#tho still I don't know how the rendering had such a result

[as-rare-as-trees]

Repost of a Wang Yibo in watercolor I did in 2020 taking ispiration from my favourite photoshoot of his

[dom1re]

Hi 👋🏽 I so admire your arts too!! If it’s ok, I’d love to know more about your approach to shading and rendering. I always find your use of colour so calming and complementary. 💖💖

Whereas I tend to be over saturated and why I often draw in greyscale

When I read that you liked my arts too I died. I was down on the floor. Crying tears of joy. Then I realized I have a response to draft so I got up.

So here ya go!! I hope you find something interesting here. I organized it into 3 parts for easier reading:

Rendering Overview

Picking Colors

Shading (or winging it and hoping for the best)

Also if anyone has any tips I'm all ears!! I’m always trying to optimize my process, make it quicker + cleaner

Rendering Overview

My current rendering process on Procreate (click and swipe):

1. Rough sketches

This is where I try to get the anatomy and pose right. I can get up to 3 reps in here depending on how refined I want it to be. Yep I care a lot about my lines...

2. Clean line

... coz it's my favorite part!! I get such a dopamine rush seeing the sketches come together into a clean line lol. Here I use the Selection Tool and Liquify to resize and adjust the forms (gotta move away from doing this too much tho)

3. Color

First I create a flat base layer and color over it using Clipping Mask (pretty standard I think). Then I divvy my drawing into as many layers as possible - one each for skin, hair, shirt, waistcoat, trousers, etc - as I color them all. More on this below.

4. Shade

ewww shading... my least favorite part. I use Multiply layers and gray colors, again pretty standard. I usually have 1-3 layers here, stacked on one another, depending on the desired depth. More on this below.

5. Finishing touches

This stage involves a lot of small (but important imo) things, which vary depending on the drawing:

Tinting lines (Because shading makes the colors darker, lines need to get darker too)

Highlights on hair, face, clothes, eyes, etc. I can never make up my mind between Overlay/Hard Light/Soft Light layers for this

Little wisps of hair or lighting effects 

and voila I have something to share with the world. wooo

Picking Colors

Ok about my colors… I wish I had some fancy technique to show but tbh I just eyeball them and try them out a bunch. Now if I’m using a reference I could use the color picker, but I don't like to coz the results are way off for whatever reasons (ex. lighting in the img). Anyways it doesn’t have to be the same color as the reference; as long as the colors “make sense” to me I'm happy.

But what if the colors I chose are too saturated or too dark? I use the Adjustment Tools for this. I can just select the layer (or an area using the Selection Tool) and edit its darkness and saturation. I found this way easier than painting over or color-dropping repeatedly.

This is why I leverage as many layers as possible. It allows a modular control on my rendering - I can change the color of my character’s skin, eyes, or waistcoat patterns and keep all other components unaffected and clean. Sometimes I have like 100+ layers and it drives me batshit crazy but the pros still outweigh the cons. Or so I tell myself

( + I would love to understand grayscale and use it as freely as u do. I watched bunch of vids on it but something about it just hasn’t stuck with me yet 😔)

Shading I guess

Similar to coloring, I create several Multiply layers and stack them together for depth. For example:

This is again for that modular control but honestly I wouldn't be doing this if I was good at shading... I feel so lost every time, I just don't know how it works. But one ‘hack’ I’ve come up with is shading skins and clothes differently. I use reddish gray for skin (and brown/red hair), and just gray for everything else.

The character feels more lively and natural with a bit of red undertones in their skin. I don't think this is the best way to render skins though. Just a little shortcut til I get to study the topic more.

Something else I do to get over my fear of shading is using good references. I’m always lurking on Pinterest for them but alas, I can’t always find that perfect image with perfect lighting and poses. It’s kinda sad funny how the quality of my rendering depends so much on the reference:

(it's not a 'bad' reference per se - I chose it really for the pose, not for shading)

At the end of the day tho I’m just a learning artist so I try not to be too harsh on myself. Someday I'll render shiny shoes and shirt creases without refs. I yearn for that day 

Well on that cheerful note thanks for coming to my Ted Talk your interest in my rendering approach! I’ve been wanting to document it for my own records so this was great.

I picked up digital illustration just last year and self-learning it has been a fun but lonely process. If you have any tips or more questions talk to me ANYONE PLEASE I’m dying to talk about it if you can't tell by the sheer length of this post. For which I'm sorry but hopefully it wasn’t too dense a read ok I’m really done now bye!! 

[zeondraws]

I may be blind and have not tried to explore all the file locations in fmodel until now.

Found where the map textures are located, or for example all the people that died like Jamie, Kelly and all. I finally got a good look at Kelly!

This here be Kelly

Poor bastard

Okay, with this in mind I'll go through all folders in fmodel at some point, I have to see what else I can find. Found some unused/to be deleted folders which I found interesting

Hhmmm yes

So much work ahead, it really eats away my time, I've noticed, couldn't finish artworks recently. Mostly tried to work on that one AU drawing to have it almost done. But all this research eats my time which results in less time for art. Then I watch everyone else draw so much and I sit there thinking, man..

When I listen to soundfiles I can't draw at the same time since I need to stay focused on the sounds. However I managed to listen through 2k yesterday. I really really wanna be sure I have all the sounds for the Muir video, I literally found a different version of a perch howl yesterday! That one was not inside the actual Muir folder.

raaaah, the lore thickens. This could mean I can stumble upon other soundfiles from Muir that aren't in his Puppet folder. I only have... 16000 files to go through now. Number is getting smaller (I managed to listen to over 8.000 now).

If anyone ever wonders if I'll make a video of the soundfiles of other Puppets... maybe.. but I'd have to sort all these darn soundfiles from the Media folder. It's probably why people before me didn't bother at all. It took me over 2h and 30min to listen to 2000 files. Now calculate how much I need for 16000

Hhhmmm forbidden gummi, these are from Roper-

But hm, I currently want to finish that one artwork, then I need to sit down and draw something for a friend of mine for Secret Santa. Want to finish this Muir video before the year ends (I want to see it finished soooo badly). And maybe continue that super detailed Muir painting I had to put on hold, due to moving. The one I mean is shown on my pinned post here, that already took days to make and I'm not even halfway done with it. I want to see how far I can push my render skills atm.

Oh and draw a bunch of buses again, but on paper to get better with traditional art.

I always had problems managing my time (nothing new for me, so don't be confused if I do 6273728 things at once XD), tho I probably will figure out how to deal with this at some point. I always got yelled at, at my old workplace for taking too long on things, even tho my coworker kept giving me new tasks to work on so I couldn't finish the first thing he wanted, so he became more angry at me if I spend 3 weeks on something. Or spend 3 days on a task he usually finishes in 1 day, like. What? Like, he became soooo weird about it, that he tried to be angry about anythiiiing. And then he got confused when he heard what I told other coworkers in private. When he said that, I got flashbacks to my other uncle being angry that I told teachers how bad I felt mentally (at school). This is so confusing

I got praised for my work in the new job, which is wild that they don't expect me to work like a machine but to take my time. People aren't so focused on speed here.

So I don't know if my way of working on things is super bad, or if it's just dunno, big projects require so much energy and time. And then I watch everyone do so much art and I'm like waaaaiiit I wanna draw too Aaaaaaa. I wish I could eat art, because I frkn love art so much I shake my fists in the air whenever I see gorgeous artworks from others. Or see some absolutely stunning moviessssss.

I need to buy frames- I need to hang some drawings.

Okay Fellas, imma go tidy up my apartment and sort some stuff. I still have something to do in my bathroom.

busbusbusbusbusbusbusbusbusbusbbusbusbusbusbusbus

[doevademe]

simple prompt: Nico gets angel wings (very fitting) they're very real but can t fly tho, Percy sees him and forgets how to talk haha. Yes this is one of the many instances where the simple view of his boyfriend renders him speechless....for a time, but we all know Percy got a silver tongue and has mastered the ways of making Nico blush with just a few heartfelt words. All in all, it's just two dorks being in love 🤗 and exchange smooches 😘

"Hey," Percy heard his boyfriend say from the front door.

"Hi, Ni, how was the mission?" he greeted without turning back. He was midway into showing GreatLoon36 how to actually play a heavyweight character and he was not going to lose it.

"It was fine," Nico said. "You know helping Thanatos collect souls is like, the easiest of my missions."

"I still worry," he mentioned as GreatLoon36 used his special and dropped him off the stage, resulting in his win. "Oh, that is so cheap!"

He sighed and turned off the console, turning to look at the son of Hades.

He felt as if all breath had been punched out of him. Before him was an angel.

And not in the, 'oh, my boyfriend is so pretty, he must be an angel' way. Nico literally had wings that seemed to glimmer with their apartment's lighting between pure black, purple, and dark blue.

He stared for so long Nico started fidgeting.

"Thanatos went the extra mile for this one," Nico admitted sheepishly. "Since he's the original 'Angel of Death' and all, he said I needed to have these since I would be taking over for a few hours while he rested."

Percy just nodded. Never had his brain been so slow and dumb.

"They aren't even functional," Nico continued rambling. "I lack the magic to use them, so they are just decorations."

Percy had a million thoughts going through his head, all fighting to come out of his mouth, and all about Nico.

"They'll be gone by nighttime, or at least that's what Thanatos said," he kept on going. "So you know... you can stop staring."

Percy finally blinked and looked away.

"Shame," he managed to say.

"Huh?" Nico said, confused.

"They... they look really good on you," he complimented. "Goes with your name."

Nico reddened a bit a he looked away.

"Don't tease me, Percy," he mumbled.

"But I'm not," he said earnestly. "You look like a literal angel."

"Well, I was subbing in for the original Angel of Death, so..."

"They highlight your eyes," Percy kept praising him. "They make it seem like your skin is shimmering, too. The color—"

"Okay, stop!" Nico pleaded, completely flustered. "Has anyone told you you're too much sometimes?"

"Once or twice." he shrugged, letting his controller fall to the floor as he patted the spot next to him. "But my boyfriend loves it."

Nico rolled his eyes, but sat down besides the son of Poseidon, nonetheless.

He turned so his back was to him.

"Nico?"

"S-since you're so fixated and all, I guess you can touch them," he said, hiding his blush. "I pinched them before, it's like touching my arm except— weird!"

Percy started to run his fingers through the feathers, fascinated with how soft they felt.

"My boyfriend is so pretty," he praised. "I'm so lucky I have him all to myself."

"Because of the wings?" He managed to ask.

Percy chuckled and turned him around. He had that stupid, lovesick face that Nico loved.

"The wings are a nice extra," he admitted. "But you're beautiful regardless."

"So cheesy," he said back, but smiled as Percy leaned in for a kiss.

He felt his feathers ruffling up as Percy caressed them again while they kissed, and he decided that maybe Thanatos was on to something when he asked him to go the whole way with this job.

[presumenothing]

assorted translation notes on the novel opening sprinkled with peanut gallery comments (or possibly vice versa, idk):

yes that is a cluedo reference in the case title i couldn't stop myself and i'm not sorry

"…of the sixth month": not july, because this is in lunar calendar

"lucky pattern lotus parlour": ok i spent like at least One Whole Minute considering whether or not to talk myself out of this one. still didn't, still not sorry, alliteration funny

"bingshan town": could also be pingshan, flip a coin

anyway li lianhua arriving in their main street with his wholeass house like. it's Free Real Estate

"town god/local shrine": original term here is 土地庙 for the record. anyway who's gonna write the crackfic where li lianhua wakes up one morning in some random town to find that the locals have set up an entire shrine offering right outside complete with massive incense burner and all

wait hang on li lianhua was spring cleaning for TEN DAYS STRAIGHT??

"surname Li, named Lianhua": if anyone has come up with a better way of rendering 姓李，叫莲花 please tell me because i haven't

pov you're swiping through tinder when suddenly one of the profiles is just like Jianghu's #1 Most Very Mystery every biodata field is We Just Don't Know, Man and the pic is a badly circled cryptid sighting (idk i don't use tinder)

(li lianhua voice) "excuse you i didn't do two things i just did the same thing twice. technically speaking"

"lifelong learner": well Actually what the results for 皓首穷经 kept insisting on giving me was "hoary head" but i didn't go with that, so there but for the grace of me goeth you, shi wenjue

im sorry but the true utter crack au where he picked 李乌龟 instead (because yknow. turtle. house and all) and we are forced to live with the consequences

yunhe my dude you should've just bought a roomba instead of wasting your money on that incense and letter paper

"precious softwood": specifically nanmu, which (to collective unsurprise) was also used for shipbuilding, among other things

just........ the sheer over-the-top hercule poirot short story energy of this entire intro part, really

"king of hell": none other than 阎罗王 ofc

"a sound of dismay": he straight up "aiya"s here. i just could not figure out how to work it in for the life of me

"dust and sawdust": curse this stupid language that made both of these words contain dust this sounds So Awful

it has been 0 days since li lianhua last said "ah" (the counter never moves past zero)

toss em eggs, bystanders, we believe in you

(cheng yunhe walking in) you live like this??

"could only work with what he had, dead or otherwise": the original actually invokes 死马当活马医 (a saying which Literally means "treat a dead horse as a live one"), blast the english language for not having an equivalent

fang duobing's intro paragraphs? 10/10 sheer hilarity no notes

....why is "commit robbery"" up there on the list next to "plant crops"

"melancholic young master": 多愁公子 (he's got 99 worries and somehow li lianhua is all 100 of them)

how HAS fang duobing known li lianhua for literally just as long as he's been in the jianghu tho

ok three crackfic proposals in one post is a bit much even for me but. the one where li lianhua keeps accidentally digging up non-dead people/lost treasure/unmentionable secrets when actually he just wanted to borrow some onions for tonight's soup. honest

(this may possibly just be canon)

aaaand fifty taels, welp

[valcuda]

I finished making Sophia, Rossel, Hellen, and Trisha in VRoid as well! Though I'm not sure how much I like Hellen and Trisha yet, and if I want to make some edits with them.

Anyway, I'll just cut this short, the models are working* in Blender! And, to show them off, I recreated one of my drawings real quick! (This took an hour for some reason. Also they're jpgs cause the pngs were 25mb for some reason)

I just this together real quick, just to show the models "in action" if that makes sense. I'm hoping can figure out how to make their shoulders look better, unfortunately I couldn't figure out how while doing this.

Despite everything I think it turned out quite nice! I should also note, that they're actually scaled properly, unlike in the original. The original had Quin and Liz quite a bit smaller than they were supposed to be! So I had to reposition them. Also, if you're wondering, no, I couldn't reuse the poses from the drawing mannequins I used prior, I had to repose everyone.

Technical Crud -

Honestly, I feel like a bit of an idiot, because I got all the characters designed in VRoid, before remembering I was unable to successfully import them into Blender in the past.

Fortunately someone has since made an addon that makes the process as easy as other formats, so the hardest part became deciding the settings to export the models with. These are the settings I decided on. They gave a nice mix of quality, while still optimizing the models quite a bit.

You might have notice though that I put an asterisk next to "working" earlier! That's because the addon is too perfect IMO, as it perfectly recreates the look of the models from VRoid, at the expense of usability.

You might notice that none of them cast shadows on the ground, I definitely noticed! And thought it was an issue with EEVEE! But nope, it's a shader limitation. It can also only use 1 light source. Because of this, next time you see the models, they'll likely look slightly different, as I'm thinking of just swapping to a standard Blender shader.

Some Misc Crud -

Believe it or not, I actually have the heights of everyone planned out already! And VRoid shows you what the characters height is! So this lead to me making everyone their actual height, with Quinton and Elizabeth being their pre-shrunken heights.

This had an unintended side effect, of automatically creating a height chart! So here's a height comparison of Rossel, Sophia, Teen Jasmin, pre-shrunken Elizabeth, and pre-shrunken Quinton! (I didn't intentionally line them up tallest to shortest, that just kinda happened)

And here's a height comparison of them, but with post shrunken Liz and Quin!

I can't imagine how terrifying it'd be to be that small, standing next to someone foot...

Anyway, since I'm gonna reuse these models a lot, I finally decided to use Blenders asset system, which failed me when I tried making that render above! But while I was doing it, I decided to make custom renders for each of the characters previews, since I didn't like the default ones.

The first one I did was Elizabeth, just cause she was the only one I had viewable in the moment, and this was the render result.

Nothing special. Her outline is extremely thick, which was kinda funny, but the real fun came when I moved the camera!

No wonder I had to turn the clip distance so low...

-

Anyway, that's all for now. With these models imported into Blender, you can probably expect some more artwork, since that was literally the whole point of this. I had some artwork planned for Hug a Tiny Day, which I ended up not doing out of extreme procrastination, but I'm thinking it'd be fun to make it with these models instead. Don't know if I'll do that before or after changing the materials tho.

One last thing before I go tho!

Laying in the Photorealistic Grass!

(This is when I realized they didn't cast shadows)

[lollytea]

You must check out the storyboards for the montage for Thanks to Them!

https://at.tumblr.com/hayleynwong/part-%C2%BC-of-some-samples-of-my-boards-from-the-owl/jr8mbm4h4xx9

The final cut made the huntlow haircut scene MORE overtly shippy than the boards did. Finally it's the reverse

Also Hunter isn't getting attacked by bees in his picture with Willow, he was smiling and posing with her! And we almost didn't get Willow sleeping like a gremlin based on these boards

SO IVE HEARD

HAYLEY BOARDS HAYLEY BOARDS HAYLEY BOARDS!!!

God she really is a huntlow menace lmao. This isn't the first time her boards with those two were way too obviously shippy and had to be toned down a bit in the final product.

The original version of the haircut would have been soooo sweet tho. Like he was so horrified by what he saw in the mirror that he had a fucking panic attack. But then once Willow arrives on the scene it cuts to him looking all soft and smiley, really hammering in the influence she has over his emotions and what a calming presence she has in his life. In the final version he still looks a little uneasy and we know this is cuz Willow Park is cutting his hair rather than any angsty reason but still. The contrast between angst panic and smitten smiling would have been fantastic. Oh and if he still glanced down to the witch hunter book and his smile immediately dropped before pushing it away. Oh that would have hurt so good.

I love Hunter being rendered a speechless mess whenever Willow is around but I think adding a big stupid smile to his face at the same time is what really makes it. I adore the idea that if she makes him nervous, it's in a way that he likes. She makes him foolishly giddy.

(Oh no. Hope this doesn't sound like I'm bashing the final product. I would never. Huntlow haircut scene my beloved.)

ANYWAY the original garden picture is adorable!!! It's so wholesome. I can almost imagine somebody deciding it's too wholesome. Spice it up a bit. Which resulted in the bees. But man, they were spending time alone together 🥺 He's probably never tended to a garden before so she was teaching him how 🥺 They both looked so happy. The way Hunter would have kept that picture by his bedside. Can't complain tho. The fact that the picture he ended up keeping was him getting chased by bees could not make any more obvious that he kept it just because Willow was in it. Idk what to tell you, that is love.

I feel like Willow's sleeping position was probably added in the later stages of development so they changed one of the boards last minute to match. I like to think the crew was as entertained by it as we are.

Another thing I've noticed is that one scene from the shack where you can see the kids' drawings of their parents. Luz has also pinned up a drawing of Eda and it kinda makes you wonder why they cut that out of the final version. I like to think it plays into her current tendency to isolate herself because of guilt and downplay her own loss and put the families of her friends as what they should be concerned with right now. So instead, her longing to see her own Boiling Isles families is confined to her own personal space (like her desk, notebooks, locker.) while the parents of Willow, Gus and Amity are considered the "important" stuff.

Also Hunter seems to have pinned up a drawing of the Golden Guard mask??? Hmm. Hmmmmm. What is to be said about that? I don't really know but it's very interesting

[thyandrawrites]

I feel like the animators want Dabi to be bigger or stockier than he is in the manga I guess to be more intimidating? It’s canon he’s the same height as shouto rn (oldest will forever be the smallest lol guy) and he’s been established as pretty small overall. I respect the work animation needs but I wonder if they are doing that consciously or not.

Maybe?

I mean, take this with multiple grains of salt because I'm definitely nitpicking. I prefer the manga style by a wide margin so I'm not being objective here but...

Considering Dabi's not the only character they routinely alter, personally I just think the anime is a bad adaptation of Horikoshi's drawing style.

Overall, what I noticed it that the animators often struggle to render the more petite men in a style that resembles Horikoshi's. Hori draws with a certain... Roundness to facial features, and most of the male figures he draws, except for the bara men, typically aren't just pure hunks of muscles. They maintain a certain softness. Take Mirio, for example. He's one of the canonically beefiest characters, at least amongst the teens, but in the manga the way his muscles are distributed is proportionate to his body and doesn't make him a caricature. He still looks like a teenager. Anime Mirio instead looks like a 40 year old on steroids dressed up to (badly) pass as an high schooler. Gone is the fat on his cheeks that softens his jaw and shows his age. His neck is wider than his head, his shoulder-width is that of a tank more than a 17 year old. All his features are more angled and sharp.

However, I find that the differences in style aren't always as noticeable as those above tho. If I'm honest a lot of the time it's much subtler, like this:

I nitpick because I think character design is an important visual to give us a first impression of what a character's all about. Compare how different Hawks' frame appears in the manga vs the anime. Manga Hawks is clearly young. His face is still round, and even though his clothes give the impression of a bigger build, he's actually pretty lean, his muscles are sparse and compacted, more on his shoulder/back than everywhere else. His ankles are tiny, his pants way too wide for a waist as tiny as his, and their bagginness conceals how small he really is. You look at him and at first glance see a man, then you look better and he barely looks fresh out of high school. He's like a child who had to grow too fast to fit his clothes, or a kid who survives on hand-me-downs that don't fit quite well. The bagginess is not exaggerated enough to draw your eye and make you do a double take (like his anime version), but it's instrumental to make him slightly more imposing than he is. It masks the fact that he's still yet to grow proper facial hair.

When you compare that to the picture on the left, all that's basically lost. His shoulders and waist are wider, so the bagginess in his clothes looks more raggedy and unkempt than purposefully padded to be like that. His face is longer, his eyes smaller, making him appear older. His frame looks bulkier than his manga counterpart, his beard more prominent, and what you can see of his ankles is more filled out as well, less stick-like. His overall appearance is that of a messy 30-something who threw on the first pair of sweats that wasn't in the laundry basket. Which is still a somewhat accurate depiction of Hawks, I guess, but it completely misses out the fact that you're supposed to see him as the man who flew too fast to number two.

But what puzzles me is that sometimes, from the side, he still looks like his manga version:

And I'm just... Curious. Is it because in the stills it's easier to emulate Horikoshi's distinctive style than scenes with a full range of motion? Or should we blame all the differences in design on the different animators working in the same team? I honestly don't know. But the results are often very mixed.

This is not to shit on professional animators because I'm sure that working on a budget and on a tight schedule is hard and unrewarding. But the different styles are still something you can either like or not. Personally, I don't. I find it too inconsistent. Tho I'll say that I still enjoy the anime for other things, like the voice acting or the osts

[clonehub]

reading your post about the secret society of disabled clones made me realize how glaring the absence of disabled clones are. Cuz like, expirirence is very valueable and like within the context of the star wars universe, cybernetics are plentiful and work really well. but even without really good prosthetics, they could still have clones who are injured and rendered in capable of combat train and teach new clones. I honestly don't know if this was intention to show how dehumanized and objectified the clones are, or if it was just ableism and overlooking disabled people. Sorry if i am being incoherent, i have like 75% of a thought going on right now.

no you're right! especially considering how clones get injured. we see them get injured. these injuries are either relatively minor and survivable (leaving only a scar) or result in death. We get Wolffe w a cybernetic eye, but no other clones that I know of?

War is brutal. Ik members of the creative team liked to point out how much irl vets liked the clones, but also like why do we never see clones in that inbetween stage between being injured and getting the prosthetic--like. there's no dudes who are amputees of any limbs. There's...not really any heroes missing limbs, are there? A lot of the dismemberment seems to happen to villains. I'd like to see a clone who had to get an amputation who now has to momentarily get used to having one arm or leg. I'm sure that, before they can be fitted for a proper robot limb, they could even have a stand in, like an "analog" (?) prosthetic? basically the non-robot prosthetics that we have now.

im not disabled myself tho so I know that there's some clunky ass language in here. it just would have been good to see these types of clones? it's both realistic and good for rep.

[mc-critical]

Hi! Hope you're doing well. ^^ I don't know if you answered this already, but i read some of your thoughts on both Isabella and Firuze's arcs and i wanted to ask you something: Why do you find Firuze's concubine arc to be better than Isabella's? Personally, i think that Firuze was much more endereable and i almost like her arc sometimes, tho i have always find both girls to be kind of pointless tbh x'd but i'd love to read your thoughts!

Hehe, this question is so timely considering I was just rewatching the Isabella arc! 😀 I wanted to wait until I finished it to give a more detailed answer though, because I have... thoughts.

To get the "elephant in the room" out of the way - while I love the Firuze arc and this rewatch only cemented how much I prefer it over Isabella, it's far from the best written arc in the world. It has its planning issues that can lead us to question Firuze's whole persona and the things about the character that make her even cooler are still a result of a twist planned almost all of a sudden. Isabella is written in a safer, more Latino telenovela-esque manner, so you can't really make that many mistakes with the character itself and she remains as bland as she can be (Isabella's character on its own is the least of the arc's problems), while with Firuze we have a far more ambitious concept, the execution of which can bring many bumps on the road with the possibility of contrasting character traits that may look like it was not threaded so carefully (but that's also why she's so interesting to begin with!).

The overall point of mine is: for the amount of focus and screentime both arcs got, the Isabella arc is the one truly rendered pointless in the end.

Both Isabella and Firuze have setups in the story. Different kinds of setup: Isabella has a more personal kind of setup, connected with Hürrem and Süleiman, with the supposed massive effect of her presence sprinkled in all around, while Firuze works with both the personal opposition and massive outcome in a much stronger way, in all fronts. Firuze is set up as a mystery and say whatever you want about how consistent, logical or well-executed it was, but with her we had a slow and gradual reveal of personality, motives and possible flaws that managed to have some kind of a payoff in the end. Isabella was never a mystery in her design, but the narrative was kind of pretending she was by making us guess what would she be used for in the end and how would the tables turn, would they turn when Hürrem consistently says she would get rid of her. Isabella's plot thread was a tease by Süleiman through and through and nothing about her story paid off in the end. It felt like 10 episodes of wasted time, while Firuze managed to leave a not that blatantly obvious, but still lasting effect on the story and themes.

I see why the concubine arcs may be considered pointless by the fandom, because well, who needs those when you know everything would be alright for the relationship in the end because of historical accuracy? Why make pointless drama when history knows of this relationship as more or less monogamous? Yes, no one needed so many concubine arcs in such circumstances and especially when 2/3 of them weren't even slightly endearing. But the writers have decided to make time for such arcs and when you make an arc of this kind, you need to have stakes. You need to convince people or at least your mass audience who may not know about the historical events that something is at stake there, that this is a fictional storyline you have to watch unfold, a real challenge the relationship has to overcome.

The Isabella arc doesn't have stakes. It's actually pretty harmless in that it doesn't cause any major rift between Hürrem and SS. Because in fact, when SS isn't with Isabella, everything is pretty much alright. Hürrem and SS sleep with each other, visit each other, SS still recites her poems, writes her letters and the most egregious thing: SS lets Isabella know that Hürrem is special to him. This way the narrative lets us know that the relationship won't get threatened at all under Isabella. We had nothing to worry about there, because she's labeled as a "state matter" and we're always moved back and forth between that and Hürrem's plots. I would be fine with that if she well and truly were about playing with the foreign kings and ambassadors or if she were a one trick pony, but unfortunately, that's not the case. Firuze caused a continuous rift between Hürrem and SS. He ignored her continuously, wrote letters to Firuze instead of her (to Isabella he wrote only one and then we had Isabella write one some episodes later), recited poems to Firuze instead of her and seemed pretty infatuated with her, with the consistent threat of change and question how will Hü and SS recover from this looming over. This may be a stretch for a historical series, but for a general viewer of a show, it causes far more tension and investment, especially considering the other stuff about Firuze.

The concubine arcs essentially create antagonists of Hürrem's for the heart of Süleiman. Isabella has the Nazenin problem of being set up as an antagonist of someone else entirely, hence becoming an antagonist of Hürrem only when or because the plot and drama demand it. Firuze has the opposite scenario with being set up as an antagonist of Hürrem from the outset when she's actually an antagonist of Süleiman thanks to the twist. And here's the thing: she works both ways, because while Isabella challenged solely SS's philosophy and beliefs in a plot independent of Hürrem before the "becoming an antagonist of Hürrem" turnaround, Firuze and Hürrem were fighting tooth and nail from the start and when her mission was revealed, it was to kill SS, which... also threatened Hürrem too, because remember what she said: if there's no Süleiman, there's no Hürrem. If Firuze won anytime, either way, it would have been all over for her in both Firuze's pre-twist role and post-twist actions. With Isabella and Süleiman? No such thing!

And when Isa becomes "what she was always meant to become", we see that... she's actually a pretty bad antagonist of Hürrem's. For her entire screentime, Isabella is a threat to Hürrem solely for existing and that isn't at all enough for 10 episodes. Admittedly, the writers kinda tried for something more to come out of it, but that didn't work. We had the parallels with Hürrem making the same mistakes against Isabella Mahidevran did (Mahidevran wanting the ring for herself and then stealing it - Hürrem wanting the pendant for herself and then stealing it, both vowing to kill their rivals and going to threaten them in ways they give said rivals the upper hand etc.) and we had Isabella being a princess briefly set up as a big deal, but the former was so fast and loose because of S02A's haphazard transitions from one plot/thematic element to another and the latter was for only for one scene in the end of E36, one and something episode before the arc would be over (or two scenes if we count the Hürrem-Mahidevran confrontation in E32 where Hü says that Isabella isn't like Mahidevran). The only consistent thing she had going for her was her ultimately falling in love with SS. Isabella wasn't so much of a threat, she was a very inactive antagonist - we only had brief looks and some attempts to flirt in front of Hürrem, due to her provoking her before that (the first time Isa flirted openly with SS was after a confrontation with Hürrem, with Isa stating that she would play this game and that's as far as she could get as a danger). I get why Hürrem would get threatened by her, of course, but as an audience, no one really cares, because we don't see her doing something bigger that would actively threaten Hürrem. She had her first halvet as an attempt of payoff by the time her story would be over. There wasn't much of a dynamic between them either, because Isabella actually wanted to stay as far from Hürrem as possible until she ended up being afraid of her with Karmina's constant warnings that she's dangerous and their confrontations happening because Hürrem went there to challenge her outright.

Firuze was more of a proactive antagonist - while she also fully becomes one because Hürrem provoked her after she admitted outright that she was the woman she was searching for out of sheer guilt, she automatically gives off alarming signs to the audience, when she doesn't fall in love with SS in the second half of her arc, but almost immediately claims that SS and Topkapi are her destiny. With the mystery plot hanging around, we want to figure out what her deal is from the beginning when she does big stuff that could actually threaten Hürrem. Getting the purple handkerchief is a big deal, being so long in SS's favor is a big deal, almost taking away Hürrem's Thursdays is a big deal, her getting along with Mihrimah and Cihangir (and Mehmet, as loosely alluded to as it is) is a big deal, almost killing SS and trolling the whole dynasty is a big deal, everything about her is a big deal. Her dynamic with Hürrem is more detailed - the provocations between them are mutual and most importantly, Firuze believes in what she wants to achieve and that stands fully against Hürrem's status-quo.

While Isabella is very far from Hürrem overall, aside from some loose stuff here and there, Firuze is more of a counterpoint to Hürrem - she's a well-adjusted, conflict-averse, interested in playing instruments and poetry, openly caring to the point of risking her entire mission individual who seems to win everyone around and works more subtly behind the scenes. Firuze seems to start out the same way Hürrem did (the ships in the sea, the slave markets, the dancing and the way they got into SS's chambers, the learning etc.), but ending up in a different way and having different motives for which she lives her role that made her and Hürrem clash. Admittedly, both arcs have thematic roles, but Firuze is a more outright break of Hürrem's E63 victory and a contrast to her boundless loyalty to SS, while Isabella very briefly in one scene addresses Hürrem's status as a slave compared to her being princess, a status subject to change, something hinted at way better by both Hatice and Valide before and afterwards. And that was the only interesting point Hürrem-Isabella could offer.

An antagonist has to challenge the protagonist's being in some way. Firuze does a terrific job in putting Hürrem's fundamental beliefs into question. We have a good contrast as well - in their confrontations, Hürrem acts highly and mightily, but both Firuze and her enemies tell her that this will be her end. She's not all convinced that she would win once again. Isabella doesn't question much of anything, at least not as a consistent trend - and despite of all the shortcomings, Hürrem shows outer and inner confidence that she would win and take them all down one by one. Firuze had a vulnerable side of Hürrem's brought out, we don't have much of the inner confidence anymore with SS seemingly giving Firuze more and more. If Firuze weren't a spy, she could've won. The audience itself isn't supposed to put Hürrem's confidence in front of Isabella into question, because it is fueled with promise that SS has grand plans for Isabella that didn't involve his relationship with Hürrem. Firuze has SS totally on board and we end up questioning him more directly, which fits into SS's growing downward spiral and the payoff of the twist.

{It was very fitting to put Hürrem and Firuze against each other, because their antagonism is the loyalty they have to SS. An unconditionally loyal person vs. a person who plays that role with ulterior motives makes up for a spicy plot, any and all issues notwithstanding.}

The Firuze arc handles much better the aspect of support by everyone. With both Isabella and Firuze we had Hürrem stressing that everyone supported the other concubine, but with Isa it was more contradictory. The only full support Isabella had was from Mahidevran, Valide only wanted to see Isa out of curiosity and then stopped and then started again in the end with telling her she wanted kids from her and that's all, Hatice rubbed Isabella in Hürrem's face a few times, but she was also suspicious of her having something with Ibrahim, thus mildly disliking her herself, Ibrahim interfered only when Isabella was escaping with Hü's help when Isa was still a state matter and then dared act against the princess himself to frame Hürrem when SS gave him a blunt sign that Isa wasn't much of a state matter anymore. With Firuze we truly had everyone more or less supporting her unconditionally, the only exception being Afife, who supported the harem law more than she did Firuze from the start. It just makes Hürrem's displays in the Firuze arc (the justice scene with Afife in E72) far more sympathetic than her confrontation with Valide for Isabella in E33.

Even though the Firuze arc seems like repetition by the time it happened, it's really not. I don't deny that would've been more apparent if Isabella didn't happen before her, it's a fact, but the repetition honestly lies elsewhere. Isabella doesn't have stakes also because Hürrem wasn't in a different position where her relationship with SS could be opposed. Isa is more or less Gülnihal or Sadıka or the Russian concubines or any concubine ever in a halvet for SS, not for 1-2 eps, but for an arc (and them capitalizing on her princess aspect was basically thrown away by her halvet and exit). Hürrem wasn't in the position to demand more from SS, it was useless, prolonged drama on that front. With Firuze Hürrem's status had actually changed. She was a free woman, a wedded wife, and while it wasn't confirmed outright that she would necessarily be the one and only, after what SS had given to Hürrem at this point, after the ceremony, after the demand for respect, after their more familial dynamic, after all she had accomplished... Firuze made a pretty big impact where the protagonist was the supposed winner.

Firuze had a more fitting placement as an arc not only because of what I mentioned below, but also because SS and Hü weren't in a good phase a while before Firuze appeared, either. We had Hürrem wanting Valide's chambers as buildup then turned into a direct inciting incident, but we also had Hürrem objecting a decision of SS's regarding giving Mahidevran the harem and the Valide illness and stuff, where they could get turbulent when SS thought Hü said or did something inappropriate. Firuze built on that, intentionally or not. Isabella wasn't very fit for the Battle of Mohacs monologue of SS's and Hürrem's traumatic response to Leo's death and her strive to gather more allies and act against Ibrahim, mostly because those merely turned into subplots because of Isabella.

While Firuze's exit from the show gave us a new perspective on her and revealed a bigger picture that capitalized on the theme of loyalty, made SS more paranoid and tied into the buildup of Ibrahim's death, Isabella's threw all her setup as an important lady for state matters SS would surprise us with when the time came out of the window, leaving us only with Hürrem getting rid of her and SS covering for her. It was all turned into a game SS played with everyone, which was by no means an elaborate plan that did anything, and it only ended up being there for the drama and nothing else more than anything. Firuze did a lot by contrast and comparison.

But did Isabella have a point anyway? Yes, they actually tried to make a point with her. In the beginning, she was presented more as the view of the other states of SS: her claiming consistently that he was a barbarian and SS was always tempted to prove her wrong in some way. It tried to be a clash between two worlds and two ways of thinking. But tell me, how much weight does this hold when up to this point, the foreigners were all dumb or evil or cowards or all three one-dimensional caricatures that were set to fail from the word "go"? There's no hook in such storylines when it is obvious SS would prevail and he would fool them all. They are all style, no substance and the play with Isabella confirms this (especially with the Frederic escape plot and no one believing she was alive when Gritti told them, hence them only moping around!!). Not to mention that has zip to do with her as a concubine arc. Firuze, on the other hand, while being the other extreme thrown in just like that, finally subverted the trope of caricarurish foreigners (followed by S04 Şah Tahmasp; note: Sadıka was very close to subverting it, but missed the mark a liiiittle by the end with the her last attempt against SS being quite ridiculously shot and presented), while having all the other positives listed above. She was a breath of retroactively fresh air, to say the least.

Lastly, I won't go into who is more interesting or sympathetic, because that's a personal preference. I actually found myself liking Isabella as a character on rewatch, especially when she stood up against SS. The only thing I found annoying was her trying to flirt with Ibro for a scene, but that's about it. Her scenes are skippable and she can be boring and forgettable, but I managed to find her sympathetic. Though that doesn't mean Firuze isn't overally better and more complex in every way and I enjoy watching her in action far more.

[I could also go on about how Isabella takes screentime away from characters with more significant material and how her simpler plot is stretched beyond belief for.... zero points, but that's more of a tonal and structural problem of the entire half-season that shouldn't be blamed only on her. However, Firuze does work better with her more balanced screentime that complements the arcs of the rest.]

[parcai]

okay so like tartarus sucks to me? I'd rather it not have been described at all but since it was, let's see 🤔 one of the biggest points was that annabeth and percy couldn't breathe the air because it was toxic and needed to drink from the phlegethon often. this makes sense but it rendered annabeth nearly useless? which was good because her pov was exceptional during those parts but also??? most of tartarus was percy and annabeth being carried by bob. do you think they would've survived without him? 🤔

actually it did a pretty well job of establishing how hard annabeth needed to try without her weapons and usual items, while oppositely bringing up the op powers of percy (that's for a later post tho)

anyway, the imagery that tartarus was alive and the monsters bubbled up like pimples was so icky enough that it was perfect. however it seemed very empty 🤔 like idk, don't monsters LIVE there???? it was a wasteland but not apocalyptic enough, i suppose 🤔 they could've interacted more with the world!!!! the hermes shrine seemed like such a cheap cop out 😖

anyway talk about tartarus clown 😑 these are my thoughts, do with it as u will. tell me why tartarus specifically (not the entire underworld yet) is cool and why you like it 😤💕

anyway idk if you saw but basically what i wrote about this got deleted so :/ there will not be as much fervor as i write again the second time, plus i will have forgotten 90% of the things i said since i wrote so much

addressing your thoughts: okay so annabeth’s pov was fabulous, and you’re so right for that. also i totally agree that the description of tartarus in itself was so good, but i just wish there was more of it. it was super cool how tartarus was a living, breathing environment in hoh, just like gaea, like you mentioned with the gross description (and this also makes me think about ouranos and his is still alive or will be eventually since he’s not really “dead”...) honestly in general, i feel that if rick had stopped dicking around with the tom foolery, it would’ve been so much scarier and effective in general. like i understand that it’s a children’s book, but rick also made it very clear that hoo was intended for an older audience (bc he realized that his fans had also aged with pjo and he was trying to appeal to that audience), and i think it would’ve been better if you wrote it 🙄 also i definitely agree that the hermes shrine was a major cop out, and just in general tartarus did not live up to expectations.

i feel like percabeth was mostly just...hiding during tartarus lmao?? like i understand why they have to and it could’ve worked if rick had established the stakes that way, but he didn’t. it felt more like a result of him poorly planning out the worldbuilding for such a crucial subplot, which is the crux of my issue with rick’s tartarus, but i digress. these shortcomings, however, set up for something that was actually one of my favorite concepts of tartarus of all time (and i am most irritated got deleted): the mansion of night.

(i should preface this by saying that tartarus is the least understood aspect of ancient greek mythology, that based on the Greek ancient sources, information of tartarus as a god is limited since most people considered the term to represent a hell-pit. a lot of what i know about it is from spiraling into the strangest resources as a kid bc the tartarus concept resonated w me so much DJKFDSJF. that said, here’s what i think):

for background, i’ll paraphrase the wiki (linked above) and the scene from the book: basically annabeth and percy barely escape akhlys by jumping into nyx’s territory. there, they trick nyx and all her horrendous children by asking nyx who she thinks is her favorite child, and in an effort to prove themselves, her children accidentally create so much darkness that percy and annabeth have a second to escape, and they run into the mansion of night. (this is also what i’m talking about with the tomfoolery. nyx and all her children shrieking like idiots really diminishes the stakes of tartarus and makes it unbelievable that there is any real, imminent danger at all. ridiculousness, all of it lmao) they run through it with their eyes closed because annabeth says that the horrors in the mansion would be worse than seeing the face of medusa,  and so the million dollar question in my mind is, of course, what would they have seen if they opened their eyes?

here’s why the mansion of night is so fucking cool: “As the beat got louder, she smelled smoke and heard the flickering of torches on either side. She guessed there would be light, but a crawling sensation across her neck warned her it would be a mistake to open her eyes.” if you listen closely, you can hear me LOSING MY SHIT. GOD, this is just absolutely fucking genius. right off the bat, that description is fucking sick. like on god, i absolutely love the mansion of night scene. THE LIGHT ASPECT. the reason why this is so fucking interesting is because of the light aspect. it’s so brilliant, really, that percabeth was so afraid to move further into the darkness and toward the pits of chaos bc they were afraid they would see the worst of the worst, and the irony, the irony that the great greek primordials invented, is that the worst of the worstmonsters reside in the light, and THIS is where it gets especially cool. the mansion of night is tartarus’ heart, no doubt about it. this scene occurs about midway through their journey to the doors of death, the doors of death are the escape so they’re probably traveling downward, and the beating is so prominent in annabeth’s pov in this scene. (“In the distance ahead of them, Annabeth began to hear a throbbing sound, like her own heartbeat echoing back, amplified so powerfully the floor vibrated underfoot. The sound filled her with dread, so she figured it must be the right way to go.”) my theory is that the heart is where tartarus resided, one of his forms, probably his core, worst, true form, the one thing even the gods have never lay eyes on, the form that would demolish annabeth and percy on sight. if they had opened their eyes, they would’ve seen tartarus.

and that’s fucking INSANE to me that they walked right past him/in him (?) and they’ll forever have to wonder what they saw and never know it/drive themselves mad theorizing about it. because the ancient theory is that tartarus founded the Light and the cosmos. without darkness, there exists no light, and so without tartarus, there is no goodness. and ik that in the riordanverse, good is good, and bad is bad, and there is no nuance, but that’s not how it is in traditional ancient greek mythology. there is great nuance: tartarus founded the light bc, as i mentioned in my nico post, the darker gods and forces respect balance. tartarus founded the light, and the olympians rely on tartarus for all of humanity and good and evil and pandora’s spirits to exist, and everything must coexist, and the greatest fear, in this point, where annabeth feels the most dread, where annabeth feels this false sense of security and safety with torches casting light on her skin in the darkest part of tartarus, they stood in the presence of tartarus himself.

... i will not be okay for the next two hours ty v much

and then THAT whole au sends me absolutely spiraling like a madman. annabeth is such a curious being, and i can’t help but imagine how cool that could’ve been written if annabeth had let that curiosity get the best of her and opened her eyes. she would’ve seen him and died, ofc, but IMAGINE the fucking possibilities. imagine rick ending that chapter midsentence and we just have to come to the conclusion that in that moment they both died. imagine just wrapping up the book with the rest of the seven and percabeth’s end is implied but never explicitly stated. imagine how creepy and incredible it would be...oh my god...

i think that’s enough about the mansion of night. i forgot what else i said about it earlier lmao rip.

would they have died without bob? yes, no question about it lmao. mainly it’s because they were already injured and drained from fighting beforehand with arachne and whatever the argo was doing before saving annabeth (i forget exactly what), but if nico, child of hades, just barely managed to get out (and that was because he was captured and taken out, mind you), they would’ve been destroyed. annabeth is rendered almost useless in tartarus (which i actually like), and percy is sensitive to anger and lack of control. it brought out the worst in both of them. they were sloppy. they let the empousai corner them when the empousai are such miniscule monsters in the upper realm. they drank fire and poisoned themselves just to survive (which is also such a cool concept, the idea of slowly killing yourself and drawing out your punishment to live longer in hell mm). they were weak and tartarus was playing tricks on their brain. without bob and his immeasurable kindness, they would’ve had nothing to ground them, and they would’ve wasted away, perhaps not in as interesting as a way as i would’ve liked (like the mansion of night), but definitely eventually.

also, as i explained in your ask about percy closing the doors of death, i’ve said before that this would make a lot more sense than them surviving. it passes the torch onto the lost trio and the new generation of heroes. it opens up for new characters and arcs. unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), richard is a major pandering kinda dude and a wuss, so this was never even plausible, but alas, it’s still fun to think about.

miscellaneous (and memory loss):

idk i forgot what i said here, but there was another really cool point i made about tartarus being alive and something about his heartbeat and power and the difference between his primordial being, tartarus the place, and how hades plays into all of this, and now i don’t remember. all i could remember i rewrote in less cool phrasing 🤷

also there was something about moros, the greek personification of doom, older brother of the fates, and child of nyx. i don’t remember how it tied into tartarus (and it’ll probably come to me again later, but this wasn’t a theory i had in the back of my mind for a while like the mansion of night one, but rather something i realized while writing the mansion of night section the first time), but basically the premise was something about zeus being unable to kill moros. moros personifies doom, which is inherently linked to destiny. if zeus destroys moros, he would still be following his destiny, which leaves moros alive, and creates this incredible paradox. by killing moros, zeus allows chaos to reign, and that had something to do with pandora’s box.

i’m only writing this here bc i might remember later so i might as well put down what i remember 😤

anyway. sorry. lmao

-

bonus: “Smart boy, Annabeth thought. She used to tease Percy for being dumb, but in truth his instincts were usually right on target.” okay this has nothing to do with anything lol, but it’s cute and from the mansion of night scene, and also it proves my point about percabeth so 😎

[skittlewaffle]

Heartstrings

Chapter Two: A Sign

☆*:.｡.⭐️.｡.:*☆

A glint of orange light from the sun hit against my closed eyes. Morning had come, its rays flooding the atmosphere. With a sigh, I pushed myself off the concave wall of glass, looking down to spot the layered cliffs below. Thinking about my plan for today’s expedition, I wearily started to pick myself up. But suddenly, as I looked beyond my dull reflection in the glass, something not too far away caught my attention, sending a shock through me. It was a faint glimmer coming from a mountain slightly shorter than mine. I rubbed my eyes, not believing what they were showing me. I went through the facts in my mind. Firstly, I know that it’s not nighttime; there can’t be any stars out. Secondly, I might not be fully awake. Maybe my dreams were trying to make its way into my perception of reality? But thirdly, this has never happened to me before. Could it be…

“Good morning, Ametrine.”

Her voice startled me into a standing position. “Stratus, what’s going on out there?” I said, pointing to a large platform of pinkish rock. From the middle of that point stood one of those small pedestals. Right above it rested a floating octahedron. But what was normally a dormant white was now a mixture of colors joining into one blinking light.

“I am detecting signals from the Diamonds’ palace. The communicators still appear to be functional and are receiving these signals as well.”

Without another word, I nodded and dashed off to the elevator.

I knew in my head that whatever was going on with the communicators had nothing to do with me. The Lilac Plateaus had no place on any living being’s map; by extension, there was no reason to be contacting anyone who lived here. Whatever they have to say to me will probably mean nothing. But there was still that desire in me to see something more than rocks and flowers. One current event going on somewhere in the universe, many of which I’ve missed out on until this very moment. The chance to see something actively unfolding elsewhere the barren mountains in which I’ve been isolated.

I ran across bridges, climbed some rocks, and jumped between cliffs. Hundreds of years of living here provided me extensive knowledge of this place, like every feature was part of a map built into my brain. Not only that, but I was very skilled in traversing terrain as difficult as this.

It wasn’t too long before I finally made it to the communicator. The message had long since stopped playing, but the light was still blinking. Up this close, I could see the exact colors the device was made of: the colors of every Diamond. With every flash of light, the device made an electronic beep. For the first time in my life, I took the communicator into my own hands. I simply let the light flood me… I don’t know how to work these things.

But with just one light tap, the octahedron became two pyramids, drawing away from each other to pull out a screen. It expanded slowly, letting out short glitches before blurry images on the screen began to take a sharper form. My eyes widened.

“Once upon a time, the Gem Homeworld was ruled by Diamonds: White, Yellow, Blue, and the littlest Diamond, Pink.”

…Was?

“While the other Diamonds conquered many worlds across the galaxy, Pink had only one — the planet Earth. One day, Pink fled the comforts of Homeworld. On Earth, she made a new home, new friends, and finally, new life, giving up her form to bequeath her gem to her half-human son.”

Majorly confusing, but… intriguing.

“Without Pink, gemkind entered an era of despair. But when Steven Universe learned of his heritage, he reunited with his fellow Diamonds and championed a new era of peace and freedom across the furthest reaches of space.”

The view shifted to reveal the face of the very owner of my home colony, White Diamond. I eagerly leaned forward, taking in every single word.

“And now, dear gems everywhere, I’m pleased to announce that Steven is finally ready to take his rightful place on Pink Diamond’s throne!”

I tilted my head as the screen showing White Diamond’s face went down to a strange new gem called Steven.

“How’s it going, everybody? I know you all might be thinking of me as the new Pink Diamond, but you don't have to put me on a throne.”

...?

“I already have a rightful place, and it's on Earth. It's a beach house where I live with my friends, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. As much as I loved dismantling the empire and saving all your planets, I can't wait to get home and spend some quality time with my friends.”

She- I mean.. he... had a friendly sparkle in his eyes as the broadcast ended, shortly after a few murmurs were exchanged by a couple other gems in the background. I was honestly so full of questions. This is a feeling I haven’t had in a while.. curiosity. The kind that really makes you think. Somehow, this one short message was enough to power on my imagination again. How long ago was this? What all happened during this supposed previous era? Who exactly were Pink’s friends? ...Where was Pink?

The communicator immediately shut itself closed. I looked up at the morning sky and pondered these unanswered questions in my head. When stumped, I replayed the message from Steven and the Diamonds, trying to pick up missed clues.

All the buzzing thoughts were hard to keep track of. From out of my glowing gem I pulled out a device visually similar to the communicator. This is a projector, a tool invented exclusively for Ametrines to take notes on and write their thoughts. I compiled my questions and possible answers on organized slides. I kept the communicator and brought it back to my Cloud, knowing I’d have a lot of thinking to do.

☆*:.｡.⭐️.｡.:*☆

This new occurrence actually brought me and Stratus something worthy of discussion. I exchanged my own theories to her about the history of the eras I have missed. She replied with approval of my creativity, as well as with a bit of knowledge about the roles of higher ranked gem authorities. For the rest of the day, instead of exploring again, I remained on my own mountain, pondering the message from this Steven.

On my own, after writing down everything I thought about the message as it applied to history, I began to wonder how this applied to me.

The main point of the message I picked up was that, for some reason, Pink was no longer part of the Diamond Authority; and the empire was dismantled, rendering the conquered worlds independent. This was the doing of Steven, after he took her place.

I don’t know Steven. I don’t even know the Diamonds. I don’t know a society or friends. If I’m being real, I hardly know myself.

But if there’s something I do know, it’s that none of these people had any effect on me. I was never obligated to answer to anyone, or even to follow the Diamonds’ established laws. As a result of Steven’s newfound authority, the colonies were set free; but this one never mattered. I had always been free to do as I pleased in the plateaus.

So… The new event was fun while it lasted. It brought about exciting development, even if only for a moment.

But I think I’m happy where I am now.

☆*:.｡.⭐️.｡.:*☆

(A/N: Surprise, fools >:D New chapter is out!! uwu I need advice tho.. at some point should I switch to third person omniscient? If possible, please reply / reblog and lemme know ur opinion! Feedback on the fic overall is also welcome~ I hope u enjoy 💖 Have another Ametrine you’ve already seen cuz I still don’t have a cover-)

[thefloatingstone]

Oh that's very interesting with the studio switch!

I'm actually not sure if they would keep assets but it depends on a lot of things. Generally, animation studios are in a weird state of eager to share but ONLY once production on a show has been finished. Once a show or movie is complete they'll post those concept art sheets and storyboards online for anyone who'd like to see it including sharing it on Animation groups and such. but DURING production that stuff is on STRICT lockdown. I'm currently working on a show which has not aired yet and I am under a very strict NDA where I cannot even reveal what I am working on. This is all to do with like.... idk what the actual definition or term for it would be... But it's to stop situations where Pixar is making the movie "A Bug's life" and the Katzenberg leaves Disney with some VERY bad blood between him and the studio, starts Dreamworks Animation, and then puts together the movie Antz and makes sure it comes out in theaters 2 months before Pixar's ant movie.

So the studio that did the movie have completed their project. It's been released. They have wrapped production. The contract with their client (Hasbro presumably) has been complete. So there is nothing left to still be under NDA unless it's something genuinely secret which I can't think of an example tbh. But something to do with finances or whatever.

However they are under no obligation to simply GIVE their in-house film assets to another studio. That's not really how it's done, anyway. If a project changes studios then the new studio has to start from scratch. So this would mean starting all over again FROM pre-production which is character design, model sheets, story bibles, reference materials for props, backgrounds, etc etc. They CAN hire staff from the original studio if that staff was contract staff and not in-house employed but the new staff would still need to create all of that from Scratch. it would be easier because they know what they're doing and they just need to repeat the process... but it IS work that needs to be redone.

UNLESS all the assets, 3D models, environments etc are not owned by the studio but are owned by Hasbro which is not common practice. Hasbro may own the IP but the product created is owned by the studio under which that product is created. they can't sell them because they don't own the IP, but they can use those assets and animation to market their studio to new clients as showcase of previous work and they don't need to ask Hasbro permission to do so.

So unless there's some deal or contract or purchase or something else involved the assets wouldn't simply be given to the new studio to use as those assets belong to the original studio. Unless there's like a thing where both studios are subsidiaries both already owned by Hasbro rather than contracted for a project.

it's all ownership and copyright stuff.

So short answer; I have no idea D:

As for rendering and time, I'm not entirely sure how long rendering takes these days. I'm a 2D animator so the last time I had to render 3D animation was in college in 2010. computers in 1997 would take AGES to render out the simplest CG renders ever, but even tho the CG was simple, the computers were weak. Nowadays the computers are insurmountably stronger, but as a result the CG that needs to be rendered in shows is also vastly more complex.

(fun fact; when Pixar was making Toy Story they couldn't see what they were animating the way modern CG animators do with a window showing the 3D models. They had to do it by punching in numbers into the XYZ axis to adjust the models within the 3D space, hope it looked good, then render it out in a partially completed state to check it. It was a nightmare lol)

So I was reading an article in Animation Magazine about the upcoming pony shows.  The Youtube webisodes (Tell Your Tale) will be in 2D, while the 22-minute Netflix episodes will be “created with a dazzling 3D CG animation style evocative of the recent film”, according to the magazine.

To my eye the “Make Your Mark” picture looks like it’s literally using animation from the G5 movie, and I’m curious if the animation is ACTUALLY going to be that close or if it’s, like, a placeholder image.  I’m not an animation expert, but I had the impression that “realistic” hair is hellishly hard to render, but maybe I’m wrong or animation has advanced past that or something.

For a plot twist, I searched around for more info on Atomic Cartoons (producers of the upcoming CGI show) and discovered in 2021 they put out the call for CGI hair and fur render artists.

“We are looking for a Character Groom Artist to join our team on an exciting new My Little Pony CG Series for Netflix! …  What You Will Do: Design and style CG hair and fur grooms for digital characters and creatures.  … Strong focus on design and creation of grooms for characters and animals with an eye for how hair and fur look, and behave.”

So that’s very interesting!  Maybe we are going to see some elaborate CGI hair.  I hope so!

As for the webisodes, I’m not expecting a ton out of them story-wise because from what I’ve read there will be OVER 70 EPISODES and they seemingly will be written by ONE PERSON, and I think that’s just asking a lot of someone?  BUT the webisodes reportedly will have the same voice actors as the Netflix series!  So that will be the first chance to hear the new voices for all the characters, which is exciting.

I saw in a different article that Maitreyi Ramakrishnan will be the new voice for Zipp Storm … I looked up some interviews with her on Youtube and she looks like a great choice.  Her natural speaking voice would be a good match for Zipp, although she may do a different voice, being a voice actor and all.

[lollytea]

I feel like even Hunter and Luz would have a problem with not being able to use magic, but instead of not being allowed, they physical can't: seen as both of their "magics" come for exterior sources (glyphs for Luz and a staff for Hunter)

We've already seen how glyphs don't work in the human realm so I assume Hunter's staff wouldn't work either

So I feel like Hunter would attempt to teleport places and get frustrated when he can't (assuming they still have their palismen which I hope they do)

And maybe Luz would try to use a glyph, probably for a simple reason such as using a light glyph instead of a torch and get equally frustrated

Hunter would probably get more frustrated than Luz, seen as he's been using magic for way longer (at least a couple of years seen as he got his staff presumably quite early on) and he probably has some self esteem issues about using magic that stems from pleasing belos (similar to Amity's patent pleasing complex but not to the same extent), I mean honestly he probably has a bigger complex about "getting results"

Sorry this ask kinda went all over the place lmao

I think Hunter will probably be okay since I'm pretty sure staffs work in the Human Realm. The reason Luz's glyphs didn't work is cuz they're not inherently magic but are instead a method of channeling the magic around her, which is everywhere in the Boiling Isles. However there's very little magic in the Human Realm, rendering her glyphs basically powerless.

Meanwhile witches and demons from the Boiling Isles don't have to channel the magic in the air because they have their own power source. In the case of witches, its attached to their hearts. Which is why Lilith can cast spells while in the Human Realm. Seeing as palismen also have their own magic, independent from the witches that wield them, then it's probably safe to assume that they operate similarly. We saw Owlbert hopping around in Luz's trash in episode one. Considering he's carved of wood, if he's able to keep himself animated, then there's no reason he shouldn't be able to work in staff form.

But yeah, that is if they even have the palismen at all. I would assume they do. The palismen are a kinda weird inconsident case. From what I can tell, it seems like their witches can just banish them into the void whenever they want?? And then they can summon them back when they need them?? It's very odd, I don't know. But yeah, I think if the kids were separated from their palismen in the finale, the show would have made a point to show it happening. And Hunter definitely had Flapjack during the Belos fight, only for him to suddenly vanish when they were to crossing the portal. So yeah that bitch is in the void.

Sorry I'm getting off topic.

Yeah Hunter definitely has an insecurity regarding his lack of magic, but I feel like this season is probably going to focus more on his identity as a grimwalker and how he feels about that and how he worries how Gus and Willow will react. Oh and also all that Caleb stuff. I think this will be the centre of Hunter's season 3 arc.

Luz tho. I could absolutely see her being destroyed over being unable to use her glyphs. Like she would definitely feel an obligation to get her friends back home but she can't use magic. She's completely powerless. How is she supposed to activate the portal without magic? Adding on to that, she's become the weak link of the group, which might feed into her already feeling like a failure for getting them into this mess in the first place.

AND AND AND wouldn't it just be tragic considering this was what she left for. She wanted to stay in the Boiling Isles because she was passionate about learning magic. Well she defied the odds and she learned magic. Then she spent all of S2 trying to get home to her mom. Well now she's home to her mom. But she can't even feel relief because her other home is in danger, she's been torn away from her other family and she's dragged all of her friends into a world that's not their own. And to top it all off, the result of the months she spent learning glyph magic alongside Eda? It's all been stripped away from her. She might even wonder if it was all for nothing.

Fortunately she still has her egg. Which will probably choose to crack when Luz needs it thr most

[rin-may-cry]

Okay, let's do this. First a small warning, I am not involved in AAA production and my experience with video game developing is limited to two tiny indie games. I might know something tho! I'm happy to share that little bit of knowledge that I have.

First, the fact check. Pre-rendered and locked cutscenes at 30 fps? This is something I don't have the answer to, but DMC5SE should have two different game modes. One which prioritizes Raytracing (I'll explain what this is soon) and gives you footage of 4k and 30fps, or one which prioritizes frame rates (which gives the game a more fluid feel - the animations run smoother), with 1080p resolution and 60 fps. Here is a problem, we don't know which console that original poster used. The Xbox consoles do not support Raytracing at all, only PS5 so far supports it, so technically we could have a game with two different versions of the cutscenes. That's not good! I guess this is why they pre-rendered them in 30fps and Raytracing on, so that both consoles share the same cutscenes. It would be a shame if one of them would look better, and then if it would be the one people would not expect to look better, right?

Then, the motion capturing. It's true, we had a global pandemic, but movies were mostly still recorded, just as TV series, because with hygiene, tests and distance you can record more or less safely as long as people test consistently. And another thing, you don't need to record mocap in Japan. You can do it in any studio with the right equipment, and America should have plenty of those! Then, the data would be sent to Japan to whoever handles and cleans mocap. The location is not the problem.

I fear, budget and time, definitely are the problem.

So we had this global pandemic, we had times where people couldn't go into the office, didn't even know if they were allowed to do so and it took some sweet time to set up the right infrastructure to work from home as a team. Heck, most of us probably found ourselves in this situation, you know what I'm talking about. And DMC5SE was NOT delayed. Time was working against the devs, with its strict schedules.

And then there is the budget. I often heard about DLCs being not prioritized at all. Like, they are a part of the main game so you don't even get extra budget for them. People just have to deliver. Add that and the lack of time and you get the results we got. Maybe another mocap recording was just not in the budget, and whoever cleans and makes the mocap (those are people who have to handle animation and know how to animate) probably got called into the supervisor's office and got told to animate the scene by hand. It was probably a team of animators, but the pressure must have been not very pleasant.

I'd also like to rant about crunch here. Crunch is a phenomenon which you often see in the entertainment industry. It's when the deadline is coming closer and the work is still nowhere near done. Then people have to work (often unpaid) overtime and are expected to smile while they work themselves to the bones. Without the extra miles devs often go, games wouldn't look and feel as amazing as they do. It's a toxic thing, the origin is bad management and wrong expectations. Rant about crunch is over.

Then, there is Raytracing. A feature I already mentioned above. It's fairly new on consoles and the PS5 supports it. Basically, it allows to calculate the light bounces very accurately. Before, reflections were a weak point of realtime game development. Artists had to fake reflections or set the reflections manually (this puddle reflects this building and light, in this angle), now those reflections were just calculated and would look physically realistic. When you render cutscenes, those reflections are not a problem. Maybe Raytracing works worse for cutscenes - or rather, I'm more convinced that the rendered cutscenes come due to the xbox consoles not supporting Raytracing in DMC5SE.

So basically you have this new feature and those new cutscenes, which need to be done, Mind you, the original cutscenes are already lit, so they are already all beautiful! The newer ones, however, still need to be lit, animated and rendered. With a new technology this team didn't try out before. And strict deadlines. While other games still need to be developed and a lot of resources rather go to the new games. So there are a lot of factors, a lot of cases where something could go wrong. I could make an entirely new post on why it is noticeable that DMC5SE was made under immense time pressure on the ending cutscene alone, however, that's not for tonight.

So, my summary for today is:

Why I believe the DMC5SE (ending) cutscenes look so off:

-time pressure

-budget

-Raytracing, console differences

Thank you for trusting me enough to ask me such things, and while I hope that some things make sense here, I am unfortunately not such a big of a professional to be 100% sure.

Addition: Now I have discovered about someone talking about textures. That maybe those are updated/outdated scans from the outfits, etc. Honestly, I just think this is the lighting. Raytracing might have just changed how the suraces react to light. Some scenes are just too dark! Some are overexposed. I think it's more of a matter of raytracing/light. Or it's a render artefact, where someone plugged in a wrong format in the engine or something like that, but that would be really embarassing, honestly. Many studios don't render in-house, so maybe a mistake happened on the render farm, and there was simply no time to make it better. Rendering takes a lot of time and rendering in 4k and 30 fps takes double the time of 1080p 60fps (usually it takes four times as long to render, but we have the double frame rate to compensate, so, it's only double as long).

I ranted about this on twitter a while ago but I still think about it every so often….

Why do the DMC5:SE cutscenes look so goddamn weird??

First of all, mods don’t work on these scenes, so I assume they’re pre rendered (? idrk how this stuff works) and I believe they look the same on every platform, so it’s not a case of bad porting.

Vergil looks the weirdest. He just looks so wrong. It looks more like a cosplayer than his actual model. For some reason his jacket is no longer navy with blue accents, it’s black and silver. I guess the face part could be due to weird motion capture or something but why would they change his colors???

Dante’s stubble is just… gone. His face also looks pretty weird. And his jacket is a lot less red.

Not to mention, the colors and atmosphere are completely off.

There some comparisons to be made between scenes shown in both the SE cutscenes and the original aftercredits (left, original; right, SE)

I don’t understand why they couldn’t have just straight up reused these shots instead of redoing them worse.

I guess it’s safe to assume these differences are due to low budget or time crunch or something. But I’m just amazed that no one has ever mentioned how fucking ugly and weird Vergil and Dante look here lmao

If anyone has some more information on these strange cutscenes then please enlighten me…