#which a lot of zombie media does. some better than others

[spectroscopic-binary]

Just saw a post that was an image of someone drinking something out of a beaker with the beaker labeled “super hitler serum” and the person labeled “white people when natives ask them not to say w******”

And I just think it’s a bad comparison and all around not the best way to convey the point you’re trying to make. (Also I had no idea what the word was, had to parse enough info from the tags and reblogs to find it on Google. For others who are clueless, it “is a mythological creature or evil spirit originating from Algonquian folklore.”)

But I thought that the premise of the post was really interesting and could (should?) open up discussions about which mythological creatures are being used disrespectfully and should be given back to the cultures they originate from, and which are “fair use” so to speak. I only recently learned about the origin of zombies. They are a Haitian myth, which come from the idea of your body continuing to work under someone else’s will after you have died, after your soul has left your body. It’s deeply rooted in slavery and after learning that, it does feel disrespectful, the way zombies are portrayed in media. I don��t have any sort of conclusion to this long post but I feel like it’s food for thought and maybe can open up conversations

[gangles-toybox]

Idk if I'll draw it but random Youtuber/Influencer AU for TADC go brr. Putting a break because SHIT MAN this is longggg lol

Pomni- General internet goer and one of those Youtubers that made "day in the life" type vlogs showcasing how much fucking pressure she's under, has a pretty loyal and caring audience for her despite herself, ~100,000 subscribers or so and she *tries* to respond to every comment.

Caine- Not so much an Influencer persay but more so of creator of the popular social media apps and tries to be #hipwiththekids...it does not work very well he's posting Pokémon Go and Harlem shake memes in 2024..bless his heart

Bubble- Caine's social media manager! He's a little better with being hip with the kids, up to date with memes n stuff but he also gets attention in...less than convential ways. Think of what was happening with the Norm of the North Twitter account, just weird..weird shit.

Sun & Moon- They act as a duo of sorts on Tik Tok and they make skits and #unhinged humor that is probably liked by majority of everybody. Nobody can tell if they're dating or just friends, since Sun will say the most unhinged shit and Moon will just sigh dreamily at it while reciting a poem or shit. Moon has to stop Sun from responding to hate comments and going off on them and finding their address n shit.

Gloink Queen & Gloinks: The Gloink Queen is one of those Facebook moms who takes pictures of their children(her Gloinks) every time they do anything, even when they're crying, because she thinks it's "cute". She gets fairly popular at first and even gets to sell merchandise however as her audience grows, so does her criticism but Facebook doesn't do anything about it and she continues to exploit her children for views and attention.

Princess Loolilalu- Tiktok influencer that shows the daily life of a royal. She's fairly unpopular but she was the hot topic for a week because people thought she was flexing and she had to explain she wasn't trying to, she was just trying to show the daily life since some people in her kingdom had inquired about it. She gets very low engagement but she admires every comment she gets. She starts to shift towards more crafty stuff after honestly getting a bit bored filming every second of her life and that grows her audience a little bit.

Gummigoo - Tiktok Influencer that make illegal life hack videos and him just working on a farm(I assume he does cuz he gives off cowboy vibes) and he's unintentionally thirst trapping through those videos, which gives him a pretty large, dedicated and possibly a little too obsessed, audience.

Zooble- Youtuber that talks about the most depraved shit that people do in humanity, think like iceberg videos about shitty people online or the dark corners of Reddit and 4chan. Also probably has a second channel where they play *nothing* but Plants vs. Zombies 2 because idk it's funny and they need to do something else to not get entirely depressed

Kinger- He is a Youtuber, techinally, though he doesn't know how to operate a camera very well. Most of his videos are just snippets from his life, cooking some food, badly singing his favorite songs, and sharing a little too much of his life online. Still, he's regarded as Youtube's grandpa.

Kaufmo- A YouTube "prankster" that would do the worst fucking things imaginable(not illegal but..close to it) and one day he did..something..and he got killed for it as a result, it was all caught on camera. He was criticized a lot for doing what shit he was doing and when he died, it was covered but nobody was suprised.

Ragatha- If Kinger is the grandpa of YouTube, then Ragatha is the grandma because she posts a lot of crochet and stitching how tos while also sprinkling in her personality and some of her other interests, like making a crochet Undertale plushie or something.

Gangle- She's a very famous twitch streamer who is...I don't even know really how to describe it but she's very like "uwu" abt everything as her streamer personality yknow? And..I mean..it works, she gets enough donations in a 1 hour stream to pay her rent for 2 months so..as for her content, it depends, sometimes it's horror games and other times it's just chilling with chat.

Jax- Jax is...also...a streamer. He does snuff streams where he gets donations to torture people and stuff. It's illegal but he makes as much money, if not more, than Gangle.

[dreadnotau]

Its been a decent couple of months of productive work, so it's sadly time for a schedule change. I'll be posting pages two weeks apart again. Details provided below if you're curious as to why.

In all honesty there's no big dramatic reason this time around. I've just slowly lost drive to work on Dread Not as often and as thoroughly as I used to be able to. As I said in one of my previous posts (that sounded suspiciously like this one), I want to focus on other projects as well. One of those is my personal art blog, which I've neglected even though I've had art on the backburner that I've been meaning to post for AGES. Kingdomrune is another one of those, where I have shit I could post that I just... never did. Dread Not takes a lot of time and I miss being able to dedicate that time to consuming media instead of just grinding and trying to produce my own. One of the most important things to do as an artist is to broaden your horizons and take in as much art as you can, to diversify and expand what you know and what you can make. But, when all day every day I'm just sitting and drawing my own thing, it's like I have tunnel vision and my creative resources run dry. It's starting to feel weirdly soulless on my end, because I don't feel nearly half the inspiration to make the pages as I did when the big hiatus ended. It's all dependent on time and exposure, and I can only crunch for so long before it starts to feel damaging to me instead of fun and creatively fulfilling.

So what does this mean, practically speaking? Well, for one, I'm spacing out the page upload for the rest of Act 1, as previously mentioned. I'm well aware this will kill the pacing and it'll drag out longer than it theoretically needs to, but I'd even rather that than trying to rush out a page in the Two Days I have free this week (yeah, ONLY two days free out of the ENTIRE week. Don't ask me why it's not even my fuckin' fault this time). If pages become even more scarce than 1 page per 2 weeks, blame it on college. I'm getting new subjects and I don't even know the class schedule yet. Concerning Act 2 though, I'll be changing the structure of the pages from their core. I'll be switching to a different drawing software (probably Krita, suck my dick Photoshop) so it'll take some getting used to. I can't even promise bonus content or anything during the necessary break between acts because of that shift in software happening, I've never done a massive technical move like this. However, it'll allow me to, not only work on Dread Not better, but expand my art overall, so it's definitely worth it. I've wanted to get into animation for YEARS and Krita seems like an okay place to start (the gif on this post WAS made with Photoshop, but shitty gifs are about all I can make as animations in Photoshop). Act 2's style will, predictably, differ heavily from Act 1 and (with how long writing the dialogue alone for it is taking), it might end up being Longer than Act 1, too. Visually, it'll probably be something like cleaned up and coloured sketches, with simpler colour palettes and simpler (big airquotes) visuals overall, and it'll speed up the process and possibly allow me to post more than one page at a time. Possibly. That's not a promise.

I'm sorry if that's disappointing to anyone, but I physically can't make myself continue the current artstyle across all acts. It's just not feasible.

For those curious about the FARTHER future of Dread Not, I have plans to turn Act 3 into a series of fics rather than full comic pages, and something maybe a bit more insane for Act 4. I don't have everything figured out yet, and I don't want to make any false promises or give any grand ideas I won't be able to commit to, since only time will tell how my creativity will flow years from now. If you all want more content from me specifically, again I'm planning on reviving my art tumblr like a half buried zombie, and you'll probably see more there than you bargained for once I actually get into the habit of posting things. If you're mayhaps interested in my original stuff, keep your eyes peeled for a guy called Duro, I might start posting about him some time soon.

As always, thank you for your patience, and apologies again if this news was disappointing to anyone. I'm just one guy and this comic is a titan of biblical proportions. I'll keep you all posted on any further developments and plans for the future! Stay tuned!

[randomfoxehs-belly]

playing DQ3 and just vorny rewriting it with my preytagonist thoughts lol which honestly isn't really all that vorny because the party is preys lol x3 there's more of a vorny undercurrent which is honestly fun to think about because I like vore to just be a regular mundane element of the setting -3- so it just being as regular as zombies in the walking dead rather than the front and center piece focus driving the character motivations makes it feel even more along those lines Mostly like local bosses teasing about it, or snoozing in the doggeh token pred party members belly when staying at inns lol Lots of discussion about the noms it's sorta platonic in that sense it's like how sex is treated in like the majority of entertainment media x3 it's there and everyone does it but it's not the driving force of literally everything going on

Once the party was all together I imagined the other three being like okay let's go accept some quests, and once they start reading the quests the bunny protag boy is like " >.>' hey you know, uhh there's sooooooo many adventurers in this big ol' city that we're just a drop in the bucket, how about we go exploring abroad to find other places to help out at?" and the squirrelly and doggy are like, that tracks but the mousie is like >=T sus and really he just Knows all the local preds because of his dad, and it'd be awkward to be sent out questing to go beat up all these predators he knows on a first name basis x3

Pred party member offers to let the other three sleep in her belly and mousie and squirrelly are like "HELL to the naw >=o " but bunny protag is like yeah sure sounds good and they're like Dx and he's all "i trust her =3 besides, you'll never get a better sleep than in a belly" and they're like you've been eaten before? >..>' and he's like yeah pretty much every single day more or less since as long as I can remember ^-^ =o o=

[hidingoutbackstage]

Biohazard: the Stage Character Highlights

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I LOVE Biohazard: the Stage, I consider it to be one of the best pieces of Resident Evil media of all time, the story is solid, the medium of a stage play is incredibly well utilized, the action is great, the acting is great, the story is phenomenal and fits right into the Resident Evil universe, I could go on. If you’re wondering why there’s a Resident Evil play, while I don’t live in Japan, I do know that Japanese plays based on Japanese video games is not an uncommon thing. Persona, Danganronpa, and Ace Attorney (also a Capcom game!) are three examples off the top of my head of this phenomenon, not to mention there are other Resident Evil based plays such as Biohazard the Experience, and Biohazard: Voice of Gaia (both non canon and simply based on the Resident Evil universe)

If you want to watch it (and I highly recommend you do, the show is FANTASTIC and there’s also some twists in the storytelling that I think are best left unspoiled on a first watch) the link to it on Youtube is here. The show is in Japanese (duh) but the yt video has English captions. If you don’t care about spoilers, or you’ve seen it before, here’s some highlights I rlly like about the show

SPOILERS AHEAD. THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING I HIGHLY SUGGEST YOU WATCH THE SHOW FIRST IF YOU HAVEN’T

Becky’s writing is literally the best it’s ever been in this series. In RE1 she isn’t a playable character so she doesn’t have much to do, in RE0 she’s subject to the curse of “being in a Wii game from 2002” so while her writing is fine and she gets good moments, it’s never any better than great in my opinion, Vendetta lets her be a badass for a few scenes before forcing her into being a damsel in distress, and in Death Island she is fully a prop character and nothing more

Stage Becky, however, is not that. She has multiple relationships with different characters in the show, she and Chris clearly have a very close bond, she makes friends with the other professors at the university she works at, she cares about and trusts Tyler despite how little they interacted, she tries to reason with Dr. Howard about his son being alive, and she clearly cares deeply about all of her students, especially Mary, seeing as Mary has her phone number and we see her care about Mary multiple times.

Outside of her relationships, Becky gets to truly be a badass. The two flashback scenes involve a recap of the mansion incident, with both her and Chris being tough and serious (while still giving Becky a moment of emotion, good for her) and the scene with Tyler is her literally saving him from a zombie and fixing him up with her medical knowledge. In the present she is more hesitant to fight the zombies, but it makes sense seeing as they’re her former students and coworkers and friends, and she’s been out of the fighting business for a while by now. It’s a natural place for her character to go

That doesn’t make her useless in the story, though. She teaches the lesson that is at the heart of Matthew’s and Mary’s philosophies, she is the first to befriend Posh, she has the intel for Tyler about his father, she tries to reason with Dr. Howard and convince him that Tyler is still alive, even when Barrington kidnaps her she is able to break free and reunite with the other heroes, no need for them to rescue her like in Vendetta, and she gives Chris the rocket launcher at the end for him to end the final fight. This story does not happen without Rebecca, which is honestly more than you can say for RE1, Vendetta, and sort of Death Island. She’s integral to the story and written so well. We love that

The other returning characters are written really well too. Chris is written to care a lot about the people who matter to him, especially his team, who he sees as family. He uses his words before he uses guns, such as talking Tyler into lowering his gun, and reasoning with Mary about her philosophy enough to disarm her, and even allows her to go in for a hug (even though that’s a ruse) Seriously throughout the show Chris is constantly talking about how he doesn’t want anyone to get hurt, and he wants to protect people. It’s nice to see

Piers is also the best written here out of his three appearances, although he’s not suuuuper important compared to some of the other characters, but he’s the third legacy character so I’m bringing him up. He’s a good example of someone who is new to this fight but wants to do the right thing, he is very distinctly different than the veteran Chris who’s been doing this for over a decade at this point, he has some good banter with characters like Sophie and Barrington, he’s hot-headed which is consistent and can lead to some funny moments, and he’s very good supporting cast. He also immediately shows admiration and respect for Becky upon meeting her which like me too bro

So besides them, the cast is entirely new! So who are they?

Well Tyler Howard is the first standout, and honestly he feels like a much more fleshed out and well-written Jake Muller to me. And this is coming from someone who LOVES Jake. I love him and I wish more had been done with him. Thankfully, that’s pretty much what Tyler is. He’s the son of an Umbrella researcher who did some awful things while working for Umbrella and who abandoned his son, leaving Tyler with a ton of daddy issues and leaving him an angsty bad boy who wears a leather jacket and became a cop to try and track his father down, ultimately becoming a government agent after getting involved with some B.O.W.s (unclear if it’s the D.S.O. or not though)

Tyler is a fascinating character, because all he really wants is his family back, but his father is too far gone into denial to accept him, and the only other person who would be like family to him is also too different and too far gone for them to be anything like family. But in order for me to get into that, I should get into:

Mary Gray. The best character in this show, even though you don’t realize at first what an amazing character she’s going to be. Gd, where do I even begin with Mary? She’s probably the most complex character in the whole show which is saying something, because a lot of these characters have a lot of depth. Okay first things first, (I said spoiler warning so you can’t be mad at me for spoiling this) Mary is a twist villain who you do not expect AT ALL to be a twist villain your first watch through, but then on your second watch through it’s so obvious that you wonder how you didn’t pick it up sooner. At least if you were me lol

Anyway, holy fuck Mary’s character. So as it’s revealed at the end, she has an incurable blood disease that her parents, Umbrella employees, tried to heal by injecting her with the t-virus. Yes, that t-virus, and somehow it worked. She bonded to it, and it kept her alive with routine injections. It was a damn miracle! But when her parents died due to Umbrella’s collapse, and she didn’t have anyone, she turned to her doctor who had been administering her the injections to take care of her and look after her, and she saw him as a father. The more she was injected with the t-virus, though, the more mad it made her. Because of this and her unnaturally high IQ, she felt isolated from everyone around her. She wasn’t really friends with her peers, her father didn’t understand her, the director of her school cared for her and admired her knowledge, but he didn’t understand her, the director’s son admired her but they never got the chance to be close, and during the show, when she meets Tyler and is finally convinced she has someone who understands her and can genuinely connect with her, that turns out to not be true, and she kind of loses it. Her last glimmer of hope gone before her very eyes, as Tyler proves he’s not like his father and he’s not like Mary, and she can’t handle that. I think that’s why she goes full villain at the end (aside from, you know, the fact that everything had worked out perfectly for her so there was really no use for her to keep pretending anymore, plus the cat was out of the bag with Dr. Howard’s death anyway) because she just can’t keep it in anymore. Her emotions are in full swing during her monologue, from crazed laughter to confident declarations to breaking down into tears. We love to see it

Her tragedy hurts to much to me I think because she could so easily have been saved, but at the same time she was kind of doomed from the start. The beginning shows how isolated she is from her peers, and she already has the notion in her head that she is greater than human and deserves to rule, but only alongside others like her. She’s doing this solely because she’s lonely. A part of her might think she has some entitlement to it, being rich and intelligent and greater than human and all, but the bottom line is that this is one last desperate attempt at a connection with someone, anyone.

And despite feeling alone, so many people love her! Dr. Howard was willing to do literally anything Mary said due to his devotion to her, Rebecca admired Mary’s intelligence and when push came to shove, she couldn’t bring herself to harm Mary even though she “had” to. Director Ezra apologized to Mary after she was gone, took her side over his son’s, and wanted to see her succeed. Lucas and Olivia obviously didn’t hate Mary, they even seemed willing to be her friends. Chris was able to connect with Mary when she threatened to end them all and was even able to disarm her and had her in tears. Sophie recognized Mary’s intelligence. Bethany tried to better herself to match the intelligence of the students at the school.

And Tyler, oh boy Tyler. Mary and Tyler had such a complex relationship despite the fact that they only knew each other for a day before Mary was killed. They met on the roof of the school, bonding over feeling like they were too different from society to fit in and belong, and Mary’s smile is big and genuine when she says “Same as me” as she FINALLY has someone to connect to. But then Tyler shows himself to not be on her side, and Mary feels hurt and betrayed, insisting that she’s not wrong and people need to see that. Then when she reveals herself to be a villain, Tyler never tries to hurt her. She disarms him, threatens him with a gun, tries to use him as a human shield, taunts him, but she also calls him her brother, and Tyler sees how she breaks down when Chris reasons with her. When she’s on the roof again, the place they first met each other, Mary is on the high ground and Tyler is below her, shouting up at her and reasoning with her on an even deeper and more personal level than Chris. He tells her she isn’t alone, and she cries, because she knows it isn’t true. Still, she asks “Can I start over?” and Tyler responds “Yeah. You can definitely start over. Mary, you aren’t alone.” and Mary thanks him for his kind words to her before she transforms, because it was always going to be too late for her, and Tyler still cries out witnessing the transformation.

And when her monstrous form dies, you can still see Mary at the center of the explosion. She’s still in there, but she’s not moving. She’s done.

WHEW that was a lot and that wasn’t even ALL I have to say about Mary lol maybe I should make a separate post (or five) JUST for her anyways where were we? What other characters should I talk about? This post is getting long maybe I’ll make a part two, starting with Sophie

[ruvviks]

🐉🍎 💘 🍔 🤔 and 😞 for any oc of your choice!! or two ocs if you're feeling up for it [:

oc asks! / preferred ocs!

🐉 DRAGON — what is your oc's favorite mythical creature?

rafiq is a big fan of mythical creatures in general and loves watching shows and videos about it, or listening to podcasts during slow days at work. he's an avid reader of the revenant (a blogging site for paranormal investigators) and used to keep up with posts of the conspiracy group known as the hive, before they seemingly vanished at some point in time and stopped updating regularly. he loves the idea of bigfoot specifically but isn't in the right state of the country to investigate himself :( if he had the chance for it he 100% would though

since teddy works for CALAMITY which is an organization specified in monitoring and sometimes capturing strange phenomena all over the world, this is exactly the kind of thing that he works with. which is also exactly the reason why he HATES them LMFAO if anything they're all just troublemakers to him and he would like to get some rest. back when he still worked an office job for the organization he got very attached to some dustcatchers which are basically just little puff balls that cause chaos in the most dusty place of your home. that's about as close to a favorite mythical creature as it gets for him

yancey LOVES zombies. probably a little bit too much but i can't blame him because honestly same. he's watched every zombie media he's managed to get his hands on and will continue to do so for as long as he lives. it's funny because in this universe zombies do in fact end up as a thing somewhere but that's still a couple of years away so yancey doesn't know that yet. don't even worry about it

🍎 RED APPLE — where was your oc born? do they still live in/around their place of birth or do they live somewhere else? how do they feel about their birthplace?

rafiq was born in san francisco! very far away from where he lives nowadays and he does miss it a lot more than he likes to admit, but also wouldn't wanna go back there even though he is still very much welcome with his parents who still live there. the place has too many bad memories and rafiq wouldn't be able to live there comfortably at all anymore

teddy was born and raised in raleigh, which is not all too far away from blightwood crossing. he moved to the west coast at some point when he went to join CALAMITY and ever since he's been on the move, visiting towns all across the united states and sometimes even to another country to do jobs for the organization. he's been in blightwood crossing for a while now; the job he's doing there hasn't been going well at all and he's lost contact with CALAMITY, so he's just stuck in town without direction

yancey is from atlanta and only recently moved to blightwood crossing, after a series of events caused him to no longer be welcome at home. despite his mixed feelings about the town now, he does still really love the place and its energy and often wishes he hadn't been forced to leave; but there's not much he can do about that now and he knows he's better off far, far away from there

💘 HEART WITH ARROW — what and/or who do(es) your oc consider the most important to them?

rafiq loves his parents to bits and misses them a lot. he also has a small group of friends in blightwood crossing, mainly his coworkers from the diner he works at, and he cares a lot about them too :^) eventually during the story he gets together with teddy and yancey and he loves them soooo much. btw. if you even care

teddy is very lonely in town. he doesn't have contact with his family anymore since he's not allowed because of CALAMITY and their rules, and he didn't really have many friends at the organization either; so he's stuck in a strange town where nobody likes him all that much and no one's out there missing him either :( during the story he grows closer with the other main characters and he ends up ride or die for them, being a very loyal guy in general

yancey is hesitant to make new friends in town despite it coming naturally for him, and he does end up caring a lot about the other main characters. he's very scared to have all of them ripped away from him in one sweep without warning, just like what happened before with his ex friends and family back in atlanta, but also knows there's no way to predict or prevent that from happening if it were to happen one day so he tries to ignore it as best as he can and not let it get in the way of enjoying the time he has with them

🍔 HAMBURGER — is your oc good at cooking? are they good at baking? which one do they prefer?

rafiq is decent enough at cooking. his father sends him a lot of recipes to try out and he can follow them well enough on most days, but often has to simplify them a little. baking is also not his expertise but he still loves doing it! usually does it with friends so it's a group effort (and a group failure if it doesn't go well) and it's more to have an excuse to hang out with them

teddy is a very good cook but just doesn't do it :/ he's living on instant noodles, microwaved rice, pizza, any meal he can get from the diner and then leftovers of that for the next day, tater tots, questionable quality dry bread with cheese, and sometimes he will pensively have a vegetable. he doesn't like baking all that much but also does enjoy hanging out with rafiq so he will bake with him. just this once (<- said every single time)

yancey is a GREAT cook which is why he ends up as a cook at the diner :^) he loves experimenting with cooking and coming up with his own recipes and while it doesn't always work out for him, he uses the knowledge from that to make something that DOES work out next time. also pretty good at baking but does that significantly less because he's stuck in the belief that baking is mostly sweet stuff and he prefers savory things. clearly this man has never had a pizza muffin before

🤔 THINKING FACE — what are some of your oc's quirks/mannerisms?

rafiq is very expressive and a very active listener, which can take some getting used to when you're getting to know him. he likes actively adding his thoughts into a conversation and is good at relating to other people, which always makes for a very lively conversation :^)

teddy is basically a brick wall. you can't tell what's going on in his head you can't tell how he's feeling and sometimes you may even wonder if he just fell asleep standing up with his eyes open (it's not the case but with how far away his brain has zoomed out it may as well be). he's very easily distracted and gets lost in his own brain a lot which causes him to speak slowly and sometimes he just doesn't finish his sentences. he also cracks his knuckles a lot

yancey can be very witty at times but his brain lags behind when there's too many people talking so he doesn't control WHEN he gets to be witty. he does finger guns at people a lot or a little thumbs up because he never knows what to do with his hands so adding in a little gesture like that gives him something to focus on. it's very endearing :^)

😞 DISAPPOINTED FACE — does your oc attract others, or do they tend to be left alone?

rafiq is a people person and loves to chat with people, which is why customers at the diner tend to stay a lot longer when he's on the workfloor because he'll just end up talking with them for hours. despite being surrounded by people a lot, he can still get very lonely easily because actually connecting to people in a deeper way takes a lot more effort for him

teddy is probably the loneliest man in blightwood crossing at the start of the story. he mostly just stays at home and goes to a nearby bar and the diner and that's IT. sometimes the grocery store. he mostly just talks to the diner's waiters rafiq and yukiko and then the bartender and cashier and he's a regular in those places so they would recognize his face but they wouldn't even know his name. he's always been a bit lonely and just focusing on the task at hand by himself so it doesn't really bother him, but also just isn't aware of just HOW lonely he is so once he starts talking to people more he's like "ohh so my life was just really fucked up before. ok"

yancey makes new friends very easily because of his fun and kind nature and he's good at making other people feel at ease with him :^) he values his alone time a lot but also knows when it's time for him to get out of the house and hang out with people again, which is why his new job at the diner is very good for him. it gives him something fun to do that he also gets paid for AND he gets to hang out with his new friends because they all work there :D easy right? what could possibly go wrong

[twistedtummies2]

The Price May Be Right - Number 29

Welcome to “The Price May Be Right!” I’m counting down My Top 31 Favorite Vincent Price Performances & Appearances! The countdown will cover movies, TV productions, and many more forms of media. Today we focus on Number 29: The Phantom, from Phantom Manor.

“Phantom Manor,” for those who don’t know, is the Disneyland Paris rendition of Disney’s Haunted Mansion attraction. The attraction is BASICALLY the same, at least on a superficial level, with a lot of the same favorite scares and a similar story setup, but with its own unique twists. First of all, the premise of the ride is set in the age of the Wild West: the house – called Ravenswood Manor – is the home of a former gold baron, whose spirit, simply known as “The Phantom,” acts as our not-so-benevolent guide, in the same vein as the Ghost Host from other attractions.

Second of all, and perhaps most notably and well-known…the tone is a bit different. The Haunted Mansion in the English-speaking parks (as well as at Tokyo Disneyland) has a blend of both real creepiness and more humorous hauntings. “Phantom Manor,” however, goes for a more overtly horror-themed experience. Humor is still present, but it’s even darker than at the other parks, and the visuals and scenarios presented are particularly nasty and grotesque in comparison. The specters at the Haunted Mansion are typically rather cartoonish in nature, but in Phantom Manor, you encounter hellhounds, decaying zombies, headless men, and other nightmarish creations. So…what does Vincent Price have to do with all this? Well, at the time the ride was being made, Price was at the Disney studios, working on some other projects for the company. Someone on the creative staff had the brilliant idea, “Hey! Why not make Vincent Price the Phantom?” It was a logical idea to have. Who better to play a newer, more evil version of the classic Ghost Host than freaking Ratigan, after all? Price was happy to participate, and so it was done. However, things got a bit complicated when the Imagineers realized that Price’s French was not as fluent as many would believe: he could certainly speak it, but acting through it without stumbling was a lot trickier. This is where the problems arose, and led to the now-infamous saga of Price’s narration for Phantom Manor. Initially, Prices’ vocals guided guests through the experience, but it was quickly realized that the largely French-speaking guests of the park hadn’t a clue what was actually being said. So, after a limited run, Price’s voice as the Phantom was largely eliminated: aside from the Phantom’s own devilish cackle, which can be heard anytime the ghost is encountered physically in the ride (usually in the form of a dapper skeletal figure, as seen in the picture demonstration), Price’s voice was muted, and a new French-speaking narrator was chosen. However, after many years, the decision was made to reach a compromise: nowadays, Phantom Manor has an all new narrative soundtrack, which features TWO different ghosts. One is Vincent Price’s Phantom, and the other is voiced by French actor Bernard Alane. Price’s vocals – and his signature laugh – definitely add an extra layer of novelty to Phantom Manor, and are one of the most well-known parts of its legacy, along with its much darker tone. Ultimately, the only reason I don’t rank this ride any higher is because, as much as I love Vincent Price…well, it’s a bit hard to top the original Ghost Host from Disneyland, in my opinion, and that is, effectively, the role he plays. But hey, if you’re going to get anybody to tackle that part, Price would certainly be the man to do it! Thanks to his voice being forever on loop in this ride, it is perhaps ironic that Price will forever be immortalized…by playing a dead man.

Tomorrow, the countdown continues with my pick for Number 28!

[aly-san]

Finally, years after seeing the first ep and being very impressed and then forgetting all about it, I've finished the School-Live anime and manga.

My overall opinion is that, the anime improved a ton of the first arc! The various psychological reveals are done much better imo, with significantly more lead-up and foreshadowing that makes the reveals more impactful. Ep1 is much better than Ch1--we get more time to experience the world Yuki lives in, and the bits of foreshadowing are subtle hints that something is wrong, but you can't quite tell what. Ch1 is fairly short, so you don't really get THAT much time before the reveal drops. I also, personally, prefer Miki being there in the anime, so we get that outside perspective of Yuki's behavior. It also adds more to the reveal itself, because suddenly you understand a lot more about how Miki acted, and how she responded to certain things Yuki said. ("Mii-kun, they're in class right now!" "Oh...right...") It gives you both the shock, and the "ohhh, I see". The manga just delivers the shock, which IS still good ofc; the two-page spread has great atmosphere, but it just doesn't hit as hard as 25 minutes of build-up lmao.

Megu-nee was also done much better in the anime imo. Like ep1 vs ch1, there is much more time to settle into the world and the characters, considering the moment is in ch5 of the manga and ep6 of the anime. While that sounds like a similar amount of build-up, I read those 5 chapters probably within one hour, while 6 episodes is inherently approximately 3 hours. Also, it felt like Megu-nee was given a smaller role in the manga, although that does prevent the audience from necessarily picking up on the reveal before it occurs. I definitely knew something was up with her when I watched the show initially (never made it to ep6 back then) and had guessed the reveal before I got it spoiled for me. BUT that just gave me new perspective while watching it all the way through this time. It's easy to miss if you're not paying attention, but when you know what to look for, it's very very obvious. I think that's super cool.

That, and the way it's revealed, imo, is fantastic in the anime and kind of uncompelling in the manga. The pacing, tone, and music in the anime are incredible, and adding Miki into the scene once again to be give the audience's this new perspective hits much harder than Yuki just remembering on her own.

That said! The anime cuts out a lot of interaction between Yuki and Miki before Miki properly joins the club, and that's a shame. Those moments are very good. Some of them are adapted into the anime slightly differently, but the scene in the manga where Miki confronts Yuki in the middle of the night, and it culminates in us getting some insight into how Yuki's mind is working, is a great character moment and it's a bummer that isn't in the anime.

Yuki as a character in the anime isn't quite as deep as she is in the manga. I think it's overall okay, because Yuki's depth is explored more in the arcs after the School arc which the anime didn't get to, but it is certainly a shame. The whole cast, overall, is a bit softened in the anime. Miki gets into some fights with the others that are definitely toned down in the anime, if not removed entirely.

Ri-san gets her moments of tension near the end, but they're also significantly different (due to the context also being different). This is also a bummer, because I loved her breakdowns in the manga. I love seeing the cool, calm, collected characters in media lose their shit lmao, and Ri-san DELIVERS in the manga.

Considering the ending changing a decent amount of how the end of this arc goes down, it's not entirely surprising that this breakdown isn't included, so I get it, but I'm still sad about it lol. That said, I do have mixed feelings on both ways the end of this arc plays out. The broadcast being used in the anime to get the zombies to leave is very heartfelt and feels like a proper finale to all the mentions of loving school, and zombies following their routine in life, etc. That is used in ch5 in the manga as like...a one-time solution? Which I felt underwhelming in comparison. That said, the intensity of the events in the manga is much higher, and it did do a better job of making it feel like these girls were at their absolute limits. I also prefer the moment of Kurumi waking up in the manga, as it felt a bit awkward in the anime somehow.

Speaking of, Kurumi as a character is still pretty similar across the board. We get a bit more about her being the sporty one and being just as bad at studying as Yuki, but her characters is largely unchanged from what I recall. The anime did a weird thing, where it put a ominous filter over any moment Kurumi was going to kill a zombie. I'm not sure what that was about. I didn't dislike it, but it felt strange. If that were a thing that happened in the later arcs of the manga, I'd get it, but in the anime, it just confused me.

Moving on. Miki! I love the anime swapping around the timeline and having Miki there from the ep1, and then doing a flashback to show her joining the club. It gives us a better sense of how long she's been with the club, as in the manga, it didn't feel like they were together that long. In a similar vein, her time with Kei in the mall felt much longer in the anime than the manga. I also prefer them being alone from day 1 in the anime, finding a spot to hide and staying there for days? Weeks? All alone with no sign of help. In the manga, they have a whole group of survivors they stay with, and while that ends in disaster, I didn't get a feel for how long they were together, and it felt kind of muddled by some of the interactions (the older man getting drunk and hitting on Miki). These characters weren't around long enough for me to get attached, and I didn't quite feel like Miki or Kei got attached either. I could tell Kei probably got a crush on the leader, but it didn't have a ton of emotional weight to it. (This might have been the fan translation, in fairness.) This made Kei's choice to leave feel sudden and out of left field...it didn't feel like she grieved after the disaster, and it didn't seem like she wanted to leave before it...it felt much more natural in the anime, and the pacing felt better.

The change in role for Taromaru in the anime, I also prefer. It gives a bit more room for angst for Miki (which, tbh, she didn't really need, but yknow), and offered some motivation for the girls during pivotal plot moments that I found felt a little rushed in the manga. I also honestly didn't really see a point to the scene about him in the manga? It felt very unimportant, and I can't think of any point where it came back up or was relevant in any way. I guess maybe it was just meant to illustrate the zombie's coming back to places that were important to them in life, but that felt pretty well established by that point...maybe I missed it, idk. I like his role in the anime much better, although the moment at the end of the last episode was a bit of an unnecessary cruelty imo lmfao.

We also can't talk about the anime without discussing the opening theme!! It's by far my favorite part of the adaptation. The way it changes every episode is so so good, keeping the cheery tone while showing the awful reality. Openings that evolve as the show goes on is one of my favorite things, and I think this is my favorite example. Even just the way that the opening shot of the school changes from mid-day to late dusk... so good!!

In both versions, I got frustrated with the ways the girls acted lol, speaking loudly when trying to hide from zombies, not taking proper precautions when scouting, not thinking to try and leave the school in the car earlier, etc etc.

I don't have too much to say about the arcs following the School arc. Kurumi's symptoms were interesting, and the reveals about the virus were as well. There was a decent level of tension during the last stretch, although I think the time-skip last chapter does kill that a bit. The whole arc involving Risa and Ruu was a bit strange, the way Risa just seems to get better after a certain point. Like the situation with Megu-nee, I could guess what was going on, but the way she just kinda...idk...snaps out of it? At a certain point, was very odd to me.

I've talked a lot. One last point!! The art is very good! I had a bit of an issue telling the difference between Miki and Yuki at certain points, when Yuki wouldn't be wearing her hat and we'd have a panel that was close up on one of their faces. Their light hair-color and similar bangs made it hard to tell which was which sometimes. But other than that, the intense expressions and the artist's ability to show grief and especially absolute exhaustion is so good.

I also greatly prefer the zombies in the manga compared to the anime. They aren't always detailed looking in the manga, but I like their look more than the weird miasma they're made of for most of the anime. The anime almost felt...censored? While I was watching it. Which, I guess, is possible. I was watching it on HiDive and it's entirely likely they would have a censored version if that was the case. But the zombies were MUCH scarier in the manga, even compared to the more intense moments of the anime (Megu-nee) where we actually get to see more of how the zombies look.

Anyway I like them both a lot, I think when put together they make a fantastic product and make up for each others flaws. Which is honestly, very fitting for the content and themes of the series! A happy coincidence lol!

[breesays]

Des-cap 2022

Is this blog also a kind of baby book? Yes. This is record-keeping. I have a very full-to-the-brim physical baby book, but I frequently refer back to digital musings for milestones and such. 

SO, tonight he is happy-raging because he can write an upper case "R". A marvel to me that he even knows the difference between upper case and lower case because I didn't teach one or the other first and this fascination with writing letters and numbers came about after picking up a dry erase lettering book at a mom's club toy and clothing swap.

We spent Christmas with The Dodges and I think maybe he finally knows Christmas is a day (a season?) a spirit, and not just a place in Mountain View. My brother in law asked me several times what I wanted to DO while I was there, and while I appreciated it, all my needs were being met. Someone else was deciding what to feed Des. Someone else was reading him the same book 6 times. Someone else was fielding his barrage of questions. That's it. That's all I wanted - a bit of the mom weight off so I could breathe. It was wonderful. We slept hard, ate hotel breakfast, approached festive inflatables with curiosity, jumped in massive puddles, had dance parties, painted, colored, told jokes, shared meals and even squeezed in a few christmas crafts. I long for the day that Sarah allows sequins in crafting, which she considers an insidious cousin of glitter.

He's three and a half, we co-sleep. I'm OK with it, I feel like I sleep better with his little body huffing next to me, as opposed to being attuned to yelps and whimpers from a room away. It often means I don't get any extra time to myself after he goes to bed, except to read on my Kindle, but that's OK too. If I keep the same schedule as he does, I can match his energy, his brightness. He works as a barrier, too, since Tim and I are emotionally but not physically separated. I (maybe weirdly) like it a lot when I wake up in the inky blue light and see both of them stretched out on their backs, arms stretched over their heads, sleep noises puffing out of their mouths. I like what we made.

We are not a minimalist household. Sometimes we can't even see Desmond's bedroom floor because it's covered with balloons. It always looks like it was just someone's birthday. He does get screen time - Little P is his favorite YouTuber and Bluey is pretty much a free for all on weekends and vacations. I like that what he's watching inspires him, though - doesn't just trap him into a zombie consuming state. He wants to replicate what he sees, what he hears, what they play. I've found both Bluey and Daniel Tiger helpful in tough situations, or when I want to illustrate something. "Tactical wee" is a solid from Bingo.

We are approaching some big changes when Tim moves out, but I don't think it has to be traumatic. I like that in stories and cartoons and ~overall~ more than a traditional nuclear family is presented. I didn't know how much it meant to see yourself in media until I realized I couldn't find myself for DECADES. And we aren't warring, like my parents were when they split. Sometimes its hard for me to even understand WHY we are separating, if most of the parts are still moving, but I also realize that I can't assume that my experience is the same as Tim's. I respect that he needs space to figure that out.

We went to my sister's without Tim this year, but it was apparent upon our return that Desmond had missed Dada time. Even when he is playing with me he wants to "make presents" for Dada, to show Dada something. He wants to badly to capture his attention. To earn it? IDK. He can write both "mama" and "dada" and damn if that isn't impressive.

He likes to have a limb or two touching one of us when he sleeps. He asks me what I'm reading as he dozes off. One night I told him the book I was reading and he said, "I thought you were reading It Girl? How did he remember a vague title of something I was reading a month previous? 

I recently read a book about someone who was addicted to motherhood and being pregnant and my mind was almost totally blown. I'm glad I experienced it but I don't want to do it again. I want to pour all my work, my love, my answers into Des. I hope he never asks for a sibling, because with his impeccable manners, he often eventually gets what he asks for.

I like that he quickly adopts our words: Actually, consideration, gamut.

I love to watch him dance. From his mambo moves in his preschool’s Winter Show to his special invented “99 Red Balloons” dance, it’s incredible to witness How a little person without self consciousness chooses to occupy the space, to express their joy. It kind of makes you wonder about that line, “dance like no one is watching” -- when did you realize anyone was watching?

[no1noman]

Alright, new pinned post

So I'm making this as an egotistical introduction to myself and my interests. I like games a ton, I'm taking a college course on marketing and advertising, enjoy art and animation (although I don't do either), and I'm using this blog to vent thoughts I would rather keep off of my other social medias (mainly because Tumblr is pretty dead and doesn't algorithm what you say into stranger's faces as much)

If you want to know some of my favourite games;

Plants vs Zombies. I'm obsessed with this whole franchise and have played basically anything they've released internationally. I mainly play PvZ Heroes, which is a game I DO NOT recommend playing at this moment (or any moment, really? Unless you're willing to do morally grey things [I.e. hacking in resources, which takes a 10 minute YouTube tutorial to complete]) due to an ongoing and likely unending hacking crisis. It's also really hard to get into unless you have someone explaining everything to you, mainly because the base game does nothing to teach new players anything beyond some of the basic game mechanics and arguably does more to feed new players misinformation. There's also a lot of bugs, balancing issues, a severe lack of features (including there being no report button), and lots of other issues. Regardless, I have a lot of fun with this game and it has a iron grip on me

Skullgirls, which isn't a game I suck at and don't actually play often, but have put dozens of hours into regardless. The art style is what initially hooked me in, as well as its mostly-female cast and the intriguing story. What got me to stay was the amazing gameplay, one of the best tutorials I've played for a fighting game (although it's also quite flawed nowadays due to its difficulty at some points), and a very in-depth training mode. Favourite characters are Filia (I love playing as her and she has a neat design), Peacock (not as fun to play, but still very fun and her design absolutely rocks), and Painwheel (she's too hard for me to play, but is otherwise my #1 favourite character thanks to her design and story alone)

Rayman Legends, which is probably weird to have for a favourite game, but is one of the best platformers I've played and overall a very fun and replayable game. Other games like Celeste, Cuphead, and Super Meat Boy (the third of which I still need to play 😭) are probably better, especially in the case of Celeste having a very good story. I think what Rayman brings to the table is its triple A quality, having a ton of polish, lots of levels, plenty of game modes, and overall does a lot of things games with a smaller budget couldn't imagine doing without spending over a decade of time

Slay the Spire and Dicey Dungeons, which are both really great dungeon-crawler deck-building rougelites (StS is technically a rouge-like, but it takes such little time to unlock stuff and what you do unlock are cards and relics; not things like permanent stat buffs that simply make your next run stronger). Slay the Spire is pretty much the grandfather of deck builder rougelites, but has aged immaculately despite that title. Meanwhile, Dicey Dungeons plays with the formula by having you roll dice instead of drawing cards, and those dice are used to activate your cards like mana would. Dicey Dungeons is a much simpler experience than Slay the Spire, but I wouldn't say it's better for that and Slay the Spire is a more worthwhile experience

Some other games I think are cool are;

Drone Head, which I've been playing a lot of as of recently. It's an arcade platformer made for a game jam about a small robot jumping everywhere to collect weapon cubes, which change the weapon of your attack mode. It's super cute, very addicting, and overall a lot of fun: https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/800211

Tetris, which is maybe the only game on this list that you recognize besides Plants vs Zombies (or you live under a rock). While I wouldn't say I'm good at the game, I've noticed that the average person isn't close to my skill level, so saying I'm bad at the game would also be a lie. I typically just play Jstris's practice mode, but I've also done 1v1s on Tetris Effect and played the battle royal modes of Tetris 99 and Tetr.io (which kicked my ass)

Peggle, which I feel like people don't talk about. It's a crime considering both Peggle games are fun and well-made games. Peggle 1 is a masterpiece and ironically has much more content, while Peggle 2 has its own unique charms and, in my opinion, a more fun PvP mode. I also regularly listen to Peggle 2's soundtrack, with some of my favourites being Jimmy's theme, Bjorn's scntfc remix, and the pvp lobby music titled "Eau de Bjorn". Most fascinating part of the soundtrack is that each character's theme is a classical piece remixed to be a soundtrack that transforms as the level progresses, which is really cool and makes the game stand out a lot more. Peggle Blast was a mistake

Toontown Corporate Clash, which I admittedly haven't touched in months, but is still a game I would recommend people play. If you don't know, Toontown Online was a game released by Disney way back in 2003 and was promptly shut down 10 years after. However, fans of the game would begin to create private servers of the game modded to their preferences, and one of them happens to be Corporate Clash: A heavy rework to the game's combat and progression. It's so good that playing solo is quite rewarding, but like any MMO, is more fun with friends (which I lack 🙃)

I'll continue updating and adding to this post over time, but those are a lot of the games that have my attention rn

Not sure what else to add to this post, honestly. I guess I could also talk about what non-gaming media I'm into or actually talk about my own life, but that's stuff I may add later since idrc to talk about that stuff right now

[bllsbailey]

Stop Freaking Out And Focus On Winning

Could you doomsayers please give us a break? Can you stop panicking like little girls and male-identifying Democrats when they see a spider? Yes, Kamala Harris has capitalized on the relief of the Democrats over trading in that shambling, perverted, zombie-like husk for someone who is merely an idiot who was too dumb to pass the California Bar Exam. That’s progress, well, at least a kind of progress, but it’s enough for their voters to come back in off the sidelines. There were a lot of Biden supporters out there, people who were never going to vote for Trump but who just couldn’t vote for someone who was manifestly senile. Well, Kamala is not manifestly senile; she’s just dumb. But that’s an improvement over Joe Biden, and that’s enough for them. Now they’re back in the game and the head-to-head poll numbers have improved for the Democrats. But Trump hasn’t fallen behind. He’s probably still slightly ahead. So, could you please stop whining about how we Republicans are doomed?

Probably not. Oh no, JD Vance is a disaster! If only we had picked somebody squishier, the Democrats would’ve been nice to him. Oh, Kamala Harris is so exciting and popular! She’s so brat! We can’t ever compete against that! Oh, they’re just going to steal the election anyway! Boo-hoo.

Geez, could you sissies shut up for a minute and stop embarrassing yourselves? We are in a better position than we’ve been in a presidential race in 20 years, and all some people can do is find that cloud behind the silver lining.

There is something within the emotional makeup of Republicans that makes them always assume that disaster lurks right around the corner. Maybe it’s conservatism’s realistic view of the fallen nature of man, as opposed to the Democrats’ bizarre notion of human perfectibility through the power of Marxism, that leads us to dwell in the Eyorean swamps of depression. But this is self-inflicted emotional gaslighting. It has nothing to do with the facts. The key fact is that Trump is doing better now than Trump did in either of his previous campaigns. And while we don’t have the advantage of a regime media actually doing its job – which it did for about 15 minutes when it became undeniable that Joe Biden was demented and it became necessary to crowbar him out of the Oval Office – the fundamentals are still in our favor. We are still in the lead or tied in the battleground states, the economy is tanking, and let’s face it – Kamala Harris is a moron.

Yeah, they’re going to try to bury her in the basement for the next three months. The regime media is obediently ignoring the fact that she refuses to come out and give extemporaneous remarks or answer hard questions, though they’ll never ask any. But normal people see it. Normal people see a lot about her. There are her myriad policy problems. She’s a communist. Until it was disappeared by the Orwellians of the Internet, she had been listed as the most liberal member of the Senate. There are all sorts of devastating video clips of Kamala out there, wanting to take your AR15s by force, border czaring anywhere but at the border, wanting to take your health insurance and for you into socialize medicine with a bunch of illegal aliens, as well as damming us for daring to wish each other Merry Christmas. There’s a lot of great stuff out there, and you can tell the Democrats don’t like it because any time we mention any of it, they call us racist harder than usual. 

Apparently, talking about anything she does or believes is racist. That includes her racial identity du jour, which she seems unable to settle on. Nervous conservative commentators are very upset that Donald Trump pointed out, accurately, that she sometimes presents herself as Indian and sometimes presents herself as black and that she denies that she’s a DEI hire even though she asserts DEI is awesome. Trump, of course, saw how this demonstrates her inauthenticity and drove right in. When he highlights what the Democrats try to hand wave away as “code switching” normal people read it as her being a shameless chameleon, appearing as whatever she needs to appear as for the audience in front of her. This includes adopting a comedy gold southern/black accent that rivals Hillary’s ridiculous “I don’t feel no ways tired” thing.

Some of my conservative friends wish Donald Trump wouldn’t point this out, preferring to focus solely on policy. I guess if we were having a reasoned debate at a debating society – before debating societies got swallowed up by wokeness – that would make sense. But this is an election. It’s not just about facts – which are certainly in our favor – but about emotions. Facts are only part of persuasion and often not the most important part – but hey, what would a trial lawyer know about that?

To win voters, we need to persuade them not merely objectively but subjectively as well. We need to define her so that the voters feel repelled whenever they see her cackling visage appear on their screens. Democrats and the regime media minions are portraying Kamala as exciting, vibrant, and cool, and we have to present the truth that she is not exciting, vibrant, or cool. And you don’t undermine somebody’s image as the hot new thing solely by droning on about tax policy. You slam them for being terrible, and pointing out their terrible policies support that effort. Objective policy arguments are not a substitute for subjectively defining her as a dangerous pinko clown.

And that’s what Trump is doing – defining her as a shifty half-wit commie. That kind of definition is what Trump does. And Kamala knows she’s vulnerable, which is why she’s hiding. She’s a terrible person. She’s an idiot – I want to emphasize that she failed the California Bar Exam, another thing I’m not supposed to talk about because it has nothing to do with policy. But I’m going to because it shows she’s dumb. And her racial shenanigans show that she’s inauthentic. You know, Trump does not need to talk about her inability to be authentic all the time, but after eight years, perhaps we ought to credit Donald Trump with knowing a little something about how to communicate a message. While it may scandalize the National Review crew that Donald Trump is making fun of her inability to be honest about her ethnicity, normal people see what she’s doing, and they find her repellent and manipulative. It’s not because she’s biracial. It’s because she’s a phony.

Regardless, we need to accept the fact that we are not losing, though we can lose. The fact is this was always going to be a hard fight. America is a 50-50 country, and unfortunately, 50% of Americans are freaking idiots. And the freaking idiots have chosen one of their own – without voting on it, but that’s the Democrats’ problem – as their standard bearer. This race is going to be a matter of points regardless. Victory is not assured – it never was. If you get your name on the ballot for one of the two major parties, you have a chance to win. Donald Trump was supposed to lose in 2016 something like nine times out of ten. But you know what happens one time out of ten? The underdog wins. Kamala Harris can certainly win this election, and she absolutely will win this election if we sit around demoralizing ourselves because it’s going to be hard. Yeah, it’s going to be hard. Do you know what other things are hard? All the things worth doing are hard. If they were not hard, everyone would do them all the time.

No one will just give us this election. We have to go take it. Trump’s 2024 campaign has been the most professional and effective of his three. Its advertising attacking her border failures has been deadly, and they have a lot more policy ammunition to expand. They managed to gather enough money to do it, even though the Democrats thought we were going to be impoverished. Yes, Donald Trump is not exercising what some would call “message discipline” and focusing solely on policy. But you know what? Donald Trump doesn’t have “message discipline.” Donald Trump has gut instincts. And most of the time, his instincts are right. 

We are more likely than not going to win this, but we will lose this by being depressed. We will lose this by being black-pilled. We will lose this by failing to work. If you’re not writing checks, dialing the phone, or being out there urging people to vote, you are helping us lose; get it together to bring it in for the Big Win. Stop with the pessimism. I don’t want to hear a damn thing about “Oh well, they’re just going to steal it anyway.” They’re not going to just steal it anyway;  you’re going to let them steal it by sitting this election out. We need to work hard and win beyond the margin of fraud. So, stop moaning and start campaigning.

Follow Kurt on Twitter @KurtSchlichter. Get the newest volume in the Kelly Turnbull People’s Republic series of conservative action novels set in America after a notional national divorce, the bestselling Amazon #1 Military Thriller, Overlord! And get his new novel about terrorism in America, The Attack!

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[ginnyzero]

As a reader, I've found the amount of books I finish is about the same. I can find 20% of books to finish in self pub and about 33% of books to finish in trad pub. so 2 out of 10 and 3 out of 10. (With many of the same issues when it comes to the writing.) My fave genre is scifi/fantasy and I'm willing to try about anything once outside of time travel and zombies. BUT, it's easier to access trad pubbed books (b/c I have awesome library) than indie books, where I have to hope to find them on big river for free or a sale or you know "I review indie books" and hope I get bites. (Very rare. I also find many indie authors are wary of a peer review. I'm an analytical reader and yeah. It is hard to get a five star from me. 3 is good folks, really. I promise.)

Kindle books though on the PC are more exhausting to read than AO3 or paper books for some reason and I don't know why. So I've stopped doing it as much. This isn't the author's fault, it's big river company's. Or it might just be me. I dunno.

As a writer, I did try the trad pub route. I really think it's worthwhile to try b/c it will teach writers valuable skills, a summary/blurb is a pitch after all and writing queries will really help that. What I found though was genre boxes in trad were too small for my biker werewolf cozy drama urban fantasy adventures. (Go figure.) And my sword and sorcery fractured fairy tale books I guess didn't have enough tropey romance. So I went self pub and having chronic pain myself, it does help me with this I don't feel pressured to hurt myself trying to fill a deadline. (I still feel bad though.) The downside is dealing with algorithms so currently I'm sitting on a lot of stuff b/c I want to publish it every three months 'for the algorithm' (ugh) and because chronic pain and ADHD I cannot do this tiktok marketing stuff even if I knew WHAT to do. My editor works on barter which is great, (and she's an awesome editor who helps me learn to write better grammatically, and idea bouncer). Otherwise, I am a one woman show and since I LIKE simple covers and know photoshop, don't mind so much. (My formatting is not fancy but it works.)

It's never been about control or 'losing rights to my work' (you just have to wait out contracts really for that, it's tough but usually they're about five years.) It's always been "my stuff might suit someone but apparently trad pub doesn't see it making a profit." And now I've self pubbed and had next to no sales, I might have bit myself on the hand when it comes to trad pub. Oh well.

And indie pub is saturated b/c of a lot of pulp authors trying get rich quick stuff. So, there are indie pub gems out there, you just won't find them through big river company's search engine. (And when I was on Twitter, it was an echo chamber in the indie author section and it wasn't attracting readers but other authors who weren't there to buy books but promote books.)

Looking at the publishing industry right now, I'd suggest any author who is looking to publish do their research and weigh the pros and cons of it. Do you like social media marketing? Especially on tiktok or youtube shorts? What is your goal honestly? Do you want to be a local author in your bookstore or local fair that fits your genre or what? Like, my dad went into B&N the other day with me and was like "I didn't see your books on the local author shelf!" and I'm like "Well, Dad, there would be hoops. How often do you want to be over here?" And if you're self pubbed, don't knock getting your books into the local library and if you have fans, get them to get your books into their local library. That's the BEST way people will be able to access your books for "Free" and you still get paid when the library BUYS them.

okay guys im doing a survey thing so this is for writers and readers, reblog and share your thoughts?

topic: self publishing vs trad publishing

as a reader, does the difference mean anything to you?

as a writer, what helps you decide which to pursue?

i'm going to be using the replies to this post to make more topic posts later on as part of a larger project i'm putting together, so i really appreciate answers!

[cometcrystal]

monster high (2022) review

SPOILERS AHEAD OBVIOUSLY. SCROLL PAST IF U DONT WANT EM.

and don’t ask me for the movie either, i’m not gonna share it cause i made a promise to the person on reddit i got it from

i probably won’t bring up the lightwashing in the review proper much since other people have said it better than i could. but here’s my mention of it: clawdeen and cleo are both lightwashed and whitewashed, respectively. and we know it’s not like they’re not capable of hiring actors with the proper skin tones/races because bloodgood is a dark skinned black woman (and she was great tbh). so it’s just really disappointing and i will not be supporting the movie financially when it comes out because of it.

okay first off i wanna talk about the characters themselves. there’s a lot of weird things they did that aren’t Bad changes but they’re just bizarre and idk where they came from. like some people said it was like they were mixing and matching character traits and that feels pretty spot-on.

clawdeen - half human half werewolf as we already know but i’m more concerned about her personality. this clawdeen is more...generic? generic nice girl? she’s not a pushover but she also isn’t nearly as headstrong as og clawdeen. and the only hobby we see her do is skateboarding.

frankie - this frankie RULES. they are constantly bringing up which famous person their body parts belonged to and saying random weird facts. theyre a huge socially awkward weirdo. they still have the patented frankie stein friendly to a fault optimism. they probably are the most similar to their original version and are 100% the main reason to watch this film.

draculaura - she’s very dry and crabby?? not bubbly at all. and she does witchcraft which i will talk about more later. unclear if she’s still vegetarian or not: she threatens to suck the blood of frankie and clawdeen if they dont stay out of her side of their dorm room

deuce - you can see his eyes. his shades look like they’d be useless. also apparently used to be a big troublemaker and is trying to turn over a new leaf. still very chill and nice. has a bit of human hair in addition to his snakes. gorgons are apparently feared in the monster world and he’s insecure about that

cleo - she is not a character in this movie she is just a Mean Girl prop. exists to look pathetic trying to get deuce back and to be mean to the main 3 ghouls. the biggest disappointment to me, both for personal reasons (i love her) and for subjective reasons. it’s like they took every ounce of depth that every preceeding mh media gave her (her love for her friends, her trauma, her reasons for doing things, the fact that she’s not a cruel person) and put a cookie cutter in her place.

lagoona - she isn’t Blue anymore i guess but that doesn’t bug me. she only has a couple lines. other than that she just stands next to cleo. personally i think her outfits are very good but i wish they had found an indigenous australian actress to play her

abbey - i think she has like 2 lines and then she screams at something. doesn’t appear to have the same personality as og abbey, but it’s hard to tell. she seems more preppy and more influencer-type. also doesn’t have her accent and speaks fluent english

ghoulia - she speaks fluent english as well. huge L for autistics. she’s kind of the Quirky weird one who tries to scare the new students so i like that direction for her but my god i wish they had her still speak zombie.

heath - he doesn’t get to do a whole lot but he’s probably the 2nd closest to his og character. i liked him alright he was fine. comic relief guy character. nothing much more to say

now let’s talk about The Good

like i said, frankie is great. they stole every single second of their screentime. theyre an angel and i love them. had the only genuinely funny lines in the movie

bloodgood was mostly good. but we always stan bloodgood.

some of the outfits were KILLER. i will definitely be giffing a few.

a couple of the songs are boring but true monster heart and the three of us both BANG and they will be going in my playlist as soon as theyre released. if nothing else the people they hired to act in this movie can SING

speaking of the songs i loooove the lyric “i see the monsters, they look like family” especially coming from frankie. i love u.

the friendship between the main 3 ghouls is really sweet and feels organic

they/them frankie real

MONSTER HIGH THE SCHOOL IS ALIVE!!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW SICK THAT IS!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i liked clawdeen’s dad apollo a lot he was sweet

draculaura talks to her dad thru a moving painting. im scraping the bottom of the barrel but i thought that was cool.

i LOVE getting a new universe/canon to play around with. we’re up to 4 now, possibly 5 with the new animated series, and i couldn’t be happier.

this isn’t related to the plot itself but watching the unfinished vfx version adds a layer of joy to the experience. maybe once the movie’s out it’ll be widely available for people to watch. seeing a terrible animation of png clipart spiders crawl on abbey’s cup of coffee is so so so special to me.

ok now The Bad. i’m gonna do a read more here because this is already long and the most spoilers will be in this section.

clawdeen’s supposed to be hiding the fact that she’s half monster from humans but her house has a family portrait with her and her mom’s wild ears completely out just. on the mantle in full view

i’m so confused on the status of witchcraft in this mh canon. some characters call it a filthy human hobby. then draculaura says that vampires and witches have been at war for centuries. and then later, lala is still able to use witch magic even after her vampire monster powers are taken away from her. she says witch magic is different from monster magic. but if witchcraft is a human thing, why are humans scared of monsters? what is the truth.

mr komos is the villain, surprise surprise. but just wait til you hear this: he’s hyde’s SON and is trying to get revenge on monster high for not accepting jekyll/hyde. he drinks a Monster Potion that jekyll/hyde made and turns into a big muscle version of himself with giant horns. what really gets me is that HE is the one who led the students in a song about how humans suck and thus contributed to the prejudice against human/monster hybrids. this guy is a complete dumbass. also there is no mention of jackson/holt BTW and i dont really miss them but its just a weird choice to make

for the whole movie, the school is like. reacting badly. and everyone’s like it’s because there’s someone without a True Monster Heart in the walls of monster high. and clawdeen thinks it’s her but it’s komos ofc. and hes 100% a dumbass but he had the motivation of hating the fact that mixed human/monsters weren’t allowed to attend and were hated by humans as well???? god this plot sucks.

i wasn’t expecting anything different but all the prejudice is solved by the end of the movie, both against human/monster people and against witchcraft. i just mention it because every kid’s movie does this and it never stops being funny. racism RESIGNED!

NOT A MODICUM OF CLEUCE TO BE SEEN. cleo and deuce interact twice. the first time, she tries to make him want her back by saying she’s moved on, and he calls her self-absorbed. the second time is just her telling him to get help because komos hulked out (and he ignored her 6 calls before that one). deuce gets his powers stolen by komos and TURNED TO STONE and cleo is just standing 5 feet from him watching like :///. honestly what an absolute disservice to both their characters. the reason i love both of them so much is because they’re both constantly defying what viewers expect from a popular girl/popular guy couple and this is just back to square 1. this is worse than square 1 actually.

yes, deuce/clawdeen is a thing here. i didn’t want it to be true because i thought surely NOBODY IS STUPID ENOUGH TO DO THIS but here we are. she’s the one at deuce’s side during the aforementioned stoning and he says “at least i got to stare into your eyes.” before he is Stoned. he unstones later dont worry but this scene sucked. but other than a song together + the eyes comment it doesn’t amount to much. they talk about insecurities together ig.

i mentioned this earlier but it truly feels like the writer’s room for this movie was given only pictures of the characters to work off of. nothing else. at least the lisi harrison appears to have been given character blurbs for her books. there’s so many bizarre choices in this film that it would literally make total sense if the writers had never actually watched monster high a day in their lives. they just got lucky with frankie and heath.

like i said before, ghoulia talks, and all of the characters lose the accents they had before. the only one with an accent that isn’t Generic American is lagoona. and for some of the charas it’s not the biggest deal in the world but for charas like ghoulia it takes away some important representation.

they/them frankie is CANON which is a GOOD THING!! but i’m mentioning it here again because i can’t think of a single instance where they refer to them as anything but “frankie”. it might just be my memory so correct me if i’m wrong but i don’t think it happens. the only time their pronouns are used is when they’re introducing themselves. and its like. what’s the point if youre not gonna use the pronouns lmao

bloodgood being a part of excommunicating hyde. it’s only a picture in a slideshow but it still sucks. it’s the only part of her character in this movie i don’t like.

anyway. i give it a 4/10. might skim thru it once the official release is out so i can see what the final effects look like. but if you end up watching this, do so illegally and do it for frankie

[backofthebookshelf]

Horror Recs for Magnus Fans, Part the Second

Last time I did this I was assuming that anyone who was listening to a horror podcast already knew some horror, but I have since learned that this is not the case, so there are a few more classics in here, as well as some more of my faves.

For anyone and everyone who listens to TMA: Sarah Monette's Kyle Murchison Booth stories, many (though not all) of which are collected in The Bone Key. Queer information professional would very much like for ghosts and monsters to leave him alone, does not get what he wants; can't resist the impulse to help out people who are more fucked over than him anyway. I love Booth so much, he deserves much better things than he gets.

For Web stans: Blindsight by Peter Watts, a sci-fi horror novel about free will and consciousness. Lydia Nicholas named this as one of her favorite books in the first Assistant's Round Table; I respect her for it, but I read this once and it gave me an existential crisis. Highly recommended, but make sure you've got a palate cleanser.

For jonelias fans and/or fans of the Corruption: Candyman (1992). With bonus folklore & urban legend meta! Kissing bees into your (potential) lover's mouth in order to convince them to become a murderous spirit of vengeance just like you! "All you have left is my desire for you"!!! It's extremely sexy, is what I'm saying, in all the best ways. (Trigger warnings for violence against children and a fair amount of gore, in addition to the aforementioned bees.)

If you love the no-holds-barred social commentary of season five: The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle. No, I will not shut up about this book until absolutely everyone in the world has read it. It's short! You could read it in an afternoon! This is Lovecraft's "The Horror at Red Hook" from the point of view of a black musician and hustler who's hired to help out with the ritual, and it's incredible. (If you're enjoying Lovecraft Country, absolutely do not miss this.)

If you miss the standalone statements of season one and two: the works of the early 20th century cosmic horror and ghost story writers: M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen. Machen has a tendency to get pretty eugenics-y, and they're all either misogynistic or don't have women in their stories at all, but goddamn do they do atmosphere. ("The Magnus Archives" is named after James's "Count Magnus," Jonny's favorite M.R. James story.)

For Stranger fans and those who love unexplained mysteries: The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher, a Southern horror (not a Gothic) about a woman who goes to clean out her abusive grandmother's house to sell it only to find that there are things other than his wife that her grandfather was afraid of, and for good reason. Features hot competent neighbors, extremely practical reactions to terrible monsters, and a Very Good Dog (the dog does not die).

For Lonely bitches: "The Horla" by Guy de Maupassant, the story I use to describe my depression to people. That's a pretty good content warning, honestly.

If you loved the "Am I still human?" plotline: The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht, a grotesque little novella about monsters in (dysfunctional) love. I'm a bit iffy on the ending, but honestly landing the ending of horror is so tricky that I'll almost never discount something just because I'm iffy on the ending. The body horror and emotional repression throughout make up for it.

If you crave the supernatural adventure series starring Gerry Keay: The Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey - modern noir, so gritty you can feel it in your teeth, featuring all kinds of monsters, demons, curses, and narrowly-averted apocalypses. Not as misogynistic as noir can get, but it is noir so there's definitely a bit of that (but definitely not as misogynistic as Jim Butcher). Trigger warnings all over the place; this is B-movie horror in book form.

For Distortion fans: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Bears almost no resemblance to the Netflix series of the same name, or any of the movies based on it; this is a twisty psychological novel with a profoundly unreliable narrator and a lot of repressed queerness. Michael/Helen would be right at home in Hill House. (Content warning for suicidality.)

If you want your horror to make you cry: El Orfanado, directed by Guillermo del Toro; a family moves into a house that used to be an orphanage, that is, of course, haunted. This is a tremendous distillation of the way that horror movies are so often centered around women not being believed, so content warning for gaslighting (and for harm to children); I saw this movie once and entire scenes are embedded in my brain in full color. (Honestly you can't go wrong with any Guillermo del Toro movies; he's fantastic.)

If you want your horror to make you cry, but make it gay: In the Flesh, two seasons of a zombie TV show tragically cut short (yes, it ends on a cliffhanger, I’m sorry). Uses zombies as a metaphor for homophobia, but also includes actual queer people. Content warning for small-town-typical homophobia and tragic gays. Please come yell with me about Simon Monroe, I love him so much.

For Slaughter fans: The Shining by Stephen King - look, look, I know. He's not great. He needs an editor. The movie is all kinds of fucked up. But this book is one of the most raw, personal horror stories I've ever read, and it's got an excellent combination of supernatural influence and real-life mundane fear of addiction and personal weakness that really grabs you by the intestines. Again, an iffy ending, but it's worth it for the slow descent into paranoia and madness.

If you just want to try to find some authors to read: The Borderlands anthology series, paperbacks from the height of the 80s horror boom; there are so many different kinds of stories in here that I can pretty much guarantee you that you won't like some of them but you might well find something new to fall in love with. A lot of these writers are out of print but readily available at used bookstores or for pennies on Amazon.

As always, let me know if you liked any of these or if you have a specific need: it is no longer my job to recommend books and media to people but it is still my very favorite thing to do and I will be obnoxious about it forever

[misscrawfords]

One thing that interests me about the response to the Netflix Persuasion is that it is by no means the only objectively bad Austen adaptation but it seems to be singled out more than others for both excessive hate, excessive defence, and just general discussion. I'm not sure I've ever seen so many reviews in mainstream newspapers for a streaming service Austen adaptation.

I'm not a fan of the 2005 P&P myself but it still has merits and is worthy of being considered seriously as an adaptation. It's the only one I can think of that has received this amount of vitriol. (And yes, some of that came from me, but I'm allowed personally to dislike a film!) Mansfield Park 2007 - does anyone bother with that? Did anyone bother with it when it came out except to say "lol that was a bad movie that totally failed to understand the novel, shame Hayley Atwell got caught up in it" and then move on and focus on the delightful Northanger Abbey that came out the same year or Persuasion which got some fans but otherwise did not leave a massive mark in the Austen adaptations world (mainly due to the legacy of the 1995 film). Nobody apart from a few devotees remembers the 1986 Northanger Abbey and the adaptation of Emma with Kate Beckinsale has largely disappeared. (Unfortunately IMO as I quite like it.)

All this to say that there have been lots of adaptations of Austen that just quietly disappeared or received criticism but ultimately nobody really cared. Why is Netflix Persuasion so different? Why is it so hard to just ignore it or laugh about how bad it is for a bit and then forget about it? Why do people seem to care SO MUCH?

A few suggestions:

the colour blind casting - this has had a big effect on the response, especially in certain corners of twitter and FB. Thankfully tumblr seems relatively free both of bad faith racist responses to the film and the irritatingly two dimensional response which is to accuse anyone who criticises the film of racism and gatekeeping. This is a shame as the casting is one of the film's biggest strengths. They all deserve a better movie but as soon as people can bring racism into a discussion, it gets blown up and becomes "important".

Netflix producing this film now makes it difficult for another adaptation to come along any time soon and people are angry about this, though that has always really been an issue when a new adaptation comes out.

Social media just wasn't as much a thing in the 2005-07 period and it is so much easier now for people to find other people to be enraged with or attack about a piece of media online so as soon as something gains traction even more people will talk about it and it snowballs.

People care a lot more about Persuasion than about Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey.

It's been a loooooong time since we've had a "straight" historical adaptation of an Austen novel. It feels like we're saturated in Austen adaptations, but that isn't actually true. We've had Death Comes to Pemberley, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Fire Island but apart from Emma 2020 the last movie/TV adaptation of an actual novel were the 2008 and 2009 adaptations of Sense and Sensibility and Emma respectively. It's over 10 years. We're due for a new spate of adapting the novels, it seems to happen every 10 years, so people actually want more content to digest. (Not counting Sanditon here for so many reasons.)

Austen adaptations tend to reflect the society they're made in so a lot of the analysis is going into what this adaptation - and, arguably Emma 2020 - is saying about us. And if we don't like the adaptation, well, maybe that is telling us something uncomfortable about the state of the media and storytelling right now.

The screenwriter has said some pretty egregious things about not thinking racism was a thing in Austen's time (at least I'm sure he wasn't trying to say that, but it sure came out like that) and that he wrote this script so his teen daughter wouldn't be bored. That's enough to thoroughly dunk on it.

Honestly though I'm hoping that it will quietly die the death of bad adaptations but unfortunately so many people are talking about it and hate watching it (guilty as charged tbh on both counts) that this seems unlikely.

I'm actually not against Austen adaptations that play with convention and focus on satirical humour more than sweeping romance (Love and Friendship was brilliant in that respect) and Emma did a good shot at it and breaking the fourth wall could be a brilliant device if done well, which seems to be the trend in this decade's adaptations. But I hope the inevitable forthcoming adaptations of the other novels are, well, better.

[shirophantomvox]

Analyzing Illumi Zoldyck's Character

Chrollo Analysis | Hisoka Analysis | Killua Analysis

What’s up y’all! Sorry for being away for the last few days. I needed a break from social media because I am so tired of seeing toxic, self-righteous people on my TL. Anyway, quite a lot of you liked my posts about analyzing HxH characters and somehow comparing them to VLD characters. Today, I’ll be talking about Illumi Zoldyck and I’ll try to compare him to a Voltron character. I know many people have already analyzed this character before, but it wouldn’t hurt to add to the discussion some years later. If you want me to write about anything else, send me an ask! The formatting of this post may be different than the one I wrote about Hisoka Morrow (click his name to view that post).

HERE WE GO!

In the first season, all of the characters are contestants for the Hunter’s Exam. I say contestants because this is a contest to see who can win without any injuries and can keep up with each host. I forget what number stage they were at, but I do know they were at the stage where each opponent has to fight each other. They are declared the winner if their opponent forfeits or gives up mid-match. (Off-topic, but) I am going, to be honest; Gon was my favorite character but his flaws began to show, annoyed me, and later led to his horrific downfall (based from YouTube clips). He didn’t know when to stop and kept pushing himself over the limit. Anyway, Killua and Gittarackur are set to fight. This is when things take a turn for the worse.

Gittarackur is a form of a disguise for Illumi to mask his identity. His face is long; nearly (and reminds me of) in the shape of a Tiki. His face also reminds me of the Witch Doctor mask from Scooby-Doo and Hell-raiser. He has several pins stuck in his face to maintain the facial features of Gittarackur. On the flip side, if he removes the pins, his biological form is revealed. Once he does this, Killua is nearly paralyzed; he cannot believe his eyes and I’m sure the trauma he endured at home hit him like a sack of rocks. Illumi then tells Killua that he wants him to return home, that he cannot maintain a friendship with Gon, stated that he was going to kill Gon, but realizes that if he does so he will be disqualified and will not obtain his Hunter’s license.

I’m assuming the cops aren’t a thing in this reality and the only way for them to “destroy” under the law is by obtaining the license. What do you think? I rarely see police officers; all I see are the Mafia and every they suck compared to the Zoldyck's and the Phantom Troupe. Shit, it seems like they’re the police but have twisted motives.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a fictional character or not, first impressions matter and he bombed this one...even for a villain.

But you did this for what?

How can you hypnotize (by using Nen) your own brother into killing another opponent because he doesn’t want to become an emotionless zombie like you? At least, that’s my perception. Telling your brother to run every time he faces an opponent that he knows he cannot win against is the sickest shit I’ve ever seen. I know I’m jumping around but another thought popped into my head. As the seasons go on, Illumi expresses an odd way of loving his younger brother and to him, that means to make him suffer in the same way he had to. It seems like Illumi is jealous of Gon in a way. (I’ve seen clips on YouTube) Killua takes Alluka to the hospital to heal Gon. Illumi has stated several times to Hisoka that Killua was hiding rules from him and that he still wanted to get rid of Alluka. Although it is clearly stated why he wanted Alluka gone, I still think that Illumi was jealous of Gon simply because his younger brother preferred to be with a friend instead of him. This is why he emphasizes “You cannot have friends. Either they will betray you or you’ll betray them.”

As I read and watched as the seasons went on, I noticed something about Illumi and his family. We all know that the children were raised by their parents. Specifically, their dad is a trained assassin. I can’t remember but I think Zeno is their grandfather who is also an assassin.

I view him as a character that has suffered from abuse and trauma in order to mold him into an assassin. He is emotionless, doesn’t really care for others, has an odd relationship with Killua that he doesn’t have for his other siblings, and is a hypocrite. Killua can’t be friends with Gon but every time the show cuts to him, he’s with Hisoka? Something is fishy there. Are they more than friends? OK, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Here's the physical analysis below.

Face

When masquerading as Gittarackur, his face has several pins in them and his hair is in a rock star form of Mohawk that is purple. I’ll give him 10/10 for uniqueness, yet it still reminded me of Hell Raiser.

I’ve noticed that when he is in public he is in costume. Why doesn’t he reveal himself in public? I’ve researched this and no one could answer this question. My guess is that he is a verified hunter and assassin. How can you carry out your missions if everyone knows what you look like? Without the pins in his face, it reverts back to his natural state. To me, his large eyes and long, shiny black hair are his distinguished features. Although he may be my least favorite character, he does have pretty eyes. Haven’t you all heard of “I got lost in his/her eyes”?

Yeah, that can be said about him. Most definitely. He rarely smiles and when he does, something BAD is going to happen. I saw him laugh crazily once Alluka began the healing process, the Nen (I guess) rose from the hospital and got on him. This scene reminds me of how Haggar reacted once the Komar’s quintessence bounced from Voltron and bounced onto her. Wow, these supernatural abilities make y’all feel that good?

Clothes

Gittarackur and Illumi wear the same clothes, which should be a clear giveaway that they are the same. Illumi wears a neural green short jacket that has yellow pins in them, a light green shirt underneath, and green pants. His shoes remind me of loafers with a heel on them, something my grandmother would wear.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say again, these bad-ass men in this show are very stylish and seem to be in shape more than I am. Although Illumi irks me, his fashion is great and this is why people prefer him to be their favorite character. Shows should always produce characters that are memorable; that is the key to a long-lasting fan base.

In conclusion, this anime (for the most part) has well-rounded characters that make the plot interesting and wanting more.

Illumi and Lotor are somewhat similar. They both grew up in abusive households and lost some sense of sensitivity, common sense, and were often “misguided” by their own selfishness. Illumi wants a better life for Killua by constantly brainwashing him into thinking that he cannot have friends and his can only find happiness through killing. Zarkon raises Lotor to be a prince that shouldn't work with planets and should destroy them. This explains why he used deceased Alteans from the colony, drained their quintessence, and didn't give them a proper burial. Lotor IS just like his father but Killua IS NOT like Illumi. Ironic, huh? As we all know by now, Lotor is the son of Honerva (Haggar) and Zarkon. After the rift accident, he became an emotionless, ruthless monster that colonized and destroyed planets just to gain their quintessence. He taught this to his son and once he was old enough to think for himself, he refused to act in such a way. Although he was exiled and said he wasn’t like Zarkon, he was; but worse. Lotor studied and gained knowledge about Altea and its people while using Allura to gain the secrets of Oriande. I say he used her because he knew from the moment he met her that he was harvesting Altean quintessence. While fighting the white lion, he yelled “Victory or Death” which is a common catchphrase the Galra use when they are in battle. In fact, the Galra have been victims of trauma from Zarkon. Zarkon’s ruthless ways of ruling had no other motive except for obtaining quintessence so he could live forever. Silva’s way of raising his children was done to mold them into assassins. Since he was taught this way he did the same thing to his children. Zarkon, Silva, and Zeno think that their ways of parenting are necessary for survive in life when it doesn’t have to be that way. Illumi and Lotor have experienced this horrific parenting and deal with it in different ways. Illumi is oddly obsessive of his younger brother and Lotor is a fucking liar.

This analysis was fun! Next, I’ll be analyzing Killua and Keith Kogane.

If you’d like to see more posts like this, send me an ASK!