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renardtrickster · 4 months

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Also because bringing up "I watched Hazbin Hotel" and only talking about discourse is a Bad Look, here's my thoughts on the pilot and the four episodes thus far released.

I've seen some people say the animation in the show is less fluid in the pilot, but I think I like the show's animation more? It's a lot more consistent, the characters are shaded so they stand out from the background more (and kind of "pop"), but honestly a passing vibe I got in the pilot now and then was that it was "too fluid", like it moved too fast at places or like it had a lot of "flourishes" that felt off. I can't accurately explain it, but point is, I like the show's vibes more.

I also like the redesigns. I didn't notice anything too drastic with say Dust, Alastor, or Charlie, but Vaggie's was an upgrade. The red shirt breaks up the white, and she's looking much more Moth (the more Moth your characters look the better).

I don't really have anything to say about the voices, my attention was divided elsewhere. I will be committing seppuku later for not being able to have a strong, belligerent opinion on this matter.

Speaking of Vaggie, now that I've seen more of her character, I've grown to appreciate her more. There's a sort of 4-section graph where Charlie and Vaggie believe in the Hotel's success, with Charlie being much more personally emotionally invested in it while Vaggie's more cynical and seems to be doing it more for Charlie's sake. Meanwhile Angel Dust and Alastor don't believe the Hotel can succeed, but Alastor still helps while Angel Dust just blows things off.

Also everyone who did the "she's an Angry Latina stereotype" thing can eat shit now. She was angry in the pilot because Angel Dust publicly embarrassed her girlfriend, tarnished any credibility the Hotel had, and then insulted her to her face while being unrepentant the entire time. Now that we've seen more from her, she's just grumpy and more willing to put her foot down (as opposed to Charlie who is bubbly and more accommodating). I knew this specific accusation was bad faith from day 1.

I genuinely don't think the show is edgy. It "appears" edgy, but Charlie's a disney princess who walked onto the wrong set and is shifting the genre through her presence. The fact that her goal is to show that people in Hell can change and become better people isn't just portrayed as earnest (instead of naive) but it is in fact achievable (as shown by Pentious and the others over time) adds onto this. The show is a fundamentally hopeful and positive one and I respect it for that.

In line with that, I appreciate the musical numbers. They bop, I didn't need to tell you this, but they also fall into the category of "endearing through earnesty". Like Charlie singing to Pentious about how change begins with an apology is the corniest shit on earth, but I couldn't help but smile about it.

I do like the speed of the plot, both the "redeeming people" plot and the "expedited extermination" one. I cynically expected Pentious' redemption to be a red herring, but the fact that he stuck around and is turning over is something I approve of. It is a bit fast at times though, I do know that this is because there's only 8 episodes, but I choose to blame the studio/streaming platform over the writers on this one. Also, we should throw bricks through the window of every streaming service headquarters.

I did like Adam's portrayal. The original Adam and Eve myths, whether or not Lilith is there, do lend themselves to misogyny, both in terms of reading and "what influenced some doctrine". Between Lilith being cast out for not wanting to be subservient to a man/wanting to top and then having sex with animals and demons or something, and Eve getting duped by the snake and now humanity's been cursed with original sin because femoids are dumb and bad and men should make the decisions, etc. etc. Adam being depicted as a misogynistic frat bro-type who is obsessed with his dick and brags about his conquests to random people reads to me more as "a clever take/commentary on christian mythology and culture" instead of "gratuitous edginess".

Honest to god, I think they're better at using swear words now. My principle criticism of Helluva Boss (which I like) is that they sometimes use "fuck" like it's punctuation, and it can get grating or become "noise" that doesn't register, which is Bad when it's your funny dialogue. Cursing is still casual, but I feel like characters only turn on the capslock and start screaming FUCKING SHITASS when they're emotionally compromised or intentionally meant to come across as crude and unlikeable. If they took notes and course-corrected on this, I will never wear a hat because it's going to be off to them forever.

Angel Dusts' voice direction in episode 4 was really good. He usually speaks in a somewhat high-pitched, New York ("new yoike") accent, but when he was yelling at Charlie to leave I noticed that it seemed to get a bit deeper and he lost the accent, as though he was so upset he couldn't keep up the affect anymore. I got chills.

TL;DR Hazbin Hotel is good, actually.

Maybe people should take more breaks from using the internet, for their mental health.

#oh no renardie is posting #hazbin hotel

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the-cat-and-the-birdie · 8 months

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A (Partial, Hypothetical) Map of the

Arachno-Humanoid PolyMultiverse

[A slightly MEDIUM length post where I mapped out and explain the positions of the different universes we see in ATSV -

and how those distances can effect everything to travel time - to the reason why Miles got bitten (maybe..based on my charting and data)]

Did I use common grouping and graphing to make a connectivity map of the universes within the Arachno-Humanoid-PolyMultiverse based on common attributes and similarities?

Why no - I didn't. Lyla gave me this map this morning. So there. _______________________________________

You know what pisses me off? ATSV showing us amazing ass things and then not stopping to explain them at all. Lucky for them, I have autism, a keyboard, and way too much time. So allow me.

'This is Everything': Okay but what is it?

The Spider-verse series is like an expert at going 'this is super interesting but i also I refuse to explain'

But one thing I've always found this SUPER interesting - The Portals. Because LOOK AT THEM. Like... the watch is creating a channel along a set path! It has velocity! How fast are they going? How far?!!

In lots of other Marvel movies like Doctor Strange, teleportation between universes is instantaneous. This is true for a lot of sci-fi.

However, for Spider-verse, they chose something different.

We see them flying and falling through portals, many of them twisting and turning. And it got me thinking -

If they're flying from point A to point B - Doesn't that imply that the universes have set locations - with measurable, varying distance between them?

And if so - how close are they together? Does it always take the same amount of time? Are some too far to get to without jumping to a closer location first?

So many possibilities! I was so curious to make sense of this. How does the watch KNOW where to go? Where every universe is?

The Solution:

I realized that each universe has similarities - and if similarity = proximity, there could be a way to map the universes by asking three simple questions:

Are they in the modern era? Are they in New York - or something like it? Are they stylized?

And what I got was a map that actually explains some very interesting things in the movie! (If you play by my logic, lol)

Graph Breakdown : How to read

[Explainer and breakdown below the cut PLUS a clearer version - so you can map out your sona!]

The graph is made up of two different points - Cluster Centers & Universes:

The Three Clusters: Location, Time, & Style

Cluster Centers are specific attributes that universes share, and these attributes clump similar universes together, shortening the distance between them.

There are 3 cluster centers, based on the three questions:

The Time Desynchronization Cluster: For universes that exist outside of the modern era The Stylization Cluster: For universes with artistic stylization The New York Cluster: For universes in which the Spider-person is based in New York, or a rendition of it.

These clusters are arranged in a triangle with sides of equal length.

Then, a universe is placed on the map based on whether they fit the criteria and how much they fit the criteria.

How much they fit each criteria determines each universe's proximity to each other, and the pathways the watches will take to get from location to location as quick as possible.

For example:

Plotting Universes: Distances & Changes

Using these three Clusters, we can plot almost any Spider-person or Spidersona on the map!

Universes that share attributes and clusters are closer together, shortening the distance and time it takes to complete jumps.

In addition, universes with lots of cluster connections and nearby universes are considered more stable, the strands of the web closer together, and quicker in general.

And just for reference:

The places in which the universes' lines cross are common canon events they share.

Looking at the plotted Universes, we can see some cool things about how they work:

[My lovely OC's, DiscoSpider Diane and Inca-Spider Moche plotted as examples]

The proximity matters in context too! And it seems to effect a lot of things - like observably in the movie.

The closeness of two universes, can possibly explain the time it takes to get there, why some people fall into other universes, and how easy it is to assimilate into another's universe.

Some cool things to note:

Gwen and Miles' universes are next to each other. Which could explain how she fell into his world. Gwen is way more stylized than Miles, so she's closer to that Cluster than he is.

Peter's universe (not charted..lol) would be next to Miles' & Pavitrs - which also explains his involvement in ITSV.

Noir, Spider-Ham, and Peni Parker would all be close-by as well.

Miles and Pavi's universes are next to each other. Miles & Pavi share all three attributes. Because of this, Miles and Pavi's universes are right next to each other. Which could be why Gwen & Miles' jump to Mumbattan is very short and quick.

Pavi's universe is next to HQ. Pavi is modern, low-stylization, and based in a New York adjacent city. This is true for Miguel too, however, he's in 2099, desynchronized from time. Them being right next to each other could explain how so many members of the Spider Society arrived to Mumbattan quickly to contain the anomaly - as all they would need to do is traverse the time difference.

The stylized characters are charted 'most stylized' to least - left to right, based on medium/inspo: Gwen being first (watercolor), then Hobie (collages of prints, text, and real people), and then Noir (completely shaded with no color, but based off of live-action films), then Patrick a.k.a Webslinger (based on live-action Westerns).

Because of this layout, Hobie's universe borders Gwen's. This could explain how Gwen stayed at his place without being noticed for her differing style (which - as we see with Miles and Spider-Ham, would be obvious). But Gwen universe being nearby, could be why she didn't stand out too much.

Hobie's universe borders Noir's. This is very cute. I love them. Happy feelings.

Noir's universe borders Diane's. Because they both live in New York, and are desynchronized from time (Noir being 1933, and Diane 1982) - Noir and Diane's universe sit next to each other. This makes a lot of sense - Noir's world is perpetually white and black - literally 'noir', while Diane's world lacks a day-cycle, making it always night-time.

Because they share these attributes with Miguel as well - Nueva York, 2099 - Noir and Diane actually live 'closest' to campus, along with Pavitr third.

Despite both being O'hara's, Patrick's universe is REALLY far from Miguel's. This is because WebSlinger's universe is time desynchronized in the opposite direction, very far in the past. He's also stylized - and he lives in the Wild West, not New York. Hence the distance.

As is Moche's - Miguel's wife. Like Miguel, Moche lives in a time desynchronized universe (his 2099, hers 1992) - however Moche is from Peru, hence why her and Patrick are the farthest from the New York Cluster. Moche's world is stylized as photorealistic, moreso than Miles, so she's the farthest from that cluster as well.

Miles' and Wiles' universes would be almost directly next to each other - which explains the spider-bite and the fact Miles' DNA changed so easily. Not all variants are next to each other though - Hobie's 616 Prowler variant is actually pretty far from his.

Uhhh...yeah, I think that's everything. But mind you - that's only a two dimensional slice of THIS

Hopefully I was able to decode like 0.0001% of it.

This is all speculation and my imagination, But what came out of it is INTERESTING AS HELL TO ME. Writers...pleasee...feed me more random stills in which I can consume.

Also Miguel if you're reading this please hire me I have a degree in Archnohumanoid Poly-Multiversal Research that's good for nothing and I desperately need a job-

________________________________

I hope you liked this and this made sense! It was just a fun little experiment to do that turned out to be REALLY interesting to chart out/decipher.

Lemme know what you think about how it all works and stuff and what you think of this!

If you made it this far! Thank you so much!! SERIOUSLY THANK YOU

Here's a copy of the map with smaller universes, so you can slot in your own sonas! Plus, a pic of Hobie for your troubles.

His eyes are so pretty. Can you believe he's in love with my Spidersona thats crazzzyy

Bye.

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shepherds-of-haven · 3 months

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Among the inner circle, who does Riel have the easiest->hardest time reading? I assume it's a pretty negligible difference at this point just because everyone interacts so regularly, but does Chase's chaos energy successfully throw him off?

It absolutely does! I would say it generally goes like this, though it may not be a super linear scale and resembles more of a scatterplot graph:

Shery (displays all of her emotions prominently)

Briony (ditto to Shery, though sometimes her motivations/backstory can add some complexities)

Red (easy for Riel to read his emotions, not as easy for him to read his strategies or logical lines of thought)

Ayla (pretty much the same as Briony, her emotions seem easy to read but the actual thoughts she's thinking behind them and the context/backstory she comes from make her a bit more opaque at times than expected)

Halek (his poker face makes it hard to gauge his actual emotions, but his behavior falls within enough of a pattern/predictable routine that Riel can still successfully "read" him or plan for what he's going to do or say without having to know his exact thoughts)

Trouble (similar to Red, where Riel can easily read his emotional state but not always his plans or actions: Trouble can be unpredictably really smart and level-headed or really impulsive at different times, so he consistently surprises Riel, who has a hard time predicting exactly what he's going to do next)

Lavinet (dependent on the situation; hardest to read when she's actively politicking. Court training makes her harder to read than the average person, but she's not a completely closed castle)

Blade (Riel needs more data on Ket facial expressions and body language, so he's not as confident with Blade as with most people, as the cultural differences can make a really big difference. He can't always read Blade's thoughts or feelings unless Blade is caught off-guard, but Blade's behavior is also governed by a rigid enough pattern that it can become easier for Riel to predict, except in areas where his skillset overtakes Riel's (for example, don't ask Riel to predict what Blade is going to do in battle))

Tallys (similar to Blade, Elven mannerisms and body language do differ enough that Riel is hesitant to say with confidence he knows exactly what Tallys is thinking/feeling, plus with her age, experience, and general composed personality, he finds her the most difficult person to read in the Shepherds, with one notable exception. He's well aware that his mortal experience is so vastly different from her own perspective that he won't act like he can know exactly how she thinks so lightly)

Chase (he hates the chaos man. he hates him. Chase's body language and topography make NO sense and can be so detached from his actual emotions that he's just impossible to read accurately. lackadaisical slouch when he's seethingly angry?? half-lidded smile and boneless draping over the couch when he's actually plotting Awful Things?? and let's not get started on his general unpredictability, off-the-cuff improvisation, and chaotic impulsiveness and complete lack of logic. he operates off of Vibes Only, except the Vibes are undetectable to anyone else but the ones plugged into the awful Chaos dimension. If Riel were tracking the linear flight patterns of, like, bumblebees moving from flower to flower, Chase is a dragonfly. oh he's going to land there--WHOOP he did a 98 degree turn at the last possible second and ZIPPED straight up into the sky for no discernible reason! Riel insists through gritted teeth that it's impossible to read someone's thoughts when there are no thoughts going on in their head at all. Even Chase can't explain how his mind works, so how are you expecting Riel to??

Most people's thoughts, to Riel:

Chase:

#Shepherds of Haven #Riel #Riel Syndran #all characters #scale #expressions #feelings about #predictability

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yuurei20 · 5 months

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Good day! Thank you so much for your hard work on collection info about TWST, I really enjoy reading you. There is one question about timelines of TWST's events, particularly Playful Land. What about the version where this event takes place not so long before Book 7? It just seems strange for me that this event is may happen before Book 6 not just because of Ortho's mechanism but his closeness to Vil. Isn't it to early for them to be like that before Ortho became Film club's member? On the other hand it may be too late for first-years to worry about finals and for third-years to live in their dorms as you said in the post I'm referring to. This confuses me really much.

I hope you're doing well. Have a nice day!

Hello hello!! Thank you so much, you are so kind! And thank you for this question!

(For the curious, this is in reference to a response to an earlier question about a potential reading order that combines the game's main story and events.)

This is a great point! Not only is Ortho wearing the college gear that should place this event firmly after Book 6 (the gear itself is practically a Book 6 plot point, marking Ortho's transition into a student at the school), but Vil and Ortho are repeatedly seen to be very comfortable with one another during the events of Playfulland, which may be odd before 6.

The initial question was about a possible reading order rather than a literal timeline, and while I tried to arrange an interpretation that has as little weirdness as possible, this is some of the weirdness that is difficult to avoid :<

The main issue is Ace's line right at the beginning: he announces that Halloween and finals are coming up soon, and until a time loop is officially confirmed, this means that Playfulland simply has to be before the end of October, while Book 6 is canonically in February of the following year.

But! When deciding on a reading order just for your own enjoyment, there are no rules and we are free to do as we wish :> If Ortho and Vil's relationship (and Ortho's gear) are a bigger paradox for someone than one line from Ace about Halloween, then Playfulland can most definitely go after 6!

My initial graph is mostly attempting to match up the seasons and passage of time:

If we want to craft a timeline around Ortho, things can shift around a little:

But this will introduce new anomalies, like Vil lecturing Idia on not putting in enough effort into getting the sequel to Star Rogue made in Book 6, while in this order the sequel will have been announced months prior :<

@blanca-xwx was so kind as to point out that there are two more major time-contradictions with the above two calendars: Deuce and Epel.

We see them both learn their unique magics for the first time in Books 5 and 6, respectfully, which they then both use in Glorious Masquerade.

This should place these events solidly after Book 6, just like Playfulland, but also like Playfulland, Glorious Masquerade is confirmed in-game as being in October.

For the least amount of time-weirdness it might be best to ignore Crowley and play through after Book 6?

There doesn't seem to be a time-paradox-free order into which the story and events can be combined at the moment, but at least we are free to mix and match by personal preference for read-throughs! :> There is no right or wrong way to enjoy the game!

#twstask

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bestadaptationtournament · 9 months

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Welcome to Best Adaptation Tournament

Adapting a work from one medium to another is hard, and fans are impossible to please, but occasionally, you get the adaptation that do the OG justice, perhaps even elevates it. We voted for what we hate at @book-was-better and @booktomoviebrawl, now we find the adaptions we love.

For the purpose of this tournament an adaptation is...

A work which transfers a piece of art from one medium to another.

Any medium counts as long as it's different from the OG

An adaptation must have the same protagonist(s) and share major plot points with the OG. There can be changes from the original but it should not be focused on whole new plot.

Exclusions:

The following were excluded from nomination:

LOTR

Harry Potter

Marvel/DC

Shakespeare

Fairytales

Manga to anime adaptations with no change in content

Organization

Polls are tagged with #tournament poll.

Polls will be queued at the rate of 4 posts per day.

Bracket

I don't feel like putting it in a bracket graph buuuuut the grouping will follow the order below. The 4 black lines in the middle divides the semi-finalist candidates. I tried to group by genre and target audience.

A full list of nominations can be viewed here.

Remember: You're voting on the better* ADAPTATION of the source material, not necessarily your favorite work.

Which means if you're not familiar with both adaptation AND OG of BOTH works, vote this:

*Better does not necessarily mean more accurate. If you feel like the adaptation has improved upon the source material or did well on translating the story/themes to its new medium in a compelling way, that's also a valid reason.

#tournament poll #tournament #tumblr tournament

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destinationtoast · 1 year

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Toastystats preview: F/F vs. M/M tagging

I discovered something unexpected while doing stats comparing F/F and M/M on AO3. One thing I was initially looking for was whether M/M fanworks were more likely than F/F fanworks to tag dark themes or explicit sex acts. It seemed like yes, they were -- but then I found out that, more generally, M/M fanworks use more tags on average than F/F fanworks. And given that, it's not too surprising that M/M is more likely to use most of the common AO3 tags than F/F is (whether the tag is dark, fluffy, or otherwise).

Still, I found a few AO3 tags that F/F was more likely to use than M/M. And I sorted a bunch of common AO3 tags from "Most likely to be used by M/M" to "Most likely to be used by F/F", shown above. The middle line indicates that a tag is equally likely to be used by M/M and F/F. Some of the darker and more explicit tags do indeed seem to be further toward the mostly-M/M end of the spectrum, but some of the ordering surprised me. (E.g., F/F is more likely to use "Smut," while M/M is more likely to use "Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot." And F/F and M/M are nearly equally likely to use "Trauma" and "Coercion.")

I have a whole lot more F/F vs. M/M data to share soon, but I have questions for y'all first about this data:

does the above visualization makes sense? I'm worried it might be hard to interpret, so if you're confused, can you share anything about why?

are you are surprised by anything about the data?

any thoughts/theories/questions this data raises for you?

Below the cut -- additional explanations that might be useful when theorizing (e.g., about possible factors like background ships), along with raw data for the above graph.

A couple notes on interpretation: we shouldn't have to worry about the fact that F/F is often tagged when F/F is actually a background ship -- I tried to weed out all cases where the F/F or M/M tag of interest could possibly have referred to a background ship. Also, all of the above tags are used at least 1000 times on F/F works and at least 17K times on F/F and M/M combined... so these numbers shouldn't be *too* prone to the noise of really small numbers.

Data used to make the chart

Header: tag name | % F/F using tag | % M/M using tag | A/A is X times more likely to use tag as B/B (A/A uses it more than B/B)

Whump | 0.16% | 0.39% | 2.4

Protectiveness | 0.85% | 1.81% | 2.1

Hurt | 0.93% | 1.94% | 2.1

Kinks | 1.12% | 2.30% | 2.1

Crack | 0.87% | 1.67% | 1.9

Torture | 0.46% | 0.84% | 1.8

Children | 0.56% | 0.99% | 1.8

Gore | 0.23% | 0.40% | 1.7

Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot | 2.25% | 3.72% | 1.7

Not Beta Read | 1.76% | 2.63% | 1.5

Falling in Love | 1.12% | 1.62% | 1.4

Self-Harm | 0.63% | 0.90% | 1.4

Abuse | 1.82% | 2.57% | 1.4

Incest | 0.93% | 1.31% | 1.4

Cuddling & Snuggling | 1.56% | 2.15% | 1.4

Humor | 3.63% | 4.99% | 1.4

Birthday | 0.38% | 0.51% | 1.4

Supernatural Elements | 2.16% | 2.93% | 1.4

Badass | 0.37% | 0.50% | 1.4

BDSM | 3.94% | 5.32% | 1.4

Awkwardness | 0.65% | 0.86% | 1.3

Dark | 0.44% | 0.58% | 1.3

Marriage | 1.78% | 2.36% | 1.3

Light-Hearted | 3.13% | 4.12% | 1.3

Hatred | 0.51% | 0.66% | 1.3

Mythical Beings & Creatures | 2.01% | 2.58% | 1.3

Love | 5.95% | 6.74% | 1.1

Friendship | 5.01% | 5.64% | 1.1

Alternate Universe | 19.27% | 21.27% | 1.1

Holidays | 1.90% | 2.09% | 1.1

Trauma | 1.43% | 1.56% | 1.1

Coercion | 0.37% | 0.39% | 1.1

Horror | 0.45% | 0.47% | 1.0

Comfort | 0.95% | 0.97% | 1.0

Fluff | 23.98% | 24.17% | 1.0

Flirting | 1.20% | 1.20% | 1.0

Hugs | 0.38% | 0.37% | 1.0

Crossovers & Fandom Fusions | 1.56% | 1.52% | 1.0

Alternate Canon | 4.89% | 4.71% | 1.0

Polyamory | 0.71% | 0.67% | 1.1

Smut | 7.04% | 6.48% | 1.1

Slow Burn | 2.54% | 2.26% | 1.1

Post-Canon | 2.32% | 2.03% | 1.1

Romance | 6.42% | 5.49% | 1.2

Drabble | 2.59% | 2.21% | 1.2

Prompt Fill | 0.70% | 0.59% | 1.2

Pre-Canon | 0.77% | 0.59% | 1.3

One Shot | 3.85% | 2.66% | 1.4

LGBTQ Themes | 7.77% | 4.44% | 1.7

Gender Related | 3.52% | 1.45% | 2.4

#fandom stats #femslash #wlw #mlm #F/F vs. M/M #ao3 #toastystats #questions for the tumblmind #op #50 #100

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sweetpapercroissant · 9 months

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When I think about s13-15 I can’t help but feel that Dabb was simply not interested in telling Sam&Dean’s story (anymore) (if he ever was). s12 is a little rocky regarding this too, but it’s still unmistakable that they’re the protagonists, this story is their story. But it’s evident from the start of s13 that he’s not willing to put in that effort anymore.

He introduces Jack and the rest of the season is focused on him, one way or the other. Even the mytharc of the season is about him, from being trapped in the apocalypse world, making a place for himself with the hunters, trying to figure out who he is. And meanwhile the actual protagonists of the show are…..running around chasing leads but actually accomplishing very little. They take turns being sad, make a few speeches but don’t really do anything. They are not the ones who move the story.

He downplays (if not outright erases) all of the older characters’ intelligence to make them fit the story and doesn’t bother with consistent growth/arc for any of them. He beats and forces them to fit the shape he’s cut out for them to portray in his story instead of understanding them: who they were, how they grew and where they are now and logically advancing their story from that point. He makes them regress or progress on a moment’s notice on an episode-to-episode basis and ignores any preceding canonical events when it suits him.

It’s most noticeable with Dean but he also takes away from Sam and Cas’ characters till they’re almost unrecognisable, bearing only the most superficial of similarities with the characters we have grown to love over 10+ seasons. But at the same time he also relies on this very love to keep the viewers watching, since the plot itself is barely held together by retcons or sudden personality changes/loss of logical reasoning in the characters.

There have been discussions on how, as the show goes on the themes (even the genre) change and how vastly different the later seasons are compared to the earlier ones and while that’s true, there is still some coherence to those changes-a graphical line changing direction erratically perhaps, but a line nonetheless-as the story progresses….upto s12. Forward of that Dabb just-tears the graph to pieces and handpicks a few of them to nail to the wall.

He twists the characters, their history, their personalities, the themes and events of the story and it’s very heart to fit the show he wants to make instead of adapting his writing to the show that he’s actually been handed the reins to. And it’s tiring honestly.

I do believe that when a character behaves in a manner you find ooc, it can be interesting to think about why they may act that way instead of immediately blaming the writing, even if the writing may actually be the issue, because I think it can make for a more entertaining narrative sometimes, and because no one always acts true to who they are. It’s the point of being human. But that can only be applied to particular moments and decisions or behaviour concerning a certain element of the story (another character, an event etc). If your audience can barely recognise any of the characters, there’s only the writing to blame.

#whew this got long #also i feel like i used the word ‘character’ way too many times #but anyway #in this house we hate andrew dabb #supernatural #dabb era #s13 #.txt

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noa-ciharu · 2 years

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A CLAMP ship can be divided into two categories:

Messed up beyond what is humanly possible

Drowning in so much fluff you get diabetes from simply being in their proximity

Of course, there are overlaps mostly to make the reader suffer even more when they hit you with the angst train

Clamp ships angst scale:

Since no space on badly organized graph I'll write captions under cut

Tooth rooting fluff category:

Akira/Utako, CSD and Duklyon couples(0.5 angst points):

-Look, it's Clamp's mangas so 0 angst is impossible thing to happen

-Very cute, very funny, very 'no angst' so they deserve lowest score on scale

Syaosaku (ccs) and Touyuki (1.0 angst points)

-Rooth rooting fluff

-Fluff so sweet you need to drink water immediately afterwards

-Some miniature drama happened but nothing much

-Love conquers all

Saika/Kakei and their Wish counterparts (1.5 angst points)

-couple so sexy they haven't angsted one day in their sexy lives

- angst is bc their adopted son and his bf are angsting (aka plot angst)

-fucked so kinky even hell kicked them out

-demon!angel and angel!demon

Shuichiro/Kohaku(2 angst points)

-"we gathered here today because some *glares ar coffin* couldn't stay alive"

- very cute, very sweet

-not much do be said here rly

Fujimoto/Kobato(2.2 angst points)

- tsundere boy and sweet girl

-angst caused by misunderstandings and plot

-Kobato is so cute idk how could he be mean to her in beginning. Must be bc of tsundere genes

Fiero/Fuu and Ascot/Umi which I forgot to add (3.0 angst points)

-seen coming from miles away

- side couples

-very cute

-they get along well so all angst points is bc of plot

Rikuou/Kazehaya(3.3 angst points)

-boy was clamp not subtle

-condom saved a life

-BL tropes on maxxx

-some angst was starting to unravel but series was put on hiatus so we'll never know

Lantis/Hikari/Eagle(4.0 angst points)

-canon poly go brrrr

-a bit rushed

-power of love saved the world

-is it better if I don't ask about age gaps?

'Prepare tissues, tears might be incoming' category

Hideki/Chii(4.8 angst points)

- your dick was tricked, get prepared for feels

- very sweet and innocent

-psychological questions in background

-more than you bargained for

Clow/Yuuko(5.0 angst points)

- love so strong it fucked up time and space

- idk where to put them since there's no backstory but enough hints to indicate there was some (probably tragic) backstory

- bastard man pulled best woman in the universe

-if you stumbled upon TRC after CCS, my condolences in advance

Syaosaku (TRC) (5.6 angst points)

- angst kicks in from first chapter and inky get worse

-"i'll sacrifice myself for you so you don't suffer" *processes to make other one suffer*

-feathers are problematic in this one

Kurofai(6.6 angst points)

-litetally married couple with 4 and half kids

-opostites attract

- one beated another into going to therapy

-could have ended tragic but instead it became slow burn healing couple ❤

Sorata/Arashi(6.6 angst points)

-flirting, teasing, flirting then bam - they fucked

- X couple so ofc they're have 0 common sense

- very sweet and fun couple and then angst kicks in

- silver lining of X being on hiatus is that Sorata is still alive :')

Zagato/his princess with name I'm unable to spell (7.0 angst points)

- starts off as cliche not even a couple but then plot twist twists you

- and you're on the floor bathing in own tears

-Clamp's casual angst

-'I don't want to live without you' type of couple

-self destructive

'Are you ready for pure pain and suffering?' Category

Douwata (7.4 angst points)

-'I'll always love you' vibes

-pain of loving someone who's self sacrificial and lacks self worth

- pinning phrase lasts for century

- eggs are problematic in this one

- eyes too

Yasha/Ashura(7.9 angst points)

-tragedy seen miles away

-the amount of hair in this ship, it's unparalleled

-very devoted and touching

- 'happy ending' but at what cost?

Kazuhiko/Oura(8.3 angst points)

-alright, we all knew beforehand she was dead but amount of feels that hit, I wasn't expecting that

- one of rare instances of non-chasity couple

-songs hit super hard

-actually whole manga hits super hard

Souma/Kendappa(8.8 angst points)

- Shakespeare wishes he wrote them

- tragic lesbians. Clamp pls let lesbians be together at least once

-kendappa why????

-again, plot twist twisted us all ;-;

Fuukam (9.0 angst points)

-very sexy, very fucked up

-were a very sweet couple then plot kicked in and one turned into antichrist

- you're minding your own business and bam:fuukam feels hit you like bullet train

- ending was meant to be so tragic even editors said it's too tragic

Taishakuten/Ashura ou(9.8 angst points)

- Shakespeare wishes he wrote this one as well

-proposes a solution to how never part from your lover

-you've heard about Clamp's eye loss trope, now prepare for Clamp's eye gain trope

- not much is seen about them but from little we've seen they're tragic on steroids and lack common sense

-at least they're happily married teachers in shoten

Seisub(+∞ angst points)

-it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye

-extemly messed up. No therapy can fix them

-canon but at what cost?

- "I got feelings for first time in my life so there's only one logical thing to do now:die"

- there are many universes out there but not in one is seisub happily together. Really, even in Shoten Seishirou is a serial killer

- at least we're not Subaru

#thanks for ask!#i hope i haven't forgotten any too important couple #clamp #syaosaku #kurofai #douwata #seisub #fuukam #clow/yuuko #touyuki #and the rest I'm too lazy to tag

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things-about-cars-in-posts · 7 months

Note

OMG I'm such a dumbass I knew you did one on the GR Yaris before too, and I love her ALSO, but I actually meant the GR Supra 😳🫣 (slip of the tongue)

Gotcha.

Since I managed to take some two weeks to answer this (got distracted both by real life obligations and other posts that were meant to be very quick to make. Meant to.) y'all may have forgotten, but our dear friend of the blog had asked for opinions on the GR Yaris, hinting to its controversial status. Turns out the GR Supra is what that request, and thus that hint, was actually about - so let's talk about the car and the controversy that engulfs it.

In 1993, Toyota launched the fourth generation of its rear wheel drive sportscar (well, arguably a bit of a Grand Tourer, i.e. something more oriented to cruising than a sportscar) the Supra - which was born a quarter century earlier as a more upmarket, six cylinder version of the Celica, graduating from Celica Supra to its own dignified name with the third generation I talked about that one time I forgot to check what blog I was reblogging with.

But this time, things would be different. Most notably because the inline six the Mk4 Supra came out with was an absolute MONSTER.

Remember how I talked about the GT-R's RB26 engine being one of the greatest, most coveted production engines to ever come out of Japan? Well, the 2JZ-GTE is the other.

It was larger at 3 liters, no less powerful, and to reduce turbocharger lag it used two of them sequentially: first air goes in the smaller, more responsive turbo, then gradually some of it gets sent to the bigger turbo to make it start spinning, then when it gets going the two are finally used in conjunction. (Imagine the big turbo as a hung husband that takes a while to get it up and the small turbo as an eager stepson ready to take over until the hung one can join in for a spitroast. Or something. I don't watch porn with real people, but from what I gather the plots seem to resemble how sequential turbos work.) It even at one point got Variable Valve Timing, i.e. the ability to vary the time in which the valves open depending on engine speed, which allows to optimize tuning for performance and efficiency! (Cool thing to go over in detail if y'all want me to.) And also, the kind of things that engine is able to take make me wish I hadn't used up my porn analogy quota.

See, to chop off eons of nuance, an engine is just a big block of metal with a lot of bits attached, and the two main measures of an engine's potential are the slope of the line in the Bits Fiddled With / Power Output graph and how far up (It's up, right? The second axis you specify is the vertical one, right?) you can take it before the block becomes the weakest link - with another important point being when you need to start messing with internals, i.e. the components inside the engine, e.g. pistons (the things the boom pushes down), camshaft (the thing the pistons spin) and connecting rods (you can guess).

So for instance, just to make the point that an engine can be beloved without having much overall tuning potential, in one of Toyota's most beloved engines, the 4A-GE four cylinder illustrated above (yes, the one from that white and black car in all the eurobeat videos), some pin the block's limit as low as 250hp. The 2JZ, tho? It can take 800hp without even messing with the internals, and once you get your grubby hands on those you can keep pushing the line to some 2000hp. That is two Bugattis. That is 40 times my car. That is well above the power level where "tires that will at any point grip" and "tires that are in any way road legal" stop intersecting.

I am not in the slightest exaggerating when I say that this and the Skyline GT-R are widely regarded as the top of Japan's 20th century automotive production. The Messi & Ronaldo of the Japanese Domestic Market. It is absolutely no coincidence this was the hero car in The Fast And The Furious.

And then in 2002, as all things, its production ended, and given the abysmal sales and catastrophic recession, Toyota decided that would be that.

And then, years later, The Teasening began.

I want to stress, almost half of my conscious life (I choose to believe the stretch from birth to kindergarten is just run-up) the world was in some state of getting teased with talk of a new Supra. The trademark on the name was renewed in 2010. In 2014 they dropped the FT-1 concept, and of course that became speculation about what the production version would look like.

Because come the fuck on, it's not gonna look like that.

Or was it?

Only five entire years and much more teasing later would we officially get an answer, when after seventeen years, the Toyota GR Supra (and for those wondering what GR means, y'all should've clicked the Yaris link >:C) hit the streets.

You know what, good enough.

Good enough to earn itself a sea of words of praise, Jason Cammisa's "The most punch-above-its-weight sportscar ever made" just some among them.

It did have its share of problems at the start, like its power being 335hp and not 382, a lack of manual transmission, and the inability to spec it with a less powerful 4 cylinder engine - well, I don't know who considered that last one a problem, but Toyota's updates solved that one too.

The Supra has a much bigger problem than those though, one no little update can solve. That red car in the background.

See, the new Supra is actually a joint venture with BMW, who made a new model of its Z4 roadster out of the platform. And unlike with the other joint-venture sportscar Toyota sells, people are big mad about that. Why?

See, the interior is engulfed in BMW switchgear and the drivetrain is all BMW (the manual gearbox took until this year to come out because BMW did not have one for that engine so Toyota had to modify another BMW transmission to fit), giving people the impression that this was less of a joint venture and more of a BMW project that Toyota tacked its design on top of, which is a problem whether true or not.

See, a range-topping sportscar is supposed to represent what the brand is capable of - having it done by someone else (or so the criticism goes) is a bit like performing Hallelujah in playback.

Actually, a better musical analogy: You know "I'm back bitch" singles? When a humongous artist drops a new record with a humongous lead single about absolutely nothing but reaffirming they're the biggest fucking deal in the universe? Without Me, Bad, Gimme More, so on. Well, think of SexyBack - one of the most monumental phenomenons of its decade, most incontrovertibly proving Justin Timberlake sat atop the goddamn world. Now, imagine if, after all the years that went by between that record and the next, when he finally came out with Suit And Tie all the verses were Jay-Z. Going from a humongous statement about having the power to reach the top of the game and stay there to having to get absolutely carried by what in this logic is essentially a competitor. Basically, that's the critics' complaint: the supra went from 2JZ to too much Jay-Z.

And therein lies the other problem of the Supra: the Supra.

See, any time you evaluate something, you do so relative to its context - and when you give it a nameplate, you make that context include where else that nameplate has been. An undeserved name may not just be stupid, but even outright kill the car in some's eyes, see the case of the Dodge Dart, or get me to talk about the Ford Capri prototype recently spotted if you want to find out what I'm like when I lose my cool. (I'd liken this phenomenon to undeserved Grammies but I already used my music analogy quota too.) So the Toyota Supra does not just need to be good, it needs to deserve the name. And some argue it doesn't. But why? This thing is no less powerful, no slower, hell it's not even any bigger or heavier and we've gone over how rare that is these days! So is it the lack of backseats and a targa version? No, no one gives a crap about those. It's something deeper.

Sometimes, the problem with a revival is people base their expectation not on what the original was like in the context of its time but what it's like in the context of today (for example, I've heard people call the latest GT-R "too computerized, too assisted, far from the pure driving experience of its predecessors", when its predecessors had some of the most technologically advanced driving assists of their time and could only be called "pure" and "analog" by comparison with cars decades newer). But of course, that'll only be some people - so if what the original car looks like to modern eyes and what the original car represented at its time are two different enough concepts, any revival will receive some criticism for not being one of the two.

But for the Supra, this compounds with another problem: the original Supra (as in the previous generation, since no one gives a crap about the first three), to modern eyes, looks like a thousand-horsepower flame-spitting beast, because that's what all Supras have been turned into, and that's why you know of Supras in the first place (it sure isn't because people bought it!), and that, consciously or not, exacerbates the problem of misplaced expectations to a level akin to hearing an NBA player is about to have a brother and expecting the baby to be a 6'4" three-shooter.

But I wasn't asked about the controversies, I was asked about my take. And my take is: no realistic expectation of what a Supra would look like today was disappointed - at least not by where the car stands today. Well, unless the expectation involved backseats.

"But it was made by BMW" and so? This is a new Supra, and a good one - what does it matter how it got here? Especially when this is an upgrade over the Z4 in every way - looks way better, drives better, and now has a manual that the Z4 doesn't.

Okay, almost every way: the Supra's roof won't get out of the way. If only though, if only. Could you imagine a Toyota product that looks this good, sounds this good, goes this fast, and has a drop top? ...and maybe backseats?

Well, I can.

Yes, the badge and core concept may have some people consider it from midlife crisis mobile to old man's car. (though we know it's not a car bought by old men because if that was the case someone would be buying these). But just try to imagine sitting in this thing.

Take a couple of seconds to take in that picture and truly immerse yourself. You're in a Lexus LC500 Convertible, with a V8 at your right foot's command, its spectacular sound ready to battle the perfect sound system serenading you with your fanciest CD, because of course Lexuses still come with CD players.

Are you immersed? Okay: Someone just called your Lexus a midlife crisis car. See? You don't give a shit either, do ya.

Automatic only though. The pain. Oh, and it kind of costs as much as two Supras. But, you know, neither of those Supras will be convertibles!

Links in blue are posts of mine about the topic in question - if you liked this post, you might like those!

#revivals #toyota supra #2JZ-GTE #lexus lc500 convertible

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ranchthoughts · 1 year

Text

MSP and the relief of a sweet show

I've been thinking about this for a while, and now other people's comments and tags are bringing it all up again (@theoryofarson, @dudeyuri, @chickenstrangers) so here goes.

Watching MSP as it aired (and of course, on rewatch too) was such a breath of fresh air because it was so good-natured.

1) I've talked about this before here, but MSP resolved conflicts and predicaments within the episode, if not the next scene. For example:

Chinzilla convinces Sound to join the band and he takes over and kicks Gun out -> but by the end of the ep., Gun is back in charge and they have happily accepted Sound into their little family. Gun's friends remained supportive and loyal to Gun, there are no hurt feelings.

Gun's mother is sick and Tinn knows because he went to the hospital with her, but Gun's mom asks him not to tell Gun -> by the end of the next two scenes Gun knows about his mom and has forgiven Tinn for keeping that a secret, and by the end of the episode Gun's mom has had surgery and we know she's going to be ok

There are soooo many other examples I could go on forever, but I'm not going to list them all here.

2) Relatedly, MSP never went with the more dramatic story line, fraught with miscommunication. This is the main reason why the conflicts/predicaments could be wrapped up by the end of the ep. For example:

Tinn and Gun quickly resolve their differences after Tinn kept Gun's mother's health issues from him, with both understanding where the other came from.

When Gun watches Tinn receive sweets and compliments from a random girl he doesn't let his jealousy fester (much) and directly asks Tinn about it, and Tinn immediately sets the record straight which Gun believes.

When Tinn has his interview with a doctor scheduled at the same time as one of the Hot Wave rounds, he is honest about it with Gun beforehand and while Gun is disappointed, he understands that Tinn has his own dreams and is supportive of him.

These conflicts and miscommunications are realistic: of course Tinn and Gun are in a stressful situation with regards to Gun's mother's health, of course Gun would be jealous and not know what was going on, of course it's disappointing Tinn can't go to Gun's performance. But the characters talk to each other, they don't avoid conversations, they don't get (too) jealous or let their jealousy fester (much), they trust one another, and thus these story lines can be wrapped much faster that you might get in other shows.

3) And I talked about this before here, but Tinn's romantic dreams come true! While MSP shows us that not everything is going to happen just as we imagined (e.g., Tinn's ep.3 dreams of confessing to Gun over a heart graph or sharing earbuds or having a Ghost moment while cooking or wiping food from Gun's mouth are foiled), it doesn't then come out and conclude that life is worse than our imagination, that love isn't real, that cute romantic moments never happen, etc. Like @theoryofarson says in their tags on that post, MSP never calls Tinn foolish or punishes him for dreaming big.

Instead, the show has some of Tinn's dreams come true! He gets a boyfriend, he gets to rest his head on Gun's shoulder, kiss Gun, and more. And he gets some cute moments that he never even imagined too, like catching Gun when he tried to grab the poster, etc. (again, there's so many moments I'm not listing them all here).

In summary: MSP had no strung-out or overly dramatic plot lines (we can trust things will be wrapped in some way by the end of the ep), and while things aren't super cute and romantic all the time, romance isn't dead and dreams come true.

So what does this tell us about MSP as a show? I think the main take-away is that MSP is good-hearted.

Sure there will be conflict and drama, but it's never going to be "too much" (read: too unrealistic, drama for the sake of drama). The showrunners wouldn't do that to the characters or to us. The overall tone of the show is loving - there will be some pain and some tears, but that's life. And you know what else life is? Full of love and joy and hope. People are good, dramatic miscommunication isn't the standard, people will communicate and listen and trust each other, cute romantic moments can happen spontaneously.

If we think about MSP specifically as a high school show too: @chickenstrangers in their tags said "msp is the quintessential high school show - you build up expectations so much and sometimes it doesn't go that way, but sometimes it turns out way better than imagined" <- exactly this! Tinn's big dreams feel so high school - he pictures these beautiful romantic moments with his crush and of course they don't work out exactly like that, but they do work out in the end and sometimes even better than he thought. It's not a cynical look at high school/teenagerhood like some media portrays, but full of hope and love. Sure things aren't going to go exactly as planned, and you are going to struggle here and there, but your life isn't over. And to the same point, sure teenagers are dramatic and full of imagination and sometimes a little too much, but they aren't wrong or foolish for loving so intensely and dreaming so big. Their communication isn't going to be perfect, there will be arguments, people won't act in the most mature ways, but these are teenagers! They aren't fully matured yet, they don't have the emotional regulation or life experience or perspective that will allow them to communicate better in the future, but they are on their way there, and they aren't incapable of expressing themselves and understanding others just because they are young either.

Watching MSP feels like being welcomed into a warm hug, a show where you can trust that you (and everyone else) is going to make it out ok. A show where you can trust there won't be eleventh-hour switch ups in character or plot lines just for the drama, a show where you can trust miscommunications/jealousy/secrets/conflicts aren't going to be drawn out unrealistically, a show where you can expect the characters to communicate (not always perfectly, but hey! no one is perfect).

But! It didn't/doesn't feel stale! We might read that description above and think "oh, well if you know things are going to turn out ok, wouldn't that be boring?". But it isn't, because MSP was doing so much interesting and unusual (for a BL) stuff: mixing up the narrative pacing and subverting tropes we come to expect from BLs (I talked about that here and I've got more thoughts coming [edited to add: they're here]), doing "imagination vs. reality" switch outs (I talked about that here), giving us complex characters and friendships, etc. It felt familiar and comforting AND fresh, and that is why it was such a joy to watch every week.

^thanks to @theoryofarson for putting this on my dash right when I was writing this post... this is it!

I also want to shout out this post by @khaothanawat which is so good and also helped me sort out so many of my ideas in this post and others

#basically a love letter to msp #msp #msp meta #ranch thoughts #my school president

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withasideofshakespeare · 6 months

Text

Part 1: Graphs for Tumblr's Favorite Shakespeare Play

In celebration of getting 69 (nice) responses on my Google Form (see below if you'd like to add your opinion), I will be sharing the first round of graphs!

Comedies: Much Ado is in the lead!

Much Ado is the clear winner so far with 53% of the vote (that's 35 votes!) Coming in second place is Twelfth Night with 14 votes; for bronze, we've got Midsummer with 8 votes.

The "robber's" pick for best commentary is... "It's like a drag show but with plot." (Twelfth Night) Tragedies: Hamlet is winning!

Hamlet has a nearly Much Ado-sized lead with 34 votes! Coming in second is Macbeth with 18 votes (including mine)! Third place goes to another one of the four "great tragedies", Othello, with 5 votes.

Best commentary: "I could write an entire book on why I love hamlet. In fact I am writing a book on why I love hamlet." (Hamlet)

Histories: Richard III has a narrow lead!

Richard III is winning with 14 votes, just one more than Richard II with 13! Henry V (and the St. Crispin's Day speech in all its glory) is catching up with 9 votes.

Best commentary: "i saw a version of it where they brough a 10 foot penis on stage. they rolled henry out on a giant golden toilet, wanking, it was amazing," (Henry VIII) (I feel like I need more info on that one...)

Second best commentary goes to the multiple responses that say something along the lines of "Hotspur is gay"

Romances: The Tempest takes the lead!

The Tempest is winning by a large margin with 29 votes! The Winter's Tale takes more than a quarter of the remaining votes with 16 and Cymbeline takes a distant third place with just 4 votes.

Best commentary: "most unfortunate genre"

OVERALL FAVORITE PLAY: Hamlet

Best commentary (the duality of man): "I have no regrets." and "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry"

Rather than an image description, I'll list off the data here: FIRST PLACE: Hamlet: 18 votes SECOND PLACE: Much Ado About Nothing: 13 votes THIRD PLACE: Macbeth: 9 votes More under the cut (and some bonus content!)

7 people decided to forgo their $100 reward rather than choose a favorite Twelfth Night: 6 votes Midsummer Night's Dream and Othello: 2 votes each The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Richard II, 1 Henry IV, 3 Henry VI, Richard III, Winter's Tale, and the Tempest: 1 vote each Bonus: Tumblr's LEAST favorite plays (no votes in any category): Comedies: -Measure for Measure -All's Well That Ends Well -Troilus and Cressida -Taming of the Shrew Tragedies: -Timon of Athens Histories: -1 Henry VI -2 Henry VI

#shakespeare #tumblr's favorite shakespeare play #shakespeare polls #hamlet #macbeth #much ado about nothing #twelfth night #richard ii #richard iii #the tempest #winter's tale

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secret-third-thing · 7 months

Note

Heyyyyy love! If you don't mind me asking, what app do you use for writing?

HEY! I don't mind AT ALL. The bad news is that I am wildly inconsistent but the good news is that if you are looking for options, I have SEVERAL.

90% of the time I draft in google docs and then move around between different software depending on my needs.

The major exception to this is during November for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I've alternated between using Scrivner and LivingWriter from year to year.

Scrivner is more robust and integrates with a lot of other planning software. It's a one time payment, but doesn't store anything on the cloud. You'll have to manually export/re-import and keep version files if you use this.

LivingWriter is on the cloud, is a little more clean-looking and user friendly in terms of use, but is a subscription service. I travel a LOT so I wound up switching to this. It also has story beats outlined for you in a template if that's important to you. I still prefer scrivener but switching between mac/pc was killing me.

If I am getting especially distracted, then I turn to Writing Analytics. This is fantastic if you're really into tracking data for how much you write or want to build a habit and see the little boxes get checked off. I wind up exporting all files to either Scrivner or LW after the fact.

After I have something drafted up, I usually will send to Grammarly or ProWritingAid. I am leaning more towards ProWriting Aid these days since it's geared more towards creative writing than Grammarly. I cannot write in either software however, b/c my brain will want to edit at the same time and that slows me down.

If you want other really cool software for writing (specifically for plotting). I think these are a combo of free, paid, limited free etc.

Lynit - Really great for outlining complex stories that you need to untangle in your brain. I don't think it exports right now, but the devs are really responsive and could probably help you figure out an alternative. (Free for 2 weeks)

Obsidian - If you are the type of person who likes to world build and get lost in the details or want a writing editor that's a bit more bare bones, this is great. And it's free!

Plottr - if you want to plot out your story and see how events visually line up with each other this is for you (and exports into Scrivner). It's one time payment and lives on the cloud.

Miro - where I go to plot out my interactive stories! It's totally free and has so much flexibility in how you use it.

I hope this helps <3

EDIT: If this was about the bar graphs... I just used a random website.

#stt asks #writing resources

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sprinklecipher · 2 months

Text

Godot Blend #218 (w/ graphs)

I ran the numbers on Franziska’s dialogue gimmick a while back, so I figured why not do the same for Godot and plot out just how much he talks about coffee.

First off, here’s the number of times each character uses the word “coffee” over the course of the trilogy:

In terms of raw number of occurrences, Phoenix uses the word “coffee” more than any other character, including Godot. Obviously, he also has significantly more lines than any other character, though, so his rate of using the word is pretty low:

Phoenix: 56 lines with “coffee” / 20,895 total lines = ~0.3% lines feature “coffee”

Godot: 48 lines with “coffee” / 1,163 total lines = ~4.1% lines feature “coffee”

Across characters, the word “coffee” occurs 218 times, in 201 lines of dialogue

More detailed breakdown / additional graphs after the jump (minor/indirect AA Trilogy spoilers ahead!)

I have Godot and Armando listed separately in the previous chart based on which name each line is linked to in the episode transcripts, but it probably makes more sense to combine their lines.

Godot + Armando: 57 lines with “coffee” / 1,298 total lines = 4.4% lines feature “coffee”

It probably also makes sense to consider that a lot of Godot’s lines are clearly about coffee but don’t directly include the word “coffee” in them, so I also looked at lines that featured what I’m calling “coffee-related words” (coffee, cup, blend, drink, mocha, java, mug, con leche, and au lait).

Here’s a graph with the number of lines that Godot/Armando have that feature at least one of these words, by episode:

And here’s the same thing, but expressed as a percentage of their total number of lines:

Collapsed across episodes, Godot/Armando has 104 lines featuring a coffee-related word, which comes out to a rate of 8.2% of his lines being coffee-themed.

It’s worth mentioning that counting the number of lines actually relevant to Godot’s dialogue gimmick is tricky in that there are a number of other lines in addition to the ones featuring a “coffee-related word” that are evocative of coffee but don’t actually refer to it directly (e.g., he often uses words like “bitter”/”bitterness”, “aromatic”, and phrases like “filled to the brim”). The way that I counted coffee-related lines would not count those lines, so in a way, you could consider my approach to understate how much of his dialogue actually involves the gimmick (if you consider that kind of phrasing to also be relevant).*

I think it’s interesting to note that Franziska used “fool” words in ~4.5% of her dialogue overall, which is around the same rate that Godot used the word “coffee,” BUT Godot talks about coffee a good bit more often than that (8.2%+).

This means that more of Godot’s dialogue relates to coffee than Franziska’s dialogue relates to calling people fools. There is no benefit to knowing this, but I thought it was neat :)

*A few of the lines that are counted are ambiguously relevant (3 lines are refer to the victim in Recipe for Turnabout drinking, and 1 is an indirect reference to the gimmick itself—“17 cups of ketchup”), but there are more instances of coffee-evocative lines that aren’t counted than ambiguously relevant lines that are counted, so I would still consider the 8.3% an under-count for how much of Godot’s dialogue is affected by his coffee gimmick.

#Ace Attorney #Ace Attorney Trilogy #Graphs #prosecutor godot #Diego Armando #aa godot #Ace Attorney in Graphs #Overanalyzing Ace Attorney #this was sitting in my drafts for almost 2 years #now seems as good a time to post it as any lol

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a-student-out-of-time · 10 months

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Despair Time: The Meaning of “Thematic Significance”

//Hey everyone, Mod Bubbles here again.

//Now, I’m not going to pretend like you haven’t heard me talk about Despair Time over and over at this point, as people often ask me my thoughts or challenge me on my personal theories. I still stand by much of what I’ve said, as I don’t feel the counter-arguments people have presented, while sound in many ways, are particularly strong and also rely on plenty of assumptions.

//I’m not here to talk about any of that.

//Instead, I want to talk about something else. I recently got another ask about DT, and this one wasn’t a theory question, but an entirely different one. One that actually got me thinking as soon as I read it:

//I’ll be the first to say, no, I didn’t write DT. I’m not part of the writing team and I don’t know any of the people involved. If I was, I doubt I’d be pushing any of my theories as hard as I have. Instead, this ask got me thinking about a recurring exception people have taken to my theories and I think I know exactly why.

//I don’t think I’ve properly explained what exactly I mean when I talk about themes and messages. Which is a pretty big oversight, given how much I’ve brought it up.

//I don’t blame anyone for that. After all, as impassioned as fans of any work can be, not everyone is a writer, nor are they as intimately familiar with the mechanics of writing as someone who’s spent well over a decade working toward becoming one.

//But as with many fields with multiple sub-topics to cover, and no one right way to do them all, I also don’t claim to be an expert. I’m just someone who has a passion for this stuff, and it’s what forms the cruxes of my theories. That’s what I want to share with you now, and to hopefully clear up some misunderstandings.

(Just so you know, this has been in the works for a while and I’ve already covered the points I’ve made here at some points before, but I’m sticking with what I’ve written so far.)

//There is a very common stance on writing that anything can happen. That you, as a creator, have infinite freedom to create. This is true in many aspects when it comes to creating a fictional setting and populating it with characters, but you also need to understand another important thing about writing: its limitations.

//Now, I don’t mean limitations on creativity. I mean things like themes, narratives, plot structure, the very bones of a story. These can often be changed and distorted in different and creative ways depending on the work, but you can only bend them so far before they break, and the story breaks with them.

//For example, why is it that when a protagonist dies, it’s often either very early on in the story, or at the climax? You could potentially have it work if they died at the halfway point and another took over, sure. But would it make sense for them to die 23% of the way into the story? 62%? No, because these simply don’t work.

//Take the classic Three-Act Structure. You can see the points at which the story rises and falls between different events, steadily building before arriving at a major moment and then diving back down into another. Of course, this doesn’t apply well to Danganronpa.

//DR has more in line with the five-act structure (technically six, but same logic), which takes all of this and moves it across a wider series of events. Now, you’d be forgiven for looking at this graph and thinking that Act 3′s need to be the climax or turning point, when it can really happen at any point between 3, 4 and 5. As I said, things can be bent in new ways.

//This is where I feel much of the logic for the counter-arguments to my theories comes from, how the story is building up to a turning point in Chapter 3, which means she’s more likely to double down in Chapter 2 in regards to not trusting people.

//if I were looking it purely objectively on a graph like this, I’d understand. But I have to disagree for the reasons I keep bringing up: themes.

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//In its most basic form, a theme can be thought of as the underlying meaning of a story. What exactly is this piece of art trying to tell us and why? Some are much more overt than others, and DR is definitely in that category regarding its continuous and very unsubtle themes of hope and despair.

//DT, on the other hand, takes the approach and discusses the themes of trust and distrust. These are evident as early as the prologue, where Teruko asks Xander a simple question:

//Now, this is already a huge departure from the canon games, and this moment sets Teruko apart from people like Makoto, Kaede, Shuichi, Komaru, and even Hajime. Whereas most protags would be the ones keeping everyone together or directing their anger at the mastermind, Teruko already feels a sense of doubt against everyone else.

//And as we later learn, this is not for no reason. Yet at the same time, she reels back on that comment when Xander seems uncomfortable.

//Yet he actually agrees with her, up to a point:

//The prologue cements the core theme in here, and Chapter 1 goes a step further and shows us how that sense of trust can go wrong.

//Teruko, who’d spent the chapter hanging out with people she considered friends- especially Xander and Min- gets betrayed hardcore by both of them. Xander is pushed into stabbing Teruko thanks to a mysterious note he received, and his own belief that it was the right call, and Min’s decision to try and frame her for Xander’s accidental death.

//All of this, combined with the group’s unwillingness to even hear her out at first and instead forcing her to defend herself on her own, drives Teruko to give up on trusting people entirely. Come Chapter 2, we see her sticking to that.

//Chapter 1 of DT is very much an exploration of how having too much trust in others can backfire significantly. Does that mean that Chapter 2 would see more doubling down on that? Not necessarily.

//A common mistake made by both amateur writers and some readers is the idea that, because a viewpoint is held by the protagonist, that means it’s the correct one. This is called Protagonist-Centered Morality, and it’s why you get a lot of bad stories where the protag gets away with doing hypocritical things because they’re the hero.

//Now, it can be easy to fall into that with Teruko, who I’ve seen many describe as the most realistic and grounded protag because she understand the situation. Of course, we as the audience know that no amount of trusting and hoping is going to just make the killing game stop two chapters in, but the characters don’t know that.

//There’s also a common view held by many in the DR fandom that characters can be preemptively judged based entirely on their behavior; in particular how people like Eden in DT or Shion in Heartless Deceit are often slapped with the villain card. That being kind and optimistic makes them naive at best or secretly evil at worse.

//I don’t like these sorts of theories because they aren’t based on actual in-universe foreshadowing or hinting. Instead, it feels more like metagaming; using previous experiences with these archetypes and basing your expectations on that, rather than what’s actually in the text.

//When you focus so much on the meta aspects of these fangans, especially ones that aren’t adhering to the regular DR formula, it can really undermine the experiences. With this sort of narrative metagaming, you’re not engaged with the work itself, but the tropes of the series you’re more familiar with.

//Not to mention it feels a bit disrespectful to assume all DR writers are drawing from the exact same idea book.

//We are, but we can explore those ideas in new ways, and that doesn’t always equate to “optimistic character dies/is evil.” I bring all of this up because Chapter 2 is a good source of another important piece of writing: contrast.

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//You may have heard a bit of writing advice that says you need to raise the stakes to keep an audience engaged. This is wrong for many reasons, and instead it’s more accurate to say that a story shouldn’t repeat itself too often to keep people engaged. Indeed, many people find grounded stories about characters overcoming emotional issues more compelling than plots about saving the world.

//One of the best ways to avoid repetition is to provide different challenges to your characters. Bigger threats are one option, but there’s also new and unfamiliar situations, which is where I think we’re going with this chapter.

//DT’s first chapter showed us the story of Teruko waking up, meeting a group of her peers, getting to know them, and despite the danger of their situation, offering them a sense of trust...right before all of it is shattered by Xander’s and Min’s actions. That leaves her in a very different position from when she began, now deciding not to trust anyone.

//I don’t believe Chapter 2 is doubling down because so much of it has been devoted to the exact opposite. Many of the characters have been tearing into Teruko for her unwillingness to trust, particularly how she pulls a knife on Charles and J, and how she isolates herself to the point of playing with cacti to stave off boredom.

//To put it another way that might make a bit more sense, have you ever noticed that plans, like heists or military operations, are more likely to succeed when we see less of them? When you get the full details of a plan, it seems more likely to fail in some ways when they put it into action. When you don’t, you get big dramatic reveals of how the plan actually works.

//The reason for that is simple: if you have the plan shown in full once, and it plays out exactly as described, you may as well have either not shown one of them or have them happening concurrently. Otherwise, you’re just repeating yourself unnecessarily.

//Likewise, the more a point is brought up, discussed or challenged in a story or storyline, and the more the protagonist adheres to it, the more likely it is that they’re going to either dismiss that thought by the end or see it in a new perspective. This is especially true if the point is being directly challenged at first, then seemingly not.

//I talk about Eden a lot in this regard as well, because her scene is really the big one that seals this for me. I’ve seen people talk about her optimistic attitude as being naive at best or a sign of villainy at worse, and that’s a take that actually appears in the story with Arei.

//And then she immediately turns that around and admits that, no, she doesn’t believe any of that. In fact, she wants to be like Eden.

//It still hurts to see her like this, just fyi ^^;

//But continuing on, a similar sort of situation occurs earlier with Teruko and Eden in the kitchen, where they talk about why Eden wants to be friends with her so much. Teruko admits that Eden’s the last person she wants to be friends with. Not because she doesn’t like her, but rather that it would hurt too much to lose her.

//Teruko appreciates her kindness, but she also views Eden as naive. She’s under the impression that optimism could only come from a place of ignorance or childishness. The idea that these are things you’re supposed to grow out of, and that being a pessimistic cynic is the rational response to betrayal.

//And of course, Eden tells her how it REALLY is.

//Now, it might be easy to look at this and say “Okay, but you’re still in a killing game and people are gonna die, so why does it matter?”

//It matters because she gets through to Teruko with this speech, if only for a moment.

//Teruko has spent the first three episodes of this chapter pushing people away, threatening them, telling them they’re going to die and that trust is stupid. Yet when Eden tells her this, it makes her heart stir. To the point that she has to deny it to herself that she’s actually moved by her words.

//This is how I can pretty confidently say that Teruko doubling down on her cynicism is very unlikely. She’s also unlikely to dive right back into friendship, but this might be the first taste of compassion she’s had in a long time.

//And this is also why I say DT is not this grimdark edgefest that so many theorists seem to portray it as. The metagaming with character archetypes combined with a lot of assumptions and circumstantial evidence has already lead a lot of people to conclude Eden is the killer and that’s why Teruko will double down.

//None of that is substantiated by the actual character interactions and themes. If that were true, scenes like this would either not exist or they’d exist just to prove Eden wrong. Or, as I’ve seen much more frequently in grimdark stories, Eden would have been the first victim to cement that theme home right from the start.

//And more importantly, there are always the hidden quotes with these characters, whom I refer to many times for these sorts of theories. What’s Teruko’s?

//Chapter 1 demonstrated how far her trust issues go, where two of her friends betrayed her in different ways, and she responded by trying to disconnect herself from the lives of everyone in the game. Yet Teruko cannot, and will never, be able to do that so long as this Killing Game is ongoing.

//In a killing game, either one person wins or one person loses, and Teruko needs to be on the winning side if she wants to live. She’s already made it clear she’d rather not kill or leave the site of the killing game, so that means she has to participate whether she wants to or not.

//And to participate, even from a purely self-interested perspective, she needs to be willing to trust people at their word in some respects. That, I think, can be the setup for a very interesting situation for this chapter.

//Now, you might say “Well, Bubbles, have you considered how many characters in DR aren’t who they say they are? Why are you so certain that Eden or even Teruko is being honest? What if there’s a twist reveal with them?”

//To which I say, yes, I have actually thought of that. In fact, we’ve already seen that with the fandom’s favorite motivational speaker, who is also a perfect example of what I’m talking about.

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//People really like David. A lot. To the point that it actually surprised the creator, who was convinced everyone would hate his guts after this chapter. And I will admit, I am one of those who do.

//I really hate David. A lot. I will, however, be as unbiased as I can in my examination of him, as he’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about.

//The thing about twist reveal characters is that their true nature is always hinted at and foreshadowed in some manner, either in the story or their FTEs (I’d prefer if it was in the story, but maybe that’s just me).

//You see it with characters like Toko, Mukuro, the whole of Class 77-B sans Chiaki, and Korekiyo. They’re not always satisfying, admittedly, but the signs are at least there.

//Super Danganronpa Another 2 is full of these for characters like the Voids and Kanade, who all have little moments here and there, be it in the main story or their FTEs, where they let their true personalities leak through before it’s revealed what they really are.

//Any good twist reveal benefits from foreshadowing, and David is no exception. In fact, seeing DT for the first time, I was already unwilling to trust him right from the get go.

//He puts on this facade of an inspiring, upstanding dude. But as soon as he thinks he’s alone?

//Now, you’d be forgiven for seeing this as a sign that David doesn’t like his title but still wants to help people. That maybe he doesn’t like dealing with people, but nevertheless has good intentions. After all, don’t his interactions with people like Xander and Arei show that?

//I’m sorry, but it’s quite the opposite.

//As we’ve since learned, David Chiem is a manipulative bastard. He not only doesn’t give a damn about other people, he’s an raging misanthrope who looks down on everyone else.

//Not only that, he is actively cruel and malicious toward everyone in the game for no damn reason. Nobody ever actively bullied him, mocked him or did anything to make his life miserable. Yet he lashes out, calling people names, deliberately saying hateful and cruel remarks for no reason other than to hurt them.

//I’ve seen some people try to suggest that David actually does have good intentions, or that he’s doing this for a good cause.

//Pardon my French, but that’s complete bullshit. Here’s why:

//If David had good intentions, he wouldn’t have done any of what he did. He spent the better part of this chapter lying and making things up, from his supposed secret about a family history of depression to the idea that he got Xander’s secret in the trial.

//Unlike Eden, who wears her heart on her sleeve and has never shown a malicious bone in her body, David very clearly hates the people around him. Even before Episode 11, the cracks in his facade were always visible.

//This is also not brushed away with the notion that he’s only like this because Xander died. That may have exacerbated things, but this is David. This is how he really is, fully exposed. He is filled with unmitigated anger and bitterness, and Xander would probably hate his guts if he saw him like this.

//The big reason why I see no good in his actions is because he doesn’t have anyone’s best interest in mind.

//Take Nico, for example. I’m not going to get into the discourse over it, but Nico’s secret is that they’re nonbinary and received absolutely no support for it their whole life. It’s clearly not something they want to talk about, yet David keeps trying to drag it out of them until they relent.

//Likewise, Hu doesn’t want to talk about her secret, yet David keeps trying to press her on it, but then gives up when she doesn’t seem receptive. Instead, they talk about some other secrets, like how Hu used to go by the name “Julia.”

//And what happens later in the trial?

//This is evil. This is unquestionably malicious evil. David couldn’t get her to spill her secrets, so he goes out of his way to harm her with what he does know. How anyone can see this as anything less than evil is beyond me.

//But it also illustrates my point: if Eden is kind by choice, David is kind by motive. He doesn’t care about people, he care about what those people can do for him, and to him, kindness and inspiration is the best way to achieve that goal.

//The thing about manipulators is that they’re as superficial as they come. Their facade is only there to take advantage of trust, yet even when any sort of good graces are lost, they will still use what they know to try and turn things around. When they can’t do that, they just get aggressive and threaten people.

//If you want more proof, here are some lists to look up if you want:

//I’ve looked over David’s actions and attitudes many times, and he dolls out love-bombing pretty frequently, especially with Xander. Everything on these lists, he’s done at some point.

//This isn’t about whether or not I think he’s the killer, but instead reinforces my point about the themes of DT. If Eden represents kindness through choice, and Charles and Arei represent the willingness to change for the better, David represents everything Teruko fears.

//It’s very interesting to look back and see that, when David reveals himself, Teruko isn’t nearly as shocked or appalled as the others. She’d already seen he was putting on a mask, so to her, thus must’ve just felt like a “told ya so” moment. She already expects the worst out of the others, so seeing this already reaffirms what she believes.

//What sense is there in having her double down from that point on?

_________________________________________________

//So, I hope that clears up some of the misunderstandings that may have come from my previous posts. When I talk about thematic significance, this is what I’m referring to. The actual driving ideas and intentions behind a story.

//This isn’t me complaining about elements of the story I don’t like, this isn’t me trying to rewrite it because I think I know better and this isn’t meant to be an insult to anyone who’s ever made a theory I’ve disagreed with. None of that is ever my intention.

//I admit I do find it a little hypocritical that people will accuse me of wanting to rewrite the entire story to fit my desires for it, when I’ve seen theories that do everything from frame characters like Eden and Hu as the villains for incredibly petty reasons, giving them motivations that make no sense for them as characters, to trying to suggest David is the real hero of this story. He’s not. He’s a villain, you guys.

//Putting that aside, all of this is just me hardcore analyzing the story based on the evidence that we’ve been given, and from careful contemplating of the story thus far. What’s my conclusion?

//Teruko is our protagonist, and she’s in a unique position as someone who has to be the one to learn the importance of trust and friendship. This story is her character journey, and while I do think it’s possible for her to double down at some point, I have my doubts that this entire story will be about her getting worse before she gets better.

//Likewise, Eden is our support, and she’s the one who embodies a genuinely optimistic hope, meant to invoke the same sort of role as Makoto or Chiaki, but in a bit more of a side role. If she weren’t meant to serve that role, she would either have died first in this game, and she’s either poised to face a similar fate as Chiaki or she’ll be a survivor. That’s my prediction, at least.

//I think this is what makes this a part of the Danganronpa fangan universe. The overarching nature of this series is about the better angels of our nature overcoming adversity, even in the face of overwhelming despair. If you have a fangan that doesn’t really do that, I greatly hesitate to even call it “Danganronpa.”

//That journey of overcoming adversity doesn’t always equate to perpetual upward momentum, and sometimes people will stumble or not survive the journey, but that doesn’t mean any of it was pointless. It becomes pointless when the story doesn’t offer any sort of character growth or any resolution beyond “Everything is awful, we should just lay down and die.”

//That’s not what Despair Time is, and this is why I emphasize that constantly. Teruko is not our typical protagonist and this isn’t our typical story, but even through a darker and more adversarial group, that doesn’t equate to a story that’s reinforcing those points, but is instead challenging them and showing why going too far in either direction will only lead to failure.

//I have a lot to say about Teruko in particular, but I’ll save those for a proper character analysis. For now, I hope this has cleared up my points about thematic relevance and made my theories make a bit more sense.

//And if you made it this far, thanks for reading!

#mod talks #a student out of time #essay #drdt #danganronpa despair time #writing advice #themes

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