#wanted a mix of the original and a castle theme

[chez-cinnamon]

Hello my name is Caine Nouvel and welcome to my MTV crib tour

[cressidagrey]

Building Blocks

Pairing: Oscar Piastri x Felicity Leong-Piastri (Original Character)

Summary: How to parent a genius: A guide by Oscar Piastri.

Notes: Because I felt like it was very mean to just give you "half" a new piece of writing, with an edited version, here you have some fluff!

(divider thanks to @saradika-graphics )

Oscar had long since accepted that he was raising a genius.

It wasn’t the kind of genius that screamed for attention or rattled off multiplication tables at age two (though she could, and did, if she was annoyed enough). No, Bee’s genius was different—patient, precise, methodical in a way that sometimes made Oscar forget she was still learning how to tie her shoes consistently.

At the moment, she was halfway through assembling the LEGO® Technic Ferrari Daytona SP3—3,778 pieces, ages 18+, and she was building it upside down just for fun.

Oscar had found it complicated enough to need a YouTube tutorial and was now trying to attach one very specific connector piece. It was not going well.

“Papa,” Bee said gently, not even looking up from her own section, “that axle doesn’t go there. It’s a two-length, and you’re using a three. That’s why the gearbox won’t sit flat.”

Oscar blinked. “How do you see that?”

She shrugged. “I counted the ridges.”

Of course she had.

He changed the piece, and—miraculously—it clicked into place.

They were seated on the living room rug, surrounded by plastic trays of sorted bricks and half-finished subassemblies. 

Oscar had tried giving her a kid’s set once this year. Something with animals. She’d built it in seven minutes, asked him if it was a prank, and requested the Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 next.

He looked at her now—curled over her build instructions, her tongue poking out slightly in concentration, tiny fingers moving with frightening efficiency—and wondered, not for the first time:

How do you race a kid like this?

Not race in the literal sense.

 Race in the life sense.

How do you raise someone who could probably code her way into a Mars rover before she loses her first tooth?

 How do you parent brilliance?

Oscar loved her completely. That part was easy.

 But raising her… it sometimes felt like trying to build IKEA furniture with the instructions written in Latin while she translated them into quantum theory beside you.

When Bee was two, he’d brought home a simple Lego castle. The 5+ kind. Pink turrets. Smiling bricks. It had taken her twenty-four minutes. No instructions. One correction.

They moved to the 10+ sets after that. Then 12+. 16+.

Now they didn’t bother with age labels. If it didn’t come with multiple gear assemblies and at least two bags of axles, she got bored.

He leaned back, stretching out his legs as she sorted bricks with the focus of someone solving a global crisis. Her curls were pulled back in a lopsided ponytail, and she was humming to herself—some hybrid of Beethoven and the Paw Patrol theme. A mix of classical and chaos. Just like her.

And Oscar found himself smiling.

 “Do you think you’ll want to build real cars one day?”

Bee paused. Thought. “Maybe. Maybe I’ll restore cars like Mama does. I like knowing why something works. Why people make the choices they do.” She looked up at him. “I like your choices.”

Oscar’s heart stuttered in his chest.

“You do?”

She nodded. “You always come home. Even when you go far.”

He swallowed. 

Bee smiled, then reached for another piece, her tiny hands precise. “Mama said you have to go race soon.”

“Yeah. In Japan.”

She nodded. “Don’t forget my shirt.”

Oscar smiled, eyes crinkling. “Never.”

They worked in silence for a while. The only sounds were the click of Lego pieces and the distant hum of the dishwasher.

Oscar watched her move—steady, focused, brilliant. She didn’t fidget. Didn’t question herself. She just knew what she wanted to build and made it happen.

He was raising a genius.

 And not just the kind with facts in her head—though there were plenty. She had empathy. Precision. Curiosity.

And she scared the hell out of him.

 In the best way.

The thing was, Bee wasn’t just smart. Lots of kids were smart. Bee was something else entirely. Curious in a way that never stopped. Observant in ways that made you feel like she could see under your skin if she tilted her head right.

She didn’t just memorize—she understood.

She asked how DRS worked when she was two and followed up with, “But doesn’t that affect battery deployment?”

She once looked at telemetry on Oscar’s laptop and said, “Why are you lifting before Turn 9 now?” and then told him why when he didn’t answer fast enough.

And somehow, she still wanted him to sit beside her while she built things. Still curled up under his arm during movie night. Still called him Papa like it was magic.

Oscar ran a hand through his hair, watching her snap together a section of bricks like she'd been born doing it.

“How’d you get so smart?” he asked softly.

Bee didn’t even pause. “Because you and Mama never make me feel weird for asking questions.”

Oscar blinked. His throat tightened.

“You don’t get mad when I want to read the building manual instead of the storybook,” she continued, turning the model gently to check the incline. “And Mama says it’s okay to love logic and glitter.”

Oscar nodded slowly, words caught somewhere between pride and awe.

He watched her now, slotting in a gear mechanism with tiny fingers and utter focus, her brow furrowed like a seasoned engineer.

How do you raise a kid who’s already looking three steps ahead?

Who watches a race and times pit stops with a stopwatch app she downloaded herself?

 Who reads two books a week and corrects the science in children's cartoons?

You don’t try to match her, Oscar thought.

You just show up.

You sit on the floor and sort the bricks. You listen when she talks about dolphins and binary code in the same breath. You answer every question, no matter how bizarre. You fold the shirts. You build the drawer. You take her seriously, because she always takes you seriously.

“Papa?”

Oscar looked up. “Yeah?”

Bee held up a completed axle assembly, expression bright. “Do you want to click this piece into place?”

He smiled. “Will you judge me if I get it wrong again?”

“Only a little.”

“Deal.”

He snapped the piece in. She double-checked it, nodded solemnly, and handed him the next one.

Oscar didn’t know how to raise a genius.

But he was learning how to build with one.

 Moment by moment.

 Brick by brick.

[lightandfellowship]

I've spoken on this in the past but I love the implications of the Gizmo Shop in Traverse Town and the Castle Chapel in Hollow Bastion, both being churches that seem to have been repurposed during the ongoing Heartless apocalypse.

Like, the implications of turning what appears to be a church based on its facade (it even has a bell on top, notably the thing that reveals Traverse Town's keyhole) into a shop. A commercial building for trading material goods, kinda the opposite of spiritual (depending on your definition anyway). No one in Traverse Town used the church as a church I guess so they were like "screw it, free real estate"? Again during an apocalypse mind you which apparently has lasted like 9 years by the time of KH1's events, so I feel like that says a lot about the trajectory of people's faith during that trying time...maybe a lot of residents just stopped believing in anything after losing so much and seeing no end in sight, eventually leading to the church becoming unused and repurposed. Just. Really cool bit of environmental storytelling there if you choose to believe this was intentional in any way.

Then there's the Castle Chapel in Hollow Bastion which is more clearly canonically a church due to its room name. It's covered in rose, thorn, and raven motifs (an indicaton of Maleficent's influence on the castle—some of these details even vanish once you defeat Dragon Maleficent) and the altar at the end of the room has a big Heartless emblem on it, as if it's the Heartless who are now being worshipped as opposed to...whatever used to be worshipped in Radiant Garden. (There is in fact a species of Emblem Heartless found at the End of the World called "Angel Stars" that have white feathered wings so like...yeah. Angels. The comparison is there. Divine messengers meant to enact God's will or whatever. I can imagine Ansem SoD seeing it that way, mixing religion and scholarship into his Darkness obsession). Real "wanting the world to end and thinking the Heartless apocalypse was meant to happen" vibes at this chapel.

So yeah, these details likely weren't here before the fall of Radiant Garden, it was probably just a normal chapel back when the world was still called Radiant Garden, the Emblem Heartless didn't exist yet, and Maleficent was nowhere in sight. But again, you have this visual of a church losing its original congregation, either due to loss of faith or people escaping a dying world, and then said church being turned into something else. In the Castle Chapel's case, getting twisted to worship something much more sinister.

I think future games, especially KHUX, get a bit more obvious with its religious imagery/symbolism/references/themes, but in KH1 it's definitely there too, and I think that's cool.

[ar-cadez]

Count Duckula Fan Rewrite!!

Recently I’ve been working on a Count Duckula rewrite that aims to give it a slightly more serious tone and semi-serialized story like many modern cartoons! It took some time, but I made redesigns of the main cast. I had fun making this project and I REALLY hope you do too! Because I’m extremely nervous that the small fan base Count Duckula does have will hate this

I haven’t actually finished the show btw so if there’s an antagonist or smth that shows up later I should’ve redesigned.. lmk! I’m open to suggestions I really like this show..

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Basic Concept

Practically the same as the original show! There is a long line of reincarnations of a wicked vampire duck named Count Duckula, the most recent reincarnation went wrong and now the current Count is a vegetarian and much more interested in becoming famous than being evil.

Some major differences include the tone and story structure, being semi-serialized and having more serious arcs mixed in with the antics, along with a lot of changes in characterization. A big story change is also that Nanny was not hired until AFTER Duckula was reincarnated so Igor was the one who screwed up the ritual.

Tone wise I’d also like to slightly age up the target audience so it could get away with a bit more dark humour. My favourite part of the original show was moments that were just so morbid and completely brushed past. 13+ would be fine methinks.

Basic plot of the average episode would be about the count’s hyperfixation of the week and trying to get famous or profit from it. Not every episode would follow this structure though.

The grander themes of the series would be all about expectations from family and strangers and how those expectations can be completely false.

—————————————————

Characters

^^ Final lineup! ^^

Sketches (less interesting poses but shows off some things better)

Count Duckula!

What I wanted to change

I feel like Duckula from the original spin-off was already a really strong character! There is a lot to him and really all I would want from a more emotional reboot is to dive into what’s already there. I did kinda project on him a bit in this rewrite though… gotta write what’cha know!

I also changed his design quite a bit. I never thought the suit fit his personality and I wanted to go with something a little more bright. If I go back again I might saturate his shirt a bit more. I also wanted all the residents of castle Duckula to have purple in their designs and for duckula and Towser to share similar colour’s inversed

Character Traits

Hatred of his legacy

Duckula is the first member of his lineage to not be an evil vampire and he hates that role that is expected of him. This is partially what drives him to be the nicest duck he can be, in hopes of shaking off his legacy. This also causes him to reject anything that's “spooky” or has to do with vampires. He physically can't eat meat or blood due to his botched resurrection, but even the sight of either distresses him.

Attention Drive

Due to his infamy, all Duckula wants is to be liked by the general public. Everyone in his town is automatically scared of him and he tries really hard to change their opinions on him whether that be through attempting to bea good samaritan or by performing in town. (Both tend to end poorly for him)

ADHD and Theatre Kid Behaviour

Duckula is constantly picking up and putting down new forms of art and performance. This can be anything from oil painting to American football. He does tend to get frustrated or distracted and abandon projects or crafts entirely. His favourite artform is acting and music so as you can imagine he's very into musicals. His musical talents are decent but his acting is awful. He’s also known to loud and overly excited over his interests

Ego and Cowardice

Being given a position of power the day you came into existence does have the tendency to make you… immature to say the least. When in danger, if he even realises there is any, Duckula’s first move is to use his title as leverage. If that doesn't work, his second is to beg, grovel, and lie his way out of the situation. That, or hide behind his much more intimidating companions.

Rich Kid Syndrome

Having the majority of people you know be your house staff really messes with your sense of responsibility. Duckula can hardly do many basic life skills on his own because of this. It's not like he is completely lazy but he does have executive dysfunction and has yet to realise that fact, causing him to procrastinate on many things and completely forget or just get someone else to do it.

Not Naturally kind

Being his father’s reincarnation, it only makes sense that Duckula would inherit many traits from his past lives. Many of the other Counts were ego-driven cowards with desires for fame. They just went about it differently. Duckula actively tries to be kind and polite but a lot of passive aggression and snark slips through the cracks of that veneer. He would never want to admit that he has ANYTHING in common with his ancestors and he hates that being nice doesn't just come naturally to him. Being an immortal, Duckula also has a skewed sense of mortality and often doesn't understand the severity of certain injuries and situations.

This Duckula has ADHD and Autism in this rewrite and he struggles most with executive dysfunction, restricted interests, memory issues, atypical empathy (not specifically low or high), sensory issues (mostly with eating and some sound), and social cues. He also stims.

Towser!

What I Wanted to Change

Towser isn’t even really a character in the original. Just a running gag without a face. I wanted to balance out the main cast by adding another female character since I have feelings on Nanny as a character and i didn’t know if i would even be able to salvage that.

I really like what I came up with! She’s fun to me and I’ll probably flesh her out more later.

Character Traits

Family drive

Towser has little interest in birds that aren't close to her and it usually takes awhile for her to get used to new people. However, she’ll protect those that she does care about with her life. She is the castle’s guard dog and will do whatever’s necessary to protect it. This often comes at the cost of her sleep, because she feels like she always needs to be awake to protect them.

Tag Along

Following Duckula around like a puppy is what Towser does best! She might not fully understand his enthusiasm on certain subjects, but she's always up to backing him up on his newest fame seeking endeavours (though she herself prefers physical activity over creative works). She never expects anything to come of it, but hey, at least it's something to do. She also likes to hear Duckula rant to her about his interests.

Big Sister

Towser is of a much more stable mental state than Duckula, and as his only friend around his age, he trusts her more to be someone to talk to about his identity issues and issues in general. The two are a lot warmer towards each other than they are anyone else, and can also get away with messing with the other a lot more.

Big ol Lap dog

When in werewolf form, Towser tends to forget her size and often crushes them with her size. This usually wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that she's always a lot more cuddly and energetic in wolf form than bird form. This is because, as a werewolf, she's only in wolf form at night and being a fully nocturnal bird that should only be awake at night, this messes with her sleep rhythm a lot.

Igor!

What I wanted to Change

Personality wise Igor is already really strong and I didn’t change much of that. You’ll probably notice from the sketches that Igor has a skeleton hand, that’s because I made him undead in this version just to give a reason to how he’s been able to live this long since the original doesn’t really have one (which is fine)

Character Traits

Devotion to the role

Igor has been the Count’s butler since the first incarnation. He was assigned to keep the Duckula legacy alive by reincarnating his master every time he meets his fate and helping him readjust every time. Helping each new reincarnation bring misery and fear to the town they reside by with a smile… Until the most recent incarnation of course. He’ll stick it out though, because he still has hope for him.

Taste for the macabre

Whether it be killing innocents behind the back of his new master, decorating the castle with cobwebs and bones, or using his undead nature to scare and torture those around him, Igor certainly has an interesting idea of fun. Igor gets a sick enjoyment out of causing others distress and despises all things kind and cute, something which definitely frustrates Duckula, who's desperately trying to fix his own image.

Bitter Traditionalist

Having lived through the centuries in castle Duckula, Igor has gained an appreciation for the history of the place and the vampire ducks that have resided there over the years. He’s rather invested in the lives of his previous masters and is extremely cross with the newest incarnation for not only not caring about that past, but also completely disowning it. Igor tries desperately to get Duckula to be a normal vampire, truly believing it could work with enough effort. Less he spend the next few centuries with a vegetarian for a master… Igor would not have a problem with Duckula pursuing fame if it weren't for the fact that he thinks it's distracting him from true vampirism.

Tired old man

Igor has lived for many centuries and he does not feel as if he should have to babysit for an immature man child like Duckula. He would rather ignore or snark the young count rather than actually talk to him. When the two argue its a constant back and forth of passive aggression and personal jobs that they almost always forget what they're actually arguing over. Duckula is physically and mentally very young (17-early 20s) compared to Igor’s other masters due to the botched revival and he doesn't know how to, or want to, deal with it.

Nanny!

What I Wanted to Change

I’m sorry to any hardcore Nanny fans out there but this is practically a whole new character. I find Nanny to be frustrating and annoying in the original and who I personally feel is a very sexist and mean spirited character. There’s absolutely nothing I would want to write with a character who’s just “big stupid fat woman inconveniences everyone around her” it’s just uncomfortable after a certain point.

My idea for a new take was just an extremely kind older woman who’s a little airheaded but is a lot smarter than people give her credit for. This sets her up as a foil to Igor. She’s also the only non-monster resident of the castle in this version which I personally think is really interesting.

Character Traits

Only good influence

While Igor actively sets out to make Duckula a bad person and Towser couldn't care less about how Duckula acts, Nanny is the only direct influence in Duckula’s life who pushes him to do better. Nanny believes Duckula is a good person at heart and pushes him to take more responsibility in his life. She wants him to learn a good work ethic and is fully supportive of him trying to better himself.

Good Christian Woman

Nanny is, in fact, a christian. She is fully aware of the demonic nature of her companions but believes that everyone can better themselves no matter their circumstances and attempts to better those around her. Igor hates her for it but she’s totally ignorant to that fact.

Assertive Mother Figure

Though Nanny is a very kind woman, she is also not a pushover. She will assert authority over Duckula and anyone else if necessary, and most are compliant once she puts her foot down, if they aren't, however, Nanny does pack a punch and won't hesitate to use her strength to protect her family.

Smarter than she seems

Nanny is an airheaded optimist with a big heart and those traits make her come off a lot more clueless than she actually is. She may seem like she has no idea what’s going on but she’s actually very observant and is fantastic at assessing a situation and finding the best course of action.

Dr. Von Goosewing

What I Wanted to Change

I really liked the idea of the antagonist to Duckula was in a liniage of vampire slayers and that their ancestors have been fighting for generations. It gave me the perfect set up for a ✨SHADOW ANTAGONIST✨ I wanted to make this rewrite have the two reflect each other a lot more. To do that I wanted Goosewing to still be a really cooky guy but I didn’t want the public to know that.

Also I have no idea why he’s dressed like Sherlock Holmes in the original if he’s a Van Helsing parody and also an inventor. You could’ve leaned into either of those ideas but for some reason he’s dressed like a detective? so I tried giving him a more fitting outfit but keeping his colours for recognisablity.

Character Traits

Playing Village hero

Goosewing is considered a big deal in town because of his family of vampire hunters. He’s prepared his whole life to kill Count Duckula the moment he comes back and to protect the common folk from the paranormal. Despite this, Goosewing isn't actually particularly skilled at his job and usually ends up failing his assassinations due to his own incompetence. He feels like he has to play the role as a hero to continue his family’s legacy despite not particularly enjoying it or being good at it.

Overestimating the enemy

With how cunning and malevolent the past Duckula incarnations were, Goosewing expects the same from this one. Goosewing believes that Duckula is a dangerous and clever foe completely focused on causing others pain. In reality, Duckula is the most incompetent bird in all of Transylvania, aside fromGoosewing himself, of course. Goosewing also comes to believe that Duckula is only acting nice to later betray the public, a belief he is not quiet about and that keeps the public from trusting Duckula.

Mad Scientist

Goosewing definitely falls into the eccentric scientist trope with his innovative but scatterbrained nature. He would much rather be working on an invention than actually doing his job. The public sees him as a hero but while hunting vampires or when hes alone he comes off as more of a mad scientist than the hero character he plays. His intentions are ultimately good but are completely based on the assumption that he’s the wholly good protector of the people and that Duckula is a cunning villain who's out to get him and everyone else.

Shadow

Goosewing and Duckula reflect each other in a lot of ways. They both have a legacy they are expected to uphold despite not wanting to or even being able to, they both care deeply about the public’s opinion on them while the public has an incredibly incorrect view of the both of them, and they both have creative interests outside of the roles expected of them that they'd rather be persuing. Duckula fully rejects anything to do with his ancestry, while Goosewing is actively trying to fulfil despite not enjoying it.

The Murder Brothers!

What I Wanted to Change

Haha I called them the murder brothers bc they’re crows and criminals Im actually so funny… anyway. I don’t know if I should’ve even done these guys but I really like them as antagonists so!!

I gave the younger two names and a personality. The wiki said they didn’t have names but if they do lmk and I’ll just fix that. Other than that I didn’t change much except try to give ‘em a bit more depth and changing their physical designs a ton for fun.

Character Traits

The Murder Brothers, as a whole, are a tight knit family of con men crows who pull any grift they can to get their hands on some cash. Though they may act like their only loyalty in life is to money, they do genuinely care about each other's well being

Ruffles

Ruffles is the short tempered and eldest leader of the group. He’s constantly frustrated with his brothers’ incompetence and isn't quiet about it. He believes that if it weren't for them he'd probably be a lot further in life by now (which isn't true) and he’ll say he doesn't care about them, but he actually does.

Burt

If he didn't insist on helping his brothers, Burt would be the most likely to be living an honest life. As the second oldest sibling, Burt holds a position as right hand man. He’s a naturally kind and enthusiastic bird who, while a bit dumb, does openly express his love for his brothers. He takes on a lot of the abuse from his older brother and is often used by the group to talk to others, because he's so naturally trustworthy.

Reggie

Reggie is the second youngest of the brothers and the most relaxed out of all of them. He has an impeccable sleight of hand and is the go to for lockpicking and such. He’s a decent smooth talker and is often the one to break up fights, though he's not above getting angry at the others himself.

Leroy

Leroy is the youngest of the brothers and by far the least skilled. His speech is incomprehensible from under his mask (although he can see through it for the most part) and he’s often left with the worst jobs during their cons because of that. He’s the most timid out of all of them but I’m sure if you took that mask off of him he’d be really talkative.

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Ending Words

Well that’s all I got! I spent way too long on this project that maybe two people will care about and one of them is me 💔 Anyway if I make anything else for this rewrite/au I’ll tag it with #wbcd . I wouldn’t count on it because I mighttt get burn out from this but im just so glad I finished it! I’ve thought about writing a pilot script just for fun but idk. I’d like to do more long format au stuff, I was going to make a YouTube video about this but I almost cried trying to record myself so I gave up 💔

[transformers87]

This was hard but i hope you like it

I tried my hardest to keep the silver white theme going…. I hope you like this better than my other attempts.

Meet cog-less prince Orion Pax!!

And no!! This is not a tangle theme!!! XD

Orion does have wings�� cause I did saw a drawing of him by someone that tried to make him look like a biblically accurate angel… so i kinda played round with it… and yeah I liked it…. His wings are stubby cause get it? Caged bird? And yeah…

Sentinel had kept him from remembering LITERALLY ANYTHING of his past, his original name, or fallen family by stripping off his colors and other memories tying to the original 13…. Within the tower that Sentinel calls his castle… he removed, disassembled and eliminate all ruminates of the primes…. Caging Orion within its very walls… utilizing everything to keep Orion as obedient as ever.. and ONLY to him.

Orion’s personality is mixed with his cannon verse self in the movie… his naive ambition of wanting knowledge and eagerness of going into mischief…. that’s when later… i’ll get there soon(next post)…. And it is mixed with Prime…. The solemn grief and heavy burdened version of his self…. Believing that he is no for to ever be a prime and still is in mourning of the loose of his siblings… plus loosing his friend Dee(obviously)…. And lastly his Bayverse self… when learning of the truth within the story plot and him having to confront and face Sentinel…. Like him literally going all out for blood… also my favorite lines “time to find out” and “give me your face!” And the blow to killing Sentinel off “you betrayed yourself”…

Yeah…. That’s about it

Any questions for this idea I would like to hear!!

:3

[manic-maniac-man]

Undercoverism

SS10 Gap interview

Jun Takahashi / Designer

"Less but Better" was the theme for the first men's show by Undercover. The theme of the collection has been taken from a book written by Dieter Rams who was a long-time head designer at Braun. Takahashi felt that there was an affinity between his design direction and Ram's philosophy when he started working on the collection and began his creation while collecting products designed by Rams. By sheer accident, Takahashi had a chance to meet Rams in Japan. He showed his sketches to Rams and got approval of using the title of the book for his first men's show.

gap PRESS spoke to the designer about his first show and collection.

Q1. After your first men's show, did you find any difference in your approach for creating men's clothes and womens?

- There is a big difference in my approach to create men's line as the basic concept is to design things I want to wear.

Q2. Was there any point you paid an attention to while creating this collection?

-As this was my first men's runway show, I paid attention to the feeling and balance of the entire collec- tion. I tried the minimal styling and avoid entertaining aspects to make the overall image stoic and minimal.

Q3. What was the trigger for you to stage your first men's show? Please tell us the difference between this season and previous men's collections.

- I had an offer from Pitti Immagine Uomo over one year ago and they wanted me to do a men's show and that was the cue. Actually I've been designing men's clothes for 20 years and I used to use a lot of fabrics. But, this time I tried to use as little as possi- ble. I have really never had a theme for my men's collections, I just designed them. But this time it was theme-based and deliberately designed.

Q4. The inspiration for this collection was designs by product designer Dieter Rams. How did you express the simple and beautiful attributes his designs have in this collection?

-His products have a distinctive presence and functionality no matter how old or new they are. I tried to express the simplicity and clear statement running through his works, which eliminated unnecessary decorations. As a direct approach, the details of holes like an air duct, meters and leather handles were incorporated in designing. The main color gray-beige is a mix of the tone I sensed from Rams' products and the one I wanted to express in this collection.

Q5. Considering the theme "Undercover-istic curve ball of minimal", what is the definition of undercover style? What exactly did you want to express through the collection?

- A unique interpretation of minimalism. I wanted to capture an Undercover-esque original minimal look.

Q6. Please tell us about what brought you to have your first men's show at a traditional Florentine ren- aissance garden and how it made you feel? And was there any particular point in production of the show?

- I chose a place where I could reflect the inclination to juxtapose industrial design and nature by showing the ideas originated from industrial design in nature. I persisted in a non-choreographed rendition. The rea- son I chose Boboli Gardens was because the place had an image of an Italian castle and was perfect for having a show and a doll-making performance.

Q7. What inspires you most often?

- It depends on each season. Sometimes it is music or artists, nothing in particular.

"Less but Better, Reflecting Product Design in Clothing Minimal Expressed thorough Hybrid Approach"

[mblue-art]

i’m curious about your take on strawberry nightmare! to you, what’s he like? how does he act? what’s he all bout?

He is annoying (/aff hehe), and even more so to regular Nightmare. I tried to figure out (still am, I guess) how to put the flavor theming and '2P!' thing together, but here's what I have in my head for him ^^ (ramble warning!)

Finding out that the concept of '2P!' variants existed in UTMV too, made me happy! Usually 2P!s are inverted or flipped versions of the original character— think Fell'd or Swap'd versions in UTMV terms— so I thought:

Huh. If he's supposed to be a flipped version of Nightmare, would he have similarities with Swap!Dream? 🤔 But softer, nicer? 'cause he's also strawberry milk-themed! 🍓 flavors and aesthetics can be associated with soft, nice, sweet, cheery, and pretty...

(And sometimes, behind that pretty pink, lies red danger. While regular Nightmare clearly shows that he is a threat, S!NM hides it behind a layer of sweetness; (like a yandere— I explored yandere S!NM here), like a 'nice' character hiding their bad side—

But don't worry! Only those who are deserving of his wrath will face it. He's mean when he needs to. The simps are safe, as well as the people he cherishes! He can be a patient man. Just don't be on his bad side and you'll be a-ok! 👍(⁠◠⁠‿⁠・⁠)⁠—⁠☆

He's like... If regular NM decided to go uwu for the bit, but forever.........(/hj)

He is friendly, a flirt, flips between being all cutesy and rizzing up the simps,

nicely offers you (suspicious— he loves making people doubt LOL) pink sweets in exchange for company or simply as thanks for spending time with him

(A king can feel so lonely sometimes 😩😔 esp w/o his dear brother around... so maybe he has a massive pink house instead of a castle :] Oooh, imagine how pink and aesthetic the interior would be...),

likes messing with the original Nightmare (Ah!! NM hosting parties! Him getting invited! Yes, he'd def talk to the king of the castle but tries to be civil! This is a nice fancy party with lots of people around; he's not gonna ruin this for anyone 😤 he just wants to socialize!!)

(Yes he owns a few creative 🍓-themed suits, why wouldn't he lean towards his aesthetic 😤)

Like any Guardian of Feelings, he can manipulate/control emotions. He can pull out one's negative emotions to calm them down, and he can also make one feel nervous or any other mix of feelings in his presence, just like how his original counterpart does.

As for his role in the multiverse, I'd say he honestly just tries to have fun. Yk, jus a lil chaos. Teehee. No multiverse domination or anything, he just likes being a menace to people hehehe

An idea I thought of a few times is him hinting that he has visited Nightmare's castle (whether he actually talked to NM or not) by leaving strawberry milk (carton/bottle) in the fridge for the others to see and be confused by.

'hey guys where's my choccy milk? did any of you drink it?? it was my last box!' - 'why is there strawberry milk again... none of you drink this...' - 'who keeps getting this pink stuff'

NM eventually informs them about this visitor, and to be cautious, just... Don't drink whatever pink thing he leaves in the fridge.

I've never really thought of what S!NM's backstory would be, what him and his Dream's 'Dreamtale AU' would be, so right now, he's just... There one day (lol) with a brother that keeps? running away from him?? (His Dream is 🟦 instead of 🟨! (I saw an artist drew him as such) And while 🍓 is happy and excited, 🔵 is kinda gloomy... Interesting to see a happy Negativity Guardian and a grumpy Positivity Guardian...)

You can scroll through the #snm asks tag to read past (mostly simp) shenanigans with him, and you can also click these links for my other rambleposts about him ^^

[death-limes]

Say, which characters in HB and HH do you hate the most character wise and then design wise

OHHH MAN i could write an entire video essay about this topic lmao, let me try to be as brief as possible

~~~

Hazbin - Worst Character: This one's hard, there are a few characters who probably suck but I just don't know that much about them. But based on what I know now, honestly…? Charlie. Coinsidering that… I think Faustisse?… confirmed that she's over 200 years old, the sheer level of naivete on her part is just annoying and unbelievable. She's over twice as old as Alastor, she should not be swayed so easily by him. As far as I'm aware she's not in a Disney Princess situation where she was shut inside the castle walls her entire life (PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong on that though) so there's no reason why she shouldn't be at least a little savvy to the ways of sinner demons. She should also have been able to see the VERY OBVIOUS SIGNS that Vaggie used to be an exorcist. Even Carmilla comments that it's super fuckin obvious; the Princess of Hell herself should be knowledgeable enough to pick up on hints that even the fandom picked up on when it was just the pilot. Overall, Charlie just comes across as kinda stupid imo. I don't find myself rooting for her at all.

Hazbin - Worst Design: Alastor. I know he may not necessarily look the worst, and I do in fact simp for him, but his design does absolutely NOTHING that a character design is supposed to do. Namely, it doesn't tell us anything about him & it doesn't help him stand out from the cast. Nothing about his design is uniquely 1930s (nobody wore their hair like that, pinstripe suits started in the 1800s and continue to be popular today, monocles were more of an 1800s thing and were considered old-fashioned by the 30s) or deer-esque (his ears really do not look like dear ears at all, and his "antlers" are just microscopic salad forks that don't even show up on his silhouette). The whole Voodoo thing, aside from being super disrespectful to a literal religion that is still actively practiced, is also so inconsequential to his character that it can be removed entirely and change NOTHING about him. Any of his traits that are in line with the Voodoo thing can still exist without it -- him being a trickster and a dealmaker, mostly. All the blacklight stuff doesn't match his aesthetic at all: in Princess and the Frog where everything was 1920s it gave a magic effect, but in Hazbin where all different time periods comingle it just gives a raver effect, which doesn't fit his anti-modern preferences at all. Also the living-shadow thing is yet another direct ripoff from Dr. Facilier (that might just be in the pilot though I'm not sure), I think the living microphone is a better route to take if you want him to have a spiritual companion type of thing; it's more relevant to his theming and more original. And of course none of this even touches on the "he's half-black" bullshit excuse that only came after V*v received backlash about the Voodoo thing. And it doesn't even solve the issue anyway. A mixed-race man from the 1930s would make for a very interesting character IF that unique experience/identity was actually integrated into his character in any noticeable way, but it's not. It was just slapped on at the last minute. Ugh. I could write an entire essay about Alastor alone tbh.

Helluva - Worst Character: Fizzarolli, but mostly when he was first introduced. Aesthetically he's the closest thing that I have to a "blorbo" in this show, but in the Ozzie's episode he just gave me the most rancid vibes ever. Definitely a "asexuality doesn't exist, you just haven't been with ME yet~" type of person. Admittedly that's more of a personal preference thing and less of a poor characterization; they're in the Lust ring, that type of attitude is kind of expected. What IS poor characterization, however, is his "development" later on when he and Ozzie basically get their own arc. His entire personality changes to be much softer and like…. idk, very obviously a trauma VICTIM and not so much of a potential trauma CAUSER? His character is not nearly as abrasive, but there's no corresponding event that would cause such a change. It just seems like now that he's supposed to be a sympathetic character, they changed his personality to be more appealing. He's not nearly as mean and rude as he used to be. Ozzie has a similar thing going on but it's not quiiiiite as severe, and he's saved from being the Worst by having a far more interesting and unique design. (If you had asked who I think has the BEST design in Helluva, I'd probably say Ozzie.)

Helluva - Worst Design: Beelzebub, no contest. A lot of people seemed to have a problem with her being bee-themed instead of fly-themed like the real Beelzebub in demonology, but that honestly doesn't bother me; I'm not expecting any Hellaverse stuff to be super accurate to The Real Lore so any tiny reference they can slip in (like with Ozzie's design) is just gravy. To me, bee and fly are close enough, I think it counts as a reference. Plus, the bee theme goes well with Gluttony ("nectar" is a common synonym for delicious food) and calling her Queen Bee is an easy way to make her name more appealing/sexy than, yknow. "Beelzebub." What DOES bother me is her canine aspect. Why is she a sparkledog? What is the logic behind that? Why isn't she huge-by-default like Ozzie and Mammon? (You'd think GLUTTONY of all sins would be a big character!) It really just feels like V*v wanted Ke$ha to have a cameo role as a major character and just arbitrarily picked one of the sins for her to be. So the character design has Ke$ha in mind faaaaar more than it has Beelzebub in mind. ***(Funny thing about Queen Bee: for a solid week after her episode came out, I was actually fooled by this page from an RP wiki: [https://hazbin-hotel-and-helluva-boss-rp.fandom.com/wiki/Beelzebub] The explanation that I'd gleaned for this version of her is that the picture shown is the REAL Beelzebub, and the one we see in the show is her daughter by the lord of Hellhounds, Cerberus, which explains her canine features. Queen Bee Jr. is the heiress to her mom's title in the same way Charlie is the heiress to Lucifer's title. The picture shown on that page is just SUCH a better design, and it looks like the show's style, and she seems to be a giant like Ozzie and Mammon…. can you blame me for being like "OH that makes sense!!" Cut to me a week later finding out this is just a fan RP wiki. Siiiigh.)

[gemini-queen42]

Batb: Other Than Human - Themes stuff (& why I Called It That)

That's right folks, the self-indulgent "throwing any concept I like at the wall and haphazardly mixing together what sticks" au rewrite Thing has Actual Themes! That kind of happened accidentally but they are so real for that so let's get into it.

The Main Narratives Themes Trio of the story now all also embody expanded themes about being an "Other", when being a person is not enough to be properly considered human- more specifically of a neurodivergent/queer girlhood type flavor.

Summary is that it's called "Other Than Human" because the prominent theming is about being considered something other than human due to not fitting the mold of the 'norm'.

[This is a long one so details & specific character stuff are under the cut<3]

Amalure has the greatest departure from her original counterparts thematic placing, so we'll start with her. Amalure retains Gaston's social standing, reputation, etc. But it's of course not quite the same- because she is a woman, and she is not revered for being the picture of ideal womanhood/femininity. Instead, she excels in masculinity, but remains firm that she is and always will be a woman. So, to justify the desire & awe people have for her, they dehumanize her: She doesn't need to follow the Rules because she is outside of them. Amalure is not a person: she is a symbol, a figure, an object. A legend, a folksong, a modern myth. Her skills are not skills they are blessings, inherent, a mundane magic or supernatural. Despite having grown up in Villeneuve for her entire life, she is considered exotic, and is practically, if not actually, fetishized. And through all of this, the status quo and social order gets to be retained without question, and she gets to exist as the exception that proves the rule, rather than the Undesirable that she'd be marked as otherwise.

Amalure is fine with this, because this dehumanization is her status quo: She doesn't really view herself as a person either, she is defined by her relationship to other people, by who she is to them. Amalure has never been a person to anybody: Growing up she was never just a girl, never just Amalure: She was a girl with a mans brain, an embodiment of her fathers greatest achievements, an embodiment of her mothers worst mistakes, she is her fathers daughter or her mothers daughter, but not her own. (and she never both, it is either or, mother or father, never both, never parents.)

Princess Eve/The Beast is the other end of this, of operating through her dehumanization. Upon being cursed, she adheres to what societies have oft wanted to happen to their Undesirables: Hide away and never be seen by the public again. It is entirely self-inflicted, as most of her suffering truly is. She operates not through others dehumanizing view of her, but her dehumanizing view of herself and its warping of how she believes others view her. Because, well, the servants still view her as a person. I mean, they're still human- under the new object forms. And the separation of humanity that is easy to slip into on matters of royalty is awfully minimal as well; they watched her grow up, and she grew up among them.

The girl's bratty, spoiled, temperamental, and is a ball of horrid consequences of the shallow views and ideals learned from surrounding nobility. But she's also the girl that fell asleep listening to Cogsworth explain the many technicalities to managing servants; because she was stubborn in asserting her authority as the mistress of the castle, and thus she Must have say over its goings ons. But the majordomo's voice can be awfully soothing when he's not high-strung on anxiety, and it's hard to pay attention when you don't understand what's being discussed, so its all going in one ear and out the other. And She's Lumiere's 'Evie', who was so amused when Lumiere would draw on a little mustache when dancing the male roles so the princess could learn some duo dances, or because she didn't look very "waiter-like" (because Eve wasn't entirely sure what a maître d' did, but it seemed to have something to do with waiters), and who got annoyed every time the dance teacher/maître d' would warn her not to hurt her body in her pursuits, because it seemed so silly, why would anyone do that? And she's the girl who dragged Mrs. Potts to have tea with her, because she made the best tea and as princess she would have only the best; and if you're going to have tea you may as well have a tea party, and you can't really have a party of one, but two isn't much of a party either so she's going to drag Babette away from her duties too, since the maid was so elegant and thus would be perfect.

Honestly, the girl probably would've turned out fine if she was raised by just the servants. But they weren't the only forces in her life: she's a princess, so she's got to host and interact with important people and learn how to Be noble which isn't something any of the servants can teach her. And it is under the pressures and eyes of nobility, is in mixing and learning their social rules, that learns the lessons that will lead to her curse: That to be considered human and treated as such, one must look human. And to be such as a woman meant to look beautiful, like the ideal. As a woman, to be worthy is to be beautiful and vice versa. And even if she does not, she must have some way to serve men. Otherwise, she is nothing. Eve met these requirements well, and where she did not yet her authority as princess covered. So when a beggar woman is at her doorstep, the princess turns her away: because she is old, ugly, so long past her 'prime'- there is no worth to her anymore. There is no point caring for her future.

Helene stands as both the middle ground and inverse to the other two. She is an Other by virtue of her mind, she is Objectifiable by virtue of her beauty. She sits on the precipice between Undesirable and Desired, seeming nearly apathetic to where she lands despite popular encouragement to embrace or smother aspects of herself. Helene is quite sure she's a person like anyone else, thank you, and is frankly frustrated and a bit weirded out that others seem to have a hard time getting the memo- she doesn't like or want to assume the worst, though, so maybe she just missed another confusing untold social rule or something. I mean, the local triplets really do seem to be advising in good faith- they really do think of her as one of them to an extent (for reasons Helene is yet to know); they just don't understand her.

When Amalure pursues her, there's an unspoken aspect to the deal of marriage she proposes: Helene will get a secured place on the in of the community, a secure standing the promises people no longer questioning or trying to encourage her to no longer be herself. But Helene just isn't interested in Amalure like that, and she also sees what the real trade-off of that security is; that uncomfortable dehumanization that is exactly what Helene doesn't want to deal with anymore. If Amalure is fine living with it than she is free to do as she pleases, but the huntress doesn't seem to understand what Helene could possibly have a problem with- and it's not like they can discuss it, because it's unspoken, and you're not supposed to speak the unspoken things, because they're unspoken for a reason- even if you don't know what that reason is. Helene knows that rule, at least.

When Helene meets the Beast, she regards her as she does any other. It's plain as day that the Beast has a humanity to her, whether she's really "human" or not- she thinks and she feels, and that's enough for Helene.

Because Helene grew up raised by a single dad who she got most of her brain workings from, and he is a man of compassion and science. Off he'd send his beloved daughter to go and question and figure out the world for herself, to experiment and learn and become whatever she desires. Off to bed he'd send her to tell her fairy tales and have their lessons of love and compassion and humanity understood as she drifted off to sleep. Helene was never Odd with her father, never Other, in fact they were so easily two of a kind. It was so jarring, hearing people imply Tyndare less than sane; his logic paths were so easy to follow- but apparently his voice gruffs enough that others have a hard time understanding what he's saying sometimes, so that's where things seem to get lost in translation she guesses. People became jarring in other ways as she grew up too, because suddenly there seemed to be lots of social things she was supposed to know or be but didn't and wasn't, and it became very apparent very quickly that she was an Other among her village.

Overall: Eve & Helene get to go through these themes through the main plot, and post curse-breaking is when Eve gets to properly deal with the internalized issues and whatnot. Like she's learned beauty doesn't matter when it comes to love, and shouldn't decide whether or not someone should be cared about, and Helene loves her despite her having been beastly and despite her being a failure of a woman- (because she no longer fits the feminine ideal after the curse is broken, and frankly she never will again.) But she's still a Failure Of A Woman and Helene deserves Better Than That! So there's still work to do.

Amalure remains static on this aspect of the narrative until after the battle at the castle, where she does survive! .. barely. and it's later, in an argument with her mother that same night, bleeding out on the kitchen floor, when she asserts that she's her daughter too, not just her fathers. she has always been her daughter, always will be, she is the daughter of both of them, because that's not something that just switches or turns on and off- and it's an entire rant that I will not recite here, but the important part is the assertion that she is, always has been, always will be, the daughter of both her parents at once- that's the first little step for her arc of recognizing her own individual personhood and whatnot.

[ninadove]

HEY Nina nothing really prompted me to ask this but you seem to have really good taste in media like shows and games and musicals so ... top 5 you're already into + 3 you're interested in checking out?

You flatter me beloved!!! 💜

I hope this makes sense because I’m already half-asleep:

A show I love:

RWBY. Definitely absolutely 100% RWBY. It’s an action/adventure/fantasy/coming-of-age story inspired by fairy tales, myths and other cultural references, which starts off slowly then ramps up into this wonderful story about love and hope and every one of the themes I love. Its main cast is all girls, two of which are now finally dating, one of which is canonically physically disabled. It's the show nothing can kill and I can't wait for volume 10!!!

I also watched Silo over the holidays — in a not-so-distant future, the last survivors of an apocalyptic event of unknown nature all live in a silo underground, but tensions rise within their society as some start to question what truly lies on the surface… very intriguing and worth checking out!

Oh, and Bad Sisters — S2 has mixed reviews so I haven’t checked it out, but S1 is a fully contained story about siblings and murder set in Ireland and what more can a girlie want really.

A game I love:

You can never go wrong with Professor Layton! It’s a mystery & puzzle game series with a charming atmosphere, incredible music and characters that will haunt you forever. My favourite is Unwound Future, but you probably know that already.

A play I love:

My beloved @pegasusdrawnchariots has recently compiled a helpful masterpost of all the Cyrano de Bergerac productions available on YouTube, so everyone will be subjected to it again. It will change your life

A book I love:

CAN I GIVE SEVERAL. My favourite right now is East of Eden by John Steinbeck, which is a wonderful novel about humanity’s constant struggle to do good. But a lot of my favourite books are really treaties about what it means to be a writer disguised as murder mysteries: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Truth about the Harry Québert Affair by Joël Dicker, Hygiène de l’Assassin by Amélie Nothomb (where I took the name Nina from!).

I also think everyone should experience the train-wreck that is Le Comte de Monte-Cristo. What a book.

A movie I love:

Many many good ones but I’ll give you one that made me laugh so much: Death at a Funeral. An unexpected guest crashes a funeral and tries to blackmail the dead guy’s family using salacious pictures. Things get worse from there.

Some things I’m excited to check out:

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick — I saw the first two seasons of the Amazon Prime series and while it is definitely flawed, there are some great ideas in here I really want to see in their original context.

Cain’s Jawbone by Torquemada! It’s a mystery book whose pages you have to put back in order to figure out who was murdered and by whom, and it is infamously hard. I might have stayed up a little bit too late yesterday night talking to my beloved @pegasusdrawnchariots about a single page she decoded. It sounds so so so fun though.

I re-read Vipère au poing by Hervé Bazin over the holidays, and learnt there is actually a second book where the hero slowly unlearns the lessons his abusive mother taught him? And no one told me??? Ninaphobic…

Thanks for the ask Mina! 💚

[louiesselfshipramblings]

Secret Level mini-review!!! Because!!!

Not gonna go over EVERY episodes, just the ones I wanted to see.

Dungeons & Dragons: The Queen's Cradle—This was a good start! It was short, maybe a lil TOO short, but it was a nice lil glimpse into the classic fantasy world with fun characters both in design and personality. Hope we see more of them somewhere! Weird a non-video game got in but eh I don't mind.

Unreal Tournament: Xan—This episode led me down a rabbit hole of finding out the Unreal Engine was based on an old game made by pre-Fortnite Epic Games, and it's apparently delisted everywhere? Sucks, but cool it got an episode! I love robot uprisings.

Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear—I know nothing about Warhammer except everything kinda sucks and the giant church mechs. This was a fun episode! There's a simple pleasure in watching a group of guys effortlessly tear through mooks. I suppose I'd get more if I specifically played the Space Marine games, but hey as is I liked it.

PAC-MAN: Circle—Dares to ask the question, what if "Pac" and "Man" were two separate guys? But for real though...I actually liked this one? It's horror, but not over the top, gorey but not for the sake of it. Does it use next to none of the Pac-Man iconography? Yeah. But it kinda works as its own, messed up sorta thing. I wonder if that Shadow Labyrinth game came first, or if the short did. Also, the robot is named Puck! Cause Pac-Man's original name in Japan was Puck-Man but in American they could scratch at the P and make it...ya know...Scott Pilgrim reference.

The Outer Worlds: The Company We Keep—I kept forgetting The Outer Worlds had an episode here...or that the game existed at all. Which is a shame! Sure, I heard mixed things about it, but nice to see Obsidian still making original stuff! Plus that sequel, could be better! For this episode...it was fine. A solid example of tragedy. The ending puzzled me, but in a good way. Coulda felt more connected to the vibes of the game, but def has that humor style in place!

Mega Man: Start—It was alright. Rock and Dr. Light had good VAs. Bomb Man had a cool design. Nice lil easter eggs like the "Dr. W" emblem or the DLN serial numbers, and Rock defeating Bomb Man with an ice power was clever. But MAN...this coulda been so much better if it was longer! It's only like, five minutes! I suppose its good they gave each short a variable time so they had space to tell their story, but I would have loved to see more of this world! The other Robot Masters, Roll, WILY, for god's sake! But that MM2 Wily Castle theme for the credits...oh MAN that's good! Please, make another Mega Man short for season two! Or an animated series in THIS style! Mega Man needs more good animated adaptations after Fully Charged and Ruby-Spears.

Spelunky: Tally—Very cool to see an indie game here, and for one of the OGs! Even if this one takes after the sequel...but still! This one was fun, especially since it seemed to really embrace the idea of being a video game. I'm not super familiar on the Spelunky lore, but the interpretation of the randomly generated caves and the curse that revives them were neat tidbits, and the overall message was very nice! One of the shorter ones, around the same length of the Mega Man and Pac-Man ones, but it's to its benefit. Any longer and it woulda felt dragged out. Honestly, the best way to adapt a rougelike imo.

Concord: Tale of the Implacable—Okay, ya gotta understand I HAD to see this one after Sony's blunder! And, to be honest...this may be the best one between all I've seen??? Like, genuinely!! It's one of the longer ones at around fifteen minutes, and is paced pretty well. Idk if any of these characters show back up in the game, but they were all pretty good for the brief time I saw them? The framing of this being a retold story passed as legend, with an ambiguous fate for the crew was neat and I liked the ending??? I was joking about this episode being so good it might redeem the game, but...well I wouldn't go that far, but damn, this might be my favorite behind the Mega Man and Pac-Man ones??

Playtime: Fulfillment—The last episode, and the only one not based on a specific game, instead being based on PlayStation as a whole. This was a nice closer, tbh! The ending left me a touch confused on what exactly happened, but it was a fun ride, all things considered! Seeing the Helldivers run around and shout about democracy, one of the Colossi from Shadow of the Colossus, Kratos smashing down, and SACKBOY!! I honestly just wish there was more of it! (Or that God of War got its own dedicated episode but that's besides the point). Kinda hope they do this "company" based episode as a season closer for season two, maybe for SEGA or Capcom! That'd be fun!

Overall, a pretty good series! I'd say it's worth my while, plus most of the episodes are under twenty minutes if that, so you could binge it reasonably in a day. Looking forward to that second season. Some sequels would be cool (mainly for Mega Man), but if it has to be only new games...mmmm. God of War, for sure. Mass Effect. Destiny? Donkey Kong, but that's a pipe dream. Nintendo never does cool stuff like that.

[dreadfutures]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤️

Thanks, Brood!

I just want to say it's been really awesome to see everyone's self recs on my dash. <3 I feel like just a few years ago there was way more self-negging around all of us and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy when my friends and mutuals and acquaintances are proud of their hard work and creativity! I will be sure to spread that around in more inboxes too :)

My own five favorite fics that I've written are:

it ends, or it doesn't | A Felassan Fic written by youworeblue / @dreadfutures | illustrated by @adurna0-art Rating: T | Genre: Mystery | Length: 45k, complete

My favorite story I've written so far. Dragon Age with a Knives Out flavor. I can't give it a better pitch than @anneapocalypse did here, particularly: "Both a thrilling and tightly-paced murder mystery, and a moving and thoughtful piece about personal and cultural identity, confronting the past, and looking to the future." (Thanks, Anne 😭)

Chrysalid Rated: G | Cillian & Solas | Chapters: 9/9

An origin story for how Cillian, the DAI MP character who appears in like, maybe 2 war table missions, learned the path of the Arcane Warrior. A love letter to the monarch butterfly migration.

Death is an Open Door Rated: T | Male Mahariel & Nonbinary Mahariel | Length: 8k

Mahariel steps through an eluvian to begin the journey we hear about in passing during DAI. This was a gift for @ammoniteflesh about both of our Mahariels and how they are mirrors of each other.

the road seems too wild for mixing it with blues Rated: G | F!Lavellan x Solas | Length: 5k

Pure fluff, a happy ending for Lavellan and Solas in a world they're committed to improving together, on the ground, one interaction at a time. But in this fic? They just get to enjoy that world, together, without any pressures upon them.

And I debated whether to put Walkers of the Lonely Path or Comrades in Arms, Brothers in Broken Chains, or…my other favorites on this list... but DPDF is definitely in my top favorite fics I've written, so:

Dead Pasts and Dread Futures Rated: E | FLavellan x Solas, Gen | Length: 600k (incl. TBG: 900k, ongoing)

As the world ends, Ixchel is resurrected under mysterious circumstances and is sent back in time to the Conclave. Ixchel is furious, convinced of her own futility, and yet she cannot give up again. These are the stories of how she gets better.

more rambling about each of these...

it ends, or it doesn't | A Felassan Fic Stories about looking at the past (your own, in general, or in one's culture) and grappling with the good and the bad and trying to find the merit, strength, and identiy that resonates with you? They're my favorite to read, personally, and those themes find their way into most things I write. I feel like I really Did It in this one. And the inspiration for the story had me warm and fuzzy the whole way through: he environments had me looking at photos of the golden hills of my home as well as some of my favorite castles and temples across the world. I love writing a broken Felassan and his relationship to the ancient elves and to modern elves of all flavors. And the process of writing this in my own way and going back and forth with my artist partner for the fic was wonderful.

Chrysalid Cillian discovered the path of the Arcane Warrior by meditating in ruins; when the Breach appeared in the sky, he felt called to lend his skills to the fledgling Inquisition. That’s all we know of his path, as a background NPC in Dragon Age: Inquisition, who appears solely in a war table mission and in the Multiplayer addition. But how did he really get trained as an Arcane Warrior? Honestly. This was Divine Inspiration at its finest. It was summer; I was missing my college town, where monarch butterflies go as a colony on their migration, stopping there to rest. I kept seeing a few of them flying by my current location on their way south. And I had the whimsical thought: isn’t that magical? Then I thought: sure, magical butterflies would work for a story. But what do they lead to? I loved the experience of writing this, I love the idea I had, I love rereading it, and closing my eyes and thinking about the locations.

Death is an Open Door I was so excited to get matched with Faust for our fanfic server's annual OC Swap event, because any time I heard about Ghila Mahariel, I couldn't help but IMMEDIATELY think about how our Mahariels would interact together. Their relationships to Morrigan and Kieran; their different relationships to their Blighted blood and what the future holds for them; their different relationships to the Dalish religion; their different relationships to the possibility of a cure for the Blight. I really got a chance to dig into the dreamy, fairy tale quality that I love to write the most, AND both body and psychological horror which I also love. AND I got to write an actual Dalish fairy tale, basically, inside it all, which is some of my favorite stuff to write. And Faust liked it, and it always makes me feel so happy and warm and fuzzy to reread a fic where I know I managed to make someone (via their OC) feel seen/special in any way at all.

the road seems too wild for mixing it with blues PURE SELF INDULGENT FLUFF. I love building cities and cultures within them, and I was trying to capture a specific kind of summer getaway/stranger in a new place vibe that I love so much when I get to experience it myself. It transports me right to that: to the place I based Cumberland on, to the exact temperature of the nights, to the exact cafe that has that drink and those donuts. I smiled a lot while writing it and I smile a lot while rereading it. Appreciating each other, and every moment of living, and the world that they get to be in - that's what I want, in the end, for Ixchel and Solas.

Dead Pasts and Dread Futures People are probably really tired of hearing me talk about this one, and I feel the most self conscious about it, but. It really is one of my favorite things I've made. I genuinely love rereading it, I have loved writing it, I still love writing it. I think it comes across more shippy when it gets talked about but to me the core of it is Ixchel's relationship to hope, her own personhood, and to her friends (originally there were so many more & pairings before the tag limit was a thing, because man. They all have pretty big arcs with her) (like to the point where sometimes I feel bad for not being More Overwhelmingly Solavellan, as opposed to spending like 20 chapters at a time on Ixchel's relationship to a single other person, which it feels like I do a lot…). I started writing it as an outlet for feelings I couldn't contain or, what I thought at the time, survive. I was trying to tell myself a story that things could get better, at a time when I didn't really believe it myself. Hope is a choice. Belief is a state of being. - And I had the strength to find neither at the time. But since then I have managed to heal a lot through this fic, I have had lots of fun chasing down story beats that just interest me, incorporating teensy bits of lore and weaving them into the bigger tapestry of Thedas, and most of all, meeting so many people because of this fic. :)

[a-chaotically-small-lunta]

Okay I had a dream where it was like I was playing a video game and this game was crazy. So it was kinda like a mix of Stardew and Terraria but like 10x harder. You start out in a world that’s in the cave man era and you find two people wandering around who need help. You all decide to make a safe base for you all the stay in. This is where you learn that the game makes you have a small base where you have to have at least 2 people living in it or else the game will end. Anyway you make a small base and craft some stone tools when it introduces the enemy of your world: Zombies. Oh boy Caveman era with zombies, sounds fun. Anyway your goal is to find more survivors, resources, and protect your settlement, which btw your settlement can be attack while you are away so you have to set up defenses or find people who are willing to fight. Luckily the game is kind and won’t start actively attacking your base until you find 10 people. After running around a while I find some ruins, which I’m like wtf there shouldn’t be any building but okay, and it’s a castle. Inside the castle there is a dining hall where the tables have food lying on top of them, modern food. I’m talking cereal boxes dated 2027 and some dated 9704.

Exploring the room a bit more I discover a hole that looks like it opens on top of the underside of the cliff. I say fuck it and jump in knowing I’m probably not gonna survive the fall. However I do survive the fall and discover there is a whole other world underneath mine and this one is mostly flooded, and it’s fantasy. So it’s discovered that this game has layers of games on top of each other, each with their own weird theme. Supposedly there’s like 50 of these layers. Like there is a modern world somewhere below but watch out, there’s an infection making people into plants. There’s even a cyberpunk world and just straight up a hell type world! Each layer of the game has a theme and something wrong with it (Caveman - Zombie) but it’s also an expansive world where you can find people and ‘dungeons.’ These dungeons are all different based on the world you go in, like a modern world that’s overrun by a disease would have a mall, or the cyberpunk world is supposedly taken over by dinosaurs could have a section of a city be considered the dungeon. The themes were all mixed up and made almost no sense half the time. The dungeons held tools, crafting recipes, people, resources, and were filled with dangers. So your goal now is to expand your base, keep people safe, and get to the bottom layer. Supposedly the bottom layer is what caused each layer to become eventually abandoned or broken, and now it’s your job to find out why. However this is where the difficulty becomes fucked up. In each layer there is only a maximum of 5 holes and in some there is only one hole that can lead you to the next layer. (Luckily if you find the a very specific type of person you can move these holes into your base or just outside it for easy access) These layers are huge so finding one little hole is almost impossible, especially since spending too much time in the ‘wrong layer’ aka not g your layer, can lead to monsters attacking more frequently in said layer, cause you aren’t supposed to be there.

This game was crazy and the lore of the game is that the creator of the game didn’t know what kind of game to make and kept changing their mind from their original idea, leading to outlandish themes. However the creator didn’t want to destroy their creations so they simply buried it under the new one so it could live on. Only doing so cause these layers to go into chaos eventually and be overrun by whatever monster was set up there or whatever monster from the layer below would make its way up, cause it was possible to have a safe layer but only because the enemies moved to another layer. Honestly though when I woke up I actually wanted to play this game dispute the difficulty of it. Like yeah you start off with stone tools against fucking zombies, but later on you could get a sword that’s enchanted or even just a straight up gun. There were also more silly or fun weapons like the gun that was enchanted by a wizard to have a 20% chance of turning the one you shot into a frog. Like wtf that’s really funny to me. But anyway that game would be a huge file cause of how big each layer is. Like one layer could have 50 or more dungeons and they weren’t small. But you could expand your base, have a simple little life in it, farm foods from many places, and defend against the caveman zombies outside your door. Which as you explore each layer there’s a small chance that the enemy of that layer will move into your level. This can cause them to work with whatever is in your level now or take over whatever is in your layer now. I was so lucky to have fucking dragons and demonic robots take over my world…WTF man so rude. It was entirely random which layer would come next (the only exception is that your level and the bottom layer were always the same) no one knows what the bottom layer has, no one has beaten the game yet. No one even knows if there is an end to the game, cause who’s to say the creator won’t just add a new layer? That’s how my dream actually ended. With an ominous message of ‘you’re on top for now, but you might lose that if they get bored’ like oh no.

[scooby-review]

Every Scooby Doo Where are You Episode Ranked

Perfect!; Great!; Good!; Okay!; Meh!; Bad! 

25. A Tiki Scare is no Fair

24. Scooby's Night with a Frozen Fright

23. Decoy for a Dognapper

22. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

21. Mystery Mask Mix Up

20. Nowhere to Hyde

19. Mine Your Own Business

18. What a Night for a Knight

17. Bedlam in Big Top

16. What the Hex Going On?

15. Which Witch is Which?

14. Never Ape an Ape Man

13. Scooby Doo and a Mummy Too

12. Don't Fool with a Phantom

11. A Clue for Scooby Doo

10. A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts

9. Haunted House Hang Up

8. Spooky Space Kook

7. Jeepers it's the Creeper

6. A Night of Fright is no Delight

5. That's Snow Ghost

4. The Backstage Rage

3. Foul Play in Funland

2. Go Away Ghost Ship

1. Hassle in the Castle

Where are You will always be one of the most fondly thought of Scooby Series by proxy of coming first. With such a simple yet captivating storyline it's also no shock that this series spun into a 55 year long franchise (happy belated anniversary also!). Because despite all these factors working in the series' credit, it's also so popular because it's great!

I had a great time watching most of these episodes! I think so much of the series success came down to the inspirations it took from what came before it, most notably The Archies, the group of teenagers with an animal mascot was the biggest inspiration, and originally the gang were also going to be in a band. This cast is half of the drive of the show, and sure, Fred and Daphne wouldn't grow into less of cookie cutter characters for a little while, but I love them nevertheless! Meanwhile the other three characters are so distinctive already, they make their presence known, and honestly, this is one of my favourite renditions of Scooby as a character. He hasn't become too much of a mascot yet, his iconicity hasn't turned the character into an overzealous near parody of himself, that also is great sure, but here I especially loved how he was written.

Of course, the other half of the show's success comes down to the monsters. These creatures are what makes or breaks an episode, they are the objective, the wall, and the endless rotation of foils for the gang. As mentioned in my previous post, they're great, and they can often make or break an episode, with many of my least favourite episodes housing my least favourite villains.

Finally, I want to touch on the backgrounds, which ooze with gothic style, they are another factor in keeping the show so popular, in carrying the tone and themes of the show, pulling deep into the gothic origins of horror and tamer universal monster movies.

Both the episodes and series as a whole keeps to a nice length that never over stays its welcome. The series is a joy to watch, even with a slight dip in quality when we reach the second season. Where are You is great!

Reviews for every episode can be found on my blog! Thank you for reading :)

Onto The New Scooby Doo Movies next!

Previous: Ranking Every Where are You Villain

Next: The New Scooby Doo Movies Season 1 Episodes 1 - 4

[likeadevils]

and what aboht songs you dislike...? again, feel free to not answer!

i'm gonna put this under the cut for people who don't want to see me disliking songs, and also i want to say up top most of these are less dislikes and more skips. like it's going to sound like i really dislike them, but i also really appreciate them when it comes to analyzing running themes throughout her career, and if i'm in the right mood i'll listen to most of these. but i have to being the right mood

there's stuff from her early days i don't like-- a perfectly good heart, change, superstar, bye bye baby, superman, castles crumbling, really anything off the christmas album-- but admittedly nostalgia washes away most of the subpar stuff. like would i like a place in this world if i heard it for the first time today? probably not. but luckily i heard it for the first time when i was 8 so i love it

there's also stuff that's mainly down to production-- like, i know they have great lyrics, but dancing with our hands tied and death by a thousand cuts just give me a headache. same with all you had to do was stay and i wish you would, but those are on 1989 so they're automatically better songs because of it

stay stay stay has an amazing bridge but the relationship is so viscerally unhealthy in a way that pisses me off to my bones. like if i'm getting so mad i'm throwing things at you and you find that funny? also describing breaking up because someone threw a phone as you as "some dramatic turn away" like. i just can't get over it

taylor loves how you get the girl and i love her for it but i.... dooooo not like it. the 1989 tour preformance is gorgeous though. but like you can tell it was one of the first songs written for 1989

sonically wise dont blame me is good but like. too many mixed metaphors and all of them are kinda cheesy. like love as a drug and love as religion are both like. you really gotta know what you're doing cause it sounds hollow very quickly

aside from lover (and cruel summer) i don't like the singles off lover. and i forgot that you existed. and london boy makes me feel like most of my lineage is turning over in their graves

willow is too scattered for me to sink in to. like i can put it on and chill, but whenever i listen to the lyrics im llke. yeah sure, i guess. metatextually i know how "I come back stronger than a 90's trend" connects to the story you're trying to tell, but textually its so out of left field that i feel cheated. and to add insult to injury the original concept is so good. like a witch casting a love spell is such a cool set up for a song.

dorothea is so much simpler than the rest of evermore and i get that, i get that the narrator is supposed to have a less complicated internal life, but like. happiness is a masterpiece and it always leaves me disappointed

i don't like midnight rain or you're losing me (for two very different reasons) but theoretically in context of each other they go hard. but midnight rain is too cliche and you're losing me sounds like an overwrought paradoy of a taylor swift song to me so i never really listen to either

bejeweled and karma are both skips

i dont think i listen to ttpd enough to be like "this is a skip to me" cause for the most part i really just listen to like. my five songs that i LOVE and engage with the rest more as poetry than songs. like i'll read the lyrics but i rarely listen to them. so i don't listen to the album enough to know which songs i'm okay with and which songs i consistently skip, yknow?

[snailstrailz]

So I've been working on an AU/story with Duchess Neapolitan/Amalphia where, after the events of the first WIR movie she makes a wish that Ralph never met Vanellope and Vanellope was treated better.

which results in Ralph leaving with the medal without meeting Vanellope, and King Candy posing as Vanellope's father, and an alternative timeline where Neapolitan is trying to both balance her relationship with KC and try to recreate the plot of the movie on her own.

I am probably going to draw stuff for this, but I wrote a script for the kart building scene in this version because I'm too tired to draw RN and I kinda wanna see if anyone would be interested. Script below cut!

uhh here's a Vanellope gif because it helps with engagement

VVV

(Duchess Neapolitan and Vanellope are outside the kart factory)

DN: ok, remember. Like we practiced.

V: be adorable! Got it! (Finger guns)

(DN sneaks off, while V skips up to the tollbooth, getting the guard's attention.)

V: hey, mister. I was wondering if I could have a tour? (Acting cute and innocent)

Guard: woah there, princess. You're not allowed in here, remember?

V: (she kicks the dirt) yeah, I was hoping I could have just a littleeee peek inside? Pretty please? With a cherry on top? (Does the sparkly eye thing)

(Meanwhile, DN sneaks behind the tollbooth while the guard is distracted)

Guard: sorry, your highness-

V: with extra sprinkles? And chocolate sauce??

Guard: what are you doing out here alone anyway? I better call kin-

(DN swipes a ring of keys from his belt and covertly walks back into sight.)

DN: (to V) there you are! (To guard) We were on a little walk, and what do you know, she wanders off! (Pinching Vanellope's cheek, teasingly) I just convinced your father to let us go without guards! You're making me look bad! (She smiles and gives a wink.) My apologies, I'll be getting her home.

(DN takes V’s hand and they walk off, to a locked side gate entrance. DN fiddles with the keys and gets them inside eventually.)

DN: alright, let's be quick so nobody realizes something's up

V: yeah, in and out! Solid snake, stealth mission! (she starts humming a theme and exaggeratingly sneaking around, the kart type menu pops up and she drops the act immediately.) oh, this one!

(V chooses the kart build and they continue to the mixing section. V is doing it wrong.)

DN: no, no- you're messing it up-

(she takes the controls and helps V with the ingredients. They then work together pushing the pump on the baking section. They go to the decorating section next.)

V: lots of sprinkles! Oh! oh! and edible glitter!

(DN is following along as she can, and eventually the kart is done. It comes out a lot cleaner than the one Ralph made with her in the original timeline. DN lingers, looking glum while V jumps around and gushes about the kart)

V: it's perfect, it's perfect, it's perfect! (She grabs DN’s hand.) You're the best. Mom. (Squealing) EVER!

DN: oh, Vanellope, please. I'm not your moth-

V: yet! You're not my mom yet! You are going marry Dad, right?

DN: (putting her hands on her hips) he didn't rope you into getting me to accept his proposal, did he?

V: I dunno, maybe? (She's distracted by a bag of icing on a table.) ohh, we should sign it!

DN: Vanellope, I don't think that's- (a bag of icing gets stuffed in her hands.)

V: oh come on! It was a team thing!

(DN looks down at the icing bag. She looks absolutely horrified with what she's doing, stealing what was supposed Ralph's moment, but she doesn't want to disappoint Vanellope. She signs the kart. DN looks pensive the entire time Vanellope figures out how to drive the kart.)

(Later, they hide the Kart in the volcano and go back to the castle, meeting King Candy there.)

DN: here's your little rascal. She didn't bite me this time! (She jokes.)

V: just because you got good at dodging! (She sticks out her tongue.)

KC: alright, alright, off to bed, you! (He shoos Vanellope away, leaving him alone with DN)

DN: so, I've been meaning to speak with you-

KC: really? Marshmallow fluff, let's go somewhere more comfortable. Come, come, to the lounge.

(After entering the lounge, KC is pouring some drinks.)

DN: festive, are we?

KC: of course! (Handing her a drink.) You were wanting to discuss your decision on my proposal, correct? (He pulls a ring box from his coat and sets it on a small table as he sits in a chair)

DN: (internally) he's never gonna let her race. I shouldn't bring it up. (Talking again) Oh, yes! Your proposal, of course… I was actually thinking…

(KC looks at her excitedly, reaching for the box)

DN: (hesitating) ...yes.

KC: (he leaps out of his chair and slides the ring on DN’s finger quickly.) yes, yes! Oh my sweet little sugar cookie, you're not going to regret this! You'll make a wonderful queen!

(DN looks at the ring. She's already regretting it.)