#this version has more depth to it and I'm annoyed about it but if I'd rewritten things to accomodate it

[elitadream]

OUGHHHHH

As a selectively mute person myself, I loved selectively mute Mario. It fits so well.

Have you ever considered what would happen if Mario was nonvocal and trying to communicate with Luigi specifically? Does he use sign language? Do they have a different gesture system? Writing things down? Twin telepathy?

Love your art, always brings a smile to my face!

Oh thank you, I'm glad! ☺️ And I think so too!! 💯 I've mentioned before that my very first introduction to the character as a child was through both Mario World and Mario All-Stars 3; two games in which he is completely voiceless. And so, in a sense... The thought of Mario as a mute/selectively mute character has always existed in my subconscious. Today still, I love him just as much as a silent protagonist as a freely speaking one! ^-^ 💖

See, this is something that fascinates me about the concept as a whole and which I really love about @mrspockify's rendition: Mario doesn't have just one approach when communicating worldlessly with others. He does it in a myriad of different ways! Sometimes through actual signing, but also often through more subtle or ambiguous movements, or much less frequently through very faint vocal responses like a sigh, grunt or light chuckle- sometimes through just a look, or elaborate mimics, sometimes entirely through posture and body language etc. There's so much room for depth and nuance there! 👌💙💫

In my own interpretation, Luigi would be the only person with whom Mario can have ongoing silent conversations through micro gestures alone, all the while barely moving a muscle. Not even Peach would be able to read him quite that well, but for Luigi, deciphering the tiniest of shifts in Mario's stance or facial expressions would be like a second nature. The way I personally headcanon their exchanges are with Luigi doing about 90% of the dialogue through spoken words and adding signs out of habit when wanting to emphasize certains words or trying to really grab Mario's attention, whereas Mario would almost always entirely respond in his own way; only signing back to his brother when equally annoyed or when the answer requires a very specific term. x3

So I'd say it would be a mix of a somewhat different gesture system and "twin"-telepathy in my version. 🤭

[somethinabouttwistedwonderland]

FLOYD LEECH HEADCANONS

semi in-depth Floyd Leech relationship headcanons

I'm a Floyd fangirl, so the first character I'm making headcanons for is him! However, this will definitely be a wild ride due to just how fucked up Floyd is in general, so bear with me here as we go through all the green, red, and even black flags that our beloved unhinged eel has <3

IMPORTANT INFORMATION! ⚠️ ⚠️ PLEASE READ:

Before we start, I'd like to say that this is a set of relationship headcanons for a VERY unhinged and deranged character, one who does what he wants whenever he wants, and has shown ZERO real connections that aren't made out of anything aside from a superficial interest. So be weary that these headcanons are very "dead dove: do not eat". These are made from a very basic character analysis of Floyd.

This is NOT yandere content. Floyd is NOT a yandere don't come at me with that shit lmao. Floyd is just not all there mentally. Rated Mature due to toxic relationship mentions.

Table of contents: Floyd Analysis, Courting portion, relationship portion, miscellaneous portion, fluff portion (because we need a break from the toxicity), other people portion, overall.

CONTENT WARNING(S): VERY toxic relationship. Floyd being Floyd. unaware manipulation, abuse, oh so very many red flags. Cycle of love and neglect, objectification of the reader. Pushing boundaries. threats. violence. Lack of any empathy from Ocavinelle, Floyd losing interest. Floyd is VERY silly /neg

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Character analysis portion

When thinking about how someone would be in a relationship, we first have to analyze their characteristics, and BOY. We have a lot to discuss regarding Floyd Leech.

Floyd is a character who does things on whims, barely commits to anything unless he thinks it'll be interesting, and doesn't think about the consequences to his actions, even if his actions hurt others.

As Azul never fails to mention, Jade and Floyd do not see him as a friend, but as someone interesting who they keep around, and who they can drop like a bad habit any time they ever feel bored of him.

Floyd's lack of regard for the people around him is something that affects them very much, as Floyd is sometimes even eager to see others suffer, saying it's quicker to break bones than threatening someone.

Floyd is a very smart character as well (when he wants to be, of course), however Floyd prefers to stick to violence and forcing his way through things if possible, rather than scheming and manipulating like his calmer (albeit just as unhinged) twin brother.

Basically, Floyd is a character who does whatever he wants, whenever he wants, whenever he feels like it.

Onto the "courting" portion; Floyd noticing someone and falling in love is, in all likelihood, probably very unlikely. However, Floyd's version of love is most likely different from our own, due to the way he thinks.

For Floyd, what he might mistake for "love" could be something else entirely, and this is a very bad thing for the object of his "affections." For him, he could see it as finding you interesting, looking for ways to annoy you or make you squirm.

Floyd will start his "romantic journey" by going straight for what he wants: You. Floyd immediately bothers you, asking you things about yourself, and giving you a nickname (assuming you're not Yuu).

Floyd's "interest" in you is a lot more invasive than a regular person's interest in someone they "like". Floyd takes his spot in your personal space, inquiring about you, trying to figure out what makes you so interesting in his strange eel mind.

Depending on the object of his affections, this "interest" in you could be many different things. It could simply be that he thinks you're incredibly attractive, or something you did that amused him, anyways, he wants you to keep entertaining him for a long time.

I personally think that Floyd is rather clueless when it comes to romance as it was never really something that interested him. However, now whenever he sees a couple in the street holding hands, or a couple making out in an alleyway, you're always the first person to come to mind.

I am of the opinion that Floyd isn't the type to be interested in romantic relationships, so this is honestly just a passing thing for him as most things are.

Onto the relationship portion: Floyd makes sure to do everything that interests him together with you. As Floyd is someone who doesn't care about how others feel (unless the way they feel interests him in some way), Floyd mostly ignores how you react.

He doesn't care if you don't want to be with him or not. You're his interest now, and he's never treated anyone like a person before, why would he start now? To him, you're nothing more than something that amuses him.

He's happy to see your reactions to how he treats you. The idea that he gets to act like a sweet lover interests him. So sometimes he'll cradle you in his arms and gently push your hair out of your face. As you start to feel comfortable in his arms. He immediately lets go, starting to get bored of you.

The cycle of love and neglect from Floyd definitely hurts you mentally. Depending on you, you might start to crave the affection he gives you when he expresses interest in you, you could be terrified for when his mood swings hit and he gets bored of you.

Threatening you and seeing you scared isn't something that Floyd is above doing. In fact, seeing the fear on your face is something he can't get enough of, and it sparks his interest in you even more.

Floyd either doesn't know you have boundaries, or just doesn't care. No matter what your boundaries are, he'll find a way to push them if he wants to.

He's very focused on his own interests, and not yours. If you advocate for your boundaries, Floyd will most likely get annoyed and threaten you. If you try to avoid him, then he'd try to bother you even more, after all, he does love the chase.

There's many ways you can react to Floyd's... actions, however, many of them lead to you getting hurt more than just mentally, so you have to be incredibly careful when dealing with a "lovestruck" Floyd.

As Floyd's "love" is just an intense interest in you, he sort of expects you to behave like another interest would. That is, like an object that sometimes behaves in funny ways. So whenever you do something that upsets him, he is quick to threaten you in order to make you shut up about whatever it is you're whining about now. Of course, if you're whining about something silly, he'll poke you and laugh.

He loves making you embarrassed in public, he thinks your red face is cute. He is very into PDA, and always pays attention to you when the rest of his surroundings are boring.

If you really do love him, then I'm sorry to say, but this relationship won't last. Sure, he could find you interesting for a few years, but eventually he'll get bored, and drop you like a bad habit.

Onto the miscellaneous portion:

Floyd often takes you to clothing stores, having you watch as he puts on a mini fashion show. He also enjoys putting you in cute clothes like a dress-up-doll.

Of course he squeezes you until you feel your ribs break. Of course he drags you down into the murky depths until you start to thrash around for air. Of course he force feeds you expired food to see how you react. Of course he bites you until you bleed. Of course he thinks it's hilarious when you try to run away from him.

A relationship with Floyd might be scary, or even uncomfortable at times, but one thing it will never be is boring.

Since Floyd takes you everywhere he goes, there are some fun moments, too. He teaches you how basic parkour moves, he takes you swimming, he goes out to dance with you. Any one of his interests, he's all too happy to share with you.

He doesn't think too much about the future, so if you bring it up, he says "Whatever happens, happens!" and brushes you off.

Onto the fluff portion; there aren't many "truly wholesome" moments when in a relationship with Floyd.

However, maybe one day Floyd will realize that... hey, he loves you, and yet, whenever he sees the romantic scenes on the screens, the lovers hate seeing each other cry. He'll think. And he'll think. Does he hate to see you upset? He thinks it's funny, but that's not what it's usually like. He'll reflect.

One day, he might see you get hurt, and get pissed at the one who did it. Afterwards, he might comfort you in his arms. But is it just him acting again? You don't know, but you can't bring yourself to care.

Mornings waking up next to Floyd can be cute. His sleeping face, his arms around you.

When he's in the mood to love you, you can bet that you've got yourself a very sweet and very tender boyfriend, even if it's all an act, a part of you thinks he might actually love you as he gently rubs your shoulders and kisses your forehead.

He likes to give you random gifts! A cool looking rock he found, a large stick that can be used for hiking or pretending you're on a journey, or a neato piece of trash.

His love of clothes extends to loving to see you in them, especially cool shoes. You and Floyd will try on high heels and stumble around. Depending on your skill in heels, he might laugh as you fall, or he'll be very impressed with your ability.

Onto the other people portion; The people around you often feel bad for you, asking how on earth you could get Floyd to treat you like that, etc

Azul is quite annoyed by Floyd's newfound toy, as Floyd spends less time taking "orders" from Azul and more time messing with the object of his "affections".

Azul feels bad for you, honestly. He knows how Floyd is, and by seeing how he treats you, Azul knows how awful it must be. However, he doesn't interfere, as he has no place for empathy, really.

Jade is quite amused that Floyd is so interested in you. Jade doesn't quite see it, but whatever makes Floyd happy.

Jade doesn't feel bad for you in the slightest, finding a sadistic delight in seeing Floyd terrorizing you. However, he tells you that he's there if you need him, letting you cry your feelings away, while he's right there, patting your shoulder. This, however, is just his sadistic way of seeing you cry. Jade has always been just as bad as his brother after all, if not worse.

OVERALL

Overall, Floyd isn't someone who takes interest in having close, sappy relationships with others, and treats his partner like he does everything else. He hangs around with them, spends time with them, and when in the mood to act like a good partner, he does. But if he loses all interest in you, expect to be dropped like a bad habit. Don't expect a future, and don't expect to be treated like anything other than a passing fad.

Anyways!! This post was on the very serious side, seeing as I brought up just some of the mental trauma one would go through in this kinda situation. I'm aware that many people think Floyd is a very very silly guy, and I am of the opinion that he is silly, but a lot of people neglect just how toxic his kind of behavior is, and I really wanted to bring out that side of the conversation without implying that he's a Yandere. Floyd strikes me as the type to just take someone along with him if he thinks they're funny, and this shows with how he and his brother interact with Azul, actually.

Despite the lack of anything really cute and fluffy here, I hope you enjoyed my take on one of the most interesting characters in Twisted Wonderland, and how they'd be in a relationship! I plan on making another one of these character analysis relationship headcanon posts soon (that's hopefully more healthy than this one.) so keep updated!

[quokki]

Full giffing process - tutorial (*≧ω≦*)

Due to little demand, i will be going thru my complete process for making gifs. so this will cover all the basics i hope! keep in mind this is just the way I personally do things! please feel free to send me asks or dms if you have any doubts or questions!

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ DISCLAIMER: Everything I know about giffing, I've learned from other tutorials, including the VapourSynth Resources I'll be using in this tutorial so I'll leave links to those tutorials I've used here as well!

In Depth Giffing Tutorial (link here) How to use VapourSynth (link here) ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

(o´▽`o) I'm a windows user so idk if this works exactly the same on mac!

First things first, you will need:

☆ 4k video downloader (download it here!) ☆ Vapoursynth (32bit download / 64bit download) ☆ Photoshop (download it here! -64bit version only)

Okay! The first thing you need to do is make sure you're working with the highest quality material possible to ensure a decent looking gif!

I'd say the minimum quality needed for decent gifs is 1080px. But if you really want to gif that low quality 2 frame milisecond of your fave, i respect that

☆ lives / streams and tiktoks are typically not very high quality ☆ for stage performances such as music shows, ts/tp files are preferred but those can be really hard to get a hold of (this is a whole deeper level of giffing hell and more of an advanced class topic so nevermind this for now!) ☆ those occasional 4k facecams on youtube work fine tho! ☆ for mvs, variety shows etc, you can download the video with good quality from youtube using 4k video downloader

_(:3 」∠)_

Now let's talk about tumblr and it's pre-requisites for a good looking gif post :D

Tumblr can be sooooo annoying about gifs okay.... I find it's best to plan my whole set before I actually start doing anything but hey that's just me. Some things to keep in mind are: dimensions, file size, number of frames and post layout!

☆ Dimensions

You have 3 main options here and it's all about the width!

☆ 1 collumn: single gifs! these should be 540px wide ☆ 2 collumns: split that in half! 268px wide so there's a lil breathing space between the gifs! ☆ 3 collumns: 3's a party! 177px for each gif please

You can go crazy on the height but the width should mostly stick to one of those 3 unless you want tumblr to pull and squeeze your gif around like a piece of gum.

☆ File Size

This is really important because tumblr has a single image size limit of 10mb. Which means that every single gif you make has to be under that size or you won't be able to post it. The other thing about this is that the dimensions, number of frames and ammount of varying colors throughtout your gif will greatly impact on the final file size. Basically, the larger the dimensions and the more frames it has, the bigger the final file will be. Later on I will show you how to check your gif's final size before exporting it!

☆ Number of frames

This has more to do with the length of your gif, the longer it is, the bigger the final file will be. Typically gifs should be under 3 seconds long. So if you are making a set, try to break the moments you want to include in your set by increments of up to 2 - 3 seconds each, otherwise it might not fit all into one single gif. The number of frames is also extremely important when making combined gifs but that's for another tutorial.

☆ Post layout

If you want to make a cool looking gifset (where some gifs are larger in dimension than others, or when you want to have a single gif followed by a line of 2 gifs next to each other), then it might be worth it to plan out the layout before you start making the gifs. This way you ensure you won't have to remake gifs down the line because they don't fit together the way you wanted to.

☆ﾐ(o*･ω･)ﾉ

Timestamping

For this step, you will go through the video you want to gif from and you will just write down all the sections you want to use, down to the exact seconds. Example: 02:30 - 02:32.

(^◕ᴥ◕^)

VapourSynth (VS) - Clipping the video

I know VS can look pretty intimidating with it's bare coding and all but I promise it can be your friend. You just have to set it up correctly and pay close attention whenever you're using it. This software is a must for giffing, it will do all your cropping, resizing, sharpening and denoising for you, making sure your gifs look good. It is also indispensable when giffing ts/tp files because it deinterlaces those files so you can clip them.

First, let's set it up. This is the most annoying and difficult part of this tutorial so make sure you pay full attention to every single step!

☆ step 1) download a version of VS here (link).

☆ step 2) unzip the file on your desktop area.

☆ step 3) open the folder and find the file named "vapourscript (drop video file on me)" - make a shortcut of that file and move it to the desktop.

☆ step 4) find the folder named "gifs" - make a shortcut of that file and move it to the desktop.

☆ step 5) drag your video file you want to gif from and drop it on top of the "vapourscript (drop video file on me)" shortcut on your desktop.

☆ step 6) enter the timestamp input, in the first line it will be the starting of your timestamp, in hours format, then hit enter. in the second line enter how long your timestamps lasts, in seconds, also in hours format. then hit enter and let the code run.

☆ step 7) the resizer tab should now load on a web browser, then you will set the dimensions of your gif on the top left corner. you can also adjust the position of your gif within the video screen and zoom in if wanted.

☆ step 8) choose the preprocessor, denoise and sharpening options on the left and tick the boxes on. I usually just stick to the settings i'm using in my video down below.

☆ step 9) now in the VS box, go to file > load, choose the script saved in the gifs folder.

☆ step 10) copy the code from the resizer into the code in the vs screen, under the designated line.

☆ step 11) alter the code exactly like I did in my video down below. save it. this is now your default vs script for clipping your gifs. what you are doing by adding the hastag and the quotation marks is you're disabling those sections of the code. the reason you do that is in case you want to run the preview before exporting. this is because those lines involve some heavy graphic processing which can make the computer slow. I will talk about the script in more detail later on.

☆ step 12) i don't usually use this option but you can also preview your gif and set specific frames to start and end your gif. This is around the 4:30 mark in the video.

☆ step 13) time to export your clip! now you will temporarily remove the marks you added to disable the code and then go to script > encode video. in the popup box, you will select the option "export to MOV", then start so that you can use that video file in photoshop later.

☆ step 14) after you are done exporting, close the encoding box and then close vapoursynth, never agree to save the script when closing it, or that will override your default script.

☆ step 15) now you need to rename the encoded file for your gif. go to the gifs shortcut folder you created on your desktop, then go to output. this is the folder where VS will save all your encoded files. but everytime it saves the file with the same name so you need to come to this folder and change the name for every gif file you encode before you clip a new one, otherwise VS will just replace the previous clip with the new one you just finished.

Here's a detailed walk through of each step in this video tutorial:

IMPORTANT

After you are done processing your first clipped file, now you have your default script already built in VS, so whenever you run it to clip more videos, this script will already be in your VS screen. So now all you need to do whenever you want to clip more files (to make more gifs) is to adjust the dimensions, positioning and zoom of the video in the resizer screen and then change a few numbers in your script! then run encode to save the clipped file.

☆ To make new clips: go thru steps 5- 7, also do 8 if you want to mess with the denoise and sharpening filters again, but I don't really know much about how those work so I can't help you with this.

Now what you need to alter in the code, each time you are making a new gif: after you run VS and change the settings in the resizer to what you want, you need to change the zoom numbers and the video positioning in the code.

you need to replace the numbers in the VS script on the left so they match the numbers in the resizer on the right.

Do step 12 if you want to set specific frames to clip. Then steps 13 - 15 and you are done! You need to do all this every single time you want to make a new gif.

Now let me talk a bit more about some of the lines in this script:

☆ line 14: #video = core.std.Trim(video, a, b) this line is to set specific frames to trim your video section, your final encoded file will be only the frames inbetween the numbers you input here. a = first frame, b = last frame. you will need to run the preview option in VS in order to see every single frame of your clip and select your first and last frame. I usually do this in photoshop later instead so I don't bother with it on VS unless i'm making combined gifs, in which you need all the clips to have the exact same number of frames. the hashtag at the beginning of this line means that the script won't follow this command when executed. so if you want to include it, you need to remove the hashtag before encoding your file.

☆ line 18: #video = haf.QTGMC(video, Preset="Slower", TFF=True) this line is for the preprocessor option in VS, that tool is mainly only used when giffing ts/tp files because you need to deinterlace them before you can use them on photoshop. so you will only need to remove the hashtag and enable it when giffing those types of files. when im giffing those files, i usually always keep it with this setting:

I don't really understand much about this so I never mess with it. If you want to know more, I believe there's more info about it in the tutuorials I linked at the beginning of my post.

☆ line 22: video = descale.Debilinear(video, 786,442) this line is for the zoom of the video screen. you just need to match what you have in your VS script to what you end up with in your resizer.

☆ line 25: video = core.knlm.KNLMeansCL(video, 1, 2, 4, 2.5, channels="YUV") this line is for the denoising filters, in my case I always use KNLM and this is what it's line looks like. I know you can change those numbers to change the filtering settings but I never messed with it so I'd usually just have it like that.

☆ line 27: video = fun.FineSharp(video, sstr=2.5) this line is for the sharpening, in my case I always use FineSharp and this is what it's line looks like. I know you can change the number to change it's settings but I never messed with it so I'd usually just have it like that.

note: lines 25 and 27 (which have to do with denoise and sharpening) are the ones within quotation marks in your default script. I believe the quotations work in a similar way as the hashtag, in which the script only executes the lines when the quotations are removed. Which is what you do everytime you are about to encode your clip, otherwise they stay on. I think you should also remove them if you want to test how they affect your gif in the preview screen but i think these filters also require heavier graphic processing which my computer can't handle well so I never do that.

☆ line 30: video = core.std.CropRel(video, left=303, top=16, right=215, bottom=26) this line is for the positioning of your video screen within the gif dimensions. you just need to match what you have in your VS script to what you end up with in your resizer.

ʕ •̀ o •́ ʔ

Photoshop (PS) - let's make a gif!

Now that we have clipped and preprocessed our video file, it's ready to go to photoshop!

☆ step 1) after you have opened PS, go to File > Import > Video Frames to Layers. Then choose the clipped file you created through VS.

PS should open a box like this:

Keep those options ticked and hit OK

☆ step 2) now you need to go to Window > Timeline to bring up the timeline tool box. This window will always be necessary when making gifs. Let's take a look at it, I've marked down all the important buttons you will need:

timeline menu: there are several commands in here, you will need to use some of them later on.

convert to video / frame timeline

play controls to watch your gif

trash can to delete selected frames. (when deleting frames, first delete them here and then delete it's matching layers which are still there after deleting the frames)

frame delay time: this is where you set the time for how long that frame will be visible in your gif

☆ step 3) remember how I mentioned the preview option in VS and how i don't usually use it to trim the frames of my clip? That's because I usually do that at this step of the process, in PS. Notice how each frame is also a layer, and when a frame is selected, the matching layer has the eye symbol next to it turned on. So now you should play your gif and see if there are any frames you don't want to keep, then delete the frames and it's matching layers.

Since we applied sharpening filters back when we were clipping the video on VS, your clip should probably already look pretty decent even before the next steps, so steps 4 - 9 are optional. The coloring part of my video has been sped up.

☆ step 4) click on the timeline menu and select "Select all frames", then go to the select menu at the top of the PS screen and select "All layers". Now click on button 2 of the timeline at the bottom left, switching from the frame timeline to the video timeline.

☆ step 5) before you do anything else, make sure the blue holder is at the beginning of the track before you do anything else. Then go to Filter (at the top of PS) and select "Convert for smart filters". This will convert all the layers into one single layer.

☆ step 6) now make sure the layer is selected, then go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. A box will open with several options:

I usually keep the amount to around 30, I don't touch on radius and you can also mess with reduce noise if you think your gif is looking too sharp. Hit OK when you're done.

Since this is a filter applied to a smart object (the converted layer that contains all our layer - frames), this means you can turn this filter on or off as long as the layers are in the form of a smart object. You can also go back to it and alter it's settings (like I've done in my video down below)

☆ step 7) now while making sure the blue holder is still at the beginning of the track and the layer is selected, click on the timeline menu that i mentioned above. Then go to Convert Frames, then select Flatten frames into clips.

☆ step 8) again go to the timeline menu, Convert Frames, but now select Make Frames from Clips. Now click on the button at the bottom left of the timeline box, to convert the video timeline back into a frame animation. Then hit continue in the pop up box.

☆ step 9) now you are back to the frame timeline screen from before, but now the first frame is empty. You need to delete that first frame and then check the final frame because sometimes PS also creates another empty frame at the end at this point.

☆ step 10) PS also created a new layer under the layer 0, where the filter is still applied, you can delete this new layer as well. Now for organizational purposes, select all remaining layers (that contain your frames) and group them (you can see how in the video).

☆ step 11) This step is also optional, now I like to add the coloring to the gif. I have a separate tutorial exclusively on this topic. You can check it here:

☆ step 12) This is the time when I also add my signature. This is optional. You need to have the signature layer(s) on top of all the other layers. I usually have it in all black or all white, with lowered opacity of around 40%.

NOTE:

When adding elements (such as a signature) to a gif, it's important to always make sure you have the first frame selected, otherwise PS can move your newly added elements around the canvas on different and random frames. This also applies to anything in the layers pannel that has specific opacities. It's best to already add the elements with the final wanted opacity with the first frame selected.

Exporting + Delay time

☆ step 13) To export: go to File > Export > Save for web (Legacy). PS will open this box:

First I just use the exporting screen to test the delay time of my gif, and to check the gif's final size.

About the size: The final size is displayed at the bottom left. Remember it needs to be under 10mb. If it's above that, then you will have to go back and delete frames and test again until the size is within the limit.

About the delay time: To test the delay time, hit that play button and the gif will play at it's default delay time. If it's too fast or too slow, you will hit cancel and change the delay time (at the next step).

For actual exporting: The highlighted box at the top right of the screen is very relevant now. Make sure the first box has the GIF option selected. At the next box, you can select either perceptual, selective or adaptive. I usually like to use adaptive. At the next box you need to choose either diffusion or pattern. I like to use pattern. Tick the transparency box and then select either pattern or diffusion transparency dither.

Once you are satisfied with all aspects of your gif, hit save to export your final gif.

To fix the delay time: After you have exited the export box, go back to your timeline, click on the menu button at the top right and select "Select all frames". Then, on any random frame, click at the small arrow next to the numbers under the frame. Select the option "Other". That will open a pop up box to alter the delay time. To test it again, use the export box explained above. Once you are satisfied, save your gif! I've also altered the delay time in my video to show you the process.

☆ step 14) After your gif is done and saved, I'd suggest to save your psd file if you added any coloring to it. This is so you can reuse the coloring later in other gifs without having to redo it all. This is useful if mking a set of gifs from the same moment / video.

Here's a detailed walk through of each PS step in this video tutorial:

I hope this tutorial is helpful! Feel free to send me any asks if you have doubts or need extra help! (つ≧▽≦)つ

[rubykgrant]

Do you think Simmons and Lopez and Church and Tex (and any other characters with robot parts) have ever tried swapping parts? (I originally just thought Simmons and Lopez trying something for fun but now my mind is going to Church and Tex swapping parts for specific kinds of fun since we know Tex is dom and Church is sub ajsjsjdjdjdjdj)

Pfff I am the worst person to ask questions when it comes to "sexy fun times", because I'm mostly boring with my own thoughts (I'm not uncomfortable with the subject, it just isn't much of a focus for me haha). I definitely don't want to rain on anybody's shipping-parade (y'all have fun with every combination of characters, keep putting them in situations~), but if I had to pretend to be "practical" and answer seriously...

Early on, Church was a little indignant about being in a robot body (it was Epsilon who made the joke about how "no girl wants to get it on with Optimus Prime". dude, first of all, I think the amount of girls who are into Optimus Prime would ASTOUND you. second, Tex is REALLY into vehicles. she would be down with it). He was just entirely too frustrated and repressed to actually DO anything (as much as that may have helped). Similarly, Lopez was so ticked-off at EVERYBODY for ignoring him, and they keep using HIS spare robot parts! If anybody wanted to have "fun" with that, he'd be so insulted. HOWEVER. I think Church irritates him the least (at least on a regular basis). One could imagine that, perhaps Church asked a genuine question about his new robot body, and since Sarge hadn't up-dated any recent kill-the-Blues orders, Lopez was able to chit-chat for a while. Maybe things lead to things!

Simmons, on the other hand, keeps annoying Lopez, and Lopez intentionally ignores him when he asks about anything regarding his robot parts (also, Simmons is even MORE frustrated and repressed than Church. if Church hadn't been such a big bully during Simmons' Blue Phase, that could have had some potential for both of them to maybe work through some stuff... but they can't be nice until they think they "won" an argument, so nobody was having a fun time). Tex scares everybody except Church. I mean, she scares him TOO, but he's into it. Again, between all the nonsense everybody kept getting into, I doubt that "realistically" they had time for much fun.

That isn't to say they WOULDN'T have fun; Church is very OK with Tex being a little rough, and in turn, he can tell when she needs more tender attention (when Church can get over his own pissy attitude, he's actually incredibly caring and indulgent). They also understand each other in very unique ways, so being intimate has a special depth (I'd also like to imagine that, after a conversation regarding the Epsilon memory iteration with dude-Tex, which any version of Church is attracted to, Tex thinks about what girl-Church would be like. oh no, she's such a mean little princess brat, and Tex, uh, is also OK with it. if they talk about that, they'd both realize, hey- their genders are NOT binary at all, so. that's a thing. personally, I imagine both Tex and Church as bi and nonbinary, Church also figuring out he's genderfluid, and Tex being genderqueer. they don't really present any different most of the time, but oh well. the difference matters to THEM. they also are a little more fluid with dom/sub dynamics)

In a situation where everybody has a chance to CALM DOWN, they could have more fun together... I personally don't picture Simmons being especially interested in his cyborg parts/other robots when it comes to that, and he's going to need... SO MUCH coaxing. I actually feel like maybe Church and Simmons could be a thing together first, and maybe that opens up to more options (again, Church is capable of being very tender, and Simmons would thrive on the right kind of attention/compliments. Simmons would just be too intimidated to join in with a group right away, and he needs to chill before Tex and Lopez are interested. Church and Lopez would also probably have fun as a duo, before Tex getting in there, etc. oh no, Church is the one who was to seduce everybody. he probably could if he can just NOT be an a-hole for a few minutes, but once he succeeds, he will be SO insufferable. he'll never stop bragging about it)

All of this to say, they are all mostly too busy with their bonkers lives, or too busy being jerks, to have robot sexy fun time... it CAN happen, though. I'm sure a lot of people have made art/written fics that involve all this and more, in a thousand different scenarios. I'm just BORING, because I can't not imagine so much plot, and the plot usually gets in the way, and nobody does anything haha. In NOT sexy situations, when Simmons is better at communicating and appreciating Lopez, I think they would finally bond over both being Mr Fix-Its, and it would open up a new dynamic with them being able to complain about things other people just don't totally get. Also, not to be a perpetual Grif and Simmons shipper, but if anybody wants half a chance of fooling around with Simmons, he needs some time with Grif first, they have to RESOLVE that TENSION, and then Grif probably needs to come along for the ride (also, he wants everybody to sign an agreement to NEVER mention this to Kai; she'd call him a hypocrite, and he can't deal with that). Again, I'M BORING haha

[trouslinabone]

what do you think about undertale ships?

WARNING: THIS IS A LONG LIST OF VARIOUS SHIPS OF BOTH UNDERTALE AND DELTARUNE. SOME SHIPS ARE IMMORAL. (With pictures :D)

Depends on the ship.

When I first was learning about Undertale, I looked up a lot of Undertale Comic Dubs (I knew more about AUs than the actual game for a while), so I was prone to a lot of ship material, notably Frans, Sanscest, and Fontcest. As I matured, I lost interest in most ships, but there are some I think about from time to time.

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I was into Frans for a minute, as there was so many cute comic dubs of it, but stopped caring about it as I eventually starting disliking Sans. I was still a kid at this point. Like 13 or so. While I like Sans as a character now, I still don't go after it as it's immoral and typically feels like a power complex.

(Made by WaiqiuVale)

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I was into Charus for a while, and still am to a degree, but the moral ambiguity of it makes me not really look into it much anymore either. (Is Chara still a kid even if Chara has been dead for ages? Probably. Is Papyrus a kid as well due to his childish manners? Probably not.)

I mainly liked it due to this specific scenario where Papyrus successfully convinced Chara to abort genocide and thought them to be a better person. You can tell I liked this when "Chara is evil" was still the fanon consensus.

(Made by TallestDwarfGremlin)

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I hate Papyton. No real reason, I just think it's a toxic ship and Papyrus deserves better. I also dislike Mettaton as a character. He's funny, but in comparison to everyone else, kinda flat. He's the most 2 dimensional character.

He's a star, he likes being a star and wants to be a bigger star but wasn't always a star. There's minor interesting things, but eh... As I believe Papyrus has an insane amount of depth, I'd want him to be with someone with a lot of depth as well.

(Made by GalacticJoelle)

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Asriel x Chara (Chariel?) feels like step incest. It can be cute, but it's a tough pill to swallow.

(Made by Renrick)

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Speaking of incest, Fontcest is a ship I dislike. I understand the appeal - Papyrus and Sans have really good chemistry, care for eachother, and are funny together... But that's because they're family.

Something that comes to mind about Fontcest tho, there's this one high-quality animation that is genuinely insanely good and emotional that's fontcest. AM I SUPPOSED TO DISLIKE IT OR LIKE IT???

(Made by xXMimykoXx)

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Sanscest exists. It's incest on steroids for the most part. Everything wrong with incest on a practical level is doubled with Sanscest, and I have gotten into heated debates about this. Am I serious about it? Not really, but it's something fun to think about.

(Made by The-Cyan-Wolf)

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Soriel is canon to me. In my AU, Deltarune: Insanity Calls, it's canon. It just makes too much sense. And Toriel appears about 40 (even if she's actually 900+ years or whatever), and Sans appears about in his mid 30s. It's a bit of a gap, but nothing to bad for me. I think it's cute.

Especially the Deltarune version of the ship.

(Made by daisiloou)

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Papyrus x Frisk (Papyrisk?) is arguably canon. I always bring it up in arguments when people are against Frans. I've already discussed how I don't care for Frans, but it's another one of those things I'm not really serious about, but just find it interesting to talk about.

(Made by Mozer)

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On the topic of Papyrus x Frisk, Alphys x Frisk is also arguably canon. Same thing as above, but I dislike it more than Papyrisk as there's no Papyrus, and I enjoy Alphdyne.

(Made by Gaster)

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Speaking of Alphdyne, it ain't an OTP for me, but it's the only undeniably canon ship in Undertale and it's cute.

(Made by Caligmaera)

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I hate Temmie x The Annoying Dog as it's immoral to ship real people and both of those are self inserts.

(Made by Arinna1)

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[Character Here] x Self Insert/OC is something that I've done often since I'm an avid roleplayer. Notably I've done long term Sans x Self Insert and various Papyri x OC roleplays before. They're okay. Nothing to write home about.

(Made by @braindeadskeletons)

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As a bonus, some random Deltarune ships:

Kris X Susie X Noelle (A Poly ship... Kruselle?) is my personal OTP for Deltarune. Susie x Noelle is cute, Kris x Susie is cute, Noelle x Kris is cute, the best way to get around this? They date eachother. I used to have bad trauma over polyamorous relationships due to my own bad experiences with them, so this is actually good progress for me :3

(Made by @pillowbug99) -

Spamvil is basically canon, and I like it as it's canon in the same AU of mine I mentioned before - Insanity Calls - but I like it more in terms of Jevil having a massive, obvious crush on Spamton and Spamton hating Jevil's guts. That dynamic of Spamvil is more interesting to me than Spamvil itself.

(Made by Mipexch)

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Spamton x Alphys (A real ship, I swear. Also Spamhys?) is a cute ship. Not a lot of content about it, but it fits Alphys' personality I feel like (her dating an AI) and it feels like a good match. I'm a sucker for [Nervous Character] x [Smooth Talker], even if Spamton ain't as smooth as he used to be.

(Made by anon artists on 4Chan)

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Spamton x Papyrus (Another real ship, I swear... Spamrus?) is funny. I toy with the idea a lot. It probably wouldn't work, but it's by far an insanely funny crack list. I only know this ship is a thing due to a ex-friend of mine who really liked it.

(Made by Eugenia_yesme)

So yeah, those are my thoughts on Undertale (and some Deltarune) ships!

Before anyone mentions it, yes I know I didn't give Suselle its own tier, but my opinion kinda falls under the Kruselle ship.

I barely scratched the surface. Some honorable ships are Kris x Berdly, Noelle x Berdly, Alphys x Asgore, Gaster x Asgore, Gaster x Grillby, Grillby X Sans, Burgerpants x Nice Cream Guy - you get the point.

Maybe if this gets any interest what-so-ever, I'll do a part 2 where I go over more ships and give my two cents about them.

Let me know if I miscredited any artists or if you know who did the Alphys x Spamton art.

[thepartyishere]

My thoughts on different ways to engage in a fandom and the relationships between different sides of the spectrum (how did this turn into a whole essay?)

This is a spectrum and the thing is that both sides are valid and fun, it just gets irritating to see the other side sometimes.

I understand complaining about people who mischaracterize and play with fanon versions of characters but that's how they're having fun in their hobby, they're far on the "playing with dolls side." On the other hand, sometimes people dont want to get academic sounding deep analyses on their posts or even see them on their dash so they get annoyed bc that's not what they're in fandom to see and engage with.

To be clear, my opinion is that both sides are fine and valid ways to be in fandom.

Most people are close to the middle. They want to stay true to canon but apply their own headcanons and takes and interpretations, they want some wiggle room from what's canon.

There's also ideal vs true alignment.

Ideally I would be a lot closer to the left side than I am, 3/4 of the way over or more. Realistically though, I spend a lot more time mindlessly reblogging fan content than I would like, it's my hobby and a way to destress after all. In practice I'm closer to the middle than in an ideal world where I always have the brain power and time to interact with the content how I'd prefer to.

I'm just trying to put a name to this conflict (as in opposing interests, not necessarily fighting) I see all over. People are in fandom for different reasons, some people don't care about mischaracterization or the themes of the story and that annoys people who do care. They're having fun playing dolls with the characters. Some people are really into digging deep and understanding canon and related works and that can be recieved poorly, they're just trying to find a community of similarly aligned people on this spectrum.

This is all in reference to Bungou Stray Dogs in particular and I think it's so strong in this fandom because of the literary basis of the manga as well as the countless light novels. The spectrum is so much wider here.

It ranges from anime-onlies potentially completely unaware of the classical authors the show is based on (more likely that they are aware but haven't directly engaged with anything beyond the anime) to people deeply invested in reading and understanding the original author's works and Asagiri's choices and influences.

Because there's so much content and range there's a lot more room for error. Or at least different levels of understanding between different areas of the spectrum. I can't speak to how strong the conflict or dislike between sides of the spectrum are in other fandoms but bsd seems to attract, or at least spark, a desire to engage with the characters in depth. So when a person who has done the extra reading and extra work to understand better sees (mis)interpretations of characters it creates a feeling of being better-than or more intelligent and understanding than that person. This is where I always see demeaning posts toward people with bad takes.

My point isn't that posts like that are bad or need to stop, if anything they're good for sparking discussion and conversations about more accurate interpretations. My point is to share the perspective I see and the ideas I have about it.

Being more understanding or having a more academic approach and having that "better-than" feeling is not necessarily a bad thing. Some takes are atrociously incorrect but it all comes from different levels of understanding, and some people are just here to play with dolls.

There's no way to separate different parts of fandom for how you want to engage, that would be impossible and the different levels interacting are good for the ecosystem anyways. I wish there was a way though.

[lepurcinus]

What do you think of the three watership down adaptations?

This is probably very unpopular or strange. But here I go (W VEEERY long text/rant)

The 78 movie: Ehmmmmmm how to say it, I like it but not that much????

The animation style and this one itself I love, very beautiful captures the natural environment very well and the designs of the rabbits are impeccable even though they can be somewhat similar at times. I even appreciate that each warren follows its own details and even each rabbit has a unique part.

On the other hand in terms of story...it is the most faithful adaptation and follows everything almost to the letter, failing due to lack of time and thus having to cut things out. And it shows. I don't feel any kind of depth or charisma for the characters like their written version, they are just there existing (Except Bigwig and maybe Fiver) and the important scenes that should identify them are no longer the same (Ahem Dandelion saying he will tell the story of his journey to the youngsters when we never see him narrate a single story). Also new characters that only exist to die and also don't give me any kind of impact and even ruin the other characters in passing (Violet/Blackavar). And yes I definitely hated with all my being the focus on scary, violent and so on. Look, the book also has its moments and the presence of death is constant, but here I just see rabbits bleeding gallons of blood and dying at every corner and bad rabbits just because, Watership Down isn't about that. The scenes concentrate on horror and not terror as it should be (they are different things). Although read I will give points on the setting for the scenes of Fiver and the black rabbit. Actually that more ethereal part was very good, the way the visions of him in the art were presented was amazing too, very intriguing.

I'm still reeling from the pain of having the lettuce story scene removed.

The 99 series: Passable, a middle ground.

Some additions are a bit weird but it follows the line well, changes like Blackberry's gender don't bother me and I'd say it's even exaggerated the hate they gave it at the time (Because surprise it's not violent like the woooh movie).

In other terms, let's say that certain things didn't fit me. The personalities of the characters while I appreciate that they aren't talking rocks like the movie it bothers me a bit that they feel so generic/stereotypical/one trick. More than anything I have this problem with Bigwig, I don't know if it's my problem but seriously his version here I don't like him I feel very annoying and bloody to an unbearable level. He's naggy but not in a fun and understandable way like in the book. Something like that happens to me with the others.

New characters like Hannah and Kehaar's treatment eh, I don't hate every minute of his presence but yeah, they are not my favorite. The idea of having Kehaar abandon his people in favor of the rabbits is kind of missing the point of his character? Then they kind of backtrack and decide to give him a mate to leave and then replace him with a baby voiced hawk.

Although I found characters like the Yona's, the mole or Bark to be likable and cute.

The third season is a hit or miss. The change of style is not too bad although some designs look ugly (On the other hand Woundwort and Campion look very badass like that). The implementation of magic as something straightforward and affecting the world it seemed ridiculous and unnecessary. They detract from the fact that the Watership Down rabbits won by their cunning and teamwork and that Woundwort fell by his own stubbornness. Here they brought out a mouse with powers taken from a wizard turtle to summon fucking death itself to take everyone down???? Seems like inle needs to be summoned to do his job lol. (And yeah, I didn't like his characterization here, especially that edgy voice with filters ugh).

Other more additions like the new warrens and the El-ahrairah stories I love them but i wish they would have delved into them more. I really wanted that chapter on Inle's story had been done. The concept of Darkhaven and its rabbits, although it seems to be taken from a Fanfic with ocs the truth I found it interesting and I liked several characters a lot (I love you Granite). Also this version includes my favorite characterization of Woundwort and Vervain (and Campion I understand why many like this version) they are not 100% villains and they have their background and seeing their rise and fall is worth it. Although I feel that outside of them and characters like Moss Efrafa contributed almost nothing, there were not all those characters that helped us to understand how life was there and there were only brute and aggressive rabbits without more, it all felt very wasted. And again Blackavar is used as a rag because apart from being half secondary then completely forget about him. Wanting to take advantage of a person

Wanting to take advantage of characters like Silverweed was good, the truth I liked him outside of his oc superpowers.

The overall art style is not bad but looking at the concept art I would have wished it would have stayed that way. I can't help but see them as colorful Wallabies instead of rabbits and other animals that don't even look like the species they are.

I could add more but these are the most important thing to say.

Netflix miniseries: Well, here we go. I'm sure some will already want to flame and crucify me for this, but fearlessly I'm going to say it's my favorite adaptation of the three.

And look I FULLY UNDERSTAND your annoyances (Except for the stupidity of complaining because it's less violent than the movie). I agree that the animation leaves a lot to be desired and that the bunny models could have been better (besides the pawpads and constant digitigrade posing). And yes, I can see why several changes in moments and characters don't generate the same impact as in the novel. I read the thousand and one reviews everywhere that talk about that and I've noticed it myself.

However, even with all that I dare to say that it is my favorite and I'll tell you why.

I really like to enjoy it as a different version of the story, it's a different vision and unlike their other adaptations here I can't force myself to understand it as a super watered down and flat version of the novel nor as an episodic series with new additions. It's a new form of Watership Down. Get my point?

Here I really see characters changing and with personality. While it's true that some are still driven by being somewhat repetitive like Hawkbit and Dandelion, but here I didn't feel them overly heavy-handed like in the TV series. They are fun to watch, they are charismatic.

I've seen several complaints about how Bigwig here is too aggressive and pedantic but personally I didn't feel him in that way?? I mean yes, he definitely lacks that softer, more sympathetic side but I think his character comes across well. And yes, I can see why one would be upset with him being treated more like a stupid strongman here instead of the strong but knowledgeable and analytical bunny.

Other characters. I see the annoyance with the more insecure Hazel and a bit Simp, on the other hand I like that he has a couple of flaws that evolve as he progresses. I certainly don't think it was done in the best way and I feel him still very emotional and driven to danger by his own lack of judgement, however the fact that Fiver is the one who complements him with being the one who backs him up and makes him understand is something I appreciate.

Fiver is actually my favorite characterization and I don't know if I would say the boldness of it made me love him much more here than even his literary version. He's neither a hypernervous anorexic bunny driven by trauma nor a calm possessed child. He is a balance, he is sympathetic, level-headed, intelligent, though he can be intimidated he is also not afraid to speak his mind and is true to his ideals and takes his views seriously but at the same time fearful because of how unfamiliar and perplexing they are, sometimes even leading to blame himself for not wanting to understand them if it allows him to help others. To me that's a good way to look at Fiver.

Added as doe Strawberry and Clover, let's see. Again the gender change I could care less about, Strawberry active cheerful and helpful I thought was great, she is very cute and cuddly. And her complement with Bigwig doesn't seem bad to me (some say it didn't make sense because they didn't interact but actually they did, she even defended him when they were arguing and come on even in the book the rabbits who are a couple at least even spoke to each other??).

Clover on the other hand, again the idea of her being a more active character I thought was great. Although the fact that they try to focus on her being a caged rabbit and her unfamiliarity with the wild is handled, I see the flaws in this as well. She gets used relatively quickly and even though it was precisely because of her naivety that she got into trouble it doesn't feel as much. About his romance with Hazel, look, I see it cute but I understand why some things get messed up. The fact that it has to be her instead of Fiver who ventures out to find Hazel after being hurt, because true love, was definitely an egregious change. They could have had Fiver go and Clover impatiently try to follow him only to get lost on the way and get captured instead.

Kehaar though definitely very grumpy and rude compared to his version who though defiant and brave is also helpful was a bit ehh. I still find him charismatic in his own way and his "rivalry" relationship with Bigwig I feel worked well considering.

What their personalities are like here.

Efrafa and does. Uffff how to say it, the change from being a super populated den due to its oppressive environment as a derivative of the desire to hide it as much as possible from man is lost. Here it is an oppressive and evil place because yes, Woundwort has his background but he is entirely corrupted and what he does he does out of sheer power and desire. It's not such a bad take but it still loses its depth, I would have liked to see that concept where Woundwort's brother was still alive and together they created it while he looks with sorrow at his brother's corruption, it would have been great.

Looking at it this way then, well it definitely captures that terrifying and oppressive aura very well, these rabbits do look powerful, terrifying and dominating. Vervain and especially Orchis looked great to me, most of all the latter. I have a thing for these charismatic and intelligent villains who know how to use words well instead of force to get what they want. Sainfoin and Campion were also good, in a way that they tried to go with a similar path to the TV series with the latter I saw it great, more in this context. Also we see something more about Efrafa's life and although the idea of Bigwig being presented as a narrator instead of a member of Owsla was somewhat rare, the more I appreciated his interactions with the other characters watching him with intrigue, training him and interacting with him as comrades in storytelling.

About Hyzen and the does. Again in this context they work. They are in a really horrible place with thousands of horrible eyes on them. Even with that Hyzen and the others are still girls trying to overcome whatever happens to them, she still wants the best for her teammates even if it leads her to be much more distrustful and bring her to the brink of breakdown. I wish her ability to be like Fiver had also been added but I still like her.

Also I appreciate finally having Thethuthinnang and Nettle's involvement as a Nelthilta equivalent, maybe I would have wanted Vilthuril to also be part of the group to equally give her a role and then her bonding with Fiver. How Thet wants to be that force of encouragement for everyone with his songs is a beautiful thing to me. And Nettle's betrayal as an attempt to want to do his best without knowing the damage it meant was very painful.

And yes, Holly's involvement and her relationship with Hyzen seemed appropriate to me. Despite this Holly lacking a lot of the veteran side and knew his original counterpart, I saw him as nice collaborative and challenging and how in a way his mistake in not listening to Fiver made him pay and reflect on being better to then tell Campion great!!!. Others say it's kind of weird but consider that all along Hyzen and Holly interacted and knew each other in Efrafa as well as being a link for her to trust Bigwig. Although their interaction was little it's actually a possible scenario to see. Then he sacrifices himself and mourns his death, gosh, I prefer that over Blackavar's unnecessary and weightless death in the movie. This one at least does have weight and reason.

Plus they finally make Blackavar justified, I love him so much here as a wise old veteran but hurting, capable of being tough. He really participates in the story! And I loved his role along with his line "your plan doesn't make sense but if you pull it off and we remember it I want to be able to say I was part of it" (It wasn't like that as is but you know what it is.).

And lastly, I really missed the lack of stories. Despite being told secondarily, I would have liked to hear this version of Inle's story. And speaking of which, love this version of her, so serene, good and kind but at the same time mysterious and creepy. My favorite without a doubt.

Anyway, here's all my chatter, there would be more but I've already overdone it. Answer me what you want about this and argue, even if there are new points that I'm happy to hear my general opinion will remain the same :P

[measlyfurball13]

ask game 25 Omega

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

My first impression of Omega came from @fernsnailz amazingly fantastic art and comics of him, so I got a sort of "head start" compared to the rest of the fandom, who I feel don't really know him that well? Correct me if I'm wrong about that of course, but I feel like a lot of people don't see Omega as anything more than "haha killer robot murder explosions" and that's because he's in a lot less canon/fanon than most of the other characters and his canon is pretty dogshit (which is saying something, for this is the Sonic franchise we're talking about. No character has good canon.)

So, all I knew about him at first was that he was friends with Shadow and that he was unapologetically a killer robot. I also knew that he was a former Eggman robot, but I didn't really understand the depth of what that meant yet until I started reading up on the Sonic wiki to try and get more of a vibe on his character. I also read more fics, most notably @gayemeralds's "Don't Let Go, Just Live Life", which was fundamental to my understanding of the character. (I just love that fic so much dude it's unreal. You can probably ask gayemeralds themself and they'd tell you that I'm downright annoying with my praise about it.)

How do I feel about Omega now?

Oh god, where do I start? He's now my favorite character in the entire franchise. Every time I breathe I generate new angst for this dude. He's gone from "funny murder robot who's friends with Shadow" to "protagonist-of-his-own-story robot who's hiding the fact that he's grappling with abandonment issues and what it means to be a person whilst he's on a vengeance-filled rampage to kill his creator". I've planned an entire tragic backstory for him about what it was like for him being trapped in that damn basement that Rouge finds him in at the start of Sonic Heroes, for fuck's sake. If I could make a career out of giving this robot character depth, I'd be making a million dollars by now.

All of which was fueled by me looking at his backstory on the wiki and going "hey wait a minute this is actually a little fucked up when you dig into it" and then bringing a shovel to dig.

Now, I'm sure that the fucked up version of him in my head is quite divorced from reality, but everyone on my sonic blog seems to enjoy my takes, so I'll keep at it!

[falsettos-tight-knit-family]

30 Day Falsettos Challenge in 2 Days

I found this challenge on Google yesterday, but since I feel like answering a question a day isn't very interesting content, I'm just gonna split all of them up into 2 longer posts. I was planning on doing it all in one, but then realized how long some of my answers were and that you probably don't want to read all that. So here's the question list

And here's are my answers to the first 15 of them:

1) Favorite Character: Whizzer. This should come as no surprise, I love this man with all my heart

2) Least Favorite Character: Charlotte. Not because I like her less, I just wish we got to know her more. Since she and Cordelia only got one act, I feel like I didn't get to know them as well, especially in her case.

3) Most Overrated Character: Ngl i have no idea- It's a very character-based musical and I feel like they all deserve the hype they get from what I've seen

4) Most Underrated Character: Caroline /j But honestly, any of the women

5) Favorite Couple: I love them all, but I'd be lying if I said anything but Whizzvin

6) Favorite Song: Currently, probably The Thrill of First Love. What can I say, I'm attracted to both actors and love a good argument song

7) Least Favorite Song: Something Bad Is Happening Reprise. I appreciate the pain it brings through the implication of Marvin also having AIDS, but it's ultimately only a couple sentences long and doesn't impact me as much as Falsettoland Reprise.

8) Favorite Scene: Off the top of my head, probably the Racquetball scene from A Day in Falsettoland. To be able to see them genuinely happy and having fun together as a couple is so satisfying, and it just shows how much healthier their relationship is now.

9) Funniest Scene: Again, first thing I think of is "You are gonna kill your mother, don't feel guilty, kill your mother" "Everyone hates his parents, now I see why-"

10) Saddest Scene: Fuck man idk at this point- Unlikely Lovers gets me on a lot of levels though; Marvin refuses to leave Whizzer's side, Whizzer tells him to go home so he doesn't worry (even though Marvin by his side is probably the thing he wants most), and everyone trying to focus on happier things to distract from the fact one of them is about to die. Especially on Cordelia's part, up to this post, she's basically always been smiling no matter what, and I think this is the first time the smile starts slipping and it's so important to her character to me-

11) Best Character Development: I haven't delved too deep into the depths of their characters, so I'm gonna go with the most blatant change from Act 1 to Act 2, Marvin. He goes from a complete asshole whose internalized homophobia and misogyny fuck over everyone else in his life, to a genuinely good father and partner who has learned from his mistakes.

12) If You Could Change Something About The Musical, What Would It Be? I'm the worst critique, does it count if I say I wish they'd kept a lot of the lines from the original versions of the songs for the revival? Both ones for comedic value ("It's queer Mr. Marvin") and ones that give more depth and understanding to the characters (Can't find the exact quote, but there was a cut line from Trina explicitly about suicidal intentions)

13) A Moment That Made You Change Your Mind About A Character: I remember thinking Mendel was more annoying in the beginning and I'm not sure exactly when it changed. It might have been a Marriage Proposal when I got to see he and Trina's chemistry together that made me see him as less annoying and more just awkward and endearing.

14) A Song You'd Want To Be In: Either The Thrill Of First Love I'd just really like to be part of that choreography, or The Baseball Game because literally any role in it would be fun in my opinion. Either I'd be done with Marvin's bullshit or, in Cordelia's case, laughing my ass off at his antics.

15) A Character You'd Want To Play: Either Whizzer or Cordelia. Whizzer because he's dramatic and petty and I think he'd be fun, and Cordelia because she's just me as a girl so I think I could do her justice.

[strangertheories]

I feel like there's too much discourse surrounding Mike's character nowadays that you cannot really talk about his character without it being turned into a ship war situation or slander. It also feels weird because many people seem to think that his character can be 'good or bad' based on Byler/Mlvn happens or not and it's just...? Do you even like him as a character or just perceive him from ship POVs then? It's like saying you wouldn't like Lucas or Max if they broke up or you wouldnt like Hopper, Joyce, Nancy etc if they just entered a relationship that you personally dont like. Because a character cannot be primarily defined or perceived based on shipping reasons, because they also have to stand on their own characterwise.... Max is my fav character and I wouldn't dislike or love her based on her romance choices. Yet whenever I see takes about Mike's character it just seems like both sides only ever focus on his romantic endgame. Or oftentimes just misinterpret his character by inventing made-up things about him that do not exist in canon. So is he that weak of a character then idk, because it seems like Mlvns will just hate him if he ends up with Will and many Bylers will call him a badly written character if he continues to be in a relationship with El or if the narrative doesnt turn out the way they expect or *exactly* want it to be. And it's especially kind of annoying when these both sides just want to insert Mike into a category that they like but when you just look at it, it sounds like they don't even like the canon!Mike but the fanon!version of it.

OH MY GOD, YES. I do get why people will like him less if Byler is not endgame, less because of Byler but more because they interpret Mike within the frame of being queer which means their justification for his behaviour or the reason they relate to him is now gone. However, I also think it's important to remember that he's 14 and traumatized and him getting angry at Will doesn't have to be projection or secretly be him being the best guy ever. He is flawed, canonically, and he has been a bad friend to Will since S2.

But people tend to act like he's an evil asshole or a perfectly innocent guy because their analyses are working backwards from each of those conclusions. I used to actually not like Mike very much, and I'm still not a huge fan, but I think understanding why he has his flaws without explaining them away helped me to understand him more. Also someone edited him to First Love, Late Spring by Mitski and I'm not even joking when I say it was the first time his characterisation clicked for me. And the show has been making this explicit, both in his need to be needed and his depression in S2, but they've not been as effective as writing him in years.

Even within the show, Mike is always defined in relation to other characters ever since S3 when he was less of a central character. In S2, they introduced all of his struggles with depression and emotional issues because of his loss of Eleven which was solved when El returned but it never really addressed the actual root issues that he had. I think fans analysing this behaviour from that perspective is completely valid because I do it too.

He could have a lot of depth but I feel fans give him much more than the show has awarded him in a way that Byler endgame can't exclusively solve. Because whilst they can write him falling in love with Will, they've given themselves eight episodes to break up his 4 season relationship, have him accept his queerness, come out and get with Will. And whilst I'd enjoy that, I also think they've just not written Mike as well in the later seasons. This may sound silly, but there's a point when I blame a character's actions on the writers and not the characters. Think of Nancy and Steve being weird in S4.

Overall, I think the route of this issue is that they didn't know what to do with him after S2. His primary goal in S1 was to find Will. His primary goals in S2 were to "get over" El and to help Will. In S3, his goal was having a good relationship with El and in S4 it was to confess his love (which he already did?). The issue with the last two seasons is that it felt like they were working backwards from a conclusion. They wanted conflict but didn't know how to and so he became a bad friend and bad boyfriend so he could have a character arc.

And I know we can explain his behaviour from a Byler POV which is why I do think it impacts my perception of the character, but Mike's "it's not my fault you don't like girls" line, Mike not contacting Will, Mike not noticing Will was crying, Mike saying the best day of his life was the one where Will went missing (I think the Duffers forgot that context too), and Mike being unable to effectively communicate with El feel out of character to me. In S1, we saw how even when angry with Eleven, he was highly emotionally intelligent and was able to communicate effectively. And we saw his special bond with Will in S2 where he was highly aware of Will's emotions, much more so than the other people in his life. And then by the next Summer, that was all gone. Even his whole "need to be needed" thing fell flat for me because it felt a bit random, it would've been way better for me if they had instead looked at his fear of loss or emotional repression or parental issues.

Jesus, this post grew arms and legs. TL;DR: Mike isn't an evil asshole and he has depth but he's also been failed by the writers in a way people justify with fanon but not the canon text. Byler helps to improve his character, but he's not been written outside of his relationships, romantically or platonically, and his struggles with mental health get solved by the power of love or whatever. Don't get me wrong, people hating Mike is bad but acting like they just don't understand the show or are stupid is also bad in my opinion. Everyone is just trying to fill in the gaps left by his under-writing in the later seasons.

[wondereads]

My Opinions on Shadow and Bone Season 2

As an original reader of Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows, I wanted to share my opinion on the new season since it's been pretty contentious. Check under the cut since it's probably going to be pretty long and there will be spoilers

I love the title cards for each episode

In the same vein, the map method of moving from place to place is great

Mal is much more likable in the show than in the book. In particular, he's much more supportive of Alina

I have to think of Alina as a different person than from the books. In the books, she hated her power and the pressure that was put upon her, but in the show she thinks of it as her calling

As such, the ending makes sense for this version of Alina, but it does have a lot of implications going forward

Personally, I like the RaR ending where Alina loses her power because I feel that is a happy ending for book!Alina. However, I think it was clever to change the price to Mal, but in a different way

Everyone was shitting on Nikolai's casting, but not me. From day one, I said he'd be able to pull it off, and he did. Amazing casting choice!

Kirigan/The Darkling is just so...annoying? This may be biased because of my intense hatred for Darklina, but it seems like the show is going out of its way to make him sympathetic because he's popular, and it just irks me at every turn. He isn't even an intriguing villain at this point

Genya and David were lovely, but David dying out of nowhere? Why? I haven't read KoS, but in SaB and SoC he is alive and well. His death is jarring, unwelcome, and doesn't even do anything narratively or character-wise

Who is this random Tidemaker bitch who just...appeared? She isn't in the books, and every scene with her was boring as hell. Yes, even that major combat scene in the finale with the two others, which dragged out for way too long

Zoya was a queen, no complaints

But what the fuck was that sword plotline? They didn't even end up needing the sword?

Tolya and Tamar were amazing character-wise, great sibling energy

Tamar just one chance please

Now for the Crows...oh, the Crows

Freddy Carter absolutely destroyed it as Kaz, he was superb

Unfortunately, a lot of his backstory feels rushed, and while I loved the scene with Pekka, it didn't have nearly enough buildup considering it originally occurred in the latter half of CK

Inej was also great, but her and Kaz's relationship was also rushed. Almost all of the major scenes (most of which happen in CK!) between them have occurred, which leaves...what? for any potential spinoff

Inej left? WHY. That is the CULMINATION of her character arc, not halfway through! I think they're trying to play it safe in case they get cancelled, but I'd much rather have a loose thread never tied up than an unsatisfying end

Also the 'I will have you without armor or not at all' is set up as if Inej has an issue with the physical contact. She would never do that, considering she has similar issues herself. The original quote is because Kaz has the emotional intelligence of a stack of kruge

While I found Jesper and Wylan adorable, they were rushed as well. It felt very insta-lovey, especially considering they slept together before? How? Wylan is a recent addition to the Barrel when he meets the Crows

That piano scene made me cringe I'm sorry

Matthias' arc seems pretty on-point, and his conflict is pretty well-portrayed for something mostly psychological

Nina was wonderful, simply a delight

I do wish she hadn't said Matthias was her 'true love', they wouldn't really be at that point

Also, at the end, I wish Matthias hadn't seen Nina. It would definitely set up their whole conflict much better

A lot of CK development happened in this show, which a) ruins the whole slow-build that a lot of people loved about SoC and b) means either the potential spin-off will be lacking in emotional depth or they'll be bringing in other conflict (which I don't even want to think about)

That's pretty much all I have to say. I liked some parts, but I really don't like a lot of the changes. A lot of people have said that we knew it was going to be changed, to think of it like fanfiction, but there's a limit to how much can be changed before it is no longer an adaptation. With the amount of fundamental character things that are being changed, I am finding it harder and harder to enjoy this show. I have no issue with plot differences, but Netflix is speeding through these heavy-hitting, developmental scenes that completely change the context and, as such, change the characters. I worry for the SoC spin-off, if we do get it.

[amusedunderclock]

Backlog: Talking About Indie Games - Flynn: Son of Crimson

Originally I posted this somewhere else early 2022, but I'm trying to consolidate right now.

So Flynn: Son of Crimson was a game I wishlisted on Steam a while back. Could not tell you where I heard of it. Even when I originally wrote this, it was in my wishlist for a while. Turns out, it was also on Game Pass at the time. I reached the 101% achievement in the game. I think overall, the game is good. You can probably get 5 hours out of it in one sitting, but I was taking my time.

In general, the music is calming. You're not gonna see rock songs here. But it gets intense when it needs to. Someone may argue the art is similar to a lot of other indie titles, but idk what to say. The backgrounds are well detailed, the animations are great.

The enemies have unique attacks and more often than not, have more than one attack for variety. I will say the electric ones were kinda annoying, especially the bees in that cave level where you have to platform just right to avoid electric fish. Like, calm down.

The combat system gives you a decent amount of freedom off the bat. Flynn feels good to control. The dodge roll is great. Only thing that held me back was my own impatience. What do I mean? Well I went the whole story without really uppercutting or down smashing anything. Really only ended up doing those to complete the in-game achievements. Would those attacks have helped my playthrough be somewhat smoother? Possibly a little, but not anything crazy.

The game gives you a lot to fight with in hindsight. However, this is also one of those games where backtracking with all the upgrades is kinda pointless. You only go back to get missing relics that are accessible without most upgrades.

Hero Mode's a thing. That wasn't on the Game Pass version though so i couldn't judge that when I wrote this. Maybe in the future I'll look into it.

Getting all the relics isn't exactly worth it. It really seems to exist for the people to casually find every now and then while messing around in the game. I fall into this category. But I just wasn't interested because there are places in the game you'd THINK would have secrets in them and just...don't. Kinda lessens the impulse to collect everything. Maybe that was intentional from the devs, but who knows? To me though, it just makes certain areas feel like ther could've been less empty space.

I don't want to be one of those people talking about "ThE sToRy dOeSn'T mAtTeR" because this has more going on than some games. I would say the story is told as much in the levels as it is in dialogue. It gives the setting some depth. The Scourge idea with everything on lockdown is great.

As a story though, it's pretty straight forward more or less. I think there were missed opportunities.

Examples:

The NPCs don't say anything new as the story goes on.

There probably could've been a Scourge event n the town Flynn starts in. Full circle and all that.

Flynn clearly has friends his age. They probably never experienced the war people talk about. Perhaps the kids have something to say, yet nothing's said.

Plus, just the overall idea that Flynn is literally more god mode than the literal goddess for no reason. But I wouldn't know how to write around that. So it's hard to judge.

Smaller issues are just what features get screen time. The glider's cool, and it was only there for half a level. The Dex segments happen perhaps a little too late in the game. The backtracking thing feels extra weird when you're never allowed to destroy vine spikes or destroy ice with your fire blasts. Aside from that last point, it's the little things like that could've improved the game if tweaked or given a little bit more time to cook.

But beyond that, it hits all the points it needs to. There's a decent amount packed in here. It even has enemy gauntlet areas. Do I think it's worth buying? Yes. Especially at a sale. The game got good reviews. I don't entirely know if I'd give it the same score that ended up on Metacritic, but I see that for an indie game, for the amount of time you spend on this, the quality, amount of content, and price, I understand. I think it is a very solid game.

[strangedreamings]

Finally watching Emma (2009) E1. This pre-credits opening of Emma, Jane, and Frank's early childhood tragedies is ... odd. I sympathize with all three kids but this is making it sound like Emma has been seriously spoiled and kept in a bubble her entire life and frankly, it's reduces the sympathy I feel for her. How can I sympathize with a child who has seen tragedy but still doesn't really know what heartache is?

I know Miss Bates is supposed to be good-natured and annoying but it seems like she might be living vicariously through Jane. Hon, you could read 100 books if you wanted to. I do sympathize with Emma at this part -- if I had to hear another girl being praised for YEARS, I'd be resentful too. Does Miss Bates write to Jane about Emma's accomplishments?

I know Mr. Woodhouse has been through a lot but expecting his daughters to live at home for the rest of their lives is both unrealistic and bad parenting. (Bad parents is a running theme in Austen's books. I have to wonder how many bad parents she knew.)

Ah, Emma's matchmaking. Did she claim responsibility for her sister's marriage in the book? I haven't read it yet. I will say her manipulation here of Miss Taylor and Mr. Weston is pretty slick.

I love the subtle showing of the passing of time by the change in Emma's wardrobe and hair. (I am so sick of these Regency Era-set productions where a respectable grown woman has loose hair in public.)

If all mothers died in childbirth, Mr. Woodhouse, no one would have siblings. I know he went through hell losing his wife but seriously, he's in desperate need of a therapist.

Did Isabella inherit her father's issues?

Yeah, Mr. Woodhouse has lost my sympathy. RIP, Mr. Woodhouse, you would have loved the anti-vax movement. *eyeroll*

Emma really doesn't consider consequences, does she?

I'm trying to be generous towards Miss Bates but it's getting harder each time she opens her mouth. (My God, the actress is KILLING IT!) Is the talking a nervous tic? Does she have issues with silence?

(Just realized Miss Taylor is played by the same actress as The Witcher's Queen Calanthe. This woman has RANGE.)

There's Harriet and look, over there, it's Emma's projection, you can't miss it. *eyeroll* Wait, does Emma even know what a "natural" daughter is? I seriously doubt it.

Halfway into the first episode and I just don't like this Emma Woodhouse. It's not Romola's fault, there's just something ... off about how this version is written. She's Emma but both more and less at the same time. More manipulative, less charming. If this Emma and I were at the same party, I'd starting inching away from her as soon as we were introduced.

I love JLM but his Mr. Knightley is a little too amiable. Can we get some depth and gravitas from him and charm from Emma? Just a little of each would be enough.

The Gwyneth Paltrow Emma (1996) was my first and it's still my favorite. This one is seriously falling behind the Kate Beckinsale Emma (1996).

Did no one teach Harriet table manners? I thought boarding schools taught girls those things.

(Just found out the screenwriter for this also wrote the screenplay for North & South 2004. This explains SO MUCH -- I didn't like Mr. Thornton AT ALL. Dude was a Darcy-Rochester hybrid but with all of their bad traits and none of their good ones.)

Mr. Woodhouse just referred to the Westons' wedding as "unpleasant." Seriously? He really has no idea he just stuck his entire foot in his mouth. And I'm sure no one is going to call him on it.

Ugh, I'm stopping here. Maybe I'll continue it later, maybe I won't, but I've had enough for now.

[luseda1]

Oooh it's the kind of in-depth analysis with textual quotes to back it up that I love to see! I wish I knew where to find more of it. I'm hyperfocused on Wortox so it makes me less attentive to other characters and arcs so seeing other people's insights into characters is nice.

I don't have much to add but maybe my fav's potential take on this twist. I think if Wortox found out about this now, he would probably be just... Okay with it. Maxwell made a friend (tbf Wortox wouldn't necessarily know that Charlie manipulated him or tried to, and Maxwell certainly wouldn't tell the annoying imp that) and Charlie isn't all bad. It's a threat to his friends but I don't think Wortox would think that far ahead/harshly.

Now if Maxwell did hurt his friends physically or emotionally, that would be another story. It'd be an interesting test of how much he likes Maxwell vs the other survivors. Maxwell hasn't hurt Wortox personally, but he does show a lot of disdain for Wortox. On the other hand, other characters seem to think Maxwell has a rough exterior but secretly cares, so that's a thought Wortox may share. With his quote on gears "grind them and grind them well" and general friendliness, it seems likely he wouldn't think "I'm irritated by you" is mutually exclusive with "I'm your friend" His quotes on Maxwell seem pretty neutral to me, not particularly fond but not harsh either. It's certainly less harsh than his quote about the Krampus sack, "He should have known I would not hold back."

I did read his a line in his monologue as implying he was standing by Maxwell's version of events rather than believing Charlie's (I know it's a direct Shakespeare quote but the line it started on seems relevant). However, given you've pointed out Charlie's perspective has some holes in it (I didn't notice those as much as others did), maybe he just recognizes those holes and isn't convinced and Maxwell has nothing to do with it. I don't think he's not smart (the breadth of his knowledge despite being from a society that doesn't seem to value education is impressive), more myopic or too much of a pollyanna.

Now, if you think I got anything wrong or am off base somewhere, I'd definitely want to hear it so I can improve my interpretation.

Maxwell: Did he get worse?

Going to analyze Maxwell’s motivation in the short and then speculate on some fun ways for the plot to go.

Short starts with Maxwell hating his life and then Charlie tripping him and making him look at one of his many statues. She really wants his ego torn to shreds.

(from Charlie’s comments in various character speech files. No longer in game.) Maxwell’s got some complex feelings around the statues. At first when fresh off the throne he admires his statues

But they change when he’s with the others. He’s been humbled. And in the short his reaction is complex but remorseful. Maxwell seems to regret his old ways and ego.

And the flashbacks in the short don’t show Maxwell thinking about how great that power was for him. He is clearly regretting it and realizing the toll it took on him. I’m pretty sure the flashback is from a Maxwell POV not a Charlie one- we see several moments that only Maxwell could know about. This is a man who has seen the error of his ways.

And when it’s come to Charlie, he’s always known what he did was wrong. He knew then too, but he was simply just a guy in way over his head. He hated that he scared her and probably thought he was protecting her with his lies.

But, on the other hand he has come to rely on shadow magic.

It’s how he stays alive and it’s how he stays useful in a large group of people who have very good reason to resent him. The thing that ruined his life is now the only thing keeping him afloat. It is a big question of how much of an option he has to use it. His attitude towards magic has changed somewhat too.

He goes from frustration about his “form” to a simple helpful comment of it’s use, really showing his new view of magic as a tool.

If he’s regretful over what happened to Queen Charlie and his use of magic, is he regretful of what he’s done to the survivors? That’s somewhat more complex. In the short (and others) we can see everyone care for Maxwell, even Woby.

The character who he has arguably wrong the most, Warly, will be on good terms with a Maxwell who contributes to the camp.

It’s clear Maxwell has made amends with the other survivors, but does he mean it? Would he sell them all to Charlie?

He at the very least sees himself as owing a favor to Wilson, who he also seems to have some Vitriolic Best Buds relationship with from their quotes. However he doesn’t express regret to any of the survivors. I doubt he knows how, with how his inability to be honest with Charlie hurt him. And how do you say sorry for ruining people’s lives like he did? However even if he were to betray the others to Charlie I don’t think that is him becoming more selfish or forgetting bonds with the survivors he has made.

I think rather him doing whatever he can do to save Charlie from Them is a great character arc for him.

The short is deceiving in that we are shown how Queen Charlie means to trick him. Catch him while he’s depressed and vulnerable, wound him physically, wound him emotionally by reminding him of his former grandeur with his statues.Then remind him how good the two of them used to have it. And for the final killing blow, offer him power mimicking what he used to have.

But these aren’t what Maxwell wants.  Queen Charlie however is so blinded by rage and pain that that is all she thinks he is capable of.

Queen Charlie has told him what she thinks of him from her play, blinded by Them just like he was on the throne. She can’t even remember what actually happened. She just hates and hates. She thinks all Maxwell wants is power, which is just wrong. He doesn’t want the statues and he doesn’t want uncontrollable magic. What he wants is to undo what he did to Charlie, in whatever form it is possible.

He can see through how she set him up for their deal too. Make them weak then offer a solution they can’t refuse? That’s Maxwell’s whole gimmick! But Maxwell can’t refuse this, this is his only way to get close enough to Queen Charlie to save Charlie, maybe.

Is Maxwell going to attempt to betray everyone? Sure, but it’s not going to be because he is slipping back to his old ways, it will be because he’s trying to undo his worst crime. 

I speculate he will be stopped by Wilson and the affection he holds for the man under the guise of “a debt”. It’ll be the community and bonds he has made that make he realize he doesn’t have to save Charlie alone.

[wolves-in-the-world]

On the basis that I like this bit a lot but it didn't fit the fic I ended up writing, please have a slightly different approach to Parker and Hardison finding Eliot's sealskin, beginning after the con in San Lorenzo.

—

"Any luck so far?" Hardison says, checking out the nearby surveillance cameras on his phone.

"I don't believe in luck." (Why doesn't that surprise him? Aside from the fact that she's so good at what she does she doesn't need it.) "Just some diamonds."

"I feel like you should be more excited about that."

"It's a matching pair of necklaces," Parker says, over the comms, "stolen by a team two years back. One of them got shot doing it."

That makes him pay attention. Not that he was just watching the feed of the stray cat nosing around on the other side of the building before. "Shit. Someone you knew?"

"Not really." He hears a low scrape, like boxes being moved. "I'll take them, of course-" of course "-but I'd like to find something a bit more..."

"Interesting?" Hardison supplies.

"I guess."

She doesn't sound enthused. Hardison frowns at that, wondering if this trip had been a mistake. Eliot's walks are long at the best of times, but they could have gone with him - except he'd seemed to really need that time alone. If they headed back now, they could be there to greet him when he gets back.

On a whim, he checks the time. Winces. Yeah, no, he's heading to bed the moment he gets back. He didn't exactly get much sleep what with preparing to send all those emails last night. Shit, is this what getting old feels like?

He realises, suddenly, he hasn't heard any noise over the comms for a little while. "Parker?"

"...He has a sealskin."

"That's messed up." Hardison feels a stirring of unease in his stomach. "Still, I mean, he seemed like the type. Rich people and their exotic curiosities." He raises his free hand for the air quotes.

"I don't think it's that." She sounds firm. Urgent, even. Hardison automatically straightens in his seat, checking the camera feeds for company. None.

Parker goes on, "I've seen the ones people have in private collections. They're old, I mean they're kept in good condition, but you can tell. This one doesn't look like that."

"What does it look like?" It shouldn't matter. Some poor schmuck lost a part of themself to Moreau, is all. Most likely they're dead already. It doesn't feel right to be curious about it.

Parker's voice comes through after another short pause. "Grey. Pretty beat up. Scars."

So they're looking for someone with scars. That doesn't narrow it down much. Doesn't even mean it can't be one of Moreau's victims.

He thinks, unbidden, of Eliot. Nevermind that he just needs to think of the pool for his stomach to twist, that the talk he and Eliot had about that was not nearly enough to put it all to rest, it's pretty clear to him that Moreau wasn't exactly good to Eliot either.

He pushes the thought away again. Today is for celebrating, he reminds himself. They had all been together for that, him and Parker, Sophie and Nate, Eliot so bright and so light and willing to laugh with them, even to dance a bit. Then Eliot had said he needed a walk to clear his head, and it had felt like the right thing to do to let him go alone. When Hardison got back to the hotel bar Sophie and Nate had disappeared, and Parker had gotten itchy.

Ribera wouldn't be checking out his new villa until the morning. There was time enough for a brilliant thief and a top-tier hacker to take a look around.

It had been easy to find someone willing to lend them their car - there are a lot of people out celebrating today. It's no Lucille, drab and beige and at least twenty years old, but he paid them well for it anyway. He'd like to leave them something extra, when he returns it, depending on what Parker finds.

He leans back in the chair again, frowning down at the screen of his phone. It's gone blank, undisturbed for too long.

"I think there are organisations," Hardison says, putting confidence into his voice he doesn't quite feel, "that deal with this sort of thing. You know. Sea burials and the like."

"Hardison." The uncertainty in her voice makes him go still, eyes on the dashboard, listening intently. "I think you should see this."

What? He gentles his voice. "Parker?"

"What if they're still alive? The person it belongs to?"

"O- okay, good point, we can't be sure-" 

"You need to see this, Hardison."

"Parker-"

"You need to see this."

[edoro]

☕ + Huntlow?

i am very fond of it! honestly though, i really wasn't at first?

rest of this under a cut bc it's long!

like in the first half of s2, i was aware of it as a thing, and it struck me as very like... well pretty much just the het version of Goldric, tbh. the art and fic and posts i saw for it felt, to me, like people just kind of reaching for a way to pair Hunter up with a girl who wasn't Luz (due to the variety of frankly bonkers Opinions And Takes about Lunter lmao) and it all just felt very cishet in a way that was profoundly uninteresting to me.

i spent a lot of s2b gradually considering it more and more while also being absolutely terrified that every single episode was going to confirm it in a way that i would hate. which did not happen!

i know opinions are very divided and some people feel like if it does become canon, it'll be really rushed. it's definitely not going to get the same amount of screentime as the lead-up to Lumity did, but honestly, like... i'm still not sure it IS going to become canon, but if it does, then at this point i think there will be... a pretty decent amount of build-up and foundation for it.

not as much as i'd prefer, but they had their entire third season amputated. Lumity, imo, is kind of a rarity among cartoon ships; they often DON'T get that amount of build-up or development or feel that organic, but i actually personally do think that the hints we've gotten of Huntlow suggest an organically developing relationship.

they're all relatively small, background things, because more important stuff is going on, but they do a good job of communicating that 1) Hunter at least definitely has a crush or at least gets very flustered by Willow and 2) Willow also cares about him a lot

(and, honestly? yeah, sure, getting together after knowing each other for a couple of weeks or a month or two is pretty quick. they're teenagers. plenty of kids develop crushes and attractions to people based just on Thinking They're Really Neat after knowing them for a short amount of time at that age, and impulsively get into relationships. so, Shrug Emoji, i don't really think the argument that it's super unrealistic holds water, and at this point i think they've done a pretty decent amount of build-up for the idea that the two of them might have a mutual crush. it's not like they're gonna get married on-screen.)

the sheer amount of discourse about Huntlow is honestly bewildering to me, and i say this as a person who initially really disliked it and felt like, genuine anxiety watching episodes being worried that it was going to suddenly be confirmed.

(you will notice that despite having this intense emotional reaction to the idea that a cartoon i enjoy might make a decision i don't like, i didn't go around taking it out on people, lmao)

like. it's so inoffensive. what we've been shown so far has been cute. it has cute potential. if it happens it'll probably be good, bc TOH is pretty solid about character development and relationships and has so far shown a refreshing lack of Shipping For The Sake Of Shipping. i totally get being worried about it or disliking it but i also think that there's kind of a tendency to just assume the worst and take what we've been given so far in bizarrely bad faith among some people, and i'm kind of overall tired of this trend of like, treating media creators like they're hostile enemies when they have absolutely NOT earned that kind of treatment. also, the argument that "Hunter can't be in a romantic relationship because he's traumatized" annoys me. Hunter's trauma is going to affect every single type of relationship he has with anyone, ever, for his entire life, romantic or otherwise. i'd love to see an in-depth exploration of how Hunter's trauma causes problems for him in dating Willow, and those problems don't just magically disappear because they love each other - how he has this very paranoid and insecure style of attachment, feels the need to constantly prove himself, is afraid of being punished with withdrawal of affection or replaced, etc etc - instead of having it just be used as a gotcha to try to prove how the ship is wrong.

like, people with trauma get into relationships. being in healthy, functional relationships is a great way to recover FROM trauma. it's ridiculous and infantilizing to say that someone who's traumatized just can't be in a relationship until they're 'better', especially because healing from the severity and duration of abuse Hunter's been through is probably going to be a lifelong project for him. sometimes someone's trauma CAN prevent them from being in a healthy relationship or make it so it would be better if they weren't, and tbh i'd also be interested in an exploration of Huntlow where they end up breaking up/not getting together because Hunter just can't handle the demands of an intimate partnership without spiraling and behaving in unhealthy and self-destructive ways, but, again, i find it insulting for it to be used as a gotcha rather than an actual topic of conversation.

but anyway! i have been thoroughly convinced re: Huntlow. i think they're super cute. i think Hunter is an adorable boytoy sub and that Willow would make an excellent loving domme for him and they should get together, be precious, and end up having a ton of mentally-healing kinky sex.