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galedekarios · 11 months ago

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plagiarism in the bg3 fandom

disclaimer: this post should not be taken as a springboard to harrass anyone involved.

as i've stated previously, i didn't want to make this post because i have a lot going on in real life, but i have been watching this being done to others and myself for months now and i can't not speak about my experience anymore.

laiostoudenn (prev urls: lathanderr/spellbooking/wizardblood on tumblr / circleofspores on bsky) is a plagiarist and he has a history of stealing from other creators like @minthara, @mercymaker, @onewingedangels and others.

in this post, i, finally and after much and long deliberation, want to add my voice to theirs.

i'll try to give a chronological overview of what happened as i have come to experience it, through others and myself, and as condensed as possible and to make it easier for myself to tell:

the story

i became aware of this new blog after he @ me and he messaged me. he's been following me. i was slow to engage because i have a lot of things going on in my real life that cost me a lot of energy during the day. i have also grown cautious of too quickly becoming close to strangers online. i became aware, however, that he had been doing this with multiple bigger creators in this space, like my friend @hawke, who is also a creator in the bg3 space, and who has experienced the same behaviour. they asked me if i knew him and i replied that i did not.

that was it for me at that point and i didn't engage much beyond that because i didn't know him and i thought nothing of it - until later.

during that time, whenever i saw his creations pop up increasingly, either in the tags or on my dash, i noticed more and more that they looked familiar to the works of others, from @minthara, to @mercymaker, to @onewingedangels and other creators, including myself.

it was then confirmed that i wasn't simply imagining things when, months ago, two creators were brave enough to speak up about the fact that he has been plagiarising gifsets and edits from them:

@minthara and @mercymaker:

@onewingedangels original set posted on 31st december 2023:

his set posted on 29th january 2024 (now deleted):

this was done without consent, and after he had already copied prior sets from @onewingedangels.

i would greatly recommend reading the posts shared above, and looking at the examples provided in it, so that you get a clear picture of what's happening here. it's not one isolated incident.

if you take a look at the notes in the post, you can also see other creators speaking about their experiences.

@minthara has recently also uploaded a google docs with the screenshots of the sets stolen from them because they either have been deleted, or lead to nothing due to now multiple url changes.

i was made aware today that he, following the first posts detailing @minthara and @mercymaker's experiences, apologised at first and admitted to what he's been doing on 31st march 2024:

but sadly, this wasn't to last, and the opportunity to learn and grow wasn't taken.

instead what happened was now painted as "bullying" from other creators, as "clique" behaviour and as "gatekeeping", despite many of us operating independently from each other. i, myself, have only started speaking to one other creator involved now that i have noticed the stealing and copying still ongoing.

i have in my time on this website never gatekept anything. i have shared metas, gifsets, creations, mods, art, tutorials, and many other things freely.

but back to the matter at hand: after he has been trying to ingratiate himself to me for some time now, following me, unfollowing me, and refollowing me again until i blocked him for my own mental health, i tried to remain civil before this point, engaging rarely if at all, hoping everything would go away on its own - which was a mistake in hindsight, i realise - i noticed that once again he's been lifting entire concepts and frame-by-frame gifs and sets from me.

things that he now claims - likely after he has been made aware of my prior personal posts and @minthara and @mercymaker's post circulating again by being reblogged by other people who have been affected) - were simply "remade" or "expanded" upon, that he may have been "subconsciously" influenced, while simultaneously claiming that he didn't know these sets existed in the first place, that he came up with the ideas independently, and that it's simply inevitable to use the same scenes because it's a limited game.

this doesn't hold up under scrutiny, however.

i want to make clear that i very much understand and that i am acutely aware that i do not own scenes and i do not own mods or outfits. however, what i do like to pride myself on is coming up with concepts and scene choices and captions accompanying these concepts that are unique, inspired by my metas, headcanons pertaining to gale and my own ocs altonaufein and karl, all of which i have seen copied by him several times now.

this is not as simple as simply gifing the same lines of dialogue from a scene as he and others supporting him are now postulating and i want to make that very, very clear.

another reason why this statement doesn't hold up under any scrutiny and, what ultimately confirmed my suspicion that he has been copying me, was when he - after the first post exposing his behaviour by @minthara and @mercymaker was made - reached out to me, asking if it it's ok to copy a gifset i made (note: again, this happened after he was called out for plagiarising the first time):

i didn't respond quickly enough, so he went ahead and posted it without waiting for my response (the response i gave him is pictured above and for transparancy, i responded about a day later bc of work and irl obligations).

below you can see the stolen post and what i managed to save from it:

the set was a 1:1 copy. he wanted a version for his oc so bad that he went ahead and stole my concept anyhow, without even waiting for the permission he asked for.

he went to take it down after my reply, made cautious most likely by his still fresh callout done in march 2024 by @minthara and @mercymaker, and i thought the issue was resolved and it wouldn't happen again, that he wouldn't take again without asking, despite having been told not only by myself, but by other creators as well, no. we are not comfortable.

but no. he "remade" the set, switching out gifs while complaining about how he "had to make it original":

my set in question was made on 1st february 2024, he reached out to me on 22nd april 2024 to "remake" the set. he is well aware of the existence of these ideas and concepts and sets he wants to copy, underlined by the need to ask for permission when it's simply too obvious to otherwise deny.

it's no coincidence.

like others have had the experience, i too noticed that he often would not engage with content he planned on stealing or did go through with stealing. he would sometimes present it as his own "remake" of a set he did, of another he was "inspired" or wanted to "expand upon", sometimes crediting, sometimes crediting someone largely unrelated, sometimes and, more often, not crediting.

as i mentioned above, this was not the first and not the only set/concept, which he copied from me - whether that was before asking or after asking, or not asking at all, if it was ok to copy.

i use this example mainly to show a clear pattern of behaviour that exists across the board: he takes concepts from other creators and inserts his own oc and/or favourite character into it because he wants a version of it so very badly. it does not matter if said creator might be hurt, if they told him no, or if they exposed his behaviour before. it doesn't matter how old the set is or how recent.

it is still going on today, the only difference is that he has stopped asking at all once again.

my story completely echoes that of @minthara and @mercymaker's.

concrete examples

i will now go into more detail about the concept sets he's been copying, include the caption or quote attached to it. i'm sorry that these will not be in chronological fashion. i will add at a later point, just like @minthara has done, a google document to better do side by side comparisons, highlight the similarities visually even more, and preserve some of the sets, which have now been deleted by him as recently as today:

the theme of hands in gale's romance

-> mine posted on 23rd september 2023

versus

-> his 1 posted on 24th february 2024

-> his 2 posted on 17th june 2024

i want to preface this by saying that the theme of hands was and still is incredibly important to story of my oc altonaufein and has concept of romance with gale. again, while i do not own these scenes, i wished to highlight a theme that i identified as poignant and profound within the relationship context. it's also why i added the poetry and quotes accompanying the set.

notice how even the caption format matches. the only thing lacking are my quotes / poems.

the format matches almost entirely: gifs from the same scenes (pulling gale out of the portal, the bench scene in an illusionary waterdeep, the astral sea scene, the boat scene, and more of the boat scene). the only thing that was added in this gifset are scenes that weren't available to me back then, namely the updated proposal scene, the kisses patches, and the epilogue as they came out well after i made my original gifset.

the second re-make even contains a gif that's not only the same minute detail of a larger scene - one that anyone who played gale's romance knows contains a multitude of other parts that could have been used - but also the same frames:

mine vs his:

i suppose adding that one to the original post with the same format i had chosen for mine would have made it too obvious, but that is only speculation.

gale + missing waterdeep/home

-> mine posted on 30th september 2023

versus

-> his (deleted on 18th july 2024) so i will have to include screenshots so you may compare:

same caption format, overlapping scenes chosen, only new additions are of content that wasn't available to me back when i first made my original set (the epilogue, kiss patches and proposal scene).

an attempt at "credit" even though he is only referencing my tags on an entirely separate set of a different creator, not the concept i came up with in my original set months prior.

and even though i have told him no before, just like others have told him no before.

i think it speaks volumes that this set is now, like some others, have been suddenly and coincidentally deleted.

gale of waterdeep vs gale dekarios

-> mine posted on 20th november 2023

versus

-> his posted on 13th may 2024

the concept is entirely the same, the scenes are largely overlapping, again, the caption format is almost entirely identical, with the sole difference of me including the full quote and devnotes as i'm wont to do.

gale + i love you

-> mine posted 16th september 2023

versus

-> his 2 (a "remake" of an "older" set of "his") posted on 13th may 2024

again, the concept is entirely the same, it's same caption format, the scenes largely overlap, some of the gifs added that were not available to me when i made my set (which, again, would include the epilogue, kisses patches, and the updated proposal scene).

mermay gale

-> mine posted on 13th may 2024

versus

-> his posted on 21st may 2024

it's the same concept again, the caption format is similar, it's the same setting (camp at baldur's gate), the same armour, the same armour tint, the same 3/4 pose except mirrored, and, this time, his tags were inspired too:

my tag: #i have the worst art block still and virtually no time but i still wanted to do smth for mermay so have this

his tag: #i can't do art so heres my mermay contribution i guess

copied oc post

-> mine posted on (likely) 30th september 2021

versus

-> his originally posted on may 7th 2024, which has also now been deleted on 18th july 2024:

the only thing different was the font. sadly, i deleted my oc post since i have redesigned some of them and wanted to make an updated version of it in the future.

thankfully i found the link on my friends blog, @ayrennaranaaldmeri.

as you can see, all of these happened after the first cases of plagiarism and after i personally told him that i'm not comfortable with him "remaking" my concept sets as his.

conclusion

there are many other sets that i suspect have been copied or plagiarised, i want to remain objective, however, and include the ones i feel are the most damning examples, supported by the fact that he has been deleting some of them today while again, trying to set up his narrative to his audience.

again, i want to highlight the pattern is here with him. my post is not the first, my suspicious are the first.

he knows what he is doing wrong, highlighted by the fact of trying to ask for permission, by deleting sets in question, by, at first, apologising, whilst now talking about "gatekeeping", "bullying", "inevitable repeats of scenes", "taking inspiration", "scrolling by", being "subconsciously" influenced, etc.

as a conclusion, i can say nothing more on this topic other than that i'm very sad. it doesn't give me joy. it stressed me immensely then and it still does now. i wish he'd have taken the already admitted wrong-doing to heart and grown from it, instead of attempting to change the narrative and doubling down on his past behaviour, not examining what he has done and is doing several times over by now.

i have blocked him now, as have done many others, and will not engage further with him. we have been through this before and at this point, i don't think he will change.

what i do very much hope, however, is that this is the last i hear of this happening.

edit:

updated the links to lead to his "archive" so you can access the stolen sets that he still hasn't deleted and seems to have no intentions of doing so.

#again do not use this post to harrass anyone involved please #that is not the intent of my post #the intent is to spread awareness #the post is so detailed so what happened and what was said cannot be misconstrued #text: personal

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mysticsparklewings · 8 months ago

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OhuHueVember Prompt List

Finally, I can share the surprise I’ve been working on! 😆 (Though admittedly later in the day than I really wanted...)

After years of wanting to try out Huevmber, I finally thought of a way to make it work for me, all because I spend far too much time thinking about markers. 🤪 And I did my best to make it easy for others to join in, if you want to!

I tried to get all the essential information on the images themselves but y’all know me by now—If you need more information, I’ve got a MUCH longer write-up hiding behind the "Keep Reading" button + a Spreadsheet, if you need it, too! ✨

⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

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Before I get into my usual long-winded description (and trust, it will be long), if you want to actually follow this prompt list—Or the Weekly version—here's what you need to know (some of which is already stated in the image, but I want to keep things as clear and easy to understand as possible!):

Here's the "Official" Spreadsheet that has all of the color codes, Honolulu color names, and some additional information like recommended Light/Dark blend pairings for each color typed out, both in case the image format doesn't work for you and also because some things like the Light/Dark blends just wouldn't all fit in one image. [A sample photo of the Light/Dark blend pairings will also be available soon, and I'll add a link here when they are, but I unfortunately ran out of time to have them ready to post alongside the list

As the upper right corner says: This challenge is not officially affiliated or sponsored by Ohuhu, I just like the markers and have had them on the brain a lot lately!

This is open to all mediums! While this challenge was inspired by working with Ohuhu markers traditionally, as the image says: If you don't have these specific markers or colors, use what you do have! This includes doing the challenge digitally if digital tools are what you have, or whatever other medium you're comfortable with and have access to: Original Art, Coloring Pages, Card Crafting, etc. The point is to play with color and have fun, so as long as you're doing that, pretty much anything goes!

Likewise, as the image says: The idea is to focus on 1 Color ("Hue") Everyday in November, but you can use as many colors as you want each day as long as the "Color of the Day" is the main focus/main visible color.

I've provided a Weekly version of the list in case the full 30 is too much, but you can pick-and-choose words from the full list however you'd like if you're not crazy about the colors I picked for the Weekly version, or if you want to shorten the challenge in a different way. - Do note though that the 5 colors I chose for the Weekly version were selected to specifically work well as a 5-color "mixing" palette to make those 5 colors stretch farther as a limited palette, if you're up for a little extra challenge. Based on this video by Peter Donahue.

Tagging me is appreciated, but not required! However, do note that I will Like & Share posts that I can easily identify as being related to the challenge on platforms where I'm able to do those things. If you want me to see and share what you made, Tagging me makes it easier!

Remember that my views on these Month-Long Daily Challenges is that it's about the challenge of completing a certain amount of creative pieces in the time given...And that's pretty much it, so as long as you're doing that and having fun, I'm really not bothered about how you choose to follow the list! My Inktober motto has always been "work smarter, not harder," and this is no different!

I think that's all the stuff you need to know to participate, but if you're curious in hearing more about my thoughts/process in putting this challenge together, read on!

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Would you Sparklers believe that I was so excited about sharing this that I had trouble staying asleep until time to get up this morning? 😆 It's true!

Either way, some of you are probably wondering just as much as I am what exactly has gotten into me lately: First I make my own prompt list for October—something I can't say I ever previously thought I'd do—and now here I am just having finished that list with yet another daily, month-long challenge...And I made this list, too! 😱

Some of you may have noticed that as we went through Obscutober this year, there were various points where I hinted at working on something marker-related and/or something for November. If you haven't figured it out already, this is what that was about! 🤭

And you'd think I would have learned my lesson about taking on one Daily Challenge after another back in 2021...

I'm sorry, Sparklers, I just had the mid-typing realization that the last time I took on a daily challenge in November was also immediately after the last time I did Obscutober instead of Inktober and my brain froze for a second. How did I not notice that before??

What was I saying? Oh.

At that time, I took on @ProjectEducate's 30 Days of Art Challenge, but I also attempted to dial things way back for myself by using it as an excuse to playing more Animal Crossing: New Horizons rather that making full-blown artwork everyday..And while that did help, it still turned out to be my challenging than I expected. 😅

That's one of the primary [ha] reasons I've never participated in the "traditional" Huevember challenge for November, even though I found it very appealing when I discovered it existed. I know myself, and just the same as I typically don't have the stamina to do Inktober in a "normal" way, I know I definitely don't have the stamina to do Huevember in a "normal" way immediately following Inktober (even if I do account for the fact that I do Inktober in weird ways).

Making my own list makes that no different, but then...What are we doing here? 🤔

Well, all of this really stems from the fact that—as I believe I've mentioned somewhere before, maybe multiple places—I've been spending quite a lot of time over on Reddit discussing and answering questions about Ohuhu Markers. As it stands, Ohuhu themselves doesn't provide a ton of resources for the markers, so it largely falls back on the user community to fill in the gaps, and it happens that I know, keep track of, or otherwise have close-at-hand a lot of "gap" information specifically for the purposes of keeping my Ohuhu Swatch Chart up to date.

I also do just really like the markers, so as much of a chore as it can be to keep track of all the information at times, I really don't mind getting the opportunity to just nerd out about them a few times a week.

The thing is, as is not too difficult to notice if you look at my art posting history, I haven't actually had a whole lot of time or allowed myself as much opportunity as I'd like to make actual art with my Ohuhu markers.

So back in September while I was trying to figure out what in the world to do for Inktober this year and one of my friends offhandedly suggested a "Swatch Challenge" for Inktober, in a matter of minutes my brain connected dots from "Swatches" to > "Colors" to > "Huevember" to > "Ohuhu" to > "OhuHUE"!! "Huevember but with Ohuhu markers, specifically!!" 💡

While obviously not really at all helpful for figuring out Inktober, that did sound like a great way to take advantage of how much the markers have been on my mind lately and participate in the Ohuhu community some more beyond being, essentially, a sentient FAQ page. 😆

So, as crazy of a move as it felt—and still does—What time I wasn't planning for and then working on Obscutober during September and October (and wasn't spent either dealing with IRL things or giving myself some much-needed break time in between), I spent trying to pull things together to make this challenge possible.

Those things included (not really in a particular order as a lot of these things I went back-and-forth with at various stages):

Picking the 30 colors that would be featured. The more natural choice probably would have been to "match" Ohuhu colors to the existing Huevember colors, but after thinking it over, I decided it would be better to try and keep things more accessible, if I could. Not everyone will have the big 320 set of Ohuhu Honolulu colors to choose from, but I know a lot of people will probably have at least the "standard" 48 colors that the Honolulu line started with—Either because like me, that's the set they started with, or because those 48 colors are all included in quite a few other "standard" sets.

For what it's worth, I did consider starting with the 24-count Honolulu set colors to try and make the colors even more accessible, but that set has NO orange in it for some reason and I wanted this challenge to be as colorful as possible, so I didn't really want to include black or grey if I could help it.

In the other direction; I very nearly included R13 from the 72 set to try and flesh out the purple sleections more, but I noticed that while I was putting the suggested blends together, the light/dark blends that make the most sense with R13 made the trio-blend look nearly identical to the trio blend for PB2. So in the end, I decided to just shift the Dark blend on PB2 to a slightly more purple-y blue and leave R13 out after all.

In exchange, P3 got added to the list...which made things a little harder in figuring out the trio blends for P4, but my only other option for purple in the 48 set was R11, and in my blend testing it proved even trickier to deal with. 🙃

Picking said Light/Dark blend for each color. This most involved a lot of swatching and test blends, which was easily the longest and most laborious part of the process.

And as stated at the top of the description, I fully intended to have a sample photo to show you those blends in action—I have swatch cards all labelled and everything!—but I simply ran out of time to have that ready to post alongside the list today. 😅

I'm still going to do the samples, it'll just be either later today or tomorrow before they're ready. Either way, I'll post a link here when they are!

I'll spare you the nitty-gritty on the process of picking out said blends, but suffice to say there was a LOT of back-and-forth that took up 5 pieces of cardstock—some of them front and back—because I wanted blends that stayed "true" to the hue of each color, and still actually showed variation in the lightness or darkness of the color, but also were relatively "easy" blends that didn't take too much work to look smooth. At least on the type of paper I like to use (60-80 lb. cardstock or 80-100+ lb. mixed media paper). I did learn from another test that these blends do still mostly work on plain printer paper, for example, but it's not quite the same, so your mileage will vary a little bit on how easy the blends really are. Why did I find this step even necessary to bother with, for as much trouble as it was? Call it a symptom of the wider Ohuhu and alcohol-marker using community. People are always wondering what/how to blend clothes together well, and between that and trying to provide what accessibility to the challenge I can, offering pre-selected blends seemed like a good idea. [And, if I'm being totally honest, I didn't realize exactly how much work figuring the blends out would be and thought getting the chance to just play with color blends sounded fun when I made the decision to do it. 😅]

To that end, I also of course Determined reasonable Hex Code "matches" for each color. Again, this was largely an accessibility thing trying to account for people that either don't have the specific colors/markers listed and want to attempt to match the colors in some way, and to provide an option for any digital artists just in case any see the list and want to give it a try, especially since digital brushes that mimic alcohol marker behavior have become more popular in recent years.

As noted in the Spreadsheet, I both looked at multiple swatches of the actual real marker colors and was using some of those digital "alcohol marker" brushes to text how the selected digital color would behave. I'm quite sure some of my final choices aren't completely perfect picks, especially if you're working in a different program than I was (Procreate), but I at least stand by them as "reasonably close" options.

And just in case anyone passed by this post and is wondering, because I know I've seen people ask for it—I would in fact like to one day provide "reasonably close' Hex code matches for all of the Ohuhu Honolulu markers, but that is definitely a far-off project you should not expect from me any time soon after seeing just how challenging it was to do for these 30 alone. 🫠

Worth an additional here that I actually originally wanted to include hex matches for the Light and Dark blends to make "Light" and "Dark" versions of the prompt list itself for people who do have access to the 320 range and maybe wanted to play with color in different ways than the "base" tones, but again: Figuring out the hex matches for these 30 was trouble enough and I could tell I really, really was not going to have time to do that and the other prep work I still had left to do at that point.

Speaking of, I had to Determine Oahu matches or "close enough" alternatives for each color. Yet again the magic word is accessibility, and I've also noticed that the Oahu (no brush tip) markers just sorted get left out when it comes to Community Ohuhu Resources. Since we now have a Spreadsheet reportedly from Ohuhu themselves listing which Oahu and Honolulu colors match, it was important to me to include them, even if it was a little more work.

For all of the colors that had 1:1 matches, it really wasn't too bad. What through me for a loop was the few colors that didn't have 1:1 matches, so I had to go track down some swatch examples and make an educated guess which other Oahu colors would be closest. So there's your acknowledgement right now, just like the image says, I know at least a few of the Oahu colors aren't exact matches. Both because exact matches don't exist, but also the "closest" matches I did pick may not be fully accurate either since I don't own the Oahus and had to pick based on swatches over the internet. I'm sorry, this is the best I could do!

And of course, what I consider a key component of making Month-Long challenges accessible: I had to Put together a Weekly version!

As noted at the beginning and in the description for the Weekly version: I chose for the Weekly version were selected to specifically work well as a 5-color "mixing" palette to make those 5 colors stretch farther as a limited palette, if you're up for a little extra challenge. Based on this video by Peter Donahue. I had actually previously picked out 5 colors from the 320 Honolulu range after seeing Pete's video purely for fun. Alcohol markers notoriously aren't usually good for "mixing" to get new colors the way you would paints or pencils, but I was intrigued by his limited palette since he was working with oil paints, which kind of notoriously don't mix as vibrantly as other media. For the record, my original 320 set picks for the 5 colors are:

Y080

B070

PB2

RV080

YR3

Two of which were already in my selection of 30 for this challenge, and B070 was naturally super close to PB7. Initially, RP1 was a closer match to RV080, but in testing I found that R10 mixed better for this selection.

So really the only color I had to make a big compromise on was Y080. There's really nothing else quite like in the entire Honolulu range, but in my testing GY6 worked better than I expected as a substitute, considering the limited options I had to choose from here. And then I just lucked out that November technically takes up 5 weeks on the calendar, I just had to figure out the "spacing" so each color would get a reasonable number of days to work with, the same way that I adjusted the days for the Weekly version of Obscutober. [And frankly, that was easier to do here since November has 30 days and 30 divides evenly by 5.]

I did briefly re-visit the idea of sticking just to colors from the 24 Honolulu set so the Weekly version could be as accessible as possible, but long story short the longer I look at the color selections for that set, the weirder the stranger they seem, so I ultimately I couldn't help myself and just went with the colors I thought would be more versatile even if they're not likely to be as accessible.

I mean, after all, I was going to have a disclaimer that you can use whatever you want even if you don't have these specific colors anyway, so hopefully it won't be too big of a deal that I opted for the palette that I personally saw more use in. Oh, and for what it's worth: I did consider making a "Lite"/every-other-day version of this list like I did last month, but after seeing the "Lite" version was not a popular choice last month and acknowledging I already had my work cut out for me, I decided it didn't really seem worth the extra effort when I fully believe everyone is capable of skipping days on their own as they see fit.

And then, of course, another step that ended up being trickier than I expected: I had to figure out how to compile all of this information, or at least most of it, in a single image. (Well, okay, two images including the Weekly version, but you get the idea.)

Again, I'll spare you the nitty-gritty, but I will say that while I did clearly figure something out, I nearly completed another version in a more typical list format before deciding I didn't like how little you could actually see the colors themselves in it. I don't know about you Sparklers, but "Huevember" makes me think colorful, so that's how I wanted the list/post image to be.

In the midst of trying to figure out a better way to do the list for maximum information + maximum color + maximum clarity, I paused to work on the wrap-up template for this year's Obscutober (which yes, is still a thing I'm going to do, probably tomorrow), and it was from doing the calendar format for that from which sprang the idea to try a calendar format for this! 😃

If you look at one of my usual Inktober wrap-ups, you'll notice it's still not 1:1 because I had a lot more text information that needed to be here, but y'know I think it was a pretty great solution, all things considered. 😊

Though, for the record, the Weekly version was originally going to have the bars for each "week" in proper calendar format too—spread over the actual calendar days each one would take up—but that was scrapped because the longer I looked, the more confusing that layout looked for the actual information. So I sacrificed the cheekiness in the name of making it clear and easy to get the information you need from that version.

You might have guesses that even though I was working on this in the background for nearly two months that I still maybe bit off more than I could chew by the fact this is going up both on November 1st instead of a couple of days in advance (like I was very fortunately able to manage with Obscutober) and it's also going up in the very-late "afternoon" instead of more like around lunchtime. 😅

I really, really did my best to have everything ready before now, but the last couple of weeks of October proved much busier than I expected. I probably should've seen that coming because that always seems to happen when I'm working on a time-sensitive project that's big and important to me, but I can't see the future and I can't just never work on another big, important project again because I'm afraid that'll happen, so... 🤷‍♀️

I just have to accept this is the way things turned out and try not to be too hard on myself about it. It was a lot of work and still deserve credit for that, at least!

Speaking of: Some of you might be wondering about that long-ago mentioned point: "I know myself, and just the same as I typically don't have the stamina to do Inktober in a "normal" way, I know I definitely don't have the stamina to do Huevember in a "normal" way immediately following Inktober..." That is still true, and I do not plan to approach my challenge here in a "normal" way either, for that reason.

But, much like my logic of "well, I made the list, I should use it," for Obscutober, after all the work I put into this, I am still going to use the list/participate, and not just the Weekly version either. [Though I fully admit just doing the Weekly version would probably be the smarter thing to do for me...]

I'll try and keep this brief since the description is certainly enough of a book already and the sooner I can wrap this up and get it posted so other people can actually participate if they want to, the better, but:

I've been wanting to get back into just coloring in Adult Coloring books (or single pages made for that audience) occasionally, as I've unintentionally moved away from that hobby for a few years when I used to do it all the time. When I first started, the hobby was still pretty new and niche, and sharing finished pages felt "wrong" to try and mix in with my regular art posts, but things have noticeably changed since then.

And in particular, using Ohuhu markers in adult coloring books has actually become pretty common.

So that's the first part of what I'm going to do to try and scale this challenge back so I can still particpate be hopefully not overwhelm myself: After some consideration of options, I've printed out some of Johanna Basford's similar illustrations on small, 2.5" x 3.5" cuts of my favorite mixed media paper—Artist Trading Card size!—and those are what I'm going to color for the month.

The second part of how I'm going to scale back is that, while I am going to actually color something every day for the challenge, I'm only going to post my finished results once a week. Because I found/remembered during Obscutober that since I both like to type out these long descriptions (even when it's not really necessary) and cross-post to about a dozen places, the actual posting-everyday-process is what really wears me out and gets me down, often far more than making the art itself typically does. 🫠

I admittedly had much grander plans and was hoping to still post every day in some way when I first set out to make this challenge, but I think if you've read the description this far, you'll understand why I had to change course for my own sake. 😅

Speaking of...Let me think for a moment if this might be it, if I've explained everything I wanted to both about the challenge itself and my approach to it...

I think so, but there was a lot to cover so hopefully if I did leave anything out, it wasn't that important and I can either edit this description or just touch on it at some later point during the month.

Either way, I hope if anyone does want to participate—as I am boldly assuming at least a few people will—I hope you're not too upset and/or can forgive me for not being able to post this sooner so you could get started sooner. As discussed, I did my best and I feel any frustration or disappointment you may have with the posting time of the list, 100%. But I am unfortunately only one human that can only do so much in a day's time that does not have the budget to hire an assistant to help me do stuff like this at this point in my life. 🙃

Oh! For the record, I don't plan to make this a yearly thing, which is why I've not put a year on the image or in the title. Mainly because having to pick all-new colors would really mess with the various points of accessibility I've tried so hard to keep, so if this does turn out to be a thing people want to do again, my plan would honestly be to just use the same list in perpetuity, and maybe just add onto it with some of the things and ideas I didn't have time to flesh out the way I wanted this year. However, that said, I'm not fully opposed to revisiting the idea of wholly new color assortments in the future if this version proves successful enough. What exactly that "enough" is I won't know until I see it, but I did just want to lay all my cards on the table for people who might be curious about long-terms plans here. Now, if you all will excuse me, I best go ahead and get this cross-posted while there is still some sun in the sky and, as mentioned, after that I still have a few other things on my plate that need my attention for the day—including my own participation in the challenge!

So, whether you choose to participate or not: Here's to starting the month off strong and having fun! 🥂 And good luck to us all!

----------

List Design © me, MysticSparklewings

This Challenge is not officially affiliated with or sponsored by Ohuhu

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⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

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inevitably-ineffable-husbands · 2 years ago

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Crowley's Past: Was He Archangel Camael?

With S2 now having been out for a few weeks, and the theories running wild, I think one of the unanimous beliefs within the fandom is that Crowley was SOME sort of Important Angel Before™. I touch upon the MANY clues in the various parts of my initial GOS2 Thoughts Meta, so I won't go into too many of those here, but inevitably this separate meta started out as the pulling-and-expanding-upon of the Archangel Crowley theory, primarily the "Raphael" theory, since I have loved that theory to bits since its inception early post-S1.

That was until my friend Peter finished watching the season early last week, and presented to me an alternative theory as to Crowley's identity that I thought deserved its own post breakdown, since I haven't seen this theory before.

NOW, I should make it clear I haven't been as DEEP in the fandom as many of y'all since S1 aired, so it's probably come up before S2 as just a light mention, but I personally haven't seen anything, so what follows is a joint speculation between my real-life, not-in-GO-fandom-spaces-whatsoever friend Peter, and myself, with my contributions being the expansion of his theory and linking it to what we already know.

The theory is this: Crowley might actually be Archangel Camael.

Please, PLEASE note that I am aware that authors and writers change things for creative liberty and originality, so please take this entire theory with a grain of salt (or go nuts with me, I'm happy either way!).

I'll TRY to keep this concise, but y'all know me. You can skip right to the "Conclusion" for a point-by-point breakdown if you don't want to read everything, but I hope you'll at least give me a chance to explain within the body of this meta.

I apologize in advance if any of my thoughts are a bit scattered. Here we go:

The Initial Text

Here is the initial text Peter sent to me after he finished watching S2 (and this was after I mentioned that the popular running fandom theory is that he's actually Raphael):

Okay… well - disclaimer I did not go to religious school and my biblical studies were a great many years ago. As I recall Lucifer was not one of the 7 archangels - he was meant to be but he rebelled before he was appointed (and there is some wiggle for a fictional story). So, based on what we have seen Crowley was one of the 7 but he hung out with the wrong people and asked too many questions. He never says his real name when we see him as an angel it is comically dodged - for a good reason. Crowley has a login and proves he had clearance way above a level 37th angel. He can see the top most important meetings… like he may have been allowed to attend in a previous life… And one line sticks out to me “one fallen prince has already gone to Hell. Two shows a problem.” As I stated Lucifer was not a Prince - we are not talking about him. Gabriel was banking on going to Hell like his “brother” - I’m guessing Camael, the one who Sees God - who ironically has cursed eyes now as a demon - the Prince of Fortitude (also Love and Charity). He often breaks his demonic spirit in cases of charitable needs or love. Crowley is one of the big Seven to be entrusted with creating the cosmos ;)

Naturally, this had a lot of things click for me, and I'm going to break them down below, with my additional research into the points that Peter made since he mentioned that he was going off memory.

Who Was Cameal?

When Peter mentioned this angel, it boggled my mind that I never actually recall knowing of this archangel. I went to a Roman Catholic school up until Grade 12, and with that comes Religious Ed classes, which also feature World Religions in the later grades. Funnily enough, I found out WHY I never heard of Camael:

Camael is not recognized by the Catholic Church due to the Vatican's decision to ban the veneration of angels not mentioned in the Bible [SOURCE]

Kind of explains why I only heard of Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael (which now adds another layer to a theory I will cover further down in "Does Crowley Remember?"), then.

Reading further:

[He] is the Archangel of strength, courage and war in Christian and Jewish mythology and angelology. [SOURCE] He is claimed to be the leader of the forces that expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden holding a flaming sword. However, in iconography he is often depicted holding a cup. [SOURCE]

A Flaming Sword, you say??? Interesting. Here's a good place to point out that there IS also a theory that Crowley and Aziraphale are one single archangel that was split into two (and Gaiman has stated that in original drafts of the original book, they were at first one character, so this fact might be an afterthought of that original idea). Also, interesting that this angel is depicted with a cup, traditionally used in Christianity to depict wine, which is Crowley's drink-of-choice. So, there's that.

Another standout point for me is the Adam and Eve bit (which I bolded above). The Snake of Eden is TECHNICALLY the instigator (the "leader") who encouraged the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden. "Forces" in this reading of it could be the metaphorical definition of it; the knowledge of good and evil, and the desire to see beyond the Garden. AND also the Flaming Sword itself BEING the object of force given to the couple for protection.

Furthermore, Crowley's a strong and brave character, given all the shit he endures time and time again. Strength (and bravery for that matter) can mean many things: emotional strength, physical strength, possibly also a strength of character and an unwavering belief in the values one holds dear. I should also note that it's interesting that an angel of war, should Crowley indeed be this character, wants nothing to do with a war and is actively trying to stop one: an angel of War can absolutely NOT want a war, because he knows it's wrong.

And without the Angel of War up in Heaven to PREVENT any war at all? Well, they would just get all willy-nilly crazy on the idea of War without having any pushback on it, wouldn't they?

Kind of like how Gabriel was to be demoted (cast out) for denying Heaven a War. Funny old world, isn't it? Seems the parallels write themselves.

What's in a Name?

Because Peter mentioned the name meaning, I had to look into it myself, and indeed, one of the various meanings of Camael is apparently "he who sees God" in Hebrew.

As Peter stated above, I think this is very significant because it's seemingly only Crowley who has "demon" eyes that he himself cannot change. It's the ONLY part of him that always remains a constant, and why he is forced to hide them. We know from S1 and bits of S2 with Shax that other demons can change their eyes because we see them mimicking other humans time and again without the black eyes if they choose to.

Crowley's eyes could have been cursed specifically because was ordained as "the one who sees God" and possibly was the ONLY angel who ever "saw" a physical God in the literal sense (it's implied in the show that no one actually SEES a physical god). It's possible that Crowley being cast out literally burned his angelic eyes and left a visible scar that can't be fixed or erased – a forever-reminder of what he did and can no longer do. AND as the one who sees God, he indeed was a very high-ranking angel.

In the GO universe, I suspect he was indeed the FIRST Supreme Archangel, tasked with creating God's Vision (HAH) of the Universe. And when Crowley questioned what the point of creating such beauty was only for it to be destroyed, God (or, I suspect more likely, the other Angels) saw it as Crowley questioning their "vision" in the metaphorical sense.

Does Crowley Remember?

In light of Season 2, and some interesting exchanges and moments of Crowley with other angels, some people speculate (and as I watch the series more, I'm starting to also agree somewhat) that Crowley may not remember everything from Before.

Now, while I do like this theory a lot, and it makes sense with the context clues from S2, I don't think it's that he doesn't remember anything at all, however, as many versions of the theory postulates.

My speculation is this: what if, by having his Angelic Name removed from recognition in the Bible, and going through a similar Trial to Gabriel, THEN by Falling the traditional way, the memories are still there, but they're just a bit fuzzy and scattered? It could also explain why some of the other Archangels DON'T remember him... he was removed from the memories of other ranking angels (Saraqael is the only angel to seemingly remember who Crowley was, so I postulate that she WASN'T a top angel until fairly recently, because of the named angels in the next section).

The show brings up the Book of Life in S2 on several occasions, leaving me to believe that this will be an important item in the next season. What if the phrase "it will make it like you don't exist" literally means "don't exist in memories"? Maybe a Book of Life 1.0 existed at one time, and everyone who Fell was forgotten because their angelic names were removed. Because wouldn't that be more awful than never having existed? Remembering that you WERE something or someone, you had a name that you can't remember, that you WERE important to people and events, and having everyone around you who you considered family forget who you are? It's its own kind of personal Hell ... kind of like George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life, a movie that references angels, funnily enough. And Crowley remembers the furniture being there but not where it all belongs. I think his memory haziness is also a side effect of Falling the traditional way (burning sulfer and all that jazz, possibly causes trauma amnesia?).

It's a stretch here, I know, but I thought I would put this one out there as a possibility as to what it could mean (given that Gaiman and Pratchett tend to "play on words" a lot, I think it is worth mentioning this as an alternative meaning).

In S2, when Gabriel was sentenced, the Trial stated that Gabriel would forget his time as Gabriel, but not his time as an angel. I think a similar thing happened with Crowley, only much more violently with the "burning the eyes out" and "staining his wings black" thing.

My friend Peter mentioned that the show avoided Crowley's Before-Name "to a comical degree". I reckon, rather, that Crowley just simply doesn't remember his Angelic name, and his changing of his demon names is him possibly trying to find an identity. I think he recalls it having started with a "C", maybe? And now he's a snake, so he's kind of crawl-y, must be "Crawley". As time moved forward and as he learned more and more about humanity, he changed is namee to fit in better. Having a full Human-esque name makes him feel more connected to the Humanity he prefers.

And because I'm a romantic sap at heart, I think he enjoys spending time with Aziraphale because perhaps some part of Azzie's presence helps Crowley remember bits and pieces of his broken memory. He is LITERALLY Crowley's Emotional Support Angel – remember Shax can read into people, it seems. Azzie brings comfort to him, and seeing another Angel that also questions the choices Heaven makes allows Crowley to feel less alone.

The Original Seven Archangels

It's brought up a couple to several times in S2 the point that "God loves sevens". I actually couldn't remember why Seven was such a big Biblical number so a bit of quick Googling reminded me that "Seven [...] communicated a sense of “fullness” or “completeness” [...]. This makes sense of the pervasive appearance of “seven” patterns in the Bible." (SOURCE).

And of course, after Peter had mentioned it, I had to look a bit more into who the Original 7 could possibly be. Wikipedia mentions it could be Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Camael, Jophiel, and Zadkiel.

Peter was correct in his assumption that Lucifer wasn't one of the original 7 archangels, so that leaves us with Raphael, Camael, Jophiel, and Zadkiel, if we're assuming that Crowley is one of these top Archangels.

I would also like to speculate that "God likes 7's" could also mean (if you allow me to reach a bit) "God's favourite angels are the initial 7". If Crowley happened to be one of these 7, it could explain why he's able to get into Heaven without raising alarm at all, why he still maintains his immense power that set off alarms in Heaven when it was used purposefully against Heaven, why he was able to access the Gabriel Files, and why Sarqael allowed Crowley to continue watching the Trial (because if God allowed Crowley access even when he's no longer an angel, then Sarqael has no reason to believe that he's still not important to God).

Perhaps, in Modern Day, only having four archangels making the decisions symbolizes that, indeed, God's not really calling the shots anymore – and hasn't been for a long time – and that the whole system is all broken and not complete.

It also begs the question: if Crowley was one of the Original Seven (if they are indeed going to go in that direction), what happened to the other three? Did they also suffer the same fates? Were they turned to Scriveners just like Gabriel was to be?

Here is where I will also throw out there that my random thought that Muriel possibly also may have been one of the other three, as my own expansion of this theory, but I digress.

Anyway, I think I found the original Fandom Wiki that Peter quick-referenced when doing his quick message to me, and it's very interesting:

How they were founded as a unit is unknown, but it is said that it happened during Lucifer's rebellion. When Lucifer rebelled against God, one entire choir of angels followed him and was lost. Many angels from other choirs also followed him in his rebellion. It is revealed that Lucifer was meant to be apart of the Seven Archangels as well, however, since his fall he was replaced by Camael.

Disclaimer here that I understand that Fandom Wiki isn't THE BEST resource, but we're also talking about a fictional story that loosely references actual scripture, so I think it's valid enough, heh.

But I bring this point up because Peter links it to Metatron mentioning the "Prince of Heaven" falling, as Gabriel as being "another" one. "Another one" what?? We have to assume that Metatron means another "Supreme Archangel" as holding the title of "Prince of Heaven", meaning Gabriel was NOT the first and only Supreme Archangel. I don't think Metatron is referencing Lucifer here. In fact, they deliberately avoid saying a name. We just ASSUME that it was Lucifer because that's the "common knowledge".

If GO is going to reference the theory that Lucifer actually fell BEFORE becoming an Archangel, then that means in my theory Crowley became his replacement of the Original Seven. And given that he was possibly the One (and only angel, in my above theory) Who Sees God, he was in-turn given the position of Supreme Archangel, charged with creating, again, God's Vision of the Universe.

I think having Crowley be the one who witnesses Gabriel's Trial is important if we're going on the theory that they are mirrors of each other in S2. What if:

Crowley ALSO had a similar Trial when he questioned God (or the other Archangels) about "what's the point of" the destruction of the universe, then subsequently saying "nah" to having Armageddon 6,000 years before the events of S1?;

In said Trial, Gabriel was a presiding member, and, given that we know his prior cruelty from S1, he voted on Camael being cast out in a vicious and cruel fashion "for betraying God". Thus, his eyes burnt and forever scarred to prevent him from ever seeing God again, had his name and memories removed from the Book of Life, and sent to on a one way trip to Hell. I speculate this because Trial-Gabriel certainly believe he was going to "Fall" that way. I'd also wager Camael/Crowley was the last angel to ever "properly" Fall, which is why the modern angels still think that they do it this way, rather than the way they planned for Gabriel. I realize that this point DOES contradict my theory about the other missing Archangels quietly being erased and reassigned, but perhaps BECAUSE Gabriel is SO High up the chain, they HAD no choice but to make an example of him. Perhaps Metatron just quietly deleted the other Archangels' original names without anyone's knowledge.

We now know from S2 that regardless of an angel's status, the angels will veto against anyone who goes against their interpretation of The Great Plan. We now also know that the "Supreme Archangel" is also a "title only" job that has benefits only if you're going to go with the Majority Vote. And if you don't, they're going to make an example out of you.

And I reckon Camael/Crowley, just like Gabriel after, tried to "go his own way" (as quoted by the Metatron) and got banished for it.

Aziraphale really now has himself in a pickle, and I suspect that he will figure ALL of this out when he gets there.

And finally because this is the "Sevens" section of this meta, I also want to mention these "a-bit-reaching-but-still-plausible-theories" that I came across while I was researching:

This tweet speculates that Gabe is morse coding "7"

Michael tweeted 7 dots after S2 aired

CONCLUSION

While this theory doesn't outright bust the Raphael Theory (since there are some similarities with Crowley and Raphael within the theory), as well as the "he was Lucifer" theory (which I also really like, but Crowley mentioned in S1 he was "hanging out with Lucifer and the guys" before he fell, so... I'm more apt to not really run with this theory). BUT it does tie up a lot more things, and it connects things better than the Raphael one does, in my humble opinion.

The TL;DR of this entire post is this:

I think Crowley was an Archangel, that is the only CERTAIN thing I feel.

I think he was Camael, The One (and only angel) Who (Literally) Sees God. He was the First Supreme Archangel who created God's Vision of the Universe.

I think that Camael questioned the Council of Angels why they need to destroy beauty that God created. It didn't make sense to him.

They told him about Armageddon (the S1 one). As the angel of war, and as the Supreme Archangel who had final say, he said "nah". And he tried "to go his own way" to avoid Armageddon.

The Council and Metatron did not like this, saw it as blaspheming against God. Camael then had a Trial similar to Gabriel's.

I think this all happened shortly after the war that sent down Lucifer and the other rebelling Angels, so Heaven was still VERY tetchy about anyone who questioned God and The Great Plan. Because Camael was a Supreme Archangel, the original Prince of Heaven, this was seen as SEVERE betrayal of the Council. For the record, I think the "Before the Beginning" sequence takes place AFTER the War that created Hell.

My belief about the Book of Life is that its ACTUAL purpose is to remove people from being remembered, which is far worse of an existence for someone banished. A metaphorical interpretation of "removed from existence" simply could mean "and everyone forgot about you", à la It's a Wonderful Life, a movie that references "angels getting their wings".

Camael was sentenced in a way that would make an example of him to other angels to remind them of their place: He was cast out of Heaven, his angelic name erased from the Book of Life which caused his other Council Members at the time to forget him, and for him to have foggy memories in turn, although he KNOWS he was an angel (perhaps as a side effect of being cast out the traditional way, you are forced to remember that you once lived in Heaven). His eyes were burnt out to quite literally leave an unremovable scar so he could no longer "see" God and their vision, which explains why Crowley cannot ever change his eyes regardless of how he presents himself. He has to hide them away.

I think Crowley was the last angel to be cast out in this way. BUT because his ANGEL name was erased, none of the remaining Original Council angels (Gabriel, Michael, and Uriel) recognize him. I suspect Sarqael remembers him because she was NOT an Archangel at the time since she was not one of the Original Seven Archangels.

I also suspect that there are purposely missing Archangels for a reason, and the fact that only 4 rather than 7 seemingly run things symbolizes the problems in Heaven and that God has not been in charge for a long time. I think those missing 3 or 4 are actually Scriveners, who were quietly sentenced and erased by the Metatron, hence why Gabriel thought that he was going to be cast out like his predecessor. But because Gabriel WAS a Supreme Archangel, he HAD to be made an example of, just as Crowley before.

"Supreme Archangel" is a Title-Only job, and if you go against the Council, you are indeed made an example of. I think this is purposeful setup for S3 to show that Azzie is in DEEP shit.

EPILOGUE

I still want to expand upon my Angel Theory section from my S2 Meta, but for now, I am so pleased with how this turned out, and I hope you've enjoyed this Deep Dive into another Archangel Theory. I had a lot of fun with this one; I like learning about supernatural things, it's always interesting.

I am interested in others' thoughts on this theory, especially if your memory of your religious education is a bit better than mine! Feel free to expand upon this more, because I am an interactive blog, so it will be added to the post! <3

I hope you enjoyed, and thank you for reading!

#good omens #good omens s2 #long post #spoilers #archangel crowley #crowley is camael #good omens meta #go meta #my meta #my theories #angel crowley #crowley was an archangel #go speculations #go theories #go s3 speculations

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kittykosmos · 2 months ago

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Shit, this disappoints me. I’m rather new to tumblr so I haven’t seen much of their earlier work. To be honest, I haven’t delved that deep into what styles of ”art” AI is current the best at spitting out either - I try to just avoid it.

I always thought their rendering was exceptional whenever it popped up on my screen, but it didn’t strike me as being obvious AI, at least not compared to other stuff I’ve seen, where people have obviously just taken an existing picture and have AI slap an oil painting/watercolour/whatever effect on it. Sure, the vibrancy of colours and near luminescence felt almost overly polished, but hey, some people are just fantastic at those things, and AI learns from actual people’s similar work too, right?

But now when I went to check, there are things that seem to be obviously AI generated in several pictures, mainly visible in the backgrounds. One weird Christmas tree, for example.

So I guess I’m he dumb one. It makes me sad because there are a couple of pictures I really like, which are not as over-the-top flashy as some of the others, and now I really question all of it.

@killer-laurent

I understand where you're coming from. It’s tough to navigate this situation if you're not familiar with how generative ai art currently looks. But trust me, it’s evolved far beyond basic filters that mimic oil paintings. Ai can now mimic a wide range of styles, often convincingly. That’s exactly why it's so important to listen to artists or those who can spot ai traits at a glance. Of course, it's also crucial to be wary of bad faith accusations, people wrongly accusing legitimate artists of using ai. That absolutely happens. However, the concerns surrounding Killer-Laurent aren't isolated incidents. I'll provide screenshots of the Christmas tree art you mentioned (and a link ) for full context:

As you pointed out, there are some oddities in the tree: objects blend together, melt into one another, or lack structure. This kind of "mistakes", especially along the tree's edges, is typical of ai struggling with complex designs. You see similar artifacts when ai tries to generate characters with intricate clothes/details. Ai ( at the moment ) just doesn’t handle that level of complexity well.

EDIT/UPDATE : It seems very likely that this tree was not ai generated but ran through an oil painting filter on photoshop. I will leave what I wrote intact for transparency but I will add a link here of a newer ask where this was brought up and clarified.

I should also state, before I get further into this part of my response: no, the issue isn’t simply that Killer-Laurent renders well. There are many highly skilled artists out there, and yes, AI does learn from real, talented creators. The real red flag is this: before he adopted his current super polished style, Killer-Laurent had a completely different way of drawing. There was no gradual evolution into this refined look. It just appeared. Suddenly, and without any signs of progression. Here are some examples of his earlier work:

These pieces look to have more hand drawn elements. For instance, Armand has a distinctive curl to his mouth that’s consistently depicted in his art from September and December 2023. Did he trace photographs at any point during these? Or use ai? It's very possible. At this point in time of his art, ai usage may be restricted to backgrounds ( the Christmas tree art was posted during this time period and the trees in the center image look suspicious)

[EDIT/NOTE: Those trees were also likely flittered through photoshop. Again, I am leaving my original statements for transparency but asking you to refer to the previous update for context).

I suspect, poses may be traced for some characters in much of his art during this period. There is a clear struggle with anatomy & fluidity in his art that have uncommon poses. Additionally, some character poses are suspect since he has shown earlier that year (June) to still be tracing photos of models. But that's a separate ( yet connected) issue. Ultimately, I feel these pieces have minimal AI ( if they have any at all.) But also, please note how he renders between these images. Very minimal, very subdued. And not very polished. To be clear: there is absolutely nothing wrong with being at this level in your artistic journey. I'm pointing this out to highlight what his art looks like when it seems he actually had a hand in creating it. And then, just days after that last set of earlier artworks, he posted this:

The first and last images depict huge leaps in both rendering and facial anatomy. Yet, the center piece is more consistent with his older work. This suggests a strange pattern: sudden improvement, a regression, then rapid progress again. Then by the time February arrives, he adopted three entirely new art styles:

Again, major improvements, all within just a few days. Then, four days after the third image, he posted this commission:

The female character’s face is more in line with his earlier style. I’m not sure if ai was used here, but I suspect he was forced to draw her face manually. That familiar curl of the lips, seen on previous art of Armand, appears here again, and it feels distinctly his style. However, the male character below (apologies, I forgot to screenshot the tags before the piece was deleted from his blog) looks different. The face structure is closer to the style found in his more AI suspect works, and it's clearly in a different style altogether. And then just three days later, he drew this:

Then, adopted several new art styles over the rest of the month:

Even his older artwork (below), where it does seem like he had a hand in creating it (maybe just coloring or touching things up), still raises eyebrows. Take this piece of Armand (the first image) as example. Besides the hair looking suspicious, looping into itself unnaturally, it also shares stylistic similarities with a specific style of ai art ( the three i included beside it) like there was an attempt to mimic the rendering style:

Honestly, when people say, "It's obvious he uses ai" all of this is why. The timeline, the abrupt jumps in skill, the lack of consistent style evolution. In the very first images I included here, the ones between September and December, the stylistic jump was more subtle within those 2 months vs the art he has posted later down the line which has abrupt improvements within days of each other. Ai is harder to detect these days. It's starting to look natural and people are tracing/painting over it to avoid detection. But I think there is a very real disconnect that happens when artists start relying on ai. They forget how long it used to take them to produce art organically. Posting schedules, how much workload they take without consequence, and random spikes in progress become very clear tells that their art is suspicious if not entirely disingenuous.

#ai mention #iwtv #killer-laurent #the vampire armand #the vampire chronicles #marius de romanus #vampire chronicles

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awkwaamo · 2 years ago

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So, in the process of trying to get my partner into one of my childhood favorites, Winx Club, the brain gremlins took hold of me and I am now in the process of creating a rewrite. Not the entirety of canon, but definitely the first three seasons and throwing in some extra stuff from other seasons that I really enjoyed as well as some of my own personal flair.

That being said, a rewrite obviously has to come with redesigns and I have literally just finished up everyone's first transformation

Layla, or Aisha, is up first! I did really enjoy her original design (honestly, they're all wonderful) but it just wasn't going to work for my AU. Considering she's from a planet that is dominated by water, as well as being related to actual mermaids, I absolutely had to add in more mermaid traits. So we have wings that look and act similar to dorsal fins in the water which makes her an exceptionally fast swimmer, almost on par with her cousins. Then, of course, I had to include shells in there. The shells that function as her heels are angel wing shells and a horn snail shell.

Musa, oh Musa. Her original was lovely but it just didn't have enough punk inspiration. Luckily I was more than happy to provide a little in the form of shorts and a half skirt on top of wonderful boots with buckles. I did keep the sheer centerpiece though because I really wanted to pay some respect to the original. Also, and this is just my personal opinion, space buns are superior. My shining glory of this design has to be the wings, though. The bass clefs are wonderful but to top it all off I had to add the CD shine. It was a necessity. Also, if you haven't noticed the fact that her arm accessories mirror Layla/Aisha's, now is the time to notice. SoundWave will be a thing in this AU.

Flora needed more green! She deserves a little green considering she's a nature fairy and how else would I incorporate it other than vines? Especially considering she uses vine attacks all the time! Also that rose inspired skirt was a pain to do but so worth it. If anyone deserves a rose skirt, it's Flora.

While I do love Tecna, her original always felt like it was missing something so, after some scrolling through sci-fi stuff, I added the cropped jacket to it and more green for her as well. The ear piece actually extends into a helmet with a retractable visor, I'll probably post another image with it on full display another time.

Another thing to add is that there is a criminal shortage of Flora x Tecna content to the point that I haven't even seen a fun little ship name for them. So, I'll just be using BioTech.

Getting right into Stella's redesign, starting with the wings! I did like her original wings but with her being the fairy of the sun I kind of just spread them out similar to the way rays of light look. As for her outfit, I really wanted to add onto the ethereal kind of look with gorgeous drapery similar to what you see in depictions of goddesses but with a modern twist! Hence the underbust and other additions.

Bloom but much more draconian. As she deserved considering she's the keeper of the dragon fire. Dragon wings. Dragon scales. Need I say more? Yes, actually. Her boots are more armor like, which was fun but not the best part. The silver chains, the necklace, the gemstones. They're made to be a mirror to Stella's because SolarFlare is absolutely iconic. They deserve each other so much and it is my mission to highlight this fact.

I have so much planned for this AU. So many ideas that I've already noted down and places I want to go with this, I can't wait to get started.

And I literally just realized that this AU needs an actual name, so I'm going to go with Psyche. The reasons why will become clear later. 💜

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bellasimos · 1 year ago

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Tea & Confess (18+)

ɢᴏʀᴏ ᴛᴀᴋᴇᴍᴜʀᴀ x ᴠ(ᴏᴄ)

You can read it on Ao3 ( x ) Words Counting: 9,291 Warning: Smut, Eventual Smut, My First Smut, oral (giving), Face-Fucking, Vaginal Fingering, Overstimulation, Missionary Position, Confessions, Unprotected Sex, slightly brainwash mentioned, idk what else to add Summary: After hacking into Arasaka's float in order to reach Hanako, Vaike had alternative ideas to tell her personal problem with Takemura, which only lead to worrisome of regaining some of her memories, one particular that he is holding out hope for her to not forget about him. Note: A disclamation, English is not my first language but I tried my best to edit and change grammar that makes sense. A little feedback/critique is alright, negative feedback/criticism is not the way to help writers to improve better. Enjoy :) Original was posted on my main but is now move fully here

"V, take the roof!" Exclaimed Takemura via the comm.

On a night mission to hijack the float to one step closer to meeting Hanako. To expose the real truth of who murdered Saboro rather blame a merc thief. Vaike, the real name, is helping out to get the truth out to save her sister and figure out how to save her life from the biochip that is taking possession of Yua's body. The only thing that Vaike has remains her family. As she glanced up at the roof opening in the Arasaka building. Vaike wasted no time in getting there, silent and quick. All thanks to Takemura for teaching her, she jumps twice so that she can sense the air. One more step and she is out, as her hand touches the reel of the roof; using her strength to pull herself out of the inside building. Vaike was met by a cool death at night but the sound of Arasaka's alarm remains. As she sighs, blink her eyes to resume the call with Takemura and Yua.

"It's done."

"Abouuuut time! I was worried that you would get caught!" Said Yua, who was hiding on the opposite side of the building.

Her cheerful voice still seemed the same, Vaike thought of that.

"Excellent job, V. With this, we can approach Hanako without any problem. I will discuss the next part of the plan tomorrow." Takemura explained.

"Alright, you can leave, for now, Yua." Vaike said, rolling her eyes as she already knew where Yua was going after this.

"No question where I'm going or?"

"No, just go. I'll pick you up first thing tomorrow morning, to discuss the plan."

"Huh, weird gesture but alright. I'll see you tomorrow then."

Vakie sighed as the call ended with Yua, things between them have been on and off ever since she got influenced by Night City, the heist mission costing TBug and Jakie’s life over a soulchip that currently is reprogramming inside of her. A loud, clear throat brought her sense back, realizing Takemura is on the other call on the line,

“I’m sorry, I dozed off. What’s the next step?”

“We wait for tomorrow, you’ve done an excellent job today. Do you need an escort back to your apartment?”

It was a long way to go back, a car ride with Takemura ain't a bad idea. Unlikely the last time it happened with Arasaka's troupe chasing them after retrieving Yua.

"Yes, I don't mind a car ride. Where are you at?"

"Opposite the Arasaka building, it's not hard to miss."

"Affirmative." Vaike hung up the call with a single shot.

From the room to the floor, she kneeled with support at the bottom of the boot. Years in training with Arasaka but Goro as her mentor. Taught her every single combat with hand maneuvers from swords to mantis blades. Especially on flexing and controlling the weight of your body in need of stealth missions. She does give her gratitude to Takemura for teaching her but not gratitude to Arasaka. Yua has helped her to see the truth of Arasaka but there is a chain that she cannot break from. Being away from them, they tug more and more until she cannot move on. Vaike is drowned by their corruption, fighting back to not kill her sister whenever the voice scratches her brain. Taunting her, filing false idealism of Yua is using her to destroy the Arasaka corporation.

Vaike shook her thoughts aside, not noticing her body move on its own to reach the other side of the building. Her ruby eyes scan the parking lot for a larger van that he came in from, the very own man itself sitting in the driver seat. Lost in his own world, perhaps plotting out some backup plan in case this one comes to fail. But she knows him, his plan never fails. Vaike carefully walks up to the driver's door, lifting her hand as it contacts against the windows. A couple of touches interrupt his brainstorming as he glances up.

He opened the door and gestured to the opposite door. “I’ll get it for you.”

“I- well thank you.” She gave her gratitude as Takemura opened the door for her.

Vaike hopped in the van while waiting for Takemura to get on and turn on the engine for a long silent ride to her apartment. To which, she stands to correct only half of it. It was a long ride, silence along with little jazz music playing on the radio. Vaike never had an idea of what Takemura's music would be. With a hint of relaxed energy filling in between their space, she lifted her eyes at Takemura, eyes glued on the road while his hands were in two and eight steering wheels. Her eyes trailed to his long, large hand on it, smooth but firmly on it, she continued to trail on his outfit all the way up his jawline. Perfectly structured jawline irresistible to leave kisses on. All the way down to his neck, the Arasaka chrome neckline, is so expensive to obtain a chrome like that. As Vaike continues to trail her eyes from the neck to his top outfit as it can be seen visible as he breathes in it. Her pupil grew slightly at the sight of him.

“What’s on your mind, Vaike?” He mumbles gently as he stops the van from a red light.

She immediately ripped her gaze away from him, trying to put her focus on the window as her face grew embarrassed. “It's nothing, uh, yeah.”

“Cat caught your tongue?” He chuckled as he started to move the van when the light went green. “I knew you were staring at me, V.”

“Oh, I, uh, I’m sorry?”

Takemura shook his head. “I cannot blame you, beauty and looks are meant to be seen. I don’t understand what you see in me.”

Vaike pressed her lip into thin, searching for words to say something. But she’s afraid it’ll come out more embarrassing. “We could discuss it back in my apartment.” She told him, slower and quiet.

Takemura nodded. “Privacy, that's the correct way to discuss.”

The silence crawled between them, reaching to Corpo Plaza Apartment as Takemura parked in front of the entrance. He turned his attention to Vaike, her eyes glancing at him.

“Go, I’ll meet you soon. I must hide the van.”

She nodded while opening the door to hover her leg on the street floor. Closing the door behind Takemura drove off, hiding the van somewhere else. Unknown were but she shook the question's thoughts away. Her sight glanced at the building, black tinted with red on the corner with the Arasaka logo. Surprisingly, none of the employees tried to warn Arasaka about Vaike living in this apartment. Traitors living under their noses sound about right. Vaike chuckled at her thought, for once, she found it funny.

She sighs, it was getting late as per usual, and not even once stepped inside to be in her own comfort space. As Vaike took one step, she felt a weight on her wrist, causing her to turn back but yet to find the Arasaka dog. Goro Takemura.

“My apologies, I took too long to find a place to set my van. Did I make you wait that long?”

His hand was smooth, gentle as she recalled. He wasn’t this gentle before, back when he was her own mentor. No pressure to stop her from walking, just his ghostly-feel-like touch made her stop. And, personally, she wishes he could use those hands on her face, waist, arm, anywhere where her mind lingers more.

She shakes her head. “Not at all, we should go inside.”

He nodded, as his hand slipped off her wrist. The warmth was replaced with a cold feeling, but his hand was secure on her back. Sending shivers down her spine but maintaining a blank expression. Takemura guides her inside, passing by the metal red light security for any false identification. Vaike was clear to go so she waited for Takemura to step in. Surprisingly, he was clear, he thought he was gonna get caught for sure but security in this was awfully strange. Unless Vaike had something to do about it; he hasn’t forgotten about Vaike’s blood relative of her descendants' parents. The couple entered the elevator, and Vaike pressed the button to thirty floors in her room. The bell sounds from the elevator while it slides shut in front of them as it pulls up to their destination. Takemura narrows his eyes and gazes at the young woman standing next to him. Giving a good look at the side profile with that golden chrome on her face. It was indeed in Arasaka 's best interest to keep her up to date, with the latest chrome beauty feature as such. Dare he say, but she was one eye-catching that he ever laid his eyes upon. If he was younger, roughly around the same age as she is, he would simply ask her out.

But how can he, he is not worthy of a date. He’s only Saboro’s bodyguard, he only knows how to obey, do the job and protect. Takemura never fit the idea of being someone else's partner, trusting, loving, and capable of being there for them. He is more of a killer machine working under the greatest and most well-known from Arasaka. Something definitely made him feel when Vaike came into his teaching. He wondered what it would feel like to be once in love with her.

“Are you alright, Takemura? You’ve been awfully quiet during this ride.” Her smooth voice interrupted his furrowed thoughts.

He blinks, looking straight at her. “Oh, um. Yeah, I’m alright. Just thinking about the plan.”

Vaike turned to his attention. “To get straight with Hanako?”

He nodded. “Yes, that is correct.”

“She’ll listen to us, I promise you that Takemura.”

His gaze softened at her promised word, sincerity made his heart beat a skip. Takemura lifts his hand and places it on her back. “Thank you, Vaike.”

Vaike felt a warm feeling on her skin, his hand being touched on her back made her heart skip a beat while she nodded. “You’re welcome.”

Elevators made their stop as the door slid open to be greeted by the hallway where some Arasaka employees were sitting on the sofa and another across this room. As they walked in, Vaike took off her boots as Takemura followed, it was rude to walk around with shoes inside the apartment. He taught her it brings bad luck, and spirit if she believes it. The decoration is fitting for a rich kind with black and red to match Arasaka. But, honestly, Vaike prefers her own kind of taste in decoration. He had seen it, and somehow, he does wonder how come she remembers a little bit about it. The decoration matches a Nomad, freely with your own taste along with your family. It still outstanding him due to the fact she was brainwashed. Guess he will never know. Vaike walked up to her entrance and slipped her security code for it to be open. The door slides open, her attention returning back to Takemura as she enters. Motioning her finger at him, he thought it was more spell-like. The way that this woman has him wrapped around her hand.

“Suit yourself, Takemura, do you want some tea or alcohol?” Vaike asked, making her way to the counter where the tea cup was sitting to make some.

Takemura looked at her and thought about it. Tea sounded like a good idea to settle down some nerves. “Tea sounds pleasant, thank you.”

Vaike nodded, focusing on preparing the tea. Takemura took his welcome to sit down on one of those stools next to the counter, his hand gently rubbing his thighs while waiting patiently for the tea. Taking the opportunity to observe around, the window next to the kitchen is the view from the apartment; he thought about how it would look waking up every morning to look at people walking in the street, how many troubles have passed by while consuming your morning drink. He then looks at the bed to his right, assuming that’s where she rests. If Vaike ever rests, Takemura has secretly readied her health. Barely got any rest ever since she has reunited with her only family alive. It was a concern for him but he never forced her to get rest. Not his position to tell her either way.

He ripped his thoughts aside to return to focusing on the woman in front of him. Setting his cup of tea on the counter table. Vaike has made a set of herself as well.

“Thank you.” He said, bowing his head and taking the cup directly to his mouth.

She smiled warmly, taking a small sip of her tea.

To his surprise, it tasted the same tea that he had drank once. The hint of warmth of his home with a sweet taste hint brings him time when he remembers bits of his family. He furrowed his eyebrows, how did Vaike know his kind taste of tea? It rather shocked him to find out that Vaike knew his personal taste in tea. Perhaps asking wouldn’t hurt so he settled the cup down and glanced at her. Vaike quickly noticed and lowered the cup from her lip.

“It’s everything alright?” She asks.

“The tea was marvelous, Vaike. But how did you know this is my favorite taste of tea?” He raised an eyebrow.

Vaike chuckled, waving her hand in front of him. “I took some studies from that time, reunion with your master, you remember?”

He scrunched his nose a bit. “Was it a personal business reunion?”

“The very one, yes.”

“Well, I’m not sure what to say but, good job.”

She shrugged. “Take it as a way of me repaying you back for teaching me.”

“You seem troubled.” He changed the topic, not being rude. He just felt a little embarrassed but grateful for her for trying to repay him, despite it being his own decision to train her.

Vaike sighs and puts her cup down as her hand holds the edge of the counter table. “It’s nothing, I don’t want to bore you with my problem.”

“Vaike, I’m here to help you. Trust me.” He reassured her as he stretched his hand to her, grasping gently with a force.

“It’s my sister, Yua. I feel-No, I believe she does not trust me. With the truth that I don’t remember anything about my parents; only I know that she is my sister, probably the old me made sure it was protected and secure before the brainwashing.”

He nodded. “I’m sure she trusts you, Vaike. It still feels fresh for her to fully trust you. However, I understand her concern about Arasaka-“

“That as well, since she lost TBug and Jackie in that heist mission. I still truly believe it was Dex's plan to fuck her up. But, I just want her to trust me; I still don’t know how I can approach her to tell her.” Vaike added.

“May I suggest but you deserve to know this as well.” He started. “But you can regain your memories back, however, there will be heavily guarded by Arasaka. Only the Arasaka family can enter.”

Her eyes light up as she grabs his hand, each of her hands holding it. “I can get my memories back?”

“As I said, yes, I’m not sure what would be the downside once you’ve restored your memory back.” He turned his attention to his empty tea cup.

“Huh, what do you mean Takemura?” Vaike took his chin as she guided them back to her face.

Takemura opened his mouth but words couldn’t get out, he was struggling to find the correct sentences to make it make sense. How can he, Takemura is not some attractive and well young look for Vaike, she probably won’t accept to date him. At this stage of his age, that is, still, his heart ached when he thinks in that way. Many possibilities pour into his mind as his voice froze. He cannot simply remain in eye contact with her any longer. It’ll hurt his only Moonlight.

“What I mean, Vaike.” He paused as his hand grabbed her wrist, guiding them to the top surface of the table. He adores the soft touch of her tanned skin, how he wishes to kiss those skin of hers. Worship every inch of her, tell her how goddess she is. Oh, his poor heart is crying.

“Yes Goro?” she lowered her face to look at him once again.

“I’m afraid if you restore your memory, of any chance, you’d forget about me and our moments together. I treasure it with all my heart - I, uh, I wasn’t where I was going with this.”

There was a smile, poking on the corner of her lips. Along with a warm, fuzzy feeling on her cheek. “I don’t think I would lose any precious memories about you, Goro. Is this some kind of confession?”

He was caught by a surprise, eyes grew wider as his face flushed embarrassingly about it. Takemura tried to recollect himself. “More or less.”

Vaike laughed lightly. “That’s really cute of you, Goro. I thought you wouldn’t like me or confess this way.”

“I don’t follow.”

Vaike stood up while his eyes followed her every move. “I’m in love with you, Takemura.”

Her sentences made his heart freeze for a moment, as his eyes lit up with hope and surprise to hear it coming out from her. For years and months, he thought she wouldn’t feel the same way, and share the same feelings for each other. All his emotions flushed in at once, Takemura only thought as it commanded his body. Kicked off the stool with his hand aside from the corner table and pulled her against his body. His lip captured her, and for a couple of seconds, it took her to realize what was going on. Goro Takemura was kissing right in front of her while frowning his brows. No loose attachment as she slipped her hand up from his chest to his shoulder then around his neck, gladly returning the kiss. Just as he exactly pictured it, her lips were soft and craving, with a hint of the tea they both were having with. He ran his tongue across her lips for permission entrance, but she had another idea, denying his permission by taking his bottom lip with her teeth. Takemura let out a groan into the kiss and understood what she was trying to do. He had another idea in his hand. He grabbed some pile of her hair while dipping the back of her head, exposing more skin on her neck. Leaving her swollen lip to trail down his wet kisses to her jawline into her throat. Flustered by his kisses, she rubbed her thighs together. A small mewls slip out from her lip after he gives a small nibble on the sensitive spot area in her neck. His lip curved, focusing on the tender spot with his tongue before sucking the spot. Leaving a wonder of his own mark on it, love bites as he continues to every inch of her neck as he could.

Vaike let out a long, string breath as she shook underneath him. Him being towered on top of her gave him empowerment to dominate her. He hummed while dipping his mouth in her collarbone, guiding his tongue on top of her skin. Feeling her body shudder at his touch once more fills his satisfaction. Yet it allows him to know her body reacts the way she wants to be touched. Takemura let go of her small pile of hair while he ran his hand down to her lower back, slipping his both hands into her rear ass as he pulled her into him. Vaike let out a harmless laugh while holding onto him, carefully taking her away from the kitchen to the bed that was not far. Her body made contact on a soft surface, her head dug into her pillow feeling his warm left on her, hovering on top of her. Eyes filled with lust and love, he wants to take all in and leave none, but Takemura wants to take it slow as well.

#cyberpunk 2077 #goro takemura #goro takemura x v #oc x canon #one shot #OC: Vaike V Matsuda #C: Goro Takemura #my story #oc writing #cyberpunk 2077 smut

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empydoc · 1 year ago

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SOUL EATER AU blake & bestie

check out the masterpost here!

welcome to a redacted soul eater au post! here, i try and discover what it'd be like if you merged the soul eater world and mechanics within the redactedverse. this is the eighth post in the series of posts i'll make regarding the individual characters and their listeners! we've got blake & bestie on the menu. enjoy!

༺♰༻

blake — soul type: meister strongest meister ability: soul adjust - an advanced meister technique involved in wavelength control. it allows the meister to adjust another person's wavelength as long as the meister is stronger than their target. "compatible" with: bestie

seers have the innate ability of soul perception (being able to see another's soul), which means they are all typically meisters. blake is no exception, however due to an extensive use of training and development, he's also able to use the soul adjust ability. he actively uses it.

blake currently wields bestie, however he's noted to have had several weapon partners before. it's a surprise he kept up with them for so long, though, considering he must've had so many to have perfected the art of being an advanced meister.

making seers all meisters wasn't necessarily my original concept, although it works out in the end because of the fact that seers have a significance towards 'sight'. having seers own the natural ability of perceiving souls- an exclusive meister technique- simply makes sense to me, blake included.

༺♰༻

bestie — soul type: weapon weapon type: saw (blade) compatible with: blake

i can't make too many empowered type statements, purely because all we know about bestie's empowerment at the time of posting this is the fact that they are empowered at all. even so, making them a weapon seems to prove pretty safe, considering they aren't said to be any specific species different to a human.

when it comes to souls, though, blake's advanced meister technique comes in. actively, bestie's soul is being warped into compatibility with blake's. this means that they are artificially compatible instead of organically. there are no clear differences from this, but it's only a matter of time before someone notices.

bestie was honestly going to be a typical blade/dagger type weapon to reflect blake's symbol/icon. then i thought, 'these two aren't meant to be compatible. fate hasn't pulled them together, blake has.' and, so, i decided to make them something different.

lite backstory: for every post i make for the characters, i'll add some au backstory to really fill in some details you may be curious about!

blake used to wield bestie much before he stopped talking with them. they had a good connection as friends, as much as some may comment that it was an odd one, and worked well as a pair. unfortunately, since blake went radio silent, bestie hasn't bothered striving to find another meister, purely because they don't want what he did to them - for someone to leave unannounced - to happen again.

when blake eventually returned, they were hesitant to accept him back as a weapon/meister partner. then again, when blake showed them that they were "still compatible", bestie rethought a whole lot and figured their soul was telling them something they couldn't ignore.

they're meant to be close.

#redacted soul eater au #redacted au #redacted audio #redacted asmr #redacted verse #📼.txt #redacted blake #redacted besite

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lakesbian · 2 years ago

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okay i'll do a little bit of well. not theorizing but Posting and perhaps Wondering about the rest of pact. i do wonder how much of rose is like. actually from pmt? as in. it's fairly clear that as far as division of the original dude (& subsequent shoring up of the scraps they were divided into) goes, blake can be most obviously used 2 extrapolate what pmt's most prominent traits were. he's the one who's all about motorcycles and art and a strong sense of identity. he's the one with the neuroses you can see from a mile away. he's the one with all the parts of pmt that led to them successfully running away. he's the one with the friends and the real actual life outside of Catholic Misery. he's also a cunt sometimes, which is funny and endearing, and also a trait you can easily imagine pmt having.

rose, however, has been so thoroughly subsumed by the family identity that even her name is that of her grandmother's. she has to wear her grandmother's dresses because there's no other easily available option. if rose (old) was imposing That upon her during her quest to make rose (young) the ideal thorburn heir, what else was she imposing on her? because sure it's not implausible that rose is the part of pmt that was still tied to the trauma of the thorburn lineage, but like. the math does not add up. i don't think there was enough of what rose is comprised of in PMT to make one whole rose. like if rose is a muffin, i think the rose parts from pmt would not fill up enough of the muffin liner to bake an entire rose. i think perhaps there are some Other Ingredients grandmother thorburn stirred into the rose batter. that are not from pmt. like there's nooo way she just left it at the name and the dresses right.

and on a related-seeming note. it's like. rose is the more 'real' one. the one who has whatever little core part that's necessary to solidify her position in reality, leaving blake the one at constant risk of careening into the garbage disposal at the bottom of the universe. but blake is significantly more complete seeming. and, like, obviously my PoV is biased because we're not hearing rose's internal monologue for hundreds of thousands of words, but rose does not get to have distinctive traits like One Who Ran Away and One With The Motorcycle and One With The Tattoos and One Who Won't Shut Up About Art Sometimes and One With The Friends. she's just the one named Rose in their grandmother's dress. it feels like very relevant commentary that rose is the one deemed 'real' by mrs. catholic matriarch and blake--the most blatantly 'oh yeah you were transmasc before you got rent asunder' one--is the unreal one, the one who needs to be sacrificed for the good of the family, the wrong one, the doomed one, etc. you know what i mean? rose is effectively told that she's Right and blake is Wrong, but blake is literally someone she envies for his life outside of the family, someone she's sought comfort from, someone she Resents for having what she can't. so i do think i'm onto some ideas in this post. poking rose with a lengthy stick

#pact time #pact lb #actual pact theorypost as a treat for the few remaining lb readers

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vegan-kaktus · 5 months ago

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Aaaah omg, thank you so much for your wonderful tutorial! You're a hero!

With your help, I (think?) I just managed to successfully default something for the first time (at least it looks alright in game), even though I had to do it slightly differently than you described.

In case it is helpful to someone else struggling with the same SimPE problem I had/have, I'll describe what caused my issue and how I (hopefully) worked around it:

Reading your tutorial reminded me that when I first tried to make object defaults (many months ago before I stopped again in frustration), I got into the habit of using the "Import" function in Plugin View instead of clicking directly one the GMDC file and selecting "Replace".

Why? Because every time I try to replace a mesh this way, SimPE throws me an "Invalid CRES: System.OutOfMemoryException" error. And then SimPE doesn't let me do anything anymore with the file.

When googling, I found a post by letomills on Tumblr (letomills.tumblr.com/post/749025761566015488/trying-out-simpe-07769-it-gives-me-the-same) describing the same issue.

I have tried literally every single fix suggested to them in the notes of their post (restarting, clearing cache, applying 4GB to SimPE exe, trying different versions of SimpE etc) and also the one leto finally found that fixed the issue (CCleaner).

I tried it all again today and NOTHING has worked to fix this cursed error for me. (Which weirdly enough only appears when I try to replace a mesh - unlike leto, I can replace textures with Build DXT just fine).

So in despair, I tried again with the "Import" function since it's my only option. This gives me a pop up window where I can select an action under "Group Settings" (Nothing, Replace, Add, Rename, Update). I selected "Replace" since that is what I wanted to do and clicked "OK".

But even though I clicked Replace instead of Add, I now had 4 groups instead of 2 (including the shadows). Going by your tutorial, I assumed that it wasn't supposed to be that way and deleted the two original groups and made sure the group names and everything were correct, like you said.

I tested the resulting file in game and it seems to have worked! Though maybe you can tell me if this is a legitimate alternative way of doing this or if I'm celebrating too early and there is an issue with this I'm not seeing?

But either way, thank you so much again, I really appreciate your help, you're amazing <3

Hello again anon! :-D

Your SimPE problem is very weird, I can get a similiar error whenever SimPE has been open for quite a bit and has opened too many files (I have the 4gb patch successfully patched), but then a simple restart fixes the problem for me. You mentioned that the 4gb patch didn't solve your issue, how much ram does your pc/laptop have? The 4gb patch is only useful if you have more than 4gb ram. If you have 4gb or less, maybe this could be worth a try? I only skimmed through it but they mentioned 2gb etc.

The import button is 100% an option and valid way to import meshes! That's how I added the penguin's hat in my default. Just remember to delete the original groups (like you mentioned you did), and all is good!! (I would personally click "add" and then remove the original groups, I don't trust any kind of "replace" option ahaha but that's just me lol). And no worries at all, I'm just happy I could be of some help!!

#anonymous #ask #me trying to help #<3

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jewish-sideblog · 2 years ago

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Hello! I'm sorry, I'm ignorant and I when I saw a post talking about gentiles using the phrase "biblically accurate angels" I wanted to know more. I thought it was just a fun way to describe something strange or eldritch, due to the belief that seeing their true forms would be incomprehensible and make people either go mad or blind. Is that a bad way to use the phrase?

Shalom! I'm not quite the best source for this, as I'm not a religious scholar of any kind-- but I'll give you the tl;dr on my knowledge base.

The image most commonly associated with a biblically accurate angel is a ringed wheel of fire and eyes. The origin of this imagery is Yechezel 1:15 to 1:21, in which the wheels of a chariot are described by Yechezkel (More commonly known in English as Ezekiel). The chariot wheels are described as crystalline and full of eyes. They are also described as being controlled by the will of living beings, but Torah commentators such as Raishi are careful not to say that the wheels themselves are alive. They are not referred to as angels by Yechezkel or Rabbinical canon.

Some non-Rabbinical, non-Talmudic Jewish sources such as the Book of Enoch and the Zohar do refer to the wheels as Ophanim, a certain class of angels. But none of those sources are "biblical", because those sources come from outside the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. In order to call them biblically accurate, you cannot call them angels. And in order to call them angels, you must depart from some level of biblical accuracy. Even if you think of them as angels? The Ophanim are still only be considered one kind of angel, and to call that kind the most "accurate" would be to disrespect and disregard all other forms of angels.

To be clear-- I myself sometimes depart from traditional Rabbinical interpretation in favor of spiritualism and Kabbalah. I don't think that doing so is wrong or bad in any way. It's just weird to call a departure from canonical Jewish biblical interpretation "biblically accurate".

Once again, I'll note that I'm not a Torah scholar nor a Rabbi, so those more informed than I am on this subject should feel free to refute what I've said here and add their own commentary. @tuulikki has apparently written multiple papers on angels, so I'd personally be fascinated to see what they have to say.

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suchine-toki · 2 years ago

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I read your post on why you think utsuro is a poorly written antagonist and while you’ve made some criticism some good others ehh I understand that not every villain can be johan libert or Griffith and I think utsuro is a solid antagonist

That being said….

While I do utsuro is a solid antagonist I would be lying if I said I didn’t think he was the best one in fact I can think of four antagonists in this series who I feel are better than him(takasugi kamui oboro sasaki) I’m writing or appeal and while I did find the finale satisfying I would be lying if I said I did think there was more to be done but that’s me how do you feel about this(comment not ending you’ve made your stance clear)

Hello! First of all thank you for taking your time to read that post and write me this message 🤗 I know some points weren’t clear enough because I usually prioritize getting to the point over thoroughness.

I feel like comparing Utsuro to villains from other series could set the bar too high or too low depending on how you look at it, especially since what a villain should be depends on the story being told. Although I admit it can be useful sometimes, so I'll do it to point out a couple of things. But first I want to talk about Utsuro as a villain in Gintama's narrative. Please bear with me, it won’t be short lol

Gintama has had many antagonists throughout the series, with a characterization depending on the role each one of them had. I make this point because I think it’s important to note that an antagonist that excels in one situation may be bad in another and vice versa from a narrative standpoint. From the audience’s point of view, it’s natural to expect something more from someone who’s supposed to be a relevant villain, especially if they’re the last one.

I could say that Utsuro was a better antagonist than Catherine, for example. But she was never meant to be an important one (or even a recurring character for that matter). So, in this case it's best to compare his character with other Gintama villains. You mention Takasugi, Kamui, Oboro and Sasaki doing a better job at it, and I agree. I would also add other great ones like Itou, Hosen, Jiraia, Jirochou and Sada Sada.

To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t have minded if Utsuro was a comedic villain. Heck, he’s the type of villain Gintama would mock at the beginning. I didn’t address this before, but I find him so cliché… Sorachi tried so hard to make Utsuro look intimidating, but he ended up looking silly, and not in a funny way. Even the anime gave him a soundtrack with an organ that reminded me of vampire movies from the 60's 🤣

I made some points in the original post about how he doesn’t make sense because he ignores the easy solutions in plain sight, but there’s also the issue of how illogical his lack of action is for most of the series. To be precise, there’s a 10-year gap between the “death” of the Shouyo persona and the return of the Utsuro persona, but there isn’t a good reason why we don’t see him act until Farewell Shinsengumi arc.

If we compare him with Takasugi, it’s understandable why the latter takes time: he needs financing, manpower and specific alliances, among other stuff. In the grand scheme of things, Takasugi is just a small fry. But Utsuro already has all those resources, so we have to assume he doesn’t make any moves “just because”.

That’s a problem that comes with being the big bad of the story. Take for example Ozai from ATLA and Voldemort from Harry Potter. Both of those villains are often criticized for their lack of characterization; however, they succeed in a very important aspect in which Utsuro falls short: making their presence felt throughout the story. Ozai does despicable things that impact the entire world and the people close to Aang. Voldemort actively hunts Harry as he carries out his plans. In Utsuro’s case, he simply appeared out of nowhere.

One could argue that since he’s a twist villain he can’t be held to the same standards. This might work in some scenarios, however, with Utsuro this doesn’t happen because there’s no proper build up.

Let’s go back to square one. The surprising element of Utsuro’s reveal was that we knew this character before as Shouyo and thought he was good. However, when said villain isn’t the same character but another personality, the whole concept fails. You need to be able to look back on things and realize all the signs where there from the start for a twist villain to work. It all has to do with expectations. It’s different to have a plot twist you didn’t think would happen, than have one with no basis to even think it could happen, if you know what I mean.

I understand why Sorachi may’ve wanted a different villain than Takasugi to carry this theme of emptiness he wanted to portray, but Utsuro’s character was flawed from the beginning. In that sense, I think Oboro would’ve been an interesting choice as the final villain of the series. For starters, he wasn’t introduced at the last minute, and he checks the boxes of being affiliated to the big evil organizations that are the Tendoshuu and the government, as well as being connected to Gintoki and being the cause of his biggest tragedy. I haven’t given it much thought but wanted to include the idea for the lulz haha

With the comedy parts of Gintama (or any media really) I can turn off my brain and just enjoy it, but if the series wants people to take some parts of the plot seriously, I think it’s normal for there to be more serious criticism. Now, on the more subjective side, Utsuro is my “you killed my friends!” anime moment because he drove away a lot of fans at that time 😂😭

This was broad. If there’s something specific you’d like me to address I’m open to talking about it further!

#Gintama #Utsuro #Sakata Gintoki #Takasugi Shinsuke #Oboro #diosminion #Ask #I can write #Analysis #my post #Yey it only took me a week to reply lmao

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tielesiti-eftu · 2 years ago

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you're telling me a FURRY pinned this post???? 😳

hey hey! I'm Tiel, she/her, and that's all you're getting to identify me here <3 you can look at my sona though

if you've stumbled over here then I can only assume you were looking on purpose since I mostly keep to myself, in which case, welcome! so long as you're not a piece of shit to or around me, feel free to hang out. I am a firm believer in having your own corner of the internet, and this is one of the main spots I do that for myself; as such, what you'll find here is going to very wildly differ between days, and it's all to cater to me and basically nobody else.

please do not tag me in donation posts or send me asks about donating to you. i have no money to give and no reach to help get you exposure from people who would be able to. i hate to say it but you would be better off looking elsewhere for help.

I don't do softblocking in either direction, so if you're able to see this page, congratulations! you're most likely fine! on the flipside though, if you're softblocking me for whatever reason, I'm really bad at noticing things like that and would in all honesty prefer if you just fully blocked me (genuine)

this post might be edited at some point, and I'll reblog it with an addition mentioning the changes if I do mess with things here

tags of note under the cut

here's some tags I use fairly often, or that exist for filter purposes! this section might change too, so be aware of that!

#pinned post - you are here!

#targeted reblog - I know people that enjoy things, and sometimes I like to attack those people with cannons

#reblog game - for posts that come with minigames or other fun things to do if you reblog them!

#reblog bait - for other reblog-oriented posts that unfortunately do not come with enrichment but I wanted to reblog anyways

#:3 - :3

#you will look at this - art reblog tag, added to posts with art or other cool things that I did not make

#foxposting - basically post about or containing as fox gets tagged with this bc foxes are fun and I enjoy them a lot

#tailsposting - like foxposting but for specifically Miles "Tails" Prower

#kumihoposting - like foxposting but for specifically Kumiho Cookie from Cookie Run, also known as The Single Solitary Reason I Still Care About Cookie Run In 2023

#a rustle in the bushes || art tag - as suggested, this is my art tag! I don't really post art very often, but when I do, it'll be under this tag

#the fox hole recipe book - if a post has a recipe, either made by me or reblogged from someone else, I'll add this tag! it's a bit sparsely used, since I don't find much good recipe stuff, but it's there!

#in the bushes you find a strange mushroom - an extension of the art reblog and art tags; if something is tagged with this, the art in question is intended for mature or adult audiences by the OP. sometimes these will have mature labels on the posts themselves, sometimes they won't; this tag exists to let people who may not want to see it either way to filter it out. as a general rule though, I am probably reblogging these for a reason, and you don't win any prizes for guessing it

#draft clearing - I use this when I'm going through my veritable hoard of drafted posts and dredging some up to see the light of day. why I do this instead of using a queue, nobody knows, least of all myself

#food, #food tw, #tw food - these are all blacklist tags I use, and admittedly I may be forgetting to add something here or to tag something in general; I'll keep it consistent for things in here though. keep in mind, if something isn't in this section, I probably don't consistently tag for it! I used to add "tw" to the beginning and end of some of these tags, hence the slight repetition, but these days I just use the raw word for simplicity's sake

#drizzle, #storm, #fire, and #ice - deprecated tags originally used to denote if posts were serious or not. storm and ice were for serious posts, while drizzle and fire were for non-serious posts. I have way too many total posts to remove/replace these tags by this point, so you're absolutely gonna see them if you go looking, and I wanted to clarify what they were for as a result. some slight typos of these (drizzle especially) are probably under this umbrella too, if the variations that keep showing up in my suggested tags are any indication

#pinned post #and the pinned post is finally done #been chipping at this in drafts for a while now #a rustle in the bushes || art tag #<- not in the post itself but I did link to it soooooo lol

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nessietessie · 2 years ago

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RULES: answer all questions, add one question of your own and tag as many people as there are questions.

thanks for the tag, @menkhu!

coke or pepsi: i don't like soda lol

disney or dreamworks: disney i GUESS but like specifically pixar just because as a kid i watched both toy stories and also the incredibles over and over again

coffee or tea: i don't like either. i'll take milk though

books or movies: i guess movies, though i should read more.

windows or mac: unfortunately i'm a mac guy. it's what my family used when i was growing up and it's what i know how to use.

dc or marvel: neither lol. though i guess gun to my head i'd choose dc. i liked shazam.

x-box or playstation: playstation of the two of these, but i'm more of a nintendo guy

dragon age or mass effect: i haven't played either of them, nor do i have any desire to

night owl or early riser: kinda neither? i'm at peak power midday. but i do like to stay up kinda late sometimes. if 11:30 counts as late lol

cards or chess: cards. i'm not smart enough for chess, but i LOVE me some solitaire

chocolate or vanilla: tough choice. kinda depends on how i'm feeling but i do tend to lean vanilla more often

vans or converse: chacos. i love sandals

Lavellan, Trevelyan, Cadash, or Adaar: idk what this is lol

fluff or angst: i don't really have a strong opinion on this one

beach or forest: maybe beach, if only for the novelty of it. landlocked gang rise up!

dogs or cats: dogs! i haven't had many good experiences with cats

clear skies or rain: clear skies these days

cooking or eating out: depends on the mood. oftentimes i'm too lazy to cook lol

spicy food or mild food: i'm kind of a weenie when it comes to spice, so mild. but i'm getting better!

halloween/samhain or solstice/yule/christmas: christmas, just because i have the opportunity to hang out with my fam and not be at work for a little while

would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot: a little too hot

if you could have a superpower, what would it be: like. shapeshifting. or teleportation.

animation or live action: animation for the most part, HOWEVER the live action one piece slaps so. points for that i think.

paragon or renegade: assuming this is one of those games i didn't play. so idk

baths or showers: showers

team cap or team ironman: don't care. i don't like marvel

fantasy or sci-fi: fantasy

do you have three or four favourite quotes, if so what are they: i have no idea at the moment. trying to think of what i frequently quote. a lot of opla these days. one of my faves is luffy's little "mutiny..." in the beginning of episode one lol.

youtube or netflix: well. i'm pretty selective either way. so both and neither i guess.

harry potter or percy jackson: percy jackson, though i only read like. the original five books and half of the first book in heroes of olympus

when do you feel accomplished: uuuuh don't ask me that lol. felt pretty good about getting 100 notes on a drawing i posted a few days back lol

star wars or star trek: don't care really

paperback books or hardcover books: prob hardcover because of my careless ass. harder to ruin a hardcover

to live in a world without literature or without music?: writing and reading are neat and all, but i think i would literally lose my mind if i had to drive the 5 hours to my parents house without music.

who was the last person to make you laugh? probably kat

city or countryside? small city? does that count?

favorite chips? sour cream and onion lays

pants or dresses? shorts, but also pants.

libraries or museums? libraries, because i respect what they do but also museums are really neato

character driven stories or plot driven stories? character driven

bookmarks or folding pages? bookmarks

Dream job? voice actor. i would also love to get paid to play video games, which i guess can happen if you're a letsplayer or a twitch streamer or something

What gives you comfort? recently, watching one piece lmao. also sorry i guess for all the one piece on this blog but it's my house.

what are some of your favorite song lyrics? i don't often listen to songs with lyrics so this is kind of a hard question lol. but how about all of the lyrics in "We Can" which is team Sonic's theme in Sonic Heroes. Love that. lol

favorite video game?

Tagging: lol. uh. anyone who wants to do this? i don't actually interact with people much on here, but if you see this on your dash and would like to take part, i say go for it!

#tag game #this was fun lol

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victorgrwrites · 1 year ago

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Note About "Higher Than Death"

((This is the same note I posted on AO3 for Higher Than Death, but I'll put it here just in case.))

Hello everyone! I hope you're having a wonderful day. No, this is not the next chapter of the story, but this is very important.

Over the past few months we've been getting various updates and memos from Larian about the future of the game. When I started this fic, there were some things that I believe were hinted at. An expansion of the game, a fleshing out of Gortash, and a massive addition with the Upper City of Act 3. I'm a bit of a data miner, and I paid close attention to the little hints left behind and the unused assets being added to the game. I thought that I could create a story that would be able to settle almost seamlessly onto this wealth of new content that was coming, no matter what it ultimately would be.

But, now, that content is not coming.

It may never come. And I feel like I need to apologize.

I wanted to be right. I wanted to be validated in all these things I was seeing and lead into an ending that was just shy of canon. Which was fucking dumb. Fanfics should be free to tear the story apart a little, and not be afraid to ride that line of impossibility. I should have torn apart the story and simply added what I wanted. Add what I saw in data mines and plot holes, or change them entirely, or simply create what I felt would be a good story.

So, that's what I'm going to do. And here's how I'm going to go about it.

85% of Higher Than Death So Far Will Be Used (As well as some of the one-shots) So, I am sorry if those parts get boring, but if you particularly liked them, they won't be gong anywhere. They'll just be shifted and changed a little.

I Will Add Some EA Content There's not too much we know about how the EA content would have effected things later on down the line, so I'm going to be extrapolating certain things. (You'll be seeing a theme here soon.

I Will Add Some Datamined Content To be entirely clear, I certainly don't know all of what was supposed to be. Often times all I know is 'X was supposed to be there'. I don't know the storyline implications, or how it was really supposed to play out. So I'll just be building my own story around them.

I Will Fill In Some Plotholes At least what I see as plotholes. Just little holes in the narrative that I see the vague shape of, but not what actually was meant to go there. So, again, I'll just put in things I think sound good that fit.

I Will Remove Some Canon Things Mostly to make way for the things mentioned above. For example (as a small spoiler) the Emperor will be removed entirely.

I Will Add My Own Shit Because I think it's cool. But, with that said…

I Will Not Be Including Everything I Know There's just too much. Maybe I'll answer some questions if you hit me up in the comments or on Tumblr, if you don't mind some lunatic-style ramblings. But there's even some things in the canon story I'll be truncating. For example, Gale isn't going to feature heavily, nor will Shadowheart, Minthara, or Wyll. I'm sorry to the big fans of those four, but there is just SO MUCH to add that I just can't let this get even more out of hand than it already is about to be.

Most importantly, you may not know what's datamined and what's my original thought process I'm hammering together. Because frankly, I can barely tell you which is which. Again, I only really know single lines of 'X happened' for datamined and EA content. The hows and whys and whens are my interpretation woven through the Dark Urge character I created named Jack Punch.

And I hope you enjoy it.

Without further ado, I invite you to check out the prologue of part one of Higher Than Death: Welcome to the Show.

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and-231-others · 2 years ago

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adua, factually, is a good book

this post isn't trying to hate on Adua or anyone who worked on it, people who are represented by its characters, or people who may relate to/be like in any regard the characters in Adua. or english teachers. or teachers in general.

I just have a lot of thoughts about how we're (me and my classmates) are being told to read it in our english class and how it's given to us

Adua is the kind of book that I would read during a long car ride with absolutely zero/spotty reception, meaning that I would very rarely ever actually choose to read it. but I would read it and I would read all of it and I would read it in one sitting (which is better than some books)

Adua, however, is not at all the kind of book that I would ever suggest somebody read in an advanced high school english class. if you really want me to sit down and read this in a very not at all comfortable space, you better give me twenty bucks. I'll do it, but I'm not going to like it

and if you want me to take note of historical and cultural allusions on paper or computer, you better give me five more bucks

and if you want me to do any level of research on any of the allusions that I'm not genuinely interested in and actually write that down, you better give me at least five bucks per chapter because it's absolutely insane (/pos) how much is included. I know that it's kinda stupid that I'll research only what I'm interested in, but I do that all the time anyways and I'm not making myself do it. with google at my fingertips its like a second instinct

so kudos to the author and all for writing a really accurate book (as far as I know), but buddy this book is literally so hard to read with the amount of stuff I don't know and have no context for

I feel like the very bare minimum that a school can do is provide books that can be read easily (ie the formatting throughout the entire book is all uniform and the translation is done in a way that you can actually read it so it's grammar isn't really choppy (that being said, if the version we're reading is true to how it was originally written in italian... that's actually interesting and I would totally look up more about the italian language))

I do understand that this is kind of a high bar because teachers realistically are not getting paid that well at all, but if you're expecting us to do this much work for a book please make it easier for everybody

also I think just universally everybody should be putting trigger warnings at the beginning of chapters and stuff like, yes english teachers should do it because I high schoolers in this day and age have a much more intrinsic knowledge of what will trigger them and is therefore safe for them to be able to read without having actual issues go on during class. but also- just, anybody can get triggered by stuff, therefore ADD MORE TRIGGER WARNINGS AND IF YOU THINK THAT THIS WILL SPOIL A SURPRISE OR RUIN IT FOR PEOPLE, MAKE TWO VERSIONS OF THE BOOK, ONE WITH TRIGGER WARNINGS, AND ONE WITHOUT. MAKE THEM BOTH AVAILABLE FOR EVERYBODY (same price, same locations etc etc) (obviously making clear if a book had them included or not)

on another note, I think that if we're going to be doing something in class, especially if we're required to do it, you should make it interesting. that's not to say that Adua isn't interesting, I just think it's really hard to get into and once you're into it, it's really hard to get out of it. HOWEVER there's just too much going on to easily get into it into the first place (aforementioned lack of trigger warnings (read about my experience with some below), bad formatting etc etc)

in chapter 12, right at the end, there is just absolutely random smut that comes out of literally nowhere. I had no warning for it for it and that kind of thing really gives me the heebiejeebies, in a "gotta shake out the body" kind of way. it completely shuts me off from being able to finish anything for the next hour and (I've learned this because I read a lot of fanfiction. if you know anything about fanfiction, it's that eventually you're going to find a lot of untagged smut)

so I know that this is something that (while it doesn't exactly trigger me) bothers me immensely

and as I mentioned, there is absolutely no warning for this, so all of a sudden all this book that I'm supposed to be putting a lot of work into reading and taking notes on is completely near-impossible for me to do. because I can't focus on the book. because "oh my god what did I just read, I need to change my music, talk to a friend, scroll on my phone, read something else, and change my music again just to ask my friend to read to where it ends so I can finish the chapter because DAMN this is a large portion of my grade"

however... Adua is good. I think it's really informational because of how accurate is and how many historical and cultural references there are in it. and if I was going to be interacting with people from Somalia that were now in Italy and would have like been alive during the events that are talked about or happened in the book? I would totally read this if I knew that this was kind of similar to what they may have gone through

but I'm pretty sure that nobody in my english class is Italian. and I'm pretty sure that nobody in my english class is Somali (but I mean... I don't know that for sure, just a rough guess I've made based on how long I've known these people for and the one discussion about the book I've actually made it to so far). so all twenty-five of us that are reading this have absolutely no context for any event or allusion in the book, which means that we have to put a lot more work into this. also, all the historical background stuff is at the end of the book, so 1) I didn't even know it was there and 2) that's super inconvenient because you're literally flipping through the entire book trying to figure out what they might be talking about (and during the pre-reading that I missed, where this historical context thing starts. because you skip through the whole book to find it leading to spoilers)

a psa to teachers to close this off. if you're printing off a pdf of a book for students to read, please include page numbers because or else you're stuck telling people "oh just look at the online pdf of it for the page numbers" instead and (that's complete bs, that's way too much work on top of what we're already having to do)

#I just made a post related to this #and suddenly I had to make this post too #this is my call for help #adua by igiaba scego #books and reading #english class #high school #rant post #personal rant

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