#I thought about posting this on art of frozen but I have some other stuff related to this I need to post on this blog

[sparebutton]

Animation in Frozen before (left) and after(right) story changes.

[cmrosens]

Creating fantasy religions: something I'm doing now so thought I would post about my process.

The mistake a lot of writers make is developing a religion from a singular event, and piling a ton of stuff on top of it that makes logical sense. Whereas, in reality, religions are self propelling systems that travel under their own steam and if there is an event that catalyses them, it is never in a socio-cultural or political and economic vacuum.

You also end up with an apparently totally random set of things attached to one figure which does make sense if you know the origins, but otherwise is just accepted even if the meaning is lost.

It is the difference between "the god of Midwinter and festivals around this originated because a cult of necromancers were banished into the frozen wastes and this <event> became the Origin Story for how we got to a midwinter festival with creepy bone puppets in my fantasy world" and a religion that feels ... Real.

Ok so firstly, this is a bit too neat. (This was my original reasoning for a midwinter god called Yarash and I changed it because it wasn't very realistic or interesting for my world.)

Why, let's say, is the god whose feast is at midwinter also the patron of puppet makers and osteopaths?

Well, we could say that this makes a lot of sense because the god's festival was originally to do with remembering the dead, and puppets were used in the festival to represent the dead, as necromancy should have been part of it but people didn't actually know how to raise the dead properly. Then as magic evolved people could actually raise the dead for short periods to deliver messages in these festivals, but this drew internal debate from the conservative priests who thought puppets were the original form and so should be maintained, and necromancy was an aberration, vs the progressives who saw necromancy as the original INTENTION and so the natural and correct progression from the puppets. The debate might rage on for years creating splinters, sects, differing traditions that sit uneasily together but find middle ground in other less controversial topics and practices, and even cults.

At some point, the secular authorities get involved for their own reasons. Maybe some rulers are pro-"The Old Bones" or anti-, or they want to outlaw necromancy or benefit from it for various political reasons, socio-cultural reasons, economic reasons, military intelligence reasons, etc. Whatever happens, happens. Times change. Official attitudes swing back and forth, while internally the religious debates continue, now informed by and perhaps as counters to, this secular intervention.

Then we end up in modern times, the times of the story. Nobody really believes in gods anymore. They do remember the old gods of the seasons and at the secular festival in winter, there are a lot of traditional puppet shows that have a whole history and life of their own. The puppets are called "the old bones" and nobody really remembers why. Osteopaths have the puppets and symbols relating to the midwinter festival on their certificates and college heraldry and nobody really remembers why, but the information is there to look up and is a fun thing to know for trivia nights.

And necromancy... is a controversial branch of science, divorced from its original religious significance for many but not for all, and more integrated as an art or practice in the public consciousness (positively or negatively depending on perspective and propaganda and actual usage).

And now, you have a ton of depth and meat to it without having to flesh out the arguments and debates themselves unless that is plot relevant.

There is a lot you can do with this society now, and by tweaking one thing you can create completely different societies and ideologies. The depth is now there to set your story at any point during this history and to develop numerous ideas. So much stuff can happen.

With the singular event version, and a static fact of a necromancy cult in the frozen wastes, things are much more limited and linear, with less depth to play with.

Also remember that your characters will not be expected to know everything about your world unless they are experts in religion and/or history, and also the 2 subjects are not mutually inclusive so a historian is not an expert theologian and vice versa. How much the average person on the street knows depends on levels of formal education, accessible knowledge beyond formal education, which may include religious instruction and folklore, and propaganda. But it means you can build in some subtle things - like the puppet symbols on the door of an osteopath or bone doctor - that never need to be explained, but have a logical in-world explanation below the surface.

Try taking a static idea and work it into a system and see where it leads!

EDIT: I'm doing a workshop on Build A Hellscape at the Devils and Justified Sinners online conference, Saturday 24th Aug 2024, 9AM UK Time. Sign up below:

[cerulean-crow]

I was a creepypasta and mlp grimdark kid- I absolutely loved them and they definitely shaped my interests in horror and gore that I have now! I am not immune to the nostalgia of these infection au’s, and honestly I am thriving. I love reading everyone’s ideas and seeing everyone’s art, and I got inspired to try my own hand at one!

I’ve been calling it the Crystal Heart Contagion. I am not sure how far I’ll take this but it’s fun to draw and think about. I considered going a bit crazy with actual gore, but this was just supposed to be a concept page and I wanted to keep it simple and just flesh out some ideas I had bouncing around in my head. Besides, I actually really like body horror that doesn’t involve a ton of gore- and like that note says, has an air of beauty alongside the disturbing elements.

Again, not sure how far I’ll take this- so I’m just gonna jot down some thoughts and notes! I’ll put ‘em under the cut because I am very wordy <3

Also I try to tag my stuff as best as possible because I know not everyone loves horror and these Mlp horror au’s as much as I do! I don’t want people to interact with my posts if it makes them uncomfortable, so if I miss a tag please let me know.

The Crystal Heart Contagion is transmitted when infected crystals come into contact with one’s bloodstream. The afflicted will experience body pains and stiffness at first, hemophilia, and symptoms like lethargy and migraines. The crystals will begin to form in clusters on the skeletal system, eventually breaking through the skin and, after a long enough period of time, will completely petrify the afflicted in solid crystal.

I imagine that one’s teeth, hooves, and horns are where crystals will begin to break through first. I like the idea of stylizing manes as they crystalize- but that’s exploration for another day!

I am currently thinking of the infection more like a parasite of some kind. Parasitic crystals that feed on magic and rely on living creatures to carry them farther in order to spread themselves.

The infection originally didn’t do much to change one’s personality, they would just get weaker and weaker as they were overtaken by the crystals. It was only when the infection started again, when Equestria was home to many more different species and overflowing with way more magic, that the crystals would begin to mutate at a rapid rate. Those afflicted would begin to show signs of aggression that would have them attacking others, thus leading to further spreading.

Some physical details I like is the eyes hollowing out and resembling geodes! Crystals emerging from the spines, horns becoming crystallized, and crystals forming over teeth and jaw to create fangs are all stuff I would love to flesh out in further detail.

I also love the idea of the chest ripping open to reveal a crystal heart held in a crystallized ribcage! I think I will forever be influenced by the Angel Trap in Saw 3

The idea of this infection is still developing and I’m still doing a lot of research and thinking on the words to describe it. My original thoughts took inspiration from a parasitic infection and rabies. My brain also likes thinking of it like a mold in how it spreads or thinking of the crystals like a coral reef (mostly as a visual inspiration)

The background and timeline is all still a work in progress. I haven’t rewatched the full series in so long and I’m implementing plenty of my own headcanons- so it’s all very vague right now.

The original idea is that the infection started during King Sombra’s reign. He created these parasitic crystals and unleashed them upon Celelstia and Luna’s army with the hopes of dwindling their numbers and expanding the reach of the Crystal Empire further through the Frozen North. When he was sealed away, Celestia and Luna would bring several of the infected back to Equestria for study. They would hide them away deep underground beneath a mountain, where the lack of nutrients in the rock would eventually cause the crystals to stop forming and enter some kind of hibernation.

Celestia would later build Canterlot after the banishment of Nightmare Moon, and she would use the very kingdom itself to block off the caverns and keep them hidden for everyone’s safety.

The Crystal Caverns would become known again during the Canterlot Wedding when Cadance and Twilight escaped from them. However, nothing would ever happen after the fact, and Celestia and Luna would continue to hope that with Sombra sealed away and the crystals dormant for so long, that this infection was truly no more.

When I first got this all in my head, the idea was that Flurry Heart’s Crystalling was what caused the parasitic-crystals to get a kickstart of energy and begin spreading again.

That is the part where the timeline starts getting really wonky. Cause I think I’d want Twilight to be running her school and have the young six around, but that’s in season 8 and the crystalling was in season 6. But I can honestly fudge the timeline however I want, it’s an alternate universe after all.

I think that Celestia sacrifices herself in order to save Luna and help as many people flee Canterlot as possible. This was when I still very early into thinking this au through and a potential story that could be told with it- and with the worldbuilding I’ve been doing over the last few days I don’t entirely know if it still fits. I love the scene in my head that comes from it though- so I decided to keep the sketch of crystallized Celestia in the end.

I love the idea of crystals on her head mimicking sun rays! And her forelegs and wings becoming one so she staggers around like a wyvern. That’s definitely a design I would love to flesh out if I get the time.

I am having fun!

[cupcakeslushie]

Does Mikey try to prove himself? Since you said he’s scared that his family will not like him anymore like big mama?

MIKEY ASK TIME!!

@theartofeverything @lukasischillin

Mikey can be a total showboat during battles thanks to his time in the Battle Nexus, and he makes sure to be as useful as he can around the house because he’s got a similar mindset to Donnie in that he’s worried about his place in the family. Mikey is not an idiot, he knows Big Mama grew bored of him and that’s why he was put in the fighting pits. He grew up watching her toss the employees that disappointed her in there and thought he was special and that she would never throw him away—he was totally blindsided by her betrayal, and he won’t let that happen again. So he uses a lot of his energy into discovering new ways to be productive, be that cooking, helping the family with their trauma, or taking down bad guys. It’s not so much positive motivation but more desperation to be needed.

He’s always been great at reading emotions and picking up the self-help books and his research started as more of a way to handle his issues without alerting Splinter, Raph, or April to the fact that he was struggling with things. It was further luck then when Leo and Donnie show up, and he jumps at the chance to use his knowledge to help them as well—it makes him feel good to help them, but also if he’s not being useful he gets anxious.

Cooking is not something he necessarily enjoys at first, but he’s good at it…compared to Raph and Splinter, who are hopeless for the most part (Splinter can make like five or six dishes, but for the most part they order pizza or eat frozen meals or April will bring by take out). So Mikey seizes the opportunity to fill in yet another role. He does grow to love it the more experience he gets though.

Mikey is probably the worst at admitting he needs help after Leo. If he does have an episode or flashback of some kind which is bad enough that the others worry over him, he’ll manipulate his way out of being the center of attention and convince everyone he’s fine.

No one’s religious, but the idea of family and ancestry is important to them all connecting with each other!

@gumy-shark @snazzysa1amander

I talked before about how Big Mama got Mikey tutors for his education, one of which was an art tutor, so his style is more classical until he moves into the lair and he’s greeted with massive art block, for which April introduces him to street art and he falls in love with that. If you wanna know more on that check out this reply here!

Art for Mikey is kind of the one thing he does that’s just for himself—it’s not of any use to the family, but something he enjoys, and when he shares his art work with Leo, April, or Raph, it never feels the same as when he’d show Big Mama his work and she would look it over and judge if it was good enough to hang up in her lobby. When Splinter puts his stuff on the fridge, or Donnie dedicates a wall of his lab for a cork-board that’s void of any blueprints and solely filled with the bright, colorful sketches that Mikey’s gifted him—it doesn’t feel like Mikey’s trading parts of himself to earn his keep. Instead it feels more like building himself back up. Each piece the family saves does more to convince Mikey he’s not going anywhere, more so than any other chore he’s checked off for the day.

Donnie still loves ear bleeding techno and heavy metal. Leo likes more meditative, calming stuff, but is secretly probably a BTS fan. Raph likes hip-hop and stuff you can dance to. Mikey likes songs that’ll really get you hyped and rap. April likes boy bands, but she also has a love of classic rock and early 2000s pop. I’ll actually probably make a playlist soon with a few songs I think they would like or that suits their stories, and also songs that’ve been sent to me (some of which I’m saving in my inbox so when I do finally make the playlist I can have all of them in one relevant post! Just know if you’ve sent me an ask that’s song related, I’ve seen it and appreciate all the ideas! Those songs will find their way to a playlist hopefully soon!)

Hmm I never even thought of 2012 Mikey’s kusarigama but you’re so right that it would work well for when Mikey has to make that killing blow. He does switch his weapons sometimes between fights to keep things interesting, but mostly uses nunchucks. I do however think having that secret blade in them would be pretty beneficial! But when he leaves those behind and Splinter gifts him the ones he’ll use from then on, I think he’d be happy to have the less lethal version.

@ver-444 @littleblueberryartist Human designs here

Mikey would wear a cloaking broach when out and about the lobby and even though he never attended school he’s most familar with the way things are done topside out of all the brothers. It makes him the least stealthy cause he’s just not used to hiding. I’ll probably draw Human Mikey at some point. Though since cloaking broaches are kind a mystery in how they work, I honestly don’t know what I’d do. If Big Mama was the one who got Mikey his cloaking broach I’d have to imagine she’s make him look like her, but in my head I do think the boys would look Asian seeing as they have Splinter’s DNA—with Mikey and Donnie having darker skin tones and Leo and Raph being just a bit lighter (to parallel how Leo and Raph are lighter greens and Donnie and Mikey are darker greens).

It’s a toss up on Mikey, but I do know if he ever got his own cloaking broach after the fact, he would totally make himself look like Lou Jitsu’s son and nothing like Big Mama, and he would have no problem including his scars!

Mikey has fought I’d say one to two battles a day, six days a week for a year in the Nexus, I’m not doing any further math than that, sorry 😜

Dr Delicate Touch does exist, but as I’ve said, with Mikey so desperate to help the family and be useful, I’d say Dr. Delicate touch has even less patience for tomfoolery

@uniqueness351217 Big Mama will have some scheming going on with Draxum! She’s cut her losses for now and will regroup!

Venus started as Big Mama’s assistant in the year after Mikey started in the Battle Nexus, she is going to be more connected to Three than with Mikey at first. They have caught sight of the other in the few times Big Mama visited Mikey to gift him his little prizes, but they’ve never spoken.

@raisondetre2012 Thank you I’m glad you liked it! And unfortunately Mikey will find out Donnie’s…association with the Battle Nexus and it will create a pretty intense divide between them but that’s all I’ll say for now!

Donnie has always seen physical strength as something valuable that he could never achieve (even though Donnie boy is no slouch. Draxum just sucks) so he does look up to Raph and Mikey in that regard!

Oh these are so getting saved to be sketched out later!

Also just a note! I know some of y’all are probably worried that your asks aren’t going through. I have to admit am very slow in answering asks! Some of these are from a month or longer ago. I just like to give each ask a good amount of thought so it makes replies slower (also lol now that there’s more lore established I have to double check that I’m not contradicting myself on things, like a doofus)!

I do apologize for taking so long for some of y’all, but I do have a pretty full inbox so I’d like to thank everyone for their patience! You guys are the best and I always love reading all y’all’s theories and questions!

❤️-Slushie

[hjeojeo]

Previous reblogged post (link) (quick summary: people online in creative communities don't interact with each other as they used to, don't share their thoughts and feelings of what art makes them feel, everything is content fodder they reflexively scroll through)

And this post on twitter (link) (quick summary of this video: someone expresses they always feel overwhelmed by messages, and someone else explains humans can't handle being available 24/7 bc this social change was only within the last 20 years so the current social expectation of prompt response is impossible, humans haven't evolved fast enough to handle this kind of stress)

Got me thinking about how everything really is backwards to what would help nurture a genuine community.

We're both too present and demanding of others' presence in the arbitrary ways, but also not present enough with the actual parts that matter like vulnerability with sharing yer thoughts to someone else.

I know that we all know that it's cause of capitalism, but i feel like there are some things we collectively could do about it instead of waiting for capitalism to eventually crumble.

I know that for myself it helped a lot to budget my time online, bc i know my brain can only take so much info before it's just stuck in scroll mode without processing anything (gotta accept that yeah yer gonna miss like 99% of what's going on, but you'llbe able to process yer 1% of what you experience better imo). And i try to remind myself to not just anger respond to ppl when theyre weird/rude to me bc ppl Get a certain way online when they can't experience the irl experience of a whole ass person in front of them (i just ignore those ppl tho bc i don't have the patience or energy to try to interact with those rank vibes).

I think the hardest part is being vulnerable and talking to ppl openly, but i can't tell if that's cause of growing up in an abusive home or bc internet social atmospheres have become so stagnant and moldy, probably both; but i am trying to put some active effort into being more vulnerable and genuine as often as i can even tho i gotta do it with gritted teeth sometimes

Truly, current day is the scifi dystopia of surveillance state government, weirdest social expectations and norms, active modern colonialism and genocides, slavery reskinned as prison system, and probably more I can't remmeber at top of my head.

But i guess like those scifi dystopia genres, all the individual can do is collective efforts as a community, and also fight tooth and nail to nurture yer humanity and human experience...starting with seeing past the usernames and profiles to the actual human being that sits behind the screen..

Cause if you start there, it may naturally lead to the actions that you might want to do but feel that you can't- like showing up for other people/community/people in need/etc, i think when yer in a frozen state everything will feel impossible to you, but i think if you get moving it'll slowly become more obvious to you what the next steps can be, and then i guess that's how you gradually become the person you want to be (you never start off knowing yer full path, sometimes you don't even know yer next step, but you might have some inkling of a thougut of what to try that might help you get information for the next step)

Hm...Idk i have bad habit of trying to neatly summarize stuff for my small brain, this is all stuff for me to digest in the long term

[felikatze]

Hi, this is your ticket to infodump about isat/fe aus.

whehe. wheh. wawawawa. (i start vibrating)

i dont know how much i've posted abt my thoughts vs how much i just monologued to various people on discord (hello and thank you to pix, alice, and lozy (i think i also monologued to riu once? hi riu)) but you can find all (most?) of the stuff tagged under "isat emblem" on my art blog

ANYWAY. SO. I'M NOW TALKING ABOUT THE UHH. fourth. isat/fe crossover i have, which is the "what if isat ran on FE lore" one, instead of any roleswap or isekai shenanigans.

i'm looking you straight in the eye. look at me. listen to me. the forgotten island is Valla. It's literally just Valla.

FULL GAME SPOILERSSSS riu don't look at this.

ok. listen

you cannot say its name. if you say its name, you fucking die

people from valla cannot share that they are from valla, making them simply foreigners from "somewhere else"

the disappearance of valla seems to be recent, yet nobody besides people from it have any memories of it

it still physically exists, but is generally impossible to access

associated with water-based enemies that attack anybody yet also represent the regrets of its people

IT'S JUST VALLA, YALL

THE VALLA ZOMBIES ARE IF SADNESSES WERE ACTUALLY DEAD PEOPLE.

so. you may have already seen my Manakete Siffrin, but it is needless to say, i took a FUCKTON of cues from corrin for this. this entire AU is generally very fates adjacent. with some engage in it, for flavor.

Manakete Siffrin is so tasty. Please also look at Pix's dragon sif AU because this is VERY MUCH the exact same flavor because me and Pix were just on the same brainwave i guess.

In this Au, Siffrin is a dragon (silent dragon or divine dragon, either works). And the dragons lived on the island, but the island disappeared. Because dragons were so deeply associated with this place, knowledge of dragons disappeared, as well, outside of perhaps the occasional myth. (Imagine Sif being told "Dragons aren't real, silly!" man.)

Siffrin is a dragon, and fucking forgot about it. All they know is that they are Different. But not how. Or why. Imagine.

Imagine, as the loops progress, Siffrin grows stronger not through training, but through learning how strong they already were. That there are claws beneath the gloves, that they can see in the dark, that if they focus just right, they can breathe fire.

Imagine, for me, Siffrin learning they are not human. They are Other. They are a Myth. And how this plays perfectly into Siffrin's increased alianation from the party, and Siffrin's growing belief that they are a monster, and that if this is ever discovered, his friends will leave him.

If you want to bring my wolfskin Isabeau into this. I already mentioned it briefly but. Isabeau is also not human but he is In Control of it. He makes it palatable. People know what beastfolk are, they're documented in Vaugarde, I'd imagine that there's one or two frozen around the House. They are a Known Quantity. Even compared to the nonhuman, Siffrin is Other, is a Beast, and he can feel his control slipping. Compared to Isabeau, he is a feral animal. (Or, at least, they believe they are.)

Augrh. Okay.

Also. Lizard Loop. Ok.

UM. SO. I mentioned Engage, so. EMBLEMS!! This Au actually has Emblems in it. See, on the island where the dragons lived, the Emblems lived as well. And people prayed to the Emblems, to the heroes from the countless stars, to the heroes sent by the universe to guide them. Only the dragons could summon Emblems, but they could grant favor to anyone. And if all Emblems came together, they could rewrite the Universe itself.

The Emblems knew this.

And thus, when the Emblems came togehter, they wished to be forgotten. The place where they dwelled, and the people that worshipped them... were casualties of an ill-fated wish, to seal away this catastrophic power.

Yup, I made Wish Craft emblem flavored!! Because man. It's literally "prayer incantation". Divine Dragons draw power from Emblems through Prayer, through belief, and Fell Dragons draw power from Emblems through Incantation, through ritual. And the most powerful of all is combining the two. IT'S WISH CRAFT RULES, YALL.

So so, the concept of Emblems also got forgotten, but the main wish just erased the Emblems as people. That's why Sif and Co could find out about Emblems as the story progresses, same way in canon they can find out about Wish Craft.

Because I love suffering, I'd say. Instead of a Silver Coin, Siffrin has a silver ring, instead. It's just a plain band that's been around their finger for forever. It's not special at all.

....or is it?

...sometimes, Siffrin manages to rememeber a friend. Only for brief moments. When Siffrin does Mirabelle's hair, he wonders how he knows to work with kinky hair. When they eat the fish head, they reminisce that someone else liked it..... and then they forget again.

In this AU, that friend was an Emblem. That was Siffrin's Marth. But they're gone. That ring is empty.

....or is it?

hihi.

About Loop.

I think this was Lozy's suggestion, but. Loop is an Emblem. Loop wasnt always an Emblem, but Engage shows how people can become Emblems, yeah. So, Loop is a spirit from another world, sent by the Universe to guide this one. Loop is bound to their own ring, though neither of them realize. When an Emblem is asked for power through incantation, they cannot refuse. Siffrin's wish causes the timeloop by calling upon the power of the dormant Emblem they carry, which is Loop.

(How did Loop cause their own loops? Well, it was still an Emblem, even before Loop was in it. Who was it? Well, I don't know, and that's the pain, isn't it?)

Also I think it'd be really cool if Big Sif isn't just, Sif fully transforms into a dragon (which is already cool as hell) but also like. Siffrin manages to Engage with their Emblem. And after that, the Emblem is well and truly gone, for good. It just said goodbye for the last time.

And ofc Act 6 when Loop disappears, Siffrin picks up the ring that houses them in the hopes Loop will awaken one day. Yeah.

UM. CHARACTERS BESIDES SIFFRIN!!

I've mentioned this in my FE6/ISAT parallels posting but Mirabelle is so lord-coded. Specifically the Roy-flavor of "just some guy" lord. She wasn't chosen for this she just happened to be here. SHE EVEN HAS A RAPIER!!! AND AN UNAVAILABLE MENTOR!!!

Listen to me she's so so so Roy-coded MIRABELLE IS A FIRE EMBLEM LORD.

Ok. Ok.

I think it'd be really funny if Odile was just straight up from Hoshido. It would work. I don't want to change Vaugarde to a FE country because the culture is just too unique for any straight equivalent, but the other countries with less detail work. (Puts Odile in Onmyoji because she's a magic class 100%)

Bonnie's class is actually Transporter. Lozy suggested "Aptitude Villager" but i feel we need to keep the spirit of "Do not Attack The Child". So Bonnie is the Elibe-exclusive Cannot Die Items Holder class. It even works with Bonnie's potshots that Merlinus (the only transporter in the whole entire FE series) gets daggers in Heroes, which is the debuff support weapon.

Bonnie chucking holy water from the back of a horse. Thank u. That is all.

Um yeah. So that's all (most?) of the FE-flavored ISAT thoughts I have. yeah. Um.

Thank u very much for asking this. I love talking.

[sweetmariihs2]

🪄My thoughts on Cedric The Sorcerer🌙 (until now)

(not that anyone cares idk i just wanna talk about him, it's a lot of random thoughts and it's messy, but it's fun to read I guess)

Did you like that cute moodboard I did for him? It took me like 10 minutes I loved it. It fits him so well I'm so proud of myself for doing this. The whimsigothic aesthetic matches him so well I wish more people knew it so we would have tons of moodboards and cute stuff of him in this aesthetic it would be so nice. Ok let me start my post

I wanna share some headcanons, talk about my first impressions, it's not really organized I just wrote down whatever I remembered and the result was that. I wanna share my new hyperfocus with more people, that's what I'm doing here today :)

Everything started when I saw this man on Tumblr and though "who's this guy and why is princess Sophia next to him?", when I clicked on the hashtag out of curiosity I understood that it's because he's a character from the cartoon, and I was like "lol another tumblr sexyman again let's move on keep doing my things and interacting with my fandoms" (december 24)

I also mentioned it to my friend on IG bc I saw a reels that was like "you don't have any weird fictional crushes right?" and then proceeds to show us an edit of him with millions of hearts around. I sent it to her and said "omg I saw ppl talking about this on tumblr" and we just laughed a lot because it was something we did not expected (not mean laughs, they were genuine laughs of shock and because that was very unexpected like HOW IN THE WORLD, and she remembered him in the show while I didn't)

Some days later I saw more fanarts of him on tumblr and that made me a little curious, but not enough to search about the subject.

After some days I just couldn't forget him, and that's when I searched his name on youtube purposely trying to find compilations of his funny moments to understand what was happening

And boy I did

At this point was just having fun and laughing thinking "omg another guy who's sassy, has good personality and is another ugly-atractive character that has a fandom on tumblr, I got it, he's very nice" and I went to do other stuff again but this man just DIDN'T CAME OUT OF MY MIND

Just making an interruption here, I loved watching Disney Junior as a kid, maybe when I was six or seven, idk I don't remember, and I was a huge fan of Sofia The First, it was one of my favorite cartoons from Disney Jr alongside Doc McStuffins and Art Attack. AND I JUST DON'T REMEMBER CEDRIC IT'S LIKE I NEVER SAW HIM IN THAT SHOW, EVER. I literally don't remember him being part of the cast i'm sorry Cedric 😭 now he stands out so much to me, he's carrying the whole show on his back. Btw now that I mentioned Disney Junior I would like to say that here in Brazil Sofia First is actually called Little Princess Sofia, and Doc McStuffins is Doctor Toys. Sometimes I call Sofia "Princess Sofia" but I don't even know if that's how they call her in the english version, I watched everything on portuguese 😭 but ok let's move on (I have more things to say related to the brazillian dub, but let me finish my train of thought first)

As I was saying this man just didn't came out of my mind, and I was like "Oh no another hyperfocus where people around me will make fun of me because they will say that he's ugly and that liking kid's shows is something weird 😭 I can't take this anymore" and I tried to deny it but I CAN'T i'm almost making a pinterest board for him, I just accepted my fate (gonna draw fanarts soon and no one can stop me)

I found a list of every chapter he's in and i'm watching every. single. one. of. them. I watched the movie first, and boy this is gave me so much nostalgia because I remember some vague objects and scenes from when I was a kid, I used to love the Disney Princesses, when I got a little older I started watching Descendants, I grew up watching Tangled and Frozen and I swear to god I almost teared up from nostalgia during the episode Rapunzel shows up, and they didn't changed her voice actor, that's what got me. It was like travelling back to a time I didn't even remembered that existed anymore. Because since I haven't seen Sofia The First in about 10 years, I don't even remember anything FROM the show except for some parts, and that this show had so much old Disney energy that I didn't even know made a difference, but it does.

I'm sounding like a granny here but (i'm not even in my 20s yet) it feels like another time, Disney changed so much. Some of the new movies are good, some are bad, I see Disney much more as a company that wants money and makes movies instead of that perfect place where all dreams come true and every girl is a princess (Here in Brazil I never had a dream to go to Disneyland because Disney in the early 2010's invested more in products and blue ray DVDs in Brazil, since the parks were in the United States and we weren't really the target audience for that. So they didn't minded making publicity about it, so I just watched the movies and Disney Junior). Everything felt more magical when I was a kid, I spent my days watching DVDs and sometimes had some Disney princesses themed toys, it was so fun playing pretend that I was a princess and I really felt like one. Rewatching Sofia The First made me feel like this again because they made this show at the time that their public were HUGE fans of the Disney princesses and it has the same characteristics, plots, even styles of the songs and soundtracks, visuals + I watched it when I was younger. It's not just "princesses" it has the whole Disney girly early 2010's magic into it and it made me so bittersweet, even if they tried they could never do nowdays a movie inspired by that time and give me the same feeling as a REAL movie from that time does. Sofia The First: Once Upon a Time was like watching a new movie from that old Disney, one that I didn't saw before, but at the same time I did, and that's the best part. The end of the movie gave me so much nostalgia that I almost cried too. That experience was amazing :")

It gives me the same nostalgia that I feel when I hear that song "a dream is a wish your heart makesss" it makes me cry how I miss to be a little girl again (i'm crying right now btw i'm very intense with my emotions)

(And hell I don't remember Cedric at all, since when he was there the whole time? Now that I know that he's there I'm feeling like really reeeeaaaaalllyy vague memories are trying to come back in my head, but I don't know if my brain is doing this on purpose or i'm just confusing him with an equally vague memory of Cruella. I guess it's the first option, I'm trying so hard that my brain is making up memories. Weird.)

But yeah at first I saw everyone falling to his feet and even though I understood that he was very funny and had a well-writen personality I couldn't really get why people were romantically in love with him. Well um I actually got it, he was a good character and was one more of these strangely atractive characters that people fall in love with, I've been there too. But I just couldn't see what was so atractive that people were simping over him, for me at that moment he was just funny and fits very well the "let's make a fandom" type of character, like for example Preminger from Barbie Princess and The Pauper. But then I thought "idk what i'm talking about i'm demisexual lol let's wait a few days" (That happened before. Many times.)

And I'm like. I don't know what's happening to me I'm so susceptible to weird (in socially non-fandom people's words) crushes and I thought I wouldn't be afected this time. Just so you can have an idea some of my last crushes were: Dr Flug from Villanos, Jackson Jekyll from Monster High, Victor Frankenstein from Okegom, Raggedy Andy, Mettaton from Undertale (and UnderLust), THE Eddie Munson (for a whole year and some months, and I was so bullied after his "trend" ended because people said that his fans were cringe and everything (that's fake lol they are very nice)), 70% of my list are just nerds and sensitive guys with different types of mental illness yay my fav type

and now I think I'm feeling unironically atracted by this man it's just happening really slowly 😭 (DEMISEXUALS ‼️‼️⁉️⁉️💥💥💥💥💥👊👊👊👊)

I'm gonna be honest with you, at the moment I can't decide if I like him or not I'm so confused at the same time that I get it I also don't like how tf am I atracted by this man 😭 and then I'm like hmm he's acually cute let me search for some fanfiction

I'M SO CONFUSED I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO ANYMORE i guess I'll just wait to see what happens

you guys know that tiktok audio "at first I was like 'hmmm feet' as a joke,,,,, but bro....... I don't think that's a joke anymore...." (that's me rn but with Cedric)

Also I would like to take this oportunity that you're listening to me talking about Cedric to say the most important thing that this fandom needs to know:

We need more Cedric representations in Whimsical/Whimsigoth/Whimsigothic aesthetic it's like it was made for him just search that on Pinterest please you won't regret

And I'm here wondering what kind of songs he would listen to. I think he would like dark fantasy music, or witch music. I don't care if he's on medieval era and people didn't had access to a lot of music genres at that time, we are talking about disney nothing is historically correct

I can't help but think about Lana Del Rey but being a huge fan of her songs I don't think that it matches his tastes. I guess he maybe would like Aurora's last album, The Gods We Can Touch. I don't know why, it's the witchy vibes I guess. But I don't know, it's still not something that matches him a lot. EXCEPT FOR THE SONG MIDAS TOUCH FROM AURORA. IT'S PERFECT FOR HIM YOU GUYS SHOULD CHECK IT OUT

The cover isn't giving the aesthetic though, Aurora made this song for a show and then put the show album cover unfortunately. But her aesthetics are usually whimsical and magic, inspired by theatre, greek gods and tarot. This song is so good 😭

And of course there are songs like Everything Matters that fits his vibe but idk it depends on who's listening since it's not about the lyrics. The Innocent has a small part who matches him a little, the whole song has that witchy vibe dancing around the fire, I don't know how to describe it.

Coming back to Cedric I think my favorite scenario is him having an apprendice not too much younger than him. I think it's cute. I've never seen any fics like this (in fact I just read like 5 oneshots which is almost nothing) and if you guys know any let me know. I think it's just nice the idea of living with him and being his apprendice while having like a romantic tension between the two characters. It's cute

Also remember when I said I was going to talk a little more about the brazillian portuguese dub? So, something that I thought was really funny happened to me: In the first season he had his voice actor obviously and I was already used to his voice some time after watching the cartoon. It was very funny to me because the first time I saw a "scene compilation" of him it was in english, so hearing him talk in my language was fun. And btw his voice actor did a really good job voicing him, he (had a similar voice and) was really expressive just like his english VA, so like, really nice 👍

And then at some point in season two, from one episode to another, his voice actor suddently changed????? And obviously I got a little sad because his first VA was really good and I was used to his voice :( but the thing is: The new VA wasn't just a new one, IT'S THE SAME GUY WHO VOICED DR FLUG HERE IN BRAZIL AND I WAS LIKE OMG

THEY ARE SO SIMILAR IN PERSONALITY AND NOW THEY HAVE THE SAME VOICE WITH THE VOICE ACTOR'S MANNEIRISMS AND EVERYTHING (because that VA really has an specific way to talk, he stutter a little, sounds a little ironic but at the time really anxious, make some funny sounds for no reason sometimes like his screams)

I was really upset when they changed all the brazillian voice actors in Villanos, and that Flug didn't had his full-of-personality-and-expressive voice anymore :( the new episodes now have new voices and eveything, and they did their best, but it's not the original voices anymore and it doesn't hit the same yk? And then BAM CELDRIC HAS DOCTOR FLUGS VOICE NOW BITCH TAKE THIS

and the fact that Sofia The First was dubbed even before Villanos came out it's so funny to me

So yeah let me show you guys his amazing work at voicing two of my favorite characters:

After they changed Cedric's voice actor I was a little annoyed by the fact that I couldn't hear Cedric anymore, just Flug 😭 but now I'm slowly getting used to it and it's starting to sound like Cedric again.

Before that happened I could see some similarities between the two but I thought that I was just thinking too much and trying to connect two fandoms that I like, so I just forgot about it. After that happened my mind just blew it all make so much sense right now

And they are so similar in personality that I had to make a list of everything they have in common:

They work for guys that are completely blind to their talents and think that they're just idiots all the time

They have more potential than people think

Their projects/spells always go wrong because people keep disrupting their public moments, and so they are seen and weak and dumb (when they're not)

Science/Magic guys (they keep throwing liquids from one pot to another and saying difficult words, only for someone to stop them halfway and the substance explodes in their face, making them angry because this person once again interrupted their project that was going perfectly)

Self-confidence issues

Anxious mess, are always nervous and scared of something bad happening all the time

Childhood trauma because people never really saw their acomplishments and again and again kept repeating that they are idiots who don't know nothing (when they are geniuses!!)

They say that they're mean and they say that they do mean things when actually they are just really nice. They just choose that path because they think it's the only one that can bring them sucess and recognition in the future, but they were never made for this. They just do that because they want to proof their value to people who can't see it.

At the same time that they are mentally unstable, sometimes their confidence is so high that they start to act arrogant because "they're too smart and their projects are amazing": "I love what I do I'm the best sorcerer/scientist in the world"

But when they need to show that to people something bad always happens (because of other people!) And their plan fails, leaving them with confidence issues

"I'm too smart you guys don't deserve me"

"I can't do anything right omg i'm so stupid"

Their movements and maneirisms are so expressive, they're both skinny and tall and keep making those anxious poses, fidgeting with their hands, always anxious, scared of something, thinking too much and overall being nervous and ankward around their bosses

Boss just treats them as failures and gives them orders, in which they respond in the most submissive and saddest way because they're just miserable and just two little guys who are trying to proof their value in a place where no one even see them as people

But sometimes they are genuinely egoistic and egocentric because duh they're the best sorcerer/scientist out there, hello everybody is gonna know their name when they rule the world bye

They act so stupid and lovesick in their official crushes episodes, it's so funny

And even if we never saw Dr Flug's official face there is a design out there in the fandom where he has black hair with white streaks on his bangs so like 👍👍

Well um I guess that's all I have to say about this subject for now

These are my thoughts 🫶

I feel like I said a lot in a short amout of time but I'm here writing since 04:30 AM and now it's 07:47 AM so like. yikes

[jq37]

Please let us know if you solve this mystery!

OK! It’s the end of the year so let me compile everything I was able to come up with (with the help of everyone I dragged into this–you know who you are and thank you and I’m sorry). 

To anyone who’s just seeing this and doesn’t have context, in November, right before the movie Wish came out, I made a longish post questioning who Allison Moore was (which, incidentally, is the first post that comes up when you Google “Allison Moore Disney”).

The reason I was curious about who this random writer is is because she’s credited as one of the co-writers of Wish, Disney’s 100th Anniversary Feature Film BUT she has no obvious experience writing for animation, children, or fantasy when everyone else on the main team has credits on stuff like Frozen and Encanto. I thought it was bizarre that there would be someone so green on a project so big so I went digging. 

Here’s what I learned:

(1) Moore wasn’t originally announced as being attached to the project. Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, and Fawn Veersunthorn were all mentioned when the project was officially announced in Sept 2022 (for example). Moore was not. And you’d think they’d mention the *co-writer*, right? You don’t start to see her name until a year later in Sept 2023 when the trailer dropped (for example). So it seems like she was brought onto the project later. Of course, this could just be a normal quirk of the industry or something I’m misinterpreting, but I think it’s worth mentioning. 

(2) Moore seems to have a lot more credits in stage writing than she does in screenwriting. I wasn’t able to 100% confirm it until recently (I’ll get to that in a second) but she’s written a bunch of plays and it seems like this is where she has most of her bona fides. 

“Allison is the recipient of two Jerome Fellowships, two McKnight Advancement Grants and the Bush Artist Fellowship.”

That sounds fancy. But it still doesn’t say “Top Choice for Disney Anniversary Movie” to me. That’s not a statement on writing quality. I haven’t read/seen any of her plays. It’s about the subject matter. Look at some of these synopses:

None of that really screams Disney. Which isn’t to say people can’t have range. George Miller wrote all the Mad Maxes but also Babe and both Happy Feet. But if I was hiring someone for a really big project, I wouldn’t want that project to be their first attempt at expanding into that genre. 

(3) This isn’t actually inherently important but she was on an episode of Nailed it. That’s where this picture comes from:

She won the first round and the game ended in a three way tie for the first time in the show’s history. 

The only reason this is noteworthy in the larger scale of things is that, until very recently, this was one of only two places online you could see Allison Moore talking. The other is this very short interview on the red carpet during the premiere. 

There’s nothing in that interview that explains anything. It’s mainly her talking about how it was fun working on the movie and how good the movie is. 

Honestly, good for her for not being Extremely Online, but it really felt like I could get a bit of a handle on everyone else who’d worked on this project in a high profile way but not her. Which is part of why I started down this rabbit hole to begin with. There was nothing to show where she might have had a connection or an interest or anything that would connect the dots. 

For reference, Fawn (who was one of the Directors and story writers) has the kind of resume that I was expecting Moore to have when I initially Googled her:

Smaller jobs on other kids/animated movies (Hop, The Lorax, Despicable Me 2), some storyboard or art work on other Disney stuff (Frozen, Moana, Zootopia, Ralph), and then a big break (Raya and Wish). Based on my understanding of the industry (and I know a fair bit because it’s one I’m interested in professionally) that’s a very typical track to get to the writing side of animation.  

A couple of people speculated that Moore got onto the project in a mentorship capacity. Now, I’m a Black woman who writes fiction professionally when I’m not on this hellsite (affectionate) with the rest of y’all. That means I have firsthand experience with what mentorship looks like in writing–both official Diversity and Inclusion type mentorship and more organic “Let me take you under my wing” type mentorship. I have *never* seen anyone get a job this high profile at the jump just due to mentorship alone. Going from zero to Disney’s 100th anniversary is kinda insane. This wasn’t some B project or something. It was a Big Deal Project. And this is Disney so they could have hired basically anyone they wanted. So you have to assume this was an active decision someone made and not just a thing that happened for lack of options. But in all my searching, Moore wasn’t mentioned except to just say she wrote the screenplay with Jennifer Lee. It was just the baking show and the Youtube clip.

Until today.

(4) I’m going to preface this by saying this doesn’t actually answer the question in a big AHA! way, but it is the only interview I’ve seen about Wish from Moore besides the red carpet clip.

On December 15th, Moore gave this interview with the San Antonio Current.

I stumbled across it while searching for a different piece of information and eagerly clicked to see what she had to say after three weeks of silence after the movie dropped on November 22.

Here are some highlights:

-In high school she was a theater kid and thought she wanted to pursue acting. 

-I college she did playwriting and eventually she got her MFA from Iowa (which has a weirdly great MFA program btw, and also, this interview is how I confirmed she was the playwright Allison).

-When she started on the theater track at her college, she told them she was a playwright so she could study that too even though she’d never written a play before. So it sounds like Wish isn’t the first time she’s just jumped into a new thing without experience. You have to respect the hustle.

But this is the most important line in the interview because it’s like, an answer and a non-answer all in one. She’s asked, “How did you go from writing plays to writing for TV and film?”

And her answer is, “I had a whole career writing for theater, and then when my son was born, I realized I needed to make more money, so I started pitching for TV. I worked in television for about a decade. In the midst of working in TV, I continued playwriting. That's how I got on the radar at Disney.”

Which kind of sidesteps the most intriguing part of the question? Like, first of all, it’s not 100% clear if she means her playwriting or her TV writing caught Disney’s attention. I’m guessing playwriting, but I could be wrong. Secondly, who is “Disney” in this situation? A Disney recruiter? A Disney director? Did Jennifer Lee see a production of Slasher: A Horrifying comedy while passing through Texas and think, “Her. I want her to be my co-writer on this children’s film.” And what did she do to impress them so much that they right away put her on the the *Anniversary Project*? Like, I know I keep harping on this but I can’t stress enough how big of a deal this is. It’s hard enough to write for just your average sitcom or little movie. To just jump on something this big is baffling. I obviously don’t expect Disney to be justifying their every hiring decision publicly but, usually, when someone is doing something like this, it’s very obvious why they were chosen and, even with this sliver of explanation, it’s still frustratingly opaque. And with the strange post hoc timing of the interview (seriously, doesn’t promotion usually happen PRE movie release?) It almost reads like an interview that exists because someone realized the lack of any online presence was weird. 

(5) When she was a kid, Allison Moore had a crush on Fox Robin Hood. That’s not at all important to the mystery, that’s just information she volunteered during the interview and that I’m now sharing with you. So when you search her name now, the top results are me wondering who she is, her IMDB, and her talking about how she liked Fox Robin Hood's little hat. Which isn't a LOT of information, but it’s more than we had before and that’s something.  

[liauditore]

LIAU MY BELOVED

ask game question

Jimmy x Martyn

:D

romeo asking for mirror birds in MY ask box?!!?!??!?!?! (i know u pref mirror birds but solidwood is too funny im so sorry)

ah yeah. these losers.

see, a lot of my thoughts surrounding these two would kind of spoil my own AU that i never make stuff for so im usually somewhat hesitant to talk about them but basically., (toxic!fh mention)

post-evo divorced property police is so real. ive always imagined it as a childhood friends situation, with martyn being a bit older than jimmy.

they probably caught feelings for eachother fairly late and already well into teenhood but neither of them were really sure what it was (this is maybe going a little bit into sexuality hc territory but ive always imagined jimmy as whatever the male equivalent of a useless lesbian is and martyns biphobic towards himself lmao).

i touched on this briefly in that one fic i wrote but i've always headcanoned martyn as being somewhat parentified and thus ties his worthiness to be loved into his ability to perform acts of service for someone rather than just.. existing and letting himself be loved.

so as jimmy became more independent, martyn becomes a bit more insecure about their friendship. this becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy as he distances himself from jimmy, feeling like jimmy wouldn't love him if he didn't Need him, and jimmy in return feels confused and hurt as he helplessly watches someone he knew all his life drift away.

that + jimmy has this not-so-subtle crush on scott that martyn's always suspected. he's a jealous bitch.

The storm formed after a final sip, my fingertips frozen solid, I pretend that again I can see, you past the rails, ready to meet And I wonder is it too much to ask, to once more, hold you warm in my hands? To accept I can’t forget, and embrace what still fails to fade?

Milk Tea (Oktavia's translyrics) (because I wasn't kidding when I said these two were cheesy yuri to me lmao)

we had a clown to clown communication moment i think cus I also love the idea of them splitting up and meeting in Third Life years and years later (altho i like to imagine it as more of a voluntary separation).

some stuff copy+pasted from that cursed shipping doc i mentioned awhile back: ((scott + jimmy became a thing while martyn was gone pre-3L))

Now reuniting in 3L as fully grown adults after years apart, all those suppressed emotions come bubbling back up to the surface. An adult Martyn is much less unsure about what he's feeling and Jimmy still has those fantasies of what could have been playing on loop in his head. Of course, Jimmy is still attached to Scott and can't abandon his Bethrothed. He loves and knows what's best for him, he would sooner die than forsake his loyalty. But it does hurt when he hits him. Martyn still cares for Jimmy deeply, whether he wants to or not. He takes the time to keep an eye out for him, even though they had no real reason to interact anymore. He becomes one of the only people to realise what Scott was like with him, how devoid of love it all was. He throws out a line, offers to help him run away. Jimmy refuses. Betrayal. A second time. For the same man. Who cares about Jimmy anyway? (he always did take me for granted)

(a little note here before anyone sets me on fire - time works a bit differently in my writing and the players don't have exact ages but jimmy and martyn's age gap is probably not as dramatic as their cc counterparts)

(it's still there but neither of them even recognise their feelings as remotely romantic until they reunite as adults, as kids it's all just them being silly and having grade school drama with each other)

So uh yeah lots of mutual pining and suppressed feelings and puppy love turned angst👍 tis all i shall say cus i wanna make art of the rest lol

Just a second to lessen the ache, or minute to kiss it away I’d give all I have for the chance to go back to youth and you

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

I have jumbled thoughts on WISH looking to fall short of industry projections, its low CinemaScore grade, its low chances at scoring a great multiplier that helps it climb, and Disney's overall bad film year - on their centennial no less.

The success of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, the excellent legs ELEMENTAL scored after such a poor opening weekend, and how well THE LITTLE MERMAID did domestically tells me everything I need to know, I feel.

GUARDIANS VOL. 3 had a solid opening for an MCU sequel, down a bit from what VOL. 2 pulled in back in 2017, but still good. Legs carried it past $350m+ domestically, and it made over $845m worldwide. It's probably my favorite MCU movie in a while, and it resonated for a lot of other people, too. Can't say the same about MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, LOVE AND THUNDER, QUANTUMANIA, and THE MARVELS. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is now a mess of rushed movies that are either homework or you have to do homework in order to keep up with them, GUARDIANS VOL. 3 not so much. I extend this to last autumn's BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER as well.

ELEMENTAL, like most of the recent films overseen by current Pixar leader Pete Docter, told a personal story in a fun, appealing, and visually stunning way. Despite existing next to other family films in a crowded June/July, ELEMENTAL grew some serious legs and did really good overseas. I'm confident LUCA and TURNING RED, had they been released theatrically in a world where COVID-19 never happened, would've done pretty darn well. LIGHTYEAR is the anomaly here, the rare Pixar film that audiences just didn't take a liking to. But I can't hold it against Pixar, Docter lets these filmmakers make the movie they see fit, and sometimes in the world of the arts... It's not going to sit well with everybody. Luckily, ELEMENTAL had a real rebound and nearly made 2 1/2x its posted budget.

THE LITTLE MERMAID got by on being almost beat for beat a redo of a beloved animated feature in Disney's library, and it also helps that some of the actors did a pretty solid job. (I haven't seen the film, only bits and pieces at my movie theater job. I'm not into these remakes.) While this movie couldn't cover its costs worldwide, as it had a hard time in certain large markets, it still did pretty great here.

But I think Marvel, Disney Studios (as in the end that does all the live-action and CG tech demo movies), and Walt Disney Animation Studios are in need of some course correction. I get the sense that the latter two arms of Disney's massive film machine aren't really letting filmmakers make the movies they want to make... But rather making the films for them, and someone steps in to do the job. That's also pretty much the case with Marvel, but sometimes they let a director do what they want. Sometimes. James Gunn got more freedom on VOL. 3, and Ryan Coogler got a lot of say on WAKANDA FOREVER.

Pixar feels the most free of the divisions to me, outside of 20th Century Studios and Searchlight. I feel their recent animated offerings have more of a voice and a personality, they feel like their filmmakers' own creations. Everything from LUCA to ELEMENTAL, all these post-Lasseter movies. I'm not really getting this kind of thing from the Disney Animation films made under Jennifer Lee's leadership, and given how audiences reacted to STRANGE WORLD and WISH (as in, those who actually saw them), I suspect audiences aren't, either. Are their movies being noted to death by upper management? That FROZEN II documentary did reveal that these films are test screened for toddlers, and then stuff is cut out to make things less intense. As if they are sanding off the edges of a perfectly fine piece of furniture.

Maybe it's not villains and such that people missed in Disney animated films of late. Maybe they weren't upset at twists or whatever...

... but rather, they were not too fond of writing that feels like it got doctored relentlessly into being FROZEN 6.0, and also the lack of bite and that classic sense of danger that complimented the magic and "warm fuzzies" quite nicely in the more beloved Disney animated movies. You think Walt Disney gave two craps about the angry letters he got from parents over the frightening moments in SNOW WHITE and PINOCCHIO? If a Disney film has to be a little scary and intense, it should be. I don't understand this new thing where they hold back. Look at how warmly received DreamWorks' PUSS IN BOOTS sequel was last year; a good helping of some scary stuff for the kids in the audience should only help it do better, so long as everything else adds up.

(Note: "Warm fuzzies" was something a friend of mine, a fellow Disney enthusiast named Jim Miles came up with, and I use that phrasing quite a lot!)

The horizon for both studios is curious. Pixar's next is a guaranteed hit with INSIDE OUT 2, it's ELIO that's the more curious one. It'll be Pixar's 2nd-ever post-outbreak theatrical release of an original animated movie. WDAS' next is unknown, and they have ZOOTOPIA 2 and FROZEN III on the horizon, both of which sure to cover any recent losses. Maybe WDAS-2024 shows a change in direction, maybe it's another round of what STRANGE WORLD and WISH had to offer. Maybe it'll be taken back and retooled if WISH comes up short? There will likely be a much needed strike for animation when the Animation Guild can make that happen in mid-2024, so maybe we won't be seeing that very film next year. Stuff will likely be pushed back again, for a strike that NEEDED to happen. Maybe some self-reflection and strikes will do this studio good, they seem to be in a funk.

And in live-action land, you would think a new HAUNTED MANSION movie with that kind of cast (well, except for Jared Leto, yuck) and a rare-for-Disney PG-13 rating would be an all-timer, right? Big flop. Massive budget, probably noted to death, too. If not, then... Decisions were made, and audiences just didn't care for them unfortunately. The remakes, even the ones that make good money at the box office, are largely agreed to be stinkers. Audiences may have flocked to most of them, but if they weren't based on beloved movies... How would they have done? And what's next? A LION KING prequel that I'm certain won't make much of a stir, a delayed and iffy-looking SNOW WHITE remake that I feel will also have trouble at the box office... And more animated movie-based pictures, and some theme park ones maybe. They've run out of classics to remake, so now they're trying theme parks again. They keep trying to get this TRON-in-name-only movie off the ground that's not a sequel to TRON: LEGACY and doesn't involve anyone from the previous two films. And they're doing sequels/prequels to the remakes. But as we saw with ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS and MALEFICENT 2, that's not a guarantee. People came to see the car they loved with a new coat of paint, not a similar car made afterwards.

So, I think Marvel, Disney Studios, and WDAS are at a similar point to where the Disney enterprise was in the early-to-mid 1970s. Maybe even into the early 1980s...

Above: This logo, for the enterprise's 50th anniversary in 1973, would show up before the films released that year... Presumably, the Buena Vista distribution title card would follow. It does not appear on home video editions of the Disney films released that year. i.e. ROBIN HOOD, CHARLEY AND THE ANGEL, etc.

I think this is all telling me that some audiences aren't necessarily upset at what kinds of stories Disney is choosing to tell, but are instead a bit unsatisfied with the way they are telling those stories. That merely the reliance on brand names and what worked a decade ago is not enough anymore:

I think about where Disney was by around 1975-76, inching up on a decade without Walt Disney, and a few years after Roy O. Disney's passing... And it looks as if Walt Disney Productions at the time were delivering what was guaranteed to be successful... In 1965...

You had cheaply-made kid-friendly comedies starring TV mainstays and often times they co-starred an animal (THE BAREFOOT EXECUTIVE, MILLION DOLLAR DUCK, GUS, take your pick), you had standard adventure movies (such as TREASURE OF MATECUMBE and THE ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD), you had the occasional long live-action musical with animated scenes in them (BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS, PETE'S DRAGON), and the occasional animated feature film that was always directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and had that same lazy vibe that he'd been employing since THE SWORD IN THE STONE a decade ago...

You look at what Disney had to offer on the movie front from around 1969-1976, and it's like backwash from the early 1960s, and what worked back then... Interestingly, it was the animated movies that continued to do well during that period, contrary to popular belief. But nothing was a massive blockbuster domestically, on the level of 101 DALMATIANS or THE JUNGLE BOOK...

So, again, I think of Disney's output roughly 1967-1979... And I see what's coming out now as backwash from 2013-16. Guaranteed smash hit movies - Marvel superhero spectacles, remakes of animated classics, FROZEN-esque family movies... no longer foolproof. Pixar looks to be weathering this just fine, even if this timeline did not see LUCA and TURNING RED hit theaters nationwide. I still reckon those would've been big, big hits in a not-COVID world. How ELEMENTAL did tells me everything.

There was one lucky arm of Disney that somewhat avoided all of this... STAR WARS...

STAR WARS is largely just streaming shows now. There hasn't been a feature film since THE RISE OF SKYWALKER back in 2019. SOLO was the first movie in the whole franchise to actually lose money at the box office, the lowest-grossing film remains that very cheap CLONE WARS theatrical pilot movie. I feel SOLO lost money simply because the director change and subsequent refilming of almost the whole damn thing ballooned the budget, and there's only so many people you can drag to a Han Solo origin movie when a Wikipedia article is right there. Releasing it so soon after THE LAST JEDI didn't help, either. STAR WARS movies aren't MCU movies, I think you kinda need to let those sit for a little while. SOLO, I think, would've probably done better if it had been a Christmas 2018 release. Not the May right after LAST JEDI's December 2017 bow. Disney plans to release two new STAR WARS features in 2026, and well... Good luck with that. The new STAR WARS movies will be a test, to see if audiences will keep showing up for these movies. They aren't even entries in a new trilogy, so there's that.

Lucasfilm did do a new INDIANA JONES movie that did disastrously. Maybe audiences just weren't down for another adventure with Indy, maybe the market was a little too crowded, maybe those who saw it just didn't take to a Spielberg-less Indy movie. (Not a dig on James Mangold, but maybe audiences felt his absence?) Maybe it just cost too fucking much... Lucasfilm seems to just be "Star Wars Studios" now. They lost the rights to the book CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE, which they were supposed to adapt. They've barely made any live-action movies that *aren't* STAR WARS or INDIANA JONES on a consistent basis since RADIOLAND MURDERS all the way back in 1994. Like, what did they make between '94 and now that wasn't part of those huge franchises? RED TAILS, and an animated movie called STRANGE MAGIC. Both of which bombed... But I will be fair to Lucasfilm, a good chunk of the not-SW/Indy movies of the late '80s/early '90s also flopped.

Speaking of that... I also feel that Disney should probably invest in lower budget movies again? Not necessarily "cheap" stuff, but lower budget stuff that's more experimental and more creative? Not the kinds of movies that they can send straight to streaming, but small little movies that do okay in theaters and sorta help build a back catalogue for them. Why wasn't something like CRATER a theatrical release?

One of Disney's biggest live-action successes, a looooong time ago, was HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS. Produced for $18m, grossed over $200m worldwide and spawned some sequels. Did you know that movie actually outgrossed THE LITTLE MERMAID that same year? That's right, in 1989, HONEY made more money than MERMAID... Which film do you think is better remembered?

Anyways, what ended up happening after Disney's weird era after Walt's passing? In the late '70s and early '80s, they genuinely tried to experiment and redefine what a "Disney movie" could be, but a lot of it went south. TRON was probably the most successful of these experiments, but even that didn't measure up to expectations. Touchstone was set up, and they hit the ground running with SPLASH in 1984, and had quite a few successes into the late '80s... Films like THREE MEN AND A BABY and GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM. But that was Touchstone... Mainline Disney was where things needed to be happenin'...

And they weren't really... THE BLACK CAULDRON, THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN, ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS, they were all coming up short. The little bit of respite came from efforts like FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR and THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, smaller-budget productions that made their money back.

Eventually, the tides changed, and it was time to make movies that took the audience by surprise.

While it was released under the Touchstone banner in 1988, I'd say WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT was the movie that really got the ball rolling... And then that would be followed by OLIVER & COMPANY, HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS, THE LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, etc. All of which reversed course for the studio's film output. You couldn't convince anyone over the age of 12 to check out a "Disney" movie in theaters five years earlier in 1983, but by the beginning of the '90s, you had all the demographics showing up to some of their films...

Maybe that's what Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures will discover again in this weird post-outbreak, post-streaming world. They've hit this wall before, and they've gotten over it...

Maybe it's time for them to take a daring leap and make a proverbial new ROGER RABBIT-type movie that makes a Disney movie neat and worth checking out in the theaters again...

AND ALSO, TO TREAT THEIR FILMMAKERS AND STAFF BETTER, but that's another story.

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals - You're A Mean One, Mr Grinch

Jumping ahead by two years now into 2020 (figured I wouldn't have much to say about Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, sue me), to when VoicePlay released their cover of You're A Mean One, Mr Grinch. This wasn't actually released in December, but in fact the 27th of November! (eh, close enough).

You might have heard at some point in your life that the original singer of You're A Mean One Mr Grinch was also the voice of Tony The Tiger, the Frosties Cereal mascot. Well that man was Thurl Ravenscroft, a name you should be at least somewhat familiar with if you know Geoff's solo content (see my post (linked here) on Headless Horseman for a little more info). And so who better to sing lead vocals on this than the modern-day Thurl Ravenscroft himself, Geoff Castellucci? Geoff was also in charge of both the song arrangement and the video for this! Good for him! And of course this features the lovely Adriana Arellano, in her second ever VP collaboration since the Frozen 2 Medley in December 2019.

There's a strong chance I may hit image limit for this one - so much to screenshot and talk about! But let's get started and see how I go!

Let's start off by acknowledging the obvious: The VoicePlay 'Who's'! I.e. the guys plus Adriana done up like residents of Whoville, just like in the movie! (Or movies, I suppose, since there are 3 film iterations of the Grinch movie now)

I've seen/heard a range of opinions on the "Whoville Look" from reactors. Some were like "aww how cute/cool! Just like the movie!" Whereas some think it's just a bit strange (myself included, lol rip). But regardless, it's very professionally done, and shoutout to Makeup and Creative Arts (which I believe includes Rick Underwood?) for it!

Also I'll leave my thoughts on clothing for later screenshots, but I happened to be looking at their footwear here, and it's a little amusing to me that I commented on Eli wearing black sneakers with thick white soles in Mission Jingle Bells (just like in Creep and In The Air Tonight), because guess what shoes he's wearing here!

(Also is it just me or does Geoff wear boots a lot? I'm gonna have to start paying more attention to his footwear in videos, lol)

"Hey Grinch, you're a triple-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich... with arsenic sauce!!"

Not a visual thing but I couldn't help but call attention to the fact that J's line here is in fact lifted almost fully verbatim from the last line of the original version, from a verse that's not included in VoicePlay's cover (though they include all the rest of it, more than the live action movie does).

Okay I probably could grab some additional amusing screenshots from this opening banter bit, but eh, there's plenty of other stuff in this video to talk about anyway.

Okay, outfit talk time!

Layne: Not sure what the deal is with the pink and black shirt is but I don't totally hate it, and the white suit jacket is nice (and becomes especially fitting later in the video). And of course I have to mention the little carrot pin on the lapel! Carrot Lord for life! 🥕

Eli: I like the jumper! (Or "sweater" if you will). I kinda want it ngl, except I'm much more of a jacket person, and I wouldn't be able to wear it in December anyway - too hot!

Adriana: Am I only just now noticing that her top thing shows her midriff? Maybe. The makeup is cute (makes the 'Whoville' makeup stuff look a bit less weird), and the knee-high boots with the jeans are a Look ngl.

J None: Aqua/turquoise jumper (or sweater) with blue jeans and black boots. What can I say? Next!

Geoff: This dude loves wearing scarves, apparently! Wore one in Baby Its Cold Outside, in the Frozen 2 Medley, and also in his cover of White Christmas, which I'll be eventually be getting to! Also a green scarf over an orange shirt? This is colourful for him! 😁 (Oh and obligatory tick for both smartwatch and wristbands!)

(Also the fact that they didn't include the Welcome Christmas bit in the MP3 track or make it its own mini track is a crime ngl)

The big green man (creature...thing...) is here! Time for the actual song to begin!

Also Geoff looks so confused here pfft

From confused to scared? You good there Geoff? 😂

"Well you were flat! And... stinky!"

We have no clue who The Grinch is, just that he was "provided by Makeup And Creative Arts", and he's a hired actor or something? Whoever he is, he did so good in this video - utterly hilarious, absolutely nailed it!

That's a bit more like it!

Also Geoff wearing something red! Another rarity! (And like most times, he looks fantastic)

I love the grin that Geoff has for most of this video, makes me so happy 💜

That cake was real, apparently - there's a credit for it in the description, says it was provided by "Quarantine Dessert Company" (so a fairly young business then, given this video was made in 2020)

Apologies for the blur shot but I wanted to point out how The Grinch taps Adriana on the shoulder, and then very quickly his hands come up from the bottom of the frame and grab the cake, so quickly in fact that there's a few frames, like this one, where both The Grinch and his hands are in the shot at the same time! How? Is it editing trickery? Nope! It's actually just one of the VoicePlay guys (can't remember who - it might've even been Kathy) wearing "Grinch gloves" to do the stealing (the benefits of me now being a VP Patron! Access to BTS knowledge!)

Eli Eyebrow Raise! It's been a while <3

Also he's definitely worn that hat in a fair few videos - Top 10 Disney Villains, Frozen 2 Medley, Rich Man/Girl, just off the top of my head (new photo compilation idea - recent-ish appearances of Eli's bucket hat turned fedora /j )

ELI! Why would you smell it?? 🤣

When Mortius reacted to this video, he made a comparison between this scene and the "Dead Dove: Do Not Eat" scene (from Arrested Development??) that became a meme, and yeah that's pretty much it! What did you expect?

Aw, shoutout to Layne <3

(Also nope not doing a screenshot for the "termites in your smile" line, I don't care that they're fake!)

Pfft, Grinch looks so happy with himself!

Also give the rubiks cube to me! I'll solve it in like 2-3 minutes! Hell, I often solve a 5x5 Rubiks Cube for fun and relaxation while watching YouTube, and I can sometimes get it solved in under 7 minutes!

"More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, and they whistled and shouted and called them by name!" "..."

This bit is of course not from the original Grinch song, but actually part of the poem A Visit From St Nicholas, aka The Night Before Christmas. Given this was Geoff's arrangement, I have to assume this was Geoff's addition (and let's be honest, it's on brand, lol)

(Also I love how Eli and Adriana are looking to the left, in the Grinch's actual direction, but J and Layne are still looking ahead, and Geoff is looking to the right 😂)

Ayyyy

"Oh, erm, *ahem*, On Max!"

(Also if I had a nickel for everytime VoicePlay did a song from an animated movie where Geoff was on lead and Layne dressed up as the movie protagonist's dog, I'd have two nickels? Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice)

"You need a baaaathhh! Yeah!"

Oh these idiots, god I love them 😂💜

"Your heart's a dead tomato, splashed with moldy purple spots" (yes, also lyrics from the original version)

(AND if I had a nickel for everytime Voiceplay released a video in 2020 where Layne pretended to be a silly chef/waiter, complete with silly French accent, I'd again have two nickels)

If you know my posts, you should know that I love when Geoff gets to belt out a line in a video, and well, I definitely do! 😁

Yes! Sing it!

Grinchy has had ENOUGH! 😝

(Also I only just realized when planning out the post in my head earlier today that Geoff is the only onethat The Grinch doesn't really mess with (despite him being the lead singer of the song!)

Ah bless <3

"Alright get off me... Too long!... This is embarassing."

(Grinch honey I would happily swap places with you in a heartbeat! Embrace the embrace!)

Okay, I just managed to scrape in underneath the maximum image limit for a post, with no need to "economize", thank goodness! More fun posts to come! Until next time!

[quirkle2]

nobody asked but im typing out all the gripes i have w totk . they're mostly nick-picky tho i loved this game. complaints first, praises after

single biggest gripe i have with totk is that the main selling point of the game, the sky, does not feel nearly as expansive as it should. i feel like there coulda been waayyy more islands up there, and Bigger ones, like the one u start out on. i want bigger pieces of land to explore, not these tiny little rocks. it feels i've seen everything there is to see the moment i land. as far as i remember, there's no biomes in the sky islands either, except for the great sky one. there's no differences, and many of the islands are copy-pasted. still fun to explore and still beautiful, but i was expecting... more

while i love the depths with all my heart and being down there is an Experience, i do think it could've been improved with a little bit of variety. it looks the same wherever u go, with the exception of the eldin region and a few other lavafalls sprinkled about. i think some different biomes woulda been so cool

no post-game. i don't even necessarily want a fully fleshed out post-game, i literally just want the game and the world to acknowledge i beat ganon instead of dumping me back in time moments before the fight i just started. this is a common thing, i know, but i Hate the practice

u can't pet th efuckign dogs

what the hell happened to ganon's face in that one scene . i thought we were past weirdly impossible expressions like that one midna grin. why did it happen again in the year 2023.

why did ganon's intro scene before the final fight pan to his feet so much

kinda predictable story, in the sense that zelda turned into the light dragon. saw it comin a mile away, but this is just me being bitchy the story itself is still very fulfilling and good. just predictable, which isn't necessarily a bad thing

okay that was 7 complaints 2 of which were memes now sit back as i ramble abt the good stuff. already made a thread abt the little stuff i liked now it's the bigish stuff

the music in some of the areas is genuine fucking art. some of my favorites are the wind temple theme and it's approach track, the construct factory theme, dragonhead island, the bits of the calamity ganon theme in this game's final boss track, frozen rito village,,, so many pieces of genuine skill and talent

the wind temple is absolutely one of the best experiences i've had in a video game, not because of the puzzle design, but the temple design. the moment where you look up into the clouds with tulin and you see a giant airship silhouette highlighted by lightning,, the approach track that plays when ur getting higher into the air had chills running down my spine. what a cool fucking concept for a temple

there's already a post somewhere on tumblr abt this, but i love that the citizens of hyrule don't follow the typical "every man for himself" apocalyptic mindset. they help each other, constantly. they seek out people to help in their spare time. they shelter each other and volunteer to do hard work for the sake of everybody else. i just think that's rly endearing n nice. a good message

the entire fuse and ultrahand mechanics are SUPER fun. so endlessly creative. and i love that a lot of the time, the game doesn't hold ur hand. it doesn't even Grab ur hand, it pushes u off the ledge to teach you how to fly. it Makes u get creative with ur solutions. it makes u feel stupid a Lot, but sometimes it makes u feel like an absolute genius (anybody else have trouble with that one rail shrine? anybody else just launch themselves across the pit and rail grind to skip the thing entirely?)

tulin.

the vibes of the thunderhead isles were Incredible. i went up there before the clouds cleared, and i gotta say, even if the game Wants u to go up there later in the story, exploring those islands while the storm is still active is an entirely different experience, and i recommend it. if ur reading this before you've finished this part, just don't go to the actual dragonhead island . leave that for when it prompts u, trust me.

ganon's dragon design ? fucking killer

a lot of the new armor pieces are really beautiful. the miner's set looks so fuckin stupid but the headpiece is cool. all the torso pieces for the elemental dragon sets r Gorgeous

loved that the first half of the final boss took place in the depths, and the second half took place in the sky. nintendo has always been good at linking game elements with stories and this is no exception imo

LOVED when ganon's health bar stretched super far to the right. that was so silly and intimidating

in the final fight, the way ganon would only be affected by flurry rushes at first and not any random attacks, but then random attacks were the only way to hit him later. i know it was scripted, but it genuinely made it feel like he was learning to fight link better

the theme of cycles and the circular nature of time throughout this game is wonderful, and how it's mirrored in the first/last settings of the game is genius. how the game starts in a cave, and then part of the ending is in that same cave. how link dived alone into that pond below the great sky island at the start, and then at the very end he dived For Zelda in that very same pond

[omgfloofy]

State of the WIPs

A lot of my writing has stalled due to work, chronic pain in my foot, and Tears of the Kingdom. It’s really hard to be creative on stuff.

But I figure it’s time to give some progress reports on the WIPs I’ve got going at the moment. Especially since I’ve not talked about them in awhile. Everything will be behind the cut.

dal segno al coda

This is the monster fic. Of course. I’m currently at 99,462 words currently in the draft files for the three sections. This does not include the out of place snippets that haven’t been written into the main story or content from the original draft file that I want to keep. All in all, I’ve written over 200k words for this story, but not all of it will be kept in the long run.

Currently about 95% of the story is outlined, though. Which makes life much easier for me in some parts.

There are sections for Lunafreya that I’ve been writing in part 1 that lean heavily in the spy / political thriller type genre. This is a type of story I absolutely love but feel a little overwhelmed dabbling in. So part of my ‘research’ for this has included reading stories in this genre.

Additionally, I’ve been working on sections of part 3 that I can’t really post any WIP content for, since I need to keep as much of it as secret as possible. However, I’ve also written the last chapter and the epilogue. Those were things I couldn’t shake. And there’s a Meanwhile, Elsewhere... chapter that is post-story. On top of that, I’ve also written a post-segno side story that may, or may not be published some day.

I’m clearly having too much fun dabbling around in the mental images I’ve got of the post-story time period for Eos. I don’t know if I want to publish these things because I don’t want to color what other people end up imagining post-segno Eos to be like.

Additionally, the story ended up needing the creation of an original character. I’ve named him Valens.

I was able to get an incredible commission from @teapots-and-hats​ for his design. And while I don’t want to post the whole art yet for reasons, I do at least want to post this portrait at the very least and a small snippet that features him that may, or may not, be kept in the final version of the story.

That chill ran down his spine again as the swordsman looked towards his advisor. Somehow, despite not being able to actually see his eyes, Noctis just knew that he could tell where the man was looking. This meant that somehow - impossibly - this man had magic. To make matters worse, it was somehow resonating with his own.

"You're impossible," Noctis mumbled softly, as he started to make some connection over this black haired, black leather clad stranger. This drew the attention of the swordsman and this time, Noctis felt like his breath had simply been taken from him. All of that magic he could feel was turned on him in an instant.

"Am I?" As the swordsman approached, Noctis began to feel his legs buckle again. It was not from a physical force this time, but instead the sheer overwhelming presence that buried itself into the very core of his being.

Noctis just wanted to shout for Luna and Ignis to stay away! Stay far away! However, he found himself frozen within the stranger’s overwhelming power and he was unable to even speak a single word.

Once he was near Noctis, the masked swordsman settled onto a knee and reached out with a gloved hand to gently wrap leather-clad fingers around Noctis' chin and force the prince to look up at him. Noctis fought hard to keep his eyes forward and not recoil under the magic being pressed against him.

"I'm not the one who is out of time," the swordsman's words were heavy and cleanly punctuated.

Of course, Noctis thought angrily to himself. Of course he knows.

Oh yeah. I’ve also got a set of special dividers integrated into the workskin I’ve been working on for segno. It’s not the ones I’ve used here, but they do use this same style. I might as well use this as a preview as well, right? They have a very special purpose, and I’m eager for those to be seen as well. However, I want to keep the actual dividers a bit of a secret still.

Last, but not least, I’ve been in the process of designing and planning a ruins to kind of serve as a ‘final dungeon’ of the story. Sort of. It’ll make more sense down the line, I promise.

Speaking of the ending. That’s actually written. I know exactly where I’m going in segno now. I just need to get there.

You can find other stuff I’ve posted about this story under the tag ‘#dal segno al coda stuff’

Twilight

This little AU that has the chapter by chapter ‘end of life’ story for Noctis in an AU where he survived the end of the game. An important aspect of the story is that he gave up his royal title and has begun living a hermit-like lifestyle in Duscae while hiding his true identity.

I promised a bunch of other side stories and I finally got Granting Another Light out not too long ago.

There are multiple shorts that I’ve got outlined and need to finish. They have the following titles:

A Quiet Morning - This details Noct’s morning routine late in the story. Just a simple bit of fluff with no real direction. It just adds color to the whole story.

A New Restart - This is the short about the “incident” that was mentioned in the main story where Noct blew his cover, and how it forced him to change his lifestyle.

The Puzzle Box - The making of a certain puzzle box that has an important role in the main story.

Some Things Never Change - Noct runs into Sania after a job. The worst part is she recognizes him.

There are still three more stories worked up that don’t have titles yet. And a fourth that’s just going to be a bunch of random texting shorts between Noct and his friends.

Inconvenient Blessings

This will be a small pre-canon one-shot that is Regis-centered, following Regis and Clarus at a special event for a Children’s Day celebration, where little 6-year old Noctis is with them due to the holiday.

It features a very clear moment of “kids say the darnedest things.” And when that kid is the Crown Prince, those little things can be more troublesome than normal.

This may be the final outcome from an incomplete and untitled story that I finally posted to AO3 sometime ago. This little short explores the idea that the general public likely has superstitions around the Lucian royalty and their divine connections with the Crystal. And children mucking that up.

Nothing is fully written on it, but this has been outlined and it’s ready to start. I just need to get it more clearly in my head so that I can begin writing on it.

Untitled Psych Horror Story

This 5-chapter jaunt that I’ve started working on delves into psychological horror, which I’ve never played around with in writing before. I’m a little excited with the idea of the story, but a bit nervous on it at the same time. This is because it’s a genre I’ve never written before. However, once the idea for this story got into my head, and the more I played around with ideas for it, the more I found myself wanting to actually write the damn thing.

The most important thing that has me very daunted on this story is that I feel like I’m invoking stuff I’ve come across from other fic writers like @breakfastteatime​ and @every-lemon and I’m a little terrified and hope I can do their works justice. (by the way, read their fics, they’re amazing.)

---

"Iris," Gladio mumbled as he walked into the living room and saw her lounging on the sofa with a magazine. It looked very... off from the kind of thing she'd read. Cover lines on it included topics such as Increased Spam Calls to Insomnian Citizens Require Legislative Intervention and The Ideals of the Lucian Royalty: A Bygone Dream.

"Hey, Gladdy," she said cheerfully from behind the magazine, but yelped as he abruptly pulled it from her hands.

"What's got you reading this kind of shlock?"

"What are you talking about, give that back!" It wasn't too hard for the older of the siblings to hold the magazine out of reach.

Gladio looked at the magazine to show her the cover lines, when he stopped short after glancing at it again. The cover was now different from what he had seen before. It had originally looked like some sort of business magazine, but now? It was just a local fashion magazine. He quickly flipped through the pages to make sure he was seeing things. When he convinced himself that he was, in fact, imagining it, he just tossed it back onto Iris' lap.

"What's gotten into you, Gladio?" Iris sat up on the sofa as she snatched the magazine into a hand.

Gladio rubbed at the side of his head. "I'm not sure. Today's been a very odd day."

---

So there you go. A bunch of stuff on works that I’ve got on the sidelines and the monster fic itself. I’m always happy to answer questions in my ask box for these stories, as well. Especially since some of them are now playing with canon and stuff that was never really fully fleshed out in the original game.

[wordsandrobots]

This is a pinned post

I thought it might be useful, for me and for you, dear reader, to have some sort of index for everything that's populated this blog over the past few years. Thus, here is a list of links to the musings and ramblings of one bi Englishman.

(I am of the generation taught to be extremely leery about sharing personal details on the internet but I fear the cat is out of the bag on at least these aspects of my positionality.)

This may be spun off into multiple posts because I think I have discovered where Tumblr's limit on 'number of links in a post' lies.

Wishing on Space Hardware

I started posting on Tumblr primarily to host the header art accompanying my Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans fanfic series Wishing on Space Hardware. So let's start with that.

Fic header posts

A Handful of Rusted Petals

The Grandmaster

To Catch a Falling Star

Fragments of You/Pieces of Me

Let Sleeping Angels Lie

Between Family

The Ares Affair

The Haunting of Takaki Uno

Frozen Sunlight

Of Obsessions and Erotemes

Revolution for Beginners and Polyamory for Dumbasses

Under a Crescent Moon

Eugene Sevenstark and the Hesperus Treasure

Hope Against Hope

Love, Death and Cannoli

Fata Morgana

We Three Kings

History of a Catastrophe

Ragnarök in G Minor

A Day in the Light (forthcoming)

Ancillary material

IBO reference notes on … original(ish) characters

IBO reference notes on … actual, proper original characters

Section breaks master-list

The Wishing on Space Hardware playlist (story edition) v1.0

The Riden-Go II

Graffiti

Iron-Blooded Orphans

My obsession with this show is extremely deep and I have written a lot of words about it.

Fanfic and visual poetry

System error

I've been thinking about smiles

Why are you crying?

You are a hero

Falling for a fool (20 part post series, link is to part 1; Afterword)

Contact

Meta and analysis

Concerning Mika and Orga

Concerning Mika/Orga

Concerning the Bauduins

Concerning pilot strengths

Concerning character consistency

Concerning the Dort pilots

Concerning Barbatos

Concerning the timeline

Concerning McGillis

Concerning Tekkadan's flaws

Concerning Gaelio

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 1)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 2)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (corrigendum)

IBO reference notes on … three key Yamagi scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Shino scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Eugene scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Ride scenes

IBO reference notes on … the tone of the setting

IBO reference notes on … character parallels and counterpoints

IBO reference notes on … a perfect villain

IBO reference notes on … Iron-Blooded Orphans: Gekko

IBO reference notes on … an act of unspeakable cruelty

IBO reference notes on … Kudelia’s decisions

IBO reference notes on … the aesthetics of the mobile frame

IBO reference notes on … mobile suit designations

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (part 1)

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (part 2)

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (part 3)

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (Addendum 1)

IBO reference notes on … the Turbines, or ‘Tekkadan done right’

IBO reference notes on … deals with the devil

IBO reference notes on … odds and ends

IBO reference notes on … pilot ability

IBO reference notes on … queerness

IBO reference notes on … the lie of Agnika Kaieru

IBO reference notes on … the battle at the low-orbit station

IBO reference notes on … spacesuits

Other stuff

An Iron-Blooded Orphans playlist

An off-the-cuff McGillis Fareed playlist

IBO reference notes on … assorted head-canons

Gjallarhorn logo replicated

Index for Iron-Blooded Orphans G summaries and analysis

Gundam franchise stuff

Managing multiple Gundams (conversation with @gremoria411)

Why I really like Gundam X

Definitive Gundam rankings (per my enjoyment levels)

My opinion on Witch From Mercury (extends above)

Detailed and accurate summary of the Gundam protagonists

Doctor Who

A short essay about Cybermen

Why I'm not currently active in Who fandom

Writing and fandom

Me vs romance (conversation with @caparrucia)

On silliness

20 years writing fanfic

The 'not your pub' approach to entitlement

[moveslikeanape]

hey, i wanted to send this much sooner but i actually got very busy with holiday stuff myself! which reminds me, i was looking online for a specific hercules pin i wanted to buy for myself, and thought of your blog when i came across a really cute pin of young tarzan & terk. it was apparently released in 2021 so i'm glad the movie hasn't been completely forgotten by disney in recent years. makes me wish jane had a classic doll like megara and esmeralda have.

also, yeah, there's quite a few art books for disney and other animation companies (i'm thinking of certain dreamworks books, for example) that are older and/or out of print and have gotten way too pricey now. so i was really grateful they rereleased the mulan one because it's absolutely gorgeous.

ooh that's really cool about the tazan book, i hope you do find a copy you can take apart and scan someday! and i think it's awesome that you've loved tarzan for so long. would you say it's been your favorite disney movie from the first time you saw it, or did it take some time for it to sink in or grow on you? for me, i'd say frozen became one of my favorite movies as soon as i saw it, but beauty and the beast, while i always really liked it, was a movie that grew on me more and more as my tastes changed and i started loving it more than my previous favorites.

-🌟

Hello! No worries, I completely understand life getting hectic.

I hope you were able to find the Hercules pin you wanted!!

I know the Tarzan pin you're talking about, its so cute! I would give anything for a Jane classic doll, would de so nice to see her join Esmeralda and Meg. I'm really hoping for a LE 17" for the 25th anniversary, and there's a slim chance it may happen, but I'm not holding my breath. There's still that annoying copyright issue that gets in the way. According to Steve Thompson (the artist who designs the Disney Store Christmas ornaments every year) Disney has the rights for Tarzan products sold within the parks, which is how the pin was possible. Not sure how that would work with a Jane doll, but at least there's a sliver of hope.

Good news though! Next month is the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts, and Steve will be there with 3 pieces, one of which is Tarzan!!! He's revealed the full look at his Atlantis and Treasure Planet pieces, hoping he'll post Tarzan within the week (I will be sure to share it here when he does). Prints of his work will be available at the festival, and they usually show up on ebay too.

I think it would be fair to say I loved Tarzan before I saw it, lol. Back in the day, before the internet became so accessible, we used to find out what the next Disney movie was in the previews on the VHS of the last one. I'll never forget Feb 2, 1999… I raced to the grocery store after school to buy Mulan because I couldn't wait to see it again. In the previews was the first part of the Movie Surfers look at Tarzan Every year those previews would get me so excited for the next movie, but something about Tarzan just hit different. I almost didn't watch Mulan that night, because I kept watching it over and over again. I think I fell in love with Tarzan before I got halfway through that preview, and I seem to love it more every day.

That's so interesting that your 2 fav movies got you in such different ways. What is it about Frozen that made you fall in love with it so fast? What's your favourite thing about Frozen? And same for beauty and the Beast? I also have to say I think it's so neat that BatB is the one that had to grow on you a bit, it kind of fits the theme of the movie.

[numberonenat]

> wellcome to my blog!!! <

name's mikael but call me whatever. i'm a guy, i use he/him and i'm 18yo :) 🇧🇷

this is mostly an artblog! 🎨 but i like to write and post random thoughts and stuff.

my commissions are open! see the details > here <

i'm also a cosplayer, but dont post here 😛 (@kiibecru on insta and tktk)

here's all of my art. here's my plushie's instagram (in portuguese)

multifandom! here's the list of the ones that i've posted untill now:

green for mains and blue for frozen

obey me! shall we date / nightbringer

my candy love

kuroko no basuke

boku no hero academia

touchstarved

ouran high school host club

saiki kusuo no psi nan

genshin impact

other posts:

talking about comics...

two losers from earth revenge classroom

some asks that i have anwered:

"please send me asks!" ptv favorite song! song chain

me being insane and/or silly:

apple juice x pingo douro my son (real)

extras:

something i said and didn't do yet. mom being a mom piccrew me! url with first letter of songs bridge piercing

childhood vs current fav characters

my book

things i’ll organize latter:

twisted wonderland entry

THE NEPTUNE DIARIES EDIT

micah my beloved

this.

DREAM COME TRUE

yay! that's all.