#but the problem (like always) is that it produces no actual change or character development

[fairyroses]

When did you get to be so wise?

— SMALLVILLE, “Obscura” (1.20)

[gynandromorph]

so i'm writing a scene where jessie writes the entire story herself (the irony is not lost on me), and, it's supposed to be the most perfect world she can think of. it's impossible NOT to compare her decisions to ones that i've thought about drake making, their solutions to the same problems side-by-side. for example, jessie assumes that she cannot get around death being a necessity with life. obviously, the planet would overpopulate. people would get tired of being alive. she decides instead that death should be more like getting tired and going to sleep forever one day, without the aging or sickness. drake would never settle for allowing death. i've spent a lot of time idly trying to figure out how xe would change... well, with omnipotence, anything, everything, in order to accommodate this demand -- and there are many different ways, which can be flawed when interacting with other problems. but the important part is that drake wouldn't settle for death. drake makes a mandatory end result, takes the current reality, and works until the beginning and end goal meet. jessie doesn't challenge reality's initial stipulations or the basic arguments about the logistics of non-death, even with unlimited power. we know that jessie is more authority-oriented in her basic value system; it's obvious when she's a child, and it's obvious when she's a god. she had good parents and a happy childhood; the authority figures in her life provided what she needed if she listened (and if she didn't). it was in her best interest to develop a worldview where authority was Good; she had no need to question them. reality says there are limited resources, and we will fix it by making people and creatures die and become resources, and jessie said "okay, got it boss." drake didn't have terrible parents, but nonetheless had experiences of authority's failure that were deeply formative for xem. even if xyr parents had been perfect, the body dysphoria would have always meant the reality that was provided was not enough. if xyr body, arguably the most fundamental reality xe will ever know, trapped in it regardless of all other factors, doomed to die when it dies, was something xe had to question to find any happiness, it must be very easy to apply this mentality to other dissatisfactions with reality. drake's rigid and often extreme moral beliefs, while they may seem more like they should produce a ruthless dictator than jessie's emotionally-driven decision-making style, are intrinsically linked to suffering and a desire for relief from it. ironically, both of these characters deal with similar themes -- a desire for impossible realities, and a hatred for the world they live in with all of its imperfections. jessie's impossible desire may simply be the freedom from desire altogether; to finally for once not feel an emptiness radiating Want. drake's impossible desire is more straightforward and less easily described -- paradoxical self-actualization and ego death. their similarities make them fun to compare, because they really could not be more different. any which way, i wanted to write down these thoughts about the characters -- jessie in particular -- before they Disintegrated Into The Ether

[tangibletechnomancy]

The problem with AI and the entertainment industry in particular is that...okay, fine, technology marches on. Digital art made physical ink-on-cels animation into mostly a hobbyist novelty (though boy howdy did it ever make it an impressive one). Photography turned portrait painting into a luxury, rather than something everyone who could afford it saved to do at least once for every family member because it was the only way to keep their likenesses alive. Photo editing has gone through so many changes that it's almost unrecognizable compared to what it looked like as recently as the 80s and 90s, and the older methods are, again, super impressive hobbyist passion projects now. Digital painting made physical painting less viable in an economy of scale, but way more impressive as an art form. These kinds of changes always really fucking suck for some people, but you can't really prevent them without stifling human development in general.

But.

The entertainment industry wants to make it suck way more than it has to for everyone but their executives and shareholders. They want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to take advantage of the inherent marketing power of celebrity culture without ACTUALLY involving, let alone paying, the people whose names and likenesses they're using. That, I hope we can all agree, is vile.

Now, the logical endpoint of this is that we push back against that, and as an alternative we get more fictional celebrities in the near-ish future, and as a Vocaloid fan, theoretically, I dont see much of a problem with that. Theoretically, at least. In the best case scenario, I think it could be a lot of fun! But the problem is, well...

See, in the early days, Vocaloid producers tended to take a very backstage role. Very few people were fans of specific producers; they were fans of Miku or any other character. Eventually, though, producers just kind of came more into the spotlight on their own because everyone has their own style and taste. We still love the characters, but we all started to notice when half our favorite songs by Miku were produced by the same person, well, perhaps we were fans of that producer as well!

But in American-born entertainment culture...

You may notice that CGI was conspicuously absent from my Technology Marches On breakdown. That's because while, yes, it has made for an interesting highlight of practical effects, with love for the work and nostalgia for their jank the same way other new art media has shone a spotlight on its predecessors, it hasn't actually gotten to be recognized as an art form the way the others listed have. We've barely moved on from the attitude that got Tron disqualified from the Academy Awards for SFX because "the computer did those effects, not you" (in 1982). In fact, I'm strongly of the belief that if Disney were a halfway decent company, they would be bragging about how they're pioneering photorealistic animation, rather than trying to pass off 90+% CGI animated films, usually (but not always; see: The Lion King remake) with live celebrity actors' faces composited in, as "live-action". Instead, they treat the VFX department as mindless dancing monkeys, and perpetuate the idea that VFX is just "select material, press button, get polished scene" - because to brag about it as its own art form might imply that the people doing it are skilled artists who deserve to be paid fairly and treated like human beings, and oh, we can't have THAT, now can we?

VFX labor is all hidden; very few people have a favorite VFX artist or director, instead we treat the artists, who put the time and effort into wrangling code and semiconductors and routines and layers into creating a professional-looking end product, as just part of the machine themselves, to save the companies some money - and culturally, I fear we're well on the way to regarding AI exactly the same way but worse.

As such, I fear that we wouldn't have the same effect with any digital idols produced by Silicon Valley.

Now, I don't fear virtual celebrities being able to fully replace human ones. Half of the draw of celebrity culture is the illusion of human connection. As much as the word "parasociality" has grown to be associated with only the negative effects of this, in reality, it's also the driving mechanism behind why representation matters. It's fun to be able to feel a connection to a fictional celebrity, but it doesn't replace the feeling of knowing that your fave is a human being with a real life - ...whether you use that knowledge for better or worse.

What I do fear is the fight against using AI to replicate real humans without their input, or with their manufactured consent, being long and drawn-out and doing a lot of harm before we can fully put a lock on it, and virtual celebrities being used to hide the work that the human directors and producers put into them for the sake of saving a parent company a buck.

[esotl]

Performance - Chapter 11 (Part 20)

Writer: Akira

Season: Spring

Characters: Hokuto, Wataru

Translation Directory

It's known as a tragedy, and yet, I can't agree with that assessment.

Location: Inside a Train

Wataru: In actuality... I've never once come across one, a person who declares "I want to be like Hibiki Wataru!"

Which is to say, I am indeed still half-baked.

Hokuto: That's because you're out of the norm... No-one can even dream of being like you.

The more I come to know you, the more I feel that distance, too.

Wataru: Eh~ even though I'm close enough for you to touch? Please do your best, Hokuto-kun!

When I first saw you, I was a bit inspired.

"Aah, he's imitating my hairstyle," I thought... "Perhaps he wants to become like me."

Remembering the previous conversation, I held an interest in you...

Your mother must have predicted that, and tied your hair in a braid.

That's why I said she's discerning.

Her preparation is flawless, she knows all about a performer's weak points. Because if you're faced with someone imitating you, there's no way you could be unhappy.

Though, with just a few minutes of talking to you, I could tell you had no interest in me at all...

You only think of yourself, don't you?

Hokuto: Should I not? I don't have time to think about other things right now, and aren't I the one who thinks of myself the most?

There's no-one who thinks of me, of Hidaka Hokuto, so... I'm the one who has to consider me, to produce me.

Wataru: Right. That's the natural and correct answer, people don't really think about others often.

Though I personally don't have much interest in myself~ that seems to be rather unusual.

I'm always thinking about the characters in works of art, and the people surrounding them.

"Hibiki Wataru" is the means by which, the point of contact for interacting with those kinds of lovely things.

Hokuto: You're pretty distorted, aren't you... Are all "geniuses" like that?

Wataru: What do you think? Geniuses, no, all people are slightly different from each other.

You can't analyse all of humanity on an individual level using inflexible interpretations or common consensus.

That's why. You, who is captivated by such things, is rather laughable.

Hokuto: Hmph... I feel like I'm being made fun of by a clown.

Wataru: What a fitting phrase! Ahaha, chatting like this is fun...☆

Hokuto: Isn't this is strangely conceptual for a "chat"?

Wataru: Perhaps it is, by common consensus' standards! You're still restraining yourself, is your braid a chain or something, Hokuto-kun?

Be more flexible!

Relatedly... I just so happen to have tickets for a play being held at a theatre near the next stop!

Would you care to join me?

It's a rather intriguing stage, quite avant-garde... perhaps your sense of values will change upon seeing it!

Hokuto: I refuse. School is starting soon, I shouldn't skip.

Wataru: Isn't it fine every now and then? Let's be bad boys together~♪

Even if you do as your parents say like a good boy, it's not like you'll be rewarded for it, will you?

Hokuto: Don't interpret me like a character from a story.

Wataru: Apologies, it's an unconscious habit! This is troubling though, I didn't imagine you'd refuse.

Even after I went through all the trouble of moving you onto a different train without waking you?

Hokuto: So you're the reason I'm going to be late for school? I thought it was strange for me to sleep past my stop.

Wataru: Apologies, I just love tricks like that!

When faced with unexpected developments, humans always reveal some sort of interesting reaction without fail!

Getting mad, losing their cool, being bewildered, speaking unfavorably of me...

They confront me without hiding their true face behind a mask, or at least, they don't ignore me.

Hokuto: Did your parents not care about you as a kid?

Well, whatever. I already studied the contents of today's lessons last night, so it won't be a huge problem if I don't attend.

Even if I'm not there, I doubt anyone would notice.

I'll accompany you, President. But only for today - it'll be a problem if I'm constantly getting kidnapped to places I don't know.

Wataru: "Kidnapped" makes it sound scandalous... But I'm glad, let's have fun watching a play together.

Both acting and viewing are lonely when done by yourself. Let's snack on popcorn and excitedly discuss our thoughts with each other.

Japan has strict theatre manners, but plays have been that sort of event since time immemorial. Like in Shakespeare's time.

Hokuto: Don't speak like you were there for it, President.

Wataru: I've been doing my research you know, Shakespeare's a classic after all.

As is the play we're going to see today, "Romeo and Juliet"♪

It's known as a tragedy, and yet, I can't agree with that assessment.

Hokuto: ? Isn't it a standard tragedy?

Wataru: If you think about it using the common rules of this fleeting world, yes. But they were surely united after death, no?

One committed suicide, the other committed murder, so they certainly both fell into hell together.

However, "wherever you are is Heaven"... is what's conveyed in the play.

Because they went so far as to repeat such a sentiment over and over, time after time, the ending is not a tragedy.

Death is not the end, nor is it hopelessness. It is proof that they were finally together.

It's a connection, a blessing. That is how I interpreted the story's meaning.

If it's not true, then... Ah, God, Shakespeare, for what purpose did you document the suffering of this man and woman?

To sneer at these pitiful two, or else, to feel self-satisfied in your pity for them?

No - "Romeo and Juliet" is a congratulatory address for the two being united for eternity!

[Chapter 10 • Directory • Act 8]

[hypothesis-hobbyist]

I'm a little sad that almost a year in Splatoon 3 still feels like a lesser game than 2. A lot of this is Octo Expansion raising the bar for atmosphere, storytelling, and character development such that 3's story mode going back to being 1 and 2 was always going to be a letdown. I'm troubled that we know basically nothing about Deep Cut except bandits, big Marie fans, and that Frye has some kind of ADHD going on after watching Pearl and Marina get developed into compelling characters on their own, but maybe that just needs time.

BUT. 3's other problem is splatfests. Some of this is coding/matchmaking, in that you can get mirror matches for a majority of a fest and, it turns out, be on a minority team. Money recently won the popular vote, but I tracked my matches and half of all my open/pro matches were love/love mirrors and fully 2/3rds of all tricolors I was in were love/love/love, so it should be no wonder that people are claiming a rigged result. I don't think it's rigging, I think Nintendo has bad netcode and trying to leverage it for a three-way fest model is producing a lot of negative results. It's always more reasonable to assume incompetence over malfeasance.

Tri-Color itself is also a problem. The Zelda fest was the best so far, in my opinion, because the devs made substantial changes to the map for it instead of shoehorning a 2-sided map for a three-way match. This makes tricolors sometimes very frustrating and, honestly, FAR inferior to the old Shifty Stations, which both kept things fresh and interesting during a fest that could otherwise become boring AND were built around the gimmick. The late-2 shifties were amazing. The ones that progressively locked you out of parts of the map solved Turf War's biggest weakness, in that it made the whole match count and not the last 30 seconds.

So, where do we go from here? Hopes/suggestions:

- Side Order needs to be more like Octo Expansion in terms of storytelling, atmosphere, character development. The trailer certainly seems to suggest that, but it needs to be said.

- Tricolor should be made part of the regular fest rotation when three teams are available, otherwise you get a non-mirrored 1v1 match. This would a) Make Tricolor special and b) Make Fests feel less like meaningless effort.

- Either:

Tricolor maps need to become more different from their base maps. Right now Tricolor always feels like a worse version of the base game.

OR

Bring back Shifty Stations. They really made the 2 Fests worth playing as much of as you could, a supposed to today where I grind to Ruler, make sure I got enough catalog levels to finish before the season ends, and tap out so as not to do more mirror matches.

- More frequent updates. I know that the season model is what other big games do but honestly I miss the occasional random new weapon/item cropping up. Right now there's no reason to go to the shops anymore.

- More character content. We know you have the power to do this, Nintendo. You've got a team that loves to do little bits of lore and world building wherever they can. Add more dialogue for your idols! Tell us more about splat bands! Why is Paruko working retail???

-Final, wishlist item: more song variety during Fests. It would be amazing if there were, like, an actual setlist on rotation in splatsville.

[dalt20]

Tooning In 13. Greg Bailey Part 4 of 10

DL: Well. So how was working with Hanna Barbera again with Young Robin Hood?

GB:It was fine. Kind of like going back to my roots as far as working in animation went. On Robin Hood I was running the timing department and lip sync included. I went pretty smoothly from what I remember. It was a good chance to bring the US Saturday morning standards to a Canadian studio.

DL:The Busy World of Richard Scarry for Paramount/Showtime/The Family Channel and France Animation? How did that come to be and how was working on that show?

GB:It was my first animated series to develop and direct on. It became quite a hit and really put Cinar on the map. France Animation was the minority on the project . The only did the Busy World segment. We did the other 2 story blocks as well as the musical interstitials , the opening, the post production so we really did the bulk of it. The Paramount connection was actually quite peculiar and lucky. The people that worked in a portable in the Paramount lot were actually making trailers and publicity and handling some licensing. They were not the film or tv executives. However they had the rights and connection to Huck Scarry (son of Richard Scarry) and they decided they had the power to put together an animated tv series without going through the regular tv and film sections of Paramount. It was pretty gutsy of them to do that and after the show went out and was a success they ended up having to relinquish some control of it to the proper departments over there. Cinar ended up selling the show in over 100 countries worldwide. I really loved the development we did on the show. The characters all had unique walks and lip sync models and we also kept the scenes really busy with lots of details moving around. We also had used a sort of isometric perspective or down shot for the entire show. We avoided all the trendy dramatic cartoon kinds of angles that were and are still popular in animation. Things that are far away are always higher on the screen. This was something from the Scarry books. We also used a lot of white in the background to achieve that kind of vignette sort of look. It wasn't painted solid side to side like typical Nelvana kind of shows. It was really a cool look and I think the stories all had a nice twist ending. It was an interesting show for young preschool kids because we had a lot of information and details they would never have been exposed to. It was very whimsical looking with the things like the pickle car and the banana car and Lowly Worms apple car. But we showed a lot of stuff like how the inside of a fire station operated and the variety of firetrucks they use. I think we had more time to develop different things on that series than most preschool series even dream about nowadays.

DL:Did you have any interference with the Scarry family?

GB:I don't know that I would call it interference, but I did work with Huck quite regularly. His dad was not in the picture. But we would send the models and scripts and storyboards rough cuts to Huck. It all went out by fax machine in those days. He would often be able to send a sketch the next day if he had a better idea for a model or some details on the model in order to keep it in the Scarry world. But he did go through all the material promptly. It is always a matter of getting non-animation people educated about now backtracking on things at a later stage when they finally notice something they want to change. Like, don't start changing the character or background when we send out the storyboard and you have already been shown the designs a few months earlier. I think Huck got used to those things over the course of the season and wasn't a big problem that I can remember.

DL:Also I believe that Richard Scarry sold the rights to France Animation first because he was living in Switzerland. And France Animation was close by in France and they called CiNAR to co-produce and Showtime/Paramount came to broadcast and finance the series.

GB:I didn't know that! We had already been working with France Animation on other shows before that so I figured CiNAR asked them to partner on it. But I understand what you are saying and it's quite possible. I wouldn't know.I am not surprised that Richard Scarry would sell off his rights in Europe. He moved out of the US a long time ago and always had nasty stuff to say about the US. He was super right leaning and rigid from what I know about him. He was avoiding living in a country where he would have to share his taxed money with poor people. I think it would have been pretty crazy doing the show with Richard Scarry.

DL:I never knew he was anti-American.

GB:He was American himself. I would clarify that and say he was anti -America. He was pretty anti-a lot of things.

DL:The Little Lulu show for HBO and Golden Books.

GB:Little Lulu was a series I developed between seasons of Richard Scarry. This time I wanted to do something with a different and strong graphic style to it. So we had these characters and backgrounds with incredibly thin lines. It was still all drawn in pencil or pen in those days so it could be hard to get the proper line sometimes in production. It looked very beautiful but I admit the format of the show with all those small bits and pieces was hard to watch for a whole episode. The stand up comic bits were not funny and were lame. One of the producers loved Seinfeld and was sure that copying Jerry Seinfeld's standup section would work in a cartoon. But how would you get an animation writer to write a stand up routine? It is something that comics try out and constantly refine by reciting it to a live audience. It was the one series that I actually went to do the pitch and sale at HBO. I did the pitch and Ron Weinberg did the sale that is. The HBO producers owed a favour to Tracey Ulman for something she did for free for them, so they insisted we use her to do the voice-over for Lulu as part of the deal. Again it really hurt the series because she sounded old and gruff. She was totally wrong for the part of Lulu. The initial sale was to do 5 specials. So we used her for those 5 shows only. The show went to a full series of 26 episodes before we even delivered the first special. There was a lot of stuff I liked about the show but it wasn't as much of a hit as Richard Scarry was as far as sales went. Also like I say it had some irritating aspects to the episode because of so many little pieces that were not funny or did not help the flow of the episode. I was introduced to some great voice actors on the show like Michael Caloz that did Annie, and Bruce Dinsmore that did Tubby. These were the best characters in the series and I worked with these actors again later on Arthur because of the Lulu Series. I directed the first 5 episodes then I was a supervising director for the remaining episodes. So I was less hands on at that point.

DL:Well I like Tracey Ullman's voice for Lulu as it fitted the character weirdly and also a youtuber pointed it out too about the Seinfeld bits.

GB:In hindsight, I think the way to write the standups would be to give a theme to a standup comic and have them improvise a 30-second routine on the subject. And record it while they do it. Write it down and give the recording and written script to the voice actor to try to copy the timing and natural speaking rhythm of the standup. Something like that. But to get an animation writer to write and script then expect a voice-over actor to attempt to deliver something with the stand-up comic timing was not a good approach. It is not spontaneous sounding. There was a series about a psychiatrist that used stand up comic routines for his patient sessions. I forget the name of the show now.

DL:Dr Gnudo I believe.It was a segment on The Tracey Ullman show.

GB:I was thinking of Dr Katz.

DL:Papa Beaver's Storytime for France 3 and Nickelodeon?Also, did you watch the original Little Lulu cartoons or read the comics?

GB:I did read Little Lulu comics when I was young and I remember the cartoons as well. When we did the new version I watched a lot of them again. The history of Little Lulu was very long as far as the comic but also as a cartoon. It was made by a lot of different studios over the years. So we were just one more part of the line that makes up the history of it. I have a couple of the old comic books from long ago.

DL:That's cool!

GB:I always called Papa Beaver by the French name Pere Castor because we were the minority partner on the project and that was the name of the project until they dubbed it. I was a co-director. I loved those shows at the time because the stories were based on classic folk stories from around the world. So they had good stories and we copied the visual style of each book we used. No 2 shows looked alike. The beaver and the children beavers at the start of each show were done in France by the main director. So we had a lot of fun on our side doing peculiar and unique-looking small cartoons. Some were really weird stories like a raindrop that falls out of the cloud onto the farm field and eventually goes into a river. The story could be any length we wanted as long as it was under 4 minutes. I have never worked on anything that did not have a fixed length before or after that series. It was a fun show to do until people started calling me Pere Castor. I think we did 26 of those stories.

DL:Well, is it because you're Canadian hence the name?

GB:It just sounded like I was so old. If I was American it could have been worse using your logic. I would have been Papa Bald Eagle

DL:LoL! Legend of White Fang for HBO/The Family Channel?

GB:That was my first job at Cinar/Crayon Animation. I was a posing supervisor. That is the posing department would drawn the key animation poses as well as the camera key for camera work and field so it could be sent overseas for animation. Mostly what I remember is that the studio was very disorganized at that point and it was hard to get enough work from the layout department to keep my really small crew supplied with work. they were on piece work so it mattered to them. I did that show for 3 months or so and then the series Bunch of Munsch started falling behind and I got a chance to direct on 2 of the Munch specials.We had a historian as an advisor on White Fang . It was Pierre Berton who every Canadian knew at the time as a regular on CBC. Anyway, the interesting thing he pointed out in one script is that the people could not have sent a telegram to get help from the Mounties in one of the shows, because telegram service was something that was only available along the rail lines. White Fang takes place in the Klondike gold rush which is in the mountains and a few thousand miles away from the nearest railway line. It all seems pretty obvious but you can see how animation writers left on their own had no problem putting in a story point like that which would seem idiotic to anyone that knew how telegram lines work. I remember we had a scene in White Fang where the little girl was being held in a cage by the bad guys in this remote cabin in the wilderness. It was kind of kinky looking. Anyway one day one of the layout guys left a drawing from a scene with white fang hanging by his leg from a tree in a leg-hold trap. It did look pretty grim. The producers were doing a tour of the studio for some daycare teachers, and they saw the picture which freaked them out. Everyone got a lecture about it the next day even though the artist was just following the scene in the storyboard that he was supposed to follow. So for the little girl in the cage in the log shack, we changed that so the bad guy slept outside in the snow beside the cabin. It looked totally insane and confusing. I believe the bad guy's name was Beauty even though he looked like a big thug. So weird stuff happens in animation and it isn't always the animators doing dirty drawings on the side.

DL:Oh well, so you scared some preschool teachers, I find that actually funny.It's weird and absurd.Caillou for Teletoon and PBS?

GB:Caillou didn't run on PBS in the first season. Cinar had joined with Astral and Nelvanna and created the Teletoon Cable station in that period. If I recall it was 50 Astral and 25% each for Cinar and Nelvana.Caillou was developed from a Quebec book property that was already popular in Quebec in French only. So we were working with a local publisher and artist that illustrated the books. I remember there was a lot of push to put hair on Caillou but it just wasn't the same character anymore and I didn't have much problem with him being bald figuring a lot of little kids don't have much hair at that point. Later on people would send letters thanking us for the show because they had cancer and lost their hair too. They believed we did it because Caillou had cancer. I am always happy to hear these little unintended things have good consequences for some people that can use any good news they can get. The show was more popular than I thought it would ever be and it took off and kind of spread, including to PBS. There was always talk of renaming the show because it was hard for English people to read the name. The kids never had any problem with it but it scared the parents. I guess it was good for having made a new word known to Anglophones because we never changed that nor did we give him hair. The name translates as Pebble so that name was already known from the Flintstones so that didn't catch on. I developed the show from a book series to a TV series and directed the first bunch of shows before I moved to Supervising Director on it. I believe we were doing Arthur by then so likely I had worked Caillou during the off-season on Arthur. Caillou got kind of messed up after a few seasons when they added some live-action parts to the show. I heard that the kids that had been following the show in the earlier years were having traumas and crying because someone turned off Caillou. They were actually crying because a producer or sales executive messed up a perfectly fine show for little kids by adding some marketing idea to the show. The kids finally got their way and they took that crap out on the following seasons. Some parents often complained that Caillou was too whiny and their own kids never whined. I think they never sat in a restaurant behind their own kids, however. They were probably whining because of the live-action scenes in the Caillou show.

DL:Did you supervise the lost grandmother scenes of Caillou?

GB:What do you mean? The storyteller?

DL:Yes it was the opening format for the show in season 1-4 as the caillou segments were stories she read to her grandchildren.And were animated in a different style then Caillou segments.

GB:I remember going to the record session for those parts. It was pretty brutal. The actress was a former grammar school teacher and was very stubborn about the way she was willing to act out the line even when it didn't make sense in the overall context of the scene. I don't think it would make the show worse to remove that section except that kids don't have time to go get a snack before the story begins.

DL:Animal Crackers for Alphaim, Teletoon and Fox Kids.

GB:I didn't have a lot to do with the show in the end. At that time I was head of the visual look of new shows in development. The show almost sold itself because it was well known from the comic strip and the look was popular. It still always needs to be developed for TV but it went through my hands pretty fast before it was sold for a series. I was a Supervising Director on it. but not very hands on. It was a cute show but it didn't run very long.

DL:Paddington Bear for Filmfair/TF1/HBO and ITV?

GB:Paddington Bear. Interesting history on that property. It came about because Cinar bought Filmfair. FlimFair made the original series that ran on PBS as probably their first animated series. It was probably on PBS in one of their first year of being. Anyway we all thought we had fond memories of that old series so we all rushed out to watch old episodes of the show. Wow, was it ever crude. Anyway Filmfair still owned the rights for television. Michael Bond was still alive and he was all excited to do a new series. So I read a book or 2 of his books of short stories. I realized quickly why I never read them to my daughter when she was young. The stories were not even stories and they were trite and sentimental. The stories didn't have an ending; they just waffled away into nothingness. Michael was very involved and kept his nose in the business of the scripts on the series. He did his best to make those nothing endings on the stories so that was a barrier to making a decent show. The illustrations in the book are very scribbly and drawings with no structure so they didn't offer anything we could use to base the characters on. I'm not too happy in the end with the look we got for the characters. They are terribly typical looking characters for a preschool show at the time. It looks very generic like Denise the Menace or any number of shows with no style. Michael Bond thought that every time Paddington would say marmalade that it was just hysterical so it is in every show and it never makes me laugh. It's the trite kind of thing I mentioned. I did visit Paddington station in London the one time I was in London for a few hours. The idea was that Paddington Bear got his name because he was found wandering around in Paddington Station. The station is a really amazing example of 19th century iron work. It was designed by Isambard Brunel the great inventor of iron ships and buildings. There is a cartoon short from the UK about him that is excellent.

DL:I didn't like Paddington either, but I like the live action film. Have you seen the film?

GB:No, I didn't. I'm sure it was better than the series. Does the story have an ending? We should have just let Film Fair make a new stop-motion Paddington. It would have been well received. Paddington had a very extensive licensing franchise. We had these licensing people come from the UK and they explained how the image has been used all over the world and how it goes out of popularity just as it becomes popular somewhere else for some totally unrelated product. Some places in Asia gave free towels in laundry boxes and other places like Holland made cookies with the image. It was really interesting to see how licensing makes money like that.

[lily-orchard]

What's a trope that you hate but could easily be done better?

Hair as development.

It's a pretty simple trope. People change their look and style when they feel it doesn't suit them. Your hair, your clothes, etc are all a way of expressing yourself.

But in practice, especially where female characters are concerned (but not exclusively) the ideas start and stop at "Just give her the same pixie cut/shaved sides that literally every gender non conforming woman has ever had, ironically."

In the case of men, it's "They have long hair? Time to give them a buzzcut!"

Here's the thing, it works if you actually have an idea for the character. Captain Marvel comes back in Endgame with a shorter hairstyle, and it very much suits her stiff, rigid, aggressively military posture. This is a woman who goes to a funeral but takes the time to make sure her pants are perfectly pressed. Nothing about her is relaxed. Everything is rigid and stoic. Even fighting Thanos she barely emotes.

And that's something reflected even before this. She lost her memories and was brainwashed by the Kree, but even when learning the truth of who she was, she never got those memories back. She's as disconnected from her previous self as if they were a stranger. Her conditioning as a Kree soldier and what little she can remember of aspiring to join the Air Force is pretty much all she is. Military has overtaken her entire personality.

That's very cool. Especially given it precedes learning that Monica is angry at her for abandoning her family, and setting up actually having to unpack the very real reality that an extreme wrong was committed against Carol and she's been violated in some way. Thankfully without all that Marcus shit this time.

Where it often doesn't work is when the writer is literally taking a shortcut to character development. They don't have a whole lot of ideas, but they know that changing a character's appearance is taken as a big deal so...

Just so I'm not ragging on She Ra too much, Scorpia is a much better example of "haircut signifies character" throughout the entire show. Probably because the EP wasn't projecting onto her.

This combines with the fallacy that "Short = Growth." There's plenty of ways to use hair to signify development, it's just that the development has to exist.

Maybe they're depressed and so their hair is always a mess and better mental health means tying it back or brushing it because now they have the energy for small tasks like that and are taking better care of themselves. Maybe you have someone who's grown cavalier and apathetic and so they don't bother doing anything with it and let it fall where it may.

Yeah I know I just described Alie and Rey, that's kinda my point here.

It's not a very difficult sell, it's just that some people are still stuck in the 1980's where "SHE CUT HER HAIR SHORT?!" is still considered a shocking swerve even after the 10,000th character does it.

This is especially true given that nine times out of ten (and especially with the one above) the thought process is "make the character look more like the executive producer."

It's important to remember that the most immediately recognizable aspect of a character is their silhouette. And a lot of character design tropes strip that away.

It's obvious this trope can be "done well" but the problem is that there's isn't a shortcut to "doing it well." When people ask "how do I do X trope well" they're looking for a one size fits all answer so they don't have to think. It's Maslow's Hammer.

But for this trope, there really is no faking it. It's pitifully obvious when you've thought about it and when you haven't because it's the same two haircuts every single time when you haven't. You need fresh ideas that you've actually thought about and you need to really re-examine the insidious gender roles you've internalized and can't break away from.

[loopy777]

Yeah thats kinda the problem with following genres. Because they are living, breathing things that change, follow trends, rebel against trends, deconstruct their mediums, reconstruct their mediums, and are vastly different from decade to decade.

Thats one of the reasons the movie superhero craze is effectively over at this point. Just like Westerns, the market became oversaturated, but it's also become almost impossible to just watch superhero movies just on the face of them anymore. There is never going to be another superhero movie that isnt going to be affected, in one way or another, and judge to the entire infinity saga.

Superhero movies will now always be judged whether they are trying to recapture the feel of the previous MCU, is it rebelling against that, is it doing its own thing? Is it trying to deconstruct the formula Marvel set up? Is it a throwback?

We'll see more cycles as time goes on, just like the superhero golden age gave way to the silly silver age, the bronze age followed after that trying to be more serious, the dark ages took that idea and ran it into the ground, the following age came as a response to that, which in turn ended at one more day, qfter which it all just eventually began to permanently fall apart as the years went on, and readers as a whole left the medium for other pastures.

And thats just one medium and genre, all built on top of what came before in one way or another.

But in regards to MHA, its actually an interesting study in how different people can take something completely different from the same medium, because not everyone has been following the same things.

For example, you yourself noted that you thought of MHA as a reconstruction of the superhero genre.

I however, can tell thats not quite the case... Oh it certainly does reconstruct the Superhero genre, that part is absolutely true... But MHA is pretty much a very thorough deconstruction of all the many, many shonen series that followed in One Piece and Naruto's wake, that tried to copy them.

I wont repeat what i said about how OP unfortunately destroyed the way shonen handled death and injuries, but thats hardly where it ends.

Bakugo was originally imagined as this nice guy rival... Because thats what the series that followed after One Piece and Naruto did. As such, the way he instead went the completely different direction was a direct respone/challenge that entire idea.

Izuku being nervous and shy, but also reliant on a massive intellect rather than just massive physical combat talent was also a direct response to the countless stupid but confident shonen heroes that Dragon ball began, One Piece perfected, and so many other series has just produced bland, and very bad leads trying to mimic what Oda and Toriyama did.

Inko's entire existence and the fact she's still a part of her son's life is pretty much alien to the way the vast, vast majority of shonen handles parents, especially female parents by for all intents and purposes not being part of their kids lives, or more commonly just dead.

The mentor All Might being a proactive and active part of the story, and not dying midway through is again, pretty much the opposite of how shonen series does things. Killing off the obi-van/big good, is so standard in shonen that even One Piece, champion of never killing anyone, did it. And what few series does not, eventually just makes them completely useless to the narrative, as it's clear they never had any plans for how to handle said character surviving.

World building, and in universe politics, and how the setting worked is brought up front and explained from day one, and having characters lives being directly affected by it, is a response to series such as One Piece, Fairy Tail, and many others that gives the premise, but takes a long time before it really explains the powers that rule the world, in favor of character development.

The tournament arc ultimately ended up being completely meaningless in terms of rewards, and the hero didn't even win it, nor tie fighting his big rival. Needless to say, that's not how shonen lately tends to do it.

I could go on, but you get the gist. A LOT of how MHA is built is deliberately because HORI structured it that way, having learned from his orevious works, Barrage and Oumagadoki zoo. Both were completely bog standard shonen manga that while not bad, didn't really manage to attain actual success.

Zoo was a more episodic comedy manga with a supernatural element, that changed over to being a battle manga when that didn't pan out, then got canceled. Meanwhile, Barrage was a far, far more competently put together battle manga, that took all the tropes One Piece had popularized and used them to tell a story... That completely flopped, because while it was genuinely good, there wasn't much that made it stand out amongst the crowd of other shonen.

And so, when crafting MHA he did so with the mind set of telling a good story, while also deconstructing and then reconstructing so many of the shonen tropes that was popular in shonen as MHA was released.

Izuku was a genuinely wimpy, but kindhearted kid who wanted to be the most inspiring hero in the world, not the worlds strongest "insert whatever profession here" in a genre where powerful, but idiotic, and supremely ambitious anti-heroes like luffy that though had a good heart, was not exactly a traditional hero, reigned supreme, that was genuinely fresh, and had solid foundations to built a good character off of.

All Might was the great power of his world, but unlike One Piece's Whitebeard, the shadowy and in the background strongest pirate in the world, who's role was effectively to have the entire political status quo of the world disintegrate after he died, All Might's role was to be the Main characters mentor and friend who gave him advice, wasn't alway right, and would go on to lose the power that defined him and his world. Again, a subversion, but one with well planned foundations.

The world of Heroes is explained in very huge detaol from day one, unlike One piece and fairy tail, and so many others, including Barrage, because Hori knew from personal experience that trying to take your time on explaining the world could very, very easily backfire if the readers didnt get invested in it from day one.

All of this came together to create a very good deconstruction and reconstruction of the entire Shonen genre, which as you pointed out, also worked great as a reconstruction of a lot of the aspects that the superhero genre that Hori decided to set his world in, had forgotten or left behind for such nonsense as deals with the devil, multiverses, massive crossovers, abandoning of true heroics, and so on.

Its also telling that the one place where hori decided to just follow the standard Shonen formula of the day, Izuku relationship with his love interest Uraraka, is far and away the most boring part of the entire series.

Overall though, it managed to hit the homerun that is the best of two worlds. It managed to hit the world wide appeal that so many modern series sacrifices everything to appeal to just by being a good story, and it managed to appeal to japanese manga fans who were hungry for something else that was not just following in One Piece's or Naruto's footsteps.

The huge backlash the arcs post the war arc has gotten, is very much a further response to that, as the series that once prided itself on NOT playing all the shonen tropes straight, began to do exactly that, and is now in the middle of a drawn out, slog of a final that so, so, so many other shonen series had fallen victim to over the years.

Heh, don't tell my brother that the Deku/Uraraka romance is the most boring part. It's one of his favorite parts. He think it's criminal what an Uraraka figma is going for on the secondary market.

You have a good analysis of the ways MHA builds on the shonen genre, and I didn't mean to imply that it was exclusively drawing from superhero genre. As you note, there's a good fusion going on there, and I think that speaks to a larger point about genre in general- it can be strengthened by blending it with other genres, or at least lessons learned from other genres.

I think it's notable how controversial you've revealed to me the final battle to be, given its context in the shonen genre, and there's no specific equivalent in the superhero genre for me to draw on as an example. Superhero comics don't end- at least not outside AU graphic novels, and those largely all draw on The Dark Knight Returns for their formula, so they're more like a dark epilogue to superhero's story rather than a culmination. Superheroes can have final confrontations with an enemy or two in movie adaptations, but there's no "Final Battle of the Justice League" where all their members fight all their villains. (The closest thing I know of is Kingdom Come, but again, that draws heavily from The Dark Knight Returns, and so we have the JL coming out of retirement in a post-modern world to make a statement about 90s comics.)

The only comic I can think that really tries to be a definitive ending for a superhero is 'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?' for the Silver Age Superman. And, because it's Alan Moore, almost the entire cast dies. So that's not much help to MHA. And it struggles under the burden of those Silver Age Superman comics not having an ongoing story or links between its villains. As we all know, manga is a very different animal in terms of structure than Western comics because of being able to tell a single story with a singular creative vision, no matter how drawn out it may be.

Anyway, I guess I'm saying I hope MHA provides some lessons to the next work that tries to bridge Eastern and Western comics, on both sides of the Pacific.

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

Hi. Space and time travel is a thing in my story. But my main question is about language because the most important is you've got to be able to communicate! A lot of stories just fully handwave it by a "universal" translator unless miscommunication is actually the point. I really do not understand how translation still works when the characters are going places completely new to the entire society. How advanced do such translators really have to be to really be effective? One key thin about translators is that they need to be programmed, but there are always new languages and period stuff that that wouldn't exactly be in the database, or not enough to really be comprehensive. If it is a spoken translator, then how about accents? Where are all the blind spots to such technology?

Utuabzu: This question actually touches on one of my personal bugbears - I have a deep and intense loathing for the trope of the universal translator. I understand that it's used mostly as a convenience for the writers so that they can dispense with the long, complex process of developing a contact language and learning how to talk to a deeply foreign group, but this irks me because that is actually fertile ground for storytelling.

Your basic problem with any machine translation is that unless you have true AI running it, a machine translator can only translate what is said (or signed, or written etc), not what is meant. And that part is crucial. A great deal of any language is implication, reference, convention and metaphor - this is the area of study for the linguistic sub-field of pragmatics, the study of what is meant by a speech act beyond the literal meaning - and machines can't deal with this. A machine has no idea what ��in bocca al lupo》 (Italian, literally 'in the mouth of the wolf') signifies, or why in the context of someone preparing for an exam a good translation into Russian would be 'ни перо, ни мех' (literally 'neither feather, nor fur'*). 

There is actually a process for establishing communication with previously uncontacted peoples, this is not actually a new problem, and the basic processes remain the same - work out important nouns and verbs (depending on what is needed at the time this could be important trade goods or just basic day-to-day things), construct a very basic grammar (almost certainly analytic) and work from there to develop a pidgin (if contact is to be long term). Over long periods, this pidgin will either develop into a creole as children learn it as their first language and develop the grammar and lexis, or it will disappear as those involved learn pre existing languages and translate directly between them.

All of this, of course, assumes that you're dealing with humans or very human-like aliens. Talking to aliens would almost certainly present far more difficulties than talking to humans, because we cannot assume they communicate in a way at all like humans, nor that they think like us. They might have radically different means of articulation that produce sounds humans are incapable of making, or potentially even hearing. They might not communicate through sound at all -  they might use sign, or skin pattern changes like some cephalopods, or bioluminescence, or pheromones, or any combination of these or other things I can't think of at this moment. Even humans signed languages have a very different syntax to spoken languages - rather than a nominative-accusative, ergative-subjunctive, or semi-ergative alignment, signed languages generally use topic-comment systems. 

Aliens might not think in a manner even remotely familiar to us - what to us would be very obvious implication could be a total non-sequitur to them and vice-versa. They might not have the same concepts of self, time, truth, consequence or agency as us. They might not have directly equivalent concepts to nouns, verbs or other lexical classes. They might not have grammatical concepts we consider basic, like aspect, and they might have entirely unfamiliar ones.

In order to have a machine translate here you need it to be able to understand the meaning and intent behind the 'speech' of both parties, and be able to render that in a manner comprehensible to the other. This requires something capable of understanding intent and predicting interpretation, which requires it to have theory of mind, which is a big hurdle. If you've made a machine with theory of mind you've made a fully sapient AI, and if that exists in your setting that is going to have a lot of implications.

First contact with aliens of roughly equivalent or less advanced technological level is likely to be fraught with danger and potential for misinterpretation. What one side sees as a respectful, placating gesture could read as an attack or an insult to the other. Considerations that would need to be made include the anatomy and biochemistry of the aliens - do they even breathe oxygen? What composition is their medium and at what pressure and temperature? Diplomacy generally works better when you don't accidentally melt the emissaries. Some accounting for evolutionary history and the likely consequences for psychology would be necessary - small herbivores are likely to be more skittish than large predators, assuming of course that trophic levels even work in a remotely similar way in their native ecosystem. Then there needs to be accounting for social structure - do they even have a clear concept of hierarchy? Do they have a clear concept of individual identity? Are you dealing with space bees or space cats? Or even a single vast space mushroom?

The process of working this out and working out how to interact meaningfully with them is a great source for dramatic tension and obstacles for protagonists, and it's a shame that so many stories just brush it all off and have a universal translator that magically deals with it all.

With all of that said, Universal Translator is a very well established trope in scifi and nobody would really blink twice at you using it. Unless it's somehow relevant to the plot, you can just handwave everything I mentioned above. Nobody will actually care. It's one of those suspensions of disbelief we're all used to making. If you need to justify it, you can always go the Dr Who route and have it be mildly (and somewhat unsettlingly) telepathic, so that it skips the language entirely and just translates the meaning.

*both of these are wishing good luck, something that could also be very difficult to translate to an alien given they very well might not even have a concept of luck.

Tex: I’m coming from a sciences, rather than linguistic, background, so my interpretation of your question is going to come from that angle.

One of the main arguments - and complaints - about programs is that they require manual interaction at certain points, no matter how complex they are. This can be a boon - requiring confirmation of particular intersections of check-points (good security), or it can be a detraction - the next step cannot be completed without a manual input and thus stalls the program indefinitely (program freezes and crashes).

Programs are intended to perform calculations. Ideally, they do so on an increasingly automated basis, i.e. their databases are pre-populated with answers to particular questions. You generally get bug reports when either the question side or the answer side of some code is missing or mismatched to the ideal end result (Wikipedia).

In an especially ideal world - provided it doesn’t come with maliciousness - is a program that can pre-populate its database by itself, via extrapolation of provided data points. This is, more or less, AI.

We do already have the basis of what is popularly known as a Universal Translator, and no, not in the form of Google Translate. Hyro has a good primer on this here, where it gives a TL;DR of computational linguistics and some common examples - a spell-checker is one of those.

Computational linguistics (Wikipedia) is what makes a Universal Translator (UT), as well as natural language processing (Wikipedia). It relies upon the principle that language is fundamentally algorithmic, and by humans interacting with computers, computers learn the particular algorithms of how a human would construct a sentence and from then entire conversations.

To give an example from a different perspective, humans are taught non-native languages algorithmically. First they are taught their base code, such as alphabets, phonetics, and sometimes parts of speech. Then they are taught pieces of algorithm, such as frequently used phrases and colloquialisms. With this new database, they are then encouraged to extrapolate data points, such as writing essays and freestyle conversations between peers.

The teacher will receive this input, analyze it, and then give the student the output of things like grades and (ideally) feedback on how to improve. This adjusts the student’s ability to compute what proper sentence or semantics are, and then use that input to create modified outputs in the form of (ideally) improved conversational and literacy skills.

This is a structured setting, and relies upon basic educational principles. While humans may be organic, and a UT may (typically) be inorganic, the input-output process generally follows the same structure, mostly because brains are set up to do things in an algorithmic manner.

Brains can fill in a lot of gaps, and currently anyone who studies the brain may know a lot but not quite enough to connect all the dots and provide a definitive answer. This is a lot of the reason why we don’t have one-to-one computer models of the brain - we just don’t actually, really, truly know exactly how the entire brain works. The more you know, the less you know kind of deal.

I will note that language education is different in format than language acquisition, i.e. language acquired through natural means. The latter is different because it requires a lot of up-front observation before participation, which takes much longer and can be especially frustrating for someone who already knows a language and is trying to learn a new one without having enough time to allocate to immersion. This is one of the reasons why language education is popular, because it relies upon a student already knowing a basic framework of what a language looks like, in order to spot a language that looks a little different (see: humans’ general ability to look at an animal and be mostly certain saying “yep, that’s a dog”).

A good UT is primarily immersive, because it already knows what a language is. That’s the hard part! If you teach it (read: program it) to learn how to parse an input and sort it into “something that looks like a language”, then it can go to the next step of “this is language, see what part is which”.

In defense of failures such as slang, euphemism, metaphor, double entendres and other such uses of words to mean something other than their original/popular denotations: humans err in interpretation, too, because they are pre-programmed with biases. Programs have the biases that are given to them by their coders (e.g. “inherited”), they just look different than ours because of our current definition of culture and logic as culturally defined.

Psychological valency (Wikipedia) and linguistic valency (Wikipedia) are both things that can be programmed, because they are variables that can be defined and extrapolated upon once given foundational procedures of interpretation. In effect, learning.

Additionally, nobody actually said that a UT needed to only run via audio - you can always make it run on visual components, as well. A good argument for this is the Facial Action Coding System (Wikipedia). It’s a manual code about human facial expressions and their accorded meaning that has been transferred to computer models, and has also been certified for the research of multiple animals.

“Advanced” technology is an adjective generally left up to comparison and interpretation. If it exceeds the requirements of its programming, then I suppose a certain point of view would consider it “advanced”, rather than “mediocre” or “bad”.

Blind spots of the program are blind spots of the programmer. A success would be considered if the program is capable of extrapolation to the point of ameliorating its own deficiencies in parsing input for a sufficiently satisfactory output, something that is once again the domain of AI.

Google Translate, as a contemporary example of this answer’s day and age, operates in 133 languages and the program occupies 31.58 MB (Android)/123.7 MB (iOS) (Wikipedia). If you’re wanting to look at a guesstimate, I’ll pick a semi-random value from the Drake equation page and pick thirty non-Earth civilizations (Wikipedia). Presuming, for the sake of simplicity, the exact same amount of languages Google Translate has exists for each of these 30 civilizations and occupies the same amount of space on a computer, then:

An Android device would hold 133 languages * 31.58 MB * 30 civilizations = a program that is 126,004.2 MB for a Google Translate-level UT. For the nerds, that would be ~126 GB.

On iOS, this would be 133 languages * 123.7 MB * 30 civilizations = 493,563 MB or ~493.6 GB or ~0.5 TB.

For some visualization, Doom (the video game popular for testing on wildly different platforms) is 2.39 MB (Quartz). A Google Translate version of UT at current contemporary levels would be, respectively, 52,721.42 Dooms (Android)/206,511.72 Dooms (iOS).

TL;DR - Give a program a good kickstart and it can learn on its own, much like a human would.

Further Reading

Algorithms for Computational Linguistics - University of Saarland

Natural language processing (NLP) - TechTarget

Linguistic Fundamentals for Natural Language Processing: 100 Essentials from Semantics and Pragmatics by Emily M. Bender on KDnuggets

Translating lost languages using machine learning - MIT News

Algorithm - Wikipedia

Code - Wikipedia

Learning Languages - The Learning Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Language Acquisition: An Overview by Kristina Robertson, Karen Ford on Colorín Colorado

Euphemism - Wikipedia

Dependency grammar - Wikipedia

[poorcitrusmanagement]

Ed and reading, learning how to

So I love Stede teaching Ed to read as much as the next person, but having given it some thought, I don't think it would actually work out, not right away. To his credit, I think Stede would be an incredibly passionate teacher. The guy loves books and he's so generous with his things to everyone, but especially to Ed. He'd be delighted to share this passion. But I don't think Stede would be a good teacher, not for Ed who's used to learning practically.

We've seen that Stede can have trouble meeting people where they are at. He doesn't get that Mary doesn't want to live at sea, he's surprised when the crew doesn't take to his managing style right away and he's very insistent on doing a treasure hunt, even though Ed clearly isn't interested. It all comes from a good place, a desire to give something to the people in his life, but he's not very good at recalibrating when it turns out those people don't want the same things.

And then there's Ed who, well – cue gifset of him giving up as soon as things get hard (someone please link it I can't find it anywhere ;-;). He would go in super confident and lose it all in a matter of minutes when they sit down and it turns out that, actually, this is much harder than Stede made it sound. He would lose track of Stede's explanation and sit there, quietly panicking. He keeps humming and 'yep'ing to save face but that doesn't hold up when Stede asks him a question. He would get flustered. It feels like table etiquette all over again. He can hear them laughing, can hear the voice of that Spanish guy berating him.

"Donkey".

You'd be laughed out of town for trying to teach a donkey to read. Ed is just not built for this, he's not that type of person, not smart like Stede. He'd push back his chair and mutter about something on deck that needs his supervision.

Stede manages to coax Ed back a couple of times but they never make it through a lesson. Ed always finds a reason to leave. He seems to become more stubborn and short-tempered with every attempt.

Stede struggles to see where the problem lies. Ed seemed interested in reading so why is he acting like Stede is torturing him? He tries some different approaches but they all involve sitting down for extended periods of time. It's always too much at once and it doesn’t change that Ed ultimately sees himself as undeserving. After a while, they would both get frustrated and call the whole thing off.

Which is why I want to propose to you: 

Ed teaching himself how to read (to a degree). 

If Ed's gonna learn how to read, I think it needs to be driven by his own curiosity, on his terms, without feeling any judgement.

So what if it just starts with words that he likes, words he thinks look pretty. Ed loves anything fancy and delicate. Calligraphy must be mesmerising to him. The slanted letters, the loops, the quills. He plays with Stede’s quills all the time, likes to brush them on his face as he did with the cashmere. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ed developed a natural interest in words and writing. Maybe that’s what put Stede onto the idea for a reading class in the first place. Ed started asking Stede about particular words that he finds in Stede’s journal or books. He’ll ask Stede to read out words that look interesting to him. Sometimes he has a word in his head and he wants to know what it looks like written down. He’s tried a couple of times to copy the writing. It’s sloppy and it looks nothing like the consistent characters Lucius produces, but he’s having fun. There is no schedule or objective. He asks for assistance when he wants it and otherwise Stede lets him be. Ed just likes playing around with words and letters, comparing them, slowly deciphering some of the logic behind them.  

This is not to say that Ed Teaches Himself How to Read™️. He wouldn’t be able to open a book and make sense of it. But eventually, he starts to recognise some of the characters. Bit by bit, he’s more able to break the little blobs up into recognisable components. When he’s studied enough letters, he might be able to recognise a word every once in a while, but that’s about it. Maybe this is the point where he gives Stede’s classes a(nother) go, when Ed has already built up his confidence and he has a way in, rather than starting from nothing and being completely overwhelmed.

The goal isn’t for Ed to become a bookworm. Ed needs to be hanging in the shrouds, throwing knives, strategising about how to blow the next ship to bits. Sitting still with a book for more than 5 minutes only works when he’s in Stede’s lap who plays with his hair as he reads aloud. It's enough that he can look at the cover and have a decent guess at what the story's about. It's enough that he knows enough letters to identify some place names on a map, even though he knows the map by heart. It's enough that sometimes he'll look over Stede's shoulder and he can point at a word he can read aloud. And Stede would look at him like he hangs the stars in the sky. He'd whisper a quiet compliment before pressing a kiss to Ed's cheek.

Ed doesn't have to read. It's just icing on the 40 orange-glaze cake.

[daincrediblegg]

I know we haven’t talked in a while but your tags on the lack of analytical thinking in fan spaces posts? Chef’s fucking kiss Egg. I love character development through erotica so. Fucking. Much. Let me kiss you on the mouth

Bro??? Fucking THANK you. Like. Man I have already talked at length about this problem in fandom spaces on the discord (but fuck it you’ll hear it again) but that post in particular? Like yeah. I understand that a lot of x reader fics don’t tend to get into the analytics of a character because a lot of it is written from a place of self-indulgent comfort. But like… lately especially I’ve found that lacking- and the reasons are numerous (we’ve been having at-length debates about how consumable content- stuff like mcu faff and the like- have changed fandom spaces to produce consumable content- differing from digestible content, such as things like Midnight Mass that have strong themes and blorbos that stick with you- but even with content like that the consumable has been invading that space- and has also created a culture of immediate consumption- hence lack of reblogs of fics and shortened fandom life spans… watch this space) but like especially in this specific sphere I’m seeing more and more canon divergence and lack of touching on the actual themes that the characters get across and represent because of the consumable fandom mindset- and it’s fucking disheartening because I know it didn’t always used to be this way- and especially in the porn end of things when smut was written with more narrative and theme driven thought in mind specific to the character in question, and not instead given the blanket daddy kink treatment for a single minute before something new comes out and the public eye gives the daddy kink to the next character. And idk that shit just fucking vexes me. But anyway I will happily french you over this and thank you for validating me

[flavoredfaeman]

I think that critical roles exu mini series are The perfect examples of how dnd can be utilized to tell a story. I have watched and listened to a lot of dnd and other roleplay narratives, including cr itself, but so far nothing has pulled it off as effectively as exu.

I believe it comes from the combination that is the exu stories, and calamity to be more precise. I think a lot of it has to do with amazing story telling and roleplaying skills of the people at the table (which I have found lacking in many other groups) but those same skills are present in the whole of cr and several other narratives.

I think unlike normal cr in particular it perfectly blends lengths. I rarely truly enjoy the cr oneshots, I find that there is simply not enough time to really care or explore the characters - often because they are under a rush to get the storyline completed, even with the hours they have to do it all. And I find the normal show to be excruciatingly long. I adore the vast character building we get but there are episodes, collections of episodes, where nothing gets done. No plot is advanced is many episodes, and in the episodes where it may be it happens so slowly and subtly that you don't even notice and are still left feeling like you've gained nothing. I personally detest listening/watching any fighting in dnd, with the exception of the rare occasion where it's actually important (I did adore vm vs mn) and there are sometimes episode long fights. Three to five hours of a useless fight - and don't get me started on those multiple episode long fights. Don't get me wrong, I love cr, but that just makes me all the more critical of it's faults. And a lot of this problem is actually intrinsic to cr and some dnd games - the free roam world. Sure there's a plot going on and the dm may try and guide you a certain way but you can really just do what you want. Which I like (another reason oneshots don't thrill me) but not always to the cr extent. I find this time problem far less of an issue in other shows, perhaps simply because most are not the sheer excruciating length that cr is - either is the full series or the episodes. And while I do find it far more manageable in the shows with shorter run times or shorter episodes, I do also find similar problems as with the oneshots. Sometimes the character's really are just not developed, or it takes ridiculously long for them to be. With shorter episodes I frequently find myself wanting more, but in a show that will be producing more content, that is actually a good thing. It keeps me listening. In exu we get a beautiful mix of fully fledged and changing characters and plot!! Exu stories have specific plot points that they need to hit, they have a story that they want to tell, but it's also a fully realized world that they can do whatever in and grow in. It's wonderful. Sure there's four episodes of Calamity, but they're all 3-6ish hours long and that's plenty of time to tell a story.

I think that the exu stories are a perfect gateway into dnd shows, and I think that liking exu but not any other long show is also good. But more than that I believe that we should have more stories like them! I think we should have more reasonably lengthed and accessible dnd stories.* And more than that as well, I think that the longer shows should also take a hint from any of what exu does, I think it could improve even the best of them.

*note: I know many people still wouldn't find the length of the episodes reasonable, but it's entirely possible to pause them as needed (and I encourage it, I do tend to watch them in about 1-2 hour bursts as I draw). I mean more in the length if the whole show, google cr vm number of episodes if you don't know.

[cyberbenb]

Struggles, Inspirations, and Masterpieces of Ukrainian Cinema

For more than a year and a half, Ukraine has been in the headlines because of the war. But Ukraine is more than its fight against Russia – it is also a nation of talented people and culture.

UkraineWorld spoke with Ukrainian film producer Nadia Parfan about the film industry in Ukraine, its struggles, inspirations, and masterpieces. Learn more about current developments in Ukraine’s film industry and about must-watch Ukrainian movies in our 2-part analysis.

Part 1

The Ukrainian film industry in wartime: challenges and opportunities

War is always a time of crisis for a society, and it is highly relevant to culture and cinema. Once the full-scale invasion began, large-scale film production in Ukraine almost stopped. A lot of processes are frozen.

Film production is a human resource-intensive field, since people are its biggest asset. The full-scale invasion caused a serious talent shortage, because a lot of filmmakers are in the armed forces now. Many others had to leave Ukraine to evacuate themselves and their families. This shortage of professionals in the field is a big problem.

Regarding actual production, a lot of foreign productions are working in Ukraine, especially in the documentary and reportage fields, which is a fine line between cinema and journalism.

Even though it’s different from classical film production, a lot of Ukrainian filmmakers have started working as fixers and field producers for foreign media groups, from big channels like the BBC to smaller publications and radio stations from all over the world.

Ukrainian professionals from the film industry are needed there, and they are naturally brought on because they know how to do the work, but became unemployed as a result of the war.

However, some people have remained as filmmakers. This is mostly the case for those in the documentary field and some small-scale independent productions. There’s a boom in documentary projects.

The desire to document events and tell real stories is the first natural reaction to what’s going on in Ukraine.

War is a big drama, and people become heroes, heroines, characters, and protagonists. Thus, there’s a story at every corner, and both international and local creators are telling those stories.

Our company, Phalanstery Films, is working on a project called Another Man’s Diary. It is the story of a pacifist and artist from Odesa who joined Ukrainian army and became a commander of a battalion.

It shows the fundamental transformation of a peaceful civilian into a defender. It’s told in the first person. It’s a diary-based project. The producer of the project is Illia Gladshtein, and the director is Oleksandr Tkachenko.

Another trend in the Ukrainian film industry development these days is international collaboration. Filmmakers are trying to find partners and move some post-productions abroad, and perhaps have co-producers. This can be explained by the difficulties caused by blackouts, constant shelling, and safety issues.

Despite the challenges facing it, the film industry in Ukraine is gradually integrating into the European market.

There are new opportunities to cooperate with Europeans and show them that Ukrainians have talented people and interesting ideas. This trend started before the full-scale invasion. But since February 24, 2022, we have seen a dramatic change in attitudes.

The world has become interested in Ukraine, and Ukrainian filmmakers have gotten the chance to speak on behalf of the whole nation about our experiences.

This is also the result of efforts taken by Ukrainian filmmakers since 2014, since the development of the film industry is a long-term process.

The average cycle of production of a feature film, whether a documentary or fiction, is 3-5 years. Things don’t happen instantly. 2014-2019 was a time of big growth and renaissance of Ukrainian cinema.

Europe is also making efforts to help the industry. There’s an international relief fund created by European countries to support some Ukrainian productions.

And there have been some efforts to employ Ukrainian film professionals. On a personal level, there’s a lot of solidarity and support, which is also important.

ANASTASIIA HERASYMCHUK, ANALYST AND JOURNALIST AT UKRAINEWORLD

NADIA PARFAN, UKRAINIAN FILM PRODUCER

[klahadores]

✨ let's play 10 Qs for GK! 🎆

1- fave character besides harvey/twoface? 2- fave harvey/twoface scene? 3- fave dynamic between 2 characters? 4- best character development? 5- most memorable line? 6- fave plot twist? 7- what did you think of twoface? 8- something you loved about the creation/design? 9- anything you would change about the season 1 plot or characters? 10- what did you think of the season 2 setup?

💌 thanks for sharing the love! #GothamKnights 🦇💋

SLAYYYYY i love quesitons about htingsss this is how i look rn answeirng these btw 👇🏽

in addition to harvey/two face (because he really was showstopper sawwy to the knights), but i reallyyyyy adore duela. not only was she hilarious, her character arc/development throughout the show was great. always enjoyed whenever she was on screen i was like omfgggg my bestie !!

where do i even begin......the one that sticks out in my little brain of mine is when harvey overdoses on his anxiety meds and meets face to face with harv/fugue!harvey. that was absolutely incredible and i replay that scene in my head like a rotisserie chicken bc those writers put their whole pussy into it

at first i was going to say duela and carrie because their dynamic was soooo much fun but after 1x13, harvey and duela pulled my heartstrings like damnnnnnn i did ackshully tear up at that monologue naurrr don't let my mutuals know that. honorable mention are the row siblings because WAHHHHHHH 🥺😭 they mean so much to me

i mentioned duela's development in my first answer and i am not very eloquent with words if we're being honest but the way that she gained a sense of purpose and wanting to actually help gotham through all the trials and tribulations that were thrown at her...really wish we got to see more of that

it's a toss up between "big dent energy" and "guess who rode of the bat wang" .....honestly anything that comes out of duela's mouth is funny as hell who let her be that way

hmmmmmmmmmmm my fave was def harvey being duela's dad. did i call it from a mile away? yes, but it was absolutely satisfying to be right. i actually cheered out loud and punched the air MWAHHH

gosh, when we finally got to see his whole entire face, that shit was absolutely terrifying in a good way. interesting way of how rebecca was the one to toss that acid on his face. sadly, as much as it was all scrumdillyumptious, two face had like a total of three minutes of screentime and we will more than likely never see him again....does anyone have james gunn's number i need to ask him for a favor,

im not following any of the cast and crew of gk pero i have seen some of their tweets and the level of dedication these people put into the show....anyways, everything was so well thought out,,,i nominate the bat cave that shit was really cool. loved the water concept since it wasn't done before in the dc universe

LOL ermmmm, *scratches neck* is this thing on.....NOT to be mean or anything but i wish there was more action. as much as i luv the pauses for breath, i also luvvv ffight sequences. also a part of me thinks the show dragged a little. i know it was only 13 episodes but 18 would've been better. and though i loved the funny bits, sometimes i wish the show took itself seriously. they tried to target to gen z but mannn, at times i had to kinda duck my head bc it was embarrassing and i'm not even gen z. idkk i cant be too harsh on the show bc they did what they could and i enjoyed it overall!!

where is the s2 blueprint ik they're sitting somewhere in the producers' houses....but yeah, i actually liked how gotham knights ended! it works well ffor a mini series. the ambiguity of it all is ripe with possibilities for the fans to gnaw on. turner being trained to become the next batman, the gotham knights putting their boots back on to save the city thinking turner is gone for good, harvey allowing harv to take over with the potential of becoming a major problem....tag me in any stories you write, you guys 👍🏽❤

[watanabes-cum-dump]

Qiu Jia revamp

Uhhh I haven’t done a full body redesign yet but I need to talk about him without flooding the discord server with him bc I think everyone there is tired of him

Anyways,

Meet Qiu Jia, commandant of Gray Raven after the unfortunate circumstances surrounding former commandant Ash Reyes. Originally, the commandant worked under Kurono after graduating from Faust but became a commandant due to the special circumstances of Gray Raven.

“A troublesome young man, but, very good at producing results” - Mr. Smith about commandant Jia.

Originally found in the ruins of Guangzhou, he was taken up to Babylonia as the only surviving human for miles around. Taken in alongside Ash Reyes as Commander Nikola’s charge, he grew up surrounded by a vast wealth of resources and opportunities. Though, he was a rather troubled child and makes it no secret that it is impart to some bad blood with his guardian.

Anyways enough serious stuff time for some fun facts/head canons

Has a pretty volatile personality tbh, kind of hard to like a whole bunch. Really snappy, negative, and pretty rude. Very ruthless as well, doesn’t shy away from endangering people he works with, long as it isn’t him and Gray Raven. It’s the daddy issues lmao. Def needs therapy

Rather promiscuous as well, especially back in his days at Faust Academy.

Had a pretty rocky relationship with Gray Raven at first, but he eventually gets along with them after befriending Liv

On Liv, she’s like his impulse control. She starts to rub off on him and he becomes a little more compassionate. Not to mention, the huge character development (read: trauma) from Survival Luceum and Evernight Beat changed him a lot.

Lucia he just feels really bad for. He finds it kind of awkward to be around her but he gives her cooking lessons and they bond over that

Absolutely could not stand Lee initially. (There’s only room for one blue boy in this house-) But they learn to tolerate each other because of their shared hatred of Kuro. Tries to be a big brother to Lee but let’s be real, Lee is older than him (technically disregarding his mental age) and will not be told what’s good for him by some poor sod with daddy issues AND substance abuse problems

Oh yeah he has those too. When I said volatile I meant it.

Lost his arms in an explosion and his spine got fucked up during Evernight Beat. Has prosthetic arms that make him much stronger than an average human being and a prototype spine implant to help him walk and balance again. Unfortunately, as spinal prosthetics are relatively new, he cannot swim as he cannot right himself whilst suspended in the water.

His cute bunny shaped headgear actually has a function. The “ears” are like satellites and he effectively has more range of communication with Babylonia this way. A new design has been made without the ears but he secretly prefers them, making the excuse that he doesn’t have money to replace them.

See’s Ash as his older brother

Grew up surrounded by politics, but surprisingly, Hassen is like an uncle to him.

Loathes Nikola, despite how similar they are in personality. Also because Nikola used to pit him against Ash when they were younger and he always seemed to disapprove of him and just think more highly of Ash. (Dw it fucked Ash up too)

I’m not even gonna lie to you his taste in men is terrible. He has a crush on ROLAND of all people. Yeah, ROLAND. THE ASCENDANT THAT HAS TRIED TO KILL HIM AND HIS SQUAD ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS. He needs therapy not clown cock.

On that note, I feel like he has vaguely flirty exchanges with Roland whenever they encounter each other. Like leaning on enemies to lovers type shit heavily

Probably recognized Roland’s voice during their little prison escape (Roland affections story) and the schoolgirl inside of him was going ham. Kicking his feet and giggling after.

Likes to explore ruins Gray Raven come across. Mostly on his own because he likes to clear his mind that way. It has gotten him into trouble on numerous occasions.

Chronic bad decision maker

On a more serious note, after Survival Luceum he sort of reconciles with Nikola. Just because after a near death experience they can finally be honest with each other. (Aaaand because Hassen has been telling Nikola to do it before he regrets it)

Loves peaches. Immensely. Peach flavoured cigs/vape.

Oh god his withdrawal periods are super fucking bad. Like it’s really hard for Gray Raven to be around him when he’s going through it. Swore he’d go clean after Survival Luceum since his fucked up body can’t handle more nicotine and alchohol but it’s been hard and he got pretty shaken up by the whole thing.

To end this on a more lighthearted note, he plays guitar and is super into music. Loves sappy Golden Age songs