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jade-len · 11 months ago

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so today i tricked my very straight male friend into reading svsss.

okay look, i wasn't planning to at first and it's not like it was completely my fault. he wanted to read it!

i was showing him how badly they fucked up mu qingfang in the donghua by comparing it to the english novel design (he said that mu qingfang went from looking like a soft dilf to a predator registered on the epstein island list). and then, i showed him how different some of the other character designs were like gongyi xiao's ("he looks like he'd be a genshin character" -friend, to eng novel design) and luo binghe's ("lowkey, he kinda gives airbender vibes" -friend, to bunhe eng novel design)

so that was all i was gonna show him, nothing else. but after seeing them, he goes, "these designs actually look hella cool. what's the book called?"

now, do i:

A. tell him the name, eventually revealing that it's a danmei when he looks it up?

B. just straight up tell him that it's a danmei?

C: don't tell him the name just yet, spill the summary, get him interested, and tell him to not search anything up about it because there's heavy spoilers and it will reveal them the moment he types it up on the search bar

i go with C, obviously.

me: so, basically, some guy named shen yuan transmigrates into an incel harem male power fantasy novel where the protagonist, luo binghe, has hundreds of wives. thing is though, the guy pretty much took over the body of binghe's teacher he had when he was a teenager, who turns out to be a really scummy dude. and now he has to be nice to him so that the protagonist doesn't rip off his limbs and put him into a pickle pot in the future to suffer for eternity.

friend: that sounds hilarious and horrifying at the same time.

me: yes it is, and you should read it. it's like. my favorite novel at the moment. but don't search up anything about it because people spoil that shit. i'll let you borrow my novel

friend: nah don't worry, i'll just pirate it

friend: wait. does it have pictures?

me, my plan coming together: yeah, it has pictures. buuut, when you pirate it, it doesn't. trust me dude, i tried and was severely disappointed. plus, the physical copy is so much better

friend: fuck yeah ok thanks

me: hold on though. i'll text you later to see if my friend who's borrowing it rn is done reading it

he's hyped. he's excited. he craves a good book and a good transmigration interpretation. he's especially happy about the fact that it takes place in a chinese setting with cool powers and an actual good main character. "this sounds so good, god i wanna read it so bad."

i tell him that binghe is actually adorable, too. that it's pretty much found family! my friend then asks if shen yuan adopts him and becomes a father figure or something.

and i said "yes". you know, like a liar. (the father figure part probably isn't a lie though)

now i'm gonna give him the novel tomorrow! of course, i'm gonna cover the chapter 2 bunhe sexual awakening scene with washi tape and say that my baby cousin (sorry baby cousin, you would never <\3) scribbled all over that paragraph with her markers, and since i'm a neat book freak, i put washi tape and just wrote the scene! i don't know if that's really all too believable, but he didn't seem to care that much. just a simple "if my baby cousin did that to my book i would punt them into the sun"

i think what'll be more hilarious is the fact that you can't really tell that svsss is a BL. especially not volume 1. there's like, only a few lines indicating, but if you remove the baby binghe sexual awakening scene then you probably won't be able to know (...if you don't really read romance or anything. idk he's kinda dense anyways). so let's hope he gets attached and has a slow descent into the homo before i drop svsss vol 2 on him!

ok anyways i'll update you guys later with a reblog. maybe in about two or three days lol

(also don't worry, we already fuck around with each other on a daily basis like this. he's already tricked me into reading some manga i was unprepared for, and i thought that it'd be funny to mess around with him using svsss this time lol)

#greatest prank ive ever donee i think #manipulation 100 fr #absolute tomfoolery #am i a bad friend for this? perhaps. is it hilarious? definitely.#this is truly the most moment of all time #svsss #mxtx svsss #the scum villain's self saving system #luo binghe #luo bingmei #shen qingqiu #shen yuan

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whatareyoudoingwithamaserati · 3 months ago

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yessss, two friends showed me jennifers body a couple years ago! the movie deserves every single bit of hype it gets, i had so much fun, it was delicious!

(if you have more recs? 👀👀 I love literary/audio horror but ive been too... idk, scared? because i don't know what i like when it comes to visuals?)

LET’S GOOOOO!!! I put off watching Jennifer’s Body for so long because I was worried it would not live up to the hype but MAN was it worth it. They have been plaguing my thoughts ever since. I am especially a massive fan of the costume design because they NAILED that shit!!

Admittedly I’m more into horror movies than novels (it is . So hard to read these days) and podcasts have never caught my fancy, but it would feel wrong to not recommend sign here by Claudia Lux and the ever infamous American psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I actually haven’t finished American psycho because it is a dense read but my god it’s a beautiful masterpiece of a book and I did not expect it to be as hilarious as it is

Movie wise I tend to jump all over the place and watch whatever catches my fancy so this is. Not a very cohesive rec list and not full of very many older homoerotic movies but. I plan to watch more when I can

First and foremost I am an absolute die hard fan of house of 1000 corpses. I cannot put into words how much I love it in all of its weirdness. It was made by rob zombie of living dead girl fame and you can TELL in the best of ways. It’s got fun colour grading, excessive swearing, weird ass characters, and such a fun setting. I’d say it’s on the medium-heavy side of gore with a couple of body horror scenes and a good bit of blood and mutilation. The seocnd movie is good, third eh, but you don’t actually need to watch those two. They take the camp of the first movie and turn it into a more gritty realistic energy that is almost meanspirited in nature

I’m a HUGE cabin fever fan and I will recommend it at every chance I get, BUT! There is a caveat and that is that it is not only significantly gory but also that it is weird, campy, kitschy, and a real big fan of slurs, LOL. I think we hit several n-words, an r-word or two, and some use of faggot. Some of the later scenes are downright WEIRD but despite it all it is one of my favourite horrors with some really haunting scenes

Hellraiser in general is a wonderful franchise, I love Clive Barker’s choice to base the cenobites around a mix of BDSM and gay culture and how he characterizes pinhead, even if the later movies fuck it up a little. The 2022 standalone is a huge favourite in particular, I love the imagery and the cenobite redesigns that lean heavier into body horror as well as the cinematography. Jamie Clayton’s pinhead is fucking INCREDIBLE to boot

If you like erotic horror, X is definitely a good one to watch - the plot centres around sex workers determined to make an erotic film and make it big, with some immaculate commentary on desirability, beauty, and aging. Good bit of tits and ass in that one, as well as medium level gore. It also has two sequels, Pearl and MaXXXine, which are set in the past and future respectively. Pearl was secretly shot at the same time as X in the same location and focuses on the lust for fame, the need to make it big, and a youthful mania of sorts coming from Pearl. MaXXXine I haven’t actually seen yet so I cannot say much about it, but I hope to get to it soon!

The fear street trilogy is also a remarkably well done series that seamlessly covers one long tangled mystery throughout three different timelines, using the same handful of actors for each one! The use of setting and cinematography is so fuckint cool, the eventual mystery reveal is absolutely wild, and there’s even a canon queer relationship! The gore isn’t too bad, I’d say light but there are some moments that push it to a medium at best

Ready or Not is a movie I enjoy for a variety or reasons (I think the iconic shot of Grace in a ripped and bloody wedding dress is pretty big on the internet), from the setting to the storytelling to Samara Weaving’s fucking banshee screams, with medium-light gore (though the bits that do show up are impactful as all hell. Cabin in the Woods is fun as a deconstruction of the horror genre (and a story that theoretically makes every single horror movie made canon, wow), though it’s also just really fucking funny. Another medium gore!

Candyman 2021 is a brilliant take on an old legacy of movies (again, no previous ones need watching) with a wonderful exploration of gentrification, black trauma, and what makes the candyman the candyman. I know I keep talking about cinematography but holy fuck, the multimedia use in this film in particular. Immaculate. I feel practically obligated to recommend Deathgasm, which is an indie horror with some pretty wicked gore, if not just because the main characters are all metalheads, and as one myself, it’s SO COOL to see us as protags in a horror movie

Last but not least, Prey 2022. Holy fuck, Prey is an utter masterpiece. It’s the latest addition to the predator franchise, another one of those ones you don’t Need to have watched in order to watch prey, but havint seen them gives the watching experience a good bit more depth, with iconic lines being given a new spin. It’s technically a prequel to the first ever predator movie, focusing on one of the first few appearances of a predator on earth (ehhh debatable considering the canon of aliens vs predator but I’m ignoring that for the sake of conciseness), giving it more a more basic appearance and weapons, while also letting it kick absolute ASS. The plot is incredible, the cinematography is incredible, the CGI animals are so much better than ever expected, and it’s also the first ever feature length film to ever have an official Comanche dub!!! Holy fuck!!

As a bonus, though I haven’t seen it, Doctor Sleep also seems like a really well done movie! It’s based off of the Stephen King book set after the shining, reprising and revisiting a lot of iconic moments to tell a new story with fucking incredible visuals that put their own spin on the shining

#SORRY FOR THE RAMBLE. I AM A BIT AUTISTIC ABOUT HORROR #it’s such a passion genre for me :3 #ALSO HIIIIIII it’s always nice seeing you around :]#asks #cats.txt

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cinnamonest · 3 years ago

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Hi, do you have any visual novels that you would recommend?

TIME TO GUSH ABOUT OTOMES all of these are available on steam btw unless otherwise mentioned!!

Personally one of the first otomes I ever played was a game called Ozmafia, it was super cute, dark fairytale style. There's *technically* a canon yandere but it's not really revealed until the very end after you've beaten all the other routes but I LOVE him and it's great bc it's the last character you'd expect (or first, kinda?). Note that there's like, 10 routes and each has several endings, which is a lot for an otome, it takes a good while to finish but that counts as a plus imo. It has some of my favorite love interests from any otome ever, it's a shame it's not nearly as popular as a lot of others.

Amnesia is really good too, there IS a canon yandere who drugs you and locks you in a cage so :))))) It's what it sounds like, basically you're a girl that lost her memory.

Cheritz is a company that made two games: Nameless and Dandelion, I've played Nameless which is good and I've heard Dandelion is good too! Nameless plot is basically your dolls come to life as ikemen.

This is also the same company that made Mystic Messenger. Which was a sorta-VN-ish app, but, if you've never played through Mystic Messenger I highly recommend. The fandom is kinda dead now but it had huge hype back in 2016-2017, and they add new content every now and then. I bought an $80 box set of merch and to this day I do not regret that purchase. (It came out in my senior year of high school, I used to sneak out of class and go to the bathroom just to get into the chats in time lol). There's actually a good deal of yandere content, kinda depends on the ending you get. Yoosung is literally called a yandere once in-game.

Now... two favorites I HAVE to gush about are Fxxx Me Royally and Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome! They're both made by the same people and they're both eroge! Literally, the ONLY female-targeted, hetero eroge I've ever come across, which kinda sucks bc the market for male-targeted eroge is so huge and there's a few good BL ones but almost no M/F eroge. One big downside is there's only two love interests in each, both games are pretty short. The first is you're a tall high school girl who meets a dude in your class, who ends up becoming obsessed with you being his muse for fashion design, aaaand his friend. The first is kinda subby, the second is a sadist/dom. The second is, ok the plot sounds ridiculous but I promise it's good, you're like... a princess from another realm where sex is 100000% destigmatized and everyone is wildly promiscuous, come to earth to find a virgin boi for a husband. It's great. With these though you have to download the R18 parts from the dev website.

There's also Diabolik Lovers is supposed to be really good, I intend to play it eventually, it's just not available in English unless you wanna read translations side by side which can be a pain or use VNR/Visual novel reader which can be a pain. There's an anime though. You also need a PSP emulator, it's not on steam unlike the others.

As far as non-otome, Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni. It's horror, has several anime series, one in 2006, one that just finished earlier this year and one about to start soon. Be warned that while the VN doesn't have any really bad visuals, the anime is notorious for being incredibly bloody and violent. For example there's a famous scene where a character puts a knife to the wall facing outward and slams her head into it until it kills her, fingernail torture, that sort of thing.

#lena's asks #q

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ac-liveblogs · 3 years ago

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Im assuming the quests selling the characters are Intended to be the Ayatos character quest. (the archon quest is hyping up dainslief in ten years ig lol.) I haven't progressed much through the chasm quest (i explored the entire exterior tho), but so far some of the minor npcs are ok.

Yanbo, Old Chou, and Wang have actually put together a surprisingly good (by genshin standards) web of quests discussing visions and gods. Sure, most of the discussion is backloaded into the final paragraphs of dialogue but its there (and not in the main goddamn quest)!

As an enjou appreciator its weird to me how some of genshins npcs are straight up better than the pcs. Im happy they exist but some of these characters are languishing MHY. kokomi is dead in a ditch still!

So far the most positive thing for me is definitely venti abyss. it couldnt be more transparent how theyre temporarily buffing him for a sell but god if his black hole isnt fun. First n only 36 star.

Oh yeah, there are the 5star character quests and, theoretically, the Hangouts. But this is a gacha game, so that means any character-driven event or quest should be an opportunity to extend on the purchasable units. To clarify, in FGO, there are no events that aren't focusing on at least one rate-up character. This is kind of a win/win because we get more content for our units, and FGO makes more money.

There is never any point in FGO where NPCs are given more time and attention than units they want you to roll for. There have been NPCs people got attached to, but this seems more incidental than intentional... which bit them in the ass with the Takasugi Scandal last year, but I fully expect he'll end up in the pool eventually given the outcry. Given what happened with Muramasa....

The idea that NPCs like Kazari and Enjou have better writing than playable units? FGO would never let that happen. The only time FGO wants you to get attached to NPCs is when it's about to brutally murder them and make you feel like it was your fault, and then rub in that you can't save them.

We shouldn't be spending extended periods of time with NPCs over playable characters we're never going to see again. This isn't a traditional RPG, we're supposed to be paying money for these units. As it is, HYV just ends up with a huge backlog of characters that barely show up. I wonder why it happens too?

I've noticed characterization tends to differ between events, so at first I wondered if it was just too hard to keep writing them in-character. I was also wondering if these characters have very specific character arcs MHY wants to follow, and doesn't want to risk going off-script or revealing things early by letting us learn any more about them (to which I go ??????? write better if either of these are correct). Maybe they also have problems booking voice actors or animating things, to which I say 'maybe you should've thought about that before making the game so ambitious'.

I also think Genshin runs into problems when it makes its characters either too exciting or too mundane, bc it's hard to design events around them. Characters that do cool stuff off-screen like Xiao and Beidou would require a lot of new resources to create events that actually keep pace with what they're capable of doing - thus the perpetually off-screen evil god ghosts. Meanwhile, Liyue's endless parade of politicians and business owners aren't going to lend very well to exciting storylines - except Hu Tao; but see the 'new resources' issue. Much easier to just make a simple new game mechanic and have you run around the overworld, I guess.

And then they can't even make playable rival/enemy characters because they want to ensure that these characters have at least a flimsy in universe justification for why they would drop everything and travel with you i.e. everyone loves the Traveller...

you ever feel they didn't think this game through very well on a foundational level?

#ac plays genshin impact

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kaxenart · 3 years ago

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I posted 490 times in 2021

473 posts created (97%)

17 posts reblogged (3%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 0.0 posts.

I added 729 tags in 2021

#handsome hussars - 173 posts

#artists on tumblr - 124 posts

#parzival - 87 posts

#louis francois lejeune - 67 posts

#arsene - 60 posts

#wip - 49 posts

#kaxen - 46 posts

#napoleonic - 45 posts

#sketch - 42 posts

#jardin - 36 posts

Longest Tag: 130 characters

#also no matter what time period you specify somehow downton abbey will cram itself into any search query about servants and valets

My Top Posts in 2021

Another Art Fight drawing christ I really dropped off of doing Art Fight in the middle of this month....

@shirecorn IT'S UNICORN TIME.

59 notes • Posted 2021-07-26 20:16:28 GMT

I like drawing smoking but I hate everything else about smoking

62 notes • Posted 2021-04-18 21:13:40 GMT

As possibly the only person who is hyped about presence of horse in DD2

*slams fist on table* HORSES

74 notes • Posted 2021-10-21 22:22:55 GMT

When you think an artist is gonna sculpt you in some actual clothes, but then he gives you the body of a greco-roman god and you’re pretty sure everyone is gonna make fun of you for having it so you ban it from public view...

....but the artist does not care you don’t like it and makes plaster copies anyway.

....and your step-son gets a plaster.

....and eventually Wellington gets the marble one.

...and there is a bronze version too

Napoleon as Mars The Peacemaker is a good wikipedia article lol

97 notes • Posted 2021-04-20 17:53:11 GMT

There is something kind of funny about admitting to petty crimes in a memoir

"Yes, I wrecked a chandelier and destroyed the evidence but everyone involved is dead now, so it's fine, also maybe it’s a metaphor for Franco-Austrian relations!"

Also never let me freehand a 24 branch chandelier again... >_> it looks like a cursed basket starfish crossed with a banana and I will not and cannot count.

I alighted at the Imperial Palace, where apartments had been prepared for the ambassador; and when I took possession of my quarters in the evening of the same day, a little accident occurred to me which gave me a strange insight into the real nature of the apparently rich appointments of the Emperor's grand residence .

My rooms were adorned with a profusion of gilded bronzes, and the chandelier of the salon was of specially elegant design. I noticed the rich gleam from it and its delicacy of finish, and an unlucky impulse made me think I should like to try and lift it to see how much the twenty four branches of which it consisted weighed, for the golden chain from which it hung looked very thin. I climbed a chair, and what was my surprise at finding, when I lifted the chandelier, that it weighed no more than pasteboard or the lightest wood! I was so taken aback that I was perhaps not quite careful enough in removing my hands, and the four chains all gave way at once; the magnificent chandelier, falling with a crash, broke into a thousand pieces on the floor, revealing that the material of the whole thing—ornaments and all—was nothing more than larchwood. There was a fire burning in a magnificent grate, so I hastened to fling all the rubbish which had thus fallen a victim to my curiosity into the flames, and I never heard another word about the matter. But my thoughts involuntarily turned to the illusions of one kind and another which had led our Emperor to fix his choice on a foreign princess, and I feared that some day worse deceptions would be practised on him by the Court of Austria than that which on this occasion at Vienna made me realise so sadly the truth of the old proverb, “All is not gold that glitters.”

I afterwards learnt that the Tyrolese have made quite an industry of copying French bronzes in wood, which the Germans buy at a small cost as decorations for their residences, the brilliant imitations passing muster except when tampered with by clumsy visitors.

140 notes • Posted 2021-04-25 17:49:15 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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sageblogsthings · 3 years ago

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to celebrate The Crimson Moon reaching 30k as of this morning, i thought that i would share the progression of the opening lines of the book, and talk a bit about how the book has grown and changed in the last year! on july 27th it will be exactly a year since i first started writing this and wow i’m not getting emotional you are aha whaaaat

*cough* anywayyysss!!

draft one: please oh god don't judge me

ok i'm not going to talk negatively about my past writing because it got me to where i am today but. [marge i am looking away meme] if you can't tell, i wrote this when i was going through the existential crisis phase of uni and just wanted to live in the woods, i say like i would not currently move to the woods in a heartbeat asdklfja

at the time that i wrote this i was really happy with it because the writing was fun and, as a result, easy! at this point i was just writing in my down time from uni, and i didn't know what the plot was or what my plans were for the book as a whole. because this was just something i did in my down time, i think my writing took on more of a conversational, stream-of-consciousness tone, and that's part of what made this draft (or start of a draft, i only got like 12k in i think) so easy to write. but eventually, as the plot started to come together and i started to gain more inspiration from sff writers as a whole, i realized that this book wasn't heading in the direction i wanted it to. it wasn't just something to do in my free time at that point, it had taken on a life of it's own. and thus, draft two began.

draft two: electric boogaloo

ngl these lines still slap and i love them. there are definitely things i would change, but these lines will be in the current draft of the book, albeit not in the first chapter and altered slightly. when i started this draft, i didn't have an outline but i had a very clear, cinematic image of how i wanted this chapter to go. i think having that before i started writing helped a looooot, both in terms of prose and just being able to convey aspects of the setting/character in the first paragraph. as i continued writing this draft though, i realized that some of the character arcs didn't make sense or were getting a bit messy, and that, based on the story i wanted to tell, it didn't make sense to start with Xalia. while there are six main pov characters in this book, Vanna really is the main character and i wanted that to be clear.

draft three: this time it's personal actually good

these are the current first lines of the book, and honestly my favorite so far! starting off with Vanna rather than Xalia definitely gives the book a different feel, and it's one that's more true to the vision i have for it. in my opinion, this opening does a much better job of setting up some of the book's themes, which admittedly i'm still figuring out lol. grief and loss are major components of all the character arcs, and are integral to the plot itself. switching to present tense has also been a LIFE CHANGER for me. it's funny because, on the second stab at this book, i kept slipping into present tense, but forcing myself back to past tense because i thought present tense sounded weird. turns out it only sounded weird because it was surrounded by past tense, and now that i've written 3 chapters in present tense i can solidly say that this is the way the book was meant to be written. it just feels like my book now, and i'm so happy with where it's headed!

i also made an outline for this draft of the book, and while i've already deviated from it somewhat to work out plot holes or increase ~foreshadowing~ in certain scenes, getting all of the events out of my head and onto paper has really allowed me to just write because i know that i have a document to refer back to if i get stuck on where the story is headed. making the outline also really pushed me to think about character backstories, most of which i had previously established, but now they've changed a lot to fit together more cohesively and integrate with the plot more clearly. i've also changed a lot of the character designs, and as a result of changing the appearances and backstories of a lot of the characters, i feel a lot closer to them and the story itself. the characters have well and truly taken on a life of their own, and now i'm kind of just along for the ride, telling their stories and loving every second of it!

ALSO!! the last big change with this draft, which i just implemented literally this morning and am so so sooooo excited about, is having first person referral, present tense mini-chapters/interludes! it gives the book a really unique sound and ties into the plot really nicely i think! i feel like the structure and form of the story are finally tying into the story itself and it's driving me insane a little bit askdfjka

as of right now i'm not ready to reveal who the pov and referral characters are in these chapters, because i'm debating between a couple ways of doing things and if i go one way that would end up being a pretty big spoiler! that being said, i got really hyped up about it earlier today and rambled in the spoilers section of my server so if you do want that sweet sweet spoilers content....join my server! ;)

also. i hope u all know that i almost deleted that first snippet about ten different times but transparency in writing and all that, i really do want to show how much this book has grown and changed! even if it's going to cause me immense psychic damage to type up the image description for this but i digress

i think that's all for now, and thank you so so much if you read all of that! the love and support this project has received and continues to receive absolutely blow me away, and i can't thank you enough for being part of the journey! <3

the crimson moon taglist (ask to be +/-)

image descriptions below the cut

[header image description]

the background is a dark castle with a checkerboard-patterned marble floor. the hallway fades into black, with the hint of a figure standing in the doorway. white text across the image reads "The Crimson Moon" in a large, all-caps font, and below that reads "wip update post" in thin, lowercase text.

[image description for excerpt one]

I lay on my back, gazing up at the sky. The weather was absolutely perfect. I could hear the crickets singing, the birds chirping, the brook babbling, all that good poetic shit.

I came out here often, just to get away and pretend like I wasn't a part of the fuck-all society I lived in. How could humans be so ignorant? We live in a world with this, I gestured expansively in my mind at the field around me, how can we not see how beautiful it is? How perfect it is? How imperfect we are by comparison?

[image description for excerpt two]

Xalia strode down the marble halls, the soft leather of her shoes meeting each tile with a cacophony of echoes. This was not the first, second, hundredth time that she had walked these passageways, and yet the chill she felt when contained within their depths never seemed to subside. The looming corridors and billowing curtains always seemed to hide sinister whispers that breathed down her neck and pricked at the tips of her ears. Perhaps it was the High Council, with their unnerving masks and owlish eyes, seeming to know and perceive all — or perhaps it was the knowledge that every time she stalked back towards the exit, she would carry the weight of another’s life on her shoulders, a life that she had to take.

[image description for excerpt three]

Vanna’s mother always tells them that grief is a sharp, biting thing; something that latches its teeth around your stomach until you double over with the weight of it. But for Vanna, that’s not quite right. There isn’t something hidden and tucked away behind the confines of their gut because there isn’t anything there at all. As they walk towards the town well — a spell book in one hand and emptiness in the other — they think that their mother got it wrong trying to describe grief in terms of presence. Grief, to them, can only be absence. The absence of light, the absence of a smile, and the absence of a palm which had curled so perfectly into theirs.

#kit writes #arnora #atlastracking #writeblr #wip update #whoowee this sure got long #i'm just very in my feelings about this wip okay <3 #yknow those stories that grow up as you do?....yeah

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pleckthaniel · 3 years ago

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How about 23, 54, and 118?

23. a book that is currently on your TBR

aughh there are. so many so i'm just gonna let storygraph pull one out for me at random HAHA

Okay yeah, I'm actually very hyped to hopefully one day eventually get around to this one - Carnivorous Lunar Activities by Max Booth III. Reading the reviews, it's apparently a bit structurally experimental? Like a huge amount of it is just a conversation between two friends before it gets into the actual horror werewolf blood gore stuff. That's very fun, I'm into that. I had forgotten this was even on my TBR but now it might go straight to the top lol.

54. a book with the best opening line

IIRC, Octavia Butler's Kindred begins "I lost an arm on my last trip home." Which is sort of the platonic ideal of an opening line - it sets expectations (this book is going to contain not a small amount of brutality and violence, as well as some kind of journey) while also causing you to ask some compelling questions (how did this character lose their arm? and, only slightly less importantly, where was she journeying that this happened?). It's also written in the same understated, almost harshly simple prose as the rest of the novel, which kind of sets up some expectations in and of itself. The rest of the book kicks ass too, its discussions of the cultural impact of slavery fucking opened my eyes, but that opening line is practically perfect from a craft perspective.

118. your favourite short story collection

Honestly?? I haven't actually sat down and read an entire short story collection in like... possibly ever? So I'll just tell you about a single, individual short story that lives in my mind rent free.

I couldn't find its title or author definitively. I think the title might be "The Forgotten Mile" but I'm truly not certain. I spent like 15 mins looking for it on the Merlyn's Pen archives but it doesn't seem to be there, so I can tell you that if you somehow get your hands on the collection License to Write published by them, this is the first short story in that book. (I would check for title and author there but it's at my parents' house.. rip). I also distinctly remember googling the author's name to see if he ever ended up publishing anything else, and as near as I can tell he became an insurance agent and never wrote again.

Anyway, the story has 2 major threads. The first is about this guy who is on a long road trip with a stranger he's never met. It's soon revealed that they were both saved from prison by a mob boss, who is now holding that over their heads to get them to do things like human traffic little girls. There's a lot of focus on the conversation, and lack thereof, between them, as well as how they deal with the little girl in their trunk as they sort of repeatedly fuck up trying to transport her.

The second is about this local cop with uncontrollable homicidal urges. He likes to jump out in front of cars just to see what happens and has caused literally hundreds of deaths this way, but has not been caught. It's to the point that there's a stretch of road that the local and state government thinks is designed more dangerous because that's where he always causes these crashes, and his wife is even an activist trying to improve the safety of this road.

In the end, the storylines kind of merge in a very explosive way as the FBI starts tracking the traffickers and the cop is one of the guys called in. You know a writer is good when they can make you like the kidnapping mobster possible-rapists more than the cop, even speaking as someone who hates cops. As well as when they can pull an ending that actually feels relatively.. hopeful, if not happy, out of the scenario I just described above. I read this when I was probably like 16 and I still think about it constantly.

#scout talks #anonymous

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peterstanslizzie · 4 years ago

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Reacting To: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Season 3 Episode 2)

Episode Title: Code Word Milkshake

Spoiler Warning: Kindly proceed if you’ve already seen the episode or are able to handle spoilers

1. OMG! A K-pop song? That’s so cool! It sounds like BTS lol. And the song is pretty catchy too 🎵; “Dive into my ocean of love”. It’s such a bop! We see the mutes (even the Mod Frogs) fangirling HARD. But what animals are these guys supposed to be? Are they dolphins? But why do they have horns? And apparently abs as well:

2. Aww but the leader of the group, Hyun Soo (as revealed in the subtitles) soon gets paralyzed by a dart and is kidnapped after signing fan autographs. And of course, it’s the doing of Dr. Emilia as she’s seen testing a serum sample on Hyun Soo. Again, I’m impressed with her ability to be so stealthy. However, she’s finding it difficult in getting the right formula for the genetic serum since none of the samples she’s used so far has worked on the kidnapped mutes. BTW, Jamack talking to Hyun Soo is hilarious.

3. In Timbercat Village, Kipo is planning with HMUFA a mission to find Emilia, rescue their friends and retrieve Song’s research journal. Oh, did Asher get a haircut? If so, they look really nice.

4. Our boy, Benson wants Troy to come along because he feels safer when he’s around. How precious! I’m happy he gets to go on a mission with Kipo for the first time too. It’s nice to mix groups up sometimes. And it looks like it’s just gonna be a human/hybrid-only mission because the mutes won’t be able to handle Emilia’s sonic emitter. Dave is upset that he won’t be able to tag along with them. I think it’s a good thing to sit this one out because he does have a tendency to die during their missions lol.

5. They manage to hitch a ride on a couple of dragonfly mutes due to Kipo coming up with the codeword, “Milkshake” to keep situations calm. Random but okay. As they’re flying over the sea, they spot a ship, which definitely belongs to Emilia since we hear Zane asking Greta to turn on the sonic emitter as some mysterious sea creature was circling around them. Because the dragonflies are not immune to the sound, this causes them all to fall into the water

6. The group tries to climb over the ship to get a peek of the situation aboard and they can see the burrow humans enjoying their time there, splish-splashing in a giant pool paired with a crazy slide and everything.

7. Dave lets Lio and Roberto know that he wants to have a boys night out (BNO) with them. But it’s clear that he’s doing this because he still feels salty about not being included in the stealth mission. Roberto looks like he doesn’t want to go out but Lio is down to hangout with Dave-o lol.

8. Back on the Dr. Emilia’s ship, Kipo and gang try to find her lab but they almost got spotted by a blonde human girl, who apparently is able to hear Hyun Soo sing through the cafeteria vents and thus, wants him to sing for her. Kipo and Troy actually recognize her from their old burrow. She’s actually Hoag’s daugther, Doag! I can’t believe he named his daughter that lol. Anyways, they were all actually friendly with one another, so we shall see if she’s willing to help them or not. Doag really likes dancing and we see her dancing around to Hyun Soo’s singing. She then does a split and spots them. Well, she doesn’t look alarmed actually.

9. Meanwhile, Dave and Lio are playing cards but afterward, they went to check out the so-called “community bonding” session between Timbercats and the Umlaut snakes. At first, it seems like they are having a huge argument but they’re actually just writing a song and having a couple of debates. It’s song-break time. This time, the song is called ‘Friendship Alliance’. How fitting. After the performance, Lio says he wants to go to bed but Dave isn’t done yet and wants him to check out his secret stash of explosion berry cola.

10. Doag explains to the group that Dr. Emilia has been treating them nicely so far but they want her to know the truth about Emilia who has been trying to kill Kipo since she was a baby. Plus, according to Troy (and Benson from earlier on), she didn’t eat his Benson’s pancakes. Troy is way more upset about the part about the pancakes, which of course he has to be since it’s his boo’s pancakes. But my goodness, Doag’s voice is like nails on the chalkboard. Don’t you agree?

11. I think it’s hard for them to convince her that Dr. Emilia is a bad person, especially since they don’t have any real evidence to show. Emilia is like a savior to these humans. Fortunately, Doag wants to help them rescue Boom-Boom, Jamack, Camille and Hyun Soo regardless.

12. She takes them to Dr. Emilia’s lab, which isn’t very hidden like they said lol. The door’s locked but Troy, the skilled magician was able to pick the lock no problem. Benson is impressed and he actually addressed him as his boyfriend! Cute!

13. They enter the lab and we see all the kidnapped mutes trapped in their individual mute-proof cells. Aww the way Jamack called Kipo, Burrow Girl was so sweet. He has come a really long way with her since Season 1 huh? I don’t know what’s up with Boom-Boom but she(?) doesn’t look too good, almost unhinged. So, Hyun Soo is known as a Dolphicon! I guess that’s short for Dolphin and Unicorn. That’s explains the horn. I actually like the name “Wall Siren” for him as well. Despite only speaking in Korean, Hyun Soo does seem to understand English when Doag asks him “who are you?”. I feel like the introduction of Hyun Soo is like paying homage to Kipo’s animation studio, Studio Mir, which is in fact South Korean.

14. Kipo proceeds to then break them out of their cells. Doag declares she’s going to help them escape. I actually hope there’s a chance that she would be part of Kipo’s group officially. She seems cool, mostly lol. Wolf also finds Song’s research journal but before they could make their escape, the traumatized Boom-Boom looks at the needles Dr. Emilia has been using on her, freaks out and drops her nectar bombs on them, which causes the whole lab to explode. Boom-Boom needs therapy for sure. Ughh…Wolf also accidentally drops the journal and leaves it behind the lab. That book is probably destroyed.

15. Back at Timbercat village, I assume Lio had already drank the cola before he is super hyped. Yumyan also joins in on their shenanigans and he gives them the idea to steal Molly’s axe and put it in an axe bush (is that what Yumyan said?). Also, is this supposed to be a pun or something?

16. Doag puts Hyun Soo in their getaway boat but it’s weird since he’s a dolphin and can just swim in the water instead lol. They’re supposed to leave now but Kipo wants to face Emilia now. I say she’s making a bad decision here. Dr. Emilia then arrive with Greta and Zane but Wolf takes out the latter two easily. The rest of the humans come out to the deck to see what the ruckus is all about and Emilia tries to play coy and innocent with them.

17. Hoag notices that his daughter isn’t around. Our heroes try to explain to the humans that Dr. Emilia is the bad guy; They told about how Song is the Mega Monkey and how she got her to attack and destroy their home back in Season 1. And they explain that she mind-controlled Song to kill her own daughter.

Even grandma can deliver a beatdown on someone lol

18.The humans are reluctant to believe them because it does sound very farfetched. But c’mon…they should know by know that Las Vistas is a messed up place; Anything can happen. Also, don’t they remember the Mega Monkey saving them from getting gilded in Season 2. Suddenly, Hoag makes an attempt to paralyze Kipo with one of the darts but she quickly reacts and knocks him out. The humans see this and they get mad at her. Eventually, Kipo and the others make their escape. Finally.

19. Back to Lio and Dave. We find out towards the end that Molly actually killed Dave 5 times for the stunt he pulled on her lol. Anyways, the both of them are glad to have this bonding session with one another since Kipo isn’t around.

20. Our heroes reach land but Doag wants to go back because she knows her dad is worried sick about her. And so, Hyun Soo and I guess the rest of his groupmates are bringing her back there. Aww, she should’ve stayed but I understand why she wants to go back to the ship. But to be honest, somebody should’ve thought to give her a communicator or a walkie-talkie or something because at least they can know what Dr. Emilia’s next move is. Perhaps they don’t really have to think too much into it since the journals has been decimated and all…or is it?

21. Wolf, I hope you’re happy you dropped the journal lol. Dr. Emilia figures out that Kipo is X. Wait, I’m trying to remember if there any mention of X in the previous episodes. Anyways, I wonder what she’s going to do with the fur Kipo left during their last confrontation. I guess since Kipo is a human who also has the DNA of apex predators, Emilia is going to play with her recombinant DNA and figure out a way to reverse the effects of the mute DNA so that only the normal DNA will be present? I dunno….

22. Last note/tiny bit of criticism: Is it just me or do you guys sometimes think that some of the character designs look a little wonky in this episode? Sometimes, I felt like Kipo, Benson and even Troy look a little off in some frames. Anyways, that’s the end of my review of episode 2. Stay tuned tomorrow for my review of episode 3. Thanks for reading everybody!

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murasaki-murasame · 5 years ago

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A whole buncha shit went down in Chapter 12 today and we got a new Chimera fight to begin shaking up the shadow meta in preparation for the new mana spiral batch and the new Agito fight, but like 90% of my brainpower is currently being spent thinking about how the new influx of wyrmite rewards let me do another tenfold on the Valentine’s banner, which finally got me Epimetheus.

But I still have some thoughts on the new chapter so I’m gonna put them under a cut because of spoilers

I’m feeling extremely vindicated in my choice to dream summon Laranoa, since chapter 12 ended up having flame enemies, and she even showed up in the story, which is like the last thing I saw coming.

Even though my water team is probably my weakest one overall, I didn’t actually have too much difficulty with anything up until the last couple of Very Hard battles, which I wasn’t able to do, and probably won’t be able to for a while.

I still think that the higher difficulty main campaign maps are really fun and well-balanced, though. It’s pretty rare to get challenging content based around dealing with waves of mob enemies. It really forces you to play differently, especially in Very Hard where every enemy hits super hard.

And on the note of the main bosses in the chapter, I’m still wondering if the whole deal with the cube bosses is actually gonna lead somewhere. Thus far they’re just this giant question-mark with no real in-universe explanation or acknowledgement, and their whole sci-fi vibe and the cryptic references to space probes just feels like the exact opposite of how the rest of the game is. It’s possible that they’re just there to be challenging boss fights with no real context behind them, but I kinda hope something happens with them. Maybe once we’ve gotten one for each element.

Story-wise this chapter was shorter and a bit less eventful than I expected, but it was still really fun. It really feels like things are heating up now. Especially with how it ended, it really feels like the first half of a two-chapter story arc, so that’s probably why it felt kinda brief. It definitely raised a lot of interesting questions that’ll probably get addressed in the next chapter.

First of all, the big elephant in the room is the reveal that apparently we’re going to see the fifth heir in the next chapter, which just kinda came out of nowhere, lol. I really thought they’d be a mystery for longer than this.

It’s not like there’s anything to go on one way or another, but I kinda hope that the fifth heir is that wyrmclan leader we saw that looks a whole lot like Euden. But who knows.

They’re still a huge mystery, but the stuff with Phares in this chapter makes me think that the fifth heir is somehow involved in the whole concept of black mana and how it corrupts dragons, if we’re meant to assume that Phares showing up with the void dragons at the end of the chapter was related to him getting help from the fifth heir. Which might explain why Chelle and Leonidas seemed genuinely freaked out at the idea of Phares working with their mystery sibling. I don’t think the idea of black mana has been introduced or explored at all outside of the descriptions of the void bosses, so it’ll be cool if it gets properly explored soon.

And on that note, I really wasn’t expecting this chapter to provide an actual in-universe explanation for stuff like the void dragons and the IO bosses. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s nice that the void dragons aren’t just in their own little weird pocket of ambiguous canon.

It’s kinda weird to see the main story basically introduce the concept of void battles when those have been in the game forever, but it’s nice to see them finally addressing it, lol.

The whole deal with Leonidas talking about ‘dracoshifting’ is also totally a hint at a future game mechanic, isn’t it? People have been wondering for a while now if there’s going to be some sort of revamp to dragons as a mechanic to basically rebalance them according to the current needs of the endgame meta, and I could totally see some variation of what Leonidas did to Mars being used to explain a new mechanic about buffing existing dragons. I imagine that if we get to do it, we’d do it in a more humane way than Leonidas, but still.

I’ve been thinking ever since they introduced mana spirals for adventurers that dragons should probably get something like that to make them better, and I could see this basically being how they do it. I dunno exactly how they’d do it, but maybe it’ll be like promoting dragons to make them stronger and giving them a new sci-fi design like Mars has. There’s definitely a lot of old dragons that need some sort of buff to make them more relevant. I’d want it to be slowly rolled out for specific dragons that need it, though, like with mana spirals.

Mainly I think that the 60% strength dragons probably need a buff since we’re starting to get conditional 80% strength dragons, but there’s also other relatively weak 5-star dragons like Prometheus, Takemikazuchi, Nidhogg, etc, that could use a buff.

This also might be a good way for them to make it worthwhile to actually be shapeshifted for a while, instead of just using the dragon to use a single skill or to tank a hit. At the moment they’re basically all weaker than if you weren’t shapeshifted, but maybe this sort of buff would also lead to their shapeshifted forms being way better. Which would at least be great for characters like Xainfried, Mym, Lathna, etc.

I’m also kinda wondering now if this chapter might be setting up for Leonidas joining us and being playable eventually. It kinda feels like that’s what they’re setting up, but honestly I kinda hate all of Euden’s siblings and I don’t really want to see any of them become our allies, lol. Also Leonidas would probably just be a flame sword, and we really don’t need more of them.

On a similar note I think it’s pretty safe to say that we’re probably getting Gala Alex next month. I dunno if I’ll go out of my way to save for her, but we’ll see. I’m curious to see what her gala alt would play like, though, especially if she’s still a shadow unit. There’s just a whole lot of competition in shadow at the moment. Either way, I think she’ll probably end up being a sword. Shadow doesn’t really have any noteworthy sword units at the moment, so that’d be nice.

Once we get into March I might start saving for her, but for now I’m probably gonna put some resources into the new dragon banner, since all of the featured ones really interest me [especially Apollo since I don’t have him yet], and I just got Epimetheus so now I’m done with the Valentine’s banner.

That also reminds me that at this point it’s basically confirmed that both Epimetheus and the three old Valentine’s adventurers are permanent now, which is really interesting. I guess this means that later this year they’ll make the old Halloween and Christmas units permanent, too. That’d be a nice way to keep introducing new holiday units without it getting bloated and hard to manage. And honestly most of the older holiday units aren’t particularly good anymore, so there’s no real harm in making them permanent. RIP in pieces to all the people who whaled for V-Hilde, though, lol. Maybe now that she’s permanent she has a chance of getting a mana spiral to make her better.

Anyway, I’ve felt a little let down by some of the recent story chapters, but I ended up really liking this one. Now I’m excited to see what reveals and developments the next chapter brings.

I’m also still extremely hyped about the upcoming shadow mana spiral batch, and the new Agito fight. I’m still clinging onto my pipe dream wish of them improving Norwin by making him more like V-Addis or Natalie. I’ve actually been thinking some more about the different ways that could go [even after I made a whole post about it lmao], and I think it’d be interesting if in addition to adding an enmity effect to his S1, they added an effect to his S2 where he takes non-lethal damage relative to the amount of damage he does to the enemy with the skill, as a way to manually get him down to low health. So I guess in that case he’d be more like a shadow version of Chelsea, which could be fun. I also think there’s a lot of interesting things they could do with him by, say, adding a team health regen effect to his Blind = Team Strength ability. But who knows. I just want him to get some special attention and become genuinely good because I really love him, lol. Though in general I like the idea of them using mana spiral upgrades to basically give certain characters a whole different play-style. Sorta like how Karl can now be used more or less as a buffer, but that has more to do with D-Rathalos than Karl’s mana spiral. It’s still an interesting way to give older units a niche in the meta.

#murasaki rambles #dragalia lost #I immediately gave Epimetheus most of my Valentine's card items because he has all my uwus

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thatwitchrevan · 5 years ago

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opal and peridot for the character ask?

Opal:

First impression

My first impression was basically ‘!!!!’. ‘Giant Woman’ does a really good job of hyping you up to see Opal. And seeing her arms punch through the Gem bird monster before the proper reveal? Nice. The best part though was when she gently set Steven down and he nervously asked if she knew him, and she chuckled and started singing ‘Giant Woman’ to him in her HEAVENLY voice. I was immediately wooed by the goddess, as I think everyone was.

Impression now

Basically the same! I love her a lot and I’m always super excited to see her! She’s really sweet and as I mentioned I love her voice, and her design is just gorgeous. I love how Pearl and Amethyst fuse so easily now in contrast to how they used to be. It’s development babey!!

Favorite moment

Previously it would’ve been the aforementioned singing of ‘Giant Woman’ but now it’s probably when Pearl and Amethyst fuse into her during ‘Independent Together’ and Opal starts singing and playing with Steg. She’s just so confident and I feel like she’s got quite a healthy love for herself considering how Amethyst and Pearl admire each other and especially with the growth in confidence they’ve both experienced. I love a fusion that loves themself!

Idea for a story

I wanna see any and all stories in both canon and fan content where Opal fuses just to chill with Steven and/or the other gems. Opal making pancakes with Steven even though she won’t eat them. Opal watching Crying Breakfast Friends. Opal playing music on the beach with Steven and Greg. Opal lightly teasing Steven and Connie about their adorable flirting. Just! Domestic Opal being Opal!

Unpopular opinion

I don’t know that I have one? I think the general consensus is that Opal’s great and we want more of her. I guess I’m not really found of the idea that her being forgetful means she’s stupid or a ‘dumbass’ or w/e cute way people wanna spin it, because Pearl and Amethyst are both very intelligent even though the latter at least isn’t portrayed as being very smart in a ‘conventional’ way, and while jokingly calling characters stupid so you can relate to them is all fun and good, diminishing their actual real intelligence to do so is not.

Favorite relationship

Opal and Steven Opal and Steven Opal and Steven! What do you get when you combine Bird Mom and Grape Mom??? EVEN MORE MOM. Their interactions are so brief but I love them. Please more.

Favorite headcanon

I absolutely believe that while they used to fuse very rarely, Amethyst and Pearl form Opal a lot more now. I think Pearl’s hang-ups about fusion were very clearly about her interpersonal relationships and not whatever she claimed the purpose of fusion was. She refused to fuse with Amethyst unless necessary but created fake problems to fuse with Garnet? Clearly the ‘fusion is for emergencies’ thing was an excuse, and now she gets along well-enough with Amethyst not to need it. Opal now regularly shows up to the picnics and jam sessions in Little Homeworld and nobody blinks. She’s best friends with Bismuth and Jasper. Garnet thinks it’s rad.

Peridot:

First impression

I had a pretty good idea that Peridot was eventually going to be a Crystal Gem, so I was kind of just like ‘hmm, that sure is an angry little gremlin. Cute though. I can’t wait to see her begrudgingly befriend Steven lol’. And then she did!

Impression now

Peridot is my sweet sunshine Gem! I just love her a lot okay! Way more than I expected to, even. She’s very, very funny, and she’s incredibly sweet while also being pretty blunt and frequently sarcastic which is just?? So fun? I loved her redemption arc and I am absolutely ENAMORED with domestic Crystal Gem Peri.

Favorite moment

This is hard because I have a lot! I really love her and Steven’s interactions in ‘Gem Drill’ especially ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t save you or the billions of other life forms that matter far less to me than you!’ and her genuinely emotional expression to Steven’s ‘I love you, Peridot!’ followed by ‘wow, thanks’ (also genuinely emotional, and hilarious). There’s also, like, any scene of her and Lapis and her trying to make the-thing-with-Lapis work, because I love their relationship and I love her genuine attempts to reach Lapis even if they are heavy-handed at times because she’s doing it because she cares and wants Lapis to have the same comforts as she had when she was getting used to life on Earth. I love the moment where she apologizes to Amethyst for making fun of her and nearly wrecking their new friendship even though it’s clearly difficult to do, and she does it in a roundabout way because it’s that important that she found a way to do it because SHE CARES SO MUCH, and I love her depression moping after Lapis leaves because. Relateable. And I love her bit in ‘Let’s Only Think About Love’ where she’s sadly wondering if maybe Lapis was right and maybe they’re all doomed and how could I forget ‘Peace and Love on Planet Earth’ that’s one of my favorite songs in the show and. I told you this would be hard.

Idea for a story

I’d like to see Peridot interact with a baby! We’ve seen the main three gems do that, and I think Peri would be surprisingly good with an infant, plus it’d be funny and adorable. If ‘gemlings’ or baby gems could be a thing in the show at all or if I was going to interact with an au about them, Peridot/Lapis is the number one couple I’d want to see Gemlings for! Peridot would be so protective and doting on that damn adorable child and I want it. This could also be Steven and Connie’s future child cause you know she’d adore the hell out of them! Give Aunt Peridot a baby!!

Unpopular opinion

I like the headcanon of Peri being asexual, but I don’t think that should necessarily mean she doesn’t fuse or want to fuse. It could also mean that, and I think it’s important that the show is clear that fusion is also a choice and there’s no shame or loss in choosing not to do it, and it’s fine with me if the show chooses to portray Peridot that way, but Peridot being ace and Peridot not fusing aren’t the same thing and shouldn’t necessarily be related. It can be interpreted that way, but if fusion is not the same as sexual intimacy, which it isn’t, then Peri should be able to be asexual and still want to fuse, which could be portrayed by Peridot being in a relationship but not wanting to kiss much/at all, or by her only having platonic relationship (though ofc that would be more in line with her being aro, which is also a good headcanon). Tl;dr I’m cool with ace Peri, aro Peri, and or Peridot not wanting to fuse, but those aren’t all the same thing and we could have one without the others.

Favorite relationship

While I really ship Lapidot and Amedot (and Garnidot! And Bismidot!) and those rank really high, Peridot and Steven’s friendship is the best. I adore them. I love how she learns from Steven, and I love that once she bonds with this weird half-human child she suddenly decides he is the most important thing on this Gem-forsaken planet and she’s ride-or-die for him and his planet and then his friends by extension (and then she becomes a full-on Crystal Gem and she’s ride-or-die for all of them). I love how in the early episodes like ‘When it Rains’ you can see her battling with herself between her growing attachment to Steven and everything else within her, everything she’s known and believed, everything she was literally made for. And Steven wins!!

Favorite headcanon

I think Peridot sings to herself/when she thinks nobody can hear her a lot. Obviously she also sings in front of other people and joins in group songs but I think she also does it privately as a comfort thing, possibly also a stimming thing. Probably sings herself to sleep sometimes when Lapis is gone or she’s otherwise upset. Sings when she’s happily working on her garden or something by herself. Just singing all the time because ever since Steven introduced music to her she just can’t and doesn’t want to stop.

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theonetruenerd-blog · 7 years ago

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MY THOUGHTS ON MY LITTLE PONY: THE MOVIE

I know it has been a while since I made an actual post, but school and laziness got in the way.

But here I am giving you guys another movie review!

(Quick side note, I saw this movie due to the HASBRO LEAK, I know I said that we shouldn’t do that but I am so sorry I will never download leaked movies again. I am sorry for being a hypocrite.)

So, oh my god this movie actually happened!

The FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC SHOW came out in 2010, and the show still goes on to this very day! It’s so unreal that the show is still airing! And I love the series so much, it’s actually the best cartoon show airing today. Yeah, I said it.

And when I heard that a 2D animated movie based on this show was going to be released in theaters, I. WAS. PUMPED!

There was a celebrity cast involved, along with the original cast from the show involved as well.

I was so excited for this movie to come out, I was wondering what this movie could possibly be about!

And then, in mid 2015, the plot synopsis of the movie was revealed! From MOVIEWEB, it reads:

“In the movie, a new dark force threatens Ponyville, and the Mane 6, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity, embark on an unforgettable journey beyond Equestria where they meet new friends and exciting challenges on a quest to use the magic of friendship and save their home.”

When I read that synopsis, I felt skeptical. But it was just a synopsis, the final movie can still be good!

And then I saw the movie.

Now look, no matter what movie I’m about to watch, I always give them the benefit of the doubt. Even when I was about to see THE EMOJI MOVIE, while I knew it was going to be bad, I still gave the movie a chance.

And then I saw the movie. And . . . *sighs* it was not good. Really bad, it was. I thought at first it was just okay, but after thinking about the movie and then watching it again with my analytical eyes, I came to this conclusion: THIS ANIMATED MOVIE IS ONE OF THE WORST ANIMATED MOVIES I’VE SEEN IN YEARS.

HEAR. ME. OUT!

I am not hating on this movie just because I can or because I had a lot of plot theories in my head and they didn’t come true (*coughs* Last Jedi). I just simply don’t like this movie, and there are many reasons why.

Before I get into the actual movie, I want to go somewhere else. I want to tell you guys about the behind the scenes aspect of this movie.

Developing wise, the story should have been done better. It was predictable, this movie was.

But lets get into the behind the scenes now.

I DO NOT KNOW THE BUDGET OF THIS MOVIE!

Really, CARTOONBREW said the production budget was from $5 to $8 million, but then EQUESTRIADAILY and other MLP forums said that the movie was around $20-$30 million. So I’ll say that based on that, the movie’s budget is fron $5 to $30 million towards the production of this movie.

And the animation software for this movie was TOON BOOM HARMONY.

It is a well known 2D animation software that was used in this movie, combining 2D animation with 3D CGI animation for the settings and so forth.

I thought the animation would be in-house software, meaning only the company making the film would be using the software that they made, instead of using software that is open to the public. But still, TOON BOOM is still good software for animation from what I have heard of.

And then we go back into 2014 where the current showrunner of the show, Megan McCarthy, announces that the MLP MOVIE will not only get made into a feature length movie, but it will also be released in March 2017, which was eventually moved to October of that same year I. WAS. HYPED!

And then in 2015 at PonyCon Australia, she was asked if the movie was going to have the same tone and feel that the EQUESTRIA GIRLS movies have. She replied by basically saying that the movie would be just ...”straight up pony friendship is magic.”.

But if you would watch the behind the scenes look at the movie, along with that same interview in PonyCon, the main reason for her making this movie WAS NOT because she had a complex story or new story in mind, but literally because that she wanted to go big on scope and atmosphere. (Watch the first five minutes.)

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So.... nothing on story and character development and nothing on bringing in more people to know about the show, just the big picture, she wants.

She’s basically saying this:

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(Watch from 2:21-2:25)

And now we get into the animation part. Then I will get into the story/characters, and then I will tell you guys my conclusion.

So for the animation, it’s a mixed bag. For one, the animation on the mane 6, Spike, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Tempest, Storm King, Grubber, and the seaponies are all well done. Granted, there were moments where Twilight and Pinkie Pie would make weird faces, and all I could think of is, “Wow, the animators really like to show off.” LOL. Still, the animators did a good job with those characters.

HOWEVER! Onto the negative side on the animation.

(THE REST OF THIS REVIEW WOULD BE FULL OF SPOILERS! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.)

When it comes to the settings, the buildings, and certain characters that I’ll mention in just a bit, they look out of place and unfinished.

Maybe it’s because the final script was finished two months before the movie was released? (I read the script during the leak and now it’s gone, but the date for the final script when finished said it was on 8/15/2017. August 15 of this year, and the movie was released on October 6.)

But when it comes to the HAN SOLO RIPOFF Capper, Celaeno and her crew, they look unfinished.

Think about this. The movie’s production budget was very low. So the animators probably had some trouble to animate the entire movie. But there have been other 2D animated movies like SONG OF THE SEA where the budget may be low, but can still be animated very beautifully. This movie however, has some glaring issues with that.

The settings, as I said, look unfinished and out of place. When you place two dimensional in a setting surrounded by buildings that look unfinished, the film takes me out of there and I question why these buildings are there. It takes me out of the experience.

And now to Capper and Celaeno and Celaeno’s crew.

They look great in these pics, but whenever they move and interact with other characters on screen, it just feels weird. Think about this: the ponies and the other characters that I mentioned before looked great, but the ponies looked the best because even with the very low budget, the animators knew the show and they knew how to animate these characters in this movie. That’s why whenever they’re talking, running, walking, and doing cool moves, it looks amazing and the animation there feels smooth and fluid.

But whenever you see Celaeno and Capper, they would never run, flip, do moves, or do anything else besides talking and walking, (Celaeno does very little when it comes to kicking the bad guys. And Capper only runs once, but for like 5 seconds. but that’s it.) that’s because with the new character designs, rushed script, and budget concerns with the animation, you would get characters that don’t move naturally.

Now with the story, the most important part of every movie. I am going to give you guys two point of views, from me being a fan of the show, and from me seeing this as just a standalone movie. So right now this is me as a lover of film and seeing this as a standalone movie. Now, onto the story.

*sighs* WHAT STORY!?

It’s just, inconsistent and predictable.

But let’s get into the story, shall we?!

So the opening of this movie has three random ponies that we don’t know flying above the clouds and then flying down towards Equestria, while the pony version of WE GOT THE BEAT is playing. *sighs* The fucking Jimmy Neutron movie used that song, from fucking 2001.

Anyway! The first fifteen minutes in this movie really had no connection to the actual plot of the movie. You would think that because this is this beginning of the movie, this whole fifteen movies would be the whole movie. But here’s the thing, it isn’t the whole movie. So when the actual story happens, it comes right out of nowhere and I’m asking myself, “Wait, what?!”

The whole fifteen minutes is entirely dedicated to Equestria setting up this festival of friendship, this huge glamorous event run by Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight.

Now with the start of this movie, the setup to the world that we are in is very important. Once the audience gets introduced to a world beyond their imaginations, then we should know about this world and feel like we’re people living in that world. Being immersed into the film. But with Equestria in this movie, you don’t really know much about the world. It’s just, we’re here, and that’s it. Nothing really interesting happens, it’s just Equestria pasted into the movie as the backdrop and that’s it.

Even with the character introductions, again, we as a moviegoing audience don’t know who these characters are. The characters are slapped on the big screen and the filmmakers want us to know who these characters upon introduction (not really.), but we don’t. Only the fans of the show know and when making an animated movie based on a television show that some people may not know about, that is not good. (I mean THE SIMPSONS MOVIE is a great example on how to make a great movie that is based on a television show. It doesn’t rely on references to the show without any context of said reference, fan service, and character introductions that don’t feel like actual introductions. It’s a movie that anyone can watch. In the movie, we get introduced to the Simpson family, we know immediately in the beginning that they are a dysfunctional family. Bart is a troublemaker, Lisa is the shy and musically talented one, Marge is the responsible and mature one, and Homer is the dumb one. They all have arcs in the story that are important and are actually built up upon, but I digress.).

There are even prequel comics that explain who the new characters are and introduce the mane 6! Hey, there’s something! Oh wait, it’s not in the movie, so there’s nothing! Studios need to stop relying on comics and other mediums of entertainment to tell the rest of the story instead of the movie doing its job. If movie studios use that method, then they have no faith in their own movie.

It feels like a movie just for the fans, this definitely reminds me of SUICIDE SQUAD LOL.

And then we get to SONGBIRD SERENADE.

Who is really just a pop star thrown into the movie and is given no character or reason to be there, other than to put a dance number at the end and to have a big pop star that people like (including me) in the movie. She shows up at the beginning for a few seconds, and then we never see her again until the very end.

So after her introduction, we all of the sudden get an introduction to the main villains. And we are introduced to THE HEAVY, TEMPEST SHADOW.

She takes out Luna, Celestia, and Cadence out very easily, even though the three ponies should not stand around like idiots. They should fucking move to the left or right, you know! *groans*

So the ponies get pwned by one of STORM KING’S GUARDS (THE BIG BAD) by one of the guards using his shield to deflect Twilight’s beam, which makes no sense because he used a regular shield which should have been destroyed, but fuck it, lets just move the story along.

So the mane 6 and Spike need to go to the Hippogriffs, part seapony, part eagle. Thinking that they can help them save Equestria.

As a fan, where’s Discord? Shining Armor with his army? Daring Do? Changelings? Dragons? No mention of them? Well, movie could have been way worse.

So the reason why Tempest is bad makes no sense. At first, we hear from her that she’s sick and tired that ponies use their magic just for parties. But then we hear again that she’s doing this in order for the STORM KING to repair her broken horn, and then later in the film which I’ll explain later, something happened to her as a kid, which is really stupid, dumb, and doesn’t make any logical sense.

So the ponies go to this dirty looking village called KLUGETOWN. And Twilight tells her friends reasonably that they need to keep a low profile, they can’t get captured, and they can’t trust someone who will back stab them. But Pinkie is like, fuck it, I’m going to do the exact opposite! And then the villagers surround the ponies and they all want to buy Spike for some reason, which introduces Capper. And just because he saved them once, every character excluding Twilight, trust him now. Rarity calls him “charming” and Rainbow Dash calls him “awesome”. And this brings me to the biggest problem in this movie besides the story . . . it’s the characters.

While the new characters have no development and do nothing of importance, the ponies, excluding Twilight, are jackasses! They constantly fuck shit up in this entire movie and they never apologize for what they did. Pinkie draws attention when Twilight specifically told her not to, because they were on an important mission. Then her friends would trust the pirates that were about to kill them. Also, Rainbow Dash does a sonic rainboom above the pirates’ ship and draws attention to Tempest. Then I swear to god, when hiding with her friends, Dash says to Twilight, “Did you think they saw my rainboom?”

Jesus Christ.

And then Pinkie Pie, again, just jumps into some little pond area where the seaponies live without thinking what will happen if she did jump in the water. And she trusts the seaponies even though she just met them. Lets talk about the seaponies, especially QUEEN NOVO.

To me, she’s the biggest bitch in the whole movie. I know she felt wary about strangers entering her kingdom, which is reasonable, but she doesn’t have to be a rude bitch towards Twilight!

Think about this scenario:

Imagine me as a very rich person, I’m wearing rich clothing, walking with my entourage, and I am holding a very powerful orb that can cure all diseases. So then a homeless man runs up to me:

Man: Please help me, my son is very sick, him and I are homeless, and he’s dying! *looks at the orb* Use that on my son, please! He doesn’t have much time left!

Me: *smirks and smiles* No no no! This is how it usually works! I only help the people I know. I don’t help people that I don’t know. It’s not like I can be a kind soul where innocent people are dying and I can save them, that’s just not me. So fuck off while I use my money on more expensive clothing. So go fuck yourself!

Yeah, that’s Queen Novo in a nutshell. Twilight needs that orb and Novo refuses to give it to her. Granted, I know the ponies to her on strangers. But Novo knows who the Storm King is, she knows what he has done to her subjects, and Twilight is pretty famous. So Novo not giving a helping hand, or fin, to Twilight and her kingdom, she says no, and literally gets out of her throne just because it was time for her seaweed wrap. Fuck her!

Twilight stealing the orb was surprising to me and was big, and stealing is not right. But while Twilight is having stress over being an inspiring leader and a responsible one too, her friends constantly fuck shit up like it’s nothing. So her friends are on the wrong and Twilight is on the right. If you needed to save your family and you need that orb, would you sacrifice yourself to save it by doing everything you can to get it, or just do nothing and not take action. Like a song and dance number instead. Fuck her friends.

The whole, “I don’t need friends like you” was out of nowhere, but still, it’s just to move the plot along, even if what just happened made no sense.

Then her friends leave her (good job, “friends”) and Twilight gets captured by Tempest. And Tempest sings OPEN UP YOUR EYES to Twilight, while Twilight is inside a magic proof cage.

And this is the part of the movie where Tempest’s past, her motivation into becoming evil, makes no sense.

The very underrated youtuber, THE DISHONOURED WOLF, said it best:

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(7:27-7:53)

So, she did something TO HERSELF and she blames everyone else for it?!?!?!

And telling Twilight to “grow up” even though she is a princess with a lot of responsibility and wasn’t acting like her friends for the majority of this movie?!?! Tempest should tell Twilight’s friends that they need to grow up instead. (The show’s characters will always be lovable characters and the movie is a huge spit in the face.)

There are also some audio problems with this movie.

Like this scene:

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It sounds like Sia was singing in a recording studio and it doesn’t feel like she’s singing in that scene.

This scene from GAME OF THRONES sounds like a person is singing in the woods, while you hear a horse’s hooves, birds chirping, and the wind.

youtube

I do like the glance between a torn up Twilight and Songbird, but we know nothing about Songbird and she doesn’t look at everyone else which is very odd and weird.

A whole bunch of shit happens and the Storm King is a weak ass villain, basically STEPPIENWOLF FROM JUSTICE LEAGUE but a thousand times more annoying and with no character motivation or personality.

There’s a scene a few moments later where Twilight has one of two choices:

Take this poweful staff away from the king, to save her kingdom and everypony who is enslaved? Or save the one pony who has been chasing after you throughout your journey, enslaved your entire kingdom, and let the king take her magic away? Which choice do you think Twilight made?

If you guessed the first choice, of course, she didn’t make that choice.

And then at the very end of the movie, Tempest is friends with the ponies even though, again, she enslaved an entire race of ponies. And reveals her true name. Her name is.... FIZZLEPOP BERRYTWIST.

How does that name affect her character? It doesn’t.

THE LEGO MOVIE with Wildstyle, where she revealed that her real name was Lucy. And it works because she wanted to become “the special” and when revealing her name, it shows that she’s just a regular girl, not just a super cool action girl.

FUCK THIS MOVIE.

AN F, THIS MOVIE HAS.

That’s my take.

@elijah-dawg-one @equinox-vixen @renegade-timel0rd @alexboehm55144 @drwolf001

#mlp movie #mlp #my little pony the movie #my little pony #friendship is magic #mane 6 #spike #queen novo #celaeno #capper #tempest shadow #storm king #animation #simpsons movie #lego movie #hasbro #lionsgate #lauren faust

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princessfaeron · 7 years ago

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Student Movie! AU for Rainbow Rocks, where the entire thing is a collaborative project between some of the music groups in Canterlot High (the Rainbooms, the Dazzlings and Trixie And The Illusions) which turns out startlingly good considering it’s nearly entirely made by teenagers

-when they all start working on the script the Dazzlings volunteer to be the villains because listen our group is themed around SIRENS do you KNOW how much villain potential mind-control mermaids have?

-this is only partially an AU, as in the events of the first movie did actually happen, and Sunset Shimmer is like "hey, Sirens actually exist in equestria" and then "hey I just remembered something mb we can do a thing"

-contacting Twilight Sparkle because maybe they're actually onto something with the equestrian sirens thing and eventually all of their ideas morph into Rainbow Rocks

-At some point Twilight figures out the portal thing so they actually get to film ON LOCATION in Twilight's castle and with her pony friends

-(Rarity practically swoons when she realises she's being invited to a CASTLE by a PRINCESS, and can't hold back her excitement when the Rarity native to equestria invites her to her boutique. ("YOU DESIGNED FOR A ROYAL WEDDING?" "Oooh this fabric is gorgeous! If there's ever an exchange rate between our currencies would you ever consider selling me some?"))

-(Human Rainbow starts tying her hair up in Equestria so she can be told apart from Pony Rainbow. Pony Rainbow also teaching her how to fly so they can race.)

-The Rarities and Twilight working together on making the storybook the Sirens show up in because the existing legend is great to base it off of but it wouldn't explain how they got to the human world, bc in this AU the equestrian sirens weren't banished (ofc)

-at first Trixie isn't involved and it's just the Dazzlings and Rainbooms wanting to make a thing but somehow she gets involved anyway and ends up being a semi-major supporting character

-the starting budget for the film isn't very much but when the portal to equestria opens it goes WAY UP because Twilight donates Bits and as it turns out (after Sunset Shimmer points it out and it's tested) they're made of ACTUAL REAL GOLD, and the gems Spike gave them are somehow even more ridiculous

-("This is a diamond. This is a diamond the size of my fist. I don't think we can sell this, we'd get in trouble for scamming. Hey Rarity want to make yourself some 'costume' jewellery?")

-(at some point the Equestrian government notifies the US government of their existence and the situation because at this rate these kids are going to get in trouble for this. Somehow a bunch of high school students become legal, and the only, suppliers of equestrian gold to the US government.)

-the rainbooms literally buy professional movie cameras and software for editing and special effects and other misc equipment because not only do they have a bunch of money from selling bits but they also have a SALARY now and it's a lot, like, enough to fund a blockbuster movie enough.

-Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna are a little bit surprised when a group of their students ask if it's okay if they film at the school because normally if some students want to do a home movie they don't bother asking permission but then they're shown the cameras and the storyboards and concept art, not to mention the endorsement agreement from the Equestrian Government which they didn't even register was a THING before then, but this is clearly a much more serious endeavor than most student movies so yes we'll get you some permits, just don't let this interfere with lessons and yes that includes yours.

-they hold auditions at the school for background and supporting characters and pretty much everyone is into it, especially once it's mentioned that Princess Twilight will be visiting again to play in it.

-In fact, everyone pretty much everyone auditions to play someone. Flash Sentry gets the part of... himself, and is elated by this fact, because he's not actually very good at acting. He starts to practice in private so he doesn't mess it up because he's one of the few supporting characters who has speaking roles. (when shooting rolls around he has to reshoot the scene where he gets mad at Twilight more times than any other because he keeps apologising about it before the scene is over)

-shooting is nearly finished when the friendship games happen, which goes pretty much exactly how it did in the movie. Scitwi is added to the movie crew as a digital effects artist and even gets her own teaser clip at the end of the movie, and agrees to get involved if a sequel happens too (which everyone silently agrees will be a recreation of the friendship games event)

-whenever they're not busy with their other duties, Rarity, Pinkie and their counterparts start working on marketing. "Rainbow Rocks" social media accounts with things like posters, teasers and even on-set photos from between scenes are made, and the hype for the movie slowly grows. While the writers and directors are originally kept anonymous, at some point the movie's popularity BLOWS UP to massive amounts when people find out that this musical modern fantasy epic blockbuster is being made nearly entirely by teenagers and movie critics are already praising it and calling everyone on the crew a prodigy even before the official release date is revealed

-somehow these kids get a proper theatre premiere and the tickets are sold out in a day, along with the tickets for every showing for a month, because while Rainbow Rocks might be considered "eh" here where it's an animated movie about a kid's show, in the world it's set in it would be more along the lines of epic fantasy blockbuster (like Harry Potter but more girl power and not based off a book)

-lots of people are stunned by the scenes filmed in equestria because THEY LOOK SO REALISTIC HOW THE FUCK? IS THIS EVEN CG (no, no it isn't. In fact, most of the magic in the movie isn't CG either, the only bits that are are the dazzling's mer-horse projections and the harmony lazer alicorn) -there's a slightly less big premiere for the equestrian release because the movie industry there isn't as big but it's still very popular and even the princesses attend it

-the mane six visit the human world to attend the premiere and lots of people are very confused to see slightly-older-looking-and-differently-dressed doubles of the leads

-(they're even more shocked by Spike. Twilight managed to do something with the portal to let Spike through as a dragon, just for the premiere, and he is ELATED but everyone at the party who didn't work on the movie has a mental bluescreen and has to reboot)

that’s all I’ve got for now but there might be more later. I should do this with more of my plot bunnies, lol, I got so much info out onto paper.

#my little pony #equestria girls #rainbow rocks #au #mlp au #mlp #long post #Student Movie! AU

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