce was much more protective and wasn't worried about Damian killing Nobody when Damian was going with Nobody, or Damian killing the Saturn Club guys when Damian let himself by kidnapped by the Saturn club guys to find civilians to rescue)

But I am analyzing here the actions he does and the words that he says, and what the writer dedicates panel time to. I think it's interesting that Bruce and Dick's similarities with regards to Robin getting injured involve emotionally removing themselves from the situation and focusing on cases, and then their differences are in the follow up. Dick often maintains a status quo, which is satisfying to the Robin character (he does not feel like he's being fired or judged) and fits with the conventions of the genre. Bruce often becomes overprotective to a degree where the Robin character feels estranged from him, and is excluded, resulting in alienation from robin and coming across as the "bad guy".

I find it very interesting that Dick avoids repeating mistakes of the past that Bruce made (becoming overprotective of Robin to an alienating degree and firing him) by doing things that would be read as callous or uncaring to the reader if he wasn't Dick, I guess.

P.S. I know some people say this is why they regard Morrison's Dick as OOC, but I didn't have any place to fit that acknowledgement in the above paragraphs, but I think it's important to note that this was not just Morrison's Dick. In general Dick as Batman era was way different than Nightwing Rebirth era Dick or even post 2011 Dick.