#it's a visual shorthand right?

[marcsnuffy]

I like that Ego and Noa's designs contrast yet parallel each other somewhat

[parisoonic]

[poptartmochi]

hmmm... do I make Braids a thing in gioia's family... hmmmmm

[nenelonomh]

how to take better notes during fast-paced lectures

taking better notes during fast-paced lectures can be challenging, but here are some tips to help you keep up:

abbreviations and symbols: create a personal shorthand system. for example, use “w/” for “with,” “b/c” for “because,” and arrows (→) to show relationships. this can significantly speed up your note-taking.

focus on main ideas: listen for key points and concepts rather than trying to transcribe everything. lecturers often emphasize important information through repetition, changes in tone, or visual aids. pay attention to these cues.

structured methods:

cornell method: divide your page into three sections: a narrow left column for cues, a wider right column for notes, and a bottom section for a summary. during the lecture, jot down main points in the right column. after the lecture, add cues and a summary.

outline method: use headings and subheadings to organize information hierarchically. this helps in understanding the relationship between topics.

mind mapping: create a visual representation of the lecture content. start with a central idea and branch out with related concepts. this method is particularly useful for visual learners.

leave space: if you miss something, leave a gap and move on. you can fill in the details later, either from the textbook, recordings, or discussions with classmates.

record the lecture: if your lecturer allows it, recording can be a lifesaver. you can listen to the lecture again to fill in any gaps in your notes. just make sure to review the recording soon after the lecture while the material is still fresh in your mind.

review and revise: go over your notes as soon as possible after the lecture. this helps reinforce the material and allows you to clarify any points you didn’t fully understand. consider rewriting or typing up your notes to organize them better.

active listening: engage with the lecture by asking questions and participating in discussions. this not only helps you understand the material better but also makes it easier to remember.

use technology: apps like evernote, onenote, or notability can help you organize and search your notes efficiently. some apps even allow you to record audio and sync it with your notes.

do you have any specific challenges with note-taking? let me know in the comments.

❤️ nene

image source: pinterest

[mostlysignssomeportents]

You were promised a jetpack by liars

TONIGHT (May 17), I'm at the INTERNET ARCHIVE in SAN FRANCISCO to keynote the 10th anniversary of the AUTHORS ALLIANCE.

As a science fiction writer, I find it weird that some sf tropes – like space colonization – have become culture-war touchstones. You know, that whole "we were promised jetpacks" thing.

I confess, I never looked too hard at the practicalities of jetpacks, because they are so obviously either used as a visual shorthand (as in the Jetsons) or as a metaphor. Even a brief moment's serious consideration should make it clear why we wouldn't want the distracted, stoned, drunk, suicidal, homicidal maniacs who pilot their two-ton killbots through our residential streets at 75mph to be flying over our heads with a reservoir of high explosives strapped to their backs.

Jetpacks can make for interesting sf eyeball kicks or literary symbols, but I don't actually want to live in a world of jetpacks. I just want to read about them, and, of course, write about them:

https://reactormag.com/chicken-little/

I had blithely assumed that this was the principle reason we never got the jetpacks we were "promised." I mean, there kind of was a promise, right? I grew up seeing videos of rocketeers flying their jetpacks high above the heads of amazed crowds, at World's Fairs and Disneyland and big public spectacles. There was that scene in Thunderball where James Bond (the canonical Connery Bond, no less) makes an escape by jetpack. There was even a Gilligan's Island episode where the castaways find a jetpack and scheme to fly it all the way back to Hawai'i:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0588084/

Clearly, jetpacks were possible, but they didn't make any sense, so we decided not to use them, right?

Well, I was wrong. In a terrific new 99 Percent Invisible episode, Chris Berube tracks the history of all those jetpacks we saw on TV for decades, and reveals that they were all the same jetpack, flown by just one guy, who risked his life every time he went up in it:

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/rocket-man/

The jetpack in question – technically a "rocket belt" – was built in the 1960s by Wendell Moore at the Bell Aircraft Corporation, with funding from the DoD. The Bell rocket belt used concentrated hydrogen peroxide as fuel, which burned at temperatures in excess of 1,000'. The rocket belt had a maximum flight time of just 21 seconds.

It was these limitations that disqualified the rocket belt from being used by anyone except stunt pilots with extremely high tolerances for danger. Any tactical advantage conferred on infantrymen by the power to soar over a battlefield for a whopping 21 seconds was totally obliterated by the fact that this infantryman would be encumbered by an extremely heavy, unwieldy and extremely explosive backpack, to say nothing of the high likelihood that rocketeers would plummet out of the sky after failing to track the split-second capacity of a jetpack.

And of course, the rocket belt wasn't going to be a civilian commuting option. If your commute can be accomplished in just 21 seconds of flight time, you should probably just walk, rather than strapping an inferno to your back and risking a lethal fall if you exceed a margin of error measured in just seconds.

Once you know about the jetpack's technical limitations, it's obvious why we never got jetpacks. So why did we expect them? Because we were promised them, and the promise was a lie.

Moore was a consummate showman, which is to say, a bullshitter. He was forever telling the press that his jetpacks would be on everyone's back in one to two years, and he got an impressionable young man, Bill Suitor, to stage showy public demonstrations of the rocket belt. If you ever saw a video of a brave rocketeer piloting a jetpack, it was almost certainly Suitor. Suitor was Connery's stunt-double in Thunderball, and it was he who flew the rocket belt around Sleeping Beauty castle.

Suitor's interview with Berube for the podcast is delightful. Suitor is a hilarious, profane old airman who led an extraordinary life and tells stories with expert timing, busting out great phrases like "a surprise is a fart with a lump in it."

But what's most striking about the tale of the Bell rocket belt is the shape of the deception that Moore and Bell pulled off. By conspicuously failing to mention the rocket belt's limitations, and by callously risking Suitor's life over and over again, they were able to create the impression that jetpacks were everywhere, and that they were trembling on the verge of widespread, popular adoption.

What's more, they played a double game: all the public enthusiasm they manufactured with their carefully stage-managed, canned demos was designed to help them win more defense contracts to keep their dream alive. Ultimately, Uncle Sucker declined to continue funding their boondoggle, and the demos petered out, and the "promise" of a jetpack was broken.

As I listened to the 99 Percent Invisible episode, I was struck by the familiarity of this shuck: this is exactly what the self-driving car bros did over the past decade to convince us all that the human driver was already obsolete. The playbook was nearly identical, right down to the shameless huckster insisting that "full self-driving is one to two years away" every year for a decade:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/23/23837598/tesla-elon-musk-self-driving-false-promises-land-of-the-giants

The Potemkin rocket belt was a calculated misdirection, as are the "full self-driving" demos that turn out to be routine, pre-programmed runs on carefully manicured closed tracks:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-autopilot-staged-engineer-says-company-faked-full-autopilot/

Practical rocketeering wasn't ever "just around the corner," because a flying, 21 second blast-furnace couldn't be refined into a practical transport. Making the tank bigger would not make this thing safer or easier to transport.

The jetpack showman hoped to cash out by tricking Uncle Sucker into handing him a fat military contract. Robo-car scammers used their conjurer's tricks to cash out to the public markets, taking Uber public on the promise of robo-taxis, even as Uber's self-driving program burned through $2.5b and produced a car with a half-mile mean time between fatal collisions, which the company had to pay someone else $400m to take the business off their hands:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/09/herbies-revenge/#100-billion-here-100-billion-there-pretty-soon-youre-talking-real-money

It's not just self-driving cars. Time and again, the incredibly impressive AI demos that the press credulously promotes turn out to be scams. The dancing robot on stage at the splashy event is literally a guy in a robot-suit:

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musks-ai-day-tesla-bot-is-just-a-guy-in-a-bodysuit-2021-8

The Hollywood-killing, AI-produced video prompting system is so cumbersome to use, and so severely limited, that it's arguably worse than useless:

https://www.wheresyoured.at/expectations-versus-reality/

The centuries' worth of progress the AI made in discovering new materials actually "discovered" a bunch of trivial variations on existing materials, as well as a huge swathe of materials that only exist at absolute zero:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/23/maximal-plausibility/#reverse-centaurs

The AI grocery store where you just pick things up and put them in your shopping basket without using the checkout turns out to be a call-center full of low-waged Indian workers desperately squinting at videos of you, trying to figure out what you put in your bag:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/31/neural-interface-beta-tester/#tailfins

The discovery of these frauds somehow never precipitates disillusionment. Rather than getting angry with marketers for tricking them, reporters are ventriloquized into repeating the marketing claim that these aren't lies, they're premature truths. Sure, today these are faked, but once the product is refined, the fakery will no longer be required.

This must be the kinds of Magic Underpants Gnomery the credulous press engaged in during the jetpack days: "Sure, a 21-second rocket belt is totally useless for anything except wowing county fair yokels – but once they figure out how to fit an order of magnitude more high-explosive onto that guy's back, this thing will really take off!"

The AI version of this is that if we just keep throwing orders of magnitude more training data and compute at the stochastic parrot, it will eventually come to life and become our superintelligent, omnipotent techno-genie. In other words, if we just keep breeding these horses to run faster and faster, eventually one of our prize mares will give birth to a locomotive:

https://locusmag.com/2020/07/cory-doctorow-full-employment/

As a society, we have vested an alarming amount of power in the hands of tech billionaires who profess to be embittered science fiction fans who merely want to realize the "promises" of our Golden Age stfnal dreams. These bros insist that they can overcome both the technical hurdles and the absolutely insurmountable privation involved in space colonization:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/09/astrobezzle/#send-robots-instead

They have somehow mistaken Neal Stephenson's dystopian satirical "metaverse" for a roadmap:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/18/metaverse-means-pivot-to-video/

As Charlie Stross writes, it's not just that these weirdos can't tell the difference between imaginative parables about the future and predictions about the future – it's also that they keep mistaking dystopias for business plans:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tech-billionaires-need-to-stop-trying-to-make-the-science-fiction-they-grew-up-on-real/

Cyberpunk was a warning, not a suggestion. Please, I beg you, stop building the fucking torment nexus:

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/torment-nexus

These techno-billionaires profess to be fulfilling a broken promise, but surely they know that the promises were made by liars – showmen using parlor tricks to sell the impossible. You were "promised a jetpack" in the same sense that table-rapping "spiritualists" promised you a conduit to talk with the dead, or that carny barkers promised you a girl that could turn into a gorilla:

https://milwaukeerecord.com/film/ape-girl-shes-alive-documentary-november-11-sugar-maple/

That's quite a supervillain origin story: "I was promised a jetpack, but then I grew up discovered that it was just a special effect. In revenge, I am promising you superintelligent AIs and self-driving cars, and these, too, are SFX."

In other words: "Die a disillusioned jetpack fan or live long enough to become the fraudster who cooked up the jetpack lie you despise."

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/17/fake-it-until-you-dont-make-it/#twenty-one-seconds

[jesncin]

Coddling Colonizer Guilt

"Performative diversity is when MAWS features a Native American variant of Lois Lane in the multiverse episode only to end the season on a Thanksgiving episode."

...is something I like to joke with my friends as a shorthand for referencing MAWS' squeamish approach to politics while still trying to reap the clout of "diverse representation". I want to get my thoughts out there and perhaps start a discussion over why this feels off.

Some disclaimers: Firstly, I'm not Native American. Understand this is an observation I'm making from an outsider perspective with no personal authority. I'm just a disappointed Asian Lois Lane fan. Secondly, I know the MAWS crew/creators had no malicious intent in any of these (what I consider) poor writing decisions. I'm simply here to challenge and analyze these narrative and visual choices.

MAWS takes a fairly controversial take on Superman mythos so far. Unlike Superman's historic roots as an allegory for Jewish immigrants with Clark coming from a Kryptonian socialist utopia (leading the imperfect people of Earth to a better tomorrow), MAWS chooses instead to reimagine Superman as a descendant from a planet of "alien invaders". If the leaked(?) concept art (warning potential spoilers for s2) is to be believed, Clark is the direct descendent of the leaders of the "Kryptonian Empire". Supposedly gone are the parents of Superman being scientists that warn of the destruction of their home planet- instead we have the "proud, loving, brilliant" "leaders of the Kryptonian Empire".

While we don't know if this is the direction the show is going in, there are already cryptic hints of it being planted and thematic elements set up that point to it being a possibility. Clark had spent a majority of the season wondering what/who he is (being incapable of talking to Jor-El's hologram because of a language barrier) only to find out his supposed origins in episode 9. He's devastated learning that he's an alien invader and, once he regroups with his friends, angsts about believing he's a weapon sent from Krypton to invade Earth. Asian-Lois Lane and Black-Jimmy Olsen assure White-passing-alien-man Clark Kent that he's different and not like other colonizers. Clark ultimately saves the day, proving he's an exception. It's curious then that the season ends on Thanksgiving.

As I've mentioned before, MAWS is exhaustively squeamish with getting political. Whatever happens in the show that resembles "themes" is quickly contradicted with very little consistent internal logic. One minute Superman is supposedly a threat that "wipes out good American jobs", should "go back to where he came from" and Lois makes a hope speech about how we shouldn't treat people who "are different" and "don't look like us" (??) with cruelty (so Clark's an immigrant going through xenophobia?) and the next he's a redeemed colonizer (a more prominent thematic arc). One minute Clark is "different" and scared of being othered- likened to a gay couple and allegorically closeted, and the next his friends call him out for being a lying liar for not disclosing his marginalized identity within a week (the narrative frames Lois and Jimmy as being in the right). This show's writing is non-committal with what it wants to say, and largely goes on vibes. That is to say I don't think the writers intended for the themes of colonizer guilt to accidentally tie into Thanksgiving as a set piece for their final episode.

I'm sure the reason the writers chose Thanksgiving as their final episode is because it's "relateable". Half the episode is dedicated to slice of life family reunion shenanigans and the dang turkey still not being cooked through. But in choosing Thanksgiving, the writers told on themselves here with their biases. The existence of Thanksgiving implies the existence of genocide (of Native American people) by colonists in the MAWS universe. And yet Black Jimmy Olsen doesn't know what racism is (Mallah and the Brain give him a judgmental stare as Jimmy admits he can't relate to being violently marginalized) and Asian American Lois Lane doesn't understand immigration and xenophobia (constantly being entitled to Clark's immigrant identity, being incapable of comprehending why he would keep it a secret, because secrets are lies). The MAWS crew wanted a "relateable" set piece but in doing so ended up reinforcing the historical revisionism the holiday entails. A foreign colonizer sharing a meal with his friends of color on Earth, whose culture, history, and identity are all white washed.

I would like to challenge this idea that Thanksgiving is somehow the "relateable" choice. Why pick this holiday? Why not celebrate Thanksgiving as a National Day of Mourning (as some Native Americans do)? Why not pick any Jewish holiday as a nod to Superman's creators (ignoring this version's colonizer interpretation for a second)? Why not pick Lunar New Year, a holiday celebrated by many people including Koreans (Seollal in South Korea)? It could've been another fun opportunity to showcase Lois' heritage, and create a fusion of cultures from Jimmy and Clark's families. At its most non-political and secular, why couldn't they pick any weekend? This is what happens when a show doesn't consider its world building and setting in a holistic way. MAWS will nod to xenophobic rhetoric, portray allegorical queer marginalization, and make the vaguest nods to systemic bigotry (Prof Ivo displaced a whole neighborhood! Yet we never hear from those figurative displaced people). But it does nothing to discuss any of that on a deeper level. Its characters of color don't know what racism is and Thanksgiving is just a fun family reunion, guys.

All this and they had the audacity to sneak in a Native American Lois Lane in the multiverse episode?? Why is she, out of all the Lois Lanes in this screencap, the only one in full traditional wear? Why isn't she in a smart casual business fit like Black Lois and STAS white Lois? Would she not have been recognizably Native American to the non-Native audience otherwise? Isn't this tokenizing? Do you think she has a xenophobic dad in the military like Korean American Lois does?

But that fits MAWS' approach to diversity, doesn't it? Surface level cultural nods, maybe make Lois wear a hanbok one time, and let the audience eat it up. Never mind that both Korean American Lois and Native American Lois have been stripped of their culture and history in every other aspect.

I use the word "relateable" a lot here, but I think the important question to ask is "relateable for who?". 'Immigrant' is too charged a word, so MAWS universalizes Clark's marginalization to "being different". Superman isn't even an immigrant in this version, that was all a smokescreen for the twist that he's actually a descendent of colonizers! Being wracked with colonizer guilt is way more relateable to the white audience than being an immigrant, surely. Thanksgiving is more relateable than celebrating any culturally specific holiday our "diverse reimagining" could have represented. Characters of color being functionally white (in a way that doesn't threaten middle America) is way more relateable. MAWS is a show that doesn't want to delve into Native American history. It would rather put a Native American Lois hologram on a pedestal and call it a day.

[eluxcastar]

hi ive never written a request before so im sorry if its bad or too vague

could you write a dottore with an adopted child reader? like maybe he found them on the outskirts of a small town and just was like “im adopting you now”?

Dottore slightly dadfailing his way to fatherhood

── ୨୧：il dottore & reader

୨୧﹑synopsis :: dadtore picks up a kid and takes it in like a box kitten

୨୧﹑genre :: fluff

୨୧﹑content :: gn reader, child reader, reader's backstory is mostly ambiguous, this is literally exactly as is written on the tin

୨୧﹑words :: 753

you're doing just fine honey I'm sorry you've had to wait so long for me to complete this and the fact that it's basically a ramble, I'm just getting back into it so please forgive that it's slightly messy

It was cold when he found you, too cold for a child to wander about unchecked. Little children were never his thing, but scooping you up under your arms like a boneless little ragdoll and carting you off with him that night felt right somehow.

It would be simple to discard you on the doorstep of the House of the Hearth and simply forget you had existed, as that is hardly uncommon in the children there. Being delegated to the orphanage by a Harbinger is usually a visual shorthand: "They had parents once- just yesterday, in fact. Thanks to the Fatui's involvement, they don't anymore."

You're different. Circumstances demand it when Dottore has no access to the House.

Dottore swaddled you in his coat, shedding it in the same motion he scooped you up, carried you back into town where he could set you up on the closest thing you could get to a bed, situated on a chair in the basement where he got you a change of clothes. You didn't ask where they came from or what he did with your old clothes.

A bath of warm water did you well, easing the chill in your bones and washing away the dirt sticking to your skin. You popped the soapy bubbles with your fingers and sat quietly as the water ran over you. Dottore is good at giving baths, experienced from the days of sterilising subjects.

It's nice to feel clean. Dottore let you get out on your own and dress yourself in a fresh change of clothes.

The pillows were thin, blankets not enough to keep out the cold, but for the first night, he let you keep his coat.

Perhaps he intended to turn you over at that time, but a month has passed, and nothing has happened. You thought Dottore would be cold and distant, but he lets you poke around and play with things befitting a child. You watch and observe what he does but don't understand it. Many ask, and he evades answering.

Dottore isn't one for affection, not typically, and you've given up on having him read to you or play with you. It's not in his nature to treat you too softly. You have to be self-sufficient because his work demands it, and while he can monitor you, he can't stop to cut the crust off your sandwiches or do any more than offer that you sit by his side when you get scared.

He cares, but not typically. At first, it's almost...comforting how little he tries to push you into normalcy when you're so used to being by yourself. You can wander and aren't coddled too much beyond being unable to get into dangerous things.

You're well-fed and well-dressed, and you get to listen to Scaramouche, the strange doll man when he comes down. By all means, you are well-kept for a child. Apparently, it is because he got attached, as Scaramouche put it.

You don't quite understand how that could motivate him until he points out everything he's done, from making you comfortable to buying you clothes and even embracing you as his own. Rearranging the way he stores things to practically babyproof his lab was a feat just so you could wander around it safely in a place where he can watch you easily. How could he give you up? He obviously has no intention to.

It feels like the lightbulb to your little mind that sets off a domino effect as you look around you and start to realise these things. There is almost the sense that, despite Dottore’s informality towards his role as a father, Dottore doesn't want to give you up to the orphanage and maybe never did in the first place.

He likes it when you pester him and have to rely on him. He set everything that could kill you on the highest possible shelf, took note of the clothes you didn't like, the foods that put you off eating and collected the blankets he could find to make your bed more cosy, the occasional toy, plenty of visitors coming in and out to listen to. It's always warm where you sit.

Dottore let you keep borrowing his coat to sleep under, and you even convinced him to read you a storybook, if only once. There are many nights you fall asleep somewhere and wake up wrapped up in blankets and his coat, just as you like.

It seems very pleasant to live this way.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

How to write genius level characters? :(

One of the most reliable measures of intelligence today is the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale—currently in its 5th edition, with an upcoming edition in the works.

Using the tool/scale, scores are converted into nominal categories designated by certain cutoff boundaries for quick reference:

Measured IQ Range — Category

145-160: Very gifted or highly advanced

130–144: Gifted or very advanced

120–129: Superior

110–119: High average

90–109: Average

80–89: Low average

70–79: Borderline impaired or delayed

55–69: Mildly impaired or delayed

40–54: Moderately impaired or delayed

To write your "genius" character, you may want them within the Gifted to Very Gifted categories.

Note: With reference to this list, Roid (2003) cautioned that “the important concern is to describe the examinee’s skills and abilities in detail, going beyond the label itself”. The primary value of such labels is as a shorthand reference in some psychological reports.

These are the factors measured by the scale, and you ideally should aim for your "genius" character/s to exhibit high levels of:

Fluid Reasoning: Novel problem solving; understanding of relationships that are not culturally bound

Knowledge: Skills and knowledge acquired by formal and informal education

Quantitative Reasoning: Knowledge of mathematical thinking including number concepts, estimation, problem solving, and measurement

Visual-Spatial Processing: Ability to see patterns and relationships and spatial orientation as well as the gestalt among diverse visual stimuli

Working Memory: Cognitive process of temporarily storing and then transforming or sorting information in memory

Or maybe your character doesn't excel in all of these areas but in a specific one, or just a few of these. Maybe they perform within the average or high average in some, but are highly gifted in other areas.

The following may also guide you in writing your genius character, based on research compiled by Dr. J. Renzulli, which can be found in the Mensa Gifted Youth Handbook:

Characteristics of Giftedness

LEARNING CHARACTERISTICS

Has unusually advanced vocabulary for age or grade level

Has quick mastery and recall of factual information

Wants to know what makes things or people tick

Usually sees more or gets more out of a story, film, etc., than others

Reads a great deal on his or her own; usually prefers adult-level books; does not avoid difficult materials

Reasons things out for him- or herself

MOTIVATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

Becomes easily absorbed with and truly involved in certain topics or problems

Is easily bored with routine tasks

Needs little external motivation to follow through in work that initially excited him or her

Strives toward perfection; is self-critical; is not easily satisfied with his or her own speed and products

Prefers to work independently; requires little direction from teachers

Is interested in many "adult" problems such as religion, politics, sex and race

Stubborn in his or her beliefs

Concerned with right and wrong, good and bad

CREATIVITY CHARACTERISTICS

Constantly asking questions about anything and everything

Often offers unusual, unique or clever responses

Is uninhibited in expressions of opinion

Is a high-risk taker; is adventurous and speculative

Is often concerned with adapting, improving and modifying institutions, objects and systems

Displays a keen sense of humor

Shows emotional sensitivity

Is sensitive to beauty

Is nonconforming; accepts disorder; is not interested in details; is individualistic; does not fear being different

Is unwilling to accept authoritarian pronouncements without critical examination

LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS

Carries responsibility well

Is self-confident with children his or her own age as well as adults

Can express him- or herself well

Adapts readily to new situations

Is sociable and prefers not to be alone

Generally directs the activity in which he or she is involved

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Hope this helps with your writing. Do tag me, or send me a link. I'd love to read your work!

[unordinary-diary]

Arlo’s Height

I’m gonna say it right here and now: making Arlo super short as a Freshman and Sophomore is the funniest decision Uru has ever made— hands down. It gets me rolling every damn time.

But beyond that, it’s symbolic. I’ve mentioned the symbolism of Arlo’s height before— he’s 6’3”, and he is never once drawn next to someone taller than him. He commands the authority in every room he walks into, and his posture is immaculate. You see Arlo and you just know: that is the King. Arlo's height symbolizes power.

But in these flashbacks, Arlo is shorter than everyone. He’s around the same height as freshman Remi. Not only is he short, he has a bad case of baby face. This is more than a visual shorthand for the audience— the other characters pick up on it as well. His behavior is the same, but he is respected so much less. People perceive Arlo as young and weak. He has to work thrice as hard to get anything done because he has to prove himself constantly.

This parallels his struggles as King exactly. As we know from what he tells Blyke, Arlo had a lot of trouble in his first year as King. The Sophomores and upperclassmen all rejected him because he was Rei’s successor, the school was chaos, and the other Royals refused to work with him. In flashbacks, we can see that the freshmen don’t respect him either because he looks unimposing. The timeline matches up perfectly— he is short, he is disregarded. He is tall— he is respected.

Arlo’s height both symbolizes and contributes to how much power he has.

[mothermara]

Knights of the Nine is such a horrid, boring little DLC when standing next Shivering Isles it's so sad. Like it doesn't even incorporate the interesting aspects of Pelinal's mythos. Yeah fucking right Meridia's shining baby boy would be in a dark, wet ruin filled with undead. Come on, add some flavour, add some complexity. The Umaril/Pelinal dynamic is about being the vengeful holy knights of opposing gods, you set them up to be foils and ruined it by catering visual and thematic shorthand to white american catholics

[lycorogue]

I'm talking with a friend about Dracula Daily and how neat it is to revive a literary classic like that. How it was able to get published with its new chronological narrative as opposed to the original overlapping timelines.

But we both thought it would be cool if we somehow had a Dracula that included Jonathan's entries in shorthand with Mina's translation next to it.

Then I remembered the -ology books I read in the early 00s (I think... may have been late 90s).

For those who don't know, these were a series of childrens books that presented the fantastical or mythological as "factual" by designing the books like field guides or lost journals.

Their prominent series was Dragonology which had its own spin-offs. There was also Wizardology and Egyptology (which focused on the Egyptian pantheon being real) and Mythology (which was the same thing, but for Greek gods) and Monsterology, etc. Apparently there's 17 books in total in the series! I fell off at about 7!

Point being, these were awesome, interactive, fun books.

And I kind of want a Dracula stylized like them.

I want pages where it looks like Jonathan's original journal entries - written in the shorthand - are secured to scrapbook pages, with Mina's typed up translation nestled next to them. Similar to how Shakespearean plays have the original text to the left and then a modern translation on the right.

I want pages that look like Mina's and Lucy's letters back and forth to each other - printed with different handwriting fonts - are on corresponding pages. Maybe with the torn open envelopes tucked behind the letters.

I want Mina's transcriptions of John's audio recordings.

I want the telegrams being sent by Quincey or Helsing.

I want the actual newspaper clipping about the Demeter.

I want the receipts from the shipping company moving Dracula to Carfax.

I want the visual storytelling of all of these different bits of media compiled like a giant tome of a scrapbook.

I'd also love maps! Maps showcasing the route Jonathan took to and from Transylvania as well as the doomed route of the Demeter. I want a map of England with the various named locations showcased. I want a map of Whitby. I want a map of the interior of Dracula's castle.

So on and so forth.

Anyone know if this is already a thing now that Dracula is in the public domain? Anyone know of an existing shorthand translation of Jonathan's journal entries? Any graphic designers out there feeling where I'm going with this and want to team up to manifest it????

[decepti-thots]

it is SO noticeable when you read through MTMTE paying a lot of attention to the colour work in it (which i have done, because i really like burcham's work in particular) just how rarely it relies on "scary or menacing scene = Dark And Spooky" visual shorthand. a lot of early MTMTE stuff is pretty explicitly drawing on horror as a secondary genre- everything from the sparkeater mini-arc kicking things off to delphi to the overlord stuff. but you will pretty much never see those scenes fall back on "this will be Dark so it is Spooky", and often it's completely the opposite. the delphi stuff takes place in brightly lit snowy environments outside or uniformly lit medical interiors. that doesn't really change until e.g the later arc slaughterhouse, for example. the early stuff in particular is overwhelmingly bright no matter what.

what often gets used instead is unnatural contrast and startling colour combinations. for example, here are two scenes i think a lot of people might default to making dark for the sake of dramatic effect and tone setting if asked how to make them menacing:

both of these instead use a kind of "overexposed" look and contrasting colour choices which feel kind of strange and jarring. (the bottom right Whirl panel has those odd purple shadows contrasting with the bleached out yellowish walls, the red and green contrast on the sparkeater). it almost has this effect not of the moment in a horror movie where it's dark and you can't quite see whatever it is that is all Spooky TM, but when suddenly the flashlight falls on it and illuminates it all at once and makes you jump.

(i would imagine some of this relates to keeping milne's very densely detailed work readable, especially on pages that have so many small panels in them; bright and contrasting choices on the colour side will keep those busy details distinguishable even when those panels do not have a lot of 'breathing room'. if nothing else, the colour work in MTMTE does a lot of work to keep those smaller panels and dense crowd scenes readable, lol.)

[bogleech]

I just discovered the anime Ikinari Dagon which is about a tiny little monkeylike space alien who lands on earth

And he's SO tiny he only interacts with bugs!

We all understand this kind of anthropomorphism as just visual shorthand though, right? Like, it’s ASSUMED by us viewers that “in-universe” or “canonically” these bugs look like actual bugs isn’t it?

Heck the end credits even show the bugs realistically

But here’s the thing

The little guy

He falls in love

???????

????????????????????

[purplealmonds]

Observations about Mononoke Karakasa characters & relationships based on costuming & color palettes

Let's guess who these girls' parents are and see where this rabbit hole takes us!

Analysis below the cut! This isn't spoilers as much as it is just going over publicly available information with a fine tooth comb but proceed with caution. Buckle in, this is gonna be a long one!

Based on the color palette of their outfits, these two girls featured in the second trailer at the 0:17 timestamp are the twin daughters of Hokuto Mizorogi (溝呂木北斗) as indicated on his bio on the official website.

Given Mizorogi's status as priest of the "Omizu-sama" faith, it's entirely possibly he's given special privileges within the ooku to father a child.

According to Japanese geisha culture, their half-painted lips indicate that they are children. They partially shaved their heads is reminiscent of a nun's makes sense given their religious parentage. Two context clues combined, I believe they are priestesses-in-training - a position which is higher than even that of the most favored concubines.

Supporting this theory, these twins have a very high position of power in the Ooku despite their youth, as seen by them being at the front of the procession featured in the teaser trailer at the 0:07 timestamp. They also have uniquely colored umbrellas:

As an aside – given how most of the spiral-masked women are visually identical, uniquely colored outfits are a visual shorthand for status (or narrative significance) in the ooku.

And I believe they are the gatekeepers for the, uhhhh, how do I put this delicately? The shogun's baby-making room? Take this with a grain of salt though; I could only see a sliver of the room they were opening in the first screenshot. The colors seem fairly similar though!

But also consider: this babymaking room has a lot of eye motifs, which is reflected in the pit seen in the ceremonial area where I presume Mizorogi presumably performs his religious services:

The third trailer introduces the theme of discarding essential parts of yourself. There is a shot of the comb falling into a pool of water in an unknown location:

Paired with the visual of the comb lying amongst discarded valuables in the water in the second trailer, I'm going to hazard a guess this is a common "ritual" of sorts:

I'm willing to bet Mizorogi enforces this "identity discarding" ceremony on behalf of the shogun. It says in his character bio he's a strong believer of "Omizu-sama". Did he discard his role as a father to step into the role as a the priest?

Their mother may be Kitagawa (北川), a high ranking maid within the Ooku.

The twins' hair and eye colors look similar enough, but there's more meat to this theory. Kitagawa seems to be a narratively important character based on how heavily she's featured in the trailers in increasingly angsty/mysterious ways:

Perhaps Kitagawa "gave away" her motherhood to the waters, which has religious baptism connotations. This hypothetical scenario feels rife with mononoke-formation potential.

Furthermore, from costume design standpoint, she also shares the blue and teal colors featured in Mizorogi's outfit.

As for her purple accents, I believe it is a color reserved for the higher-ranking women of the ooku.

I have a theory that the darker a color is, the higher the status is. Consider:

Asa (Left), who is a new maid but has a lot of potential for upwards mobility.

Tokita Fuki (時田フ���) (Center)), a lowly commoner who caught the attention of the shogun. Because she's a commoner, the purple is faded despite her high status, perhaps representing that it will disappear once she loses the shogun's favor. But because the rose pattern is almost a one-to-one match to that of Mizorogi's, perhaps she is strongly favored by this man as well.

Awashima (Right), the subordinate of Utayama, who is falling out of favor as Asa rises in prominence. There are still pops of dark purple, but a washed out lavendar permeates her palette.

Both Tokita and Awashima also have highly saturated yellow/yellow-greens, which could represent potential danger of their power disappearing due to outside influences.

As for the deeper purple...

Otomo Botan (大友ボタン) (Right) - a lady in waiting and daughter of a high-ranking senior councilor. Note that she also has pale purple in her palette because her high status was not earned. Because she borrows power from influences outside of the ooku, the black accents are represent that she has more power than even Utayama, the most powerful woman within the ooku.

Utayama (歌山) (Left) - the woman with the highest position of the Ooku,  "Odoshiyoroshi". She is also prominently garbed in red and white, which is a color seen in the shogun and a little bit of Mizorogi's outfit:

Lighter shades of red (i.e. pink) also seem to indicate men of lower status that still have some position of power, like these guards:

Note that Kame (カメ) (Left) and Mugiya (麦谷) (Right) also possess these "masculine" colors which may indicate that they have more forceful personalities compared to other women within the ooku:

Their respective outfits also have analogous shades close to the blues prominent in Mizorogi's outfit. Assuming blue has religious connotations (akin to Virgin Mary), perhaps they are also strongly faithful to whoever this "Omizu-sama" entity is.

Meanwhile, Asa also wears pink, but does not feature any blue in her outfit. I think may represent her lack of faith. She does seem like a more levelheaded individual not easily swept away by more dazzling aspects of mysticism.

This is the look of a woman who not only has a braincell or two, but has it on her person at all times.

Now let's look at our main protagonists!

Kusu features red and purple color accents in his outfit, which makese sense for his gender ambiguous presentation. You could say that the other colors featured in his outfit represent how the influences he collects by interacting with humans. Black is also featured heavily as the canvas for these colors. As mentioned earlier, this represents influences outside of the ooku.

In contrast, Shingi while sports both the masculine red/white and feminine purple colors of power, the latter definitely eclipses the former which matches his masculine presentation. His outfit also has black, but because his influence in the world comes in bursts during exorcisms, it is featured less prominently than Kusu. His disheveled look may represent his discarding of these superficial societal norms. His power - symbolized by red - need not be worn. It is already tattooed onto his skin - literally.

The only other characters that have red tattooed onto their skin are the twins from the beginning of this post. Come to think of it, their partially shaved look may also be a nod to the shogun's power - indicating that their very existence is divinely approved by him. So we come full circle!

So, yeah! Although these twins don't have an official bio, there's a lot to learn about them and others from extrapolation and inference alone!

In summary:

Red/White = Masculine/Divine power

Blue = Religious power

Purple = feminine power

Yellow = danger of power loss

Light colors = weak influence

Dark colors = stronger influence

Thank you for coming with me on this long diatribe!

[blueskittlesart]

you might've talked about this already but. god. there's just Something about the gloom hands always reaching and trying to grab you - a direct reflection of link trying to grab zelda and failing. there's just Something about one of the most terrifying enemies in the entire game, especially when you first encounter them, being hands that will try to grab you no matter where you run and what you climb. And even the way they disappear after they fail but haven't died; like zelda disappeared. fuck.

I actually havent done much analysis of the gloom hands but i gladly will now that youve given me a reason to because you're right about the reaching motion being reminiscent of link's failure at the beginning of the game. Similarly, the other most notable thing about the gloom hands imo is the fact that they turn the sky red when they're approaching. most people compare this to a midday blood moon, but what it really reminds ME of is the way the sky above hyrule castle changes the closer you get to the sanctum in botw. the red sky is something that, in botw, was visual shorthand for calamity ganon, so imo the hands are representative of not just his failure at the beginning of totk, but his initial failure to stop the calamity in botw as well. They are essentially link's regrets CHASING HIM DOWN.

another thing that I find really interesting about the gloom hands is that they're actually not that hard to beat, relatively speaking. as long as you have some bombs or elemental arrows and a decent weapon to hit phantom ganon with they generally go down pretty easy. the reason they have this status among players as the worst enemy in the game is purely because of how TERRIFYING they are. if you can shoot them with a bomb arrow you're fine, but because of the genuine fear they inspire in players most people's initial reaction to them is to either run away or freeze in place. unlike botw's guardians which were genuinely almost impossible to defeat early-game, the gloom hands are actually easily defeatable. they're just so SCARY that running seems like the better option. and I think that says something about what role they play and what they represent to link within the context of the game--failure, and specifically his personal failures, is something so terrifying to him that he can't help but run from it even though he KNOWS he's capable enough to face it. because of his years serving as zelda's knight and the trauma that came along with his role pre-calamity, his own mistakes have become something too terrifying to even think about facing.

and the fact that the hands reveal phantom ganon once they fall is important too! because the REAL trauma link is facing didn't actually come from his mistakes. it came from ganon. The true evil behind every problem he's faced concealed itself so well that link begins to think that HE is at fault for the suffering he faces--because he couldn't stop the calamity, because he couldn't reach zelda, THAT'S why bad things are happening. but it was never ACTUALLY his fault, and when he is willing to confront his own fears head-on they easily fall through and the true root of the problem reveals itself.

[coldshrugs]

@fooltofancy THANK YOU VIN!!!

ngl, i've kind of wanted to make a tutorial for this for a minute and maybe i will when the posing tools are back but !! it's not really any big secret or trick.

i start with the clavicle bones so i get the set of the shoulders right

the elbows/forearms get bent on the blue axis ONLY. real elbows do not bend in any other way and when i see gposes with elbows moved along the red or green axes, it stands out so starkly to me.

once the elbows are adjusted, then i move to the shoulder/upper arm, and that gets the most adjustment. fine tune clavicle and elbow as needed here to get the position you need.

i move hands as close to the thing they're meant to be touching as possible, adjusting on all three axes. i want the feel of weight and interaction. a little bit of clipping is fine, sometimes even welcomed!

finger placement comes only after the palm is positioned. i am meticulous about this part T^T this is where the feeling comes in. hands carry a lot of emotion and if they're not supporting the body, they are touching something or expressing a feeling. at this point i have a lot of shorthands (pun intended) that i turn to, like specific finger spacing, thumbs flat or gripping, how much to raise knuckles for a loose, relaxed look. etc etc

(also thumbs don't rotate that much irl. blue and green rotations serve you best here, very little red unless it's absolutely necessary)

after all this, it's time to TWIST. the shoulders, elbows, and wrists all have a secondary bone for twisting. tbh, if you're not bastardizing the elbow with non-blue rotations, it doesn't really need adjustment unless gear looks weird. shoulders and wrists get twists in the same directions they've been moved, until things look right. it makes a huge difference!

imo gposing in an anatomically-friendly way seems similar to an artist doing anatomy studies: you do it wrong a lot and then you get much better at doing it in a visually pleasing way. knowing how things should move and what you can cut out helps you move through posing more quickly and confidently 💗