#why are realistic-ish barrels so hard

[lifeofamanhwareader]

Respect to digital artists 📈📈📈📈 this took 20 minutes on paper and 6 hours over two days to do in digital. The coloring is truly the hardest battle.

Might use this for a comic later idk probably for a small comic for flower boy Royal au/chronicles of the crown children by @flowerboy4eva @flib1-yibi

Click on image for better resolution.

[symphonic-scream]

Some stuff from that persona fusion concept??

Warning for some minor body horror stuff, since. They fuse with their personas

Some got more messed up than others, just cause?? I'm going off of their initial personas too, so let's take a look

No.0; Akira, "Joker"

He gets the wings, big and dark and feathery. The spots that they come from his back are like black leather, like Arsene's suit. He's got black hands, clawed. The leather on his back doesn't extend to his front, and the black of his hands only goes up to his elbows. He's wearing a big coveralls jumpsuit like everyone else, his black. He doesn't need his glasses anymore. His hair now stands up and away from his face, with red highlights

No.2; Futaba, "Oracle"

Her skin is covered in the glowing markings from Necronomicon. They cover everything, and her hands and legs are a deep black. From her wrists, she can extend the dark tentacles like her persona, and use them to "link" with tech. Her hair is now also black, with glowing blue strands. Her jumpsuit thing is bright green

No.3; Makoto, "Queen"

Her hair is now slicked back completely. Her face remained normal, but most of her body has been turned into sheets of overlapping steel. Inside her chest, when she's angry, or excited, or flustered, you can hear an engine roar, sputter, or rumble softly. She's faster. The edges of her metal body, they glow a bright nuclear blue when she uses that power. Like she's become a source for it herself. Her arms and below her knees, those are the only places not covered in metal, the playing resembling Johanna's sleek form.

No.4; Yusuke, "Fox"

He's become cold to the touch, skin an icy white. When he breathes, a frosty smoke comes out, like how Goemon smokes. He's one of the least changed honestly, he was at the edge of the group. His hair has icy highlights, and there's black marks around his hands and fingers that are almost puppet like

No.5; Ryuji, "Skull"

Where his gimp leg used to be is now a metal bone "prosthetic". Blue-ish forms of his bones are seen through his skin in certain spots, like his upper arms, other leg, and torso. His hair was shaved down before everything, but the little fuzz is electric yellow, and static-y. Thats it, Captain Kidd is hard to mix in okay??

No.6; Ann, "Panther"

Pink skin. Pigtails now black with the ends smoking like the tips of Carmen's cigarettes, flaming roses bloom from her chest. Maybe cat ears?? There's not a lot to go on, so she was also near the edge of the incident

No.7; Morgana, "Mona"

He's become a cat. No one knows why, Zoro wasn't a cat. But he's like Morgana on the game but more realistic and less cartoony

No.9; Sumire, "Violet"

Arms and legs are like gemstones, blue and shiny. The right half of her face is also blue gem, and when they discover Kasumi's body, her left side was the same. Her arms are black, hair still red with blonde strands

No.10; Haru, "Noir"

This one's hard. There's a lady's mask on her face, and when she tries to take it off, it moves her now yellow eyes with it. Her arms are a bright pink, and on her stomach, there's tattoo like designs of a face. In battle, it opens to reveal the barrel of a gun, emerging from within Haru

The missing numbers are Goro and Kasumi. Goro, because I don't feel like talking about how he looks much worse cause Robin Hood and Loki are fighting for control. And Kasumi, cause it killed her

Anyways. Yeah. This is from an au concept I have but no ending for

[haleigh-sloth]

What do you think of the notion that Hori might be ending the series earlier than expected because he knows Bones and Shueisha/Jump are franchising the hell out of MHA, what with 6 more movies still in the pipeline and an ever-increasing amount of spin-off mangas, all of which he'll feel compelled (or be heavily pressured) into creating tie-in side content for alongside writing the main manga? Or am I overestimating the impact this side stuff actually has on Hori's workflow?

Well first, I don’t think this is sooner than expected really. He said he had intended for the final act to be five volumes, but obviously miscalculated lol. But regardless that tells us he’s serious about ending it now. He’s been trying to end it. In fact, I think it’s possible he’s been trying to end it for a while:

The title here seems kind of finale-ish. It’s only volume 11 (Kamino arc chapters). This kind of matches up with his original intent on not doing villain profiles at first, but then the story “evolving beyond that”. He’s changed his mind a bunch, but I think he’s wanted to get close to the ending for a while now. But the war arc didn’t leave off on the note he wanted, because it couldn’t. So here we are, watching him try to wrap all of that up.

So, I think BNHA needs to end. Like soon. But I’ll get to that. What I’m more interested in knowing is exactly how much input does the author have into the spin off content, light novels, movies, etc. I know they ✨say✨ that Hori has to give the final stamp of approval before things are published. But does he? Like does he read through it all before saying he approves? I’m certain he does some of it, or maybe little parts of everything, but all of it? I ask because it seems that the man can’t even get a firm grip on his own main story line. The editor is ruining all kinds of stuff with his own input, so why should I believe the side content is actually thoroughly run through Hori and that he has the final say? Also, with that impossible schedule I just don’t know how that would be possible. I mean yes you can make time for anything, but there is a LOT of side content coming out constantly. So idk, I’m skeptical of that. I’m also skeptical because it’s interesting how there is NO side content for the villains. And I’m not saying “the villains are better so we deserve content for them 😤😤”, I’m saying that they are legitimate characters with prominent parts in the story so it just makes me wonder if Hori himself doesn’t want to risk certain characters of his getting misrepresented in side content that isn’t written by him.

So branching off of that, I do feel that it’s a bit soon to see just how fast we’re barreling to the ending. But it’s possible that maybe he is ending it sooner than what the story led us to believe in order I preserve the main story he created. Meaning, the sooner he ends it, the less chance of another fucking movie interjecting.

But aside from that, I feel that he’s ending it simply because it needs to end. Like, I’ve never understood why people want stories to just keep on going forever. I get not wanting to leave the world of the story, and that’s where the side content comes in (if you’re into those, I’m typically not). But I’ll never understand people wanting a story to be ruined by being drug out just for the sake of getting new content. Also, if it wasn’t obvious—Hori is reaching his limit. It’s obvious with the sudden breaks he’s taking. Scheduled breaks? Normal. But suddenly not making the deadline because of his health? That’s pretty unacceptable tbh. Not on HIS part, but on the people demanding him to work non stop til he drops dead. Idk how he makes a chapter a week. I really really don’t. But it’s also obvious in the story. The writing is getting incredibly lazy. The last chapter felt like straight up advertisement, and idk where we’re going with this American hero lady. But everything else from that is just being so sloppily handled. He’s tired.

I would much rather him end it sooner than later so that his drive to actually give us a good ending doesn’t die out. Like at a certain point, I’d be worried he’d stop caring about the ending altogether. Luckily, I think he cares a great amount. I also think he really likes his villain characters a lot more than he lets on in interviews and stuff. It’s obvious in the story. So I do think he is going to try to nail the ending for every character, but I’m lowering my expectations for the nitty gritty details on the path to that ending.

Idk that you’re overestimating the impact it has on his workflow, because if he really REALLY does give the final stamp of approval before all that side stuff is published, then wow. What a fucking work schedule. And I thought I had it rough working in CPS. Lol. But I personally am skeptical of just how much input he gives into Team Up Missions and Vigilantes. Vigilantes is it’s own thing entirely and I can’t imagine him basically overlooking two separate mangas. Team Up Missions is just about the kids (if I remember correctly? I don’t read it so idk for super sure) so it’s not hard to make content for them. They’re easy. Lol. The light novels, I feel is a little more realistic for him to have a say in those since those are released way more sparsely than the other content. Those, I believe he looks over. Everything else I’m kinda “hmmmm idk”.

But anyway, I think it’s ending because it freaking needs to. That being said I do hope he’ll give like, little surprise epilogue chapters later down the line. Like how is Shigaraki doing? Toga? How are Touya and Shouto with their family, how are Midoriya and Bakugo doing as heroes, stuff like that. But like….a bit of time after it ends. Kinda how Takaya did with the extra fruits basket stuff. Just surprise us here and there lol. Unrelated, but I hope Hori writes something else later. Only this time with everything he wants and because he’s already become wildly successful, he won’t need to adhere to editors if he doesn’t want to. I feel like if he had free reign of his story, he’d make something really really good. And I hope he makes something later with all the elements he wants. But before that—REST. Lol.

[singingvio]

Camp Campbell Campers have magic powers so here are my thoughts on what they all have:

Dolph -- Empathy. He’s like a telepath, but with emotions. He can tell exactly what emotions people have without clues from their actions. This is somewhat ironic with how bad he is at social skills and how he doesn’t have many friends. Being an empath does actually explain why he’s so nice. Though he might deny the things he knows of others’ emotions if he is upset by them, such as when it’s clear Max doesn’t really want to be his friend but Dolph is constantly persistent.

Ered -- Invisibility. Being the daughter of two FBI agents, it makes sense, right? She has a usually quiet demeanor and you never really notice her before she speaks. She, like Max, also tends to just show up sometimes, but less out of thin air and more like, ‘wait, wasn’t she over there?’

Harrison -- ITEM teleportation. Not regular teleportation like Max. He can only teleport items, or other things, not himself. This does include biotic life forms. He made his brother disappear? More like, he accidentally teleported his brother into nothing. Like that one place in Chicken little where everyone floats in pitch blackness. This also explains the whole magic ribbon that Max barfed up, a variety of items caught in it including a rabbit.

Max -- Teleportation. He seems to pop out of nowhere a lot in the show, and in one episode, David walks away and you SEE Max just randomly appear where David was just standing! For dramatic effect let’s just say he can somewhat control lightning while teleporting, like an aftershock (GET IT--) of sorts.

Neil -- Super-smart. This doesn’t seem very superpower-like, but trust me on this one. The only special ability he seems to have is being extremely smart and somehow being able to build things others can’t in like, a minute. He’s either extremely smart or a robot. He also probably has some form of super speed with how fast he builds things.

Nerris -- Dimension-hopping. She always seems to think she’s in another place, and this may not be just roleplaying, since what she does seems pretty realistic.  She may have visited a dimension that’s just like her world she plays in, but real, and there she was an actual mage with actual spells. This explains things like how she built the pretty accurate tower and how when she does the ‘magic missle,’ it’s like getting hit with actual magic missles. And she’s scarily accurate with the dice, too.

Nikki -- Telepathy. In one episode, David thinks about how he couldn’t believe that Dolph won best Camp Counselor award when he wasn’t even a counselor, and Nikki comments that he really looks like Hitler. David is freaked out because he didn’t speak aloud and neither did Nikki. She possibly read his mind doing this, it’s the only reasonable-ish explanation in this context.

Nurf -- Superstrength. He is easily able to pick up the other campers and heavy items, and I don’t care HOW strong you are without exercising as a child, you aren’t able to do that. He’s shown in one episode to wedgie the entire camp and hang them on lockers, which means he’d have to pick them up and put them there. He’s also depicted to pick up other campers when he’s too excited, like Preston. He also cracks Space Kid’s helmet with like, one hit, which is pretty impressive since fish bowls are pretty hard to crack with just your hands.

Preston -- Time control. Not time TRAVEL, time CONTROL. In one episode, he’s shown to frantically clean the forest, except, he does so by the end of the day. It’s a huge forest, and he’s shown cleaning at normal speed. My theory is he slowed down or stopped time to clean it. Also, in the first episode, his stage changes magically from a box to a barrel-like set in the span of about one minute. Not an easy feat, I tell you.

Space Kid -- Bulletproof. It’s not just the suit, as we have seen it’s made out of random materials you can find in the average household. But while he’s being shot at, all the bullets hit him and he’s perfectly fine, he doesn’t even seem startled. I would say he’s immortal to some extent, except for how he can definitely get hurt, as we’ve seen in the ‘fake the moon landing’ episode.

David is somewhat immortal, he gets hit with the bus a LOT, but I assume he and Gwen don’t know this and just assume he’s extremely lucky, and I also don’t think they know they run a camp full of magical children.

This explains also how the Woodscouts and Flowerscouts are never able to beat the Campbell campers-- they don’t have magic, and they don’t know the Campbell campers have magic! this obsesses the Woodscouts with trying to figure out how to beat them, but they never can.

So the two other camps and the couselors see how Erid and Max appear out of nowhere and Nikki read David’s thoughts once and Harrison made Max barf up ribbons without doing anything and Space kid somehow isn’t damaged by bullets, but they chalk it all up to just kids being weird.

[rinaris-skyrim]

2. Tweaks

I wish I had a better category name for these. These are small changes, some of them atmospheric, some of them just nice to have. They don’t change anything terribly significant about the game, just add some flavor here, an item there, a little immersive utility yonder.

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A Matter of Time

In-game clock widget. Useful for checking to see when shops should be open, checking the phases of the moons if you’re a werewolf, figuring out if it’ll be dark soon. Just a gem. [link]

Aime’s Craftable Lockpicks

WISOTT - What it says on the tin. One iron ingot equals five lockpicks. No more complicated than that. [link]

Alchemist’s Journal

More for roleplaying purposes than anything. A simple book, craftable at a tanning rack, that lists ingredient effects as you discover them. [link]

Atlas Map Markers - Updated

The original Atlas Map Markers is brilliant, adding map markers for most things in Skyrim you might want on your map — the smaller camps, shops, shrines out in the wilderness, interesting spots, landmarks, whatnot. Kryptopyr updated it with an mod configuration menu. You’ll need the original [here], and then install Kryptopyr’s update [here] over it (”merge” option in Mod Organizer).

Better Stealing

A somewhat controversial tweak, one I’m not sure works well for balance, especially given various perk overhauls and other mods that allow multiple ways for you to offload stolen goods. However, I always found it stupid that shopkeepers would preternaturally “know” what was stolen and what wasn’t. This makes it simple: if it’s relatively inexpensive and no one sees you take it, it won’t be marked as “stolen” in your inventory (though the owners might still send some thugs after you after the fact, once they realize it’s missing!). Simple SKSE plugin. [link]

CS Soul Fragments to Soul Gems

Finally a use for all of those “Soul Gem Fragments” you find out in ruins or in random barrels! “Polish” the fragments with a linen rag at a forge, then combine them to make empty soul gems of the size you desire. You can also “smash” soul gems to reforge one large gem into several smaller ones, if you prefer, or combine smaller ones into larger gems. Why was this not in the base game? [link]

Dark Brotherhood for Good Guys

Why do I want this mod for a group that’s all about playing a murdering edgelord? Well, basically, because not all Brotherhood members are edgy dark edgelords, and usually when people want someone murdered, it’s for a reason. This gives you a somewhat different perspective on the Brotherhood and their victims: information, backstories, the philosophy of Sithis as morally neutral chaos instead of pure evil. I tend to play on the good-ish side of things, and I love reading and lore, so I like this. Add to taste. Be sure to merge the base mod with the provided hotfix. [link]

Dragon Wall Wisdom - Readable Dragon Walls

You’re the Dragonborn, right? Learning the dragon language, right? Gifted with an understanding of the dragon tongue and preternatural knowledge, right? Then you should really be able to read these dragon wall inscriptions in the game. This offers funny, quirky, and sometimes just downright mundane translations for these ancient arcane inscriptions. SHBITBG - Should have been in the base game. [link]

EK_RingLimiter

You have ten fingers. Why only one ring? This allows you to wear more — though for balance reasons I recommend sticking with the default of two, or perhaps four. Something something about magical auras interfering if the trinkets are worn too close to one another. ;) [link]

Even Better Quest Objectives

The default in-game journal is rather pathetic. It rarely gives you your motivations, or even a text version of where you’re supposed to go next. I very much miss Morrowind’s journal, where every conversation and relevant tidbit was recorded. This helps. [link]

Farmers Sell Produce

Seriously, again, why wasn’t this in the base game? It’s close to necessary if you’re going to use a needs mod, or something that uses produce to create medicines for diseases. Assuming, of course, you’re not inclined to go rampaging across farmers’ carefully-tended fields. [link]

Faster Transform - To Werewolf and VampireLord

Just a nice tweak. Again, time is valuable, it’s nice not to have quite such a large window in which I’m being wailed on by enemies, and I like the more monstrous touch. The middle option - only half the vanilla time to transform - is recommended for realism and balance reasons. [link]

Female Vampires Have Fangs

One of the very few purely aesthetic changes here. All vampires should have fangs. (I’m gay. Fangs hot.) [link]

Harvest Overhaul

Find it stupid you only get one flower from that whole patch of mountain flowers? Yeah, me too. This fixes that. [link]

iHUD - Immersive HUD

Neatly stows away the status bars when you don’t need them (when they’re full and you’re not in combat). Also hides the compass, because how does your character preternaturally know there’s this thing that way if they can’t see it? [link]

Immersive Dragons

Just gives dragons a larger wingspan so they can maybe actually lift themselves into the air. Another aesthetics tweak, with the goal of immersion. [link]

Jaxonz Lights Please

Incredibly useful for those using magical lighting. This maps both Candlelight and Magelight to hotkeys, removing the need to constantly switch spells. It also means you can easily toggle Candlelight on and off like a lantern or torch. Works well with mods that affect lighting and darkness, which I do. [link]

Jaxonz Map Markers

The best custom map marker mod I’ve found. Want to keep track of... well, anything? Ore deposits, NPCs, followers, your horse, that little camp... This is it! Uses the game’s built-in quest and quest objective system for map markers. Super easy to use. [link]

Kryptopyr’s Clothing and Clutter Fixes

This maybe should have gone in the “Fixes” post, but it’s... not quite “just” fixes. “Hooded robes” are separated into hoods and robes for mixing and matching, some NPCs clothing is changed to be more lore-friendly, alongside some behind-the-scenes fixes like weight adjustments. Optional, officially. [link]

Kryptopyr’s Weapon and Armor Fixes Remade

This also maybe should have gone in the “Fixes” post, but again, it’s a bit more of an overhaul, adjusting weights of things and armor scaling for consistency. Required for Kryptopyr’s great crafting overhaul, CCOR, so we definitely want this. [link]

Learn Alchemy From Recipes

WISOTT. Reading a recipe “discovers” those ingredient effects for you. Again, why was this not in the original game? [link]

Living Takes Time

I’ll be honest, I deactivate most of the features of this mod, except for “training takes time” and “reading takes time” (and increases speech skill). Crafting takes time just gets onerous, especially in the early game when you need all this gear and your bandoliers and you have needs you need to fill... And blocking the inventory or magic menu during combat is just... no. Still, the mod itself adds some nice functionality, and it can be fully tweaked to taste. If you’re using an alternate spell learning mod, be sure to set the “spell learning” time to zero. [link]

Mortal Enemies - De-Aimbot Your Foes

Once an enemy has started an attack, they’re locked into that direction and attack. This makes you able to dodge or move out of range of the attack, and they can no longer hit you anyways. They move slower when aiming or channeling as well. No instant pivots, and two-handed weapons feel heavier than one-handed ones. All in all, it makes combat feel more realistic, and allows them to miss you if you’re clever. But beware! These changes apply to you, too! [link]

No Psychic Lock Knowledge

WISOTT. You don’t somehow magically know how hard a lock is going to be just by looking at it. You just try to pick it, like... you actually would if you decide to pick a lock. [link]

No Silver at Jorrvaskr

Because a group of warriors whose upper echelons are all werewolves would totally be eating off silver. Not. [link] (in the optional files section)

Non-Exploitable Crossbow Reloading

Allows you to reload crossbows on your own time, by pressing the fire button, before firing again, without messing with your equipped ammunition. Simple and lovely. [link]

People Are Strangers

You don’t somehow magically know the names of people before you talk to them! I personally favor the “race” variant, just because... less generic, and I can usually see if someone is a Wood Elf or an Argonian anyways, but you can adjust the “stranger” label to taste. [link]

Point the Way

Roads actually have more signposts to direct people to the smaller towns as well as the large cities, and have them at more junctions. Signs also point the right way. Especially helpful along some of the more windy roads. No need to puzzle things out on your map quite so much. [link]

Realistic Capacity

Without a bag, you can only carry as much as you can feasibly wear, really. It’s that simple. This mod dynamically adjusts your capacity and allows for the armor you’re wearing and a few different weapons, e.g. a bow, a one-handed weapon, a shield, a knife or two, making those effectively weightless, and assume pockets for some meager supplies, but aside from that — backpacks and bags are mandatory. Makes things harder for a packrat like me, but it does make me think. [link]

Realistic Humanoid Movement Speed

This one takes a bit of the sting out of Realistic Capacity. Movement speed is adjusted to feel more realistic overall — you walk faster, jog more slowly (when sneaking, too), and don’t sprint like a gazelle. Take the optional horse speed modifier file to also add more value to horses: they walk and gallop faster as well now, in addition to their other benefits. [link]

Realistic Nights

Wondering why torches and night eye were even added to the game? Annoyed at how, well, bright the nights are? Put an end to that! Darker nights make light sources actually useful, and provides a good reason for sneaky types to actually consider the day/night cycle. Light adjusted based on the moons, snow reflecting night, and various other factors for an even better experience. [link]

Run For Your Lives

NPCs who are not guards or warriors run inside and hide from both dragons and vampire attacks. Like anyone with any sense of self-preservation would. I mean, I guess Nords don’t exactly revere self-preservation, but... this just seems more sensible to me, especially if we’re talking little old ladies armed with a steel dagger. [link]

SCRR - Skyrim Coin Replacer Redux

“Modern” Septims have no business deep in ancient Nordic burial mounds or Dwemer ruins. The Stormcloaks aren’t too ecstatic about Imperial money, either, and are creating their own silver currency, though gold is gold. Now silver Haralds are found in barrows, and ebony Dumacs in Dwemer ruins. All can be be melted down to ingots of their respective metals, or traded with merchants for “regular” currency. This adds massively to immersion, not to mention offering a supply of useful materials for smithing. [link]

Sleep Tight

Simple change that makes NPCs change into robes or clothes for sleeping, instead of going to bed in that hard iron armor (though for balance reasons, and modesty, people still wear chest armor). Accordingly, they’ll also take more damage if you can catch them unawares. [link]

Take Notes - Journal of the Dragonborn

I love this. I love this so so much. The ability to write a custom journal from in the game, and export it if I want to, adds so much to roleplaying. It means I can create a proper backstory, examine character motivations, process events of the game through my character’s lens, and record it all for myself later. Just, magnificent. Get it. You won’t regret it. [link]

The Choice is Yours - Fewer Forced Quests - Improved Dialogue Options

WISOTT. Just talking to someone doesn’t automatically add a quest to your inventory. You can turn an offer down or defer an errand until later. Some things a character just wouldn’t want to do. Now that’s not cluttering up your journal. Again, SHBITBG - should have been in the base game. [link]

Timing is Everything - Quest Delay and Timing Control

This allows you to space out the steps of the main quest as seems realistic (e.g. NPCs taking some time for research), as well as control when (at which level) various quests will start. There are also a few other tweaks to be found, such as Meridia’s Beacon not responding to vampires, werewolves randomly attacking, and Thalmor ignoring you unless certain quest conditions are fulfilled, instead of attack squads simply triggering at a certain level. [link]

TK Dodge

Gives you the ability to quickly sideroll and dodge a blow. Makes light armors a lot more viable in close combat, and plays nicely with Mortal Enemies. [link]

Trade and Barter

A fantastic mod that adjusts prices, merchant gold, and other parameters around trading based on race, faction alliance, personal relationships, location, and more. Highly customizable, highly compatible, brilliant. [link]

TravelMounts

You need to have a horse in order to be able to fast travel. Offers more of a reason to drop that 1000 gold, and this small tweak makes it feel much more immersive (after all, a rider can outrun and avoid many things someone on foot can’t). [link]

Truly Absorb Dragon Souls

For every dragon you kill and dragon soul you absorb, you get just that little bit stronger, gain a little more magicka, health, stamina, movement speed, carry weight, shout cooldown, armor, and magic resist. Set the amount gained for each dragon soul on install; I recommend medium to low values for each gain, just to offer longevity. [link]

Understandable Draugrs

In the vein of “Dragon Wall Wisdom,” you can now understand the draugr when they yell at you in a fight. Just adds the English translation in parentheses to the end of the subtitled Dragon language dialogue. Now your Dragonborn will be able to understand what’s being constantly shouted at them, even if it isn’t anything particularly nice or uplifting. [link]

Wearable Lanterns

No need to constantly toggle between a torch and a shield, or fight blind in a dark ruin. Just hook a lantern to your belt, that can easily be toggled on and off (and also automatically put out when you sneak, if you’re That Sort™). Incredibly nifty and useful. [link]

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...I’m sure I’ll be adding to this later. I’m sure, honestly. Maybe with an “optional tweaks” post, too, that are very much a preference thing. Or, y’know, just reblog myself. That might actually be the best option.

[flammiferr]

The Hobbit Equation

Starting my reread, I questioned the workings of hobbits more deeply than before. I questioned what exactly the difference is between Bilbo (then later the four LOTR hobbits and to a lesser extent, Buckland) and the rest of the Shire that is so distasteful.

Here’s what I came up with. 

Most hobbits: simplicity + ignorance

The distasteful exceptions: simplicity + knowledge 

Ringbearers: knowledge - simplicity

Simplicity and ignorance is the rule of the Shire, at least near Hobbiton. You can see this in the culture, the dialogue, the narration, and the priorities. They value comfort and good food, party invitations and pipeweed. The entirety of the Shire gets caught up in Bilbo’s party. The post office is flooded and overwhelmed, food is essentially the central feature of any event and hobbit parents are willing to bend their rules if it means their children get a free meal. It’s only the Speech they dread.

Hobbits are simple. They want a simple speech. Before it even starts, the hobbits dread hearing Bilbo’s poetry, or his allusions “to the absurd adventures of his mysterious journey.” The hobbits don’t want knowledge of the outside world. They want to remain isolated for the sake of simplicity, but what they end up with is willful ignorance. They look down on Buckland, call its people strange, because they ride on boats like the outsiders and live unnaturally close to the Old Forest and the edge of the Shire. They live too near to danger, to knowledge that would change them. They don’t want to hear it, and they dismiss all who do as crazy and uncivilized. They blame Frodo’s parents for their own death because they tempted fate. They say Bilbo’s cracked and Frodo’s cracking. They make fun of Sam for learning from Bilbo and condemn Gandalf, an outsider, as a disturber of the peace. 

It is with Bilbo’s Speech that this silent battle comes to the forefront. This has been simmering the entire time Bilbo has been back, and now it is boiling over. The battle is Bilbo’s knowledge and complexity versus the Shire’s willful ignorance and simplicity.

After Bilbo greets the different families, the book reads, 

“Today is my one hundred and eleventh birthday: I am eleventy-one today! ‘Hurray! Hurray! Many Happy Returns!’ they shouted, and they hammered joyously on the tables. Bilbo was doing splendidly. This was the sort of stuff they liked: short and obvious.”

But then the Speech starts to change. He says he has called them all here for a “Purpose,” with a capital P. This is when some of the Tooks begin to listen carefully. Because Bilbo is deviating from the norm. Something about how he says this implies something new. This is a sign of Bilbo’s Speech going off the rails, and a reference to the “Took-ish spirit” of Bilbo’s that leapt at the chance for adventure all those years before. The Tooks pick up on the change, and they are interested.

Bilbo then announces that he has Three Purposes, and each one is more unacceptable than the last. The First is well received at its beginning (flattery is easy to understand), but then it becomes too complex. The hobbits are confused and unsettled. Thrown off, and made to think.

“Indeed. for Three Purposes! First of all, to tell you that I am immensely fond of you all, and that eleventy-one years is too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits. Tremendous outburst of approval. 

I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. This was unexpected and rather difficult. There was some scattered clapping, but most of them were trying to work it out and see if it came to a compliment.

Secondly, to celebrate my birthday. Cheers again. 

Bilbo returns to the simple, and receives a positive response. They are easy to forgive this short complexity, because they don’t want to think too hard about it. They are ready to move on and are still happy to be filled with good food.

“I should say: OUR birthday. For it is, of course, also the birthday of my heir and nephew, Frodo. He comes of age and into his inheritance today. Some perfunctory clapping by the elders; and some loud shouts of ‘Frodo! Frodo! Jolly old Frodo,’ from the juniors. The Sackville-Bagginses scowled, and wondered what was meant by ‘coming into his inheritance’.

Now he alludes to what is about to happen. He is not only celebrating Frodo; he is setting up his imminent inheritance of Bag End, which of course is noticed by the Sackville-Bagginses. This is a transition from Bilbo to Frodo narratively as well. We followed Bilbo in The Hobbit, and now we will follow Frodo through The Lord of the Rings. We see that Frodo is liked by his peers, just as Bilbo once was. But the hobbits are more suspicious of Frodo because of his upbringing with the changed Bilbo. But Frodo still has his simplicity. He can balance well the simplicity of the Shire and the complexity of Bilbo. He knows how to mediate between them. Bilbo has shared his knowledge with Frodo, and Frodo does not yet have the Ring (something that will take away childlike simplicity). But the Ring is part of his inheritance, both literally and narratively. He is bound to the same fate, and the hobbits notice this as the years pass. (I’m getting ahead of myself; more about the Ring later). Frodo is still in love with the Shire, and the Shire accepts him, because he still has simplicity. He is popular: smart, adaptable, and open.

“Together we score one hundred and forty-four. Your numbers were chosen to fit this remarkable total: One Gross, if I may use the expression. No cheers. This was ridiculous. Many of his guests, and especially the Sackville-Bagginses, were insulted, feeling sure they had only been asked to fill the required number, like goods in a package. ‘One Gross, indeed! Vulgar expression.”

Here, some of Bilbo’s feelings come through. He has been isolated so long from hobbit society that he no longer sees them the same way. One Gross: an expression not meant for describing people (as stated earlier in the chapter). These hobbits, his relatives, are no longer his people. Except for Frodo. He and Frodo are now the only people he knows. He is setting them aside from the general populace. And it is this populace, these people present, that he wants to send a message to. And these hobbits are now both unsettled and angered, now even most of the Tooks. Bilbo, no longer caring what they think of him, is committing social suicide before he leaves just so he can finally challenge their way of life.

“It is also, if I maybe allowed to refer to ancient history, the anniversary of my arrival by barrel at Esgaroth on the Long Lake; though the fact that it was my birthday slipped my memory on that occasion. I was only fifty-one then, and birthdays did not seem so important. The banquet was very splendid, however, though I had a bad cold at the time, I remember, and could only say ‘thag you very buch’. I now repeat it more correctly: Thank you very much for coming to my little party. Obstinate silence. They all feared that a song or some poetry was now imminent; and they were getting bored. Why couldn’t he stop talking and let them drink to his health? But Bilbo did not sing or recite. He paused for a moment. 

Thirdly and finally, he said, I wish to make an ANNOUNCEMENT. He spoke the last word so loudly and suddenly that everyone sat up who still could. I regret to announce that -- though, as I said, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to spend among you -- this is the END. I am going. I am leaving NOW, GOODBYE!

He stepped down and vanished.

Bilbo has felt since his adventure that he has been keeping a secret: the secret of culture, history, the Ring, adventure. Knowledge that he has been trying to share for years, but the hobbits have been willingly blind and deaf to it. This creates an unhappy dichotomy -- a tension that Bilbo releases in his Speech. He literally SHOUTS his differences at the hobbits, going through the list of what they think is unacceptable or what they don’t like. He has everything in this speech: complex words, references to adventure and foreign places, ‘One Gross.’ And when he does this, even though they’ve been insulted, they pass it off as just mad old Bilbo. Because that is easier than examining it. But there is unrest; the hobbits are upset that he made them think. For a brief moment, they are speechless. Frodo gives them a simple explanation they can accept, but for a while, they are still disturbed; even good food will not satisfy them. Bilbo has succeeded in briefly challenging their way of thinking. But then the hobbits blame Gandalf, an outsider, and decide that Bilbo must have fallen in a pool or river and died. A normal way of dying -- his adventure cut short with a realistic end, as a warning to any who might also get such silly ideas. They want things to be simple as they always were, but Bilbo is on a different level; all of his knowledge, his complexity, made him an outcast. One side has to give.

Bilbo has lost both his simplicity and his ignorance, and thus cannot stay in the Shire. He no longer belongs. There is no place for him. Frodo, as the years pass after the party, also begins to lose this belonging, and often regrets not going with Bilbo. He knows things about the world, he knows that great and terrible things are out there. That knowledge becomes a burden in the Shire, where no one else knows or cares; just like the simplicity and ignorance of Sam, Merry, and Pippin are initially an obstacle for them in navigating the world outside. But Frodo is different. Wheras Sam, Merry, and Pippin have a hard time because they still belong to the Shire, Frodo has a hard time in the Shire because he’s starting not to belong. What is different about him, then, that Sam, who was also taught by Bilbo, does not share? 

The Ring, the sinister part of Frodo’s inheritance. Part of Frodo’s dissatisfaction may also come from his personality, but the Ring is an instrument for the loss of simplicity. It creates dissatisfaction, the want for more. It twists who you are, and you lose your innocence. This is the thing that drove Gollum, another hobbit-like creature, away from his own people. The longer Frodo carries the Ring, the more he forgets about the simple things. As he gets closer to Mordor, and the Ring becomes stronger, we get this dialogue from Frodo: “I can't recall the taste of food, nor the sound of water, nor the touch of grass.” This is eerily similar to what Gollum experienced under the mountains, where the Ring had so long to corrupt him.

“And we wept, Precious, we wept to be so alone. And we only wish to catch fish so juicy sweet. And we forgot the taste of bread... the sound of trees... the softness of the wind.”

This quote is a close echo of Frodo’s (or rather, vice versa). The Ring works to separate you from comfort, to go against your nature. For the simple hobbits, this is good food, nature, and especially companionship. This is why Frodo would have failed without Sam and his loyalty. Sam not only reminded him of these simple things (with his yet intact simplicity); he refused to leave Frodo even when the Ring tried to drive Sam away.

Eventually, even Sam, who also bore the Ring however briefly, feels the need to leave the Shire and sail like Frodo and Bilbo did. Frodo and Sam are the only two that listened to Bilbo’s stories and poetry as children. They had that knowledge from early on, and the Ring took away their childlike simplicity.

Merry and Pippin are different. They retain their simplicity throughout the story and beyond. Their shared connection of simplicity with the Shire allows them to become excellent leaders with the knowledge and experience that they gained. This difference and growth is highlighted in the Scouring of the Shire, when the hobbits take charge and Merry blows the horn of Rohan in response to Sandyman. I’ll get into this when I get to the end of my reread.

Finally, we’ll look at the Grey Havens. This is where Merry and Pippin most show their difference from Frodo and Sam. After Frodo leaves, Sam is comtemplative, sorrowful, and silent (though he can still delight in his family). Merry and Pippin walk back to the Shire singing. They are still joyful, mature and yet childlike (as opposed to the childish ignorance of the Shire previously). They still have their simplicity and, after the Shire has been so rocked, can bring their knowledge to the changed Shire in a subtle way. Because it was by the hobbits’ ignorance that they were susceptible to Saruman.

Merry and Pippin have been built up by their adventures, they have grown (literally and figuratively) and give off an aura of competence but also an aura of joy. They adapted to the world beautifully. Frodo and Sam were torn down by their adventures, Frodo so much so that he can no longer find peace in Middle Earth, while Sam can still be rebuilt by his family and his own rebuilding of the Shire itself. By restoring the nature of the Shire, he restores a bit of that simplicity in himself, until his own time to sail.

To conclude (at last), the proper growth of a hobbit is from childish to childlike: something Frodo achieved before even leaving the Shire. He experienced negative growth with his loss of simplicity, and thus, like Bilbo, was no longer able to stay in the Shire. He did, however, go a bit more quietly than Bilbo, whose Speech was the manifestation of the dichotomy of ignorance vs. knowledge, and a measure of how the Shire needed to change. So this is the hobbit equation: simplicity and ignorance, or simplicity and knowledge. The Ring takes one away from their nature, and they become un-hobbitlike, like Gollum became un-hobbitlike. Theirs is a healing that can now only come from the peace of Valinor.

(This has gotten abhorrently long. I’ll continue building on this idea as I go through the books, along with my other thoughts and theories. Hope you enjoyed! )

[mysticsparklewings]

Tombow Recycled Colored Pencil Review

Look! I finally got some more colored pencils to try out!   This time we're looking at the Tombow Recycled Colored Pencils. Tombow is probably best known for their water-based dual brush pens, which I have a few of, but these and their other line, the Irojiten colored pencils (which are a bit fancier and noticeably more expensive than these), are more intriguing to me. These pencils specifically are called "recycled" pencils because if you look closely at the pencils in person, each one has a couple of zigzag lines dotted along the barrel/wood casing. These are "finger joints" where partial pieces of wood have been joined together to make a piece the proper length for making colored pencils, whereas most normal colored pencils just use whole pieces of wood and, apparently, thus generate a lot of wood-waste. But what really caught my attention about the recycled colored pencils, and why I ended up getting them before getting the Irojitens even though the packaging and idea behind those are ridiculously attractive to me, is because the word on the internet is that the core of these pencils used the exact same formula as the Irojitens. This is important because the 24 set of Recycled Pencils goes for about $14 on Amazon, and anywhere from $13-$30 depending on where else you look. But any of the three sets of 30 Irojiten pencils can go anywhere from $25-$50 depending on where you look, and while there are only 24 Recycled pencil colors, there are 90 Irojiten colors (the full set going for about $80-$100, again depending on where you look), so you'll end up paying a lot more to get the full set of those. What that means then, if they are indeed the same core--I couldn't find confirmation on Tombow's website or the Amazon listing, so it could very well just be a very strong rumor--that these are a cheaper way to try out the formula for the Irojiten pencils to see if you even want to invest in them. Hoping this was one of the times the internet is right, that's what I did. I'll get my big complaints out of the way first: I wish there were more colors, the pencils are a bit of the harder side (but not to the point they're painful to work with), and the white and metallics fell a little short for me. But, even so, I think the pencils are pretty nice for their price point. So let's take a bit of a deep dive and I'll address those things as they come up. The first thing I noticed once I actually had the pencils in my hand is that they're designed similarly to the Caran D'ache Luminance and Faber Castell PITT Pastel pencils, both of which are considered high/artist quality pencils and their price points reflect that very strongly. (Translation: Those pencils are hecka expensive). Most of the pencil is the naked wood casing, but the very ends, about 1/4 of an inch, are dipped in what's supposed to be the color of the pencil. The pencils, as well as the hinged tin they come in, have a lot of either Japanese or Vietnamese printed on them. (I've heard multiple times that Tombow is a Japanese company but these pencils both on the packaging and on the pencils themselves say there were made in Vietnam, and as uncultured American swine my untrained eyes can't tell the difference between the two written languages) This makes figuring out which color you have a wee bit tricky, but the color names are printed inside the lid of the tin and each pencil is numbered and they're laid out in the correct order, so if you can remember which color is which number, you should be okay. This problem could also be eased by some washi tape either on the tin with the number or one the pencils with the names (or both), but I got used to the numbers/placement to figure out which ones I wanted pretty quickly. This would be a much bigger problem if this was a larger set, though. Speaking of which, about those colors... For a 24 set, I do feel like you get a pretty good range; There's a white, black, pink, peachy/light skin tone color, even a gray and two metallics: silver and gold. Comparing this color range to both the Prismacolor 24 set and the Crayola Artist/Blend & Shade 24 set, I do wish they'd swapped one of the yellowish colors for a light turquoise/blue-green color like the other two sets have, and if I'm really splitting hairs then swapping the metallics for another lighter skin tone/peachy/tan color and/or light purple/lavender would've been really nice. But this set has a nice gray, which neither of the other sets do, and otherwise is pretty well-rounded for a small set, in my humble opinion. There is one thing that bugs me about this color selection though; there's one pencil, 16 Ultramarine, that from the paint on the pencil looks like the typical darker warm blue color you'd expect Ultramarine to be, but when you swatch it out, the color is noticeably lighter. So, in reality, it's about the same darkness/value as the regular 15 Blue. This is disappointing because that means unless you use black there's not a good darker blue in the set to shade with. The irony is that another color, 23 Magenta, is a lot more saturated/vibrant on the pencil than it is swatched. This is less disappointing because the slightly darker, more muted hot pink color is arguably more useful that the brighter, more fuchsia-ish color would've been. Otherwise, the colors on the pencils match the swatches fairly well. But I think the disparity is largely because there's no white base layer between the wood of the pencil and the color dips, and so the colors on the pencils are all slightly tainted by the color of the wood. Even with a layer of white pencil, with these or any other pencils, my tan and gray papers always affect the final colors, so it does matter. Anyway. As for performance, for the price point--which I'm garnering as the $13-$14 range because that's what I paid, even though it can be higher--they do really well. They're not as soft as Prismacolor, but from my pre-purchase research, I had already expected that for both these and the Irojitens. And I mean, if we're being realistic as this point there's only like two pencil brands I will ever expect to be as soft as good ol' Prismacolor--the Caran D'ache Luminance and the Holbein pencils from Japan--but those are ludicrously expensive and so it will probably be quite a while before I can see how true that impression holds. Unless the pencils are so hard/unpigmented that it hurts my hand to use them when coloring for long amounts of time (20 minutes or more sessions), I typically don't count that super harshly against the pencils. But I digress. It is a little queer though because these pencils--it's like they're somewhat soft at the same time that they're noticeably rigid, which reminded me somewhat of the Faber Castell Polychromos, which are an oil-based pencil. I couldn't find a definitive answer--on the Tombow website or the Amazon listing--on if these pencils or the Irojitens are supposed to be oil or wax-based (though I could have missed it somewhere), but this combined with the more creamy feel on the paper makes me think they're actually a strong wax/oil hybrid. When they go down on the paper, the amount of friction and general feel is nearly identical to wax-based pencils (creamy feel as opposed to oil pencils having a silky/gliding feel), but the more rigid nature and the fact that these prefer to be layered up slowly rather than trying to go right for a heavy pressure layer to get the best color pay-off is definitely more in the family of oil-based pencils. And they don't have as much a of a "waxy" sheen when you move them in the light, again like oil-based pencils. I'd almost say they are oil-based, but there's just enough feel of a wax-based pencil, and the way they look on the paper, I don't feel comfortable sticking them squarely in that category. As for layering and blending, my research had also pre-cautioned me that these do better to layer them up slowly instead of trying to burnish them in right away. And that does indeed seem to be the case, just like with the aforementioned Polychromos. You can get decent color pay-off from going in heavy straight away, but it's easier on the hand and I would say looks and feels better to use layers instead. They do blend better than I expected from the way they felt; it's not super-duper smooth like Prismacolor or like I've had with Schpirerr Farben sometimes, but it is pretty smooth and as you can see here is very workable. It helps that they do appear to have the layering power you'd expect from other oil or oil-hybrid pencils, meaning while the first couple of layers look a little rough and concerning, once you've built them up they smooth out and you can keep going to build them up for noticeably longer than your typical wax-based pencil. All this in mind and backing up a little bit, the white was disappointing to me because it's not that strong/pigmented on its own. It's not the worst I've ever seen, but unless you put the white down first and pre-plan where you're going to want that strong white highlight and avoid going over it with other colors, it's not very good for adding strong white color back into a drawing over other color layers. But it is pretty good for blending, which I find tends to be the give and take on white-colored pencils: if they can't stand strongly on their own they usually work better as blenders. You'll also notice that despite my earlier comment on not having a proper darker blue/Ultramarine color, I was able to fake it pretty well here by layering up purples, blues, and a bit of black. And overall I'd say they do mix pretty well to make new colors, so the smaller set size is a little less of a problem than I initially expected. I also have to mention that in testing they have some of the best erasing I've ever seen for colored pencils that aren't specifically marketed as being erasable. Naturally, they don't erase 100% completely just like no colored pencil does, but it did really surprise me. Also, my white gel pens were a little fussy over top of these pencils. Not as bad as some other pencils I've tried, but they responded very similarly to how my other wax-based pencils do. But obviously, I was able to get them to work without too much headache. Overall, I give the pencils a 3.5 out of 5, which is pretty good as far as my standards for colored pencils go. I did take into account that I'm not crazy about the hinged lid on the tin them come in, but that's not a huge dealbreaker as it doesn't make the tin annoying or outright unusual to me, unlike other packaging issues have in the past. Also, of course, I took into account the other issues I mentioned, along with even my beloved Prismacolors only get a 4.5 out of 5 for minor issues and there always being room for improvement, even for favorites or "the best." Like I said earlier, the pencils really did surprise me for the price that I paid. That said, this does make me want to get the Irojitens to compare and see the proof in the pudding as to whether they really are the same core or not, as well as if they are to just have many more colors at my disposal to pick from, as in the end, I think that really was my biggest problem with these; 24 is just not a huge range of color to pick from. And, like I said at the very beginning, the packaging gimmick for the Irojitens constantly calls my name, but I'll save talking about that for the day that I actually have them in my hands, whenever that ends up being. I'd say if you want an experience that manages to hit somewhere between Polychromos/oil-based colored pencils and Prismacolor/wax-based colored pencils, that are still pretty nice quality and won't totally break the bank, these are very much worth a try. And now if you'll excuse me, I have some other supplies and some backlogged art on my to-do list that demand my attention. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram