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genericpuff · 2 years

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LO Art Analysis (or: A Real Example of Why You Shouldn't Use Multiply for Everything)

I've obviously been spending a lot of time recreating LO art and in that time, I think I've really cracked open some of modern LO's problems with its art. This is a lengthy post so turn on some lo-fi, grab some popcorn and strap in.

One thing in particular that I'm very eager to talk about (and go off about) is Rachel's use of color language and shading.

THERE WILL BE BRIEF FASTPASS PANELS AHEAD IN THIS ANALYSIS. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

One of the key things that most people seem to agree on when it comes to LO's current art quality is the lack of color language. Back in S1, we had colors that seemed to jump off the page, with gorgeous rendering that created panels that were vast and beautiful to take in. It didn't matter if the anatomy was wonky or if the backgrounds were translated directly from Google Sketchup, the color and compositions made up for its flaws and created unique vignettes that individually contributed to what we found so special about LO back in those days.

That last one especially is still hands-down one of the most well-known and influential LO panels out of the entire series. Many a phone background its graced (my own included, I've literally had this as my phone background for like 3 years now) and it serves as a beautiful standalone example of the mood and emotions LO used to convey. You don't need to know the context of the scene, you don't need to know the characters, the mere posing and color choice alone is enough to invoke a reaction from the viewer. It doesn't even have a lot of shading or final rendering, the composition and texturing is all it needs.

So why does a simple panel like that work, but panels like these don't?

I have such beef with this panel because it does the complete opposite of what the famous Tower 4 panel achieves - it puts on full display everything wrong with LO's current art style, from its character posing to its color language aaaall the way to its final rendering.

First off, the character posing and framing. I finally figured out what RS' male characters have been suffering from lately, and it's a phenomenon that I'm sure many of you will be able to recognize right away.

Seth Macfarlane Syndrome.

You might not watch Family Guy, you might not watch American Dad, or the Cleveland Show, but you'll know exactly what I mean when I talk about Seth MacFarlane Syndrome. It's the stiffness, the lack of movement or bend in joints, the boring posing of characters standing with their arms flatly at their sides and their entire body facing the same direction, eyes unblinking - and when they speak, heads slightly tilting, mouths always being conformed to the same default shapes, while the arms do something random and unrelated to create the illusion of natural movement.

This has been an issue in LO for a while now, incredibly flat posing that lacks any sort of dynamic curvature to it, but it's best exemplified by that Ares panel above because holy shit does he ever look like Stan Smith in it. Boxy shoulders with arms that appear to be WAY too short hanging off the side, elbows flattened, hands straightened out, no natural shaping whatsoever.

But that's not the crux of the issue I want to touch on today.

No, the worst offense of this panel is that it indirectly proves what I've been suspicious of for a while now.

To explain real quick for context, there's this thing in digital art called Blend Modes. It's essentially a basic function in digital art that allows you to change the properties of layers for the purpose of shading, rendering, whatever have you. Most of these Blend Modes are the same across all digital art programs, things like Multiply, Screen, Color Dodge, etc. are all fairly basic tools in the digital artist's toolkit but all have an INCREDIBLY high ceiling of mastery - meaning, blend modes are easy to use on a basic level, but require a lot of skill and understanding of color language to utilize to their full potential. Using them right can transform a passable piece of work into a great one - on the flipside, using them wrong can take a passable piece of work and piss all over it.

The one I want to focus on in this post is Multiply. I use this blend mode myself quite often, it basically 'multiplies' the properties of the layers below it, taking whatever colors are below and 'doubling' them to create darker tones. This makes it a go-to for shading.

But the issue with Multiply is that it often ends up being used when it's not supposed to be. Or rather, people starting out will often use it as a substitute for shading when you'd be better off using your own hand-picked colors. I've got characters with skin tones that I can shade with the same color set to Multiply, zero issues, because the base tone is one that doubles well, it creates a nice rich tone on top that's perfect for shading.

But do you know the one color that DOESN'T multiply well?

Yellow.

Yellow is NOT a color you can just multiply, not without the final result looking flat and almost putrid. Most people will thus recommend you shade yellow with other colors along the same side of the color wheel, including oranges and reds. This is precisely why knowing color theory is such an important skill even in digital art, because using Blend Modes improperly can create flat tones that can ruin a final composition.

Going back to that Ares panel...

Again, I've had this suspicion for a while, especially when looking at panels of Persephone (*pink is ALSO a color that doesn't multiply well)

So I put it to the test. I took the original panel, sampled the yellow, and overlaid it with Multiply to see what I'd get.

Fam.

That putrid deep yellow that I mixed above is literally NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS WITH WHAT I EYEDROPPED FROM THE PANEL. Copy and paste that and eyedrop it yourself if you want to see it with your own eyes. It's pretty obvious she did the same thing with Hera as well, you can tell her skin tone has been set to multiply and repainted with the same color, same as with her jacket.

They are using Multiply layers for everything as the default. This is not how Multiply is intended to be used - it's lazy shortcutting that's resulting in flat, boring, ugly compositions.

RS has stated herself that she 'changed' how LO is drawn to help 'streamline' the process for her assistants. This isn't streamlining. This is cutting corners.

Streamlining would be having color palettes to refer to during the coloring and shading process. I use them myself for characters that I CAN'T multiply-shade, I literally have characters whose skin tones are too light and yellow-toned for it - using Multiply would wash out their tones and make them look flat and sickly so I have to use a separate color from a different part of the color wheel to shade them (usually a darker tone of red/orange).

Rachel, babe, this isn't streamlining, this is just taking shortcuts to the point of sabotaging your own work. You can't sit there and tell me THAT looks good and is worth the 'streamlining' when panels like THESE used to exist:

Turn off the Multiply layers and color your characters for once, please, I'm begging you. This is such a rookie move for someone who claims to be a professional (and regularly brags about the awards she's won); not to mention a tragic fall from grace because we know Rachel can and has produced better work than this in the past. She knows color language, she knows how to paint, so why is she resorting to shortcuts like this? She has an entire team of people and yet she's still consistently behind enough in her buffer - or just doesn't care enough anymore - that she's resorting to lazy amateur tactics like using Multiply for everything.

And on the off chance that she ever sees this, Rachel, it's not even that hard to use proper colors. You've done it before, you should already have the color palettes available to you.

(P.S. One handy-dandy experiment to tell if your Multiply layers are failing you is the desaturation test. You'll notice that drawings being made primarily with Multiply layers will look a lot 'flatter' when desaturated, because the shading is just the same color on top of itself and 'doubled', there isn't any actual value or depth in the shading itself. These are the exact same panels I showed before, RS' on the left and mine on the right, they've just been desaturated to show the difference that proper color choice can make when defining values and tones in shading!)

#anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #lo critical #lore olympus edit #antiloreolympus

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bracketsoffear · 29 days

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Vast Leitner Reading List

The full list of submissions for the Vast Leitner bracket. Bold titles are ones which were accepted to appear in the bracket. Synopses and propaganda can be found below the cut. Be warned, however, that these may contain spoilers!

Abedi, Isabel: Forbidden World Adams, Douglas: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Asimov, Isaac: Nightfall

Borges, Jorge Luis: El Aleph Bradbury, Ray: Kaleidoscope Bradbury, Ray: No Particular Night or Morning

Caine, Rachel: Weather Wardens Clarke, Arthur C.: Maelstrom II Clarke, Susanna: Piranesi Coates, Darcy: From Below Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Curtis, Wardon Allan: The Monster of Lake LaMetrie

Foster, Alan Dean: He

Gardner, Martin: Thang Godwin, Tom: The Nothing Equation Gonzalez, J.F.: Clickers Gorky, Maxim: The Song of the Stormy Petrel Grant, Mira: Into the Drowning Deep

Hawking, Lucy and Stephen: George's Secret Key to the Universe Hardinge, Frances: Deeplight

Inglis, James: Night Watch

King, Stephen: The Jaunt

Lewis, C.S.: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Liu, Cixin: The Dark Forest (Three Body Problem Book 2) Lovecraft, H.P.: Dagon

Macfarlane, Robert: Underland Marquitz, Tim and Nickolas Sharps, ed.: Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters Melville, Herman: Moby Dick Mortimore, Jim: Beltempest

North, Claire: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Oesterheld, Héctor Germán: El Eternauta

Poe, Edgar Allen: A Descent into the Maelström Pratchett, Terry and Steven Baxter: The Long Earth series Purser-Hallard, Philip: Of the City of the Saved...

Reed, Robert: An Exaltation of Larks Reisman, Michael: Simon Bloom: The Gravity Keeper

Sanderson, Brandon: Firefight Seuss, Dr.: Horton Hears a Who! Simmons, Dan: The Terror Swift, Jonathan: Gulliver's Travels

Tennyson, Alfred: The Kraken Tolstoy, Leo: War & Peace

Verne, Jules: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Abedi, Isabel: Forbidden World

"Reginald has gained a dangerous power. He can shrink anything he likes. And he wants nothing less than the world's most famous buildings. The originals in miniaturized form, of course. Gradually he builds up a huge landscape in his cellar. But Reginald has overlooked something, or more precisely someone. Otis was locked in the Statue of Liberty and Olivia had fled from the police into the famous Berlin department store KaDeWe, when suddenly at night the buildings shrank. Now the children are the size of a fingernail... While they fight for their lives, chaos breaks out in the world outside: where have the monuments gone? And who has stolen them?" Vast stuff: Otis' fear of heights is a huge plot point and he was born on a plane. While Olivia wants to become a pilot. Many scenes of being in high places and terrified, and focus on being very small in a big world.

Spoilers: This book contains two Djinns one that can change the sizes of things one that can make them small and one that can make them big. But they are running out of magic fuel so staying small is the big fear of the characters.

Adams, Douglas: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The series swings wildly between cosmic dread and comedy, from the insignificance of the Earth's destruction to the chaotic results of the Infinite Improbability Drive to the very notion of the Total Perspective Vortex, the story hammers home again and again the infinitesimal nature of our existence in the vastness of the universe.

***

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy": Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space.

"The Restaurant at the End of the Universe": Facing annihilation at the hands of warmongers is a curious time to crave tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his comrades as they hurtle across the galaxy in a desperate search for a place to eat.

"Life, the Universe and Everything": The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky- so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals can avert Armageddon: mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his stalwart crew.

"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish": Back on Earth, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription conspires to thrust him back to reality. So to speak.

"Mostly Harmless": Just when Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life, all hell breaks loose. Can he save the Earth from total obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter from herself?

The incomprehensible vastness of the universe is a theme repeated throughout the 'Trilogy". Notable examples include the guide initially describes Earth as 'harmless", after being stranded there for several years, Ford revises this to "mostly harmless". The Total Perspective Vortex, a machine that extrapolates a model of the entire universe, along with a microscopic dot labeled "you are here" this sense of perspective destroys the victim’s mind.

Asimov, Isaac: Nightfall

Lagash's six suns means an Endless Daytime, except for once every 2,049 years, when five suns set and the only sun left in the hemisphere is eclipsed by the moon. The scientists are trying to prepare civilization and themselves for the upcoming nightfall, but when it does occur, no-one is prepared for the thirty thousand stars that suddenly appear in the night sky. This leads to the far more devastating revelation how tiny and insignificant they are by comparison.

"Aton, somewhere, was crying, whimpering horribly like a terribly frightened child. 'Stars — all the Stars — we didn't know at all. We didn't know anything. We thought six stars in a universe is something the Stars didn't notice is Darkness forever and ever and ever and the walls are breaking in and we didn't know we couldn't know and anything —'"

Borges, Jorge Luis: El Aleph

In Borges' story, the Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. Anyone who gazes into it can see everything in the universe from every angle simultaneously, without distortion, overlapping, or confusion.

Bradbury, Ray: Kaleidoscope

First published in the October 1949 edition of Thrilling Wonder Stories this describes a scene where a spaceship is hit by a meteor and torn apart – ejecting the crew into space. Each astronaut flies off on his own trajectory, hurtling to his doom. For a time they can all communicate through their helmet comms, but slowly, as the separation becomes millions of miles apart, they wind up as solitary figures, alone with his thoughts.

Bradbury, Ray: No Particular Night or Morning

This story takes place during a long interstellar journey. The destination and purpose of the journey are unclear. There are many men (it seems only men) on a large ship. Among them are friends Hitchcock and Clemens. Hitchcock begins to struggle with the idea that there is anything that exists outside of him, that none of it can be proven to exist. Clemens tries to argue with him until Hitchcock is finally treated by the ship’s psychiatrist with the captain’s knowledge, but to no avail. He finally dons a space-suit and leaves the ship. Over the radio he can be heard muttering about how even his own body does not exist.

At one point, Hitchcock is asked why he wanted to go on this journey in the first place. Was he interested in the stars? In seeing other places? In travel? He responds that “It wasn’t going places. It was being between”

Caine, Rachel: Weather Wardens

A speculative fiction series about the secretive bureaucracy that controls the weather. Consequences of this include severely pissing off Mother Earth, sentient storm fronts, and falling from great heights. Often.

Clarke, Arthur C.: Maelstrom II

This short story revolves around an astronaut named Cliff Leyland drifting in a low orbit around the moon after an accident with his capsule's launch. Much of his time is spent waiting to see if he can be rescued and reunited with his family, or is doomed to crash and die.

Clarke, Susanna: Piranesi

Piranesi lives in a place called the House, a world composed of infinite halls and vestibules lined with statues, no two of which are alike. The upper level of the House is filled with clouds, and the lower level with an ocean, which occasionally surges into the middle level following tidal patterns that Piranesi meticulously tracks. He believes he has always lived in the House, and that there are only fifteen people in the world, all but two of whom are long-dead skeletons. The status that decorate the halls and walls of the House are all gigantic and the halls themself are immense and bigger than what any human would be able to build on their own.

Coates, Darcy: From Below

"No light. No air. No escape. Hundreds of feet beneath the ocean's surface, a graveyard waits... Years ago, the SS Arcadia vanished without a trace during a routine voyage. Though a strange, garbled emergency message was broadcast, neither the ship nor any of its crew could be found. Sixty years later, its wreck has finally been discovered more than three hundred miles from its intended course...a silent graveyard deep beneath the ocean's surface, eagerly waiting for the first sign of life. Cove and her dive team have been granted permission to explore the Arcadia's rusting hull. Their purpose is straightforward: examine the wreck, film everything, and, if possible, uncover how and why the supposedly unsinkable ship vanished. But the Arcadia has not yet had its fill of death, and something dark and hungry watches from below. With limited oxygen and the ship slowly closing in around them, Cove and her team will have to fight their way free of the unspeakable horror now desperate to claim them. Because once they're trapped beneath the ocean's waves, there's no going back."

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

This epic poem of a sea voyage beautifully encapsulates the horrors of the ocean, from the terrific force of horrific storms and whirlpools to the unsettling infinity of life, both beautiful and strange, that inhabits the depths below. Most of all, however, it shows the horror of being stranded at sea as the ship is becalmed in the doldrums.

"Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink. The very deep did rot: Oh Christ! That ever this should be! Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs Upon the slimy sea."

The crew perish one by one, apart from the narrator. He, by killing the albatross, invoked the wrath of the sea. He alone must live on while the others are permitted to escape in death.

Curtis, Wardon Allan: The Monster of Lake LaMetrie

The story of Dr. James McLennegan and his sickly companion Edward Framingham who travel to a lake high up in the Wyoming mountains. When they reach the lake, McLennegan discovers it is home to an Elasmosaurus which attacks him, but he manages to kill it and removes the brain. Shortly afterwards Framingham seemingly commits suicide and McLennegan decides to place Framingham’s brain into the body of the Elasmosaur, as one does. While this works for a bit, the remainder of the story explores the horror of scale as Framingham's inability to adjust to his new size results in him snapping and devouring his now-insignificant former friend.

Foster, Alan Dean: He

A short story detailing an oceanographer's encounter with the last megalodon, a colossal shark that has lived for millions of years. He is feared by all other creatures and the sight of him installs a primal terror in humans.

Gardner, Martin: Thang

https://vintage.failed-dam.org/thang.htm The titular creature is large enough to grasp Earth between two fingers. It clears off all water and ice before chewing the planet, core and all, before it, in turn, is also eaten by a planet-eater eater.

Godwin, Tom: The Nothing Equation

A short story about how being stationed alone in an empty section of space drives a man mad. Like stories about lighthouses, but bigger. Short enough to link a complete ebook.

Gonzalez, J.F.: Clickers

"Phillipsport, Maine is a quaint and peaceful seaside village. But when hundreds of creatures pour out of the ocean and attack, its residents must take up arms to drive the beasts back. They are the Clickers, giant venomous blood-thirsty crabs from the depths of the sea. The only warning to their rampage of dismemberment and death is the terrible clicking of their claws. But these monsters aren't merely here to ravage and pillage. They are being driven onto land by fear. Something is hunting the Clickers. Something ancient and without mercy."

Basically, kaiju crabs invade the land -- because they're fleeing from something even bigger.

Gorky, Maxim: The Song of the Stormy Petrel

"A short poem, text can be found here. It describes the storm, vast and careless masses of water, roaring and ruthless skies, and a mighty storm petrel fearlessly taking on both elements. it even dares the tempest to get more intense, as all other oceanic forms of life (seagulls, grebes, a penguin) hide in horror before the face of the storm. stormy petrel in russian (буревестник), if translated literally, means 'the announcer of the storm'. there is a short old cartoon which depicts how this poem would function as a leitner, although the cartoon is very comedic and lighthearted. unfortunately, i wasn't able to find a version with english subtitles, but i think it would be clear just from the visuals"

Grant, Mira: Into the Drowning Deep

Seven years ago, the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a “mockumentary” bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a maritime tragedy. Now, a new crew has been assembled. But this time they’re not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life’s work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost. Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the waves. But the secrets of the deep come with a price.

Hawking, Lucy and Stephen: George's Secret Key to the Universe

The space aspects of it, as well as the fact that a character gets trapped in a black hole at one point, gives off Vast vibes to me. Synopsis for more info: The main characters in the book are George Greenby, Susan Bellis, Eric Bellis, Annie Bellis, Dr. Reeper, and Cosmos, the world's most powerful computer. Cosmos can draw windows allowing people to look into outer space, as well as doors that act as portals allowing travel into outer space. It starts by describing atoms, stars, planets, and their moons. It then goes on to describe black holes, which remains the topic of focus in the last part of the book. At frequent intervals throughout the book, there are pictures and "fact files" of the different references to universal objects, including a picture of Mars with its moons.

Hardinge, Frances: Deeplight

"In the old days, the islands of the Myriad lived in fear of the gods, great sea monsters that rose up from the Undersea to devour ships and depopulate entire islands. Now, the gods are no more. They tore each other apart in an event known as the Cataclysm. Fragments of their bodies (known as godware) are dredged up and sold. Hark and his best friend Jelt are petty criminals. When they embark on a dangerous scavenging expedition, they stumble across a strange, pulsing piece of godware and things begin to go very, very wrong."

Gods, the ocean depths, and poverty all play into the themes of insignificance in this novel.

Inglis, James: Night Watch

Concerns an interstellar probe which is still functional when our Galaxy is dying. The story ends with the community of probes launched by various races and drawn together by the fact that very few stars are still shining, setting out on the long voyage to a distant and still-young galaxy as the last star of our galaxy burns out behind them.

King, Stephen: The Jaunt

“As a family prepares to be "Jaunted" to Mars in the 24th century, the father entertains his two children by recounting the curious tale of the discovery and history of this crude form of teleportation. He explains how the scientist who serendipitously discovered it quickly learned that it had a disturbing, inexplicable effect on the mice he "sent through"—eventually concluding that they could only survive the "Jaunt effect" while unconscious. That, the father explains, is why all people must undergo general anaesthesia before using the Jaunt.

The father spares his children the gruesome semi-apocryphal account of the first human to be Jaunted awake, a condemned murderer offered a full pardon for agreeing to the experiment. The man "came through" and immediately suffered a massive heart attack, living just long enough to utter a single cryptic phrase: It's eternity in there...

The father also doesn't mention that since that time, roughly thirty people have, voluntarily or otherwise, jaunted while conscious; they either died instantly or emerged insane. One woman was even shoved alive into eternal limbo by her murderous husband, stuck between two jaunt portals. The man was convicted of murder; though his attorneys attempted to argue that he was not guilty on the grounds that his wife was not technically dead, the implications of the same argument served to secure and hasten his execution.

After the father finishes his story, the family is subjected to the sleeping gas and Jaunted to Mars. When the father wakes, he finds that his inquisitive son held his breath in order to experience the Jaunt while conscious…Hair white with shock, corneas yellowed with age, clawing out his own eyes, the boy reveals the terrible nature of the Jaunt: "Longer than you think, Dad! It's longer than you think!"”

Lewis, C.S.: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

"The Dawn Treader is the first ship Narnia has seen in centuries. King Caspian has built it for his voyage to find the seven lords, good men whom his evil uncle Miraz banished when he usurped the throne. The journey takes Edmund, Lucy, and their cousin Eustace to the Eastern Islands, beyond the Silver Sea, toward Aslan's country at the End of the World."

I mean it's a story about trying to get to the end of the world. What's more Vast than that?

Liu, Cixin: The Dark Forest (Three Body Problem Book 2)

I considered other books in the series but this book more than the others deals with the impact of discovering there is other life out in the universe and the distance between worlds as humanity learns an alien fleet is approaching earth at near-light speed. This book is both vast in the scale of the universe but also on a time scale as it covers the 400 years between the fleet’s departure and arrival at earth.

Lovecraft, H.P.: Dagon

Link

The narrator tells of being on a cargo ship that was captured by a German sea-raider in the Pacific. He would eventually escape and drift until he found himself a “black mire”, which was full of rotting fish and more foul stenches. The things that he witnesses in the vast expanse drive him to madness, and eventually he kills himself rather than face the creatures he witnessed there.

Macfarlane, Robert: Underland

A series of essays on "deep time" - that is, viewing the world over timeframes of billions of years, rather than the shorter timeframes we live within & understand. It is essentially the vastness of time. This concept stretches eons into the past and future and is very daunting to read about. The essays all revolve around things underground and often focus on how they're so much larger than us, existing far before us and stretching far beyond.

Also there's a chapter where the author talks about a calving glacier he saw surge upwards hundreds of feet from the sea, unbelievably huge. He recounts how the ice at its base hadn't seen sunlight in eons, and had never even been seen by human eyes, it was so ancient - it then sank underwater again, to once more be hidden. And if that doesn't sound like the origin of a vast avatar idk what does

Marquitz, Tim and Nickolas Sharps, ed.: Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters

From the forward: "Enter Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters. This collection of Kaiju shorts continues the traditions begun by Kaiju pioneers, bringing tales of destruction, hope and morality in the form of giant, city destroying monsters. Even better, the project was funded by Kickstarter, which means you, Dear Reader, made this book possible. And that is a beautiful thing. It means Kaiju, in pop-fiction, are not only alive and well, they’re stomping their way back into the spotlight, where they belong. Featuring amazing artwork, stories from some of the best monster writers around and a publishing team that has impressed me from the beginning, Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters is a welcome addition to the Kaiju genre and an anthology of epic proportions. My inner nine-year-old is shouting at me to shut-up and let you get to the Kaiju. So, without further delay, let’s all enjoy us some Kaiju Rising."

Notable for the fact the majority of the stories within are downer-ending horror short-stories versus more upbeat monster-fighting ones. Several also tackle concepts of an unstoppable, implacable force, themes of religious horror, and other Vast-aligned concepts.

Melville, Herman: Moby Dick

Okay so Ahab is Hunt, but the thing he's hunting is 1000% Vast. The book is very detailed in its descriptions of the enormity of whales and of the sea. Also, Moby Dick is basically outright stated as being God.

***

We all know what The Whale is about. Ahab has beef with Moby Dick, so he vows to hunt it. This is a particularly intelligent, huge whale that everyone advises to steer clear of, and possibly an allegory of God. The book itself is large, it's 135 chapters and a lot of pages and for some reason mandatory reading in some schools. It's a classic and rightfully so. Trying to read it in one sitting is like trying to hunt the proverbial whale, a foolish endeavor no mortal man should attempt. Infinity is best consumed one day at a time, and so is the book. Otherwise you'll drown in (mostly descriptions of) whales.

***

Man attempts to fight a giant whale that apparently is representative of the unfathomably great and terrible power of nature/fate/God, and thus almost everyone on his crew ends up drowning.

Mortimore, Jim: Beltempest

Synopsis: "The people of Bellania II see their sun, Bel, shrouded in night for a month following an impossible triple eclipse. When Bel is returned to them a younger, brighter, hotter star, it is the beginning of the end for the entire solar system...

100,000 years later, the Doctor and Sam arrive on Bellania IV, where the population is under threat as disaster looms — immense gravitational and dimensional disturbances are surging through this area of space.

While the time travellers attempt to help the survivors and ease the devastation, a religious suicide-cult leader is determined to spread a new religion through Bel's system — and his word may prove even more dangerous than the terrible forces brought into being by the catastrophic changes in the sun... "

Why it's Vast: The main conflict revolves around the massive natural disasters caused by changes to the Bel System's sun. Moons are ripped from their orbits, gravity waves create planetary earthquakes, and the void of space is rocked by solar flares. In response to these unstoppable disasters, a religion springs up in worship of the star -- as Simon Fairchild noted, religion was once a strong vector for the Vast, though it wasn't explored in much depth within the podcast.

North, Claire: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

"The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August" is about the titular protagonist Harry August. He is born, he lives, he dies... Except he does this a lot more than most regular people. Harry is a kalachakra (or ouroborus, the names are used interchangeably), a member of a select few people who, upon dying, simply return to when they were born with all the memories and knowledge of their past lives. This is all well and good until, while on the deathbed of his eleventh life, Harry is warned by a little Kalachakra girl that the world is ending, and he must stop it from doing so."

Vast realised in endless lives of the characters stretching before them till infinity. Vast realised in the perfect endless memory of the main character and some others. Vast realised in eternity.

Oesterheld, Héctor Germán: El Eternauta

Juan Salvo, the inimitable protagonist, along with his friend Professor Favalli and the tenacious metal-worker Franco, face what appears to be a nuclear accident, but quickly turns out to be something much bigger than they had imagined. Cold War tensions, aliens of all sizes, space―and time travel―this one has it all.

Poe, Edgar Allen: A Descent into the Maelström

Inspired by the Moskstraumen, it is couched as a story within a story, a tale told at the summit of a mountain climb in Lofoten, Norway. The story is told by an old man who reveals that he only appears old—"You suppose me a very old man," he says, "but I am not. It took less than a single day to change these hairs from a jetty black to white, to weaken my limbs, and to unstring my nerves." The narrator, convinced by the power of the whirlpools he sees in the ocean beyond, is then told of the "old" man's fishing trip with his two brothers a few years ago.

Driven by "the most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the heavens", their ship was caught in the vortex. One brother was pulled into the waves; the other was driven mad by the horror of the spectacle, and drowned as the ship was pulled under. At first the narrator only saw hideous terror in the spectacle. In a moment of revelation, he saw that the Maelström is a beautiful and awesome creation. Observing how objects around him were attracted and pulled into it, he deduced that "the larger the bodies, the more rapid their descent" and that spherical-shaped objects were pulled in the fastest. Unlike his brother, he abandoned ship and held on to a cylindrical barrel until he was saved several hours later when the whirlpool temporarily subsided, and he was rescued by some fishermen. The "old" man tells the story to the narrator without any hope that the narrator will believe it.

Pratchett, Terry and Steven Baxter: The Long Earth series

Blueprints for an easily to build device that allows people to "step" into a nigh infinite series of alternate earths get published online. The series deals with the exploration of these alternate earths, and the way their existence and accessibility changes human society over the next 50 or so years. The earths next to our own are similar to ours except that there are no humans, but further earths diverged from our own earlier in geological history; millions of earths away are worlds where the KT extinctions never happens, billions of earths away there are worlds where jellyfish live in the sky. It's emphasized throughout the books that all of these earth's are entire planets with billions of years of history that no one will ever fully understand because there's just too much space.

Purser-Hallard, Philip: Of the City of the Saved...

It's set in a city where every human or descendant of humanity who has ever lived has been reborn all at once, and the book makes sure you understand the scope of that. To pull out a few statistics, the city is the size of a spiral galaxy and has a population of a hundred undecillion - or 1 followed by 38 zeros. There's a watchtower at the city's centre which is the width of a continent and the height of one astronomical unit (the distance of Earth to the sun), and a city council ampithetre the size of a gas giant. When I think of a book emphasising physical vastness, I think Of the City of the Saved, because it doesn't just gloss over the size and call it incomprehensible, it makes sure you begin to grasp the scale of things. And that every character in the book is just one person on that scale.

Reed, Robert: An Exaltation of Larks

The book shows the heat death of the universe, where the stars have long since burned out, and stellar formation ceased, leaving behind a dark, cold, and empty universe. Time travelers from the end of time have steadily been working their way back to the Big Bang to prevent this gradual death from happening by turning the universe into an effectively Perpetual Motion Machine that expands, contracts, and expands again.

Reisman, Michael: Simon Bloom: The Gravity Keeper

A boy inadvertently discovers the book that controls the laws of physics and learns to play with gravity and velocity, which on multiple occasions results in him taking an uncontrolled fall into the sky.

Sanderson, Brandon: Firefight

This is the second book in The Reckoners Trilogy, which is about the eponymous group hunting Epics--people who were granted superpowers by the mysterious red star Calamity, but also turned evil and destroyed society as we know it.

In this one, the Reckoners go to Babylon Restored, a.k.a NYC. The city was flooded by the hydrokinetic Regalia, killing thousands and leaving the survivors to inhabit the rooftops of the sunken buildings. Regalia has immense control over water, able to manipulate it on both a mass scale and in a more precise way to attack with tentacles and create clones of herself. Most terrifyingly, she can see out of the surface of any exposed water--which means almost nowhere in Babilar is safe from her eyes.

The fact that the city is flooded is especially problematic for protagonist David, who can't swim and discovers he has a fear of drowning--especially after he is nearly executed in this way. To make matters worse, the Reckoners' base of operations is an underwater bunker with a window open to the water. This culminates in him facing his fear in attempt to save his love interest by shooting at the window to get out of the bunker. While Regalia saves him for her own ends, she also reveals something even more grand and incomprehensibly terrifying--Calamity itself is sapient and apparently malicious.

Seuss, Dr.: Horton Hears a Who!

Hey kids! Take a minute to think about what would happen if the whole planet existed on a single speck of dust, and how easily everything you know could be eradicated by complete cosmic accident!

Simmons, Dan: The Terror

Being trapped in the Arctic? Not just in the Arctic but in the middle of an ice sheet on the ocean? With the only land being a 3 day trek away? So all you can see before you is open plains of snow and ice and knowing underneath you is also the cold, uncaring, freezing ocean? That's not even taking into account the monster hunting you and your men is easily the size of 3-4 polar bears

Swift, Jonathan: Gulliver's Travels

Plays a lot with perspective -- Gulliver is a giant on one island, and an ant on another. There's also an island that flies and blots out the sun to conquer the lands below it.

Tennyson, Alfred: The Kraken

Link to the poem

Vivid imagery of deep-sea colossi and the enormous weight of the ocean and eternity.

Tolstoy, Leo: War & Peace

real world leitner - inspires dread and fear in the hearts of millions of russian high schoolers with its enormous page count, oppressively large cast of characters and incomprehensible fragments of french inserted directly into the narrative

Verne, Jules: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Themes of insignificance and descriptions of colossal terrors abound.

#leitner tournament #reading list #vast poll

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imaginesbymonika · 2 years

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Tender

Part 2 of 2

Paring: Seth Macfarlane (yes you read that right you bitches that man is hot) x fem!Reader

Plot: After years of being together, Y/N and Seth broke up. She knows that it is all based on a lie, but will he be able to come clean before it's too late?

Read Part 1 here

Y/N leans her back against the cold door and slowly slides down, and judging the small vibration she understands that Seth does the same thing.

"Listen.", he starts speaking and clears his throat:" I'm sorry. For everything." Y/N who is shaking her head in disbelief feels how hot tears emerge in her eyes. "I know that this doesn't fix anything." After that, silence falls upon the hallway, and for a moment Seth thinks that maybe Y/N has left, maybe she went back to bed. After all, he doesn't even know if she's alone or not. Perhaps she has someone waiting in her bedroom and he is just one minute away from receiving a really bad black eye. His stomach turns at the thought of it… but if that meant he could talk to Y/N one last time, fuck, he would risk a broken jaw for that. A sigh leaves his lips.

"Then why are you here?" At that, he perks up:" What?" "Well, if you know that apologizing is pointless, then why are you in front of my door at 2 in the morning?", she asks, and even though she wants to sound sharp and cold a certain amount of softness leaves her tongue. When it came to Seth, she understands that she will always and forever hold some gentleness for him in her heart. Y/N wonders if he knows that too.

"Honestly, I have no idea.", he confesses, a small smile forming on his lips:" I- I think that I blacked out about an hour ago because I can't find my car keys, and if I didn't come here with my car- I don't know how I did it." He hears a small chuckle coming from the other side of the door.

"You were right by the way.", he adds:" I was lying to you. I never stopped loving you once, not for one second. And the last few months without you have been so painful." "Yeah, I know."

The quiet that follows is suffocating. Seth knows that he is in no position to demand anything from her. He broke up with her, not the other way around. He fucked up. This was on him. "And I thought that I could forget about you. I really-.", he chuckles dryly and shakes his head in disbelief:" I really thought that I could pretend that I wasn't lying. Every day, whenever my mind drifted to you I stopped whatever I was doing to remind myself that what I did was the right choice. But when I saw you yesterday, I realized that there is no one else on this planet that I would rather want to spend my life with. And I know this is so desperate, but fuck, maybe I came here to ask you to take me back."

The final sentence leaves his lips as a whisper, and parts of him were hoping that she didn't hear him. Maybe this was a dream, maybe in reality he was at home in his bed with his cats.

He closes his eyes for a second. Fuck, he is so pathetic. But then he can sense how the door he is leaning against moves. Seth quickly turns around, and when he looks up he makes eye contact with Y/N. His Y/N.

"Hi."; he says, and slowly stands up. He really wishes that he could have said something else instead, but the words are all getting stuck in his throat. "Hey.", Y/N replies, while a soft smile plays on her lips.

"Hi."

#seth macfarlane #seth macfarlane x reader #x reader #seth macfarlane imagine #imagine #angst #seth macfarlane angsty

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holmesillustrations · 9 months

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Vote for your favourite, the top 9 will proceed in the bracket. Since theyre all different shapes and sizes, make sure to click into the full views!

Paget Eliminations / Other Artist Eliminations

Full captions and details for each illustration below the cut:

All Sidney Paget illustrations are for the Strand Jul 1891 - Dec 1904

"They found the body." Boscombe Valley Characters: James and Charles McCarthy

"You are the very man." Blue Carbuncle Characters: James Ryder, Watson, Holmes

"Oh any old key will fit that bureau." Beryl Coronet Characters: Mary, Arthur, and Alexander Holder

"He held out his hands quietly." Cardboard Box Characters: Lestrade, Jim Browner

"I held up a warning finger." Reigate Squires Characters: Holmes, Watson, Col Hayter

"I won't waste your time," said he." Naval Treaty Characters: Holmes, Watson, Annie Harrison, Percy Phelps

"There's our man, Watson! Come along." Hound of the Baskervilles Characters: Holmes, Watson, Disguised Stalker?

"From its craggy summit I looked out myself across the melancholy downs." Hound of the Baskervilles Characters: Watson

"A wild-eyed and frantic young man burst into the room." Norwood Builder Characters: John Hector MacFarlane, Watson, Holmes

"Sketch map showing the locality." Priory School

"He endeavoured to read through them." Golden Pince-nez Characters: Holmes

#acd holmes #sherlock holmes #tumblr bracket #sherlock holmes illustrations #elim poll #sp elim

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ginger-snap-talkin-nonsense · 11 months

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Okay but fr, what is your beef with indie animation?

Idk, it really seems like yourself and the rest of the Lilysphere seem to fucking hate creatives and go to bat for executives, think-tanks and corporations more often.

I don’t have a problem with indie animation. I have a problem with the way 9000 of you parasocial losers will tell me I simply MUST watch this new thing that’s come up within 12 hours of its release only for y’all to drop it as quickly as you picked it up because the new shiny thing got announced a week later.

It doesn’t exactly sew confidence in me that your love of these projects is as fickle and fleeting as YouTube ads with a skip function. It’s why I’m passionate and consistent about the things I like.

I like Young Sheldon, and I’ll go to bat for it time and time again because Young Sheldon isn’t all flash made to amuse me like I’m a toddler being given jingly keys-I’ve got things to sink my teeth into and actually talk about. Frankly to see the staunch refusal to accept that creatives exist everywhere-even on projects made by the dreaded corporations-is enough to convince that someone needs to be going to bat for these people. Someone needs to be out there looking at Chuck Lorre and Seth MacFarlane like human beings making interesting and dynamic choices with their art.

Also Lilysphere? That’s where we’re at now? God you people need some fucking outside time.

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agentnico · 8 months

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Ted - Season 1 (2024) review

Look, it’s a live-action Family Guy. Let’s not even sugarcoat that fact.

Plot: It's 1993, and Ted the bear's moment of fame has passed. He's living back home with his best friend, John Bennett, and his family. While Ted may be a lousy influence on John, he's a loyal pal who will go out on a limb for friendship.

The Ted movies are enjoyable if a tad forgettable pieces of comedic crudeness. Also they haven’t aged the best, so I was quite apprehensive when I heard that they were making a prequel streaming series based on the property. Originally I was not even planning on watching it, however upon its release on the streaming service Peacock, which by the way has anyone even heard of Peacock?? I swear there are so many streaming services around now that it’s hard to keep up with them all. That Weird Al movie that came out a year ago was on something called Roku. Still have no clue what the fudge is Roku! Can’t we just get these streaming companies to bundle up into one and give us all the content on one singular platform? Now is that too much to ask!? Apparently so. Regardless, with that rant aside, let’s talk about the Ted show.

Indeed it’s a surprise that the Ted series is actually kind of good! It’s a throwback to the 90s American sitcoms, with the show focusing on not only the bear but also on his family living in the suburbs. And each family members gets up to their amusing antics every episode, and though none of it breaks any new comedic ground, I must say this was a very enjoyable and easy watch. For one, this show is actually funny. From the ridiculous scenarios that occur, with Ted and John smoking weed for the first time, to their dad wishing upon a star and bringing his toy truck to life who becomes a Republican racist, to John going to buy a condom at a supermarket where an overly nice shop assistant helps him to pick what kind only to turn out to be a creep who runs away as soon as another shop assistant appears. Look, it’s all ridiculous and stupid, but for the most part a lot of the jokes land.

Also, it’s so easy for the teddy bear to steal the show, and of course Seth Macfarlane is on top form riffing and throwing insulting one-liners left and right, and there’s also so much physical and slapstick comedy that comes from the bear’s movements, from how he runs to the way he stares at people with emotionless eyes. The teddy is great, and also even though he’s crude, he never became tiresome or annoying, whereas in the movies he did get a tad repetitive. However the human characters also get enough development and focus that you warm up to the entire family. The kid that plays John was actually spot on with his Mark Wahlberg impression, nailing the accent, but also as a whole he did a great job having to act mostly next to CGI character. His chemistry with the bear was very good, and you felt their friendly camaraderie. As for the parents, the mum was hilarious as the innocently nice housekeeper who was super naive about everything, and the dad at first came off annoying and selfish, but as the show progressed you warmed up to him too due to the solid writing. Then Giorgia Whigham rounds up the cast as the rebellious cousin who disagrees with the old-school beliefs of the family, but also ends up being a key support to each character.

In terms of the negatives, for a show that’s billed as a sitcom, the episodes were way too long. The premiere alone was 50 mins, and then rest ranged around the 40 minute mark, and so pacing did drag at times. Especially when certain jokes were stretched out longer than they should be, they really should have been kept to around 20 mins. Aside of the pacing issues, this was a solid comedy show.

Ted by no means reinvents the comedic genre, however it’s truly an amusing show that will have you smiling throughout, and turns out to be way better than it had any right to be. Also the special effects on the bear are also really impressive. He really does look like a real talking bear, and the movements were all fluid and well done. So yep, Ted is a win. Here’s hoping for a second season!

Overall score: 7/10

#Ted #seth macfarlane #family guy #ted series #ted season 1 #Ted series review #2024 #streaming #tv series #max burkholder #giorgia whigham #scott grimes #alanna ubach #comedy #sitcom #ted tv show #peacock #2024 shows #everybody needs a best friend

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gmanem · 15 days

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The Orville Season 4 Will Have A Key Decision To Make After A Big Season 3 Change https://screenrant.com/the-orville-season-4-new-horizons-subtitle-keep-change/

#the orville

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no1frogfan · 2 years

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Desire lines, part 1

Kuroo x afab reader

Series synopsis: Against his wishes, Kuroo must hire a personal assistant. You’re not exactly the right person for the job, but it’s a job, and you need the money. Inspired by Robert Macfarlane’s definition of desire lines in landscapes: “paths and tracks made over time by the wishes and feet of walkers, especially those paths that run contrary to design or planning.”

Chapter word count: ~1.4k

Chapter tags & warnings: some sexually suggestive language

Note: Since I’m throwing all my half-baked series ideas out there, here’s another one. I’ve literally already written 25k for this series but I’m completely dissatisfied with most of it. So fly free, dumb little thing, and bring me back some better ways of progressing this story. Side note: small celebration for this, my 20th piece of writing posted to tumblr! It’s especially fitting since this is the first series I attempted to write when I started this blog 5 months ago, and because Kei & Tetsu are my deepest, truest loves

Series masterlist part 2

1. Best-laid plans

“I don’t want to hear any more excuses, Kuroo. You will do it, and that’s final.” Nishida states forcefully, turning his attention back to the papers in front of him. A clear sign that the conversation is over.

“Yes sir, Nishida-san.” Kuroo bows stiffly as he backs out the door.

In the privacy of his own office, Kuroo collapses behind his desk with a string of quiet curses.

Being a director comes with a lot of perks. The promotional game he’d organized a few years ago had turned out to be a massive success, reinvigorating volleyball in Japan and bringing in scores of new fans. On the back of that and a few other creative and well-executed events, he finally landed that sought-after position 3 months ago — Director of the Sports Promotion Division at the Japan Volleyball Association.

At the age of 30, he’s the youngest director in the organization.

He’d earned it with the best pitch he’s ever made — a long-term partnership with FIVB, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, to train and support coaches and referees throughout Japan. “This partnership will require intensive investment of our time and existing resources, but the payoff will be exponentially greater. Think about how much of an impact this could have on our organization locally, nationally, and globally. On the local level, we’ll be able to improve and expand the existing leagues by increasing the caliber of current coaches and training new coaches who can build new teams and bring more young talent into the sport. On the national level, a higher quality of gameplay means more exciting games, more news coverage, and a higher profile for the sport as a whole, allowing the JVA to further build upon on the momentum of growing fan interest across Japan. Finally, on the international level, the partnership with the premier international volleyball organization would increase the visibility of the JVA and of Japan as a volleyball powerhouse around the world.” By the end of his spiel, Nishida and the other executives were practically eating out of the palm of his hand.

As Director, Kuroo’s life is not bad at all. He gets to design more impactful projects. He gets his own corner office on the 38th floor with a stunning view overlooking the city. Plus, he received a substantial raise, though he barely has time to spend any of that money. The one thing he did splurge on was a larger apartment in Kagurazaka, an eccentric neighborhood he’d always wanted to live in. The new place is closer to his grandparents and to Kenma too, not that he’s been able to squeeze in more than one brief visit a month over the past year.

Yes, there are certainly a lot of upsides to being Director. But there are a lot of downsides too.

There’s so much more administration than he ever imagined. Most of his time each week is spent in tedious managerial meetings when he'd much rather be running around, boots on the ground, meeting players and making deals. The paperwork, the departmental politicking, the boring pleasantries, the late hours almost every night… It’s all worth it to make his dream a reality, but it’s taking a toll. Even Kenma of all people chided him about it.

The thing is, getting the promotion was only the first big hurdle he had to clear on the way to his goal of expanding volleyball and truly lowering the net. He’s been working toward this FIVB partnership for almost a year now, and he’ll be reaching his second big hurdle in one month when representatives from FIVB will be visiting the JVA for the first time to officially begin talks on the details of the project.

Or at least, he thought that was his second big hurdle, but now it seems like Nishida-san has thrown a new one in front of him: find an assistant, no ifs, ands, or buts.

Kuroo tried his best to fight it. He really doesn’t need a babysitter. As long as he gets his work done and goes to his meetings, if he wants to leave early on a whim, he can do it, and he if wants to take a long lunch, he can do that too… And if Satoko needs to “double check the numbers” on the accounting sheets, or Aya wants to “talk over potential new hires,” well, nobody is the wiser. (Sure, maybe the stress is getting to him more than he wants to admit, and sure, maybe he’s not dealing with it in the best way, but he’s got needs too and this works out for everyone involved.) So why would he willingly give up that freedom and flexibility to have someone constantly watching over his shoulder, micromanaging his schedule, and reporting his whereabouts to everyone?

But that’s obviously not what he told Nishida. He informed Nishida he simply doesn’t need an assistant. That he’s handling things very well on his own and is perfectly capable of continuing to do so. Plus, think of how much money it would save the company to not have to pay an additional salary!

Unfortunately, his unfailing charisma finally failed him.

See, Nishida was concerned about optics, especially for their meetings with FIVB. How would it look to the FIVB representatives if the Director of Sports Promotion at JVA had to make his own coffee? Take his own notes? Schedule his own flights? “We can’t have one of our directors hashing out a meeting schedule with one of their interns! It would look like we’re not a serious organization. It would look like we lack the capital and leverage to hold up our end of any cooperative agreements. Listen, Kuroo, this isn’t just about what you want. It’s about the impression our entire organization makes when we negotiate with other entities.”

Nishida laid down the law: Be a team player. Find a personal assistant within two weeks or Nishida would find one for him.

So, right now, Kuroo is unquestionably more focused on the downsides of his position.

The conversation with Nishida plays over and over again in his head as he tries to figure a way out of this mess. Naturally, he dials his first port of call whenever he’s in trouble.

“Oi, I’ve got a problem.” Kuroo starts as soon as the ringing stops.

“What is it now, Kuro?” Kenma responds curtly, yells and bangs from whatever game he’s playing popping off in the background.

“It’s serious!”

“You say that every time.”

“Well it’s really serious this time.”

“Must be if you’re calling me.”

Kuroo’s voice softens. “Sorry I’ve been MIA. The prep for this FIVB meeting has been kicking my ass.”

“Good.”

“I really do need your help though.”

The game sounds stop. Kuroo knows it means fine, I’m listening.

He explains the situation with a sigh, equal parts frustrated and exhausted, “— and now I have to hire a personal assistant even though I don’t need or want one.”

The other end of the line remains silent as Kenma carefully considers the options.

Finally, landing on, “Why don’t you just hire someone?”

“Oi—” Kuroo yowls, “Were you listening? I said I don’t want an assistant!”

Kenma’s eye roll is almost audible. “I know that, but you still have to hire someone, right? Otherwise you’ll be stuck with whoever Nishida hires.”

“…Right…”

“Right. So take the initiative and hire someone. And then just have them do nothing.”

It’s Kuroo’s turn to be silent now.

“Hello?”

“I’m here.” Kuroo replies slowly, trying to decipher the plan. “What do you mean have them do nothing?”

“Exactly what it sounds like.” The sounds of his game start up again. “Whoever you hire will probably have to take notes at your meetings and do a bit of administrative work just to keep up appearances with Nishida and the others at the office, but then the rest of the time is theirs…as long as it looks like they’re working. It’s a win-win. You get to do keep doing what you’re doing and they get paid a full salary to do whatever they want.”

A sly cackle erupts from Kuroo, “As expected, another brilliant strategy from the Brain! But where am I going to find someone like that…”

#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu #kuroo tetsurou #kuroo x reader #kuroo tetsurou x reader #hq x reader #froggy scribbles

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

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Prosecutors have revealed that convicted Capitol rioter Larry Brock concocted a bloodthirsty plan to seize power on January 6th, 2021 that involved taking hostages, arresting journalists, and cutting off food and water to cities where Democratic voters lived.

As flagged by CBS News' Scott MacFarlane, prosecutors say that Brock wrote down his plan to overthrow the United States government on Christmas Eve, roughly two weeks before he and his fellow Trump supporters would storm the United States Capitol building.

As part of the plan, Brock outlined a series of "key tasks" that included initiatives to "seize all Democratic politicians and Biden key staff and select Republicans (Thune and McConnell)," at which point they would "begin interrogations using measures we used on Al Queda (sic) to gain evidence on the coup."

He then called for his fellow Trump supporters to "seize national media assets and key personnel," and then "eliminate them."

As if this weren't enough, he then issued a directive to "let the Democratic cities burn" and "cut off power and food to all who oppose us."

To cap everything off, he said that former President Donald Trump should then issue a "general pardon for all crimes up to and including murder of those restoring the Constitution and putting down the Democratic Insurrection."

Brock was convicted last year on multiple charges, including a felony obstruction of an official proceeding and five misdemeanor counts related to the riots.

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elmaestrostan · 10 months

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It makes me sad knowing what this sweet bean went through towards the end at Arsenal, but… damn, I’m glad if it had to happen to lead to this.

He’s ours and he’s perfect 💜💙

Paywall article text under the cut 🤝

Upstairs at Aston Villa’s Bodymoor Heath training ground, overlooking the newly refurbished gymnasium, sits Unai Emery’s office.

His room is divided into three, with a door-sized hole between each. It is where Villa’s footballing decision-makers for the head coach, Monchi and Damian Vidagany, work.

“Obsessive” is a frequently used description from those who have worked with Emery. It is his overarching coaching trait and a blessing or a curse, depending on the club he works at.

It is four years to the day since Emery was sacked at Arsenal. It hurt him deeply given it was a decision he did not see coming. Such was his insular, all-consuming manner, he felt blindsided and unaware of the growing scepticism in his project. He believed there remained total belief in him having integrated young players, such as Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah into the first team, which, in his mind, displayed the early buds of a new, youthful Arsenal.

UNAI-EMERY-BUKAYO-SAKA-

Emery gave Saka his Arsenal debut (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Since his sacking, however, the 52-year-old has spoken to close friends, accepting he was too focused on just the football aspect within a club where politics are rife and diplomacy is key.

Increasingly at Arsenal, he was regarded as too introspective and not tending to the broader picture. The difference at Villa is that they indulge his footballing obsessions, building a network of his own choosing around him, all of whom he trusts implicitly and, as explained by Vidagany, a close friend and the director of football, takes care of most off-the-field matters.

He shares a trusting relationship with owners Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, demonstrated in their holding company, V Sports, announcing a partnership with Real Union earlier this week. In June, Emery and his brother, Igor, acquired a controlling stake in the Spanish club, for whom their father and grandfather both played and who now sit in the regional third tier.

Arsenal are a huge club interweaving several large departments. Politics is naturally at stake and, as his predecessor Arsene Wenger was deft in doing, needs an all-encompassing remit that involves managing areas outside of just football. Yet Emery is fanatic about improving his side from a tactical perspective. He pays little attention outside of his close circle and footballing bubble which, invariably, means the structure around him needs to be managed from elsewhere.

As he does at Villa working from 7am to 7pm, he would be at Arsenal’s London Colney training ground until late, brimming with ideas and designing training sessions that were often long. They could irk players, especially on the days before games when Emery was known to spend two to three hours on the grass, practising shape work.

The network Emery inherited at Arsenal was unstable and the boardroom in a state of flux. For a coach replacing a figurehead such as Wenger, whose fingerprints were all over the club, stability from above was paramount.

It was quickly found wanting. Then chief executive Ivan Gazidis immediately left for AC Milan, while recently appointed head of recruitment Sven Mislintat and head of football relations Raul Sanllehi did not last long. Other figures involved in the inner mechanisms, including head of scouting Francis Cagigao and contract broker Huss Fahmy, departed.

Emery wanted to be solely the head coach. This was his strength and why he held three Europa League winners medals — he would add another at his next job Villarreal — and seven trophies in two years at Paris Saint-Germain. Emery did not want to be directly involved in transfer negotiations, only interested in the outcome of deals, nor did he want governance over the day-to-day running of the club.

One of the first calls Emery made before joining Villa was to Vidagany, who initially came in as his personal assistant, so he could manage those aspects off the field. Augmented by the arrival of the president of football operations, Monchi, in the summer, he and Vidagany take care of transfer negotiations, act as sounding boards for players’ and agents’ queries and connect the different departments together. It is widely accepted Emery did not have those figures of personal connection at Arsenal, with Villa intending from the outset to build the club around him.

Vidagany, left, is a key figure in Emery’s staff at Villa (David Rogers/Getty Images)

Within an executive structure that was unsettled, the schism between Arsenal’s departments continued to grow.

“If Mikel (Arteta) had come in straight after Arsene and tried to apply these kinds of hard and fast rules, it would never have worked,” one source told The Athletic in April 2021.

Crucially, it meant the backing for Emery was never firm. The general sense of Emery was that he was so consumed by football that he occasionally failed to see the bigger picture or relate to others.

Even though he was not overly personable, he still retained a warmth. Almost everyone at Arsenal still speaks highly of Emery, even if his sacking hurt him. They are pleased to see his progress since his sacking in November 2019 and his remarkable first year at Villa.

The underlying theme behind Emery’s second crack in England — from a figure of ridicule to being viewed as one of Europe’s elite coaches again — is learning the lessons from Arsenal. He knew a support network that worked in his best interests was essential in building Villa in his image.

Villa staff do not underestimate Vidagany’s importance. There is a feeling that, if Emery had Vidagany at Arsenal, Emery would still be the manager in north London. Similarly at Paris Saint-Germain, Vidagany might have helped manage internal politics and manage broader departments.

When Emery was appointed head coach in October 2022, Villa brought in six staff members to form his backroom team, all known to Emery or who previously worked with him. More Spanish-speaking figures have joined since. Previous sporting director Johan Lange moved away from the day-to-day running of the club to assist the owners in their multi-club model plans before leaving for Tottenham Hotspur, along with former head of recruitment Rob Mackenzie in October.

Both decided to pursue new endeavours after Villa’s existing model was altered to suit Emery. This included the hiring of Alfredo Benito — a former team-mate of Emery’s at Toledo — in a global technical role and another scout in Pablo Rodriguez, who was a former team-mate at Racing Ferrol. Vidagany’s official title changed from personal assistant to director of football in the summer.

Monchi, a close aide from their time at Sevilla, drives the recruitment process under Emery’s demands. Emery, Vidagany and Monchi have formed a “power triangle” in charge of the critical decisions.

Emery views Pep Guardiola’s structure at Manchester City as the most conducive to empowering managerial success. Those close to Emery believe he is on the same level as Guardiola when assessing the best coaches in the world and point out that City’s manager, similarly to Villa’s head coach, has good friends in the boardroom, such as managing director Ferran Soriano and director of football Txiki Begiristain.

“What we need to do here is to let Unai take the sporting decisions, let Monchi choose the players with Unai and all of us provide a strong structure — like a fortress — to give them time to develop the project,” Vidagany told The Athletic in October. “Because in the end, the difference between success and failure is time.”

Sources close to Villa’s players say Emery does not tend to have conversations with members of the team unless they are in matchday squads. Some who have spent prolonged periods out with injury, such as defender Kortney Hause, have only briefly spoken to Emery.

The Spaniard has, however, shown an adept balance in choosing times to learn about his players. During Villa’s pre-season tour of the U.S. this summer, Emery spoke at length with younger players, asking about their ambitions and backgrounds, right down to what their parents do.

Pre-season was exhausting. Lots of travel with lots of games afforded little opportunity for downtime and pushed players to physical exertion, far more than what is accustomed. Yet, among Villa’s players and staff, there is total buy-in, which was not always the case at Arsenal, where certain staples of his management — including lengthy video analysis sessions — were met with consternation.

“With (Steven) Gerrard, training was just training,” says a source close to a Villa player, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “But Emery is so detailed, as he was at Arsenal. He coached them and continues to coach them in every facet of football every single day.”

Emery is demanding of his players (James Gilbert/Getty Images for Premier League)

“The mentality, the desire to win — just everything about him has been absolutely brilliant,” said captain John McGinn following Villa’s 2-1 victory away to Tottenham Hotspur. “He is obsessed about winning today, absolutely obsessed. That mindset and mentality is put into our heads. When we go behind, before we would have crumbled, but today we had our chests out.”

Villa players see purpose in his lengthy video sessions because the benefits are tangible on a matchday. At Arsenal, though, a different view was shared. “When he was doing a tactical presentation, there was a lot of chat,” said one observer.

Emery is highly regarded and accomplished among coaching circles. One young manager at an upwardly mobile side in England’s higher leagues described Emery to The Athletic as “interesting and excellent” in his approach, expressing his joy at watching Villa from a tactical perspective.

“If anyone is trying to get hold of me and I’m not answering, I’m in the meeting room,” said McGinn. “He does a lot of hard work. He wants to win, he’s won throughout his career and there’s no reason why he can’t do that here. He’s drilling that into us. There are a lot of details, a lot of thinking and a lot of concentration required from us. He’s making people concentrate that I didn’t think were capable… I’m not naming any names.”

Emery’s reputation has recovered in England and, four years to the day since his departure from Arsenal, his stock has never been higher. A coach who learned the right lessons but refused to change his principles.

#unai emery #let us embrace you forever and soothe away the Arsenal memories #aston villa #utv

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