#they are essentially two entirely different anime

[quasarzt]

ugggghh I love ur roleswap AU so much 😊!

thank you so much anon!! it’s been on my mind constantly. i’ve just been so busy with work that i haven’t had much time to actually draw lol.

anyway sketches and rambles :) using this ask as an excuse to drop this:

Roleswap meeting Canon. Imagine a friend you had for years, for a good chunk of your entire childhood, one you had a nasty falling out with that still hurts to think about to this day. And then suddenly, you meet a version of this person who’s essentially a version of someone if things were different, if they didn’t have the falling out and you had both still worked together. Imagine a version of a friend where they’re happier, they’re not using animals in their tech in a way that hurts animals. It’s basically seeing a what could’ve been type of thing. And it hurts.

I want to write a fanfic so bad about this, you have no idea. Just about roleswap in general, but also having the time trampoline malfunction and bring these two universes together. It would be PERFECT for character studies. AGHH.

[allio-corporations]

Another Hannibal (Hannigram) AU:

This time a G/t au! Or more correctly, a plethora of supernatural (monster/magic) g/t AUs and just plain g/t AUs!

This is a comp of a few avenues of g/t Hannibal.

- Supernatural AU! -

This AU has supernatural creatures, and mixing of different creatures leads to some going underground/traits not present unless something triggers their dna to do so

Will has empathy based psychic abilities, along with some lineage(s) that may explain what happens to him in this AU. One of them being part Veela (think Harry Potter type lore for that creature)

Hannibal has heightened senses, more so due to his bloodlines. A lineage of Wendigo that reappears in the family when he’s forced to eat Mischa. The wendigo traits are able to maintained and keep him civil due to his diet and other lineages. Lastly, he has a third line of inhuman species, called Nephilim - meaning giants but also in some interpretations of the Bible and Torah, it means children of (likely fallen) angels + humans. - It’s giants that are born of angels and humans, but some of the traits go quiet for many generations at a time and can only be triggered in someone due to certain circumstances. It explains the success and power the Lecters had in their lives, both sides, and essentially ensured their nobility (also Nephilim were seen to use magic to change or use abilities other creatures had, but every magic comes with a price of course).

Other lineages types include:

Jack - some type of griffin-human

Bella - siren, think fish type that can go on land and into water whenever

Alana - Selkie (mostly human)

Beverly - Wraith

Jimmy Price - vampire

Brian Zeller - human

Freddie - nymph + banshee (fire based)

Chilton - goblin + fae

Francis (red dragon) - obviously a dragon hybrid (maybe one that’s not seen as very powerful but he’s able to essentially become more feral with each kill)

Abigail - Wendigo

GJH - Wendigo

Randal Tierr - werewolf-esq hybrid (wolf-bear hybrid)

Mason - shape shifter + pig-hybrid

Margot - shape shifter (did not get the expressed pig gene)

Peter - human (with strong abilities to work well with animals)

I’ll think up more of them later, or would welcome any alternative ideas for the side characters aka ones besides the murder husbands

Alright, so some head canons or background situations, and a few different timeline/alteration ideas (I’ll try to make sure I mark ideas for when I write for different jumping off points!)

G/t AU 1: Divergent point from the second half of season 2 (the cases are the same, but Will is convinced to drop accusing Hannibal entirely, and Jack/Fbi stops suspecting him, but don’t think Will was to blame either, they just think the encephalitis confused Will).

- so Will is genuinely connecting with Hannibal, but is still debating on if he’s going to try and take him out on his own or give in to his own wants.

- obviously some aspects of the supernatural exist in this AU

- we’re skipping over their development to this point bc maybe I’ll cover it later. But by now they’re on good grounds (honest with each other, Abigail is alive and they make it seem like the ripper or copycat (who the fbi doesn’t know) let her go similar to Miriam Lass). So the three get a murder family that isn’t fleeing the country yet.

- Beverly is also alive. She didn’t go to Hannibal’s house, and girlie is thriving. (She doesn’t fully suspect Hannibal, but isn’t as social with him now.)

- Hannibal still helps consult on occasion, Will is still helping Jack, but in his own terms now

- After Abgail goes off to college (girlie wanted to go abroad to escape this mess and good for her, we’ll see her later), there’s a new normal. Will is over more often, the dogs usually join him now, the two are kind of together. Others don’t know if they’re properly together, but they essentially are - even if they are still learning to communicate and work around/with each other.

Now we go to the case that starts the shit show;

During one case, one not shown in the series, making one up - Will is pursuing the suspect. Jack got his leg hurt and Will is just going for it bc doing bad things to bad people feels good (he’s being honest with himself and Hannibal, or trying to be, it’s progress).

During the pursuit, Hannibal is slightly behind Will, because of course Hannibal would rather see Will go feral/see what Will does to a suspect.

Perp is some type of fae, so enjoys causing issues and it killing people or greatly changes them. Has bags of powder, think like the Love god episode of gravity falls. But not for love, for chaos and making people be honest/situations kind of like jigsaw.

Perp can tell that Will and Hannibal are kind of together but yknow, they’re them, so he hits each of them with a powder during the pursuit. (Powder’s actions essentially can trigger dormant traits/lineages in person). So it acts the same but the outcomes depend on the person. And while creatures and such are accepted and fairly common, some lines and traits aren’t and haven’t been present since the beginning of recorded history essentially.

Will starts choking from it, Hannibal stops bc if he can’t watch Will further his becoming, and he’s actively in distress, why pursue the fae? So the beloved sassy science squad (this time Beverly), comes in with a great shot, and stops the threat. Doesn’t kill the fae, but he is apprehended properly.

Since both got that powder on them, medical checks out Hannibal and Will, doesn’t know what it is. They take samples, do some tests. Besides higher BP and fatigue the two are fine. So, the two head back to Baltimore until the next case or whenever Will would need something from wolftrap. They think this case is done. They were very wrong.

At home, the two are making dinner and discussing the case. Hannibal is cooking a roast of loin and rump (from a very vocal pig who unapologetically spilled a hot cup of coffee on Will during a previous case). While Hannibal is down in the cellar picking out a wine, he hears a clatter, crash, and yelp from upstairs.

Hannibal, who chided himself on letting Will sous chef while not feeling well, turns the corner, and can’t find Will. He knows he couldn’t have left, and there’s no one else there. No blood, no sign of struggle beyond a knocked over pot and two lids on the ground. The pot had been empty as well when he went downstairs, not even on the stove yet.

After a few more moments of investigating, and calling out for Will, he hears a response - muffled and soft but definitely something or someone calling out his name (though likely he wouldn’t have been able to hear it if he was human). The even odder thing is that the sound came from the pot on the island.

Hannibal lifts the pot, finding what he had hoped wasn’t true: Will, under the pot, on the island, barely more than 3.5 inches tall. Safe to say, Hannibal is amused, and slightly concerned, though has a good theory of what happened.

Realizing that he was right in his assumption on what could make up Will’s lineage, and the fact the powder probably caused this, Hannibal realized that he should start monitoring any changes in himself as well.

Will, on the other hand, is not having a good time. He’s already knows this wasn’t Hannibal, that it was the damn fae who did this, but can’t help the anxiety that is coursing through his veins. Despite being pretty sure that Hannibal wouldn’t harm him - at least to a point he can’t fix - his nerves were still fried due to sensory overload and giant cannibal whose pot he is under at the moment. Likely thinking back to the damn endangered songbirds Hannibal had drowned, plucked, cooked, and ate whole. The only solace Will has from the powder is that his clothes were also affected, preserving his dignity, at least for a time.

Cutting back to Hannibal, he too is remembering the songbirds they had eaten not too long ago. But, he quickly concludes that he prefers Will not on a plate (at least now).

Hannibal has also decided that if there’s anyway he could find that fae, once they figure out the powder composition, he’s definitely stealing his pancreas and lungs.

When the two of them come out from their mind palaces/mind scapes, they work on finding a way to communicate easily without Will going deaf or sensory overload occurring. But before Will gets a word in, Hannibal decides it’s time to relive his days in the medical field, which Will is not happy about. It occurs without real incident once Will just goes with it, knowing it’d be faster than mildly inconveniencing Hannibal’s speed.

The two decide on a mix of whispering and writing things down, with some universal signs or part asl to help as well.

While Will is still partly anxious about Hannibal finding the thrill of the chase when Will inevitably freaks out, Hannibal doesn’t have much of a bloodlust of thrill of the chase when the target can’t escape an area without help, that he is always in arms reach of (at least most of the time).

One aspect that worsens is the amount of cannibal puns and jokes Hannibal makes on a daily basis. (As in his mongoose has turned into a morsel for the snake(s)). Will is not amused.

Will is also not a fan of how cold everything is now. While he didn’t enjoy the night terrors and waking up drowning in his own sweat, being constantly cold if left without a heat source within his personal space definitely was a downgrade in a lot of ways. (Though he didn’t hate the fact that he got to spend more time with Hannibal.)

Jack and the gang do in fact get told a little later about Will’s condition. The pair had been laying low for about 2-3 weeks, trying to play by ear, and take this time to actually work through things, but Jack got nosey, and the cat was out of the bag (more so, Will was out of the pocket).

During those few weeks of working things out, the two actually start communicating like adults when it matters, and learn to work with each other in more domestic settings. (Though domestic, it’s not normal).

Hannibal does essentially spoil Will - new clothes (too many in Will’s opinion), rigs and set ups to move around more efficiently, more warm blankets/articles and heaters around the house to keep Will’s body temp safer, even getting custom made pieces of furniture and appliances, even custom dishware and tools. Because while Hannibal enjoys having Will rely on him, he knows Will and that eventually he’d go stir crazy.

So, to make Will not lose his patience, plus the amusing nature of the situation, Will tags along to Hannibal’s therapy sessions with patients (asleep/listening while in his desk or where his handkerchief resides). Then, Hannibal attends the opera a bit, slightly less than usual, during that time period, reserving out and entire higher up booth to him and Will, as to better enjoy the opera but also be able to communicate with Will when/if necessary. In return he concedes in secretly taking Will to a scene with him, Jack not knowing what’s going on in the slightest. The two do get to hear about updates on what the powder was. (Midwest in origin, a mix of different magic/properties. Definitely needs more time to study and interrogate the fae before Hannibal can throw another proper dinner party).

Hannibal over time does become more unrested, irritable with anyone besides Will. Will finds it endearing but slightly worrisome. It at least keep Jack off his back, to the point where he sends Hannibal footage and pictures for Will rather than try to force Will out there (lessening the chance of Hannibal losing it on Jack).

When the rest of group finds out about Will, they all take it differently. Jack is still too loud, overbearing, and rough (causing a nasty set of bruises on Will’s rib cage once), and it takes Will pleading with Hannibal to not kill and cook Jack by flaying his skin to stop Hannibal from dropping the mask when he found out. Jimmy and Brian are a bit better, too inclined to stare at Will like a lab rat, which isn’t horrible since both are fond of animals, but just feels demeaning. Alana overcompensates trying to act normal and overprotective, so careful to the point of forgetting Will’s still himself. Beverly acts pretty normal, enjoys joking and is more careful, but can read a room better than apparently a psychiatrist (Alana) and the head of the BSU. Will ends up enjoying Hannibal and Beverly’s company the most to no one’s surprise.

Since Will was past his encephalitis, and decided to not turn in Hannibal/accepted his growing becoming, it’s easier to look. But, he doesn’t have to if he doesn’t want to. Jack can’t come and force him to do so, thanks to Hannibal. (If Will tells Jack he’s not feeling up to going/not feeling well, Hannibal takes his word for it and doesn’t take him to the scene. The crew won’t show up to try and convince Will, because Hannibal just won’t answer/repeats what Will said and excuses them out. Jack can’t even get them to budge.)

Though they two do visit the lab a fair bit to hear updates on the samples from the fae’s powder that hit them. Plus, do a basic physical and bloodwork once a week, usually if they’re already in the lab for a case. Will only lets Hannibal do his bloodwork, because of his surgical precision and as a form of trust. (Bc they are in the equivalent of a post fall communication era, but hiding in plain sight).

They find the powder isn’t entirely of fae origin, something from the Midwest, and a bit from the north east. Both of their vitals are steady. Will’s vitals come back faster, similar to small mammal’s in metabolism, need for heat, and just a faster heartbeat. Hannibal’s remains very similar to his base vitals, but they do notice while Hannibal’s vitals are normal and Will’s are faster, they’re still in sync with each other. (As in every fourth beat from Will, he and Hannibal sync up. Like a snare roll matching up and beating at the same time a timpani beats. Which I based off the study that couples who are shown to be in love/have high present levels of love hormones end up with matching heart beats/in sync with their partner). The science team find it endearing, Jack not so much, him and Alana are a bit unnerved.

Back to the boys: during the time Hannibal and Will are the only two (along with Abigail to an extent), know about Will’s condition, the two definitely learn to communicate. Because the first week consists of a lot of writing and whispering on Hannibal’s end.

During these early stages Hannibal takes it upon himself to get Will plenty of tools and day to day items. (Lots of clothes, with an accompanying wardrobe, his own bed which honestly doesn’t end up getting much use, small fashionable blankets to put around the house bc Will should not get cold when in this state, plenty of small appliances for hygiene and self care.) (Utensils, plates, kitchenware, furniture that matches the room’s aesthetic while still being comfortable, attachments to help Will get between rooms or on surfaces if need be, etc. But Hannibal still loves carrying Will around/having him within arms reach, and Will doesn’t complain much when Hannibal or eventually Winston carry him around. He hates being grabbed by essentially anyone or anything else though; enjoys being carried around by Winston but not the other dogs. Loves Hannibal carrying him around/Hannibal being the only person Will actively enjoys and seeks out to have physical contact with. He is okay with Abigail or Beverly helping him, but doesn’t like being held by them for long periods of time. Dislikes but tolerates Price (Jimmy) or Alana helping him out if needed. He actively avoids being touched or helped by Zeller or Jack, has risked falling multiple times just to avoid them bc his other options were not in the room or didn’t hear him. And the one time either of the Freddies, Lounds and Chilton, tried to be within a few inches of him, he nearly bit them before threatening to take a finger if they tried anything. Hannibal is was incredibly amused for the rest of the case.)

Hannibal doesn’t mind cooking the extra meals for Will, he enjoys being such a large part of Will’s day, especially considering the meals are just portioned smaller and last longer over time. Though he does let Will pick options more now bc not only is it their communicating + compromising era, but Hannibal is obviously simping for the Graham cracker.

First day, or partial day of this has Will trying to not retreat into himself. With Hannibal genuinely unsure of what do exactly do, because while he could never entirely predict Will, this is on another level.

Will, instead of running warm like he used to, now gets cold easily, so he’s essentially glued to either a heat source or Hannibal, usually the latter. And due to this, the first night, Will ends up sleeping with Hannibal (which would have been like normal for them, but due to circumstances, they had to rearrange). Pillow on Will’s side is swapped for a smaller pillow that won’t cause Will to easily roll off. Then temporarily until Hannibal can start spoiling Will, pocket squares and cuts of old fleece material (that had been packed away for Will to use to mend some of his fishing/outdoor gear) act as blankets. The pillow is set up near Hannibal’s head, and everything goes off without issue. Hannibal also turns up the heating in the house for him.

Even when Will gets proper bedding that is on Hannibal’s nightstand, Will ends up either in his old spot or on Hannibal (with Will refusing to move)

Should also bring back up the lineage stuff - Hannibal’s traits are usually muted, horns and such in one of his forms aren’t often present and usually Will is the only one to detect them, except for his eyes going red. Then he has the original wendigo shape of being longer and emaciated, which was what Will saw when he was sick in S1. Lastly there’s the incomprehensible form of being part nephilim, Will able to detect parts but doesn’t look at it fully, despite seeing Hannibal behind the human veil quite a lot. While Will’s eyes have a slight blue glow to them while he’s using his empathy in a controlled manner.

Hannibal ends up not being the only one with a slight thrill of the chase when Will darts around too quickly (Hannibal has enough self restraint and frontal lobe activity, unlike some, to not act on such impulses 99.99% of the time, at least not without thinking them through first). Jack ends up swiping at Will in the lab. Will had been pacing on one of the examination tables, doing his job. He had gotten lost in thought, and had begun to pace faster and look around the body more before he could zone in and “look”. As he’s turning to look the body in the face, Will sees something in the reflection of the table and a very quick shadow coming his way. Will scurried out of the way, ducking under the partially posed and elevated neck of the body he has been examining. As Will dove to hide, loud squeaks of shoes on the floor, and nearly incoherent rumbling from the others caused him to curl up and begin to lose himself/retreat inward. (Which wasn’t good considering he was just beginning to properly “look” at the situation for this case.)

Thankfully before the hand can reach where he has just been, a faster hand which had been the other mass in the table reflection grabbed the first wrist, twisting it sharply and efficiently. Jack had reached for Will, knocking over tools in the lab, unaware of his own actions/impulse. It wasn’t until Hannibal had quietly, near silent, grabbed his wrist, putting his body between Jack and Will, that Jack had snapped out of it. The rest of the crew were shocked, and a bit worried, not only for Will’s safety but also shocked by the actions of both Hannibal and Jack.

Once the commotion settled down, only then did Will even dare to look out, seeing Hannibal’s back to him, acting as a shield from the entire group. Jack not even being allowed to explain really. Will just quietly asking if everyone but Hannibal leave the room so he could focus, then he’d send over a report later. The team obviously complying, likely due to not wanting to further the situation, they waited outside in the hall.

When Hannibal walked out of the lab, the others noticed Will wasn’t in Hannibal’s hands or in his shoulder. They each had their own guess to what happened. Will hadn’t wanted to see or feel everyone’s eyes on him, especially Jack due to feeling fidgety still. So, he ended up hiding in Hannibal’s inner chest pocket of his suit, allowing him cover and not end up freezing.

Hannibal hadn’t let Jack even stop him as he walked out, knowing it may be rude, but nearly attacking an (unofficial but technical) employee was worse, he thought it fair to walk off, telling Jack he’d get the report and hear from himself or one of the others what the plan was going forward.

While it had been stressful, the two realized fairly quickly they’d both had such a strong reaction to Jack because not only is it a naturally stressful experience (mainly for Will) but also because it’s Jack. This being made more apparent when Beverly had suddenly moved to keep Will from falling off a counter in the lab a few weeks later - Will needing to just catch his breath due to nearly falling. Hannibal had still had a notable reaction though (shoulders slightly raised, more blunt in his tone at first, and moving closer to Will/acting as a barrier more so implicitly). Yet they didn’t leave suddenly and Will had continued his work that day fairly normally, with Hannibal remaining nearby, so not as nearly as strong of a reaction compared to Jack earlier.

This was further proven when Will decided that during a day in - more mundane and no cases, which was rare - that he’d get Hannibal to finally chase him. Will had been bored, unable to work on new lures, the dogs being in and out and besides Winston were too rowdy to safely deal with, and not much else to do. Will began to run around surfaces as Hannibal was reading. Thanks to the add ons Hannibal got so Will could move about easier, and using the coffee table, backs of furniture, etc. he was able to get Hannibal to silently set his book down. Hannibal could tell Will was enticing him, wanting to have a more physical recreation of their old “cat and mouse chase.” Which, who was he to turn down yet another surprise from Will?

Will would swear that if Hannibal had a tail it would have been swinging like a house cat tracking something, his eyes becoming an even more bloody shade of red. Once Will knew he had his attention, he took off towards the floor, where he knew he could get under furniture to prolong the chase. Hannibal, not immediately jumping up, rather watching to see his plan first, had toed off his shoes to be faster, then began the chase.

The chase and stalking lasted for about 15 minutes. During which Hannibal’s antlers had began to be visible, limbs looking more emaciated and longer, revealing that Hannibal was either not focused on maintaining his appearance during the chase or was shedding his human veil for the purpose of seeming more monstrous (possibly to make Will slip up). Didn’t matter which one it was, only that it was just them. Eventually, Will had given away his position on a bookshelf, and had no plan of escape. Will came out from behind the small stag sculpture on the shelf, allowing himself to get quickly swept up. By the time he was caught, Hannibal’s eyes were blood red, antlers longer than Hannibal’s forearms, and his limbs extended + emaciated, with his teeth sharpest they’d been in months. With a slight fuzziness around Hannibal, meaning he really hadn’t been keeping a lid on his veil or himself in check beyond his own nature.

Despite what should be terrifying, astronomically more dangerous than Jack’s mere swipe, Will wasn’t worried, wind slightly knocked out of him by the sudden grab yes, but not fearful. Once grabbed, Will saw Hannibal’s features spike then slowly fade back to what he looked like normally with his human veil tightly sewn on. Hannibal, surprised by how long the chase had been, remained somewhat hopeful that it wouldn’t be a one off thing.

The two going back to relaxing, this time in Hannibal’s study/library. Will going between curling up on the desk, next to Hannibal’s empty hand and book from earlier - Hannibal carefully helping Will relax by massaging the knots and kinks out of Will’s back to the point of him being putty. To then scurry to in crook of Hannibal’s neck & collar bone to lounge. Will moving around periodically to keep himself entertained until Hannibal was heading to cook dinner, once again one of Will’s favorites.

Of course their chases didn’t stop there, Will periodically deciding on days when they usually had little to do, he’d suddenly dash away, and their game would continue until one of them, almost always Will, got tired, or if Will reached a dead end. Then they would go back to what they were doing.

This was somewhat inconvenient at times. Especially when Will decided to run around Hannibal’s office shortly before a patient came in, Mason Verger.

Thankfully, Mason is too self absorbed to notice Will beyond asking Hannibal about his food preferences when he’d possibly picked up on a specific smell (which Hannibal thought he wouldn’t bc again it’s Mason, but because of his piggish nature, smell for him is increased significantly, nowhere near Hannibal’s but enough to smell Will and his, Hannibal approved aftershave/cologne). But beyond the rude remarks, he didn’t see Will quickly retreat to where Hannibal was, across the room. Both slightly tense, but unnoticeable to the untrained eye, until Will was again in Hannibal’s inner handkerchief pocket. With the appointment going the same as usual, Mason being insufferable for an hour.

All of this ends up paying off later during a case though - Jack insisting they join for the arrest, and Will feeling up to it putting them in that situation. In an old warehouse, with unsecured rooms, the assailant, a serial killer, another fae, using different people of different lineages to try and make…. Something. During the arrest, the two had walked in and the perpetrator lunged at Hannibal, causing Will to nearly fall off Hannibal, being placed down quickly as the attacker broke free from his cuffs to try and seemingly steal at least one of Hannibal’s eyes. Will had quickly gotten distance, knowing that he couldn’t fight back. But that mad dash took the assailant’s attention, causing an unprompted chase around the room. While it lasting for less than a minute, the moment the man had nearly grabbed Will before Hannibal had broken the man’s arm - from the bones near his second knuckle to the shoulder joint - and proceeded in dragging him away from Will had been tense.

The two left silently once they saw the man get loaded into an ambulance due to Hannibal’s interference.

Hannibal got a lot more…. Protective (well, possessive) over Will by that point, which didn’t seem to surprise the sassy science trio (more so Jack and Alana were surprised and off put to varying degrees).

They kind of settle into a new normal at this point. Well, normal for them, similar dynamic, but slowly becoming domestic bc it would be really not opportune to remove the scales from the other’s eyes about their nature at this point. So, focusing on finding out what happened/what the two were hit with, is the main focus while working with each other/learning how to be with one another.

Eventually, after enough tests are run and they’re waiting it to hear more news about what is found in the mixture, Hannibal is able to plan a trip to Europe, specifically Florence, with Will obviously accompanying him. While Beverly and Alan take turns watching the dogs. And on their trip, they plan to visit Abigail (she’s been let in on the situation but hasn’t seen the full on perspective).

They obviously travel private, thanks to Hannibal’s connections, and off the two went for a few weeks. And while doing tableau wasn’t out of the question, Hannibal having a set of drawings ready, they’d obviously have to be careful and not do an exact Ripper MO, but they both hoped that maybe this would help them clear their minds before anything else changed, since it seemed no new information would be found for a while.

(And while neither Hannibal or Will would admit it, at least not for a long while out loud, they were enjoying the situation to an extent, Hannibal more so than Will, and hoped that if they figured out what exactly this was, that they’d be able to find a way to control or at least use it again, if Will ever did return to his original state).

That is what I have for now, will definitely update this later. Let me know if yall got any ideas or suggestions to change some details or questions about plot points. This is mainly weeks of sleep deprivation in random bursts mixed with a few of my hyperfixations. I would love to hear some feedback! Thanks for reading.

[andromeda3116]

you know i wonder where the essay is, i certainly don't have it prepared, what it reflects about society, that the '99 trigun was a fun action western-sci-fi anime with a plot that wove itself out slowly and had plenty of heart that got serious eventually but was also a quirky romp through most of its run

and the '23 trigun stampede is a dystopian sci-fi set in a crumbling desert that can barely support life with a dark plot that drags you under immediately and also does have a lot of heart but ultimately appears to have the theme of scavenging that heart from a place that gives you no reason to believe it exists

like, as time capsules i feel like it's unintentionally saying something about us, about where we've come to and come from, that the same basic story is told in two such wildly different ways, after less than a quarter-century

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

reading dungeon meshi

[wispstalk]

Some writing advice for hunting, bc I see a lot of hunting scenes in fantasy that make me itch. More under the cut. Don't read if you're sensitive to blood-and-guts discussion or animal death.

Finding game:

- I don't hunt much these days bc I don't feel like getting my ass out of bed at shitfuck o'clock every weekend during the season. Which you have to do, because much of the time you come home empty-handed. Successful hunts come about when you're out there often.

- You don't really have to be a good tracker to hunt, but you do have to know the basics of your prey and you have to be able to interpret the landscape even if it's unfamiliar. It's less likely a tracker is looking for "bent blades of grass" or whatever and more likely they are noticing game trails, sheltered areas where nests and burrows are, a spot of thick vegetation which would indicate a water source.

- Scat and footprints are useful too ofc but to varying degrees. If I'm hunting deer it's just confirmation that they're in the area; more often I use knowledge of their habits to actually find them. If I were hunting something elusive and solitary like a cougar I would pay more attention to the tracks but that's also a reason people hunt with dogs!

Actually hunting:

- Bows are not the only hunting weapons, though would be most common in ur typical medieval fantasy type setting. Spears and lances, slings with stones, and clubs would also be used. And knives and swords but in this hunter's opinion, FUUUUCK that.

- Lung shot is a quick death. Heart shot and head shot too but that is much harder. Other shots might mean tracking a wounded animal as it runs away. This is where things like broken twigs/bent grass are especially telling, and ofc blood. Small game bleed out faster and won't get as far but you might spend quite a while running after an elk shot in the flank.

- This highly depends on the prey but hunting often involves more sitting around than people realize. I bring a small pad for my booty ass bc sometimes you'll spend hours in a strategic spot waiting for the game to pass by. Also hides (the shelter, not the skins) are a thing and most hunters would consider shelter-building an essential skill.

- Hunting seasons are not entirely a modern convention -- there are better times of year to find different animals. But there would be less concern, historically, about killing animals during the breeding season than we have today.

- Even when I was hunting regularly and more confident, I got a huge adrenaline spike EVERY time I had an animal in my sights.

Big game:

- A deer has a lot of meat on it and though it's not a bad thing to leave a carcass for scavengers, your party of two or three adventurers probably will not go to the trouble of hunting deer unless they have some nearby place to cache, preserve, or trade what they can't eat before it spoils. Are they leaving it behind or do they have some way to take full advantage of such a large kill?

- If your character gets a large game animal they're probably going to field dress it: deal with all the blood and guts on site, then quarter it so it can be packed back to the campsite or whatever. My dad is a big burly mutant man and he cannot carry a deer by himself. You can carry game on poles or horseback too but field dressing is pretty typical in a situation where u can't just fling it in the back of the truck and hang it at home.

- I grew up eating bear and when it comes up I'm often surprised how many people don't know that people hunt bear for meat. It's tasty imo, especially makes a good sausage

- I can hunt deer alone, though company is nice. I wouldn't attempt hunting something more dangerous by myself. Large animals especially are better taken down as a group effort. In the TES context for example it would be kind of insane to hunt horker alone. Not that some folks wouldn't try.

Small game:

- A character who subsists mostly on hunting is going to be eating a lot of small game. They are probably going to use traps and snares in addition to actually going out on hunts.

- Look up "rabbit starvation." Small game is often (but not always) lean and going without fat for a long time can cause serious health issues.

- I joke that you don't hunt turkey, you just go get one. Game birds are kind of stupid. I plan a deer hunt, but I have gone out and shot grouse on a whim.

Processing:

- Draining blood, skinning, plucking, butchering, dealing with all the bones and guts, storage and preservation: pretty time consuming and involved. It's a good excuse for social activity.

- The moneyed classes likely would not process their kills themselves, unless they're doing some kinda randyll tarly masculinity flex for the symbolism. Kitchen staff or a local butcher would handle it.

- A good skinning knife is kinda wide and short. Some game knives have a rounded tip which keeps it from puncturing the skin in case of accidental slippage.

- Skinning is done with a light hand bc puncturing the digestive system means you've poisoned the meat. I will say it is less difficult than I expected it to be the first time I tried it.

- We don't eat a lot of offal in the US but a deer liver, for example, would be considered prime meat by many and eaten first. Bear, walrus, and seal liver contain toxic amounts of vitamin A and would be thrown away.

- I've been told every animal has enough brains to tan its own hide, but I think there are some exceptions. It's definitely true of deer and elk. With small animals like rabbits it's hardly worth the effort of getting the brains out and other things can be used but brain tanned leather is soooo soft and nice.

- Hides and pelts are useful and valuable and would be kept or traded if circumstances allowed. You can tightly roll a hide to keep it from drying out before tanning, or you can freeze it, basically indefinitely. You can also air dry it once scraped clean and soften it later, which is what fur hunters would most likely do for efficiency's sake. Tanning is also so so so fucking gross imo. Really slimy process, and tanneries REEK.

That's all I can think of for now and this is already hella long but the takeaway is that it is generally a pretty involved activity and more impactful on lifestyle than I usually see depicted. So there ya have it

[lullabyes22-blog]

Le Rite sacré de l'amour magique - The Sacred Ritual of Magical Love.

Mild NSFW

I feel so sad whenever I read about how this scene was 'cringe' and 'unnecessary' and 'awkward' - given it's visually and narratively a feast of subtext, and full of delicious tidbits about the essential nature of Hex-tech as a magical system.

It also wonderfully highlights the fusion of a pure source powered by the crystallization of celestial bodies with the viscerality of blood as a sacrificial link to esoteric knowledge - but at the cost of forfeiting one's 'tether' to humanity.

We have Viktor literally having a brush with death and nearly transcending the physical plane, while the Hex-gem takes away his life force and infuses it into its internal matrix - a literal melding between man and magic that, sadly, also requires the forfeiture of his fundamental humanity.

All while simultaneously, Jayce and Mel are making love, in a gorgeously animated sequence which is allllll about prioritizing female pleasure (and showing a female orgasm onscreen in a PG-13 kids' show - like, y'all, that takes balls, given if it were a mainstream Hollywood film, it'd earn an NC-17 rating or get slapped with a big ol' R for its trouble.)

And there's so many wonderful interpretive lenses we can apply to the juxtaposition between Viktor and Jayce - all while sex, death and magic are happening onscreen. On one level it represents Jayce's seduction, and by proxy corruption, at the hands of Mel - all while the Hex-core is corrupted by human blood that belongs to a man who has grown up in toxic environs and carries their lived legacy in his body to the point it's killing him from the inside out.

And on the other hand, we can see it as a divergence between the two routes of magical power as a means to channel transcendent knowledge - one through the brutal solitude of Viktor's path, which will ultimately set him in Machine Herald territory, and have him casting off his 'earthly ties' - right down to everything that makes him human. For him, the Hex-core is knowledge to be penetrated and absorbed, and its secrets require a sacrifice of the highest order. And on the other hand, we have Mel and Jayce literally melding together with astral imagery in the background, to show a different route that magic allows one to take, namely where two life-forces come together and engender something sublime between them (or possibly even make a baby? It's a popular fan theory and I can certainly see the potential.)

Magic, for Arcane, seems to be a means of interconnecting different facets into a unified whole (not unlike the way the series mirrors and makes parallels between a host of characters and circumstances, almost like they're different faces of a Hex-gem). And this scene sums up so powerfully what that system of science and magic is about - and the extreme highs and lows it can take you to.

And of course, right at the heels of this intense interplay between sex and death, two different types of la petite mort, we have the ultimate confluence between the two:

Rebirth.

And who better to embody it than two characters who carry their dead selves behind them like corpses shackled to their heels, in different ways?

Tbh I read these scenes as a trilogy for explaining Arcane's magic system - with Jinx being that final spark - literally the Powder - that blasts Hex-tech in all its destructive and yet empowering potential wide open.

Also a separate aside, I find this scene way more uncomfortable than the earlier two, simply because the interactions between Silco and Jinx are so fraught and charged. The first time you watch it, there's that almost-kiss Gotcha! that makes you spit-take, like: Wait are they...? And then the whiplash is so extreme because in a blink it goes from uncomfortably full of romantic undercurrents to strangely tender, verging on reverent. A moment of perfect and pure trust between two monsters whose entire conception of trust has been trampled into shards that they now use to cut others with.

But for me the pinnacle is this scene.

Other fan theories have also stated that they see Jinx as sort of the unwitting embodiment of the Hex-crystal's power paired with the dark potency of Shimmer, and for me this is one of the biggest visual metaphors. This girl, caught in a blissful gyre of fulfillment and serene frenzy, unmade and then remade, as she deciphers the codes of the Hex-gem and feels, for the first time, at one with herself and with her potential to unlock secrets and usher in miracles.

And madness, too, but that's a whole 'nother analysis.

tl;dr - Please Fortiche. Release an art book. I will shell out the big bucks<3

[ditoob]

The fundamental difference between Epic’s Odysseus and Homer’s Odysseus is that while in Epic, “Monster” is sung after Odysseus traverses the underworld, in the Trojan war Odysseus chooses to be the “monster” the second he leaves Ithaka.

The man will do anything to return home with glory not after an exhaustive journey, but the second he is drafted into a war that he does not care about. It is the reason why he tells the Greeks of Kalchas’ oracle after the winds stop at Aulis. Killing Iphigenia is wrong, if course, but to Odysseus getting back home is far more important, in the same way that getting Helen back is more important to Menelaus. It (along with his previous hatred for the man) is the reason he kills Palamedes when he attempts to make the Greeks return home, and why he either kills Astyanax or pushes for a greek to kill him.

I think that this aspect of glory and pride that Odysseus has is not present in Epic’s Odysseus. He seeks glory to his name, perhaps due to the fact that Ithaka is a relatively unknown/weak kingdom during his time and he feels he needs to prove himself further. Meanwhile, Epic’s Odysseus, for example, reveals his name to Polyphemus due to his righteous anger after the death of his comrades, not so that the world will know it was he, Odysseus, king of Ithaka, that blinded the cyclops.

In summary, Epic The Musical’s Odysseus aims to return home causing as little damage as possible. He is forced to kill Astyanax by Zeus, and forced to reveal his name to the cyclops due to his rage and the death of his best friend. Meanwhile, Homer’s Odysseus will get home a glorious king no matter what he needs to do. He will kill essentially anyone in his way as long they pose a threat to his return and he won’t flat out die attempting to challenge them.

If “Monster” is sung in the Underworld Saga for Epic’s Odysseus, it would be the very first song in Homer’s Odysseus’ hypothetical musical.

I wouldn’t want this to be seen as hate by the way! I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Epic’s interpretation of Odysseus (I’ve been bangin out to the entire musical for a LONG time and it’s a big reason why my greek mythology phase came back), I just thought the two interpretations were really interesting!

Anyway, I’ll get back to animating “Luck Runs Out” now :)

[mdianasims]

He has traveled around the worlds and collected many memories and keepsakes. He made many friends along the way while he did both mundane and epic heroic things. And in every town there was another lover (or two) to be left behind.

You all know we're talking about Icarus Ibarra, Iker for friends (and he has many - one cheerful introduction and you're BFFs). His recent adventures made him realise that it might be time to settle down. And that doesn't mean he won't be going from world to world anymore. He will, he'd just prefer to do it with that one special someone by his side. And what better way than to find that someone in style?

Watcher Studios Inc presents...

SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN Deadline: Soon(ish) More info under the cut.

We probably don't really need to introduce our bachelor, but here's a quick recap:

Full name: Icarus Nicodemo Ibarra Reyes Age: 28 (young adult) Traits: Romantic, Music Lover, Bro, Active, High Metabolism Aspirations: Party Animal, Romantic Explorer Likes: Activities - Dancing, Fitness, Gardening Guitar, Handiness, Mixology, Photography, Snowboarding Colour - Blue, Green, Yellow Music - Alternative, Latin, Latin Pop, METAL, Singer Songwriter We're not sharing compatibility likes/dislikes or turn-on/turn-offs (TOTOs), because that would take the fun out of the challenge.

In case you're not entirely up to speed on Iker's previous adventures, you can find them here.

Still interested? Good. If you want to apply, these are the essentials:

Read the rest of this post carefully. If you still want to enter your Sim after reading, then comment that you want to submit a sim.

I've made another post that further specifies some choices you have. I'm asking you to prepare this before submitting your Sim. That will make it easier for me to play it out when it comes up in my game. I know it looks like a lot, but all you need to do is make a Sim, dress them nicely and make a few choices. Then I'll do the hard work.

This is The Grand Scheme. Save the link, it'll be handy when you create your Sim. And even if you do not intend to submit a contestant, I don't mind sharing my nefarious plans ;)

There's a maximum of 12 participants (and a minimum of 7 or it'll mess up the schedule), first come, first served. One of these spots has been reserved for @zosa95. Because, if I hadn't submitted Iker's sister Neia to Branson's Bachelor Challenge, I would not have had Iker. It seemed only fair to do this in return.

Practical considerations:

No CC (minor exceptions: x and x)

I have all packs except Batuu. As for CAS Kits, I only have Simtimates and Moonlight Chic.

You will need Growing Together and Lovestruck for the personality likes and TOTOs. If you do not have these packs, you can still participate. You just need to let me know how you want to fill these and I can set them for you once your Sim is in my game.

1. Requirements:

Age: Young adult (give a 'real life' age if you like, anything from 18 to 30 is acceptable).

Gender: Male or Female.

Pronouns: No custom pronouns that are intended to be silly (such as 'His Evil Highness' or 'Her Colourful Ladyship' or whatever you would use to refer to your favourite pet (or Sim)). This is basically to prevent me from making mistakes while posting. Too many different pronouns and it's gonna go wrong at some point. Please use something short (and easy to remember).

Sexual Orientation: Must be romantically attracted to and interested in woohoo with men (whatever else you check, is your choice).

Romantic Boundaries: Set them as you like, Iker's player trait should overrule it (if not, I'll set everything to no jealousy).

Occult: Human preferred. No Werewolves, Vampires or Aliens (Iker is still processing the Moonwood adventure, which also made him hate vampires. After StrangerVille, though unfounded, aliens are bit of a touchy subject too).

Traits: Bro and Unflirty are not allowed (there's a rule about bros, and unflirty will just make it incredibly hard for your Sim).

Likes/dislikes:

No more than 2 music likes (because those still dominate wants).

Decor and Fashion are optional (i.e.: Dream Home Decorator and High School Years are not required).

Conversation Topics and Sim Characteristics are required to be set.

TOTOs:

Way of Life and Characteristics are required to be set.

Romance styles: 2 turn ons and 1 turn off, the other 2 will be neutral (I'll do this for Iker too, for a more interesting experience).

Hair Colour: Black hair turn on is advised.

Outfit colour/Fashion categories are optional.

Your Sim can be CAS created or born in game, skills are allowed, there won't be skill based challenges. They can have additional self-discovery traits if you've played them. However: the romance skill and hidden woohoo skill are banned (Iker doesn't have those either, yet) and charisma is capped off at lvl 3.

Fame is not allowed - I'll just keep all Sims out of the spotlight.

2. Outfits:

There will be lots of themed parties, outings and dates, so I've got an entire outfit scheme set up. To give you a chance to express your Sim's personality through their outfit choices (and get creative with NoCC CAS).

First, look up the outfits on The Grand Scheme. Then choose one of the following:

Easy Street: Set your Sim's standard oufit for each category, copy it to all listed slots. Then adjust the two mandatory second outfits.

The Middle Road: Do as above, adjust any other oufits you like.

All the Way: Set all oufits as requested.

Know that not all of these outfits will be used if your Sim is eliminated early on. But hey, at least you'll get a nice NoCC lookbook from it! Another thing to keep in mind (though entirely optional), the show (mostly) takes place in Ciudad Enamorada and Oasis Springs in Spring and Summer. So, big fluffy sweaters might look a bit out of place. If you accidentally use an item from a Kit that I do not have, I will try to replace it with something similar. If you do not set outfits for the themed activities, I will dress your Sim as I see fit.

3. Dates:

For three of the dates, there's a choice to be made by the contestant. Look this up in The Grand Scheme and let me know through DM what your Sim would choose for their perfect date(s).

4. One Final Question:

In case your Sim is eliminated, should they:

be returned to you (I'll save your Sim after elimination and upload the tray files and send you a private link);

live on in my save file;

be deleted;

remain in limbo forever (I'll store the tray files somewhere)?

Not answering this question defaults in the last option.

I know this is a lot. I hope you are not deterred by it. I just want to do something interesting with the new date system. And then this massive plan formed and now I'm stuck with it.

Anyway you have at least until 21 September 2024 to submit your Sim. If you need more time, or I'm not ready with the preparations, that date may move to somewhere in October.

Let me know in the comments and/or through DM if you want to submit a Sim. I'll put your name on the list. If I've added your name to the list and you no longer can/want to submit a Sim, let me know. There might be someone else who can take your place.

If you have any additional questions, do let me know. (if you think I've made any weird typos, let me know as well. I've checked the post a several times, but something might still have slipped).

Thanks for reading and I hope you're as excited about this as I am!

[officialspec]

What do you think gay men are attracted to in men that they can’t be attracted to in women?

It can’t be anything about femininity or masculinity obviously. That’s both sexist, and cultural so can’t be what drives men-only attraction.

It can’t be anything about stated identity because someone could lie just as easily as they could tell the truth in such a statement, and it makes no sense because homosexuality and heterosexuality exists in other species with no stated identities. It’s not like other animals without gender are all pan.

Saying idk it’s the vibes or some indescribable trait men have that women can’t but “I can’t explain” is a nonanswer.

Soooooooo what is it? Or do you think any sexuality but bi/pan is just cultural performance or an identity rather than an inborn orientation?

- [ ]

first off i hate this ask and i think youre a freak. in any other world i wouldve blocked you for this but unfortunately for both of us i actually like this type of philosophy. dont send this shit to anyone else though

i dont think its right to compare human sexuality to the same thing in animals, to get that out of the way. im sure until a certain point it comes from the same biological impulses, but human beings have way more complicated social structures and reasons for coupling that just do not exist in other animals. our social behaviours are what make us unique in the animal kingdom and that definitely extends to gender and sexuality. so theres that

people love to tout 'gender is a social construct' around like its a criticism in and of itself, which i think betrays a misunderstanding about social constructs in general. theyre the foundations we build language on to better understand each other, and affected by a whole host of cultural and historical factors. just because theyre subjective and complicated doesnt mean they arent real. in terms of the effect they have on peoples lives they may be the most real thing that exists

for example, 'kindness' is a social construct. the definition and ways it is enacted differ greatly across personal and cultural lines. but no one would ever suggest a world where kindness doesnt exist or loses meaning, because its an essential part of the way we interact with each other (in the same way i dont really see a world where gender entirely ceases to exist, mainly just one where people have more fun with it. im not a psychic though so who knows)

similarly, sexuality in humans is another social construct. i think the driving biological forces behind it are very real, but the labels people attach to those impulses are subjective attempts to express their inner world to the people around them if that makes sense. and those same biological impulses are ALSO subject to social ideas of gender, because those ideas are established at birth and reinforced over a persons entire lifetime

to use myself as an example, im a gay trans man. ive identified as other things in the past, because i was trying to pick apart feelings i had and express them to others in an attempt to find community. my identity might change as i get older and experience new things, or it might not. i identify as gay because im not attracted to the social concept of women, and someone i would otherwise be attracted to might lose all appeal after i find out they fall under that concept (this has happened before w transfems pre and post coming out lol)

of course, the real REAL answer to this is that trying to give queer identities rigid and objective definitions is a fools errand, and also lame as fuck. someone might identify as gay and be more attracted to general masculinity than men as a social category, maybe they fool around with a couple of butch women without considering themself any less gay. two otherwise identical people might be a butch lesbian and a gay trans man without either of those identities coming into conflict. they might even be the same person at different times of the week

the labels people choose to use are communication tools, not objective signifiers. if you dont understand them, they probably arent talking to you

social constructs are everything. we as humans have the unique ability to interpret our own messy desires and impulses into words that other people can use to form an idea of someone else in their mind. its how we build connections, and of course it isnt perfect because trying to squeeze someones entire personal history and the centuries of context that defined it into a handful of syllables is going to leave some room for error. but its all we have, yknow? so we keep trying. and i think thats much more human than any imposed objective 'truth' could ever be

tldr we live in a society dipshit. get with it

[ot3]

Hey! The link to your FAQ wasn't working for me so I don't know if this question has been asked before. I really appreciate your perspectives on AI art. Do you happen to have any resources that you read/listened to on intellectual property rights and the issues with it? I just don't really know where to start with it.

[heres where i cut out a big paragraph of me, once again, bitching about how blog pages don't work on the tumblr app and i think that's fucking stupid]

anyway i dont have any generalized sources on the subject but the tl;dr of it is: intellectual property rights exclusively benefit people who have the resources to pursue sustained litigation. 99% of the time, what IP law is being used for is to reinforce corporate ownership of work that was done by their employees.

the whole disco elysium debacle is a great case study.

The shareholders of ZA/UM accused the trio of, among other things, intending to steal intellectual property (IP) from the company — a curious accusation, considering that the world of the game is based off of a novel written by Kurvitz himself. The case of Disco Elysium illustrates the shortcomings of IP rights as protection for artists. Consequently, it contains a lot of lessons for the labor movement when it comes to the arts, and serves as a reminder that creative workers are, at the end of the day, workers. But this is not just an academic exercise. It’s a human story about the intimate consequences of capitalist exploitation. “I got my soul ripped out of me,” Kurvitz told me over Zoom in April of 2023. “I got my skull cracked open and my brain lifted out of it by a fifty-five-year-old financial criminal.”

another example: alex norris of webcomic name, which you will probably recognize when you see it, has been raising hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past several years to try and keep up with the protracted legal battle over maintaining ownership of his own work.

I have been fighting this case since 2019. It arose out of an agreement to make a boardgame based on my webcomic in 2017 but the publishing company has used this as an opportunity to take all of my intellectual property, and has even claimed ownership of Webcomic Name as a whole. I can't go into more detail here, but the details of the case are publicly available to read online.

Then, in a 2024 update:

I have essentially won the main case based on the decisions made last summer. The Judge has clearly stated that I own my comics, and that the other party has infringed on my copyright. It is not over yet, as there are still a few things that need to happen. Hopefully things will all be wrapped up this year. After 6 years of legal battling, I can’t wait to be free of all of this. Hopefully, this second case will backfire, and they will be sanctioned for filing it. But to get to that point requires a frustratingly large amount of work, time and money.

An interesting thing about both of these two specific instances is that they involve creators who had entire bodies of work produced around the specific IPs that were stolen from them before they even began partnering with corporate entities to produce works. which is insane! you can spend years writing novels, drawing comics, and if a company comes in with enough lawyers they can own those ideas.

this is pretty distinctly different to me than instances of work you do while being employed by a corporate entity being owned by that corporate entity, because at least you know what you're getting into there to some degree, but i still think that's bad too. consider stuff like the owl house and gravity falls, two disney shows made by people who very very clearly did not like working for disney. disney owns their ideas, their characters, their worlds, because that's the price you pay for having an animated show produced.

essentially it's very very clear upon even the slightest examination that intellectual property in no way exists to codify who the creator responsible for specific creative concepts or works is. it exists to turn nebulous things like 'ideas' into market commodities, and to funnel the profits made by the labor of individual artists and writers into corporate bank accounts.

the only person who has ever really benefited from IP law as an individual trying to lay claim to their own work is ken penders, who notoriously won his suit to have ownership of characters and storylines he created. heartbreaking: Worst Person You Know Gets An Unequivocally Deserved Legal W.

The comics continued under Flynn’s direction as if nothing happened, but things started looking grim in late 2012, when Archie suddenly fired its entire legal team. The company had been unable to produce Penders’ work-for-hire contract, which would have given control of his creations to Sega. Penders claimed the contract had never existed. A heavily circulated Tumblr post outlining the case (which has been corroborated as a reliable source by Penders) explains that while Archie did provide a photocopy of a contract allegedly signed by Penders in 1996, Penders claimed that the document was a forgery. That it was neither an original copy nor a contract from the beginning of the writer’s tenure at Archie meant that its validity was questionable. Making things worse, Archie couldn’t produce an original copy of any previous contributor’s contract, meaning that any writer or artist who had worked on the Archie Sonic line could potentially follow in Penders’s footsteps and reclaim their work. “So are you saying prior counsel blew it?” the presiding judge asked Archie counsel Joshua Paul in a May 2013 court session. His reply was unequivocal: “Absolutely, your Honor.”

So yeah. Owning the work you do as an artist is only something that happens when the people trying to profit off of it show unprecedented and staggering level of incompetence in their legal teams.

Then, alongside not owning the concepts and ideas you produce while working with corporate entities, there's the issue of NDA regarding specific pieces you've produced. This causes a LOT of trouble for freelance illustrators/character designers/concept artists, etc. Looking for work is very hard when the past three years of pieces you've drawn can't be added to your portfolio. Some people have password protected pages on their portfolios that they use for NDA work, but I believe the right to do this varies depending on your contract. I'm not 100% sure. In cases where the project you worked on eventually comes out, that's one thing, but there will be instances where the entire project gets canned after all the work is done, but is still under NDA so essentially all of your work has been taken from you, crumpled up into a ball by a studio executive, thrown in the trash can, and legally you are not allowed to go pick it out of the bin and try and flatten it out again.

This has all been pretty art-focused because that's the kind of circles I run in and where a lot of my interests lie but the truth is none of this is even remotely close to as evil IP law gets. I've saved the most egregious for last: The Lakota Language Consortium

The Lakota Language Consortium had promised to preserve the tribe’s native language and had spent years gathering recordings of elders, including Taken Alive’s grandmother, to create a new, standardized Lakota dictionary and textbooks.  But when Taken Alive, 35, asked for copies, he was shocked to learn that the consortium, run by a white man, had copyrighted the language materials, which were based on generations of Lakota tradition. The traditional knowledge gathered from the tribe was now being sold back to it in the form of textbooks.

When you're in defense of IP law, this is what you're siding with. This is the rational endpoint of IP and it is neither a fluke nor an example of the concept being twisted against its original design. Art, culture, language, it belongs to whoever is most capable of turning it into a product. The economic incentives of producing and distributing arts and culture demand this is how things be.

Meya says his work is a vital tool in preserving the Lakota language, which did not previously have a standardized written form. He estimated that there are fewer than 1,500 fluent Lakota speakers left and that over the last decade and a half, the organization has helped add 50 to 100 more. “Just because money is involved in it does not inherently make it an evil thing,” Meya said in a recent interview with NBC News. Most of the products his organizations make are free, he said, but the cost of printing textbooks has to come from somewhere. “That tends to be sometimes part of the rhetoric, ‘Oh, there’s money involved. It must be, you know, part of the overall colonization effort.’ Well, you know, that’s just not realistic.”

Artists looking to force their way into the class of people who gets protected by these laws are not looking out for their community. They are not protecting anything but their own perceived financial interests. Intellectual property will never, ever benefit the most marginalized members of creative communities and anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is huffing some serious copium.

Frankly, I don't believe anyone can or should 'own' things like Ideas or Specific Aesthetic Flairs. But even if you do believe in that, IP law isn't the framework for handling it.

[superectojazzmage]

Watched the Nimona movie last night. Review I guess. It was pretty damn good. Definitely would’ve probably been regarded as Blue Sky’s magnum opus if they’d gotten to release it instead of being fucked over by Disney. Very cute, very funny, very powerful in the right moments. A thing that stuck out to me is that it’s really only an adaptation in the loosest sense of the word. It takes the core premise and beats of the comic but is functionally an entirely different kind of story that does its own thing. And given that ND Stevenson was heavily involved in production, I suspect that was intentional.

The comic was much darker and more downbeat in a lot of ways, plus it was significantly longer and thus could afford to be slower paced. But more than that, it was a lot more meaty in terms of themes and scope. The whole “LGBT allegory” element was there, but it wasn’t the sole focus, the comic was a story about a lot of different things; not just an LGBT experience, but also discussion of fantasy genre tropes and clichés, criticism of other fantasy deconstructions, character study, exploring what it means to be a hero or villain, critique of the glorification of crime and cruelty in underprivileged communities, corruption in governments, peer pressure, the senseless and self-perpetuating nature of violence, the worthlessness of revenge, etc.. And above all that, it was a story about trauma and people’s responses to it, with Ballister representing people who actually deal with their problems and move on while Nimona represented people who let their mistakes and suffering and grief consume their identity, or worse, use it as an excuse to indulge their worst qualities and take out their feelings on everyone around them.

The movie, by contrast, has a much more narrow focus. The LGBT allegory is front and center and basically the entire focal point of the movie, aside from a spattering of themes about the danger of zealotry and rigid fundamentalist thinking. This gives the movie a much tighter narrative and pacing that suits its inherently shorter runtime, but also leads to a ton of changes to the story either to convey a different kind of message or just work better in a different medium. Most obviously in how Nimona is vastly more sympathetic in the movie and essentially really is the silly gremlin the comic fakes you out into thinking she is, scrapping the comic’s twist that she was a genuinely bad person who was completely serious about wanting to be a villain, caring nothing for the lives she destroyed with her behavior and idolizing Ballister because she thought he was the same as her and would thus tell her what she wanted to hear (i.e., that she was justified in killing and destroying everything around her in the name of getting even). And in the changes to the Institution’s history and nature. And all sorts of other things.

All in all, I feel if you go in comparing and contrasting the movie and the comic, arguing which changes are for the better or worse, you’ll be setting yourself up for disappointment in either direction because they’re two different beasts and it’s like comparing apples and oranges. So keep that in mind if you’re a fan of the comic watching the movie or a fan of the movie wanting to look into the comic. I think ultimately I still like the comic better, but that’s purely my personal opinion and there’s plenty that I think the movie did better.

Some other observations:

Riz Ahmed my beloved, thank you Mr. Stevenson for this perfect casting. Literally perfect for Ballister.

Acting in general was very good. You can tell this was a passion project for a lot of people, not just Stevenson.

Only two changes that are objectively bad are Ambrosius losing his awesome Van Halen hairdo and changing Ballister’s last name — Blackheart is a way cooler name than Boldheart and it’s a pointless change, one that I’d argue even hurts the narrative since it makes it too obvious that Ballister isn’t actually a bad guy.

The animation is really great with fantastic expressions, stylish movement, and wonderful aesthetics that perfectly suit the story, but there’s times where it feels a little off. But there are parts where it looks less “movie” and more “cheap mid-2000s CGI-and-Flash cartoon show from France”.

The humor can be a hit and miss, in a “going through the motions of a Hollywood animated comedy for kids” way. The movie excels when it’s either imitating the comic’s Old Internet sense of humor or going hard on the drama, but there’s bits where it seemingly slams on the brakes to do Illumination-esque Twitter humor and those bits definitely throw off the vibe.

Having an actual straight up attempted suicide in the climax was shockingly ballsy. I genuinely can’t believe they went there, but I’m glad they did because the film wouldn’t have felt nearly as raw without it.

I don’t know how they managed to make the Director even more of an asshole than in the comics, but they did.

[queersatanic]

Animals as allegory

Zootopia has the common fallacy of animal allegory fiction that altho its message is one thing (“racism/misogyny are bad”) everything else about the universe runs contrary to that because there actually are essentialist differences between animal species.

Something you notice about Robin Hood is that, for the most part, there’s no rhyme or reason to how the animal-people are distributed except for maybe “big ones tend to work for the state” (e.g. rabbits and mice are peasants while crocodiles and rhinos are guards). But even then, the Sheriff of Nottingham (a wolf) is the same size as the Little John (a bear).

Whereas in Zootopia, carnivores are supposedly unfairly discriminated against, except that there’s a good reason if you stop to think about it. For a zebra, it doesn’t matter how many good lions you’ve met in your life: they all do have the capacity and perhaps desire to eat and kill you while you have no equivalent desire or real capacity to hurt them.

In reality, a Black person is not actually essentially different from a white person.

But in the anima allegory, the fear of being eaten by larger species that apparently evolved over millions of years to hunt and kill you is being treated as equivalent and supposedly equally irrational to racism — except that at the literal level and for the prey animals, it is rational.

So if you’re going to have animals represent essentialist qualities, particularly in exploitation or harm, the allegory can’t be of the one-to-one “racism is bad” sort without implicitly making fundamental arguments for racism.

You might be able to make class-based critiques but solely because we don’t tend now to have anyone believe that being rich is an essentialist characteristic inherent to them. Instead it can be an allegory for that conflict:

A longer (better) exploration of this was done in Jack Saint’s video essay series about Zootopia and similar animal allegories, such as Beastars:

However, in this moment, it may just be enough to say that, even under the context of feudalism, protagonists who fight against law enforcement as venal enforcers of an unjust system is a much more resonant message than one where people aspire to be cops enforcing and upholding unjust systems.

Whatever criticisms there are of Robin Hood for its assumptions that “monarchy is good, actually”, it does entirely fit with the setting that Medieval peasants would reject a “bad king” in the name of a Good King Richard. And considering that character appears for all of two minutes at the end, the overall impact seems to be anti-tyranny, the necessity of wealth redistribution by any means when the alternative is people starving, and an acknowledgment that truly ethical behavior is a standard that supersedes whatever is deemed illegal by the powerful, particularly when it challenges their power.

Sometimes it’s a bigger crime to follow the law.

[gartenofbanny]

Overture is the first official episode for Hazbin Hotel, and after nearly four years of waiting, somehow, this episode is very bad. I'm not going to provide a summary of the episode but instead I'm going to provide what I liked and what I didn't like. So let's get started.

Positives

The animation for this episode is pretty good. While it isn't really as smooth as Helluva's and has some noticeable errors, it's still well animated for the most part.

Adam's part if the song is honestly a fucking bop and thankfully the genre is different from most Helluva songs.

Lute is my favorite character in this episode. She's a cold, stern Exorcist who hates demons. I have no clue why she isn't the leader, but Adam is considering how seriously she takes being an Exorcist and how professional she is for the most part.

This little bit with Niffty having stage fright is pretty funny.

And that's it for the positives now onto the negatives.

Negatives

One of the things I really hate about this episode is that it reveals WAY too much so early on. In this episode, it's revealed that Adam and the other Exorcists like killing Demons essentially doing it for sport, rendering Charlie's redemption useless, Exorcists are able to fucking die, and Adam has moved his schedule from another year to 6 months for the next Cleanse.

I honestly expected the first episode to show Charlie trying to redeem demons, a twist like that would've worked if it was like halfway through the season.

This episode, for some reason, has two plotlines when it would've been better if it just stuck with Charlie meeting the Exorcist one. We spent some minutes of this episode with Vaggie trying to make a TV commercial for the Hotel, however we never get to see the commercial itself, so what was the point?

Secondly, why would Vaggie and Charlie ask Alastor to make a television commercial for them? His entire thing is radios. It's like having a powerlifter do a track video. They're both completely different skill sets with their own benefits.

Also, if Alastor really does hate televisions THAT much, then why was he entertained when Katie and Charlie fought in the pilot by watching Televison?

I'm honestly unsure whether or not the pilot for Hazbin Hotel is canon. Adam states that it has been a week since the cleanse, Vaggie states that they recruited Alastor for the hotel last week, and the pilot takes place some time after the Cleanse. While the Helluva Boss pilot isn't canon anymore, it's up in the air whether or not the Hazbin Pilot is.

This fucking cat is still confusing. It literally just appeared in this episode with no explanation of how it was made or came to be or what it even does.

Adam, as a character, is one of the most irritating I've ever seen. He embodies those "If this was written by Vivziepop" memes, his singing voice is top notch, but as a character, he doesn't act any different from the demons he's supposed to kill. So it makes me question what's even the difference between Angels and Demons.

Last but not least, Adam says that there won't be a Demon left alive to kill another Exorcist.

And right off the bat does Adam know that killing every Demon in Hell is literally impossible? As long as humans die, Sinners are going to keep existing. Unless if Heaven decides to make everyone into angels, which is highly unlikely. And Lute says herself that Charlie and her family are exempt from the yearly cleansing, so they're not truly getting rid of every possible threat in Hell.

Overall, I'd give this episode a 5/10. It's a very rough start, especially since Vivziepop and her writers had nearly 4 years to write this out, but it's just very messy.

[ghostyolive]

I will always be so mad that FMA:B gave Greed a different dialogue with Bradley after the Devil's Nest massacre than in the manga because it feels like it just changes his characterization to be so much plainer and more cartoonishly assholish. Like they really wanted to rope you into thinking he was a bad guy so that his twist of caring about people would feel stronger, but it just makes me sad. In the VIZ Media Fullmetal Edition translation, the exchange goes:

Greed: "Whoa there Bradley. How could you do this to them? They were my people."

Bradley: "Feeling pity for your pawns? How pathetic."

Greed: "Pity?! Do you forget who the hell you're dealing with?! I am greed incarnate!! Money, women, henchmen, everything-- they're my possessions! They're all mine! I won't let you take away what belongs to me!!"

...And the exchange in the English dub of FMA:B goes:

Greed: "Whoa, that was a little excessive. Killing me is one thing, but they're not coming back."

Bradley: "Pitying the lost lives of your pawns? Pathetic."

Greed: "Excuse me, are you senile? Did you forget who I am, old man? I'm the living incarnation of greed! Those weren't my friends, Bradley. They were my possessions! Money, women, henchmen-- They're all possessions!"

And that difference is absolutely insane! His manga version is in some ways more obvious and in some ways more ambiguous about his care for his friends. On the one hand, he staunchly refuses to pity them. (I would say that this is because he respects their right to self-determination and what they signed on for when they followed him, but that's almost pure speculation.) But on the other, he specifically refers to them as "[his] people." This really effectively toes the line between multiple meanings-- "[his] people" colloquially would refer to friends, but it also emphasizes ownership. It sets up his arc of acknowledging friendship while also not detracting from his care for the Devil's Nest gang.

The anime just makes him... indifferent and snarky? On a surface level, it makes his character arc far more clear as somebody learning to love and care about others, but it also really devalues his experiences with his gang. I guess I can almost understand why people just forget about them aside from the bit with Bido when they only watch FMA:B considering that it absolutely glosses over just about every part of the manga that makes you care about them. Why should people consider those random guys in the beginning when he makes it clear that he never cared about them? /s

And it's more than just the writing that I have a problem with. Even the animation is so distinctly different from what's shown in the manga that the tone ends up absolutely flipped on his head.

(Note: this online scan doesn't use the official translation) Greed's expression here can best be described as one of pure rage. I think you could maybe loosely interpret the first panel as a grin, but the second panel clears up how he's feeling pretty well. It's especially poignant since the three panels preceding these two entirely obscure his expression. Any calm and collectedness has been shed in the face of his gang's massacre and his eyes are bulging and furious in a way that they haven't been drawn before. And how does the anime handle this absolute gut punch?

Um. Not good, frankly. It's definitely got the wildness of his original expression, but it conveys none of the anger. It throws off what's essentially his greatest display of hypocrisy-- That he only gets angry when his gang is hurt, just like how Ed only gets angry when Al is hurt. Absolutely nothing about his reaction properly conveys rage or frustration, and that honestly just sucks. While episode 13 served as a pretty decent and streamlined recap of chapters 25-28, episode 14 really screwed with some of the moments that made Greed's arc feel so powerful and bittersweet.

Tl;dr Please oh please go read the manga version of og Greed's arc <3

[rosie-kairi]

I don't think I've ever really spoken in depth about how much I love Lauriam as a character, which is honestly a crime because out of all the Union Leaders I'd probably have to crown him as my number one favorite.

I love Lauriam not only as a character (pink, sibling plotline) but also as an example of how much prequels can recontextualize an entire character. While Ventus is also an example of this, I think we all knew that he probably had some sort of messed up past that landed him in the clutches of Old Man Xehanort. Marluxia, on the other hand, had absolute zero background to infer from his screentime. He was the villain, you're not really meant to think too hard about him and how he became who he is because he sucks and you hate him.

I don't think there were many people chomping at the bit wanting to get info about his past. Like, it would've been cool to get, but I don't think a background for Marluxia was necessary for the story at that point in time. His role was to establish the organization as a threat to Sora and the other guardians, and that was pretty much the extent of it.

And then Union X happened, and Lauriam entered stage right into a tragedy where his fate was already sealed. You look at Lauriam with his polite little smiles and cute little chibi animations and immediately think "what is this man up to" because you are already primed to distrust him on principle due to COM. Did not help his case that he was introduced in the cutscene immediately following the death of Strelitzia, painting a huge target on his back. Fandom reaction was hostile towards him before he was even fully on screen. Occam's Razor, the most obvious answer is the correct one. Lauriam is the obvious suspect because of his actions in the future, so he must be the killer. Literally him just existing in a scene caused more ire to build against him.

But then the Shift Pride cutscene happened. Then it was revealed that Lauriam and Strelitzia -the girl who so many thought he killed- were siblings, and that he was quite worried for her wellbeing, actually.

Every cutscene a clearer picture of who Lauriam is a person was painted, and soon you stopped looking at him with distrust, and it's replaced with the question of "What happened to you?". What happened that caused Lauriam, someone who has been shown to care deeply and immensely about the people he loves, someone who is willing to do anything for those people, become Marluxia? It became increasingly obvious that they were incredibly different people, even though Marluxia came from Lauriam.

And this isn't to say that there was no connection between the two. Lauriam seemed to be incredibly self-confident in his abilities, enough to be pretty steadfast in his resolve to square up with goddamn Maleficent of all people (even if he did get his ass kicked). There's also his very intense anger, as seen in the cutscene where Ventus confesses to being the reason why Strelitzia "vanished", as well as a bit in the scene where he's at Ventus's bedside.

This is all to say that Lauriam was not a necessary addition to the khux cast, he very well could've been swapped with a random new character and the plot probably would've worked fine, all things considered. But because it's Lauriam -the somebody of a character that has already been established to be a prick- it gives his whole plotline a hell of a lot more punch. If it was a new character, people probably wouldn't have been as distrusting of him right of the bat, the sibling plotline would be sweet, but because it's Lauriam and we know how he ends up in the future, it becomes a hell of a lot more tragic. How did the change happen? He's tragic because we know that whatever he does will lead to the outcome of him losing his heart and falling to darkness, something that is essentially the exact antithesis of the keyblade wielder mission statement.

Lauriam is someone who was made to struggle against the destiny that was written out for him with a neat pen and ink, and someone who was doomed to fail in every regard. He could not save his sister, he could not defeat Maleficent, he could not help Ventus, he could not keep his memories when thrown into the future. He couldn't do anything about it.

I realize this is all rounding back around to "the inherent tragedy of prequels" but it's true.

...and yeah that's basically it. I have a lot more thoughts about this guy but I feel like if I write anymore I'm just gonna sound completely incomprehensible bc I'm very tired. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to sparkle on

[dkniade]

Childe’s Story Quest: theme, storytelling, form follows function

Content Warning: self-destructive behaviour, mentions freezing and mutilation

Spoilers for the entire quest.

—

Showing both Teucer’s and Tartaglia’s perspectives throughout the quest sure reveals more about Tartaglia.

The quest on so many levels conveys its theme: the divided perspectives between a naive childhood lens and a disillusioned (??) adult lens.

One is unknowingly caught in a wonderful yet deceiving story (the tone and form), the other sees reality for what it is but tries to maintain innocent childhood dreams with these stories (the content and meaning).

Tartaglia was once the former, and is now the latter.

—

For example during the hide and seek cutscene, the tone set by the soundtrack “Foul Legacy” and the flashy cinematography & visual effects is very adventurous (in an anime way).

This is how Teucer views Tartaglia. (Teucer literally shuts his eyes and thinks it’s all a game.)

But the reality of the situation is shown moments before, where we see Tartaglia looking all soft and mortal against the dangerous Ruin Guards right behind him. Like, if you didn’t know what the game is, you’d think this is a moment of dramatic irony where the boy is gonna die because he doesn’t seem to notice the big scary automaton right behind him.

And it’s not that he’s weak in general, but in this specific moment he just defeated a few dangerous automatons, and he’s about to use his physically draining technique to fight off even more of them under the limit of ten seconds—all for the sake of protecting his kid brother’s innocent dream.

—

But really, this divide between childhood and adulthood is shown straight from the beginning. And I think the whole quest could be summed up with that nursery rhyme:

拉钩拉钩不许变，变了丢他去冰川。冰川冷，雪原寒，撒谎的舌头都冻烂！

The Chinese rhyme scheme is ABCBB.

Literally speaking it’s

Pinkie promise, pinkie promise, [you’re] not allowed to change [it], change [it and we] throw him [onto] the glacier. The glacier [is] cold, the snowfield [is] cold, lying tongues all freeze [and] rot!

(Note that 丢 is a verb that could either mean to throw away or abandon [something physical or abstract]. The syntax here is a bit odd because it’s a nursery rhyme. 丢他去冰川 doesn’t have a preposition so I’m not sure if it’d be “throw him onto the glacier” or “throw him into the glacier’s river”. Also, 冷 and 寒 are two different adjectives that both mean cold, essentially.)

But if I try to rhyme it with a bit of rhythm then it could be something like

Pinkie promise, pinkie promise, you’re not allowed to change it. He who goes back on his words gets thrown onto the glacier. The glacier’s cold, and so’s the snow. The tongues that lie shall freeze and rot.

English dub equivalent:

You make a pinkie promise, you keep it all your life. You break a pinkie promise, I throw you on the ice. The cold will kill the pinkie that once betrayed your friend, the frost will freeze your tongue off so you never lie again.

Rhythmically and tonally it sounds like a fun and naive nursery rhyme (emphasized when the innocent Teucer first says it at the start)—but the content is about the fatal consequence of breaking a promise… especially as a Snezhnayan (emphasized when the traveler and Tartaglia repeat at the end after the near fatal situation in the factory).

Ohh, so a character’s theme could also be done this way.

—

In hindsight as I was explaining how 丢 could refer to throwing away something physical (e.g. an object) or abstract (e.g. dreams), the person in the nursery rhyme could easily be a stand-in for childhood dreams, huh…

A childhood dream that promises to never change, but ends up changing anyway, so it gets abandoned at the glacier and is left to freeze…

拉钩拉钩不许变，变了丢他去冰川。冰川冷，雪原寒，撒谎的舌头都冻烂！

As Paimon says, “Wow... That one nursery rhyme kinda says all you need to know about Snezhnayan culture…”

Miscellaneous first reactions of third act

Teucer takes the path straight into the factory but the door immediately closes, so Childe is forced to enter from the side with a more difficult path

What goes into a world of danger and unknowingly get trapped? What has to use more lopsided methods to sneak in just to protect… Teucer symbolizes childhood innocence, and Childe is adulthood?

Hm, that overhead shot of tiny Teucer running into the factory with Childe and Traveler watching from higher grounds behind bars— It’s like Childe watching his younger self… rushing into the forest and into the abyss? Oh, and consistently Childe is forced to take the dangerous route and face all the difficulties while being unable to reach Teucer.

aw…

Paimon and the traveller witnessing Childe’s moment of vulnerability yet still needing to keep up the toysalesman illusion to Teucer in the domain is…

(Actually, this feels similar to Thelxie’s Fantastic Adventure where Zuria is optimistic about the plan and Freminet later pulls the two aside to tell them the truth about the condition)

Well, both have the theme of keeping up childhood dreams with stories don’t they

Wanting to keep up the illusion longer and not wanting to let Teucer see his weak side of him, huh…

Yet still wanting to fight the traveler in the future despite still recovering from a serious injury. What kind of self-destructive tendency is this

Ah, the idea of meeting Childe in his home turf is interesting considering Snezhnaya is so far from Liyue

It’s all so sad. Why does he trust the traveler this much even though they’re on opposite sides and fought in the Liyue archon quest not long ago