#why do I keep giffing the DARKEST scenes

[uuuhshiny]

Vladimir Verevochkin in Code name: Cranes

Well-trained

[whateverisbeautiful]

♥️Reveling in Richonne - TOWL

#40: The Living Dead (1.04)

gif cred: @ricksmarlene

I love that TOWL didn’t hold back on making Rick and Michonne’s love as powerful as it is in their lives. To the point that even with their motto being 'We’re The Ones Who Live,' Rick could then break down and declare to Michonne that he can't live without her.

This whole scene has been one of Andy and Danai’s best performances and they just continue to knock it out of the park with this moving and climactic moment where Rick finally opens up about what really has been weighing on him and keeping him from feeling like he can go home.😢...

Episode 4 truly had me feeling every emotion in the book - there was joy, anger, laughter, shock, awe, and so much more within the experience of this incredible episode. And in this standout moment right here, there is this astounding sense of pain that’s captured as Rick finally confides in Michonne with full honesty and transparency.

So after leveling with Rick through vulnerability and powerfully sharing her hurt, Michonne takes Rick’s face in her hands and opens up the floor for him to share his.

Repeating what she asked him earlier in the ep she again asks, “What did they do to you? Rick, I need you to try to tell me what is really going on here.”

gif cred: @twdfranchise

And Rick has that shaky breathing that always tells the story of his fear and panic - but this time his love for her is going to win out over the fear. 👌🏽 His wife needs him to tell her what's going on inside and since she needs it, Rick is willing to finally go there with her.

She’s instilled so much love and honesty in him that now he can muster the strength to finally reveal why he doesn’t feel strong anymore.

gif cred: @ricksmarlene

I love that Michonne then words it as, “What did they take from you?” It’s what did they do. Not Rick. Them.

Even that is a sign of her belief in him because it's like she's saying Rick is still the brave man she knows and loves, whatever failure he thinks he's become - he hasn't. Something was done to him and taken from him.

Rick seemed like he was taking full responsibility for the “failure” he thinks he’s become but Michonne is adamant that he is not the source. Whenever you’re stripped from the place and people you call home and forced to stay away from the things that make you you, that’s when you lose yourself.

And Rick has experienced the trauma of losing himself, including his most crucial parts like the face of his son and wife. So it’s so impactful how Michonne leads Rick to a space of vulnerably opening up about what happened to him and the toll it took on him.

One of the many things I so appreciate about Michonne is that, true to the way she was with Rick all throughout their relationship and from as early as season 3, she’s not demanding that Rick have all the answers or get it together. She just wants him to express what’s going on inside. To let it out. She’s always allowed him to be where he’s at and she’ll meet him there to listen and help hold his hand to better.

I think of Clear and how, even as strangers, Michonne was one of the first to approach Rick not just seeking answers or needing something from him but just a comforting calming presence who let him know it’s okay and he’s okay which she only did more and more in each season of their relationship - like when she showed him so much love at his lowest with the Kiss of Life.

One of the ways she shows her love is through always being willing to travel the darkest valleys of his mind with him. And so that’s what she so longs to do in ep 4, to just finally have Rick open up about whatever is paining him and paining him so much it’s keeping him from going home.

She knows it’s something deep-rooted going on inside of him and, while she doesn’t yet know what it is, I know because of their interconnection she can feel, palpably feel, the pain he has yet to express. And she doesn’t expect him to solve it alone or get over it - no, she just wants him to believe he’s safe enough to express it so they can get through it together.

gif cred: @twdfranchise

And I think that really helps Rick assess and admit what’s happened to him because finally he opens up and breaks my entire heart in pieces when he whispers, “Carl. They took Carl.” 💔💔💔

gif cred: @twdfranchise

Y’all, I…😭 Endlessly crying every time I hear that.

First of all, I appreciate that this is how Carl first comes up between them and that he still gets to be so extremely relevant to the story and to Richonne.

I had written a list in 2023 of what I hoped to see in TOWL and one of the things on the wishlist was a meaningful Carl reference. Because with how much Carl impacted Rick and Michonne and how much they love their boy, I knew it would be so heartfelt for Carl to be included somehow in this miniseries. And he was included in better ways than I could have imagined.🥲

And I really could see it being the case that, for years, Rick hasn’t even said Carl's name out loud to anyone - until right now talking to Carl’s stepmom/best friend. 🥺

gif cred: @twdfranchise

It’s a huge deal that Rick is finally able to talk about this, especially because you know he feels so horrible for having lost his son's memory. That has to be hard for him to even put into words. But by now reframing his outlook to what the CRM did, it’s like that’s part of why he can share it because he knows Carl’s memory was actually taken from him due to his captors.

And the CRM already was overdue to burn - but learning they took Carl from Rick?? Oh now they have to burn x10. 😓

Just hearing the name Carl is always a gut punch and then it's especially tragic as Rick says, “I lost him again” Man they captured the emotional weight of this perfectly, it kills me. 🥺

gif cred: @twdfranchise

And you can see that hearing this breaks Michonne’s heart too. 💔

Rick then explains to Michonne, “When I got taken I fought and I fought not just by trying to get away but by how I would dream.” I love that he’s telling Michonne about his dreams because from as early as season 3 seeing him 'see things,' she has always got to be let into the innermost layers of Rick.

And I especially adore that these dreams were one of the ways Rick fought to hold onto himself and his loved ones after the CRM and trifling Jadis tried to strip all that away. Rick is a fighter and a family man down. 😭

Rick says, “I’d meet up with Carl in my dreams” and just...Rick is the greatest father to ever father, y'all. 🥲 I adore learning that when he was taken from everyone he knows and loves, he found solace in meeting up with Carl. He still clung so tight to his son's memory. 🥺

gif cred: @twdfranchise

And then if I wasn’t already a mess, they show a little clip of Rick holding a young Carl’s hand on a farm. Rick says, “And that’s how I survived in here. Kept me alive” Even in death, Carl was still helping keep his dad alive. 😭

gif cred: @twdfranchise

And then the pain of this scene runs even deeper as Rick reveals, “And then one day, he was just gone. He just left.” If you guessed I’m writing this with tears welled in my eyes, you’d be correct. 🥺 That line is so heartbreaking I don’t even know where to begin.

It is beyond painful to hear Rick say he couldn’t see Carl anymore. He had to lose his son twice. As if the first time wasn't unbearable enough. 😞

It makes me think of Pixar’s Coco and how the film explored the idea that losing the memory of a lost loved one is like experiencing the official death of a person.

So I can only imagine how awful it felt for Rick to realize he couldn’t even recall his son's face because of being ripped away from everything that reminded him of Carl, including his little sister and Carl’s best friend/mom. Losing Carl's image likely felt to Rick like his son had now officially died. 😓

gif cred: @twdfranchise

Losing the son he loves and who was his heart's engine was already hard enough on Rick but then to lose his image too…how do you even begin to recover from that?

Well for Rick, there was one thing that could save him from succumbing completely to that kind of pain…and it’s her. Of course, it was Michonne. 🥹

Rick shares, “But then I started dreaming of you." The way his voice becomes so soft as he says 'you' and then we see a clip of Michonne's beautiful smile at him from Rick’s proposal dream. Love it. 😭 She saves him irl and in his dreams.

And back to that whole thought of these dreams being almost like a stage play of Richonne’s real-life journey, that becomes even more evident when you realize Rick had lost Carl’s memory and needed to figure out how to stay alive and Michonne shows up in his dreams to not only show him the way but to be the way.

She’s not just able to guide him to the light, she is the light he’s trying to get to.

And just like in their real journey when Carl passed, it was Michonne who most showed up and stepped up to be there for Rick to heal him and keep him going. 👌🏽

(Side note: Another thing I loved about Rick's dreams in episode one is that he was immediately drawn to even just the aura and sight of Michonne. Before he technically knew anything else about her. In the past, some have tried to claim that it was only seeing Michonne be such an asset to his children and to the group that made Rick develop feelings for her. And while getting to know her and seeing her positive impact was very important, I like how the dreams were able to reiterate that Rick has always been captivated by her whole being, inside and out. Not just what she does but who she is.)

I love the way Rick so lovingly says, “And there you were.” You can just tell that it meant the world to him the first time Michonne showed up in his dreams while he was in Philadelphia. 🥹 (And I'd be so curious what the scenario was for his first dream that Michonne appeared in after Carl's image left him.) The sight of Michonne showing up in living color in his dreams after his mind could have nearly gone dark losing Carl had to be the most beautiful sight of all to him.

It's heartwarming that the vision of her showed up when he needed her most. It’s also sad because in the beginning of his time with the Civic Republic part of why Rick probably was dreaming of Carl only, was because he was so convinced he’d see Michonne and Judith again in real life that he didn't have to meet up with them in dreams.

But as it became less and less likely that he would reunite with them, that's when his mind still found a way to reunite with Michonne in his mind. 🥲 I adore the way this shows just how special and vital Michonne is to Rick that he could lose the image of his son and still be kept going by the memory of her. 

I hadn’t expected Rick would get to tell real Michonne about his dreams but I love that he got to as he tells her, “You and I fell in love in different ways and it kept me going.”

Falling in love with Michonne over and over kept Rick going. 🫠 Falling in love with Michonne over and over kept Rick going. 🥺 I could say that nonstop because I love it so much I can hardly stand it. 😭😭

Like Rick Grimes is the greatest loverboy of all time and it is the most heartbursting thing ever to know that he’d imagine falling in love with her in different ways because falling in love with Michonne & her falling in love with him is something he cherishes so much. 🥹 My extra self would watch a whole spinoff series dedicated to all the different dream scenarios Rick's mind concocted.😋

The fact that the park bench was just one of many falling-in-love scenarios between them. The fact that in his dreams, the 'ways' would be different but the 'falling in love with her' was always the constant. 😭 This whole moment was such an impactful way to depict how vital Michonne's love is to Rick.

One of the great things about Richonne is they love their love too. Like they are so honored to be in love with each other and it’s always evident. And this definitely suggests that Rick believes he was bound to fall in love with Michonne in any environment they would have met in.

But while falling in love with Michonne kept him going for a long while and made him feel a bit less alone, the wear and tear of the CRM on his mind tried to destroy those Michonne-dreams too as Rick starts to become more emotional and tells Michonne, “But then you were gone too. I couldn’t see your face anymore, just like I couldn’t see Carl’s.”

What an extraordinarily powerful exploration of trauma and the way it distorts and damages memory. So incredibly well done. 🥲👏🏽 This dialogue and performance had me falling apart.

And the pain in this moment is just almost too much to bear. The fact that Rick lost the faces of the two people who most have his heart, apart from Judith and RJ. No wonder he lost himself.

In an RIR s8 post years ago I had dissected Richonne's 'i love you' scene and I wrote: “So long as they have each other and love each other, they’ll never lose Carl.” And that proved extremely true cuz then Rick did lose Michonne and Judith and it made him lose Carl again too. 😢

When he says he couldn't see their faces I always think about that beautiful train track scene where Rick watches Michonne and Carl bond. To think he just couldn’t see those two who he loves so much anymore. Cut the cameras, I'm done. 😭

But they aren’t done sending my heart through the wringer because then Rick just says the most devastatingly romantic thing as he looks right into Michonne's eyes and tells her, “I can’t live without you. Without you, I die.”

gif cred: @coolpartytimefan

WOW. 😭 We knew they feel this deeply about each other but it is so impactful to hear it outright and for Rick to genuinely feel like there is no scenario where he can live without Michonne. The ultimate soulmates.

I love how he declares this sentiment in two ways because he's making it clear that "I can't live without you" isn't just some romantic turn of phrase for him. It genuinely means, "Without you, I die." Just as one can't live without their literal heart, Rick knows he can't live without the woman who is his heart either.

She's his life source and the way Rick professes that without Michonne he dies, the words are spoken so breathy and certain. He means this from the depths of his spirit.

Then Rick so vulnerably tells her, “And I figured out how to do that. I know how to be dead and live now. You can’t just come back here make me come alive again if - if I don’t know if I won’t lose you again. What if I lose you and I can’t figure out how to die all over again?”

gif cred: @riickgrimes

😭😭😭

Y’all, sitting with this scene to write these notes is heavy. 😓 I had a moment where I just had to pause because this moment is something else, man. It hits my heart like no media has hit my heart before. 🥺 I'm just left here looking at Richonne like...

It moves me to no end to know that why Rick was actually scared to go home is because he’s terrified of losing Michonne and then having to figure out how to die without dying again.

Again, it's such a testament to the depth, power, and importance of Richonne's love that Rick has overcome so many hardships in life, so many things that could have easily killed him, and yet the one thing that actually turned him into the walking dead was losing Michonne. 😢

'I figured out how to do that' is Rick essentially saying he's mastered living in pain and becoming dead to it. And so it’s scary for him to emerge out of that space and return to life only to potentially be forced right back to that excruciating pain if he loses her again. Like for Rick, going home really felt like a matter of life and death both for himself and for her because if he goes home and loses her, he knows he won't survive that. 

gif cred: @riickgrimes

Rick starts to really break down as he says, “I can’t…I needed to get ahead of it, Michonne. I can’t. I can’t.” I love that he’s able to be this unabashedly emotional and it’s so sweet seeing Michonne put her hand on him while he cries and finally lets this all out.

I feel like in this scene, Rick through words and Michonne through expressions both acknowledge how uniquely devastating it’s been for them to be apart from each other all these years. With their extended time apart, they both got a tragic taste of what it would feel like to have the other pass away.

Just like Rick felt lost in reality and in his dream until Michonne showed up, Michonne also told Judith in Scars that after Rick was gone she felt lost too. Even despite the fact that she wasn’t plucked out of her environment the way Rick was she still felt so lost without him. They both lost their source of so many things, including their compass, when they lost each other. 🧭😢

gif cred: @riickgrimes

Rick admits, “When I saw you, I got so scared and I needed to get ahead of it. I had to.” The fear he felt when seeing Michonne in those woods during their ep 2  reunion moment was definitely visible, especially when he told her the CRM were coming.

It’s interesting Rick keeps reiterating that he had to get ahead of it. I think when he reunited with Michonne his mind became consumed with everything that could go wrong and also the risk that would come with coming back alive through her even tho he couldn’t help but do so. So all the pushing away he was doing was trying to get ahead of the pain he most wanted to avoid which was losing her and then not just dying all over again but not being able to figure out how.

And if he can't figure out how to die he knows that'll mean viscerally experiencing the worst thing possible for him, which is living without her. 😔

gif cred: @riickgrimes

The connection between fear and love is interesting. It makes me think about how Rick admitted to Abraham that he's scared to be in love again. The rare love Rick and Michonne have found within each other runs so deep that it's a scary thing to lose, especially because Rick knows Michonne's presence in his life is irreplaceable and she isn’t just a want, she's a necessity for him to feel alive.

And then the way Michonne is so empathetically and emotionally taking in these words. 🥺 It’s sweet how she feels like she truly gets this level of love because she feels this deeply about him too. She wasn’t exactly able to die while alive because she still had their kids to raise, but she absolutely had a major light turn off within her as well when she lost Rick.

It tugs on my heart to see Michonne give Rick her undivided attention and feel all of this with him. The way she nods, understanding this unique pain and supporting him as he shares it. And the way she’ll occasionally place her hand on his face, comforting him and letting her touch remind him that she’s here with him fully. It's all such a sincere and authentic act of love.

Rick explains the logic he’s been trying to cling to when he says, “At least if I think you will live on longer than me, without knowing if you do, I can just believe that it’s true.” My heart. ❤️‍🩹

gif cred: @riickgrimes

The fact that Rick feels like he needs the only scenario to be one where Michonne outlives him. 🥺 There's an endearing innocence to me when Rick shares that he wants to be able to believe that Michonne will live longer than him, no matter if it’s true.

Rick was in such dark and lonely circumstances with the CRM and when he searched for a positive of the situation it was that at least he can now always believe that Michonne is alive. In a way, being apart meant she could be immortalized and become 'the one who lives forever' to him.

He’d never have to mourn her literal loss because he’d never have to think or know she’s gone. And it’s valid for it to be scary for him to now reintroduce the risk of losing her after losing her on the bridge made him become the walking dead.

When Rick said “I can lose you” in that van in Say Yes, something I had speculated back then, which I feel this TOWL moment confirms, is Rick was only ever considering scenarios where he doesn’t make it.

I genuinely do not think Rick thought there’d be a case where he lives on and she doesn't and so that’s why he was trying to reassure Michonne she has to go on without him.

gif cred: @riickgrimes

He didn’t think there’d ever be a scenario where he’d have to go on without her. But then it did happen and it killed him. He had to go years without her and it killed him to the point that he had to figure out how to be dead and live. So when Rick says he can't live without Michonne, he knows that from experience, because he really has not been living since being taken from her.

Rick and Michonne had been so committed to building their life together for the rest of their life that without her, he doesn’t see a life to live. And I appreciate that it's still in a healthy grown-love way that their souls are so intertwined that they literally need each other to be alive.

Since Rick has become convinced that being with Michonne might come with too much risk of losing each other again, he emotionally chokes out the words, “Knowing…seeing that loss. I can’t…I won’t survive that, Michonne. I just won’t.” ❤️‍🩹🥺

gif cred: @riickgrimes

First of all - Andrew Lincoln's performance in this scene 🔥🔥🔥🔥...

Something incredibly special about Andy's talent is that he goes to these uniquely vulnerable places so wholeheartedly and authentically. Especially when depicting Rick’s grief - he’s always done it in a way that’s not concerned with looking contained or controlled but just being as raw and honest as possible. He doesn’t merely portray the emotion - He becomes the emotion in its visceral entirety. A prodigious actor. 👏🏽

And it is so extremely significant for Rick, after having endured so many lost loved ones, to feel that Michonne is the one loss he will not bounce back from.

He feels so certain about the fact that he is not surviving losing Michonne. He truly needs her to live. Rick needs Michonne to be on this earth, in every meaning of those words. And it makes perfect sense he’d feel this way about his soulmate.

Richonne has the deepest love on television, truly. 💯

And Rick Grimes is such a great and compelling character for so many reasons but especially because of the way he feels so deeply for those he loves. That's part of why TOWL felt fresh because it explored an all-new situation for Rick - he had to go the longest he's ever gone without family. Enduring that was bound to break him down in a very intense internal way.

Rick finally confronting the pain he's been trying to suppress, and allowing himself to uninhibitedly feel and express the fullness of his raw emotions with Michonne in this scene, is a true act of strength.

I think some viewers who love Rick Grimes but complain that he was 'weak' in TOWL love that Rick is a family man if it means that’s what makes him fight and rip jugulars out for family. However, they tend to miss or dismiss that Rick being a family man also means that what he most wants to be in life is not some cutthroat killing machine but rather Michonne’s husband and his kids’ father. That is this character's driving force. The desire for and the devotion to his wife and kids are foundational to who he is and why he does everything he does.

So losing the image of Carl and choosing to die after realizing he can’t be with his wife and daughter, or else they’ll be in danger, would take such an extreme toll on him and disrupt the very fabric of who Rick is. With these damaging circumstances, of course, the meat of the miniseries would need to be a more personal journey. A journey of Rick not being superhuman but rather super human, breaking and 'dying,' and needing to get his wife and kids back in order to get himself back and live again.

And because Rick and Michonne are so aligned with each other and so deeply connected, Michonne will give Rick the exact thing he needs to begin healing and officially come back to life as this stunningly acted and unforgettable scene concludes...📱🥲👌🏽

[hvitserkk]

GIF TUTORIAL BY HVITSERKK

This was requested and while I do have older tutorials, my process has definitely changed since my last one. If you need something more in-depth, I have an A-Z tutorial here (which I still use besides the coloring/editing) and a master list of specific gif tutorials here. This tutorial will go over coloring using levels, color balance, curves, channel mixer, selective color and other adjustment layers. 

This is what I’ve been using for the past year or so, but we’ll say that this is up to date as of May 2022. Please reblog if this helps!

TUTORIAL BELOW (IMAGE AND GIF HEAVY):

I’ll mainly use the gifs above during the tutorial, but I might add one to show a certain step a bit more clearly. I always use more then one scene for my gif tutorials because I want you to be able to see the steps on more then one gif with different lighting, color tones and skin tones so you can get more of a feel of how to use different adjustment layers.

I’m going to start off right after sharpening, and I still use the action linked in my A-Z tutorial. The only difference is on the top layer (there’s only two), I set it to 70% instead of 60%. 

So here are my before gifs (minus one that’s used in the first step): 

As I mentioned, they’ve only been resized (to 268X268) and sharpened. Now let’s jump right in!

1. The first thing I always start with is a "Levels" layer. I want to bump up the entire gif before so I don't have to use so many other brightening layers later. Nothing to drastic, just move the left slider (shadows) towards the middle, the middle slider to the left and the right slider (contrast + brightness) to the left. Remember to only move them a little bit, the next step using curves will do the bulk of the brightening. Here are my level settings:

And my before gif:

and the gif after levels:

2. The next step is to add two "Curves" layers. You could do the next step on one layer, but I like to keep them separate so I can lower the opacity on each individually. But I name one "Curves - White" and "Curves - Black". Using the black and white liquid droppers, you just click on the the darkest and lightest spots on your gif.

You may have to click around to find the perfect spot, and note that if you click on a blueish white or yellow white, it could alter the entire coloring of your gif, so be sure to find a spot that doesn't do that. Don't be afraid to zoom in and click on one single pixel!

You can also click on slightly darker (with the white dropper) or lighter (with the dark dropper) shades to add more contrast, ie clicking on a light gray cloud with the white dropper will turn that shade and any lighter shade pure white and add a lot (or maybe too much) contrast.

So if you want something pure white (#ffffff) use the white dropper and click on the white area of your gif. Here's my gif, I clicked on the snow that’s stuck to his coat on the left next to his ear:

Now, if you want something pure black (#000000) use the black dropper and click on a dark area on your gif. Here's my gif, I clicked on the darkest spot in the center of his beard:

I used the same gif to show you how big of a difference the curves alone make.  Now you can lower the opacity of each layer to your liking. Personally, I like a super contrast look, so I only lowered them 10-15%.

Here's another gif to show you on a different coloring and lighting, the before:

"Curves - White", with the white dropper, I clicked on the sky in the background closer to the window seal where it’s a bit darker:

"Curves - Black", with the black dropper, I clicked on the left side near his eye in the shadow of his hair:

You can see that the gif is way better, but now it’s a bit too pink/magenta. Let’s fix that in our next step.

3. There are two different adjustment layers that I use to balance or “fix” the colors. I'll go over both. The first is the "Color Balance" layer. I only use this if the color looks "off" just a little bit. Here’s the after, followed by how and why:

Like I mentioned, the before gif was a bit too pink. That's a more simple change, so I'll add a "Color Balance" and focus on removing the magenta. If it was more orange, I'd focus on the reds, but pink is more magenta-ish. The shadows (the darkest shades) look fine and so do the highlights (the brightest, near white shades), so I only need to adjust the "midtones". Again, removing the magenta, so sliding the Magenta/Green more towards the green. I also added a bit of blue just to add more of a "cool" tint. Here's the settings I used:

Here's another gif that could benefit from a "Color Balance" layer:

As you can see, the before gif is very colorful, but it's very dull. I can add a color balance layer to give it more depth. The shadows aren't as intense, so I want to add more. I'm only editing the "Shadows" by sliding the first set of colors more towards the red, since my gif is more "cool" (blues, greens) adding red will darken it and add more saturation without turning my gif overly blue. I also add a bit green and yellow to make the shadow more neutral as opposed to just adding a dark red. Here’s my gif now:

And here's the settings:

4. The other way you can balance colors is by using the "Channel Mixer". It may seem super complex, but think of it the same as the color balance, either you add or remove tones from the main colors of the gif. I only use this with gifs that have major lighting issues (lol). Here's my before gif:

and after using the channel mixer:

Huge difference right? Now, you don't always have to use this because some scenes have that lighting and we don't really have to change it and make it "normal". Imagine they're in a photography red room, we definitely don't need to try to make it normal. If they're in a club with neon green lights, same thing we don't need to make it normal. But if it simply needs major adjusting, this is how to do it. Using the guidelines from the "Color Balance" from above, take a look at your gif and see what tint is too much. For this gif, it's definitely too yellow / orange.

To make things easier, what color was with the yellow on the color balance layer? Blue, so basically if I want less yellow, I need to add more blue. That's very surface level, but that will help you to understand for an easy start.

So I want more "Blue" so I need to go to the blue channel and add more blue into the reds and greens. Here are my settings:

Now my gif:

It's still a bit off, as you can tell it's a bit too peachy instead of a more "natural" tan / beige tone. So I want to go into the red channel and drag the red down until the tint is a bit more natural. Here's my settings:

and my before and after gif:

As you can see it's much more neutralized and will be much easier to edit in the next steps.

5. Next is "Selective Color", my personal fave. You can really do a lot with this layer, you can remove colors, change colors and make colors really pop. I only really ever make "natural" looking gifs, so besides the previous edits, I don't do pale, or grayscale gifs at all. So what I'm going for is really vibrant, saturated gifs but still natural looking.

Here's my before:

As you can see in my before gif, there's a lot of popping color. The red in the scarf and the bits of blue/cyan in his jacket and in the background. You can use the selective color layer to target just these colors to really make them stand out. To add more red into her scarf, in the "Red" color, I want to add more red by sliding the first set towards the red side. I also want to add a bit of magenta so the scarf is more of a blood red, instead of a brownish red. Then I want to add a bit of yellow to really add some saturated color. Red is a bit tricky because nine times out of ten, it will also alter skin tones too. Just be mindful of that, and you can still make reds pop. If you do get too much pink in the skin, just go to the "Magenta" color and play around with the settings to neutralize the skin (most often by sliding the magenta to a negative and the yellow to a positive number). Here are my settings:

For that cyan, I want to go to the "Cyan" color and with cyans and blue I always slide both the first and last set of colors. I literally never want to go with the green-ish blue that cyan leans to, I want more of a super saturated baby blue, so if I add cyan, I will always add a bit of blue. So, I will slide the first row (cyan) into a positive number to target the cyan tone, then I'll also slide the second to last row (Yellow) into a negative number to add more blue, and less yellow (and less green) to get a more "true" blue color. Here's my settings:

and my before:

and after only editing the reds and cyans:

You can add more or keep it more mild. This is only two colors, so imagine what you can do with all of the colors available in the selective color layer. 

5. A super important step when you're using "Selective Color" is the white and black color. I always my color pop selective color (from above) and a "Selective Color - Black" and "Selective Color - White", which ofc you can do on the same layer, but I like the option to lower the opacity individually. For me personally, I like slightly darker shadows and over the top bright white highlights. I also like to further tweak them while I'm there.

So to start, "Selective Color - Blacks". If your gif has a shadow that is too "one color" you can use the black color to balance that out. So for example this gif:

and the after:

You can see in the before that the shadows are too red, too warm. To remove that, I want to go to the "Black" color. So taking what we learned in the color balance layers, the basic tones are: red + cyan, green + magenta and blue + yellow (so to get less red, add more cyan, to get more green, remove magenta). So since my shadows are too red, I want to slide the cyan color to a positive number (thus "adding" cyan). Doing so might alter the color too much in another direction, so if I add too much cyan, it might be overly green, so I need to add magenta, which oops, caused it to be a bit blue, so I need to add a bit of yellow. I almost always slide the top three sliders to a positive number to achieve and almost neutral, no color black, which is why these settings have a bit of everything:

Now, the last slider, the black, basically either adds black, or removes it. Since we're on the black slider, we don't want to remove any black, or it will go white. Since I like my dark colors super dark, I will add black by sliding it to a positive number. Here's my settings:

Adding only a little bit, +4. I usually stick to below +10 because it can easily muddy and ruin your gif.

6. Now "Selective Color - Whites". The same concept of the black color from above, but now the bright, near to white or whites in your gif. I love adding a lot of white to my gifs to make things like the little sparkle in eyes pop, or white backgrounds really bright and a lot of contrast. I don't usually mess with the top three sliders unless there's a lot of color in my white. I mostly change the last slider, the black to a large negative number (so removing black to make white). Here's my before gif:

and after white:

See how it just makes the highlights really pop? You can really see the it in her eyes, around the strands of hair and in the sun spots in the background. You can't always get this look by adding a ton of white because you can over do it. I mostly do this on gifs that don't have a ton of highlight or on lighter skin tones because you just blend the lighter (but not white) tones to much. But for this gif, I can and did, so here are my settings:

And for good measure a before black and white selective color:

And a ton of black and white:

And my settings:

7. Now the last step is up to you, I usually do a mix of the three or just one of the three. I will show you each, but I always finish my gifs off with either a "Brightness/Contrast" layer if my gif is a bit lackluster, a "Levels" if I want an even, overall boost (my usual end) or an "Exposure" if I have enough contrast but want a more bright look.

Don't worry if this step washes out the skintone of poc gifs, I have a very, very last step that will fix that (below the next step).

If your gif isn't as bright or vibrant as you'd like, add a "Brightness/Contrast" layer. As a rule of thumb, I always add to both, but focus on one, that way you don't get that super bright yellow look. So don't add 50+ to both, add a bit to contrast and a lot to brightness, or vice versa. So my settings are simply: Brightness + 18 with Contrast +5

Before:

After:

Now if you're gif has enough black and contrast in the dark shades, but is too dark overall, use an "Exposure" layer. For this gif, the dark hair and jacket are pretty much pure black, but my gif is too dark. And exposure layer is pretty much: exposure - add or remove contrast, offset - add or remove black and gamma correction - add more remove brightness. So I want to add to the gamma buy sliding more towards the right. It will almost always wash out your gif, so don't go wild. Then slide the exposure to the right to add a bit of contrast. Incase your gif does get washed out on the black tones, just slide the offset to the left to add more. Here are my settings:

Before:

And after:

And lastly, if your gif is pretty good contrast wise, has an okay brightness but you want to boost everything without losing much in terms of color and lighting, use a "Levels" layer. About 85% of my gifs end with a levels layer because I personally love the look it gives. Here's my gif:

and after a levels layer:

The before wasn't too bad, but I definitely want more brightness but I don't want to add to much contrast or just wash out my gif with light. So adding a levels layer and moving the first slider the the left and the middle and last slider to the left will work perfectly. The last slider is the "shadows", the middle is the "midtones" and the far right slider is the "highlights". So adding more shadows to the gif will add more contrast to the dark tones and blacks, adding more highlights will add contrast to the lighter and white shades and the middle will either lighten or darken your gif without adding too much contrast.

I always edit in this order: slide the middle to the left until the brightness I want is reached, then slide the last slider towards the left to add a bit of contrast if the brightness is dull, then slide the first slider towards the right to add more black. Don't go wild, but also don't be afraid to slide them over a good amount. Here's my settings:

Here’s a gif from earlier that also needed a levels layer, the before:

And after:

And the settings I used for that one:

8. The very last step is to even out washed out skintones. This is especially important for this style of gif (as opposed to pale style gifs where the look is still poc skintones, just pale). I don't want a washed out look, because there's no need for it, no reason in my "natural" colored gifs. So to fix this, I always add this layer with these settings and I just lower/raise the opacity as needed.

Since most skintones are mostly affected by the reds (for example add a hue/saturation layer, go to the red color and change one of the settings to see how much it messes with skintones), I only edit the "Red" color. Here are my settings:

my washed out gifs:

now my more true-to-tone gifs:

9. As for saving, I only ever use 0.05 on the frame delay except for gifs with fast moving objects (like the snow and hair blowing gifs I used for my main previews) and these save settings.

Another note, I always use 1080 videos, very rarely do I go with 720 and even then it’s always for music videos or movie/tv trailers downloaded from Youtube.

That's the end of my tutorial! I really hope you've learned something and of course all of this is for you to apply to your own style. If you don't like super crispy highlights, don't add so much white or if you want gifs that aren't over the top bright, I hope I've left you with enough tips that have you confident to play with settings and change things up and still love the gifs you end up with.

If you have any questions or need any help, please let me know! I don't mind at all. If you want more in-depth tutorials on specific layers, I do have some on almost all of the things I wrote about, but they are super old so I can update those if needed.

Happy giffing!

[throwthewine]

Ok I wrote down some thoughts as I was watching GYRTB so. Here. If anyone is curious.

I like this sequence maybe 10 or 15 minutes in or so, there’s this sequence where Paul goes into the studio to record. Ringo is there. The people in the control room tell them to get ready and make to hit “record”. Ringo asks what they’re playing—“the medley” says Paul—“what medley?” asks Ringo. The music starts. Ringo spends the next few minutes trying to find his brushes. That feels fairly dreamlike to me, that unpreparedness (I periodically have dreams about being in a play but I don’t know what play or what my lines are). Funny that we’re in Paul’s head but experiencing Ringo’s frustration. But projecting is part of dreams too.

Anyway. The medley. Oh where did I go wrong, my love? / What petty crime was I found guilty of? It’s all very pretty and I’m 👀 at every song choice because that’s what I do now.

I want to gif that little moment of Paul putting down the armrest in the car. Idk why that was so funny.

And then a flashback (dream within dream?) to Paul with a friend whom everyone is now saying has betrayed him, whom he trusted: a pale reddish-haired man, who’s struggled with drugs, an ex-convict who has been accused of being a troublemaker all his life, but who is kind of charmingly pathetic and sweet and seems sincere when he asks for Paul’s support and friendship. They shake hands and seem very happy. Fast-forward to current Paul who is in a vaguely sad, confused daze

Ballroom Dancing. I enjoyed this sequence well enough, felt like Paul remembering his youth and the changing of times. Childhood fantasy games into music the rock and roll scene. I think there’s something going on here with gender? Idk. The separate uniform looks for the men and women dancers, but then we’ve got a James Dean kinda guy—except more 80s Billy Idol looking character. And he’s picking fights with the main 50s rocker dude, we’ve got the woman losing her 50s dress and giving as good as she gets in this dance-fight, (a woman picks up the James Dean guy at one point). Also Linda looking quite androgynous which is cool, matching Paul’s suit with kinda Bowie hair, meanwhile Paul’s got eyeliner. Idk all I can say is it’s all very gender. And nostalgic and chaotic.

——— ok I stopped watching here. After this point is another day (hah) ———

More business guys in suits. A feeling that nothing they do makes sense but everything they do is both boring and ominous. (A common trope but makes sense that it’s in Paul’s dreams, with all the lawsuits and stuff.)

I don’t understand why Silly Love Songs has a factory… robot theme…? Something about “not just a love machine” or. Just the beat. Anyway, took me a while to get past this. But man, Linda is so committed to the mechanical robot bit, selling it way better than Paul. All of them are really, the drummer, the bassist, and guitarist. And of course the main dancer.

The rehearsal session songs are nice but I have fewer thoughts about them. Nice to see Linda and Ringo some more. “Not Such a Bad Boy Anymore” and “So Bad” may be signifying his growth and stability with his marriage with Linda? One cute anecdote about “So Bad”: Paul said he was singing an early version to his kids and pointed to each of his daughters on the line “girl I love ya” and then wanted to include his son so he added the “boy I love ya” part.

Ah, “No Values” and flashbacks to/visions of the tape thief — On the darkest of nights we were two of a kind. How was I supposed to know? You’ve got no values!

The tape thief—Harry—that Paul doesn’t really believe is a thief but can’t stop imagining is the thief—is definitely John, right? Can we agree on that? I know you probably think he should be handsomer to be John, but. Red hair, similar profile, a mischievous smile and kinda twinkly kinda sad eyes. He keeps trying to appeal to Paul with a “hey I’m just harmless silly me” kind of affect. I think I’m just going to read him as John, ok?

Anyway, so, back in rehearsal, Paul is distracted by his vision of this guy betraying him and shouts, “don’t do it!”

Ok now he’s got to do an interview

Why “For No One” now though, oh my god

Hey, do you think Paul’s songs take on new meaning for him as time goes by? Idk why I’m asking, obviously they do. He’s said so about “Yesterday” for example, that it’s become more poignant as he’s gotten older. And what I’m saying is, the person movie-Paul is sad about here has to be the character “Harry”. That’s the relationship he’s mourning—we just saw him being upset about it in the previous scene. There’s no other possible emotional motivation here. “She no longer needs you… A love that should have lasted years.” He looks appropriately depressed. Stares flatly for a moment after the song has ended. Ugh, guys

Time for a Victorian-themed dream-within-a-dream!

Oh no! Dream Victorian-not!John sends Ringo and Linda over a waterfall?! And smiles at Paul?! Ok ok

(I get it tho, I do. I’ve had dreams about people I love being secretly heartless and cruel too.)

(Man, if it IS meant to be John, if Paul really has had enough dreams (or one dream memorable enough) of John being evil to use that as the main conceit of a movie, that’s… really sad. )

He needs Linda and Ringo! But they keep disappearing! Mysterious Ghost Linda On A White Horse (his savior?) is unreachable!

And now “Harry” dies. (Betrayed by the mysterious businessmen who seemingly manipulated him?) Stabbed in the street. Paul looks on, unable to do anything. Um, hey, what the fuck.

Exit the dream-within-a-dream and return to “real” (still a dream tho) Paul, who is staring into the middle distance, looking disturbed. A voice keeps asking, “What are you gonna do now?” “Out,” he finally answers. “Going out.” Paul leaves, out into the hallway and just YELLS. End scene.

“Band on the Run” now, right right of course perfect musical choice. Gotta outrun all the bad feelings

Jim? His Dad? He’s gone home, of course. (Paul’s dad had actually died by this time irl though.) His dad tells him to slow down. And other aphorisms. Gives him this bit of advise in poetry: What is this life if, full of care, / We have no time to stand and stare. He’s quaint and homey, yet cryptic and wise, and it’s all just a little off like dreams do (why the monkey?). The Westminster clock chiming is a nice touch and I like the camera angle making Paul look small like a kid. “I’ve got to be off.” he says. “You’ve been off for years.” says dad.

“Long and Winding Road” ok ok. sure. I swear, if he goes to not!John’s door at the end of this song….

Oh there’s Linda and Ringo hanging out. Maybe he’s headed to them? His emotional support?

Photos of not!John! Ah, ok, we’ve got to do this via his punk rock girl alter ego Sandra? She can cry about “Harry” for Paul

“No More Lonely Nights” starts up just as he arrives at the place where he believes he’ll finally find John Harry. For real?? This has like romcom climax vibes I can’t believe this is what this movie is doing

Hmm wistful vision of alternate universe busker Paul? Or probably not wistful, but bad, like what will become of him if he loses everything?

And now he’s found the tape collection! Which I suppose is that “everything” he was afraid to lose. The music, the success, the legacy.

Ok, he IS now at a door (“lead me to your door!”) with Harry on the other side. crying for help.

It was all a misunderstanding because Harry had trapped himself in a little room by mistake and now they’re buddies again and giggling about it all. Harry even sings with him in the car. Aksjdh guys

Ok and we’re back to the “reality” level of the movie. And Harry there is a real person and the implication is that he’s fine, everything is fine. It’s a happy AU.

(Punk-girl never came back. Literally she was just there (as a stand-in for Paul??) to cry about not-John and gaze at pictures of him. (Was she Harry’s ex? I missed some dialogue. It doesn’t matter through.) I THINK she was the only character we got a POV scene from, without Paul being also present in the scene? Except for arguably Ringo and Linda, during “Long and Winding Road”?)

Man, guys, nobody prepared me for this. Everyone just said it was silly and shallow and wacky. I expected Magical Mystery Tour! Which had good moments but there was no emotional through line. (There could have been—it should have been about the band trying to find meaning and “maybe the real treasure was the friends we made along the way” etc but no, they kept it super impersonal and full of humor that mostly didn’t work for me.)

This one though. I think it does have an emotional throughline. The basic idea is just Paul’s life dreamified, or his dreams made more narrative—a dump of what’s in his head. And that turns out to be music (obviously), shady businessmen lurking around, Linda and Ringo and his dad as his emotional support, and (I think) John, haunting his dreams, as someone who might be a friend who needs his help, or might be a villain who smiles as he ruins Paul’s life (and others’ lives)—either way, someone who holds Paul’s Music (his work, success, legacy, etc) in his hands. Someone Paul cares about and desperately wants to believe in. If this movie has a plot, it’s the quest to find, vindicate and reconcile with John in his dreams.

I’m obviously insane because it can’t be this but it feels so clear that that is what it is. The first musical sequence (ok the second, I guess—there’s the little happy go lucky joyride number first) is a medley that starts with the song John held against him forever followed by the song John told him was his favorite? At the end, “Long and Winding Road” plays while he looks for not!John, followed by “No More Lonely Nights” and then he finds him and everything is ok???

I’m fine

We’ve only got each other to blame… No more lonely nights (no more nightmares about John?)

Am I wrong though? Am I crazy? I feel a little crazy but I did take an edible a couple hours ago, so. I think this is a pretty defensible reading though. I mean, Paul has said that he often dreams of John, even just this past year (things like trying to talk to him and reaching for his bass and finding it covered in tape?). In 1984, of course he would have.

[starshiningsirius]

Like old times (Yandere Azul x reader)

@bryzie27 - i like what you did with overblot leona. could you do something similar with overblot azul?

Not sure what you mean like the chase scene? The dynamics of Octanivelle's structure still aren't quite clear to me if they can go out in the water but I'll try!

I FORGOT THE GIF IS FROM @flowerofthemoonworld !

Let's give the octopus some love!

"Hey, your Azul right?"

He lifted his head to look at who had spoken to him. It was a mermaid with a strange speckled tail that added to her beauty. She seemed to be more of the reserved type. Her hair had two streaks of the same color on either side of her face and the rest was all one color. Her eyes shimmered radiantly.

He could feel a rush of heat claim his entire face.

"Here." She handed him his books.

"W -why are you doing this?" The young octopus sniffled.

He wasn't expecting this, not with the way everyone else treated him. It didn't make any sense why you'd treat him kindly. A freakish eight legged merman who couldn't swim correctly.

"It's the right thing to do, Azul. I couldn't just swim away with you like this. It'd be immoral."

From that first encounter on forward they became friends. She helped him walk and swim a bit better considering he found it embarrassing. She didn't even have tentacles yet she instructed him so well.. Maybe he inked once or twice, a few times around her on accident, he swears! It didn't matter she was fine with it. She didn't mind one bit who he was.

Even when they went to the Atlantica Museum she stayed by his side and explored it with him. He was a bit slow considering his physique was on the chubby side so he wasn't fast. It still didn't matter, for some odd reason she stayed with him. In the picture commemorating the trip he held her hand since he was a bit self conscious about his picture being taken.

Y/n couldn't help but find it adorable. Everything about Azul wasn't at all strange to her it only made her more curious to get to know him. He would always apologize for any small thing he did wrong. She would always say, "It's fine." as if he did nothing. Her smile always seemed to brighten Azul's darkest days.

She'd visit him in his family restaurant in which his mother and father always welcomed his first friend. They were overjoyed. She saw him gorging himself on the plate of food in front of him compared to her smaller portion. She couldn't help but to stare, it made her understand why he was on the chubby side. Then he looked at her sauce around his mouth and she couldn't help but smile at him with laughter filling the area. He was embarrassed blushing a shade of red and he felt a bit ashamed.

"Azulie, you're absolutely adorable!" She said through her laughter.

It was one of his most fondest memories he ever had with her, but all good things had to come to an end.

Eventually she had to depart from the northern seas to the far southern ones. She had to leave Azul behind. She had given him a hug it was full of so much warmth of which he had never felt before and it made his heart race twice as fast. Both parents of the children found it endearing their children had found a friend.

. . .

And that was that. Time passed and he eventually became Azul Ashengrotto the dorm leader of Octanivelle who could grant any wish just as the sea witch. He could never ever forget the one person he was so fond of though. It never left him every time he wrote down a contract he could remember a time where he truly did care for someone.

The new year at Night Raven was his second year while a new group of first years came entering the school. He had ordered Jade to get information on each of them and when he went through the long list of students that had been sorted into Octanivelle while in his office. He immediately crossed one oh so familiar.

Y/n L/n.

He couldn't believe his eyes. He put the sheet of paper down and opened one of his drawers in the desk that showed him and her back then. He never altered this photo as he did countless others. She accepted him for who he was and that was well enough a reason for him to admire her.

He automatically called upon Jade as Floyd would have probably scared the poor girl. He told him to fetch her immediately.

When he finally did see her for the first time in years he was astounded at how you changed so little but so much at the same time. You had grown taller and your eyes still sparkled just as they always did. You had the same two streaks on either side of your hair which had grown a few inches he might add.

Jade had left to do other tasks he was assigned but Azul couldn't care less seeing as he had his childhood friend and sweetheart in front of him.

"Azulie, that really is you huh?" Your voice had matured but was more timid just like the very first time they met. Of course it was so long ago that they're more like strangers now. That nickname though, it's been a long time since he's heard it.

"Yes, I've changed quite a bit." He was a little nervous though he'd never admit it his voice slightly betrayed him and his face had a little red tint. He tried pushing up his glasses to shield it from her eyes but it was a futile attempt. He heard her chuckle that made his heart race like never before.

"You haven't changed fully as your still the most adorable by far." She said.

That made his face blossom as red as a rose in the rose maze of Heartsbyul. Heat was exerting itself from his still body that he sat in the chair from.

From that moment on he would keep a watchful eye on her. He would always try his best when she was around and get any info on anything going on pertaining to her.

She had met Floyd and Jade before who Azul wasn't too fond of at first, but she reccomended he became friends with them back then since it wasn't everyday someone didn't come up to tease him and noticed his accomplishments. Of course it was only because of Azul that they met again at Night Raven. The first time she met Jade was when he first brought her to see Azul in his office. He looked familiar to her and she mentioned it to him, and they both shared their fondest memories on the way. She met Floyd a little later on in the Mostro Lounge as he had taken her order and he noticed she had come in a lot just to see Azul. Jade had to explain the situation that she wasn't required to pay for any food she ate there because of an order Azul had given out.

Azul would spend some time out of the day to just hang out with you if he wasn't always busy with the lounge. It was always a joy to be with you, it reminded him of when you were both younger. He thought back to those days every night and day that you had still never left his mind. The thought of you leaving again made him lose his sense of reason and fall deeper in his sweet obsession.

He had started to act different you noticed. He had become a bit more invasive of your personal space in which you remember that only happened when he was nervous at least you thought he grew out of it.

Jade and Floyd began to direct you to the Lounge like your life was there and no where else. It'd only be a matter of time before Azul was informed by Jade of his sweetheart's newest infatuation.

Vil happened to catch your attention. It led Azul to be green with envy. He knew the dorm leader of Pomeifore had complimented her one day and it was enough to send her falling head over heels. He had so many followers it made no sense why he had to take something else Azul had wanted for the longest time. With Vil's beauty he only began to question his own.

He had to come up with a solution just as he had done for those bullies. He just couldn't lose Y/n again. Not if he had any say in it.

After hours of pondering in his office sinking his nails into his desk the answer happened to be right behind him. The vault that was situated behind his desk held the many contracts he had collected.

Maybe if he could impress her she wouldn't see him as that stupid, clumsy octopus he once was. All these different magic spells that he obtained from those fools from the exams on land in Night Raven and those idiots who swam under the sea.

That's when his plan fell apart. Y/n avoided him all of a sudden. Mainly having spent time with those troublesome first years he sent to the museum to collect one of the last remnants of his past.

He didn't have time to keep thinking about Y/n at the moment which irritated him quite a bit. One thing led to another and now he was out here trying to negotiate with the arrogant and prideful dorm head of Savanclaw. As soon as he destroyed them all hope was lost.

He was taunting him, but his next few words really took him over the top in terms of a sadistic being.

"You know, one of your little sea friends really wanted to believe you were nice. We just had to show her the real Azul Ashengrotto." Leona had smirked turning his head to the side, beyond the corner of the tunnel his darling angelfish had appeared. Disbelief in her eyes, she couldn't even meet his eyes.

That's when everyone else had arrived, but the deed was already done. He had lost everything and his angelfish had seen him as a weak being, the same stupid clumsy octopus he hated being.

They took her from his side. He had her in his grasp and they stole her. He had lost it.

His newborn and unimaginable power were apparent now. He just had to get it all back. Not even Floyd or Jade wanted to help him either.

He reminded himself of you holding your pen ready to fire another offensive attack. His anger swelled inside him where he could tap into more power.

"GIVE HER BACK TO ME! GIVE ME BACK WHAT YOU TOOK! "

A large swarm of harsh black wind had overwhelmed the group. She still managed to stand but when the dust cleared she saw all of them had collapsed unconscious. Even the prefect who was thrown back the farthest had their head hit the tunnel, it didn't look like she was breathing from here though.

She took a look back at Azul and suddenly she felt her feet carrying her away from the scene, having Azul call out to her from behind.

* * *

It's been a while since she had to swim that fast. Her tail fin was starting to hurt from the constant movement. She wanted to take a break, a never ending nightmare she pleaded in her head to be over.

That was until she heard him calling for her.

"Oh Angelfish! You really have nothing to fear! Come out I promise I won't hurt you!" He said in a sing songy voice.

She was hiding behind a large boulder on the sea floor near a small coral reef.

"Am I not enough anymore?! I'LL DO ANYTHING TO PROVE IT! I'M NOT THE SAME AS BEFORE, YOU DON'T HAVE TO LOOK AFTER ME! " The tone of voice he had scared her even more so now that she was alone.

"I'm not, ... I'm not that stupid clumsy little octopus anymore." He sounded as if he were about to cry, it pulled at her heartstrings a bit and she thought she could convince him to calm down in this state.

"Azulie I never-"

"There you are! " He said with glee and delight in his tone, that never would have made you think he was sad in the first place.

He successfully guilt tripped her into coming out of hiding. Using his tentacles he pulled her by the tail toward him careful to avoid giving her any injuries. He grasped her in his arms feeling himself relax a bit, at the fact he had her in his grasp once again. She felt warm just as she did all those years ago for him.

He clasped her hands together with his. A deranged smile on his face as he stared into the soul of his adorable little angelfish who shivered under such an intense gaze radiating his madness.

"We'll be together again! Just like old times! Except this time I'm all powerful and no one will be able to steal what's mine!"

Masterlist

[rizahawkais]

Hi Nia! You're gifs are so pretty! Is it possible for you to show how you get your WandaVision gifs too look so clear and hd? And how do you do your colorings too? (specifically the wanda maximoff in episode 3 gifset ITS GORGEOUS) I'm new to giffing and all the tutorials are kind of old. It's okay if you don't want to though! I understand it may be time consuming.

omg no! never feel intimidated to ask!! i don’t mind at all!

so, i’m going to show you how i made and coloured this gif

mostly bc it’s the only gif in that set w text and i’m going to share my text settings too!

tutorial is below :)

WHAT KIND OF VIDEOS ARE BEST?

.mkv files (the bigger the better BUT i usually think anything above 5 gb is excessive and unnecessary for an episode of television BUT for a movie worth it) itunes downloads (logolesspro on twitter, hd-source on tumblr, live-action-raws on tumblr have some DEPENDING on what you’re looking for) (also, there’s a chance that if you search "show/movie hd download tumblr” you’ll find a tumblr with its itunes download available)

THAT IS IT NO OTHER TYPE OF FILES MAKE YOUR GIFS LOOK GOOD

- my suggestion is always if its new (like just came out the past month) t*rrent it! it’ll be downloaded quickly and .mkv files look the best! BUT if not check the sources above see who has the BIGGEST file if they even have what you’re looking for and then if not then you look to t*rrenting!!

here are the wandavision files i use so you can see!!

SCREENCAPPING

-if you have windows use potplayer! i have a mac so i can’t show you how to use it and it’s not available for me :( HOWEVER back when i had a windows potplayer was the best method in screencapping!!

-I HAVE A MAC! so i use mpv!! (go to mpv.io and follow the directions) BUT DON’T DOWNLOAD THE LATEST ONE (it has a bug that skips frames) try each before the latest one bc from what i heard different ones work differently for everyone!! and i don’t know which one i use (yikes!) THERE ISN’T THAT MANY I PROMISE AND IT’S WORTH IT BC MPV IS THE BEST (i used to use adapter but they didn’t take impressive screencaps in my opinion and it was evident in my gifs you can see it too! )

create a folder for your screencaps! and make sure to rmb the directory order! now we want to create a text file on our built in textedit app on mac! type up all this down below (i like jpg but you can replace jpg w png if you want) AND SAVE THE FILE AS mpv.conf THIS IS IMPORTANT SO DON’T FORGET IT! save it somewhere you’ll find easily and NEVER delete it until you don’t use mpv anymore

just in case you don’t know what to insert after, go to your screencaps folder

now you want to open mpv and go to the corner towards mpv -> preferences and they’ll tell you that there is no .conf file SO GO LOOK FOR THE TEXT FILE WE JUST MADE AND DRAG IT TO THE FOLDER THEY OPENED FOR US AFTER SAYING THERE IS NO .CONF FILE

(i learned all this from @kylos tutorial!! so if any of what i just said about setting up mpv makes NO SENSE to you check out their tutorial at kylos(.)tumblr(.)com/post/178497909311)

now we can screencap!

so let’s find the scene we want RIGHT BEFORE and MAKE SURE SUBTITLES ARE OFF

i pause and then press (option/alt + s) and then SCREENCAPS ARE BEING TAKEN!! and to end the screencaps being taken you once again press (option/alt + s)!!

now we want to delete the excess frames! and put it all into one folder!! DO NOT DELETE FRAMES IN THE MIDDLE OF WHAT YOU WANT TO GIF!! WHEN YOU SKIP FRAMES IT WILL BE NOTICEABLE!!

MAKING THE GIF

this method isn’t used that much BUT I LOVE IT so this is how i put my frames in! first i check to see the size of my frames: 1920 x 1080

so i create a NEW file on photoshop with those dimensions w these settings

now i set my tool on photoshop to path selection tool bc if you have it set on smth like move tool or crop tool at the end you might end up moving or cropping frames you don’t want to!

ok so now we select ALL our frames and drag it on top of our new file on photoshop and the MOMENT we see our first frame in photoshop JUST KEEP CLICKING ENTER until all the frames are loaded!!

you can do file -> scripts -> load files into stack but it is WAYYY slower in my opinion!

now i crop out the excess BUT i don’t resize the gif yet! the dimensions wandavision is filmed in is 4:3 so i go to crop and set the settings to this:

MAKE SURE IT’S ON RATIO SO WE’RE PRESERVING THE ORIGINAL SIZE JUST CUTTING OFF THE BLACK EDGES!! We are going from 1920 x 1080 to 1440 x 1080 this is the dimensions after i cropped

WE ARE KEEPING THE QUALITY BY NOT CHANGING THE DIMENSIONS OF ANYTHING INSIDE !!

now we want to go to actions and create an action!! open up actions w one of these two depending on what your dash looks like!!

so we create an action with this button on the bottom of actions and we’re gonna title it making a gif and hit record!!

NOW LET’S GOOOOO!!

1. make sure you have timeline on your dash!

2. create frame animation (if you see create video timeline just click the arrow next to the button to see your other option which is frame animation!!)

3. now let’s meet our best friend!! the little bar in the top right corner that has all the commands for making our gifs and MAKE FRAMES FROM LAYERS

4. WE HAVE TO SHARPEN OUR GIFS NOW BUT TO DO THAT WE NEED TO CONVERT TO A SMART OBJECT SO NOW WE ARE GOING TO CONVERT TO VIDEO TIMELINE there are two ways: the button in the bottom left corner or the button in the top right corner w all the other commands!

5. select -> all layers DON’T MANUALLY SELECT THEM ALL BC THE ACTION WILL ONLY SELECT THAT SAME NUMBER OF FRAMES SO IF THERE ARE MORE FRAMES YOU WON’T GET THEM IN THE SMART OBJECT!!

6. filter -> convert for smart filters

7. NOW WE SHARPEN!! (filter -> sharpen -> smart sharpen) i sharpen twice!! first, make sure we are on legacy w more accurate and remove gaussian blue! the first sharpening will be 500% with 0.4 px radius. NOW SHARPEN AGAIN (filter -> sharpen -> smart sharpen) also w legacy, more accurate and remove gaussian blur BUT this time 10% with a 10.0 px radius!

8. it’s hd now!! so let’s flatten frames into clips!! go to the top right magic button again!! and you should see a pop up saying layers are being made

9. now we convert back to frame animation w either the bottom left button or our magic top right command center!

10. make frames from layers

11. select all frames w our magic command button

12. set the animation delay to 0.05 THAT IS THE BEST ONE ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS only use 0.06 when the character is moving really fast in the video itself and it makes the gif itself look awkward BUT NEVER GO ABOVE 0.06 it’ll look slow and laggy and we don’t want that and don’t go below 0.05 bc then it’ll be tooo fast and we don’t want that either!

13. now delete the very first frame on the timeline bc it is an oversharpened duplicate of the second frame! end the recording w this button!

this is what your action should look like expanded! if you made mistakes on the way and it shows up you can just click the specific step and press the trash can on the action tab to delete in from the order!!

NOW AFTER LOADING YOUR FRAMES AND CROPPING THE EDGES OF YOUR FRAMES IF YOU NEED TO JUST PLAY THE ACTION AND THEN YOUR GIF WILL BE MADE FOR YOU!!!!

now i delete some unnecessary frames in the beginning and end and this is what my gif looks like (the size was 46 mb and the limit is 10 mb so the dimensions of the gif are 540 x 405 to get it to 5 mb BUT I HAVEN’T CROPPED IT YET SO THIS IS ME CROPPING JUST TO SHOW YOU WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE)

CROPPING THE GIF

in my opinion if you want your gif to look hd you shouldn’t crop before you sharpen!! i believe that if you crop before you sharpen you don’t allow photoshop to sharpen all the pixels whereas if you crop beforehand there is less to work with!!

dimensions is all up to you!! just make sure to go by tumblr rules!! 540 is the max width and if you want to make two gifs per row then my suggested width is 268 and for three gifs per row my suggested is 177 px! Just have the right width and the length can be whatever you want!!

now i’m going to crop my gif to 540 by 590!!

NOW THIS IS WHAT MY GIF LOOKS LIKE!

COLOURING BASICS

let me show you the best adjustment tools in my opinion and a brief explanation for what they do!!

brightness/contrast: pretty simple increase/decrease the brightness/contrast BUT one of my techniques for when i first start colouring a gif is i select all my frames and do nothing to the settings of the adjustment but i set the layer to screen LIKE THIS

curves: ik others use curves to change brightness/contrast w the squiggly thing BUT i like it to set a white point and black point, this is also a technique i use when i first start colouring a gif when screen doesn’t look good for me SO you use white point to select a pixel on the gif to set as the lightest color on the gif (setting the white point) and you use black point to select a pixel on the gif to set as the darkest colour on the gif (setting the black point) usually the white point makes it TOO bright and that’s why we use the black point to counter it and same goes for when i use screen with brightness/contrast, it gets too bright so i use black point to counter it below is the button for white point and the button for black point, respectively they are shaped as color picker tools

vibrance: generally, i never use this except for color p*rn sets but they work really well in making colors seem more strong

hue/saturation: like vibrance, i never use this except for color p*rn sets but this adjustment is to help change the colors or hue of a color for example: turn blue into purple or turn a blue into a little lighter shade of blue

color balance: I ALWAYS USE THIS!! except for in black and white gifs BUT THIS IS MY GO TO AND IF I DON’T USE IT MY GIFS ARE JUST BLAND i feel like color balance is what essentially balances the colors on your gif and adds dimension to it, it makes your gif go from looking way too yellow to a more golden neutral look and it is an essential adjustment in my opinion

channel mixer: i rarely use channel mixer BUT it is so so useful when you are working w a dark scene just play w the settings and all of a sudden all the blue in a dark scene will be a little more yellow and red and your scene will kind of just look brighter and more visible

selective color: THIS IS ALSO AN ESSENTIAL this helps SPECIFIC colors pop you’re working on a scene where there is too much red on someones face you use this tool to remove the magentaness from the yellow section OR when you feel someones face is TOO yellow and needs more blush you add more magenta in the yellow section of selective color

gradiant map: gradiant map is perfect when you’re lazy if you feel like your gif looks more neutral and you want some red in it but you don’t want to mess with any other adjustments just set a red to black gradiant on soft overlay with a very low opacity and BOOM slightly red but not too much red added!

NOW TO COLOR THE GIF!

today i have decided to start with a brightness layer set on screen

and this is what we got!

now that’s a little to bright and washed out in my opinion SOOOO to counteract it, i’m going to use my black point tool in curves and i’m going to select this point on the gif (it’s better to choose smth in the background and not smth that’s paid attention to such as monica’s hair or either of their eyelashes)

now my gif looks like this! the base color is complete!

now i think i need to balance all this yellow and red! SOOOO WE GONNA USE COLOR BALANCE!!

i think the best way to use color balance is to keep swinging the balancer until you see what you like and then keep going midtones i think i want more red and i don’t want a cyan midtone and then for shadows i think i want more cyan to counter the redness of the gif but highlights i don’t touch that much NOW HERE ARE MY SETTINGS SO YOU CAN SEE

and this is what my gif looks like

now you can stop here if you want but in my opinion i think the gif looks a lil too dead still SO IMMA USE SELECTIVE COLOR

i think there needs to be a lot lot more RED so i amp up the yellow magenta and black in the red! but i also think the yellows need to be LESS RED so i remove magenta from the yellow! and bc there’s some cyan and blue bc of monica and the flowers in the background im going to make the cyans more cyan and the blues a lil more black! i’m going to remove some yellows from the magenta!! and i add more black to the neutrals and black!! i think it’s always important to add more black to neutral and black bc it adds more depth to the gif by not just making it a bunch of bright colors and having dark colors to contrast to!! my settings are below!

and the result!

now let’s see everything together!

and the before and after!

I HOPE MY COLOURING EXPLANATION MADE SENSE!! if not you can always ask me more questions i don’t mind!!

ADDING SUBTITLES

we want to grab the text tool!

make a text box from anywhere in the middle from the left to right edge. this is so we can make sure our text is centered and will be in the same place for when we have sets w more than one gif w text!

type your text out and make sure you highlight the whole text so that all the settings apply to EACH character! you can find the alignments (for center) in the paragraph tab!

now lets right click on the text layer and go to blending options! add stroke and drop shadow!

now drag it to the desired height you would like and make sure to keep it in mind for when you have more than one subtitled gif in a set!

NOW TO MAKE SURE THE TEXT STAYS IN PLACE AND THE BLENDING STAYS YOU HAVE TO CONVERT TO SMART OBJECT!!

if you want to only have the text applied to certain frames instead of all frames, select the frames you don’t want by clicking the first frame in ur don’t want section ON THE TIMELINE and WHILST HOLDING SHIFT click the last frame of ur don’t want section and then toggle the eye switch next to the text layer

now you see the text

now you don’t

tip: use opacity to fade the text in and out!

the text is going to be on all my frames so i don’t need to toggle the eye but i just wanted to show you just in case!!

now here’s my FINAL RESULT

save for web (file -> export -> save for web) 

your gifs have to always be under 10 mb! so, if your WAYYY overboard YOU HAVE TO DELETE FRAMES! or you can divide the gif in two and have two gifs instead of one! however, if you plan on going the deleting frames route MAKE SURE YOU DELETE FROM THE BEGINNING OR END OF YOUR SELECTION i promise you that most of us won’t notice that your characters dialogue is being cut off BUT WE WILL NOTICE IF FRAMES ARE BEING SKIPPED so, don’t delete frames in the middle of ur gif!! idc how little you do it IT WILL RUIN YOUR GIF AND I SAY THIS FROM EXPERIENCE i would delete every fifth frame to cut down my gifs and that may seem like not that big of a deal BUT IT IS my gif looked choppy and poor so it is way better to cut from the end/beginning of the gif

ANOTHER LAST PIECE OF ADVICE in the bottom left of when the save for web menu shows up THERE’S A PREVIEW BUTTON click on it! it’ll show you your gif on your default browser and show you what it’ll look like once uploaded! this is perfect to check the speed of ur gif and the colouring and to notice if there’s a problem with your subtitles or maybe there’s an obvious jump in frames you never noticed before!! i always use preview bc the built-in photoshop viewer of ur gif shows the colors differently and the speed is NEVER ACURRATE!

I USED THESE SAVE SETTINGS!! many say to use selective pattern but i DISAGREE and i think these save settings are the ✨ best ✨

OK NOW THAT IS THE END OF THIS VERY LONG GIF TUTORIAL!! I HOPE THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED!! IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK I SINCERELY DON’T MIND!! JUST DON’T BE RUDE OR ANYTHING BC PPL HAVE BEEN RECENTLY :(

I WISH YOU ALL THE LUCK AND FUN IN YOUR GIFFING ADVENTURES !!

[k-s-morgan]

Hi Katrin! In reference to your previous ask about Ciels final smile of Kuroshitsuji 1, I just have to ask - why do you think Ciel is unhappy in his final moments?

I think I mentioned it a long while back in an ask I sent you (where I just dumped my ramblings about book of murder in your inbox - once again, sorry about that!) but Sebastian leaving Ciel in Paris didn't feel like a rejection to me.

Of course he senses the doubts Ciel clearly has about throwing his life away and I think misunderstands it. I don't think Ciel was second-guessing his revenge, but perhaps his readiness to die.

When Sebastian leaves him, he doesn't seem angry - that much is clear. Instead, he wishes him to "forget everything and have pleasant dreams", with a rather wistful expression on his face. And what this line ends up reading as is a bittersweet goodbye from the demon - an offering for Ciel to let go of his revenge and find happiness in the afterlife with his now soon approaching death.

I think he is disappointed because at some point he started to stop holding Ciel to human standards as he would everything else, but I also don't think he's resentful of it. Ciel is human and he can't keep expecting him not to be, so it was perhaps his fault for doing so.

Not wanting to die doesn't seem like something that would suddenly make Ciel's soul undesirable to Sebastian, so there must be another reason for him to let it go. He cannot offer Ciel life, since he knows that death is readily approaching him, but he can offer him an afterlife.

This offering almost acts as a thank you for the moments of excitement their contract had given his monotone life and I believe that is why he makes it.

He sticks around to see if Ciel accepts his offer, though already expecting him to, and is there to witness the very moment the boy rejects it. Gone is the uncertainty of Abberline's death and the Paris crisis, and Ciel, the Earl of Phantomhive, returns to him - sharper, colder, more ruthless than ever. Sebastian realises his misjudgement and returns to his side, ready for the final battle. Killing an angel. It's laughably symbolic.

I think it is at some point during this battle that Ciel fully acknowledges his feelings towards Sebastian. I completely agree with you - completing his revenge did not fulfil him. I don't think he felt victorious or triumphant from it, or even the satisfaction he might have expected from it. Like you said, he probably realises how wasted his life was in pursuing such a fate, but still understands that it was the only path he would've accepted, being who he was.

But that isn't to say he was unhappy. Just because it wasn't revenge that gave him fulfilment doesn't mean he didn't find it elsewhere. The smile he gives Sebastian doesn't read to me as bitter or condescending, but actually seems quite peaceful. And the reason for that, I think, is that he doesn't fear dying by Sebastian's hand.

Those same reddened eyes and fanged smile would be the last thing he sees – and was that really such a bad way to go? He knew how and when and by whose hands he was going to die, and not everyone could say the same. What's more, at this point, I'm pretty sure he would've realised what he was feeling for Sebastian, so I don't think he would be resentful for dying at the hands of someone he loved.

Sebastian, for him, had always represented the end. And a beautiful end at that. That's why the smile seemed peaceful to me.

He lets go of the bridge. Initially, I assumed it was a mixture of blood loss and a symbolic decision to let go of life and surrender himself to Sebastian, but from your analysis I actually think your idea about him wanting a final act of rebellion is wonderful. All Ciel really wanted was to be remembered by Sebastian, so why not send him one last gift? Let him have one last surprise before it's all over. Die on his own terms - it's a beautiful idea.

He dies in mid-air. We see the exact moment Ciel Phantomhive dies and exact moment his cinematic record blossoms from his lifeless body when the blood loss finally takes him.

It's a beautiful scene, regardless of how you analyse it and I absolutely love hearing everyone's interpretations of it since they're all so different from one another. Reading your analysis in this ask was particularly wonderful to me because it was such a different take from what I was used to. I tjust hought I'd share my view on the scene so I could hear more of your thoughts on the matter. Whether it's in literature or media, watching how the tone of a scene can change as the angle from which it is interpreted switches is perhaps one of the most interesting things you can do.

(My post about Sebastian leaving Ciel in S1 & London Bridge scene for those who are interested).

Thank you for this, I really love your asks, comments, and thoughts! I agree that Sebastian leaving Ciel in S1 wasn't a rejection - I think he was resentful to an extent (he sends Ciel several very dark looks when Ciel stops him from killing the Queen and when they are riding to the hotel), and personally, I see a mix of feelings when he's watching Ciel from afar later. He's quiet and thoughtful, and I think there is a storm of conflicting feelings brewing inside him. I particularly love your words about Sebastian being willing to give Ciel an afterlife.

As for how Ciel takes it... I think he's grimly determined to see everything through. I agree that he fully acknowledges his feelings for Sebastian at this point; I also think Ciel realizes he loves him at the very end of S1, seconds before Sebastian leans closer to take his soul. I imagine the entire life flashing right before Ciel's eyes, his adrenaline spreading through him chaotically and clearing his head in a way he's never experienced before. His reservations, stubbornness, reluctance to succumb to emotions - it's all going to lose its meaning because this is it. In a few seconds, he won't just be dead - he won't exist. I think Ciel is going to see everything with startling clarity, and he'll realize, "Oh. I love you," but of course he won't say it aloud.

I agree Ciel sees the beauty and the peace in being consumed by Sebastian, but at the same time, I see misery in him in those later moments. Sorry, I can't share gifs or even good pics right now, but here are some screens to illustrate what I mean:

I think he looks like in his darkest and saddest moments here. There is sorrow, bitterness, hopelessness in his eyes - he won, but it doesn't feel like it. Ciel always knew he was going to die and Sebastian was going to devour his soul, but now he is being proven right, it is finally happening, and I think he has mixed feelings on this. During their time together, he learned to enjoy life in his way. He enjoyed their games, being challenged, solving puzzles. He always knew it's temporary, but knowing and seeing it are two different things, and I don't think Ciel is as willing to die as he was before. The way he's startled when the Undertaker tell him he's going to die anyway even without Sebastian in the picture, Ciel's sudden burst of emotion when he tells Abberline that he had forfeited his future, his behavior afterward, how he was delaying the conclusion of their contract by holding Sebastian back - I think Ciel was re-assessing things.

This one breaks my heart in particular. In this specific moment, I don't think Ciel doesn't want to die in general, but he doesn't want to leave Sebastian. He's staring at him with emotions he never allowed himself to feel - he's ready, but he's wistful. He wishes things could have been different in some other world, that his book could have another ending, but he knows there is no place for what ifs in his life.

[momentsatmydesk]

'Mr. Queen’ Taught Me “Be You. The World Will Adjust.”

I have no shame in proclaiming this so early into this year but… 'Mr. Queen' or ‘Queen Cheorin’ is my favorite drama watch of 2021.

Quite honestly, I don't know where to start with this show. There is so much happening in it, right from the very first scene and yet, it doesn't overwhelm or addle you (well done, team TVN).

A time-travel story, prominent Korean chef Jang-Bong Hwan's spirit suddenly transports back to the Joseon Dynasty and settles into Queen Kim So-Yong's body. Strangely, it is exactly at the same time when the Queen decides to jump into a palatial lake.

So what does a man from the 21st century do trapped in a woman's body from a couple of 100 years ago? Of course, he tries every possible trick in the book to swap back to his own physical being.

But the deities have other plans and we then see how Bong Hwan's spirit decides to own his role as a Queen until the heavens deem it right for him to return to present times.

I shall pause here and applaud the absolute brilliancy of actress Shin Hye-Sun who's done such a fantastic job portraying a narcissistic male spirit in a feminine form. She's a complete rock-star, our Queen Cheorin. She has zero hoots to give, she damns patriarchy in the face, she teaches the king a thing or two about how to run a goddamn country, she leads the creation of ramen as we know it today, she's bold, selfish and hellish funny.

King Cheoljung is another interesting entity. Sporting a façade as a 'puppet king', he's actually the mastermind behind the revolt brewing up among the masses. He was never really into Kim So-Yong because his heart is already tied to Jo Hwa-Jin. His marriage to So-Yong is nothing but an extension of court politics and this infuriates our very handsome but clearly-a-bit-twisted second lead, Kim Byeong-in.

In Byeong-in's defense, he's loved So-Yong ever since they were children and he's aware of her being despondent in finding no comfort or companionship in Cheoljong.

We then have two classic bitches-of-the-first-order in Queen Sunwon (great grandmother-in-law) and Queen Dowager Jo (mother-in-law). The former is supported by the slyest villain in the history of Joseon dynasty Kim Jwa-Guen and is evil enough on her own, mind you. Topped up with Queen Dowager's crappy antiques, the trio deserve an ovation for the amount of times they can piss you off.

The story follows the survival of Jang-Bong Hwan as Kim So-Yong amidst political intrigues and secrets that compose the palace and its people.

The show is hilarious. The comic timing, is absolutely woot-worthy and it just keeps wanting you to sit your ass down and move on to the next episode and then the next. Even through the darkest moments of storytelling, the show finds a way to make you laugh. And this, more than anything else (exception: Shin-Hye Sun's stellar performance) is the reason why I simply LOVE and adore the show.

I cannot not talk about Court Lady Choi-Hwa, a sensational, traditional mother-figure who's about to lose her shit thanks to the baffling antiques of our Mr. Queen. From walking with her skirt held up to her knees, from burping in your face, from taking over the Royal Kitchen and to dancing in the rain, So-Yong's sudden change of character causes Lady Choi to almost faint.

So-Yong, Lady Choi and Hong Yeon's femme bonding is one of my favorite parts of this entire tale, hands down.

There are so many sensational and cute side characters in the show but I'm going to list down some key learnings I picked up:

1. Have the courage to love yourself first.

Often, it is easier to love another before loving ourselves first. But to sit down with yourself and give yourself the love you crave for is a no-bargain deal, even if it means not having the space to love others.

2. Celebrate your weird, your crazy and your wild.

Life's really, really rather short to be anything but the whole of you. I love that about So-Yong: her ability to be radically herself and celebrate it.

3. You are only defeated when you think yourself to be.

No matter what life throws at you or if time has your back or not, you cannot be defeated until you allow yourself to be. I think this is one of my favorite qualities of King Cheoljung.

I'd like to rewatch this drama, at a slower pace, with large bowls of chili popcorn, now that the suspense is over and I know how it ends. My last words: So-Yong eating ramen. ❤

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GIF Credits: GIF 1 & 13 - Tumbex | GIF 2: Choi Jin-Hyuk y Dramas, Tumblr | GIF 3: @labelledejour​ | GIF 4: Aghasewatchtv | GIF 5: MyDramaList | GIF 5: Kenh 14 a | GIF 11: Dramabeans | GIF 12: Bitches Over Dramas | GIF 14: Tenor | GIF 15: @thingskateknows​ | 

[1x20]

(Whoops sorry anon! I posted the reply before I’d finished writing the explanation so here we go again haha.)

Hey! No worries, I’m always here to explain what I did for a certain set. (Un)fortunately for you, you asked me, so this explanation might get a little long-winded haha. Full explanation of how I made the coloring for this gif under the cut!

Alright, so a couple of things to keep in mind for my coloring

I don’t use PSDs, everything is always made from scratch using a similar method. This is because...

I’m not interested in keeping the original colors, rather I want the colors to match the vibe of a scene.

Lastly, my coloring is veeeery dependent on lighting. Sort of. I’ll explain what I mean.

STEP 1: CURVES

Curves is always the base layer for everything I use. I use it to both edit the colors a little bit and change the lighting/contrast. If you want a full explanation of why I use curves the way I do, I recommend watching this video.

Here’s what the curves layer looks like + it’s result. I use the RGB curve first to brighten (and increase contrast a little), then I go into the individual channels (usually blue first, then red, then green) to edit the colors.

In this case, as you can kinda see from the screenshot, I increased the reds in the brighest parts, while I made the darkest parts of the image colder (by reducing red + increasing blue).

STEP 2: LEVELS

I added a levels layer to increase the contrast a little and just make the brighter parts pop a little more. Since it’s basically invisible I won’t add a screenshot, but the settings were:

Dark: 2

Midtones: 0,96

Light: 215

STEP 3: HUE/SAT

Nothing too major, just a hue/saturation layer that’s set to +10. Again, this is just to make everything pop up a little more (I sometimes set this to +5 if I think +10 is too much).

STEP 4: GRADIENT FILL

I always add a gradient layer before major coloring because I think it makes the gif look a little softer. In this case, the gradient layer was a white -> black radial gradient (so white on the outside, black on the inside), with a 30 degree angle. I set it to soft light blending on 20% opacity so it wouldn’t be too obvious.

I would show a screenshot here but it’s really difficult to demonstrate outside of PS, so I recommend trying it for yourself!

STEP 4: GRADIENT MAP

Alright, we’ve arrived at my secret weapon. My coloring usually heavily depends on curves/gradient maps so that’s why I said it’s based on lighting, as those change colors based on how light/dark something is. In my experience, gradient maps take a little experimentation to get used to, but it’s really worth it.

For this gif, I set my gradient map to soft light blending at 30% opacity. Usually I would set it to hard light, as that increases the contrast, but since this gif is already kinda dark, soft light fits better.

I knew that I wanted the brighter colors for this to look very cool, and the darker tones to be a bit less red. So the gradient map takes a lot of those lighter colors and tints them a blue-ish green, while the dark is a deep brown. The color in the middle is just to make the transition between the two easier.

As I said, this just takes a lot of experimentation to get used to. I’ve been working with gradient maps for a while now and they’re a lifesaver in my opinion, but picking colors etc. is something you kinda have to feel.

STEP 5: SELECTIVE COLOR

So, starting off let me just say, ALWAYS set your selective color layer to the “color” blending mode. If you don’t, you’ll also change the contrast/lighting of your gifs, because some colors are darker than others. The “color” blending mode just takes the shade of colors and not its darkness.

Anyway. So I do use selective color but I use it very minimally. My main goal with a selective color layer is to introduce a little more nuance, since a gradient map usually saps that out of the coloring. 

For example, I made both the reds and the yellows more red, to make Jimmy’s face look a liiiiiitle more like it has a human skintone. Then I changed both the cyans and the blues to be a little more nuanced (for example by removing cyan from the blues, and adding blue and green to it instead). 

Again, I would show it but that’s very difficult to do outside of PS.

STEP 6: COLOR BALANCE

By using selective color to add more nuance, I’ve kinda screwed myself in the sense that so much of my coloring is based on lighting, which selective color doesn’t register. One way to fix this is by using color balance. 

I’ve increased the reds everywhere using selective color, but I only wanna keep that in the brightest parts. So for my color balance layer, I’ll drain the red by increasing cyan in the shadows channel. Similarly, I want the highlights to be green-ish, so I drain the red there as well. But for the midtones, I increase the red, since I want the hollows of his face to retain the human-ish look. 

I go through like this for every color, until I’ve arrived at a layer that’s like this:

Shadows: -4, +1, +3

Midtones: +3, - 2, +1

Highlights: -4, +7, 0

Here’s a comparison for what it looks like if I mask out both selective color and color balance.

As you can see, there’s just a liiiiitle bit more nuance/even color distribution.

STEP 7: HUE/SAT (AGAIN)

I add another hue/sat layer here set to +10 (can be anywhere between +5 and +15 depending on what looks best).

STEP 8: GRADIENT MAP (AGAIN)

So this gradient map layer and the previous hue/sat layer are very Do Not Separate in that I always pair them. I use the hue/sat layer to increase the colors a little and then I use this gradient map layer afterwards to make the GIF just a little less contrast-y and unify the colors a bit more.

I set this gradient map layer to soft light blending mode and 10% opacity.

Again, very subtle but I’d recommend trying it for yourself. This gradient map lightens the darks (I set it to a 70% bright grey here) and then the lighter parts get another splash of that green color I used in the previous set. 

THE END

So yeah, that’s how I color! I usually edit these slightly if there are multiple shots in a set, since other shots usually have a different lighting and my coloring is quite lighting dependent. I hope this was interesting/helped you! If you have any more questions or if there’s ever any other colorings you’re curious about feel free to send more asks!

[i-am-a-bad-influence-writes]

Red, White, and Blue neon lights

Steve Masterlist - Full Masterlist

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Summary: Bucky knew damn well Steve wasn’t going to get any action himself and after the fiasco at the fair, he decided it’d be better to just have him look at women instead of having to keep them entertained. But leave it to Steve to fall in love with a burlesque performer.

Word count: 2616

Author’s note: This is with Steve after the serum. Just pretend they’re on a break from the war or smthng. I know full well that it doesn’t work like that, but I want to do this around the forties. Also, I wrote this quite quickly cause I was inspired so I didn’t preread it. Gif isn’t mine.

In the darkest alleyways of the city, Bucky drags Steve along to a bar with red, white, and blue neon lights forming the, now iconic, uncle Sam poster. From outside, Steve can hear music that is nowhere near the music you ordinarily hear in bars. It slow and sensual. He reads the sign above the door. Doll Dizzy*. America’s finest broads. “Of course they had to word it like that,” Steve thinks to himself, almost visibly shaking his head.

‘Why are we here again,‘ Steve asks Bucky, obviously uncomfortable because of the unfamiliar scene while Bucky looks to fit in.

‘Well, I was thinking-‘

‘That’s never a good idea.‘ Steve gains a slap to the arm from Bucky while he grins at him.

‘Oh shut your hole,‘ Bucky laughs, ‘see, I was thinking. If Captain America is worse at pulling chicks than a chrome dome geezer, than why not bring him somewhere where the girls are already in their unmentionables?‘

‘I feel like I should be offended.‘ Bucky grins again and puts his arm around Steve’s shoulders.

‘Come on, lets just enjoy the night.‘ Steve sighs and nods, following Bucky into the dim establishment. Bucky buys the both of them a ticket and they walk into the bar.

Inside, everything is doused in neon lights. On their left is a bar with more liquor than even Steve could ever consume and in front of them are tables, booths, and a stage. Everything looks quite overly dramatic to Steve. The curtains that cover the stage are the same ones you see at the theater and the booths and tables look a bit more like they belong in a club uptown. 

Nevertheless, Bucky guides them to a booth in the back. A little discreet spot and Steve thanks him for it. His image as America’s golden boy is still imminent and he wants to keep it going that way after all that’s happened.

A scarcely clad woman comes to their table and Steve turns a bright shade of red. He tries to look anywhere but her body, but all he gains are giggles and laughs from both the woman and Bucky.

‘Afternoon gents, what can I get ya?‘ She seems friendly, but Steve still finds it hard to stay respectful.

‘My friend here has to get a bit of a buzz,‘ Bucky tells the woman with a pat on Steve’s chest, ‘what’ll do that for me?‘

‘Got just the thing. I’ll be right back.‘

‘Thanks doll.‘ The girl scurries off and Steve finally breathes again. Bucky laughs.

‘Where in the heavens did you bring me?‘

‘It’s a burlesque bar,‘ Bucky grins, ‘it’s about as much fun you can have without anyone being naked.‘

‘I don’t think-‘

‘No, stop,’ Bucky waves a finger in his face, ‘don’t think. Just enjoy the show. It’s just singing and dancing, but the girls just aren’t wearing their petticoats. That so bad?’

‘I suppose not.‘

‘That’s a good lad,‘ Bucky speaks proudly. The girl comes back over with their drinks and puts them down. She brought them a shot and a beer to chase it. Bucky hands Steve a shot and clinks their glasses together. ‘To beautiful women.’ 

Steve sighs and throws the shot back, knowing it’ll do nothing for him. At least Bucky is having a good time.

The curtain opens and a man in suit stands on the stage holding a piece of paper and a microphone.

‘Good evening gentlemen,‘ he says with a dirty smile. It’s the kind of smile that makes Steve feel dirty to be here. ‘We have some beautiful dolls waiting to perform for you, but first the rules. Rule number one, you don’t touch the girls. Touch the girls and you will be escorted out. Number two, no forceful behavior towards our girls. We care for our girls and we will throw you out. Number three, no vulgar language about our girls. They are here performing for your pleasure. Thank you very much for your attention. We have a beautiful line of women standing ready for you. Rose, Pansy, Lavender, Peony, but right now I have the pleasure to introduce to you, our pride and joy, Jasmine.‘

‘Are those their real names,‘ Steve asks Bucky in a whisper.

‘Of course not,‘ Bucky chuckles.

They watch as the curtains close for a short while. When they open again, a woman in a red, floor-length dress with a sweetheart neckline and a slit all the way up to her hip so you can clearly she see isn’t wearing knickers steps onto the stage. Her lips painted as red as her dress and her hair done beautifully. She stands behind the microphone, barefoot. 

The men begin cheering when the piano man starts playing and the girl starts swaying her hips. Steve’s eyes go wide when he hears her voice. She has this southern sound to her voice, but it sounds heavy and dragging. It’s the kind of voice that has a story. It’s to beautiful to be like that naturally. She could put most famous singers to shame in Steve’s opinion.

‘A real looker, ain’t she,‘ Bucky elbows Steve to get his attention, but he just hums in agreement. It doesn’t strike Bucky as anything strange when Steve seems to be staring so intently at the woman. After all, they are here to ogle women.

The number ends too soon. Steve turns his attention back to his glass while Bucky continues to enjoy the women on the stage.

Song after song passes until Jasmine returns to the stage, this time dressed in much less. To Steve, she’s still as beautiful as she was before. He enjoys her singing and her enjoyment in singing. This time around, she seems to be looking at him as well. When she dances, she seems to look for his reaction every time it’s a bit more scandalous.

Or maybe he’s just imagining it. After all, there are lots of guys here. Maybe she’s looking at Bucky. Bucky is much more confident and was always considered the better looking one of them. And suddenly the song has passed.

A few minutes later, their waitress puts a bottle of champagne on their table with three glasses.

‘Oh, we didn’t order this,‘ Steve says, looking at her in confusion. She throws him a smile and just walks off. ‘What was that all about,’ he asks Bucky, but he just shrugs.

‘Good evening gents, may I join you,‘ a female voice asks them. The two look to their side and there she stands. Jasmine dressed in her clothes from the last song, or lack thereof, and a sheer robe tied over it.

‘By all means,‘ Bucky smirks, pulling Steve to his side so she’ll slide into the booth on his side.

‘I must say, I never expected Captain America to visit a place like this one,‘ she looks smug, almost proud, ‘I think this kind of corruption calls for celebration. Bucky, darling, could you open the bottle for us. Don’t shoot it please, it’s expensive.‘

Bucky follows her orders to a tea, like a good soldier should. He pours the glasses, handing her the first as a gentleman should. But she seems to have much more attention for the bigger man.

‘Cheers, to your corruption,‘ she says to Steve. He gives her a shy nods and the three take a sip. ‘So how’d this git manage to drag you down here?‘

‘Git?‘

‘What’s that? Can’t take a bit of ragging**, Barnes,‘ she teases, but quickly turns back to Steve, ‘well? You don’t seem a man who goes around in the sticks***.’ Steve isn’t sure what to say. It’s not like there’s any way to talk this into a good thing. He was nearly dragged by his hair.

‘The man has a hard time talking to women,‘ Bucky tells her, ‘so I thought I’d bring him here so he wouldn’t have to talk.‘

‘Ah, like so. Well, if I’m bothering you, you can just say.‘

‘Oh, no, I quite enjoy your company,’ Steve mutters barely audible. She grins brightly an shuffles and bit closer to him. Most of the talking is still done by Bucky and Jasmin, but he quite likes her with them. She leaned into him more and more, teasing and playing with the cuffs of his sleeves.

‘Well gents, thank you for a wonderful night. I best get going if I want to catch the last bus,‘ she smiles and gets up, ‘maybe I’ll see you two around?’ Bucky nods, but Steve is still amazed and quiet. She leaves looking utterly amused and Steve knows he’s blown it. His heart was beating too damn fast for him to be able to get any words from his mouth.

‘Ey, loverboy,‘ Bucky snaps his fingers in front of Steve’s face, ‘you good?‘

‘Yeah, fine.‘

Into the cold of the night they step. Bucky and Steve. Bucky obviously fairly buzzed, Steve awfully sober. If only he’d be able to get at least a little buzzed to match his friend. But hey, at least he doesn’t have to call a cab.

Steve drags Bucky in the direction of the car when he sees this pretty little thing sitting by the bus stop. He recognizes her right away. Jasmine.

‘Evening,‘ he greets with a small smile. She looks at him and smiles, leaning back a little to straighten her back and make herself look bigger.

‘Evening capt’n, did you have a good night,‘ she asks cheerfully.

‘Wonderful. Thank you for spending some time with us,‘ he gives a small nod in appreciation.

‘Your friend ok?‘

‘Buzzed,‘ he explains to her with a shrug, ‘nothing I can’t handle.‘

‘I can see that. He’s basically sleeping.‘

‘You miss your buss?‘ She nods, her smile faltering. ‘Need a ride?‘

‘Sorry I was acting so-‘

‘Don’t bother,‘ she giggles, ‘most proper men get weird around the bar. Just glad you’re one of them. Would be a real shame if Captain America turned out to be a dick, wouldn’t it?‘ He smiles at her joke. He know she’s just saying it to make him feel at ease, but it sounds sincere and he grasps onto that part rather than the other.

‘May I ask your name? I feel strange calling you Jasmine.‘

‘It’s Y/N. Y/N Y/L/N.‘

‘Y/N? That’s a very pretty name,‘ he compliments, trying to sound smooth but the happiness on his face is hard to miss.

‘Thank you.‘ He notices she’s staring at him while he drives. Bucky is snoring in the back seat, but it still feels quite romantic in the front. He does feel nervous, but she makes it feel easier.

‘Say Y/N, I know this isn’t quite how it’s supposed to go, but may I ask you to join me for dinner sometime?‘ He takes a quick peek over at her shocked face. 

‘Oh, ehm, wow,‘ she stammers. 

‘You don’t have to of course,’ he quickly tells her to make her feel at ease, but then he hears her giggle.

‘I would be honored to join you for dinner,‘ she gleams, ‘I just didn’t expect you to have the guts to ask.‘ She looks to the snoring figure in the back. ‘He’d be proud of you if he heard.’

‘We’re here.‘ Steve parks the car on the curb and runs out to open the door for her on her side. She smiles brightly when he does and takes his hand.

‘Such a gentleman,‘ she comments, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek while she gets up, ‘I like it.‘ His face turns bright red again as he walks her to her front door. ‘Wait here for a second,‘ she asks him before slipping inside. He watches the lights turn on and some rumbling inside. It takes her no longer than a minute or two before she comes back to the door holding a piece of paper. ‘My address and phone number.‘ He nods and takes it, putting it in his breast pocket.

‘I’m sorry I sound so impatient, but would you be free tomorrow,‘ he asks her, ‘see, I don’t know when I’ll be deployed again.‘

‘Tomorrow would be wonderful. Pick me up at six?‘

‘Certainly.‘ The two stare at each other for a moment, his eyes looking at her soft lips. She took off the red lipstick, but they still look amazingly inviting and soft. ‘Would it be improper to kiss you right now?‘

‘It would,‘ she answers with a mischievous smile, ‘but you’ve already seen me in my unmentionables.‘ He takes a step closer to her, gently resting his hands on her hips as she lays her hands on his shoulders.

‘We’ve been doing this whole thing backwards, haven’t we?’ She smiles at him as she feels her heart beating faster and faster. Men like this are hard to come by. And she even found one she actually likes.

‘We have,‘ she answers and presses her lips against his. It’s a short, but wonderful kiss. The both of them gleam when they let go of each other in a state of pure bliss. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.‘ He nods and watches her go inside before he gets back in the car.

‘Who would’ve though.‘ Steve jumps out the sound of Bucky’s voice. 

‘Jesus Christ Buck, you scared me,‘ he puts a hand to his chest trying to control his breathing and the adrenaline running through him.

‘I’m proud of you punk,‘ Bucky smiles and pats Steve on the back, ‘she’s quite the catch.‘ Steve smiles proudly, but looks down at the steering wheel.

‘Of course I have to manage to fall in love with a woman completely out of my reach,‘ Steve laughs, ‘it’s not the first time.‘

‘But this woman obviously wants you too,‘ Bucky tells him. They both know they’re revering to Peggy who has always been out of reach for Steve.

‘How can you be so sure about that?‘ Bucky gives him an unbelieving look, confused at Steve’s words.

‘I’m sorry, did you forgot you were just kissing her at the door,‘ he asks the man next to him, ‘believe it or not, this woman is interested in you.‘ Suddenly, Steve gets scared once again. This time because of tapping on the window. Steve rolls his window down and sees Y/N again.

‘Hey, I’m sorry to intrude, but would you want to come inside? Oh, hi Bucky.‘

‘I would love to.‘ She nods with a disappointed look on her face, knowing where this is going.

‘But you have to drive Bucky back.‘

‘I do.‘

‘No you don’t,‘ Bucky stops him, ‘we’re less than a mile from base. I can walk. No problem. Need to sober up anyway. They don’t like drunks at the base.‘ He’s more talking to her than to Steve. He knows the only convincing Steve needs is her convincing. His won’t work. He’s already overused that today.

Before Steve can say anything, Bucky is out of the car. He salutes Steve and Y/N and head in the general direction of the base. Speechless, Steve gets out of the car and follows Y/N inside.

She sits him down on the couch and curls up on the other side, both of them holding a cup of tea. She seems much shyer than before, but a good kind of shy.

‘Tell me if I’m going to fast,‘ she mumbles, ‘but I’ve never met a man quite like you and I’m sure my momma would tell me to keep you as close as I possibly can.‘

‘That’s a big compliment. Thank you,‘ he smiles shyly. She puts her cup of tea on the coffee table and moves towards him on the couch. 

‘Can I kiss you again?‘

*Doll dizzy: A boy who’s crazy about girls. **Ragging: Making fun of, nagging. ***In the sticks: Undesirable location.

A white Jasmine stands for sweet love.

[pluviophile-bookworm]

AWAE 3x3 rewatch: thoughts and reactions

So I made a ginormous pause in between these again. I just wasn’t feeling up to the task, I guess. But it’s the anniversary of the premiere of AWAE, so what better day to do the penultimate one of these... Let’s just dive in because it’s been literal years since I first saw this episode and I remember literally nothing from it.

Oh my, Bash is just the best. And those baby chicks... well, I know what is most likely to happen to chickens on a farm when they grow older but... can we just maybe not think of that yet? Plus, seeing Mary keeps reminding me that soon I won’t be seeing her anymore. It’s safe to say I have mixed feelings about this cold open. Let’s move on.

Gosh, now they’re leaving Matthew alone with Delly, who is two types of people he’s uncomfortable around - a baby and a girl. But it’s fine, it will be just ‘a couple of hours’...

It is such a shame to think that Mary might have been saved... if she were white. People can be so awful. A human being is a human being. At least there are people like Dr. Ward and our protagonists who know that and act accordingly.

Oh... there’s that cute scene of Matthew showing Delly around Green Gables that I’ve seen in so many gifs... I can’t comment much on it so I’ll just sit back and enjoy. But before I go - Matthew is the best, most gentle man I’ve ever seen. He might be awkward around women and children, but he knows how to treat them right better than most people who are not awkward around them.

Oh gosh, the nappy! That kind of made me laugh out of place but, well, I just wanted to say - thank gods for Jerry and his many siblings. My boy knows how to change nappies.

Oh, they’ve got the printing press! Now that’s exciting! I feel like excitement is a good word to describe this episode, at least so far. We’ll see how I feel by the end of it. All I know is this is making me smile and I’ve really been needing that.

My, my, Ruby... I keep forgetting when it was that she got over Gilbert. Apparently it was not before mid-season, since she’s still in it way too deep. 

Oh wait... is this when things began happening between her and Moody? I mean, the way he gives her his handkerchief, you’d think ever since he stopped trying to make Diana and her ‘very blue’ dress notice him, he’s been sitting back and watching Ruby from afar, hoping he can, somehow, compare to Gilbert. The best part is, in just a bit, he won’t need to. Boy, do I need a fourth season even if just to see these two develop... and for Diana and Jerry to make up, and just in general to see the kids being all grown up... now I feel like crying because we’ll very probably never get it... ok, moving on.

Anne: Sometimes life finds gifts in the darkest of places./ Marilla: Indeed. Wait, was this Marilla’s way of telling Anne she loves her? This is just the best. 

The contrast between scenes dealing with Mary and the rest of the episode is just so stark, it’s jarring. It’s like, you never know the darkness someone might be sinking into  while everybody else is bathing in the light. You know, everybody involved in making this episode, and the show in its entirety, made it so poetic, and yet it’s not. It’s absolutely devastating. And now Gilbert can’t even tell Mary that she’s got no more than two weeks left. This is the worst. 

You know, Anne is right. Caring deeply will always be the right thing. I mean, it’s natural for Gilbert to doubt himself at this time, especially since the tragedy is happening to his own found family. You know, there’s something my mum taught me to do when I’m watching something and I can’t bear the subject matter of it - focus on the acting. And right now I’m just blown away by the superb performance by these incredible young people. But I really can’t bear to focus on the plot right now. And the acting being that good doesn’t particularly help me to detach myself from the story.

You know, tragic as what’s happening to Mary certainly is, it’s somehow lucky she has Anne in her life now that she’s about to leave her own daughter to grow up motherless. Because if only Anne’s parents had an orphan tell them what an orphaned child needs most, Anne’s own experience might have been very different. Mary is a very smart woman for realising that and talking to Anne about it. Because life is not about lamenting what we didn’t have. It’s about making sure we do what is in our power to make it easier for others if we can.

Ah, yes. Racism and ‘White Man’s Burden’ mentality are still very much a thing present here. I guess this here is the first mention of that horrible prison of a school that Ka’kwet would be sent to. This is. The. Worst.

I just can’t bear to listen to this guy. ‘Heathens’ - you mean people with a rich culture and belief system beyond your privileged straight white male comprehension? ‘Teach them all things civilised’ - you mean erase their own, I repeat, rich culture, and replace it with your white man’s ideas of civilisation? What deity fell from the heavens and made you God? And the way Rachel totally agrees with this guy, it just makes me sick. As if that guy would hesitate to discriminate against you on the basis of you being a woman! I just can’t with this. Let’s move on.

‘Be sure you marry for love. Only for love.’ Don’t worry, Mary, he will. Not before a huge, long period of confusion, mind you. But he’ll come to his senses eventually. People do stupid things when they’re young. That’s how they know they’ve lived it to the fullest.

Rachel just baffles me, you know. And Marilla, too, isn’t quite faultless here. How can you be so accepting of one kind of POC, yet so cruel to another? Then I remember their initial reactions to meeting Bash. They were not the most accepting at first. Yet they can see how they’ve now grown to accept and care deeply about Bash and Mary and Delphine. Why can’t they give Ka’kwet’s people a chance like this?

‘You may well have saved some Indians today’... Saved them? From what? Being free to practice their own culture? You know, white people can be so very ignorant... and I say that as a very white person. I’m just ashamed of everything my ethnicity has done to literally every other ethnicity.

‘I don’t wanna die’... You know, sometimes I do, and right now that makes me feel so ashamed. I should really think of Mary and also every real person who had an untimely death whenever I’m having those thoughts again. We should all learn to appreciate life so much more.

So this is the one with Mary’s Easter... this is beautiful. I might have to rescind my ‘excitement’ statement from earlier, but there is still a theme of beauty, love and family throughout this. Well, technically throughout the entire series, but especially here. I love this. 

Delphine with a flower crown is the cutest thing ever...

Minnie May: She looks like a chocolate candy. I just... took notice of how the background music abruptly stopped. You know, coming from an older person, this would sound... not at all ok. But this 7-year-old didn’t mean any harm, and they realise it after a brief moment of panic in their eyes. Still... black people don’t call us, idk, butter or something. We should not compare their skin colour to chocolate.

Their singing is absolutely beautiful. But let’s be real - in a real-life situation, most of the people would be way off-key and those harmonies would be impossible to arrange. Still, for this beauty, I am willing to suspend my disbelief for miles. Also, that prayer at the end... well, I’m not Christian, but I am religious, and I know the power of a prayer as poetic as this one. However hard it must have been for Mary to know she wouldn’t live, it must have been a great consolation to know she would go in such a way, surrounded by so much beauty and love, and light. Well, that ending was bittersweet! But I absolutely loved this episode. Except for the racist parts that made me absolutely livid. It’s so frustrating to know there is still so much hate in the world based just on minor superficial differences between people. Yet it would have been even more frustrating if we didn’t have people in the world like our protagonists (and especially the protagonist, Anne). It is such an absolute shame that this show, and others like it, got cancelled over some trivial issues and wasn’t given the proper chance to develop its positive messages even further. But still, even with just the 27 episodes it was given, it was able to cover so much ground. I don’t know what to say. AWAE is just supreme.

Let’s sum up: the final weeks of Mary’s life; racial prejudice might have just cost this lovely woman, a wife and a mother, her life; Matthew showing Delly around Green Gables is the sweetest thing; the first press-printed issue of The Avonlea Gazette, with a significant typo; and thus, a ship was born; subtle ways of saying those three little words; ‘Caring deeply will always be the right thing.’; the legacy of a mother; ‘White Man’s Burden’ mentality is alive and dangerous; double standards regarding the acceptance of POC; Mary’s Easter; going surrounded by a loving community.

[randomestfandoms-ocs]

So, since I got a couple of asks about making a manip tutorial, I’m going to walk you guys through how I made the Sofia Martinez x Diego Hargreeves gif that you see above!  I use photoshop on mac for all of my gifs, so it may look different on other computers, but the theory is the same (I don’t know what version of photoshop it is lmao, I got it free through school)

This is admittedly not my best gif ever but it was less complicated than a lot of what I make so it seemed like a good one to make a tutorial for!  Details are below the cut since this is super long

1. So first I start by loading the first of the two gifs!  If you’ve never used photoshop before, you can do that in “file” 

NOTE: If you already know how to get a gif loaded then you can skip ahead to step 4, and if you know how to get the gif to only include the frames that you want then you can skip to 6!  

(Ik most people will use premade gifs but I make all of mine from scratch so I included that in this)

2. So I know that different people load gifs differently, but I always go with import video frame to layer!  It opens my files and I find the mp4/mov file that I want to load from!

3. So I forgot to screenshot this originally which is why you can sort see the final result lmao but anyways then I go and select what part of the file I want!  Now I’ve used this Diego scene in a lot of edits so I know exactly where I want it, but finding the exact moment sometimes takes a bit more time/attempts before you get exactly what you want!

4. So now that I have a gif, you can see my timeline at the bottom!  The first step to making an actual gif is to go through the timeline and delete all of the frames that you don’t want!  In my case, that includes all of the Luther frames that came before this scene!  And I decided to make this a 50 frame gif, so once I had 50 frames of Diego, I also deleted everything after that!

5. So once you get just the frames that you want, go to your layers on the side and delete all of the layers that are no longer in your gif!  After that I make the remaining layers into a group because I find gif making a lot easier when everything is in groups lmao!

6. Then I like to create the curve layer!  This may look different on pcs but on mac you go to the layers dropdown into new adjustment layer to curves!

7. For creating the curves that I want, use the highlight (circled pink) and lowlight (circled yellow) eyedrops!  I start with the highlight and I click on what I want to have as the lightest point of the gif (in this case, Diego’s neck), then I use the lowlight and click on what I want to be the darkest point (in this case, his harness)

7b. Now, if you want to change any of the curves from there, you can click on where it says RGB and choose which colour to adjust!  If I want the entire thing to be brighter then I’ll go through each colour and increase them all by the same amount; if I want to make one colour stronger or weaker then I only change that one!

7c. in this closeup you can see where the numbers are on the bottom!  I only ever adjust the input number, I don’t touch the output at all!  Once you’re on a specific colour, click on the square at the top (highlight) or bottom (lowlight) of the curve to determine what you’re adjusting!  

NOTE: Don’t assume that these will be your final settings!  Once you combine the gifs and we get to the real colouring, they will definitely be changing!  But I personally prefer having the base curves already done and then adjusting things later rather than trying to start it later!

After that, I repeat the process to make the second gif, and now we get to making the manip!

So my Diego gif is bigger (1920x1080) than my Sofia gif (1280x720), so I’m going to be moving his gif onto hers!

8. So to copy the gif you’ve made, select all of your frames and then click the three little lines on the bottom right of your timeline!  Make sure you’ve selected all of the frames

9. Then, you can choose the copy frames option!!

Note: I should have done it sooner but I forgot; at this point make sure that your curves layer has been moved into the group so that it copies with everything else!

10. So then we move to our other gif, and again we make sure that we’ve selected all the layers, and we click the three little lines again!  Make sure that you’ve selected the top layer of the gif so that the layers from the other gif will go on top of it!

11. This time, we’re going to choose to paste frames, and when the pop up appears, make sure to select “Paste Over Selection”!  That’s what will put the gif you copied on top of the gif you have selected!

12. so now we this!  At this point I can’t see the gif underneath it, so we’re going to create a layer mask (circled in orange in the second screenshot) and get to really making the manip!

NOTE: this will actually say add layer mask, but when I press the command key to take a screenshot it switches to vector, sorry about that!

12b. Circled in orange here is the layer mask!  This is the layer that we’re going to do all of the editing on now to make the other gif visible!

13. Now, because of the size difference between the two gifs, I decided to move the Diego gif to be fully centred to start!  So I used the free transform tool and just dragged it over!  This won’t be its final size or position, but it means that when I go back to editing the layer mask, I’ll be able to see more of the Sofia gif to know what I want to change!

14. So now that it’s more or less where I want it for now, it’s time to get my brush!  I always start off with a big brush (better for the fast, imprecise work that I do to start) with 0% hardness!  I almost always use 0% hardness unless I need a really defined edge.  Make sure that your foreground colour is black and then just paint on the layer mask until you can see the bottom group!  If you accidentally hide more than you meant to, just switch your foreground colour to white and paint over it, which will re-reveal it

15. So now that I can actually see the entire Sofia (Lindsey) gif, I’m going to go back to the free transform tool and resize/move the Diego gif until they’re roughly the same size!  Then I’ll go back to my layer mask (still with black as my foreground colour) and paint over the mask until it’s as visible as I want!

15b. Now I found the entire gif was too far to the left for my liking, so I selected both groups and went back to the free transform tool and just moved everything to the right until it was more centred!

16. So now I have a manip that I like, but the lines are still harsher than I want them to be!!  So I go and right click on the layer mask and choose the Select And Mask function!

17. Now this brings us to a new menu, where we can work more on the mask!  I like to use the feather function (you can see where the box is highlighted blue) to soften the edges of the manip!  I usually start with 50px and either lower or increase the number until I like the way it looks!  I can’t describe exactly what it does but it makes the edge softer and the manip looks more blended

18: Now it’s time to colour the gif!  So I have my psd open here, so I right click on the group and choose duplicate group, and then for the destination, I choose my manip (untitled 3, in this case!)

NOTE: I use a colouring PSD that was shared with me, but you can find colourings all over tumblr and deviantart — you don’t even need a psd, you can make your own or just play around with different adjustment layers until you like it!

19. Now I go back to my manip file and oof, if looks way worse like this!  So I go back to those curve layers from the beginning and adjust things until it looks better and matches better!  For Sofia, I made the green and blue curves stronger, and for Diego I made the red stronger!  For Diego I also added a brightness/contrast layer to lessen the harsh contrast!

20. Now it’s time to resize the gif!  Tumblr limitations don’t allow gifs wider than 540px (no height limit that I know of), so that’s what I set mine to!  Then it automatically changes the height to keep the ratio the same!

21. Now when I make my gifs smaller, I always end up with this awkward little empty space on the edge, so we go back to our layer mask, now with white as our foreground colour, and just using a small brush we will that in again so it looks normal!

22. then we save!!!  Go to file > export > save for web, and then you’ll get the first save popup (the big one), click save, and then you get the smaller one and you can name it whatever you want!

23. and now we have a gif!!!!

I really hope this tutorial helps at all!  If you ever have any questions about this tutorial, feel free to shoot me a DM or an ask and I’ll try to clarify; and if you’d ever like to know how I do another type of edit or a specific edit, shoot me an ask and I’ll try to put together a tutorial!

Happy creating y’all!!!

[andsmile]

okay here are my two cents, not everyone’s cup of tea but here we go

the article is real. yes, it’s not well written. yes, everything sounds like a fever dream. but this show has been a clusterfuck for years and now they managed to touch the one good thing they had going on (their solid core four ships) that are about to become a clusterfuck too.

however, the reviewer who wrote that seems to be VERY b*rchie biased and literally gushed over the ship happening all over the recap, not stopping to actually talk about what it means for bughead and varchie, or veronica and jughead. they ignored the glances that we know from the stills the core four shares (bughead and varchie), and only said “veronica looks at archie” / “jughead looks at betty” and enhanced b*rchie glances again. whoever wrote it likes the idea of b*rchie so we can’t trust it completely.

cheating SUCKS. sucks, sucks, sucks. however, it’s not the first time it’s used as a plot device to shake things up in a teen show. it won’t be the last. riverdale thrived on the stability of their core ships but they probably wanted to shake things up while simultaneously catering to another part of the fandom, so there you go.

i understand if you’re a thrown off by cheating but (and that might be controversial) i don’t think this invalidates bughead’s or varchie’s journey. the writers have failed to show us why b*rchie would be “confused” to a point that they’d cheat on their significant others (and that’s where the story diverts from other triangles/quadrangles from other better written shows) but this is just another storyline they’re pulling out of their asses too quickly. either way, it doesn’t change what happened so far for varchie and bughead. it’s “the darkest storyline” that you can and should ignore.

this is not real life so if you feel like “forgiving” archie or betty for doing this, it’s okay, it doesn’t mean that you’d be a cheater on real life or that you’d condone this attitude. also, when in doubt, go with the characters reaction: if jug and veronica do forgive them, and you still like the ship, why wouldn’t you?

it’s also okay if you want to jump ships or to leave the fandom. do what’s best for you!

what matters more to me right now is: how will they follow this up? what will happen afterwards? are b*rchie going to honest? are they engaging on an affair (sounds crack but)? are they honestly just going to choose jug and veronica and that’s it? does it mean anything for real, or is it just a thing that happens in the musical, a “showmance”?

we can only expect bad writing, so i don’t think we can expect archie or betty to tell their secret to jughead and veronica. with the tapes thing going on, i feel like they will go back to their relationships and ignore this ever happened, when someone leaks a tape that blows up the core four. and we initiate season 5 with the core four all split up. with a time jump, many things can be forgiven and it’s a set up for angst.

it’s a weird thing that this episode is using ALL of the b*rchie cards and trumphs wrapped into one. flashbacks for kiddie stuff? pilot reminiscing with a song about mistakes and goodbyes? window scenes? “longing”? er... if i was a b*rchie shipper i’d be wary. it’s a huge b*rchie sandwich and it could literally be giving all possible content so they never visit that again. also, i, for one, am glad that these flashbacks are happening now and not in episode 18. maybe they want us to believe b*rchie have been waiting for each other but we just won’t believe it and the writers are on crack but they know their audience, don’t think they don’t.

let’s not blame the cast, reviewers, or even the characters that have existed for 78 years on this bullshit story line.

maybe i am too detached from canon, or maybe i have seen enough shit (that always, inevitably, hits the fan on the fourth season) with my other ships to feel really upset. thing is, i have always been on the loser side of the cw shows before, but that was always the smallest fanbase (with brucas, stelena, dair, etc) and i’ve always watched the big fanbase win over the small fanbase regardless of the writing or continuity. this time we, the bughead and varchies, are the big fanbase. we can boycott, be heard, let them know we hate it, that we won’t watch, and they will listen. the cw has fired producers for that before, and riverdale is the cw’s cash cow. let them know that you hate and don’t watch, especially if you live in the USA.

i know it’s hard to even think about your ship in a good way right now but remember that the archie comics characters have been around for decades and that this isn’t their only universe. which means, you can still love your ship and ship them in the comics or, especially if you want the riverdale timeline, content fans create for you. it’s really the time to support your fanfic writers, fanartists, gif makers, video makers, etc. this is the time we come together as a big community and support each other until this is over.

the fanfics you read, keep reading them. they don’t have any relation to the source material. the arts and gifsets you reblog, keep reblogging them. keep stanning your version of your ship, this is what’s going to matter in a few years from now when the show is over and there’s nothing more to “feed” from.

be respectful to your fellow bughead and varchie shippers now. i guess this is crucial. we can win this war TOGETHER, but not apart. it doesn’t matter that you think archie is the fuckboy that should die - don’t say it to a varchie shipper. it doesn’t matter if it pisses you off that betty always gets excused - don’t say it to a bughead shipper. let’s be friends, let’s stick together, this is the writers fault, and archie and betty as characters also deserve better.

[michyeosseo]

do you have any tips on how to make HQ gifs? i followed a bunch of tutorial but specially on twitter is just look sorry to say this word but very sh*tty you are one of the blogs i followed so maybe i can ask you but i’m too shy to come off anon

fghjkjhgfdsdfghj alright let’s try a linked-filled tutorial

when giffing for either sns, imo it comes down to a few basics:

getting the source video in the best possible resolution

your video player (highly recommend potplayer but it’s only compatible with windows)

size limits - the thing about file size is that both sites will distort them even if you follow the keep-it-down-as-much-as-possible rule of thumb *stares at tmblr’s garbage .gifv default display* anyway, my current width settings are at 900px for twtr & 250/400/540px for tmblr 

sharpening - the Difference this makes, ugh (a big fan of rubyredwisp’s glossy sharpen action over the years. you can also explore vapoursynth if you’re willing to deal with some light coding/wanna create a .gif output without going through ps... fair warning, it’s greedy on ram)

attaching a guide with screenshots but it’ll probably be long so imma keep that under the cut

(click on the in-line images to enlarge them)

first, i open the video i want. in trusty ol’ potplayer, taking screencaps is simply pressing ctrl+g (in case you prefer taking clips, it’s alt+c)

as you can see, the caps i got from that are 1080p

listen, a lot of folk would say 720p is fine but we’re not settlers in the age of 4k and up. as long as your disk space/internet can handle, use the ~best resolution available~

open photoshop. there are two ways (importing video frames to layers and loading files into stack) but in my experience, the latter yields preferable results so that’s the method we’ll follow here

the routine i’m used to is to load all the caps from that scene and trim from there but idk about your practice ymmv

don’t forget to select all your layers* before pressing “convert video timeline.” we’ll need the frames first so click that three box/timeline button on the lower left corner, make frames and reverse frames

previous frame extraction step and cropping+resizing are interchangeable. both arrive at the same result. sometimes, i’d like to see the individual frames first before cropping but doing the reverse is often lighter on your ps

[tip: make use of crop ratio. that pair of numbers would help you maintain the shape of the gif instead of eyeballing using the move tool later on. 1:1 is a square, 2:1 is a rectangle, and so on and so forth]

set the frame timing. i like consistency so i keep my gifs running at 4s unless i can’t help it. a lil’ math is involved in order to divide frame time (0.07 for 60f/0.1 for 40f/0.13 for 30f/0.2 for 20f) though keep in mind the number of frames contribute to the gif size

you’re probably wondering why i kept this twtr gif a few pixels above the 900px width i said earlier. after sharpening the smart object* - the reason why i had all the layers selected from the beginning - i slightly resize further using the canvas. this extra step would give you clean gif borders

once all that is finished, you’re free to do/not do colouring

the simplest trick i learned recently from @waegashi-tofu is using curves to balance out your gif (use the white dropper for the portion that should be the brightest, the black dropper for the darkest area; you can make separate layers to easily discern the change made by the two) play around with opacity of that curve layer/s

leave it at that or if you’re overthinking all the time like me, colour further™

remember to double check the end marker of the video timeline. we’ve arrived at the last step where you’re now ready to save (alt+ctrl+shift+s)

and we’re done! ᓚᘏᗢ 

[verobatto]

Destiel Chronicles

Vol. LXVI

It was a love story from the very beginning.

You are the one in my heart (Part II)

(11x13)

Hello! I bring to you another meta from this collection – the second part! We will keep talking about broken hearts and how in love Dean is with Castiel. I know you love this topic. And I just decided this will have a third part because I have so many things to say...

First of all, I want to say thank you to @destielle , she's the beta reader of this mess. Thank you for making my meta look so pretty 😘💕💕

Cheating and love triangles

Episode 11x13 is titled 'Love Hurts' and it fits perfectly because, remember how Dean felt so hurt when Casifer tried to use him as bait? Okay. We all agree he suffered a heart break then, and that’s why the Banshee could get to him. Now, this episode talks about broken hearts, too… but also about a cursed kiss: Amara's kiss.

The episode opens with a husband cheating on his wife with their babysitter. It’s a love triangle functioning as a Destiel mirror, but they add in some spicy confusion to the subtext: Melissa (the depressed wife) is the Cas mirror, we have Stacey, the babysitter, for Amara and Dan as Dean.

So when we have Stacey saying: "Ew, I can taste her mom lipstick…you’re telling her tonight, right?" we get the mirrored thoughts of Amara after kissing Dean, who is, too, already taken, compromised – bonded with Castiel. 

And when Dan says: "I told you it’s not that simple. Mel and I…we’ve been together since we were your age. We have a house, a baby…we have a whole life together." He's talking about marriage, a serious commitment, which works as the perfect parallel to Dean and Castiel’s long-term relationship.

So when the Qareen appears in the form of Dan and rips Stacy's heart out from her chest (and vice versa a little further into the episode), we are still talking about broken hearts. But we get confused because Dan admits his love for the babysitter, and therefore could never hurt her. Because you don't hurt the one you love (obviously if Dean had listened a little closer to Dan, he surely would have recalled that nefarious chat with Casifer where he proposed to put Dean in danger).

So, going with the assigned roles, let’s say if Dan is Dean and Stacy is Amara, does that mean when Dan is saying he loves Stacy, not his wife, that Dean loves Amara, and not Cas? No. Not at all. Because the upcoming scenes and what Dean says by the end of the episode will clarify: THE KISS AMARA GAVE HIM IS A CURSE AND HE IS NOT IN LOVE WITH HER.

Now, I want to share with you my beta's clarifying thought, that calmed my shipping heart...

"Hi, destielle here, rudely taking advantage of beta’ing to add a thought: I think the babysitter merely posed as a temptation, something Dan tried out because it’s kind of forbidden and dangerous and therefore exciting, plus conquering a girl stimulates his self-worth but - breaking up with his wife never really was a heartfelt intention. Because getting it on with the babysitter is not only a clichée, but also only fun for a little while, because everything, in the end, will lose its newness and therefore allurement and so I suspect he knew that sticking to what he has, a long-term thing that lasts, is the better road to go by far. Plus there’s a difference between true love and excitement induced infatuation. The ladder will fade, love will last and grow stronger bc it’s built upon a solid foundation."

This is so true, and couldn't be more agreed! Thank you Hannah! 😚💕

The Cursed Kiss

This was a very blatantly straight forward episode, because first it was opened with a recall to AMARA's kiss to Dean. And then they showed us how the Qareen’s curse jumped from one to the next victim via kiss. So, you have a deadly kiss, a cursed kiss… The mark of Cain’s kiss, darkness’s kiss, AMARA's kiss… that wasn't love, that wasn't good. AMARA's kiss is dark, bad, cursed and deadly.

AMARA's kiss poop? 🤣

Who's in Dean's heart?

We already know the answer, but let's dig into it anyway…

The first scene with the Winchester brothers takes place in the Bunker's kitchen the morning after Valentine's day and Dean is having a hard time trying to restore himself… he's walking funny on his way to the fridge… if you know what I mean. But mostly we wonder why that is. He's not the guy for a one-night-only-girl anymore, so what was the matter? And immediately after that question we asked ourselves Dean says this to his brother…

Sam: Is that a hickey? (Dean spits out his food)

Gif set credit @spnwhenever

Dean: And? It was valentine’s day. I can’t help it if I’m a hopeless romantic.

Sam: You got half of that right.

Dean: Just doing my civic duty. Helping all the single ladies. You know the best thing about February 14th. You don’t have to be Mr. Right. Just Mr. Right Now

Sam: That’s classy

Is this the old Dean talking? Nope, definitely not. It’s Mr Dean ‘Broken-hearted’ Winchester talking. And we get it now… Saint Valentine's day, he wasn't with his Mr. Right (Cas)... He just took what was right in that moment. It’s very very sad. But Dean needs to frame it more classy, to make it more cool.

Now, I want to talk a little about Melissa. When she realizes she maybe went too far with her spell, she turns to Dean and Sam, and she says this…

Melissa: yes. A return to love spell. All I had to do was chant it and seal it with a kiss. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I swear. I just wanted my husband back.

This is sad too, and gives us, if we take that as a feeling mirrored from Cas, a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why he said ‘Yes’ to Lucifer in the cage. And again it’s the motive of the CURSED KISS, one with dark intentions… we already learned AMARA's kiss is bad and not good, but now we get even more confirmation of this when Dean kisses Melissa, taking the curse on him that way. WE GET IT WRITERS!

Gif credit @clairvoyantsam

Sam: So the curse is transmittable?

Just like Cain's mark, the curse, the kiss, the love spell, all of them are transmittable.

Sam: Apparently not in him. The person who holds the Qareen’s heart is the one who commands it.

Sam is giving us a lot of clues here: Who has AMARA's heart? Dean. But who has Dean's heart? Castiel. So Dean can direct his own will to reject AMARA's offer. And this is the secret why DEAN CAN RESIST HER.

So, with this statement in our heads, let's analyze the Qareen’s and Dean’s encounter…

The Qareen takes the form of people’s darkest desires. So… he took AMARA's shape.

The Qareen sensed Dean's longing in his heart, but it failed in personifying it. Because Dean's darkest desire is not dark, it’s full of light, but is hidden, because it’s so repressed. His deepest is a secret, it’s his love for Castiel.

Amara: Who I am doesn’t matter. The real question is who are you?

Dean: What do you mean who am I?

She can't read him, Dean Winchester is a mystery, she can't get to his true feelings, she can't reach them. Dean has them sealed away very, very deep down in his soul. Like a treasure.

Amara: You’re a mystery. I can see inside your heart. Feel the love you feel. Except it’s cloaked in shame. When it comes to this, you can’t help yourself, so why fight it. Just give in.

When she says Dean Winchester is a mystery it’s because she really can't read the truth in him, but she knows it’s somewhere in there. She feels it, but can't quite grasp it. And she says 'it's clocked in shame.' Because it is, because Dean Winchester is ashamed of his feelings for Castiel. He knows he shouldn't feel how he feels for his best friend, for a ‘man’, for an angel. He thinks he doesn't deserve him. So, when the Qareen touches herself saying 'when it comes to this, you can't help yourself, so why fight it. Just give in.' It’s simple when it’s about women, when it’s about a curse, a love spell, the attraction is there, the curse is there, he knows it, but they're not Mr. Right. They're just there… the girls on Saint Valentine's Day are available and Amara is almost irresistible because of the curse. But Dean Winchester doesn't give in to that because he loves Castiel.

And then, Qareen!Amara can’t rip Dean's heart from his chest. Because she is not the one in his heart.

We need more evidence? What about this last dialogue between Sam and Dean…

Dean: It was Amara

Sam: That surprise you?

Dean: That doesn’t surprise you?

Sam: Honestly?

Dean: Honestly? You seriously think the sister of God is my deepest darkest desire?

Sam: She isn’t?

Dean: No! She can’t be!

Gif credit @samwinchesterlesbian 👇

Dean puts all his fierceness into these words, BECAUSE HE IS SURE! HE KNOWS POSITIVELY IT CAN'T BE, BECAUSE HE LOVES CASTIEL.

Sam: Why not?

Dean: Why? Because if she is that means that I’m…

Sam: Means you’re what? Complicit? Weak? Evil?

Dean: For starters, yeah

Dean is afraid of the power Amara has over him, that’s it.

Dean: Standing here right now, every bone in my body wants to run her through. Send her back to that hole she crawled out of. But when I’m near her, I don’t know. Something happens and I can’t explain it, but to call it desire or love…it’s not that. I’m screwed man. We wanna kill the darkness. We need to kill the darkness. And I don’t think I can. I’m sorry to do that to you, ya know, but when it comes right down to it…

The most important thing here is that Dean is aware of the curse, of the power, he knows what Amara does to him, and he is sure that it is NOT LOVE. How can he be sure that it’s not love? BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHAT LOVE IS, BECAUSE THERE'S SOMEONE IN HIS HEART ALREADY, AND THAT'S CASTIEL.

To Conclude: 

If the episode with Mildred showed us Dean was pining for someone, telling us Dean is in love with someone, then this one is yelling in our faces that person isn't Amara. And if it’s not Amara plus ‘cloaked in shame’, and Dean has gotten his heart broken recently by someone we know, we are talking about the same person: Castiel.

So it’s logical! And we made the equation just like the writers wanted us to solve it: DEAN WINCHESTER IS IN LOVE WITH CASTIEL, BUT HE'S ASHAMED OF THIS FEELING. AND AMARA HAS A DARK POWER OVER HIM THROUGH A TRANSMITTABLE CURSE: CAIN'S MARK. CANONICAL FACTS! But yeah, I'm not discovering a new world here...

I hope you liked this mess. See you in the next one!

Tagging @metafest @magnificent-winged-beast @emblue-sparks @weirddorkylittlediana @michyribeiro @whyjm @legendary-destiel @a-bit-of-influence @thatwitchydestielfan @misha-moose-dean-burger-lover @lykanyouko @evvvissticante @savannadarkbaby @dea-stiel @poorreputation @bre95611 @thewolfathedoor @charlottemanchmal @neii3n @deathswaywardson @followyourenergy @dean-is-bi-till-i-die @hekatelilith-blog @avidbkwrm @anarchiana @dickpuncher365 @vampyrosa @foxyroxe-art @authorsararayne @anonymoustitans @mybonsai1976 @love-neve-dies @wildligia @dustythewind @wayward-winchester67 @angelwithashotgunandtrenchcoat @trashblackrainbow @deeutdutdutdoh @destiel-is--endgame @destiel-shipper-11 @larrem88 @charmedbycastiel @ran-savant @little-crazy-misha-minion @samoosetheshipper

@shadows-and-padlocked-hearts @mishtho @dancingtuesdaymorning @nerditoutwithbooks @mikennacac73 @justmeand-myinsight @idontwantpeopletoknowmyname @tenshilover20 @teddybeardoctor @pepevons @helevetica @isthisdestiel @dizzypinwheel @jawnlockwinchester @horsez2 @qanelyytha

@imjustkipping @destielle @agusvedder @spnsmile @shippsblog @robot-feels

If you want to be added or removed from this list, just let me know.

If you want to read the previous metas From s11, here you have the links: Vol. LXII, LXIII, LXIV, LXV.

Buenos Aires, June 16th 2020 18:45 PM

[littlemisssquiggles]

So I have SEVERAL feelings over the gif and am super worried over Ruby's expression, her being separated from her team in the snow, the fact that Oscar's taking her place at the head of RWBY, and the fact that Ruby is aligned with Yang who is mentioned to be "suspicious" AND I AM NOT READY

Hiya Miki-chan. Weirdly enough, despite what the intro GIF teased, this squiggle meister took a more light-hearted reaction to it, to be honest.

I know some folks are assuming that Oscar taking Ruby’s place alongside WBY as a stance on him replacing Ruby as leading the group and…I for one, didn’t really see it that way.

For me, I looked at it as a sign that perhaps Oscar may take a more supportive stance besides Ruby; not necessarily taking her place as leader but more as being a right hand to her---y’know like an advisor to aid her in these troubling times when tensions are high and the overall trust within the team is suffering because of it. For me, I took this as us potentially seeing Oscar help Ruby to mend the broken bonds within their team, thus restoring what they once had.

It made me think back to the Little Prince and the lesson he learnt from the fox---a lesson about love and responsibility. About one being responsible for what you tame. The Fox told the Prince that he was responsible for his rose as he was the one who cared for her, and that what’s made her the most unique to him in a world full of roses.

It is because of this why I always latched onto the concept of Oscar being a support for Ruby and strangely enough, we’ve seen Oscar take a helpful role towards Ruby in the past.

We saw him take this position back during the dojo moment in V5 when Ruby wasn’t being honest regarding her repressed emotions over the events of the Fall of Beacon. We saw Oscar take this stance again in V6 in Argus when Ren questioned the room of a proper plan of action to stop Salem and we see Oscar look to Ruby, who appeared distraught as she had no answer to give. From there, we then saw Oscar try to speak up in a move that gave the impression that he was trying to emulate Ruby in that moment---trying to be a voice of reason and optimism while simultaneously diverting all the negative attention that Ruby was receiving onto himself in a sense.

Consecutively, this is later followed up by Oscar attempting to reassure Ruby of their plan back in Argus when she appeared troubled over Qrow’s behaviour.

Basically what I’m getting at is that, I’ve always liked the thought of Oscar being a “fuel to Ruby’s spark”. Since the forces of evil have threatened to break Ruby’s indomitable spirit and snuff out that light of hers, I liked the idea of Oscar becoming someone who makes it his duty to keep Ruby’s spark alive.

I based it off of this analogy I shared back in my musings from V5. Ruby is often described as possessing an unquantifiable spark. A spark is type of a flame. A flame that burns brightly to ignite the way and guide those lost to the darkness like a beacon in the night. However even the brightest of flames cannot burn forever. Eventually that flames grows weary---starts to dim until eventually its burnt out.

But do you know what is often used to keep a fire going? Wood.

Oscar’s last name is Pine and pine is a type of wood. Therefore, should Ruby’s spark start to dim. Should her spirit slowly start to break from all the pressures placed on her, I love the concept of Oscar being the one to reignite it---providing Ruby with that same burst of inspiration that she’s always provided him. Therefore Oscar becomes someone of great importance to Ruby as he becomes a source of motivation for her. Someone to keep her going and be a beacon of hope to her when she starts to go astray and feel her spark dwindling. A fuel to a spark powered by an unyielding heart of loyalty love and bathed in a golden light as bright as the sun.

That what’s I’m picturing Oscar to become for Ruby in terms of his significance to her. Even if romance isn’t in the cards for the rosebuds, I’d still love for Oscar’s relationship with Ruby to be meaningful and unique to them; just like the bond between the prince and his true rose.

And let’s not forget that…Oscar has already acknowledged Ruby’s vulnerability and understands it. What I mean by this is that that despite Ruby being christened as the voice of hope and encouragement within her group---the one everyone turns to for leadership, Oscar has already realized that this also means that Ruby has a lot of pressure placed on her because of the badge of leadership that’s been put on her by those around. Hence the comment he made to Ozpin back in V5CH5.

“…She really is remarkable, isn’t she?”

“Yeah. She must’ve been one of these best huntresses at Beacon, huh?”

“In some ways yes but in many others, no. She has her quirks. Her faults, just like everyone else. But she also possesses something unquantifiable. A spark that can inspire others even in the darkest of times.”

“…This must be really hard on her too.”

“It’s most assuredly is.”

In the beginning, Oscar reacts the Ruby the same way others who grow to admire her usual do. He is enamoured by her remarkability, as Oz put it. However the instant Oz goes even further into giving his own impression of Ruby and mentions that she is a person of inspiration to others, Oscar’s impression of her changes a little as he took Ruby’s role as leader as her also having a lot of expectations placed on her (like him) and he gets it immediately.

And that’s another reason why I loved the V5 dojo scene. It says so much about Oscar without saying a lot and it’s great.

Ironically enough, it’s AFTER this brief conversation with Oz where I noticed Oscar taking up a more dedicated approach towards Ruby---immediately being one of the first few people to run to her side after she’s hurt by Emerald during the Battle of Haven. Defying  even Ozpin---his other half essentially--- and fighting against him to possible protect Ruby from Oz when the ole soul’s desperation to prevent Ruby from using the lamp to uncover the truth got the better of him. And the list can go on.

Oscar understands the weight that Ruby feels and probably will feel even more now as she is basically placed in the same position that Oz was back during the events of V6. When the group turned on Oz, Oscar was pretty much the one to feel the brunt of the ole soul’s emotions after he chose to isolate himself. That being said, I can see Oscar not wishing to see the same thing happen to Ruby so like I said, I’m hoping his position in the opening will hint at him becoming an advisor or crutch to Ruby, standing by her side and working with her to mend everything.

That being said, I’m not saying I’m expecting Oscar to be a blind follower of Ruby, choosing to “follow her lead”. One thing I love about Oscar’s character is that while he may appear apprehensive at times, he’s never afraid to speak his mind and let others know exactly what he’s thinking and he’s not one to sugar coat either.

Oscar is rather blunt but still articulate in the way he expresses himself. It’s never vague with Oscar. He’s quite upfront about his thoughts and fears. While it may take him some time to open up, whenever he does get the courage to speak up, he always does so in a manner that commands the room or practically demands that his voice is heard by those around him.

And another trait I admire about Oscar is that he isn’t afraid to share his opinions even when he outright disagrees with someone’s stance on a particular subject. If he feels as if someone’s actions are wrong or may lead to issues, Oscar doesn’t withhold those feelings. He lets them know as highlighted when he was the first character to oppose Ruby’s decision to deceive the General. He was also quite upfront about his disagreement with the General’s actions towards the People of Mantle and progression of Amity Tower. Oscar even tried to warn the General of the path he was taking and while things still ended poorly, you still have to admire Oscar’s character in these moments.

To me, this is one of the moments that highlighted why I would consider Oscar to be our SECOND smaller, more honest soul next to Ruby. This is why I want to see him step up and be a voice of comfort and wisdom to Ruby in these times. Whether or not Ruby choses to heed his words isn’t really the factor here. I just want to see this dynamic done since this could provide an amazing opportunity to see the friendship that’s been slowly building between the rosebuds for the past few seasons truly start to flourish.

V8 could spark the moment when the Rosegarden bond fully blooms into a beautiful relationship---be it a really great friendship built on trust and understanding or perhaps something more.

Oscar is loyal to Ruby, yes. And he believes in her, yes. He also trusts her wholeheartedly, yes. However if he fears that her actions are leading her down a dark path, he will tell her so. And unlike other characters, Oscar will tell Ruby this to her face---not in a manner that condescends or belittles her---but in his own way. Firm yet understanding (like how we saw back in V5CH5).

Basically what I’m saying here is that I can trust Oscar to always being upfront with Ruby about his concerns and opinions on her actions and decisions which…is something I would like to say for the rest of her team but…I can’t. Not really.

Weiss and Blake may have their feelings and concerns but in the end, they are more or less written off as sheep perfectly content with following the herd led by Ruby as their shepherd (even if that headship ultimately winds them in a den of wolves). And while Yang had been highlighted to not be entirely complacent with her sister’s leadership (as we saw during the events of V7), it still bugs me how Yang went behind Ruby’s back the way she did last season.

It almost felt…uncharacteristic for her to do this considering that Yang has been described as someone who has always looked out for Ruby as both the older sibling and surrogate parent to her. So why have Yang go behind, not just Ruby’s back, but the whole hero team to be an informant to Robyn Hill and then…NOT disclose this info to the rest of the her teammates. Only Blake knew and like I said, Blake is a sheep, fine with following Yang’s lead despite not doing anything herself to inform the others of what the Bees did together.

In reviewing the episode where this essentially took place---V7CH7: Worse Case Scenario---Yang is the one who basically gave Blake the go ahead to inform Robyn of the truth behind Amity when the two cornered her in the alleyway. Yang was even the first to talk and tell Robyn of Ironwood’s plans to send the Ace Ops to detain her.

“…If Ironwood wants me, he’ll have to send more than a couple of kids.”

“He is. Stopping the trucks alerted the Ace Ops. We don’t have long before they arrive so please listen to us.”

Yang spoke first. There is an even a shot in that very episode where Blake goes to spill the beans to Robyn but looks to Yang first for validation and it’s only when Yang nods in agreement when Blake finally shares. Although Blake is the one who told Robyn about the plans for Amity, it was Yang who practically gave her the go-ahead.

So while Blake is an accomplice, I’m going to place full responsibility for this tactic on Yang since she made the first call and also encouraged Blake to reveal the truth. Ruby’s choice to deceive was bad, yes but we cannot ignore Yang’s own choices to deceive in this mix which is also very problematic and could prove more dangerous than one might realize.

And given how there seems to be this talk in the FNDM about Yang being the one to apprehend Ruby for her actions inV7….I'm going to be blunt with you, Miki-chan. If the show does what you think they're gonna do by having Yang be the one who either calls Ruby out for the mistakes she made from her decisions or have Yang be the voice of doubt against Ruby, basically placing her in the same role as she did with Oz back in V6, I'm honestly going to hate it.

Let me explain why I REALLY don’t like this angle. I said this before back in V6 and I'll say it again here, Yang Xiao Long has no right calling anyone out for their deceit or secrets when she is NO innocent party.

May I remind everyone that the only reason that the group ended up needing to transport the Lamp of Knowledge to Atlas in the first place was because Yang boldly told Raven Branwen---the Spring Maiden to leave her with the Relic allowing Salem to come after her and the others as opposed to advising her to seal the lamp back into its respective vault.

“…Yeah I’m scared but I’m still standing here. I’m not like you. I won’t run which is why you’re going to give me the relic.”

“And why would I ---“ “Because you’re afraid of Salem! And if you thought having maiden powers will put a target on your back, imagine what she would do if she finds out that you have a relic. She will come after you with everything she has. Or she can come after me and I’ll be standing there, waiting for her.”

“You don’t want to do this.” “Nope but I’m gonna do it anyway.”

As noble as this was of Yang to do in the moment, it was still HER decision to have Salem target the hero group for the Relic instead of her mother. It was a choice she made of her own accord and it’s a choice she hasn’t disclosed to anyone since the impression after V5 is that beyond Raven disappearing again, Yang hasn’t told anyone else of what was said and revealed down in the Vault of the Spring Maiden. Even when Qrow asked her about it during the V5 finale, she basically told him…well…a half-truth.

“…What happened?” “I don’t know exactly. When I got down there, Cinder was gone and Vernal was dead.” “And Raven?” “Gone.”

The half-truth is that Raven did leave but not before Yang figured out that she was the Spring Maiden and not before Yang told her to leave the lamp in her possession instead of sealing the lamp back in its vault. May I remind everyone that Yang also didn't tell anyone that Raven---her mother---is the Spring Maiden?

And may I also remind everyone that Yang (along with Blake) was the one who went behind the group's back and told Robyn Hill about Amity. A detail that neither she nor Blake disclosed to the rest of the team.

“…This isn’t over yet. We’re with you.” “Are you with me?” “Sir?” “…How did Robyn know about the Global Communications Project?” “We told her. The night of the ambush.”

At least with Ruby, everyone was aware that Ruby made the call to lie to Ironwood about Salem including Oscar who basically sorted that out for Ruby (even though it SHOULD have been Ruby herself taking responsibility for her own actions in my opinion). However no one knew what Yang had done with Blake with Robyn which was why they all seemed pleasantly surprised when Ironwood brought it up. Blake and Yang were the only two members of RWBY who knew about this detail and note that Ironwood didn’t bring up the group deceiving him about Salem.

Again, that part was ironed out thanks to Oscar. But the part about Robyn, that part James didn’t know about. And unfortunately for our heroes, neither did they.

Yet…Yang phrased it as if RWBY had told Robyn when in fact, it was just Yang and Blake who made that call while Ruby and Weiss were clearly in the dark as evidenced by their troubled expressions at the Aces’ and Ironwood’s reactions to the news.

You're seeing my issue with Yang being the one to call Ruby out? If Yang ends up being the one doubtful of Ruby or "suspicious" of her actions/decisions, it'll pretty much be a rehash of V7.

Most of us thought it was mighty hypocritical for Ruby to be deemed in the right for choosing to lie to Ironwood following the group's chastising of Oz for withholding important information (the same info mind you) from them.

So wouldn't it be ultra mega hypocritical of Yang to be the one to doubt Ruby's actions and leadership based on her decisions and mistakes when...technically it was Yang's actions---an action she didn't tell her team---that provided the other end of the final straw that ultimately broke Ironwood and caused him to turn against the hero team.

While what Ruby did started it, what Yang did ended it in a sense because as I’ll point out again, AT LEAST Ironwood knew about what Ruby did, thanks to Oscar. But no one knew what Yang did. Except for Blake.

But her own sister. Their  own aforementioned leader didn't know and I'm sorry, THAT needs to be addressed.

While I'm fine with Ruby being called out, Yang needs to be called out too. I will be so mad if Yang is treated as being in the right again while her own actions go unscathed.

It upset me when Yang had the gall to call out Oz for his lies and secrets while sitting on her own and it would bother me to know ends if it is done again for Ruby.

Yang cannot be the "good cop" or sheriff to bring Ruby to justice for her actions. She's got her own skeletons to be unearthed and thrown on the floor, exposed and raw for all to judge and I honestly hope this happens for V8 finally. 

Let it be a western style dual. Let both parties draw fire to take out each other. Let it be a case where both Ruby and Yang start to mirror Oz and Ironwood’s dynamic from way back in V2. Both parties don't agree with each other's decisions despite being close allies. Both parties have their own methods of helping the people and believe them to be in the right when in actuality they both end up being the catalysts to further cause more problems within their team; dividing them even further.

Instead of Yang being planted on some high horse and made to be the judge that hangs Ruby for her mistakes while continuing to hide her own, I want BOTH SISTERS be held accountable for driving a deeper wedge between their group only for Oscar Pine to end up having to be the middleman to come in and help repair it all.

And I say Oscar of all characters, not just because I’m a Pinehead and want to see more development for my favourite little prince but mainly because like it or not, Oscar HAS to be the one to be in the middle of this shitstorm since...in essence, this all started with Ozma and was prolonged by Ozpin.

And as Ozma's current heir succeeding Oz, Oscar will probably see it as his own duty to fix everything sparked by his predecessors.

Oscar already has faith in Ruby and if him spending time with Yang down in Mantle could lend to him learning to have faith in her too then this could ultimately lend to him desiring to quell the tension between both sisters that’s slowly affecting their faction, henceforth working to reconcile everything with everyone.

I’ve expressed how much I would like to see Oscar mend the broken bonds within his team and I still want that above anything else to be part of his arc for this coming season. 

The hero team dynamic needs a reboot; with everyone being cleared of their past false actions so that they can start anew with everyone on a clean page with one another and a better willingness to trust each other now that they've all experienced what deceit and secrecy amongst allies can do.

I want this so much and I want Oscar to play a big part in making it happen. 

I don’t wanna hear “Ruby is our protagonist and she has to fix everything” or “Yang will be our stan queen for V8 to call Ruby out”.  NO! 

Both girls have fucked up! Everyone has fucked up!

Including my boy. The difference is that at least Oscar knows he’s fucked up. He is AT LEAST aware of his fuckery unlike Yang and Ruby and the rest of the hero team which is why I need Oscar to be the one to pull everyone up for their shit.

Since who better to do it than the person whose shares a body with the man whose made more mistakes than any man, women and child on Remnant, am I right? 

 Even now as we head into V8, I don’t think Ruby and Yang are aware of the consequences of their own mistakes. None of them seem to be. All the more reason why I think they require the wisdom and guidance of another smaller, more honest soul---one whose seen it from BOTH sides of the coin and can now make a call to better help everyone as a whole.

That's what I'd like to see. Not sure if this changes how you feel Miki-chan but that's how I see it.

P.S. On another note, if it’s any further consolation, I’m not ready for V8 either 8V 

Like it still hasn’t quite hit me as yet even when the episode is literally tomorrow. All I will say is that I NEED to see that opening. Based on how things are staged from the teaser, that opening and the visuals that tells what we’ll see for that season will be what gets me into V8.

But we’ll see XD 

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)