#not tagging the others bc they appear for like ... 1 panel

[mtsodie]

current mood: rotten inside

[kirider]

Your art for it is so cute, what's Kamen Rider SD? I want to get into it :D

yesss.... fall into my trap... mwhahaha >:3c (also thank you ^v^)

SD in general means Super Deformed, it's a chibi style that's not unique to Kamen Rider (Gundam also has a bunch of SD stuff, mentioning it here bc i love those models :3)

But since you're asking in relation with my art, here's the ones I made art for:

SD The Great Battle

A series of videogames that's a crossover between Kamen Rider, Gundam and Ultraman characters, all in the SD style. An original character called Fighter Roar joins the team from the second game on. They're very fun and wacky game that don't really have a coherent plot but we love them for that :3 In IV they get a giant robot (Compatible Kaiser my beloved) and in V they're cowboys. I love the cowboy outfits so much. Games one to five have english fan translations, now I need someone to translate Gaia Saver because apparently that one has the Rider Killer lore....

Kamen Rider SD: Strange!? Man Spider (or simply Kamen Rider SD OVA)

If you've been around the fandom you probably already know this one. It's a 30 minutes short where RX and the other Battle Riders (Ichigo and ZX) have to rescue RX's crush from shocker, with the help of the Mechanic Riders (V3, X and Super1). Wild Team (Stronger, Amazon and Nigo) appears for like. 3 minutes total at the end but they're my darlings and I love them. Other very important thing in this short is the Rider Carrier, a giant robot grasshopper that acts as their base and I think every version of the riders shoul have a giant grasshopper base not just the SDs u.u This short is apparently an adaptation from the Mighty Riders manga, but I haven't investigated it yet so I can't confirm that. It's also connected to a couple more SD videogames, Sortie!! Rider Machines and Run! Mighty Riders (the team names come from here as far as I can tell)

Kamen Rider SD: Hurricane Legend / Kamen Rider SD: Legend of the Stormy Age

(listen. I know the direct translation is the first one. But the second one is on the back cover so if they gave it an official english title I'm using that :P)

This is probably the one you're asking for, but I wanted to use the excuse to talk about the other two :P

I'll be honest, going in blind on this one is probably the best experience. Do not look up panels you will get spoiled. The basic plot is V3 and Riderman travel around to recruit the other Riders to defeat Shocker. I want to talk about it more but again, I had so much fun going "WHAT!?!" while reading it that I must resist- Might post more about them but will tag it as spoilers

Other SD stuff that I care less about, for completionist sake:

• there's a third SD manga (Kamen Rider SD: Roaring Laughs School) that I know nothing of (I think it's a 4koma gag manga? I'll be honest I'm not very interested in it so I haven't done much research);

• the most recent SD game is SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble, a game for the movie, but that one seems to be simply a side scroller so again, no interest from me;

• Lost Heroes 1 and 2 technically use chibi-ish versions of Riders, Gundams and Ultramen, and are part of the Compati Hero series (the same series as The Great Battle), but they don't have SD in the title;

•there's. sooooo many sports games in the Compati Hero series. I like the Battle Dodgeball ones :3 Also speaking of Compati Hero, special mention to Super Hero Operations because that's the next one I wanna play, I get to meet Zubat, Metalder and a bunch of others there :3

[jakowskis]

torchwood resources

just some stuff i've accumulated during this fixation :) hope it proves handy :D

ianto's-desktop (livejournal) - archived most of the things found on the torchwood website during season 1 and season 2; the only thing missing is the videos. / note: click the headers of the posts to see the full thing, or some stuff with appear incomplete. took me a sec to figure out, lol

speaking of the website...

season 1 website (archive.org)

season 2 website (archive.org) - unlike the s1 website, the bulk of the s2 site's content is pretty inaccessible through the wayback machine (at least for me; maybe i'm doing something wrong), so thank g-d for ianto's desktop

there's also a good amount of rebloggable site content in this person's tumblr tag.

season 1 declassified (youtube)

season 2 declassified (youtube)

season 1 commentaries (mega.nz)

torchwood books (google drive) - gonna be honest, i haven't tried to download any of these myself

border princes audiobook (read by eve) + all of the radio plays (archive.org)

torchwood magazines (beta.reddit) - download links for all of them! p fuckin kewl

torchwood official yearbook (archive.org)

herecomesthedrums (youtube) - account that started posting before the show came out and is chock full of promos, trailers, interviews... some real fun goodies in there

torchwood: up close (youtube) - handful of bts videos with the cast + crew

season 1 unreleased tracks (soundcloud) - the end of days ones hrhghgh

out of time unreleased tracks (soundcloud) - i absolutely adore the music in this ep so i was so happy when i found these

the torchwood fanpop - this has sooooooo much content like i scrolled for a loooooong time and never reached the bottom. lotta stuff i hadn't seen before, too. there's fun hd promo pics, pics of the cast, and a lot of extremely early 2010s edits, graphics, and fanvids. / note: i also had this page bookmarked + it's got different content than the main page so i'll link it

aaand under the cut i'm gonna dump some silly stuff i've collected of the cast. but yeah, there ya go :-)

gally 2015: zip files of someone's pictures of eve, naoko, and burn (livejournal)

gally 2015: someone's account of the torchwood panels + meeting the cast (everyone was there but gareth!) - naoko & burn's solo panels / autograph table chats + barrowman photo-op + the naoko&burn&eve group panel / barrowman solo panel + burn&eve joint panel

dragon con 2013 (flickr) - i found two albums: this one, and this one, which has torchwood cast images on the first and second pages.

burn at chicago tardis 2012 (flickr) - ehehe 2012-2013 burn gorman w his classy little outfits my beloved. this is just hq pictures of that event. burn's in a bunch at the top and some at the end of the second page

the hub 2009 (flickr) - some kind of torchwood event. gareth, burn, eve, kai, and tom are all there. i dunno

hvff 2018: 'insights from the whole cast'

hvff 2018: video of everybody goofing off (twitter)

gareth endorsing owandy teehee (twitter) - this is getting dumped here bc im gay

sigh. (blogspot) - pics from that one fuckin 08 panel where gareth & john made out like 5 times + gareth took his jeans off for some reason. i don't even go here but i feel like this is unfortunately historically relevant. also the fujoshis in the comments are really funny

incomplete but sizable lists of cons gareth's been to and john's been to, in case anyone wants to dig around for photos/footage of any of these. the other cast members (excluding burn, for some reason) all have pages on this site as well, but theirs are super incomplete so i won't bother linking

[roseworth]

hey <3 heres what i think of every scene that rosenberg has written with rose

disclaimer: most of this is me being very nitpicky. rose was a side character for all of these appearances so obv i understand that its not gonna be perfect characterization. but i rly like talking about rose characterization so this is just me pulling apart her appearances for fun <3

ok lets go

overall

i LOVE the jason & rose dynamic. im not much of a jayrose fan but since its happening im glad that its like this. i love that its so much "rose is excessively horny and jason is giving her nothing" bc its so in character for both of them. shes fucking with him and he does not know how to reciprocate. they r so sillies

HOWEVER. rose would not just hang around him like shes doing. as much as i like that dynamic i feel like he also has to at least sometimes show that hes. you know. interested in having her around. shes just kinda tagging along and i wish there was a reason why she would put up with him never giving her anything, especially since she has a tendency to leave at the first sign of not being wanted

on a completely different note, im a little disappointed that shes wearing her old costume instead of the new one she has in btbatb/kt ravager. i appreciate that shes still drawn like an adult but i rly like her new costume so im sad that she doesnt have it

man who stopped laughing #9

STRONG start. beats up a bunch of cops, then right after she appears she does her stupid flirting thing then immediately says that she doesnt want to associate with the batfamily. queen.

not to mention right before this is my fav failgirl moment where she goes through her whole plan to crash the car and break jason out of prison. then just goes up and knocks on the door

flips the car over then walks up and says "hey its the fire department. open up" and not a single person believes her. i love her

lesbian rose crumbs <3 i still choose to believe shes talking about cass here idc. shes so silly and this was a cute lil panel

so yeah. she was on one page of this issue but that one page was great and i love her

mwsl #10

shes so lame <3 i talked about this moment a lot when this issue first released but i love it. "somebody had all the fun without us" upon finding a body, then realizing someone else was there and just. starts shooting. she doesnt hit anything. she doesnt even know where the other person is.

my big problem here is that she does not carry a gun and pretty much never uses guns. honestly now that im thinking about it this is one of the only times shes ever used a gun on panel (the other times i can think of being: shooting wade off a cliff after her mom died, shooting starfire in n52 outlaws (but new 52 rose barely even counts as rose), and using deathstroke's gun when she was pretending to be him in deathstroke 2016)

shes not anti-gun or anything but it still bothers me just a little that suddenly she has a gun (hence why i fully believe she stole jasons gun <3)

if i want to nitpick, kate should not have been able to hit her. rose should've seen she was coming wayyy before (bc precog) and she wouldnt be knocked down from one hit. i fear we are headed down a path of her becoming jasons incompetent girlfriend but i wont be too dramatic about her getting hit one (1) time

but other than that i thought this was a fun moment of rose getting hit then jason immediately fighting the person that hit her. toxic girlbesties fr

then also her needing to be held back after she gets up so she doesnt start attacking the person thats helping them <3 i love her

mwsl #11

this is a nice issue for her just because in true rose tradition she LOVES to have homoerotic fights with every other female character she interacts with. the kate & rose dynamic was soooo fun i love it when shes mean to people for no reason <3

i did not like this part though. i feel like there are a lot of implications about rose here that are unfair to her character & her place in the dcu. i'll meet the book on its own terms and say that we're only talking about post-52 rose (blah blah everything's canon rn but this book is very clearly not using pre-52 rose lore) but even then? theres no real reason for her to be ducking superheroes or for superheroes to keep an eye on her. shes not a villain or even much of a killer, the fact that shes "staying off the radars" of good guys doesnt make much sense. and the fact that kate knows her and "studies" her (fellas is it gay to study another woman despite never meeting her) implies that rose is like. a threat. shes just kind of around there is no reason kate should know her like that

cute moment! but also it bothers me. i think its fun that she refused to go since its not her fight and she doesnt want to get into a joker mess. HOWEVER. when has she ever in her life passed up an opportunity to get involved in someone elses problem. to me she wouldnt have even delivered the list of addresses without a fight if she wasnt gonna go along

other than her using a gun again (where the hell did she even get that) i like this <3 her showing up and saving manhunter after she said she didnt care what happened is so her. also i just like the fact that she shot joker

gay gay homosexual gay

the rest of this issue is fun <3 just kate & rose fighting together then getting blown up together <3 this was a nice issue for her despite the problems i had with it

gotham war red hood #2

gotham war break!!!

okay first of all i LOVE that he took her along. there was no reason for rose to be here but jason was told to meet someone and said "ok ill go but my weird friend comes with me" its so funny

ive seen a lot of people complain about the "you're my only friend" line but i LOVE it. not necessarily because she doesnt have any friends but because she would not in a million years ADMIT that she has friends. she would rather be shot in the head than say that she actually likes the people that she hangs out with.

but to be fair.... she also doesnt have friends. "what about the lazarus island gang?" the only person she actually liked there and showed any friendship toward was damian, and they ARE friends but she considers him more of a little brother than a friend. "what about the teen titans??" a) she would NEVER admit that she is friends with any of them b) its technically.... not really canon that she was ever on the same team as them. like i said before, im meeting this book on its terms, and rose being a teen titan hasnt been mentioned since flashpoint :( i wont go on a whole tangent about her friends but given that she hasnt really made a friend in years and never talks to anyone else, i think its fair for her to say that she has no friends

so yeah all this to say: she has friends, but it is 100% in character for her to say that she has no friends. i stand by this line

i dont have much to say here i just think shes so cute <3 i also love the fact that jason jumped straight to "rose is robbing a dead person" instead of "rose is inspecting the body"

but im OBSESSED with the fact that she DOES rob him. i feel like we're not talking about this enough. she saw a dead body and took his money. im not even mad about it because its so fucking funny to me

im sorry jay/rose fans this makes me want to vomit. this feels too "earnest emotions" for both of them. the rest of this scene was fine but this panel specifically feels so :/

"i just need help" "always" and "please take care of yourself" and "meet at our spot" "promise?" "i promise" does not feel like them at all. its a very sweet and genuine moment but they would NOT have sweet and genuine moments! neither of them would ever express their feelings and they would not have this conversation

this does not feel like rose at all idk who this is. where is the rage!!!!!! where is the anger!!!!!!! why did she stand there for hours just. worried about him. why isnt she lashing out

comparing this to the scene in tt03 where she's worried about eddie:

she gets angry! shes worried about him and starts yelling at everyone around her because hes hurt and she doesnt know whats happening. i would have LOVED this energy in this book and its sooooo disappointing that she just. stands there like 🥺 when she doesnt know what happened to jason

mwsl #12

i rly liked this part fhdkjfhakjdfd i thought her pretending to be him just to get batman out of the way was so good and so real. shes helping out AND fucking with batman

very minor complaint here but this isnt even true . she DOES try to run into him in ds16 when slade kidnaps damian and rose gives bruce the ransom terms. also i feel like this line is vaguely implying that she HAS found him (/he found her) on accident before which is also not true given that their only interactions are in ds16 and being in the same general area in shadow war. and also reiterating that shes not a villain so batman has no reason to track her down or cause problems for her but. whatever. this is entirely just me jumping to conclusions about what this one throwaway line means and then getting mad about it

LOVE this. she inserted herself into the situation then complains about it. this isnt her business and shes making sure that jason knows it. but also she completely volunteered for most of this

BOOOOOOOO she would not fucking say that. "sorry about that whole chase" no she would not apologize. "please dont kick my ass" she would NOT say that!!!!! first of all given that this is after gotham war she would probably kick his ass just for what he did to jason. even besides that she would not be afraid of him even a little. comparing their convo in ds16 #5 to this is so sad bc </3 why is she afraid of him instead of being a huge bitch and yelling at him

this ending is really good for her though. she absolutely would dive into the water with joker gas, trash, and dead bodies just to save her friend <3

this is more like it!!!!!!!! shes worried for him and takes initiative to save him by jumping in the water despite it being a very dangerous decision and then insults him while she saves his life <3333 its a tiny bit more of her being mean to express worry which is nice <3 its not perfect but its closer

in conclusion: there are many good moments. there are many parts i like about it. but there are just so many things that dont feel like rose </3 most of the broad strokes are there but it just doesnt feel like her when shes not full of rage and going out of her way to piss people off

[twoplayergame]

about your tags on my post, explain to me anything you want about your bmc aus I'm curious

(rubbing my gay lil hands together) you've opened the floodgates i hope you know, so i'm sorry in advance for the walls of text incoming aha.

BUT ANYWAY!!!!

this week (oct 9 to oct 13) is THE exact same dates as the week my LIS AU "Life is Weird" takes place (in 2017 tho), so this infodump will be ALL about that AU in particular!!! also bc the 6-year anniversary of the blog was last month ♥

my icon on this blog is my art from that AU too :]c

EDIT: putting this under a cut actually, so i don't have a mile-long post lol. also, i think i'll make a pinned post with a list of all my other AUs for reference! i have a LOT of half-baked ones i'd love to talk about as well

so:

Life is Weird is a Life is Strange-inspired AU i created in 2017!

the askblog it started with (@asklifeisweird) follows Michael as the protagonist (a la max caulfield), and Jeremy as the equivalent to chloe price.

there's a couple more roles that were originally fairly 1:1 (squip as jefferson, rich as nathan, chloe as victoria, christine as kate, dustin as rachel), but over the years they've mostly grown away from being "reskins" as me and my boyf keep developing the au!

i've also stolen several characters from the BMC book– either entirely or just in name– to fill the background space/chars, since LIS has a whole world of characters and BMC as a musical kinda... didn't, at least back in the day :'D now there's more named bg chars, but keep in mind this AU started before even the 2017 Exit82 revival, so we had uhhh about 11 characters and a book. anyway.

while the askblog itself hasn't exactly gotten very far in the story yet, the au has grown to include more LIS-based ideas as That franchise grew, alongside a lot of our own brainstorming ofc!! there's SEVERAL other stories planned following other characters besides Michael, and a lot of different timelines i'd LOVE to explore (some during blog canon, some just in side stories)

not to mention: since conception, the blog has gone through so many styles of getting the story out there that i consider it a multimedia project at this point. askblog with square panel comics in between, full-on comic pages, writing/fics... and most recently, bust-sprites with different expressions and text in between. i'm also working to add interactive fiction into the mix!!

Michael's story (nicknamed "Redshift" behind the scenes) mostly follows the same beats as the first LIS game, but the further in we get the more we've added to it. i'm especially excited for the LIW-equivalent to the alternate timeline LIS1 shows in (iirc) ep4, as well as the timeline post-Redshift that's inspired by the LIS1 comics :)

shifting tracks, i mentioned this was started Before the first musical revival. because of that and the revival coming out like 2 months later, a lot of the original character designs were based off the 2RT/2015 cast, the E82/2017 cast, or entirely headcanon-based. since then, as more productions happened, appearances have shifted or changed completely!

off the top of my head, some of the more notable ones are:

jeremy: 2RT for current, E82 for younger

brooke: E82 for current, 2RT/NYC for younger

dustin: originally all headcanon, now mainly E82 with some hc

jenna: originally 2RT, now mainly NYC

jake: originally 2RT, now NYC + clothing insp from 2RT

i'd like to take inspiration from other productions as well tbh, but i can't change full appearances much anymore since i've done the fullbody sprites already and i don't wanna completely redraw anyone if i don't have to XD

ok so. i WOULD keep talking but i've realised i have to get ready to see the BACCP production today!!! so i'll leave you off with the AU blogs if you wanna know more or read it or whatever! or feel free to send me more asks, i love this AU with all my heart :]

@asklifeisweird (main/ic askblog)

@bemorestrange (extra content/ooc sideblog)

[super-paper]

:re your tags about body motifs in bnha got me curious about something. I can think off the top of my head several examples of how this applies to the trio, and a couple more about how this applies to AFO. But can I ask you to expand on how the eye motif is present in AFO specifically? The hands and mouth are obvious, but I can't say I've ever picked up on the symbolism around eyes when it comes to him. Well, unless you're referring to that scene with the sensors in Tartarus. But I'm curious if there's more that I missed, and since I'm a slut about themes and symbolism (and the eye theme relating to the todofam in particular), I would love a deep dive into it and how they're connected, if you don't mind sharing, of course ��� Really love your meta btw

Thank youu~!

Yea, the eyes def receive less focus overall compared to the emphasis placed on AFO's mouth/hands-- but I feel that AFO's association with eyes is still pretty important even if they don't get as much focus, and the rare scenes where we -do- get to focus on his eyes + his relationship with eyes do a lot for his character.

↑ Breaking down AFO's character design to its barest essentials, you can see Hori more or less designed his "true" appearance with these three elements in mind: mouths, hands, and eyes. A perpetual mask-like grin, the stigmata marks to both hands, and completely blank white eyes. Hori uses the composition and lighting in his art to further emphasize these aspects, usually by placing focus on one part/motif at a time-- AFO is essentially introduced to us in pieces, bit by bit, body part by body part.

I would say act 1 focuses primarily on his hands, while act 2 shifts to focusing on his mouth/smile. The final act is where we finally start exploring AFO's relation to eyes-- and imo, Hori chose to focus on AFO's eyes last b/c AFO's eyes seem to be what connect him to his humanity and """true""" feelings:

Panels that emphasize AFO's eyes specifically are almost always tied to Yoichi! It's a neat and completely loaded little detail. In what's heavily implied to be the aftermath of Yoichi's death, we suddenly shift from obscuring AFO's eyes to obscuring his mouth-- the total reverse of how he's typically depicted during flashback scenes. His eyes (and tears) receive all the focus. The narration doesn't match or address what we're actually*seeing* in a fashion that's eerily similar to the way that Tomura narrates over the deaths of his family. There's a lot of set up here already, and I'm looking forward to see how it all ultimately pays off.

And if eyes are ultimately the motif that ties AFO to his humanity, then the lack of eyes throughout Act's 1 & 2 also feels intentional.

Blank eyes are also a design trait he shares with Twice (i.e. "Guy whose own quirk drove him to insanity and completely wrecked his sense of identity/individuality") and Sir Nighteye (i.e. "Guy whose quirk lets him see into the future of others, and the future he saw caused him to fall into despair and become a bitter husk of his former self")-- both characters are depicted w/ blank eyes for 90% of their screen time, but "gain" pupils during key scenes. Twice stands out in particular, bc Hori starts consistently drawing him with pupils immediately after he's able to verify his identity and overcome the trauma associated with his quirk.

Also worth mentioning: Jin kicks off his entire arc talking about the importance of knowing who you are and lamenting about the pains that come with losing sight of yourself/no longer being able to connect with or trust others, and he completes his arc by affirming that he knows exactly who he is and dedicating his heart completely to others. Nighteye's entire arc is about smashing past his fear of the future and the fear of change while *also* learning to value Mirio and Izuku as individuals instead of merely viewing them as vessels for OFA. Both arcs are very much relevant to AFO's whole deal as a character/antagonist and the overall theme(s) of MHA as a whole. Twice and Nighteye serve as semi-heroic foils to AFO who manage overcome the same shortcomings that AFO implicitly struggles with, specifically because they allowed themselves to care about others-- So imo it's neat that these three all share this particular design trait!

they're also the two characters whose deaths have the most narrative impact outside of Yoichi and Nana/The Shimura Fam (whoops)

The final act has also been placing more and more emphasis on how a person's eyes look when they finally get to be their best selves and follow their dreams, and how they sparkle and shine when they think about their origins and their hopes for the future (and I've talked about how this contrasts with Tomura's fairly dead-eyed expression whenever he talks about his "dreams" of destroying everything before (link!), so I'm pretty pleased that the narrative is now calling attention to how a person's eyes look + making the total lack of ~shine~ in Tomura's eyes a very intentional thing).

AFO addresses this directly-- on the surface, he appears to be echoing Touya's desire to be "seen" and expresses resentment that people aren't looking at him. But where Touya longs to be seen in a way that truly validates his humanity and reason for existing, AFO instead wants to be "seen" as something completely devoid of those human qualities. Dabi wants people to see Touya, Mysterious Shigaraki X only wants people to see "AFO." He wants to be a looming, mythical figure who blots out the sun itself-- and when people look towards their future, they should only be seeing a path that ends with him and him alone:

This sequence will never not be thematically relevant

Tomura, Himiko, and Touya all desire the basic human connections that are associated with Hands/Mouths/Eyes. Even as they continue to lash out and use their respective motifs in increasingly violent/self-destructive ways, their core desire never changes. The desire to be touched gently, the desire to be spoken to like a normal girl, and the desire to be truly seen-- that longing for human intimacy (and who they ultimately seek understanding/intimacy from) betrays what their true desires are more than anything else.

AFO shares the same body motifs as the hero and villain trios, but he's a corrupted version of those motifs and represents what hands/mouths/eyes are capable of at their absolute worst. AFO doesn't truly "see" others. AFO doesn't see people as individuals, he only sees them as extensions of himself or as bit-part "roles" to be played out in his increasingly off-the-rails real people fanfiction. AFO doesn't want people to look to the future or even attempt looking beyond him. AFO doesn't want anyone to see what lies behind his shadowy mask and the AFO persona. AFO counts on society to avert their eyes from problems and pretend they don't see, so he can swoop in and play the benevolent savior to those who have been abandoned. AFO doesn't want anyone to see "Tenko," he only wants them to see "Shigaraki." Et cetera et cetera et cetera.

Anyway--!!

There's also the underlying implication that AFO wants everyone to have eyes that are just like his:

Blank. Empty. Completely devoid of spark and soul, pushed past the brink of total despair, with no hope whatsoever for a future.

[pateldevs]

Hi! I hope I'm not bothering you, but I love your mood board edits and was wondering if you could explain how you go about making/colouring them? I see lots of places to find gifs but turning them into a set is so hard. Thank you in advance!

hi! first of all thank you so much and second of all it’s not a bother at all! i am happy to give some of my own tips even if my explanation probably isn’t super helpful. i won’t give like a ps tutorial but below the cut (since i included example gifs, it’s VERY long) is my process for my latest jily aesthetic:

i keep track of all my ideas/sets in a spreadsheet (which i won’t show bc there’s a lot of info i’d have to blur/black out) but i always have a list of what scenes i need to gif/what gifs i’m editing and where i’m getting them from. i also include a couple extra ideas in case the gifs i have planned end up being too hard to color or don’t fit in the set. i’ve found it’s best/easiest to start w the list bc there is literally nothing worse than spending hours on a set and then not being able to complete it.

as for actually finding the material, i have a pretty healthy number of scene packs saved in my giffing folder, esp. for things i know i will gif frequently. most of the time i will peruse youtube, vimeo, and instagram for any aesthetic scenes. i also have a lot of gif packs saved specifically for the purpose of making mbs (usually i mix my own gifs w gif packs), if you msg me i’m happy to direct you to some gif packs i use regularly or you can check my #resources tag. a couple tips for finding material: 

always opt for download when possible, i used to screen record and the difference when i switched to downloading was astronomical. (it’s easy to lose quality and esp if you’re on mac, quicktime duplicates frames so either you have to manually delete those extras or you get sort of choppy gifs when you load them into ps.)

always use 1080p or better, 720p will work in a pinch for 268px or 177px gifs since you can make up some of that resolution loss with sharpening, but don’t go any lower than that, just love yourself. 

for pale sets, look for the right colors. i tend to look for scenes w high color contrast especially if it features poc so it’s easier to color without whitewashing, ie if the subject is a person then i look for light colored or blue/green/violet/white backgrounds. it’ll make your life wayyyyy easier. this also means if you’re making a set try to find scenes with already similar lighting bc you won’t have to work so hard to make it look cohesive.

here’s a quick rundown of what i do before coloring:

import all frames and save all the files in a folder together!!

play around with frame delay so all the gifs are moving at about the same speed, usually keep it between 0.03-0.05s

crop and resize gifs (i use 268x145 most of the time)

convert to timeline

when it comes to coloring it can be really hit or miss, i’ve recently gotten back into my groove but i was having sooo much trouble earlier this year. in general, don’t stress yourself out!! sometimes it’s easier to just find a new scene/gif (hence my list of extras!) than to try too hard to fit a gif into your set. i color all my gifs by scratch (ie no psds) but i tend to follow the same pattern, i’ll explain using these gifs/psd as an example since then i can also explain how to fix white-washing:

first off when you’re coloring gifs with poc always always always make a layer mask so you can compare the edited and unedited skin tones directly! i use the marquee tool to make a selection in the middle of the character’s face, select the folder of my adjustment layers, and hit ‘add vector mask’ (the third button from the left on the layers panel, it’s a white rectangle with a circle in it). 

i almost always begin by using hue/saturation layers to highlight and delete certain colors. here i highlighted red and raised the lightness on yellow by a lot since it’s a very yellow scene. then i use a combination of brightness/contrast, levels, and curves layers to brighten the scene. here’s what i have now:

i add a gradient map set to black/white, change the blending to exclusion, and lower the opacity to between 5-10% (depending on the scene) to lighten the contrast further:

then i add back a little depth with selective color in neutrals and blacks:

now i have two main goals: 1. add contrast between the background and the subject, and 2. brighten the scene into a pale gif. to do this, i use color balance to tweak the color of the background, taking out the yellows. this step works best if there’s at least some shade difference between your subject and background, otherwise isolating the two will be impossible. here’s what i have after adding color balance:

i use hue/saturation to selectively highlight the background color. in this case i chose to adjust magenta and used the color picker (the first eyedropper on the left) to identify the exact shade i wanted to lighten. now i have a fairly neutral background and a colorful subject, which gives a sort of pale effect:

and now i use a curves layer and a selective color (white) layer to brighten further:

before i go further, i start fixing white-washing. keep in mind that some variance is normal since you are naturally changing the lighting of the scene; this gif shows it rlly clearly bc of how yellow and dim the lighting is, so some lightening is to be expected. however, both because the vector mask shows a lot of whitening and because i’ve giffed dev patel before and have a general idea of what he looks like in this type of lighting, i know what needs to be fixed, so i go back in under the psd/adjustment layers with a combination of selective color (red and neutral) and hue/saturation layers to darken his skin again:

now that some more contrast has been added in, i can go back to working on the psd and use curves and selective color to play around with the background again:

i use another hue/saturation layer and a black/white gradient to tone down oversaturation:

usually i leave those layers on top, so if i want to make any adjustments (like lightening the background more), i go in under those two. in this case i tweaked the whites and reduced the contrast a little to get this:

again, you can see his skin tone has changed from the original, but variation is to be expected given how much brighter the room is, the fact that i took out a lot of yellow lighting, and the brightening effect of the computer screen in front of him. some other things to keep in mind when coloring:

when you add layers to correct white-washing, you’re likely to end up with overly red/orange skin tones (red-washing). this can be fixed by upping cyans in the reds, desaturating/darkening the reds, or adding b/w or desaturation later on.

when in doubt, it’s better to be darker than lighter (the issue with white-washing is that it promotes colorism, and there is nothing inherently wrong with a darker skin tone) but really. just put in the effort to color poc correctly.

when changing the lighting a lot it helps to look at pictures of the subject in natural/bright lighting, since you get a better idea of what their normal skin tone is. 

don’t try to squeeze all your selective color layers into one. you’ll get less grainy gifs if you separate them out and work one by one. 

TURN OFF NIGHT SHIFT/NIGHT MODE! yes i KNOW it’s bad for your eyes (especially if you’re like me and gif at night, when the lighting outside isn’t changing every 20 seconds) but your gifs will look VERY different under f.lux or night mode compared to daytime screens. especially if you’re giffing at different times of day, blue light filters can really change the way your coloring appears. best to keep it consistent.

my sharpening settings vary depending on what i’m giffing but in general i do two layers of smart sharpen (500% with radius between 0.2-0.4, 10% with radius at 10px) and then gaussian blur at 2.5px and adjust the opacity so it’s somewhere between 15-20%. i try to strike a balance between smoothing out the graininess from selective color, and sharpening details like clothes and hair. here’s what i ended up with for the gif above:

then i rinse and repeat for the rest of the gifs in the set! i tend to start with the gifs that i know will be hardest to color, which is usually the darker ones (coloring is limited by how much i can brighten the scene) and those that include poc (again, limited by how much i can brighten and adjust the scene’s lighting without white-washing). then i check set cohesion as i go, using those first few gifs as benchmarks. once i have all 8 (or 9 or 10) gifs, i play around with composition and try to balance and vary the subject, colors, and composition of gifs next to each other. i go back and make a couple of adjustments here and there according to what i observe and what i think might improve the overall appearance.

and that’s pretty much it! i hope this was helpful, if you have other questions feel free to message me and i’d be happy to help/troubleshoot. happy giffing!

[sibyl-of-space]

Pic somewhat related (the fun part of ROMHacking is just messing with code to see what breaks).

This document focuses on the data in the Panel de Pon ROM from memory address ~14B80. I believe this data contains the ruleset which defines the player's and AI's fields of panels. This information may become outdated based on further testing; any additional documentation will be tagged "Leo Tries Modding Panel de Pon". Details below the cut.

Around 14B80 there are a series of strings that look like:

AD 60 0E 89 40 00 F0 16 89 20 00 D0 11 AD 60 18 89 00 01 D0 09 A2 E2 00 8E 96 03 20 B8 DC

AD 62 0E 89 40 00 F0 16 89 20 00 D0 11 AD 62 18 89 00 01 D0 09 A2 E4 00 8E 96 03 20 B8 DC

AD 64 0E 89 40 00 F0 16 89 20 00 D0 11 AD 64 18 89 00 01 D0 09 A2 E6 00 8E 96 03 20 B8 DC

Etc. Notable differences are the digits after AD (60/62/64) and the digits after A2 (E2/E4/E6). The remaining digits are constant in each string.

There are a total of 72 of these strings, corresponding to the 72 slots on the player's field which may contain panels.

Taking the two hex numbers after "A2" as a label for each of these slots, and arrangeing them visually, this is how they line up to describe the field in-game:

32 34 36 38 3A 3C 42 44 46 48 4A 4C 52 54 56 58 5A 5C 62 64 66 68 6A 6C 72 74 76 78 7A 7C 82 84 86 88 8A 8C 92 94 96 98 9A 9C A2 A4 A6 A8 AA AC B2 B4 B6 B8 BA BC C2 C4 C6 C8 CA CC D2 D4 D6 D8 DA DC E2 E4 E6 E8 EA EC

In other words, "E2" corresponds to the very bottom left slot on the player's field.

The AI has a field defined in the same way, with the same numbers (32-EC) corresponding to the slots. The AI field is defined starting around memory address 153D0 in the ROM.

The data for what specific panels appear in these fields is defined elsewhere. These strings, as far as I can tell, simply indicate the rules for how far panels drop when they are downstacked or when something clears underneath them. This may also inform logic for what constitutes chains and AI garbage clears.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

DOCUMENT IN PROGRESS. Testing is Ongoing.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Testing/Methodology Thus Far:

* Over-writing the data in the player field strings with unrecognizable data (e.g. straight 0's or 1's) caused the game to freeze immediately after the "3...2...1..." countdown, on the very first frame in which the game would start. This was replicated in both Endless and Vs. modes.

* Over-writing the digits preceded by "A2" in every string with the same number (for example, over-writing E4/E6/E8/EA/EC/etc. all with "E2") resulted in strange behavior in which aligned panels would sometimes not clear, in some cases panels would not fall entirely to the floor after panels below them cleared, etc; this leads me to believe these strings describe the field logic and relative positions of panels.

* Notably, in the above case (over-writing all of the A2 ## digits in each string with the same digits), there would be precisely one panel that would trigger a "jumping" animation seemingly out of nowhere; the placement of this panel exactly corresponds to the spot on the matrix listed above. This was how the labeling convention was determined.

* Further testing needed to determine what the remaining digits in each string do and what the AI is able to "see" from this data to make decisions on matching panels and clearing blocks.

[aahsokaatano]

King I would love that essay about Changing Channels

Fjdjshjdhdjd thanks for reading my tags Jesse you're the real VIP here.

Okay SO "Changing Channels" is the 8th episode of the 5th season of Supernatural. I give this information bc it's important in looking at the context of the episode - now I've complained a LOT about how SPN is terrible at giving us canonical timeframes within the episodes (y'all i was SHOCKED to discover the first season is supposed to cover a little over a year's worth of time, I thought it was like... 4 or 5 months) so I can't say for sure how long before and after the other episodes happen in-universe around "Changing Channels" BUT

The episode before is "The Curious Case of Dean Winchester" where Dean and Bobby bet years of their lives in a game of poker with a witch. The episode after is "The Real Ghostbusters" where Sam and Dean end up at a fan convention for the in-universe Supernatural novels.

Why am I pointing this out? Because it's important, please, no audience participation, this is like a Brian David Gilbert panel.

[under a cut bc this got...... STUPID long. Who knew I still had this many opinions about SPN in 2020?]

Okay first of all I wanna talk about the cinnamon topography of this episode - I love the way the first 5 seasons are shot because you really feel the americana gothic horror aesthetic they were going for (I have a whole ‘nother rant about the first 5 seasons vs the last 10 but thats for another time). Everything is a little washed out and grey-toned, the camera angles generally serve to make Sam and Dean appear even taller than they actually are (larger than life - again, another post for another time), and there’s honestly a LOT of shots from the ‘monster’s’ perspective, which is really neat! I’ve said it before (on another blog - YES i have a dedicated spn rant blog, don’t @ me hdjfhfjfh) but the episode that really got me hooked on spn back in the day was the second one, about the w*ndigo. Yes, it’s a racist, culturally appropriating shitstorm, but the way its SHOT is fantastic. I’m honestly not a horror fan, but that episode could have easily relied on jumpscares and they DIDN’T and it was scary as all fucking hell and just - fuck okay getting off topic. 

In “Changing Channels” we get that distinctive grey-washed tone in the beginning and the very end of the episode, but the middle? When they’re in TV Land? Everything is bright. Almost comically so, I mean - okay look at these two shots of Sam (apologies about the crappy phone pics, netflix won't let me screenshot)

This one is from the start of the episode, in the "real" police station

And this is from a little later in the "TV" hospital

Ignoring that my phone is washing him out a lot in both pics, you can still see the warmer tones in the hospital shot as compared to the cold greyness in the police station one

Okay, now look at this picture

Dean inside the Impala, and those warm tones are back. Why? Because even though Sam and Dean believe that they’re back in the “real” world, they aren’t - so instead of the grey-washed shots that we’re used to, its the bright and warm shots that we see in “TV Land”! So the viewers pick up, even if its just subconsciously, that the boys aren’t out of the woods yet - everything is still too bright to be the in-universe reality we’ve come to expect from SPN by season 5

Which is also why i love this shift so much

These shots are literally SECONDS apart. The first is in "TV Land" and the second is in the "real" world. I have some red strip lights behind my bed, which are reflecting off my laptop screen - notice how much brighter they seem in the second picture? That’s because literally all of the warm colors have been drained out of the shot. As soon as Gabriel snaps them all back into “reality,” things get so much colder.

Okay, so the second thing I want to talk about is some of the very pointed dialogue choices within the “shows” the Winchesters take part in. Not between Sam and Dan and Gabriel, but from the, for lack of a better term, NPCs within the shows.

In the hospital, Dr. Piccolo tells Sam that he is “the finest cerebrovascular neurosurgeon I have ever met - and I have met plenty! So that girl died on your table; it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. Sometimes people just die.” Standard cheesy soap opera dialogue - but lemme just swap some words here and - 

“You are the finest hunter I have ever met - and I have met plenty! So that girl died on your hunt; it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. Sometimes people just die.”

Or even - 

“You are the finest hunter I have ever met - and I have met plenty! So Jessica and Mary died above you; it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anybody’s fault [but Azazel’s]. Sometimes people just die.”

Keeping in mind that the NPCs are basically Gabriel’s mouthpieces, its easy to see why so many people ship Sabriel. I’d actually love to see a fic that explores them talking about this moment in particular later on and the kind of gentle forgiveness that Gabriel can give Sam... getting off topic again.

In an abrupt about-face, the herpes commercial (much meme’d within the fandom) is straight up Gabriel shaming Sam. Because if you replace “genital herpes” with “demon blood” it’s.... dark. And very intentional.

So that’s what I did! (I combined all spoken lines to make the message easier to read, rather than splitting them up across 3 speakers as in the episode)

“I’ve drank demon blood. I tried to be responsible... did I try. But now, after being forcibly detoxed, I fight my addiction every day to reduce the chances of passing back into that toxic mindset. Ask your loved ones about a demon blood intervention today. [...] I am doing all I can to slightly lessen the chance of drinking demon blood again. And that’s a good thing.”

Like... the subtext throughout this episode sure is. Something.

Okay this is getting ridiculously long so I wanna wrap up by talking about The Best Scene In The Whole Goddamn Show

I’m talking, of course, about Gabriel’s Confession

“Max,” you might be saying, “there are so many better scenes out there, even within the first five seasons!” and to that i say, again, no audience participation, please. Also, you’re WRONG and here’s why!

Gabriel’s confession hits every goddamn emotional chord that the fandom begged for on this show - fear, rage, grief, pain, guilt, and even, yes, absolution. 

Okay, here’s the scene again for those of you who don’t think about it at least once a week like me

Now this video is missing some of the conversation, but most of it is there, enough for you to see what I’m talking about. Gabriel up to this point has been, essentially, a nameless antagonist - this is the third episode he appeared in, and before this, we didn’t even know he was going by Loki. He was just referred to as ‘The Trickster’. But here, not only do we get a name (a real name at that), but we also get a glimpse of his backstory and a hell of a lot of character development in less than 5 minutes. I mean, Sam didn’t get this much character development throughout the entirety of season 1! There’s a good reason Gabriel has been a fan-favorite for a very long time, and I think a big part of it is this particular scene.

Because here, we get to see Gabriel being vulnerable. And we even see Dean show a little vulnerability, as he can empathize being the third party to explosive arguments between the two people who mean everything to him.

I mean... okay, it will never see the light of day, but I wrote a little bit of a Reverse ‘Verse fic (because I’m a sucker for Reverse ‘Verse) and this was the scene I started with. Not s1e1, not even the resurrection in s4e1, but this scene. Because this scene, more than any other, is critical to the way not only Gabriel’s (first) arc plays out, but also to how Sam and Dean conduct themselves for the rest of the season (and maybe a bit beyond, it’s been a hot minute since I watched s6 and later). Dean is angry but determined, he has a point to make, he is going to save Sammy and if he can’t do that, then he’s going to damn well die trying. But Sam... it’s after this episode that we start really seeing how bone-achingly tired Sam is. It’s after this conversation - where one of the other archangels, one of the few beings who can truly understand how powerful Michael and Lucifer are - says that there’s no other way around this that Sam seems to start inching towards giving in. Saying yes.

Sure, in the actual episode, he seems outraged by the idea, practically scoffs at it - “you want us to say yes to those sons of bitches?” - but it’s after this where Sam really seems run down.

I mean, look at the episodes before and after (HAH you thought I forgot about that first point I made at the very beginning of this post! I did, briefly, but I’ve circled back to it, thanks for being understanding). In “The Curious Case of Dean Winchester,” Sam behaves much as he did since the start of s4, which is to say, ‘annoying little know-it-all brother tossed into the middle of the apocalypse and just trying his best’ and it works well for the mad scramble for any scrap of information that’s happening in s4/early s5.

But in “The Real Ghostbusters” it’s different. This is another funny meta episode - except, while Sam and Dean are technically aware of the joke, they aren’t as amused by it as the audience is. And it’s not because of the ghosts. It’s because they’re just... done. Especially Sam. Dean has that nice little moment with the cosplayers at the end of the episode, but Sam... threatens to shoot Chuck. Sam ‘goes darkside’ more often than pretty much any other character in the show, but that moment is different. It’s a flat promise, not a threat. He’s not being an asshole, like he is after losing his soul. He’s just... done. And it’s obvious to see.

Gabriel’s confession is the turning point for Sam in s5, and it informs a lot of his behavior through the rest of s5, and possibly beyond! Like I said, I haven’t watched past s5 in a very long time, so I don’t feel confident enough to analyze that specific sort of character line, but I feel confident in saying that hearing one of the most powerful beings in the universe basically say “it doesn’t matter what you do - your destiny is unavoidable” and then he’s proven right (Sam says yes to Lucifer, and Dean eventually does say yes to Michael down the line!)... like, that’s really gotta fuck up your world view that was built on free will and throwing off the shackles of fate. Sam managed to avoid his ‘destiny’ in s2... but then it turns out that that wasn’t ever his destiny. Lucifer was his destiny.

Talk about an obscured view of the inner self.

[doctorofmagic]

was stephen confirmed to appear in the phoenix event? i wonder if marvel will bring wanda or jean/hope to this event considering... avx? it seems that the rule with wanda is that there is a lot of stuff that contradicts itself and the writers don't care about her to even learn of her powers and history and stuff bc... now we really do have plot holes regarding her birth place and her powers and her parents and everything about her early life now is a big plot hole road sorry wanda fans

Greetings and thanks for asking!

No, he wasn’t, sadly. I made a post about it when Enter the Phoenix was revealed, trying to picture his Phoenix Force outfit. I wish it was something close to Cyclops with all the black, red and yellow/orange. I’d sell my soul for it. But considering he’s just a consultant member and is rarely used, (why is he so erased lately when it comes to big stuff? Surgeon Supreme was so bad he was completely left out after it?) my hopes are not high right now.

And well... I’m not that excited because Aaron is not writing deep content currently. Of course, I’ll always cherish v4, Mighty Thor and even War of the Realms. But ever since his Avengers run started, I’ve never felt quite attached to it. Why am I still reading it? I don’t know. It has its highlights. Also I’m pretty sure he gets Thor and Stephen perfectly, but Tony? Carol? Even Mephisto is not that sassy appealing little devil that I love (Ghost Rider cancelled last run has the perfect Mephisto, thought. I love him in that run most ardently).

That said, and after watching closely what he did to Moon Knight, I’m not expecting amazing writing. My beloved boy only lasted, like, five panels in his Phoenix Force. I mean, I know Khonshu is twisted sometimes (v5, I’m looking directly at your face) but ever since he made peace with his DID, Khonshu is sort of a gray figure, not a crazy tyrant who will manipulate Marc at will. Not anymore, at least.

So yeah, considering both Marc and Khonshu were a little off, I’m afraid of what Aaron is about to do with other characters. We know the Phoenix Force corrupts people. We’ve been there a few times. So it’s probably gonna happen to everyone possessed by it.

Also, well, I don’t see Wanda or Hope in this event mostly because the X-Men, aside from Namor, are not directly involved. Also, should they appear, it would be another AvX thing. Plus, everything you’ve pointed out about Wanda and how lazy writers are when writing her. Poor child is forgotten.

I don’t know anything about these reborn Avengers but I’m pretty sure the 1,000,000 BC Avengers are part of something really important and will most definitely have a role in this mess. At this point, sadly, I gave up on Stephen having a role. He appears occasionally but that’s all. Funny thing, I always hope I’m wrong with my pessimism haha. Please ignore me, it’s just my coping mechanism.

Now, about the sexiest hosts... YES!!! YEEEEEEEES!! I agree T’Challa is the sexiest, prettiest, most handsome king in this world. I’ve been crying over his character design ever since the first concept was revealed. This is my top five Phoenix Force hosts (as in, Phoenix Five, get it? haha) that no one asked for:

1. T’Challa

2. Moon Knight

3. Illyana

4. Doom

5. Jean (both versions)

All the options above can step on me and I’ll thank them afterwards (and to one’s surprise, my decisions are entirely not reliable, I know).

Also no, I do not take criticism.

*sigh*

I really wanted to see Stephen in his Phoenix Force outfit... We could have it all, Jason Aaron... We could have it all...

Anyway, that was a long answer, I’m sorry. Thank you for passing by!

Could anyone tag me if you ever see a Phoenix Force Stephen please? Asking for a friend

[panelshowsource]

i can do a quick one fast and dirty!

there was a wrong link but i updated it — sorry about that! and thank you as well!!!

howdy also! 1) ur sooooo cute thank you angel i’m glad it helps you! and 2) i did!!! perhaps this is an unpopular opinion but richard isn’t perfect for all panel shows — in fact, i think cats does countdown is sometimes his weakest tv work. that said i really think he’d be suited for taksmaster. that kind of bewildered but intrigued way he can be when he doesn’t completely loathe something would be pretty great and work well with greg, i think; plus richard + alex = awkward cute overload, let’s be honest hehehe... ofc he’s so in demand, especially with crystal maze and all, but i hope they can make it happen in the future! i have my fingers crossed for a couple people who nnnnnneeeeeeedddddd to be on the show...claudia...ed gamble...i’m watching you alex...*cocks finger guns*...

ps. i got your ask about bakeoff but i’m making a bigger post about it so ty for your patience! ❤️ @krablord

that makes me.......indescribably happy. but i also think he’s actually pretty nice on tv in a ways we overlook. he laughs a lot and claps often for other comedians, asks them questions and encourages their gags/bits. he tends to give his partners many chances to speak and even outshine him, like johnny and bob and roisin. and he’s always so nice to rachel and susie!!! so even though he can be a little acerbic to jimmy or pretend to be grumpy i think you can tell he’s actually a decent bloke :’)

i don’t think you need to live in the uk to know he’s going to hell

um what about this looks dumb to you

i think it’s nice to hear you’re sympathising so much with him anon... as talented as i think he is, and as much as i respect him as a comedian, it’s hard for me to be an actual apologist for how things have been recently (and not so recently sometimes). his mental health explains his behaviour but it doesn’t excuse it. he's aware of how hard things can get for himself, so i can only hope he can read his own warning signs; he certainly talks about them like he can... these things take so much time to learn to manage, so of course i hope he’s already on that journey. he seems to have a strong emotional support system and obviously has the financial means to seek help — i hope he’s taking advantage of them x

unfortunately they don’t generally release that information until a few weeks before premiere :( they’re still in the process of recording the 13th series... my guess is september at the latest!

this bbc article explains best, but tldr is that the episode featured heidi allen, a former conservative and current change uk mp, and that it was “inappropriate” to feature a politician on the show during the european elections bc it didn’t allow for “equal representation” of political views. because nigel farage had just appeared on question time, bbc thought it would be inappropriate to air hignfy with heidi allen as it would be too many conservative politicians on their programmes in a row. then they sent out this salty tweet that i thought was a little tactless:

don’t get me wrong, i’m not out canvassing for more conservative exposure, but this whole thing was a shit show

of course i’m happy they’re such good friends and i’ve been a big fan of them both for a long time x

i wish i did anon but that’s a tricky one! i recommend you go here and make a request (here’s a link to the episode page you can provide)

sometimes it feels like we’re drowning in fancy white boys! *sends up a small prayer of apology to ed gamble, rhys james, ivo graham, etc* did you see him on roast battle? i’ve never seen plebs but i’d like to!!

on one of those corners of the interwebs with one of those download-y programme things u know? 😇

on this blog we only stan world record holders tbh

f.a.q. // tags // watch links masterpost ps. lol i said “i can do a quick ask post” 40 minutes later here we are

[go-diane-winchester]

My debate with a destiel shipper

@artificial-strawberry  Thank you for your response, and not just cussing me out.  It is nice to know what is going on in your head.  First of all, neither I nor any of the other disgruntled fans I have encountered have any issues with ships.  We have issues with militant destiel fans behaving in a way that we think might endanger Jensen and Jared.  I have receipts on that. 

People don't hate them for nothing.  And I have never seen destiel shippers do posts about bad bullying and death threats online behavior towards Jensen.  The good ones don't police their sides. They quickly say ''we are not all like that''.  So please understand where my irritation is coming from.  Mine and everyone else's. 

Your response to ''Jensen can make decisions, including stopping destiel from becoming canon''.

You’re entitled to your own opinion. You don’t have to ship destiel. And you’re right, Jensen and the others do probably have a lot of power on the show, and maybe I should have phrased that more clearly: since I’ve seen some people blaming Jensen/Misha for not advocating for destiel bc ”they would be able to make it happen”, I wanted to point out that 1. they probably DON’T want to make it happen and 2. even IF they did, this is such a big decision that the writers/producers most likely wouldn’t listen to them if they were completely against it. Were the roles reversed, however, and the writers wanted to make destiel happen and the actors didn’t, then yes, Jensen and Misha probably could tell them not to do it if they didn’t want it to happen.

My response

Actually only Jensen, Jared and Bob Singer [unfortunately] are allowed to make decisions regarding the script.  Misha is not a lead and no longer No 3 on the call sheet.  He is a guest star [not a series regular] whose time on SPN has only increased because the season has been shortened.  Contractually, he is still doing the same amount of work, but it just appears that he is making more appearances.  This, according to the SPN spokesperson.  He has no clout in the decision making process.  This is what I find baffling about you, don't speak about Jensen and Misha equally when it comes to decision making.  Misha has no power.  Jensen has power.  Speak about them individually.  So yeah, Jensen can make changes.  Misha, and he had said this so many times, has no power to make changes.  Not only has he worked in fewer seasons.  He has worked in less episodes. 

Misha, according to another destiel fan, wants destiel to be canon.  You are saying he doesn't.  Meanwhile, Jensen gets an arson threat for telling the truth too many times.  So no, this is not a live and let live situation.  There is no destiel.  It is a fanon ship, not a canon ship.  And only Misha gave his fans the impression that it could be canon. 

Your responses to ''Misha queer baited the shippers with his itch tweet and he consistently queer baits''. 

What you said about Misha, I can’t necessarily verify. I haven’t seen all the things you talked about, but it is true that he has ”joked” about destiel in the past. I, too, at first was annoyed by it. You know, don’t talk about it so much if it’s never going to happen. But then I thought about it. And I realized that Misha is part of that ship. We are not. We can distance ourselves, he can not. He gets stories written about himself giving blowjobs to one of his best friends. We do not. So the fact that he jokes about the ship might be something he does in order to make fun of the thing that makes him uncomfortable. And I understand that.

You cant verify whether Misha sent out the tweet?  But the tweet is what the hellers are complaining about.  It is one of many instances that he has done that.  Misha is only part of SPN.  He is NOT part of a ship.  He didn't sign a contract with destiel.  And yes, he can totally distance himself from it.  Who is holding a gun to his head.  All he has to do is stop talking about it.  J2 have been aware of wincest for 14 years.  They have only mentioned it a handful of times, but only when they are asked about it, and yet they are aware of the stories and the fan art.  They use the art to prank each other.  But they don't discuss wincest with fans, because that is the intelligent thing to do.  They don't want to give fans ideas.  How come they managed to distance themselves.  Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, is ''compelling'' Misha to make everything about destiel and even Cockles, which he had no business speaking about either, because Cockles is a tinhat pairing.  He is only one half of a pairing.  And if the other half, Jensen speaks against destiel, Misha calls him a motherf*cker.  I have receipts of that.  Why would he do that?  No one is forcing Misha.  He is doing it for his own amusement.  Who forced him to make the TSA movie.  He is not making fun of destiel.  He is pushing destiel, even though he is aware that people think he is queer baiting.  He spoke about queer baiting.  Don't you watch his panels?  He calls the people who criticize him ''haters''. 

Your response to Misha criticized SPN for being misogynistic in 2013.

I can’t really respond to this, since I haven’t seen it, so I can’t comment on it. I do want to ask though: how do you know he wasn’t reprimanded for that?

There were news reports written about this.  Just google ''Misha Collins accuses Supernatural of being gratuitously misogynistic''.  You will find the articles.  It won't take you two minutes.  What was the result of that?  Misha fans, at his behest, starting rallying together to attack SPN for misogyny and demanded a spinoff.  Their campaigning lasted three years.  That spinoff is Wayward Daughters.  It failed due to bad ratings because only Misha's fans truly wanted it.  Everyone else didn't care.  So the spinoff didn't have an audience.  So Misha, and his big mouth, costed SPN time, money and resources but they can't get rid of him, because of Bob Singer, his wife Eugenie and her writing partner, Buckner.  That is probably why older SPN writers like Sera Gamble, Ben Edlund and Jeremy Carver just left.  They got fed up of dealing with Misha's antics and constantly shoehorning Cas into a script and they know it.  Bob keeps Misha and Cas on board. 

Your response to ''The show is not queer baiting you with metaphors, purples shirts and parallels etc''

The queerbaiting issue is difficult, I’ll say that. All I can really comment on is that I believe the show queerbaits - whether they do it on purpose or not is another thing. You’re allowed to believe that the show doesn’t and that’s cool. You’re also allowed to believe the show is perfect and has no flaws - also cool. I don’t. And that’s that. Agree to disagree.

Oh no honey.  That is not how it works.  Queer baiting should not be based on your opinions and beliefs.  You are tarnishing a show's name and yet you can't provide examples of how they are queer baiting you?  No, that is a cop out of a response if I ever heard one.  Recently, MM spoke  about  Supernatural's  ''notorious'' queer baiting.  Not because they have seen queer baiting, but because of Destiel shipper's social media trends.  The destiel shippers actually trended the topic of Jensen being a homophobe and MM picked up of that.  All because he is not giving in to Destiel.  That is sexual harassment.  They are destroying his reputation because he is refusing something sexual that they want.  Go look up the word social rape.  That is what is happening here.  I am shaking my head because you based a large part of your argument on queer baiting and yet you cant speak about it.  I cant believe you just said ''agree to disagree''.   

Your last response

And finally: I get it. You’re protective of the boys. You love them and you love the show. I don’t want to attack you and I don’t want to even try and convince you to agree with me. You’re you and I’m me and we don’t think alike and that’s fine. All I want to say is that in the future, please reconsider before calling someone names or urging people to block them. I’m a big girl; I can handle it. But there are so many little kids and young teens on this site who are vulnerable and might not be able to just brush it off.

You hate name calling.  Well, then you must despise the hellers.  They ship shame.  They tell the wincest fans to kill themselves.  They tell Jared, a suicidal man, to kill himself.  And they threatened Jensen's life multiple times.  I have receipts on my blog.  They even threatened to kidnap Jared and his children.  And they base their actions on headcanons.  That is why I call out headcanons.  I have likeminded people following my blog.  One of them directed me to your mistagged post.  I didn't find you myself.  They are fed up of destiel shippers mistagging their posts.  And they use my posts, calling out these shippers, to block because filtering tags doesn't work.  Why do you think Destiel is called DeanCas, CasDean, DeanxCastiel and various other derivatives?  So that a non-shipper would be unable to block them.  They indoctrinate people.  By the way, ''little kids'' are not supposed to be on Tumblr.  Its a violation if they are.  You should know that.  And teens are not babies.  Just a few days back, I reported a teen destiel shipper for threatening to kill SPN creators because they are not making destiel canon.  Tumblr, according to one of my readers, responded.  So no, if you misbehave on Tumblr, you should be called out for it.  Tag your post properly.  Because all that plus the online threats and excusing Misha's horrendous behavior is making your side intolerable.  People aren't getting angry for nothing.  People who were neutral on the subject,now hate it because of the tagging.  They don't even know about the threats.  Destiel, like a fly in their face, all the time, bothers them.

All in all, it was nice engaging with destiel shipper for a change, because they usually don't engage in discourse.  They just tell me to eff off.  So thank you for that.  I wish I heard more about the queer baiting, because another shipper I am currently talking to also is shirking that part about the discussion.  Which I find very quizzical. 

[enbouton]

Better Call Saul Rewatch, Part 1/30: They Called Him Slippin’ Jimmy

Late last month, I decided to rewatch all of BCS and post about it, one episode at a time, every day during the 30 days leading up to the premiere. The elements of this plan that proved problematic were “post” and “one episode at a time”, but we’ve still got three weeks, so let’s do this. I’m not much of a critic; this is going to be mostly just a bundle of thoughts and observations. There will also be a key to references in the dialogue, notes on locations and the timeline, and probably a lot of gushing over beautiful frames, because there are many (see above! look at that! look at it!!!). The tag will be #bcs rewatch, for your following/blocking needs.

Uno (Season 1, Episode 1)

Written by Vince Gilligan & Peter Gould / Directed by Vince Gilligan

If the Cinnabon sequence constitutes fanservice, I don’t care, because it’s brilliant. 

BCS uses a lot of intense chiaroscuro, and it starts in the scene at Gene’s apartment. Details— the ice in the glass, the white label on the bottle of Scotch— are highlighted, the rest of the picture is subdued. There’s also a gorgeous softness to the black-and-white images. Overheard on the TV as Gene pours: a woman cheerily saying “Well, from time to time, people make mistakes, that’s okay!”

There’s a bit of Breaking Bad-style handheld camera here, which stands out because it’s mostly absent from the rest of the show. In Gene’s living room we have the first appearance of glass block windows, about which blogger Marc Valdez wrote an excellent piece (Streamline Moderne and Jimmy McGill).

“No charge is too big for me!” says Saul, on the tape that Gene is watching in hiding with his blinds closed. :(

(In this episode, Jimmy’s personae are introduced in reverse chronological order: first Gene, then Saul Goodman, then James M. McGill Esquire, then Slippin’ Jimmy.)

It’s May 13, 2002, and the courtroom scene— beautifully paced, by the way— is one of the most distinctly Vince Gilligan scenes that ever Vince Gilliganed. The stenographer loudly slurping on her Big Gulp, the attorney using her legal pad to draw a shirtless man on a unicorn, the prosecutor silently wheeling in the TV in response to Jimmy’s argument, and most of all, the horrifying punchline.

When we first encounter Jimmy— as opposed to Gene or Saul— he’s pacing in the men’s room, muttering about how people shouldn’t be punished for whatever stupid things they did when they were young. Hmm. The three defendants sit there, chastened and nervous in ill-fitting ties, as Jimmy does an excellent job of talking around what it is they actually did. No one got hurt! It wasn’t trespassing, the business was open day and night! “I don’t think they deserve to have their bright futures ruined by a momentary, minute, never-to-be-repeated lapse in judgment,” he tells the jury.

I’m jumping ahead here, but where do you think Jimmy would have ended up if the whole Chicago sunroof incident never happened? I mean, he wouldn’t have gone to Albuquerque, he wouldn’t have become a lawyer… do you think he was happy just running small-time cons and smoking weed at age c. 30?

Anyway, as soon as we see the boys in the mortuary, let alone hear the sawing, we know the case is unwinnable. Jimmy collects his meagre paycheck and stalks out to his car. The show teases us a bit by putting a white pearlescent Cadillac front and centre in the frame before panning across to a battered 1998 Suzuki Esteem (aside: that car is awfully beat up for being only four years old). I love the car, by the way. The colour and the mismatched door are perfect.

The Kettlemans, who could have stepped straight out of an episode of Fargo (as Julie Ann Emery in fact did!), introduce the theme of denial of reality. They’re the innocent victims of a misunderstanding, you see. Craig’s business practices are “beyond reproach”. The missing money is a “discrepancy”. While Craig is amenable to hiring Jimmy, Betsy won’t have it; needing a lawyer would imply guilt, after all. Bob Odenkirk plays Jimmy’s barely-hidden desperation very well. He looks literally and figuratively hungry as Craig prepares to sign.

I want to take a moment to comment on Dave Porter’s score, which helps set Better Call Saul apart from Breaking Bad. The two scores are similar enough to provide continuity, but where Breaking Bad’s music is full of mechanical sounds, drones, saws and reverberations, the music of Better Call Saul has a much warmer timbre, more traditional instrumentation and a more naturalistic sound. (The best side-by-side comparison I can think of is “Dead Freight” versus “Border Crossing”— similar themes, similar rhythm and tempo, completely different feels.) The use of flute and harp stands out in particular— you’d never hear those instruments used in the same way in an episode of Breaking Bad.

One of this episode’s most effective individual beats is Cal coming out of nowhere and hitting Jimmy’s windshield, which manages to be startling even when you know it’s coming. It’s the distraction factor: preoccupy the audience with new information (Jimmy’s card was declined) and then fling a skateboarder into the frame. Jimmy, his windshield broken (can we call that a Breaking Bad reference?), limps home.

The lighting in Jimmy’s office is just gorgeous. This show unreasonably romanticises broke lawyers living in salon backrooms. We learn that Jimmy has a host of “past due” bills— wireless, Visa, library, Diner’s Club, phone— and then get a brilliant hook in the form of a check for $26,000 (dated May 9, 2002, for those of us tracking this stuff) that he promptly rips up, scowling.

Everything about the offices of Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill is so composed, right down to the five-note elevator chime. Blue and wood panelling predominate. I’ll have more to say about colours later on.

The boardroom scene is a beautiful piece of exposition, establishing characters and relationships bit by bit without spelling anything out. Chuck is someone close to Jimmy, and Hamlin, a senior partner at HHM, is giving Chuck money. He’s paying it into Jimmy’s account because Chuck isn’t capable of going to the bank, for some reason. Chuck helped build the firm, but he doesn’t work there any more and Jimmy thinks he never will again. Hamlin, on the other hand, believes Chuck can overcome his situation, and Jimmy dodges the question when asked whether Chuck really wants to be cashed out. The words “brother” and “illness” aren’t even used.

“If Chuck can call this an extended sabbatical, so can we”, Hamlin says— it’s not just Betsy Kettleman who’s engaging in a degree of denial (though the whole situation with Hamlin and Chuck’s illness becomes much more shaded and more complicated later on).

Let’s take another look at this incredible frame:

Kim and Jimmy share a cigarette. Seven words are spoken. Thus, their relationship is sketched out. See above re: exposition. We also see Kim literally clearing up after Jimmy after he takes his frustration out on the trash can, illustrating how they respectively deal with unfairness; he lashes out, she sets things straight.

Again in darkness, Jimmy arrives at Chuck’s house, stashes his phone and keys in the mailbox, and grounds himself on a piece of metal. (The air in Albuquerque is so dry that it’s very easy to build up a static charge. I was constantly getting zapped by door handles.) Chuck, noticing Jimmy’s discontent, instinctively asks him if he’s “in trouble”, which must sting.

Good Lord the lighting is beautiful.

Chuck does have a point about what would happen if he were to cash out of HHM. Jimmy doesn’t seem to see past the initial payout. What they’re really arguing about, beyond money, is whether or not Chuck is ever going to recover from his unspecified illness. The way his voice breaks on “I’m going to get better!” is rough. 

“Your friend Kim— a promising career, over and done with.” Not to read too much into this phrasing, but it sounds almost like Chuck thinks that if Kim lost her job at HHM it would be the end of her entire career. As if the firm is only keeping her there out of charity.

“But Jimmy, wouldn’t you rather build your own identity?” Oh, Chuck, if you only knew.

The next scene plunges us into sunlight. Jimmy has tracked down the skateboarders and we get a foundational piece of his backstory: he used to make money running slip-and-fall scams on the icy sidewalks of his hometown, and now he wants the boys to take a hit from Betsy Kettleman so that he can parachute into her good graces. Jimmy, apparently, has been observing Betsy closely enough that he knows where her kids go to school, what time she leaves to pick them up, and what route she takes. I mean, okay.

The hit-and-run happens at 7th Street and Tijeras Avenue, very close to the school where Jimmy & crew film the flag in season 2, and a short distance west of the courthouse district and the Civic Plaza. This whole sequence is such a glorious comedy of errors, and it showcases perfectly Jimmy’s ability to think on his feet. I mean, it’s also true that if he’d aborted the plan when “Betsy Kettleman” had driven off, he never would have ended up hog-tied in the desert pleading for his life, but those are unknown unknowns, I suppose.

“You felonied my brother!" is possibly one of my favourite lines of the season.

Who among us saw Tuco coming? None. None of us. I gasped. It was very considerate of the show to release the next episode immediately.

Miscellaneous

While most of the addresses shown on screen in BCS are fictionalised, the address shown on Jimmy’s mail—160 Juan Tabo Boulevard NE— is the actual IRL location of the nail salon.

Items in Gene’s shoebox: the videotape, an old Band-Aid container, various photos including one of a man standing in front of a 1940s-style car, and a photo packet from a film lab in Portland, Maine

Broken windshields: 2

New Mexico Statutes violated: 3— § 30-28-2, conspiracy to commit felony fraud (Jimmy, Cal and Lars); § 66-7-202, failing to stop after an accident causing damage to a vehicle (Mrs. Salamanca); § 30-3-2, aggravated assault (Tuco)

Timeframe: May 13 to May 25, 2002 (see next post)

Music

“Address Unknown” by the Ink Spots (1939), during the Cinnabon sequence

“Milestones” by Shook (2014), as the twins attempt to scam Betsy

References

Network: a 1976 film about a news anchor who begins ranting about the state of the world during a broadcast. The character whom Jimmy quotes (”You have meddled with the primal forces of nature...!”) is a man who berates the protagonist for speaking out against his network’s corporate owners. Bryan Cranston starred in the 2017 stage adaptation.

Peter Minuit: a Dutch trader who purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape people for a sum equalling about $1,000 in today’s money

“Ergo, a falsis principiis proficisci”: “therefore, you proceed from false principles"

Trichinosis: a parasitic disease most often spread via undercooked pork

Starlight Express: an Andrew Lloyd Webber rock musical performed on rollerskates 

> NEXT EPISODE: MIJO

[ghostie-sims-blog]

- ̗̀  ghostie’s building masterpost  ̖́-

hi there !! when i first discovered the sims community, the most daunting thing for me was the amazing builds the members of the community created. so inspired by @sandy-sims​, i decided to make a huge masterpost/tutorial thingie to hopefully help some people out !! it’s under the read more link bc i don’t want 2 be clogging up people’s dashes, also i ask if this post helped u out 2 reblog it so it could maybe help someone else out too !!! 

disclaimer: this is in no way me trying to be arrogant or say that i’m a good builder,  correct/ “call out” other’s “mistakes”, or tell anyone what to do. i’m just trying to share some building knowledge !!! lots of love xx

inspiration: the first step to creating anything is inspiration. a lot of people who build, myself included, use pictures of real life buildings for reference and inspiration when making their builds.

{ 1 } youtube channels: watching speedbuilds is literally one of the only reasons i can build. you pick up so many little tips n stuff while watching other people build. here are some talented builders who’s speed builds i watch on a regular basis:  - ̗̀ deligracy, the sim supply, lilsimsie   ̖́-

{ 2 } pinterest: pinterest is where i get reference for my builds. i usually just determine the kind of build that i want to create, and search it in the search bar (i.e. modern house exterior, traditional house exterior, etc.).  - ̗̀ find my pinterest board here, where i pin all the houses i use for reference/inspo  ̖́-

{ 3 } tumblr: simblr is home to loads of talented builders. here are the tags i look at to gather inspiration for my own builds:  - ̗̀  ts4 build, ts4 exterior , ts4 interior  ̖́-

general tips: some general tips to help you out !!!

{ 1 } hotkeys: hotkeys make building about 10x faster. - ̗̀ here is a list of hotkeys for the sims 4  ̖́-

{ 2 } listening to music / watching youtube or netflix: building is a long process, and trust me, you’ll get tired of the sims 4 music pretty fast. mute the game music in options, and put on some of your own music, a youtube video, your favorite netflix show, or even a podcast in the background. just remember, don’t make it something that you have to have all your attention on.

{ 3 } save a lot: the sims 4 is a game; games crash. enough said.

{ 4 } bb.moveobjects: entering the cheat bb.moveobjects on into the cheat bar ( which is opened by ctrl + shift + c if you don’t know already ) allows you to moves objects anywhere you want. i never build without this cheat on.

{ 5 } 9 and 0 + [ and ]: pressing the 9 and 0 keys on your keyboard will allow you to move objects up and down, and pressing the [ and ] keys will allow you to make objects bigger and smaller. bb.moveobjects must be on for this to work.

{ 6 } the alt key: by holding down the alt key, you can place an item without it snapping to the grid. you can also rotate objects freely with this key, but sims 3 camera must be enabled to do this. you can toggle between camera modes by pressing ctrl + shift + tab.

exteriors: the exterior of a build is the first thing you see. here are some tips on building exteriors.

{ 1 } start small, and with a box: the biggest mistake, and one that i made, is diving into your first few builds with huge mansions. the bigger the house = the harder the build. start simple, like with a starter home. also, most builders start their builds with a single room/box.

{ 2 } add a foundation: pretty much all houses irl have a foundation. unless it’s essential for the style of the house, use that foundation tool friend.

{ 3 } the stair trick + railings: i’m extremely embarrased to tell you that i didn’t know how to get rid of that ugly deck/foundation piece that appears when u place stairs. here’s the secret: click inside the foundation you’re placing the stairs on, not outside of it. pics 4 reference:

{ 4 } roofing: wanna hear a secret? i only know how to do roofing because of this tutorial.

{ 5 } terrain paint: terrain painting is the key to detailing your build. i usually put dirt under the whole foundation/ “outline” of the house and also under any landscaping, and i usually paint the whole lot sporadically with the white flower paint using the biggest circle brush and lowest opacity.

{ 6 } landscaping: there is no big secret to landscaping: for me, it’s always been the hardest part of building. again, i advise you to watch a crapton of speedbuilds, but also to not under-landscape and to stick to a neutral color pallete ( white, pale yellows and blues, etc.) when landscaping !!!

{ 7 } white columns: place these columns, or similar ones, on the ends of every wall segment to make your build look more detailed and cohesive.

{ 8 } utilize trims: floor trims and roof trims. use them.

{ 9 } flower boxes and ivy: flowerboxes and ivy, along with other exterior details, make a house look more lived in and realistic + they also fill up space.

{ 10 } don’t over-window: if it looks like to many windows, it probably is.

interiors: interiors are where you’re going to be spending most of your time playing. here are some tips for interiors. i will be referencing the following picture throughout my tips so that’s why it’s here ok.

{ 1 } consistency: this was one of my biggest mistakes when i first started building. a modern house usually doesn’t have wood paneling and Victorian couches, and a traditional house usually doesn’t have all white walls and industrial furnishing.

 { 2 } flooring and walls: here are some of my most used floorings and wallpapers !!!

{ 3 } floor plans: although not as breathable, more closed off floorplans are much easier to furnish, as there’s much less empty space. try to avoid open floorplans when you’re first starting to build.

{ 4 } accent colors: look at the picture at the top of this section. notice how the pink paint splatters on the easel match the pink poster behind the desk. even small accent colors like this can help to tie a room together.

{ 5 } clutter: notice the file cabinets under the desk, the picture and the cds, the paint cans. no one’s house in real life is perfectly immaculate: clutter makes a house look real and lived in, and also fills up extra space.

{ 6 } lighting: the type of lighting you use in a build is subjective to what you’re using the build for. for example, if you’re going to be taking screenshots in the build, you’ll probably want bright, crisp lighting. here are some of my favorite lights, the first two being brighter and more expensive, and the last two being dimmer but more affordable !!!

{ 7 } match the interior to your sim: when i was building the interior in the picture, i had a sim who was a struggling artist and writer, hence the easel and paintcans, the lived in desk and the holes/ damage in the walls. if your building a house for a particular sim, the interior of your build should match that sim !!!

that’s it loves xxx

[nchyinotes]

Race, Mental Health and State Violence: A Two-Day Symposium. (Panel 1 - Critical Intersections)

April 9 2018

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/race-mental-health-and-state-violence-a-two-day-symposium-tickets-43160409948?aff=erellivmlt

Thoughts: I was only able to attend Day 1, Panel 1: Critical Intersections. All of these talks were important and provided some really great statistics & sources, but the one I found most interesting was the first by Fatima. I found her insights about personal experience as a (female) researcher fascinating, and I enjoyed hearing select interviewee’s stories in detail. I also appreciated distinction she raised between the perception of Black vs Muslim looking men and that intersection, as that was actually a conversation my Muslim Egyptian friend (hi Alshymaa!) and I were talking about at a war on terror exhibition a few days before this talk. While I still found the talks informative, I felt like they definitely focused a lot more on race than they did mental health. While I don’t know much about mental health in the criminal justice system, I did my final year research essay on mass incarceration in the US, so I am quite aware of how race factors in. So while the British statistics were different from the sources I studied (and it was helpful to see UK centric numbers), I personally wish that there was more about mental health in these talks.

intersections of muslimness, race, gender & mental health (fatima rajina)

form of biological racism - south asians perceived to be muslim even if they aren’t. stopped & searched based on how police perceive them.  

black muslims?

grenfell, palmers green, london bridge, manchester, ??? bridge - all the attacks last year happened during research period

muslim men, a lot of people were getting paranoid in being interviewed in public about (counter)terrorism

female interviewer - men more comfortable in crying & opening up & showing emotion in front of rather than men

one young interviewee, 20 yo been harassed since 16: active on college campus in east london, group of muslims organised a petition against a legislation, teachers weren’t happy about it & saw them as a nuisance. thinks one of his teachers gave his name to counterterrorism (prevent officers)??, wakes up and saw two police outside his house in the morning, being interrogated there & then.

way they spoke to and addressed him —> lots of coercion

offered a role as a snitch (role in counter terrorism)

got random no caller ID phone calls at ridiculous hours, asking if they’ve thought of their proposition as a snitch

really struggled during this time, was wetting the bed

felt like an attack on his masculinity - cannot express himself, how he was treated by police

white irish in SE london, muslim convert:

was accused of being a terrorist within 2 years of converting

in 2006 he travelled to syria (way before the conflict kicked off in 2010), looked like your typical white backpacker. was interrogated at this point, visited by the police + put on control order (“secret evidence” used against you, essentially on a tag, like severe bail conditions)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/feb/03/civil-liberties-control-orders

https://nearlylegal.co.uk/2007/11/control-orders-and-secret-evidence/

felt his masculinity was constantly being questioned, wasn’t offered any compassion

was unemployed, forced to go to this police station an hour away

2 year legal battle to be freed [famous case, been covered nationwide]

whiteness has been stripped off of me because of my religion (when became visible muslims in public - gets questioned where they are from)

they tried to break him down - he had to seek therapy, be put on medication. they were aware of the context of him breaking curfew etc but still treated that as a penalty

black jamaican, muslim convert

when police stop him its not because he’s muslim (or has a beard), only when his name (arabic) comes up does the intersection kick in

black male supersedes whether they’re muslim or not

interviewed about 8 girls (non/muslim)

female muslims have experienced violence from CT officers through male in their lives - “the conversation" was had at like 11. sisters responsibility to look out for brothers, if they’re present may calm things down with officers?

south asians, generally associated with islam already: paki bashing (her parents gen) —> muslim bashing  (her gen)

terrorists - white or brown. black people are “gangsters”, not terrorists. they never get told to go home ??

arrested safety: intersectional police violence, neoliberal securitisation and abolitionist visions (Vanessa-Eileen Thompson)

increasing securitisation (ie. policing) in parts of post colonial europe - urban policing, slow violence

recognisability of criminals?

“districts of danger” - police can check anyone without any individual suspicion, generally where (san p?? in hamburg, in 2001)

criminalisation of right to exist, to space and to move

forces you to decriminalise yourself in front of others

institutional racism makes it hard to counter racist policing on legal basis - swiss legal ?? black person ??

policing as a form of property, appropriating radicalised bodies

black people call police for help, but they are then being abused by the police instead - outside of the safety they’re supposed to enforce. repressive measures + criminalisation that can lead to death.

death of dominic ?? in germany, 2006

christy schwundeck - shot in job centre. struggling with depression, trying to get child out of foster care

race, gender, migration status, mental health —> threat, unworthy of safety + protection

pathological threat instead of a subject worth of safety and care

for them the police never means safety

mental inferiority is so much part of colonial projects (slavery) —> mental health is at centre

quality of life crimes - public nuisance

police + prisons have become substitute solutions to mental health crises

more likely to cause them to get in contact with these institutions + everyday triggers & makes it worse

starts with racist profiling

networks of communications + warnings - counter control maps, text messages, calling someone became the primary ???, stoplecontroleaufacies.fr (documenting cases to stop the normality of this phenomenon)

how does a society without policing look? caring instead of punishment. rooted in methods of care rather than institutional violence

reinstitutionalisation in an age of deinstitutionalisation (Zin Derfoufi)

S136 Mental Health Act - police detention power

to remove people who appear to be in “immediate need of care or control”

can use reasonable force if necessary, detain for 72 hours + possible extension

really about social control at the end of the day

reliable numbers by NHS digital vs detentions recorded by police (FOI requests) - 352 people are detained by a police force every year

lack of continuation of care —> many people end up back in

race and differential experiences - completely ignored in the debate about mental health

people from ethnic minorities are more likely (esp. black) to be detained

there isn’t much good data out there, because the forces have not been recording it properly

“mixed ethnicities” much higher to be detained under mental health act?? (even than just black - v surprising)

social control actors - general rise in use of powers

law and violence at the intersection of race and mental health in custody environments (Dinesh Napal)

public sentiment - demonising victims of police brutality + increased militarisation and state violence

law has failed to act as an apparatus to protect people from state violence

data is a medium for representing scale of issue, should never be held in higher regard than stories of individuals

in 2012, blacks 30x more likely than white to be stopped and searched (in england/wales)

dismantle idea of BAME/POC - dilutes the ways in which distinct racial groups face unique ways of oppression

black people targeted under MHA

chinese at the bottom (even below white)

laws on use of force: reasonability and responsibility, lack of clarity in enforcement

no convictions

statutory provisions are not enough

deaths in custody = state sanctioned deaths, extrajudicial killings

scope to rethink definition of ^ - no accountability for over 500 deaths of POC in police custody

should be treated as murder/homocide cases from outset

summary executions, state sanctioned murders? burden of proof moved on to individual officer + institution

channel 4 documentary released over weekend

panel

one sided reproduction of an argument, using police numbers, rather than critically investigating

security state is criminalising + capitalising on poor

parents generations likely to call police, because they come from bangladesh / ghana (where the perception is corruption), and there’s an element of trust here in britain. —> youth centres are the ones that get the respect - community orgs.

black/brown police are even worse bc they have to prove their loyalty to institutions / white colleagues — way more traumatic

role of trade unions

creating archives of resistance - what worked, what didn’t, why, how this can be applied transnationally

the police state is organising transnationally - they are traveling + communicating all the time (biometric systems for asylum seekers)

pro restraint should be eradicated