#THIS ARE VERY VISUAL THOUGHTS BUT I DONT KNOW HOW TO ANIMATE GUYS

[bloominglegumes]

earthspark season 2 head in my hands,,,

maybe ill delete this later but i want to just get some thoughts out

spoilers below

ok i absolutely love what they set up in season one, every member of the malto family was used so well to compare and contrast with the experiences of the cybertronian characters familiar to us, these tired war veterans and resentful past allies ,,, like one of the big ones in my head right now being their choice to use bumblebee, The Kid Appeal Transformer, making him switch out of being a soldier and into a mentor (not sergeant, not commander, just unqualified older sibling-type position) for a herd of kids who have practically no concept of war and its implications was so so juicy. it's been repeated in practically every bit of transformers media ever that bumblebee is the designated little guy, the friendly one, the autobot who most easily makes friends with aliens, we've seen it in g1, in idw, in bayverse, tfa, tfp, cyberverse, i'm sure there are more versions that i can't think of at the moment

what they did to bumblebee in earthspark was essentially still put him in this best friend role, but the twist was how bumblebee did not even want to be there and didn't know a thing about kids and i loved it and i know many other people loved it as well.. even if the earthspark characters were roughly developed from their g1 base, this bumblebee was so clearly more used to being on a battlefield than just hanging out, he struggled with interactions that weren't like the 'ready to jump into a fight in an instant' dynamic that he was used to, though still having that sort of fuzzy playfulness that bumblebee is always written with ykyk

i think the writers made some really fascinating choices in taking some darker elements like in the idw comics and sort of filtering it for the audience through the malto family, but not baby-padding the real emotions behind the characters' experiences if that makes sense?? take megatrons grief and guilt for instance, the presence of the kids didn't diminish the reality of what he'd done or the consequences, but they sort of worked like a frame to have megatrons actions recounted in a particular direction. thrash's unwillingness to deal with the aftermath of a war the terrans had no part in was so.so real, ik i say it all the time but it was, the characters and the relationships between them were written with this real and intimate nuance that i really wouldn't normally expect from a show targeted for kids, not to mention the very clear and loving representation for poc, lgbtq+ identities, immigrant experiences, disabled ppl,,,

dont even get me started on the visuals, the sound design, the animation quality,,, i've only loosely been in animation college for a bit, i know there's still so much i don't know, but for sure i feel like earthsparks quality was pretty insane for regular series episodes

plus their character designers knew what they were doing + went so hard in the best way,,and the action scenes were beautifully choreographed, every character had their own unique movements and fighting style (think of the soundwave fight in decoy or megatron + optimus against skywarp + novastorm in age of evolution) in a way that i think definitely rivalled tfp in its intricacy and life-feeling. the camera work was stunning, the acting was on point and consistent for each character, the 2d effects were vibrant and gorgeous and so full of life, i'd say earthsparks effects are one of its most distinct stylistic choices and its so so excellent and i adore every smoke cloud and smear and electric zap and ghgruhgf

which is why it breaks my heart seeing season 2 open with such a noticeable decrease in quality,, breaks my heart that they didnt receive enough of a positive reception or whatever exactly it was that led to the earthspark team having to trim down and cushion their story

i still think earthspark is a really fun transformers show with a delightful cast, amazing voice actors, and i don't want to bash any particular member of the crew for things beyond their control. there's no doubt in my mind that the current team on earthspark is full of incredibly skilled artists, and i'm sure many people, including myself, will continue to enjoy the series going forward,, i'm just. disappointed that its not the best that it could have been.

a lot of season 2's writing just felt like.a regular kids show??? feels almost similar to cyberverse's fluctuation in tone throughout each of its seasons, s1 was full of generically-kid-friendly humour and gags, then sort of shockingly plummeted into that whole arc with starscream and the allspark monsters,, like, either direction would be fine and fun, but it's just the sudden change that makes it oofy for me ;-;

from just looking at the visuals, the character animation is less crafted and careful than it is in season 1,, i can really only describe it as it now being closer to what i'd think of as 'regular tv animation, made to be released on a schedule', rather than 'oh my god look at that secondary action replay replay now'. the characters movements are stiffer, less weighted, less natural-feeling, and if you're looking for it, it's clear where they loop animation or sort of sneak their camera shots to simplify actions, like a few fight scenes that had sections simplified into slowmo hit poses rather than being fully animated,, again its more or less fine for any other tv series, but it just feels off after being used to the look we had in s1

then the character animation goes hand in hand with the character writing + the dialogue, also just feeling like a lot of the original story they wanted to tell has been padded up and swaddled with more lighthearted, universally acceptable, safe plots. the goals and obstacles that came up in each episode didn't have the same emotional depth as in s1, where the main leads of each ep gained some sort of insight after their experiences + had some sort of vulnerability exposed, yknow yknow??

there are still traces of some juicier bits in there, like for instance i really like the section with the quintesson executioner causing mo to begin doubting quintus prime's intentions, then later the titan being all 'quintus is a prime and you should respect him' in a decently menacing way,, and i am glad that they had hashtag call out starscream and reminded him of their earlier conversation, i really hope they do something with those, but my point still stands that there were few parts of s2 i felt had some deeper meaning that can be built upon in the future.

i feel like the decision to make a timeskip was somewhat of a cop out as a means of explaining away how robby + mo have full control over these cybersuits now, how the maltos aren't shown having any more intra-family or identity-related conflict, how the decepticons all decided to follow starscream and go right back to fighting, etc etc, like 'oh well a year passed, things happened, this is just how things are now' like??? what happened to all that delicious heavy emphasis on growth and the choice to become better as a person and connecting to other people that was in s1,,

i know the decepticons wouldn't all have suddenly decided to buddy up with the autobots, but timeskipping a year and just reverting to the typical autobots vs decepticons dynamic we've had forever, without ever again really showing the thought processes of any of the characters in depth regarding the return to hostilities, when they just spent the whole previous season establishing how everyone is handling the aftermath of the war,,,, its like they've suddenly been turned back into generic cartoon villains instead of the unique individuals with their own thoughts and motives that they were introduced as,,

[diverting for a sec here im also just so sad that theres been nothing to fuel my enjoyment of megatron being very estranged from his high command,, barely anything to fuel the divorced-remarried 3p megoplita dynamic like,,,,, starscream praised soundwave and shockwave both individually, op and megatron had another one of those finishing-each-others-sentences moments, op called his and elitas relationship "complicated" and i love that, but please i'm begging here elaborate,,,give me more drama to work with,,]

even when there are like.objectively horrible scary things happening, like mo going 1v1 against the quintesson, cosmos being fully conscious trapped in alt mode for 15 years, jawbreaker essentially fusing with aftermath and getting betrayed and all their cavewater stolen (is that not an issue??) ,, i feel like the characters are remarkably.unreactive???? maybe its just another timeskip cop out, ~a year has passed so they've gotten used to it~, except they all still clearly behave like the children they are,.

and it seems to be turning earthspark from being, in my opinion, one of the most emotionally charged + mature transformers series out there rn into just. i'm going to say it again, it's just starting to feel like a generic kids show, unless whoever controls this show at hasbro can get it back to the high standard it started itself at.

i've read news of nightshade's pronouns being cause for negative reception, and some reviews of s1 say earthspark is too 'woke', that kids shouldn't be watching shows pushing that type of agenda. i'm not sure if that's the main reason for this big change in s2 for the much 'safer' writing, or if there's more that i'm just not aware of right now, but like. man. i hate.creativity trying to survive capitalism the show is about love and family and cool robots wtf is wrong with people who genuinely hate that

i know i won't make much of an impact with just this post, i doubt anyone is still reading this,, but seriously, earthspark is clearly a love letter made by tf fans for tf fans, in such a wonderful, gorgeous package, and it really breaks my heart so much to see all the great things established in season 1 practically go to waste. i haven't said this enough before, if you enjoy earthspark, please support it through official means however you can, leave good reviews or buy their stuff, just let the decision-makers know they can profit from making this show better,, i really hope it survives to complete the story they want to tell

[psshaw]

You have been one of the most unapologetically yourself artists Ive come across and I dont mean that in the cliche way I mean like... your idiosyncrasies seem particularly unstifled. Your art is purely yourself and the mainstream isnt gonna go for it but the audience you do speak to gets to feel like an alien finding someone else from their homeland. AI image gen feels like a beautiful cake with flowery frosting and when you cut into it its actually frosting all the way down and has nothing of substance. I obviously can speak only in metaphors lol so I just wanted to say I appreciate reading your thoughts on AI and tho I feel strongly abt it I have a hard time putting exacting words to what about it is so worrying to me. As an artist it energizes me when I see artists who are wildly unique and expressing themselves without a care to their skill limitations or personal strangenesses (read: mainstream unmarketability). Manga artist ONE and his charming and funky style is a great example. Anyway I love your thoughts and wanted to say thanks and also throw words at you

FUCKIGN DAMN DUDE, ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE ME CRY? Why is the weather getting misty on my face specifically. Thank you. My most contentious trait is that I keep forgetting to care what people want from me.

It's really interesting following people who are very honest but more mathy than me, because the way they talk about art and AI lately has gotten... increasingly callous. Even bitter. It's partly justified, because artists tend to suck at defending themselves charismatically. ("AI art isn't real art"; the "AI can't do hands" thing was always destined to age badly) But also, I can't stand the sheer selfishness of people who claim to be rational but don't seem know how to investigate what art at its best is for and why they view it the way they do. When I read "AI is great for hobbyists" I'm like. 95% of the time, I'M A HOBBYIST... I would never generate a script, or music... javascript maybe, but I'd feel guilty about it... but the excitement? I think some guys are just looking to suckle on a feeding tube. Cos they were done a disservice by thinking they had to stop visual art after fingerpainting!

I don't think AI NEVER has substance, but the type of person who gets excited about AI doesn't tend to do interesting things with it. And what really bothers me is that I can never tell exactly WHAT they did, versus how much was a coin flip. This is useless for understanding your voice as an artist. I don't care to see more by you.

ONE is a perfect example. His style MAKES that story. The manga and the anime feel so different. That's why I hate when people say that hating AI is discriminating against people who can't draw, cos like... if you can't make something intentional and real without using what's functionally a search engine, why would I believe you're having ideas worth the cliche conceptartdotcom overrendered AI polish at all? Not to be a dick, but like. In terms of rate of return on my attention investment, so far I'd do better by sitting at a craps table.

[s0lar-ch3ri]

looking at character stuff for later art

first off, how did so many people forget caspians not a triton? im so confused by that????

next thing, if you want a good marshal john reference and google had none (for me it did not at least), take my screenshot from ep 101, 3:45 for timestamp:

also why does john have that arm covering thing im hoping he didnt lose his arm and its a fun sleeve but ik im wrong WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BOY

nobody fucking told me there was this epic visual animation for the girls fighting!

OH ASTER I LOVE WOMEN

THE LIP PIERCING?? HELLO???? JESUS I SEE WHY AVA LOVED HER OH MY ASTER i dont mean to have so much on lizzie BUT LIZZIE OH GODDESSES EVEN WHEN GOING THROUGH YOUR TRAUMA AGAIN YOUR SO FUCKINY HOT AND SEXY

...i see why lizzie loved ava

OK BUT FR THE FIRE HAIR??? JESUS SHES LIKE SO PRETTY WOW (also the comparison to jason is a nice touch)

i cant stop im so sorry she is so fine

alright this one is just for me to say WOMEN HOT IM GAY but i must say women hot im gay

its kinda interesting to me how different these two look, honestly! like, when i first saw jay on the animatic type thing, i thought how clean she looks, while lizzie is more rugged and shit, cool design details i noticed lol

okay ollie time! when looking up shit for ollie, i checked the fan wiki, and apparently while ollie had the compass he experienced nightmares of some unknown sort. chip met with niklaus in a dream, and he was the first to get a nightmare arc. i wonder....yes this is a kuba kenta and niklaus hendrix made a deal type shit

the belt is not a fucking belt it looks like a corset i cant make this shit up

LOOK AT IT

also i love how he still has the feather i think thats very sweet

oh and also the bandana for some reason looks ever so dirty to me yet fine at the same time

WAIT IGNEOUS IS LIKE RAINBOW??? THATS SICK AF

LOOK ALSO HOLY SHIT THAT SWORD FUCKING HUGE AND ITS THAT COLOR YOU WANNA TOUCH BUT CANT YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN

anyways if you join me next time we will be taking a deep undersea level dive to find out if people noticed caspian had a tattoo or if you guys are sluts for his boobs

[largishcat]

hi! i saw your post a few days ago about meditation, and i wanted to ask if you have any tips on how to get started, or if you'd like to share your experiences if you're comfortable. I've been trying to get into meditation since forever, but i have chronic "think too much worry too hard" disease and none of the apps ever worked for me....

(general disclaimer i am not an expert etc) so weirdly enough, meditation is actually great for sufferers of “think too much worry too hard” syndrome, although it really seems like it shouldn’t be. a while back, I had a massive, terrible depressive episode, and one of the major symptoms i suffered from was getting caught in negative thought spirals that I couldn’t get out of. it felt like my brain was dashing itself against my skull like a caged animal. terrible time. i turned to meditation out of desperation, and it really did help me. i credit 3 things with enabling me to drag myself out of that uhhhh 18 month depressive episode

dropping out of college and moving across the country

keeping up a daily meditation practice

getting a job at a bakery that I hated but did force me to go outside and interact with people

the thing about meditation is, it won’t make negative thoughts go away, but it will a) decrease the gravity of them, and b) it will make you less scared of them

because negative thoughts are, in fact, scary and they can hurt. repressing that shit is a genuine way to prevent harm to yourself, ESPECIALLY if you are prone to negative thought spirals. what meditation did for ME was it allowed me to not spiral. a negative thought would happen, but it would not catch in my brain like a hook anymore. it would happen, and then I would move on, and it was fucking great

this has already gotten long but i do have some tips!!

dont bother with the fuckin apps they’re all corporate bullshit these days. i DID use headspace when i was first starting out, but that was years ago when they still gave you the entire first module for free. there are free guided meditations on youtube, use those. they’ll teach you the basic techniques (counting, noting, visualization) just as well

make it easier. with yoga, if you can’t get into a pose, they’ll tell you to do a modified version. it’s the same. there is this very basic meditation exercise where you breath slowly and count to ten. one in, two out, etc. and you just have to get to ten without being distracted. when i first started meditating, I couldn’t fucking do it. i could NOT make it to ten without getting caught in a spiral. so i made it easier. i counted to two, over and over again, until i got the hang of it

it’s all about the breath. some bozos (headspace guy) will tell you you can breath however you want, this is NOT TRUE. it’s the breath that guides you into the meditative state. i guess it’s possible for you to achieve it if you’re breathing shallowly, but i know it’s way easier when you do the traditional deep, slow, gentle breathing. it literally forces your body to relax and your heart to slow

make sure you’re at a point in your life where you can afford to be emotionally tender. this is the warning label i was talking about. if you have stuff to bring up, it’s coming up, and it won’t be super great. you are GOING to be in your feelings for a bit. it lasts a few days to a couple weeks. if your life/work is very stressful and likely to press on that bruise, decide if it’s worth it. and make sure you’re prepared to do self care. you have to take care of yourself like you have the flu, essentially

you aren’t getting the full benefits until you achieve the full meditative state, and it might take a minute to get there. so, in my experience, there are like three states you pass through during each session. 1) there’s the more or less awake state, when you’re first starting. this is when you first close your eyes and start concentrating on your breathing. it’s very easy to get distracted during this stage, and you might even get stuck here as you’re just starting out. 2) the next stage is the BAD TIMES stage, this is when the bad feelings are going to trickle up to the surface. keep breathing through it, use whatever technique you’re practicing this session (noting, visualization, just plan counting) and keep going. you DONT want to stop at this stage, you will feel terrible. but the good news is you probably won’t get stuck here. 3) the final state beyond that is true mediation

you’ll know when you reach the correct state because it’s awesome. i experience it as a sense of coolness and lightness, like im full of crisp fall air. i think other people might experience it as warmth? it’s probably different for everybody. breath becomes naturally deep and you stop being bored. just breathing and existing become perfectly fulfilling activities (that’s the altered mental state, babyyyy). thoughts may be gone or they may still be drifting around, but none of them will seem dire, your breath is more interesting than them. and the great part is you can hang out here as long as you want! coming back up is as easy and wriggling your toes and opening your eyes. or you can just fall asleep from here if you’re doing a bedtime meditation. even a few minutes in this state is so nice and restorative, and the sense of calm lingers

this turned into an essay, but i hope this was helpful!

[denzartriste]

Actually explaining things in the animorph au because honestly i feel like anyone who does research about this stuff on their own would be confused and also im better than any wiki's /j

Fundy, Tommy, Tech, and Foolish all have the power to morph. Morphing in this context means someone who has been given the technology too absorbs an animals dna (by touching the animal. I say animal but it can be any species, including their own apparently??? Book 12 opened up so many possibilities im refusing to think about), they can then morph into that animal/species. They get the animal's brain and their own fighting for control - some brains are easier to control than others. For example, a lizard brain will see a spider and want to eat it. A bug brain will probably see a spider and want to avoid it, morphers work with the insticts or against them, depends on their goal. (also once they absorb dna they can morph at any time. They also have two hour period where they can be in it, if they dont change back before two hours they get stuck in their morph. Techno in the au panicked, tried to morph back to human, and got stuck in between boar and human.)

^ Fundy and Tommy are humans, so the way they got the technology to morph is harder to figure out than how Foolish, an Andalite, got it.

Speaking of Andalites! If you need a visual reference looking up "Elfangor animorphs" will give you it, but im more explaining what the hell Andalites are. They are a pretty 'advanced' species, with advanced technology and the technology to morph - That's there thing, morphing. Also they can always tell what time it is, which is neat. Character wise: They would rather be dead then captured, they highly hate the Yeerks, have sympathy for the Hork-Bajir, and also are a bit of bitches. Im right they are im not getting into it but holy hell they are - anyways other than that they are pretty similar to regular humans, oh but also! huge honour thing going on. If someone in their family dies or whatever because of someone, they have a duty to kill that person once they come of age. Also they have a rule of not sharing their tech with anyone (the human morphers- or animorphs- got their ability from someone who did not follow that rule.)

Next important animorph species to talk about, Hork-Bajir! That's what Sam is, but please dont use him as a refrence to what they look like lmao. This is also my interpretation of them physically, because i dont agree with the actual thing they look like: So many blades in their bodies. Arms? Yeah those have blades. Legs? Blades! I imagine it as being farming scyth looking, because they are a peacful species so thats my thought for why they have bodies that can easily be used as weapons. Also, they have some scales and coarse moss looking fur - moss part is not accurate to the books but you dont know that. Maybe it is. Also the hork-bajir as a species is fully controlled by yeerks. (Which is why a lot of people in my au think Sam is a controller)

Speaking of controllers! (im so good at segways) Controllers is a term for someone who is being controlled by a Yeerk. Phrased as [species] Controller. Example: Human Controller, Hork-Bajir Controller, Andalite Controller, ect

Yeerks are the evil guys tm. Little slugs that wrap around someone's brain to control them, when they control someone the person is also fully concious, able to communicate with the Yeerk, theoretically able to gain control back for a moment or two, and feel the Yeerk looking through their memories. On the flip side, the person can also look into the Yeerks memories. And Yeerks memories kinda become one with their hosts/part hosts. Very neat. One of their big weaknesses is needing to feed on gamma rays (what is that? could not tell you i forgot. They feed through it by swimming in a pool/pod thing though) once every three days. They have to leave their hosts to do that. They also have a hiercy of vissers - higher the number, the most important. Sub vissers are below vissers but again, higher the number the more important. They also have a concil but its not important honestly. Also, the reason they're taking over the galaxy is bc Andalites gave them some technology once (thats why they dont do that anymore)

Also im just gonna say real quick because i might make charlie this possibly: Gedds are the first species the Yeerks controlled, i dont know too much about them honestly.

I think that's it - currently Purpled and Charlie arent animorph aliens but again, charlie's up for change (Purpled isnt he's very perfect)

[youremyheaven]

I love your horse post!💘💕

Honestly I’d love to see more discussion about yoni animals. Here are some of my thoughts that I wanted to share with you because I’m not sure if I’m misinterpreting stuff or not

(Yap incoming)

-Snake yoni are the type of people to like sex for the emotional connection rather than the physicality? Not that they don’t like the physicality, but rather they like how physicality connects them with that person instead of just the pleasure of it. For mrig specifically, you talked a lot about mars and celibacy which I agree with, but I know a lot of mrig moons with horse/buffalo yoni suns who are very sexually active and open about it, but it’s usually not very casual to them even if it’s outside a relationship

- A lot of cat yoni have sex only so that they can have children. You mentioned a while back in a post about how sex is painful for cats and vaginismus in cat yoni women, but also historically cats have always been a symbol of motherhood due to the fact that they can have large litters. Again I’m sure some cat yoni moons still like sex bc of other placements but still

- But then you have rat/hares who have such huge litters to the extent that they become invasive species. I can’t remember if it was Claire who said about how jyestha men are the types to have 1000 illegitimate children due to the hare yoni influence 😂 I feel like these ppl are the opposite of snake/cat yoni because they just have sex to physically satisfy themselves

-Elephant yoni are kind of private about their sexual attraction? Even though they’re one of the horniest yoni, they have this sense of dignity which makes them keep most of their sex drive to themselves. Not as in they’re conservative, you just wouldn’t have them pinned as a freak if you didn’t know them like that

-I have a theory that smaller yoni are more passive sexually, mainly because the smaller sex drive means they don’t have that “instinct” to tell them what to do so they’d rather have someone else do the legwork.

Might apply less to straight men because of how they’re socialised, they’re scared to be a little passive because it’s “gay” or whatever. I imagine this would create the kind of guy who expects oral from you but never wants to finger or eat 🐱. Need a field expert to verify that one though

🩷🤍

thanku cutie <33 i'll make more yoni related posts in the future hehe

Snake yoni being emotionally intense and having an emotional attachment to sex is vv true. I dont think they feel satisfied unless they have one of those soul merging tantric type encounters. Their feelings run deep and sex to them is super profound. i feel like that intensity can be scary af for others. Snakes are scary creatures and if you've watched snakes fornicate, you know that its a weird visual where they kind of merge into each other. This is precisely the kind of intimacy these natives crave, they want to merge into you. 🥵scary but hot

the Cat yoni observation is interesting and could be true. idk if it applies to Ashlesha as much bc I've never really met an Ashlesha who had any maternal desire lmao but with Punarvasus it could be true but something I've noticed is that even if they dont really crave/like/want penetration, Cat yoni girliesss love the foreplay sesh,, they love to make out, they love to touch and fondle, they're like cats,, they want affection on their terms basically lmao,, I also think Cat yoni girlies love getting head more than anybody else lmao 👀 for them foreplay is sex and penetration is kind of an afterthought. I also feel like this makes them pillow princesses lmao

I had mentioned this about rat yoni before but yes precisely. sex does not mean much to these natives, they just love the satisfaction they derive from it. their libido is extremely high and they seldom feel satisfied with just one partner.

elephant yoni folks being private could be true??? but i feel like they are the people who are KNOWN for being sexy af,, they may or may not express it openly (some of them, def do) but they are 100% known for their sex appeal,, its the largest yoni animal for a reason. like rihanna, revati moon and rising, angelina jolie, revati moon, megan thee stallion, bharani rising,, cardi b, revati moon etc i feel like they wear their sexuality on their sleeve and talk about it openly?? they ooze such big dick energy, both men and women??? so intimidating and hottt 🥵🥵

you're right about that theory of yours to some extent😉not all small yoni animals are passive, each animal has its own sexual nature, so there are many variations. like cat yoni is def passive and they're pillow princesses who will not reciprocate anything but rat/hare yoni and dog yoni are different from that?? not to let my Venusian men bias show but Purvaphalguni men (rat yoni) will literally cover your whole body in kisses and go to town on you without expecting anything in return,, they love to enjoy the female form?? they love to take pleasure in your physicality and sensuality. making love to you is what is pleasurable to them, not anything you can do for them. looking at you, touching you, feeling you, doing whatever they like with you,, thats whats fun,, so they are not passive in the slighest, in fact they're so passionate and over the top and truly nasty freaks.

Venusian men also love to give head 👀and dont really expect you to return it or anything,, im not saying they'll hate if you do,, except that they're doing it for themselves bc they want to taste you, not for any other reason 🙈

[1800duckhotline]

https://www.tumblr.com/1800duckhotline/748414044204154880/i-seriously-think-this-show-was-created-in-a-lab?source=share

hi! im not able to send you dms but i really want to know what you think about hazbin. i downed the entire thing in a day out of morbid fascination of seeing how that artstyle animates, but the quality of the script and handling of the structure of the show are so dogshit that the show has been lodged in my mind. and my friends who i can rely upon for their thoughtful analysis are not people who would watch it.

basically Hello Send Help

Honestly you summed up most of my plights within the show already, its just dogshit all around flaming and whatnot and i cannot believe there's 30 years old who eat this slop up. i can forgive teenagers for liking it (i am very self-aware as someone who read fucking homestuck when i was 13) but i cannot forgive fully grown adults for thinking this show has any sort of nuanced or well-written story

i finished watching the show feeling less aggravated by the designs and visual dev of the whole thing (though obviously its still really bad), and instead more by how insultingly and exhilaratingly bad the writing was.

i could literally take out my blocknote review of the whole show starting from ep 1 to ep 8 but i want to spare my friends who dgaf about hearing about this show. so ill just try to resume concisely my thoughts using my notes as crutches

this will be a very long one and again to spare people of pain ill put it under a readmore

vivienne medrano does not care about the female characters in her own show. idk about helluvaboss and i honestly dont want to watch it unless someone watches it with me, but from what i hear hazbin hotel was supposed to be the show "focused on the girls" while helluva boss was supposed to "focus on theboys". you'll never guess what happens in this show. the main 2 girls, who are supposed to be protagonist, are completely flat characters, that are given the slightest margin of spotlight THE LAST TWO EPISODES OF THE SEASON, and no 8 episodes isnt a justification for the dogshit writing they have. vaggie is the "angry mean militaristic lesbian of color who also coddles her white girlfriend" and charlie is "goody two shoes who doesn't use her powers as literal PRINCESS OF HELL because it's 'too mean' and who is babied and is also written like a baby that doesnt know how to act besides being 'positive and whimsical'". they are literally a ship trope shipped together because idk.

most of the development in the show is handed onto the guys, obviously, as they get the most songs, most exposure to their backstories, and most interactions that are somewhat written less one-dimensionally than the girls. (not to say the guys aren't also walking ship tropes for fanfic purposes). like you can't spin this in a way that doesn't sound bad, the men just get more spotlight and that's a fucking fact. so much for "focus on the girls". fucking SIR PENTIOUS GETS A SONG AFTER HIS DEATH, GUYS

none of the angel vs hell lore makes any fucking lick of sense, and i dont mean to say it needs to be biblically adjacent, it just doesnt make fucking sense even in the "original" lore it is constructing. how is hell supposed to be a threat to heaven when hell denizens dont have access to heaven?? this question alone makes anyone question what the hell the exterminations really are for. also, like, i really fucking hate adam, he's literally the most annoyingly written villain, like he's not even funny in a trashy way. if you want to make your main villain a hypocrite who's also a massive misogynist and sexist, writing him like a frat bro makes sense if your story is set in a college campus. this is HEAVEN AND HELL. all of his lines are just stupid and senseless for the context this all takes place in (also like lute being essentially a tradwife for him is literally such a stupid choice, if you want to make a meaningful commentary about misogyny among women this isnt how it works)

all of the sin and pure shit and repenting deal is like... literally awful. for a show that prides itself on owning the bigots who think gay sex and doing drugs and doing crimes is all inherently evil, the writing really does not do itself a favor of subverting this real-world bigoted way of thinking. as unintentional as it might be it kind of just reinforces it when the character they decide to 'repent' is fucking angel dust, a literal sex worker stuck in a cycle of abuse with an abusive rapist pimp and who does drugs as a way to cope in his life. because obviously sex work (and bdsm) is inherently sinful and disgusting and the only way to repent is to give up disgusting gay sex and sinful drugs and just stick it to the abuser that has you literally by the leash! i dont think this was intentional but it comes off as hilariously stupid and straight up tactless. (also we don't talk about how the storyboarded for the song poison apparently also drew rape comics of angel dust and valentino before as a kink thing)

oh on the topic of valentino, i dont fucking get people liking him. he is literally shown to be abusive and a rapist. people will see a thin man who's not straight and hump his legs like their life depends on it. at least he isnt white but i'd actually say this makes everything worse because vivienne medrano LOVES making the characters in her show of ambiguous ethnicities/backgrounds and ends up making most of the awful ones, of color. again dont think this is INTENTIONALLY done but it still comes across as horrid nonetheless. whew!!!

also i hate alastor in all types ways sauces and forms. he exists to attract fangirls and rabid fans who love tumblr sexymen. other than his design being tremendously aggravating, he's literally just fucking useless, and i hate that the show tries to shoehorn in halfway that he's supposed to be a "dad figure" to charlie when he literally never has done anything dadlike for her in the whole show (and yes i watched the pilot, i still dont think this counts). the only saving grace for alastor is his voice acting. everything else needs to go. there is no saving this one

and, on the topic of alastor, i'm not the first one to point this out but something about him owning husk's soul (the one character being voiced by a black VA, who coincidentally also has a design that is conveniently ambiguous with him being a fucking. winged cat furry demon ig) has like some really bad vibes about it that i can't quite put my finger on. i'm not entirely qualified to like dissect the issues this whole show has with like... the way certain implied characters of color act within it (i say implied because vivziepop is allergic to giving the main characters of her shows actual dark skin colors that arent grey, except maybe some one-off side characters) but it was just so jarring i had to mention it

i also hate lucifer because again, made for purely fanfic ship tropes and rabid fans who are obsessed with 'pathetic sopping wet cat men' with that signular character trait. his persnality is: Depression and Dad. I literally hated every fucking moment in this show where he was in a scene and was treated as "just some guy". same with charlie. Like the lack of authority they have for a supposed KING AND PRINCESS OF HELL is just... i dont know? stupid?

conclusion is that i hate the show, i will however bee seeing season 2 just because at this point im in it for the long run, its just like, other than the visuals being awful; it was legitimately the least aggravating part for me (THIS DOESNT MEAN I LIKE THEM, I DONT, I HATE THEM TOO) but the whole writing is just... wow. i just don't understand how they got a24 to back this up. like you cant make this shit up this bad even if you tried. and im sure there's a trillion other things other people have more eloquently explained in how and which ways they are bad; these are just some of my thoughts.

my concluding statement is that i also feel really bad for people who do entire rewrites of this thing as 'fans'. i dont get it. like i get doing redesigns because it can be an exercise and because lets be real, like, everyones design is bad, hardly anything is salvageable or makes sense. but rewriting... guys please just make your own stories from scratch. at the cost of being told "omg this is just like hazbin hotel!" you have to persevere and just write your own shit. because doing the redesigns means unpacking heaps of 'lore' that doesnt make any whatsoever sense...

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale reviews: Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

Alright so I FINALLY saw the movie and after an ordeal with the AMC

I can finally give my thoughts on this movie.

So in order to properly rank this. I will put the following Categories.

Animation

Plot

Characters

Music

Fanservice

Lesson

And I will give my final score at the bottom. I will try not to get too spoiler heavy but spoilers below

And for those that dont want ANY spoilers. I will say it is a great kids movie go watch it

______________________________________________________________

Animation:

This movie is Absolutely Gorgeous. Every mushroom, every brick has been lovingly crafted. I LOVE the attention to details, I love how hard each hit feels in this movie. The Choreography in this and flow is incredible. Illumination's eye for visual slapstick is still on a league of its own and it fits very well with the movie.

The character expressions all flowed great and you felt sucked in by the expression. It was like watching a Mario game. Brooklyn, The Mushroom kingdom, The Dark Lands, The Ice Kingdom, The Kong kingdom and Rainbow road ALL felt distinct and flowed. I am IN LOVE with this movies asthetic. The action was perfectly paced, I would even say it matched and surpassed the flowing animation of Puss in boots Last wish.

10/10

____________________________________________________________

Plot

So its pretty straight forward, Bowser tries to take over the kingdom, and he needs to be stopped. Mario and Luigi end up sucked into the mushroom kingdom trying to make a name for themselves as plumbers and get separated.

Mario ends up meeting Toad, Peach and Donkey Kong and the crew end up fighting Bowser and Saving Luigi. It starts as a trip to get reinforcements to fight the koopa army, turns into a race on rainbow road, then turns into a fight at a wedding and then finally a showdown in Brooklyn.

Mario and Luigi save the day and end up finding a connecting route to the the Mushroom kingdom and Brooklyn.

Now there is a LOT that happens in between these plot points and I will say it does feel a bit fast at times. But It is entertaining, Mario and Peach bond. And the scale and excitement never decreases. It is solid.

7.5/10

I wish more time could be spent in some places but thats mainly a pacing thing. and its the only real gripe I have.

___________________________________________________________

Characters

I think I will break this up into multiple sections.

Mario: I will say it, the previews took all the worst bits of Chris Pratt's VA work. Because he actually did a bang up job, I didnt hear Chris Pratt, I heard Brooklyn Mario (And the Accents are explained to be part of the commercial which has Charles cameo AMAZINGLY done)

I liked Mario's character, he was a guy that wanted to prove himself and doesnt know when to quit. Mario also doesnt like mushrooms, it was funny. He can get down on himself, but push comes to shove he is Mario and will do anything for those he loves. He has some cute bonding moments with Peach and they have a good chemistry, which I can say could be romantic or not, both are fine ways of interpretation. His goal and lengths he is willing to go to save his brother are great and I love it. Mario is great in the movie.

Peach: I will admit, I was worried on how they handled peach here. I knew they were going to make her a girl boss. And I do think that she is not as Feminine or Charming as what one would expect from Peach... BUT she has the good heart and cares for her subjects. Which Peach will be self sacrificing to help her people, but also will do what she can to mess with Bowser. As shown in her fight at the wedding. She and Mario got a good dynamic and I enjoy the roll. Though I do like that she isnt invincible, she can be outmatched and there are things even she thinks are too risky.

Luigi: I feel robbed. Not because Luigi's performance was bad, FAR FROM IT. I wanted MORE Luigi. Luigi was captured for most of the movie and had the funniest bits. He also had his big hero moment and really helped drive home one of the big lessons. I am glad that he is supportive of brother and he thinks he is the coolest guy. The characterization of Luigi was PERFECT. But as mentioned before, I wanted more of him

Toad: He was a delight. I think he has great comedic moments and I love how he just claims Mario as his BFF. He gets really funny jokes and the bits are usually out of left field. My favorite has to be how he distracted the guards, I wont dare spoil it, but it involves a Frying pan.

Donkey Kong: I thought I would hate DK. I still am not sold on the voice... THAT BEING SAID. Donkey Kong being the show off big shot that cant see past his own ego and just wants his dad to be proud of him was not what I expected but enjoyed. He also has some good moments. One moment you think he is gonna bond with Mario over Dad issues but then left turn, he goes "Well your dad's right, you suck"

It just sort of works for them, they have this frenemies vibe that I love.

Bowser:

Bowser steals the movie. He is the funniest character. He is the best character. HE WROTE A LOVE BALLAD FOR PEACH called "Peaches". He is goofy yet Intimidating. Jack Black's voice for him was perfect and the Character acting was on point. Jack Black NAILED BOWSER. He is DEFACTO Bowser. I cant say enough of how amazing his bowser was. It was just so perfect.

The others: From Mario's extended family, The Koopas, Kamek, kranky, the Luma, The Penguins. I LOVED all the side characters. I cant name one I didnt enjoy. Shout out to the Blond Kong in a sports Blazer who casually caused a kart crash of a By-stander

Now Aside from Bowser I cant say the characters are deep, but they were not meant to be. They were what they needed to be. I enjoyed all the characters on screen and never felt myself loathing not seeing a certain character for longer.

solid 8/10 (Jack black and bowser are 10/10 tho)

______________________________________________________________ Music

So I wanted to give this a 10/10, but I cant.

I found some of the random 80's rock songs a bit out of place. It is Illumination.

But outside of those songs, when they are doing the mario music and themes they ARE GLORIOUS. Bowser's fury theme and the Remixed Star theme were my personal favorites

All of the mario music is beautifully crafted. You know papa nintendo made sure they did it justice.

Overall, 8/10

The 80's songs werent the worst pick but they werent needed. Should have just stuck with the mario stuff.

But... it is illumination.

______________________________________________________________

Fanservice

ALL OF THE REFERENCES,

FOREMAN SPIKE

Pauline

CHARLES Martinet AS MARIO'S FATHER AND GIUSEPPE

PUNCH OUT PIZZARIA

the musical references,

The princess is in another castle joke.

The sound effects.

The entire movie is CRAMMED FULL of references and jokes that I am sure I didnt get all of them.

This movie was CRAFTED from Fanservice.

Is the Sonic 2 movie is a love letter to the fans,

The Super Mario Bros Movie is a full on Love Biography to them.

I am so full of the fanservice I was squealing

10/10

___________________________________________________________

Lesson

I wasnt expecting the Super mario bros Movie to have a lesson, and to my surprise it had 2 lessons.

Never give up. Mario shows throughout the entire movie his grit and determination no matter how much people look down on him or underestimate him. He got back up and kept fighting.

The power of Brotherly love. Luigi had faith in his brother who was always there for him. And he knew that things will be alright as long as they were together. And Luigi took it to heart, learning that what his brother said was true. Brotherly love made them invincible (well actually it was the power star, but it was because of that love they were able to get it.)

I am not gonna put it at the level of Puss in Boots the last wish. But its some good lessons

7/10

_____________________________________________________________

Overall, this movie, if you arent a Super Mario super fan, Is a solid 8/10

It has good characters, funny/hilarious slapstick and moments, fun action, and great for kids with a good lesson.

If you are a mario super fan (Like me)

Solid 9.5/10

I would watch it again no questions. I do wish it had more Mareach and Yoshi

[hydrxnessa]

guys i don't know how to explain it but the new Animation vs. Math got me so happy and joyful like, kickinf my legs kinda vibe.

you can just TELL it was made by someone who's so passionate about maths. props to them. and props to the team making such beautiful visualisations like DAMN the animation is GOOD.

ness begins to ramble, here we go

anyways when i first clicked on the vid i wasn't really expecting too much; like simple square numbers, silly pythagoras theorems, throw a little trigonometry in if we're feelin daring. but NO. it jumps STRAIGHT into the complex planes. my guy TSC went from adding little baby numbers and then jumped straight into the fuckign imaginary numbers. pov me

like holy shit i was NOT expecting that. i kid you not i jumped from my seat and leaned closer to my screen with WIDE EYES. eagerly WATCHING.

also whoever thought of the black-background area as the 'real' plane and the white-background as the 'imaginary/complex' plane?? like when e^iπ multiplied itself by i so it could escape into the imaginary dimension? because without the i in front it's still a real number?? hello you are SO smart. you are SO real for that. that is SUCH a cool idea like omgf. wonderful. fantastic. you all deserve praise

i mean like THIS. THE WHITE BACKRGOUND. THE COMPLEX DIMENSION. ALL THE IMAGINARY NUMBERS FALLING OUT. THE VISUAL EFFECTS WERE SO COOL TO WATCH. this was such a creative way to represent both planes that is SO AWESOME.

and i'm assuming it starts to break cus e^iπ and TSC aren't complex !! they're real (so real) !!! they don't belong in the complex dimension hence why the real dimension breaks into the complex dimension (i could be wrong about this but its a guess ;3)

(also they show the actual values like sqrt(-7) instead of 7i - cus you don't really see sqrt(-7) in the complex plane. it's always in the form a + bi . i like that visual)

and when the unit circle came up like woah. this was gettinf good. the way they visualised the trigonometric sine n cosine graphs ??? and getting into RADIANS ???? not a degree in sight. bro was NOT messing around in the world of maths holy shit

also THIS PART. my guy turned a trigonometric identity into a fucking WEAPON. and if u look closely the waves that the gun shoots resembles tan. like ohmygodf. actually insane how they thought of this. whatthefuck

i wont get into other parts mostly cus my knowledge of other maths like euler's number is so fucking limited also i don't want to seem too much of a maths nerd when actually i don't know a lot !!! i just go wit da flooww !!!

one final thing !!!

it's so hard to see but look at he !!! silly big boye aleph !!!! he's so fuckign massive cus he represents the measure of the set of all natural numbers (im probably remembering that wrong but its something like that), hence why he's a biiiig booyee

anyways that is all. thanks for reading this i dont know why you'd listen to a crazy gal rambling on about a vid of a silly stickman fiddling about with silly numbers. the vid makes me very happy ;3 appreciate you

[jaffre]

ive been watching mech cadets, only have 2 episodes left to watch, here's my thoughts so far

1/ sentient alien mech suits? yes please. (i never got into transformers somehow but i love sentient robots, give me more. if you have good sentient mechs media to recommend, gimme) i do wish we'd see more of them tho, as in, their personalities, and like, lore, where'd they come from? why did they come here to help against the sharg? i do like the comment on how they arent battle ready when they arrive, the humans arm them up. there's just so much here i want to know more about.

2/ the general style is nice, i love the little intro animation, really sleek. i also love how the animation style changed during flashback sequences? that's really cool. the nexus link view where u see the pilots in dot space is kinda silly but in a fun way. i like the robo designs, and their round hover wings whatever it is. cool shit.

3/ standford yu somehow the least interesting character lmao? ava fucking rocks. she's the best. tanaka great mentor figure. i love maya and frank, they're very sweet. olivia really came around, and despite how hateable commander park is, i do love that you can see where he's coming from, even if you dont agree with his actions. that's good character writing

4/ i gotta give frank's disability its own bullpoint. spoilers i guess i just wanna gush about it. the guy has a prosthetic leg and it's not an issue for him being a pilot, altho we do see in a flashback that he's actually more comfortable without the prosthetic and prefers his crutches? which is like. the first time ive seen a disabled character say that in media. that rules. he does accept to wear a prosthetic cause that's a concession he has to make to be able to pilot a mech. in a fight scene against a sharg, his prosthetic gets cut in half, and he doesn't skip a beat and continues fighting, without then with his crutches once he gets his hands on them, and even just. stabs the monster with his broken off prosthetic, which fucking rules. from then on, he doesnt get a new prosthetic, he just keeps his crutches, and instead gets a special suit that has a prosthetic inside of it cause he needs it to pilot the mech, but he's not forced to have the prosthetic outside the mech in his day to day life, which is like? accessibility win?? he didn't want it to begin with, the reason he had to wear it was "we can't modify the suit just for one guy" basically (which is the only reason he was worried for a few episodes about his prosthetic not being fixed -- it was just bc he wanted to pilot the mech, he could handle himself fine without it). and the, just, visual metaphor of ripping the rest of his broken prosthetic to finish of the sharg in that fight scene i mentioned earlier? like it's a liberation?? incredible. i just. i love this so much. this is all that matters to me now. i love frank and how they've treated him and his disability so much.

5/ literal mothership ahah oops they're fucked

[cartoonemotion]

(guy wearing a hat that says PRESS on it holding an old timey flashbulb camera voice) sofa! sofa! if you had to make a class of 3000 reboot for 2024, how would you go about it??

EEP !!! oh my goodness, what a tall order....

reboots are hard for me i think because i have a particular philosophy about them i suppose. while nobody can really stop you from just making the same thing again, but more/maybe slightly modernized, its really rather boring and frankly gouache to do in my opinion; yes, even in the case of things that were cancelled prematurely. however being fully honest my own limits to this get tested when its something i really like and thought was super well executed, only for it to get cancelled prematurely, and class of 3000 might be the ultimate test for this for me because i think just 28 episodes is unreasonably short even by today's standards, not just mid-2000s standards. i feel like it would be really hard to fight the impulse to just be like "just pretend the show was never cancelled, lets just pick it back up from where it was left off" for the most part, with some elements of modernization clearly but overall not much

class of 3000 also almost feels like a time capsule not because its particularly dated, i actually think a lot of the humor and gags still hold up really well by todays standards, and some other elements also feel even a little ahead of their time, but you know. it was still made for a mid-2000s audience, and one of the biggest aspects of that is sunny, who is. i mean yes hes pretty much intended to be a fictionalized andre 3000 stand in, but that sort of developed later on in the process of the show as andre 3000 became more and more intrinsic to the process (he didnt want it to just be something he licensed but was otherwise mostly uninvolved in), as initially he was also directly inspired by/based on sonny rollins, so to me with these two compounding inspirations he exists as a kind of interesting element of celebrity culture at the time which is soooooo so deeply different than the celebrity culture of today. like, to the point where sunny bridges being a world-renowned musical legend is almost kind of just set dressing, after the pilot episode it just kind of becomes an element of what makes sunny So Cool and maybe helps establish a plot or some kind of series of hijinks for an episode or two, i just dont think you could really approach it in such an almost understated and whimsical way today given the ubiquitous social media nightmare we all exist under

i also definitely wouldnt want to change the art and animation style. there was a BTS interview i saw where somebody on the team said "nothing out there today looks like this" and to be quite frank i think that still holds true, class of 3000 draws from a lot of both visual and musical inspirations that i dont think you see get utilized very much in animation (probably other things but we're focusing on animation !) even still to this day, it just really kind of exists in its own niche and it does so well. like i shudder to think of them trying to adapt this to a 3D animation style of some kind not to sound like a hater because i definitely think theres gorgeous 3D animation out there (and examples where both styles are utilized together to enhance the elements of both !!!!!) maybe for like a guest animated music video it could work i think mixing mediums would align well with the ethos of class of 3000 but for the whole show ??? noooooo fucking wayyyyy

this is a lot of preamble to say maybe i would take a Modernization-But-Not kind of approach to it. maybe keep the setting in atlanta in the mid-2000s but use it to still speak to more modern ideas and messages because i feel like a lot of the stuff class of 3000 was trying to introduce (understanding and appreciating diversity, expanding your creative horizons, getting kids invested in music and especially the presence and history of genres and instruments they may not be more familiar with) is still very relevant to today ! maybe again i would beef up some of the explorations of celebrity culture and its pitfalls and shortcomings because again in the influencer era thats become even more topical and complicated than it was in the mid-aughts. i mean as long as theres been a concept of celebrity there have been little kids who want to grow up to be famous so thats not new but the sort of, idk, hyper-visibility of it and the way other people market it to children i think is something worth exploring; and also i think keeping it to 2007 type mediums and technology would serve as a good shield against making to obvious, self-referential, and preachy. also just take out the more distasteful 2000s era jokes centering transmisogyny and letting a white guy do a bad impression of a latino man that would probably be good

oh and also this joke i made in discord since andre 3000 being involved would absolutely be a gimmie. non-negotiable

[morningstar-warriors]

Game Eleven

Thoughts and Development

I started recording the sessions, we all play online so I figured, why not! It'd be easy to show folks what they missed if they couldn't make it, or look back on mechanical moments that felt flawed. Plus it's very easy to now find direct quotes from players which is cool!

Aside from this another large development is a new player, Button. He is playing a cat called Ashwind, and plans on making occasional appearances here and there. Button is helping me develop a new kind of Stoneteller, he's into playing Warlocks in D&D so he got me to thinking on how we could make a cat warlock that would make sense in the Warriors world. Right now we're going with a necromancer vibe for his cat, and I'm excited to update the Stoneteller post with our more fleshed out concept.

Present issues that I plan on tackling --

Ability Scores

These guys are kinda... Just there. I honestly don't know what to do with them, they feel irrelevant to how the game works at this time. I may go about adding them to dice rolls for skill checks, or scrapping them all together. In the original game, ability scores were actually meant to represent how much chips you had, but Bug and I didn't like this, it didn't feel very customizable when it came to knacks.

Skills and Dice

So there are 5 points you can have in each skill. I've been playing this in a way where, you add that to your dice roll. Which the standard role in my game is, a 2d6. So if you have 4 points in a skill, it's 2d6+4. Another test player group recommended to me that this could instead be a die pool, so it physically feels like you have more. Visual progression. Aside from dice, I realize game wise, I need to have a better grasp of the skills. Sometimes I feel like some things are... Missing from them? I still can't quite place it though. Like there are some things my dnd brain wishes there were rolls for, but I feel like if I keep refreshing my understanding of the skills that part of me would melt away. I don't think it's necessary to have a million skills, and its important in a cat game to feel like... A cat. An animal. So I think these skills are very important as is for now.

The Knack Problem

There are so so so many knacks. I'm not even sure if knacks are the route I'd like to go anymore. Or at the very least they need a lot of restructuring. I was suggested knacks that cost more chips should be higher level. Since at level 1, you dont have many chips to spare. I think thats wise. Alternatively I could give knacks the "At higher level" treatment, and state that certain actions you could take through the knack cost more/are more effective with the use of more chips. For now I don't know, I can also see the concept of knacks disappearing and becoming something else. I like the physicality of the chips though.

Misc Chips... BOOOOO

So these are dead to me. Way too confusing HAHA! I'm thinking so far everything starts off as a point buy. So you just get 5 chips, put them anywhere its up to you. but no holding onto empty chips, I feel like that just confuses people. My second test player group didnt get it at all and my first one is struggling with it as well. Third group I chose to ignore the idea aaaand that went way smoother lol.

Damage and Health

So I'm debating switching from a number based HP to concepts like Apocalypse or Monster of the Week, where you just have points of "Hurt" rather than a number that slowly dwindles. This would lead to a large restructure of many things I think, so I'm kinda nervous to tackle this right now, but considering my issues around ability scores and knacks, I think this is a necessary path to take. I'll start researching these games further and probably start making the changes once I feel satisfied with the remaining parts of V. 1 that need finishing. Which is Leveling, and the Leader Code.

Beginner and Child Friendliness

So a few times in here I mentioned some math. Adding the ability scores, dice pooling. These things were fun suggestions, but my test player groups also mentioned that the less math, the more player friendly. I know as a kid the idea of a game like D&D sounded fun, but making a character was a dreadfully boring behemoth. I know not all children are opposed to complex ideas and some adding and subtraction, but I do know that most people play role-playing games for the role-play. That's something I want to prioritize in my development. I will say I'm proud of how easy it seems for my test groups to make characters, and learn how to play. I'm glad my writing and guidance is competent.

[papirouge]

im the jpop anon. thank you for the long and thoughtful reply! :)

yeah, theres something really wrong with kpoppers. i actually remember what perfume video the "fat legs" comments were from - it was their first budokan concert back in 2008, i think they were wearing the pink outfits (or perhaps the yellow ones from drream fighter). i think what those kpoppers might meant were kashiyukas thighs, since she wore very short shorts in the pink outfits, and while her legs are thin her thighs are plumper. but like, thats literally what makes her known as "the hot one" among fans. like shes very renowed for having very nice legs, and in general its normal for women to have bigger tighs and wider hips. i guess one could just shrug it off as kpop fans being salty and petty, but many kpop girl members have crazy thin legs. like if you look up snsd aka girls generation, youll realize that many of their promotional images have them with really skinny legs. one of the very few kpop songs that i like is "gee" by this girl group, and i decided to look at the comments of the dance ver and some poeple were defending one of the girls because koreans fans were being mean to her for being "fat". i think she was called jessica or something like that, and i look her up to know which one of them was and like, if they didnt mention anything i wouldnt even have realized but her "problem" was basically that she had this "square-y" body type and that made her look like 0,5 millimeters bigger that the rest.

another thing that happened to me very recently was that i was looking for a notebook to buy and there were selling some with kpop groups in the cover, and i stumbled upon one that had this boy band named stray kids, and god dammit... these guys have such heavy plastic surgery like wtf... some of them look like literal wax figures its scary. i remember when kpop fans were saying it was racist how some people made fun of boy bands by saying they all looked the same, and sure, definitely some of them probably were, but you cant deny that some of these guys (and girls) dont end up looking the same when they get their faces botched up all to follow the same very narrow korean beauty standards.

and yeah, i can see the difference between kanon and akari, but i also think it was because kanon was much bigger than akari. like she even made fun of herselkf many times when she introduced herself. i always remember when michishige sayumi was asked which animal fit their teammates the best, and she said kanon was a hippo or an elephant 💀 i always got the impression that kanon making fun of herself like referencing she had a full meal before a performance so she was full of energy was a defense mechanism - a lot of fat people usually make fun of themseves because they want to do it before others can make fun of them first, like "look at me, im fat and i know it and dont take it seriously, please dont make fun of me because i already do it and it doesnt hurt me at all!".

speaking of sayumi, she once was also asked which helloproject group she would least like to be stuck with on an island, and she said berryz koubou because they seemed like they liked to eat alot.. im guessing she was referring to maasa and risako.

i wanted to say more but this got so fucking long lol sorry papi... perhaps ill send another message later...

Tbh Kpop visuals are so ridiculously filtered that I'm pretty sure those girls are made prettier and skinnier than they really are. People these days are soooooo freaking guillible and believe anything they see online. These girls get ps to oblivion and still need to be photoshopped like mad.... They're not perfect. Nobody is.

The thing is japanese idols aren't expected to look perfect like Korean do. Jpop idols aren't supposed to look 'flawless'. Perfume debuted when they were like 12-13 years old ; we saw them grow before our eyes, so if they did anything shady with their appareance everyone would have noticed. These women are soon 35 and still kicking.. - I wonder how these Kpop girls will look at that age 👀

I don't even think that Kpoppers know what "sexy" is anyway. What's stricking with Kpop is that despite how much polished their aesthetic are, they emanate 0% charisma. They give off an absolutely frigid energy. Every single of their move and face expression are policed. Kpop MV would make anyone epileptic so much shit is going on because that's how bad the artist themselves can't put it up themselves.

At least, old school jpop idols still have a lil bit of personality - which is why we still remember of them 10, 20 years later. The same couldn't be said for today's one tbh (I lost interest after Morning Musume 13./Michishige graduated because all the newcomers were more dull than the others... Even Riho who was hailed as The Ace of the group didn't leave the same impact as OG members (Ai Takashi, Tsuji Nozomi, Ai Kago, Maki Goto, Reina Tanaka, etc.) AKB48 fell off after the Kami 7 all graduated (the sister groups are meh).

But to be fair, the new Reiwa era (more conservative ) isn't just prone to leave raw personalities pop out in like that... Ai Kago stunts would have made her cancelled without afterthought or second chances today...😬 The idol group era is pretty much over in Japan. Right now, 'boring edgy' like Aimyon or Yonezu Kenshi are popping.

I can't bring myself to find Kpop boys attractive. Period. They are all ugly and I have no shame to say it because they were all much better before doing plastic surgery. So no it's not racist to say they all look the same because plastic surgery made them look the same - not their race...

I DARE someone to tell me the 2 dudes on the left aren't the same. The one at the top particularly looks like an otome game character 💀 like- he straight up looks like his face was DRAWN.

And you know what freaks me out the most? It's that from one picture to another THEY DON'T LOOK LIKE THEMSELVES??!?

Like wtf is this shit???

It's supposed to be the same band but the faces.... don't match others pictures 💀

You know society colllapsed now that stray kid dudes are considered attractive....when back in the day we had natural and authentic beauty like Takeshi Kaneshiro *sigh*

downgrade of the millennium. Mishima killed himself for this.

And you know what freaks me out the most about these kpoppers? It's that they seemingly don't "exist" beside these ridiculous doctored photoshoot. Are there any candids of them out and about in the street? Without perfect lightening, angle and filters? Tbh I wouldn't be surprised they are AI or shit like that.

Perfume look the same when they do bc....they arent botched

Michishige is RUTHLESS 😭 I mean, in Morning Musume she had the persona of being a narcissist so it makes sense she put down other girls for not being as pretty as her. But yeah dunking on a girl who's like a decade younger than you is shitty. Those idol group are shoving together girls from entire different generations (Michishige was in her mid 20s when she graduated and the youngest member of the group were like 13-14 years old 🥴) so awkward girldrama situations are bound to happen.... That being said, it's a very bad idea to get into an idol group if you're feeling awkward about your physically appearance... Kanon should've never been in Momusu, imo.

I always found Berryz Kōbō was much coherent than Morning Musume ; members were closer in age and experience. I was a smaller band and the lineup was consistent so you weren't lost in the amount of new faces every other years (like Momusu regular call for new members).

I think its fitting that some of its members love eating when they have a song called 1億3千万総ダイエット王国 ("A kindgom of 130 million [people] complete diet[ing]") *the population of Japan is of 125 million but I guess the evened it out for the song that was kinda critical of diet culture. Good for them tbh And that song was bop. Berryz Kōbō truly delivered the few years before disbanding.

[your-local-uwu-artist]

okay so i got another video essay idea BUT I SWEAR T H I S TIME i think ill manage to complete the script (yes thats what i say everyt ime fnsdjkafl) anyway

if youd like to hear more its under the cut (kirby related btw uwu)

warning its all very ramble-y

setting the bar low and keeping the tone more so to just discussing something i like so i dont get to ambitious with the analysis

so a while back i read this awesome poggers fanfic called "being a knight is easy (and so is pretending to be one) by @/azzie-tangerine

its REALLY GOOD

and ive already had plans for a potential series discussing completed novel length fanfics so it could be snazzy!!

most notably though sense its written work thatll help me to not go crazy ambitous with the anaylsis: i ussually just have SO many thoughts that its hard to write down, so im hoping that covering a written work instead of something with a visual element, will help my thoughts to be more manageable sense like, i dont have as many of those entire essays over itty bitty details stuck in my head sense i dont have as much of a grasp on the itty bitty details of the written word

like bassically, because im less savy with written work my brain wont go so absolutely primal artist instinct mode feral lmaofnsdjkalfhdsk

anyway, ill want to go over all the art and fanart the author has done and recieved and maaaaybe if i gain the confidence see if i could talk to/interview the author?? (i had the confidence to compliment them on anon but that was it nfdskja )

gsoh this post is so un structured

uuhhhh heres a link to the fic

Being a Knight is Easy! (So is Pretending to Be One) - Chapter 1 - Azzie_Tangerine - Kirby (Video Games) [Archive of Our Own]

if you read it: it would be super helpful to me if you could maybe lmk your thoughts and takeaways on it? or wanna talk about it with me more

its nice to have other peoples thoughts to bounce off of when writing a review/video essay/anaylsysis/random guy on the internet goes feral over kirby characters having emotions video

so anywayyy snfskjdfk ummm if anybody would have any video edting software recs that would be GREAT too~ (as well as its nice to know who would be willing to proof read my scripts)

okie so

currently i guess my "to do list" for starting up this idea is to reread the fic wile writing notes along the way: and joting down comments and quotes

during that ill also work on organzing my thoughts into topics/categories

i dont want to worry to much about structure, art, and the such until i have more work to show

anyhow! while im chaotically chatting i might as well kirby animation update too!!!

im having a hard time deciding where to start with the lines: at first i was gonna do a non anti-aliasing basic brush so itd be easy to color but i really wanted a bit more texture so im currently trying to get all the backgrounds lineart with that: in which ill than go along with the character animation and color whenever its most convenient too~

and sense i can heres another wip!

a bit of a pause on this piece: ima try to find some lineless scenery speedpaints to give me more of an idea of how to go about with this

[mekatrio]

started tota last night... when i rly SHOULDNT HV.. cuz i hv irl things i should be tending to. but playing style savvy recently rly helped picked up my mood its like wow... video games.... makes me happy 🤯 and i forgot what it was i saw last night but smth made me go 'fuck it i wanna play a jrpg again' so here i am 😗 my thoughts so far

luke is a little bit annoying but in an endearing younger brother sort of way. he kinda reminds me of a 4 year old w the way he knows nothing about cooking... or exchange of goods and services... or the military.. or anything really. but is arrogant regardless. really reminds of me of toddlers ive babysat who are so certain that negative consequences do not exist for them. kinda awesome. and very very funny

i think tear will be a temporary party member which makes me Sad cuz her dynamic w luke is really fun. im making a wild guess but i think maybe she and luke were childhood friends or something. i definitely think luke is from malkuth or wherever the hell we are cuz its sooooo convenient that he doesnt have any childhood memories... like wowwwwwww sureeee. theres many possibilities for lukes backstory w this setup so im very curious abt where thatll go.

also i barely know whats going on but its fine cuz its the very beginning. but constantly getting terms like The Order Of Lorelei or The Malkuth Empire or THE FON MASTERS thrown at me is like egajxhsjfbsj theres so much. i dont feel like i was ever this overwhelmed w an ff game but maybe i was and its just been a while. but i appreciate that there isnt a massive room of exposition (As Of Now and hopefully never) the way tht ff likes to do it. please show off the world rather than telling it to me.

also im very pleasantly surprised w how smooth this game is. menus open up very quickly and battles are fun and dont hv long loading times. and movement on maps in both cities and the overworld are really smooth, and at a good speed. im very happy a jrpg runs this smoothly on a handheld.

and lastly, a gripe i hv with this game is the lack of subtitles during animated cutscenes. i could not tell you anything being said during the opening cutscene bc i could not hear a single thing. i searched it up and it seems like there just arent any subtitles for animated cutscenes in the entire game, which is veryyyyyy fucking annoying 😑😑😑 especially considering that this is a port from what, sometime in the 2010s.. there is no possible excuse for not hving subtitles in ur cutscenes 😑 if anyone knows a mod that will add subs pls lmk, bc i hadnt found any 💔 luckily the game is charming enough for me to keep playing it even with this hurdle. hopefullyyy i dont miss any super important plot beats due to this.

also this guy looks freaky

reminds of kristoph gavin. scary face. dont like his red eyes. oh and everytime the dark wings are mentioned i keep thinking of the gullwings. so until i learn who these wing fellas are im gonna keep visualizing them as the ffx-2 girlies

[n0stalgicv0id]

its nice, theres no feeling of urgency !! though i do still prefer answering in a timely manner when it comes to myself sjfn

im happy you found someone you can lean on and rely on as a friend !!! i get that it goes up and down very drastically, same goes for me. i can have the wildest bad thoughts and then mere minutes later i am just fine and as if nothing happened

puzzle games are fun! i really liked the plot of the witchs house, the ending was spectacular, really caught me off guard, it was amazing!

i can try and see if crunchyroll has the anime! or maybe netflix if im lucky, though i dont have high hopes for it. i dont know what digital circus is? i dont follow it as you may now know :) do you think i should check it out?

- 🌸

As you can see I’m late, I was preparing a presentation and now I’m exhausted after classes. Well now I can relax at home. Our host is into penpalling so at some point I started to enjoy reading about their friends via letters. It’s a slow process but they are more solid on some extent? When you write on paper is a completely different feeling compared to type on a keyboard. I don’t know if this makes sense.

With on of them I have an very important relationship so yes, I’m glad I found some decent people - Speaking of which, I’ve been front stuck for more than a month and I’m barely sane nowdays. You get what I’m expecting. Still I hate how my emotions aren’t under control, I wish to have stability but I’m way too busy with my duties.

The funniest thing is that I’m working myself on a cozy click and drag puzzle game for my finals, it’s basically a build-a-bear but with frog plushies. I just started this project but for July I’ll have all the visuals.

Dungeon food is on Netflix here in Italy, probably you guys also have it in your catalogue. You don’t know digital circus? No way, it became extra popular and now they also opened a merch store in Japan. Here the link to the playlist on yt. We are deeply into cartoons/animations so it was instant love. We love to support indie companies