#bro i was so excited to do background rendering

[baskeigh-ball]

Bonus Page 2/2

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Mikey’s intuition knows no bounds

And with that I bring part one of Mutant Manhunt to a close! There’ll be more coming, trust me, but probably not a multi-part comic like this one for a while (just to give myself a break, lol). In the meantime I’ve got plenty to share about this AU, so feel free to stick around :]

[leidensygdom]

AI bros from hell

Hello! Do you have a bit of your time for a story on AI bros and clients from hell? I bring a really fun one!

I met this guy at a con I was tabling at over a year ago, before AI was a thing. He said he enjoyed my art, and inquired me about whether I did book illustrations. I said yes- He was specifically interested in my bigger pieces, the fully rendered and detailed ones. He agreed to send me later a DM to discuss specifics.

For two weeks, he kept DMing me on details about his book, what he wanted, etc. He wanted full illustrations for inside the book as well as a cover, all of them fully colored, painted and rendered. He also wanted illustrations in this style to post on social media to promote the book. I had warned him that something like that would be costly, but he insisted that he needed this to be the best of the best.

Now, I was getting bad vibes from the guy. I shit y'all not, his instagram handle was "The next tolkien". I wasn't however gonna refuse a job opportunity. Now, he finally asked for prices: He had reassured me he was willing to pay fairly for this. Since he's a starting author, I gave him my non-commercial quotes, which are much, much, much lower than the standard for book illustrations. I mean "if you search for how much this costs on google, the lower prices are x5 times more expensive than what I offered".

The guy, upon receiving that, just ghosted me. Immediately unfollowed, didn't reply me with a "sorry, I can't afford it" or "sorry, i was expecting to pay $10 for a full rendered full background several-characters-picture". Nothing.

The other day I decided to search what he was up to. He's now released... THREE books for this series. There's a single review in the first one. Not even written, just a stars one. Also, notably, he had a webpage put together promoting the book, and. Yeah.

All the art is AI crap.

Which makes sense. My guy was very on his high horse about how fantastic of a writer he is, but I guess art isn't really to be compensated fairly. When he saw the "art stealing machine you just pay a subscription for", I'm guessing he was very excited.

So, uh, here's some of the marvelous pictures he generated of the characters, which surely tell you about how great the book is. AI is theft, so I don't give a f*** about reposting it.

I have a lot of opinions about creators who write, draw or make music, who are more than happy to use AI for other stuff- Album covers made with AI, writers using AI crap for book illustrations, artists using AI-made music. It feels like you're sh*tting in any other artistic field and showing how little you respect anyone but yourself. Like, I'll be honest, I don't have interest reading a book from someone who considers that other forms of art aren't real or worth any money. It just tells me you're devoid of any interest for art or humanity.

As an ending note, his instagram description is "More closer to god than to human", which does add to the clownery.

[quodekash]

hopefully I can do the rest of the episode in under 30 images but I guess we'll see what happens

anyway, there's nothing wrong with the work sailom is doing, but he's like 17 and that man is 50

on another note: kang is so jealous and its hilarious

me-core

SHE KNOWS

SHE KNOWS

AND I KNOW SHE KNOWS

that felt like "have a biscuit, potter"

HELL TO THE YES

I LOVE HER SO FRIKIN MUCH

I KNEW IT WAS ABOUT STUDYING

but ALSO its about kindness and empathy and human decency

im sorry what.

she hath render me speechless

IN LOVE

LOOK AT THAT BLOODY SMILE

AAAAAAAAAAA ITS THIS SCENE

FJFHJGHFDJGJFDHGJHFDJHGJFDHGJFDHJGH

hEY, I ALSO need to pee! we're twinning!

oh HELL YES

we've been very lacking in the cheesy sponsor segments in this series, im glad they're finally here

and, of all sponsors, it's my love, oishi

im so happy rn this tiny little sponsor segment has made my day

and so has the rest of the episode, I guess

bro, he's hyper focused rn, do not under any circumstances break his focus or I promise you he will not get anything done for a week. let the stress and adrenaline take its course, and then you can make out when it wears off

omg he's gonna blow it up in his face, that's adorable

THEYRE SO ADORABLE I AM NOT OKAY

HPEIRGNDBF

THAT WAS FRIKIN INCREDIBLE AS PER USUAL, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

okay okay okay preview for the next episode lets go lets go

im so hopeful that they're gonna kiss next episode

OMG ITS THIS PART NEXT EP??

THE HOPE FOR THE KISS IS GETTING STRONGERRRR

it'll probably just end up with the music playing and the dramatic close ups of their faces and we'll hear chimon singing in the background and they'll stare at each other for far longer than necessary, and then abruptly push away from each other, awkwardly cough, and pretend it didnt happen. and if they don't abruptly push away, someone will walk into the area and THEN they'll abruptly push away from each other and pretend nothing happened

IM SO EXCITED FOR NEXT WEEK HOLY FRICK

[teal-skull]

for the artist ask: 3, 13, 20 <3

Thank you for the ask <3 <3 <3

3. Your favorite piece(s)?

Funnily enough, I have never posted my favorite drawing, and I finished it in autum 2022. It's a digital painting I worked in for months. The reason is that first I wanted to do an edit where the camera slowly descends along the painting but I can't edit for the life of me, and the second reason is that I do not want the scavenging AI eyes to see my piece. It is highly personal depiction of the pain I was in during the time and that will not be part of some noisy tech bro's fucking dataset. Now that there is Glaze and nightshade, maybe I should look if I an get it glazed and then post it. It would give me enough security to post it. I relaly do want to post it.

The painting is also very long and a little bit surrealistic. It depicts a woman who is drowning slowly and it probably has one of the best backgrounds I have ever made, plus the rendering in it is one of my best work. This is very personal piece for me because it was inspired by a very specific piece of soundtrack I listened while in one id my darkest mental spaces I've been to and got inspired. The sketch was made already in the winter of 2021. It is about my struggle of having so many interests and how it leaves me aimless and no idea what I want to do, no time to truly focus on anything and develop it into an actual skill.

13. Talk about a wip you like!

I'm making Gankutsuou fanart of the count of Monte Cristo and I already posted a whip of this. I'm excited because I get to play with the anime's unique art style and maybe I can avoid doing much rendering. The bit that I am miat excited about is that I'm gonna make his hair merge with the space in the background because he has been in space for so long and it probably changed and twisted him. And uurghhgg he's just gonna stand there being all cool.

I also have so many idea's for Käärijä drawings. I atrted skwtching Ruoska MV!Käärijä as an angel, inspired by stamina's song "Enkeleiden murskain".

20. Is your workspace, digital or not, organized?

Nope. I have different folders for wips and finished drawings, but definitely not organized. Thins are just wherever. That applies to my traditional drawing tools as well.

[unknownarmageddon]

bro info dump, rn, also, what’s ur sketchin process? you got an art process bro? explain

Okay!! So!!! For my sketching process I start with just like. A stick figure. Basically

after I figured out that was something I could do it’s helped me IMMENSELY like it’s insane. It’s really good with helping me map out the scene I want, poses, and proportions and stuff. It’s a great starting point for me ig

and then after I get that down I just. Starting gettin to it I guess. Layin down shit y’know

I use a lot of different colors to help like. Differentiate different parts so it doesn’t just all bleed together when I look at it. Helps get stuff looking less wonky for me ig. Also the way I do sketching is a lot of going back and forth and like shifting around lines and smoothing stuff out via erasing. Generally really intentional and not quick or energetic or whatever. IDK it’s hard to explain

I also do a shit ton of moving bits around and resizing and rotating and all that. That’s like one of my favorite things about doing stuff digital is the fact that you can move stuff around basically effortlessly it’s great. That’s my crutch man

after I get my sketch how I want I usually do the background after, depending on if I’m doing a big background or not. I’ll either do the background between the stick figure phase or the entirety of the sketching phase. Doing the background then helps me from getting tired of the thing I’m working on A LOT like it’s like. A break I guess. Cause I don’t like sketching but I fucking love doing the backgrounds.

and for my backgrounds I have. Absolutely no idea how I do those it’s such a process. I black out when I do them I don’t notice the exact way I do them /silly /j But usually I’ll lay down the base shapes and colors and then do just. So much rendering. Like it’s really just me fucking around with colors and lighting and shading and stuff. That’s also usually when I establish the palette I wanna use for the piece. And I usually do the background in one go.

Then after the background I do lineart, which isn’t that exciting so I don’t got a lotta say about it. Same thing with the base colors, which I do after the lines.

THEN after that’s when it gets fun, which is when I do the rendering. For this it’s just a lot of me fucking around with shading and colors again I do like. Fifty (/j) passes of shading and lighting and just. Colors. I usually start with like a base of cell shading, which I’ll either leave as is or soften the edges with one of my brushes. Depends on the piece. THEN I’ll go in with my airbrush brush and slap on a bunch of the same shading color to like. Add interest I guess. usually I’ll keep my focus where my light source isn’t instead of just doing it all over it IS deliberate. Generally keeps stuff from being as flat as it would be if it was just the cell shading. And I do that for several layers and mess around with opacity and etc

these are kinda some good examples you might be able to see what I mean here

after I get the shading down’s when I fuck around with like. Overlays??? Sorta but not really but I dunno how else to describe it. Basically this is when I start layering on whatever my lighter value is. Usually it’s a bright red or a bright purple. In the spots I didn’t shade as much. This kinda like. Makes stuff more vibrant, cause I find that the shading can make stuff look less saturated in cases. Again idk how to describe it BAHA also that’s just how I like doing my colors 👍

the whole coloring process is hard to explain that’s when I really get Hyper Focused and get into this coloring frenzy so I’m not fully conscious of how I do it /silly

ANYWAY after the colors I’ll usually do the final touches of like, coloring my lines. I’ll airbrush on some bright red and/or purple in spots and then turn the opacity down so it’s not that in your face, but it is there, so my lines aren’t just pure black. Then I’ll lay on some low opacity layers of whatever my shading colors are, like a dark purple, to tie stuff together more. Then I slap on some random noise. Love that shit. And any final final shading rendering stuff and also usually I’ll add a border around the main focus (the character(s), usually) via copying the layer that is that character, putting up a color vector thing or whatever you call it, selecting it with my selector tool, expanding the selection a bit, and then coloring it again. Hard to explain but that’s the gist. And then I’m done!!!

So. Yeah. That’s the Armageddon Art Process I guess :] /silly

[myrandom-fandomlife]

Hello! I'm the anon from the 4 part ask that you answered earlier! I saw your post about the different "eras" of DNF and I would like to share some of my opinions since I've been in the fandom since March of last year, so maybe I can write my own analysis and briefly explain what happened during these times (and hopefully someone will find enjoyment in reading this)!

So the first era was probably the most "baity" period where every interaction between Dream and George with slight romantic undertones was pure bait. From Dream placing romantic music in the background, to the small texts on screen that would read "arguing like a married couple" and even proclaiming his love to George any second he could, it was obvious that it was a means to garner a reaction and moments that could be used in compilations, edits, videos, etc. Dream addressed George just the same as he currently does Sapnap or Bad: Dude, Bro, etc, and when they weren't attempting to bait, for example on streams, things were chill, no tension, just two bros hanging out in minecraft.

LOVE OR HOST ERA. The catalyst in DNF's relationship, in my humble opinion. Now, where do I begin? So, LOH was definitely a time that I believe Dream became aware of his feelings towards George (platonic or romantic, I can't be sure) and his fear of losing him. Before/During George's LOH, we got Dream saying some interesting things, the most notable one "George is the only man I can see myself dating". Now, I'm pretty sure this was meant as bait, but how he reacted prior to LOH, was very telling. Dream would avoid George like the plague in every situation that didn't require them to interact. Twitter? Only one mention (and that was literally him tagging George in Andrea's post in spite). Stream? That I can remember he didn't join much during this time, nor did he stream that often. During MCC, the DT was separated in different teams, Sapnap & George together and Dream alone. Now Sapnap DID pop off. He was doing amazing. And Dream complimented him and his team quite a lot. But what about George? I believe he mentioned him ONCE. This was the first time we see Dream jealous in regards to George, and the lack of content and interactions between these two made many believe DNF was dead and abandon the ship all together.

QUACKITY AND KARL. Now there is a lot that happened in between LOH Arc and the friendship between the DT with Karl and Quackity. Dream and George seemed to have solved whatever occured between them, and things were tranquil. We got a few baity moments here and there, but we also started to get the start of the infamous "name-truthing", the soft voices and other subtle moments. Now, during this time George, Dream and Sapnap started developing their friendship with Quackity and Karl, George in particular started getting closer with them and spending LOTS of time with them, so much so that we got more G/K/Q content than we did DT content. And we get Jealous Dream 2.0., only difference from the other occurence of jealously? He addressed it publicly, admitted that he was frustrated and physically affected by the lack of attention from the british man. He confronted George while he was streaming, with an audience of 50k+ viewers. He was desperate.

Things were pretty calm after that, the more intimate and subtle moments between the two became more and more apparent and began to outweight the baity moments. Quackity/George/Karl continued to blossom their friendship, and DNF was slowly becoming a topic to tease George and Dream (I can only compare their teasing to that of middle schoolers when their friends had a crush). We can compare this teasing to that of Skephalo, the difference, while one is leaning on the more explicit side and used to make others laugh or get an over the top reaction, the other was used as an inside joke of sorts, only brought up to embarass or shut up Dream/George when they got over-confident (most times it would effectively leave them quiet, important to note, is that they never denied the claims nor attempted to).

TRAINS PODCAST. Oh boy, was this a night to remember. A historical mark for DNF. The point in history that George decided to become BOLD and actively flirt with Dream whenever he wanted to, rendering or poor Leo speechless most of the time. That podcast changed these men, it unlocked something within them and things have never been the same since. This is where we see the dynamic take a major switch, and baity moments had become almost non-existent, and instead we got probably some of the most tension filled convos between these himbos. Name-truthing had become something natural between them, the unavoidable excitement whenever they hear one another in call, suddenly ever call became a matter of how long until they were third-wheeling everyone. It's also during this time that we clearly see a difference in between Dream & Sapnap's relationship and Dream & George's relationship (not that one outweighed the other, but the nature of these relationships were very much opposing)

And finally we are in our current stance. Where the sweet, obnoxious moments continue to pile; More and more of their friends are calling them out (you can literally see Quackity and Karl becoming more direct and, quite honestly, aggressive with their call-outs. I bet they are just as tired as we are); The whole hoodie fiasco and the secretive pictures; Syncing sleep schedules once again; Tension continue to grow and you can see them testing the waters, in a game of tug of war until one of them caves in and starts the conversation.

As I said before, they have nothing to gain from the bait they are currently doing. They excuse it as being a joke, and hide behind this lie, as a means to test the development and seriousness of whatever they have going on. The whole Valentine's thing proves that they (unfortunately) do not understand when the other is being sincere or baity...

Also here is some food for thought. George has been very clingy with Dream ever since he and Sapnap moved in together. Not being able to see each other is certainly another factor that is affecting them.

I'm anxious to figure out what in the hell is happening next between our oblivious idiots with communication issues. It sometimes seems surreal the things that occur between them, and straight out of a fanfic.

Anyway, sorry for the long rant and if this wasn't very interesting to read! Just wanted to get some thoughts out of my head!! Stay safe and hope you have a good day/afternoon/night! ❤

Hi love! Glad to have you back <3

Firstly, don’t ever be sorry for ranting in my inbox, especially ab dnf. I love to see it!

Thank you for this, especially the early parts when I wasn’t in the fandom yet. Ahh this is super helpful.

I agree that George has gotten more clingy since Sapnap and Dream moved in together which is so funny because Dream and George have a more similar sleep schedule than Sapnap and Dream do LMAO

But yes all of this ugh I’m deeming you my genius anon

[ichika27]

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun s2 ep16

Guys! Have you already seen the TV size music video for season 2′s OP? avex had just released a music video for “No! No! Satisfaction!” and it has the group DA PUMP in chibi form doing the full dance from the OP and Iruma is also with them! It’s super cute!!

Anyways, the latest episodes got a bunch of stuff happening, huh?

Walter Park is still in chaos due to the monster rampage. Iruma decides he's not gonna sit back and do nothing like everyone else and went to try and save the crying child from earlier. To the amazement of everyone watching, Iruma dodged every large piece of debris that was falling his way all the while carrying a child.

He’s shown this ability way back in season 1 but he’s using it here in this very dire situation all with a child in his arms and both of them are okay. It’s really cool.

When they finally got to a safe space close by, Iruma tells the child to evacuate with everyone else. He then tells his friends that he really had fun the entire day and is very upset at what's happening now. He declares that he would fight back and do something about it. He says goodbye and would do it on his own.

I like the looks of determination on his face. When he was about to leave you can tell he’s nervous but he never voiced it out and still walked on.

Upon hearing his words, the rest of Team Baram decides they would help, too! Azz of course isn’t gonna just leave his Iruma-sama and he’s also upset that he didn’t realize that Iruma is upset. Sabnock on the other hand isn’t just gonna stand there and do nothing when his rival has a plan and he also thinks it’s a good idea. Agares wants to help stop whatever is causing the problem so he could nap peacefully. Sensei of course isn’t gonna leave the kids on their own.

On the other hand, Ronove is dragged with them unwillingly.

Meanwhile, Team Opera is also facing the beast in their area. Opera tells the others to evacuate and says it's his job to protect those dear to Iruma which impressed the kids in their care cause Opera is “a reliable adult”. Opera then battles the monster alone after everyone agreed to leave.

Ameri makes a return in the middle of the fight and tells Opera that she also has a duty to fight as she's the student council president. Opera happily agrees to tag team with her. The two pose back-to-back and were gonna kick ass and be awesome!

Just when they think they have a shot, they see Clara hanging on one of the beast's tail.

Team Kalego is still trying to fight on their end. Camui is commanding a flock of demonic birds nearby to attack the beast as distraction. The others ride a different bird and swoops in close with Lied stealing the beast's hearing.

It is revealed that their current actions are part of Jazz's latest plan. While the beast is freaking out, the boys attack with Goemon defending them. Jazz then uses the opportunity to get to the beast himself.

He uses the Ear-Wrecking Whistle he has which has the power to unleash a powerful soundwave that was given to him by his brother. Lied returns the beast's sense of hearing and Jazz blows on the whistle making the beast pass out.

Side note that it is explained that Jazz’s brother gave him that whistle and said Jazz could use it if he ever gets caught while pickpocketing so he could distract pursuers as he runs away. It’s might be helpful but the brother also mentioned that if Jazz uses it, it means he wasn’t good enough and it’s why he needed it in the first place. Added in the Interval that they made a little bet with Jazz claiming he’d never use the whistle. He is upset when he remembers but I think his reasoning to use it as an offensive weapon instead of a defensive one is pretty cool.

The boys rejoice in their victory with them praising Jazz on his successful plan. Jazz tells them that it wasn't just him but all of them who did really well.

While initially, they only picked Jazz as their leader due to his rank and also cause they don’t want to be on the frontlines, in the end they did respect him. Lied mentioned earlier that they didn’t really think they’d have a chance but hearing Jazz’s plan gave him hope cause it’s just really convincing. They also quickly congratulate and praise him for his plans and it took Jazz himself telling them that they contributed a lot to their victory for them to start praising themselves.

Jazz is pretty humble that he didn’t take all the credit himself even if it was being given to him. Plus it’s very big bro of him when he encouraged and praised them and looked very happy to see them happy about themselves.

Sadly, the win was another temporary one as the beast regain consciousness while they were off-guard. Kalego-sensei quickly went to their defense. As he uses his power to stop the attack aiming for the students, Kalego-sensei tells them they suck at defending and grades them all on their performance. He also mentions that even if they're kind of low, those are passing grades. Sensei then uses Cerberion to defeat the beast.

Kalego-sensei might not be the bestest of all the teachers but he’s not that bad. He let the kids handle things on their own to teach them but he would defend them if the situation is really bad. He actually graded them on their performance and told them what they did wrong and he even gave them passing scores. They all have varying grades depending on what they did which meant he was watching them closely, too.

The group is impressed by Kalego-sensei who then proceeds to place a chair to sit on on the unconscious beast itself. He then tells them that he found that particular event fun and had them take this group photo.

I found this hilarious in a way. He wasn’t having fun at all earlier but did when they had to fight which wasn’t surprising but what he does afterwards is. Who knew sensei likes showing off like this?

At the emergency shelter, Elizabetta and Kerori finds some kids crying which Elizabetta helps to calm down. Upon Kerori sensing everyone else's distress, she decides to change into her demi-dol persona, Kuromu, to try and calm them as well as she says it's her job as an idol to make people happy. She then performs for a cheering crowd.

Kerori is both proud of her work and herself while she also really cares about other people. I like that they showed this side of her character here.

Back at the battle, Ameri uses her bloodline ability: Romanticist. It's the ability to bring out her maximum power once she convinces herself that she's strong. She brings down the beast with it. Opera notes that it is a self-hypnotism magic that relies on the strong will of the user. Kuromu's song plays as very fitting background music while Ameri continues to fight. In the middle of battle, Ameri herself starts singing the song as well as a self-motivator!

It’s awesome how Kuromu’s song suits Ameri. I also found it cool how Ameri starts singing and later on, the two are having a “duet” while in different places. It was fun to watch!

Ameri successfully renders the creature unconscious. Opera is very impressed at this and praises Ameri. Opera then asks if she wants to work for Sullivan after she graduates. Ameri declines as she has already decided that she'd work with her father... at least until realization hit her that if she works for Sullivan, she'd be living under the same roof as Iruma. She then tells Opera that she'll think about the offer cause she might change her mind.

Opera isn’t a teacher but I like what they told Ameri. Ameri says she isn’t that strong yet but Opera tells her that she’s young and not being perfect meant she still has room to grow.

Also, Ameri’s imagination runs wild when she realized that she’d be living with Iruma if she works for them. She’d have to cook for Iruma and it’d be like marriage! So cute!

They also talk to Clara asking why she even came back and the girl answers she wanted to give a weapon if need be. Opera then asks her for a "secret weapon". I wonder what it is and what for? Hmm...

Back to Team Baram, Iruma and Agares have successfully located the trapped kids and are about to help them get out of the rubble. On the other hand, Azz and Sabnock are preparing for battle.

--

A lot of stuff happened in one episode and by that I meant that even certain scenes have little things in them that is worth mentioning. It’s nice how even with all of these content the episode doesn’t feel rushed or cramped.

Iruma and the gang has to deal with the beast on their end next week since the other two groups have already won their battle. After that, it’d be the threat of the Six Fingers. I’m excited for that and also the main trio seeing Kiriwo-senpai again!

Again, I like how the second season showcases all of the other characters. They have a big cast to work with and it’s nice to see bits and pieces of their abilities and personalities being given the limelight.

Thanks for reading this far!

[buckybarnesss]

okay okay i can’t stop thinking about  this post. you know, where jon finds out arya’s pregnant and married to gendry (now lord baratheon) and prompty looses what little shit he had. 

because, like, okay so if in the aftermath of king’s landing arya does discover she’s pregnant and decides against leaving westeros. i’m sure she goes through wild emotions at first because she didn’t plan beyond killing cersei and a child is a defintely something she didn’t plan for but here it is. her and gendry work their shit out by using their words. sansa’s like ‘u got pregnant after one time? what in the fresh hell arya!” but sansa’s not old fashioned, knows her sister and when she gets the whole story of arya and gendry her terribly romantic heart is just vomtiing heart eyes everywhere (and the boon of a stark-baratheon alliance gives her a poltiical boner, but hey, wins for everyone!)

meanwhile, jon’s just like going through some shit and he’s off doing jon snow things. like brooding on a sceneic vista while tormond rolls his eyes in the background and giving ghost all the pets and scratches in the world. eventually he gets word from sansa as she’s taken upon herself to keep her idiot brother-cousin updated on the world and their family. (sansa stark will not accept her pack scattering to the winds, that’s factual. she is the largest stark therefore has longer arms which are better for head slaps to induce sense). and jon doesn’t even read the whole thing and makes several leaps in logic at the words arya being pregnant and now married and like 5 seconds later he’s on a horse and tormond’s like ‘there goes the poor fucker. he’s gonna end up in dorne’

and at storm’s end, arya’s taking a goddamn nap (growing humans is hard work) and kind of discovering life after war. she’s happy though and excited. gendry’s learning lordcraft and da(d)vos is there because why not? he’s the Ultimate Dad and he loves gendry and arya. they’re the cool hip nobility (mostly because they both don’t know shit about nobility as they both came of age as fucking outlaws and assasins. stab something? sure. diplomacy? lol what). and jon shows up at the gates where the guards are just “bro, we can’t let you in. do you have the password?”  to which jon doesn’t have the password so he gets agitated and yelly about how his sister is there and he needs to get to her. finally arya and gendry show up because they’ve been told a derranged, homeless man is at their gates only to discover it’s jon snow and arya’s just ‘jon snow? never heard of her” because wow embarrassing jon. 

than he sees arya who is by this point more pregnant belly than human. (she has indeed waxed poetical about being a giant walking belly) and he’s rendered speechless because he cannot reconsile his idea of arya the little sister, or arya the woman who killed the night king with this arya whose heavily pregnant with her hair down in a lord’s castle. maybe jon tries to hit gendry or gives him a bloody nose but nothing too drastic because next thing he knows arya’s pulling needle (a girl doesn’t leave home without it) and is like ‘jon, slow ur roll. i like his face how it is. i will make you cry a little’ and she just drags him inside by his ear giving him whatfor because ‘how dare you think i can’t take care of myself and i’ve known gendry since i was 12 you goddamn fool! i don’t need to tell you who i’m having sex with ohmygod jon what the fuck’

and that’s how jon snow realizes he still knows nothing and has to deal with his baby sister, his favorite person married a man and is having a baby.

[memaha19]

Things I Want(ed) From KH3 That Re:Mind is Probably Not Going to Fix

 AKA, a brief interlude from Frozen 2 posting because Kingdom Hearts was on my mind this morning.

AKA, I’m excited for Re:Mind but still...

AKA, KH3 disappointed me and I’m still salty about it almost a year later.

AKA,  there are many “my problems with KH3″ posts/discussions floating out there on the internet and many are probably worded better than mine but, as I said, the game was on my mind this morning.

Just...the worlds. The Disney worlds in KH3 bothered me. There were so few of them but they were so so LONG. Some of them were painfully long. Toy Box felt like the longest experience of my life. Every time I thought that level was coming to an end, BAM, another trek to another area. And Arendelle...though I love Frozen, there’s only so many times I can trek up the mountain only to get thrown off and have to climb back up again. There were so few worlds, only seven, I believe, (because we’re not counting Twilight Town or the 100 Acre Woods, more on those later), that I think they could’ve given us a few more worlds and made the levels a little...shorter? A little more detailed and charming? The levels were huge but empty and devoid of the character that previous Disney worlds had in other games. The previous main games had about 10 or 11 worlds, not including the throwaways (like Atlantica in KH2) or the final worlds (TWTNW and End of the World), so there could’ve been some more! Birth By Sleep had numerous shorter worlds and I vastly prefer that to slogging through the same world for hours. Even the way that KH2 had us revisit each world would’ve been nice.  What’s more, they could’ve taken some of the massive time and space devoted to the empty, excruciatingly long Disney worlds and given us more time in Twilight Town or the Keyblade Graveyard, or put a playable Radiant Garden in the game. Those non-Disney worlds always served as nice interludes in the other games and it’s sorely lacking in this one. (And yes, I have heard that Re:Mind is going to let Scala be a playable world, so I’m excited for that!)

Related, I also wanted some worlds from older Disney films. I know the other games have had worlds from older films, but almost all of KH3′s worlds were so jarringly...current. I would’ve liked to see some of the older Disney film worlds rendered in the beautiful graphics of KH3, but, instead, the oldest film represented was Hercules (1997). Three of the worlds (maybe four, actually, with the Pirates world) were from movies from this decade (Corona, Arendelle, and San Fransokyo).

Related, they did the 100 Acre Woods so dirty. It was disappointing and short. It used to be a fun little interlude between the big worlds in previous games, a time to chill and play a mini-game and not have to fight a big boss fight. This was like “hello, here’s one mini game, goodbye.”

Related: all that Twilight Town exploration we got in the other games and this one gives us the forest and the town square area and that’s it?! We can’t even go to the clock tower or inside the mansion? When we first got to Twilight Town I was like “wow this is gorgeous!” and then quickly disappointed when I realized we couldn’t go anywhere.

Related, I’ve seen others say this and I agree: the Disney worlds seem like they’re just there, oftentimes, to get in your way. They feel like obstacles to the actual plot because they didn’t bother to place much/any relevance to the plot into any of the Disney worlds. Sometimes we get little snippets of the big story, like Marluxia and Larxene hanging around in Corona and Arendelle just to say cryptic things without ever being a real threat (that in itself is weird too, I spent ALL of the Corona level bracing myself for a fight with Marluxia only to fight...Mother Gothel’s heartless?) but it feels like two different games: The KH that wants to still be about Disney worlds and the KH that has gotten so deep in its own world building that it doesn’t have time for anything else.

Related, again: KH3 has an abundance of Disney worlds where Sora being there doesn’t make any difference to the plot. The most fun Disney worlds have always been the ones that have an original story that we’re actually involved in. Corona is just the plot of Tangled with Sora and co. tagging along. Their presence or lack thereof make no difference to the story. Arendelle is the same way.

The boss battles in the worlds were...lame. I understand that it maybe doesn’t make sense to fight someone like Mother Gothel, who never shows any physical fighting power in Tangled, but we can’t fight Zurg? We’re in a literal toy store and we can’t fight Zurg as the boss? We have to fight a weird doll and 800 robots? We have to fight Hans’ heartless? Not Hans? We fight Mother Gothel’s heartless? Not Marluxia, who’s been harassing us all level long? I understand that they held the KH characters back because of the whole “assembling 13 pieces of darkness for a big final battle” thing, but we had to fight Xemnas like ten times in previous games, they could let us fight Marluxia twice.  I feel like the other games were a lot better at having us face a combo of heartless/nobodies/unversed AND Disney bosses. But, as the game has really zero interest in making the Disney worlds a part of the plot, they throw these cheap (and endless) unversed/heartless bosses at us and they’re all so EASY. They could have, and probably should have, let us fight the Organization at the end of each world and then let us fight them again in the Keyblade Graveyard, similar to the way Chain of Memories had us fight each Organization member a couple times.   

When you finally do get through the Disney worlds, the ending is like “here’s all these characters that have been missing from the rest of the game” and the Keyblade Graveyard flings boss battle after boss battle at your face without much rhyme or reason. And while some of them are fun, some of them feel like “let’s just pair these characters together and make you fight them at the same time so we can save some time because we didn’t bother to put any of these fights into an earlier part of the game”. I’m looking at the Luxord/Marluxia/Larxene fight in particular. I would’ve understood pairing the last two together, but then Luxord is also there like they didn’t have any other place to put him.

This game is too easy. I’m not great at video games. I’m good-ish. I’m into stories more than anything so I hate when a game’s difficulty keeps me from completing it and keeps me from seeing more of the story. But I still like a little challenge. I have not-so-fond memories of yelling at the TV as I died time and time again fighting Ansem/Riku at Hollow Bastion in KH1, but I also have fond memories of finally beating him and what a rush it was! I didn’t get any of that in KH3. I’m not sure I died more than once or twice, if that.

The way they just let the Organization members hang out in the worlds and do nothing has always seemed weird to me. They’re big parts of the overall plot but now they just stand around and verbally harass Sora? As I said above, I spent all of Corona thinking I was going to have to face Marluxia at the end. Instead, they stand around in the worlds and then they stand around in the Keyblade Graveyard in the cutscenes and just talk. Also, okay, maybe I get the reasoning behind why Luxord was in the pirates world and why Vanitas was in Monstropolis, but Marluxia seemed like he was shoehorned into Corona solely because of the connection between the magic flower and his powers, which was stupid. And Larxene had zero connection to anything going on in Arendelle.

All the characters we’ve been waiting for (Ventus, Aqua, etc.) don’t appear until the very very end, which is a problem with the story pacing. They tease us, very early, with Riku and Mickey trying to find Aqua and then immediately drop that plot point to give us some empty Disney worlds. (Side note: this 100% tricked me into thinking we’d be switching back and forth between what Sora was up to and what Riku was up to and I was sorely disappointed as I played and realized it wasn’t true.) They dither in this “Sora needs the power of waking” to avoid giving us Ventus until the very end.

Just...the story pacing in general, which kind of ties into everything else.  This game has a beginning, because it had to, and something they wanted to end with but they weren’t really sure how to fill the space in the middle. You spend most of the game just chilling in the Disney worlds with very low stakes. This big battle waiting at the end is always there in the background but, partially because the Disney worlds feel like distractions that don’t add to the story, the middle of the game never really feels like it’s building toward the ending, or anything. And then, when you do get through the Disney worlds, about 75% of the plot is thrown at you in the last hour or two of the game. It reminds me (a lot of this game reminds me, actually) of FFXV. I love FFXV dearly, I’ve poured A TON of hours into gathering ingredients and taking photos and doing side quests, but it has the same plot issue. The majority of FFXV is a light-hearted journey about four bros on a roadtrip, only for everything to take a VERY dramatic tonal shift about 3/4 of the way through the game and then stay very very SAD for the rest of the game. KH3 does something similar, with the way we spend most of the game traveling through Disney worlds and cooking food with Remy, only for the game to suddenly remember at the 11th hour that it’s supposed to be wrapping up this big 10+ year long story and thrust you into battle after battle and plot-heavy cutscene after plot-heavy cutscene.

To the pacing point: yes, I’m aware these games have always had slightly funny/back-loaded pacing. However, a main thing the other games had that KH3 lacks is that Radiant Garden/Twilight Town/Traverse Town interlude world that helps push the plot along. Without that in KH3, we get a ton of long Disney worlds where we’re like “when is the story going to happen?” and then the Keyblade Graveyard where suddenly ALL of the story is happening. Previous games have let us experience the Disney worlds for awhile before bringing us to an interlude world which furthers the plot, a la the big Radiant Garden section in KH2 that happens midway through the game.

Anyway, I think Kingdom Hearts 3 was a gorgeous game, graphics-wise, and I’ll still be shelling out money for Re:Mind come January, but after waiting for 14 years for a continuation of the main story line, this game just feels like, after everything, Nomura still wasn’t sure how to end it? It feels rushed and underwhelming and incomplete as hell. 

TL;DR: I have all these thoughts about KH3 that I’ve waited 11 months to express.

[aion-rsa]

Peacemaker Features James Gunn’s Favorite Soundtrack Since Guardians of the Galaxy

https://ift.tt/39vFFNg

The most important aspect of director James Gunn’s films, aside from gratuitous violence, family drama, and adorable space-critters, is a truly bangin’ soundtrack. 

Gunn’s ear for the perfect diegetic pop hit extends all back to his mainstream debut in 2006’s Slither, but reached creative heights in his first Marvel Studios effort: 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The soundtrack, dubbed Peter Quill’s “Awesome Mix Vol. 1” featured eclectic sounds from the ‘60s and ‘70s like Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling” and Five Stairsteps’ “O-o-h Child.” Gunn followed that soundtrack up with “Awesome Mix Vol. 2” in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and another solid set of tunes for his first DC film The Suicide Squad.

With that in mind, music was always going to be a major factor in Peacemaker, the writer-director’s upcoming The Suicide Squad spinoff for HBO Max. Just how big, however, surprised maybe even Gunn, who wrote all of the series’ eight episodes and directed five.

“This was a soundtrack I was probably the most excited to create since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1,” Gunn told TV critics during the show’s appearance at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. 

“It’s a lot of ‘80s hair metal but it’s also a lot of ‘sleaze rock’ and hair metal that comes out of Europe. It was fun finding the really good stuff to inject the series with its flavor, which we kept throughout the whole first season.”

Read more

Movies

The Suicide Squad: Who is John Cena’s Peacemaker?

By Jim Dandeneau

Peacemaker stars John Cena’s titular character from The Suicide Squad, an obscure DC Comics assassin obsessed with keeping the peace through whatever violent means necessary. As befitting a hero (or villain?) with such a grandiose identity, the show’s soundtrack is almost exclusively all screeching, hyper masculine Whitesnake-style glam bombast. (It also features a musical opening credits sequence that is pure schlocky TV nirvana.)

During the panel, Gunn recounted the circumstances that led to Peacemaker in the first place. When Warner Bros. exec Peter Safran and DC’s Walter Hamada approached Gunn to ask which The Suicide Squad character he would most like to build a spinoff around, there was only one who came to mind. 

“I just found something really interesting about Peacemaker, both because I loved working with John Cena and I thought that he had a lot of acting gifts and comedy gifts that we weren’t able to fully utilize in the movie,” Gunn said. “I thought he was just a really cool, interesting character that could be pertinent to today’s world, in terms of his sort of backwards way of looking at things.”

Cena’s Christopher Smith a.k.a. Peacemaker does indeed have a backwards way of looking at things. From an impoverished background with a father (played by Robert Patrick) who quite frankly does not love or even like his son, Chris doesn’t pick up on social graces well. Nor is he what one would call particularly politically correct.

“His blind spots, in some places, are pretty terrible. And then, in some place, it’s just him being ignorant. Peacemaker is almost every guy that I grew up with in Missouri,” Gunn said.

Gunn went on to add that it’s Peacemaker’s blind spots that make him worth exploring in the first place. 

“At the end of The Suicide Squad, Bloodsport (Idris Elba) learns a lot. He’s a better person than he was at the beginning. Peacemaker still has a lot to learn, and it wouldn’t take just one season of TV for him to learn that. But it is that ability to learn that he does have, I believe, as a character.”

If it won’t take solely one season of Peacemaker for its titular character to become a better person, then how many exactly is Gunn eyeing? 

“I definitely have 87 seasons planned out,” Gunn said.

He also mentioned that he’d be up for doing a Sebastian the rat animated series, so get right on that, HBO Max.  

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Peacemaker is set to premiere in January 2022 on HBO Max.

The post Peacemaker Features James Gunn’s Favorite Soundtrack Since Guardians of the Galaxy appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3EFBP2B

[randoreviews]

REPUBLICAN RALLY

     In the dome stood lots of people who look like they wore turtleneck sweaters in the colder months. They were waiting for their hero, an orange meringue of a man. The atmosphere crackled with excitement and anticipation. On the jumbotron above the stage was a closeup of a waving American flag, hypnotic as the undulating sea. Someone was playing “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” on their phone.       Then the screen became the image of the man slowly making his way to the stage on one of those automated chairs that old people have in their homes to go up and down stairs. This image was then overlapped with the America flag, as the President continued his steady ascension to the stage. The crowd started going haywire. The whole place was like a Boggle game that had been pushed down and all the pieces popped back up. A woman was seen doing the human caterpillar in one of the aisles, unable to contain her excitement.      The President, being delivered directly to the podium, put his phone which he had been looking at back in his pocket and stood up in front of the mic. He leaned towards it and said, “Good.” People jumped up and down with their arms around each other. The woman who had been doing the caterpillar was now doing a handstand.      “White Americans... Americans,” he began. He stopped, took his phone back out of his pocket, scrolled through his own Twitter timeline, and then put it back in his pocket. “It’s a tremendous, tremendous honor to be back in New Hampshire. TREMENDOUS,” he spoke right into the microphone. Most of the crowd was doing Tae Bo-type exercises to try to work out the sheer thrill of the moment for them. “Where’s Chris Sununu?” He found him in the crowd. He pointed to him and gave him a thumbs up four times in a row. The man named Sununu was wearing a turtleneck sweater with the American flag on it, his arms folded and doing the pointing finger/thumbs up back to the President. “Three years ago I lost this beautiful, beautiful state to,” and he pretended to stick his finger down his throat, “Shmillary Clinton.” Her image came on the screen and the crowd reacted to her like vampires seeing daylight. There were moans and groans and screams as if they were in a plane that was going down. “Eeemuuuuurs,” one man in Wrangler jeans shouted with his fist up. “Check her EMEWS!” He frowned and stared in front of him, lost in thought and shaking, and then shouted, “EMUWS!” again.      The President was hunched over the podium with both elbows on it checking his phone again and then laid it facing down. “But next year, I’m gonna grab this beautiful state by the pussy. AND I’M NOT GONNA LET GO.” The crowd lapsed back into a seeming drunken revelry. The woman who had been doing the caterpillar/handstand was still standing in the aisle and she did a jaunty Saturday Night Fever diagonal disco point, her hips popping side to side. Then she started doing the Roger Rabbit. She was wearing a fanny pack and slapping people high five as she made her way up and down the aisle. The President gave a smirk, apropos of his last comment.       “Where’s Rudy Tufuni? There he is.” And the President did the point/thumbs up several times more. “The Democrats are pinko communists,” he enunciated. “And limp dicks. And losers. All of them suck balls very badly.” Everyone in the crowd slapped high fives and tens. The lady with the fanny pack was crowd surfing. Another woman in the stands behind the President was holding a “Women for...” sign and appeared like she might have been suffering through a nervous breakdown for the last forty years, stemming back to her relationship with her father when she was six years old. Continuing his enunciating, “They all wish they were me. Have you seen how many followers they have on Twitter?” Huge smirk and eye roll. “Big mistake. They also want to make college freeee.” Everyone looked around like they didn’t know the meaning of the C word he had used. “Cewrege,” the man in the Wrangler jeans thought to himself, frowning. Sensing he had lost them a little bit, the President quickly said, “They want to take your jobs and your guns.” Everyone panicked again. Wrangler jeans stood frozen in place with his eyes wide and a huge frown. “But we will fuck them in the ass if they try to do that. AND GRAB THEIR BALLS. Especially Nancy Pelosi.” Everyone delighted again. A “Guns” chant started and grew louder and louder. The section of frat boys to the right of the stage in pink polos funneling beers used their one free hand not using the funnel to motion along with the chant. “Guns... guns... guns.” Someone let off a clip and in an instant 27 shots were imprinted on the top of the dome. “Yaaaaah!” the crowd screamed. “Yeehaaaaw!” The President gave a thumbs up while checking his Postmates order of McDonald’s then put his phone down again.       “After twenty kindergartners were gunned down in their classroom by a lunatic, Barack Obama wanted to implement very bad, badly background checks for your precious, precious machine guns that we all love so much.” A picture of Osama Bin Laden was shown on the screen, which was overlapped with a picture of Obama. “Kill the blackie!” someone shouted. Wrangler jeans was still frozen, hands in pockets, his frown and stare ratcheted to another level. “As if the lives of kindergartners are more important than your machine guns.” “Raaaaa! Yaaaaa!” “The only solution, which I have proposed: put everyone on happy drugs so no one’s a lunatic and we can all own machine guns, to hunt muskrats and protect ourselves from Mexican immigrants.” A cartoon rendering of a Mexican wearing a sombrero with a knife between his teeth climbing over the wall was shown on the screen. “But I love Mexican-Americans who have jobs and who have lived in the country for a minimum of one hundred years. I had a burrito bowl last night.” The “Guns” chant was starting back up again and someone shot a bazooka at the ceiling, the explosion dazzling everyone.       “The economy is going great titties. HUGELY. All national parks are being turned into amusement parks, to create jobs for ticket takers and french fry people. All drinkable water sources are being poisoned by industrial chemicals, so everyone can drink Coke while they clean their machine guns and check their tremendous fantasy football scores. I was given the very, very abridged version of the new Margaret Atwood book, the sequel to A Handmaid’s Tale, by Mike Pence and we will be implementing that and owning all female reproductive organs in the very, very near future.” The crowd again looked around confused by the words “Margaret Atwood” and “book.” “WE WILL BE OWNING ALL PUSSIES SOON.” The crowd roared and the woman in the stands behind the President didn’t move the “Women for...” sign up at all, thinking about something her dad had said or not said to her when she was seven and a half. “I want to give a strong strongly strong vote of confidence to my great, great friend in Israel, Bibi Netayayyay. And to all the Jewish people who live in New Hampshire.” A bleak silence resounded through the dome. “And guns,” the President recovered. “And murdering kindergartners.” The crowd exploded. A plate was thrown in the air and shot. The woman with the fanny pack rode down the aisle on a horse, stopped to do a funnel with the frat guys, one of the guys saying “Taco Tuesday, bros,” then she continued riding, standing on the horse and doing tricks with a lasso. People passed around chewing tobacco and Coors Light. The President, feeling tired all of a sudden, and bored and hungry, sat back down in the automated chair and slowly receded away from the stage while looking at his phone. 

[doppeldonger]

Burn The Stars

The multitude of stars pulse across the midnight sky gracefully, but the light pollution birthed by one of the most populous cities on Eden-6 makes them hard to detect by mere eyes. Not unlike the stars, elegant tall buildings pulsate with the night life full of bright lights and loud cars; the city is up and alight with energy and excitement.

Two figures fidget in their chairs where they lounge lazily on top of one of the hundred-floor apartments to the east of the city, sharing the general mood. Rhys and Vaughn have less than a day ahead of themselves to get shipped to Elpis, the only moon of the planet Pandora that’s pretty much across the galaxy; they are amongst the select few who got accepted to one of Hyperion’s top universities, a great (and rare) honor and opportunity to attain.

The first spark occurs at this particular moment where midnight melts into the early hours of the morning. Rhys looks at Vaughn, his brown eyes sparkling with anxiety and hope simultaneously; the shorter boy returns the gaze just as fervently, hiding his emotions behind a brave grin.

They sure are nervous and afraid. This will be the first time they’ll leave their planet, let alone travel across the galaxy, leaving their families and friends behind for at least four solid years. But then again, they both worked hard to achieve this; they’ll learn and improve, getting closer and closer to their dream of working for Hyperion one day.

And they will do that together.

With a blush dusting his pale cheeks, Rhys reaches a hand out to Vaughn, fixing the strands of hair falling onto his face with his other hand so that he can buy enough time and be brave enough to look into Vaughn’s eyes.

Vaughn always thought Rhys has the dorkiest smile around, but he’s not the one to judge, as he smiles back just as silly. He huffs as he tries to catch his friend’s eyes, his fingers brush Rhys’s gently before the digits intertwine.

The city provides white noise in the background, the chilly, humid night air ruffles their hair; the stars shine just as bright, Eden-6’s two moons move across the sky without a care in the world, a burst of orange and a splash of peony blooming in the dark.

They have each other, and a bright future ahead. Their hearts swell with love and hope.

It’s almost ten years later that the same cocktail of emotions catches them off guard, blanketed by yet another starry night. Naturally, they have changed throughout the decade- they’re Hyperion now, like they’ve always dreamed to become, with fancy clothes and classy haircuts. Unlike what they planned all those years ago, however, they’re not in one of the grand plazas sipping whatever fancy drink they want. No. They’re pretty much running away from Hyperion after that failed vault key deal that cost them ten million dollars (and eventually, their heads).

Immaculate clothes ripped, fancy shoes covered with dirt and hair disheveled, Vaughn and Rhys pace through the desert, keeping the caravan and their weird ‘teammates’ within their sight while gossiping amongst themselves.

“Look at all those stars!” Rhys points at the sky, his mismatched eyes filled with awe. Vaughn finds himself marveling at Rhys’s dorky smile like he did when they were teenagers instead of the sky. “I guess the only pro of being in the middle of nowhere is the lack of light pollution, I mean, look at how bright they are!” Listening to the cyborg’s excited chatter, the accountant barely stops himself from making a cheesy comment like “None of them are as bright as your smile, bro.” He knows Rhys would love that and let out that silly giggle-snort of his, reserved just for Vaughn’s ears; but he simply doesn’t want to interrupt the taller man, he loves his voice and he loves listening to Rhys after all.

The cold, dry night winds chill them to their bones, so they end up huddling close to seek warmth and intimacy in each other. They end up walking hand in hand, watching the blinking stars, admiring the purple hue of Elpis and the ever-watchful eye of Helios. Winds take handfuls of sand and hurl them at the two man occasionally, and Vaughn ends up with a mouthful of sand because he happened to laugh at one of Rhys’s jokes at the wrong time. Rhys rubs his back and murmurs soothing words into his ear as he coughs up the unwelcome material, and finally takes a breath to calm himself. He lets out an unhappy whine as Rhys gently cleans his face from any lingering particles of sand with gentle hands, “You think we’ll get out of… whatever this is alive?” he asks, looking up at his friend’s eyes. Rhys’s eyebrows furrow as he considers the question, and Vaughn thinks there is nothing more adorable than that little pout gracing the company man’s full lips. Rhys smiles a moment later, and Vaughn is so lost in those pretty eyes that he doesn’t notice the arms sneaking around his waist for a moment. He gasps, but it’s too late and he’s rendered unable to move thanks to Rhys’s noodle arms pulling him close.

Not that he complains.

As Rhys buries his nose in Vaughn’s neck, they’re already blushing hard. The shorter man wraps his arms around the other’s neck and they stand there, as quiet as the night itself.

“We have each other, bro, of course we’ll pull this off.” Rhys mutters into Vaughn’s neck, his warm breath making the accountant shudder involuntarily. He hugs the cyborg close and sighs.

Even on a foreign planet, practically stranded on a huge desert, they still have hope; because they have each other. There’s that spark again, both Rhys and Vaughn can feel it deep in their palpitating hearts. It must be love.

“We should stop meeting like this.” Vaughn says with a downturn his lips, but his amused voice betrays his face. Rhys doesn’t respond, as he’s currently busy ogling Vaughn. Vaughn appreciates it, he really does; the whole Bandit King attire took a lot effort to come up with, after all. He’d just rather… Rhys did something other than just stand so far away from him, frozen as if shot by a powerful cryo gun.

But that’s fine. He strokes his beard and Rhys’s eyes follow the movement, Vaughn thinks liquid gold fits him more than electric blue. He smiles and takes a step towards the other man and that seems to snap Rhys out of his weird reverie.

The fallen remains of Helios remain a crooked mess in the distance, glowing in a shade of pale lilac in the night’s darkness. With all the lighting up Children of Helios done around the area, the makeshift town shines brighter than the stars glittering across the sky. Rhys ignores the scenery as he runs towards Vaughn, he knows he should be agitated by the mere sight of the satellite’s metallic corpse, but he has much more pressing matters at hand, like holding the Bandit King close.

Feet dangling in the air as he’s given a chest-crushing hug by Rhys, Vaughn simply chuckles and hugs him back. The cyborg finally lets Vaughn go so he can breathe and stand on his own, but that only seems to last a moment as they’re pulled within each other’s orbit yet again. Rhys grabs Vaughn’s face with both hands, silver fingers stroking his beard curiously; the shorter man fondles Rhys’s ass innocently and gets a surprised chuckle from the man.

“I’m gonna kiss you now.” Vaughn declares, nodding to himself. Rhys nods along, his dorky smile making the other tipsy; it never gets old, that smile.

The kiss is a decade late, they never felt any different when they were teens than they do now; but the experience crowning their minds, the sins on their backs and the friends they’ve made along the way make it much more wonderful than it could have ever been. They ended up in a place so much different from where they started off, they should be afraid and worried. But as their hands worship each other’s bodies and their tongues delve deeper into each other’s mouths, they’re anything but those.

When they finally break the kiss with silly smiles on their now-numb lips, they can hear the way people around them holler and cheer. It’s fascinating, how one can feel at home and ease in the middle of a wild planet. It’s weird to think how they hoped to become high-level Hyperion goons once and ended up a CEO of a once-dead company and a bandit leader who leads people with an iron fist and the heart of gold.

It is exciting. It gives the two man hope.

As they hold each other close, giving each other chaste kisses every so often, they’re happier than ever. And there’s the third spark, lighting their hearts on fire.

“I love you.” Rhys whispers into Vaughn’s ear.

“I love you, too.” Vaughn replies, just as calm and quick.

They always have.

For the lovely @nokikissa!

You’re awesome and I hope you like this, my friend!

[lazy-safetastic-13]

The Soul Aches

Summary: Due to circumstances that was completely Alphys’ fault, Sans had reverted back to a child. Of a four year old with memories before the skeleton met Papyrus.

Pairing: Fellbros? Er … well. :’)

Words: 1, 055

Undyne and Papyrus had been sparring to keep in tip top shape when Alphys called.

There was hesitant urgency that required attention, and Papyrus was fully attentive when the fish mentioned that his brother was involved in an accident at the labs.

While he didn’t know what the latter could possibly be doing there in the first place, he didn’t bother nor had the time to question it and simply went with Undyne to head there.

Upon arrival, Papyrus raised a brow ridge at the slightly fidgeting lizard scientist. The nervousness towards him was not rare, but it was more than usual.

“What is this about Sans?”

“C-Come see for yourself.”

She guided them to one of the rooms that had a plethora of chemical equipments. But what the two guards noticed quickly was the child skeleton monster, sitting on the floor with an oversized jacket. The shorts were on a table behind the kid as it appeared to be too big for him to wear.

“Woah! What a pipsqueak. What … happened exactly?” Undyne asked, about to near but subtlety felt that if she did, a battle was about to go down with her second-in-command. And as much as she didn’t mind, her lover wouldn't appreciate them wrecking her place. So she stayed put as Papyrus move towards Sans, stopping a few feet away from him.

“I accidentally tripped and splattered the chemical on him.“ The lizard had the decency to look ashamed at the mishap she had created. But Papyrus didn’t hear nor see all that as his attention was entirely on Sans.

The small skeleton looked up at Papyrus with big red eye lights, curiosity evident in them as the skeleton just stared at him. ”… Is his memories that of a child too?“

“Yes. He doesn’t remember me, but he might remember you.”

“That depends on how old he is.”

“Oh, I asked him that. He’s four.”

Papyrus crouched down to Sans’ level, and the child flinched at the movement. “I’m Papyrus. Do you remember me?”

Sans, to his credit, at least understood what was being said, and he could speak back. “N-no.”

The tall skeleton clicked his tongue, standing up straight to turn to Alphys. “How long would it take for him to revert back?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Since it was your fault, make a cure then.”

Undyne chuckled. “And here I thought you didn’t care.”

“… I don’t. But he's still kin.” So he turned back to his ‘little’ brother and bent down to scoop him up. Sans didn’t make a fuss about it, and Papyrus briefly wondered if his brother would let anyone just take him. Still, he saw that Sans wasn’t looking at anyone, and kept his hands to himself rather than hold onto Papyrus. The tall skeleton didn’t quite know what to think of it.

Papyrus looked to Undyne. “I’ll be resuming my patrols after I’ve deposited my brother.” He didn’t care whether the fish monster nodded or not as he made his way out of the lab and headed home. There were things to do.

Sans didn’t say a word nor looked around or anything on the way home, and Papyrus was a little bit disturbed of the silence.

Upon heading inside, he put his brother near the couch and told him to sit and stay put before heading to the kitchen to make something for them. He’d have to tell Sans new house rules as kids tend to cause quite a mayhem when unsupervised.

About an hour later, with bowl of pasta in his hand, he went to the living area only to spot his brother sitting … on the floor; knees bent with his hands on his lap, and back straight with his head titled downward. It was … disconcerting. Where was his brother with cheek and fight in him?

Papyrus shook his head and headed over to his brother, “Sit on the couch.”

Sans did so nervously, and when he was handed the bowl, briefly noting the look of surprise, he didn’t dig in like Papyrus thought he would. The latter was about to say something until Sans beat him to it. “T-Thank you for the ge-genrus meal. M-May I eat it?”

The politeness of the question had Papyrus floored and nodded instead as he was rendered speechless. Was this really his brother?

And rather than being messy as it usually tends to be, Sans took small bites, making sure to chew properly before taking another. He was careful not to get it on anything and Papyrus felt his soul pricked but he ignored it.

He cleared his throat to get the other’s attention, and went down to business. “You will be in my care from now on, and you will obey the rules I set.” Papyrus saw Sans become tense. “You will be punished for breaking anything. You’re also not allowed in my room.” He saw a brief nod before continuing. “I’ll be out on patrol and won’t be back for a few hours. I expect the house to not be in ruins when I come back. Understood?”

He may sound harsh but he was told that it was good to discipline children when they were young as they carry it to their adulthood. Maybe he can avoid Sans becoming the lazy slob he was through this.

“Y-yes, sir.”

Being called Boss often was not unusual, but somehow the formal authority from his brother, now that he was baby bones, was strange. It felt wrong.

“… You shall call me Papyrus.”

Sans nodded. “Y-yes, Papyrus sir.”

The tall skeleton felt his brow twitch. “Just Papyrus.”

Sans looked to be sweating as Papyrus could see that he was controlling himself from wanting to fidget. “Yes, Papyrus.”

“… Good.” Papyrus didn’t want to think about how it still felt wrong, and how his soul ached at seeing and hearing his brother this way. So he gritted his teeth as he marched to the door, and left without another word.

Papyrus didn’t get to see the tears that fell onto the bowl of spaghetti before being promptly scooped for a bite. Nor would he hear the soft sniffling that seemed loud in the quiet house.

Papyrus wouldn’t know any of it, but his soul continued to ache; even if he didn’t particularly know why.

I … 

I swear I had thoughts of fluff! ;__;)

Ok, here me out. :’D

I was thinking about Red being quite the obedient child (most likely thoughts from experimentation or something of that background premise where he will be punished for his misconduct) and was like, wow! I’d like to see a scene where Fell comes home to a lonely and obedient Red who doesn’t complain and becomes heartbroken at the sight. 

To redeem himself, he got Red a book about science, and the utter, though nervous, excitement and happiness he received when Red asked if he could keep it, made Fell change his ways to become the overprotective ‘big bro’ and make Red happy. And it also made his soul soar when Red says, “I-I’ve never been g-given ‘nything before. T-Thank you so much.” It was followed by a brilliant smile that Fell wanted to scream at how adorable he found it. 

I swear this was my intention when I started writing! :’D 

My hands … took the wheel, and promptly drove me off a cliff. orz

So sorry about that. ^^’’) Imma leave now. TuT

[theultravioletcatastrophe]

Every whole number x when f(x)=sin(x^0.75), such that f(x) is decreasing

…okay, I put that equation into Wolfram Alpha, but the graphs it shows you by default are extraordinarily hard to read, and you can’t get any further detail without signing up for a Pro (i.e. paid) account, soooooo…. I’m just gonna answer all of them! Hope that’s okay! ^^;;;

1. First console you’ve ever owned?‘Twas the original NES. I was so happy when my parents bought it (although tbh my dad bought it as much for himself as for me). I spent so many hours playing the SMB games… ahh, good times.

3. Favorite childhood game?Hmmm, probably Super Mario Bros. 3. That was the one I spent the longest playing, anyway. My mom even went to the trouble to borrow the strategy guide from the library, photocopy the whole thing, and bind it together into a book for me. My mom was the best. ;_;

4. Longest consecutive hours you’ve played a game?Whew, uhhh, not as long as some people, I’m sure. I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than 8 hours straight playing games. I’m certainly no match for the likes of Neptune and Vert, that’s for sure. ^^;;;

5. Game with the best soundtrack?I actually really really like the soundtrack from the first Hyperdimension Neptunia game. A lot of those songs just get stuck in my head, y'know? Especially Nepgear’s theme. :3

6. An underrated game from within the last few years?Hmm, gonna go with Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed. It apparently only got a 64/100 on Metacritic, which is WAY too low for how fun this game is.

7. Most disappointing game you’ve played?Honestly? Most of the Jak and Daxter series. I really really wanted to like those games, but I just… couldn’t. There was just something about them that really turned me off. I enjoy other, similar games, so I don’t know what it was. I got all of them for super cheap (like probably $5 each) so it’s not like I spent a bunch of money on them, but I still felt ripped off, y'know?

8. The game with the best atmosphere/scenery?The Metroid Prime games, for me, had some of the best settings. Nicely-rendered and completely appropriate for the feel of the game. If you’ve never played any of the MP games, please do so. If you can play the Wii controls versions, so much the better (it’s playable with the Gamecube controller but once you use the Wiimote to aim Samus’s gun you’ll never go back).

10. Prefer PC or console?Based solely on the number of games amassed, PC wins out, but I honestly don’t prefer one over the other.

11. Have you written any fanfic or made any fanart?…not of video games, no.

12. Most bizarre game you’ve ever played?It’s pretty tame, but probablyyyyyy…. Goat Simulator. Like, what the fuck even is this game.

13. Scariest game you’ve played?Well, I haven’t actually played it yet, but the scariest game I currently own is probably Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion.

14. Do you watch playthroughs online?Not really, no.

15. Favorite animal in a video game?This is kind of an odd question… I’m gonna have to go with Gex the gecko, particularly from the second game. I loved that game so much.

16. The best year in gaming you’ve experienced?Literally every year seems better than the last, so I can’t really answer this question. This year has been pretty amazing so far, but then, I’ve said that about every other year past, so… ^^;;;

17. Have a video game themed background or lockscreen?LOL of course I do! My desktop wallpaper is Neptune and Nepgear, and my phone’s lock screen and home screen are both pics of Purple Heart.

18. Worst game you’ve played?Ooh, interesting question. I don’t really know if I can answer this properly? One of the games that stands out to me is called Sparkle 2 Evo. The graphics were nice but the controls were awful and it was nearly unplayable. The devs might have patched it since, but I kinda lost interest in it so I don’t really care at this point.

19. Hardest game you’ve ever played?The hardest game I’ve seriously played is probably VVVVVV. Fuck that game. >:(

20. Favorite publisher and/or developer?If I don’t say Idea Factory (and/or Compile Heart) I’ll feel like I’m betraying my beloved Neptune, so I’ll go with them.

21. If you had to play one game for the rest of your life, what would it be?I don’t know if this really counts as a video game, but I’m gonna have to say Mamono Sweeper.

22. If you could turn one game into movie, which would it be?The first game that sprang to mind was Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. It was such a cool game, I’d love to see a cinematic version of it (also can you IMAGINE Samus on the big screen? EEEEEEEEEEEEEE).

24. Ever cried because of a video game? Which one(s)?Oh, probably! I know SMB3 made me cry when I was little because there was one level I just couldn’t beat no matter how many times I tried it. I forget which level it was now, lol.

25. Proudest accomplishment in gaming?Hmmm, probably the time I finally actually beat Indalecio in Star Ocean 2, when you do the event where his power limiter is removed and he basically becomes a god. Fuck me sideways, that was an insane fight.

26. How often do you play online? Co-op?Almost never! The last game I played co-op was MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune Vs. Zombies (I played with @aboutthreeneps), but I really don’t do online gaming much.

27. Have you gotten any friends into gaming?Maybe? Most people I’m friends with are either already into gaming, or else they’re not interested, so…. probably not.

28. Who got YOU into gaming?Hmm, I guess it was my dad. I watched him play a bunch of games when I was a small child and was like “THAT LOOKS SO COOL I WANNA DO IT TOO”.

29. Watch cutscenes or skip them?I usually watch them, unless it’s one I’ve seen a bunch of times (or one you can’t skip… damn unskippable cutscenes).

30. On average, how long does it take you in the character creation screen?…quite a while. It depends on the game, I guess. When I made a new character in Stardew Valley today, I spent between 5-10 minutes, but when I was creating a character in Saints Row IV, I probably spent close to an hour tweaking every little variable to get it just right.

32. Do you cosplay?Not really, although I did cosplay as Squall from Final Fantasy 8 one time. I still have the gunblade sitting around somewhere.

33. Favorite female npc?34. Favorite male npc?These two questions are really hard for me to answer! Mostly because I find games fall into either one of two categories: ones where the NPCs are faceless and forgettable, and ones where the NPCs are extremely well-done and I love all of them.

35. Best protagonist?Neptune, duh.

36. Best antagonist?I like GLaDOS from Portal.

37. Ever been made fun of for playing video games?Hmm, I don’t think so.

38. Have you tried a game, hated it, then tried again, and loved it?Again, I don’t think so? There’s been plenty of games where I’ve been like “meh” at first and then “OMG THIS GAME IS AWESOME” later, but I don’t think there’s any I really hated that I went back and liked later.

39. Do you play for achievements/trophies?Not explicitly, or at least, not at first. I tend to play through the story of a game first, and then on my second playthrough I’ll try to get most of the achievements.

40. Favorite voice actor?A new favourite, but a favourite nonetheless: Megan Hollingshead.

41. Gone to a midnight release before?Nope! Any of the games I’ve been excited for either never had this sort of event, or else they did but I just got on the bandwagon too late. I’m incredibly behind the times when it comes to keeping up with this sort of thing. T_T

42. A game you will never forget (in a bad OR good way)?Star Ocean 2. That game will stay with me forever. In a good way. :3

43. Favorite sidekick or companion?Ooh, good one! I really liked Eryn from Fairy Fencer F. She’s such a sweetie, and Fang treats her like garbage for most of the game, so I think I was especially drawn to her because he wasn’t.

44. Do graphics matter?They have to be done well, and the style has to fit with the overall style of the game. Other than that, I don’t care. A game isn’t instantly better by having more realistic graphics or whatever, I don’t care.

45. Do you like funny or more serious games?I tend to like more funny games, overall.

46. Always, sometimes, or never use subtitles?Sometimes. It really depends on the game.

47. First person or Third person?Both??? How is this even a question lmao

48. A game you’ve always wanted to play but have never gotten to it?Bastion. I watched a friend play some of it and it looked super cool, and I own it, I’ve just never played it for some reason.

49. A game you haven’t played in forever, but want to replay?Hmm, I kind of want to play Cave Story again. I love that game

50. How many games to do you own?I currently have 186 games in my Steam inventory, and counting the various consoles I own it’s probably at least 250.

51. First character you’ve had a crush on?I can’t really think of any right now! I did kind of have a crush on Princess Toadstool in Super Mario RPG, I guess that’s the earliest character I can remember.

52. A game you will always stand behind, and support no matter what?All of the Hyperdimension Neptunia games. I own all 4 of the main series games (Re;Birth 1-3 and VII) and 4 of the spinoff games (Nep U, Hyperdevotion Noire, MegaTagmension, and PP), and I’ve bought more Neptunia merchandise than I have for any other game series.

53. Your most immersive game?Most of the Pokemon games, for me, have been pretty immersive. Like, I take it upon myself to learn everything about them, I keep written notes on lots of stuff, I actively plan out my strategies in advance, etc.

54. A sequel you really want?Hmm, can’t think of too many. Most of my favourite games are series anyway, so they already have sequels. :P

55. How much time, on average, do you play in a week?Hard to say, some weeks I barely play at all, some weeks that’s all I do. I’d say on average, like taking the arithmetic mean, it’d be around an hour a day.

56. Do you tell people irl that you play video games?Oh, for sure. There’s not really a stigma around it anymore since everyone plays video games these days (the whole notion of “gamers are over” and all that).

57. What is an overrated game you’ve played?Basically every MMO I’ve ever played. I just don’t get the appeal.

58. Ever have someone walk in on a sex scene between you and you LI?I’m going to assume that “LI” stands for “love interest,” like as in the love interest of the main character of a game, otherwise this question makes no sense (even as is it doesn’t make much sense). No, this has never happened. I can’t recall any games I’ve ever played that have had explicit sex scenes. Other than, like… HuniePop or something, but even that’s not really explicit, it’s mostly just moaning. (Unless they released some super-X-rated update or something, I haven’t touched that game in a loooooooong time.)

59. A game you are looking forward to this year?

FOURGODDESSESONLINE

61. A game you know everything about?Star Ocean: The Second Story. I know that game like the back of my hand. I could probably play it blindfolded.

62. Would you want to work with video games when you are older?I want to work with video games now! I *AM* older, dammit! (Especially after watching all of New Game!, I really wanna work for a development studio. I don’t even care doing what, I just wanna be in the industry!)

63. What’s a game that has inspired you?Hmm, I can’t really think of any games that have “inspired” me. Like, in what way? I don’t know.

64. Describe your favorite video game using only three words?Neptune = best girl. (I don’t know if an equals sign counts as a word, if so you can take it out and my point still stands.)

65. Any favorite screenshots of games?I’ve posted a few on my tumblr, mostly from Nep games.

66. Game with the yummiest looking food?Uhhhh…. hmmm. I mean, Portal had that delicious-looking cake. Stardew Valley has some decent food too.

67. Most violent game you’ve played?Honestly, probably One Finger Death Punch. Being that the entire point of the game is slaughtering hundreds of enemies with either your fists or whatever weapons you happen to find lying around. I mean, it’s all stickmen, but still.

68. An older game that you’ve just recently gotten into?I honestly can’t think of any! The oldest game I’ve gotten into *recently* is the aforementioned Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed, but that came out in 2014, so I don’t know if it’s old enough for the purposes of this response.

69. Your first LI?…not quite sure what this means. Love interest? Like, first character from a game I fell in love with? First game I played where the main character had a love interest? I honestly don’t know how to answer this one.

70. Do you play any mobile games?A few. Not counting portable consoles (i.e. the 3DS or PS Vita), I have a handful of games on my phone (Sailor Moon Drops, Monument Valley, Mushihimesama, I even have Carmageddon on my phone (yes, they released an iOS port of that game somehow)).

71. A game you can’t stop talking/thinking about at the moment?Well I did just pick up Stardew Valley again, so I’m probably gonna be thinking about that for a while. Same with that Neptunia idol game, I just started playing that and it’s super fun.

72. Have any guilty pleasure games?Of course not, why do you ask?

73. A game with the best fandom?Overall, my experience has been that Neptunia fans are all pretty awesome. :D

74. Which game has the best lore?I actually love the lore from the Metroid series. The whole history with Samus and the Chozo is so interesting to me.

75. Do you focus on main storyline/quest or do sidequests first?I do both! I’ll play the main storyline until either (1) I need to grind more because the enemies/bosses are getting stronger, (2) I need to get better equipment and need either materials for crafting, or money for buying stuff, or (3) the main story is in a lull and I get an interesting side quest. Usually once I go off on a sidequest tangent, I don’t come back for a good long while (to the point where I’ll stop playing the game for a while and then when I come back to it I’m like “ok wtf was I supposed to be doing? I don’t remember, maybe I’ll just start over again lol”).

These were fun questions, thanks for asking! ^_^

[formidolumina]

Interview: Actor Mark Strong on Playing Sinestro in 'Green Lantern' Source: X

I've had the honor of interviewing actor Mark Strong a few times over the last few years, while following his career explode with riveting roles as villains in numerous big movies like RocknRolla, Sherlock Holmes, Kick-Ass and Robin Hood. While some comic book fans may say Sinestro is also a villain, in Warner Bros' Green Lantern movie hitting theaters this week, Strong plays a good Sinestro, before his yellow destiny. I met up with Mark at Comic-Con last year for an interview on this very topic, and followed up with him again a few weeks ago after finally seeing Green Lantern to talk about the challenges of playing the alien Sinestro.

Thaal Sinestro was born on the planet Korugar in space sector 1417 and is dedicated to preserving order, making him one of the greatest Green Lanterns in their history. As always, Mark does a fantastic job in the role, bringing some gravitas to the character. I can't wait to see where Sinestro will go beyond this, as fans definitely know that he has an interesting future ahead of him and hopefully we'll get to see Mark bringing that future to life down the road. For now though, here's my latest interview with Mark on Green Lantern.

You've mentioned how important technology was to making Green Lantern, can you expand upon that and how technology was so important for your character and creating this movie?

Mark Strong: Well, the technology has definitely caught up with the vision, so you can make a film like Green Lantern. But what's been fascinating me over the last few days of talking about it is what I've realized is that Superman and Batman are the well-known DC Superheroes. Green Lantern was always considered a second tier one or "the other one". And I realized the reason for that is because you haven't been able to film Green Lantern before now. Superman's problems - apart from the fact he goes to Krypton and back, and Batman's problems are essentially earthboun-- it all takes place on Earth. So once you've got them in the costume, in the cape and the tights, everything happens on Earth. But Green Lantern, you can't tell that story without going to Oa. So it's not that he's a lesser one, it's just that the technology hasn't been able to kind of deliver him until now. I'm sure that's the reason.

But actually, when you think about it the whole, guy finds an alien, inherits a ring, realizes there are other people within the universe, then goes to Oa, then realizes there's a cosmic police force, it's mind blowing. It's way more interesting and cool than Batman or Superman's problem, which are essentially fairly simple.

Speaking of technology, it seemed like you didn't have much control in this role. As an actor, it's important that to fully embody a character, but in this you are wearing grey spandex, heavy make-up, prosthetics, and all you really have control over is your face and head. Is that restricting for you as an actor? And how do you approach that in terms of still giving the performance you want to give?

Mark: It's something you have to get used to. I mean the prosthetic… Funny enough, even though, as you say, the body is CGI, but they are my movements. So I wear a suit that tracks my movements. My movements have been copied, so it is my body. My head, bizarrely, I'm under a prosthetic with contact lenses, so I feel it's very hard to make the usual facial expressions that you would in order to communicate. I had to learn a slightly different way of allowing Sinestro to communicate, by tilting the head, catching the light in a particular way, turning in a particular way to tell the story, because I couldn't rely on furrowing my brow, for example.

But I quite enjoyed the challenge, once I got used to the idea that none of it was there. Essentially, it's not dissimilar from theater because you have to use your imagination. You have to fill in the blanks. And the same is true of theater. You walk out on stage, you know it's not real. You can see the audience. You can see the lights. And you walk off stage and the stage management person is standing there with headphones and a clipboard, even though you're pretending you're in Chekhov's Russia or something.

So you know it's not real, but that's not the point. The point is how you help the audience suspend their disbelief and transport them somewhere else. So I don't have a problem with the fact that I wasn't in complete control like you are in a normal film.

Did you feel that using so much technology to build this world would help in telling the bigger story, specifically with your character and his progression?

Mark: Yeah, because I don't know how you would shoot it convincingly to allow people to believe that there was this place and that these people existed within this place. So I have no problem with… The truth is, it's born out of a truth. The costumes, and they haven't just made them CGI because of a gimmick. The costume designer wanted to suggest that each of these different Lantern's uniforms was their skin, and that the ring created their uniform on their skin.

So if you look closely, Tomar-Re is a slightly scaly version. And if you look at Kilowog's, it's slightly different from Sinestro's, from the humanoid ones. So you need CGI in order to tell that story. I mean one character, one Green Lantern, is Bzzt, he's a fly. How's he going to get spandex on? He couldn't put on a spandex suit! There's one Green Lantern that's just an eyeball. So I love the idea that it's born of a truth, which is that you could believe that the suit is organic. It comes from the ring and from within them. And you can only tell that, I think, with CGI.

While on set, did they ever show you what the world you were in would look like? And second part of this, did you have the chance to look at your performance in relation to the world, with other elements rendered, almost with some pre-vis?

Mark: To answer the second bit first, no, there was no technique to show you, not even on the monitor. Even if you went to the monitor you were still looking at yourself in the funny gray suit with dots against the blue wall. They couldn't phase in, or never did phase in the background.

But what we did have on set was the artwork so you could go and remind yourself where you were. For example, when Sinestro speaks to all the lanterns, I would go and look at where I was and where they were. And, in fact, that had a 3D model on the side of the set, so I could go and see exactly where I was. But in the end I'm still standing on a green box looking at nobody. And part of the challenge of that is what makes it fun.

How much interaction did DC Comics have, specifically Geoff Johns. Did you know him and work with him on set? How much did DC come in to shape the characters, especially with Sinestro because of his mythology and where he goes?

Mark: Geoff's input, and I got to know him really well over the course of making this, his input all happened before I arrived. I think his input was with the writers, with the producers, and with kind of guiding them in the right direction with the mythology. Once we got on set it was Martin's world. Martin was in charge.

My favorite moment was when I came for a test, because we also had to work out… Once Sinestro had the prosthetic, had the color, we had to work out how to light it, because different kinds of light would make the color fade or would make it look too purple. So we had to do screen tests where the light would be changing and we had to see what would be the the best way. And Geoff was at one of those. And I loved the moment when I was able to just go up to him and go, "What do you think?" and see him go, "Oh my God! That is exactly how I imagined him."

And then Geoff, I would ask him about the history and who Sinestro was, why he was the way he was, all of that. He was always around to talk to. But his input was probably more when the thing was being put together in pre-production.

Finally, I want to ask again about how you play so many different, unique characters, as that's what I really love about you as an actor. How do you choose your projects and differentiate your roles, and how do your career choices work in relation to your family?

Mark: Well, I love the idea of transformation. I come from the theater where you are allowed to experiment way more than you are on film. You can play old guys, young guys, you can play people from all over the world in theater, and you have weeks and weeks and weeks to rehearse that and get it right. So I've always been fascinated by playing something that's other than me. I wouldn't really know how to play myself, I don't think. I wouldn't trust that that was the right way to play it.

And that's why… the head of the Jordanian Secret Service [from Body of Lies], great. That's removed from me. Archy [from RocknRolla], a gangster, it's removed from me. I get to wear a wig. It transports with me to somewhere else. And the same is true with Sinestro. What I loved about him was the potential for transformation. And as an actor, that is the thing that I love most of all. Probably why I'm a character actor. As far as my family is concerned, they love everything I do. My boys are absolutely wild about Sinestro. And, of course, the irony is in my house the bad guy is the good guy.

A big thank you to Mark Strong and Warner Bros. It's an honor to speak with Mark every time and I'm always excited to see what he will do next. Green Lantern is playing in theaters now!

[chaerforce-blog]

A Time the Internet Actually Helped Me Socially

I am often asked, “Who’s your favorite artist?” based on the fact that I’m in Art Studio.

As much as I’d love to reference my childhood favorites, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, my favorite artist is now Lauren Faust.

Then I get the question, “Who is Lauren Faust?” And I respond with, “she’s the person who created the reboot of My Little Pony”.

Cue the confused/shocked/slightly disgusted reactions.

At this day and age it’s STILL “not cool” or just cringe-worthy to others when someone proclaims any approval towards My Little Pony and the franchise.

But, SURPRISE!!! I’m a Brony!!!

Ewwwww! A brony! Those are gross! But… what are they?

Story time! 

There’s no set definition for the term “brony” and how it originated, but most agree that a “brony” is simply “bro” and “pony” fused together.

Typically, a brony is just a (usually male) adult human who actively supports My Little Pony and becomes invested in it.

The reason a brony is usually an adult is because the show is quite obviously aimed at children, but somehow gained huge interest among people 18 to 35, and many, many of them are male. 

Another reason is that people began posting My Little Pony content (memes and other fun stuff) on the website 4chan, a place where anyone can post just about anything while remaining anonymous. Most of the people who use this website are adults, as the contents within that site can range from safe for the public to extremely unsafe for work environments.

Of course, being a fan of the show is different from assuming the identity of a brony. There definitely are similarities, but a brony has gone slightly beyond simply watching and enjoying the show. Many bronies have actively supported the franchise, possibly by buying a few things here and there, either official products or awesome fan-made creations (like this).

Bronies differ a lot from one another. Some mildly invest their time and money into the franchise, and others try to collect as many different objects as they possibly can.

I would consider myself somewhere slightly more towards the ones who mildly invest, but I do remember going to a Brony convention twice in my life and spent way more than I intended to on both occasions. My budget was $80, but I may have gone over triple that. Autographs and photos with the show’s voice actresses and actors cost a bit, but they were worth it.

But why is My Little Pony so interesting to me and so many other people?

Although I can’t speak for everyone else, I believe that My Little Pony has gathered all of this attention because it’s a show that deals with actual social issues on a scale that ANYONE can understand (it’s a show for children—if you can’t comprehend a show meant for children, then something is wrong).

The first episode already presents itself as a story where the main character, a female pony (yes for more female protagonists!), is basically sent to a new town to literally make new friends. And while she’s trying to adjust to the new town, an actual villain appears that threatens to take over the world!

Enter second episode, where the main character (along with 5 other ponies who she met upon arriving at the new town) faces various obstacles in order to fight the villain. Throughout the journey, each pony (in their own way) shows that friendship overcomes hardships, especially together.

Those two episodes became a spark that led to a swarm of grown men rushing into toy stores and buying a ton of My Little Pony toys and figurines. No joke.

With this sudden wave of popularity among adult men, more people began taking note of the pony fandom. However, one of the websites people would visit was the 4chan domain for bronies. 

Within that community was a wide range of people, but the discussion threads that were the most popular just so happened to be some of the most controversial.

It mostly consisted of people trying to ridicule My Little Pony supporters with memes of My Little Pony. 

But the fans began to fight back with more memes and forming a group among each other, later developing the name “brony”.

Ultimately so much happened that the thread was actually shut down and 4chan banned any and all posts of My Little Pony, leading many bronies to branch out to other websites such as Equestria Daily and Fimfiction.

And now the majority of people think all bronies are creepy adult men with no social life.

But for me, My Little Pony is what brought me into having a social life.

As a child growing up, I disliked the idea of going out and having to talk to other people. 

But watching the show sparked something in me. 

It made me wonder if people could actually be friendlier than they initially seemed, and that kind of thinking led me to start opening up to others little by little.

I began researching more about the community of the bronies online, hoping to one day meet a fellow brony or pegasister (an adult female who enjoys the show, based off of “pegasus” and “sister” put together) in person.

While exploring the Internet, I discovered that a large amount of bronies actually made fanart of the characters. Some people drew the characters as they were depicted in the show as accurately as possible while others drew them as humans or some blend in between pony and human. 

With this new found fascination, I began drawing again after some months of artist’s block in high school.

I practiced drawing my two favorite characters, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, constantly. I first started off by imitating screenshot images of the two ponies, and slowly began drawing them by memory. There’s a basic system to how the ponies are drawn, just like how we draw humans or actual horses based on their anatomy.

Seeing all of the digital renderings of the show’s characters inspired me to try doing something of that sort myself. I began a small scale project, drawing my favorite pony Rainbow Dash without a background image. It took me about a week before I finished it, since I was so excited with this new kind of experimentation.

Months later, I found out about the convention that was happening in the SFO region, and I was determined to go. Andrea Libman, the voice actress for Fluttershy (and Pinkie Pie), was going to be there! I wanted an autograph from her onto a piece of my very own. I set out to create a larger scaled piece, and with a background. It took me two months before I finally completed it, and just two days before I went to the convention! But I printed it out and proudly had her sign it for me, and we took a photo!

My Little Pony used to be something that I intended to ridicule along with the rest of society. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t because something about it really made me think about the concept of friendship, and how friendship can potentially be life changing for someone. It made me think about all the possible good in life that I could learn to appreciate, and made me want to show my newfound appreciation through art.