#they had to make a venn diagram of their similarities and differences to the main character in MSotM

[televinita]

My mom found some folders of old schoolwork from my brother in one of her desk drawers, and you know I POUNCED on the packet for the grade 3 reading project. I want to know what the kiddos are reading always. Plus, direct comparison to my third grade reading log. Anyway, he read...

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (class-assigned, which, wow, that seems more like a grade 6 book? at least grade 4.)

And then four books he read independently --

The BFG

The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence (that is definitely a middle school read! it would have been shelved in the teen section of the public library back then, when the teen section encompassed protagonists as young as 12 or 13)

The Islander by Cynthia Rylant (Rylant Rep!!)

and...oh shoot, I have already forgotten. It was an orphan train book but not the one by Joan Lowery Nixon, something geared toward younger readers.

EDIT: i just remembered two more titles I saw in his handwriting, though I can't remember if they were independent or assigned reads or what the context was -- Frindle and The Phantom Tollbooth

[clarebear-0925]

The Holy Trinity of Fear-Entity Based Media

HELLO! i am returning to elaborate on this subject because i've been thinking about it for literal WEEKS ever since i made the connection while starting TMA.

So, let's explore this venn diagram in more depth, shall we?

(Apologies for the length of this post but I have MANY thoughts. I know it's long, but please hear me out lol)

First, I want to talk about the world-building similarities since they're what I first noticed and spurred this entire thing.

Imagine the following explanation in terms of the venn diagram above.

Chainsawman:

A Japanese action/horror manga

A universe where fear-based entities (called "devils") exist. Each devil correlates to the fear of a specific concept (with infinite possibilities ranging from tomatoes to the future). They are the embodiment of the fear their name represents.

Each devil thus has its own special abilities and 'theming' associated with its name.

The existences and power levels of the devils fluctuate based on what the the populace is afraid of at the time and how scared they are. They survive and feed off of human's fear.

The devils exist in another 'place' (Hell) that is separate but linked to the our world. However, they can manifest in the real world to attack and spread further fear (and if they die there, they are sent back to Hell in a weakened state). It is currently unknown as to how devils cross over from Hell.

However, the devils CAN in fact permanently die- if they are forgotten entirely by humanity (and thus run out of fear to exist/feed on)

There are a few special types of devils: 1. Primal fears, which embody ancient instinctual fears (darkness, falling) and 2. the Four Horsemen: (Control/manipulation, war, famine, and death), the most powerful of the devils.

There are also many ways that humans can serve, be linked to, and be embodiments of these devils. Beings known as "fiends" (corpses possessed by devils), cases of devil transformations (humans who make contracts with devils and are transformed into monsters to do their bidding) and "hybrids" (humans and devils fused). However each way results in great personal cost/change, like the loss of humanity.

The existence of these devils is a common, well-known fact of society, and one of the main causes of death in this world.

There is a governmental agency tasked with combating devil attacks. The main leader we interact with is a character who manipulates the protagonist throughout the entire series to help them achieve their vision for the world. They are revealed to secretly be one of the devils the characters were supposed to be fighting, and is heavily associated with eye imagery.

Ordem Paranormal

A Brazilian live-streamed horror TTRPG (table-top roleplaying game)

(Disclaimer: for this one, I have only had the chance to watch OPQ and Cellbit's onstream explanations of the lore, so I tried to supplement with the wiki as best I could without getting too spoiled. If I got anything wrong or you think I missed anything, please tell me! I'd love to get your guy's insight on this)

A universe where there are 5 elements (Death, Energy/Chaos, Blood, Knowledge, and Fear) that exist in a place separate but linked to our world known as "the Other Side."

Each element is associated with different monsters, abilities, and general characteristics. Death is associated with distortions in the passage of time, spirals, and an ultimate end. Blood is the element of intense emotions, both positive and negative. Knowledge is the element of discovering, knowing, recording. It wants to preserve balance between the elements since it likes reality as it is. Energy/Chaos is unpredictability, unreality, and transformation. It mostly serves its own entertainment. Fear is the most mysterious- it is the source of all paranormal and has existed since the dawn of humanity- it is of the unknown and the infinite.

Individuals can connect to and form pacts with each of these entities (except for Fear). They gain different supernatural abilities depending on which, but all result in great personal cost and change- usually becoming less and less human in a variety of ways.

The barrier between the two worlds can be weakened through fear. Cultists take advantage of this and attempt to perform rituals that would break the membrane and bring these entities over to our world.

These elements can also just manifest into our world in a variety of different ways, like monsters, paintings, artifacts, etc.

Tthere are independent organizations around the globe who work to prevent these rituals and maintain order. However, the existence of this "other side" and the entities is not known by the wider public.

The organization we follow is headed by an elderly character who has dedicated every single aspect of their life to fighting these elements, stopping these rituals, and maintaining the balance. However he is willing to form connections with those around him, and violence isn't always his first option.

The Magnus Archives

A British horror/tragedy podcast

A universe where entities known as "the fears" or "the dread powers" exist next to our world (separate but linked). Each entity is the embodiment of a different fear that the humans (and animals) of earth feel.

The fears are typically broad (covering multiple specific fears under a wider category) and when manifesting can blend into one another. A good analogy to explain it is the color wheel.

The single entity known as fear has been around since the beginning of the world. However, as humanity developed more complex thought, they split off into different aspects (though they are still in some ways linked).

At the time of the series there are 15 entities (a full list here). The existences and power levels of the entities fluctuate based on what the the populace is afraid of at the time and how scared they are. They survive and feed off of human's fear.

The entities can permanently die, but only if the organisms of the world did too, as there would be no more fear left for them to consume.

These fears can manifest in our world as a number of different paranormal happenings, from monsters to books. They manifest in order to cause fear to feed themselves.

Most of the entities are near mindless- they simply operate to feed, with little to no future planning (with the exception of The Spider, the fear of control and manipulation, whose entire thing is future planning.)

Individuals can connect to and form pacts with each of these entities to become individuals known as Avatars. They gain different supernatural abilities depending on which fear they connect too, but all result in great personal cost, change, and the overall loss of humanity.

Followers of the same fear often gather to form cults. When a fear gains enough power, its avatars usually attempt to perform various rituals that would manifest their entity in our world. This would result in our world transforming into a hellscape of fear for that entity to gorge itself on. (There are also two fears that do not attempt rituals as they prefer reality the way it is. )

We follow an independent organization tasked with recording and categorizing the encounters of individuals with these paranormal events. The two leaders we interact with the most are

A Character who manipulates the protagonist throughout the entire series to help them achieve their vision for the world. They are revealed to secretly be one of the Avatars the characters were supposed to be fighting, and is heavily associated with eye imagery.

An elderly character who has dedicated every single aspect of their life to fighting these entities, stopping these rituals, and maintaining the balance. (However she is unwilling to become attached to those around her, and will ruthlessly do whatever it takes to accomplish her goals.)

Ok, so if you read through these explanations you can hopefully see many of the connections that I drew. The TLDR is: these three pieces of media all feature fear-powered entities that exist in a world separate but connected to our own, but can manifest here in a variety of ways and each have their own unique theming/powers. People can form pacts and become connected to these entities and gain supernatural abilities, but that often results in the loss of their humanity. Rituals are performed by the people connected to these entities in order to manifest them more into our world. Finally, all three stories are centered around the members of an organization tasked with dealing with these entities in some way.

(Also, if you combine the world-building of CSM and OP, it basically results in the world-building of TMA, which is that thought that originally inspired this post)

However, these are just baseline world-building connections. When I first posted about the idea of this venn diagram, I got some tags from @wasabi-ribs proposing a connection between the very themes of these shows in a way I hadn't even thought about.

While I don't feel as though I can accurately speak to the themes of Ordem as much as the other two, I was doing some research (*cough* scrolling tumblr) and saw this post from @just-an-enby-lemon.

And honestly, that sounds pretty damn similar to what I consider to be the main themes of CSM and TMA, aka:

Love and connection alone can't save you, but that doesn't mean they are unimportant, especially in a world full of so much fear, trauma and loss of control and perhaps even your humanity.

Also, the general questioning of what exactly it means to be human, and my age old favorite of the indomitable human spirit even in the face of unfathomnable horror and tragedy.

What is the conclusion or point of this post? I'm not entirely sure. But I wanted to acknowledge the beauty in how such different mediums can be used by people of three completely different cultures to discuss eerily similar themes of humanity and connection (and also very spooky fear entities).

Thank you so much for reading this far and please feel free to add onto this post with anything you think I missed or got wrong. I love talking about the connections between my favorite pieces of media with people! :)

(Also, apologies if this came across as incoherent or rambly in any way, turns out it’s a lot harder to explain this in a console way in writing than to just have the thoughts floating around in your head lol)

[depizan]

I'm a very weird and picky audience for fiction, to the point that my tastes are sometimes a mystery for myself. Well, no, it isn't really my tastes--those I'm pretty sure of (baring the occasional weird outlier)--it's more a question of why things work for me or don't work for me.

Why does Thing One draw me in while (objectively similar!) Thing Two gets a meh (or worse) from me? What makes me care about the stakes in This Work of Fiction but not This Other Work of Fiction? Why do I sometimes feel like tastes fall into a weird area of a Venn diagram that is otherwise made up of things I really don't like?

I know that there are certain things that just lose me. But some of those things are really not that different from things that I am 100% down for.

In one sense, I don't care about stakes (at least not the way a lot of people talk about them). I will absolutely rewatch or reread something I love to the point that I practically have it memorized. And it will be the same thrilling ride every time. Yet one of the things that irritated me about the last two fantasy books I've read for bookclub was that they fucked up the stakes. But I'm struggling to even articulate what that means.

I mean, I know it's important to me that the characters care about the stakes, the conflict, whatever's going on in the story. If they don't, why should I. But that's not what either Fourth Wing or the Fantasy Novel I'm Not Going to Name Because I'm Pretty Sure It Doesn't Objectively Suck failed at. They failed in other different ways when it came to the conflict/stakes.

Actually, there is one way they both failed at conflict/stakes: too many things in both books were life or death. The first person narrator is not going to die. Or at least they aren't going to die at any point before the end of the book. Not unless there's some kind of framing sequence going on.

Now, I'm not saying you can't have tension with a first person narrator. You absolutely can. Loads of stories do. They switch the question from will narrator live to how will narrator get out of this one. Or they throw narratively possible bad outcomes at them. "Aw, fuck, I screwed up and now I've been captured by the bad guy. I am absolutely not going to enjoy the next few chapters."

Or you can lean in hard to the character not knowing that they can't fail. We know that James Bond will always stop the bomb's countdown with 007 left on the clock, but James Bond doesn't know that. And if you do a good enough job of putting the reader in the character's head, they're going to forget that oh, yeah, the main character isn't going to die a quarter of the way through the book.

But, again, that works best if there's other stuff in between the life or death bits.

The other way that they both failed at stakes was in not getting the reader (or at least not getting me) invested in the big picture. In Fourth Wing it is blatantly obvious that the main character is in the evil country of evil. Am I supposed to care if the evil country of evil succeeds at anything? (Except in the negative sense.) In the other fantasy book, I didn't have enough of a sense of any of the big picture stuff to know that I should care. (At least up until I started skimming... when it lost me, it really lost me.)

Also, which I already ranted about, The Fantasy Novel I'm Not Going to Name had the main characters make a deal with the Lying Liars Who Lie....who lied. I know all conflict in fiction is made up, but can we at least pretend it isn't?

You know, I think I'm just coming to realize how much I hate the Main Character Trusts One Of The Lying Liars Who Lie/Betrayer McBackstaby trope. Like, I knew I hated it. I ranted about the episode of the Mandalorian that used it. But in Fantasy Book it basically resulted in a whole series of events that I didn't care about because I was too busy rolling my eyes. Its literally where the book lost me.

It didn't help that at the same time, it threw in an additional conflict thing that...probably doesn't hold up to fridge scrutiny, but also just felt unnecessary. On the one hand, I know why the author did it. On the other hand, it irritated me because it diminished other aspects of the story. And then the main character made a deal with The Lying Liars That Lie, and it was all downhill from there.

Though even that is weird, because I don't dislike dramatic irony in general and I'm quite fond of Trust No One, which is second cousin to Trusting Backstabs McTraitor. But the thing is, with good dramatic irony, the characters have no reason to know the thing that they don't know. If they know or should know, it isn't dramatic irony, it's just obnoxious.

Which isn't to say that characters can't make bad choices. That can be great. But they have to be bad choices that make sense for the character and the story. They can't just be "welp, now I need the main character to do this incredibly, unrealistically unwise thing for plot reasons." At least not if you don't want me to go scream about your book/TV show episode/movie on Tumblr.

Okay, maybe all of this boils down to "I like things when they're done well and not when they aren't." But I am also the person who enjoys the Bond movie everyone knows is terrible, so who am I to say what's done well.

Which might be the other part of it. Does [Trope/Plot Beat/What Have You] make the story more fun or less fun? If it makes the story more fun, that's a hell yeah from me. If it makes the story less fun, that's a nope. And I realize that is a wildly subjective standard.

And suddenly I realize that I was probably supposed to be enjoying the things in The Unnamed Fantasy novel. As in, it probably was supposed to be fun. But I really struggle with the whole Fantasy, But With Blood, Cursing, And Tits genre. The Legend of Vox Machina grew on me once I got past the first episode, but that might be the only time when something in that genre actually did.

Well, outside of fanfic. Though, there it's more just blood and cursing.

I don't even know where I was going with all this, beside that it's very difficult to find things that are to my taste (as opposed to things I want to yeet out the window), possibly because my taste lands in a weird spot on the Venn diagram of fiction.

[supportivecircle]

Sonic Wisps Warlock Patron Homebrew Part 1: Level Features

I recently posted about the Sonic-themed DnD Campaign I ran over the past year (and some few months in 2020 before a year break). If you’re in the center of that venn diagram of “Sonic the Hedgehog” and “Dungeons and Dragons”, know that you are not alone and I am here for you my sweet angel chao (tiny celestial, lawful good). Good ol’ Circle Dad has some content to quench the thirst of content for us weirdos. In the post I showed a snippet of the Warlock Patron subclass for the wisp alien creatures of Sonic, directly inspired by Whisper the Wolf, and to be used by one of my players who was drawn to the  warlock class. I can’t confidently say how balanced it turned out. Outside of any major stuff that was already adjusted in the document as we played, I don’t think it was too crazy, but the player was not a veteran DnD player who could probably find stuff to break here. I’ll post the individual pages and give some blurbs about how they shaped up in practice.

So starting off, the expanded spell list. The player immediately took to the flavor of Chaos Bolt, but if I recall I don’t believe they took any others from the list outside of Haste, and we had gotten up to player level 9, so they had the whole list to pick from. Spiritual Weapon I wasn’t sure of, and never got to effectively test outside of Whisper herself using it early on at a lower level, it wasn’t too crazy cause its damage scales every 2nd level and Warlocks only get 2 slots per short rest so they’d be dedicating their resource to a longer damage over time spell compared to a full on Lightning Bolt. The flavor is perfect though for people who like to get creative with integrating wisps into the weapon appearance. Creativity was the main goal with this subclass because I knew the player would want options without being overtly super powered. The Variable Wispon feature gives them a similar function to the Order of Scribes Wizard in allowing for damage swapping of spells. In theory, this allows for lots of fun flavoring of spells to match the different wisps energies. In practice, it was good, but my player also made it a goal to never repeat a wisp between short rests and to cycle through them cause they loved their wisps equally. Some wisps will probably be more appealing in general to players who are looking to capitalize on gameplay vs character flavor and RP. It could be adjusted to have a limit per day of how many element swaps you can do if its a problem. Easy fall back is always Prof+CHA per Long Rest if it’s a problem for whatever reason. Maybe keep it free to use on EB so the player can always have that feel of their subclass playing a role. A personal note for knock-on effects of this ability is that the player felt a bit of freedom in picking spells because it was no longer having to so much look at damage types, but rather what the spell straight up did. Fireball vs. Lightning Bolt has the element taken out of the equation and for the player it became about damage, AoE, durations, and extra effects. Certain spells became more appealing because they wouldn’t be locked behind an unwanted damage type. The flavor we used was the same as how Whisper’s weapon functioned of the wisp flying into the gun, and turning the handle knobs to get different effects n stuff. Mechanically, a Warlock can still cast spells without their focus, so if a player is found without their focus in combat it can be flavored as the Wisps just unleashing direct hell on enemies compared to focusing through the gun. If your player ends up upgrading their focus or being given a new experimental version, it will make sense thematically that raw Wisp spells are weaker because their focus will have a +1/+2/+3 and be built to enhance them. Food for thought.

So the rest of the subclass features. Level 6 is where the Wisp Patron is meant to pop off and change gameplay style substantially. Unfortunately, this is rather late if you are starting at Level 1, and until this moment, most of the subclass’ feature is the element swapping. For someone like me, I’m straight pogging. I have an Order of Scribes Wizard already penned up entirely for the next campaign I’m playing in and I’m all about modifying spell descriptions. For others, it could be underwhelming. There is a “solution” later in the document in the form of an invocation that gives 2 free uses per long rest. I put “solution” in quotes because in all the games I’ve played in with my friend groups, warlocks get the Agonizing Blast invocation as a core-kit feature because of how integral it has become in the modern Warlock equation. So logically, having AB frees up an Invocation slot for something like this to let the player have more fun with bonus actions/wisp stuff outside of reflavoring spells. There’s a lot going on with the wisps in this, I wanted the Color Powers to be fun but not amazingly strong, they are meant to be half-spells as you’ll see in the following pages. We didn’t get to Level 10 but it’s a damage resistance it’s nothing insane. There’s flexibility in it cause it’s the name of the game for this subclass. I followed the general pattern of Warlocks having a defensive feature at 10, and some flavorful cool stuff at 14, which in this case is mostly aping off the big damage of stuff like Fiend but with a Blind feature as opposed to “disappear for a turn as you hurtle through Pinhead’s summer home”. Blind can be rough against some enemies, but this late in the game, a lot of tougher enemies might also just have Blindsight. Like I said I can’t say how balanced a lot of this is in the average game. 

I’m not going to go into all the Wisp Powers in this post, but I wanted to post a little teaser of one of the pages, cause I really like how it turned out visually. There’s four pages of these to look forward to, along with the accompanying blurbs. I’ll post that part tomorrow. I’ve got a lot to say about how some of them turned out in practice, and almost nothing to say about some others that didn’t get used cause it wasn’t in that player’s playstyle. When the whole thing has been uploaded across three posts (Level Features, Color Powers, Invocations+Familiar), I’ll post the whole PDF in its entirety, or just a link to a copy of the Google Docs file so people can copy it and edit it in browser as needed on their own. I don’t know jack about using the images from the comic, but I ain’t making any cash off this and it was just meant to be a little homemade subclass with spruced up visuals. Hope that’s all good. Please don’t come at me SEGA I’m just a little circle guy im jus a small widdle circle noooo im just a little birthday boyyyyyy nooooo.

[castlebyersafterdark]

That recent ask about anon’s cousins liking m/leven is so interesting! The cousin always roots for the main couple? Maybe she will switch to byler if it’s revealed THEY were the main ones all along, then? Upon watching s4 I felt that byler were magic and that the duffers WANTED me to feel like they’re magic - Vinny I believe you had a similar experience? But people who still like m/leven, yet want Will to be happy, could be ideal viewers, too. After all, byler wouldn’t be half as dramatic without a sense that mike and el COULD still work through their problems in s5. 

As for your cousins liking Mike’s monologue, I think it all depends how you perceive love and romance irl. The monologue was big, loud, and public, and some people live for grand gestures like this. They want the wedding but not the marriage, ya know? Lol. But I can also picture a bold and declarative love confession for byler in the midst of a battle - yet, tonally, everything about it feels different to mike’s speech to El! There wouldn’t be an undeniable undercurrent of doom rippling beneath the surface, for one thing. But lots of people either don’t pick up on, or ignore, anything non-verbal in the show. 

Viewers who stick stubbornly to their static opinions of certain characters or pairings are the anomaly, not the ideal, because they remove all of the writer’s power to manipulate the viewers’ emotions and move the story onward. Hardcore m/levens, for example, have an agenda. (As do many hardcore bylers who grapple with flimsy evidence rather than letting the storylines unfold over time. Oof!)

But what of the byler-ignorants, lol? The people anon fears will think byler came out of nowhere? Well… the horror and gore of s4 was pretty out of the blue for many people. Did they stop watching? Maybe. Many didn’t, though. Because it made for fantastic entertainment. So the issue is instead HOW viewers will respond to such a twist. And because I’m lame, I’m going to do a full breakdown. 

Plot twists and surprises aren’t intrinsically bad. In fact, they’re a storytelling institution and an aspirational feat of engineering for many writers, especially in the thriller and mystery genre! The ideal audience response would be:  ‘Ohhhhhhhhhh!’ And will byler be any more left-field than the sudden visceral horror-gore of s4? This show takes no prisoners, and never has when it comes to shock factor. 

But sadly, sometimes the response to a plot twist is WTF?!??!! or even I HATE THIS!!!1. Oh dear. 

Byler coming out of nowhere would only be bad if 1) it’s an unpleasant surprise or 2) it is a plot point that hasn’t earned its own payoff. These two results are usually linked by… bad storytelling. 

Now, bad storytelling is not a subjective thing. There are rules and formulas in how to tell stories on screen. Not that everyone is well-versed in these, so you end up with people who say something is ‘bad’ when what they actually mean is ‘I didn’t enjoy that.’ You will always end up with viewers like this, and they’ll usually complain loudest. But you also don’t HAVE to like a story that is objectively well-written and employs storytelling devices successfully! Personal taste, y’all. I’m sure the Duffers are well aware of the possibility for negative feedback and will either accept it with grace (if it’s reasonable critique) or ignore it (if it’s unintelligent waffle), as should any artist who shares their work with the world. 

So… the Venn diagram of people that could think byler came out of nowhere are most likely:

1) people not paying full attention

2) homophobic folk, internalised or not

3) people who will never budge from loving mileven no matter what is presented to them

4) people who genuinely did not pick up on byler’s chemistry  

No.1 camp is filled primarily with reasonable, modern GA. They shouldn’t mind byler endgame, even if it means they feel compelled to rewatch the show to make it make sense. In fact, if they enjoyed the show, they should be excited to! Who wouldn’t love a clever rug-pull that weaves lots of plot points together, even if they somehow don’t care too much for Will specifically?

Now… folk from camp no.2. Homophobic folk. The internalised ones… hey, maybe they’ll grow from the watching experience. Art is always gorgeous when it can help people do this. The outright bigots, though? What the heckins are they doing watching this show, anyway? Something went over their heads, and that can’t be blamed on the Duffers. Chuck ‘em straight into the ‘irrelevant babble’ bin. 

Then we have no.3 camp: adamant m/leven fans. They can range from terrifying and harmful to romantic and misguided, but at the end of the day, ST is a work of art that owes nothing to anyone except being as good a piece of storytelling as it can be. It’s actually laughable to me that rude m/levens on twitter think that the writers will care what they think. They won’t. This doesnt mean the duffers don’t care about their fans in general - it just means they’re normal human beings who have a larger perspective about what truly matters. 

And lastly, I'd say no.4 camp are mostly GA too, especially folk who genuinely aren’t very good at reading subtext, non-verbal cues, or picking up on emotional nuance (perhaps in real life too). This isn’t objectively a bad thing - it just means they might not have the same experience of the show as was intended by the artist. Which makes me wonder….

… whose duty it is to make a work of art clear in meaning and intention? I went to art school, and we were certainly critiqued if our work didnt manage to do what it set out to do. But then again art is so subjective, and a viewer taking something else away from my work, finding a meaning I hadn’t, was rarely a bad thing. But most m/levens aren't doing this, are they? They're not full of possibility or imaginative explanations. They're just full of denial, and are often rude. Just as long as you can provide your ‘working out’ - a.k.a show the intention behind your art even if it falls flat in the landing, then the work will have worth to someone. And considering the overwhelming fanbase for byler, + the positive response to Will’s heartbreaking storyline in s4 from regular viewers, PLUS the cast member’s excitement to portray the final chapter of this story, I would say the Duffs are very much on the right track re: Mike and Will falling, on-screen and rather unambiguously, in love. 

Or maybe cousin anon worries that their experience of the show will be ruined if s5 byler receives a lot of negative feedback. That one is out of your control, I’m afraid - and the Duffers’, too. All you can do is try to enjoy what you love and not let anyone ruin it for you. 

First, before I proceed - HOW ARE YOU DOING THE COLORS what in the world. I am so distracted hahahah

Anyway... yes, I had a similar experience! The vibes were subtly there but I wasn't super invested, but season 4 really conjured that magical ohhhh moment that made everything else make sense. I think a lot more people will feel that in five, just for the more casual or non-fandom minded person in all honesty.

But lots of people either don’t pick up on, or ignore, anything non-verbal in the show. 

Ain't that the whole truth...

people who say something is ‘bad’ when what they actually mean is ‘I didn’t enjoy that.’ You will always end up with viewers like this, and they’ll usually complain loudest. But you also don’t HAVE to like a story that is objectively well-written and employs storytelling devices successfully! Personal taste, y’all. I’m sure the Duffers are well aware of the possibility for negative feedback and will either accept it with grace (if it’s reasonable critique) or ignore it (if it’s unintelligent waffle), as should any artist who shares their work with the world. 

Loving your whole breakdown analysis, but that point in particular was great. Very, very true. Important to keep in mind.

ST is a work of art that owes nothing to anyone except being as good a piece of storytelling as it can be.

👏👏👏👏

This was an amazing breakdown of the show and a very stunning read on the perception of media in general, thank you for laying all that out!!! Ending with this one because it's the most important mantra to follow if you consider yourself a big fan:

All you can do is try to enjoy what you love and not let anyone ruin it for you. 

❤️

[niamhsglobalproject]

week 2

The reading due this morning had an interesting narrator

l4 l5 reflect l6 sight

compromise

vr chat world creation

maybe linking up with pen pal group?

Week 2 global project

The reading due this morning had an interesting narrator. I enjoyed hearing about Lazlo’s work but also wasn’t too keen on the narrators view of looking down on design that wasn’t activist. I think that creativity doesn’t have to be limited to improving something and this highlights the difference between design and art. Does good design have to improve something? Is art the same? art can provoke thought that could be considered activist in terms of bringing attention to different situations. this is most likely the approach we will take for this project as we tackle different motives and themes by making conscious creative decisions throughout.

L4 L5 reflect, L6 sight

While i was sceptical with the group pickings, i knew if i wanted to improve my skills, learn from previous projects as well as other group members, i would have to put forward a plan of action to ensure each meeting is the most productive. (Our initial meeting being most crucial). This way, we wouldn’t be fumbling or going around in circles as if we followed a structure for our brainstorming, we could cut out the tangents and focus at the task at hand. 

My proposition for this will be to firstly have a refresher summary of each others pitch. We could pick three main points to our own pitch so that we can see what the most important elements/ which part each individual likes the most about their idea. From there we could make a 5 way Venn diagram or equivalent to see the overlaps in our ideas to see which points to automatically bring forward. And then we can go through and select more elements that we would like to bring forward as well. We should discuss socio-geographical similarities and differences as another starting point for content and context. It would be a good idea to settle on a theme as early as possible too so this could be chosen within this process. We can then look into video game genres as well as engines to allow us to decide on which engine we would like to use for the game. 

pitch 3 point summaries

5 way Venn diagram

Socio-geographical similarities and differences/ socio-geographical challenges and solutions for sustainable development in global communities.

Select a theme to work from

Game genres

Questions for Kyiv

to gain more context of Ukraine and Kyiv, i did some research into socio-geographic specific issues.

Ukraine relies on £3billion per month in financial aid from allies to see this year through. They have already had £73billion from these countries however US support seems to be faltering and packages have suffered major delays. 

It gets very cold in winter, as of Wednesday 7th Feb 2024, 355 homes in Kyiv were without heating in their homes. (Dniprovskyi district)

Moth/pest issues on crops

Rush hour traffic

how is living in Ukraine? "Generally ok, though we experience lack of produce in shops and deficits of gasoline. It is caused by disruption of logistics. Also lack of jobs because a lot of businesses closed down or partially open. In view of this less money for people. But there is electricity, water, gas , internet. Most necessary services work. A lot of people walking around, including military and regular citizens. In the night there is curfew."

Difference in technology

Barriers 

Notes from Fred’s talk on Wednesday:

First draft is explaining to yourself, word vomit. Pair it back 

Moodle Harvard referencing . Up to 15 mins for video essay

Phases of the moon as a tool?

After seeing everyone’s pitches on the Monday, i saw overlaps with Liz’s idea of digital pen pals. One of the cosy game examples i had included in my own presentation was “kind words”. To look into how similar these ideas were, i bought the game on steam as it was only £3.99. The game works as you send anonymous letters with a request for advice. Other anonymous users can then respond with their own advice or kind words. You can also send paper airplanes with quotes/ affirmations etc that are distributed to others playing the game. There is also a sticker trading aspect that is used in conjunction with sending responses to other’s letters as well as thanking other users for taking the time to respond. I found the community to be very wholesome and encouraging. I think the anonymity of the game enabled this as there was no judgement or prejudice, only real advice based on each situation. I’d like to potentially share this with my own group and mentioned the game to Liz in case her group would like to explore how the game works. 

Wednesday was particularly frustrating for me. I had prepped and come into the studio with an open mind and tools to approach a collaborative talk with my group so that i didn’t come across as stubborn or dismissive. While this day was more focused on the essay side of the project, with no allocated time to focus on generating initial group ideas to show to Ukraine, it was hard to have the time to develop this aspect and utilise my plan stated above. Three members of the group however were able to have a conversation on ideas for the project. Me and Layla ended up being excluded from this talk as we were sat in other spaces around the room and were unaware this talk was going on. As not everyone was involved in the brainstorm, the outcomes didn’t include aspects from either of our pitches. I was definitely upset about this and felt like withdrawing. We hadn’t set up a means of communication like we usually do, (such as a WhatsApp groupchat) so once the session had ended, so did the discussion.

I also didn’t have a tutorial from Lara or  Fred so felt a bit lost in terms of what steps i should take next, which is why i took initiative to email for clarification. Once knowing we needed one representative per group to give a brief overview of ideas, for Kyiv to respond to, i was then able to get back on track and put my stubbornness aside to progress with the group. Lewis emailed us on the Thursday to hopefully set up a means of communication as well as schedule a meeting as a full group. I then helped set up the WhatsApp as i had nearly everyone’s numbers already. This allowed us to start conversation on ensuring everyone was on the same page. 

On Friday, i went into the studio so that i could be more productive. Joe was also in, helping with the first year students and Kateryna invited me to join in with their group tutorials for their nature/performance lab. It was really interesting to see the same issues as we had dealt with in the same projects last year. I really felt their frustrations with group members not showing up but hopefully we provided them with reassurance to keep pushing on and for them to know they are on the right path. I really liked one of the group’s outcomes for the nature lab. They have four different animal masks that represent different issues within nature. I liked the message that they were going to convey and also the execution of the one mask that was finished was great. 

Once we had been around all of the groups, i then went back to my own work. 

Kateryna showed me CLO3D, a 3d fashion modelling software. She explained that this could be a good tool to use if I would like to make 3D avatars to put into our game or into spatial. 

I think if we decide to go with a more realistic visual, we can use this software to create stills that can be used as sprites or models for our game. 

Research how indie teams work with clients etc

Relation to the game how use the similarities and differences 

Reflect on the place for each other in terms of relationships through the making and the actual tame 

[slaughterchichi]

Letter Ask Game:

B, N, T, W

Hey, thank you! Sorry this took a while to answer.

B - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind

If this has ever happened, I don’t recall it. On rarer ships usually I’m the one going “look at this” and trying to make people see my side.

Anyway, because this is a boring answer I will give you different but similar lore. When I first decided to watch One Piece, my friends insisted I was going to love Sanji and ZoSan. I’m a fickle bitch so I wanted to prove them wrong and really, really tried not to fall into ZS hell. Obviously, that did not work out lmao

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice)

This one’s hard. There are things I don’t want more than things I want extra, if that makes sense? But I guess I want… more people to ship things that I like. If more people were into Kiryu/Akiyama I would be incredibly happy. When I posted my fic for them, it was the 8th work on AO3 and now they have 37! So that’s nice.

Overall I want more kink content in every fandom I’m in, and… well. I wish people would be more vocal about liking things in general.

For example: I’ve been told multiple times that people have really liked some things I thought had flopped (lesbian ZS, all that glisters) and it’s kind of depressing. I was shown some screenshots from a server and I was like “...okay” because none of that enjoyment or excitement actually got back to me. If the people who like it never tell me how am I meant to know? I just view the initial kudos and the comments, and when there’s not many of them it tells me that no one wants more of that.

Please, for the love of everything that is holy, tell creators directly when you like their works!!

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending, about anything at all (gender identity, sexual or romantic orientation, extended family, sexual preferences like top/bottom/switch, relationship with poetry, seriously anything)

Yes. I’m very much a “no reverse” kind of person when it comes to pairings. Feelings can go whichever way you want but when it comes to the nitty-gritty of sexy time I have a set way I like things to go. This is why I don’t really write opposite things. When it comes to who’s initiating or Dom/sub dynamics I’m way more flexible though.

Because I’ve been in fandom for a veeeeryyyyy long time I have had so many headcanons over the years that have been disproven or things have changed to make them less fun so I dunno on that one. The longer you look at things the more open your mind becomes to other possibilities too, so some stuff I was hard-and-fast about (ZS being virgins) has definitely evolved. Sometimes all you need is a good trustworthy friend with an intriguing argument haha.

W - 5 favorite ships and 5 kinks you like best for said ships

I tend to gravitate towards characters with similar traits so it’s kinda hard to separate kinks and ships from one another like this. Mainly though, if you look, most of my ships have one (or two) smokers in them, often a big burly guy and a slimmer guy and the slimmer one usually fights with their legs, so… hahaha. One day I should make a venn diagram and then you’ll see what I mean.

There’s also a difference between kinks too, because…well. I tend to view “kinks” as BDSM things whereas people will call pretty much anything a kink these days. So there’s like BDSM kink, physical trait kinks and then the sort-of fantasy ones (transformation, vore, etc)? I’m not big on the fantasy kind. I like stuff that is possible in reality the most.

The other thing about this is: some ships are not made for kink content. I know this may have people side-eyeing me given my history but I do actually take into consideration the characters, their dynamics etc before I try to throw kinky stuff on them. Would they be into it? Is there a way I can validate this kink on this character? There’s kinks I really like that simply don’t fit with the pairings I have, so I don’t write them. Perhaps one day I will be able to write those kinks, but not right now.

This was a lot of paragraphs not to actually answer the question but hopefully you have an idea.

Fandom meme: Come at me friend | Send an Ask!

[sunnynoki]

Goodbye to Halos - How Fenic (The Main Protagonist) is Fenic (The Lost Princess)

Ok y’all buckle up because it’s about to be a wild ride.

FIRST OFF: READ GOODBYE TO HALOS. It has incredibly good writing and art and characterization!!! Fenic, the main protag, is a trans lesbian!! The other protags include (but are not limited to) a genderqueer gay lion and a poly wlw! I’ll post a link in the notes so this post shows up in tags, but a search of “Goodbye to Halos” will get you there in the first link!

Also cred to @demi-virgo​ for encouraging me to make this ;w;

Ok so I don’t know how to format this so let’s just start from the first hint and go from there.

And one more important note: Current Fenic will be referred to as just Fenic, and her mom will be referred to as The Lost Princess.

HINT ONE: THE MAAVE

So maave’s are, as a refresher, the mark under a Shade’s eye. They are a unifying trait of the shades (Along with horns and magic, but less so as they aren’t retained in children of Shades and Wildren, but I digress). But there are also "no two alike in form and color”, as Enae put it.

Which is WEIRD because 

Yeah. Impossible. UNLESS... THE LOST PRINCESS AND FENIC ARE THE SAME PERSON! And not in an amnesia kinda way, but in a restarting life kinda way. But we’ll get to that. 

Addendum: 

The wording of “you are very, very closely related to The Lost Princess” is weird when Enae already knows that Fenic is the lost princess’s daughter. Also the rest of this page speaks for itself I think. “Lost princess was immortal”, “There’s no other Fenics” (especially Fenics with that maave and other traits like red hair). This establishes that Fenic and the Lost Princess look similar, if not alike/identical. This will be essential in hint three.

Continued under the cut because I got a loooooottttt more ;3

HINT TWO: GOD’S BLESSING

So as the fight continues, God Herself literally steps in. Well, an avatar of Her’s, later named a Godeye.

God intercepted the knife from hitting Fenic. I won’t post the entire scene here, but basically God shoots the knife at Enae, wounding her BAD. But as God goes to send another attack, Fenic comes in and stands between the two. And then She freaks out????

Now maybe God isn’t a god, but God is just Her name? Also interesting is how She is the only one to use lower case, and only when She says “I”. But that’s another post, as I digress...

God Herself is asking forgiveness from Fenic? After Fenic asked (with her actions” for God not to attack Enae? Enae later talks about this in the following chapter:

“And that girl... blessed by God, she’s the only other one who can sway Her heart. Fenic...”

And who else was blessed by God? The Lost Princess. Before this, Fenic has had no reason to be blessed by god besides being related to the (immortal, may i remind you) lost princess who "died” before Fenic can remember. 

(Also another digression... the only other one? Who is the one Fenic is the “other one” off of? Maybe The Dead Princess? Maybe the old empress? Both are dead, but it’s phrased that she’s one of two, and coming off this theory, perhaps she and The Dead Princess pair up to be the two that can sway God’s heart.)

HINT THREE: ASHER AND TAHMONAI

So their meeting has a ton of different sentences that lead towards this theory, so I’m just going to group them all here. (Note: Enae is narrating and Asher and Tahmonai are talking about The Lost Princess. Tahmonai morphed to The Lost Princess to ask if Asher has seen her.)

“The person you’re looking for... she doesn’t exist anymore” and “That, too was-- somehow -- not true” and “[The Lost Princess] is really immortal too”... these statements don’t have a lot of intersections in the venn diagram of where they can all be true. The only fact that I can think of that does make them true is that Fenic is the rebirth of The Lost Princess. Continuing onto the next page...

There’s a lot to break down here:

“She... was a dear friend of mine.” Meaning The Lost Princess was a friend, not a romantic interest with whom he would have a child with.

“Someone I was lucky enough to know all my life, even if she only knew me for a fraction of her’s.” Implying that The Lost Princess was MUCH older than Asher. Immortality, anyone?

“But there are... circumstances now. Nothing will come of this, Tahmonai.” If this theory is true, then those circumstances are that The Lost Princess doesn’t have her memories, she restarted her life. She isn’t the same person. It clicks.

“Stay in my office. I’ll make arrangements.” Implying he is going to see The Lost Princess to arrange a sort of meeting. But instead he goes to Fenic to send her through the portal. Funny writing there, don’t you think?

After Asher sends Fenic through the portal...

“Did I do the right thing, old friend...?” The name “old friend” is being used here to denote he’s talking about The Lost Princess. Perhaps where she/her reborn self just went through the portal?

“I have to believe this is what you wanted.” (The word “wanted” can be seen if you zoom in close, at least at full resolution). Keyword: “this”. Not “that”. “This” means something that is near, something that was just there. Why would he use “this” for something from someone who is dead? No, what if she, or a version of herself, was just there? And what exactly she, The Lost Princess, wanted? We’ll get to that in hint five.

TO THE NEXT PAGE!

PROBABLY THE HEAVIEST PAGE OF THEM ALL

“I already told you the person you’re looking for doesn’t exist anymore.” Not died, “doesn’t exist anymore.” Specific choice of words!

“Not in a way that’s useful to you.” As in she no longer has her memories, perhaps? That she’s currently a 15 year old? 

“And before she left, she told me...” Before she LEFT. Not died! LEFT!

“That she didn’t want her past to haunt her anymore.” THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT IN HINT FIVE.

“She started over.” BAM. PROBABLY THE CORNERSTONE OF THIS THEORY. Combine these three words with the rest of the theory, and you get the conclusion that “starting over” means something along the lines of reincarnation. But I’ll get to the reincarnation bit later. 

SO THATS ALL UP TO WHERE THE COMIC IS RIGHT NOW! BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE REREAD?

HINT FOUR: FENIC AS A NAME

Now this one is a little shorter but in the prologue we see Fenic name herself for the first time.

After being called a lady, she sorta panics as, like, what’s she gonna do, give her a boy’s name when she’s a girl and just been called that? And her first instinct is to go with her mother’s name. Like, sure, maybe it’s because she think’s “girl’s name go” and the girl/woman/female closest to her is her mom. But I like to think it’s an instinct to keep the same name. It could be read either way, but I feel like it was worth mentioning. 

ALONG WITH A BONUS THEORY. The Lost Princess is trans. I’ve been thinking about how The Lost Princess would restart, and seeing how the maave is the same, the body is likely the same as well, implying a restart like that of a phoenix. Sorta. Meaning that the AGAB is the same. Maybe Asher didn’t know if restarting life would retain trans-ness or w/e OR he didn’t know The Lost Princess was trans. Either way he went with AGAB, clearly. I like to think that The Lost Princess spent a lot of time thinking about her name so it’s really ingrained in her so that it’s an instinct to be called Fenic :]

HINT FIVE: WHY?

So. That mystery chapter huh? Here’s a proposal- who we see is The Lost Princess.

Think about it, the person we see doesn’t have horns or some sort of tail or animal ears, eliminating someone who is purely Shade or Wildren. This leaves Fenic, The Dead Princess, or The Lost Princess, all born of both species. The hair doesn’t match The Dead Princess’s hair, so that eliminates her. 

This leaves the Fenics, whose hair DO match, assuming The Lost Princess and Fenic have the same hair texture, which in the frame of what has been discussed, it does. 

NOW THIS PAGE

Feels like a reason to be reborn to me.

Granted, this chapter, LITERALLY TITLED “premonition” and the names at the beginning could EASILY be shortened for Clairissa and Enae, who would’ve been only babies or unborn when The Lost Princess was around. This is VERY likely in the future, with Fenic. But I only realized this after I started referring to it earlier in the post, so no going back. 

But maybe it’s salvageable. Maybe Fenic is having the same thoughts as The Lost Princess. The Lost Princess, as stated in hint three, didn’t want the past to haunt her anymore. So she chose to forget in a new life, reborn. 

Maybe Fenic is thinking about following in her mother’s footsteps.

This premonition chapter, along with the whole other conspiracy board of “What’s up with Salin (The Dead Princess) and Tahmonai?”, have me very concerned for the future. 

Afterword

Thank you so much for getting this far ;w; I hope and pray that I made literally any sense. As I was collecting pages to put in here, I noticed that this is quite a common theory if the comment section of the pages is anything to go by. I thought so too before all this, so I didn’t really want to put the effort into a post, but Virgo encouraged me to make it anyway sooooo 

Either way, this can still work as a collection of evidence, and an archive on our, or at least my, thoughts on “What’s up with the Fenics” question! Hopefully later down the line we can look at this and be like, “called it!” or, “honey, you’ve got a big storm coming.” 

I could go on about the implications of this theory, but that’s another post of this length tbhhhhhhhhh and also its uh. 12am LOL.

Please reblog this to spread the theory! Even if it’s common, spread it to convince people to read gth? :pleading: I spent like. 2-3 hours on this to try to get my wording right and cohesive, which is really hard for me as I’m very much more an artist than a writer haaaaaaaaa

Thank you so much for reading again! Good morning, good afternoon, good night <3

[rewritingtrauma]

Permaculture Design Course

We dialled in from living rooms, bedrooms, caravans and gardens across 11 different time zones, from Abu Dhabi to California (with Brazil and Berlin somewhere in between). Our reasons for being here were all unique and yet all similar; concerns for the future; for the mass extinction event and loss of natural habitats; hoping to learn how to live sustainably; how to grow food naturally; how to produce more than we consume; how to change career; how to live without doing harm; and how to co-create a better world for our children and future generations to grow up in. In the context of one of the biggest worldwide pandemics in living history, this group of strangers met in the timeless hinterland of the online meeting room to explore, share, and learn about positive solutions both now and for our futures... 

I stumbled across The Permaculture Design Course quite by accident (as I was looking for ways to make my struggling garden thrive rather than merely survive) but, over the course of a month, this unexpected experience changed my life completely... For the first time in 35 years I feel that I have been given access to a toolkit for living - a set of frameworks, processes and principles which speak entirely to what I feel and know to be real and right - for how to be and live in the world in deeply connected, holistic and sustainable ways... At a moment when I was feeling incredibly helpless and overwhelmed by global and personal circumstances, the PDC and this group of wonderful, disparate strangers, appeared “as if by magic” and turned around the whole way I understand myself, my power, and my place in the world. On my ‘rewriting trauma’ journey the PDC has been an invaluable turning point and has provided me with the maps and materials I most need (though may not have been looking for) for going forwards... 

Since finishing the course I have been asked numerous times by friends, family and neighbours “What IS Permaculture, exactly...?” And I have responded with numerous answers (according to who was asking, their reasons for asking and the context in which the question was asked) but I would like to take this opportunity to address that question, in the best way I know how, through the precious and manifold ideas and conversations which came up throughout the course. I want to respond to the question “What is Permaculture?” in this way (rather than offer a singular narrative) because I believe this embodies and reflects much more of the essence of what Permaculture is : a set of principles, processes and frameworks for living which can be tailored to the particular and specific answers and solutions each one of us seeks in our own, unique context. 

Word bubble formed from the PDC reactions to the question “How do you define Permaculture?” 2nd June 2020

“You can’t have sustainable food production without sustainable everything else.”

                                                                                                           Graham Bell,                                                                                            Online PDC, June 2020

June 2020 was an astonishing and deeply challenging month in so many ways… Personally, I was forced to face the vulnerability of my own situation; my reliance on shop bought food and uncertain income streams when, at the very outset of lockdown, literally all of my work dried up, my partner was made redundant and access to food was scarce and difficult. Then there was worse to come. In the late hours of the 16th of June, my cousin Beth died. The news arrived during one of our PDC sessions. She had been battling secondary and primary breast cancer. This is a heartbreak and a loss I am still trying to understand and process (but one which, had I not been held by this group and this experience, would have been so much harder to deal with). 

Meanwhile, on the international stage, people were facing so many additional threats and challenges posed by the Coronavirus Pandemic. The death statistics highlighted the social and economic inequalities, both at home and abroad, particularly along lines of race - with a disproportionate number of deaths and redundancies in people from BBIPOC (Black, Brown, Indigenous, People of Colour) backgrounds. We saw deaths in refugee camps sky rocketing. These statistics were a bitter salt in the wounds of exhaustive and institutional racism which we saw enacted again and again from the refugee crisis in Syria and Yemen to the police murders of George Floyd in Texas, Israel Berry in Oregon, Tracy Downe in Florida and many more besides… Some of us white folx, in waking up to the scale and pervasiveness of institutional and embedded violence towards our African, Asian and South East Asian Diaspora friends, that we (I) started to understand our (my) own white fragility and the systems of dis/advantage which many of us have been complicit in. And it was amidst this context of great uncertainty and upheaval that the PDC took place... 

Over the course of the month of June, with three day-long zoom meetings a week and a handful of break out/additional sessions in between, we explored (amongst many things); the ideas and inspirations behind Permaculture; the centrality of Observation; Non Violent Communication; Patterns; Input & Output Analysis; Wild Design; Trees and Soil; Guilds - what they are, how they work, making our own; Arts and Culture(s); Landscape; Climate; Planning for the future; Alternative Exchange Economies; Food and Water; Six Coloured Thinking Hats; Plant Families and Nomenclature; Sociocracy; Healing; Cooperation vs Competition; Zones and Sectors; Needs, Wants and Offers… And many more things besides and between. 

Though I was not aware of it at the time (though I might have been, had I read the curriculum and course handbook in advance!) almost the entire first half of the PDC was taken up with the co-creation of a safe and productive learning space and culture.  

One of the first questions posed to the participants was from Kate Everett who asked “What makes learning work for you?”

I struggled to identify what had worked for me in the past but could instantly conjure what made learning not work: I thought of GCSE revision, 20 cups of tea a day, desperately cramming information into my head… I thought back to how long it had taken me to learn how to tie shoe laces or to put up a tent because of how much heat and anger there was from my father and his father that I couldn’t just do it… I thought of those feelings of shame, humiliation, stress and of shutting down when I was told I was an idiot and a failure… But then, interestingly, so many others in the group articulated similar experiences - “stress, school, competition”…Some people described themselves as lone wolves, others learnt better in groups, some benefited from working together over a problem or by sharing what they were learning… But what all of us agreed upon was the inhibiting effects of stress on learning and the need to enfold experimentation, play, overview and failure in order to make our learning journeys productive and engaging...

                                                 “Learning is love”

                                                                                                           Graham Bell 

Little did we know it at the time but all this information about our individual learning experiences was being observed, gathered and harvested… as we learnt about ourselves and one another we were also learning how to create the best learning (and hence growing) conditions for us as individuals and as a collective. Though we may not have fully realised it as it was happening, we are all in the “inverted classroom” : we had all become the teachers, as well as the students and would learn more from the collective than any single teacher or pedagogy could ever bestow...

Quotes and prompts I collected throughout the course 

“A person who doesn’t make a mistake probably doesn’t make anything” 

                                                                                                            Graham Bell

Mark Shiperlee introduced us to the concept of the Culture Board and we begin brain storming what factors are important to measure our course culture against. The factors we decided were of most importance to integrate into, and develop throughout, the course were;

Positive Solutions

Long & Short Breaks

Gift Economy

Time Keeping

Mutual Respect

Fun

Creativity

Task Setting & Reporting

Inclusion

Group Work

Connect With Nature

Throughout the course we would check in on the Culture Board regularly to determine what stage these various factors were at i.e. Seed; Sprout; Leaf; Flower; or Fruit. For me this was a valuable tool in understanding where the group felt our learning journey was at - which areas were working and which were not. It made this an easy, fluid and almost anonymised process and helped to address both the successes and the failures as we went along, understanding where energy needed focusing. This was one of many visual tools, along with The Life Ethics venn diagram, Six Thinking Hats, OBREDIMET, Looby’s Design Web, Input & Output Analysis, PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting) Analysis, Importance/Urgency Matrix, and Relative Location which I have continued to use in my own Permaculture Life/Design Processes…  

My LIfe Ethics Venn Diagram - i.e. the three main ethics of permaculture”Earth Care”, “People Care” and “Fair Shares” Where they all intersect is the core of Life Ethics 

During the course we were also given our own break out Guild groups with whom we had to develop ad present a Permaculture Design Project with (below is ‘an artist’s impression’ of our Guild The Four Acorns - Lynn, Siobhan, Lucy and myself.

“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple” 

                                                                                                             Bill Mollison

By the third week of the course, with each one of our guild feeling exhausted by various life stresses (illness, work, family, bereavement, etc) we decided the best and most effective design we could work on was one for supporting each other as a guild whilst we embarked upon our permaculture journeys (the one thing which united all of us was that we wished to continue beyond the course). 

We started applying some of the tools and processes we acquired throughout the course to our own visions for the future. We started off with Holmgren’s Permaculture Design Principles;

Principle 1. Observe & Interact

We began our guild process by gradually getting to know one another, developing  & discussing  project ideas that would tap into all of our needs & aspirations. 

Principle 2.Catch & Store Energy

As we were all feeling a bit burnout we realised we needed to do something that would hold space and energy for us as individuals and a collective i.e. catch and store energy by making and holding space for one another. We wanted to encourage each other to feel safe enough to start exploring with new eyes and to assist each other’s courage in the face of major life changes.

Principle 3.Obtain a yield

We all wanted to carry on our development beyond the course and to share permaculture with others - so we asked the questions “How could we support one another in this?” But, in addition “What renewable resources and services did we have that we could use, share and apply?” and “What could we create - the main yield - within this guild?” We decided that the yield we could create in the present, but carrying into the future, was a space full of loving-support, inspiration, challenge and abundance.

Principle 4. Apply Self-regulation & accept feedback & Principle 5. Use & Value Renewable Resources and Services

As we began using permaculture tools to explore our individual designs, these processes enabled us to support and affirm one another; to share wisdom; tell stories; hear, value and integrate one another as individuals in a guild; become energised and strengthened by our diverse experiences, perspectives, knowledge(s), points of view; and to be challenged and strengthened by processes and making compassionate space for learning through failure too... And believe me, we did fail... 

Mind Map at the outset of my own Permaculture Life Design exploring my assets, helps/opportunities, limitations, needs, aims and potential tools & processes to employ

                         “It takes shit... literal shit... but then you get humus”

                                                                                                                   Siobhan

On the last day of the course all of the individual guilds presented their design projects and it was amazing to see the wealth, depth and diversity of those ideas and the tools and processes (which we had been given throughout the course) put into action. There were design solutions that addressed; food scarcity; social isolation; mental health issues; segregation; alienation; loss of habitat and species; water shortages; poor health; access to education; job losses; seed sharing; community spaces; and so many more big issues. It was staggering.

In such a short space of time this small group of strangers had come together and, with the support of our guides and course leaders, co-created a network of support from across the world, positively enriching one another and the larger ecosystems each of us are a part of. It was a little island of paradise which cultivated an abundance of new perspectives, hope and courage. By showing us what might be possible and - rather than getting too mired in the negative/things we cannot control - looking to appreciate what we have, what we can be and what we can create together, the PDC taught us how diversity and collaboration can help us, both as individuals and a society, develop resilience in the face of the overwhelming challenges of our times.

It was an experience I will never forget and which I hope to keep alive as I go into the future (remembering to regularly use, sharpen and adapt those valuable tools)... 

[tooangrymustinternet]

For my cisgender friends, followers, and allies:

This is a long post. It's long because what I need you all to understand is complicated and nuanced, so it cannot be summarized in a short post if I want you to actually understand. Please bear with me, and please read the whole thing if you can, as I will consider that an act of love, allyship, and/or community. (Skip the glossary if you don't need it of course.) ____________________ Glossary of Terms in this Post

♡ Binarism (noun) - This is a specific form of sexism and transphobia that elevates binary genders (men and women) above all others. As of this posting, binarism is currently so pervasive that most people don't realize they are participating in it.

♡ Binary [genders] (adj) - This term refers to men and to women, regardless of cis or trans.

♡ Cis/Cisgender (adj) - Cis is a shortening of cisgender (sometimes written as cis gender). Cisgender people are people whose gender identity, sex assigned at birth, gender presentation, and chosen/performed gender role all line up in one neat little package. Mainstream western culture likes to pretend that all people are cisgender.

♡ Nonbinary (adj) - This term refers to the entire category of people who are not strictly 100% men or 100% women. Sometimes it refers to people who are somewhere between the two; sometimes it refers to people who are totally off of that spectrum and have genders entirely separate from it; there are a lot of possibilities, but the bottom line is that this is a category of genders which intersects with the word "transgender" like a Venn diagram.

♡ Segender (adj) - This term refers to someone whose gender is not recognized within their own culture. It is not a specific gender, but rather describes the state of a person's gender just like "cisgender" and "transgender" are not specific genders. In Western cultures, many people of nonbinary genders are segender. Other cultures are more likely to recognize one or more nonbinary gender.

♡ Sexism (noun) - prejudice, stereotyping, and/or discrimination in thought or action, on the basis of either sex or gender. Sexism is, as most people reading this know, highly pervasive. Our society is actively working to correct this.

♡ Trans/Transgender (adj) - Trans is a shortening of transgender (sometimes written as trans gender). Transgender people are people whose gender identities do not match the gender assigned to them at birth. This is a loose term; there are people who technically fit this definition but do not identify as cis or trans.

♡ Transphobia (noun) - a form of sexism which raises cis people and/or harms trans people. Transphobia is pervasive, but as of this posting, it is finally being talked about a lot more so things finally have a chance to start getting better. ____________________ PART ONE: Pervasiveness of Binarism

Binarism is pervasive in our culture. The idea that everyone is either a man or a woman is simultaneously false, and something our culture has steeped itself in. From binary check boxes on dating apps and doctor intake forms, to binary restrooms, to phrases like "Ladies and gentlemen," or "boys and girls," the concept that other people exist too has been purged from our cultural collection of colloquialisms, constructs, and more.

This means that the number of segender genders here is pretty darn high. It also means that binarism is one of the most common forms of transphobia. And that, my dear friends and community members who have decided to read this essay, is the first main point I need you to understand or the rest of what I have to say in this won't make sense. Binarism is a specific form of erasure and bias related so strongly to transphobia and sexism that a lot of people refer to it as a subset of those things. It is the erasure of the existence of nonbinary people like me to the point of not being able to safely use dating apps or public restrooms because they don't exist for us. And that's just the built environment; I haven't even begun to touch on being treated with respect by the people we interact with, in a culture where strangers will almost certainly never get our genders right.

Right now, as I write this, I can't handle talking about how afraid I am of gender-based violence and murder or the very real reasons I have for those fears, so I am going to skip that part.

I don't think I know how to describe the sheer depth and breadth of binarism people like me deal with on a daily basis, so I ask that you consider that it is similar to any other form of sexism in that it happens All The Time. Every time I want to use the bathroom at work, I have to walk to a different building because the restrooms are segregated and none of the ones for people like me are available in my building. Exactly once in my life, a stranger assumed the correct gender for me. The rest of the time, it's a day-long mix of Sirs and Ma'ams from well-meaning people who I know are trying to be polite despite their massive failures at it. There's a lot more, but I want to move on to my next point. Just know that binarism hurts me and others like me several times per day. That's just life for people like me in western cultures. Sucks to be segender in that sense. ____________________ PART TWO: On Being Silent

I work 2 jobs, both in academia. I commute with a mixture of car, bus, train, and walking on most days. This means I run into a lot of people. Almost every time I do, gender comes up in a bad way due to the pervasive nature of binarism. When this happens, I have a variety of choices.

Do I correct and educate the person? Do I stay silent? Do I just sort of laugh and make a joke about it in what is often a vain hope that they'll realize it's actually a softened callout? The answer varies dramatically in terms of the situation, my mood, and my energy level.

I often stay silent with these one on one encounters simply because I don't have the energy to deal with it. Yet, every time I do that, I find myself kicking myself for it mentally for hours after the encounter. Why? I have had some variation of this conversation countless times:

Me: **attempts to educate**

Person: "My friend is trans and I said this in front of them, and they didn't mind, so I don't get what your problem is."

Me: "Your trans friend said this was okay?"

Person: "No, but they didn't say anything, so they don't have a problem with it."

Trans people often say nothing. Some of us have these education conversations several times per day, some of us opt to never have them. Different people find different things stressful, so some trans or nonbinary people are more likely to ask strangers to change transphobic or binarist behavior than people they know well, while others are more likely to have that conversation with friends than with strangers. But in just about all cases, it takes energy. That energy is not always there, and it's not uncommon for someone to have already reached their quota for these kinds of conversations for the day before you do or say something transphobic or binarist in front of them without even realizing it.

Someone staying silent in front of you does not mean that what you did is acceptable. ____________________ PART THREE: On Speaking Up

Everyone is different, but I know that for me, I'm far more likely to speak up in a group setting than I am in a one on one setting. This is for a variety reasons that go well beyond the simple fact that it is also simply less frightening and stressful to me personally. These other reasons culminate in the end result of a lot less work for myself and others like me.

If someone does something transphobic or binarist and I stay silent, as I have shown above, I know they will think that I think their action is just fine and may even use my silence to justify their actions to others when called out later on the same thing. This is (obviously) damaging to the entire goal of reducing the ambient levels of transphobia and binarism, but it becomes far more so when this happens in a group setting. An entire group relearns the wrong cultural lesson when transphobia and binarism go unchecked. Instead, I say something, and that way the entire group can learn together. Because it is absolutely a learning process.

This goes well in spaces where accountability and intentional reduction of social harms is part of the norm. In these spaces, things like "hey that was kinda racist," or "could you change this so it is not transphobic" are met with thanks for the opportunity to self-correct, discussion for the sake of learning, and apologies. These discussions allow everyone in the group to learn the same lesson together and support each other in this learning process. I like this because it allows me to learn from others' mistakes as well as my own instead of continuing to make the same mistakes over and over again. I also like this because it's a LOT more efficient at reducing those ambient levels of transphobia and binarism I was talking about than talking to one person at a time.

I keep having the same exact education conversations over and over again on a nearly daily basis, so I am absolutely certain that these group conversations help a lot more people learn the same lesson than me putting the same amount of energy into a private conversation and only helping one person learn how to stop being an accidental asshole. Besides, then I can stop watching the faces of the other trans people in any given group fall in marginalized silence. It breaks my heart to watch that.

But anyway, this only works in these groups where people want to do better and care more about accountability in terms of how their actions impact others than they do about appearing to be perfect. In other spaces, it causes a shit show. ____________________ PART FOUR: My Request

So, if you have made it this far, you finally have the context for what I request:

If I or someone else lets you know that something you did or said was transphobic or binarist and asks you to make a change, please keep in mind that speaking up at all is often a fearful thing for us. We are afraid of physical and verbal violence, of losing social capital, of being told we are being dramatic or otherwise not being taken seriously, of losing your friendship, and more. If we thought you didn't want to learn or do better, we wouldn't bother. In that sense, it's a compliment, even though it feels uncomfortable if you aren't accustomed to accountability culture (and sometimes even then). Those of us who are accustomed to accountability-oriented spaces can forget that this isn't the assumption a lot of people have.

Take feedback to heart, and if the conversation starts publicly and you're able to keep it there, please do so as an act of allyship. Transparency and accountability are acts of allyship when it comes to these things because they become agents of cultural shift.

Thanks for reading my essay, I hope it makes sense. Again, questions are welcome in the comments.

[takerfoxx]

Returning to that question, was Madoka really a deconstruction? I mean, it had some darker and more mature elements to be sure, but so have more child friendly magical girl shows (if I recall correctly, the final battle in the original Sailor Moon had every main character save Sailor Moon straight up DIE on the way to the final battle). And as you stated, dark magical girl shows such as Utena and Princess Tutu tread similar ground over a decade earlier. Was Madoka really that different?

Madoka Magica absolutely is a deconstruction; not because it’s darker or more violent than your standard magical girl affair, but because it deliberately deconstructs the foundational concepts of the genre itself.

See, a lot of people have the wrong idea that a deconstruction is just a darker take on a normally optimistic, kid-friendly genre. And to be fair, those two Venn diagrams overlap enough to make that assumption easy to make. But what it actually means is that you take the aspects of the genre that everyone seems to take for granted, take them apart (hence the term “deconstruct”), reexamine them from a more realistic standpoint, and put them back together, often flipping them in the process. That doesn’t mean you take away the magic or anything, it just means to try to show what kind of effect that sort of thing would happen in the real world, and a dark take is the most popular way of doing it.

And Madoka Magica is all about that. Take Kyubey, for example. Magical Girl shows often have a cute mascot character that’s responsible for giving everyone their powers and responsibilities, and Kyubey is no different. But when you think of it...if the world is really under that kind of a supernatural threat, why would a being with that much power be doling all that out to teenaged girls and in that manner? Well, the obvious answer is that it’s a show intended to be an empowering wish-fulfillment for young girls, so who cares? But having that kind of power and that kind of responsibility would really mess a kid up. So Madoka Magica turns it around and instead presents Kyubey as a sort of con-man, who preys on young girls specifically because they’re the best source of the kind of emotional energy he needs to make quota. And something that I forgot to touch on earlier is how great his design is for that. Overall he has the same cute alien critter look that most of these mascots do, but his unwavering smile and beady eyes are completely devoid of emotion, which makes him inherently creepy. Not...quite enough to give away the game from the get-go, but definitely enough to stir of suspicions and make him all the more terrifying when we learn his true nature.

And from there, everything else falls into place. All those cool powers and outfits? They drain away your soul, bit by bit, leaving you an emotional wreck. All those cool battles against monsters? They freaking hurt! All the other magical girls out there? They’re your competition, not your companions, because there’s only so many grief seeds to go around. And the monsters themselves? Well...

You get the idea.

[theinquisitivej]

Animated Movie Double Review – ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ and ‘Into the Spider-Verse’

Last weekend I saw two animated films. One of them was visually striking, with every frame being memorable and reinforcing the film’s distinct aesthetic. On top of that, it told a well-paced story that is sure to resonate with audiences from a number of different backgrounds for countless reasons. The other was a disappointing hodgepodge of average filmmaking with above-average animation backing it up which only made the misguided character-writing, lack of solid comedy that elicited no more than an occasional “…mmheh.”, and unclear focus feel that much more of a shame. I’m ever the force of positivity who likes to end on a happy note, so let’s get the lesser of the two out of the way first.

‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’

A sequel to the 2012 videogame inspired Disney film, Ralph Breaks the Internet picks up some time later when the inhabitants of the arcade are introduced to the internet. After a fault occurs with Vanellope’s arcade machine, Ralph and Vanellope decide to venture into the internet to find a replacement part before the machine is taken away. Internet references and hilarity ensues.

         The animation is of course as smooth and technically impressive as it always is. There’s a lot of variety to the character designs and styles of movement that are on display throughout the movie. Whether it’s the blocky, 8-bit stilted movement of some of the classic game characters who return from the last film, the glimpses we get of people in the real world moving in an impressively naturalistic fashion, or the crisp yet eclectic movements of the Google stand-in character Knowsmore as he rushes to finish people’s sentences, there’s a lot to sink your teeth into if you enjoy studying animation.

         I also enjoyed Vanellope as a main character you follow throughout this film. In Wreck-It Ralph, Vanellope is someone you slowly warm to as she goes from being this deliberate nuisance to Ralph and his goal of bringing a medal back to his own game to someone who means the world to him by the film’s final shot. In the sequel, Vanellope is unsatisfied with her day-to-day life and wants a little change, which resembles Ralph’s motivation at the start of the first film, and I was engaged with her journey throughout the film as she continues to be a very appealing and entertaining character to spend time with. Also, seeing her play off of Gal Gadot’s character who is this tough and capable but also down-to-earth source of wisdom and perspective is pleasant to experience, especially as this reinforces the general reputation that Gadot has right now as this inspiring female role-model that you just love to be around.

         But other than that, I didn’t care for this movie. Few of the jokes land and the ones that do only elicited brief, unenthusiastic chuckles. Part of this can be attributed to the internet-focused humour going for surface-level observations that either ring hollow or feel dated right out of the gate. To be fair, I don’t think there’s anything fundamentally wrong with centring a movie on websites; I can’t say that videogame iconography inherently has more value than internet iconography, so it’s not as simple as saying “this sequel went wrong the moment it decided to be about the internet”. Maybe it would be too subjective of me to say I felt more of the warmth that comes from the creators’ passion for videogames that was shown in Wreck-It Ralph than I do here with Ralph Breaks the Internet and its connection to the world it tries to replicate. Instead, I’ll say that it rarely feels like the film has more to say about what it’s showing us than “this is a thing that exists”, and when we’re dealing with something as universally known and omnipresent as the internet, you’ve got to have more up your sleeve than that. We all use the internet, we all know how these sites work and what place they have in their lives, so give us more than just the novelty of seeing it depicted within a fictional animated world.

         Apart from the soft-hitting comedy, the most egregious part of watching this film was Ralph’s character. Ralph is an unlikable ass in this film. In the first movie, Ralph is self-absorbed to a point in that he runs away from his game to get a medal so he can feel appreciated at the cost of the rest of the inhabitants of Fix-It Felix Jr. In this sequel, that negative aspect is dialled to 11. He rarely makes any effort to see things from his friend’s point of view and he childishly acts out for attention so that he can feel validated. The arc he went through in the first film where he gains some self-acceptance and realises it’s not always about him never comes across through any of the character’s actions this second time around. As a result, he feels very much like he’s regressed which makes him flat-out unlikable for 90-95% of the movie. Of course, this is all part of the film’s thematic point. You’re meant to know that Ralph is acting wrongly and that some of the things he’s doing are bad, because it becomes a major focus of the film’s finale and works into the emotional ending that the film is building up towards. The problem is that it overeggs the pudding, and, much like that clip we all saw in the trailers where Ralph overstuffs the bunny from the mobile-game with pancakes to the point of making it explode, the film does too much of this and blows up any attachment I had to this character. Ralph’s first story made it easy to understand where Ralph was coming from and why he felt the way he did, even if he acted selfishly at times. There were even moments where he did bad things because he truly thought it was for the best for someone other than himself. You get his decisions and know that he didn’t mean for the negative repercussions to happen, even if you can see where he went wrong along the way and what he must do to make it right. Here, it’s just not put together with as much of a steady hand to keep things level, so I’m not with him for the majority of the runtime.

         In all fairness, I did appreciate the film’s closing moments. The last 10 minutes gives us a strong ending that tugs on the heartstrings and shows us a healthy outlook that both children and adults can learn from as they go through similar hardships in life. It also doesn’t pull its punches and back down from showing us that, yes, things do change. That can be hard, but it’s also okay. I like that the film gives us that emotional close, but I just wish it had earned it throughout the rest of the movie.

Final Ranking: Stone.

The plot structure is messy and flat-out abandons certain threads, the humour is weak, and one of the main characters acts obnoxiously for the majority of the runtime. It’s a disappointing sequel to a lovely film that comes across as being mostly hollow.

I did like seeing the princesses though, that was fun.

 ‘Into the Spider-Verse’

Just as the story of this film gives us multiple versions of Spider-Man who are all animated with a unique style and are wonderful to look at, Into the Spider-Verse is a Venn diagram of multiple film categories that it sits high at the top of.

         It’s one of the best animated films of the year, constantly demonstrating masterful understanding of posing, dynamic movements, and how to draw out these perfect little moments of humanity from every one of the characters inhabiting this movie. If this isn’t the most visually impressive and striking film of the year, then it is unquestionably the second best looking film of 2018. The combinations of colours are diverse and consistently reinforce exactly what that moment in the story requires, whether it’s a palpable sense of energy, an immediate impression of the atmosphere of the location we’re taking in, or the keen emotion being experienced in the moment. The angles we see things from and the clever techniques the film uses to make certain parts of the shot look blurred to emphasise the things that are in focus work together to create this visual style that calls to mind the panels from a comic-book. Into the Spider-Verse even qualifies as a contender for the best Spider-Man film, full-stop. It certainly taps into the ethos of the character, his world, and the numerous alternative versions that have become big heroes in their own right with a confident familiarity, as well as a deep affection and respect for what Spider-Man is and what the idea of the hero means to us. And yes, in case it wasn’t obvious by this point, this also happens to be in the running for the best film of the year as well.

         The film is set in New York on an earth similar to our own, but with slight variations on the things we see in our world like the NYPD being referred to as PDNY. This leads to cute little visual references and puns like a poster for ‘From Dusk Till Shaun’ and an advert for the band ‘Red Man Group’. In this New York, we follow Miles Morales, a teenager from Brooklyn who has just transferred from a school he was comfortable in to a prestigious school where his dad has high hopes for him. Around here the audience starts to get that the thing troubling Miles more than anything else right now is the immense pressure he’s feeling on multiple sides, whether its from the demanding workload heaped onto him by his new school or from his father’s insistence that he can do great things if he only pushes himself hard enough. One of the books he’s set at his new school is even ‘Great Expectations’ to hammer this point home. After a series of fated coincidences, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider, develops powers, and is given a task of utmost importance by his universe’s Peter Parker before he is left alone to figure out how he can possibly face the biggest responsibility heaped onto his young shoulders yet.

         But he’s not alone for long, as recent events have led Spider-People from multiple universes to all converge on Miles’ Earth, including an even more down-on-his-luck version of Peter Parker who’s older, more jaded, and far less suited to mentoring Miles than the one he is familiar with. Over time, more Spider-People join the team, with the most notable being Spider-Gwen, a version of Gwen Stacy from a world where she got bitten instead of her best friend Peter, who she would later lose due to a tragic set of superhero circumstances. With their help as well as a few other very fun versions of Spider-Man, Miles must face an assortment of sinister forces and do his best to live up to all the people who are counting on him.

         As joyful, funny, and entertaining as the film is, and how can it not be with a premise like that that’s backed up with some masterclass animation, Into the Spider-Verse makes the stakes and the tension feel weighty by emphasising the real sense of danger to the heroes’ encounters with the villains. I won’t spoil who the main antagonist is in case you’re familiar with your Spider-Man characters and genuinely curious to see who it is. Suffice to say, they scared the hell out of me. My first impression of their design was that it looked a little goofy, but soon enough, through a combination of deeply ominous music and cinematography, the huge, black frame of the character came across like a spectre of death. Whenever they showed up, I was scared for the characters’ lives. In addition to the main antagonist, there is another villain who I had not heard of called Prowler, and the film does a great job of making this character seem like a stalking beast that Miles is woefully unprepared to face. But as effective as these villains are at making you tense up in your seat, and again, I still won’t give anything away, the film manages to give them enough to humanise them in one or two key moments that make this story feel like it’s not about virtuous heroes and black-hearted monsters, but about people. Some people give in and do terrible things for what they feel are justifiable reasons, and some people face the pressures of life and keep trying to do the right thing, even and especially when it’s hard.

        But as hard-hitting as the heavy moments can get, the writing also ensures that the humour is there when it needs to be to balance things out. There are moments when the film goes to some heart-breaking territory, depending on what your level of attachment is to certain characters. It lets the scene play out, it uses the performances of the voice actors and the animators to their full effect to create the biggest impact it can, and, only after it has fully delivered on the emotional beat, it will deliver a perfectly timed joke that helps diffuse some of the tension without compromising the poignancy of what’s just happened. In fact, while these jokes may seem like a fun whiplash from sincere drama to goofy yet very naturalistic comedy, they often double as a way to reinforce the themes of the movie. There’s a point where a random civilian of New York intrudes on a very personal and significant moment for Miles to say something that comedically deflates the seriousness of the scene, and yet what the civilian says is actually a direct statement of the film’s central message. It’s an example of how much the film believes in what it’s saying that it can joke about its own themes and still have the ability tell an affecting story that comes across as charmingly sincere.

         And the message that it believes so genuinely in, what every frame of this gorgeously vibrant movie works together to say, is that anyone can wear the mask and be Spider-Man. It means so much for a film to show that the relatable kid who grows into a superhero that we can aspire to be like isn’t always Peter Parker. Miles is a biracial teenager with an African-American father and a Puerto Rican mother, and just as Aunt May and Uncle Ben form the moral backbone of Peter’s life, we see how Miles has taken aboard different characteristics from each of his family members. He has the compassion of his mother, the strength and resolve of his father, and the style and charm of his uncle. It’s touching to see this family and realise just how important they are to Miles and how much they’ve positively shaped his identity, even as they make mistakes in their efforts to give him the best life they can. When Miles reaches the culmination of his journey and he sets out to be what his family believes he can be, it’s a soaring, inspiring moment. It’s the kind of story that superheroes lend themselves so well to, because the point isn’t to marvel at how super a select few can be; it’s to see them and know that we all have the power to be super, to do good, and to go out there and prove to ourselves that the faith of the people who love us isn’t misplaced. The different artstyles used to animate each of the Spider-People literally illustrate the point that, whoever you are and whatever you look like, you can be Spider-Man. And yeah, any film that sells you on that message is going to be close to the heart for a lot of different people.

         Into the Spider-Verse is more than a neat twist on the well-catered superhero movie genre. It’s beautifully striking, features impressive writing that deftly balances sincerity and a sense of playful humour, and weaves all its elements together to create one of the most unique examples of animations, superhero films, and hell, films in general that I’ve seen in a long while.

Final Ranking: Gold.

See it on the big screen, then see it again on Blu-ray.

[natsubeatsrock]

The Rewrite of Fairy Tail: Part 6 (Magic)

What's up with the magic system in Fairy Tail? 

This isn't going to be too heavy on serious criticism of Mashima. Like, there are some things I think need to be fixed about this, but it's not too many serious things. Most of this will deal with clarifying/justifying things that are already canon and changing some minor details. I've had to do a lot of reading up on magic in order to do this. 

As it stands, I don't think that much is wrong with magic in Fairy Tail. Yes, there are absolutely things that different, specific branches of magic in Fairy Tail that are not the best developed (i.e. lost magic). However, as a magic system, Fairy Tail's magic is one of my favorite things about the series. In fact, I prefer it much more those like the Nen system in Hunter x Hunter or even alchemy in FMA. About the only "magic" system that I like more is that of Blue Exorcist, where spiritual items are used to kill demons. 

Let's start with brass tacks. How does magic work in Fairy Tail? 

In chapter two, Makarov gives a speech to the guild about magic. It's fairly flowery language, but it provides a good basis for understanding magic.

"Ours is a power that goes beyond the bounds of reason. But it is born of reason itself. Magic isn't some miracle. What we do is match the energy that flows between us with the wavelength of the world's natural energy. And take what is embodied in that union using our force of will and concentration. More than that, we pour our entire soul into it to make what we call magic." 

What does that actually mean? 

In the world of Fairy Tail, the manifestation of energy flowing between the world and mages is known as ethernano. What mages do is store/charge this energy inside their body as Magic Power. Whenever mages use magic, they're drawing from the Magic Power in their body and changing its form with their soul. 

The easiest way I can explain the types of magic is that there are three basic categories to magic: division, branch, expression. 

As many of you know, there are two main divisions of magic: Caster and Holder magic. Caster mages manifest Magic Power directly through their bodies. Holder mages manifest Magic Power through various magic items. 

There's also a third magic that exists as an overlap between the two called Spatial Magic, where mages use Magic Power to manipulate the magic energy. I describe it as a third type because it's easy to see how it can be used either as Caster Magic (Mest's Teleportation) or Holder Magic (Celestial Spirit Magic). Though to be honest, it's more like an overlap of circles on the Venn Diagram of the Magic than an outright third circle. 

Within these divisions of Magic, there are different specific branches of magic. This is where we get branches like Maker Magic, Solid Script, Requip, and the like. I'd even say that something like the different types of Maker Magic would be better explained as different branches of Maker Magic than to be different expressions of the same magic. The reasoning behind this should be obvious.  The basic skills are similar, but it should stand to reason that Gray's Maker Magic is emphatically different than Rufus' Maker Magic or Laki's Maker Magic. Levy and Yomazu (the one guy from Grimoire Heart) both use Solid Script Magic, but, by virtue of gaining their origin in different sides of the map, it makes sense to call them distinct branches of magic. 

However, within the distinct branches of magic, there are distinct personal expressions of magic. This is how mages are able to have their own personal magic style despite knowing the same type of magic. The most obvious example is the difference between Ice Make mages. Gray and Lyon are both Ice Make mages, but Gray's style is static whereas Lyon's is dynamic. Gray recognizes Ultear's use of Ice Make magic as similar to her mother's and mentions how he'd never thought he'd see it. It shouldn't be that much of a stretch to say that means it's different from his own. 

The instruction of magic usually consists of getting people who are able to use magic to the point of being able to use the branch of magic. How they personally express the magic within the limits of the branch is up to them. Most regular magic people know throughout the series could be taught with the help of some master, a magic instructional book, or some combination of both. 

Of course, there are exceptions to this. Erza is able to use magic without much training during the slave revolt in the Tower of Heaven. Juvia was unable to control the rain around her until around the Phantom Lord arc (and that one time in Ice Trail). Erza's may find root in later explanations involving her and Irene. 

But considering that, as I'll get to soon, one's capacity for magic is somewhat biological, it shouldn't be that much of a stretch to say that these kinds of things kind of happen. Stuff gets messed up in genetic material and people aren't able to use magic the way they'd normally be able to. Sometimes it's good and other times it isn't. Again, this isn't absolutely canon, but like I need to explain this somehow in the rewrite. 

A bit of a word on Earthland magic items. It goes without saying that magic items have magic within them. This means that anyone can use them. However, the power of the item also depends on the power of the person behind it. So if someone who isn't a mage has a magic item, it will be less powerful than if a mage. I'm not entirely sure that this is canon, but I want to make sure that this is understood for the rewrite. Of course, Edolas magic items will be usable by anyone as their magic system relies heavily on magic items. 

There will be one major exception to this rule, which is Celestial Spirit Keys. I feel as though it's different opening up space from one part of the world and opening space in order to summon spirits from the Celestial Spirit World. Anyone who wants to be able to use Celestial Spirits ought to be able to open up said dimension and that should take some extra level of practice as opposed to other Holder magic. 

Unison Raids work when people with similar magic combine their abilities to create one bigger, more powerful spell. In canon, it is implied that this is normally so difficult that people have wasted their lives trying to pull it off. I don’t want to make it easier for these things to happen as, to be perfectly honest, they barely happen as is. However, it doesn’t feel right to just let this explanation sit on its own. 

I feel as though this should be explained as something that was a really early attempt at gaining stronger magic that was theorized during Zeref’s time but wouldn’t be made possible until much later. This kind of thing will make more sense when I explain the history of magic in Fiore.

An important part of Unison Raids will also have to do with emotions. It’s not too big a deal to say that the magic system in Fairy Tail is somewhat linked to emotions. Emotions help with one's ability to channel or enhance their magic abilities. The stronger the emotions you feel, the more powerful magic boost you get. While this has to do with Second Origin or the extra storehouse of magic within a person’s body, I feel as though it would be good to cap Unison Raids off to people whose intents are linked as if they are one.

As cheesy as it sounds, it does the job. And, considering the other requirement for Unison Raids is having similar magic, it should stand to reason that there are not going to be very many groups of people who can or will use Unison Raids.

My favorite thing about the magic system is the freedom it allows for. You aren't bound to a single type of magic. There are no elemental factors that limit you to a single type of magic. You're not even limited to just one of the two main sections of magic.  

Wizards are able to use however many different types of magic. Some people who are masters of one style of magic can utilize completely different types of magic. This is to the point where you have Jellal who has to be able to use Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water magic well enough to use Abyss Break near instantly. If you don't remember, that's the spell that the four members of the Element 4 needed time to charge for their individual elements. That's on top of being able to use his actual main magic - Heavenly Body Magic. 

This brings up an issue with this system of magic. Why don't people use more than one magic more often? It's certainly possible within the series. I mean, Jellal is admittedly an extreme example, but Ultear knew Ice Make magic in addition to Arc of Time. Thanks to Duke Everlue, a mage capable of using Caster and Holder magic is canonically possible. So why don't people do it more often? While there's not much of an in-series explanation for this, I can think of a pretty obvious practical reason. 

While a lot of the same basic principles may apply to the use of different types of magic, you probably wouldn't be using different magic in the same ways. This is especially true if you're going to be going from Caster to Holder magic. The vast majority of wizards likely aren't going to pour the kind of effort it would take to learn another magic skill if they can pour that same effort into learning how to better use the skills they have. The ones that do will probably be few and far between unless the magic they use is very similar in nature. 

One interesting thing about magic in Fairy Tail is who exactly can use magic. The canonic statistic goes that only 10 percent of people are able to use magic in the world of Fairy Tail. I'm not joking about this. I thought this was something that was made up until I say that Elfman actually said it during the Tenrou arc. 

I've gone back and forth over how to deal with this stat. I honestly don't have that much of a problem with the idea of only 10 percent of the world population of Fairy Tail being able to use magic. I know that this is and can be seen as a bad thing, especially considering how many people who use magic we see. That being said, this is a series that focuses on the exploits of wizards. It makes sense that we're going to see plenty of them. 

However, I was considering changing this stat from being the amount who can use magic to the people who do use magic. The difference changes the semantics of things. Case in point, the plan in the Tenrou arc. Grimoire Heart's ultimate plan involves wiping out people who can't use magic. This is where we get the line that only 10 percent of people can use magic. If using magic is a matter of personal ability, then Grimoire Heart is punishing people for something they can't control. If it's a matter of choice, then it's punishment for something they'd have more control over. 

Ultimately, I decided to keep the original implication of ten percent of the population having the ability to use magic. However, there is an important addition to this. This only applies to the continent of Ishgar. My reasoning will become more clear as I talk about the history of magic.  

One final issue is that of the balance of Ethernano within a person's body. In the Tenrou Island arc, we learn Ultear was sick because she had too much magical power. And in the Grand Magic Games, Wendy and Carla suffer from having too much magic taken out of their bodies. There are two things to mention from this issue.  

The first is explaining how Ultear got how she was. I think it's a good idea to think of this explanation as unscientific and nonliteral. That there is a problem of concentration of ethernano within Ultear can be explained as a birth sickness.  

The second is that an important matter of training for some characters will be a matter of pushing the threshold of magic they can have in their bodies.  For example, Erza will have to build up the amount of magic she will be able to use so she can use the Nakagami armor and Lucy will need to train to be able to use two spirits, maybe even eventually three, at once. 

If you remember, this was done in the original by Ultear unlocking Second Origin for the members of the Strongest Team, Levy and Juvia. (Jet and Droy bailed before getting the boost.) While Second Origin is absolutely something that I feel should be a part of Fairy Tail as it helps with explaining how characters can draw extra energy when they need it, I think it's better that they don't unlock it for the Grand Magic Games. As you could probably tell from my previous posts on the subject, I think it's better to show a natural progression between the states they start the time skip in and the abilities they gain and use in the Grand Magic Games.

Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

[prettylittleliarsxxxx]

Eating disorder stories are often told from the outside looking in. You know the tale: girl has body image issues, girl starts restricting food, there is perhaps some intervention and finally, girl starts her journey towards recovery.

When “Pretty Little Liars” star Troian Bellisario started working on a film inspired by her personal experience with eating disorders, she wanted to tell a different story — one from the inside looking out. Her movie, “Feed,” which she both wrote and stars in, is not your stereotypical eating disorder tale but rather a unique attempt to capture what’s actually going on inside the head of someone with an eating disorder.

“When I started to look at characters with eating disorders and the way they were observed from the outside, I was sort of like, ‘Well, this doesn’t help.’ There’s no movie I can point to that will get my father or my brother to understand why when they told me to just eat the sandwich, I just couldn’t,” she told The Mighty.

Less than one month after her movie’s release (and more than a month after the “Pretty Little Liars” finale) we talked to Bellisario about what inspired her to make a “Feed” and how similar she is to the character she plays, Olivia.

The “Twin Dynamic” of Eating Disorders

“Feed” doesn’t begin with the development of an eating disorder. Instead, we’re introduced to a pair of twins, Olivia Grey (Bellisario) and Matthew Grey (played by Tom Felton) who are starting their first day of high school, senior year. That night, Matthew tragically passes away in an car accident while Olivia, sitting in the passenger’s seat, survives. This trauma is what catalyzes Olivia’s fall into food restriction. The image of her brother appears and talks to her, encouraging her behavior and becoming, we find out, the eating disorder itself.

Growing up, Bellisario’s best friends were a pair of male and female twins. Although she says they’re not the characters who inspired Olivia and Matthew, they’re closeness and twin dynamic resonated with her. When one of them said, “I don’t know who I would be without my twin in my life,” it reminded her of the identity she had built with her eating disorder. She told The Mighty:

Their identity in the world is paired, it’s coupled, and I think that’s something people with mental issues also go through when they start to seek treatment. If you move through the world as somebody who identifies as anorexic, or who identifies as someone struggling with bulimia or with overeating, what happens when you start to forge a new identity? Is there a betrayal to your past self? Are you lying? Or are you getting “better”? Does that ever go away? That’s part of your identity. The way that Olivia is a twin and her twin is not alive anymore, is she not a twin now? For me, that was also something I wanted to explore.

She also hoped representing the eating disorder as a twin would show why disordered behaviors are often so hard to give up. Eating disorders, she said, are not just disorders — they can act as friends. In the movie, Olivia has a hard time giving up her eating disorder because that would mean giving up her brother — who she doesn’t know life without.

What I wanted to do was create a situation in which they could see the physical manifestation of the disease but also how close it is to the person themselves. That’s why it has to be Olivia’s twin brother, Matt, who is her everything in the world. Because I needed them to understand that not only is it a disease. It’s your best friend. It’s your secret. It’s your strength, and it’s your weakness. It’s everything rolled into one, and that’s why it’s so difficult to sever from.

Where Bellisario’s and Olivia’s Stories Collide

In an early scene, Olivia is talking to the principal, who tells her she has the highest consistent GPA in her class and will most likely be the valedictorian. Instead of sounding excited, Olivia notes there’s still a whole school year left and refuses to celebrate early. He then hands her a long list of colleges to apply for, and she takes it eagerly. Later, when she goes for a run before dinner, her dad questions why she didn’t run more. Before we know anything about an eating disorder, we see Olivia is a perfectionist, an overachiever and has been been put under a certain level of pressure from her upper-class family.

The daughter of two movie producers, Bellisario isn’t stranger to high standards and steep expectations, although she admitted some of it was self-imposed. Still, if there was a Venn diagram of her story and Olivia’s, Bellisario said, perfectionism and overachievement would be the main overlap:

Particularly when my eating disorder really started to manifest in a strong way, it was definitely because I didn’t feel like there was any way out. I felt like I have to hold myself to a certain standard of academic performance, of athletic performance, of being the perfect daughter in the best way that I could, and whether or not those standards were being imposed upon me, or whether I was just self-imposing them because I believed that’s what the world wanted from me.

Why Filming the Movie Wasn’t the Hardest Part

To prepare for the role, Bellisario had to enter a dark place from her past — both emotionally and physically. And while she did have to follow certain diet restrictions to lose weight, she said restricting again wasn’t the hard part — it was stopping once the film was finished. Because, in her experience, an eating disorder is a coping mechanism to help deal with a deeper problem, she actually found engaging in old habits helped her deal with the stress. But it came with a cost:

I had permission to go back into that world, and the more difficult part was then extricating myself from those habits…. I was doing press and I was talking about it. Then the struggle became, OK, I’m talking about all of these feelings, but I can’t go back to restricting. I’m not filming it right now, I have to continue to make the choice of health. That, for me, that was the challenging part. Actually engaging with these feelings that the movie brought up but not being able to engage with them in a disordered way.

What Bellisario Hopes You’ll Take Away From It

While Bellisario said “Feed” was a reaction to how eating disorders are presented in the media, it was also a reaction to how people in her life treated her eating disorder. “As caring as they were and as much as they wanted to understand what I was going through… it was like they could have sympathy and not empathy,” she said. “They could have sympathy because they were like, ‘I can see that you’re suffering, I can see that it’s painful, I see that you are engaged in a sort of war with your body,’ but there’s not empathy because they can’t fit themselves into your experience, and into your body.”

She hopes the movie will help friends and family recognize when their loved one is struggling. Often, she said, at the beginning states of an eating disorder, some friends and family realize something is wrong but aren’t quite sure what they’re looking at. She also wants those who are struggling to feel understood and see that, just like Olivia, they deserve treatment and to make steps towards recovery. She told The Mighty:

I just want people to see this movie and also have a different expectation of what it might look like to struggle with this, and I think it’s important that I’m not the only voice out there who’s talking about this. I just want to add more to the conversation, and to support the conversation.

Bellisario received support from the National Association of Eating Disorder (NEDA) during the course of making the film, and to give back, she’s selling “Feed” t-shirts featuring the twins with all proceeds going to NEDA. She said the best reaction she’s gotten to the film has been from people with eating disorders — for whom, she said, the film was really made.

“I think this film it was important for me because it’s my journey of recovery to take my past experience and to take all of these experiences that I’ve heard about, or listened to, and channel it into my work and my art, in order to feel like I didn’t lose a part of my life. Or a part of me isn’t dead and gone, that it can be something that goes turned into creative and hopefully positive gift that I can give to other people,” she said, laughing. “So, it’s a lot to think about.”

You can watch “Feed” now on Amazon or iTunes.

If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, you can call the National Eating Disorders Association Helpline at 1-800-931-2237.

[anicolesreadingnook]

Author: R.J. Palacio

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf 2012

Grade Level: 4th to 6th grade

Summary:

August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a craniofacial disorder that made it hard for him to go to a mainstream school. By the time he was entering fifth grade, it was decided that he would go to Beecher Prep for the first time. Auggie just wanted his new classmates to accept him and see him as an average kid, but this doesn’t happen. He soon finds out that some kids can be mean and struggles with this. This novel goes on a journey with Auggie struggling and facing obstacles within this new school and shows how he overcomes all of these obstacles.

Thoughts:

This novel is inspiring, comical, and heartwarming. The way R.J. Palacio wrote the story of Auggie was magical. He wrote the novel with different viewpoints based on the section and the people that had an impact on Auggie’s life. Palacio made it possible to step into Auggie’s life and feel what he was going through during that time. While reading the struggles that Auggie faced was in different viewpoints that created this realistic feeling throughout the book. By the end of the book, you feel as though you went through this journey with him and was able to connect emotionally with each character.

Class Activities:

Palacio wanted the main message of this book to come across that everyone might be different, but it is important to be nice. As for an activity to incorporate with this novel is creating a poster for the classroom. The poster would have “what makes a nice person” and this will have students write about what they think makes a good person. This will help students understand that it is important to treat others with respect and be nice. When creating the poster, it gives students a visual reminder on how to be nice to our classmates. Another activity to do with the class is to watch the movie. After watching the movie, each student can create a Venn diagram about the similarities and differences between the book and the novel. By watching the movie after reading the book will give the students more of an understanding Auggie’s struggles and how he overcame them. With the Venn diagram, it will create a discussion about the characters and plot of the entire novel and movie. The thought is to have students have a similar thought about the characters that the movie portrays and see how movies can be slightly different then the text itself.

Other Resources:

Movie Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7fPOzbmzE

Other Novel - Auggie & Me: three wonderful stories 

[dycousins]

Series and Systems

At this stage, we had a lot of ideas, but weren’t sure which ones to proceed with, so we started by looking through all of them and trying out a couple that we thought could work.

This was one that just really didn’t work out when I tried to adapt it into Illustrator, the idea was based loosely on a Venn diagram, I liked how it looked visually but logistically it was impossible to use.

This was the point I got to before leaving the idea, I messed around with opacity and shape to try and make it work, but to no avail.

I also tried the triangles within a circle idea, where each shard is a different value, but again this idea was flawed from being impractical in showing data.

This sketch centred around a simple chart for the main difference between the gender’s different actions for crossing. The genders are divided by the central line.

The extra bubbles around the edges show the extra bits of data. While discussing possible ideas, I pitched this, but in the middle of pitching lost faith in it so we decided to look at others.

Summary I made of a couple of the sets of ideas we had that weren’t all identical, but instead kept to a theme, the spiral, block circle and 

This was a quick thumbnail drawing of another idea I had based off the Travel Music poster I found and talked about in the last research post. In the mind of the summary sketches above, I was scribbling my ideas of another way we could divide the posters.

These were Jenni’s various scribbles while we were all discussing various ideas, keys. The skulls were an idea for how we could indicate the stupid people category.

This was one of the circle concepts, the data being shown as individual circles in a spiral. I thought this was really cool (despite messing with my eyes when I looked at it for too long).

This version of the poster stripped down the extra details for a simple division between the green and red crossings. Each poster would be a road crossed, however the totals between two of the roads would look too similar for the data to be well differentiated between.

After some quick and painful maths, I was able to divide up the pie-chart style idea.

Next I did the outer ring, the centre circle is those who walked on green, the red is those who moved on red. I liked the opportunity for more design features, like through lines (across the entire page) dividing gender, but the numbers didn’t work out exactly as we needed, so it didn’t work out. Also there was some confusion whether the red ring was actually behind the green, implying the number of reds was far greater than green, when in actual fact I intended for the red space to be approximate to that of the green, so it starts and ends where it is shown.

This was one of the earlier visualisation concepts from the group, using squares to make up a circle. The original design had the compiled data from all three roads in one circle, and the plan was to divide up the gender and age across two posters, but the third we weren’t sure about.

This lead us to change each poster to represent an individual road. The grey section was added to represent the complied data from the two other roads, so that some comparison between the three data sets could still be made.

We originally planned to keep the lines dividing each individual square, as well as a set of symbols to differentiate gender and additional information like on bikes or with dogs. This changed when we saw the design without these lines and symbols, we felt it just looked far better, the information was still understandable, but without the dullness of the grid interrupting the colours.

In the process of re-counting my data for my partners’ posters’ grey sections, and then re-counting again for my own poster, I made an error by counting the people on bikes twice, once for the light that they crossed on, and once for the fact they were on a bike. I had given the correct value for my partners’ posters, but needed to remove four coloured squares from my own. This was an easy fix, but a bit annoying. It also shifted the shape of the circle slightly.

When it came to the final additions of the posters, we needed to pick a font. We all suggested a couple we thought could work:

Impact

Arial Black

Avenir

Futura

Verdana, and finally:

Helvetica Neue

The final touches was just sorting out the key. We didn’t have any children who crossed during a red light, so we removed it.

However this altered the balance of the key, and it felt better to place the shorter category on the right.

But then it also felt wrong to have one less category, so we added it back, despite having no data in that section.

The extra detail of where the study was carried out on the right was slightly decreased in size as the key was more important.

The final poster for my road.