#we DONT want hyper realism!!

[toothbrushfingers]

ATTENTION PEOPLE IN CHARGE OF THE HTTYD LIVE ACTION!!!

THE PEOPLE WANT THIS:

NOT! THIS!

[neonacidtrip]

I’m developing a new chart system

[translucio]

my 2 cents

not going to lie. the look and structure of the trailer wasnt my favorite. if i didnt know it was for veilguard i would have thought it was for a multiplayer game or like a lower scope tactics game maybe.

the art style..... was not my favorite. i honestly really liked the look of inquisition and i think it holds up well. im not always an advocate for hyper realism in games but that's always been what dragon age felt like it was going for, with each entry just limited by the tech of its time. i think the most important things to the dragon age look/feel for me are the grounded, empathizable expressiveness of the characters, and the sort of gritty, palpable texture and lived-in feel of the environments. but ill have to see how the gameplay actually looks in order to have a real opinion on whether or not the art style works for me

varrics narration kind of got a little cheesy for me but its a trailer so im willing to forgive

as much as i love harding i dont really know if i like having her as a companion. i feel like i got pretty much all i wanted out of her as a character in inquisition.... more of a romance plotline wouldve been nicer but i liked her as a scout and a leader doing her own thing not directly alongside the protag. it feels.... i dont want to say lazy. but like i wouldve rather had her show up as a prominent side character a la leliana in dai and have a different new companion. but who knows they might make me eat my words

similarly as much as i love him and recognize his relevance as a character, to be honest i hope varric isn't a big focus 🙃 he's had enough of the spotlight. let him just be a side character we see occasionally please

griffin exciting!

glad to have a warden companion

in general the companions look interesting, excited to get to know more about them!

[oflgtfol]

Okay same venom 2003 anon again. I dont have anything else to add to what ur saying as again i didnt read venom 2003 So im just nodding respectfully and wisely to everything your saying but re ur tags is the artist you mean Humberto Ramos? Bc if it is if it helps he's a pretty unpopular artist amongst people (though usually for criticisms about his art being “too cartoony” instead of anything meaningful like the objectification of women which i personally despise when people do that. No more realism sexy super models i want hyper stylisation ONLY in my comic books just to piss those people off). I also personally do not care about him as an artist no hate nor respect towards him but again the bar is so low 😭 ive seen so many genuinely boring deeply misogynistic artists who treat women the exact same awful objectifying way but who get passes in comic book spaces because their art is more Conventionally Likeable. Like if im gonna be forced to see a woman be drawn as only one body type and face and breasting boobily id much rather take the uglier style or the more stylised style just to have something Interesting To Look At then Another Boring Generic Guy Drawing Semi Realism with Soft Shading Based off 1950s Pin ups but thats just me personally as a lifelong comic book guy

YES HUMBERTO RAMOS. i hate the venom 2003 art but in the past two hours i've come to realize that humberto ramos is my real enemy here and the only real fault of venom 2003 is its resemblance of ramos's art (of course in addition to its own home brewed sexism).

i really love stylized art and i hate realistic styles. i love the classic ASM look because it struck a nice balance between the two: the 1960s-80s need to depict the human form in a standardized, realistic way (likely due to toy sales, at least if its caused by the same phenomenon of 80s cartoons, a la he-man, having that same look to them), but the flat colors, limited color palette, and cell shading were so so wonderfully simple and sleek in a really fun way. gave such a distinct Look to the comic, and the simplicity of the colors also made the realistic lineart not too realistic. it just felt very intentional, very careful, very creative with their technological limitations, and it's such a timeless look that has aged so well even still to the 2020s

so while i love the classique look, i also love when comic styles go even further to really break the mold and stylize further!! herrera in venom 2003, and ramos's whole *gestures broadly* COULD be good, if only they were done a little bit more purposefully, and yknow, minus the outrageous sexism

and yes sexism is overall so entrenched in marvel comics and i wouldn't be surprised if it also infected literally all other comic companies out there, considering We Live In A Society. anyone who dares to argue that misogyny doesn't exist needs to go become a comic geek and read hundreds of marvel comics and see

1. how utterly shallow women are characterized compared to their male counterparts

2. how female characters so rarely get to exist on their own outside of a male character; ie. female characters who are only side characters for a male hero, or superheroines who are literaly just "female version of xyz popular male character!", etc etc etc

3. the way women are visually depicted compared to men. men, especially the superheroes, are still subject to white patriarchal standards of beauty of course, but the huge muscles they're drawn with are a form of power, a "look how cool i am." you will never get that with a female character. they are only ever depicted with the same fucking face, the same fucking body type, the same fucking curves and tasteful cleavage and pouty lips and cat eye makeup.

4. and while the men have these like insane muscles that do not exist irl, they at least get to POSE in ways that are not sexualized. the women characters, even if their designs are not objectifying, will still be posed so that their butts face the camera, they have a pretty side profile to show off the silhouette of their breasts, etc. if you really pay careful attention to the way women are placed in comic panels compared to men it's so insane. so fucking insane

but yknow, all of those things tend to manifest in subtle ways, ways that you really can only pick up when you've read so many comics over a decent amount of time, and when you're otherwise prepared to read for and pick up on sexist elements. so i guess i REALLY draw my line and get pissed the fuck off beyond belief when comic writers and/or artists then begin to just be, blatantly, fucking sexist. a la those terrible panels from ASM spider island. a la that one she-hulk issue. a la spider-man/red sonja. when it's blatant it means you give NO fucks, it means you don't even believe women are people because you don't expect them to be engaging your works and thus you don't expect any sort of audience outcry from your blatant sexism, it means you literally only see women as objects for your male audience to oogle over, it's beyond frustrating

[destinyc1020]

I dont care about timothee tom comparisons thats whatever, but defending cherry is wild b/c take away the acting for a sec but from technical / filmmakers perspective, cherry was poorly edited with blatant mistakes, a movie that is visually bland with poor choices in terms of cinematography and choices that make no sense to the plot that ultimately is like take a step back and think of film as more than just actors on screen. Script that is littered with sterotypes. A movie that was supposed to cover a topic like the opiod crisis but never once does anything with it nor has any meaningful conversation about it. The first part talks about the linkage between us imperialism and ptsd only for the russos to completely drop the critique of the us military mid way through the film there is literallly a lack of cohesion of what it wants to say b/c the script is muddled and unfocused. No movie is perfect but if you are not even open to actual critiques of the film is wild, is film that has potential but its poorly constructed with numerous plot holes and under developed themes. Its style over substance in this case style lacked any thematic purpose rather its used to tell the audience " hey look we can make an independent film" and visual style is never justifeid. Acting is subjective but I tend to argue that cherry blurs more into the realm of overacting, a more talented director would tell tom to control and to hold some things rather than go all the way to 100

the last 30 minutes border more on parody rather than being an honest representation of someone who is a addicted to drugs struggling with ptsd and geographical/ socio economic displacement. The best scene was him in the hospital after that it blurs into over the top hyper realism and fouth wall breaking which tom struggles constantly throughout.

Like Im sorry why are unafraid to engage in critique, tom is a great actor but cherry was all over the place in terms of acting. Like whenever someone critques him you and your anons are quick to dismiss it and say can people think for themselves well here you go I thought for myself its so dismissive and condesending when you think people do have opinions.

Timmy tom comaparisons are dumb, they go after different roles, timmy has admittedly has had more critical success but as that anon said he knows what works for him.

Tom is a great actor and shines in alot of his movies but his films outside of his performance do have flaws and alot of them are technical such as poor visuals ( uncharted) and mistakes in the editing room ( infinity war, end game) under developed script ( TDATT).

This isnt reserved just for toms films but timmys films as well. You also undercut timmy, you said I want the person with range as in tom but literally timmy, austin, zendaya, florence , anya , keke palmer, kelvin harrison, daniel kuluyaa,dev patel like the list goes on of people with range, I dont understand what you mean when you say range like do you just watch tom holland films or something 😭😭😭 i dont know how you can convincingly say one actor as more range than another based on what. Lee, Elio wonka, paul, king henry, yule is a diverse subset of characters, in the same way that arvin, cherry, peter parker, billy elliott are diverse characters.

Wow...This was a LOT Anon. I see you've already written a dissertation, so I'm not going to add on to this by writing a dissertation of my own. I'll just pick from a few things here and there.

but defending cherry is wild b/c take away the acting for a sec but from technical / filmmakers perspective, cherry was poorly edited with blatant mistakes

What mistakes? Can you list examples?

a movie that is visually bland with poor choices in terms of cinematography

What do you mean by this?? And did it ever occur to you that maybe this might have been done on purpose? 🤔 The movie is about drug addiction after all. I also disagree that the entire movie was "visually bland". Some scenes, maybe?? But I think there were quite a few visually appealing and well-shot scenes in "Cherry". You might disagree, but I felt that these shots in particular were quite nice with the lighting (imo). The Cherry and Emily scenes in particular.

and choices that make no sense to the plot that ultimately is like take a step back and think of film as more than just actors on screen.

Again...if you provide some examples, maybe I can agree with you.

Look, I'm not saying "Cherry" was the best film ever made, but to say it was "horrendously awful" is a bit of a stretch to me.

Tom is a great actor and shines in alot of his movies but his films outside of his performance do have flaws and alot of them are technical such as poor visuals ( uncharted) and mistakes in the editing room ( infinity war, end game) under developed script ( TDATT).

And these might just be personal opinions? 🤷🏾‍♀️ But either way, what an actor has done in the past doesn't always equal what they will do in the future imo.

Maybe one day, a film that Tom does will live up to your expectations, but I just feel like you're being unnecessarily hard for no good reason.

You also undercut timmy, you said I want the person with range as in tom but literally timmy, austin, zendaya, florence , anya , keke palmer, kelvin harrison, daniel kuluyaa,dev patel like the list goes on of people with range,

Ummm....When have I EVER "undercut" Timmy (or any of these other actors you've mentioned above)??? 🥴 I've said plenty of times that Timmy (as well as the others you've mentioned) are great actors!

I dont understand what you mean when you say range like do you just watch tom holland films or something 😭😭😭

Okay, now I KNOW you're just trolling. 😒🙄 How many times have I talked about other movies and other actors here on my blog?? Like, literally ALL the time. I don't just watch "Tom Holland movies". 😒 If anything, I've been one who's always told fans to expand their film and actor horizons and appreciate a wide variety!

I've seen 98% of Tom's filmography though, so that's why I do feel like I have an honest view of his filmography overall.

i dont know how you can convincingly say one actor as more range than another based on what. Lee, Elio wonka, paul, king henry, yule is a diverse subset of characters, in the same way that arvin, cherry, peter parker, billy elliott are diverse characters.

Okay look, I know you're a huge Timmy fan and all, and that's okay! But I think you're misunderstanding what I meant. I didn't say "range", I said DIVERSITY of filmography. There's a difference! I never said Timmy doesn't have acting range. I just said that Tom has a more diverse filmography....and he DOES! That's just a fact.

[castlebyersafterdark]

(Do yall know how many asks I get requesting details and preferences on the intricacies of anal sex prep? Yall. Suspension of disbelief. There's so many advice and sexual health articles out there to read up on if you're so curious, it's... implied. No offense to the curious mind, I appreciate the genuine approach, but I ain't including all that in a fic hahaha. ANYWAY

you thought you could hide this in the strikeout but vinny dahling, i can read Strike (TM) AAAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA CRUELLA DE VIL LAUGH

anyway. so i have never asked for this in an anon lol but i have to empathise with the dear and curious readers (most likely girls but maybe baby gays or straight guys who are curious???? shoutout to all the lurking straight dudes here on vinny's blog lol). i think sexfic can be hot and heightened reality, but its also nice to add some realism and it can be aspirational too. youre kind of a king of realistic sex in hcs and fics in the spicy byler fandom tbh. youre invested in realism and emotion in a way many other writers arent. and ofc, you have life experience.

so i think its just a case of - well, for me, i think its just interest to see how the practicalities could be worked into fic. because yes there is info available, but those articles dont tell you how to incorporate the necessities into an actual scenario or story thats still sexy. i just think it would be incredible and so sexy to read a fic (or see a film!) where the nuts and bolts of everything were included. messy, maybe it fails, but yeah. it makes younger people especially hopeful, because it validates the frequent fails of early sex experiences. and thats byler! i know youre working on a fic of their early relationship so I'm sure you'll grace us with some Very Realistic details about anal sex prep and make it poetic in its realism, too. if anyone can, its you! whenever youre ready, im sure lots of us will be happy to read that.

love you vinny.

HAHAHA well 😉

And it's no shade to those lovely, curious, inquiring minds. It's realistic!! It's obviously going to cross the mind, I get it! Maybe, just getting too nitty gritty and acknowledging all the hyper-real aspects of stuff has a twinge of embarrassment, a sort of mindset where it's like, oh I'm enjoying writing about fictional sex and sharing little hints at personal sexcapades, but there are times where I don't want to be seen as a beacon of real advice and especially not become a go-to sexual health educator hahaha. I'm just being silly or creative most of the time.

But... yeah. I can't deny the fact that I do enjoy having my niche being a little bit of a realistic approach to my fanworks. It's pretty fun, because I've mostly dabbled in the ridiculous or lofty before now - but I switched up styles and approach and what I always wanted was an honest sort of insight and writing style. Found it in this fandom of all places, wild. So, yeah. Authenticity. Love that, strive for that. I appreciate the kind words and faith in me!!

Very true though that more very realistic media in general would be super interesting, and I think more things these days are surprising me in positive ways. We do need more realism for many aspects and depictions of the intricacies of intimacy and relationships. For sure. I will say... I do think you and others will find a lot of this in that fic I'm slowly working on. That's why it's gonna take awhile! I think something like that is gonna be more long form if I want to say what I want to say. Of course here's stuff in the fic meant to be hot, but most of it is just... exploratory and trying stuff through storytelling. Depicting how two young men entering a sexual relationship together with very little reference points might deal. Ohhh, it's got awkward moments, it's got not-so refined sex, it's got realism in what is actually happening - I think you'll find what you and others are looking for there. It's my realism fic while a lot of my other stuff does have that typical fanfic mystical world where things just somewhat... gloss over reality to an extent haha.

Love you too anon ❤️❤️

[plongitudes]

Just read a Reddit comment/thread saying that making Arthur bi would be unrealistic because “homosexuality was just not accepted during those times” and Arthur is too masculine to be bi or gay.

First of all: even if things weren’t accepted, homosexuality and bisexuality still existed in the same prevalence.

Second of all: masculine bi and gay men fucking exist. Bi men with a preference for women exist too actually, they are still bi (so Arthur only having canon relationships with women but still being bi is completely realistic) Bi men who are masculine and perform masculinity in the socially accepted way of the current year exist and definitely existed in 1899. There is nothing strange or unrealistic about this.

Third of all, our understanding of the Wild West and the American Frontier has been dramatically whitewashed and puritanically “sanitized.” Yes, even with all of the violence the setting celebrates.

Homosexuality and “bachelor marriages” (two guys living together, in a relationship for all intents and purposes) were common in the Wild West— social events where men posed as the “feminine” in the setting for the fun of it (dancing with and kissing other men at the event) and homosexual sex out in the wilderness were facts of life and socializing. It was accepted. Maybe not with the same understandings we have today, but it was accepted as natural to want to bone down, and the only people around were guys, so you boned down with guys.

The ratio of women to men on the frontier was 1:3– maybe less. Country boys make do.

Now, was this talked about in the open? Were people performing their identity the same way we do today? No probably not. I actually don’t know! I’m really interested to know how these things were discussed in a casual setting back then. But “homosexuality” — gay sex — was absolutely a regular thing in the Wild West, and it didn't make cowboys less manly to be having sex with other men.

This is all google-able, and Rockstar definitely came across this in research, but Americans are so very sweet and tender for their precious image of masculinity and whiteness in the 1800s West. Apparently some historians have expressed that no one wants to admit or talk about it because it just makes modern audiences angry and stupid.

I’m not a historian or an authority on this, it’s just wild to me to see people just assume since it was “old times” and in “old times they were conservative” just assume that means people defined social interactions and sexuality the exact same we do today. Before 1900 things were very different as far as gender and sexuality goes— they did NOT have the same vocabulary we do (even the word homosexual wasn’t being used commonly until a little after 1900-ish, the first mention of it is 1869 [nice] GERMANY in a PAMPHLET nobody in the Americas was reading) and they certainly didn’t define things the same way.

To me it’s more likely that Rockstar didn’t include this because it would alienate a large/loud portion of their hyper modern masculine audience and not because of realism or accuracy. We already know they added more women and fewer depictions of racial hate crime because, well, modern audiences. I agree with that choice obviously, though something tells me the same audience they avoided homosexual narrative threads for would be totally cool with more “realistic” abuse towards women and POC staying in the game. Because those folks always love accuracy until it’s looking at them and theirs.

Feel free to correct me if you have contextual information or historical knowledge (id actually love to learn more about this) but if you’re just a Western fan who hasn’t done the reading on this topic specifically then dont bother responding

[qqueenofhades]

“We don’t know each other that well,” Ivan points out. “How long has it been since we met? Two weeks?

ok look ivan, this is what i yell at my netflix screen during those cheesy romcoms but you and fedyor are soulmates so i dont need this realism today ☠️

All of us like IVAN. IVAN DEAR. WHO CARES IF YOU HAVE A POINT, SORTA, PLEASE JUST STOP TALKING, FEDYOR CAME ALL THE WAY BACK TO RUSSIA FOR YOU, IT IS CLEARLY TRUE LOVE.

But the boys actually did... somewhat good at talking this time around? Kinda? Words were used and feelings expressed and Ivan even got up the nerve to ask for something that he wanted. Though truly, he was working that hyper-competent but simultaneously a total idiot energy Hard this chapter. Outwit the KGB and save your kinda-boyfriend with only two minutes of warning? No sweat. Actually figure out his own feelings and/or understand what is staring him in the face? La la la he can't hear you. He has gone temporarily deaf. He has never had an emotion in his life. How dare you.

In conclusion: still an idiot. But very adorably so. Bless his cotton socks.

[restekova]

hey this might be kind of a weird/tall request but do u by chance have any book recs along the lines of 'if u liked hxh u should also read this'? in literally any aspect i dont care.. i just need more

oh buddy. i am searching too. if i knew the answer to that this blog wouldn't exist. THAT SAID:

first: DO YOU LIKE THE EMOTIONAL COMPLEXITY OF FIRST LOVE AND EMOTIONAL ENMESHMENT AT A YOUNG AGE THAT KILLUGON OFFERS? ALSO GAY? this isn't a book but a single short story. it's in the book "best american short stories 2018". the title is WHAT GOT INTO US and it's by a young queer author i follow on twitter named Jacob Guajardo. the first line is "Rio is the bravest boy I know the summer we are fourteen." this is honestly the piece of literature i've found that gets the most at what i'm fundamentally obsessed with about hxh so i'm saying it first

you like stories that are really weird and sort of hyper-realistic but also kind of surreal and rely heavily on characters to tell them and are ultimately about how humankind has the capacity to be kind even in situations of extreme cruelty? George Saunders. everything he writes is very chimera ant arc vibes. books: LINCOLN IN THE BARDO, TENTH OF DECEMBER

Charles Yu has a book out called SORRY PLEASE THANK YOU and I've only read one story in it so far but it punched me in the solar plexus. He seems to take situations that are sometimes, like, common to science fiction and then deeply explores their emotional and psychological effects on characters in a very HXH way. The story I read was about a guy who works at a call center where yoou can call someone to basically take over your brain for a set period of time so that you don't have to experience something you don't want to, usually a funeral or something else awful, and how the character deals with that + his relationship with another character.

oh shit, how the fuck did i get this far and not mention gabriel garcía márquez. okay, if you like hxh read the novel ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by gabriel garcía márquez if you haven't. just trust me. just really trust me on this. after that get a collection of his short stories and read them too.

while at it read jorge luis borges as well. he wrote short stories.

if you like hxh, actually, i'd suggest googling "magical realism novels" and seeing what you find.

i know my friend sara @werecat has said that the animorphs series by ka applegate reminds them of the child soldier narrative in hxh. you might ask them about it.

anyone else feel free to add on, i might add on to this as well as i remember stuff and things

[ananobrain]

Geraldine works for the twelve (and might have killed Kenny)

So, everyone agrees that geraldine always felt a bit off and useless, right? She’s always around the house being, as she said, “hyper-empathic” (which by itself could be a personality disorder https://exploringyourmind.com/hyper-empathy-syndrome-much-good-thing/) and overall just a good daughter helping her mom over come grief and blahblahblah — bullshit.

I had this revelation while watching 3.07 so I’m basically going to analise a few scenes of that episode that might have gone unnoticed (while bringing a few dialogues of this season), bare with me.

1. Hélene explaining her concept of monster to Villanelle During that scene, Hélene says: “monstruous people like you often feel they have to fly solo like they have to keep things bottled up inside them. Thoughts. Feelings. Secrets. And that can affect their ability to be truly monstruous.” and then “whatever it is you can tell me. I dont want us to keep secrets from each other.” and something about that clicks with how Geraldine acts, always sharing, trying to make Carolyn talk and open up. Maybe that’s just her being hyper empathic or maybe that’s just her trying to use her mother’s grief as a way to get information out of her. As Geraldine said in 3x02, 

2. Carolyn investigating Paul with Mo.

So, this scene is important for many reasons, one of them is to figure out how Paul hides his work for the twelve while living his life doing “standard white people stuff”

and then, it gets obvious:

- a bottle of chablis, a stir-fry kit and a bath bomb. what does that say to you?

- that he’s planning a lovely evening in?

hold onto that.

3. The shrink talking about Irina to Konstantin x Irina mentioning Stanislavsky

Ok, throughout the seasons we had some resemblance between Irina and Villanelle, they’re both very smart, dramatic and as far as psychology goes, we know that psychopaths are born and sociopaths are “made”, sort of, and these lines get kinda blurry during the show. 

So, Irina’s shrink describes her as: extremely bright and also manipulative. calculating. almost entirely lacking empathy. 

But empathy is a funny thing in this show. Villanelle’s showing some empathy. Hélene could be empathetic with her kid and with Villanelle. So, are they faking all the time? Is it impossible for them to feel things? We know that Villanelle said to Eve. Geraldine’s the opposite of that, right? Anyway.

In their next scene, we see Irina talking about performance, that’s the key word.

- You should read some Stanislavsky

- I’m not acting.

- Exactly. You’re over-acting.

I don’t know much about Stanislavsky but I do know he was really important with the psychological realism in the theater and later created a system that “mobilises the actor's conscious thought and will in order to activate other, less-controllable psychological processes—such as emotional experience and subconscious behaviour—sympathetically and indirectly.” Meaning that the performer should seem as real as possible, the role and the actor are connected and always showing their authentic emotions in scenes. For an actor to really display emotion, he needs to know how this emotion looks like, what it feels like.  As it turns out, Irina was talking about control of emotions, she knows how to read people, she’s calculated. 

Geraldine always seems to know what to say to get a type of reaction out of people, she burst and gets on her knees to talk about Kenny, and how Carolyn needs to let her in, she manipulates her mother into giving her something. At first she cries and sobs:

and Carolyn says “I’m doing more for your brother than you could imagine” , then Geraldine’s expression shifts almost into a grin

that was fast

And Carolyn, once again, shuts her down because obviously she doesn’t share information with someone she does’t trust. Remember that.

So many emotions, right? It almost seems like, i dont know, a performance. 

Next.

4. Geraldine manipulating Konstantin

Back to the 3x07. She goes to Konstantin and aparently she wants to get away from her mother’s mood and make him a nice and thoughtful dinner because thats who she is. Thoughtful.

So, she gives Konstantin some clue for him to play with:

and then he goes with the bait, of course, because Geraldine shows how manipulative she can be and her expression shifts completely to this:

then she lies

Carolyn sharing that type of info with Geraldine? I don’t believe it. As I said before, she doesn’t share information with someone she does’t trust.

Then she says that Konstantin would “disappear into the ether” and how would she know?

Then she lose it and makes a scene, which is revitalizing, really. and then Konstantin gives up, so she says “seeking out someone whose brother’s just died, taking advantage of their grief  when they’re at their most vulnerable. what kind of person does that?” “a shit”, Konstantin says. and then again, what was Geraldine trying to do this whole time with Carolyn? what did she say when Carolyn said “i’m doing more for your brother than you know”? she asked for more. she’s taking advantage of her mother’s grief.

Konstantin confesses he used Geraldine to spy on Carolyn and then nice and sweet and hyper-emphatic Geraldine says:

Ouch. Would a hyper-emphatic say that?

5. Carolyn arriving at home

ok, this scene is perfect. just look at it.

candles and incense AND

did the yoga mat ring a bell? anyone?

Carolyn says shes going to run a bath and 

Geraldine’s always at home, seemingly a dull life (as carolyn said in the 3x4) but no,

yes, she’s drinking some wine, practicing yoga, relaxing...she’s just doing a painfully standard white people stuff. she’s just planning a lovely evening in, right?

Her yoga mat? Blue. Paul’s yoga mat? Blue. then again, she goes for more info

Carolyn works for the MI6 after all (even though she might as well be a double agent she isn’t stupid)

then Geraldine burst once again calling Carolyn an emotional iceberg and then goes on about finding ways to express her emotions and thats impossible to live life refusing to feel things. All that just to get Carolyn to react and, hopefully, to see Geraldine as trustworthy, maybe share one thing or another. Which doesn’t work because Carolyn says in the trailer for the sf “dear geraldine i think it’s time you left”

So, what I think is: 

a. Geraldine might be a sociopath who works for the twelve.  Sociopaths can be 

- “Manipulative and Conning: They never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors as permissible. They appear to be charming, yet are covertly hostile and domineering, seeing their victim as merely an instrument to be used.” 

a class act

- “Pathological Lying: Has no problem lying coolly and easily and it is almost impossible for them to be truthful on a consistent basis. Can create, and get caught up in, a complex belief about their own powers and abilities. Extremely convincing and even able to pass lie detector tests.” i gave an example before but here’s another:

thats when she kissed Konstantin

- “Shallow Emotions: When they show what seems to be warmth, joy, love and compassion it is more feigned than experienced and serves an ulterior motive. Outraged by insignificant matters, yet remaining unmoved and cold by what would upset a normal person. Since they are not genuine, neither are their promises.” and again

Gemma Whelan is doing a fantastic job i just need to point that out 

b. She might have something to do with her brother’s death. She either gave info for the twelve or actually got her hands dirty. We know that Kenny was getting somewhere with his investigation. Does she have motives? Could that have been Konstantin all along? I don’t know. But we do see Carolyn at better pills watching a footage that might show who killed Kenny.

c. Carolyn must know Geraldine is onto her or, at least knows she has been lying to her face (she lied about Konstantin’s visit and didn’t tell Carolyn he was spying on her)

d. I believe Geraldine could kill Carolyn in the sf and as Carolyn said:

Konstantin did say “everybody’s mother deserve it” so it wouldn’t shock me that much.

Anyway, that’s my theory. Geraldine works for the twelve and was trying to get info on her mother, either to investigate the MI6 or to see where Carolyn loyalties lies (that if Carolyn does in fact work for the twelve as a double agent). Or maybe Geraldine is just someone who wants to keep no secrets, just like hélene.

[archer3-13]

If I can expand, losing the same MOV as infantry in the desert cripples Armors more as their MOV is already bad & again we have tons of absurd/silly stuff like Javelins being thrown so walls, knights being incapable of walking over hills, & plate armor does exist. IRL studies have shown trained people can do everything they normally can in the heaviest plate armor. Desert Plate also exists. Finally normal mov for armors happened in Berwick, it was described as mastering maneuvering in armor.

I also liked the idea in Berwick saga where Armor units had exclusive access to Big shield equiptment. As well as Vestaria giving armored classes exclusive powerful javelins called Falaricas, a real javelin, & the playable ones, Good Neighbor, a skill that increased the DEF/RES of adjacent units. Come to think of it, I think FEH has has a similar skill to Good Neighbor?

Anon if your still waiting or paying attention, sorry its taken so long to get to these anon, i am a sloth!

anyways, as for the question itself. I get your point here anon i really do, but... i just cant find myself agreeing to it in the context of fe. and really i suppose its because i really like terrain modifiers, so shaving them down or off for armors feels like cheating to cater to fast paced strategies. as well if armor is going to suffer a lighter penalty to move in deserts then whats the point in them having a flat lower move then infantry at all when you could simply have armor and infantry have the same move and penalties across the board.

and again, i see the argument your trying to make here. id even argue a better argument in this case would instead of arguing realism in a series that constantly defies realism, especially on the basis that realistic plate armor should be the basis of physical consideration for fe knight armor. When you get down to it, fe knights are basically suppose to be medieval tanks not an accurate analogy to plate armor, hence why fe knights are big and slow. theoretically if you wanted to argue that fe knights should receive less penalties then infantry in the desert then, it would make more sense to me to argue that as fe knights already carry a shit ton of armor they wouldn't feel as much fatigue or resistance moving in the desert. its still not something i totally agree with, and i prefer infantry having advantages and utility on desert maps other classes dont, but it is an argument thats a little more straight foreward.

what i suppose is the problem at the heart of a lot of discussion on armor balance in fe though, is that because most player strategies tend to be hyper aggressive and rely on high move [most popularly considered optimal strategies anyways, and something a lot of fe design does encourage i will add] most solutions to armor class problems tend to be focused on making them fit better into a hyper aggressive playstyle. personally though what i think should happen, and what i think feh does do a little better then a lot of fes, is to make defensive stationary strategies more viable/workable or atleast make more instances where your forcing the player to play defensively.

berwick saga... i have thought knights would benefit from equipping special shields compared to other classes in fes that have them. maybe even give em skills to better benefit from shields compared to other classes. special lances im... not as thrilled on, as alternatively you could have a weight system instead which would automatically help knights compared to some other classes as knights in wt systems tend to get the benefit of high wt stats.

feh has a lot of skills like good neighbour, spur skills and the like, that covered quite a lot of stats. hell, feh is basically built on adjacent units providing stat boosts. not quite sure how i feel on them even all these years later...

[lyricabelachium]

Value in art and in tge artist

I want to talk about something, that's been really digging at my core these past few months. You ever go through one of those situations where, maybe art isnt being super great for you in a while, where you got a block, or depression, or even a lack of motivation. And it obviously affects you and your surroundings, people dont like your stuff as much, whatever. But you still try, weak as it may seem, its taking a tremendous effort to make things. Technically you can do them just fine, you know how it goes, you can just mechanically make your work right? But thats not really how art works so you dont do it. Tgen along comes the fairy from her high horse and tells you you're not making an effort, you're not evolving, and this is why no one likes you anymore. This fairy is blind to what you've been doing, blind in your efforts and ignorant of your struggle, so she fails to recognize tge value in what is going on. Ignorance is a weapon, one that hurts the user, AND those around them. Pride is the same. We often forget we have once been small, and will ALWAYS be small, no matter how far we've come. I may not for example, be evolving in rendering my paintings toward hyper realism, or working on my figure posing. But maybe im working on the use of negative space? Expressions? Placement, composition, colour, design, writting, story telling, visual story telling, fidelity to a style, And overall just a bunch of other things that might not be instantly recognizable but are just as important, if not sonetimes even more important, than rendering a fucking picture to hyper realism, maybe we dont want that? Maybe we want to be cubists! And tgat is a very degrading way of saying it but the point remaibs, whatever style we chosr, whatever level you have. Its fine, its more tgan fine, as long as you're happy with it. Evolving in art doesnt always have to be something that changes "apparently dramatically". As long as you're learning, you're evolving. And thats the values we should all respect and go by, because without it, we're just bitter and a sneer.

[marblecakecait]

dude, i feel you so hard on those fuckin disney remakes. im going to school for animation and it hurts my fuckin heart seeing these remakes being announced. all of the charm that made the originals what they were arent there in these "live action" remakes. like yeah, theyre really well rendered but the characters have no soul and no amount of polish will ever fix that with realistic characters like these.

ive always felt this way about “hyper realism” shit especially when it gets praised as the peak of artistic talent. just because something looks real doesnt mean its creative or good and it certainly doesnt make the person who created it a creative person. normal people just dont get that. so these movies made with this relatively new and improving cgi technology, of course they are going to go in the direction of “how real can we get this to look” but movies like this are always gonna look good to the public now but in ten years theyre gonna look like shit! (tbh i think they look like shit now!) it’s one thing to make a movie and say “we can make a fake lion look like a real lion!” and its another to make a movie that is fucking magical and creative and unlike anything youve ever seen before. the thing about movies and especially animated movies is the freedom to make whatever you want a reality, and they are just choosing to tell a story using things that people already know what they look like.  like does this make sense?

[tumblunni]

MONEY SORTED POKEBALL GET

Wow BIG PHEW the stupid preorder thing has finally been sorted and i got the money refunded this morning. Thaaaaank youuuuu! Still dont friggin know WHY they messed up all this stuff in the first place, but at least now i can buy the pokeball plus controller and thats officially all the stuff i would have got in my preorder. Half a week later, costing more separately, and without the special box or keychain :(

But at least IT IS HERE! The pokeball plus is so damn cool aaaa i would have wanted this just as a keychain even if it didnt also work as a controller AND a magical pedometer of pokemon squeakys! Its so high quality WOW it really does look exactly like a real pokeball except for the centre button being an analog stick instead. Its cool how they sorta hid buttons on this thing? There's another one somewhere in the red and you cant even see it, its just like one spot is rubber instead of hard plastic and then you can click it in. So it works great as a way to retain the visual appeal while also making it possible to actually play the game! And the rubber clicky thing makes it so its not easy to accidentally press it while doing motion controls. Also the plastic is just really high quality! Its that slightly spongy yet still tough acrylic stuff and it just feels really nice to hold. Its like the plastic equivelant of petting a cat? Thats the best way i can describe my dumb texture sensitivity issues, like you can understand enjoying hugging a soft thing but for me i feel the same way about pleasant textures of plastic/metal/wood/etc too. I really liked the grip pattern on the back of the 2ds xl, it was like holding a cheese grater that doesnt stab you.

ANYWAY

In summary: good.

Also i had a really nice interaction with an older couple who were running an art stall at city centre! The one who did the art was their autistic son, and i went over to look at it cos i saw the sign and was like 'wow someone like me can be so successful??' The parents ran the stall though because he was too nervous to be in those big crowds all day and try and sell stuff to strangers, i can really relate cos man i get stressed out just shopping let alone running a shop! But man i'm so happy for him that he has loving parents who support his art and go all HEAR YE HEAR YE COME AND LOOK AT MY TALENTED SON'S TALENT! His art was really amazing hyperrealistic pencil drawings that looked like photographs, and he could even do amazing optical illusion effects like a photo negative that would show the original if you view it through a filter. That's just wild that he's so smart that he can figure that out in his head! He must be like the final boss of color theory!!

Anyway i felt SO BAD that i couldnt afford to buy one or the paintings cos i just got the pokeball plus. But i stopped to compliment them and say how much it means to other autistic people to see their son running this business and being so successful. And they were just really nice and we had a nice chat and they were like 'dont worry, our son failed art class in school too, he actually never discovered his talent until he dropped out and started becoming self taught'. And they encouraged me to keep practising art and try and find my own way of doing it rather than getting stuck in hyper limited rules from very rude art teachers who made me wanna quit forever. You always hear about us 'special kids' having trouble with reading and maths and stuff but its really frustrating when you KNOW that you're creative, people tell you your problem is that you're TOO stuck in your own imagination, yet the way your brain works just doesnt mesh with the Right Way the art educational system does it and you end up with grades worse than you deserve and a lifetime of self shame. So yeah, i may never be as good as this guy at realism but im determined now to not give up on art even if i'm not the best! Cos this guy thought he was terrible when he was in school and now he's friggin AMAZING PHOTO NEGATIVE DEADPOOL HEADS and APPEARING ON BBC DOCUMENTARIES ON AUTISTIC PEOPLE WHO ARE AWESOME. And also he has great parents who supoort him and i was so happy i got to meet them and feel their kindness too!!

Oh and the mom actually plays Pokemon Go too! It was such a fateful encounter! So i blabbed with her about pokemon for like half an hour and she helped me evolve my rhydon and i traded her the summer hat pikachu. Apparantky you can only trade one event pokemon per person per day though, so i'm determined to come back when i have more money and not only buy an awesome picture but also trade her every pika!!! Thank you mysterious poke-mom and salesman dad and super inspirational artist son, you really brightened my day!

Oh and im gonna try and find the business card they gave me and check out his website and then link it here so you guys can see. Seriously this stuff was SO DAMN 3D that they had to tilt the canvas and let you see the grain of the graphite smudges to prove it was really a drawing! Dude you should be selling these things for way more than £15!!!