#these are based on some very specific vibes I get from these characters

[marvelousatrocity]

Hello here is my pjeg au; the no killing game one where I give them pets (the real change is that Wolfgang is responsible enough to keep himself and a pet alive)

Pet stats:

[cluescorner]

We need to bring back Gun Batman immediately where the FUCK is he

titans of tomorrow

aftermath:

[wtfforged]

my campaign hiatus has gone on for too long so to cope ive combined my interests at their maximum potency and had some dnd-strawhats thoughts

thoughts in depth under read more... :)!

this is SO self indulgent. their designs literally did not change. but i am a firm believer that dnd doesnt have to be european high fantasy. and also one piece literally IS fantasy. no changes are necessary to fit into dnd. ive already imagined plenty of campaign/oneshot ideas inspired by one piece. so this was basically just an exercise of trying to replicate their canon abilities in dnd 5e as much as possible without totally homebrewing everything. well. aside from luffy. you just cant take away or change his stretching.

LUFFY: (human monk. drunken master subclass. outlander)

the only plain human of the crew to balance out with the fact that he still has rubber powers. obviously a monk. but drunken master subclass specifically because i think the flavor(not the fact that its about being a drunkard) and abilities both fit him really well. this line in the subclass' flavortext especially fits him: "A drunken master often enjoys playing the fool to bring gladness to the despondent or to demonstrate humility to the arrogant, but when battle is joined, the drunken master can be a maddening, masterful foe."

ZORO: (tiefling fighter. samurai subclass. bounty hunter)

a fighter with the samurai subclass is so very incredibly obvious... but i actually had a lot of fun geeking out while comparing the abilities to what he can do in canon; Fighting Spirit, Rapid Strike, and Strength Before Death especially! tiefling is also pretty on the nose for his demon pirate hunter shtick and asura form, but i thought he'd be really human-passing for a tiefling and theorized about his tail getting cut off at some point or another before joining the strawhats. initially wasnt gonna give him a feat, but i gave sanji a feat so i thought itd be unfair to not give him one as well, so sentinel fits the bill pretty well i think!

NAMI: (tabaxi rogue. arcane trickster subclass. criminal)

cat burglar -> full grown literal humanoid cat. this one is INCREDIBLY self indulgent... i love... cats... theres nothing deeper to this and no other reasoning. i took cat burglar and ran with it. can you tell that i love izutsumi dungeon meshi? rogue for the aforementioned burglar-ing as well, and the arcane trickster subclass for when she picks up climatact! the mage hand will be very useful for her pickpocketing. in the future as she levels up with timeskip, i can totally see her multiclassing into wizard as well! weather wizard!

USOPP: (lightfoot halfling artificer. artillerist subclass. urchin)

I HAD SO MUCH FUN THINKING ABOUT HIS CHARACTER SHEET. halfling's Naturally Stealthy ability lets him hide behind his crewmates since theyre (almost) all bigger than him, so its perfect for hiding behind zoro or sanji all the time. Lucky is also perfect for him, and I think Brave fits pretty well too when he puts on the sogeking mask. artillerist artificer is also very fun! tinkering and making magic items for his crew, and i think Eldritch Canon or Arcane Firearm could both be easily reflavored as kabuto or any of his inventions. for emphasizing his sniper-ness, the spell sniper feat was also necessary. i think hes my favorite of all the concepts. big ears and long nose combo is so cute to me.

SANJI: (half-elf monk. drunken master subclass. guild artisan (cook!))

race was mostly based on vibes i wont lie. squints. and that vinsmoke balogna or whatever too ig. but mostly vibes. along with the idea that i think a dwarf zeff raising him would be really funny and cute. monk is also obvious, and same subclass as luffy for mostly the same reasons. though the flavor fits him much less, i think the abilities still fit him perfectly, and this blurb specifically; "Your martial arts technique mixes combat training with the precision of a dancer." i really wanted to give him a different subclass from luffy, but i dislike all the other monk subclasses a lot and i found none of them fit him as well anyways, so to try and give them SOME differences, i gave him the crusher feat.

CHOPPER: (awakened deer(shifter statblock) cleric. life subclass. hermit)

this ones definitely a mouthful im sorry. awakened deer for obvious reasons, but due to magic instead of devil fruit stuff. when i was struggling with his race, i looked a lot at shifter because of his forms, but it occurred to me that itd be super cool if he could shift between all of the different shifter options instead of being stuck with just one to replicate his rumble balls. something like heavy point/guard point=beasthide, horn point/arm point(?maybe?)=longtooth, walk point/jumping point=swiftstride, and brain point=wildhunt. hed definitely need some kind of nerf though to balance out that homebrew... and cleric for class. duh.

ROBIN: (high elf wizard. order of scribes subclass. criminal)

robin is definitely the one i struggled the most with just because of her class. elf came pretty easily- shes very elegant and i think shed look cute with super long ears- and i landed on high elf instead of wood elf for the int-based abilities. i was really on the fence between sorcerer and wizard for her because i knew shed be a full spellcaster, but i didnt feel that any of the subclasses really fit her. i ended up going with wizard for order of the scribes since it focuses on texts and knowing everything. but also because robin with a flying talking sentient book would be crazy cool. it could also be similar to how she spawns mouths and eyes places to talk to or watch people. my "fuck it, why not. this would be rad. its my house" mindset kicked in with her i will admit. also the One with the Word ability made me cackle out loud when i read it. thats the funniest ability ever. anyways, i cant really think of a way to replicate her powers, but maybe we could just reflavor a bunch of spells to be her limbs or clutch; hold person, maximillian's earthen grasp, or evard's black tentacles. thatd probably work okay, and theres a handful of spells to replicate her ability to spawn eyes or mouths. unrelated, but i imagine nico olvia to be a drow. why? her hair is white. i am a simple man!

[mikakuna]

babygirl jason anon here again!💖

I also completely agree that jason's type is older people. (Sladejay and Constantine x Jason are my fav ships, jason absolutely endears himself to older men who hate everyone else and treat him like a princess that could kill them, very fiona from shrek vibes if you catch me).

But ppl talk about jason looking like bruce alot, but i think one day he's staring at himself in the mirror and realizes its willis staring back at him, and that warms his heart so he grows his hair out, just to the base of his neck so he can embrace his curls. He gets piercings he always wanted, 2 in each lobe, an industrial maybe. And i think distancing himself from the bats a bit gives him back a healthy glow in his eyes, because he's not fighting to prove his worth to people who keep moving the goal post.

And maybe the bats see him again, with roy and kori at some big world ending fiasco, helmet off, laughing and smiling and looking happy and they realize that they have not seen him happy in a long time.

I'm obsessed with the idea of the JLA and another heroes meeting jason after having only heard news of his actions or the bats biased perception of things. but meeting jason completely changes things because he's magnetic, just so charming and intelligent and unfairly fucking gorgeous. Especially when they get him started on things he loves. Gotham, books, cooking, kids.

Roy has his hand around Jason's waist, looking at him fondly. Kori fondly runs a hand through his curls. Jason being loved and accepted for just being who he is without having to shape and distort himself of his morals.

I have many thoughts about jason and the wider hero community, of him finally pushing off the isolation that Batman forced on him both as Robin and now as Red Hood by controlling the narrative around him.

But when i get more babygirl jason thoughts i will send then your way!!

HIIIIIII i love you so much♥️ im sorry for getting to this late but i hope my reply, long reply, makes up for it!!

jason is SOOO fiona from shrek coded omg wait he deserves that kind of princess treatment. he's not afraid to be himself and if that means being flawed or being disapproved by society (other heroes + bats) then fuck it. he's still gonna be himself and not let other people, especially those who have let him down, change him. very fiona of him to get with people everyone else would disapprove of.

ofc i love sladejay but i've never actually read any constantine x jason content!! this is probably my first time hearing about it in a romantic context and not platonic. I WANNA HEAR MOREEE

yes yes yes to jason specifically going after older men. it's not even that he's doing it consciously. they just always happen to be older than him and they're usually the ones seeking him out. he has that mistreated puppy look that attracts older dudes and makes them wanna spoil him with love and that gruff affection. very healing for his daddy issues to be treated with unconditional love for once by an older man who could very well be his dad. it's a dangerous game to play considering his age and theirs but it always works out (to the absolute appall of bruce)

your description of his new, healthy look is everything. i also love the hc that he looks like willis since i don't really fw the one that he looks like bruce specifically. anyways he should look like his papa who thought of him as his prince of gotham :( jason with longer hair and piercings is so pretty he deserves it. if that red hood webcomic wasn't so ass i would've liked his character design

i too am a firm believer that jason becomes ten times more beautiful when he's happy and not constantly emotionally drained from his interactions with the bats who only ever expect the worst from him. the glow!!! the sound of his unrestrained laughter!!! the twinkle in his eyes!!!!!!! you truly never look better than when there isn't an ugly bitch constantly thinking the worst of you

OMG dude i was just thinking about that justice league hc <3 most heroes knew jason as robin and still fell for bruce/the bats' propaganda 🥀 but hey at least it makes for great content of them meeting red hood jason for the first time and becoming instantly enamoured. i need it shoved in every hero's face that jason is smart as hell and not the stone cold killer he's rumoured to be.

and yes you're so right about jason having been isolated. he deserves to break free from that isolation since it very clearly still exists in his red hood days.

can't lie because i enjoyed his teamup with kori and roy but i love art and biz sooo much more because they're just for jason rather than having been dick's people first. need the bats seeing how happy he is with other people </3

thank you for this anon i loved hearing your thoughts!! (sorry this got long) and YES PLEASEE i will always want to hear more baby girl jason thoughts ♥️

[so-i-did-this-thing]

You mentioned how certain hobbies tend to draw a fashy crowd. I’m a trans poc and damn there are things I want to try like historical European martial arts but some of the vibes are rancid blood and soil fash (not all but definitely some). Do you have any recommendations on how to engage with interests and hobbies that appeal to unsavory crowds while not letting it kills your enthusiasm or participation?

To give cis folks some background on what it's like for me to be trans in a new fandom or hobby:

I poke around old posts and profiles. I find myself looking for dogwhistles.

Things like: What research (or "research") does everyone cite? What sort of reference photos does a white man use when he wants an 1940s "military" style haircut? How does a frock flicks person respond to colorblind casting in a new TV show? How do historic videogame nerds respond to a queer character? A queer romance? How does someone define "historic accuracy?" What is a re-enactment group's policy on "gendered" roles that need playing?

And above all, which voices are getting amplified throughout all this?

I especially look to forum admins and group leaders. I notice when POC and trans people feel safe to post selfies and other contributions. I notice what comments people make on these. And I absolutely notice when a group leader makes a callout post about fashy stuff. (My vintage menswear group does this frequently, god bless.)

I hate that it takes a lot of social and academic familiarity to decide if you want to invest your time in a hobby or with a certain group. It sucks a lot of the joy out of being a newbie and learning the ropes. It can feel very isolating to have to teach yourself so much just so you feel safe to make introductions.

Sometimes, I just barge in and let the trash take itself out. Like clockwork, every time I get into a new fandom or some cosplay content of mine goes viral, I double down on my trans posts. It's a litmus test, but also a beacon to other trans folks and our allies.

I bring all this up because the burden shouldn't be on us -- I hope that white and cishet allies in these spaces can see the mental calculus a lot of us have to do. (And god, I am white and male and thus only experiencing a fraction of this nonsense.) And that the best way to help share the load and be welcoming is to be visually and loudly vigilant against your hobby space becoming a Nazi bar.

But you're right -- it can suck out a lot of joy. I suppose my recommendation is, once you find at least some of your people, they can help you widen the net. Not necessarily just wrt meeting other cool folks, but also springboarding into other interests, should your current one sour.

And if this doesn't work, enjoy your passions out of spite. I am a VERY obstinate man sometimes and I've developed an "I dare you" attitude to those who'd try to push me away from what I like. You will find some of your people this way, too, and there is a comfort and safety from being just with them -- just try not to bond solely on bitterness.

I wish I could give specific recommendations based on your interests, and if folks have their own advice, the notes are all yours.

[nickythehickey]

EDIT: there is now an updated version of this with corrections. go to that one!

*emcee voice* hello sfth fandom, by the request of myself and literally four people (hi @not-an-idiot @very-confused-alpaca @chaostributary97 @bbatcat), i give you

my best attempt at a list of disability representation in the sfthverse

*for the purposes of the list, "disability" includes physical/mental/developmental disabilities, neurodivergence, chronic illnesses, and mental health conditions

*i went through and added as many as i could think of but easily could've missed some. also i can't get the patreon rn so there's no patreon exclusive characters, sorry. if you know of some more feel free to reply/reblog and i'll add them!

canon (either explicit or heavily implied)

bubba (inside the mysterious cube) is stated to be an amputee with prosthetic legs

peter steven (the milkman) is stated to have adhd; granted its a throwaway line but i think it's true. since adhd has a large genetic component, that implies that either janet or david or both likely also has it- my money's on david since peter seems to mostly take after him

post mortem, L (the creak in the attic) is mute and uses mime/sign language and possession as forms of aac

donnie (the detective vs. the christmas tree bandits), my personal blorbo, is explicitly stated to have adhd and a seizure disorder- likely photosensitive epilepsy based on the mentions of the lights in the strip club. "i was never good with numbers" could be interpreted as dyscalculia as well. frankie may also have adhd bc again genetics, but if he does he can mask like a motherfucker

chip (the cardboard stegosaurus) has an unspecified seizure disorder (although i can't find one that turns you french), and while she isn't present, we learn that his mother marie-claire was suicidal

queen of representation that she is, amanda (clarissa's diy wedding) is all but confirmed to have prosopagnosia, or face blindness

according to divorces and teddy bears, the entire north pole elf population has adhd. congrats on the diagnosis luke i mean snowdrop

"that one gas station man" as @doodle-ratz called him (the pilot's final flight) is blind

mrs jeffery (the milkman) was blind at the beginning of the scene, they ended up not going with that but she probably does still have poor vision

the bartender (the hare who wore a sweater) slut dropped so hard his knees exploded, and that's now a sentence i've said on the internet. im.... not sure what to count this as tbh, but as a person with vague undiagnosed joint fuckery myself, he makes the list regardless

they don't like... SAY IT say it, but john hobson (the creak in the attic) with the whole "thunderstorm killed my parents" thing probably has ptsd. like yall see it too right

based on body language, granddad (wine under the bridge) appears to use a walker, suggesting mobility issues

headcanons (still implied like at least a little bit but mostly up to interpretation, this is mine)

*(this one's messy, its more me sensing vibes than anything else, there's almost definitely some projection in there, honestly you can disregard it if you want. spoilers its mostly autism bc that's me)

frankie (the bard with a scar) says that he can't run fast, maybe implying mobility issues? i like to think so

i don't think their ages are ever established so i may be completely off base and they're just meant to be children, but jimmy (toby's secret pocket) and jeffery (party quirks) are both autistic teenagers/young adults to me. jeffrey specifically bc he reminds me immensely of how i acted the first and only time i threw a party

i get... a vibe. from titch (the unrelenting aubergine). im not sure what it is, but its there

fellow autistic people yk how there's this weird kinda split that happens where when you're a kid people think you're mature for your age but then once you're older people think you're immature? yeah johnny and janae (the neighbor's under the bed) are the extreme incarnation of that dichotomy

someone in the comments of ballet on the battlefield pointed out alexa stimming after she befriends janusz and i love that so im saying she's some flavor of neurodivergent

troll-son (wine under the bridge) probably has some kinda allegory for something idk

because of the way i visualize character designs for sfth, pretty much any character luke played while wearing glasses (like andrew (all eyes on nigel) or fullset o'hands) also wears glasses. im not gonna list them all just know they're included

i've been working on this list for seven hours. i feel like sysiphus (thats a very smart reference). im going to bed

EDIT: if you're seeing this now there's an update in the reblogs!

[starxanemone]

𖣯 BLUE LOCK FRAGRANTICA

michael kaiser. alexis ness. otoya eita. baro shoei. oliver aiku.

fragrances and specific perfumes that i think blue lock characters would be attracted to based on their personality & preferences.

note 01 ⸻ implied fem reader. apologies if most of the perfumes listed below are more feminine-leaning. i just really don't like most of the masculine-leaning perfumes and so i tend to stay away from them. most of them make my head hurt for some reason.

note 02 ⸻ also named this hc after my favorite perfume website, aka fragrantica : ]

MICHAEL KAISER: ROSES, LYCHEE

𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐟

Delina is a delicious perfume with a fragrance of roses mixed with the juicy and fruity scent of lychee, and the base note of vanilla which adds a creamy feel. The sweet and slightly tart fruit balances out the crispness of the roses, which gives the floral aspect of the perfume a slight twist. The vanilla, on the other hand, binds the two prominent notes together to give it an almost creamy, velvety atmosphere.

It's canon that Kaiser loves roses, but I feel like just the flower itself is a noticeable reminder of the unhealthy parts of himself despite its typical association with him having power over himself and the people around him. The lychee balances this out by adding sweetness into the mix, and the plushness of the vanilla makes the typically crisp roses to smell more comforting. It makes him think of the petal's gentle caress rather than the sharp thorns digging against his skin.

ALEXIS NESS: VANILLA, LAVENDER

𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐠𝐨𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐬

Oh, god, this perfume emits a sense of strong and independent. Alexis has always admired the types of people that are able to control their own "loneliness," and the feel of this perfume is synonymous to that.

Although the dominant note in this is vanilla, this is not the sweet and juvenile kind, rather, it is mature and put together. The vanilla is thick and rich, but is balanced out by the powdery-floral scent of lavender. It's clean, luxurious, and slightly bold at the same time. There is a deep and and very slight hint of spiciness in the opening which elevates the perfume's personality.

This is the type of vanilla worn by anyone who silently commands respect.

( note. this is my the perfume i dream to have lolol )

OTOYA EITA: MARSHMALLOW, WHIPPED CREAM

𝐬𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐡

Sabrina Carpenter's Sweeth Tooth gives off a sweet and girly scent. It's light, sweet, and airy like taking you on a trip to cotton candy clouds. The marshmallow note that basically encapsulates the whole perfume mixed with the whipped cream plus the chocolate within its list of notes makes this sweet and perfect for someone youthful. It's sugary and powdery, like drinking sweetened milk with marshmallows on top.

I personally get the feeling that otoya's pretty into girly girls, like someone who likes to wear fluffy, light-colored clothing and likes to style their hair into cute hairstyles. This perfume captures that kind of vibe.

BARO SHOEI: WHITE FLORAL

𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚'𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐱𝐲 𝐨𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐬

Baro loves to clean, so I'm sure that he loves anything that smells clean as well. There are only three notes in Very Sexy Oasis which includes tuberose, orange blossom, and camelia, but the two white florals definitely stand out the most.

The fragrance is white and silky, almost similar to the scent of a creamy shampoo. It blends together to form this smooth and clean scent, like you're showering underneath a waterfall or bathing in a sunny oasis whilst surrounded by an array of white-petaled flowers. It's simple and straightforward—nothing complex unlike most of the perfumes that exist to boast about their beautiful complexity. This one is different—different in a way that is effortless.

OLIVER AIKU: COCONUT, VANILLA

𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐳𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐬

Oliver Aiku. A womanizer. And you know what type of person fits a womanizer? A maneater who knows how to put them in their place—someone who knows out to lift the chess pieces and bring them to a checkmate. He likes a challenge, and this perfume is perfect for someone like that.

This perfume is sweet, warm, and slightly nutty from the coconut which gives it an exotic feel. Kind of like cracking open a coconut, drizzling the meat with coconut milk and vanilla, and inhaling its scent right beside the sea and underneath the hot sunlight. It definitely gives off the vibe of someone sensual and bold, completely unafraid to let go and just feel themselves. No one can ruin their vibe yk?

[dresshistorynerd]

this might be the silliest question you’ll be asked. As someone who enjoys period dramas and studied history (though not fashion) so notices inaccuracies like fasteners and availability of dyes etc, I nonetheless can dive into the world presented.

I notice the wearing of outerwear the most. In a program set in Regency England, in outdoor scenes, a) you rarely see more than a Spencer jacket or a cape, and b) in a group scene the coverage varies wildly from lady to lady. As if I was out walking with friend wearing a tank top while I had on a turtleneck and fleece vest.

I get costumes tell a lot about the characters but wouldn’t a person look daft and either cold or hot and out of place?

This is not silly! This is actually a very good question! Regency media is often very much confused and inconsistent about what was appropriate in the given situation to wear, but to be fair, it was actually very confusing.

I have seen a lot of people, and I have repeated this before as well, perpetuate the idea that Regency Era had the same concept of casual and formal wear - split to morning, day and evening wear, where the earlier in the day it was the more the dress covered. However, the Regency concept of casual/formal wear followed much closer to the previous era of 18th century. Instead of morning, day and evening wear they had undress, half dress and full dress, which had a bit to do with how much was covered but not much. They were much less formalized than the equivalent concepts of the socially rigid Victorian Era. Which also makes it much more confusing. Undress was usually worn at home or during morning walks and it had long sleeves. Usually it was a pelisse or dressing gown, or could be a simple round gown. Though most garments were not inherently undress, half dress of full dress, since it was much more relevant simple or flashy the garment in question was. A simple redingote could also be undress for cold morning walks. Hair was often covered in undress as well, usually with a cap, but this wasn't necessary for young unmarried ladies. Full dress was basically ball gown - so the most formal dress, short sleeves etc. - and there fore easiest to grasp. Though sometimes other occasions besides balls were as formal and then full dress would be used as well, but not all evening occasions were as formal as balls. Half dress is basically everything else and easily the most confusing and unclear category. Half dress could have short sleeves or long sleeves, used outdoors or indoors, used for less formal evening occasions and promenade walks and visiting casually a close friend and picnic and so on. Basically half dress was anything more formal than the casual home wear and less formal than the fancy ball gown. It was a collection of several different types of gowns really, but the reason they were in the same category was that there was no hard rules on how they should be worn.

At some point I'll make a post on the Regency casual/formal wear etiquette where I go deeper into this.

What specifically sort of half dress someone wore had more to do with age, marital status and weather than the specific occasion (though that could still matter as well), since most garments could be styled in multiple different usages especially by combining them with different garments. Married women and older women were expected to use more covering clothing, while younger women and girls could use less coverage even on a more casual occasion. So for example on a summer outing an older married woman might wear a long sleeved round gown or a light pelisse, while their unmarried daughter might wear a short sleeved gown. But these were not hard rules either. It was sort of closer to how etiquette works today, much more vibe based than rule based. Here's couple of examples from art depicting different scenes, where women are wearing quite different sort of half dresses.

The first one here is from 1815-1820. I'm not sure what the setting is for this harp playing, since the women seem to be wearing outdoor clothing (all are wearing bonnets and one of them is wearing a redingote), maybe they are playing outside? Anyway, the two ladies have short sleeved gowns, one of them has open neckline, the other a chemisette covering her neckline, while the third has a covering redingote.

First image here is a painting named "A young person hesitating to play the piano in front of her family" from 1805. Here's a casual gathering among family on a terrace, perhaps after the dinner (the sun seems to be setting), where the young lady is dressed in short sleeved gown, while presumably her mother and grandmother are dressed on gowns with longer sleeves and covered hair. The second image here is painting of three teenagers preparing to play music on a casual musical evening from c. 1810. The girls are roughly the same age, yet one of them is wearing long sleeves and covered neckline, while the other is not, demonstrating how there was no exact rules with half dress.

The first image below is an illustration "In a cafe" from 1810. The ladies are out, two of them are wearing short sleeved and decollete revealing dresses, while their third (likely married) friend is wearing long sleeves and covered hair and decollete. The second image is an illustration from 1814, and depicts a casual gathering where young people are playing party games. Again there's a mix of long and short sleeves.

So it would not be inherently inaccurate to have Regency women in a group wear garments of varying sleeve length, but Regency media very rarely does it in a way that follows the nuances of the Regency social norms, because it very much depended on the situation. For example no lady would wear long sleeves in a ball. I don't remember every scene but what I do remember of the 2020 Emma they do the whole etiquette really well. And of course Pride and Prejudice 1995 nails it. Still after trying to figure out the nuances of Regency etiquette myself and still quite not getting all of them, I'm much more understanding of movies and tv shows for fucking it up. It really is very hard to pin down. Not that it prevents me from getting annoyed by very obvious mistakes.

[anonymous-dentist]

Maybe there would be less conflict on the server if there wasn’t a faction whose entire life hangs on causing chaos and clip farming.

The admins said it themselves weeks ago- Tango even said it to Pangi directly on stream, the creative kills are meant to be clips. That’s why pvp doesn’t count even though there can be some REALLY creative pvp plays, and even though you can get some really popular clips out of it (see: Pangi killing Tubbo.) It’s also why it’s now against the rules for anyone to give their lives for Red Team like Foolish did, that isn’t ‘exciting’ enough

It’s the same logic that Purgatory was run under: everything had to have the capacity to go viral. Former admins said that the teams were split the way they were to create the most conflict possible, and that seems like what’s going on with the Realm.

A lot of people have started complaining about how much chaos and violence there is on the Realm these days, and they’re also following the Purgatory Way and blaming everything on one specific group of people (Red and Green Teams) rather than acknowledging the flawed server system as a whole.

If Red Team doesn’t get an ‘exciting’ kill, they all die. This is inherently flawed because it forces people into specific actions while ignoring the purpose of the server: personal choice and freedom. The server wasn’t meant for lore! Tubbo said as much before day one, but this was immediately changed as soon as the Red Team was introduced. Now, people joining the server are forced into the Red Team and told they have to kill. Sure, they can not- like Sausage and uh. The majority of Red Team, who haven’t really logged on past day one- but they’re still bullied and attacked by the other characters for the simple crime of being on Red Team. Unlike the other factions, Red Team never got a choice. They aren’t allowed to change teams, and nobody from another team can join their team (except Jack Manifold ig.) They’re all forced into the role of villains with no choice to join, say, Blue or Yellow.

All this has done is created the conflict that people are complaining about. Nobody on Green can show where they live because it’ll be trapped by Ros or Aimsey. Pangi and Pili can’t sit on a roof and talk without being condescended to and accused of wrongdoing. Foolish can’t talk to Pili without being looked down upon by his kingdom.

And then the players who wanted a low-stakes casual server can’t join anymore because everything ties back to ‘Us vs Them’. Slimecicle dipped on day one, probably because he’s done wkth MCRP. How many players stopped logging in once there started being lore and conflict essentially forced upon them by the server’s very rules?

Every time someone on the server has come up with an alternative to the violence and chaos, such as getting people who don’t join to voluntarily get killed by Red Team, it’s shut down by the admins. Meanwhile, there appears to be favoritism towards the server’s ’good guys’, like Ros’ and Tubbo’s protection butterflies or rule changes that only seem to benefit them. While some of those rule changes are because members of Red or Green find out ‘loopholes’, it’s also kind of crazy how every rule change has benefited Yellow and Blue and hurt Green and Red.

Is this favoritism purposeful? Almost absolutely not, but it is convenient for causing conflict. Tensions rise as a result of all these things combined, and it’s all manufactured and really just not fun to watch anymore. Yellow is sick of being ‘targeted’, Blue is sick of Green and Red existing, and Red is sick of having to kill. (Green is just kind of vibing tbh, they’re chaotic and violent even without the killing rule.)

Even if the factions event ends soon, which I hope it does for the sake of the server, the fandom won’t be any less toxic. The conflict will continue in some way because this is what the server has built up as its base for content: conflict. None of it is natural, it’s all manufactured, and it’s all extremely Not Fun.

So don’t get angry at Red for killing and trapping, that’s all they were created to do. And that will never change.

[imperator-kahlo]

Visages, Versos, and Masking

I've been thinking about Visages, because some aspects of that island confounded me at first. I think I expected a less nuanced view of masks and masking than the game ultimately delivered, and I should by now know better than to expect less nuance from this game.

Major, character-defining, endgame spoilers below.

So after some rumination, my hot take is this: Renoir's artistic advice to Verso is wrong, and that advice reveals an incomplete understanding of his son. Controversial! So let me stress that this is not a critique of Renoir or his parenting: sometimes the people we're closest to, that we love the most, are the hardest ones to see clearly.

(Note: When I'm very specifically talking about painted Verso I refer to him as such. I hate calling the other Verso 'real' or 'first', so when I haven't specified, I'm talking about that one. The other one. The not-painted one. You get it.)

The axon Renoir paints to represent his son is known as He Who Guards Truth with Lies; Monoco reports that guard in this context means both protect and control. To Renoir, Verso's masks are a wall between Verso and both the viewers of his art and the rest of the Dessendre family. They're a defense mechanism. They're training wheels, keeping Verso safe from vulnerability and loss of control. Great art might be oblique or metaphorical, but it must be raw. Verso's masks, to Renoir, are inauthentic.

He writes in a journal entry directed to his son:

… art can be a Window and art can be a Mirror. And great art. Great art is both. Son, you'll never be a true artist if there's always a mask between you and viewer, especially when the viewer is you…

Verso, know thyself.

The axon in question, however, and the island it inhabits, suggest a more nuanced view of masks: that masks need not be walls. They can be mirrors and they can be windows. I think there's good textual support for this first part of the argument, but I'm going to take an extra step that is much more vibes-based: Masks can be part of great art, because they can be both mirror and window at the same time. And then, one more teeny little vibes-based step: Verso understood this.

A confession: the vibes-based reasoning I'm doing in the latter part of this is highly motivated. It pleases me for Autism Reasons to understand Verso as consciously and purposefully masking in ways that don't disable him artistically. I'll get into that a bit at the end.

The Vales and mask-as-window

Mask of Joy: "He who painted this world, seeking what he could not grasp, longing to share with those he loves. Behind his smile, what could it be?" Mask of Anger: "He who cannot fight fate, behind his scowl, emotions blaze, but in the shadows, his temper fades. What am I but a mask of…" Mask of Sadness: "He who lives in-between, behind his veil, emotions swell, for a life forced to paint, What is he but a reflection of…"

The masks of the Vales each express a truth about Verso: there is joy behind his smile, anger behind his scowl (though it fades in the shadows), and sadness behind his veil.

I don't personally read Verso as actually neurodivergent, despite all the autism-y stuff I'm about to read into this part of his story. But this here? Feels like pretty good evidence for that case, if you're so inclined. At any rate, this is a thing I relate to: deliberately and self-consciously performing an emotion that I genuinely feel, because otherwise the neurotypical people around me will misconstrue my emotional state. I want to relate, and so I perform.

This can be a way to fawn or people-please. It can be exhausting. It is necessarily performative (which isn't synonymous with inauthentic, in my opinion). It should be and usually isn't reciprocal; we should be able to expect the people close to us to make an effort to understand us as well (that's why it's called the double empathy problem).

But it can also be an act of love, care, and genuine striving towards connection. It can be honest. The mask, in this case, is a window.

The Expeditioners and mask-as-mirror

The false axon, Visages, fights using five masks, one for each expeditioner. From left to right as we look at Visages, these are Peace, Confidence, Determination, Anxiety, Doubt. These masks are wielded without a lot of, um, subtlety... until Visages is defeated and the Mask Keeper, the true axon, uses them much more expertly.

Painted Verso, Lune, and Maelle are each paired with a mask that incapacitates them: Doubt, Confidence, and Anxiety respectively. Sciel gets the Determination mask but quickly overcomes it. Monoco is protected by his own mask, but I'm assigning him the leftover Mask of Peace. Five expeditioners, five masks.

Some of these expeditioner-mask pairs surprised me at first. But I think they make sense when the masks are considered as mirrors intended to create an incapacitating emotional response. That is, if we think of the Mask Keeper (Verso) as a an artist who has weaponised his art to force his audience to confront themselves.

Painted Verso and the Mask of Doubt: The least surprising pair, in my opinion. This Verso lives in a perpetual state of doubt; he hides it poorly, though he manages to fool himself much of the time (this is one of very few examples of a mask actually obscuring something in this game, if only from its own wearer). He has to deceive himself, because if he lets himself feel that doubt for even a moment, he won't be able to do what he believes he must: let Gustave die, manipulate the expeditioners into expelling the Paintress, and ultimately, stop the fragment of Verso's soul from painting. By attacking him with the Mask of Doubt, the artist (the Mask Keeper) uses a mask to force the viewer (Verso) to confront a lie that he tells himself. Mask as mirror.

Lune and the Mask of Confidence: Lune's arc over the game is about shedding the weight of her parents' expectations and making sure the voices in her head are hers, not theirs. She must find confidence in her own understanding of what makes this world worth saving (music, for one, which her parents found frivolous) and in her ability to carry out this mission as herself and for her own sake, rather than as the embodiment of her parents' legacy. At this point in the game, Lune is intensely dutiful but not confident in her bones, for all she performs it. The Mask Keeper forces her to confront this lack in herself—never a pleasant experience, especially for an overachiever. Mask as mirror.

Maelle and the Mask of Anxiety: This one stumped me a little, as Maelle neither lacks nor has an excess of anxiety. But Alicia… I think this is a mask very well suited to Alicia, and to Maelle's later reaction to the prospect of returning to Alicia's life outside the canvas: to rehearse all the ways that life will suffocate or imprison her. She cannot imagine herself buoyed by it, growing in it, thriving in it. It is a dark future full of terrible uncertainties. Maelle is, at this point, still ignorant of her true identity, but those memories are inside her, churning up enough anxiety that she just keeps. on. repressing. The mask forces her to look that fear in the face, even before she can recognise it in herself. Mask as mirror.

Monoco and the Mask of Peace: Unless I'm mistaken (it's quite hard to see in the video, even frame by frame), the masks we see bounce off Monoco are Doubt and Anxiety. Neither Confidence nor Determination so much as threaten him. The mask left over once all the humans have their own is Peace.

Monoco is the child Verso's representation of the family dog: faithful, untroubled by what may come so long as his silly humans are nearby and happy. But Monoco is also a person, and he does express doubt and anxiety to Verso over the course of the game—about Noco, about travelling with an expedition again and all the grief that entails. But he faces those feelings, names them, and so they have no power over him. Monoco is peace personified: what will be, will be, and in the meantime he'll help his friends and get in some good scraps. He doesn't need this artist's mirror, and the masks cannot hurt him.

Sciel and the Mask of Determination: This might have been the most unintuitive pairing for me. Like Lune and confidence, determination is an emotion that Sciel performs, but not one I felt she was strongly driven by.

After all, she doesn't really have a clear goal in mind. In Act One, reminiscing with Gustave about Aquafarm 3, she strongly implies that she doesn't believe the expeditions—or anything the people of Lumiere do—can make a difference.

Sciel: Kinda nostalgic, thinking back. We really thought we were making a difference. Gustave: Hey, we're still making a difference. Sciel: (unconvincingly) Yes. Of course! Gustave: (also kinda unconvincingly) Yeah!

Sciel is along for the ride. This expedition is something to do with her final year, and inasmuch as she has any goals, they are help my buddies and have fun while it lasts. She's pleased, after defeating the Paintress, to suddenly have (or believe she has) decades of life ahead of her, but she's also unafraid of death. She accepts her Gommage with equanimity, both at the close of Act Two and in Verso's ending.

But Sciel is determined. Her goal is to live—not forever but fully, in as much or as little time as she's permitted. She dances on stage on the day of the Gommage; she leaps dramatically into the Gestral arena; she loves openly, wholeheartedly, and honestly.

She decided, after her attempted suicide and despite her grief, to keep on living. Living, not surviving.

This is a truth Sciel knows about herself, so the Mask of Determination has nothing to show her. It can't hurt her, because it is her.

The Mask Keeper

We're approaching the point where I abandon the actual text and roll about in pure uncut headcanon. But first, a few things about the Mask Keeper. Because he might be Renoir's creature, but his understanding of masks is not identical to his creator's.

Mask Keeper: People want so badly to know, "What's behind the mask?" Front, back. Recto, verso. Great art is both window and mirror. Whether it's your mask or theirs. Verso: Harmless, huh. Sciel: He's the real Axon. Mask Keeper: Child, we all need masks, but how you use them, mmm….

The Mask Keeper first quotes Renoir, but goes on to challenge Renoir's view of masks. We all wear masks, artist and audience alike, Verso and Renoir alike, because we all need them.

And where Renoir thinks that masks impede an artist's ability to create great art, the Mask Keeper seems to disagree. How you use the mask is what's important. You can use them as a window, as we saw in the Vales, or you can use them as a mirror, as we will see when the theatrics are over and the fight is on.

And here is where I get speculative, because I want to take two more steps: First, to say that masks can be mirror and window simultaneously, so that Verso can make great art without abandoning his masks. Second, to say that Verso, before his death, understood this.

Neither proposition has much textual support! We see a lot of masks on this island, none of which serve simultaneously as window and mirror. And what little we learn about the first Verso over the course of the entire game is filtered through his childhood creation or through other people, who loved him dearly but perhaps didn't always see him clearly.

But here's my last shred of evidence: Renoir's axons are, with the exception of the Mask Keeper, wholly representative of his point of view. Parables, according to Maelle. (You could argue that they're great art as Renoir understands it: mirrors for his loved ones, windows to his wishes for them and what those wishes reveal about himself, but that's another post, I think.)

My point is that Verso's axon should reflect Renoir's understanding of Verso: beloved, brilliant, but hiding behind his masks. Held back by reluctance to know himself or let himself be known.

The Mask Keeper isn't that. He's a trickster, yes, but he doesn't hide. The masks don't restrain his art, they are his art. He uses them with intent, precision, and clarity of purpose. Because he is, after all, not a visual artist but an actor, lit by spotlights, monologuing as he gazes at a skull mask.

Renoir, with his incredible talent, captured with this axon parts of his son that he, Renoir, doesn't consciously perceive.

(I think the Mask Keeper's divergence from Renoir's vision has interesting implications for the debate about whether Renoir's criticism of Aline for painting humans is hypocritical, but that, too, is another post.)

I wrote a few weeks ago about how Verso's passion for music above the visual arts informs his understanding of the canvas. I think this difference in artistic sensibility between Verso and the rest of the family is also significant here. Theatre and musical performance are very different, of course, but they have more in common than music and visual art: they are both performance arts, in which the performers both affect and are affected by the emotions of their audience. And they are both arts that (while we now have the technology to record them) are historically, and I think fundamentally, transient: the performance ends, and no subsequent performance will ever be exactly the same. Performance unfolds over time, while visual artists create artifacts, complete and whole, unchanging.

So, with those similarities in mind, allow me to shamelessly conflate theatre and music. There are important differences, but I want to make some inferences about Verso from the nature of theatre, so gosh darn it I shall.

While Renoir is obviously skilled in the use of metaphor and symbolism in his work, he nevertheless believes that a painter must bare their soul on the canvas. The painter who wears a mask puts a wall up between themselves and the audience; they can never be a great artist. But an actor must wear a mask, either literally or figuratively, in order to communicate and elicit emotion; they pretend in order to illuminate a truth. The mask is an essential part of the art. I believe Verso, a performer above all else, understands his masks to be part of his work, not an obstruction to it.

And there's a darker side to this, of course (light and shadow, clair-obscur). Theatre is more manipulative than the visual arts. The composition of a painting gently encourages the eye to follow a certain path, but bright spotlights place hard boundaries on the audience's perception: you will see what the director intends, when they intend, and you will see absolutely nothing else. The performance unfolds over time, along a route determined in advance by director, playwright, and actors, with the goal of eliciting an emotional response to that unfolding story; that is, with the goal of manipulating the audience. Viewing a painting (or reading a book, for that matter *gestures at Alicia*) is much freer: glance over it, or immerse yourself in it for hours, taking in its details at your own pace, according to your own whims, feeling however that work of art makes you feel at that particular moment.

The Mask Keeper is manipulating the expedition from the moment they step onto the island... just as painted Verso manipulates the expedition from the moment they step onto the continent. To paraphrase the Mask Keeper, masks are not just to illuminate. They may also obscure.

And so Renoir isn't wrong, but he isn't seeing the whole picture, either. Because masks can be many things: wall, mirror, window, art, tool.

Masking and authenticity, or: Yep, my reasoning is motivated

I'm what's known these days as a high-masking autistic person (because "high-functioning" *spits on ground* is a cursed misnomer). But I didn't learn that about myself until I was in my thirties. Instead I learned at a very young age that my autistic traits were bad and wrong, and that if I wanted to be loved I had to be different. I was so young when I began, and so good at conforming, that I even fooled myself.

But that sort of masking isn't sustainable. Everybody does something like masking a lot of the time: code-switching, putting on a professional face for work, smoothing over social conflict with a smile you don't actually feel. But autistic masking is… intense. It's not just pushing some parts of yourself to the fore and hiding others; it's developing new, wholly unintuitive, effortful ways of being in the world. It's constantly surveilling and policing every aspect of how you show up in the world.

Turns out, prolonged stress is really bad for you!

So I crash and burn, and suddenly all the ways I used to mask are just… gone? And I don't really know who I am anymore. Because I started suppressing that person as a child.

From what I've heard and read, this is a fairly common experience for late-diagnosed high-masking autistics. It's really difficult to figure out what part of you is the mask and which part is you. I've suppressed all my sensory discomfort and all my natural traits and impulses so hard that I have to rediscover them through laborious trial and error. I keep peeling back layers, thinking I've finally figured it out, but whoops. More mask.

But that mask? Is also me. I look back on who I was in my twenties and I don't think she's a phoney. She's confident and adventurous and full of life. I like her. I wish I could tell her that she's furiously treading water just under the surface, and hey girl you're autistic, why not go sit in a quiet, darkened room for a bit and listen to yourself. But… I like her. She might have been masking, but she lived a life better aligned with my values than the one I live right now. More closely resembling my dreams.

So if I must rebuild myself now, I don't want to throw the entire mask away. I just want to understand its shape and learn where the sharp edges are.

And this is why I appreciate the island of Visages: because a mask is just a tool. It isn't inherently deceitful. It isn't necessarily isolating. The trick is to understand it and yourself; to know when to take it off. Verso, I want to believe, understood that this was possible. He knew, or was learning, how to play with masks, how to create with them, and how to be unconstrained by them. To use them to illuminate, not to hide.

Because, in the words of Agrado, which I have thought about at least twice a month for two decades, "You are more authentic, the more you resemble what you've dreamed of being."

[sarshles-cheescake-li]

Some fun translation facts about Yingdu...

-Xia Fei doesn't necessarily call Vein "warm-hearted." “热心肠" doesn't mean warm-hearted, as in compassionate. It's based on 热心, or passionate. You use it for someone who's helpful, whom you can expect to speak up for people, but not necessarily someone who's "warm." It's more a comment on someone's willingness to get involved in other people's business than their kindness.

-Laoban (老板) is a pretty common way for employees to refer to their bosses. Distinctive from surname-laoban (e.g. Li-laoban), since surnames are usually used if 1. you need to distinguish between several superiors, 2. you're trying to appeal to someone (aka basically talking them up), or 3. you're on somewhat-equal ground with the person, socially, and using it literally because they're the boss of a company. Other terms like -xiansheng (先生)/-nüshi (女士)depending on the person's gender) and -zong (总) may also be used, but laoban (without a surname) is the most "casual" without being informal. Informally, you might use surname-ge (哥)/jie (姐) (common between people of similar ages with an authority/respect gradient, sometimes used casually between friends for an older person), lao (老)-surname (more common the older you get, typically for seniority or generation gaps, but some older folks will use it universally for their friends who are around the same age), dage (大哥)/dajie (大姐) (implies a more familial relationship, but not as explicitly as gege (哥哥) or jiejie(姐姐)). In short: Xia Fei's "laoban," in terms of word choice, is pretty normal socially -- unlike in English where "boss" is kinda a weird term to call someone as their default name. What makes it silly is the fact that he uses it very informally.

-Cheng Xiaoshi calling people 帅哥 (hottie) isn't exactly correct. The shuaige/meinü (美女) (handsome man/beautiful woman) combo is just a pretty common compliment to give someone. It doesn't have to actually imply attraction, and it is often more of a "wow, this person's conventionally attractive" thing. Of course, I'm not saying that that is exactly how Cheng Xiaoshi meant it -- with that tone and context, it could go either way.

-Same logic applies to 美少年 (handsome young man), except it has far more of a teasing/ironic implication, especially when preceded by 美少女 (beautiful young woman). So far as I can tell, 美少年 kind of refers to the same kind of vibe and appearance as… a twink, just without the queer undertones. The bi-coding of that scene would actually require a second layer of linguistic irony that's kind of difficult to explain, although, rest assured, there is still a pretty bi way of reading it.

-Xia Fei's contact name for Liu Xiao means "client who doesn't mind his own business/is nosy/bothers me with a lot of things/is hard to please" or that general vibe. Basically, annoying, but very specifically the high-maintenance flavour of annoying.

-When Vein tells Xia Fei to "脾气收敛点" (or, well, Xia Fei promises to do so) as in to control his temper, the 脾气 he uses doesn't exactly mean temper, in the sense of anger. It's more of how thick your skin is, or how tolerant you are of bs (although it's also dependent on context). In the context of Xia Fei using it, it comes closer to "stop being so impulsive and reacting to people who don't need reacting to." So, more like "control yourself." Notably, 脾气 can also refer to when someone's whining. Like, if my roommate is acting all annoyed at me because I called potatoes ugly (they are extraordinarily ugly), I might say to her “发什么脾气呢" (what are you throwing a fuss about) as a joke.

Another fun fact: some nicknames for the Yingdu trio on Lofter are 鸟木哥, based on 枭, 非文哥, based on 斐 (both of these are deconstructions of their names), and 静脉哥, based the Mandarin term for Vein, as in the blood vessel.

English internet: I'm going to shorten this six-letter long name into two letters so it's easier to type.

Chinese internet: I'm going to lengthen this two-character name into three characters so it's funnier to type.

[mechncheese]

your designs are so peak! dyou think youd be willing to share some of your process for how you develop the looks you make?

Sure thing ! I'll take you on a journey into my mind's eye

Long text post ahead in case anyone's interested in my designing process

I start off with references-- lots of references. I pull inspiration from more than one iteration for a character ! For Brainstorm specifically I took the most inspiration from IDW Brainstorm with aspects from G1 like his darker/greener color.

Red Alert's darker color palette is also based on the TFA design with heavy IDW influence. First Aid's little doctor's coat was inspired by the Bayverse Crosshair's coat. Ratchet's design is based on his Prime, G1, IDW, and Cyberverse iterations but I took the most inspiration from his Prime design (I think Prime Ratchet is also my favorite Ratchet so I might be biased)

Before I begin designing anything, I map out the character's silhouette, it gives me a feel for the shapes I want and how they'd stand out in a lineup. Here's Wheeljack for an example.

Then I start the first draft/sketch. I just draw on top of the silhouette and adjust as I go, I'm mostly going based on what feels right to me.

Since a lot of the bots I was working with had White and Red color palettes I had to use different accent colors to break it up and I wanted to emphasize their shape language. I try to keep things from blurring together too much. I also used various off-white colors (it's very subtle) and different shades of red.

I also pull inspiration from figurines/model kits from gundams specifically-- honestly I do this mostly for the legs, I struggle a lot with making the legs look right so I look at Gundam legs for references on knee articulations and the ankles.

a lot of it is trial and error and it usually takes me more than one attempt before finalizing a design. Let me show you the monster that is my first Brainstorm attempt.

Good fucking god I have no idea what the hell I was thinking, literally the first thing I said to myself as I was finishing this was "Oh my god he is UGLY, I cannot keep him like that" he was not working out so I went back to the drawing board and worked small.

Here was my second draft of Brainstorm, I was thinking about his personality as I was working on him which I think helped a lot. Chaotically natured, I incorporated a lot of sharp shapes and I darkened his color palette to a sea green to let the red and yellow/orange accents stand out. It also emphasizes his more sinister personality while the broad yellow-accented shoulders paired with the extra red accents kind of give him this "show-off" and "full of himself" vibe.

My previous mistake was that the blue was far too bright and the orange and red were just clashing too much. Also his wings being flat against his back just did not fit him. I think I was too afraid to break to mold with Brainstorm-- Like there was this line between "This is not Brainstorm enough" or "This is too far from being Brainstorm" and then I remembered his very wise words

Then I just started to get adventurous and experimental and bam, we have Science AU Brainstorm. The major takeaway from this is don't be afraid to get wild with your designs.

In contrast, Since Prowl and Brainstorm will be seen around each other a lot, I kept Prowl's design less flashy and his palette limited, pulling heavily from IDW Prowl. It also fits his personality, he's much more serious and orderly. So when they're seen in the same drawing, there's this nice design compliment between Brainstorm and Prowl.

Another oopsies I did was initial First Aid attempt where I made his accent color orange for some reason. It looked really bad and I ended up changing it to blue which worked a lot better.

But yeah ! That's my general design process ! Play around, have fun and don't be afraid to get experimental and try some new things for designs !

[marley-manson]

My Hawkeye take boiled down to its fundamental core is that everything fandom is inclined to interpret as low self esteem and/or self loathing is actually just love and emotional openness and intensity.

I’m actually pretty adamant about Hawkeye specifically not having major personal issues pre-war - self-esteem problems, self-loathing, major insecurities, that kind of thing - because I think that serves the themes of the story best (particularly in the first half of the show, but even throughout the rest to an extent). I think Hawkeye is supposed to be a self-actualized dude who has his shit together, who’s been thrown into a fucked up situation, and it’s that situation that causes his problems, not any major issues he had pre-war.

Hawkeye has insomnia because of the war, Hawkeye has nightmares because of the war, Hawkeye has a manic breakdown because of the war, Hawkeye is specifically heavily affected by the war because he’s “the sanest man” Sidney knows, as he says in Hawk’s Nightmare. It’s important to the satire of the first half of the show that Hawkeye is an emotionally healthy person in a situation that destroys emotionally healthy people, and it’s important to the anti-war message throughout that Hawkeye’s problems come mainly from the war-zone setting rather than his own issues.

Honestly I can only think of two scenes across 11 seasons that imply that Hawkeye has intrinsic insecurities that can’t be better explained as Hawkeye’s emotionally expressive and loving nature (incidentally Bless You Hawkeye, another obvious contender, is very blatantly about love which is why I don’t mention it): Show Biz and Who Knew, and both those Hawkeye plots essentially contradict the themes of the earlier show and exist specifically to problematize the womanizing of earlier years. I don’t think they hold weight when put against the earlier show, where Hawkeye’s womanizing was portrayed as both a reason to like Hawkeye, and a reasonable reaction to being thrown into a war zone.

And if some fans enjoy taking stuff like, eg, Hawkeye’s guilt in Fallen Idol as evidence of insecurities and guilt issues and intrinsic self-loathing, that’s their perogative and maybe it makes more sense based on what they get out of the rest of the show and the themes they prioritize, but for me it makes more sense given the themes of the show as a whole and for Hawkeye’s role within the show to take it as a very reasonable emotional reaction anyone might have when their friend gets shot after they gave him some well-meaning advice, rather than evidence of deep-seated issues - another instance of the war taking its toll on Hawkeye because he’s in touch with his feelings and not repressed.

Or another common example is Hawkeye getting upset about people leaving without saying goodbye - or his dad hiding someone's illness from him and preventing him from saying goodbye. I think that's indicative of his need to express his love and his emotions and not Abandonment Issues. He's perfectly capable of letting people go when they can talk for five minutes first (eg Love and War, GFA, even The More I See You where he put up more of a fight for a minute), and it's pretty normal to be upset when someone disappears without a word. If anything, Hawkeye's reactions to BJ and Trapper doing it are pretty even-keeled imo.

There’s also another element I enjoy which is more present in the early seasons but still holds true over the course of the show - Hawkeye’s emasculation as portrayed as a virtue. I think it’s also important to the vibes that Hawkeye is the most likeable person on the show, the most admirable, the dude you should want to be most like, and he’s very pointedly the antithesis of american military masculinity. Imo adding self-loathing and self-esteem issues to that also undermines the vibes I enjoy by making him a more typical type of self-depricatingly effeminate comedic character, and the show did enough undermining of it in the later seasons that I don’t want to add more lol.

Basically for me, to interpret Hawkeye as having big detrimental Issues and being fucked up in whatever ways pre-war detracts from my favourite themes of the show rather than serving those themes, so I prefer another explanation for many of those moments - the aforementioned love/emotional openness, or, often in other cases, just taking what Hawkeye says in its intended jokey way. And I do think this is what the writers usually intended, give or take some messy writing in the last few seasons.

[stonesense]

various and sundry artbook tidbits i found interesting (SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE VEILGUARD ARTBOOK. obviously)

faction & location stuff:

a sketch page from the very early days exploring shape languages for factions like elves, dwarves, wardens, the necropolis, tevinter, and rivain, also includes concepts for the mages’ college and the ben-hassrath

early rivain concept arts have npcs with a similar armour patterning to duncan’s, suggesting it’s a mark of his rivaini heritage like i always thought!

the depiction of the ““creation story”” suggests elves were mimicking the bodies of dwarves when they formed their own, not humans like i think mythal says in game flashbacks, which would make more sense timeline wise

there’s concept art of the city of ventus, which i believe is of particular relevance to mercar players? it’s right on the border of arlathan forest, and surrounded by magical statues holding out raised hands forming a ward along the tree line to keep it from encroaching

the home base was going to be a lovable fixer-upper of a ship given to us by isabela, named the dumat. this didn’t fit the spy theme they were originally going for, so they tried really really hard to make it a submarine without feeling anachronistic by making it sort of sea monster shaped. there are a lot of cutaways and schematics. they were going to give it a mystery engine that you would get light fetch quests to feed random objects: “ten dried lavender flowers, five quail’s eggs, three brass belt buckles, etc.....” the submarine then turned into an undersea mansion on the back of some giant shambling sea creature you would never get a good look at

later on there were some funny takes on the lighthouse specifically, like bringing back the sea creature theme to put it on the back of an interdimensional veil whale, or having it be the true location of the black emporium with a collection of eluvians that xenon the antiquarian lets you use

there’s a tiny concept art for a “high-speed aravel chase” in a canyon like a western

tevinter gladiators are mentioned a couple times. we WEREEE going to get to see the minrathous proving grounds :( there’s also a dwarven embassy concept art somebody take me out back and shoot me

there are a lot of ghilan’nain creature designs that didn’t make it into the game which is a shame but i can see why they would have been resource heavy

the antiva concept arts are so gorgeous. a lot of it got through! and definitely the overall Vibe made it. at some point it seems to have been antiva city itself; they don’t call it treviso and they mention the circle of magi as a major landmark

“The entrance to the Necropolis is like an inverted Tower of Babel. They seek knowledge in the grave instead of heaven.” <- this just rules as a line

for arlathan: “To differentiate it from previous forest and jungle locations in Dragon Age, we went with an autumnal colour palette. It has the benefit to feeling ominously like the end.”

the veil jumpers have a “skull halla” symbol that “implies their willingness to risk death”. did that end up in the game?

“With each faction, we explored a range of aspirational fantasies. For the Wardens, this ranged from knights in shining armour to butal tanks to a Nietzche quote: ‘Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster.’”

there’s this concept among the warden armours for an insane orlesian noblewoman look with the winter palace morrigan corset and a piled high wig, but the skirts torn knee length and a serrated fan in hand. i’m kind of obsessed

“To bring more life to the world, we thought about what industries would keep the Anderfels afloat. We took the prominent Warden blue colour and envisioned an industry harvesting flowers, creating dye, and then weaving copious amounts of blue fabric.” this is probably where the flower quests in the hossberg wetlands started off conceptually? v cute

character stuff:

in completely different early versions of the game, solas had a “bad cop” right hand woman called reva

imshael the desire demon/choice spirit from the masked empire and inquisition was going to be a two-handed weapon warrior companion, and also sexualised now while in largely feminine form, which would have been a Choice. there is one art of him in masculine form, also sexy but still not showing as much skin as the feminine one

as i said, neve was going to be calpernia

taash was a rogue. (they’re still a light-armoured dual wielder so that checks out.) it seems like davrin was briefly a mage. at some points harding seems to have inherited bianca

saarbrak, another qunari companion, seems to have lastest the longest of the abandoned concepts. he’s the only non-canon one who got as far as having a place for him sketched into designs of the lighthouse: “saarbrak’s planning room”. mentions and sightings of what might be him are sporadic and i think you only see his name on that sketch, but i’m connecting it to the description “a potential qunari companion evolved from saarebas to dapper qunari spy, offering a deeper look into qunari culture”

the embroidery on harding’s clothes is how she passes the time while “waiting for days in a sniper perch” on missions. i just thought that was cute

[candycornfieldcookie]

hello and welcome to the “I am annoyed about something that really doesn’t matter and I’m going to yell about it on here because I can” show. This episode is called:

“Which Random CRK Intern Made This Graphic And Where Can I Find Them (I Just Want To Talk)”

For context, in case you’re a normal well-adjusted human, the image on the left was posted to the OFFICIAL ENG. CRK TWITTER ACCOUNT on Sept 30th last year. And just yesterday, I saw it for the first time and proceeded to yell over discord with my friend @cunt-removal about how stunningly, amazingly WRONG it is.

I’m aware this was probably slapped together by a social media team, based on vibes and nothing else, but fuck it I’m tearing it apart anyway. Because I can, and if you’re reading this voluntarily then it’s what you signed up for!

The image on the right summarises all my grievances with it, but if you want my more specific and detailed Thoughts™️, read on! (My version of this alignment chart is at the end)

Okay so starting with the most egregious one to me - WHAT exactly is Golden Cheese doing in Neutral?

She’s Good. SHE’S GOOD. PUT HER IN GOOD, YOU COWARDS. If Mr “Life’s Greatest Regret” over here gets to be a step down from Cookie Jesus himself (and believe me, we’ll get to you, CACAO) then Goldie should be ABOVE that. I won’t deny she’s Chaotic - her heroism and personal code is very unconventional, based on traits like greed and vanity which are often regarded as inherently bad, but which she uses for good. Plus she’s impulsive, willing to disregard safety and sensibility for what she believes is right. She’s Chaotic Good all the way.

A Neutral would not give Smoked Cheese a second chance after the shit he pulled (tbh HE’S the Chaotic Neutral one between them). A Neutral wouldn’t wake him up and immediately give him a responsibility to protect two other people’s lives. And - the one that really seals it for me - a Neutral would not THROW THE FIGHT AGAINST BURNING SPICE to protect the life of one singular random child she’d just met. Goldie is Chaotic Good and I will hear no argument.

And I especially resent the implication that Dark Cacao is morally better than her??? DARK CACAO?? Are you joking???

Listen I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, I love that sad old man so much. Probably too much. And as such I feel qualified to say that HIS ASS IS NOT NEUTRAL GOOD. HE’S NEITHER OF THOSE THINGS.

He has a solid and immovable moral code, and he abides by it without flinching. And he’s a good person, more than capable of change for the better, but his flaws land him squarely in Neutral for me. And if we’re using Goldie as our metric, he’s definitely a step below her in terms of morality.

Let me put it like this.

If Goldie had a child, and that child grew up to betray her like Dark Choco did, she would never in a MILLION YEARS even DREAM of telling that child - to their face - that they are her life’s greatest regret. Not even on the spur of the moment, not even after being hurt the way Cacao was. No matter the context. (In fact I have a headcanon that she deeply disapproves of how Cacao handled that situation, even holding a bit of a grudge despite them being friends, but that’s a story for later.) Bottom line - if Goldie is in Good, Cacao’s in Neutral.

Put him in Lawful Neutral where he belongs, and then get my girl Caramel Arrow out of there because are you seriously telling me SHE’S Neutral? The same Carrow who’s willing to do anything, even lay down her life, to protect her King and her home? The Carrow who remained outspoken and just during Affogato’s takeover to the point of getting herself banished - and STILL not losing faith in Cacao? Somehow? She’s the one who should be in Neutral Good. Maybe even Lawful Good.

Hollyberry and Pitaya’s placements are… fine. I can see them as accurate. (Maybe I’m just not as in-depth about Pitaya’s character as some people, though, so if any Pitaya fans have a problem with their placement as True Neutral then lmk I would genuinely love to hear ur thoughts.)

Anyway, let’s talk about Affogato. Because… ehh? Maybe he’s Neutral Evil? I guess I could see it, but at the same time he strikes me as Lawful in the sense that he uses the structure of society to his advantage in order to ascend within it, manipulating people and situations to his advantage without technically breaking any laws - he feels much more Lawful Evil to me.

At the very least he’s more Lawful than MYSTIC FLOUR. Because whose bright idea was it to put her in that spot? What law is she following, exactly? I think it should be pretty common sense that NONE of the Beasts are Lawful, because of. you know. their entire existence as Beasts breaking the rules upon which they were created. Mystic’s ass isn’t Lawful, girl is Neutral Evil if there’s ever been one. Switch her with Affogato NOW.

So, long story short:

^my version

[high-voltage-rat]

Okay rvb gang real talk for a sec. I think y'all should put a little more thought into the way you draw and characterize Captain Butch Flowers. Specifically with regards to the widely accepted facecanon having native-coded features.

Facecanons in rvb generally fall under 2 categories: the ones based off of information about the person's race and background we receive in the canon, and ones that are purely headcanon, based on vibes. For example, we're told Simmons is Dutch-Irish, so it's common to draw him as a white redhead. Tucker being black is as close to directly stated as we ever get re: any of the reds and blues' races. But Sarge is often drawn as a white man despite no information being given about his race- it's usually chosen by the headcanoner based off the vibes we get from his behaviour.

So when it comes to Flowers, let's think for a second about how the fandom generally interprets his character. In canon, we see him on blue team making his soldiers a bit uncomfortable with his overly familiar behaviour, having a cheerful and upbeat demeanour. We also see him in PFL working with Wyoming to do recon, then getting hit with a tomahawk, throwing it back at the enemy, and then using his grenade launcher to bring down a crane and kill chain guy and girl. Later he's in charge of choosing soldiers to place in blood gulch, where we see he has no problem feeding soldiers through the fodder machine and covering up for Freelancer- including essentially killing Jimmy. What we see in fandom, though, is a guy who is cheerfully menacing, casually hyperviolent, bubbly facade, likes knives, 'probably has a torture basement', etc.

So I would like us to think for a moment about why, exactly, people took those vibes, that interpretation of his character, with the more violent aspects overinflated, and decided to draw him with native-coded features. I would like us all to take a second and consider the connotations behind the pile of art out there where a brown man with long dark hair in a braid is splattered in blood. To me, this particular choice just feels like another "native s*vage" trope, and I think it has really not been thought through.

Indigenous headcanons in rvb are admittedly pretty difficult. Rvb is a problematic media through and through, and there's always going to be something offensive in the way a character is portrayed. I myself hc the Grifs as kānaka maoli, due to them being from Hawai'i and Kaikaina's name- but between Grif's laziness and Kai's hypersexuality, it definitely falls into some other offensive stereotypes about indigenous people, and particularly native Hawaiians.

But to me, the distinguishing thing is that these are facets of their characters that have something deeper behind them- there are reasons for these traits that are explored both by canon and the fandom meta. Grif's laziness is a result of his personal struggle with having to care for his sister alone, as well as his general disdain for the army as an institution. Kai's sexuality is her way of seeking fun and connection in her life, likely in part due to feeling abandoned by their mother, and then by her brother. In the case of the Grifs, fandom treats them well by taking these established character traits, and not overinflating, but contextualizing them, and treating them as part of a larger whole. Grif is loyal to his friends, he's clever and observant when he's willing to show it. Kai is independent, business-savvy, and assertive. These other character aspects exist in the fandom portrayal, so their depictions don't feel like a glaring stereotype. In the right hands, with enough care and love, their negative traits can even be used to explore the impact of colonialism- how the stereotypes are based off the conditions and circumstances forced on us by its influence.

Flowers, on the other hand, has a fandom portrayal that feels like an artificial exaggeration of a single aspect of his canon character. There's very little depth behind it, no real contextualization- he hasn't been fleshed out by fandom, he's almost been reduced by it. Naturally, contextualization is going to be harder because he's a minor character and we don't hear much- if anything- about his background. But it is still an active choice by people who make fan content of him to emphasize certain traits, and it's thus far been the traits that fall into some very harmful tropes.

So my suggestion, as an indigenous person, is this. You don't have to change your facecanon, necessarily- but put some thought into it. Whether you're depicting him as an explicitly native person, or just with native-coded features, consider the connotations. Reconsider exaggerating his violent side so much: technically speaking, we've seen him kill 2 people somewhat indirectly, in the same mission that North killed like 5 in a similar manner and Tex literally murdered C.T. with a tomahawk. Do you emphasize their violence in the same way? Why did you choose to do so for Flowers? If you want him to be unsettling, his enthusiastic facilitation of PFL's activities in blood gulch and lack of qualms about using and discarding sim troopers is there to work with- something non-violent but no less sinister, something less aligned with common harmful stereotypes when applied to indigenous people, and much more founded in canon as a distinguishing part of his character.

Just stop to think "is this portrayal a reinforcement of the "native s*vage" trope?", and "is this really that founded in canon?". Think about whether someone with no experience in rvb fanon would look at your content and see more than a native guy in mystery blue guy's armour doing gratuitous violence for no reason.

Consider the less explored but canonical aspects of his character, flesh them out with headcanon. Sure, he killed chain guy and girl, but he also yanked a tomahawk out of his arm after falling from height and kept fighting- explore his resilience, what drives him. His strategic mind, using the environment against his enemies, carefully balancing the illusion surrounding blood gulch and constructing specific social dynamics. Hell, even delve into why he believes in Freelancer enough to do what he's done without issue. Flesh out your portrayal, dial back the singularity of the vibes you give him.

Indigenous people aren't exempt from being awful, or violent, or complicit in corrupt systems- but if you portray a native character that way without any depth or reason behind their choices, you often end up reinforcing a stereotype.

...and if gratuitous violence is what you want, if you like that creepy knife-obsessed murder guy, then yeah. Maybe consider changing your facecanon. Cause I'm a little tired of seeing characters who look like my people always soaked in blood and acting like they have innate uncontrolled urges to kill. Depictions like that about us were part of what formed the justification for our genocide, so please try not to perpetuate that.