#i did. these All without references btw and that’s the first time I’ve ever drawn jinx

[unfortunatelyilikebnha]

[ID: bust-length mechanical pencil drawings on lined paper depicting various characters from bnha, cardfight!! Vanguard, and arcane. The focuses of the images are the drawings, but in some of them you can see words from class notes that didn’t get cropped out.

The first image is of Midoriya Izuku from bnha. He is staring straight ahead with a surprised expression.

The second image is of Kai Toshiki and Sendou Aichi from cardfight!! Vanguard. Kai is frowning and looking right while Aichi is looking forwards and smiling.

The third image is also of cardfight!! Vanguard characters: Tokura Misaki, Katsuragi Kamui, and Kai again. Misaki is facing forward but looking left with a judgemental expression. Kamui, who is just a head since he’s shorter than the rest of his team they were all drawn in a line, has a determined smile and is looking forward. Kai is in a three-quarters left view and is neutrally looking off to the right.

The final image is two more drawings of Kai and one drawing of Jinx from Arcane. The first Kai is faced forward but looking uncomfortable off to the right. The second Kai is in a three-quarter right view and grimacing down towards the front. Jinx is looking straight ahead and smirking.

End image description.]

Some class sketches from a couple weeks ago since I’ve been kinda dead recently

[cookieblobber]

The Dependence of Miles “Tails” Prower in Sonic Frontiers

Tails is probably the character that’s gotten the most flack for how he’s been written, but I think it isn’t exactly because he’s had it way worse than the other characters that I’ve talked about. Rather, it’s the one players had to put up with the most.

Personally, I wouldn’t say he’s been written poorly for years, mostly just being boring and kind of nothing besides “Sonic’s Sidekick™️”, (which I think is a flaw in it of itself but, we’ll discuss more later), which I think only gave Tails more expectations on how he should be written since well, he’s following Sonic in every game at all times, makes sense for him to not be annoying. It was until Lost World where issues really started to arise with his infamous demeanor towards Sonic because he wanted to have Eggman around to help stop whatever he created, and of course the infamous eye rolling angry groaning tired snoring depressed mourning moment in Forces

Tails folds like a lawn chair towards the weakest version of Chaos

I don’t think I really need to explain what went wrong with this scene, you’ve heard it a million times by now. Honestly though, there could’ve been a simple explanation of how because Sonic was gone, Tails completely lost all hope and confidence in himself since the guy who brought him that confidence was pronounced dead. I feel like that was the intention when Classic Sonic shows up and suddenly Tails is up ready to working with him and all but it was conveyed and presented poorly.

I know btw I keep referring back to Forces in these Frontiers character essays, but can you blame me? When the last big original title had a story that in concept should’ve created such wonderful rich storytelling and character interactions, only to be very mid and leave people with nothing satisfying or interesting story and presentation wise and reminding people how certain aspects of it have been done better in the past, of course I’m going to be compare it to the current game that actually attempts to have real genuine character moments and interactions.

Admittedly, making a long drawn out essay for Tails just like how I did with Amy and especially Knuckles won’t be easy, as there was how Amy’s character helps introduce a lot of what is there to come with the game, Knuckles had his own special animated short that took a whole section of his own to talk about, Tails is kinda just around. Now, that’s not to say this is the fault of the writers or something, it’s just a personal issue cuz I’m not the brightest person when it comes to making essays 😅

Regardless, I still have some stuff to say about Tails and what makes his arc probably the best out of the other two. Without further ado, we fast forward back into Frontiers era.

—————————————

Tails

is found in Chaos Island, the third island of the game. Same deal as last time, Sonic collected all emeralds in Ares Island, fought the big titan with the objectively best vocal track in the whole game, and upon heading to the next one, the emeralds get shot out of him and now it’s time to search for emeralds once again. With how Tails has always been the little bro sidekick that follows Sonic everywhere, it’s interesting how he’s the last friend you save. Beta content shows he was most likely going to be the first friend you meet up with in the game, but hey I already explained why Amy was the better choice in my essay on her.

This island btw, probably has had the biggest glow up ever out of the entire game when Update 2 came out. By the game’s standards, it was the least liked out of the whole game, as the whole mountain volcano setting created a lot of bumps which could lead to some janky physics here and there running around, but what was the main offender was how a lot of the little obstacle courses for memory tokens were 2D (personally I didn’t have an issue with it all, but I see why others did). But when the spindash introduced, oh my god Chaos Island went from being considered as the worst island of the game, to the best island of the game, as the spindash helped you easily fly around and make you really feel like you were in a playable Sonic CD Opening. And with the spindash’s new physics, it helped avoid a ton of 2D sections to reach the tokens; truly, replay this island in New Game+ with the spindash, if the whole game in general with the spindash isn’t convincing enough, Chaos Island will be.

————————

When you free Tails from his cyber capsule thing, Sonic starts clearly suffer taking in all that cyber energy. Tails’s intelligence (aka using big articulate words) and their big bro little bro dynamic immediately established, already reminding everyone what the usual pairing is like. Tails being a more cautious type of character, showing worry for Sonic’s physical state from all the adventuring he’s been doing, but Sonic says it’s no big deal. It’s easily noted Tails is a little bit bothered by something: as he points out how Sonic has saved him once again from some trouble he got into. It’s easily brushed aside as just some little pattern he’s picked up on, as he immediately drops his thoughts and is ready to try and return the favor.

I love these faces they keep making by the way, I really hope more expressions like these are made in the future 💀

After more lore discussion of the ancients later, we meet the main Koco of the island, being the soul of a little apprentice of an ancient pilot (I assume this pilot being one of the ancients who controlled the titans way back when they were defending their home from an unknown force), finding parts to finish building their weapons.

And like other Koco, it strikes a noticeable resemblance to the character following it, that being Tails; being the little mechanic of this piloting ancient who helps out in building machinery. If you recall, the Tornado (the plane Tails uses through the games) was originally owned by Sonic before he met Tails, and in later games like Adventure, Tails would modify it to become the Tornado 2 (though for some reason they went back on the design later on), he would also go on to help build other stuff for Sonic, like a Wisp Translator or a fake Chaos Emerald, to help out with his journey.

What strikes out the most in terms of similarities is how after retrieving parts for the Koco, it starts to get upset, with Tails explaining how the ancient they’re an apprentice of, being called a hero, hasn’t shown up yet. Tails, all of the sudden, trauma dumps brings up his crisis he dealt with back in Sonic Forces, where once Sonic was gone, he felt useless; this leading Sonic to be concerned about what he’s thinking, but Tails tries to change topic and focus once again on the matter at hand.

I think it’s starting to become obvious he’s trying to show he can be helpful to avoid feeling like he’s useless after what happened last time. However, as much as he tries, the seed of doubt continues to be planted into his mind.

Around one of the side story cutscenes, Tails asks Sonic if he’s able to change, explaining how in this cyber space state he was in before being freed, a copy of him was essentially chastising him about who he is as a person: being a follower who depended way too much on Sonic. This presumably seems to be Tails’ subconscious, his deeper feelings, messing with him. Sonic tries to tell him that whatever the copy said wasn’t true, as he’s seen him become more than a follower for him.

In the next main cutscene, he tells Sonic to help follow the Koco somewhere has he studies some ruins. Sage phases through and begins questioning Tails’ faith in Sonic’s ability to help make everything right again, asking if he really does trust Sonic with his life being in his hands. With him explaining its not faith, as he has all the evidence from past adventures to prove he can once again come out on top and save everyone. Sage is fascinated that he’s very loyal to Sonic and willing to trust him that much for a task so big, but like in the rest of the game, keeps taunting on the idea that everything he believes in about Sonic, the inspiration he’s had about him and what he can do will amount to nothing in the end. Tails gets worried and tries to ask more questions, but Sage’s inability to share info with the enemy team leads to her disappearing.

Now Tails isn’t just doubtful about himself, but he’s beginning to become doubtful about the person who has brought him the confidence way back when. If he can’t believe in Sonic, the guy who has helped him throughout in becoming a braver person…it ultimately starts to make him feel once again like how he felt when that guy who helped him disappeared back in forces: he starts to feel useless.

————————————

And this right here, is where the best moment of the game happens.

Tails is following the Koco and Sonic, when he brings up a question. “Am I a burden to you?” Sonic, of course, doesn’t believe that one bit, and asks what’s making him feel that way. Tails starts explaining that any time something goes on, he runs away or stands back, leading Sonic to be doing all the work and rescuing him from danger, with him just always tagging along. This is an understandable concern, as if he’s always needing to be rescued by Sonic, he’s feeling as if he’s wasting Sonic’s time by having to take a detour to save him. Sonic refutes by reminding him of the times he’s helped Sonic or the world, taking on Eggman himself, saving Sonic from captivity in prison or from being captured by the Deadly Six.

Tails straight up admits, “then I’m wildly inconsistent!” However, Sonic reassures him of his powers, and that it’s ok to need help, as he’s still young learning how to fight on his own, with Tails accepting the response and deciding to keep moving forward.

——————————

Now, why do I consider this to be the best moment of the franchise, and why do I consider this to be the best arc of the game?

As you can probably guess, this is such a vindictive moment for so many Sonic fans, as the biggest issue with Tails in Forces was how he immediately cowered in fear from being attacked. It wasn’t just that he curled up in a ball from Chaos 0, but as well as in the beginning of the game where as Eggman was about to attack citizens of Sunset City, he just starts backing up like everyone else until Sonic shows up. Not to mention after Sonic gets beaten down by Infinite and his clones, it’s presumed he ran away from everyone, leaving Sonic to be picked up by Eggman, not even at least telling the rest of the gang what happened as they don’t even know where Tails went after Eggman took over. While I had my complaints about how Amy and Knuckles didn’t really do anything very notable in Forces, for the most part they were ok. How Tails was handled however, as you can already tell, felt like character assassination in a way, and it’s extra damning as he’s basically around Sonic constantly compared to Knuckles and Amy. You can imagine how annoying it would get having to put up with Tails and his problematic characterization constantly if he’s supposed to tag along in every adventure.

They could’ve easily went about pretending Forces never happened, I mean if it was so disliked by many, no point in acknowledging it ever happened, but they do not shy away from the faults in Forces. And while it may seem like this whole thing just done to acknowledge what Tails did in Forces, you gotta understand: the issue of Tails being sidelined wasn’t just a Forces issue, it’s been an issue since arguably in Sonic Unleashed.

When was the last time Tails had a proper playing role in the mainline 3D games? Sonic 06. But after that, he was kind of just diluted as “Sonic’s Sidekick,” where yea he would help him out in stuff, but he was just…there. He would guide us around stuff but he never actively stepped in to fight with Sonic or stepped away from Sonic to do his own thing. In Unleashed, he was being surrounded by dark monsters, and Sonic came in at the nick of time to protect him. In Colors, he was just following Sonic with the wisp translator and pats himself on the back way too much in the final cutscene before endgame for having it. In Gens, he’s kidnapped with his friends by the Time Eater, and needs to be saved. Classic Tails even shows up with Classic Sonic, but he doesn’t really do anything to stray away from him either. In Lost World, he ends up building forced drama with Sonic wanting Eggman’s help in fighting the Deadly Six. In Forces…you can already guess. He has his appearances in box art and official renders and such, but he’s never playable and doing his own thing besides being right behind Sonic.

Again, he was there to help, sure, but he was always directly behind Sonic, without forging his own path of some kind. He was no doubt just viewed as “Sonic’s little brother sidekick” by the more casual players compared to Knuckles and Amy just being looked at his friends, and the franchise kept pushing Tails in that direction.

So you can probably imagine how many felt seeing Frontiers fully acknowledge how Tails is, like he stated, “wildly inconsistent,” and try to rectify things by not just having Sonic reassure Tails is capable of doing things, but reassuring to the players that Tails can do more than just be “in the sidelines.”

—————————————

The Koco they were helping finally completes it’s unfinished business, and it’s soul ascends, leaving it’s stone body behind. As Sonic and Tails watch, he assures Tails that he’s proud of him, and to not forget that.

—————————————

Later on, Sonic checks up Tails, with him feeling better. He surprisingly starts to explain that he wants to go on his own for a while after this whole adventure is over, in order to try and become more independent, showing that even with the help he gets, he wants to still try to face issues on his own. This is definitely setting up for an eventual Tails spin-off game but, who knows 💀

———————————

With all that, this concludes my essays on Frontiers for now. These were all being made before Update 3 comes out (currently a few hours before it does), so who knows what it might introduce for these playable characters. I will touch on other characters like Sonic, Sage, Eggman maybe, eventually, but since Update 3 is looking to better realize the end game and have a better conclusion for the characters, it’s best I wait for a while for the full picture. If any notable additions are made on Sonic’s friends or just really explaining how their arcs are shown off in the final update, I’ll try to make a post about them. I had more planned like defending that infamous Rhea/Ouranous Island cutscene or discussing the final boss, but I got caught up with a lot of work lol

It’s been great seeing these characters once again taken with the seriousness that was needed in their writing, and trying to show how much they matter just as much as Sonic. And I absolutely cannot wait to see what else is in store for them in the future.

[soyeahitsmiddleearth]

i have a request for you! reader is a royal who doesn’t care for their title and therefore doesn’t enlighten the Company of their status. however, when they run into royal guards of reader’s kingdom who refer to them with their title, the Company is flabbergasted; especially Fíli, who has fallen head over heels for our main character. (I love your writing btw! never stop!)

Being royalty can be a real nuisance sometimes. 

Between fake friends, special treatment, ransom, and the looming knowledge that, someday, you will be forced to marry someone whom you do not love for people who don't care about you, there's no way you can be truly happy. 

Over the years you learned a great deal of different things, like how to bluff, how to break out of bindings, how to fight, and, ultimately, how to lie about who you are. 

It's really easy after all. 

The thing is, though, you've only learned these skills for the off chance that something happens to you. You're not allowed outside the castle without an escort, and all the battle training you've done has been under the watchful eye of your tutor and nanny. 

Of course, you learned how to become an excellent fighter away from their prying eyes, but it's still suffocating. 

And this is why you decided to run away! 

I know what you may be thinking; what kind of spoiled brat gives away such a cushy life for one of danger and uncertainty? 

Well, you of course!! 

You're tired of being kept in a cage; of being called, "Highness" and treated like nothing more than an accessory to the king; of having no purpose other than being a pawn to your father who will ship you off the moment a suitor comes along. You want to be who you are. A chance to grow and experience the world. A chance to fall in love on your own instead of forcing yourself to love someone you could not care less for. 

Also, your father, ultimately, did find you someone to marry, and when you asked who it was you learned that not only do you not know them, but they're also 30 years older than you.

All of these things are reasons you left. 

As soon as you escaped the palace there was panic, guards sent out everywhere to find you and bring you back, hand drawn posters put out on every street lamp and post, it was a whole fiasco. 

For a time there you were almost tempted to go back just so they would stop tormenting people over you, but when a greying old man came to you and stated that he knew who you are and that he wanted to give you the chance to go on an adventure, all thoughts of returning home flew out the window. 

You met a group of 13 dwarves and one small man that they call a hobbit. 

The wizard never told them who you are, so you didn't see much of a reason to enlighten them on your status either. 

It feels nice being treated so normally, something you aren't use to in the slightest, but it feels even nicer to make actual friends. 

Of course, there are some times where you act a bit off or bratty since you did grow up in a castle with people on your beck and call 24/7, but if they notice it nobody says anything about it. 

Thorin, Fili, and Kili, who also just so happen to be royalty themselves, were surprised by how normally you treated them. You spoke to them as if their titles meant nothing to you, joked and complimented them on various things where most would be horrified to do so, and it successfully won their favor. 

They don't know it's because you know what it's like to be in their shoes, to be treated specially and oddly just because you were born into a royal family, and you know to some extent that they have a desire to be treated as normal just like you. 

Of the three, Fili seemed to take to you the most. 

He likes the way you act so normally around him, how you actually care what happens to him and your loyalty to the company. 

At some point he actually begins to care for you a great deal more than he probably should, and once he comes to this realization, it's over for him. 

He began to do things for you that he hadn't before; like sleeping next to you, offering to accompany you when it's your turn to scout or get firewood, bringing you food in the mornings and at night, and even lending you one of his beloved knifes when the handle of yours broke after a conflict. 

When he started treating you differently, you feared at first that he found out who you are, but you soon realized that he just cares about you a lot- like a good friend should. 

Ever oblivious you are. 

You weren't exactly hiding it from them, the fact that you're basically next in line for the throne, but you didn't necessarily want them to find out either. 

It's actually right around the time when you began to think your kingdom gave up their search for you that things took a turn for the 'worse'. 

You were all staying in a town for the night, renting out some rooms at a lodging. You and Bilbo get to have your own room since you're not dwarves for one, but the next morning as you all set out to leave and are all well-rested, something happens. 

You're walking with Fili down the stairs of the place you all stayed, joking and laughing with each other while you follow the rest outside of the building when the dwarves in front of you both suddenly stop walking altogether. 

A soft 'oof' leaves you when you bump into Bifir since he abruptly ceased all movement, and when you look ahead to see what the fuss is about, your heart stops. 

"Halt!" Yells one of the 10 guards standing in a semi-circle around all of you. 

They wear both the colors and the emblem of your kingdom, so clearly they are here for you, but how the hell did they find you. 

Unconsciously you shrink back and half hide behind the door, glad to see that they haven't seen you yet. 

"What's the meaning of this?" Thorin asks angrily, reaching for his sword as he glares up at the armed men standing over them. 

"We have received word that the missing Y/N L/N has been spotted in this area traveling with a group of strange peoples." The guard states with a blank face, looking down at Thorin suspiciously. 

Uh oh, you're screwed. 

Fili looks up at you sharply, and duck behind the pillar quickly and crouch down, making yourself as small as possible. 

He's gonna sell you out and you're gonna be brought back to that horrible palace, chained up in your room for the rest of your life. 

"I have no recollection of coming across anyone of that name. Are they some sort of criminal?" 

Your eyes go wide when Thorin pretends not to know you, and you feel your heart fill with joy and appreciation. 

"Criminal? No. Try missing heir to the L/N dominion." The guard replies, seemingly less suspicious despite Thorin not really giving him any reason to believe him. "The Royal Highness has been missing for months, and the king and their intended are growing weary." 

"Was this Y/N kidnapped?" You hear Thorin inquire further, feeling sick to your stomach that all of your secrets are being aired out like this while you can't so much as get in a peep.

"Nobody knows for certain, though there has been a lot of speculation for both sides."

"It sounds like you've got a lot on your plate, kind sir. I hope your search goes well." Thorin states politely. 

The guard nods his head and states nicely, "Thank you."

"May I ask what you plan to do when you find them?" The dwarf presses a bit further, though he keeps his face neutral. 

There's a moment of silence, though your can't see exactly what's going on, when the guard replies with what you already know, "Take them to the palace where they can be wed to the Lord of our neighboring kingdom. 

"Fitting. If we hear anything we will send for you right away." 

"Then we will take our leave." The guard states, nodding at Thorin gratefully before marching off with the others who follow behind him. 

You stay in that same place crouched to the ground and huddled against the side of the pillar for a little while, and it's not until you feel a hand on your shoulder that you look up and see multiple confused faces peering down at you. 

You offer an awkward smile and say, "Well, that was crazy wasn't it?" 

"You're royalty?" Thorin asks, looking down at you with confused and curious eyes. 

"You're betrothed?" Fili breathes, his eyebrows furrowed. 

You nod your head slowly, pushing yourself to your feet before slowly mumbling, "Yes, and technically yes." 

A moment of silence passes by where everyone just stares in awe before Thorin says hesitantly, "If those guards find you, they will take you back by force?" 

This time you only nod, glancing off to the side nervously. 

"We're already behind schedule... we will discuss this later tonight." Thorin tells you decisively, reaching up to pat your arm lightly before turning and leaving the building. 

You stare after him in surprise, and it isn't until Fili mumbles your name that you snap out of it and go to follow. 

---

For the majority of the day you ride by yourself, for everyone seems to be acting more oddly around you.

It's not like anything has changed, they just know a little more about you, but still they act like everything is different now. 

The better part of your ride is spent in silence, and it's not until Fili's pony falls into step with your horse that your isolation ends. 

"You never told us." He begins, looking up at you curiously. 

"No, I didn't." You confirm, sighing quietly. 

"Why?" 

That's a bit harder to answer, but you try anyways, "Because...I didn't know if your uncle would let me come if he knew and I didn't want to be treated differently either. All my life I've had to abide by a certain set of rules and mannerisms, I've had to be taught how to spot fakes and to survive incase someone were to kidnap me for real... for once, just once, I wanted to live my life without somebody treating me specially because of who runs through my veins." 

He of all people should understand this, but your heart aches at the thought that he may just find you to be a selfish brat. 

"Why... did you leave?" He asks instead of acknowledging your answer. 

"I know there are many who have it worse than I, truly I can't even call it bad, but when I learned that I would be married off to somebody I've never met that is 30 my senior... I couldn't take it anymore. The fate tied to me is one that I would seldom wish on anyone, and so I left. I don't give a damn for that place, for they don't give one for me." 

A silence passes by that makes you uncomfortable, but you don't look down to see if he's watching you. You don't want to see the face he's making, no doubt one of disbelief or anger over how petulant and selfish you are. 

"I suppose I would've left to." 

You look down at him sharply at that, your eyes a bit wide since that is not what you were expecting in the slightest. 

"I understand. And when I say that I mean I actually understand. Truly." He looks up at you and offers a small smile, "People have expectations of you, and when you express that you never asked for all this responsibility you're seen as nothing more than a bratty child who doesn't understand what they have. When they find out who you are they will go to any lengths to be in your good favor. You never know who likes you for you or for your title. 

Slowly you nod your head. 

Really, what did you expect? Of course he would get it, he's living through it just as you are! Only he isn't running away from anything at the moment. 

"Yes, it's exactly like that." You hum, offering the dwarf a smile, "I don't know why I thought you wouldn't understand. You're probably one of the only ones who does." 

'Well, my uncle and Kili too, but yes..." He trails off, then adds, "So, you're an heir." 

This makes you scoff, but your face remains pleasant. "Unfortunately." 

"Do you... plan on going back?" He sounds more. nervous now, and you make note of that. 

"Not really, unless my intended is breathtakingly beautiful." You reply with a smirk, glancing down at the blond dwarf again. 

He clears his throat and asks just as anxiously, "Really...?" 

"Of course not! I want to be free to love whoever I want." You tell him, shaking your head while you speak, "I want to be with someone who I am both attracted to and happy with." 

Fili doesn't respond to that right away, but when he does speak his voice still remains hesitant, "What do you consider... attractive? Who would make you happy?" 

"Like qualities?" Before you do what your mind is telling you to, you need a bit of confirmation on his meaning. 

He only nods. 

"Hm... well, if I'm to start with what qualities make me happy, I would say kindness is very important. They would also have to be strong and fierce, loyal beyond belief, a warrior is always nice, a family man, and, certainly, they must be in love with me too." You begin, nodding along with yourself while a smile falls upon your lips. 

"And... my other question?" 

"Oh, right! I've always been rather fond of blonds, you should know. Thick hair, blue eyes, a brilliant smile- oh! They must have dimples. That's nonnegotiable..." You trail off and glance down at him, seeing that he's looking at you with wide, surprised eyes, "I've also a thing for shorter men, I don't know why for the life of me. Strength isn't a physical trait but I find that attractive, too." 

He's looking up at you with an awed expression on his face, and it successfully makes you smile. 

"And... there's one more thing." 

He gulps and asks shakily, "W-What's that?" 

"Mustache braids. They've got to be the most attractive thing a man can have! I'm most certain its a sign of an excellent kisser." Obviously it's cheesy, but you don't much care since you get to see his adorably red face. 

"I-It sounds like you already have someone in mind." He stutters, reaching up to rub the back of his braided head. 

"Yes, tell Bilbo I'll be looking for him once he grows out his hair will you-" You joke, watching as his eyes widen for a second before he smiles brightly and starts to laugh. 

"Oh! I'll be sure to tell him!" He exclaims, chuckling some more with the biggest and happiest smile on his face. 

"Also tell him that I'd care for him whether he holds the crown in his future or not. Those things don't really matter to me." 

"I can do that." 

You look ahead, the biggest smile ever on your face as well, "One more thing." 

"Yes?" 

"Tell him that I hope he doesn't look at me differently now that he knows who I really am." 

Fili doesn't reply right away to that, but when he does his voice is soft, "I know that he won't, because he loves you dearly and wouldn't care for your status whether you're a monarch to be or a struggling person scrambling to get by." 

"Wow, he sure has a way with words." You muse, reaching down to pat the top of his head while your other hand clutches the reins of your horse a bit tighter. 

"There's more where that came from." 

[mcrmadness]

A Masterpost: ALL MY OLD die ärzte (aka Bela&Farin) COMICS (from 2010-2011)

I’ve lately been talking about my art, especially comics, here a lot but I have never posted my OLD old dä comics here! That’s about to change now. The old ones happened in 2010-2011 when I was 19-20 years old, so they are a bit cringy now :D The scans are my old ones so don’t mind about cat hair or something like that in some of the scans. And I know: my hand writing hasn’t really changed in the past 10-15 years at all :DD

And a slash warning (do I really need that with this fandom tho..?) because I used to draw just very fluffy Bela/Farin comics and they barely have any good plots even. There’s just 4 overall in this post and they all are quite short. But at least for me it’s fun to see how far I have come and how I’ve gotten better at drawing!

Anyway, without further ado, this is where it all started:

Bela&Farin - “Du willst mich küssen”

Simply the idea came from the fact I noticed that on the “Du willst mich küssen” single there’s only one additional song: “Die Antwort bist du”, and that one out of all the potential other songs from the studio album. (Now I’m wondering if I should try to redraw this some day to see my progress? :DD)

The rest under the cut because they get very cringy but if you want to read B/F fluff comics and facepalm at my idiotic humour, go ahead and click the read more link.

Bela&Farin - Bela will ein Baby

(eng. Bela wants to have a baby)

This one was the first I did in German and I traumatized myself. I had just started learning German and totally failed everything and an (old) online friend, native German, wrote something that indicated laughing and I felt so insecure about my German after that that even today I have a fear of saying/writing even simple German words in front of native Germans. She anyway “beta read” the plot and corrected every faulty phrase (aka every phrase) and this is what she suggested that I’d write, and that’s what I did.

The plot shortly: Bela just wants to have a baby but he wants it with Farin obviously, so Farin says they’re both men and can’t reproduce together but Bela found a solution: he found them a surrogate mother. Problem solved.

***

Bela&Farin - “Beer Belly”

Prepare yourself for a cringe overload :)) I’m so sorry that you have to suffer through this.

With this the idea came from the live videos I was watching back then - lots of live videos from 2007-2009 and I noticed that Bela just kept growing and losing his belly all the time. (OMG HELP I’m crying because “SQUEAK SQUEAK” XDDDDDD)

Also the ending is... I don’t know what is it. I guess I just wanted Rod ot make an appearance and didn’t come up anything better than this ::D My peak of humour is right there btw: anything that happens at the background. That shit just never gets old for me. So I find that still funny in this comic but I have no clue how a bass can be pregnant.

Also hey, I have started drawing shadows :DD

And yes, Bela actually did have a cow t-shirt like that in some of the videos and I just had to draw it! And btw, the reason for the fluff is probably because the concerts where those videos were from? It was extremely slashy, Bela and Farin barely could keep their hands off of each other so you really can’t blame me for all this. The ship just sails itself.

***

Bela&Farin - “Zucker”

(eng. “Sugar” - this one was again in German because it wouldn’t work in English. This time I think I did all the language stuff myself but I can’t remember for sure so maybe I got help, maybe I didn’t... This is the last one of these old comics and my personal favorite. You can see that my style somehow went through some major changes but I don’t know what even happened there. I can’t remember.)

I can’t get over Farin’s hair in the last panel, I drew it so perfectly and I still don’t know how to recreate that lol. And now I’m losing it at that tiny “XD” in the grin panel because I found it so stupid looking - the first time I had even drawn a grin for him lmao. Also ignore Farin’s arm that has suddenly lost all its color. (Aka: someone forgot to color it.)

THE IDEA for this comic is simply in the name of brown sugar. At least in Finnish that is called as “fariinisokeri”, which always amuses me still after 12 years because I am a bit simple sometimes, and I figured that it can also be called “Farinzucker” in German so of course I needed to make a Bela/Farin comic about it.

The dialog for those who don’t speak German (too well) yet - Bela just goes to Farin to ask for “Farin sugar” and Farin first is like “nope” but then “jk” and they lived happily ever after. Or something.

***

BONUS:

Something I drew with a ballpoint pen once when I was visiting my aunt and cousin and was bored and doodled this. I like drawing repeated patterns like brick walls or apparently also flowers.

And I have no idea where did I draw this - maybe it was something to do with one course through the employment agency as I tend to doodle when in any kind of class. I feel like I had been watching “Die band, die sie Pferd nannten” prior to this, based on Bela’s looks.

And it was back in 2010, I didn’t have a smart phone yet so no internet to use for reference photos :D

***

So, back to the comics - I only made these 4 back then but before this I did draw other stuff and comics too. I drew several of them as horses when I still didn’t know how to draw humans, and I also have one of them as rats too. The rat one might work as a redrawn human comic, tho... Anyway, at some point I got annoyed because I didn’t like drawing them as horses or rats and wanted to invent a “human style” so then one night, this happened:

The texts are mainly just me chanting how I’m dying from laughter etc. That is actually what I do when I am very insecure of what I do and then I just start openly laughing at everything and myself, that way things don’t feel as bad failures than what they actually are :D (And yeah I know the article is wrong at some point, let’s just say I hadn’t memorized all the article stuff from German yet :D I don’t know if I had even started learning German yet at that point.)

But yeah, then I did find the style and these are the next sketches from my sketchbook:

The bottom left says “facial experessions” - and oh my god I was so damn cringe whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy---

but anyway, those were what I ended up with eventually and the rest is history. I think I’m still gonna make one post with stuff I drew in 2018 and that I haven’t posted here yet as there’s still a few of those, too.

[paperclipninja]

NCIS post-ep ramble 17x01

I know it’s been days since the season 17 premiere and I had every intention of writing something earlier but just didn’t have time (plus I have been so caught up in reading everyone’s thoughts and reblogging all these posts and general flailing that honestly, who has the time for anything??) but I most certainly do have a few thoughts and feelings about the ep I’d like to get down.

For those who don’t know me that well, hi :) and also, I’ve always been rather partial to a post-ep ramble (which is basically me trying to process everything by dumping many words here) so I thought I’d throw a few words down because let’s be real, ‘Out of the Darkness’ was A LOT.

Ok, so can we talk about the opening scene, because it seemed like a classic NCIS ‘guys doing a dodgy deal but wait, the team needs the vehicle’ kinda moment but then FINGERS. Actual freaking fingers on that car dash and I should mention I was live streaming this episode on the train on my way to work and I was NOT chill at this point because it was brutal.

I was having so many feelings right from the get go, I mean Ziva is back and even through we’ve had months to process this it still felt so surreal yet like she’d not really been gone for that long, except that from the very first interaction with Gibbs in the basement, you could just see that she’s different. It’s subtle but it’s there. I love that the moment Gibbs’ basement starts getting shot up and both he and Ziva are out of ammo, they immediately default to working together to create the makeshift explosive thing, no words, just right into the groove of knowing what needs to happen without treading on one another’s toes.

Meanwhile Nick, McGee and Ellie are obliviously having a drink (lol @ McGee lasting less than two seconds not talking about work), for anyone into the Nick/Ellie ship there was a nice little moment and the three of them hot foot it to Gibbs’ place after after McGee gets the call to say there’s been a shoot out (seriously, can you imagine being Gibbs’ neighbours? The weird-ass stuff that has gone down there over the years, that’d be one house you’d tell the kids to skip for trick or treating). I am so into the follow through from the Ziva set up last season, Ellie feeling like the fabric was familiar was a nice way to bring it all together.

It’s funny, after so many years of watching this show then stepping away for a little while, I’m really not sure what I expected when I heard that Ziva was going to return. My shipper heart is really just locked on to Ziva and Tony finally getting some kind of happiness, but I was unsure what it would be like seeing this character on screen after so long, especially considering the way she was written out initially. Can I just say that the way Ziva has returned to our screen exceeded any expectations I did or did not have. I never in a million years expected this show to not just consider, but actively highlight the toll of all the years of trauma and struggle of Ziva David. A credit to the direction in this scene, but as Ziva began having the anxiety attack in the sewer pipe and we gained our first glimpse of her battle with this demon, it was unnerving to see this character who had always remained so seemingly in control, so vulnerable. But it was also wonderful (and heart-wrenching and sad). I am so grateful to Gina Lucita Monreal (who I Stan v. hard btw) for showing this side to this character because to me, it demonstrates not only the character’s journey, but NCIS’s growth.

Gibbs knowing that Ziva needed space and giving it to her but then finding her in a state that clearly caught him off guard was once again something I was not expecting and I was floored, yet again, when the pills Ziva stuffed back into her pocket were actually addressed and spoken about on the bus (I realise it sounds like I’m just constantly surprised but in the past, it’s the kind of thing that may get followed up about six episodes down the track, though I’m aware there isn’t the luxury of drawn out breadcrumbs with this arc and honestly, I’m grateful).

The scene between Ziva and Gibbs on the bus is quite possibly my favourite interaction between these two characters ever. And yes, I mean in the entire series. Hearing Ziva talk about Tali, explain the significance of the necklace and then put it to Gibbs that wouldn’t he do anything if it meant he could hold his daughter one more time, ugh my heart. The ONLY thing I disliked about this episode was later when Ziva said she wasn’t talking about Kelly. I understand the sentiment and I am here for her calling Gibbs out on giving up on her every day of the week, but in that moment on the bus, it absolutely was and should have been Kelly she was referring to because it was in that moment that she and Gibbs connected on an entirely different level - as parents. And more than that, as parents who know what it’s like to risk everything because of the love they hold for a child. So while I do love that Ziva put it to Gibbs that he abandoned her, I do feel it could have been brought up in a way that didn’t diminish the power of that conversation on the bus. Because when Gibbs reached out and touched that scar on her wrist, it may have been a small gesture but the meaning was huge and yes I did start crying and no, I did not care that I was on a train.

Of course we must talk about Odette. Sweet, old, possibly an assassin or some other kind of highly trained deadly human Odette. When Bishop asked her, ‘who are you, really?’, all I could think was, same girl, same. I am so into this character and I really hope she sticks around because her turning up later in the ep with a car load of weapons and then wanting to join in just upped my curiosity even more.

I really am such a fan of Ellie, I have been since the beginning, and I did feel for her trying to balance the wishes of Ziva and her loyalty to her team. McGee’s reaction to finding out that Ziva was alive and that Ellie knew about it was definitely warranted and my Tiva loving heart is trying very hard not to read too much into everyone’s avoidance of answering whether Tony knows (read: I am 150% reading too much into it and of course he knows because Ziva has obviously been leaving clues the entire time that she’s ok and it’s fine, it’s all fine, I’M FINEEE*)

*I am not fine

Nick is immediately suspicious after the awkward af conversation in Vance’s office where every time he mentions something from the crime scene at Gibbs’, Ellie and McGee very obviously downplay or dismiss it. Plus Ellie’s sweaty neck is apparently a dead giveaway and I love that Kaisie also mentions it because when this show does funny, it does it damn well. Aside from the bus scene, my other favourite scene of this episode was in autopsy when Nick ‘I don’t even know this ninja but this is like the biggest news of my life’ Torres has just learned about Ziva and Jimmy ’you said the thing about Ziva and my ears heard it and now I think I need to sit down’ Palmer also gets clued in and honestly, this entire sequence is absolute gold. I heart Kasie so hard and her discomfort with the ‘weird air’ just lent itself to making the whole thing wonderfully hilarious and the dynamic between all the characters was so on point. Nick and Kaisie really are stellar additions to the show, it just works.

Ziva’s determination to go it alone definitely wavers momentarily after Gibbs has spoken to McGee and asked him to decode the encrypted SD card (so many lols at Gibbs asking Ziva if she wants to talk to McGee then telling him she says hi. Again, the writing in this ep is just brilliant, being able to slot in genuinely light and funny moments between the dark and serious), there’s the ever-so-brief expression before Ziva gets into the car, as though she remembers what it’s like to have a team, her team, working with her. 

What is on the card of course leads Gibbs and Ziva to be standing in the man who uses phrases like ‘dope’ in front of his machete wall’s office and I have to say, his ‘what are these two homeless people doing in my office’ was accurate. The show then stabbed me in the heart with the necklace situation - either her heart or her albatross- and of course it all connects back to Ari (the parallel to Saleem ripping off her necklace was noted). We also get our answer as to why Ziva had those severed fingers in the opening scene which is still gross and brutal but also understandable and much better knowing that the dude was dead when it happened. But still gross.

One thing that really struck me was when McGee, Ellie and Nick see Gibbs and Ziva making their getaway and McGee and Ziva share their moment of locking eyes and her indicating for the team to stay put, it is Ellie who points out that, ‘she knows what she needs better than anyone else’. It was just really interesting to me that McGee’s initial instinct was to go after Ziva and Gibbs, despite Ziva clearly not wanting him to, and it is the woman on the team who points out that he needs to respect Ziva’s wishes and trust her. I have no idea if this was making some kind of larger statement but it felt significant to me for some reason. Plus I just love the respect Ellie has for this woman she has never met and I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for her to see Ziva in the flesh for the first time after harbouring her secret for so long.

We all knew Vance would find out eventually and omg Nick just cracked me up, ‘I’m the least guilty one in here, Bishop is the worst...’, he is just such a great character (in case I haven’t mentioned that enough times). I don’t know enough about Sloane at this stage and I’m a little confused about her role or position so I will catch myself up on that (or feel free to fill me in) but she also seems pretty cool. I think back to early days McGee, the nervous probie who was so unsure and then think of him in this episode, standing in Vance’s office defying orders and all I can hear is Tony’s voice saying, ‘I’m proud of you Tim’. I love that he’s backing Ellie and that he’s standing up for and trusting her and knowing Vance’s history with Ziva, it’s just all such a wonderful coming together of NCIS history and the present.

The final scene of course left us in a TBC moment as Gibbs’ attempt to arrest Sahar (or at least a woman I assume is Sahar but then it’s NCIS so who knows?) is railroaded by Ziva’s adamance that unless she is dead, Sahar will always be a threat. I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds, I’m just loving the speculations and excitement and most importantly, consideration with which the show seems to be bringing back these storylines and characters and really, I do believe we are in for quite a ride and if this episode is anything to go by, one heck of a payoff. 

[ultimate-waifu-bait]

Why are you tracing sprites?

((Oh good, you finally showed up. And after you read this, please do me a favor and block me/tell me who you are so I can block you, because I don’t want you ever following or interacting with or seeing anything from any of my blogs ever again. Thanks! ^-^

Now, please enjoy this 5 page paper about why you’re wrong:

Point 1: These are sprite edits. They are supposed to be traced, you fucking moron. Sprite edits are different from custom scratch sprites. In sprite edits, the whole point is to use canon sprite bases and then edit little things about them into something new. You are supposed to use canon sprites and stay as close to canon as possible. That’s...why it’s called sprite editing. If you are drawing them from scratch, that’s not a sprite edit. That’s different. Chieko’s sprites are edits, and tons of people do editing work. It’s completely valid. You ever seen talent-swaps? Personality swaps? Mastermind edits? Those are all edits using that character’s canon sprites. You might as well look at these and say ‘why are they all traced?’ That’s what sprite editing is. Using bases and changing things from them. (All of these are my work btw) 

Point 2: Actually practically nothing but the face and skirt in Chieko’s sprites are traced. Dumbass. Look at this. I drew her hair, her sweater, her undershirt, her buttons, her clips, her backpack, and her charm all from scratch. ALL OF THIS!! All of that is drawn from scratch!! Not traced at all. Please point out the DR character who has Chieko’s exact hairstyle that I’ve been tracing. Absolutely none of that is traced. The only reason I traced the skirt instead of drawing it was because I knew I wanted her to have the exact same skirt, so why take more time drawing the exact same thing myself? I would like to repeat this again, because I feel like you didn’t get it the first time: Almost nothing about that sprite is traced. All of it is drawn from scratch. 

I am using bases for poses, but ask anyone who’s actually knowledgeable in the art world (not you though, clearly) and they’ll tell you that using bases and references are fine. It is not tracing. You can even look up ‘drawing bases’ online, because as long as you draw the hair and clothes yourself, it’s not tracing. It would be tracing if I literally just drew over Komaru’s hair and clothes and re-colored them. But I did not. All of this is drawn by my hand and it takes upwards of 3 hours. The reason why people use bases is because it’s hard to replicate someone else’s style, especially a very unique one, exactly perfect. I draw anatomy and faces differently from DR, so if I wanted my sprites to look good, I would need a base. This is especially the case in stylized cartoons, like Total Drama Island. Bases are fair game because it’s a highly specific and unique and difficult style to replicate without references.

Point 3: Creating sprites from scratch is time consuming and difficult. In order to create all of Chieko’s sprites from scratch, not using a single base, I would have to come up with 45 different poses and facial expressions all on my own. And then draw them. That would’ve taken me fucking years. I can do it. I’ve done sprites from scratch before. Here is an example. I drew this by hand, all of it, with not a single base used from another sprite. The only thing I did was look at a reference of Chiaki’s face when I drew it. 

But it takes forever, and for me it is extremely difficult to come up with the poses. So I thought it would be much easier on myself, and faster, to just find some poses that look like Chieko would do, and use those. I made Chieko’s sprites within 3 days, (10 of them), because I wanted to start her blog as quickly as possible. I would not have been able to do that by drawing sprites and creating poses completely myself. That is why I chose to use editing instead. And, if you paid attention to this blog at all instead of trying to find random people to insult, you would notice that a lot of Chieko’s poses/expressions are not Komaru’s. Using bases of Chieko’s existing sprites, I’ve drawn new faces, new expressions, new hand gestures and arm movements all to make unique custom sprites for her that you will not find in Komaru’s sprite gallery. Here is an example of a Chieko sprite side-by-side with the Komaru sprite whose base I edited. They don’t even look remotely similar. The end product is a completely unqiue, original Chieko sprite, in which I had to draw her hair and clothing completely from scratch, and her facial expression.  

Point 4: I am allowed to do whatever the fuck I want with my art. If I wanted to trace all of my sprites-- and let me be clear that almost nothing on them is traced-- then that’s my fucking business. I am allowed to trace sprites if it’s easier for me. I am allowed to do edits if it’s easier for me. You did not commission me and it is not my fucking job to make sure all of my sprites and artwork are up to your ridiculous standards. This is not my job. This is a hobby. I am allowed to be as professional or unprofessional as I want, and that includes with my artwork. I am allowed to do whatever the fuck I want with this blog because it is a hobby for fun. Whether or not my sprites are traced is none of your damn business, frankly. You have absolutely no fucking right to fly up in here and insult me with your two messages (first one being: why is everything traced? D:) on my own blog which is just a damn hobby. A hobby. You’re not my boss, you’re not my professor, fuck off. This is none of your business. I am not here to learn to get better at sprites. I don’t need any ‘constructive criticism’ that just tells me that I’m doing something wrong. I am doing this for fun. I’m not trying to get better at anything. I cannot stress to you enough how much this is not your fucking business. Leave people alone. You have absolutely no right to come in here and complain about my sprites. And if you’re concerned about me ‘stealing’ art. Buddy. You’re an idiot. Everyone can see that I used base sprites from the game, especially when I say this is my Danganronpa OC. Oh jeez, I wonder what game those bases are from?? Hmmm guess we’ll never know. No, everyone knows where to find these bases, everyone knows who gets credit for creating the poses. Besides, it’s not like Kodaka or DR need any extra royalty fees from me. It’s not like my obscure tumblr OC blog is stealing their fame or money. 

Point 5: I like my sprites. That’s all there is to it. I like my sprites, I am content with the way they look, I am proud of them. I will not be changing them because of some random dick. And you know what? I bet you can’t do better. I bet you can’t do better than my ‘traced’ edits or my from-scratch sprites either. I’d like to see you try. Because I have some of the best sprites in the DR OC community. And by that I mean: I literally have some of the only original sprites. The others who have originals- Aya, Miyako, Hibiki, and Kyoshi using Pregame Angie, Tsumugi, Nagito, and Hajime- also use sprite bases for their edits. (Credit to them. Their edits are amazing and better than mine.) Those other characters and myself are really the only time I see original sprites. So what are we supposed to do without our ‘evil tracing lifestyle’? Use an ugly piccrew like every other person on the planet? That is also using someone’s art, you know. It’s using someone else’s art wayyyy more than editing a sprite, using a base. Literally it is just entirely someone else’s art. Are you going to go harass everyone who uses a piccrew about ‘stealing art?’ So tell me, what else are we supposed to do? What were you hoping to accomplish with this anon? Did you want me to stop ‘tracing’ and draw completely original sprites? No one else fucking does that. No one. Where are your wonderfully original and completely in-style canon looking from-scratch sprites? Where are they? Show me. Everyone who has an OC with original sprites edits them. And everyone who does sprite edits of canon characters also...edits them. I don’t know what you don’t understand about the concept of sprite editing. The only thing I see other than sprite edits is piccrews. Haru and Kibo had their own original sprites, but they were in a noticeably very different style from DR canon, which was wonderful and unique, but not what I wanted for Chieko. And like I said, I am fully capable of doing original from-scratch sprites, but it’s too much work. So you’re not insulting me by saying I’m ‘tracing’. I can do my own original work if I want to, but that’s too much time and effort for a hobby in which I am allowed to use whatever art I fucking please. I know I have the skills I need for that. I am completely secure about that. 

Conclusion: I don’t fucking know what you were trying to accomplish by sending this in. You’re completely wrong. Nothing about her sprites is traced. Editing is a valid way of creating sprites. I don’t know what you expected to happen, or what you wanted me to do? I’m not going to stop editing my sprites and newsflash: everyone else in the community edits their sprites too. All original OCs I’ve ever seen use sprite bases to do edits. And that’s fine. It’s difficult, it takes skill, it’s original work. Also, it’s none of your business what my sprites look like and this isn’t my job, so I can do whatever I want here. But I really don’t know what you were trying to accomplish or expecting. I’m not going to take the time out to make completely original poses all the time and neither is anyone else. I don’t have to do that. But I don’t actually think you were trying to accomplish anything. I think you just wanted to insult me because maybe my blog or character is more popular than yours? Or maybe my sprite edits are more reblogged? Or maybe you don’t have sprite edits at all? I didn’t want to ship Chieko with your character? I don’t know. I don’t know what would prompt someone to go around harassing and insulting people about random bullshit that is 1) untrue and 2) none of their business. There is no point to it. This is a hobby we do for fun. No one needs or wants or cares about your fucking ‘review’ of us. We will do what we please with our blogs because that is our right. Leave people alone.)) 

[thedollnerd]

Very excited to get my first LOL OMG doll.   I’ve been eyeballing these dolls ever since they came out, read a lot of reviews, people talked about how great the details on the dolls are and along with decent articulation, it was an irresistable combo.. The strange chibi heads put me off at first, but I’m always a sucker for a fully articulated doll, and these are actually chubby looking! .. or at least plumper than the usual fashion doll.

Groovy Babe is from the latest wave of LOL OMG dolls, called Lights.  They all have some kind of UV-reactive element on their face and/or clothes and each doll is inspired by a different type of 60s fashion.  I don’t know an exact reference to point out other than Twilight Zone, but Groovy Babe is clearly evoking a whole black and white psychedelic/hypnotic vibe.  I feel like there’s a film reference here that I’m not aware of.  She is also supposed to be a beatnik poet.

I kinda love the little hatbox, it fits all her accessories except the comb.  The little white cylinder is a tiny blacklight, with battery included.  The “book” is a single sheet of paper folded in half.  

Hair: super thin rooting on the top of her head, can see scalp through the hair (including black lines presumably there to guide the rooting but clearly totally ignored).  The long hair feels soft, but it’s a little plasticky – is it nylon?  Bangs are one solid mass of gel plastered to her forehead.

Clothing: Cutout in dress is poorly sewn and bunchy.  Jacket is pretty nice but was carelessly stuffed into the garment bag, so now the lining is sticking out in the front and the collar is permanently popped (which also shows a white mesh lining).

Fully dressed, she looks like maybe she made her clothes herself, and isn’t terribly good at it. 

Tights and boots are perfect.  Earrings are adorable!  They spin!  Hypnotic!  But they’re hard to see when she’s wearing them; they kind of face sideways and her hair covers them.  Also, the paint has started coming off already, the first time I put them on the doll.  Sunglasses are odd and not very 60s mod, but pretty damn cool; they’re made of a softish, almost rubbery plastic, so they’re very easy to put on and take off without having to worry about breaking them.  The long narrow glasses look funky and cool with the round eyes of the doll; makes me think of Novi Stars.

  Body:  Love those curves!  These dolls have wonderfully chonky butts and thighs.  Butt dimples!  Still has a thigh gap though, for some damn reason.  Also, extreme hourglass waist and sculpted abs, just in case you might be afraid this doll is a nasty fatty fatfat.  Beautiful curvy legs, but sadly they have very old-fashioned jointing – hips have zero rotation and knees are crappy click joints that are hard to use and barely bend.

  Why these dolls come with chair-like stands is totally beyond my comprehension, since they can barely sit.  Feet are en pointe like a ballerina – not just tiptoed high heel feet, these are almost torturously pointed.  Wonderfully sculpted little toes though.  Smallish pointed breasts with just a hint of nipples.  Painted-on bikini undies match her pale turquoise eyeshadow.  Hands pop off for ease of dressing and are gracefully sculpted, with cute little dimples on the knuckles (which would make more sense on chubby hands, but whatever).  The hands actually go off and on really nicely, no fear that I’m going to break the joint doing it.  Fingernails are pointy and painted white; the paint is actually quite well-done here, they’ve done a pretty good job of keeping it only on the nails without overspray onto the fingers (unlike some other OMG dolls I’ve seen).

Face: Bizarre LOL round-eyed face; almost Bratz-like in the lips and near lack of a nose, but the eyes are absolutely enormous and perfectly round.  The proportions of the features put me off at first, but there’s something about the way they’re done that’s surprisingly appealing.  This doll has a very matte faceup in solid colors; edges are mostly clean and the paint is almost completely within the lines of the sculpt.  Her lips remind me of a certain iconic stomach medicine.  Eyeshadow is a light turquoise color with a darker turquoise line above it, with a cat-eye black liner and spiky lower lashes that mimic the drawn-on lashes people used to do in the 60s.  Somebody did their homework on 60s mod makeup.   Eye color is an indigo blue, complements the makeup nicely; a little boring, but more detail in the eyes might just make them look creepy since they’re so very large. 

My doll has three tiny black spots on her face, and a handful of faint white spots on the black of one eye (the paint seems thinner on this eye for some reason – the swirl is more obvious in regular light).  Head has an unfortunate tendency to tilt slightly back, and not because of the weight of her hair.  She can tilt her head just fine when she’s looking to the side, but facing forward, she can’t look up or down at all.  The vinyl of her head is slightly more orangey than her body?  

Gimmick: It’s a fail, at least with this particular doll, at least with the tiny black light included with her.  The black and white overall color scheme looks cool under black light, but the specifically UV-sensitive stuff is mostly barely there. The UV-sensitive? stripe on the dress is rather visible in regular light, and yet indistinguishable with the black light.  The “hypnotic” twirls in her eyes are barely visible even with the black light right up against them.  I tested all of this in the dark btw.

The makeup is the one thing that actually does change noticeably.  The lips are still pretty much the same color, but they’re super bright neon under the black light.  The eye makeup changes color and has an extra layer of eyeliner that’s mostly invisible under regular light.

It’s a pretty underwhelming effect overall, but if I had a blacklight room I’d display her in it, after finding her some new clothes.  I’d rather they’d just made things better quality and not done the stupid gimmick, but whatever; their goal is to sell toys to children and the LOL brand is kind of rooted in gimmicks.

These dolls are extreme caricatures of a “sexy” human female (if you like big butts – and do not lie).  I do wonder if they were inspired by Betty Boop; they have almost an identical silhouette, with the big round heads, tiny waist, and big hips.  Their proportions are so cartoony and absurd and clearly very thoughtful choices were made that sacrificed functionality for form – the terrible click joints in those smooth, shapely legs, for example.  Though why the hip joints couldn’t rotate is a choice I can’t understand..

She’s a cute little doll, to be sure, but not display-worthy, or even something I’m really excited about photographing (which is the only real surprise involved in opening this box that supposedly contained 15 surprises). 

Real talk about the surprises, actually – the things included in this box that are not pictured on it are: the stand, the garment bag with plastic hanger, the plastic hatbox with patterned tissue paper, the sunglasses, and a folded piece of paper pretending to be a notebook of poems.  So the only real bonus item that you wouldn’t expect to receive by looking at the box is the sunglasses.  At least there’s something. 

Anyway.  I’m left with mixed feelings, honestly kind of disappointed?  Is the doll I got sub-par or is this typical?  Am I just hugely, stupidly picky?  I want to rehair her; she’s crying out for it, really.  Maybe I’ll fall in love with her once her worst flaw is gone.  Maybe I’ll rip her head off and try some other ones.  Maybe she can be my big-booty guinea pig.

This is the best I could get her clothes to look in a photo.. Unless she’s holding it shut like this, the jacket keeps flapping open with that white mesh stuff flopping out.

Still excited for Angles.  I’ve had a thing for Mondrian and his right angles for a long time and it’s really fun to see his art referenced with a fashion doll.

Review: Groovy Babe LOL OMG doll Very excited to get my first LOL OMG doll.   I've been eyeballing these dolls ever since they came out, read a lot of reviews, people talked about how great the details on the dolls are and along with decent articulation, it was an irresistable combo..

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Amazing Mary Jane #1 Thoughts

Apologies for not getting to this, or indeed other of the recent comics sooner. I’ve felt unwell recently and had computer troubles which conspired to delay my reading and writing up about this.

As such this is possibly going to not be as nitty gritty as I maybe usually would do as I’m going off memories a bit.

TL:DR version is, it’s good with one, albeit notable, flaw.

And Hell let me get that out of the way immediately.

Why...isn’t Mary Jane informing Peter that she’s working alongside a bunch of criminals?

Now look...I’m willing to give the story and Leah Williams the benefit of the doubt. MAYBE Mary Jane is playing a long game here or something. But if she’s not...I mean...that’s kind of a big problem with the story isn’t it?

MJ is allowing actual criminals, including Mysterio, to roam free. Worse she’s arguably doing that because she wants to make the movie and have it be a success but...isn’t that rather irresponsible and selfish, to say nothing of dangerous to herself. Of course MJ is a bad ass and can handle herself. But she is literally surrounded by criminals including a guy who Spidey usually only beats because he has a magical danger sense to help him out. Unless she engages in some Batman levels of cunning she wouldn’t realistically survive this situation.

Now again MAYBE there is something more going on, I very much hope so and am waiting eagerly to see that, but if there isn’t it’s going to be a huge thing working against this series quality.

However apart from that literally everything else was firing on all cylinders.

It’s difficult to do anything other than gush.

First of all the artwork is fantastic. It’s like if Todd Nauch and Ramos had a kid and it looked stylized like Ramos but also how people should look like Nauck.

The characterization, exempting the one thing I spoke about, was also very much on point. I can’t recall Mysterio and MJ ever interacting much (if ever) before but the idea practically writes itself, it’s such a natural pairing!

The gag about being insured was great and clearly drawn from Leah Williams past experience in that business, I hope we get more of that.

MJ herself is presented very well. She’s confident, she’s serious, she’s determined, but also fun, upbeat and has dashes of goofiness and flirtation (with Peter I mean).

So far, so good Williams seems to have a strong grasp on her character (again sans that ONE problem I noted).

I especially liked how Mysterio wasn’t a typical thuggish villain like you’d imagine Scorpion or Electro being. For instance rather than make inappropriate remarks regarding MJ as the likes of Crusher Creel might do, he actually gets angry at the idea that she used sex to get her part. But here is the nuance in Williams writing. Because whilst it’d be typical to make Mysterio a thuggish villain like Rhino or Sandman or Electro, in it’s own way it also would’ve been typical to have made him a pseudo chivalrous villain who doesn’t tolerate sexism. Instead she sets that up but then veers to the side as Mysterio is actually angry at the idea that HE could be manipulated by sex (or ‘womanly wiles’ as he puts it) thus making Mysterio atypical but still most definitely a villain.

  The idea of Mysterio as the ‘artiste’ of the Spidey rogues has been milked very effectively starting with Spencer’s run and the idea that he and MJ could honestly connect through their passion for their art is a great bit of character writing. It tells us a little about who Mysterio is whilst also demonstrating MJ’s own social skills. Peter and Mysterio could never get along this way, and I know that because they started to in Webspinners #1 (which Mysterio’s movie is based upon btw) but the conversation got awkward and they walked away from one another.

Other stuff I liked was the subversion of expectations. I walked into this believing the plot would likely be that about us readers fearing for MJ as she didn’t realize who she was working for and thus how much danger she was in. But Williams simply had MJ figure that out almost immediately and now, besides the Savage Six, we don’t know where things are going to go and that’s a good thing.

By the way, isn’t it great that this is a story where yes MJ’s association with Spider-Man has led MJ into working with one of his enemies and arguably being exposed to danger from him, but she herself deduces that, then chooses to continue taking that risk and isn’t bothered by it? The real danger is coming from Mysterio’s enemies not Peter’s (okay they are technically Peter’s enemies too but you see what I mean). Literally just 2 years ago this would’ve been fuel for the ‘see they can’t be together because it’s too dangerous for her’ jackasses like Slott.

Now it should go without saying (but I will say it anyway) that the PeterxMJ scenes were delightful.

For a split second was thinking phone sex isn’t really in character for Spider-Man. But then I thought you know...MJ has in the past had the effect of loosening him up (see every kinky 90s thing artists did with them) and you could arguably say they were being somewhat ironic anyway. Of course the shipper in me liked it all the same. As I did with the 20 second dance party which I suspect will be trotted out many times in years to come within the MJ fan community. Appropriately it was referenced in the same scene as her crowing moment of awesome, the Chameleon (who appeared in ASM the same day) baseball bat incident. Williams knows her shit it seems!

Now there is one other thing I feel I should talk about.

There was a rather lengthy scene regarding the writing of MJ’s character that was clearly intended to be meta commentary upon the portrayal of female characters.

The question is what specifically was Williams passing commentary on?

How Mary Jane has usually been written?

How she has usually been written until this solo book of her’s?

How women in comics are usually written?

Or how women in films/comic book movies are portrayed?

I’m not sure. I think if it’s options 1 or 2 that’s rather unfair and not really looking at the nuance of the character.

But to be honest looking at this book and Williams’ own comments regarding MJ in interviews prior to this book’s release I don’t buy that. Williams’ comments combined with some of the deepcut continuity she references here doesn’t paint her as someone who thinks MJ is underdeveloped or who’s only purpose in the story is to serve Spider-Man’s story. Indeed any MJ fan worth their salt is aware that part of what made MJ successful and popular to begin with in the 1960s was that she precisely DIDN’T do that.

As such I think options 3 or much more pressingly option 4 is what Williams is commenting upon.

The condensed nature of comic book films mean that it’s a rarity for characters beyond the lead or the villains to get much of their own stories to play out. This is certainly the case with Michelle in the MCU Spider-Man movies and Emma Stone in the Webb movies. But curiously less the case with Dunst’s Mary Jane.

Let’s also consider that this story was promoted as talking about the movie business, something Williams has insider knowledge of and thus it makes sense she’s commenting upon and satirizing that as opposed to comic books (hence we got that insurance gag early on).

In a sense you could say she’s using Mary Jane as a (logical and entirely in character) mouthpiece to comment upon how female characters in movies like Mysterio’s are more like Gwen Stacy but should be more like her, Mary Jane.

Although I must admit the dialogue where they talk about her character int he movie lacking powers and such did confuse me. I didn’t get that.

So over all...yeah...this was great. Again there is one notable problem I hope gets addressed before everything is said and done but in every other way this thing is scoring touchdowns all the way.

Buy it!

Buy 2 copies!

Buy 2 copies and some variants, then get the digital edition and pre-order the trade!

P.S. Thanks to this new comic I learned a new word! Ingenue, gotta find a way to slip that into conversation some time.

[shes-claws-deep]

Can we preeeeeeeetty please have more of a female led relationship with Vergil, like the one where they're at the diner? 👀👀 Any situation is fine. Love your writing btw!

Sometimes Vergil forgets that Dante is a lot sharper than he appears to be. The big dumb jock facade that he puts up hides eagle-eyed attention to detail, the ability to catch any tiny little thing and take note of it. 

“Did you buy that shirt recently?” Dante’s voice breaks through Vergil’s concentration. “Heh, new bracelet too.”

Fuck, why is he so nosy all of a sudden?

“It’s none of your business.” It feels like he’s been saying that a lot recently. 

Dante snickers and tosses his ankles up on his desk, scattering his brother’s papers all over the place. “You know, I have to admit your fashion sense has improved since you met her.” He refers to you with a flick of the finger towards the papers in Vergil’s hands. “It’s a sight better than the same damn vest you wear all the time.”

“This coming from a man who once went shirtless under his coat,” Vergil bites back without vitriol, shuffling the papers in his hand and making a note with his pen. He takes a moment to readjust the thin eyeglasses perched on his nose, putting them higher on the bridge of his nose so he can see the numbers properly. The font is so damn small, why didn’t he blow it up again?

“Ouch, dear brother.” Dante clutches his chest. “But really, you don’t seem the type of guy to wear a cute little sweater like that.”

True, he didn’t pick out this sweater, though he must admit you have good taste. He wears it only because you told him he looks good in it, because you told him you love seeing him wear it. That and it’s the first thing you ever bought just for him. It’s the first time he wears it to Dante’s place and the sharp-eyed fuck catches it.

“She bought it for me,” Vergil replies as nonchalantly as he can manage, his face schooled and his blush controlled. “If you’re after a similar sweater, I’m sure you can find it.” 

“Maybe I’ll ask her to buy one for me-”

“If you do that, I’ll find a way to send you back down to the Underworld.” Vergil’s gaze turns to ice as he looks up and removes his glasses, holding his pen like a dagger. “Her wrath be damned.”

“Oh, so you do have a spine still,” Dante taunts and leans forward. “Maybe I should call you Daddy and you’ll be doing my accounting too.”

There’s just something so funny about being called that, much less by his own brother, that actually makes him laugh. “Nothing could be further from the truth, Dante.” He takes a moment to make another note on your budget papers, shaking his head after he puts his glasses back on. “Even if you did, I still wouldn’t do your accounting. Your finances, or lack thereof, are terrible.”

“Ha ha laugh at the poor demon hunter.” Dante rolls his eyes. “Still…run my numbers?”

Vergil looks over his glasses at his obstinate brother who is infuriatingly shooting him puppy dog eyes, chin on his knuckles, about to punch him in the face when his attention is drawn to the front door. 

“Vergil, Dante, you in?”

“In the back, sweetheart!” Dante calls out, arm up to wave at you. 

You come striding in, lunch in your hands and a smile on your face. “How’s it going boys? I’ve got lunch with me.” 

Both men get to their feet, but only Vergil comes over to help take the bags from you. He dips down to kiss your lips as you tilt your head up, whispering thanks in your ear. He lets you go to the table first, helping you into his chair and perching on the edge of the desk rather than find another rickety seat. Food is doled out, utensils handed over, and then the mouthwatering aroma of Chinese food fills the air.

“Oh, baby, I could kiss you right now,” Dante moans and digs in without further ado, shovelling food into his mouth like a neanderthal.

“I’d rather you didn’t.” Comes your wry voice, echoed by Vergil’s voice saying the exact same words.

“Okay, sheesh, chill out.” Some rice is spat out over the table, causing both you and Vergil to cringe just a little. 

Vergil, on the other hand, patiently waits until you’ve taken your first bite before he lifts the spoon to his mouth, eating with his back straight and his bites even like a king at his table. Looking so elegant even when he’s eating out of a paper box, propped with his ass against his brother’s messy desk, wearing your favourite sweater and looking so homely despite having Yamato at his side.

For a good while, the three of you eat in companionable silence. Well, relative silence. Dante’s not the quietest eater. Once all the food is cleaned out, you decide to excuse yourself. The decision to take your lunch break with the boys means you can’t stay for long. Much to your displeasure. 

As Vergil sees you out with a hand at the small of your back, you can’t help but look over your shoulder and smirk at Dante. “By the way, Vergil calls me Daddy.”

While Dante sputters and chokes on his beer, you laugh and tug a stunned yet amused Vergil with you. Time to make good on that statement.

[mittensmorgul]

wheee monday! back to the tnt loop! 1.22 gives us a lot...

Bobby, most of all. And the beginning of our Good Practical Demon Knowledge. Not our Christo’s and our Two Part Exorcisms that make the demon wildly more dangerous before sending it to Hell. We learn that demons can keep otherwise dead or dying meatsuits alive, and exorcising them can kill the human trapped inside. We get all of this demonstrated for us via Meg. And we learn a bit more about where Dean’s ultimate moral lines are drawn:

Dean: Sam, there’s an innocent girl trapped somewhere in there. We’ve go to help her. Bobby (comes up to them): You’re gonna kill her. Dean: What? Bobby: You said she fell from a building. That girl’s body is broken. The only thing keeping her alive is that demon inside. You exorcise it – that girl is going to die. Dean: Listen to me, both of you, we are not gonna leave her like that. Bobby: She is a human being. Dean: And we’re gonna put her out of her misery. Sam, finish it.

(which will become interesting again in 4.02... the things they didn’t know at the time literally coming back to haunt them in new and bigger ways because of something new they’re just learning about... which is exactly what makes the spiral narrative spin. The same thing over and over again isn’t interesting, they need to keep leveling up, being forced to build on their knowledge and understanding and applying it to the next degree of cosmic problem, only to learn some more and compound their understanding, only to level up yet again.)

We also learn what’s “normal” for the supernatural world:

Bobby: Normal year, I hear of, say, three demonic possessions. Maybe four, tops. Dean: Yeah? Bobby: This year I hear of 27 so far. You get what I’m saying? More and more demons are walking among us – a lot more. Sam: Do you know why? Bobby: No, but I know it’s something big. The storm’s coming, and you boys, your Daddy – you are smack in the middle of it.

Heck they so did not want this, nor ask for it.

We still don’t really understand Azazel’s motives in possessing/kidnapping John outside of the fact he now needs to reverse his trap, use what he does have, and hope Sam and Dean are just as unable to resist saving John as he was to save them. In the most immediate terms, he just needed the Colt off the playing field. (heh, was he gonna store it in Ramiel’s armory for safekeeping I wonder, or just flat-out destroy it like Dagon did?)

We get our first “whoops they killed a dog, so they’re now irredeemable” when Meg shows up at Bobby’s and kills his dog. (cue 13 years of “Dean is a dog” imagery)

We also get both Meg and Azazel taunting Sam and Dean over the fact that they killed Mary:

Meg: Jeez. You kiss your mother with that mouth? Oh wait, I forgot, you don’t.

and

John/YED: What? You’re the only one that can have a family? You destroyed my children. How would you feel if I killed your family? (he smiles at Dean) Oh, that’s right. I forgot. I did. Still, two wrongs don’t make a right.

And they’re not wrong... for all we learn about Dean’s personal moral code, we also learn his exception:

Dean: Killing that guy, killing Meg. I didn’t hesitate, I didn’t even flinch. For you or Dad, the things I’m willing to do or kill, it’s just, uh .... it scares me sometimes. John: It shouldn’t. You did good. Dean: You’re not mad? John: For what? Dean: Using a bullet. John: Mad? I’m proud of you. You know, Sam and I, we can get pretty obsessed. But you – you watch out for this family. You always have. Dean: Thanks.

When “John” asks for the Colt a moment later, this is where Dean draws another line. He knows it’s not John. In the standoff, “John” and Dean play a weird game of “calling the puppy to them” when Sam questions what’s going on, why Dean has the Colt pointed at “John.”

Tell me this doesn’t sound EXACTLY like 14.20:

Sam: Dean? What the hell’s going on? John: Your brother’s lost his mind. Dean: He’s not Dad. Sam: What? Dean: I think he’s possessed. I think he’s been possessed since we rescued him. (He starts to get upset.) John: Don’t listen to him, Sammy. Sam: Dean, how do you know? Dean (fighting back tears): He’s .... he’s different.

vs

SAM: Our entire lives. Mom, Dad -- everything. This is all you because you wrote it all, right? Because -- Because what? Because we're your favorite show? Because we're part of your story? CHUCK: Okay, Dean, no offense, but your brother is stupid and crazy. And that kid is still dangerous. So pick up the gun. Pick it up... pull the trigger... and I'll bring her back. Your mom. DEAN: No. (Dean takes a few steps back to stand side by side with Sam)

“Your brother’s lost his mind” about Dean, vs “your brother is stupid and crazy” about Sam. Both times, Dean holding Magical Kill Everything Guns and pointing them at yellow-eyed monsters. Dean facing killing his father in 1.22, and someone he considers a son in 14.20. And he couldn’t do it either time, not to get revenge, not to kill the current concept of “Ultimate Evil and Danger” to the world. And yet another parallel between John and Chuck, even if this was actually Azazel speaking here he was using John’s face to do it. This is the archetype of “toxic fatherhood” in the narrative from the jump.

Dean does get one good comeback in:

John: You know, you fight and you fight for this family, but the truth is they don’t need you. Not like you need them. Sam – he’s clearly John’s favorite. Even when they fight, it’s more concern than he’s ever shown you. Dean: I bet you’re real proud of your kids, too, huh? Oh wait, I forgot. I wasted ‘em.

And then after this bit of mental torture, because this is psychological torture for Dean here, the physical torture kicks in. The wounds look shockingly similar, in retrospect, to the ones the hellhound leaves on Dean in 3.16, claw marks down his chest. And both times, Dean is unwilling to kill the person he loves to stop the larger evil thing.

This is also our very first instance of what we’ve come to refer to as a “crypt scene.” Breaking through demonic possession or other mind control to reach a loved one. For a complete rundown, including a description of this scene in that context, please have the very long and complicated history here (excellent reading, btw. Click through the read more for the entire original post and then the s12+ additions in this reblog):

https://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/167800948433/elizabethrobertajones-so-basically-you-cant

Just another thread of the big narrative spiral getting broken in 14.20.

And not related to anything I’ve said above, but because heh I find this amusing  as heck, just as a weird... production wtf. At the scene outside the Sunrise apartments, there’s two men (one man in the crowd of bystanders and one of the firemen he approaches) who it looks like they were scripted to be possessed by demons in this scene. Both men open their mouths and gasp at the supposed moment of possession. But we don’t see any smoke crawling down their throats. I figure it’s because it was the VFX crew who realized it was implausible for random smoke to be floating around outside a supposed scene of a fire in broad daylight, without drawing any sort of attention from anyone in the crowd. So instead of these demons simply “activating” and coming to the surface of the people they’ve already been possessing, we get this weird “invisible possession” gasp. Because of who I am as a person, my brain has decided these two people were already possessed, but the demons inside them were lying dormant until they were called up for service, like a couple of understudies being told they’re finally getting to take the stage. And they’re both inordinately delighted by this, to the point they do the lil “gasp of excited glee:”

ME?! YOU WANT  LIL OL’ ME TO HELP?! *omg okay this is actually happening, we are really doing this, i’m readY I’M READY I’M READY!*

alrighty then, moving on to season two now :’)

[ashmerra]

may i kindly ask you all the oc questions?

Yes, yes you may.

Quick note:  A few OCsI won’t mention by name and a few answers will be vague just as to not spoilanything.  I have an entire fanversegoing on here.

-50 OC Asks-

Quick reference:  Meri is the Hero of Kvatch.  Arrais a Breton mage in Skyrim.  Dreyns is a Dunmer assassin.  Vitiais the Dragonborn.  Sannit is an old, former Ashlander. Veabris is an Ayleid who’saround back before the First Era.  Jaka is the Nerevarine.  Estor isNot a Thalmor ™.  Stigr is a proud Nord boi.  La’Mihr is a smart kitty.  One-Who-Knowsis yearning for the suburban Skyrim dream.  

 1. “Your first OCever?”  

That would be proto Meri. She was really the first that grew into an actual character.  She was also supposed to star in an Oblivionrewrite/webcomic/fanfic thing I drew like one page of years ago.

2. “Do you have a personal favouriteamong your OCs?”

I like different ones for different reasons!  Arra’s dialogue and one-liners, Dreyns’swhole ark of getting old, Vitia’s philosophy, etc.  etc.

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else?

Nope.  And I’d neverconsider them mine.  I handcraft them andbake them one-of-a-kind each time.  Butmore seriously, the most I could take is an idea for a character, because Ialways like to twist things on their head and really make it my own.  I don’t enjoy writing NPCs for thisreason.  I can’t get in their head and myheadcanons get a bit much, so I’d rather just write for those I know.

4. “A character you rarely talk about?”

Tactus Gavros Sigilis!  An inspector/investigator for the Empirein Skyrim.

5. “If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be?”

I think that’s not really up to me.  I can’t decide who fans will latch onto.  I know who’s the most well-liked at thistime, but that’s no indicator of who would be well-loved by a much wideraudience.  I’ll leave this one to my fans!

6. “Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related?”

I do my best to give everyone unique looks andclothing/color schemes, but!  There’sthree that got based on each other and aren’t the same but even I’m confusednow.  I’ll make a separate post to breakit down.

7. “Are your OCs part of any story or stories?”

None of them exist outside of the Elder Scrolls universe,and I have yet to write fanfiction.  

8. “Do you RP as any of your OCs? If you do, introduce one of your RP OCs here!”

Currently Arra, Sannit, and Veabris.  Though I think I’m game to RPing any of them,I already have a few more that I want to add to my RPing blog!  (btw, if you like the idea of RPing with me,all you have to do is ask.)

9. “Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else?”

No.  Not give, nevergive.  But that doesn’t mean they can’tappear in your writing/meta/art, just that it’s a crossover, you don’t own themjust like I don’t own yours when I allude to them in RPs.  (Did I ever post that here?)

10. “Introduce an OC with a complicated design?”

All the ones I don’t draw, lol

Okay, more seriously…no, that’s pretty much why.

11. “Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a ‘sunshine’?”

100% Arra

12. “Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot”

Can I say all of them? My favorites are the ones who are woven into the lore and pre-existingcharacters, and ones that feel like real people and not just “ArgonainDragonborn #76”.  I like the ones whotake it as seriously as me, and as I see people do, I feel more confident totalk about and expand them.

13. “Do you have any troublemaker OCs?”

Actually, not really.  Dreyns, Jaka and Stigr can all be at times, though.

14. “Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory”

I want to legit change that to one without tragedy in theirbackstory because they’re all tragic…

15. “Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?”

Sometimes!  But I trynot to go overboard because I’m not sure if people like it.  

16. “Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)?”

My Daedric biologist, I would imagine.

17. “Any OC OTPs?”

I’m not much of a shipper, honestly.  And I really can’t think of any at themoment.  

18. “Any OC crackships?”

Read 17.

19. “Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)”

I’ll pass on this one only because my answer would start gettingtoo personal for this ask.

20. “Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details(headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)?”

Veabris has a beautiful singing voice that would sound agood deal like Annie Lennox.  Actually,just listen to “Into the West” and you’re good to good.  But you’ll never hear it because Vea is superself-conscious and private about singing.

21. “Your most artistic OC?”

You know, I think I overlook making them artistic justbecause I am.  It would be too obvious.  But let’s say Stigr and La’Mihr are.

22. “Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how?”

In world or OOC? That’s a really important distinction! But Veabris’s intentions are usually misinterpreted.  

23. “Introduce an OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what thecharacter would be like?”

Most of them!  I workon them for a while until I feel they’re ready to be revealed.  24. “If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?”

Don’t do this to me!!!!  Ahhhh I don’t know I love them all! But Jaka would probably be the most fun to hang out with?  Then again, a day out with Sannit would begreat.

25. “The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, sharedlike/dislike for something etc?)”

Meri.

26. “Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about themagainst your will?”

Arra and yes, I’m still bitter about it.  I won’t get into it because I’d rather notmake posts like that, but if anyone would like to know feel free to message me.

27. “Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song?”

Nah, they come about and the songs fit them after.

28. “Your most dangerous OC?”

Okay!  So we haveMankar Camoran’s kid, Molag Bal’s Undying Champion, a lesser Daedric Prince anda double-memoried Godkiller.  Have funwith that battle royal!

29. “Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at nightwithout telling anyone they’re going?”

Tactus Gavros Sigilis, it’s his literal job.  Wait it’s Estor’s too.  …And kinda Veabris’s.  Well!

30. “Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animalcollection?”

It’s Dreyns.  It’s soDreyns.

31. “Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like(what they reblog, layout, anything really)”

Sannit treats it like a regular website blog and only postsstories from his life or answers to asks. No reblogs and he doesn’t follow anyone.

Meri posts advanced DYI stuff and martial technique.

32. “Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonistand why?”

I don’t play horror games but I’m thinking Estor in creepy,culty fan theory version of Rorikstead. (Should I write this?)

33. “Your shyest OC?”

She’s so shy she won’t let me talk about her.

34. “Do you have any twin characters?”

Not yet!

35. “Any sibling characters?”

Yes but I won’t say just now.  Spoilers!

36. “Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else(siblings, lovers, friends etc)?”

Not currently, but I’m not against doing it.

37. “Introduce an OC who is not quite human”

The Argonian, One-Who-Knows! He’s saving up money to buy a new fancy hat right now.  Rock on, scaly bro!

38. “Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer?”

I feel like it would be Vitia for some reason.

39. “Introduce any character you want!”

THESE QUESTIONS ARE TOO VAGUE AGHHHH!!

40. “Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!”

Writing “Arra’s Story” (An RP post).  The power and emotion of it and the approvingly,emotionally shocked reactions of my fellow players made me realize I couldactually write good.

41. “Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or twohere (remember sources & permissions!)”

Here and here  😊

42. “Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods?”

Daedric biologist person would be!

43. “Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend tofavour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess!”

We already found out I like investigators, is that my type?

44. “Something you like about your OCs in general”

I like how they all have gotten their own personality andidentity.  It’s taken a lot of work, but Idon’t feel like personalities repeat anymore.

45. “A character you no longer use?”

I have a few in limbo. I’m not sure if they’re coming back or they’re

46. “Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly?”

No.  Only because Ihaven’t told them about all the bad things I’ve done to them in the first place.

47. “Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child?”

Not yet, there’s still time.

48. “OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure?”

I think they call this a “hot take”, but in my opinion everyperson has flaws and depicting them otherwise is bad character writing.  Like sure, they can be nice and all, but theystill topple the board over when they’re losing Risk (or Axis & Allies).  Showing only one side of a character seriously,(not if it’s just for laughs) is boring to me. Where’s the growth?  They don’teven need to have “flaws” per se.  Whatif the “One True Hero to Save the World” is balled up on the floor crying tothemselves because they don’t think they’re strong enough?  Hot take over and it’s probably little kidDreyns.  (Which breaks hearts because hegrows up into something not pure.)

49. “Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes”

Arra would love meme songs like “SEAGULLS! (Stop ItNow)“He-man singing “What’s up?”, and “mmm whatcha say”.  And Jaka would love reaction gifs and objectlabeling memes.

50. “Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want”

I wanna talk about how long it took to fill this out and howmany characters I resurrected from the darkest depths of my mind to completeit.  You’re welcome.  ♥

[franeridart]

WHOA BLACK CLOVER HAS AN ANIME NOW I GOTTA GO WATCH IT

Well, only the first episode for now but yeah!!! I can’t wait for my favs to show up aaahhhhhh!!!!!! 

Anon said:Omg, Kirishima, please teach me how to put on eyeliner, your eyeliner game is on point! (Seriously, tho, I love how you draw their eyes and how you draw Kiri in general. He seems so soft. Damn, Bakugou, I'm jealous that you can cuddle him)

THANK YOU!!!! And Kiri has really really pretty lashes in the manga too, doesn’t he? Bakugou too! They have seriously pretty eyes I spend a lot of time trying to get that right when drawing haha still not as good at Horikoshi tho after all, but what can we do~

Anon said:Every time I get a notification you posted something I get extremely happy! That's what your drawings did to me. How can one be so talented.

SOB thank you so much!! You being happy makes me happy so it’s happiness all around!!! What a good!!!

Anon said:Heey!! So I've been wondering... if Aizawa used his quirk on Hagakure would she become visible?? (Btw love your art)

Oh my what a question, I was actually talking about this not too long ago with a friend! And the conclusion ended up being that if her invisibility is a permanent mutation he can’t, but if she can turn it off at will then probably he can too! Right now we still don’t know how exactly Tooru’s quirk tho, so we can’t be sure which is the truth! (I like to think she can turn visible if she wants, but that’s just an headcanon with very little basis haha)

Anon said:Your erasermic art has blessed me 4ever thank u

NAH thank you for liking it and letting me know, man!!!

Anon said:I DIDNT KNOW YOU SHIP ERASERMIC OH MY GOD but seriously you're one of my favourite artists and the fact you like pretty much all the same things as I do is so amazing to me and it makes me so happy because I know that you may draw more of it in the future and I'll get to see more beautiful art if that makes sense lmao thanks for creating stuff 👌👌

Hahahaha yeah it’s one of my top ships in the fandom! Also the only one I read fics for aside from krbk I love them A LOT (and it’s all thanks to my sister who directed my attention towards them a long time ago now, thank you sis) so yeah I’ll definitely draw more of them in the future!!!! And thank you so much for liking my stuff!!!!!

Anon said:Hi! I just want to say I love your headcanon of Aizawa becoming a mentor/role model to Bakugou! Thank you for introducing me to that idea!

YOU’RE MOST WELCOME I’m just a huge huge huge fan of the Aizawa&Bakugou interactions and how much Aizawa cares for him and how much Bakugou respects and trusts him in return, so!!! I’m mostly just pushing on that canon stuff hahaha

Anon said:HORY SHEET BOYO THAT ERASERMIC SHIT IS GOOD SHIT

THANK YOU FRIEND!!!

Anon said:i came to love erasermic thru kiribaku tbh. like i saw erasermic fic in the kiribaku tag on ao3 and i read it for the bg kiribaku (kirishima was such a good boi in that fic ngl) and i was like hey erasermic isnt bad. then i saw your art of them comparing them and i was like hey this is good shit 😁👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌 keep it up pal

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ll t r y !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :O

Anon said:Do you think Kyoka and Katsuki could get along? Over their like for punkrock maybe, and their gayness. Kinda like Todoroki and Momo's talks about their tiny crushes.

WHY YES ANON I think they could be the bestest of pals, I’ve actually drawn them together now and again cause I like the idea of them being friends so much - a list of some of the things Bakugou and Jirou do together:

make fun of Kaminari (Kaminari feels attacked and liked it better when Jirou was convinced she didn’t like Bakugou)

share music recs and go to concerts together (when it’s big ones they particularly care for they stand in line The Whole Day and at first it used to be sorta awkward but now being together makes the hours fly)

mutter sass and snark under their breaths to themselves in class and without meaning make the other snort or have to hide an actual laugh (they sit next to each other in class did you know that that’s my fav thing tbh)

say “god, I’m so fucking gay” and answer “mood” whenever Kirishima and Momo, like, exist or do anything equally outrageous

sit next to each other with their phones in hand in silence and at the same time look up with an intense/bored/obviously-judging-sero-come-on-look-at-them expression whenever anyone walks past them (they’re actually playing bullshit app games)

play bullshit app games in co-op or having each other as friends to earn more rewards cause they have a No-Judging policy going on between them that makes sharing this sort of otherwise embarrassing stuff with each other okay

Anon said:Hi!!! I love your art and I just wanted to ask....what band were you referring to when you said Mic named him after the band "eraserhead"? Could you possibly be talking about the filipino band "Eraserheads"?

Yeah!!!!! Tho I’m sorry to let you down anon, but I haven’t actually ever heard much from them (justttt one song two days ago cause I got curious) - I found out about them while looking up the movie!

Anon said:I love how you draw mic with his hair in a bun. It's super cute

THANK YOU!!!! But I can’t really take the merit for that, since that’s how he actually wears his hair (more or less) when he doesn’t gel it up for his hero costume!

Anon said:What is your favorite kiribaku au? :D

Oh boy, I sort of love everything and anything I’ve ever seen/read tbh, I’m a HUGE AU lover!! At the moment to anything with the fantasy AU (and dragon!Kiri is always a super welcome plus) is gonna make me go :O !!!!!!!! hahaha so maybe that, who knows! It’s for sure the one I think about the most!

Anon said:Hellooooo i love your art so much? Especially the bakushimas oh my god (also do you plan on drawing more soul eater *coughs*-deathstar-*coughs* in the future?) Have a good day!!

THANK YOU! And I dunno, maybe! If inspiration strikes, why not!

Anon said:hey guess what i just did... went through your ENTIRE art tag (all the way back to the knb and one piece), i found it really cool to see how your art has developed and see what your fav ship is at a certain time (and how you always come back to bokuroo)

Ah man thank you for spending all that time on my blog hahaha I wouldn’t say I always go back to bokuro though? It’s more like... whenever the manga brings the bokuros back I’m ready to start hyping all over them again hahaha my bokuro periods always happened while they were doing things in the manga, after all~

Anon said:u said u couldnt draw iida, lie of the century. i lvoe u

AHHHHH I’m glad you liked him!!!! I spent lotsa time on him in the past month or so trying to get a grasp on him, so I’m really seriously happy it seems to have paid off!! to quote Todoroki

Anon said:where’s ur faq i’m on mobile

SORRY maybe you already noticed but I added the link in the description! 

Anon said:have you ever thought about if eri-chan can... erase her own quirk?? and would how they might handle it

Actually that’s the first thing I thought when Mirio got his own erased... well, it still depends on what exactly Eri’s quirk does? We sorta assumed she had the same quirk as Chisaki, but they aren’t actually related so who knows? I sure hope she can fix the damage done on Mirio, tho!

Anon said:I ADORE YOUR ART SO MUCH OH GOD HAVE A NICE DAY FRAN

OH MY GOD THANK YOU I HOPE YOU HAVE A NICE DAY TOO!!!

Anon said:Usjeiwiwj oh man, i love cats, my cat relates to urs big time ajsjehej

Cats are such a mess and I love them with all of my heart to be honest hahaha

Anon said:Do u have any, idk idea about traitor!Kaminari? I just imagine how would others react? I think it's hella sad, and still Denki never wanted this, something just go wrong in his life and it's breakin my heart... ARGH, sorry for interrupt you with something like that...

It’s okay, don’t worry about that haha but I can’t say I find the theory possible in the least, so I haven’t really spent time thinking about it at all? I mean, I can imagine it would be full of angst and regrets and a lot of tears and anger mostly from his close friends, but since I just can’t believe this theory I can’t say I have anything specific I can give you on this orz sorry!

Anon said:Who's get jealous and possessive between bakugou and kirishima?

Actually I dunno man, are they possessive and jealous? I feel like they both would like it when the other told them stuff like “I’m yours” or “you’re mine”, but being there complete and utter trust between them they wouldn’t actually be jealous or act in a possessive way... does that make sense? At most I think they’d be insecure in the beginning of their relationship, but once they managed to make it clear that yes, you’re the one I want, no one else, just you then they would have little to no problems in that sense haha

Anon said:So many people seem to misunderstand bakugou and I just really like how you portray him. Good characterization and good art! 💖✨

SOB THANK YOU !!!!! this means the universe to me oh g o d s!!!!

Anon said:Wait!! This isn't your main blog? Omg how did I not know this. What is your main blog (if you're willing to let people from this blog follow it haha)?

AHHHH yeah I have a main one this one is just for my doods!!! the main is @franeridan, if you wanna follow it! I’m mostly just crying over bakugou and kirishima and complaining a whole damn lot about... everything, tho hahaha

Anon said:I'm not the anon but u know the concept that kiri n Baku would meet when they were younger and when Baku was more... violent? (i know that's not the right word, I'm not a native speaker sorry!) Like I think kiri could actually make Baku less of a bully? Considering how much positive impact he had on his personality AFTER it already developed (like idk if this ask makes sense? What do u think?) ◇ (btw putting smth like ◇ was a genious idea ty, idk if u remember that ask tho?)

Yeah yeah yeah yeah!!!!! Actually I’ve been thinking about this A LOT in the past couple of days and my conclusion ended up being that the key would be either for Kirishima to know Bakugou since they were really young OR for him to not attend Bakugou’s same middle school? Like, if they developed their personalities together, having someone like Kirishima around since they were kids could have made Bakugou develop differently, but if we go with the “they met in middle school” scenario then I think Kirishima would have had the same sort of...soothing? Effect on Bakugou only if Bakugou didn’t see him as a threat to his dream of being the only kid from that middle school to enter UA. Well, a scenario in which they had known each other since they were small young babies and Bakugou reached middle school going “the only one from this middle school to enter UA is gonna be me and Eijirou”, that would have been hella cute wouldn’t it hahaha growing up with a notion of us instead of just me would have changed Bakugou a lot, I’m pretty sure :D

[scrawnydutchman]

O.K.K.O: Let’s Be Heroes! Series Review

Now HERE’S a show I’ve wanted to get a chance to sit down and watch forever. O.K.K.O: Let’s Be Heroes! is the rare show that comes along every once in a while that immediately sparks my interest upon seeing some previews. The show is just everything I love as a person. It’s back to good ol’ hand drawn frame by frame, it’s got both fun physical AND well written humor, and it features some of my favorite people in the industry around like members of the animation team behind the also fantastic Steven Universe and the guys behind some of the most phenomenal animation on the web, Studio Yotta, which fans may know created most of the music videos for the band Starbomb.  As if the show was literally made for me it also premiered on my birthday no less. It’s centered around one of the coolest concepts ever . . . FIGHTING. Yeah, I know that recently we’ve been getting pretty tired of violence in the real world and for good reason. The controversial shit is really getting to a lot of people. But there’s two types of fighting: that which is propelled by maliciousness and hatred, and that which is for sportsmanship, adrenaline and honest to God fun. This show is the latter type of fighting through and through, and it is AWESOME. Naturally this show did not disappoint me. I binge watched a whole bunch of it to get caught up and had a big ass grin on my face the whole time.

PLOT SYNOPSIS:

 K.O is a spunky, ambitious and good hearted little kid (Think Steven Universe and Goku from DBZ mashed together, and a bit of Ryu from Street Fighter) who wants to become a hero like the people around who inspire him, such as the towering musclebound badass of a plaza boss Mr. Gar. To do this, he ends up getting employed at Lakewood Plaza Turbo and works alongside Radicles, the pompous macho alien man with the levitation beam who’s secretly hiding a sensitive side (think Lars from Steven Universe but more endearing and less of a pain in the ass), and Enid, the snarky, sarcastic ninja who gives no fucks. They go on some misadventures, learn some lessons about themselves, occasionally Lord Boxman and his goons cause some trouble but they’re never threatening, and once in a while we get some clues into Mr. Gar’s past and how it’s tied to K.O’s mom Carol.

STORYTELLING:

I’ve gone on record before in saying that the best show premises are the ones just broad enough to go in all sorts of different directions with creative storytelling, and this show is thankfully no different. It’s got a great memorable setting with an expansive likable cast, great recurring jokes and a refreshingly fun tone about it. You can definitely tell the Steven Universe team worked on it because that and O.K.K.O have very distinct similarities, especially early season one of SU. The main difference to me though is the level of drama and the quality of humour. It’s a relatively new show that promises to introduce some drama down the line so comparing that to SU doesn’t feel fair at this point in time, but I’m very confident in saying O.K.K.O is funnier. SU has decent jokes, don’t get me wrong, but something about O.K.K.O just got me to laugh more consistently at it’s ultra bizarre humor. My favorite jokes tend to be the ones about Enid hating having to deal with entitled customers, but my favorite joke in the whole show thus far involves a certain coffee pun making mughead named Joe Cuppa. It’s a reveal that is so surreal and so bewildering that I can’t spoil the surprise, but damn if it isn’t funny.

In terms of both storytelling and animation, despite being an action show first and foremost, O.K.K.O’s greatest attribute is it’s humor. The wild faces, the great comedic timing in the cuts, the bizarre movement of the characters at times, plus the combination of both surreal and poignant lines make for a consistently clever ride. There’s one particular episode that I think really captures the harsh reality of fandoms that’s relevant to an eerie extent, and it can all be summed up by this one line by Radicles.

“Who knew people could be so dumb about art they love so much?”

ANIMATION:

Now, being an animator myself, one of the biggest attractions to this show for me was the fact that it was a return to classic Hand Drawn 2D animation. In a time where the vast majority of television programming is either passable but uninteresting character rigging or bland, texture lacking 3d animation, a return to what is in my opinion the most organic, spontaneous and therefore the most consistently interesting animation style is always welcome. The show even references it’s animation style at 24 FPS in one of the lyrics sung by Rebecca Sugar in the credits, which I adore.

“Every second that you see is 24 connected pieces. Thank you for coming. Thank you for staying. Thank you for watching the show.” - Rebecca Sugar.

Really, that lyric should be a pretty good indication about the kind of passion put into this show. When this show gets going, it’s got some of the most consistently satisfying and creative animation I’ve seen in a long time. The characters feel unbound by typical design conventions which allows for more flexibility in their expressions and their poses, and it makes for both very effective comedy and some of the most dynamic and well choreographed action scenes you can find on TV right now. A large contribution to the studio being able to pull this off is the simplistic art style. Every character is often times sketched pretty roughly with some proportions being askew at times, hands turning into little spheres, backgrounds lacking big details and so on. But what the art lacks in consistency it more then makes up for in fluidity and spontaneity. I’m actually glad they don’t care as much about the little details because it gives them the freedom to put more time into creating the kind of epic grand scale fighting we like to see. It really does feel like they put a lot of heart and soul into how this show looks. The intro and outro alone are hype as hell to watch.

Now that said, the animation isn’t without it’s problems. Sometimes it’s really obvious where they put in minimal effort to save time, especially in large cheering crowd scenes, and I’ve noticed more then a few awkward cuts and transitions unfortunately when I could easily think of something that would have looked better and could be done in the same amount of time. But you can’t win everything I guess. All in all, I dig the way this show works and it has it’s priorities in check.

Acting

This show has a great cast that really fits each character. K.O. has a voice that’s kiddish and endearing, but it never gets annoying or grading, which is a flaw a lot of child characters have the unfortunate tendency of having. Chalk this up as another way in which K.O. is better then Steven Universe btw. Enid has a great voice for articulating a snarky give-no-fucks attitude but it’s also always great whenever she needs to be genuine. Radicles is the macho alien man so naturally he has a great voice that’s a combination of every surfer dude and college fratboy you ever heard of. He’s a pompous egotistical jerk certainly but he’s several times more endearing then characters of his archetype because he’s shown to not be completely heartless or needlessly cruel to people close to him. Mr. Gar is great and more often then not gets the funniest lines in the show. Carol is the sweetest most charismatic badass mom in all of cartoon history and I gush whenever she and K.O interact. All the supporting characters do great, there isn’t a single voice in the show I find unbearable. Also this show consistently gets awesome celebrity voices like Keith David, and, more notably, the dude who says “INCONCEIVABLE!” in The Princess Bride.

Sound Design

Not a whole lot to say here other then it’s definitely serviceable. They sneak in some appropriate cartoon sound effects in there. The sound effects for the fight scenes like the crashing and exploding are pretty good. The intro song is fucking amazing. Like literally, I can watch the intro to this show over and over and be consistently entertained, it’s great. That’s the true sign of a promising show; when you can always sit through the intro and not get tired of it.

Art Design

I’ve already touched upon this point in the animation section, but as I mentioned before the art style is very minimal at times. But that’s totally fine. It acts in the shows favor more often then not because it gives the animators freedom to put their best work in the places that matter. Plus the character designs are great and memorable, they cover the bases for character design 101. You can tell who each character is in silhouette. Their inspirations are pretty plain to see like K.O. is so obviously modeled after headband clad fighting dudes like Street Fighter or Double Dragon. Enid is so obviously a Naruto inspired character. Radicles is probably some alien marvel character, idk. Point being, everyone is distinct and they communicate their personalities through how they look. You know everything you need to know about K.O. through a single picture of him.

*fun fact: K.O’s character design was the inspiration for the design of Ruby in Steven Universe.

Conclusion:

O.K.K.O: Let’s Be Heroes is everything I hoped it would be. It’s got a lot of heart, great surreal humor, intense and well choreographed action, great memorable characters and overall just leaves me with a simultaneously light/pumped up heart and a smile. The only thing I can really think of that’s wrong with it is it’s weird editing choices and select moments where cutting corners in animation was obvious, but that’s pretty small fry issues. I can’t wait to watch more.

STORYTELLING: 2/2

ANIMATION: 1.5/2

ACTING: 2/2

SOUND DESIGN: 1.5/2

ART DESIGN: 1.5/2

OVERALL RATING: 8.5/10

[cyjprojectarchive]

blurry | bambam

prompt: inspired by bammie’s instagram selfie hot dayum could i not contain myself, so i made an imagine abt it B) here it is if ya wanna get attacked by our bamchinja. c;  group: GOT7 pairing: bambam, you genre: fluff words: 3185 note:  sorry theres so many spelling errors its currently 3:18 am and im tired as heq ill edit this tomorrow thanku ㅠㅠ

“Dude, you got this.”

“Yeah, well, what if I don’t? Our asses are on the line here,” Bambam’s worried tone reverberates from your phone’s speakers. You have it on loudspeaker mode because you were in the mood for some mint chocolate ice cream. You just got home from classes today and boy was it scorching hot outside. 

“Yes, you do. And no, they’re not. You’ve been practicing nonstop for this comeback, Bam, I think you have it all down by now,” you repeat a little louder than usual as you open the freezer and take out the pint of sweet and cooling treat. 

Setting it down on the kitchen counter, you cap the lid off and start digging in with your spoon. “And why are you so nervous? You’ve never asked me advice on how to handle stage fright ever since we knew each other,” you comment through the melting of your favorite dessert inside your mouth.

“Are you eating ice cream from the pint again?” He suddenly asks, a tone of amusement lingering in his voice. You automatically hug the thing of ice cream closer to your stomach, eyes peering at the phone resting near you. “How’d you know?”

“Just a hunch.” You can just hear him shrugging smugly.

“You wish you were here,” you retaliate, scoffing as you take another scoop. You make sure he captures the sound of you scraping the soft and gooey substance of sweetness. You know you should be encouraging him right now, but teasing the boy you’ve known for quite a while now is always a treat in its own way. 

“I do. I do wish I were there,” he agrees somewhat seriously. You���re unsure whether he was talking about having ice cream or something else, but you brush it off, not wanting to think about such complications right now. 

You put the spoon down and attempt to bring the previous conversation back. “Really, though, Bam. You’re going to do amazing, as always. Don’t worry too much about it, alright?” You tell him earnestly. If Bambam had never asked for any reassurances with you before, maybe this time he really needed it. 

A slight pause occupies the air until you hear him exhale shortly on the other end of the phone call. “You’re right, you’re right. That makes me feel so much better. Thanks, fam,” he answers with a hopeful tone. 

Shaking your head, you protest, “No problem. And don’t ever call me ‘fam’ again, fam.”

“Would you like to be called something else then, hmm?” There he goes, back to his usual zany self which you can’t help but blush about…

Did Bambam just make you blush? 

“I would like you to call me when I’m not busy enjoying my ice cream,” you tell him, going back to eating your lunch for the day. 

“You didn’t even start eating ice cream when I called you in the first place!” Bambam interjects and you soon chuckle at his predicament. You hear a few conversations bubbling up in the background, even recognizing Yugyeom’s whining to one of the hyungs, maybe Jinyoung, you’re not quite sure.

You move your position to the couch, setting down your phone on the coffee table. You hear a distinct voice referring to Bambam and he responds, but you’re too focused on your ice cream to eavesdrop. 

“I have to go in a few. What’re you going to do afterwards?” He finally addresses you. You ponder his question until you realize you’ve forgotten something really important. 

“Shoot! I have a major presentation for my History class tomorrow!” Spoon hanging in midair, you slowly place the ice cream pint next to your phone, feeling guilty of even opening it up. 

“And you haven’t started on it yet,” Bambam muses. You groan in agreement and slap your forehead lightly. “No, because I thought it was happening next week.”

“Too distracted with me, huh. I have that effect,” the boy on the other end suggests, a smirk almost evident in his voice. You laugh mockingly, but the anxiety in you keeps rising. “Guess I have something to keep me distracted while you’re performing,” you conclude, probably feeding his ego even more. 

“That’s good, then, at least it’s not another guy,” he jokes and you roll your eyes. “Whatever, snake,” you shoot back. 

“Anyway, I got to go, we’re shooting in a few,” he tells you, almost begrudgingly. “Hey, I really appreciate you answering the call.”

You smile at his genuine reply. You rarely see this side of Bambam whenever you guys are together, or even just talking on the phone. You feel a sense of warmth in your heart, and you honestly don’t know what to make out of it. But you don’t let it get to you- not yet.

“Of course. You know I’m here,” you mutter softly. 

“And me too,” he chimes. Another voice, presumably Jaebum, informs him about getting ready, so you anticipate Bambam’s good bye. “Now I really need to go. I’ll message as soon as possible.”

“For sure, Bam. Good luck! You never fail to do your best,” you add, making sure he’s still reassured. Bambam thanks you again, and the call ends.

Now, onto cramming that damned History presentation.

Adding a few finishing touches here and there, you finally have a decent 10-slide presentation for your class tomorrow morning. Stretching your arms upward, you let out a relieved sigh, yawning in the process. Making sure that the file has been saved to your laptop, Google Drive, and USB, you turn your laptop off and trudge your way into the comfort of your bed. 

The digital clock on your nightstand reads 11:24 pm and you feel quite proud for completing a procrastinated project before the day ends, roughly speaking. You ease your way into the duvet, grabbing your phone to the side for a late night session on a few of your social media accounts. 

You go to your Messages and remember Bambam’s call from earlier. You wonder whether the performance was a success- it probably was, and Bambam just had cold feet, but you already texted him two hours ago complaining about History being your worst subject ever and how lucky you are it’s your first class of the day. You type a new text, informing him of your success nonetheless and hoping he had a fun time today as well. 

Before you can hit the send button, a chat bubble appears on Bambam’s end first. Your eyes widen at the screen and your lips part in surprise. 

“What the…” You utter under your breath, hands suddenly sweating at the sight of your phone, Bambam’s selfie showing on the bright screen. You squint your eyes to confirm what you’re seeing is right. 

You hit backspace on your keyboard and type a new message with quick and shaking thumbs. 

Wrong number, headass. 

He reads it immediately and your heart skips a beat. Your eyes cannot seem to focus on anything else other than the blurry selfie of a jet black haired K-pop idol. You find yourself mesmerized at his cerulean contacts and drawn to the straight and full pink lips. Breath hitching, you mentally urge yourself to stop giving in to your thoughts. 

Undeniably, Bambam broke every puberty challenge out there, and not a day goes by without you reminding him that- much to his satisfaction. But you complimenting him was always out of good faith as good friends, nothing more and nothing less. 

However, recently, things have been a bit blurry between the two of you. It doesn’t help that his constant teasing makes you more conscious of the type of relationship you guys are slowly developing. 

And this selfie isn’t helping.

lmao what do you mean that is supposed to be sent to my best friend

You share a room with Yugyeom. Just show it to him in person lmao

not himmm, my OTHER best friend. u. anyway, like what u see? ;)

WTF are you talking about, you never send me selfies before??? 

aww is it that bad, b? :,( it’s just a lil smth to motivate u with ur presentation. hows that going for u, btw?

Again, with the weird ass nicknames, Bam lmao? And you’re just a few minutes too late bec I’ve finished, but thanks for trying.

Also, no, it actually looks really good. :)

pshhh u like itttt bb ;) oh, hey thats great. u should go 2 sleep by now.

and really? don’t play me, bb :,(

It does! Your face is blurred, so it’s perfect.

wow bye

You chuckle to yourself at the playful conversation. Typical Bambam, but you still can’t help but be confused at any underlying message of all this. Or maybe there’s not any and your mind is just running irrationally due from the emerging crash of the caffeine. Maybe that’s it.

You think of sending him a meme- of himself, might you add- until he follows a new text. 

blurred like our relationship, right

Dropping your phone to the side, you bring a pillow pushed to your face and scream into its plush surface. You feel the heat coming off of your cheeks, chest heaving in and out as well. What was that all about? Has Bambam been aware of the unusual tension you, yourself, have been feeling towards him the past couple of weeks? Why is he speaking up about it now?

that was stepping out of the line of being corny. i’m sorry lol

You notice that he was trying to play it off cool, but now that you’ve gotten a signal from him acknowledging the uncanny stage of your relationship right now, you wanted to go all out. With Bambam, you need to know whether he’s serious about this or not. 

You retreat the pilow away from your face, flustered at the suddent flight response you just pulled off. You certainly cannot be this embarrassing once you confront him, that’s for sure. But realizing you might have been absent for a while, you gingerly take a hold of your phone and type a new message with a plan. 

When are you free, Bam? 

You need to discuss this to him in person. You need to see it in Bambam’s eyes. You see the typing animation show on and off as he’s probably contemplating on what to say to you too.

i’m free for a few hours after our morning radio interview

Perfect. I’ll meet you at the cafe near my university at 12. Sounds good?

yeah yeah ofc 

Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow, Bam.

you too. uhhh good night?

Good night to you too, Bambam. :)

“Headass, over here!”

A guy in stylish clothing, together with a black cap, black sunglasses, and black mask whips his head towards your direction. His tall stance and sense of fashion already singled him out from the lazily dressed college students surrounding the cafe right now, including yourself.

You end up sleeping three hours later after your conversation with Bambam, different scenarios of your meet up today forming in your head, some with good outcomes and others unspeakable. You couldn’t believe that you were able to set up a “date” with him with the intention of confessing the uncertainty you have in regards to affectionate feelings towards him. 

He walks over to the corner of the quaint little shop, a cold drink already in place before his seat. You don’t see his expression quite well, seeing that his whole face is covered with different kinds of masks, but you hear him chuckle as he relaxes in front of you, inspecting the drink shortly. 

“You know me too well,” he finally says, lowering the mask to his chin so he can take a sip of his favorite drink. You grin at your accomplishment, chugging the iced coffee you bought for yourself as to keep your nerves from taking over you- which was ironic since you’re gulping down more of what keeps you shaking right now.

“How was the interview?” You ask nonchalantly, watching his every move. Bambam glances up at you and nods his head, “It went really well. More enjoyable than your presentation, that I could say.”

Glaring daggers at him you counter, “Shut up.” He cackles at your response, and then the two of you instinctively easing into your normal conversations of mundane stories and brutal banters, almost forgetting about the original reason of you meeting him here.

But you didn’t mind, not one bit. You missed his physical presence. Just seeing a hint of his crinkling eyes from the shade of his visor is enough for you to feel comfortable around Bambam. He genuinely is the best person you know. You both never have to think twice about saying something potentially wrong, because the other would just use it at their advantage but at the same time turn it into an inside joke between the two of you. 

There was something that he declared which made you stomp your hand down the table in rejection. He chortles at your dramatic expression and casually lays his hand on top of yours. Your face quickly realizes this as you retrieve your hand back to your sides, squeezing it tight to stop it from trembling at the sudden contact. 

Bambam notices your discomfort and coughs awkwardly. “Sorry, sorry. I ruined it, didn’t I?” He admits, looking down in frustration.

“No, no, Bam it’s not that,” your attempt in fixing the matter at hand was futile, and you wish you have more time to stall, more time to just have mindless fun with the best guy friend you’ve ever had in a while. 

But seeing that your stomach churned and jumped in itself after a simple touch of your hand, you had to tell him how he’s made you feel. Or else you’re going to go nuts.

“What are we, Bambam?” You blurt out, eyes fixating on the empty cup of beverage sitting idly on the table. “And don’t make it out as a meme, ‘kay? I’m asking it seriously,” you follow up with a scrunched face, making sure that Bambam knows you’re done with fooling around. 

You peek at his face and he seems to be smiling shyly, hand that was once touching yours now scratching the back of his head. You find yourself wishing you never took it back. 

Shaking your head, you whine at your inner frustration. “I… I think I like you, Bam. And I don’t know why I’m saying this now but recently, you’ve been saying weird stuff to me that gets me all flustered and red and you can’t see that because we haven’t seen each other in a while, but when we do I try to suppress it just because I don’t you to think I’m weird or something like that but our conversation last night messed me up big time, and now I don’t know if suppressing it is going to help anymore and I just -”

You stop yourself from losing air in your system as you inhale and exhale. Your hands have been clutching themselves tightly on your lap and you let go to feel the blood pumping again. You’re afraid to look up and see a confused Bambam staring at you, but before you can contemplate any further, you hear a soft laughter resonating from him. And it wasn’t that of mockery, so you slowly turn your head to reveal a blushing adolescent boy before you, hands covering his eyes under a pair of expensive sunglasses.

 “Aw man, you beat me to it. Why do you always do that to me?” He complains cutely. You titl your head in confusion. 

“I was supposed to confess first. Do you know how ashamed I feel right now?” He takes his hands off his eyes as well as his sunglasses and you finally see his eyes. Glistening in hope and anxiety all at the same time, but the beauty in them never left. You are taken aback, but you try and keep it together as he gulps down and stares right back at you. 

“You always beat me to things, but that doesn’t mean I won’t confess anymore. Yes, I’ve been trying to get your attention more frequently because I’ve… developed feelings for you, and I didn’t know how to handle them other than be more annoying than usual.” His assessment of the situation makes you giggle, and it prompted him to keep going. 

“I was really happy I got to talk to you when I was feeling hella nervous yesterday. It made me confirm my feelings for you and that you make me comfortable in whatever situation we’re in. The selfie I sent you last night was just me trying to see if you kind of feel the same way, and I honestly didn’t know what to expect from there.” He brings his hands on the table and plays with them mindlessly, biting his lip as he looks down. 

“I’m sorry if I’ve made you feel frustrated by the way I’ve acted, I’m just a dumb adolescent boy who doesn’t know how to handle his feelings well. But I was honestly really glad we got to hang out today, you know I missed you a lot. So, I’m sorry if this ruins everything…” he trails off, seeming to want to say more but his tongue prevents him from doing so.

You keep your eyes on him, not exactly knowing how to respond correctly. He gives you a full minute to contemplate on your own before he looks back up at you, pausing with his hands and smiling sheepishly. “Any response from you would be great right now.”

“Shoot, I’m sorry,” you say, lips in a tight line. You think for another few seconds before finally making up your mind. “C’mon, let’s take a selfie.”

“W-what?”

“C’mon, Bam. You have a better camera than mine, so go get your phone!” Your tone was firm but encouraging at the same time. He hesitates for a second but complies nonetheless. You scoot next to him, your arm slightly touching with his. You falter a bit, but you feel Bambam relax with your touch and you smile as you move in a tiny bit closer.

He positions the phone at the perfect angle and you see him trying out a few different expression before his thumb presses over the button. Your smile grows wider at the sight of him assessing himself, but you quickly peck the soft surface of his cheek and beat him to taking the selfie. 

Without waiting for his response, you snatch the phone away and inspect the picture. Content with the image, you show him the screen. 

He looks at with his eyebrows furrowed, but immediately understands and reveals a goofy grin. You nudge his elbow playfully before resting your head on your shoulder, already feeling at ease with your position.

“Not so blurry now, huh?” You ask him. He pats your head in response and squeezes your shoulder reassuringly, the touch of him making you want more.

 But for now, this is enough.

[mad4turtles]

Here’s a bit of what I’ve got so far with my One Piece Titanic!AU, hope you like it :)

“Helloooo? Earth to Portgas? Anyone home?”

Blinking rapidly, Ace finally took notice of the finger repeatedly poking his temple, the offending appendage belonging to Thatch. With a growl he slapped the hand away, earning a pained whine from Thatch who retracted his hand and nursed it protectively against his chest. He pouted at Ace. “Why such violence? And what were you looking at anyways?” he asked.

Pink tinting his cheeks at the realization he’d been caught sitting staring at a complete stranger, Ace ducked his head and muttered curses under his breath. “N-Nothin’,” he lied weakly.

Luffy, on the other hand, looked up to see what had captured his older brothers’ attention. He found it pretty quick, and his whole face lit up. “Hey, it’s that guy from the docks!” he said, freaking pointing at the guy and effectively making Ace want to shoot himself in the foot. “He was waving with us when we left Southampton!”

Marco, Thatch and Izo all followed Luffy’s finger, spotting the blond young man instantly – to be honest he was hard to miss, with his hair such a bright shade, golden like the sun, and a smile so peaceful and genuine. Still, Ace wanted to be buried immediately when they all turned back to him and grinned. Oh, he was going to murder his little brother, jail time be damned.

“Oh my, has someone caught your fancy, Ace?” Izo asked, and this time he was teasing.

“S-Shut up!” Ace stammered, unable to hide the blush. “No, I’m not smitten or whatever, I don’t even know the guy –“

“Ever heard of ‘love at first sight’?” Thatch sang. Ace hissed at him.

Chuckling at their antics, Marco decided to step in and put a reassuring hand on the flustered freckled man’s shoulder. “We’re just kidding, Ace, don’t worry,” he said. “Still, why the staring? Got inspiration for a new drawing or something?”

Glad that uncomfortable conversation had drawn to an end, Ace allowed his eyes to drift back to the blond kid, who remained where he was, staring out into the distance as though lost in a wonderful dream. “…or something,” he said softly. “I guess…he reminds me of when Luffy and I would sit on the roof of the tallest house in our neighbourhood and watch the waves when we were kids, dreaming of the day we’d set sail on them ourselves. There’s that look in his eye…like longing…I dunno…”

The others had gone silent, watching Ace with curious, interested and understanding looks. Luffy on the other hand was grinning again, excited as he jammed his straw hat back on his head, and despite having been lost in his own musings, Ace knew when Luffy had that look, bad things were going to happen.

And sure enough –

“Let’s go say ‘hi’!”

“Hell no!” Ace growled, popping Luffy on the head with a firm fist, ignoring the way Luffy stuck his tongue out at him in protest as the older raven folded his arms over his chest. “You know we can’t just go up to nobles like that, Luffy. They’d probably arrest us just for smelling bad.”

Thatch scoffed. “Too true,” he muttered with a disgusted shake of his head. “Besides, you’d sooner have angles fly outta your ass than get next to the likes of him. Say what you will about that ‘longing’ stuff, but from my experience all nobles are the same; he’s probably just as much of a pompous prick as the rest of –“

“Hey up there! Helloooo, hiya!”

The four men froze, blood draining from their faces.

Oh god Luffy no.

The little idiot, having ignored their spiel about nobles, had stood up and was freaking waving like a dumbass at the blond guy, attracting all sorts of attention from those wandering the deck. Some snickered, some were confused as hell, and some, like Ace, were wondering what in the hell the little bugger was thinking?! Ace gulped, knowing nothing he did would shut Luffy up unless he knocked him out, and despite his irritation he really didn’t want to.

‘Well hopefully the noble guys’ too deep in his thoughts to notice –‘

The blond guy blinked rapidly, as though snapped out of a trance, and looked around at Luffy’s call. Soon enough, he looked down, and blue eyes made contact with the beaming ball of idiot sunshine Ace called his baby brother. And Ace, having lost the will to live, could only drop his shoulders and sigh.

Oh bugger me.

Now that he’d caught the noble’s attention, Luffy waved harder, smiling wider. “Hey there!” he called again. The blond stared a moment longer, then looked around to see if there was anyone else Luffy could have possibly been referring to. Finding no one, he turned back down to Luffy and hesitantly pointed to himself, mouthing ‘Me?’ as if making sure. Luffy nodded rapidly. “Yeah, you! I’m Luffy! Nice to meet’cha!”

Unable to tear his eyes away from the teen, Thatch leaned closer to Ace and whispered, “Is he always this crazy?”

His face as flat as a board, Ace only nodded. “Eyup.”

Thatch swallowed. “Good to know. I bet the noble kid is gonna call the authorities or some shi – huh?”

The noble hadn’t called the authorities, nor had he turned away in disgust or even opted to completely ignore Luffy. Instead, after staring in what appeared to be utter surprise at the excited kid a few feet below him, he stood up straight, looked directly at them, and with a smile that was warm and almost shone, he waved back.

Jaws dropped, eyes popping out of sockets. What. What. What?

Luffy had gotten a noble to notice them, smile at them, and wave at them. Like, they were his equals or something. And now the guy was smirking behind his hand at the looks on their faces, without a hint of malice or arrogance.

What the hell?

 (That’s all for now, thanks for reading :) Oh btw, the relationship between asl is platonic, Izo and Thatch really were just teasing.)

[0poole]

Man, Netflix is a godly invention

Seriously. Once my generation takes over, the only TVs will exist in restaurants. Once subscription on-demand services take over (assuming they haven’t already) then cable TV will be done for. Literally the only benefit of cable is that, if you’re punctual enough, and have enough free time, you can “technically” watch whatever you want. On the other hand, you could pay less to access a slightly more limited (when it comes to new stuff) catalogue of shows to watch whenever or wherever you want. Obviously, though, you can’t always find the old stuff you’ve never seen before on cable. That’s what this stuff is good for. 

I’ve watched so many great movies that I’ve definitely heard of time and time again, but either never watched, or watched so long ago that I don’t actually remember any of it. Basically, since I have nothing else to do, I’m just gonna talk about the old stuff I’ve watched so far.

Lilo & Stitch: Just finished this one, and it’s the one that made me want to talk about this. OH MY GOD Lilo deserves so many hugs. It was almost bizarre, like this character that, to me, has only existed in merchandise is now... actually... moving? How peculiar, it had feelings all along! 

Seriously, though. I thought I saw this movie once, but it really didn’t feel like I did. I definitely had McDonalds toys of discount Wazowski once, but I don’t really remember anything from the movie. It was surprisingly real. I can definitely see how people can appreciate Nani for being the most real and respectable character in all of animation (and also for being sexy despite not having a beautiful™ face). 

Also, aliens. When are aliens ever bad? I say, only when they’re mindless, killing lizards (excluding el Xenomorph, I can still like him (still need to see his movie tho)). But, I can always love the classic, bulbous alien designs ala. retro sci-fi. My god, they animated discount Wazowski so well... He looked so boneless and floppy. Not to mention Jumbo being so soft and squishy looking. Stitch himself is such an icon that it’s hard to see him as anything other than Stitch, if you know what I mean. 

Anyways, the only Lilo and Stitch derivative I remember was what I remember as a sort of monster-of-the-week series where they had to go around capturing and cataloging the other experiments. It definitely seems like a fitting idea, but of course I really don’t remember any of it. I do remember the yellow stitch-like guy who had a very normal-guy voice and had a thing for sandwiches, though. He was like the comical sidekick to the main baddy.

Bolt: The movie I definitely remember the most of, but wanted to watch again anyways, because I definitely remember liking it. Most of my movie re-watchings are just to solidify my memories of these movies in my current mind, because my past self seriously had a habit of living in the moment so much that I just didn’t bother to remember what I just experienced. 

Anyways, I’m just gonna be honest... I’m not a dog person... but when a dog makes a cute girl happy, I’m happy. Also, I have a habit of never crying at the sad parts, and always at the happy resolutions to the sad parts. Oh my god, I remembered the ending, but I still cried my eyes out. The superbark may not actually be super, but it’s super to him, dammit! Seriously, though. Emotions are always at stake when kids movies get real. That was a real fire, and a real risk of death, and he saved the girl. 

Also, why are so many cute girls named Penny? In animations, that is. Not that... no, not happening. 

I honestly can’t remember any other cute Penny’s (apart from my own Penny) but for some reason that name is eternally one of the cutest girl names out there.

Looking it up though, I can see why. There’s the main girl from the Proud Family (never watched it), the girl sidekick from the Inspector Gadget cartoon (never watched it), and the girl from the Peabody and Sherman movie (watched it and enjoyed it. She was almost a human sacrifice tho). All cute girls.

Atlantis: One of those too-good-for-its-own-good movies. It was seriously cool, but got a criminally low amount of attention. 

Really, the movie stands on visuals alone. The scene with Kida walking across the water to the giant floating carvings of past kings... That was some seriously amazing animation. Then, when she was walking back to shore with an invisible forcefield around her, which you could only see because of the water splashing off of it... That was amazing. 

I’m 0 for 2 in mentioning cute girls so far, so let’s keep going. Kida’s a big one I’ve seen around in, well, art... Meanwhile, Audrey was right there! How come I haven’t seen this chick anywhere? Did Kida steal her spotlight? I’ll tell ya, ancient technology as a whole is totally my style, but Kida herself isn’t pushing any buttons. But, a sun-kissed girl with bushy hair in overalls is my weakness.

Road to El Dorado: Okay, I actually can’t avoid talking about cute girls in this one. Chel is actually criminally sexy. This level of sexiness should be illegal. I’ve already drawn her. I can’t get enough.

You know, sometimes, when I draw or mention cute/sexy girls, I always have a thought in the back of my head: God, some people are gonna think I’m a creep because of this...

No fuckin shame here dog. She LITERALLY FUCKS ONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS TO GET HER WAY. Sexy is one of her character traits, and the designers, animators, writers... they know it. How is this a kid’s movie? 

Anyways, the movie... I’ll be honest, I only remembered to watch this one because of the “Both? Both? Both is good.” meme. Being a part of the “artists who draw cute girls” circle, I can’t avoid that meme. Whenever someone says “Boobs or butts?” I see it. Whenever I see “Which of these cute girls should I draw?” I see it. Seriously, that gif has probably been posted more times than the number of people who actually went to see this movie. Then, there’s the gif of Chel bumping her armadillo pal with her hips... Like, come on. She’s hardly even wearing pants. You can’t do this to me.

I did actually enjoy the movie though. I definitely think the concept of “normal people visit ancient society and are believed to be Gods” has a lot of potential in it, and I love the idea that the king of El Dorado doesn’t actually think they’re Gods, and is just playing along pretty much... That’s really fun. I definitely prefer it to the wholly ignorant, possibly also stupid primitives that are 100% sure that the person is their God. It makes a nice dynamic. 

The Emperor's New Groove: Come on, what else is there to say? It’s the the-teacher-is-letting-us-watch-a-movie-on-the-last-day-of-school classic. It’s hilarious. It’s fun. It’s got the heckin PACHA MEME BROOOS AMIRITE FELLOW INTERNETERS?

I love the nonsense humor in the movie. I LOVE it. I love it when movies don’t take themselves seriously. It’s the time of the Aztecs, and yet they (didn’t) order a giant trampoline. Rollercoasters. Boy scouts. For some movies, it’s lame, but this one was probably the originator of the idea. Oh my god, the cut outs to Kuzco’s narration? I love it. I love it all.

Cute girls? Uhhh... I mean, Pacha’s daughter was pretty cute, but not the soul-wrenching kinda cute. What about ol’ Vexus? God, I rarely look up voice actors, but Eartha Kitt kills it both as Yzma and as Vexus. It’s the absolute perfect evil voice. It matches the stereotypical “evil” people know, but toys with it the perfect amount to make it super fun. Also, whenever I can relate something back to MLaaTR I’m happy. Cute girls, and all...

Song of the Sea: cute cute cute cute Cute CUTE CUTE. 

This is why I watch all movies with subtitles whenever I can. What’s the name of that adorable little girl? Surf-shuh? Shur-suh? It’s Saoirse. I’m honestly surprised I remembered how to spell it. 

Remember when I said I cry at happy resolutions? Well, I ALSO cry at scenes that are so impossibly pure, wholesome, and/or cute that it just pours out of my eyes. An example being Colette’s song in the Les Miserables movie. Gets me every time... Anyways, watch the movie, but also spoilers-that-aren’t-spoilers-because-it-was-obviously-going-to-happen: She gets her voice back, and hoooo boy... I nearly died from dehydration. Not much more can be said without actual spoilers...

Aside from the overflowing levels of cuteness in this movie (there are seals btw), I’d die for the mythical elements in this movie. It scratched every itch that The Book of Kells missed. Watched that one on Netflix too, but the ending was so... Bible-ish that I had a hard time feeling satisfied. Obviously it’s for a good reason, since, you know... It’s about the Book of Kells... But for a movie it wasn’t satisfying.

The animation couldn’t possibly fit the subject matter more, though. It has such a stylized stain-glass painting vibe to it. Isn’t there also another one by these guys coming out soon about a wolf girl? I’ll watch the hell out of that one when it comes out. It’s like Laika, but 2D. You watch it just for the animation, if not for anything else.

Monsters vs Aliens: Again, we’ve got aliens. Also, the birth of the giantess fetish, probably. Seriously, though... how did that dress hold up in that first scene? I’m just sayin

If I’m into retro-sci-fi aliens, then I have to also be in classic retro horror trope references. I should really watch the actual The Fly some time. It’s a creepy idea that I really want to indulge in.

I mean, that’s it for that movie. But, the original BLOB? Holy shit, I wanted to watch that movie just to make fun of it, and turns out the theme song did that for me. Hey, this giant alien monster is swallowing up Earth, what kind of a theme should we give it? Jazz with a touch of Surfer? Sure, why not. I love it. I’m a sucker for slimes, and I swear, if I ever manage to write a story about one of my slime characters, I will make a blood pact to reference that song in the story at some point. It’s so good.

Mune, Guardian of the Moon: I don’t usually rewatch movies, but I’m feeling like watching this one again.

Also, I spilled out my guts on this one a long time ago when I first watched it, and I loved it so much I posted it to Tumblr AND Facebook. Since my Tumblr got deleted, I’ll just link to the Facebook post, so I can give it the full respect it deserves: https://www.facebook.com/0poole/posts/967898463366639

Don’t even think about friending me there, though. Facebook is reserved for family matters only. No pesky tumblrs allowed!

There are also a good few I still need to watch. I’d put them in a different post, but since this blog is really just for me to rant, I’ll just keep going:

Shrek: I mean, I know how it starts for sure. Kinda... hard to forget, ya know? Yeah, “forget.” That’s the word. I really just need a refresher on this one. 

Astro Boy: Hey, what? There’s an Astro Boy movie? Well, if I’m ever going to understand this franchise, It’ll definitely have to be in movie form. I like MLaaTR and to a lesser extent Robotboy, so why not?

The Prince of Egypt: Remember when I knocked Bible-ish movies? Well, apparently it’s not a problem for this one. It’s clearly has great animation, so why not? 

Escape from Planet Earth: I forgot this existed. Everyone did. I saw a trailer for it ages ago, and that’s only how I know it. It’s got aliens, so why not? I remember seeing that Planet 51 was on Netflix too. It’s exactly the same movie but on the other side. I also remember there being an overt penis joke in that one, so...

The Guardian Brothers: What even is this? I don’t know. It’s animation, and not one of those cheap kids shows, so let’s do it.

April and the Extraordinary World: Also don’t really know what this is. It’s 2D animation, and therefore instantly puts it a step above 3D movies in instant interest.

Phantom Boy: I watched A Cat in Paris, and at least didn’t hate the artstyle. It’s a strange look, but unique, so I want to see more.

Look Who’s Back: A story about Hitler being revived in modern times. What could go wrong? Apparently something intriguing enough for people to review this movie well. Or, at least, well enough...

Gnome Alone: Technically these movies aren’t supposed to be Netflix Originals, but, you know... I see cute girl, I click. Looks kinda lame tho

Leap!: I heard that this is a movie with a generic plot, so I kinda left it out of sight. But, might I remind you... I see cute girl, I click. This’ll be my last resort if I’ve exhausted all other cute girl supplies. She is seriously adorable, though.

The Emoji Movie: haha jk we have fun here

There are way too many movies on Netlfix, so there’s obviously more than that. And, that’s not even counting the series... Might separate that into a different post tho

Also, Neflix, my boy... Can we talk about these synopsises of all these great movies? They make each and every one sound like the most generic, pandering bullshit you can think of. Also, I hate how the thumbnails change for some of the movies/shows. To an outsider, it makes it impossible to discern who’s the main character and who’s the bad guy if you don’t already know the content. People make title cards for a reason, you know!