#and I was going ham on the visual effects

[bassboosted-moon-chao]

Ẇ̸̨̪̰̳͚̱̦̚͝E̸͉̖̰̖̺̫̼͉͗͊͜͠L̷̨̞͍̲̺̋͑̀̓͝͝͠C̸̝̔̋̉͜O̸̦̠̰͔̻̻̽͒̃̌́̋̈́̌͘M̸͔̯̎͐͆̿̇̈́̀͘̚͝Ȩ̶͎̻͚̠̝̉̀̿̆͋͗̑̋̒͜ͅ ̵̨̨̩̩͇̦̯́̓͗̅T̴̛̮̘͚̬̠̝̹͚̩̞O̶̪̪̤̫͙̞̻͛̈́̒́̓͝ ̶̢̡̡̼͕̯̤̿̔͆̽̈́̅T̵͚̊̾͛H̸̙̮͓̣̠̊̆̃͌̒͂͝͝͝͝ͅE̸̤̰̫͊̚̕ ̴̧͍̭͇̙̣̘̓̇̎̕͜͝H̵̦͖̻̤̖͖̩̊͆̍̂̆̆̈́́̍̄Ä̶̫̫̞̦͒́̈̐̎̏L̸̬͔̳̩̄̽͑͒Ļ̷̰̮͈̤̭̋̀̀,̷̻͆͛͂͐̈̉͂́͘͝ ̵̡̪͖̳̳̣͊̈̓̇͘͠C̸͇̱̯̍̎̑͆͊́͘͝Ȁ̶̲͖̼͕̬̻̰͛͊̇̂̀̇͘Ĩ̴̢̹̯͔͓͆̎̋̈͂̉͜N̵̛̹͓̪̽́̈́́͘E̴̛̼̩̺͂̾͐̿̔͠.̸̨̬̮̋

[bixbythemartian]

walrus vs. fairy

the funny part is that people who answer walrus are mostly like 'I disagree, but I understand why you would answer fairy' and the people who answered fairy are tearing their hair out. some of them are getting mad and/or mean about it, which is kind of upsetting.

so, I will try to help explain.

this will not be about walrus logistics, I promise.

some people believe in fairies. full stop.

fully believe they are real. probably a lot more people than you would be happy about, but you have to allow for this to be true.

even among those who don't wholeheartedly believe in fairies, there's a lot more people who are agnostic about fairies.

people willing to admit that they're not sure if fairies are real, but willing to hedge on the side of maybe the fairies are real.

like, if you rephrased the question 'would you be more surprised to see an angel or a walrus at your door' you would probably be less surprised to see that people would be more shocked at the walrus, because you probably already understand that a lot of people believe in angels and consider them real, whether or not you believe in angels personally

also the SPN fandom would go ham on that, probably. (this is said with deep affection)

there was a fairly famous road built in Ireland that got rerouted because there was a bush that was important to fairies. (source) the fairy tree stalled the plans for the road for a fucking decade. this happened in my lifetime. people talked about it happening on the internet as it was happening, it's not some weird thing that happened in the middle of nowhere in the 1950s or something. they agreed to go around the damned bush in 1999. I know that seems a long time ago to some of y'all, but it really, really isn't.

there are still people who think the cottingley fairies were real. not a huge amount, but I hope enough to make my point- there's some people who believe in fairies so much and want them to be real so much that they think a famous prank (hoax is stretching it, imo, these girls were pranking their families and the press kind of coincidentally got involved) proves the existence of fairies.

there's a lot, lot, lot more people who believe in fairies and also will admit the cottingley fairies weren't real. the cottingley fairy truthers are a small a percentage of the people who believe in fairies.

I cannot emphasize enough that there are plenty of people who believe fairies are real and even more that could be very easily convinced that fairies are real

people have believed in fairies and been superstitious about fairies for a long, long fucking time

setting aside all of that

some people are more likely to see a thing that isn't real at their door than they are to see a living fucking walrus at their door.

fevers, migraines, mental stress, sleep deprivation (especially if you have sleep disorders, like insomnia or narcolepsy), and infection (among a very long list of other things), and prescription medication side effects can all cause visual hallucinations, and they're all states that you might not be aware that you're in when you start to see weird shit.

these are just the really mundane ones I plucked up off the list.

I have experienced hallucinations due to sleep dep and insomnia. unfortunately, for me, this manifested as a spider the size of a border collie (I wish I were joking) and not fairies, but fairies is a possibility that cannot be counted out.

I'm way more likely to have sleep deprivation and a migraine and a fever all at once than I am to see a walrus in person at a zoo, much less at my door.

it has happened before. it will happen again. it's happening right fucking now.

the fairies can have my birth name if they will take away my migraine.

just putting that out there.

I've never seen a walrus in person at all. I would like to, but it's not likely. there's not any in any of the zoos nearby that I could find.

current likelihood of me seeing a fairy on my doorstep is significantly higher than me seeing a fucking walrus. I am in a physical state where I have had visual hallucinations before, and it's not impossible I will have them again. I would not be particularly surprised, even.

as long as it's not the goddamn massive spider. I even like most spiders, but that is too much spider.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

savanaclaw light novel: the importance of introspection

I’ve previously discussed how TWST benefits from telling us the same story across different mediums. Different mediums provide different benefits over others, and some can “patch up” rougher bits of story or add more detail to them. The game is interactive and serves as a baseline for most new content. The manga is able to have far more freedom of movement and expression due to being visual-heavy. And last, but not least, a light novel, which is mostly text, has the boon of letting us see more of each character’s thoughts and feelings. We can elaborate on what the game already established and understand the characters on a deeper level.

I would say that the light novel’s format will most benefit the OB boys, as they are the ones who will go through the biggest character arcs in the main story. Because the game’s story is told via mostly dialogue and some sound effects, we rarely, if ever, get a clear understanding of what the OB boys are truly thinking and feeling outside of their brief post-OB flashbacks. The same goes for the manga, which has limited pages to tell its story, so it has to keep a certain pace. But a light novel? Well, you can go ham there with an omniscient narrator.

Today, I want to talk about Leona’s expanded post-OB introspection in the second volume of the light novel as an example of this. Then I will combine it with the information we have from the game and see how the light novel complements what already we know of his character thanks to hindsight. (I’ll be referencing this fan translation if you want to read and follow along!)

First thing’s first! From the game, we know that Leona enrolled in Night Raven College one year late (and then got held back a year, which makes sense considering he is 20 in the main story present). He didn't find a use in attending school since he, by royal birth, was able to afford all the best tutors in the world and didn't think NRC had anything left to teach him. In Leona's Birthday Boy vignettes, he further specifies that he decided to enroll at NRC after Cheka was born. As Leona says in his post-OB flashback in-game, Cheka's birth means "the despised second son loses what little claim he had to the throne forever", essentially putting an end to his hopes. This would imply that this specific change in circumstance was the push that made Leona want to physically distance himself from home. Furthermore, it's supported by Leona's other behaviors: he does not take calls or read letters from home if he can help it (implied by Cheka asking why Leona doesn't answer his letters and Cheka calling on Halloween night to catch up with him; Leona lies and quickly hangs up), he makes excuses to avoid going home (as Kifaji states), etc. If we want to extrapolate even more, how is it that Leona, second born prince, initially crossed paths with Ruggie, who was born and raised in the slums (which, I imagine, must be quite some distance away from the royal palace)? This makes me think that even before Leona enrolled at NRC he would leave his housing and roam around, finding alternative places to stay because home just felt too uncomfortable and suffocating for him. There's also the implication that Leona often brooded over his circumstances, as he confesses to thinking about it and going to NRC to get his mind away from the tired cycle--although he also acknowledges that he's running away from "the pain" of having lost the throne.

The distancing would prove itself to be beneficial to his mental health, as Leona cites that his heart started feeling lighter, his restlessness dulled, and his pain numbed. With the throne out of sight, so, too, was it out of mind, and his longing softened. But that same haunting despair returns when another group starts to place expectations on him. This time, it's no longer the palace servants, but his own dorm members. Instead of fear and derision, his new pack looks at him, their "king", with desperateness--and, more importantly, hope. Speaking about the future with sparkling eyes. That, in turn, made Leona hopeful too. He can't let these people who look up to him and rely on him down, so he must do anything to win. That's all he ever wanted: to win, just this once. No matter what, he wants to win.

But when Leona's plans crumble, that crushing sense of despair rears its ugly head. He fails. And he suddenly understands that all his efforts will always amount to nothing, that they will always be meaningless, that there is no future for him. Leona's hopes have been dashed. He has been struck down by the world once again, just as he had started to climb up, fighting tooth and nail, to prove himself. Yet when defeat came, he also claims it doesn't bother him as much as he thought he would--perhaps because he's so accustomed to not winning, because maybe this is the outcome he had expected all along in the deepest recesses of his heart. That familiar disappointment begins to hurt him once more, and Leona wants to forget it all, to retreat to the shadows and to lick his wounds, to be far away from that pain.

One interesting new detail we glean from the light novel is that Leona is terrified by his dorm mates staring at him with hopeful eyes. It's not their expectations he's inherently scared of, but what those expectations can do to him. Leona is scared of himself, of being motivated by others to act, to never give up hope, when he still anticipates being beat down again and again by a world that rejects him and denies him. He even goes so far as to say he would be pathetic if he let his dorm mates' words inspire him and keep his waning hope alive. Ruggie, who had wanted to turn the world upside down together. Jack, who was inspired by his play three years back. All the mobs putting faith in their futures on him, their one and only leader. With so many people looking to him, how can he not be swayed by that positivity that had once been so elusive to him? How could that not ignite what little spark of hope is left in him? And that's exactly what Leona finds so dangerous about it. He's lived almost his entire life being put in his place, hurt every time he tried to demonstrate what he could do, how he could contribute--yet time and time again, here comes life, tempting him to try again, just to inevitably be compared to his brother and kicked down, delivering another blow to his pride and his self-image. Leona truly seems to hate himself for not being able to let go of that small fragment of hope he has left. He wants so badly to give up and not have to worry anymore about something he can never obtain. He's so tired of struggling and suffering for nothing. If he just caved, then he would never be hurt again. He can't be hurt if he doesn't care about anything. Yet no matter how much he wishes or tries, he can't run far enough away to detach himself from those expectations of grandeur, of being something more.

There's been many fan theories about Leona's mental health in circulation well before the release of this light novel, many of which mention self-loathing in spite of how proud and confident he typically presents as. You'd have to read in-between the lines of dialogue from the game to draw these clues out, whereas the light novel lays it more bare to you. It hits very differently reading hateful statements made by the character to himself. Leona calls himself all sorts of things: a fool, pathetic, insignificant, boring. That he isn't strong, that he isn't wise, that he's not loved. (In the in-game flashback, Leona also talks in a self-deprecating way, but to a far lesser extent than in the light novel; we also see that Falena does his best to discourage Leona from this kind of behavior.) That this is who he is, that it's the one thing he's afraid to admit and accept--but he also says he lacks the "strength" to give up. That's why Leona would rather run away than confront that potential truth. The option to embrace complete nihilism just isn't possible for him, because he can't just quash that pesky little thing called hope. This is much more complex than what's explained in the games and demonstrates a maturity and degree of self-reflection from Leona that we've never seen before. What's more, this gives us brand new context with which to view many of his other seemingly mundane actions mentioned in the game. At face value, Leona often acts very callously and doesn't care to help others unless he gets some kind of benefit from it (like agreeing to poof the contracts in book 3 just because he has his own deal he wants to get rid of). We see this time and time again when he instructs others reliant on him or less knowledgeable than he is in various matters where he is well-read and experienced with. For example, he takes note of his club members' strengths and weaknesses and offers tailored advice to help them improve their play. He tells others how to mine magestones of an adequate size in Vargas Camp. Maybe he's just doing these things to make the circumstances easier for himself (so he can put forth less effort to leading them in a game, or so he can nap heartily). But from what we've just learned from the light novel, now I'm suspecting a different secondary motive.

What if... Leona is, in part, encouraging and helping others to hone their own skills to subconsciously compensate for what he doesn't believe he himself is capable of? Because there's still so much hope for his dorm mates, for his underclassmen... (and, let's not forget, it was those in Savanaclaw that first motivated Leona to "try" again for the first time in forever) but he doesn't have that same amount of hope for himself. I get these vibes as late as book 6, when Leona and Jamil have a talk. In their conversation, Leona directs many pointed, blunt words at Jamil--words that could very easily also be thrown back at Leona's face and be applicable to his book 2 self. He accuses Jamil of making excuses so he won't have to actually act, just as Leona has continuously run away from uncomfortable situations to put himself at ease. At one point, I believe Leona event states that Jamil “*isn’t like [me]”, Here, again, it can be argued that we're seeing Leona's self-awareness on display, as well as a willingness to warn others to not follow down the same path he once treaded, to lose all hope in the future. Again, it's done with a double purpose: the other one being to get Jamil out of his way while they're exploring. And (of course) Leona's way of expressing his message is gruff and not very warm, not to Jamil and certainly not to himself. He's become prickly and defensive himself after all of his experiences--but that just adds to the complexity of his character when we synthesize what we know of him from TWST multimedia.

I really wish a lot of what was in the light novel post-Leona OB was also in the game. It would have helped to flesh out Leona's motivations and fears, which book 2 was sorely needing. As he is presented now, he appears shallow and selfish in his goals, and we don't fully understand the emotions spurring him on, a lot of which is genuine self-loathing and the sinking despair that comes with thinking you're not enough and you'll never be enough. That would have been so much more relatable than the in-game Leona having himself a pity party with a great amount of emphasis on the throne--a throne which, in actuality, just symbolizes a desire for recognition, love, and acceptance. It was never about explicitly being king. It was about being seen as his own person and appreciated for it instead of being admonished and compared to his exalted older brother.

Now, as an adult, Leona has become someone who pushes away those who try to give him that which he craves. He sees a lot of people--his own family and his dorm mates, the closest thing he has to friends--as dangers to his own mental wellbeing. He's scared to let them in, so he's built up these emotional, arrogant walls around himself. Think at how often he rejects advice from Falena and refuses Cheka's affection for him. Look at how this behavior extends beyond those who are keeping him from a literal throne and to his classmates. They instill hope in him, hope which scares Leona. The things he has wanted all his life are now poison that chips away at him. Considering all of that together, it makes Leona's story far more tragic than how it was initially shown to us in the game alone. But guess what? That can also become his strength, fuel for his character arc. Leona isn't running anymore. He's actually returning home for winter break in book 4. He's determined to not get held back again. He's committing to an internship in a field (an energy lab) which will immensely help his country (which is rich in natural resources). All of this, coming from a young man who once acted bitter when his older brother suggested that there were many things Leona could do with his intelligence to benefit their homeland. Leona is making slow strides and steady progress toward a future he used to think was unattainable for him. From that darkness, he's rising anew--like the sun upon the savanna.

[connorsnothereeither]

How do you make Virgils boards, is there a system or do you just like go ham? I find them very neat and am curious

(idk if this has been asked before but if it has i couldn't find it so-)

I don’t think it’s been asked but I would LOVE to ramble about it omg for sure-

It’s sort of a mix of both! I have the advantage of like,,, Virgil canonically thinks the way I think, when it comes to connecting dots, so it’s sort of just a visual representation of my brain and how I picture the lore, lol. In terms of a “process” though:

I tend to start with a list of important plot points, bits of information, and character details Virgil does know. And obviously most of the time, it’s a a bunch of questions that he’s asking, which I’ve woven those into

From there, I make a list of assumptions Virgil makes based off those facts. Sometimes those are correct assumptions that I know are right because they’re planned lore. Sometimes they’re things that I’m spitballing because we haven’t landed on an actual answer, and it’s sort of like,,, testing the waters with an idea I think is fun, but that might not be canon. Sometimes, my favourite, they’re just completely bullshit assumptions that make sense but are so wild and silly, either for the comedic effect or as a red herring.

Once I’ve got all of those, I do just sort of go ham sketching them out! I tend to cluster them based on vibe and theme, so it looks like an evolution of thought. Here is this idea, here is this idea that relates to it, kinda thing. I also try to make sure that there’s a drawing or diagram per cluster of information, to add more visual interest! I tend to shuffle things around once they're drawn out, trying to see what fits best where, the sizing of things, and whats like, an appropriate connection/space for things to go! (for example in the upcoming draft of the board, I had to decide if i put the section on Luxtant near Avianism, near the Avicane, near the Sorcerers, or near Vast and Rune!)

Also before I do the line art, I tend to add the strings on a seperate layer to test the placement! actually connecting things with the red string is less important to me then how it looks visually. I want “main things,” whether it’s drawings or notes, to be visible. Like I try my best to not have string lines being directly over the top of people, or important concepts! You can for example in the current board in Virgil’s office that like,,, the note about Kalia isn’t covered, or the pictures of Vast and Pietro, but things like random questions about Viviana are covered by strings, because they’re less important to notice upon first glance. It’s a lot of finding a way to use the strings to draw the eyes in places I want them to go.

Then the last step of the process is line art and colouring and finalising placement :D

That all makes it sound like it’s a properly like, thought out process but honestly it’s a big mess of back and forth editing and scribbling and deciding last minute to add things to fill up space and just hope things turn out looking okay lol! But I have a lot of fun with it, Virgil and his investigations and investigative process (especially upcoming with things like Void Sickness) are very fun to play out 🫶

[fatuismooches]

WAIT NOOO IF THE GAMEPLAY FOR FRAGILE!READER INVOLVES BUFFS WHEN THEY GET HURT THEIR META WOULD BE SO MEAN (ToT)

Realistically, the best artifact set for fragile!reader (and by extension Dottore) would be a set that maximises HP cause, imagine that everytime fragile!reader gets hurt, Dottore gets a buff that stacks for his turn on the field

So the Abyss gameplay would be: No shielder since you want them to take damage, and a buffer like Benny or ult buffer like Mona maybe?

Then it would play with fragile!reader running around the field, dropping their supports, basically setting up the field for Dottore and farming energy recharge and stacks as they get damaged

And the recommended style for the best DPS would be: do not switch reader out until Dottore does so himself, since the moment reader hits red bar or gets a heavy hit, he comes in

Then you just go ham with him! And imagine the cool particles he'd have— idk what they're called, effects?? He has neat effects surrounding him indicating the buff stacks he has and imagine him switching in with a furious voiceline that he snarls, and the longer he stays in the field he slowly regains HP (and by extension healing his beloved)

The showcases would be edit worthy ngl I see them vividly, so the usual Bennet -> Mona -> then Reader = really pissed off Zandik that hits 100K per tick if you build him correctly and an ult that would hit almost 1M

Pretty sure Zandik would kill the player if he could since they're using his beloved like this, but alas (；∀； ) the showcase must go on

AHHH YESSS PUTS THIS IN MY MOUTH AND EATS IT... I love this interpretation sm... I like the idea of fragile reader getting hurt to buff Dottore because that's so in line for their character... they know they can't exactly fight much anymore but they can't help but hold onto the memories of protecting him from everything during the Akademiya, so they just want to be of some use. Even if it means being on life support for the majority of the time, you'll do anything to make it bit easier for him (although it should be the other way around.)

Reader's whole kit is definitely HP-based!! HP artifacts, HP weapon, HP scaling, they are greedy and they want all the health they can possibly get!! Although one would think you want to keep all this health to yourself, considering all you've been through, you're more than willing to take all these hits and damage yourself for Zandik's sake. It's probably quite easy for you to get hit too, you have low resistance and get interrupted by heavy attacks easily. Though that doesn't stop you! Foxttore and Puffttores away!!

When your HP finally drops below a certain amount Dottore automatically switches in!! Ahh the buff visuals,, imagine instead of the yellow thingies around him the special effect is little images of Foxttore or Puffttores hehe to differentiate your buff from others ❤️ (im delusional)

YOU'RE SO RIGHT, THE SHOWCASE EDITS ON DAY ONE OF RELEASE WOULD GO SO HARD 😭 people casually hitting huge numbers at the expense of fragile reader, wondering how far they can push their buffs 💥 (this just makes me more excited for playable Dottore, i want him so bad 😭)

(Mona, in the background: *wondering how the stars got her here next to these two crazy people*)

[shukakumoodboard]

a headcanon from each of the levels you just reblogged for gaalee

oh my GOD this is a top quality anonymous question op ur da BEST. yammertime. ofc since these are all for a non-canonical ship they're all deranged sparkle emoji but i digress.

for anyone who is like wtf here's the post i reblogged.

text under the cut!

level one:

one that purveyors of gaalee are very familiar with in fanon lore but i believe this to fit in nicely with canon while filling gaps: gaalee friendship developed predominantly via letter writing. reasons why i think this fits with canon 1) gaara manages to develop solid friendships with a lot of people in konoha with what is visually very little actual in-person interaction time. it stands to reason that there's behind the scenes friendship development. 2) he's the president at fourteen like he does not have time to spend on wandering the local mall like a lot of us oldmanyaois did to build our social circles, plus, he's got access to allllll the military communications options. and hawks are fast 3) we know there are multiple canonical messenger hawks! and their whole purpose is cross village communiques. of course they're all sending notes lets b so fr rn

level two:

height difference: lee is, in my head, taller than the canon suggests, and gaara is shorter. reasoning: ok look you've all seen this panel and you're telling me gaara ends up only like 4cm shorter than lee? Go To Jail

yes yes we can all discuss how they're all mid teens and have growing time but listen. gaara spent his entire childhood being effectively mentally tortured by shukaku and also his village's effective abandonment. do you think he had a well balanced diet? if we want to get scientific there's several studies that discuss how poor nutrition in childhood leads to lifelong consequences, and just because kishimoto didn't address this doesn't mean I Won't thank u. and i haven't even gotten started on the not-sleeping-thing. conversely, lee's probably been on Max Gains Training Diet since he was like. what, 10? tldr, i'm simply massaging their canonical heights in favour of what Actually Makes Sense Fucka You

i have another one for lee i think fits in this level that many of you may know from my magnus opus fight club: lee is--whether certified or not--definitely qualified to be a physiotherapist, and i think he'd volunteer at the hospital helping patients with mobility related injuries. reasoning: PLEASE in order to be a brilliant taijutsu specialist he has to have like the most intimate understanding of how the body works. that's his whole area of expertise. and i think that even post-op as a sand-squished teen he would have needed tons of therapy, and rock "paragon of virtue and chivalry and whatever" lee would absolutely feel like he needed to provide some sort of assistance to the hospo staff and help the other patients. because that's what a good shinobi would do. dattebayo

level 3:

yall know what time it is its LANGUAGE HEADCANON TIME based on, once again, all of @sagemoderocklee's fantastic lore. i think lee speaks 3, which for me are a) some form of shinobi common b) whatever the land of fire's local is, and c) something unique to team gai that's heritage based. in tgod i call it nishitsuchigo. i think gaara speaks [large number] on account of being mr sand president sir and thus becoming to some extent a diplomat, plus all those night awake? polyglot challenge speedrun. and the gaalee aspect of this is that gaara can speak all three that lee knows, so they can use that heritage based one to talk shit about their coworkers what who said that.

gaara's hugely into gardening. i think this is a fact in the databooks and we all know the screencap where he's holding the flowerpot but extending on this into truly fan-created lore i think he's definitely overhauling all of suna's food supply chains by going ham on greenhouses and very precise water allocations etc etc

lee grows his hair out after neji's death. this one is, again, well distributed across fandom because everyone, of course, is right relieved emoji. but ignoring bort entirely, lee would definitely do something to honour his friend/teammate, and i think that would be something like growing his hair out, since i don't think he'd change his style of dress and he can't learn neji's jutsu. and he's had long hair before. bring it back kishi u bastard

level 4 delusions:

theyre married. what do you mean im delulu

metal, if i am acknowledging bort which most of the time i am not, is their biological child. no i am not explaining how. my metal origin theory changes based on the fic i'm writing. currently its rock lee's tboy swag porn extension fic. hooHA. but this one only applies to when there's kids present--most of the time there aren't kids in my head

lee and temari swap diplomat roles to be emissaries for each other's villages as part of a Siq Deal to be with their respective husbandos

lee would 100% teach taijutsu to suna's academy students. why? because i said so

basically all my other headcanons tbh

omg i had so much fun with this thank you anon! <3

[damoselcastel]

Writer Interview game

Considering myself tagged by @queenlua

When did you start writing?

Jr. High is when I started sitting down and really going at it. I'd done visual art things since I was 4 years-old, but storytelling is something I'd always enjoyed. Now I consider myself faster at writing than as an artist, oof.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

Slice-of-lifes that dive deep into IRL topics, I have a lot of fun consuming. Modern set stuff I can enjoy, but usually don't want to write about (mostly cause I'll get neurotic about getting every little thing right)

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

Not by name, though I've been told my prose is 'lyrical', 'poetic', or just compared to older period books. Frankly, there was one creative workshop wherein a classmate was like "Oh, you talk like this too" when referring to my writing, and I just sat there all "?????" Personally, I remember loving Stephen Crane going ham with metaphors, but my childhood was most shaped by old fairytale collections.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

A desk dominating a corner of my bedroom houses my desktop. I'll bring my laptop to bed, or the living room couch (I should try bringing it outside the house more often)

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse?

When I'm interacting with a piece of media with a similar idea or, uh... isn't up to snuff with what they've done with a premise. "I can do it better" has fueled some of my longer projects. But mostly, chasing intriguing ideas.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

Culture clash - the nature of harmony - different people making an effort to interact. Those I've found crop up in my romances A LOT (one day I'll get my monster husband ideas down in longform prose). Not too surprising coming from a bi-racial, multicultural home.

What is your reason for writing?

Currently, for fun. An expressive outlet. Half a decade ago there was a lot of interaction it brought, in a mostly good way. Now that my expenses are bigger than ever, I'm kicking the can of "can this make money?" down the road.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Mood setting, description, worldbuilding, and dialogue. If someone likes purpler prose, that's where I indulge. I've honestly been doing various experiments to try and get quicker about finishing fics... alas, I'm simply wordy and slow.

How do you feel about your own writing?

I honestly like it all, even old stuff. That stuff is a snapshot in time that present me can't recreate, so it's fun in its own way even with mistakes (like trying to stuff TOO MUCH in one go). Although I do want to take it to the next step...need to get a manuscript DONE.

tagging @mrmissmrsrandom @dithorba @mannatea @arthoure

and anyone else that wants to participate

[communistkenobi]

man Visions knocks it out of the park with Jedi/Sith stuff because the unique animation styles of the different studios don’t contain all the usual norms of Star Wars’ visual language, so there’s not a hard commitment to the blue = good and red = bad visual schema. and like I know they aren’t “canon” which is probably part of why they’re allowed to be more stylistic, but because of that you get stuff like The Duel where both parties are using red blades, and now Sith where the main character has a double-bladed lightsaber that is half red half yellow. AND she’s ex-Sith!!! Like once you get a little bit fun with how Star Wars “looks” you get this downstream effect where the perspective of the moral universe of Star Wars also changes, because you can’t rely on colour-coded moral associations to tell who to root for, and when one party wins it doesn’t feel like a straightforward “and goodness prevailed!” or “and evil lived to fight another day!” conclusion. Jedi/Sith fights tend to all feel like they’re “about” good vs evil because of how hegemonic the blue/red dichotomy is in SW canon. so when you take that away and just have two people going fucking ham with lightsabers you get compelling fights!!!!

[landwriter]

PSA: The Death of Translation has been translated into Chinese! Go give it love, or read my rambling essay and then go give it love:

翻譯之死 by @thirrith

How do you translate a story where meaning hinges not only on the words themselves, but the meaning made by the reader's knowledge of their obscurity? Where misspellings aren't misspellings at all, but memories? Where sentiment is drawn from syntax differences? Well you start by being absolutely fucking brilliant!

I was so lucky to be able to hang around in the document while Eth worked on this. The level of creativity and diligence that has gone into this is mind-blowing. It is such a gift, and the process was incredible. It doesn't matter if you can't read Chinese - if you liked the fundamental premise of The Death of Translation, if you like language at all, you need to know how this was done:

Eth's translation is in Traditional Chinese characters with the addition of Classical Chinese and Cantonese to translate the Middle English. Classical Chinese - also known as Literary Chinese - isn't representative of how Chinese used to be spoken in the vernacular, which is why Eth chose it specifically for the written portions of Middle English...and those lines spoken by Dream, naturally.

Hob's Middle English lines are in Cantonese, which has the benefit of being older than and still at least a little intelligible to readers who only know Mandarin. Middle Chinese can't be used the way Middle English is used in the Sandman fandom (delightfully and gratuitously), because unlike the alphabetic characters of English, where words can be sounded out and phonetic spellings will exist in written record - a huge part of understanding how a language once sounded - logographic characters don't directly specify phonology. And even if they did, Middle Chinese spans from the 5th-12th centuries AD - making it contemporary of not Middle but Old English, and covered an area several orders larger than the parts of a small island where Middle English was spoken for about three hundred years - it's nowhere near as homogeneous(ish) or accessible(ish) as Middle English; Cantonese, despite being a different language, serves the same effect.

And then, the grocery list! This is where writing systems go ham. In English, it contains abbreviations, the medial s (ſ), archaic spellings/misspellings, and fancy old ampersands (one of the only logograms in the English writing system, I think, originally Latin's et and evolving over time into the shape of & - in Jane Austen's Persuasion you will find this aural history of 'et' instead of 'and', where &c is used to mean et cetera).

Eth used Cantonese, Simplified Chinese characters (a 20th century addition, faster to write, that Hob definitely would've embraced), variant character forms (which typically have a visual resemblance to each other), and 通假字, homophone characters that were conventionally used interchangeably with one another in Classical Chinese:

English and Chinese have such different writing systems and histories, and Eth has used all the compounding effects of that (upon things like phonology, modern-day intelligibility, writing system changes) to the absolute fullest effect and made choices that add invaluable implicit meaning to the story and characterization.

(As if that's not enough, the translation also features hot-linked footnotes that provide context for cultural references?! Literally everything a reader could ask for.)

And this is all super clever and fascinating if you're a big language fan like me, but the soft artichoke heart of my wonder can really be summed up best by this fact:

For many years I've loved the Jack Gilbert poem 'The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart', enough to put the first lines at the beginning of the fic:

How astonishing it is that language can almost mean, and frightening that it does not quite. Love, we say, God, we say, Rome and Michiko we write, and the words Get it wrong.

And for just as many years, I assumed Michiko was a place name, or some classical reference to art or literature beyond my plebby ken - until I saw Eth's note in the translation document.

Michiko, in fact, was the name of his wife.

The whole thing is such a testament to translation: the true deliberate practice of it, not just figurative language imagining a fictional character and his long-lived idiolect. And Eth's translation has only underlined my conviction that there is, sometimes, I feel, deeper work of understanding done - greater art made - and lovelier agonies to be had - in carrying words across languages than there is in putting the words down in the first place, in a first language.

[anhed-nia]

I'm sorry about this post. It's really long and I don't know if I had a point to make! But I didn't realize I was maybe just torturing myself and others until I was neck deep in it, and now I feel obligated to post it due to sunk cost fallacy. Sorry again. I guess this is how you find out who your real friends are.

In the pursuit of my masochistic project of understanding the enduring Phantom of the Opera phenomenon, last night I spontaneously went to a rep screening of Joel Schumacher's Oscar-nominated 2004 adaptation. This was a singalong audience participation type of thing, which I would usually avoid at all costs especially for something I have no emotional investment in, but it was just too strange that it was randomly happening while I'm in the middle of this assignment, so I went! We all got fake roses and Phantom masks and rubber bracelets that say OPERA GHOST and little artificial candles to light up during the big chandelier scenes, and there was a singing contest before the movie started and I almost had a panic attack, but I managed to maintain my sense of humor. Apparently the climate control was totally broken and it was oppressively hot in the house, to the point that I wound up sitting there in a painted-on Uniqlo undershirt for most of the movie, and I couldn't bring myself to get dressed again for about half an hour after it was over. I walked down to the bar attached to the theater where the queen running their drag bingo night and the bartender were laughing about how they should leave the heat blasting because everyone was buying a lot more drinks. The bartender quizzed us drinkers about which theaters were we in and were they hot; I said "This is not an outdoor shirt!" and everyone laughed. I'm so glad I wasn't wearing a weird bra.

Anyway.

It would be too much to say I had high hopes for the Schumacher PHANTOM, but I had a certain amount of optimism about it; he seemed like a really good choice for this irredeemably kitschy product, but the truth is that the movie is completely neutered. It really needed some of that BATMAN FOREVER juice, but the whole thing just has no energy. Apparently Andrew Lloyd Webber had "complete creative control" and I think it really shows, it's very limp and undistinguished, and simultaneously pretentious and stupid. Sometimes things can be described as "lavish" because they are so exquisitely realized, and sometimes they are "lavish" on account of the fact that they are just extremely busy, even though no single detail rises to the surface as memorable or remarkable. Even the chandelier, which is as much a staple of this story as the mask, is just not that impressive. There it is, a big old chandelier, it's round and it's shiny and you know exactly what's going to happen to it.

Any comparison with the 1925 Lon Chaney version is inevitably unflattering; the costumes are bad, the staging is boring--I mean there is just no excuse for a big Hollywood production to NOT go ham on the masquerade ball, WTF?!--and of course, the Phantom himself is really uninspiring. The most important part of any Phantom iteration is the unmasking, and this movie has TWO (2) whole unmasking scenes and both of them suck! We all know that no Phantom design has been remotely as good as Chaney's nearly 100-year old version, but still, Joel Schumacher has worked on movies with some really freaky makeup effects, he should have given us something better than this. The whole thing just feels like they were trying as hard as possible not to surprise or offend anyone. I blame ALW.

I see this image and I hear wind whistling through their ears.

The problem with the unmasking sceneS here (besides the lack of visual impact) is that they both feel really unmotivated. Actually, this is almost ALWAYS a problem. It's the biggest moment in the story and you shouldn't be asking yourself WHY it is happening. Plus, the reason why it is happening lies with the heroine Christine, and if your main character's motivations for doing something so outrageous are unclear or uncompelling, then your whole story is in trouble. As a viewer you can tell yourself that she does it because she is overwhelmed by curiosity, or overpowered by a compassionate urge to see the Phantom as he is, or that she sees the unmasking as a way of defanging her captor...but you shouldn't have to tell yourself all that stuff. The movie should tell you. And who the fuck is Christine anyway, shouldn't we know? In other versions Christine is so devoted to her career that she readily sacrifices her love life and embraces the absurdity of a sort of spirit of opera communicating with her and guiding her path. Some versions dramatize the conflict between her monastic commitment to opera and her desire for real relationships. In the AWL version, Christine is chiefly devoted to getting attention. She falls in love, from minute to minute, with anyone who looks at her long enough. She's in love with her dead dad, so she's just frantically in search of a living boyfriend and she seems pretty indiscriminate about it. It's kind of gross and pathetic and it makes it really hard to care about her or the burning question of which boyfriend will she choose.

I've never said this before in my entire life, but Minnie Driver is the best thing in this movie--followed by the old queens who take over the theater, followed by all of the bit players, followed by, at the very bottom, the main cast. None of the leads are really inspired casting choices, but it's hard to blame them for their output because there is nothing they could possibly do with such empty roles. Who is Christine? The girl who has to pick a boyfriend. Who is Raoul? The guy who wants to be Christine's boyfriend. Who is the Phantom? The other guy who wants to be Christine's boyfriend. I mean there's this brief, grotesque excuse made for what the Phantom's problem is, but it comes far too late and explains too little. It just boils down to ye olde "not getting laid drives you nuts, so we should be afraid of ugly people." There are no personalities to be found here, and casting generically pretty actors of no distinction really hurt things in the characterization department.

Full disclosure though: I'm very faceblind. I have a lot of trouble identifying actors, and sometimes I can't even tell people apart within one movie. So, because I didn't look up very much about this production going in, I was sitting there for at least 90 solid minutes constantly thinking:

Is that Patrick Wilson? That's Patrick Wilson. It is, right? Patrick? Wilson? Yeah no it definitely is. Like for sure. Right? PaTRICK? WILson??? Pa.........Wi........

At a certain point after I finally accepted that it was probably him I just started laughing every time I saw him. But to be totally fair to ME, this presentation barely resembles a real live person:

And that hair is unacceptable. I'm sorry, Patrick Wilson. It's not your fault. I really liked the INSIDIOUS sequel you directed even though no one else did, so I'm sure we can be special friends.

The main effect of the Schumacher/ALW PHANTOM was...making me really aware of how much I like the Menahem Golan one with Robert Englund. Really! I thought I didn't like it. I know I saw it when I was young, when I had major league Freddy Kreuger fever (worse than now, somehow), so it would seem like if it didn't get its hooks in me then, it never would. But now that I have sat through...many Phantom iterations, I have become aware that it is genuinely one of the better attempts on the story. It has a lot of personality! It's trashy and juicy and a lot of fun. It even looks pretty good sometimes! I fondly remember specific costume details, which I cannot say about the big expensive ALW one. I'm not here to tell you that it's a great example of cinema or something, but it is vastly more entertaining than much of what's been done with this story by more reputable people. You'd think it would be hampered by the lack of a proper mask, but the gory unmasking scene is spectacular, AND it gets around the question of why Christine unmasks the Phantom which has not been answered satisfactorily by almost any movie. I was pining for the Englund edition for all 2.5 hours of this ALW debacle. I was even pining for Jill Schoelen as Christine! Not that I have a problem with Jill Schoelen, she's very charming. It's just that I hate POPCORN, which she stars in and which is itself a kind of Phantom adaptation. I'm not watching it again, though, no matter what. My agita.

[murfpersonalblog]

Thornfield Hall, Manderlay, and Louis de Pyromaniac du Lac

I wanna talk about Louis' depression, Anne Rice's grief, and the element of fire in a few iconic Gothic romances/horror stories. (Trigger warning for suicide.)

Bar none, my favorite thing about Louis is his obsession with fire, and how it's linked to his abuse, mental instability, and trauma.

It's so neat how AMC's Louis chainsmokes when he's stressed, and has a hilarious attachment to the incinerator.

His fire obsession's a whole meme at this point, & everyone's excited for Louis going ham with fire in Season 2. I can't wait to see how AMC handles his most iconic book/film moment(s).

But I was rereading Jane Eyre, and thought alot about Bertha Mason (Mr Rochester's archetypal crazy wife in the attic), and Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca (which was inspired by Jane Eyre). And they got me thinking about fire and suicide in the Vampire Chronicles, so walk with me a bit.

Louis is called the most "human" of the vampires, because of how weak he was, compared to other vampires his age (and even younger). His rat/animal blood diet was tantamount to an eating disorder that heavily stilted his growth as an immortal, and for the majority of his life he lacked many of the Gifts vampirism afforded his peers (Mind Gift, Spell Gift, Killing Gift, etc).

However, shockingly enough, AMC decided to give Louis one of their most potent powers: The Fire Gift (pyrokinesis).

In the books it was explained that vampire blood is flakey & highly flammable, and only the oldest and/or strongest of vampires could withstand fire without serious injury or death--let alone use the Fire Gift to any significant degree--hence: BAMF Akasha using it as her signature attack in QotD. 👑

This seriously begs the question about where this show sits in the canon timeline, because book readers know that Louis only gains the Fire Gift, Cloud Gift, Mind Gift, etc etc after the events of Merrick, when Louis tries to commit suicide, and to heal Louis' burns, Lestat gives him a huge infusion of his powerful blood (having fed at length from Akasha in QoTD, and also God/Jesus in Memnoch.)

Lestat's super!blood healed Louis' burns and saved his life, but it also drastically & permanently changed Louis' body, making him more vampiric than he'd ever been, seriously augmenting his powers. This was something Louis had adamantly been trying to avoid--every time the Children of the Millennia/Coven of the Articulate met up, they all offered Louis infusions of their ancient blood, trying to help him power up, and every time Louis refused them all.

Louis retaining his humanity was so important to him, not only because of the Catholic Guilt he felt being a blood-drinking killer, but also because being physically weak allowed him one ultimate ace up his sleeve: if he ever got the courage to end his life, he could always rely on going into the sunlight, and burning to death.

So, while AMC's dust particle effect is very cool, I'd rather see vampires on FIRE--even though the ashes to ashes visuals are rather apropos.

Regardless, I was also thinking about all the other people & places Louis set on fire; and how it all ties in with the Gothic literature Anne Rice was CLEARLY inspired by--namely: Jane Eyre & Rebecca.

Cuz we know Anne Rice wrote Louis and his grief over losing Claudia as a self insert, as a way for her to try handling her own grief over losing her daughter. But she started hating writing as Louis, and being stuck in that depressive mindset, so AR switched to writing from Lestat's POV instead, as a more fun and carefree character for a few books--until Lestat had a crisis of faith in Memnoch and goes into a coma. We then get Armand's book, where in TVL Armand tries to commit suicide by walking into the sun after Lestat gets Veronica's Veil from Memnoch (i.e.: proof that God exists, from the Devil). Immediately after this is Merrick, where Louis enters another depressive episode, as he waits vigil for YEARS beside Lestat, who lies on the floor of a cathedral in a coma. As Louis mourns, he finds Claudia's diaries, which reveal just how much she hated & resented him, and he starts being haunted by Claudia's ghost. By the end of Merrick, Claudia's ghost has convinced Louis that he's worthless, and he agrees.

Suicidal ideation is HEAVY in both Jane Eyre and Rebecca. Mrs. de Winter is almost talked into jumping from the window by the housemaid Mrs Danvers, who hates that the widowed Maxim de Winter remarried (forgetting his first wife Rebecca), and gave Manderlay to the new wife--a girl half his age with no clue how to be a "proper" lady of the estate.

In Jane Eyre, Bertha Mason is literally insane, and was locked up in Thornfield's attic, until she escaped and set the place on fire, then jumped off the roof to her death. In the 2006 BBC version, Bertha sees an owl (a nocturnal bird) fly off the roof, so she follows it; like a free bird taking flight.

Who else does this in IWTV? PAUL with his birds. (Not to mention the PTSD from Louis' drop in Ep5, which would've definitely killed a normal person.)

For years, I thought Claudia's ghost was just an apparition: either one of the demons Lestat unleashed while fleeing Hell in Memnoch, or more likely as a manifestation of Louis' guilty conscience, as his mental state got increasingly worse as he read her journals; on top of him being scared Lestat was dying. But then Blackwood Farm introduced Goblin, and all the later books had prominent vampire ghosts that proved that vampires (and aliens, lol) have immortal souls that can linger. So the ghost was legit, and so was Claudia's deep-rooted hatred for Louis.

I've already said how I think IWTV is a story about (failed) marriages and parenthood dynamics, the power imbalances that ensue, and the resentments that fester. But so are Jane Eyre & Rebecca. At the heart of ALL of them are mental illness & houses on fire. Bertha Mason was violently insane, but she was sane enough to realize that Mr Rochester was tryna marry another woman right under her nose, when it was HER dowry money that bankrolled Thornfield, as his first wife. So in the 2006 version Bertha lights Jane's wedding dress on fire, taking the whole mansion down with her. (In the book she just tears up the dress & veil, then starts the fire.)

In Rebecca, it was Maxim's first wife Rebecca who was cheating, but the (nameless) second wife lived under her shadow & the ghost of her memory--embodied by Mrs. Danvers, who hated her guts, and fed into her deep insecurities over being married to a widower who hadn't gotten over his first wife Rebecca (*cough* little did they know though~! XD). After failing to talk the girl into killing herself, Mrs Danvers had a psychotic break, and set Manderlay on fire, dying in the blaze (joining her beloved Rebecca).

Taking the Gothic horror & suspense out--or, hell, INCREASING it--one could easily spin this so that JANE was the one who started the fire when she learned about Bertha in the attic and ran away from Thornfield (in some adaptations the fire happens the same night she leaves). One could also say that MRS DE WINTER burned down Manderlay after cracking under the pressure of becoming a married lady. Both of these second wives were driven crazy by ghosts of the past, and burned down the mansions that had become their tombs.

Cuz I mean...Louis is Lestat's second wife/husband, after Nicky killed himself in a fire. 👀 And Louis and Claudia literally watched as they burned Lestat's sidechick/third wife Antoinette alive, so.... 🔥

TL;DR: I think Anne Rice must've been struggling with a lot of suicidal thoughts around the time she wrote The Vampire Armand (book 6) and Merrick (book 7), to have both its characters do the same thing, one right after the other. Vampires and their vulnerability to fire/sunlight were just metaphors for very real personal issues. After writing IWTV, she walked away from Louis, burying her depression by writing more books as the sunny Lestat, who suntans for fun and is immune to fire by the end of QoTD. But in the back of her mind, AR might've felt guilty forgetting about her grief (Louis forgetting about Claudia--willfully forgetting about Bertha, Rebecca, etc....). So the ghost of this guilt came back with a vengeance in Merrick, as Claudia unleashed all her vitriol on Louis, and he hated himself to the point that he was convinced to light himself on fire--the sole reliable escape from misery he had left.

[lorz-ix]

Peak spanish cinema

La gran aventura de Mortadelo y Filemón (2003)

Alright this movie is insane and I can't really describe what it is, other than calling it live action slapstick, and saying it's based on a very long running and extremely popular spanish comic, and talking about how that comic was key in my formative years, how it inspired me as an artist, and in my sense of humor, but how it also contains a bunch of "problematic" shit because it was written by a very old guy who I still massively respect...

I remember watching this in cinemas when I was a kid, I must have been 7 when it came out, and it was an experience to remember, it even disturbed me in some ways. The humor is slightly more mature than in the comics I read, using more foul language and more adult comedy, which means it felt off back then, me being so young. But the truly wild stuff came during the last third of the movie, when actual drama starts to happen (not something that happened in the comedy-focused comics) and one of the lead actors really hams it up, selling everything that's happening to him really hard. For example, his mother gets kidnapped, and he's completely devastated. Even more stuff happens, something that I won't spoil, but overall it meant that my 7 year old self never forgot what I saw, with these goofy cartoon characters going through such an unpredictable amount of distress.

It's complicated, alright? You might watch it and not understand any of it, because its core audience has literally grown up and sometimes even learnt how to read consuming the source material, and that context is hard to replicate if you're not already into the comics. But I think that lack of knowledge might even be more interesting, because I can't imagine how watching something this absurd might feel.

Listen, I think the slapstick is hysterical, there's lots of practical effects used to recreate a ridiculous-looking cartoon aesthetic and the visuals alone have a shit ton of charm. If you want to watch something insane, this is it.

Mortadelo y Filemón contra Jimmy el Cachondo (2014)

So, you know how I said these characters are extremely popular in Spain? Surprisingly, only 3 movies have been made about them (though a couple of animated shows exist), and one of them is a terrible sequel that we don't like to talk about. Hell, there are a lot more videogames about them than there are movies, for some reason.

This is the last movie to see the light of day, and the only animated one, shockingly enough. Even more shockingly, despite positive critic reception and strong marketing, it underperformed on the box office, probably the reason why we haven't seen any follow-ups since.

It's a decently funny and very quotable comedy, at least for us, but I can't say if it stays as funny once it's been translated and the cultural context has been removed. I guess you would have to find that out yourself. Hopefully I'm not making a fool of myself by recommending it.

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 7 Minagoroshi pt. 28

Time to choose. It’s time to choose.

See, what I didn’t tell you is that you don’t actually get to choose. It doesn’t play very well with the screenshot format, but when it was highlighting the choices? That was entirely the visual novel, I didn’t get the choice.

Again, please ignore the seemingly random characters in the background. I’m not an expert screenshot taker. It was all a deceptive ruse you see! Despite saying they were going home, good old Eagle Eyes Rena saw the Mountain Dog and convinced the others to hang around. For two hours. In the dark. But hey it worked out. Also once again I enjoy the little glimpses that prove the deception to Mion saying the Sonozaki family isn’t a suspicious nefarious organization. Guess Ooishi was right after all that they do have a secret cache of illegal guns at their estate.

Kind of a boneheaded oversight on the part of the military kill squad to not have all of them similarly armed like the ones who snuck into Rika’s house. Also, don’t worry guys, unless the plot demands it, you’ll be out for like two seconds tops, her stun gun is more like getting shocked by a faulty light switch than anything.

I’m not going to lie, this part legitimately gave me shivers.

The fact that Hanyuu seemingly froze time just so everyone can truly appreciate how well and truly fucked they are sent such a complex wave of emotion through me it was mystifying. I know this probably isn’t Hanyuu’s doing, but the fact that everyone for some reason is able to look at the bullet about to put Keiichi down was jaw dropping.

God bless you anime time, for letting scenes like this happen.

It’s screens like this that makes me doubt the earlier claims that Hanyuu doesn’t remember Rika’s deaths. That the idea that she doesn’t is just Rika’s own faulty conclusion she’s jumping to.

One of the things I appreciate about Takano’s turn to villainy is the fact that they didn’t decide to ham it up. They very easily could have had her start becoming the ojou-laughing mustache twirling villain with her voice acting, but they didn’t. And I really like that about this chain of events. I try not to make comparisons to everything all the time, but they could have very easily had her pull a Junko Enoshima here, but instead they just kept it straight. Too many pieces of media, when the villain gets revealed just become a parody villain.

Another thing I appreciate here is the sheer brutality of crushing their hopes and dreams. It could have danced around for a while with both sides getting the upper hand on the other until eventually Takano and the Mountain Dogs overcome them. Instead it decided to just cut straight to the point and have the evil military character just do the realistic thing and just shoot her problem. It is a surprisingly realistic outcome amidst all of these other fantastical elements.

Bonus manga pages:

I really like how in the manga version of Minagoroshi Hanyuu's clothes are similarly ghostly like herself. The flow upwards and have that spiritual effect where it looks like parts of it are breaking off and floating upwards.

In some scenes anyway. Also given what is revealed about Hanyuu in Matsuribayashi I can understand why the manga gave her a larger chest.

She is a delight.

[beesmygod]

overthinking quickening and the old hunter's bone aka the cope theory

the old hunter's bone is an item that gives the player hunter the art of "quickening" (dude if this was intentional this was a 10/10 translation job), which increases your roll and quickstep speed. visually, the player appears to disappear into a moving puff of smoke. this short video demonstrates the effect:

item description:

The bone of an old hunter whose name is lost. It is said that [they were] an apprentice to old Gehrman, and a practitioner of the art of Quickening, a technique particular to the first hunters. It is appropriate that hunters, carriers of the torch who are sustained by the dream, would tease an old art from his remains.

editing mine. a rare objective translation error; the original japanese is ungendered and it does in fact turn out that gehrman's apprentice was a woman. the description is as intriguing as it is incomprehensible. lets break it down:

first the basics: the number of hunters that can use the quickening without an item can be counted on one hand: gerhman the first hunter, lady maria (his apprentice) and I THINK the vermin infested old hunters in the DLC (i will need to double back to check for sure u_u but theres a gif of at least one of them doing it on the fandom wiki). on the other hand, since the player character is not an old hunter and did not practice "quickening". therefore, they have to use the old hunter's bone to gain the same effect for a short time at the expense of their quicksilver bullets. only one other NPC hunter uses this item: the bloody crow of cainhurst.

the old hunter's bone is found in gehrman's abandoned workshop at a grave strongly implied to belong to lady maria, his apprentice. we would, therefore, have to assume its lady maria's bone. but, i can hear you say, isn't that bone a tibia? lady maria has both of her legs!

but....does she?

she's completely covered up from head to toe. we don't know for sure. but we do know that you can do your quickening with only one leg and move completely unhindered on a prosthetic; gehrman is proof positive of this. there are a number of clothing items that reference the removal of the right leg because that's where they believed that the beast scourge originated from. in hindsight, its obvious that this was because of all the wolf infected blood they were unknowingly injecting into themselves via their right leg.

in fact, the statues at cainhurst reflect this belief as well. the statues of knights in the queen's throne room are all missing their right leg.

the bloody crow of cainhurst is a weird wannabe guy so he probably got his bone from the corpses of one of these knights. the people of cainhurst and their ancestors, the pthumerians, both have some form of enemy that can disappear and re-appear or pass through tables. quickening-esque abilities.

the point of this is mostly this: i do not think that maria's entire body was buried at her grave, just the part of her that was left behind: her severed leg. the rest of her was captured in the hunter's nightmare. much like how ludwig's body does not exist outside of the nightmare. they are not "dream versions" of the characters made of their consciousness or some stupid shit there's no precedent for and sucks ass. they are physically trapped.

this extends to laurence and wraps back around to my "laurence is objectively the headless bloodletting beast" thing in spite of his stupid appearance in the DLC. the objective canon im choosing to go with is that DLC laurence was a last minute terrible idea retcon based on the fact that its literally just a reskinned cleric beast and has no concept art or appearances in art books. laurence is the only one who breaks every known convention in the game while simultaneously being one of the most overly ham-fisted addition to a game

the end

[toomanyf4ndoms7]

MK1: Kameos to Kontestants: Ferra.

Bio:

Volatile: An orphaned girl from an unknown tribe of Outworld, Ferra’s at times volatile personality makes her as useful of a weapon and unpredictable as a storm. She can be bribed by shiny gifts, but as long as she is satisfied, she will tear her enemies apart.

Unique normal attacks:

Special Moves:

Biter: Ferra pounces on the opponent, biting their neck with a crunchy sound effect. Enhance for her to her to bite some more.

Gain from pain: by Ferra stabs into her shoulder, causing a small damage over time effect to herself in exchange for an increased damage output until the effect runs out. (Her claws have a red glow as a visual indication)

Rider: A unique command grab where Ferra climbs on the opponent and can perform one of three different actions.

Stabby-stab: Ferra shanks with her claws. Can be done three times consecutively.

Whoopsie Dazy: Ferra smacks the opponent’s temples, dazing them, this keeps them standing for when Ferra gets off.

Gasping for air: Ferra puts her arm around the opponent’s neck, choking them to their knees. This does the most damage.

Fatal Blow:

After the Kameo does their sequence, Ferra sprints at the opponent, tackling them to the ground and going ham with her claws, blood coats the screen as she grins manically. She swipes at the opponents face, stabbing into their gut.

Fatalities:

Terror Torr: Ferra does a dog whistling sound, and her face lights up like a kid on Christmas morning as loud footsteps charge forward. Torr arrives and grabs the opponent by their head and legs, and rips them in hand, showering him and Ferra with gore. Ferra cheers, perching on Torr’s shoulders.

Feral Ferra: Ferra stabs the opponent’s face repeatedly, before sticking the blades right into the eyes and pulling them out, Ferra gasps in delight and steps off the opponent.

Brutalities:

Aw, no more playing?: MUST USE GASPING FOR AIR AS FINAL HIT AND BE ABOVE FIFTY PERCENT HEALTH: Ferra chokes the opponent until they run out, giggling as she does so. When she lets go, she kicks them a bit to see if they’re really dead.

Ending:

With Snake man gone, Ferra was alone again. Wandered the Tarkatan wastes, feeling alone.

Been alone for a long time. Still hurts. Like hunger. Bandits found Ferra, wanted to hurt her, but then…

(Ferra’s voice becomes excited.)

Ferra found someone. Someone big. Someone who… understands.

Torr and Ferra killed bandits, we bound to each other!

Torr fight with Ferra, win with Ferra! We together, forever!

*Ferra laughs loudly, in time with Torr roaring.*

Intro dialogue:

Shang Tsung: In exchange for your service, I can offer you many treasures, girl.

Ferra: Snake-Man is a liar!

Reiko: You betrayed the general, buffoon!

Ferra, defensively: Pretty lady gave Ferra gold!

[hella1975]

hella can u give me a visual description of some of ur ocs for toab i need to draw them

anon is facing the classic dilemma of taob readers since the dawn of time (august 2020) and for once im gonna actually do something about it so i present unto you, artists of tumblr dot com, an exhaustive rundown of taob oc descriptions:

kanut: i feel like kanut is one whose appearance is pretty solidified now. he has white hair that falls down to the base of his back that he typically pulls back into a half-knot, with a short white beard. go grandpa go. he's described as generally having a 'rough' 'sea-faring' apperance bc he's one of those people that really doesnt give a fuck about appearance especially when it has nothing to do with his healing, so while he wears the typical water tribe clothing, he'll usually have his sleeves rolled up or stains on his tunic etc. he has blue eyes and isn't very muscled because he stays out of all combat due to being the healer, but he's one of the taller tribesmen. he has those scars on his hands that cover his palms and knuckles and quite sharp features.

chena: COLOSSAL freak of a man. like i wanted him to be comically large seeing as i was working with a kids show universe where shit like that happens, so zuko literally just stands past this man's ELBOW. fucking giganotosaurus rex. he's incredibly broad and muscled as well as just tall, very thick-necked and beefy face. like it's v important to me that chena's muscle isn't the streamlined, airbrushed kind; he's a total beefcake. he's COVERED in scars like he has a specific slit in his eyebrow that needs to be mentioned bc ZUKO GAVE IT HIM but aside that honestly go ham with the scars. his eyes are grey but more of a blueish grey, and he has dark brown hair that he does quite detailed braids in to pull back out of his face and fall down his back.

tomkin: he's v skinny/lanky and trying very hard to look bigger than he is. he wears his dark brown hair in a warrior's wolf tail and effectively looks like an older, less-burdened-by-The-Horrors version of sokka. he does tend to style the braid part of his wolftail to come out of his hair a little though instead of lying flat bc he thinks it makes him look taller (it doesn't). his eyes are a very light blue.

nanook: he has shoulder-length hair that's a light brown colour but ive realised some people mean 'nearly blonde' when they say light brown whereas i just meant 'not nearly black' like a lot of the other warriors. he wears a bead on one of the front strands and it usually falls so that it's sitting by his jaw. nanook is the tallest of the tom nook & ko trio and he's pretty toned but more in a 'has actually grown into himself' kind of way than a 'seasoned warrior' kind of way. he has a round face and generally looks very steady and calm. he has a birthmark on his hand (between his thumb and forefinger) that looks like a wave and he wears ivory bracelets on each wrist.

aput: IDC WHAT YOU DO WITH APUT BUT KNOW HE'S HOT. HE IS THE FIT ONE OF THE SWT. HE'S THEIR CASANOVA. MAKE HIM ATTRACTIVE OR DIE BY MY BLADE. he has black hair that falls to around shoulder length and he doesnt usually style it in any way, and he's the second burliest in the group. he's got a much more lean muscle than chena and it makes him quicker, so fighting-wise those two are almost evenly matched (chena just wins out though. pure aggression will get you everywhere). aput has a sharp jaw and deep blue eyes

tulok: he's the smallest of the adults and has brown hair that falls to the middle of his back. he usually just braided it back or wore it in a style very similar to korra's with the blue ribbons, but since shuhon prison he's been wearing it in an earth kingdom braid. he's easily the most put together of the group bc he has a real thing for keeping clean and tidy, so his clothes are always pristine and his personal grooming is always up to date.

tovah: she's incredibly tall and lithe with sleek, black hair that falls to her hips that she wears in a PERFECT ponytail like not a HAIR out of place. she's all sharp angles and narrowed green eyes and she tends to wear earth kingdom uniform. her skin is tanned and she doesn't visibly carry any weapons on her unless she's undercover in the army and they're military-issued.

some references from beautiful fanart i have the absolute pleasure of being gifted! i wish i could put every bit of art ever made for my ocs here but im going mainly off whose showed up first when going through the tag and also any that i think just Really Captured how i personally see the character in my mind:

this portrait of kanut by @pyro-bee

atla-style tovah by @lordrei

tom nook (+ zuko) by @gloomybirdie

tovah elle woods supremacy by @herebutnotpresent

another pyro-bee kanut by @pyro-bee

tovah character sheet by @herebutnotpresent (this one is SUPER helpful)

and tons more under the 'taob art' tag if it helps!