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ragecndybars · 1 year

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top 5 mbs characters, bc im predictable, and then top 5 persona ...ships? if you don't do a lot of shipping than characters works.

unfortunately i don't actually follow persona all of my knowledge of it is just me voting for whatever you say to in the various polls you reblog (i gotchu homie).

and then just for the sprinkles on top, top 5 favorite birds. they can be specific birds (ie steve the magpie, a local magpie in your area, or big bird) or bird breeds (parrots, a titmouse, lilac breasted roller, etc) up to you. 🎉

or only do one, or two, or all of these! no offense will be taken. im giving OPTIONS

aaaaa thank you!!! for the ask, for the options, and also for supporting my little blorbos in those silly polls 😭

Top 5 MBS Characters:

Kate Wetherall. I. Was. OBSESSED with Kate as a kid. I do prefer her in the books but I love her show incarnation as well!! The weird girl energy, the autism, the ADHD, it's all off the charts. Fav line from book Kate is still "Well of course it's not funny, but what do you want me to do? Cry?" List of sentences that changed my brain chemistry as a child.

Not to be a basic bitch, but Nicholas Benedict. Oh my god, I loved him in the books already -- we love to see a "wise, all-knowing mentor" character with actual personality and limitations -- but the direction the show took his character in was truly inspired. His discussion with Reynie about the white knight in the books is PEAK.

Reynie Muldoon. Understandably, since he's the POV character, he was the one I actually related to most as a kid. I love the "always trying to stay calm" thing he has going on, and how the narrative never punishes him for trying to be kind and genuine and earnest even though so many books and shows nowadays feel the need to equate niceness with naivete.

My funky little Milligan. Yet another character who I loved in the books already and adored seeing more of in the show. I especially love how much more autistic they made this man. "Geez, how 'bout a hello?" "........Hello." / "I'll be back." [vanishes] [reappears] ".......I'm back." King shit. And no matter what incarnation it is, his reunion with Kate will always reduce me to tears. The memory that was so deeply ingrained into his brain that even Curtain couldn't take it from him... was just that memory of his little girl asking him to go to the mill again... AUGH.... 😭

Constance Contraire. Like Kate, I prefer Book!Constance, but I adore the way the show portrayed her as well. First of all, she's hilarious. Second of all, while she's often being irrational, she also can be a voice of reason in some ways, and we love that. Funky little psychic child. And I just ADORE how kindly the book treats her. Even when she's getting on the other characters' nerves in a big way, the book never suggests that she's a detriment to them, that she needs to sit down and shut up, that they would be better off if they ditched her, or any number of other things that a less understanding narrative would be claiming.

Top 5 Persona Ships

Hamugis. Ohhh my god. MFW the overwhelming guilt I feel for having potentially ruined someone's life by sealing Death inside of her as a child slowly transforms into admiration as I meet her again and begin to see her as a strong leader and then love as I begin to discover my own humanity through her. MFW "I don't want you to love someone else... I don't want that, even if that's what would make you happy!!" MFW I touch my robot GF's literal heart and leave an indelible mark on her very being. Also uhh that one post. "I do not understand hookup culture!!! Die in my arms!!!" yeah. Aigis and Kotone for number one love story of all time.

Akimina. Much less canon interaction to go off of with these two but stay with me here. T4T autism4autism. I love Akihiko's earnestness and Minato's bluntness and how they combine to make a relationship that lacks miscommunication while also leaving a lot unsaid because neither is much one for conversation. I like the idea of Akihiko's intense desire to be strong to protect someone playing off of Minato's much more reserved, almost lackadaisical attitude, despite Minato's strength, and I think it would be so interesting to watch them move in opposite directions -- Akihiko learning to cut himself some slack and trust others rather than thinking he has to protect everyone alone, while Minato learns to break out of his shell and actually care about those around him and want to protect them -- while they also, at the same time, are learning almost identical lessons about relying on other people.

Ulamaya. The two girlies of all time. I adore how Ulala's combined jealousy and affection for Maya play off each other and how Ulala is one of the only characters in the game who feels like she's fully seeing Maya as she is -- a human like any other, even if she presents herself as eternally optimistic and strong so that others can lean on her. Their relationship feels so... equal. If that makes sense. Which, as much as I appreciate KatsuMaya, can feel a little lacking in other Maya ships imo, bc it always feels like other characters (ESPECIALLY the masked circle) tend to idolize Maya. And Maya's forgiveness of Ulala's betrayal... what's that one Hozier line... "I'd be the immediate forgiveness in Eurydice." Yeah.

Pegoryu. God I just love how ride-or-die Ryuji is right off the bat. You meet him, have a near-death experience with him, and ten minutes later he's shoveling more food onto your plate insisting that you need to eat more. Even before then, it may be Akira who saves Ryuji from Kamoshida, but it's Ryuji who tackles him away, yells at him to run and save himself, who gives Akira the faith in humanity that the rest of the world had eroded away at that point.

Tie between Saoriham and Kannao. Saori's social link is one of the best parts of Persona 3 straight up, and Kanji and Naoto are just so goddamn cute together.

Honorable mentions: TatsuJun ("I... have nothing to give you in return..."), YukiChie ("Yes, Chie is my prince..."), ShinjiMina ("If the burden of command gets to be too much, just let me know."), KatsuBao ("Idiot... What were you going to do if I pulled the trigger?" "I knew you wouldn't.")

Top 5 Favorite Birds

Orioles!!! I have such fond memories of helping my grandma skewer orange halves and fill jars with grape jelly as a kid to attract the orioles (though I thought they were called oreos for the longest time, lmao)

Robins. We get a ton of them around here and I love seeing them hop around on the sidewalk.

Magpies. Haven't seen one meself but they're such cool birds. If I could have wings I'd want them to be magpie-style.

Crows. Another bird we get a lot of around here, their calls are so Autumncore.

Falcons. They're just cool and I like them. (insert Madge joke here)

#thank you so much for the ask!!!!#this was an absolute blast!!!!#Mysterious Benedict Society #Persona 2 #Persona 3 #Persona 4 #Persona 5 #ask

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majimasleftasscheek · 3 years

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I want to write some smutty fic + plot with kiryu and majima, but I've only played kiwami 2 so I'm scared I don't know enough about them as characters. Any tips or suggestions? (also bless your art c:)

klsdjkld thank you also I'm super flattered you'd come to me for tips 🥺💖 I can give a lil insight from things in the games so I’ll try not to be explicitly spoilery but just giving a heads up in case

so obvs I speak from a shippy dippy perspective but they do genuinely care about each other, especially in y3. Majima's a person Kiryu trusts and Majima's equally someone who would willingly do whatever to help out people he cares about. Majima's the type to be like yeah I'll die for you (serious)

since you've played 2, then you can very much see how Majima's willing to get back into Tojo bullshit cuz Kiryu asked him to. It's certainly telling that Kiryu goes to Majima of all people for help when it comes to Tojo shit which I think is a nice way to show he respects him to some degree. As nice as Kiryu is tho, he can still be a rude lil turd and likes to make jabs. He’s got a tendency to say shit he thinks is cool even if its inappropriate lol

also like, Kiryu doesn't really know how to read Majima but also I don't think Kiryu knows how to read many people tbh. There's a wild freeness about Majima that Kiryu enjoys seeing and indulging in, like when they fight and he seems to actually have fun with it. I don't think he's 100% aware of why he enjoys it or why he's willing to put up with Majima's dumbassery but Kiryu doesn't really need answers. Majima is Majima and that simplicity works for him

there's a lot of stuff in Dead Souls that gives insight into Majima and because I'm ill of course I know all of it. Lots of softie moments, Majima's a bit of a control freak about his appearance, he's an ass but it's playful assholery, he loves his subordinates even if he's a turd @ them, he's forgetful as shit, he's a bit of a stickler for rules - by the book type of stuff. THERE'S ALSO a part with a lil girl and he's so cute and awkward with her and it fulfills my dadjima addiction. I think Maji would love Haruka very much and Kiryu would be pleasantly surprised by that side of him

in y3, it's Kiryu's big dad simulator so you get to see him being a wise old fart even if sometimes he's a total boomer and embarrassing. He tries his best and has the best intentions but honestly his lone wolf attitude is often his downfall. Kiryu's very much a "I'll take a bullet for you even if there's other options to definitely not take a bullet" type of guy. He blames himself for a lot of problems out of his control and he's got quite the track record of running away from things if he feels like it'll be for the greater good of everyone else (it isn't lol). Suffer in silence sort of dude

they honestly don't interact much after 3 tbh cuz I guess it was too gay lmao but uhhhh they're definitely still motivated by each other's actions. 5 is very big on Kiryu beats up a lot of people again™, due to something that happens to Majima. At that point, Kiryu's life is quite far removed from the whole yakuza thing so I think it says a lot that he throws himself back into the fray for this bowlcut bitch

also! Majima’s wacky but it’s most certainly a façade. He’s very capable of toning it down in serious situations and equally, Kiryu’s a funky dude! Majima’s the type to put up fronts for his image while Kiryu’s very reserved but will absolutely go all out on something cuz he just can’t not put his 100% into everything even if it’s silly

I tried to keep things mostly factual based on the games with a couple of my own hcs thrown in so I hope it helps!!

I have another post I'm writing for like deep angsty shit for another ask so if that'll be of use to you, keep an eye out for that :)

#this gives me the good brainworms #kiryu kazuma #majima goro #kazumaji #my hcs

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zed-the-buggy · 3 years

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oh hey would you look at that *sweating profusely*

A New Foe Has Appeared ! @dantelionwishes

I'd been waffling over joining because like, I've never really watched much or been in the fandom by sheer lack of dedication to Watching Things and the actual characters didn’t really hook me, but at least 3/4 of my friends are and BOY GOLLY do I love the concept of magic teenagers with funky powers in a super cool magic high school doing superhero things.

Hoshizawa is kind-of a hodgepodge of my first magic human oc with as many little references to things I've liked in that ye ol' era of 2016-17 or something.

About this gay (personality shits, quirk, past?👀) below ↓↓

also quick warning, just due to the amount of hopping around my brain do, expect at least some cut off or weird sentences just because I forgot where I was and went somewhere else. Basically elaborating on the descriptions above though. Except dragons bit. No-one expects the (Spanish Inquisition) dragons.

Pearsonality (yummy, pears!)

Personality wise, he’s Very easy going. He’ll voice a complaint if he has one, but never with any malice or aggression. He’s very chill, pretty much. Rarely gets heated, and I sound like I’m describing, like, a dog, or a dog breed-

he can be quite forgetful, even just after a few seconds. Like me as I write this because I was going somewhere with it and Instantly Forgot. Even significant details about people he’s like “oh yeah I guess you do have red hair, I always thought it was black...”

Hoshizawa can grasp school concepts very easily, and while he’s not a nerd in terms of studies, he tries his best and does very well. However, his proficiencies in math and science don’t extend as far to his social-emotional intelligence, and can come off quite blunt or dense in many social situations. Especially in explaining things, he speaks in confusing terms that probably only make sense to him, or others in his exact wavelength. Because of this, it’s not unusual for others to believe he’s just dumb, and especially to get graded down on “show your work” type questions. When it comes to blows however, Hoshizawa can be a surprise. Because while he’s god-awful at explaining things, he still very much knows what he’s trying to talk about.

His favorite thing of all though are dragons. He found those Dragonology books in the back shelf of the library and never put them down. He’s even created his own pantheon of dragons and a world to go with, which he often references to others unknowing and unsuspecting.

He’s quite creative, but despite drawing dragons and creating a world or whatever, he is greatest with making music, specifically producing music on the computer, whatever that’s called (he knows how to make music I don’t.)

He lives in his head, and often ignores others by mistake by virtue of paying zero attention to the world, including in the middle of interactions. He spaces out ALL the time though. If he ever “falls asleep” in class, more than likely he’s actually just 100% spaced out.

Hoshizawa doesn’t care much for silly old gender roles (why gender when you can have dragons?????) and, while he uses he/him just because that’s what everyone else refers to him as, he won’t correct you either (leading to moments like - “wait you’re a GUY?!?!” - “ya” - “I’VE KNOWN YOU 6 MONTHS AS SHE/HER THOUGH???” - “...ya”) (one of many moments from my irl dramatized for comedic effect)

He likes physical contact, and likes to give others hugs to show affection (if they’re ok w it) hence I knight him the nickname of squishizawa, which I may or may not be adding this because I really like the nickname squishizawa.

Quirk time woot

Hoshizawa’s quirk is pretty basic, at least compared to the ideas I had, but the one I picked both fit for referencing my old oc he’s based on, and just for Hoshizawa alone.

He can create a cloud of sparks, which I don’t think look like how they do in the image but I’m not sure what they do look like either. He can create them either from his hands (which he can “throw” out) or around himself. The sparks will float in the air, and remain there either until either they eventually dissipate after a few minutes, or he collapses them into a supernova-like flash of light and noise. The volume of this flash can vary based on how much stardust was absorbed into the explosion. While he cannot actually physically touch or hurt others with this, a collection of stardust can be dizzying or disorienting, as well as blinding. More like a status effect in Pokemon to put it how my brain is (specifically like an accuracy-lowering Confusion)

However, using his quirk doesn’t come without charge. Using it can cause himself to experience the same effects, and when used too much at one time, he can be temporarily blinded, or a complete stumbling, disoriented mess, and past that even worse.

His (super suit) hero costume includes a variety of aspects to safeguard from these side effects, but in the end they only sort of prolong the inevitable.

Visor - The visor is tinted a dark color, as due to the blindness being caused by light (and because game) he will be able to see better a little bit longer.

Gloves - I hate my design on them rn, but they provide a level of ease to being able to cast the sparkles. They are solar powered :)

He has his hair up so that he can see. that’s kindof just a thing. Ponytail or bun, either works, I went bun because I thought it would look cool and I was wrong.

Past?!?!!?!1? what’sis e THIS?????

I’m keeping it vague because (I don’t know his whole BaCkStOrY yet) it’s a secrett BUT it is something he rarely talks about. He doesn’t seem to avoid it much, but he won’t talk on it without being Specifically Prompted. Which in the end, nobody goes to the shady looking guy in the tavern to inquire his backstory without knowing there’s a quest behind it, so it’s not something terribly inquired on. However, when he does talk on his childhood, it usually doesn’t take a lot of cross examination to find something that doesn’t totally add up.

Last Note (消えた後の蝋燭の香り)

woohoo - anygays possibly subject to change (i’ll try not to for sake of Braincells) because I’m an indecisive losser, and this took way too long and I think I fell asleep halfway through idk can someone check the tapes-

also no VA because I...i..do not- i do not know........ I imagine his voice being deeper, and while he speaks with a lot of pauses, he actually talks fairly quickly, because alike my wifi connection, his thoughts come in 10 second bursts, and also like my wifi connection, can be dumb and stupid.

so no-one can beat me to it, ahem himbo vibes ahem

also if you’re a certain specific someone who’s a cute that is seeing this because I sent it to you have fun simping uwu

#bnha oc #mha #bnha #mha oc #the hero outfit sucks so much ass #i will commit arson over this outfit #idk what tags to use 😔👉👈#I gotta desaturate those colors at some point :(#ZedTheArtTag #bnha oc comeback

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the-golden-ghost · 3 years

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Multiples of 3 for the WIP asks?

AYYYY THANKS

3. How has the WIP changed between starting it and where it is now?

It was originally gonna be a oneshot that didn't even make any sense and then I was like "but wait I could do something with this"

6. Is your WIP part of a series or standalone?

It's standalone!

9. Who is your favourite character to write?

The Great W.D. Gaster Himself Babey

12. What part is the hardest to write in your WIP?

I don't really know what this means, like the hardest part so far? I'm actually kinda stuck on Chapter 5 cause I need to merge some stuff that doesn't want to merge. Basically I need to cover Jevil's descent into obsession and then somehow spin that into how outright pissed he gets when he finds out that he has to share his Lightner with an annoying used car salesman. Imagine the toll

15. Post a line from a WIP that you’re working on.

From chapter 7:

Gaster paused, and then sighed. “I do not know what I can do to change his opinions. He seems to think all my intents towards him are to cause him suffering."

18. Give a brief character description of your main characters.

Jevil: Funky little jester guy. Currently the strongest card (magic-wise) in the Card Kingdom (likes to brag about it). VERY curious. Likes to know what's going on. Playful. Enjoys fighting and sees it as a bonding exercise. Often viewed as irritating or creepy by his peers but he's really just a silly little clown? Is later considered to be violent, dangerous and crazy but even then, he's technically right, just bad at expressing how right he is.

Spamton: Spam email. Bad at his job. If "sweaty" was a personality boy howdy would that sum him up. Has Anxietié and being turned into a puppet doesn't help that at all. Has lots of brothers and sibling rivalry with all of them (he's the second youngest). Kinda vain. Brash. Wants to prove himself SO fucking much man. Generally considered to be obnoxious by everyone except two of his brothers.

Gaster: Old Science Guy. Maybe he's a skeleton we just don't know. Very beautiful very powerful. Kind of a fuckup. Hubris-y. Likes surveys and asking the wrong questions. Lowkey pretty lonely and so he spends a lot of time alone in his room talking to playing cards and malware? SO excited by his experiments and loves them dearly but is unfortunately biased in the 'seeing them as real people' regard (he doesn't) so that's gonna be their main point of contention. A huge dork who comes off as creepier than he really is.

21. What’s a common writing tip that you mostly ignore?

"Don't use adverbs" never understood that one.

24. Do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?

I was writing a Sequel Thing to TKLUTS a long time ago. It's not abandoned per se but it's on the back burner. I have a lot of WIPs like that. I rarely outright abandon anything, but I lose interest and eventually am like "eh this is gonna have to go on hiatus indefinitely"

27. What is the best writing advice?

I dunno about the BEST, but I enjoy just... writing what's fun? Not worrying too much about if it's good but more about if you enjoyed it.

I mean lbr there's a ton of bad published writing by professionals out there. I'm not saying "never try to improve," but perfectionism ain't it either.

Oh, another good one: Try to isolate what you like about writing styles that grab you and use them yourself. Good writers steal. I'm not saying plagiarize, I'm saying pick a story apart until you can see the building blocks and then study it from there, and try to incorporate those building blocks into your own story.

#boy did this ever get long

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luwupercal · 3 years

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I don’t know about you guys but whenever I make a warhammer oc I usually make them as a joke. And then accidentally give them hopes, flaws, and ambitions and accidentally turn them into a full fledged character. You know that one catgirl oc that I told you about a year ago? She’s now got a backstory and everything, she owns a rogue trader ship and has an adopted son (And also has a plan to destroy the inquisition but that’s too far into her lore to describe in a simple ask)

So I have a question for you. Do you usually make your ocs as a silly little joke or not? And do you have any tips for oc creation (since you’re like, a really cool writer)?

i DO make ocs as jokes yes so often so so often. Tara and Kraut memorably, half of Tara's origin is me joking about konrad curze having an arsene lupin/jean valjean/pontiac bandit to his inspector whatever/javert/guy from b99 like a thief that always escaped him, and then Kraut sprung into life named "Benicephalous Sauerkraut" bc i was riffing on what avg space marine names sounded like to me (tbf i was reading the horus heresy series, i know space marines have less surnames now). a lot also just started as a concept i found neat (fuckass, liyan, tavius, theseus, to some extent ves and sa'ran) (liyan in particular i had the idea for already but he metastasized as an attempt to scare @/horuslupercal with vulkan coming very near a guillyvraine fanchild unknowingly LOL), and a subset of concept i just found neat is characters ive made or co-created to give a primarch a relationship or a friend at some point because i guess thats a genre now (think viren, gwynne, iason originally though hes changed, tara to some extent also). funky times LOVE ocs but YES

also I DIDNT FINISH THIS ASK BC I STARTED ANSWERING BC I LOV MY OCS BUT THANK U SO MUCH im just doing my best writing wise akjndslkjfndslkfjdnslfkdns my biggest tips for ocs and writing in general is to (1) always make your favourite characters if you’re gonna be the only one writing this story. dnd campaigns, big productions whatever it doesn’t matter but you need to make all the characters you make in anything you make yourself live Rent free in your brain, or at the very least facilitate another one living rent free in your head. (2) SPITE is the 3rd most important thing a writer can have, 1st is DETERMINATION and 2nd is A SENSE OF HUMOR even if it’s dad jokes. and (3) the best and easiest and most reliable way to get inspiration for anything storywise, plots, characters, endings, beginnings, whatever, is to hear about another story, or about someones life story, or about whatever, really vaguely, and then respond to that. the vagueness is super important because you want to avoid copying anything directly but if its something like “in this tv show you haven’t seen someone puts an entire revolution on another one’s shoulders!” or smth like that, you can play around with that vague gist and use to to shape your wildest desires. a good way of doing this is to traipse around tvtropes without ever going into a specific work��s own page, just looking around tropes and trope examples without looking at anything in specific. written down it sounds VERY like, legally and morally dubious but i hope that i get across that it’s just taking a really vague concept and responding to it, be it by doing it Your Own Way or by directly fighting against it or whatever it is. its like speedrunning letting things marinade in your own head basically. never be afraid of patchwork ever because referencing is fine as long as you don’t trace. (4) ok one last tip: learn to love varied people so you can make varied ocs. see the charm points in a grandma and then give her a sword. see the charm point in a sweaty weird awkward person and make them a hero and a pwoerful wizard. you will not be able to make all of your characters iconic and that’s normal and fine you don’t have to, but let your creativity run wild and constantly take in weird and wacky ideas from real life and from other fiction and u will get the turbo brainy

ALSO learn to analyze stories because analyzing stories will make it easier for you to make your own writing better ALSO learn to accept that your stories to you will be mediocre ALSO look at a LOT of bad stuff like a LOT of bad stories because looking at bad stories and at people doing shit that’s worse than what youre doing is both an ego booster and a powerful motivator ALSO give yourself space and free time, abandon your projects, return to them, do whatever you want, never tie yourself to any creative endeavour ALSO seriously give yourself free time most writers are economically comfortable because humans create better in their downtime the more downtime you have the better you create so let yourself relax let it all flood through you and once you’re ready the words will erupt out of you like a waterfall ALSO i cannot emphasize enough how much shouting about how something is bad, or shouting about how something is good, and elaborating as to why as much as possible, will help you. write essays and tag me in them this is an open request to everybody write a dissertation become a music reviewer be super critical of everything including your own work and it WILL help your brain i promise this to youuuuu. uhhh what else. OH YEAH THERE IS NEVER ANY STORY TOO DUMB TO MAKE A LITTLE SERIOUS OR TOO SERIOUS TO MAKE A LITTLE DUMB. include bits of humor and bits of seriousness in everything and if possible jump into writing w the foreknowledge that you will make this both dumb and serious

ALSO the biggest and most important writing tip of all time:

your writing is going to be mediocre. there is no way to avoid this. embrace your writing always leaving you wanting. just put it up. writing 300 mediocre things will make you a better writer than writing 1 excellentincredible thing. just write it i believe in you

That is all my writing tips i think . godspeed

#ask #yestheantichrist #long post

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wholelotofweird · 4 years

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Hi! Hello!

I recently had the huge privilege of working on the Season 4 Cover Art for the Actual Play Podcast @crudelydrawnswords (listen here!! or on your podcatcher of choice).

Part of that process was helping design new outfits for The Hawks and I just want to talk about my thoughts through that process!

First, I think the evolution of my personal designs for them is important because it fully informs where we ended up, I think.

When I first considered doing fan art I looked around for any existing fan art, this is something I always do, I think maybe to feel like I’m not WAY off base? (Which is super silly, get off base with fan art! That’s why it’s fan art!) But I do it.

I think this piece of art by CDS’s own Magnus (follow Mag on twitter!) was if not THE first, one of the very first pieces I saw:

This image really heavily played into how I drew The Hawks. ESPECIALLY the color pallets. There are some real obvious similarities between this and where I ended up for a couple reasons.

Despite the changes I’ve made to their designs I’ve always thought it was important to keep their main colors intact, Bambari in browns, Tristan in reds, Percy in stark silver, and Enigma in green.

Keeping their colors consistent has been a specific choice on my part, largely to pay homage to this specific image, and partially for visual consistency. Meaning, even if I messed with the structure of the outfit, the vibe would remain (hopefully).

I think this is most obvious with every group and “special” group art I’ve done of The Hawks. Here’s a couple examples of what I mean by “different structure, same vibe”:

The two pieces have very different fashion choices, but the intent was to remain true to the characters through the use of color.

Percy: Well put together with colors that invoke the sky just before a storm, combined with over-polished silver.

Tristian: Reds and blacks, with pieces that are very flashy.

Enigma: Green and simple, something easy to move in. The one time I drew her in a skirt I tried to make it obvious that it was as easy to move in as possible.

Bambri: Browns, simple, fabric textures that are basic, no attempts to evoke fancy fabric.

Color, for me, does a lot of heavy lifting when I draw The Hawks, the colors are always a conscious choice, even down to the little stuff like “How sunburned should Tristan be?” “Which of them should have similar eye colors?”. I mention this, because it was a factor I very much kept in mind when designing the Season 4 art.

Sooo, with all that in mind, let’s chat about the outfit drafts I came up with! Shout out to Ben (twitter here!) who was my point of contact for all of this. He had a very clear vision for what the energy of the cover art should be, as well as passed on the style references from The Hawks.

We’ll start with Percy, I’m just going to cut and paste the brief I got from Ben:

Percy will look less the knight in shining armour. The armour is tarnished, he is wearing tattered robes over it, he perhaps looks a little careworn but there is focus in him as well.

He also sent a couple of reference pics that were very influential. With those together I ended up with these 4 variations:

There’s some real difference from 1 to 4. The thoughts I had were along the lines of:

1: Very close to the reference image I liked most

2: Fun, funky, more visual interest and still very much showing off his Paladin garb.

3: Low key, with still a touch of the regal vibe I try to insert into him (it’s the cape.)

4: VERY MUCH PALLY, despite liking this choice, It is def the furthest from the reference I was sent. I included because I wanted to make sure there was still the option of showing off his Pally side.

In each of the 4 designs there is either an obvious scarf or (in the case of 1) the hint of a scarf shape. A scarf was not a feature of his design before this, it was a feature of the design I had most recently landed on for Bambari. It was VERY important to me to have SOME sort of visual touch that connected the two.

You can also see I went for similar brown shades and Fabric Styles, again, it was absolutely on purpose to draw a connection between the two.

Onto Tristan!

Again, from Ben:

I think we have already raised the likelihood of Tristan being dressed absolutely in the style of "Welcome To The Black Parade" era MCR.

I wish I could describe the feeling I had when I read this. It was intense, visceral, joy. Not only were MCR a part of my heavy rotation through High School, but The Black Parade is so visually “my shit” it’s not funny. If I could draw every character in a Marching Band Inspired Outfit I would 1000% do it.

The downside of this specifically, is there aren’t a TON of variations to play with. So, I mostly went wild with Jackets.

I wanted to make sure I kept the very ornate feel, while also staying true to marching band. For folks that were part of marching band (waddup), you’ll notice that the pants in 1 and 3 are absolutely the baggy look that that is the most true to the vibe, but they aren’t the most true to Tristan T. Wilde, world famous bard.

One of the extra variations of this I sent off for approval had red accents, but I’ll be honest, I’m glad that the final choice was for all sliver and white. Choosing to remove the red from his outfit completely sends a big visual message about where his character is at currently.

You can see in all 4 options the coat has some form of sharp arrow style cut. I was important to me to keep him from looking boxy, and keep his outfits looking very specifically Fit For Him.

And Enigma! Once more from Ben:

I don't have a definite visual reference for Enigma yet, but she is a Ranger now.

And she has a magpie.

So. Uh. Initially that isn’t a lot to go on. But, I’ve been drawing Enigma for A WHILE, I felt confidant that I could direct myself to something that was very “Authentic” Ranger.

After about 9000 google searches, I came up with 4 ideas.

Boy howdy. I think her’s may be the most diverse, style wise. I’ll be honest, I love all of these. There are certainly a couple who are less Her than I would normally go for, but in each of them, I tried to make sure there were Obvious Engima Touches.

3 is perhaps the least interesting, as it was the most similar to how I had already been drawing her.

1 & 2 (and a little bit 4) were an excuse to draw muscle definition, no doubt, don’t @ me, I think it’s important to note that by this point I had been binging F@TT, so 1 is ABSOLUTELY inspired by art I have seen of Hella, you are free to @ me about that. thank you.

ANYWAY, with all of these I again considered the fact that even if she was no longer a rogue, she wouldn’t be giving up her amazing parkour skills, so she would still need to flip about.

2 & 4 were designed specifically with that in mind, as in: What will look coolest when she’s flippin’ around?

And if you’re looking at any of these and thinking: Hm, there are some design elements here that I used for Bambari’s design, again you are correct. I was less concerned with making the connection obvious here than I was with Percy, but I still wanted to insert some of that.

Later, Ben mentioned that if we could a little more Aloy from HZD that would be ideal.

SO! HOW DID ALL OF THAT COME TOGETHER?

I’m glad you asked.

I’m so glad that even with these changes I was able to keep most of the color standards for The Hawks.

Enigma is still in green.

Percy still has that silver, even if it isn’t as bright.

Tristan no longer has red, but my hope is that his attitude still stands out.

They’ve been through a lot, but they are still them.

I will admit, there was a selfish part of me that was truly glad with the choices the players made here. Despite really loving all of the outfit choices, these were my favorite from a narrative arc standpoint and also from a re-draw-ability standpoint.

If you’ve made it this far... Shit dude.

Thank you.

I have a lot of feelings about this show and I still can’t really believe I was asked to do this. It was a delight working with Ben to make this vision into a reality.

The Hawks truly are rad as heck.

#actual play podcast #crudely drawn swords #crudely drawn fan art #fan art #digital art #outfit design #character design #medibang pant #medibang #art process #thoughts #long winded omg im so sorry #bless

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littlemisssquiggles · 5 years

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Ok so. Oscar as Nene (got drag to supernatural stuff like Os got drag to become a huntsman) Ruby as Hanako (playful, deeper than you think, family issue🤣😂) Jaune as Kou Pyrrha as Mitsuba GO BRAINSTORM NOW YA KNOW THE STORY OF HANAKO KUN🤣😂❤️❤️❤️

Hehehe,indeed I do know the story of Hanako-kun,Ly. Especially now that I’m all caught up with both the anime and the mangaseries. Although I will say this though, theanime adaptation of the Mitsuba chapter was one hundred times moreheartbreaking to see play out in animated form. I mean it was alreadysaddening to read about in the manga when I first started but to see it now infull living colour…my heart. Dem feelsman!

Andto imaging Pyrhha Nikkos being Jaune’sMitsuba in a RWBY-inspired Hanako universe is so tragically fitting thatit’s bloody perfect. Y’know it was actually @mojo72400 who first suggested thepotential of a Rosegarden AU based on Hanako-kun. However at the time, I ridiculouslythought that Toilet-Bound Hanako-kunwas about a anime girl who had to survive the social ladder of highschool witha terrible condition that forced to suffer from infrequent trips to the toilet.That’s what the title made me think the story was about. I know that soundssilly in hindsight but can you blame with a title like that? Now imagine howpleasantly surprised I was to realize that TBH was definitely better than I canever imagined.

Anyways,that being said, now that I’ve familiarized myself with the Hanako-universe(and have officially joined its fandom community---Whaddup my toilet-bounddudes!) you can bet your bum that I’m definitely game for a Barn- Bound Ruby Rose RWBY Rosegarden AU and I second the idea of Oscar Pine being the Nene ofthis universe.

Oh!But instead of Oscar being afflicted with the Mermaid’s Curse, let say…that Oscar’s curse is called the Pumpkinhead curse.

Likeimagine…Oscar being a farm-bred countrypumpkin who had to move to the city to attend high school and becauseof this, he’s affectionately been christened the nickname of “country pumpkin” by his peers.

Let’s say…that much like Nene, Oscar’sstory was that he had a crush on one of his upperclassman and wanted to make awish to change his appearance so that his crush could finally notice him andmaybe become his girlfriend. Let’s say…that having grown up on a farm far outin the countryside, Oscar has always dreamed of living in the city and hadbasically dreamt up this little fantasy of what his dream “highschool experience”would be and for the sake of this AU, one of his ambitions was somehow becomingthe proud lovingly devoted boyfriend of the most popular girl at school.

Nowaccording to rumours around the school, Oscar’s crush liked “tall handsome city boys” so unfortunatelyfor Oscar, his small, cute farm boy look wasn’t going to cut it for him inwinning over the affection of his future girlfriend.

Atfirst Oscar thought that his luck with his crush might not change until heheard a rumour about one of the schools Seven Mysteries. Mystery No. 7---TheRuby Rose of the Abandoned Barn house in the back of the school compound.Basically the deal was that the Ruby Rose was supposed to be some kind ofsupernatural jinn who grant one wish to anyone who is able to successfullysummon it.

Longstory short, Oscar goes to the barn in hopes that he could successfully summonthe Ruby Rose. But to Oscar’s surprise, rather than summoning a super imposingmystical genie of the magic arts here to grant him any wish he so desired likehe had imagined in his impressionable overactive farm boy imagination, Oscarinstead finds a ghost girl dressed in a red hood who addresses herself as RubyRose.

Basicallythe idea I’m having here is that before making the choice to go live in thecity, Oscar lived a rather sheltered life in a small town where the only thinghe had to connect with were books that his aunt would lend him. So because ofthis, let’s say Oscar has a skewed,child-like impression of what the real world is. In a nutshell, he’s very naïve. Not stupid. Just gullibleenough to believe a silly school rumour about a supernatural being who cangrant him his wish to make him desirable enough for his crush to love him.

(YesI know that sounds silly and totally out of character for Oscar but since Oscaris meant to be Nene here I tried to give him the key Nene-isms---her thirst for the love of the oppositesex--- while maintaining some of his canonical RWBY traits).

Anyways;like I said---Oscar successfully summons Ruby: He didn’t really have to domuch. Just leave a plate of chocolate chip cookies and milk in the centre ofthe room while say “Ruby Rose” three times.

Howevershenanigans happen which result in Oscar failing to get his wish from Ruby who,as it turnt out, can’t really do anything to change Oscar’s appearance.

Thisthen leads to Oscar eating a cursed cookie that he took off of Ruby.Let’s say…the cookie is heart-shapedwith red velvet icing and strawberry hearts on one side while the other side wasdecorated like a Halloween pumpkin face.

Let’s say…the idea behind thecookie---the Cursed Pumpernickelcookie--- is that should two people share the cookie, they would be boundedtogether for all eternity and live a lifetime of love, happily ever after.However should the pair’s love not be mutually reciprocated with only one halfof the cookie being eaten, the recipient of the eaten half shall fall prey tothe Pumpkinhead curse.

Thisis what ends up befalling poor Oscar. The idea I had was that, much like Nene,Oscar pilfered Cursed Pumpernickel off of Ruby while she was sifting throughher pocket for another token to help him “woo” his crush.

Whenasked about the cookie, Ruby harmlessly informs Oscar about the “power” of thePumpernickel cookie, not thinking that Oscar would ever be so foolish enough to actually eat itknowing the details of its curse. However, unfortunately for Ruby, Oscar wasthat foolish and eats one of half of the Pumpernickel cookie with the intentionof giving the other half to his crush to bind them together forever.

Let’s say…in this AU, Oscar’s crush is Neon Katt. Like Oscarhas had a crush on her since his first day of high school, falling head overheels in love with her just because she and her friends were close with Oscar’supperclassman pals and Neo was always super nice and affectionate withOscar---y’know like your best friend being nice to your kid brother who has anobvious crush on her type of scenario.

SoOscar goes to give Neon the other half of the Pumpernickel but as he does,their moment is interrupted by Flynt. Let’ssay…in this AU, Flynt and Neon areclose childhood best friends who’ve secretly had feelings for each other foryears. (Because in the squiggle shire, we still ship Funky Cat or whatever the name of Flynt x Neon’s ship is). So Flyntconfesses his love to Neon and much to Oscar’s heartache, Neon reciprocates hisfeelings. She even forgets that Oscar was even standing there before Flyntreminds her of his presense.

Butas Neon goes to take the reaming half of the Pumpernickel that Oscar was aboutto offer her, Oscar, doing his best to hide his sadness, makes up some cock andbull story about the cookie being bad and no longer good enough to give Neonanymore. He then congratulates Flynt and Neon on their newfound relationshipbefore running off; claiming to be returning to class.

Assaid, Oscar is heartbroken---realizing how foolishhe had been for pursuing Neon. But before Oscar could lament on hisfoolishness, he is suddenly overtaken by the Pumpkinhead Curse. Oscar is turned into a pumpkin. Thenext thing Oscar knows he opens what he assumesto be his eyes, looking up to find Ruby standing over him. However for some oddreason, Oscar could no longer feel his hands or his legs. He suddenly feels very, very different.

Itis then when Ruby holds up a mirror to Oscar to show his new pumpkin body---asmall bright orange pumpkin with a fluffy head of leaves and vines which Rubyhad been kind enough to carve out his eyes and mouth so he could see and talkto her. She even took the liberty of carving out tiny holes where Oscar’sfreckles would be on his face.

WhyI like the concept of Oscar’s curse being the Pumpkinhead curse is, not justbecause it was inspired by the Oz character of the same name but mainly becauseof a quote that Jack Pumpkinhead said after he had first come to life:

“…It will take me alittle time to discover whether I am very wise or very foolish…”

Ilike the idea of Oscar winding up cursed because his affection for Neon and hisdesperation to have her return his feelings had made him foolish in his pursuitof love or something along those lines. I like this idea just as much as I likethe idea of those afflicted with the Pumpkinhead Curse ending up becomingpumpkins to be added to the patch of a supernatural entity known as the PumpkinKing.

Y’knowhow in Hanako, we had the Mermaid Queen apparition who told Nene that if shebecame her servant she would be loved by her and her fish people? Well for thisAU, my idea is that Oscar would become apumpkin in the Pumpkin King’s Patch to be marriedoff to one of his literal spoiled rotten pumpkin-headed children. Sobasically by being cursed, Oscarunintentionally set himself up to become the future groom to the Pumpkin King’s eldest daughter whose been knownto eat her husbands, much to the farm boy’s dismay since not only did henot want to be a pumpkin for the rest of the life but he certainly did not wantto be married off to a pumpkin either at the tender age of 14.

Soto avoid becoming the Pumpkin Princess’ latest snack and umpteenth deadhusband, Ruby makes Oscar a deal he couldn't refuse. Much like Hanako did withNene, Ruby binds herself to Oscar and becomes his "girlfriend" as a means of keeping the Pumpkin King fromclaiming him for his daughter (which basically becomes like a sort of runninggag with the Pumpkin King and his minions constantly trying to persuade orstraight up kidnap Oscar into becoming the future little Pumpkin Prince).

Andto seal to deal that they were now bound together, Ruby eats the other half ofthe cursed Pumpernickel Cookie before kissing Oscar while he was still inpumpkin form which turns him back into a proper human boy.

Sobasically Oscar also ends up losing hisfirst kiss to Ruby; much to the farm boy’s embarrassment.

Butbottom-line, Ruby and Oscar were now bound together through the PumpkinheadCurse. However, because she had went out of her way to help him, Oscar beingbound to Ruby almost meant that he owed her indefinitely.

Andconsidering that Ruby was now Oscar's quote unquote "girlfriend", she pretty much make lives up to that titleby ensuring that Oscar played the part of her so-called lovingly devoted“boyfriend”, wading on the jubilantly childish yet mysterious apparition handand foot while additionally assisting her in her maintenance of the balancebetween the living and supernatural world. Because in Oscar’s case, it waseither that or being a talking pumpkin head turned pumpkin groom married to hisgiant pumpkin wife in constant fear of being eaten for the rest of his life.And that’s my idea for Oscar’s Nene-inspired story for this AU which I guess canwork as a nice little basis for it. Y'know do something similar to the originalHanako series but with a squigglytwist to it, in a sense. Besides I love the concept of Oscar being a cutelittle pumpkin more than him being a fish like Nene. But that's my idea.

Asfor the rest of the RWBY cast as Hanako-inspired characters---Well... as Imentioned before, I really dig your idea of Jaune being the Kou of thisuniverse. We can even maintain the same idea by having him come from a longline of spirit warriors dubbed the Arc-Angels or “Arc Knights” (see what I did there) with his older sister Saphronbeing a more experienced one watching over her brother’s development whilesimultaneously acting as a teacher at his high school along with her wife:Terra Cotta who is the school librarian. I like the idea of Terra beingcompletely oblivious to her wife and her family’s connection to thesupernatural world due to Saphron wishing to keep both her wife and their toddlerson away from that kind of life style. Perhapsyou can even have an idea where Saphron abandoned her duties as an Arc Knightbecause she desired a normal life with a family of her own.

Perhaps…you can have somethingwhere the Arc Knights, being the only spirit warrior family within the mainsetting of the story, were the sworn protectors of the land of the living;working to exorcise any wayward apparitions.

Let’ssay Saphron estranged herself from her family, choosing to work more closely withthe apparitions to focus on maintaining better peace between the two worlds. Butbecause Saphron had left, her baby brother Jaune was forced to take her placeand the two share an interesting dynamic where Jaune wants to prove that hecould be a great spirit warrior who won’t quit like his sister did and Saphronhas to look out for him while feeling guilty for partially making Jaune thewarrior that he was now. That’s one idea.

Nowthat I think about it. This type of story could also work for Weiss and Winter. Like I can easilypicture Weiss being an alternate version for the Kou character of this universewith Jaune being her Mitsuba. OR…perhapsin this AU, the Schnees were a rival spiritwarrior/ exorcist family to the Arcs?

Perhaps…unlike the Arcs who were open to working inharmony with the apparitions, the Schnees were not. Instead the Schneesused their family power to enslave apparitions and use them as their pawns incombat.

Let’ssay, while the Arc Knights adhered to the old school spirit warrior code, theSchnees were necromancers---summoningthe dead to fight their battles for them with little respect their pasthumanity when they were alive which the Arc family greatly frowned upon. (Imean the Schnee family semblance is practically the RWBY equivalent ofnecromancy so in this case it works)

Perhaps…you can even have athing where Jaune and Weiss are rivals coming from strong spirit warrior/exorcistfamily bloodlines or clans so the two basically grew up opposing one anotherfrom birth.

Howeverlet’s say… Jaune secretly has feelings for Weiss and at first Weiss didn’tcare much for Jaune; choosing to focus mainly on maintaining her family’s honouras encouraged by her older sister Winter.

Howeverlet’s say…Weiss ultimately shows asofter side to herself, taking an interest in Jaune’s wellbeing as a “friendwho knew him” after he gets himself involved with a ghost girl named Pyrhha (whowas resurrected by darker apparition) and started committing some questionable acts. Or something alongthose lines.

Idefinitely dig the idea of the Arcs and the Schnees being rival clans whomaintain balance in the supernatural and living world---but while the Arcscoexist in harmony with the apparitions on parlayed allegiance with theMysteries (such as Ruby Rose), the Schnees have a different way of doing thingsdespite fighting for the same cause. And this rivalry is reflected in thecharacter dynamics of Weiss and Jaune (who are students of Oscar’s highschooland his fellow upperclassman) and also their older sisters---Winter andSaphron. I’m going to change my earlier concept. I’m going to make Saphron theschool librarian along with her wife Terra while Winter Schnee is the homeroomteacher of Oscar’s class. Yeah that’s better, I like that better.

Movingalong, I definitely like the idea of Norabeing Oscar's version of Aoi-chan. Since Oscar is the focal character herein Nene’s role, I think Nora can work really, really well as the person acts asthe closest thing to a best friend he has.

Or….maybeJaune can be Oscar’s best friend in this AU but Nora is still his Aoi-chan? Maybeyou can even add a little detail where Nora is Oscar’s foster sister. Like perhaps…in this universe, the Arcs arelong-time friends of Oscar’s family (meaning his aunt and uncle in the farcountry) who were more than willing to allow him to live under their roof whilehe’s in the city pursuing his high school education.

Sobasically let’s say, in this AU, Oscar lives with Jaune who is staying withSaphron and Terra. Baby Adrian alsoexists in this AU too so Oscar and baby Adrian interactions and hijinks canensue.

Ialso like the idea of Nora and Ren also beingtenants of the Cotta-Arc household. Let’ssay…Ren and Nora are basically Jaune’s best friends and adopted siblingswho were taken in by the Arc family when they were kids and ultimately movedout with Jaune to live with his sister.

Soin a nutshell, in this AU, Team JNPR 2.0 or ALPN live together with Jaune, Renand Nora maintaining their roles as Oscar’s surrogate big brothers and sisterand the closest thing to friends he has at school.

Let’s say…in this AU, due to hiscountry upbringing and his introverted demeanour, Oscar has been having a hardtime adjusting to the city and making friends in his new school and class. Butat least he had his big brother Jaune and friends to look out for him.

Asa matter of fact, I love the idea of Ren and Nora being the Aoi and Akane ofthis AU only with a small difference. Much like Aoi and Akane, Ren and Nora arechildhood best friends with Nora having an obvious crush on Ren.

Butrather than Nora being revealed to be one of the Mysteries like Akane, I'm moredigging the idea of Ren being partapparition and the first time he reveals this is to protect Nora. Like imagine…Nora constantly being the onepursuing Ren making her feelings for him obvious just like in RWBY but we don’tknow how Ren feels for Nora. We know he definitely cares for her but we're notaware of his love for her until he reveals himself as one of the Clock keepersto save Nora.

Likeperhaps Oscar, Ruby and Jaunebelieved that Nora might’ve been masquerading as one of the Seven Mysteries dueto her mysterious dark past sharedwith Ren only for Ren to intervene and reveal himself as the true supernatural.I think that can work.

Asfor who I think the Mysteries in this AU could be, that's definitely tricky---Iknow I definitely want Ozpin to be part of the Three Clock-keepers alongsideRen. Oz can be the Clock-keeper of the Past, Ren the present but I’m not surewho the Clock Keeper of the Future would be to stir up trouble. I kind of low-key want to make Zwei theClock Keeper of the Future. Why? Having a sentient doggo control the futureand wreak havoc? Sure why not XD

Asfor Mystery No. 2, I’m thinking maybe Blake? Perhaps her mystery could be called “The Staircase of the Beast”?Perhaps this title was shared by her and her “lover” in this universe beforethings turned Grimm when bad rumours started to spread about her lover whichturned them into a beastly monster as a result of it.

Likeyou can say that originally Blake’s mystery was called “The Belladonna Staircase” and it used to be a sort of romanticspot that blessed couples until the rumours turned her mystery into the“Staircase of the Beast” which only preys on couples.

Ithink that can work swimmingly. As for who would play Blake’s lover in this AU,I don’t care. I’ll leave that for you or anyone to insert whoever you shipBlake with, Ly. I’m not touching that can of worms =_=);

Movingalong, since we established that Pyrhha is the Mitsuba in this AU, she willbecome Mystery No. 3.

Asfor Mystery No. 4, I think Penny works excellently here. I can definitelypicture Penny P. as one of the Seven Mysteries. Not to mention that herpersonality certain reminds me a lot of Shijima Mei.

Thesame can be said for Qrow Branwen as Mystery No. 5. His personality definitelymatches Tsuchigomori the most, at least in my opinion.

Asfor Mystery No. 6, well since the manga is now getting to touch base on hischaracter and storyline as one of the Seven Mysteries, I don’t quite know muchabout him as yet. So I’ll hold off on my choice on who could play his role fromthe RWBY universe.

Lastly,as for who will be our broadcasting clubtrio in this AU; well I think it should be obvious. In my eyes, I’mthinking Cinder Fall could play a goodequivalent to Tsukasa Yugi. While she may not share the family relation asTsukasa does to Hanako/Amane Yugi, I still think that Cinder can work as Ruby’santithesis given their connection from the canonical series.

Notto mention that Cinder Fall is the one character who can match Tsukasa’s eerilymalicious nature, in my opinion. So with Cinder as Tsukasa, this puts EmeraldSustrai and Mercury Black as her versions of Sakura and Natsuhiko with Emerald,of course, being the one bonded to Cinder like Ruby is to the Oscar.

Ithink that aspect of it definitely works a lot. But again these are just only my ideas I’m spouting. Nonetheless, letme know what you think Ly?

Didthis squiggle meister deliver well onserving up enough good brainstorming food for ya ;) I hope I did. Cheers fam!

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

#squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #ruby rose #rwby rosegarden #rwby aus #toilet bound hanako-kun #lookyeekiti #squiggles answers

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demethinkstoomuch · 5 years

Text

Deme Rates Villagers Part 2, Anteaters

While I build my hype for New Horizons, I thought I’d do something a little dumb. I thought I’d give my rating on all the villagers based primarily on their designs, though if I have a personal feeling, I’ll put it down as well. Please note that, with one (joking) exception, I love Animal Crossing’s villagers. They’re all good dogs, Bront, event the ones who are not dogs. So this is on a curve, and done in nit-picking good humor, so let’s just have fun! images are from the wiki, and so are going to be somewhat large or irregularly-sized. My scale is made up, and the points aren’t real.

That’s basically my standard disclaimer here.

Anabelle

I love everything about Anabelle. Her cute eyes! Her complementary color scheme! Her concept! Her place in my New Leaf town!

Design-wise, the sort of scaly texture and unfeathered tail she has is clearly intended to evoke the pangolin, or “scaly anteater,” a charmingly scaly little mammal who sometimes look like they want to apologize for something. I really, really like pangolins. I’ll add that the tropical theme to her default outift and decor suggests to me the Sunda or Phillipine Pangolin, both of which are native to Southeast Asia. I like any villager who’s going to make me go on a brief listing of biology facts.

She’s lived in Argent, my New Leaf town, for quite a while now, since I settled its final villagers. I imagine her as a young lady who left her hometown to make a name for herself, possibly fire dancing. Anyway, I’m fond of her on a personal level in addition to a design level, with the attachment built up over the years, and so, she has an unquestionable place in my heart, and a bright little bell out behind her house.

10, but with some cute stars around it that make it worth several thousand /10

Annalisa

Annalisa sure has an aesthetic, which she is designed for and devoted to without a single deviation or hesitance. And for that, I have to respect her. She looks like she should be a snooty, even though she isn’t -- it’s the heavily made-up look. On the whole, I find her design a little unsettling even though I don’t actually find Japanese dolls unsettling. I think if it were me, I’d maybe change the eyes just a little bit, aiming for something a bit less severe, and maybe a bit more empty.

The concept of rating has no ability to describe how I feel / 10, I guess.

Antonio

He’s a very natural looking Giant Anteater, a fact which I appreciate, even if the effect is that he looks like he has a neck beard. Add to that his surprised little eyebrows and cute blank eyes, and he’s an undoubtedly charming little fellow.

Very Charming / o.o

Aside from his fantastic big square eyebrows and freckly nose, both excellent traits, there’s not enough for me to really recommend him; his design is sort of random, I don’t really care for that orange.

Except that I love him very, very much. Because Cyrano was one of the first villagers in my New Leaf town of Argent, and quickly became a fast friend. My grouchy buddy. I themed the entire area in front of my Re-tail, where he lived, after him, filling it with all the zen public works projects he requested, which were some of my favorites. And then he moved away, and I was a little heartbroken. There’s a zen garden where his house used to be, in memorial. I’ve always rather wanted him back, but once it was possible with amiibo cards, I had a town full of other villagers I love. Maybe our paths will cross again someday.

100/10, perfect in every way, and that stands to make a very good point. Things become lovable, things become perfect, simply by the act of being loved. Given his name, it’s a fitting thought. (I also could have given him a rating

....Well, this is going to make moving on to the rest of the anteaters somewhat anticlimactic, isn’t it?

Lulu

So, another villager who was an islander in Animal Forest E+, and was never seen or heard from again. This is the only picture the wiki has, and so I am honestly a bit incapable of judging her, I can’t really form an opinion on this.

-/10. I see nothing to dislike, and nothing to recommend her. If I had more or better pictures, those cute little dot eyes could go somewhere.

Nosegay

It’s Nosegay! Juvenile jokes aside, this is a type of small bouquet of flowers, and also a pun on her big honking nose. Possibly because of the name, or maybe because there’s not much about her, she hasn’t come back since Animal Crossing (or Animal Forest E+, whatever.) She sure is brown, but I can’t say she really evokes a specific type of anteater for me, she’s just brown and white.

I have said all I can about Nosegay, and will rate her a Tussie-Mussie / Bouquet. (Tussie-Mussie? Why is that a thing someone called that?)

Olaf

Goodness, but look at this. The hair, looking like it was dipped in a thing of styling gel and allowed an artful curl down his face. The eyebrows! The lower lashes! Honestly, he packs a lot into a few details, and I am very pleased with this smug matador-looking fellow.

On the downside, having not had Olaf in town, I don’t know what he looks like in a different shirt very clearly, and I worry it spoils his impact... A quick google search gives me better pictures of him in other outfits, and the result is silly rather than just ruinous. Good! I approve.

0le!/10

Pango

Pango’s color scheme is nice, but not really evocative, so the effect is sort of “she’s just kind of a colorful ant-eater.” Which isn’t a bad design call, or anything, so much as it makes it hard for me to form a real opinion. She’s got that swirl reminiscent of hair, she has that nicely snooty eyeshadow and eyelash.

5/10, gotta have some actual ratings sometimes.

Snooty

Snooty is Snooty, and that fact alone brings Snooty points. The eyebrows and eyes on her give her a distinct character in a way her color scheme doesn’t quite do, aesthetically-pleasing though the golden edges of her tail are. That character isn’t quite enough or pleasant enough for me, but it is there. She came back with Welcome Amiibo after not being seen since Animal Crossing, which is looking like a theme with Anteaters. Poor dears.

Snooty / Snoot

Zoe

I don’t get Zoe. I can’t quite tell why her neck has those hard lines, or that little lump. Is she supposed to look robotic? Or like a toy? Is that some sort of funky little goiter? I’m sorry, I do not know, cannot guess, and do not like this. The wiki suggests that, with that little tuft of brown “hair” on her forehead, she may be wearing a hood, ala Chrissie and Francine. This explains nothing.

????? / 10 She hasn’t been back since Animal Crossing, and I am OK with this.

Surprised at the how sporadic anteaters are, honestly, both in my preferences and in their presence in the games. I do want more, because those fluffy tails are very cute.

#animal crossing #Deme Rates Villagers #Anteaters

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nat-20s · 5 years

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Top 5 Breakdowns over David Tennant- any fandom/show/ play you've seen? I really liked the dw one you did, just hoping you could expand over/ include other things he's been in.

Oh anon you are QUITE the enabler thank you.

So this is like half actual breakdown list and half just like David Tennant recommendations in general because I love that funky little scot.

+1. This isn’t going on the official list because I already did the previous list you mentioned (i’m glad you liked it, btw!!!) but yeah. Doctor Who. He plays the doctor in a very fuckin uhh mercutial way (he plays a lot of characters that way and I am 100% enamored by it every fuckin time he just does it SO WELL AUGH) and like highs were so high and the lows were so low and he was so FURIOUS AND CRUEL but also so GENTLE AND KIND and like oof!! The multifacetedness bitch!!!! That’s what it’s all about babey!!!

5. Good omens. I mean, duh. There was no fucking way I was gonna survive good omens. Like, honestly, even without miss tennant I wouldn’t have survived it because HA HA HA HA H O L Y SHIT MY FAVORITE BOOK FOR THE LAST DECADE WAS GETTING AN ACTUAL SCREEN ADAPTATION I GENUINELY DID NOT THINK WE WOULD EVER BE HERE THIS SHIT IS LIT. but then but THEN it was like. The way that he portrayed crowley definitely fit into a particular niche that david tennant KILLS. Like god okay I could spend an whole fucking essay on this point so I’m gonna distill this down to just. THE moment that I was like “okay okay okay okay fuck I’m GOING THROUGH IT” was when his voice cracks as he tells aziraphale that he lost his best friend because like in context OOF and out of context I have been Pavlovian trained for the past decade to Utterly Lose My Shit when David Tennant is like this close to crying and he expresses that with his whole body THE ASSHOLE! LET ME REST. I THOUGHT I WAS OVER THIS MISTER!!

4. The Escape Artist. Lesser known (I think?), but a VERY GOOD miniseries! The tone is much darker, and he’s a much more serious character. Similar vibes, role wise, to broadchurch. I’m not sure how much rewatch value it has but watching it for the first time had me like MISSION STATUS: SICK!!!! It’s like a cat and mouse mystery and like. I’m not gonna go to in depth into the story because I think it’s more enjoyable to go into it not knowing much and too me it was one of those things that took like 3 hours to watch all of and a full week or two to like. Process. Also I’m not usually one for drama and I was ABOUT it so I would recommend!!!

3. JESSICA JONES (season 1). Holy FUCK dude. Definitely his darkest and most evil role, and the subject matter is VERY heavy and I definitely would NOT recommend it for everyone because it could be, how you say, triggering as fuck or even just because it is incredibly dark and that might not be your thing. Funnily enough, it’s DEFINITELY not my thing, personally, I tend to avoid narratives about sexual assault because so many of them are, uh, ya know, bad, but Jessica Jones season 1 really is done FANTASTICALLY! The David Tennant breakdown was just a level of cognitive dissonance because I had never seen him play like a VILLAIN villain. I mean, yeah, he was Barty Crouch Jr., but that was for like 30 seconds and while the dude was creepy there was a layer of campy over the topness that is present in most fun fantasy franchises. I remember when he was cast as the purple man me and my parents were like. Yeah he’ll obviously crush the role because he’s talented but in the back of our minds we’ll probably still be thinking of like the doctor and I wonder if we can fully accept him playing the role. Yeah there was fucking NONE OF THAT. When he played Purple Man I never ONCE thought of his other roles and I didn’t even, like, think of David Tennant, ya know. I was just like oh shit this man is evil and terrifying and I want him dead! Please die!!! And yes, I know that that’s how acting works or whatever but also ACTING ya know!!! Of any of the roles on this list this one definitely made me be the most like SHE HAS THE RANGE because I really think it highlights how INCREDIBLY GOOD at his job he is!!! I have not ever rewatched Jessica Jones season 1 though because while it is honestly like a triumph of television it is also A Lot to deal with and I am very rarely in the kind of mindset where I’m able to watch it. But yeah. David Tennant knows what the fuck he’s doing and it is very good.

2. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING BABEY. Literally I knew nothing about the play or why I should care but the promo material was like. Catherine Tate and David Tennant are costars again and I was like OKAY SIGN ME THE FUCK UP HELL YEAH HELL YEAH HELL YEAH. For real I think on screen chemistry Catherine Tate and David Tennant are one of if not just straight up my favorite duo of all time. They are just so DELIGHTFUL and ENCHANTING and BEWITCHING and basically I want them to costar in everything ever. @azirafeathers was like “sherlock holmes adaptation where she’s sherlock and he’s watson” and I haven’t stopped thinking about that since!!! I would give my left thumb or at least like a solid $60 to see that. Like PLEASE it would be PERFECT. I LOVE THEM. And god this production of much ado is definitely like. “Here’s Benedick and Beatrice. They’re two chaotic dumbass bisexuals that are like fives on the kinsey scale and they fall in love much to their surprise” and it’s TERRIFIC. That’s exactly what I like to see. Like it’s set in the 80s and the set design? The visual gags? The costumes? The soundtrack? THE PHYSICAL COMEDY? It all SLAPS. David Tennant really balances “fun and funky slut” and “utterly PINING idiot” so fucking well. I have said it before and I will say it again David Tennant peaks when Catherine Tate is being mean to him. Also really iconic to give him the role that is like the only man in the play that is (after a bit) CHUGGING his respect women juice. I mean LOOK at this utter buffoon.

I’m in love. This play made me a proud morosexual. Plus it’s all FREE ON YOUTUBE THE NEXT TIME YOU HAVE THREE HOURS AND WANT TO HAVE A GOOD FUCKIN TIME GO WATCH MUCH ADO!!

1. H A M L E T. So imagine that you’re 14 and it’s 3 am and you’re casually watching David Tennant’s hamlet on youtube or at least the parts they put up and you’re painting stars on your ceiling with glow in the dark paint and it makes you realize that you have an excess of black bile and a melancholic temperment and you’ll understand why, while this might not be my all time favorite david tennant role (though it definitely is high up on the list) , this is absolutely my number one David Tennant Related Breakdown. Hoo boy. This probably doesn’t come as a shock to literally anybody that knows me irl bc I Will Not shut up about Hamlet and it is this productions fault. Different people will respond differently too it, and I’m definitely 1000% biased because a: I love him and b: it was the first production I ever watched and it’s what got me On My Bullshit, but this production honestly makes me like. Get Hamlet. Or not get hamlet, personally, as a character, we’re never meant to fully understand him honestly, but it made me understand the ALLURE of the play. I watched it and I was like oh. Yeah. Okay. I can see why people have been obsessed with this for 400 years. I know why it’s considered one of the greatest roles and one of the greatest plays of all time. And I went absolutely feral for it. It solidified Horatio permanently as one of my all time favorite characters in anything ever. David Tennant has this tendency to put manic and desperate energy into the characters that he plays, and that of course works extremely well for hamlet. Plus, like, he plays characters that are drowning, that need the assistance and kindness of love to try and float, and even with that might not be able to keep their heads above water, and the characters that are opposite him are basically always wonderful. Because I am deeply deeply predictable, the core dynamic of Hamlet and Horatio’s relationship is probably like THE most appealing and interesting and important aspect of the play to me, and Peter de Jersey (who is absolutely INCREDIBLE in this production) and David Tennant pull it of breathtakingly beautifully. Every time I watch this I have to lie down for a while. Every time I THINK about this I have to lie down for awhile. So, yeah, number one David Tennant based breakdown is over his hamlet.

Honorable mentions

this gifset-I have not seen what this is actually from but it made me have a conniption. I’m in love with her. She’s my idealized self. I don’t know what to do with myself. I spent 5 hours looking at this now. What the fuck.

The Decoy Bride- I didn’t have a breakdown over it BUT it is a recommendation. Very silly rom com, very much a comfort movie like music and lyrics or singing in the rain for me. Great for sleep overs or rainy sunday afternoons.

Richard II- I haven’t seen it but based on one (1) clip and some stills I would be lost in the sauce for a week after a viewing.

Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger- watch nativity 2 danger in the manger.

Fright Night- jesus fucking CHRIST mister tennant went full slut

Casanova- Mister Tennant Goes Full Slut part 2- has blue colored contacts and it’s weird

#anon #replies #sorry this took a hot minute but i wrote uhh #squints at the screen #1700 words on david tennant making me lose it jesus christ #Anonymous

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dcarevu · 6 years

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DCAU: Beware the Gray Ghost

“When crime haunts the night, a silent crusader carries the torch of justice. Those with evil hearts beware for out of the darkness comes the Gray Ghost!”

Batman meets his influence, while simultaneously, in a way, meeting himself from another universe. How is this possible? Find out next time, same bat-time, same bat-channel! Well, okay, maybe not, you could just scroll down… So was this episode a tired, old has-been or a star worth remembering?

Episode: 18 Robin: No Writer(s): Garin Wolf (Teleplay), Tom Ruegger (Teleplay/Story), Dennis O’Flaherty (Story) Director: Boyd Kirkland Animator: Spectrum Airdate: November 4, 1992 Grade: A

Beware the Gray Ghost is a fantastic episode of Batman the Animated Series with something there to satisfy the older and newer fans, bridging the gap between them. And in fact, historically, it kinda did just that, bringing new respect to a certain actor who guest starred in this one! It is also an episode that I noticed has a very distinct feel to it, turning it into a tribute to not only the old Batman show from the 60’s, but also just old, Twilight Zone-esque noir crime shows in general. The music, the plot, some of the more subtle details, it’s all there. But instead of using these to craft some sort of parody or critique, it all ends up being a very respectful look at days past while undoubtedly still being Batman the Animated Series.

“The Graaaaaayyyyy Ghost!”

Spectrum animation is back with this one (which is odd, because apparently they shut down after bankrupting themselves with Heart of Ice… Anyone know how this all worked?), but in addition to that, my copy of Batman the Animated Series on Blu Ray just arrived! I couldn’t be happier that the first episode we watched on Blu Ray was a Spectrum episode. This created a very noticeable leap in animation quality. I’ll go more into detail at the end of this post also, giving my basic first impressions on how the Blu Ray release stacks up against the DVD one. But yeah, I’ll say it right now, it makes the show go from beautiful to breathtaking. Some of the color-usage in this episode is the best the show had done up to this point, and a variety of styles was used.

We have the scenes which are in exclusively black and white (displayed when we get a look at the original Grey Ghost tv show), we have the sepia-toned bits showing Bruce Wayne’s childhood, we have the bloody reds when explosions and fires happen (fire count!), and then we have the typical dark-deco look of the show. They all flow together seamlessly, and you can’t help but admire how realized this episode must have been before it was finished and then aired on TV. I cannot think of a single way I would improve the look of this one, aside from one or two funky-looking shots of Batman.

One of the few funky shots of Batman...

...but they’re made up for by how awesome some of the other shots are.

The closest to a perfect episode (animation-wise) you’re gonna get. Period. Char (again, my watching-buddy, and DCAU-virgin) pointed out the animation for when Batman and Grey Ghost are hauling ass away from the exploding remote-controlled cars too. Very dynamic angles were used that only studios like Spectrum and TMS could have pulled off.

If Akom worked on this scene, it would have been such a disaster. Speaking of Akom, now I’m thinking of their version of an explosion/fire vs Spectrum’s. Just for funzies, let us compare shall we?

From The Cat and the Claw (Part 2).

These next few are from Beware the Gray Ghost.

The difference is quite clear. One makes you jump out of your seat in awe. The other makes you jump out of your seat because you’re about to upchuck your breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

When I mentioned earlier something about this episode never straying into parody-territory, well, it does not necessarily look back at the genre/Batman show and play it completely seriously either. They walked a thin line between both and decided to put Bruce Wayne into a setting that we can all relate to; sitting in front of the tv, watching your favorite show before bed.

The Gray Ghost in this story isn’t an old, retired superhero, or a superhero turned villain. He’s an actor, and one that played in a somewhat dated, silly “superhero” drama. This immediately adds a sense of seriousness and realness to it while also managing to not let the cornier aspects go. Both worlds exist in this episode. The whacky Gray Ghost show, and the noir, gothic world of Batman the Animated Series. They don’t necessarily have to merge in a typical way and clash tones, because they are able to reference and display the Gray Ghost show as fictional. The way it’s used makes it all relatable, and it gives us a look at what influenced the dark knight, along with a borderline-tragic story about the downsides of fame and being known for one thing and one thing only. Batman may seem super-powered to the many thugs that he battles in the alleyways, but he is a human just like you and I, one that did have a childhood at one point. Even if that childhood was tragically ended with a few bullets. Batman feeling the level of nostalgia that he feels in the episode is so god damn adorable, and it’s another moment, much like The Cat and the Claw, where we see him being Bruce Wayne, not Batman, but also somehow being himself. It's that middle ground between the brooding, shadowy figure and the rich, chillax playboy.

A smile we rarely get to see.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Bruce acknowledges the cheesiness of the explosion causes.

While Batman is enjoying his childhood tv show, at one point almost seeming to forget why he’s watching it in the first place, we see Alfred subtly bringing that memory to life even more. Batman may no longer have a father, but Alfred is the closest thing he could ever hope for. TV superheroes clearly are not Alfred’s thing. He even mentions that fact when he says he prefers his fireplace to a black and white screen. But that’s not the point. The point is that Bruce is being transported back to feeling the warmth and protection of a father figure, while throwing out all of his worries for a bit and feeling a sense of thrill and enjoyment. Alfred seems to understand this. He knows Bruce more than anyone else could. Almost all of the flashbacks we see in this show are sad ones. And that gives the ones like this so much more power.

Alright, now, for those of you who don’t know (like all two of you), this episode has the very special guest star, Adam West. To me, this elevates the episode immensely, and strengthens the central themes and thesis tenfold. We go from a story about an actor being kind of a one-trick pony to the same story being told by someone who lived it. We go from a story where Batman gets to meet his idol to that same story featuring that very idol. And not just an idol to Batman, but an idol to many kids and adults who were around when Batman was still airing. Even those who went back and watched it later! Hell, when I was 5 or 6, I watched the shit out of Batman: The Movie, and I’m only 23. And y’know, we have things like Catman in The Fairly Oddparents, and the Fearless Ferret episode of Kim Possible. I’m not knocking on those, but damn, Adam West had to get tired of Batman goofs at some point. In fact, the team behind Batman the Animated Series was a little bit nervous that he wouldn’t wanna participate. But I’d be willing to bet that this episode made him feel good.

The Gray Ghost kinda reminds me of Arthur from The Tick. Great shot here, by the way.

The Gray Ghost is posed in the same way as Batman in the end credits. Such a cool detail that I actually missed my first time watching.

I love that despite wanting to stay far away from 60’s Batman vibes, the team wasn’t ready to dismiss it as bogus. And I get the sense that maybe Batman’s reverence in this episode is not only representative of all the Batman fans’, but also that of the crew behind Batman the Animated Series. They wanted Adam West to feel welcomed, and like the show wouldn’t exist without him (because it likely wouldn’t). So honestly, hats off to them. To further show a lack of satire, it wouldn’t surprise me if that is why Bruce Timm’s voice and image was used for the main villain.

Bruce Timm’s voice acting wasn’t the best, and I’d be willing to bet that he hated doing it, hahaha. Still a really fun nutjob of a character.

I’ll relate it to the episode of The Nostalgia Critic where he squares up against Mara Wilson. Mara Wilson, in real life, saw a Nostalgia Critic video about one of her films, and was kinda offended by it. But through a series of events, she and Doug Walker (the main creator and actor of NC) ended up cool, and he even put her in one of his videos! To make it even better, he actually had her play the antagonist, or probably more accurately, the protagonist. She basically ended up embarrassing and getting even with the Critic character in the episode. It’s still one of Doug’s favorite episodes to this day, and I have a feeling that he set the plot up like this to show her that he actually respects her quite a bit, and to soften the blow of the shit he’s thrown her way over the years. The team behind Batman the Animated Series may have done a similar thing in making Adam West’s character, along with Kevin’s Batman, defeat Bruce Timm’s character together, and if that’s the case, I love it. Not only does Adam West get the admiration of their version of Batman, but he also gets to help Bruce Timm’s character get his comeuppance. And then, of course, West’s character gets the attention he deserves at the end.

I know this is a video release, but it looks a lot like a thicker Blu Ray case. Kinda like, well, the Blu Ray release of Batman TAS!

Oh wow, never noticed this foreshadowing either. Matt Hagen will be a name that we’ll see pop up in a couple of episodes.

Garin Wolf, Tom Ruegger, and Dennis O’Flaherty obviously treaded carefully, but likely without even thinking about it. Because it is so genuine-seeming and charming. And honestly, thank you, Adam West, for being such a great sport throughout all the time you were alive. I wish there could have been another official DCAU tribute after his death, but this being the one thing we got should be more than great enough for any Batman or comic book fan out there.

This dude was pretty obviously voiced by Alfred’s voice actor. Times when having a voice with so much character takes me out of the show!

A look at some of the Gray Ghost episodes. I’d kill for a Gray Ghost animated series, following what we have shown here.

Wow, that Batmobile is awfully close to the ground.

Just a nice still. Boy does he ever look like a classic pulp costumed crimefighter. They nailed his design.

A picture of Bruce Timm after he saw the finished product of I’ve Got Batman In My Basement.

Before I go, I’d like to, yes, mention the Blu Ray copy of the show I just received! So far, I’m mixed on it. While the visual and audio quality is mostly superior, there are a few moments of a shot being too bright or whatever. Also, I don’t know, I think that the dirtiness is part of what made the original show look so charming, and it was truly meant to be seen on the technology that was around at the time. Everything is so crisp now, and it just doesn’t look as old as it once did. On the other hand…they got rid of the spot above Batman’s lip during the theme song! Hot damn! That makes it about 10x easier to sleep at night… From what I understand, there are also some new special features and such that I can’t wait to view. All of the old ones are there too, which brings me to the pilot, The Dark Knight’s First Night. I was really, really, really hoping that they would bring in the original sound for it. On the volume 1 DVD, I was always kinda weirded out that it said the original music and sounds were lost. I mean, as far as the music goes…it’s just music from the 1989 Batman film, how hard can that be to get ahold of..? Hell, one of the versions on Youtube has the original music and sounds, so what gives? Could it be a copyright issue or something? I don’t know, but this same problem exists on the Blu Ray release too. Kind of a shame. Oh, but wait, as a plus, this complete series doesn’t just include every episode, but it also comes with Mask of the Phantasm and Subzero! I hate when complete series box sets don’t come with the movies that are just as much part of the series. This is an incredibly consistent problem across basically every tv show ever, and I get why it’s a thing, but it still annoys me. This problem doesn’t exist with Batman the Animated Series any longer. Well. Kinda. Mystery of the Batwoman is strangely…not included? I know that this one was technically released much later, and I also remember it sucking, but it’s still a part of the show! Why not include it? Personally, if I were in charge, I also would have thrown in Batman and Harley Quinn too, but believe me, I wasn’t banking on that one. I can forgive its absence. Overall, though, I’m super happy to own this, and even though I’ve seen all of Batman the Animated Series already, this gives me something new to enjoy with it. Also, even though it’s not a perfect release, I think I still consider it a step up over watching the show on DVD. At least, if we’re talking flat screen TVs (watching the entire show on VHS would be awesome, honestly). I give the Blu Ray release a B. Maybe a low A.

Char’s grade: A Fire count: 9

Next time: Prophecy of Doom Full episode list here!

#batman tas #batman the animated series #batman #beware the gray ghost #the gray ghost #gray ghost #dcau #dc animated universe #adam west

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filmista · 7 years

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Baby Driver (2017)

“Don't feed me any more lines from Monsters Inc. It pisses me off.”

‘Baby Driver’ one of the films of 2017, that was almost impossible to miss. It was everywhere, people loved it and it mostly garnered positive reviews. Plenty of people I know saw it, and it got recommended to me every now and again.

While for some people ‘Baby Driver’ was one of the best films of 2017, and while that certainly may be so, it won’t go down as one of my all-time favorites, I don’t quite find it memorable enough.

But I have to admit it is simply a wonderfully crafted film; in which you can feel the passion and the love of the director for the project, that’s very hard not to have a good time with, it’s so silly and yes absolutely over the top ridiculous at times (but not painfully aware of it) that it becomes fun.

While I may want to watch the film more than once, it’s not the sharpest, most beautiful or best film I’ve ever seen (and that’s an ever-changing and expanding list anyway, only some have a permanent place on there).

However I might return to it for when I simply want to have a good time when I want to watch something, that’ll make me feel good and happy, I didn’t look at my watch once throughout the film I was entertained throughout.

Now the very first minutes of the film, I wondered where it was going to go to, but then once it found it’s footing, it’s a fun, entertaining and especially uplifting film.

Now many people didn’t like it and I can also understand the point of view of some of them, firstly action films aren’t for everyone, and the combination of action and music, pop music probably also isn’t.

‘Baby Driver’ is simply lighter and at the same time more emotional than your average action film, this isn’t a film like ‘The Fast And Furious’ franchise. And then there were people that found it too cliche and that it had a lot of influences from other films.

Though I think that anyone disregarding the film for being too cliche, didn’t really realize that the film very well knows it’s cliche and actually embraces that, so many of the characters in the film and so many of the plotlines in it we’ve seen before.

Not that, that matters and makes the film any less fun and entertaining to watch, it knows it’s being cliche, so it’s never painfully so.

And the difference with other films that are cliche (that don’t know it) is that the love and passion with which this was made, simply sparks of the screen, Edgar Wright was just simply having a good time while filming and it shows, it’s a big production but it’s got a personal touch and part of his personality in it.

Plot-wise ‘Baby Driver’s doesn’t really do anything way, it’s about Baby, who’s actually a good person, but who through tough luck got to work in a criminal environment (as getaway driver) and happens to be good at his job, the best in fact.

But actually feels negatively towards it, he knows he’s the best at it, and certainly enjoys the adrenaline rush of it at times; but his conscience gnaws at him, and as soon as he can he wants to leave that world because he’s just too emotional and moral for it.

Meanwhile, he meets waitress Debora at a diner, who he forges an instant connection with, after an improvised, quirky date: listening to music at the laundromat; they’ve fallen for each other.

They’re both not the kind of people to have to talk all the time, both love music, both have probably dealt with pain, in the case of Baby that’s for sure, his mom was a waitress in abusive marriage, but with a voice of gold, and music was her love, when she wasn’t working as a waitress, she was recording music.

But ultimately passed in a car crash while having a fight with her husband. It’s possible, that Debora the waitress (who also happens to have heart of gold and a voice like honey) reminds him of his mother, not in a creepy Freudian sense of course.

And Debora likely also has some kind of struggle in her past, but that’s not really explored, Debora stays inside of the cliche of the diner waitress, who’s beautiful and sweet as pie at once. Not that it ever really matters, because Lily James plays her with such heart, charm and contagious energy that you just have to love her.

As I mentioned both love music, both kind of keep themselves and are outsiders of kinds, both long for escape. Baby longs for escape out of his line of work, and Debora longs for escape out of the diner she works in.

When they meet everything seems fairytale like and perfect; Baby had just had what was supposed to be his last job and they hatch a plan to drive off into the sunset towards an unknown destination without much of a clear plane and their music and one another.

But like always in this kind of thing, it’s of course not his last job and he’s forced to deceive the woman he loves in order to protect her. The rest of the film becomes about his trying to escape that; and have his happy end with Debora, and you can probably guess how it ends.

It’s a storyline that’s been done millions of times; but still, Wright’s script does have some surprises in it, towards the end of the film certain characters do develop in a way that you wouldn’t have expected at first sight.

Much more than anything it’s not the plot that makes ‘Baby Driver’ worth a watch, that’s as calcite and almost laughably simple as can be.

It’s merely an excuse to have something to work with; Wright had for years wanted to make a chase movie, that’s entirely structured around and driven by pop songs, and that’s what he did, with a distinct vision and eye for beauty.

‘Baby Driver’ is a pleasure for the sense; it treats to both lovely visuals and good music, it plays with special effects and using music in them, but rather than feel experimental, it turned out incredibly well and feels simply maybe not like the most innovative or most original film of all time, but like a well crafted and funky one.

In a way ‘Baby Driver’ is almost like a musical but with cars and chases. Some of the chases throughout the film are orchestrated so that they fit the rhythm of the music. And at times throughout the film, the characters move as if they’re dancing to music at certain points.

So the whole film becomes a sensory experience. Visuals are adapted to fit the music, or the other way around, it’s a delight for the eyes and the ears, and just as you think it risks getting too bombastic the film introduces self-relativizing humor.

But however, well crafted and pleasant to look and listen at ‘Baby Driver’ is, and undoubtedly is, (gorgeous and well-done flashback sequences as well as great special effects) it ultimately wouldn’t survive solely off of its style and story.

It’s the actors that elevate it into something more, Ansel Elgort (the man candy from The Fault In Our Starts) actually shows some charisma, he doesn’t have a whole lot of text.

So his body language and facial expressions become one of his most important ways of conveying emotion, and he does that surprisingly well, there’s energy and confidence in the way he carries himself, and that’s just what the character in question needs.

And Lily James as a waitress Debora always stays a bit inside of the cliche that she is, but still, she infuses the role with energy and warmth and gives her Debora, a lively, sunny personality, and that ultimately makes her for the film, then the girlfriend of the hero; she’s got individuality.

It might be a cliche, but this is probably the role, in which Lily James truly gets a chance to show her emotional range, and she does a fantastic job; Debora is truly one of the characters in the film that’s instantly captivating and likable.

As for the chemistry between Elgort and James, well it simply is very enjoyable, you’ve seen the kind of couple that they are before, that’s for sure, but they play off of each other really well, and they become yes a cute couple, but one that you can root for because they have so much in common, because they understand each other.

So to conclude, ‘Baby Driver’, is not one of the best films ever made, but one of the best of Edgar Wright, it’s well a worth a watch to simply see a director have fun, there’s no pretension in this one.

It knows what kind of film it is and all the formulas of such films, and it embraces that, while still becoming something that’s unique in its genre, because it ultimately still insists on putting its own spin on stuff and introducing twists, which ultimately makes it a smart film, but above all a fun watch.

“He had an accident when he was a kid. Still has a hum in the drum. Plays music to drown it out. And that's what makes him the best.”

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dcarevu · 6 years

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Batman TAS: Fear of Victory

“He’s locked up in Arkham…isn’t he?”

Episode: 24 Robin: Yes Writer: Samuel Warren Joseph Director: Dick Sebast Animator: TMS Airdate: September 29, 1992 Grade: B

Hey! Robin is back! About time, huh? This is the first time that we have seen him since episode two, but the show explains this by showing him living in his college dorm. And it makes sense that, with his roommate being directly affected by the Scarecrow, he would get involved, working with Batman, even if he is not on any vacations or anything. I asked Char what she thought about seeing Robin again, since she is a DCAU-virgin, remember. Her response was honestly not what I expected, but it was nice to hear! I figured she would be really surprised that he was absent for so long, but she did not think all that much of i. I did tell her he was generally away at college after we watched Christmas With the Joker, so I suppose that’s what she was expecting early on. It was a nice treat to have him back, she said, but she seems to like the flow of Robin that we have gotten so far. And so do I. They were very smart about how they handled it. The show is stylistically best when it is just Batman for most of the time, but Robin is also a nice character, so seeing him occasionally is okay with me. He could have been overdone very easily, though. Like, if we got the Joker every episode, even though we love the Joker, that would get old. Same with Robin, noting his more happy-go-lucky/smartass personality. He is the type where it is wise to wait for an episode that needs him instead of attempting to work him into an episode. And while even though Robin worked fine this time, did they truly accomplish this task? Did this episode need Robin to work, or would it have worked better without him? There is a difference between being okay with Robin because we like him and we haven’t seen him in a while vs being okay with Robin because he actually adds something meaningful to the episode. Personally, I think that this episode falls into the trap of making Batman slightly less competent so that Robin seems more needed, while also making Robin the “damsel in distress”.

With Batman’s competence (or lack there of), I am referring to the end battle up high above the football field. The part where Scarecrow threatens to drop a vile of his fear powder onto the audience below, resulting in utter chaos, and at least a handful of injuries. After all, people in crowds are fucking crazy as it is. Just look at Black Friday. Now add some Scarecrow chemicals, and you have a messy situation. But what happens is that Batman seems to have an awfully hard time preventing Scarecrow from dropping the vial, despite Scarecrow really not providing any type of physical threat to Batman. They both fumble around on the catwalk, and I get that it is a small space, but I feel as though Batman could have done something to prevent one or two of the vial scares. And that box of lightbulbs up there is a little bit contrived too. It seems a little bit dangerous that anyone who works there would keep a box of lightbulbs above a football field, it could fall off and hurt somebody. And well, here it does hurt somebody! Batman was not even ready for it. The same guy who can quite often predict when someone is right about to jump him from behind. All this is to allow Robin the chance to save the day, catching the vial in midair. Which is fun, I like how his actions aligned with the football announcer’s commentary and all. Yeah, this segment was still enjoyable to me, don’t get the wrong idea…it just helps not to think about some of the silliness too hard. At least, as an adult. I think what could have been much more interesting is if Batman ended up absorbing some of this fear powder. Maybe Scarecrow could have ended up smashing the vial in his face or something. Then Robin could have had a much better chance at being the hero, without making Batman look like a putz. Batman has been affected by Scarecrow’s toxins before, and the imagery that he gets is incredibly powerful. What if he saw his parents, but then it was his own adopted son that snapped him out of it and kicked Scarecrow to unconsciousness, facing both of their fears and ending the problem.

And also, as I said, Robin kind of portrayed the damsel-in-distress. I’m referring to the scene where he first becomes affected by the toxin, and nearly falls off of a building from high above the ground. I think if Robin did something a little bit more meaningful at the end of the ep, like the idea that I had, this would work better and seem a little bit less flimsy. But this is only Robin’s second DCAU appearance, and already he is screwing things up like the ol’ trope goes. Again, though, this scene was perfectly enjoyable, and if Robin was not already jokingly known for this by comic book fans, I likely wouldn’t even mention it, but in the grand context of the character, I couldn't help but roll my eyes a little bit. As positives, his voice actor, Loren Lester, did a great job of the emoting, and it is hard not to feel scared for Robin. This scene also highlights the danger of what Batman and Robin partake in every time they don their costumes. Even something as simple as using their grappling hook to go from building-to-building is not recommended for your everyday, average Joe. One little mis-step and you can fall to your death. So in a way, Robin experiencing this adrenaline rush is bringing Robin down to our level, and lifting the veil for him, reminding him of what exactly he’s doing with his life. And he is not like Batman, where he needs to be a crimefighter to feel that fulfillment, to clear himself of guilt. So if Batman were to be affected by this particular fear-powder, I don’t think that Batman would gain that fear of heights that Robin did. I think that his visions would be much different. Batman simply does not share the same reality that Robin does. They are truly very different people, and the more I think about it, the more I am not surprised with what happens later on down the road with these two, but I will not give any hints to avoid spoilers. Let’s just say that once Robin grows up, there is an unavoidable relationship change just waiting to happen.

Scarecrow got a redesign in this episode, looking quite a bit different from when we last saw him in Nothing to Fear. Char ad I both much prefer the new version, but she noted to me that the straw hair is a little bit much. Yeah, I can see how that would bring the intimidation levels down a bit, but the face and body look so much better (partially because of TMS’ awesome animation) that it doesn’t bother me. I was surprised to see such great animation with this episode, honestly. Maybe it was because the last Scarecrow episode didn’t turn out looking that great (despite the debatably better story elements that it had), and they wanted to make sure that they could make Scarecrow seem like a more intimidating villain than he did prior. The show has also come a long way since then, and even though I’d call this episode a more mid-tier one, episodes like Nothing to Fear were once the standard! Seeing the new Scarecrow design can kind of represent that evolution, and it’s like we’re starting fresh now that Batman the Animated Series has most certainly found its footing. It’s as if they meant to say, “Here’s how we actually envisioned Scarecrow, guys, now that we are running a show that has the potential to display it!” If they redid Nothing to Fear this far into the show, I have zero doubts that it would have been way better than Fear of Victory. But we’ll have other opportunities for great Scarecrow episodes soon enough… For now, here, as usual, are some screenshots!

I love how in keeping with the show’s aesthetic, the player’s get old-style Football uniforms/padding. Great detail!

Take a look at that funky remote-control.

Robin’s first scene since Christmas With the Joker!

Awesome foreshadowing here, putting that heavy shadow onto Brian’s face, telling us subtly that something bad is coming.

Coupled with the roar that they give, this was way scarier than anything from the first Scarecrow episode. Great work by TMS!

Does Scarecrow really need to change into his costume just to watch the game from above? I guess he is an Arkham patient, though.

“Oh no! Not him!” Referring to Batman. Way to acknowledge Robin, guys.

Robin the height like many of us would if we ever tried this!

Another gorgeous movement, capturing the dizzying heights.

“Oh my...” Too bad Batman has work to do.

But that doesn’t mean Batman can’t give her a little smile as he leaves her apartment...

So where did Batman exactly get all these cats? Could they be Selena’s, and he’s looking after them? If so, I doubt she’s appreciate you testing some possibly harmful chemicals on them! This didn’t seem very Batman-like to me.

“Hey! Corn on the cob! A scarecrow’s gotta love that!”

Batman fades into visibility as he walks through Arkham Asylum. And in here we get to see...

Joker...

Ivy...

And Harvey! Oh. Harvey. This is the first time we’ve seen him since the end of Two-Face, showing us that he indeed ending up at the asylum. Poor guy.

But of course, Scarecrow is gone. The corrupt guard, who obviously helped Scarecrow out (maybe by bribe?) shows how some of these baddies always seem to escape.

“Be persuasive.” he knows what that means.

Once we see the powder coming off the envelope, we know what’s coming. A nice moment of anticipation.

Such a better design!

That’s the look of a man who just shit his pants.

Not your wisest idea, Robin.

“I’ll drive real slow.” I was half-expecting him to then blast out of there as top speed, hahahaha.

Again, Scarecrow, why do you need to be in full costume right now? You’re going to give yourself away! What if someone happened to walk by? Or, I don’t know, be hiding in the jerseys..?

That “R” on his shirt here is huge.

I love the way that Batman throws him across the catwalk. Also, I feel like his costume was inspired by Freddy Krueger.

This is why we don’t leave lightbulbs around.

Char’s grade: B

Next time: The Clock King Full episode list here!

#batman tas #fear of victory #dcau #dc animated universe #scarecrow #btas #batman the animated series #robin

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