#But thats... in terms of modern uniforms..

[definitelynotorion]

Hey uh. To the like. three people who care, Opinions on the new colts uniforms?

[bemnie]

got the final modern au katara outfit done!!! she'll probably get more cause desing outfits is fun ^_^ !!!

so the first is her like. native/cultural watertribe outfit! i referenced her book 1 outfits and her netflix live action fit ! i am pretty happy with it!

The middle outfit is her school uniform! this au takes place in a prestigious school located in the Earth Kingdom equivalent! so green :)! Katara is very pretty in green! The yellow ribbon also signifies she is a freshman! I'll be using american school terms as that is what im familiar with :)!

for the last/casual outfit I really wanted something cute but also felt young and comfortable? I imagine Katara is fashionable but not to the point its inconvenient! I hope it makes me look like a young teen girl cause thats what I was going for and what she is :)! if any1 has any suggestions for improvements for her casual fit or suggestions for other outfits do lemme know :D

[diaphin93]

- One key aspect of Edelgard reforms is not just doing change directly but also paving the way for other societal change to be made through suppressing institutions protecting the status quo and giving people the tools they need ( education, government position open to all, etc )... So outside of the reforms directly metionned in CF, what other societal change do you think she or her government will bring during her lifetime?

- If you had to make the "ideal" post CF government who in the cast would you pick? It can be based on ending ( like Manuela becoming prime minister ) or entirely be based on your interpretation

- If Edelgard/Hubert/Ferdinand were commoners, how do you think their life would be like?

- Do you have any analysis on Edelgard that is uncommon? What's your favorite line from her?

Oh, that are some interesting questions. Let me go into all of them one by one.

I assume many of the changes Edelgard implements will be gradual, as she and her government basically need to figure out modernity all by themselves, really only knowing the structures of the strict feudal caste system they grew up in. Like, many people cite Ferdinand having to come up with the concept of universal education for her, but the matter of fact is, this is an entire new and novel concept and one person can't figure out all by themself, though we know that noble inheritance is already abolished in the following generation. I would say structural reforms in Leicester and Faerghus would be big ones, putting them closer to the more bureaucratic centralized system that Adrestia seems to have, looking at the presence of ministries. Considering her already being on board with public education and wanting to reduce the political influence of the church, I could see her introducing state wellfare policies that take over the role that religious charity would have. One important one probably also would be to either reform the ministry of religious affairs into a proper ministry of justice, which it already acted as, or alternatively relocate most of its ressources to a new ministry of justice, as well as law reforms in the vein of Napoleons code civil, to ensure secular laws. As she is not an enemy of the faith itself but also seems rather desinterested in it, while expressing interest in improving foreign relations, I fully expect for her to either implement freedom of religion or, as a predecessor, a general policy of religious tolerance. There probably would be uniform laws for the three nations, while I also expect her to allow Duscur to either declare its independence or remain in the empire as an autonomous region, as we saw her doing with Brigid and with Kupala respectively. I could see similar policies to the former sreng regions in northern faerghus, to allow its original inhabitants to return and either become an autonomous region of the empire or reuinite with Sreng. Due to the roman inspiration of Adrestia, I think it would be interesting for her to introduce a senate, especially since it would be a buffer between the imperial ministries and the throne, but thats more headcanon. We have no ideas on how Edelgard feels about democratic reforms, so every pro and contra argument would be highly speculative. I think generally most of Edelgards reforms would be focussed on secularization and the abolition of noble inheritance structures, before she steps down and lets a worthy successor continue her reformist policies. We also don't know enough on the details of adrestian law and economy, to be sure of all kinds of reforms she could make, this would be a matter of headcanons and fanwork.

This might be a tadbit boring, but I don't really have much in terms of ideal visions for a potential government for Edelgard. I see the case for Ferdinand being the Prime Minister, due to his own character development and role in supporting Edelgards reforms in CF, but I personally also prefer Manuela as Prime Minister as it fits much better with the spirit of Edelgards reforms and policies, having an educated commoner in the highest ministerial office. In the end, Black Eagles House has the common shortcomings of all 3 Houses routes, that the majority of students are children of the high nobility, and alot of the positions we learn about are more filled to conclude their personal character arcs, like Ferdinand being prime minister or Caspar becoming Minister of Military Affairs. I guess for me, I would like Manuela to act as prime minister, while Ferdinand should be allowed to fully focus on his educational reforms through creating a new ministry of education. If they can be found and contracted, I think a sensible thing in the name of reconciliation would be for her to try and reach out to Seteth, with the offer of him becoming the minister of religious affair or either him or Flayn to be allowed, if they want, to start a new reformed Church of Seiros, so that they at the very least have the option to return home to Garreg Mach and live there peacefully, under the condition that they learn to work hand in hand with humans as their equals. Otherwise, I would guess that in case she survives either Mercedes or the eastern Bishop would make a fine minister of religious affairs. Duke Gerth already seems to be a sensible minister of foreign affairs, in case he is recruited or otherwise assumed to survive, Sylvain would make his most sensible successor. Generally, as it modernizes, Adrestia would need to establish more ministries overall. The ministry of the imperial household probably should be openly reformed into domestic intelligence for more transparency, as Hubert already fulfills this position. I think, again in case he survives, Lorenz would make a good minister of domestic affairs. But again, I don't have strong feelings on that one, as there really is a lack of more interesting choices. A priority would be for the ministries to offer mentorship to commoners who want to engage with the government.

Thats a tough one, as commoners still have class differences and there are nuances to that one too and their lifes would take entirely different directions with them forming different personalities if they were born under other circumstances. I mean, most of them. Hubert totally would become some underworld crime boss who reveals and takes care of corrupt nobility, lol. Basically some Yakuza with a sense of honor archetype, lol. But going for what would preserve their personalities and story beats, I see Ferdinand as somewhat a member of the upper class, possibly with his father being an ambitious merchant who tries to scheme his son into a better station in life, though I think he would go more into the direction of being a lawyer, he just seems to be this very enlightenment thinker law school graduate archetype if he wasn't a noble, befitting his high sense of justice and posh attitude. He totally would be in Garreg Mach due to a full scholarship and super proud of it, citing the careers of former winners of said scholarship. Edelgard is more tricky, though I would say, in her case she probably would be just some commoner who happened to have the Crest of Seiros, probably some illegitimate child who was never found, or the daughter of one whose crest skipped a few generations. I see her more of a humble upbringing in the scenario of her being a commoner, a peasant or the daughter of servants. I guess the later, as this would offer an excuse to why she was in the Kingdom and knew Dimitri, maybe her being a maid servant of the Arundel family. And naturally she would have been caught in the crest experiments of TWSITD still, if the goal is to preserve her overall story beats, and as the sole survivor become the adopted daughter of Lord Arundel, her still being determined to end the crest and nobility system, possible even more in this scenario, and using Thales connections to stage a coup against the Hresvelg Family. I see her still as the house leader of the Black Eagles, though her being of a commoner background her, she probably could be somewhat more strict and serious in her demeanor to integrate. Like, this entire scenario would be a compelling AU and I think I could make an entire blogpost based on it. Assuming all three are commoners, Hubert and Edelgards relationship would be very different. I think he would be still loyal to her, but he would be basically some enforcer she picked up as her retainer, so their interactions would be much more informal, acting more as partners in crime. Edelgard and Ferdinand would probably be even more rivalrous, Ferdinand possibly being jealous of her now and I see her and Dorothea being even more close. Those two are already very close, having it it off immediately obviously, considering how Dorothea is the only one in the BE cast she already seems to be close to at the start, so this relationship would just be stronger, them being two commoner girls among all these nobles, it would be an outlet for Edelgard to be her former commoner self more. I think she would be more distanced to her former classmates at the start, having to learn that nobles have their own issues and to empathize with them as well.

I don't think I have really much to add, especially since Captain Flash and others already analyzed many facets of her personality. As I mentioned, I interpret Dorothea and Edelgard as immediately having hit it off the moment they first met, like you know when you are in a new school and workplace and meet this one person who is your bestie at the end of the day? They seem already close friends from the beginning. I personally see her also valueing Hubert and Ferdinand in particular as two brother figures, Hubert being an older brother who takes care of her and she wishing they could be more informal with each other, while I think a part of her enjoys Ferdinands annoying attitude that allows her to be more childish as times, something she rarely can afford due to what happened to her. I think there is some importance in the relationship between Edelgard and Dimitri many overlook. Primarily, because Discourse embittered the fanbases of both characters to each other and if interpretations take place, it is mostly from a Dimitri centric place that interprets Edelgard less favorably. Even if she doesn't really remembers him, I think she values parts of his personality alot, his very straight forward and well intentioned attitude, though his somewhat naive and undetermined outlook on everything probably frustrates her as well. She obviously hates his vengeful personality, feeling appeled by his obsession to her, as she states herself, but its clear that she feels a great deal of empathy towards him. It is implied that she cries after he dies and the scene makes it clear, that no matter if she did or not, she at least felt like crying in this moment. Edelgard is strongly linked with symbolizing the future, while Dimitri thematically represents the past, his arc being all about how the ghosts of the past haunt him. I think from an Edelgard centric standpoint, Dimitri represents her past, that has been twisted and corrupted by Thales, becoming a source of pain and anguish to her.

But so far, thats all. I hope I could answer your questions in a satisfying way and feel free to send me more asks, this one was fun.

[pixeljade]

modern anime fans complain about delays and changes and stuff between seasons but i swear NOTHING can ever beat what happened with Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

This anime was one of THE top anime of the 00's, easily topping the lists of "must-see" anime series. I mean this thing was HUGE in 2006 when it came out, think almost peak Homestuck levels! You couldnt set foot in a convention without seeing weebs performing the ending theme song dance (Hare Hare Yukai if you wanna look it up), and the sailors uniforms from the series were everywhere. This was right up there with Yaoi Paddles and Deadpools in terms of Convention Things, and it had only one season despite having PLENTY of other light novels in the source book series! It was just really well-done. Kyoto Animation, the studio behind it which is now one of the biggest names in anime, got its reputation almost entirely because of it (And Lucky Star and Clannad which came out right after S1 of Haruhi). One of the reasons it was popular was the unique air order of the series, that in its original airing the episodes were out of chronological order, allowing for a chaotic watch that manages to have better flow (at least, many claim as much, ymmv). So fans were divided between watch orders, but season two was inevitable, and indeed, they announced it was in the works...but didnt announce any dates or anything.

But then, three years later, one of the channels in japan announces its re-running the first season, but the part where they say how many episodes they plan to air, they put double the first season's number. FOURTEEN more, to a total of 28! Nobody knew for certain, because like I said they didnt announce a release date, but speculation was that the extra 14 would be season two! Anyways, the first season starts airing in CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, which was, of course, a highly controversial move...But then!!! On the eighth episode, an entirely new one airs, confirming that Season Two is in fact happening, but mixed into season one in a chronological order. Fans proceed to lose their shit.

BUT THEN. The second new episode airs, and its covering a light novel story where the protagonists are caught in a time loop! Fun, right? Except it doesnt resolve itself by the end of the episode. Oh, thats fine, it'll resolve by the end of the next one, right? WRONG!! In fact, Episode Three is the EXACT SAME EPISODE as EPISODE TWO, but re-animated from different angles. This continues for eight fucking episodes, dubbed the "Endless Eight", and the only major difference is in the final episode when they break the time loop!

WHICH MEANS. KyoAni dropped the second season, UNANNOUNCED, mixed in with season one in an unpredictable manner, and OVER HALF the "New" episodes were the SAME. FUCKING. EPISODE. ON REPEAT!!!! By far, this was THE BIGGEST season two troll in anime HISTORY and NOTHING in even your worst anime fears could come CLOSE

[soupiyamashuu]

ahhhhh

Heroes Rise OC appearances/outfits overview ... a little brief write up

akihito

general appearance

platinum blonde/white hair

i kind of flip around between the usual style (short) and the AU Style :tm: (long)

blue eyes

6 ft 2 (188cm)

slim, slender, lithe... any of those adjectives work

mostly asian features (except the dam blue eyes and white hair but :shrug:) --

brown skin

fit :cold_face:

because i like to be difficult, he has a lot of ones that ive come up with ...

color scheme: n/a beyond “bright colors” and/or “pastels”

major elements*

1: the school fit ... he feels as though it’s a perfect representation of japan and wears it ONLY outside of the country

2: the ouji lolita style // gender neutral lolita fashion

typically consisting of a long sleeved top, shorts, and a cloak/cape

X (the casual fits)

in terms of sleepwear .. depends on the weather. sp/su = nothing or the sleeveless shirt + shorts combo. au/wi = pjs ...

in terms of daily wear, depends on the mood hes in .. can be as simple as a white t shirt and random ahh shorts or a full on elaborate fit. typically likes wearing things that accentuate his figure tho

accessories: usually wears heavy boots (yes, even with the school uniform fit)

variable: glasses (kind of has crummy vision but likes contacts better.. when hes not in the mood for contacts, hello glasses...)

* on smaller missions / daily life he tends to just go more casual (style 1) but on the bigger and more important missions (i.e., the ones that are deffo televised) he sticks with the more eccentric lolita fits (style 2)

makoto

general appearance

messy, black hair (kind of like the p5 protag i guess)

brown eyes

abt 6 ft 1

slim but tends to wear more baggy/large clothes bc #trans_moment

asian features

pale skin cause he sits around all damn day doing “doctor things” sdhkgsdgkhkhsd

fit :cold_face:

color scheme: usually white and red for main colors ... black/gold for accentuating colors

major elements: since he’s not really a hero per se but on the staff team, he has a few diff outfits but nothing too elaborate

1: standard medical staff outfit: blue scrubs + lab coat + (usually) blue face mask

i vaguely remember in the canon the mc discussing the freaking “herologist” fits being kind of ominous; this is the standard everyday medical fit -- larger missions/work assignments = the full on like hazmat suit essentially

2: daily outfit vibe: again, usually baggier clothes .. but typically business casual-core stuff...

night fits: unlike akihito who just. sleeps nakey half the time, makoto typically wears a whole PJ set ... he even has matching slippers :flushed:

3: the large mission fit: plague doctor fit fr ... (This is a holdover from when he was like an scp 049 copy-paste tbh)

when required to wear a more protective outfit, he actually has a full on (stereotypical) plague doctor fit* ... he doesnt use the little cane or whatever that they sometimes have tho cause he thinks thats going too far.

* yes i know plague doctor outfits are modern, ohh welllll

accessories: face mask + glasses combo ...

variable: n/a, any variables are outfit specific and written above.

[mattdcblog]

Booster gold for the character ask!

Favorite thing:

Outside of himself in terms of inter-connectivity, you really can't go wrong with this character. Hes EVERYWHERE, and he's designed to be that way. Everything about his backstory ties him to places and people within the DC universe. In terms of the character himself though, one of my favorite aspects of him is how utterly, disastrously human he is. I've talked about Booster at length in MANY other posts so I'll try to wane poetic here, and just keep it at: he's an underdog who never seems to win, and that makes the small victories that much greater.

Least favorite:

We don't know anything about the time period he comes from, beyond "its a bit like modern day Gotham, but worse somehow." What was growing up there like? What makes it different from our present? How did growing up in that environment affect him? What happened to make superheroes not as well known? ARE WE EVER GONNA TOUCH ON THE WHOLE "NUCLEAR WAR THAT CAUSED WHOLE CENTURIES OF HISTORY TO BE LOST," DAN?!

Favorite line:

[ID: Booster says, "Tonight's your night, you handsome cheetah." He looks at a picture in his yearbook of him in an orange crop top football uniform. His number is 5, and he's wearing a hat with a long feather in it. The text is cut off, but reads, "North Gotham Swashbucklers Class of 2462." /End ID.]

Seriously go read this its wild

There are more iconic lines of course but this one i actively quote jxnfndmf

brOTP:

Ted, Trixie, Fire, Chel (although is it really a brotp if you're related?) I guess you could say Scott as well but imo he's more Ted's friend than boosters.

OTP:

Its Ted, for the same reasons I listed on my blue beetle answer. Them being friends was a complete coincidence and in any other situation wouldn't make a lick of sense, and yet, somehow, it endures.

nOTP:

Harley, Godiva. Seriously what WERE those???

random HC:

"He thinks in Esperanto" was a throw away line but I really like it regardless. Also I think him having no knowledge of ordinary things is hilarious. He can tell you the (mostly) complete history of a landmark, but have absolutely no clue where it's located. Also I think he needs a doppelganger thats just incredibly Canadian because I still don't know if that was a real admission from the n52 days but my WORD is it funny.

unpopular opinion:

I miss mindancer, I think she could be a really good rogue if she was developed right. Also Chel! WHERE IS CHEL!!!!

Song:

Too Much Time On My Hands by Styx. I've got a whole playlist if you're interested, too.

Fav pic:

[ID: the cover of Justice League America #37. Booster is holding a hand out towards the viewer, a surprised look on his face. Fire stands behind him, fearfully clutching his chest. Behind them, Beetle is cowering in Ice's arms. A wall of grey paneling is behind them, with an electronic sign reading "intruder alert." /End ID.]

A friend once said that BG had bimbo lips in this picture and it stuck with me so vividly that not only do I ALSO now think that every time I see this pic, I always make sure when I'm drawing BG to "remember to give him the bimbo lips." Also I'm just really partial to Hughes' art of BG in general.

[ask-mortarion-the-death-lord]

some continuation i guess

this time with the emperor

we get the basic rundown, born to human parents, massively gifted, immortal, hidden among humanity and all that. It’s here where his motivation to shepherd humanities psychic awakening is really first brought up [something thats given overall more prominence in the book as well]. a much more interesting note however

now, this probably seems inconspicuous enough at first glance. Indeed even in modern canon 40k’s imperium is first actually created over ten millennia ago. However, take into consideration this little bit earlier in the lore section that i didn’t think to much off at the time

now, taking this into consideration, the implication here is that the age of strife, something that is typically thought to end right before the unification wars in modern 40k lore, is only considered to have ended after the emperor’s internment upon the golden throne, and that further the imperium seems to only officially be a thing upon the that internment. Now this suggests some things to me, two large ones possibly being

a) the unification wars and the great crusade were more so part of the same wider war, ie that the wars ‘only the emperor remembers’ were a large conflict between various warlords to determine who got the rightful rulership of the crumbling pre age of strife human civilization. or

b) the emperor started the age of strife in order to dominate humanity to control and shepherd the psychic awakening he saw humanity stumbling into.

take your pick i guess. food for thought and all that. also

in my earlier post i jumped the gun, the 1st edition emperor is still a punk who needs human souls to survive. Though in this case its not some vague need to bind his soul to the chair or anything, no, its just that he apparently cant eat or drink anything else and hes really god damn hungry and thirsty all the time. Which is hilarious and i almost feel is just a better explanation in general.

to be fair he does look like this 10 millenia later

makes sense he would need to eat unconventionally.

as well, as opposed to specifying 1000 psyker souls a day it just mentions a vague ‘hundreds dying every day’ which is still a lot but also likely less then modern emps eats everyday.

some explanation/emperor wank on why the emperor needs to be fed everyday. not much to say, just that i feel like the implications here atleast lean a bit more towards the emperor being pitiable in his own right as someone so dedicated to this vague future ideal of humanity that hes forsaken most of his own physically and mentally. 

apparently humanity underwent no genetic changes over 38,000 years that werent the direct result of mutation from environmental hazards.

@ lordsofmedrengard  early dark angels lore, here we can see where they got stuck with the moniker of “first legion” from in 30k modern lore, and its cause here in the first 40k book they’re noted as being ‘honored as the first marine chapter’. Guess it was something they felt needed to carry over... I like the copious more amounts of wine in the old dark angels chapter, and they seem a lot more aristocratic here then in modern 40k. Which makes an interesting contrast compared to the barbarian stocks of soldiers mentioned earlier in the book as being preferred for “legiones astartes”

we get some rundowns on the branches of the adeptus terra next, not much particularly new to note outside of them all being part of this larger governmental priesthood. some highlights though

the old school custodes uniforms are in fact the traditional uniform of the custodes in 1st edition. 

custodes wielded ‘lasers built to resemble the traditional and symbolic guardian spear’ whatever the fuck that means

tech priests and the adeptus mechanicus were monastic monks who primarily lived on earth and didn’t stick metal parts into and all over their bodies. they were consequently much more boring as the echlissiarchies IT department.

arbites basically doubled in the sisters of battle’s role as the militant branch of the state religion.

arbites fashion choices and the arbites acting in a similar manner of chaplains as well really.

the more voluntary nature of the astronomican in the first edition, the trainees learn how to safely let the battery drain them but it still seems to be a demanding job with a high fatality rate

they also share monastic tendencies and a uniform with the mechanicus, though theres is a fashionable blue.

included the entire bit on the administratum cause honestly, i find it incredibly fascinating. The parallels are certainly there between modern and 1st edition administratum, but i feel how its presented here just has more teeth and intrest to it. That is to say, its not just the ‘oh what fate, administration has become even more horrid, tedious and soul draining in this grim dark future, woe be us!’ that tends to get tossed around when mocking administration. Instead its a literal organization of religious monks dedicated to tax filings, school administration, rezoning and what have you. Blessed be the regulations and all that. Is there small cults dedicated to paper clip gods? what holy rites are involved when faxing documents compared to when faxing fourms? This is shit i want to know more about.

all adeptus terra adepts carry a knife and are likely legally allowed to shiv you here as well incidentally. 

the inquisitors are mostly the same, though with no mention of chaos whatsoever. less sub divisions from the looks of it too. this bit did catch my attention though.

psychic powers seemed to be a hell of a lot more common among inquisitors back then as well.

quirky inquisitors, who’d have thunk it. [its not that surprising, i just like that they took the time to mention it is all]

don’t know wtf is going on here though, especially as to whats going on with dudes armour on the left. looks like a knight crossed with an oven.

we get the usual spiel of psyker background, but then we get some interesting differences in opinions here on psykers compared to modern 40k imperium. How justified or not it is, is up to you but its definitely a shift in tone i would say.

possibly the proto servitor narrative wise? As said, 1st edition 40k readily uses robots, so servitors would be unnecessary. technomats on the other hand fall between that as menials who likely operate these things but dont full on replace them like servitors eventually will.

astropaths are basically the same, though the 90% statistic im not sure if it holds over to modern 40k. im thinkin likely but i could be wrong.

navigators outside of not ubiquitously having the third eye mutation also seem to have much more personal freedom and respect in imperial society in 1st edition. probably pretty comfy to be a navigator back then really. Aside from that, navigator families are still a thing.

space marine time!

well we get the same ‘feral world recruits as warrior god soldiers’ sortta stuff, it is mentioned and stressed that hive world criminals apparently make better stock in terms of raw aggression. Entire gangs will even be rounded up for the purpose of making new space marines.

the early process to create a space marine. no special organs, but bio-chem and the black [plastic?] carapace were there from the start, and hypno indoctrination is alluded to. Apparently this is still barely controlled chaos though. [and on a personal note, nothing that indicates it was male exclusive either, outside of general attitudes of the 1980′s]

early organization graph of a space marine chapter.

chapter markings and armour

AND THE POSSIBLITY OF SPACE MARINE BAGPIPES, WHERE ARE THEY GW WHERES MY SPACE MARINE BAGPIPERS!

iron hands apparently only had the one iron hand?

list of chapter symbols with names and colours, these keep appearing in the book. seems i was wrong on only the imperial fist symbol, its actually the crimson fists chapter symbol so thats 3 of the modern big 9 that didn’t exist back then.

we get a break down on the typical structure of a fortress monastery for space marines next, using the space wolves funnily enough who were far more normal as it were in 1st edition [and also their home world was lucan isntead]. and its got a lot, and well its all fairly interesting ill just shotgun blast some highlights

that the space wolves had an entire fuckin ship hanging in their great hall i find endlessly amusing, so thats why its there. the rest are interesting in terms of the domestic situation of space marines.

[astro-break]

Quick first thoughts on the first ep of the Hypmic Anime. Spoilers beware (and im writing this as I watch so :p)

Otome’s speech is.... questionable from a persuasive point of view. Manga did a great job of introducing her (which you can read here) but they really cut out the more terrifying parts of her speech and how she uses force to show people that she's not to be messed with

Its cool seeing everyone in their respective environments though. thats cool. Though they could have added Sasara and Kuuko (shhh i know why they didn’t let me dream)

I love how poppy the typography is. Its amazing how the visuals just leap out at you. The OP does a great job of this. The first few seconds before the title really gives me Persona 4 OG OP vibes with the influx of information given. The rest is a clear concise and streamlined way that still gives character. Animation is sparse but still carries across a general idea of each character and shows off each character object. Rendering is really nice and pays a bit of homage to the posing artwork thats done for the MVs. They also do their division hand signals and thats cute

Love how the OP has blatant HifuDoppo and DRB matchup foreshadowing

so far I really like what theyre going for. BB is about brotherly familial bonds and they show the goods and the bads. Jiro and Saburo bickering right out the gate really cements the fact that they get along like cats and dogs but you can still see that they love each other, working together when the situation calls for it

Now the 3d models. Theyre... not great but usable if you don’t look too hard. They serve their purpose and don’t actively detract from the viewing experience.

Visual typography in the rap itself are fun and poppy but they dont.... speak to me? like theyre there yes and I appreciate them but the only ones that got me excited were from Ichiro’s rap

I take my words back the group portion was kickass and I apologize

I love how they interpret the Hypnosis Speakers though. Esp. Saburo’s organs. That was super creative and I love it! If there was one thing that I felt was missing from the franchise was a deeper exploration of the speakers but the anime puts a new and fresh spin on it! Love it, especially with their attack patterns!

If the production team ever feels inclined to, Id love to see those info sheets on Otome’s desk released. There seems to be very interesting info and stats written out about each member (like capabilities, personal status etc.) They all seem unique too so I really really really hope they release images of those sheets

OOOOOOOOKAY MTC. I have such a big biased for them so Im very torn to see what unfolds

Rio striking out on his own is interesting. Out of everyone in MTC hes the biggest team player yet here he trusts his teammates to go ahead. This either displays Rio’s willingness to trust his teammates or it becomes very OOC if the anime wants to set him up as a lone wolf like character

I love how they specify its a drug deal. It means that Jyuto surely will show up and it also shows that Samatoki knows Jyuto’s motives and willingly gives black market info that he knows aligns with Jyuto’s goal. Thats A+ detail writing there and a great establishing characteristic for both of them

OOohhhhhhhhhhhhh man Asunama-san’s voice acting is god tier his work as Samatoki is phenomenal. He pulls of Samatoki’s threatening voice so well with those almost calm words before his voice becomes loud and confrontational. Those rolling syllables in contrast to Komada-san’s almost lyrical and airy speech and Kamio-san’s strict and enunciated words is such a delight to hear. It just speaks to how amazing and great these Seiyuu’s are in order to pull of such amazing work

Im so biased but MTC has such a better rap than BB im so sorry. Just by watching Samatoki’s part, the imagery is amazing. Even the arrival of his Hypnosis Speaker was awesome and sent a shiver down my spine. using the lyrics to form blades and blood was such a great thing to do. Theres so much more variety that just him standing there and shots of his hypnosis speaker. The old fashioned vignette shots, the four panel spread, the nods to old Kurosawa era films are great and I love these small details. Even the typography looks better.

Again, the interpretations with the speakers is fresh and new. Its great and I love the different imagery and attack patterns. Each one is so unique but carries across each different style of rap.

The 3d modles aren’t any better tho lol

(Hi this is Astro who is reading over their assessment again and making a note. Yeah I’m a bit harsh on BB’s rap. I’m not going to change it since I still stand by it and this post is supposed to be a documentation of my first impressions. I think one of the reasons why I’m so harsh on BB is because of their dynamic as a trio of brothers. They Have to have a more uniform approach than the other divisions. Which in of itself isn’t a terrible thing, it just doesn’t catch my eye as much as MTC did. Thats all! I definitely don’t hate BB, they’re maybe my 3rd favorite division out of the current lineup [not including TDD era teams like Kujaku Posse, MCD, and Naughty Busters] its just that their rap was pretty meh)

Samatoki crouching like a real gangstar and the cigarette kiss killed me

sadjkhfjkasdghsadjkcsdjhsdfsjhf im dying i love these trio of dumbasses so uch oh y fod someone save me aaaaaaaa (Astro note here! yeah i died when the jyuto and samatoki’s stomach growled im weak please. Samatoki’s face is just so precious and funny I might set it as a profile pic somewhere)

But also my initial assessment of Rio possibly being characterized as a lone wolf is very much jossed and im very thankful for that. It seems that Rio was simply trusting his teammates to carry out their part of the plan while he carried out his own. I like that, it really shows how much of a team these three are and that they genuinely trust each other. He’s also comfortable enough around them to invite them to dinners after work casually and not just for special occasions.

I really love MTC guys

Oooh! we get Ramuda on his design process which is really cute. the inside of his studio is super cute and retro and i love it. the poppy old music you would hear in a cafe or 90′s resturaunt is also really cute (astro note: yeah i know that in ARB you see the interior of Ramuda’s office but its kinda different seeing it animated)

the translation i have has gentaro speaking in early modern english (Shakespearian english for those who aren’t english nerds like me) but from what I can hear, he doesn’t speak in a particularly old fashioned way? Its more formal than old? and hes speaking without any of his character persona lying thing that he likes to do (as he refers to himself as “Shousei” throughout the segment where hes in Ramuda’s office which is kind of his default pronoun of choice). so its kinda odd for the translation to go in that direction but im not complaining

Gendice banter is gold but it feels... flat? a little? it doesn’t have the same impact as in the drama cds or in the manga? i feel? Also Ramuda using gratuitous english is??? idk how to feel about that

kjshf thats against the rules Ramuda omgggg,,,,,,,, (astro note again: while watching i was under the assumption that using your hypmic for monetary gain such a as buskering [which is what FP is doing] is against the rules. May not be the case but whatever)

FP’s rap might be my favorite in terms of tune and lyrics though. It’s a nice laid back bop and really gives of chill vibes. the integration of 3d and 2d is really nice and i love how they play off each other in the rap. The wordplay is so fun with little nods here and there and the beat is poppy too so it really energizes me.

Ramuda’s rap concerns me slightly since he makes very subtle and small nods towards his past (being created in a laboratory, warfare, and his overall very unpleasant life experiences) but spins it into something cutesy. It could be a coping mechanism, it could be me overthinking it. But it does make me worry a bit. Gentaro and Dice’s rap really play off each other with Gentaro sticking to stories and Dice taking up the baton by carrying on that same imagery but putting his own spin on it.

the self awareness of how scattered they are as a team is interesting though. It doesn’t seem like something you’d speak about in a rap? but i guess since its not really a do or die situation they can afford to be looser on things like this.

Right off the bat, i don’t like how they handled Hifumi and Doppo in relation to Hifumi’s fear of women. Slug made a post once talking about this and I echo many of his sentiments. Hypmic has never been very tactful about tackling this particular issue and while I didn’t have high hopes that the anime would be any better it hurts to see Doppo take away the one thing that allows Hifumi to function within society.

Doppo’s breakdown mirrors a lot of my own mental state when I spiral though its shown a lot quicker than what happens to me oof. that hits close to home. though Jakurai’s advice is. Questionable. Its not the best advice to give to someone but we have no idea what kind of doctor Jakurai is so ill let it slide

Jakurai’s pose looks like hes going to do a mahou shoujou transformation lmao

I don’t have many thoughts about the rap though again. How they visualize the rap is interesting. the different imagery is quite interesting for each of them and the typography is nice a distinct but im still on the fence about the visuals here

The sound is in the same boat. The sound effects either drown out the rap or are too quet but some parts are nice at least. When they talk about Tokyo’s beating heart, the heartbeat sound is a but distracting especially since its only played once. But the imagery is at least nice

I wonder if for the eds they’re going to take a similar approach to what Enstars did and have a four different endings, one for each division. I love the blend of styles here and it really accentuates that although they’re different they mesh well together.

Ramuda’s silhouette though is hilarious. Love it.

:p and thats it. Uh not bad for a first episode. Established all 12 characters really nicely and their dynamics. I had some problems with it but then again nothing is perfect. I look forward to what they show us next week

[lestatdesade]

I've been trying not to take adderall bc its been fucking up my skin big time but when I take it I feel so. much. better. It doesnt entirely remove the fatigue but it does mitigate the brain fog and lets me avctually think about things. Also yesterday I was like "wow i've been so unproductive" but actually I plowed through my entire list minus a couple drawings that I cant do bc I ran out of decent paper to draw on. Like I work 5 days on, then 5 days off, but the museam is closed on certain days that are low traffic or have privately done tours. So its a bit weird. But yeah yrsterday I scanned ALMOST ALL THE FILM IVE BEEN PROCRASTINATING ON, I just have one more roll to scan left!!! Then I can justify sending out some more rolls that I have to be developed. Oh, and I got a 45 year old sx70 camera from a flea market thats in super good condition and the 2 pics I took look great but I havent had the chance to take it somewhere nice to use it. It kind of needs full daylight to work and it's been raining or too hot for me to go outside at all. It's such a nicely built camera. I said that I wouldnt get one bc it requires different film than my other polaroid cameras but it's really nice, heavy leather and metal build. and it folds up to be super compact??? It's so, so nice and I'm forever salty that modern tech devices just don't have thje same quality. Everything these days is built to be shitty and have no life. This camera is older than me, and tbh, it'll probably outlive me and still function well. but with the huge advances that we've made technologically, none of my current electronics will ever hope to outlive my 70s camera. I don't think its a lack of ability for companies to construct quality goods, bc manufactuering in a digital age of laser tech thats very uniform and not human made is easier, but they PURPOSEFULLY skimp on quality to sell more. to me, thats just the fuckin epitome of stupid. Like hey, we have such incredible technological knowledge, but lets fuckin ignore it so we can make more money from having phones and computers that are pretty much disposable in usage bc they have such a short lifespan. idk it just bothers me, but as a lead on, I've been working super hard on learning new art skills. I've been working a great deal w/ watercolors and I am dabbling in using UV resin. when i visisted my grandma for her birthday, I asked if I could pick one of her beloved pansy flowers. So I picked it, pressed it and encased it in resin to make a pendant. I think she's really going to love it. She makes great pressed flower art, so i fee like its a collab between us, though I don't have nearly as much experience. She gave me a pressed flower arrangement she did and framed it for me for christmas and everytime i see it I m just filled with this kind of overwhelming happiness that she made it for me. I always feel very bleak about my life expectancy since my dad died before he hit 50, and my mother is in her midsixties and I doubt if she'll make it to 70. But my grandma is like, in her 90s and walks without assistance, climbs stairs, routinely spends time with friends, and is probably more mentally sharp than I am. So I'm hoping my parents bS will skip a generation and I'll get my grandmas health. I'm not really afraid to die, but I think looking at how my parents lack of longevity doesnt really make me feel positive about the fact that I'm inching closer and closer to 30 and that I'm sure that all the psychiatric meds I've taken, and all this stress and fatigue have greatly shortened my life span. But I'm trying to keep positive and realize that much of my goals in life that have been long term were made out of internalizing toxic ideas and psychological manipulation and gaslighting. I know that deep down, most of the ideas that I have formed around even the most basic concepts of life, death and selfqworth are tainted by the abuse I went through as a kid. But I'm reearning a lot of it and really thinking about things in a way that is detached from my own experiences, and trying to reposition my perspectives. I think the idea that anyone can unlearn the hatred they are taught and that even some really "defined:" beliefs we have are more or less conditioning has really hanged the way I feel about myself. I'm less concerned about my own mortality, my legacy, and the thoughts of others. I just want to enjoy this experience of being alive, and anything more was really a lie and a delusion that I was tricked into thinking. I used to belive that if I didn't EXCEED EXPECTATIONS and make a mastery of myself then that would prove my abusers right, and confirm the idea that I am worthless as truth. But I have learned that basing peoples worth off of their success is stupid, and I can't change the illness that has destroyed all my hopes and dreams. And also that well, I don't NEED to have these crazy, unattainable goals and pipedreams to make myself feel like I deserve to live. I deserve to live, exactly as I am, even if I am a nuerotic loser who lives with my mom despite being nearly 30 and having a job. I domt have to be some fucking legend to show people that I didn't need to kill myself. I never should have felt as though that was an obligation to begin with. I exist because I do, and I don't hurt others or act recklessly in a way that endangers other people. I don't hoard resources so that others cant use them. I'm just a nuetral being, thats akll

[letaliabane]

Reunion

WARNINGS: Slight Infinity War Spoilers!!!

PAIRING: Bucky Barnes x Reader - ft. Avengers

A/N: This is my recovery from Infinity War, what a whirlwind that bloody movie was, I hate and love the Russo brothers but FUCK we have to wait another year to see what happens. 

I made my way off the quinjet quickly, following on behind Steve and Natasha with many of the other Avengers doing the same and following my lead out into the setting sunlight of Wakanda. 

I had been called in by Steve when the threat of Thanos and the Black Order had arisen, and the fact that he was gathering the infinity stones was a very bad sign that I knew could not be ignored. 

Especially in the terms of Vision. We had to protect him at all costs, and we were going to use all our options up before we could let anything happen to him, and that meant bringing him to Wakanda to be looked over by Shuri who hopefullly could find a solution to removing the mind stone from the AI without fully allowing him to deteriorate. 

‘Y/N, it is good to see you again,’ King T’challa greeted me, shaking my hand as his General Okoye sent me a brief smile. 

‘Likewise your Majesty, and though I wish it was under better circumstances, we cannot ignore the fact that there is a alien monster who want to destroy half of the humanities existence. Unlike the last time when it was over a dispute!’ 

He chuckled at this and couldn’t help but nod, ‘Indeed, please, all of you come this way.’ We followed on behind the King, Steve questioning, ‘What are our numbers looking ike your majesty?’

‘Good but not enough. We have men from all of our tribes, the Jabbari have agreed to cooperate and fight alongside us as well. M’Baku never backs out of a challenge and-’

‘And a one hundred year old soldier.’ I turned instantly towards a voice I had longed to hear for so long, the voice of the man I was forced to leave behind in Wakanda a year before. James Buchanan Barnes. 

I leant against the wall outside the laboratory that belonged to the King’s sister, Princess Shuri, who was speaking to Bucky about the process of what she would do to his memory while he was back in cryo-sleep. 

It wasn’t what I wanted, but if it was the best chance for Bucky to be restored to the man he once was, then I was prepared to support him all the way with his decision.

I had been a member of the Avengers since the battle of New York, however since the dispute had erupted between members, I had sided with Steve Rogers. 

We had become very good friends even before the Avengers had come together due to the fact that we went to the same boxing ring every week, only to find out that we both were under Shield. 

Through the years I had helped him adjust to the modern times alongside Sam, which had led him at times to tell me tales of his time during the 40s, especially about his friends with James Buchanan Barnes. 

To help him, I went along and helped him find his best friend, and during the dispute when I had to keep him hidden, the two of us had be come closer, and in the few days that ensued, we began to feel more than friendship towards one another.

Though the fight between Steve and Tony had extinguished for now, the battle for Bucky against the words of Hydra in his head wasn’t. T’challa had been kind enough to offer his services to the soldier, but to my dismay, it meant he would be forced to go back to sleep.

My thoughts were interrupted when Steve gripped my arm, alerting me to turn towards him, a tired and disheartened expression instantly readable as he sighed heavily. I squeezed his hand before making my towards Bucky who sat on the medical table. 

I couldn’t help but cast a small glance towards the sleeping chamber, a sliver of fear running down my spine before I turned back towards Bucky who watched me carefully with a gentle smile. 

I found myself pulled between his open thighs, allowing him to caress my cheek gently, whimpering, ‘Is this really the only way? There has to be something else we can do.’

‘I can’t trust my own mind doll,’ He whispered, chuckling lightly as he did, but it was shallow, and the smile he presented was just as quick to vanish. ‘So until they figure out how to get that stuff out of my head I think going back under is the best thing … For everyone.’

His hand traveled down my neck and waist before he pushed me forward into his chest, his nose grazing mine as I gripped his shoulders, shying away from his burning gaze, failing to hide my tears. 

‘I don’t want you to go back into that place .. the darkness you’ve spoken to me about. I don’t want you to be in pain. ’

Bucky smiled sadly at me, lifting my chin so I could look into his eyes, placing his forehead against mine. He couldn’y help but peck my lips lovingly before he whispered, ‘I can take it, once last time before I can properly hold you in my arms again.’

I remained unmoving even as Steve stepped forward with a chuckle, embracing his dear friend, it was only then did I realise that the man had a new arm. I turned to Natasha.  

‘When did he wake up?’

‘Not too long after we left him actually, you know how efficient Shuri is with her all of her work and discoveries.’ 

I looked back to Bucky who now looked towards me, but I couldn’t help but turn away, my heart full of pain. I made my way back towards the quinjet, mumbling towards Natasha and the others about standing on alert. 

I pulled out my swords, distracting myself by poising the the blades before the sun, allowing the light to dance upon the blade, but even as I did this, I couldn’t help allow my ears to listen to his sweet voice, gentle and inviting, honey smooth and yet the rough tone causing goosebumps to arise all over my exposed arms— 

That was until I heard faint footsteps coming my general direction and couldn’t but sigh as Bucky finally spoke, his voice travelling from not too far from me.

‘Not happy to see me doll?’

‘When did you wake up?’ 

‘A couple of months ago,’ I sighed as I looked down at my swords, gripping the handles harder ro cntrol the anger that simmered within me before returning them to their sheaths upon my back. 

‘The past few months have been hard Y/N, I’ve been trying to heal and become-accustomed to the world once again, as Bucky Barnes-Not as the Winter Soldier-’

I couldn’t help chuckle, before it fully broke out into laughter, a silence overcoming his words. With a gasp I broke out of my trance, the pain heavier than ever as I muttered dangerously softly, ‘But why? Why didn’t you tell me? You informed Steve and everyone else but what about me?!’

Tears now streamed down my face, unable to control the emotions that wounded me deep down before I turned to him, his expression full of concern as he looked me in the eye. 

Those who stood just a few strides away made themselves scarce, even the guards seemed to have disappeared from around us. 

I shook my head, trying not to look into his face, ’I’ve been waiting for you. For so long! Waiting to hear something so I could-I dunno somehow assist you in getting better! You know I helped Steve get back into the world so why couldn’t I do the same for you? I guess I don’t even mean that much to you-’

‘Thats not true!’ Bucky cut in, grabbing my shoulders firmly, ‘You are so important to me Y/N-’

‘Then why didn’t you tell me?!’ I cried out before he hook me as he exclaimed, unable to hold back the anger that was bubbling in his stomach, ‘I COULDN’T Y/N! I JUST COULDN’T!’

I froze, shocking instilling within me as he pulled away, running a hand across his face before turning back towards me as he took a deep breath, ‘I-I didn’t-I couldn’t bear you looking at me like-like I was-’

‘Like you were what Bucky?!’ 

When I turned on him once more, only to freeze when I witnessed the tears that glazed his eyes, his breath broken in shudders as he looked down upon me. 

‘… like I was a broken man.’ 

My insides froze over at this, looking up at him as he came closer to me, carefully taking my face into his hands. 

‘You are my entire world. There wasn’t a single moment where I didn’t think of you. But I just don’t think I could’ve handled witnessing how you would look at me when I was at my weakest.’ 

‘I would never have judged you Bucky! I-I’m too in love with you to do that!’ 

The smile he now wore was one that I had been waiting for for a very long time, and I felt my heart flutter at the sight. I gasped silently as the tears began to fall down my face, finally giving into his touch, leaning into his hand and gripping it as I looked up at me, ‘I’ve missed you!’

‘God I’ve missed you too Doll.’ I whimpered as he brought me into his embrace, holding me tightly to him. 

He smiled lightly against my head which he kissed lovingly, running his fingertips through my hair and the smell of my perfume almost awakening his senses to hold me just a little tighter as I cried into his shoulder.  

Bucky pulled away to look down at me, caressing my cheeks before placing a firm kiss to my lips, his hand creeping behind my neck to hold me in place. I couldn’t help but whimper against his lips as I firmly held onto the front of his uniform, pulling him all the more closer. 

We only pulled away when Sam’s scream broke the silence, ‘Guys we have incoming!’

Bucky pulled me to his chest as his eyes were directed to the sky, glued to the black shards that fell, only to be destroyed by the forcefield that protected Wakanda. We both shook from the impact, Bucky gripping me firmly to him before he muttered with a smirk, looking around at the beautiful city, ‘I love this place.’

I held back a chuckle as we pulled away from one another, turning towards the fires that spread across the outside of the perimeter as more shards rained down and dug into the earth. 

I allowed myself time to take in the super soldier beside me who took up my hand once more in his own, his stance protective and ready, and I couldn’t help but smile. 

‘You ready for this?’ 

I was surprised to see the smirk that had taken over his features as he squeezed my hand. 

‘When am I never? This time we’ll do this together.’

Masterlist -

Wanna Request? Choose a few prompts, or send your plot and inbox me!

[tumblunni]

Okay..uhh..man i dont even know what pronouns to use for this character

Like the few posts in their tag call them nonbinary? But it seems thats just because of that one line saying "gender is stupid" which was literally in response to someone saying "stop dressing like a girl, youre a boy". And like every single artwork of this character everywhere forever shows her dressed incredibly feminine and like.. Calling herself a girl. And the series just treats it as "quirky gay man who's lol sooooo gay that he crossdresses all the time" and seriously everyone else seems to call her a man and she calls herslf a girl? Like this really doenst seem like a nonbinary character this seems like an old manga with a poor understanding of trans people that was using kind of offensive language to refer to a trans woman and like.. Now just looking back on it through a a modern lens we'd say it seems like how we talk about nonbinary people.

Cos i mean seriously man this is just a girl who always dresses as a girl and calls herself a girl and loves girly stuff and its just meant to be somehow 'comical' because she's uhh..well..clearly flat chested and the manga makes it clear she was "born a man". And seriously wtf is up with this "comical" slant to all of it?? Like im glad to see trans rep and i understand that its so flawed because its a really ahead of its time bit of representation that was made in a time when bigotry was a lot more overwhelming and LGBT equality had made less strides. But still it seems so weird that even if they think of this character as "a gay man who likes to crossdress" then they'd be portraying "him" as a joke when they'd had other positive gay characters before. And like its not even outright "eww trans women" or anythingits just like they draw her SO exaggerated when she shows her crush on Toya and then he's drawn all..comically disgusted? And everyone is all shocked? And it was really confusing for the first chapter before they had a character staye that she was DMAB cos seriousky it just looked like everyone being weird to this girl for no reason.

And then just.. THERE'S A REALLY WEIRD UNDERTONE HERE

Like i wondered why on earth Toya's crush on Yukito was played so understated and never allowed to be outright confirmed even though its clearly canon and they were able to show Syaoran having a crush on literally the same guy before.

But seriously its starting to become WEIRD in regards to that! Like Ruby Moon is telling Yukito "i'll steal him away if you dont want him" so hey yes confirmation that it IS fuckin canon and they JUST WONT SAY IT. and then they have this really weird dance around conversation where toya is all "ugh gasp you're a-" and like he's...uncomfortabke with her being "a man" (SHE'S NOT A MAN DAMMIT) and she's like "but yukito is also" [suspicious gap in dialogue] "and you" [suspicious gap in dialogue] "him". Its all fuckin weird how much theyre dancing around saying the word gay or even saying a man loves a man yet they SAID IT BEFORE FOR SYAORAN! And then the dancibg around LGBT terms was actually used kinda cleverly here cos it could also mean "yes i'm a clow card and yukito is also not human". And probably the writers could point to that as reasonable denial if anyone accused them of writing a trans woman, i guess...

And uhh.. Yeah.. I think i get why these two situations are considered "different" by the writers.there was just a whole fuckin chapter about Syaoran realizing that her REALLY loves sakura and he only mistook his feelings for a crush on another boy because something something sensing subconciously that yukito had magic in him. And now its presented as CHARACTER GROWTH that he gives up on yukito and goes and has a straight relationship instead. And at the same time in the same chapter Tomoyo also decides to give up on her crush on Sakura WITHOUT EVER EVEN TELLING HER OR TRYING TO SEE IF SHE FEELS THE SAME WAY because she just thinks sakura will be happier witj syaoran. And this is meant to be noble and again be character development. And then looking back we had that whole plot of tomoyo's mom having a crush on sakura's mom and it being played all comical?? And her accusing sakura's dad of being a cradle robber and horrid for LITERALLY FUCKING HIS UNDERAGE STUDENT AND SHE DROPPED OUT OF SCHOOL TO MARRY HIM was again played for 'comedy' and she 'learns her lessonc that he's really a good guy and everything is fine.

So..yeah. It seems like a bit of an undercurrent of "gay crushes are a thing for children that you grow out of". Cos seriously the way they play the "comedy" on these older characters is like.. Infantalizing them? Tomoyo's mom is meant to be seen as immature and overreacting. And sakura's mom of course 'grew up' and got a 'real relationship'...

Or like i dunno maybe this was all an accidental implication caused by writers who just didnt realize what itd look like when they make EVERY SINGLE QUEER CHARACTER LOSE THE LOVE TRIANGLE and also refuse to actually confirm the one singular potential actually happy, healthy and recipricated gay pairing.

Also calling a trans woman a man and making everyone act grossed out by her expressing interest in her and making it all so confusing that even actual LGBT people dont really know what to make of it...

And then like there's also some bit where they say "oh well clow card guardians dont actually have gender", by which they mean "biological sex" cos i mean clearly they have genders! And why would "having no biological sex" give them ALL THE BODIES OF MEN??? Like seriously why would "cannot reproduce" mean "male by default"? Why would one of these "genderless" creatures make fun of one of the others for choosing to be female if none of them were born aligned to either of the human reproductive categories in the first place? Like its not "ha why are you being female, we dont have genders" its "why are you NOT BEING A MAN, we dont have genders". That makes no sense!! Also double wtf cos like 90% of all the clow cards look feminine and even half of the ones who don't still use female pronouns and get listed as female in the profiles. Like yes, all of them are drawn flat chested or with barbie doll anatomy but that doesnt make them "men by default"! And nobody's ever mentioned this before, we havent had kero-chan being all "ugh this is the DEVIANT Windy card that PRETENDS to be a girl" or anything. Seriously i cant get over the fact that its her straight up sibling guardian who's the one who makes fun of her for wearing a girls uniform. You are a goddamn talking panther!! What do you care about human cissexism!!

I dunno man the whole thing's got me a bit grumpled.

Also they continue dojng the damn nasty "romance" between a 35 year old teacher and a ten year old girl IN A MANGA AIMED AT TEN YEAR OLD GIRLS, and its presented all wholesome and life goalsy with no criticism whatsoever. Its been getting even creepier and it fuckin STARTED with him giving her a wedding ring! Now theyre really drawing attention to how young she is cos she sews a makeshift teddy bear for him and gives it to him as a good luck charm thatll make their love last. Gahhhhhh

[gradencetrickortreat]

The Gradence Trick or Treat Halloween Fest prompts are out! See the ‘Treat’ prompts under the cut (and read the claiming guidelines here):

Anonymous prompters submitted:

Prompt: Slutty halloween costumes = roleplay opportunity

Squicks: none

Max Rating: NC17

Claim number to submit: Treat 1 (1 claim)

Prompt: AU where one of the boys is a Halloween spirit/King of the pumpkin patch, and meets the other under creepy, Halloween-esque circumstances - in a mist-filled graveyard, an haunted house, some old forest. He may want to strike a bargain, or crave company (in any form you’d like), or simply decide to play a bit with this mortal - until they fall in love, of course.

Squicks: PWP

Maximum Rating: R

Claim number to submit: Treat 2 (2 claims)

Mod note: all spots for this prompt now filled! We won’t be accepting any further claims on this prompt. Thank-you. :)

Prompt: The magical world does Halloween in style (pumpkins, parties, costumes, etc), because what better way to blend in? Graves discovers that Credence has never experienced the holiday, so he whisks him away to the Graves country estate where his family comes together for the weekend to celebrate. Up to the author whether they bring Modesty with them or if she’s bonding with her new family elsewhere or any other option. The getting-together/confessing their feelings trope would be lovely, but pre-slash or established relationship is also great if the writer so decides.

Squicks: No prejudice or disapproval from the Graves family about Credence, please and thanks. No victim-blaming also. No enslaved house elves.

Maximum Rating: Anything is fine

Claim number to submit: Treat 3 (0 claims)

Prompt: Should Percival be Antony or Julius Caesar to Credence’s Cleopatra? Alternately, Credence is Antony.

Squick: none

Max Rating: M

Claim number to submit: Treat 4 (1 claim)

Prompt: Credence in a kitty costume. That’s it that’s the prompt

Squicks: Painplay, abuse within the pairing

Maximum Rating: NC-17

Claim number to submit: Treat 5 (0 claims)

Prompt: Modern AU. Credence takes Modesty trick or treating, and Mr. Graves’ house is the one with the full size candy bars. Credence comes back later after he takes Modesty home.

Squicks: no calling Graves “daddy”

Maximum Rating: Hard R.

Claim number to submit: Treat 6 (0 claims)

@accio-toffy​ submitted:

Prompt: On the midnight of October 30-31 the gate between all times opens. Ghosts pour out, skeletons come to life, witches dance under the moon and sometimes people stumble into wrong timelines. When Credence Barebone watches Halloween celebrations out of a small church window in 1920, he becomes a witness to appearance of a man in strange clothes and a glowing device in his hand, which he seems to be talking to.

They have one day to build trust, friendship and love; and when the clock strikes again at midnight of the Halloween eve, they must find a way for one to enter 2020 or another to stay in 1920.

(Magic can be preserved, tooth-rotting fluff, romance and even silliness is highly encouraged).

Squicks: Please no angst (or minor), no explicit child abuse, no daddy kink, no mpreg, no underage. If you are writing explicit, please no actual penetration (aka no anal).

Maximum Rating: anything from Teen to Explicit works just fine

Claim number to submit: Treat 7 (0 claims)

@chryselephantinechaos submitted:

Modern AU, w magic—Percival doesn’t care about Halloween, but this is Credence’s first Halloween, so he invites him over to watch movies, eat way too much candy to find out what Credence likes, and hide from trick-or-treaters. Percival goes All Out with decorating, and even rents a ghost for the day.

Squicks: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Max Rating: absolutely anything

Claim number to submit: Treat 8 (1 claim)

@clockhearted-crocodile submitted:

Prompt: Credence has never been allowed to take part in Halloween before (a pagan festival *gasp*) so living with Mr. Graves is the first time he’s experienced Halloween, and not just Halloween but WIZARDING Halloween.

Squicks: Not really any.

Maximum Rating: Any rating’s good.

Claim number to submit: Treat 9 (0 claims)

Prompt: It’s MACUSA’s annual Halloween ball. All these government officials get to dress up as whatever they really want to be, just for a night; there some pirates there, a few angels, even a couple of convincingly imitated no-maj celebrities. But Credence arrives dressed in the uniform of a junior Auror, and Percival feels a sudden conflict between wanting Credence to stay safe and out of the ranks, and really liking the idea of Credence working under him (in more ways than one …)

Squicks: Nothing to speak of.

Maximum Rating: Any rating.

Claim number to submit: Treat 10 (0 claims)

@meremeduse​ submitted:

Prompt: Credence takes his little sister trick-or-treating and she insists on going to the scariest house/apartment/whatever in the area — which everyone knows is haunted and satanists sacrificed a baby there thirty years ago or whatever. He doesn’t want to refuse her, so he knocks on the door… And it opens to Percival Graves.

Squicks: No bodily fluids, unless it’s like… spit. Keep it cute!

Maximum Rating: PG-13, maybe a soft R

Claim number to submit: Treat 11 (1 claim)

@nettlekettle​ submitted:

Prompt: Credence has a long-term crush on Graves which he believes is unrequited (spoiler, it’s not!). On Hallowe'en night, Credence and Queenie (and others if you like!) play lots of traditional divination games (if you google there are lots of historical games such as peeling apples and divining your true love from the shape of the peel - or just poke me and I’ll send some links!). Every single game they play gives one result - Graves is Credence’s true love / future husband. Graves himself confirms that the games aren’t wrong!

Squicks: Credence under 21 years of age, self-harm, any mentions of hanging, mpreg or ABO.

Maximum Rating: G to Mature? So nothing NC-17. :)

Claim number to submit: Treat 12 (2 claims)

Mod note: we now have two claims for fic for this prompt. One more claim for another medium will be accepted, but no more fic claims will be allowed. Thank-you!

Prompt: Lantern carving! Pie baking!

I thought I’d submit something simple and visual which might be fun for both artists and writers, so - Credence carving a pumpkin! If you like, he could bake the pumpkin guts into a delicious pie (perhaps with help from Queenie and/or Jacob)! :)

Squicks: Hmm. Anyone eating raw pumpkin? That seems inadvisable! :P

Maximum Rating: G.

Claim number to submit: Treat 13 (1 claim)

Prompt: “Witches and devils are abroad this night!!!”

Set prior to the events of the film, Credence is still stuck with the Second Salemers, but has developed a bond with real!Graves (your choice of what stage the relationship is at). On Hallowe'en night, Mary Lou is shouting and shouting about how “witches and devils are abroad on Hallow’s Eve!” and how they must all stay in the church praying. Credence is scared to go outside but also terribly excited to sneak out and join Mr Graves, who takes him to see all the joys of the holiday (perhaps all the big Hallowe'en window displays!)

Squicks: Credence under age 19/20ish, anything resembling non-con, suicide (enacted or mentioned), hanging or hangman’s nooses, self-harm, sexual abuse, unexpected use of sex-toys (!)

Maximum Rating: G to NC-17.

Claim number to submit: Treat 14 (0 claims)

@shamelessstudentsdream​ submitted:

Prompt: Coffee Shop AU (maybe Credence working for Jacob? Percival healing and trying something a tad less stressful for a time?). Cutesy Halloween atmosphere. Golden leaves, oversized sweaters, carved pumpkins and all that jazz.

Squicks: PWP

Maximum Rating: M

Claim number to submit: Treat 15 (2 claims)

@soughs​ submitted:

Prompt: Setting up to writer. Percival hates Halloween with all of his grumpy heart. The children are too loud and he can’t enjoy his evening in peace. When someone knocks on his door - knocks, not ring - despite the clear “no candies” sign, he’s pissed off. Little does he know that the young man in front of his house is no lost tourist but a leannán sí determined to find a human lover to run away from the fairy kingdom - only a kiss of love can keep Credence on earth.

Squicks: I’d prefer a happy ending.

Maximum Rating: NC-17/Explicit

Claim number to submit: Treat 16 (2 claims)

@sozdanie-gryazi-eternal submitted:

Prompt: Photographer Credence and Rockstar Graves: thats it thats all i got.

squicks: fisting? i guess

maximum rating: nc-17

i already made a graphic but so far have had nada luck. PLEASE BE INSPIRED ANYONE?

Your mods encourage ‘halloweening this up’ ;)

Claim number to submit: Treat 17 (1 claim)

@unicornmagic​ submitted:

Prompt: Graves takes Credence out of the city for broom-riding lessons. At night. Bonus points for: moonlit autumn countryside, haystacks, sly (or not so sly) dick jokes.

Squicks: Noncon, abuse, pain, blood, a general absence of fun

Maximum Rating: PG-13

Claim number to submit: Treat 18 (2 claims)

Mod note: we now have two claims for fic for this prompt. One more claim for another medium will be accepted, but no more fic claims will be allowed. Thank-you!

@weconqueratdawn​ submitted:

Prompt: Modern trick or treat AU - Credence takes his little sisters trick or treating, so they pay a visit to the handsome man who lives on their street - Mr Graves. It’s the first time they’ve really spoken and he makes Credence nervous - Mr Graves notices his interest and invites him back later :) Bonus - some kind of a first time sexual experience for Credence.

Squicks: I’m fairly hard to outright squick - I loathe anything to do with feet though lol

Maximum Rating: NC-17 / Explicit.

Claim number to submit: Treat 19 (1 claim)

Your mod @gothyringwald would humbly like to add:

Prompt: It’s Credence’s first time celebrating Halloween and he eats too much candy.

Squicks: daddy kink, feminisation, watersports/scat, ABO, mpreg, underage, bottom Graves, incest, unhappy endings

Maximum Rating: T

Claim number to submit: Treat 20 (0 claims)

Prompt: Credence and Graves meet at a Halloween midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Credence is a Rocky Horror virgin (you can decide if he’s any other kind of virgin, too) and Graves is a member of the shadowcast (preferably Eddie, please) who takes pity on (and takes a fancy to) him when he’s brought up onstage.

Squicks: daddy kink, feminisation, watersports/scat, ABO, mpreg, underage, bottom Graves, incest, unhappy endings

Maximum Rating: Explicit/NC-17

Claim number to submit: Treat 21 (0 claims)

Prompt: Graves is a vampire who hates Halloween (it’s just so commercial). Credence hates Halloween because no one ever invites him to their parties. Somehow, they meet (on Halloween, obviously).

Squicks: daddy kink, feminisation, watersports/scat, ABO, mpreg, underage, bottom Graves, incest, unhappy endings

Maximum Rating: Explicit/NC-17

Claim number to submit: Treat 22 (1 claim)

Prompt: COUPLES COSTUMES! (i.e. Graves and Credence dress in co-ordinating costumes as a couple).

Squicks: daddy kink, feminisation, watersports/scat, ABO, mpreg, underage, bottom Graves, incest, unhappy endings

Maximum Rating: T

Claim number to submit: Treat 23 (2 claims)

Prompt: Warm Bodies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warm_Bodies_(film)) AU

Squicks: daddy kink, feminisation, watersports/scat, ABO, mpreg, underage, bottom Graves, incest, unhappy endings

Maximum Rating: Explicit/NC-17

Claim number to submit: Treat 24 (1 claim)

Your other mod @graves-expectations would humbly like to add:

Prompt: who remembers that episode of Buffy (Season 2 Episode 6, as it happens, named ‘Halloween’ :D) where the gang buy costumes from one particular shop on Halloween and then take on the traits of that costume? Credence and/or Graves end up in a cursed costume or something and then suddenly become that costume until someone can break the spell. Go nuts with who what where when and why :D

Squicks: underage, watersports/scat, endings that are not HAPPY >:(

Maximum Rating: whatever your heart desires

Claim number to submit: Treat 25 (2 claims)

Mod note: we now have two claims for fic for this prompt. One more claim for another medium will be accepted, but no more fic claims will be allowed. Thank-you!

Prompt: Penelope AU! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penelope_(2006_film)) Graves is cursed with a pig’s nose and the curse will only be broken if ‘one of his own kind’ learns to love him. Credence is the man who stumbles into the bachelor interviews by mistake… (just gimme that Halloween party at the end! <3)

Squicks: underage, watersports/scat, endings that are not HAPPY >:(

Maximum Rating: whatever your heart desires

Claim number to submit: Treat 26 (0 claims)

[frogtownhobbies]

        Last weekend Frogtown Hobbies hosted a modern format Star City Games Invitational Qualifier and pulled in an exciting field of 62 players from all over Ohio and Michigan. Later this month (Saturday, August 24th to be specific) we are holding our first ever Mythic Championship Qualifier and the format will again be modern, so we thought a brief analysis of the decks played last Saturday would be informative for anyone coming out in a few weeks. Two notes before I begin; first, space will be limited for the MCQ and we are capping attendance at 132 so if you are planning on playing, sign up sooner rather than later. Second, while 62 players is a good turnout for an IQ, all analysis in this article still comes with a small sample size warning. This last point is accentuated by the disparity in player skill at local tournaments. That being said, on with the analysis.

The Field

         Modern is, of course, a hugely diverse format with anywhere from 10 to 40 decks being competitive, depending on how strictly you define competitive. Using MTGTop8.com we see that 9 different modern archetypes have managed to top-8 at least 10 times in the last 2 weeks alone, 21 have at least 4 top-8s, 32 have at least 2 top-8s and a full 50 have managed to make at least 1 top-8. By this metric Dredge (which includes Hogvine decks on MTGTop8) leads the way with 53 top-8s (15%) followed by Phoenix variants (mostly UR or mono-R) with 37, UW Control (28), Eldrazi Tron (25), Urza’s Foundry (23), Classic Tron (23), Burn (22) and Jund (21). Mythic Championship IV in Barcelona had 11 different decks played by at least 10 players and 20 played by at least 3 led by Hogvine (98 players), UR Phoenix (48 players), Eldrazi Tron (42 players), Humans (38 players), UW Control (38 players) and Jund (36 players).

        The Frogtown IQ was no less diverse, with 24 different archetypes being played by its 62 players and 13 being played by at least 2 players. Like the Mythic Championship the week before Hogvine was the most played deck with 8 intrepid pilots braving the seas of graveyard hate for the possibility of its explosive starts. All of the Hogvine decks played were pretty uniform in the maindeck with the only decision point seeming to be what removal suite to use in the last 3-5 slots between Lightning Axe (most popular), Assassin’s Trophy, Abrupt Decay and Fatal Push (least popular). Despite its heavy representation, Hogvine players were shut out of the top-8 with it’s best performance being put up by Michael Barabe in 9th place at 4-2.

        The second most popular deck was Jund, right behind Hogvine with 7 players. Befitting of a midrange deck built around answering threats the Jund decklists were very diverse.Wrenn and Six was universally adopted with everyone running between 2 and 4. All 7 players also ran some number of Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Tarmogoyf, Lightning Bolt and Liliana of the Veil, and 6 of 7 players also ran some number of Bloodbraid Elf and Assassin’s Trophy. Raja Sulaiman managed the archetype’s only top-8 with one of the most unique lists, splashing white for 3 maindeck Path to Exile (with the 4th in the sideboard) to compliment a full boat of Assassin’s Trophies and fully tax his opponents’ basic land counts. The fourth color probably precluded Raja from playing a ghost quarter or two but modern’s basic land light decks are definitely ill-equipped to handle that many of that effect.

        A trio of very disparate deck choices were brought by 5 players each in Monogreen Tron, Burn and Urza’s Foundry (sometimes called Grixis Urza or Whirza). Tron lists are obviously pretty stock at this point with the variety basically boiling down to whether to run the Karn-Lattice package or not. Notably, our five players all chose not to, led by Nick Moore who managed to top-8 despite leaving his trusty Celestial Colonnades at home. The burn decks were similarly uniform with all five players running nearly identical 75s. All five were RW (with one lightly touching green for some sideboard cards) and all 5 ran Skewer the Critics, Boros Charm and Lightning Helix on top of the usual suspects. One burn player made top-8 with the archetype, Peter Duhamel II. Urza’s Foundry was the final deck to be brought by 5 players and, despite the deck being fairly new to Modern, there was not a lot of variation in the lists. Teferi, Time Raveler was in the maindeck of 3 of the lists (and the SB of another), 4 of the players ran Goblin Engineer, 1 player ran a Time Sieve and another ran the Karn package but for the most part the decks were pretty uniform. Yours truly was the only player to top-8 with the archetype, running it back for my second straight top-8 with it.

        The rest of the decks to be played by at least 2 players were Humans (4 players, 1 top-8), Mono-R Phoenix (4 players, 1 top-8), UW Control (3 players), UR Phoenix (2 players, 1 top-8), Affinity (2 players), Goblins (2 players), TitanShift (2 players) and Eldrazi Tron (2 players). For those of you counting at home thats 7 of the 8 Top-8 slots. With the last slot being taken by the eventual winner Jarad Carroll on RW Reckoner (!!) thats a full 8 distinct archetypes (depending on how you feel about UR vs mono-R Phoenix). Our 13 decks with multiple pilots were the same as the 13 decks with more than 10 players at the Mythic Championship with 2 exceptions (Goblins and Affinity at Frog Town vs 2 different Dredge variants in Barcelona).

Results

       I mentioned the top-8 decks above but let’s look a little more in depth at how decks did during the IQ. Tracking all 13 2+ pilot decks, along with the “other” category, we saw three distinct tiers emerge from the tournament. Tier 1 (Humans, UR Phoenix, Affinity, Mono-R Phoenix and Tron) all saw their players post mean and median point totals of 9 or more and match win percentages greater than 54%. Humans had an especially good day in terms of number of standings points with its players managing 3, 12, 12 and 15 points led by Max Hersch’s top-8 appearance. UR Phoenix had only 2 players but one made top-8 (Joe Romeo) with a 4-0-2 record that buoys the match-win percentage for the archetype. Affinity also had two players (who finished on 12 and 6 points). Mono-Red Phoenix was all over the map with point totals for its four players of 3,6,12 and 15 (A top-8 for Aaron Miotke).

       The second tier of decks (Burn, Whirza, Hogvine, Jund, Goblins and UW Control) all had mean and median point totals between 6 and 9 and match win percentages between 42% and 54%. It should be noted that the more players a deck has the harder it is to move into the top tier just based on there being a limited number of places available at the top of the standings. Accordingly we see most of our top played archetypes here in the middle tier.

       The lowest tier of decks includes the 11 decks in the “other” category as well as Titan Shift and Eldrazi Tron. Besides Jarad Carroll’s Reckoner deck no singleton deck finished higher than 9 points. Titan Shift and Eldrazi Tron had especially bad days at the office with final point totals of 0, 9, 3 and 3 combined.

Conclusion

        Overall, it looks like the best plan for the IQ was to be aggressive with a little bit of disruption as this adequately describes Humans, both Phoenix decks, Affinity, Burn and Hogvine. The little bit of flux caused by recent strong Modern sets like Modern Horizons and War of the Spark makes it hard to play control (where a settled field helps make sure you play the right answers). Of course, the deck that won took advantage of all of those aggressive decks (beating BR Elementals, Devoted Vizier, Affinity, Humans, Burn and Mono-R Phoenix while losing only to Whirza) by playing maindeck Auriok Champions, Worships, Blessed Alliance, Pyroclasm and Blasphemous Act to the top of the heap so there’s that.

Boros Reckoner Swans

Jarad Carroll

1st Place at Star City Games Invitational Qualifier on 8/3/2019

Creatures (19)

4 Auriok Champion

4 Boros Reckoner

2 Spiteful Sliver

2 Swans of Bryn Argoll

2 Volcano Hellion

4 Wall of Omens

1 Hazoret the Fervent

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Lands (21)

2 Mountain

6 Plains

1 Bloodstained Mire

1 Clifftop Retreat

4 Inspiring Vantage

2 Marsh Flats

2 Sacred Foundry

3 Wooded Foothills

Spells (18)

2 Rest in Peace

2 Worship

1 Blessed Alliance

3 Lightning Bolt

3 Path to Exile

1 Blasphemous Act

4 Faithless Looting

2 Pyroclasm

Sideboard

1 Pithing Needle

3 Blood Moon

2 Leyline of Sanctity

1 Rest in Peace

2 Stony Silence

1 Boil

1 Wear

2 Anger of the Gods

         My recommendation is the same as it always is in modern: either play something proactive with just enough disruption or win the matchup lottery and coast through without playing decks that beat you. Good luck to all of those coming to Frogtown’s Mythic Championship Qualifier, I’ll be there battling it out for fame and glory, stop and say hello.

         -Stephen K Timmons

[for-my-own-sanity-blog]

Welcome to VA-11 HALL-A & unique storytelling in video games!!

I am a huge sucker for atypical stories and atypical ways of telling it. My favorite film is Old Boy (the Korean one, as apparently I HAVE to point it which one I mean for some reason...) due to its very different story and characters and watching it during a time where I was so jaded about the boring old Hollywood blockbusters it was a real breath of fresh air to see a director and screenwriter really make something totally different. 

Video games by there nature lead to atypical story telling. Even the most cut and dry rail roaded game like a Final Fantasy or a Call of Duty are different for every person simply due to the fact that no one ever would play the game the same way twice. Monsters spawn in different spots, players get game overs in different ways. Even if the singular outcome of saving the world is the same, the road to get there will be different every single time.

However those are the typical ways to tell a story in video games. I’m looking at the atypical like Fallout New Vegas’s 70+ ending tree that depends on who you make friends and enemies with, what certain specific some times hard to find quests you do or dont do and what bigger way did you paint your world. TellTale Game’s modern point and click meets  relationship building style of gameplay, where the choices you make have weight that spans not only chapters but full games. Or on the note of Bioware Mas Effect 3′s three color coded .....endings..... Oh boy maybe I’ll do another post sometime of the problems with atypical storytelling.

This is then finally after three paragraphs where VA-11 HALL-A comes in. Pronounced Vallhalla this sets itself in a pseudo near future distopian city where companies control the government, inflation is at an all time high, and technology is moving so fast it has hyper advanced AI robotics, brains in jars, cybernetics, and talking dogs. Yep this is Cyberpunk alright. However instead of focusing on any of that you are Jill, a bartender at the game’s name sake.

Welcome To Vallhalla! The whole idea is based around you the player getting all this information about your world second hand. Learning about it either through your patrons (who I will go into how wonderful they are in a second) or on the Internet with only half a dozen articles to read a day, split over a twenty days that the game takes place in. With the only real form of gameplay is mixing drinks for patrons, making what they ask, and only rarely getting puzzling orders to figure out or reading between the lines of there order and giving them something different. Thats it, thats the game. See why I love it? No? Alright well let me go on

Alot of people compare this to a similar game:

Papers, Please. a game where you are the boarder control officer to the only entrance to the dictatorship regime of Arstotzka. The gameplay is also simple where you get someones passport and credentials and depending on the rules for the day you accept or deny them entry into your glorious motherland and depending on how well you did you and your family and survive another day. You can see from both me explaining it and visually how similar it is right? 

Well heres the thing, while Papers, Please is about the feeling of overwhelming hardship in a dictatorship, you still play a big part of this game and its story. As a small side tangent there is the idea that when you tell a story you should consider the “why now?” of it. Why now are we looking at a protagonists day in his life? Why Now are we following Neo in the first Matrix movie instead of a week before hand? Because the movie opens with his first steps into become The One. So whats the Why Now for Papers, Please? well its the boarders opening, something you play a pivotal part in and choose what goes on in. Do you let people who shouldnt come be allowed entry in? Do you stop that obvious terrorist bomber? Its to a point that your escapades will be on the daily news paper (though the government will taut that they did all the good things instead of giving you credit).

So what is VA-11 HALL-A’s Why now? well it comes in two parts and the latter one is a spoiler I will avoid, but basically its simply due to the fact that the bar is closing. The 2nd one is a much stronger why now that focuses on Jill as a character and explains why it ends the way it does, but again spoilers! You as a character are unimportant to the larger picture and world. Imagine you were that bartender who serves Sherpard so many drinks he nearly killed him. The bartender had no idea who Shepard was beyond being some hot headed human in military uniform, maybe after he will learn that he was THE Commander Shepard and he will have a story to tell his friends and other patrons, but he wont know about Shepard’s grander or more specific adventures into defeating the Reapers, or even what brought him into his bar in the first place. 

You are the NPC while characters go on there day having you possibly being one of there stops. Hackers, hired killers, robot diva singers and private police force members who all live interesting lives, half of it you dont even know about. One character you meet early on is caught in the middle of a terrorist attack and through the course of the game you learn tidbits of what happened and how she made it out alive, hints that it could be a government conspiracy, or foul play, but then through they’re unwillingness to talk about those events fearing a PTSD attack you never get to learn more. 

Lastly it goes without saying that to make this game work all that characters need to be charming, unique and creative. From Alma on the left a cyber-security contractor with both relationship issues and sister issues, to Dorothy on the right a sex-worker robot designed to look underage and though infact of legal age uses her body to corner a specific market. (who as creepy as her character sounds is the best character) and is coming to terms with existential crisis’s and wondering if her human caretaker just uses her as a replacement for her real daughter who died.  And of course Jill, our main character who’s sarcastic hard exterior can be chipped away to a genuine caring person who really want to help her patrons even if its just giving them a large beer after a hard day.

VA-11 HALL-A was the first game for me to play in 2017, but its going to take alot to top my enjoyment factor for any future games of this year.

Its time to mix drinks and change lives!

[hollyhawthorne]

INVESTIC CAPE TOWN ART FAIR 2019 QUESTIONS

1. Find each gallery booths for the three galleries that we visited on Thursday 14 Feb. What do you notice about each of these booths that are similar and different to the actual gallery (do you recognize the gallerists, the style of work/ artists and ways the work is hanging, a “vibe” etc.).

-  At BLANC GALLERY in Woodstock, we saw a solo show by Bronwyn Katz, which consisted only of three-dimensional works. The works were few and took up two spacious rooms. At the fair, Blanc exhibited a number of artists’ three-dimensional and two-dimensional works, obviously resulting in a more condensed and claustraphobic style of curation. I recognized that the same gallerist had been looking after the works at both events.

- Woodstock’s GOODMAN GALLERY hosted a solo show by Nolan Oswald Dennis. There were both two and three-dimensional works there, with some expanding straight onto the surface of the walls. A few of these walls had been painted grey. All of the works were presented along the perimeter of the room, with no sculptural works moving out into the middle of the space. At the fair, however, there were sculptural works for people to navigate their way around. None of the walls there were grey, but there were some yellow stripes on the floor that existed prior to the fair. There was a seperate room for the photography and video work of Tabita Rezaire, which was quite a tight squeeze, adding to the theme of confrontation that I felt her work explored.

- STEVENSON GALLERY in Woodstock is currently presenting Simphiwe Ndzube’s work, most of which is sculptural, or two dimensional with attatched objects jutting out of the frames. The walls were painted in light pink and blue, there were also handprints of smeared paint, reminding one of the human behind the final product. None of this evidence of labour was included in the curation of the fair. Here; Kemang,Botha, Cohen and Grose exhibited a variety of works.

2. Over the course of the day, decide on THREE works you absolutely love and THREE you most dislike or find frustrating. Make note of these with full details, and why you like/dislike them.

WORKS THAT I LIKED

- B. Wurts, Untitled, 2001, acrylic paint, paper

I really enjoyed Wurts’ comic or diary-like language that was created through the use of quick scribbles of random phrases and chaotic drawings, as well as the interesting variety of tone and line. The artist used scrap papers, reminiscent of post-it notes, arranged in layers that were itching to be paged through. This created an interesting paradox, where one needs to touch the work in order to see all of the drawings, but is not allowed to, given the formal gallery setting. I love the themes of horror paired with humour, as well as child-like drawings used within the professional realm of a gallery.

- Pino Deodato, Untitled

These were the only details of the work, written lightly on the wall in pencil. The sculptures appeared to be made from clay, though. This work was quite strange. While I didn’t immedietely love the look of it, I loved the strange and eerie feeling which I got from it, as well as the evidence of the human hand and its imperfection. By this, i mean that there were visable finger marks on the sculptures. The figures reminded me of childrens’ dolls, which was creepy but also quite mundane at the same time, due to the subdude colour pallette and absense of any wild brush strokes or obvious symbols of horror. I quite enjoyed the scale of the work, because as the viewer, you had to go really close to it and get involved in order to see the details.

- Ed Young, balloon performance and installation piece

I thought that Young was really clever with this piece. By having his assistant hand out balloons, people were bound to take photos with them. Even I posed for an instagram picture with mine. Those balloons followed viewers around into every corner of the fair, making their way into almost all of the press photos. Later, when I thought about how redundant these ‘balloon selfies’ were, i realised that people were literally posing underneath labels such as ‘scumbag’ and ‘moron’, highlighting how people will literally do anything to be trendy. I’m not sure if this was intensional, but I thought that that the use of humour was inspirational to my own practice.

WORKS THAT I DISLIKED

- Mr, While Walking, 2017, Acrylic and silkscreen print on canvas.

This work frustrated me. I assumed that it was a nod to pop culture, and more specifically to the sub-cultures that exist around anime. This work looked to me like a poster than any kid would have in his/her bedroom, giving a nod to mass-production. I felt like this was a really  tired and overdone theme... however whilst I was typing this i realized that this print was the only one of its kind that was made, which is quite interesting...

- Ley Mboromwe, Mokonzi aza mutema made, 2019, acrylic on canvas

Borrowing ideas and drawing inspiration from other artists is inevitable. However, there is a fine line between influence and blatant copying, and this piece is literally a knovk-off Basquiat. The only explaination that I can think of is perhaps a reimagining of Basquiat in an African context? This peice just confused me.

- DD Trans, Untitled

Whilst I liked the idea of the brightly coloured balloon ties being juxtaposed to the oldstyle painting, I found it to be quite random and was left wondering if there was any contextual meaning behind it? I just feel like the placement of the balloons could have been more considerred.

3. What are the predominant mediums and processes that dominate the majority of works at the fair this year?

I noticed a lot of painting, as well as the use of found objects. I enjoyed the fact that I saw a lot more “quick, spontaneous, loose” work in comparrsion to last year. But im not sure if thats just because I was looking out for those qualities...

4. What are the most obvious differences between the way different booths are curated?  Look at spacing/ size/ hanging/ booth furniture and so on.

Some booths are more interactive (viewer can walk between sculptures/installations), while some are curated very traditionally, with uniform framing. Some booths were very spacious, placing emphasis on the chosen works, while more claustraphobic booths displayed lots of works. Some booths had little office type spaces where gallerists could sit and discuss the art with buyers/veiwers.

5. How do the various booths differ in terms of signage, text, labeling/ titles: note the different ways.

Some artists have the imperical data for their work displayed tradditionally on printed labels, while some data has been drawn onto the walls. Some have no titles at all. Some artists included descriptions/analysis with the work, while some did not.

6. What is the general layout of the fair? Why do you think it is laid out this way?

The walkways between the booths was made wider this year. This is undoubtably because in 2018 the pathways were very tight, making one gallery space indistinguishable from the next. Besides this, the layout of the fair is still maze-like, with no particular path mapped out for viewers. This encourages the viewer to gravitate towards and away from certain works according to their intrests, forging their own path through the room. The divisions which were clear though, were that the commercial galleries dominated the central spaces, whilst smaller local galleries fell to the sides. Very old modern art galleries exhibited on the far left side of the room, probably the least viewed area.

7. What is the lighting like at the fair? Describe.

Not good. The bright white lights were quite clinical and also caused glares to appear across most of the works. 

8. What do you notice about the way people dress at an art fair? Look carefully at how the people working in the booths present themselves ,as well as other people at the fair and make observational notes.

There were lots of kids in school uniforms. Other than that, amoungst the adults, the fashion that I saw was quite strange. Other than a few posh art buyers, dressed in designer, people appeared to be dressed very casually. This was quite a let down, as last year we saw many flamboyant and expressive outfits.

9. Who or what are the various “markets” at this fair? What are the different types of “products” being sold and promoted here? Who is the fair aimed at?

The art fair is aimed at buyers, a very specific target market consisting of wealthy art collectors. It also caters to the public who are interested in art.. You had to pay for a ticket which means their target market is people who have money to spend on entertainment. (middle to upper class). Products aimed at the general public include books, food, drinks and psoters, whilst the aim of the fair is to sell art to the rich.

10. Find a work that you think exemplifies the spectacle of wealth. Note why you think so.

For me, the most obvious example was Athi-Patra Ruga’s The ever promised erection I. This is simply due to the materiality - or rather how it appears. The piece seems to ooze of expense, dripping in gold and jewels. Also, the symol of a bust signifies royalty or significant importance.

11. Find a work that feels like it doesn’t “fit” in this art fair context. Note why you think so.

12. How easy is it to ask about prices? Take turns with your fellow CA students to enquire about the cost of works at various galleries and take note of prices across the fair, as well as the way gallerists may treat you or react to you asking for these details. Do it at least TWICE yourself  in two different places.

I didn’t find it easy at all to find prices, mostly out of my own fear of talking to fancy gallerists. However, I did speak to one or two friendly faces who were more than happy to discuss the prices and process of buying pieces.

 13. What do you notice about sponsorship and branding at the fair? What brands are visible and who is the clientele / target market of these brands? Why would they choose a fair to push their product?

The whole fair is obviously sponsored by Investic,  whose branding is visable on all of the art fair parafenalia. Another big brand was moet champagne, which is appealing to a target market of wealthy people, like art buyers. Fairs are great for advertising because a large volume of people come through every day that the work is up.

14. Why do you think this fair takes place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre? What other commercial events take place here? (look up examples)

The venue is large enough to fit in lots of booths and many people. The venue is also in central Cape Town, so quite accessible. Other events here include gift fairs, jazz festivals, comic con, business conferences etc.

15.What are the oldest artworks you can find at the fair? (made the furthest back in time)

The whole section dedicated to the “greats” in South African art history. E.g. William Kentridge, Irma Stern.

 16. Who are the youngest artists you can see represented at the fair? 

Smith Gallery exhibited a number of works by freshly graduated Michaela’s students such as Michaela Younge and Talia Ramkilawan.

 17. How do the SOLO booths differ from the other booths?

Naturally, there would be more cohesion in the look and curation of the booth of a solo artist. There is more of a focus on that particular artist. Shared booths are trickier to curate I think, in regards to allowing a good flow of work.

 18. Who are the big names that keep popping up this year? Note why you think this is so.

I heard a lot of buzz around Roger Ballen appearing at the fair. I think this was because he’s such an oddball and his work fascinates people. The fact that his name popped up a lot for me could, however, be because I follow his work quite closely and actively look for news on him.

19.What kind of trends in subject matter do you notice this year? What kind of trends in materials do you notice this year? Note why you think this is so.

I noticed a lot of mixed media works, as well as found objects. In terms of subject matter, I saw a lot of figures, and subject matter relating personally to the background or current situation of the artist. I think this is because artists commonly use art as a means to express themselves.

20. If you could be represented by any of these galleries, whom would you LOVE to show or be represented by?

Smith, because I liked how young emerging artists were all alongside one another.

21. If you could work FOR any of these galleries, whom would you LOVE to work for?  And in what capacity?

Smac Gallery, as a curator. Or anything that allowed me to handle Georgina Gratrix’s paintings!

22.What other questions came up for you while wandering around the fair?

How could one possibly give attention to all of the works here? What would the best route be to walk, because I kept walking in circles.

 23. If you were to start a gallery or art institute, would you (hypothetically) want to show at the fair? And if so, how would your stall look and differ or be similar to what you have seen today? (you can make a sketch below) 

I would possibly show, but I’d love to have a solo booth to create somekind of installation work, seperate from the rest of the booths (almost like a resting spot for viewers).

[kaliiwashere]

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