#which a lot of the stuff getting cut nowadays does

[keets-writing-corner]

does filler exist? sure absolutely

is excessive filler annoying? yeah kinda

but that's not the problem that's happening. They're not cutting FILLER they're cutting CHARACTERIZATION moments. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to say that ONLY FOCUS ON PLOT/CHARACTER/ETC CUZ THAT'S ALL THAT MATTER, that's not my point at ALL. Absolutely write your fluff. The same way that we need humor in a horror movie to take a moment to breathe and then the horror hits that much harder when it returns because we had a moment to relax, fluff serves a similar function to take a break from the plot

but that's not what I think the main problem is. A lot of things that are considered "filler" nowadays are actually really important characterization moments. Moments that makes us see that the characters are human. That they have feelings. That there are things they enjoy and things they fear. That there are situations where they could be silly, or serious. And if these moments are what's getting cut because you're only focusing on plot, then OF COURSE the story feels empty! At this point they aren't even people anymore they're just characters trying to carry a story from point A to point B and that's not enjoyable

Who cares if the characters aren't currently trying to obtain the macguffin, now we know how much they care about each other, or how much their relationship means to each other. Or we just see them having fun and it reminds us not only of our own relationships where we have fun, but also TO HAVE FUN IN OUR RELATIONSHIPS, and then if something happens to those characters that changes that relationship, that's going to hit so much harder going forward, especially if it affects the plot

I hear all the time "People don't remember what you were wearing, or what you said, they remember how you made them feel" and that applies here too. The most important part of any story are the characters, and if we remember the characters having happy good times, then idk it just makes the story so much richer and that's NECESSARY for a good story

everyone's been getting tired of shorter and shorter and more condensed shows, and it's because of this. There's a REASON why all the avatar adaptations keep getting backlash, and it's not just cuz of *gestures vaguely to dumpster fire*. It's because they're cutting out all the fat. They're cutting out all the fun characterization. We don't see the gaang having fun. We don't see them bonding with each other. And it suffers

to borrow from the poster above me, sure you can trim the fat off your beef, but it's not going to taste nearly as good then if you cooked it WITH the fat on

as with everything, there is a balance of course, but please, for any aspiring writers or even just fan fic writers

keep that fluff. it's good for the story

Working on my novel and couldn’t figure out why it felt so empty. I didn’t have any filler. It was all 100% plot. The characters only interacted when necessary. I didn’t prattle on about the scenery or how the birds sounded. I had all my fuller stuff that I loved saved in another file because I “didn’t need it”.

Y’all, I knew this existed in TV shows but it didn’t hit me until this that everything is being whittled down. We are so starving for filler that we snap up anything. I unload all mine on Tumblr or keep it in a massive Google Docs. It SUCKS.

Honestly? Death to plot necessity. Revive filler. Revive unnecessary interactions. Revive just vibing with characters sometimes. I don’t want to just consume the plot and I don’t want to just create the plot either.

[katerinaaqu]

Would you describe Odysseus as morally grey?

That is a very good question. It depends on the version. Unfortunately post-homeric sources do tend to depict him from morally gray till villainous.

Ironically I am not sure if I would describe him as "morally gray" for the Odyssey or even the Iliad. I would mostly describe him as "human". Deeply flawed and someone who makes mistakes. But he does seem to flirt a lot with some morally gray decisions such as the taking of Troy which was a war crime no matter what someone puts to it. Even for the ancient standards.

Many of his actions might as well place him as the perfect example of a morally gray person especially if we judge them from the safety of our home. However put them in ancient context in war or a battle for survival then rules massively differ. Was it a morally gray action to sneak into the enemy to gather information? Don't all modern wars include someone who gathers information? If one thinks about Odysseus did what we do with drones nowadays. Was it a morally gray action to lie to Polyphemus and trick him? He was a huge monster that was eating them. I doubt there was any other way to handle him. Was it a morally gray decision to cut the ropes holding his ship during the Laestrygonians misadventure when he saw all his other ships were trapped in the bay and there was no way for them to get out? Thinking back is not that different on when you decide not to jump into a helpless situation for the rescue when you see that your safety and other people's safety is at steak. Was it a morally gray decision to sell himself to Circe so that his men could live? Like yeah one can call him "whore" but did he really have a choice given how he was facing a powerful immortal witch? Was it a morally gray decision to conceal himself and lie on his identity both to the Phaeakes and in Ithaca? Somehow one must admit that when you have been through so much as Odysseus the action doesn't seem so unreasonable

Two clearly gray decisions he made even for those standards was the taking of Troy by trickery at night (night was for burying the dead and resting) and the murder of the suitors because he still needs to cleanse himself from it but even that seems to be done with the blessings of Gods. It seems that the crimes the suitors committed (trampling the laws of Xenia, eating and drinking without bringing something in return, harassing the hosts, conspiring to murder Telemachus etc) called for this punishment according to the gods in the Odyssey. So even if it was undoubtedly a mass murder and was accompanied by the mass excecution of the conspiring maids it seems like the gods approved those as punishment to crimes. Another in the Iliad seems to be the murder of Dolon, the Trojan spy he and Diomedes caught even if he tried to beg for his life. The action was performed by Diomedes but of course Odysseus didn't seem to oppose it at all. In a way though put it in a war context and you realize why there was a mutual mistrust. They couldn't just let go of a spy and they couldn't feed him forever. In one way in harsh warfare one can imagine certain morally gray decisions are taken by all parties...

In conclusion, given that Odysseus does many shady stuff, it would have been very tempting to answer "yes" to your question. However i think that wouldn't do him justice when it comes to the original homeric poems. Odysseus is a sneaky figure but he is also described as pious and faithful to the gods to the point of Zeus saying there is no better man than him in offering sacrifices to the gods and showing respect. Odysseus knows the different between right and wrong and comments on it many times. That seems to be backed up with some merciful moves he makes for instance he warns one of the suitors who was young and he felt pity to kill him to get out of the palace while he still could, advice which was not heeded by the young man or when he wants to be absolutely sure on the identity of the people he has around him thus not accepting his judgement to be clouded by any biased person no matter how much he cared of them giving that he is also just and careful. Now would I use the term "morally gray"? Only for the fact that he seems capable of performing certain actions under the table or cheating (see funerary matches of Patroclus) but somehow I think that wouldn't do him full justice when it comes to the original homeric poems.

Now post-homeric Odysseus? Absolutely seems to be fitting the bill of morally grayness better. He conspires, he cheats and he looks after himself. At those too we have some versions in which even with those decisions the title doesn't seem to fit but it definitely fits better.

I am sorry for the long reply but I hope that answers your question. It was a very interesting question and thank you for putting it!

[roo-bastmoon]

Thoughts on 3D

So Jungkook's collab with Jack Harlow is out. It is catchy; it will go viral. I have purchased it; I will add it to my new releases playlists--same as I do for all our boys.

But while the dancing was cool and JK's parts are okay (I'm not thrilled that the word "girl" is used literally 20 times, but I get what the western music industry is), I was--I need to be honest here--really taken aback and unhappy with how misogynistic Jack Harlow's rap lyrics were. As far as I'm concerned, he's absolutely unnecessary, and I'll be supporting the alternate version with a lot more enthusiasm.

A deeper look at the lyrics and more of my thoughts are under the cut if you're interested (but by clicking, you're agreeing to keep it respectful in the comments or you'll get banned.)

All my ABG's get cute for me I had one girl (One girl), too boring Two girls (Two girls), that was cool for me Three girls, damn, dude's horny Four girls, okay now you whorin' (Hey, hey, hey) Hey, I'm loose I done put these shrooms to good use

Setting young women up in a line and talking about how sleeping with just one is too boring but sleeping with four is whorish? Yeah, miss me with it.

Then there's this:

You won't regret me (You won't regret me) Champagne confetti (Champagne confetti) I wanna see it In motion In 3D (Show it to me, girl, now, why?)

I was given to understand that "ABG" stands for "Asian Baby Girl" and refers to an Asian party girl who likes clubbing, wearing excessive makeup and tattoos, and revealing clothes, etc.

I also learned from Urban Dictionary—which can be an unreliable site with outdated or incorrect information—that "champagne" has referred to underage girls in the past and "confetti" or nowadays “champagne confetti” refers to orgasm, or sometimes when a group of men or women surround someone, masturbate, and then ejaculate on them.

Not even going to get into the shrooms thing. I'm not in a hyper conservative country with harsh punishments for those type of drugs so... I was a bit taken aback about a song about being fucked right, and now there's lyrics about what amounts to harem girls.

*sigh* Do you know how much I hope I'm reading into things incorrectly? Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding the innuendo, but this is what urban dictionary says. I'm 44 and live in a cave. Maybe I'm wrong.

But in any case, the vibe of Jack's parts in the video was not coming off respectful.

I don't care how many other rap songs objectify and insult women--I won't get behind any content that does. And don't even try to gaslight me or other ARMY into saying we should like this because it's comparatively worse in other rap songs. Don't try to suppress any discourse about it, either--let women discuss how they feel about how they are represented. Don't police women. Don't silence women.

BTS' rap music got so much better once they incorporated feminist feedback, so I'm used to a higher standard and I won't be lowering those standards for anyone. I have no hang ups about sex, but please miss. me. with. misogynistic. bullshit.

Then again, it seems some of the rap hyungs were on board with this.

So I guess industry pros have a different take on stuff like this!

*shrug*

Okay, we have established that I really don't like Jack Harlow's contributions to this song. Which means I'll support the alternative. Thank goodness they had the foresight to provide an alternative!

Now I can work for JK's charts in a way that doesn't aggravate my conscience. All good. Enough said on 3D.

Personally? I really hope JJK1 showcases JK's range of genres, but also has a range of topics besides pursuing girls or being cool.

I just can't vibe with a fuckboy persona; I never liked Justin Bieber or Justin Timberlake for that very reason, even if some of their songs sound fine. Now, if Jungkook really admires their style and wants to pursue it, I'm not going to rag on him for it. Of course not. It's his choice and I can respect people's choices without making the same choices myself.

I will always try to support our members as far as I can, even if not everything is my cup of tea.

But I can't help hoping for something personal and authentic and substantive, when it's just Jungkook coming to us without a collab. (And with Scooter at the helm for an all-English EP, I guess I'm not holding my breath. But maybe this is all part of the learning and growing process. Time will tell.)

Please know that I don't expect other people to suit me and my tastes, but neither will I enthusiastically support content with my time and money when they don't suit me at all or actually really turn me off, ya feel me? It's a real and respectful relationship I have with BTS and their music; not performative. I don't follow along quietly out of obligation, but rather a sincere joy to participate.

I love Jungkook deeply. He's a sweet and intelligent and kind-hearted young man. Amazingly talented and humble. Sincere, open to being vulnerable, protective of those whom he loves. He donates to kid's hospitals, for goodness sake. Jeon Jungkook is a good egg.

I guess I'm just sort of feeling a bit whelmed by the type of music that is in vogue these days. JK worked hard, he did well on his parts. I just am hoping his album showcases some of the emotional depth and meaningful thoughts I have seen from him in the past, if I'm being purely honest. *shrug*

Those are my less-than-two cents. Of course, you may have a vastly different perspective and I appreciate that. Just please keep it respectful of all members and each other in the comments here. It's been a long day and I desperately need some real rest now. I'm trusting I can post this and not come back to a warzone.

I've got a Friday Thirst post in the queue for you guys, and then I'll be taking a bit of a break from social media for a few days to work on work deadlines. Please keep voting for Jimin and of course stream and buy for Jungkook and other new releases.

Sending you all so much love!

~Roo

[ethankyou]

A while back I had a chance to play Cyberpunk Red, which is the 4th edition of Cyberpunk by Mike Pondsmith.

Red is also the successor to Cyberpunk 2020 which was the inspiration for the notorious Cyberpunk 2077 - haven't played, don't intend to, not the subject of my discussion here!

So how did it go?

Cyberpunk Red is a lot of crunch though plays really easy once you get past the initial learning curve of the rules.

But there are a lot of rules.

I find my go to when learning a new game is to find a video of someone trying to give a briefer on the game system and then go to the book to cement those ideas myself.

I found this video pretty helpful when researching character creation. XPLoveCat does a whole series guiding through the creation process. If you like to listen to someone explain things (it's a big help for me) this might be a great place for you to start too!

Once you pick your lifepath, if you're going with the beginner one (i don't remember what it's called it's been nearly a year sorry!) the creation process is pretty smooth, it's just following some steps. There's a medium and veteran version of the life paths that add more complexity to your character creation process and I feel like since our group was a bunch of RPG vets we could have handled that, but it does speed things up to go with the quicker start for a one shot.

Meanwhile Red is like "You have 60 skills and one of them is fashion and one of them is looking good."

Whenever I'm starting a new game I also like to have a character sheet handy so I can piece everything together. And once you get Red's character sheet in front of you, it really begins to feel like a game from the 90's with a modern coat of paint.

The character sheet in question. 3 pages!

There's a lot of fun to be had in older systems! But newer systems have opted to streamline things like skills and stats and stuff nowadays. I remember being glad that 4th edition D&D cut skills by more than half by just folding a lot of similar ones together, something that would continue into 5th edition as well. There were some casualties along the way though (rip use magic device, and all the extra knowledge skills!) and typically the stuff that got cut was stuff that would facilitate like... You know.... Playing a character? Not just murderhoboing your way across the country.

Pictured below, everything that is "Cool" in the year 2045 (taken from a custom character sheet)

Creating a character is an interesting process because it follows this lifepath system. So you choose one of several paths and the game streamlines the creation process by directing you which page to go to next in an almost "choose your own adventure" sort of layout. This is very helpful, but while it's easy to go forward, it's not so easy to go back. If you went to the wrong page or just didn't like what you read and want to try something else, you'll be searching for where you made that wrong turn. A lot of ttrpg books can be like this so this isn't exactly a new problem, but the way the book is laid out it really does need you to follow this path to new pages instead of discovering the information yourself by reading on. I guess just write down the page numbers of places you want to go back to before flipping forward.

Initially finding things on the sheet is tough because if you're told to make a "Tracking" check, you might not immediately assume that's an Int skill. Since the skills are grouped by attribute, you'll have to go through the process of figuring out what skill belongs to which group. I don't think this is a bad thing, because the alternative would be an alphabetical list of 60+ skills, which might make it harder to figure out their associated stat, or would just make the sheet more bloaty with repeated stats beside each and every skill. All games have an adjustment period to them and this is a pretty minor one. I remember this being a sticking point for our group after playing it originally but having some time to think on it I think there's a valid argument to be made either way. Someone in our group even mentioned this was one custom character sheet away from not being an issue and I agree. And apparently others do too because there's a lot of them out there! Many of which sort the skills differently and many also try to condense the 3 page sheet to 2. I know there's a lot of wasted real estate on the third page but it's pretty cool!

There are also apparently free quick start rules that come with premade characters and everything! Free is free and you can check that out on drive thru RPG! It's called easy mode but my understanding is this includes the core rules too. This would probably be the best choice for a one shot game to test the water but we just weren't aware of them at the time.

But a major part of creation is your role. This is the part I might be the most critical of. While they give you a lot of skills and everyone has access to the same skills, each role has basically one major ability that only they can do. The med tech can use medicines to help the groups, the netrunner can take more actions while in a netrun. That kind of thing. But that's pretty much it. Improving your role may allow you to use your role abilities better or more frequently, but there's not a lot in the way of new abilities.

And also the divisions between the roles feel pretty arbitrary. Like the med tech is the only one who can use a bunch of medicines. But why? Everyone has access to the first aid skill, which is something the med tech is also proficient in. What's stopping someone from taking one of their medicines and using it?

I think having well defined roles for each player is very important! And the roles do provide this, but I don't feel like they go far enough. We did only play one session though so perhaps this is something that would be more evident over time.

I played a Netrunner (a hacker) which ends up also having to play a little minigame separate from the rest of the action. I knew what I was getting into but wanted to try it out to see how the game handles it. In previous games that I've played a hacker, it bogged down the game by either having an entire session play out for the hacker while everyone else waits, or does nothing while everyone else is in the middle of the action because they have to stay with their big cool hacker rig. Red deals with this in a really great way - your rig is a headset that has wifi. And if you want to hack a secure system, you need to be hardwired into that system. This means the Netrunner has to be on site and still has an opportunity to join the action. Or may even be forced to do both at once.

As far as the actual hacking game goes, I really like the implementation of hacking a cyber infrastructure. You bring programs that all serve different functions, such as attacks or other actions and then you have to fight your way up the digitial infrastructure, with each level offering more rewards, but higher threats. The programs all have a fantasy aesthetic and the architecture functions kind of like a dungeon in Netspace. You can take multiple netspace actions, but you're still able to act in meatspace as well during this time. Sometimes you'll have to balance your actions in and out of netspace.

The biggest problem I had with the Netrunner goes back to my problem with roles. There's a Tech stat and several Tech skills so what kind of check do you make? Why, you add your role to your roll! The Netrunner uses their role, which starts at +4. Compared to their Tech skills which are floating around a +10 or so. Now the DVs for these checks are all lower to compensate for this but... Why do we gotta do it this way?

There could easily be a skill that could have covered this and the DVs could have been comparable to everything else in the game. You might think, well if other characters were allowed to hack, they could prove to be just as effective as the Netrunner so it has to be a balance issue right? Well the Netrunner role allows them to take 3 actions a round in Netspace which would make them much more efficient than someone without the role. But also having the role is what grants the interface feature, which is required to take NET actions at all! But even though the Netrunner is obviously the best choice for the task, what's stopping someone else with a rig from attempting the same thing and just being less efficient at it.

The way I guess this is addressed, is that you can take on other roles potentially? You have 4 in your starting role, so I believe you'd start with 1 in a new role. But with a +4 in my Netrunner role I found that I struggled a lot, so I can't even imagine floundering around with just a +1. You'd be at the whims of the dice.

Despite that though, I appreciate the game does allow this sort of multi-classing. Especially since many of the roles seem to be very gear based, so it feels silly to not allow any crossover.

In the end, the hacking did feel balanced, which is important. But it didn't feel awesome, which i guess is what it came down to for me. But I also failed a lot of those checks Netrunner checks, which brings me to my last major gripe.

Rolling a single d10 for checks is fine, but if you critically fail on a 1, which is 10% of the time, that is lame. I don't mind using a d10 for checks but without some kind of way to mitigate 1's it makes things brutal, not in a fun or challenging way. I feel like if I was going to play again, I would need the crit fails to just be gone altogether.

Overall, I did enjoy Cyberpunk Red! I think it's a bit hard to dig into for a oneshot, but we managed just fine. If you really wanted to get a feel for it though, I'd recommend you play a 3-5 session arc. This game is definitely worth your time!

I'm also curious about going back to previous iterations to see how it's changed over time.

So, fun fact time, Cyberpunk Red was published in 2020, 30 years after Cyberpunk 2020 was originally published which is goes hand in hand with every scifi media that has predicted a date in the "far future" that we have now reached (and passed!).

See you in 2045 for the 5th edition of Cyberpunk I suppose!

[vcendent]

art vs industry

Sometimes I'm having a good day, but then sometimes I think about how industry is actively killing creative fields and that goes away. People no longer go to woodworkers for tables and chairs and cabinets, but instead pick from one of hundreds of mass-produced designs made out of cheap particle board instead of paying a carpenter for furniture that is both made to last generations and leaves room for customization. With the growth of population and international trade, the convenience and low production costs are beneficial in some aspects, but how many local craftsmen across the world were put out of business? How many people witnessed their craft die before their eyes? There is no heart or identity put into mass produced items; be it furniture, ceramics, metalwork, or home decor; and at the end of the day everybody ends up with the same, carbon copy stuff in their homes.

I'm a big fan of animated movies, and I see this same thing happening too. When was the last time western audiences saw a new 2D animated movie hit theatres? I can't speak for other countries, but, at least in America, I believe The Princess and the Frog was the last major 2D movie released and that was back in 2009. Major studios nowadays are unwilling to spend the time and money that it would take to pay traditional animators who have spent years honing their craft to go frame by frame, and to pay painters to create scene backgrounds. We talk a lot about machines replacing jobs, but when the machines come, artistry professions are some of the first to be axed (in part because industry does not see artistry as "valuable" professions). Art, music, and writing are no longer seen as "real" jobs because they belong to the creative field and there's this inane idea that anyone who goes into those fields will be unsuccessful and starving. I'm not saying that 3D animation is bad, it has its own merits and required skills and can be just as impressive as anything 2D, but it has smothered 2D animation and reduced it largely to studios that cannot afford the tech to animate 3D.

And now we have this whole AI thing to deal with, stealing existing artists' work to "train" it to take over those few professions that, until now, required actual people to do them. Internet artists have already been dealing with people complaining about the price of art for years and now have to face their work being stolen to train AI. With AI technology, anyone who undervalues the work of the artist can now get something generated at little or no cost to them, all at the expense of the artists themselves. Why would studios pay script writers when they could just get an algorithm to do it without pay? Why pay actors to bring characters to life or pay models to pose for ads when CGI has progressed enough we could digitally render humans and cut out having to pay people entirely? Why use practical effects or film on location when green screens and adding in-post is faster and so much cheaper? It's no wonder we had the SAG-AFTRA strike. AI has already been trained to write children's books and produce music, continuing down this road will replace authors and musicians too at the convenience of cost. How much longer until the actual, real-life people behind all forms of artistry become completely obsolete?

Industry is just driving the cost of people-made crafts up and up with every mass produced product and every streamlined shortcut to reduce costs, which only makes it harder and harder for artists of all kinds to make a living, as very few people want to pay for the time and skill of artists when they could just pick something off a shelf or feed AI a prompt and get something satisfactory enough, yet not what they actually wanted, for so much cheaper.

[pinkniz]

I think a lot about Sander having PTSD, the Sander we know now has this vibe of never doing physical work in his life but the one from the past definitely had it tough

I just think he has it to some extent, we know that the Dislyte world isn't exactly ideal to live in, theres literally very few habitable areas in it and I think Sander has definitely seen some stuff

I can imagine his army days being rather tough due to how basically all armed forces in Dislyte are dedicated to keeping miramon out of habitable areas which we know is extremely dangerous and he has likely seen a lot of comrades get crushed, bitten and impaled by miramon. Same thing when he joined the Union, probably dealing less with miramon caused tragedies but instead seeing up close the crimes and atrocities some espers can do or the way humans treat espers.

(I also have this little hc that he used to have a tail but he lost it in combat bc he was forced to cut it off)

And don't get me started on all the atrocities that happen daily on the Shadow Decree, even if he eventually got desensitized by it there has definitely been some that affected him, he just doesn't fully care anymore because he sees them as necessary and inevitable sacrifices for his goals(thats probably what he tells himself to feel better)

He definitely handles it rather..."well". To him is mostly disguising his true thoughts, ignoring them and anything triggering and desensitizing himself but he does show signs like disassociating, headaches, irritability, difficulty sleeping, nightmares, detachment and avoidance.

Also consider Falken being the only person on Earth that has seen Sander having a PTSD episode and being the only one that could calm him down. Nowadays Sander doesnt have episodes often but when he does, he's completely alone.

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #66 – A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel

This was a book I bought entirely off the author being at a con I attended and being endearingly awkward in several panels including a long, rambling description of the weird bit of science that inspired it. So I went into this with no real expectations other than the hope it would be entertainingly off-kilter or different from the buzzy and award-nominated stuff I’ve been reading a lot of this year. Which it was! Something of a mess otherwise, sadly, but hardly the worst thing I’ve read recently.

The story follows the Kibsu, a lineage of human-appearing (probably) aliens notable for a) giving birth exclusively to identical clones of themselves, b) being lightly superhuman in both mental acuity and competence with violence, c) a hundred-generation-old family ethos to guide humanity to the stars before some mostly-forgotten doom consumes them all, and also to never have more than two of them (a mother-daughter pair) alive for long and d) the fact that there’s something hunting them across history, cutting a bloody swathe through the lives they leave behind.

The book is, specifically, about the point in history where that mission has suddenly become actually plausible – starting with WW2 and continuing into the early space race. With many significant digressions, the story follows a particular mother-daughter pair as they assist with Operation Paperclip and do everything can to start a Space Race, all while the Tracker hunting them closes in, and as they look around the world of the 1940s and ‘50s and wonder if the species is truly worth spending their and their descendents’ lives trying to save.

While, that’s the plot, anyway. This is one of those novels that gives the overwhelming impression of mostly being the vehicle for all the random trivia and anecdotes the author discovered researching for it and thought were cool (and the book was researched – there’s a ‘further reading’ chapter at the back). Hence the constant shifting in focus from the logistics of Operation Paperclip and the postwar anticommunist witch hunts in the USA to the biology of the Amazon Molly to the story of Olga of Kiev to the early study of atmospheric carbon levels to- you get the idea. Now personally I found this all quite charming, but I can’t say it does much for the pacing or coherence of the book as a novel. Narrativally the whole book is a little bit of a mess, and the digressions into exposition on the wild goose chases of the early soviet space program aren’t helping.

Formally and stylistically the whole book is refreshingly different than anything I’ve read recently. Incredibly close first person POV – essentially just running internal monologues, or I suppose real time diary entries? Different grammer for dialogue and punctuation than I’m really used to, too. There are a few cases where it’s played for tension or horror as you’re left guessing at whose head you’re in or waiting for enough clues to piece together what they’re actually doing. It works far less well for action scenes, though – unfortunate, since that’s what the book’s climax is.

There’s a current – incredibly over-represented among the sort of people who write science fiction novels but present to a lesser degree elsewhere as well – that considers space travel and extra-planetary colonization the ultimate goal of human civilization, the telos which all of history has been driving towards. (Nowadays they mostly seem to be one more subgroup of people nostalgic for the ‘60s, but they’re certainly still around). That current, more than anything else, is what the book seems to be in conversation with – the contrast between the beautiful sounding dream of ‘escaping to the stars’ and the mess of great power politics and intercontinental missiles and recruiting nazis that made up ost of the actual business of developing space travel. There’s several sequels, and I assume the theme’s developed in some more depth through them.

I’m not sure I’m actually going to get around to reading them anytime soon, though. This was refreshingly different and perfectly readable, but nothing about it really left me craving more. .

[thewiz9062]

[Smiling Critters]

It's yaoi day (aug 1) and the people have spoken

Fic under the cut <3 (can be considered platonic)

"I usually encourage your pacing because it means you're thinking for once, but it's a bit annoying at the moment."

-

Kickin' looks at bubba with pure exhaustion. "Shut up, you're not helping anyway!" Earlier, he and Bubba had invited dogday out for a day in town, just the 3 of them. But of course, Dogday never goes anywhere without Catnap nowadays. Ever since school ended and summer began, Dogday brought the tired boy with him to each of the critter meetings. Honestly, he can't believe he forgot.

So now here Kickin' and Bubba are, remaking plans. Don't get him wrong, he definitely thinks that catnap can come along, he has nothing against him. He just.....knows next to nothing about him. And kickin' knows that he wouldn't go out to places HE wouldn't like so why would he make catnap? These are his first frienda that aren't Bubba in a while, he can't really afford to mess this up. Currently, they're making off things that might be ill-suited and due to Bubba, things that are-

"I tried to help, but you keep shooting down my ideas! Rocket skates are an AMAZING idea."

-questionably safe and/or illegal.

Kickin' throws himself on the nearest bean bag and groans. "We're getting nowhere..."

"You've never panicked like this before about a simple outing and....speaking of which, dogday and catnap should be heading out since it's almost time already," Bubba nonchalantly points out.

"WHAT."

"Yup! And you know what? We," Bubba points between the two of them and drags kickin' downstairs and out the door "Are gonna wing it."

-

Truth be told, kickin' thinks catnap is cool.

Yeah, sue him, but catnap seems to be the embodiment of the persona he's made for himself. He gives off this broody vibe, never talks (Bubba theorized that it might be condition, but he has no confirmation so , and just blends into the background.

Blending into the background is the best part. It keeps the bullies away.

So as Bubba spots a mini convention and Kickin' shares his reluctant distaste of such a place, Bubba places a bag of money ("Your idea of an outing is probably shopping or spending a lot of some sort") into his hands and drags dogday to the convention, leaving Kickin' and Catnap to do their own thing.

Which leaves Kickin' awkwardly avoiding eye contact between him and Catnap.

'Wow I'm unprepared.'

-

Despite the way the chicken across from him attempts to hide it, Catnap can see that he was interested in the convention, considering his eyes wander to it every now and then. He doesn't know why he would lie to Bubba, because from what Dogday has told him about them, they seem close enough to know each other's interests.

Either way, he doesn't have any other things he wants to do today, so he grabs kickin's arm and points to the convention.

"You wanna go in there?" Kickin' questions. "I mean it's probably pretty boring in there, Bubba likes that kind of stuff." Kickin' has the face of a liar on. It doesn't matter, because as kickin' finishes speaking, Catnap is already walking towards it. Kickin' catches up to him after complaining, and the two enter.

"So, uh, can you...talk? Sorry if that's rude, but I'm kinda curious." Kickin' attempts an ice breaker.

He wants to, but he can't. He can talk to dogday in a private space after their bonding, but not in public, so Catnap just shakes his head.

"Oh, got it."

As they walk further in, they see brightly colored stalls and people in costume. Catnap doesn't know any of the characters displayed, but looking at Kickin's look of awe and adoration, it seems he does. He nudges him, and points at a stall themed after a man with a red and black suit with katanas on his back, hoping to get his question across.

"Him? That's Deadpool, he's a mercenary, pretty funny and cocky but he gets the job done." Kickin' moves his gaze to the other character that the stall Is themed after. "And that's wolverine, the leader of a group called the X-Men. Both of them are way less popular than other heroes, well, more like a anti-hero for Deadpool, but they're cool. They're getting a movie together soon, should probably watch it." Catnap absorbed every word of his explanation, and at the end of it, kickin' casually pauses, then jolts as he realizes how much he just explained for someone who doesn't like this kind of thing.

Kickin' starts sputtering a rushed explanation and Catnap notices he looks mildly scared. He doesn't know why he hides the fact he likes these things, but he doesn't like the implications. Catnap gives him a smile and pats his shoulder, then looks at the merch available on the stall. He picks up two pins, and gives one to kickin'.

"You...wanna get these? I- okay." Catnap watches as Kickin' goes up to the merchant (In... A Deadpool costume, he notes, proud of himself for paying attention) and purchases the pins.

Catnap makes a miserable attempt at placing the pin on his sweater, until Kickin' notices and offers to help. After Kickin' correctly places the pin on his sweater, Catnap gives him a thumbs up, and Kickin's face brightens.

Catnap points to another stall that catches his eye, and they both head over, Kickin' explaining every character and reference for Catnap.

In catnap's opinion, whoever made the boy scared to share his interests must have been visually impaired, as he thinks he looks much more natural in this environment. He's always noticed the 'cool guy' persona he keeps up with the other critters, so it's nice to see him enjoying himself. He found himself enjoying learning about these things that he's missed out on, even as going as far as purchasing a book or two to read at 'home.'

Eventually, the two boys are not only out of money and overed in merch, they're also late, as Kickin' gets a notification from Bubba asking about his whereabouts. They quickly rush out, and are met with surprise from Dogday and Bubba, as they assumed they went somewhere else. Sadly, Kickin' and Bubba are nearly late for dinner and have to go home fast, quickly saying their goodbyes.

As he and Dogday walk towards their respective residences, he reminiscences about the day, anticipating the next time they go out like this.

-

(Extra)

Bubba: I thought you were done with comics~ Someone change your mind?

Kickin: *flustered* You're dead to me.

[End]

-

GASSSSHSHSHSHHS MY BELOVEDS

It's not really romancy and can be considered platonic if ya don't like the ship but hhahwjehss

[saveraedae]

Late Indie Animation Day Post (A thread)

Pouring my heart out edition

Nothing new to show for myself this go around, but hi! I'm Saver! I'm making The Mark Side— a comedy about queer teens in Texas with an underlying personal story about life, mental health, & navigating friendship with a best friend who wants nothing to do with you!

My thread here is less about the series' content, but about my journey as a creator through the years, and my gameplan for it moving forward. If you wanna learn about the series itself check out this post or go to the official TMS website.

But if you've never heard of me— hi!

I'm Saver! An artist, storyteller, and animator!

A bunch of personal and sappy stuff below the cut!

I am not new to the indie animation scene by any means. Just a very small creator with a tiny reach. My journey in beginning to develop TMS as a show kicked off in 2016 when I was only 13.

During this time I made lots of little productions with TMS, most of which had pretty sub-par quality. (I was a kid with no experience after all.)

They're all still out there if you go looking for them!

But hey, I set out to make stuff and guess what? That's what I did!

In 2020, I released an animatic titled "Friend Fiction," which serves as both the pilot as well as episode 1 to the show. I was in high school during its creation and had no idea what I was doing, and it shows! But guess what? I set out to make something, and did exactly that.

Episode 2, "An In-Tents Trip" is currently in production. It will feature a huge increase in production quality, full animation, and will serve as the proof of concept for the show as a whole! (A bit messy with the proof of concept to pilot pipeline, but it's got the spirit!)

Throughout the years I've been through so many personal struggles, both related to TMS and not. There's been countless times where I felt like I was at my breaking point, or like I wasn't good enough. But I kept pushing through, because I wanted to see the show come to life.

I've spent my whole life up until recently living with undiagnosed neurodivergence and untreated mental health issues, and only a short time ago did I realize that despite all of that, I always held onto my one goal: To make a cartoon and tell a story.

Ever since I was a young child, even before TMS existed, I always knew I wanted to make cartoons. Not just any cartoons, my own cartoons. I remember being just 4 years old and daydreaming about spearheading my own production, telling my own stories and entertaining others.

A handful of indie cartoons nowadays, much like industry produced cartoons, feature full teams managing each department, as well as several to many other animators. Which is cool as hell! Who would have thought that one day animation would come to this point?

GLITCH and Spindlehorse are truly blowing my mind by what they have and continue to accomplish. It's really remarkable and satisfying to see as someone who grew up thinking the only way to get things in front of others was to give up control and sacrifice the quality.

Another handful of shows though, which The Mark Side falls under, has everything lead, animated, produced, and even more by just one person: the creator. There's people with enough passion to do what teams of hundreds do, just by themselves. Because they want to.

I one day aspire to expand its production to the likes of the aforementioned studios, but only time will tell if that goal will get met. Regardless, I'm going to keep going. My goal is to get a show made, and my eagerness to see it all in full one day is what drives me.

Does any of that sound messy? Unprofessional even?

It does!

And that's ok!

Indie is not the industry.

Indie is independence, and breaking free from the norm. Don't let anyone tell you what you can and can't do. Let your passion and love for your craft drive you

I believe the best creators write and tell stories from the heart.

Not everything will look perfect, but our love for what we do is evident in everything we create, and our eagerness for the future accomplishes more than we think. That's what indie means to me.

I've been through a lot as a creator. And I'm far from meeting my goal. But the world will be ready for what I have to offer some day, and same for whoever this thread resonates with.

Until then, let's support our colleagues and let our creations guide us.

[pinksilvace]

Fern guides their mutuals and followers through Cats 1998 as if we're all sitting on the same couch watching it and I'm shouting out stuff (4/?)

MASTERPOST

Character Wiki Pages

On to Bustopher!

8: Bustopher Jones

Everybody is SO MEAN about Bustopher Jones (joking). I love him so much but nowadays when numbers are cut his is usually one of them since he usually shows up once and disappears 🥲

The actor for Bustopher sometimes dons a chorus costume for the opening number, often named Peter. They're also usually the actor who plays Gus later, as both Bustopher and Gus traditionally had operatic moments in the show.

Tom Hooper clearly did not know how to interpret media because could you IMAGINE 2019 Bustopher cleaning up his appearance as a first impression???

When I was little, I was under the impression that Bombalurina, Jenny, and Jellylorum all liked Bustopher Jones in similar ways; it wasn't until I started interacting with the fandom on here that I learned how some people interpret Bombalurina as being completely sarcastic in this song. Art's always up to interpretation, of course, and that's the fun of it, but I never really got that impression, even with Rosemarie Ford's eye rolls. To me, this moment shows Bombalurina as a character that can show others respect. It also cements her as being at the older end of the "not-old" adults.

This is YET ANOTHER song that is PERFECT for examining whatever Pouncival is getting up to at a given moment. I am once again saying that the Pouncival cut in this show is the most fun

Subsequently, this is also the "Skimbleshanks is three wrong moves away from a panic attack" song, which to me means that he respects Bustopher just as much as Jenny does. I like to think that they grew up together.

(For an incredibly anxious Skimble, here's Boston 2007; skip to 28:30):

(While I'm at it, there's this part in Moscow 2005 when the boys are all lined up like they're going to take a family photo, and I think it's very silly and cute; skip to 27:45)

Have you ever watched Cats (1998) and wondered who that cat that's really excited to see Bustopher is? That's George. The George Cut (TM) is probably my second favorite version of '98, after The Pouncival Cut (TM).

No doubt, you'll notice the number of Mistoffelees & Bustopher moments in this number. This is probably where the most popular headcanon about Bustopher originates: lots of us like to think he's an uncle, usually in conjunction with monochromatic siblings (Misto & Victoria & sometimes Alonzo)(Alonzo is like. Y as a vowel). I've also seen some folks frame him as Misto's dad, and in those cases, Misto is usually an only child.

Slightly off-topic, but my friend @thepineconelord likes to think of Mistoffelees as butler-core, and I think they're especially correct in this number.

(Yet another side note: the monochromatic siblings staging is a bit stronger in post-US Revival choreography, especially between Alonzo and Misto. Head to 30:00)(<- pretending to see things that supports the tunnel vision)

(Is it obvious yet that I've watched this number, specifically, many times?)

Okay I only just noticed this one but WHAT is up with Plato in this part. This picture doesn't do nearly enough justice to his posing but. My dude are you okay??? He was built to have an arm slung over the back of a park bench and instead he's here and forced to harmonize

The rare moment when Mistoffelees is peeved by Pouncival (and the altogether common moment where Munkustrap is also peeved by Pouncival)

One incredibly interesting thing about this number is that it's one of the most gendered numbers in the whole show, speaking from a choreography standpoint. When I was younger, I thought it came from a position of "all of the girls have crushes so they're all fangirling together," but that's not true. Only Jenny is shown to have a crush, and Coricopat, George, and Skimbleshanks could all very easily start fanboy-ing with them.

What is it, then? Is it because Bustopher presents as a much more "traditional" character than the rest? Do the things they're describing about him ascribe to him a certain level of masculinity that he can only share with the boys? Are these formations all part of some sort of militaristic protocol? Leading from that, is his appearance at the Ball (and approval) a right of passage thing for the boys? It's not something I've really seen anybody touch on, which is odd to me, because Cats in general tends to have interesting messages re: gender roles, especially with Mistoffelees, who obviously shares some sort of close connection with Bustopher! GILLIAN LYNNE REVEAL YOUR SECRETS

The cats know what golf is. Either that, or Bustopher saw a rich person play it, decided to copy them, and everybody else is amazed for his benefit.

[divergent-paths]

I just went on DA to find you (and read all the lato league stuff, younger Alex was a really cute kid) and I was wondering, is there more stuff about Alex than just the lato league comics? It felt like the last one had a lot of references to things I didn't know so I'm curious. Is there maybe a story about how he got the scar? Or will it come up later? (In that case I'm not asking for spoilers btw)(I'm just really curious, the lato league stuff was fun) (wait is Alex in someone else's lato league stuff too then? Gtg check, bye)

Alex doesn't like answering questions about the scar, so have a cameo from Franz & Fubuki (Gramps & Aunt Fuu as Alex usually refers to them), who still seem to feel guilty about it years later lmao

It's another long ramble for this ask, so it's all below the cut~ The tldr is that there is more stuff I've done/drawn, but it's focused on the adults related to Alex, rather than on him directly. The one other story he was witness to (Frostsmitten) is incomplete because of a 1-2 punch depression-burnout combo, but I am looking to work more on it again this year finally.

As for prior stories, Alex is young enough that he's only been the star of one adventure, which was Lato, but there's a number of adults in his life who have been through many crazy shenanigans and he was brought along for grampa's crazy new year's romance in the snow (Frostsmitten), and the planned follow-up (FS2: Freezer Burn). But! While I am currently teasing about old references and such, anything in Divergent Paths that becomes necessary info *will* be explained when the time is right for the story. I like to tease things out to allow people to theorise on the story as they read, but I know eventually you've gotta' come out with a straight answer and that's best done when it finally means something to the characters. So we'll get there!

As for reading the story I mentioned above, well, haaaahhh... It's a tale as old as time. Depression+Burnout destroyed me, and last year (2023) was really the first time in years that I felt any semblance of my old energy, and it's still in process of working back up to those old levels. Frostsmitten (link here) is about 80% done/uploaded, and Freezer Burn has its concepts and timeline done, but no pages drafted yet.

So where does that leave us nowadays... Well, last year I was actually touching the old pages that remained to be finished and chipping away at them when the mood struck me, and I think I'm up to moving along that story this year between posts here on the tumbles. Definitely no schedule though, absolutely no promises, certainly no guarantees. I only end up embarrassing myself and disappointing people when I say 'it'll be out on xx date!' :'D

Anyways, I've rambled on long enough I think :'D Thank you for the interest in my other works, I really do appreciate it. It's not an exaggeration to say that everyone's comments, compliments and excitement is giving me life here. <3

[artistic-izzy-multifandom]

Izzy's Heavily Improvised Essay on Bambi 2

(to folks who follow me for other stuff, I apologize right ahead of time, just doing my "multifandom" name justice XD)

Okay y’all, bear with me, this was written in the heat of the moment and therefore I might go around in tangents. I’ve been dying to write this essay thingy for months actually, but I kept chickening out when I went to try and just do it. And it was also inspired by Wreckham’s own Bambi post that I saw a while ago, so uh... Yeah.

(also this mainly features my opinions, don't take them as facts >_<)

So, starting things off with this:

It shall be no secret that I’m an avid fan of the Bambi movies (more the second than the first, but we’ll get to that in a bit). 

It’s no surprise that visually speaking, Bambi is a spectacle from beginning to end, on top of having a beautiful soundtrack and a fascinating way of being the closest thing to an animated documentary with its environments.

However, it comes with the price of... Well, lacking a concrete plot. And by that I mean outside of just showcasing Bambi’s life from birth to adulthood. Not to say there’s no value in that, but I reckon it’s not the kind of movie lots of people nowadays would just want to watch multiple times in a row.

(plus considering how much of the novel’s plot they cut out when adapting it to the screens… That’s a can of worms for another day)

Yes, even I, the avid fan, will admit this flaw in the storytelling. And it’s a big reason why I maintain my statement on loving the second movie more than the first.

And oh where do I begin?

Namely how its plot is basically about the time that happened between Bambi’s Mother’s death and the scene with all those cheery singing birds — in other words, the period in which Bambi was raised by his father, the Great Prince of the Forest.

While animation’s changed significantly (given that, y’know, 64 years apart) and also different voice actors were hired for the characters (again, 64 years), I will come here and say that visually the movie did the original justice, and did it in spades!

Plot-wise? On one hand, there’s more dialogue and the humor is a bit more targeted for younger audiences, which in fairness will put off some who are more inclined towards the original.

On the other hand, the movie is also not afraid to explore some darker subjects, some indirectly (like the whole aspect of grief both for Bambi and his father and their respective ways of dealing with it), and some directly (such as the entire Deer Call scene).

And the fact that unlike the first movie, the characters here are more fleshed out, the main highlight of that is none other than the Great Prince himself; in the first movie he... Didn’t have nearly enough screentime or lines to justify his status as protector of the Forest, at best he was a minor character given too much importance, and at worst he was a living prop.

In the second? He’s the second main focus of the story, with a whole character development arc on how to be a father to Bambi despite his belief in tradition (aka the whole “the does care for the young” thing). In fact, I think I should dedicate this part of the essay on his character, shall we? Because years of rewatching the movie made me think a lot of things regarding him (which I don’t see many or even anyone talk enough about):

If we’re gonna think about it, we never really get to know the Great Prince too deeply prior to his mate’s death. Everything we do know about him personality-wise came afterwards, at a time when he had to look after Bambi while also looking after the Forest as a whole.

It’s incredibly easy to label him as a jerk and a deadbeat father when one fails to consider a few things:

1- His mate died, and given the timeframe, the Prince was unable to reach both her and Bambi in time before Man shot her; made worse when you remember that in the first movie he was able to save them both from Man. Literally, at the beginning of the second movie, one of the first expressions we see from him is sadness. Wouldn’t you think he was feeling not just grief, but guilt too?

2- He was left to raise his son alone, at one of the harshest points of wintertime, and only asked Friend Owl to find a doe because the owl offered some help in the first place; recalling the tradition thing, the Prince had no experience with children whatsoever, can you blame him for being baffled at the idea of him raising his son at first?

3- He’s the protector of a whole forest. That’s like, hundreds and hundreds of lives he’s dedicated to keep safe from Man at all times every single day, hundreds and hundreds of animals depending on him to not get shot. Even if he’s experienced at what he does, that’s still a huge pressure onto a single individual, and the fact that he can’t always save everyone every time Man is in the woods.

And a bonus: forget his status as the Great Prince of the Forest for a moment, and what do you have? A stag who lost his mate (whom he genuinely loved) and is left to raise their son entirely on his own.

If I were to guess, I’d say the Great Prince was far more serene prior to the tragedy; still a recluse, what with being the protector of the woods and then some, but less stern in general.

Everything we see of him before the completion of his character development, is him trying to make do with something that was out of his control and dealing with its consequences. (there’s a reason why ‘Parents as People’ is a trope, y’know)

Hell, it was all but stated that even before he became more open towards Bambi and embraced his role as a parent, he already cared about his son in his own way. I’m under the belief that he’s always been capable of raising him, all he needed was some time (and a bit of a nudge from Bambi himself at points).

Plus he was already regretting the whole “new mother to Bambi” plan and intending on calling it off by the time Friend Owl brought Mena, he only went through with it anyway because he thought he screwed things up with Bambi for good - btw I do not blame Bambi for being mad, poor guy’s spent most of the movie trying to impress his dad and taking every lesson to heart, only to find out about the arrangement at the worst time possible.

On another tangent, I feel like one aspect that’s often overlooked is how both Bambi and his father reacted to going through with the arrangement:

By the time Bambi was going to leave with Mena, he wasn’t even mad anymore, just downtrodden and upset that he wouldn’t get to see his friends as often, but otherwise resigned and accepting that it’s what he should be doing. Putting up a brave facade all the while, much like the Great Prince himself.

Same for the latter, he was trying to keep his regal facade up as well and insisting that “a Prince does sacrifices” - he was mostly talking about himself, having to give his son up so he’s raised by someone better than the Prince.

And let’s get one fact clear before heading to a main point in this essay: although Bambi did get mad at his father (down to even wishing his mother was there instead of him), he was far more upset at being separated from him and not getting to see him as often, and it’s made obvious he regretted yelling those words at his father.

Otherwise, Bambi wouldn’t have rushed back to nuzzle him goodbye, wouldn’t have thought of retaliating against Ronno when the latter taunted him about being “given away” due to his father “being ashamed of him”. And he certainly wouldn’t have run to another cliff to meet his dad after defeating the last of Man’s dogs.

In fact I more than believe that they would’ve reconciled on the spot as soon as they saw each other again, which was what likely gonna happen after Bambi saved Mena and got rid of all the dogs.

But then the cliff scene happened.

(aka one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie, and yes I will defend it right now)

Now, I can see why a good bunch of people hate that scene (namely the whole Disney Death thing), but allow me to say that it’s in the movie for a reason, and it’s not to trick the audience into thinking Bambi did die from the fall.

It’s to showcase the Great Prince’s character arc coming to fruition.

Remember when I said that the Prince did love Bambi in his own way despite not knowing anything about raising children? This is the scene where he finally realized just how much he did care all along, shedding away his “prince does/does not” mentality for good. Realizing that Bambi needed him as a father

There's so much that goes unsaid in the scene.

How the Prince’s voice nearly breaks when urging Bambi to get up, him saying “A Prince does not...” but never finishing it. What was he going to say? We don’t know, and that’s the point. Maybe even he didn’t know, maybe it was said out of reflex.

How he gets down and looks at his (seemingly) dead son before nuzzling him, keeping him as close as he could, and crying.

This all makes it more meaningful when Bambi does wake up and calls him Dad for the first time, showcasing how far their bond has gone and developed.

I believe, among other things, that the scene (and perhaps counting the dog chase as well) was also meant to be a mirror/parallel to the dream sequence from earlier in the movie. But that’s perhaps an essay for another day!

So, in conclusion… I swear I’m 100% normal about this movie, I totally did not spend days on end trying to make this improv essay as cohesive as possible-

[essay ends here, roll credits]

[capn-rikshu]

<Thoughts on previous reblog

No disrespect to OP but the tonal shift/inconsistency might've shaken them to lead to that critique. I see some of what they were getting at but I never had a feeling that the show was saying that 'now that Robbie and Mo have powers, they must be responsible for every adult around them'. That's a bit extreme to me. And ESPECIALLY their thoughts on the violence of the show.

(It's a long read)

Jawbreaker has been remarked on before on not really understanding social cues at times which leads to him roughhousing with Grimlock and causing him to have an outburst. It's neither of their fault in that situation, if anyone I would blame Elita for not pulling Jawbreaker aside and explaining him Grimlock's situation. She did practically benched Jawbreaker aside for he 'could cause more trouble' before running off to stop Grimlock with Hashtag. When JB said 'it's all my fault', she said 'we'll discuss this later'. I don't blame her, it was a time tight situation, but JB may take those words too much to heart; he really does blame himself for Grimlock's rampage. Maybe there could've been a scene where Elita ACTUALLY discussed what happened with Jawbreaker, maybe apologize and tell him that it wasn't his fault but the episode ends abruptly. Maybe there WAS a scene like that somewhere in the drafts but we all know that TFE has a lot of cut content. I would criticize that aspect.

BUT nowhere else did I ever feel that the kids have a responsibility for the adults around them or how they effect them. Earthspark is sort of a 'chosen one' narrative, Quintus Prime CHOSE Mo and Robby to be the legacy of hope of the Terrans. He gave them powers to fight alongside their Terran siblings.

It's more of a kid's power fantasy than anything saying 'kids should have responsibility for the adults around them', which leads me into critiquing OP's critique of the darkness and mature themes of the show.

Again, no disrespect but I don't think OP understands how kids that age (8-15 as OP has stated to be the likely demographic) actually act like and what their likes and dislikes gravitate to. They don't understand that kids those age are going to be curious and contemplating morbid and mature topics. As they get older they'd want to been seen less as kids and more like mature adults (even though they aren't). So they will naturally be more interested in more darker/mature topics; specifically violence, mental health issues, tame gore, but nothing extremely disturbing or traumatising. The problem is that with the internet they may actually come across actually exploitive, psyche damaging stuff. With TV networks there are at least guidelines and mandates that are harder to slip through than, say, something like Youtube. (All those creepy elsagate stuff). They need a safe environment to explore those thoughts.

I was a Warrior Cats kid and anyone in that fandom knew that those books could be violent AF, same can be said about Wings of Fire (unlike Warriors I don't think it ever had a scene where a cat/dragon had their stomach cut open, WoF did have a dragon have her face burnt off with acid). Majority of those fandoms are comprised of kids less than 16 years of age, Warriors had so many fanart by CHILDREN illustrating the cats sometimes brutal deaths.

My point being, if you think most kids in between those ages are going to be traumatised by what they see on a RESTRICTIVE cable network, where they can censor many things (a lot harmless things e.g same sex couples) there is a good chance you may not fully understand children. [I'm not saying that it is impossible that they won't get traumatised by something but I'm saying that it would be extremely unlikely especially nowadays]

Unlike books, where you can only imagine how bad things are, a more visual medium like cartoons have less to the imagination. Let's take a look at the violence in Earthspark shall we?

On level of violence I'd say... it is on level of TF Prime AT TIMES. TFP was pretty consistent with its violence, it shown its characters BLEEDING, from the mouth, from wounds on the Cybertronian character. Meanwhile, I'd say the most bleeding we got from Earthspark characters was from Megatron's arm, from some covered shoulder panel. You could count Brawl dripping blood on the floor but it happens offscreen, I recall. I don't think Earthspark ever shows a Transformer bleed from any wound, or even really show any battle damage except from Bumblebee's arms and Twitch and Thrash in the finale.

The finale is the only thing I'd say could be seen as 'EXTREMELY violent', the stakes were fucking off the charts in those episodes. I see the tone clash critique from a lot people coming from there, some people also say it was rushed. By extremely violent I mean: human death (rip edgy elsa gets evaporated), Twitch getting her head repeatedly bashed against the floor by Mandroid, Nightshade getting stabbed (it is covered by a convenient camera angle and it is revealed to be an illusion), those are the extremes I remember from that episode. But those are MOSTLY ONLY EXCLUSIVE TO THE TRANSFORMERS CHARACTERS. Most violence happens to them. Human characters are harmed but it is not as horrific as how OP describes it '-children cry, they scream, they get bruised, their parents wail when they see them in danger', that makes this show sound so much more mature than it actually is, it's manipulative. There have never been any cuts or bruises ever shown on any of the human models, there are also no scenes in which I recall being extremely distressing.

I really think that the high stakes, barely seen before violence, shift in tone caused OP to go on that tirade. The clash of the finale compared to the season before gave them and many people a whiplash of what they used to perceive the show to be. People were not used to this kind of high stakes and violence in the show before the finale. I'll critique it for that - inconsistency.

One more nit-pick, this line: "1. Steven Universe really ruined a generation of children’s media by making showrunners think they had to tackle issues like PTSD and trauma."

It's completely false. I don't think OP has the knowledge of the trends in cartoons today and from before. So little network cartoons are like Steven Universe, flip on Cartoon Network, look what's playing on the telly: 'The Amazing World of Gumball', 'Total DramaRama', 'We Baby Bears'. Even on Nickelodeon: 'The Loud House', 'Spongebob', 'Monster High'. (Nickelodeon don't air cartoons often except Spongebob or The Loud House, really💀). Remember Powerpuff Girls actually having blood in its intro? Remember how the reboot sanitised everything? How they removed even the breasts on some of the female characters designs (God forbid cartoony exaggeration of female anatomy/s).

It is entirely unfair to blame Steven Universe for a supposed trend of cartoons tackling mature and dark subjects. People must remember the trend of the action cartoon back in 2000s to early 2010s: 'Teen Titans', 'Max Steel', 'Scooby Doo Mystery Inc.(not necessarily action but it was mature at times)', 'Slugterra', even 'Transformers: Prime'. Those cartoons could sometimes get "dark". But people love to use Steven Universe as the 'blame for all' because its comedic, dark tone, and tackled mature themes. Neither Earthspark nor Steven Universe, as I recall, go in depth about trauma and mental health issues. Earthspark is pretty surface level in that regard, there is no backbone. I hope for proper exploration of themes in season 2.

I think I'll end it here for now.

[No hate, if OP reads this, once more, no disrespect. I just disagree with your take.]

[f-yeah-weskerxchris]

New f-yeah-weskerxchris blog!

I've noticed that the current f-yeah-weskerxchris blog has been inactive for four years, so I've decided to make a new one myself. This is mainly to not let old artwork and other fan content get lost to time and reblog some sort-of hard to find stuff. Queued reblogs will start tomorrow!

List of things I will do on this blog under the cut!⬇️

Reblogs

I will queue 6 reblogs a day every two hours between 8AM to 8PM EEST or UTC +2/3 (Depends if we're on summer or winter time) These will be somewhat oldish posts usually.

Of course I'll then reblog things I come across or remember that day.

I will tag posts with fanart, fanfic or other fan content and the original posters username (as well as content warnings of course!) Also, if there is a ship that is not chrisker in the same post I'll tag it aswell (But I will not tag chrisker as that is the entire point of the blog) And I'll tag any character that isn't Chris or Wesker.

Lastly, everyone has their preferences, so I'll try my best to reblog (and discover) content I usually wouldn't :D

Asks

You can ask me anything regarding chrisker! Be it a scene you can't find/remember what game it was in, fic suggestions (Though please do somewhat specify the kind of fics you're looking for) or artwork you can't seem to find!

(Also you can ask about the blog, of course)

Artist shout-out of the Week

Every sunday I will post a link to an artist that is on other platforms than Tumblr! (Mostly DeviantArt and Pixiv) While Pixiv reguires an account to view nsfw art, it doesn't push it in your face like way too many websites nowadays! (Can't remember about DeviantArt in that matter though)

I have around 50 of these artists on other platforms, so this will last about a year! After that I'm planning to do a writer shout-out of the week, but we'll see about that later :)

Translations

A lot of the Artist shout-outs will be on Pixiv, which is an Asian website. Of course google lens does an okay job of translating fanart, but it can be hard to understand sometimes. So, I'm willing to accept translations request through asks :D I have some very basic knowledge of Japanese and access to use more reliable translators so I'm happily willing to do the work for you :)

What to do when requesting translations:

Don't put pictures of the fanart you want translated in the ask. I do not want to reupload fanart to Tumblr and will not answer these asks.

Instead: put a link to the fanart. I will type out the translation. While this requires to switch between tabs or two monitors, I will not be reuploading old artwork (Even with credit and links

Lastly

Just have fun. This is entirely to help people discover fanart easier :)

[dashawns-world]

Escaflowne Opening Sequence

Alrighty y'all, I talked about the story, but now I wanna take a look at the opening scene. I'm curious about why I like it so much. It's easy to say, "Because the animation is sick!" 

But I wanna go a little deeper. I’ll be covering the opening sequence. Once again, the link for the movie is here. Shoutout to Neat Flicks on Dailymotion for uploading the movie. I’ll also post the vid link from the Sakugabooru site, which houses a much better quality sequence.

https://www.sakugabooru.com/post/show/170797 - I recommend checking out this site in general if you’re a fan of animation—credit to PurpleGeth for uploading this scene.

So off the jump, this sequence starts at a fair pace. We start on the stars and slowly pan down to a view of some clouds/mountains. BGs can only take you so far, and that pan is like a whopping 25 seconds, so I like that the next shot gives us some movement/animation. The goats were a nice touch because what the heck else would be this high? Birds? Amateur shit! (that I would’ve done) I do like the framing of this scene, though. 

I highlighted the foreground so that you could see the goats better. You're welcome. Something about the mountain taking up half of the frame, with the goats in the far background, sits well with me. The goat that runs in the foreground helps bridge the next cut, where the same (or possibly new) goat continues moving into the scene. Oh, what does bridge mean? Why is it highlighted? I’m glad I asked. That’s my cute little way of saying the goat’s movement helps the audience connect the dots between this scene and the next. ;) Little decisions like that help me understand we’re still on the mountain. This is a relatively benign example, but pay attention to fight scenes in action movies, and you can see how essential bridges can be. 

Let’s continue! As the camera pans up this mountain, I’m shown a giant dragon skeleton embedded inside of it. This is important for simply one reason. It’s visual storytelling! I know now that dragons (or whatever fantasy creature this could be) exist in this world/movie. It’s tempting to explain a lot when you have a fantasy story, and while the film will eventually tell you about the dragons, it’s not a “wait, there are dragons moment?” Because I saw one myself!

The fact that it’s a skeleton even adds a bit of mystery. Are they extinct? Is it just this one? I imagine one wants their audience to ask questions, so long as they’re asking the right ones and you have the answers. 

Eventually, a large shadow is cast on our mountain, and the next cut reveals a large ship passing by. Nowadays, 3D is far more accessible, and some may argue this isn’t that grand of a reveal. But I like it! The goat and mountain in the foreground give a sense of scale to the whole scene, and it’s a very economical shot choice. I work in TV animation, and shots like this are functional and attainable regarding skill level and time. 

Up until the fight starts, this entire sequence is exceptionally economical. Japan, in my opinion, are masters at the conservation of animation. They save the crazy stuff for the scenes that matter but generally tend to have pleasing compositions to supplement the rest of the show/film. If you’re wondering why they don’t just go wild like that all the time, the most straightforward answer is time. It takes a lot of it to get things looking right, and generally, it’s usually a few artists who have the skill to get it done on time in the first place. (More on that in a second)

So we’re treated to some more shots of the ship. Kudos to the director for even coming up with this many. I find it challenging to do this many non-character scenes in a row. You really have to know what you want your audience to see. Thankfully, they do. We’re treated to this wild tracking shot of something flying through the clouds. I almost called this a POV shot, thinking we were looking through Van’s eyes, but Van is the little speck with wings flying in. 

So this can’t be his POV. It’s gotta be the camera guy, lol. 

I talked already about Van’s approach in the previous post, and also, by this point, I hope you’ve watched the sequence. So Van gets on the ship and kills a soldier, yadda yadda. I do wanna take a moment to acknowledge this shot, though.

I’m partial to all of this. ^^^^

Back to my little review of this sequence, though, I LOVE the music kicking in. Those drums interrupt the dreaminess of it all. The action has begun! There’s a tiny part I’ll point out later. A small aside, this fight sequence was done by the insanely talented Yutaka Nakamura. When I started to learn about the animators I was inspired by, I found out this guy did a LOT of my favorite scenes in anime. He did stuff on Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, Soul Eater, and my absolute favorite that I will eventually talk about, Sword of the Stranger. He’s still kickin too, doing some incredibly insane stuff for My Hero Academia. The guy’s a legendary animator. You have to be… to pull off the insane scene where Van RUNS INTO THE SHIP’S HULL AND KILLS TWO GUYS. WHY DO THAT UNLESS YOU EAT PENCILS FOR BREAKFAST?? All my artists out there… y’all know. This is insane. If you can’t draw, and everything seems to be the same level of impossibly difficult, lemme tell ya. You gotta be made of sterner stuff than the average artist to pull this scene off well. 

I'm gushing, sorry. And blushing too. I’m not gonna apologize for that, though. Now let me summarize why I like this fight so much and why it’s both a good (and kinda bad) establishing scene for Van. 

So far, his kill count is three dudes. And they’ve been effortless kills, too. Remember that screenshot above where Van is on all fours? (I know, it was so long ago because of my rambling.) Very… animalistic to me. It’s for a reason. Notice how he hasn’t said a word yet. Even after dispatching those two guys, he immediately attacks the next dude. It’s so fast, the other soldiers are telling each other to stay calm when honestly, we’re beyond that now. Like, seriously, Gary? (That’s the guard’s name now.) 

“I’m getting my shit rocked over here, I can’t stay calm!”

Oh crap, I wanted to talk about this! Van then takes out this dude in the sickest way possible. Seriously, it’s my favorite kill. Van’s positioning, alongside how the artists decide to bridge between these three scenes, gives me the feeling that I was cut. I know that’s dramatic, but what I mean is: the cuts are disorienting. I can’t keep up with them. I replayed it multiple times, and I truly believe this is due to them breaking the 180 rule. For the uninformed, the 180 rule is a film principle. It’s a way to keep characters in a consistent place onscreen so that the audience does NOT get disoriented. Action scenes are usually places where the 180 rule can be broken, but it works here REALLY well here, to me. 

That guard is history.

God, I said I’d summarize. So Van gets all his kills off and confronts the general. One of the kills is timed to the music that's bumping. Oof, it's SO good. The general is unimpressed, though. Like, was he even listening? He barely reacts to most of his men dying. Either that, or he’s trying not to shit himself. He simply states that he knows who Van is: the dragon he’s heard so much about. (Remember, we saw a dragon skeleton earlier. Not too shabby, eh?) Then we get this shot of Van:

He looks SO FREAKY! I loooove it. I know I’m thinking an extra layer too deep, but Van’s off-model look really helps me see him through the eyes of the general. Van is a monster in the general’s eyes. And Van’s response to the general after all this is, “I will slay all my enemies.” I love the way this establishes Van as a killer. This is how you establish a powerful and scary character! Despite its coolness, the question must be asked: Does it serve the story? 

Well yeah, of course, but there’s one thing I thought could’ve made it better. Deleting this scene here:

Hmm.

What’s wrong with this? Well, I think it gives away too much about Van. And not even the correct information, either. His smiling made me think he enjoys doing this. Viewers of the movie, or readers of my long-ass post, know that he does not, in fact, enjoy this. This smug face of his is why I thought of Van as an antagonist at first. It’s badass, tho. I’m ngl. And I mean, come on, would all of the movie’s problems be fixed if they deleted this very short scene? Absolutely, and I’m offended that you’d even ask. Jokes aside, I love this sequence. I wish it added up to a better whole, but it’s not bad on its own. And even after all these years, I still watch it in awe. Anyway, thanks for reading this! Despite my gripes, I still enjoyed my time with this film. I think my next deep dive will be for a game. Keep an eye out for it! 

-Dashawn

[going-to-ikea-for-the-fries]

i love my coffee strong enough to kill a horse. it gets my heart going almost as much as the cutie who can make it 😘 (lmao jk...unless?? i'm not trying to be creepy i swear i'm just platonically in love). I used to get a cup of espresso and separately a cup of foamy milk with a shitload of syrups, so basically build your own latte

Also! That coffee shop AU - Valid. No notes. Let me present to you, as a reformed line cook, Kitchen AU:

Simon is the line cook. There is no question about it. No nonsence, gets shit done, can do basically everything that kitchen needs, good under pressure. Will murder you if you're being a daft cunt. What constitutes as 'being a daft cunt'? Changes drastically depending on amount of tickets. Fucking with his staff is a sure fire way tho. Just try to harass the waitress, pal, he will come out of the kitchen with a knife. The common one, not his personal, of course, that shit's expensive and almost a family member at this point. Surpisingly haven't been in jail. Yet. Doesn't drink energy drinks, weirdo.

Johnny? Dishie. Not nessessarily because he lacks qualifications, but (almost) every good cook starts as a dishie or prep. Batshit fucking insane, works shirtless with waterproof apron. Beloved by everyone, if kitchen fucked up and made an extra of something, it will most likely go to either the waitress that the cook got hots for, or him. On probation, will brag about it. Eats and smokes in one go, doesn't care that his food tastes like ash. Chugs that redbull like he's paid for it, is partially correct. Has been seen to just devour a loaf of bread, when questioned, called it his lunch.

Pretty boy Kyle? Hot kitchen, suprisingly. Man's damn good at his job and still got the stamina and passion for it. Hands are covered in burn and cut scar, some still fresh. Doesn't talk much, except with the waitresses, flirts shamelessly. The only person who can teach a newbie on which end one holds a knife, because chill vibes personified and probably won't scream at them lmao. If he had troubles with the law, it's probably MJ. Makes fucking unholy concoction with coffee from the bar and energy drink. Experiments with food at home constantly, loves eating bougie shit, but doesn't have a lot of time for it.

John Price? Not chef (idk how it's called in English, the main guy on the kitchen who does menues and shit), surprisingly, although almost there. Sous chef, most likely, because he has less paperwork and can be on the grounds and manage stuff more effectively. Takes desserts, at first just to fill in because they couldn't find a dessert cook, got used to it after a while, is predictably damn good. A literal God of machinery, shit seems to be afraid to break under his watch. Had problems with the law, but it's all in the past, nowadays he just 'knows a guy'. Doesn't fuck with energy drinks because he was chugging that shit when he was young and now got lowkey heart problems because of it. At home eats as simple as possible, sandwiches are his go-to, because his fuck rations about food are depleted at this point and he saves the reserves for work. Fucked up his taste buds with smoking habit, orders everyone to taste his dish if nessessary.

-🗞️

I'VE SEEN PEOPLE WRITE RESTAURANT AU HCs IN THE PAST (AND EVEN SOME LOVELY FANART BY @sleepyconfusedpotato look at it!!!!)

HOWEVER

I love your HC. I can just IMAGINE the vibes in that kitchen

And Soap shirtless, always covered in water???? MY GOD

ahhhhhhhhh