#their voices matter most

[hmsharmony]

את ישראלית?

For reasons my parents cannot agree on, they never sent me to Hebrew school, so I do not speak Hebrew. I believe you’ve asked if I’m Israeli. I am not. I am Ashkenazi Jewish and I live in the United States. My pop pop came from Poland after surviving the Holocaust, and my nana’s father also came from Poland in the early 1900s. Everything I’m saying is from the perspective of a Jewish woman in the diaspora.

[dappy-dappernette]

I keep on hearing people go all "The voice of the Smitten is such a creep. All he wants in the princess is someone to control and keep as a pretty object. He'd drop the princess if she wasn't the perfect petite maiden like in the damsel route." and I will not stand for the Smitten slander.

Like- He's been in love with her as a burning corpse ghost lady:

A terrifying ghost woman who wants to bring fear and chaos to the world:

And even a murderous blade monster woman who would kill you and enjoy every second of it:

Like, he ALWAYS loves the princess no matter what she looks like or how she acts, he loves her for being herself no matter what or who she is. That's the point of his character and I'm tired of people slandering my boy.

[corpsentry]

pick your battles

[dani-luminae]

"It's so silly, why is Carlos scared of dogs?"

"What's going on with the whole staring contest thing with Mal and Maleficent, it's so lame"

Because these are both details on how each of these mothers control their children! Same with the Evil Queen convincing Evie that her only worth was in beauty and who she married and why Jafar made Jay steal consistently!

I know the second and third movies really gloss over it horrendously but D1 was very much about abused children escaping their parents and each of the four parents has a different method of "control" over their child.

Maleficent's staring contest is "you will never be as powerful as me unless you do as I say," (aided in part because at this point in canon, Mal's dad was human), so Mal finally "winning" a staring contest was her beating her mother through refusing to give in, and thus Mal's spell triumphed.

Cruella teaching Carlos to be scared of dogs is "the world is too frightening and dangerous and you must stay here," but befriending Dude is the moment he realizes she is absolutely wrong about the world and he would much rather be surrounded by friends than live in fear.

Jafar making Jay steal is because there's no magic and wealth is now the only semblance of power that can be found on the island but also isolation because you can't trust anyone - until Jay wins the MVP trophy and realizes that trusting his friends makes a great difference.

And the EQ reducing Evie's worth to beauty not only references the whole "Fairest of Them All" thing but also magic/knowledge was not a guarantee of power, but 'beauty' was what mattered most and why Snow White survived being poisoned; and yet that fails Evie because Chad is the worst but the one person who encourages her no matter what is the son of a dwarf.

[valtsv]

cannot decide if this moment in my fic drafts is real as fuck or a category twelve she would not fucking say that moment (for context, she's talking to the cairn maiden and projecting HARD in her grief-wracked rage and self-loathing)

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

something i've been thinking about:

Wally is set up as a sort of "main character" by the whrp. he's said in the site's description of the show to have introduced the main theme/lesson of the day's episode, and then the rest of the neighbors join him on his escapades. but then we have our first glimpses of everyone's actual dynamics and characters through the audios and you look at Wally and its like

first of all, thats an npc. second, nearly everybody else has severe main character syndrome

but its fascinating how Wally is just kind of... There. he doesnt talk much. he doesnt contribute beyond a couple of lines. its more like he joins the others on their shenanigans. he fades into the background. he's off to the side while everyone else holds conversations & leads the moment

Wally, despite being described as Thee character, is borderline background.

& whats even more interesting, within his individual secret audio files and interactions - he's almost chatty. not only that but the way he talks is more confident and faster paced. he's taking initiative. he can be kinda pushy. when talking to the qa/whrp/Us, he acts more like the character his descriptions portray. he acts more like a person instead of a puppet waiting for his next cue

I cant tell if - when around the neighbors - his tepid milk behavior is a purposeful act or if he's masking. and if he's masking, is it deliberate or involuntary? and in regards to both, why is he acting so different? It could be tied to what he's trying to accomplish. if he's trying to "restore" Welcome Home, it would make sense for him to act as he does around the neighbors - he wouldnt want to clue them in that he knows so much more than he's letting on, would he?

but then that begs another train of thought - what if he isn't acting or masking? if there is a time discrepancy between Wally's interactions with the qa/whrp/Us & the more 'official' audios, that could explain the difference in behavior. we could be getting glimpses into "future" (read: current) Wally, who's had much more time to figure himself out since we can safely assume he started out as a blank slate. we could be seeing a more experienced Wally than the one seen with his friends.

of course that line of thinking loses some merit when considering the 14 "bug" audios. or it could lend to it... if we're seeing a more experienced Wally but his friends are only seeing what he allows them to. it's still him, just... a carefully curated version.

in general it could really tie into the themes of identity and change and being other, to me. when you're so different - or you feel so different - that you can't bring yourself to be your most authentic you around your friends. when you feel like you have to hold back and be who you think they expect you to be, or what would be most palatable. most normal. will they accept you as you really are? there's always the fear and terror that the people you consider closest to you won't. or when you're so scared of change that you'll shove down & lock away parts of yourself so that you can keep things as you are. because once they know you've changed, so will they. and really, do you want to even accept that you've changed? what if that's what scares you most of all - that you're different, you've metamorphosized, you can't go back to the way things were because you yourself are no longer the person you were before. there is no reversing this no matter how much you try or pretend

[thelaurenshippen]

open ai made a little post about how they chose their chatbot voices and two things stood out to me:

a) I am genuinely pleased and surprised that the voices come from specific real people that they hired and paid, rather than being built off of all of the data open ai has scraped. the voice for siri did one job for one company 20 years ago and now she is literally everywhere without ever being compensated by apple or even acknowledged as the voice. there's simply no way she was paid enough in that original job. whereas, open ai says "each actor receives compensation above top-of-market rates, and this will continue for as long as their voices are used in our products." this could mean literally anything (what market rate are we going above? does continue mean they get residuals or get paid for doing more sessions?) but, christ, at least the actors are doing it with full knowledge of what their voices are being used for and can decide for themselves if the compensation is enough

b) the post talks about working with "award-winning casting directors" to get the voices. first of all, yay for paying casting directors! we love to see it. but they also say the CDs received over 400 submissions in a week and they state that like a big number and it's just...not at all. and look, without knowing the intricacies of the casting process, it's hard to know what approach the CDs took - it's very possible they were selective from the jump and 400 is a lot from the pool they were tapping. 400 would be a lot if you were going to the agencies directly and asking for names, but there's just no way in hell open ai went after big stars for this. so it would've been a pool of unknowns. in which case, 400 is laughably small. even if you're not using the big casting sites like actorsaccess, I've worked on projects with CDs and their own internal systems where we've gotten over 100 submissions for a single role. I've posted roles on casting sites and received literally thousands of submissions in just a few days

look, I have a very limited perspective on this - I am not a casting director (imo, one of the most important and undervalued jobs in hollywood) and I, in fact, hate the process of casting with a passion. but 400 just seemed like such a tiny pool to pull from and, idk, it heartens me! it's heartening to think that there's very little interest from actors and agents to be doing this kind of stuff. and absolutely no shade to the actors who did--I want actors to get their bag however they want as long as it's, like, safe sane and consensual, you know? but there's something encouraging about thinking that open ai hired some big casting agency to get their foot into the voice acting door and people didn't come running

[mossyflowers]

CAN WE PLEASE STOP PUTTING MEN IN EXPERIMENTAL SUPER JETS WHO HATE ANOTHER GUY CARNALY AND THEN MAKING THEM FIGHT TO THE DEATH. PLEASE. FOR MY MENTAL HEALTH

[briebysabs]

I’ve seen some grumbling that the ORV anime would further censor the gayness surrounding joongdok. And while I get that with it following the webtoon which is already toned down, I trust a Japanese animated studio to lure in the masses with yaoi.

Whether it’s official art, interviews, the voice acting, the songs. Like don’t worry guys, the OPs and EDs are gonna be gay as hell. Especially the further we go in the story and it becomes more introspective/personal than action-focused.

While lgbt marriage is still illegal in Japan and censoring in its media obviously still occurs, many hurdles remain for creators to represent what they truly want or to simply leave in subtext. But compared to SK and especially China, I feel like Japan is less strict with this sort of thing. Plus they also know and will hone on the fact that orv is a project meant for a global audience.

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

i think a character’s core values lies in the way they respond when you randomly meow at them. i have no evidence for this i just believe it to be true

[jrueships]

men can and will talk abt wnba players' looks first and make it sound like they're models and not athletes, but immediately scrutinize and deride women for being fans of men's sports bcs they think they're only in it for the handsome looks and don't value a person's skill outside that, and that's a valid reason for alienating and rejecting their opinion because that's a bad thing to do objectively

[sskk-manifesto]

Proof that bsd would be a lot better if they just let it pass the Bechdel test more often

[salty-an-disco]

Do y’all think the voices might get body dysmorphia?

[pickled-flowers]

Saw some of the grossest parenting today in the bus

[ambitions-of-an-eccedentesiast]

YEAH IT- wait- what?

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[vaguely-concerned]

I love Malcolm Hawke's first dialogue in Legacy (the one you get if you unbind the shade kept trapped by two seals in a little cell). clearly this whole business was the darkest shittiest time of his life and he's selling his soul and betraying every single one of his principles and everything, but he sounds so endearingly... snippy and exasperated about the wardens using demons willy nilly. the "listen I know I'm up to some shady stuff here and everything but let it not be said I was untidy. I'm fixing your shit as far as I'm able here. you will not be able to pin this one on me. these demons were here before I arrived, this is on the record now" energy. the way he's taking time out of his day to be responsible and enforce mage OSHA regulations in the middle of maybe the most hilariously irresponsible thing anyone's ever done after the magisters tried to break into the golden city. exquisite. the real Hawke family curse is having to specify that actually not all of the catastrophe was your fault okay this is at least like... 30% not on me this time. I. I tried. everything was on fire and I had a children's toy bucket and a bottle of rum on hand