#whatever show/aesthetics/visuals/story it is which work for people

[teafiend]

[max1461]

Ok, ok, I'd like to try to get at an aesthetic idea that I think is really important. I'm gonna lead with an example: sometimes, in Minecraft, people will decorate their houses with combinations of blocks designed to look like furniture. For example, a fence post with a trap door on top looks like a table (you can probably find pictures by googling "Minecraft table" or whatever). I really... well, sometimes I have a hard time with this. This particular example isn't too bad, but there's something about it that rubs me the wrong way. I think it's as follows.

When I look at Minecraft, I am already suspending my disbelief about the visual design of the world. Like the game presents you with a cube covered in a pixelated texture and says "this is a piece of wood" or "this is dirt", and you have to accept that, ok... that is a piece of wood, and this is dirt. That's the conceit you have to buy into to play the game. The way my brain wants to understand this is as something representational. The world of Minecraft is a symbol system, where those pixelated cubes represent dirt and wood and so on. And the actions a player can take in Minecraft-the-game are representative of actions a character is taking in a far more detailed and realistic Minecraft-the-world, which can at best be imagined. Right? Like maybe Minecraft isn't the best example (I chose it because of the table thing), but take another game, like... Final Fantasy VII. When you play FFVII, do you imagine that the characters in this story are meant to really look the way the game shows them to you? No, the game shows you representations of the characters, symbols, and you parse them into a narrative which you imagine to be happening to real, flesh-and-blood people, right? Or at least something close to it. That's how this business works.

So back to the table thing. When a Minecraft player makes a table out of a fence post and a trap door, even though in the game's graphics it looks to me like a table, I can't ever really parse it as a table, because all these things in Minecraft-the-game merely representative of things in Minecraft-the-world, and in Minecraft-the-world it looks like... a trap door sitting on top of a fence post. Why do you have that in your house?

You get what I'm saying?

To me this way of interacting with fiction is like, well it's the only way I can do it. It's where my mind automatically goes. And something like a table made of a trap door and a fence can be incredibly jarring to me for this reason. As I said, that's not the worst example, because like... at least in theory you probably could use that as a table. The worst is like, when people decorate their houses with like, a dead shrub with a leaf block on top as a house plant. Because as soon as you parse the symbols into a coherent object that makes no fucking sense.

Ok, but, clearly my view here is unusual, because most people seem fine with this stuff.

And anyway, my thesis here is that the broader culture is suffuse with stuff that feels out of place to me in exactly this way. Things where different degrees of referentiality are mixed and matched without regard for a coherent meta/object distinction. And it drives me nuts, it bugs me, it feels... I think more than anything it feels tacky. Confused about the difference between being and looking-like. I don't know.

Anybody else get what I'm talking about here?

[avelera]

So I never really commented on the "Loki" show on here very much, even though I watched it, for a few reasons.

I found the first season visually beautiful but spiritually hollow and ultimately uninteresting. My connection to Loki was through his story as an Asgardian, his relationship with Thor and Odin and the others. I was prepared for the possibility that the show would focus elsewhere, by necessity, but I was always facing a similar uphill battle to liking it as I did the Winter Soldier show: the relationships I wanted to see more of (Steve/Bucky, Thor & Loki) weren't going to be there in favor of new side characters and my heart just wasn't really in it. But I gave it a chance.

The bigger issue was this: I fucking hate magical policing agencies as a plot point. Corporate organizations tasked to control time, or magic, or stop normal people from learning about magic, blah blah blah, I hate them. I find them immensely boring. Part of it is because I tried to write one once for NaNo in college! I understand the appeal! But they are just deeply, deeply boring to me as a concept. They are overplayed and tired and dull. Loki's TVA would have to have been something truly exceptional to win me over and then it was the whole point of the show and it wasn't exceptional, just the trope played straight and I just... wilted with disinterest.

I also hate mid-20th century aesthetics. Truly despise them. I hate the orange decor and the brown suits and the atomic era gigantic room-sized computers. It's kitchys and awful and I loathe it with my entire being. It repels me. So when the TVA had that aesthetic and the TVA was core to a story about a Norse god, you can perhaps begin to see the problem.

I loved Sylvie's actress. I loved the idea of Sylvie. I loathed the Sylvie plotline. Why don't we know more about what her life was like as a Loki? Did she have a relationship to the Asgardians ever? Why aren't Loki and Sylvie being constantly teased for being narcissists at best and incestuous at worst if they show any interest in each other? I loathed that romance, I found it gross and hollow and uninteresting and cheap. I was so glad when S2 seemed to drop interest in it.

Look, at a certain point, I just accepted that I'm not the target audience. It wasn't the Loki show I was hoping for, something more akin to Journey into Mystery for example. It barely acknowledged Loki's mythological roots, his actual magical abilities which on numerous occasions would have far outclassed the threats they faced with weird TVA technology, and just... look, it wasn't for me, a mythology buff. I just didn't like it or what it was going for.

This isn't to say it was bad! Just that it was absolutely stacked against my personal tastes in its aesthetic and story choices about 3/4 of the time.

But I did watch the whole thing. And I loved the visuals of the ending sequence in S2.

I hope this means if Loki returns, the door is open for a more magical, mythologically informed Loki. I hope he returns! I hope that just being on his magical time throne doesn't mean he's stuck there but that either his variants, or his ghost, or him puppeting his own variants or whatever can continue to interact with the timeline. I think it's such a magical mystical set up that it's very likely to be possible. it's magic! They can do anything!

But for the love of all the Norse gods, if I never see that hideous cliche TVA again it will be too soon. Sorry, Mobius, you were fun and charming and I loved seeing what the Lokius shippers cooked up, but I hate your work place so much it made me want to claw my own eyes out.

[waeirfaahl]

"Samurai Jack: Shadow of Aku" game issue

Alright, previously I analyzed Battle Through Time game and its ending, covering everything what's wrong in this game. Now let's jump into another game, very old game — Shadow Of Aku.

Although, Shadow of Aku is not canon, I still noticed some interesting moments. But, unfortunately, the story in this game suffers as well. What I liked — the visual, aesthetics, the music and sounds, locations, enemies are incredibly authentic to the classic seasons. We have the classic zombies, the classic beetle-robots and Aku's demonic henchmen we saw in 1 episode of 1 season and 8 episode of 4 season. What's cool is that we also meet new enemies, new robot models, we travel in new locations, see new inhabitants, what is a good detail. Also I can say that the gameplay in SoA is better than in BtT, it is more various, where you can run, fight, jump, climb, lots areas for platforming, puzzles etc. That is what I actually wanted from BtT, which had small levels only for fights mostly (although, I liked the graveyard level and the temple level). Another good moment — Aku actually takes forms of various animals during fight, uses fire breathing etc. If BtT had this element (and added all abilities Aku used in the classic seasons), then I'd like the fight in the last level a little bit more. Because I have no idea, why 5 season and BtT ignored the main ability of the character.

He also turned into an army just like in "Birth of Evil", but I wasn't able to make a good shot. And the main interesting aspect — this game is the only SJ thing, which in the first and the last time bings up the dilemma of paradoxes and time traveling. Neither the show nor the comics cover this story issue (well, the comics covered, but not directly and blatantly). It was surprising for me to see and to hear in SoA the "Wait, really? Do you want to rewrite history and erase my life and achievements at the same time?" theme. Too bad, this important and serious topic does not go to and to the end, plugging the archaeologist with Jack's heavy gaze and forcing to agree with his line "I can undo centuries of tyranny and bring peace to the universe!". And it is really weird, because he could insist "Then you will die as well. And everything good you did for people of this world, will be erased forever. Entire universe".

I mean, he is a scientist, so he can't see changing the past like "All will be the same, just a bit better", no, it doesn't work this way. Another moment already with Jack's newly emerged evil doppelganger. As he says, "I am your dark and evil self. You locked me inside of you, but Aku gave me life again!" or whatever. Actually, this moment gave me an idea…

Just imagine the creating an army of your doppelgangers/replicas with black magic from your negative emotions, i.e. only you can destroy them, they are subordinate to you, and they are fueled by your negative emotions and will die only after your death or overcoming your negative emotions. I.e. You can hide yourself somewhere that no one will find, and the replicas will do all the work to capture or destroy those you point your finger at. Well, of course, technically, there can be super-beings that are particularly powerful to defeat most likely, but against ordinary mortals, even those who possess magic, such an enemy will be the most dangerous. Aku, take a note. But now we come to the moments, which I can describe as dumb, meaningless or just strange. It doesn't have madness of 5 season or BtT, but still it has some own crazyness. Well, the beginning is pretty promising — just like in the show, you have to find the time portal and also to help various inhabitants, who can hint, where to find the portal or somebody who knows, where the portal is. Simple, but it works and can be presented in interesting and dynamic way. But many moments rise lots of questions. For example, why Aku's robots and demons transported the time portal to Aku's castle instead of destroying this in the beginning? It makes no sense. Aku could order to them to throw the portal into lava, or he could teleport himself to them and destroy the portal immediately. The premise makes zero sense.

Also, when Jack started to fall into the abyss in Aku's castle, Aku for some reason didn't shoot at him with the laser or fire.

Other tiny details are in the segments with inhabitants, who needs help. For example, the forest people, Aku's robots burn their forest... Ah? Why? What's a point? Why on Earth he'd try to destroy the wild nature? He wants to build factories, stations or a new technological city in this place or what? No explanations, just a reason for Jack to show heroism. The same thing with lyzard people — there's the same logic hole I pointed out here — these lizards tell Jack that they were enslaved by Aku, who wants to dig up all the jewels from their lands, and one captive shows to the robots where to dig — uh, what the f*ck? These incredibly advanced robots should have a built-in finder for such things and something like X-ray, i.e. you don't need to show them anything, they'll find it themselves, using magic in theory also!

Also, we see Exter, the creator of Ultra-Robots — why Aku didn't kill him, but ordered to exhaust teens with videogames? For what? What's a point? No answers, it makes zero sense, just an hommage to the classic seasons.

Among really funny moments I can describe the one with the robots, using electricity. There are new models of robot killers, and at one point Jack encounters them in sewage system or whatever, i.e. water location — Jack was in the water, and if they used electricity, Jack would be fried to a crisp. But they don't do this for some reason.

So, yes, that's what I can say about this very old and dated game.

[tentacleteapot]

not to be all "old woman yells at cloud" or anything, but I really feel like analog horror is moving in a very disappointing direction in the last year or so.

don't get me wrong, there are some amazing works of analog horror actively being made right now, like Kane Pixels' Backrooms series or my beloved and long-but-still-running Local58, both of which are phenomenal pieces of horror fiction, and I want to see more things like that that are made with intent and meticulous attention to detail and that somber, chilling, pit-of-your-stomach feeling of watching everyone involved careen heedlessly into disaster they've long since stopped being capable of preventing. I LOVE that feeling of impending disaster, it's one of my favorite emotions to explore in horror.

what bothers me is that there's a lot of analog horror that just... isn't willing to put in the work needed to make it good, or make it sincere. it isn't just about making sure your footage has a VHS filter over it, it's about maintaining consistent internal logic. if your analog-format found footage is a PSA made by a government organization, it should NOT be full of typos unless those typos are somehow part of the story. the 'voice' everything is written in has to be consistent and thematically appropriate, and scripts need to be proofread. I can't count how many interesting or fun-looking analog horror projects I've found on YouTube that I immediately had to drop because the fake emergency broadcast alerts were riddled with grammatical or spelling errors that completely ruin the mood or tone of a piece, or because the spoken dialogue supposedly from government officials and cops was overly flowery or contradicted itself or just wasn't written in a consistent voice.

this is very explicitly not about me nitpicking other people's grammar, writing ability, education, or grasp of English as a written and spoken language, I want to make sure that's clear. this is about people not taking the time to have their work proofread, to research how emergency alerts from the time period they're referencing were written and phrased, to make sure the only spelling errors are significant and believable. good analog horror isn't just about making sure something looks like it was recorded onto a VHS tape, it's about making sure everything looks and feels like something that was actually aired on television at some point, or recorded on audiotape, or written and performed or whatever. nailing the aesthetics but not the tone, getting the visual direction right but coasting and not putting effort into the voice and verisimilitude of a piece, these things are huge detriments to what could otherwise be fascinating and genuinely special projects. I just wish that more creators put as much effort into every aspect of their analog projects.

when The Walten Files explicitly established that one of its videos took place in the 1970s, and one of the characters started saying "this place reminds me of a movie", I was instantly paying attention to see if what movie was being referenced--it's a very minor piece of dialogue but the choice to specify which movie and have a character make a then-present day pop culture reference could have really taken me or someone else with a lot of horror knowledge out of the video. the character in question referenced the only movie that it could have made sense for them to mention, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and that's when I knew that no matter what else The Walten Files did, it was at the very least trying to maintain some consistency with its timeline. those little details matter. one or two oversights are understandable and totally normal, but the less somebody pays attention to all the little things that make a story believable, the more the bigger cracks show and that feeling of believability is lost. I feel like that's just happening more and more with newer analog horror as people rush to mimic the aesthetic without researching or trying to embody the mood they need to convey.

[kaznaths-thoughts]

On Punk

Some people didn’t grow up punk and it shows. Within the TTRPG community, and the literary community more broadly, there is no real thorough understanding of what Punk is... For most TTRPG folks, Punk is a sort of visual aesthetic involving grainy textures, spray paint, gritty worlds and character designs, and perhaps some blimps, cybernetics, and apocalypticism. But Punk is, itself, not an aesthetic, though these aesthetics have emerged in the broader Punk community. Punk is also not a style of music per se; but an approach to music. This is why everything from an acoustic guitar and a man screaming to heavy metal riffs and soaring vocals has taken on a “punk” label - it is not a style, but an approach.

There are four basic Punk philosophic principles, in no particular order: 

1) Authenticity 

2) Accessibility

3) Anti-Authoritarianism

4) Do-It-Yourself

Punks believe in honesty above other virtues. It is the queen of the virtues. It is better to be honest than to be right and it is better to be honest than to be liked. This does not mean you don’t learn or engage in communities, but it does mean honesty trumps all other cards. Accessibility is the principle that Punk should be inclusive in whatever it is doing - if it is music, the music should be simple enough for someone else to learn and take part in. If it is literature, it should be simple to understand and replicate. It is also anti-authoritarian, not necessarily anti-authority or anti-expertise, but anti-tyrant, anti-legalism, anti-totalitarianism. Lastly, it is Do-It-Yourself. It embraces a DIY stance to life, to work, and to art. Don’t wait for someone else to do what you want, don’t pay someone else to do it, figure it out and do it yourself. 

The Almanac System of Sword & Backpack is therefore, appropriately referred to as a part of “Dungeon Punk.” Like Punk, it embraces a philosophy of play rather than an authoritarian system of rules. The Storyteller of Sword & Backpack is a player just like everyone else, but with a different role. The system itself is an accessible one that anyone can pickup and play in five to ten minutes. In its simplicity it lacks set-pieces, mechanics, and other devices, asking that you instead “Dungeon-It-Yourself”. Draw your own maps, make your own monsters, and craft your own stories as you play. And it is authentic - it wants you to play your way, not some other way - which is why the 12th Rule of Dungeon Punk is “When in doubt, SCREW the rules.” 

The philosophy also encourages you to create a world that is Punk and play it like a Punk. There are no purely “evil” orcs, for example, because a Sword & Backpack world is an accessible one where anyone and everyone can be included, of any race or creed. It asks that its adventurers use a simple sword and backpack, draw their own maps, and become a DIY adventurer in their own right. Not only that, but its magic is DIY and comes from the players, not from some oppressive overarching system or power. And it encourages you to flee from becoming any sort of “Chosen One”, and to instead be your authentic self. Be the adventurer you are and have the adventures you want to have.

Punk is not about the aesthetics of your world; it is a philosophy about honesty, inclusivity, power, and taking responsibility for your own life. Dungeon Punk games should be games which set you against oppressive power, encourage players to pursue honesty, inclusivity, and DIY approaches to problem solving. And I think that Sword & Backpack is a great place to do that.

[lutethebodies]

LTB Worldbuilding Wednesdays: Intro/How I Got Here

When I spun up this blog my goal was simple: a place to dump screenshots of my Tavs and other BG3-related brainrot. My personal site's blog wasn't a good place for it, since I'm a freelancer and it's gotta have at least some concessions to "professionalism," so here we are. But it feels a bit too aloof to do these "Tav Tuesdays" posts chock-full with names and places unfamiliar to 99.9999% of readers here, so "LTB Worldbuilding Wednesdays" have arrived.

They won't be convoluted or super lore-dumpy, but they will provide context for my characters, who've been my 5e mainstays for years—with lives and stories and whatnot—before I imported them into BG3 and forced tadpoles in their heads. For every subsequent post in this series, I'll try to distill the TL;DR of a place or faction or whatever—but only enough for it to be relevant to a given Tav's story, because (again) I don't want to drown a reader in lore (unless that's your thing, which is totally fine and I'm down for asks about that).

I'm also in the middle of churning out a second homebrew fantasy atlas (more on the first one below the fold), so ideally these posts will keep me in the mindset of getting that work done instead of running yet another BG3 playthrough. Wednesdays are the weekly game night for my tabletop 5e group, so it's already a good day to be in worldbuilding-brain.

While it's been extremely fun and fulfilling to do over the past five years, I won't claim that it's the right way or only way to worldbuild, because that's silly given the wealth of other resources out there and the galaxy of creativity we're all capable of. It's worked for me, though, so it's not nothing. Here's a quick rundown of how I got here, with "here" being "a sufficiently fleshed out campaign setting with plenty of room to grow":

Creating a Unique Map Style

I'm a huge map nerd, and have reached a point in my life/career where I get to do freelance map design as a part-time job. I'm shaking off the aesthetic snobberies I learned as a graphic designer, because snobbery is too close to gatekeeping, but I'm still enough of a snob about map style to want my own stuff to be unique. In a sea of samey-looking hand-drawn-hobbit-maps, I wanted my homebrew world to stand out, so here's how I did that:

Creating "Homeworlds" - a brief process piece about my April 2019 digital map illustration project.

Creating "The Game Board" - process and background for my 2019 found-texture fictional map project.

Creating "Found Islands" - a smaller 2021 side-project that sorta refined that found-texture style.

Creating Compelling Names

Once I had a unique visual style, I had to populate the world (or at least start to, one region or place at a time), which required some decisions about toponymy for names of places, people, and in-world history/lore, because pretty world maps can still feel boring without stories of who lives there:

What’s in a Name? Fictional Toponymy for Fantasy Maps - process piece for how I developed naming conventions.

Custom Fantasy Map Illustration - portfolio page for my found-texture digital map work.

The Game Board, 2022 Version - One result of all this was a big fat map poster I'm still proud of.

Creating a Homebrew Fantasy Atlas

A map can only show the names, though—it can't tell the stories to a compelling level of detail—so here's where I got to combine lots of my different personal and professional interests and experience: my own fantasy gazetteer. I made all the maps (aforementioned map nerd), I did all the design work (two decades of experience in publication layout), I created/edited all the iconography/imagery (two decades in design plus two more before that as a generally creative person), and I composed/compiled all the lore (I have an English BA and I dabbled in journalism for a few years). Et voila: "The Nua Gazetteer, Vol. 1" was born.

The Nua Gazetteer, Volume 1: Lands and Lore of Aviridia - portfolio page for the main gazetteer project.

The Nua Gazetteer: Announcement - kickoff/kick in the pants for me to get going on this beast.

The Nua Gazetteer: Production Notes - process and influences on the project as a whole.

The Nua Gazetteer: Release Notes - posts for the digital (2022) and print (2023) gazetteer release.

And that's not even getting into the recording project I did for seven of my bard's songs. Maybe I'll do, like, a brief "Music Monday" series. None of this will ever have the juice of my one runaway Minthara post, but whatever. If it's compelling for me (a brain-rotted lore-bard), it won't be bullshit for you. Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

[prince-toffee]

Spoilers for Mutant Mayhem:

So, yesterday I watched TMNT Mutant Mayhem.

And yeah, it was good, it was fun. But I wouldn't say it's the best version of the TMNT or anything. The only reason why it's so popular and why the larger world is saying that 'the turtles are finally back' is because it's a theatrical movie and associated with Rogen. Also, that little tidbit kinda pisses me off, 'the turtles are finally back' wha- fu- where did they go? What the fuck are you talking about? Seth Rogan didn't revive a dead franchise or anything. TMNT has been thriving for years! The comics is excellent. The shows are phenomenal. Fuckin' we've been here! We didn't go anywhere. I imagine it's people who aren't turtle fans that are saying this. People who watched 87 as kids and then grew up and didn't stay with the franchise and saw it evolve through the years. Geewankers as we Transformers fans call them. And I think this movie is fun, it's good, but it's not God's gift to humanity or whatever. If I'd have to rank it it'd be directly in the middle of turtle media, far from the worse, far from the best.

So here's some positives:

It's gorgeous. It's beautiful. It takes the creativity of Spider-Verse and makes it it's own, with the graffiti, school desk doodles aesthetic. It's. GORGEOUS. The artistic story telling of this movie is amazing, having the humans be just as 'ugly' and isometrical and dirty and lumpy as the mutants, showcasing a sense of realness and the fact that they're just as monstrous as the mutants they fear. Not that it looks anything like that, but it reminds me of the art of Gary Frank, artist of Superman Secret Origin (highly recommend) who manages to capture the beauty in the imperfection and sometimes uglyness of humanity. All the while the turtles are portrayed as these claymation-esk cute little potatoes, and that makes you immediately endeared to them.

Some of my favourite effects have to be using scribbles as lens flares for car headlights, and for dust kicked up by car tyres. I also love the use of inbetween frames on the weapons when they're in motion, that is one of my favourite visual tropes in animation, chef's kiss, that's why the bo staff was always my favourite weapon from the 2003 series (which introduced me to the TMNT), it's always so satisfying to watch.

The pacing of this movie is fantastic. Not a boring scene in the movie.

The action is out of this world. I think we all know the scene I taking about. The 'No Diggity' scene is by far the best scene in the movie. Nothing for me can beat the Shredder fight from Rise, but this, this is second place no doubt.

All of the characters are likable and cute. I don't know if I have a stand out favourite in this film, I just like all of the boys equally. And that's another really awesome thing about this movie. It's not the Raph and Leo show, each turtle is given an equal amount of screen time. It helps that all the turtles have the same unified character arc so it all follows nicely, especially tied with April's own arc, which feeds into Splinter's arc. Nicely done.

Soundtrack is a banger.

Darker than I thought. But not too much. A nice balance. That opening scene is immaculate. The tone, Trent Rezenor's ost, the vibes are off the chart.

Now, the negatives (for me) :

None of the characters are really my favourite incarnations of the turtles. (In my opinion) It doesn't have the best Leo (2003) or the best Raph (2007) or the best Donnie (Rise) or Mikey (Rise) or April (Rise). Splinter is like the RiseSplinter but with way less going on, and way less interesting.

That romance is death. It didn't work with Donnie in 2012, it doesn't work her, it's weird and gross, and I don't want to think about it. At least it's not his step-sister.

The comedy isn't for everyone. There's so many pop-culture references it gets ridiculous. When they mentioned Mark Ruffalo I was so done with it. Also, literally every scene that the turtles are together in they will mumble over each other. Every. Scene. It was cute and fun the first two times, but it happens over and over again, drop it, get a new joke.

Splinter and the turtles have no connection to Hamato Yoshi or Oroku Saki, and they learn ninjitsu from Bruce Lee films... sure, whatever. I'm interested to see how the Shredder fits in in the sequel. By the way, great tease, it sounds like this Shredder is like a bounty hunter/mercanery, cool, sounds interesting, I'm in.

The puke girl... thing, is so Rogen it hurts. I'm not the biggest fan of his writing, I think he suffers from the dudebro disease that's been an epidemic at Hollywood for too long. But I was surprised to see that it was quite subdued in this film. 'Quite' not totally.

So, yeah, those are my thoughts on Mutant Mayhem organised in a semi-coherent 'review' If you could call it that, I suppose. So... Bye.

[alma-amentet]

No one tagged me so here I am, as always!  😆 Though @sheirukitriesfandom   said “anyone else who wants”, well that’s me.

8 shows to get people to knpw me better. I’m not a show-watcher in general, now I don’t even watch movies that much... My ADHD-like traits and the lack of comfortable place make it hard.

But in not-so-distant past, before diving back into fantasy worlds, I was in animated shows fandoms. I was even an avid brony and attended bronycons with elaborate cosplays, can you believe it?

So well...

Some teen time-favorites that I enjoy rewatching:

1. Legend of Wiliam Tell, 90s teen fantasy TV series from New Zealand. It was aired on local TV in early 00s, and just the type of fantasy I needed. Back then I loved character and costume designs, the scenery.  

2. 10th Kingdom. I even wrote a fan-fiction - my own story about a wolf and a shepherdess set in that fairytale world. There was also a LARP event on 10th kingdom in my area, and I wanted to go, but couldn’t.

3. Gargoyles. Hell yeah, how I loved them... Words can’t describe.

 then some adult shows, for a change...

4. Carnivale. There was a time I loved retro aesthetic (any kind from 20s to 70s) and was really fond of old style travelling circus, freakshows, dark cabaret. So that was just my thing! Not really long, which is good. I still have it all on DVD, rewatched about 2 times

5. Westworld. Actually gave up after 3 seasons, but enjoyed them all. Androids and philosophic aspects of AI is another of my big interests: one of my favorite movies is Steven Spielberg’s AI, and I stepped one feet into Detroit fandom... So I just couldn’t miss it.

 ...and finally some of my former big cartoon fandom loves!

6. Steven Universe. The reason I’m Alma, actually (Almandine) - it hooked since then. Yes, I loved it way too much and drew some fanarts back then.

7. My Little Pony. G4, obviously. Though, as a 10-11 yo girl, back in 90s, I enjoyed G1 (2? the one that had girls, Megan and Molly, in it) on TV. And even wrote my very first pieces of fanfiction ever! Short silly tales about some characters I liked the most. We had an old typewriter at home (don’t know how it got there - probably dad brought it, he liked collecting weird stuff here and there), and I enjoyed typing them! So sad those papers are long lost...

Anyway. I told you back in 2016-19 I was an avid brony, did plenty of cosplays (beautiful fantasy-core humanizations) and attended cons. That was a thing, for sure 

(don’t know don’t care what’s on with G5 and the brony community now, have no time to check... will be selling off my comic books soon)

8. Transformers Prime. Watched it at work in 2016, while waiting for new seasons of SU and MLP, and suddenly found myfelf in TF fandom, though for a short while. I couldn’t comprehend G1 show, that felt super boring and shallow (sorry, if you like it - those are just my own feelings, and it was all not enough to watch more, dig deeper), but Prime has enough drama and character development for me to get hooked.

Arcee  🤩

RiD and Animated are also good, and I read some comic book series (Windblade and TAAO were super cool, but MTMTE complex and boring to me).

Obviously I came to that fandom for fembots, for some shiny metal boobs! But I’m not a fan of mecha in general (as well as ponies or whatever - what I love are storytelling and characters on the inside, not always visually. As for G4 MLP. I actually loved to reimagine them 100% humanized), I prefer beautiful human girls. That’s probably why I lost interest soon... 

[corvus-rose]

It feels like a crime to not go into summerfest with Answers of A Yaksha, which is the vayuden wip most of my followers know, but I'm putting that on hold while I iron some things out. You'll see it again in the fall most likely. But worry not, they'll show up. Three things I want to pull from for this summerfest, because I can never focus on just one thing, three things I want to talk about more:

Midsummer Echoes

because I need to get this one in order lmao. This is the WIP that started one of my most ambitious storyverse settings, the Hoursverse, but discussion of the greater verse can wait. I imagine this one as a visual novel, but you'll get writing snippets -- tbh that goes for all my WIPs in this post, I don't envision them as novels in the traditional sense but I write stuff for them anyway.

Premise:

Once upon a time, within the walls of a manor in the woods, there was a sculptor whose statue came to life and saved him. They were happy for a brief time, but circumstances around them meant this happiness could not last.

Now, you are the assistant and apprentice of that sculptor, who has gone missing. Investigating your teacher's past, you trace his location back to the storied and now-abandoned manor where he lived decades ago, before selling it and moving to the city. But when you enter, you find the manor is a strange place unmoored from time... and filled with hauntings and dangers. Whatever happened to your teacher, it is clear the mystery is tangled up with the sordid history of the manor and its many residents over the years.

Author Notes:

And I mean many residents. The reason this project is so hard to wrangle is because there's a whole ton of moving parts, and different eras of history to keep in line. The maids have some weird culty shit going on, there's a whole ton of people who tried to find your teacher before you and had the exact same idea to go to this manor, there's a talking mask's haunted by a spirit calling herself The Model who helps out, and remember that fairy tale about the statue that came to life? Yeah she's a whole can of worms and also following the player character around. Maybe.

Mahanagar 20XX

My newest WIP, a cyberpunk story set in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Premise:

We open on a guy bleeding out in an alley during the first torrential rain of the monsoon season. Then, we rewind to the start of summer.

Medical student Narayan Saha finally has a chance at a future. Unfortunately, that promising future is jeopardized. After a failed attempt to rescue a friend in debt to a powerful overseer, that very overseer gives Narayan an ultimatum -- pay him an exorbitant amount of money for damages by the end of the summer, or he will have Narayan arrested and add that amount owed to his friend's debt instead.

Narayan accepts the offer, despite the extremely slim chance of success, but he has little other choice. He turns to the underworld with confidence that he can play the game, get the money he needs, and get out within two months.

He is very, very wrong.

Author Notes:

This project came from a desire to have cyberpunk themes and tropes without relying on what's become the "standard" cyberpunk aesthetic cues, glossy neons and holograms and the like.

Dhaka is my birth city -- I haven't been in years, but I remember what it was like.

The plot of this project is essentially a cyberpunk rip-off of a Bengali play called Nemesis, which has a similar basic premise of "guy needs an unreasonable amount of money, he tries to get it, and things spiral down from there".

Bhajana/Edensoul/Devoted Soul

Multiple titles because multiple of them could work, though I often call it Edensoul (which is the only definitely-a-working-title one). My followers aren't as familiar with this, but it's where Vayu/Yuya and Eden first originated as characters -- Answers Of A Yaksha is basically an urban fantasy(?) very divergent alternate universe of this.

It's set in a fantasy world based on Hindu mythology, set shortly after an apocalypse in this world's version of the Colonial India era. This is essentially a soulsborne game concept.

Joke Premise: the dark souls of farming sims

Actual Premise:

The land is dying. Vidhana (or Eden), its divine heart, is comatose, fading from the aftereffects of a magical bioweapon that blights the land, withers all life, and sometimes puppeteers it in corrupted form. Vidhana's Vessels, her demigod companions, are gone from the picture -- except for one. Manyuva (or Yuya, or Vayu), Eden's consort, returns home from a torturous exile to an empty village, and an almost-desolate garden around where Eden sleeps. Plagues, cults, tyrants, and warfare further ravages the world all around.

However, there is still a slim hope. Regrowing the garden and surrounding lands gives Eden (and by extension, the whole land) more time before Death's arrival, and the enigmatic Queen Of Ghosts reveals what may be a path to true recovery: four Shades conduct their schemes, poisoning the land and its people, but hold pieces of Vidhana's soul and divine power. Defeat them, and reclaim those fragments, and the heart of the land may awaken.

Author's Notes

I really want my mutuals to know more about this project because well, it's where vayuden came from. But I often hesitate to show it because Eden isn't as big a player in it (considering they're, you know, asleep -- not that they can't be a character still though).

But if you enjoy Vayu being the World's Strongest Wife Guy in any other thing you've seen him in, you're gonna enjoy this because the whole damn plot is powered by that part of his character. Yuya isn't even half as interested in saving the world as saving his love. The fact that they're one and the same is a blessing for everyone involved.

Also, I just want to write in this setting more.

Let’s get to know your main story! Tell us a little bit about it!

[theboeingdreams]

The Complete Guide To Picking Your Style For Photography

The art of photography is one with the ability to record and communicate the essence of any situation. If you choose the right approach to photography, it can capture the overall emotion and atmosphere of any circumstance. It can be difficult to pick the most appropriate photography style with so many to choose from. This article will give you complete information on the most popular photography styles and assist you in choosing which one is best for your requirements.

Portrait Photography:

Photographs of portraiture are the ideal option if you wish to capture the subject's expression as well as their personality. This style of photography works well for family photos, corporate profiles, and social media. Portrait photography encompasses various styles such as studio portraits, headshots, and even environmental portraits. Choose the style you would like to use before hiring an experienced photographer.

Landscape Photography:

Landscape photography is about capturing the beauty of nature and its surroundings. Landscape photography can be an excellent way to show how you have traveled and enjoyed your experiences. To get the best shot it is necessary to be patient and creativity. Landscape photography that is done well should convey mood and ambience of the location.

Documentary Photography:

Documentary photography is about telling a story. It hotel photographer fashion) is a great method of capturing historic events, social problems and cultural moments. Good documentary photographers strive to portray the subject's essence in a compelling and authentic way. This requires planning, extensive investigation and keenness to details.

Fashion Photography

The art of fashion photography involves creating stunning visuals. Whether it's for a magazine catalog or on social media, fashion photography is all about showing the best of aesthetics. It's a high-energy industry that demands creativity and ingenuity to create something that is both appealing and attractive. A good fashion Photographer will be able convey the meaning and story behind the look.

Photography Streets

A unique type of street photography it captures daily life and the public people. This is an exciting and vibrant style of photography that captures individuals' behavior at public locations emotional reactions and social interactions. Genuineness and spontaneity are the most important factors when shooting street photography as the focus isn't on staging shots, but rather honest representations.

Conclusions

It's crucial to pick the best photographic style that fits your goals and objectives. Every photography style is distinctive so it is best to select the one you like best before selecting the services of a photographer. Whatever your preference, ensure that the design you pick reflects your vision and provides an impressive visual depiction of the object. Follow the advice above, and you'll soon be on your way in making an informed choice that can help you take stunning photographs. This article will assist you in choosing the most suitable Photography style to suit your preferences.

[vonkarma2]

3, 5, 8, 13, 16 for zeolan for the worldbuilding asks?

3.) any recurring images/elements?

Hmmm this is kind of broad so I’m not totally sure how to interpret it I guess I will go with like. If it was a tv show. What visual motifs or recurring shots would there be. I think if there were constantly shots of Rocio alone like in an empty space that would be kind of funny imagine watching a show and there’s an obvious meta narrative focus on how lonely you are I’d be so mad. That and shots of like her back while she’s reading something or working on something like she’s closed off to the world or whatever. Definitely a lot of contrast of darkness vs light though for sure like places with people in them being associated with yellow/orange light whereas empty places are associated with the dark. 

Also there would probably be many unnecessarily long shots focusing on nature and the environment around the characters bc that’s what I personally like to see 

5.) pick a theme song for the tv adaptation.

life itself glass animals 😞😞😞 rip to the animatic I started in early 2022. theres a whole vision. for variety ill also say the definitive end credits song would be 

8.) what inspired your world building, if anything?

Honestly. Not much lol I feel like a lot of it is just me trying to make something that appeals to me personally just thinking of like aesthetics 

in the extended secret worldbuilding there are some aspects inspired by or influenced by real history. that being said I try not to avoid making that too direct or have it come up too often bc 1) it’s easy to make it extremely tasteless or at least inaccurate/shallow in its portrayal ofc 2) it is ultimately a fantasy world where I wanted to make shit up + have everything be original rather than have like. direct copies of real places + events. I think it’s like background concepts can be to some extent based on reality but specific events are all homebrewed yk

sundown 2020

probably fullmetal alchemist like subconsciously. wrt the magic system not the world itself 

I guess you could say I was inspired by actively trying to go against like. Tolkien esque or popular YA fantasy tropes of the late 2010s early 2020s. Bc a lot of what made me want to make the story in the first place was being tired of and annoyed by the kind of tone that was prevalent in YA fantasy at the time 

I literally CAN’T think of much this is so sad. My worldbuilding is just too original you guys 😔 

no lol but yeah it mostly wasn’t inspired by anything specific which is a shame bc I do think looking at things you were influenced by is pretty fun

they don’t know the wizard system is fully ripped off from how the wings of fire books used animus magic expect it’s learned instead of born 

13.) how long have you been working on this project? what has changed from the outset?

A little over 3 years like since February 2020 :3. I love this question it feels very behind the scenes like Im talking in a documentary.  Mostly the structure of the story has become much more linear when the original was like arcs based if that makes sense? Like episodic even though the episodes were pretty large in scale + theoretical length. Ofc a lot of the characters’ personalities have as well. I think the main focus too like initially it was just for fun but when I first added like a vague general central theme it was a lot abt dissociation from your identity + the weight of living and things like that. Life is hard but it’s worth it <3 And now there’s more focus on the nuances of interpersonal connection and things like that. I do like the original theme though I wouldn’t want to drop that idea entirely even though I’d probably want to have it show up in a more nuanced or subtle way idk 

16.) imagine the entire story takes place but in the meantime the characters all also have tumblr. what kind of (terrible) tumblr posts would happen?

rocio would hate all forms of social media viscerally. if she absolutely has to use it then it’s several thousand word long rants that stay in the drafts for eternity 

cirillo probably the type to just use it as a diary 

angel runs an extremely popular yet controversial fan page for enstars or some shit (<I mean. in universe it would be about 1400s romance novels) but occasionally vagues abt his personal life and everything he says sounds extremely concerning. And then like once he ends up on the news everyone’s like omg… bone stealing witch tier drama 

gloria only posts thirst traps + posts that are like “will be in [x city] tomorrow if anyone wants to meet up 👅” with every location change

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

THE BOX IS NABOO

That’s it, I’m doing it, I’m writing that stupid meta I’ve had in the works for two and a half years, I’m sharing it with the world. I promised it for last Thursday, my poll was forever ago, but whatever! I’m writing that freaking thing.

(super duper long post, press j to skip)

Enter my rabbit hole.

First thing to establish: the Box makes no sense whatsoever in-universe.

((EDIT: Something I forgot to mention. IRL, the premise of a giant murder cube and the aesthetic - wall patterns, light designs, etc - of the episode come from the 1997 horror movie Cube, (see the episode’s wookieepedia page). However, while the two are very closely linked visually, the Box does not follow the movie structurally or narratively, as you can verify by simply reading the movie’s summary.))

Recap of the context for the "Box" episode (s4e17): Palpatine is planning his own kidnapping. It was never meant to succeed, and while the plan would obviously benefit him (making the Jedi look bad, pushing Anakin closer to the Dark Side, making Republic citizens more afraid -> more docile, etc...) his actual goal is never explained, and it’s weird that he’d go to such extreme lengths for results so minimal that we’re never told what they are.

So Palpatine asks Dooku to kidnap him at the Festival of Lights on Naboo. Dooku hires Moralo Eval to design a giant box-thingy to test bounty hunters to hire the best of them to kidnap Palpatine. Moralo then gets arrested to alert the Republic that something is afoot, and hires Cad Bane to break him out. Obi-Wan - undercover to learn Moralo’s plan - goes with them. They evade capture and go to Serenno, and Bane and Obi-Wan have to pass the box-thingy test. The level of brainkarked logic here... Truly on par with Megamind, Gru and Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

Setting aside the insane plot holes and utterly nonsensical behavior of the villains, the Box itself is moronic from a plot perspective. It’s insanely complex, obviously incredibly expensive and would have taken months (more like years but it’s a short war) to make when it’s not even needed for the dastardly plot! Just hire some guys who have already proven themselves against Jedi! Throw cash at Bane and Embo and a few others! Maybe attack them with your saber and see how they do! 

And after all that, Dooku still ends up trying to kidnap Palpatine on his own. I can’t even... 

So why does the Box exist? Well, apart from being a nerdy callback to Cube, giving us a good thrill and being generally awesome to look at, it has actual narrative purpose within the SW universe.

The box is Naboo.

What the Box lacks in plot relevance, it makes up for with its heavily symbolic meaning. It very closely follows Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon’s experiences on Naboo - but only certain parts, which I’ll explain later.

We start with clean, sterile environments, SW’s favored way of showing villainy.

Then we have the protagonists locked in a room as dioxis, a poison gas, pours in.

And then they escape... this way.

(Okay, here the shaft is down, not up. And it’s not a ventilation shaft per say, it’s the designed escape route. Same difference).

We then skip most of TPM (namely, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon discovering the droid army, finding Padmé, leaving Naboo, landing on Tatooine, going to Coruscant, etc, etc) to come back to Naboo and go directly to the lightsabers and catwalks.

(Note: in both scenes, Obi-Wan has to propel himself from a catwalk.)

In TPM and TCW, the catwalks are immediately followed by ray shields

And we finally end with the last scenes. Now, they don’t look the same but they are structurally identical. 

Obi-Wan is faced with a challenge unsuited for his abilities (facing Darth Maul // shooting three moving targets when he’s far more skilled with a blade than a blaster) on a narrow space above a melting pit/pit of fire. 

He first watches someone die failing to complete the task...

 ... and has to do it himself, faring much better than expected (holding his own against Maul // shooting all the targets easily). 

He then almost falls to his death and gets saved unexpectedly.

And then there’s the final showdown.

In both scenes, Obi-Wan is angry. And in TCW Dooku eggs him on, banking on his anger. (More on that later.) In both cases though, he centers himself and is able to overcome both his opponent and his own unbalance. But in TCW, he doesn’t go for the kill, because he doesn’t need to. 

The Box, as a literal character-explorator ex-machina, thus shows us Obi-Wan’s growth.  

In TPM, Obi-Wan follows Qui-Gon’s lead. In TCW, he is the leader. He identifies the gas, makes the plans. He doesn’t fall from catwalks anymore - he runs atop moving ones. He doesn’t stay stuck behind ray-shields, he finds the solution. (Btw, how did Moralo know what blood type Derrown the Exterminator was? There was a 50% chance of him dying - thus killing all of the bounty hunters. Was that an acceptable outcome? TCW I need answers!) He doesn’t slay his foes, because he’s become powerful enough, skilled enough and wise enough to survive (and win) without needing to kill.

He’s grown - and, even more interestingly, he’s also stayed the same. In the previous episodes, we see some of the dark aspects of Obi-Wan. How he - like all Force-wielders, all people - could lose himself if he stopped maintaining absolute control.

But in the Box, surrounded by the worst criminals of the Galaxy, the most ruthless, worthless people, he’s still kind and tries his best to keep them alive.

The Box is a reminder and a reassurance for the audience that Obi-Wan Kenobi is still there under Rako’s face. He hasn’t lost his compassion, his restrain. He’s still a Jedi. And he’s an awesome, badass one. 

And now, for what it tells us about Dooku! 

It’s much shorter, don’t worry. Basically, Dooku considers that the best way to pick “the best of the best” of the deadliest people in the Galaxy is making them go through what killed his Padawan. There, I’ve broken your hearts, you’re welcome. 

More seriously, Dooku is a manipulative ass. It’s pretty clear that he knows Rako is Obi-Wan, or at the very least suspects it. 

He has an interesting reaction upon learning Rako’s identity, he keeps praising him despite his usual distaste for low-lifes, he smirks secretively after Eval says “I’ll show you who’s weak” (not included there because it’s a close-up of Dooku’s lips and no one wants to see that) and he tells Rako he’s very disappointed when he doesn’t finish off Eval.

[Later]

(Look at this smug asshole - I can’t. YOUR GRANDSON IS THE BEST, WE KNOW, STOP ACTIVELY RUINING HIS LIFE ALREADY.)

(Dooku... why...)

Now obviously Dooku couldn’t have made the Box specifically for Obi-Wan, because it would have to have been designed months before the Council ever decided to send Obi-Wan undercover, but he has no qualms trying to use it to push Obi-Wan to the Dark Side. Ffs Dooku, making your spiritual grandson relive one of the most traumatic events of his life on the off chance that he’ll join you (and desecrate his Master’s memory in doing so) is not okay!

Final tidbits of analysis: I mentioned that not all of TPM is mirrored in the Box. What’s omitted is the droids (even though Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon fight B1′s and droidekas between the dioxis and the ventilation shafts) and anything pertaining to Sidious (all the political stuff on Coruscant). You’ll also note that the fake lightsabers are orange.

=> The Box distances itself from anything that connects Dooku to Naboo. Red lightsabers are the trademark of the Sith, so they’re not used. The bounty hunters will be facing Jedi, so logically the fake sabers should be green or blue - and yet they’re orange, the color closest to red without being red. It fits with Dooku’s special brand of dishonesty - he always tells bits of the real story but twists them just enough to absolve himself of any fault and to justify his choices. 

(”We can destroy the Sith” -> could maybe destroy Sidious with Obi-Wan, but fails to mention he’s a Sith Lord himself; “the Viceroy came to me for help, that’s why I’m attacking the Republic” -> political idealism is a small part of it, but fails to mention he’s Sidious’ underling and is playing the Viceroy like a fiddle; “Qui-Gon would have joined me” -> maybe, still fails to mention he’s working for the man who ordered Qui-Gon’s death; “I told you everything you needed to know” -> debatable, never said that Palps was Sidious; “Sifo-Dyas understood, that’s why he helped me” -> partly true, doesn’t admit to killing Sifo-Dyas right after getting his help)

So we have a twisted version of Naboo, droid-free (as droids are now irrevocably associated with Dooku, even if that wasn’t the case in TPM) and with sabers that aren’t quite red. Keep in mind that Dooku had already fallen by TPM. (We know this because he killed Sifo-Dyas and created the Clone Army - part of Sidious’ plan - when Valorum was still Chancellor, as per the episode The Lost One.) That means Dooku was (in)directly complicit in Qui-Gon’s death. And the Box doesn’t (=refuses to?) acknowledge that. 

(Also omitted in the Box are the Gungans and Tatooine. It makes sense, because Dooku probably wouldn’t have the full details regarding those parts of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan’s missio as they weren’t as public, and would see them as irrelevant if he did. He utterly despises Anakin, and Gungans are the type of people he always dismisses out of hand). 

Anyway, that’s my two cents about the Box. To quote Lucas...

“It’s like poetry. It rhymes.”

Thanks to @lethebantroubadour @impossiblybluebox​ @nonbinarywithaknife @ytoz​ and @kaitie85386​ for voting for this one. Next up is a compilation of the Jedi being casually tactile with each other (because they’re a warm and affectionate culture, dammit).

Also thanks to @laciefuyu​ for giving me gifs I ended up not using ^^; you rock anyway!

[sopordeficiency]

nah i dont think he's evil harry potter??? that was just a visual joke mostly. if anything i guess he's like, draco malfoy cause of the racism. also i havent watched the movies in years or ever read the books so maybe that has something to do with this, but i dont really relate to eridan to HP at all.

Like, he's more of an analogue to hipster culture? He tries to be so special, he thinks he's sooo special, he's a warmomgering 13 year old. he's my funny little guy, also, someone pLEASE get him so character development.

I guess as a character i like him more because i can give him a path to walk on that isnt canon, you know? its free range for imagining what couldve been and as a fan that's fun.

going back to his personality and stuff, he's pathetic, like a wet sopping cat that scratches and bites. but like, every kid has done something cringe worthy when it comes to dealing with relationships with others. personally i sucked at it so bad in school that i became an introvert lmao. i guess i relate to him in some way?? idk im thinking this up as i go.

he's just SO lonely, even when he has a relationship to speak of, he's still lonely, no one has ever taken him seriously. thats kinda hard to go through, so he lashes out and does all of these exorbitant things to get attention. it's pretty easy to follow once you notice all he ever wanted was recognition. which, like, as kids trying to prove themselves is super normal. he's desperate to BE someone. everything about him is a theatre he puts up.

there was a truth he was supposed to find but the way the story had to play out didnt have that factor in it, so he stayed his ugly self and was never given the option to change. i think a lot about (vriska) and how she changed so much and was (possibly) molded into this new self, that she liked better, she was happy for once, but she also lost herself (maybe????). then i think about those spare eridans we see being happy when theyve died and been doomed (god tier eridan with feferi, eridan with shrek dad). i think one found himself and the other lost himself.

hmmm, i guess thats it? i like what they did with his gender non-comformity down the line, even though i didnt get it at first, for this character, but ill take what i can get (im nb).

i guess he's just fun to think about! what even is his authentic self anyway?? he was always putting up a show and putting up a mask that he felt is what people needed to see of him. i dont think we caught much of what the actual eridan is like. a nerdy kid who still wishes so much that magic was real, he's into history, he likes to roleplay, he's into ships and nautical war tactics, he didnt want to lose his only friend so he lied and went into a relationship that didnt take his actual feelings into account (i mean theyre meant to be pale anyway). he can never speak up about how he truly feels, he needs to be what people think him to be, or what he thinks he needs to be. he's so tired, dude. keeping up that drama is exhausting.

i guess, even if he did want to exterminate all landwellers, whatever that meant, im sure he knew it was an impossible thing anyway. or maybe he kept telling himself he might be able to pull it off? but the troll empire needs it working class anyway. the only reason he didn't do it was because 1) he was busy feeding feferi's lusus, 2) it would hurt feferi's feelings.

alright yeah i think thats all i had to say, i just like to look at him also, he's got a cape! how silly! very aesthetic or whatever the kids say today

So... Eridan fans. I have a question!

What even is there to like about this guy? Is it just that he's an evil Harry Potter analogue and that's an interesting twist on an archetype you already love? Because I never read a Potter book or saw the moives and I figure that's a large part of why I didn't see the appeal.

[lesbianrobin]

What do you think are the good and bad aspects of each season of ST?

ok 1. thank u for this question omg and 2. this answer may or may not be a mess, but either way it’s long (almost 7k words lmao) bc i’m insane, which is why it’s under a cut. it’s still by no means an exhaustive list but these are the things that just kinda came to mind.

also i realize you asked “good and bad” and i wrote this whole post as “strengths and weaknesses” which um. is not Exactly what you asked. but close enough <3 i also ended up including a lot of au ideas ksjdckmn bc like i personally hate when people say a certain plot or whatever was bad without suggesting anything that could have improved it yknow so whenever possible i tried to provide Some idea for fixing the issues i had with the show!!

season 1

strengths (this is probably gonna be the longest section but that’s because a lot of these strengths also apply to s2/s3 by default)

nostalgia and authenticity

this one’s pretty simple, but i think that season one did a good job of blending classic eighties media homages (such as the many many e.t./el parallels) with explicit pop culture references (such as mike’s yoda impression, mentions of the x-men, etc) to create a show that’s essentially dripping in early eighties nostalgia without it feeling too forced. before st, i think the most popular depiction of the eighties in mainstream media was that overly exaggerated neon scrunchie aesthetic from the mid to late eighties, and it was usually done in a comedic sense first and foremost. st took a different approach, instead focusing on the early eighties, a time that’s often ignored in favor of going either Full Seventies or Full Eighties, and i think that this choice likely resonated with adults who lived through the eighties and hadn’t yet seen something that felt quite so accurate to their own adolescence. a lot of young people who watched st were totally unfamiliar with this period of time, unfamiliar with books/movies like “stand by me” that st borrows from heavily, and i think st lent more seriousness to the eighties than most young people had experienced so far, and this was refreshing and interesting!

the use of dnd in the show is also quite genius in a way i’m not sure i can articulate?? it isn’t something Everyone would have played at the time, but it’s something that existed within a different context back in the eighties than it does today, and it really lent a sort of authenticity to the naming of the show’s sci-fi elements. like, of course these kids would name parallel dimensions and monsters and superpowers after these similar things in their favorite game! it just feels so real and it grounds st in our reality moreso than you might expect from the typical sci-fi or horror universe.

utilization of existing tropes

almost every single character in st clearly originates from some popular trope. the plot itself is riddled with classic eighties movie tropes. almost every single element of stranger things can be clearly traced back to some iconic eighties film or just to, like, overused horror/sci-fi/mystery/coming-of-age movie tropes in general. this might sound like a bad thing, but it really works in st’s favor! starting off with familiar tropes gives st the ability to easily create a lot of complexity and make a big impact by selectively deviating from those familiar, comfortable tropes!! while el’s whole plot, hopper’s character, etc, are all examples of this in action, i think the steve/nancy/jonathan plot is the greatest example. even from the start, the fact that good girl barb dies while nancy is off having sex with her asshole boyfriend is an incredibly thorough inversion of the most well-known horror movie trope in the book. how often do girls in horror movies have sex for the first time, walk home alone in the dark of night, and live to tell the tale? nancy and jonathan’s dynamic at first glance is a sort of classic “good girl meets boy from the wrong side of the tracks, discovers he’s actually got a heart of gold” thing, but instead of following this well-trodden path, st diverged. nancy is brash, impulsive, and at times downright insensitive. jonathan is angry, bitter, and actually a bit of a creep at first. while they have the capacity to emotionally connect and support one another, they can also bring out each other’s darker side, which is not what we’ve come to expect from that initial tropey dynamic.

in addition, steve, the popular rich asshole boyfriend, is actually... a human being! unlike the cartoonishly evil jocks that we’ve come to expect (especially from eighties movies), steve has complexity. despite his initial immaturity and selfishness, he’s also kind to barb, he backs off when nancy says no, he’s gentle and sweet when they sleep together, his first big Dick Move of the season is in defense of nancy, he realizes the error of his ways after the fight and does what he can to fix it, he’s worried about nancy when he sees that she’s hurt at jonathan’s house, and to top it all off, he ends up saving both nancy and jonathan’s lives when he could have just walked away, and the three of them all work together to fight the demogorgon. like... steve began as the most stereotypical character of all time, and by the end of the season, he had one of the most compelling and unique arcs among the whole cast!

finally, at the very end of the season, instead of dumping steve for jonathan as expected, nancy ends up getting back together with steve, and they’re both on friendly terms with jonathan. i realize that i just kinda. summarized s1. but my POINT is that i don’t think the dynamics between the monster hunting trio would be nearly as fun and interesting had the characters of nancy, steve, and jonathan not been set up to follow certain paths that we already had charted in our own heads. like, within the first couple episodes of s1, it’s pretty obvious that nancy and steve are gonna break up, nancy will get with jonathan, and steve will either die or go full evil or just never be seen again. like, duh! you’ve seen this story a million times! you know that’s how it’s gonna go! so, when the story DOESN’T go that way, the impact of each character’s arc and the relationship dynamics become stronger due to their unexpected complexity and authenticity. 

distinct plotlines separated by age group

this one’s rather obvious, but the way that the adults in s1 were essentially in a conspiracy thriller while the teens were in a horror flick and the kids were in a sci fi power-of-friendship story and all three converged at the end... wow. brilliant showstopping etc. not only was it just really well done and unique, it also gave stranger things near-universal appeal. like, there’s genuinely something for pretty much everyone in season one!

casting

obviously this applies to every season sorta by default, but when i think about what made season one So successful, i always think about the cast, and not just winona ryder. yes, she’s absolutely amazing in the show and it’s very doubtful that st would be as big as it is today without her name being attached to it from the start!! however, i think the greatest determining factor in st’s success is the casting of the kids, particularly millie bobby brown. like... el is just absolutely incredible. she’s amazing. this has all been said many times before so i won’t harp on it, but millie and the other kids are all So talented and charismatic and i think their casting has been instrumental to the show’s success.

strong visuals

the way that multicolored christmas lights which have been around for decades are now kinda like. a Stranger Things thing. jesus christ. those lights are probably the biggest stroke of stylistic genius on the show.

atmosphere and setting

this is probably like. the least important one here for me sdjncdsc because i think s2 and s3 both had like Even Better atmospheres and shit but s1 was good too and it laid the groundwork!! i know a lot of people would have preferred st be set somewhere more Spooky with lots of fog or giant forests or whatnot, and while i do enjoy thinking about alternate st settings and how they might alter the vibe, i think hawkins indiana was a good choice. as the duffers have said, placing stranger things in a fictional town allows them more flexibility than if they’d gone with their original plan of using montauk, new york. besides that, i think the plainness and like... flatness... of small-town indiana just Works. like, the fact that hawkins is never really scary on the surface is a big part of the horror in the lab’s actions and their impact. hawkins isn’t somewhere that people just disappear all the time. it isn’t somewhere known for strange occurrences (prior to s1, that is). it isn’t somewhere shrouded in mist and secrecy. hawkins on its surface seems like the sort of place with no secrets and nothing to fear, and that’s the point! the lab is out in the open! it’s right there! everything is so close to the surface, yet so far out of the public eye, and i think that really works.

the byers family’s whole deal (specifically the joyce/jonathan dynamic)

this is going here bc i miss it so bad in s2 and s3. i’m not one of those people who believe The Byers Are The Whole Point of the show, because st is and always has been an ensemble, and el, hopper, and the wheelers are just as instrumental to the plot as the byers, but ANYWAY, i do think the byers were one of the most interesting aspects of s1. joyce’s difficulties with supporting her sons as a poor and (implied mentally ill) single mother, jonathan’s stress as a result of having to earn money, care for his brother, and keep the house in order when his mother is unable to do so, and the resulting tension between them when will’s disappearance and supposed “death” brings the situation to a tipping point? holy shit! it’s so good! that argument after they see will’s “body” is just incredible and gut-wrenching. their relationship feels so real and messy and i think it’s just... good. also winona ryder REALLY acted her heart out and she carried a lot of s1 which i think people often forget to mention so i’m saying it here.

weaknesses

pacing/timing

ok so pacing is probably going to go in each season’s weaknesses, to be honest, because i think they all had a blend of some good and some bad pacing. good pacing is invisible pacing, though, so i probably won’t be putting it in any of the strengths sections and will only be focusing on it in the weaknesses. i’m also probably not going to talk about weird day/night cycle things, just because i don’t want to get nitpicky on timelines because that would require going back and rewatching things to double check timing which i don’t wanna do at the moment lmao. anyway, when i think of bad pacing in season one, i primarily think of two things: nancy’s little trip into the upside down and subsequent sleepover with jonathan, and the sort of staggered nature of the climax in the final episode. the latter is simple so i’ll explain it first: while i understand that each group’s respective climax is like part of a chain reaction and that’s why each big moment happens separately and at different times, i think that st is strongest when the whole group is together, and i think that makes the stakes feel higher too, so i’m not In Love with the way s1 separated everyone and gave each group their own climax. 

okay, now on to the nancy/upside down thing! idk if i’ve ever talked about it before, but i think the worst decision made in s1 by far is the inclusion of nancy’s brief trip into the upside down, wherein she dives headfirst into another dimension with absolutely no backup, watches the demogorgon chow down, freaks out and runs around for a minute, and then leaves. like... what the fuck? even putting aside what an idiotic decision this was (because i do think nancy’s tendency to rush into things headfirst is an intentional and consistent character trait), it just kind of destroys any remaining suspense surrounding the demogorgon and the upside down, and it accomplishes basically nothing besides scaring nancy enough to have jonathan sleep over, which is lame. i will break it down.

like, first of all, nancy just getting to waltz in and out of the upside down and get a good, long look at the demogorgon makes the entire thing far less mysterious, and by extension far less scary. like... before this scene, we the audience haven’t got a good look at the demogorgon. we’ve seen its silhouette briefly and we’ve seen a blurry picture of it, but nothing more, and i think that is far more effective at building fear than this jaunt nancy goes on which gives us a full view of the thing and makes it into less of a horrifying nightmare and into more of a humanoid animal. like, maybe this is just me, but i found the demogorgon far less intimidating after that scene than before. it also lets nancy and jonathan know For Sure that they’re right without providing any crucial information that they need to fight the demogorgon (aka it’s unnecessary to the plot), which removes a very compelling story element (the faith nancy and jonathan need to have in order to keep going against a vague and poorly understood enemy, the doubt they might have about each other and their own sanity, the possibility that they might be wrong, the trust they need to have in each other) a bit earlier in the plot than i believe is ideal. at the end of episode 5, nancy goes into the upside down and jonathan doesn’t know where she is and it’s intense!!! you’re thinking like, oh fuck, not only is nancy missing and fighting for her life now too, jonathan might be implicated in her disappearance!! some people already think he’s the one who killed will and people know that he took creepy pictures of barb and nancy before they both disappeared, maybe this is gonna cause some serious problems for him!! maybe nancy will find will in the upside down and she’ll help him survive!! fuck, maybe she’ll actually die!! this is huge!! and then episode 6 starts and they’re immediately like oh nevermind jonathan found the tree and got nancy out and she’s fine. my point with all of this is that nancy entering the upside down could have done A Lot in the grand scheme of the plot, but all it did was just... get jonathan to sleep over so he and nancy could have some awkward romance moments and steve could see them together and pick a fight. which could have honestly happened at Any point while nancy and jonathan were working together to hunt down the demogorgon, without ruining the demogorgon’s and the upside down’s mystique. so yeah <3

weird behavior and dumbass decisions that make no sense (aka the whole camera thing)

gonna go off about the teen plot again sorry but: why was nancy so unbothered and quick to forgive jonathan for taking those pictures? girl what the fuck are you doing? why wasn’t that a bigger deal? why was jonathan’s motivation for doing it so weak and why did they just kind of forget about the whole thing? why did nancy TRACK HIM DOWN AT THE FUNERAL HOME while he was PICKING OUT HIS BABY BROTHER’S CASKET to be like hey can you tell me what’s in this creepshot you took? it’s insane. it’s so insane. i mean i think the funeral home thing is hilarious and i don’t mind it being in the show necessarily but like my point here is that i think a lot of character decisions in s1 just kind of.. happened because they Needed to happen for the plot. like, they wrote this plot that required jonathan to be secretly taking pictures of the party and required him and nancy to work together after seeing something odd in the pictures, but they didn’t like... really consider what that event would mean for their characterization and relationship. the whole thing was sort of just dropped with minimal discussion and i think it did both nancy and jonathan’s characters a disservice and was really mishandled.

lighting and saturation/color grading

i am literally begging horror/sci-fi shows to let me see shit. i GET IT okay i understand that when you’re doing cgi effects it helps to keep the lights down and i’m not mad at any of the lighting in the demogorgon/upside down scenes!! i’m really not i think the demogorgon scenes in s1 all look sick!! but like... dude. the colors. where are they. why does everyone look like a vampire. i know blah blah this was probably an intentional stylistic choice intended to mimic film at the time blah blah but dude a lot of old movies are very colorful!! please just let people have color in their faces so everyone doesn’t look like a sheet of paper!!! also i’m white and not a professional lighting designer so yknow grain of salt but i think lucas was kinda poorly served by the lighting sometimes in s1. not Hugely so, not to the degree that i’ve seen poc be poorly served by lighting in other shows, but there were some times where it felt kinda like the lighting setup was just not designed with darker skin in mind. 

horror

i just personally don’t find s1 very scary like... ever. i don’t think they were really Trying to be extremely scary yknow so i’m not counting this as a big deal, but i do think that each season has improved on the horror aspects. i think s1′s horror lies more in the mystery and the unknown than in what’s seen onscreen, and as i’ve said already, i think s1 kind of fumbled that suspense ball.

season 2

strengths

the possession plot

i’ll warn u rn this whole s2 strengths section is probably gonna be really short bc idk like. how much there is to really say i feel like it’s all so self-explanatory skjncmn. anyway yeah the possession plot!! eerie as fuck, and noah OWNED. so did winona tbh and finn and sean etc but like. noah. wow! i think the possession plot helped the show maintain a good amount of tension and suspense throughout the season, and a lot of scenes with possessed!will are flatout disturbing to watch. in a good way. i think the mindflayer and will’s possession were far more genuinely frightening than s1′s demogorgon, and it provided a new layer of depth and intrigue to the antagonist besides just “bad monster want eat people.”

tone and aesthetics

halloween season... literally halloween season. halloween season. that is all.

actually i will elaborate a bit and just say that i think s2 did a good job of having the sort of foreboding vibe that s1 was often going for, but without the annoying darkness and desaturation. so points for that.

also st2 is like one of the best Autumn pieces of media ever like it just. like steve and dustin on those train tracks with the fallen leaves all around them.... god. god the vibes are unparalleled. all of the halloween stuff also really contributes to the nostalgia st runs on yknow it makes you think about childhood and trick-or-treating and you kind of get transported like damn... i remember going to the rich neighborhoods to score the good candy..... idk i just think the whole thing is incredibly effective. 

“babysitter” steve

by sending nancy and jonathan off together, the show created a problem: what to do with steve? this problem pushed them to create the unconventional and unexpected duo of steve and dustin, and the world is so much brighter for it. seriously though we all know steve and dustin are great i don’t need to argue that point. all i’ll add is that i think allowing steve to grow in this way, serving as a mentor figure and becoming genuine friends with someone so unexpected, really took the originality of his character to the next level. no longer content just to defy his archetype, in s2 steve begins branching out in ways that never would have been considered in s1, creating an incredibly complex and interesting person from the sort of character that most shows would have simply written out or killed off for convenience’s sake. and it works and steve and dustin are such a joy to watch and i love them. <3

the lucas/max plot

so first of all max mayfield is the most perfect baby girl on god’s green earth and idk what i would do without her but anyway. i think lumax is the best romantic relationship in the show and not just because they’re the only ones with like an age-appropriate approach to the whole thing. it’s also because their relationship accomplishes more than just putting the two of them in a relationship!! lucas and max spending time together motivates billy to do his evil shit, providing more conflict in the narrative, and it also helps establish max as part of the group in a relatively natural way while giving both her and lucas a great subplot. lucas (and dustin) has a crush on the new girl, they start spending some time together, and lucas ends up needing to decide whether he’ll keep the secret of the upside down and lose her, or risk both of their lives by telling her the truth. that’s a pretty big, character-defining decision that he gets to make!! max has to choose whether to trust this boy she barely knows and endanger herself, or to walk away and stay safe, yet another great character-defining choice that also contributes to the sense we get as an audience of max as somebody who’s incredibly lonely and desperate for love and connection. this post is way too long already and i have a ton more to say so i’ll stop now but yeah i think lumax really Works in the show without ever distracting or detracting from the overall plot and narrative in the way that some other ships (coughjancycough) often do.

balance between the normal and abnormal

s2 i think did a pretty solid job of melding daily life with more fantastical sci-fi horror elements. i enjoyed seeing so much of the kids at school in the first few episodes!! you really get a strong sense of where they’re at in life, what their daily lives are like, and you get a sort of gradual shift into madness that makes everything feel more grounded than i think it would if they had just leapt straight into the horror shit, yknow? 

the el and hopper dynamic

go back and rewatch s2 and tell me that’s not one of the most moving portrayals of parenthood and trauma and growing up that you’ve ever seen. you can’t. or well you can but i won’t listen. i really can’t imagine stranger things without el and hopper’s relationship, and it’s my absolute favorite part of s2. their whole dynamic is so beautiful and complex, and gives them each amazing personal arcs in addition! the black hole scene is literally one of the show’s greatest moments of all time. any given scene between the two of them in s2 is just guaranteed to be heartwarming as well as heartbreaking, and i think that makes for an incredible show.

weaknesses

flashbacks

okay this applies to Every season they All have too many flashbacks but in s2 specifically... please stop showing me shit from season one. i watched it. i know what happened. you don’t need to spoon feed everything to me!! flashbacks can be a really helpful way of delivering information to an audience, but st has a bad habit of not only being kinda demeaning in how often they flash back to shit that the audience already knows, but they also have a bad habit of using flashbacks almost as a crutch to avoid having to deliver information subtly and naturally. 

you know i gotta say it... the lost sister

this is so sad. the lost sister really is like a great concept for an st episode, and i’m not mad about the idea of st taking a break from the normal action to focus on one story for a full episode, but the execution of it was just dreadful. kali and her crew feel very over-the-top and stereotypical, and its placement in the season totally kills the tension and excitement that was built in “the spy.” 

i think the lost sister honestly could have gone over far better, even with the stereotypical fake-feeling gang kali has, if they had just swapped it with “the spy” like... ok, the end of episode five has el setting off to find kali and will collapsing on the ground seizing. right? imagine if, instead of immediately following will to the lab, we’d followed el. we don’t know what’s happening with will, but it’s a very simple cliffhanger that leaves us on edge without making us feel cheated by the show cutting away. we follow el on her little journey, everything happens much the same as canon, and then at the end, el sees hopper in scrubs. she sees mike, screaming, sees that they’re both in danger. holy shit!!! what the fuck!!! what’s happened since we left will seizing on the ground??? we feel el’s fear and confusion. she decides to go home. and then... boom. “the lost sister” is over. now, we rewind, right back to will seizing on the ground, and “the spy” commences. we learn how they got into the danger that el saw in the end of “the lost sister,” and we sit on the edge of our seats all through “the spy” and “the mind flayer,” KNOWING that el is on her way back to save them but not knowing when she’ll arrive!! idk i don’t think that would have necessarily saved lost sister but i think it may have alleviated some of the issues that i and many others have with it, timing-wise.

the nancy/jonathan sidequest

once again, the idea of nancy going off on her own little mission to find justice for barb after s1 is like. amazing. genuinely i love that plot for her and i can’t imagine anything better for her to have focused on in s2. unfortunately though i think her and jonathan’s little trip to see murray was just kind of... lame. the whole thing just felt like an excuse to get the two of them alone together, yknow? which is fine i guess people contrive all sorts of situations to get characters alone together for romance reasons but in this case i think it just really doesn’t work for me because of what it’s juxtaposed with. like, will is POSSESSED, and jonathan is just off on a mini road trip and sleeping with his bestie, and jonathan never seems to communicate to joyce/will that he left town, and joyce never like... thinks to tell him that will is like sick and fucked up and they’re looking at him in the lab??? like it’s so weird i know joyce always forgets about jonathan when shit’s happening with will but jfc you’d think at some point in that like... 72-ish-hour period where jonathan was out of town she would have thought about him. like at least once. maybe i’m forgetting something and she mentioned him sometime and i missed it but even still, i hate the juxtaposition of nancy and jonathan just like cheers-ing at murray’s place and sleeping together and whatnot while everyone else is dealing with possession or trying to hunt down dart yknow? it feels really boring in comparison and i think it could have been done far better. like it was SO insanely easy for them to get into the lab and get an admission of guilt and escape with it!! i think it might have been a lot more engaging if maybe someone from the lab tailed them to murray’s place and they had to like lose the tail and race to get the recording out to as many news outlets as possible before they got caught, or something like that. the tension in their plotline is completely resolved in episode four!! episodes five and six are just them screwing around and addressing envelopes. while there were a lot of strong ideas in this plotline (i really enjoy nancy going out of her way to get justice, and the fact that they have to water down the story to make it believable), i just think the focus on nancy and jonathan getting together hindered it a lot without adding a ton to the plot or their individual characters.

season 3

strengths

starcourt mall as a setting

while i don’t think the mall was utilized quite to its full potential (something i could make a separate post about if anyone’s interested), i do think that starcourt was a genius addition to the series. i’ve said this before, but building a new mall is a literal Perfect in-universe justification for a significant leap forward in fashion and aesthetics, and it provides a great location for characters to just... be characters. idk how else to articulate this i just think that the mall is a great setting to let people interact with each other and to bring people together who may not have been otherwise (i.e. scoops troop). not to mention how sick it was to see the mall get wrecked toward the end kdjncdkm like they were able to do so much more with the mall in terms of like The Finale than they could with just the byers house or the cabin or the school or even the lab. i love all the back tunnels they run through it’s such a fun like acknowledgement of how this glitzy eighties mall is just a real place where employees get shipments and take out the trash and shit idk it’s all about the perfect facade and what’s hidden what’s underneath what’s hiding in plain sight etc etc i’m just saying words now. anyway. 

willingness to experiment and go against expectations

gay robin. neon aesthetics. giant fucking meat monster. i know some people hate both the neon and the meat monster but i personally think they were kind of amazing and like. yknow regardless of personal tastes i think it’s impossible to deny that s3 had a lot of incredible visuals, and they’re all visuals that just wouldn’t have been possible if the show were too afraid to stray from its s1 aesthetic. robin being canonically gay (and her resulting friendship with steve) and the season’s striking visuals are two things that most everyone (besides like homophobes skjncdknm) can agree were great, right? and they were both departures from where the show began and what we all expected!! so yeah i think while some of the experimentation in s3 wasn’t ideal it was also that experimentation that allowed for some of the season’s strongest elements to come about.

the hospital sequence (and the season’s action/horror scenes in general)

this one is fairly self-explanatory. while they may have underutilized the “body snatching” element of the season, the hospital sequence with nancy and jonathan fighting off their possessed bosses did an amazing job of building tension and creating a genuine sense of really intense and personal danger.

in general i think that s3 melded action and horror rather well, particularly in the sauna test, the hospital, and when the mindflayer busts through the roof of hop’s cabin. horror can come from many things, and in this case, st elicited horror largely from the feeling of helplessness, and it was really effective for me personally. i think it worked better for me than s1′s brand of horror because it doesn’t rely so much on a lack of knowledge or a sense of suspense that inevitable disappears upon a second viewing.

the body horror we got in s3 was also really fun! that’s it i just think all the blood and guts and slime were fun and i would like more of them. once again, the impacts of body horror are less dependent upon the viewer being in the dark or unsure as to what’s happening, and as such i think it tends to be a little more effective at eliciting reaction in the long term.

timing and mechanics of the battle of starcourt/finale

i think the battle of starcourt is just fucking awesome, and beyond that personal opinion, i think it’s the most high-stakes and intense finale of all three seasons, and this is for two main reasons! 1. el is out of commission, and 2. (almost) everyone is in the same cental location. this means that (almost) everyone is in danger all at once, and they are all working together at the same time to fight the same threat. s1/s2 have their groups more fragmented for the finales, and while i understand why in each case and i wouldn’t call either season’s finale necessarily weak, i do think the centralized nature of the s3 finale just Works on another level. in s1 and s2, large segments of the cast are already perfectly safe by the time el dispatches the primary threat. in s3, however, everybody save for dustin and erica is still in danger up until the last moment, and el is seemingly (you can def debate how much power she still had in her when she peeked into billy’s mind and whether the memory broke the mindflayer’s hold on him or if she was actually controlling him to some degree) completely vulnerable. this increases the tension and raises the stakes, making the finale a real crescendo to fortissimo as opposed to a series of little mezzo forte moments. i hope everyone reading this knows music idk how else to phrase that my brain is stupid.

emphasis on friendship and adolescence (but in a different way than s1/2)

this is definitely a controversial one but i think that s3 really did like... show a side of friendship that had been more or less unexplored thus far in the show. el and max were amazing, and i think it’s really nice that we got an opportunity to see the kids have some growing pains as well as see them support each other through Normal Adolescent Stuff like boyfriends and breakups instead of just like. death and trauma. this is maybe just a personal preference, but i think it can be really enlightening and provide a lot of depth when you get to see how characters respond to normal everyday conflict and not just how they respond to giant world-ending conflict!! letting el use her powers for goofy teenage shit like spying on boys and messing with mean girls at the mall is not only fun for her and the audience, but it also really emphasizes just how much those powers are a part of el, making it that much more devastating when she loses them at the end of the season. 

weaknesses

tonal dissonance

so this is like. obvious. but it must still be said! i won’t go on and on about it since we all know this so i’ll try to like talk about it from an angle people don’t usually? anyway. it seems to me like they were maybe a little worried about s3 being too dark. while the choice to really lean into humor was definitely driven by the sorts of eighties teen films from which s3 drew inspiration (like fast times at ridgemont high), i think it was also done in an attempt to alleviate the more troubling implications of some events in the season, particularly the russian bunker plot. like, yeah, st can be incredibly dark, but if they’d played the whole “children being stuck inside of a foreign military base, tied up, tortured, and drugged” thing completely straight without the humorous elements that exist in canon, it had the potential to be like... disturbing on a new level. steve and robin don’t have powers like el yknow their kidnapping/torture doesn’t have any sci-fi elements to sorta soften the blow. they’re just innocent teenagers being brutalized and traumatized by grown men. so anyway yeah i think maybe the writers were concerned about this storyline coming off as too dark and they wanted it to be a little more whimsical but they ended up pushing way too hard in that direction and creating extreme dissonance at times. this goes for joyce/hopper/murray/alexei too, but to a lesser extent. i think the ridiculousness in that group felt a lot more like... realistic. but still. 

newspaper plot

once again i feel like i don’t even need to say this skjdncmn we all know it was insane how the show basically ended up delivering the message “while misogyny is a serious problem poverty and classism are not” and i’ve said it on this blog a million times so i don’t need to repeat myself. i’ll focus on another weak point of this plot: the fact that it completely separates nancy and jonathan from everyone else. once again, the show’s preoccupation with j/ancy held them back! like... can you imagine a version of s3 where nancy and jonathan both worked in the mall? i have a lot of ideas about this possible au and like how the plot could play out differently if they worked in the mall but first of all it’s just more realistic, second of all it further utilizes the mall as a central setting, and third of all, it would bring everyone together. as it is in canon, nancy and jonathan were unnecessarily isolated from the rest of the group, and this isolation was detrimental to both of their characters. like, they only ever get to interact with each other! if they’d gotten summer jobs in the mall, they could have had more interactions with the kids/steve/robin, and they absolutely still could have had a similar argument! maybe in this case, nancy notices the rat thing (or something else odd) herself when taking out the trash behind the mall, and she wants jonathan to ditch work with her to check it out bc she thinks it may be related to the lab. jonathan doesn’t want to ditch work because he needs his job, nancy argues that they’re working shitty mall jobs anyway and who cares if they get fired, and we get more or less the same thing as s3 without the cartoonishly over-the-top misogyny. i mean honestly i think the rat shit could have been cut entirely it didn’t rly... accomplish much of anything. in my opinion. like imagine s3 without the rat plot you literally would not be missing anything except it would be more surprising when the dudes melted into goo at the hospital. so yeah i think it would have been better if nancy and jonathan had jobs at the mall, weren’t isolated from everybody else, and were maybe absorbed into the party’s plot or the scoops troop’s plot from very early on, allowing them to interact with more characters and have a less... dumb.... plot. like god splitting up nancy and jonathan between the party/scoops troop would have been So Much better i just. sdkjcnksdmn anyway yeah.

briefness of group reunion/separation of groups

remember in s2 at the beginning of “the gate,” where mike and hopper had a confrontation and max and el met for the first time and el hugged everyone and steve and nancy had their sad little moment together outside... where’s that energy? obviously the s2 reunion wasn’t that long either, but it made space for some significant emotional moments to take place. s3′s reunion had some hopper/el/mike resolution, but besides that... there was nothing, really. i just think that the whole group getting together in s3 was SO exciting and powerful the way they did it (with both the scoops troop and the adults having their own Big Moment reconnecting with team griswold family), but the emotional potential was more or less squandered. 

i also think in s3 at times they were really stretching to keep everybody separated even though it made no sense. and like... in s1 the separation worked bc nobody else knew that (x group) was experiencing weird shit too, and beyond that, each group (as i mentioned in the s1 section) was sort of operating within their own genre and bringing something unique to the season. they’ve stopped doing that though! now, the groups aren’t separate bc each plot is tonally/structurally different, the groups are just separate bc... they need to be, because it’s a big ensemble cast and you can’t just have them all be together for a whole season or it would be way too difficult to coordinate things and keep the show dynamic. all this is to say that i’m excited for s4 because the location differences make it so there’s a Reason for each plot to be separate at the beginning, and i think that’ll work better.

general ridiculousness

i dont mean like i think it’s bad that they made jokes this is just me lumping in all the dumb shit like hopper not worrying about el and not wanting to check on the kids, him and joyce bickering long after they both know they and their children are in danger, max seemingly forgetting that billy is a racist abuser, etc etc. i think many of these are just a symptom of the show 1. trying desperately to keep the groups split up a certain way even though it may not make any sense, and 2. trying to fit into a certain genre/trope mold when their actual characters are more complex than the tropes they’re imitating. this is so fucking long already i am not gonna elaborate further rn but i trust u all know what i mean.

soooo... yeah, that’s about all! i mean it’s not all there are definitely many more things i could talk about and i know i focused sorta disproportionately on the teens which is my bad :/ but i’m done for now. thank you for asking, and apologies for the delay in responding!! i’m sure some people reading (if anyone read this far) will disagree with some of what i’ve said and that’s alright like i’m not The Authority on st or anything i’m just trying to talk about like my own thoughts yknow? so yeah luv u all i hope someone enjoyed reading this!!

[ot3]

i watched red vs blue: zero with my dear friends today and i was asked to “post” my “thoughts” on the subject. Please do not click this readmore unless, for some reason, you want to read three thousand words on the subject of red vs blue: zero critical analysis. i highly doubt that’s the reason anyone is following me, but hey. 

anyway. here you have it. 

Here are my opinions on RVB0 as someone who has quite literally no nostalgia for any older RVB content. I’ve seen seasons 1-13 once and bits and pieces of it more than once here and there, but I only saw it for the first time within the past couple of months. I’ve literally never seen any other RT/AH content. I can name a few people who worked on OG Red vs. Blue but other than Mounty Oum I have NO idea who is responsible for what, really, or what anything else they’ve ever worked on is, or whether or not they’re awful people. I know even less about the people making RVB0 - All I know is that the main writer is named Torrian but I honestly don’t even know if that’s a first name, a last name, or a moniker. All this to say; nothing about my criticism is rooted in any perceived slight against the franchise or branding by the new staff members, because I don’t know or care about any of it. In fact, I’m going to try and avoid any direct comparison between RVB0 and earlier seasons of RVB as a means of critique until the very end, where I’ll look at that relationship specifically.

So here is my opinion of RVB0 as it stands right now:

1. The Writing

Everything about RVB0 feels as if it was written by a first-time writer who hasn’t learned to kill his darlings. The narrative is both simultaneously far too full, leaving very little breathing room for character interaction, and oddly sparse, with a story that lacks any meaningful takeaway, interesting ideas, or genuine emotional connection. It also feels like it’s for a very much younger audience - I don’t mean this as a negative at all. I love tv for kids. I watch more TV for kids than I do for adults, mostly, but I think it’s important to address this because a lot of the time ‘this is for kids’ is used to act like you’re not allowed to critique a narrative thoroughly. It definitely changes the way you critique it, but the critique can still be in good faith.  I watched the entirety of RVB0 only after it was finished, in one sitting, and I was giving it my full attention, essentially like it was a movie. I’m going to assume it was much better to watch in chunks, because as it stood, there was literally no time built into the narrative to process the events that had just transpired, or try and predict what events might be coming in the future. When there’s no time to think about the narrative as you’re watching it, the narrative ends up as being something that happens to the audience, not something they engage with. It’s like the difference between taking notes during a lecture or just sitting and listening. If you’re making no attempt to actively process what’s happening, it doesn’t stick in your mind well. I found myself struggling to recall the events and explanations that had immediately transpired because as soon as one thing had happened, another thing was already happening, and it was like a mental juggling act to try and figure out which information was important enough to dwell on in the time we were given to dwell on it.

Which brings me to another point - pacing. Every event in the show, whether a character moment, a plot moment, or a fight scene, felt like it was supposed to land with almost the exact same amount of emotional weight. It all felt like The Most Important Thing that had Yet Happened. And I understand that this is done as an attempt to squeeze as much as possible out of a rather short runtime, but it fundamentally fails. When everything is the most important thing happening, it all fades into static. That’s what most of 0’s narrative was to me: static. It’s only been a few hours since I watched it but I had to go step by step and type out all of the story beats I could remember and run it by my friends who are much more enthusiastic RVB fans than I am to make sure I hadn’t missed or forgotten anything. I hadn’t, apparently, but the fact that my takeaway from the show was pretty accurate and also disappointingly lackluster says a lot. Strangely enough, the most interesting thing the show alluded to - a holo echo, or whatever the term they used was - was one of the things least extrapolated upon in the show’s incredibly bulky exposition. Benefit of the doubt says that’s something they’ll explore in future seasons (are they getting more? Is that planned? I just realized I don’t actually know.)

And bulky it was! I have quite honestly never seen such flagrant disregard for the rule of “show, don’t tell.” There was not a single ounce of subtlety or implication involved in the storytelling of RVB0. Something was either told to you explicitly, or almost entirely absent from the narrative. Essentially zilch in between. We are told the dynamic the characters have with each other, and their personality pros and cons are listed for us conveniently by Carolina. The plot develops in exposition dumps. This is partially due to the series’ short runtime, but is also very much a result of how that runtime was then used by the writers. They sacrificed a massive chunk of their show for the sake of cramming in a ton of fight scenes, and if they wanted to keep all of those fight scenes, it would have been necessary to pare down their story and characters proportionally in comparison, but they didn’t do that either. They wanted to have it both ways and there simply wasn’t enough time for it. 

The story itself is… uninteresting. It plays out more like the flimsy premise of a video game quest rather than a piece of media to be meaningfully engaged with. RVB0 is I think something I would be pitched by a guy who thinks the MCU and BNHA are the best storytelling to come out of the past decade. It is nothing but tropes. And I hate having to use this as an insult! I love tropes. The worst thing about RVB0 is that nothing it does is wholly unforgivable in its own right. Hunter x Hunter, a phenomenal shonen, is notoriously filled with pages upon pages of detailed exposition and explanations of things, and I absolutely love it. Leverage, my favorite TV show of all time, is literally nothing but a five man band who has to learn to work as a team while seemingly systematically hitting a checklist of every relevant trope in the book. Pacific Rim is an incredibly straightforward good guys vs giant monsters blockbuster to show off some cool fight scenes such as a big robot cutting an alien in half with a giant sword, and it’s some of the most fun I ever have watching a movie. Something being derivative, clunky, poorly executed in some specific areas, narratively weak, or any single one of these flaws, is perfectly fine assuming it’s done with the intention and care that’s necessary to make the good parts shine more. I’ll forgive literally any crime a piece of media commits as long as it’s interesting and/or enjoyable to consume. RVB0 is not that. I’m not sure what the main point of RVB0 was supposed to be, because it seemingly succeeds at nothing. It has absolutely nothing new or innovative to justify its lack of concern for traditional storytelling conventions. Based solely on the amount of screentime things were given, I’d be inclined to say the narrative existed mostly to give flimsy pretense for the fight scenes, but that’s an entire other can of worms.

2. The Visuals + Fights

I have no qualms with things that are all style and no substance. Sometimes you just want to see pretty colors moving on the screen for a while or watch some cool bad guys and monsters or whatever get punched. RVB0 was not this either. The show fundamentally lacked a coherent aesthetic vision. Much of the show had a rather generic sci-fi feel to it with the biggest standouts to this being the very noir looking cityscape, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like something from a batman game, or the temple, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like a world of warcraft raid. They were obviously attempting to get variety in their environment design, which I appreciate, but they did this without having a coherent enough visual language to feel like it was all part of the same world. In general, there was also just a lack of visual clarity or strong shots. The value range in any given scene was poor, the compositions and framing were functional at best, and the character animation was unpleasantly exaggerated. It just doesn’t really look that good beyond fancy rendering techniques.

The fight scenes are their entire own beast. Since ‘FIGHT SCENE’ is the largest single category of scenes in the show, they definitely feel worth looking at with a genuine critical eye. Or, at least, I’d like to, but honestly half the time I found myself almost unable to look at them. The camera is rarely still long enough to really enjoy what you’re watching - tracking the motion of the character AND the camera at such constant breakneck high speeds left little time to appreciate any nuances that might have been present in the choreography or character animation. I tried, believe me, I really did, but the fight scenes leave one with the same sort of dizzy convoluted spectacle as a Michael Bay transformers movie. They also really lacked the impact fight scenes are supposed to have.

It’s hard to have a good, memorable fight scene without it doing one of three things: 1. Showing off innovative or creative fighting styles and choreography 2. Making use of the fight’s setting or environment in an engaging and visually interesting way or 3. Further exploring a character’s personality or actions by the way they fight. It’s also hard to do one of these things on its own without at least touching a bit on the other two. For the most part, I find RVB0’s fight scenes fail to do this. Other than rather surface level insubstantial factors, there was little to visually distinguish any of RVB0’s fight scenes from each other. Not only did I find a lot of them difficult to watch and unappealing, I found them all difficult to watch and unappealing in an almost identical way. They felt incredibly interchangeable and very generic. If you could take a fight scene and change the location it was set and also change which characters were participating and have very little change, it’s probably not a good fight scene. 

I think “generic” is really just the defining word of RVB0 and I think that’s also why it falls short in the humor department  as well.

3. The Comedy

Funny shit is hard to write and humor is also incredibly subjective but I definitely got almost no laughs out of RVB0. I think a total of three. By far the best joke was Carolina having a cast on top of her armor, which, I must stress, is an incredibly funny gag and I love it. But overall I think the humor fell short because it felt like it was tacked on more than a natural and intentional part of this world and these characters. A lot of the jokes felt like they were just thrown in wherever they’d fit, without any build up to punchlines and with little regard for what sort of joke each character would make. Like, there was some, obviously Raymond’s sense of humor had the most character to it, but the character-oriented humor still felt very weak. When focusing on character-driven humor, there’s a LOT you can establish about characters based on what sort of jokes they choose to make, who they’re picking as the punchlines of these jokes, and who their in-universe audience for the jokes is. In RVB0, the jokes all felt very immersion-breaking and self aware, directed wholly towards the audience rather than occurring as a natural result of interplay between the characters. This is partially due to how lackluster the character writing was overall, and the previously stated tight timing, but also definitely due to a lack of a real understanding about what makes a joke land. 

A rule of thumb I personally hold for comedy is that, when push comes to shove, more specific is always going to be more funny. The example I gave when trying to explain this was this:

saying two characters had awkward sex in a movie theater: funny

saying two characters had an awkward handjob in a cinemark: even funnier

saying two characters spent 54 minutes of 11:14's 1:26 runtime trying out some uncomfortably-angled hand stuff in the back of a dilapidated cinemark that lost funding halfway through retrofitting into a dinner theater: the funniest

The more specific a joke is, the more it relies on an in-depth understanding of the characters and world you’re dealing with and the more ‘realistic’ it feels within the context of your media. Especially with this kind of humor. When you’re joking with your friends, you don’t go for stock-humor that could be pulled out of a joke book, you go for the specific. You aim for the weak spots. If a set of jokes could be blindly transplanted into another world, onto another cast of characters, then it’s far too generic to be truly funny or memorable. I don’t think there’s a single joke in RVB0 where the humor of it hinged upon the characters or the setting.

Then there’s the issue of situational comedy and physical comedy. This is really where the humor being ‘tacked on’ shows the most. Once again, part of what makes actually solid comedy land properly is it feeling like a natural result of the world you have established. Real life is absurd and comical situations can be found even in the midst of some pretty grim context, and that’s why black comedy is successful, and why comedy shows are allowed to dip into heavier subject matter from time to time, or why dramas often search for levity in humor. It’s a natural part of being human to find humor in almost any situation. The key thing, though, once again, is finding it in the situation. Many of RVB0’s attempts at humor, once again, feel like they would be the exact same jokes when stripped from their context, and that’s almost never good. A pretty fundamental concept in both storytelling in general but particularly comedy writing is ‘setup and payoff’. No joke in RVB0 is a reward for a seemingly innocuous event in an earlier scene or for an overlooked piece of environmental design. The jokes pop in when there’s time for them in between all the exposition and fighting, and are gone as soon as they’re done. There’s no long term, underlying comedic throughline to give any sense of coherence or intent to the sense of humor the show is trying to establish. Every joke is an isolated one-off quip or one-liner, and it fails to engage the audience in a meaningful way.

All together, each individual component of RVB0 feels like it was conjured up independently, without any concern to how it interacted with the larger product they were creating. And I think this is really where it all falls apart. RVB0 feels criminally generic in a way reminiscent of mass-market media which at least has the luxury of attributing these flaws, this complete and total watering down of anything unique, to heavy oversight and large teams with competing visions. But I don’t think that’s the case for RVB0. I don’t know much about what the pipeline is like for this show, but I feel like the fundamental problem it suffers from is a lack of heart.

In comparison to Red vs. Blue

Let's face it. This is a terrible successor to Red vs. Blue. I wouldn’t care if NONE of the old characters were in it - that’s not my problem. I haven’t seen past season 13 because from what I heard the show already jumped the shark a bit and then some. That’s not what makes it a poor follow up. What makes it a bad successor is that it fundamentally lacks any of the aspects of the OG RVB that made it unique or appealing at all. I find myself wondering what Torrian is trying to say with RVB0 and quite literally the only answer I find myself falling back onto is that he isn’t trying to say anything at all. Regardless of what you feel about the original RVB, it undeniably had things to say. The opening “why are we here” speech does an excellent job at establishing that this is a show intended to poke fun at the misery of bureaucracy and subservience to nonsensical systems, not just in the context of military life, but in a very broad-strokes way almost any middle-class worker can relate to. At the end of the day, fiction is at its best when it resonates with some aspect of its audience’s life. I know instantly which parts of the original Red vs Blue I’m supposed to relate to. I can’t say anything even close to that about 0.

RVB is an absurdist parody that heavily satirizes aspects of the military and life as a low-on-the-food-chain worker in general that almost it’s entire target audience will be familiar with. The most significant draw of the show to me was how the dialogue felt like listening to my friends bicker with each other in our group chats. It required no effort for me to connect with and although the narrative never outright looked to the camera and explained ‘we are critiquing the military’s stupid red tape and self-fullfilling eternal conflict’ they didn’t need to, because the writing trusted itself and its audience enough to believe this could be conveyed. It is, in a way, the complete antithesis to the badass superhero macho military man protagonist that we all know so well. RVB was saying something, and it was saying it in a rather novel format.

Nothing about RVB0 is novel. Nothing about RVB0 says anything. Nothing about it compels me to relate to any of these characters or their situations. RVB0 doesn’t feel like absurdism, or satire. RVB0 feels like it is, completely uncritically, the exact media that RVB itself was riffing off of. Both RVB0 and RVB when you watch them give you the feeling that what you’re seeing here is kids on a playground larping with toy soldiers. It’s all ridiculous and over the top cliche stupid garbage where each side is trying to one-up the other. The critical difference is, in RVB, we’re supposed to look at this and laugh at how ridiculous this is. In RVB0 we’re supposed to unironically think this is all pretty badass. 

The PFL arc of the original RVB existed to show us that setting up an elite team of supersoldiers with special powers was something done in bad faith, with poor outcomes, that left everyone involved either cruel, damaged, or dead. It was a bad thing. And what we’re seeing in RVB0 is the same premise, except, this time it’s good. We’re supposed to root for this format. RVB0 feels much more like a demo reel, cutscenes from a video game that doesn’t exist, or a shonen anime fanboy’s journal scribbling than it feels like a piece of media with any objective value in any area.  In every area that RVB was anti-establishment, RVB0 is pure undiluted establishment through and through.