#wanted to work on my designs for them tbh. also trying to work on ethnic features

[caribooed]

sry to the ppl who followed me not knowing im multifandom insane whoops anyway, have some nightguards

[kisari-v]

THE HOLY GRAIL OF LEARNING FOR FASHION ( t o m e )

So this is (one of) the book(s) I'm using at the moment to help me with learning more fashion work

One of the things I really enjoy about this books is that it gives you assignments. And since I haven't taken a fashion class since highschool (where we didn't do much pertaining to fashion tbh but it was really fun) I think It's really helpful to have a guide like this to know what I should be working on and what I should be trying to learn in my own way (if that makes sense)

So I'm gonna break this here, because underneath will be the list of the 14 assignments this book has to help you make your own fashion collections. (shortened to its basics bc LONG)

1.Shopping Reports

You know a place where people buy clothes? COOL.

GO THERE AND STUDY.

Notice what the fabric is made of, what are the colors? How are they made (technique-wise)? What's selling? What's on sale? (aka people don't seem to like/want this).

Look at the store and figure how they sell themselves and how does that help to communicate the style of the clothes and what they were made for in both style and who they are being sold to.

2.Architecture

So two things: This assignment is connecting both Fashion and Architecture together since both are made in society to be used in a functional way, but are stylized as a way to react to the current society.

Find a certain kind of architecture style (ex. Classical, Gothic, Renaissance, Rococo, Bauhaus, etc.) and study both the way it is shaped and looks (color, texture, surroundings, lights, space) and it's context as to why it was made like that (concept, society, history, location etc.)

3.Historical Personality

Clothing and fashion is one of the first ways that people get to know you. Want to know a famous person? Look at their clothes!

It's gonna be a lot of research, but search up a famous person and study what they dressed and why they dressed like that. You've got to follow a lot of the same research you did for the architecture assignment. What was the context of this person's life that led to how this person wanted others to perceive them? Consider, family location, time period, individual personality and social circumstances that lead them to dress the way they did.

4.Ethnic Background

Clothing in communities (whether that be social or ethnic ) helps to teach you about what people in certain communities found important to their life and the way it affected it. Folklore, Social Rank, or even homogenization are all important factors in the way a group of people dress.

Study about an ethnic background (whether that be your own roots or another place's history) and focus on something specific about the clothing and why it was made in that certain way. (ex. Differences in rank, location, war, religion). What differs this community from all the others and how.

How can you adapt these things you've learned into making your own clothes with inspiration and reflection from this group while still making it your own and appealing it to today?

5.Opposite Designer

Work with stuff that is directly opposite what you usually like to make. Literally ask your friends to recommend you a style they know you would hate.

Look at other peoples work that differs from your own preferences and compare it to your own and criticize it by observing what works and what doesn't from an objective and visual standpoint. Remember that collections are a whole. Don't forget to compliment and learn what went right for these collections too because not every failure is a loss and not every win is perfect either. That includes your own.

Learn how to use this style to sell to people who you don't share the same taste as you while keeping the feeling authentic. Remember you are working with the brand to move the brand forward while also keeping the identity of it in tack, while also appealing to current fashion tastes.

6.Swap

7.Nature

8.3D/2D

9.Macro to Micro

10.Concept to Catwalk

11.Shifts in Fashion

12.Polarities

13.One Inspiration for an entire class

14.Accessories

[animunerdery]

your art is very good and i love it a lot !! ur vrry talented ! however, you seem to still draw usopp with his minstrel lips? i know thatd how they look in canon but a caricature is a caricature. im not saying thid in a mean spirited way, i just want to see your art improve and not alienate who you're trying to depict

Oda certainly has some “issues” with his designs, Usopp and most of the other black and brown characters, along with pretty much all of his women have fairly obvious “these were designed by a Japanese dude who loves boobs and has probably only seen non asian people in film/media vibes.”

That being said… if it were up to me, I probably would still exaggerate a fair amount of features, but push them more towards the direction of the ethnicity / nationality they’d represent.

Luffy and Vivi for example, I would definitely make brown. I’m pretty sure the live action show will be a disaster given how bad cowboy bebop was, BUT! The casting of live action Luffy is spot on! Curly hair? Check! Thick assed eyebrows? Check! Feral boy energy? Check!

Zoro I’d have it so he dyes his hair, his eyebrows can be dark thick assed Asian eyebrows and the moss is his choice cuz he’s an idiot and thinks it’s cool.

Nami, I’d make her overall a bit more elfin; give a bit of an upturn to her nose and freckles obviously. Aside from that not too much of a change. Animu already makes ppl kinda white looking…

Usopp would definitely be wide nose instead of long nose and frankly I’d give him more prominent eyelids. I think he’d be darker relative to the other mugiwara even if Banchina is mixed race.

Sanji I would definitely give a much bigger much more French nose and maybe make him more like a French Buscemi overall? Sanji’s biggest problems are in his writing, but I think Oda has definitely been showing growth in our weird confused little misogynist.

Chopper I can see as half Asian tbh bc there’s a ton of Asians in Canada. Also he’s a kid so not that different from the way I already draw him haha.

Robin I think would also be more about making that nose more prominent and making those deep set eyes and heavy eyelids pop. Though tbh she could be kinda mixed too, like white Eastern European mixed with Asiatic Steppe ppl blood could also work?

(The main thing I’d change with all the women is waistline and boob size lol, also Nami face, I would definitely make Hancock and Tashigi clearly Asian. Love that Nojiko is black in the live action and would totally make Miss Double Finger black as well. Vivi would totally be brown, why not black? Ptolemaic Egyptians are essentially Greeks, so more Middle Eastern Mediterranean Sefardi vibes for Vivi.)

Franky doesn’t really need much change except maybe the nose also being more prominent? He already does look kinda like a large white dude to begin with lol. His butt-butt chin thing is weird but within the realm of cartoon liberty.

And my Brook would probably look like an older cross between Marley and Hendrix. So not thaaat different from Oda’s design I guess? I think of him as being from Jamaica at any rate, no idea where Oda had actually slated him to be from…

I didn’t do them, but Jinbei would probably be an older chunky Asian dude, and Yamabro would probably be an albino? The whole white hair red eyes thing lol…

At any rate… design is still incredibly labor and thought intensive so despite his issues, I take my hat off with full respect to Oda sensei and base my drawings off those designs.

Also… redesign takes time and energy as well and tbh this blog is just dumb throwaway doodles that take me 5-30min to cobble together. If you wanna see beautifully redesigned mugiwaras, check out these blog rolls of incredible artists who actually put time and energy into their work!

[kyidyl]

Kyidyl Does Archaeology - Part 5

(as per usual, all these posts are collected under the KyidylCL tag)

Pottery and shErds

So, what are we talking about today? Well, I think the next thing is gonna be pottery.  This is where we’re gonna talk about time, space, and dating a site.  Because most people think that the only way to date an archaeological site is via C14.  That’s not true, and actually we don’t always do it.  C14 dating can have some problems, including that the wood used in the fire is likely older than the time in which it was cut down and burned.  It also only goes back 50,000 years, so anything older than that won’t have any carbon isotopes (it’ll have all decayed), and we have to use other things that are more expensive.  And c14 testing itself is expensive - we sent in 2 samples and it was around $500/sample so we spent about $1000 on testing.  Instead, there are other ways to date a site and one of the most accurate is pottery.  

See, like all other kinds of material culture (AKA, stuff people leave behind.  Non-material culture is like...song and story and stuff like that.), pottery follows stylistic trends and trends in how it was made.  And it does this both regionally and chronologically.  Which is great, because if we find bits of one type of pottery we know is made in one place in a settlement in another place, then we know the two people traded with each other.  But I have to explain something else so that determining a date from pottery makes sense.  

Every area of the country has what’s called a “type site” for a given period of time.  In undergrad I was lucky enough to actually get to work on the type site for the Safety Harbour period, which is Weedon Island....ironically enough there’s a Weedon Island period and Weedon Island isn’t the type site for that period so uuuhhh...yeah it’s weird lol.  Anyway, a type site is a site that is considered stereotypical for a given time and place in history.  Usually they’re large and well-preserved, and they’re often the first sites found in that time period/area (but not always, which is how the above weirdness happened.). And so what happens is we dig ‘em and analyze the finds and do testing on those finds.  So now we know “hey, this kind of pottery comes from here and it is X years old”. Now you know when you find it in other places where and when it comes from.  This is all a very generalized explanation, but I think any more is like extraneous detail you don’t need.  Just know that things like type sites help us determine where and when stuff like pottery was made.  Lots of literature usually exists for type sites, but I actually can’t remember the type site for this area for this time period.  

We also use a term called “diagnostic”, which is used much as it is in medicine.  If we find a certain thing that was only made during a specific time period or in a certain place, then it’s diagnostic.  IE, a certain kind of pottery is diagnostic of the late, middle, or early Woodland.  The pottery we have at our site is diagnostic of the late Woodland.  Some of the lithics we thought might be a bit earlier, but honestly I think that was just misidentification by the site director bc we were in the field at the time.  Lastly, identifying pottery has a few components.  Color and decoration I think are easy to understand (they didn’t have glazes, but you can make different colored pottery by varying the composition of the clay and the temperature at which it is fired.). Paste and temper are the other two.  IDK how modern pottery is made, but old ass pottery is made with paste - the main body of the clay, the matrix that contains the temper - and temper. Temper is stuff they’d crush up and mix in to help it not break during firing and heating during normal use.  So we combine these factors to ID the pottery and thus the age of the site and trading habits of the people in question.  One last thing you need to understand about pottery - ancient people used pottery the way that we use disposable things.  They didn’t think it was like an important thing that had to keep safe.  They’d use it until it broke and then toss it in the garbage pit and make a new one.  So it’s really common and we find it all over the place, but TBH in the future pottery *won’t* be diagnostic anymore because our ceramics come in such a wide variety that we couldn’t possibly hope to narrow down time or place.  

Alright, so who wants pictures? You, of course.  Who *doesn’t* want pictures? Here’s some of the pottery we found: 

This is the larger shard that I found in the features I’ve talked about in previous installments.  You can see where I accidentally broke it. >.> Anyway it’s kind of unique bc of the light color outside and the black inside.  It’s like...idk, 4 or so inches long.  

This is a rim piece that I happened to find two matching sherds of.  I always check the rim pieces because the patterns on them usually make them easier to fit together.  Honestly I’ve got hundreds of pot sherds from this site and I don’t have the sanity to try and make pots from them.  

This is the outside and inside respectively of the largest piece we have.  TBH taking this thing out of its box and handling it makes me nervous because of how large it is - about the size of my hand, but I did include my earbuds for scale.  The black is charring from both firing and subsequent use, and it came out of the pit feature I’ve been talking about.  And do you wanna know the cool thing about the inner surface of pottery? Because they didn’t use glazes, the surface was porous and retains the unique chemical traces of what was made in them.  However, the vast majority of the time those kinds of tests aren’t done because archaeology as a whole is extremely underfunded and trace chemical analysis of pot residue is an expensive test requiring expensive equipment and expensive scientists.  Funnily enough I probably could do some of this testing bc I used to be premed and so I’ve taken a lot of chemistry and know how to read a mass spec thing, but I don’t have access to the chemicals or tools to do these kinds of tests.  Plus, they’re often destructive...which....I mean...there’s so much pottery that it doesn’t really matter if one piece gets destroyed but like you do still have to be careful *which* piece you destroy.  

Anyway, you also can see the striations on the outside piece, and that’s decoration on the pot.  It probably also helped with gripping it.  This is a piece of Shepardware, which is diagnostic of the late Woodland period in the Shenandoah valley. Here’s some more cool pottery: 

This is a random assortment of the kind of stuff we regularly pull out of the ground when it comes to pottery.  The most common kind we have is the orange on one side black on the other (3 upper rt pieces), whiteish (upper left 2), orange on both sides (lower left 3) and totally black (lower right 3).  All of ‘em are some variety of shepard or pageware.  You can see the texture on a lot of them, too.  We have a good mix of textured and untextured, and that’s why the composition of the pottery is more diagnostic than the decoration.  Frankly, people can and will put whatever design they think looks cool.  But they made that particular design by wrapping twine around the end of a flat stick and pressing it into the surface of the wet clay.  I also chose those two upper right pieces because they have really visible temper.  Here’s a side shot of one of them: 

You can see how big the bits are compared to my fingers (yeah, there’s dirt under my nails....I haven’t taken some tweezers to them yet after working on the car.). And...wait, I WAS going to try to describe this to you but then I was like “no, they deserve better” and I broke out my DSLR and my macro lens and took some pics.  Here are some macros of the temper: 

The white balance is a little off on the top one...the bottom one is more true to color (they aren’t the same piece of pottery, but they are a similar color).  So you can see that it’s crushed up limestone.  Pardon the depth of field on those...I had to open the aperture pretty wide to get one that wasn’t blurry bc I don’t exactly have bright lights in my room.  

Anyway....so that’s the pottery we’ve gotten at the site and what we can learn from it.  It’s going to take some time before we can start determining patterns and whatnot in regards to style, but we do have some evidence of trading here because some of the pottery we have is from the piedmont culture....

...wait, let me explain what that means.  When archaeologists need to describe a group of people who existed in a given place in a given time based on similarities in material culture regardless of ethnic and social grouping we call it a culture.  This is different than the standard meaning of the world culture, or even the way a cultural anthropologist would use the word.  So when I say the piedmont culture, I mean people that lived in the general area of the Piedmont plateau during the late woodland.  They were of varying tribes, languages, etc.  And we do this to describe the extant boundaries of cultural influence of particular trends in physical objects and not the social groupings of the humans in question.  So, for example, lots of people are familiar with the Clovis culture.  When archaeologists use this term we mean “these are the boundaries of the places we are finding physical objects in the group we’ve named Clovis” not “everyone in this area was a Clovis person”. Like no, obviously, they weren’t.  There were tons of social groups, tribes, etc. that were all distinct and different.  It’s a way of mapping cultural influence via physical objects to see how far they spread and who was using them.  

So, we have some piedmont stuff despite not being in the piedmont area, so we know that they were trading with those natives.  If you’re interested in more detail here, this is the VDHR resource I use for IDing pottery.  It looks like it came to visit you from the late 1990s, but the info is good and it’s easy to use. 

Anyway, that’s it for tonight.  Tomorrow is gonna be rocks and weird stuff, depending on how much I end up saying about rocks.  Probably not much bc we know how I feel about rocks.   ;) 

[richincolor]

SomeThoughts about Netflix's Shadow & Bone

This past Friday, the highly anticipated Shadow and Bone series premiered on Netflix and fans of the Grishaverse all over the world logged in to watch their favs come to life. There was much discussion of the inclusion of numerous characters from throughout the Grishaverse and that diversity was a focus in the casting of the show, especially Jessie Mei Li who is biracial, therefore changing the main character’s ethnicity to biracial Shu Han. Unfortunately, that decision didn’t pay off to well due to the showrunner’s handling of Alina’s ethnicity. Twitter blew up as people shared their hurt and warned others about what to expect.

I had planned to watch the show and happened to see one such warning before I watched the series so I was prepared. I watched a couple of episodes, then called it a night. The next morning I was unsettled and reached out to my fellow contributors here on Rich in Color. No one had seen it yet, but Jessica said she was planning to as well. As we chatted, I felt that our conversation should be shared with our readers, so Jessica and I decided to write our thoughts down and have a conversation after she watched a few episodes herself.

Oh, and spoilers abound!

First off, before we dive into this conversation: Have you read the Grishaverse series? How much did you know about the story going in?

K. Imani: As everyone knows I love fantasy so I’m open to reading all sorts of fantasy books. I read the Shadow & Bone series a few years ago and enjoyed it. When the Six of Crows duology came out I read those too and actually enjoyed those better than the original series. Why - more diversity? It also expanded the world and the different perspectives of “Grisha” like folk from other cultures. It was very clear from the writing that Bardugo realized her first series was very lacking in diversity and worked hard to change it. I actually re-read both series during quarantine, so I had a fair idea of what the Netflix series would be about.

Jessica: I’ve actually never read a single Grishaverse book! I know, shocking. I only knew two things about the series going into the show: 1) Six of Crows is a heist book? 2) Ben Barnes is a person who exists.

The cast announcement for any show is always so exciting, and Shadow and Bone was no different. How did you feel about the casting -- before and after you watched the show? What did you think was done well, and what did you think could be improved?

K. Imani: Before watching the show I was actually a bit confused about some of the casting choices. I didn’t understand why 3 of the main Six of Crows characters were in the show and I honestly did not make the connection to Alina and Mal being biracial. Knowing that the Grishaverse is “Russian-based” and knowing that some ethnic Mongolians are considered Russian I just found it cool that the show cast a person who didn’t fit a Russian stereotype. Oh boy was I way off! Overall I was pleased with the casting and think all the actors did a great job. I liked the few changes they did make with casting actors of colors for other roles to round out the diversity of the world.

Bringing it back to Mal, I was confused as to if he was supposed to be coded as biracial. I missed the reference in the show, but I did read somewhere that he was supposed to be as well and that is what bonded him to Alina. If that’s the case, then how come Alina was the only person to experience racism? That thought continues to sit on my heart because it shows that the writers did not really think through how they wanted to express racism and included it for the wrong reasons.

Jessica: My reaction was basically, “I’m happy that other people seem happy!” since again, I had no context for the show. Casting on Netflix shows often seems to be a case of “cool, this is some exciting casting… but definitely could be better and even more intentional.”

K. Imani: “More intentional” That is the word right there! Making a story more diverse is wonderful and fully reflects the world we live in, however if you just randomly do it without thinking it through it comes off as insensitive. I know Leigh Bardugo used this show as an opportunity to make her story better (and I do not begrudge her of that fact) but when one doesn’t think it through, the criticism that is being expressed is a direct result.

Jessica: Sidenote -- I ended up watching a booktube video titled “Darker Jesper, Fat Nina, Shadow and Bone Casting Thoughts” on booktube channel Chronicles of Noria about the casting. Highly recommend checking it out. I also recommend this profile on Jessie Mei Li, who talks about being gender nonconforming.

Did any changes in the Netflix adaptation stick out to you? Were there changes you liked or disliked?

K. Imani: My favorite part of the adaptation is how well the show runners included the Six of Crows characters into the narrative. The storyline completely worked for me and connected the two stories together. I really enjoyed the Arken storyline (and the character tbh) as it was used to flesh out the world of the Grishaverse, which made the series much more interesting. I also liked the change of making Ivan and Fedyor a couple instead of just Darkling’s henchmen as it humanized them and actually made me like Ivan because they were so cute together. Though how that will come into play after the events of Episode 8 will be interesting. I’m a sucker for the Enemies to Lover trope so I loved that Nina’s & Matthia’s story of how they came together was included here. In either Six of Crows or Crooked Kingdom (I don’t remember), it was told as a flashback, but I loved that it was moved here as their “origin story”, so to speak, and how it connects to the events of the Alina timeline.

What I didn’t like...the casual racism. It really bothered me and left me sad the next morning. For example, a certain poster shown in the first episode had me physically cringe and I was upset that 1)  the production designers even created it and 2) no one, at no point, said that was a bad idea? Come on! It was horrible to see and I can imagine the hurt an AAPI would experience seeing that. And then, it got worse. Racial slurs thrown around a couple of times in the first couple of episodes to show that Alina is an outsider. They were jarring and took me out of the narrative. Having read the books I knew there was tension between the Ravkans and Shu Han, so I could understand what the show runners were trying to do, but it was actually never explained in show, hence making the racism feel random and just there for shock value.

Jessica: I saw tweets going around alluding to the racism Alina (and other characters to a less frequent extent) faced, so I braced myself for it. I’m only a few episodes in, and the instances so far were brief… but it just didn’t feel right. The foundation for this portrayal of racism wasn’t laid properly. And if the work of laying the foundation and really digging into what it means for the overall worldbuilding doesn’t happen… then why include it at all? Especially if it might be painful for certain viewers? I’m sure harm wasn’t the intent, but that’s the impact. Why not leave it out and let the show be escapism?

K. Imani: Jessica, the eyes comment took me out, not gonna lie. I audibly screamed. Anyone who has experienced a racist comment based on their looks felt that in their gut which is horrible when watching a show for escapism.

Jessica: Yeah, the eyes and rice-eater comments were especially frustrating. On top of it being a reminder of the racism Asians experience daily… it doesn’t make much sense. Like, canonically, do people in Ravka not eat rice? An American’s conception of racism isn’t necessarily going to make sense in a (Imperial Russia-inspired) fantasy world. But maybe I’m missing something since I didn’t read the original books.

And the eyes comment… whoof. When I was a kid, other kids would make fun of my eyes and ask me to, like, count seagulls because surely, I couldn’t see out of my eyes… And the other kids were also Asian! Internalized racism is so real. It’s disappointing that Shadow and Bone would include this experience as, I don’t know, discrimination flavor text. Surely there were better ways to portray discrimination that made sense within the Grishaverse…

Ellen Oh really said it so well: “If a writer is going to show racism against Asians, it's important to balance it with the beauty of all that makes us Asian also.” Where is the balance? Where is the nuance? Even if Alina’s Shu Han mother isn’t alive, couldn’t Alina have had a treasured Shu Han pendant? Just spitballing here. There were so many possibilities.

K. Imani: Exactly. I agree with Ellen and unfortunately there is no balance. That’s what makes it so hurtful. The focus is on how bad it is that she’s biracial and how bad the Shu Hans are for no specific reason. Because Alina is an orphan and grew up in Ravka, she unfortunately has no connection to Shu Han culture (or at least what is shown on screen) so all that she identifies as is Ravkan who just happens to look like a Shu Han person, but she doesn’t exhibit any pride in being Shu Han. Her ethnicity is just another obstacle to overcome which is all the more cringeworthy and why having Alina be biracial just to be biracial without thinking it through ended up being so problematic. Having her be biracial and using casual racism as an “obstacle” that she has to overcome is such a shallow interpretation of racism and shows the writers didn’t do the work to really think about the why the racism exists.

In addition to talking about what was done well and what went wrong or felt off about certain representation, it’s important to look at the “how.” How did this happen?

Jessica: I read on Twitter that one of the show writers is Korean and biracial -- which is awesome! I was really heartened to hear that. But at the same time, this highlights how important it is to have multiple marginalized voices in the room who can speak with some level of expertise. I don’t know the decision-making process that went into including this sort of surface-level, simplistic version of real world racism, but I wonder if anyone, at any point, said “is there a more nuanced and original way to portray this?” or “how will this affect Asian viewers?” Did someone bring it up, and they were overruled? What happened?

This absolutely isn’t a judgment on the Asian writers or staff on the show. When I’ve done collaborative writing, there were times I caught an issue and said “we need to be more sensitive about this” -- and there were other times when my teammates pointed out something I didn’t notice. It happens! That’s why it’s so important to have multiple marginalized perspectives when creating something -- especially when it’s a work as impactful and far-reaching as a Netflix show. Placing the burden of complex, nuanced representation on one, or a scant handful, of marginalized creators is just not going to work… and it’s not fair to the creators, either.

Frankly, this is a problem in so many industries -- film, publishing, games... there are so many “diverse” shows, games, etc with all-white or majority white teams. Good, nuanced representation can only happen when BIPOC / marginalized creators are the majority and have power behind-the-scenes. (This is why I’m really excited to watch the show Rutherford Falls -- half the writers room are Indigenous writers, as is the co-creator!)

K. Imani: Exactly! It’s great that one of the writers is biracial and Korean, but if she’s the only one how much input did she really have? I’m by no means knocking her experience but, say for example, that particular poster in the first episode. No one else behind the scenes found it problematic? There are many steps to a production process and that poster, if there had been more diverse voices present on the production staff instead of just 1 writer, would have been flagged as a huge problem and redone. The poster was supposed to be a “short cut” to show Ravkan/Shu Han tension but instead it came off as so profoundly racist and unnecessary. There are many other non-racist ways to explore the tensions between the two countries that could have been explored instead of just jumping to racism. And...as someone on Twitter pointed out, we never see the tension between the Ravkans and the Shu Han, but we openly see fighting between the Ravkans and the Fjierdans, so why were they not vilified to the same extent?

Jessica: Right. I’m definitely not saying racism can’t be portrayed in fantasy ever. But if you’re going to do it, make it make sense within the world. Don’t just use it as shorthand for “this character is Other.” I mean, experiencing racism isn’t what makes me Asian…

K. Imani: Boom! I’m going to repeat that for the people in the back...experiencing racism is not what makes a person Asian or Black, and if you are going to have racism in a work of art, be sure to provide balance to show all the other aspects of a person of color’s life.

Since we’re talking creators behind-the-scenes… which YA fantasy books by Asian authors do you think would make great Netflix shows or movies?

Jessica: I’ve got a list about a mile long, but I’ve cut it down to my top four:

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee

You’re welcome, Netflix execs who are totally reading this blog. Hop to it!

K. Imani: I second the Tiger at Midnight series! I loved the first two books and can’t wait for the conclusion in June. While not YA, the City of Brass series would make an excellent Netflix series. Anything Maurene Goo writes would be fun rom-coms (because we need those too!).

Jessica: I mean, with To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before complete… Netflix clearly needs to start adapting Maurene Goo’s books.

K. Imani: Yes, the people demand it! I don’t care which book, just grab one of them and get the production started.

On a final note, I do want to say that despite the criticism the show rightly deserves, there was much about the show that was enjoyable. The storytelling was strong and moved at a good pace, the costuming was on point, special effects worked seamlessly into the narrative, and even small touches such as how the Grishas used their small science was visually interesting. Book adaptations are always hard to pull off well and the Shadow and Bone production team did a good job overall. Their intention towards adding more diversity is a step in the right direction, but just didn’t do enough. Let’s hope they learn from their mistakes and improve for season 2.

[emsartwork]

Can I ask why you chose those specific fairy tales/mythological/folk figures for the Mythix redesign? Very much enjoy how unique the designs are and how they draw from multiple different cultures thnx

Yeah so Mythix was a process and had a lot of concept brain work before i ever put anything down on paper. I think I had a few ladies in mind from the very beginning (Scheherazade is one of my favorite folk lore ladies just in general lol) but i wanted to pull from as many different cultures as possible, and have fit the winx girls’ ethnicity when possible. 

So for a character like Musa, who is Asian even if she is technically from an alien planet, I wanted to draw from mostly north east asia(even tho south and south east asia have super cool stories too), and I know a good amount of japanese folklore because of...... anime reasons and at first I was trying to find a japanese figure related to music, voice, or mouth, but I kind of hit a wall with that one because the only one i could think of/find was the tongue-cut sparrow story or the Split mouth woman which, while interesting, aren’t all that fitting for a powerful magic lady. You of course have momotaro, princess kaguya, or, a personal favorite, the boy who drew cats but none of those felt right either so I expanded my range to China and IMMEDIATELY landed on Mulan, I like to think at least some of her story was true, but even if she is just a legend WHAT A FUCKING LEGEND AMIRIGHT. she was perfect for a powerful magic lady, strong, honorable, selfless, protective, and smart. Even if her “power” wasn’t realted at all to music she was a perfect fit. 

With Flora I wanted to draw from Mexican or native american(aztec or mayan) folklore, I actually did consider making her Scheherazade for a hot minute cus I draw a lot of inspo for Flora and Lynphea from Persia/the middle east in general, but ultimately decided against it. La Muerte is another favorite figure of mine, partially because she has such an interesting origin from an anthropological point of view. with the blending of catholic saints and native cultures in Mexico and possibly some influence from what would eventually become voodoo. Also, Dia de Muertos has that whole marigold flower petal association which perfectly links to Flora. 

Aisha was a little more difficult because she’s black, and black people are, ethnically, from Africa, and Africa has SO MANY DIFFERENT CULTURES AND STORIES AND EVEN JUST GEOGRAPHY. and i know from past experiences its stupidly hard to find good reliable references for any of the native cultures in Africa, or america for that matter, because racism and colonialism. So I tried going by Aisha’s name, which is of Arabic and Swahili in origin, but arabic and swahili are both spoken in many countries across south Africa North Africa and the Middle East, so I used her parent’s names Niobe and Teredor which are both Greek sounding so that pulled it towards North Africa/Saudi Arabia(where there was a lot of Greek influence). SO i thought to myself, what about egypt??? Didn’t the Cinderella story originate in Egypt with an eagle and a sandal and a prince or something?????? UNFORTUNATELY THAT’S A LIE(as far as my research showed). So I was mega stumped with Aisha, and I tried applying Scheherazade to her as a last ditch effort because Saudi Arabia, and.,,,....,, it fit???? like weirdly well???? like Aisha and Scheherazade are both BAMFs with unrelenting determination, an urge to protect the innocent, and punish the unjust they just do it very differently, but I liked the contrast between Aisha’s more active aggressive style and her switching to a more subtle story teller’s methods. So somehow I got it to work out ethnically, geographically, personality, and using my lady Scheherazade AND the design + the colors came out fantastic imo.

Stella was easier, I knew I wanted to pull from Greece, and possibly link to Apollo if possible so I looked up the temple of Delphi to see if there were any notable priestesses. Pythia came up right away, and had a gorgeous classical painting to use as reference so that was a snap tbh

Bloom was pretty easy, I’ve based Domino off of Scotland and a lil’bit of China but appearance wise she’s VERY white. But I was already pulling HEAVILY from Scotland and Ireland for Morgana and Tir Nan Og, so I broadened to Europe in general(which means I had a lot to work with because fairytales are so Eurocentric *eye roll emoji*) I decided to go with cinderella because CINDERS come from FIRE(aren’t I clever) and glass making requires a lot of heat. I mentioned earlier that there are theories as to where the “cinderella” story truly originated, The most popular being China, Egypt, or Germany(as far as I researched the Egyptian and Chinese “versions” of Cinderella barely resemble the story?).  Aschenputtle is the iconic one from Grimm Brother’s collections in 1812 but I chose to use the edition that popularized the story in 1698 by Charles Perrault since thats the “classic cinderella” modern audiences still recognize(even tho i am very partial to the more violent german version lmao). Her outfit design was a bit of challenge but I really like what I came up with.

Tecna was..... troublesome. Pink hair doesn’t exist irl unless it’s dyed, so I had only a partial appearance to base ethnicity on. I pull a lot from Russia for Zenith tho, so I figured I would start with Baba Yaga(who is already a villain in world of winx so I wasn’t gonna use her anyways) and see where that lead me. I came across Vasilisa the Fair/Beautiful/Wise, she featured in a lot of Russian folklore and had a lot of different aspects/personalities/stories so I kinda tried to pull from all of them (which gave me difficulties later on in the design process) She was one of the only Fairytale figures I could find that had a direct connection to intelligence (not that other fairytale ladies aren’t smart ofc). Because of Vasilisa’s many different roles and some physical transformations (russian frog princess) I made her the Fairy of Transformations. Tecna is probably the one I’m least satisfied but I’m not changing it lmao 

[margaretthehuman]

HPHM character profile

Thank you so much @annevmoreira for tagging me!! 

General Information

Name: Margaret McCarthy Wayne

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Nicknames: Margo (By her dad) Pip, Baguette (By Jacob)

Date of Birth: March 13

Astrological/Zodiac Sign: Pisces

Ethnicity: White 

Nationality: British

Species: Witch, Animagus 

Blood Type: B

Blood Status: Half-blood

Family

(For this, I only included her immediate family) 

Father: Bob Arthur Wayne

Muggle

Only learned about the wizarding world after he had Jacob with his (ex) wife

Works as a writer and artist for comic books

All around very nice and chill guy

Loves his family very much

Really funny (has one of those contagious and loud laughs that makes other people want to laugh) 

Loud and happy

Hawaiin shirt dad

Has a dad bod

Tries to be hip with the kids

“How do you do fellow kids” -Bob Kane Wayne

Bisexual 

Mother: Elizabeth May Wayne

Pureblood

She attended Hogwarts

Ravenclaw

Worked as a librarian

Quiet and kind 

Had an eye and ear for gossip (Some say that's where Margaret got it from) 

Always wanted to have children

Started out really loving her family and life

After Jacob disappeared she resorted to drinking

Became very distant from everyone

Became more aggressive and hostile

lashed out at Margaret sometimes 

Just straight up and left one day

Bob woke up one day and all her stuff was gone 

No one knows where she is

Brother: Jacob Mae Wayne:

Half-Blood

Hufflepuff

Jacob was very close to his mother

Has a pet snake (Named Cinder, after Cinderella) 

Loves baking

His dream is to become a baker and open a bakery

He’s very soft and jumpy

and clumsy

most of his scars come from baking mishaps

A bit scatterbrain

Big Theatre Kid Energy™

Tries his best 

Brother: Thomas Ace Wayne

Muggle

A very kind and generous soul 

Smooth and has great social skills

He's very close with everyone in the family

works as a surgeon

Eldest sibling in the family

Later moves to America with his wife, Martha 

Ceo and founder of Wayne Enterprises 

He then had a child named Bruce 

He was murdered a couple of years after 

Step-Father: Patrick Kane Wayne:

Muggle

A very softspoken, well-kept, and smart man 

Bookworm

Wears turtlenecks 

Tall and skinny 

Founder and Owner of Wayne Tech and Wayne Corp 

Also, very rich 

Like, really rich 

Welcomes Bob and Margaret with open arms

Bob and Patrick are really cute together tbh

Affiliation(s)/Organization(s)

Hufflepuff

Wayne Family

Hogwart School of Witchcraft and Wizardry 

The Daily Prophet 

Occupation(s)

Reporter and Gossip Correspondent for the Daily Prophet

Magical Characteristic.

Form of Boggart: Her future self alone and sad

Form of Riddikulus: Derek Savage (that man is both my guardian angel and my sleep paralysis demon)

What do they see in the Mirror of Erised?: Her mother

Wand(s):

Length: 10 1/4″

Flexibility: SlightlyYielding flexibility

Wood: Hawthorn wood

Core: Dragon core

Form of Patronus: Unicorn 

Animagus:  Rose-breasted grosbeak (bird)

Amortentia:

What she smells: roasted marshmallows, burning wood, smoke

What she smells to others: baking, sugar, cookies, and cake

Appearance

Height: 5′0″

Weight: 125

Complexion (skin tone/conditions):

White 

Soft and plump skin

Hair Color/Style:

Shoulder length, wavy 

Ombré- starts out dark brown on the top, lighter in the middle, practically blonde on the bottom

Eye Color: Bright blue

Hogwarts Information

Worst Class(es):

Potions: She gets to stressed trying to make the potion perfect, that the potion ends up blowing up in her face

D.A.D.A.: She hates this class mostly due to its teacher 

Transfiguration: As much as she loves McGonagall, she finds having to turn living beings into objects very unsettling

Best Class(es):

History of Magic: She really loves history. She doesn't care how boring the lectures are, she just loves learning about history.

Herbology: She finds plants to be really cute and treats them all as if they were her children 

Flying: She loves the feeling of wind in her hair and the thrill of flying on a broom

Least Favourite Teacher(s):

Rakepick: God does she hate this woman. Even from the beginning, she didn't trust Rakepick. 

Favorite Teacher(s):

McGonagall: McGonagall is, in many ways, is like a mother figure to Margaret. Shes kind but stern, and Margaret greatly admires her

Flitwick: I mean, who doesn't like Flitwick? an idiot, that's who. 

Quidditch:

She doesn't play quidditch

but

If the Hufflepuff quidditch team had a cheerleading team, she would be the head cheerleader 

Favorite spell(s):

Depulso 

Meteolojinx

Expecto Patronum

Trivia (random facts about them, future job, face claim, theme song, etc.):

One of her favorite things is to go to her step-dads extravagant parties and mess with all the rich people there with Thomas 

Has a GIAGANTIC sweet tooth 

Has a scar on her stomach 

Learned to fight from her brother and his friend 

Has gotten into a lot of fist fights in the muggle world

Actually really strong

Could lift a person with one hand tbh 

Falls in love easily 

Loves to read mystery books

Always wanted to own a grappling hook 

I would also imagine her as being a great fashion designer 

Like, she hand-sews her own outfits

Had to work alongside Emily Tyler when she was an apprentice for Rita Skeeter 

Tagging: @sirfluffig and @moko-sh !!! ❤️❤️

[svbcritic]

ok  wow  don’t  mind  this  being  late  of  an  intro  bc  i  was  out  w  my  friend  and  have  poor  time  management  skills  jdfks  .  i’m  stuck  at  work  rn  so  hopefully  this  intro  has  smth  of  substance  in  it  for  my  boy  hobgoblin  boy  charlie  ..  but  yes  !!  hello  all  i’m  cherrie  and  under  the  read  more  will  be  some  info  on  my  boy  so  sorry  in  advance  if  there’s  any  ramblings  ..  i  just  have  a  tendency  to  never  shut  up  dsjfnk  .  but  feel  free  2  tap  the  lil  heart  if  u  wanna  plot  and  i’ll  pop  over  into  ur  im’s  !!

brindle  bay  welcomes  charles  “charlie”  kim  the  twenty-one  year  old  podcaster.  i  kind  of  think  he looks  a  lot  like  wong  yukhei.  they  have  been  living  in  east  bay  suburbs  for  5  years  and  i  heard  they  are  known  to  be  amiable  but  also  impetuous.  when  i  think  of  them  i  think  of  unapologetic  laughter,  headphones  hung  around  the  neck,  and  a  collection  of  pastel  denim  jackets.

STATS

full chinese name: jin ximen / americanized name: charles kim / nicknames: charlie / ethnicity: chinese & thai / sexuality: bisexual / occupation: true crime podcaster / spoken languages: mandarin, thai, english, korean & spanish / hogwarts house: slytherin

BIOGRAPHY

okie dokie so charlie ( born ximen ) is the youngest of the four kids between his parents born and riased in shanghai and their wedding was some big event bc both families were heavily affluent and prominent in their home countries

charlie’s dad hailed from shanghai, china where his family had a long lineage of old money and a 5 star international hotel chain that’s comparable to the four seasons .. meanwhile charlie’s mom is from thailand where her family has ties to the oil industry which is how they built their wealth .. their marriage was more political than anything and wanting to combine their wealth in industries the other was lacking in

as the youngest kid and the only boy with three older sisters, charlie never lacked a caregiver bc he was an adorable little boy who charmed whoever he met and though he was a little shit, his sisters loved him and helped raise him alongside a clan of nannies that his parents hired when they were busy off on different continents running their respective businesses

charlie definitely was more of a mommy’s boy in the sense that his mom made more of an effort to spend time with him bc as her only son, she held him on a pedestal and since she was a well known fashion designer, she often brought charlie to her studio and let him run wild in some of the garments and clothing that was in storage and whatnot

from this charlie had a lil mini modeling career ( lmao not really ) where he would do mock photoshoots with some of the models in his mom’s bridal collections and eventually bc he was adorable and everyone loved him, they dressed him in some mini tuxes and he appeared in some campaigns for his mom’s bridal collection 

generally though charlie was an exuberant kid who often had more energy than he knew what to do with and that often had him getting in trouble at the expensive prep school his parents had him enrolled in . which he frequently was scolded by his dad for his hellion behavior jdsklafjd

so it was a constant push and pull between charlie and his dad in trying to calm down his son .. which wyd he;s just a happy go lucky boy hsalkjf but anyway charlie was eventually enrolled in a soccer club so he could wear himself out by running all the time and tbh it kinda worked .. but also charlie actually enjoyed soccer so it worked out

his dad really thought he did something by keeping his teenage son out of trouble and letting him build teamwork skills ig ... mainly bc he wanted his only son to take over the jin empire of their hotel chain even though charlie was like :/ .. and his mom was a bit :/ bc she knew charlie wasn’t the type who would want the weight of this empire on his shoulders even though his oldest sister was more experienced

but fun times for dad bc lit it’s w his soccer friends that charlie realizes that whatever heterosexuality is .. that ain’t him sdjldkjs but yeah he finds out that he’s into guys just as much as he’s into girls and he has a crush on one of his best friends on the soccer team w him

charlie was able to disguise his crush as a solid bro friendship around his dad meanwhile him and his friend were leaning on the scale of more than friends and 10/10 were making out whenever they were alone so yeah ... things were swaggy for the first three months until charlie’s dad came home early from his trip from new york and walked into charlie’s room to see him fooling around with his friend

so yeah ... things didn’t go great after that and the jin household was so painfully tense where his dad refused to go on any international trips and kept a strong grip on charlie and pulled him out of his school’s soccer team .. it was a tough time and definitely miserable for charlie despite his mom’s best efforts to help soothe him

nearly a month following The Incident ( as he dad refers to it as ) he announced that 16 year old charlie was going to live with his aunt over in america and it was an absolute shit show at the house when his dad broke the news but the next day charlie found himself on a direct flight from shanghai to brindle bay where his aunt lives with her american husband and son

the move was a big adjustment for charlie and it was here that he started going by charlie bc the kids at his new school couldn’t pronounce ximen . originally he was a bit standoffish and reclusive bc his english was still shaky and he had an accent so this combination of things made him a target of some shitty xenophobic bullies and it put him down for a bit

it was a dark period that charlie doesn’t like to think back on and relied on the friendship he established with his cousin and it was through him that charlie began to blossom in brindle bay and make his own connections and realized that his dad is a dumbass bc he essentially sent him away for being into men but lmao !! sike dad !! bc now he gets to kiss boys if he wants without the rope around his neck from his dad

it’s been five years since charlie has been shipped to brindle bay and he keeps in contact with his sisters and mother and has visited shanghai a few times for some holidays and lets his dad think him being in america has helped him become more sensible and learn responsibility

when he graduated high school his mom offered to have him come home but charlie decided he wanted to stay more away from his dad for the time beginning and enrolled in college and got his degree in communication studies

it’s when he’s in school that he starts up his own podcast where he just discusses true crime and paranormal stories and such just bc it’s always been an interest of his .. he started it with his close friend that was his first Official friend in brindle bay and they’re two years into and it’s growing a strong listening base on spotify and apple music .. for comparison sake it’s a mix of buzzfeed unsolved and my favorite murder

but yeah overall charlie is an easy going guy who is usually seen with a smile on his face and just v fun loving , charismatic and loves talking to ppl ?? comes off v flirty but that’s just who he is bc he has that kinda vibe .. sometimes he doesn’t even realize he’s flirting bc it comes like breathing . he means well and is a soft boy who misses his family but is scared to go back home to china officially

WANTED CONNECTIONS

someone who helped show charlie around when he first came to brindle bay and maybe they built a friendship from it

someone who maybe helped him improve on his english when he first came to town and charlie is forever grateful to them and feels indebted to them for being there for him when he was self conscious and needed help

his first relationship .. p self explanatory but charlie and your muse dated for a bit and it was nice and sweet but things ended amicably between the two and they still remain friends

maybe one or two fwb’s that charlie respects their friendship and somehow their arrangement happened and things are going good and having someone on call when he’s feeling needy is a+ .. whether or not smth angsty can stem from this can be debated

his first friend that he made when coming to town and charlie’s podcast buddy !!

maybe someone who has a crush on charlie but he’s stupid and oblivious and his flirting that comes as easy as breathing doesn’t help the situation

a good influence

a bad influence who is helping charlie embrace more of his hellion ways hfskd

or even someone who knows of his family’s wealth back in china and is trying to finagle their way into charlie’s good graces and hopefully try to get a cut of it

[suchaspookyginger]

@obsessedgrapes you asked for oc help, especially when it comes to getting started, and here i am giving you a quick breakdown on the evolution of literally my first oc ever. click the readmore because this accidentally became a behemoth lmao.

alright now that i’m home from work and actually sketched out a quick reference for my oc that i’ve had since i was 12 (which lmao means i’ve had my oc for 11 years rip).

here she was in all her glory when i was....14? I deleted my original drawings of her from when i was 12, so this is the oldest version of her design that i own now (i just added some color onto the original drawing, though i tried to mimic my old shading style, which is to say i had no idea what a light source was lmao). 

initially, she was an incredibly serious, cut-and-dry character. her best friend disappeared and ended up dead, and a teddy bear that “ringo” had gifted her when they were young kids held a clue to find her murderer. (it was actually very dark and i never went really far with actually creating the story because i was a 14-year-old kid with then-undiagnosed adhd lmao.)

AND THEN I FORGOT ABOUT HER FOR SIX YEARS LOL

this was my redesign of her that i did when i was 20 because i...missed having ocs that weren’t literal self-inserts? her best friend character was also completely redesigned (where gale kept most of her design and her personality was changed, rosa’s entire look was radically changed, but her personality stayed pretty similar) and actually still alive in this vague story that exists in my head. 

gale is still fairly serious about her studies, but is overall a laid-back person. she’s an ace lesbian and loves kicking it with her friends and salsa dancing, because that was a detail i found to be important. I literally did not flesh her out much more than that at this point lmao. (tbh i’m mad at how good that hand turned out because that was a big ass fluke and i wish i could consistently draw hands that well hot damn.)

AND HERE SHE IS NOW! still in the textiles career path, though now she’s a costume designer at a local theatre. where’s that theatre? who knows, though probably in cleveland because i’m basic and know cleveland super well lmao. i wrote that she’s bi as hell in the desc., though i think i still prefer her as a lesbian tbh. she’s dating rosa (who i didn’t feel like making a whole new-ass reference sheet like gale’s because that’s a lot of work?) who is bi as hell though. 

gale has the tendency to hyperfixate on whatever she’s working on at the time, to the point of forgetting to eat or drink or go to the restroom. she’s stubborn and opinionated, though has the best intentions the majority of the time.

and like. i’m always thinking of various scenarios and trying to actually create a story of her and rosa. their story was originally a freaking murder-mystery and i changed their story to be an lgbt coming-of-age fluff story. like, seriously. have fun with your characters and keep throwing them into new situations until you have a story. (sometimes your characters have a story for you and will just drag you kicking and screaming throughout it. you cannot control your characters beyond a certain level. just accept it lmao)

other big things to take into consideration when creating an oc include:

family members? what’s their relationship with them?

what kind of story do you want to tell? will their personality and character traits work in this setting?

where did they grow up? take care for them to be knowledgeable of any regional culture

ethnicity/religion/race/culture. if you’re making a poc (or really any character that doesn’t fall under your own ethnic, cultural, racial, and religious group), please make sure to not accidentally make them a stereotype. there are a lot of blogs here on tumblr that help with exactly that.

if you throw them in x situation, what will they do? why?

if you throw them in x situation, what will they not do? why not?

there are a lot of other things to take into consideration, but these ones are the big ones i think of when i try to come up with a character.

OR you can take a “shortcut” and literally create a dnd character and base a real character off of those trait lmao. (depending on how into dnd characters you get, this may or may not take even more time lol)

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

AndromedaWatch 01 - first reaction to the series

So, it’s been a brief break from my Farscape first watch/reaction series (which you can find entries in HERE or HERE), and during the off period, I’ve decided to do something a little different! By chance, I came across another late 90s-early 2000s sci-fi/space opera show I’d never seen before, Andromeda, so I decided to do a first watch reaction to it as well!

Without further ado, here’s my thoughts on Andromeda 1.01 ‘Under The Night’!

1.01 UNDER THE NIGHT

Spaceships! and a written brief intro. Semi conspicuous CG.

A crew! Lots of people. Red and blue uniforms. Antigravity harnesses. Andromeda is the ship and our lead is the captain, fun.

Everyone running about! But seems like it was a drill.

First leads appear to be two white dudes, one with the look of Buffy's Riley, the other Firefly's Mal. Longer haired dude is getting married. As this is the first episode this is probably going to be horribly wrong.

Also, the ship Andromeda has a female voice.

We are far future or maybe just alien; there's robots and lots of tech. We're leaping STRAIGHT into action too! Great opening.

Right, they're off to rescue a ship from a black hole after a distress call and we're less than 5 minutes in. Hyperspace jumping too, gotta get those tropes in.

Side characters we've seen so far include a black technician guy, feminine robot and a smallish green alien guy. Andromeda has hologram avatar too, an Asian woman.

Captain makes the call to try and save as many as possible, evacuation...but they're firing on them! Andromeda says that it must be a trap!

OPENING CREDITS time. There's a voiceover, and now an instrumental futuristicy theme with credits introducing our characters. There's the lead, male-bob-haired Captain Dylan Hunt, a blonde badass lady, dreadlocked black dude, a purple skinned Chiara-looking expy, and some others. Quite a big cast from the off.

Into the episode; now everyone actually IS running to battlestations, no drill this time. They're under assault right away, imperfect shields. They face 10k ships. Second in command guy suggests deploying extreme destructive bombs, but Captain refuses, aww, he's a good guy. (How long will that last?)

Second in command guy (Starscream?) notes that the attackers are his...race? ethnic group? nationality? so, as a precuation, recommends that he and all others aboard of that trait should be locked up just in case. Seems a little odd tbh.

Captain concurs and a bodyguard looking guy does it.

They aren't doing too well in the battle; outnumbered and can't maneuver. Also next to a black hole, they can't do their hyperspace jump again due to gravity pull.

Well, damnnn. 9 minutes in and the black guy dies. Eep. There was an explosion in Control, hull breach apparently. They're still pinned down for the next ten minutes too.

Captain orders that everyone abandons ship on escape pods. Ah, this will be the cast paring down, good, I hope they don't all die. The green alien elects to stay with the Captain in Control and may be female? Androgynous looking and shamefully I assumed it was not female.

Shot of everyone abandoning ship through some appropriately sci-fi +/ 90s style pods and passageways.

Well daaaang. We cut to Starscream and he kills the guards sent with him; a double-bluff! Ask to be locked up so he can get away from the captain and co, and just after offering his congratulations to the captain on his upcoming marriage too. Utter bastard. That's some Kill Bill shit.

He has a plan. Cutting between him and Control, where a female robot has stayed too. Captain decides to go INTO the black hole, fine, okay.

They're not strong enough to fight their way free, they need to use the black hole's gravity to slingshot themselves free... now, I'm not sure when this aired, but that sounds a LOT like the resolution of the first episode of Farscape. I hope this doesn't turn out to be a straight AU rerun.

Bug lady is the pilot. She does seem to ACTUALLY be an alien bug, and I quite like this. I hope she doesn't die. (She probably will, characters I like rarely last long, RIP PK lady lieutenant in Farscape). She speaks a bit of her langauge which Andromeda translates (her avatar's still here), good touch, saying that she's willing to sacrifice and risk herself for the ship's survival.

Oops Andromeda's frozen, avatar dropping out. Power freezing. Starscream is still doing things, Andromeda has noticed now but he blows out the camera. Andromeda is able to alert the captain to sabotage just as Starscream walks in and... yup, bug lady gets (quite graphically) killed, her chest front explodes out when she's shot (or blasted, didn't get a good look at the weapon). Eesh.

Captain spins around to engage. Starscream reveals his people are designed to be perfect. They all live within a Commonwealth, but Starscream's people want to take it over now. There's an issue with the Magog, who seem to be horrible people, who the Commonwealth have made peace with. Starscream's people want instead, revenge.

FIGHTSCENE. Starscream is a bit of a karate boy, this is more phyisical than I anticiapted, not just a shootout. Captain holds his own too though, flipping off a wall in slow-mo, which is revealed to actually be a time distortion, nice nod to the Matrix surely given the time this was made.

The two run back for their blasters and the Captain is hit first, but returns fire as he falls and may hit his opponent more critically.

He runs over to him, possibly saddened, and there's a 'what have you done' moment. Then they all freeze in time, Starscream possibly already dead on the ground, and we cut to the ship, already on course before its power was cut, dipping straight into the black hole.

Cut away. We open on blonde lady from the credits. We;re on another ship now, presumably. Blondie is a Captain too, Captain Valentine. Her coworkers are a wookie-faced dude and an expy of Wash from Firefly and Oz from Buffy in one character. They've found the Andromeda, but it seems a looong time has passed, years at least.

Seems we might have another Starscream situation here as Mr Wookie already is proud that HE - uh, THEY - have found the ship. Not a happy family, methinks.

More new characters! A scabby faced grumpy dude from the credits and purple lady, something bad might be about to happen to Wookie because I didn't see him in those credits and all these characters will be sticking around. Ms Purple has a tail too, because why not, it was the 90s, we didn't have weaboos yet.

So it seems these guys are salvagers - thieves, essentially. Already I can see this potential clash, immoral guys vs Mr straight and narrow. They were after this ship as a prize haul with big cash value and big rewards for them all.

The guy on Team Valentine is very much A Dude, we get it. He wants to spend his money on slave girls! Lovely. Neither Valentine nor Purple are impressed.

Valentine is apparently pretty strongly in debt, so that's what she'll use her share of the money for.

So, I'm slightly reminded of Alien, the original 1979 film now. These guys all work together, but don't seem to particularly LIKE each other and are just in it for the money. I actually quite like that, coming off watching a few shows where everyone ends up bonding unreasonably fast to an unbelievably close level.

Scabface wants to make amends with his share of the money. "Trying to buy absolution" as he puts it. He plans to build a hospital on a world he - or his forbears - killed many people.

Team Valentine are all technicians, nice, another nod to Alien.

So it reveals that Valentine, despite being the captain, was hired by Wookie. He's come along with them for this salvage mission. The Andromeda is stuck in time still, so Valentine will need to retrieve it without getting HER ship stuck in time too.

Valentine wishes to jettison their existing cargo before beginning the operation so the ship is more maneuvarable, but Wookie objects and has to run down to 'check' something in the cargo hold first; second Starscream confirmed. We don't get to see what he does but music cues are shifty af.

OooOoo seems his 'cargo' was people - some of original Starscream's kind of people, it seems, identifiable by their spiked arms, again, a nice visual cue to save them spelling out expository text the way many shows in early episodes find themselves having to do or resorting to. We get a shot of them emerging from fridge-like coffins (or coffin-like fridges, I guess) with THE MOST ominous music.

Right, operation go. Nice parallel right away to the other ship as Valentine intiates the operation with "okay everybody, just like we practiced", given the Andromeda's crew were practising too before the real thing. Valentine so far seems competent, no-nonsense and determined, with a wry sense of humour and strong sense of duty. I would expect nothing less from the female lead.

The irony as well that the Andromeda went to rescue and is now itself being 'rescued'.

So instead of going in, Valentine is very sensibly hooking it and reeling it in with grappling hooks.

Operation seems to be successful until three of the hooks seem to fail. Wookie immediately advocates cutting the cables and letting the Andromeda go, which Valentine laughs off and turns to Purple and Dude to see what solutions they might have.

Despite some of the cables failing, Valentine with Dude's help (focusing the engines into one blast of energy) is able to retrieve the ship and tow it away tractor-style.

Unfortunately, nothing lasts that long, one of the engines starts to fail off the bat. Dude seems to have it under control though.

RIGHT, cut back to the Andromeda. Andromeda's avatar is checking Captain Hunt too. Andromeda is immediately aware they MAY have experienced severe time dilations.

Annnd there it is. They've been frozen for 300 years. That'll be our main drama between Captain and our new characters, makes sense because I was feeling he and Valentine were actually quite similar despite the devil-angel dichotomy. Also... RIP Hunt's wedding, and I guess everyone he knew. That's gotta suck in the worst way. 10/10 for getting me to feel empathy for this guy in under 30 min, show.

Right, Valentine and co are all off to board the ship, leaving Wookie on board their own ship, presumably. Purple is the newest crewmember, it's revealed.

Donning space hazmat suits, they board. Dude appreciates the ship like an art form.

Cut back to Captain and Andromeda. The acting is good here and the music helps. They are in mid crisis given how much the world will have changed, maybe everything they were fighting for has gone. Andromeda detects Valentine and co, intruders!

Oops, it seems Wookie has boarded too, or are they back? (Ships look a little similar). He insists they have a deadline and need to work faster, while Dude maintains it will take weeks to get the ship going (presumably up to their future standards, too).

Valentine's crew split up (with comms) to search the ship for more clues about it and how it works. This will end well.

INTERESTING. So within Valentine's crew we have humans and the evil - in Hunt's time Magog, though, who can say which one of the aliens that is, Dude and Valentine are probably out. Andromeda has started to snoop on them through cameras and other concealed computers and comms and brings them up for Hunt to see.

So seems the Magog is Scabby. Andromeda also notes that Dude seems to be sick - with an easily-curable disease from their time. She wonders at the implications of that, a kind of reversal of progress perhaps? I should take the time to say that I do like Andromeda, despite her roboticy AI nature she has a charm to her and her competence and intelligence and calm are all positives to humanize such a character.

Hunt decides to engage the new team. He comes upon Dude first and calmly engages, quickly overpowering him without needing to fight, and addressing him measuredly.

Oops. So Dude doesn't seem to even be aware of the Commonwealth, three guesses says they lost then?

Nope, there's no High Guard, no Commonwealth, they lost, and not recently - 300 years ago! Possibly even straight after that battle, oooh we're going to have DIRECT angst then, that's an interesting direction and element to give your (presumably?) lead.

Additionally, having Andromeda here to talk to saves us having monologues, thought intrusions, or (the trope I disliked a lot in early Farscape) the lead, fish out of water, near-immediately latching on to someone he's just met and telling them everything about his feelings, using them as a sounding board and emotional support. Because honestly, who takes that from a stranger?

Andromeda and Hunt decide that they will search for remnants of the Commonwealth, even though its 300 years on. Back with Valentine, they are debating what to do. Purple advocates just asking Hunt to give them the ship. Valentine feels he owes them something anyway for pulling it out of the black hole. Scabby feels they don't deserve anything.

Hunt addresses them over comms; an ultimatum, he will not give it up to be looted, so they can leave, or he will bring force upon them. Valentine and co are still aboard Andromeda. They move to engage, then, Valentine doesn't like to be threatened, but Wookie intercedes. He's brought backup, and it's our dreadlocked Saracen warrior from the opening credits, along with a small army of extras, notably, none with the telltale arm spikes that we saw earlier, so what's his game? Was it a double-bluff? And that's where it ends, on a cliffhanger!

--

Well, I have to say, that was actually VERY good, by the standards of the time especially. Some obvious flaws due to tropes and what's become standardized over time passing in between this airing and me first seeing it, but in general, a very well written and acted pilot that established world, plot, tensions, potential tensions, character inter-relationships, and, impressively, seven main characters with an eighth just out of focus, a primary antagonist, and possible secondary antagonist, while also worldbuilding TWO timezones and political setups. Not too shabby for 42 minutes!

Other points; great character design and costumes - though I'm 75% sure there'll be a coincidentally justifiable reason why Purple has to be wearing a sports bra and hotpants and nothing else. Interesting spread of lead characters, two white guys, two women, a female AI, a black guy and a non-humanoid alien, just about what you'd expect from the time. The character archetypes are a nod to others in the genre and broadly into fantasy as well, and sketch out broad strokes for where I can see later characters being sourced from, e.g. the characters from the later Firefly and rebooted Battlestar Galaxica, even the Dr Who reboot which came several years after.

Valentine is, predictably (if you’ve been following my other review series), my favourite off the bat. Andromeda second, Hunt probably third - he's a very typical hero archetype, but convincing. The others come together in a bunch right now, Dude seems to be a Chaotic Neutral, Purple probably a Chaotic Good, and Scabby perhaps a Neutral Good, these are good balance for what may be a Lawful Good and Lawful Neutral lead - although Valentine shows potential to veer into True Neutral territory.

All in all, a great opener. I'll give it an 8/10, really starting strong.

What did you think of the show? Should I keep going? Let me know in comments or reblogs ;)

[atypicality]

Edye, Kira, Clovette, Vix, and Rufion

Edye

Full Name: okay so none of my OCs have last names,, embarrassing i know. he’s named after a neopet as that’s how i formed his character (this is progressively getting more embarrassing). his name is pronounced “eddie,” and an interesting fact about his name is that the part “dye” (pronounced “die”) is a nickname for dionysus, a god that has definitely influenced his character.

Gender and Sexuality: male, he’s bisexual

Pronouns: he/him

Ethnicity/Species: he’s latino and he’s human(??)

Birthplace and Birthdate: i literally have no idea (i feel like i should look into astrology and choose his birthday according to his personality…he’s probably a leo or a gemini and he was clearly born somewhere in latin america. i was thinking ecuador but i’m biased bc i lived there lmao),, he’s 22 though

Guilty Pleasures: reality t.v. and romcoms

Phobias: (i’m not putting the names of each phobia bc no one knows what that means) emotional intimacy, being buried alive, and abandonment

What They Would Be Famous For: i could see him being an actor with a horrible reputation

What They Would Get Arrested For: anything ranging from drug dealing to kidnapping (he was supposed to return vera to the shadow realm, for example). i wouldn’t put much past him

OC You Ship Them With: aliah and rufion (i like him with vera platonically)

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: nora bc she has to deal with his bullshit

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: action and comedy

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: pointless sacrifices. they died, dammit! let that count for something!

Talents and/or Powers: he’s an illusionist, meaning he can warp reality (or one’s perception of reality) and trick people. he can also make portals and fly/hover to some extent.

Why Someone Might Love Them: he’s a party animal and he’s fun to be around. he’s also pretty loyal to the people he cares about.

Why Someone Might Hate Them: he’s a no strings attached kind of person. he can be very apathetic and insensitive.

How They Change: he goes from being a villain to being the sidekick of the MC (vera),, i’m so proud of him

Why You Love Them: he’s the classic asshole/misunderstood bad boy turned good…he’s a huge loser that accidentally became cursed and now has a cult following and he’s just hilarious to think about.

here’s a mix i made for him

and his three shipping mixes lmao (aliah)(rufion)(vera)

here’s the cult mix if you want to listen to that  😂😂😂

alsoo i have a sidekick mix

and i’m literally developing two more for him (villain / hero arc, respectively)

can you tell that he’s my favorite

Kira

Full Name: just kira (hi, just. i’m nina)

Gender and Sexuality: female, heterosexual

Pronouns: she/her

Ethnicity/Species: she’s mixed: japanese and black. she’s a human

Birthplace and Birthdate: she was born in japan (city whomst) and she’s 27. probably a gemini or a scorpio

Guilty Pleasures: chocolate/sweets in general and creeping on social media if that counts

Phobias: she suffers from body dysmorphic disorder and suffers from fears that accompany that, such as not being good enough, etc. she also hates bugs, especially spiders.

What They Would Be Famous For: despite her bdd, she’d definitely become famous for being a beauty vlogger/youtuber. her ‘mask’ (aka whatever it is people with bdd do to help themselves cope with their body’s appearance/perceived flaw) would be makeup and she uses her powers to give herself the illusion that she’s someone else (in terms of appearance, if that makes any sense).

What They Would Get Arrested For: shoplifting (idk if you can be arrested for this but it’s the only thing she would do)

OC You Ship Them With: will a lil bit tbh. they’re the mom-dad pair

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: no one lmao

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: romcoms and horror

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: white people doing stupid things in horror movies, the most aggravating definitely being having sex/making out while danger is imminent

Talents and/or Powers: she’s an illusionist and can make portals like edye. she’s also a makeup artist

Why Someone Might Love Them: she’s super sweet and a good listener.

Why Someone Might Hate Them: people misinterpret her as shallow

How They Change: she betrays the Good Guys for her benefit but is forgiven. she also seeks help for her bdd and stops using her powers to alter her appearance (her makeup still serves as a mask though, her insecurities and anxiety don’t disappear overnight)

Why You Love Them: her struggle with self-love is so heartbreaking and she’s so strong and admirable.

Clovette

Full Name: clovette. some people call her clover. she’s also a neopet.

Gender and Sexuality: female, pansexual

Pronouns: she/her

Ethnicity/Species: she’s asian and a human

Birthplace and Birthdate: she was born somewhere in southeast asia. she’s 20 and probably an aquarius

Guilty Pleasures: sleeping in and staying home all day

Phobias: she has a fear of flying and the ocean. she suffers from social anxiety and is afraid of large crowds.

What They Would Be Famous For: she’d be a kickass video game developer

What They Would Get Arrested For: probably doing something illegal online (piracy maybe?)

OC You Ship Them With: maybe with nora

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: no one!!!

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: science fiction and fantasy

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: white savior trope

Talents and/or Powers: she doesn’t have any powers but she’s great at coding and game design and she’s a talented artist.

Why Someone Might Love Them: she’s really funny when you get to know her.

Why Someone Might Hate Them: she comes off as judgmental but she’s really not

How They Change: she’s initially scared of travelling from her island (boats? Horrifying. airplanes? Terrifying.) but then she’s forced to move and has to face that fear plus the fear that comes when you don’t know anyone and have to form new relationships.

Why You Love Them: she has so much potential for growth and she’s so cute and inspiring

Vix

Full Name: i have to pick out a really basic white girl name for her but she goes by vix and vixen is her villain name (edye doesn’t deserve a villain name).

Gender and Sexuality: female, heterosexual but the kind of straight girl that will kiss other girls for male attention.

Pronouns: she/her

Ethnicity/Species: she’s white and a human

Birthplace and Birthdate: she was born in paris, she’s 21, and she’s probably a pisces.

Guilty Pleasures: kissing girls uwu, eating way too many tubs of cookie dough ice cream, and erotica.

Phobias: she’s scared of birds and the deep sea. she’ll enjoy going to the beach but she won’t go in the water because then she thinks of sea monsters and other unknown terrors hidden in the unexplored ocean. she’ll go to a pool, though.

What They Would Be Famous For: she’d be an actress or a journalist

What They Would Get Arrested For: robbery, possibly arson

OC You Ship Them With: no one

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: edye

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: film noir and slasher films/thrillers

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: love triangles

Talents and/or Powers: she uses love magic and mental manipulation.

Why Someone Might Love Them: she’s clever and really determined.

Why Someone Might Hate Them: she’s a bitch.

How They Change: she’s initially shy, awkward, trying to make her way through life. then she falls in love with someone (*coughs* edye *coughs*) and gives herself a makeover. she goes from innocent civilian investigating something to villainess and cult leader. 10/10 transformation

Why You Love Them: i don’t lmao. i like that she fits the femme fatale archetype. she’s a really interesting character. she also unironically calls herself vixen, so there’s that.

here’s her mix

Rufion

Full Name: rufion (pronounced rough-ee-an). he’s also a neopet (he looks so ugly rn because he’s my lab rat).

Gender and Sexuality: male, homosexual

Pronouns: he/him and they/them

Ethnicity/Species: honestly i have not thought about where he’s from at all but he’s brown (we love ethnically ambiguous characters in this house! /s). he’s a human.

Birthplace and Birthdate: [me seeing birthplace: owo what’s this?] he’s 23 and he’s probably a capricorn.

Guilty Pleasures: does ordering a lot of takeout food count? he stays up all night playing video games and loves reading comic books. he also really likes baking sweets (he’d probably be a really good cook but tbh he’s too lazy)

Phobias: he’s scared he’s going to die in his sleep and stays up all night as a result. if someone told him the effects of lack of sleep on his health he would definitely panic

What They Would Be Famous For: he would definitely be in a band. fuck

What They Would Get Arrested For: He Would Never Be Arrested. Next 

OC You Ship Them With: edye

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: vix

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: he doesn’t really like watching tv/movies but superhero films

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: bury your gays

Talents and/or Powers: he’s good at fighting.

Why Someone Might Love Them: he’s really nice, super optimistic, and honest. he’s hard working and responsible. he’s a huge nerd basically

Why Someone Might Hate Them: people might view him as naive and annoying.

How They Change: he’s a sort of private investigator but then he takes a…peculiar case and then………………..he catches feelings lmfao. there’s definitely some side-switching/ambiguity in his future

Why You Love Them: he’s just trying his best honestly. idk how to articulate it but he’s kind of like xD as a human being.

[riproarrude-blog]

Receipts

So, here’s my receipts post for kob featuring his cronies. Really, the big one for all of them is the pedo apologizing bullshit, because, tbh, I haven’t interacted with any of them in a memorable way, so I’d really have to dig through stuff if I wanted to find posts the others have responded to in their own words. For the most part, they just agree with kob and all his shitty opinions and sit in his back pocket whenever he has to pull the “I have minority friends” trap card out. As though minorities can’t also be toxic to each other (see; the current state of the queer community)

Pedophilia Apologizing

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/164081508615/darkvioletcloud-rwbycrit-riproarrude#notes

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/164077458930/mageknight14-takashi0-darkvioletcloud

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/164076260355/mageknight14-darkvioletcloud-rwbycrit

http://blakegdiamond.tumblr.com/post/164939080335/rabbittiddy-theshynekotaru-rabbittiddy

These posts are full of kob and co defending the right to ship minors in explicit relationships with adults by saying things like, “They’re older teenagers.” “Anyone that’s affected by it is stupid and/or fragile and it’s ultimately their fault.” “These people don’t actually exist.” They also defend it by trying to bring up other ways that pedophiles groom children as though equating policing the glorification of adult/minor relationships somehow means that the solution to stopping the other bad stuff is going to be exactly the same. They also equate guns to pedo ships, as though guns aren’t tools designed with the sole purpose of killing things.

Furthermore, they try to discredit anti-pedophiles by calling them fascists, a classic attempt at making the oppressed seem like the oppressor. This is a common theme among this group.

These posts are all reblogged and agreed with by mageknight, rainbowloli, the original post is made by darkvioletcloud, all of whom continue to defend the ‘right’ to ship explicit relationships between a minor and an adult.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/164821411335/iolanthepeverells-traumadic-but-the-age-of

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163660995700/fucking-sick-of-pedophilia-in-the-animation?is_related_post=1

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/164125905725/im-going-point-out-a-few-things

(Warning, middle link is super long)

In these posts, he uses the age of consent to argue that it’s okay to sexualize and have sex with minors. He clings to the use of ephebophilia, defining it as attraction to someone that is going through puberty, something he says is 15-19, and that because they could have knowledge of sex, they’re old enough to consent. He also says that the mind cannot comprehend sex until puberty.

Fun Fact: Girls usually hit puberty about 11 years of age, but can go through it as early as 6 or 7. Boys typically will go start puberty at 9, but can go through it as young as 7.

He also tries to say that ephebophilia is a better word because it makes people stop and think, which is true, but all it does is mask the true nature of the situation. Sexualization of/wanting to have sex with people that are not yet adults by adults. Equating the age of consent with the age of majority does nothing to change what the reality is.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/164843599510/mageknight14-knightofbalance-13#notes

Not only does he continue to use ephebophilia in a bid to further soften the stigma of an adult having sex with a minor, but he defends nazis and homophobes by saying that the words mean less because it’s thrown around on the internet. Sad to say that an adult that wants to have sex with a minor is fucking scum. If we can’t agree on a name for it, then let’s just call it what it is.

And his example here, of a 19 year old that’s been dating a sixteen year old is just as bad. Because they would have started dating when they were 14 and 17. So why is a high school junior dating someone in middle school? Also, way to tell a CSA survivor that they’re projecting. Maybe it never occurred to him that I actually know what I’m talking about when I say that a minor is still a minor and an adult is still an adult.

Suicide Baiting

https://rwbyfan18.tumblr.com/post/158128562895/more-hopeless-than-romantic-i-dont-understand?is_related_post=1#notes

https://rwbyfan18.tumblr.com/post/158128206060/i-wanted-to-thank-you-for-your-insightful-rwde?is_related_post=1#notes

https://rwbyfan18.tumblr.com/post/158649725205/checkmate#notes

Here’s the proof of kob trying to bait people into telling him to kill himself. This is one of his alt accounts, of which we can confirm 5, commenting on posts with things like, “Death to KOB.” and “Should just shoot himself.” Then equating a single person being a dick to an entire group of totally unrelated people, as though every single person that used the rwde tag decided to suicide bait him.  Also, ignoring the fact that the person was told off.

Bonus:

https://rwbyfan18.tumblr.com/post/157888505200/mageknight14-knightofbalance-13-rwbyfan18?is_related_post=1

https://rwbyfan18.tumblr.com/post/158132853810/dreams-of-atlantis-mageknight14-this-way-we#notes

https://rwbyfan18.tumblr.com/post/157891224415/knightofbalance-13-rwbyfan18#notes

Arguing with himself, using the f-slur and implying mk is his boyfriend as an insult.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/158720578340/dreams-of-atlantis-knightofbalance-13

Confirming the creation of the rwbyfan18 blog and that mageknight was in on the whole thing, so just as guilty.

https://shadecritic.tumblr.com/

https://shadecritic2.tumblr.com/

https://shadecritic3.tumblr.com/

https://shadecritic4.tumblr.com/

Other alt accounts. Further numbers are password protected soooo… Maybe more?

Anti-Trans/Anti-Queer Posts

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163969249240/cryptid-milk-queer-aviculor-plasmas-king#notes

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163977205610/hey-dude-i-know-that-with-the-trans-danny-phantom#notes

These posts tear down a trans headcanon because kob didn’t like the tone of the OP. Then he said that people that come up with trans headcanons are living a lie and depressing and hurting themselves. Then he outright says they can’t have those headcanons because they’ll attack the creators if it doesn’t happen.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/162758893475/trans-aoi-knightofbalance-13-trans-aoi

Here he tries to tear down another trans headcanon by, again, intimating that the OP would attack creators because he’d seen it happen before. He also continually insists that a trans woman is actually a man because they were assigned male at birth.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163897837605/literallynoonecares-riproarrude

Here he is defending the ‘Man in a dress/skirt is hilarious” trope.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163391321190/we-all-are

This one, wow. Just, whew, it starts out bad and homophobic and gets worse and racist.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163391384950/siryouarebeingmocked-rametarin

Reblogging a post that mocks queer headcanons.

This one I only found a screenshot for, but he refers to a trans woman as a “wo-man”, implying that she’s not actually a woman or that she’s a fake woman.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/158894776535/i-feel-a-need-to-apologize-to-about-90-of-the

Here he says that he hopes RWBY doesn’t get an LGBT character because he’s sick of seeing ‘bullshit surrounding it’.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/165047091260/being-queer-is-not-a-sign-of-quality#notes

Here he is telling a trans person that they can’t be offend by a transphobic joke.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/164607506805/ula-star-memezeek-odinoco-jealousies

Regardless of whether you agree with the person, here he is saying “Get over your heterophobia.”

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/162872824450/the-fag-joke-in-camp-camp

Defending a joke that uses the f-slur

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/164864011335/skybreakerpony-mojave-wasteland-official#notes

Like, I get it, but here’s using the f-slur again and also using the mirror defense

Defending Nazis

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/164984400875/alexxdz-trilllizard420-supersoftly#notes

Here he says he doesn’t trust anyone that uses nazi as an insulting term, referencing the post below.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/164945125885/knightofbalance-13-mageknight14-celticpyro#notes

This post here is taking a man who orchestrated the mass murder of 12 million Jews and saying, “Everyone has the capacity for good and evil.” A post like this is terrible because humanizing someone like that means that you soften the blow of the atrocities they committed by putting it on the same level as other ‘bad people’. This is not something that is morally gray, this is not something to be looked back on and say, ”Well, the man who did it was human, just like you and me.” This is a warning, because people like Hitler do not deserve to have ‘both sides’ looked at. There should be no one rational who can sympathize with the monster. Defending it by saying that those who disagree can’t “see the complexities in the world” is just another way to soften the actions of a mass murderer.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/164973127735/all-or-nothing-thats-how-rights-work?is_related_post=1

In this post here he defends not punching nazis which, sure, maybe you don’t feel like it’s ethical to punch people. However, he says that maybe nazis aren’t really nazis because the word gets thrown around a lot on the internet. He also says that, ““We should fight the Nazis” translate into the real world as “We should attack anyone we don’t like/who disagrees with us.” AKA FAICISM”. That’s word for word there, folks.

Then there’s the exchange where the OP says, “Oh no! That person is waving a flag that incites ethnic cleansing.” To which kob replies, “Oh no, that person doesn’t automatically confirm my political bias.” As though people waving a nazi flag don’t advocate for ethnic cleansing. Then he defends their right to spread their violent message by invoking Freedom of Speech. At the bottom, he straight up defends neo-nazis, saying things like, “Some might have been tricked into it.”. It’s truly amazing.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/164864942625/basicconstant15-knightofbalance-13#notes

This post is about the UN telling America that it should curb some of it’s freedom of speech in order to protect against a nazi threat. Kob is against that, of course, because nazis should be allowed to have a platform to spew a violent rhetoric and call for ethnic cleansing.

Just all the Racism Stuff

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163935557185/httpssokumotanakatumblrcompost163928898054r#notes

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/165014660630/httppassivefantumblrcompost165003236606i-fe#notes

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/159862818245/white-fang-are-freedom-fighterswell-were

Here he is comparing BLM to a fictional terrorist group. Ft some shade thrown at the Black Panthers. The top link, by the way, has many alt right sites as his sources.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163960564185/celticpyro-offensive-humor-plays-on-stereotypes#notes

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163376735460/okay-listen-we-need-to-have-a-talk-jokes-about

Defending stereotype humor, despite the fact that stereotypes are incredibly harmful and continuing to enforce that kind of humor normalizes bigotry. He says not to get upset over off color jokes, that if you don’t find it funny, that it’s not meant for you. Off color jokes aren’t meant for rational people, they’re meant for bigots.

http://delvindeep.tumblr.com/post/161096582969/racism-is-not-morally-greyeven-if-said-racism#notes

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/165055210525/with-the-whole-ilia-breaking-the-girls-teeth#notes

Here’s some posts saying/implying that racism is morally gray. The back and forth with Delvin is particularly enlightening.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/161934909190/these-are-not-your-negroes

This whole thing. Equating the OP with Jim Crow laws

Bonus Terrible Posts:

http://delvindeep.tumblr.com/post/161675748559/mageknight14-delvindeep-mageknight14#notes

I’m not linking mageknight directly because he has a shitty autoplay blog, but here he is using an ableist slur

http://xenodweeb.tumblr.com/post/164487194772/gaylobos-ula-star-knightofbalance-13

Here’s ulastar using an autistic screeching meme, very ableist

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163707306585/writemachinebroke-interesting-that-a-show-thats

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163877669550/mageknight14-joekewlio

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/158950439920/httpepsilon-betatumblrcompost158938989555de

Have yourself some sexism.

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163245849215/httpdudebladetumblrcompost163245358311sokum

“censor people and want to live your echo chamber and have everyone listen and praise you “ indeed

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163183846370/keyhollow-justmyantifeministtrash#notes

I’ll just label this as anti-feminist? Because sexism/racism/transphobia/fatphobia/ableism…. It’s just too long to list it all

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/162849924165/assholefromtheabyss-cheshireinthemiddle

More anti-feminism

So, there’s a great big chunk of stuff about how shitty and awful kob and his friends, but mostly kob, are. Like I said, I really don’t interact with the others too much, but pedophilia is my volcano button and every damn one of them agreed that it’s okay. You know, so long as they’re at least 15.

I honestly haven’t even gotten to everything, either. I haven’t interacted with kob lately, although I do still see him on my dash, which is why I’m finally putting this post up. I have all of his cronies blocked, I have all of the alts blocked that I know about. Honestly, not having to deal with people like this is pretty freeing. It was one thing to argue about the plotline of a cartoon, it’s a whole other things when they start reblogging gun propaganda and anti islamic posts featuring uncensored photos of hangings and death(which I’m not going to link because it’s gross, but tl;dr it’s about how the Middle East is anti lgbt).

All that being said, I’d like to once again urge anyone who sees him to block him. If we work together, we can cut the head off this snake.

[ultronnie]

pls tell me about Kris I need to hear about him for my health

OOOOH FRIEND

I CAN SERIOUSLY TALK ABOUT KRIS FOR H O U R S

WELL

HERE WE GO.

gonna get in DEEP here, my dude. kris is very important to me for like 9426946 reasons.

Full Name: Kris Dawson. Nothing too special. The name Kris stuck when I was first writing him about a year ago. I dunno what it is about the name but it sticks with his character. Last name came from my dude Shane Dawson. I love Shane to death. He’s had a big impact on a lot of stuff for me the past few years so yeah.

Gender and Sexuality: Male and he’s bi.

Pronouns: He/him.

Ethnicity/Species: Tiny lil’ cat boy! AHHHHHHH!!

Birthplace and Birthdate: He’s an October baby! Ah! On the 7th. We share a birthday. Birthplace was a hospital coz duh lol.

Guilty Pleasures: So quick thing here that’s important to note: Kris is very much me. The thoughts, the voice, the actions. He’s me. Like I said about Andy, I’ve put some of my insecurities and issues on him. But Kris has it all, dude. As I live my life now, I try to establish what happens within his world, even if it’s not exactly like my life.

Now that that’s outta the way:

So in terms of guilty pleasures, Kris is really, really, really passionate about the fact that Born This Way by Lady Gaga is one of the best albums ever made. He won’t play it for you right away, though. If it comes on the shuffle, he goes, “Oh, what??? Lady Gaga??? On my shuffle? HUUUUH??”

Although not as serious, Kris loves the musical Rent. It’s the only musical he likes and he doesn’t mind admitting it even though he hates most other musicals.

Phobias: Kris doesn’t have any straight up fears, kinda like Andy. He’s more terrified of living life alone. Not like losing people, but ending up alone at the end of it all. He wants a companion in someone but he doesn’t think he’s fit for anyone at all.

Kris doesn’t want to disappoint the people he does have in his life. He has a consistent idea that everyone, including his best friend of 17 years, secretly hates his guts and wants him to rot in a garbage dump somewhere. He’s very insecure about himself, even when he comes off as a confident little shit with a smart remark every chance he gets.

What They Would Be Famous For: I’m not sure. Kris and I are figuring that out currently, if that makes sense. It’s hard to find your place in the world, really, and Kris is a pretty basic guy. He doesn’t have any extraordinary talents or anything.

What They Would Get Arrested For: For being Andy’s accomplice. That’s it. That’s the crime. Not sure if this will actually happen in the story buuuut there’s always a chance for some OTP crimes, right?

OC You Ship Them With: OOOOOH BOY

So there’s another part of my life that is VERY sad that sorta revolves around this. It’d give away a bit but there was always another character before Andy who I knew needed to go with Kris. It just worked. See, every character in this story is a representation of me in some way and also an important person in my life. I won’t say much more coz I think I don’t wanna get in too deep about it, but I’ll say that it’s really hard to know you can’t have something.

So Andy. That’s where Andy comes in.

You know this story. But on Kris’s end, he just really thinks Andy’s great. The thing that got him going about that idiot fox was the high pitched metal screaming he did when Damien (ANOTHER CHARACTER AHH) dragged him to his band’s show. Kris just really loves the dude. He thinks the world of him even if he doesn’t agree with Andy’s more serious crimes like public intoxication or a public disturbance.

But Andy also understands the bad things in Kris’s head.

See, I have these weird bouts that come about once a month where everything is bad. The mania of reality runs dry and everything seems very slow. I get inexplicably angry at everything and nothing makes me stop unless I sit alone in my room or something. But Andy helps Kris through these episodes. He’s a good guy. Kris appreciates that.

And again, these two are just the best to draw together. I’ve only come up with a few things and they’re not too great buuuut I’ll very likely commission some stuff of them together.

Stupid Andy. Stole my heart so fucking fast that I’m trying to get him drawn by someone else after he’s been a character FOR TWO WEEKS.

Also, for added feels about these two, I always listen to the Last of the Real Ones by Fall Out Boy with them in mind. Makes me wanna cry, tbh. I love these two that much.

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: I mean, I dunno. Kris doesn’t really do much to anyone else that could make someone wanna murder him. He’s probably the most well-liked person in Re-Hash, tbh.

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Older horror movies are great in Kris’s eyes, and he really likes comic book media. He grew up on Marvel and some DC. He thinks Watchmen is one of the best things ever written. He’s also pretty keen on 1984 for some reason.

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: He thinks about 98% of horror movies nowadays are shit. He loved It, though. It was great! (Seriously, It was great.) Also, historical fiction is B O R I N G most of the times. Also musicals. He thinks most of em are cheesy.

Talents and/or Powers: I think Kris is probably good at whatever I’m good at. I think I write pretty decently and I draw well. Not that he does those things all the time, but he is good at them. 

Why Someone Might Love Them: I think that most people like me for my views on things. I’m cynical but in a way that’s funny. Like I don’t say shit like, “I hate *whatever* coz it sucks.” I’ll say “I hate *whatever* coz it is literally the same thing as shitting in a bucket and setting it on fire.” Kris has a very creative way of talking about things that makes people laugh.

Also, Kris is keen on playing his music really loud when he drives and he goes hard. Everyone thinks it’s funny and Andy is like, ‘wow, my boyfriend can’t hold a tune but he’s cute so IT’S FINE’.

He’s also very genuine. He doesn’t really like the shallow games people play with other people. It just ends up in hurt. He’s straightforward and honest. It’s why Andy sees him in such a good light despite all the tragedy Kris has had.

Why Someone Might Hate Them: I don’t really know. I think maybe he thinks people don’t like him for his attitude that people seem to love and that in turn makes him push some people away. He doesn’t mean to of course. I don’t think anyone really could outright hate him unless he really wronged someone in the past, honestly.

Anything’s possible, though.

How They Change: Like I said, as my life goes on, Kris’s does too. So really, I dunno what’s gonna happen. But whatever happens to me will happen to Kris in one way or another.

Why You Love Them: I was going through a pretty rough time about January of 2016. I think that was when I first wrote him as a character and started to really figure some personal shit out. Like, just writing little drabbles about him helped me kinda figure out that I’m bisexual as shit. It just happened. I had to come to terms with it and he helped me figure it out.

I put a lot of work into him even if he’s just a tiny brown cat with the same music taste as me and a lot of cooler clothes. I don’t think there’s anything that I’ve written/made that I REALLY hold closer than this little idiot. Sounds dumb, but I’m in a weird place right now. He’s getting me through some shit even now. He’s a means to cope for me. I just love him to death. Everything about him. Design, personality, story. It’s all so good to me.

Woo. Gettin’ emo. AHHH--

tl;dr - Kris Dawson is the best boy in the world. 11/10. No character ever means more to me.

[tempocblogaaabc]

Morris

BIRTHDAY: May 19th

ZODIAC: Gemini

SPECIES: Human

GENDER: Male

FAMILY

Mother/Father - no idea man the kid was dropped off to live with his aunt so Aunt - caretaker

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Morris has flat long-ish black hair from not taking the actual time to at least try cutting it. He has a natural olive/tan skin tone. He carries a wiry body from his earlier days. About 5'8 or so. He usually wears a cracked pair of goggles on his head. The kid's got a fair share of scars, the most obvious one over his mouth. His wardrobe isn't really static, but commonly wears hoodies. He has blue eyes.

PERSONALITY

Morris is constantly on edge. He's constantly worried for the worst to come. He believes that he's more realistic than pessimistic. He hardly ever admits anything outright, dodging any personal questions whenever possible. His solution to most problems is to either avoid them altogether, or run away. He's often irritable, lacking people skills. He avoids people if he can, keeping to himself. He could pretty much be summed up as "properly paranoid". Though cowardly, he is able to stand his own in a fight.

SEXUALITY: Bisexual

SETTING

lmao the city still doesnt have a name im working on it

BACK STORY

Born in Mexico, his parents legally crossed the border in hopes to have more success in the US much like his mother's sister. Though not extremely wealthy, she lived decently and was more than willing to help them on their way. However, when he was still very young, his parents found that they wouldn't be able to afford raising him, passing him off to his aunt before moving on with their lives. He lived comfortably for the first ten years of his life before his aunt's business went downhill and moved to a shadier part of the city to keep rent down. His aunt resorted to fostering kids on the side in order to get paid by the state. Sure it wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. One particular child stayed in her care for a long while due to complications (talking 11 months - 18 months). During this time, Morris grew very fond of her. Unfortunately, she wasn't the best influence, as she got into all sorts of shit and participated in gang life. Of course, he found this all to be cool/exciting and followed right in her footsteps. She was practically a big sister figure to him. He grew to cause havoc and participate in illegal shit for a good while (half a year?? idk). Which was all fine and dandy, he was p much enjoying himself and pissing off people. One day he's just going downtown and finds the corpse of his "big sister" in an alleyway. Needless to say it was bloody and morbid as shit and probably gave him some serious trauma. (He may have developed ptsd from this) The event had him snap and do a complete 180 after witnessing the body. He desperately tried to get out of gang life, but ended up not being able to escape.

FAVORITE COLOR?

Dark blue.

DOES YOUR CHARACTER COLLECT ANYTHING?

The shards of our broken hearts.

ALLERGIES?

ur bullshit

KIND OF CLOTHING?

Your average hoodies. Most tend to be cheap.

FAVORITE ANIMAL?

Dogs.

LEAST FAVORITE ANIMAL?

Bees. Flies.

WHAT ELEMENT WOULD THEY BE?

Water

ALIGNMENT?

True Neutral

DEADLY SIN THAT BEST REPRESENTS THEM?

Envy

WHICH ANIMAL WOULD THEY BE?

Maybe a coyote or a ferret.

SPECIAL SKILLS / TALENTS?

Nitrogen manipulation, picking locks, decent with a knife

PATIENCE LEVEL?

Pretty low

REGRETS?

[Hysterical laughing]

ROLE MODEL?

ded lmao

FAVORITE FOODS?

Probably fruits. Ones with juice like apples, oranges, ect.

DREAM PLACE TO LIVE?

In an actual house, preferably away from the city.

MODE OF TRANSPORTATION?

Foot.

PETS?

None. Often interacts with stray cats and dogs though.

WEAPON

Switchblade, Liquid Nitrogen

MOST APPROPRIATE TV TROPE(S)?

Heroic Sacrifice (in mafia) and Sour Outside, Sad Inside

SMELLS LIKE?

what

HOW DO THEY FEEL ABOUT LOVE?

He feels that it's well....dangerous.

LEAST FAVORITE COLOR?

White.

MAKES A LIVING BY?

Doesn't need to make a living seeing how he lives with his aunt. He tends to steal for extra money though.

FEARS OR PHOBIAS?

He's afraid of the future in general.

RACE, ETHNICITY AND NATIONALITY?

Mexican American.

BAD HABITS?

The whole scratching arms thing when he's nervous. Running away a lot.

IF THEY TRANSITIONED FROM THEIR WORLD TO OURS, HOW WOULD THEY REACT?

He'd be really relieved actually. Doesn't have to deal with all this OP gang bs.

DOES THEIR UNIVERSE HAVE A GOD?

(It's me)

PERSONAL PROBLEMS?

[Laughcrying in the distance]

RELIGIOUS AND TO WHAT EXTENT? ANY SPIRITUAL BELIEFS?

Not religious at all.

KIND OF STUDENT IF THEY ATTEND/WERE TO ATTEND SCHOOL? (E.G. CLASS CLOWN, STRAIGHT A)

Straight B+ or B student. No extra activities.

RANDOM FACT!

He used to wear his hair in a ponytail :3c

DO GHOSTS OR SUPERNATURAL ENTITIES EXIST IN THEIR’ WORLD?

Sort of.

OUTLOOK ON LIFE?

He believes that people born under certain circumstances, as well as being born with a likeable personality are able to get ahead in life and enjoy it. He is not one of those people.

WHAT OR WHO INSPIRED YOU TO CREATE THEM?

I was looking for a friend for Jordan/a protagonist buuut he's not so much a protagonist anymore seeing how there isn't an actual/fixed story anymore. I don't think Jordan and Morris would get along anyway haha.

MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THEIR LIFE

Br...andon...

FAVORITE OBJECT?

His goggles.

WHEN DID YOU CREATE THIS CHARACTER?

Chinese class haha

IF YOUR CHARACTER HAS A SIGNIFICANT OTHER, WHAT WOULD THEIR SONG BE?

I ALWAYS THOUGHT IT'D BE "NO LIGHT, NO LIGHT" BUT IDK

WHAT WAS YOUR CHARACTER LIKE AS A CHILD?

Prideful. Scum of the Earth

DO THEY LIKE THE NAME THEY WERE GIVEN?

He's pretty okay with it.

NERVOUS HABITS?

Scratches the back of his neck and his arms.

SIBLINGS?

Has a few adoptive ones.

HAVE THEY EVER WANTED TO COMMIT SUICIDE?

Probably at some point tbh I mean he's a teenager

GLASS HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY?

Half empty.

VIEWS ON GAMBLING, LYING, KILLING, ETC...?

He stands neutral on these kind of topics. He doesn't care what others do, as long as it doesn't affect him or anyone he actually cares about.

DO THEY STAND UP FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVE IN?

Sometimes. He prefers to avoid conflict though.

HOW MUCH DO THEY VALUE MONEY?

A lot.

WANTS TO HAVE KIDS, RAISE A FAMILY?

[One Direction Laughter]

WHAT'S THEIR ONE BIG KINK?

[One Direction Laughter ceases] [Dead silence]

PASSIVE, AGRESSIVE, OR DEFENSIVE?

Defensive.

CAT OR DOG PERSON?

Dog.

WHAT SONGS RELATE TO YOUR CHARACTER?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ephdl5HjIzQ maybe shrugs

HOW HAS THEIR LOOK/DESIGN CHANGED OVER TIME?

He used to wear glasses, had short hair, no scars. Also had a chain hanging from his pants.

MOST TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE?

The time he got his rolemodel killed lmao. And mafia. The haunted mansion and Denny's were not fun for him.

WHAT BRINGS THEM THE MOST JOY?

Watching familiar stray doges run up to him :3. Spending time with Brandon also makes him really happy but also makes him really nervous.

ARE THEY TICKLISH?

Probably on his sides.

DO THEY PLAY ANY INSTRUMENTS?

I'd like to think he plays the piano, but then again I like the piano a lot and want all my ocs to play the piano.

COKE OR PEPSI?

He thinks they're pretty much the same.

HOGWARTS HOUSE

Gryffindor or Hufflepuff probably.

IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN THEIR LIFE

Brandon....

IF THEY COULD HAVE ONE THING IN THE WORLD?

A stable lifestyle.

WOULD THEY DARE KILL SOMEONE?

If the situation was dire enough, probably.

INVOLVED WITH MAGIC OR WITCHCRAFT?

His nitrogeny powers counts as magic soo

WHAT MLP CHARACTER WOULD THEY BE?

Why.

WOULD YOUR CHARACTER BE WILLING TO SACRIFICE ORDER AND SANITY TO LIVE IN A CRAZY FANTASY WORLD WHERE ANYTHING WAS POSSIBLE, OR DO ALL IN THEIR POWER TO PREVENT THAT FROM HAPPENING?

The latter.

[svbcritic]

chances  are  i’m  still  working  on  my  boy  prince’s  intro  bc  i  got  bust  at  work  and  the  world  was  against  me  writing  up  so  imma  post  my  fave  boy  charlie’s  info  here.  but  yes  !!  hello  all  !!  it’s  ur  friendly  neighborhood  admin  kristina  (  the  choi  san  mascot  on  the  main  !!  )  so  if  u  ever  find  urself  having  any  issues  or  concerns  then  u  can  catch  me  here  or  on  the  main  !!

⌈  wong  yukhei,  cismale,  he/him  ⌋  hey,  is  it  CHARLIE  JIN that  you’re  looking  for?  you  know,  the  TWENTY-ONE year  old  PODCASTER.  typically  i  see  them  hanging  around GRISTOL  POINT so  you  could  try  there!  i  hear  they’ve  been  in  living  in  SAUGATUCK  for  FIVE  YEARS.  gristol  wouldn’t  be  the  same  without  them,  right?  anyway,  whenever  i  see  them  they  make  me  think  of  UNAPOLOGETIC  LAUGHTER,  A  COLLECTION  OF  PASTEL  COLORED  DENIM  JACKETS,  HEADPHONES  HUNG  AROUND  HIS  NECK,  &  THE  SMELL  OF  STRAWBERRIES.

STATS

full chinese name: jin ximen / americanized name: charlie jin / nicknames: charlie / ethnicity: chinese & thai / sexuality: bisexual / occupation: true crime podcaster / spoken languages: cantonese, thai, english, korean, spanish, & ( conversational ) mandarin / hogwarts house: slytherin

BIOGRAPHY

okie dokie so charlie ( born ximen ) is the youngest of the four kids between his parents born and riased in shanghai and their wedding was some big event bc both families were heavily affluent and prominent in their home countries

charlie’s dad hailed from shanghai, china where his family had a long lineage of old money and a 5 star international hotel chain that’s comparable to the four seasons .. meanwhile charlie’s mom is from thailand where her family has ties to the oil industry which is how they built their wealth .. their marriage was more political than anything and wanting to combine their wealth in industries the other was lacking in

as the youngest kid and the only boy with three older sisters, charlie never lacked a caregiver bc he was an adorable little boy who charmed whoever he met and though he was a little shit, his sisters loved him and helped raise him alongside a clan of nannies that his parents hired when they were busy off on different continents running their respective businesses

charlie definitely was more of a mommy’s boy in the sense that his mom made more of an effort to spend time with him bc as her only son, she held him on a pedestal and since she was a well known fashion designer, she often brought charlie to her studio and let him run wild in some of the garments and clothing that was in storage and whatnot

from this charlie had a lil mini modeling career ( lmao not really )where he would do mock photoshoots with some of the models in his mom’s bridal collections and eventually bc he was adorable and everyone loved him, they dressed him in some mini tuxes and he appeared in some campaigns for his mom’s bridal collection

generally though charlie was an exuberant kid who often had more energy than he knew what to do with and that often had him getting in trouble at the expensive prep school his parents had him enrolled in . which he frequently was scolded by his dad for his hellion behavior jdsklafjd

so it was a constant push and pull between charlie and his dad in trying to calm down his son .. which wyd he;s just a happy go lucky boy hsalkjf but anyway charlie was eventually enrolled in a soccer club so he could wear himself out by running all the time and tbh it kinda worked .. but also charlie actually enjoyed soccer so it worked out

his dad really thought he did something by keeping his teenage son out of trouble and letting him build teamwork skills ig … mainly bc he wanted his only son to take over the jin empire of their hotel chain even though charlie was like :/ .. and his mom was a bit :/ bc she knew charlie wasn’t the type who would want the weight of this empire on his shoulders even though his oldest sister was more experienced

but fun times for dad bc lit it’s w his soccer friends that charlie realizes that whatever heterosexuality is .. that ain’t him sdjldkjs but yeah he finds out that he’s into guys just as much as he’s into girls and he has a crush on one of his best friends on the soccer team w him

charlie was able to disguise his crush as a solid bro friendship around his dad meanwhile him and his friend were leaning on the scale of more than friends and 10/10 were making out whenever they were alone so yeah … things were swaggy for the first three months until charlie’s dad came home early from his trip from new york and walked into charlie’s room to see him fooling around with his friend

so yeah … things didn’t go great after that and the jin household was so painfully tense where his dad refused to go on any international trips and kept a strong grip on charlie and pulled him out of his school’s soccer team .. it was a tough time and definitely miserable for charlie despite his mom’s best efforts to help soothe him

nearly a month following The Incident ( as he dad refers to it as )he announced that 16 year old charlie was going to live with his aunt over in america and it was an absolute shit show at the house when his dad broke the news but the next day charlie found himself on a direct flight from shanghai to brindle bay where his aunt lives with her american husband and son

the move was a big adjustment for charlie and it was here that he started going by charlie bc the kids at his new school couldn’t pronounce ximen . originally he was a bit standoffish and reclusive bc his english was still shaky and he had an accent so this combination of things made him a target of some shitty xenophobic bullies and it put him down for a bit

it was a dark period that charlie doesn’t like to think back on and relied on the friendship he established with his cousin and it was through him that charlie began to blossom in brindle bay and make his own connections and realized that his dad is a dumbass bc he essentially sent him away for being into men but lmao !! sike dad !! bc now he gets to kiss boys if he wants without the rope around his neck from his dad

it’s been five years since charlie has been shipped to brindle bay and he keeps in contact with his sisters and mother and has visited shanghai a few times for some holidays and lets his dad think him being in america has helped him become more sensible and learn responsibility

when he graduated high school his mom offered to have him come home but charlie decided he wanted to stay more away from his dad for the time beginning and enrolled in college and got his degree in communication studies

it’s when he’s in school that he starts up his own podcast where he just discusses true crime and paranormal stories and such just bc it’s always been an interest of his .. he started it with his close friend that was his first Official friend in brindle bay and they’re two years into and it’s growing a strong listening base on spotify and apple music .. for comparison sake it’s a mix of buzzfeed unsolved and my favorite murder

but yeah overall charlie is an easy going guy who is usually seen with a smile on his face and just v fun loving , charismatic and loves talking to ppl ?? comes off v flirty but that’s just who he is bc he has that kinda vibe .. sometimes he doesn’t even realize he’s flirting bc it comes like breathing . he means well and is a soft boy who misses his family but is scared to go back home to china officially

WANTED CONNECTIONS

someone who helped show charlie around when he first came to brindle bay and maybe they built a friendship from it

someone who maybe helped him improve on his english when he first came to town and charlie is forever grateful to them and feels indebted to them for being there for him when he was self conscious and needed help

his first relationship .. p self explanatory but charlie and your muse dated for a bit and it was nice and sweet but things ended amicably between the two and they still remain friends

maybe one or two fwb’s that charlie respects their friendship and somehow their arrangement happened and things are going good and having someone on call when he’s feeling needy is a+ .. whether or not smth angsty can stem from this can be debated

his first friend that he made when coming to town and charlie’s podcast buddy !!

maybe someone who has a crush on charlie but he’s stupid and oblivious and his flirting that comes as easy as breathing doesn’t help the situation

a good influence ... helps charlie be a lil bit of a demon

a bad influence who is helping charlie embrace more of his hellion ways hfskd

or even someone who knows of his family’s wealth back in china and is trying to finagle their way into charlie’s good graces and hopefully try to get a cut of it