#i... i'm not even sure it's coherent. but. thoughts. yknow.

[bomber-grl]

I always had this idea in mind, hiro hamada x reader who gets extreme haircuts? (sorry if something is not coherent, I'm using Google Translate)

Hiro x Reader w Extreme/unique haircuts!

Pairing(s): Hiro Hamada x Gn!Reader

Ramona flowers core (Not actually just what I thought of when writing this)

Your hair is the first thing he takes note of when he first meets you

Then again, when the next week he sees you, you have an entirely different look

He thinks it’s sorta odd but doesn’t really think anything else of it

But when he does mention it to someone (prolly to someone in the group since that’s how you guys met)

They’re confused cuz it’s the norm for you

Ngl I feel like he’d be sorta embarrassed (for the lack of a better word) about it

Not rlly but yknow just sorta awkward about how your hair draws attention to you guys wherever you go

But eventually he realizes he shouldn’t feel this way since it’s all chill

As your relationship progresses he doesn’t really mention it but he does say when he likes the hairdo

Whether or not it’s known to him, he’s actually the inspiration for a lot of new looks of yours

He says his fav color is blue? Then you dye your hair blue

(Tv girl ref?-🤓)

Anyway

It’s probably not rlly that big until you ask hiro if he’d wanna help you dye your dead hair

Then he’s just like sure and you two actually end up going to the dollar store or something to get the dye and do it at his house

Cass was surprised when she got home that evening from shopping to find you with a plastic bag over your head but honestly? Doesn’t mind it

Just go downstairs to get the snacks she bought you guys

Plus it’s not rlly that shocking or notable until she gets a call from Hiro while she’s working the cafe (he doesn’t wanna bother her) and he asks if he could dye his hair

I mean she’s like sure, but how come?

Flashback to you asking hiro if he’d wanna dye his hair with you

Because we both know he won’t cut it in anyway you’re willing to

He ends up with a streak of your fav color and you with his

It’s cute until he turns over and your cutting your bangs, again

Honestly should’ve mentioned it earlier

But this was honestly shocking when he first saw it

You’re so nonchalant about your hair being cut, dyed, crimped, burnt, etc

He’s surprised it hasn’t completely died or fallen out))

Honestly? I wouldn’t be surprised if you had a social media account about your hair

And neither would Hiro tbh

If you do he’d honestly follow and like every post (supportive king)

That is until you approach him with cutting his hair

You’re lucky hiro even let you dye his hair

Don’t push it ☝️🤓

But yea honestly what were you thinking?

His hair is just fine, not every guy needs to go through that canon even of getting their lucious hair cut and be balded

It’s not a rite of passage and certainly not gonna happen here so move along

[squarebracketsmileyface]

Letting u know that Jobless Monday by Mitski is Jay and Alex in Sorry Its Locked to me. I’m insane about this btw. Super Normal👍

Ow. Fuck you /pos

I'm so glad you're super normal about this anon. I'm so glad you were normal enough about this to tell me about it so i can be normal about it with you.

This got so long and i kinda went on a tangent, so, thingy:

you're so right tho. you're so so so right. Jay just wants to be seen with Alex, to be with him like a normal couple, even if the only people seeing it at the two of them. Sure it'd be nice if their friends knew or whatever, but even if it was just them being couply and in love in private would be better than what they currently have (in uni).

Jay doesn't care where they go, if they're just with their friends who they know will accept them, he just doesn't want to have to pretend like he and Alex aren't into each other all the time. He wouldn't care if they went on a walk in the woods and held hands with no one there to see, as long as they got to hold hands. He doesn't just want to be Alex's fuck buddy. He wants to hold his hands. He wants to go to lunch or dinner with him. Fe wants to kiss him on the lips. He wants Alex to kiss him on the cheek or the top of the head. He just wants to be Alex's boyfriend, his partner, not some dirty, disgusting secret Alex hides from everyone out of shame.

God they're so tragic. They're fucking awful. Jay just wants Alex to stop treating him like it'd be disgusting to date him, and Alex is terrified of what could happen to them if they were out at all, even to just their friends. So much could go wrong, they live in Alabama, it's the early 2000's, so fucking much could go wrong, he's not wrong to be cautious.

But that doesn't fully explain away why he refuses to be sweet with Jay even in private.

It's not all Alex's fault though. Like, yes it mostly stems from his fear of being out as queer in any way, but like, Jay's still kinda shit about it, yknow?

I need to write about why Jay wasn't great back in uni properly at some point, but none of my thoughts are properly coherent about it yet. At least not coherent enough to write into a fic yet.

I think I want to make it so that Jay was kinda pretty manipulative, and a lot more pushy with Alex than he lets on about to Tim (or even that he realizes himself) like, you know that bit in chapter 5 of Sorry its locked? where Jay, like, tries to physically force Tim to choke him? And they have to pause and be like, what the fuck? And Tim understands why Jay did it, but he's still really hurt by it because Jesus Christ Jay.

Like, you know that bit? Well I have plans about how Jay used to do that to Alex, not a lot, but like, it happened and more than once, with Jay physically forcing Alex to do stuff. and usually it was fine, like, Jay wanted to be slapped around or have his hair pulled, so he'd move Alex's hands into position to do that. And like, usually that was fine, that was just how they kinda worked and it was fine, those were things Alex was usually happy to do. But then one time Alex was trying to have a slightly less intense scene because he was already tired that day or whatever, and then Jay put Alex's hands around his neck, and Alex was very much not okay with that, but they were in the middle of something already and Alex was in a dominant kinda mindset, so he just punished Jay mid scene for trying to control what was going on, and then they carried on and that was it, they didn't talk about it.

But then after Jay leaves Alex just breaks the fuck down over it, because he realizes just how dangerous that could have been. like, he realizes that he could have really badly hurt Jay, that he could have killed Jay if he hadn't realized where his hands were.

My plan is that this happens near the end of Jay and Alex's fwb relationship, AND that Amy somehow walks in on Alex breaking down and having a full blown panic attack over how he could have really hurt Jay. So Amy has to take care of Alex through that, and she gets him to tell her what happened, so he does and she's the one that is kinda like, "dude, that's so not okay, what the fuck? He shouldn't have done that, and you said he's done stuff like that before? That's so not okay oh my god." and she's the one that convinces Alex to stop his and Jay's fwb relationship. She's so concerned for Alex's mental health (which she should be) and a little while after he breaks his and Jay's thing off, she kinda wants to show Alex what a healthy relationship should be like, and that's how those two start dating?

Also like, when I say Alex breaks down, I really really mean it, like, that guy is hyperventilating borderline wants to kill himself because holy shit he could have killed Jay what a fucking monster he is for not realizing sooner etc. etc. etc. Like, Amy has to zip tie all the draws with knives in shut because otherwise Alex is actually going to do something impulsive and hurt himself. he is very not okay, like that thing with Jay was the final straw and with it's weight he's breaking.

Amy is to Alex what Tim is to Jay in this au. Like, she only gets one side of the story so obviously assumes that Alex is completely innocent in his and Jay's relationship, and Jay is a total monster. Which isn't true, they're both terrible to each other.

Alex needs to listen to Jay more and make it safer for Jay to talk to him about things, because if he did that Jay wouldn't feel the need to manipulate Alex to get what he wants from him. It definitely all kinda stems from Alex being super closed off emotionally to Jay, right? But just because it starts with Alex, doesn't mean that by the end Jay was kinda arguably worse than him. Y'know? Like, they make each other worse.

But like, yeah, Amy does the whole "I can save him" thing for Alex that Tim does for Jay. She thinks she can fix Alex, and at first it seems like she can, y'know, he moves schools and they live together and everything seems pretty good, Alex does get better when it comes to how he expects a partner to treat him. But in the end Amy can't fix the Operator sickness stuff (which i guess she didn't know about at first and all that but still, once that becomes obvious to her---e.g. Alex starts getting a lot more volatile even with her--- she thinks she'll be able to talk him through that as well)

[fatmaclover]

my brain is not letting me form thoughts coherently but I'm thinking so much about our little charlies home alone wolrd i feel siccck i feel sick. do you think they talked at all while she was out of the room about them caring about her. do you think she said anything emotional while on pain meds. im thinking

katie you make me ill. thank you

i bet mac and dennis definitely have moments just. sitting. in the waiting room. they definitely fight. it starts with mac and dennis fighting over each other for not being worried about joyce, like the fights in charlie gets crippled yknow? theyre fighting sure but it's definitely an expression of how much they care about joyce.

i definitely think theres a phase there, though, where mac and dennis are shooed from her room, since she needs her rest or whatever. and i imagine neither of them are gonna be the worse best friend and go home first. so theyre just sitting, silent, still emotional after crying with joyce. and after a while, you can see mac looking up through his lashes at dennis.

he asks if dennis thinks joyce will be okay. of course dennis says she will be. he tells mac not to be a pussy. some heartfelt scene with mac rambling, admitting his care and worry for joyce. dennis taking a long moment to contemplate, before agreeing, admitting how worried he gets for her, too. how much he cares. theres a long beat of silence, before they break into a fight over whos fault it is again, though its definitely with less effort than before.

as for joyce saying emotional shit on pain meds you know she was on that "i did it all for you guys" shit that makes mac and dennis feel 70x worse. "i hope you guys at least had a good game" and mac is about to punch a hole in the wall. sure she did all that so the eagles could win, but would she even care if the eagles werent so important to her friends? would she be that self sacrificial?

maybe once mac and dennis get to have time alone with her they get a bit more sappy. mac definitely would. sneaking in some glue or something to be able to get high with joyce. hes trying to be strong but he cant get over the guilt that he wasnt there to protect her. maybe hes even crying over her, finally pouring his feelings to her. finally getting out how much he cares and how sorry he is for not being there sooner.

and man. joyce really misses middle and elementary school. she misses the mac that would talk to her like this without her nearly dying in order to achieve it. in the moment, she lets herself be happy that shes getting anything at all though.

[free-boundsoul]

Hi I’m here to ask for the ramble on Queen Ruby?😗❤️ if you would like to?

I'm definitely up for it, sorry this took me a moment to get to.

Gonna put some Ruby rambles under a cut. Warning, this probably isn't coherent since I just finished my 10 hour shift but here goes

First off, wanted to say that I don't like many female asmrtists, at least the ones that I tried listening to before or the ones my partner recommended. And that's mostly just because the ones I found the voices were always a higher pitched whispery type and for some reason I just couldn't get into it.

But Frenchie's voice for Ruby? (And the whole cast of her story and the fractured fairytales to be honest) I just...I was stunned because damn she has such a beautiful voice and they way she can differentiate between the different gals is mind blowing to me. (Don't get me started on the mafia Ruby because the accent alone just kills me (in a good way))

Anyway, I'm so in love with Ruby. I'm a simp for yanderes and Ruby checks all the boxes. Caring and devoted. Starts with some mind-fuckery to enthrall Treasure (I love me a good angst angle for the future). We are now at a part of their story where Ruby is so in love with Treasure that she's willing to end the enthrallment just to give them what they want, even if that means they might try to leave. It's all just...*fangirl noise*

Ruby is so multifaceted. And I have no skill in character analysis but I'm happy to go along for the ride with how the story makes me feel, yknow?

Like. She is so sweet with Treasure, ready to give them the world as long as they stay with her. And at this point, I think Ruby would give them anything they wanted, even if they decided to leave. (I really really hope Treasure decides to stay with her. I'll understand if they part but my heart...)

Ruby has a regality to her around others, a fierceness that comes with her status that you see when it comes to Éliane, or Sorah. I feel like that's more a mask that she puts on when dealing with others to go along with her Queen station. But that mask just falls away when it's just her and Treasure and I love it!

I'll admit this here, but a part of me kinda wished Ruby had become like an adopted mom to Treasure rather than a love interest. I just think that would've been an interesting angle and I'm definitely influenced by her Marie Greer series. But I'm sure Frenchie gets enough 'mommy' comments.

I love the world Frenchie is creating for the Ruby series. I'm very much a fantasy over a sci-fi fan. But there's so much lore in this world that we haven't been told yet and I'm just sitting in suspense of any Ruby update 😅 the dragon origins are just so cool, with their origins coming from the sea and then evolving to be in the air? (The flashback to when Ruby met her Jewel? I decided to listen to that at work and had such trouble trying to keep the smile off my face.)

Like, I'm wondering if Ruby was the first dragon to come onto land. Or a descendant and that's why she was chosen to protect the flame? I can't wait to get more into her past and see what happened with Jewel. (I know it's not a happy end but I'd love to see more from Jewel)

...I feel like this is all pretty random, like I'm just word vomiting. So I'm sorry for that but I'll end this with the one angsty thought I have

What if Treasure gets stuck between human and dragon? They can't go back to their human form, but they can't full become a dragon. No matter what they try or how Ruby tries to help.

They stay away from Hyacinth and Sorah because they're terrified of their reactions. Would Sorah try and attack them? Would Hyacinth view them as a monster? And what about Ruby? She loved their human traits, their softness now interrupted by patches of scales. Their hands now tipped in claws. Their eyes weren't the eyes that Ruby loved to look into.

[transfemmesam]

hope it's okay to pop in here but sam speaking enochian is soooo !!!

do you like the idea better of him ONLY being able to speak enochian when he comes back, or only speaking enochian to hallucifer and english to everyone else? or both or a different idea?

personally I like both, but something about only speaking enochian to lucifer, making it like their own special kind of language/way to talk to each other..... 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

first off it is ALWAYS okay to pop in here hiiii <3

and i'm really not sure..... because like. i'm imagining him coming back after only speaking enochian for centuries (aka dozens of times longer than he ever knew english) and it's a language that he was able to speak in the cage because like. a soul isn't a physical body, but on earth, with human vocal cords? oh it would be messy and bloody and he would be freaking out because every time he tries to speak it comes out just pain..... so many angst possiblities yknow

BUT like u said!!!!! it's their special language!!! i can totally see that too and it's like. oh man i don't even have coherent thoughts on that but ooouauuaugh !! you understnad

[starry-eyed-extraterrestrial]

no actually, penny 4 ur thoughts on vince and mick's dynamic? im curious if u have some hypotheses abt it.

imo some anecdotes abt vince (throwing a tantrum backstage and going to the ER bc he broke a jar, quote from sharise (i think) abt his daily routine of nothing but two tuna sandwiches and doing martial arts) kinda give a vibe that he's easier to calm down, chiller yknow. less weird and out there with his outbursts. so i definitely could see some kind of distant-ish mutual respect dynamic between them, given that mick was the one to pick him for the band. not sure it's a very coherent supposition but that's all i have for now.

I think you raise a good point here about the mutual respect thing! Here's how I see it they have a distant respect for each other because they could never do what the other does ya know?

Mick has talked to Eddie trunk about why he's the only Mötley member whose never sung on a song and he says it's cause his voice sucks so bad that he could never.

Vince couldn't do what Mick does as he doesn't have that musical flare that Mick does, he doesn't have the knowledge to play like Mick and doesn't care to learn it as he thinks Mick's talent is way to far from his grasp to try and recreate. And he's lazy while Mick is hardworking.

I actually think there's low key some fasication between the two , as they are so different in so many ways and while that can be annoying it can also make them envious of each other.

Mick is jealous about how confident Vince is and Vince is jealous about how how much brings to the table musically and how intelligent he is.

I know we talk a lot about how Tommy and Mick are total opisites, but I don't nessasery think that's so true, they still have enough in commen to have something to talk about and I just don't know what these two would realistically talk about.

Mick being the one to pick Vince for the band is the only real strong vincemick evidence I know of but even then it's not really cause Mick only picked him because the girls went crazy for him at the club and "sex sells", (in my brain he also picked him cause he wanted to look at the pretty boy all the time,anyway short vincemick interlude over)

There's a lot of potential for passion here though, I mean some of the best friendships/relationships are opisites attract but that could also be the cause for friction that could make the two repulsed by each other. But idk.

In conclusion I think Vince and Mick respect each other and are low-key kinda envious that they don't have the talent and qualities of the other, but because they never talk to each other they've never sorted this issues out and neither of them cares to as they don't really have enough common ground to start up a natural conversation with each other to get deep enough to the point of a fight.

This is the realistic answer in my opinion. It's so early here I hope anything I'm saying is making sense :')

[jemmo]

omg thank you so much for replying to my rant with another rant, i love your takes on this show so much istg my brain is just his man 2 these days 😭 i also wanted to rant about junsungho because i'm so obsessed with them, they've completely taken over my heart. like even without a date, they've progressed so beautifully and naturally, it's just impossible for me to not root for them. it's the way junsung takes every opportunity he can to show sungho all his love languages - gift giving in the form of zero coke and cookies, the adorable quality time they shared when they were roommates and throughout ep 7, physical touch in the form of head pats to wake sungho up, words of affirmation 24/7 and especially through his phonecalls, and the continuous acts of service 🥹 he's so sincere and straightforward, yet he never does anything to burden sungho with his feelings. he never expects anything in return and just follows his heart, so whenever sungho does do something for him it feels extra special and god why is he the cutest ever 😭 i'd like to think that junsung is definitely starting to affect sungho way more than he thought he would (like hello, the 100% friendship turning into him being 50/50) and it's so apparent why - he looks so comfortable around junsung, their banter is so natural and the way junsung's phonecalls make him smile like THAT every time is just so telling. i really hope they get a chance to go on a date real soon because i think just the two of them hanging out and focusing on each other is what sungho really needs (what we all need honestly) 🥺

we are well and truly stuck in his man 2 land until this ends arent we?? who am i kidding, im gonna be stuck here afterwards too i seriously cannot get this show out of my mind and at this point ive gone past coherent thought, all my rants are just me gushing.

and you are so so right about junsung and sungho, my roommates that arent even roommates anymore but will always be roommates in my heart. there is just something so special about watching the way junsung has approached sungho, it honestly feels like something ive never seen before neither in fiction or reality bc it is just so pure hearted and sincere and simple. like he likes this person and he's just showing it in whatever way he can and not ever demanding anything in return, its the kind of affection that is like i just wanna see you happy and i'd really like it if i could be the one to make you happy. and there's something so special about how he's had such rubbish experiences both with coming out and dating and we don't even know the half of it and yet he remains this good of a person, its like in the face of the shit life has thrown him, he's stood resolutely and said i won't let this change me, i will still be me. like he is truly someone that is not hiding, and the way he instantly claimed his sexuality when forced to come out tells me that he will not stand for people making him doubt or feel ashamed about who he is. and you can feel that steadfast resolution in how he pursues sungho, and this faith in his own feelings that singled him out on day one and not wavering since. and yet he never demands reciprocation. that's why its so nice to watch, bc you arent watching someone pursue someone unwantedly, or make them feel pressured to return that affection. he just constantly makes sure sungho knows and is reminded of his feelings and sungho can reciprocate if/when he wants to. and thats why i never feel uneasy watching them, bc i dont feel like sungho is uneasy or under any pressure to do anything or change his behaviour or tiptoe around junsung's feelings. its pure ease, and thats why its so beautiful to see sungho slowly develop those feelings for junsung. its giving fell first vs fell harder yknow, like look at this person doing so much not just with this arbitrary end to date me, but bc he actually likes and cares about me, the person, not the goal. and when i watched the first ep of the show, sungho was my instant favourite bc he is so cute and hot and charming and loveable and kind and funny, he has so many sides to him that you wouldnt expect, and i adore junsung for all the reasons ive just ranted about too, so it says a lot when i say these two people are so deserving of each other, like i would not settle for anything less than someone who appreciates these people for everything they are, and thats what these two are.

and when we get that 1 on 1 date, bc i know its happening, i feel it in my bones, you know im gonna be in tears in front of that screen, with the biggest dumbest smile on my face, and i wont be able to move on from it

[meirimerens]

hi im such a big fan of ur farkhad content. i noticed a lot of farkhad Haunting Themes in ur art and was wondering if thats your own interpretation/headcanon of whats happening? and maybe more about that? :0 . orrr i just missed something in game and im being silly goofy stupid. also thoughts on ponies

HELLO DARLING aaah farkhad he's like a best friend to me etc... i have so many thoughts and ideas like brrrr yknow i'm gonna try to be like coherent because it's 2:30AM and also (starving white woman voice) i'm sooo hungry. i'm sure i've talked about what i'm boutta respond in more Coherent forms in my #farkhad lore or #farkhad pathologic tags but basicallu

the twins are haunted. within the game, it's plain as day to me (and others might not agree!) they are haunted. hauntings can be about grief, or about guilt, and peter specifically makes numerous mentions of it weighing on his mind. he hints (in p1) at how andrey killing farkhad (for his sake) makes him suffer, and has created a rift between them. i've also talked about the twins and like assimilation-or-destruction but Basically because they couldn't Assimilate him, aka Making Him See Their Ways, what was left was destruction. this destruction was supposed to bring them closer together, but instead it tore them apart.

farkhad haunts them: he lives in the rift between the two of them, whole body, lying there.

farkhad is endlessly replicated: he is replicated in the cathedral, which he had built, which you, the player, cross everytime you go through that part of town: farkhad's presence, ever-reminded. he is replicated in the grave the twins built for him: farkhad's presence, ever-reminded. ever-reminding them. they could have dumped his ass in the ground and pretend he had vanished, but they erected a monument to him. he is anchored in their body of work. he is endlessly replicated through their work. they have given him the name Farkhad, they have givenhim a tomb: they have given him a presence. and the presence of a dead man is called a haunting.

The endless replication of a dead thing is called a haunting. The unshakeable presence of a dead man is a haunting.

from that, my headcanon is that the twins Physically see him, everywhere, often. in the cathedral. in dark corners. i think when they still liked each other one of them might have painted him, and that portrait haunts him/them. i think andrey stole one of his rings, and one day a hand reaches out from the darkness and yanks on his wrist until he feels like his finger is getting snatched off, but in the end the ring is still here, but he has finger marks around the wrist. you know?

i'm just taking the haunting present in-game, in-text, this endless replication, this neverending presence even beyond his death, shaping the twins, and having shaped the town, and i make it... physical :3

[trlvsn]

ok id didn't have any coherent thought either just. jfa is such a game yknow. so many complicated emotions just underneath the surface... and they're so strong too. they control the flow of the narrative even. i'm gonna try my best to put some of phoenix and franziska into words (and fail miserably)

after edgeworth chose death... they were both "betrayed" by him (recall the poisoning and betrayal line). they're just... they're both in court to prove a point to themself. they're both trying to get closure.

and they very clearly both look down on each other. phoenix is just very aggressive in jfa in general... but something that makes me feel some way is the way they both criticize each other for running from their past

phoenix thinks she's running from the fact that her father is dead and franziska thinks he's running from edgeworth's "death" (and they're not wrong... although one is more obvious than the other)

i think it boils down to what point they're trying to prove to themself... and idk how much this goes into speculation territory cuz i'm not exactly coherent rn sorry

with franziska i'm pretty sure she's trying to convince herself that she's worthy of being a von karma/a prosecutor by being perfect aka winning against phoenix wright. the ending of jfa is evidence

with phoenix though... a running theme of jfa is suspicion. in the first case phoenix is so skeptical about maggey (yeah he's lost his memories but still) and in the second one yeah he will always defend maya, but mia had to give him that final puch to believe in her fully. big top is just... idk how to interpret that cuz i didnt trust anyone in that case while playing it. farewell my turnabout? speaks for itself

and maya's case being the first one he took on after edgeworth choose death (im pretty sure) even the gap between aa1-4 and aa1-5 says a lot

what im saying is... i think he was trying to prove to himself that there was a point in being a defence attorney even though the guy he became a defense attorney for was dead. and that the point was to "defend those who had no one on their side/innocent people" like maya. having said that... the last case suddenly looks kinda different

a lot of people tend to ignore that a significant part of his crisis in the last case was him having to defend someone guilty. he WAS having a crisis on what the point of being a defense attorney was (edgeworth wasnt just ignoring the main issue he was addressing another one) cuz he'd spent the first half of the game telling himself it was something that was crumbling down around him

i think if he had been in franziska's place in jfa, by which i mean that if he had lost those two cases against her, he would have lost faith in himself as a defense attorney like she did. which is what i mean. theyre so similar, it's just that one of them won and the other one lost

also jfa is a good game

(i know this is long but i would love to hear your thoughts even if theyre really just in general. i need to organise my brain.)

anon i'm so sorry it took me this long to answer you asks. in my defense i was reading umineko and couldn't think about any characters from outside that universe

but yeah, i still very much agree with a lot of points?? phoenix and franziska aren't really obvious mirrors of each other like edgeworth and gant or franziska and adrian but they do still share some similarities and end up teaching each other huge lessons. I really need to talk about the significance of phoenix giving edgeworth the whip by the end of aa2-4 in a separate post, but other than that, some things i can point out are:

- anger as a coping mechanism and a method to keep going, in both cases directed outward when in fact they are more angry at themselves

- expanding on the point you made about phoenix trying to understand how to be a defense attorney and franziska finding her way as a prosecutor - edgeworth coming back does end up teaching a lesson to both of them

- they both have a very... wrong understanding of each other. phoenix immediately assumes franziska is there to get revenge for manfred and franziska villianizes phoenix for the completely wrong thing too

- also they kind of get angry at each other as a substitute for getting angry at edgeworth?? phoenix loooves to win against the prideful von karma child and franziska loves to whip the man who's the reason her father is in prison. you know

- ugh it's mainly about the whip and i don't want to talk about the whip without relaying aa2-4 first. no one say anything about the whip i will say it myself later pls

also the dynamic they have in aa3 is like balm for my soul. top ten things that heal you

[jtl07]

I've been reading your thoughts on each episode of WN as I've been doing my own rewatch and I agree with so many of your points on story structure and pacing. I just finished episode 10 and I'm so looking forward to your write-up of it because holy shit does that episode have some issues. I'm also curious about your thoughts on Mother Superion and how much she knows going into episodes 8 through 10. Cheers!

Hey! Thanks for this, so glad to hear some of my ramblings are actually coherent lol

But yeah, it’s been a mix: there’s some brilliant stuff (I’m still very much intrigued with how they’re setting up Vincent’s betrayal and now that I’ve watched Beatrice’s fight in episode 7 in context, I love it so much more, so excited to write that up) but there’s also some frustrating things - with pacing, as you’ve mentioned, and just execution in general.

The two things that are chafing at me: lack of subtext in the dialogue and how that's made things sluggish (which I’ve mentioned already in my ep5 rewrite) and making full use of the camera.

(Side note re: the former - I wonder if it’s a nod towards how in religion, everything is told orally? idk maybe I’m reaching lol)

For the latter, I’m thinking of framing, of blocking, of how and where the camera lingers. They do the last bit a couple times with Ava in the first episodes, which were beautiful, but I wish there was more of that. I just watched episode 7 last night and there’s two moments that immediately come to mind that could’ve been heightened with different shots: Beatrice leaving the armory after talking with Camila, and Mother Superion leaving the idk courtyard? after Duretti tells her the Pope has died.

Like, wouldn’t it have been cool to have held on Beatrice as she leaves, even from Camila’s pov, viewing Beatrice from the back (and give KTY more opportunity to show that fantastic physicality she has) as she walks away, trying to keep her head up, trying to remember how to walk unarmed? And that moment with Mother Superion, having a different shot could have heightened the change that I think they were trying to show - like maybe straight on as she grapples with the changing situation, or maybe have harder shadows to show the weight she's carrying ...

But speaking about Mother Superion: I was quite surprised that she’s been kind of in the periphery (though maybe that’s just been my attention lol). I feel like I didn’t really start paying attention to her until e7, mostly because of everyone pressuring her. The problem is that I’m not completely sold on her struggle. I think it was in e6 when she agrees with Duretti (disagreeing with Vincent and Beatrice), but then near the opening of e7 she disagrees. Sure, they’re about two different subjects (the shield vs the rejects) but I’m not sold on the whole “keeping herself distant because she cares too much” (which we only know because Mary says it). Part of it might be due to them spending time building up Vincent (so that his betrayal hurts more) and also Duretti as the villain, leaving not a lot of time for Mother Superion (maybe they’re banking on the reveal about her being rejected by the halo as a heavy hitter?) Not to mention, they’re constrained for time because they’re telling two stories in parallel since Ava’s been away from the OCS.

(Actually, a thought just occurred to me: What if ep4 had Mother Superion on comms during that mission to get the shield from Arq-Tech? Maybe even listening in when Beatrice calls out Lilith - maybe even giving the order for everyone to fall back when the alarms when off. OOOoooh yknow what would’ve been spicy? Have Beatrice defy that order, or at least say something like, “I can do it,” and Mother Superion be conflicted about letting her go alone. Oh man, that would’ve been cool, now I’ve made myself sad that we didn’t have that)

Uh … this got away from me lol. But I will say that you’re comment about “how much she [Mother Superion] knows going into episodes 8 through 10” has my curiosity piqued because all of my previous knowledge has only been clips and gifs, focused mostly on avatrice, so I’m very curious at how they’ll build up Mother Superion these next episodes!

Thanks again for the ask :))))))))))

[transgenderer]

if you would be so kind, I'm doing a strange little survey. can you give me roughly one sentence opinions on each of the following things:

the holy trinity

ijtihad

the market

nightcore

swimming (as in, the sport)

singapore

the indie game dev scene

the orang pendek

the tv show "the x files"

gnosticism

fortran

4chan

recreational contraband

if you don't have strong opinions on any of them, feel free to hazard a guess but please don't skip any.

holy trinity: really weird and silly. unlike many weird and silly religious things, not even fun. its just straightforwardly nonsense, and like, they know its nonsense! they call it a mystery! what do you mean a mystery, a guy came up with it! also, who gives a shit about the holy spirit. ive discussed this at length before. the trinity is so dumb. just say jesus is his own dad, and sometimes he talks to himself cuz hes kind of dramatic! its fine! (or maybe say they WERE together and then split and then reunified? idk. its not important, just pick something that makes sense

itijihad: okay so if youre going to insist that your body of law is actually all based on some original text, youre gonna need to get reallll interpretive with that text. this is kind of stupid but also maybe a good legitimacy technique? anyway, to this end it seems like a good thing. i have kind of a hate-on for the hadiths because theyre just like, transparently made up, but they wont admit theyre made up, which i hate. if youre gonna stick to a document, stick to a document! dont make up your own rules and then lie and say they were from the original document (guy). ugh. to the extent that they deemphasize hadiths, good

the market: ive had some thoughts lately about the market. this inspired me to make a post about it.

nightcore: i like uptempo stuff but hate the high voices. i feel like it wouldnt be that hard to use like, some sort of techniques to make normal-voice nightcore. or just record uptempo covers. i wish this was more of a thing

swimming: seems kind of annoying. its like running but theres no scenery so its even more boring and also you need access to a pool. and you have to like clean yourself up after. and ALSO your breath is restricted. generally seems bad.

singapore: singapore seems cool and i wish it wasnt a dictatorship. like city states are cool, and its cool that its like rich and tropical and hyperdense and kinda technocratic but yknow. democracy good or whatever. hoping they pull a taiwan and democratize but not super expecting it

the indie game dev scene: i like it a lot! i mostly play indie games. indie games are great. i mean i love nintendo and al but the weird new stuff is mostly in the indie game scene, they seem to like, serve my desires considerably more (like, the metroidvania scene is almost all indie). also its full of auteurs! love an auteur.

orang pendek: it just looks like an orangutan? i feel like its probably just an orangutan. like its not clear whats even supposed to distinguish. surely orangutans walk on their back feet sometimes. or idk, some other primate. theres a bunch of primates in borneo and sumatra. it might be an undiscovered one but its pretty big and usually big things get found fast

the x files: i started it and didnt like it. i feel like i dont really "get it"? it seems really weird and silly and the writing wasnt doing much for me. it felt like, intentionally unsatisfying which was annoying

gnosticism: i like how its got a lot of like, "lore", thats fun. its kind of fun to reference, it has an almost-coherent theodicy which i respect. afaik its probably like mostly made up, as accusations against whoever the real gnostics were, but yknow, whatever, its kind of cool

fortran: seems bad! iirc my mom had to learn fortran. the idea of super high performance computing is cool but also like, it seems like it would be really boring irl. it would be kind of cool to do CS in ye olde times when it was actually practical for civilian (so to speak) uses.

4chan: just as men are the high-variance gender, 4chan is the high-variance social media. unfortunately negative variance will rot your brain. i think using 4chan habitually makes you a worse person, in like, a direct causal sense, it encourages neuroticism. but also the things people harvest from there are often really good, so theyre sort of making a sacrifice for the rest of us

recreational contraband: im a fan! lots of contraband is fun. drugs. pirating. etc

[upsidedowngrass]

SORRY about Julien bc I'm insane and had that thought before!!! Bc it's sad right!!! He's just... too stubborn and too in shock from his sudden death he doesn't move on into the afterlife and then gets trapped forever? Sad! But !!!! I know he's stubborn but truly I think if he saw something he would have ran. Every single character we see (except Airy at the end but that's SPECIAL) runs into the afterlife, even Bryce tries to numerous time, and he has a whole other PERSON trying to get him to not do that! Also also I think he would have to have figured out the radio even if he didn't see anyone else use it (Airy figured it out! Liam did too in like 5 minutes!) So I just think he got really really bad luck with it and it chipped away at him. Like.... not people-inhabited world that Liam and Bryce went to, it was always... nothing. Doomed to the narrative type thing. I'm sure I can be a lot more coherent if I thought about this but yea idk!!! I think about his situation a lot </3

i gotcha!!!!!!!! yeah its . def most likely that he saw the waiting room itself ! i still just CONSTANTLY go like hm. abt the fact that the waiting room seems to be centered around whatevver world u died in yknow?? cus liam ONLY sees julien the times he dies in airys world (since i would assume the plane is included in that) . this COULD just be an oversight since its like. PRETTY implied julien didnt see anything in the waiting room but like. i think about it SO much also . tho the idea of a character who sees smth but doesnt go is also smth i hadnt considered before and i was like woah ... what if ... EVEN THO thats probably not what cheesy was going for LOL

[hellofanidea]

oh yes pls talk about the sidney/sledge/shelton dynamic i'd love to hear your take on it!

Okay okay okay so disclaimer that it's been a while since I last watched The Pacific, and I don't spend as much time in the fanworks for it as I do other stuff, so mea culpa if I'm fucking up or just repeating any widely accepted fanon

BUT

Maybe it's just because I really love all three of them and want them to be happy, but I feel like they'd really get on together, both as Sledgfu and Best Friend Sid, or as an ot3 dynamic.

And Stella this is partly your fault bc you reminded me about Sid/Sledge and. I have lots of thoughts and feelings about the potential for that. Mostly because it's friends to lovers and that really is absolute catnip for me, but also the potential of it always being there but never being fully realised? Their positions as two wealthy young white men in the American South during this era preventing them from venturing into romantic territory but them keeping that strong, loyal, friendship nevertheless? They're always going to love each other, the know that, no matter how that's expressed. That's not going away for either of them.

Now, you might then expect there to be an issue with jealousy once Snafu is introduced, and you'd probably be right, at least at first. From both of them! Sid grew up with Eugene, has had all those experiences, knows him inside and out, and Snafu would probably be wary of that, of that closeness. But Snafu knows the ins and outs of the new Sledge, the one who's come home from the war different than how he left. Sid isn't as in the dark as the other people around them on that front, but he still wasn't there for the traumatic, formative, experiences that have shaped this returning Eugene like Snafu was.

There's also the more obvious cultural hangups. Snafu would probably be pretty disdainful and distrusting at first of this rich white boy. Yes, that also describes Sledge, but he's always going to be Snaf's exception to stuff like that. They've seen too much, been through too much together for it to bother him the way it does with other people.

There are two things that I think would break down these potential issues for the Sid/Snafu friendship. The first is that they both love Eugene. Eugene also loves them both, in whatever way that may be. And once they can recognise that in each other, and the importance of each other in Sledge's life, that's... kind of like half of whatever battle might have happened. At the very least they're now willing to tolerate each other. Or bond over shared trauma (both were on Guadalcanal when Sledge wasn't) and their concern for Sledge.

The second is that Sid and Snafu, once they really got to know each other, would probably just get on? On top of that shared military experience, Sid being Sledge's friend means they probably have that same sharp sense of humour under that Southern charm, which Snafu would appreciate and find easy to bounce off of. There's also the fact that Snafu doesn't tend to be needlessly cruel. Most of his anger or mockery is reactionary, almost defensive. It's unlikely he'd spite Sid or get nasty with him for no good reason, and any additional abrasiveness Sid can probably roll with. Basically it tracks that if Sledge and Sid are friends, and Sledge and Snafu are friends, then Snafu and Sid are probably going to find enough parts of each other to get on with.

Tldr; Sid and Snafu should be buddies post-war because, like Sledge, Sid's personality and sense of humour would likely endear him to Snaf, and Snafu's nowhere near enough of an asshole to dissuade someone who grew up with and remains friends with Eugene Sledge.

[shotorozu]

hello !! I'd rlly like to request Monoma if that's alright! I've had a huge soft spot for him for a while now and I'd love to see more content of him ;v;

anyway! we all know that superiority complex of his is definitely hiding some insecurities, but I also feel like he'd be quite touchstarved too bc of his peers seldom physically interacting with him due to his quirk, yknow?

with that in mind, I'd love to see how he'd handle an s/o who has "physical touch" as their main love language. they can give verbal praise/comfort, but they always get so shy abt it that they prefer giving physical affection to show their love. and maybe combining that with "quality time" being their second love language, they love to just cuddle him or toy with his hands/hair during quiet moments uwu

if you wanna do multiple characters, I'd love to request Shinsou, Midoriya, and Amajiki (separately) for the same idea, but if you'd rather do this with just Monoma then I'm okay with that !! no worries if you don't wanna do all four ♡

thank you if you do this request, and make sure to take care of yourself !! ♡

physically affectionate s/o

character(s) : monoma neito, shinsou hitoshi, midoriya izuku (i cut out tamaki for this one, sorry :[ but i’ll do another part if anyone wants it)

legend : [Y/N = your name] they/them pronouns used, strong quirk but the details aren’t specific, reader is a part of 1-A

headcanon type : fluff (and if you squint, then crack)

note(s) : yes i do agree :,) monoma should be getting a little bit more content, and i’m sorry that this came out so late! i was multitasking with other requests (because i took a 2 day absence,,) but this doesn’t mean i don’t read people’s requests

»»————-　♡　————-««

monoma neito

monoma 🤝 bakugou “the pros at sending mixed signals”

if there’s one thing he’s known for— then it’s for the persistent teasing, and his quite obnoxious attitude (especially at 1-A)

but he’s not a terrible person, he sure does have his reasons. and by now, people either choose to ignore him, or they simply knock the wind out of him

so, he was not prepared to encounter someone that was tolerant of him, AND also his type— like.. huh. that’s.. odd

and he was even more surprised when they accepted his wild love confession. there must be some catch to it, right?

so like i’ve said— monoma sends a lot of mixed signals. it’s either he’s complimenting your existence, or teasing you in various ways.

so— it’s just another normal day of monoma mouthing off to you, teasing you in a playful way, while you guys are hanging out this is way of making you remember him

but then, you just.. leaned forward and placed your hand on his head— not exchanging any words at all.

monoma’s first reaction is (・・?) because what?? someone is touching him right now.. wait.. someone is touching him!

honestly really shook, and at a lost for words— because everyone has refrained from coming into any physical contact with him? what a surprise! what even is this?

after said incident, you decide to speak “you had something in your hair.” and for once, monoma is the one that’s sitting in silence

“R-REALLY, Y/N? DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT WAS GOING TO W-WORK ON ME OR SOMETHING?” he questions in his usual mocking tone, but his cheeks are accompanied in a flushed red

he’d only experience field day when he realized that touch was basically your love language, with quality time in the second lead

so whenever you guys are spending time together, you’d,, actually go closer to him! this has never happened before, let him be

he doesn’t really like the idea of getting his hair touched, so you usually choose to fiddle with his hands— sometimes observing his details, and other times you’ll be comparing hand sizes

he’ll ridicule you for being so touchy— but he’ll ask if he’s “that irresistable?” while also moving you closer to him. he loves it a lot, okay?

don’t let class 1-b see this, he will flex on them because when he starts getting annoying again, they’ll use you as blackmail.

“monoma, i swear— if you do that, we’ll tell Y/N-”

“HAHA— ok, i’m sorry.”

shinsou hitoshi

he probably has the most chill reaction out of the bunch

again— another person that has been antagonized because of their quirk. he’s been perceived as villanious ever since his middle school days

kids have been told to keep their distance away from him at a young age so.. you’d bet that he’d be really touch starved

he never had any serious experiences with dating, and he never had any real friends— that weren’t cautious of his quirk

that was until he met you, which he just assumed you were another highkey stuck up person in the hero course

but, you were basically the opposite, and you were a real pleasure to have around. one thing lead to another, and now you guys are dating

he thought it was really cute whenever you got too shy to just sit in silence during dates, or to even give out words of affirmations

but hitoshi was surprised at first when he felt you pull yourself closer to him— resting your head on his shoulder. the concept of someone wanting to be in his presence is still sinking in for him

lucky for you! shinsou knows how to adapt to situations quickly, immediately slinging an arm around your shoulder, as he listens to you talk

he’ll be surprised when you start touching his hair, because golly!! are you guys close

but do it more pls, he loves it a lot— it sometimes makes him really drowsy.

if you play with his hands omg, his heart will do somersaults. he’s lucky that he’s able to keep himself composed.

loves watching you choosing to cuddle him, after briefly giving up on trying to form coherent words of affirmations.

it’s something he brings up quite often, but not in a teasing manner!

sometimes he’ll pat the free spot beside him, basically begging you to come closer to him.

eventually, denki notices on how touchy he’ll get whenever you’re around— but hitoshi will just shrug it off

“it’s always been that way.” he simply says, but he’ll turn around with this big ass grin on his face 💀

he’s whipped for your touch. so please, do it more

midoriya izuku

he’s also touchstarved. actually, all of them are really touchstarved, and for different reasons 💀

well.. it’s not like he had a choice from the getgo. he was born quirkless, and that lead to him becoming an outcase— and also the victim of bullying i wanna hug him

and being told constantly that he won’t ever be enough, or he won’t ever be a hero— it’s obvious that he doesn’t have any dating experience

but he didn’t think he’d be dating anytime soon— especially since he was ‘just’ pinning over you. he was convinced it was going nowhere

until you confessed. he’s surprised that he didn’t pass out

ever since you guys started dating, he noticed that you’ve been a little timid— not in the way that you feel awkward, more like,, you wanted to say something

or do something, because when you guys were studying together, you just suddenly sat closer to him— and started counting his freckles

he short circuited for a second.

he was reduced to a stuttering, and blushy mess— and you just laughed, telling him “you should continue what you’re doing!” as you ran your other hand across his shoulders

that night, he was wide awake in his bed— recalling your gentle and loving touch, running his hands along the parts of his hair, that you’ve touched

he loves quality time, because while he does like to ramble a lot— he does enjoy spending time with you in silence, but it’s the touches that makes him flustered

despite him being quite shy to initiate any sort of touch, you— on the other hand, were shy with saying praises. so you coped with physical touch, and quality time

man, izuku never gets used to it. no matter how much he tries to— he’s just.. needy, touchstarved.

he doesn’t realize how lost he looks when you’re sitting beside him, and not touching his hair or hands for once. please feel free to do so

oh, and since we’re on the topic of hands— he’ll tear up if you start playing/fiddling with his hands, and especially when you start tracing his scars. it makes him feel so warm.

okay but,, please give him a heads up if you’re going to act touchy in public. he’ll start stammering and blushing hard you might have to put him in rice or smth

the dekusquad talks about that quite a lot, especially when they accidentally witnessed it in the common room (for the first time)

in short— he adores it. sometimes he’ll initiate it, by asking you if you want to sit beside him, to play with his hair. he’s so inlove

»»————-　♡　————-««

likes and reblogs are appreciated, thanks for reading!

i do not own bnha/mha and it’s characters. boku no hero academia/my hero academia belongs to horikoshi kohei. i only own the writing, and i do not profit off of my hobby

do not plagiarize, repost, translate, or use my works for audio readings without my permission :))

[owen-not-carvour]

i’m bored so here’s an essay i accidentally wrote after watching the staircase scene one too many times (this may or may not be coherent,, i just reread it and it makes sense to me but idk if it’ll make sense to y’all):

what does owen think curts best is?

because that can change a Lot about what “you’ll do your best” actually means. because as the audience we have one idea.. we just assume that owen means curt won’t succeed Period… but then we have to know what owens idea of it is in order to understand exactly what he thinks about curt trying to take down chimera. anyway. owen thinks curt’s an idiot ofc (more like an “arrogant, impulsive brute” but yknow same difference). but like. he also knows he'll stop at practically Nothing to reach a goal as he's seen that side of curt even before he fell (getting more into hc territory here but i think that’s how curt would actually be sooo). so just. what does owen thinks curts best is? does he think he can actually do it (well, no just be chimera is so big BUT ALSO JUST THAT. curt won't stop until chimera is down,, no matter how big it is) so maybe this is more of owen honestly showing that he also hasn't really moved on, too.. he knew exactly how curt would respond and react to this and just. hm. maybe he even hopes that curt does manage to take down chimera (just bc he knows that eventually there’s a slight chance he actually Could succeed,, just bc he's so Determined and owen hasn’t moved on one bit either (even though all the love he had for curt was turned into hatred and anger and a burning want for revenge)). and even though owen agrees with chimeras goals and actively works to facilitate them no matter the cost,, (i mention this again further down,, but it’s applicable here too) chimera is still technically an agency of sorts. they seem to operate in very similar ways,, so if owen realized this. he’d probably realize that chimera is, in a way,, just as bad as everything he wanted to get away from and destroy.

also, owen expected curt to chase him down. he knew he would bc he fucking says exactly that before he leaves after his monologue in 2.5. bc though it's been 4 years and both of them are completely different they're both painfully the same, too. so owen just knows exactly what curt will want to do (which is why he's so disappointed/frustrated that curt isn't seeing the point he's trying to make as to why chimera could be good… an argument i feel like they’ve had before, as well) bc curt is still exactly the same.

that's also why owens demeanor shifts so much from the monologue to the staircase scene. bc he doesn't have to keep up an appearance nearly as much w curt as he does with tatiana and the informant because they didn’t know him (personal history and all). bc no matter how much he thinks curt doesn't know him nearly as well anymore,, he hasn't moved on either,, and he's still very much the same too. owens death just brought out the worst in both of them. once a spy, always a spy. even after owen "died" he's still the same. sure he stopped working for mi6, but he really didn't change nearly as much as he thought he did. he just finally got to be angry at everything. bc i firmly believe that owens hatred of secrets/government was rooted in him having to hide who he is and his relationship w curt,, as well as everything that those govs kept from him. i'm sure he heard the whole "but you're not a man you’re property of the us gov' thing barb says even Before the russian affair (therefore he also probably doesn't rlly like barb,, watch his reaction to when she calls curt.. it's very indicative of this actually lol) bc of course curt has his Habits…… but just. knowing that their agencies practically only think of them as expendable probably infuriated owen (especially when he'd hear that directed at curt..). so when he fell. it was like all that being proved true (maybe part of why he thinks curt left him for dead or something,, not that curt Didn’t,, just in the way i’m thinking about it it’s not necessarily the Same). but it also gave him an opportunity. he joined chimera and finally got to be pissed at the govs for treating them like they were so expendable, as well as for making them hide. and not to mention solely at curt for ofc. leaving him for dead and wanting to make him feel everything that he felt when the building exploded (why he shocks curt during torture tango ofc) horror of staying alive and all.. but like even if owen thinks that all that has truly changed him. he honestly still has the same beliefs. he hasn't moved on nearly as much as he thinks he has. and he still knows curt practically as well as he used to (and believes that he could **possibly** take down chimera-back to 'you'll do your best') therefore,, once a spy. always a spy: forever. whatever. (bc also owen still never really escaped. he's still working for an agency even if it's not government affiliated and shady as Hell,, and though he may be a higher up. he's still not the highest up in chimera.. there’s always gonna be someone in charge of Him. and as long as owens in this cycle,, he’s no better than if he were really still a spy yknow)

yknow what else hurts!! (i couldn’t find a good place in the “essay” to stick this so here it is instead):

-owen kind of sounds like he's trying to convince curt to join him or at least admit that's he's right at one point during the staircase scene but ofc curt shoots it down (heh) right after which makes owen more defensive again (“a new world awaits us, curt” sure it could be ‘us’ as in the world,, but he has to know how loaded that is considering who they are)

-also how owen talks abt how killing him won't take the system offline bc HE DOESNT WANNA BELIEVE THAT CURT WOULD KILL HIM FOR ANY OTHER REASON !! (again,, owen carvour?? moving on???? yeah fuckin right, as if lol)

-one of my favorite lines: “that secret died the night you left me for dead.” it used to confuse me as to why owen would say this.. i was thinking of it as like.. he’s just decided to like. not be gay anymore??? bc like how would that just. not matter anymore?? then i thought that it meant that the Secret was dead bc someone found it out?? but THEN IT HIT ME: owen says this because he doesn’t care if it did get out. he’s dead. what’s it gonna matter to him? if it gets out that he and curt are gay,, then the only person it’s gonna hurt is curt because he’s the one still alive. and that’s the one thing owen wants after he falls: to see curt suffer, and that would do it. and just. screaming about how amazing that implication is and kinda embarrassed it took me 3 years to understand such a simple connection. but God it’s so fuckin good. angsty as Fuck but. also incredible.

but yeah this post is long enough so that’s all i’ll share for now. just some owen analysis/staircase scene ramblings for ya on this fine tuesday night :)

[skellagirl]

First off, I love your Butch Hartman video I can never stop using it as background noise when I'm in the middle of drawing anything and it's why I followed your tumblr. Second, I wanted to ask about detailed character designs cause I want to to do more mechanical/robotic kinds of characters but it seems to clash hard with basic character design philosophy. How do I figure out what to and what not to include when it comes to designing robotic characters somewhere between cartoony and detailed?

omg for real? that's actually pretty weird to think about LOL someone putting my video on in the background. Not weird in a bad way at all, just not something I’ve ever thought about! I'm flattered gjgjhgjh and glad you like it

as for the question, I'm honestly not SUPER sure? I honestly don't think I'm that great of a character designer lol, like I'm much better at catching what does and doesn't work in other pre-existing designs, but my own character designs are pretty boring and milquetoast imo lol

I'm especially bad with detailed character designs, but I do think a couple things can be helpful here:

1) look at other mech/robot designs and see what they do! When I'm designing characters I almost ALWAYS look up references for inspiration (especially bc I'm unimaginative and bad at designing characters lmao, so the jumpstart is needed); a couple months ago I was playing around with designing a centaur girl, and I know I want to use her for a world that's post-apocalyptic, semi-fantastical/magical in nature (she's, y'know, a centaur, and characters can use magic channeled through staves, so her weapon has to double as one), and takes place in the desert. I also had like..... sad goth cowboy brainrot because I'd been listening to a lot of Lord Huron's Long Lost album lmao

So I googled a shitload of those words, alone and in combination, to see what other folks had done for similar ideas! I also had to look up images of horses bc I'd never drawn horse anatomy before, and also had to look up how saddles worked, bc my centaur girl is saddled up for her non-centaur girlfriend to hitch a ride lol. And then I stole borrowed all those ideas, and this is what popped out:

Is she, yknow, the BEST?????? Idk probably not. But I like how she turned out, and she wouldn't have turned out nearly as okay-looking if I hadn't looked up shitloads of references for what other people did and used that as inspiration!

Anyway. uh. not to just like shove my art and personal anecdotes in your face, but I'm not very coherent right now lol, I apologize. I hope I'm at least illustrating my point okay

BASICALLY UH, look at a shitload of other folks' art and see what they did. There is no shame as an artist in stealing like, aspects and little pieces of other designs and ideas, so long as you're not like, plagiarizing an entire fuckin character and/or idea and passing it off as your own. Take inspiration and details and ideas, and then put your own imagination to work

2) I think even in detailed character designs, more fundamental elements of character design can still apply! Even if a character is heavily detailed, you can still use value, color, and other elements to pull attention to areas of a character you want the eye to focus on (usually things like face and hands). I think a really neat example of this is the Vex from Destiny

The Vex (on the right lol) are mechanical enemies, so, a little confusing to parse at first glance even though they're humanoid. Their weakpoint is also NOT their head, as you might expect from a humanoid enemy, but rather (usually) their stomach. Thus, they're designed so that their stomach glows a very eye-catching and easy-to-aim-at warm white color, while the rest of their glowy bits are more subdued (usually moreso than in this picture) and cooler in color. The rest of their design, while very detailed and VERY neat, is pretty monochrome and dark so as not to distract from the Big Glowy Weakpoint

ofc, not every character design is going to want to emphasize a weakpoint lmao, but I think the idea is still sound and easily transferable. If your entire character is detailed, and especially if you're going with more of an alien/nonhumanoid shape, value and color are really useful ways of pulling attention to areas that you want to bring attention to

Not to pick on Butch Hartman again lmao, but since it was my BH video that brought you here, and it's SO easy to use him as an example..........

Look at her again........ Misery Vex (I just realized we have a theme going with this word) really isn't a detailed character design. She has...... a lot going on? But she's not.... SUPER detailed. Even simple character designs can be dumpster fires when the person designing them doesn't know what the fuck they're doing lol

The problem with Misery Vex isn't that she's highly detailed, it's that Butch doesn't understand how to lead the eye. Everything is the same value, some of the details that she DOES have don't add anything to the design (functionally, artistically, or to tell us anything about her as a character), the other details are extremely on-the-nose (like, we get it, she's a spider). Hyper-limited color pallets CAN work, but it doesn't work here at all because of all the other problems

And again, like I said in my video, the only place he DIDN'T add any sort of detail of any kind, in an otherwise highly-detailed piece, is her crotch, so the eye kind of automatically defaults to resting there. It’s a problem of not understanding how to use design principles to lead the eye

And the problem is that this isn't easily fixable lol. like, the ENTIRE design has to be reimagined to make it work. Trying to fix one aspect, like the overly obvious spider imagery, just makes the bad color pallet stand out more. Trying to fix the values just makes the extraneous details look weird and makes the colors muddy

So it’s not that the problem is Misery Vex being highly detailed, it's that her design is flawed in a VERY fundamental way. In many, many fundamental ways

To uhhhhhhhhhh... get back on point lol......... I think, again, looking at what other artists/shows/games/etc have done for mechs/robotic characters and asking whether you think they're effective designs, and whether you think they're aesthetically pleasant, and why or why not. What is your eye drawn to when you look at it? Do they do anything neat or interesting to draw your eye? Are they easy to parse despite their detail, or are they just a jumbled mess that your eye jumps all over, and if the latter, what would you have done differently to focus the design?

TL;DR I think that fundamental character design principles (shape, silhouette, color, value, probably others that I'm forgetting) can still be SUPER useful to keep in mind even when creating heavily detailed characters, you just might have to shift how you think about them, if that makes sense!

(Also again, thank u sm for the kind words and I'm glad you enjoyed the video)

(also also if anyone better at character design than me wants to chime in in the notes or reblogs, absolutely feel free to go buckwild)