#visual indicator of a soft reboot

[theofficialvincenzo]

Hey so like does this imply that there's actually two Sutekhs?

[skyeisobsessedwitheah]

I've been rewatching Ever After High while working on some sprites for the EAH visual novel I wanna make, and I'm curious what the fandom consensus is on Epic Winter. Because personally, it feels like a realllll dip in quality.

I'm pretty sure it was a soft reboot, with the new theme song and the whole "Power Princess" thing, and I'm relatively sure they got mostly writers for this special as well. Whatever it was, it feels like it's geared towards a younger audience, and a lot of the new characters (and old characters who go on the main adventure) feel much more childish. It especially comes off as bad with it being after dragon games, which while still being very kid oriented, had slightly darker and more complex themes and plot beats, as well as just being really good overall imo.

I also feel like Crystal, Jackie, and Northwind are really unlikeable characters? I'm sure someone out there loves them, and no hate to that person, but engaging with the fandom side of things, I rarely see fanart or fanfic about them, and I feel like that is somewhat indicative of their overall popularity among fans...

I am very curious what other peoples opinions are on Epic Winter tho, so feel free to interact and lmk what you think of the special!

[bathshebaeliam-borninelysium]

"Danganronpa 5: my Worst Dream and Best Nightmare, or the Lament of the Grounded Ultimate Spaceman" by Bathsheba Eliam

(This is the genesis of a self-contained alternate universe worldbuilding assignment and eventually a Multi-Media Masterdocument of sort, dictating a vision of the corporate popularization and immediate selling-out of and moral panic around a hard soft reboot of Danganronpa supposedly made "by the fans" "for the fans."

The situation begins as a byproduct of Danganronpa V3 being received differently, as well as an uptick in the acclaim for the series after 2017 as a sort of cult classic, one that takes over places where no one in this reality cares. This is resulting in perception of it being Game (Series) of the Year for more than one year, coinciding with the 10-Year-Anniversary and the resulting forced cancelation of Kodaka's comparative original vision of I) the pacifist Alterate Universe installment that we recieved a short version of this dimension and II) an immediately following darker, more impressionistic Danganronpa 4 with the working title of "Danganronpa c4 — Great Depression" that would have taken place in the Kuril Islands and followed Jin Kirigiri, who was secretly spared by Monokuma, trying to prove that the killing games have continued in a secret location, years after the aforementioned "broadcast" ended and the world had "rebuilt".

Whatever else happens as a result of the reinterpretation of Danganronpa as a "legacy franchise," the constant marketing of a "Spyfi Era", and constant negotiations around an early-to-mid-2020s-spanning "Inter-active, Inter-national Event" to lead into the fanfare of an announced Danganronpa Monoverse and Multiverse, respectively, is indicated through hints and character introductions in this "pilot."

I will gladly offer my other more visual and varied sources from this controversial dimension, that can include any kind of media from this world but limited to the Monoversal Online Commune (that dimension's resulting militarized fandom specifically for Danganronpa 4, stylized as 5) and its many outlets. Although if anyone cared as much as I did, I would be willing to copy kinds of media that tangential as well (quizzes from fansites, official passages of dialogue from the game(s), biographical featurettes about its creators, merchandise, transcripts of Let's Plays and certainly more, as I do not think of anything as too detailed) in the vein of an obsession of mine that lasted about as long I have been working on these...things.

Enjoy if possible.)

(Taken from Blogger's The Girl's Time-Travelling Closet, published at 9:04 AM, October 4th, 2023, by St. Elizabeth Barnabas)

Danganronpa 5 is real and I thought I would be celebrating, privately at least.

Yet, the enabling vagueness of the unanimous hatred that the fans are feeling in private is enough to compell me to be the Spartacus and be the first to put it into, let's say, unsympathetic words. The appeal of the "killing game international" theory from YouTube based on the "5" anagram in the untouched treasure troves of codes in THH was fascinating and I would have given even more money for it to be true as of 2021 when it was really soaring as people were putting it together again after the first video. It was surprisingly compelling. ALSO. The implications of the Kuma Klan reveal in the early marketing that confirmed the theory was, tantalizing to say the least. The second that the new animation style was revealed and no one cared because they were so dazzled by Kokichi as Headmaster, I had a feeling that the darling campaign of teasers was a "too good to be true" scenario, not that I thought it was too good. Then the premier happened and I fell in love with how the prologue confirmed the entire theory in one uninterrupted gesture, and I soon enough could not be more disappointed.

Why did they let the game come off like a mobile game spinoff with the kindergarten palette of a Cut the Rope or Crossy Road??

Why did the whole first trial get wasted by a bunch of century-old Italian/"dark-skinned European" (I kid you not) stereotypes when the game was supposed to idolize and stylize in a distinctly love-lettery way the countries featured, when we already have to deal with the resulting anticlimactically cartoony Scottish Monokuma makeover stupidity????

Why was my darling Ultimate Astronomer Yura with her whimsy and distinctly Great Glass Elevator/Phantom Tollbooth aesthetic relegated to the straightman and then killed in such a basic manner just because of their sudden ultimately fetishistic obsession with Europe and Southern Asia and wanting to give Japan the "backseat"????

Why did they have god forsaken Jon Wagner the real worst character of the franchise, a literal implied groomer and canonical blonde haired "patriotic" GERMAN (albeit green-eyed), kill three students as if to immediately force him into the Nagito slot and give him a villainous allure posthumously that cannot go away for the rest of the game (before the twist when we get to thankfully have a flashback to easier days)?????

I digress. I do not care about the characters' fashions and debatably humor being "too millennial" like some of the vocal, supposedly liberal young fans that this installment has somehow basically created are making identical video essays about. I do not even resent them, despite how hyperbolic they are with their approach to getting this game cancelled at least ELEVEN MONTHS too late. I just find it ultimately a waste of the fandom's newfound agency that the high-budgeted delights of this whole soft reboot and the beginning of Generation, Too which definitely is getting delayed for a reason, has made other fans into frightened peacekeepers just because of how grateful the new writers say that they should be for how big of a deal it all is, despite only giving them so much in the way of faux-3D visuals and games-within-games that the random, unpunished in-character abuse of past characters, new more vulnerable characters and, in the guise of the "bone-dry humor" of characters like the Quadruplets and even Noa and Catalina, REAL PEOPLE AND CULTURES looks like something that is not a big enough deal that 6 and 4 could be not worth having.

Despite  this ... of course I am looking forward to Danganronpa Feud: All-Despair Dynasty. If anything it's just because of the Arcana Studio/Witchblade-like concept art from the trailer which was practically an AMV (especially that of the  Samurai who I am so psychically confident is the Yokai Form for Nagito not Naegi, despite what the "dead once, born twice" speech by Watatsusami implies) and worldbuilding for the Monobeasts/overall arguably revolutionary concept, even among these Danganronpa Whatif minigames that have been released for the overlong anniversary. In spite of my willingness to discuss this at most conveniences, the summer that I lost to Danganronpa 5: Life Exchange is almost traumatic, to the point where I would literally deny the existence of a trailer if they in spite of the latest "hiatus" WERE to reveal A) the oft-forgotten webseries that IS happening at least according to the self-indulgent Ronpa Writers Room Tumblr, or B) the last of the mascot-revealing short films/teasers for 6, both of which would be befitting of Halloween. I am also irrationally interested in the suspected webseries for the fact that my history with Dimension 20 and selectively Critical Roll gives me a decent insight into what this Erika Ishii-voiced-Monokuma is going to be like, despite the voice filter that she said she did need, however sure I am that that was just a joke about the Batman "and you'll never have to" gag running throughout the similarly recent Adventuring Party finale for Starstruck Episode II—Iliad not that anyone here is going to encourage me having thoughts about my other less passionate interests than this one, AS WELL as this one.

Nonetheless, I should hope that the franchise can get over Suki da Minamoto's infamous scripting method, stop relying on her RWR and their constant "retreats", and have the intended successor for Kodaka return from her still-shelved film project at Picona Studio before this period of reflection is over, and the two most crucial games of the new series are terrorized the same person that came up with the "Danganronpa Decade" era in the first place. I have to stop myself.

Since I am editing this to add any remaining positivity that I have after the epilogue was released, I should say the one part of the game that I have always understood people's willingness to use in fangans and such afterwards, unsurprisingly from Trial 5, in the Colloseum Room.

In the words of everyone's favorite self-proclaimed Ultimate Killing School Dropout, Chester "goddamn the Chevalier" Valentine,

"she made me realize that it's not Hell or Heaven ... It's Hell then Heaven! After everything, after Monokuma, after Tyranno Rex, and after the universe ... good's the last thing there is!"

[waveypedia]

got fears but i face them

~

Lena and Webby finally reconcile.

Ao3

~

Webby and Lena don’t talk until three full days after the FOWL raid.

Oh, they talk, all right. Dewey never misses an opportunity to drag the kids together and gush about the adventure. While they had floated and filtered throughout the family on the long ride home, the ten kids had made an unspoken home base in the bottom corner of the plane, near the emergency hatch that Launchpad had accidentally opened. They chatted brightly, sharing jokes and trading jabs, high on the adrenaline of a long day and a treacherous fight won. But Webby and Lena never interacted directly in their conversations beyond pleasantries. 

They didn’t talk in the way that mattered.

After the comfortingly familiar sight of Duckburg had crested over the horizon and the plane had landed, Webby and Lena left each other without so much as a goodbye. Ty and Indy were hovering impatiently at the Sunchaser’s doors, flooding inside as soon as they possibly could and scooping Violet and Lena in their arms. Webby stood off to the side, her grandmother’s steady hands on her shoulders. She watches two doting fathers hold their daughters close and thinks about family. She thinks about her Granny, and Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and Uncle Scrooge-Dad, and Uncle Donald and Aunt Della. She thinks about May and June, safe and happy with Uncle Donald and Aunt Daisy.

She thinks about June in her room and a flippantly cut string and Lena’s wrath. June watches Lena too, with Aunt Daisy’s hand on her head, and guilt flashes in her naive eyes. 

It’s almost the push she needs. Energy floods Webby’s tired body, and she tenses to surge forward and crash at Lena’s feet, blubbering with apologies and tears. 

Granny’s hand tightens on her shoulder, a silent warning.

Webby glances up. Granny’s eyes meet hers, as wise and clever as ever. She shakes her head, a tiny signal. As always, Granny can read Webby perfectly. Webby may not be able to read Granny so accurately, but this time the message is clear. Now is not the time.

Webby understands. With her family’s help, she’s getting better at social cues. This is the Sabrewing family’s moment, not hers.

Webby looks away.

Webby looks away, and promises to claim her moment soon.

--

After that, the next few days are both a flurry of activity and uncharacteristically empty for an adventuring family such as the McDucks. As per usual after an adventure, they trudge into the mansion, adrenaline sludging off in droves, and crash in bed for the next twelve hours. Webby wakes to the smell of blueberry pancakes, her favorite in childhood, and stumbles downstairs to where Granny is occupying the empty kitchen, a small, knowing smile on her face. She eats, watches the unfortunately missed Ottoman Empire series finale with her brothers (“I can’t believe we missed the series finale!” “We had to go rescue Webby and Huey, Louie.” “Yeah, but it’s the series finale! Now the show is over and there’ll be no more Ottoman Empire, ever!” “Eh, I’m sure they’ll reboot it in another thirty years.” “Yeah, but I’ll be old by then!”), eats less-than-healthy food that the adults let slide, and sleeps again.

On the second day, Webby and her brothers set up a room for May and June at the mansion while Aunt Della, Uncle Donald, and Aunt Daisy make last-minute arrangements to bring two extra kids on their vacation. May and June apologize, awkwardly and haltingly, at every possible occasion, and it’s all Webby and her brothers can do to lessen their guilt. But there’s one apology that sticks with Webby more than the rest.

June pulls her aside late into the afternoon, while Huey is teaching May the Junior Woodchuck certified method for hanging up curtains. 

“I’m sorry for cutting your string,” June says, nervously playing with her pigtails. “I know it��s really important to you.”

“It’s fine!” Webby’s voice is much brighter than she feels. The memory leaves an acidic sensation in her stomach and a bad taste in her mouth. Tears prick at her eyes at the secondhand sensation of Lena’s destructive fury and June’s panicked cries. But most of all, the helplessness and unsureness Webby felt in the moment. She had to watch her best friend tear into her adopted sister without a second thought, and part of it was justified but not all, and she didn’t know what to do. Her undying loyalty was shot in the face of uncertainty of who to pledge it to.

June frowns at her. She may be a FOWL clone, a test tube baby, barely a few months old, but she’s sharper than she looks. Louie’s lessons must be paying off. “It- it doesn’t have to be. I know I messed up. I messed up a lot.”

“You didn’t know what you were doing,” Webby says. The lie is heavy on her tongue, even if she means well.

June can’t meet her gaze. “Please, Apri- Webby.” Her sister’s head snaps up, her gaze shining and uncharacteristically serious. “Don’t make allowances. I want to earn your forgiveness.”

Webby blinks, stunned speechless, for a few moments. When she finds her voice, she clears her throat hesitantly. “Thanks. I… I appreciate that.”

June licks her lips nervously and nods her head, slow and careful. “Thank you for listening to me. It’s… new to me.”

Webby smiles awkwardly. “Of course, sis.”

As she had intended, June’s eyes light up at the term, and her vivacious smile is back in full smile. She squeals and squeezes Webby in a quick hug before returning to Dewey and Louie, the former who is trying to get the latter to do his laundry. Webby smiles fondly.

Webby knows most siblings don’t really call each other “bro” and “sis”. It’s a fixture of the media. Dewey explained it to her a week after Huey, Dewey, and Louie sat her down and told her in no uncertain terms they wanted her to be their sister. (She cried.) But with May and June, it feels right. They may not be normal siblings by both the media’s and society’s standards, but they’re sisters all the same.

The smile slips off Webby’s face as her thoughts spiral. June was right. The string issue is still bothering her, and she needs to address it.

Lena and Violet haven’t stopped by the mansion since the original failed FOWL raid. It’s not unusual for them to stop by later after an adventure, but usually they stay for the night after the trip.

They didn’t this time. Ty and Indy swept them away.

In bed, on the night of the second day, Webby lies awake long after lights-out. She stares at the ceiling, at the glow-in-the-dark stars she and Lena stuck up there two years ago, back when Lena was stuck as Magica’s lackey. The fear in her gut curdles into steady determination, and Webby Vanderquack makes a decision.

She picks up her phone, charging next to her, and texts Violet. Can I come over tomorrow?

Despite the late hour, Violet replies immediately. That would be agreeable.

No text bubble pops up to indicate Violet wants to say more, so Webby likes her message and sets her phone on the nightstand next to her. She lies her hands crossed on her belly and breathes deeply, wide awake. But a few minutes later, her phone buzzes again.

Is this purely a social call, or do you wish to speak to Lena?

Webby stares at the screen for a couple minutes, biting her lip. She knows Violet’s seen her read receipt, and usually that would spur Webby into action, but she can’t spew nonsensical responses right now. 

Finally, she settles on a simple Yes.

Violet’s reply is swift. Good.

This time, her typing bubble pops up almost immediately. Lena has been much more reticent since we departed Alexandria. My research has shown me that communication is the most effective path to healthy relationships.

Webby’s beak quirks up in a small, fond smile. Yeah. Me too.

I do not doubt that the pair of you will heal each other. Violet responds. Good night, Webbigail.

Gnight, Vi.

--

At precisely one-thirteen PM on the third day, Webby stands on the doorstep of the Sabrewing household, clutching a small purse and a bag of candy.

She rings the doorbell, and Ty greets her at the door. His face splits into a warm, fond smile at the sight of her, and it warms Webby’s heart. Ty and Indy are by no means the adults she’s closest to in her family, but from the moment Webby met them, they’ve never failed to make her feel welcome and safe and loved. 

“Come in, come in!” Ty gushes, guiding her into their familiar foyer, where Violet is peacefully reading a book. “Lena’s upstairs.”

“I’ll show her, father. Thank you.” Violet rises from her armchair, placing a bookmark in her book and carefully setting it down on the coffee table. She gracefully crosses the room and latches onto Webby’s arm.

“Okay. Have fun, you guys! I’ll make some snacks.” Ty gives Webby a quick hug and kisses Violet on the head, and then waves them away. Violet tugs Webby up the stairs and up to Lena and Violet’s shared room.

They pause outside the shut door. One of the Featherweights’ old albums floats through the walls. 

“This is where I leave you,” Violet intones. “Call me when you are finished.”

Webby smiles. “Thanks, Vi.”

Violet starts to step away, but pauses. “Webbigail?”

“Yes?”

Violet turns to fully face Webby, her expression deathly serious. “You are my best friend. But if you ever hurt Lena, I will hurt you. Tread carefully.”

Webby grins. “Thanks, Vi. Don’t worry.”

Violet sniffs, offended at the mere accusation. “I will not.” 

She leaves, and Webby turns to face the door. She spends a moment visually exploring every nook and cranny of the soft oak, and then takes a deep breath and knocks.

Lena opens the door, hair disheveled. “Dad, I don’t want chocola- Oh. Pink.”

Webby rocks nervously back and forth on her feet. “Hey, Lena.”

Lena blinks at her, her expression unreadable, before stepping aside and gesturing to the inside of the room. “Well, I guess you’d better come in.”

Webby smiles nervously and steps inside.

Lena and Violet’s room is messy and cluttered in a way nothing in the mansion is, because for all the Duck family’s characteristic untidiness, the mansion is simply too big and Granny is too competent of a housekeeper to let any clutter stay. Like Uncle Donald’s houseboat, Lena and Violet’s room, and the entire Sabrewing house, is cluttered because it’s lived in. It feels homey. It feels like family.

The room is filled to the brim with Violet’s various books - both hobbyist and scholarly, and Lena’s hair dye and vinyl albums. In the corner, Lena’s pet raven watches Webby carefully from its cage. They’re all in agreement that he’s not a normal raven, but his latent abnormalcy has yet to show itself.

“So.” Lena crosses the room to stand by her bed and her raven’s cage, shoving her hands deep in her pockets and rocking back on her heels. She won’t meet Webby’s eyes. “What’s up?”

Webby fidgets with the friendship bracelet on her wrist. The strings are frayed and soft from three years of constant wear and similar stimming. “I… I came to apologize.”

Lena’s hand strays to her bracelet as well. “Me too, Pink.”

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you for blowing up at June,” Webby says. “You told me not to forget you and, in your perspective, I basically did.”

“No, it’s my fault,” Lena sighs. “I let my temper get the better of me. I knew June was basically a little kid, and I still blew up at her. It was because of me that she got the opportunity to run off and steal the Sword of Swanstantine.”

Lena tugs at the hem of her sweater, scowling darkly. “I guess I just almost killed my family. Again. It’s fine; I’m used to it.”

The words are barely out of her mouth before Webby launches herself at Lena, barely able to contain herself. She wraps her arms around Lena and buries her head in the soft, worn cloth of Lena’s sweater. “You shouldn’t be! It wasn’t your fault before and it’s even less of your fault now. You’re part of this family.”

Lena’s arms rest lightly around Webby’s shoulders, and her chin touches the top of Webby’s head. “Yeah, I know that by now, Pink. I’ve come a long way, huh? But that doesn’t erase the fact that I messed up.”

“Well, so did I.” Webby replies stubbornly.

Abruptly, Lena pulls apart, her hands set steadily on Webby’s shoulders. She stares straight into Webby’s eyes. “Webby, I know the boys are your brothers, but for the first time in your life, you had a link to your biological family,” Lena states. “I don’t blame you for defending them, and you shouldn’t either!” For the first time, Lena drops her gaze, her beak curling in frustration. “I overreacted. Plain and simple.”

“But it came from a place of love,” Webby insists, her lower beak wobbling. “I- It means so much to me that our relationship means so much to you that June cutting our string set you off like that! Really!”

Lena smirks. “That’s sweet, Pink. It’s true. But I still shouldn’t have used my magic.”

“Maybe it was a little much,” Webby finally admits. Lena scoffs at that, but otherwise stays quiet. “But please don’t blame yourself. Bradford and Black Heron set May and June up to steal me and the Missing Mysteries. They would’ve found a way to cause an issue with or without you.”

Lena squeezes her shoulder. “There, you see? It’s Bradford and Black Heron’s fault, not yours.”

“But they were after me,” Webby insists. “And- and maybe if I’d been a little more forceful with Granny, maybe she would’ve told me about my real heritage.”

Lena snorts. “Please, Pink, Tea Time wasn’t the best spy in the biz for nothing. She didn’t spill her secrets until all other hope was lost and her literal worst nightmare had come true before her eyes.” Webby flinches at that, and Lena’s tone and grip softens. “Point being, it’s not your fault.”

“Well, it’s not yours either,” Webby insists.

“Maybe not,” Lena admits at last. “But I’m still going to apologize to June. Maybe I didn’t cause the Annual Duck-McDuck Family Crisis, but I still hurt June. That wasn’t okay.”

Webby smiles. “Thanks, Lena. I’m so happy you guys are trying to get along.”

Lena grins back. “Eh, we’ve got a lot in common. I’ll bring her and May over to my weekly ‘So your childhood guardian was a villain who used you to try and kill your new family’ hangouts I have with Boyd and they’ll be sold. Hopefully.”

The mental image of Lena, Boyd, May, and June hanging out at one of Lena’s favorite dives and discussing the perils of their childhoods over greasy burgers brings a smile to Webby’s face. “I’m sure they’ll love that. Eventually.”

“They’ll come around,” Lena says, but she doesn’t sound entirely sure.

“They will,” Webby affirms. “They’re… it’s not easy to adjust. Their entire lives were upended. But they’re trying.”

Lena smiles. “That’s all I ask for,” she says simply. “As long as I can help.”

“You will,” Webby promises. “Now, do you agree that you weren’t responsible for the incident?”

“Yeah,” Lena smiles wryly. “But neither were you.”

Webby clutches her elbow. “I still messed up, though. I could’ve handled it better. And I still hurt you.”

Now it’s Lena’s turn to rush forward and squeeze her in a hug. “Well, I guess we both did,” she murmurs, a little too flippantly. “Good thing we both came to apologize, yeah?”

“Mhm.” Webby nods into Lena’s chest. She’s so soft and warm and stable. “So, are we good?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Lena replies. “I need to apologize to June.”

They sit on Lena’s bed, and Webby leans into Lena’s side, toying with her friendship. “I missed you,” she murmurs, avoiding Lena’s eyes.

Lena chuckles, and while it’s in good faith, there’s not much amusement behind it. She ruffles Webby’s hair lightly. “I was only gone for a couple days, Pink.”

“Three,” Webby corrects absentmindedly. “This is the third day.”

Lena grins. “So you kept count, eh?” 

“Of course,” Webby responds matter-of-factly. “It was all I could think about.” She readjusts herself so she’s leaning against Lena more, and tilts her head back to see Lena’s face.

Lena is blinking, baffled, before her beak curves into a small, fond smile. “Huh. Me too.”

Webby’s smile grows and grows. Lena’s come a long, long way since Webby followed that fateful message in a bottle. She’s been much more comfortable with open affection for a long time now, but it still makes Webby’s heart sing.

“We should do something,” Lena hums. “Hang out, with no adventure or magical villain threatening our lives. We haven’t done that in a while.”

Webby laughs softly. “Yeah, it has been a while, hasn’t it? But you should know by now. There are no normal hangouts in this family.”

Lena chuckles, soft and fond. “Yeah, well. I’ll take whatever I can get as long as I can hang out with you.” She wraps her arm tighter around Webby, and snuggles closer. “I know what I signed up for when I joined this family.”

They sit together on Lena’s bed, facing away from each other, in the comfortable silence. 

“You know,” Webby breaks it after a few minutes. Her nervous fidgeting has returned. “You know, sometimes I wish it didn’t happen like this.”

Lena blinks. “Hm?”

“I-” Webby gestures animatedly, frustrated, days and months and years of pent-up emotion spilling out all at once. “I wish I didn’t have to find out about my family this way. I wish Granny could’ve just told me, without the FOWL capture and fights to the death and kidnapping all of our friends. I’m okay now, but… but it was really scary,” she finishes in a small voice, burying her head in her hands. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. I didn’t know if my family would be okay.”

“Oh, Pink.” Lena gathers Webby into her arms and pulls her onto her lap. “I know how you feel. It must’ve been really scary.”

“It was,” Webby murmurs. “It really was. But I love adventuring, and I already know what would happen if we stopped - heck, Uncle Donald already made that wish! And it didn’t turn out well! I shouldn’t feel this way, and I hate it.”

“You know, those two feelings aren’t mutually exclusive,” Lena says, raising her eyebrows. 

Webby twists in her embrace to meet her gaze. “Huh?”

Lena shrugs. “There isn’t much to it, honestly. Your daily, run-of-the-mill adventures aren’t the same as this scheme Bradford’s been cookin’ up for decades. They don’t usually involve life-changing revelations.”

“Yeah, but…” Webby sags in her embrace. “It’s still an adventure.”

“Honestly, it’s not healthy for you guys to keep having all your major events in life-or-death situations,” Lena snorts wryly. “But I guess that’s our family for you. Doesn’t mean it should stay that way, though.”

“Sometimes it’s out of our control,” Webby murmurs, a half-hearted protest for a battle she already knows she’s lost and didn’t even want to win in the first place. “Like when Lunaris chased Aunt Della down to Earth. She thought he was a friend. Or… or when Magica attacked us.”

“Yeah,” Lena mutters. “But your grandma still shouldn’t have lied to you.”

“She said she won’t anymore,” Webby says.

“And that’s great.” Lena squeezes her tighter. “That means it probably won’t happen again. The past is in the past, Pink. You can’t change it. Trust me, I’ve had my fair share of troubles with that fact.”

“You can’t control what other people do,” Lena continues. “Like with Lunaris and… and Magica. All you can control is yourself.”

“I’ll do my best to spill all my secrets before one of Dad’s mortal enemies has to threaten my life for it,” Webby snorts, half-sardonic and half-lighthearted.

Lena punches her gently. “I don’t think you’ll ever have a problem with that, Pink. You’re a pretty open book.”

Webby bites her lip. “That’s not a bad thing, is it? Bradford and my sisters were able to manipulate me pretty easily.”

Lena scoffs. “Yeah, and it ended so well for Bradford, didn’t it?” Webby keeps her gaze away from Lena’s face, and instead watches Lena’s hands clench and unclench into fists.

Lena sighs, taking a deep breath to reorient herself. “What I mean, Pink, is that it’s not a bad thing. Honestly, it’s one of your best qualities. I know I wouldn’t be here today if you weren’t so trusting and earnest.”

Webby smiles, but it’s forced. Evidently, she hasn’t picked up enough of Louie’s tricks yet, because Lena’s unwavering, deepening frown tells Webby she can see right through her.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t train,” Lena offers. “I don’t think you should become more distrusting and cynical, but maybe you can work to recognize when others are trying to manipulate you.”

Lena glances down at her hands, spinning a stray pencil (where did she get that?) around her fingers. “I could help you, if you’d like.”

Webby grins up at her, teary and emotional. “I’d like that.”

Lena drops the pencil and wraps her arms around Webby again. For the millionth time that day, Webby buries her head in the comforting familiarity of Lena’s soft sweater.

“I missed you,” Lena murmurs.

“Me too,” Webby replies. “So much.”

“So very much,” Lena echoes, and tugs Webby closer. 

For the first time in three days, the tension dragging Webby down loosens, and she is free. She is home.

~

i started writing this either the day of or the day after the finale, left it alone for two weeks, and wrote the second half today during a writing sprint (shoutout to silv’s server!). funny how these things work.

i have a lot of feelings on the finale, both good and bad, but i’m always going to be sad that lena and webby’s direct interaction in the entire series was a fight. they didn’t deserve that. 

i love dropping in little headcanons and doing little worldbuilding with places like lena and violet’s room. it sounds like a cozy place. there’s literally no way to prove this unless frank returns from his hiatus and answers an ask ig but if poe isn’t still out there and doesn’t end up drawn to lena i’ll eat my hat. let him be her weird familiar/uncle!! cmon disney!! 

title is from i’ll show you by k/da! i originally used a different lyric (”heart full of fire”) as a placeholder and now i want to use it in something else because it’s so pretty haha

i love webby and lena. while i was writing this i was thinking about how in some of the recent amphibia episodes, one of the characters was hurt by another’s good intentions and wants to forgive them, but needs time. i thought about going that route but honestly? i think they just need to talk this one out. neither of them were really mad. the moment just caught up to them. they’re so close and in tune with each other.

reblogs > likes!

[marimopeace]

After watching episode 10 of the reboot what's your interpretation of Shigure's character? What do you think his goals and intentions could be?

hi and thanks for the ask anon! 

because of the way i am (an extreme overthinker) i’ll be unnecessarily extra with this response since i don’t know anything about your relationship with the series. i really don’t want to spoil anything in the case that you’re new to it entirely / watched the 2006 version but didn’t read the manga, but i still want to give my honest thoughts. i’ll put all things spoiler-y under a line break! i’ll also put tl;drs under each response in case my ranting is nothing like what you wanted to hear lol

// a visual break for your eyes //

so the good things is that whether someone’s fresh to the series or not, episode 10 of the reboot is definitely a plot twist even for viewers of the original furuba. i used to watch that show all the time as a kid and i remember the valentine’s day episode being something completely different–it was treated more as a side story featuring other members of the sohma family and was a way to expand more on tohru’s giving personality + throw in a lot of laughs, while in the 2019 version, it was a continuation of the ongoing plot that revealed more about kyo’s self-perception (especially in comparison to yuki), shigure’s darker motivations on integrating tohru into the sohma clan’s life, and still included some of the funny antics of the family (although much less gag-heavy than the 2006 version which was so nice).

i had actually never read the manga until right before the reboot aired since my younger self was always fine with just going off the old anime (read: i was lazy) so had a younger me seen shigure’s scene in this episode i would have genuinely been shocked because it would have been the first indication of him ever having malicious intentions whatsoever.

in the earlier episodes of the 2019 reboot it is shown that the usually fun and mischievous shigure can be serious and be the authoritative adult in the room (compared to his old anime version which was nothing but a jokester with a soft heart), but in episode 10 shigure was shown to be manipulative and cruel. the second mainly because of that scene where he prodded kyo in what could have been seen as a tough-love-trying-to-be-a-mentor-and-show-you-something-about-yourself-you-didn’t-know, but came off as a somewhat sadistic move to make kyo squirm and be uncomfortable for no reason.

shigure’s scene with hatori (LOVED THIS MOMENT) hints a bit at what his long term goal is. hatori helps the viewer get that both akito and shigure are scheming to take advantage of tohru’s relationships with the family (presumably kyo and yuki specifically since she’s closest to both of them and kyo was referenced a few seconds earlier by shigure in this same scene). shigure fills in more gaps by referencing something that happened when he, hatori, and aya (*SPOILER IF YOU’RE NEW* aka ayame who was revealed in the og anime) were all younger.

we the audience can tell by the wistful nature of shigure’s monologue (which i absolutely adored and made multiple posts out aha) that something about that vision stirred up feelings of affection inside him–feelings that his older self realized were a form of love. this love turned into an obsession (lol), and shigure seems dead set on satisfying this addictive yearning by obtaining said love.

the scene with akito at the end, and shigure’s internal thoughts that followed indicate that this eternal love lies with akito. going solely off the earlier dialogue, one might assume that either he’s going to do everything in his power to physically have akito in his grasp (aka have them be in his possession so he never has to fear anyone taking them away from him), or he will try to manipulate akito into reciprocating his feelings–or maybe even both!

tl;dr (spoiler-free) shigure, based off some mysterious premonition he had when he was younger, is utterly obsessed with the sohma clan head and will do everything he can to make them “his” (perhaps not exactly monopolizing them but definitely at least having akito acknowledge and return his feelings). he’s observed how tohru’s good nature has been affecting the two young sohmas under his roof and plans to use their relationship to his advantage in the politics of this mysterious af family, hopefully outwitting the family head as well. hatori is not a fan of this plan at all and shigure agrees that it’s terrible but he’s like well “i’m a trash person anyways!” so he doesn’t mind. the only indication that he does feel like his plans are morally wrong are when tohru offers him chocolate as well and he realizes that her charitable nature is endless and that she truly is just a good kid.

// cue my unnecessary response under the fold WITH SPOILERS based on the manga so bewarned)

*** i have no idea of whether or not you’ll be able to read under the fold anon so i’ll put the end of this (v long) answer here: hope you got something out of my interpretation and enjoy the rest of furuba! always feel free to reach out about whatever ***

so for whatever reason, be it a warped personality or pure infatuation, young shigure actually responded positively to the dream he and the other sohmas had when they became tied to akito through their zodiac spirits’ default loyalty. he actually aims to preserve that feeling of absolute belonging with akito, claiming them as his most beloved.

i found this tragically beautiful tbh bc shigure was the sole sohma to transform something that caused the rest of the family pain into something that brought him fulfillment. loving something is a very powerful thing and he made it so that he would always be by akito’s side in terms of his loyalties. (which is incredibly kind considering her own tragic circumstances–she has done terrible things but was raised under abuse herself and was isolated from the rest of reality.) i found it sad because he was in unrequited love for years but was stubborn to his ultimate end goal resulting in a back-and-forth relationship of manipulation/ monopolization/sex revenge with akito when someone else would have just given up on the possibility of the relationship working out. i almost used the term “sane person” but while shigure may have an insidious nature, his love for akito isn’t insane, yes it’s toxic but he actually did fall in love with her, it wasn’t unfound and coming from nowhere.

he’s seen how tohru has managed to get kyo and yuki to look at the bigger picture in terms of their relationships with people in general as well as how they see themselves as pets of the sohma name. he himself enjoys her balm-like effect on people (being part of a hellish household probably makes a sweet girl who does everything to care for others whether that be through chores, food, or cheering up seem like an absolute saint), but he–and akito–know that having a card around to mess with the workings of the sohma clan is all too important to have. especially since shigure’s main intent is to overthrow everything the family is about, not to be a part of the “good morals brigade”, but to get a hold of the person he wants to have so dearly.

he knows that akito is aware of his attraction, that doesn’t mean she understands the sincere love behind it. she sees it as an effect of their zodiac relationship/part of her delusion that the sohmas are all pawns to fend off her loneliness and prove she hasn’t been abandoned. if akito weren’t the emperor and was just akito the person, then shigure might have a chance of slipping in and making his dream a reality.

tl;dr (based on spoilers) shigure has had a bad case of puppy love for years and wants to milk tohru’s budding relationship with the sohmas to help his plans of destroying what the family is all about (blood feuds and lots and lots of drama), perhaps even ending the curse (i say perhaps bc i can’t think off the top of my head whether or not in the manga shigure did try to plan to break the curse on the whole family–i’m leaning no but my head is fuzzy on this rn). all this so that he can not only hold akito in his arms, but her love in his hands, so she’s truly “his” to have.

happy furuba watching anon!

[noddytheornithopod]

Started Danganronpa V3... and yeah, it’s already a fuckton to take in. I’ll do my usual game commentary thing of course.

Weird opening scene where Kaede and Shuichi arrive in a classroom in lockers but have no talents, and it turns out the other 14 students don’t have talents either? Also we’re chased by a giant mech and it turns out there’s other ones and they’re controlled by Monokubs.

Yeah, Monokubs are a thing. So far they’re... okay, I guess? IDK if they just need to grow on me or it’s just a lot to take in, but I’m not sure I’m following their shtick, even if there’s a weirdly amusing cheesiness to them. Monodam is easily the best one though, it’s always the quiet ones you gotta watch. Monosuke has some fun meta moments and Monokid has a few nice lines, but for now I’m gonna wait and see on them. Also... Monokid has a dick???

So the students were supposedly all kidnapped by someone (Monokuma’s forces?). This will obviously come up later, also this is a different school, the Ultimate Academy, which is apparently under construction still. The Monokubs also make them all “remember” their talents, which I can’t help but find suspicious (especially since it’s later suggested them forgetting stuff could be a result of brainwashing).

Music is great as usual, though the voice in the Monokubs theme is kinda weird. Visually it definitely seems like there’s a lot of upgrades, the game looks pretty nice. Also like the gameplay mechanic of shaking objects for Monocoins. The school is a bit hard to navigate right now but hopefully I’ll get used to it.

I REALLY dig the addititon of showing Kaede’s face when she talks to other characters, it really adds more character to the interactions. I’ve seen people call Makoto and Hajime bland protagonists, and while I don’t completely agree I do think showing us Kaede’s reactions during dialogue and not just internal monologue really helps convey more personality.

I like Kaede so far! She has a few Makoto vibes with the cheerful optimist shtick, but I am getting a sense of how she’s unique. Like obviously she has her pianist talent, but I mean personality wise she seems a bit more confident, even brash at times? Also a lot of her reaction sprites in dialogue are pretty cute.

Shuichi I’m gonna wait a bit on, because I’m not sure what to think yet. I do appreciate they’re doing an ultimate detective that’s different to Kirigiri, one that’s way less sure of himself and lacks confidence. TBH I kinda get a few me vibes from him with the quiet and introverted shy guy thing, lol. Bets: him and Kaede will have some sort of romantic interactiton at some point because all these fucking games do. But yeah, no strong impressions yet but he has potential.

Tsumugi Shirogane is probably one of my faves so far. She’s just really fun and nerdy, and also kinda weird which I like. Also, Kaede, you are NOT straight, you clearly find her attractive.

Rantaro is a mystery. He’s our resident ??? of the game, so he’s obviously going to play some part in the larger story going on... probably, unless they’re subverting things. He seems like one to watch out for, he’s oddly chill about everything.

K1-B0 IDK about yet, he does kinda give me Astro Boy vibes though (but without the dead kid backstory thank fuck). So far he just seems like “the robot guy” and there to make robot jokes (not gonna lie, the “robophobic” line was pretty lousy IMO), though I’m sure that will change.

Kokichi... okay I already can’t stand this fucker. Leave K1-B0 alone you prick. Also, ultimate supreme leader of an evil organisation... if he’s not lying. He seems to REALLY be into lying. Given this game is apparently all about truth and lies, he’s definitely one to watch out for. If he’s not lying about himself, then this evil organisation might be important. Relation to plot aside... he is so fucking annoying seriously.

Miu Iruma kinda gives me Hiyoko vibes, but is somehow more likeable. Weird scientist girl could be interesting. Also she likes drugs and makes inventions to increase productivity when you sleep, lol. The pervert exchange with her and Shuichi was weird, but that’s Danganronpa, of course you have weird shit like that. Also she seems to really play up her looks, lol. Bets: she talks about how she’s the most attractive girl ever and shit but she’s gonna fall for K1-B0 isn’t she, like personality wise he’s fairly plain but he’s also a robot so she’d be fascinated by him? Or will that be subverted too lol.

Himiko isn’t too remarkable right now even if her backstory is intriguing, Tenko isn’t too much either but she does have a bit more going for her in terms of personality. Also I guess she’s our Mahiru, calling boys degenerates. :P Also... Kaede did you find her attractive as well? Maki I feel the same about too, she does have potential but there’s not much to say.

IDK what’s up with Ryoma, but he definitely is gonna be a killer or be killed at some point. He seems ready to kill, it’s hilarious.

Korekiyo is weird. Not much to say. He’s just really fucking weird.

Kaito is pretty charismatic, a hotshot astronaut. In terms of likeability he ranks one of the highest as of now.

Kirumi Tojo is a maid... with how she seems willing to serve everyone, I definitely think she’d gonna be caught up in a murder somehow, whether she does it for someone or does something for a blackened.

Not sure about Gonta, it’s cool that he’s nice but the first person is pretty heavy handed. Also the animals thing reminds me of Gundham, lol. He feels very Tarzan, living in the wild and raised by wolves. Wonder if saying you hate bugs will cause a murder?

Angie... okay I don’t think I’m a fan, because TBH she feels racist. She’s clearly Pasifika, probably Polynesian (Atua are apparently Polynesian gods and spirits, and she says Atua is her god), but it feels like such a stereotype of indigenous people. She acts simple and naive, is cheerful to strangers, does everything because of a god, wears only a bikini under her robe (because apparently Polynesian people all dress like fucking hula girls or something) and does sacrifices (that involve blood, because of course they’re brutal). I hope they flesh her out more, because this stereotypical portrayal really isn’t sitting well with me.

Thank fuck Monokuma finally shows up at the end of the Prologue. I love how hilariously heavy handed the line about him being knowledgeable from reading “alternate facts” from “fake news” (YES THEY FUCKING WENT THERE).

I do wonder how this is all going to fit together, especially since in the intro they showed all the past games and the Danganronpa 3 anime to indicate this is in fact a continuation of the same story and not a soft reboot. I’ve heard a couple of things here and there and I’m not sure how much context I have, but these things tied with all this talk about everything feeling fake and like it’s not real (especially when they just suddenly “remember” their talents) is certainly fishy. There’s also been a lot of fourth wall breaking (especially with that weird intro where everyone had no talents and the mechs and they had to redo it when they “regained” their memories) and talk about not following the script correctly, hmm...

There was a shot of Kaede lying in some kind of chamber. Is this more Neo-World shit going on?

Okay WOW that’s a lot, I should play some more tonight.

[theconservativebrief]

Orange Is the New Black’s sixth season is torn between two impulses.

The first impulse feels akin to the old penultimate season problem I’ve written about before, in which a serialized show uses its next-to-last season to put characters in position for great story arcs in the final season. And because the show has already been picked up for a seventh season (to air in 2019), but nothing beyond that just yet, it would make sense to think of season six as a penultimate season.

Except there’s no real indication that season seven will be the show’s final season. Thus, season six’s second impulse is to be a soft reboot season, wherein new characters are introduced and given big, significant arcs that are clearly meant to position them as characters we will care about going forward. This will hopefully give the show enough gas in its tank to run for years to come. (Orange Is the New Black has added new characters with just about every season, but rarely with as much emphasis as in season six.)

The problem is that both penultimate seasons and soft reboot seasons tend to become slogs, as both require a lot of setup work — and that usually means there isn’t much time for payoffs or even story complications. It’s not uncommon to finish watching either type of season and feel like a show has just barely started to get somewhere.

Orange Is the New Black season six ultimately avoids this threat, but only by the skin of its teeth. But it still gets trapped between those twin impulses, never sure which direction it should skew toward, to the degree that with just a couple of episodes left in the season, I was worried it wasn’t going anywhere. Season six isn’t as messy as the show’s fifth season — which took place over just three days and chronicled a prison riot — but it’s also nowhere near as ambitious. It’s just good enough to make me interested in watching season seven, but not good enough to make me want to see anything beyond that.

Taystee gets the best storyline of season six. Netflix

The most welcome thing about season six is the way that it extensively pares down Orange Is the New Black’s large cast.

Season five ended with the riot being stopped with force, and the show’s characters being split up and transferred to several other prisons. Now, a handful of the characters reside just down the hill from their former home of Litchfield Penitentiary, at Litchfield Maximum Security Prison, while lots and lots and lots of other characters have simply been written out of the show, mostly off to a prison in Ohio.

We get a brief glimpse of said prison early in the season, and we see a fan favorite character there, and it’s the only time she appears all season. So in some ways, Orange Is the New Black season six seems to be aiming for ruthless economy, scaling back to just the core cast in a push toward whatever the end of the entire series might be.

But at the same time, the location shift to the maximum security prison means adding a bunch of new characters, who range from the intriguing (two older sisters who nurse grudges against each other and seemingly everybody else) to the completely baffling (a woman with a truly overcooked Boston accent who serves as a new rival for Piper Chapman).

And because Orange Is the New Black always tries to find the humanity in every single character onscreen, the show’s story keeps expanding and expanding, until it’s tracking more than a dozen fairly important storylines.

This leaves the series trapped between its increasingly ungainly history — the major death that marked the end of season four happened only a few days ago when season six opens, even if the characters seem to live in an eternal present with contemporary pop culture and political references — and wherever it’s trying to go next. Even with lots of characters leaving the story, there are probably still far too many, and all of them need to have a storyline or two or three.

Now, there’s no show as good at doing tracking dozens of storylines as Orange Is the New Black, and season six comes through with a finale that sees all of its storylines colliding in a way that feels a little breathtaking. But at a certain point, this inclination to give every character their due shortchanges those who the audience is naturally more invested in.

The story of Taystee (Danielle Brooks), for instance, is easily the season’s most compelling — she ends up on trial for some pretty terrible crimes connected to the riot, and both the audience and certain characters know, conclusively, that she is not guilty of them — but also too often filtered through characters in her orbit. This is especially noticeable with regard to Caputo (Nick Sandow), the former warden of Litchfield, who tries to turn himself into a Columbo and prove that Taystee didn’t do it.

It’s not a bad way to keep Caputo involved, but it also has the unfortunate side effect of turning Taystee into a supporting player in her own story. And when the ACLU and the Black Lives Matter movement both invest heavily in trying to help Taystee beat the charges leveled against her, it feels as if far too much of their involvement happens offscreen. It might be interesting to watch how Taystee handles being turned into a cause celebré, but Orange Is the New Black keeps getting distracted by other things.

The entire Taystee storyline also serves to bolster the show’s central argument, which has always been that even in prison, there’s a form of white privilege that protects prisoners like Piper (the still marvelous Taylor Schilling) while dooming prisoners of color. And when the finale unleashes a series of gut punches in this regard, in which some of the white prisoners achieve a kind of tiny victory while some other prisoners of color see their lives devastated even further, it’s certainly thematically appropriate.

But it also feels ever more like the series exploits the pain of its characters of color to try to give itself moral gravitas — even though it already has moral gravitas, thanks to its portrayal of how broken the prison system is, and how inherent that portrayal is to the series.

When Orange Is the New Black skews what happens to its characters so dramatically by race, it’s not hard to question whether doing so is the only way the show knows to telegraph a sense of social and political seriousness.

With that said, Orange Is the New Black, even when it’s at its worst, remains one of TV’s most watchable shows. The acting is terrific, the writing is structured so beautifully that shorter and longer-term arcs are balanced against each other in addictive ways, and the direction makes great use of staging and blocking to tell stories visually, in such a way that you’d understand what was going on even if all the sparkling dialogue was eliminated.

So it’s hard not to like Orange Is the New Black season six, even as it’s hard not to hope that season seven will be the show’s last. There’s still just enough life left in this story to be confident that it will pull itself to a rousing close. But if it were to keep going into season eight and beyond, even as the characters the audience first fell in love with slowly cycled out, it’s easy to see how the show’s tendency to just keep expanding could lead to an attempt to encompass each and every little corner of its universe, until every single scene might seem to take place on a different show.

Good storytelling requires empathy, of course, but it also requires concision. Orange Is the New Black season six boasts so, so much of the former, but far too little of the latter, and that leaves it caught in between two versions of itself, to its detriment.

Orange Is the New Black’s first six seasons are streaming on Netflix. Season seven will arrive in 2019.

Original Source -> Orange Is the New Black season 6 is a good argument for the show to end soon

via The Conservative Brief

[teamsupergood]

Plantr is an automated participatory community garden project that aims to create greenspaces across public spaces. The gardens use sensors and irrigation to keep track of the condition of the plants within it and relay the information to a website. Participation is done on a purely voluntary basis and can be as simple as replenishing a water reservoir or as involved as building and installing a whole new garden. The system measures user involvement and rewards them with Plantr points which can then be exchanged for perks and bonuses. The goal of the project is not only to greenify open spaces but to give the possibility to passers-by to feel part of the project and learn basics in gardening, coding and DIY design. In order to make the project as accessible as possible, costs are kepts to a minimum, materials are chosen to be readily available and all necessary resources are made publically available. Although this version of the build is better suited to growing small plants and herbs, it can easily be adapted and modified to grow fruits or vegetables in order to increase access to locally grown, fresh produce. Moreover, by modifying materials, the project could also be made to function outdoors to create rooftop gardens. Our project therefore responds to multiple sustainabilty concerns: energy needs for food production, urban heat island effect and more generally, global warming. In creating this project the work load was split into different modules of developement each with their own set of challenges, and decisions. Each module necessitated research for materials, design and technolog; protoptyping; building and testing. After completing what we are calling Plantr v.1.0 we also have a better idea of how to improve the project and how to make the building of each module mode accessible for would-be participants.

1. The garden. Pintrest is littered with design ideas for decorative indoor gardens so it's probably safe to say that pretty much everything has been done in this departement. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, we chose the tried and true tower design as it would offer an effecient use of space with its limited footprint and vertical design.

Although PVC is the most commonly used material when looking at examples online, we were hoping to steer away for the usage of new plastics. Therefore we opted for a cylindrical concrete pouring form. This is an object that is easy to work with and to cut into and the waxy coating on its surface makes it sufficiently water resistant in case of spills. To insure some stability we designed two base pieces that give the whole project an unintentional but welcome space-rocket look. Another objective was to keep as much of the electronics and irrigation out of sight in order to make the final object visually appealing. This proved to add to the challenge especially when trying to troubleshoot faulty wires with the electonic devices anchored to the inside of the tube.

In order to add a bit of polish we wanted to paint the outside of the tube. Spray paint would have been an easy choice but would have clashed with our sustainability objectives. We therefore opted for an acrylic based chalkboard paint which would give participants an extra outlet of creativity. After all, this first prototype is installed in the art building of concordia.

2. Sensing and watering system. The choice for sensors compatible with single-board computers and microcontrollers is vast, ever expanding and can be overwhelming. A multitude of data points were discussed along with various methods to collect them. Ambient humidity, temperature, atmospheric pressure and light levels were all discussed but discarted for simplicity and cost's sake. We narrowed it down to hygrometers (soil moisture sensors) for each plant and a water level sensor for the reservoir.

Hygrometers for DIY project come in two main flavors, capacitive and inductive. The choice here was not particularly difficult as the inductive type can cost upwards of 40$ each. While they do offer a more precise and durable output, especially for outdoor use, we needed 8 of these for the initial prototype which would make the system cost prohibitive. The capacitive snesors on the other hand ranged from 2$ to 8$ depending on the materials used in their fabrication. Although we would have been thrilled to see the cheaper variety (Sparkfun SEN-13322) succeed, we noticed performance degrading corrosion on these while testing and were forced to upgrade to the 8$ gold plated versions (DFRobot SEN0114). The output of these sensors are analog so the use of an ADC (analog digital converter) is necessary if the computer or microcontrol used does not have analog inputs. Luckily the MCP3008 works perfectly for this application using the SPI serial communication protocol present on most GPIO pins of single-boards. As for water level, again there are two main schools: float or ultrasonic sensor. Intuitively, we were drawn to the float sensor as it seemed easier to use. Unfortunately, the less expensive variety of these only offer the ability to measure whether the water level has exceeded a certain level. This would give us an indication when the reservoirs would need to be refilled but we preffered having an acual level to work with. Luckily, the ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04 can give supprisingly accurate and reliable readings of the distance between it and the surface of the water. Wiring and programming slightly more involved as it needs one pin to output a ping and another one to measure the time taken for the ping to bounce back.

Of course, with this data being input into our single-board, we now needed to use this interpreted data to trigger the automated irrigation to water our plants. Our initial plan was to split the water output of the reservoir to 8 individual soft tubed lines that would each have an electronically controlled valve and would run to each plant. While this idea remains feasable and applicable for projects with larger plants, having a costly valve per plant made little sense for our build. We instead chose to have a single valve leading to a rotating piece of plumbing that would direct the flow of water to one of 8 funnels, each leading to one of the palnts. With a single valve and a servo motor, we are able to water the plant that needs it. Those who have worked with servos may know that their range is often limited to around 180 degrees. We found two viable solutions to this, either going with a specialized, more expensive, winch servo for model sail boats which does cover a full 360 degrees, or go with a standard servo and use gearing to give us the range we needed. Although we beleive that using a gear system would be more advantagous in terms of cost and availability, it would require extra time and testing which were running low on at this point in the project. We therefore opted for the more expensive sail winch servo which is still reasonably priced at around 20$ (vs 8$ for a servo with 180 degrees range).

3. Gathering, analyzing and sending the data The valve, motor and sensors need to plug into something to be interpreted and sent out to the world and this is where the single-board computer or microcontroller comes in. Ever since the advent of the arduino uno and the raspberry pi, dozens of companies have decided to offer their own variation on these devices with different features with some even offering hybrids. While the arduino type devices offer direct control, dedicated resources and a mix of analog and digital inputs, the raspberry pi type devices offer every possible feature of a linux based computer including integrated wi-fi, storage and support for multiple programming languages. Hybrid boards like the Udoo Neo offer the best of both worlds with the same pinout as an Arduino Uno and an arm based CPU to run a full fledge linux distribution. Obviously, the extra features come at a cost and in the end, even the least expensive option is overkill in terms of computing power for this project. While we used a raspberry pi 2b that we had on hand to do the build, a pi zero W would do the trick and its cool 10$ price tag definately fits in with our goal of low cost accessibility.

Setting up the pi for wi-fi connectivity proved to be one of the most annoying challenges of this project. While it's easy enough to do so on a home network with standard WPA2-PSK security, Concordia (and most campuses) use a form of WPA2-Enterprise PEAP without certificate. Without getting into technical details, this meant hours of testing, tinkering and half a dozen e-mails exchange with Concordia technical support to get a connection going. Once that was done, the next step was to find a way to remotely control the Pi (having a screen and keyboard hooked up to it while it is anchored to the inside of the planter is obviously not ideal). Although it is easy enough to connect to a device via SSH on a home network, doing so on a campus network is usually prohibited. In order to circumvent this issue, the SSH port had to be bridged to an external server that is publically visible. This acts as an intermediary connection that redirects the traffic directly to the Pi. A script was written to ensure that the Pi would automatically re-establish the bridge if the device were to reboot or the bridge to fail. The advantage with this method is that it is now possible to remotely control the Pi from anywhere, even outside Concordia's network. As a matter of fact, a decent part of the code was written from the comfort of my living room while the Pi was locked away in a room in the arts building. Speaking of code, the script that controls the sensors and watering system was written in python as it offers all the necessary compatible libraries to interface with the Pi's GPIO pins. The algorithm is relatively simple. If one of the plant's hygrometer has a reading that is below a certain threshold and if the plant has not been recently watered, the motor moves the plumbing towards correct funnel and the valve is opened for 3 seconds. At every loop, the ultrasonic sensor checks the water level. All the data is collected. If the information has not been updated in more than 15 minutes, the Pi connects to the website's server via FTP and updates a json file containing all the information.

4. Displaying the information and point system Once all this information is collected and uploaded, it needs to be displayed online for users to see. We use a bare-bones virtual server from OVH that has a datacentre in Beauharnois that uses water-cooling to reduce energy usage of their machines. By using a combination of google API and javascript, we can parse the data from the json file and display the status of the plants on a map in a way that is meaningful to users. The website is also designed to offer users the possibility to create an account and accumulate points for their participation. This feature however was not implemented and a dummy version is displayed for demoing purposed. The map however does show live data from the garden.

While we were succesfully able to test the technical functionalities and how the organic interacts with the electronic we would need more time to measure the social aspect of the project. This would enable us to have a reading of how feasible it would be to implement in an uncotrolled environement. Still, the build has proven to work and be adaptable for personal or educational use for anyone who would want to reproduce it in their home or classroom. We welcome any initiative to iterate on the current design to adjust it to different situations.

[sifiwiki]

Nexus 5 problems issues and common: Workarounds and Solutions in-depth exclusively here

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Nexus 5 problems issues and common: Workarounds and Solutions in-depth exclusively here

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Nexus 5 problems recent facts : Nexus 5 is considered one of the coolest phones of 2013 and a great and competitive advancement for Google, Yet, no matter how great a phone is it will never, well most in case never have its own issues and problems. When it comes to Nexus 5, pulled from reviews we know it wasn’t very cool when it comes to speaker & microphone sound level and quality. Second comes the lower camera quality and focus issue. And last but not least the fitting of the SIM card tray problem on black model.maybe you are interested in reading this how to fix sms switching to mms send in Samsung and other

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Nexus 5 problems issues and common: Workarounds and Solutions in-depth exclusively here

How to fix Nexus 5 problems recent facts :

The Nexus 5 users and owners have reported a number of issues and folks on different forums and blogs have equally contributed to providing workarounds and solutions, which I worked on collecting all known and reported issues and corresponding workarounds for you here. I hope it serves the needy.

I will start by displaying the drawbacks and workarounds available to improvise your device performance:

Fitting of the SIM card tray especially on Nexus 5 Black Model.

Reportedly, the sleek soft-touch shell gets spoiled and it refuses to sit flush with the edge of the device.

This is clearly considered a defect and looks like Google and LG know the existence of the problem and therefore have started rolling out a new version where. supposedly had fixed this known defect by now. Therefore, for our fans on Nexus 5 make sure to check you buy the newer version and ignore taking the old version or you my end-up with a phone known for a defect issue!

“How to differentiate between the old version (with defect) and the newer version”

The new black model version comes with a flush fitting SIM tray and touchscreen, buttons which no longer have excessive play, and the holes covering the speaker and microphone have been enlarged. You can distinguish between the speaker holes, which is the most visually noticeable change, “see figures”

Now let me start displaying the most common Nexus 5 reported bugs, glitches, malfunctions, annoyances,issues, and applicable workarounds and solutions.read also galaxy Not Registered On Network s7

galaxy Nexus s5 screen problems common issues 1 :

Dead or Partial Pixel on Display- Malfunction : Many users reported problems with the Nexus 5 display in what was expressed that display pixel was totally or partially dead, indicators to such problem are dots and spots that do not seem to change on display while surfing from a window to another.

Solution

If you feel this is applicable to you, then dear user/owner do not panic, you will need to confirm that you actually have dead pixel on your display and you can do that through the Dead Pixel Test App “it is totally free”. Click on the link and use to test your display. This application will end-up turning off your display that’s when you have to validate while the screen is off, if you still see the dots then that indicates there is possible dust trapped under the screen “probably you opened the cover for some reason and when dust had a way in and placed under screen”. Whether your answer is Yes or No the solution is the same 🙂 so proceed to step two.

Sorry to say that you have to contact Google “Google contact” on your carrier if you were on CDMA system or just head to the affiliate distributor you bought your cell from as you are still under warranty and they will order a replacement for you. This doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed if there was dust under the screen but for your own value a replacement is always better.Read More : Samsung galaxy s4 problems

galaxy Nexus 5 problems Power Button common issues 2 :

Power Button Loose & Shaky “rattles” : As reported by many users/owners of Nexus 5, for some the devices users may experience the power button loose while the phone is shaking “e.g. while walking an its in your pocket” and this is irritating some blogs described it as rattling just like the sound produced by a rattle snake while shaking its tale. It doesn’t stop there but the actually gets pressed during the action. This very problem is applicable to other buttons sometimes you may find a sharp button or another loose button, personally i find this another defect in the overall cover design another drawback by Google and LG.

Workaround:

Replacing the device with a new case may prevent buttons from moving bu i suggest you do that while you are inspecting and immediately check all your buttons show they feel as sometimes you might end-up with reversible status where button are too tight just like the old version of the black model.

Solution:

If you feel the workaround wasn’t satisfiable or you wouldn’t want to go for it and being identified as a defect you can always contact Google “Google contact” or distributor you bought the phone from as warranty will still be valid for you.

galaxy Nexus 5  problems WiFi common issues 3

Can’t Connect to WiFi or Connection keeps dropping- Glitch : Always new phones are usually expected to have some connectivity issues or problems especially speaking WiFi-wise, yet we must understand that doesn’t indicate a lower quality with the Nexus 5 as it is equipped with Ultra WiFi which is supposed to deliver better performance rate than normal WiFi hardware. There are several factors that can trigger such issue/problem but i will display the most probable when it comes to your Nexus 5 device,

Workaround:

What might happen sometimes is a temporary fault in the software so you can first try to Toggle Airplane Mode on and off and/or switch off/on your WiFi. For further test reboot your device and try again the same. Another reason if your WiFi does not connect and this reason is applicable to all smartphones WiFi connectivity issue is that your internet routers maybe broadcasting the Wireless Network however, maybe not be actually connected to the Internet and therefore you can check if the Internet indicator LED is lit in green, if not then restart your router to overcome this issue

Solution:

Go to Settings > Wireless & Networks > Wi-Fi > Select the network you are failing to connect with and Forget > click on it again, re-enter password and connect

If the problem still persist try entering a manual IP (Static) rather than Automatic IP (DHCP) this will definitely get you connected to the router whether or not the router is actually connected to the Internet or no, you can do that by:

Going to Settings > Wireless & Networks > Wi-Fi > long press on the desired network  and modify settings or configuration > scroll down to advanced settings > change DHCP to Static and fill in IP e.g. 192.168.1.100 then Gateway “This should be your router designated IP Address” e.g. 192.168.1.1

You can also make sure to Avoid Poor Connectivity Option is  Unchecked.

Nexus 5 problems Vibration not working common issues 4

Vibration not working – Malfunction

Some owners/users reported the vibration is completely not working on their devices, and this is usually due to a defect in the unit, in this case you should report that Google “Google contact” if you were on Carrier locked phone “CDMA” e.g. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Virgin Mobile,…etc. Or contact the distributor you bought your phone from if you are still under warranty for replacement.

Nexus 5 problems Speaker Volume is Low & Sound Quality is Poor common issues 5 :

Speaker Volume is Low & Sound Quality is Poor

As I have already mentioned and many of you know that generally speakers volume are one of the drawbacks in the phone when compared to other brands like SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 & HTC ONE, however some of Nexus 5 users/owners may experience a lower level of volume or bad quality sound when compared to others especially in the black old version model and that’s due to the defect in the casing which has been resolved by Google and LG. The new casing has a wider speakers holes among other better fittings.

Solution:

Contact Google “Google contact” if you were on Carrier locked phone “CDMA” e.g. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Virgin Mobile,…etc. Or contact the distributor you bought your phone from if you are still under warranty for case replacement or device replacement. This will lift your quality and volume level to normally accepted. Yet the phone volume will remain inferior when compared with other phones n the league.

Solution to increase level of Volume & Quality of Sound

I’d suggest to use the Volume+ App on Google Play and has the ability to maximize your sound 10 times more and has an equalizer for sound enhancement to improvise the quality of speakers sound

Nexus 5 problems Battery draining rapidly common issues 6

Battery draining rapidly “Bug” or/and Battery won’t charge “Malfunction”

Battery rapid drain or in other words doesn’t hold-up for long is another drawback for Nexus 5 in general and therefore is looked down-upon in this area of features compared to other devices, reviews have repeatedly stated that one main reason people won’t go for this device is due to battery when compared to league devices like iPHONE. Yes with this phone you have to charge on daily basis, yet if you face a rapid drain this could be factored by several reasons, one of which can be caused if you are always on data mobile on which will drain your battery in such a way if Toggled off the user can experience dramatic increase in battery life, and discharge speed.

Workaround: As an alternative solution to the general drawback in the Nexus 5 users/owners can get extended battery case or portable battery charger which is becoming a growing trend now a days as many smartphone users spend more time on mobile than ever before.

Potential Solution for Battery won’t charge:

It’s not a bug that a battery won’t charge no matter what phone you are using, therefore this can happen for limited number of reasons, i mention the most popular here:

a) Phone’s battery won’t charge as you are charger which is usually a two piece hardware (adapter + cable) is not working to validate if one of the pieces is not working either use the cable to connect to the computer and check if it is charging, or connect the another cable with the adapter to validate the adapter or use it with another phone.

b) you are using the wrong charger, do not attempt using adapters not designed for your phone even if the plug fits. Different phones have different voltage requirements always check the output of the charger and your phone battery requirement of voltage it should always match whenever you are using a new charger. Always try to get the original charger to ensure better performance and output. Using wrong charger will ultimately damage phone’s battery and shorten battery life cycle

c) sometimes updating phone Android software may cause such issues, what you need to do is reboot or factory reset your phone if necessary.

Nexus 5 problems Camera Quality/Stabilization/Focus common issues 7

Camera Quality/Stabilization/Focus- Issue

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This is again another possible drawback on Nexus 5 end, many users have reported difficulty to focus especially on low light and stabilization of the camera which ultimately affect the quality of the 8 megal pixel camera fitted on the phone.

Workaround: To a certain extent the new 4.4.1 newer KITKAT has improvised this issue and many users/owners have reported this so try it if you are still on the old version of KITKAT. Furthermore, the use of third-party application may add to the improvement of the overall output of the camera.