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xamag-draws · 2 months

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BBR thoughts 2024

Since I mentioned that I finally dusted off an old project of mine and was ruminating on how I'd remake it, I thought I'd elaborate a little, now that I've solidified some concepts. For funsies

This is gonna be a bit of a long and unfocused one, but I don't share my personal thoughts here often, especially the stuff about my projects I always marinate in. And for once it's something that people have existing context for, so hey why not

So for anyone who hasn't been following me for a gajillion years, The Black Brick Road of OZ was a webcomic that I posted around 2013-2015, back when I was in highschool going on college (which is kinda crazy to think about). It was sort of a darker twist on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, although I definitely leaned a lot more into dark humor more than anything in those first few chapters

I don't think it's available to read anywhere anymore, and I know people have been asking me about it. So here's the full proper archive of BBR, as full as it can be with deceased Flash

I totally used it as an excuse to shamelessly and self-indulgently experiment. It had interactive pages and GIFs and was wayyy too overproduced for what I could handle or what was necessary, but I did have great fun making it while it lasted

Unfortunately, that excess and the fact that I've changed too much as a person by the time I was in college is what ultimately killed it. The direction I wanted to go in was practically unrecognizable from the original idea started back in 2011, so there were many old hold-ups that I felt ruined it

At the time I kinda wished I could start/rewrite it all over, but considering that I pretty much had the entire script done at that point, it felt like a pointless sisyphean task. So I just put it on a shelf and didn't look back for about 8 years, because I didn't know what else to do

Now to be fair, the nature of my art has always been iterative and cyclical; when I feel like my creative juices have run dry I prefer to leave a project to marinate and move on to something else; cycle through other old things and bring in new skills and perspectives into the mix when I'm ready again. Not very productive, but it is what makes me happy to work on my OCs; I'm doomed to hit a wall with them eventually and I need some time to be able to find a new direction

So that said, I'm glad that BBR was left to marinate for that long. I don't think I was prepared, emotionally or intellectually, to tackle it again until now. The Wizard of Oz book (and the entire series of them, really) has always been near and dear to my heart, but there's a lot of context around it that I'm only unpacking now that I'm older

I think I always inherently feel negatively about the stuff I've made in the past, like its faults always jump out to me more than the positives, especially the more time passes. I've never liked that, and I do really appreciate the kind things people have to say about BBR to this day. The fact that it still can be recognized and remembered is very sweet

When I left it, I already found it "kinda cringe", and that feeling only deepened with years. When I took my first look back at it, asking the question "how would I rewrite it now?", at first I took a very cynical approach, as in "everything would have to be torn down"

But the more I sat on it, the more I found that I still see some merit and charm in the ideas I was putting out; I just didn't know how to execute them at the time (not to pretend that I know what I'm doing now, but I certainly know more at least). Turns out a lot of my old concepts could be changed substantially with just a few small tweaks. So I'd say that's a nicer way to think about my previous work

If you haven't seen yet, I posted a first draft of my new designs for some of the characters (the main group, the Goods and the Wickeds). Definitely subject to change, but more or less how I see them now

I'm just playing with these concepts; by no means would I attempt to remake BBR right this moment. Call it a pipe dream among my other ones. But just for fun, this is the direction I'd like to take:

Nowadays I'd probably make it a visual novel, with more emphasis on the visual part than the novel because I'm no English prose writer by any means. It'd still let me play a little with the interactivity while helping cut some corners on the drawing part (only some, I imagine I'd go hog wild anyway)

I've always intended for some events inspired by the sequel books to take place in BBR's past. Stuff like Jinjur's revolt or Ozma's rule preceeds the main events here. So I think it would be fun to follow the past of a few key characters alongside the main story. One chapter focusing on the present quest to see the Wizard, then one focusing on the past events (that are maybe reflective thematically); rinse and repeat

I'm also sticking a little closer to the original text in some regards. Not everything that I enjoy from the books would be translated here, it's still just a very loose fantasy on the material; but I'd like to be closer in spirit at least

I like mature, wise and powerful Glinda, I like kind and vulnerable Tin Man, I like the Wizard being a pathetic yet loveable liar, so I'm sprinkling in more of that for example

I'd like to keep some whimsy, but make it more grounded and a bit more serious to be coherent in tone. I think the original TWWOOZ book was a more realistic fantasy in some ways, even for the standards of the time; I like its simple but vivid tactile descriptions and details like bringing attention that Dorothy needed to eat and sleep

I find it funny that Baum specifically was averse to making his books scary or unpleasant, finding that unnecessary for telling a compelling kids story, but they still can get pretty dark and disturbing, at least for our modern sensibilities. Let's just say that I intend to use the Evoldo and Chopfyt storylines for my purposes. In that way, I feel like a "darker" Wizard of Oz retelling can still mostly be tonally in line with the original and balance it with enough heart and occasional humor

I slowly grew to appreciate the quaint old-timey quality of the original series, as well. The first book is both timeless and very much a product of the 1900s. Originally I tried to give it a little modern or at least anachronistic spin, but it was moreso because it's what I knew best, so these days I'd rather intentionally lean into the time period. Still not fully historically accurate by any means, but at least directly acknowledging the influence

The events of the story span across 40 years of these characters' lives, so I'm drawing inspiration from the entire so-called La Belle Epoque: the time period around 1880s-1920s. Basically I'm cooking, and my soup is old Victorian fashion morphing into Edwardian fashion and slowly inching towards flappers

Some new Dolly outfits

Lots of crazy things, political changes and innovations were happening at the turn of the century, which I think is noted and reflected by Baum in the books as well; the character of Tik-Tok might not blow any minds now, but he was one of the first robot characters in literature at that point; and don't even get me started on Jinjur, etc. Plenty of really interesting stuff one could lightly ponder in an Oz adaptation these days

Aesthetically, art nouveau has always been a big artistic influence for me, and it'd definitely be its time to shine here. John R. Neill's illustrations of the Oz books often keep me company as well. Nouveau architecture in particular fits that fairytale whimsy extremely well imo

I'd allow myself a little bit of art deco here and there, but ultimately its intimidating geometrical splendor is an antithetical to the flowery nature of nouveau and I associate it with a completely different era. Definitely fitting some characters like my Wicked Witch of the West, but shouldn't be overused

One of my main problems with the original BBR was that eventually I lost track of what it was even about; and the original ending felt too mean and unfulfilling to be worth it. Now I'd like to stick to the theme of home and family as my main theme, but in a different, more bittersweet way than in the book

An interesting connection I made is that a lot of my aforementioned older key characters (the Witches, Jinjur, the Nome King, etc) all came from the same reformatory as kids, that's how they know each other. In my recent research I learned that in those reformatories it was usually frowned upon to release the children back to the families, which were seen as the original corrupting influence regardless of the circumstance. The reformatory did everything in its power to cut that connection and make itself the only family those wayward kids were supposed to know and love. That's an unexpected tie into the theme of home that I'd like to explore as well

So yeah that's the current state of it. I have a bunch of outfit concepts I'm slowly cooking, although I'm now sure whether I'd post them... But I do miss these funny guys, and I'm glad some people still do as well :)

#my art #xam rambles #the black brick road of oz #long post #ohsees tag

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kociamieta · 4 months

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Your iterator ocs are so cool!! Any tips on designing one of my own?

ohhh i'd love to see what you come up with!!

appearance wise, i usually try to come up with a motif/something to represent the character, and modify what i find the most important in an iterator puppet (face markings, antennas and such) to fit that in some way. so with TFB, i wanted nature, and there she is, green and with antlers. VOS - an object of worship, with all that excessive gold. RFiM - rain, hence the droplets and almost cloak-like cape.

basically, it's pretty fun to take a concept and make it work with iterator "rules" (not that there's any real ones; find what makes them stand out to you and play with that)

personality wise, you could consider things such as: what were they made for? what was their relationship with the ancients? what about their fellow iterators? are they still working on the great task? what about personal ascension? how did they adjust to the changes in the world? do they modify any organisms? in what shape is their structure overall? .....

so: how would the idea you chose for the design work in rain world's setting?

#take an animal! a plant! a creature! a concept so vague you cant imagine it. turn it into A Silly Robot #ask #rain world

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istherewifiinhell · 3 months

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IS FLYING GENDERED?

On the masculine default, typifying gender in genre, and women as the other in the transformers cartoons.

question for the ages

once again i said back in the halcyon days of watching g1 (aka 5 months ago) i was like. Nooooo, decepticon is NOT a gender that's Silly. It's funny, but as a Read Of The Text, I thought it largely unneeded. (The concept came about, as a joke, involving dismissing the bad guys using the same language you would abt women (sexistly) that they're emotional [heh, flighty], vain, and shrill) after all. If in the 80s era there are 5 whole named/speaking woman tfs, its only ever gonna get better from here right? (<- booboo the fool)

anyway

Let's consider the axiom that the assumed default gender is male, that maleness is often seen as LACK of gender, and femaleness and gender variance are the PRESENCE of gender. In certain reasoning and worldviews, of course (See Androcentrism). Then add that, for transformers, the assumed default thing a transformer turns into, is car. (Autocentrism, if you will)

(The most general term for what a tf turns into is "Alt mode" as some of them are not vehicles at all. The other mode is "Robot Mode", whether its humanoid or not)

So I will be laying out why I believe the cartoon iterations support: non standard alt modes = non standard genders. This is in spite of the fact that FIRST lady tfs were all cars. Sleek cyber cars, but still. For whatever reason, (possibly, the reason for everything in tf, toys) they might as well not exist for how woman tf characters presence in the cartoons progressed over time.

And, to be clear, this is a reading of how these works of fiction are created, not a new unified bioessentialism but for robots aliens I'm proposing for like. In universe lore reasons. I hate that idea.

That said, alt modes in order of most to least gender: Spider, motorcycle, flying (in general, with rotors, jets), tank, and then FINALLY, car. (water and space crafts are already too marginal to rank, but they too can be assumed in relation to default maleness, AND that in making one a woman, would still qualify as othering her).

The NUMBER one reason for this is the bizarre need to have an ESTABLISHED woman tf character before making new ones. AS YOU MIGHT IMAGINE. With a g1 gender ratio something like.... (counting even the most marginal cases for the ladies) 9:120? (That's a rough count from a quick scanning of the tf wiki g1 char list) Shits dire out here.

The second is, ofc, character design based. cis people [stand in phrase for the hegemonic world view] are not okay, and their opinions about how tf gender must need be depicted visually is. uh? Im not a fan. Size and shape dimorphism in general is a given, and specifically having women tfs as far more humanoid and curvy in specific. Also general cartoon lady face syndrome but, whatever. I think there's exactly one character here who doesn't have "lips" or "lipstick" as a distinguishing factor. I'm so tired.

Third is generally, the idea of The Girl Of the Team. When there's The Girl, she often isn't JUST a normal character, who happens to be a girl. See, of course, the Smurtfette Principle. But in my view there's also a trend to give The Girl "special traits" on top of "Girl", maybe even to directly combat the idea that the Girl Character has no other traits? To stop this from being a General Primer on Woman in Media, my explanatory focus is things specific to the tf franchise.

(A phrase I use for thinking about normative modes [in general, not just the Alt ones] in within the tf universe is "unique transformerdom" or, even more clunkily, "A transformer of unique transformerdom". The excessive verbosity is amusing to me personally. All I mean by it is to have an umbrella term for any of the ways tfs can be made unique from their peers in the non allegorical realities of the fiction).

I could, and do, and greatly want to, speak about this AT LENGTH. But it keeps spiraling away from me. So I'll say for now were looking at ways a character is being depicted different from her peers, not because she is the only woman (which she likely is), but cause she's a different kind of transformer, AND if she's othered for it.

(IN SOME forms of the lore. Being a transformer woman, IS A UNIQUE KIND of transformer unto itself. Let's just say I hate it and move on)

Fourth, is the gender of villainy. There is much to be said about gender presentation of villains, the ways they are allowed to be aberrant. We will get to it. There is also all the tropes specific TO evil women, and the modes of villainy open TO female characters. But a general thing I think impacting the gender ratios of the factions is the how "Good" and "Evil" female characters are written. I'll generalize and call this the "Damsel vs Temptress" dichotomy. (See concepts like the Madonna-whore complex). Transformers, is by and large, an action franchise. Unless special reasons are made, characters who can impact the action– have more screen time, and likely more memorable, and iconic presences. A villainous woman can be unchaste, violent, aggressive. While a heroic woman, even if not a literal damsel are more likely to be in a support role. The secretaries of the action genre: medics and techs.

(Another factor is that tfs are giant robots, and the good guys are often friends with tiny squishy little humans. These make very good damsel fodder, and can be taking up the spots on the roster that might, in a different franchise, go to women. Additionally, while woman characters in transformers overall is an interesting topic. When I say tf women, I'm referring to ones that are in fictionally, transformers.)

SO, now understanding our points of attack/obstacles for getting woman into transformers. (Getting established, gendering the designed, uniqueness of existence, and general villainy). Lets go over those alt modes, and the characters that have em, in more detail.

Spiders

The "Beast Era" (1996) intro-ed the spider ofc. And what don't we have with this one. She's a villain, but shes also misunderstood, the era and design style let to these more organic shapes. And they used them to make sure she was very sexy. She's genre aware, she's quippy, she's an absolute icon. So naturally. She gets ported to other later shows. Which means we just have sexy spider ladies running around when everyone else is a fucking truck and shit.

Her own origin is, well think of her as a "Bride of Frankenstein" to the resident evil scientist, also a spider. She was designed for, and manipulated by him in multiple ways. Her protoform (A blank robot base), was supposed to be one of the good guys (a Maximal), but was reprogrammed into a bad guy (Predacon). Even then, she eventually joins them, for her own reasons. She's not even the first predacon to do so, the difference? Well the characters are a lot more NORMAL about his autonomy. Both of these characters stress that being a predacon is an identity they still see as important. But only the woman is told that really, she is was was always MEANT to be a maximal. And while that's true in a sense. There's also a plot were she's forced (by plot contrivance, not the other maximals) to get corrective robot surgery for it. And when they think she died from, everyone's more sad for her boyfriend than for her. Ouch.

The second spider, in the 2007 show, is now one in a world where she is the only "techno-organic" transformer, hence, she is spider, everyone else is a vehicle. Similar to the first, her narrative is very gendered, but less in the way were, like, I do literally think the first was was experiencing in universe sexism from other characters. Here, they really focus on the "techno vs organic" narrative, and the tragic circumstances on how that happened. In this case its just real world sexist writing.

THIRD SPIDER, (2010), instead of misunderstood and tragic evil, this ones just super mega likes to cause pain evil. She also occupies a strange place between the typic vehicular tfs, and the insecticons. This is because she has a helicopter alt mode, and her robot mode is just, a lady with spider characteristics. And, more than just a passing bug like similarity, she has the power to control the insecticons (you know, cause evil woman mind control). However, she doesn't fit in with them either, as the insecticons are at the most insect like they've ever been, in look, living in hives and that most don't even speak.

They may vary in exact character, relationship to the story's moral conflict, and design. But they stay comfortably established, dimorphised, flirty and flirting with villainy. And bonus points, always, for black widow spider trope.

SO. SPIDERS. Established: ✅️ Gendered designs: ✅️ (Extremely!) Unique: ✅️ Othered: ✅️ Villainy: ✅️

Motorcycles

Tooooo my knowledge the first bike lady was in 2004, and fairly minor, in the actual plot, but rest assured, they did go the previously established woman route, by being pink, though, which one shes named after varies by language. But neither were previously motorcycles. (And yes, there is also this problem of mixing together or swapping out one woman tf for another. As if we have the ladies to spare). Even though motorcycle men also exist, this one just stuck for a bit. Maybe something to do with Those Movies. I think the Gendered Existence of a motorcycle is pretty evident though, general sex appeal, being smaller, the mode of riding a motorcycle is different, more physical and intimate. Mainly this ranks so high for the level of grossness they can pack in. Just how objectifying it can be, particularly with two instances where the human rider is an annoying teen boy. Naturally, I've also never seen a male and female motorcycle in the same room, but the approach to design tends to be different. And yeah most of em are Arcee, who's first alt mode was cyber car, but it's not just her.

Established: ✅️ Gendered designs: ✅️ Unique: ✅️ Othered: Depends on iteration, I do NOT like the way one gets called "tough, for a two wheeler". Villainy: ❌(they wouldn't need to be motorcycles if they weren't making them the Special Girl Autobot, after all)

Flying

General: It just tends to stick out when your one girl is only flyer in the group, even she's otherwise tactfully done. Only flyer of the Maximals, a falcon, only flyer of the dinobots, a Pteranodon.

Rotors

I can barely even figure this one. Maybe it's just a general, aesthetics and use case of the actually vehicles, the associations? None of these ladies (and special case) are very connected otherwise. As previously mentioned, the spider helicopter. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A big one for this is the preschool demo shows, which are rescue team focused. In the first one the only woman on the human response worker team pairs with the helicopter, they mention she does medical at times. The helicopter is male, like the other tfs. But also he's afraid of flying, and while not the first case of a flyer with a fear of heights, their personalities are, pretty different. As he's both fearful AND effeminate, fine as character traits go but, with the tone of humour used, marks him as Other.

In the second, Whirl (pointing to icon) becomes a girl for the first time, now with standard humanized face. I assume as move to keep with the previous show of having a girl one, as there's no human team mates. She's also the only one who really likes rescue school. Aaaand that's all know of her. What more do you want from me.

Helicopters: Unique: ✅️ Othered: ✅️ (milder than some)

But why'd I call this section rotors instead of helicopters? That would be because one of the latest Sole Female TF we just put in everything™ is a VTOL jet with rotors. She'll tend to be the only jet of her type, which is also smaller than the type of jet used for the villains.

And, of course, aside from alt mode, the thing that makes her stand out most in the cartoons? That she's very clearly a comics character. (I find the emphasize that she's "fan created" over done, as it only controlled minor aspects, and irrelevant cause tfs get completely overhauled in new versions all the time). From her design, which is a bit busier than most characters she stars with. And also uses Japanese aesthetic signifiers in ways that I think are a bit misappropriated and untactful. (VERY USamerican comics). Also, when she stars next to a guy, also from comics employing Japanese aesthetic, you can tell its not deployed in the same manner. (E.I she has hair and makeup, he has armor). Either way, her depictions have her either as badass sword lady on mission from god who's constantly getting hit on by an annoying guy. Or have her be from a different planet and has special telepathy.

Do we see how both her gender AND the cultural signifiers are having affects here? That the main woman tf in a series can be a literal alien even among our alien robots, with cultural signifiers they don't have?

Ratings Established: ✅️ (made the comics to cartoon jump) Gendered designs: ✅️ Unique: ✅️ Othered: ✅️ (SO SO EXTREMELY, using methods in fiction and real life)

Jets

I think my association of jets with tf gender is stronger, than some of the above examples, even if there's less reason to it. And why is that? Well, lets get socratic. Here's another question.

Is This All Starscream's Fault?

No. He's not real, he can't do things. But. His legacy as THE main stay transformers character that gets to subvert gender? Yeah. (Sure, the G1 autobots have their own effete, but he's not in every single cartoon they ever made now is he? Plus now that I think about it, he is a FLYING car...)

From the get, he's not a Man's man. He's shrill, he's manipulative and duplicitous, petty and emotional, cowardly and wheedling. He is, of course, the Perfect character. Now naturally, the 80s cartoon was not concerned with your paltry logics. Starscream and his ilk are the jets, but every decepticon can fly. The gun, the cassette player, the camera, the cassettes.

And each to a last, more masculine than he is. Vocally or behaviorally, physically. Every one of them fit the gender expectations more than he does. Even being a small time grunt, is a masculine trait, after all, more so than unchecked ambition. So its not femininity from flying, from jets. But direct relationship, reference, and descendancy from Starscream that makes it. I've yet to see female versions of Jet fire and or the aerialbots, for example.

So what to do when an effeminate male villain was less maltese falcon and more that man has effeminate hips? Well. We had to start getting his ass for being effeminate, explicitly. They made the female clone of him, which yeah, is an offensive joke stemming from the various The Gender Anxieties. (Transmisogyny, homophobia and sexism. General relation toxic masculinity. A heady mix of all and more).

But I mean. It's free girl tf... Once given a name in extra canon materials, she start's showing up in other things. Once you're in books, video games, comics, and most importantly, toys, you're real. And then eventually, her first non clone appearance in a cartoon, and how her presence shaped it.

That being, Cyberverse. Which is a cgi show, you need to know this for reasons of production. Making new models is expensive. This has always been the reason you just make recolours of Starscream and name them different things. Chicken or egg on this one, I don't know, But because CV has Slipstream, and the only difference between her and the generic "male" decepticon jet, is a more feminine face; Suddenly, any random decepticon goon can be a woman.

An absolutely revolutionary take for striving to populate a fictional world with gender parity. By at large it also means they're way more lady villains, and specifically flying model of villain. The show has other woman, but none who get the same androgynous body mold treatment.

Established: ✅️ Gendered designs: Mildly to NO. Unique: By design, no. Othered: Yes for the clone, and Screamer himself, I suppose. No, otherwise. Villainy: ✅️(That's, the whole idea)

Tanks

It needs to be said. Sometimes, when doing things that transgress a norm, anteing up is less subversive. This is another reason why gender variance, female agency and overt sexuality are more common traits of villains. When already defying strictures of society. What's one more.

That's Right. TANKS ARE THE BUTCH WOMAN OF TRANSFORMERS.

Alright. Let me back up. Strika is the stone cold knock out undefeated champ of lady tf designs that, actually has a reoccurring cartoon presence. She is, admittedly, only a reoccurring to minor character.

Her introduction is in another show with techno-organics, this one involved in the struggle between well, the techno and the organic. Strika as we see her, and as the design that will go on to be iterated, is not in her normal transformer body. She has been transferred into a 'vehicon' body. Without a preexisting essence contained in one, vehicons are not considered alive, in the way a transformer is. Visually, they lack the more human body plan, a standard face, feet and hand like appendages.

To further contrast Strika against the two techno-organic woman. Both of them are tall, and slender. Their softer organic shapes designed towards elegance or beauty, whatever your subjective opinion of that result might be. They both have romance subplots too. By the way. Or honestly one subplot and one main plot. Strika. In contrast. Is built like a brick shit house. Her face is. Minimal. And her goal: protecting her planet... by terminating the heroes.

Now, existing as a character that can be referenced for other media, and given the detail that she was a "Famous general", it's off to the races. She makes a wonderful big tank menace that can fill out a background shot, too.

Without her I hardly think we could have Clobber, also from CV. Who is. The true goat. The finest thing, the achievements of all we could ever hope for. A big fuck off woman, gender swapped from a previous male design with minimal faff, with now even more personality and show presence. Friends, wants, desires. Emotions. Thank God for Clobber, Thank Clobber for Clobber. Thank Randolph Heard and Mae Catt for Clobber.

Established: Depends if you want to count that Strika had so much swag they kept drawing/modeling her Gendered designs: FUCK NO Unique: ✅️ Othered: only originally Villainy: ✅️

Cars

So now you have the final piece of the puzzle. In transformers, Autobots are Cars. Yes, there are plenty of autobots that are NOT cars, and there are cars that are not Autobots. But they're exceptions, they're aberrances. They're unique. And Autobots are the norm. They oppose the Decepticons. Decepticons are Villains. And Decepticons can fly. Modal simplified binaries and false dichotomy abound!

And the thing about those original Autobot woman, the one's who largely did not influence all of this? They were cars, it's true, but not like how the men where cars. They've not been designed from transforming car toys, with a shellac of humanoid gender over top. Their designed in the way of human gender. With the car on top.

When the preexisting clause leads to the original designs to be revisited, which, has largely only happened in more recent years. They aren't car woman robots. The cars are literally not part of their bodies, they are additional. Instead of a unifying identity of a robot who is a car, its Arcee and her backpack. Parts of cars get grafted onto their petite lady bodies, and placed anywhere out of the way.

In order to make a transformer a woman, they have to give her a gender, not understanding that that's always been the case. And to give her a woman's gender, she's got to LOOK like a woman, not a transformer. And to look like a woman, she's got to act like a woman. She must be heroic but reactive instead of active, or else, villainous, conniving and or self centered. To be a woman, we must have some other previous woman to explain her presence, or else explain it anew with her unique, strange, or exotic origin. How could she ever be a woman if she simply, existed, looked average, talked average. How could she be a woman if her body is hunks of ungendered car. How can she be a woman if she's everything we expect a transformer to be.

A woman is transgressive, a woman is not normal. Autobots are normal. Autobots are heros. Autobots are men. And Autobots do not fly.

#some shit #its not called cisformers #<- IT SURE ISNT FOLKS #a note on how im using citations here u can read BEFORE getting into the post proper #I'm writing this in mind that someone might have NO idea about tf. or. god forbid.#the general perspective of media trope analysis im working from.#So the links can be considered additional or further reading with intent of 1. if a more thorough understanding of a concept might help #2. something im eliding the name of for search reasons 3. a referential example of what im saying #4. a specifc reference/bit of info that might be unclear. in which case im usually linking to a SECTION of the page #5. JOKE #ALright now normal tag talking space.#THIS IS. serious media analysis done casually for fun! in that. I mean it. genuinely. But also im here for silly fun and im not trying #to be SOOOO academically rigorous that its still not. Posting. u know?#MUCH inspired. or i suppose u might say. encouraged to completion and whole hearted commitment by (fandom) silly serious analysis and #math theroying thematics #i have NO idea if this thing will be searchable with all the links and the words i used. but i prepared for it it case it is #AND I PUT A LOT OF WORK INTO IT!!!!!!!! SO its okay if anyone reads it!#but im also braced for bad faithing inwhich case. I will not be held responsible for my actions. thank you.#i have been told to tag this #maccadam #transformers #if someone tryies to kill me for it im not taking responsibility

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blindtaleteller · 9 months

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MCU Asgard Canon Observation Research [Part 1]

Firstly and before I even start in on the subject, keep in mind that this is what it says: a collection of research into actual Canon Lore from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: not the comics, or the Nordic lore twice removed from it.

Secondly and alongside that, also keep in mind that even back at the start of the MCU as a long term project, while the MCU is based on the Marvel comics universe: the creators made a point of making it a completely different universe: for many varying reasons, including the spaces lacking continuity in the comics over the years that the MCU as a project wanted to pursue from it's first conception.

This is a large part of why there are phases and why they were numbered from it's creation. (And yes also why my tags recently mentioning counting phases are what they are elsewhere, but that's a whole other post.. or set of them.)

These are important to remember because, I would like to avoid previous iterations of people wasting their time trying to insert comics-universe lore and more excessively into or onto this requested post purely for the sake of, well; being argumentative or just trolling:as much as possible. I do try to take some time to respond to comments and reblogs as much as possible, but I can and will ignore or yes, at times point out people unable to manage these things.. and respond as necessary.

I normally wouldn't bother to mention this except yes, that has happened before so: consider this your disclaimer.. I ain't dealin' with you if you're gonna be a trolly shit disrespectful enough of the time effort and willingness to share what research and observations I have, by shitting on it or me in your pursuit of whatever flimsy excuses might be given for any inhuman reactions posted passive aggressive or worse.

More frankly: be respectful on my posts or get lost. I don't tolerate harassment on my blog whether it's aimed at me or others. Passive aggressive or otherwise. I'll discuss stuff, am happy to have any valid references I might miss added to and pointed out. Just don't be an asshat about it, and you'll get the same from me. That's how basic-bitch Karma, and I; both work: you'll get what you give along those lines, while in my space.

The necessary now out of the way... Next!

More as a side note with that mentioned; while I may mention some meta/theory in the form of the most probable (as that's how my meta in particular is formed) it is again: based on the facts of the canon lore and contexts confirmed presented in it; visually, in dialogue, and out of the mouths of the very people who made all that themselves, at the time that lore was given to us on screen: and will be mentioned as the theory and supposition that is 'meta' rather than 'canon'. I have gone out of my way as a fan of world, universe, and character building as a part of the creative process in particular: to watch, rewatch, rewatch again and again, and hunt down all this stuff (often lol purely out of my own curiosity.) All in all Meta is theory, Canon is story/film-established fact; and I do try to keep a clear line between the two of them. The early world and character building in the MCU has always been interesting enough to me alone, to do all that with my free time.

And that's especially true with Asgard in particular, as a main story driving force in one form or another as far back as 2010 when both Thor and CA: tFA's scripts were being filmed and their sets/settings picked out and created.

Final few bits before we get into it..? As Asgard lore (and even a lack of it's presence at times) is directly and appropriately attached and or in relation to the lore of several races, species, and massive events in the entirety of the MCU's first three phases.. I will be touching some of those cultures and places too, where important. Probably not in this particular part, but yeah. It's gonna happen.

As with the research post into Loki and his year of absence prior to Avengers 2012: (yes that's a link to an ask that contains a good chunk of info and years of interviews on that particular subject) this might not be an entirely complete compilation: for the same reasons. As I said, i didn't just watch, I rewatched repeatedly from differing personal mental angles: not just three or four times, but and as I wrote my own fanfiction.. I would also re-watch once or twice just prior to fleshing out an outlined story of my own to refresh my memory, seek out interviews official and otherwise from the creators and actors who made that lore and put it on screen for us to enjoy as part of the stories we enjoyed (or not, depending lol) and well.. the resulting organization of the whole outside of this post is less than comprehensive for anyone else. You can see the explanation for how that happens in the foreword of that thread if you're curious.

As a result, I may or may not exclude the actual interviews if this gets too long. Much of the visual in this first part especially are pretty self explanatory, as I did find some of my dissection pics too.

All said (I think? Gods I hope so that was a lot wasn't it? XD) and as suggested/requested recently in discord?

This one is gonna be expansive.. and hellaciously so: so grab your drinks and your snacks and still be prepared for this series of posts to be going for while (not kidding, may be compiling this properly between jobs for weeks) so yeah..

Here we go again!

The major forgotten fact of Asgard's depiction in the MCU is this:

We the audience are only shown a very tiny fragment of Asgard as another separate planet in space, and: they do show us we're missing as much, from the very first film.

That gif directly from the movie I used at the top? I'm using it again, because...

..look at that.

With topography, perspective and size in mind.

That tiny golden triangle in the middle is the Palace at the center. The little golden bar along that tiny portion to either side? Is the city attached to it proper, with the Bifrost, and as far as we've seen the 'Heroes Road' (as soem are calling it) and city walls cupping the Bifrost Bay directly facing the camera.

This is a space shot (of course,) and that tiny itty bitty moving spec that is still shrinking as it gets further from our perspective and closer to Asgard at the bottom, is the Bifrost in use.

And, they do give us a few views of that as early as five to six minutes into the first movie in 2011, as seen in the first clip below. I've set it to share at the first view of Asgard itself.

Hopefully that works. If not, the timestamp you're looking for is 2:04.

I recommend shutting off the audio, as it's a bit distracting. Trust me, we will get back to the very interesting audio from a world builder's perspective, when we get to the History and Relations section of Asgard's break down.. there are several tons, of that and in that opener alone, to examine later.

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IMPORTANT!! When looking at any of these images or videos, keep in mind and look at the scale. Not just in the scene on screen at that moment, but also in reference to previous shots. Distance is a thing. The size of trees and people are a thing. This place in the MCU is much more massive than where it's very cloistered story parts take place.

This is not a city-planet like and for comparison: Coruscant, from Star Wars... though I am very aware that some people will throw out Asgard's concept art to try and 'debunk' that (yes its' been done and proven pointless in other threads).. that does also bring us to another couple of facts that slip by in their context.

In fact, you know what? I'll throw it in here right now myself:

This concept art: does still apply, if slightly adjusted with the topography and likely under ground portions taken into account.. because Asgard is the name of both the planet AND the city as separate entities of the same locale.

In other words, the concept art is VERY valid as a map of the city itself: but not the outlying locations outside of Asgard as a Capital City Proper, of Asgard as a disk planet.

And again.. they do show us this, and not just in the first film: although that first shot going into the city says as much too, being that..

A. Asgard is established as a society greatly more advanced than Earth and most others, and;

B. there are whole swaths of land (and especially mountain they like to build into) without structure between the edge panned through and the City itself. (see still image below: not the best quality but it's also in the video.)

Which.. we'll touch again a little more in a bit (and probably the biggest lol) part of this breakdown set; digging at History, Culture, and Relations.. as the fact they do prefer to build INTO their environment much more than on top of it is also shown in the shot of the canyons and canals on which not only that city is built, but even what buildings are shown outside of it on that panning-in shot.

We can see in the one above though: that while they did redirect some of the water through canals in the lower shot; they also kept and built into the natural(?*) lay of the river canyons below.

This theme is kept even before we get into the city though with the first part of the shot above the water.

Want a more visual view of the breakdowns as I do them?

Here you go, here's one example from out of my crazy folders and docs, that I made in paint back in 2013 (LOL yes I know. XD) while once again re-watching that same scene.

I would highly suggest clicking on it, as tumblr does downsize images making text on them hard to read otherwise. Crappy in-motion quality screen cap but, it was made more for breaking down the visual elements on screen for what it told us about the land, and more; on it.

----[?*] As a set of side/foot notes to that last bit and the image..

A. the top left corner yes: does reference some of where I use certain observations of canon in my own fics; and how they would have grown or evolved depending on that story. In this case, and at the time: the pink text is making note to utilize those observations in outlining Hvedrungr (Loki from Uni 0) and Flykra's (Loki from Vesti1 Uni 14) universes in particular: both of which return to Asgard at VERY different times and in different situations: while the history and culture I've been able to glean and expand on in some cases is still part of their and the location's background. As I don't have the patience to remove the text from an old paint shop cut.. I thought I would at least explain it's presence left there. These things are, ultimately connected by the culture that originated on and created them on that planet after all.. and why there's an entire section dedicated to the varied aspects of Asgard's presented Cultural, Relations, and History lore. B. The '?' at the 'natural' mention in parenthesis above, also takes into account that Asgard is much older than Earth's culture and has to be: if only because as only three generations have come and gone over the passage of what to us is five thousand years! (see the next installment Thor the Dark World: Bor and Darkalfheim, or just watch the movie with info gathering in mind.) In other words, between Bor's War, and Odin's Asgardian Great Wars: we cannot be certain whether or not 1. those canyons are actually natural or the now aged result of one of many previous interplanetary wars, or 2. whether Asgard at this stage of it's showing timed at 2011 more than a millennia later, has even always been this size, given their advancement in technology and study of magic as presented OR left in question, either. For my part, as there's no conclusive dialogue from that era to state otherwise in the MCU or it's interviews that I know of, and knowing the context of Malekith and Darkalfheim's familiarity with Asgard itself during their raid to reclaim the infinity stone: I tend to veer towards a mixture of the two. While it's very likely at least some of the canyons are indeed natural; the great age of the culture and planet both, along with the nature of Bor and Odin's rules alone as we've seen them: leaves a HUGE and LONG period of time and opportunities for some of those nasty fights to come directly to them... or even their predecessors. Which would also explain why they had that shield for the palace too. You don't build and more importantly upkeep something like that without a very good set of reasons or examples experienced, to do so after all. Much of that is meta though, however based on canon fact it may be: and as many of the creators were not asked publicly during that era, and have been dismissed or moved on to other projects since.. it's hard to know if we'll ever see a *genuine* answer from the people who actually made it all starting sixteen years ago.

Anyway, let's look at a few more shots of Asgard with that breakdown going. Some of these are all old, from as far back as about ten years ago when I first started writing outlines for the varied universes in my Lokiverse Project: but they do still hold up. theer are some from TDW in this bunch too. I heavily dissected these scenes knowing I was going to do whole chapters in multiple differing universes, and wanted to have the presented layout and feel laid out in my head, before I started adding in locations on the planet not yet shown on film. And given my first Book was already going to be DREAMS.. where Asgard has been blown to bits post Endgame? I really wanted to get it right so I could deconstruct it as many times as I and the muses wanted to. Laufeyson (Universe 10 Loki) was pretty insistent too with the opening chapters on his end focusing partially on that chase with Abell through Asgard's blown apart ruin

Sorry for the ramble of an explanation, but that's how it is and how it works over here...? XD

..uhmmmm. Yeah lol! When I said I watch and re-watch from differing mental perspectives..? That's what I mean. I don't usually share those at all... only the unedited pics. Genrally I will take caps or take existing raw caps and pick out piece that catch my eye. I've been told they do help put your brain in the right mode for those who have difficulty processing them in that way, like I do when in that mode. Also yes, trees and fish ...bruh. lol!

It's there, has been for years in some cases; and I'm not messing with it now.

That basic bit out of the way (doesn't sound so basic does it.) Let's backtrack a bit, specifically to Asgard's shape and the placement of it's location and the locations on it.

As I first write this, I don't have the talks I had with a few wild meteorologists and geologists back then directly on hand (as this is a part I still don't focus on too much; but:) shaped as it is, those I did talk to theorized that between the shape and placement of planets as well as the nebula they're partially inside, that Asgard may be shaped and in rotation as it is because of its' placement in it's system: or because of late interference by Asgard's inhabitants to keep it stable.

^ That one scene in particular from Thor 2011 really made my eyes pop. Not because of what's going on in it so much as trying to answer the whys and hows and what the actual fricks man: because..

Can you imagine, the conversation: trying to pitch that spinning death ball to the King there OR anywhere else on the planet before Bor or even his great grandfather?

Or, trying to talk the royalty down from the idea of putting it anywhere NEAR the palace, or other people's homes?

How about testing that house sized death-by-velocity-alone gilded mess? (Yes I still laugh thinking about that. Some poor scholar/engineer type trying to dissuade Bor's grand-daddy from building what would definitely become a giant pinball of death in the canyons and canals, if that thing ever came off it's anchors even once in the city. Good gods! lol!) Who knows; maybe that was when people started moving to Vanaheim... XD! Just (mostly) kidding.

Cray-cray thoughts of high velocity gilded pinball hell that was probably somewhere way back in the Bifrost's likely development and evolution as tech/normie science boosted by magic, and or vice versa, aside:

You probably notice I've mentioned the nebulae and the planets in their rotation more than once. And with good reason.

Backing up a bit; Asgard is interesting well before you hit her shores.

Not only is she a top-shaped disk-planet: but with the way the sky is shown: Asgard has a very interesting rotation if she has any left at all. There's very little we know, but what we do know is she is not alone in her systematic rotation either way.

(Asgard's sky from Thor's personal Hall in Thor: the Dark World)

In fact and as seen in the screen caps above: Asgard has an incredibly close relation to at least three planets in her nebulous solar system. At least one of which is absolutely massive: massive enough that it's close proximity is theorized as being pretty likely to be the only way Asgard experiences night cycles as seen in Thor: the Dark World... mainly through eclipsing the nebulous sun by passing between it and Asgard as a planet.

Which is both cool -and- scary when you take things like degrading orbits, space debris and projectiles like comets and other space science into account.. but also very, very interesting.

It also begs the question either way: why didn't Asgard at their earlier establishment of a greater technological level, colonize or move to those planets sooner? Of course.. the first obvious answer is.. they probably couldn't, at first. And even more probably were past trying by the time the Bifrost was built, prior to Bor's time (I say prior because we have seen Bor use it in Thor the Dark World: and on a massive scale moving whole armies, the same as his son Odin. See some of the scenes from Bor's seizure of the Aether below.)

But yeah, Asgard is a pretty unique place even before you get to the water fall's edge: or questioning what kind of condensed mass it has to retain gravity at it's very small size.

Or, whether that gravity and the shape is in fact generated in some form or another after millennia upon millennia of just the Wars we do know about in their history.

(At current we know about Darkalfheim and the series of Wars including Jotunheim and Muspelheim that they call the Great Wars. While they are definitely aware of the extensive millennia of intergalactic war between the Xandarian based Nova Corps and the Kree Empire put front and center in GotG.. there hasn't been any actual confirmation as to whether Asgardians fought in that war on either side: only that they are at that stage at least loosely allied with Asgard.. if not a more separated protectorate being considered among the nine realms in the MCU.)

Why do I keep pointing out trees, and perspective; or teh size of the city in that first little gif again?

Because.. that is our repeated visual evidence of just how much of Asgard as a planet; the story did not take place in.. huge parts of the place we haven't seen. And that makes sense.

Power plants or generators, smithys, and even schools can be easily placed in the city proper, at this stage.

But what about BEFORE, they got to this stage.. because that is a thing in the MCU in regards to Asgard: and a major plot point for three movies of script running, from 2010 all the way to 2015 when Taika Waititi was hired (unfortunately, for those of us who know the root of what happened there.)

What about food, for thousands of 5000 year lifespans and their kids. And their grandkids. And.. the food for the livestock, or the wild game

Or the bilgesnipes and dragons--well we can guess what happened to the dragons of Asgard in particular actually. If they were anything like Muspelheim's; and on a planet that size..? It doesn't take much to figure out Odin, Bor and their predecessors probably couldn't excuse not hunting a predator big enough to swallow people to extinction: not for much longer than they absolutely had to anyway.

What about fibers and leather for clothes.

How about waste management, for both the city and suburban areas? Sewers? Water filtration? Factories or slaughterhouses to process it all, and the means to support those things. Everything man made, is grown, processed or made somewhere.

We know they have these things, because we know they have and make their own alcohol (fermentation of grains, fruits, and more); as well as other things to eat: displayed in both T1 and TDW.

(The top image is from Thor's table flip scene in Thor 2011; while the one below it is from the tavern scene in the beginning of Thor: the Dark World.)

Meat, vegetables, fruit, grain, herbs, and seasonings are all represented on the tables above. While some might be imported (I really do wonder about the platters of golden apples myself:) it's not very likely all of them are. And it wouldn't make sense for them to have been imported from off world throughout their species development either. After all and again: they would have had to have survived and developed enough to GET TO, that stage in the first place.

You're also looking at Varnish in the shine of that table; smithing and metal working and ceramics in their table ware. Weaving either plant or animal fibers in their clothes, as well as the likely production of tannin (or it's equivalent) and leather working in every leather piece on screen. Candles can be made from varied sources, whether that's actual wax of some form, or condensed animal fat.

Oh, and if you find the enlarged version of those images: you'll also notice things like fine engraving and metal sculpture to the goblets and platters on the Thor 2011 table in particular.

Either way, the images above show us directly that unsurprisingly, they have come to understand whole other sub-levels of production: before you even get to the high-tech and magic ends of any of that to be able to reproduce it in that modern era.

As another side note related to that: the booze alone is pretty telling as to how far off the "Loki" series is on this mark, as well. Creators of current content 'conveniently forgot' that this is supposed to be a space faring, technologically advanced society (even if they're the social equivalent of medieval imperialist thugs .. lol sorry not sorry! That's literally how they're depicted... and honestly that really weird twist IS some of Asgard's most interesting and strange development) whose friends, allies and other examples of places visited DO and HAVE included Earth, Xandar, and six other 'realms' as their etymology names them: for literal millennia. Even taking the other, long established cultural influences and visitations aside? For a society who 5000 years ago was still porting whole armies to other planets to kick peoples asses? The idea they never discovered honey; or sugar especially even on the inside of a fermentation barrel for wine; OR how to process it into something like candy? Is more than just a -little- dumb in the stretch. Sugar often naturally starts to separate and crystallize during the fermentation process. Ask a vintner, or look it up if you don't believe me. Just sayin'.. just on Earth alone, we know sweets were discovered more than 8000 years ago. Eight thousand. And the only reason we haven't been able to confirm people older than that finding things like bee's hives?? Is because well.. that kind of thing rarely survives even that length of time at all, to be found in archeology in order to tell us more. I'll touch that and how it's pretty damned near impossible that 'Loki doesn't know wtf candy is' being 1k+ years himself, and a guy raised as an Asgardian prince & spymaster to boot later into the culture section I think, but mmm.. that whole bit still reeks of stupid, to me And more so after their own DB Cooper scene. Gonna say candy wasn't a snack in that era either? Cause if so; I got big shocking news, for those who think so... XD

In closing.. for this part?

As far as the world of Asgard goes, we have only been allowed to see a very small part of it: and even then? It is still undoubtedly massively larger than even what's implied: and definitely capable of supporting it's comparatively small base population of less than 10k people.

(Odin's subterranean vault reference: exterior)

The only reason we don't see even more of it; is the fact that films have a limited time to give you everything, and the story focuses on the royal family from the get go. And they live, in the heart of Asgard's capital city... so we largely don't see as much of that as weirdo world building fans like me would absolutely love to see in the process... and frankly; they gave plenty enough to start us off with.

The films would have suffered for having too much more of that, rather than the stories they were trying to tell.

The same.. I would love to know more: and I do wish the current teams paid the previous ones more respect by using what was already there and expanding on it: instead of making mismatched new things up, as they went.

The early creative teams really knew what they were doing back then.

(Asgard's defensive cannons defending against the Darkalfheim air raid in Thor the Dark World.)

And no, this isn't all they showed us, in the show and tell they did manage to give us over the course of years of work... far from it.

Hope you enjoyed part one! Maybe you learned or saw something you missed.. or have been inspired to watch the older films again..?

I know I often am.

#MCU #Asgard #MCU Asgard #Lore drops #research #scene dissection #location and culture dissection #world building #universe building #Lokiverse references #writing references #writing research #Youtube #MCU Lore #part one:#about the land more than the people on it #don't worry: we'll get to that #:3

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delta-orionis · 7 days

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Do any of my followers have experience with Iain M. Banks' Culture book series? I was skimming wikipedia and came across it on a whim. The series features superintelligent AIs that remind me a lot of iterators (because I have Rain World brain poisoning)

Minds By contrast to drones, Minds are orders of magnitude more powerful and intelligent than the Culture's other biological and artificial citizens. Typically they inhabit and act as the controllers of large-scale Culture hardware such as ships or space-based habitats. Unsurprisingly, given their duties, Minds are tremendously powerful: capable of running all of the functions of a ship or habitat, while holding potentially billions of simultaneous conversations with the citizens that live aboard them.

In the Culture universe, Minds have become an indispensable part of the prevailing society, enabling much of its post-scarcity amenities by planning and automating societal functions, and by handling day-to-day administration with mere fractions of their mental power. The main difference between Minds and other extremely powerful artificial intelligences in fiction is that they are highly humanistic and benevolent. They are so both by design, and by their shared culture. They are often even rather eccentric. Yet, by and large, they show no wish to supplant or dominate their erstwhile creators. On the other hand, it can also be argued that to the Minds, the human-like members of the Culture amount to little more than pets, whose wants are followed on a Mind's whim. Within the Series, this dynamic is played on more than once. In 'Excession', it is also played on to put a Mind in its place—in the mythology, a Mind is not thought to be a god, still, but an artificial intelligence capable of surprise, and even fear. (Wikipedia)

I have a real soft spot for superintelligent AIs that have their own unique personalities. The AI sibling rivalry was my favorite part of the book Neuromancer, despite being only a small part of the book. I grew to like Rain World's iterators for a similar reason; they're godlike AIs who have personalities, issues, interpersonal relationships, etc.

I'll look into this series further, I have no idea if it's an enjoyable read or not. The concept of Minds intrigues me regardless.

#personal #I keep adding things to my to-read list. augh

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tossawary · 11 months

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The new "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" movie is VIBRANT! The unique and ambitious style with handdrawn textures and effects is fun and flashy and incredibly colorful - there have been comparisons to Spiderverse, yet TMNT:MM is very much doing its own thing (there is a fair bit of flashing in this movie too, so be warned, but not on the extreme scale of either SV movie). The animation is beautifully naturalistic in its acting and the action really pops. The character designs have great funky shapes, purposefully significantly uneven in a way that delights me with their lack of symmetry.

It's always fun seeing how the characters and backstories change with each iteration trying to do something different. (It's part of why I'm trying to watch my way through different Transformers shows. I think it's neat how the characterizations are always different.) I've only seen the "Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" show and movie (and enjoyed them a lot), and the boys and the world are wildly different to that, and I still enjoyed this iteration of them very much too. The turtles are young and adorable and, while they did kick ass, they were also excitedly talking over each other and making stupid jokes and being a little... uncool? In a way that felt resonant to the experience of being a teenager just having a good time and finding stuff you like and trying to find other people like you. The banter was fun and silly and realistic and teasing. And occasionally heartfelt, though most of the characters are (as many people do) constantly disguising their vulnerability with self-aware jokes.

The story is straightforward (it's kind of simplistic and not very deep at all, honestly, but I enjoyed that just fine) and moves along quickly at a fun pace. It's very like Spiderverse in that I think it's accessible while expecting you to be familiar with basic superhero tropes, so it's a real blast if you're already fond of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles like I am, and I find it so refreshing to watch things that are unapologetic about their basic concept being more than a little ridiculous. There are lots of references, but they felt like references that people naturally make, especially teenagers with relatively little exposure to other people. This is a really silly movie! And the movie is like, "Yeah! This is silly! Isn't it great?! Now look at what we're going to do with it!"

The humor runs towards being pretty gross (puke, ooze, other bodily fluids and body humor, and some pretty extreme body horror regarding mutants) at times, depicted pretty graphically on screen. Which I kind of enjoyed, it's neat sometimes to see a movie go there, but I need to underline the vomit warning because that stuff was excessive. The movie also gets quite violent at times. As with most superhero media, they do beat up a lot of generic goons without pausing to consider the broken bones that would definitely be happening. (Very vague spoilers:) There's a nonconsensual medical experimentation scene that's a little disturbing, with repeated electric shocks, and the drawing of bodily fluids, though they keep telling jokes through it to try to keep it light. The final battle is also pretty destructive and did make me go, "They're just babies! (They're like 15ish.) Leave them alone!" a few times.

So, if you're looking for something fun and silly to go see, something that looks totally unique and vibrant on the animated scene, something that made me nostalgic for just joking around with my geeky friends by ourselves when we were teenagers, then I recommend going to see this movie! Especially if you enjoyed any previous iterations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles even in passing. Though if you're a die-hard fan of a particular previous iteration, maybe you'll be annoyed by some of the adaptational differences, idk, and if you don't like any previous TMNT stuff, then this is maybe not for you. I'm looking forward to the TV show and the sequel that have been greenlit already!

#tossawary tmnt #spoilers

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saltv2 · 5 months

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Okay aga hot takes that would have me on the fire stick here we go

1) in the original 2 acts (ie. The first iteration of the story where Goldie tries to take over the pizzeria, but it got rebooted later) it seemed obvious to me that it was going in a "circle character" direction. See- Goldie had the chance to change twice, yet he chose to go back to his old ways the moment the smoke died down. But everyone else around him- especially Freddy- started to really show their true colors here. Where in the first Freddy only gave a half assed apology, the second was where he broke down. Bonnie, who first snitched on him, also began to see beyond the curtain after the foxy fiasco. But Goldie? He doesn't seem to understand or want to change throughout either of these stories, indicating that if this had went on Goldie would have been an interesting case of a circle character - someone who has the chance to change throughout the story, but never does.

2) I like the idea of a dead beat henry- if he's done right. I don't think the original did the concept justice, but making him closer to the animatronics doesn't feel quite right either. Maybe something like him being too afraid to get attached again would have fit better, but in the distance caring about them deeply.

3) I may not like Freddy, but I'm willing to throw hands for him. He's a damn interesting character and I will NOT have him reduced to "the mean brother"

4) the bite was purposefully left ambiguous, it was supposed to be that it didn't matter if it was done on purpose or if it was a freak accident- but rather a concept of forgiveness despite (but this wasn't portrayed well I don't think.)

5) okay nothing against you salt love your work but the choice to allow them to cuss feels a bit excessive. See- even if Henry had forgotten to program something like that, it's very likely that once they learned those were not safe for children they probably would try to avoid it- because they were very adamant about being a family establishment. Even OUT of working hours. Also because it would have made the moments where they did let one out infinitely funnier.

That was a lot sorry I have a lot more to say but I'd rather die than make this any longer

These are a lot of takes and honestly pretty agreeable :-)

The one with freddy too, I don’t like characters being reduced to nothing but one single concept.

Oh and the character’s do try to avoid cussing, reducing everything to a “damn” and other stuff like you saw in my earlier pages. Everything else i will keep in mind as i continue.

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yandere-monoma · 9 months

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should i be insane and start the kill your masters commentary now

i am gonna be insane and start the kill your masters commentary now

hi this will contain spoilers for the killswitch au which imo is fine because i have no intentions of writing it in its entirety so HSJKFGFG

god. rose strider.

rosie rosie rosie rose strider UUUUUUGH.

fun fact i actually attempted to go off about all this weeks ago but tumblr deleted the fucking draft but now im drunk (or i was drunk when i started this at 1am and now its fuckin noon LMFAO) and trying again so LET'S GO!!!!

so. actually. my iteration of rose strider was first sparked after reading BGB by MermaidMayonaiise oh god bless tf out of them

like, guardianswaps is an ancient concept in the fandom so it's not like i've never considered her or any other strider kid before but GOD. this one line from BGB absolutely blasted through my soul:

You never knew her, but a Rose Strider would have been a killing machine. Considering the multiverse, she exists. Just not in any timeline that matters.

as i lovingly say in the comments of that fic, i literally copypasted that line to every hs friend i know. it drove me crazy

it'd still be a couple of weeks (months?) after reading that fic that i actually conceptualized her, though. rose strider was born via the homestuck renaissance chat which i will reference 6738459634563456 times in this commentary because killswitch would not exist without it. the renaissance chat went off with a million and one headcanons about a million and one different guardianswaps and my impulsive ass couldn't help but actualize them in some sort of written form, complete with ridiculous long ass plot and even a couple of sburb sessions that i'll never write cuz it'll take me years. like. the ideas were just so good.

ironically, our first official swap we discussed was actually john strider, who i hopefully will get to at least allude to in the next iteration of killswitch, along with dave lalonde (WHO I FUCKING LOVE AAAAA), jade egbert and rose harley... then we actually discussed jade before i finally revealed how insane i was about rose strider rose rose rose rose ROOOOOSE

from that first initial outline to the first chapter of kym, it took about two months of plotting and dragging through drafts which is CRAZY cuz it rly does feel like time has fucking flooown by. a lot of that time was also dedicated to the first installment of killswitch, which got interrupted because the third chapter of kyd got tragically deleted and i've never recovered and i only recently healed past the hurt enough to start to rewrite it. god. trauma.

anyway.

before i get to the first chapter, i wanted to talk about rose's initial concept as a strider and what it meant. as i've said 738596356 times already, nature vs nurture was how i approached every placement within the au. it was very important to me to blend every character with who they initially are in canon and who their guardian's influence turned them into. this made for an incredibly fun process that lent itself to a pretty easy formula characterization-wise.

for example, rose strider's excessively extreme experiences with self-harm are born of rose lalonde's early act 1 habit of engaging in empty suicide threats towards her mother. i took that tendency to act out and cranked that fucker up to 11 because there is nothing passive aggressive about how bro raised dave.

every killswitch character features this pairing blend approach to their writing. jake lalonde, for example, inherits roxy's hyperactive silly energy, though he lacks the grace, ease and confidence to carry it out without stumbling. however, rose is especially special because i wasn't just trying to blend rose and dave. because of rose's identity blurring motif, i had to build her up using elements of rose AND dave AND dirk AND, most importantly, bro. that made her, honestly, really fucking hard to write because i still wanted her to be recognizable enough, while still sounding like a carbon copy of bro, simultaneously perfect and flawed all at the same time. and, ngl, it's super interesting to me, the way she deviates from the formula and refuses to follow the easy pattern i followed for literally every other character in the au. it's just so fitting for her to fuck with the meta like that JSKFG

anyway LETS START READING

fucking with the commands was actually a last minute choice done right at the very final edit. so much of the narrative fuckery that happens in kym is very on the spot, lots of last minute decisions that start with the impulse of 'oh shit yknow what'd be cool' and end with a big ole internal ramble of what it could all ~represent~

in this case, i thought this was nifty, i've been using this same one fuckin glitch generator for YEARS at this point: but also, i think it was a fun way to allude to her classpect, even though it's never really discussed outright

yeah see this was actually supposed to be a description of her room but in the very last draft as i was cleaning it up i saw this section that i still had to write and went nope. JHSKFGSDFG which is hilarious to me because doing so literally transformed how i approached the rest of the piece. originally this chapter really was supposed to just be a pretty direct copypaste of act 1, but god. GOD i'm glad it isn't. i've had so much fun with this style and it's so amusing to me that i have laziness to thank for that JKGFG ah yes the creative process

facts about john harley and his first conversation with rose!!

i suck at chumhandles and enlisted help from the renaissance chat for a lot of them. other handle options suggested to me at the time include: garrulousGallivant, groovyGallywag, galleyGaffer, giddyGelogenic (this was in second place to me i rly loved it sob)

(rose's handle was incredibly easy in comparison, largely because i hardly put any effort into it. i just wanted something suitably edgy and what could be edgier than naming yourself after genocide HJGKF)

his initial character premise:

the hardest part about starting the fic where i did is that there was just so much imagined backstory for rose and so little time to actually get to detail with it. the purpose of the first few pesterlogs with john and jade was to establish something that honestly i don't think got as much spotlight in the fic as i would have wanted: the fact that rose strider is a compulsive liar who actually tries her hardest to seem normal to her friends, both out of habitual manipulation and out of a subconscious urge to escape her life. it's an attempt to sprinkle her with the void traits that she clings to at the beginning of her arc (guess what her classpect is >:3) before embracing what she really is, but damn. if i could have, i would've written 100k of cute casual conversation with rose seeming like the sweetest most thoughtful friend in the world, only to reveal what she's really like

anyway! we get to see her make up a life for herself first through john, as she lies about going to school when ngl i don't think she's been since like. idk. the 3rd grade. GJKFLGS

this is always an interesting pesterlog to reread remembering how much i fucked with rose's dialogue jesus christ. i did NOT want her to sound like herself in the rougher drafts. she was honestly just a straight up blend of bro and dave, very casual, very ramble-y, however at the last second, i incorporated a touch of her usual more formal vibe/dialogue. again, because i was blending four different characters rather than two, it was difficult to find a balance i really liked. i definitely got there eventually but. hoo.

ro-stri originally used to copy the punctuation of anyone she spoke to. there are still aspects of this in the current draft, rose plays along and sprinkles more exclamation points in than usual to match john's hyperactiveness despite the fact that she feels like roadkill atm. however, in the end, i thought it was a little too subtle and wanted her to have a more uniform sound to her, rather than disappearing into anyone she encountered.

john harley thinks the funniest possible thing to joke about in the world is the fact that he's pretty much a feral kid who has never touched humanity and thus doesnt know the most basic things. he does this 9356354963 times a day. he loves playing dumb. in truth he's experienced a Lot through movies but sometimes he simply cant resist the urge to pretend he doesnt know what a fork is. jsdkfgsfg he was such a delight to write, jesus christ.

despite rose's attempt to fade into the background a little, all of her friends depend on her massively to fill a hole in their lives, which she ends up using to further manipulate and control the topics of their conversations. for john, he's just so incredibly hungry for what life in the real world is like. so rose fabricates a normal school life for him. and she's not even doing that for him. it's completely coincidental that they both just desire the same thing of each other and ngl i really adore and am fascinated by their dynamic. johnrose fuckin sneaks up on me i SWEAR.

rose calling herself a bishounen is the first hint of her weird gender fuckery. it is a hilarious hint that i'm so very proud of cuz it's so dumb HAHAHJKFS

john's flirtiness towards rose is inherited by (epilogue) jade's sexual promiscuity and slight pushiness towards the people she's attracted to. it also just seemed like so much fun lmfao it rly snuck up on me as i was writing and i couldn't help but go all in once i realized what was happening. like, john really does just find one bad joke (usually at someone's expense) that he really likes and does it over and over and over and OVER cuz so much of the joy for him is knowing that he's the only one fucking laughing and that everyone in the vicinity wants to throttle him. but they can't :P

someone tell me why :B emojis are so cute. the very first time i went >:B as john harley i went oh no because i fell so hard at that point HAHA

jade lalonde!!

can you believe this is the first time i've ever written jade in my life jesus fucking christ

other chumhandle option: tipsyTurvey

rose's canon handle is a pun that fucking murders me every time i acknowledge it and i desperately wanted a cute pun for hers. i am bad at puns. i am so very bad at puns. telekineticTactoe is the first pun i've made in all my decades of living. i am so proud of her fucking handle jesus christ GHJFKGS

something that's fun but also agonizing about pesterlogs like these is, again, i don't really get the chance to explain things. so much show, so little tell, which works out great for the narrative but makes the part of my brain that built up so much of the world pout so much. so i never actually go into detail about the fact that the 'update' jade is working on is to a webcomic that she has picked up and abandoned 87593456 times. this is seen more in her later conversations but one of jade's whole shticks is that she has tens of thousands of hobbies and she can't commit to a single goddamn one. she is absolutely CRUSHED by how much she wants to have a perfectly successful career like her mom. everything she tries just isnt perfect enough and it frustrates her endlessly. she is so so very cute i love herrr

it is SO fun discussing the lalonde issue through someone who is earnest and honest about their feelings and who airs them out the second they feel them. it's so fun to interpret some of the issues rose perhaps had with her mother, while also just poking at issues i think would have just. always bothered jade because of the type of person she is. she is going to be an incredibly fun perspective to write through the rest of the au and i rly hope i can figure out a way to focus a fic on one of her iterations one day

jade having a having a habit of traumadumping and rambling was supposed to be a play on just how excessively wordy rose can be. idk how much that shows (people associate rambling way more with dave imo) but either way it was super fun to write

rose's manipulative streaks are more obvious here. jade is incredibly vulnerable and rose jumps at the opportunity to attempt to further isolate and pit her against her mother. she's doing that completely out of habit, too. she has no malicious plan behind it all, it passes the time and it keeps jade close and that's really all she wants. she can see the way jade suffers under the weight of her work and she makes up her own stressful worklife, just so that jade can relate to her more than she can relate to the others.

DAVE FUCKIN EGBERT LET'S GOOO

the first words uttered about dave eggy in the gc:

and what his character ultimately turned into:

there is so much to say about dave i love him i love him i love him let's gOoooOooOOo

first off, i wanna explain why he's an egbert rather than a lalonde, since swapping the strilondes is way more common:

dave lalonde would have taken up too much screentime which would not have worked for the fic/verse. he is. god. an INCREDIBLE and fascinating specimen that i need to specifically write 100k about and pairing him with someone like ro-stri would just be a disservice to either of their stories. they simply can not exist together in a way that i would find narratively satisfying because they both just take up too much SPACE. GOD!!!

dave egbert is just cuter LMAO.

i am a dirty dirty multishipper and making him an egbert means i get a version of johndave and a version of daverose all at the same time

(and this doesnt even also allude to the fact that john strider and dave lalonde are also a hugely amusing dynamic like i rly needed the homophobic af angy boy paired with the darling excitable lil femboy ok

but really, my approach to dave is this: as much fun as tragic backstories are, sometimes a really fascinating narrative can be watching someone getting actively traumatized in the present for the very first time. being a bystander to someone you love's suffering, the survivor's guilt of not being the abused one, the overwhelming stress of being someone's sole confidant, the way it feels to be crushed by codependency and forced to witness unrelenting suffering when you are so woefully unprepared to provide proper support. dave just being a normal boy in an incredibly toxic relationship with his first love is just. GOD. so fun to me. so so fun it's honestly one of my fave decisions coming into the fic

there's also something to said about the fact that dave finally gets to experience normalcy and familial love at the expense of his sister taking his role in the narrative. there is a point in the au where the killswitch characters (who i also refer to as the 'zeta' kids) are made aware of their canon counterparts and thinking about what dave eggy will think about dave strider is SO exciting to me

anyway, again: this was a hard pesterlog to incorporate. i needed a quick summary of their dynamic and a quick summary of both of their characterizations: dave egbert being dryer, quieter, more withdrawn and blunt with his words, rose strider being abrasive and quick to anger and almost sadistically playful in the way she immediately seeks to tease and degrade her boyfriend. i also needed to show this without making rose the most unlikeable character this side of homestuck HGJKFGGS. fun fact, so much of how they talk to each other and exist in general is based on the fact that i think both of them just, like. fuckin LIVE on 4chan. rose is a 4chan troll while dave is just, like, a lurker. and i do wish i could have showed that more and showed even more of both the cruller kinds of dialogue rose can dish out and the more weird/fond/playful parts of their dynamic, because to me rose is the type to just constantly drop slurs and insult people and speak in a way that's designed to shock and horrify people and dave was her punching bag as much as he's her stuffed animal, and he's just so in love with all the ways she overwhelms him. he has so much fun trying to just desperately keep up with her and it all just creates this intense atmosphere that he's absolutely addicted to.

like, it's tragic that her talking like this never shows up in the fic itself but alas. alas, alack...

anyway

HOW CAN I FORGET HOW FUNNY DAVE'S HANDLE IS TO ME dave making his whole personality around himself being a npc is so funny to me ok godhjskfg

There is no excusing what must have occurred the previous evening, but there’s no point trying to contend with what happened.

considering 'what happened yesterday' is a big huge plot point in chapter 2 i'll leave it to the chapter 2 discussion but just know that this is one of my fave part's of rose's characterization that i ALSO mourn its lack of focus in the fic. i think it's present enough but UGH i wish i got to write it so much MOOOORE, DAMN!

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

there were so many versions of this line and this introduction in general HJGKFGS happy with what i settled with

this section was hard because, again, had to quickly establish all the things i wish i could have spent time just slowly building up. i do enjoy how the final product looks, though. one of my favorite styles to utilize is a very compact, slightly minimalistic type of prose that leans

lil cal as a corrupting force is one of my fave hs things in the world it drives me insane to think about, so it was incredibly fun deciding that this was one of the biggest and most important differences between dave and rose is that dave fucking hates lil cal but ro-stri is not scared of puppets :D she loves them :D

When you sleep, if you sleep, your gaze never breaks from his, and you spend your nightmares drowning,

rose having an eternal staring contest with dream cal amuses the hell out of me especially thinking about dave going to derse just to watch in horror. it's also another aspect of that internal soul flaying she keeps forcing herself through, trying to create a perfect ouroboros between herself and what bro has been turned into. trying to fuckin speedrun through her own corruption

gurgles blood.

this next section about all the ways rose attempts to cope with her trauma was so nervewracking to publish. a lot of parts of this fic was but jesus christ. was really worried i'd get flack for a few of the ideas that got tossed out there, but i couldn't remove them even despite that anxiety. there is such a specific vibe to the 00's that i really wanted to incorporate into the fic... just, how it felt to be an absolutely insane teenager, always overwhelmed, constantly abused, and gifted with unadulterated unsupervised internet access to do terrible AWFUL things to. i wanted to depict it because it's what i relate to, what i've experienced, what i've seen and heard from others.

it's also just generally rly important to me to sprinkle darkweb references into as many of my strider fics as fucking possible cuz i know those boys LIVE on it LMFAOHJGKFG

In reality, you have no hobbies your brother hasn’t given you.

short but important: the fact that rose just does not get the opportunity to start creating her own personality like dave does was very important for me to highlight, though it's also not necessarily true. since the narration is filtered through rose's perspective, and rose is the one that is so adamant (especially at this part of the story) that she is a perfect clone of her brother, she skips past the experiences she has where she's strayed from bro's influence.

the end of this chapter was a very fun escalation that i'm very satisfied with. ahh, my killing machine 🥰❣️ how i adore you... now that i think about it, i forgot that originally i really did just want to make a quick oneshot summarizing all of my thoughts on her. as i was writing, the ideas got bigger and bigger, the hcs spiraled more and then my friends in the chat [shakes fist] dropped a huge BOMB of a plotline right into my lap that forced me to extend it way past its original plan but ughsjfgdfg i'm so glad that they did because this is a story that i'm so incredibly proud of godddjksfg

AND THAT'S CHAPTER ONE, STAY TUNED FOR MORE

#fic: kill your masters #director's commentary #meta #rose strider #verse: killswitch

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maypop-the-dragon · 5 months

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Self-Portrait, 2024-02-02

↓ Explanation and WIPs under the cut! ↓

The way I see myself has gone through various phases throughout the years, and lately I've been feeling some of those old ways of being resurface. I had the idea to create a "self-portrait" that includes several of my various "iterations" all posing together. I'll describe each thing in (roughly) chronological order.

The yellow blobs in the sky are hallucinations I used to have in the dark as a small child. I think they're related to my visual snow. I can still "summon" them sometimes if I have them on my mind. They're yellow, roughly square blobs with oblong black ovals for "eyes," resembling the flip-blocks from Super Mario World. They would sort of vibrate while seemingly moving toward me.

The background is meant to be a Minecraft snowy tundra. I am a long-time Minecraft player, and I have fond memories of snowy tundra biomes specifically for some reason. I am particularly nostalgic for the sound of breaking ice and the way the roses contrasted with the snow. I used to use the seed blank to build on MCPE, I once saw a "portal to mars" tutorial and tried to replicate it and that was on a snowy world, and I think I tried the 1.5 update on a snowy world. I feel attached to that one world for some reason. I remember there was a ravine with lapis. The silliest thing? I cared about the lapis even though I was playing in Creative Mode.

The cartoonish sleeping child is me as a child. Back in elementary school, I would draw comics a lot, and I was often a character in them. My art style at the time was influenced by Diary of a Wimpy Kid and later Big Nate. I only had access to lined paper, but I made the best of it by using the lines to measure out panels. They were each 4 lines tall, but I later changed it to 5 lines. Speaking of the comics I used to make, the new Mr. What-The is still in development.

The big green guy is an anthropomorphic "mullet dinsoaur." This long-haired long-neck boi was originally not anthro. I drew it and mullet dinosaurs kind of became my "thing" for a while, though I only managed to draw two! (I hadn't yet learned the efficient drawing techniques I know now) That character is still my profile picture on YouTube and some other platforms. At some point I would sometimes semi-involuntarily visualize myself as an anthropomorphic version if it. (This was before I decided to just actually be a furry.) Interestingly, I just remembered that I did the visualizing thing with Ord from Dragon Tales once when I cried as a small child.

The blue-gray Furret is based on a quick edit I once made of the official Furret artwork using the iOS Photos app. I also used a similar blue-gray Furret as an icon for my secret YouTube channel. When Furret Walk was popular, I had an intense Furret obsession phase. I would doodle Furret all the time, which also helped me get better at drawing fast and loose, and I still have my Furret plush. This obsession was so intense that I sometimes wished I could become a Furret and just be a wholesome creature. (Now that I think of it, I suppose I still prefer to be a wholesome creature.) I was even happy because of the specific appearance of the wrinkles on my cheeks when I smiled very wide. This phase was also when I discovered my desire to cuddle when I was doodling Furrets and drew two of them hugging and cried a lot about it.

The red, hovering, serpent-like creature is a self-insert character from an earlier concept of my website. It lives in space and its body is filled with a jelly substance that it can manipulate psychically to move its body. The scruff on its neck is an excess store of said substance, which is pushed out to extend limbs such as arms. It is actually a modified version of a similar creature I made up specifically to be easy and interesting to animate for music videos. That original creature was white and had no eyes or canonical home. Aside from that, it was the same.

The other... creature... is my current fursona. That's me, May. Me now. My character design draws inspiration from many sources that all call back to various aspects of myself and my past. You can see that it's aesthetically more feminine or androgynous than the mullet iteration, which is because I have since explored what gender expression I am most happy with a lot more. That applies to much of the design really. It’s much more intentionally constructed to represent who I want to be. I am a cute silly dragon now, rawr!!

After writing all that, I'm starting to think my personality really is just several mental illnesses in a trenchcoat.

WIPs

I heard of posting WIPs to prove you’re not an AI and I think that’s a neat idea so here you go... (The weenor is specifically planned because I don't usually draw characters with external genitalia. You can't even see the bulge in the final drawing, though. What a waste.)

#art #traditional art #colored pencils #furry #196 #self portrait #autistic #furret #dragon furry #May Draws

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aikoiya · 2 years

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DP HC - Clockwork Through the Multiverse

Clockwork is the central personality of all representations of time in media. He primarily resides in the GZ because it is the universe that connects all other universes in reality & time is more flexible there.

Clockwork, himself, first manifested when the very first mortals began to understand the concept of time. He didn't even come to be as a ghost, more so a spirit with a fractured consciousness, before time itself reached out & gave him a physical form so that he could act as time's will upon reality. Time's ultimate will being: keep time going. It was really just self-preservation all things considered.

In the beginning, it was just Clockwork (& Destiny) in the prime universe, & wherever he went, he changed to conform to the local culture's perception of time & this caused him to be quite mad.

He had no clear-cut personality of his own &, as a result, he had one of the first 2 cases of multiple personality disorder. His first identity being more along the lines of Aion, the Greek primordial of everlasting time. It wasn't until the climax of his time as Cronus, the Greek titan of linear time, that things began to change. After remanifesting himself after being 'killed' by his 3 sons, Zeus, Poseidon, & Hades, giving him the scar across his face that we all know, a group of oracles & sorcerers offered him a deal that would allow him to assert his own sense of self amongst the sea of personalities plaguing his mind &, desperate for sanity, he agreed.

The oracles then severed his spirit from his body & banished him to the Infinite Realms away from the influences of mortals that could alter him so. Well, they didn't so much send him specifically to the Infinite Realms. They sent him to "a place where time has no meaning." Which happened to be the Infinite Realms. They hadn't specifically known about the Infinite Realms until they, themselves, had passed on from the mortal coil.

Upon being separated from his body, his physical form & a small sliver of his spirit was left behind & became Kairos, Greek god of opportunity & perfect timing, who had amnesia. Kairos was then adopted by Zeus & Hera as a means to keep an eye on him.

It wasn't until after Clockwork asserted an identity of his own amongst the many that he became aware of his other selves. He can't directly control them so much as influence them into making certain choices via subliminal messaging & whatnot.

Even though all the other avatars of time are entirely different people with entirely different lives, they work much like Naruto's kage bushin or even a form of hive mind do with Clockwork as the main 'body.'

These other iterations of himself can vary greatly in personality & appearance, but they are part of Clockwork all the same. This includes the various pagan deities of time throughout the various cultures of space & time. They all work together, even if it's all done subconsciously.

In general, they work together to bring about the most favorable future even if it means that some have to play the part of the villain at times.

The Time Wraiths are their clean up crew & work as a deterent against excessive modification of time.

Their central goal is to keep time going. Favorable futures are preferred, but futures where there actually is a future will do in a pinch. Peace is always the goal, but sometimes certain tragedies need to take place in order to spur on mortal progress.

Clockwork knows better than anyone that without suffering, we'd never learn or grow. Being too comfortable, especially before it's time, leads to stagnation & eventually entropy.

One thing that time needs to keep spinning is progress & progress doesn't come without struggle.

For more, go to my full Ghost Zone Masterlist.

#danny phantom #dp #clockwork #multiverse theory

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iguanalysis · 1 year

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Being and Event: The Point of Excess, Hegel's Logic, and the Name-of-the-Father (part 1 of 2, On Letters α and β)

Intro: On Writing “The Name-of-the-Father”

I normally choose not to use hyphens when writing out the term borrowed from Lacanian psychoanalysis, “the Name-of-the-Father”, because it looks precocious and it feels unnecessary; however, for the purpose of explaining and unifying the usage of Greek letters in Hegel-and-Badiou’s respective writings, I am obliged to include them here in the writing out of the term.

One can assume that the hyphens themselves carry out a clever function, that of putting several words together into a singularly understood and inscribed Word (“Name-of-the-Father”) that signifies a signifier for all the other signifiers, or a one-word for all the other multiple-word(s) which are also words that exist on their own, both alongside it and without it. Perhaps, then, the Name-of-the-Father is truly either “Lexicon”, “Language”, “Vocabulary”, “Dictionary”, or maybe even “Word-Bank”. Anything like that. But my personally-chosen approach to psychoanalysis is more emphatic about the future relationship of psychoanalysis to philosophy, and therefore, a primacy of the signified emerges over the signifier as the multiple of active agents which ought to be used for understanding both “existence” and “reality” simultaneously, if psychoanalysis is to possess any political usefulness at all.

First, examine this important passage from “Hegel’s Logic” (p. 113, Oxford University Press):

Is this not basically the same iteration as what Badiou terms “the theorem of the point of excess” in his conceptualization of Russell’s paradox?

Furthermore, one gets the impression from this comparison that the Greek letters used to write the theorems in Being and Event also possess properties unique to themselves, albeit only in relation to one another.

In conjunction with the concept of the Name-of-the-Father (Nom-du-Père), this observation finds its highest realization in philosophical principles derived from the grammatical mechanics of a written language. Examine the following passage from Being and Event (p. 87):

The resemblance to the concept of the Name-of-the-Father stricken here by the notation Alain Badiou uses in Being and Event, p(α), yields a linguistic analysis of the text that is indispensable for incorporating ideas from Hegel’s philosophy into a critique of psychoanalytic terminology that might have concretely political applications later on. Hegel’s philosophy, once it is finished giving its account of human history (which for him is also the history of philosophical progress throughout a living civilization), can commence with its more substantial and holistic analyses of logical thought, so as not to “give an inadequate conception of them”, as Hegel might put it.

However, Hegel wasn’t entirely “right”, was he? If human civilization had finally finished progressing philosophically, as Hegel hypothesized it ultimately would in a Napoleonic Europe, perhaps his Philosophy of Right would have been published a bit sooner, and democratic human rights would already have become universally granted to all without exception. We must consequently look towards more contemporary thinkers in our own present-day.

The Letters Themselves (α, β, γ, δ)

On Letter “α”

The philosophical or logical principle innate to α, then, is the “Abstract side” of logic, that of bare understanding. It is encountered in the very functioning of a “Name” so-called. This is a functioning that is simultaneously both different-from and identical-to that of a signifier, which in writing can take the form of either a word, a name, a title, a pronounceable character, a character that is never pronounced when reading (a notion of writing derived from the logical functionings of a given language’s various parts of speech, such as a comma or a semicolon), a symbol, a signal (a signified of the signifier that is unconscious), a part of speech (a signifier of the signified that is unconscious), or a void (either read-as-silence or a physical “space” between signifiers that separates them qua appearing as something-zero).

In other words, history is something understood a priori within any given dialogue as already-written, but it is not something that is capable of interpreting itself in the mere act of becoming-read. Unlike the logical functionings of particles of grammar and language, which lead the thinking subject towards the conceptual completion of speech by means of their internal mechanisms of (a seemingly Kantian) necessity (i.e, the rules of forming a complete sentence), historical exposition must avoid taking on any kind of subjectifying narrative if it is to remain as something objective and factual. In other words, already-written history is something that can be investigated, or even revised, if needed.

The condition of this intrinsic revisability is only that it must never become interpreted by means of its very own exposition. Otherwise history becomes more like a Netflix series (I’m thinking of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) or something similar. This principle of historical exposition is continuously causing problems for the relatively nascent field of anthropology, for example, and causes even more problems for more contemporaneous (synchronic) fields such as law enforcement, forensics, and political legislation, which must always stay abreast of what is currently happening.

The side of logic Hegel called “Abstract”, that of mere understanding, is therefore highly duplicitous. The letter α only exists on its own, then, in the form of p(α), a letter “p” which alludes to Bertrand Russell’s paradox of set theory; this paradox states that a given set, written by Georg Cantor as λ(α) (source: Badiou, Being and Event, p. 42), can contain anything except itself (as an element). In other words, p(α) is identical to α, but qua set, it cannot include itself as an element, and this is not only a logical law for analytic philosophy, because it is also considered as a law of nature and a law of physics, so to speak, for any scientific ontology.

On Letter “β”

What is innate to β in Badiou’s theorems is what Hegel termed the “Dialectical” side of logic, or “negative reason”. This (β) is the argument whereby the distinction between belonging and inclusion is introduced by means of an other argument besides α, namely γ. It is called the “power-set axiom”, which states that if any set of any argument exists in the first place, it also belongs to a different set, designated as β, by means of its elements necessarily falling somehow into a relation with γ, another different set. The set of (all) multiples that actually exists, α, also founds the existence of the set of all multiples which can be inferred from α’s respective elements and subsets, that of β, solely and exclusively because of the inclusion of γ in α.

Inclusion relation: ⊂ (“included in”)

(source: https://lexique.netmath.ca/en/inclusion-relation/)

Membership relation: ∈ (“belongs to”, or, “is an element of”)

(source: https://lexique.netmath.ca/en/membership-relation/)

Universal quantifier: ∀ (“all”)

Existential quantifier: ∃ (“there exists”)

(source: https://lexique.netmath.ca/en/quantifier/)

Power-set Axiom:

(∀α)(∃β)[(∀γ)[(γ ∈ β) ↔ (γ ⊂ α)]]

As Articulated:

“For all α there exists β, but only such that for all γ, γ belongs to β because γ is included in α.”

I will add two (rhetorical?) questions to accompany this information: is there any more perfect way of writing out the concept of Absolute Knowing in Hegel’s philosophy? Also, should the third “side” of logic perhaps precede the second “side” of logic if γ is more fundamental to constituting α than β is?

As these Greek letters in Badiou’s written theorems also serve as “moments” of logical entity (according to myself), then, we maybe get some crucial insight into the synchronic grammatical constitution of complete sentences, and the informational entropy which is generated from the understanding of the signified that is undertaken by the Lacanian (barred) subject in either reading any text or listening to spoken language. For example, in the formula of sexuation written (∃x)-(Φx), or, “there is One who is not submitted to the phallic function” (I am utilizing a hyphen as a minus-sign in place of the horizontal bar usually written over the top of “Φx”), we can glean that a sentence, even if it is grammatically correct, may also approach an infinite length in its being-articulated. A long list of names read aloud at a graduation ceremony or a veterans’ memorial service are examples of this formula as it can be applied to actual speech. The monologue of Leopold Bloom’s wife Molly in the last section of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses is an example of the formula as well, since it can also be applied to written/printed literature.

What this means for the interpretation of the theorem is that the Lacanian “little other” (in contradistinction to the big Other, “A”, in French, Autre), also called in English “object a” (in French, objet petit “a”), is an “other” α only in the form of γ. This applies directly and precisely to something that Jacques Lacan presented in the fifth year of his seminar (1957-1958), titled “Formations of the Unconscious”, on the interactions between messages and codes which are constitutive for the functioning of a metonymic object. This was called the two functions in a sequence of signifiers, which I interpreted to refer to the processes of “coding” and “re-coding”:

Since the properties of α are found in the functioning of a Name, it is far easier to make a list of the possibilities of the forms taken by α as they occur in writing than as they occur in speech, since speech frequently overlaps with the anarchic qualities of auditory perception in general. However, the properties of β complicate what is encountered in the written forms of α precisely because of the relationship that a Name necessarily bears to a metonymic object. The bare recognition of γ precedes any “Dialectical” understanding of language itself, insofar as a human child’s biological birth-event is a prerequisite of possessing any subjectivity in the first place. This further implies, of course, that language acquisition, as it relates to any bare understanding of language, begins at zero, at age zero, and possessing (a) zero understanding of anything. In this way, language becomes an immanent metaphor (immanent to our reality) for perception itself, since the “transcendental unity of apperception”, as Kant termed it in Critique of Pure Reason, must be forcibly synchronized with the fact of language’s existence; this is a fact which constantly asserts itself by means of languages’ practical usage in our real, social world of shared perceptions.

In turn, language not only codes and re-codes elements of α through the economics of discourse (via the real exchange of signifiers), but it also de-codes our sensory perception(s), and it does this by using Kantian cognition as a mediator, or as a kind of referee, of consciousness. Thus, the signification of a word is not the result of a unitarily understood signified; rather, signification is the result of multiple-signified(s) that are strictly unconscious, and move the forever-nascent subject towards ego-ideal formation, propelled by the cyclical economics of discourse in language acquisition. This specifically means the recognition (β) and identification (β’) of grammatical parts of speech as they present themselves in the usage of language (α), and how they interact with the Hegelian moments of logical entity through the multiplicity of γ.

Parts of speech (a signifier-of-the-signified that is unconscious): ego-ideal i(a) formation

Itinerary:

α → β → β’ → γ or δ

While it may seem that because the ideal-ego, I(A), is located at the dead-end of the Lacanian graph of desire at the lowest left position, the formation of the ideal-ego must therefore be a more mature process that happens later on in language acquisition than the formation of the ego-ideal, it is perhaps more true to state that the ideal-ego originates for understanding from the blank image of the mother, i, a point which is located on the pre-Oedipal triangle between M and -φ. In this way, understanding proceeds apparently from nature, from Nature-proper, and not directly from the de-coding processes that cognition uses to mediate the self-same consciousness that cognition also necessarily inherits some duty towards interpreting.

Signals (a signified-of-the-signifier that is unconscious): ideal-ego I(A) formation

Itinerary:

δ’ → β → β’ → γ or δ

Negative reason, or the Dialectical side of logic, defaults here from a reliance on language and the logical/affective entanglement with grammatical parts of speech to a philosophical form of cognition experienced as something more primally universal than speech. It is therefore implicitly understood to exist prior to the appearance of the mother’s image, i, within the subject’s relationship to language. In this acquired sense of cognitive difference, it becomes possible to register the phallus (on the pre-Oedipal triangle) as something more like the mother’s α. The desire of the mother, which transforms the “I” into a grammatical part of speech which is always present within speech even without its appellation, originates from the metonymic object which can be located in any sequence of signifiers, and whenever δ’, a signifier of language which seemingly proceeds from Nature, is understood as the initial trigger or catalyst of the mother’s desire, an anxiety develops that is foundational for ideal-ego formation probably a while before ego-ideal formation is ever encountered.

— (1/10/2023)

#alain badiou #being and event #hegel #philosophy #lacanian psychoanalysis #jacques lacan #hegel's logic

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partyswirl · 1 year

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i am awake enough to make messed up baby based on how sleep deprived brain feels

this is Ever Changing Shapes and Ideals they live in honk honk silly clown universe where nothing makes sense because their brain is literally ever changing shapes

if you want to know stupid lore i made with sleep deprived brain here you go

some ancient was like “hey maybe if we modify the neurons to be able to change shape and stuff they’ll evolve into neurons that store information better” and some other was like “dude you’re a genius i bet that’s exactly what will happen it’ll be awesome.”

ECSI’s neurons just turn into random stuff they see and think about. doesn’t even have to be full creatures sometimes ECSI just thinks about like cyan lizard tail patterns and some neuronflies are like that’s me now or thinks hmm ball of yarn welp ball-of-yarnflies. in most cases they barely function as said creatures and are very volatile, changing shape often. but when they have legs they sure can move, and when they have teeth they sure can bite.

the ideas of max karma and ascension don’t do a lot though because it doesn’t actually know the solution or anything so it’d just be jumbled thoughts relating to it, like the symbol for max karma and stuff

very inconvenient. not what the ancients wanted. as you may have guessed yeekflies and other neuronbominations are not good at processing. ECSI is always a little um. a little silly

everyone has to have an incomprehensible blourdo yknow

yknow the like monomon lore tablets? their thoughts and words are like that

anyways the neurons, now with legs sometimes, scampered all over their facility and out into the big wide world. they got not only into ECSI’s chamber, but out to their wall.

most die when they leave but luckily ECSI’s neurons divide and die rapidly because there’s so many problems just everything’s wrong i don’t know how to explain it more there’s so many things wrong with them..

anyway anyway when they escaped the facility and were no longer constantly bouncing off other neuron ideas, the neurons that lived often mimicked the creatures around them and were relatively stable. they’re very solitary because the more neuronflies are together the more volatile they are, but on their own they can mimic multiple creatures traits at once to create horrifying beasts

basically everything is wrong with them and the world around them

also pronouns um i’m just calling them them but they literally could not care less tbh

they are often distressed when they think too much but try to keep power levels low so they literally cannot think as much. they literally have too many neurons so the only way to lower neuron activity is to lower activity in general.

usaully agitation distresses them but they still appreciate occasional messages from other iterators rather than just sitting in solitude with their own thoughts. even though the brain may be in pain it’s better to get a headache while having fun than to have a headache while having a loneliness insanity spiral

they do not know what rot is but a few of their neurons becoming rot for a bit and eating some of the excess.. i think they’d like the concept

#doodle #rain world #iterator oc #why do i always end up writing too much about these guys #i gave them my brain soup and headaches and rushing thought but to the extreme!!! but now i kind of feel bad #[ rm ]

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just-the-cool-page · 1 year

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The Piper at

the Gates of Dawn

Fifty five years ago, the Floyd embarked on their journey in ernest with their first full-length album. Syd Barrett, their original front man, lyricist and composer, and admittedly the most camera-friendly of the bunch. He would also prove to be the most vulnerable of the band, soon spiraling into mental illness, at least partly due to excess use of hallucinogens. Figuratively or literally, Syd got them on stage and into the light. He was their light. And ever after his departure, the Floyd have voiced their gratitude for that light pushing them into growing success. Whether comprised of regret, remorse, or just sorrow, they never seem to have lost sight of the cost Syd paid, presumably not at their urging. But it must be (or have been for a long time) a kind of psychological survivors' guilt. Syd didn't die of an overdose like other beautiful artists. Nor was he abandoned really. His descent into madness made him genuinely impossible to work with. Original management for the Floyd even chose to keep Barrett over them! Barrett and Pink Floyd were equally productive through 1970. The band even supported production of his studio albums, particularly David Gilmour, Syd's "replacement." Ever since, Gilmour's heart and character has matched his looks, that of a lion, and not the madman. (He would later discover and support Kate Bush in launching her remarkable career in music.)

After a few albums of more collaborative work, with Waters often at the helm, Gilmour would "right their ship" with the Meddle album and set their course for more cohesive works. Collaborative work continued with a more balanced feel, but with Waters (more honed than tamed by Gilmour) soon regaining control of concept, composition and lyrics. Even when delving into matters of mental disturbance on The Dark Side of the Moon, the band itself wasn't going insane. Complete balance was achieved between daring concepts, musical and lyrical composition, and mastery of production. Highly narrative, visual, and heavy with sound-scaping, listening to Dark Side is more akin to watching a Kubrick film in 70mm on the big screen with surround sound. Plainly, Gilmour's calm influence on the band was a healthy one and not heavy-handed. Collaboration was at its strongest. Coherence and sobriety were no longer the enemy.

Emboldened by the band's heartiness though, Waters' control went over the deep end, culminating, quite ironically, with his mega-opus, the Wall. The album is arguably all about rooting out the fascism of the ego, perhaps overcoming narcissism. Confronting this most massive of rock-star downfalls was, in the real-life making of the album, precisely what Roger was failing to do. Like any intoxicated megalomania-addict, he was blind to his destructive behavior, exactly like the character dubbed "Pink" on the album and in the fully realized Alan Parker film. Pink transforms into the neo-nazi-inspired tyrant, "Hammer."

Having spent his credibility with the band, he essentially achieved destruction of (that iteration of) Pink Floyd, just as Pink/Hammer achieves destruction of himself/ his life/ psyche/ marriage.

Any number of unconscious motivations or desires could have been at work:

To return to the careless, chaotic days of the late '60s.

To destroy the band that he felt "held him back," like the wife who's abandoned in the film.

To destroy the band as if he were some twisted angel of mercy.

There's an even darker parallel and hubris to note. WWII themes pervade The Wall, especially in the film. The fascism, battlefields (internal as well), and even factory/ death-camps. Waters sooner or later became aware that he broke up the band and made the excuse that its time had come, that it was a necessary sacrifice to complete the important work, to artistically fully render "his struggle." "Sacrifice" is bizarrely the translation of "holocaust." Sacrificing others, or sacrificing on others behalf (a mental gymnastic of rationalization), is a vile concept. Sacrificing others for a presumed "greater good" is explicitly the basis of nazism/fascism. Using the ends to justify the means was presumably what Waters was trying dismantle.

It is bewildering, forty-two years later, how accomplished The Wall was--and still is. It has a deep anti-fascism message on a deeply mental and psychological level. Yet his herculean efforts were intensely damaging. Pink Floyd did survive, but many believe they suffered too critical a loss to fully recover, and far less due to Waters' departure itself than to the destructive and traumatic nature of it.

Pink Floyd has seemed a bit timid ever since. A song here and there has stood out, but the raw power was long-gone for decades. And at this point, are they honestly the same band with only one remaining original member? Nick Mason is a terrifically talented drummer, however, so somewhat ironically, Nick Mason's Sucerful of Secrets (his offshoot) has, in four years, out-performed the last twenty-four years of Pink Floyd's own live output.

#pink floyd #David Gilmour #Syd Barrett #Roger Waters #Nick Mason #Richard Wright #piper at the gates of dawn #the wall #the dark side of the moon #meddle #rock history #psychedelic rock #prog rock #Spotify #SoundCloud

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