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avelera · 6 years

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So Raleigh and Mako have their iconic first face-to-face meeting at the helipad and people have written meta about how drift-memories show Mako silhouetted and haloed by the umbrella while Raleigh looks commanding and soulful. We know they'd been writing for a few years but do you have any strong headcanons about how Newton and Hermann first met face-to-face?

(For the record, I LOVE that meta about Raleigh and Mako that you’re referencing!)

This is a really interesting question, Anon! A lot of my headcanons kinda come about either because of fanfic I read that feels “right” or expediency for something I need in a story where I need an explanation that feels “right”. My headcanon about their first meeting is definitely a combination of those two. I think the @hermannhaslovedthestars webcomic does an EXCELLENT job and really solidified for me a sense of what happened, and a vague reference to that sort of set up (which I’ll describe below) even played into some dialogue I wrote for the latest Prisoners’ Dilemma chapter (hopefully forthcoming this week).

I’ll go into detail below, putting it below a cut so I can ramble ;P

So I think their first meeting was a huge disappointment for both of them, like soul-crushing. They had been writing canonically “passionate” letters to one another for years, the idea they were crushing hard on one another remotely is so ubiquitous in fanon it’s practically canon at this point. My thoughts on this draw from other PR meta I’ve enjoyed but they include:

- The letters helped filter out some of Newt’s more rambling and hyperactive interactions and leveled him out enough that he came across as, y’know, a normal human. It also let his genius shine in a way Hermann found appealing.

- Likewise for Hermann–I was going to say that the letters helped Hermann come out of his shell but I just realized that’s fanon and not canon. Canonically, Hermann has no trouble butting into conversations he’s not a part of and saying rather embarrassing personal things like the “Handwriting of God” speech. At least when it comes to his field (which is the extent of how we see him really in the films) he’s not shy at all. So let’s let that fanon die for a second.

- Really what the letters probably did for Hermann was make him less of a stern, judgmental jerk hung up on his work. He’s a bit of a forbidding person even (if not especially) with his social awkwardness. So I imagine it’s more that the letters allowed him the perceived privacy (see his rule about “public displays of affection”) to open up a bit and maybe even make flirtatious overtures and give compliments to Newt. So letters helped him come across as a normal human as well, one who can give displays of affection.

- So then you’ve got this situation where both of them in person are so much more abrasive than they are over letters. Newt is too loud and chaotic and any playful jabs he makes probably don’t land right and end up stinging Hermann’s pride instead. Hermann is too stern and serious, a total killjoy, and his waspishness is on full display. He won’t do anything affectionate in public, where they probably met, so none of his softer side can come through. Newt is bouncing off the walls and not checking himself at all or slowing down to clarify his point or pad it with anything less than his unfiltered internal monologue.

- I see both of their worst social habits going into absolute overdrive as the first meeting progresses. They were both already super nervous, and then as things don’t click they get even more nervous, so they both fall back on their worst behavior instincts, insulting one another and trying to shore up their pride (which both have in spades, to the point of arrogance). This just makes matters worse and before you know it, they’re both in too deep to calm down and check in with one another and see if there’s been some kind of misunderstanding along the way.

- All their worst fears about the other, and about this meeting, are realized. This is in part because I’m sure both had a best case scenario and a worst case scenario in their head, with nothing in between (even though reality is always in between), and it becomes this self-fulfilling prophecy when everything isn’t amazing and it’s not this incredible meeting of souls where finally all the social isolation they’ve felt elsewhere just melts away because they’re with each other.

- Because here’s the thing, our social habits don’t just go away when we’re with someone we care for. No one can read our minds. And it takes a bit of acclimation before even the most attentive soulmate can read what’s really happening in our heads. I think from the letters they thought they knew one another very well and, sure, they knew one another’s minds very well, but not their social cues like, “I insult people when I’m nervous,” for Newt or “I snap at people when I feel like I’ve lost control of a situation,” for Hermann.

- By the way, Hermann canonically shows he cares by snapping at Newt, for example about his safety for the Drift experiment, disguised as criticism of the experiment itself, which Newt was unable to see for what it was. Meanwhile, Newt is like an immature kid on the playground: he pulls Hermann’s proverbial pigtails because he wants his attention, regardless of whether it’s positive or negative attention. But look at how he puffs up around Hannibal Chau as well and tries to impress him! Newt pokes the bear with people whose positive attention he craves, which are people he respects. If he didn’t respect Hermann, he wouldn’t care about getting his attention at all, but Hermann can’t read that about him.

- Most tragically though, I think both of them needed that meeting to be everything for them. They needed to see fireworks and hear the choirs of angels singing. At even the first sign of awkwardness, which could have even been just due to mistranslation or confusion, I think the first chink in the armor appeared, and then everything fell apart like dominoes after that as the anxiety level skyrocketed when things didn’t go as well as they had dreamed (and of course they didn’t, because they couldn’t). And that built the resentment as the other “betrayed” what Newt/Hermann needed from him, emotionally, to the point where it became a wall that was impossible to climb over without one of them, at least one of these two prideful, socially inept geniuses to back down. Someone needed to bend and say, “Hey, did I miss something?” but I also think, for the record, that both of them were bullied growing up and when you’re bullied you often learn 1) how to be a bully yourself and 2) how to not show weakness. So they locked themselves in a game of chicken where neither could back down from being a jerk because to admit weakness was to lose. The pen-pal becomes the enemy and neither knew how to stop it from spiraling further after that.

- I do think they both secretly know they “like” each other, or at least that they see themselves as “in the trenches” together and that they do have positive interactions (largely despite themselves) over the year, but in order to end the fighting, it really does take Hermann conceding that he cares whether or not Newt lives or dies with the “I’ll go with you,” line about the Drift. He’s conceding that Newt’s idea will work (which he resisted before) and helping Newt. Newt immediately construes it as a romantic overture because, well, it kind of is for them in a way that I consider borderline canonical given that the actors played them as in love in Uprising. Hermann ducks a little bit there and pleads “the end of the world” as a reason for his change of heart, but Newt basically disregards that (as he does many things Hermann says, lol) and makes it a friendship thing anyway which Hermann responds to as well, giving lie to his claim that it was pure business.

So to go back to that first meeting… I think it was a date. Maybe they met at a bar or a coffee shop. Maybe it was more romantic than that. Maybe one of them set it up to be a date and the other thought they’d meet before trying to date, and the wires got all crossed. But I absolutely believe that both built up this first meeting in their mind to such heights that there’s no way on earth that they wouldn’t walk away disappointed in some way, and that’s exactly what happened.

Edit: Actually, I wanted to add how I think that would play visually.

I bet in their memories there is a visual change in the Drift from what “really” happened.

I bet both of them are larger than life in that memory. I bet in the memory of the first time they laid eyes on each other they both look amazing, like the hottest fanartist take on the other that you can imagine. Newt looks like a rockstar. Hermann looks like, well, Burn Gorman in a suit when he’s not trying to look “like Hermann” (which has a whole physicality around it to downplay how fucking hot that man really is).

I bet it morphs. I bet they both start to take on aspects of a childhood bully the other had. Newt becomes sneering, Hermann becomes disdainful. They start to “look” like someone who is out to get them but maybe, just maybe, the attractiveness level doesn’t drop. Hey, if you’ve been bullied, if you’ve been socially awkward, then chance are you’ve been rejected by someone you perceived as attractive, to the point where attractiveness itself becomes forbidding.

It could play into them making the other out to be some sort of obnoxious little goblin that’s out to get them: downplay the threat, make it ridiculous and mock it so it isn’t as scary. Hermann is constantly pointing out to others and himself how hopeless Newt is, Newt points out how Hermann’s (probably staggering) intelligence is pointless and basically just self-important noise.

But to go back, I think visually in the Drift they’d see one another as “sneering” for most of their memories, but it would be like scars overlaying this borderline angelic or heroic first image of them informed by that love and hope that things would work between them, before they opened their goddamn stupid mouths and ruined it.

#newmann #pacific rim #pr meta #my meta #kidnapping au #Anonymous

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green-makakas · 7 years

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Cosplay, Fanart and Plagiarism

(gif curtesy to Mel)

TL;DR: An artist traced (!) my cosplay photo without permission, gave me zero credits, sold the prints at a con and denied she’s ever seen my photo. First, both of us, the cosplayer and the photographer, want to say that it would never have come to this if the artist would have immediately apologized to us in person, instead of being extremely rude to us and letting things escalate. A simple sorry and taking down the prints would’ve sufficed. In the beginning of January, being hyped with the new SU episodes, I immediately fell in love with Blue Diamond and cosplayed her. Two months ago, a friend let me know that an artist she saw drew a fanart based on my photo. I was extremely flattered and happy, but also kinda sad the artist gave me zero credits. Us cosplayers and photographers work really hard to get a nice result, and everyone is happy when their photo serves as an inspiration for another artwork. I wrote a letter to her stating that I love her art, but I’d like her to credit me as a source of inspiration (adding the screen shot). For two months, there was silence. I tried it again a few weeks ago, but again, no response. Okay, what can you do…

Last weekend we had a big con in Germany with a huge artist alley and both of us, the photographer and the cosplayer, attended. Suddenly, a friend came to us and said that there’s a girl selling this exact drawing. We were puzzled and decided to go to her booth and look at it ourselves.

Now, I added a gif our friend Mel made of her drawing and my photo overlapping. She didn’t really use me as a reference or an source of inspiration: she simply TRACED my photo. The changes she added to it are minimal! We went to her booth, showed her the photo and asked her to explain this: Why didn’t she ask us if it was okay? Why didn’t she answer two of my messages? And finally, why was she selling it? The artist answered that she’d never seen this photo in her life and she had no idea what we were talking about. Now, dumbfounded by the obvious lie, we asked her to cut it out and to explain herself honestly. She was very rude, didn’t even look us in the eyes and repeated numerous times that she’d never seen this photo, never seen my message and that she wants us to leave right now. We asked her how it could be then, that our photo and her picture were identical down to the folds on the fabric. She avoided answering, flatout refused to continue the discussion and told us to contact her via e-mail instead. No, we said, we are standing right in front of you, so please talk to us now, especially since we had already tried to contact her online.

Then she changed her story and admitted that she HAD seen my message after all, but was too busy preparing for this convention and thus couldn’t answer. Please note: she was contacted TWO whole months before the convention, so naturally we were having none of it. Later on, she changed her story once again and said that she didn’t understand my message bc it was in English and that’s why she hadn’t answered. This whole time, she continued to state that SHE HAD NEVER SEEN MY PHOTO IN HER LIFE. And by god, she was so rude… all in all, the whole thing was very disappointing and disheartening. Seeing as we had no chance to even have a constructive dialogue, we went to con helpers, who were so, so, so kind to us! They looked at the photo and asked us what we wanted to happen. We told them we just wanted her to stop selling this exact print here. That it wasn’t okay doing it and it wasn’t okay lying about it.

Now, the con helper responsible for the artist alley went to the artist’s booth, talked to her and asked us to talk it out in their presence. They looked at our photo and the artist’s picture and immediately took our side. Now, it was THE FIRST TIME the artist admitted that, indeed, our photo MAY have been used to for this picture, but not by her. Supposedly, it now was „a collab with a friend“ who did the drawing, while the artist in question only did the coloring, so she wouldn’t know anything about tracing our picture. Since her story has already changed a few times during our first attempt to talk to her, we were rather sceptical of this new excuse, but then again, shit happens, right? And it would explain her denying the absolutely obvious fact of tracing, wouldn’t it? Well, as we found out a few hours later on her twitter (thanks to another friend), back in January, when she posted the picture, she stated in no uncertain terms that she was the one who drew it.

Translation: „I watched the new Steven Universe episodes a few days ago and since then I’ve got „What’s The Use Of Feeling, Blue?“ stuck in my head“ „And that’s why I drew Blue Diamond today in the morning!“ Notice her claiming credit for DRAWING the picture alone (”ich habe gezeichnet” – “I drew”), without mentioning any colab friends. And needless to say, without mentioning us. Now, either she was lying to us about having a colab partner or she’s snubbing not one, but two parties of credit here. We do heavily lean towards the first option, due to the way this excuse emerged only after she had time to come up with one, but the second option doesn’t make her look much better either. But back to the story. Not having seen this tweet at that point, we relucantly bought the story of the colab partner being the one at fault here. The con helpers asked her how much was selling the print for. 12€ per print, people, and of course she’s already sold a few. We ourselves don’t even sell this photo and meanwhile someone was profiting of our hard work like this :( The story ended with the con helper taking ALL of her prints of Blue Diamond and giving them to me so she can’t sell them again (at least, not at this con). I shook the artist’s hand and told her that her drawings were beautiful, she was obviously very talented and SHE DIDN’T HAVE TO DO THIS. She could have asked and I would’ve said yes! I told her I wished her no harm and that I wished her good luck, but this was not okay and as an artist, she should understand this. I really wish the message came through, but, sadly, she showed zero remorse. She didn’t even apologize, but whatever. * Now. There are a lot of people who have used our photos as references in the past, but they usually ask beforehand and ALWAYS credit us properly. Nothing makes me happier than to inspire other people with my art. It’s a huge compliment to us as cosplayers and photographers. All the person has to do is to simply ask! It is NOT okay to TRACE a photo and to SELL the result with minimal changes… especially not witout permission. It’s just not. My artwork may be used as a reference, but it’s NOT A STOCK PHOTO and not „just“ a reference for art students or aspiring artists. Cosplay and cosplay photpgraphy are also an artform and there’s a lot of effort and money that goes into it! For this Blue Diamond shoot, we:

1) Put effort into developing the idea 2) Bought fabric and made the costume 3) Styled the wig 4) Did the make up 5) Worked on the studio set up 6) Worked on the lightning set up 7) Put thought into compostion and expression of the photo 8) Took the photo 9) Edited the photo

It is NOT A SIMPLE „CLICK“ OF THE CAMERA. We put sweat and blood into this because, same as fanartists, we are huge SU fans and we wanted to honor the amazing new episodes. In no way did I think someone would simply trace my photo and make profit of it without asking me. Of course, I do not own BD, her design or whatever. But this doesn’t mean that what I created isn’t an artwork within its own right and can be freely traced and sold without permission! The changes the artist made in her „drawing“ were minimal and nothing was changed in the concept, the composition, the idea or the artistic expression of the shot.

There’s always a shit storm in the community when someone reposts an artwork without crediting the artist or when people are reposting without credits for internet points, and rightfully so. Here it’s not just about internet recognition, it’s about actual monetary profit. So I do think it’s understandable that we’re deeply upset about this. This is not, in any way or form, some „Cosplayers vs Fanaritsts” discussion, it’s an „Artist vs Plagiarism“ problem. So please, please, PLEASE, just ask if you want to use someone’s photo, give them credit, show them your work! They’ll be so happy, flattered and proud! Don’t be like this artist… the situation here was entirely avoidable and caused unnecessary pain for everyone involved.

Regardless of the upsetting situation, we really want to thank all friends (and strangers) who showed us support! It was incredibly important and reassuring. Biggest thanks go, of course, to Mel who first notified us of the situation and helped us greatly in solving it! And so many props to convention helpers! We’re thankful beyond words!

#steven universe #cosplay #blue diamond #plagiarism

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shiningforvixx · 8 years

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170212 - Monte Cristo Musical Last Day [in Seoul] (Leo)

Wow. I…don’t even know. I guess I need to start at the beginning. No, probably even before that. Today was just a super crazy day ㅇㅅㅇ (This will undoubtedly be a very long post, and definitely not 100% VIXX-related.)

So one of my hobbies is embroidery (this has a point, I promise), and one of my favorite (if not favorite) fanartists is MireyKim. Long story short, I got permission from her to embroider a drawing of hers and to thank her for her permission and for all her lovely pictures I decided to embroider a pouch for her. I went early(ish) to the theater because she was handing out prints of Taekbert drawings. I luckily got there in time and was observant enough to get one. Then I waited for the crowd around her to clear and her friends to settle down(?) before giving her the pouch and a note I had written. It took her a moment, but she figured out I was the embroidery person. Plus she noticed my bag (of her other drawing), and was super sweet and thankful and stuff. I, being apparently a giant awkward human being, basically ran off pretty quickly;;

I was fairly nervous (why??) about giving the pouch to her. (It was funny because she thought the embroidery person was Korean, muahahahaha.) Also, I was feeling…uneasy(?) because of issues with the closing night fanmeet. It seemed like Leo had changed his Instagram post about smiling because people had left things to keep their places and such, but it turned out that he woke up in the morning and was embarrassed, so he took that part out. I was worried for nothing.

The play itself was amazing. I don’t know how they got better every time, but they did. The best part (and where I nearly died) was during Monte Cristo’s party when the different characters were being introduced to the count. Taekbert was introducing his father Mondego who then thanked the count for saving his hamster-like son, as he usually does. However, this time he told Taekbert to show how he can dance really well. After a cheer from the audience, Leo did a little bit of Chained Upㅠㅠ Then he said his dad danced well too, so Mondego did like a half a second of Chained Up!!! Shin Sung Rok is an acting god for not cracking up. I was halfway to the floor. (I also read on Twitter that the composer Frank Wildhorn was sitting behind him with the lyricist Jack Murphy, and they laughed at that part, hehe) Boy, closing night antics thoughㅜㅜ Makes me miss the theater.

Ah, that was in the second act, though, which means it was after intermission, a very strange experience for me. No, intermission itself isn’t strange of course, but I happened to decide to leave the auditorium to stretch my legs. Who do I see in the lobby, but a gathering of white dudes. Two of whom I recognized. Yes. Frank Wildhorn and Ivan Menchell. I always said I would recognize them, but I wasn’t sure until today. Definitely recognize them. Granted, it was a setting that seeing them made sense in, but still. So, me being apparently way more socially awkward than I remembered being, I worried for about a minute and scooted closer and closer to them, finally breaking into their conversation. (The orchestration guy(?) for Monte Cristo was there too I think, but I don’t really know him…sorry;;) Basically I told Frank that the music was great and both of them that I love Mata Hari and am looking forward to Excalibur, Ivan said Mata Hari will be pretty different this time, but better. I’ll take his word. If it’s going to be better…I don’t know what I’ll do when it ends this timeㅠㅠ I also said they should drop a full soundtrack this time, haha. He also remembered where I was from when I tweeted him later ㅇㅅㅇ I was so nervous talking to them though. I didn’t think I would be? Like seriously what is my problem? But it was so…신기해. I don’t have an English equivalent. Unexpected is what is was. And strange. And amazing.

Let’s see…curtain call was also a blast. Leo couldn’t help smiling at the ridiculously loud cheer. Actually all the cheers for everyone were super loud, even throughout the play. Also when Shin Sung Rok introduced him (mentioning him being hamster-like), he just seemed to love him best of all the Alberts. I admit this could be my bias. But it really did seem like everyone loves him…. I didn’t realize how much I had come to like all the actors though (especially the Lee Sanghyeon Mondego…not the one that performed today, haha.) They also called up Jack and Frank… Frank literally…I’m not entirely sure what he did, but it was something like cradle(what are verbs?) Leo’s face as he went by. Did he hug him too or something? I can’t recall exactly, but you could definitely feel the affection. (Plus, Leo was dying of happy embarrassment.) (One more thing, when Shin Sung Rok called the other two Counts on stage, the first was Um Ki Joon, who stood on his tiptoes. Then Kai came out and didn’t want to stand next to him. Shin Sung Rok playfully said that people always are like that around him because of his heightㅠㅠ I know how you feelㅠㅠ Also, Sung Rok almost cried at first. He’s really a precious baby!)

Okay, back to Leo! After the play and curtain call, all the Starlights went to the area Leo told us to meet at for the mini fanmeeting. we ended up all sitting down, and it went surprisingly well. Much better than Mata Hari I’d say. I could even hear him sometimes on account of him having a baby megaphone. He was so smiley and precious. I don’t necessarily remember that much of what he said because that is what fancams are for, but he was so smiley. When he asked if he did well in his role and we all screamed “yes!” he actually sort of shrank back, haha (in a good way, you understand). He also was saying “someone” worked hard (because that’s how Korean works), and we said he worked hard. He said he was talking about himself. OTL That kid. This was also when he told the story about changing the caption on Instagram. He kept shushing people, and it was the cutest thing ever. He was in such a good moodㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ And the manager. He always looks so grumpy, but I know he’s a sweetie. Leo was saying the theater staff didn’t want them to have a fan meeting there, but he and the manager eventually convinced themㅠㅠㅠㅠ Leo also said that there would be things happening this year that would be really surprising! I’m excited for whatever that may be! (Mata Hari? LR? Both? We’ll find out one day~) That’s all I can think of at the moment.

I hope Leo can smile like that foreverㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

Edit: I just remembered that when Taekbert came out to thank the Count for rescuing him from the kidnappers he waved his arm like he was brandishing a sword and made swishing noises then pointed his hand like a gun and made a bang noise! It was super cute, and I don’t think he had done it beforeㅜㅜ

#170212 #monte cristo #musical #closing night #leo #taekwoon #taekbert #albert #vixx #fan account #starlight #shin sung rok

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