#basically everything came down to visual design

[ectoodle]

Hi! I'm a huge fan of your work, especially your svsss animatics! If you're okay with sharing, I have two questions I've been wondering about for your "two times" animatic (which I have looped for an uncountable and unspeakable number of times). Yqy is one of my favorite characters, so I'm curious about the significance of him being in the opening of the animatic! Is it to show bingge breaking one of sj's precious things (or his only, really) just because he can? A reinforcement of his cruelty and power (given that he needed a trap to take down yqy)? Also-- it took approximately a billion rewatches to notice that bingge is the only one shown with white-pale skin of the entire cast; even the brief flash of sj towards the end shows sj with a more natural skin tone than bingge (although I suppose the very first shot from the animatic also depicts him with white skin). Is there some figurative meaning to that?

Hope you have an awesome day! 💗💗💗

Hey anon!

I'm more than happy to share my thought process behind my works! Generally I try to be hands off once I share it to the internet, but I do believe this mv in particular probably does need some elaboration. Also I love getting any chance to ramble so uhhh beware below it's gonna be a little long

For your first question, I am guessing you mean this one:

I'm sorry to say that's not YQY, but SJ 😔 And I don't blame you or everyone else who mistook him, since my tags on this post did not tag any of the characters and only mentioned YQY as a joke line.

I was aware that it may be hard to identify this shot as SJ because his face is heavily shadowed and the Xuan Su sword depicted is my own design. There aren't any strong visual indicators that would immediately recognize this character as SJ. I was relying heavily on depicting this limbless body cradling a broken sword, so I assumed just based on context and trusting the reader's knowledge of the 79 extras would be enough to convey that this scene is SJ cradling the broken Xuan Su sword.

(SJ's pose and tattered robes was intended to resemble a broken bamboo leaf, my attempt at another visual indicator as SJ, but all I see is a dried bay leaf dehydrating in the back of my pantry)

Also, another ultra hidden attempt at symbolism (lmao) is the red fire spark that cuts between SJ and the Xuan Su sword. I deliberately isolated and slowed that one single spark down to give it attention, placing it near the face where the audience's eyes are drawn to, that it was Bingge who tore those two apart.

...it's very much the "what does the blue curtain symbolize?" moment that I knew no one would catch at all, since it's such a minute and insignificant detail. I mostly put it there for my own satisfaction of making sure this scene felt complete, even for something as small as fire sparks, so yea...sorry to everyone who thought that was YQY, it's my fault for not being clear about it at all.

YQY may not be present in the mv, but symbolically he is very much there.

SJ's only other appearance is the very first shot of this mv and it's just his hand dumping tea onto bunhe. Had SJ continued his appearance in this mv, he would also have been colorless, his green robes as an exception. So the fully colored SQQ from here on is SY.

Which leads us to the second question of Bingge being the only one colorless. @color-coded-bear's tags are worth the read:

Pretty much nails what I was going for with his color scheme. I was going to address OP's tags in a separate post since I got really excited for this analysis, but I got too shy.....well now the opportunity for me to yap is now!!

Making Bingge the only one in grayscale was to differentiate him from Bingmei and most importantly, that he doesn't belong to the SV verse. While I love headcanons that Bingge would be shorter or leaner because he wasn't as well fed as Bingmei growing up, I wanted to remain faithful to canon. It was important that they needed to be easily differentiated at a single glance, since animation moves fast.

Even if they wore different clothing, it didn't provide enough visual contrast to suggest that they are from two different universes. Bingge is supposed to make you feel uneasy, he's an intruder into a world that doesn't belong to him. He's witnessing a life he could never have. He's merely a book character SY once read in a past life. Luo Binghe is empty inside.

Even if he wears red and holds onto that single green hair tie, it would never bring back the colors he lost long ago.

I hope that answered your questions anon! Again I'm sorry to have led you to believe YQY was present in this mv and I hope you're not disappointed......and thank you for your lovely message and letting me ramble!! I'm glad you enjoyed my works!!

To anyone that has questions or needs clarifications on this particular mv or any of my other works, I'm more than happy to answer them!

[clairaworlds]

SIFFREN CLOAK POST TIME BBY.

Tl;dr: In my opinion the backstiching on Siffrin's cloak is used to reinforce the seams, the cloak likely has a lining flatlined into the cloak, and if you'll allow me to offer a headcannon, hand sewn.

More in depth analysis and examples below

Ok to start, let's go over Isabeau's dialog about the cloak. I'll put it in full here, other characters comments are cut out.

So right here, right, that's super interesting stitching. It's backstitching, right, which is a very solid kind of stitching, and it's used in a lot of different places... But Vaugardian clothing in general is moving away from backstitching, because, well, we think it's boring. Like here, my clothing here has something called chainstitching, and also it's in a zigzag shape, because it looks cuter I guess. But backstitching is just more durable. Now that I look at it, your hat has the same stitching too... I wonder if they were a set? And, um, look at the way the cloak is weaved, too! It's wool, and it goes one thread up, one thread down, et cetera... But, again, Vaugardian clothing likes to be more interesting visually, so if you look at Mira's cloak--

...

No, no, I'm not saying it's boring!!!!! I'm just saying it's like... It's clothing that's less like Vaugarde, or even Ka Bue's artistic clothing... It's less clothing that's to make you look pretty, or make you stand out, and more clothing that's here to keep you comfy and warm. Function over form, you know?

…

So, um, what I'm SAYING is... Considering the Craft that came into it... The temperature regulation and how it grows with you... Whoever gave you this cloak wanted to make sure you're gonna be nice and comfy for a long time, Sif!

Note: I'm not a tailor, I've made a few garments and I embroder but that's about it. Take everything with a grain of salt.

Alright, first what is he even talking about? Here's a quick example of the two stitches Isabeau mentioned and a running stich which is probably the most basic stich

Please ignore my inability to sew in a straight line. Also my horrid chain stich. I did not do it justice there so here's a better example of how it looks

we can ignore Isabeau's incorrect opinions on what qualifies as an interesting stich bc he's probably talking more about the cultural differences between Siffrin's cloak and Vaugardian clothing. Which I'll admit IS intresting. But what stuck out to me is the fact that Isabeau can see the stitching at all. Most garments hide the majority of their stitching. You can see the seams sure, but the atual stichwork is typically on the inside.

As you can see here, now that IS a cloak, and the seem hides the stichwork, the next option is that isabeau is looking at either the hem or the collar, i dout it's the collar just bc that's really close to Sif's neck/face and also bc it might not have any visible stitching either. The hem line is a possibility but if Siffrin's cloak has a lineing it might not show any visible stitching either.

Atually let's talk about lineings real quick. I imagen Siffrin's cloak has one, for several reasons, I think it'd be cool, I think it'd work with the idea that the cloak is designed to survive a LONG time becuase it reinforces and protects the garment, and it works with some fun headcannons i have. Here's an example of a lined cloak, the outside is the shiny later, the inside has the hand-embroidered stars. I'm focusing on the seems in thease pictures but a lined cloak might hide ALL its stiches including the hems.

Although that's IF the cloak is bag lined, which is a process that leaves the lineing and the outside as mostly separate layers. You basically sew two garments then stich them together at the edges. But i have a feeling Siffrin's cloak is flat lined, not bag lined, so you basically attach the lineing to the outside and sew it together like it's one peice of fabric, the lineing dosnt move as much and honestly it comes out a little nicer. So that means the stichwork would still be visible on the inside of the cloak AND the hem, but I have a feeling Isa wasn't just holding Siffrin's cloak inside out to show off the stitching, and i don't think he was talking about the hem because it's not really a load bearing structure if that makes sense and it seems to me like Isa is talking about something that would benefit from being reinforced. So what's he talking about.

Well look at this

There we go! Visable stitching on the outside of a garment!!! So what's the difference here? A couple of things but the best summary I have is: the seem is reinforced by being stiched down. Here's an example on a different garment.

To test this, I grabbed some scrap fabric and tried it out i also did a quick hem with a backstich just to see how it'd look. I used contrasting thread to make it visable

I also think Siffrin's cloak is a full circle cloak constructed with two halves sewn together like the bottom example here

This is generally eaiser to construct than a four piece version and atually HAS seems unlike a single pice verdhion. Admittedly it may be a challenge depending on the width of the fabric, although if it was made when Sif was a kid and Crafted to grow with him that's much less of an issue

So! That's my two cents on the stitching on Siffrin's cloak. Honestly I would LOVE to make a Siffrin cloud but fabric is expensive and I can't really afford it, i also don't have the time. For now I should focous on finishing the star cloak I showed earlier, incase anyones curious here's the full inside of that cloak as of now

Here's some other headcannons related to fabric and sewing.

First sewing macheens and other textile production macheens exist. I know isat is a veaugly fantasy historical style setting but I'll die on the hill that there's some sort of quicker way to produce textiles, primarily because fabric, fiber and clothing has historically been massively important and I have a hard time imaging that craft isn't capable of making fabric quicker.

Related to that, I think part of the reason Crafted clothing (like Sif's stuff) is more rare is becuase it has to be hand made. Maybe not hand spun and woven and sewn but in my head the more steps you do by hand the more it's Crafted.

In that veign I think Siffrin's contry has a tendency twards hand-made stuff. There are reasons for this but it's mostly vibes. Honestly I think all of isat puts a higher emphasis on arts and crafts than the real world but I like the idea that Sif's contry espechally focuses on the hand made, it makes sense with the whole ritual thing, there are plenty of rituals and superstitions arround hand-made goods.

In contrast Vaugarde trends twards evolution of techniques and technology, where someone from Siffrin's contry may be a master at an ancient technique that's been passed down for generations, a Vaugardian crafter will have developed their own unique style and often prioritizes astetics above convince, not to the point of it being low quality (like fast fashion) but more like "I decided to use two diffrent fabrics to make stripes insted of just one solid color fabric even though it's more work becuase it looks cool" Ka Bue has a heavy focous on tradition but also artistic vision, i kinda imagen it as the ballance between the two ends of the spectrum, but in a totally different way.

Next i think Siffrin's contry likes incorporating subtle decorations, like the hat with the stars on the lineing, or useing visable stitching on seams both to reinforce it and bc it's prity--sewing in a straight line is HARD, doing a backstich with consistent stichlenghts is harder, doing both by hand is impressive, having the stitching appear on the outside of the cloak would be a deliberate choice becuase you CAN just reinforce a seem on the inside of a garment. Admittedly that might be what's going on if we assume Isabeau is looking at the internal construction insted of any vidable stichwork. So yeah, function over form but with some subtle detailing.

Is this just an excuse for me to pretend that the lineing of Siffrin's cloak is hand embroidered with stars? Yes! But you can pry this headcanon out of my cold, dead hands! I love hand embroidered stars on the inside of a cloak, i literally own a cloak that i made that's like that!! (I'll finish it one day I swair! I just made a mistake and attached the lineing b4 I did the embrodery, like an idiot, and it's really annoying to work on!!)

One last thing I think is interesting is the use of the word "cloak" cloaks typically go over the shoulders and CAN close in the frount, but are still open. I'd describe Sif's cloak more as a poncho, and Mira's cloak as a shawl, but there really arnt any perfict words for every garment, so cloak is a good enough word. It'd also make sense if "cloak" is just the word for "outer layer garment that goes over the shoulders like that" in the world of isat.

[crimsonhydrangeavn]

Hey there! I'm here to simp for Garret, as usual, but I have another reason to gush today—I absolutely adore your drawing style! Whether it's the colors, the character designs, or the scenes, I just love it all. One of my favorite things, though, has to be the characters' facial expressions—they are all just beautiful!

Marcelo's surprised face? Perfect. Rita's blushing cheeks? Adorable. Camilla's entire design? Has a special place in my heart. And don't even get me started on Teagan's smile—it's so cute, it's almost unfair. But, of course, my ultimate favorite is Garret. I can't handle it when he furrows his eyebrows, whether he's pissed off or has that smug look like he's just hit the jackpot. It's all just so perfect!

Anyway, I do have a question for you—do you have any tips for creating character designs? I feel like the way your characters look perfectly matches the vibe they give off, and I'm starting to work on my own visual novel, but I'm having a hard time nailing down the character designs and I felt I could find good advice from you.

Additionally, I apologize in advance for all the fangirling and for my poor English. I hope nothing I said came across as rude or inconvenient, truly 🙏.

Thanks so much, and I hope you have a fantastic day! ❤🌻

Thank you so much for your incredibly sweet ask! Please, please, please NEVER apologize for gushing about characters for fangirling over them! It always brings a massive smile to my face and I really appreciate hearing how much you enjoy them! <3 I'm incredibly flattered that you reached out to me for advice on character creation and I'll do my best to share my process with you! Granted there are a million different ways to do things so these are just a few things that I've found that helps me in the creation process.

I'll give you a little background about me and my character/story creation journey so you can get a better understanding of my background in writing/character development.

You see I've been a huge fan of text roleplay for the majority of my life. I actually started roleplaying on gaiaonline when I was 12 and I've been doing it ever since. ( Almost 20 years at this point! damn am I old lol) As a result I've had a lot of practice creating and interacting with different kinds of characters in different settings. I've also been playing DnD on and off since high school. That being said, I've had time to refine my craft and create characters that I personally really enjoy and align with to some degree. ( And hopefully you do too!)

That being said, I'll list a few tips and tricks I've picked up over the years below!

Anatomy is key! Yes, my characters are stylized, however I spent a long time studying anatomy and getting a solid sense of proportions, ratios, and musculature. Am I perfect? Absolutely not, but I'm at the point that I can usually notice if there's a glaring error/ something looks really off.

Make sure to put all of the characters in a line up once they're designed! Are their heads the same size? What about their hands and feet? Some slight variations are natural, but if one character's head is noticeably larger than the others, then I'd take the time to adjust. The same could be said for colors. Is one character SUPER saturated while the others are more muted? Unless they're supposed to stand out, consider reworking the colors to make them feel a bit more cohesive.

A basic understanding of color theory is always a bonus in my book! I'd also consider making a general color palette for your game. That way it'll help you make sure everything looks and feels as though it's in the same world.

When I first create a character, I try to think of a general concept of what I want them to be. What's their general vibe? What do they look like? What's their personality like? Ect. Once I have a general vibe down, I try and do a bit of visual research on tiktok, pinterest, tumblr, google, ect. For example, I might have a general idea of what a typical frat bro or sorority girl looks like, but until I actually do the research and look into the kinds of things they wear, how they speak, and their general lifestyle, and real life examples of these kinds of people they'll feel like a flat caricatures of what they actually are.

Then, once I have the general vibe nailed down I start doodling them and playing around with different hairstyles, outfits, body types, ect. I actually have a few different different versions of all of the characters for Crimson Hydrangea! I rarely end up going with my first sketch/ concept when it comes to most of my characters. I also like exploring with different skin tones, colors, and textures/designs.

It takes a lot of thought and trail and error, but once I finally create a character that I'm visually happy with, I really start delving into their personality, backstories, and general psyche. What are their likes, dislikes, positive traits, and flaws? What are their motivations, fears, and traumas? How self aware are they? Then I start asking myself slightly more introspective questions to help me relate to the characters a bit more. What about this character resonates with me? How can I make this character feel more real? What are some traits that we share? For example, Garret inherited my unhealthy perfectionism, Marcelo inherited my love of food and desire to make sure those around me are happy and comfortable, Camilla inherited my sarcastic sense of humor, Rita inherited my unyielding sense of responsibility and unhealthy work-a-holic tendencies, and Teagan inherited my deep rooted insecurities. Granted most of these characters take it to a completely new level than I do in my real life, but at least on a basic level I can relate to them and understand their motivations. That being said, I don't think all of your characters need to inherit a specific trait of yours, it's just something I recently realized I tend to do on a subconscious level to help me write them with a bit more depth.

Let your characters develop a life of their own within your story. It's okay if they end up changing from your initial concept. People in real life are complex and don't always fit into a specific mold no matter how hard they try. They grow and change over time, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worst. Do what feels right for the story you're trying to tell. For example, Garret was originally supposed to be more calculated and methodical. Marcelo was originally supposed to be a lot more laid back and go with the flow. However when I actually started writing them in specific scenarios I realized that they're far more complex than a simplified list of traits. Flaws and weaknesses make them feel so much more real than a "perfect" gary/mary stu.

When it comes to facial expressions, I usually have a small mirror on my desk to observe and reference specific expressions I'm trying to convey. In addition to using the mirror as a reference point, I also tend to make whatever face I'm drawing as I'm drawing it. It's a little silly, but I find it really helpful feeling my facial muscles recreate the same expression. It helps me figure out what the brows, eyes, and mouth are doing at the same time. It's gotten to the point of doing it subconsciously whenever I work/animate/draw. (Fortunately I usually work from home so no one has to see my weird expressions lol)

I think the final and most important tip you should take to heart is to create characters you genuinely enjoy. It'll also help you stay motivated to keep writing them and developing the story, especially early on in the creation process.

Hopefully you found my rambling helpful! It ended up being a bit more of a brain dump than I originally intended haha. That being said, I'd love to see what kind of characters and game you end up creating in the future! <3

[wonderhorror-sys]

ways to store information about and communicate with your system, compiled by the wonderhorror system ☆ (who loves looking into stuff like this! please feel free to drop any recommendations!)

(divider by cafekitsune!)

Simply Plural

simply plural is an app designed for systems to track fronting, store member information, and communicate with their system. this is one of few things on this list designed specifically with systems in mind.

it has many features, duch as member profiles, custom fields, markdown support, a notes page for each member, a chat feature, message boards to send a specific member a message, the ability to set a member as fronting or add front entries after the fact, and custom fronts. you can also add friends to share some information with, and it has 3 levels of privacy settings (public, trusted friends, private), everything defaults to private.

we use simply plural the most out of everything here, since theres so much you can do with it and we like the apps design.

Writing Apps

not as in like a notes app, but those apps where you store character and plot information! one thing most of these have over simply plural is a dedicated relationships section where you can link to character/member profiles and write what kind of relationship they have!

foretelling is probably the one we'd recommend most for this purpose! (and shoutout to whoever the anon who suggested it to plurals-culture-is was!) but you can use others like it so long as they have everything you need.

fortelling in particular has character profiles, groups, relationships, something akin to custom fields, a timeline feature, the ability to add notebooks, and locations! its all designed for writing but it may be useful to many plurals!

TwiNote

this is a specific app you see around a lot. its like twitter but its just you. you can make as many profiles as you want and also sort them into groups. we basically used it like "twitter but its just our system." due to the twitter interface we had difficulty taking it seriously but im sure others would not have this problem. it also has dms you can use! so thats real cool!

Antar

antar is an app in which you can create "personas" and chat with them, as well as visualize the sessions later. it doesnt have as may different details as other things, but its simple and useful for communication and venting. it also has "let it go" sessions, where you just talk into the void basically. the messages literally fly away and dissapear

Miuu Note and similar

miuu note was the first one that came to mind, but essentially its a notes app with little books you can have and add different entries too! we used to use it so each alter would have their own notebook. there are other apps that do a similar thing you could probably use as well

A notebook

like just an actual notebook. this ones great. theres a lot of ways to do this as there is with everything, but for us we use it mostly by writing down the conversations we have in different pen colours and sticking sticky notes to the front page as "announcements." if you were to do this, a notebook where you could move around the pages would probably be ideal?

other stuff i know exists but cant give a blurb to:

- lighthouse

- obsidian

- pluralkit

also i swear i had more than this. huh. ill add others i think of i suppose

[klerothesnowman]

The Clone Trooper Armour Was Supposed to be Bad and Bioware Deciding it was Iconic Republic Aesthetic is both Hilarious and Disappointing

Clone Troopers! Aren't they fucking cool? Remember the Gif? Everyone remembers the Gif. From Genndy Clone Wars, you know what I'm talking about.

This isn't The Gif but it's still cool as hell.

Clone Troopers have become one of the defining icons of Star Wars, especially in the wake of The Clone Wars cartoon, and it's obvious why. It's already an iteration on Boba Fetts armour design which was so cool it forced every EU writer to make him the Star Wars equivalent of Batman. It's basically the only time the Republic has had a really cool looking military, Republic Trooper Helmet they will never make me hate you but you look silly.

So let's put a pin in that and talk about Kotor for the umpteenth time.

If you care about Knights of the Old Republic you should look into its development, especially in terms of art style. Based on Tales of the Jedi comics with some Ralph Mcquarrie influences, the art style was initially very weird, more suitable for the aesthetic of a "Fantasy RPG in Star Wars" Bioware was working with. It's best seen in the Sith concepts, whose style are very much so "Medieval Knights"

But apparently, it wasn't visually Star Wars enough, so they had to pivot to making things look more like Star Wars. Classic Star Wars visual language flourishes were added and for the Republic Troopers that came in the form of the Helmet

An Aerodynamic helmet. Bright orange and yellow colours. They look like road cyclists! They were pretty mocked. They looked ridiculous!

Let's put a pin in that now, and talk about the Other Old Republic.

I really don't like SWTOR.

Like, really, I dislike almost everything about it. Including the fucking CG Trailers, I hate them even.

But what I dislike the most about this game is the aesthetic, and how it's just "Star Wars". The Troopers look like Clone Troopers and Stormtroopers, all the Sith look like Palpatines or Vaders. The Sith Empire is just like every other Sith Empire even though it's supposed to be disconnected, it even has the usual Empire symbol even though that's supposed to be the Republic's symbol before the Republic becomes the Empire! It's all blatantly just a traditional "Star Wars" coat of paint and it's just so boring.

But, yeah, the Republic Troopers look like Clone Troopers, because of course they do. The Trooper class exists to be the Clone Trooper fantasy, you pick that class because you want to be a Clone Trooper and do The Gif from Genndy Clone Wars. By the title of this ramble you should know I have a problem with this, but let's put another pin there so I can do one more piece for this whacky corkboard.

As I mention far more than I should, I play on a Knights of the Old Republic based roleplaying server on Neverwinter Nights. A lot of effort has gone into getting resources from other Star Wars games into this server so that the D&D Fantasy Game can look like Star Wars, in the process a lot of armour from SWTOR was modded in. A lot of Trooper armour.

The people playing Republic Troopers didn't want to wear the silly cyclist uniform anymore. They wanted to be the Cool Troopers. The ones from the stupid over the top CG Trailers, the ones that are badass and mow down Sith with Miniguns. And since the server had just wrapped up the Kotor main storyline people thought it was a great time to switch.

That's the last pin. Time to make my point.

Before I used the phrase "Visual Language", if you're a fan of the Menswear Guy on Twitter you've heard the term before. Clothes mean things, like words.

What's the visual language of the Republic Trooper's armour?

And I don't mean the SWTOR Troopers, I mean the silly Kotor Cyclists. The helmet is a call back to the Rebel Troopers, but... The orange and yellow? What's that about?

In KotoR the Republic is more or less demilitarized. Since they control the majority of the galaxy and the only other major civilization is the fucking Hutt Cartel they don't really have a reason to invest in defense, let alone offense. The Republic Navy's primary function was to escort trading ships and protect colonies from pirates.

The Republic Navy wear orange and yellow because they're rescue ops, they wear bright attention grabbing colours because they want to grab your attention and tell you "Come toward us and you'll be safe." Their entire uniform is rescue ops down to the fucking hat.

So what's the visual language of the Clone Trooper's armour?

I said before that it was iterative of Boba Fett's armour, that's not entirely true, is it? Out of universe it's iterative of something else.

White. Plastic (sorry, PlaSTEEL), Black accents. What else in Star Wars has that?

Oh yeah the Nazis.

The Clone Trooper armour was a visual metaphor for how the Republic was transitioning into the Empire. They militarize, wage a war, have the good parts of their culture shaved away by influence of the military complex, become fascists. The design of the Clone Trooper armour is a few steps away from Stormtrooper armour because it is literally a few steps away from Stormtroopers.

The wider plot/backdrop of Kotor is the Republic resisting that change. The Republic's general disfavouring of military strength got their asses beat by The Mandalorians, so a large chunk of the galaxy tries to reevaluate, including the majority of the Republic's navy. The Republic then gets their asses whooped again by the military power with their dehumanizing faceless goons but holds on to the strength of their ideals and desire for peace, and they hold on so hard that they manage to underdog a win, because it's Star Wars, and holding true to your ideals in the face of a seemingly uncaring and cruel galaxy is how you win, because the galaxy is all connected by the Force, which actually does care. Yadda yadda, Star Wars. Themes. Hope.

But, like. They didn't! Because of Bioware wanting to make a Star Wars Fantasy Simulator, the Republic militarized! They became the faceless mooks! Darth Revan won! And according to my particular slice of Star Wars Fandom, everyone wanted him to! Now the Republic are PROPER soldiers. Now they're COOL. Now they're mowing down wave after wave of enemy with their big cool guns. Just like in The Gif

This is The Gif, if you didn't know.

[adobe-outdesign]

Could you review Astral form terapagos

When this form first came out and I was looking at a small thumbnail of it, I was like "what the hell am I looking at?". And now that it's been more properly shown to us, I... still don't know what the hell I'm looking at, at least in terms of visuals. This thing is just such a mess, with entirely too many things going on that make it nearly impossible to discerning what's happening.

Conceptually, it's based on turtles all the way down, which is kind of funny (mostly because I really like saying "turtles all the way down"). It does kind of fit with SV's plot basically being a bootstrap paradox inside of several other bootstrap paradoxes. And I do really like the idea of it sitting on top of that dome, which looks like the earth as shown when held by the World Turtle and also kind of looks like a turtle shell in and of itself. The dark navy color also makes it pop against Terapagos' primarily turquoise base.

However, everything beyond that is really kind of a mess. The type symbols floating around the base are just so unnecessary, given that they're already on Terapagos' shell and they only clutter an already cluttered design more. The bottom base also has two weird little points it sits on, which I'm not sure I understand. They can't be turtle legs because there's only two of them, and they make it seem like the entire thing should fall over.

Similar to the base, the tera crown jewel on Terapagos' back has a bunch of colored diamonds for the types, which once again, feels redundant. Perhaps they did it to keep the type idea present when Pokemon other than Terapagos' use the Stellar type... except when that happens the ring of type symbols around the base still appear, so it's redundant either way.

And speaking of that jewel, the little Terapagos' shaped gem is just... really silly? And makes the design more of a mess, because it makes it hard to even tell which one's the Pokemon. Like I said, it's turtles all the way down, but I feel like the base looking like a turtle shell was more than enough to get that across. It's also particularly silly because it sticks around when other Pokemon become stellar types, thus making it go from silly but meaningful to completely nonsensical.

(I also have to point out the above render doesn't have any crystal effects. It's even HARDER to discern anything about the design with the crystal effects. The entire thing just becomes visual white noise at a glance.)

What's weird is that this sketch of stellar-form Terapagos, which is effectively concept art, shows a much cleaner design. No type symbols around the base, no tiny Terapagos-shaped gem, just a clean, easy-to-read design with a smaller tera symbol floating at the top. Not sure why they felt the need to add so much Stuff(TM) to it, but something like this would've read a lot better while still keeping the same concepts present.

[charlottesbookclub]

should we talk about the interlace on gwayne's horse's armor?

since I spend altogether too much time looking at stills and gifs of gwayne anyway, I figured I might as well share some observations I have about the really interesting visuals that are happening with his horse's armor

this is part art historical analysis, part gwayne meta, and part "let's look at some gorgeous images under the guise of doing visual analysis" so if that's your thing, please read on! if not, that's also totally fine – I get that this is hyperspecific and also a symptom of my very serious gwayne brainrot, so I'm putting everything else below the cut! 💚💚 (also it's quite long – sorry! 😅)

okay I want to be upfront about my qualifications and my shortfalls here: I'm an art history phd student and so basically all I do is visual analysis of objects. I've studied a number of medieval manuscripts that feature interlace (which is where I'm going to draw most of my knowledge from here), and I've taken a seminar (an advanced graduate course) specifically on medieval manuscripts, for which I wrote a research paper entitled "From Kells to Celtic: The Aesthetics of the Book of Kells Illuminations as a Marker of Irish Identity." HOWEVER I am NOT a historian of armor, so I will be taking my knowledge of interlace on other objects and applying it to the armor we see in the show

a short intro

so, the first thing that struck me about gwayne's horse's armor is that it's really different than the other equestrian armor we see, even amongst the other men who came with him from oldtown. to be honest, my guess is that this was likely done in the show to help him stand out and also show that he is a special and precious princess (which he is btw 😌😌) who needs fancy armor for his horse. I'm not sure if further thought went into it than that (but maybe it did! I'm happy to stand corrected here!)

however, the catastrophic levels of brainrot I've developed over this man have compelled me to read much further into it than that, which I shall now proceed to do with great enthusiasm! ☺️

first, let's look at the armor:

it's hard to find really detailed close-ups, but it's clear that the armor is incredibly intricate. not only do we have this very complex interlacing, but certain designs are marked out with different colors and internal patterning, making the whole thing even more visually interesting and complex

while interlacing is used across a vast range of time, cultures, geographical regions, and artistic mediums, given both the visuality of this armor in particular and knowing that westeros is based on medieval europe, seeing this interlace instantly called to mind a style that we today call "insular fusion" (I'm not going to go into all the specifics of it here because that's a post all its own lol 😅). it's a style perhaps most famously exemplified by The Book of Kells, but it is found throughout many different objects of the same period (ca. 700-900 CE)

now let's look at some fucking interlace hell yeah!!!!!!

from The Book of Kells (ca. 750-810 CE)

from The Lindisfarne Gospels (ca. 698-721 CE)

and two non-manuscript examples:

Animal Head Post from a Viking Ship Burial (ca. 825 CE)

and a later example, but one of my favorites:

Wooden Portal of the Urnes Stave Church (ca. 1050-1070 CE)

do we see the vision??? are y'all picking up what I'm putting down???

"okay, charlotte, I see the similarities, but why does this matter?" you may be asking yourself (or maybe you aren't idk), and the answer is: this type of interlacing had some super fascinating meanings and uses, some of which I think we can apply to gwayne! 💚💚

let me break it down from least to most potentially related to gwayne:

the aesthetics of interlace as an identity marker

use of interlace in a religious context

interlace as a status symbol

the protective potential of interlace

and now let's go into detailllllllll!!!!!

the aesthetics of interlace as an identity marker

I bring this one up because it's what I focused on in my personal research on the topic of interlace, but I also think it's the least relevant to gwayne. my argument in my paper was that the aesthetics of the interlace in the Book of Kells have been thoughtfully and intentionally re-used throughout history and into the present as a clear visual marker of identity that draws a narrative back to the production of the Book of Kells. however, in terms of the show, we have very little indication that the particular style of interlacing we see on gwayne's horse is associated with any larger identity concepts. it doesn't seem to be associated with house hightower, as none of the other men with gwayne seem to borrow this motif, nor do we see it associated with alicent (as far as I can tell from the little looking I've done, but I'm more than happy to revise this!). for it to make sense as some form of identity marker, it would have to be clear what identity he's visually referencing, and since his use of interlace seems unique, I think it's doubtful that it's part of a larger visual invocation of identity

use of interlace in a religious context

part of what makes insular fusion so interesting as a style is that it is indeed a fusion of a number of different regional styles, including vine scrolls from the mediterranean, triskeles from the northern british isles, and zoomorphic (meaning "in the form of animals") interlace from northwestern mainland europe. although insular fusion is used to decorate christian objects (like gospel books and churches), its component parts are much much older and have connections to various pagan religions that significantly pre-date christianity. obviously it's impossible to be 100% certain of the exact significance of interlace in any of these religious contexts (there are no written records explaining it), but scholars have a few guesses

one suggestion is that interlace in some way represented the spirit world/the world of the gods, or perhaps even a point of connection between the human world and the world beyond. although the religion of westeros is obviously different than any of the real-world religions that used interlace in this manner, I do still wonder if there could be a religious connection here. it's pretty clear that gwayne's mother was quite religious, and alicent is as well. although we don't totally know gwayne's relationship with religion, we could certainly guess that it's at least a little bit important to him, given the beliefs of the women in his life. I know that the most common religious symbol in westeros tends to be the seven-pointed star, which is not something I see on the interlace on the armor, so I'm not sure how far I would want to take this hypothesis, but I did want to put it out there for anyone who might have further thoughts!

interlace as a status symbol

as I mentioned to in the beginning, I do think it's likely that this particular type of armor was chosen for gwayne's horse because it does come off as a bit ostentatious. the manuscripts with interlace that I mentioned above were hugely expensive and time-consuming projects, and only the most affluent religious communities could afford such luxurious gospel books. given the level of detail on the armor, I have to imagine that the same is true in the world of the show. in some ways, it's a mode of conspicuous consumption; a demonstration of the hightowers' wealth and influence. there's a reason gwayne's horse's armor stands out: because it's meant to. it's meant to set him apart, even from the other soldiers who came with him from oldtown

now this next part is just my own conjecture, but I also wonder if the armor is meant to speak to a more artistic sensibility on gwayne's part. after all, equestrian armor is a very functional object with a very clear goal: to protect the horse. from a purely functional standpoint, the interlace does nothing to serve this purpose (and may actually hinder it a little??), it simply adds a complex visuality to the armor. aside from just flaunting the wealth that must have been expended to commission such a piece, it also suggests that it was crafted by artisans who had both functional and aesthetic goals in mind while creating it. whether it was gwayne himself who directed the commission or not, it seems significant that he chose to use this armor that doubles as a kind of art piece. he does seem to be someone who enjoys the finer things in life, so it wouldn't surprise me if he had an artistic appreciation too, and was using this armor as a way to demonstrate that (or perhaps even just as a way to show his own personal artistic taste/preferences)

the protective potential of interlace

technically, I think "interlace as a status symbol" is the most likely reason for the armor being the way it is, but this one is my favorite theory, so I'm putting it at the top. circling back to the religious uses of interlace, another theory of its religious significance is as a mode of protection. some scholars think that its creators believed that the weaving, intertwined lines of the interlace would confuse and trap evil spirits. building on this theory is the fact that complex interlacing was often used at transitional or liminal points, such as the beginning pages of a gospel book or on the doors of churches. the idea here is that the interlace wields its protective powers at these key entry points against any evil entities that might try to enter sacred or protected spaces

interlace as apotropaic (a fancy technical term meaning "protective," often used in reference to magic or magical practices) seems particularly poignant for an object that was literally going to be worn into battle. now, I admit once again that there is little canon evidence to suggest that interlace is thought of in this way in the world of the show, so I'm running with this theory more because I like it rather than because I think it's legitimately based in canon. but I just think it's very sweet that gwayne's horse would be adorned with this complex interlace that seems to be woven with protective powers. even if gwayne (or others) didn't literally believe that interlace had those kind of powers, the fact that he still made the choice to invoke the idea of protection against harm and evil is a lovely thought. (it makes me think of how people today still might carry a rabbit's foot or have charms against the evil eye, even if they don't actually place stock in the beliefs surrounding those objects. I just think it's cool that generations of cultural belief still imbue these objects with a kind of magical aura). I just like the idea that he (or someone else?? otto? alicent? his mother?) chose armor that might have been associated with protection against harm

and now I'll finally wrap up!!

whew that was a lot! if you've read this far – thank you so much!! I'm honestly not even sure if these thoughts were coherent, but I kept thinking about this when I looked at that interlaced armor, and I just had to get the ideas out of my head lol

but I'd love to hear what others think about this topic! I'm certainly not an expert on the matter, and I'd be super open to hearing if others have different interpretations!

if nothing else, I hope you learned something cool about interlace! (and also just how far I have descended into madness over this man that I am writing pages-long analyses of his horse's armor 😅🤪)

[danceintheskies]

hi sam :) do you have any free itch.io or steam game recommendations 🎮

yes! but this is heavily skewed by my own tastes(mostly vns and rpgs

Bittersweet birthday is very polished so far, has great art, and is also mind-crushingly difficult. (This is a free demo, the full game isn't out yet.) Steam link

Slice of scythe is deeply cute and fun and enables you to do moderately evil things for a cute cowboy hat. recaptured the feeling of playing random silly flash games for me.

love on the peacock express - the itch page for this is "trainmilfsgame.itch.io". all you need to know. (okay, not really. it's a short mystery game. and it has milvess

our life: beginnings and always is a very earnest and fluffy self-insert VN with a lot of customization. might not be everyone's taste-- basically rides or dies on if you like the main boy unless you want to get the DLC-- but I had a lot of fun with it. I haven't played the second game in the series (our life now and forever) but I imagine it follows a similar philosophy? As an aside it's cute seeing their art improvement from one game to the next. Steam link

a tale of crowns - a high fantasy text adventure that has me gripped by the hair. (not complete as of writing)

wayfarer is another fantasy text adventure, but it plays much more like a TTRPG with dice rolls and everything. beautiful visuals too, which is a weird thing to say about a twine game, but it's true! I have to stop myself from playing this because I get too invested in it. (also not complete as of writing)

flesh, blood and concrete - high grade rpgmaker horror. beautiful art, very contemplative

lily's well - rpgmaker horror game in the style of older PC games. I think it's more of an acquired taste than FB&M, but I enjoyed it. Steam link

horla - atmospheric 3D first person horror game! I like the sound design in this one. currently just a free demo available. Steam link (for wishlisting!)

butterfly soup - I mean. I can't not put buttsoup on here. c'mon. it's a coming-of-age VN about gay asian girls playing baseball. Some don't like the memey humor, which I get, but the characters are all 9th grade freakazoids so I think it's charming and nostalgic. The sequel came out recently too, after a long wait!!!

I hesitate to call it a game more than an interactive story, but my brother; the parasite haunts me now and forever

depression quest - this game gets overshadowed by its reputation as "the game that started gamergate", which is a shame because it's an interesting interactive fiction game in its own right. my actual nitpicks of it boil down to the author presenting their experiences as universal, but I think more people should still give it a try.

In general, if you want to find more weird or niche or one-off or otherwise unique games to play, looking through the games submitted for different game jams is always fun!

[naughtygirl286]

So yes we went to see the musical extravaganza Wicked this week. I can say I wasn't overly excited or anything to see this being I never seen the play/stage show and was never really interested in it either, but being I do like the Wizard of Oz and have seen the other related movies over the years I was interested in going to see this.

As for collectables there apparently was stuff cups and buckets they were advertising them but didn't have any on display so when I asked about them at the counter I was told they were all sold out which was sad but what can you do right?

anyway as for the movie I thought it was pretty good. I did enjoy it. It was fun and plenty of singing and there was some cool action and visuals. Basically the story was and origin story. It start off at the end of the Wizard of Oz when the wicket witch is dead and you see Dorthy and her friends walking back down the Yellow Brick Road back to the Emerald City and the movie really starts when you get back to Munchkinland and Glenda (played by Ariana Grande) shows up and confirms the witches death and they have a musical number. then Glenda tells the story about how Elphaba/the Wicket Witch (played by Cynthia Erivo) becomes Wicked. you get to see her as a child and then a teenager/adult and how her and Glenda meet at a Hogwarts type of school for Witchcraft and Wizardry and everything that pretty much goes on from them that is pretty much it.

While watching around the first when the munchkins were having their celebration I was thinking "boy alot of these munchkins are awfully tall" and when they wheeled out the straw effigy of the witch I was like boy that was quick! like seriously did they have that pre built and stored in like a barn somewhere just in case the Witch was killed at some point? I also thought the name of the school was "Shitz" at first cause that is what I was hearing I had to lean over and ask one of the people I was with what the school was called and they were like "I think its Shiz?" so I had to look it up when I got home and it was "Shiz" which in my opinion isn't any better but I could swear I was hearing "Shitz" lol

but all joking aside while watching this it reminded me of the movie Maleficent that came out a few years ago. In my opinion it was pretty much the same idea. I'm not discounting this movie because of that being that this was pretty good I felt it was well acted and all the songs were I thought were really good and the choreography was really great too.

The visuals effects and alot of the character animations were really done as well I think this will probably get some Oscar Nomination for production designs and maybe even Make-up and costumes.

But yeah like I said I thought it was pretty good and being this is a "Part 1" we'll have to go and see Part 2 when it comes out so So if you are interested in seeing it I would recommend going to see it.

[piratesexmachine420]

Thoughts on my Dead Money (2010) replay:

Atmosphere, visual design and sound design are great

I love Christine

Dean's okay

Dog/God are okay too, but I found myself just reading and advancing his dialogue instead of listening more than usual.

I like Elijah's voice actor's performance. There's something mesmerizing about how he pronounces "collar".

Some of the dialogue trees behaved...strangely. Looping back on themselves and such. Maybe a mod problem, I haven't checked.

Once again I'm let down a little by the combat encounters, even on hardcore and "hard" difficulty. The ghost people are fun to fight against, but if you're making good use of the holorifle they don't pose a challenge in narrow corridors or in small numbers -- which is basically all the first half is. The best fight I had wasn't even vanilla, it was from the Sierra Madre Grand Entrance mod. Second best are the casino lobby break-ins. Both are because there's a lot of ghost people in a large area.

Metal Gearing-around the security holograms is fun, though it's pretty hard to tell exactly what different patrol route are doing from their terminal descriptions. Also, it's sort of jankily implemented -- you can tell the engine wasn't made for it.

Kept leaving my pip-boy flashlight on. It's so dark and dingy! Maybe that's where the "bugged perception" urban legend came from? 'Cause that's the biggest reason I kept getting spotted.

The dialogue option to get Christine to open the vault is gated weirdly. IMO it would've been better to maybe let the player skip the return to the lobby with a perception check on the wall writing. Really, all of Christine's final dialogue tree feels kinda unfinished.

Really a lot of elements of DM feel like they ran out of time to finish 'em. The final confrontation with Elijah, for example. And the fact that there...isn't really a tech in the vault itself that he should be interested in? Also how short the "Find Collar X" quests are. Also also in how much cut content there is. Also also also bugs.

I like the listen-in radio signals, though the fact that can be playing at the same as one is listening to the actual NPC supposedly talking on that radio is a little immersion-breaking.

It would have been nice if the non-'Begin Again' Vera Keyes song holotapes and that one Dean Domino holotape were, like, real songs; but I understand that's kinda outside the capability of a DLC. Didn't really expect they'd be.

The holorifle is a cool weapon

I like the pantomime with first-half Christine a lot, and all the PER and INT checks that come with it. A fun twist on the dialogue system!

The way you convince Dean to trust you at the end by never making him feel powerless is neat. On my first playthrough I think I did the first barter check because I wanted him to know that we were "equals", then did everything to avoid pushing him around. Not enough! This time I was nice to him.

People who steal all the gold bars hate art or something

People who mod the gold bars to weigh less definitely hate art. Why not just console command yourself a billion caps if you're gonna do that.

Overall I think still my second favorite, assuming Lonesome Road holds up to my memory. Honest Hearts probably stays in third if Old World Blues is annoying as I remember.

[funkyspacealien]

Rabbit of the Night He'll suck the orange out of your carrots (Sketches n' processes under the break! It's a REAAAAAL long one)

I've been meaning to draw a piece that actually includes a background instead of a character standing in the void. The issue that arises is that... I just didn't have any good ideas for backgrounds, lol. Partially the issue is that I tend to design the character first, which makes it challenging to draw stuff around them. Since around the time that I made this piece was October and the big holiday was Halloween, I figured I could do something within the theme. I've been meaning to draw my character, Nosferatu, again since they have always been one of my lowkey favorites of mine.

An older piece of the character, which you can see with the others here The character was quite macabre, which made it perfect for doing something slightly spooky. The cape also gave me a great idea for making something more visually striking, as well.

My first attempt. As you can see, I tried to do a thumbnail this time so I can have a better understanding of the amount of space I have to work with. I highly recommend that you do something similar if you struggle with doing backgrounds. Though, I think I ought to make it a bit more square, lol. I had to tweak some things to fit within the standard square shape since I drew everything at a wonky angle. I was inspired by Soul Eater and Majora's Mask when it comes to the background design, especially with the moon having a prominent appearance. I knew that was a consistent thing I wanted to keep throughout the iterations. The flowing cape was heavily inspired by Spawn and the artwork of Lelouch from Code Geass

I always found it to be such a striking iconography for the characters. Despite being an inanimate piece of clothing, it adds a lot to the design. Spawn was always an intimidating dude, but having that cape overwhelms the viewer and takes up so much screen space every time he wears it helps give him more of an otherworldliness. You may not truly understand who or what is he, but you may get the vibe that he's someone with great power and importance. It's befitting of someone who is viewed as the best spawn of the devil. I find it also interesting for a character like Lelouch. Now, I never watched the show he came from, only understood the basic premise from various sources throughout my life. Pardon if my read on the character is incorrect, but to me, he's quite the scrawny guy and perhaps lacks power of his own. Despite this, he runs a rebellion and goes under the alias of "Zero". He dresses up as Zero, including the cape. With it on, his form became much more imposing yet concealed. It gives him a sense of royalty, which you might attribute to the likes of Kings or Queens. Someone with power. Sorry for that brief character analysis tangent, lol. It's just something that I thought about when creating the character of Nosferatu. I find it interesting that something so simple as a cape can help give a feeling of power. It's something that I feel everyone subconsciously think of and not realize. Back on topic, the rest of the composition I wasn't super satisfied with. I sorta lean into the "Dracula" look the character had by having the castle in the background, but I think it came off as very flat. I also thought it made things visually unclear. A bunch of things off in their own corner instead of organic guiding the viewer's eyes. I scrapped the first idea and tried to go in another direction.

I had the idea of being underneath an overpass and having buildings being lit by the moon. I don't think it was too bad of an idea, but I had trouble refining it and making it more "full", if that makes sense? This had a weird sense of emptiness and dragged the composition down for me. Perhaps if I drew the character differently and played more with the perspective, it would've been better. I went back to my original idea and checked if I could improve some things on a base level.

Originally, I had the cape go off-screen but checking my original inspiration, like various art pieces of Spawn, I noticed that the cape "ends" tend to curve back into the frame. I decided to do something similar which I think helped give the piece a sense of "flow" to it. I found that it also gives a composition more layers of depth and fills in any "empty" spaces that I had worried about before. I tilted Nosf's head a bit so they weren't just standing there stiffly as well. Sometimes it's the little things that help improve the piece than having to redo it all over again.

Finally, I just decided to make the background more on the simple side. I think I had the issue of really wanting to prove myself that I could do backgrounds that I made it way more complicated than it needed to be. It gave me the chance to make the moon much bigger, which I always meant to be a striking aspect of the piece. When drawing, I decided to forgo the "ground" that the cliffs are on since I felt it cluttered up the piece with too many colors. Now, I just got to finish it!

I should be done, right? Well, not exactly. While I think it looks nice (I'm personally proud of my use of noise filters), it just still lacks the depth that I'm looking for. Something about it is too bright and clear. I went back and experimented some more until I found a solution that made me feel stupid not realizing it before, lol. So initially, I tried to use this photo editing program called "Picsart". I used to use it a lot when I was doing digital art since I like the added filters. I eventually stopped because it would ruin the image quality. I thought they fixed that issue, but it's still the same.

It's a bit subtle in this picture, but I like to use the "vintage" filter since I like the added shadows on the sides of the images. The problem is that the quality got ruined and I'm very stubborn about keeping it in the nicest resolution possible. I decided to see if I could replicate it in my own art program. What I discovered is that I can and the solution was very simple, lol. First I drew a square with a solid color on a new layer-

Then I used the "Gaussian Blur" Filter-

I turned down the opacity, set the blending to "burn" and overlaid it on the artwork, which gave the depth I was looking for!

I gave the head some slight shading too since the filter unintentionally gave it to their ears. Good call since I think that helped with the Halloween atmosphere I was intending.

[thekaijudude]

Ngl, I was kind of hyped when I watched the trailer, until I learned the lead director was Masayoshi Takasue. Now I'm worried it's gonna be terrible. Imo R/B was meh but Decker was just awful. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I was also hyped for Decker before it came out. At least the TF looks cool, I guess. And yeah, the kaiju are a bit hit and miss with me.

What are your thoughts?

Personally I feel confident since Masayoshi has improved with each installment. As pointed out prior that for me, RB went absolutely downhill after ep 9 and Decker was literally just mid for me as there wasn't anything done that was especially bad nor good overall

I see this mirroring Taguchi's own improvement from X to Z. With Omega being possibly Masayoshi's magnum opus like how Z was for Taguchi on their 3rd series

As for overall thoughts on Omega thus far, tbh as far as visual effects go, I hope the scene where Omega ventures into that CG landscape is actually related to the main plot cause MAN that looks AMAZING

But otherwise, the kaiju roster rn is extremely dissapointing as they are all very obviously modified versions of existing suits. And as I pointed out, 2 of the kaiju had such basic designs that it's absolutely laughable

Like I could've literally designed them when I was 5 or sth, the 2nd one is literally just Big Bird but blue wtf

As for the plot synopsis, tbh we can't really tell much atp, because there's 2 ways of interpreting it.

One would be Omega arriving on Earth was by sheer coincidence and his arrival probably sparked a domino effect in causing kaiju to show up. As recall that the leaks prior pointed out that this Earth did not had any kaiju appearance prior to Omega's arrival

Second would be that Omega's amnesia situation and arrival was orchestrated by someone so that by extrapolation, the kaiju were also sent by said person to get rid of Omega somehow

Atp I've been baited enough times by TsuPro to NOT have my expectations so high so for now I'm just reserving my views until at least when ep 0 comes out in June

But another thing that actually stands out to me after rewatching the trailer so many times that it's actually possible that Omega might go all in on the visual effects but leave everything else lacking.

As the revealed kaiju suits are of any indication as I've pointed out that they are all simply remodels, even Omega's design himself is very basic as pointed out in my design review (not that it's neccessarily bad, but it just goes to highlight what I'm saying), so it's evident that TsuPro is trying to cut costs left and right here

Since we do know that Omega finished filming very quickly as TsuPro wanted to get working on the 2026 anniversary series asap, so I'm quite concerned that the Omega series would go down this route. Which means simple/underwhelming plot and majority of kaiju suits would just be remodels

Tho personally, since the plot synopsis pointed out that there's gonna be fast-paced fight scenes as a selling point and we saw such AMAZING visual effects? I think I'll be totally fine with this arrangement as long as at least the mid boss and final boss suits are unique and amazing looking

Thanks for the question!

[bunbunbillion]

THE BUNBUNBILLION Q1 2024 MEDIA THREAD EXTRAVAGANZA

i've been recording everything i consume for the past few months to do a media thread at the end of every quarter. and now april is over... so its time to talk about stuff!! forever!!!!!!

01/13 - Homestuck (Re-Read)

I finished re-reading Homestuck for the... 4th? 5th time? I've lost count. It's a good way to start the year though. This time around I read it with my girlfriend, who you should give all of your money too (@yinkybaginky), and it was very fun to see someones reaction to it for the first time. She knew literally nothing about Homestuck, not even what a Vriska Serket was. A truly great experience, especially thanks in part to the Unofficial Homestuck Collection. I'll probably have more to see about Homestuck in depth on a later date, so I won't bog down this post with that. It's my favorite piece of media ever, and that's all there is really to say on the matter.

01/24-01/25 - The Trolls Movies

I've been surrounded by gay people who love Trolls for the past like 5 years so I finally decided to give them a watch on a whim with my girlfriend, after catching some of the first movie in a streamers server.

They were fun! I really don't think I have much to say on them. They're kids movies, sure, but they're also just very visually great and made me go "yeah you know what some of those old pop songs WERE pretty good". I think when it came to stories I liked the first one the most just because I liked the Bergen's a lot, I thought their whole world was very well designed and all that. Don't have the most care for Branch, and Poppy is OK as a protagonist, but otherwise I had more fun with the other characters. Creature design is absolutely excellent and is what stood out to me the most of anything, though. The animation in the 3rd movie is also top notch, I really do want to see the series continue. If they do, I like the third movies approach of finding a niche to make "the thing" for the whole movie, it's a fun way of doing stuff.

We thought this shot was really funny.

1/20 - Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio

I was gonna watch this when it came out awhiiile ago, but just put it off forever. I saw Jacob Geller had uploaded a new video about Pinocchio, which talked about the movie and was like. Man. I wanna watch that video. Guess I'll go watch this entire movie. So I hopped into VC with Netflix on and just watched it.

It was Fucking Good!!!!!!!!!!! Every good thing you've heard about the movie is absolutely true. Do yourself a favor and just watch it. That being said, I also don't have too much to say about it! It's been a few months and it hasn't totally stuck around in my head, but that just means I get to rewatch it sometime, and I can look forward to that. It mostly made me want to watch more stop motion movies.

If I were to highlight anything, its that I love to make the movie all about death. Pinocchio as a story seems to constantly get turned into this thing all about freedom and living and how great life is and all that, but this movie completely nailed that yea. Pinocchio works so much better as a movie about death. A puppet living on a blessing against the laws of nature being used as a vessel to explore acceptance of death. It's really great.

the demons are such baddies btw

01/29 - Earthbound USA

Not the game, but the documentary put together by Jazzy Benson through Fangamer. It was absolutely fantastic. Easily my favorite game documentary I've ever watched... Because it's not really about the game.

To put into words, because I imagine 90% of people reading (not including the people I watched it with) haven't seen it or even heard of it, Earthbound USA is a documentary about specifically starmen.net and Earthbounds western fanbase.

The doc highlights basically every aspect of Earthbound in the west. They talk to the people who translated the game, who made the marketing campaign, the fans who bought the game day one, the translator of the MOTHER 3 fan translation, they talk about Earthbound Zero, about the virtual console releases, the quest to get MOTHER 3 officially localized and every single defeat that came with it, I mean Shigesato Itoi is just here too. It's everything you could ask for all combined with home videos from the early 2000s, an outstanding soundtrack that gives me goosebumps from Robbie Benson, it's just... So good.

I bought the DVD for the movie and streamed that to my friends, which you can get here on Fangamer, whenever they plan on restocking it at least. Or, you can watch it on streaming services listed on their website! If your a MOTHER fan, I'd say this is like, essential viewing. It may as well be official with how good it is.

01/29 - A Brief Retrospective of The Simpsons' Golden Age

I finished this the same day. I recorded this mostly as a joke, but hey if your insane and have watched every single Simpsons episode like me and want whats basically a Simpsons Summary Podcast, I recommend this 11-hour video.

02/06 - MOTHER

A week later I couldn't get Earthbound USA out of my head, so I decided to finally sit down and go where no MOTHER fan has gone before. To the first game in the series.

It was really really good. Like, man, I don't know why I slept on it so long just because it was an NES RPG. Ok, I mean, I know why I did, it's because it's a NES RPG, but still.

This game really highlights everything that went into its two sequels to make them so good, and has so many little unique novelties about it that make it just so so memorable. The music, the writing, the places you go, it's just... So, so good. I still think the best way to get into MOTHER is to start with Earthbound, just due to how approachable it is, but if you like it and/or MOTHER 3, do not sleep on MOTHER/Earthbound Beginnings. It's just so good.

Probably use an emulator with rewind or save-states though.

i'll be fine with not hearing magicants music anymore though

02/17 - Yakuza Kiwami 2

I started this game probably years ago, and never got that far. Yakuza 0 is definitely one of my favorite games ever, and I was kind of mixed on Yakuza Kiwami, but I was enjoying the start of Kiwami 2 for sure.

How did I feel by the end?

I mean it's not BAD, per say, it's just... Not very good, either. The gameplay never really felt like it evolved much, the writing really felt like it never picked up and just kept ADDING stuff, but at least the side quests were probably the absolute best the series has given me so far. That definitely saved it for me, but man the story. It just wasn't very good.

I had a lot more thoughts after playing it, but I think think in the end it just comes down to;

Ryuji did not get nearly enough time to shine to be an impactful villian

The bastard cop was a character I was given no reason to care for, and the focus put on him did not feel earned in any way

Kiryu really did not feel that involved with everything going on

Sayama did not get nearly enough agency in this story

As for the twists, I didn't like how many there were at first, but I think by the end there were just so many twists I was like. Yeah nvm this is so fucking stupid it owns. So good on them for that!

I don't think I'll ever replay the main story for this game, but I will absolutely come back to those side quests, they're so good I don't want to spoil a single one. I am also really enjoying Yakuza 3 so far, so that's a we might just be back regardless.

the selfie feature is really funny. you really feel like your some 40 year old dad.

02/22 - Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: The Hidden Treasures of Area Zero - Epilogue

I have a lot of thoughts on Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. I am a HUGE Pokemon freak, like omega huge freak levels of such. I will claw and bite tooth and nail defending Sword and Shield any fucking day of the week. I think Scarlet and Violet are like, painfully mid games in such a disheartening way. I still enjoyed a lot of it, but man it's so held back by... everything, really.

And the DLC fixed I'd say about none of it. In fact, I'd go as far to say the 2 DLC stories only highlight and strengthen every single problem scarvi has as a game and it disheartens me, so, so so much. Unlike the Sword and Shield epilogues, which expanded upon the best parts of the game and experimented with brand new formats as prep for the next generation, scarvi kinda just does. Nothing. It's more Scarlet and Violet, slime grease and all.

Kitakami is... Ok, I guess? It's an exceptionally uninteresting region with absolutely no landmarks that stand out in my mind. The story in it is pretty subpar, it's a really annoying kind of "player has no control over a misunderstanding" narrative in a really obnoxious way and by god I'll say it I never really get a reason to care about Kieran. He's not bad by any means, I mean he's just a kid, but really I don't feel like I'd ever call him a friend. The story with the Loyal Three and Ogrepon is really cute though, I do love that they completely flipped the story of Momotaro on its head in such a fun and unique way.

Blueberry Academy I was looking forward to much more, thinking that while Kitakami was really rushed and pretty bad, it must mean more resources were just put towards the second DLC. I was pretty wrong, it was basically just as under baked... But also still better, regardless. They introduce a lot of characters you won't really remember with this DLC, and it feels weird because it feels like there SHOULD be more to these characters, but it's all confined to a pretty short campaign.

The story is pretty ok, and I like what they did with Kieran here, but the second you beat him in the champion fight the story like, immediately halts the breaks and everything stops mattering. I really thought Drayton might've been set up as an interesting antagonist, someone subtly bullying Kieran and egging on how he is, but in the end he's just a well meaning friend who's just eccentric. All the other trainers basically disappear as well, and Kieran reverts back to how he was before all this for the most part. Then the story with Terapagos has to happen, and you get the return to Area Zero, except with your new friends you've barely built bonds with and Briar instead.

Similar to Drayton, I thought Briar might've been getting set up to be a bit fucked up. She's pretty obsessed with Area Zero and proving that Heath was right, and that feels like obvious easy set up for a villain right? Obsession is kind of the text book villain motive, especially in a series like Pokemon. But, no, like Drayton, Briar is actually exactly as she seems, and there's nothing underneath.

Unfortunetly, Area Zero itself was also not as interesting on revisit. I imagine it was the far lower budget, but it ends up mostly just being a very basic crystal-cave environment, without that really fascinating hollow-earth vibe Area Zero has in the base game. You're also mostly just traveling alone going on fetch quests to beat mini-boss Pokemon to open up gates, so that feeling of traveling an unknown place with friends is also completely lost. In the end, Terapagos isn't much of a character at all, like Ogrepon (or Miraidon/Koraidon) are, and is just kinda There. I'm sure the anime is doing a lot more with them, given they're a main character, but man they are NOTHING in this game and it's really disappointing with how incredibly hyped up they are.

In the end though, the thing I really came out loving with the second DLC was something I didn't actually know about until after finishing the epilogue, which was the brief interaction with the Professor in Kitakami once you have Terapagos. I won't spoil it, I'd recommend going to the crystal lake in Kitakami with Terapagos in your party to see it, but it was a moment where I was really like... Damn. This story really could've been something special.

NOW WITH ALL THAT OUT OF THE WAY, it was the Epilogue that I beat this year, which acts both as a bonus to the DLC, and a Mythical Pokemon event similar to ones from the DS games. And, I gotta say.

It's easily the best thing in the entire DLC, bar none.

Despite just being a revisit to Kitakami, the Epilogue is not only better written then both of the DLC chapters, but actually shows that promise for future games like the SWSH DLC did years ago. I had a smile on my face basically the entire time.

First off, hanging out with the three friends again after they basically disappear once you beat the game is so incredibly refreshing. Just having them over to your house is the first time in a Pokemon game I've actually felt that like... Oh, I'm a kid hanging out with my friends, kind of feeling. That original inspiration the Pokemon series had was just completely captured with that, and I love it, and it continues through the entire DLC. On top of that, the DLC does a lot of very small things with its cutscenes that I felt were really missing from the main game that actually completely caught me off guard. Seamless transition between overworld cutscenes, cinematic cutscenes, and battles mainly. It feels like Pokemon games have always struggled with taking you out of the story for loading screens or transitions or letting the player wander off or something. It's hard to immerse, but with this DLC just through the most simple methods they really catch you off guard with the cutscene framing and battle starts in a way I absolutely adore, especially since your with your friends who can actually Talk for you too. Helps that all of the writing is just really funny too, I had such a good time.

Overall, I think this is where I want the Pokemon series to go. The segment of Area Zero where you travel with all your friends already stood out to a lot of people, but didn't have the most writing to back it up. Similarly, this DLC has all of the writing, but it can feel like you aren't actually traveling with your friends, as they don't follow you. I think having a Pokemon game where you travel directly with other people in a bit of a party is the way to go with expanding on Pokemon as a series, and this DLC combined with base scarvi really proves How it can work. It makes me so excited to see where we can go from here, and I can only hope they learned from all these mistakes.

wow i had a fucking lot to say about scarlet and violet dlc and i didnt even mention this thing. whatever.

02/26 - Splatoon 3: Side Order

Funny story, I actually beat Splatoon 3 on a friends copy, but on my own switch, so when this DLC came out I ended up buying an entire new copy of Splatoon 3, with DLC, and an already completed save file. So was the DLC worth 80 bucks? I mean, no, not at all, but it was extremely good!!

It came out while I was out of town with my girlfriend, so we had a lot of fun playing it together, and I think it's just overall a genius idea for a Splatoon mode. It makes me like, viscerally crave an even bigger Splatoon roguelike, but I'm also like an extreme roguelike freak. The story was super cute (my big "I <3 PEARLINA" shirt notwithstanding) and basically everything it introduces is great. I haven't actually beaten the Agent 8 locker yet, because I'm Bad At Splatoon </3, but I everything else was just so good.

im actually extremely biased, btw

02/27 - Ponyo (Rewatch)

I rewatched Ponyo with my girlfriend while I was over for the first time since I was a wee little amoeba. It was so fucking cute!!!! I really do love Ghibli movies a lot. I don't think there's a lot I can say about Ponyo, per say, at least not as much as other Ghibli movies I love like Spirited Away (my fave movie evarr), but I think this movie combined with like. Finding Nemo, Animal Jam, and going to the Houston Aquarium combined are probably why I love marine biology so much now.

02/29 - Death Note

The anime, to be specific, for the first time. Yeah, I can see why this became such a big thing with fujoshis. I get it, I understand now. I'm sorry L, I didn't know your game.

Death Note is overall both an anime of its time, and an absolute classic you should be watching. It's engaging, it's dramatic, it's funny, and there's so many points where your just like "damn are they gonna bone" about the two characters the authors 100% had no intention to be seen in that way.

It's only real problems come from the authors also having no fucking clue what to do with women in the story, and making pretty annoyingly shallow characters that get sidelined really hard. The final arc is also a bit head scratching, but it makes for good drama, so I can't really complain, even if I remember a lot less of it. Great show, great ending. Where's my Misa & Rem yuri manga series.

he really is just fucking jeff the killer huh

02/29 - Promare

Watched this with my girlfriend on a whim, cus we wanted to watch a movie together. I've been a very lowkey TRIGGER studios fan since I was a kid, watching Kill la Kill when I was way too young to be watching shows that crazy boobed, but it did definitely contribute to my transgender-ness, so you can't fault it there (you can fault it for a lot of other things though). No matter what though, when TRIGGER just randomly came out with a full feature length movie released in theaters, I was pretty interested. Which is why I didn't watch it for years.

After watching it though? Yea, that was really fun. It's not much in the way of story, very basic Minority Allegory story I think, but it's all to make way for extremely crazy action scenes and homages to all their favorite mecha anime, which like, yea props they did a great job. Character design is extremely fun, environments are super colorful, animation is what you'd expect from TRIGGER (good), and there's a lot of man tits this time around. I recommend it!

03/04 - 2001: A Space Odyssey

I'll be so fucking honest I watched this on my phone on a plane ride and I don't fucking know anything that happened. I think it was good?? I think it made sense??? I really wanted to fall asleep but I really wanted to watch the movie. It felt like it was simultaneously 4 hours long and 30 minutes. I think I should probably watch it again. I don't know why I chose to watch it on a plane. But hey, I did!

watching this shit while half awake on a dark plane felt like i was in another fucking dimension. what the hell happened

03/08 - Fortnite Chapter 5: Season 1

Hey Fortnite, I play that game! Sometimes.

I've been pretty consistently "playing" Fortnite since Chapter 2: Season 5, and I do really like the game. I love the gameplay, I love all the stupid crossovers, I loved the story, it was just a really fun time!

Well, up until like half way through Chapter 3 at least. The problem with Fortnite is that, no matter what, in the end of the day, it's still owned by Epic Games, and that means at some point, shits gonna get sloppy. I won't go over my whole history with how I feel Fortnites been on a decline since Chapter 3, but I can at least say i was pretty fucking checked out most of Chapter 4. I really didn't like it.

So, coming back on for Chapter 5? Oh shit this game is actually fun I forgot. Played a shit ton that season, actually finished the main battle pass for once, had so much fun with all the new things they added, it really feels like Fortnites back.

Oh... and there's that LEGO mode... and that rockband mode... and there's racing I guess... I didn't really touch them much but they're neat... They were pushing those modes pretty hard, I hope this isn't a sign of something to come... I'm sure they'll keep up the momentum for the next season right? Battle Royale is totally back, right?

i ended up staying up till like the last day grinding in creative to get this emote. im so glad i can make perfect cell do the bird is the word dance now.

03/12 - King of Crusher

I beat this game over on my twitch, you can catch me live playing obscure games every so often each month!! Check it out and give me money! I said mostly everything I wanted to say about it on stream, but this game was just a really fascinating little art project that was both really frustrating and really funny to play. I really wanna find more little gems like this to play, it's so ODD but fun.

03/15 - Animal Crossing (Movie)

Watched this movie as apart of a movie night with my groupchat and it was adorables so cutes! I don't think there's really anything I COULD say about this movie, but it does really make me wish Nintendo was more willing to make more stuff like it. Just a really well animated fun anime movie that's not trying to be this big thing.

the ending caught me completely off fucking guard though

03/17 - Unpacking

Similar to Animal Crossing, I don't really have a lot to say about this game besides so cutes! The story told through the environment was super adorable and I really do think back to this game a lot in a very emotional way.

That being said, I wish it was a tad longer for how expensive it was, as great as the art was lol

If you can find it on sale though, go play it!!

i was playing with my girlfriend and we ended up interpreting the main character as really hating her boyfriend. my fucking Pig of a husband wont let me put my posters on the wall. my Pigly husband. i need to Kill my Meat Pig of a Husband.

03/17 - Pizza Tower (The Noise Update)

In complete tonal contrast to Unpacking, I beat the Noise Update in Pizza Tower right after. It was, like Pizza Tower, really good, but not without its flaws.

In the time since I've played Pizza Tower, I've reflected a lot on what I love about the game and what I honestly don't care much for. I've been playing demos since the very first public one, and I've loved watching it evolve, but if there's one bit of context I've gotten that shapes how I look at the game, it's that the games creator has a really big issue with having a lot of ideas for stuff, and not really thinking about how they fit in together.

Pizza Tower is like, a REALLY good game, don't get me wrong. The movement is borderline perfect, the level design is consistently fun and flows well, the graphics are unmatched in how expressive they are, the music is some of my fave from the entire medium, but if there's one thing really holding back Pizza Tower it's that lack of focus, and I think you can boil that down to the core game design of levels.

Pizza Tower is easy to compare to Wario Land, given that's its primary inspiration, but I think it's much more akin to Sonic, which is also a major inspiration for it. The problem is, it definitely tries to apply Wario Lands brand of "wario can be anything" to sonics "levels can be anything". Sonic levels are all about super quick flashy levels you can blast through, each one having a gimmick unique to the level that you learn, master, and then use throughout the multiple zones. On the other end, Wario Land presents you with these large winding interior-like levels that you slowly (or somewhat quickly in the case of entries like WL4), navigate and solve puzzles throughout for treasure, with your main solution typically landing on how Wario himself can be controlled using various gimmicks unique to him. Your presented a gimmick, and then you remember that gimmick for the future so you can use it to solve a future puzzle. In many ways, these two games can almost feel like the opposite kind of game, only linked by being sidescrolling platformers where you can bust through walls. Pizza Tower, despite that, tries to be both, and in many ways succeeds, but cant avoid the problems that inherently comes with trying to be these two very polar ends.

Basically, I just feel theres a lot of really forgettable levels and an overall problem with gimmicks getting absolutely no chance to be explored so you can never really be rewarded in basic play for mastering a gimmick, other then replaying a level multiple times. I think less gimmicks but more places to use the same ones would be really great.

Talking about the Noise update specifically, it was just a fun retake on the main game, and made for a fun replay after not playing Pizza Tower for about a year since release. I find it really fascinating how even after changing how the entire game controls, the levels still work with minimal changes. I'm looking forward to see if they decide to change it any more in the future, and I hope whatever comes after Pizza Tower can be a much more focused experience.

03/17 - Hiveswap Act 1 (Replay)

See; Homestuck Reread. Been here a billion times, here to show my girl this time. I'll probably scream about this one later. <3

03/20 - Rescue Shot

See; King of Crusher. Another stream game! This one I liked even more, though I Really wish I had a lightgun (or could fix the mouse controls on my emulator). Incredibly adorable game with insanely good music, check out the VOD if your interested!

03/25 - Super Mario Bros. (1993)

I feel like in recent time, people have been hyping up this movie as like, secretly a really good film that people only hate because it's not a Mario movie. I'll be real, after watching it for the first time, I don't see it at all, I think this is just an incredibly funny bad movie.

Beyond not being Mario, which really doesn't matter at all, it kind of just felt like a fever dream of a script. Things kept HAPPENING there wasn't a single second to break I felt like I was in a nightmare hell dimension being blasted with insane plot beats and I couldn't keep track of anything. Without the Mario branding this would be like 10x LESS comprehensible, but good lord.

Maybe this is like, an arthouse film, and I need to watch it 12 more times and be high at least half those times, but idk I think it might actually be bad guys. Big Bertha a baddie though.

03/29 - The Croods

Another movie night with friends, we got the PRIVILEGE of watching The Croods. I saw it once when I was a kid, but I didn't really remember anything about it other then there was a character named Grug.

I now realize that the reason I remember this character is because this movie literally lied and he's the main character. It really tries to set up that the conventionally attractive main teenage girl is the protagonist but no this movie is 100% about Grug and it's so fucking Particular. Why pretend it's not about him when he becomes our sole point of view for half the film? Why pretend its about the teenage girl when she basically doesn't have any dialogue for the last 25% of the movie? What is this movie trying to say, politically? This movies a thinker. I think its a bigger thinker then 2001, honestly.

04/12 - Police Story

The first Jackie Chan movie I've ever seen and damn what a fucking good one to start with. Insanely entertaining, incredibly funny, and just a really great film! I don't think I have much else to say about it other then gush about each and every scene and how well made it is, but it really makes me wish we could get movies like this more. Just a practical effect wonderland where the main guy is just having fun with people on set. It's great.

hes kind of a babygirl

04/13 - Con Air

Actually the first time I've seen this movie, surprisingly, given my attachment to the media that has essentially co-opted this film. It wasn't good, like at all, but it was very very entertaining with friends. I didn't expect it to get so much into like, weird racism stuff?? Characters just keep appearing and getting named it's so fucking weird. What was the deal with Steve Buscemi's character, I feel like scenes were cut or something. Nick Cage was incredibly funny as the lead. It's the thing you watch with friends on 4/13, what else can I say.

why did he do this

04/19 - The Princess Bride

Honestly, I thought this one was a rewatch when we put it on in the GC, but I think I just remembered watching clips of it or seeing half of it on TV as a kid, so I'll just consider this a first time watch. It's really good! Just a fun simple movie full of extremely witty jokes. It's kind of like watching a Simpsons episode for the first time and getting to a part where they say something and you go "oh i've heard this quoted like a fucking million times, i get it now". If you haven't seen this movie, whattarya doin, go watch it!

i feel like were it not for andre being basically irreplaceable we would have a netflix reboot about these three right now. maybe that does exist already.

04/21 - PokeRogue

Half this thread is Pokemon and as I already said, I'm a roguelike freak. This game is like crack for me. That being said it's just alright. I think I'll be willing to judge it more once it's more finished and not just Pokemon in the most barebones form imaginable, coding wise. It's the basis for an extremely addicting game, and I plan on sinking even more hours into it soon. Extra points for using PMD music as well <3

im only just now finding out the rival is gendered. hey cunts let me play as a girl and get the girl rival or you hate me ok?

04/22 - The Mask (2023)

Now you may be wondering, The Mask? The movie from ten TRILLION years ago staring the homunculi known only as Jim Carrey? You'd be a fool to assume this. I am talking instead about Connor O' Malley's current best work, THAT The Mask.

There's not much I want to say about it, because I just think it's good, but if there's one thing I can say it's that Joker (2019) should be fucking embarrassed in how hard it was stood up by this short film.

Content warning for pretty heavy themes and a lot of crass jokes.

04/23 - Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) & Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) (Rewatch)

In preparation for the Knuckles show (which I still haven't finished), I decided it'd be nice to rewatch these two films for the first time. I haven't seen the first one since I watched it for the first time before Sonic 2, and I haven't seen Sonic 2 since I saw it at an early screening. What do I think of them now in retrospect?

Yeah, not very good films. Very fun! But damn, yea wow, I think with enough time to look back on them, there's a lot I really don't care for in them, and I'm not just talking about the human scenes.

I've been having a lot of conversations about adaptations lately, so I'll mostly summarize my thoughts here. In making an adaptation, your one mission in my eyes is maintaining what made the original loved. Not good, because that's not really a quantifiable thing. Not faithfully, because I feel you can make a good adaptation without being faithful. All you need to truly keep is the Reason people came to that piece of media originally, in my eyes. Whether that means going as hard as you can with something like The Last of Us, which essentially 1 to 1 recreates an entire video game, or be much more out there like with One Piece (Netflix), which essentially tells the same story but with wildly different circumstance and aesthetic.

The Sonic movies, in my eyes, simply don't capture that. In the first movie alone, Sonic and Eggman are essentially our only ties to the games, which is fine as long as they can nail them right, right? And, as many before me have really pointed out, no they don't really at all. Sonic isn't really like Sonic at all, he's a much younger, innocent, and hyperactive "version" of the character, and I say version in quotations because I don't really feel like with those adjectives removed he'd be all that similar to Sonic still. This is basically a new character, and that's fine, but I'd be hard pressed to say it captures what brought people to Sonic. Similarly, Eggman is very much not really similar to any iteration to Eggman at all (except maybe AoSTH?) A lot of people love Jim Carrey Eggman, and I totally get why, but man he really has never clicked with me. I think I like canon Eggman too much to let go, it's over for me.

But I'm sure anyone who's been around Sonic long enough has heard a trillion complaints about the first movie. In rewatching the second movie, I found that it moved way faster then I remembered, and just had way less.. character? Tails is so incredibly shoehorned in, which is a common complaint, but it really felt like at times Sonic was too?

In Sonic games, Sonic isn't exactly a character we put ourselves in the shoes of. Sonic is like this cool older brother we're just along with for the ride. If anything we insert ourselves (as kids) in Tails' shoes. Sonic doesn't really have an internal monologue, nor does he really tend to need a big shonen arc to overcome in his games. He's very much this vessel to explore other characters, to see how people respond to his brash and cocky personality. In that way, Sonic works really well, but can struggle really hard when he's placed all alone. He needs people to not only bounce off of, but to do the emotional side of the story in his stead. With the Sonic movies, we get this very very diffrent form of Sonic being put into this scenarios the canon Sonic wouldn't typiclaly find himself in, and see how he acts. It can work for original stories, because it's basically an original character, but that's the struggle with Sonic 2, and I worry Sonic 3 as well. They aren't fully original stories. Sonic 2 is a loose adaptation of Sonic 3 in most ways, with Knuckles being the true second character, and Tails being mostly to the side. Knuckles acts basically perfectly, like yea that's Knuckles, no notes there outside of maybe not taking his heritage seriously enough, but that's him. So how do you write this movie sonic into this adaptation with a Knuckles whos playing it basically straight like the games? Well... I mean, you kind of just... You, don't, really? Sonic is really just There sometimes, to say quips and to move the story forward. With exception to the scene where he's having a feeling jam with Knux, which I like, Sonic is very much Just There, and it feels really odd. In the games, this works because of his aforementioned status as this guy your along with for the ride, a dude whos too cool to even be the protagonist, but Sonic Movie Sonic IS the protagonist. He's meek and still learning and is far from the asshole we know in the games and comics, but implanted into a games storyline, he just doesn't have much he can do. He can't be that too cool guy that let's his friends do the talking, because he's already been set up as this superhero esque main guy who needs to learn a lesson by the end of the film, or overcome some kind of arc. It's just all odd in retrospect, and I really wonder how they're gonna tackle it in Sonic 3, especially without all the characters that make Sonic Adventure 2s gears go.

i also couldnt stop staring at his teeth in the movie. i really dont like the teeth idk why im just now noticing them.

04/25 - Pseudoregalia

Knocked this game off my backlog and I'm really happy I did! Beat the game with all the time trials done and I really do love it. I want to call it the perfect length, but really I think it was just a bit too short and I hope we can get more content in the future, I'm definitely itching for more levels and maybe even more time trials.

I can't think of much else to say about the game. I don't think I picked up on the story much at all, I'll probably have to ask my girlfriend about it sometime, but it's not exactly a big part of the game. The music was absolutely fantastic, and I adore all of the costumes for the main character. I like her design, for many obvious reasons.

For further criticism besides length though, combat feels pretty useless. There's really no point in the game where I ever feel like I have to or even SHOULD fight, and the final boss ends up losing a lot of impact because of it. Enemies just become a hazard in navigating the world in a way that isn't particularly fun. Similarly, there were a few upgrades that had maybe one use ever and I don't even know why they're there. I think this game could benefit a lot from playing even harder into it's all too obvious inspirations and just getting a bunch of RPG mechanics and more RPG inspired elements in here. Give me Symphony of the Bunny-Cat-Goatgirl, full on.

I also watched madagascar 2 with friends, but i don't even feel like counting it. watch this fucked up compressed video instead.

THAT'S IT FOR Q1 2024!! I'm really trying to look at a lot this year, and I hope to have EVEN MORE TO TALK ABOUT in 4 months! maybe ill do it even earlier because damn this was a fucking lot to write. If you read this far thank you, I'll be sending you a giant mettalic muscular butler sir in the mail as thanks.

[thisnameisnotspokenfor]

I want to start by saying I LOVE your fanfic and the amount of lore you’ve built around everything, it’s just such an interesting world to experience and you’ve done an amazing job building it. Genuinely in my top three fanfics I’ve read across any fandoms I’ve been in!

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This discusses educational discussion of women’s undergarments in the context of fashion history, just in case you aren’t comfortable with it!

In chapter 29 I noticed one line that bugged me a little, so apologies for the LONG explanation here about corsets— if you already know about their actual history and not the hollywood misrepresentation of them feel free to ignore this, I just thought this could help in the future with the ball chapter especially!

““Ha,” she grinned, pulling herself upwards before she turned back to the star. “You think this is outlandish? You should see what some ladies are capable of doing while wearing a corset!”

“A corset?” he repeated.

“Yeah, it’s like a cosmetic thing that came straight outta hell, because no one down there wanted it, so now we on earth have to deal with it. “”

To start- corsets as a whole shouldn’t be demonized as much as they are in popular media since they were quite literally just the old version of bra’s— just like how there are uncomfortable ones and comfortable ones today, there were back then. I’m less here about historical accuracy but realism, because working class women wore corsets daily and they were an essential part of the everyday clothing they wore!

More accurately in this time period it would be called ‘a pair of bodies’ (later on shortened to bodice) and should have been comfortable unless poorly made and tailored. An uncomfortable corset means one of two things, it was poorly tailored like I mentioned before or the corset has been tight laced. Tight lacing only became popular in the early 1800’s and would be the beginning of corset demonization. Doctors would claim organs were being moved and fertility was being damaged (‘studies’ have been made but also debunked) hence the quickly descending popularity of them and the invention of the bra!

To put it into perspective, modern day translation would go like this:

“Ha,” she grinned, pulling herself upwards before she turned back to the star. “You think this is outlandish? You should see what some ladies are capable of doing while wearing a bra!”

(Which by the way, that’s so real, I hate mine so much)

I feel like it’s completely in character for your Asha to have a gripe with corsets, which is why I wasn’t sure if this wasn’t an intentional choice or not. Asha definitely seems like the type to strictly wear working corsets and avoid tight lacing ones like the plague.

Quick personal suggestion, since I noticed asha’s victory dress being very-ballgown like, It’s likely she’d opt for a corset of her own design similar to an Edwardian corset, which created an hourglass design not by cinching in the waist to extremes but adding volume at the hips (hip pads) instead. Ideally, an everyday corset should feel like a tight hug, not a torture machine.

Fun fact: It wasn’t uncommon for men to wear corsets as well! They were good for hiding ‘beer bellies’.

If you prefer visual learning, here’s a really engaging video that goes over the basic myths: https://youtu.be/LWYG5sQp0-E?si=LugoryF2eR_Dja83

Highly encourage you to look further into it because fashion history is so interesting and deeply reflects the political standings of each era.

Tldr: Just like modern bra’s have restricting pushup bras and comfy grandma bra’s corsets had comfy ones and tight lace ones. Asha likely would be wearing a corset too :D

It’s just a personal thing I’m very passionate about, and although im not a fashion historian I hope I gave you a general idea of what corsets are actually like if you didn’t know already 🙏

Seriously looking forward to the future chapters, this fic is a literal piece of art <3

First of all- thank you! I appreciate it!

Also, I did not know that much about corsets, (nor did I know that men actually wore them to hide 'beer bellies' that's too funny) so this was a learning experience to me! I never knew that they were actually comfortable- ((I'll be sure to look into it more!))

Admittedly, I do fine the fashion aspect to be a bit challenging because it's trying to balance the whole- medieval time period fashion vs the star fashion that you see in Asha's victory dress- along with some other things, but I will definitely go back and edit that line in chapter 29 when finished!

[thessalian]

Thess vs Next Fest 2025, Part 3

Well, I was feeling somewhat better today. Unfortunately, I made a poor demo pick when it came to the whole migraine-trigger thing. But we're still going through the list so here it is.

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss - This one's sort of like if you turned Return of the Obra Din into a walking simulator. You're searching a shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean, apparently previously crewed by your sister, to try to figure out why it went down and everything going on with the ship in the lead-up to said wreck. I did actually get really caught up in finding clues and the like, but the problem is that it's first person, the camera movement is exceptionally floaty to give that "in an old diving suit under an awful lot of water" feel, and the lighting isn't much better, so while I did really enjoy it (right up until I got stuck because none of the unlocking items seemed available), it has triggered a migraine. Woe.

Spray Paint Simulator - Figured I'd get the first person ones out of the way ASAP. This is kind of the opposite of PowerWash Simulator; instead of cleaning gunk off things, you're spray-painting them. It's a little less migraine-inducing than something like Thalassa, if only because they're not trying to do interesting things with lighting and movement, and a pretty good kind of Zen. Kind of my favourite parts of House Flipper and my favourite parts of PowerWash Simulator at once. Yeah, I should have that one.

Einstein's Cats - Another one of those logic puzzle games where you get a bunch of clues to decide what goes where. In this case, it's where to put cats. This is one that a) I would really like and b) is a recommendation for @fauxfire76 because he loves that kind of game too.

Piece by Piece - I want to say 'crafting game', but mostly it's more 3D jigsaw puzzle with cute fox avatar and other cute animal townsfolk. It's basically you running a little shop repairing all the stuff the little critters that live in the little town break. It's cute and Zen and enjoyable.

Checkout: Cashier Simulator - Nooooooope nope nope nope. Definitely not Zen. This is like Papers, Please, but more corporate. And the tutorial "video" had visual effects like a bad handheld video camera and that did not help my migraine. No thank you.

Crow County - I've heard good things about this one, but the controls were jank enough that I couldn't get out of the initial zone. I figure it's probably one of those ones that's more designed for controller. Eh well. Not like I don't have Silent Hill 2 to fill the void. Assuming I ever get back to playing it.

More will probably happen later, but I got a text saying my prescription's ready for pickup, so I'd best do that. I need a few groceries for a glorious roast chicken anyway, and maybe something for this fucking migraine. Ugh.

[gascreates]

eeeee I love your atla dino au so much!!! do you have an idea of how bending would look different in the dino forms?

aaaa thank you!! im glad you like it!! it feels so great to know that people like this au!!!

actually, bending as a dino was one of my first thought experiments, came way before anyone had any dino designs! ive always wanted to make sure to preserve the whole magic martial arts vibe of atla, even in dino form. and combat is such a big thing in atla that im constantly shifting things around in my head to try and make sure that everything feels balanced. i don't want dino bending to be the definitive replacement for human bending, yknow?

im gonna plop the rest of my response under read more cuz it got pretty long. here we go!

as for how bending actually looks, my thought was that dinos primarily use their head and tails for major bending motions, as most dinos dont have long or flexible limbs that would do much good, at least compared to human limbs. each bending looks slightly different, as with their human forms.

earthbenders are the easiest to visualize to me, as mostly they just do a lot of stomping and head throwing. foot goes down, rock goes up.

airbenders mostly rely on appendages that are feathered, so flapping wings or slamming down a very feathered tail like a fan. i have no idea what a non-winged airbender would do. probably not be very good at airbending.

waterbending is kinda muddy honestly, in my head they're mostly ground based tail and head swingers. less flipping than an airbender, but more mobile than an earthbender. i feel like sokka would use his head a lot though. he's not a bender, so if he wants to get a concussion blugeoning a parasaurolophus, go ahead man.

also also, airbenders and waterbenders can absolutely propell themselves with bending. i mean i guess all of them could if you want, but it's super common in air and water. air dinos flying in dino forms that aren't *quite* built for sustained flight (aang is a microraptor, which is a gliding dino, and not actually able to fly, but with airbending, that doesnt matter!) and water dinos bending while swimming in order to torpedo themselves through the water.

and then firebending is mostly reliant on the tail and legs if possible, basically use the tail as a replacemnt for legs in human form. loooots of roundhouse kick stuff. with a tail. also i was thinking that maybe it's normal to be able to spit fireballs like a dragon? but it's still kinda hard, and something most people can only do in dino form. idk about that one, i just like the idea.

i drew a bit of concept art for this waaay back, but honestly im not all that well versed in how to draw movement, so i feel like the firebender there is the only really clear representation of my thoughts. here's that pic, and a link to the post.

in terms of visualizing the movement, there's this one video game project though called dinoSword by Jean Nguyen that actually really represents what im thinking, even if it's a bit flashy and fast for what i mean. either way, it's badass and might give a good point of reference. absolutely check out their work, here's a compilation of some of their animations

and here's a gif of another one of their animations which i will try so so hard to describe in the alt text

so yeah, all in all super badass! definitely faster and more deadly than what i have in mind, but the general idea about the potential movements and range of motion for these dinos is there

(also a side note, in terms of species for dino forms, my half baked idea is that it isn't really based on nation or bending style as it is geographical location. like, those are obviously linked, but the cause is the physical location. so you can find spinosaurus anywhere you find water, even though it is commonly believed to be a water tribe dino. there are swamp spinos, earth spinos, and yeah, even fire spinos. yes, there are conotations and societal consequences to a fire spino, regardless of how accurate those assumptions are. it got worse with the war

the msot common species for each nation are: mid to large raptors for the fire nation, spinos abd cold weather dinos for water tribes, large herbivores for the earth kingdom, and tiny tiny raptors or flight adjacent dinos for the air nomads. maybe also some lil herbivores, and they just dont get to fly in dino form.)

in terms of what the actual element looks like while moving, i imagine that dinos would have a rougher time with anything that has a huge amount of finesse to it. delicate movements or anything super precise might not be worth it to do in dino form, and most attacks would be more explosive than their human alternative. that whole thing katara did where she incased zuko in a ball of ice in the s1 finale? not happening as a spinosaurus. so while a dino form might give a boost in power, it isn't always practical at the time. not to mention it takes energy to transform, and sometimes it's best to save that for the fight itself.

the general feel of the movements is much more flexible and weirdly athletic than any actual dinosaur would ever be. but at the same time, i want to impose this idea that dino bending, while powerful, can be pretty clumsy, and each dino brings it own limitations. large dinos like sokka and katara are automatically slower, and in fights like the ones we see in atla, that really matters. small dinos like aang and toph also have to deal with how lightweight they are. their natural defenses are to run and hide, so they dont get much in terms of physical equipment the way a large carnivore or herbivore would. they're much more reliant on their bending to stay safe than say a big ol ankylosaurus, who's built like a tank.

SO. that's my big infodump agdkhsjf. i have maybe possibly thought a bit too much about this au. thank you for the aaaask!! so sorry if you didn't expect a wall of text x3