#i adore this armor design so much she looks incredible

[monsterblogging]

Quotes from the Pacific Rim commentary re: Guillermo del Toro's aesthetic decisions

"You cannot do world creation without filling in with texture and detail."

...

"People think that world creation - movie, for example - is the big gestures. But it isn't. It's all this small details. Look at the markings. Look at the vehicles that open the doors. Look at the banners and the markings in the crawler that moves the robot. Everything is full of detail. We designed this."

....

"We going to what I call gothic tech, or goth tech. Which is to go right away into a world that is rusting, that is in decay, where you have the concrete is cheap, the paint is chipping off, the armors in the robots is dented, it's sort of pitted and they feel like knights, like these ancient knights, and we start accumulating, for example, atmosphere."

...

"I wanted the movie to be very romantic, but not romantic in the Harlequin novel sense or the romance novel sense of the word. I wanted it to be romantic in its epicness. You know, I wanted it to feel like an opera. I wanted it to feel dramatic. So instead of doing this in a well-lit street in New York I wanted this first fight to happen in an almost like, the middle of a romantic painting, like Caspar David Friedrich is a romantic painter I adore. And I wanted very much for it to happen in the rain in the middle of a tempest in an ocean where the waves are crashing into them. And the water throughout the movie becomes an incredibly complex expressive element."

...

"We're going to go from the biggest, the widest, to the little bug of a pilot crawling out of the helmet. Isolate Raleigh. You know, we isolate Raleigh. I'm telling the story: Look at the markings on his suit, the burn marks on his skin, those are going to become scars that he's going to carry for the rest of the movie. And I'm telling you this is when we started losing. This was the price for arrogance, this was the price for youth, and we're staining the white with red. I'm trying to build a character not just by the work of the actor, but by the storytelling with audiovisual elements."

...

"And look at this, Raleigh's all introduced in this one color, he'd golden, gold colors, and he's all coated in warm greens and earth tones and the light that is bathing him is always golden, and it's about that color coming together with Mako's dominant color, and Pentecost in this case, which is connected with Mako, which are blue."

...

"So this, we come to the scene where they meet for the first time. And I have color-coded this scene entirely in those two colors, in the blue and the ambers. You know, the bright ambers and the blue, the sort of cyan blue. And this is Mako meeting Raleigh, so the entire thing needs to be color-coded like that. And Mako's blue, because I'm making her origin to the kaiju, the kaiju blue, the blood of the kaiju - but also you will see in a few minutes a memory. A memory that is all color-coded in blue and splashes of red in her past as a child. And that blue has stained her hair. Even her hair has this strands of blue because she cannot get rid of that memory. She carries it in her."

...

"We color-coded, for example, the Chinese robot, we color-coded it red and gold and is patterned after medieval armor, and it needs to feel Chinese in essence, it needs to respond to martial arts movements; its musical theme is very strong."

...

"And here again we have now a robot, a Jaeger, that is designed, a mech that is designed to resemble a T-series Russian tank, color-coded like that, with like a cooling tower from a nuclear reactor on top."

...

"And we introduce Striker Eureka, the Australian Jaeger, which is designed a little bit like an all-terrain vehicle and color-coded with the outback camouflage colors and is the most masculine of the robots, of the Jaegers, of the mech, and is very much testosterone-driven."

...

"We talked about the color red; well, here it becomes very important. We have these characters fighting that is very very color-coded to be warm; we have a lot of reddish art direction here. We color-coded this arena in black and red. The stakes, the wood, the machines, the color of the light hitting the machines, the symbols on the wall, everything is permeated with red. Because again, I wanted red to symbolize sort of the heart. And Mako's going to find her heart and Raleigh's going to find his heart, or life, by connecting with Mako. We saw him bleeding - the last time we saw red with any importance other than the Chinese robot was when he was bleeding in the beach."

...

"And again, red coming in and linking these three characters; these three characters are the heart of the movie, you know. And blood for nobility and mortality is what makes us human. And Pentecost and Raleigh and Mako are the heart of the film."

...

"And now we start bringing, literally, bringing the crazy colors into the film. I wanted to color code this movie, bring it as close as possible to a living anime, or a living incarnation of a magazine that was very important for me growing up, which is Heavy Metal with Angus McKie, Richard Corben, Chris Foss, all these guys working with super primary colors, and I wanted to bring that saturation of colors to this, and for that I needed Hannibal Chau to meet Newt in Hong Kong."

...

"In shooting the film, we then came to the final moment and again, these three characters, Mako, Raleigh, and Pentecost, which have existed in a blue-amber world start to come to a red space, you know? This is the first time we used this red space properly in this film. Other than the Chinese robot, we were very careful with not coding anything in red. But now, at the end of the adventure, everybody's coming away. And at the end of the life, at the end of their life, that is Mako, Raleigh, everybody's gonna find this light is red. And now I can talk to you about the way I sort of organized the three fights for Raleigh. I wanted one fight with the kaiju to be the fight where he loses someone. He loses his brother in the beginning. That's where he bleeds red, you know? Then the second fight in Hong Kong is where he gains a partner. He loses a partner in the first fight, he gains a partner on the second fight. And in this final fight, he saves that partner. So, it's a full circle. I show him in the construction area in the beginning sitting in a sort of throne of concrete, if you remember, when he meets Pentecost; he made an incomplete circle. And here he completes that circle."

[imagines--galore]

Hi! I was wondering if you'd be comfortable woth writing Steve Rogers x reader who's a seamstress/designer that wears mostly WW2 era clothing?

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Rating || Genres || Warnings: T+ Romance. Fluff. No warnings.

A/N: OMG! I love this ask! Like seriously thank you so much! Also I drew inspiration from Edna Mode from the Incredibles LOL. Also I hope everything I wrote makes sense. Its two in the morning and my fingers won't stop typing : P Anywho! Enjoy!

People were surprised, to say the least, when you would present yourself as a designer. And not just any designer.

You were now in charge of updating, mending and designing uniforms for the Avengers.

Was it a real job title? Not really. But then since when had that stopped Tony Stark? He could update his armor on his own, and adjust it to his liking. The rest of his team, however, did not have the luxury. Bruce didn't need a uniform, while Thor had his own godly outfit. Natasha needed her uniform mended after a brutal fight. Not to mention she needed suits that would keep her warm in cold weather, and allow her skin to breath in the hot weather. Clint required a uniform that was sturdy yet easy to move in, since maneuvering was a big part of his gig. And Steve came back with more then a few rips in his uniform, on more then one occasion.

And with the growing roster of the Avengers, Tony had taken this particular step and hired you as the official designer/seamstress for the Avengers.

Every fabric imaginable was at your disposal. Not to mention the technology. You were working in your dream field, and was loving every second of it.

Plus it gave you time to work on your own projects as well.

And that was creating vintage clothing from the 40s and 50s.

Fashions from the years past had always fascinated you, and though you would love to wear the elegant gowns and other period pieces, the design and cuts of women's clothing from the 40s and 50s wouldn't get you stared at.

At least not much.

Besides, there was another more empowering reason you wore clothes from that era.

The first time you had met the Avengers, was after the Battle of New York. Tony had set you up, and you had met with each team member separately to talk about their new uniforms.

The day you met Steve, you had just finished speaking to Natasha and waved her goodbye. You were sitting on the tall stool by the bar within the Avengers Tower and going over your rough sketches and notes. As was the norm, you were wearing pants and a shirt styled after the 40s fashion, a rare occasion since you adored the skirts and dresses that came with those years. Sensing someone approach you, you looked up, red lips pulling into a bright smile as you saw the Captain approaching.

"Captain, hi." You quickly stood, heels clicking against the marble floor as you did. "I'm Y/n, 'your new designer." He stared at you for a few more seconds, before shaking himself out of whatever stupor he was in and approached you. "Its nice to meet you, Ma'am." You smiled at him. "Call me Y/N." You offered, before hoping onto your stool once more and pulling out an entirely new sketchbook from your bag. It already had a few sketches of the Captain's uniform in it, plus some detailed notes along the margins.

"So, what is it you'd like me to change about your suit?" You asked, smiling at him as you crossed one leg over the other, pencil poised on a new page to start taking notes.

It took a few minutes before Steve began to speak to you openly. He was detailed about what he did or didn't want, and you were precise with your questions as you took notes. Of course the color scheme would remain the same, but you offered to create one that was entirely black, for stealth missions, you explained. He agreed, thinking that perhaps blue and red would stick out like a sore thumb in the shadows.

As you were tracing the shoulder of the uniform from the side, filling in the details as you went along you glanced up at him.

"What about the symbol?" You asked. The Captain stared back at you, confused. "What symbol?"

"Well you have the star as your personal symbol, but now that you're a part of the team, shouldn't you wear an Avengers symbol somewhere?" You gestured to the shoulder you had outlined. "I was thinking perhaps an A right there." You suggested. He glanced at the drawing before looking back up at you. A small smiled pulled at his lips before he chuckled. "I hadn't even thought of that." He admitted. Suddenly his blue eyes lit up and he gestured out a hand.

"May I?" Nodding you quickly handed over the sketchbook and pencil, watching in fascination as he began to do a quick sketch of the symbol he wanted that would represent his alliance. With the way he created the strokes with each sweep of the pencil, precise and elegant, you couldn't help but make a guess.

"Do you draw Captain?" You asked, your eyes never leaving his hand as he began to add in the details such as outlining and shading. The man shrugged. "A little bit." You had a feeling he was being modest. You had worked with designers and had studied alongside future designers, you knew an artist when you saw one.

"What do you think?" He finally asked, sliding the sketchbook back towards you.

Your eyes scanned over what would be the official Avengers logo before grinning.

"Look perfect."

                                             -------------------------

It didn't take long for you and the Captain to be on first name basis. But then again it was the same with Natasha and Clint. While you mostly talked shop with the two assassins, with the Captain, now Steve, it was another story.

It was easy to talk to him, to go into depth when designing a new outfit for him. He was a super soldier, and regular clothing sizes didn't particularly make the cut sometimes. So it was the norm for you to be creating other clothes for him as well. He would come to you with an idea or even a rough sketch and you would make it a reality.

Then there were the mission outfits. Oh you loved those! Adding hidden seams and cuts into Natasha's dresses so she could hide her weapons. Helping Clint create a tuxedo that managed to hide several sharp arrows. Short ones of course, but still good enough to use with a crossbow.

Your work remained consistent and up to par, as did your dress sense. Not a day went by when you didn't wear something dapper whenever you went to work. You could always tell that there was a curious gleam in Steve's eyes whenever you two would interact, but you dismissed it. He probably thought you strange for your dressing style, but it didn't bother you. Tony had taken to joking about your style, but only in jest. He was just as impressed with your skills just as any other team member.

Of all the Avengers, Steve became a good friend. And you had secretly admitted to yourself that those blue eyes and smile did comes as a bonus. Not to mention he was in peak physical condition. If you had the guts you would ask him to model a few of your own personal pieces for you, but you would never come outright and say something like that.

At present you were putting the final touches on Clint's new uniform. He had decided that maybe he needed a little more dark purple and you had complied. Working with Kevlar was a pain though. It was hard to mesh the fabric together and create something that would fit with the man's physique perfectly.

You were getting tired, and your fingers were aching from the numerous pins and needles you had handled that day. Not to mention the constant cutting. Your hand was beginning to cramp and you had decided to call it a day.

Your workplace was stationed at one of the floors of the Avengers Tower and you could see the sun beginning to set. Sighing you kicked off your heels, stretching your toes and sitting back in your chair. You propped your feet up on another chair and leaned your head back. You had only just taken a deep breath when you heard the door slide open. Straightening up, you glanced in the general direction before relaxing.

"Oh Steve, its only you." You went back to your previous posture of relaxing. "Hurtful Y/N, that you think so little of me. I am a Captain after all." He feigned being hurt with a hand to his chest. To play along with his little joke, you instantly jumped to your feet, and stood at attention, saluting him as you did. The expression on your one was one of sheer concentration and attention, prompting the soldier to laugh out loud as he approached you.

"At ease, soldier." He patted you gently on the shoulder. You broke the salute to grin up at him. Your gaze flitted to the torn page he held. "New project for me? You do know how to spoil a girl Steve." You said with a teasing nudge to his shoulder as you took the page from him. He shrugged in response. "I just thought it'd be a fun little side project for you. You're always saying you love those." You hummed in agreement as your eyes scanned his rough sketching, already making calculations and measurements in your head.

"It'll take me a couple weeks to get to this though, I'm swamped." You gestured to the multiple projects she had laid out on rows and rows of tables. Steve quickly nodded. "Of course, work comes first." You sighed. "I wish I'd have extra time for my own projects as well, it took me two weeks to complete this." You gestured to the dress you were wearing.

Your outfit for the day was one of your own designs, and it was one of your best, in your opinion. You had paired it with shoes that matched the color of the scarf. For your hair you had gone quite simple, simply adjusting the waves and curls and allowing them to frame your features.

Steve did a once over of your dress. He was silent for a few seconds. "What?" You asked, frowning at the sudden silence. "Can I ask you something Y/N?" He said. Was he actually looking nervous about what he wanted to ask. You gave a nod, encouraging him to go on.

"Why do you dress like that?" He asked.

You blinked, tilting your head in confusion. "Like what?"

He shrugged before gesturing to your overall appearance. "Like you don't belong in this era."

"Oh! Oh my gosh! Steve! Is my wearing clothes from the 40s bothering you? I should've realized I am so sorry!" Your apologies were cut off when he shook his head. "No! No! Its not that." He seemed to be struggling to find the words.

"I mean that since I woke up I've only ever seen women dress in today's fashions. And I always thought dames would dress according to the latest fashion." God knows he had been aware of the fact. Bucky's sisters had always been obsessed with the latest trends. And he was sure that if they had seen you, they would've swooned over your outfits.

You gave a small sigh of relief. "Oh is that all? I thought maybe you didn't like the way I dressed." He shook his head. "I like how you dress, its like being back home. A little." There was no doubt there was a hint of sadness in his eyes this time when he spoke, and your heart went out to him. "Well I'm glad the way I dress has helped remind you of home." You said, giving him a small smile.

"And to be honest," You continued. "There is a bit of a sentimental reason why I dress like this." A quirk of an eyebrow on his part prompted you to go on so you did.

"My grandmother was a factory worker during World War II. When I was little she used to tell me how during those years women really started to come into their own. With the men gone, women stepped up and started to take charge of small businesses and working jobs that men had otherwise occupied previously. And because of this women had to wear practical clothing, like pants and shorter skirts. Sure there was also a fabric shortage, but it only helped women dress practically. Not to mention they had to cut their hair to keep it out of the way."

You glanced down at yourself, smoothing the front of your dress before looking back up at him and continued. "I dress like this because I love the style. It makes me feel pretty and I'm able to do my work efficiently." You paused. "But most of all, I wear them to remind me that women have come a long long way then simply being house-makers and small unknown business owners. And I honestly really just admire the way women took charge while their men were away." You grinned. "Talk about real empowerment."

By the time you finished talking there was a smile on Steve's face and a lingering sadness as well. You reached out to lay your hand on his arm. "Are you alright?" He nodded. "Yeah, just what you said, reminded me of a whole lot of women who I knew took charge on the battle front." He had met some brave soldiers during WWII, but he had also met some incredibly fearless women who were ready to charge the Nazis. Of course they weren't allowed to, so they tended to the wounded, drove them to hospitals, acted as liaisons and secretaries. Their roles were just as important as that of a soldier. And then there was Peggy.

Steve could see a glimmer of that fierceness in you that he had seen in Peggy. He had made his peace with the fact that she had lived her life. And now looking at you, a small thought took root in his mind. Maybe he could find someone to spend his life with as well?

"If you're done here." He gazed around the room, hands now stuffing in his pockets as his feet shuffled nervously where he stood. "You want to get something to eat?"

Alright, so hadn't been expecting that. A bright smile bloomed on your face and you gave Steve a little curtsy. "Such a gentleman. Let me just grab my bag."

He waited for your patiently by the door as you quickly pulled on your shoes and grabbed your handbag, tugging on your gloves as you went. "So where to?" You asked as you stepped up next to him. He grinned, offering you his arm which you gladly took, before answering.

"I know a really good 40s themed diner?"

"Sounds divine."

[saturnniidae]

4, 7, and 14 for the Httyd ask game :0

4. What is your favourite type of dragon and why?

I can't narrow it down to one, but my top three are probably: Deathsongs, Stormcutters and the Boneknapper

Deathsongs because they remind me of rainwings from wings of fire (my first dragon media obsession) with the bright coloring and ear frills as well as the amber being vaguely reminiscent of the acid rainwings spit.

Stormcutters because I absolutely adore Cloudjumper. The way he moves (owl + dog like body language) is incredibly fun to watch and his design is gorgeous.

And the Boneknapper because I had an obsession with the special as a little kid as well as having a one in SoD, iirc. Also, the concept of a scavenger dragon coating itself in an armor of bones is badass.

7. Do you have any OCs? If so, talk about their appearance, backstories, and personalities.

No, unfortunately. I've not really been into OC making since middle school. Not sure what happened, but I kind of lost interest and shifted to focusing on pre-existing characters 😭 I'd like to make a Dragon Rider sona one day though if feel the inspiration to.

14. Which part of the franchise has your favourite animation style?

The first movie era, hands down. The rough, somewhat bleak (in the beginning, at least) gritteness of Berk's scenery, the textures and lighting, Toothless' original design (Cat-like, sleek, very clearly built for speed over raw strength, you can literally see the dust in between his scales) and the original designs for the all the dragons tbh, they feel more.. textured and wild (which I guess makes sense. Later, while they're still, very much wild animals they've become accustomed to being cared for. But still.)

And with the human characters as well!!! I love how much personality their designs have alone; Hiccup has crooked teeth and so many freckles, Astrid has really choppy, greasy looking bangs that she's always shoving out of her eyes, Snotlout's actually missing a tooth, and most of the kids have like, visible dirt on their skin and clothes.

I love how 'imperfect' the designs for all of them are!! And like of course they are!!! Like these kids were training to wage war against dragons! Of course they're gonna be grimey!! I dunno, I just feel like a lot of movies/shows aren't willing to have that level of perceived realism in their character designs. Httyd's cast feels so real to me despite how insanely stylized some of the characters are, and its an absolute shame they seemed to have lost that in the later installments.

(Hiccup's teeth magically get straighter, his freckles fade, Astrids skin is no longer ruddy, her hair looks like it's been shampooed or something, her freckles are completely gone and that's just the second movie. As it goes on the characters' designs and the world around them feels less full of life and more like shiny, plastic figurines. Especially Toothless.)

All the first movie era stuff has just a completely different feel to it that the rest if the franchise hasn't been able to replicate

Anyways, tysm for the ask! I had a lot of fun answering these!!!

[sapphic-haymaker]

Fio Media Log #1: Gen 1 Armored Core Trilogy

Armored! Core!

I'm a mecha gal. I love my robots. but I especially love me some clunky "real robot" style mechs. I only got into Armored Core with 6, and i've decided to take a plunge into the first generation games with, admittedly, not too high of expectations.

And lemme tell ya. I was pretty blown away at how fun these are!

Visuals

Let me start off with the visuals, holy shit do I LOVE the visuals of these games. I grew up with the PS1 as my first console, playing Twisted Metal (Darkside main btw) is one of my earliest memories. I really adore the games that have come out recently emulating the PSX style (Psuedoregalia, Signalis, Ultrakill, etc.)

The blocky aesthetic lends itself well to mecha. A lot of the genre likes to build it's robots in simple, blocky shapes so Bandai can easily make model kits of them, and there's no shortage of obvious design inspiration among ACs

The first mission, which subtly informs you of a theme of the series, has you being paid to go murder some workers striking for better pay and benefits and some other stuff that probably could've been bought with the money they used to hire a 5 meter tall death robot but hey. not our department.

The pitch black background and illuminated bridge makes for some lovely moody atmosphere. A LOT of 1st gen is going to be same-y hallways and tunnels but when they go through the extra effort to make a place look like a place it ends up very nice.

The Controls

Hooooo boy. This was a STRUGGLE for me at first. See this lil game was released a month after Sony's dualshock controllers, the ones with actual analogue sticks and not just a d-pad, hit the market. Which means this highly technical game is going to make you control deliberately hard-to-pilot machines without any sticks! (and they wouldn't add support for them until 7 years later!!!)

I found the stock control scheme where Up/Down was moving forward back, Left/Right was Turn, L1/R1 was strafe, and L2/R2 was aim up/down COMPLETELY unhandlable. Brain could not parse it. But to my shock there was an option in the game settings to rebind the controls! Making all the d-pad buttons be movement and all the shoulder buttons camera controls made things click right away. But that's just for basics. As for advanced movement…. welllll.

Meet [13th Toll], the build I did most of the game on after spending a lot of time experimenting and testing.

You'll notice she's a quad leg type AC! that's because the quad leg type trades the ability to boost on the ground for the ability to have consistent fast movement, meaning you can move fast without actually being good at the game's movement. It was absolutely a crutch but the game never threw anything hard enough at me to stop using said crutch. The gatling gun arms just felt better than any gun in the game having a huge amount of damage and ammo… at the cost of absolutely financially ruining me. @ @

See. Every mission in Armored Core has a base pay, occasionally bonus pay or penalties, and then that pay is deducted by how many resources you used in the mission. Repair Cost is how much damage you took, and Ammo cost is how many bullets/shells/rockets/etc you chewed through. And let me tell you the Gatling Arms are strong but they cost so much money to fire that i ended up LOSING money on several missions due to operating costs.

Scrounging for cash is definitely part of the AC experience, it's not shy about it's anti-capitalist messages, going into enough debt due to failing missions or not performing well enough actually resets the game, having your character undergo experimental augmentation to make them better at paying off the debt presumably (this is kind of an easy mode. I never triggered it as I wanted to do all three games without it. Felt like it was the authentic experience)

The control scheme as noted is incredibly clunky, but in a way that feels befitting of a mech. In AC6 the combat and controls are incredibly streamlined and feel as good as it gets for the most part. But AC1 takes a real-robot approach and imposes some serious limits to how you can move and aim. It genuinely feels like you're fighting the controls trying to aim at a fast moving plane or an AC boosting past you. It's a unique feeling that leaves the player feeling less like an ultra powerful death robot and more a poor pilot desperately wishing something could turn faster than it physically can. I'm a big fan.

I blew through AC 1 all things considered, aside from that horrifically frustrating final mission. (platforming in a game with the worst camera controls ever took years off my life.)

It wasn't a cakewalk per say, but i never felt incredibly pressed to improve my skill or optimize my build all that much in the game. I pretty much did whatever. Very enjoyable experience all in all. Where I think things get interesting is the first expansion…

Project Phantasma

Released a few months after AC1, Project Phantasma is when the game REALLY made me focus in on what i wanted to do and made me sweat. For the most part it's missions are about on par with it's predecessor, with one exception: The Arena.

The Arena is as straightforward as it gets, 49 Enemy ACs, one on one, no distractions. Best Pilot wins. The first chunk of the arena is a joke, but then, out of nowhere, comes

RANK: 30 PILOT: Brutus A.C.: Back Stab

You see this fucker? This was my wall. This is where the real pain train starts and Gen 1 starts to stop pulling it's punches IMHO.

Brutus is an aerial ace. You'll find that MOST of the ACs in the Arena absolutely LOVE to be in the air. this particular asshole has a sniper rifle that will literally stunlock you for long periods of time, is incredibly accurate, and generally just makes your life hell.

Quad legs could not carry me to victory here, they genuinely just do not have the maneuverability to dodge the incoming hailstorm of sniper shots. I tried heavyweight ACs, thinking i could simply outlast him, Dead Wrong. Heavyweights were even more of failure. All that armor did was prolong the inevitable.

This is where I had to bite the bullet and start using regular legs. You move absolutely pitifully slow when not boosting, but boosting takes energy, energy conservation takes practice and skill. I used these next 30 Arena fights to learn how to move and shoot in these games and the experience was so satisfying and rewarding. I felt like I was just as quick as the AI and soaring through the sky right along with them by the end of it.

Meet [Phantom Lambda], she is as fast as I could make her, she is as light as i could make her, she carries a new weapon in the Phantasma expansion, the WG-RFM118 Rifle. Along with a magazine on the back slot, a "weapon" that does nothing but increase the ammo count of your other weapons. 300 shots was consistently enough to take out most Arena opponents aside from the thick armored heavyweight powerhouses.

My weapon choice was simple. It has an absolutely MASSIVE lock on reticle. So I could focus all of my brainpower on movement and avoiding enemy fire. I still had to do a fair amount of aiming, the enemy ACs in the Arena get blazing fast. but this strategy ended up getting me all the way through the game. And suddenly I only had one Gen 1 game left.

Story Tangent

Project Phantasma tried a lot harder to have a consistent storyline which was fine, if a bit clunky. There's a big bad rival mech named Stinger who ends up being pretty pathetic as you thrash him again and again. You get all your jobs from a woman named Sumika who is also a AC pilot, and let me say, I was pleasantly surprised to see a woman in old mecha media that isn't evil and/or dead.

Master of Arena

Master of Arena had a lot more time in the oven than Project Phantasma, releasing in 1999 while AC1 and PP were both 97', and let me tell ya. It feels like a FromSoft employee was watching my Phantasma run over my shoulder when I first booted up the game.

So first things first. My strategy is in goddamn shambles. Not only is my FCS (part that determines lock-on reticle) significantly nerfed, my entire loadout has been nerfed to the floor in the ammo department. Magazines would give 50% more ammo per magazine in PP, and my rifle had 200 shots base. Now Mags give 20% each, and the rifle now only has 160 shots. Meaning I've went from a maximum of 400 shots to a measly 224. Considering how many shots end up missing and enemy AC HP, this means the rifle that carried me is absolutely not an option anymore.

Meet [The Rook], my intent was to find a middle ground where I wasn't totally made of paper like I was in piloting [Lambda Phantom]. Focusing purely on optimized utility in her design, I wanted something mobile, durable, and I needed to fit a weapon that had decent range and some nice damage, I used the WG-AR1000,a mid-range machine gun and doubled up on mags. This gave me a whopping 1400 bullets to bullet hose the competition down.

While the story missions weren't any harder than AC1 and Phantasma, the Arena didn't have a slow ramp up like it did in last one. Right away i was thrown into a fight with a lightweight aerial AC raining pain down on me.

I ended up playing a lot more aggressively this time around due to the machine gun's much shorter range, meeting opponents up-close in mid-air as abusing the RFM118's long range to plink away at opponents wasn't an option anymore. This lead to a lot of problems against enemies with similar weapons like gatling arms, where we mostly just ended up DPS racing eachother, but i only have to win once, after all.

Overall I really enjoyed these games. I think the first one is a fun lil time and onboards you to the systems well enough, and if you're hungry for more the two expansions offer a nice challenge. I'm currently debating if i wanna do the EX Arena in Master of Arena or if i wanna jump straight into Armored Core 2.

I highly recommend you try these out if you've played AC6, it's systems and clunky control schemes are very neat lil relics of game design that feel completely lost in the modern era.

[vyriadurav]

So I've been playing a lot of Nioh 2 and Wo Long to decompress and I'd never really played Ninja Gaiden (aside from the old NES version) so I wasn't super familiar with Team Ninja's work. I had heard that Gaiden tended to lean more towards somewhat sexist designs and I'm really impressed that didn't really carry over much into Nioh and Wo Long.

There's definitely *sexy* women, but more often than not you're finding the women in the story are strong, capable, and heroic with pretty good designs, especially the front line combatants. Suzuka and Yorimitsu from Nioh 2 I really adore. Suzuka has a very pretty look to her, but she still looks capable and ready for combat. She's a yokai so she can afford to be a bit more extravagant with her armor since her inhuman strength and vitality will carry her through. Suzuka also, as I understand it, hearkens back to warrior maidens in Japanese history, specifically Shizuka Gozen. This is a story I'm not very familiar with, but I'd love to find out more. Notably, you fight alongside Suzuka in the early 800s AD iirc and so it's cool to have someone like that in an older period of history.

Yorimitsu, on the other hand, looks ready to fuck you up. Her design is incredibly good for a demon slayer imo. This is matched in-game by how meeting her instantly throws you into a boss fight with her and you have to just get her to low health for her to recognize you're not a threat, you're an ally. She has some of the coolest moves in the entire game and is often called fem Vergil since she's got a judgement cut style move. She is also, as I understand it, a genderbend of the historical Minamoto no Yorimitsu, who is a figure I don't really know much about so I won't really comment on that too much. I will say that she also goes by Raiko and it turns out Fate Grand Order also genderbent the historical figure, but their version is...very sexed up in ridiculous, absurd ways.

Hong Jing is a really interesting example because she's not a front line combatant, she's a taoist healer. Nevertheless, she's strong, capable, and brave. I'll talk about her details after the break as those involve spoilers

Hong Jing eventually takes up the identity of Diao Chan to infiltrate Dong Zhuo's forces. I'm not going to pretend I have an in-depth familiarity with Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but I read a good chunk of it and I played a lot of Dynasty Warriors/watched Red Cliff/various other 3K media. Afaik, Diao Chan is a completely fictional character and I've always seen her depicted as an innocent maiden in Dong Zhuo's clutches that needs to be rescued by Lu Bu (or she's a temptress playing Lu Bu and Zhuo against each other)

These are honestly not great roles for a woman to be in and that does fit the era this was written in. But Team Ninja was like nah, Hong Jing is this taoist hermit who plays the part of a dancer to get in close to Dong Zhuo. Lu Bu is recast as her brother, and she is eager to find out why he would ally with a scoundrel and also why he would get involved in the whole elixir plot that runs throughout the game.

That's a much cooler and more interesting angle! I instantly loved her in this game where in every other 3K game, I've found her tedious or frustrating.

It's also worth mentioning I think that Team Ninja's character creators for Nioh and Wo Long are really good. I remember when Nioh 2's demo hit and a lot of people were wow'd by the creator because you could easily share characters and there were really good options for Black characters, something most were not expecting for a game set in Sengoku era Japan. (Coincidentally, this was the first time I learned about Yasuke, a Black man who fought as Oda Nobunaga's retainer.)

Wo Long also includes these options and degendered the body types while also having a pronoun selection. In Three Kingdoms era China! That's cool as hell.

I really look forward to seeing what Team Ninja does next. I won't say their portrayal of women is perfect and I definitely have some minor gripes about some of the characters, but on the whole, I'm pretty pleased with their work and especially seeing how they've come along since older work.

I hope y'all enjoy my rambling about this and consider giving these games a shot.

[aesthetic-uni]

While everyone else is watching season 4 of Lego Monkie Kid, which just released in dub version, I am watching THE VERY BEGINNING

Yeah I just started Lego Monkie Kid, and I very much regret not starting it sooner, and I wish I had heard about it sooner. Oh well, better late than never I suppose

I don’t know if I’ll review all the episodes, but I’ll at least review A Hero Is Born

First off let me rave about the animation: This is amazing. I haven’t watched anything else lego-wise, so I don’t know if it’s usual for them to have stellar animation, but this is literally some of the most amazing animation I have ever seen-and I have seen a lot of animation. It’s just, every single scene is so fluid and fun, and the scenes where they are not are stylized to be fun gags that perfectly display the emotions of the characters. And even if the animation wasn’t amazing, the way they have built (hehe) this Lego world is so beautiful. Everything looks so gorgeous and has this absolutely beautiful stylized look that I would say is on par with Spiderverse and Puss In Boots. In case I’m not clear, I’m just saying that how they design everything fits so perfectly when thinking about the media they actually come from. Like yeah this is how I would think a Lego world would look like! And oh my god the colors! They so bright and fun and work perfectly when you consider almost everyone in this world is yellow! It’s just such a beautiful show to look at! I haven’t seen the whole thing but I have to say right now, one of my favorite scenes is just MK delivering noodles and driving around this city, ugh I love it.

Okay so let’s start with the characters: I really enjoyed them all! I loved Mei so much,and I’ve only heard good things about her so I can’t wait to see more of her! Red Son was a fantastic funny villain, while I did enjoy his parents as more serious villains. I think I prefer Princess Iron Fan as a villain, she just seems a bit more grounded and serious compared to DBK who’s kinda over the top (like father like son!), but who knows maybe that will change. PIGSY AND TANG!!! I fucking adored them. Already I ship them, but every scene I see them I can’t help but think of their counterparts and laugh at how not them they are acting. And yeah, I absolutely love Dadsy, he cares so much for MK in this one episode and you can tell. And for Sandy, he’s adorable obviously but I just want to see him snap. I don’t know why but I really just want to see him fucking destroy something. I’m really disappointed I didn’t get to see much of Sun Wukong. Like I know it’s MK story but I’ve seen so much stuff of Sun Wukong I want to him to be here already dammit! Also yeah he’s definitely hiding more than he’s letting on. Now to MK! I love him. This is MY son and EVERYONE is required to be nice to him! He’s just a fun character, he reacts to things in such a normal way I absolutely love it. I can’t wait to see more of him.

Also, this episode was just hilarious. I loved all the jokes and visual gags. My favorite joke has to be during the race scene when Red Son pulls out the motorcycle and is like “You think I would build just one car!” AND HOLDS UP LEGO INSTRUCTIONS LMAO

Plot was, basic. The only thing I found really compelling was Princess Iron Fan, I’m not going to lie. I didn’t dislike it, it’s just a standard pilot plot so I didn’t care for it. I think I liked the first half more than the second half, because after Bull Demon King gets his armor, everything just goes so fast that I stopped really caring.

Now, my main problem with the episode is just, it was so incredibly rushed. Which listen I get it I do! It’s only one hour and they have to introduce the main conflict, introduce the whole cast, actually get the main conflict, actually get the resolution, and solve the main conflict. That’s hard to do with full length films, of course it’s going to be rushed. But, it did make it less enjoyable for me. I don’t know maybe it’s just a me thing, but I hope as I watch the seasons they’re able to slow down the story a lot more. Also, yes I know it’s a Lego show, but my god did they put so many obvious “we made this in order to make a toy” scenes! I get they have to sell toys but there was just way too many for one episodes. I hope they’re at least spread out in the next season.

And that’s my review! Sorry it’s not very put together, I was mostly just writing down whatever came to my mind about the episode. I might do season by season reviews, or a few episodes at a time. Either way I think this show might be a new favorite of mine and I’m excited where to go!

Also a few things: I don’t care for spoilers, and I have actively spoiled myself with this show. I also joined the fandom way before I even watched the show. You guys just make way too cool fanarts and edits Dammit! Anyway I don’t care if you spoil me in the comments lol, I probably won’t even realize what you are talking about until I get to that scene so, it’s all good

[witchy-jadda]

rott spoilers ahead

so i’ve given myself some time to think about everything and try to process it all and here are some of my thoughts on trollhunters: rise of the titans...

- straight off the bat, i loved the intro. opening with blinky telling the story of what happened up until this point was incredible. i would have loved if they had circled back to this though (i saw someone else say it should have been him telling the story to jim and claire’s kids and i loved that idea!)

- i also liked that they didn’t waste time at the start, instead they just jumped right into the action which was fun.

- honestly, i thought jim’s plotline throughout the movie where he basically thought he was useless without the amulet was just really not fun to watch. i understand why it was there and it played into the climax but i really did not find it one bit necessary seeing as i felt that we have grown beyond that. i felt it was overused. we’ve been there before and jim is aware that he’s the trollhunter, amulet or not.

- douxie being so soft with nari was genuinely one of the most heartwarming parts of the movie. i feel that we were really robbed of so much potential with douxie in this movie though. we didn’t see nearly enough of him. it seemed that the writers were picking and choosing when to remember how powerful he is. switching with nari and connecting to her are two examples of when they actually used his power, but aside from that they just disregarded it a lot.

- and speaking of forgetting how powerful people are... i’m genuinely so hurt and let down over what they did to claire. do they not realise how powerful she is? did they just forget about her character arc? it sure felt like it. she got to use her powers a few times (connecting to nari, portalling the titan, etc) but mostly it felt like she was saying she was spent and therefore unable to do anything. she is so strong and so powerful, and that’s just so empowering - especially for young girls. and then it kinda felt to me that rott was reducing her to basically nothing more than jim’s love interest.

- okay another quick note, it kinda felt to me that krel’s potential was also pretty wasted? he barely did anything and i just think he deserved more too.

- ew okay i don’t even want to think about it but i know i can’t discuss rott without talking about the mpreg thing. seriously, what the fuck was that? at first, i thought it was going to be a joke. i thought aja and krel were gonna wind steve up and see how far they could go with making him think he was pregnant just for a little bit of comic relief. but then he was actually pregnant. and so i laughed, because even though it was dumb it was kind of funny. weird and unexpected, but kind of funny. but by the time the movie was over it just didn’t sit right with me. looking past the fact that it was just more of them making steve’s character into a joke, i couldn’t see the logic in giving so much time to that subplot when other characters (claire, douxie) and other relationships (claire and douxie’s friendship) were sidelined. maybe if he had gotten a whole season the mpreg thing could have been included as comic relief or whatever, but with such limited time i really don’t see the point of wasting so much time on something so pointless. 

- speaking of steve, i need to talk about creepslayerz... they really deserved more :( like i get that eli literally helped steve through child birth and then named one after him which was lowkey adorable but i loved their friendship so much and i was really hoping to see more of them. i was kind of hoping they’d get to do more as well. look i gave up on hopes of a romance long ago (even though i still really wished it would happen) but i hoped that at least we’d see some more of their friendship.

* by this point my brain has decided to forget absolutely every point i wanted to make... cue the brain fog (we don’t like her) and allow me to take a moment to read back and try to find my point again *

- i don’t think i can stress enough how much i loved the visuals in this movie. holy fucking shit it was just phenomenal. like wow. the art was absolutely fantastic and i’m really hoping for another the art of... book because i love the art of trollhunters and i feel that they could do with updating it to include the newer stuff. but yep, the animation quality was incredible and i don’t have a bad thing to say about it because just wow.

- speaking of art... a moment of appreciation for character designs. just wow wow wow. we love to see such intricately designed villains. we love to see growth in our other much loved characters. and the locations too? fantastic. beautiful. amazing. loved it.

- another moment of appreciation for jim. the hair. the scars. the injuries. the winter jacket. the fact that he looked a little older.... loved it. loved it, loved it, loved it. i cannot wait to spend hours pouring over reference pictures to draw them all.

- and claire... her armor being weathered and worn. her eyes!! her hair looked great as always. i just love her...

- nari nari nari... my goodness, her magic is so beautiful. i wish we got to see more.

- also, the jlaire moments were very cute. their kisses? so soft. they literally love each other so much. i adore them.

- what happened to the babies from the darklands btw? is not enrique just chilling in the lake’s house with a ton of babies? 

- barbara deserved better. i would have liked to see her and strickler happy.

- on that note, why the actual fuck did they think a few explosives would win against magic?? literal ancient magic and these dumbasses were like huh i guess we should blow it up. i’m sorry, what?? y’all are stupid.

* currently trying to think of every possible point that isn’t to do with the ending because i really don’t want to think about that yet *

- the whole thing with archie and charlemagne felt super unnecessary. like usually characters sacrifice themselves and it’s like sad and you can see the reasoning and stuff. but they literally could have gotten out. i really did not vibe with that. it felt like they just did that to leave douxie with no one.

- that trollmarket was beautiful though.

- speaking of trollmarket... they really restored the heartstone just like that? are you joking? i was not impressed at all. the heartstone was dead and gone, could not be destroyed. did they just forget that? half the shit in wizards wouldn’t have happened if the heartstone could have been restored. very pissed off by that. it was dead, that was it.

- okay back to jim... love that he pulled the sword from the stone. it was cute that it was a group effort, kinda would have preferred if it was just him but that’s just a me thing. and maybe me and my daylight tattoo are biased here, but excalibur is not half as pretty as daylight.

- not gonna lie, jim yelling come on trollhunters! kinda got me. i was very emotional watching this.

- i think the most in character jim moment of the whole movie was when he dropped excalibur, he didn’t have his armor, he was all alone and he decided to make a fist and fight the wizard/god with literally no weapon or means of defence. i don’t think y’all understand how much i love this dumb self sacrificing selfless boy. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, he is literally one of my most favourite characters of all time. i love him with all my heart.

- the armor!! wow wow wow. that was a fucking cool scene. beautiful.

- jim getting stabbed or whatever with that fucking spear thing nearly killed me.

- okay here goes... toby. my sweet toby. jim and toby’s friendship is one of my absolute favourites ever. my goodness. and toby getting in the van and going to save jim was incredible and such a toby thing to do. of course he would think of doing that.

- but like seriously... claire and douxie are so fucking powerful and they were both just like lol i guess we can’t do anything to help jim? i’m sorry what?? don’t tell me that claire wouldn’t go full on black and purple eyes and get herself up their to him. i just... i’m so bothered by the fact that they were sidelined y’all :|

- also, do not seriously try to tell me that aaarrrgghh!!! would let toby go on his own. he would have went with him. he would have followed him.

- literally as jim was falling the first thing that went through my mind was oh aaarrrgghh!!! is gonna run up and catch him.

- and while we’re on the topic of aaarrrgghh!!! why tf did they have such a build up that something was going to happen to either him or blinky for literally no reason? wtf

- aaarrrgghh!!! would not have let toby go alone!!! if he had been there, he would have protected toby, he would have saved him and none of that mess of an ending would have happened.

* ugh here’s the bit i was dreading... the ending *

- first off, i am choosing to ignore it.

- time stone? really? we’re... we’re gonna do this? literally one of the most original things i have ever watched is now - at the literal last possible minute - rip off another movie?? really?? whyyyy???

- i literally cannot express how much i hated it. it was so fucking unnecessary.

- he didn’t need to go back that far!!!

- i’m actually trying to block this out but i suppose i have to at least touch on it. jim would never ever put that burden on to toby. he just wouldn’t. before even looking at all of the other issues with toby getting the amulet, i need to say that. it just wouldn’t happen. he struggled so much with being the trollhunter, he wouldn’t put that on toby. 

- also toby literally never wanted to be the trollhunter?? he never wanted the amulet? he wanted to be a duke and have his war hammer and go on adventures with his best friend and his wingman and eat mexican food.

- okay so um i guess they all just forgot about unbecoming? cool cool cool.

- seriously though, was it not established many times that jim literally had to be trollhunter? and if he wasn’t it would be draal and everything would go to shit? did they just forget about that??

- having jim just decide to give toby the amulet literally takes away from the entire meaning behind jim getting the amulet and becoming the trollhunter. the amulet chose jim. merlin chose him. out of all of the creatures in the world, it had to be jim. he can’t just give that to toby!!

- and as much as i love toby, he would not last a day as trollhunter.

- and that’s not even beginning to mention all that jim erased by not becoming trollhunter. no father son relationship between him and blinky. they didn’t stop steve from picking on eli so no steve redemption and no creepslayerz. is he just going to allow enrique to be taken? toby will not have the same incentive to go into the darklands to save him if that’s the case. strickler will not show any sort of sentiment towards toby either. and then the big one...

- IS THAT FUCKER REALLY GOING TO ALLOW CLAIRE TO NOT GET HER POWERS??? WHAT???

- if jim isn’t trollhunter and the whole thing with enrique doesn’t happen then claire will never get her shadowstaff. let’s be real, strickler probably wouldn’t even need angor rot with toby as trollhunter. somehow i can’t see him making it that far...

- if claire doesn’t have her shadow staff then the whole thing with morgana won’t happen. she won’t destroy the shadow staff and then she will never develop her powers. would jim really rob her of that?

- okay i can’t do anymore, it’s too much for me now...

- i touched on this already in a separate post but i gotta say it again... i did not enjoy the destiny is a gift bit at the end. first of all, jim having toby find the amulet literally takes the meaning of that speech and his destiny away instanty. and second, i just could not stand hearing emile hirsch say the words that belonged to anton yelchin. it was just uncomfortable.

aaand i think i’m done. maybe i’ll have more later but i have a headache now from all of this.

[telestoapologist]

My friend @mavs-corner​ has inspired me and now I want to make a Kruutiks redesign of my own (and give him some purpose/meaning and a personality of his own) sldfghg.

I’ve STARTED working on it, but it’s. kind of hell, because I haven’t figured out the exact direction I want to take it. On one hand, I would ADORE to have the attire design take after Dima Goryainov’s Tangled Shore armor concept art here,

But I don’t want to use all of it, or even any of it down to exact T. Like he needs to look like he belongs from the shore/reef and got his goods from there, but resembles more of a shadow so he doesn’t stick out easily. Kruutiks, in my opinion, likes stealing shit that does not belong to him, has probably even pilfered a few things from Araskes, as well as Elykris’ hoard under her nose (or has very much been caught more than once, she considers him a thieving rat among her treasures), and guardians are NOT an exception. They’re a more dangerous haul, but it’s worth it. 

Much of his attire has been snagged from not only bits of metal/steel around the shore, but also well stitched hunter cloaks. He holds many pockets, belts, probably doesn’t run around in a crop hoodie and metal briefs (maybe he did once in his earlier days, but as he got more creative and crafty, he got more things for himself to wear!). His face, however, always remains in obscurity beneath his tattered hood. The only thing you can really see are the tubes which connect to a humble tank of dark ether built into the back of his chest piece’s armor, as well as his four blue eyes. 

Personality wise? He is THE fucking problem child of the scorn, almost on par with Reksis, but for different reasons. He’s not destructive and he doesn’t have a temper to match it, however he’s incredibly shifty, again likes to steal from his own “family”, and pretty much makes deals with anyone who can supply him with enough ether or glimmer/supplies. He’s got a sharp tongue, rarely serves anyone else but himself, and WILL kill/damage anyone and anything that gets in his way. 

Like imagine if your family adopted a shitty little teenager into their home, and the teenager was just absolutely awful. 

He’s not completely heartless, however, he just refuses to get close to anyone for his own safety and survival. There have been times where he’s even offered appropriate and small assistance towards weak and straying scorn and eliksni. Maybe that’s why Fikrul brought him in, maybe he saw something in him, but unfortunately Kruutiks has been temporarily kicked out of the family and can only come back when he’s done being his slimy little feral self. 

He serves another now, however. Serves is a very generous term, but he knows better than to cross someone who could very much kill him without any effort. 

[andromeda612]

Renga Fantasy AU

I've seen lost of fantasy Au's with Langa being the prince and Reki either the cute gardener, the adorable captain of the army, or any other common role that will be the prince's love interest... but what about Prince Reki?

I can see it like this:

Joe is the head of the cook and Reki's paternal figure number #1.

Cherry is the first advisor of the royal family and Reki's paternal figure #2.

Shadow is a guard and probably Reki's main bodyguard, he acts like he is annoyed by Reki's too energic and loud personality but in reality he is a big softie and has a weakness for the young and gentle prince, he is Reki's older sibling figure.

Miya is the son of a noble family, probably training for either being court sorcerer or knight, he is Reki's closest friend despite being younger, he sees Reki as his old brother and is very protective of him because in his opinion (and in everybody else's opinion for that matter) the redhead is too nice for his own good and someone needs to take care of him for god's sake! Of course he will deny it for ever and still be the tsundere he is.

Langa can be the son of a merchant and a doctor from another kingdom, after his dad dies his mother decides to go back to her home in the Kyan's kingdom (Okinawa), because of her reputation as a good doctor she gets a job in the palace as court physician. Langa stays with her at the palace and he could be either training for knight, physician or maybe sorcerer too but he hasn't decided yet, or even training for advisor under Cherry's wing. For the time being he just study with Reki.

Now in this au's Prince Langa main trouble is he feeling lonely or incomplete, Reki being the sun he is complement him and his trouble is of course his self confidence, I want to keep it that way even if Reki is the prince now.

So Langa feel not sad anymore but definitely off since his dad died, he used to love traveling with him, try new things, he loved the most all the things he could learn from the items he got to sell, he wanted to be a merchant like him but now he is not sure anymore, that's why that for now he is just studying along with the prince as he decides what he want to do with his life, he is not unhappy but he can't help but feel there is something missing, that's it until he meets the ray of sunshine that is Prince Reki, the royal is gentle and unlike other royal member he has met (due both if his parents jobs) he doesn't treat the rest with superiority, he traits everyone the same, with kindness, a warm and genuine smile, he actually doesn't act like how he was taught princes are supposed to act, he is loud and very energetic, he is polite and all, but he doesn't emanate an aura of someone to be afraid off or someone you feel intimidate with, he makes you feel like you are with a friend, he will talk and talk enthusiastically to no end... unless you show him you were bored, which was not rare to happen, with the prince being too kind and easygoing is was easy for others to forget he was the prince. But Langa could hear him for hours and never get bored, Reki showed him the palace and different places of the kingdom, he show him his drawings, all his crafts, the prince was incredible with smithy, he designed most of the best warriors' armors, as well as some of the innovative artifacts that helped so much in the kingdom, he showed him his passion for his realm and his passion for his hobbies, he was amazing... it's such a shame the prince is not capable to see it himself.

Reki for his part, he is the genius, creative sunshine we know. He is energetic and almost all the people loves him. Almost, because there is still the royal and nobles assholes that think he won't be a proper ruler because of his personality. As well as the people that get fed up with his energy. Those all are the people less liked in the kingdom. Though is really a trouble that the royal ones hold such power, because they really chose violence when it comes to Reki's self confidence. Especially because the most deep root for his insecurities comes from no other than his passed away father.

The king was... not a good man, the kingdom was not in ruins but the people were not happy, his family was not either, he would lash out to his wife and daughters, telling them they were good just to show of, to serve him, he was abusive with this staff on the palace and to his people, but who got the worst treatment was the young prince, since a child Reki was unquiet, loud, energic, totally the opposite to a centered, reserved and serious prince, he was also too kind with everyone no matter how much he told him he was above all the people, but Reki refused to be rude or mean to anyone, the only people that he lashed out to were the rude and cruel royals that abused of their power and were mean to people with no status or power. The king ruled with an iron fist and with stronger severity he tried to rise his heir, but Reki's golden heart was always stronger, however it didn't protected him from the abuse, the hard punishments and the constant reminders of how a failure he was, how he was worthless, how he was a mistake, how easy it would be for him to replace him if not were for the fact he needed a boy of royal blood to be his heir and he had no one, how annoying he was, that there was something wrong with him. And all the people that thought the same as his father had no seconds thoughts to remind him of the same in every. Single. Opportunity.

It was such a relief when the king died from a mysterious illness, and if anyone ever thought about it as a coup from the queen and the royal staff? Well nobody blamed them, but that was just a rumor and they were fine without him anyways.

Indeed, after the king's death the Kingdome went through a prosperity that haven't been seen in years. Despite what the king and his lackyes believed the Queen was actually a very well skilled ruler, she fixed the mess her former husband made and bring a new era to her people, she made new allies, she cleaned the corrupted government and brought new opportunities to the kingdom of Okinawa, the people were happy again. And her son, his ideas for artifacts to make certain tasks easier, his enthusiasm about cultural development, not mention that despite what his father said Reki was really smart, a total pride for his tutors even if his chaotic nature gave them green hairs, also his ideas to improve the army of the Kingdome, his ideas helped a lot to their realm's development. Many people called him the inventor prince.

However there were some royal asses that were not happy with him, there were invertors for that, there were artists, musicians, artisans for the cultural things, a prince shouldn't be look being so friendly and informal to commoners, shouldn't be so loud and idiot.

Not to mention the people that just... were fed up with his chit chat, and okay, they get it, Reki's personality could be overwhelming and even obnoxious to some people, but they needed to be so rude about it? The fact that must of this people were royal visitors didn´t help at all, Reki just felt he was embarrassing his mother and the Kingdome, no matter how many time she and the royal advisor Kaoru told him otherwise, or the fact that those people were usually not good allies at all.

Years of abuse and constantly hearing how a waste you were are hard to heal.

But, the love and support of the people that truly loved him helped Reki a lot, it was a long path but he was getting there. Though, the person that were really close to him, and you know who these persons are, know that sometimes the thoughts gets too loud on Reki's head, but they are there for him, and are happy to see that everyday the sunshine prince is doing better and better.

Well, and then of course the boys met and all of that, they help each other to find what was missing, to discover how much loved and worth they are.

The Queen and the court physician ship them, because this is my fucking au and I say love is love, you are who you are, no labels :)

Kaoru, Kojiro, Miya and Hiromi are definitely fondly exasperate with their mutual pining and just want them to just kiss already and spare their poor souls out of their misery.

About Ad*m... I don't know yet honestly.

In one hand I'm so tempted to make him not existing in this au. On the other hand he could be a major villain, maybe a lord wanting to make coup to the kingdome with Tadashi being a spy loyal to Queen Kyan. And I really want Langa to beat the shit out if him for messing up with his sun, but well, idk.

Any thoughts about this? Feel free to ask! 👀

[candythemew]

🔥 SkekLach (can be AOR Lach, Manga Lach, or JM Lee’s Lach)

OH BOY GET READY FOR AN ESSAY!!

(Also old post I’m getting back to, but for context this was for TDC Hot Takes. She asked for my favorite version of SkekLach.)

     Whenever I see SkekLach, it is such a joy regardless of iteration. I don’t know what it is exactly but I absolutely adore her. Although this wasn’t always the case! Originally I was indifferent to her and found her to be physically repulsive. I literally couldn’t look at her for extended periods of time. But through re-watching the series she’s really grown on me! ...But I think you all know about that by now! (Search her up on google and you’ll find SO much of my art.) ◬☾——– ≪ °✾° ≫ ——–☽◬      Each iteration has it’s own strengths and weaknesses, but I adore all of them. If you want to spare yourself a fangirlish analysis, I like AoR!Lach the best, but Manga!Lach is extremely cool. Although everyone shares traits, it’s more like comparing apples and oranges rather than [ X ] is better than [ Y ] . There is some overlap and bleeding between characters, but ultimately these are all vastly different timelines with different circumstances and characters. I’ll be dissecting each of them under the cut! ◬☾——– ≪ °✾° ≫ ——–☽◬

     As said above, There are three versions of The Collector. In order, the first one to be created was the Legendsverse/Manga SkekLach the Collector. Followed by the J.M. Lee/ Novel SkekLach, and finally AoR SkekLach. Who we see in age of resistance, and is the Collector of the main canon’s timeline. When I write for her, I tend to do a bit of blending with her various other versions. But even in the show, she’s a lot more keen and intelligent than she lets on to be. You just have to look for it! A lot of her character traits are subtle. I only really grew an appreciation for her after my first re-watch of the series! ◬☾——– ≪ °✾° ≫ ——–☽◬ Another thing to notice when it comes to the Collector is that unlike other alternate versions of canon characters, most main characters are relatively unchanged. SkekLach however has the most diversity in her character differences and alts.

◬☾——– ≪ °✾° ≫ ——–☽◬

𝕷𝖊𝖌𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖘𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖊

◬☾——– ≪ °✾° ≫ ——–☽◬

◬☾——– ≪ °✾° ≫ ——–☽◬      Manga!Lach has a much more muscular build. Even for his old age. He is adorned in ornate armor rife with symbolism and battle scars marring his flesh. These quirks to his character design reflect both his intelligence, and physical prowess in combat. His armor is stylized to look like faces. Both intimidating and fearful expressions decorating him in a display of intimidation. Fun Fact: in the manga, SkekLach was the second tallest Skeksis. With the Ritual Master being the true tallest of course. SkekLach was also a bit of a beastmaster. He had a loyal pack of Arduff always by his side ready to snatch up any unfortunate gelfling (or skeksis!) who got in his way. As well as a group of small, crawlie like creatures called Spy-eyes. He would have these creatures attatch themselves to a victim, and they would be allowed to see and hear anything said victim did. Anything they knew, The Collector would know too. He used these creatures to ensure Lahr’s co-operation in his plan for securing his place as Emperor SkekSo’s favorite and to foil The Chamberlain and Garthim Master’s plans against him. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that he’s also a tactical mastermind?

◬☾——– ≪ °✾° ≫ ——–☽◬

𝔍.𝔐. 𝔏𝔢𝔢 𝔜𝔬𝔲𝔫𝔤 𝔄𝔡𝔲𝔩𝔱 𝔑𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩𝔰

◬☾——– ≪ °✾° ≫ ——–☽◬

◬☾——– ≪ °✾° ≫ ——–☽◬

     Novel SkekLach is much more toned down, calm and (no pun intended) collected. Although he shares some qualities with both his manga and AoR counterparts, he’s kind of his own thing. He’s portrayed as more skinny and lanky. With a beak more similar in shape to SkekOk’s and wearing what appears to be a crown on his head. This Lach is much more directly involved with politics and wants to see his job through. Or at the very least just to get things over with. Oddly enough, unlike his previous version, he performs the Gelfling censuses. This trait would be later carried onto his canon successor. He was often blunt and to the point like AoR Lach, but didn’t really have the same punch that she has. In the novels he also has an animal companion. Much like Manga!Lach. A Royal Blue Phegnese. An avian mount creature that we never get to see, but we do get a loose description of. This was his preferred mount of choice. He was also good friends with SkekOk. They would often write to each other and even got drunk together. This is likely what inspired their close bond in AoR.

◬☾——– ≪ °✾° ≫ ——–☽◬ 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔇𝔞𝔯𝔨 ℭ𝔯𝔶𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔩: 𝔄𝔤𝔢 𝔬𝔣 ℜ𝔢𝔰𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔢 ◬☾——– ≪ °✾° ≫ ——–☽◬

     And finally, our girl, AoR SkekLach! Everyone pretty much knows what she looks like by now. Incredibly diseased with oozing pustules that cause her constant pain every second of every day. Short snouted with dulled down tusks that were once razor sharp, and even sharper goldenrod eyes. (A glimpse back to the glory days perhaps?) Also since her introduction, she is the shortest skeksis in the series. Taking SkekOk the Scroll-keeper's orginal title of shortest by being about a head and a half shorter than him. Although she’s a female Skeksis, she’s not traditionally feminine. An interesting aesthetic choice for a female presenting Skeksis! Most of her colors being toned down blues and greens, Although she does have lots of bows that adorn her robes. Predominantly on her sleeves and shoulders. and in close up shots you can see that her puppet model has very distinct and pretty eyelashes. She’s very dirty as she doesn’t care much for her hygiene anymore. She doesn’t make an effort to change things as she has already tried multiple times to improve her condition, and has failed every time. The way she acts and presents can help us know that she's been through a lot. You can especially see this in the way she talks to others as well as herself. Adopting a mindset of: “Things either always stay the same or get worse.” This causes her to stay demotivated. To the point of not doing much of anything. She idolizes the glory days of her youth and desperatley wishes to go back to them, but she's a bit more self aware than her peers. Even she mocks her them for thinking that they can truly return to their former splendor. Although speculation on my part; it’s more than likely that in her prime she was similar to her manga counterpart. As she’s deceptively observant and oftentimes makes snide remarks in the background. Although she doesn’t care for showing it off. Being apolitical in the court, she sees no point in it. …Aside from the occasional drama or rumor she hears from either the Ornamentalist or Scroll-Keeper. As she's part of their little circle. Although speculation, she might even have some battle scars under her robes. As she’s talented when it comes to battle. Evidence to support this is when SkekVar the General asks for her assistance. Specifically when the Emperor ordered him to deal with the Gelfling. He picks her out of all of them. When she denies, he asks again reassuring her with an encouraging, “Come now! It’ll be fun!” While she replies with a disbelieving, “Ugh, I DOUBT that…” …And SkekVar was right. SHE DID HAVE FUN!

…And she got acid spit in her face which must have hurt 1,000 times more than it would for someone else as she’s very sensitive in her face due to her pustules. But hey! She got to kill a spitter and her mood changes pretty drastically for the positive going from that. Although she won't be able to enjoy it for too long since she dies 2 episodes later. Also when she drinks essence with the rest of the court during the scene where Skeksil watches the rest of them to make sure the Grunaks did their job, if you listen in the background she just straight up yells "I'M GONNA FIGHT A LANDSTRIDER!!" She wants to punch a horse. Good for her! So basically I just talked about all three of them at length for no reason but I hope you liked my ted talk. I have no idea where I was going with this, but yeah. I really really like SkekLach.

[claudiarya]

Hello I’ve written this short fic. based on the clip we’ve got from Shadow and Bone of Jesper and Inej performing, but with a twist!

You can read it on Ao3 as well

Silks, Guns and All the Things Fun (Not) 

Words count: 2898 

The chattering at the Crow Club was thicker than usual and it ricocheted around the lower floor of the building, bouncing off the draped walls. Kaz Brekker made his way there from where he had been dealing cards on the upper part of the club. It had been quite a profitable night, with many pigeons all too eager to let the rush of the gambling go to their head and lose everything. His cane tapped on the stairs as he descended them, an ominous and irregular melody announcing who was coming down those steps. He stopped just before the las two and scanned the room, his shark eyes checking if everything was in order. Kaz saw at least a couple of people flinching when his eyes had met theirs. Good. It seemed that his infamy was the same unblemished, or rather very blemished, story of terror as ever. He had worked all of his angles to make it that way, and he had every intention to keep it up as long as he lived, his thirst for personal revenge too strong to be sated in any other way.

Kaz threw another glance around the room until he found who he was looking for. He approached her, men and women making themselves scarce as he passed them. Inej was in the corner, intent on untangling something thick, the crimson fabric like a river of blood in her hands. Her long hair was tied up in a coil at the nape of her neck as she usually wore it, a light vest covering her shoulders and arms, and peeking from a sleeve he saw something wrapped around her forearm. She had covered her feather tattoo since she was going to remove the vest and perform in bare arms, something that had stirred not little emotions inside the hollow of his armor.  

“I trust that everything is ready,” Kaz rasped, looking down at her from where he was standing. Not surprised in the slightest, as if she had known all along who was about to speak to her, Inej kept her eyes on her task. “Good evening to you, too Kaz. How are you?” Her tone unbothered if a little bit sarcastic…

This girl. If it had been any other person speaking to him like that, they would have run away with a few broken limbs or without teeth. Or perhaps both. Kaz couldn’t understand why, but his relationship, if that could be called, with her had always felt different. Nobody treated him the way she did, he didn’t allow it, but whatever it was that propelled him to always find excuses to talk to her, be near to her when he could, he didn’t like it.

Liar. A voice in his head reprimanded him. him. You keep lying to yourself, Brekker. He blinked. Usually he would have ignored her, but that night he didn’t know what forced possessed him and he decided to indulge her.

“Yes, hello Inej darling. I’ll be better when all of this is over, and we’ve made our profit.”

When the term of endearment had left his lips, she had looked at him with a sonorous sigh. Inej raised to her feet, not really making a difference since she was so small, the red silks now draped on one shoulder, and her eyes peered straight into his. The amber, low lights of this particular floor of the club reflected into her irises, making it look like she had flames burning behind them.

Kaz thought again to himself that she had never looked more like a painted icon of those Saints she so much adored than in that moment and gripped his cane tighter to try and snap out of his reveries, to try and quiet the raging emotions inside. The ridges of the crow’s head unmistakable even under his gloved hands.

“Everything will go as planned: we’ll perform, and we’ll make sure all of these pigeons are probably plucked. Don’t worry.” She passed him, careful to avoid touching him and went to hang the silks she had been preparing.

Kaz promised not to let his gaze follow her but failed. He saw how with a graceful movement she looped one end of the prop into the hook on the wall. Once again, he forced himself not to let his thoughts wander too much and with a slightly louder voice called after her.

“If you’re so ready, where in Ghezen’s name, is Jesper?”

“He’ll be here,” she shrugged not preoccupied at all.

“He’d better be.” He checked his time piece and looking once again at her he said: “We start in five minutes. Go get yourself prepared.”

He heard Inej exhaling loudly. Again. A habit, he realized, she had acquired in these last months. Was it perhaps because she was starting to feel a little more comfortable with this life he had given her, with his gang… with him?

Inej got closer to him, not intimidated at all to look at him straight in the eye.

“I know what I’m doing, but if I’ll be ever looking for a coach, I’ll know who to turn to. Now, excuse me.”

She brushed past him, one instant she was there and then next gone.

***

Fitting how Kaz had found the darkest part of the room to stand in during Jesper’s and Inej’s little show. The sharpshooter had turned up at the last minute, literally the last, when the audience had already gathered around the little space they had arranged specifically for the two of them, and Kaz had already excogitated a hundred different way to kill him. He had of course given a piece of his mind, seething to the gangly boy, who in returned had just shrugged, winked at him and told him that “People love big entrances, I’m making us a favor,” before scurrying to his designated seat at the center of the makeshift stage.

Kaz had come up with this idea months prior, but Inej and Jesper had actually started performing only a couple of weeks ago. He had had to use all of his most convincing arguments to let Per Haskell see how incredibly fruitful this would all be. That old man and his drunken ass…

After many requests from his lieutenant part he had conceded, and Kaz had made it look so as if the leader of the Dregs had had this brilliant idea himself, a thing that had worked out for the best since he had gone strolling around the Barrel boasting how his club was offering entertainments that no other could. A good publicity indeed, and Dirtyhands had smirked pleased with himself, his plan had worked. As always.

His breath caught in his throat when he saw Inej climbing the silks, her fluid movements made it look so easy, as if she was taking a stroll instead of keeping herself up with only her body strength.

“Ladies ang gentlemen, thugs and thieves,” started Jesper walking the perimeter of the free space and catching the attention of the people there. “Tonight you’ll see something that only few would be brave to attempt. My lovely assistant will perform one of her tricks with a card stuck between her lips,” at that the girl in question removed from thin air a card and showed it to the audience, only one part of her body now supporting her, the silks wrapped around it, as the other half hanged from them. “While I will attempt to shoot at it.”

Many gasps could be heard around the room as well as excited whispers.

“Let’s begin!” Jesper said, now with a much more serious tone.

Kaz had to admit it, even if at times Jesper was a total buffoon he knew how to mesmerize an audience, and he had them in the palm of his hands.

The sharpshooter took his position, and removed from the ground a little polished, silver tray. Kaz had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes as Jesper looked at his reflection winked at himself and then kissed his beloved revolver, while exhaling with (fake) preoccupation. Could this boy be more theatrical than that? The Bastard of the Barrel sighed, convinced that there was no end to his second in command’s love for the dramatics. Inej wrapped her limbs expertly in the silks and then with a fearless dive, she let herself fall so that her body was hanging upside-down.

The split second before Jesper could shoot, Kaz’s and Inej’s eye met, and the world seemed to stop for a bit.

He knew damn well that the Zemeni boy was the best shot around, he had never seen him miss. Never. On top of that, he suspected that the little secret he was keeping from everyone, but that Kaz had of course found out about, somehow helped him with his formidable aim. Yet… why in the name of his beloved kruge did he feel nervous for her?

You need to get it together and stop thinking this sentimental stuff. He scolded himself, not for the first time that night.

After a second or perhaps an eternity he moved his gaze away from hers.

Jesper shot and… the bullet struck the card exactly in the middle. The raucous cheering of the audience was what ground him completely again. Inevitably, as if a magnet drawn to the pole, he saw Inej finish her performance with a couple of flips, before landing as effortlessly and elegantly as ever, a big grin on her face. Kaz himself couldn’t help the light movement upward of the corner of his mouth, that died immediately when he noticed how the sharpshooter, now standing, turned around to return the smile, and finally joined her, taking her hand to bow.

That nagging feeling inside him was as demanding as ever. He hated it. He wanted it to stop.

The applause of the people surrounding him turned into a distant sound, as a clear thought struck him then and there. He was never going to have that easy demeanor Jesper had with her, he was never going to be able to take her hand without drowning, he could never tell her that despite all his effort he couldn’t resist the constant pull he felt whenever she was close and that made everything even worse.

Inej’s eyes managed to find his again in his dark corner, the smile she still had lightened her features, but it dropped as soon as she saw what was a very grim expression marking his face.

He wanted to yell. Tell her to keep on smiling, because he felt very much alive whenever she did, like none other things could, but instead he just gripped his cane tighter, and forced himself to look around the room.

When Jesper and Inej approached him after the audience had dispersed a bit, he was still waging his inner war.

“Wasn’t our Wraith amazing?” Jesper asked excitedly, an arm slung around the shorter girl’s shoulders, before adding “Wasn’t I amazing?”

“You just did what you had to. No more no less. And besides, many of these people had already seen this particular performance, so I wouldn’t let all those adoring people get to your head.” He rasped before leaving them standing.

As he made his way to return to the upper level of the Club, he heard the sharpshooter sighing loudly. “You can never win with him, can you?”

“No one can,” was Inej’s curt answer.

He knew her eyes were following him; he could feel it and he never detested more the vindictive and cold creature he had become than now.

***

The Crow Club at that hour of the night, or rather early morning, was deserted. Kaz had ordered the others to go back to the Slat as he stayed behind to make sure everything was in order before close-up. He once again descended the stairs that would bring him to the lower floor, the silks and the other props gone and already been stashed away. As he scanned the room though, he noticed something on the ground, near where the silks were usually hanged. In the dim light he could see it was a piece of dark cloth, and as he got closer, he noticed that it wasn’t just any piece of cloth, but the one Inej had wrapped around her forearm to cover her tattoo. He crouched down, with no little protest from his bad leg, and took it in one gloved hand, the gesture almost reverent.

If someone were to enter the room now, they would have found Kaz Brekker, Bastard of the Barrel, Dirtyhands himself, on his knees cradling a strip of cloth in his hands. He shook his head in disbelief and made to stand up, when CRASH!

Something had fallen and in his fear of having been discovered, Kaz quickly tucked the wrap in his suit pocket as he made leverage on his cane to stand. He saw that what had startled him had been a stool, now on the ground. He passed a hand through his hair in exasperation. He really needed to get a grip.

In the days following Kaz didn’t realize that out of nowhere he would put his hand in his pocket and rub the little piece of fabric between his fingers, a thing that oddly enough always managed to calm him. He didn’t realize it, until he did. It had been a late night in which he had been working for the Dregs and his pathetic excuse of a leader, now scheming, now scribbling and adding numbers. The little thing had been placed on his shambled desk, a trusted companion of his. He had meant to return it, if not to Inej directly, to at least casually leave it where he had found it, but in the end he hadn’t. That night he had sent his Wraith out to gather information regarding a certain mercher’s rich art collection, and he hadn’t almost heard her, almost, entering his attic room from the window. Kaz hadn’t known how he had been able to stash her piece of fabric away before she could see him gently passing it between his fingers.

He only imagined the conversation they would have had if he had taken a second too long to hide it.

You know Inej, I casually found it on the ground but instead of leaving it there I’m keeping your arm wrapping as a stress-relieving token. But it’s not like it may look. I’m not obsessed with you or anything.

Could he be more pathetic than that? Since when had he gone this soft? Oh yes, he knew, ever since he had paid her indenture and she had joined the Dregs, that was when. To make things worse that night had ended with Inej casually sitting on his window seat: her head resting on the wall, her eyes closed. Indefinite and unnamed emotions had stirred once again inside of him, as a very precise, but not really polite word echoed in his head… he was so screwed.

From that moment on he had debated whether to just give it to her and telling her that he had found it but that it had just slipped his mind until then, or continuing keeping the damn thing. A constant battle in his mind that complemented the one inside his heart.

He kept it.

If Kaz was never going to have Inej, as he wished he could, he at least could have a part, no matter how small and insignificant, of her.

That day, his feet carried him on their own accord outside her door, a floor exactly below his room. They had encountered some troubles with some too cocky members of the Black Tips and the whole ordeal had left them all pretty shaken – except Kaz of course – and with two dead members of his crew. Kaz didn’t know why he was standing here, on the other side of her closed door. She might not even be here, he had thought trying to find excuses to turn back from where he had come.

But he knew. He somehow sensed that she was inside her little room.

What exactly was he thinking, what was he doing here as a gaping fish out her door? Did he want to make sure she was okay? See if she needed anything?

Oh yes, because you’ve been nothing but an example of emotional support, Brekker.

When he was about to turn and go back to the attic, cursing himself for his stupidity, the door in front of him opened. Inej stood there, and for once her hair was not tied back but loose on her shoulders, cascading in delicate waves around her frames, the result of having kept it tight in a braid.

“Is anything wrong, Kaz? Why are you standing outside my door as if you’d seen a Saint?” she had asked.

I think I wanted to see you, I’m not sure why and I’m going insane. He thought, but of course didn’t say, too cowardly and bitter to do so. Instead, Kaz quickly put his hand in his pocket, and found what he knew would be there. Gripping her piece of fabric, he managed to answer with his usual lack of emotions.

“Go find Jesper. I found us a job. What would you say to one million kruge?”

[vaguely-concerned]

The Mandalorian Chapter 11; the rewatch edition

I have found a bit more enthusiasm for this one on the rewatch, so here goes!

- din snapping ‘I’m trying my best here!’ in a vaguely annoyed tone as his entire ship is going up in flames around him because he mostly doesn’t get angry as much as sulky... the height of cinema 

- I love frog husband’s clothes, because they’re in a very similar style and colour scheme to frog lady’s but also incorporate the knitwear we see on the people of trask, so it both underlines his belonging with her and implies that he’s been on this moon for quite a while, they may have been apart for some time  

especially his scarf is a darling detail and there’s a bit of contrast in texture to it next to his wife’s, it’s nice. he’s wearing a similar kind of vest to what we see on the fishermen later, too 

- I think my favourite part of this entire episode (well second after din cradling the baby against him after nearly drowning) is just the design and Vibe of the planet and especially this harbour

for one I LOVE that it’s shown that even in the middle of the day it’s dark enough that the electric lights are still on when it’s overcast (it reminds me a bit of norway during the winter, actually, when dawn just never quite breaks and then slinks off in embarrassment before it’s even noon). and there’s also the... sails? nets? hanging around looking almost like flags, which are very Aesthetic but god knows what they’re for. maybe for drying fish on in the summer? 

I think the building in the distance behind frog husband’s back here is a lighthouse? or it could be one of those towers for loading you see when they scout out the empire ship too, I suppose!

and one for my strange obsession with Texture on this show: these fabric-covered crates!!! they look exactly as dingy and moldy as you’d expect them to be in this climate, I wonder what they’re for (& I vaguely want to touch them) 

- from the sound of it din’s vibroknife is uh ‘on’ when he pokes the squid thing, and he also goes for the tentacle the furthest away from the baby <3

proof the calamari flan have been scratched up a bit during all that time in din’s pockets! (the attention to detail in this show sometimes istg) 

- this is 100% me reading too much into things again, call the overthinking police I’ll do my time meekly lol, but the boat looks a little bit like the mudhorn signet from this angle: 

again din keeps his hand on or sooo close to his blaster in this entire scene, he knows this is sketch as all hell 

a) once again I want to praise the effects team for how GOOD the aliens look in this episode holy shit and b) the hell is this dude wearing on the straps of his overalls tho 

- the dude mando (axe woves) uses his little... wrist launcher thing to shoot with to finish two off the fishermen, so my theory that they can be loaded with other things than the whistling birds for slightly less effective use (maybe without the level of honing we’ve seen din’s be able to do?) is looking good!

- din actually has quite good form when diving into the water, I’m guessing he can swim at least tolerably when not in full armour, being stabbed at from all directions, having just had his son eaten by a sea monster and also being trapped in with said sea monster (I’m a strong swimmer and I can tell you that there’s a reason they make you swim with clothes on from time to time to see how hard it is, it sucks. with metal plates strapped all over you as well? yeah good luck) people don’t tend to hit the water that gracefully without some kind of training in my experience lol. might be some of the training with the jet pack has carried over too, considering he throws himself off that cliff in chapter 12 with similar confidence?

it’s interesting that they’re once again showing us a threat where the armour doesn’t help and even hinders him. we’re so used to the ways it can make him near-invincible, but it can also drag him down (literally, in this case. aha ha ha. well if I’m not here for my own entertainment then what am I here for honestly)

- din’s voice sounding like he’s just on the verge of crying as he cradles the baby (and the sound he makes as he realizes the baby’s alive) is my kryptonite, turns out. fucking breaks my heart into tiny pieces every time, I would die for this man and he wouldn’t let me

- in support of din’s paranoia: so far this season we haven’t been able to go five minutes without someone talking about peeling the precious beskar off a mandalorian corpse, I can see why his mind was primed to move in one particular way there

- I think the fabric of din’s cape has been treated with something that makes it waterproof; the water seems to pearl on top of it rather than soak in! can you imagine how heavy it would get if it did absorb water tho christ

(a bit hard to see at this size but that’s what it looked like to me close up anyway! could also be that it’s wool and that’s why it looks that way but I prefer an elaborate sci-fi explanation here, because it doesn’t look particularly weighed down afterwards) might also explain why he doesn’t seem worried about it catching on fire when he uses the jetpack haha, maybe this is something the mandos do with fabric they’re going to use for a long time 

I also enjoy part of the gambeson/undersuit thing poking up from under the shoulder pauldron and cape; I think this is about as disheveled as we’ve seen him since immediately post-mudhorn 

- the sound mixing in this scene, where din’s breathing is layered a bit over everything else so you almost feel like you’re in the helmet with him listening to what the others are saying........ oh my GOD, it embeds you so deeply in his POV but so subtly 

- not to be biased or anything... but din and the armorer’s armour design is so vastly superior to these guys it shouldn’t even be a competition lol 

din looks like an honest to god knight in shining armour except also sci-fi western and the armorer looks like a fucking war goddess from a time beyond memory; the clone wars mandos look like high end cosplayers (eh maybe it’s just my dislike for the boobplates that has me so 😒 lol. also a lot of dudes were very shitty about that whole thing and I don’t say anything but the ‘vaguely-concerned will remember this’ telltale message pops up in the corner every time) 

moment of saltiness over: I do like the differentiation between their individual character designs 

the differences in body type and helmet design is nice! they look like a unified team, but with individuality. I suspect the ladies have those belts and their armour plates on the hips instead of the front of the thighs to emphasize the ‘female’ silhouette, which. okay fine whatever

- bo katan looks very pointedly down at the baby after saying ‘a group of religious zealots who want to return to the ancient ways’ which makes me VERY nervous for reasons I can’t quite articulate

- the mournful guitar version of the mando theme as din watches the sunset...... hmmmmngh (this might be some Symbolism happening to us folks strap in for the identity crisis he still hasn’t processed) 

- I Cannot get over din being so unimpressed by and uninterested in bo katan’s ‘retake mandalore’ sales pitch from literally the first moment dfhasdkjfhsad sorry lady kryze this man just does not do main quest shit, he’s all side quests all the time and that’s why I love him  

- as someone who after chapter 8 wrote a whole-ass fic that was wholly & exclusively about din telling the baby he’ll always come back for him... some of the shit he’s been saying this season does feel like it’s been written to mercilessly victimize me, personally and specifically 

- guessing this structure in the background is the traffic control tower! doesn’t really matter, I just thought it was neat

- this part of the soundtrack is called ‘ship o hoj, mandalorians!’, which I found incredibly charming haha (it’s ‘ship ahoy’ except how you write it in swedish, good one herr göranson)  

- bo katan is vague about who exactly the new mand’alor would be if they took back mandalore to begin with, she doesn’t specify she is planning to be the ruler until she’s already got din on the ship and in no position to refuse to help. gotta respect the grift at least lol  

I do love her voice, though, it reminds me a bit of jennifer hale as shepard

- “I need to get back to my ship, with the foundling” your honor I uh love him so fucking much 

- frog lady stroking the baby’s back a bit as she holds her hand behind him to make sure he doesn’t fall backwards while playing with the tadpole ;___________;

and also frog husband and frog lady reaching out to hold hands and frog smooching as din and yodito leave ;____________________________________________;

- when din says the exasperated “mon calamari. unbelievable” line, the baby makes that little blowing a raspberry sound he does as if to agree ‘uh-huh unbelu -- unbelly -- unbelievable dad smh’ and it is very very adorable 

- there’s quite a bit of Stuff in the concept art that didn’t make it in this time around; I wonder if maybe they cut some stuff for pacing or whatever and that’s why this episode is so short? water leaking into the cockpit of the razor crest, something that looked a bit like whaling going on on the docks and more spaceships taking off (maybe there were originally meant to be some smaller ships defending the big empire one?), there’s quite a bit here  

[middle-class-trash]

Rise of the Titans liveblog!!!

that intro made me unexpectedly emotional

So if Blinky is narrating, he can't die, right? Right????

BRO THE SUBWAY SCENE!!!! We're getting right fuckin into it!!!

Steve, my son!!!

I wish Toby wasn't a constant punchline 🙃 it just makes me not take his character seriously

CLAIRE!!!!!!

Something about Douxie decking Skrael at the first opportunity is just so sexy of him

Jim is incredibly brave but it's really reckless to go hand-to-hand with a demigod without proper armor

My heart goes BUMBUMBUMBUM when Douxie looks out the traincar window

Sexy traincar tracks spell WHO

THE WRECKAGE AWWWW

Oh my gosh the people stuck in the magic circle because they wouldnt get out of the way

NO NO NO DOUXIE NO

So they were arrested that early?? Jeez

Nari's such a cutie

"None of us will be talking to you" *cut to Toby spilling every bean*

TOBY'S FACE AT THE END HAHHAHAHA

Something about Nari's voice coming out of Douxie's body is so deeply odd

Oh hey, Krel to the rescue

AREA 49 HAKSHDKSKD

"And your mom."

Oh my gosh he's still broken from Wizards 😂

The Guardians are just dead set on pissing off local authorities huh

JIM!!!

STRICKLER?????

BARBARAAAAA

Stricklake supremacy 😌 they both look so good

Claire listening in 😭😭😭 she's so cute

AWWWWW ENGAGED ENGAGED ENGAGED

......does that give them death flags? Fuck. Fuuuuck fuck fuck fuck. It totally does.

AWWW DOUXIE!NARI HUGGING ARCHIE

Aja!!!!

Your majesty!!

Oh yikes, here's that running gag everyone was talking about.. pregnant Steve

Oh hey, Eli's hot now. We been knew 😂

"Mazel tov!" HAHA

Poor Jim needing a bunch of support to walk 🥺 he's such a trooper

I will simply pass away if Blinky dies

I hope Douxie is okay, we haven't seen him in Nari's body and that makes me ✨nervous✨

OH JKJK

Nari is so goddamn pretty

"Only your presence, not your commitment" is such a rapey saying

"Abra-cadabra, buttsnacks" I love that he still says that 🥺🥺 he loves his friends so much

"Do your worst" *cue both Douxie and Nari absolutely screaming in pain*

Krohnisfere? Alrighty then, that's the first mission

"I wouldn't be so sure of that" AWWW

They fixed the amulet???? DUUUUDE

"For the good of all..." 😭😭😭😭

"Or I could lock onto Nari and portal us there" *dead fucking silence*

I hate how Toby's used as a constant punchline.. a penny? Really?

TRAINTRACK MAGIC CIRCLE GO BRRRR

Poor Nari 🥺 Douxie's in so much distress

Oh no, the new amulet isn't working?? Fuckk

That absolutely gorgeous screencap of pissed Aja

Part of me is glad Nari was forced to do this and wasn't actually a traitor

Ice titan awakening sequence? Ice titan awakening sequence.

Oh Nari. Oh sweetie

Oh my gosh she's fucking tied to her titan

Boiling water!!! Or underwater explosion, that works too. Much more dramatic but that's Bellroc's style

Oh wow Steve actually has a bump?? What the fuck???

Oooh, TrollDragons?

Charlie!!!

"We still don't have a trollhunter" Aja, honey, not helpful

"Does he even trust himself? AJA, HONEY, NOT HELPFUL

Barbara being proud of her son 😭😭

OOH fusing excalibur with the armor?

Aja is so full of confidence, it's a good look for her

Steve being preggo is..really fucking weird. When they said

AWWW BLINKY AND AARRRGHHH

Your honor, I love them

OOH IS IT SOFT JLAIRE TIME

Ohhhh it's soft Jlaire time

He's always looking out for his mom 🥺

"I will always be here (head), and here (heart)" just fuck me up fam

Charlie!!!

Zong-Shi?

"Only death will come to those who go looking for it" oh dear

"The troll with many eyes" how does Charlie know Blinky? 😂

AYYY this where the banner that I found first is from!!! it was so cool seeing my screenshot circulate when we were starved for content 😂😂 everyone was posting various rott icons and banners that they got hoping they'd find a new one

Oh dear.. government

Blinky dear they can't understand you

"Holy frijole" Claire I simply adore you

WOW THAT'S PRETTYYYYY

Troll slaves???

So is Zong-Shi this ugly ass pear-lookin ass

Aja chilling with Jim even though she has doubts is an interesting strategic choice

Douxie, AARRRGHHH, and Nomura? Talk about rarepare

NOMURA CATCHING HIM 😭😭 SEXYYYY

DOUXIE RESCUING NOMURA 😭😭😭😭 SEXXYYYYY

If I havent said it yet, the animation is breathtaking

OH SHIT JIM

aaaaand here come those frozen wings

Nari cant be in control of herself, there's no way. She's still tied to the titan for Pete's sake

NOMURA????

Please dont let this be a sacrifice

PLEASE NO

BOTH CHANGELINGS????

STRICKLANDER??????

No on-screen death, so it's not real. No on-screen death, do it"# notbsmejelreal

NO ON-SCREEN DEATH BUT IT'S NOT REAL

THEYRE TALKING AHOUT HIM PAST-TENSE NOOOO

THEY RBOGUHT UP HIS DADDDDDD

"There's no revelation I can give you" is a great way of saying he's not relevant, genuinely

Oh wow this guy's freaky

Ohhhh so the green thing from the trailers and promo photos is the Krohnisfere

Archie to the rescue!!!

"That's my boy!" AWWE

"Claire nooo, no no no no YESSS, I'm free!!!" Blinky, never change 😂

Oh wow, they're already in contact with Bellroc's titan??

Different note, but the titan's designs are just different enough to make them interestun

VARVATOS??? Okay jk somehow it's gun robot lmfao

WAIT NEVER MIND HAHAHAH HI BUD

....if the bridge falls, can't Charlie just fly them across

LMAO he just saw his death?? That is what he wanted to see 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's too early to celebrate, there's no way Bellroc is down after just a few pinches

Yeahhh

Oh dear... is Varvatos in danger?

Claire being the warrior of the group is incredible and sexy and hhnnngggg

Toby is a Hufflepuff. I will not be answering questions

OH WOW THAT'S HOW HE BURNED HIS HAND??? THE HONRGAZEL?????

ARCHIE SAID GOODBYE??? NO NO NO NO NO

Douxie's gonna be a flat mess!!!

God, plus Nomura and Stricklander

NOOOO DOUXIE YOU BIG SWEETIE

Oh my gosh this is the scene with Douxie trying to connect with Nari, it has to be

"I need to try again" AWWW HONEY

That shot of Mexico was incredibly stereotypical

DOUXIE SWEETHEART 🥺🥺

He's trying to hold her hand???? AWWWW

Oh my gosh he's being choked 😳

NARI BABY!!!!

The huggos 🥺🥺

Jim being frustrated is totally realistic

Wait wait wait waittt do they have the entire titan at their disposal?

"There's absolutely nothing all the way out here" cue a titan. Any of them.

And there it is.

CLAIRE SUPREMACY!!!!!!!

White haired Claire? White haired Claire???

Oh dear it's like.. a little over halfway and there's so much left that could happen

COACH. COOOOACH

OH THANK GOD!!! Steve doesn't need another paternal figure dying on him

Time for Skrael to fuck shit up 😬

I find it interesting how Bellroc and Skrael's titans are both bipedal but Nari's is on four legs, much more animalistic

NARI, NOOOOO PLEASE NO

At least Skrael's done????

We kinds knew Bellroc was the final boss but NOT LIKE THIS

DOUXIE SCREAMING FOR HER

NOOOOOOO

No more running. GODDAMNIT

The three can no longer unite but Bellroc can still fcuk shit up

A HIDDEN PAGE??? FUCK THE WORLD IS TO BE REFORGED WITH FIRE

THE HEARTSTONE??????

Oh shit, the explanation for why Arcadia's the center of everything!!

The only heartstone?? Really???? That's scary as shit, trolls could go instinct without a reliable hearthstone!!

EXCALIBUR TIMEEE

JIMMMMMM

Come on honey, you can do it!!

Aja, honey, I love you so much but now's not the time

THE HEARTSTONE???? FUCK DUDE

.......Steve

Eli the midwife?? ...gross

Jim, my love, my baby boy!!!

The nine of them!!!

AWW BLINKY BEING THE BEST DAD

THEY WORK TOGETHER 😭😭😭😭

FUCK YEAH!!!!!!

"Quiet desperation" is a great word for it

Are we coming on to the big final battle?

Ohnoohnoohno they all said the thing 😭😭😭 someone's gonna die. At least one more is gonna die.

HE'S DRIVINGGGG. LOVE THAT FOR HIM

STICKY SPELL TIME!!!!!!

"Some sort of stickum!" Bro 😂😂

I love how he calls them all Trollhunters 😭 throwback to the OG show where the three of them were all called that

Aja Terron supremacy

Oh it's weird.. it's very weird. Why did Steve have to be pregnant again

Oh dear, there's half an hour left.. this has to be the final battle

JIM

Varvatos shielding Claire and Krel 🥺

Fuck, man, people are getting thrown left and right

DOUXIE MY LOVE

Oh here we fucking go, rematch

NEW AMULET???

Jim's about to get royally fucked up

LIKE THAT

FUCK

WHY IS SHE TAKING HIM??? GOD NO

Anti-magic beacon??

Helloooo that's smart asf

This gives Mount Doom vibes

"Embrace your loved ones for the final time" FUCK MAN STOP IT

"I already was" DAMN RIGHT BUD

NEW AMULETTTT

GO GET JIM GO GET 'IM

DAYLIGHT ARMOR!!!!!!

He was ready to just sacrifice himself like THAT

DAYLIGHT ARMORRRRR WITH EXCALIBUR??????? FUUUUCK

Jim being great at combat is just the best fucking thing

Oh fuck. OH FUCK.

STABBED??????

PLEASE NO, GOD NO

FUUUUCK

"I'm powerless" "You get used to it" WE DONT HAVE TIME TO UNPACK ALL OF THAT

JIM HONEY PLEASE DONT DIE

Is that....is that it?? Oh dear god, is that it????

JIM WHERE ARE YOU

I'm calling it now it's too early to be celebrating

Oh god the weird babies

WHERE IS TOBY

WHERE

NO

MY JAW FUCKING DROPPED

NO WAY, NO FUCKING WAY

HE'S GETTING A DYING MONOLOGUE??????

ALWAYS HAVE BEEN, ALWAYS WILL BE

"Itll be the two of us at the end" WHY DOES THAG SEEM LIKE JIM WILL GO OUT TIO

THERE'S NO WAY TOBY JUST DIED

THHERE'S NO WAY

That was sad as fuck but in a narrative way I hope it's permanent

Oh dear, Jim's going back????

Oh shit

WWHAT IS HE DOING

NOOOOO

"I have cherished every moment with you" STOP IT HE'S HIS FATHER

"I FYOU WERE MY OWN SON" STOPPPPPP

WHAT'S HAPONEINGGGGG

CLAIRE

NOOOO

THIS IS WHERE IM SOBBING

THIS IS WHERE IM LOSUNG IT

"Dont give up on me" FUCK STOPPPP

"I WILL ALWAYS BE HERE AND HERE" FUCK IT STOPPPPP

"I would date you for a hundred lifetimes" IS REALLY BEING TESTED HUH

THERE ARE 10 MINUTES ELFT WHAT THEBFUCK

AND WE'RE BACK TO TROLLHUNTERS?.????

HUHHHH

Fuck, man. FUCK, MAN.

Oh, Toby. Ohhhh Toby

CLAIRE 🥺

ROMEO AND JULIET!!!!

Oh my fucking god

"IF YOUD COME OVER TO DINNER" AYYYYY

His smile at Steve 🥺

HE'S HAVING TOBY TAKE THE CANAL???? But wouldnt the amulet still call for Jim?????

"Nothing interesting ever happens in Arcadia" VERY FUCKING FUNNY

Destiny is a gift. Some go their entire lives living in an existence of quiet desperation, never learning the truth- that what feels as though a burden pushing down upon our shoulders is actually the sense of purpose that lifts us to greater heights. Never forget that fear is but the precursor to valor. That to strive and triumph in the face of fear is what it means to be a hero. Don't think. Become.

.......it actually called his name. I can't believe it actually called his name.

The fuck is that ending??? Let Jim REST

[jet-teeth]

*Something something “TF sona” bandwagon* If anyone, Sprocket comes closest, though she is still her own character. At least I was inspired to pull some doodles out & and sketch a few new ones, so, another OC to post!

Short version is “she’s a nerd of a tank who likes to design vehicles and talks way too much about planes” Long version & babbling under the cut:

Sprocket is a neutral, technically, but does a bunch of mercenary work with a rag-tag group of mechs who are all either neutrals, defected from either faction, or alien. I still have yet to come up with a proper name for them so I just use “Runners” as a working title, as in “Intergalactic errand-runners.” She’s the heavy artillery of the team, but if she had a choice, she’d just hide away somewhere and design spaceships all day. Her faceshield is 100% intended to hide her face to appear colder and more aggressive, because underneath it, she’s just way too expressive, and in her line of work, looking nervous is a Bad Plan. The faceshield also doubles as a kind of “VR headset” though, and it can project a super-detailed modelling/engineering suite into her sensory system. Since she can use gestures to “sculpt,” it looks really funny to watch her from the outside, just sitting there with her four arms waving around. Needless to say, she gets weird looks from her crew all the time. The four arms - comes from a super old drawing I have (that I need to finish) where her second set allows her to uncouple her cannon from her back-mounted turret, and swing it around as its own firearm, and she’s wielding it like a minigun. Like a fool - but since her optical system is tied to the cannon, she technically doesn’t have to raise it to her face to aim it or anything.

Her obsession with aviation/aerospace design: Sprocket was constructed cold, and was actually supposed to be a triple-changer based on her spark - her second mode would have been a jet. (I doodled this up once, for fun: )

( It retains the angularity of her alt mode, and the curvature can be achieved by letting the hex-plating work as a kind of semi-flexible surface if you space each tile apart a little. Swing-wing, and built with the role of the Blackburn Buccaneer or Rockwell B-1 in mind: fly fast, fly low, evade radar and dump as much ordnance as possible! Something chunky and a little clumsy, rather than an elegant turn-fighter. Attack, not air-to-air specialized. The tiny canards are a feature taken from the B-1 because 1) whiskers are adorable, but more importantly, 2) they allow for fast, tiny tweaks in pitch, and when you’re flying so close to the ground, there’s no room for error.) Also, “a tank obsessed with flying” is just funny to me.

(Yes, this was real. Yes, this was also from Russia.) Since she’s 99% nervous energy, as much as possible is done at long range. Sprocket is a good shot, but is incredibly clumsy in close-quarters combat  - her strength usually lets get get out of a bad situation, but it’s usually not great.

This is also based on her altmode: the CV90120-T “Adaptiv” light stealth tank. It’s basically an IFV armed with a main battle tank’s cannon (120mm) and is designed to sneak up on targets undetected. Fast in, first to fire, fast out is the plan - armor is sacrificed for mobility.

The Adaptiv prototype has those fancy hex tiles, which are a heat-tile system that allows the vehicle to actively mask its thermal (infra-red) signature - it can take up the signature of anything it wants to, or just blend away into the background.

Nothing else has happened with the project since, as this was back in 2011, but I still really love that vehicle!

[vendeavendea]

How Entrapta Has Become My All Time Favourite Autistic Representation in Media: Long Version

Just so you know what to expect, this is more of a very long and boring personal post and less of a character analysis. By "very long", I mean "very long". Also, half of it was written at night when I was supposed to be sleeping (like, right now), so some parts might not even make sense. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Just days before I started to watch She-Ra, I answered a question in a writer group where someone asked what are the do's and don'ts of writing an autistic character. I've been told a couple of times in my life that I can’t be autistic based on the fact that I'm not really interested in or good at science, so I think special interests of autistic people are something that definitely has to be presented better in media. So I advised this person to make their character have a special interest that's NOT related to science, technology, space or computers, because it's a very common misconception that people on the autism spectrum are always into these stuff, and there are so many autistic fictional characters based on this stereotype that I feel like we absolutely don't need any more.

And then I saw Entrapta.

I didn't know she's canonically autistic until a much later episode, but it didn't surprise me when I was told she is, because my autism radar went off like a hundred times while watching System Failure and all her other season 1 appearances (so did my ADHD radar, by the way, but as far as I know, this hasn't been confirmed by the creators, so it's just my headcanon). And she looked like the purple ponytails princess version of the autism stereotype that I didn’t want to see any more of. The genius who is into space and robots, knows nothing about human relationships and keeps driving everyone nuts with her long and impossible-to-follow scientific monologues. Also cute and funny, yeah, but still, as someone on the spectrum who is super artistic and has nothing to do with science stuff, my first reaction was "dang, not this shit again." Just for once in my life, I wanted to see an autistic representation that's not just that typical weird tech-lover but a character that's at least a tiny bit more like me. Seeing her only in her first episode, little did I know that Entrapta's character has an incredible depth and her whole arc was going to be hair-raisingly personal to me (I know I'm not funny, but pun intended).

First, let’s talk about robots, because we can't talk about Entrapta without talking about robots. Entrapta builds robots just for fun, because technology is her thing, but there's actually a lot more behind this. Starting from as early as her debute episode, we see through the whole series that she creates robots with different designs, abilities, personalities, very similar to real people, as a sort of substitute for the human (or whatever species) company she'd wish to have. She even gives them names. She programs them to like being around her, to understand her, something that she hasn't really experienced from real people, which is sad enough on its own, but even sadder if we consider that she actually has human staff working at her fortress. She pretty literally makes friends, and she does it with the help of her special interest. And this totally reminds me of my primary school years when I had zero real friends and used my special interest, which was writing fictional stories and creating worlds/universes/languages in my head, to make up imaginary characters that could be my "friends" so that I wouldn't be that lonely.

Then, her interactions with other characters, especially with Hordak. Entrapta consoling Hordak in Huntara is a very powerful scene to me, not only what she says, but also how she says it. When Hordak starts venting about how he is a failure and all, Entrapta's first immediate response is to provide a practical solution, to design an armor for him, and comforting him with words is only a secondary action. She's helping in her own way, with technology, because that's what she's the best at, but she also wants to make sure he understands that fixing imperfections isn't always the solution, embracing them is. I also love how it's hinted with the "loved" crystal that Entrapta's love language may be acts of service (and probably quality time as well), which is another thing we have in common. And there's another thing in that scene I found very relatable: that part when she stops consoling him and starts to talk about herself being a failure instead. In real life, most people would read that in a negative way. I've been in many situations where I've tried doing something similar to people who were venting to me, and normally, they're like "ew, I'm the one complaining now, stop making it about you." But Hordak's reaction is different, all he does is try to tell her she's not a failure before she shushes him, then he just listens. He understands what Entrapta means by saying all those things about herself isn't "hey, look, my life is also horrible, so I get to complain, too" but rather "I feel you, we're the same". For a person who thinks and acts as differently from average people as Entrapta does, connecting with someone through similar experiences and feelings is a huge thing, and this is so relatable to me that I cried like a baby while watching that scene. Also, kudos to Christine Woods for making Entrapta's monologue sound so factual and casual. It really gives the impression of someone who is fully aware of her own strengths and weaknesses and accepts herself as a whole with all her flaws. The way she lists all the things that make her feel like a failure right after saying "imperfection is beautiful" is just... wow. But seriously, this whole "imperfection is beautiful" thing in general is such a cliché that it's not even supposed to work on me, but hell it does, because it's so well-presented that it's actually one of the most powerful moments of the whole series. Entrapta giving me self-acceptance lessons is all I've ever needed in my life (Hordak probably agrees, lol).

Speaking of self-acceptance, I also love how Beast Island shows that it's a long and difficult process with its ups and downs instead of just a door you walk through once in your life and then stay on the other side forever. Even if I accept and love myself the way I am, it's still totally normal to have low points with thoughts like "I'm not suited for friendship" or "everyone leaves me behind". And it's very nice and uplifting to have someone's love and support when I'm in a bad mood with stuff like this on my mind, but personally, I often find it easier to deal with if I have something related to any of my special interests around that I can focus my thoughts on. My "we flew here on an ancient First Ones ship, do you wanna see it?" would be something like "do you wanna create some characters and then write the shit out of them?" and before this show I've never actually realised how neurodiverse it is to use a hobby or interest for self-care like this. The "definitely the ship" part called me out so hard, and I just adore how the writers were able put so much meaning into a single joke line.

Back to interactions, there's also something painfully relatable in the way the other princesses treat Entrapta. Even in the beginning in No Princess Left Behind, but mostly in season 4 and 5. In most cases, Entrapta is only considered to be worthy enough to not be left behind in situations when her skills are useful. Other characters "liking" her isn't really about herself as a person but her tech knowledge. Just like when you go to school and the only reason your classmates want to make friends with you is because you always do your homework and let others copy it, or you're good at explaining stuff and are willing to help people getting prepared for tests/exams. When I was in grammar school, my classmates ignored me or mocked me for liking animation and comics, but every now and then they did the bare minimum of treating me like a human being and expected me to do their arts homework in return, because I was the only one in my class who was good at arts. When I studied linguistics at the uni, I was really into phonology and historical linguistics, and those were the compulsory subjects most of the other students were struggling with, so many people wanted to hang out with me just to make sure they could get my notes before the exams. The same people kept calling me nerd and making fun of me behind my back. I also had a few genuine friends, which I'm grateful for, but I still know what it feels like to be needed only for a specific skill while not being noticed and respected as a person, and Launch portraits this experience in a very clever way. It's so amazing to see how the princesses realise who Entrapta really is and start to treat her as someone who just thinks differently instead of someone who's a deliberate bad person. They finally get to see that she's not just an unwary tech nerd, but also a determined, caring and loyal friend who gives others so much love in her own geeky way and deserves love, too. But I shouldn't even be surprised, I mean, we're talking about a show that teaches us "you worth more than what you can give to other people," and it's great how this message applies to other characters as well, not only to Adora. And the best part is that this whole conflict is not presented as something black and white, it's not like Entrapta is the poor misunderstood autistic person and the princesses are the evil allistic bad guys who mistreat her. It's simply a miscommunication between neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals, and while the other princesses get to understand that they hurt Entrapta by their actions and that they should be more respectful of her, Entrapta also realises that she's made mistakes and hurt people, becomes aware of her own bad habits and makes efforts to get rid of them in order to save Glimmer. Plus I also love the faint implication that most of the princesses never really, genuinely, 100% make friends with Entrapta even after this scene, because sometimes people just don't resonate with each other enough to become close friends, but they learn to accept her differences and treat her with respect, nonetheless. This episode is so full of realistic interactions and character development it blows my mind every time I rewatch it.

I could just go on and on about all those tiny relatable details such as "I've waited years for someone to ask me about my theories!" I think this was the line that first made me fall in love with Entrapta's character. I mean, if someone from the crew wrote this line, that means they might know the feeling, too, so I'm not the only dork who feels this way every time someone asks me a question about my hyperfixations. And it's just so reassuring. Entrapta has many lines of the kind, they're not even important plotwise, but still super relatable and validating.

Now that we're here, and I know that I probably should have said this at the beginning of the post, but I'm too lazy to rewrite the first paragraph accordingly, I'd like to note that these are all my own interpretations and reflections on Entrapta's character based on my own experiences. This whole thing is totally personal, and I don't want anyone to think that this is how Entrapta is supposed to be seen by the whole fandom. So yeah, that's pretty much it for now.

[voidendron]

...apparently I’ve drawn only two (2) things with full backgrounds this year.

whoops-

BUT I feel like my expressions/faces in general have started improving!

summary meme found here

details under the cut

-January and February were my previous fandom, with Feb being from when I started leaning into Star Wars stuff, as I had a crossover AU and turned one of the characters into a Mandalorian (and I may reuse the armor, specifically colors, for Atten  bc I love it👀). Jan was my first attempt at a background with a vanishing point.

-March was when I decided to overhaul my mascot, Blitz! He got a massive change, and I adore his new design. That’s his ref.

-April was a self portrait assignment from my Drawing I class. Hated working on it, but I didn’t draw much else in April.

-May was an attempt at drawing Ahsoka. Really quickly done with no reference, but again I didn’t draw much else that month.

-June was a Pride drawing! It also has Varrich since they’re both aro/ace, but Key turned out better. This was Key’s original iteration, and he and Vee have more or less swapped personalities from the time of drawing that.

-July was the first time since Jan that I’d used my paint-y shading style. Kinda drew it as a birthday gift to myself ‘cause they’re always shitty so wanted to do something for myself for once instead of moping. As a result, drew Terrin showing off her flamethrower.

-August was around the time I created Kitty because I wanted Jen to have an SO. I drew a cute shippy piece of them almost immediately after Kitty was created.

-September was shorty after creating Max iirc, so drew something cute + shippy of her and Azan.

-October, I didn’t draw much because I was busy with Whumptober. BUT my friend @digitalcacography and I did do a design trade, Baesk was who she designed for me, and I immediately had to draw something up for him because I love him.

-November, I drew a bunch of outfit meme requests. That was one of my favorite turnouts - and made me realize Jen could look good in anything ;)

-December, the month I spent days working on a piece of Varrich and Lina. I’m incredibly proud of it and feel like I pulled off the soft/relaxed vibes I was going for with it :D