#and it's fun to see how it's adapted

[sleepsonclouds]

Clouds tropespots: The Spirealm, E01

The Spirealm is a horror/drama series adapted from Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu, very much a danmei novel. So what's this drama, when it obviously can't be that? Hella tropey, that's what it is. And don't "bromance" me, I find this pretty damn romantic.

So this adaptation achieves the desired effect by a) amping up the emotional closeness from the get-go, when it develops slowly in the novel, and b) utilizing all the tropes, all the time. All the fanfic and romance tropes and the kitchen sink. So I thought I'd attempt to catch them all! I try to keep these short and fun from now on.

(I managed all of that without a mention of our leads and those devastating, utterly smitten looks and the incredible, amused fondness. This show doesn't rely just on tropes.)

Episode 1 (Winter cabin, 1st door)

Lin Qiushi ends up in the world of doors, a virtual reality game where one must pass through 12 worlds or die trying. He meets a dashing stranger (drama sprite) Ruan Nanzhu... and the tropes are off.

Crossdressing: No, but the hanfu Ruan Nanzhu is wearing for no reason is probably a nod towards book!Nanzhu's crossdressing tendencies.

Backing someone against a wall: A tree. They've barely met, and Nanzhu gets really up close and personal. Intense looks. He's interested. We really don't need an incredibly tall person for this, romance authors everywhere.

Injuries for hurt-comfort purposes: Nanzhu fakes being injured while saving Lin Qiushi to gain his sympathy. He doesn't need it, he's having fun.

Carrying your partner: Lin Qiushi immediately offers to carry him. MY BOY. You do not know this drama person... No carrying. Yet.

Everyone assumes you're together: Everyone does. (Bed)roommates it is, then.

There is only one bed: Ah, the trope most beloved by this series! One (1) bed. It's okay if one person is on top of the covers! Then you can face each other and get really close, of course bc monsters. Sure.

Noodles of love: The eternal trope appears! Nanzhu promises to protect Qiushi from ghosts if he makes noodles. Noodles happen. Qiushi is a good cook.

Taking care of your partner: Nanzhu appears to be cold (doubtful), so Qiushi immediately gets him a coat. While making the noodles. -> Episode 2

[lavenoon]

Gotta make sure there are as few tripping hazards as possible in the daycare <3

[botlabyrinth]

the percy jackson tv show is actually great when there isn’t a little shit in your ear telling you it’s not “book accurate”

[un-pearable]

as true as the jokes about “everyone wants to rewrite ninjago” are i feel like smthn people forget when complaining about the inconsistencies of the show is that…. it wasn’t planned? it’s not like most other animated shows lately - it didn’t start with a deeply fleshed out world or a meticulously designed pitch bible with grandiose plans for a long-term story or character arcs. the ninja don’t originally get their powers from heredity because they weren’t hereditary powers yet. the magic system doesn’t make sense bc they literally just made it up as they went! they go back and forth on stuff like whether non-elementals can learn spinjitzu bc it’s a collaborative piece of media made by people with vastly different levels of control over the story, the animation, the sets, etc. that varied over the course of the series. it’s totally understandable and exciting to see so many people reworking the early stuff with the lore and logic later seasons introduced but i personally feel that… if you’re doing that. you need to understand why the show is like that instead of writing it off as being bad and shitty. it was working with what it had. it’s only what it is now because of that awkward troubleshooting phase, not in spite of it

[mrbluesummers-moved]

I'm too tired to write the full Essay™, but someone said in the tags that Stampede took away Knives' fear and it made me realize that the core issue I have with Trigun Stampede is the fact that the characters lack the emotional depth of Trigun Maximum. Like, I'm enjoying Stampede, and it's emotional, but Knives and Vash especially have had their emotional complexity watered down in comparison to the manga.

In the manga, they were as much at war with themselves as they were with each other and world around them. Knives was expressive, animated, and always playing up the megalomaniac god complex in public, but in private he was exhausted and scared and even expressed guilt towards his sisters for being careless in how he orchestrated the fall. Vash was an upbeat pacifist who was constantly fighting his own urge to take the "easy" way out and kill to solve problems.

It's what made the manga so heartbreaking. Neither of them were entirely right, but neither of them were entirely wrong. Knives shouldn't try a genocide, but he was also a deeply traumatized child who was shown how cruel humans could be to plants. Vash should try to do as much good in the world as he can, but holding onto the ideals of pacifism in a hostile environment does more harm than good and he learns that when he's finally pushed to the point where he has to choose between killing and saving someone important to him.

I don't think it's impossible for Stampede to recover in Season 2, but the foundations aren't great. Changing Nai to being cold as child seems like such a small change, but Knives starting out as the optimist who loved humanity is so central to that internal conflict... I don't know. Maybe they'll come back to the point of Rem being important to Knives and make use of the fact that he intended for her to survive and that might save it. We'll have to see.

[rayssion]

New pjo fans, how do you guys feel about the big reveal?

[royalarchivist]

Hope everyone enjoyed today's QSMP Cinema event!

As expected, many VODs were unfortunately muted for certain animations because of copyright issues. I know some of the artists weren't able to catch everyone's reactions to their work, and I'm sure there are many other fans & VOD watchers who missed out too.

LUCKY I was able to archive Foolish, Roier, Cellbit, and Quackity's reactions to all the animations, and for anyone interested in viewing them, I'll be uploading them to Google Drive and will post the links here when that's available.

[maroon-scarf]

one thing that struck me when i watched the show so far is that how ordinary the monsters look when they're not in their real forms. the books mentioned so many times how the gods and the monsters blend in together among humans and i honestly never really given that a thought how ordinary they would look in my head because the book is from a demigod's pov so they would 'see' the difference and immediately recognize them. and since the show is not from percy's pov, we, as the audience, would see how they blend in so well you wouldn't take a second glance and think they're just people instead of mythical beings roaming around in this world

[sunshineandlyrics]

Niall and Louis' versions of 'Night Changes'

[greekcomedy]

anyway i think that the lotus casino being a known hangout of HERMES of all the gods is going to change things especially wrt the di angelos. does the casino still mess with time? why would hades turn to a hermes-claimed lotus casino to hide his children from the gods? would hermes be able to sense them, or even just run into them by chance? are nico and bianca even going to be there?

[the-binding-blade]

Relearning how to color feat. IE2

[e-m-yl]

Reading the ORV manwha is just going ‘I loved this bit in the novel!’ everytime anything happens

[a-r00m-with-a-m00se]

Anxiety and kisses

[poisonandpages]

Gaston Leroux: so really, the Phantom's story is about how harshly the treatment of deformed/disabled people can impede the development of their emotional maturity and cause horror. Erik's actions were awful and shouldn't be swept under the rug, but the fact is he was largely misguided in how to behave due to the way others treated him, and he could have been an extraordinary man & wonderful member of society if only someone had shown him a tiny fragment of real unconditional kindness earlier in his life.

ALW: ...How about we make him a sexy goth in a love triangle? Christine thinks he's almost definitely shaggable and can forget all the murder pretty easily.

Leroux: Quoi?

[bibiana112]

Okay but on the topic of theatre since this train of thought was cut short the other day when I was watching the stage of the golden witch or well. Not watching I guess I could only think about how much of an absolute Need it is to have my silly little jpeg blorbos played by real people moving around on stage actually it's so fun and everyday I cry about 999 having been so flop because I'm dying to see what little mannerism choices the actors of each character would make the fucking LAYERS that scenes would have like the one with June and Ace on the infirmary god I NEED To See That Shit Live On Stage idc what anyone else says

[smol-bean-of-the-smols]

part 1 of hopefully several of drawing manga panels i like in the anime's style

here's the sketch because i really like it, as well as the referenced panel and a little ramble:

we'll ignore that this panel is technically in the anime. i just wanted to include more of him in it, y'know? the rest will be ones the anime either didnt include or didnt frame in the way the manga did

anyways AAAAAAA drawing in the official style is making my brain REALLY recognize that what im drawing is him so im having a lot of fun and i will continue to be unwell about him :D