aj-agreste

[aj-agreste]

I recently wrote a post about having 4C hair and the hardships I experienced within my own family because of it. It was honestly cathartic to write and vent my frustrations on paper. Feel free to read it and let me know if you relate in any way.

[aj-agreste]

What the fuck happened to The Dragon Prince, y'all?!

The show really fell off. It's so disappointing.

I'm sorry, but it doesn't deserve to get more seasons.

[aj-agreste]

You're telling me they actually thought of letting Red Son be the wielder of the Samadhi Fire...but instead gave it to Mei? Why?

I'm not a big Red Son fan, but damn, y'all keep losing.

From the show producer!

[aj-agreste]

MyStreet is returning! Fully animated!

This news, I never dared to dream about. It honestly felt like that era of Aphmau was over. But the OG fans are in for one last ride.

Let's fucking go.

[aj-agreste]

I'm not gonna spoil LMK Season 5, but I will say that the way episode 10 ends is basically the exact same way that the Season 3 Special ends.

The way episode 10 ends is so final as a season finale that I fail to see how a Season 5 Special could follow it.

Which makes me wonder if we're even gonna get a special this time. Many factors are different. We got a different animation studio. And the season aired incredibly late compared to prior years. Maybe to save money and time, LEGO only wanted WildBrain to do 10 episodes?

None of this is confirmed. Just a theory based on the pacing and final episode of Season 5.

[aj-agreste]

Damn, the lighting is insane. Character proportions aren't egregious. And the outfit design is better too.

Is it too late for WildBrain to hire this person?

👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

//S5 TRAILER SPOILERS

Only press the keep reading if you have already seen the trailer btw!

Screenshot redraw! (well only redrawn Li Jing but not the bg and pagoda cuz I got tired so I just edited it a lot to fit the atmosphere better-)

Also the design I used in the redraw is my redesign! I made this a while back but didn't get to show it here oof

[aj-agreste]

Honestly same. Give me more musical episodes. Give me more beach episodes. Give me more episodes where characters just fuck around and have fun and hang out with each other. If an episode doesn't service the plot, at least service the character.

Some of my favorite cartoons have 26 episodes per season. A long time to get to know the characters and still plenty of time for any overarching story.

I'm in favor of at least 10 episodes for 40+ minute shows. And 13-16 episodes for 22 minute shows.

hot take but i actively miss when tv shows were like 20 episodes a season. slow down. let me get to know the characters. let them do something dumb and not consequential to the plot for one fucking second i'm begging you.

[aj-agreste]

Obviously, just allegations at this point, but would anyone be surprised if true?

Regarding the switching of LEGO Monkie Kid’s animation team…

A person in the LEGO Monkie Kid community known to have ties to official sources posted this, but quickly deleted it.

An anonymous source alleges that LEGO was rushing animators for a season 5, inducing severe crunch time. Flying Bark could not produce seasons fast enough, which is why they were dropped.

Observers of the situation have pointed out that Flying Bark unionized this year, which, if this account is true, almost certainly lended to them being dropped.

This would also explain why LEGO did not choose to replace Flying Bark with a different studio with hand-drawn animation. They did not care if the styles matched — they cared about how fast it could be pumped out. This also explains the amount of traced scenes in what we’ve seen from season 5 — the current animators are now facing crunch time, too.

These allegations should be taken with a grain of salt, but evidence against LEGO is pretty stacked here.

[aj-agreste]

It's honestly hilarious how

"Where were you on May 10th?"

Became the new

"Where were you on 9/11?"

Metaphorical atomic bomb dropped on the LMK fandom

[aj-agreste]

I understand that it is the last season and the conditions they are in are understandable for it to be the last, however, the fact that the show left many unknowns (like, what really happened to the pilgrims?) Oh the fact that possibly MK is going to live a really long time and that means he'll see maybe his friends die and other things... Unless the series says he's going to live the lifespan of an average person?

We haven't seen anything about Erlang either. Although I had my doubts how the show would write his character, I wonder if he will actually appear.

Season 4 is just the last season that Flying Bark animated. There's no news about Season 5 being the last season of the show. It's simply being animated by another studio.

[aj-agreste]

Anyone else find it tiring that Season 5 of LMK seems to be another, "Oh no, looks like the world is about to end...again."

It's been this way since the end of Season 2.

It would have been interesting if this season's arc was focused on the Underworld. A nice, contained story about traversing that realm and dealing with the Ten Kings. We've already spent a lot of time in the mortal and celestial realms. The Underworld is the third and final unexplored one.

And it's another fetch quest. Sigh.

There was a fetch quest in Season 2 (granted from the villains' side)

There was a fetch quest in Season 3 with the Samadhi Fire rings. And the conclusion to that was unsatisfying and forgotten the next season.

Can you consider MK and Mei having to find their lost friends sort of a fetch quest? At least it was only about four episodes. They also collected the Pilgrims' magic objects.

And now, again, the Team has to look for magic objects to prevent the world from being destroyed. AGAIN.

The world doesn't have to be on the brink of collapse every season.

[aj-agreste]

The fandom, particularly on Twitter, always feels the need to police people's feelings about the show.

"Don't say something bad about the show or you'll hurt the staff's feelings. They worked really hard on it. Be grateful we got another season."

Shut the fuck up.

People want the things they invest in to be worthwhile. If the staff deliver a lackluster product that doesn't resonate with audiences, the product's performance will suffer. And if they don't improve, the people in charge will simply cancel the product. This is literally their job.

The fandom blindly accepting anything and everything will only stagnate the show's growth. Let people criticize the show so it can be better.

Lego Monkie Kid is a product.

I don’t intend to make any more posts of this style for some time, but I’d like to put this out here for everywhere:

(After this, I’ll go back to uploading my usual content. I’m sorry for deviating from that, but I really wanted to make a post or two about season five.)

Lego Monkie is a paid-for product. You can buy it through Amazon, watch it on the Lego Channel with ads, import the comics from China, etc.

You pay for it. It’s not something put into the world for free. It is a product that people consume with their time or money.

It’s not something made with only time and love.

Lego Monkie Kid is a paid-for product with thousands of dollars worth of tie-in merch.

It is not bad; and will never be bad, to criticize the products you consume. We do not have to blindly consume for the sake of animators, or for the sake of a show.

Do not tell people to ‘just be happy’. Do not tell people that ‘the animators are just trying to feed their families’. Do not tell people to ‘just get over it’. Do not tell people that they’re ‘being ungrateful’.

People are allowed to form opinions of changes, whether negative or positive- especially when it is a product they pay for.

People are going to have negative feelings and thoughts and emotions. You are not a knight or a soldier. You get nothing out of standing guard against even the slightest scrap of unhappiness.

Toxic positivity solves nothing in the long run. You can’t just complain people’s upsetness away. You can’t kiss disappointment like a wound and expect it to heal.

People are upset about a downgrade in quality in the product that they pay to consume.

And that’s okay.

Stop telling them it isn’t.

[aj-agreste]

Goodbye stunning animation 👋🏿

WildBrain better get their ass in gear because this is not gonna work.

I've seen some people say that at least the show still has good writing and characters.

As someone who fell out of love and was massively disappointed with S3 (S4 didnt do it for me either), this is a laughable notion.

The show is no longer gonna have their stunning animation as a shield from criticism anymore.

[aj-agreste]

Well, y'all waited for LMK Season 5 news. Here's the trailer.

...Wow

This animation looks like SHIT. It looks fanmade. Honestly, thought it was fake at first.

I'm still debating on whether this is a late April Fools joke. But if it's not...

Unfortunately, not only is Flying Bark not animating S5, but now the undeniably good thing about LMK is gone.

WildBrain is animating Season 5. They should really stick to 3D animation. They're good at that.

[aj-agreste]

This is the pitch packet I submitted both Pitch THIS! and TAAFI's Big Pitch. I made it to the top two in both competitions. It was put together with the help of my boyfriend, who rewrote the character profiles and initial summary. I wanted to share it.

It was always my dream to pitch my own show, and last year I got the opportunity to do it twice. Even though nothing really came of it, it was a huge accomplishment for me. This was put together very quickly and is slap-dash as a result, but if I can do it, anyone can.

[aj-agreste]

HEAR ME OUT!!!!

[aj-agreste]

Now that the entire first season is out, everyone, what's your favorite song from Hazbin Hotel's soundtrack?