#powerpoint 2013

[ahrisaamariyo]

HELP?

[qesacademy]

Microsoft Powerpoint 2013 Essentials - QES Academy

You will have the ability to consolidate your content, and learn capabilities of Microsoft Powerpoint 2013 Essentials.

[weaselandfriends]

Kill la Kill (anime)

So, twelve years on, did Trigger save anime?

Existing in the present will invariably inundate one with lifeless, disposable, trend-chasing pop media, no matter the medium. Not only do moneymen like to imitate whatever made money before, but artists like to imitate the art they enjoy. The current moment will always seem bloated by dreck, while the past, filtered via the sieve of time, will always seem to contain only gleamingly original works of greatness. Were the 1980s not a golden age of blockbuster cinema, with Aliens and Indiana Jones and Ghostbusters? Please ignore the 1,000 shoddy E.T. knockoffs, thank you, or the million formulaic action hero flicks aping the Schwarzenegger formula.

Anime in 2013, when Kill la Kill began airing, was no different. The past two years had seen Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Hunter x Hunter, Fate/Zero, Stein's;Gate, Kuroko no Basket, Nichijou, Nisemonogatari, Psycho-Pass, and Attack on Titan, all popular and well-regarded shows both when they released and today. So the memetic idea in the anime community that Trigger was "saving anime" with Kill la Kill is patently ridiculous. (If you don't believe how widespread this idea was, two of the three top reviews for the show on MyAnimeList, written the same day the show finished airing, allude to it.)

It's easy to see how the idea became so popular, though. Trigger was a brand new studio formed primarily by staff from debt-stricken Gainax, the legendary studio that in 1995 revolutionized anime with Neon Genesis Evangelion. Eva's main creative figure, auteur director Hideaki Anno, wasn't with Trigger, but many of the people behind Gainax's other popular shows like Gurren Lagann and Panty & Stocking were, so the studio had a new-look fresh-start feel while drawing on a proven lineage of success.

At the same time, Kill la Kill itself promotes its revolutionary nature. Its plot revolves around a lone rulebreaking badass taking on an entrenched system defined explicitly by its aesthetic uniformity. It's not a difficult leap to read this storyline metaphorically, Trigger battling the waves of copy-paste seasonal anime.

However, what is most striking, most obviously eye-catching and unique about Kill la Kill, what hits the viewer with the immediate sense that this show is something different, something new, something like nothing you have seen before, is that it looks like nothing you have seen before. Kill la Kill is brimming with unique and memorable images, from the gigantic red block text used to introduce every new character and concept, to the bizarre ship-like architecture of Honnouji Academy, to the blend of fluid sakuga with choppy PowerPoint animation for comedic effect, to smaller iconic moments like Satsuki clicking her heel. It's always in-your-face about it, too. The opening scene sets the tone when a dry history lecture gets interrupted by Gamagoori squeezing through a door like a behemoth, utterly ignoring any rules regarding on-model consistency.

It's this devotion to the unique image that sets Kill la Kill apart from most of the other 2011-2013 shows I listed previously, shows that, while they might have a consistent aesthetic sensibility (such as Stein's;Gate's washed-outness or Fate/Zero's glimmering post-processing effects), are often conforming at their core to ideas of what anime "should" look like in terms of character design, setting, and animation. (The two Shaft shows I listed are an exception, but by this point Shaft's Akiyuki Shinbo had been doing his idiosyncratic visual style for over a decade, and wasn't exactly a fresh face.) Trigger's staff previously created Panty & Stocking, a show imitating the look and feel of western cartoons; Kill la Kill advances that idea into a wholly unique fusion of western and Japanese animation traditions, allowing it to break free of the insular anime landscape and its expected visual signifiers.

Obviously the counterpoint lurking beneath this preamble is that, under the unique visuals and tone, Kill la Kill isn't all that innovative at all, even painfully standard at times. Battles are decided by the power of friendship or the power of staying true to oneself (Don't Lose Your Way!), the hero is mind controlled and her friends call out to her until she breaks free, the one-dimensionally evil villain has a big end-the-world plot that everyone teams up to defeat. Even within the parameters the story establishes for itself, Ryuko proceeds linearly, starting out by fighting small fry club captains, then the Elite Four student council, then Satsuki the student council president, and finally Satsuki's mother who owns the school, with only a few speed bumps along the way.

But Kill la Kill makes the argument that aesthetics are too intimately interwoven with content to be disentangled that way. It's the crux of the conceit of the show, which is founded on a series of puns. "Fascism" sounds like "fashion," so in the world of Kill la Kill those concepts are now entwined. "School uniform" ("seifuku") and "conquest" ("seifuku") are homophones, so uniforms are the method by which Satsuki exerts her intra-Japanese imperialism. (Early on, Satsuki delivers a monologue in which she remarks on how Japanese school uniforms are aesthetically modeled on military uniforms, making it natural for her to militarize her school.) The title is itself a tripartite pun, combining words for "kill," "cut," and "wear." (Notably, this is a pun that blends the English and Japanese languages, much like the blended animation style.) Despite the visual, slapstick nature of Kill la Kill's humor, puns abound throughout. Some are obvious even in translation, such as the "Naturals Election" used to choose the new student council, while others can be difficult to catch. Nui, for instance, apes Dio Brando's catchphrase of "muda, muda, muda" (useless, useless, useless); later, when her arms are cut off, she screams "ude, ude, ude" (arms, arms, arms).

The core idea of most of these puns is that superficial similarity indicates similarity of content. Sometimes, this is an insightful observation, such as with the pun between fashion and fascism. Fascism is notoriously difficult to define rigidly in relation to other forms of dictatorship, but what is easy to define about it is its aesthetics, to the point that films like Star Wars are able to use aesthetic signifiers of fascism to define the politics of its villains even when withholding any actual explanation of those politics. Star Wars never has to show what the day-to-day rule of the Empire is like, because its army looks like the Nazis, so the audience gets the idea. Fascism as a political ideology and fascism as an aesthetic are, effectively, the same thing.

And if aesthetics are equivalent to meaning, then doesn't that mean that Kill la Kill looking new in fact makes it new? That its plot, generic in dry summary, is elevated by the distinctive way it's depicted? One pun, delivered upon the revelation that parasitic alien clothes have influenced humanity's evolution for the purpose of harvesting them for food (a story beat itself derivative of Puella Magi Madoka Magica), is that "the clothes make the mankind." The common refrain of Satsuki and Ragyo that people are "pigs in human clothing" hammers the point home: Aesthetics are everything. There is no meaning without aesthetics, just as people without clothes are unevolved animals.

Ultimately, though, Kill la Kill rejects this statement. Clothes are the enemy, literally, and the heroic organization fighting against them is Nudist Beach, whose members fight naked. At the end of the show, all clothes are destroyed, and the final image before the credits is of the entire cast in a giant, naked, triumphant huddle, an assertion of the inherent value of humanity even without aesthetic adornment. Isn't that the point behind all those power-of-friendship, power-of-believing-in-yourself speeches that Ryuko, Mako, and Senketsu use to turn the tables and win the battle? An appeal to a hidden inner nature that one must remain true to (Don't Lose Your Way!!!), that can overpower superficial displays of strength? Ryuko's mind control arc depicts this idea most overtly. She is controlled by having clothes sewn to her skin -- having an aesthetic forced onto her -- but Mako manages to dive into Ryuko's inner world to bring her back to her "true self."

This kind of undermines Kill la Kill as a work, though. What does a "nudist" Kill la Kill look like, stripped of its unique visual language? Certainly not something that would stand out from the waves of high school battle shounen that have been a fixture in the anime landscape since time immemorial. Kill la Kill's thesis might assert that there's a reason these power-of-friendship cliches endure (a sort of, if you'll allow me to become a parody of myself for a moment, post-postmodern reclamation of a narrative mode tarnished by irony and cynicism), but it contradicts the unique visual style that Kill la Kill developed to convey that idea.

In some ways, Kill la Kill does strip down to a nude, or at least semi-nude, state by the end. Many of its earlier concepts, including the connection between fashion and fascism, vanish as the story progresses. Satsuki and her fascist system are revealed to have been a deception while she secretly worked to betray her mother (playing on Ragyo's mistaken belief that aesthetics mean everything by Satsuki looking compliant while not actually being so), and once the twist occurs, the entire fascism plotline goes out the window. It's never really mentioned again; even when Ryuko gets on Satsuki's case for her past misdeeds, she only calls her out for "Looking down on people from on high," a general and ideologically-agnostic call against elitism. The 1-episode OVA set after the series briefly touches on the fascist system Satsuki enforced, with the episode's villain accusing Satsuki and the Elite Four of generating real, actual terror and abuse despite their ultimately pure motives (an assertion, once more, that aesthetics mean everything, that looking fascist makes you fascist no matter your true beliefs), but Mako quickly dismisses the claim with another power-of-friendship speech. Satsuki and the Elite Four have grown as people, she says. They're no longer bad like they used to be!

Kill la Kill also gets stripped down tonally by its end. The show's opening scene depicts a disobedient student being whipped, seemingly to death; later, his nude corpse(?) is displayed over the school gates. Combined with the title "Kill la Kill," it sets a dark, violent tone that lends weight to the otherwise cartoonish animation style. By the end, though, this dark tone is revealed as a false aesthetic; there is remarkably little killing in Kill la Kill. Stripped of real narrative stakes, the climactic battles diminish to flashy lightshows, action figures bouncing against each other. Worst of all, the blend of "fluid sakuga with choppy PowerPoint animation" I mentioned earlier increasingly tilts toward the latter. This is largely due to the prominence of Nui as an antagonist, since her cartoonishness is part of her character, but given Gainax's track record of running out of money and/or time by the end of its shows and phoning in parts of them, I wonder whether the habit transferred over to Trigger.

In short, as Kill la Kill strips down, it becomes a weaker show. In doing so, it not only undermines its own theme, but undermines itself as a truly new and innovative work, exposing its reliance on superficial aesthetic. The notion that Trigger "saved anime" would depend not only on Kill la Kill's individual success, but on its influence; twelve years out, and the only other notable shows like Kill la Kill were also made by Trigger. Perhaps you can see some influence on Masaaki Yuasa, who also blends high-quality sakuga with deliberately cheaper animation for comedic or stylistic effect, but he had already established himself in 2010 with Tatami Galaxy. Another show with a distinctive "Trigger" feel, Flip Flappers, was a flop flopper that caused its studio to immediately pivot to generic seasonal stuff.

My friend Lurina, when I asked her whether Trigger really had any influence over the larger anime landscape, suggested that Trigger sparked a general desire for more high-quality animation, which can be seen today in shows like Chainsaw Man or Dandandan. I would counter that those shows, while well-made, lack the distinctive blend of high and low, east and west that defines Trigger; if anything, the notion of the high-quality seasonal shounen adaptation comes from My Hero Academia, where Bones eschewed the traditional 500-episode weekly low-effort adaptation style of Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece and set the blueprint for shows like Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, and so on, which adapt their source material in 12-episode chunks with lavish production values.

At the same time, I question whether Trigger even saved itself. Kill la Kill would be the studio's peak, and much of its subsequent output is a pale shadow of the show. (Its only other megahit, Darling in the Franxx, had an even more disastrous ending.) This culminated in BNA, a show that takes Kill la Kill's themes and iconography but does them cheaply and lazily. Since then, Trigger has rebounded -- but not by being "Trigger." Cyberpunk Edgerunners and Dungeon Meshi were both popular and well-regarded shows, but they were adaptations where Trigger had minimal control over the storytelling or aesthetic; Dungeon Meshi, other than a few sparse sakuga moments, doesn't even look distinctively like a Trigger show. It feels like any competent studio could have turned Dungeon Meshi into a hit. Trigger still exists, and in its partnership with Netflix is possibly stronger than ever, but it is losing its unique identity, becoming more standard, more similar to the crowd. Another conformer. Maybe the upcoming Panty & Stocking sequel can turn it around, but who can say.

Either way, Kill la Kill's moment has passed, without the cataclysmic ripple on the anime industry fans at the time expected or craved. Honestly, though, despite how I opened this essay, I can't blame them for their desire to see anime "saved." After all, the biggest anime of 2012, the year before Kill la Kill aired, did cause a cataclysmic ripple, one undoubtedly felt to this day. Unlike Kill la Kill, the biggest anime of 2012 spawned countless imitators, an endless flood of imitators, imitators that have themselves spawned imitators and imitators of imitators. That anime of 2012 has even extended its reach past anime, coating the current webfic scene; one could say that the site RoyalRoad would not exist if not for it. In face of such an oppressive, daunting influence, perhaps those fans of 2013 were right to clamor for something, anything, that would reveal a new direction, a way out. In such a context, one might even see it as tragic that Kill la Kill failed to deliver, that at the last moment it came up short. If Kill la Kill was the fork in the road leading to sunnier pastures, this anime led the industry into a deep, dark forest.

The name of that anime?

Sword Art Online.

[heresmyfiddlestick]

The Story and the Engine. I'm so relieved I gave my friends a rundown via PowerPoint presentation of the Doctor Who Is a TV Show Theory before this season began because we just keep winning. when I saw it was Inua Ellams and a barbershop I knew what we were doing - it's about communal storytelling as a means of keeping a community and culture, specifically African and diaspora culture. if you don't know about Ellams' play Barber Shop Chronicles, read up about it

holy shit is it delightful to see 15 in Africa. he is chumming it up in the market, he has a secret handshake with Omo. the Blackness of this episode was refreshing and inspiring. Ellams specifically addresses the differences in attitude the Doctor has experienced having changed his skin tone-- which is a really nice mirror to last year's episode 5, which didn't say it outright but really made you feel it along with him.

i'm really amused by Belinda just hanging back in the TARDIS. what was she planning on doing? she doesn't have a bedroom, and this console room doesn't have chairs. love that the TARDIS is helpful to her, though. she probably has some sympathy for Belinda, and we know she had a thing for the previous nurse passenger...

then of course we've got the whole conceit of the barbershop. we're telling stories to power some nefarious machine. an enigmatic man with a goatee and a weird little handheld doohickey and a pseudonym is holding people hostage. he's the Master. an exceptionally gorgeous but nonetheless mysterious woman walks in and the Doctor can't quite place her... no wait, she's the Master. oh wait, they're talking about gods-- it's another Pantheon thing?

NOPE! and thank god for that, too. it was great that we were able to have so much talk about real-world gods and not get dragged into the multi-season Pantheon arc. good to have the distinction between Doctor Who gods (ineffable and terrifying) and real-world gods (MCU fans)

(speaking of: i watched on Disney+ and that Endgame namecheck really added another layer of meta)

to be honest, the ultimate explanation of what The Barber is up to left me a bit cold. i really love it with my {{esquivalience}} hat on: we are unraveling the relationship between stories and storytellers, between original creators and the work that exists separate from them, between what stories are valued more than others (The Barber doesn't stop Abby while she is braiding the Doctor's hair, even though she is telling a story about why he should). this is all great and juicy and full of the language of rope. but there was just something that felt a bit uneven about it. a bit abstract, maybe. part of why i'm thrown is that... The Barber is an immortal human? and this was not really touched further on. not that we need to stop and explain everything that happens in our sci-fi show...

back to the ramble

how did the Doctor know that story about Belinda? i don't think she will have had a moment to just stop and chat with him about this one shitty shift. maybe he spoke to the woman she saved while he was looking for her? good to see Mrs. Flood get a look-in. mighty sturdy fourth-wall on this show, with the amount of people trying to bust it down

i loved the Fugitive Doctor jumpscare. i love leaving her as unexplained as possible. i love her existing in the back of the Doctor's mind

The Barber's first little beginning of the Nexus... that's a loom, right? that's looms? #loomwatch

oh and one last thing. Nigeria in the real world is where several formerly-lost 60s episodes have been found, notably The Enemy of the World and most of The Web of Fear in 2013. nothing in the story about that, but it is another great echo in the echo chamber of the TV show theory, especially with the recent literal depiction of film being burned this season

great ep. great season.

[ladyloveandjustice]

List of "Does it Like Women" Results and whether I agree

I find the "Does it like women" blog fascinating, as y'all have probably noticed. I always tend to think deeply about this topic when I consume media, so I wanted to make a list of results I disagree with, because it interests me! I'll likely be updating this through reblogs if my interest doesn't wane, I'll make a note in the replies when I do!

Loves Women

I agree with all of these so far! Well, loves women might be a little bit of a stretch for the first Spiderverse movie (on the other hand...doc ock...hnnn), but I think the second does so yeah basically agree.

Likes Women

Kill la Kill- Man it's 2013 again and I'm seeing tumblr make powerpoints about how klk is deeply feminist and it's actually a super deep critique of harassment that Ryuko has to wear the ugliest outfit ever and Westerners Don't Understand (person making this argument is inevitably a Westerner).

Yeah, based on the part I've seen and everything I've heard, hard disagree. But I have not seen the whole thing, just those three, I do know the part I saw included rape jokes a plenty, a weird victim-blamey take on "not being ashamed" of being forced into a skimpy outfit and how if you're bothered by men ogling you that's your weakness, and a vagina wedgie. I'm not as mad about it as I was back then,and I can appreciate the show has it's good points later on. Not having watched it also means my knowledge is incomplete. However, I have listened to really in depth breakdowns of the series (mainly Anifem's podcast), so I know exactly what happens, and yeah, the treatment of women doesn't impress me. I'm on the dislike side, (holding back on hates because again, haven't seen all of it)

...could understand mixed feelings though, I guess

Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 anime- nahhhh man, it doesn't like women, treating them significantly worse than the manga it adapted. I have a lot of issues, from how thoroughly it shafted Winry, to how it gave Riza nothing, to Dante being every cliche about a female villain they could fit in here, the treatment of Rose leaving a horrible taste in my mouth (I see arguments of what happened to her being a critique of imperialism, however I have yet to see anyone justify why the show had to continue to have her kidnapped and assaulted and treated as an afterthought after that) and some truly rancid one-off episodes.

I break down my problems with it at the end of the little FMA 2003 liveblog I did, though it's phrased super obnoxiously because I wrote it...oh my god twelve years ago oh god I'm crumbling to dust as we speak. But I break down the basics with the "top gross things" post I did (ignore any thoughts on race I had no place writing bout that tbh). The tag anime: turn your zombie mom into ethanol also goes into more of my thoughts, though again, very obnoxious and the deeper you dig the more ancient and obnoxious it will get lmao.

I have several ancient posts on how it treated Winry in particular, as she was my fave and was done so dirty, and I think they hold up fairly well. Here's a post I made about the Winry-Roy plotline, and a good response by another user. Then we have this post, ignore horrible art.

(Please don't try to spark a debate with any of this stuff, it's years and years old, I went through so much drama and legit panic attacks, and I'm not committed anymore. Love 2003 and think it likes women if you want, that's fine! I'm just trying to illustrate what I mean in saying imo it dislikes women).

The Handmaiden- This poll reminded me to finally get around to watching this movie, and I'm so glad I did! I'd go with "loves women" for this one actually,The nos must either be misclicks or people who don't understand that two women having sex on screen is not the same as the male gaze.

Madoka- I'd definitely go more towards mixed feelings honestly (especially if we're counting Rebellion) but I get the people who say "likes".

Yuri is my Job- it loves women, it loves messy women, it loves women who love women, it loves them so much, idk why it got a sizeable no vote. People who only watched the first ep? People who think yuri is "bad"?

Mob Psycho 100- Someone in the notes says "accidentally likes women" and that's the only answer in the "likes women" area I'll accept. It has 10 million prominent male characters and like three prominent female characters. ONE really really obviously has a hard time imagining women as powerful or action heroes. (this is reflected in One Punch Man too) (One Punch Man actively hates women and queer people though, Mob is infinitely better) Only one who ever gets to fight and play with the boys, and she's a low level mook, and we have to spend 75% percent of her limited screentime on whether it's actually okay to fight women, with her winning argument being "Well you're literally a child so I guess it evens out" (???) The little girl with the evil dolls gets even less screentime.

I do like that the series examines how Mob idealized Takane and how people not caring about the real her made her tired, as well as how it allowed her to reject Mob and was basically a lesson in the importance of accepting rejection. But her screentime is also really limited, and I feel like we could have dove into her a lot more. Tome is a wonderful weird girl and I liked her little arc, and I hear she gets more in the Reigen manga, but still not a TON of screentime, and even with her there are a couple jabs about how she doesn't "count" as a girl due to not acting traditionally feminine we're clearly supposed to find funny. Emi is...there I guess. There's that sweet scene with the writer girl, and the bully girl, but they're like, not reoccurring at all, as evidenced by how I can't remember their names.

And uh. the girls school episode.

Anyway. Hot take but I don't think "they're barely in the story but when they are two of them are treated pretty decently and have some depth, though there is some weird stuff about whether women can even fight men or whatever" really counts as "likes women". I'd go more mixed feelings.

Life is Strange-out of the two options I chose dislikes, but my feelings are a lot closer to "mixed feelings". I go into why here.

Gushing Over Magical Girls- lol. lmao even. The anime about middle school girls who look 8 sexually assaulting other middle school girls DEFINITELY doesn't like women. I go into more detail here.

Cowboy Bebop: Mixed feelings, probably. I chose dislikes because yes, Faye and Ed are great (you could def read Ed as nb though), but Faye also is repeatedly damsel in distress'd and treated as incompetent in her field when I don't think she should be, she can be a failgirl without being the sole woman in the action side of the group and also the least capable (there's also That Scene in the movie). also i just. it's fine that she's sexy but I hate her outfit. give her something nicer looking, it's so ugly. But my main reason for a dislike vote is the treatment of Julia. Girl is a textbook example of fridging. They really gave her so little. But yeah I could see mixed feelings.

Also do you remember that one scene during Faye's tragic backstory where she's hospitalized and the camera requires us to look down her super (painful looking? like idk how she's not screaming about it) squished boobs during this tense and important moment god that took me out. whenever anyone acts like Faye always owns her sexiness and the camera never does anything I remember that scene.

Ranma 1/2: I've seen read a good chunk of it, and this result is...surprising. Maybe by the standards of 80's manga though, who knows.

Better Call Saul- I did vote yes on this one, but I'd put it more at mixed feelings. Kim is a fantastic character, but there aren't enough women on the show at all. She's a major part of the show, but basically the only one of any note. I only voted yes because I finally remembered Francesca was a reoccurring character and she's all right, but the fact I had to think to remember...

Undead Unluck: I know it gets a lot better later but I'm not sure if a work that has it's female character continuously and comically sexually harassed for the first few chapters can ever get liking women privileges. I don't know enough about it but it might be a mixed feelings situation.

Akiba Maid War: tbh I'd probably give this 'loves women'.

Ducktales: For the second season specifically I'd say "loves women". The first season leans more towards 'like women' though, so it evens out.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend- Should be "loves women" but people are ridic and voted based on the title.

Mixed Feelings

Dracula- IIII definitely think it dislikes women, sorry guys. Mina is a great character and you do have to take it in the context of when it was written. But there are surely contemporaries of Bram Stoker that wouldn't have randomly gone out of their way to scoff at the "New Woman". Not to mention again, really random sidebars about how men are so much smarter and cooler and women should be grateful to them. I could go on about Lucy and how Mina is treated and whether that's a critique of sexism or just playing into it and how it's so open to interpretation but I'll stop here.

also the book is hugely anti- Romani, immigrant etc and I think that ties into disliking women since some women are those Romani and immigrants

It really really felt like a case where a lot of people in the Drac Daily tag just wanted it to be super feminist because they liked it (you can like things without having to make them feminist! it's fine!), and the way they scoffed at feminist scholars who had "surface level readings" of the text (aka they dared to say it was sexist) still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

The Lego Movie: dislikes women. what are y'all on. Even it's own sequel calls it out for disliking women. Wildstyle is basically the only woman with real characterization and she's the purest concentration of "hypercompetent woman must play second fiddle to Average Male loser who is the one who actually saves the world and also she falls in love with him because of course she does'. Then Wonder Woman got one line (in literally the first theatrical move she got to even be in) and Superman and Batman a lot of screen time.

Does not like

Scott Pilgrim- Don't get this result, I'd put it at likes or mixed feelings? It's literally about how Scott has weird issues with women where he doesn't see them as to full people they are, and it calls him out on that hard. The whole sixth volume is how he made up a damsel in distress scenario for Kim and always took her for granted, how he put all the blame on Envy for the end of their relationship when he played a huge role in that, Knives finally getting over him, moving on, and telling him he needs to grow up a little (highlighting how his grossness towards her was him refusing to accept that he was an adult now, and that he was horrible to her, and yes he does apologize), and accepting that he and Ramona are both messed up people and she's just as flawed as he is, taking down the pedestal he put her on. And having Ramona triumphantly confront her abuser. Scott acknowledges he has a lot in common with Gideon, the supervillain!

Roxy is a sticking point, the whole 'it was a phase thing' and her and Ramona's relationshipbeing unexplored was annoying (fixed in Takes Off) but even she had some moments of pathos and was definitely the (Ramona's) ex the story seemed to sympathize with the most.

I dunno. this seems like a tumblr lacks media literacy thing again. Did you think the narrative agrees with Scott. Did you only watch the movie.

Succession- I'd go more mixed feelings? Dislikes is fine, I think it doesn't have enough women and often privileges male characters over them, but sometimes it's examination of the sexism Shiv faces is really incisive, and she's a complex character. But she should have gotten that abortion.

Watchmen: hates women actually. Pretty much anything written by Alan Moore does.

Persona 4: I think it hates women actually. But dislike is fine too.

Merlin: Everything I've heard about the show puts in in the hates camp rather than dislikes, but i never watched it (I did watch this video on it, and the bootlicking is out of this world if it's accurate) so I can't really comment

Fables: I cannot fathom how this did not get "hates women". Not just the fact it's written by a known misogynist. I will always remind everyone that I was literally there to see Bill Willingham say the female fans protesting the misogynist treatment of Stephanie Brown were annoying and he wishes he could shoot them. I was there. I heard him. This attitude completely shows up in his work. On top of that, his conservative, women hating idealogy all over this comic. Do you not remember all the random abortion soapboxes and how hard Snow White got sidelined????

And when I refreshed my memory, I discovered the reason Snow White had kids when she didn't want to was because a spell made her have sex with the male lead and she didn't even remember that happening. I also forgot that her backstory was the seven dwarfs raped her (but then she murdered them! Girl Power!) This is only the tip of the iceberg, I rediscovered way too many screwed up things he did to his female characters. Plus blatant Zionist propaganda and a ton of racism.

Like Snow White's backstory was some dark and edgy rape revenge and she's an Empowered Woman now, only to have her be raped by the man she will marry (in a mutual rape) but we don't call it that, and now she has kids she doesn't want, she can't get an abortion because It's Evil, time to quit her job she's proud of and move to a farm to have six kids.

iCarly-- It hates women! Dan Schneider. That should be all we need but some people in the comments insisted on separating the art from the artist despite the fact the artist is ALL OVER the art, and said art directly tormented Jeanette McCurdy! There was so much content in the show that was there to specifically torment her-- the fact her character has a food addiction/eating disorder while she had a real life eating disorder and they had to have known this, the fact after hearing she had a crush on an actor then they wrote it into her character to humiliate her, the fact they continually sexualized her while knowing her discomfort with it and with her body-- I have also watched the exhaustive basically minute-by-minute breakdown by QuintonReviews. Some gross shit happens on that show.

Hates Women

Agree with all of these so far!

[novaazurite]

[THIS POST IS NOT SCHEDULED]

Temporiarly breaking my steady flow of queue posting every two days as I want to talk about BFDIA 18!!!! SO YEAH SPOILER WARNING BELOWWWWWW !!!!! Also yeah im still on a break until I get these classes done... Sooo dont really expect a reply out of me from this post.

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•

When I was watching this for the first time and hell, even when I was predicting, I cant believe I was right about Nickel being out, its so silly the WTFers made the elimination made it like a powerpoint presentation. I kind of wonder if they will remain the hosts for when its the final five, we are getting closer and closer to that as the episodes go on.

Oh yeah, TB's prize being a dismemberment token, RIP Woah Bunch 2013 - 2015(25).... Does this mean its officially the merge without them saying anything? After all, they were all competing for solo immunity now. So I guess we indeed make it to the BFDIA merge officially. And its crazy how most of the cast made it to the merge (not taking abt the BFDIA Newbies Fries and Book but like everyone else, esp Pin since she placed 20th in BFDI.) SURELY Coiny and Pin wont have anything bad happen to them, right? RIGHT???????

Heheh theres no reason for this one its just angry Needle and its sooooo cute heheheheh

Okay in all seriousness I absolutely LOVED this episode's challenge the scenery is just so ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 god I love nighttime scenery in general its so pretty to look at aaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!! Also "Airplanes in the Night Sky"... Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky like shooting sta— gets shot

Tennis Ball abuse throughout the ep, poor TB, from the fact he lost his boyfriend hes getting thrown around and tumbling everywhere...

Im surprised, despite Needle not being a FreeSmart member, they all still care about her? Thats crazy, especially Pencil of all people, why arent they helping Book though, shes still concidered as the sole player for FreeSmart, odd, oh well.

SPINNING NEEDLINGTON.

Oh, OH.... We NEED to talk about this scene. Fucking Coinpin divorce arc, it hurts my heart, its hurts my SOUL. Pin, PIN, HE DID SO MUCH FOR YOU. 😭😭😭 THE FUCKING BETRAYAL STILL GOT ME SPINNING AROUND, LIKE HOLY FUCKING SHIT. (You bet ur ass im gonna make this a whole lot worse in ALG.) LIKE DAMN. OH. MY. GOD. FUCKING. AAaAAAAAAA. Words cannot describe the amount of emotion I feel from this scene. Girl does not care, she will care later on when Coiny probably refuses to talk to her, I mean, its a competition, surely they wont have any bad blood after this happening, I mean, from what we seen in IDFB 1 and even BFB theyre best friends again, it'll pass, ik so. Coinpin lovers going through the trenches rn!!!

AUGJHHHHHHHHHHHHH 💔💔💔💔💔 Ill tell yall this YES I liked Coiny's video, ur only gonna know I liked Coiny's vid, I wont tell who I disliked (I did not dislike Book if u needed to know, and the reason alone below will shock you)

FUCKING GO OFF GIRL 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 DUDE THE INSANITY. THIS SHOT OF PIN IS INSANE LIKE AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. GET HER ASS PIN. I will be fought on this hill and will die from the amount of peoplr who will throw stones at me for saying she deserved this win, just this once, she deserved a win, especially since its technically the merge,.let her have it for this one yall.

Okay but how do we get the BFB 14 scene of these two talking from THIS. IDFB will give you the answer. Okay but still this scene is BRUTAL. Girl really wanted that win, I was for sure thinking Book was gonna win until we get pulled THIS BRUTAL ASS SCENE. As a Book (kinnie) fan too yeah holy shit that was insane, and ik people are gonna hate Pin for this and it rlly saddens me. Im quite curious on how will Pin and Book will make up in IDFB and how it moves on to that BFB 14 scene. ESPECIALLY HOW WILL THEY GO PAST THIS SCENE.

In conclusion, hell yeah Pin wins this challenge I love this challenge sm and the scenery, my condolences to the Nickel fans, Tennickel is doomed yaoi now. This is a polar opposite of how I felt for TPOT 16, I could barely watch the ep after Pin's elimination, it still kinda hurts, but MAN Pin winning this ep in BFDIA actually healed most of that pain.

Thats all I wanna say for now, expect a new scheduled post later today with some art, im still on a break after all, and school is more important, see you guys soon!

[mysanaf]

༄ Weekly Fic Round-Up ༄

Fandoms:

DCU (Batman)

DCU (Batman) & Danny Phantom Crossover

The Scum Villain's Self Saving System (SVSSS)

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold

Supernatural

DCU (Batman)

do I dare disturb the universe? by Hinn_Raven

Part 6 of Cassandra Cain Works

Cassandra Cain was falling, and there were stars. When she landed, she found herself stranded in a universe where there never was a Batman. Good thing that she’s a detective.

show me yesterday, for i can’t find today by indent

Then: The year is 2013. Jason Todd is alive, fourteen years old, and about to follow Sheila Haywood, his birth mother, into the hands of the Joker. All he wants is to save her life. Now: The year is 2018. Jason Todd was dead. But now he's a nineteen year old vigilante about to take down the latest C-Lister rogue. Unfortunately for him, its a rogue that specialises in time-travel technology. And what starts as an easy takedown...ends as a time travelling phenomenon. The two Jasons swap places.

Retrograde Motion by Lysical

All Jason wanted was a case that was simple, clean, and far away from the latest mess in Gotham. Magic wasn't the Outlaws' area of expertise, but they soon found themselves investigating a dark wizard with a penchant for organ harvesting. When an accident on the case leaves Jason as a clueless seven year old with a memory that's spotty at best, what else can his team do but go to his family for help?

ghost story by envysparkler

Jason Todd dies in Ethiopia. Well. Kind of.

The Right Substitution is Key by AddictedApple

Part 1 of The Right Substitution is Key

“The Red Hood has been good for Gotham,” Robin continued. “Crime in Park Row decreased by sixty one percent almost as soon as you showed up, and that’s even taking into account all the crime you commit. Drug overdoses have decreased by twenty two percent in adults and seventy nine percent in minors. Homeless minors are ninety two percent less likely to—” “Kid,” Jason interrupted. “Enough statistics. What the hell is this about?” Robin slowly lowered the tablet with his powerpoint presentation and looked up at Red Hood. “You care about Gotham,” Robin summarised. “Gotham needs Batman. Batman is missing and so is Nightwing. We need you to fill in for Batman.” “You want me to cover Batman’s patrols?” Jason clarified. “No,” Robin said. “I want you to be Batman.” Jason bluescreened. (Or: Batman and Nightwing mysteriously disappear before Red Hood has even started antagonising them, Robin is desperate, Gotham needs Batman, and Red Hood is Batman-Shaped.)

Call to a Lonely Earth by Drag0nst0rm

There are no children left in Gotham. Not until the multiverse spits one out right in front of Batman, at least.

Impetus by Starlightify

Part 1 of to ground

Harley leaves the Joker. Somehow, the entire Justice League ends up getting involved.

Fatherless Behaviour by lemonlimemadness

Tim gets de-aged, and tells absolutely no one. He also, in no particular order, gets therapy, does a lot of crime, channels his inner cyberbully, steals another Batmobile, moves to Metropolis (temporarily), causes an Arkham breakout, gets kidnapped, kidnaps someone else, and accidentally becomes a supervillain somewhere along the way. Parental supervision is for losers.

DCU (Batman) & Danny Phantom Crossover

Housetrained by Redflagship (Electrasev5n)

A summoning nets some Gotham punks a tiny god, wrapped up in the packaging as the sacrifice they tried to feed him: a housecat. Robin takes him home and decides to train him to fight crime. Danny is like, vibing. Turns out that he's really good at being a housecat, maybe the best there's ever been.

The Haunting of Drake Manor by Faeriekit

Prompt from @cyrwrites (And then, I, like, tweaked it a lot.) From prompt: "Tim, as a kid, wishes for a new mom. Desiree didn't know her wishes could turn against HER, of all people. However, Tim's wish had turned her into something resembling a human form and now she felt obligated to take care of the little guy." * Timothy Drake, son of amateur archaeologists, comes into possession of an antique oil lamp. It's plain enough, despite it's historic value— and it takes nothing at all to figure out how to light it. Alone on his birthday and left alone with a flame, Tim makes a wish. *👻🪔👻* Desiree wakes up in the corpse of a human woman.

The Scum Villain's Self Saving System

Perfect Failure by travelingneuritis (archive locked) Part 3 of Heartbreak Industrial Complex

Gongyi Xiao's strong, disciplined cultivator's body has exactly one weakness: it can't stop getting sex-pollened.

Abyss Arc Speedrun (WR IGT NG+ glitch hunter safe strat) by pallas_rose

After the Immortal Alliance Conference, Shen Qingqiu eventually recovered from his grief. A reasonable man, he accepted his limitations. Of course, there were—other options.

never told you what I do for a living by savrenim

【 The System was successfully activated! Bound Role: Wu Yanzi, Demonic Cultivator and Master of— 】 Not his body. He remembered dying. An undeniable System, before it had bugged out. Okay. Okay, he could handle this. Transmigration. Demonic cultivator. Named… Fuck, he hadn't actually caught what he was supposed to be named. …..There was only one piece of media he was familiar with that was about demonic cultivators.

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold

L'oiseau qui vole by hedda62

Aral, in a fit of wickedness, assigns someone to follow Simon everywhere and keep notes, to see how he likes it.

Supernatural

The Love Story of the Runner Up by Margo_Kim

“So you saw a white man in a trench coat pop out in an alley,” Paul says, “and you thought, what, ‘I want to see where this is going’?”   “If you get hung up on details like that,” Miguel says, “it will take a very long time to get through this story. For a very weird era in his life, Miguel dates an angel who is in love with another man.

[firthbetterorfirthworse]

Colin Firth

My first unhinged project involved watching all of Colin Firth's IMDB acting credits, to see how often he got wet.

Figured I'd make a master list of the posts I made. I didn't make a post on everything, so if there's one without a link you can always request to hear my thoughts hahaha

I also made a post about his hair choices, because he does a lot of period pieces and oh boy do I often have Thoughts

And here's a post about how his trend of getting wet changed our perception of Darcy forever

I ended up making a powerpoint presentation of my data (that I drunkenly presented to my friends, highly recommend) and put it in posts here: Intro Graphs and Data Influence

1917 (2019)

1919 (1984)

The Accidental Husband (2008)

The Advocate/Hour of the Pig (1993)

And When Did You Last See Your Father (2007)

Another Country (1984)

Apartment Zero (1988)

Arthur Newman (2012)

Before I Go To Sleep (2014)

Blackadder Back and Forth (1999)

Born Equal (2006)

Bridget Jones Diary (2001)

Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason (2004)

Bridget Jones' Baby (2016)

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025)

Camille (1984)

Celebration (2007)

A Christmas Carol (2009) Intro, Movie

Circle of Friends (1995)

Command (2018)

Conspiracy (2001)

Crown Court episode (1984)

Deep Blue Sea (1994)

Devil's Knot (2013)

Donovan Quick (2000)

Dorian Gray (2009)

Dutch Girls (1985)

Easy Virtue (2008)

Empire of Light (2022)

The English Patient (1996)

Femme Fatale (1991)

Fever Pitch (1997)

Fourplay/Londinium (2001)

Gambit (2012)

Genius (2016)

Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003)

The Happy Prince (2018)

Hope Springs (2003)

Hostages (1992)

Hour of the Pig/The Advocate (1993)

The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)

The King's Speech (2010)

Kingsman: Secret Service (2014)

Kingsman: Golden Circle (2017)

Last Legion (2007)

Lockerbie (2025)

Londinium/Fourplay (2001)

Lost Empires (1986) Intro, Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3, Pt 4, Pt 5, Pt 6, Pt 7

Love Actually (2003)

Magic in the Moonlight (2014)

Main Street (2010)

Mamma Mia! (2008)

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)

Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

Master of the Moor (1994) Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3, Pt 3 Finale

The Mercy (2017)

A Month in the Country (1987)

Mothering Sunday (2021)

My Life So Far (1999)

Nanny McPhee (2005)

Nostromo (1996)

Operation Mincemeat (2021)

Out of the Blue (1991)

Pat Hobby Teamed With Genius (1987)

Playmaker (1994)

Pride and Prejudice (1995) (I didn't make a single post, it got a bit away from me so you can find the collection of links on my Pride and Prejudice masterlist)

The Railway Man (2013)

Relative Values (2000)

The Secret Garden (1987)

The Secret Garden (2020)

The Secret Laughter of Women (1999)

Shakespeare in Love (1998)

A Single Man (2009)

St Trinians (2007)

St Trinians 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (2009)

The Staircase (2022)

Stars in Shorts (2012)

A Summer in Genoa (2008)

Supernova (2020)

Then She Found Me (2007)

A Thousand Acres (1997)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Trauma (2004)

Tumbledown (1988)

Turn of the Screw (1999)

Valmont (1989)

What A Girl Wants (2003)

Where the Truth Lies (2005)

The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd (1995)

Wings of Fame (1990)

[sexhaver]

why is there discourse on my dash over whether or not it's problematic to make fun of fascists for being short. is it 2013. is someone going to make a powerpoint

[askthisfishprince]

✨Official Disclaimer/FAQ Master Post✨

I'm going to be pinning this one, just in case anyone has questions or hopefully make some things easier to find! Will also add things as I need to.

Questions Regarding Timelines or “Canon”

I don't have an exact timeline in my head for this blog. In my imagination, Eridan and the other trolls are just alive again and in the present, and all the previous storylines still exist within it. The difference is that it takes place after the comic, so everyone is an adult just going along for the ride lol I guess that's what I'm going for 🤷‍♀️

I apologize if I stray away from the "canon"... I try to stay as true to the characters and their dynamics as I can. But sometimes it's just fun to be a bit silly and go off book for the sake of adding some humor. Also….it is an ask blog of a character that died pretty early on and did not get much in the “character development” department lol So again, I do my best to write him as “canon” to his true attitude and behavior as I can. But it can get very hard to give nuance to a guy who overall was pretty shitty, didn’t have much dialogue in the first place while also giving him a fake timeline that takes place a couple years down the line and allow him to have a crumb of self improvement without it coming off as too ooc. So if you see behavior that you don't think is accurate to him…..i promise I do my best…….i have google docs and PowerPoints on this guy lol so I promise the brain rot runs deep

Why I Haven’t Answered Your Question

If you notice that I have not answered your question there are multiple factors.

I couldn’t come up with decent enough dialogue that I felt was good enough to respond with. I am extremely stubborn

I work a full time job and just couldn’t find the time to :(

It was a very strange question and I have no idea what to say lol usually sexual, creepy, violent etc

I have gotten multiple of the same question and I am currently working on a reply.

I waited too long and I feel too bad to respond now ❤️

I can tell if you are spamming me with the same question even if you are anonymous lol And I'm sorry but I won't answer those lol

My inbox is actually insane at times and I genuinely can’t get to everyone :(

I promise I read every single question and I appreciate all of them!! Even the creepy ones.

But I am one person running this blog on my own time with a full time job with only so much time during the day 😔 I also have rampant adhd that can make it very hard to complete certain things

“Will I be making more content of Eridan and *insert character*”

I try to avoid having strict shipping content on here. I don't want this blog to become limited in my responses because I inadvertently turned it into a shipping blog. I do enjoy dropping hints, but for the most part, I prefer to keep things open so that I don't unintentionally limit myself. I also don't want fans who ship other things to feel like they can't ask questions about different characters or scenarios.

I do not have any “headcannons” that I am against or a ride or die for…but….please do not send me any Cronus and Eridan shipping questions. It is very yucky to me. I outright ignore the ministrife….i pretend to not see it 🥰

Am I An Eridan “Defender”?

No lmao

I’m not gonna write down my whole pathetic analysis on him. But I’m not gonna be here at my old age defending a fictional fish guy who boasted about the aspects of eugenics and harass people who disagree?? What is this?? 2013? lol

If you hate him and think he is awful. That is 100000% A-okay! You are allowed to! And I understand lmao

If you ever want to actually talk about Eridan openly, and discuss him as a character or anything. Just dm me! :)

Also just a reminder to clarify that my writing for Eridan does not necessarily reflect my personal feelings. If you ask “Eridan” about certain characters and my response seems mean or nasty, please note that it doesn't mean I dislike the ship or character. Eridan is not particularly friendly, even towards people he likes, so I try not to insert too much of my own feelings into his responses.

(Erisol, EriRox, eridan and literally everybody lmao….except maybe Karkat…..thats his bro…)

Tags

All of my Eridan responses will always be tagged under my url “askthisfishprince”

Any questions directed at me that I post responses for will be under

“NotEridanAsks”

How To View The Post Properly

Whenever I make a response, I try to keep things as clear as possible! Any text in the description or in the tags that does NOT have (()) around it, means thats Eridan talking.

Anything besides that is ✨me✨ lol

Always check the tags for extra dialogue! :) and also always check for “read more” because sometimes I add extra silly doodles lol

Also sometimes I give my two cents as to why I did something a certain way in the tags. So if you care to hear me Yap, check the tags.

Also if you ever want to send an ask to me, either state in the ask that its for op or just put (()) around it! :)

[felassan]

I was sent a link to a ‘chat with Mark Darrah' interview video that I hadn’t seen before. [here is the source] link. the interview took place in 2022, so bear that in mind when listening, but it still has interesting insights and things in there.

the rest of this post is under a cut due to length.

this post is just some brief notes and a few transcribed quotes of interest from the video.

Mark ofc was in charge of DA:O, DAII, & DA:I, then, quote, “then a bunch of malarkey happened” and he ended up in charge of Anthem in 2017 in its final ~16 months

In AAA games narrative is a certain thing that was very much defined in a lot of ways by BioWare

There’s a BioWare story in Anthem (though certainly not its best), if you just ignore everything else

The average gamer puts way too much stock into what engine is used to make a game

Mark is pretty sure that the guts of Neverwinter Nights is underneath the Witcher engine

Moving DA from Aurora to Eclipse to Frostbite (engines) opened up more possibility spaces

Frostbite stagnated because it essentially was the engine everyone had to use at EA

Before DA:I, there was a game at BioWare internally codenamed “Blackfoot”. It was going to be a multiplayer DA game and was using Frostbite before DA:O, during the time of DAII’s late development but before DA:I started development. It never shipped as it got eaten by DA:I

For the MET, Casey was originally trying to make a Star Control-type game but cinematic. Echoes of this can be seen in ME1. But ME the IP itself wants to be a space opera. Ultimately the cinematic experience side of it won out

And some specific quotes:

“Something that I noticed is that, sometimes, if your studio is hiring only your biggest fans, which I saw at BioWare sometimes, those people are in some ways, they’re almost more, they have more zealotry towards the ‘old way’ of doing things than – that’s right, that [from a fandom point of view] is all they know. And they don’t necessarily know that this was awful or that ‘there could have been a better way, we just didn’t see it until later’. All they know is, ‘this is what you did, and you made this thing I love, so we have to do that too’, and, so that’s a danger that could happen is, you get the, you know the monkeys and the bananas, like, ‘I don’t even know why we’re doing this anymore, but I know we��ve always done it.’”

-

“The biggest reason to consolidate on an engine is for the ability to share more work within your studio. In theory.” “The problem that often happens is that you end up with not nearly as much sharing as you would imagine. FIFA doesn’t share anything with DA. And in BioWare’s case it’s even worse than that, there’s very little sharing between DA:I and ME:A, and between ME:A and Anthem. A lot of troubles ME:A and Anthem had is [because of] not building upon the foundations of DA:I.”

-

“My great frustration of BioWare from around 2013 to basically today [2022], there wasn’t a building upon the past.” “30% of DA:I’s tech budget was spent on tooling. On ME:A they didn’t build upon the tools that were laid by DA:I, partially because they started before DA:I shipped, but also for ‘Not Build Here’ reasons. They spent 10-15% approximately of their budget on tools. Anthem didn’t build on either of these foundations and they spent about less than 10% of their budget on tools. So it was like they were going backwards, respecting the engine less and less as they went forward, resulting in more and more struggles happening.” “I have the most sarcastic PowerPoint presentation ever which compares those two games, which are treated as if they’re widely different things. They’re pretty much exactly the same game, from the perspective of any external observer. ME is more like DA than it is like anything else. So it’s ridiculous. The answer is hubris, is the answer.”

-

On endings and the future:

“I think you have to do something [about the endings]. ME was always conceived as being a trilogy, but I think what you actually end up with with ME1-3, if you kind’ve just stick them together into one ridiculously big game, that’s why it, in some ways, the complaints about the original ME3 ending are so hilarious because in a way, the game ME3 is the ending for this entire huge game, which isn’t awesome, because you know, the last Hobbit movie is also stupid because it’s all ending. So, that’s not necessarily the best, but that’s essentially what you have. So because it was intended as a trilogy, it, to some kind of degree it kind of takes its ball and goes home at the end, where its like, ‘I’m gonna render the possibility of a direct sequel to this sooo nearly impossible that it’s ludicrous’. It could be that, so we know that the Mass Relays are down, that’s also true, but, like, we have potentially, everyone’s a cyborg, potentially there are no robots, potentially, potentially, potentially, it’s bananas. But interestingly, if you look at ME1, ME2 and ME3 as a single game, and then you look at DA:O, DA:O was always, was originally envisioned as a standalone game. There was never even a consideration for a sequel made for that. If you look at DA:O and then look at what it does at its ending, so the ending of the game itself is fairly tight, it’s like, well you definitely have to kill the Arch Demon, and you’ve ended the Blight, but then you go through the end credits stuff, the epilogue screens. And it’s like, maybe there’s a civil war happening in Orzammar, maybe there are werewolves spreading across this entire part of Ferelden, maybe there are no werewolves at all. Like it’s similar. Now what DA, the way that DA approached the solution to that was to canonize some of those choices, but for the most part just move away, far enough physically, so it’s like, okay, well maybe there are werewolves down south there, that’s not my problem, I got my own problems. Or it moves through time, which is one of the reasons why DA2 moves through so much time is, it gives distance from DA:O. One of the major reasons why ME:A is literally hundreds of years in the future and in another galaxy, it’s like, okay, well, something happened, [shrug], we can react if we want to but we don’t have to worry about the consequences. DA has had the same problem that ME had, just to a lesser degree. DA:O did such a great job of building up the Warden that people are really attached to that and they keep wanting to see the Warden come back. People are never gonna let go of Shepard. DA, new player characters every time because it allows things to be done, but there are costs to that, if you don’t have nearly the [same] attachment. I mean, there’s a reason why every single Zelda game starts with you as Link getting bonked on the head. They’ve essentially solved the problem, reset button, either you have amnesia or you’re like the great-great-great-great-grandson. So it’s like, maybe there’s a way that they can do something like that, but Zelda’s jumped through a lot of hoops that probably a modern game can’t be allowed to do. You’re “Link”, so maybe there’s a way that you can be Shepard but, but Shepard, you can be “Shepard”, maybe there’s a way you can do that, but yeah, it’ll be interesting, it’s definitely a problem that they have. Because certainly, Ryder from ME:A is not the same character, nor could any character from a single game compete with a character from three games. Maybe the approach is, you canonize the choices from MET and you say, ‘and the choice we’re making is, Shepard made it, and you’re Shepard. [shrug]”

-

“I think there is a lot of DNA of its older games still at BioWare, but you’re right. Every game needs to be a game in its moment. It needs to be appropriate to the time and space of what’s going on. So, I get it, you kind of just want to feel the thing you felt when you played ME2 or feel the thing you felt when you played DA:O.” “If suddenly you got an ME2 again magically appearing out of the ether, I don’t think it would be received the same way. The industry isn’t in the same place. BioWare needs to set a new bar.” “The sad truth is, the older you get, the less relevant a part of the buying demographic you are. So the reality is, I mean ME:A had a shaky launch unfortunately, but it’s a lot of peoples’ favorite ME. Mostof those people who it is their favorite ME are younger people because it targets, you know, it’s got a younger PC, it’s got a stronger, more. I mean, the MET is very much, Shepard is a hero from action movies from the 80s and 90s, for millennials. He’s stoic. Whereas Ryder is definitely, he’s much more a protagonist from a CW show. The reality is is that, sorry, but they’re not trying to make it for you anymore.”

[source and full watch link where you can check it out]

[qesacademy]

Microsoft Powerpoint 2013 Advanced - QES Academy

With Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 Advanced, you can prepare and deliver by making it informative, fascinating, and active.

[luciesartblog]

I’ve been in a pretty severe art block (again), a lots been going on with my mental and physical health and it’s made doing anything creative near impossible - but something that always makes me feel better is revisiting old art. This drawing is over 10 years old (from February 2013, apparently - thanks deviantart) and I didn’t have the skill (or the patience, or the materials) to actually “finish” it then and I remember being disappointed that I couldn’t get down what I envisioned. It’s closer now, I enjoyed exploring it again!

Also, at the time, I was using Microsoft PowerPoint to add my username because I didn’t have any kind of image editing program yet, which of course exported the drawing in absolute ass quality. I would probably be able to track down a less deep fried version without the obtrusive “watermark” but it didn’t seem worth the effort, and it does amuse me the methods my 14-year-old-self was using just to avoid the ugly DA watermark and feel professional.

[mariacallous]

On the first episode of “Paul American,” a new reality-TV show currently streaming on Max, the YouTuber, influencer, and wrestler Logan Paul mounts a PowerPoint pitch for his fiancée, the Danish supermodel Nina Agdal, in order to convince her that being on reality television would benefit the couple. Logan and his younger brother, Jake Paul—himself a YouTuber and influencer, who has also turned to boxing—have been famous for more than a decade now, and reality television, Logan explains to Agdal, would be the apex of the pyramid that the siblings have been scaling. “This show is part of my natural evolution,” Logan says, pulling up a slide featuring a stock graphic of the step-by-step development from ape to Homo sapiens. Each figure in the chart is labelled for a stage in Logan’s career path, from the defunct short-form video-hosting platform Vine, on which the Paul brothers got their start, through vlogging, podcasting, and, finally, live-TV wrestling and boxing. The definitive stage in this years-long development, Logan concludes, is “the family reality-TV show.”

Agdal cracks up: the pitch is clearly tongue-in-cheek, and yet it nonetheless corresponds to the goal “Paul American” is trying to achieve, which is to present Logan and Jake, for the first time, as fully fledged human beings rather than half-baked Neanderthals. With all we know about reality television—its cunning edits, its cooked-up story lines, its behind-the-scenes manipulations—it might seem like a stretch to view the genre as an opportunity for the display of real, multidimensional individuality. Still, it’s all relative. Compared to the Pauls’ previous outputs, “Paul American” is practically “The Brothers Karamazov.”

Until now, authenticity and depth of character haven’t exactly been top of mind for either of the Pauls.

They came up as teen-agers on the Wild West internet of the twenty-tens, which saw the lucrative explosion of social-media and self-produced-content platforms. Born in Ohio to Pam, a nurse, and Greg, a real-estate agent, roofer, and loose cannon, who often appears on the show with a hunting knife strapped to his forearm (“Cancel culture can suck my ass all day long,” he says at one point), the brothers each found early success in 2013 by making pratfall- and prank-filled six-second Vines. Within a couple of years, they had moved to Los Angeles and taken their enterprise to YouTube. Jake enacted physically risky, increasingly extravagant stunts at the Team 10 influencer house (erecting an enormous snow slide outside the mansion; turning the house into a trampoline park), while Logan developed a reputation in his own vlogs as a stunt-happy jokester bro (bringing sixty thousand pounds of snow to California; freaking out a new roommate with a live alligator).

As their careers grew, Logan’s and Jake’s brand building grew more and more cartoonish. Similarly blond and muscled—the two are alike enough to be twins, though Jake now wears a bushy, jutting beard, whereas Logan’s is more closely cropped—the brothers often beefed. Logan stole Jake’s love interest, and each released a diss track tearing the other down. (Logan’s: “I’m a savage, you are average / I’m a beast I’m going wild / This song will be the death of you / I’m ’bout to be an only child.” Jake’s: “You thirsty for the views, call it Kalahari / You the Karate Kid and I’m Mr. Miyagi / You just a Prius and I’m a Bugatti.”) They drove luxury vehicles and flashed fat stacks of bills; they wore iced-out watches worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and courted mayhem and controversy. (In a 2017 vlog, Logan filmed the body of a suicide victim in Japan, a decision for which he later apologized; in 2020, Jake’s Calabasas mansion was raided for firearms.) Even before entering the actual ring, they had already fashioned themselves as pugilistic, larger-than-life characters, with nicknames to match (Jake: the Problem Child; Logan: the Maverick). Unsurprisingly, their content resonated largely with young men, and after amassing around a hundred and fifty million followers across major platforms they began to turn their online reach into success in some real-world ventures. Logan, who is now thirty, became a W.W.E. champ with his own energy drink, Prime; Jake, twenty-eight, became a boxer with a body-care line for men, W. (“You probably smell . . . get W at Walmart.”)

In all their endeavors, the Pauls’ chief aim has been to attract the maximum number of viewers and likes, which the pair freely discuss on the show. “Having your content be received by a lot of eyeballs is success,” Logan says. Controversy has played well with the brothers’ target audience: Logan’s diss track of Jake, for instance, is his “most-viewed video of all time,” a fact that he now claims he regrets, and “Paul American” works to show the brothers as newly reflective, softer, and ready to make amends. (“[Logan]’s the only one that knows what I’ve been through and I’m the only one that knows what he’s been through, and there’s a trauma bond in that,” Jake says, sounding surprisingly touchy-feely.) In 2021, the brothers moved to Puerto Rico, which, starting in 2012, became a tax haven, especially for high-net-worth individuals who’ve become rich thanks to cryptocurrency. Since the move they have grown closer, and have taken to training together—Jake with the goal of being a world-champion boxer, and Logan to strengthen his position in the W.W.E., so that he can “become the face of one of the biggest media conglomerates in the entire world.”

The road toward brotherly love, however, is shown to be a bumpy one. At one point, we see Logan hosting the British influencer and rapper KSI, who is Jake’s sworn enemy, on his podcast, and the two joke on air about Jake’s upcoming fight against Mike Tyson, whom he hopes to best. “It’s just not what brothers should do,” an irate Jake says. (Logan brushes the complaint off. Jake is “sensitive and I’m an asshole,” he says.) But Jake, who went pro in 2020, is presumably tender about this slight because he wants to move past being an influencer-boxer, who fights for likes, and emerge as a real-world champ, like Tyson himself was in his prime. Being able to deal definitive blows in a ring, at some remove from the online world, is Jake’s heart’s desire. Can he be, as the podcaster Joe Rogan suggests, in a clip shared on the show, “for real”?

The question of realness is one that comes up repeatedly in “Paul American.” Jutta Leerdam, Jake’s Dutch girlfriend, who is an Olympic speed skater, chides him when he slips back into vlog-like bombast. On a private jet, the pair take to Minnesota to visit the factory where the W body-care brand is produced, Jake clowns around, bellowing at the camera that Joe Biden—then still President—should use W because he’s “probably sweating through [his] suit.” But Leerdam is displeased by this performance. “Babe, this is reality. You are your character a lot,” she says. “So snap out of it . . . be a real person.” Jake throws his head back, as if considering this. “Boooring,” he finally brays. One of his employee friends, also on the flight, is heard saying off camera, “He’s a lost cause.”

Both Leerdam and Agdal, seem to affect Jake and Logan as ameliorating agents, but even they can’t make these leopards completely change their spots. The Paul-brother act is a hard thing to shed, and, after all, it’s where the money is. “The thing that keeps people glued is the shit show,” Logan says. He notes that he loves to fight in the W.W.E. because “I get to be a showman, I get to tell stories, and use it as a vehicle even to just promote my brands. Most of all, get paid.” When he and Jake pitch their reality show to various networks, they present it as “the testosterone Kardashians . . . you know, true hardcore American family.” As a clip of Logan receiving a MAGA hat from Trump flashes on the screen, alongside other moments—Jake brawling after a fight, Logan shooting a rifle, Pam rolling around in a pile of twenty-dollar bills—we hear Jake explain that “this is America, and we are from the heart of America.” On the way to watch Logan fight at a WrestleMania event in Philadelphia, on yet another private jet ride, Leerdam, who has never attended such a match, tells Jake that she’s not sure what to expect. “Well, a bunch of men—” he begins, as Leerdam cuts in. “It’s so American! It’s the most American thing ever!” Jake chuckles. “Well, yes, indeed, brother,” he says. 

[ahappydnp]

🦉Positivity owl reporting for duty! This was sent by a friend who wants you to smile as much as your posts make them smile. Please list five things that make you unique, four things you are super passionate about and why, OR three of your favorite memories. Feel free to send the owl to those who you feel deserve to smile🦉

hmm 3 of my favorite memories (under the cut bc personal posts are scary)

my first night in london in 2014. i was with my college and this was already a literal lifelong dream come true, but the very first evening when we arrived we walked down southbank and across the bridge and it was the Perfect blue hour (blue hour is my favorite sky of all time ever) and i think that was the first time i had felt momentary peace or taken a single deep in several years. 2013/2014 were really really bad years for me, but being 21 on my own in london looking at a deep blue sky felt like a sign from the universe things would get better and i would get to have more days like this. i still have a photo from that night on my camera roll for easy access

my 30th birthday! i had a handful of friends come stay with me and we did a powerpoint night and they got me a cake and it was just absolutely perfect and i felt genuinely loved and it was just really really special to see people who are important to me meet each other and be in the same room :3

(kind of cheating) but the entire WAD era is just a sea of amazing memories <3 i got to see and meet so many friends and travel and it felt like "god this is what life should be" over and over again. the absolute joy of going to the show and dancing to the preshow playlist and the meet ups before and seeing dan in his element and hearing him say "but first we get to live" and feeling it deep in your soul. it was magic

[4dmc]

"The devs said homophobic stuff and specifically said OUR Dante is gay!! Now he's a cowboy wearing hat and NOT gay but dances 'gay' hahaha we claimed the gayness take THAT homophobic devs!!"

~ said by the insecure cis-het majority male fans of Devil May Cry because they saw brokeback mountain on a PowerPoint slide and didn't bother actually watching it, too busy acknowledging their fellows in 4chan, redditors and their bruised egos

circa 2013 and one of many marks of idiocy within this fandom

(also why has nobody in this fandom not notice ALL their "sources" on this was PICTURES, and for a decade too, but never the actual video presentation which is present in both YouTube and archived publicly on a public website, and the internet was much better in archiving these info in those years, so there is no excuse [[ I did have this...spoke about this before on that era but...you can imagine what they did when I tried]] )

also... they're not allies nor did they accuse homophobia against the devs because they're supporting gay people..no..

They screamed homophobia because they thought the devs are supposedly saying they're favorite version of Dante is gay. Because let's face it, a majority of them were insecure straight guys projecting themselves on this male character.

You can criticize the presentation, but nowhere from the devs was about how they thought the original Dante is gay. It's crystal clear he isn't.

But the haters' priorities are all about slander and licking self inflicted wounds from their rage filled disinformation

😬

Please don't ever talk over us again. It was sooooo "cool" of you to "defend" gay people back in the early 2010s but it's just not effective anymore. Pretty please don't ever do that again, accuse people or threaten/dox/bully people that don't align with your hateful delusions for the fandom

Sincerely, an exhausted queer who just wants some civil decency from this fandom