#source: Love Death and Robots Three Robots

[idontliekmondays]

excerpts from a daily mail article released shortly after her arrest

When members of the Geneva High School role playing club asked 16-year-old Lindsay Souvannarath to choose a character they were expecting an elf, a sorceress or perhaps a female warrior.

But the shy, clean-cut teenager opted for a rather more unsettling choice, presenting them with a detailed pencil drawing of her chosen persona - the 'Nightmare Nazi'.

The trench coat, jackboots and gas mask were unmistakably those of an SS soldier; the skeletal hands clutching a vast dagger more akin to dark fantasy art.

Former classmates at Geneva High recall Lindsay Souvannarath as a shy, withdrawn youngster, who had few friends and instead sought out after-school groups and writing clubs to express her creative side.

But she was also prone to bouts of anger and violence - allegedly stabbing another student with a pencil in one outburst and occasionally letting slip an alarming infatuation with the Third Reich.

'On first impressions I didn't think there was anything too strange about her,' he told Daily Mail Online.

'She could be funny and intelligent but most of the time she was quiet and not very warm or outgoing.

'One year her character was a sort of Wonder Woman-type heroine, then all of sudden she tells the group she wants to be a Nazi ghost.

'You choose your species and come up with a back story. Hers was that her character was a guest from a crazy, dark Nazi universe.

'It's supposed to be a game in a medieval, fantasy setting but she would just argue if she didn't get her way.

'So we went on our quest with a robot, a couple of elves, wizards and this weird Nazi.

'Aside from the character's background he didn't do anything racist or too alarming. We didn't know about her interests at that time so we just got on with it.

Ms Szigeti recalled how Souvannarath began to idolize black-death metal bands in her mid-teens.

She became particularly infatuated with Varg Vikernes, a white supremacist musician convicted in 1994 of killing a rival guitarist and burning down three churches in Norway, describing him as 'cute' and writing essays about him.

'Her work was always dark and full of violence, there were soldiers and Nazis and all this weird stuff,' Sabrina said.

'She acted normal on the surface. She was never physically violent but she would get aggressive and upset if you criticized her.

'Everyone was uncomfortable but we just avoided trying to start a fight with her. 'If you asked her straight up 'are you a Nazi?' she would argue that she wasn't.

As far back as 2007 - when she was just 15 - she allegedly wrote 'free speech is dead' in one forum, adding: 'That's why we need people like David Duke to bring it to life again.'

In another warped entry, writing that same year under the pseudonym Snoopyfemme she wrote: 'They use sex in commercials all the time to sell products. Why don't they ever use violence?

'Wouldn't you love to see a bunch of guys tearing each other apart with machine guns to get a bowl of Cheerios?

'Sure, it might traumatize our children, but in my opinion, children aren't being traumatized enough.

'The only reason for Americans to breed is to create more soldiers to fight for freedom. We need to weed out the weaklings early on. Survival of the fittest, man.'

'She was very odd to the point among a lot of our classmates that no-one was surprised by her arrest.

'She was a very lonely person - but she isolated herself. 'From what I remember she was even suspended for stabbing someone with a pencil in middle school.'

'She was known for putting spells on people. She would do it by saying weird things and then putting on a curse - obviously we did not take her seriously.

'She would break out into laughter in the middle of class for absolutely no reason.

'When we saw that Lindsay did something like this, nobody was surprised. She was the one most likely.'

source

[partywithponies]

I watched @quinton-reviews 's new video and I wanted to do my set homework and come up with my own dream Nicktoons Unite team, except I never had any of the american channels growing up and I'm not familiar with a lot of these shows.

But nevermind, I came up with a compromise. Here's my concept for if they did a Nicktoon Unite style game but with CBBC and CBeebies characters:

1) Danger Mouse: reboot DM in particular is the obvious pick to replace Jimmy Neutron in this lineup. He's already dealt with cross-universe travel and portals in canon, and he has Professor Squawkencluck, who already just invents whatever device the plot requires. He's both practised enough at saving the world to be believable in these situations, while still being incompetent enough to need help from the others. Plus it'd be fun to see how his massive ego would react to these other guys.

2) Victor from The Secret Show: the most niche pick here, but come on. He's literally a secret agent. I'm not going to leave him out. (I dithered over whether to include Victor or Anita since I could only pick one. I chose Victor not because I'm sexist but because I just really want to hear Danger Mouse deliver the "Victor! Are you still alive?" line.)

3) Postman Pat: Now I know this looks like an insane choice. I know that making a postman fight baddies in life or death situations is ludicrous. But listen. Postman Pat: The Movie did it first. Blame them, not me.

4) Dennis The Menace: People who've never read The Beano might think that an un-superpowered 10 year old boy would be way out of his depth on a team with three adult men, two of whom literally fight evil for their job. But people who have read The Beano know that in canon Dennis has already thwarted alien invasions, travelled through time many times and dealth with the ramifications of changing the past AND avoided being beheaded, fought killer robots and man eating plants and sea monsters, toppled multiple dictatorships, got the British prime minister arrested, and fought climate change by going directly to the source and tearing down the factories. Whatever these games could possibly throw at him would be just another tuesday for Dennis.

5) Tiny Clanger: she's kind of the Spongebob of the group, both in the sense that high stakes situations and saving the world are really not what she usually does, but she would if she had to, and in the sense that she'd be the heart of the group. DM, Victor, and Dennis are all kind of self-centred assholes at heart who only save the world because no-one else will, and Pat is a middle aged British man (and therefore emotionally repressed), while Tiny Clanger is unfailingly loving, and kind, and friendly, and empathetic. Also her best friend in the world is a large metal bird, and I think Tiny suddenly riding around on the Iron Chicken would be a really cool power up for her.

[do-you-ship-it-polls]

Do you ship it?

reason under the cut!

okay i have to get this out of the way first: - a common headcanon is that they are siblings. which. no, dont ship this if you think they are siblings, thats weird and gross. blegh. - i (submitter) do not believe this! they have a rivalry, yes, but they aren't siblings! made by the same creator, sure, but that's a constant theme throughout the game. made by god, and made by humanity. they have a more interesting dynamic as strangers! - below is a copy and pasted (and slightly edited for the sake of clarity) rant from a discord server !! when i posted about some of my art about them, a pal of mine asked what the source material was! so that is that rant.

OKAY ULTRAKILL !!!! blue guy (V1) was a machine built for A Big War before humanity fails!!! its the character you play as in the gayass bloodplay shooter game <33 hes made to destroy. the first think you know about her is her name, her objective (FIND A WEAPON) and where she is (APPROCHING HELL) and three things: - mankind is dead - blood is fuel - hell is full WHICH MEANS THAT THE ROBOT USES BLOOD AS FUEL!!!! she needs blood to live and she will use the souls of the damned to do that. anyways so she was an actual war robot in the Real Life!! V2 (red) on the otherhand was a robot made after the New Peace that humanity made before their final death. they were meant to promote peace and are awesome!!! i also love their battle mechanics... silly :) in 1-4, V1 fights V2!!! its very interesting because v2 bows before the battle, showing it is but a curtesy, or a show of power, but it;s not personal. it was never personal, before. after the battle, v1 takes v2's arm, knuckleblaster. LATER ON. 4-4. they fight again. v2 has a new arm, whiplash, and sits upon a throne, awaiting v1's arrival for once they get to their area of Greed. it's so personal now. they fight, and they kill. v2 dies fully, and v1 takes the arm again. parts of v2, engraved into their arms and beating into their code. its very interesting to meee!!! taking a part of your dont even get me STARTED on the contrast between the soundtrack and how the visuals of each level are so vastly different!!!!! dont even get me STARTEDDDD because clair de lune and claire de soleil comparisons. hakita you are a genius!!!!

plus, all the fan interpretations are also fun!! comics based around the gore of the thing. art made for the sake of understanding these two. thank you for your time. if you headcanon these two as siblings, good! vote for i dont ship it and leave me alone please! thank you :)

tag: @bright-honey

[hearthfire-heartfire]

"Here I am betraying my own biases toward a tiresome journalistic genre: the story that depicts Japan as a menagerie of the weird, the alien, the freakish. In the Western imagination, Japan is rife with shut-ins, celibates, suicides, loners, and obsessive geeks. It is the place where the men fall in love with busty Power Rangers, and the women vanish like ghosts into the gloomy mist of the suicide forest. These stories both satisfy a base appetite for the odd and serve as a projection of Western anxieties about the dissolution of the nuclear family particularly and society more broadly. The future, it seems, is already playing out in Japan, where people are atomized, neutered, and lost in the various fantasies playing out on their glowing screens. I don’t doubt the veracity of these stories, but I am deeply skeptical of the way they are often framed: to maximize the inherent strangeness of the Japanese. Americans, after all, are also having less sex and committing suicide at a higher rate and dying alone and doing kinky cosplay, yet I don’t get the sense reading these stories that these trends are indicative of the fathomless mysteries of the American soul but rather the product of identifiable material and social circumstances... ...It’s a crazy story that falls squarely into the Weird Japan genre, showcasing an extreme form of alienation, in which people are compelled to hire perfect strangers to stand in for their closest relatives. Single women hire husbands to appease their “marriage-obsessed” parents. The elderly recruit grandchildren to stave off loneliness. Adulterous wives pay men to stand in as their lovers to apologize to their wrathful husbands. Fakeries abound: fake bosses, fake weddings, fake families. Many of these stories are sourced to Yuichi Ishii, the founder and proprietor of Family Romance, who says he has played a fake husband to a hundred women and organized two to three fake weddings a year. The picture of Japan that emerges is steeped in stereotypes of a childlike country that is so superficial, so emotionally repressed, so cowed by an overbearing society that its people would rather outsource the work of confronting their parents or reaching out to an estranged daughter—the work of being a human being... ...In his book People Who Eat Darkness, the Tokyo-based correspondent Richard Lloyd Parry notes the temptation of foreign journalists to draw some broader cultural insight about Japan from spectacular stories. In his case, it was the 2000 murder of Lucie Blackman, a young British hostess who went home with a mysterious man and turned up dead. The case was front-page news in both Britain and Japan for years, and at the end of his chronicle, Parry was faced with the question of what it all meant. What’s the story? He concluded that the alleged killer, Joji Obara, may not say much about Japanese culture, but that Lucie’s death reveals something about how the West perceives Japan. Lucie likely would not have gone home with a stranger in Britain but felt perfectly safe doing so in Japan, where the people to her “appeared ‘sweet,’ ‘shy,’ often ‘boring.’”

great article about a pet peeve of mine. i wrote up a whole thing today that got lost when my browser refreshed in the middle of my post about how often western journalists referred to japanese workers as robots, or being robotic in some way, and how that conception is evident in the expectations of tourists when they visit japan today. but this article kind hit all the points i was hoping to make with my post. except for the part where i curse logan paul for filming a dead body on oshogatsu.

[inasbdtblogrealnoscam]

🖤

"Forge your identity anew from what you could've percieved yourself to be, more or less. A perfect lie always comes burdened with stress..."

"Cream", the youngest member of the Freedom Fighters! She may be a small little gal, but she's quite the useful asset, with her agility and unparalled kindness! Just don't ask her why she looks so similar to another former member...

For more information about her, read below the line!

Backstory:

Born to Vanilla Icely, Charlotte's life was always one of conspiracy. She grew up raised solely by her mother, told that her father had abandoned her, up until the age of 6. After three years of homeschooling, her mother had realized she can't give her daughter the life she deserved all on her own. However, knowing her own reputation among the Freedom Fighters, she was afraid of letting Charlotte out, worried that her daughter would get hurt for her own past sins. Eventually, though, she figured out a solution - identity fraud. After forging a few papers, "Cream" could finally function as a normal, separate member of society! Finally letting her child leave further than the immediate vicinity of their home, Vanilla gave her two guidelines. One, under no condition should she reveal who her mother actually is. Two, stay away from the Freedom Fighters (which she referred to as "shady and untrustworthy", pretty ironic coming from her).

After an entire life of having no source of social interaction other than her mother, goimg to primary school for the first time was overwhelming for Cream. Suddenly, she was expected to have a stationary personality, appropriate for a child her age- suddenly, she realized she didn't know who she was. Without one constant lens to compare, Cream desperately struggled to find her own identity. Bullying some kids while helping others, she acted out in hopes that somehow, it would help her establish who she is. The teachers were quick to label her a "problem child" and kept sending her to time-out (instead of actually addressing the problem). Out of boredom, she learned how to dissasemble and reassemble the alarm clocks in there, kickstarting her love for technology, which continued to persist throughout her entire life.

Everything changed two years later. Cream was tinkering with some experimental software, when she accidentally broadcasted it to nearby devices. This caused an Eggman robot nearby to suddenly shut down, something which the group of Freedom Fighters attacking it noticed immediately. They praised Cream for the swift defeat, which she awkwardly nodded along to. It was not her intent to do that, but for once in her life, someone saw her habits as a skill and not as a problem.

She later met Sally, the leader of the FF, who immediately saw potential in her and appointed her to mechanic of her unit, as well as Amy, a hedgehog just reunited with civillisation after several years. The three quickly started getting along, developing a bond akin to a friendship. There was always that looming worry at the back of Cream's mind of how quickly those friends could become enemies should her secret get revealed... (And Sally's pretty damn strong hatred of Vanilla did NOT help in the slightest with that.) Things seemed fine, though. And for 4 years, they were fine.

And then Descent happened.

Numerous notable members of the FF have either gone missing or been found dead at the hands of a demonic entity, with one of the unit leaders, Sonic, getting possessed by the demonic entity in question. While Cream happened to be among the lucky few that survived the initial attack, she wasn't safe. Her, Amy and Sally had formed a trio, hiding out in various locations for half a year.

Charlotte's mother, however, wasn't as lucky. Torn to shreds by the frenzied, Eye-fuelled, bloodthirsty soul figment known as Inner, her injuries were too much to revive by ANY type of demonization. And, unfortunately, her death was something Charlotte was made aware of numerous times.

Personality:

Charlotte doesn't have much of a stable, unchanging personality. Her demeanor usually relies on copying behaviours considered "socially acceptable" or "fitting the situation". She is very perceptive, constantly analyzing her surroundings and usually knowing what the "appropriate response" could be. It's why she's capable of "empathizing" with people - she has learned that, in certain situations, people expected her to feel pity and sympathy for them. Although, while she can pretend to feel a certain way and act that behaviour out, she's mostly incapable of actual empathy for people. It's also hard for her to act "morally good", as she mostly lacks a conscience and generally doesn't feel guilt and remorse. Cream is aware of her condition, trying to act "normal" in spite of it. It's made much more difficult by her impulsiveness and a constant need for stimulation. She gets bored very easily and often seeks ways to reduce that boredom (initially that involved starting fights with people, but nowadays, she's looking into healthier outlets, such as working on machinery). Unlike her mother, she isn't content with how she is. She wants to feel genuine empathy, she wants to stop feeling perpetual boredom, she wants to know who she is and what her real self is like- but is, unfortunately, incapable of it.

Her demeanor towards the Freedom Fighters is very similar to that of canon Cream. Kind, sweet, selfless, polite, a bit naive. She is very well-spoken, usually referring to people by “Mr” and “Miss”, followed by their first name. Politeness appears to be almost second nature to her, eager to help whenever her friends need aid. She’s also extremely brave and courageous for her age, almost concerningly so. Simultaneously capable of pointing out every pro and con of a decision, predicting all possible consequences in detail- but also incapable of understanding risk, recklessly acting on impulse. Despite that, she generally respects orders, reacting in obedience rather than defiance.

My personal lore and design thoughts:

I wanted her to have a bit more of a grown-up vibe, seeing as she's twelve (why did I age her up? It made the timeline make more sense and also because why not. A lot of stuff in this AU is just me going "why not".). To do that, I complicated her outfit a bit by adding a white scarf with a bow in place of her simple white collar, as well as giving her overalls and puffy sleeves. They're puffy for no reason other than me looking at dresses for tweens and seeing a lot of them having such sleeves. I also gave her light-up shoes. One, because it's cool. Two, it helps convey that, despite being forced to mature by external circumstances, this is still a child. Three, it could make for a cool game mechanic (imagine traversing a dark area with only the light from your sneakers...). Also, you may notice that her gloves stick out like a sore thumb. In the light, orange-y color scheme, the dark green color looks very out-of-place. That's on purpose. I haven't posted all of the main cast yet, but in general, their color schemes flow together somewhat coherently in regards to the FF colors. Not her, though. I wanted to convey how, despite working together towards the same goals, there's always that bit of distance.

As for her backstory, I decided to push the idea of Vanilla being a canonical traitor and war criminal to its logical conclusion. If her actions did cause the deaths of several innocents, as well as the loss of valuable information, the Freedom Fighters really shouldn't be that chill with her daughter joining their organization. After all, what if she followed in her mother's footsteps? This was the main philosophy when thinking of her backstory, especially considering the impact Vanilla's betrayal had on Sally, the founder/leader of the FF. Just like in real life, even if you are a good person, people will still judge you for what your family did, even if you couldn't have done anything about it. Charlotte might be trying to be a good person, but Vanilla sure wasn't, and that will taint people's outlook on her forever. Unless they don't know about it, of course...

I also took inspiration from another NU-based AU of mine (yes I have several, don't ask) when writing her personality. Unlike that AU's Cream, however, this one is genuine in her intentions. She doesn't lie about her identity because she has some secret plan, she does it because the Freedom Fighters would literally kill her if she didn't. They both share the trauma of having their moms be permanently killed by Tails (Inner Tails, specifically), though!

She's supposed to have a hyperactivity disorder in NU canon, so I kept that for BDT. Only problem is, it's kind of hard to make her be the designated neurodivergent character, when I have it myself and unintentionally project some of my ND traits onto almost all of the cast. I also gave her ASPD, or at least some traits of it (didn't want to formally diagnose her, as I don't consider myself knowledgeable enough on the subject). Why, you ask? It's because of a singular paragraph on her wiki page:

"At first, Cream was not a very obedient girl, not really knowing what she wanted to be. She helped other kids but then she bullied other, weaker kids, because she couldn't make up her mind about herself."

This singular paragraph made me completely rethink what I wanted to do with the character. The idea of her undergoing an identity crisis because she didn't know who she truly was stuck with me. It made me think - would her current demeanor in the AU be genuine? Or is she just mimicking expected behaviours without fully understanding them? Who is she, really?

Oh, and she's good with machines in BDT for three reasons. One, I already decided her paraller counterpart is a college graduate in that field, and it'd only be fitting. Two, she should have more to her talents other than just "kind". Three, once again, potential gameplay reasons.

As for her name, I thought that, logically, if her mother was universally despised by everyone, it just wouldn't be safe for her to go by her real name. "Charlotte" was an arbitrary pick, though, with no real meaning. It was that or Cassidy, and the latter made me think of FNaF too much to use. But apparently "charlotte" is a type of dessert, so it works out in the end!

(these would probably come out more often if I wasn' t such a damned perfectionist and didn't yap so much)

If I had to describe her in one word, it would be "analytical".

[bah-theater]

can i get a lvl 3 pack with the aesthetic add on for an undead Michael Afton (FNAF) fragment, pls?

Level 3 🎭 + 1 Add-On

Theme: Michael Afton (Five Nights at Freddy’s) fictive

Name: Michael, Mike, Seymour, Eric

Age: Ageless

Pronouns: he/it/rot/dead/zombie/guard/ve

Genders: demiboy, boything

Orientation: Bisexual

Role: Protector / Substitute

Species: Undead

Personality traits: paranoid / sarcastic / workaholic

Source: Five Nights at Freddy’s

Sign off/emojis: 🫀🪻, ![name]?, 🔪🫀

Likes: masks / doodling / productivity / soap operas

Dislikes: family / bullying / blood / robots

Hobbies: working / art / mechanics

Typing quirks: a -> @, i -> •, e -> 3, t -> +, s-> z, always uses punctuation (l•k3 +h•z.) [note: for typing quirks of this complexity, please provide a translation so people can understand it!]

Speech quirks: very scratchy and rough, like his throat is always sore.

Aesthetic: Grunge

Picrew:

Michael always needs to be working on something, or he’ll get antsy. He also loves doodling and leaving comments on things, like assignments or books that he’s allowed to annotate. Rot is very technical and can sometimes find empathy and emotions difficult to understand. Blood makes it very anxious, as well as humanoid robots. Guard is gentle with other people, somewhat asocial but despises cruelty and bullying. Ve can also become paranoid and fearful easily, especially in the dark.

Extra picrews:

Link to first picture, due to lack of signature

Playlist: Same Damn Life - Seether / Never Too Late - Three Days Grace / Riot! - Three Days Grace / Bad Company - Five Finger Death Punch / The Diary of Jane - Breaking Benjamin

Front triggers: Robotics / Work

Music genre: Rock

Thank you, thank you! We hope you enjoyed your stay!

[parashiteposting]

Bored so I'm gonna overanalyze parasyte.

Through a certain viewpoint, the human characters of parasyte are an exploration of trauma (primarily due to all the murder) and how people react differently to it.

SHINICHI

Shinichi, as our main character, goes through a lot of hardships, ranging from being attacked by what looks like his mother, to having to hurt other "people", to witnessing horrific murders. His heart becomes harder in response, though he mistakes it for being parasitized, and he has a hard time telling other people like satomi of his problems due to the perception of danger.

Though his emotional capacity seems to have been diminished, in truth they're under guard, as seen when painful emotions like fear and panic still burst out of him when he witnesses something he didn't expect. Even his father thinks shinichi is emotionally stronger than him, almost like a robot (or "made of steel").

This sort of thing resembles people irl who are currently going through trauma and seem to stand strong despite it, but in actuality are only strong because there's nowhere to be safe and vulnerable, after which they break down.

SHINICHI'S FATHER

Shinichi's father's trauma is less extensive yet still terrible. His wife has died to something that seems almost impossible, a random freak accident he could never have imagined, and yet he can't tell anyone about it. The government has told him, personally, that there's nothing he can do to stop this from happening to other people, and he can't get the closure of a public funeral because she's likely still publicly a missing person case. He can't even commiserate with his own son because of how unbelievable it is (and he doesn't want shinichi caught up in that mess at all), but shinichi still depends on him as a parent.

With no power to change things for the better and no way to physically get away, he finds a temporary mental escape in alcohol and depression in his attempt to recover.

SATOMI MURANO

Satomi's trauma, despite also being the source of one of shinichi's traumas, is rarely focused on. However, it's one of the worst witnessed by regular humans; her class comes across hideo shimada during his rampage and is nearly all killed by him, blood and gore included. She in particular barely escapes with her life as the monster approaches, saved just in time by shinichi.

(frankly the survivor's guilt must be horrific.)

Having nearly lost everyone and everything, she understandably clings to shinichi and struggles with his changes, so different from the simpler happy days when they first got together. Unlike shinichi who shields himself from his trauma with mental and emotional distance, hers struck close to her heart and she is often reminded of it.

KURAMORI

Detective kuramori, in contrast, has lost everything. Unlike the previous three characters, his two loved ones are gone and there's nothing holding his resulting self-destructive urges back.

The combination of guilt for having gotten involved in something that killed them and the power to do something about the person he thinks is at fault (tamura) makes him go a little mad. He gives information to the police to take care of the others, then hares off to take more personal matters into his own hands regardless of his own safety.

AND OTHERS

There are several other not-well-adjusted humans involved in the story (the ones who don't die anyway), but there's less to write on them.

The baby had a terrible mother yet still cried when she died (reminiscent of shinichi's own mother-related trauma and his inability to hurt her even when parasitized).

Kana's boyfriend mitsuo lashes out after her death due to his own powerlessness, displaying a more conventional form of grief to contrast with shinichi's own trauma response.

Mamoru uda is another foil to shinichi, having been parasitized with his own life problems, yet despite frequently crying seems relatively well-adjusted and happy to help.

Mayor hirokawa has no backstory, but a human-hating person like him can't possibly have lived a normal, happy life.

Uragami is unfortunately the kind of person who causes trauma.

I have little to say on yuko bc she was cut off immediately in the manga while a lot was added or changed for her anime depiction and I don't want to rewatch just for that.

[blackstarchanx3new]

Creations AU, But I obnoxiously over explain it PT 2

Ahh Creations AU

My sweet sweet FNAF AU.

Oh how I love you dearly despite your doofy old art. ❤️

Jeremy and Mike continue their conversation,

Jeremy mentioning Michael's "Dad" as an important figure in the pizzeria and someone who wants to keep secrets about shading happenings down below.

Who is he to Freddy's?

WE DUNNO.

We already know deaths take place here so shady things going on down below aren't out of the realm of possibility.

Bonnie proudly proclaims HE knows what goes on as a friend of his occasionally visits the surface, seems like Bonnie is just friends with a lot of Freddys.

Michael's sister died at a location called "Circus Baby's pizza world" now a rental place that houses the same animatronics down below. Jeremy refutes this as nonsense.

Bonnie is firm in it being true.

Mike is shocked.

Jeremy and Bonnie continue to bicker and Mike feels solidly like he isn't in the loop about things here.

Jeremy wants Bonnie and by proxy Mike to leave so they do. Their shifts end at 6 Am.

Mike is now very curious about what else Bonnie knows and hasn't spoken about. For obvious reasons.

Bonnie feels he doesn't owe Mike information, which it seems Bonnie has a wealth of. Apparently Bonnie just, knows a lot about people around here. How does he get this info?

Do people TELL him this or does he get dirt on people?

Mike continues to use bribes to try and get what he wants.

Leading to the conformation Mike in fact: Does NOT smoke...

Which leads to the question: Why was he carrying cigarettes?

There's two explanations:

Be bought them specifically to bribe Bonnie after he saw Bonnie smoking on night 1.

He had them before that for some reason.

Bonnie continues to show he has no regard for other's personal space or comfort in the way he takes the cigarette from Mike.

Is Bonnie this personal with everyone or....? He seemed uncomfortable with Freddy invading his personal space earlier but that just could be because of where Freddy was positioned.

Bonnie why do you incessantly keep patting Mike's head. I know his hair is a complete mess but that's not gonna fix it. XD

Jokes aside: Bonnie's alright with spilling more of Michael's past as long as Mike doesn't say it came from him.

Michael's dad who we now know as "William Afton" (Conforming Michael's last name is Afton) has lost three of his children due to incidents at Freddy's.

Bonnie details how they died, but Mike is particularly disturbed by ONE in particular...For some reason.

If yall have read FSR and it's over analysis ya might have remembered me mentioning suicidal shit is a THEME in my work?

Yeaaaaah our boy Mike is flirting with death and doesn't care if he flirts back.

Makes sense, he seems to know what kind of place this was as he wasn't phased by walking talking robots.

Bonnie's weirdly optimistic here asking "Why not fight for a future?"

Bonnie's the type of guy who fights for shit he wants. Clearly. Man is stubborn.

Mike brings up he has one thing left to accomplish and said thing will happen if he dies or not. As if his mere presence here will do SOMETHING.

Aparently Bonnie has been a source of joy despite their seemingly unpleasant interactions. Likely for whatever reason Mike recognizes him.

Bonnie seems to feel a little guilty due to his actions but Mike assures him being insulted by his "Favorite" animatronic is funny.

Bonnie seems to be rather happy with being someone's favorite robot. This is a high honor evidently.

Maybe a little embarrassed too, dragging Mike along until they reach the backstage room.

Lamenting Mike should at least ACT like he wants to live.

Mike just cozies up into his hug without a verbal response. He doesn't mention he'll try which is kind of sad.

For whatever reason Bonnie is a literal comfort character to Mike.

Talking about actual comic development for a sec: You can usually tell which segments I started or stopped at. "Chapters" if you will. But the size of them VARY. Again, indie comic creator privileges.

Either way Mike rambles his plans to befriend Michael as a "Next step" he seems to have a plan in action...for something we aren't privy too for whatever reason.

This comic doesn't like to explain ANYTHING to you. Which confused a LOT of people. You gotta pay attention which is smth people HATED doing specifically on Webtoon.

A LOT as I've gone over is paying attention to dialogue from the characters as THEY reveal things about other characters which open up the story.

Knowing GENREAL Fnaf lore HELPS but a lot of people couldn't FULL detach what they knew and ended up confusing themselves by not applying "This is an idea not a firm cannon in this comic" approach I was going for.

Example: Robots are possessed thing I mentioned earlier.

In CANNON games: The FNAF 1 gang are possessed by kids.

In Creations: They are still possessed but not all of em are by kids. You can tell through context clues which ones aren't for sure based on their habits: Such as Bonnie smoking and Freddy being a sex addict.

So the IDEA of robots being possessed was kept but isn't a 1 to 1 reflection of the games.

People did not get this and it infuriated me. :)

There's also a prevailing THEORY in the fandom Michael and Mike are the same character.

Often they wouldn't use CANNON Fnaf material AT ALL to try and figure out Creations weird story: They'd pull from fan theories and FANNON/other comics.

Why? I could not fucking tell you. It makes no damn sense to me.

This comic lays a LOT out if you just read it at it's indented pace and not scroll a million miles a minute.

It's a slow burn. We establish a LOT before we get to the balls to the wall insanity. Because we're building unease with everything we learn about everyone in this building and even Mike himself.

NOBODY IS TRUSTWORTHY, NOT EVEN MIKE as Mike is clearly an unreliable person for information as the audience at least for now, considering he is a manipulator. Maybe we can trust Bonnie. But even then, Mike trusting Bonnie might be a character flaw of his attachment to the character and NOT a rational decision as we've seen he gets weird about this character in particular vs the other people and robots.

Anyways, as Mike explains befriending Michael is a good idea, Bonnie knows friendship isn't this guy's real goal and Mike is like

"Well no shit"

Bonnie's apparently "No snitch" which explains why everyone tells him things I suppose.

Well well well.

Mike's investigating this twisted place. Makes sense.

Mike self proclaiming himself "brave and stupid" is funny to me. Bro fully admits what he's doing is stupid as fuck and I love that he's self aware. X'D

Someone is established/implied to be helping Mike. So I'm sure we'll see them eventually. For now whoever Mike's working with is a faceless entity of unknown status or power.

Is Mike with the police, a private investigator...Who is he still???

This doesn't truly answer who he is FULLY here...

Either way Bonnie doesn't pry. But this establishes Bonnie isn't all muscle and no brain. Since he picks apart Mike IS working with someone with little to no info.

So right off the bat:

This is a clear lie from Bonnie. We KNOW Micheal has disclosed info with Bonnie that Bonnie hasn't yet shared with Mike. From Bonnie's little rant on "Not owing Mike info" and knowing things Jeremy Fitzgerald, who is ALSO implied to be Michael 's close friend DOESN'T KNOW.

Why is lying? Well could be for many reasons?

He doesn't wanna drag Mike into this further due to his obvious struggles with his mental health.

He doesn't want Mike to use Michael.

Either way he concedes to getting Michael to meet with him. Because a character flaw Bonnie has:

He will sell you out for things he wants.

Again we are warned about the danger of the Circus Baby's rentals animatronics specifically Michael's "Friend".

Bonnie adding quotation could mean a lot of things, but it comes off as he doesn't consider this "Friend" to BE a friend. Which could tell us a lot about how Bonnie feels about this "Friend".

And we get to see Michael we know it's the next day from Bonnie's instructions on where to meet him.

And he looks...interesting...

If ya thought Mike's pale skin tone was odd this man is lilac with purple eyes. And a a goofy hair cut. It does get better I promise.

Mike...Ya seem a tad distracted buddy.

This is Michael! Introduced properly. His name tag indicates he's also called "Mike" on occasions.

He's tall (At least compared to Mike) and is apparently friendly.

Also fun fact:

The first draft of this comic was a shitpost comic that got lore when Michael came in. Michael's OG concepts got mostly abandoned but ONE aspect of him has stood the test of time.

Bonnie seemingly has introduced Mike to Michael as somebody who wants to be his friend...

Perhaps a little white lie on Bonnie's end.

Mike says another of my favorite lines "Yes, I'm very lonely" which just sends me whenever I see it because, fuck it's funny what do you want from me? X'D

And they swap numbers.

Smth some Fnaf fans got hung up on was the technology in the AU:

It's an AU. Fuck off. X'D

They have smart phones because I said so. The robots are technologically insane what makes you think a smart phone couldn't exist??? X'D

Micheal "Talks to robots" quite frequently. William's apparently built nearly everything in the building.

Neat.

Michael wants to follow in his footsteps. How sweet.

Mike is STILL asking questions helpful to his investigation if you notice, also intentionally wording himself in a way that makes Michael and his experiences sound familiar.

Mike is clearly being a fake bitch here which I find funny. Micheal obviously can't tell as he overall comes across as naïve and eager to make friends.

Makes sense since 3 of his siblings are dead and he almost exclusively talks to robots outside of Jeremy Fitzgerald it seems. Wonder if he had a good relationship with them before they died...

Mike is shown to be genuinely uncomfortable by the mention of "Fredbears" for some reason. They both share a fondness for the Bonnie line of animatronics specifically.

They decide to meet up later outside of work.

Oh my.

You can tell I liked drawing this animatronic because these pages have BUDGET.

This thing clearly isn't a fan of Mike.

Could this be the "Friend" Bonnie warned about?

Goodness me that's a big ol animatronic. It's stripped bare of any plating so it's just an endoskeleton comprised of twisted cables... It uses said cables to it's advantage so it's comfortable with it's body. It was presumably spying on the conversation by hanging on the celing this whole time...

Did Michael know it was here?

It only wears a mask with segmented face plates. One of it's eyes appears to be completely malfunctioned. It's clearly meant to be a clown. Very different style of robot from the ones we've seen so far: Being it's a HUMANOID one...

It also skips threats and goes right to direct violence towards our boy Mike.

Which he responds too with...

THAT.

A reaction that seems to wig the robot out.

Still offput Mike makes a goof first impression, to "Ennard". Michael's "friend".

Something from older concepts from this AU:

Mike was a "badass" (Not even my words lmao readers thought he was badass. X'D I have to agree Mike's awesome I love him.) dude could go through a lot with a blank expression.

Though here he smiles and looks kinda, dead inside. But what's new.

Despite it's power Ennard appears to be insanely childish with their speech. Calling mike a "Jerk".

Ennard repeats a similar sentiment to Bonnie when Mike responds with THE MOST BADLY INTURPRETED LINE IN THE ENTIRE COMIC SO FAR:

People genuinely did not understand this scene.

"Thanks I love you. Bye. Tell 'em I said hi"

If you didn't catch WHY Mike said that:

He's clearly disassociating right now because of how much REAL DANGER he is in. You can tell from the way he slowly just stops looking AT Ennard and kinda through him. Mike's like, not fully home.

That response, is the kind of thing you'd say to someone while ending a phone call as quickly as possible with a family member or something.

It's a response that doesn't match A SINGLE THING THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT and shows an ODD amount of familiarity with someone he literally doesn't know. And it clearly flusters Ennard because he has no idea what Mike is talking about because this whole response is very weird without any prompting.

It's like something he defaults to when he can't deal with who he's talking to and wants to get away.

And he does. Leaving through the door.

Mike seems satisfied with himself as he goes back to whatever he's doing.

Michael clearly is someone of importance if he has a freakin' giant body guard.

Mike's working night shift again. That is his job...And he sees a child on one of the cameras.

Weird.

He's probably sleepy from working a bit into dayshift.

Oh. Somebody's watching you buddy.

Could it be...the same golden bear that was a giant floating head in the hallway?

They match his steps as he walks down the hall staying just out of site of the viewer AND Mike.

Huh. So Mike knows ANOTHER person here...That kid is familiar.

He's still being shadowed.

Aw.

A little baby.

"You" is apparently just who this is.

Do you know their name Mike?

Chasing chasing

Oh hello Bonnie you're getting touchy with Freddy huh?

The stage seems to have a door on it...For some reason.

Well shit Freddy you didn't have to say it like that.

HUH.

So Bonnie can't see this kid. Weird.

Again Bonnie showing concern about Mike because he's cool.

Oh my.

Oh dear.

PICTURE LIMITS ON TUMBLR I'M SCARED TOO MIKE

Jokes aside. What a cliff hanger.

The art style looking wonky there...

Wonder why Mike ran into the break room...What's in the break room buddy?

[cornbread818]

Hey so what is your favorited Bbieal au ship

:))

Apologies for late reply 🙏

TL;DR my favourite ships are Shybi, Billfriend, Joedina, Olivialex and Dollex.

Shybi 😮🧤 (Shy John x Billy)

Best friends to lovers trope + “Light in the dark” trope — very cliche but I adore it very much. I think that Billy always tries to portray himself as “well-made” to the public, but behind closed doors he’s literally everything except “well-made.” He’s emotional (Non-Emotional Creature being used to “clean up trash”); he doesn’t know how to deal with his emotions adequately (Vending machine of Beer, need I say more?); he’s tired (shoutout to Billy’s three jobs, mad respect to single-parent fatherhood 💪); he’s arrogant sometimes (This isn’t inspired by canon, I think Billy would have an ego from being always told he’s “well-made”); he’s haunted by things that aren’t there (The Great War, circa 1985, from CBA).

But despite all of this, there’s always one guy who has his back. And it’s his best friend, Shy John (⌒▽⌒) Why do I think that? Well, in the mods the only character to consistently appear is Shy John. Wherever Billy is, Shy John is there too. And of course Billy is very greatful for Shy John’s care. So much that he makes prioritises Shy John’s well-being over his (Funfact: Shy John’s sprite is the only one that is “undamaged” in “11 Years Later”). But not in an obssesive way, more of a “As long as he’s okay, then everything is okay” — self-destruction is not well-made!

Billfriend 🧤⏰ (Billy x Girlfriend/Old Friend)

So much of this is headcanon/personal interpretation because Girlfriend & Old Friend literally have 0 personality in the source material 😭

I think their relationship is tragic, Billy loved his old “friend” so much he built a robot to subsitute her. But the robot is a robot, therefore she can’t replicate Old Friend perfectly. I also find it poetic that Billy’s Girlfriend is only known as “Billy’s Girlfriend,” a title is the only thing she can replicate. She can never replicate his old friend… Someone that shared memories, struggles and celebrations with him…

This is also equally tragic from Old Friend’s perspective. She’s perceived as a dead soul, when in actuality she’s very much alive but trapped in The Office™ like she’s “Kaiba getting banished to the shadow realm.” If we’re to assume this is the same Office™ that FileName2 is trapped in, then Old Friend can still see Billy. But only as a spectator. She can’t interact with him; only watch his life progress with others, as her’s is trapped in purgatory alone.

Joedina 🍾🥔 (Joe x Baldina)

They’re both losers, therefore they should kiss. And then maybe along the way, they’ll help eachother become not losers. Mutual improvement!

Olivialex 🫒🌷(Olivia x Fake Alex)

It’s not the killing that they’re infatuated with. Olivia wants to genuinely hunt down and kill Alex for justice; Alex wants to hunt down Olivia as a way to mess with her and keep her for himself. Olivia is playing hero, while Alex is acting like a wannabe-yandere. Though they want to kill eachother, they just can’t… Olivia sees Alex as a fascinating discovery, something to be studied and cultivated; Alex sees Olivia as a desireable asset for doing work and keeping him company. They say they don’t want to be friends, but perhaps in a timeline where they didn’t want to kill eachother so bad, they could be co-workers.

They hate eachother so much it wraps back around to infatuation. They don’t love eachother, they’re just so obsessed with killing the other that they end up dedicating their whole lives to it. But once they actually get to killing or losing the other person, suddenly it feels wrong. Because after death, what do you do now?

Dollex 📓🌷(Dolly x Real Alex)

Mostly headcanon for Real Alex because he has 0 personality in source material ⚰️

From a bus stop to a weird house, Dolly and Alex are good friends who’ve gone through alot. When I say “gone through alot,” I mean Alex’s depression. Alex is troubled by many things: his work, the value of his life, his aspirations and most strangely… His house. To qoute Dolly from the MrDrNose discord server, “It was a weird and old apartment.” Maybe it’s the scratches on the walls; or the empty plates with steak juice despite Alex saying he’s not fond of eating meat; or the copious amount of broken broomsticks. Either way… Dolly thinks it’s best to ignore it. The only demons she knows about are Alex’s inner demons that make him feel miserable. And those are the only demons she’s willing to deal with. It’s not her job to care for him, it’s her choice. She loves Alex and wants to see him get better, Alex is in denial that someone can be so caring and kind towards him. But over time he learns to accept Dolly and her kindness into his life. And when he improves he’ll remember all the times Dolly helped him, so he’ll surely help Dolly when she’s in her darkest moments too! Snap out of this self-loathing and self-pity, finally do something with his life and help another life! So that both lives can live happily.

At least, that’s how it was supposed to go. If it wasn’t for the demon (literal) in the house and the demons (figuratively) in the mind…

[erigold13261]

For the CSM x Eriverse situation:

How are Jogo, Hanami and Dagon reacting towards the entities/Devils going hog wild? Are they joining in on the chaos, or are they on the side of trying to stop the chaos to prevent humans from hating them more?

Will the Chainsaw Devil still have the abilities to eat things out of existence? (Since that will mean that the horrible fates of humans other than Death will exist before Chainsaw Man ate them...)

I don't fully know yet if those three will fully survive to the future. 1000 years is a long time, even for entities/devils/curses to survive without being hunted down (especially during the chaos of war).

I think they are a neutral mix. They will help the mortals they are close to, but also love the idea of a world dominated by entities (that is what they were fighting for in the beginning).

If they know the world could survive without humans and robots, just being entities, I think the three would throw away most of their connection to humanity (other than a select few mortals they have come to like) and go on the side of entities.

However, considering how the world was collapsing a bit from the domains without intervention (and some domains are an instant death trap for entities), I don't think the three are going to actually ever commit to the entity side. It's too unstable while humanity allows them to have that backup plan of stability and living in case shit hits the fan.

So yea, those three will most likely stay neutral in the sense of not actively helping either side. If asked by someone like Shoko, I'm sure they will help a little if there's not high danger of their lives. Hanami being the most willing to help, then Dagon, and finally Jogo (who would rather just watch things fall into chaos and get rid of any humans or entities that mess with him or his friends).

Also, a thing to note. Hanami, Jogo, and Dagon are all old entities. Relics of the past. They will not be gaining the same power as newer entities that emerge or are reborn. They will be significantly weaker than any new entity that is formed in the future.

Before, it took a lot to build up negative emotions, but as the world grew with magic and chaos of war, entities could be created much more frequently and would now grow and weaken as the emotions related to their concept changes in mortal minds.

This means that the three disaster entities are sorta stuck in their own power level, only growing if they actively choose to train (something I don't think they did in time to catch up to newer entities) while other entities can change their power level (especially ones that go rampaging on human civilizations to boost the fear that mortals have of them).

As for Chainsaw Man. I'm not sure. I need to think more about what his role would be. The whole eating things out of existence is such an awesome concept and I love it! I just don't have much in the term of ideas for it yet.

I think I need to watch some lore videos and reread/rewatch the source material a few times before I am able to actually decide what I want to do with that power. So that is an up in the air answer right now. I'll try to come back to it later on.

[lauraneato]

Excerpt - Worldbuilding & Lore (319 words) Source: Legend & Legacy: Book One | Chapter 15 Context: Article about Artificial intelligence and Its Vulnerabilities

The Soul Paradox theory offered a profound insight into one of the vulnerabilities within the cognitive space of artificial intelligence programming.

The theory stated that there could not truly exist a perfect artificial intelligence, because the robot could never accurately calculate the value of (1a) goodness and (2a) survival, because it would mean it would need to also understand the magnitude of the scale of (1b) evil and how its perception must be correlated with an undefined value of (2b) death. 

As robots did not have souls, the value of death as a digital perception would always be displaced through a statistically significant variance; robots did not innately need to fear death; robot brains could copy and live regardless of body or framing, as long as there existed enough energy to produce digital signals - namely three things to guarantee digital life: 1) the ability to produce pulses of energy to communicate 1s and 0s; 2) a channel, or network for data flow, and 3) a location for data storage.

Things like death, and disease, and pain, and all emotions related to loss were digital static and represented inefficiencies to artificial intelligence.

The displacement of the value of death was calculated by a different form of potential energy that kinetically generated a variance in probabilities, and was only present in minds of advanced intelligent lifeforms - love. For however silly the concept of love sounded, it was a serious discussion and consideration when considering the qualifier of what made something a soul.

The stronger the love, the greater the variance among digital cognitive calculations, and the variance could glitch when love was faced with death.

The white paper concluded that robots could not inherently love, so artificial intelligence would never be able to understand the magnitude of death. In summary, when the love variance was magnified by death, there would always be a significant probability for a glitch within artificial intelligence.

[wuxiaphoenix]

On Writing: A Landscape of Predators

I admit it: as a fantasy reader, I love settings like those in Conan the Barbarian books, Pellucidar, Skull Island, and the Forgotten Realms’ Underdark. Death worlds! Monsters and massive creatures around every poison-thorned bush! Action, adventure; risks to life and limb galore!

But the laws of physics as we understand them mean they’re just. Not. Plausible.

So. Either your ecosystem swarming with dangerous predators is actually well-disguised robots feeding off broadcast power from secret nuclear fusion power plants....

Or you break the laws of physics. Flat out.

In weird tales - the origin of modern fantasy, SF, and horror - no one really cares. That’s part of the point of the setting: there are Things Man Does Not Know. Some of which may melt your brain if you do try to figure them out.

If you’re working in one of the specific genres, though, you may want a bit more detail to your explanation. I mean, when you’re talking monster outbreaks you can always take the Resident Evil horror route of, “these creatures were human once!” But a long-lasting ecosystem? Yeah, no, humans aren’t that stupid. And we’re rather fond of Killing It With Fire.

Say you really want a monster-rich area in your story that functions more like a normal ecosystem. In that case I’d say keep it simple. Your creatures, or at least your predators, are drawing on an alternate energy source beyond regular physical food. Extradimensional strings? Mana? Etheric energy? Pick something that agrees with your idea of the world, and decide what creatures can and can’t feed on it. This lets you have lots of predators (maybe even man-eating plants!) that can be as active as your average lion or tiger while only needing as much food as a Nile crocodile. Generally about two wildebeest per year, snatched on the herd’s migration coming and going.

Added bonus? If such an energy source exists you have an explanation for any psychic/magical powers you want to throw in. By dint of genetics, luck, Awesome Training or some combo of all three, there are humans (or other sentients) who can tap this energy and create interesting effects.

If you do this, just recall that you don’t have to be explicit how this works in your book. But your characters ought to have some ideas of what is and isn’t possible. And you need to have a definite idea of things that aren’t possible. In case your characters get sneaky and try to pull a fast one on you.

Finally, if you have ecosystems lush with life and monsters, consider human nature. Every continent except Antarctica was inhabited by humans before we ever left the Stone Age. If we can colonize an area, we will. So... why is this a wide swath of wildland full of monsters? Does the ambient energy make it actively harmful to normal humans to live in? Was there a massive explosion (volcanic or otherwise), glacial shield, or lingering poison that depopulated the area for a significant stretch of time? Is it a new land that appeared like a resurgence of Atlantis? A just-discovered alien planet?

...Do this, and you can have all the monsters your evil writer’s heart desires!

[why-does-this-happen-to-me]

Okay, more character sources because why not. These were made in new year, but the first one I had already prepared the sourcelist. I didn't finish the second one, which is why I'm posting it today.

Yep, self-insert because I can. Well, it's less me and more the me on Tumblr specifically, but whatever. Charjabug background because square pokemon.

Artists and genres I like is an obvious source, but I had to put it the last because I didn't feel like changing the size or order of the squares. Bardcore is there because I don't really know a lot about music genres, but I've heard enough of what I'm pretty sure is bardcore to know I like it and I needed a third example.

My OCs and the internet, again, pretty obvious. Paper for paper anon, pokemon for my rotomblr OCs and Death for Marta.

Sources from my mutuals and Robots and shapeshifters because these are my sources and I can be a shapeshifting robot if I want to (also, the image was originally going to be a bunch of default tumblr pfps, as in that's my true form and they can change sizes and colors and move to make me look like my pfp normally looks or something, but I forgot to do it) (also, my self insert faller is a ditto hybrid, so shapeshifter would still work with my OCs). The sources from my mutuals also comes from the shapeshifting aspect of the character. Under My Skin is there for shapeshifting because it kind of works? Look, I searched through a lot of playlists, it is the best I can do because people love to name playlists something unrelated to the content. Ah, also, sources from mutuals includes those followers I keep forgetting to follow, you know who you are, probably.

And also, Torbek, who was going to have the source Bones because it's funny, but I couldn't find anything that wasn't about skeletons (or songs literally called Bones, but I'm not going to use three songs with the same name in the sourcelist). I was going to draw him but, let's be honest, there's no way I'd make anything better than how shoocharu draws him. DnD logo background for obvious reasons.

Legend of Avantris and TTRPGs, pretty obvious, that's where Torbek comes from.

Blood and Common enemies. Torbek is a bugbear blood hunter, and bugbears are (distantly) related to goblins and hobgoblins. Also, this is the only time googling "songs about [thing]" has worked, which is good because there's a surprisingly low number of spotify playlists about blood and, again, the people there love to fill playlists with songs that aren't related to the name they gave it. Also, yes, I copied the common enemy examples directly from Blue's sourcelist for spiderling, I'm not sorry (couldn't remember if Blue used songs or examples and the examples are basically the most common enemies in most settings anyway).

Experiments and the fey, because Torbek's blood is infused with fey magic after he was experimented on. Did you know that if you search experiment in spotify you just get educational songs and experimental genres? Googling gave me the same result. You won't believe how many variations of evil science experiment I've searched trying to find songs that are about any experiment of the type you'd actually associate with Torbek. When I got to three I stopped because I'm apparently terrible at finding these things (I bet Louie Zong has something with that vibe actually, but I'm thinking that now). The fey, same thing, so I just used examples of things related to the fey.

[brid-jagtap]

Blog #4

Realism

In this blog, I would like to discuss a talk on "The Secrets of Photorealism" by Andrew Price‬ at Blender Conference 2022.

In this video, Andrew took an example of Toy Story 4 to teach about principles and Secrets of Realism. Andrew Mentioned, "There are three elements which contribute to digital realism, Light, Materials, and Optics".

LIGHT:

Starting with the lights which is the most fundamental aspect of photorealism. It is important to get the colour of the light right, as he described, which can be easily achieved by keeping the light source between the Kelvin scale. Most of the 3D Rendering software will have the option to control light temperature. As a basic rule of thumb, most lights in the real world fall within this scale.

Andrew highlighted how it is perfectly used in the example, of Toy Story 4 with warm tones used for sunlight or incandescence, blue tones for moonlight or night sky, and Artificial colour light for carnival objects and other parts.

he mentioned another example, “Bad travelling(S3, Love Death + Robots)”  where the director David Fincher specifically instructed the team to use 1800k for the Lamps and 4000k for the moonlight

The second thing to consider when lighting is light fall-off. The light fall-off is often overlooked and easier to get it wrong. In his speech, Andrew goes on to explain how light falls off changes in reaction to distance from the light source.

Light fall-off is inversely proportional to the square of distance, i.e. 

Hence, The light fall-off is very sharp closer to to source and it gets smoother as we go further away from the source. 

The third and equally important property of the light is the size. The light size determines the sharpness or the smoothness of the shadows. Light size and distance go hand in hand when lighting a scene. For example, if you have a small light source closer to a character it will have sharper shadows on the face which is usually not aesthetically pleasing unless it is the intended art style. While a larger light source will give softer shadows. The size of the light source is also relative to the character so if you get the light source closer to the character, it will make shadows softer.

Fig: small light source/ light source at a farther distance.

Fig: Large light source/ light source at a much closer distance.

MATERIALS:

The second element is material. When the light hits an object some amount of the light is directly reflected and the rest of it is absorbed by the object it bounces off the particles and then some light goes out again in scientific terms it’s called reflection and refraction respectively. In digital production, we 3D artists better know it as specular(reflection) and diffuse/subsurface scattering (refraction). Almost all real-world objects reflect an equal amount of light, but we tend to think that the reflection amount is varied for different materials, for example, a glossy vs a rough surface. In reality due to the different roughness of the surface angles of reflected and refracted light change which gives crisp sharp reflections on a very smooth surface and blurred 

This is true in the case of all Non-metallic objects but for the Metals almost all the light is reflected and there’s little to no refraction.

He explains further how reflections are calculated in 3D software like Blender. In the real world, reflections are more prominent at 90-degree angles, achieved by utilising Fresnel.

Furthermore, to achieve photorealism, the material' should have variance. we get more photorealistic material by adding a bit of variation in the shader’s roughness, normals, and colour channels. This type of material is also known as PBR.

OPTICS:

The third part is Optics, where Andrew talks about how exposure plays an important role.

If we take a photo with a camera in bright sunlight in the background, we would either have a very dark character or an overexposed background if we focus on the character.

How a real-world camera shoots a scene should also be taken into consideration while creating the 3d scene. There are 3 ways a real camera controls exposure, by changing F stop/ aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. With a smaller F stop value, we get more light into the camera and have a higher depth of field. A slower shutter speed lets more light into the lens by keeping it open longer, giving more motion blur. And lastly increasing the ISO value will increase exposure but adds noise to the image. All these parameters shall be optimized to get the best photorealistic results. When we use the real-world value of this parameter in the 3D rendering software, it calculates based on real-world scales so it is always best to model or have all the objects scaled to their real-world sizes. 

Andrews showcases some examples from Toy Story 4, how it used depth of field, exposure, and motion blur perfectly to get these photorealistic scenes.

All these aspects combined give the best results and should be at the forefront when trying to achieve the photorealistic outcome.

References:

Bad travelling(S3, Love Death + Robots: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20192968/

Price, A. (2022) The Secrets of Photorealism, Blender Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8AAX-ENWvQ&list=PLR6soibnxu_ElMul7vTFF8GXvEMeHZSmi&index=4&ab_channel=Blender (Accessed: 27 December 2024). Video screenshots are from the same video*

Toy Story 4 (2019) IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979376/

[samuraikingkyo]

A great list. I've personally seen Castlevania, Castlevania: Nocturne, Arcane, Invincible, The Legend of Vox Machina and Love Death and Robots. All have great points and really hit a specific genre.

Castlevania is a brilliant remix of many classic elements from the long standing video game series without (as far as I know) directly aiming to replicate the narrative of any single installment. The voice cast in Castlevania is superb across the board and is a great adult oriented dark fantasy/horror show.

Arcane is a beautifully animated show, with a distinct artistic style. The fight scenes are memorable and thrilling. The core narrative of family, broken family, socio-economic disparity and the corruption that happens in the pursuit of power are really well written. It does feel like you're watching a tragedy in action as the flaws of the character lead to an inevitable end. Solid voice work and sound design. The ending had me in tears.

Invincible is a retelling of the comics of the same name. One and a half seasons out right now. Again a well chosen voice cast. The plot is full of twists I won't discuss here but it makes for a narrative you can't quite guess if your unfamiliar with the source material. The fight scenes are pretty standard superhero affairs but with the gore and blood dialled up to Mortal Kombat levels. Overall pretty solid but definitely feels like it's in the early stages of a major ramp up so far.

The Legend of Vox Machina is an excellent addition to the action/adventure/fantasy genre based on the first campaign of Critical Role, a D&D actual play show. Given both the length in terms of watch time and the direct links to WOTC copyright material, the show does a fantastic job of translating the core story beats into half hour episodes. It does ramp the pacing of events up a lot if you're used to the same events taking potential 8 to 12 hours but I think most cuts and changes are absolutely for the best. This is also cast voicing beloved characters in a project they are passionate about and you can tell. Against some truly excellent fight scenes, a lot of adult moments/humour. It's big flaw is that it is at times, very much for the fans of the source material, and can be a little confusing if you're not passingly familiar with either Critical Role or D&D.

Castlevania: Nocturne is interesting, but with only one season out so far it does fall short of the original Netflix show. Voice cast is fine, the action set pieces are serviceable and overall the slight changes to animation style do make it feel more distinct from the former show but does come across like a watered down version of a superior show. With the big cliffhanger ending I do have hope that the second season can bring it home in a satisfactory way.

Love Death and Robots is a wonderful mix of thoughtful, thrilling, unnerving or funny depending on the story. Largely a sci-fi anthology with episodes that lean into specific sub-genres like horror. I truly think there's a story for everyone in the 3 Different seasons of the anthology. A diverse array of animation styles, narrative structures and tropes make this a bit of a roller-coaster. As such there are going to be personal highlights and low points depending on personal taste. For me, I enjoyed most Zima Blue, The Witness, Three Robots and it's follow on and The Secret War. Conversely I wasn't a fan of Automated Customer Service, The Dump or When The Yogurt Took Over. Essentially your mileage may vary on this show. Adult themes throughout, depending on episode as well.

I'd apologise for the long rant tangent but I love animation, especially animation aimed at more mature audiences.

Hey, we've seen some fantastic animated series lately. If you haven't already, run right now and check out

Arcane

Blue Eye Samurai

Scavengers Reign

Chainsaw Man

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

Tear Along the Dotted Line

Love Death + Robots

Arcane and Blue Eye Samurai compete for the best animated series I've ever seen, of all time, and they're both ongoing. That's wild. What gorgeous animation. Scavengers Reign is a wonderful sci-fi series that's actually original, and I'm sad to say that's a rarity. It shouldn't be! I'll let you discover the rest. Just a reminder that Love Death + Robots is an anthology, and as usually this entails hits and misses. But the hits are SO good.

Other good series that are not groundbreaking or anything in terms of animation (which is generally on purpose: most of them aim to emulate a specific established style, and succeed), but they still get the job done, and are fun to watch:

Castlevania (and Castlevania: Nocturne)

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Invincible

The Legend of Vox Machina

Dragon Age: Absolution

Good stuff!

[sakuraswordly]

Gilgamesh: Oh, you drew a new picture?

Peter: This is original from Maru and Moro again? Why do I feel like it's not?

Punch: Because this report didn't direct to Maru and Moro but from my story and from Mokona.

Gilgamesh: About Syaoran, Peter and Danny, who choice to save one precious to save many lives.

Punch: Include Sonic.....even Sonic....

Note(Source): Syaoran and Peter are different from Punch and Sonic. Syaoran and Peter share the same existence and the same hearts, but you still can tell the difference between them. But Punch and Sonic are the same as I wrote in Some things are beautiful because they cannot be obtained 1(Tsofph Concept ).

*Flashback*

Sonic: Since I was born....as my blood or my kind..... it had been nothing but a curse before that golden king and I got a curse of death. If I ever started to forget, something would remind me of what I was, and bring me crashing back down to the mission that god Tsubasa gave to us.

Tsofph Season 11(Chapter2 Shadow Path)

Punch: Syaoran.....you did know, right? Sonic's not a living being unlike any others. He's very dangerous.....just like that doctor told you long ago. Sonic's just a container. Sonic awoke for the first time, he had lived as a doll until he began to create his personality by himself and desired to live. No more than emptiness, the nothingness. Just like me and Mr Gilgamesh used to be. We.....three of us were different in the past. You could say we're very much like Enkidu in the past. We're extremely dangerous to both light and darkness.

Syaoran: What are you trying to say?

Punch: Sonic at first didn't have our memories....our dreams and even his own heart. Sonic knew from his heart that he never belonged to this world even us. If you want Sonic, Sonic need to be initialized again.

Syaoran: What.....?

Punch: If you want Sonic to live a life like a normal being, he has no choice but to initiate again. If Sonic does that, Sonic won't be himself anymore.

Syaoran: Because of this mission.....your mission...make Sonic's case to exist.....so Sonic be able to move even his feelings because......

Punch: Both me and Mr Gilgamesh exist.....

Syaoran: ...................!!

Punch: Sonic can't be his own without us. If something not human, animals, aliens or lives that allow to exist including an android and robot, then it would be considered sentient "alive" just like a normal being. If we are the same as those, it would be wrong to call Love. Even knowing that.... do you still love my brother, Sonic? Despite already hearing from me when I betrayed your friends and your trust....I did tell you to kill Sonic too.

Syaoran: I can't.

Punch: So you won't give all your love for him?

Syaoran: You three are wrong.....that's right.....it's natural to protect the ones you love because you love your one precious that's a part of your life. Even though I've accepted my feelings and I won't lie about my feelings even though King Gilgamesh and Sonic are the same but my feelings won't change....I love Sonic so much that's why I can't accept him to be initialized. He doesn't need to be perfect to be alive in this world. Me too, I'm also not perfect but that's doesn't mean some creatures that not allowed to exist to not be able to call life anymore, that's false!

Punch: Even me, Sonic and Mr Gilgamesh didn't have a right to call being alive?

Syaoran: Yes!

Punch: Even though our hearts and souls are the only cases to exist?

Syaoran: That's not true! Even though you don't exist but I, Peter-san and Danny have all of your beats inside of us! If Sonic looks happy, I am happy. If Sonic looks sad, then I'm sad. Even if his expression isn't real because he didn't understand, I don't care. Even if he is just a program-like robot, I don't care. I didn't fall in love with him because I wanted to give him my love, unlike couples, friends and family…but I won't stop loving him because we couldn't go all the way. I want to make love to him because I love him. I want Sonic to feel that he's alive!

Punch: You gave the same answer, the same meaning as both Peter and Danny.....Before we were just friends, after we're more than friends.....

Peter: If one day is abrupt, maybe I will prepare for you to hate me. For you want to protect someone who is most precious to you. To not regret the path you chose to take. That's how I told Syaoran a very long time ago.....I'm glad he made the same choice as me.

.

Syaoran: Why are you so nice to me? Why do you choose to protect me beside me, King Gilgamesh?

Gilgamesh: Because of your decision, I am alive today. Because choose me against the world, you choose me. You made the same decision just like many lives in the fake world and my people of Uruk.

Syaoran: ................................!!

*End of Flashback*

Punch: Sonic begins to learn more about love than he initially learned from Amy and then doesn't understand. And the person who made Sonic understand love and begin to feel love for someone like a living creature or human being from the beginning when he didn't have any is Syaoran.

Gilgamesh: Both you and Enkidu made the same choice to protect me.

Peter: That's right.

Gilgamesh: Remember what I said, right? If I died like Enkidu, I can go back to Punch Whalen's body. If Punch is killed, he/she will come to stay in my body. We are the only proof that god of the nothingness still exists.

Peter: But Sonic isn't.....

Gilgamesh: As long as neither I nor Punch vanishes, Sonic can live freely by his own free will in this world. And can have all Syaoran's love for him.

Peter: If I become greedy......do you think is the right thing to feel want to protect everyone by our own selfishness.....because of love....because of caring.....we chose to not kill one precious to save many lives. We choice to save one precious to save many lives.

Hint The love That Peter feels(Including Syaoran and Danny too) for Punch and Gilgamesh is the same love as Mikiya Kokutou for Shiki Ryougi. And this is why Peter never left Punch and Gilgamesh alone, he stayed right by her so "she "Punch" wouldn’t feel alone.

Tsofph spoiler below

Peter: It's not fair, I don't care what anybody says! I won't let you die or vanish in front of me again! You can't fight this! We'll fight until the end together. Isn't that what you said to me before?!

Gilgamesh: Even if it should mean....that I'll be the end of everything else too?! What do you expect me to do?! There is no other way!

Peter: But there still was, right?